A 490th Anniversary Conference

Today I went to a conference in Toledo, Ohio with a friend from my church. The conference was at Providence Reformed Baptist Church. and was in celebration of the 490th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

I really enjoyed the messages by Ken Jones (a pastor from Compton, you may know him from The White Horse Inn show or Modern Reformation magazine) and Calvin Walden (a pastor from Michigan). It was also a pleasure to meet both of them for the first time.

Here is my recollections on two of the messages (highly summarized, not verbatim at all):

Ken spoke about the false apostles that challenged the early church. He focused on II Corinthians 11. He followed the context within I & II Corinthians, expounding on the details of what was going on in that situation. And he also applied it to our day, giving a powerful picture of how the church in our day is challenged with those who present "another Jesus" "another spirit", and "another gospel".

Calvin spoke about the atonement, doing a wonderful job of presenting the Biblical message of particular redemption. He spoke about John 10, and showed how Christ's death accomplishes exactly it was intended for, the salvation of His church. His mission is accomplished without failure, and He is fully satisfied with the end result of His sacrifice.

Luther

With yesterday being said to be the day that Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed his thesis to the door at Wittenberg church door, I watched Luther with a group of friends. I found it rather well done. I previously had only watched the old Luther film.

There is great significance in Martin Luther's experience and doings in Germany. His actions obviously had ramifications for the religious life of the Western world. But it also had an amazing impact on Western culture, poltics, and civil liberties. There are a number of points that one may disagree with Martin Luther on, but it is foolish to ignore or undermine his contributions to the cause of truth and religion.

Here is one of my favorite Martin Luther quotes: "Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace." (from "An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans")