Monday, December 24, 2012
Preview for "The Lord's Day vs Christmas Day: Which day is commanded by God?"
Is Christmas considered even Christian? Who made Christmas a day as holy (if not more) as the (weekly) Lord's Day (4th Commandment)? Is it even biblical to try and put Jesus Christ into Christmas, or is it heresy? Do we even have the right as sinful people to invent things like Christmas and pronounce them holy in anyway, without consent of the scriptures? I will make a biblical exposition on my blog on questions American evangelical Christianity will never question, because you don't question what we always do, aka tradition, now attempting to compare God's Holy Sabbath Day vs man's created Christmas day, that in a way 'tries' to replicate what the Lord's Day was meant for: fellowship, rest, mercy, and grace.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
October 31, Reformation Day
Well it has been a while, but coming back to write about the sobering, hard to swallow truths about what it means to be a biblical Christian, is definitely a bitter sweet moment for me. It's a joyous moment in that I can share that which the 1st century church during the time of the apostles were preaching, and the 16th century men of the Reformation fought for to uphold the truths of Jesus Christ and His apostles, contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Yet... it is a very fearful thing, to speak of things that are controversial to a fallen, godless world who wants nothing but the 'pursuit of happiness' instead of the pursuit of righteousness, but naturally, it's a sinner's nature to love not the things of God, let alone God Himself:
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
And the result of not acknowledging God as Lord and King: the 'chosen' people of Israel (and essentially the rest of the race of men) did what they thought was right in their own eyes, only there was no righteousness in them, only evil, as Genesis 6:5 attests:
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6 and 21:25)
If the supposed chosen race of God failed, and every man was corrupted in sin, even those appointed by God to be the priests of God would find ways to believe they can do better than what God has authorized can be done to glorify and please Him. Oh! what a sobering look at God as the perfect justice-giver:
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD has said, 'Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" And Aaron held his peace. (Leviticus 10:1-3)
That verse just previous gives you the truth, that God explicitly wants to be worshiped and glorified only the way He has allowed us to (a principle discovered because of verses like this called the regulative principle of worship). You might bring the argument that God changed since then. Oh my fellow sinner, can you argue when our God is perfect, that perfection needs change of improvement? Then let Him explicitly make it clear when He says things like this:
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
"For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed."
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8)
The mere fact that God doesn't consume us all with fire (which He is right to do so) like he did to Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, for trying to worship God in a way unauthorized by Him (i.e. having wrong thoughts of him [aka breaking the 2nd commandment]) which we all have broken including the rest of His Commandments, is what is known as His mercy (not getting what you deserve), though he still is angry.
Here in the U.S., especially for us Americans, these verses are of a perfect relevance, not only of the freedom to define what is right based only on personal interpretation and majority popularity, but so much so, that even the definition of Christianity is so broad, that everyone seems to be a professing Christian and many live like devils who have never opened their Bibles, never had fellowship with other Christians yet prefer to be influenced by godless people, and don't even know who Jesus Christ, the person who they claim saved them, is at all, and can't even explain why the cross and, more importantly, His resurrection meant for those He saved!
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
(Numbers 23:19)
"For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed."
(Malachi 3:6)
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
(James 1:17)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8)
The mere fact that God doesn't consume us all with fire (which He is right to do so) like he did to Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, for trying to worship God in a way unauthorized by Him (i.e. having wrong thoughts of him [aka breaking the 2nd commandment]) which we all have broken including the rest of His Commandments, is what is known as His mercy (not getting what you deserve), though he still is angry.
Here in the U.S., especially for us Americans, these verses are of a perfect relevance, not only of the freedom to define what is right based only on personal interpretation and majority popularity, but so much so, that even the definition of Christianity is so broad, that everyone seems to be a professing Christian and many live like devils who have never opened their Bibles, never had fellowship with other Christians yet prefer to be influenced by godless people, and don't even know who Jesus Christ, the person who they claim saved them, is at all, and can't even explain why the cross and, more importantly, His resurrection meant for those He saved!
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The previous I will use as a prologue (and a taste of what is known as the 'analogy of faith' usage of interpreting scripture) of what I want to present as (what feels like) my first of messages on this blog, in commemoration of the spark that started the Reformation of the the Christian church of the 16th century and what we have today because of the great work of Godly men who follow. So why is it that I marvel on October 31st, a day remembered for Halloween, for another commemoration on the same day, considered Reformation day, the celebration of the 16th century Reformation of Christianity?
