reformation Archives - Redeeming God

October 31 is not just Halloween. It is also “Reformation Day,” which commemorates the day on which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church door in Wittenburg and sparked off the Reformation in 1517.

I have often thought that I would have liked to live back then. They were amazing times. There was not only great upheaval and changes within the church and theology, but these changes also took place along with the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, and eventually, the Enlightenment.

These were times of great advances in science, medicine, engineering, art, music, and theology. Imagine living during the time of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, and Calvin!

Well, guess what?

You are!

You and I are currently living in the middle of a new Renaissance! A new Enlightenment! A new Reformation!

The New Reformation is Here

Imagine how exciting it would have been to live in the days when the “New World” had been discovered and Spain, Portugal, France, and England were racing each other to place colonies on this new land to the West.

Well, in case you missed it, there is a race right now to put human colonies on the moon and on Mars. China, Russia, and Europe are racing to put a colony on the moon, while MarsOne, NASA, and SpaceX are racing each other to put human colonies on Mars by 2030. That’s fifteen years away.

Then there are the advances in Quantum Physics. The discoveries of Quantum Physics are unraveling much of what we think we know about time, matter, energy, and space. For example, it appears that reality does not exist unless you are actually looking at it. Furthermore, it appears that quantum particles can communicate with themselves in their past, so that events in the present can ripple back in time. Recent studies from just last week have proved quantum entanglement, that two entangled electrons can communicate with each other instantaneously, no matter how far apart from each other they are. Believe it or not, these sorts of discoveries will eventually trickle down into theology, requiring us to rethink much about creation, prayer, the afterlife, the flow of time, and numerous related subjects.

But that’s not all…

The advances toward Artificial Intelligence and discovering life on other planets threaten to undo and change everything we think we know about ourselves and about how we came to exist. For example, if life is found on another planet (and scientists are certain they will find it), what will this mean for our understanding of Genesis 1:16 that God “made the stars also”? If we are able to develop Artificial Intelligence that rapidly becomes smarter than humans, what will this do to our understanding of Genesis 1:26-27 about humans being made in the image of God?

The changes in theology are not all just potential future changes, however.

The Christian theological world is already full of upheaval. There is an earthquake going on right now in theology surrounding the issues of justification, the violence of God, the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, and what it means to be the church–the people of God in this world.

We are living in exciting times. Times that future people will look back upon and say, “Wow! Can you imagine living in the early 21st century? There was so much going on! So many changes! Because of what happened then, the world has never been the same!”

A few things to expect in the next few decades

If history is any guide (and it usually is) the current Renaissance, Revolution, Reformation, Enlightenment will be accompanied by several factors.

Below, I have listed some factors that will contribute to the New Reformation along with some changes that we will see as a result.

1. Disaster

First, on the negative side, it is quite likely that there will be some sort of rampant disease, catastrophe, or war which will serve as the final catalyst for the future changes.

This will be some sort of humanitarian crisis or a tipping point among world governments. It might be a financial collapse. It might be a medical disaster (the Black Plague helped kindle the Renaissance). It might be a war. It might be a drought and famine. It might be all of these combined.

I don’t say any of this to scare you. There is not much that can be done about it. I am just saying that usually, these sorts of disasters and catastrophes help spur the human race on toward a new level of understanding and unity, which make further advances easier.

2. Voices from Below

Second, however, as I look around at what the World Wide Web is ushering in, I think that this new Reformation will not come from the leaders and those in power, but will come from below. The internet has given everyone a voice. The gatekeepers no longer have the power to silence the masses.

Now with blogs, podcasts, YouTube, etc., anybody can make their voice heard. So the new Reformation will be led, not by a few key voices at the top of the hierarchy, but by a large number of voices near the bottom. This Reformation will be launched from the “uneducated.” From the “unschooled.” From the blogs and podcasts of the non-professionals.

So if you are starting a blog or a podcast right now, you are well situated to be one of these voices. (If you need help on these, let me know!)

3. Leadership from Women

Third, I believe that this new Reformation will contain a piece of the theological puzzle which has LONG been missing from the church. What piece is that? It is the voices of women. I firmly believe that one of the major problems with historical/traditional Christian theology is that it has primarily been written by men. As a result, theology has often shifted away from the one thing it is supposed to do, which is to engender love and relationships among people.

