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In 1517, Martin Luther unexpectedly launched the German Reformation in
Wittenberg, when he posted his Ninety-five Theses protesting medieval
Catholicism’s indefensible practice of selling indulgences. Luther’s list of
grievances quickly grew to include other un-Scriptural aspects of the
Catholic Church. Just three years later, a kindred religious reform movement
sprang up in nearby Switzerland. Interestingly, this Swiss
Reformation both started and developed somewhat independently from its
perhaps more famous German counterpart, and soon even came to be the more
vibrant and influential of the two. The English Puritans, the French
Huguenots, and the American Pilgrims all descended from the Swiss branch of
the Reformation as did, unknown to many, most modern Protestant churches.
It should
unmistakably be appreciated that Martin Luther’s life and ideas and the
events directly surrounding them were indispensable in aiding and inspiring
all of the notable church reform movements that emerged in early 16th Century Europe. Furthermore, as he was the earliest among the prevalent
evangelical reformers of the period, the time-honored recognition of Martin
Luther as the ”Father of the Reformation” is unquestionably appropriate.
The Swiss Reformation commenced with the
beginning of the reforming ministry of Ulrich Zwingli, in 1520. This sturdy
Swiss patriot was a Catholic priest turned devout Protestant pastor of
Zurich’s Grossmünster (“Great Cathedral”.) Zwingli’s strong
evangelical beliefs were shaped and animated both by his own formal
education - which included time as a student under the famed Christian
humanist, Desiderius Erasmus - and the revolutionary ideas of Martin Luther
that he eagerly read and absorbed. His religious teachings were decidedly in
harmony with Luther’s cardinal prescripts of Sola Scriptura and Justification by Faith Alone, but he quickly went much further in
eliminating Catholic practices and traditions from the church. The
religious communities that developed from this Zwinglian heritage became
known as the “Reformed” churches, with a capital “R”, as distinct from the
“Lutheran” branch of the larger, overall Protestant Reformation. The
specific term ”Reformed” was self-proscribed, originating in the early
1520’s as the newly Protestant areas of Switzerland built an alliance they
called the Christian Civic League of Reformed Cantons. Throughout
the 1500’s several deliberate efforts were undertaken attempting to unify
the two great branches of Protestantism, beginning with an arranged meeting
between Luther and Zwingli themselves at the Marburg Colloquy, in 1529.
However, stubborn personalities among their leaderships, different
understandings on the sacrament of Communion, conflicting political
realities across Europe, and the sometimes differing religious and social
visions of the two traditions all contributed to their remaining and
developing along mostly separate lines. While Ulrich Zwingli was the founder of the
Reformed tradition, his role in shaping it was later largely eclipsed by
that of an expatriated French scholar and theologian, John Calvin. Beginning
a few years after Zwingli’s death, Calvin powerfully led and directed the
ongoing development of the Swiss reform movement from his adopted hometown
of Geneva. As a result, in most historical chronicles it is John Calvin’s
name and ideas that are most commonly associated with the Reformed legacy.
