— Written by Dr. Marcus J. Serven
The central reason why the Reformation (1517-1688) was necessary was for the recovery of the gospel. Without it, the church had become a place of darkness. The motto for the city of Geneva, Switzerland during the Reformation explains this viewpoint well; it declared, Post Tenebras Lux (Lat. “after darkness, light!”).
Moreover, consider this analogy: The Medieval church had become like a giant battleship whose hull had become so encrusted with barnacles and seaweed that it could barely move through the water. Instead of racing through the ocean at top speed, this ship (i.e. the church) had become so burdened with the excessive weight of the “traditions of men” that the gospel message was completely obscured. The only way for this situation to change for the better was for the “traditions of men” to be stripped away so that the gospel message in its simplicity could be known once again. To accomplish this goal the Lord raised-up godly men (i.e. the Reformers) who took the ship (the church) into a dry dock where they scraped its sides getting rid of all of the barnacles and seaweed that encumbered it. Once this was done, that ship (i.e. the church) was able to race through the oceans at top speed once again.
The famous Reformation scholar Roland Bainton echoes this sentiment by explaining, “The Reformation was above all else a revival of religion. So much is this the case that some have looked upon it as the last great flowering of the piety of the Middle Ages” (Bainton, The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 3). A more recent Reformation scholar similarly notes, “The sixteenth-century reformation was one of the most dramatic and significant series of events in the history of Christianity. It sent shock waves through the western world and changed the face of Europe forever. Its impact upon the church has sometimes been likened to a second Day of Pentecost, a crucial turning point and a moment of crisis. To some, this cataclysmic rupture in the fabric of catholic Christendom was interpreted as the labour pains of Christianity reborn. As one historian has put it, ‘No other movement or religious protest or reform since antiquity has been so widespread or lasting in its effects, so deep and searching in its criticism of received wisdom, so destructive in what it abolished or so fertile in what it created’” (Andrew Atherstone, The Reformation: Faith and Flames, 6; Atherstone cites: Euan Cameron, The European Reformation, 1).
Such learned testimonies as these bear witness to the claim that the Reformation was absolutely necessary for the recovery of the Gospel. The Lord raised-up the Reformers to accomplish that important task; and they succeeded beyond all human expectations! Soli Deo Gloria!
