Halloween aside, today, 31 October, is Reformation Day.
This date commemorates the day when, in 1517, on the eve of All Saints Day, a young monk and theology lecturer, Martin Luther, according to the custom of the time, nailed 95 theses to the Cathedral door at Wittenberg, inviting debate.
The content of the 95 theses was, in some ways, not that subversive. For example, it begins by saying that repentance is not just about going to confession and performing the acts of penitence prescribed by the priest, but about heartfelt contrition and a life of repentance. However, Luther's actions in 1517 set in motion debate that eventually led, in 1521, to him and others being excluded from the Roman Catholic church and becoming a separate gospel church (German: Evangelisch). Luther's "brand" of Reformation involved only minimal change to the outward appearance of churches, and focused on the internal message of the gospel, in particular the good news of justification by faith alone. In England, the later Church of England is similar to Luther's "brand" of Reformation in many respects.
Around the same time as Luther, in the Swiss city of Zurich from 1519, Ulrich Zwingli's Biblical preaching led to the churches in that jurisdiction breaking away from Rome, beginning in 1523. Zwingli's branch of the Reformation is known as "reformed". Reformed Christianity tended to make a more radical break with the outward appearance of church, and rejected the depiction of Christ, and other forms of outward ceremony. The emphasis of reformed Christianity is on God and his will ("Let God be God").
A third branch of the Reformation was the Radical Reformation or Anabaptists, who began in 1525 as an off-shoot from the reformed churches of Zwingli. While some Anabaptists veered away from Christian Orthodoxy, Balthasar Hubmaier, Menno Simons and others represent the evangelical Anabaptists. Their focus was on the voluntary nature of the Christian faith, requiring an individual response to Christ's call, "Follow me". For this reason, the Anabaptists practised baptism on profession of faith, which, at the time was considered dangerous dissent, and exposed them to severe persecution.
The word "Protestant" originates a bit later. It is used to designate those churches which came from the Reformations of Luther Zwingli and, arguably also the Anabaptists (although they considered themselves neither Catholic nor Protestant). The word "protestare" means to declare or uphold, as in the sentence, "I protest my innocence."
Now, is the Reformation something to be celebrated? Let me give you some reasons why I think it is. (At the outset, I should qualify what I am writing by affirming that there are also brothers and sisters in Christ in other non-Protestant communions.)
1. The Reformation was about "getting back to the Bible". It was the Reformers who translated the Scripture and put it in the hands of the people. Arguably, it is Protestant churches which consistently teach the Bible, and seek to understand it.
2. The Reformation is about "getting back to the gospel". In particular, the Reformers rediscovered the precious truth of God's unconditional grace, and that God accepts us through Christ from the very moment we first believe. This message had become lost in church tradition and practice, leaving people with the false impression that salvation was all down to our efforts, with God's help, to earn the reward of eternal life by our good works.
3. The Reformation is about the equality of all Christians, and their whole lives as service to God. Prior to the Reformation, some Christians were considered "set apart" as a priests, and the ideal Christian life was that of the monk or nun. The teaching of the "priesthood of all believers" puts paid to this misrepresentation. All Christians are "priests" and worship God with the same standing. All vocations, not just "spiritual" ones, are equally valid and represent ways of glorifying God.
4. The Reformation does not do away with Christian history or the great Christians of the past. Augustine of Hippo and Bernard of Clairvaux are two figures from the pre-Protestant Christian past who were particularly respected by the Reformers. The past represents an accumulation of Christian experience which we can learn from. However, the Christian past needs to be sifted and evaluated in the light of the Bible, in order to discern what is of God and what is merely human tradition.
5. The Reformation does not release us from the obligation of fulfilling God's commandments, or striving for holiness. While God graciously accepts us while we are still sinners, from the first instant we believe, the Christian life remains a lifelong process of becoming more Christlike, and this involves both obedience to commandments and intense struggle against sin. However, none of this is possible in our own strength, but only with the help of God's Holy Spirit. And perhaps the strongest motivating factor is a sense of gratitude to God for his grace.
6. Reformation is not something foreign to the history of God's people. Faithfulness is not only about following the beliefs and practices handed down to us, but also about seeing where, over time, we have strayed, and coming back to God's Word. This was true at the time of the prophets such as Elijah or later Jeremiah. It was also true under King Josiah, or Nehemiah. In church history, the powerful monastic movement underwent reform in the 900s, and, about a century before the Reformation, a Church council at Constance in 1415 called for "general reform of God's church in head and members".
None of this is to say that the Reformers of the 16th century didn't have their faults, or that there were not mixed motives behind some of the changes made, such as Henry VIII and his desire to divorce his Spanish wife. Nor does it mean that Protestant churches are perfect and have nothing to learn. But it does mean that the Reformation is most definitely something to celebrate.
Soli Deo gloria!
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