The terms “Reformed faith” and “Reformed theology” became essentially
synonymous with “Calvinism” when that term later began to be used to denote
the doctrines expounded by Calvin. Through the attentive efforts of Calvin and
Zwingli’s capable successor in Zurich, Heinrich Bullinger, the Reformed
churches in northern Switzerland were doctrinally united with Calvinist
Geneva by means of the Consensus of Zurich, in 1549. This amicable merger
brought about the relative unification of Swiss Protestantism and prevented
another potential divergence within the fledgling Protestant movement. While
Lutheranism firmly established itself across Germany and Scandinavia, the
Reformed/Calvinist faith spread rapidly from Switzerland, fostering and
nurturing vigorous evangelical communities in France, England, Scotland,
Moravia, Hungary, Holland, and North America. Many eminent people have significantly
contributed to the development of the Reformed tradition, but the three men
who most indelibly left their imprints during its early formative period
were the aforementioned Zwingli and Calvin, and a fiery Scotsman named John
Knox. Over the ensuing centuries the movement’s vitality was maintained
through the ongoing contributions of many competent and visionary
personalities. Prominent among these leaders were John Robinson, John
Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, William Carey, and Charles
Spurgeon. Reformed Distinctives and Contributions
Doctrine -
Sixteenth Century Lutheran and Reformed churches were fully agreed on most
of the foundational doctrines that inaugurated the Reformation and
distinguished early Protestantism from Roman Catholicism. These affirmed
truths included the Bible as the only infallible source of God’s revelation
to man, the concept of original sin and humanity’s inherent spiritual
depravity, Jesus Christ as the only Savior, justification before God by
faith in Christ’s imputed righteousness alone, God’s grace bringing
salvation entirely apart from man’s self-will or works, and the spiritual
priesthood of all believers. Perhaps the single most significant issue of
doctrinal dissention amongst early Protestants was that of interpreting the
nature of Christ’s presence in Communion. This was in fact the sole
doctrinal issue over which Luther and Zwingli directly clashed at the
Marburg Colloquy. Both recognized (as did John Calvin) the Lord’s Supper as
being an essential sacrament that was ordained by Christ as the means of
conveying special grace and spiritual strength to the believing recipient.
All Protestants also firmly rejected the Catholic teaching of
transubstantiation, which held that the elements of bread and wine were
literally transformed by the priest into the physically body and blood of
Christ. Luther instead believed in a physical presence coexisting “in,
with and under” the elements, advocating a view later known as
consubstantiation. Reformed leaders maintained that Christ’s presence in the
Lord’s Supper was singularly spiritual in nature. Lutheran theology tended to moderate after
Luther’s death as it came under the direction of more diffident clerics,
such as Philip Melanchthon. Reformed theology remained more conservative and
kept a firm embrace on some Biblical teachings that (though initially shared
by virtually all Protestant leaders, including Luther himself) in time
became more controversial. Among these veritably potent doctrines were the
absolute and immutable sovereignty of God over His creation and men’s
affairs, salvation irresistibly coming only to those unconditionally
predestined by God, and the assured safekeeping, by the Holy Spirit, of all
whom are graciously elected unto eternal life. These precepts were integral
components within the framework of Calvin’s systematic theology, which he
articulated in his famous written doctrinal dissertation, Institutes of
the Christian Religion. Reformed teaching ardently promoted a
disciplined and ethical lifestyle, yet a careful reckoning of the Biblically
mandated process of sanctification was also stressed. Good works and moral
living were in no way to be seen as meritorious towards God, but they were
nonetheless vitally necessary and beneficial to the Christian’s well-being.
What's more, they were an inevitable result and a visible witness of the
Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Worship - It has been said, with relative correctness, that while Luther thought it
best to only eliminate those things from the church that were expressly
forbidden in Scripture, Reformed leaders tended to forbid anything that
wasn’t explicitly sanctioned by Scripture. This exacting principle resulted
in much more sweeping changes within Reformed churches. Their worship
practices became less liturgical as they emphasized extemporaneous, topical
preaching over programmed, formal recitations. Clerical vestments were
simplified or sometimes eliminated altogether and their sanctuaries were
austerely rid of all imagery and Catholic symbolism. The medieval Catholic Church untenably
proscribed the exclusive and universal use of Latin in their liturgy and
presentation of the mass. In stark contrast, both the Lutheran and Reformed
traditions maintained that is was imperative to conduct religious services
in the local vernacular. They also increasingly encouraged the integration
of various forms of congregational singing and prayer into their corporate
worship practices. Church and State - While Luther personally believed that church and state should have
separate jurisdictions under their own individual mandates, political
realities in Germany made that difficult to realize there. The pattern that
