Just a few days ago, many celebrated a holiday steeped in pagan tradition when they dressed their little ones in costumes and went from door-to-door in search of candy and other treats; but I wonder how many are aware of a far different, and much more important event that occurred on that same date many years before? On October 31st almost five hundred years ago, a truly significant event took place in the religious world that would change many thousands of lives in the years to come--and yet it was incomplete.
You see, at that time, a marvelous cathedral was in the midst of construction--St. Peter's cathedral in Rome. It would be a wondrous tribute to God (so many thought); and yet, just as today, these things cost money. Where would it come from? Well, for this and other financial needs, indulgences would be granted to those willing to pay for them. In this case, an indulgence meant complete forgiveness of sin--yours or someone else's that you might buy it for. Now, since there was a widespread belief that there was a temporary punishment for sins after death called purgatory, it would be a great peace of mind knowing you could, for the right sum of money, bring your dead relative (perhaps a father or son) out from under this temporary wrath of God. Although the official decree allowing these indulgences assumed contrition and confession (Rupp, Luther's Progress to the Diet of Worms, 51), those who collected for the cause weren't so concerned with the particulars. In fact, one of them, named Tetzel, is said to have declared, "As soon as your coin clinks in the chest, the souls of your friends will rise out of purgatory into heaven" (Hurlbut, The Story of the Christian Church, 152).
Of course, something so obviously against the scriptures as this caused some concern; so, about midday, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a document which had a series of ninety-five theses, or statements, about this particular abuse to the oaken door of the Wittenburg cathedral. It was this event that began what many have called, the "Great Reformation." It was this event that we see a movement begin to try to purge from the Catholic church those doctrines and practices not taught in scripture.
This was truly a significant day in history, and Luther is surely a man in many ways to be admired; he was taking a stand for what he believed--and was endeavoring to come down on the side of truth. It was a great beginning; and yet--as I mentioned earlier--it was incomplete. You see, at the time, Luther had seen one issue in particular, and acted upon it; but what Luther wanted was reform. He still felt an allegiance to the Pope; as he himself said, even at that time, "I would have been ready to murder--at least I would have been glad to see and help that murder should be done--on all who would not be obedient and subject to the Pope, even to his smallest word" (Rupp, 55).
The history of the Jewish nation is one of a series of apostasies, often followed by a reformation. The nation of Judah would slip into excess and idolatry; then a king would come along that feared the Lord, and some changes would be made. Reform would come, but it was not complete.
In 2 Chronicles 34, though, we read the account of a great king--one that did not simply try to make reforms: King Josiah. We're told in verse one that he began his reign at the tender age of eight; and in verse two, that "He did right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left." This is because, at the age of 16, he began to seek the God of his father David, and when he was 20, he began to cause real change in the land. In verses three through seven, we find that he began to purge Israel of the idolatry that had plagued it; he tore down the images, and broke them to pieces, even going so far as to grind them to powder. He even burned the bones of the idolatrous priests on their altars, just as had been prophesied three hundred years earlier: in 1 Kings 13:2, a prophet "…cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, 'O altar, altar, thus says the LORD, "Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you."'"
But the most impressive change was still to come. When good King Josiah was 26, he sent men to repair the temple of God. They performed their work faithfully, as is recorded in verses eight through thirteen; but in verse fourteen, a priest found hidden among the things of the temple, forgotten in all those years of neglect and disuse, was a "book of the law of the Lord given by Moses." The scribe that was overseeing the project read the book (2 Kings 22:8); and when he reported all that was going on, he told the king of the book--and more than that, he read it to him. Verse 19 tells us how the king reacted: "When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes." Now, that seems like a strange custom to us, but to the ancient Jew, it had significance; you see, for the Jew, that was a sign of deep distress and mourning! In fact, verse 27 reveals that his heart was tender and that he humbled himself before God, and furthermore, that he wept because of what had been read in his hearing. He knew that they had not been keeping the commands of God; he saw a real need for change!
That being the case, he didn't keep it to himself; "The king went up to the house of the LORD and all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites and all the people, from the greatest to the least; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant written in this book" (v30,31). He made a covenant to keep the Law, and more than that, he made all those who dwelt in Jerusalem to do the same thing.
Josiah intended to be faithful to all that God commanded; and so immediately, he re-instituted those feasts that Judah had so long ago forgotten. They prepared for and celebrated the Passover to God in such a way that in 35:18, we read, "There had not been celebrated a Passover like it in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; nor had any of the kings of Israel celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
Josiah recognized something that so many fail to recognize today: if, in dealing with the things of God, we find that we have drifted from the truth, we cannot try to reform our practices; we must restore the practices that God intended from the beginning. When they found the book of the law, and learned that what they had been doing was inadequate--even though they were trying hard to serve God before they found it--they immediately began to serve God in the ways that were outlined in His word.
Because of this, a great tribute is written of him in 2 Kings 23:25: "Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him."
Sadly, it may be that the word of God is for us, very much like it was in the days of Josiah: forgotten through years of neglect and disuse--even if it's in clear view, on the mantle, or on the coffee table, simply collecting dust. If it is, we need to find it! We have to crack it open, and allow it's light to shine on us! It may be that we have for years been serving God as best we can in ignorance; doing those things that seem right to us, following the lead of others that are around us. Look in the scriptures! Read it for yourself! Just like Josiah, we can understand God's will for us; and if we have been worshiping God in a way that is not in accordance with His will, we cannot simply try to bend or shape our practices to make it more closely align to what is in scripture. We must restore those practices that we see written in His truth.
In fact, the same principles apply even if we have not neglected the scriptures. Simply because we study often doesn't mean that we have all the truth; that's why we study--to better understand the truth! And if it is pointed out that we are doing something at variance with scripture, we are obligated to change! As is often pointed out, the Bereans in Acts 17:11 were considered more noble-minded because they examined the scriptures daily to see if what Paul had been teaching them was the truth; and because they studied, they believed. They had the right attitude: they studied to know the truth, and when they found it, they changed!
Now, Luther would later break with the Roman church; but his intentions in the beginning were never to do so. In the end, a great number of people would begin to follow him and his ideas in much the same way that others did the teachings of the church Luther broke from.
As children of God, we have a great responsibility to His word: we cannot have an eye to reformation--in other words, trying to re-form or mold the church and it's practices to make it closer to what it should be; rather we must have a heart of restoration. We must be willing to examine our practices and to change them anytime we find them to be at variance with scripture; not simply adapting the old, but making a complete break with anything that is not in accordance with the will of God.
May we ourselves behave in such a way that at the end of time we will be able to say that like good King Josiah, we turned to the LORD with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might. Then, and only then, can we expect to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant..." (Mt 25:21)
