Like A River Glorious: A Brief Defense of the Reformation

The Reformation: A Failure?

A siren song is enchanting the heirs of the Protestant Reformation. It is a song which allures Protestants to lay aside the vital Gospel doctrines which their forefathers of faith fought for, and for the sake of apparent church unity and continuity, return to the wings of Roman Catholicism (RC), High Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy (EO). Many have heeded that song. Not only their doctrinal soundness, but in some instances their very faith, has been dashed to pieces on the rocks of error which the Reformation rescued the church from.
The sectarian tendency in Protestantism is viewed by some as the inescapable flaw in the Reformed tradition. Thus, in a desire for unity and continuity, “return”––to either Pope or Patriarchate—is the only remedy to disunity. In their estimation the Reformation––for all the good it may have accomplished––was a wrecking ball to Church unity. The only solution to salvaging unity, in their eyes, is for Protestants to rejoin a communion that allegedly traces its lineage clear back to the Apostles.
So, was the Reformation a failure? Did it, in fact, produce such a sectarian spirit that no matter how long we tarry, with much long-suffering, the Protestant Church will inevitably fracture into a thousand denominations? Can we even have unity in Protestantism? Can Protestants even claim continuity with the Church which Christ and His Apostles founded? Should we just hang our heads in humiliation, and after five hundred years return to Rome––hat in hand––apologetic for that whole Wittenberg episode, and submit to the Papal chains from which we were freed?

What Even Is Heresy Anymore?

Some assert that Protestantism is inherently flawed with a tendency to endless fracturing. They go on to claim that it has come to the point where heresy is no longer discernible from orthodoxy. Harold Brown cautiously expresses the concern that perhaps “the old distinction between orthodoxy and heresy is at best irrelevant, at worst meaningless.”<fn>Brown, Harold O. J. Heresies: the image of Christ in the mirror of heresy and orthodoxy from the apostles to the present. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988. pg 412</fn> He then points out that as the Protestant movement has progressed through history, “dissenters found for the first time that they could disown basic Christian doctrines and still remain within the church.”<fn>Brown, Harold O. J. Heresies: the image of Christ in the mirror of heresy and orthodoxy from the apostles to the present. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988. pg 417</fn>  Truly, if we care about the purity of the Gospel which we are commanded to preach, this caution must concern us. We cannot have a church in which errors and heresies––and those who teach them––are allowed to simply reside unchecked and unrestrained. If Protestantism is in fact unable to purge out heresies and heretics, is it a defective church after all? Rome, at least, seems able to maintain unity.

Go With the Flow

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]Protestantism is the genuine fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in preserving and carrying forward the Church.[/epq-quote]Philip Schaff, a 19th century German theologian, answers this objection quite insightfully when he declared, “The Reformation is the greatest act of the Catholic Church itself, the full ripe fruits of all its better tendencies.”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 224</fn> We must not forget that the Papacy had encumbered the church with numerous, and grievous, errors which profoundly affected the Gospel message of salvation by grace through faith. The Reformation recovered the essence of the Gospel (i.e. justification by faith alone). Thus, Protestantism is the genuine fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in preserving and carrying forward the Church.
Some Protestants seem to anticipate a day when the Reformers’ heritage returns to Rome, thinking of it as inevitable; in order to come to unity we will need to sell our birthright for a bowl of RC or EO pottage.<fn>Hauerwas, Stanley. “Perspective | The Reformation is over. Protestants won. So why are we still here?” The Washington Post. October 27, 2017. Accessed October 29, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-reformation-is-over-protestants-won-so-why-are-we-still-here/2017/10/26/71a2ad02-b831-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.456e3b49a88e.</fn> “We have been a wayward rivulet,” these absconding Protestants reason, “and we ought to return and flow once more in the river of Papal or Patriarchal authority and continuity.”
Lest we forget history, when the river of God’s sovereign purpose met with the obstinate granite of Papal abuses, it was not sinful, human stubbornness that prevailed. The Church of the sixteenth century had been dammed up by the selling of indulgences, the priestcraft of transubstantiation, and the like; it was a stagnant slough of error. But Christ is the fountainhead of this river. At Pentecost this river burst forth upon the world (Acts 2:1-4). This glorious river is the Holy Spirit’s great work, not man’s––no matter how ornate his robes. The Church is Christ’s, not the Pope’s.
Though seemingly obstructed by the atrocities and abuses of the Church in the Middle Ages, that great river ground to sand all that impeded its progress. Luther, Calvin, Wycliffe, Hus, Zwingli, Tyndale, and the others were simply dike-breakers whom God raised up to free the river of His providence to wash His bride in the water of His Word. The Church had a great deliverance in 1517. The dam broke. It is Protestantism that still rides the current of that merciful emancipation of Christ’s Church. Rome was left a fetid and forsaken pond.
[epq-quote align=”align-right”]This glorious river is the Holy Spirit’s great work, not man’s––no matter how ornate his robes.[/epq-quote]Even as time went by, the prevailing Protestant mindset was that the Reformation was nothing short of a great and mighty deliverance of the Church. Five hundred years have transpired, our emotions have cooled, and the danger for Protestants is that we are tempted to think the lies and bondage of the Papacy weren’t all that bad. Jonathan Edwards exemplifies what our mindset should be in regards to this great turning point in history:
“There had been many endeavours used by the witnesses for the truth for a reformation before. But now, when God’s appointed time was come, his work went on with a swift and wonderful progress; and Antichrist, who had been rising higher and higher from his beginning till that time, was swiftly and suddenly brought down; he fell half-way towards utter ruin, and never has been able to rise again to his former height. […] The pope’s authority and dominion was so greatly diminished, both as to extent and degree, that he lost about half his dominions; besides that authority, even in popish dominions, which he had before. He is not regarded, and his power is dreaded in no measure as it was wont to be. The powers of Europe have learned not to put their necks under the pope’s feet. He is as a lion that has lost his teeth, in comparison of what he was once. And when the pope and his clergy, enraged to see their authority so diminished at the Reformation, laid their heads together, and joined their forces to destroy the Reformation; their policy, which was wont to serve them so well, failed. They found their kingdom full of darkness, so that they could do nothing, any more than the Egyptians, who rose not from their seats for three days. The Reformed church was defended as Lot and the angels were in Sodom, by smiting the Sodomites with darkness or blindness, so that they could not find the door.”<fn>Edwards, Jonathan. “Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume One.” Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Accessed August 07, 2017. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works1.xii.vi.ix.html.</fn>
Furthermore, the African Church of the sixteenth century held much the same doctrine which Luther recovered, with none of the Romish nonsense, false doctrines and practices. There was also evidence that Luther met with an Ethiopian cleric, Michael the Deacon to discuss these soon to be distinctive Reformed doctrines.<fn>Daniels DD (2017) Honor the Reformation’s African roots. In: The Commercial Appeal. http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2017/10/21/honor-reformations-african-roots/783252001/. Accessed 24 Oct 2017</fn> The African Church could trace its heritage to the Apostles as well, but didn’t hold to the papacy, Mass, or other such Roman Catholic traditions. Either it was a false church, or God preserved His Church there, and delivered the European Church through the Reformation.

