OpenTheo
00:00
00:00

A World Awash in Sheer Monkery

November 2, 2022
Life and Books and Everything
Life and Books and EverythingClearly Reformed

Reformation Day may be behind us, but a huge responsibility lies before us. The faith of the Reformation must be kept alive because the ideas Luther combatted are just as much present in our own day.

In this episode of Life and Books and Everything, Kevin reads from the article he wrote for WORLD Opinions on the modern world and its new forms of works righteousness.

Share

Transcript

Greetings and salutations, welcome back to Life and Books and Everything. Today I'll be reading from my latest article in World Opinions. I wrote for Reformation Day, it came out the day after November 1st.
It's entitled A World Awash in Sheer Monkery.
The Modern World and Its New Forms of Works Righteousness. Reformation Day may be behind us, but a huge responsibility lies before us.
The faith of the Reformation must be kept alive because the ideas Luther
combatted are just as much present in our own day. The story should be familiar to most Protestants. Martin Luther was walking toward the village of Sondernheim when he got caught in the thunderstorm.
Terrified by a bolt of lightning, Luther cried out in fear, "St. Anne,
leave me, and I'll become a monk." Two weeks later, an anxious Luther entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. Five years later, in the winter of 1510, Luther and another monk were on their way to Rome to represent one side of a conflict involving the order of the Augustinian hermits.
As the junior partner in the monastic tandem with few official responsibilities,
Luther turned the trip into his own personal pilgrimage. For Luther, the holy city of Rome was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see holy places and sacred shrines, to do works of penance, and to gain indulgences for himself as for his loved ones. One day while in Rome, Luther visited the Scala Sancta.
The holy stairs said to be the very steps Christ
ascended during his trial before Pontius Pilate. The staircase filled with relics and carved crosses provided pilgrims with an unparalleled opportunity to procure a plenary indulgence for himself or for others. A young man racked with guilt, Luther dutifully climbed all twenty-eight steps on his knees, kissing each step as he went and repeating the Lord's prayer all along the way.
As earnest as he was in his self-abasement, the Scala Sancta
provided no relief for Luther's anxiety. Upon reaching the top, Luther looked back down and said to himself, "Who can know if these things are so?" Luther desperately wanted to know that he was right with God, which is why he cried out to St. Anne in the thunderstorm and why he made an 800-mile pilgrimage across the Alps to Rome, and why he climbed the holy stairs on his knees and why he was almost killing himself with vigils, prayers, and a punishing pursuit of obedience. Years later, Luther reflected on his rigors as a monk.
I kept the rules so
strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his sheer monkery, it was I. It is easy to look on Luther's pilgrimage with a mix of mockery and derision. Christian or not, few modern Westerners are likely to be inspired by Luther's penitential exertions. Bewilder meant perhaps, pity maybe, but nothing approaching inspiration or aspiration.
In
his pictures from Italy, 1846, Charles Dickens remarked, having witnessed crowds of pilgrims shuffling up the holy staircase on their knees, "I never in my life saw anything at once so ridiculous and so unpleasant as this sight, ridiculous in the absurd incidences inseparable from it and unpleasant in its senseless and unmeaning degradation." Who could be so foolish as to try to acquire his righteousness by superstition, outward observances, and unrelenting austerity? Who indeed? While our modern world may not speak with the same theological vocabulary, modern people face just as much pressure to prove that we are right with ourselves and right with the world. We may not ascend a holy staircase on our knees, but many of us daily count our steps and count our calories. We may not cry out to saints in the middle of a storm, but every time a hurricane comes, leading intellectuals will cry out to science to save us from our carbon sins.
In fact, the people most likely
to scoff at the notion of a plenary indulgence are probably most likely to pay for a carbon offset. We live in a world filled with ever-increasing and increasingly complicated rules for righteousness. The LGBTQ world has its saints, like San Francisco's Harvey Milk, and its sacred sites, like New York City's Stonewall Inn.
There are flags and chants with "powers rivaling
the ancient relics." There are symbols and sayings every good person must affirm there are words that must be used and words that are strictly forbidden. And if the gods of political correctness are offended, a groveling penance shall be performed. The formerly simple acts of eating food, driving a car, and throwing away our trash are now conscience-imputing activities that demand the minutest forms of medieval casualistry.
Across the political
divide we must all be careful to signal the correct virtue, shame the correct vices, and stay away from friends and colleagues whose wrongdoings, or alleged wrongdoings, can destroy in an instant our hard-won righteousness. The way of sensoriousness toward others, and meritorious vigor and rigor for ourselves, is not something stuck in the past. The forms of the sacred change but the underlying desire for self-justification remains.
It's the
way of the world because it's the inclination of the human heart. But praise God, there is another way. It's the way that Luther discovered five years after visiting Rome, and then nailed to the door in Wittenberg two years later.
It's the way of the gospel,
which reveals to us a righteousness that has been manifested apart from the law and comes to us by believing in Jesus Christ. We don't need a secularized version of sheer monkery. We need the genuine good news of justification by faith alone.
The world in
the West still knows guilt, but it seems to have forgotten is grace.
[Music]
(buzzing)