developed within Lutheran areas of Europe was for the temporal head of state
to also become the head of a state church, and thereby exert considerable
control over their nation’s religious affairs. Accordingly, Lutheran
churches usually retained a hierarchical form of church polity governed by
politically sanctioned bishops. Having had the great benefit of developing in
the freer and more democratic atmosphere of Switzerland, the Reformed
churches were able to achieve significantly more independence. They
primarily advanced presbyterian and congregational forms of representative
church government, with the laity electing its leaders and serving in
important capacities alongside the clergy. The demonstrated success and
spread of these Reformed concepts of church organization are seen by many
historians as preparatory and important to the subsequent rise of democracy
among an increasing number of civil governments. - All Protestant groups championed and did much to advance the cause of
universal primary education, persistent in their belief that everyone,
regardless of their social status, should be able to read the Bible for
themselves. Lutheran and Reformed churches both lay great emphasis on the
importance of properly instructing (catechizing) their new converts in the
fundamentals of Christianity. Reformed ideology especially emphasized the
value of a highly educated clergy who could then teach and disciple their
congregations in the faith. Virtually all of America’s early universities
were founded with the intent of propagating Christian beliefs and
philosophy.A few Protestant groups, perhaps most notably
the Anabaptists, insisted on maintaining as much separation and detachment
as possible from all worldly issues and entities. Luther, on the other hand,
advocated that believers affably coexist alongside and defer to the
established institutions of secular society. The Christian’s interactions
with existing civil agencies and political powers should be conformative and
submissive, so long as they didn’t coerce blatantly un-Scriptural activity.
This inclination was manifest in his support of the ruling princes during
the Peasant’s Revolt that roiled Germany in the 1520’s. A prominent component within the more
expectant Reformed worldview, was the belief that Biblical reforms should
not be confined to matters of religion only, but should ultimately extend to
all facets of society. This assertive ideology was forcefully modeled in
Calvin’s Genevan theocracy during the mid-1500’s. Believers were entreated
to consciously engage and attempt to influence, shape, and change when
necessary the political, legal, social, and economic realms of their
homelands. Such an implied responsibility is sometimes referred to as the
Christian’s “cultural mandate.” Many Western countries with committed
Calvinist communities benefited in substantial ways from the resulting
infusion of democratic values and Christian ethics into their cultures. The
Reformed Legacy - In America, the Calvinist Pilgrim Fathers were the first to apply the
uniquely Reformed concept of a binding covenantal contract in forming a new
system of responsible civil government, which they disseminated in the
Mayflower Compact. The competent principles of this visionary charter were
used as a template for establishing some of the key tenets of republicanism,
which were later incorporated in the founding documents of the United
States, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. During the period immediately following the
Great Awakening, it has been estimated that perhaps two-thirds of the
religious population in America was of the Calvinist persuasion, due in
large measure to the profound teachings and writings of Jonathan Edwards and
the powerful evangelistic ministry of George Whitefield. As a result, during
the subsequent American Revolution many Reformed religious and civic leaders
were active in advocating and prosecuting the resistance movement. This was
in keeping with Calvin’s reasoned, if quite extraordinary for the time,
contention that it is the right of a persecuted people to oppose and
sometimes amend (with the consent and cooperation of their local civil
magistrates) a tyrannical and unaccountable government. In a written
evaluation of the war to his superiors in England, one British officer went
so far as to characterize the revolt as being primarily a “Presbyterian
rebellion.” The
widely respected German historian, Leopold von Ranke, profoundly asserted, “Calvin
[and his ideas] virtually founded”
Likewise, the eminent English scholar, Lord John Morley, insisted, “To
omit Calvin[ism] from the forces of Western evolution is to read history
with one eye shut.” Still today, even as agnostic secularism threatens
and encroaches, many essential concepts and successful institutions in
American society are upheld and sustained through their endorsement, though
now all too often unwittingly, of fundamentally Protestant standards.
Because of its deliberate investment in sound Biblical principles during its
early formative years, our prosperous civilization is still the inherent
beneficiary of the proficient political, judicial, social, and commercial
dynamics that were then established. It was often Calvinistic patriots who
staunchly advocated and boldly took the lead in championing these effectual
ideals at crucial times in America’s history. Indeed, the many and diverse contributions of
the Reformed tradition to our bountiful spiritual and cultural heritage in
America are abundantly evident and surely still worth defending! |
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