REFORMED WITNESS
October 1990
The Reformation and Twentieth Century Protestantism
by Prof. David Engelsma
See more articles by this author
Also in this issue:
The Reformation - A Return to Preaching - Rev. Wayne Bekkering
...It is not only the case that much of Protestantism is silent concerning the truths of the Reformation in its preaching and confession, but also that it opposes and denies these truths.
1) Much of Protestantism is more hostile to the Scriptures than the apostate Church was at the time of the Reformation. It denies the infallible inspiration outright. It implicitly sets aside Scripture as the basis of our faith and life by its acceptance of evolution and its absurd handling of Genesis 1-3. It ignores the Bible entirely as it renders its judgment on the ethical questions of our day, e.g., capital punishment, civil disobedience, abortion, and sexual morality, relying instead on science, prevailing opinion and reason.
2) Much of Protestantism is one with Rome in making salvation depend upon man. It boldly proclaims free will and the dependence of God in salvation upon what man will do with this free will. It thereby denies total depravity, gracious election, and the efficacy and sufficiency of Christ's work. In The Bondage of the Will, Luther wrote that the issue of the enslaved human will was the fundamental issue of the Reformation. Addressing Erasmus who had attacked the Reformation's teaching that man's will is incapable of choosing the good, Luther said, "You alone... have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue... you, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot."
3) Much of Protestantism no longer bothers to preach and teach the Scriptures at all. Sermons are moralistic little stories or harangues on social improvement. The Church is in the streets. The heart of the Reformation and the 95 theses was expressed in Thesis 62: "The true treasure of the Church is the holy Gospel of the glory and grace of God."
This large part of Protestantism is worse off than the pre-Reformation Church. There is worse ignorance, worse superstition, worse immorality, and, if we knew, worse terror. Theirs is a guilt before God that He will punish with the utmost severity, for theirs is contempt for the gospel which once was showed them. II Thessalonians 2:10-12 applies to them: "...they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
But what must our response be to the Reformation who love the truths of the Reformation, that is, the gospel?
There ought to be a personal response. The Reformation concerned the individual in a most direct and practical way. Its truth was personal; it had to do with the question each asks for himself: How am I righteous before God, now and in the Great Judgment? As Luther put it, everyone stands on his own two feet here. And the Reformation arose in a personal way, as Luther himself struggled in utmost anxiety over that question. The Reformation intended to give peace, the peace that only the gospel of grace can give, to the individual child of God. Who can say, "The Reformation does not concern me"? Of all miserable man's questions, the question, "How can I be righteous?" is the most pressing, save one.
There ought to be a congregational response to the Reformation. The 16th century Reformation was the Reformation of the Church. The Reformation intended to give the church the pure preaching of the gospel, the sacraments rightly administered, and the exercise of a spiritual discipline. This was its great goal. If we have this, we have all that the Reformation desired to give. "The true treasure of the Church is the holy Gospel of the glory and grace of God." Then, we ought to rejoice and give thanks to God. If one does not have this, he ought to set about getting it, at once and at all cost.
But there must also be the response, by the individual believer and by the congregation, of a staunch willingness to defend the truth of the gospel, which includes the resolution to battle against its foes. The Reformation stood for the truth, but in the way of a battle. "We protest," the Reformation believers said. The Reformation stood for something, and therefore it also stood against something. Protestantism at large no longer protests -- except against protesting. It is not against anything. The reason is that it is no longer for anything, namely, the gospel. It is lukewarm (Revelation 3:16). We will have this willingness to defend the truth and do battle with its enemies only as it grips our hearts that the gospel is the revelation of the glory of our Savior-God in Jesus Christ. This is the greatest and most pressing issue of all life: How shall God be glorified? For the glory of God in the gospel, we stand. For this, we fight. For this, we are willing to die.
And even this, this standing, is not our work, but God's efficacious grace in us. This is the confession of the Reformation. All is grace, even the confession of grace. "Here I stand," said Luther, "I can do no other."
I am not the only one or the first to say that faith alone justifies. Ambrose said it before me, and Augustine and many others; and if a man is going to read St. Paul and understand him, he will have to say the same thing and can say nothing else. Paul's words are too strong; they endure no works, none at all; and if it is not a work, it must be faith alone. How could it be such a fine, improving inoffensive doctrine, if people were taught that they might become righteous by works, beside faith? That would be as much as to say that our works, too, did something toward it; and it would be a fine honoring of Christ's death to say that our works helped it and could do that which He does, and that we were good and strong like Him. This is of the devil, who cannot leave the blood of Christ without abuse!
"On Translating: An Open Letter,"
Works of Martin Luther, Vol. V, pp. 15-22.
The grace of God does not find men fit for salvation, but makes them so.
Augustine
I have made a covenant with God that he sends me neither visions, dreams, nor even angels. I am well satisfied with the gift of the Holy Scriptures, which give me abundant instruction and all that I need to know both for this life and for that which is to come.
Martin Luther
This is my absolute opinion: he that will maintain that man's free-will is able to do or work anything in spiritual cases be they never so small, denies Christ. This I have always maintained in my writings, especially in those against Erasmus, one of the learnedest men in the whole world, and thereby will I remain, for I know it to be the truth though all the world should be against it; yea, the decree of Divine Majesty must stand fast against the gates of hell.
