I embedded the above youtube video from National Geographic simply to provide a brief summary of the Reformation event. Not endorsing entirely nor denying whatever was written along with the said video on its website, simply because I haven’t entirely read or checked its content – everything except the video itself. Neither am I endorsing subsequent videos that might be made available at the end of this video.
October 31 marks the Reformation Day that occurred in 1517, with the German monk Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-Five Theses against Roman Catholicism. It was a document against the abuses and erroneous assertions of the Catholic faith that were not based on Scripture.
I have been a student of the Bible for twenty years now. The effort of Luther that day should be recognized but somehow I feel bad that the Christian faith then failed to go back and redeem the true teaching of the Scripture. A lot of Christian denominations came out of the reformation. Today, it’s far worse, it became “to each his own”. Biblical passages simply became the springboard of most preachers ignoring the original intention and context of the Scripture.
Though we can’t totally blame the Christianity of Luther’s time. Luther and his contemporaries had to counter the offensives done by the Catholics. But in later years, the then pillars of Christianity having a better control of their prevailing circumstances seemed to have been lost in the woods. The Christian faith has not been fully recovered, it’s not completely the same with that of first century Christianity.
Yet, the Word of God is living and active. Anyone who sincerely seeks to study the Scripture will find the true teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles but the Bible needed to be understandable to people. Hence, one other major contribution of Luther in aid of restoring the Christian faith has to be his work translating the Bible from the lesser known Latin language to then common languages of the people; namely, German, English and French.
Today we have more than enough English translations, not to mention many other languages of the world, so no one should be excused from learning the truth. Though a little understanding of proper exegesis (the science or discipline in the interpretation of biblical text) would certainly be needed, which I believe should be taught to everyone who sincerely seek to follow Jesus Christ. It is an essential part of discipleship.
I beg to disagree as claimed by some that it’s fine for 21st century Christianity to be a bit different from that of the first. Simply because the Gospel message is for all time, it cannot be modified or altered.
The apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:4-6 said,
There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
How then could Christianity have allowed so many denominations, diverse teachings and interpretations?
Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 14:33, Paul made clear and said: “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints.” Can we honestly say Christianity henceforth after the Reformation Day has unified teaching about the truth?
Sorry to say that it appears even after 503 years later, the reformation has gone poof. The only way for the truthful teaching of the Scripture to be restored rests on our faithfulness to Scripture alone.
It is therefore my prayer that God would raise more and more Bible-seeking believers. It is one thing to believe and another to believe the truths of the Scripture.
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Liberating Truth 