The Reformation

Under God, Luther started it (1517), Zwingli developed it, Calvin consolidated it (the Anglicans muddled it).

Now, many have forgotten it, ecumenists hate it, secularists try to destroy it.

But John Calvin said: "God must win!"  And He will.

Rev. Dr Alan C Clifford

John Calvin and the Reformation (1509-1564)

John Calvin (1509-1564) was the great organising brain behind the development of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth century Europe.  His enormous output of writings - sermons, commentaries, Institutes, tracts, letters, etc was exhausting to think about.  It was Calvin who taught John Knox who was then lumbered with the blame for establishing Presbyterianism in these islands and throughout the world. 

We can read Calvin's Institutes, something I would recommend, explore his excellent commentaries, be encouraged and challenges by his letters, be armed to dispute with heretics of variious kinds threough his tracts, but of you want to get to know the real John Calvin, then you must read his sermons.  It is Calvin and Gospel preacher who is the authentic John Calvin.

It is very sad that people who hold to Arminianism do so because they have been tainted by ill-informed preachers who thought they were Calvinists, but in fact were not.  What these preachers presented was an extrapolation of Calvin's teaching and this ended up being something Calvin would not own as his.

Calvin was an excellent preacher and one only has to read his published sermons to see the depth of his grasp of the biblical revelation.  If preachers reading this want to learn how to apply the message of the Bible to their own day and generation, listen to Calvin in his sermons.  Timid or frightened preachers ought to be deeply challenged when they compare their feeble preaching with Calvin's bold expositions.  He took on even the greatest opponent in the cause of truth, but many in today's pulpits are restricted in their preaching to what the people will accept.  They only minister by the consent of the people - called the concent principle.  How this works itself out is that they only preach what their people want to hear.  If they do otherwise, you know they will be removed from their pulpit.  They preach what the people want to hear and are prepared to tolerate. 

Calvin preached what was intolerable to many in his day, and even to come in his church.  But he declared "the whole counsel of God" and thereby delivered his conscience before God.  Pray to God to raise up men like Calvin who will do likewise.

Republican Terrorism Rides Again in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has seen visited upon it once again the horror of republican terrorism in the murder of Cookstown (Co. Tyrone) prison officer, David Black (52).  The father of two children, husband, brother and son, was gunned down on the M1 motorway as he made his way to work at Magheraberry prison.

Two republican terrorist gunmen drew up alongside him as he drove to work, and shot him several times, causing his car to veer off the road and crash into a ditch being partly submerged.

His son drove past the scene 15 minutes later, not knowing that it was his father who had been murdered.  The family has been utterly devastated by this current republican terrorist murder.

"Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint," says Proverbs.  Where sinful people are not coming under the preaching of the true Gospel, they have no boundaries that keep them under restraint.  These people obviously have "cast off restraint."  If they go to church at all, they are not hearing the law and Gospel being preached in proper proportion.  God reveals Himself through the Gospel, and where this is not preached, He does not reveal Himself in this particular way to sinners. 

The fact that there is moral meltdown in our country testifies to the fact that the biblical Gospel is not being preached in our churches.  There just is no restraint being exercised - see the desire for same-sex marriages, abortion on demand and abortion by suggestion by GPs, the legalisation of sodomy (homosexuality), etc.  There is rampant clerical child sex abuse being perpetrated by priests of the Roman Catholic 'church,' and corruption taking other forms within many Protestant churches.  The people have "cast off restraint."

Pious platitudes are inappropriate, despite their being generally true.  What is needed instead is solid and passionate Gospel preaching that possesses an element of aggression, and anointed by the Holy Spirit.  May God grant that this will be a reality anmongst us at this time.

The prayers of the Christian people are being offered for the Black family at this traumatic time.

Augustine

Augustine was right: "God has some the church hasn't, and the church has some that God hasn't."

Do you belong to Christ, yet are not a church member?  Or do you belong to a church yet not
to Christ?  You can be the one or the other, but its better to be both.

