Magyar Egyház, 1958 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1958-10-01 / 10. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH THE STRENGTH OF THE REFORMERS And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statues with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. (II Kings 23:3.) Amon, the King of Judah, forsook the Lord and segued and worshipped idols as his father did. When Amon was slain within the walls of his own palace, his eight-year-old son, Josiah, became king. Josiah was wiser tha his father and followed God’s will. He ordered that the temple should be repaired. During this repair job a great discovery was made. There was found an ancient manuscript, the Book of the Law. It was recognized as the Law of God. The youthful king called his people together and made a covenant before the Lord. He pledged himself to obey the covenant and the people joined with him. Josiah became a beloved ruler and one of the great reformers of the Old Testament times. What was the secret of his success? He found strength and inspiration from God’s Word. In the 16th century there was a young man. A Roman Catholic monk. His name was Martin Luther. As a young man he had an uneasy conscience, and he was searching for peace of mind within the walls of the monastery. He went through intensive study, prayers, fastings, penances, and long vigils. But still he did not find what he was looking for. Finally, in the library, he found a Bible. In the gospels and the epistles to the Romans and Galatians he found what he was looking for. He found that the salvation he sought was not to be achieved as a reward for merit, but was already given him by the grace of God, and was to be received by faith. With this discovery came the long-sought peace of mind, and the beginning in his soul of a conviction that was to launch the reformation. With this discovery a reformer was born. We have many mistaken ideas about reformers. We often think that a refromer is an individual who is forever condenmning, criticizing, nagging. This view is wrong. The reformer of any century looks ahead when the eyes of others are focused only on the present situation. The reformer is a faithful man who follows after the ways of God, whatever other men do or say. We also think and say that a protester is always against something. Someone who does not like anything rue have. Our word “Protestant” however, is derived from the Latin word meaning "to affirm” or "to witness.’’ Protestantism began not so much in the mood of condemnation as in the spirit of affirming, witnessing great truth which had been neglected or forgotten. Luther affirmed these great neglected or forgotten truths: that 1. all men are equal before God; 21 every faithful man may approach God without the assistance of any mediator except Jesus Christ; 3. the Bible should become the book of all people. And as in the time of Josiah, the people joined him. Many sufferings, many trials came to Luther for his conviction, but nothing could make him deny the truths he found. What was the secret of Luther’s courage? Luther found strength and inspiration from Gad’s Word. The Word of God gave strength and inspiration to the reformers and many believers. We Christians of the 20th century need the strength and inspiration from the Bible. Let us follow the examples of the reformers and search the Bible for God’s revelation for our days. Let us have the spirit of the reformers and be faithful to God and His way, whatever other men do or say. Let us be true protestants by affirming and witnessing the truths found in the Bible, the truths which have been neglected or forgotten in our days. Kálmán Adorján. --------------o-------------The Creative Minority By CHARLES A. DAROCY The historian Arnold J. Toynbee, in his monumental study of the rise and fall of civilizations, has noted that the role of the creative minority is far more important than had heretofore been imagined. According to his thesis, the actual progress of any civilization depends largely upon the intellectual and spiritual attainments of a relatively small group within it. No civilization can survive deadly assults from without unless it is strengthened by an internal minority which gives it direction and resiliency. Dr. Toynbee’s thesis has been amazingly well demonstrated by our parent body, the Reformed Church in Hungary. A minority since the days of the dreadful and bloody Counter-Reformation, it has had to rely upon its own spiritual resources for survival. Its history amply shows what a minority can do. The Hungarian language is the gift of the Reformation. Károlyi’s rendering of the Holy Bible set the standard for the language, as did the Authorized Version in Great Britain. The emphasis upon integrity and education made the Reformed believer a force to be reckoned with. The idealism natural to believers in the liberating Gospel saved our Reformed folk from
