Tag: Faith

Happy Reformation Day. It was five hundred years ago today that Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Thesis on the Castle Church Door in Wittenberg, Germany, thus beginning the Protestant Reformation. We have spent close to a month examining this significant moment in history, along with the individual God used to bring it about: Martin Luther. I trust you have been as blessed as I have.

The impasse which occurred between the Reformers of the 16^th Century and the Roman Catholic Church remain in full force today. These issues are as critical now as they were then. What key takeaways from the Reformation would we be wise to apply to the context of Christianity in the 21st Century?

The first would be that the sole authority for the Christian is to be the Scriptures: Sola Scriptura. Then, and now, the Roman Catholic Church views Scripture as deferring to the church’s authority and traditions. This was not the view of Luther Calvin, or the other Reformers. This was the foundational issue in the Protestant Reformation.

However, I am concerned that there are those within Evangelical Protestant churches who do not have the viewpoint that the Scriptures alone are our sole and primary authority in matters of faith and practice. I am concerned that believers opt for their own opinions and attitudes to shape their decisions, rather than obeying God’s Word. It is when these attitudes and opinions run contrary to the Scriptures, the Scriptures are often set aside. This is not becoming the exception, but rather the norm.

For example, when a Christian is unhappy in their marriage, they may feel free to pursue and engage in an extra-marital affair. It doesn’t matter to them what the Bible says about adultery. They want to be happy and woe to the pastor who confronts them about their sin in accordance to Matthew 18:15-20 and Galatians 6:1-2.

Secondly, the commitment to objective truth instead of subjective experience is another lasting benefit from the Reformation. Martin Luther went from one religious experience to another; not only as a child, but also as a young adult. He constantly sought relief from his guilt over his sin by pursuing a religious experience. Whether it was promising to become a monk during a violent thunderstorm, constantly confessing his sins in the monastery, or traveling to Rome and climbing so-called sacred stairs on his knees while reciting the rosary, his life prior to conversion was a search for the right experience where he would find peace with God. However, his peace with God eventually came not from an emotional experience, but rather through the truth of the God’s Word specifically contained in Romans 1:16-17. On the basis of biblical truth, God credited Martin Luther with Christ’s righteousness, which resulted in Martin’s positional, personal and emotional peace with God.

Today, many seek a subjective, religious experience for the sake of a subjective religious experience alone. Their desire for a religious “high” becomes the goal they pursue, rather than the pursuit of objective truth. This is not only true at youth conferences, but also at women’s and men’s conferences. It is also seen in regularly in churches. Few are the worship leaders, pastors and conference speakers who resist this pandering to the crowd for an emotional response. They’re out there, but they’re few and are far between.

Thirdly, there is the commitment to the doctrine of sola fide or faith alone. This is a short-handed slogan which summarizes the doctrines of grace alone and Christ alone within the specific context of the biblical gospel of salvation. For more churches than I would care to estimate, the gospel has become a self-help movement focused on personal peace and financial affluence. Your best life now, so to speak. It may be summarized by one church which has as its slogan, “Join us! Where it’s okay to not be okay.”

The Reformation is far from over. It continues on and is as critical today as it was in Martin Luther’s day when biblical truth was at stake regarding how a sinner becomes righteous before God.

There are those who teach and believe that Scripture plus the church is the believer’s authority. That grace plus human merit saves. That faith plus works is necessary to be made righteous. That Christ’s righteousness along with one’s own is indispensable for salvation. That the glory of salvation is to be shared between God and man.

Today’s children of the Protestant Reformation hold that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone based upon the teachings and truth of the Scriptures alone.

May we continue to hold to these truths as tenaciously as did Martin Luther. It won’t be easy, but “Here we stand; we can do none other. God help us!”

Soli deo Gloria!

Is the Protestant Reformation over? Some would say that it is. Recent overtures resulting in theological agreements between Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics would seem to support this idea that little is left of the theological disagreements which occurred in the 16^th century.

On October 31, 2016, Pope Francis said that after five hundred years, Protestants and Catholics “have the opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often prevented us from understanding one another.” In light of the pope’s statement, one evangelical professor of theology commented, “From that, it sounds as if the Reformation was an unfortunate and unnecessary squabble over trifles, a childish outburst that we can all put behind us now that we have grown up.”

Tell that to John Wycliffe who the Catholic Church persecuted for translating the Bible into English. Tell that to Jon Huss who was burned at the stake for speaking against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. Tell that to Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and others who were hounded, hunted and hurt by the Catholic Church who refused, and continues to refuse, to acknowledge its errors. People have asked me is the Protestant Reformation over? I say no!

The Latin phrase Semper Reformanda applies here. Rather than mean that churches should always be changing in order to conform to the ever-changing culture, instead it means “always being reformed” or “The church reformed and always being reformed according to the Word of God.” God’s Word should always be reforming God’s people, and for that matter God’s churches. Each and every generation must return to God’s Word each and every day so that the Scriptures would continue reforming our lives, and keeping us from heresy.

Pastor Burk Parson explains, “The Reformation isn’t over, nor will it ever be over, because reformation –God’s Word and God’s Spirit reforming His church—will never end.”

Soli deo Gloria!

What impact did the Protestant Reformation have upon Martin Luther personally? Did he ever marry? Did he have children? Did he die a natural death, or like many other Reformers, did his enemies eventually execute him?

Martin never expected to marry. As a monk, he took a vow of celibacy. However, upon his excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church because of his writings and teachings against the church, his vow of celibacy was no longer in force.

