I recently made a potting bench at home. I found a plan that I liked, cut the boards, and screwed them together to make an outdoor bench that I can use out by the garden. It gives me a nice surface to work on various projects and provides some storage for pots, hoses, and various gardening materials.

If you were to ask, “What made my potting bench?” – why does it exist? What caused it? I could answer in several ways:

1. Wood makes the potting bench; it’s made out of wood. The material is wood. In fact, it’s made of wood that I harvested from my back yard. Without the wood, there would be no potting bench.
2. A plan was necessary to make the potting bench; I found a plan that I liked, and I made the bench according to the plan. Without a plan, there would be no potting bench.
3. I made the potting bench; I acquired the boards, cut them, and screwed them together. The potting bench exists because of my work. Without me, there would be no potting bench in my back yard.
4. My desire to have a potting bench caused the potting bench; the purpose for it is to have a spot to work on potting and garden-related activities. If I did not have a purpose/goal for it, there would be no potting bench in my back yard.

So when describing an event or a project, we can describe the material the thing is made from, what pattern or form it follows, the person/agent who caused it to happen, and/or the end goal or purpose for the thing. Any of these would be proper ways of describing the cause of something.

Yesterday was Oct 31, Reformation Day. We commemorate the day back in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the chapel door in Wittenberg, Germany. That event marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation reformed the church and moved  it toward a more biblical form of Christianity. Every year about this time, I speak on the importance and influence of the Reformation.

Today I want to describe the causes of the reformation from the four different points of view that I mentioned—what it was made from, the plan that put it into action, the people who caused it, and then it’s final goal or achievement.

What caused the Reformation?