Fear in the Covid World

 

Fear in the Covid World

There are very many things to be afraid of today. So, as a Christian what should our position be on day to day challenges like getting Covid, getting a Vaccination, enduring Climate Change, the New World Order, the decline of the influence of Christianity in society, the rise of Paganism, the rise of Secularism, the rise of Islam?

What does the bible say about fearfulness and what promises can we rely on in scripture to help us negotiate these fears? Romans 8: 35-39 says “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”KJV

So nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. Yet we can’t see God and we struggle to have faith in a God that no one else can see either. Even though, any believer worth their salt can vouch that they have seen the hand of God in their lives. That they have seen specific prayers answered and experienced the attacks of Satan at a physical and spiritual level. To their minds and to my mind the bible checks out one hundred percent. Their is no doubt of the Creator or His creation or that humanity is His handy work. We have no need to fear.

An example of the awesome power of the Living God and His Heavenly host is given in II Kings chapter six verses 15-18 “When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. NASB

Even when we think we’re sunk. God is there behind the scenes holding our hand, sending support, carrying us when He needs too. We may not be able to see God or His powerful host but be assured He and they are there, ready to helps us in ways that we cannot even imagine.

Sometimes we go fearfully astray. Even on those occasions God loves us, forgives and makes everything turn out alright in the end. King David of Israel coveted the wife of Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba. He sent Uriah to the front line of the battle and there he was killed. David then took Bathsheba to be his wife. God sent his prophet, Nathan to see David and confront him about this terrible situation. ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. II Samuel chapter 12 verses 8-10 recounts God’s judgment to Daniel “I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife..”NASB

It seems like David’s in real trouble this time and that he will never live this misdemeanour down. David repents. II Samuel chapter 12 verses 13-14 “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”NASB

God has forgiven David’s sin and he will not die but there will be consequences. David’s first child with Bathsheba died. II Samuel chapter 12 verses 15 – 23 “Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm!” But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.” So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’ But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” NASB

So why have I shared this story from the Old Testament with you as a testimony against fearfulness? Well King David was the Lord’s anointed King of Israel. David sinned grievously against God by arranging a murder and stealing another man’s wife. If you or I did that we would be in prison. But because David was God’s anointed, God forgave him but brought consequences of his actions upon him. David repented and sought God’s forgiveness and with prayer and fasting asked that God to spare the child. The child died and there were consequences further down the timeline of David’s reign as well. Great sadness and more loss.

We also are God’s anointed in Christ Jesus. The love, and incredible forgiveness, that God showed David he will show to us. Yes even murderer’s are forgiven in Christ Jesus. They still face the consequences of their actions in this world but God is merciful. If you read the story of King David’s life in the books of Samuel, Chronicles, Kings and the book of Psalms you will read of David’s great depression and fearfulness and how his deep relationship with God profoundly changed his life and carried him on to greatness. Yet like us he was only a broken man but like him we have no need to fear because those in Christ Jesus are the children of God.

A relationship with God through his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, is available to you also. You never need to be fearful when you belong to such a wonderful caring Father in heaven. God’s blessings are there for you at any time and even when you think God isn’t there then the armies of God can be all around you as they were for Elisha and Gehazy.

You need not fear at all. Mark chapter 16 verse 18 says “They will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” NASB So those afraid of vaccinations or in need of healing might take note of that wonderful promise of God.

In the book of Hebrews the author discusses faith in God and describes how some of the nation of Israel’s founders believed on God and it was counted to them as faith. Faith is the means of Salvation for those who believe that Christ Jesus bore their sins upon the Cross at Calvary. If you have faith you need no longer be afraid because you belong to God. Hebrews chapter 11verses 1-9 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. NASB

You need only believe in God and that Christ Jesus bore your sin upon the Cross and your belief will be counted as faith by God. Your faith will be counted as righteousness and by the Law of Faith you will have Salvation. You need not fear. Only believe and God will support you in your every day life.

Joshua was a leader of the nation of Israel who led the people to conquer the land of Canaan. He took the reigns of power after Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt had died. He was fearful of the task before him but God encouraged him with these words. Joshua chapter 1 verses 1- 9 “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” ESV We as Christians do not follow the law on tablets of stone. God’s law is in fact written on our hearts and revealed in our hearts as the person of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, by the Holy Spirit of God. Thus we have a permanent helper to comfort and guide us in following the will of God. We need not fear at anytime.