The Serpent’s Forked Tongue

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]Errors call the people of God to be a man.[/epq-quote]Not unexpectedly, the Serpent’s forked tongued has not been idle amongst Protestants. Satan successfully deceived many in the medieval Church. As the Holy Spirit used the Reformation to open blind eyes, soften hard hearts, and liberate the Church, it should not surprise us to find that Deceiver of old endeavoring to infiltrate the true Church and infect it with error. Certainly, errors are not in short supply in the Protestant communion. However, this is not an argument for returning to the foul ponds of Roman Catholic error. Errors call the people of God to be a man (1 Cor. 16:13), and fight the dragon (1 Pt. 5:9). Knowing and believing that God always refuses to leave His Church impure, Christian men of courage are always called upon to fight serpentine errors.
Five centuries after the Reformation began, we should not be surprised to discover that the Holy Spirit is still at work sanctifying the Church by exposing sin. Sins which we Protestants have long tolerated, and in some cases coddled. He loves us too greatly to leave us fractured and sectarian. However, His love does not beckon us to bear, once more, the Papal chains, merely to appear united. The Spirit reveals the glorious freedom which Christ bought (Gal. 5:1), and enables believers to strive for the unity which He grants the Church (Eph. 4:3). We seek a unity not made by human hands, but a unity which only the triune God can produce.
It is vital to see the inviolable link between the unity which the Spirit gives the Church, and the liberty of conscience which the Gospel gives. What the Reformation gave the Church was a deeper sense of the liberty of the Gospel. That liberty is not an excuse for sectarian fracturing. Rather, Gospel liberty is the marvelous basis for our unity; united under the authority of Christ’s mediatorial headship, and guided by the Spirit and God’s Word. As Douglas Wilson points out it, “The Lord Jesus is a monogamist. He has one bride, and He is going to love her throughout all the course of human history, and will love her efficaciously such that every spot, wrinkle, and blemish is removed. That one bride is the holy catholic church. If you want to know where this catholic church is located, simply look for the Spirit of Christ. As Cyprian once put it, where the Spirit is, there is the church.”<fn>Wilson, Douglas. “Apostles Creed 17: The Holy Catholic Church.” Christ Church. Accessed October 24, 2017. https://www.christkirk.com/sermon/apostles-creed-17/.</fn>
By contrast, what Rome teaches causes Christians to come to see the Mass “not merely as a memorial of a sacrifice but as a new enactment of it, one that earned merit in God’s sight.”<fn>Brown, Harold O. J. Heresies. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988. pg. 233</fn> As this view emerged in the Middle Ages, it brought about a “judaizing” influence in Christ’s Church. Christians began to think in terms of earning merit for their salvation. This was not the freedom which the Apostles proclaimed (2 Cor. 3:17), it was a yoke of bondage. While there is a sense of authority and order in RC and EO, those communions are overgrown and––by the rule of Scripture––erroneous (i.e. the Mass, indulgences, prayers to saints and images of saints, etc.). What’s worse, all this is severely harmful to the growth of true faith, virtuous liberty, and pure affections in the church. While antinomianism and licentiousness are a serious danger to the church, forms, creeds, and traditions are Satan’s favorite bait with which to ensnare the Church into legalism and self-righteousness. Church history shows that we are far more often duped by the spirit of the Pharisees than that of the libertines.

Pro-test

Protestantism has notoriously been set in contrast to what it was protesting. Perhaps we can be allowed to have a little fun with the word itself. The older meaning of the word protest simply meant a solemn affirmation.<fn>”Webster’s Dictionary 1828 – protest.” Websters Dictionary 1828. Accessed September 13, 2017. http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/protest.</fn> The Reformation was not just contrasting itself with Rome. It was a positive affirmation of the Gospel of Christ.
We must not revile it as an unfortunate monicker which we must try to bleach from our legacy. Rather, it is our ensign of the great deliverance which God wrought. Perhaps one day we shall be permitted to let it fall by the wayside and be known only by Christ’s name. Nevertheless, as long as evil men are found pouring errors into the stream of God’s Church, we must protest to this Gospel and against these pollutants. Those who wish to return to the errors from which Christ delivered His Church display as much folly as a coroner who hopes that by examining the brain tissue of a corpse he might discover what their best ideas were. It is this kind of folly which we protest against, while simultaneously protesting to the wisdom of the Gospel.

One Lord, One Faith, One River

None of this means that the sin of sectarianism doesn’t need to be addressed. However, repenting of schism––or as Paul might call it: sedition (Gal 5:20)––certainly does not look like bequeathing authority to a tyrant of men’s consciences. Repenting of one sin does not mean turning to coddle a different sin. Our repentance means acknowledging that all authority is Christ’s (Mt. 21:18-20). His Gospel, and the liberty it brings, must be the uniting principle of Protestant Christians.
The fact that there are schisms in the visible Church should not lead us to believe that there is not a “faith once delivered (Jd. 1:3).” Harold Brown correctly asserts, “Traditional Christianity has always been first of all an objective religion.”<fn>Brown, Harold O. J. Heresies: the image of Christ in the mirror of heresy and orthodoxy from the apostles to the present. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988. pg. 408</fn> We believe objective facts, not mystical sophistries.
The many sects of Protestant Christianity all have an emphasis that they deem to be neglected by other sects or denominations. For instance, the Keswick Conventions of the late 1800s were a real reaction to the indifference towards sin and much coldness of religion in the Church of England.<fn>Naselli, Andrew. “KESWICK THEOLOGY: A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION IN THE EARLY KESWICK MOVEMENT.” Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary Archive. Accessed March 11, 2017. http://archive.dbts.edu/journals/2008/Naselli.pdf.</fn> However, their later errors display how this reactionary response developed into doctrines (especially regarding sanctification) that eventually impeded true spiritual maturity in the individual Christian and the Church as a whole.
Sects may indeed serve important divine purposes: “a disciplinary scourge, a voice of awakening and admonition.”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 172</fn> However, after they have fulfilled their purpose, they must have the humility to once more rejoin the broader stream. Our Protestant tendency to sectarianism must be chastened by humility. True humility helps us recognize that our freedom to read and interpret the Scriptures does not liberate us from the body of which Christ is the head. True sects ought to fulfill their commission, and if possible endeavor to “unite themselves again with the general life of the Church.”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 172</fn>
Protestants are not the ones needing to return to the river. It is the Papacy and the Patriarchy that have set themselves up against the knowledge of Christ. They must come home to Christ. Protestants are not prodigals. Do we have faults? Yes. This should cause us to work with great fervor to ensure that we do not repeat the same stiff-necked arrogance that the Papacy of the Middle Ages did. All the same, we ought to say with Schaff, “Away with human denominations, down with religious sects! Let our watchword be: One spirit and one body! One Shepherd and one flock!”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 155</fn>

