Reflection: Reformation Day Conference 2007

The Reformation Day Conference 2007 is over this past week. The 2 days (7th -8th Nove 2007) saw Rev. Stephan Key preached 2 sermons on the overall theme of The Relevance of the 16th century Reformation for Today's Christians. Unfortunately, as always seem to be the case, the New Evangelicals who need to hear it most mostly did not come for the event. And neither of the friends I had invited came for it.

Anyway, the conference itself was good. The messages given by Rev. Key were indeed relevant, as he reminded us of the biblical rationale for the 16th century Reformation, and the neccessity of always reforming the Church, with similarities being drawn between the situation then and the modern situation now. The first talk in the evening was spent on the topic of the Reformation restoring the foundation for healthy church life. The focus was on Sola Scriptura or more specifically, the authority of Scripture as the norm that norms our walk with God (but is itself not normed - Norma Normans non Normata); in other words, that Scripture is to be our final guide for all of life, being totally sufficient for that task (2 Tim. 3:16-17). He emphasized the foundational authority of Scripture as believed in the Reformation, and which is also the principle of all true reformation (and revivals) throughout the history of the Church. The Church thus always has to continually reform herself by the Word of God, especially in such a (modern) time where the authority of Scripture is being undermined practically even in so-called Reformed circles. An example of neglecting to teach and preach the full counsel of God to the congregation was thus given of how the authority of Scripture is undermined practically. As an aside, Pastor Key demolished the humanist reading of Luther's famous words uttered at the Diet of Worms where he said that 'it is unwise to go against one's conscience', noting that the entire context shows also that Luther's 'conscience is bound by the Word of God', and therefore Luther was here stating the absolute authority of Scripture over the hearts and minds of God's flock.

Rev. Key's message on the second day was on how the Reformation restored the foundation for Christian piety. Before talking about piety proper, Rev. Key spent quite some time showing and emphasizing that the Reformers knew that the rampant immorality in the Romish church was due to wrong doctrine bearing forth its rotten fruit. Therefore, they did not go on a moralistic crusade against the moral ills of that time, but concentrated mainly on correcting and denouncing the false doctrines that are within the Church, and thus attacking the problem at its root. True Christian piety is therefore a fruit of a true belief in true Christian doctrines, and thus as the Reformers restore the doctrinal purity of the Church, the moral condition of the cities they labored in improved. As such, the Reformation with its correction of wrong doctrines paved the foundation whereby true Christian piety can flourish, which indeed it did.

As an application, Rev. Key also stresses the need for reformation to start with us. He mentioned that we should continually align our hearts and actions with Scripture. Also as a slight digression, he attacked the Antinomain movement, stating that they have forgotten that 'without holiness, no one can see the Lord' (Heb. 12:14b), thus spurring us on also towards a life of piety as an expression of our new nature in Him.

One thing which Rev. Key promotes which I would like to spend some time on is his idea of 'Catechetical sermons'. So now, we have expository, biblical, narative, topical, and ... catechetical? From how Rev. Key defines the phrase 'catechetical sermons', they seem to be sermons that are sortof topical (with the topic fixed by the particular week's Q&A in the Cathechism that is to preached upon), but yet expository in the method they are delivered via the exposition of the verses. Now, Rev. Key's rationale for such sermons is that it is otherwise hard to teach certain doctrines since they are not covered in one single text, and thus it would be tough to teach the whole counsel of God in doctrines such as the Trinity if we would just go by pure verse by verse exposition. In this, I concur. However, the question to be asked is that why must it be called 'catechetical sermons' instead of just 'systematic theological or doctrinal sermons' (which is what they actually are). Also, isn't it true that the teaching of such doctrines should be done in the instruction classes for new believers, and also occasionally in Adult Bible classes and cell material? If such is indeed done, then the necessity of going through the various doctrines of the Christian faith through following the order of the Cathechism would be much less urgent. Furthermore, unless the pastor is too preoccupied with rushing to finish preaching trough a certain book, I doubt that texts whereby important doctrines such as the Trinity can be inferred cannot be found. For example, one text which can be used to preach on certain aspects of the Trinity is Gen. 1:1-2 coupled with Jn. 1:1-3. Furthermore, I do not see why it is that in the course of preaching through a book, a preacher cannot stop at a verse or even a phrase within the verse and expound on it in light of the whole context of Scripture or the Analogia Fide. After all, all of Scripture flows smoothly without contradictions with one single overall theme, and therefore such a sermon could still be done while still being fundamentally expository in nature and style.

In conclusion, the Reformation Day Conference 2007 was a good one. It was a pity that not as many people turned up as we would like to have, but then at least for those who came, it is hoped that the truth of God's Word would be implanted into their hearts. Amen.