German version published on this website.

Earlier on I found the call from apostle Jude to ‘contend ardently for the faith once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 1:3) somewhat abstract. It was hard for me to imagine a situation where we had to defend our faith with a grit akin to that of the Greek athletes of old. A few verses later, the Holy Spirit warns us that there would be ungodly people who ‘turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ’. Is this not a familiar picture? Perhaps we have slowly become accustomed to this, but this is our sad reality today when sexual immorality is blessed in the name of Jesus Christ or when prayers are offered to the triune God alongside other gods in our parishes. However, the book of Jude does not only give us warnings but also clear instructions to remain at anchor, gain perspective, and receive strength in the midst of the conflict that we experience in our Protestant National Churches in Europe.

This faith that we are defending is a treasure that God has given to us and to all saints: in all places and at all times in history. It is not a time-bound theory invented by us. This should be our anchor. The infiltration of ungodly people in the Church is not new in our history as a covenant people: Jude reminds us of Cain, Balaam, Korah, and other aggressors that incited rebellion but were judged by God. This should give us a sobering perspective. But above all, we find strength by remembering that we are preserved in Jesus Christ, who is able to keep us from stumbling. This drives us to ‘build ourselves up on our most holy faith’—as the letter says at the end—, exercising our spiritual muscles by thinking and living according to the Word of God.

Given the exclusion and judgement that we experience when we confess our faith clearly, it can be tempting to give up our national Church altogether. I can understand the frustration of many who have left us and have sought a spiritual home elsewhere. Nonetheless I want to address a call to all members of our national Churches, not to flee but to take our stand. Let us proclaim ‘as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’—be it in our families, our parishes, or our synods. Spiritual conflict is inevitable. A deep Church crisis was a reality for Elijah, Isajah, for the Lord Jesus, for the Nicene Fathers, and for the Reformers. But all of them contended for the faith. Furthermore, the pandemic of liberal Deism—if I may use this analogy—is not anymore restricted to our sectors of the Body of Christ: it is reaching more and more denominations. Fleeing will not prevent its expansion. We need to counter it with an effective vaccine, which was already given to us in the holy Scriptures. For this reason, we have formulated a set of 95 Theses to the Protestant National Churches in Europe as a campaign to equip as many saints as possible in their struggle to remain faithful to the Lord. After you have read them, you will not be able to stay neutral in this controversy. We thank the Alliance for Church Support in Germany (Gemeindehilfsbund, GHB) for testing their conformity to Scripture and correcting our initial drafts.

Will the European synods listen to us and revert the course that they have been following? Only God knows. What we can do in the meantime is to evangelise our own Church in order to pull as many as we can ‘out of the fire’, as the book of Jude says. May God use these 95 theses as a spark to ignite a powerful, joint witness of many Christians in our continent and in the world. We also pray that further existing networks for Church renewal—from Portugal to Russia and from Italy to Norway—may support this initiative as well. You can also make an important contribution if you sign them and share them with your contacts. But not only this: your Church needs you as an evangelist. I encourage you to equip yourself and take courage to spread Christian values in your own parish.

It is time to ‘nail the theses’ in Wittenberg again. We have dared to reserve the parish where Martin Luther used to preach to make a special event on November 1 this year. Pastor Dr. Felber, from the GHB, and pastor Joshua Tomalin, from the Church of England, will deliver inspiring speeches to equip us in our Christian witness. We are also organising a ‘march for Christ’ on Reformation Day itself (that is, on Friday, October 31). This is a unique opportunity for us to send a strong signal, both to the world and to our Churches, that we stand firmly on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles—and that we cannot do otherwise. See you then!