Debate Tonight: Dr. James White vs. Trent Horn of Catholic Answers

Debate:  "Can Christians Loose Their Salvation?"
Dr. James R. White vs. Trent Horn of Catholic Answers

In celebration of the 500th Year of the Reformation this year:

Debate site:
http://sovereignevent.com/debate17/

Live streaming of the debate tonight:

http://www.g3conference.com/

It is a Pre-Conference Debate before the G3 Conference starts.

Video of General issues of the Reformation and G3 Conference:

1527: The Ten Year Anniversary of the Reformation

The following is an article that I had almost completely forgotten about. It was originally published in The Outlook October, 2003, and I retrieved it from the archived page from Ntrmin.org.


On October 31, churches throughout the world celebrate the nailing of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenberg Chapel door. The event represents the outpouring of Christianity unshackled and blossoming. Like Hilkiah finding the Book of the Law, the thirty-four year old Luther began to re-proclaim the doctrinal “solas” to the world: scripture alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, and the recognition that all of life is lived to the glory of God alone. For over five hundred years, these biblical truths reclaimed by the Reformation have transformed individual lives and entire societies. Truly, churches do well to celebrate the victory of the Reformation.

But like all victories, we tend to overlook the struggles involved. We may even romanticize the Reformation. We see the triumphs, and think that God blesses particular individuals like Luther with great growth and success, while the rest of us struggle through our Christian lives with failures and hardship. Just ten years after the posting of the Ninety Five Theses, we find the forty-four year old Luther one of the most famous men in Europe. In 1527, he preached sixty sermons, lectured to students, wrote one hundred letters and fifteen tracts, and spent time working on his translation of the Old Testament. He did all this while having the responsibilities of a husband, father, minister, teacher, and political adviser. One can find this productivity throughout all of his life. We think God must have blessed Luther by making his life easier so he could concentrate on God’s work.

But a closer look at Luther in 1527 shows some surprising details. Scholars mark this as the year Luther’s health increasingly began to deteriorate. It is recorded that he had several fainting spells, even fainting during a sermon. Luther, a man who loved to preach, had to stop preaching for a while. He also complained of intense pain in his chest, accompanied by painful buzzing in the ears. It had become so severe that it was thought he was about to die. News of this spread quickly, and fear gripped the people of Wittenberg. An entire deathbed scene of “Luther’s last words” was recorded in which Luther, surrounded in bed by his closest companions, voiced a deep concern for his pregnant wife and infant son: “Lord God, I thank Thee for having allowed me to be a poor beggar on earth. I leave no house, property, or money. But you gave me a wife and children, I commend them unto Thee. Feed, instruct, and preserve them as Thou hast preserved me, O Thou Father of children and widows.”

Luther recovered, but his physical condition continued only to become worse from this point. This physical weakness brought on serious bouts of depression. This melancholy would accompany Luther throughout his life. As he struggled with failing health, he would at times wish for death to release him from the pain brought on by intense headaches, dizziness, arthritis, digestion problems, infections, and uric acid stones, to name only some of his maladies. In his pain, he questioned whether or not God had abandoned him. He wrote to Melanchthon, “I spent more than a week in death and hell. My entire body was in pain, and I still tremble. Completely abandoned by Christ, I labored under the vacillations and storms of desperation and blasphemy against God. But through the prayers of the saints [Luther’s friends] God began to have mercy on me and pulled my soul from the inferno below.”

Some may be surprised to read these words by Luther. How could a man who stood alone against the Catholic Church and Roman Empire show such a lack of faith? My belief is that Luther was like all of us. We at times stand strong, and at other times we cry out to God to increase our faith. Where Luther lacked faith in 1527, he also displayed it remarkably in other instances. The plague ravaged Wittenberg that same year. Many of Luther’s friends died, and his students and colleagues fled for their lives. Luther’s son even became ill for a time. Luther though felt “public servants, preachers, mayors, judges, doctors, policemen, and neighbors of the sick who have no one to take care of them are on duty and must remain.” He did not begrudge those who fled, “for to flee dying and death and to save one’s own life is a natural instinct implanted by God and is not forbidden.” But for Luther, fleeing the plague was not an option. He turned his house into a makeshift hospital, where he and his pregnant wife took care of the dying. The house was quarantined, remaining so even after the plague subsided.