The beginning of the 16th century Reformation is historically unanimous, in that a German monk named Martin Luther (1483-1546) was it's spark. The question is why was there need of reforming? In a time when the Roman Catholic church was the 'face' and sole representation of the Christian faith, there was no questioning its authority up through the 16th century. It became and was a theocracy of the Christian world, where the pope was the authority over the kings and emperors of the kingdoms of all of Christendom on earth (popes even fighting and commanding armies on the battlefield for so-called religious wars [the Crusades ring a bell]), and the Vatican it's headquarters. It's authority was not only of a religious, but a military type. So any hint of questioning their authority or claims were made to... disappear, both by excommunication and/or even assassination. Thank God for Martin Luther!
What Martin began to discover as a Roman Catholic monk, priest, and later as a professor of theology and biblical studies at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, was the gross twisting, and false use of biblical authority and scripture that the Roman Catholic church and the pope, used to meet its own ends of spreading its influence and power. It all came to a breaking point when The Vatican sent friar Johann Tetzel, its papal commissioner of indulgences (in unpolitical terms- their 'sales man' of buying your way out of purgatory and into heaven) to raise money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
When Luther learned of Tetzel's arrival and purpose, he wrote a complaint to his bishop, which is famously now considered the catalyst of the Reformation, the Ninety-Five Theses, which was made strictly to try to correct and reform the Roman Catholic church of its unbiblical practice of indulgences and to end it. The Roman Catholic teachings of indulgences and purgatory (which still exist today, even if they diluted it a bit) were discovered to be heretical by Luther through his expertise of the Bible as a professor, and were instead deceptive efforts to gain great wealth and impose fear. This became an outrage to both Luther's bishop and eventually all the way to the pope himself, Pope Leo X and the entire Roman Catholic church, because of its undermining of traditional (yet unbiblical) beliefs and more importantly to them, the loss of 'donations,' yet in the eyes of the people of Germany, and eventually all of Europe, it was the first act of bravery and enlightenment of things that were already known of Rome's excess, but only spoken in whispers till the Ninety-Five Theses appeared. So the Ninety-Five Theses was copied and spread eventually all over Europe thanks to the advent of the printing press. Oh how the Lord's wisdom had picked a time when technology could spread a message to hold the Roman Catholic church accountable to the whole world! This was the beginning of Luther's discoveries of many Roman Catholic heresies against the scriptures that would lead him to write other works exposing them and bringing authority back to the scriptures of the Bible.
For his undermining both the authority of the pope, the 'church,' and just the act of attempting to correct their 'theology,' Martin Luther was threatened with excommunication (which not only meant expulsion from the church and labeled a heretic, but in those times and in Roman Catholic teachings, being forbidden from heaven itself by the authority of the pope [Thank God the pope never had the scriptural authority to begin with]). He had to recant (or to repent and apologize for) his written works that included his Ninety-Five Theses and other works that indicted the incorrect theology of Roman Catholicism, including writings that condemned the absolute authority of the pope, that salvation came through faith alone (sola fide), and removing all doctrines, practices, and dogmas that isn't expressly written in the bible (sola scriptura and the beginnings of the regulative principle of worship]) in front of the the Emperor of Germany, Charles V, who was under the Vatican influence, in an assembly called the Diet of Worms in 1521, surrounded by theologians of Roman Catholicism, those Martin Luther had influenced with his writings, and all others in-between and undecided. Here's a great re-telling of what happened at the Diet of Worms from the film "Luther" with Joseph Fiennes as Luther:
Of great importance that I have forgotten to mention is that Martin Luther's goal wasn't to destroy the Roman Catholic church, but to reform it and fix it. Unfortunately with all that power and influence the Vatican had, solely giving it all back to God and going back to 'old-school' Christianity of the 1st century was not 'practical' for them considering for more than a thousand years previous, they have established doctrines and 'loop-holes' that made them the empire they were. God asks us all of everything we have and they were not going to relinquish and repent. So thus the 16th century Reformation of Christianity spread and churches that practiced Protestantism sprung up throughout Germany, then to all of Europe and then through all the earth was under way, and blessed be to the real church body, Rome no longer is the monopoly for most of those hungry and thirsting for righteousness and knowledge of Jesus, but from the legitimate priest, prophet and king, Jesus Christ Himself through his infallible word the Bible and the churches who defend Him and His truth.