Finally, I would share two last scriptures. Romans chapter 8 verse 28 which says this “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” ESV So all things work together for good who are walking in line with God’s will and who love God. Having a strong prayerful relationship with God through Christ Jesus and knowing the presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit of God is the most important defense against fear that anyone can have. Also, remember Isaiah chapter 26 verse 3 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” ESV Constantly stay in communion with God. Speak to Him in prayer at any time and seek to do His will and that which is right with God in Christ Jesus.

Covid World -What is the Role of a Christian

 

Christians around the World would be wondering what is our role in the current Covid driven World? Do we trust the authorities that the epidemic is simply a natural occurrence and the vaccine or should call it a gene therapy is safe to use?



Well a question that might bring some clarity is “What would Jesus do?” You know Christ could have come as the King of Kings. He could have come to Jerusalem and chased the Romans out. Set Israel free as the people of the time wanted him to do. Established His eternal kingdom right there and then.

Instead He came as a man. Became a rabbi; gathered a team of twelve disciples; Preached a gospel of repentance; Claimed to be the Son of God; Entered Jerusalem on a donkey colt; Was crucified as a sacrifice for all men; Raised from the dead on the third day; Became the propitiation for the sins of all men and specifically those who believe on Him.

Christ Jesus didn’t stray from the task before him. He could have taken up arms; Called the angels; Destroyed the Pharisees; Judged the wicked; Ruled the Earth. Don’t think he wasn’t tempted. Instead he stayed the path and became our Saviour.

We as Christians are called to share the gospel with the lost; baptise them with the water and the Spirit; lead them into a relationship with Christ Jesus; Teach them from the Holy Scriptures; Build Christ’s bride.

Jesus said in Revelation 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. KJV

Revelation 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. KJV

Revelation 2: 17 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it... KJV

Revelation 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations...” KJV

Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. KJV

Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.KJV

Our commission as Christians is to carry the gospel to the nations but our mission is to overcome all of the challenges and trials the this world and its Prince throw at us. If we overcome then all of the rewards that the Savior has promised the Seven Churches in Revelation chapter two and three will be ours.

There is one other challenge that Jesus mentioned in His message to the Angel of the Church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:10

Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. KJV

So we as Christians can endure prison, trial and tribulation but if we faithful unto death we will receive a crown of life. So it’s pointless to cry and wail about Covid and Vaccinations and the government because that isn’t in our remit as Christians.

We are soldiers at war with the Prince of this World and as such we can expect persecution and tribulations. Our job is to lead the lost to Christ Jesus by sharing the gospel and allowing God to reach the lost. We are vessels and instruments of Yahweh Elohim. The Creator and the Living God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A second question that might be useful to discuss is “Why do we obey the government?” The simple answer from a Christian perspective is because the Bible tells us that we should listen to the government and be obedient to our rulers.

The apostle Paul says in Romans 13:1-7 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ...” ESV

The apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13-15 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ESV

So when the government says to lock down and stay at home because there is a Covid epidemic or there is a vaccine that you need to take. The least disruption and objection should come from the Christians. God has instituted government and placed it in authority for the betterment of all men.

Bearing in mind scriptures like l John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. So we are in Gods love and we need not fear. ESV

Further, John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ESV

And a final wise word from the book of Proverbs chapter 3 verses 1- 4 My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ... ESV

So trust in the Lord. If we abide in his love we have no need to fear. We need not worry about the World or the consequences of obeying the rulers that God has set over us. Rather trust in God and be obedient to his will and sensitive to the bidding of the Holy Spirit. Remember that we will have tribulation in this world but we need not fear for Christ Jesus has said “Take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Remember the importance of love as a Christian. l Corinthians 4:7-13 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ESV

l John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ESV

Remember to love your enemies Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. ESV

Otherwise, our job in the Covid World as Christians is to be salt and light to the people in our time. To work hard to get the gospel to the lost and grow and strengthen the Bride of Christ. To serve at the pleasure of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Global Colonisation: Don’t Let Them Do It To Us Again...

I don’t know if you’ve been watching the media over the past couple of years but if you have you will have noticed the rhetoric around colonisation and may even have heard mention made of Critical Race Theory or CRT.

