PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE REFORMATION AND ITS IMPACT

Some while back, the speakers and facilitators were invited to respond to a questionnaire that aimed to distil from them how their own personal encounter with the Reformation had impacted their life and ministry. Here we share the responses of two of our workshop facilitators at the forthcoming Reformation 500 Conference 2017: (1) Lim Sian Pheng (The Dawn of the Reformation) and (2) Augustin Muthusami (Luther and the Reformation). We trust that what they have to share will be an encouragement to you to seriously take a plunge into understanding the Reformation more fully.

LIM SIAN PHENG

1. When did you first become aware of the Reformation?

I was baptized on Reformation Sunday. The church celebrated Reformation Sunday as it was a Lutheran Church.

2. What was it about the Reformation which caught your attention then?

I have always like history and the Reformation is such momentous historical event. It alters the entire religious and political landscape of Western Europe.

3. Since then, have you read about the Reformation? If so, what books have been most helpful?

Carl Trueman’s Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is particular helpful in answering the question why do we need to bother with something that happened in the 16^th century. I like how he define the Reformation as a move to place God as he has revealed himself in Christ at the centre of the church’s life and thought.

4. How has the Reformation impacted your life and your ministry?

Its God-centred and Christ-centred theology has helped me in my own theologizing. The rediscovery of the gospel by the Reformers has made me more appreciative of God’s amazing grace.

5. One of the joys for the organiser of this conference has been that you, as a speaker or facilitator, so readily agreed to participate in it. Was there a reason for that enthusiasm?

I have always believed that if we don’t know our roots and are not anchored on them, we will drift along aimlessly and dangerously. I think the topics covered in the conference can hopefully excite the people to want to know more about the richness of their heritage and how it can help them to live as Christians.

6. What would you wish participants to take away from the conference?

Please see part of the answer to Question 5.

AUGUSTIN MUTHUSAMI

1. When did you first become aware of the Reformation?

Very young, probably during Catechism class – maybe I was 13 or 14

2. What was it about the Reformation which caught your attention then?

Back then not much. Basically all I knew was that a man called Luther kicked up a fuss over how we are saved (in a nutshell!)

3. Since then, have you read about the Reformation? If so, what books have been most helpful?

As a Lutheran Pastor and as someone who regular teaches on church history (among other topics) to lay people, I have read very widely on the Reformation and the most important aspects of it. It’s hard to say which particular books have been helpful, but I like Luther’s writings, particularly on the reform of the mass, which to me, is the most practical aspect of the Reformation.

4. How has the Reformation impacted your life and your ministry?

In terms of theological thought that has guided me: Grace – both for me and for those around me. To move away from legalistic thinking and embracing grace as a philosophy of life.

5. One of the joys for the organiser of this conference has been that you, as a speaker or facilitator, so readily agreed to participate in it. Was there a reason for that enthusiasm?

I suppose, just to share my thoughts or my take on the whole subject.

6. What would you wish participants to take away from the conference?

How this is actually relevant in a practical way in day to day living.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER, 1545

All of us know from personal experience the benefit of “hindsight”, i.e. looking back over our own past and coming round to a better (we hope) understanding of situations which we could not understand then as they unfolded before us. “Hindsight” provides us with a bigger picture of these situations and how they fit into this bigger picture.

Thus far in our blog posts on Martin Luther and his 95 Theses, we have looked at his response either immediately (1517) or, at most, a year after (1518) they were made public. In the preface to the 1545 edition of his works, 28 years after he first posted his 95 Theses, Luther reflected upon that incident on “hindsight”. His remarks about his own conviction even then regarding the papacy is most illuminating. It would seem that he revered the Pope so much that he would be ready to murder at the latter’s command. But there is a qualification! He was unlike the others who defended the Pope in hypocrisy. Luther defended the Pope in fidelity to the Pope. Or so he thought when he espoused his 95 Theses! He never expected that the Pope, together with Roman See would actually reject him and his teaching. Did he sincerely think that what he espoused then would be readily received by the Pope? Is this an admission that while he sincerely believed that what he espoused was Scriptural, he was somehow mistaken to suppose that the Pope would have agreed with him?

Whatever it is, there can be no doubt that he soon came to the realisation, from the reaction of the Papacy, that what he espoused was actually contrary to what the Pope promoted. Having committed himself to the truthfulness of what he espoused because it was Scriptural, it dawned on him that if the Pope opposed Scripture, then, the Pope must be the vicar of Anti-Christ. There can be no two ways about this. This strong imagery which Luther ascribed to the Pope of his day may seem hard and harsh to our modern ears. But Luther saw the Papacy for what it was. If it is opposed to the Bible then it cannot but be the Anti-Christ.

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER

From the Preface to the Complete Works (1545). Text according to the Berlin Edition of Buchwald and others, Vol. 1.

EDITION OF 1545

ABOVE all things I beseech the Christian reader and beg him for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to read my earliest books very circumspectly and with much pity, knowing that before now I too was a monk, and one of the right frantic and raving papists. When I took up this matter against Indulgences, I was so full and drunken, yea, so besotted in papal doctrine that, out of my great zeal, I would have been ready to do murder — at least, I would have been glad to see and help that murder should be done all who would not be obedient and subject to the pope, even to his smallest word.

Such a Saul was I at that time; and I meant it right earnestly; and there are still many such today. In a word, I was not such a frozen and ice-cold champion of the papacy as Eck and others of his kind have been and still are. They defend the Roman See more for the sake of the shameful belly, which is their god, than because they are really attached to its cause. Indeed I am wholly of the opinion that like latter-day Epicureans, they only laugh at the pope. But I verily espoused this cause in deepest earnest and in all fidelity; the more so because I shrank from the Last Day with great anxiety and fear and terror, and yet from the depths of my heart desired to be saved.

Therefore, Christian reader, thou wilt find in my earliest books and writings how many points of faith I then, with all humility, yielded and conceded to the pope, which since then I have held and condemned for the most horrible blasphemy and abomination, and which I would have to be so held and so condemned forever. Amen.

Thou wilt therefore ascribe this my error, or as my opponents venomously call it, this inconsistency of mine, to the time, and to my ignorance and inexperience. At the beginning I was quite alone and without any helpers, and moreover, to tell the truth, unskilled in all these things, and far too unlearned to discuss such high and weighty matters. For it was without any intention, purpose, or will of mine that I fell, quite unexpectedly, into this wrangling and contention. This I take God, the Searcher of hearts, to witness.

I tell these things to the end that, if thou shalt read my books, thou mayest know and remember that I am one of those who, as St. Augustine says of himself, have grown by writing and by teaching others, and not one of those who, starting with nothing, have in a trice become the most exalted and most learned doctors. We find, alas! many of these self-grown doctors; who in truth are nothing, do nothing and accomplish nothing, are moreover untried and inexperienced, and yet, after a single look at the Scriptures, think themselves able wholly to exhaust its spirit.

Farewell, dear reader, in the Lord. Pray that the Word may be further spread abroad, and may be strong against the miserable devil. For he is mighty and wicked, and just now is raving everywhere and raging cruelly, like one who well knows and feels that his time is short, and that the kingdom of his Vicar, the Antichrist in Rome, is sore beset. But may the God of all grace and mercy strengthen and complete in us the work He has begun, to His honor and to the comfort, of His little flock. Amen.