Just recently I have been reading two books about the reformation, largely because my knowledge of the people, places and events of the Reformation was somewhat patchy, which is very poor for someone who claims to be Reformed. The two books in question are Reformation by Carl Trueman and The Unquenchable Flame by Michael Reeves.
Both of these books provide a fascinating introduction to the Reformation with Reeves providing slightly more detail and focus on individuals and Trueman providing a focus on the general themes of the Reformation.
One of the great principles that the Reformation was based upon was that the Reformed church must always be reforming and must be being reformed by the word. Today, for many us, the reformation was something that happened in the past, something to which we are committed as a historical event but something which has no impact on our churches today.
However this was never the intention of the Reformers, for them the Reformation meant more than just ridding the church of the widespread abuses of the Roman Catholic church. For them the Reformation was about always testing what we did in our churches by the word of God.
I know many of you reading this post will claim to be Reformed but are we actually living out the practice of the reformers? Are we testing what happens in our churches by how the word of God says that we should 'do church'? Has the reformation lost all meaning for us? Is it a historical event that serves no purpose today?
Just a thought....