Voices of women will play a larger role than ever before, which will allow the church to adopt a stance toward people that has always been missing in traditionally male hierarchy.

The voices of women will bring theology and the church back to the way they were always meant to be. So if you are a woman, and want to contribute, please, start a blog, start a podcast, start a YouTube channel, write a book.

4. Direction from the Poor and the Minorities

Fourth, I believe that the new Reformation will include a new focus on minorities and the poor. I believe that new thinking and revolutionary ideas will not come from the rich and the powerful, but from those who have traditionally been ignored and silenced. Voices of the poor and the minorities will have a larger role in the changes that will occur in culture and the church.

5. Church will become less centralized

Fifth, just as the first Reformation resulted in church becoming less focused on a hierarchy of priests to lead and teach it, I believe this trend will continue in the second Reformation.

The Reformers, as wonderful as they were, still retained the Magisterial, hierarchical, building-centered approach to doing church which began after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.

Millions of people are now seeing how empty that structure is, and are leaving the Sunday-morning, leadership-led, entertainment-focused style of church to enter into a daily, Spirit-led, relationship-focused style of church. As I reported last week, this trend will soon become the majority trend within the church.

The church will become less and less centralized, which makes it more universal than ever.

6. Church will become a servant to the world

Sixth, as a result of church becoming less centralized, those who focus on being the church in this way will stop thinking that the job of the church is to attract the world, and will begin recognizing that the job of the church is to serve the world.

Church will become less power-centered, and thus, more powerful. This will not be the power of money and position, but will be the power that was present in Jesus – the power of truth, and light, and love.

The church will become less group focused, and more individual focused. This does not mean the church will become individualistic, but that the church will realize that our mission and our task is not to “groups” of people “over there” but to “individual people” who are next to us right now. The newfound power of the church will be the power of individuals loving individuals, rather than groups focusing on groups.

7. Scriptural Understanding Will Change

Seventh, due to all the preceding factors, there will be a radical shift in how people read, understand, teach, and apply Scripture.

Words like “inerrancy” and “authority” and “inspiration” will drop out of use, and we will instead begin to hear more about “redemption” and “reconciliation.” That first set of words are “book-focused” which is what theology and the church have been focused on since the cry of sola Scriptura of the first Reformation.

But now, with the focus on relationships, and love, and following Jesus into the world, the church and theology will become more relationship-focused, which is why terms like redemption and reconciliation will become more prominent.

No longer will doctrinal statements be focused on “truths to believe” as a litmus test for orthodoxy. Instead, churches will adopt “Practical statements” which will be focused on truths to practice. We will stop arguing about whether a person believes in inerrancy or not, and start debating about whether anybody is beyond redemption or not.

Ultimately, of course, all these changes in Scriptural understanding will have Jesus as their goal and focus. It is His life and teaching which will serve as the model and framework for how the church progresses into the dawn of the new Reformation and the new age that will follow.

So are you excited to be alive?

You are currently living in a new period of Enlightenment, a new scientific Revolution, and new Renaissance, a new Reformation. Does this excite you?

What do you think about the things I have written above? Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have anything to add?

What are you doing to contribute to or participate in this new Reformation? Share your ideas and suggestions below!

I believe in the Five Solas of the Reformation

By Jeremy Myers

22 Comments

Last week I announced that I needed to take a break from my series on the violence of God, and that I was considering doing a series on Calvinism instead. I ran a survey to see if people were interested in this, and 98% of you said “Yes!” So here is the first post… (Some of these posts on Calvinism ended up in my book, The Re-Justification of God which can be found on Amazon.

I believe in the Five Solas

The rallying cry of the Reformation centers around five solas (or in proper Latin, the five solae): Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, and Soli Deo Gloria.

Though not actually stated in quite this fashion until the 20th century, these five statements summarize what the Reformation was about. The Reformation was about authority, tradition, and justification, and the leaders of the Reformation believed and taught that everything we have from God, is Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, and Soli Deo Gloria.

In English we might say that what we have from God is “by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the authority of Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.”

I affirm all five statements. I consider myself to be a child of the Reformation.

I am Neither Calvinist nor Arminian

Yet I do not identify with either of the two main groups that came out of the Reformation; I am neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian. (I am not Lutheran either, for those Lutherans who see themselves as a group apart.)

