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What is significant about the Great Reformation? Why would we be talking about this event so far down the road from history? I'm Stu Epperson. This is Truth Talk Live. I'm so glad you're here. And today you're going to be made aware of some things you may not know. Others of you may want to call in and give us some information and some encouraging words about the Reformation. And there's a huge event going on in Jackson, Ville, Florida.
In just a couple weeks, and we have a special guest who's going to be at that event, who's going to be on the air with us like right now, all the way from Germany. We're in the town of Wittenberg where Martin Luther, the Great Reformer, nailed his 95 Thesis to the wall. A nail strike heard around the world. Now you're thinking, Stu, Reformation. What does that have to do with anything? Everything spiritually well. You may have heard of the solas of the Reformation. Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Christus, Sola Deo Gloria. These are all so important to everything we believe. People have shed blood fighting for the Scriptures to be read.
People have died over these doctrines. And we have one of the foremost Reformation scholars in the world on the air with us right now. He's back. You've heard him before. He's a veteran Olympic chaplain. He's an author. He's a major leader and a powerful speaker. And he will be at this Reformation conference coming up January 17th through the 19th in this year of our Lord, just a couple weeks away, Dr. Ashley Noll. Sir, it's great to have you with us, and we're so glad you're going to be coming to America.
It's always good to come home. Well, if you could, in one sentence, tell us, to the point of how I open this show, the significance of the Reformation. Start there, and we'll go 5,000 feet all the way down to what's going on January 17th. So really, the Reformation—yes, sir. So the Reformation, in effect, it wasn't the starting point of the faith.
You know, we don't need to attribute it as Ground Zero or as the Genesis. The Reformation simply was to bring us back to what you just said, this idea that God is a God of grace, this idea that salvation is of the Lord, and all of these critical axioms of the foundation of Scripture. I mean, these are things, Dr. Noll, that are so crucial to our faith that didn't start 500 years ago, but these go all the way back to the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, right? Well, it all goes back to the Garden of Eden.
The truth is that human beings always instinctively think they have to earn love, if only because it gives them a false sense of security that if they do X, they're owed Y. And the history of God's interaction with his covenant people is always to remind them that he's the one who provides for their needs and enables them to follow him. But we always look to ourselves and wander away from him, trusting our own strength instead. And the reason why it's called the Reformation, and not the Revolution, is because it wasn't starting from scratch, burning down everything before.
It was, we've lost the thread. We have forgotten that the good news is what God does for us, not what we must do for him, and we must go back to the Bible to recover its teachings and be inspired by its promises to lead a transformed life. I could go on, Stu, but I think you probably want to insert something in while I take a breath. Well, no, listen, you take a breath and you keep giving it to us, man, I love what you're saying. We've got, you're going to be alongside some pretty austere speakers. I wouldn't say austere, but I would say awesome, because these are pastors at seminaries who understand how to take theology, where you try to understand who God is and how he deals with human beings, and then apply those truths to change hearts. I love it.
And this really gets to the heart, friends, of everything we believe, everything we stand for as believers. You're talking about Andreas Stegman, R. Scott Clark, Michael Horton. You've heard him from the famous radio show The White Horse Inn from Westminster Seminary out west. Jonathan Leimbau, and of course Dr. Knoll is with us right now.
This is in Jacksonville, Florida, North Florida, you can get there in a few hours, they're just not anywhere, in the Carolinas, wherever you're listening, Virginia. You want to kind of get reset for the year, you want to kind of get grounded in what you believe, why you believe it, in the doctrines of grace, the rich doctrines of the authenticity, and the sufficiency of Scripture, and all these wonderful things. You want to be at this conference.
January 17th through the 19th, 2025. Dr. Ashley Knoll, the gospel's changed your life, sir. Can you talk about that? I mean, you are a chaplain for these Olympic athletes, and you bring a perspective to them that's quite refreshing, especially in such a performance-grinding treadmill that everyone's on. You need the Bible for at least three reasons. First, it tells you the truth about life. We have a lot of imitation truth out there, leading people down false roads, and making bad decisions, and reaping the consequences, only too late to realize they're on the wrong road.
The Bible tells us what's true, what we need to do in order to be whole. Now give us the other two reasons when we come back from this quick break. We're going to take a quick break for all of our fields and stations. This is Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Everson. Three big reasons we need the Bible, and more encouragement on this conference. When we come back, we're Dr. Knoll.
Hang on. Friends, you can get a PhD in the Reformation just in a matter of two and a half days, but even more than that, you could find some great edification and sit at the feet of some of the just most inspiring and amazing scholars of our day, not the least of which is Dr. Ashley Knoll, who's one of the foremost scholars of the Reformation, Michael Horton, Jonathan Linebaugh, R. Scott Clark, another big name, Andreas Stegman. These gentlemen will all be at the Reformation Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. Big shout-out to our friends at 91.7 FM, my sister Catherine, all my nephews and nieces listening right now down there in Jacksonville to us on 91.7, 91.9 St. Augustine, 91.3 FM, up in Brunswick, Georgia. Dr. Knoll, before the break, you were telling us about this conference and about the importance, the centrality of the Gospel as a driving force of the Reformation, and you were giving us three reasons we need the Bible right now.
