Slovenes are rightly proud that five hundred years ago the reformers (Primož Trubar and others) placed us in the cultural and spiritual space of Europe. In 1584 we became the twelfth nation to have a complete translation of the Bible, along with a host of other books.
Yet we still often see that Trubar is known only as the founder of the Slovene literary language and the author of the first Slovene book. We somehow overlook that for Trubar, as for the other reformers, the book and the language were only tools to reach a goal. Trubar himself stated that goal very clearly in the first sentence of his first book:
“Vsem Slovencem, gnado, mir, milost inu pravo spoznanje božje skozi Jezusa Kristusa, prosim.” (Catechism, 1550)
Today he would put it like this: “For all Slovenes I ask grace, peace, mercy and the true knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.”
He wanted his people to have a true, personal knowledge of God, based on knowing the Bible, that is, God’s word.
We can say that for the reformers it was first of all about a personal spiritual reform. The fresh discovery of the gospel message “the righteous will live by faith” brought many individuals – Trubar among them – to personal faith based on the Bible.
Only in this way can we understand his devotion to translating the Bible and to writing and printing Christian books. What he wanted most was to enable his “dear Slovenes” to read the Bible in their mother tongue, so that they would know and understand what they believe and why, and turn away from the superstition that was so widespread.
The gospel message, which says that a person can be saved only by grace through personal faith in Jesus Christ, is still something we come to know today only by reading the Bible and listening to God’s word. When a person opens his heart to God and accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, he enters a new personal relationship with God and has peace with God – a peace that cannot leave him indifferent to others or passive about God’s kingdom.
It is in this light that we can understand the tireless devotion of the reformers: they were firmly convinced that every person first needs a personal spiritual reformation, from which he then draws spiritual life and strength to serve others. And an individual comes to a personal reformation by understanding and accepting the basic message of the gospel.
The question arises: do we need a personal reformation today too? If we know Trubar well enough, it becomes clear at once that today he would strive for exactly the same thing: that his “dear Slovenes” would have a personal knowledge of God based on the Bible.
That is why one of the main goals of the Trubar Forum is to translate Trubar’s works into modern language, so that they can call us to a personal reformation today as well.
As the Teacher wrote in the Bible: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Just as Slovenes needed a personal spiritual reformation in the 16th century, we need it today, five hundred years later.
All Christian churches (Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant) have in common that they are part of the Christian tradition in our land and accept the Bible as the foundation of faith. Sadly, though, most Slovenes know the Reformation heritage of the Protestant church only slightly. If you would like to learn more about a Protestant church near you, write to cerkve@primoztrubar.si or look at the list of evangelical churches (in Slovene).