The Reformation: an innovation launched from heaven to free the church from Babylonian captivity.
The special piquancy of this October 31st is that I am walking here in the colonnade of the huge side wing of St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. And I remember. For the start, for the reformation that will renew the church, Europe and the world. To the heavenly departure.
A strange vision forms before my mind's eye. Geneva, the monumental monument of the Reformation, comes into the picture, with its bright, luminous, stone-carved statues of reformers and nation-greats that exceed the human scale. I have walked several times in the memorial park in front of our reformed elders. Out of respect. In front of the IHΣ engraving symbolizing Jesus of Nazareth, on which as a pedestal, the only foundation, our believers stood: Swiss Béza, French Kálvin and Farel, Scottish reformer Knox, with their outstanding 5-meter figures. Left and right, 3-meter statues: American theologian Williams, English general Cromwell, Transylvanian prince István Bocskai, William I, father of the Dutch homeland, Gaspard de Coligny, Calvinist admiral of Franciahon, IV. Henry, French Huguenot king. William Frigyes I, Reformed Prince of Brandenburg.
I also climb the 143 steps, here in the Vatican column group. I am reminded of the carved stone blocks at the two ends of the huge monument. On it are the names of Luther and Zwingli, and the forerunners of the Reformation: Wald, Wycliffe, Husz. The name of Calvin's Genevan contemporary, the theologian who debated with him, Marie Dantiér.
At every step I recall a name to myself. Here I see the suffering journey of the galley Arabs of Hungarian Protestantism to the galleys of Naples from the Decade of Mourning. And I wonder. How right Illyés is with the last line of the poem: "it was anyone's intention,/God himself could not have known otherwise".
He didn't know, but he didn't want to.
Here, under the Roman blue sky and the shining colonnade, the lesson is revealed: the unique event of the Reformation was a mighty divine act controlled from heaven. When, at the movement of the invisible divine conductor's baton, reformers and reformers appeared in Europe at the same time, independently of each other, but attentive to the prompting of God's Word and Spirit. Almost simultaneously in every nation.
Even here, in the land of Italy. The Florentine family of doctors, the Moratas, with their beautiful and clever daughter, Olympia Morata, who translated Calvin and Luther into Italian, and who fled from Catholic persecution to Heidelberg, the famous Reformed stronghold.
At the age of twenty-five, he became a professor of poetry and ancient linguistics. I see more and more clearly how much our heavenly Father in His Son, Christ the Savior, was not pleased with the fallenness of the church at that time, and how ready to act he felt pity for the peoples of our continent, who were lost in great spiritual darkness (Isaiah 9; Matthew 4,16).
No Word, no statement in their language, no knowledge of God, and their Christianity in Babylonian superstitious captivity, as Luther expressed in his booklet.
He wrote this on October 31, 1517, three years after his 95 items nailed to the Wittenberg castle church. He wrote about the Babylonian captivity of the church as the bondage of God's New Testament people, about the European inferiority caused by church abuses. Faith and pure ecclesiastical and individual life sank deeper and deeper. But God awakened a great desire in many, which is expressed in the engraving that can be read throughout the entire length of the Reformation monument: POST TENEBRAS LUX – LIGHT AFTER THE DARKNESS.
Evangelical innovation and its tools for uplifting Europe
The realization shines brighter than the sun: the reformation was not primarily a human work, but a merciful act of God, who did not want to leave his people, Europe and the world in the seething hell of darkness, lack of light, and destructive passions. He did not want what could be dignified, noble, and Christ-like in man and humanity worthy of the elevation of the Soul and the human spirit, of his divine creation, to remain the object of farewell notes, give and take money.
He didn't want salvation, healing, a renewed, fruitful, creative life, of individuals and continents, to wriggle miserably in the dust at the gates of the church, outside, on the edge of existence. Or Péter pennies should be the subject of a bargain.
Indeed, these served the construction of this huge cathedral, and not the liberation, purification, salvation of souls, and the building of the life of a happy people. With evangelical innovation, Péter responded to the minimum demand of the sick beggar asking for alms with God's maximum gift: I have no silver and gold, but what I have, I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk... and he walked, jumped and praised God. And the whole people began to praise God (Acts 3:6-9).
How different this story is, how moving, captivating, than what Luther's treatise aimed at displayed there on the church door!
That is why he wrote in item 32: He who wants to gain the assurance of salvation with absolution slips will be damned forever along with his teachers. In the additional explanation, the Hungarian edition notes that the following was written on the money chest of the Catholic Tetzel:
"Whose money is ringing in the chest, His soul is in heaven". Enhancing and innovating the soul, intellectual culture, an entire continent, and then the entire world is not a matter of money! It wasn't then, and it isn't today. Not for sale, the whole world can be bought. More precisely, man and his prosperity are non-negotiable!
506 years ago, God's angels and emissaries appeared on the roads, cities, and villages of Europe languishing in Babylonian captivity almost at the wave of a divine conductor's baton. This transcendent, liberating divine control promised a new world, a new self-evaluation, a new and great renewal with the Bible translated into the national language and beliefs. And he did what he promised.
The reformation spread quickly and victoriously in our country as well. Without Calvin, Luther and the others, this would not have happened. And not without Hungarian reformers either.
Péter Méliusz Juhász in Debrecen, Mátyás Bíró Dévai in Kassa, Mihály Sztárai in Dráva-ment, István Kiss in Csanád Szegedi, Gáspár Heltai in Kolozsvár, and Gáspár Károli in Gönc all stood in spiritual order for the great mobilization of the liberating gospel for the construction of Europe. With an obedient soul and spirit that hears heavenly trumpets, with fearless dedication. Simply, but definitely: with faith in Christ, the Bible, personal conviction, and the liberation of the soul from the slavery of all kinds of superstitions and spiritual-material shackles. For the freedom of God's children.
The way Calvin worked as a diplomat of the Holy Spirit in his many thousands of letters from Poland to England and Scotland.
Giving rank to heavenly innovation and reformation in words, spreading its value-creating power. What a reforming, passionate mini-essay spreading spiritual and spiritual clarity he wrote for the Duke of Somerset, England, Eduard Seymour, Oct. 1548. 22 from Geneva. Here he used the word reformation for the first time, wrote about its essence and the methods of its implementation. He asks, for the sake of the entire English people and to replace the ignorant clergy, for the sake of the reformation of the entire church, to give the people catechesis and education about the Gospel faith, and to add a creed in the national language. With these, the right teaching can be "implanted within the heart", which will guide and uplift the British people from within.
With an English-language Bible, the church's distortions of the past can be corrected. With church and church discipline, the people can be educated on mutual respect, without which the country cannot function.
I have already taken more than 143 steps - both in time and space. In the spiritual company of heavenly hosts and God's messengers. In good and classy company here in the shadow of the huge colonnade of the Vatican. With a special satisfaction, gratitude and peace in my heart. With the indelible, pure evangelical face of our preachers in my soul, during the internal observation of details of their life work.
I am happy to see again, very clearly: the Reformation was not a human enterprise started from below, but a light from above, a powerful and victorious freedom movement of God's saving love. For all of creation. That's why it has a future!
Step by step, I recite the words: Post tenebras lux – light after darkness. And: "God himself could not have known otherwise." Because he didn't want to - for everyone, for the future. Soli Deo Gloria!
Dr. Lajos Békefy/Rome
Cover image: The Geneva Memorial of the Reformation
Source: kozterkep.hu
