Monday Morning Music Ministry

8-23-21

Mournful… weeping… tearful. There are translations of the Latin word that encompasses grief and bitter sorrow. It does not represent regret nor repentance, for those are emotions we might have brought upon ourselves, or can hope to solve as we are able.

When a person or an event is lachrymose it implies a helplessness, a situation reflecting doom in spite of ourselves; what secular poets have addressed as the world or universe being against us. And we are lachrymose in response; sad, full of sorrows, impotent.

You can tell that I have been casting about, trying to define my reaction to the “situation” in Afghanistan. Heartbreak, horror, anger are feelings we all share. But I might offer some new thoughts – at least aspects that the talking heads on TV have largely neglected.

Before you read on, or even afterward, I don’t expect you to agree with my points of view (although I can hope so, or 12 years of these essays have wasted a lot of electrons…). We all bring personal attitudes to complicated issues and events; and despite whatever foundational beliefs we might have, our opinions often change.

For instance, I bleed red, white, and blue, yet I was against the first Gulf War and every expansion of it; the United States has been wrong to transform itself from a Republic to a democracy to an empire; and American foreign-policy motives have not always been pure or noble. I was afraid that our adventurism in the Middle East would end up as Vietnam did – blurred mission; ultimate lack of support for our military on the ground; defeat.

Let me know how the latest chapter is turning out.

I stipulate that I am in awe of our people in uniform, their service and sacrifice. In awe. More so since the brass and civilian masters have transformed them into pawns and targets… which should make us all more cynical, and angry.

Bad enough, the lost blood and treasure. But the nature of America’s rout – unfolding hourly, and sure to continue as “breaking news” for months and months – is astonishing. And depressing. Lies, bizarre orders, abandoning partners on the ground, lack of basic communication with key allies… a nightmare from which none of us dissenters can take an ounce of satisfaction.

My particular focus these days, however, extends beyond servicemen and women, the widows and families, the disabled and disfigured veterans, the betrayed and abandoned allied governments and individual Afghans who chose to help us. (By the way, who can confidently assure any potential allies, or governments like Taiwan, to trust the United States now? Only fools would make that assurance; and only fools would believe it.)

My thoughts are with missionaries.

We hear virtually nothing of them on the news. In Afghanistan there are many Christian aid workers and missionaries, many of whom have been there for many years. If people with American passports, and Afghans who chose to be translators and aides, are being assaulted, dismembered, and killed – and they are – it is all the more likely that Christian missionaries are targeted by the Taliban. As we observe these blood-red horrors on our TV screens… come our lachrymose feelings.

So. How can I be against “nation building,” as currently defined, but support proselytizing and converting Afghans to Christianity? That is today’s easiest question.

If you had a cure for cancer, you would share it, earnestly, with anyone you could, especially those who might have the disease. If you believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven, you will orient your life, and your work, by that belief. Especially if you love someone; and even if your love extends to great numbers of the “lost.”

Inevitably, some people push back with the remark that “we” should not impose such values on others. A frequent response – from people who care more about rhetorical points than the souls of people. See my point about a cancer cure – and realize that sin, and separation from Jesus, is a cancer of the soul.

Further, it is my experience that people who condemn “imposing Christian values” on others often are the people who decreed that the “gay” flag fly from the US embassy in Kabul. And who demanded rights for women, and American-style “democracy,” and American town-hall “pluralism” on an ancient and traditional culture. As noble as policymakers in the US think those goals are… why should they be imposed, but missionaries condemned?

Jesus commanded that we go into all the world and share the Gospel. That is one-on-one discipleship. He did not command His followers to invade countries, topple governments, and turn traditional societies into American suburbia.

I have five friends who know or support missionaries in Afghanistan, as I do; all different families or missions, by the way. Many have texted or videoed the jeopardy they face. Most are determined to remain. One was able to return to the US, but wants to go back. These missionary-servants are marked for torture and death… and America has exacerbated and accelerated such fates.

I will not name my friends or contacts, nor the missionary organizations on the ground. I do not trust the all-seeing eyes of Facebook, or the government – the Taliban or the American. Our political establishment and the current Administration have earned that opprobrium. Things we share can lead to peoples’ persecution or death.

