God Gave Only One Reformation

Excerpt from “God Gave Only One Reformation” by Charles Blair

When we hear the word “Reformation,” our minds naturally turn to the great events of 16th Century Europe and such great men as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and their partners. We owe much to the religious thinkers of that dramatic turn in history. Yet it may surprise some to find that the word “reformation” is  also used in Scripture, for a much more important event  in Hebrews 9:10, for the time God himself reformed his system of dealing with us. We read:

​Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

This reformation God gave brought about not only a change in a framework, but a change of God’s holy law (Heb. 7:12)... The “Protestant Reformation” was an attempt to move back to the standard of “sola Scriptura,”  only Scripture, a commendable goal. Surely God allowed that breeze of fresh air to blow through the musty halls of religion to open a new world...And all were better off for it.

But, as has often been noted, Luther’s famed “Here I stand” was a stand “squarely on the fence.”  For Protestant doctrine, claiming “only Scripture,” actually attempted to keep the framework of a state religion, and persecuted those who sought to keep the simple New Testament pattern in local self-governing congregations.  A common “nickname” given such people at that time was “Anabaptist,” a title they largely rejected. Menno Simons said: “We do not ‘rebaptize.’ only properly baptize those who have received a false act.”

In short, the famed Protestant Reformation came only half-way back to the sources, retaining infant “baptism” and a state religion. God allowed it, in part to open the way to the “new world” as explorers newly freed from the medieval yoke broke forth into new horizons. And in the new atmosphere allowing for more individual liberty, true New Testament churches came out of hiding to boldly proclaim the one unchanging gospel, “how that Christ died, and that He was buried, and that He was raised.” Such churches are always in need of renewal and revival, but God gave only one Reformation, and that in the First Century A.D.

R. Charles Blair, of Clinton, Kentucky, September, 2018