Reformation Day & Halloween Roundup
Two Hundred Proof Grace
Happy Reformation Day and Happy Halloween!
Today is perhaps my favorite day of the year as it is a day that allows me to reflect deeply on the grace of God in Christ.
This Capon quote says it best..
“The reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two hundred proof grace—of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel—after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started. Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale, neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.” –Robert F. Capon
Brief Thoughts on Halloween
Four Ways to Make Halloween More Fun - Anne Kennedy - “The best way to approach a holiday like Halloween is as a Christian. Halloween, as many of you know, is the day before All Saints Day. Christians, you might also be aware, believe in the unseen spiritual world, in things like the dead rising from the grave, the existence of Satan and all the spiritual forces that rebel against God, the power and scariness of spiritual darkness. The thing is, those things are all bound and controlled by God. They don’t exist all by themselves. The only way they can ever be fun is if God, who is the Light, who has already defeated Satan, has the power to keep your soul and body safe with him forever.”
Jesus Could Come Tonight (All Hallow's Eve) - Kenneth Tanner - I stumbled upon this post by Ken a few years ago and I come back to it often. For Christians, Halloween is an opportunity to practice generosity and to show the world that we believe in a generous God, not a stingy one (James 2:18).
Or as my friend Alex Early would say, “If Jesus was here, he would give out King Size Reeses” and “It is your Christian duty to give out king-sized candy bars.”
And for an excellent take on all of this, check out the short video below.
Read
Happy Reformation Day from Mockingbird - A whole slew of good Reformation Day reads.
5 Things You Should Know About Martin Luther - Stephen Nichols over at Ligonier
9 Things You Should Know about Halloween and Reformation Day - Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition
Resources for Reformation Day - Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition, this blog is a bit older and some of the links might not work. I apologize.
Watch
Stream the Luther Documentary for Free - If you’ve never seen Luther: The Life and Legacy of the German Reformer, I can’t recommend this enough.
Luther (2003) Streaming Free - The Ralph Fiennes Luther film is quite good, albeit a little dated. When I was single, my roommates and I would watch this every year whilst drinking German beer and handing out lots of candy.
When Halloween and Reformation Day Combine (r/t David Zahl)
Happy Reformation Day!