The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Semper Reformanda

It was good to see so many Christian ministries still recognizing the anniversary of the nailing of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517. Reformation Day is something I had never heard of or considered for the first four or five years of being a Christian, but it is certainly on my calender now. Click here for a great discussion by Dr. Albert Mohler and Dr. Carl Trueman on whether the Reformation is over or even as some suggest that it never should have happened in the first place.

One great quote from Mohler: “Evangelicals have so minimized what it means to be an evangelical that we hardly qualify to be understood as heirs to the Reformers.” Indeed. I sort of think that the issue of the Reformation never was specifically Rome, but more the general lack of respect and submission to the Word of God as solely and infallibly authoritative. Rome is hardly the only church that has lost it's way precisely because it abandoned His Word. The Reformation was not and is not about Rome, but about vigilance, being jealous of the name of our God and His will revealed in His Word.

As Dr. Carl Trueman puts it, the two big issues that sparked the Reformation are still alive and well, the issues of authority and justification by faith alone. Both get to the heart of mankind's problem, a false sense of self-reliance for salvation, a false gratitude towards God for creating us but a desire to go it alone, to make our own destiny, to chafe under the yoke of authority that goes all the way back to the Garden. Dr. Trueman is spot on in singling out those issues. The Reformation was not about relics or indulgences or immoral priests. It was about a church that had abandoned the Bible, taking it from the people and the Reformation was all about putting God's Word where it needed to be, in the hands of the people and the mouths of the preachers.

I pray that we never forget what drove Martin Luther, 490 years ago, to place his very life at risk in order to stand on the principles of salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone, revealed in His Word alone and for the glory of God alone. To God be the glory, great things HE has done.

Soli Deo Gloria!