Boy, this is a breath of fresh air. Tell us those, will you, sir? Well, one, you need to know what really is the truth, and the Bible is the manufacturer's guide to the human being. God tells us how he designed us and what will make us flourish. But the second reason, Mark Twain said it best, it's not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that cause me problems, it's the parts that I do.
Just because you know what's right doesn't mean you're able to do what's right. And the second reason why we need Scripture is because it tells us what God has promised to do in us that we cannot do ourselves. Romans 6, 4 says that we are baptized into Christ's death and raised to new life with him.
Colossians 2, 11-13 says that our hearts have been circumcised by unhuman hands. To have a new nature is the work of God in us, and Scripture is the medium by which we are told what God will do and by which his Spirit will come into our lives, changing what we love. Only the unconditional love of God made known for sinners will inspire sinners to love God more than sin. Only the unconditional love of God for sinners will inspire sinners to love God more than sin. And the Church falls back on shame and fear and duty to motivate people to follow what the Bible tells them they need to do. But the truth is, the only thing that's stronger than the law of sin and death at work and our members is the love of God shed in our hearts by the Spirit by realizing how much he loves us unconditionally. And therefore the second reason we need Scripture is it's the medium that changes our desires. So we love God and we stand against sin. And then thirdly, we need the Bible because with God's Word goes God's breath. When the Word is hidden in our heart, the Spirit takes our thoughts and desires and tethers us to his presence.
The only hope we have to be like Jesus is to be in his presence, and the best way to be in his presence in this life is to inhabit his Word. Wow. And this is a snapshot of what you're going to hear starting Friday night, January 17th of this year, 2025. A great way to start the year, by the way, in the Salem Center, which houses a bunch of wonderful Christian radio stations, and also Paramount Church, pastored by my brother-in-law and my sister Catherine's husband, John. She's there with all the children and the family, and I think Mom's going to be in attendance, too.
I'm going to try to get down there. Friends, if you want to go to a great event and hear more from Dr. Noel, who he kicks off Friday night with a great seminar, Scripture alone. There'll be a lot of worship, a lot of great conversation, a lot of great fellowship, too. But he's got Scripture alone that night. And then the next morning, Grace Alone by Jonathan Leinbaugh, and the whole thing. And then you've got Faith Alone, or Scott Clark, to cap off the morning session.
And then you've got this, you know, a lunch break. And then Dr. Horton in Christ Alone. Oh my, Sola Christus. And then Saturday evening, Dr. Stegman, To God Alone be the Glorious, O idea of Gloria. And then Sunday morning, great worship to Capital Law. Friends, this thing is affordable.
It's not too far in northern Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, January 17th through 19th. And it's much needed. Dr. Noel, I've heard you say many times, and I can't hear enough, that the Gospel is not just for unbelievers. The Gospel is for believers. Why is that, sir? Can you guess what the number one question I'm asked by Olympic athletes that are Christians who don't reach their goals in the Olympic Village?
I'd love to know. What did I do wrong? We are so enmeshed in a world of performance that we make the Gospel just another activity by which we earn God's love and blessing. And when things don't go the way we are hoping, we immediately say we must have done something wrong. But John 15, too, says that if you've been faithful and fruitful, you are promised pruning, which means disappointment, setbacks, struggles, so that you will get more fruitfulness. But sometimes our struggles are not because we haven't been faithful, but just the opposite, because we have. So many Christians are struggling under the sense that their problems in life is because they aren't good enough for God, and He's withdrawing from them until they clean up their act.
But there's no way you can clean up your act on your own. You need God to enable you to fulfill His promise to complete the good work He has begun in you. So the Reformation was a reset in the 16th century, reminding people that sanctification is ever-increasing dependence on God's promises to do in us what He said He would. And this Reformation conference is a reset for the 20th century to bring us back to the Bible its truths which include that we are called to lean on God and to stay in His presence so that He can make us more like Him.
Our holiness is something we fully participate in, but like our salvation, our sanctification is ultimately His handiwork in us. I love that. We have a special superstar call-in on the Truth line. It's going off. My sister Catherine, who is part of Paramount Church down there. Big shout-out to them for hosting this conference, coming up a couple weeks. Catherine, are you excited? Dr. Noel's on the line. You've got this huge—I don't know how you got all these people to commit to a weekend in January. It looks unbelievable, Catherine!
I know. We are so excited. I'm so glad I got the call-in on your show, big brother. This is awesome!
Give the website for folks to get more details real quick, because we've got to get out of here. It's ParamountChurch.com, ParamountChurch.com, and it's Conference.ParamountChurch.com for information about the conference. Thank you, Dr. Noel. Thank you, Catherine. Love you. We're so excited about this. January 17-19.
