There are some days on the calendar that everyone knows are important. January 1st is New Year’s Day. December 25th everyone knows is Christmas. (December 8-10 everyone here better know is our “ELF” production, right?!) And of course this Tuesday, October 31st is also another well-known day on the calendar. Many know it as Halloween, or “All Saints Eve.” But for modern-day Christians, it should perhaps be known for something even more important: October 31st is “Reformation Day.”
This Tuesday, October 31st is the 500th Anniversary of the day on October 31st, 1517, that Martin Luther went to the Wittenberg church and nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the church door (which is what they did with public notices for debates in those days) protesting the wrongs of the Catholic church, and setting forth Biblical truth. This began the movement we know as “The Reformation”, which gave birth to our Protestant churches, and really shaped the direction of the whole world as we know it.
It’s hard to grasp everything that came out of the Reformation, but there is any easy way to remember 5 of the most important theological truths it taught us. We call them the “5 Solas.” “Sola” is a Latin word for “only” or “alone.” These “5 Solas” have become the backbone of Protestant Christian teaching for the last 500 years. We need to make sure we understand these, and hold to them, as they are not only “Protestant”, but also Biblical truths. So as we think about this Tuesday, as the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, let’s look together at these “5 Solas” and what they mean: Continue reading
shawnethomas 