“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.
How well said and I say a hearty AMEN to this! I belong to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church whose motto is Reformed and always reforming. We are growing in Christ through study. But just the other day I encountered a lady I have known for a long time. She and her husband together pastor a church. She does the lead preaching and I thought to myself “I wonder what they believe?” There is no accountability…no doctrinal statements other than…they love Jesus and welcome all to come.
Until God put us back on solid reformed footing, we were caught up in an independent church which was disastrous for us. However, we learned how important the sound teaching of God’s Word is. I do pray that a return to solid teaching and preaching that came with the Reformation would come once again! How we need it! Thank you again for sharing this….really touched me.
For Barbara and Christina,
Have a look at this post (I put it up last May), but it speaks a bit to your post, Christinia, and especially to Barbara’s comment.
I am enjoying your blog posts, Christina, and the Spurgeon quote I have had in my own files for several years. Sooner or later you’ll see it (or a part of it) in one of the discussions on my site. I have about 300 of these discussions done in various incarnations, and I know I used that quote in a couple of them, but it takes time to re-format them for this ChatRoom site. And I have about five other sites in various forms of development, but, there’s never enough hours in the day, or energy in me. It is a truth (for the most part) that “youth is wasted on the young;” And it is certainly true that “old age takes every man by surprise!”
Anyway, here’s the link I mentioned. Enjoy.
http://bibletruthchatroom.com/2011/05/modern-theology/
P.S.
Christina,
I found one of the pieces that I had finished with that Spurgeon quote in it and posted it up on the site for this morning. Here’s the link.
http://bibletruthchatroom.com/2011/09/puritans-part-2-puritan-principles/
Bravo! Well said! 🙂
How True.
God Bless,
Elba
Amen and amen! May God’s immanence be made all the more clear to this world through men with a burning passion for His Word!!!
Amen! 🙂
Amen indeed!
Amen. God could be raising up men like Calvin, and Bunyan and Whitfield even now. I recently read a bio on Whitfield and the hand of Providence was remarkable in it, for all the men involved (and they were numerous) all raised up at the same time and in the same place and all brought together, for the awakening that happened under Whitfield’s ministry.