Challenging the contemporary Church to a reaffirmation of its historic beliefs and a reexamination of its ecclesial
practices and exhortations.
It has been almost 500 years since Martin Luther posted his ninety‐five theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. Two months prior to that posting, on September 4, 1517, Luther had written, and sent to the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, ninety‐seven theses against scholastic theology. He was stonewalled – there was no reaction or response to his statements. In October of 1517 Martin Luther wrote his list of ninety‐five theses against indulgences. This time he collaborated with his friend Lucas Cranach (the elder), a painter and printer living in Wittenberg.
The ninety‐five theses were reportedly posted on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, but more importantly they utilized the relatively new communication medium of movable type and printing, whereby printed copies of the ninety‐five theses were distributed to major churches and universities throughout the region, and even as far as Rome. Utilizing the methodological means of contemporary
technological media, the ninety‐five theses made a major impact on the entire church and changed the course of Western history.
In formulating this list of ninety‐five theses for the twenty‐first century church, and utilizing the latest of technological tools for their distribution and dissemination, we could wish that these theses might have as great an impact. Our objective is to challenge the contemporary institutional church to reconsider some of its teaching and practice. These thesis statements are not intended to be just another critical complaint against the contemporary church, but they are published as a positive declaration of the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ, with accompanying correctives that might be addressed.
Some will object to this challenge of the ecclesiastical status quo, thinking that in critiquing the thought and practice of the church we are casting doubts about Christianity or even denigrating the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not so! Earlier in the year 1517, prior to his posting his original ninety‐five theses on the Wittenberg Castle Church door, Martin Luther stated in one of his sermons, “Where Christ is, there He will always go against the flow.” This is a most insightful and significant statement. The living Lord Jesus Christ is not content with the status‐quo of “business as usual,” and will always counter the routine of religion in order to assure a dynamic and spontaneous expression of His ever unique and novel work in Christian individuals and in His church.
The theses enumerated below contain both theological and methodological statements, addressing both the teaching and the practice of the Christian community. Several of the initial statements are reiterations of the historic creedal assertions of theChurch, which must be maintained and reaffirmed.
Several of the subsequent theological theses challenge the interpretations of some of the subsidiary tenets of Christian thought. Following the theological considerations, attention is turned to the praxis of the
Christian life and various practices in the ecclesiastical
communities. Many of the ministry methods employed in the contemporary church are abominably misrepresentative of the gospel of Jesus Christ and need to be challenged and reconsidered.
What response might we expect? A “new reformation” will not be an adequate response or reaction. To attempt to rebuild upon the present crumbling religious superstructure by re‐forming existing policies and ideological systems is to invite disaster. The situation requires a complete restoration of the grace dynamic of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whereby the “old wineskins” (Matthew 9:17) of the religious status‐quo are discarded and the “new wine” of the living Lord Jesus is allowed to fill Christian individuals and the collective expression of the Church.
These ninety‐five theses for the twenty‐first century Church are written with the sincere desire that the reality of the living Lord Jesus and the genuine manifestation of His life in His Body, the Church, might be allowed full expression by the power of God’s Spirit.
May the Church of Jesus Christ cease to “quench the Spirit” (I Thess. 5:19) and “grieve the Spirit” (Ephesians
4:30), as God continues to “fill with His Spirit” (Eph.
5:18) and fully reveals Himself within His new creation
unto His own glory (II Peter 1:3).
Preface
Jesus explained that the gates of hell/hades shall not ultimately prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18) and the Christian faith. That does not mean that distortion and misrepresentation do not pervade and infect the temporal expression of the ecclesia. Our prefatory premise is that this present situation of the church should be addressed and corrected, and to that end we do hereby set forth this series of theses to be considered by God’s people.
We respect the historic expressions of the Christian faith from previous generations. The timehonored statements of the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed should not be jettisoned, but retained as valid expressions of Christian orthodoxy, whereby we “contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). These present theses do not contradict or deny the scripturally documented ecclesiastical consensus of the past.
We invite all who call themselves “Christians” to consider and discuss the following theses. May such discussion be conducted in “the love (Romans 15:30) and unity (Ephesians 4:3) of the Spirit” that “we might all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). “Come, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).
by James Fowler