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Our forgotten heritage: the reformation

Subhead
Built on a Rock
By
Pastor Praveen Muthsuamy, Hills United Reformed Church

Ask an average American on the street, ‘What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of October 31?” You will generally hear, ‘It’s Halloween.’ Ask an Evangelical Christian, a Protestant Christian the same question you would probably get the same answer. Halloween is so widely celebrated in America that even the churches that call themselves Protestants have embraced celebrating this festival of death. Churches have trunk or treat events, and they sanitize many of the pagan elements in Halloween. It’s one thing for a non-Christian to associate Halloween with October 31. But it’s a sad thing, a very sad thing when a Protestant Christian says Halloween instead of Reformation Day. Before you write me off as a party pooper or a sanctimonious person, please consider the words of our Savior Jesus in Matthew 5:13-16, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” In other words, As Christians redeemed by the blood of Jesus, we should influence the world with the gospel of Jesus. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, Christians should shine the light of the gospel in this dark world. But how are we going to do that if we look like the world, smell like the world, and act like the world? Do we not take God’s word seriously when God tells us in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” When the Roman Catholic Church was acting like the world by using fear and punishment to make people buy indulgences so that they could build a massive church in Rome, a young monk named Martin Luther protested. On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle in Germany that led to the Reformation, the Reformation of the Church. The Reformation taught us the 5 important principles.  The 66 books of the Bible Alone (1) is the sole foundation for Christian doctrine and life and not any tradition or council.  We are saved by Grace Alone (2) through Faith Alone (3) in Christ Alone (4). Therefore, all the glory goes to God Alone (5) [read Ephesian 2:8-10]. As a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, I urge you to celebrate Reformation Day and talk about it with your children and church family.

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