Keep close to God - D M LLoyd-Jones

Another translation [of Psalm 73:28] could be this, 'But as for myself, nearness to God is good for me' ... His chief ambition is going to be just that, to keep near to God ... We are all either far from God or near to Him ... so that it is vitally important that we should arrive at this man's resolve, to be near to God.

... what was uppermost in his mind was something like this. Reviewing his sad experience he came to the conclusion that what had really been wrong with him ... was just the fact that he did not keep near to God. He had thought it was the fact that the ungodly seemed to prosper while he experienced nothing but troubles.
But now, having been given the enlightenment which he had in the sanctuary of God, he sees quite clearly that this was not the root cause of his trouble at all. There is only one thing that matters and that is man's relationship to God. If I am near to God, says this man, it does not really matter what happens to me; but if I am far from God, nothing can eventually be right ...

This is the beginning and the end of wisdom in the Christian life. The moment we move away from God everything goes wrong. The one secret is to keep near to God. When we fail, we are like a ship at sea that loses sight of the North star, or whose compass fails. If we lose our bearings, we must not be surprised at the consequences. That is what this man discovered. 'This is what I need,' he says; 'not blessings, not the prosperity other people have ... Therefore, this is my resolution. For myself, I am going to live near God. That is always going to be the big thing in my life. I am going to start with that every day as it comes. I am going to say to myself, Whatever else happens that this is the essential thing, to be near to God.'

How Will You Vote (Part 1) - Kay Arthur

How Will You Vote, Part 1 Kay Arthur Precepts for Life “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.” (Proverbs 29:2) I’m sure that you have heard the statement that everything rises and falls on leadership. On November 6th America is going to the polls to elect the next President of the United States of America. Are there any parameters that might help us as a nation choose a man who will take us into the future, for a future, rather than destruction? Let’s study together and see what God’s Word tells us about the qualities of our leaders. Proverbs 28:2 says, “By the transgression of a land many are its princes, but by a man of understanding and knowledge, so it endures.” What is God saying? If we want a land that endures, if we want a nation that continues, a nation that does not experience the wrath of God, leadership is key. We need a man of knowledge and understanding. America is in trouble, because the things that we once called evil we are now calling good and Beloved, evil and good do not change. God is a God of principles, and He has laid out for us in His Word the principles and precepts for life. In Psalms 119 we read, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.” (Psalm 119:104, KJV) An evil way is a false way, and that evil has a beginning; it has a source, and that source is the enemy of our souls. In John 8:44, Jesus turns to religious leaders of the people, leaders that are spiritually blind, and He says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and…he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) Satan is defined and described as a deceiver, destroyer, and as an angel of light. In other words, he appears to be good; he appears to be light, when really his kingdom is that of evil darkness. And so you and I have to have our eyes open. We have to know what the Word of God says, and we have to realize that when we go to the polls in November and we mark who we want as a president, that leader can affect the future of the United States of America. Now there’s another aspect in the level of the free will of man. But there is a parallel truth that goes with that, and that parallel truth is the sovereignty of God. And they run like a railroad track, two tracks that get the train there, but that are parallel and that really never meet, because if they meet then the train would go in the wrong way. So the tracks may change, but there are still two parallel tracks. One track is the sovereignty of God, which means God rules over all. And God tells us in the book of Samuel, and He tells us in the book of Daniel, that it is He who sets up kings; it is He who takes kings off their thrones. Many times He allows wicked people to rule over a nation because God is judging that nation. In Ezekiel 14, God says if a nation or country sins against Him, He will judge that country. "How Will You Vote, Part 1" article continued.

495th Anniversary Of The Great Protestant Reformation

31st October each year marks an event that was to usher in fundamental changes in Europe's political, social, economic and religious history.  When a young monk wanted a public discussion about the abuse of indulgences in and by the church, he nailed a notice with the issues to be discussed in the door of Wittenberg Cathedral.  Hence started a series of events that would have world-wide repercussions, and that brought liberty from darkness and superstition to many beleaguered people right across Europe.

