Reformation Day

This Tuesday, most people will be celebrating Halloween with kids going around collecting candy and adults watching scary movies. Before the commercialization we know today, October 31 was reformation day. This year marks an anniversary for the reformation that is unlikely to be in the news.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. This started what we now know as the protestant reformation. Luther saw how the Roman Catholic church was not following God's Word and boldly declared his work on the church door.

In the 500 years since the reformation, many denominations have started and are now based on God's word. The other reformers such as John Calvin, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, and others worked to get the Bible into a language that everybody understood and made it possible for all to read. Some paid with their lives and we see the results of their efforts today with Bibles freely available in most countries and languages. However, we're getting close to needing another reformation.

In many of today's churches, we water down areas that talk about a need for repentance from sin. People sitting in church pews (or chairs more often) are often just their for an hour of entertainment and anything that just feels good. It's also common for churches to abandon early parts of Genesis to secular interpretation with evolution and just say to trust in Jesus.

As in Luther's day, the church is following man's ideas and not scripture. Modern evangelism touts God as love and will fill a God shaped hole in your heart. The hearers then just add on Christian to their title and don't lead a changed life.

The world has now invaded the church instead of the church influencing the world around us. I pray that the 500 year anniversary of the reformation will help to remind the Christian church about its roots and start digging back to them. I'll see what opportunities I get in this coming week of the quad life.