A Christian View of History

Part of the allure to return to Rome is the result of a faulty view of history. “Augustine argued that what gave meaning to history was the providential intervention of God. […] The three basic elements of the Christian view history are these: (1) linear movement, (2) divine intrusion, and (3) teleological orientation.”<fn>Gentry, Kenneth L. He shall have dominion: a postmillennial eschatology. Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1997. pg. 10</fn> A Christian view of history presumes that God intrudes and intervenes in order to bring about His redemptive purpose. Either God worked mightily to deliver His Church through the Reformation, or else it was a mere human revolution.
This should lead us neither to construct nor correct history, but to reproduce the best things we find there. We are called to “remember” what our Lord has done in times past. Through all redemptive history God has providentially led his people by the light of His Word. This means we must, in one sense, always be going back “to the law and to the testimony (Is. 8:20).” We must look into the mirror of God’s Word in order that in the light of Christ’s perfections we might be made to see our defects and errors, not to find a weapon wherewith to vanquish our theological “enemies.” After all, it is God’s Word that has begotten us, and which binds us together. The true Church is one body. One river glorious.
“Protestantism,” Schaff asserts, “is the principle of the movement, of progress in the history of the church; progress, not such as may go beyond the Bible and Christianity, but such as consists in an ever-extending knowledge of the Bible itself, and an ever-deepening appropriation of Christianity as the power of a divine life, which is destined to make all things new.”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 201</fn> Christians look back to the cross as we press towards the crown.
Learning and growing from history’s lessons is imperative, but not for nostalgia’s sake. Rather, it is in order that we might pursue with greater fervor the conversion of the nations:
“We will carry on the sacred war in word and in life, keeping always in view the honor of God in the interest of the church, forgetting not our own faults in our zeal against those of others; not with the rough weapons of the flesh in the way of wild fanaticism, but with the weapons of the Spirit–the sword of God’s word, the breastplate of faith, and the helmet of hope. Let it be a war of extermination against all error and division, but a conflict of prayer at the same time and love toward the souls of the blinded enemies of the church, to win them if possible to eternal life.”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 214-215</fn>
We should look forward to the day “in which law and freedom shall both be perfect in one and the results of all previous development appear conserved as the constituent elements of a higher and more glorious state.”<fn>Schaff, Philip. The principle of Protestantism. Translated by John W. Nevin. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. pg. 218</fn> By seeing the Gospel as a real force in history we are enabled to learn from the Church of ages gone by, and know what we are aiming for in the future. These two things must govern the Church of every age: the Lord Jesus died on the tree and rose again, and He must reign at God’s right hand until all enemies be subdued. His atoning work is done, His conquering work is underway, and we labor to that end.
That “river glorious,” flowing from the throne of God, runs through each age with greater and greater depth, restoring and reviving dead places, grinding to sand the kingdom of man, and from its banks grow trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, and all the birds of the nations find their abode in those boughs. Protestants must not think of themselves as if they are a small rivulet, continually subdividing until at last they each become a dry creek-bed. Rather, as we remain faithful to God’s Word, believing that Jesus Christ is Lord, proclaiming His Gospel of justification and new birth, and being ruthless in purging out the leaven of the Pharisees from our midst, we shall find that what we have come to call Protestantism, God calls, “the Lamb’s wife (Rev. 21:9).” May we wade into the center of that torrent of God’s redeeming providence and rush onward in obedience to His eternal purpose.