Dr Martin Luther was the young monk who initiated, under God, the Protestant Reformation in Europe.  He was concerned initially about the abuse of indulgences which the poor bought under the pretext that in so doing their loved one's soul would get a quicker release from purgatory.

Dr Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Beyond doubt, Luther dominated the Reformation.  At age 17 he entered Erfurt University, Germany's most important seat of learning. It was here that the centre of conflict between the Renaissance humanists and those known as scholastics was located.  These scholastics were expert at combining medieval philosophy and theology.  In the Faculty of Philosophy, Luther studied law and theology in addition to philosophy.  At this time he also read widely in the classical authors, especially Cicero and Virgil, gaining his Master's degree four years after entering the university in 1505.

It was then that Luther rejected the world and all it had to offer.  He experienced  the first great event in his life after being struck by a lightning bolt, which was for him a kind of conversion experience, though clearly not of the truly evangelical kind. Crying out to St. Anne, he promised to become a monk.  He felt that God was in everything and found it impossible to reconcile his faith with his worldly ambitions. He was plagued with an overwhelming sense of guilt, fear and terror. The one thing he wanted - and most people who experience this kind of turmoil - was to be rid of his guilt; so he joined the Augustinian Order of monks where he would be protected from the distractions of the world and find the true pathway to heaven. Poor old Luther fasted and prayed and inflicted pain on himself using scourges; but to no avail.  The peace of God eluded him and his doubts remained unabated. 

Luther was a keen biblical scholar and one day while at his books he opened his Bible at random and the page that was before him had the words of Rom.1:17, "For the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith in that it is written, for the just shall live by faith."  Others assert that it was while he was teaching his students from Paul's letter to the Romans that the light of the truth dawned upon him, and he was savingly converted to Christ. 

The import of this verse gripped him like a vice and refused to let him go.  But more later.  In 1512, he returned to Wittenberg and all he wanted to do was to preach the Gospel and teach the Scriptures in the University. He ignored the scholasticism of his day and focused on the humanities.  He wasn't particularly unhappy to be a monk in his church, but with the passage of time, ecclesiastical politics were working and senior churchmen were hatching plans to make themselves important and wealthy by telling to poor that if they wanted the early release from purgatory of their deceased loved-ones, they had better buy indulgences from the Pope.  These were documents that the Pope sold to the faithful and that will shorten the time for loved-ones to spend in purgatory.  One senior cleric, Albert of Hohenzollern, got very wealthy through the religious scam and the construction  of the basilica of St. Peter's in Rome was done by the other half.

This religious scam and abuse of the poor could not go on unchallenged, so on 31st October 1517,  on the even of All Saints Day, and according to Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) ( a friend of Luther's and a professor of Greek at the university) Luther nailed a copy of his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg.

The die was cast and the storm was coming.  Luther wanted to dispute these 95 statements which focused on the prevalence of indulgences. The date chosen by Luther was significant because all of Wittenberg was crowded with peasants and pilgrims who had come to honour the consecration of the church there.  The interest was such that the theses had to be translated from the Latin into German so that the people could read them.  Once printed, the document spread throughout Germany like wildfire.  The printing press was a God-send for Luther at that time and the message was spread far and wide. 

Rome's agent in Wittenberg was Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, whose job it was to raise money for the building of St Peter's.  By attacking indulgences, Luther was in reality attacking the entire theology and structure of the Church of that day.  He was claiming that salvation was received by faith in Christ alone, thus abolishing the need for the church, priests, sacraments, confession to a priest, penance, the lot.  This made the otherwise indispensable church dispensable so far as salvation was concerned.  What a challenged Luther presented to Rome!  Salvation was received by faith, not by good works of any kind.

Thank God for a man like Dr Martin Luther.