Certainly, there are many things I appreciate about John Calvin, Jacobus Arminius, Martin Luther, and the other Reformers, but I have too many differences with the main theological arguments of each man to be comfortable identifying myself with the theological systems that bear their names.

Ironically, my main area of disagreement with Calvinism and Arminianism is that they do not take the five solas far enough.

That is, the Reformers and their followers stopped short of fully reforming their theology around the five solas. Having begun with the revolutionary truths of the five solas, they failed to follow through on the full theological ramifications of these five statements. As a result, the Reformation sputtered to a halt and—in my opinion—ultimately failed.

How can I say this?

The Failure of the Reformation

If you were to compare the typical writings of the average Calvinist, Arminian, Lutheran, and Catholic theologians, you would discover that when it comes to the issues of faith, grace, the accomplished work of Jesus Christ, the authority of tradition over Scripture, and the goal of glorifying God in all of life, there is very little distinguishable difference (See the journal article I wrote on this several years ago).

It is not just me saying this. There have been talks in recent decades between prominent leaders of these various groups to all reunite into one group. The primary sticking points, it seems, have nothing to do with the five solas, but center instead on issues like Mariology, the veneration of the Saints, and papal authority.

I believe that if the Reformers and their followers had resolutely held to the five solas, the spiritual landscape of the world today would be much different. The Reformation would have continued to do its work, so that grace, faith, love, and freedom would flow out of the church today in ways that have not been seen since the church began nearly 2000 years ago.

Of course, one cannot blame Luther, Calvin, Arminius, or any of the other Reformers for not fully following through on the ramifications of their own theological insights. Theological development is a multi-generational endeavor.

We can, however, challenge both the contemporary and historical followers of the Reformers to advance upon the teachings of their forebears. No Reformer, I believe, ever thought that his beliefs were perfect and that nobody could ever improve upon his teachings or take his ideas further.

The Reformers would agree, I think, with what some people say about the Reformation: “Always reforming; never reformed.” The reformation of church and theology is never over.

Just as the Reformers sought to reform the church of their day, so also, they would want those who came after them to continue the reforms “till we all come to the unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4:13).

Let the Reforming Continue!

That is the purpose of this series on Calvinism. I hope that the information contained within these posts will build upon the reformations that began during the Reformation and will lead to further reformation in the future. Specifically, I want to provide Calvinists and non-Calvinists with a perspective on certain passages of Scripture which will hopefully allow people to see that there are viable alternatives to Calvinism and it’s theological opposite, Arminianism.

There is a balanced middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism.

Though there are numerous avenues that one might take in seeking to provide a non-Calvinistic perspective on Scripture, the route I have chosen is to emphasize the biblical teaching on “faith alone” and contrast it with what is often taught in Calvinism. I want to show how Calvinism, though it claims to defend sola fide, actually undermines it with every point of its theological system.

Related to this, the book will also contain a heavy emphasis on radical, outrageous, shocking, scandalous grace. Of course, I cannot write about faith or grace without mentioning Jesus Christ. All of this discussion will revolve around what the Scripture says, rather than on human or religious tradition, and ultimately, the entire discussion is for the glory of God as I seek to help others see the radiating grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ as He died on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

Hopefully, as these posts progress, you can proclaim the five solas aloud with me: Sola Gratia! Sola Fide! Solus Christus! Sola Scriptura! Soli Deo Gloria!

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

Bible and Theology Questions 1

By Jeremy Myers

7 Comments

I get a lot of Bible and theology questions sent in to me from the “Ask a Bible and Theology Question” section in the sidebar. Though I am not always able to respond by email to all that I get, I do try to respond to most.

I decided that as part of my response to these Bible and Theology questions, I would post my answers on this blog. I will probably do this once a week or so, and put some (but not all) of the answers I provided so that you can weigh in on them as well.

Question: If all life – human, animal, plant, angel – is in Christ, why didn’t all life come to an end when Christ died on the cross?

First, I am not sure it is correct to say that everything was in Christ. Being “in” Christ is a special New Testament concept for people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life. It refers to being spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

I do think that Jesus died, buried, and rose again to redeem all things, but that is slightly different than being “in” Christ.

