“If we are convinced that the Protestant Reformation was the greatest recovery of the gospel since the time of the apostles and that it left us with a treasure whose riches await rediscovery by a new generation, then surely a new reformation represent a goal for us.
It is not that we want to simply replay the Reformation, but that we want to recover and confess the faith as the Reformers did in their time. It is the same message, but it is we now who must step up to the plate. We are not only confessional (that is, bound to believe, preach, and teach that which our confessions set forth), but confessing.
It is not merely a commitment to a past fidelity, although it is that, but it is also our confession in this time and place. Our world, surrounded by new fears and false hopes, requires a new confession–not new in its message, but fresh in its delivery.” (Michael Horton) [1]
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“We need, again, Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitfields—men fit to mark eras—whose names breathe terror in our enemies’ ears. We have dire need of such! Where are they? From where will they come to us? We cannot tell in what farmhouse or village smithy, or schoolhouse such men may be, but our Lord has them in store. They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church and will come in due time.
He has power to give us back, again, a golden age of preachers, a time as fertile of great Divines and mighty ministers as was the Puritan age which many of us account to have been the golden age of theology! He can send, again, the men of studious heart to search the Word and bring forth its treasures! The men of wisdom and experience rightly to divide it! The golden-mouthed speakers who, either as sons of thunder or sons of consolation, shall deliver the message of the Lord which the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven. When the Redeemer ascended on high He received gifts for men and those gifts were men fit to accomplish the edification of the Church, such as evangelists, pastors and teachers. These He is still able to bestow upon His people! It is their duty to pray for them, and when they come, to receive them with gratitude.
Let us believe in the power of Jesus to give us valiant men, and men of renown, and we little know how soon He will supply them!” [2]
[1] Here We Stand: A Call From Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern Day Reformation edited by James Montgomery Boice and Benjamin E. Sasse, P&R Publishing Company, 2004, page 103.
[2] Charles Spurgeon, Sermon #1200, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, The Power of the Risen Saviour, October 25, 1874.
“We need, again, Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitfields—men fit to mark eras—whose names breathe terror in our enemies’ ears. We have dire need of such! Where are they? From where will they come to us? We cannot tell in what farmhouse or village smithy, or schoolhouse such men may be, but our Lord has them in store. They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church and will come in due time.”
Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you for such an encouraging reminder, Christina!