 Rev. Gary Milne, Minister Reformed Church, Wainuiomata.
Speaker Friday 27 October 7.30 pm
Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington
Brief explanatory comment...
Recall Martin Luther's answer in the Diet of Worms, "If the emperor desires, a plain answer, I will give it to him. It is impossible for me to recant unless I am proved to be wrong by the testimony of Scripture. My conscience is bound to the Word of God. It is neither safe nor honest to act against one's conscience. Here I stand. God help me. I cannot do otherwise." This courageous act was the beginning of freedom for the Christian world. We can trace Western democracy and Religious liberty to this stand taken in the sixteenth century. Luther was claiming that his private study of Scripture was ultimately where his conscience was bound. His faith was not an implicit faith in the Church or in the teaching of men, but its object was the word of God. Today there is a danger that this principle has been forgotten. If it has then it will not be long before, as a society, we will lose our civil and religious liberty.
Rev. Gary Milne is Minister of The Reformed Church of Wainuiomata and Editor
of "Faith in Focus" the magazine of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand. |