Very obvious groups who are open and effective can be trusted resources for news and assistance, however: Voice of the Martyrs and Open Doors and Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse.

And in the meantime – as China surely prepares to invade Taiwan, confident that America has lost its moral compass and its will – I ask you to follow these events more, not less. Do not let lachrimosa paralyze you. What can we do? Distrust our government, is at the top of my list. Support groups who can assist; double down on your support.

And pray. Pray for the believers, pray for the martyrs, pray for wisdom. Pray for that land; pray for our land.

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Click: Lachrimosa  (Please double-click on this title for full-screen video)

10-26-20

“May you live in interesting times” supposedly is an ancient Chinese curse. Actually, it seems that it is neither ancient nor Chinese, but has been used to euphemistically describe uncertainty and instability; imminent danger.

For the simple dictionary definition of “interesting,” I say Bring it on, most of the time. We should like change, challenges, and opportunities. But this is all theoretical anyway. Days turns to nights, people marry and are given in marriage, and as per Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.

However, anyone with pulse knows that within those rubrics, there are pendulum-swings that bring more trouble or less confusion; more worry, various causes of anxiety.

In those regards, these time are more than interesting; these very times.

In the next couple of weeks, we will have a consequential presidential election, perhaps the most important in generations. Many people feel that violence and anarchy will reassert themselves if one candidate prevails. We face, collaterally, control of the Congress. A contentious nomination process for a new Justice just has concluded. We still smell the smoke, literally and metaphorically, from widespread rioting and looting. The world still is in the throes of a plague, with peoples’ health and peoples’ businesses suffering.

As the calendar turns, for someone like me, sharing thoughts and comments, these very days also present an opportunity to recognize Reformation Day. This I will do… not because I see it as a way to visit a calm spiritual subject; but because I think the Revolution wrought by Dr Martin Luther was one of the most “interesting days,” so to speak, in the sweep of Western Civilization.

I think the act of nailing 95 complaints to the church door in Wittenberg 500 years ago changed the course of Western Civilization, not only Christianity. I think the forces that nurtured his revolution – political liberty, literacy, individualism, economic freedom – affected the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, and democracy. I think that people today would more firmly reject anarchy, socialism, and relativism if they only would study Luther’s works and acts.

All this despite the fact that Luther himself did not intend to leave the Roman Catholic Church nor launch new denominations. He sought reform – hence Reformation. He even rejected the label of modernism; if anything, he considered himself the last of the Medievalists. He even believed that Reason was the Enemy of Faith (so do I).

The brilliant iconoclast was excommunicated because he intended to translate the Bible into the people’s language (instead of Latin, reserved for priests only). He went on trial because he disturbed public order when he asserted that priests who sold papers assuring people that relatives would be rescued from hell – and such heresies – were in fact blasphemies. He was threatened with death (as other reformers were being martyred at the time) for believing Ephesians Chapter 2, that we are saved to eternal life by grace through faith: not by works that we do.

So in one of the most important moments in human history, the prisoner Dr Luther was hauled before a council (a “Diet”) of regional princes and the power of the Holy Roman Empire, indeed the Vatican itself, all playing out in the small city of Worms, Germany. In the small, rude setting, the world virtually watched – history was watching.

Luther, a brilliant theologian and prolific writer, was required, under penalty of sure death, which he expected, to recant (deny, disown) all his works.

Of course life would have gone on, if he cowardly had surrendered. Other reformers like Jan Hus and John Wycliffe were put to death, and had much changed? Was Luther tempted to give in? Words, after all, are merely words. History is littered, with both heroes and martyrs. And time rolls on.

But here was the fulcrum of history. Words do mean something. We mean something – even we are also in out-of-way places, confronted by massive forces that despise us.

One person, with God, constitute a majority, as Frederick Douglass said… a mighty army. What do we do we stand for? Why are we here? What is the point of a troubled conscience, if we are not spurred to action? Luther did not know, and actually did not care, that his protest of conscience would change the world. He did not look into the future; his testimony was for his own self, his own challenges… his duties as a Christian. As a person of God, whose ideas and ideals mattered.

What might this have to do with us, these days, this year?

