Last Sunday was Reformation Sunday and I was so excited about, I posted videos and images on my social media to mark it, but some people asked me why I'm soo into this whole reformation thing, is it because of Luther? Or you're a Presbyterian or you are soo obsessed with church History now? I keep getting similar questions like this. It took me three days to complete this article about why some of us, young reformers or the new reformed are soo excited about the Reformation. And I am happy to publish it on this very important day in History of the modern Church.
502 years ago today, on 31st October 1517. Martin nailed the 95 theisis to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
We often hear the story of Martin Luther from a historical point of view, but let’s see what happened spiritually here.
Around 30 AD Jesus had given his life and the way was open for every man and woman to come freely to God by confessing their sins. Now those who confessed their sins were later called christians and grouped together as one family to encourage each other. As new members would come in, the older would teach the newbies.
That’s when something terrible happened. Some of the older folks deviated from the word of God and added unnecessary rules. After them others stood up who lusted after power and they understood that they would have total authority over the christians if they could cut the communication between the people and Jesus Christ. So they had to interfere in two sections: Prayer & Scriptures.
So in regards to prayer, they taught that there is a middle person between God and man. The Bible however clearly says: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
The second step was to give only the church the authority to interpret the Bible and to actually read it in language that nobody was speaking at this time: Latin.
That’s when in 1415 a man stood up with the name of Ian Hus. That’s 100 years before Martin Luther. He read the Bible and said: Wait a minute. That’s different to what the church teaches. So the church said: Wait a minute, we are going to burn you at the stake.
And that’s precisely what they did. But before Ian died, chanting in the flame, he said: "Today you all bake a goose (referring to his last name which meant Goose), but there comes a swan which you won't be able to cook."
This swan came 100 years later. They tried to cook it, but they couldn’t. His name was Martin Luther and he destroyed the Catholic tyranny.
Martin Luther is a normal guy who wanted to become a lawyer but later became a monk, as a monk he gets access to the Bible, he fears the Lord. He wanted to get right with God. He tried to become a good guy. Luther fears God.
His question was how can I get right with God he tries the religious way, working his way up, he prayers long hours, fast to confess his sins to the priest and it does not work. This is actually called Sanctification, being a good guy.
The teaching around that time meant; be a good guy and you will be accepted by God, that is justification. Luther fears God, and Psalm 25:14 says the secret of the Lord is with the one who fears the Lord. That's when the Lord opens his eye to know that the just shall leave by faith alone. This means you cannot work your way up to Heaven. But God in Heaven has given us a Son that died for us that who so ever believes (not works) might not perish but have everlasting life.
So this means Justification comes first, and then comes Sanctification. The biblical truth is that first you get grace from God based on confessing your sin to Christ and then you get transformed by the Holy Spirit of Jesus to become a good guy. This is a revolution.
Luther understands the only way to get to your heavenly father is through confessing your sins to Christ alone and trust in his redemptive work. In the meanwhile, the Catholic leadership is far from fearing the living God but instead they were using their religious and self constructive system to enrich themselves, they explain to the common people that they can pay money to get right with God. In return they get a paper called indulgence.
Martin Luther is very much into getting right with God but he is completely stunned because cannot find anything like it in the Bible so He brings out a paper with 95 points he wants to discuss and he nailed it on local church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
But as it was with the master so it was with the servant. Christ spoke against the money making in the Temple, Luther Spoke against the money making machine of the Church. And the Religious people responded with one voice, "Away with him" because once you touch religious people's money, and influence the party is very quickly over.
And so Luther is called before the authority to recant the stands he wrote and preached. And there he says one sentence that would Europe and the world, "unless I am convicted by the Scripture and Plain reason, I do not accept the Authority of the Pope and councils for they've contradicted each other my conscience is captive to the word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me, Amen."