Particularly in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States but also seeping into race relations in New Zealand Aotearoa. As a pakeha New Zealander I find the CRT dialogue quite unhelpful and at times downright threatening. What really bothers me about it is that it is part of a revolutionary socialist agenda.

What CRT says is that a white person is born a racist. It is inherently in a white person and is woven into the society that white people have created for the white skinned man to be in control and the brown skinned man to be oppressed. Therefore we must overthrow the culture and society of the white man and replace it with a socialist / communist culture which enforces equality for all of the groups in society.

This agenda is ingenuous on so many levels. For a start the apostle Paul spoke of an organisation called the Mystery of Iniquity which has been in existence for millennia. II Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. KJV

He indicated that there is a hidden conspiracy operating on the periphery of human culture and society with and agenda to bring humanity together under a single Luciferian government. The first instance of this was known in scripture as the The Tower of Babel was the first attempt to achieve a single world government. However, God thwarted it by confusing the language and creating nationalities among humanity.

The last millennium saw great advances in the Conspiracies efforts at control of individual nations and over regions like Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. This was largely coordinated from the Roman Catholic Church but also from more secretive organisations like the Illuminati.

Now when we speak of colonisation we need to understand that although it may appear that one group has come to a newly discovered land with superior technology and simply over powered and overrun that new land. This is only partly true. Those in control of the colonisation and the governments that are colonising are the one’s in control of the agenda.

An example would be the activities of corporate instruments like the New Zealand Company which bought favours from the Colonial Government in NZ and bribed officers of the government and the army to achieve entry into the economy of NZ and to remove Maori ownership of the land as an obstacle to the objectives of the Conspiracy. Which were to bring the country under global control from which it could never escape once in the fold and to benefit monetarily from the acquisition of NZ as a chattel.

The motives of white New Zealanders may have been in no way pure as they benefited from the removal of Maori as the rightful owners of the land. However, they were no more in control of the agenda than Maori were and those in control considered them to be just as much slaves and chattels as they considered Maori to be.

In fact these families in the Mystery of Iniquity have been colonising and dispossessing nations and races for millennia. In fact, some claim descent from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Not only that but we are witness to the last act of this jaundiced organisations bid to bring about World Government. While continuing to colonise the nations they are now colonising the entire globe with the intention of enslaving mankind in a secular humanist / socialist / communist World State.

There will no longer be any personal freedoms. The will be a caste of rulers and everyone else will effectively be enslaved. Told what to do at the most intimate levels of their life. A literal Orwellian nightmare. Big Brother is watching you and the state will be in your home, your control of your mind and body.

So forget about CRT and white men being born racists. The conspirators of the Mystery of Iniquity have been playing that game for thousands of years. They set up one racial group as the bosses and use them as pawns to rule a nation and then after a century or two use them as the scape goats for all of the atrocities inflicted on the poor and downcast minorities by the conspiracy themselves. Meanwhile they slip back into the shadows and manage the next group of would be rulers from behind the scenes again.

It’s not about racial prejudice or intolerance in general. It’s about creating the dominant discourse in society and controlling who can participate in that discussion. If the white man has been the main contributor to the dominant discourse and the dominant group for the last several centuries. This is has been in no small way because of the dominance of Christianity in the West since the Reformation.

It is however a situation undergoing a rapid reversal as Christianity goes into decline in the current secular environment. Evolutionary Science and Humanism along with the Liberal Progressive Movement have laid waste to the hearts and minds of the vast majority of the younger generations, X,Y and Z.. As a consequence the Conspiracy is once again in control of the dominant discourse and is flipping societies values.

Bible believing Christians have not tolerated evolutionary science, homo-sexuality, spiritism, paganism. At the same time there has been racism and it has been wrongly tolerated by the Church. As a result the conspiracy is riding a wave of public indignation at what is portrayed as religious bigotry, by Christians, in the Media and on Social Media. The intention is to make the white man and the white man’s religion the scape goat for all of the pent up frustration that the wicked have experienced while the Christianity has been in the ascendancy.

The reality though is that we are moving from a world which founded it’s values in the bible and God’s righteousness to a world which has it’s values founded in wickedness. A place where evil is said to be good and good is said to be evil. The bible warns sternly the generation that adopts that perspective. Judgment is coming.