For his undermining both the authority of the pope, the 'church,' and just the act of attempting to correct their 'theology,' Martin Luther was threatened with excommunication (which not only meant expulsion from the church and labeled a heretic, but in those times and in Roman Catholic teachings, being forbidden from heaven itself by the authority of the pope [Thank God the pope never had the scriptural authority to begin with]). He had to recant (or to repent and apologize for) his written works that included his Ninety-Five Theses and other works that indicted the incorrect theology of Roman Catholicism, including writings that condemned the absolute authority of the pope, that salvation came through faith alone (sola fide), and removing all doctrines, practices, and dogmas that isn't expressly written in the bible (sola scriptura and the beginnings of the regulative principle of worship]) in front of the the Emperor of Germany, Charles V, who was under the Vatican influence, in an assembly called the Diet of Worms in 1521, surrounded by theologians of Roman Catholicism, those Martin Luther had influenced with his writings, and all others in-between and undecided. Here's a great re-telling of what happened at the Diet of Worms from the film "Luther" with Joseph Fiennes as Luther:
Of great importance that I have forgotten to mention is that Martin Luther's goal wasn't to destroy the Roman Catholic church, but to reform it and fix it. Unfortunately with all that power and influence the Vatican had, solely giving it all back to God and going back to 'old-school' Christianity of the 1st century was not 'practical' for them considering for more than a thousand years previous, they have established doctrines and 'loop-holes' that made them the empire they were. God asks us all of everything we have and they were not going to relinquish and repent. So thus the 16th century Reformation of Christianity spread and churches that practiced Protestantism sprung up throughout Germany, then to all of Europe and then through all the earth was under way, and blessed be to the real church body, Rome no longer is the monopoly for most of those hungry and thirsting for righteousness and knowledge of Jesus, but from the legitimate priest, prophet and king, Jesus Christ Himself through his infallible word the Bible and the churches who defend Him and His truth.
Anyway, before I continue, to even think to attempt to give an entire historical account of Martin Luther's life is something that is a venture that has already been done, by many (more intelligent, traveled, scholarly) men, so let me just make a very worthy long biography (for you to find and continue reading about) down to the main principles that snowballed out of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Luther's tribulations and triumphs to advocate the scriptures contained in the Bible, back to the forefront of final authority and exclusivity of all knowledge of God and his Church, brought about it truths that would bring the doctrines that would define the Reformation. Of initial noteworthiness to this blog is the doctrine most associated with Luther's cause, and those he influenced, that addresses in direct opposition of not only the false doctrines of the Roman Catholic church (even to this day) but for many other 'Christian'-cults that would spring up and abuse in the same manor, known as the Five solas:
sola scriptura- scripture alone; as the only infallible, authoritative, and all-sufficient source of all saving knowledge and faith, including every work that is good and acceptable to God in life and worship
sola fide- faith alone; as the only means that a Christian is saved and not of works, as works is the product that is driven by true faith and is an act of gratitude to God, not a payment or bribe
sola gratia- grace alone; you are not able to earn salvation, but is a free, un-compelled, divine decision by God Himself of unmerited favor (getting a gift you don't deserve) to a person He alone chose to save, regardless of the person's actions prior to salvation
(Romans 9)
solus Christus- Christ alone; as the only way, truth and life to be with God in heaven. No one comes to the Father except through Him
soli Deo gloria- glory to God alone; any good things done is that which gives glory to God alone and all credit and work is God's for all regeneration, good works, and salvation of His people (in opposition to the glorifications and titles given to angels, men or saints, and the Virgin Mary)
Sean,
a lowest of Christians, and an aspiring theologian and evangelist, who would hope to leave you without excuse of the gospel and orthodox Christianity, whether you deny these things or not, but you will know exactly what you are denying, or accepting and that is the full council of scripture
It feels good to do this again... Thank you Lord Jesus for making me willing to do this again. Glory be to God in the highest!
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