Church History is one of the subjects I teach at the Bible College and a few years ago it dawned on me that October 31st 2017 would be the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
About 18 months ago I went with a member of this Forum on a field trip to Wittenberg and we were impressed to see that preparations for the celebrations were already well under way then. The German government, the Lutheran church and many other agencies have spent millions of euros on refurbishing the buildings in Wittenberg. When we went there, the Castle church was covered in scaffolding inside and outside and only the doorway where Luther nailed the 95 Theses was visible for the tourists to see at that time.
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I was pleased to read some of the comments that the organisers had to say about the celebrations and here are just a few of them:
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“Let us make the Reformation anniversary a great festival of Christ, as a testimony to our faith and hope.” Professor Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Chair of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
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“Strictly speaking, in 2017 we will not be celebrating 500 years of Reformation – we will have been celebrating the Reformation for 500 years!” Professor Dr Christina Aus der Au, President of the Evangelical Kirchentag in Berlin and Wittenburg.
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“I associate the Reformation anniversary with an approach to the future. After all, Reformation means constantly creating something new.” Professor Dr Gerhard Robbers, Chair of the Steering Committee.
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So from these quotes we can see that key people involved in planning these events have a far bigger vision than just celebrating what Martin Luther did in 1517. In fact what Luther did was to “hit the nail on the head” as Dr Margot Kamann says, at a time when the “Church” was at an all-time low. People were looking for hope that the Roman Catholic Church could only pretend to supply by selling worthless Indulgencies, which in fact were raising money for the building of the new St Peter’s in Rome.
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Before Luther, people like Peter Waldo of Lyons in the 12th century, John Wycliffe of Oxford and Jan Hus of Prague, in the 14th century, and Savonarola of Florence in the 15th century had all preached the gospel and spoken out against the Roman system and this helped to pave the way for what happened in the 16th century.
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Martin Luther like all of us, was a flawed personality who among other issues said some terrible things about the Jews and only really reformed some of the doctrine of the Church - so we cannot celebrate that. The one thing we can celebrate is the essential and basic thing that Luther rediscovered as he was preparing to teach his students and which the Reformation restored - which is the teaching of the apostles, and particularly of the apostle Paul in Romans, regarding salvation by faith:
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“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24).
This rediscovery of the truth of the gospel is what began a process of change that Re-formed our world and transformed history and society. The sad thing is that society so quickly loses sight of the only thing that can make things better – the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Two centuries later, John Wesley was sitting in a small gathering in London listening to the reading of Martin Luther’s Preface to the book of Romans and he wrote in his journal:
“While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Once again that message which Wesley, Whitefield and others preached across Britain and in America, transformed the lives of thousands in their day and generation and left a legacy to succeeding generations around the world.
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The gospel is the only thing that can save and transform the lives of people across the world today. Jesus is coming again and the challenge to preach this message of hope and salvation and make disciples is more desperately needed than ever.
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God bless each one of you, as you seek to do that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, wherever you are! It is a high and holy calling and we are involved in a great endeavour!