Reformation and Revelation - Light Breaking Through the Veil
*“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
— John 1:5*
I. A Tale of Two Days: Halloween and Reformation Day
Every year on October 31, the world celebrates costumes, masks, and the playful concealment of identity. Yet on this same day in 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther took a hammer and nailed ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg — an act that tore away one of the greatest disguises in history: the pretense that salvation could be bought, earned, or mediated by indulgence.
Two forms of hiddenness converged on this date:
- The cultural ritual of hiding (Halloween).
- The divine act of revealing (Reformation).
Where Halloween delights in darkness, the Reformation rejoices in light — the unveiling of the gospel of grace.
II. Why the Reformation Was Needed
By the sixteenth century, the medieval Church had grown heavy with tradition and transaction. The Word of God was obscured by layers of authority, and the simple message of justification by faith had been buried beneath a system of penance, relics, and indulgences.
Faithful reformers like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and later the English Reformers, cried out for a return to the source — ad fontes.
They called the Church back to:
- Sola Scriptura — Scripture alone as the supreme authority.
- Sola Gratia — Grace alone as the basis of salvation.
- Sola Fide — Faith alone as the means of receiving grace.
- Solus Christus — Christ alone as mediator and savior.
- Soli Deo Gloria — To the glory of God alone as life’s true end.
The Reformation was not rebellion — it was repentance.
It was a call to uncover what had been hidden, to bring the Church’s theology back into the light of God’s revealed Word.
*“The just shall live by faith.”
— Romans 1:17*
III. Luther’s Hammer: The Sound of Awakening
When Luther nailed the theses, he was not trying to fracture the Church but to refine it. The hammer blow that echoed in Wittenberg was the sound of conscience awakening to Scripture. It was the sound of a priest rediscovering the gospel that had been veiled by centuries of clerical mediation.
That moment began not merely a protest, but a reformation of sight — a restoration of clarity about how sinners are made right before a holy God.
The Church’s authority was to rest not in papal decree or political favor, but in the Word that cannot be chained (2 Timothy 2:9).
IV. The Hidden and the Revealed God
Luther spoke often of Deus absconditus — “the hidden God.”
The Reformation rediscovered that God reveals Himself precisely through what appears weak, foolish, and hidden — most supremely at the cross.
In a world drunk on spectacle and outward power, Luther’s theology of the cross proclaimed:
- God hides His strength in weakness.
- He conceals His glory in suffering.
- He reveals salvation not through indulgence, but through substitution.
The gospel strips away every mask we wear before God. It exposes our inability to save ourselves — and in that revelation, it grants us freedom.
V. The Church Reformed and Always Reforming
The Reformation was never meant to be frozen in the sixteenth century. The Reformers themselves insisted on semper reformanda — the Church reformed and always being reformed according to the Word of God.
Where does that leave us today?
- The same temptation remains: to add, to control, to obscure.
- The same call remains: to return to Scripture, to Christ, to grace.
- The same Spirit remains: reforming, reviving, renewing hearts that drift toward ritual without reality.
Today’s Church, whether digital or physical, still needs the courage of Luther — not to protest everything, but to confess one thing clearly: Christ alone saves.
VI. Reformation as Revelation
October 31, then, is not just a date on a calendar — it is a parable.
The day the world hides behind masks is also the day God once more ripped the mask off religion. The light that broke through Wittenberg still burns in the heart of every believer who clings to grace alone.
So, when you see the candles, costumes, and shadows this October 31, remember the greater story:
Light has come.
The veil has been torn.
Grace has been revealed.
And the Church must never hide it again.
*“For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:6*
AthanasiusXOR
Contra Mundum. Code Obscurum.