Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Standing for the Truth”. A good lesson on notable persons in the past who stood for the truth. All throughout this lesson, at various points, the quarterly notes:
· “We will look at some Biblical principles that motivated the Waldenses, and later Reformers, such as Huss and Jerome, to stay faithful to the Lord no matter what…” (Quarterly for Sabbath).
· “Countless Christians were martyred during this long period because they obeyed the Word of God. Even in death, they triumphed” (Quarterly for Sunday).
· “The crown of life inspires these faithful believers to endure death itself for Christ’s sake” (Quarterly for Monday).
· “Rather than submit to the traditions of the Roman Church, these stalwart men and women of faith had the courage to stand for the truths of God’s word” (Quarterly for Tuesday).
· “They delighted to do His will. They ‘loved’ His law” (Quarterly for Wednesday).
· “What gave Huss and Jerome, Tyndale, Latimer, and the martyrs of the Middle Ages courage to face the flames and the sword?” (Quarterly for Thursday).
This leads to the last question from Thursday’s lesson, “What lessons can we learn from the Waldenses and the Reformers that can sustain us in earth’s final conflict?” This is the question. What is it that gave the reformers such courage… and can give us courage, too? Was it the promise of a “Crown of life” as it says in Monday’s lesson? Is this what gives you (or will give you) the courage of the Reformers? What is that motivates you to be true to God? Is it the “truths of God’s Word” (op cit.) that we know? I suspect these motivations are not enough. Afterall, the “truths of God’s Word” are hardly enough to get us to church once/ week let alone to lay down our lives. However, there is something else that motivates much more. It is not my own salvation that gives such motivation. It is not the truths alone that motivates to lay down my life. Christ tells us what motivates. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). What motivates any to lay down one’s life is loving friendship. What the Reformers saw and learned about God was so different than what the Roman Church had depicted. They saw God as He really is… our loving Father and Friend.
In their attempt to make Christianity acceptable to the early pagans, Rome made many adaptations of the “pure Word”. This may have been well meaning. For example, creating a holiday for the birth of Christ that coincided with an existing pagan holiday. Or placing statues of various “saints” that coincided with the pagan need for a tangible representation of those early “worthies”. Or even providing a human being to confess to. Because confessing to an invisible, often silent God may not bring the needed relief of forgiveness. All these may have been started from good intentions. But the resulting adaptations have contributed to a false picture of our Father. And this is the real issue that led so many reformers to see God clearer. The false picture of our Father painted by the Roman church was clearly not supported by the “Written Word” or by the “Living Word”. At the core of this issue is the pagan picture of God thus depicted. The Roman church’s depiction of why Christ had to die is truly pagan and is widely still accepted by the Christian world. It was not enough to bring pagan practices into the church. A pagan understanding of God was brought in, too. This pagan understanding has paralyzed the ardent, passionate, reciprocal love for our loving Father and Friend.
This is the real trouble. It is not so much the pagan trappings and symbols placed upon Christians. It is the pagan distortion of God’s character. That distortion says that Christ needed to die to appease an offended Father… so that He could forgive. Horrors! And most Christians have this as “gospel”???!!! I had a good Christian friend who told me that Christ died to save us from the Father and His wrath. Horrors, again!! No wonder the reformers who were beginning to see the truth about the Father were so motivated to die rather than renounced their Father and Friend. (The truth about the Father… that He died with us in the person of His Son, so that we would stop trying to achieve righteousness on our own but would come Home to the Father where He can and will, heal all the damage sin has done). How could they fall back to any erroneous, horrendous caricature of God that had at its core a divine appeasement? They could not and would not reject their loving Father and Friend, having seen Him as He is.
May we have this same experience with our Father, as did the Reformers. As we, too, trust Him and enter into a loving relationship with Him. As the Shulamite bride said about her beloved husband/ Solomon, so may we say of our Divine Husband/ Father… “Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!” (Song of Solomon 5:16). Now this is something worth standing for… even dying for. To support and stand-beside our love-filled Father and Friend.
With brotherly love,
Jim