A lot. I believe we are at a turning point, not only in politics with an election; not merely in society as forces of anarchy and secularism attack us; not only a crisis of this month or this year but – as with the Reformation – consequences for generations to come.

That’s pretty heavy. But… it’s not the first time, friends. As Ecclesiastes said, “Time and chance happen to all.”

So, with some history as a guide be encouraged.

* Be brave about what you believe. Be armed with knowledge first, then be bold in truth.

* Don’t be intimidated by misinformed family members, kids, teachers, neighbors. Do not compromise with error.

* Discern the truth and avoid media that lie to you. Live without certain TV, movies, news media, papers and magazines. Seek those that speak truth; and redeem the culture.

* In these matters, and voting, consider whether the “lesser of two evils” is something you act upon if you engage or participate. Are you still enabling evil?

* Pray; have fellowship; pray; speak out; pray; let your conscience be not only your guide, but your best friend and constant companion.

* And pray.

And be inspired by words from Luther’s hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God:
Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever!

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3-9-20

A recent poll of American citizens revealed surprising percentages of correct answers about basic American civics, as high schools used to call courses in the essentials of government when they taught such things. The results might surprise you:

70 per cent did not know that the Constitution was the supreme law of the land;

44 per cent were unable to define the Bill of Rights;

8 per cent could enumerate the Bill of Rights;

36 per cent did not know how many Supreme Court justices there are;

41 per cent did not know the countries the US fought in World War II;

38 per cent knew how many Representatives and Senators sat in the houses of Congress;

34 per cent knew the lengths of terms of Congressmen and Senators;

… and so forth. I had a high school history teacher who once said, “Statistics don’t lie, but statisticians do.” That might have been the only things really remembered from the year in his class, but he was, mostly, a nitwit. Anyway, this survey might be “off”… but surely not by much. Civics courses on the schedule do not guarantee students being educated in civics.

In a democracy we are supposed to school ourselves, embrace our heritage, protect our freedoms, and advance our liberties. On our own. Even in a constitutional republic – which the United States is; not a democracy, although it leeches into our system – citizens should want to be informed about our “basics,” and not only for final exams, grumble grumble. By the way, citizenship tests for legal immigrants ask the questions above; and applicants, new citizens, know the answers. Hmmm, maybe we should be required to re-apply for citizenship every five or 10 years…

Ask yourself the following questions. And – no snap quiz here – how many basic questions about the Bible, basic questions about the bedrock of Christian doctrine, can you, or friends, answer?

The books of the Bible? The 10 Commandments, in order? The (basic) lineage of Jesus, through Mary and Joseph? The prophesies of the Redeemer? Typology of Salvation and the Savior? The Beatitudes? The nine spiritual gifts? The acts of the Apostles and early-church martyrs? The seven churches of Revelation?

… And what, exactly, we need to do in order to be saved?

When I was young – even now, and I am not young – I could recite the American Dental Association’s endorsement of Crest toothpaste. It is, pun intended, a mouthful, yet I know every word of it. Had I intended to memorize it? No, but as I watched uncountable commercials that once quoted it… it hid itself in my heart. Recently, over dinner, I found that I could repeat the My Pillow pitches of Mike Lindell. And the old guy needing a hearing aid and his son’s love. And those poor little kids in special-needs hospitals. I know all their scripts, and can imitate their voices.

What is wrong in a society where citizens, and “Christians,” do not know the tenets of their citizenship and their faith, yet know by heart things like commercials and pop music lyrics? That is a question we can answer – a lot is wrong.

Contemporary church services are too often entertainment concerts. Church youth programs are too often desperate alternatives for potentially wayward teens. Sunday Schools are too often play dates. Not all – of course – but these are tendencies of the contemporary church. People more in love with the music than with (as Joe Biden recently said), “you know, that Thing.”

God knows I am not a fan of intolerance and the old religious wars, yet I do know why disputes arose – the desire to understand Scripture – and knowledge informs our own views. Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism and Presbyterianism and Methodism and Pentecostalism emerged from cherished views of theologians and followers. Today (again: not all, but many) members of denominations do not know the differences between them, or if they have strayed from the Bible. And worshipers’ ignorance can be partly forgiven because their pulpits do not preach the great truths nor the practical distinctions any more. Political correctness, “acceptance” of sinful differences among us, a relativist view of god, whoever he or she really is.

