October 31

While I’ve carved pumpkins, purchased candy and helped prepare my children for Halloween, I have been most interested with thoughts of the 500th anniversary of the great reformation that will no doubt be celebrated on Halloween day just 8 years from now.

October 31, 1517 was the day that monk, professor and reformer Martin Luther addressed evils in the church. He presented his position in a document that has come to be know as the 95 thesis’. While the reformation is a movement that had been set into motion a hundred or more years earlier, it is October 31st that will generally be associated with its advent. In this document, Luther advocated for ‘sola fide’, that justification is by faith alone. He urged the church to stop preaching an practicing a belief that our right standing before God is achieved by our actions. Since this is at the core of what we believe, halloween provides something of greater significance to consider.