The Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, or sola fide, was the key of the Protestant Reformation. Its recovery was from the darkness created by the dominance of man-made religiosity, which held that justification was accomplished through faith plus good works. This grew into people being required to do religious acts in order to be considered righteous. The driving force of the Reformation was captured by the Latin phrase Post tenbras lux (After darkness, light).
The darkness, of course, referred to the eclipse of the gospel that occurred in the late Middle Ages….
We often make the mistake of assuming that this darkness became manifest at the end of the 1st Century A.D., however, the fact is that it came about through a gradual process of darkening which reached its nadir as the Middle Ages ground to an uneasy end. Then history witnessed the firestorm of the Protestant Reformation, which was ignited by God in the hearts of the reformers who burned to recover the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. <Continue reading post>