A lot of our church-going neighbors (whose numbers shrink every year) wind up repeating the things they hear, too, by osmosis – learning those heresies by heart. Creeds? The Lord’s Prayer? Endangered species in a lot of churches.

These abominations are rife these days… but are not new. Throughout history, people have gone astray and become lovers of selves, and with “itching ears,” not merely willing but hungry for lies by which to live. In the past, when humankind sinned, God dealt severely. And when His own people turn their backs, He chastises them – with the justice they deserve.

Jesus Himself prophesied, Peoples’ foes shall be those of their own households (Matt 10:36). Don’t blame others; we must blame ourselves.

God chastises those whom He loves. He loves us. Like the old guy in the hearing-aid commercial, pray to God: “I heard you the first time. I just wanted to hear it again!”

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Click: Don’t Forget To Thank the Lord

9-3-18

Occasionally, maybe more than occasionally if your friendships run a certain way, you chat with religious skeptics or unbelievers. How do your conversations go?

The vast majority of humankind – those who believe in God, or who regard Him in any manner at all – spends a great portion of their “faith lives” explaining themselves to Him. Justifying themselves… asking for forgiveness… praying. Explaining themselves, their lives, to God.

But there are people – pastors, priests, teachers, writers, Christian friends – who take it upon themselves to justify God and God’s ways to humankind, or one-on-one to friends.

And a smaller number of people, quite a small group, unfortunately, explain the nature of God, the ways of God, to humankind and to friends when the opportunities arise. Explain, defend, educate – not “justify” (which depends on our points of view, not His, really). This group is known as “apologists.”

We are not apologizing for anything – how could we apologize, in the contemporary meaning of the word – for God Almighty? Make excuses for His ways? No…

The root of the word “apologetics” is the concept closer to “defending.” In the Bible, a letter by Peter to persecuted young Christians in Asia Minor (I Peter 3:15) says, If you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you: yet do it with gentleness and respect.

In this passage – advice that comes down to us through the ages – the defense (not excuse; not justification; not softened explanation) was originally apologia. We must defend God to those who do not know the Truth!

When people ask about “reasons” for God’s workings, or our mature faith, in the letter, that was the word logos, from which many of our familiar words come.

So by Christian apologetics, we defend God by reason and evidence.

Is this such a big deal? Defend? Explain? Persuade? Didn’t Paul say to be all things to all people? Shouldn’t we relate to people in ways they understand?

It is a big deal. You might adopt the pose of explaining away what you think are superficial inconsistencies in the Godhead; or His acts from one millennium to another; or whether He is vengeful or loving; or whether His plan of salvation seems fair. If so – if you mistakenly believe that God needs your help by contradicting His Holy Word – go ahead, but… by the way, you are enabling someone’s descent to hell. If not your own. You would be excusing God, distorting His essence, polluting His message, denying His sovereignty… all while your puny self is misunderstanding Him, and insulting Him.

Defending God instead of explaining or justifying Him immediately assures your listener (and reassures yourself!) that Truth is Truth. There is no need to devise explanations or justifications. It is. Just like God said, “I am.”

And the truth of the Truth does not depend on our opinion of it. Nor our explanation, which is bound to be faulty; nor our justification, which is limited by our human ability to reason. God merely needs defense – (word origins again!) not against arrows and darts; but requires no-nonsense, no-doubt, presentations by reason and evidence.

God does not require our clever justifications. Which makes the calling of the Apologist unique.

So we rely on God’s Word and the evidence in our hearts – we know that God is real; he lives within us! We know that we know that we know. I tell you, that confidence has persuaded more skeptics to accept Christ than any stack of scientific charts and graphs.

We can turn to historical evidence. Or the thousands of fulfilled prophecies. Or the surprising number, lately, of archaeological discoveries that confirm Bible accounts.

We rely, better, on the changed lives, the miracles we witness, the gifts believers exercise. And, yes, the blood of martyrs.

Who would die for a lie?