Many people wonder what the World is coming too. They find it unreasonable. They can’t fathom why poverty and homelessness are on the increase. The politicians seem unable to rectify the housing shortage citing a lack of funds and materials. In reality they have another agenda and a lack of appetite to correct the inequities of our society. Many Christian’s find it incredible that lawlessness and wickedness seems to be an accepted norm. They try to oppose this rising tide of evil and unrighteousness and are stumped that the World rejects what would seem to be sane and right demanding what is insane and wrong instead. A world increasingly subject to colonisation by the New World Order.

So what it comes back to God versus the Satan. Good versus evil and righteousness versus unrighteousness. This current Global Colonisation is intended to convert the masses into Godless, scientific secularists. At least in the first instance. It’s like painting a canvas white. Blank out the original painting and you can paint a new scene over the old one. Ultimately, blank out Godliness and you can replace that with AntiChrist.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Situation

I tend to get fixated on some of the issues that we face as Christians today. I sometimes think I make more of them than they are. I mean, surely, its not as bad as all that. In countries like New Zealand we’ve had it good for so long that we’re just getting soft. When I talk about the time of judgement coming I’m really just exaggerating as living standards in the developed world begin to equalise with those the developing world have faced for centuries.

Which is interesting in one way. If we define the developing world and the developed world what are the major differences that result in the people living in poverty. I think that in the developing world it is the fact that the rulers are exceedingly wealthy to the exclusion of their people who are exceedingly poor. Whereas in the developed world there has been a middle class of the people who have held a larger proportion of the nations wealth and the poor were not allowed to sink into destitution.

I’m going to go out on a limb here. I believe that this has been because the gospel has been shared with the people and we have had a large evangelical component in the societies of the developed nations. Where Protestant Christianity has thrived in the last five hundred years equality has flourished as well.

The Westminster style of government placed real power in the hands of the people. The safeguards in documents like the Manga Carta have protected the people. With the people being mainly Christian. God has blessed the those living in the developed world with peace and freedom.

This of course is the case for all nations that accept the gospel and we are seeing it today in nations like the Philippines and parts of Africa. As the gospel spreads and the Holy Spirit works. God brings about changes for the good. Don’t get me wrong, becoming more Christian doesn’t bring instantaneous wealth to a nation. It takes time and as with the Reformation it has happened over the past five hundred years. In fact we could say that the God’s work amongst the developing nations today is evidence of Luther’s Reformation still happening today.

It’s true that the countries where the Reformation started are becoming the mission fields of today as the gospel of Jesus Christ moves in the countries that were the mission fields of yesterday. Now those countries are taking the gospel back to the countries that were the strongholds of Christ and which are now becoming dark, and cold. A change which has occurred as the Satan’s forces consolidate power, having deceived the people with evolutionary science and secularism, to draw the people away from the truth of God’s word and the blessing of the gospel.

So do we need another reformation as the New World Order is unfurled by the servants of Mystery of Iniquity. We need a reformation at anytime and if God raised men of the caliber Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and Knox today to lead the charge for Christ Jesus. Well wouldn’t that be wonderful. I dear say He has those men and they will roll onto the world stage in due course.

Will it be under the auspices of the Tribulation? Will they come after the Rapture. Are we in the last days? Will life carry on as God tarries to see more people enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I don’t know. But one thing is sure we certainly need to see the reversal of humanism and the new paganism that is drawing many into darkness as I speak.

You may have heard the term Counter Reformation. Since the very beginning of the Reformation Rome has been busy countering the challenge to it’s authority over Christianity. The Society of Jesus for instance. Initially it was founded by Ignatius of Loyola. Members are called Jesuits and it’s remit under Rome would cause most people to blanch. To destroy without mercy those who oppose the Catholic Church basically covers it.

The agenda of Rome in our time goes beyond merely reversing the impact of Luther and the Reformers. It goes beyond Constantine’s amalgamation of paganism and Christianity. In fact it intends the destruction of Christianity and Christians reverting the world spiritually to the time before Christ. You might say taking the world back to Babylon.

