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Archives For History – Reformation

Jesus is Enough Freedom: Col. 2:16-23

February 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction

We said last week that forgiveness is the foundation of our resistance to all lies, half truths, and empty philosophies. This is because guilt is what makes us vulnerable. Guilt is what makes us captive to every tyranny. It doesn’t allow us to see clearly. But the flip side of this truth is therefore that forgiveness is what sets men free. It gives us eyes to see.

Summary of the Text: Paul’s “therefore” is directly related to the fact of forgiveness just unpacked (2:13-15). Other peoples’ opinions are powerful, but Paul says when it comes to food and drink and holidays and feasts, we must not be bound (2:16). This is fundamentally because all the regulations of the Old Covenant were shadows of Jesus who is the reality (2:17). If we are held captive by those who are into fasting, worshiping angels, or mystical visions we will lose our reward in Jesus because His power is made manifest in simple weakness not our fleshly schemes (2:18, cf. 1 Cor. 1:25-31). The central problem is that these traditions fail to cling to Jesus, our Head, which is where we receive our nourishment, find unity, and grow up into Him (2:19). This freedom has everything to do with having already died (cf. 2:11-13) because if they have already died with Christ then it makes no sense to live as though they haven’t (2:20). On one level, the Jewish laws make no sense after Jesus has brought us into His new world, and on another level, those kinds of traditions don’t make any sense when we have already died (2:21-22, cf. Acts 17:30-31). What makes these kinds of things attractive is the fact that they have an appearance of wisdom, humility, neglect of the body, but they are actually worthless when it comes to restraining our flesh (2:23). And this is because when we find our safety and security in made up rules, we’re actually indulging our fleshly minds (2:18), instead of restraining the flesh. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, Church Calendar, History - Reformation, Jesus is Enough, Lent, Politics, Sermon Outlines, TRC, Wisdom

Calling Latin Peeps

February 25, 2013 — 6 Comments

A friend of mine has an old (1663) KJV Bible with the following Latin quote (ascribed to Luther) hand inscribed in one of the front pages:

“Pactum feci Domino Deo meo, ne mihi mittat vel visiones, vel somnia, vel etiam angelos. Contentus enim sum Hoc Dono, quod habeo Scripturam sanctum, qua abunde docet, ac suppeditat omnia qua necessaria, tum ad hanc vitam tum ad futuram.”

My rough translation on the fly:

“I have made a covenant with the Lord my God, that He give me neither visions nor dreams nor even angels. For I am content with This Gift which I have: Holy Scripture which teaches abundantly, and supplies everything necessary, both for this life and for the future.”

So how’d I do? Any suggestions or corrections?

Thanks and cheers in advance.

In Bible, History - Reformation, Misc, Sola Scriptura

Putting on the Armor of Light: Resources for Lent

February 13, 2013 — 6 Comments

For those wondering about what we teach or think about the season of Lent at Trinity. Here’s what we print in the front of our bulletins during this season:

“Lent is the season of the Church calendar that spans the 40 days leading up to Easter. Lent is from the old English word which means “lengthening” and refers to Springtime, when the days are getting longer and lighter. Another name for this season is “Quadragesima” which simply means “fortieth,” counting backwards from Easter to the fortieth day before Resurrection Sunday.

In the history of the Church, no other season has perhaps been so abused or misunderstood as Lent. Historically, Lent began as a discipleship class for new believers. It became customary to have baptisms at Easter, and so new believers would be enrolled in these classes prior to Easter to teach them the basics of the faith, frequently working through the Apostles’ Creed, the most basic Christian confession. Eventually, many leaders in the Church saw the need for all Christians to be annually reminded of the basics of the Christian faith and reminded of the basic Christian disciplines.

Over time, many practices like superstitious fasting and various forms of abstinence became substituted for real Christian disciplines and by the time of the Reformation, Lent had become something of a symbol of the oppression of the Roman church, and therefore many of the great Reformers cheerfully taught their congregations to disregard the Roman church’s rules and regulations for Lent. Standing squarely in the Reformation tradition, we want to remember and embrace their wisdom and courage in freeing the people of God from man made traditions and rules. In Christ, we are free, and no Christian man or woman should be bound by man-made customs or traditions regarding eating or fasting, food or drink, days or seasons. No one should feel any tinge of guilt for doing absolutely nothing different during Lent. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Evangelism, Family, History - Reformation, Lent, TRC, Worship

How the Reformation became a Revolution

November 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

The Reformation would not have happened if ordinary people had not convinced themselves that they were actors in a cosmic drama plotted by God: that in the Bible he had left them a record of his plans and directions as to how to carry them out. Their revolution was not simply a search for personal salvation.

-Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation, 550.

In Bible, History - Reformation, Sola Scriptura, Why I Won't Convert

The Rebirth of the Whole World

October 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

When we say that we are evangelicals, one of the things we are proclaiming is that we believe in reformations. The first reformers in the Protestant Reformation were called evangelicals, and so we align ourselves with them. But the larger point is that we believe that this is how God intents to get this project done. And this project is the restoration of all things, the renewal of all things, the rebirth of the whole world, the whole universe, the new creation. But all reformation begins in the heart; all renewal, all rebirth begins when the Holy Spirit changes a slave of sin into a free man, when the Holy Spirit breathes on a man made of dust and lights him up, making him a man made of Spirit.