Millions would not; millions have not; millions do not. But people do die to defend the Truth.

Apologetics, when you read or hear, or if you choose that particular path of sharing the Gospel, is sometimes a rare and lonely profession. But it is the first step to disciple friends; a necessary component of evangelizing strangers. To defend Someone and Something that, ultimately, needs no defense? Yes.

We know that, but the world does not. So we engage in Christian apologetics. It’s what lonely and brave Paul did at Mars Hill. It’s what Jan Hus and Martin Luther did against the raging establishments… of church bureaucrats. It’s what millions of Christians in Communist and Muslim countries do, in our world today.

Can we at least do the same thing at family dinners… at school board meetings… in political discussions?

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Click: He Lives!

6-11-18

This has been a week of tremendous news, emotional and important for everyone on every side of (seemingly) every issue. International diplomatic breakthroughs; daring trade confrontations; history-setting economic news at home.

“Winners” (for instance, those happy with the Supreme Court’s decision) should refrain from hyperactive victory dances. These days, spiking the ball can bounce back in our faces! We should prayerfully be grateful, but respect the debate if well-intentioned.

Of course, these days, well-intentioned discourse seems rare. Jack Phillips, the decorator at the modest mom-and-pop Masterpiece Cakeshop of Lakewood, Colorado, is not a raging bigot who barred homosexuals from entering his shop, as his detractors claim. Very few people can even cite his denomination, if he has such membership, and ascribe anything more than his fidelity to the Bible. (Many people do not know the origin of “Masterpiece” as his shop’s name. It is Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”)

But Jack’s policy at Masterpiece was based on conscience, informed by faith. The modest, flour-splotched baker is actually in the pantheon of Heroes of Conscience alongside martyrs of the early Church and Reformation; Luther; persecuted Christians around the world today, both notable and anonymous.

He is consistent, and willing to sacrifice for his beliefs. If that means closing on Sundays, so be it. If that means declining to decorate cakes with off-color themes or requests for sexy or violent images (his artistic talent could tackle any challenge, if he chose), or Halloween or homosexual messages; if his “bottom line” is decreased, so be it.

Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby close on Sundays too. In fact if Jack’s standards reduced him to selling only a few cupcakes to class reunions, he would proceed. God has given Jack a talent… and a conscience. He does not need to be loved by everybody, but he would like to be respected by everybody. And he does not NEED to be attacked by anybody, yet within hours of politely declining to design a homosexual message on the icing on a cake, the attacks started – organized protests; thousands of robo-computer e-mails; automated phone messages; vandalism; etc. In the name, you understand, of “love.”

My friend Penny Carlevato, also of Lakewood and in whose home we recently shared thoughts and lasagna with Jack, made a clever observation, that America was built on religious liberty, and has succeeded in large measure because of it; but ironically those who hate religion and our cultural heritage now use that freedom to attack the traditional foundations.

Jack and his family endured emotional distress, a down-sizing of his business, and other privations during the years of these trials (approximately six years). The Colorado Civil Rights Commission would have forced him to express messages contrary to his values; to accept a set of rules written by some external moral arbiters; to force his workers to undergo training sessions in “sensitivity”; regularly to report compliance to a state agency.

Some of his friends were slightly downcast as the nature of the Court’s “narrow” decision became clear – that the conflict between conscience and public accommodation was not solved. News flash – at the current stage of democracy’s evolution, it never will be solved; get ready.

No, the “narrow” aspect is that the Commission, on the first rung of this long ladder, exposed the virulent anti-Christian bias of two commissioners. Religion led to slavery, Jack was lectured before he could open his mouth; and Christianity was responsible for the holocaust.

The gist of the Court’s “narrow” ruling is that the government in this instance was NOT impartial; exposed a very uneven playing field; displayed prejudice against people of faith.

THAT, friends, is actually a silver lining of the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision. Because of it, every local board of self-righteous commissioners, every tyrannical town council, every petty school board, every legislative committee, every gaggle of unelected bureaucrats high and low, have been put on notice that they cannot act arbitrarily and imperiously. They cannot display bias against religious traditions, against people of conscience, against Christians exercising their faith.

