The Gospel Truth

 

Two books I’m currently reading, a date on the calendar, my son’s school project, and the Bible lesson I taught on Sunday evening from Acts have all come together with one powerful truth: Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. We all know this; we have accepted this truth and rest in it, yet it is good still to be reminded of the beauty of it and not take for granted that we have been taught this powerful gospel message.

In Bullies and Saints, author John Dickson begins his book on the good and the bad in church history by writing about the Crusades in the Middle Ages. In 637, Jerusalem was taken by Muslim armies. Over 400 years later, in 1095, Pope Urban called for a crusade to fight the Muslims and reclaim Jerusalem. He stated the following, “Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance” (5). In other words, whoever would go fight this battle would be saved and have their sins forgiven. More crusades followed, and in preparation for the fifth crusade in 1213, Pope Innocent “promised ‘full forgiveness of sins’ for all who, with a contrite heart, participated in the venture” (14). Can you imagine living during that time? You’re longing for salvation, to be accepted by a holy God, and you are told that if you fight a battle hundreds of miles from home, you will be saved from your sins. No wonder men (and even children!) lined up to fight.

I’m also reading a biography of Empress Maria Theresa who ruled over Austria, Hungary, and the Bohemian lands in the mid-1700s. She was a devout Catholic and was very concerned about the eternal salvation of her husband and children (one of whom was Marie Antoinette).  Maria Theresa found consolation in the fact that when her twelve-year-old daughter lay dying from smallpox, this daughter “did penance for three quarters of an hour, with a scrupulousness, regret, and devotion that brought her confessor to tears” (675, Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time). In contrast, when Maria Theresa’s husband died of a heart attack, there was no time for him to speak to a confessor and take the Eucharist before he died. She was thus very concerned about his eternal soul, finding comfort in the fact that he had been at Mass that morning. However, she still established a group of ladies in the city in which her husband died who would pray for his soul in perpetuity (698).

Thankfully, amidst these false teachings about salvation, God had preserved a remnant who would teach the true gospel. In the 1500s (after the Crusades and before Maria Theresa), there was a large revival – a movement across Europe back to the truth of the gospel news: Salvation is by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. We call this time the Reformation. October 31, 1517 is often seen as the day when it really got started – when Martin Luther nailed a set of statements, known as the 95 Theses, on a church door in Wittenberg. These statements argued against the false teachings of the Catholic Church, stating that salvation came from God and not through other means. My son Stephen is currently working on a project in which he has to research the contributions of nine of the reformers. Because of them and others (including women!), the gospel message gained ground throughout the lands of Europe and eventually came to America with the Pilgrims.

On Sunday night, my Bible study group looked at Acts 9 – the story of the conversion of Paul. Paul’s salvation did not include fighting in a battle declared salvific by a pope or confessing regularly to a priest and being sure to take the Eucharist before his death. No, an encounter with Christ was enough to cause him to place his faith in Him. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans what it takes to be saved: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Praise God!

--Amy O’Rear