Posted on 10/21/2020 7:48:46 AM PDT by Gamecock
The church is always in need of reform. Even in the New Testament, we see Jesus rebuking Peter, and we see Paul correcting the Corinthians. Since Christians are always sinners, the church will always need reform. The question for us, however, is when does the need become an absolute necessity?
The great Reformers of the sixteenth century concluded that reform was urgent and necessary in their day. In pursuing reform for the church, they rejected two extremes. On the one hand, they rejected those who insisted that the church was essentially sound and needed no fundamental changes. On the other hand, they rejected those who believed that they could create a perfect church in every detail. The church needed fundamental reform, but it would also always need to be reforming itself. The Reformers reached these conclusions from their study of the Bible.
In 1543, the Reformer of Strasbourg, Martin Bucer, asked John Calvin to write a defense of the Reformation for presentation to Emperor Charles V at the imperial diet set to meet at Speyer in 1544. Bucer knew that the Roman Catholic emperor was surrounded by counselors who were maligning reform efforts in the church, and he believed that Calvin was the most capable minister to defend the Protestant cause.
Calvin rose to the challenge and wrote one of his best works, “The Necessity of Reforming the Church.” This substantial treatise did not convince the emperor, but it has come to be regarded by many as the best presentation of the Reformed cause ever written.
Calvin begins by observing that everyone agreed that the church had “diseases both numerous and grievous.” Calvin argues that matters were so serious that Christians could not abide a “longer delay” for reform or wait for “slow remedies.” He rejects the contention that the Reformers were guilty of “rash and impious innovation.” Rather, he insists that “God raised up Luther and others” to preserve “the truth of our religion.” Calvin saw that the foundations of Christianity were threatened and that only biblical truth would renew the church.
Calvin looks at four great areas in the life of the church that needed reform. These areas form what he calls the soul and the body of the church. The soul of the church is composed of the “pure and legitimate worship of God” and “the salvation of men.” The body of the church is composed of the “use of the sacraments” and “the government of the church.” For Calvin, these matters were at the heart of the Reformation debates. They are essential to the life of the church and can only be rightly understood in light of the teaching of the Scriptures.
We might be surprised that Calvin placed the worship of God as the first of the Reformation issues, but this was a consistent theme of his. Earlier, he had written to Cardinal Sadoleto: “There is nothing more perilous to our salvation than a preposterous and perverse worship of God.” Worship is where we meet with God, and that meeting must be conducted by God’s standards. Our worship shows whether we truly accept God’s Word as our authority and submit to it. Self-created worship is both a form of works-righteousness and an expression of idolatry.
Next, Calvin turned to what we often think of as the greatest issue of the Reformation, namely, the doctrine of justification:
These foundational matters that form the soul of the church are supported by the body of the church: the sacraments and the government of the church. The sacraments must be restored to the pure and simple meaning and use given in the Bible. The government of the church must reject all tyranny that binds the consciences of Christians contrary to the Word of God.We maintain, that of what description so ever any man’s works may be, he is regarded as righteous before God, simply on the footing of gratuitous mercy; because God, without any respect to works, freely adopts him in Christ, by imputing the righteousness of Christ to him, as if it were his own. This we call the righteousness of faith, viz., when a man, made void and empty of all confidence of works, feels convinced that the only ground of his acceptance with God is a righteousness which is wanting to himself, and is borrowed from Christ. The point on which the world always goes astray, (for this error has prevailed in almost every age,) is in imagining that man, however partially defective he may be, still in some degree merits the favor of God by works.
As we look at the church in our day, we may well conclude that reformation is needed—indeed, is necessary—in many of the areas about which Calvin was so concerned. Only the Word and Spirit of God will ultimately reform the church. But we should pray and work faithfully that such reform will come in our time.
Good article thanks. Personally, I feel that the Reformation was important from a practical perspective (due to corruption) but theologically I think the only way to embrace all the passages in the bible about faith and works is to understand that the human person is not a robot controlled by a brain, we are integral beings and so faith is act and the entire person has faith, body and soul, and thus actions like feeding the poor or visiting those in prison can be (are not necessarily) faith itself, not merely acts (of the body) that are done as a result of faith (in the intellect).
