One of the oddities of the church at large is that while few Christians have even heard of Reformation Day on October 31, many Christians have a party on Halloween. It's not my purpose here to discuss the many difficulties of Christians celebrating Halloween with horror movies and all things death and ghouls (I'll save that for another day).
The popularity of Halloween vs the nearly complete ignorance of Reformation Day. It's a picture of the modern church: enveloped by popular culture, but not knowing our own history.
I get frustrated with the fact that many Christians take a "so what have you done for me lately" attitude with history; especially church history. But then again, maybe it's really because pastors and teachers have not taught the body of Christ that our faith is build on, as it says in Revelation, "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." We get the "Word of God" element, but the "testimony of Jesus" has two parts - the testimony of Jesus Christ about himself and the testimony of all the faithful witnesses in history who are pointing us back to Jesus.
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light; people might just need a little 'old fashioned.'"
Thus says the Lord:“Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths,where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’ Jeremiah 6:16-17
Reformation day is the remembrance of October 31, 1517. On that date 495 years ago, Martin Luther posted the infamous 95 Theses to the Wittenburg church door, kicking off the protestant reformation.
From Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses
On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to Albert of Mainz, protesting against the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," which came to be known as The Ninety-Five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had then no intention of confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire."[2] Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of Saint Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"[2]Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs."[3] He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.On the eve of All Saint's Day, October 31, 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, according to university custom.[4]
Reformation day is not a day where protestant Christians should pat themselves on the back and say "look how great we are for ditching the Catholic church." Rather, it should be a humble reminder that in every generation we are caught in the chaos of two constant struggles:
We don't want to do the effort to study our Bibles on our own, so we are constantly looking for an extra-Biblical authority - someone else to tell us what God really wants us to know. It's easy for Protestant Christians to criticize the Catholic church for following a Pope, but haven't we set up "popes" of our own making? The church growth gurus and the pastors with the national following have become our self imposed "popes" as we listen to them to try to find ways to grow our churches instead of simply proclaiming the revealed Word of God. Out of Luther's 95 Theses eventually developed the concept of "Sola Scriptura" - Scripture Alone. We don't need to read more books about the Christian life or about prayer, we need to read and apply the only Book that matters.
We are always trying to find a way to gain our own salvation. Those who bought the indulgences that Luther criticized so strongly were being led along to believe something that is easy to believe, that we have to do "something" to gain salvation. It's too unbelievable to think that Jesus Christ died on the cross to give stunningly evil human beings a free gift of salvation. How can the love of God be so extravagant? Surely, we think, we owe God something. Surely, we think, we must be able to somehow claw our way back up the mountain of God's righteousness. And so whether it is buying indulgences or the modern American idea of being a "nice, American boy (or girl)" -either way, it's the same thing, it's all about trying to earn our way to heaven. And again, perhaps it is because not enough pastors and teachers are confronting people with their sin and then leading them to the grace of God. If a pastor does not teach his church the reality of sin and the grace of God, isn't it the same thing as absolving the church attenders (indulgence buyers?) and granting them a false salvation?
That is why we must never stop the reformation. The reformation must always be leading us back to the Word of God.
