Halloween!!

     Sorry for the late post... I have been super busy the past few days with school and other stuff. I hope to be on time next week. Plus I forgot to count October 31st in my list of Mondays, so I didn't really have a good idea for this post until I realized it was Halloween (four days ago).

     So I'm pretty sure everybody knows that Halloween is the same day Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five thesis to the door in Wittenburg. (You say the 'w' with a 'v' sound... Vittenburg. German pays off.)

     But I know, and I'm sure this is the case with some people, that I didn't really know the whole story behind Halloween until a few years ago. I know some people who know some people who don't 'do' Halloween (trick-or-treating, etc.), instead they do Reformation Day (which is actually a holiday in some countries!).

     While our family doesn't trick-or-treat (mainly because of all the scary stuff out there), we do participate in the Trunk or Treat/Fall Fest deal our church does near Halloween. But that's not the point - Halloween is known as Reformation Day, because it was Luther putting his thesis on the door of the church in Wittenburg (Vittenburg!) that really kick-started the Reformation.

     Watch the video below to get a general idea of the history of that time period. It's pretty good, but there are some inaccuracies in it. I'll point them out below, but first watch the video:

    I just want to clarify some things. First, several times in the video he referred to 'he held' or 'Luther thought'. While this is true, I think the things he said that about could use clarifying. When he says 'unchristian' he should say 'unbiblical,' because after reading the Bible that is what Luther believed.

     When Luther said that the church was 'selling salvation', he was totally right! Not only was the church selling it for their own gain (pretty bad in and of itself) but the peasants and illiterate (and many literate people - because the Bible was in Latin) didn't know . They were being given a false sense of security, which is dangerous.

     The only other thing is when he said, "The only true path to salvation lay through faithfulness to Christ and His teachings." Really, the only path to salvation is through God's grace. Faithfulness to Christ and His teachings comes later. It really starts with God's grace.

   And finally... Our quote for the week. It's one of Luther's (fittingly):

Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.

     This is something Luther said at the trial of Worms (Vurms... kinda) which was discussed in the video above.

     So that's it for this week!! I hope to post on time this Monday, so stay tuned!