Works that matter are an effect, not a cause, of salvation.
Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
It is interesting that Calvin’s first concern was the worship of God. I wonder what God thinks of the current state of worship in the United States?
When people think of Calvin the first thing most think of is the predestination.
In reality his Doctrine of God is what he writes about the most.
as of now the big winner of the reformation was servetus by way of his follower descartes
If you are going to obey God’s directives for how the church should be overseen, then you have to weed out corruption and immorality when you find it.
- Like living a life free from the tyranny of the modern demands of birth control. (It is more than just about abortion.)
- Like serious emphasis on scholarship and intellectual formation especially within the humanities. (Not just serving the demands of material pursuits and consumer needs, or caving into the pragmatic obsession with technology, business, and science devoid of historic Christian ethics. And choosing bite size theology and self-help, at the expense of church tradition.)
- Like cultivating a lifestyle dedicated to the poor and needy. (Of course there are Protestant Christians who uphold this crucial dimension of Christian discipleship too...but it’s not held to the essential place in the faith the way it is in the Cathoic value system. And often Protestants, especially liberal/left-leaning ones, “serve the poor” outside a traditional Christian paradigm and see their work within the framework of Leftist value systems influenced more by Karl Marx than Jesus Christ. Aka: the woke ones.)
What purpose did having Michael Servetus burned alive serve?
Sure. That’s one good quote. But here’s another:
“34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, 36 I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.
37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?
40 And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”
And then here’s another:
+ Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
And another:
“+ Acts 16:30-31 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
There’s no way to reconcile those conflicting passages, other than that visiting the Lord when he is in prison is faith itself, body and soul.
You have posted this before, but I have tried to find without success that Rene Descartes was a follower of Servetus. Do you have a reference?
Well said.
CONTEXT of Matthew 25:31-46
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left...
It’s a parable not about what you think it is until you can define “nations” and who are the King’s “brethren”.
I’ll give you this one:
James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
"Epstein didn't kill himself."
descartes was kicked out of holland for being a follower of servetus. I read that somewhere but I can’t find it.
This piece mentions that John Locke and Issac Newton were both privately unitarians. Newton published books on it that were not released until many years later
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003HisSc..41..459M
page 466
Now I’ve put as much time into this as I care to. Here is a duck duck go search of descartes servetus.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=descartes+%2Bservetus&va=b&t=hc&ia=web&iai=r1-3&page=1&adx=prdsdc&sexp=%7B%22prodexp%22%3A%22b%22%2C%22prdsdexp%22%3A%22c%22%2C%22biaexp%22%3A%22b%22%2C%22msvrtexp%22%3A%22b%22%2C%22direxp%22%3A%22b%22%7D
There should be enough keywords here for you to search around duck duck go and google...including holland or netherlands
there is a logical thing here in that the only way that catholic protestants and muslims deists can worship the same God is that they all have to have the low view of Jesus.
The physician Henri Regius (1598–1679), who taught Descartes’s views at the University of Utrecht in 1639, involved Descartes in a fierce controversy with the Calvinist theologian Gisbertus Voetius (1589–1676) that continued for the rest of Descartes’s life. In his Letter to Voetius of 1648, Descartes made a plea for religious tolerance and the rights of man. Claiming to write not only for Christians but also for Turks—meaning Muslims, libertines, infidels, deists, and atheists—he argued that, because Protestants and Catholics worship the same God, both can hope for heaven. When the controversy became intense, however, Descartes sought the protection of the French ambassador and of his friend Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), secretary to the stadholder Prince Frederick Henry (ruled 1625–47).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Descartes/Residence-in-the-Netherlands
The revolution against the Church 500 years ago had never occurred.
It's always hypothetical to play the "what if" scenario... but just imagine how different the world might have evolved through to today with a singular, unified voice of Christ. What human issues would have been defeated or even fail to exist. Maybe it would be no different as well, who knows.... but we do know through Scripture, that Christ wanted unity for his followers.
Its an interesting thing to ponder, if one could ever allow themself to do so...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.