This was the year 1527 for Luther, the ten-year anniversary of the Reformation. How many of us in Luther’s place would question whether or not God was chastising us for sin? How many of us would question whether or not we were missing God’s will for our lives? How many of us would wonder why we were not successful in our Christian ministry? Luther though, expressed profound understanding for all these trials: “The only comfort against raging Satan is that we have God’s Word to save the souls of believers.” In all these trials, Luther clung to that Word, and its promise that it would see believers through the difficulties of life, and that it alone showed us Christ and our salvation, the only really important thing. Luther best expressed this at the end of the troubled year 1527, by penning, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Luther expresses that in our trials, God will be victorious, and so will we:

And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim? We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo! His doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.
Addendum 11/8/18
While documentation for this article was not required, I heavily utilized Christian History Magazine, Martin Luther, The Later Years and Legacy (Issue 39), particularly the article The "Weak" Man Behind "A Mighty Fortress" written by Mark Galli, I also utilized Heiko Oberman's Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, and Roland Bainton's Here I Stand.

Today is Reformation Day...

...But, every day is Reformation Day here on this blog.

And as I've posted in years past:

Party Hearty Marty and The Protestors went to the top of the CCM charts with these hits:

The Great Reformer

You Don't Own Me!

 Click on the links to hear these Reformed mega-hits, or Right click to download as MP3's to share with your family and friends! Listen, and enjoy!

2017 Reformation Rumblings

I know it should not come as a surprise that people are already thinking about the 500th anniversary of Luther's posting of the 95 Theses (the traditional date of the birth of the Protestant Reformation). Contrary to what many of you may think, I don't really think about it. I don't have a calender in which I'm putting "x's" over the passing dates with a gleeful anticipation.  I am surprised though at the few people I've come across that are already thinking about it. Perhaps it's because I read more Roman Catholic blogs and websites than Protestant Internet offerings. A few years back, I pointed out that Mitch Pacwa was working on a Reformation video series to be released in 2017. From a quick search, it doesn't appear there's been a lot of action from Ignatius Productions, but, they do still have a few years to go. Back when he first announced it, Pacwa was perpetuating the myth that Luther "apparently had killed somebody in a duel." I'd be curious to know how Pacwa's research  is going, and if it's gotten better.

Recently, I came across a Roman convert, Thomas Howard, offering his thoughts on the upcoming anniversary: Protestant Reformation Approaching 500. He mentions he and Mark Noll (author of Is The Reformation Over?) received a grant to host a conference on the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation in November 2013. That to me comes across as somewhat of an irony: A Roman convert (someone who in essence should see the Reformation as a tragedy) and an evangelical (who thinks the Reformation is over) were given money to hold a conference to discuss "how best to commemorate the Reformation 500 years after the fact" "in anticipation of the upcoming milestone." Certainly no analogy is perfect, but it's kind of like giving money to two people who don't like you to plan your 50th birthday party. The first person belongs to family that should view your life as a tragic necessity, and the other thinks your life is over.

Mr. Howard states:

"...as the Reformation quincentennial approaches, Catholics ought to try to think about why so many, then and now, felt the necessity of the Reformation. Conversely, Protestants ought to consider why Catholics, then and now, have perceived it as tragic. That might not answer all questions, mend all divisions. But it might not be a bad place to start."

These are loaded questions, and I'd like to suggest that Roman Catholics not think about these questions, but rather ask Rome to answer the questions for you. Why should anyone be interested in hearing a Roman Catholic give their personal interpretation of history? Wouldn't one rather have an official spokesperson from Rome explain why the Roman church anathematized the Gospel and separated herself from the Catholic church? Ask them as well why Rome never condemned Luther by name at Trent, and why no official judgment on Luther exists by which a loyal Catholic is bound. Tell them your tired of the confusion of opinions- how some Roman historians think Luther was the voice of Satan, while some Roman Catholic historians think he was a decent guy.

Addendum
This little aside didn't fit with my sarcastic jabs above. I'd like to suggest that a good study in preparation of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation would be to explore earlier anniversaries of the Reformation, Particularly the 400th Anniversary. What  was going on in Germany in 1917? Or 1817? Will the PCUSA do this again? Should this be reprinted? Mr. Howard, if you come across this blog entry, feel free to make this one of the points of discussion in your November 2013 conference. In fact, feel free to invite me to present the lecture.

Another fascinating study, and perhaps Thomas Howard would benefit from this one, is a study in Roman Catholic treatments of Luther between 1883-1917. There was quite a resurgence in the vilification of Luther from the pens of Rome's defenders, some of whom had a noted zeal to besmirch the memory of Luther forever as a way to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Reformation. I'll gladly give this lecture as well as the November 2013 conference.