Yesterday, we celebrated Reformation Day. If you are looking for more resources for your children, you can look here. Our pastor at our church challenged our son, Joshua (after Joshua inquired about our church acknowledging and celebrating Reformation Day), to give him reasons why it is important and how it affects us today....and this is the response. An essay...proud momma I am. Several friends have asked that I post this, and I thought it was more appropriate to do it here, then on Facebook! And maybe, just maybe, if you are like we were, oh say 5 years or so ago, you might realize that there is a WONDERFUL reason to celebrate October 31st and it is NOT Halloween! Enjoy.
The Reformation officially began on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. However, before Luther, men like John Wycliffe (the very first known person to translate the Bible into English) and Erasmus started the spark that kindled when Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door.
Martin Luther was outside in the middle of a thunderstorm in the early 1500s. The thunderstorm was so bad, that Luther was afraid and called on St. Anne and said that he'd become a monk if God would spare his life. As a monk, he confessed his sins to the priest so much that the priest told him to come back when he committed serious sins. Martin later said, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them." He was sent to Wittenberg, Germany to study and teach. Bibles during those days were rare and those found were mostly written in Latin. In Wittenberg was a Bible and as a monk, he knew Latin. He began to read the Bible and soon came upon the fact that it was not by visiting relics, confession to a priest, fasting, or any works of man, but instead the work of Jesus Christ and His death to save us from our sins. He later said this: "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification, is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness.
Soon after this happened, the Roman Catholic Church started to take indulgences (money given to the church with the promise of salvation, getting a family member out of purgatory, or other things). The indulgences were for people to give money to the building which is now St. Peter's Basilica and the givers would get salvation. Martin Luther in response on October 31, 1517 nailed 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. These condemned the false teachings of the Roman Catholics and the Pope and started a fire. He was later excommunicated from the Augustinian Order of which was part of and put on trial. When asked if he would recant his works, he refused. He was expelled from the Roman Catholic Church. Luther married a former nun and started the Reformation Movement. His efforts led to the return of church teachings that grace is by faith and not of works lest any man should boast. He translated the Bible into German for the common people of Germany could read it for themselves which influenced the translation of the Bible into other languages as well.
There things led to another denomination started by Ulrich Zwingli. Luther and Zwingli couldn't be reconciled due to differences in the Lord's Supper and decided to go their separate ways as Paul and Barnabus had done after their dispute about whether or not to take John Mark on a missionary trip. The denomination started by Zwingli started the Reformers.
Around this time also came Anabaptists who believed that baptism is for those who believed in Christ and not for infants. This idea was opposed by Luther and Zwingli. Zwingli even persecuted them. Then there came John Calvin (who was converted around 1528-1531), and he lived mostly in Geneva. He led a reformation in education and the people's thinking in Geneva where he preached at least once a day.
Afterwards there came William Tyndale's translation of the Bible into English which later got him strangled and burned at the stake. King Henry VIII (the King during the time of William Tyndale's death and founder of the Anglican Church) ordered that Bibles be printed in English and used in every church in England in 1539. Tyndale's last words were, "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes!" The Bible now in English by the order of Henry VIII was apparently the answer to Tyndale's last prayer. The New Testament was even from William Tyndale's translation.
After Henry VIII died, Edward (the son of Henry's 3rd wife) became king. He lived until he was 16, but was a Godly king. He surrounded himself with great men such as John Knox. I even heard he would weep whenever he ordered someone to be put to death. When he died, "Bloody" Mary (a Catholic) became queen; she made Catholicism the national religion in England again and persecuted Protestants. The Protestants were burned at the stake, beheaded and imprisoned. Yet the faith didn't die. After Mary died, Elizabeth (mostly protestant and the daughter of Anne Boleyn) became queen. She issued the Golden Age of England. After Elizabeth died, James I became the King of England.
The Puritans read the Bible and realized that the Church of England was corrupt and therefore set out to correct/purify the church. After realizing that purification was impossible, the Puritans separated from the Church of England and were called Separatists from then on for that reason. The Puritans became so persecuted that they left England for Holland. They decided that they couldn't live in Holland for cultural, reasons and some of them went to Plymouth, Massachusetts to create a colony and send for the rest later. Upon landing, the Puritans created a contract that created the government. This later influenced the Constitution therefore influencing us even today.
After the Puritans were there for a while, a man came to Massachusetts named Roger Williams. He started a new colony called Rhode Island, and it had one of the first governments that had religious toleration. It became a safe haven for Jews, Quakers, and others and helped with the founding of America. In 1639, Roger Williams became a Baptist and established the first Baptist church in America. Soon afterwards, the Anabaptists, Congregationalists (a branch of the reformation), Episcopalians, and so on came to the shores of America.
In 1775, the Revolutionary War broke out and lasted until 1781. This started a new nation that would tolerate any religion but was mostly Christian and founded upon Christian principles. In the 1800s, William Miller a Baptist minister "studied" the Bible and said that he could tell when Jesus would come from his so-called studies of the Bible. When Jesus didn't come on the date of his prediction, he said he was mistaken and set another date. When Jesus didn't come then, several of those following him branched off and formed the Seventh Day Adventists.
From this information, we can say that one man and former monk Martin Luther started the ball rolling that produced one of the greatest nations in the world where people can worship God freely without fear of government persecution. In the Rotunda of the Capitol Building, the heart of the very place where our government has compromised the very foundational principles upon which our nation was founded, there are paintings of the Puritans with a Bible open praising God for safe passage to America and the "baptism" of Pocahontas. These and other hidden gems in our nation's history are still there but not exactly publicized. It is our duty as Christians and Americans to show these to the world!
There is also a drawback. In today's society, there are churches of varying denominations in various locations. Some church-goers leave a church with a belief or pastor you don't like instead of trying to reform their teaching or their leader in order to affect the congregation. This can be done with simply trying as best you can to remain at peace with the pastor and congregation while trying to show them their fault as Luther and the Puritans had done.
In celebrating Reformation Day, it is not merely an alternative to Halloween also celebrated on October 31. It is a privilege to honor God for His work for the Reformation. It's not only celebrating when Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, but it's praising God for sending Zwingli, Calvin, Tyndale the Puritans, and all of those who stood up for what they believed was right according the Bible and stood with their conscience no matter what the cost. In not compromising but standing, their efforts have led to a Reformation that today affects almost the whole world. Every time we preach the Word of God to someone and share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we owe our thanks first to God who was faithful and rose up people to bring us back to the Bible after a while of very little people finding out the truth and bringing about a change that spread to the whole world. Second we owe our thanks to all who carried on the Christian truths throughout the ages until now. This includes not just the great men such as Calvin, but all of those who were/are Christians such as those who live a destitute life but are an encouragement to others, the preacher of the smallest church, or even kids who share the gospel with their schoolmates. It is now our duty and privilege as Christians to carry on our heritage and the torch of faith burning with the fuel of the blood of Jesus Christ to the generations to come.
Joshua