One of the great glories of the Protestant Reformation was the insistence on the centrality of freedom. Christ came proclaiming liberty to the captives, and that wasn’t just a Sunday School slogan. The point was that if Jesus set somebody free, they were really free. When Jesus proclaims forgiveness, it echoes into economies and politics and science and technology and medicine. This is because the gospel is the proclamation of the Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Jesus is reformation for the world. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Exhortations, History - Reformation

Why Protestants Still Protest

May 22, 2012 — 7 Comments

Towards the end of the last millennium, Peter Leithart writes:

One of the lesser-known works of John Calvin is a tract whose short title is “An Inventory of Relics.” It is predominantly a sharp attack on the extremes of medieval Catholic piety-practices that I imagine many Catholics would today dismiss as empty superstitions. Samples of Christ’s hair, teeth, even his foreskin were distributed across Europe, and so much of Jesus’ blood had been preserved as to “be diffused over the whole world.” Calvin complained that “had the most Holy Virgin yielded a more copious supply [of milk] than is given by a cow, or had she continued to nurse during her whole lifetime, she scarcely could have furnished the quantity which is exhibited.” The complaint could have been written by Voltaire.

Calvin’s attack on relic veneration, however, was grounded in an evangelical insight that lies at the heart of the Reformation. “The first abuse,” Calvin wrote, “and, as it were, the beginning of the evil, was that when Christ ought to have been sought in his Word, sacraments, and spiritual influences, the world, after its wont, clung to his garments, vests, and swaddling clothes; and thus overlooking the principal matter, followed only its accessory.” In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin offered a similar critique of the liturgical tradition of the medieval Church. Formally, Calvin’s argument is that many medieval ceremonies were human inventions, unwarranted by Scripture. It would be a mistake, however, to reduce his argument to a trivial quarrel over the warrant for this vestment or that gesture. Calvin’s principal concern was evangelical and pastoral; he wished to direct sinners to that “place” where they could encounter the living God. Ceremonies, he argued, “to be exercises of piety, ought to lead us straight to Christ.” Ceremonies and devotional practices that fail this test are best removed from the Church. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, History - Reformation, Sola Scriptura, Why I Won't Convert

Wild Truth

May 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

Another follow up thought on the Douthat post below: This American “openness to heresy” seems to me to be a peculiarly Protestant stance, particularly, a sort of political/social manifestation of Sola Scriptura. Protestantism rejects human authority as supreme (whether in prelacy or tradition), and insists that Jesus is the head of the Church, ruling through His Spirit and Word in this world (though respecting tradition and human authority subordinated to the Word). In other words, despite the schismatic sins and fleshly rivalries wound through it, Protestantism has always, in principle, had this “openness to heresy” at least as much because of its confidence and delight in the freedom of the Spirit. As Douthat notes, it’s the heretics, the heterodox who are always trying to tidy up the faith, trying to make the Spirit tuck His shirt in and wipe the jelly smudges off His cheeks. But there is something of a symbiotic relationship between heresy and orthodoxy, such that heretics press in on the faithful in an ultimately sharpening, glorifying way, causing the Church to burn brighter with the truth, slowly, relentlessly leaving lies and distortions behind. Just as God is able to destroy death by death, just as sin and evil are able to be deftly wielded by the omnipotent competence of the author of this story we are in, so too, lies, misunderstanding, and false teachers are bent to the good purposes of the Spirit. And all this without striking a truce with any evil. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Federal Vision, History - Reformation, Sola Scriptura, Why I Won't Convert

The Reformation was an Exodus

February 29, 2012 — 2 Comments

The Reformation was an Exodus: Luther, Bucer, Calvin, Knox and their sidekicks were the Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb of the 16th century, and they led a great mixed multitude out of an Egypt that had arisen in the very Church of God. The Pope had become a tyrannical pharaoh, and his bishops and prelates laid heavy burdens on God’s people. God heard their cries, and raised up judges to free His people. He lifted His mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, He brought His people out of the Roman house of bondage. Anyone who denies this should be sentenced to a decade in politics where you will simultaneously fit in with your fellow camel-swallowers and get what you deserve.

Since history is God’s story, and God delights to rehearse His main points and themes repeatedly in motifs and types, wisdom is found in reading our stories in light of the stories of Scripture. As soon as the Israelites have gone three days into the desert, sure enough, they’re ready to head back to slavery. Later, at Sinai, some of the gold plundered from the Egyptians is used for casting a golden calf. But even a generation later, you have pharaoh wannabes like the cowardly Achan, coveting the treasures of Jericho in a hole in his tent, like a slick pollyanna megachurch pastor. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Bible - Exodus, Calvin, Church Calendar, Federal Vision, History - Reformation, Lent, Pastoral Theology, Why I Won't Convert

The Grace of the Law

January 30, 2011 — 1 Comment

“By reclaiming Luther’s grand discovery of justification by faith, Christians again embrace the law with David, Paul, and James. The law leads to Christ, plainly outlines the extent of Christ’s payment, defines his righteousness, protects believers from sinning against God’s love, and enables them to give concrete expression to their love for God by deeds of obedience.”

Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism, 6.

In Books, History - Reformation, Theology - Soteriology

Women of the Reformation or Here’s Hoping My Wife Will Open a Brewery

November 17, 2010 — Leave a comment

There’s a cool post here on some of the influential women of the Reformation including this on Katherine von Bora, Martin Luther’s wife:

Katherine von Bora was a former nun who married Martin Luther. They were married for 21 years and had six children. Her quick tongue, humor, and stubbornness matched Martin’s—no small feat. She managed their home (which was frequently full of students), had a large garden and livestock, fished and farmed, and ran a brewery. She also managed their money and took care of their extended household. Martin called her “My Lord Katie.”

You can read the rest here.

In History - Reformation