Catholic Church - Long before Luther: tracing the heart of the Gospel from Christ to the Reformation

We hear far too often that the doctrine of forensic justification through faith was an invention of the Protestant Reformers, as if the church had never before heard of any such thing. This unbalanced judgment has been challenged strongly, and in my opinion very successfully, by Nathan Busenitz in this well-researched and accessible contribution to Reformation scholarship. I commend it to Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. No future conversations or polemics between the two should ignore what Busenitz has here achieved.

NICK NEEDHAM
Church History Tutor, Highland Theological College
Author of 2000 Years of Christs Power

In this carefully researched and well-written book, Busenitz deconstructs the myth that salvation by faith alone through grace alone was invented by the Reformers. Here we see how the true gospel has been the faithful churchs central proclamation through the centuries. Yet this is not merely history. This is a clarion call for the church today to get the gospel right.

STEPHEN J. NICHOLS
President, Reformation Bible College, and Chief Academic Officer, Ligonier Ministries
Author of The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World

One question that Protestants are often askedand that, if they are honest, they probably ask themselvesis where was the gospel before the Reformation? Did the church merely languish in darkness for over a millennium while nobody truly understood the apostle Paul? Answering this, of course, requires careful study of the great theologians of the early church and the Middle Ages, something that few of us have the time to do for ourselves. Therefore, we should be grateful that Busenitz has made available the fruits of his doctoral research in such an accessible and helpful form. Readers of this book will find that question answered and their own confidence in the Protestant tradition on salvation strengthened.

CARL R. TRUEMAN
William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life, Princeton University
Author of Grace AloneSalvation as a Gift of God: What the Reformers Taught and Why It Still Matters

This book is a balanced, winsome, easy-to-read, biblical and historical defense of the Reformation doctrine of sola fide. With meticulous documentation from primary patristic and medieval sources, Nathan Busenitz has convincingly debunked the notion that the Reformation teaching of justification by faith alone was a sixteenth-century novelty unknown to the prior 1500 years of church history.

WILLIAM WEBSTER
Pastor, Grace Bible Church, Battleground, WA
Author of The Church of Rome at the Bar of History

We have long needed a book that helps us clearly understand who held to the essential gospel truths, recovered in the Reformation, before the Reformation exploded onto the scene. We now have such a book, Long before Luther by Nathan Busenitz. In every generation, God has had a remnant of faithful believers that held to the core doctrine of justification by faith alone. Here is a bookcarefully researched, precisely documented, and skillfully writtenthat will help you discover who laid this theological landmark from the second to the fifteenth centuries. You need to know what is contained in these pages.

STEVEN J. LAWSON
President, OnePassion Ministries, Dallas, TX
Author of Pillars of Grace: AD 1001564

2017 by
NATHAN BUSENITZ

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Edited by Kevin P. Emmert

Author photo: Kevin Ford

Interior and Cover design: Erik M. Peterson

Cover photo of gold frame copyright 2017 by LiliGraphie / Shutterstock (123809647). All rights reserved.

Cover painting Portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach der ltere (1528). Public domain.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Busenitz, Nathan, author.

Title: Long before Luther : tracing the heart of the Gospel from Christ to the Reformation / Nathan Busenitz.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2017028668 (print) | LCCN 2017035114 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802496355 () | ISBN 9780802418029

Subjects: LCSH: Justification (Christian theology)--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600. | Justification (Christian theology)--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500. | Theology, Doctrinal--History--Early church, ca. 30-600. | Theology, Doctrinal--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500. | Catholic Church--Doctrines. | Reformation. | Reformed Church--Doctrines.

Classification: LCC BT764.3 (ebook) | LCC BT764.3 .B87 2017 (print) | DDC 234/.709--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028668

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1802-9

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A long with all those who have been gathered up by the power of Scripture and the Spirit into the recovery of Reformation theology, I have been shaped by the Reformers. I understand the massive spiritual transformation that they launched, but I have long been curious about a nagging question: where was the witness to the true gospel during the dark centuries before the Reformation? Nathan Busenitz has provided the answer to this crucial matter of church history.

Nothing is more important than a right understanding of the gospel. It is the difference between truth and error, life and death, heaven and hell. The issue is so critical, in fact, that the Bible pronounces a curse on anyone who would preach a false version of it. The apostle Paul told his readers, If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed (Gal. 1:9).