What can we do as new Reformers? Christians today need to pray singularly and together for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a time of repentance within the Church such as has never been seen. We need to take up the armour of God and take the gospel to the world with such passion and commitment as has never been seen before in the Church Age. A call to arms brothers and sisters. There is evil afoot and souls that need saving. Ephesians 6:10-17; Matthew 28: 19-20

 

The Four Amigos of the Reformation – Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Knox

A Little About the Reformation

 The Reformation formally began with Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church in the town of Wittenburg, Germany in the year 1517. Luther was an Augustinian monk and had become angered about the Pope’s selling of indulgences to raise funds for the Church.

An indulgence involved a parishioner giving the Church a large sum of money and the Church getting one’s family members out of purgatory and moved onto heaven. The center of Luther’s angst was one Johann Tetzel, a clergyman who was dispensing God’s forgiveness for pledged indulgences.

Luther was also concerned that bibles were chained to the walls of Churches and written in Latin rather than the languages of the congregants. He taught that the bible is the authoritative Word of God and that Faith Alone in Jesus Christ leads to Salvation.

Luther had hoped to force the Catholic Church to make reforms under wide spread public pressure but it became apparent when he was called to defend his teaching at the Diet of Augsburg in 1518 that the Catholic Church felt no urgency to reform. Three years later Pope Leo X issued a papal bull giving Luther 120 days to recant after which he was summarily excommunicated.

Although Luther had no great desire to leave the Catholic Church he had to concede that having been excommunicated, in 1521, he had no real choice. Thus began the Protestant Church under the guidance Martin Luther and his contemporaries Calvin, Zwingli and Knox. All of whom strongly opposed the the Pope and the Catholic Church on the basis that the Roman Catholic Church had moved away from the tenants of Christianity and that there was a need to reform the Church and to move back toward the centrality of the gospel as it is outlined in the Holy Bible. The Reformation had begun.

Martin Luther

Born in November 1483. Martin was the son of middle class peasant laborers, Hans and Margarethe Luther, who lived in the town of Eisleben near Berlin. His father was a miner and worked hard to provide an education for his son. By the age of 21 the younger Luther had obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Erfurt following his father’s wish that he become a lawyer.

However, nearly struck by lightening in a rainstorm Martin had an epiphany and promised God that if he spared his life he would become a monk. Holding true to his word he joined the monastic community at Erfurt and became an Augustinian monk in 1505.

Luther was troubled by insecurities relating to his salvation and he was also disillusioned at the moral depravity amongst the Roman Catholic Priesthood that he had witnessed first hand on a trip to Rome. Even ordination in 1507 didn’t seem to help him and in order to deal with his fears he moved to Wittenburg, in 1511, to earn his Doctorate of Theology. Luther began to deeply study the bible, in particular the epistles of Paul. He came to understand that he was ‘saved by grace through faith alone.’ He changed the focus of his preaching and began to preach Christ Jesus as our only mediator and that men are saved by grace and not the works that they perform.

Luther became a priest at the Castle Church in Wittenburg and congregants gathered in numbers to hear the gospel preached honestly and with the authority of God’s word. Luther came to hear of the Pope selling indulgences to cover the building of St Peters Basilica and was incensed that the corruption of the Church was such that it would mislead the people that their loved ones could be passed through purgatory and into heaven immediately the indulgence was issued. He felt this practice was a clear abuse of the Churches power.

This led Martin Luther to post his Ninety Five Theses on the Castle Church’s door. So began the Reformation and the fulfillment of John Huss’s prophecy that God would raise a man that the Roman Catholic Church would not be able to stop. He was excommunicated and his writings banned at the Diet of Worms but this did not slow him at all.

Luther continued to preach at Wittenburg. He managed to stay out of Catholic clutches and even arranged Christian school’s, and wrote the larger and smaller catechisms, and published a book of hymns. He also found time for marriage to Katherine von Borra an ex-nun and the two raised six children in the abandoned Augustinian Monastery.

He suffered from arthritis and a heart condition as he aged. He assisted in writing the Augsburg Confession in 1530 which became the Lutheran Churches main confession. He was on a mission to settle a matter of inheritance for the Princes of Mansfield at Eisleben when he died in February 1546. Two of his sons were with him and his body was returned to Wittenburg for the funeral. He was buried in front of the pulpit in Castle Church and can be visited to this day.

