Celebrating Reformation Day; Lessons From Church History: Part 2

Discover your history, discover yourself - unknown

It’s very easy to think that this Christian faith we have now is something new. Something that was begun by us – perhaps. This would mean that we are the center of attention in the books of history. Fortunately, that is not the case because already we are sitting on top of 2000 years of Christian history. There is indeed a very long line of brothers and sisters of faith; that cloud of witnesses who have come and gone before us. For that reason it is for our benefit if we are to know the kind of people they were; the challenges they endured and the pleasures they enjoyed. This will help us to reflect upon ourselves, as we correct their errors and shortcomings while being challenged by their virtues and excellencies.

Our last article was a summary of our Christian history from the time of the Apostles to the present-day Church age. Today we are going to get the lessons from all that. Let's take it away...

Lesson # 1 God's purpose was for the salvation of mankind; therefore nothing can stop His Word from being preserved and to reach out to all humanity. Therefore, we must have confidence because just as the Gospel has been succeeding against all challenges throughout history, it will continue to advance even in our present day.

Lesson# 2 The kind of persecution that believers have experienced in the past teaches us that the Christian faith is at its strongest when there is persecution in the land. On the contrary, when Christians are at peace, they tend to relax and then allow satanic doctrines to penetrate the Church.

Lesson #3 Salvation is a thing of the heart; therefore pressuring sinners to join Christianity will only lead to false converts that end up corrupting the Church.

Lesson #4 Believers must stand up for the truth even if it’s not popular in the society and be prepared to die for what we know as truth.

Lesson #5 From Martin Luther we learn that the doctrine of salvation through faith alone is the main doctrine of the Christian faith, hence it must be defended, preached and passed on to the next generation. A loss or ignorance of this doctrine is actually a loss of the salt and pepper of our Faith.

Lesson #6 From the Puritans we learn that the Christian lifestyle must be taken seriously; It must be evident that we are believers in all our day-to-day duties. The doctrine of sola Scriptura is very helpful in times of strange doctrines coming from man's visions, dreams and prophecies. It is better to stick with Scripture: not to limit God but to limit ourselves to what we know as truth; for our own protection against deception.

Lesson #7 From the Moravians we learn that believers must be evident by their love for one another - not just false love of hugging each other in public, but a true love that manifests in praying for each other and risking our lives for the benefit of others. Also, we learn that prayer is the oxygen of believers that must be practiced without ceasing.

Lesson #8 From the Missionaries we learn that our love for Christ must be evident in our desire to reach out to the lost, even knowing that we may lose our lives from it.

Lesson #7 From the Modern day Church we learn that there are some denominations that have deliberately rejected the history of bible truth and established false doctrines, however, we must know that true believers still exist who are not deceivers nor deceived but are careful to stand for the Faith that was once and for all given to the Saints...and to preach it, to continue the historic legacy of the Christian Faith. Be one of them!

Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Happy Reformation Day!

Sinothi Ncube

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