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Martin Luther and John Calvin started no wars, but plenty of revolutions and one great reformation came about because of these two men. This year the Christian world celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. On September 20, 2008, Germany established a decade-long celebration of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's September 20, 1517 posting of his 95 theses on the church door of Wittenberg, thus sparking the Great Reformation.
Philadelphia, with a number not quite so round but still impressive, celebrates the 303rd anniversary of the first Amercian Presbytery. Local minister Jedediah Andrews and three other men established the Presbyterian Church of America here in 1706 and soon thereafter the local presbytery officially adopted the Westminster Confession and the Longer and Shorter Catechism. The tie between all these events is the fact that this Philadelphia Presbyterianism is synonomous with the Reformed faith, also called Calvinism, brought forth nearly 200 years earlier.
The actual 500th anniversary of Luther's revolt is in 2017 and will have its grandest celebration on September 20th of that year. That is the same day Luther crossed the river Elbe into Leipzig 500 years earlier, thus beginning his fateful journey. Although most of the 95 Theses were Scriptural refutes of the Catholic practice of selling indulgences, Luther's greater and more lasting contribution was the eventual disbursement of the Bible to all the laity. Luther personally translated the Bible from Latin into German during a terror-filled year at the Wartburg Castle where he hid in order to carry out this task. Up until that time, the Catholic church only permitted the clergy to read the Bible in Latin. Luther and others believed that all the Church should be allowed to have and read God's Word. His work of translation was considered heresy.
Leipzig, Germany today is not what it was during Luther's time. From 1945 to 1989, this city was under Communist domination. Still, many Christians met and worshipped in the St. Thomas Church where Johann Sebastian Bach wrote and played most of his beloved sacred music . Very little outwardly visible evidence of the Reformation existed in this city of Luther and Bach. But inwardly, a revolution was growing.
Dr. Theo Lehmann, a local pastor, and thousands of other Christians from Leipzig and its surroundings. continued a thriving underground Christian Church throughout the communist rule. Constantly under surveillance, often harassed by the Stasi (local secret police), and threated with violence and confinement, these persecuted Christians lived on faithfully and at times, openly defiant. In 1989, another revolution was in the making.
We all know about Ronald Reagan's famous speech when he confronted Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down that wall". But few people in the world know the real reason behind the fall of the Berlin Wall and the border between east and west Germany. Dr. Lehmann and the others gathered nightly in the Leipzig neighborhoods, oftentimes right across the street from the Stasi headquarters. They stood there in silence holding candles. And they prayed. They prayed as Martin Luther confessed before the Leipzig Debate, "I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen." Outwardly, nothing happened. No one was arrested. No violence. No threats. The Stasi did not even come outside. This continued for days, weeks, months. And then finally it happened on November 9, 1989. The Wall came down. And once again, the reformers were free.
I wonder what Phildelphia will do as these great anniversaries converge? Will the City of Freedom experience a great reformation again, bringing hordes back to the faith of its fathers? Or will it continue in the world's revolution to put the Bible on the shelves of stores as just another book? Luther, Calvin, and Andrews would have us boldly proclaim the living Word of God?
Philly, let's hear your comments.
For more on the real story of the fall of the Wall in Leipzig, read "The Revolution of the Candles" by Joerg Swoboda, translated by Edwin Arnold, Mercer University Press 1996
For more on Germany's Luther Decade celebration, go to www.luther2017.de/index_en.html
To read or hear Dr. Philip Ryken's 2/26/09 sermon (from Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church) on the 300th Anniversary of the First American Presbytery, go to www.tenth.org/index.php
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