How Reformation Affected Your Life

It doesn't matter if you are Christian, atheist, or agnostic. Reformation affected your life. It is 500

years to the day since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, a modern equivalent of a Facebook post ( yes you can thank Martin Luther for Facebook), which began the Reformation.

And though Roman Catholic Church still mourns this historic event as a  tragedy that brought division to their Church, and a wave of violence to Europe, it also brought the Western world civil liberties, freedom of conscience, science, modern democratic values, and a sharp increase in both knowledge and the standards of living among ordinary people. All the things you enjoy everyday and take for granted.

In standing up to the papacy in matters of faith and conscience and encouraging people to know God and the Bible for themselves by translating the sacred texts into German, Luther began a spiritual and literary revolution in Germany, and the rest of Europe. People wanted to learn to read, so they could read the Bible and the writings of Luther, as well as other reformers. Soon political leaders also began to stand up to the papacy since people stopped believing in their ability to condemn them to hell for any act  of disobedience which eventually led to separation of church and state, which we so value today. The Catholic Church could not control people like they used to since the priests were no longer the only ones who could read and interpret the Scriptures, so they began to enjoy not only freedom of faith, but also became free to discover the world around them and how it worked as their expression of faith thus beginning the scientific revolution, which makes it quite ironic today for some atheist scientists to accuse Christians of being anti-science when it was them who laid the foundations for it.

There was also initially a big wave of violence against the Church and state, but it was not as much a result of Reformation ( Luther never incited anyone to violence) as the result of  spiritual, economic, and political oppression the common people endured under the Roman Catholic Church and Aristocracy controlled by it. Many people sought revenge. It was like taking the lid off od the pressure cooker, but once it ebbed away Europe was on a path to much more prosperity and advancements in every area of life.

You might even say that Luther began the first social media revolution comparable to invention of the Internet. His writing written in common German circulated all over Germany  thus unifying German language, and the same happened in other countries and their languages. Puritans took the ideals of Reformation to America, which made it into  the most powerful and prosperous country in the world. I dare say that America would never become what it is today if Reformation never happened, so whether you knew it or not Reformation affected your very life in countless ways. What changes did one man bring into the world! It is amazing when you think about it. One lowly unknown priest in a little unknown university town changed the world.

But then, so did Jesus. He also came into this world as a lowly carpenter  from very little esteemed Jewish village of Nazareth. Didn't He say that whoever believes and follows Him will do great things? Do likewise. Be the light to this world. Your words and actions have more impact on the world around you than you know.

Author's Note: Photo of the Martin Luther statue by John Rallison

Road Side Bomb Explosion In Germany And What To Make of Donald Trump's Move Against Syria

A lot has been happening lately in world politics, but I am going to tackle two events today and what they mean in terms of biblical prophecy, and what can we expect moving forward.

The first is the roadside bomb that exploded yesterday in Germany clearly targeting one of the elite soccer teams in Germany, Borussia Dortmund. Thankfully no one was killed. We are used to seeing such attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan, but now we are seeing them in Germany. This  is coming at the heels of series of Islamist truck  and knife attacks. If it is discovered that indeed this attack too was conducted by an Islamist who gave his allegiance to ISIS or some other terror group, it will continue the heated discussion about Angela Merkel's open door policy for refugees from Islamic countries( and refugee policies of other countries) as ISIS also claimed the responsibility for a bomb attack against a Coptic church in Egypt, and after a chemical attack in Syria that Assad regime is accused of conducting based on the statements of witnesses.


But what it was the ISIS and not the Assad regime who was behind this attack? The Islamists'  openly proclaimed goal is to draw western military forces ( esp.American) into the battle with Islamic forces in Dabiq, located near the Syria-Turkey border.


Now, that they are losing ground in Iraq they might want to provoke the Americans and the rest of the Western world to a military campaign there that would unleash a long Iraq style conflict, which they could later claim as the fulfillment of the Islamic "Dabiq Prophecy."


The American President, Donald Trump, might have wanted to send a strong message to anyone using chemical weapons that he is going to respond in order to deter such attacks, but he might be unwittingly be pulled into the type of military campaign he never wanted to participate in, as well  as create a greater conflict with Russia, Iran, and possibly Turkey over it.


We must pray it will not happen, but if it does happen it might bring the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy about the destruction of Damascus , which also spells out trouble for Israel, but also a supernatural deliverance.


These are no matter how we look at it, a very prophetic times in which we are living.