On Oct. 31, 1517, the Protestant Reformation changed everything.
And today, says evangelical leader and Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) President Dr. Richard Land, Christians are still living under its blessings.
Land will speak about the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at SES’s National Conference on Christian Apologetics (NCCA),which will focus on the timely theme of “Pursuing a Faith That Thinks.” One of the largest events of its kind, the two-day conference will delve into headline-making topics on Oct. 13-14 at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For 25 years, SES has been educating Christians about how to best defend their beliefs.
“We cannot let the 500th anniversary of the Reformation go by uncelebrated and unnoticed,” Land said. “We are still living with the blessings of Martin Luther’s words, ‘Here I stand, I can do no other’ and his insistence of ‘sola Scriptura,’ that the Word of God is the sole authority that rules the Christian life. We are still experiencing these blessings, yet these tenets are still under attack. We must continue to reaffirm the ideals of the Reformation and apply them to today’s culture.”
The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that set in place the structures and beliefs that defined the modern era. Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice and argued for a religious and political redistribution of power. The disruption triggered wars, persecutions and the so-called counter-Reformation.
In fact, Land added, all five solas, or Latin phrases that emerged during the Reformation, continue to be under attack:
- Sola Scriptura—”Scripture alone”
- Sola Fide—”Faith alone”
- Sola Gratia—”Grace alone”
- Solus Christus—”Christ alone”
- Soli Deo Gloria—”Glory of God alone”
Besides Land and SES cofounder Norman Geisler, the SES apologetics conference will welcome top-name speakers such as Michael Brown, Gary Habermas, Ken Ham, Greg Koukl, J. P. Moreland, Jay Richards, Hugh Ross, Frank Turek, J. Warner Wallace and many more. {eoa}
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