All Hallows’ Eve, Reformation Day, and Two Anniversaries

Accord­ing to leg­end, 493 years ago today Mar­tin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five The­ses on indul­gences on the door of the cas­tle church in Wit­ten­berg, Ger­many, spark­ing off what came to be the Ref­or­ma­tion. Of the ninety-five, these two are the most important:

“1. When our Lord and Mas­ter Jesus Christ said, “Repent” [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believ­ers to be one of repen­tance.” (LW 31:25)

“62. The true trea­sure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.” (LW 31:31)

And 11 years ago today, in Augs­burg, Ger­many, the Catholic Church and the churches of the Lutheran World Fed­er­a­tion declared their com­mon faith in the sign­ing of the Joint Dec­la­ra­tion on the Doc­trine of Jus­ti­fi­ca­tion. The most impor­tant state­ment is this:

“15. By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s sav­ing work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equip­ping and call­ing us to good works.”

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Barbara Catlin says:
November 1, 2010 at 2:41 am
Our Eng­lish pro­fes­sor at Mar­ion Col­lege, Mar­ion, VA, Eliz­a­beth Eyster, being short in stature, but long in prose, gram­mar, com­po­si­tion, and if alive today, would have done enu­mer­able flipflops of joy and ecstasy at the won­der­fully wordy day-to-day doings of you young ener­getic cru­saders and your daily doc­u­men­tary, ongo­ing and con­tin­u­ous in breadth and depth.…truly a vic­ar­i­ous delight for me, one of her anti­quated Eng­lish schol­ars. Thank you and Godspeed!
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