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500 Years and Beyond

Many of you have been loyal readers of this blog for a while, and I'm sure you've noticed a long layoff from writing.  I have taken time away to do some other writing and decided to stop blogging during this time. 

I'm posting this to say that very soon I'll be doing a weekly blog - beginning in September.  It will be a weekly blog with a theme that will continue for several weeks.  
It's also being linked to the roll-out of a newly designed website for our church f - New Life Fellowship.  

Over the course of the last few months I've been doing a lot of reading.  I'm spending my time studying the great foundational themes of the Reformation.
As you might remember we are celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation this year.  
It was on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther, a Pastor and Professor, Theologian and Teacher, posted his Ninety-Five Theses to the Castle Church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, and called for a hearing on the Catholic church practices that involved a person's salvation.  

Luther was appalled by the practices of Indulgences - the raising of funds for the Roman Church through the sale of "promises for the release of souls from purgatory".  The Roman church's abuse of this was inconsistent with the great teaching of salvation - as Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-9 
4  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.
6  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9  not by works, so that no one can boast. 

The Reform of the Church Luther began spread throughout Europe.  Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin in Switzerland were not far behind Luther.  All together the Reformation raised Five Crucial Pillars that would become the historical record of what the Reformers brought to the Church in order for it to be true.

The Five Solas can be summarized this way:


Over the course of this Fall I want to take some time to focus on why these five "Solas" are so foundational for our faith.  

I'm back blogging...and hope you will come along as I "muse" my way into this 500th anniversary celebation.

Peace

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