Pro-Testament

When I was a teen, one of the greatest insults you could call someone was a, “nerd.” Now-a-days, some people take on the “insult” as a badge of honour. I’m thinking of tech-nerds. I even saw a t-shirt that proclaimed, “I’m a Jesus Nerd!”

A similar sort of thing happened to the word “protestant.” It was a kind-of dismissive term, used by people who were opposed to the Reformation. They were saying that the Reformers were just a bunch of protesters. But before that, the Reformers relished in the title because it meant that they were pro-Testament. In other words, they were in favour of holding the Bible above many of the practices and abuses that had evolved in the church.

That’s not to say that the only authority for the Protestants was the Bible. The Anglican Church, for example, holds scripture as primary, but also uses tradition and reason to inform our teaching and practice.

When we speak of tradition, we don’t mean antiquated or old fashioned ways of doing thinks. We mean that the Holy Spirit continues to direct and move the people of God. And when we speak of reason we mean that it would seem odd to not use the God-given abilities we have to further discern God’s will. For example, one of the parable refers to mustard seeds as the smallest of all seeds. Reason tells us that this is simply not true. Does this mean that the parable is useless? Of course not, it means that we use our reason to look beyond the surface of the parable to it’s intended meaning.

One of the negative and unintentional results of the Reformation is the modern and extreme understanding that the Bible is held above everything else, leaving no room for tradition and reason. The false battle between religion and science is a prime example of this misunderstanding of the Reformation.

All this to say that, God is not through with us yet. God continues to inspire God’s people today. The Holy Spirit leads, sometimes pushes us, to unexpected and seemingly dangerous places, all for God’s glory.