This is the second big revolution, he put the Bible above church and religion. The equation of the church was: Church+Pope+LatinBible+Tradition =Truth and Luther equation was The Bible =Truth
So after Luther did not repent, they gave him few days to leave before they declare him an outcast, that's why good friends kidnapped Luther and spread the story that he got killed. In the meanwhile he has changed his identity and will translate the New Testament into German in only 11 weeks. That's Amazing because now the door was open for 1000s of people to read what God had to tell them. And the way to Heaven was open again. And the rest is history.
Now, after 500 years many people are ignorant again when it comes to the texts of the Bible. Why? The strategy of the enemy has not changed. He still wants you to rely on religious people instead of reading the Bible yourself.
However the tactic has changed, instead of withholding information, he gives you Free information but in such quantity that you will not find the truth. And finally give up to Entertainment. You know you could read the Bible in two clicks but you won't because of the next soccer game, the next tv series or an event you're going to attend. The result is the same. We don't read the Bible, we don't know it, we have lots of opinion about the Bible but do we know the texts, do we know its message? Let's challenge each other of celebrating 502 years of the Reformation to tune down our Entertainment consumption and read the new testament. The works that will happen is that you will have Hope.
The reformation is not over!
There's another kind of reformation on its way, it has started with movements like young Calvinists, young Restless reformed and new reformers. Christians are now seen as intolerant, bigots, backward, ignorants, socially regressive and now we are being stereotyped. We are seen as stupid by those who see themselves as 'progressive'. It is challenging and very costly to do what Luther did 500 years ago. And stand firm.
The truth is there's still good news to tell, the fire of the Holy Spirit is not quenched, the light of the Gospel is still shining. Today we've more than 2.2 Billion people around the world profess to be believers and out of that number, sub saharan Africa alone is projected to reach 1.1 Billion Christians by 2050. Clearly God's Gospel does not fail.
There's Hope.
The reason we've hope is that ultimately because of the sovereignty of God. That God reigns in the Heavens and over all. And what man means for evil, God intends for good. Even in the darkest hours of History, the light shines the brightest. The darkest cannot extinguish the light, the light will extinguish the darkness. Christians should have Hope today because Christ is still on the throne, Christ is risen. It doesn't matter what the authorities will do, it doesn't matter what society does, it doesn't matter what your neighbor says about you. God is still sovereign and Christ is still saviour.
I wrote this from my heart,
Grace to you.
502 years ago today, on 31st October 1517. Martin nailed the 95 theisis to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
We often hear the story of Martin Luther from a historical point of view, but let’s see what happened spiritually here.
Around 30 AD Jesus had given his life and the way was open for every man and woman to come freely to God by confessing their sins. Now those who confessed their sins were later called christians and grouped together as one family to encourage each other. As new members would come in, the older would teach the newbies.
That’s when something terrible happened. Some of the older folks deviated from the word of God and added unnecessary rules. After them others stood up who lusted after power and they understood that they would have total authority over the christians if they could cut the communication between the people and Jesus Christ. So they had to interfere in two sections: Prayer & Scriptures.
So in regards to prayer, they taught that there is a middle person between God and man. The Bible however clearly says: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
The second step was to give only the church the authority to interpret the Bible and to actually read it in language that nobody was speaking at this time: Latin.
That’s when in 1415 a man stood up with the name of Ian Hus. That’s 100 years before Martin Luther. He read the Bible and said: Wait a minute. That’s different to what the church teaches. So the church said: Wait a minute, we are going to burn you at the stake.
And that’s precisely what they did. But before Ian died, chanting in the flame, he said: "Today you all bake a goose (referring to his last name which meant Goose), but there comes a swan which you won't be able to cook."
This swan came 100 years later. They tried to cook it, but they couldn’t. His name was Martin Luther and he destroyed the Catholic tyranny.
Martin Luther is a normal guy who wanted to become a lawyer but later became a monk, as a monk he gets access to the Bible, he fears the Lord. He wanted to get right with God. He tried to become a good guy. Luther fears God.
His question was how can I get right with God he tries the religious way, working his way up, he prayers long hours, fast to confess his sins to the priest and it does not work. This is actually called Sanctification, being a good guy.
