"Standing Firm"

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"Standing Firm"

Tuesday, 02 November 2010 08:38

October 31, 2010

“STANDING FIRM”

1 Corinthians 16:13

Pastor Ole Lillestolen

Do you ever wonder what things would have been like if certain significant events/movements in history had ended otherwise? What if, for example, World War 2 had ended with the Axis the victors? Would the Gestapo terrorize us the way the KGB did in the Soviet Union? Or, what if Charles Martel had not turned the Muslim army back from invading Western Europe in 732 a.d.?

It is interesting that the Crusades seem to be the focal point in the conflicts between Muslims and Christians, with Christians ending up with a bad rap for being so cruel against the Muslims. Yet the Islamic Jihad espoused by Mohammad had turned into the military conquest by Islam of all of the Christian lands of North Africa, the Christian lands of the Middle East, and the Christian lands up into Southeastern Europe, Southern Italy, all of Spain, and most of India. These lands were all brutally conquered by the Muslims, who were well on their way to conquering all of Christian Europe and forcibly placing it under Muslim rule.

If Charles Martel, a French ruler with 30,000 men, had not, in the middle of France, turned back the invading Muslim army of 80,000 men in 732 a.d., the world would look very different today. The Crusades, by the way, were Christian efforts to reclaim what looks to be less than 5% of the lands the Muslims took away from them.

There is, however, one other significant event which shaped our world and that is the Protestant Reformation. Without this reformation the church world would obviously look very different; there wouldn’t be any Protestant church! But, the Roman church would also very likely be wielding much more political power than it does today. European politics was built on the foundation of the church granting power and authority to kings, based on the principle, “The Divine right of kings.” So the church was seen to be above the state. But, in any number of ways, our world could have developed into a very different place than it is today.

Yet, the most significant issue in all of these historical movements we have mentioned is the issue of the freedom to believe what our conscience leads us to believe. This freedom is under assault again today, and I wonder what history will have to say about the significance of today.

There was, for example, a gay support day in a public school a son of one of our district pastors attends. He chose not to wear a ribbon showing support for the gay lifestyle and he was ridiculed, hauled into the principle’s office, and his parents were called in to deal with his ‘misbehavior’. He did not bash gays. He merely chose to not agree that the gay lifestyle was moral, and was attacked for his religious conviction. Freedom of religion in America?

Last week there was also a ‘to do’ over a statement a candidate for governor of Oklahoma made. Responding to a question about her qualifications for governor, she stated that she was a mother. People all over the country were up in arms and it was obvious that the TV interviewer agreed that this was totally improper! Why is that a problem? Her opponent said that the election should not be about who or what they the candidates were, but about the people whom they were going to serve. Of course, this candidate did say she was qualified for office because she had been working in government for so and so many years! Is this about keeping family values out of politics?

Back in the 1500's Martin Luther was developing a growing concern about the way the church and government were abusing people by teaching that you had to pay your way into heaven. The Vatican had huge building projects and was raising its funds through the sale of indulgences, so the church went to great lengths to scare people out of their wits with images of torment after death. Videos of their day, which were actually live performances in town squares, were all about what the suffering of purgatory was like. Indulgence booths would then open so people could pay and pay to escape that suffering, or to enable loved ones to get out of it sooner.

Luther was a product of his day. He was scared of hell too. He was so scared that when lightning struck close to him while traveling on a country road he changed his career course from becoming a lawyer to becoming a monk. But, even that was not enough to enable him to escape the fear of hell, so he studied and studied the Bible and tried to do all kinds of good things to ensure his acceptance by God. His superior sent him to university to study theology and Luther studied more and more, hungry for hope.

Very few of us can identify with what Luther was experiencing. How many of us have any sense of fear of judgment and hell? It’s a topic we avoid like the plague today. But, of course, the Bible does not avoid this topic. Jesus, in Luke 12:5, told us to “fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell!” In Mark 9:47 Jesus warned us that following our temptations can be hazardous to our eternal health, saying: “If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

Again in Revelation 20 Jesus describes the Lake of Fire as a place which is being prepared for the devil, and Jesus describes it as a “lake of fire and brimstone” where those cast in there “will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Verses eleven through fifteen describe the great judgment at the end of this age where in the end, “if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Of course, if we have accepted Christ as our savior and are walking in fellowship with Him in our daily lives we do not need to fear hell as our eternal destination. The Apostle Paul talked about Christians of his day, in Philippians 4:3, “whose names are in the book of life,” and Jesus talked with His disciples saying in Luke 10:20, “rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” In John 3:16 Jesus’ promise is rock solid, “Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life!” But, Luther had not discovered these promises, until after one day in his studies he came across Romans 1:17 and saw for the first time what it actually was saying.

The verse states: “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘but the righteous man shall live by faith.’” And all of a sudden Luther understood that we are not made righteous in God’s eyes by works or money; the Apostle Paul tells us plainly in Romans 3:20 that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight.” And, then in Ephesians 2:8,9 Paul tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”

Can you imagine, say, if you were struggling under the weight of owing an impossible million dollars for medical care after a sickness, and someone came along and paid your debt? Luther felt that kind of relief that day. Jesus paid the debt! Luther didn’t have to! Salvation was a free gift!

But, then he realized that other people were being misled and he began to work to discover more of the truth and to help people to see this truth of the free gift of salvation for themselves. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther, now a professor of theology, posted for his students 95 debate topics, called theses, and many of these theses dealt with questions he had begun to grapple with has he studied and saw differences between church doctrine and the Bible. This kicked off the Protestant Reformation because the Roman church excommunicated Luther and even put out what amounted to a contract on Luther’s life. Luther was protected by the rulers of German provinces and much of Northern Europe left the Roman church.

Luther’s studies of Scripture led to the development of “Lutheran” theology. Other reformers agreed with the major things Luther taught but introduced differences which led to the many different denominations of Protestantism we see today. But, the treasure of the Protestant Reformation is the Bible as a book of promises of grace from God. Christianity was no longer a source of heavy burden, but a source of sweet relief! Do we cherish that today?

The ancient, pagan Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld of spirits became thin on October 31st, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. To ward off harmful spirits on that night it appears that the ancient Celts wore costumes and masks which disguised them as harmful spirits in order to keep ‘real’ harmful spirits from harming them. Interesting, isn’t it, that this pagan tradition is what is celebrated on Reformation Sunday, and also that Bunnies and Santa Clauses become the foci of Easter and Christmas!

There’s an old saying, “Use it or lose it!” The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 16:13 told us, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” When Martin Luther was under attack for believing and teaching the gospel of salvation by grace, he responded that unless he could be convinced by Scripture that he was wrong, he could not change his views or stop his crusade to teach the truth, saying: “God help me, here I stand!”

Should we sit by and watch the world change for the worse, or should we be making the world change for the good by standing firm on God’s promises? What is your posture today? Are you a sitter or a stander, and are you standing with Christ? Recognize that where Satan is attacking American Christians today is not on physical battle fields with armies, but in personal convictions about obedience to the Word of God. The question we need to grapple with most is, "Is the world changing us?" Let us stand in the Word of God as it guides us in our choices of life and we will change the world around us!