Thursday, November 27, 2025

It is the 28th of November 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I’m recording this in advance as I’ll be in Santa Maria, and so I wonder what Christmas music will get the first play- Guaraldi and the Peanuts? John Fahey? Maybe Stan Kenton? 

Ok, let’s start with a question: are good works necessary for salvation? Ok, maybe you want to qualify or ask for clarification- but this precise question led to one of the larger Reformation debates wherein parties developed on the sides of absolutely and absolutely not! 

The controversy surrounds a man named George Major, who died on this, the 28th of November in 1574, at the age of 72, a veteran of the Wittenberg Reformation and the debates that almost tore the movement apart.  

Major was born in nearby Nuremberg in 1502 and was sent as a boy to the new University town of Wittenberg to prepare for entrance into the University. He would enter the epoch-making year of 1521. He would have been in town for the affair of the Theses and the subsequent excommunication and bull burning. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Luther but especially fond of Philipp Melanchthon. After graduation and ordination into the new Lutheran movement, he taught in Magdeburg from 1529 and returned to Wittenberg to teach in 1537. He was selected to represent Saxony at the Colloquy of Regensburg to discuss Protestant unity. Unfortunately for him and the other Protestants that year, 1546 saw the death of Luther and the military campaign from the Emperor to enforce Catholic unity in the Schmalkaldic War, which ended with his victory in 1547.

The Protestant Princes, attempting to stall a Re-Catholicizing of their towns, promoted various “interims”- these were temporary agreements that allowed for any number of practices determined to be “Adiaphora” or “indifferent”. This caused a firestorm amongst Protestants who couldn’t agree with one another over what was indifferent and what wasn’t. A Second Schmalkaldic War in 1552 reversed the gains of the Emperor, but the damage was done, and divisions remained amongst many Protestant groups.

Coming out of Wittenberg, now with their leader dead, were two amorphous parties: the Gnesio-Lutherans (with a G N- meaning “original or genuine) and the Philippists- those who generally followed the more pacific Melanchthon and prized unity.

Major was always partial to Phillip, his old professor and now dear friend. The controversy seems in part to be George’s attempt to shield Phillip from the vitriol from the likes of men with names like Flacius and Amsdorf.

Major had fallen out with many Gnesio-Lutherans when he supported one of the interims. In a series of letters between the parties, Major’s support of an old, but now edited, quote from Melanchthon, which taught that good works were necessary for salvation. This wasn’t a comment about Justification, but rather the Christian life. Baited, Major writes, “good works are necessary for salvation… for no one will be saved without good works”. This led to a rejoinder that “good works were detrimental to salvation”. Oof.

Major claims to have never taught that Good works were necessary from the perspective of Justification- they are not “the cause” but flow out of a person saved by faith. Towards the end of his life, he wrote a confession; there in 1567, he repeated the claim that he never taught that good works were necessary for salvation- “in the sense in which it was understood”. He would express remorse for the controversies and their effect on the Lutheran church. George Major would die on this, the 28th of November in 1574, and so he didn’t see that his controversy would help encourage the push to Lutheran unity. In 1577, the “Formula” of the Book of Concord was written and signed by church leaders, in which the “Majoristic” controversy took center stage, and the teaching made explicit that one is saved apart from works, but the saved “cannot help but do good works.  

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and an appropriate reading from Hebrews 11:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 28th of November 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by the Gnessiest of the Gnesio’s he is Christopher Gillespie

The show is written and read by a man, unsurprisingly, somewhere near the Philippist camp… Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.