October 31, 2003

We have just passed Reformation Day, on which we commemorated Martin Luther posting his ninety-five theses on 31 October, 1517. It was a great day in history, a great day to be thankful for, a great day so long, long ago. It was an event which was part of a different world, Europe at the end of the medieval age, a world quite unlike ours today. We may be apt to think that the events of such a different time are an important part of our past but have no bearing on our present and future. That would be a mistaken notion. Circumstances change from age to age, but human nature and the nature of human society are essentially the same. The errors of sinful minds repeat themselves from age to age. Solomon, speaking by the Holy Spirit, told us that "there is no new thing under the sun," Ecclesiates 1:9. I have spent August, September and October in Zambia on a mission assignment, and am now back at the Frontline Fellowship base in Capetown. While in Zambia, I saw a lot of parallels to Europe at the time of the Reformation.

Operation World lists Zambia as 85% Christian, half of whom are Roman Catholic. Literacy is 78%, but it is declining, with functional literacy under 25%. Prior to the Reformation, the great mass of Europe's population was also poorly educated. The clergy, instead of uplifting the people with knowledge, reduced the religion of Christ Jesus, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3), to a religion of ignorance. They provided ceremonies which felt spiritual and pious but imparted no knowledge. They provided images of Jesus and the saints as picture-props for teaching the most basic story outlines of the Bible and church history. The images they defended as "books for the laity," since they could not comprehend written theology. Q&A 98 of the Heidelberg Catechism reproves this and declares that God would have His people schooled in His Word. The Reformers promoted, for the first time in history, the idea that the entire populace should be educated. According to Loraine Boetner, "Wherever Calvinism has gone, it has carried the school with it and has given a powerful impulse to popular education. It is a system which demands intellectual manhood. In fact, we say that its very existence is tied up with education of the people." His comments testify to the fact that the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is a 'teaching religion.' Today in the slums of Zambia's capital and in its rural villages, there is a tremendous need for an increase of good teaching.

George Santayana said, "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it." The Church throughout the middle ages was given over to the error of violating the second commandment, making images for worship. In Zambia, most Christians know little or nothing of the medieval Church falling into this error, and as predicted, they are repeating it. Just about every Protestant home and church I entered had a painting of Jesus or a crucifix. Not knowing the Reformation heritage of deliverance from this error, they continue in it unawares.

Very popular are images of Jesus with Him pointing to His heart, which is out in front of His chest and is aflame. One poster I saw had the subscription, "I will bless the house where the image of my Sacred Heart is exposed and honoured." This was in the house of a Baptist woman, not a Roman Catholic. Display this image and Jesus will bless you! See how some will invent new teachings of God, and rather than teaching the truth of the Bible, just as at the time of the Reformation.

As the pre-Reformation church was given over to inventing superstitious practices, like sprinkling with holy water, so Zambia has preachers giving advice that rather than anointing the sick with oil, have them drink it, for greater effectiveness. As the medieval church had managed to include everyone, but failed to bring them to the washing of water by the Word (Eph 5:26), so 85% of Zambians have been brought to acknowledge Jesus, but most know precious little of the Truth (John 14:6). As the pre-Christian superstitions of Europe were still present alongside Catholicism in 1517, so today the old pagan traditions survive in Africa alongside Christianity. Just across the border into Zimbabwe, we stopped at The Good Shepherd Sculpture Centre. Must be owned by a Christian, right? Among the pieces the wooodcarving owner makes is a walking stick (like a four-foot totem pole) about the Stations of the Cross. When I asked him, he said that he believes the story of it. Yet his claim to fame is his Nyaminyami walking stick, which depicts the pagan beliefs and practices of the Tonga people. Nyaminyami is their river god of the Zambezi.

Frontline Fellowship runs a small pastor's training program called Covenant College in eastern Zambia. Some students there told me they were very glad that after years of performing pastoral ministry, they finally had been taught to understand the whole Bible. They said that many pastors draw all their sermons from just one or two books of the Bible, because they know they do not grasp the rest. With church leaders hamstrung by the poverty of their own learning, it is no wonder that errors can take root as they did in pre-Reformation Europe. As Boettner said, "Christianity is a teaching religion, and it demands intellectual manhood." It is the true religion of Truth, and the Truth must be taught. Yet one more thing will I mention that Zambia has in common with Europe at the Reformation; they knew little, but they hungered for good instruction. Please pray that God would raise up gifted, learned and faithful men to increase the knowledge of the truth in Zambia, as He did in Europe at the time of the Reformation.

In Christ,
Lawren M. Guldemond
Frontline Fellowship

"As long as I see anything to be done for God, life is worth living; but O, how vain and unworthy it is to live for any lower end!" -David Brainerd