On this day in 1517, the monk Martin Luther nailed a notice on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, challenging all comers to a debate on 95 theses, or points of debate, regarding specific questions regarding practices of the Roman Catholic Church.  (His was not the only notice so nailed; this was the standard method of setting up debates.  He wasn’t defacing the church!)  This moment is generally considered to be the start of the historical movement known as the Protestant Reformation, one of the most influential movements in shaping the history of Western civilization.

Christianity became the State religion of the Roman Empire under Theodosius I in 380 A.D.  Catholic simply means “universal”, and apart from isolated, small pockets and individuals who resisted her rule and dictates, the Roman Catholic Church ruled supreme from that point until the Reformation.  At the time when he nailed those theses to the door, Luther had no idea of the role his challenge would play.  He was not seeking to divide the Catholic church, simply to purify it of what he recognized to be unscriptural practices, but as his understanding of Scripture grew, and as the Roman church entrenched itself in its positions, it became inevitable that there would be a split. When it came, it was shattering, for Luther was not the only reformer.  Once the grip of the Roman church was broken, numerous other denominations formed to follow their respective leaders.  The roots of every Western church – which is to say, virtually every mainline denomination and “non-denominational” Christian church that is not Roman Catholic – lie in the Reformation.

I grew up in the Southern Baptist church, which does not celebrate Reformation Day.  (I was taught that the Baptists can trace their lineage all the way back to the Gospels entirely apart from the Roman Catholic church, and thus are not “Protestant”, but in study since, have not found historic support for that assertion.)  I married a Missouri Synod Lutheran (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, or LCMS).  In that church, of course, Reformation Sunday (the Sunday preceding October 31^st) is one of the High Festival Days of the year.  As I learned the history of the Martin Luther’s struggle and the birth of the Reformation, and having rejected the celebration of Halloween as detailed in my last post, I, too, began celebrating Reformation Day and the break from Roman Catholicism.

In the last couple of years, however, I have been doing some rethinking of the ramifications of the Reformation.  Setting aside the political power issues, and even much of the doctrinal ones, what I am struck by is a sense of sadness at the fracturing of the witness of the Church.  Now, I don’t agree with the Roman church’s teachings, and I don’t believe that all Christians should pretend to agree on all points just for the sake of presenting a “united front”.  Yet, I cannot escape the fact that I do grieve the loss of the sense of unity in the Church.

The early Church didn’t have the New Testament.  They had Jesus, His word, His deeds, His death and His resurrection.  Christ and Him crucified.  That’s it.  The multitudes that formed the early Church didn’t have to pass a catechism class, memorize a creed, agree with a thick book of doctrine, sign a 10 page Statement of Faith.  They didn’t have to give an explanation to the last jot and tittle the precise meaning of the Trinity, baptism, or communion.  They didn’t have to sign on to a specific timeline of the Last Days, the Tribulation, the Rapture, etc.   They believed, were baptized, and were “added to the number of those being saved.”  Pretty simple.

Of course, it didn’t take long for divisions to start coming in, people being what we are.  Remember First Corinthians?  “I follow Paul.”  “So what?  I follow Apollos.”  “Oh, yeah?  I follow Peter, so there.”  “Well, I follow CHRIST, neiner neiner neiner.”  OK, I’m paraphrasing with dramatic emphasis.  But I can just hear it that way because that’s what’s going on in the Church today!

Too many denominations place as much or more emphasis on maintaining their unique brand of Christianity than they do on preaching Christ and Him crucified.  (And “non -denoms” can be just as prideful of being NOT a “denomination”!)  They insist, of course, that He is what they are preaching – but they will assert that it is only THEIR brand that truly preaches Him “right”, only THEIR interpretation that is correct, pure, and God-pleasing.  I fear that for many in our churches, their beliefs about God have taken the place OF God.  Jesus said that the world would know us by our love for one another, but what the world sees in far too much of the Christian church is not love for each other, but division, strife, arrogance, elitism, isolation, and a sense of superiority to other Christians.  Paul said there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, barbarian, Scythian – but in America, there certainly is Baptist vs. Lutheran vs. Episcopalian vs. Presbyterian vs. non-denom, “Spirit-filled” vs. “unfilled”, liturgical vs. non-liturgical, and on and on we could list!  Some denominations openly question the spiritual parentage of anyone claiming to be Christian who doesn’t belong to their group.  Other denominations acknowledge that all Christians are God’s children, but, well, really, ALL Christians would belong to OUR church if they REALLY understood Scripture properly.  (It’s a good thing we no longer burn those who disagree with us.  There would be an awful lot of fires!)

I spent most of my first 40 years of life being absolutely sure of a great many things.  In the last 12, I have been gaining greater wisdom.  On more and more things, I have come to a position of saying, “I really don’t know.”  Not only do I not know – on many issues, I no longer care!  Or maybe better said, I no longer feel a need to set myself up as arbiter of The Correct Interpretation.  Why argue about what God has not made crystal clear, using that as a line by which to divide us from our brothers and sisters in the Lord, when we could be united about all He HAS made clear?  How much more good could the Church be doing in the world if we stopped fighting among ourselves, living in our own isolated little worlds, guarding our own little denominational borders, and concentrated instead on living out the Kingdom and doing what Jesus did?

I have a feeling that when we get to heaven, every one of us is going to find out we were wrong on some things.  Some of us may be wrong on a lot of things!  But we are not saved because we have cornered the correct interpretation of every Scripture.  We are not saved because we believe all the right doctrines – teachings about God.  We are not saved because we can recite a creed, confession, or catechism. We are saved by faith in the person of Jesus Christ, nothing else, and nothing less.

Maybe it’s time for another Reformation.