Yesterday was, obviously, Halloween, but many of us recognized it also as Reformation Day as well. "Reformation Day?" Yes, indeed. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Church door asking for a discussion in the Roman Catholic Church about these things he believed were wrong. It was one of the noted starting points of the Reformation which aimed at turning Christendom from a faulty heading with the Roman Catholic Church back to its original positions found in the New Testament.
I won't be discussing their positions. I will be discussing their notion. To me, it was a good start. But, to me, every one of us ought to be keeping an eye out for ourselves because every one of us is in constant need of reform. This "reform" isn't "making changes to make things better." That's our common usage. This reform is aimed more at the original intent of the word -- to re-form. Look at the original, compare that to where we are, and correct back to the original where we have strayed. We all stray. It's part of being human. We all get misled. There are plenty of false teachers out there -- blatant or simply mistaken -- who are willing to redirect us from the path. Which is why the psalmist wrote, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psa 119:105) and why Paul wrote, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 3:16-17). People can be helpful; leaders can be worth imitating. But Scripture is the only reliable guide we have, "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" and even for evaluating our teachers and especially ourselves.
The cry of the Reformation was "semper reformanda" -- "always reforming." The church is always in need of reform, of turning back to where God originally intended it. So are we. We have a tendency to think "newer is better" and "progress is good," but it's not true when we progress away from where Scripture says we (as a church or as individuals) are supposed to be. We err when we deviate from God's Word -- truth (John 17:17). So the Reformation was a good thing, and we need to continue it ... first and foremost in our own lives.
4 comments:
I was surprised at how many people I saw who acknowledged Reformation Day. We should absolutely, always be re-forming ourselves and our actions to align as closely as possible with YHWH and scripture.
We no longer understand the concept of reformation because we've lost any standard of good origin. We see the past as only evil and only want to make new. But if God's Word is Truth, how can we not want to keep going back to it to redirect our ship?
You might be amused at my Reformation Day post--I stole the meme from a Facebook post:
https://watchmansbagpipes.blogspot.com/2023/10/reformation-day.html
I appreciate this reminder, Stan, that my beliefs and daily choices for living are in constant need of correction and realignment with God’s Word--a personal “Reformation Day” of sorts, every day. In pursuit of that, I read and study God’s Word so that I can understand and obey its dictates and teachings (having been granted eternal life through its message). Having such free and easy access to a printed Bible in my own language is only possible due to another good outcome of the Protestant Reformation era--the invention of the printing press. While many of the Protestant churches formed in the past 500 years have fallen victim to varying degrees of apostasy, God’s eternal Word has been preserved for us to this day. In recognition of this all-important reality, perhaps we should promote and observe some version of “Bible Day” right alongside with “Reformation Day."
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