Where are the Reformers?

8/14/2019 Where are the Reformers?

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Reformation&"evival

A Quarterly Journal for Church LeadershipVolume 1, No.1 Winter 1992


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End Notes

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Matthew Sylvester, ed., Reliquiae Baxterianae,section 2, p. 2.J.M. Uoyd-Thomas, ed., The AutobiographyofRichardBaxter, pp. 106, 107f., 112, 115, 117, 1181., 125, 1301.Ibid., pp. 258-264.Ibid., p. 298.Reliquiae Baxterianae, Part I, pp. 21, 84f.Ibid., p. 89.Ibid., p. 93f.Practical Works, Ligonier, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1991, III,p.585f.Uoyd-Thomas, Autobiography, p. 293.Hugh Martin, Puritanism andRichard Baxter, p. 173.F. J. Powicke, ed., The Reverend Richard Baxter's LastTreatise, 1926.J.T.Wilkinson, ed.,Richard BaxterandMargaret Chilton,pp. 110,152; London: George Allen and Unwin, 1928.Matthew Sylvester,Elisha's Cry After Elijah's God, p. 18.Appended to Reliquiae Baxterianae.

This article is taken fromthe St. Antholin' s Le cture, London,1991. It is printed for the first time in th e U.S. with thepermission of Dr. Packer.

AuthorDr. James I. Packer is the Sungwoo Youtong Chee Profes

so r of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver. He hastaught there since 1979 and previously lectured and taughtin his native Great Britain.He is anoted author and an editorof Christianity Today.

Where are the Reformers?I t is difficult not to be concerned about the state of theprofessing churches today. It is not so much the abundanceof error; that is seriOUS enough. What is just as serious isthat the spirit of reformation has departed from us. Whereare the reformers? In vain we look for them. Their absenceis one of the greatest singles evidences of the fact that welive in days of spiritual decline.

How will we recognize a true reformer? It will no t be bysome "plan for reformation" whiCh he publishes. No truechurch reformer of past generations has ever announcedsome "program," "strategy," or "decade. for reformation."Each one was simply faithful to Scripture and through hisfaithfulness reformation came. When Luther nailed hisNinety-five Theses to the door of the church he did no trealize that he was preparing the way for reformation. Hewas s imply being faithful to Scripture . When William Tyndaledetermined to translate the Bible into English come whatmay, he was not aware that he was laying a foundation forthe birthof English Puritanism. Whe nThomas Chalmers didbattle with moderatism and patronage for the right of acongregation to call its own minister and to resist thosefoisted upon it, and when he protested against any attemptby P a r l i ~ m e n t or the courts to interfere in matters spiritualor ecclesiastical, he did no t know that this would result inwhat we now call the Disruption.

These church reformers were merely imitating the example of the Savior Himself, wh o did nothing more thanpreach in a manner that was faithful to Scripture. Jesusaddressed the error in the church of His day, and waseventuallycast out, and that is how it will always be here onearth. Reformation does not require a residential conference, costly experts, or advertising hype; indeed, if anywould-be reformers started to draw up such plans, theywould no longer be acting in a reformational spirit andwould be judged for it.

Geoffrey Thomas


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When we think about the work of church reformers, wemust never look at people alone. The second book whichLuke wrote should have been known as "the Acts of therisen Christ" rathe r than the Acts of the Apostles. Churchreformation is always the sovereign work of the Lord Him-self. Any reformation that truly deserves the name is en-tirely thework of God, and is no t due t o a single deed of anyman. l

We are told that "The Spirit of the Lord came uponGideon" (Judges 6:34). That does not mean that Gideonstood up abruptly and took action, that he suddenly shookoff his lethargy and defeatism, tha t a desire for bat tle welledup in him, causing him to seize his weapons. In that case wewould be reading the story of the acts of Gideon, even if itwere the Spirit that first set him aflame. What we read isthat "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." Thosebeautiful words mean literally that the spirit of the Lord"put on" Gideon. This is theword which is used when a manputs on hisjacket. We all know that when it is time to go towork we put on our work clothes. The blacksmith puts onhis leather apron, the welder puts on his face shield, thepilot puts on his flying jacket. Yet no one is so foolish as toascribe the work he is about to do to those garments. Theact of putting on special clothes does not signify that thegarments are going to work, but that at that moment theworkman himself, wearing those clothes sets about hiscalling. Scripture tells us that the Spirit of the Lord put onGideon, and then that man became to the Spirit what aleather apron is to a blacksmith. Gideon is only a se tof workclothes-the one who does the work is the Spirit. So whowas springing to action to deliver the people and raise astandard? Itwas the HolySpirit! The Lord arises to do battle.The book of Judges is not a set of stories of great deeds ofcertain outstanding people; it is a summery of the mightyworks of Jehovah. Look at the subsequent life of Gideon,


and you find a man who later fails. What he achieved was byGod alone for one period of revival.