The teaching around that time meant; be a good guy and you will be accepted by God, that is justification. Luther fears God, and Psalm 25:14 says the secret of the Lord is with the one who fears the Lord. That's when the Lord opens his eye to know that the just shall leave by faith alone. This means you cannot work your way up to Heaven. But God in Heaven has given us a Son that died for us that who so ever believes (not works) might not perish but have everlasting life.
So this means Justification comes first, and then comes Sanctification. The biblical truth is that first you get grace from God based on confessing your sin to Christ and then you get transformed by the Holy Spirit of Jesus to become a good guy. This is a revolution.
Luther understands the only way to get to your heavenly father is through confessing your sins to Christ alone and trust in his redemptive work. In the meanwhile, the Catholic leadership is far from fearing the living God but instead they were using their religious and self constructive system to enrich themselves, they explain to the common people that they can pay money to get right with God. In return they get a paper called indulgence.
Martin Luther is very much into getting right with God but he is completely stunned because cannot find anything like it in the Bible so He brings out a paper with 95 points he wants to discuss and he nailed it on local church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
But as it was with the master so it was with the servant. Christ spoke against the money making in the Temple, Luther Spoke against the money making machine of the Church. And the Religious people responded with one voice, "Away with him" because once you touch religious people's money, and influence the party is very quickly over.
And so Luther is called before the authority to recant the stands he wrote and preached. And there he says one sentence that would Europe and the world, "unless I am convicted by the Scripture and Plain reason, I do not accept the Authority of the Pope and councils for they've contradicted each other my conscience is captive to the word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me, Amen."
This is the second big revolution, he put the Bible above church and religion. The equation of the church was: Church+Pope+LatinBible+Tradition =Truth and Luther equation was The Bible =Truth
So after Luther did not repent, they gave him few days to leave before they declare him an outcast, that's why good friends kidnapped Luther and spread the story that he got killed. In the meanwhile he has changed his identity and will translate the New Testament into German in only 11 weeks. That's Amazing because now the door was open for 1000s of people to read what God had to tell them. And the way to Heaven was open again. And the rest is history.
Now, after 500 years many people are ignorant again when it comes to the texts of the Bible. Why? The strategy of the enemy has not changed. He still wants you to rely on religious people instead of reading the Bible yourself.
However the tactic has changed, instead of withholding information, he gives you Free information but in such quantity that you will not find the truth. And finally give up to Entertainment. You know you could read the Bible in two clicks but you won't because of the next soccer game, the next tv series or an event you're going to attend. The result is the same. We don't read the Bible, we don't know it, we have lots of opinion about the Bible but do we know the texts, do we know its message? Let's challenge each other of celebrating 502 years of the Reformation to tune down our Entertainment consumption and read the new testament. The works that will happen is that you will have Hope.
The reformation is not over!
There's another kind of reformation on its way, it has started with movements like young Calvinists, young Restless reformed and new reformers. Christians are now seen as intolerant, bigots, backward, ignorants, socially regressive and now we are being stereotyped. We are seen as stupid by those who see themselves as 'progressive'. It is challenging and very costly to do what Luther did 500 years ago. And stand firm.
The truth is there's still good news to tell, the fire of the Holy Spirit is not quenched, the light of the Gospel is still shining. Today we've more than 2.2 Billion people around the world profess to be believers and out of that number, sub saharan Africa alone is projected to reach 1.1 Billion Christians by 2050. Clearly God's Gospel does not fail.
There's Hope.
The reason we've hope is that ultimately because of the sovereignty of God. That God reigns in the Heavens and over all. And what man means for evil, God intends for good. Even in the darkest hours of History, the light shines the brightest. The darkest cannot extinguish the light, the light will extinguish the darkness. Christians should have Hope today because Christ is still on the throne, Christ is risen. It doesn't matter what the authorities will do, it doesn't matter what society does, it doesn't matter what your neighbor says about you. God is still sovereign and Christ is still saviour.
I wrote this from my heart,
Grace to you.
