Daily Archives: October 29, 2006

2 Comments

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg.

And thus began the Reformation.  Today, there are four traditions that have come to us through the Reformation:  Lutheren, Anabaptist, Anglican (which is closest to Roman Catholic) and Calvinist.

Eventually "boiled down" to the "Solas", the Reformation was a call for return to the Scripture as the authority for Christian faith and conduct.

I've written quite a bit on the "Solas" - but because of the way things worked out have not written on "Soli Deo Gloria" (to the glory of God alone) and a lot on "Sola Scriptura".  There is a lot of great material on Monergism.com.  Monergism's rundown of the Sola's centers not on Luther's points of debate with the Roman Catholic church; they  look at how we should be applying the Sola's today.

I grew up in a church full of rules.  Don't drink that, don't play with those, don't go to this event.   And I stayed, for most of my life in the church, in churches that focused on what we had to do in order to stay in good standing with God.

It wasn't until I "reformed" that I examined what I grew up with against Scripture...and I changed.

There is nothing in me...nothing...that merits my salvation.  Everything good in me flows from Christ and Christ alone.

There is nothing that I can do to earn my salvation...Christ has already paid the price.

For it by grace we are saved, through faith...and that not of ourselves.

That's what the reformation is all about...reforming...examining everything against the Word...constantly reforming.