John Calvin

Considered to be the successor to Martin Luther and the most influential Protestant theologian in the development of the Reformation. He was born in France in 1509 in Noydon, Picady and as a youth became a student of Theology in Paris. His father felt he would do better at law and he spent the 1520’s studying a subject that he did not like at the University of Orleans. During this time he studied the classics in particular Plato, and Aristotle, and learned Greek.

At about this time the teachings of Luther reached France and Calvin was much affected by the Godliness of Luther’s teaching. Despite being much hardened by what he termed as papal superstition and his flirtation with renaissance humanism God reached his heart and drew him close to the Savior.

Calvin joined the Reformation when he converted to the evangelical faith and was marked out as a Lutheran and a wanted man. He fled France to travel to Free Strasborg in 1536. This was shortly after having penned the work ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion’ in an attempt to frame the main precepts of Protestantism. He was a great scholar and prolific writer

Calvin, his sister and two friends put up for the night at an inn in the city of Geneva. William Farrel, the minister of the local Protestant Church, heard the Calvin was in town and hurried to visit him. He accosted Calvin trying to encourage him to preach in his church. Calvin told him that he was a scholar not a preacher to which Farrel replied with a curse on Calvin before God should he not stay in Geneva. John Calvin felt the hand of God’s calling and could not bring himself to continue his travels.

He was briefly forced to move away from Geneva when anti-Protestant factions moved to clamp down on the Reformers. He fled with Farrel and headed once more to Strasburg where he was a pastor for three years and married and Anabaptist widow. Idellete de Bure, who came with two children. He returned in 1641 and became a political leader as well a preeminent theologian for the Protestant movement in Geneva.

He believed that the Church should mirror the principles laid out in the Holy Scripture and drove himself mercilessly preaching twice on Sundays and every day of alternate weeks. As he aged he became steadily more authoritarian and worked so hard that his body began to fail. He passed away in 1564.

He is of course the father of Calvinism. A very great legacy along with his being credited with the establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland, the Puritan Movement in England and the Reformed Church in the Netherlands.

Ulrich Zwingli

Zwingli was a Swiss contemporary of Germany’s Martin Luther. Born, in Wildhaus Switzerland, to farming parents in 1484. He attended university at Universities of Vienna, Berne, and Basel. He achieved a B.A. in 1504 and an M.A. in 1506. He was ordained a priest in 1506 and became a follower of Erasmus of Rotterdam. He obtained a copy of Erasmus’ translation of the New Testament in Latin and was soon preaching on it.

He married widow Anna Reinhard in 1524. There was controversy that he had secretly married her in 1522. It was rumored that he had been living with her out of wedlock. In any case, Anna had three children and the couple soon added a fourth.

Zwingli is, surprisingly, the lesser known reformer given that he opposed the Catholic Churches selling of indulgences, in Switzerland, before Luther and also opposed clerical celibacy and fasting during Lent. His followers famously eating sausages in public to break their fast. Zwingli was City Chaplain of Zurich at the time (1523), and he presided over the removal of statutes and paintings of Mary, Jesus and the Saints from churches.

Philip of Hess attempted to unify Germany and Switzerland under one religious system. Unfortunately Luther and Zwingli disagreed about the communion sacrament with Luther believing that the wine and bread were the literal blood and flesh of the Savior and Zwingli believing that the wine and bread were symbolic of blood and flesh of the Savior.

Zwingli believed that the Catholic Church was guilty of much abuse and corruption and that there was a need of reform. He believed that the bible should form the center of Church theology and doctrine. His reforms were well received at the time when several countries were moving to extricate themselves from Papal oppression.

Sadly, this lead to conflict within Switzerland and Zurich was attacked (1531). Zwingli enjoined the fray as chaplain of the forces defending the city. The city fell to the Roman Catholic forces and Zwingli’s body was found burned and quartered and, desecrated after the battle. One of many who died for the Christian freedoms that we have enjoyed up until the current era.

John Knox

John Knox was born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland between November 1513 and November 1514. He was a preeminent theologian scholar and religious leader and a leader of the Scottish reformation in the sixteenth century. He was a contemporary of John Calvin.

Knox was born to a middle class farming family and received his education at University of Glasgow and the University of St Andrews studying theology under John Major, a leading Scottish scholar, who was a proponent of conciliar church government as opposed to the abuses common to the Roman Catholic Church at the time.