-- Table Talk, #CCLXII,
Martin Luther
The Reformation - A Return to Preaching
by Rev. Wayne Bekkering
From The Standard Bearer, Volume 55, November 1, 1978, p.67Rome had all but silenced the Shepherd's voice, for she ascribed more power and authority to herself and her ordinances than to the Word of God, and would not submit herself to the yoke of Christ. This the Belgic Confession, article 29, tells us is a mark of the false church.
Rome's departure from the foundation of the truth over the centuries finally led her to the point where she considered the preaching unnecessary, or peripheral at best. Rome began to lay another foundation in institutional power and glory. She could make infallible declarations by a general council; she had a priesthood that could miraculously reproduce Jesus Christ by transubstantiation; she had tradition that was more authoritative than the Scriptures -- why did she need the preaching of the Word? Rome's worship was complete without the preaching. Yet for all of Rome's pomp and power Luther could find no rest for his soul. Rome said, "Peace, peace, when there was no peace." God caused Martin Luther to see and ask for the old paths, which is the good way; the way in which there is rest for the soul. The Reformation was a return to preaching.
Luther's faith was strengthened in the preaching when he saw that God used it to smash the false foundation of Rome. Luther saw that the Word of God alone was trustworthy, and upon that Word he took his famous stand at Worms in 1521:
Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments (since I believe neither the Pope nor the councils alone; it being evident that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me, and my conscience is bound in the word of God: I can not and will not recant anything, since it is unsafe and dangerous to do anything against the conscience. Here I stand. God help me! Amen.
Do we have that same reformational faith in the preaching? Do we have the confidence that by the lively preaching of His Word, applied by the Holy Spirit, Christ gathers, defends, and preserves His church?
Preaching has fallen upon bad times in our day. Few in our day trust the preaching any longer. Many preachers, even in the historical line of the Reformation, add to or take away from the message of the King of the church. The simple preaching of the Word may have been alright in Luther's day when men were not nearly as well educated as they are today, but many now believe that the preaching needs to be aided by man's wisdom. In Luther's day men sought to add to the preaching with the arm of the flesh, and the devil was delighted. In our day men seek to add to the preaching with the mind of the flesh, and the devil is very pleased because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The mind of the flesh is the wisdom of the world and not the wisdom of the Word. But it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to establish the Reformation, and now it pleases Him to preserve the church, reformed according to the Word of God, through that same Word preached.
Reformation Day is a good time for us to renew our faith in the preaching so that our faith may, through the preaching, be renewed.
I have done nothing: the Word has done and accomplished everything.
Martin Luther
The foundation of every reformation of the Holy Spirit is the Word of God made plain to the people.
Frank Cooke
[When criticized for inserting the word "only" in his German translation of Romans 3:28 ("Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith only without the deeds of the law"), Luther gave the following reply.]
In Romans iii, I know right well that the word solum was not in the Greek or Latin text... It is a fact that these four letters s-o-l-a are not there... At the same time... the sense of them is there and... the word belongs there if the translation is to be clear and strong...
I was not only relying on the nature of the languages and following that when, in Romans iii, I inserted the word solum, "only," but the text itself and the sense of St. Paul demanded it and forced it upon me. He is dealing, in that passage, with the main point of Christian doctrine, viz., that we are justified by faith in Christ, without any works of the law, and he cuts away all works so completely, as even to say that the works of the law, though it is God's law and His Word, do not help us to righteousness. He cites Abraham as an example and says that he was justified so entirely without works, that even the highest work, which had then been newly commanded by God, before and above all other works, namely circumcision, did not help him to righteousness, but he was justified by faith, without circumcision and without any works at all. So he says, in Chapter iv, "If Abraham was justified by works, he may glory, but not before God." But when works are so completely cut away, the meaning of it must be that faith alone justifies, and one who would speak plainly and clearly about this cutting away of all works, must say, "Faith alone justifies us, and not works." The matter itself, and not the nature of the language only, compels this translation...
-- "On Translating: An Open Letter,"
Works of Martin Luther, Vol. V., pp. 15ff.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
He who imagines that in order to obtain righteousness he must produce any works, however small, can fix no limit or boundary, but renders himself a debtor to the whole law. Avoiding, therefore, all mention of the law, and dismissing all thought of our own works, in reference to justification, we must embrace the divine mercy alone, and turning our eyes from ourselves, fix them solely on Christ. For the question is not how we can be made righteous, but how, though unrighteous and unworthy, we can be considered as righteous. And the conscience that desires to attain any certainty respecting this must give no admission to the law.
Nor will this authorize any one to conclude that the law is of no use to believers, whom it still continues to instruct and exhort, and stimulate to duty, although it has no place in their consciences before the tribunal of God. For these two things, being very different, require to be properly and carefully distinguished by us. The whole life of Christians ought to be an exercise of piety, since they are called to sanctification. It is the office of the law to remind them of their duty, and thereby to excite them to the pursuit of holiness and integrity. But when their consciences are solicitous how God may be propitiated, what answer they shall make, and on what they shall rest their confidence, if called to his tribunal, there must then be no consideration of the requisitions of the law, but Christ alone must be proposed for righteousness, who exceeds all the perfection of the law.
John Calvin
Institutes, III, xix, ii
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