Furthermore, even for those of us who were “in” Christ, it is a spiritual identification, so that when He died, was buried, and rose again, we also died, were buried, and rose again with Him — spiritually. Romans 6 talks some about this.

It’s kind of like being “in” a country as a citizen. If we are citizens of that country, we are identified with it. But if that country ceases to exist, we continue to live, but our identity changes. Did you ever see the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks? His county disbanded, but he continued to live.

That’s a really bad analogy, but it helps get at the point. Also, I am not trying to say that Jesus ceased to exist when He died…

My answer is getting off track pretty quick…

The bottom line is this: Being “in”Christ is a special theological concept in the New Testament which takes some study to comprehend. It means that we are identified with Christ in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, and as such, receive certain spiritual blessings and benefits as a result.

Oh, and one more thing. You asked why all life didn’t come to an end when Jesus died. Interestingly, it could be argued that it was through the death of Jesus that all life truly began.

Question: I turned my back on God and fear I cannot be fully-restored. How can I find out if it is possible or not? I was a Spirit filled born-again believer and I turned my back on God and entered into some very terrible sins. I keep living this lifestyle and fear my salvation is at risk. Even though I read scriptures on confessing, etc.. I do not feel any better.

Please help me.

There is a lot about your situation I do not know, but let me try to answer what I can from the little you have told me.

First, if you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are already fully restored. As a child in God’s family, you are loved, forgiven, accepted, and reconciled to God. You have been regenerated, indwelled, baptized, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

However, your sins may have caused some broken fellowship between you and God. Think of your relationship with God like any other human relationship. If you are born into a family, you are a child of your parents and brother to your siblings no matter what. These bonds cannot be erased or undone. However, even though you are part of the family, you may not have contact with your parents or with your siblings for years on end. This means that you are out of fellowship with them. You are still in the family, but fellowship is broken. To restore that fellowship, you would have to maybe confess some sin to them, humble yourself and return to them, or simply get on the phone and call them up.

It is the same with God. If you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are in the family. Nothing can break that bond. However, sin can break fellowship with God and with other believers. This is why confession and repentance are important.

So some of the issues you are facing may simply be some misunderstanding about the nature of your relationship with God. Once you understand that He loves and forgives you completely, and that you are in His family forever, this liberates you to love Him in return and not be worried about sin making God angry at you (He was never angry at you in the first place).

Remember that when Jesus died for your sins, all of them were future to Him, and He died anyway. Not one of your sins surprised Him or made Him wish He had not died for you. He loves you infinitely, forgives you completely, and wants to be restored into fellowship with you.

As for not feeling better, this is one of the negative consequences of sin. Sin does not take us out of God’s grace or forgiveness, but it does damage us emotionally, psychologically, physically, mentally, and even spiritually. But you will not be able to break the habit of sin on your own. You need to first realize how much God loves you–even in the midst of your sin. Until you understand the love of God, no victory over sin and temptation will be possible.

So focus on God’s infinite love for you. Over time, you will begin to see that sin no longer has the temptation that it once did.

I have written about some of this in my book, Why You Have Not Committed the Unforgivable Sin. Feel free to get it from Amazon.com.

Question: When the so-called Reformation happened all it did was reform the same old religion and not the church. There is no such thing as popes, priests, and pastors. If you think about it they’re all the same thing.

I agree with you. The Reformation did little to change much about the “Christian religion.” I think it did help to remove some of the abuses of religion, but it introduced a whole host of others.

I am glad, however, that Martin Luther helped remind the church that eternal life is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Anyway, regarding pastors and priests, I have written several posts on the topic of pastors, and will be putting out a book about this in the next year or two… To get it for free, make sure you have subscribed to the email newsletter.

The New Reformation has Begun (Are you part of it?)

The New Reformation is Here

A few things to expect in the next few decades

1. Disaster

2. Voices from Below

3. Leadership from Women

4. Direction from the Poor and the Minorities

5. Church will become less centralized

6. Church will become a servant to the world

7. Scriptural Understanding Will Change

So are you excited to be alive?

I believe in the Five Solas of the Reformation

I believe in the Five Solas

I am Neither Calvinist nor Arminian

The Failure of the Reformation

Let the Reforming Continue!

Bible and Theology Questions 1

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