He started his working life as a body guard to George Wishart in the 1540’s. Reformation propaganda continued to arrive in Scotland from Europe. Wishart was a leading Reformer at the time and Knox formed an attachment to his preaching. Wishart was arrested and burned the stake as a heretic. He sent Knox back to care for his students.

Knox began preaching at St Andrews and spoke aggressively against the Catholic Church. Knox railed against indulgences, pilgrimages, enforced pilgrimages and celibacy as being in conflict with the doctrine of Salvation by Faith Alone. He also declared that the Pope was the Antichrist. Apart from being narrow minded in the extreme he became one of the most influential preachers of the Reformation.

In 1547 St Andrews castle was attacked by the French and Knox was arrested and made to row in French galley’s for two years. After his release he went to England and became minister at the protestant congregation in Berwick and then moved on to a congregation in Newcastle.

While at Berwick he met his first wife, Marjorie Bowes a fellow protestant and avid reader of the bible. She would later become the mother of two son’s with Knox. In 1551 Knox became a Royal Chaplain, preaching before King Edward IV and helped to revise the second edition of the Book of Common Prayer.

Knox was fervently against the practice of Kneeling for Holy Communion and had a note added to the Second Book of Common Prayer stating that kneeling to receive Holy Communion did not imply acceptance of the doctrine of Transubstantiation (That the bread and wine were the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ). This reflected Thomas Cranmer’s position on the sacraments and not Knox’s. Thus he refused to kneel to receive the sacraments himself.

Edward VI died in 1553 and Mary Tudor took the throne. A devout Catholic. Thus the Reformation came upon stony ground during her reign. Knox not wishing to become a martyr at the time fled to France and then Geneva in 1554. Where he studied under John Calvin and wrote his book ‘Trumpet Blasts of Women…” This was largely pitched against the rule of Mary Tudor and made more than a few enemies for Knox including Elizabeth I of England.

After Twelve years abroad Knox was finally able to return to Scotland in 1559 to assume his role as leader of the Reformation and became minister of St Giles Church. He wrote a dissertation on Predestination in 1560 and his wife Marjorie died that year. He was also able to negotiate a treaty with England and France which saw both countries armed forces withdraw from Scotland. The Scottish Parliament abolished the Papal Authority and outlawed the Catholic Mass.

In 1564 Knox married teenager, Margaret Stewart, who bore him three daughters. His Book of Common Order became the official book of Church Worship in Scotland. Knox’s enmity toward the Queen deepened as she continued to oppose Protestantism. It brought civil war and strife in Scotland and this took it’s toll on Knox’s health. He gave his last sermon at St Giles on November 9 1572 and died five days later. He was buried at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

Needless to say these four leaders of the Reformation although hugely influential in the process of the Reformation were by no means the only people who can be said to have brought the Reformation into being. Martyrs like John Huss, William Tyndal and many others gave their lives to bring about the chance of Reformation that enabled God to use the foundation of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Knox to build upon. Below is a link to a Wikipedia page listing the martyrs in the English Reformation alone. On assumes many more gave their lives in Europe. As Tertullian said of the Martyrs of Rome. “The blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church.”

Please note that this article is as always just my opinion and therefore only an opinion piece. It is by no means exhaustive as there are many well written biographies of the four gentlemen mentioned above. There are many well written and exhaustive narratives of the Reformation era as well. No this is just a brief article to rouse the interest of the reader to look into the the amazing events that God used to free the Church and spread the gospel abroad. It could be said that the Reformation laid the groundwork for a period of religious freedom and Christian expansion that has lasted five hundred years. No small achievement or wonder.

Reference List

Biography.com Editors Martin Luther Biography (1483–1546) https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/martin-luther

Fairchild, Mary. "Biography of John Knox, Scottish Theologian, Founder of Presbyterianism." Learn Religions, Aug. 28, 2020, learnreligions.com/biography-of-john-knox-4775110.

Fairchild, Mary. "Martin Luther Biography." Learn Religions, Aug. 25, 2020, learnreligions.com/martin-luther-biography-700828.

John Calvin: Father of the Reformed Faith https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/john-calvin.html

Jack Zavada Biography of Ulrich Zwingli, Religious Reformer in Switzerland

https://www.learnreligions.com/ulrich-zwingli-biography-699999

List of Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Protestant_martyrs_of_the_English_Reformation