From the Heart of the Pastor

I love this time of year.  Fall is my favorite season, but within that season there is one day that stands out as my favorite, October 31st.  I want to use these lines to share with you why October 31st is among the greatest holidays of the year.  As a matter of fact, I would place it third behind Christmas and Resurrection Day in my personal favorites.  Why do I love October 31st so much?  It is Reformation Day.  This week we will celebrate the 498th anniversary of the event that is probably the most significant moment in the history of the church since the day of Pentecost.  (Can you believe only two more years until the 500th Anniversary?  Let’s plan a church wide trip to Wittenburg, Germany two years from now!)  On that day, those many years ago Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenburg, Germany.  Luther had become more and more concerned about some of the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church, especially the sale of indulgences.  Indulgences were like “get out of jail free” cards.  The church was teaching that for a fee you could buy a pardon from some years in purgatory.  The truth is you can’t buy your way into heaven.  Martin Luther knew that and he wrote 95 statements about why he disagreed with Rome. He could no longer stand the fact that the Catholic Church had become a hollow shell of what the New Testament taught about the Christian faith.  That simple act of posting his convictions, that he never thought would cause such a stir, started the Protestant Reformation.  That simple act was one of the defining moments in all of human history.  Sadly, it is all but forgotten in the shadow of the godless heathenism of Halloween.
          Now you may be thinking, why in the world does it matter that some monk nailed a piece of paper to a church door?  It matters because the Reformation reminded everyone what the Bible really teaches.  Out of the Reformation came what we now summarize as the “Five Solas,” or the five “onlys.”  In short the “five solas” state, “The Bible alone teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.”  That is what we believe above all else, but that was quiet different than what the Roman Catholic Church of Martin Luther’s day was teaching.  This October 31st we should praise and thank God for the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We should celebrate that we are justified by faith alone, not by our effort or works.  I am not saying that the gospel didn’t exist until 1517, certainly not.  What I am saying is that God used men like Martin Luther to make sure the whole world can know the Bible is the true word of God and Jesus has died on the cross and risen from the dead so that we might have eternal life.  Reformation Day is the celebration of the recovery of the glorious gospel of Jesus by grace through faith.  Happy Reformation Day!  ecclesia reformata et, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei  ("the church reformed, and always being reformed according to the Word of God")!  To God alone be the Glory!  May he bring reformation to our lives! 
 
In Christ, 
Blain Craig

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