ITA had this past month of May the immense – once in a lifetime privilege to take part in the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in the location where it all started 500 years ago, Wittenberg. The conference was hosted by our partners and mentors in training in Europe, the European Bible Training Center (EBTC) directed and led by Christian Andresen from Berlin, Germany. It was five days commemorating the famous five solas of the Reformation. The preachers and the preaching was simply phenomenal. The organization was incredible! It was a huge enterprise as an average of a thousand participants filled the small town of Wittenberg to celebrate sound doctrine and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The biographies of the great reformers: Luther (first and foremost), Calvin, Zwingli, and Knox were boldly proclaimed from the pulpit at the conference. In addition (a great addition at that!), several seminars were held and papers were read addressing the Reformation or lack thereof in numerous other parts of the World; these areas included Africa, India, Russia; there was greater insight gained by listening to what took place in terms of the Reformation in places like Albania, Poland, Croatia, Spain, and, last but not least, even Italy. It was a sheer joy for me, personally, to address the reform movement not the Reformation in sixteenth century Italy. By no means an expert on the subject, I was nonetheless grateful to give voice to this history from an Italian perspective; that is to say from the perspective of a pastor and pastor-trainer in Italy at the present. The biblical faith of the Italian reformers, several martyred and several having to flee persecution, must once again be heard especially in Italy.
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