Herald of Holiness Volume 81 Number 10 (1992) Wesley D
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Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today Church of the Nazarene 10-1-1992 Herald of Holiness Volume 81 Number 10 (1992) Wesley D. Tracy (Editor) Nazarene Publishing House Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Tracy, Wesley D. (Editor), "Herald of Holiness Volume 81 Number 10 (1992)" (1992). Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today. 82. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh/82 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Herald of Holiness "Go ye therefore. and teach all nations . i f From the earliest days of the Church of the Nazarene there has been a great part nership between evangelism and education. These twin thrusts from the Great Commission continue to be expressed through Nazarene higher education around the world. Fall is harvesttime, and this fall thousands of students are enrolled in Nazarene col leges and universities. In addition to receiving a high quality education in an environment of faith, these students are preparing for lives of service. Our schools are • Conserving the harvest • Preparing workers for the harvest • Are a harvest unto themselves Nazarene colleges and universities are inseparably linked to the church in a part nership of ministry. Take an active role in this important part of the harvest by • praying regularly for our schools • encouraging young people to attend • continuing the strong financial support provided by educational budgets and special gifts NAZARENE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND GREAT BRITAIN Canadian Nazarene College Nazarene Theological Seminary Eastern Nazarene College Northwest Nazarene College MidAmerica Nazarene College Olivet Nazarene University Mount Vernon Nazarene College Point Loma Nazarene College Nazarene Bible College Southern Nazarene University Nazarene Theological College— Manchester, England Trevecca Nazarene College Herald o f Holiness CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE Volume 81, Number 10 FEATURE ARTICLES OCTOBER 1992 2 24 Our Protestant When Parents Heart to Heart Heritage Grow Old T o m F e l d e r R o b L. St a p l e s M a r il y n F a n n in g CONTINUING COLUMNS 7 The Family Album 26 Jerry and Lynda Cohagan Counting the Cost 9 General 20 of Care-Giving Superintendent’s “Honor Thy Father M a r y V a u g h n A r m s t r o n g Viewpoint and Thy Mother” John A. Knight B e t t y B e n s o n R o b e r t s o n 10 When You Pray E. Dee Freeborn 11 In a Woman’s Voice Rebecca Laird 33 Into the Word Roger L. Hahn 38 Close to Home Tom Felder 43 Observer at Large W. E. McCumber DEPARTMENTS 30 8 Editor’s Choice A Book, A Burden, Wesley D. Tracy and A Blessing 12 The Readers Write E u g e n e L. St o w e 14- 18, 39-41 News Mark Graham Tom Felder 36 19 Words and Music Polishing 35 The Question Box Manuscripts and 42 Late News Mark Graham Perfecting Tom Felder Character 47 Marked Copy P a u l in e E. S pr a y Mark Graham OUR PROTESTANT HERITAGE Reflections for Reformation Day BY ROB L. STAPLES, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, NAZARENE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY t was exactly 475 years ago ship in Protestant churches. pay for human sin. The underlying this October 31 that a Listen! Can you not still hear the theory was that Jesus and His saints young Augustinian monk, blows of Luther’s hammer? Or had accumulated a “treasury of with an ache in his heart have they grown dim across the merits” that was at the disposal of and fire in his blood, centuries? the pope, who could draw on it for walkedI up the steps of the Castle Our century has not spoken the benefit of those sinners who Church in Wittenberg, Germany. In much about “reformation.” Our were in arrears. his right hand he carried a hammer, times have heard more about In Luther’s time, an indulgence and in his left hand a long sheet of rebellion and revolution. permitted a certain amount of sin paper on which he had written 95 But the Church of the late Mid ning without penalty. It was also de theses, or propositions, which chal dle Ages was sadly in need of refor clared that an indulgence could end lenged the then current teaching mation. Christianity had become a the stay of a departed soul in pur and practice of the Roman Catho gatory. Pope Leo X needed money lic Church. to finish St. Peter’s C athedral in Pausing a moment at the top of Rome, then under construction. the stairs and drawing a deep The sale of indulgences offered a breath, Martin Luther placed a nail The indulgence traffic lucrative method of raising the into position, raised his hammer, was the bingo of the 16th funds. Yale University church his posted his theses on the church torian, Roland Bainton, described door, and set in motion the theo century. indulgences as “the bingo of the logical earthquake known as the 16th century.” Protestant Reformation. Into Germany there came a Do The passersby hardly noticed it. minican friar named John Tetzel, a It was a common thing for anyone means of saving the soul from hell, supersalesman hawking the pope’s with an announcement to make to rather than of “glorifying God” in wares and chanting a little jingle post it on the church door so the this life. The Church had become a that sounds like a modern Madison townspeople could read it as they sort of travel agency, selling tickets Avenue television commercial: came to mass. The church door to heaven. Grace had become a “As soon as the coin in the served as the community bulletin “substance,” a sort of “heavenly coffer rings. board. medicine” infused into the soul The soul from purgatory But the sound of Luther’s ham through the seven sacraments, springs.” mer blows echoed beyond that which themselves had become im Martin Luther could not stand churchyard and set up reverber personal. Justification was by silently and allow this corrupt prac ations that were eventually felt works. The Church was involved in tice to go on. He asserted that if the around the world and that shook politics and in the sale of indul pope really had the power to empty the very foundations of Christen gences. And in the matter of indul purgatory of sinners, he should do dom. Because Luther had the cour gences, we have one of the most so promptly, and without charge! It age to go on public record for what gruesome chapters in the history of was to attack this practice that Lu he truly believed, contrary as it was Christianity. ther posted his 95 theses, offering to to the accepted teachings of the in An indulgence may be described debate the doctrine of indulgences stitutional Church, you and I wor as a draft on the bank of heaven to with anyone who would accept the 2 Herald of Holiness Martin Luther, from a 1522 woodcut. The Church had become a sort of travel agency, selling tickets to heaven. challenge. Who Was This Bold Challenger? Who was this little monk who dared to challenge the might of Rome? Note the following high lights of his spiritual odyssey. The preaching that Luther heard in his youth convinced him that God was a God of wrath to be feared—not loved. When told to love God, Luther replied: “I cannot love God; I hate Him!” When a close friend died sud denly, Luther realized that he him Deborah K. Smith self was afraid to die. Later, while a law student at the University of Er furt, he was caught in a violent gotten there.” to Rome, the holy city. He thought thunderstorm one night while But slowly the Holy Spirit began that in Rome he could amass good walking through a forest. He was to give him new insights. From the works and thus avert the wrath of knocked to the ground by light German mystics he learned that God. But he was sadly disillu ning. In fear, he cried out to the real religion must be a heart re- sioned. In Rome, 40,000 people lay Mother of the Virgin Mary, “St. in melancholy waste, the Church Anne, help me! I will become a apparently not caring. The pope, he monk.” Soon he entered an Augus- “If ever a monk could discovered, was a selfish politician. tinian monastery, telling his friends, There were prostitutes in the streets “You will see me henceforth never get to heaven by monk of this “City of God.” Luther was more.” ery, I would have gotten compelled to lament: “To live pi In the monastery he sought to ously, one must leave Rome.” save his soul and to win salvation there.” Yet in Rome, Luther said masses in the time-honored Catholic with the Italian priests. He visited way—by prayer, fasting, and mor the supposed burning bush of Mo tification. He kept vigil night after ligion. From Augustine he learned ses, saw the so-called coins col night; he submitted himself to all the meaning of sin and grace.