Yet, Martin was still hesitant to marry. He was a fugitive from the church and expected to be arrested and executed at a moment’s notice. He believed it would be unfair for a woman to commit to a marriage under those conditions. But true love has a way of changing a man’s mind.

Martin wasn’t the only monk, or nun for that matter, to leave the Catholic Church and to eventually commit to marriage. Many men and women, who respectively left the monasteries and cloisters, were getting married and establishing their own homes. So Martin became involved in helping former nuns find husbands or homes. One such woman was Katherine von Bora.

While it was not love at first sight, they became increasingly committed to each other. Luther’s parents encouraged him to marry Katie. They became betrothed, or engaged, on June 13, 1525. On June 27, fourteen days later, they had a public ceremony. Martin and Katie believed that their marriage and family would provide a model for other couples in ministry. Theirs was a union of mutual respect and blessing. They were together for twenty-one years.

While Martin served the Lord in preaching and teaching, Katie ran the home. She took care of the family finances along with looking after her husband and his frequent bouts with gout, insomnia, hemorrhoids, constipation, dizziness and ringing in the ears. She brewed her own beer, which she gave to Martin to help him sleep.

The Luther’s home was open to university students and friends who would stop by for dinner and a drink. Conversations would eventually turn to theology. The records of these discussions are available today as Table Talk, or The Table Talk of Martin Luther, among other similar titles.

The Luther’s were blessed with six children. These included eldest son, Hans, along with Elizabeth, Magdalena, Martin, Paul, and Margaretha. Two of their daughters died in infancy. They also raised four orphaned children along with providing shelter for numerous others. It was Magdalena’s death, at the age of fourteen that resulted in one of Martin’s greatest sorrows. She died in his arms. His grief over her death was more than compensated by the knowledge she was with Jesus Christ, her Savior.

Martin Luther would preach his last sermon in his hometown of Eisleben on February 15, 1546. His text was Matthew 11:25-26, “²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

Following his thirty-five minute sermon, Martin remarked that he was too weak to continue. He walked across the street to his room, where he became sick and died three days later.

His funeral in Wittenberg was held with crowds lining the streets along the funeral procession. He was buried in the Castle Church, the same church where he had nailed his Ninety-Five Thesis twenty-nine years earlier. Luther’s tombstone reads as follows: “Here is buried the body of the Doctor of Sacred Theology, Martin Luther, who died in the year of Christ 1546, on February 18^th, in his hometown Eisleben.” Katie would die four years later in 1550.

Pastor Erwin Lutzer writes, “Martin and Katie taught us not only how to live and love but also how to die. In the end, both humbly bowed to accept God’s will in all things, including the inevitability of death. Even today their example of love and hard-won partnership is an inspiration to us all.”

Soli deo Gloria!

Was Martin Luther the only leader of the Protestant Reformation? Who were some others who were actively involved in the initial days of God’s great movement? I direct your attention all too briefly to two: Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin.

Zwingli was born seven weeks after Luther in early 1484. He lived in Switzerland and was converted to the gospel. He was called to the priesthood but when he became the pastor of a church in Zurich on January 1, 1519, he abandoned the traditional methods of worship, preached from the Gospel of Matthew and began to teach the Word of God systematically.

While he encouraged his congregation to read Luther’s books, he refused to be called a Lutheran. He looked to the Scriptures for his understanding of the gospel, and not to Luther.

The primary difference between Luther and Zwingli was over the Lord’ Supper. Luther initially believed the elements became the actual body and blood of Christ, but adjusted to eventually say the body and blood were present, while Zwingli, like Calvin, believed the bread and wine only represented the body and blood of Christ.

The two actually met, in Marburg, Germany just north of Frankfort. They never did come to an agreement over the Lord’s Supper. In fact, Luther did not shake Zwingli’s hand upon leaving their meeting because he did not believe Zwingli to be a Christian because of not only his view on Communion, but also because Zwingli taught to take up arms against Catholics.

John Calvin was born in northern France in 1509. He was 26 years younger than his two peers. Calvin and Luther never met. Calvin was converted to the gospel, perhaps in some measure through the influence of Luther’s writings on the gospel. Calvin would call Luther his “most respected father.” Calvin’s lasting importance would undoubtedly be his Institutes of the Christian Religion and his Five Doctrines of Grace.

Like Luther, Zwingli denounced papal authority and preached justification by faith alone. He denied the merits of the saints and indulgences. He, like John Calvin, believed in predestination and urged there be only two church sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Zwingli would eventually publish Sixty-Seven Articles against the Roman Catholic Church.

For Luther, the primary doctrine to defend was justification by faith. It was the article, he said, by which the church stands of falls. Luther stressed the wonder of redemption while Calvin stressed the sovereignty of God in salvation.

Luther believed all methods of worship could be employed, unless strictly forbidden by Scripture. Calvin and Zwingli worshipped according to only that which was expressly taught in Scripture. Luther used instruments in worship, Zwingli and Calvin did not.

Luther still held, interestingly enough, that infant baptism was the entry point into the Christian Life. Lutheran churches hold to this doctrine today. Zwingli and Calvin believed that infant baptism was a sign of “future faith” and that God was making a covenant with the parents for their child’s eventual salvation.

They all agreed on the five solas of the Reformation.

There is no way we can with great depth and detail chronicle the lives of Zwingli and Calvin in this brief blog. Let me say that all three Reformers were human beings just like you and me. They possessed great spiritual strength from God, but they were also men who possessed feet of clay; they weren’t perfect. Their greatest legacy I think would be their perspective that people should seek to follow God and His Word, and no human beings such as themselves.

While we respect these men, we do not follow these men. We follow Christ, as they most certainly did.

Soli deo Gloria!