Posted on 10/31/2012 10:48:21 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
I’m just going to come right out with this – I do not like Halloween. Don’t get me wrong, if you have your kids out there dressed up as little Jedis and Harry Potters visiting your neighbors and enjoying some extra treats, there’s not anything wrong with that. The fact that Halloween has become the holiday second only to Christmas in spending in the United States is a little disconcerting though. I do generally take my kids trick or treating at an event before Halloween, or as I prefer to call it Reformation Day. We usually participate in a campground “Harvest Weekend” and trick or treat at the campground on a weekend in early October. A few times they have talked me into Halloween trick or treating, but generally we come up with another activity, and they have never felt cheated.
Feel free to judge me on this, but I feel Halloween has become a ridiculously popular holiday based largely on dressing as immodestly as possible and gorging yourself on junk-food. I just don’t feel up to celebrating it. We also ignore the darker side of Halloween. I had a friend once tell me that she could never celebrate Halloween with her kids after hearing about some of the rituals and abuse still practiced by some on that evening. Of course, we’re all aware of the pagan roots of the holiday, but we assure ourselves that it’s all just for fun in our modern world.
There is something worth celebrating on this day though. October 31, 1517, is the day that Martin Luther bravely took his 95 thesis and nailed them to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. He pointed out the discrepancies between what the Bible teaches and what the Catholic Church was doing. In our age of free speech, maybe we forget what courage that required. A few years later Luther was excommunicated and had to run and hide to avoid execution for his words. Thanks to his willingness to follow God, we do not live in a world where we believe that we have to buy our way into Heaven.
Maybe I should take my kids trick or treating tonight – dressed up as Martin and Katherina Luther. His faith makes me ashamed of the moments that I have not spoken up for my faith, but also encourages me to be bold the next time.
If you are like me and have sometimes been the only parent with children at a Reformation Day service, check out this site for some ideas on celebrating the Reformation instead of Halloween.
http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/onlinediscipleship/halloween/reformation_day.aspx
If you are interested in learning more about Martin Luther, this is a good place to start.
http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-9389283
How does Martin Luther’s story inspire you? What will you do to celebrate the Reformation?
I’d like to nail an eviction notice on the door of the White Hut, but I guess we’ll have to wait another week for that.
Thank you!
I was privileged to have been to Wittenburg Castle church a couple of weeks ago—very inspiring.
That, too, we must defeat Obama!! Get him out of our White House.
The pope has neither the will nor the power to remit any penalties beyond those imposed either at his own discretion or by canon law.
The pope himself cannot remit guilt, but only declare and confirm that it has been remitted by God; or, at most, he can remit it in cases reserved to his discretion. Except for these cases, the guilt remains untouched.
God never remits guilt to anyone without, at the same time, making him humbly submissive to the priest, His representative.
Accordingly, the Holy Spirit, acting in the person of the pope, manifests grace to us, by the fact that the papal regulations always cease to apply at death, or in any hard case. It is a wrongful act, due to ignorance, when priests retain the canonical penalties on the dead in purgatory.
Defective piety or love in a dying person is necessarily accompanied by great fear, which is greatest where the piety or love is least. This fear or horror is sufficient in itself, whatever else might be said, to constitute the pain of purgatory, since it approaches very closely to the horror of despair. There seems to be the same difference between hell, purgatory, and heaven as between despair, uncertainty, and assurance.
Of a truth, the pains of souls in purgatory ought to be abated, and charity ought to be proportionately increased.
The same power as the pope exercises in general over purgatory is exercised in particular by every single bishop in his bishopric and priest in his parish.
The pope does excellently when he grants remission to the souls in purgatory on account of intercessions made on their behalf.
Yet the pope's remission and dispensation are in no way to be despised, for, as already said, they proclaim the divine remission.
Papal indulgences should only be preached with caution.
Christians should be taught that they purchase indulgences voluntarily, and are not under obligation to do so.
Christians should be taught that the pope's indulgences are useful only if one does not rely on them, but most harmful if one loses the fear of God through them.
The treasures of the church, out of which the pope dispenses indulgences, are not sufficiently spoken of or known among the people of Christ.
That these treasures are not temporal are clear from the fact that many of the merchants do not grant them freely, but only collect them.
Nor are they the merits of Christ and the saints, because, even apart from the pope, these merits are always working grace in the inner man, and working the cross, death, and hell in the outer man.
On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is most acceptable, for it makes the last to be the first.
Bishops and curates, in duty bound, must receive the commissaries of the papal indulgences with all reverence. But they are under a much greater obligation to watch closely and attend carefully lest these men preach their own fancies instead of what the pope commissioned.
Let him be anathema and accursed who denies the apostolic character of the indulgences.
If therefore, indulgences were preached in accordance with the spirit and mind of the pope, all these difficulties would be easily overcome, and indeed, cease to exist.
Christians should be exhorted to be zealous to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hells. And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace
These are just some of the 95 theses. All of the above is Catholic Doctrine. Do Protestants celebrating this day agree with them???
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