Lux Lucet

Wittenberg as seen from the Elbe, 1536.

October 31 is known to much of the world as the pagan holiday of Halloween. But for Christians, October 31 represents something quite different. It’s what we call Reformation Day.

For it was on that date in 1517 that Martin Luther’s nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door and forever changed the world for the better.

The Gospel of Justification By Faith Alone – the idea that sinful men are saved, not by doing good works, but solely by faith in Christ Jesus – once again shone forth in all its brilliance after a millennium of suppression by the Roman Church-State and millions were saved as a result.

But Luther’s rejection of church tradition in favor of the objective, written Word of God did not revolutionize the church only. It resulted in a whole new civilization, what we now call the West, coming into existence.

Ideas such as the sanctity of private property, honesty in exchange, the rule of law, capitalism, written constitutions, secular work as pleasing to God all found their origin in the Protestant Reformation that began with Luther.

Though it is not commonly understood by Americans, our nation owes its very existence to the Biblical ideas recovered at the time of the Reformation.

Most of us are taught to trace the foundations of our republic to Greece and Rome. But limited, constitutional government did not begin with Greco-Roman civilization. It began with the Hebrew Republic as recorded for us in the Old Testament. Thus the Bible is foundational to our political system.

In like manner, our economic system of capitalism or free enterprise finds its origins, not in the writings of pagan philosophers, nor in the thought of medieval scholastics, nor in the principles of the Renaissance, but in the propositions of the Word of God, the 66 books of the Bible.

To put it another way: No Protestant Reformation, no United States of America. To quote John Robbins,

One of Luther’s most brilliant followers, John Calvin, systematized the theology of the Reformation. The seventeenth-century Calvinists laid the foundations for both English and American civil rights and liberties: freedom of speech, pres, and religion, the privilege against self-incrimination, the independence of juries, and right of habeas corpus, the right not to be imprisoned without cause. The nineteenth-century German historian Leopold von Ranke referred to Calvin as the “virtual founder of America” (Civilization and the Protestant Reformation).

The Collapse of the West

For a good part of the past 100 years, authors have been writing about the collapse of the West. To many non-Christians this may seem a bit odd. After all, haven’t we seen tremendous progress over the past 100 years?

Well, in some areas there has been progress, perhaps most notably in the area of technology. It wasn’t all that long ago when a simple blog such as this one would have seemed a technological marvel. For my part, I still marvel at how it’s possible for an ordinary person to reach the world from his desktop.

But in other ways, not only has their not been progress, but quite the opposite. Instead of advancement, there has been shocking retrogression.

One could cite any number of examples of the collapse of the West. But perhaps none drives home the degree of degeneracy of the West than the success of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement.

Behavior that once was properly criminalized, is now held to be a Constitutional right. And woe to you if you think differently.

The Disappearance of Christianity

But why is the West collapsing? One can find as many opinions on this as there are authors. But the correct answer is the disappearance of Christianity in the West. Just as the widespread preaching of and belief in the Gospel of Justification By Faith Alone produced the West, so too has the disappearance of this belief system led inexorably to its collapse.

Despite the enormous progress made in Western Europe and the United States since the sixteenth century, a resurgence of ancient and medieval paganism now threatens Western civilization. The paganism of ancient and papal Rome erupted again in the twentieth century (John Robbins, Christ and Civilization, 46, 47).

Some of the heirs of the Protestant Reformation are so mixed up in their thinking that they openly cooperate with the Antichrist Roman Church-State. Professing to be wise, they have become fools.

Consider just this one headline from the Catholic Herald , Pope Francis to celebrate Mass in Sweden during Reformation commemorations. As the article reports,

The Reverend Martin Junge, general secretary of the LWF [Lutheran World Federation, based on a brief look at their website, false ecumenism is not the only sin this organization is engaged in, they also actively promote the destructive lie of feminism as well], told reporters at the Vatican yesterday that the Lutherans fully understand the desire of Catholics in Sweden to have Mass with the Pope and the pastoral responsibility of the Pope to fulfil (sic) that request.

“Of course,” he said, “it is also going to reveal that we are not yet united; it is going to reveal a wound that remains there” since the divisions between Catholics and Lutherans mean that in general Eucharist sharing still is not possible.

While Reverend Junge and other Lutheran leaders have accepted an invitation to attend the Mass, the fact that they will not receive Communion “is going to be a strong encouragement to continue working toward unity,” he said.

The Reverend Junge is more right than he knows when he speaks of a wound. For there is indeed a wound of great significance when it comes to Protestant-Catholic relations. Namely, the mortal wound inflicted by the Reformation on the head of the beast (Revelation 13:3). By his own words, Junge has confessed to working to heal it, thus fulfilling Biblical prophecy.

What spiritual stupidity has possessed the heirs of the reformers to lead them to say such things!

For those interested in the details behind Rome’s ecumenical offensive, I would refer you to Tom Juodaitis’ excellent Trinity Review, Antichrist’s Ecumenical Endeavors.

According to Juodaitis, Antichrist, instead of burning believers at the stake, has now adopted the strategy of trying to kill them with false kindness.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Rome’s strategy toward Protestants changed from the open hostility of the Counter Reformation’s anathemas against Protestant “heretics” to the covert co-opting of “Separated Brethren” since Vatican II.

Because of its subtlety, Rome’s siren song to the “separated brethren” is even more dangerous than the fulminations of the Counter Reformation. Threats of overt violence will get your attention every time. But it takes spiritual discernment to see the danger in false ecumenism.

As the Catholic Herald article points out, the issue of justification is at the heart of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue,

Both Reverend Junge and Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the biggest breakthrough in Lutheran-Catholic relations was the signing in 1999 of a joint declaration on justification, or how people are made (sic) righteous in the eyes of God and saved.

Justification is not about God making man righteous, it’s about God declaring sinners to be righteous on the basis of their faith in the work of Christ alone.

The Missing Solas

Reading the 1999 joint declaration is a sickening experience for any Christian with even a basic understanding of the seriousness of the issue at hand. According to the declaration,

The present Joint Declaration has this intention: namely, to show that on the basis of their dialogue the subscribing Lutheran churches and the Roman Catholic Church are now able to articulate a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

Now this may very well be a true statement insofar as it concerns the beliefs of the Lutheran and Romanist signatories to the statement. But it is not a Biblical statement on justification.

What the declaration leaves out is at least as important than what it states. For it is not enough to say that justification is by grace through faith. The Biblical, Protestant statement is to say that justification is by grace alone through faith alone in the finished crosswork of Christ alone. Or as the Reformers would have put it: sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus.

Conclusion

Reformation Day is a yearly opportunity for Christians to reflect on what it means to be Christian. Justification By Faith Alone is the central doctrine of Christianity. It is a matter of life and death both for individuals eternally and temporally for entire civilizations.

Paul’s words “The just shall live by faith” called Martin Luther out spiritual darkness and into the eternal light some 500 years ago. May we as his spiritual descendents never compromise in believing and proclaiming this simple truth.