Protestant Reformation

500 years ago Martin Luther changed the world forever. On October 31st, 1517, the Augustinian monk nailed his now-famous Ninety-Five Theses to the front door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, which sparked the Protestant Reformation. His theses were a collection of questions, instructions, and criticisms for the Catholic Church.

To appreciate Luther’s work one must understand the world in which Luther lived. He ministered in a day where priests were padding their pockets on the sale of indulgences, taking advantage of people by selling worthless certificates. They taught that it was of more value to purchase indulgences than to help the poor; the money collected from indulgences was used for the priests to buy promotions for themselves and their friends. 

Luther also pointed out that God alone has the power to forgive sin, yet the church was selling forgiveness. The church was teaching that through seven sacraments the priests could give salvation to the laity, independent of faith or repentance. When they administered the Lord’s Supper, the priests taught that they were sacrificing Jesus all over again, and each sacrifice would guarantee salvation to the one who received it. Because the Bible was written in Latin, the common person could not read it for himself and had to take the priest at his word. Luther learned Latin and Greek, and slowly realized how the church had mishandled God’s Word. 

Martin Luther found himself faced with a choice: he could go along with the system and profit from it, or he could expose it and try to correct it. The former promised him a good life, while the latter promised excommunication and shame. He had earned the right to live by the system; he paid his dues as a monk, secured his Phd, and lectured at the university, but Luther decided to throw that away and do what he knew was right. When he nailed his document to the church door he forever severed himself from his old life; he was soon excommunicated and forced to spend time disguised and in hiding; he even staged a fake arrest and lived in prison for a time. While he escaped martyrdom, Luther led a lonely, dangerous life. 

Luther is proof that God can accomplish great things through one obedient person.

Writing on the Wall

Have you ever used the phrase, “I saw the handwriting on the wall”? It is an idiom that refers to being able to know something in advance, usually because we have been warned. Someone who sees the handwriting on the wall may start looking for a new job before he is fired, or buy a new car before the clunker breaks down for good.

The expression originates from the Bible’s Old Testament book of Daniel. In the fifth chapter Babylon’s king Belshazzar is throwing a huge banquet for a thousand of his leaders. The feast seems ill-time because Babylon was currently under siege and the Medes and Persians had cut off all supplies into the city. While the wine was flowing freely Belshazzar ordered that the golden vessels from the temple be brought in and used as goblets; drinking from the cups his father had stolen when he sacked Jerusalem, the king made a toast to his gods. That was the last straw.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a human hand began to write on the wall. When none of the king’s wise men could interpret the message, Daniel was summoned. The message, MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN, can be translated this way: You have been evaluated and found to be lacking. Your days are numbered, and your kingdom will be taken from you and divided in half.

And that is what happened. That very night the king was killed and his kingdom was divided between the Medes and Persians. No one would ever forget the night the king saw the handwriting on the wall.

We have a similar opportunity to see the handwriting on the wall each time we open up the Bible. We can see the mistakes made by others, heed the warnings, and avoid making those same mistakes. We can read about the soon-coming rapture of the church and make sure we are ready. We can note how to be saved and escape the wrath of God.

At the end of our lives we cannot stand before God and plead ignorance. We have seen the handwriting on the wall. I encourage you to make any necessary changes in your life before you regret it. 

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You will be my Martyrs

In Acts 1:8 Jesus gave the disciples instructions to follow after the coming of the Holy Spirit: “You will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” Those words are familiar to most churchgoers, but what might not be as familiar is the history of the word witnesses. 

The word that Jesus used has become our English word for martyr. Although martyrs have become synonymous with those who die for their faith, the word originally just meant witness; but when so many of those witnesses began to die for their faith in Jesus, the word took on new meaning. As Alec Ryrie puts it in his book Protestants, martyrs are “believers who bear witness to their faith in the most vivid and unanswerable way, by choosing to die rather than to renounce it (p.85).”  