In the future, at least for awhile, these little Big Brothers will think twice before imposing their secular agendas – their revolutionary stink-bombs, their Rules for Radicals – on the rest of us.

The martyrs’ hall of fame, those who died and those who fought for individual conscience, and the essential importance of one’s faith, has a new figure, as noted above.

If the media try to ask – “Such a big deal over WEDDING CAKES?” and “Is this really a Constitutional crisis, led by a neighborhood baker?” Let us recall what James Abram Garfield said when he was elected president. He left his position as an elder in his local church in Ohio to move to Washington, and he said: “I resign the highest office in the land to become president of the United States.”
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Click: I Shall Not Be Moved

10-27-14

This is Reformation Week, commemorating the traditional date of October 31, when the Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed 95 theses – point-by-point criticisms of contemporary Roman Catholic practices – onto the wooden door of Wittenberg Cathedral in Germany. All throughout northern Europe, churches were the centers of each town’s social, as well as spiritual, life, and their doors were the precursors of our day’s “postings to your wall.”

Everyone in the town square saw Luther’s manifesto. It was not startling except, perhaps, for its formality and audacity. But Luther had been complaining about practices in the Church for some time: corruption in its operation, committing errors in doctrine. And so had many others complained. In other German cities and states. And in Switzerland. And the Netherlands. In northern Italy. Even a hundred years earlier, when a dissident Moravian priest, Jan Hus, was burned at the stake. I have stood in reverence before his statue in Prague’s Old Town Square. And even before Hus, one who protested the ethical and doctrinal corruption in Rome: John Wycliffe, of England. One of his “crimes” was translating the Bible into English (the “language of the people,” instead of Latin), as Luther later dared to do with his German translation.

For all the brewing opposition to the Vatican, the Reformation, if not Reformed theology, is popularly regarded as having begun with Luther, and specifically on that day in 1517 when he nailed those 95 indictments to the church door. That is because a dam burst, metaphorically, in the Catholic Church, in larger Christendom, in society, in politics, in the arts, on all cultural levels. Half the German princes opposed the Pope’s political and military prerogatives, as well as papal ecclesiastical authority. After Hus’s martyrdom, major social upheavals led to Bohemia soon becoming 90 per cent Hussite (today’s Moravian church) or other variety of Protestant.

So the 95 Theses were the spark that lit a bonfire, but there were burning embers and brushfires aplenty for two centuries previous. Also, the times were right for a revolution like the Reformation. Rome’s corruption was outrageous; extra-biblical doctrines were offending the pious; and, hand-in-hand with the ideas behind the Renaissance, men were learning to think for themselves. And act for themselves; and organize, and trade, and read, for themselves. Literacy: a few centuries earlier, Luther’s manifesto would have a been a paper with meaningless scribbles to passersby. On that Sunday, however, the theses were read, and devoured, and discussed. The Pope was furious when he was told that Luther’s tracts were best-sellers of the day in Germany.

It is frankly the case that the revolution that Luther sparked was not fully intended by him. He did not want to break away from the Catholic Church, least of all have a denomination named for him. He scolded his followers who stormed Catholic churches and knocked over statues (“idols,” to them). But… he was excommunicated. For a time he was hidden by protectors because the Church wanted him dead. He married a former nun, settled into a life of preaching and writing (many volumes!) and preaching “sola Scriptura” (Scripture Alone) as the basis for faith, and for salvation.

His era’s handmaidens, Renaissance thought, humanism, and neo-Classicism, were not particularly welcome movements to Martin Luther. If anything he was closer to Orthodoxy, at least in rejecting “modern” trends in theology. He went so far as to say that “Reason is the enemy of Faith.” Remember, he relied on “Scripture Alone.” Ironically, he was especially venerated during the Enlightenment because (despite some history books claiming the period to be one of liberation from the Bible) Newton and others saw scientific discoveries as explaining God, not marginalizing Him. So Luther, father of the Reformation, was not the first of the Moderns, but the last of the Medievalists.

