A NEW REFORMATION

In the Middle Ages there were few books and most people could not read, apart from some Catholic monks and the Jews, who lived in separate communities. Christian belief became hopelessly mixed with magic and superstition.

Then came Luther and the Reformation. 

The Reformers reacted against the superstition, idolatry and corruption surrounding the supernatural beliefs of their time and Calvin proclaimed the doctrine of Cessationism. 

Calvin taught that the miracles in the New Testament were signs from God to prove that Jesus was the Son of God and the miracles of the Apostles were designed to establish the Church as the elect people of God on earth. 

Calvin taught that after the passing of the Apostles and the completion of the New Testament text, Charismatic gifts and most other miracles were no longer ordained by God. 

The new Protestant dogmas produced a religion that was often dry but apparently correct. However this doctrine left God’s people with contradictions that were not easily resolved. 

Many found it difficult to believe in a God with unlimited power to answer prayers, who appeared in the Bible as a miracle worker but who was not supposed to manifest Himself through dramatic miracles in the here and now. 

Even the best theologians can never build a system of thought which encompasses the unlimited eternal God, however ingenious they might be in reconciling their ideology with the Bible text.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NKJV) 

Werner Nachtigal grew up in Germany without religion and with no knowledge of God. At the age of three he saw Jesus in his house with brilliant eyes and a wearing a white robe. As a drunken teenager, he heard Jesus calling him to be an evangelist. Later he discovered the message of Salvation and became a follower of Jesus Christ. Then he really did become an evangelist. As he travels the world, many are miraculously healed and many thousands discover eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

In one of his books he wrote:“People get caught up in witchcraft and occult practices because they long for the supernatural but find no answers to their search in the church.”

A church dominated by theological dogmas and human systems can never satisfy the God given longings of the human soul. 

1Co 9  But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 10  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (NKJV)

In the Western World dominated by science, technology and rational humanism, Christianity has been in decline for over 100 years but in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the supernatural realm is well known. There the Christian Gospel is rapidly advancing and the message of Jesus is confirmed by signs and wonders.