More From Life and Books and Everything

Positive World, Negative World, and Christian Nationalism with Justin Taylor and Collin Hansen
Positive World, Negative World, and Christian Nationalism with Justin Taylor and Collin Hansen
Life and Books and Everything
November 8, 2022
The three amigos enter into a meandering conversation about Christian Nationalism and try to discern the level of the world’s hostility to the church
Liberty, Pandora, and the Serpent
Liberty, Pandora, and the Serpent
Life and Books and Everything
November 11, 2022
Was America founded on purely Christian principles and ideals? Or, were the founding fathers simply trying to prevent corruption and preserve the sanc
Life and Ministry with Mark Dever
Life and Ministry with Mark Dever
Life and Books and Everything
November 18, 2022
In this fun, punchy, and (hopefully) edifying conversation, Kevin interviews his good friend, Mark Dever, about his conversion, his ministry on Capito
Does Christianity Transcend All Our Political Disagreements?
Does Christianity Transcend All Our Political Disagreements?
Life and Books and Everything
October 28, 2022
Christians don’t just disagree on political principles or on a number of political conclusions. Christians disagree on how Christianity and politics r
Life and Ministry with Sinclair Ferguson
Life and Ministry with Sinclair Ferguson
Life and Books and Everything
October 25, 2022
Have you ever wanted to sit down with an older godly pastor and just ask him about life for an hour? Well, that’s what Kevin tries to do with Sinclair
The Case for Kids
The Case for Kids
Life and Books and Everything
October 20, 2022
Too often Christian leaders lay impossible burdens on their people, insisting that they solve a host of social ills and become experts in a thousand d
More From "Life and Books and Everything"

More on OpenTheo

The Biblical View of Abortion with Tom Pennington
The Biblical View of Abortion with Tom Pennington
Life and Books and Everything
May 5, 2025
What does the Bible say about life in the womb? When does life begin? What about personhood? What has the church taught about abortion over the centur
Can Historians Prove that Jesus Rose from the Dead? Licona vs. Ehrman
Can Historians Prove that Jesus Rose from the Dead? Licona vs. Ehrman
Risen Jesus
May 7, 2025
In this episode, Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Bart Ehrman face off for the second time on whether historians can prove the resurrection. Dr. Ehrman says no
What Should I Say to Someone Who Believes Zodiac Signs Determine Personality?
What Should I Say to Someone Who Believes Zodiac Signs Determine Personality?
#STRask
June 5, 2025
Questions about how to respond to a family member who believes Zodiac signs determine personality and what to say to a co-worker who believes aliens c
What Evidence Can I Give for Objective Morality?
What Evidence Can I Give for Objective Morality?
#STRask
June 23, 2025
Questions about how to respond to someone who’s asking for evidence for objective morality, what to say to atheists who counter the moral argument for
What Are the Top Five Things to Consider Before Joining a Church?
What Are the Top Five Things to Consider Before Joining a Church?
#STRask
July 3, 2025
Questions about the top five things to consider before joining a church when coming out of the NAR movement, and thoughts regarding a church putting o
Licona vs. Fales: A Debate in 4 Parts – Part Two: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
Licona vs. Fales: A Debate in 4 Parts – Part Two: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
Risen Jesus
June 4, 2025
The following episode is part two of the debate between atheist philosopher Dr. Evan Fales and Dr. Mike Licona in 2014 at the University of St. Thoman
Michael Egnor and Denyse O'Leary: The Immortal Mind
Michael Egnor and Denyse O'Leary: The Immortal Mind
Knight & Rose Show
May 31, 2025
Wintery Knight and Desert Rose interview Dr. Michael Egnor and Denyse O'Leary about their new book "The Immortal Mind". They discuss how scientific ev
Why Do You Say Human Beings Are the Most Valuable Things in the Universe?
Why Do You Say Human Beings Are the Most Valuable Things in the Universe?
#STRask
May 29, 2025
Questions about reasons to think human beings are the most valuable things in the universe, how terms like “identity in Christ” and “child of God” can
The Plausibility of Jesus' Rising from the Dead Licona vs. Shapiro
The Plausibility of Jesus' Rising from the Dead Licona vs. Shapiro
Risen Jesus
April 23, 2025
In this episode of the Risen Jesus podcast, we join Dr. Licona at Ohio State University for his 2017 resurrection debate with philosopher Dr. Lawrence
Bible Study: Choices and Character in James, Part 1
Bible Study: Choices and Character in James, Part 1
Knight & Rose Show
June 21, 2025
Wintery Knight and Desert Rose explore chapters 1 and 2 of the Book of James. They discuss the book's author, James, the brother of Jesus, and his mar
Full Preterism/Dispensationalism: Hermeneutics that Crucified Jesus
Full Preterism/Dispensationalism: Hermeneutics that Crucified Jesus
For The King
June 29, 2025
Full Preterism is heresy and many forms of Dispensationalism is as well. We hope to show why both are insufficient for understanding biblical prophecy
An Ex-Christian Disputes Jesus' Physical Resurrection: Licona vs. Barker - Part 2
An Ex-Christian Disputes Jesus' Physical Resurrection: Licona vs. Barker - Part 2
Risen Jesus
July 16, 2025
In this episode , we have Dr. Mike Licona's first-ever debate. In 2003, Licona sparred with Dan Barker at the University of Wisonsin-Madison. Once a C
God Didn’t Do Anything to Earn Being God, So How Did He Become So Judgmental?
God Didn’t Do Anything to Earn Being God, So How Did He Become So Judgmental?
#STRask
May 15, 2025
Questions about how God became so judgmental if he didn’t do anything to become God, and how we can think the flood really happened if no definition o
Pastoral Theology with Jonathan Master
Pastoral Theology with Jonathan Master
Life and Books and Everything
April 21, 2025
First published in 1877, Thomas Murphy’s Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office is one of the absolute best books of its ki
What Would Be the Point of Getting Baptized After All This Time?
What Would Be the Point of Getting Baptized After All This Time?
#STRask
May 22, 2025
Questions about the point of getting baptized after being a Christian for over 60 years, the difference between a short prayer and an eloquent one, an