Martyrdom became such a badge of honor throughout the Medieval Period that Martin Luther once wondered if God was displeased with him because he had not been executed for his faith. Being put to death for their Christianity meant that they were worthy to die in a manner similar to their Lord.  It was during this time that John Foxe wrote his book that would later become known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

Unfortunately Christian persecution and martyrdom still occur in many countries. I don’t want to minimize that, but the majority of Christians around the world and throughout history will not be killed for their faith; in America Christian martyrdom is virtually unheard of. I certainly hope I will never die as a martyr, but I have been called to be one. The Greek word martyr, translated witness, means, “one who bears witness of the truth.” It is a legal term for those who have been compelled to state what they saw.

In other words, we have been served a subpoena by Jesus, called to bear witness of the truth. Let’s be His martyrs and tell the unsaved world the truth about Jesus.   

Smile

Have you ever seen a chimpanzee smile? Let me answer that for you: you haven't. You may have seen them make silly faces, but you have not seen them smile because they do not posses the ability to smile. They lack the necessary muscles and nerves required to smile and laugh. 

While humans have about 50 facial muscles, apes have fewer than 30. Among the 20 fewer muscles are the ones at the corners of the lips needed to lift upwards into a smile. Even if they had those muscles they still would not have the nerves that work in conjunction with the muscles. 

Have you ever seen a baby smile? Let me answer that for you: you have. Babies are born with the ability to smile, even if it is several months before they smile out of happiness. Smiling is something humans have hard wired into our DNA from birth. 

Why can humans smile but not chimps? According to Darwinian evolution, anything humans have that lesser creatures do not have has evolved out of necessity. In other words, those extra facial muscles are only present because humans cannot survive without them. But how do primates survive just fine without the ability to smile? Why would humans have evolved the extra muscles and nerves? What does that have to do with survival of the fittest? 

The evolutionary answer would be that animals simply don't need to smile in order to survive, but the natural question arises: why do humans need to smile? Humans were created in the image of God, and we are the pinnacle of His creation. He made us last and set us apart, and we are the only redeemable part of Creation because we are the only ones He died for. He made us emotional beings and gave us the ability to communicate non verbally. Whenever we smile we are testifying to God’s magnificent creation, and even on our worst day, we have a lot to smile about. 

If you find yourself having a bad day, say with Job, “I will forget my complaining; I will put off my sad face and smile (9:27).” Smile, if for no other reason, because you can.

Pursue Peace

We are getting into deer season here in the Upstate, and I know that has made people happy. I’m not much of a hunter (translation: I have never been hunting), but my huntin’ friends have spent the last several weeks gearing up. Even prior to bow season they have been setting up cameras and checking footage, scouting areas for evidence, doing anything to get a beat on the behavior patterns of their prey.

Peter used a hunting term in his first epistle, telling Christians to, “seek peace and pursue it (1 Peter 3:11).” He was quoting from Psalm 34:14, so the idea was familiar to his audience. The word for pursue was a word understood to be associated with hunters; just as a gamesman pursues his prize, so we are to pursue peace.

It is important, then, that we understand what peace is. It is a synonym of tranquility, a way of living in harmony with other people. We are to actively pursue peace, to hunt harmony. How have you been doing with that?

Two big issues come to my mind. First is the removal of statues and monuments and the renaming of landmarks and streets; the other is professional athletes kneeling down during the national anthem. There are many strong opinions about these issues, and I certainly have my own. We can have conversations about them, but when they turn into arguments and lines get drawn in the sand, we are not pursuing peace. Remember, Jesus said that the peacemakers would be blessed

Pursuing peace doesn’t mean we compromise, it just means we know when to bite our tongue. Proverbs 29:11 says, “A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.” In the long run, seeking peace is a better prize than winning the argument. So let us actively pursue peace like a skilled hunter tracking a ten-point buck. It isn’t something you can mount above the mantle, but it is something I don’t want to live without.