In spite of Luther – or, rather, an inevitable component of the Protestant Reformation – social and political freedoms were unleashed. Literacy spread, and as people split from the church they increasingly asserted their civil rights too. In a very real sense, we can say for convenience’s sake if not dramatic effect, that Western civilization was one way before Oct 31, 1517; and another way afterward. With Martin Luther, formally, on that day, began the battle of the individual against authority, the primacy of conscience over arbitrary regulations.

Those battles continue, of course. But blessings flowered… and malignant seeds sprouted too. Democracy has led to social disruption and near-anarchic relations between classes and nations. With broken ecclesiastic authority, public morality has degenerated. And as denominations have multiplied, their influence has virtually evaporated in Western culture and in the United States.

It can be said – and has been said, frequently – that the Roman Catholic Church brought the Reformation onto itself. Perhaps (for instance) some of the mistresses and illegitimate children of Popes would have a say in that discussion. The widespread device of selling “indulgences” still stands as a major offense: common people were persuaded to pay money to guarantee that their dead ancestors would be delivered from torture in Purgatory (despite the fact the Bible does not say that we can have influence of the souls of the departed… or even that there is such a place as Purgatory). Yet an enterprising priest, Tetzel, invented a rhyme, “When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.” Much of this was a scheme to build and decorate St Peter’s in Rome. Clever venture capitalism, bold entrepreneurial management, perhaps; but rotten theology.

Very specifically, these vile offenses confronted Luther when he travelled on foot from Germany to the Holy See on a mission. He was aghast at the corruption, decadence, sin, money-grubbing, and countless heresies – not in the city of Rome, but in the Vatican itself. A biographer of Luther wrote, “the city, which he had greeted [from afar] as holy, was a sink of iniquity; its very priests were openly infidel and scoffed at the services they performed; the papal courtiers were men of the most shameless lives.”

Let me fast-forward 500 years, and let us ourselves enter the Holy See of Protestantism (as it were) and assess what Reform has brought to the Church of Jesus Christ, those portions of the Body.

Do we see denominations inventing and “discovering” their own doctrines? Do we see churches bending their theology in order to fill the pews? Do we see widespread moral failings in the clergy – everything from pedophilia to homosexual encounters? Do we see story after story in the news about financial shenanigans? How many churches wallow in obscene opulence, as the poor live in their shadows? How many charities are shams; how many mission outreaches, we learn with sad hearts, are looted? How often are “modern” sins excused by the heretical lies of relativism in the church? How have seminaries become breeding-grounds of Progressivism; why are entire denominations denying the divinity of Christ, the existence of Absolute Truth? What is this extra-biblical “Prosperity Gospel”? – when preachers procure “seed-faith” offerings, and offer “prayer hankies” to customers who are assured of God’s blessings – HOW is that different from selling indulgences?

Racing through that list, you will recognize problems that are endemic to this or that denomination; sometimes still the Catholic church; mainstream or evangelical Protestants; Pentecostal or post-modern; “Seeker” or emergent. I believe that the Christian churches of contemporary Europe and America might grieve the Heart of God no less than the corrupt Church of the Popes 500 years ago.

We need a New Reformation. We need “Scripture Alone” as our guide again. We need holy indignation from the remnant of faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

I intend to compose a New 95 Theses (knowing that a list of problems with today’s churches could be a larger number!). I will be writing more, as I compose this, but as I look for hammer and nails to post them, or publish them, I invite readers to nominate some of the practices in today’s churches that need reforming. We ARE Christ’s representatives here on earth; and a royal priesthood of believers. We have a responsibility. And let us be guided by Martin Luther, in one of the greatest moments of human history. Hauled before a court of the Holy Roman Empire, condemned by the Pope himself, threatened with excommunication and death, ordered to renounce his thoughts and denounce his books and sermons… nevertheless he was defiant in opposition: “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.”

A mighty fortress is our God.

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Two clips this week. The first is the dramatic confrontation, and Luther’s dramatic defense, at the Council in Worms, Germany, that presumed to judge him. From the classic black-and-white, award-winning biopic starring Niall MacGinnis. The second clip is a signature performance, a cappella, by Steve Green, singing “A Mighty Fortress” before thousands. “Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His Kingdom is forever!”

Click: “Here I stand”: Luther’s defense

Click: The Reformation’s battle hymn, composed by Luther; sung by Steve Green