Reformation Day Thoughts

For those of you who don't know (and I didn't until this time last year), today is Reformation Day. I suspect many of you thought that it was merely Halloween, which is a pagan holiday that many Christians refuse to have anything to do with. It is that too, but it also marks the 490th anniversary of Martin Luther tacking 95 theses on the door at the cathedral in Wittenberg. As someone who rejects the Catholic Church's interpretation of the gospel, I am glad for this day.

However, this post has helped to temper my glee a little bit. It serves as a good reminder that we need to call out the bad in any organization, but that we should theoretically be on the same side. We all want to live in a way that glorifies God, right? I mean, theoretically that's the idea. The Jehovah's Witnesses would say that they want to do that, but they disagree with my theology as I do theirs. It is good that there are distinctives because we do believe different things. However, should we really revel in them?

I think I'm going to look at this day as the day when someone was willing to challenge the self-appointed supremacy of the Catholic Church. I think it was a great day for truth. However, I don't think that we should be quite ready to make Luther into a saint. Nor should we throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to tradition. Is it better to have a church with authority or individuals who can all go their own way? I really like the perspective that this post gives.

I attend a Calvinistic, dispensational seminary. I'm not sure if I'm dispensational or covenantal, but I do know that I am Calvinistic. However, I also realize that this may have to do with the teaching I've received. I like to say that my authority is in the Bible, but it may be just as much in John Piper as it is in the Bible.

A classmate of mine presents this problem well. He used to read a variety of commentaries on a verse and wonder about how to resolve the conflicting views. Now that he knows Greek pretty well he can decide who has good and bad exegetical practices. However, not everyone agrees on how to interpret the Greek. So that leaves you with decisions to make about which lexicon or exegetical commentary you're going to trust.

So where does that leave us? We have textual variants of the manuscripts. We have competing translations of various verses. We have competing interpretations in systematic theology. It's enough to push your faith to the brink of destruction.

It leaves me in a position where I know that we can be sure about some things and we need to be gracious about others. I do know that we cannot waver when it comes to salvation by faith alone though.