Celebrating the Four Hundredth Anniversary of Protestantism by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1912

Celebrating the Four Hundredth Anniversary of Protestantism

By F. M. W.

In just five years (1917) we shall reach the four hundredth anniversary of perhaps the most significant event in the rise of Protestantism. Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Wittenberg church his ninety-five famous theses, or propositions, condemning the doctrines and practises of the Church of Rome. That act on his part, above any that went before it and perhaps even more than those which followed after, marked his separation from the mother church. It would be fitting indeed for the Protestant churches of the world to observe this anniversary.

Some there are who could enter wholeheartedly into it, thankful indeed for the liberties and privileges that have come to the world through the noble stand, under God, which this defender of the faith took for Bible truth. It is to be regretted, however, that many so-called Protestants have so far departed from the principles of this great Reformer as to consider his efforts an unwise innovation, and his work a failure, regarding him rather as a disturber of the peace and quiet of Christendom than as one raised up of God to sound a warning cry against the doctrines and superstitions of an indifferent and deluded church.

The preparation which the Protestants of America have been making for the celebration of this anniversary is pointedly stated by Luther Hess Waring, Ph. D., in his Washington Letter, published in the Lutheran Church Work of June 27, 1912:—

The four hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of the ninety-five theses on the castle church door at Wittenberg is but five years off. Our people, our government, and our present administration are making preparations to celebrate it; but they are strange, suggestive preparations. Here are some of them:—

1. We have in this national capital an annual Pan-American Thanksgiving mass held in one of the most prominent Roman Catholic churches of this city, attended by the President of the United States and members of his Cabinet.

2. A military memorial field mass was held here last year, attended by the President of the United States, Cardinal Gibbons, and a great concourse of people; and as I write, arrangements are announced for another one to be held Sunday, June 9, on the Monument grounds south of the White House, when President and Cardinal will again be the center of a huge throng.

3. Here in the capital city we have a juvenile court, almost every officer of which is a pronounced Roman Catholic. This court has gone so far as to judicially order infants before it to be baptized into the Roman Catholic faith, and girls, Protestant as well as Catholic, have been committed by it to Roman Catholic institutions.

4. We now have, resident in Washington, a papal or apostolic delegate from the Pope of Rome to the United States, who is entrusted with the duty of seeing that the laws enacted in this country are to the liking of “His Holiness the Pope” and to the interest of the Roman Catholic Church.

5. Every cardinal as a “prince of the blood” demands official and social recognition next to the President of the United States; that is, above the Vice-President, the United States Supreme Court Justices, governors of States, and the representatives of all the civil governments of the world.

6. An effort is on foot to introduce, if possible, by act of Congress, a national holiday to be known as Columbus day, which would practically establish a Roman Catholic Saints’ day.

7. Since the present chief executive entered office, nine out of nineteen army chaplains appointed were Roman Catholics. But two such appointments were made during the past year, and both of these appointees were Roman Catholics.

8. The Roman Catholic catechism is taught to-day in virtually every public-school building in the Philippine Islands under the jurisdiction of the United States; but Protestant teachers there are forbidden to teach their religion either in school or out of it.

9. The Roman Catholic Church refuses to recognize marriages between Roman Catholics and Protestants when performed by a Protestant minister, and declares them null and void, reckoning the offspring of all such unions illegitimate. The German emperor William II refused to allow this so-called Ne temere decree to be published or proclaimed in his dominions, and the Pope was compelled to withdraw its application to Germany.

Other items just as significant as these could be added; but these are enough to show one of the most seductive, one of the most aggressive, and one of the most daring and alarming tendencies of our day. Our government is passive and permissive, if not indeed actively acquiescing and approving, in many of these matters.

Awake, ye mighty hosts of the Reformation! and let us even now take steps that will faithfully and fittingly prepare the way for a worthy celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the mighty protest of Oct. 31, 1517.

As in the days of the Reformation, we are confronted at the present time with a great Roman peril. It is time indeed for us to awake from our indifference, and, as did Luther and his coworkers, raise aloft the standard of truth. Our salvation now, as was Luther’s then, will be found in withstanding the sophistry and overtures of Rome, rejecting her dogmas and doctrines, and taking our stand upon the immutable Scriptures of truth. The need in this crisis is for earnest, devoted Christian believers, who in the fear of God, fearlessly but meekly, shall stand unswervingly for the right as God gives them to see the right, and who in their lives as well as in their words shall represent the saving power of the gospel of Christ. F. M. W.