From Reformation to Reformation

"In my Bible classes at the local Christian University, more the 90% of the students come from some sort of Evangelical background; they grew up in church.  However, through informal polling I have discovered that less than 1% are able to say that they have read the entire Bible, and less than 3% claim to have done substantial reading in the Bible.  Although sad, these numbers are not inconsistent with statistics concerning Biblical literacy among Americans professing faith in Christ.

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"About 500 year ago, some of the great teachers of the Church (Luther, Zwingli, Tydale, Calvin, Knox, etc.), engaged in a heroic struggle with the Roman Church to make the Bible available again to the people of God, through translation, reading, and preaching; and by the blessing of God the voice of Christ sounded in the ears of His people again from pulpits all over Europe.  The voice of Christ reformed the Church, and changed the world; 'never man spake like this man' (John 7:46).

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"Unhappily, the Bible is largely a closed book again.  Indeed, there are Bibles aplenty, and churches on every street-corner; yet the Scriptures are neglected, the Church makes little impact upon the culture, and souls languish in darkness.  The Reformation has passed, and we await another...

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"If we understand what the Scriptures are, the loss is incalculable.  The Scriptures are nothing less than the voice of Jesus Christ speaking to us about Himself and the salvation that He has brought.  1 Peter 1:10, 11:  'Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.'  In this passage, we see that the prophets did not speak of their own accord, but the Spirit of Christ was speaking in them; and He spoke of Himself, His suffering for sins and the glory that should follow.  What a longing this creates in the believing soul for the Word of God, and those precious hours spent listening to Him!

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"We must return to a serious-minded discipleship.  Everywhere in Scripture we are called 'disciples'.  A disciple is a learner or student.  If you take a math class, the teacher delivers lessons; and, after a certain amount of time, you are expected to demonstrate a mastery of those lessons, usually through testing.  So it is in the school of Christ.  Consider carefully the Apostle's expectation and complaint in Hebrews 5:11-6:3:  If today Christ were to assign you a grade as a student, based upon the amount of time you have been enrolled in His school, would your grade been an occasion of rejoicing or lamentation?

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"The purpose of this ministry is to provide the tools for laying a firm foundation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the fundamentals of Christian doctrine and living, and for growing to maturity, the fullness of the lovely image of the Savior Himself."

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Dr. Dilday

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