Commemorating the Reformation

In my church every year all throughout the month of October we commemorate the protestant Reformation which began after Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door of the church at Wittenburg.

"October 31, one week from today, will mark the 491st anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church at Wittenburg. In so doing he struck a match, beginning a fire that quickly spread throughout Europe and throughout the world. Having become increasingly disillusioned with the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, and in particular the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote his Theses to try to begin the process of reform. While he was unable to bring reform to the church, he did trigger the Protestant Reformation by rediscovering the Gospel—the good news of salvation by grace through faith. The Reformation had profound influence in politics, art, literature and theology—while it was at its heart a Christian movement, it impacted all areas of society. That seemingly insignificant act is, in reality, one of the defining points of history."1

For the past 4 weeks different pastors from both my church and the IBSJ (Biblical Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, Iglesia Biblica del Señor Jesucristo) have preached on the Five Solas of the reformation: Solo Christo (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Colossians 1:13-18), Sola Gratia (Ephesians 1:3-8), Sola Fide (Galatians 3:6-11), Sola Scritura (Psalm 119:18; Psalm 138:2; 2 Timothy 3:14-17), Soli Deo Gloria (1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11; Revelation 1:6; 2 Peter 3:1; Ephesians 3:21; Revelation 7:12; Romans 11:36). The celebration culminates this week with various activities that will be going on: this Wednesday there will be a play depicting what occurred over 400 years ago, on Friday the youth group for professionals will continue a debate on the reformation they began the first Friday of this month, Saturday the youth group for University students will have a sort of debate on the reformation and finally on Sunday our senior Pastor Miguel Nuñez will end the Five Solas series with the last sola: Soli Deo Gloria.
It has been quite an eventful month and a delight to be reminded of what our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith went through and how far they went to contend for the faith, Christ truly was their all in all and they like Paul took a stand and counted everything as a loss for Christ. To them truly death was gain and life Christ, my hope and prayer is that we may live a life worthy of the gospel as they did in our day to day, in the little things (like obedience to mom and dad) as well as in the big ones whatever those may be.

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."