If church reformation isnot looked at from that perspec-tive, we will get bogged down in the evaluation of historicalfacts and personalities. Whenever there is a decline in thechurch and moderatism dominates, some people becomeconcerned and raise objections to what is happening. Theysay, "Yes, there is a disease here, but you do not forsakeyour sick mother!" Such people give an appearance oftenderness and responsibility,but their diagnosis is wrong.Declining churches are not sick mothers; they are evildoctors prescribing poisons to sick mothers and fathersand children who have been placed in their care.

There were also concerned ministers serving as localpastors during the time of the Reformation. This was the

. case, for example, in Wales, yet it was 200 years before thetruths of the Bible were widely embraced throughout thePrincipality. How is this to be explained? It was becausemany pastors told their congregations of their concernabout the state of the church, and they also told them aboutthe message of the Bible, but they did not take any action.They soothed their parishioners by their expressions ofconcern, and the local church remained exactly where itwas. It was not until the Word was vigorously applied topeople in those churches two centuries later that they cameintoNew Testament life and practice. The earlier opportu-nitywas gone, not to return for four or five generations.

This is frequently what is happening even today. Minis-ters speak up about error in their denominations, and manyelders support them, but "mother is sick," so nothing isdone. They express their concern and remain "faithful" and"evangelical"; they guard their own pulpit, but do nothingabout what is being said in other pulpits within their owndenominational fellowships. They cooperate with all men innationwide evangelistic campaigns and their s trategy suits

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the moderates perfectly, so moderatism prevails. Betrayalof the gospel is prevailing and they think tha t they can workto reform by biding their time. They try to get the poisoningdoctors replaced gradually, until the evangelicals themselves will finally form the majority. 50 they begin bysubordinating themselves, and "dialoguing" with the poisoners, and thus the y join the evil that is afoot. They wantto have the whole strategy of reformation in their ownhands. Theywill determine a plan for themselves. Thus the ytake their stand at the spotwhich theSpirit has reserved forHimself alone.

Genuine reformation has nothing to do with humanstrategy and planning. The "well-intentioned people" whoare stumblingly doing a little at the pre sent hour to stem themovement of the historic denominations into some unitedchurch of Roman Catholics and modernists are exactlythes e kinds of reformers. They are doing something out ofconviction, but with the feeling that there are many othermore able men than themselves, but that those men, alas,are doing nothing.

It is along such a path that the Lord leads His churchreformers. They are blind tools, a mere leather apron tha tthe Holy Spirit puts on when He goes to work. They aresoldiers who have not been filled in on the battle plan. Theyare not diplomats or strategists who cleverly take a position, establish a front, and place their people strategically.That sort of approach is radically mistaken when it comesto the church of our Saviour.

There is one thing we know about all such reformers.They are misunderstood and judged wrongly by their contemporaries.You should read what Spurgeon"s opponentssaid and wrote about his person and character. In hisobituary in The Times, Joseph Parker was mild when hesummed up the life of Spurgeon thus: "Mr. Spurgeon wasabsolutely destit ute of intellectual benevolence. If men saw


as he did they were orthodox; if they saw things in someothe r way they were heterodox, pestilent, and unfit to leadthe minds of students or inquirers. Mr. Spurgeon"s was asuperlative egotism; not the shilly-shallying, timid, halfdisguised egotism that cuts off its own head, bu t the full-grown, over-powering, sublime egotism that takes the chief .seat as if by right. The only colors which Mr. Spurgeonrecognized were black and white." (The Times, February3,1892)

The pattern is always the same. The reformer is described as brilliant, but a loner. He is accused of thinking heis misunderstood. He is a complicated; split character. He issuspicious, vehement, sharp, absolutistic; everywhere hesees corruption, decay, a process of undermining; he isaggressive; he always wants his own way; he comes from aminority culture within the country; he never really understands the issues; he was not trained in the right place;he is ..old!

In this regard, the disciple is not greater than his Lord.Christ was despised and called a glutton and wine-bibberwho went around with prostitutes and tax collectors, whocame from the wrong place, who despised the law andturned it inside out. He was branded a revolutionary whopreached rebellion against ecclesiastical authorities, onewho stepped onto the public stage without authorization orcompetence. To this day people continue to bring chargesagainst him.Such has ever been the outlook of people who have noidea that the the Holy Spirit uses human beings, as aworkman puts on his work clothes, when he undertakes t oreform his church.

It is such workmen, men and women who have been "puton" by the Holy Spirit, that we cannot find anywhere today.That is the saddest evidence of our spiritual decline.


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Endnote1 Rudolph Van Reest, Schilder's Struggle for the Unity of he

Church. Neerlandla, Alberta: Inheritan ce Publisher s, 1990.

AuthorGeoffrey Thomas is pastor of the Alfred Place Baptist

Church in Aberystwyth, Wales. He also serves as an associ-ate editor of the Bannerof Truth and The Evangelical Times.

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Where are the Reformers?