THE REFORMATIONThe Reformation was essentially a revival of Augustinianism and through it evangelical
Christianity again came into its own. It is to be remembered that Luther, the first leader in
the Reformation, was an Augustinian monk and that it was from this rigorous theology
that he formulated his great principle of justification by faith alone. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli
and all the other outstanding reformers of that period were thorough-going
predestinarians. In his work, "The Bondage of the Will," Luther stated the doctrine as
emphatically and in a form quite as extreme as can be found among any of the reformed
theologians. Melanchthon in his earlier writings designated the principle of Predestination
as the fundamental principle of Christianity. He later modified this position, however, and
brought in a kind of "synergism" in which God and man were supposed to co-operate
in the process of salvation. The position taken by the early Lutheran Church was
gradually modified. Later Lutherans let go the doctrine altogether, denounced it in its
Calvinistic form, and came to hold a doctrine of universal grace and universal atonement,
which doctrine has since become the accepted doctrine of the Lutheran Church. In
regard to this doctrine Luther's position in the Lutheran Church is similar to that of
Augustine in the Roman Catholic Church, — that is, he is a heretic of such
unimpeachable authority that he is more admired than censured.To a great extent Calvin built upon the foundation which Luther laid. His clearer insight
into the basic principles of the Reformation enabled him to work them out more fully and
to apply them more broadly. And it may be further pointed out that Luther stressed
salvation by faith and that his fundamental principle was more or less subjective and
anthropological, while Calvin stressed the principle of the sovereignty of God, and
developed a principle which was more objective and theological. Lutheranism was more
the religion of a man who after a long and painful search had found salvation and who
was content simply to bask in the sunshine of God's presence, while Calvinism, not
content to stop there, pressed on to ask how and why God had saved man."The Lutheran congregations," says Froude, "were but half emancipated from
superstition, and shrank from pressing the struggle to extremes; and half measures meant
half-heartedness, convictions which were half convictions, and truth with an alloy of
falsehood. Half measures, however, could not quench the bonfires of Philip of Spain or
raise men in France or Scotland who would meet crest to crest the princes of the house
of Lorraine. The Reformers required a position more sharply defined and a sterner
leader, and that leader they found in John Calvin . . . For hard times hard men are
needed, and intellects which can pierce to the roots where truth and lies part company. It
fares ill with the soldiers of religion when 'the accursed thing' is in the camp. And this is to
be said of Calvin, that so far as the state of knowledge permitted, no eye could have
detected more keenly the unsound spots in the creed of the Church, nor was there a
Reformer in Europe so resolute to exercise, tear out and destroy what was distinctly
seen to be false — so resolute to establish what was true in its place, and make truth, to
the last fibre of it, the rule of practical life."1This is the testimony of the famous historian from Oxford University. Froude's writings
make it plain that he had no particular love for Calvinism; and in fact he is often called a
critic of Calvinism. These words just quoted simply express the impartial conclusions of a
great scholar who looks at the system and the man whose name it bears from the
vantage ground of learned investigation.In another connection Froude says: "The Calvinists have been called intolerant.
Intolerance of an enemy who is trying to kill you seems to me a pardonable state of mind
. . . The Catholics chose to add to their already incredible creed a fresh article, that they
were entitled to hang and burn those who differed from them; and in this quarrel the
Calvinists, Bible in hand, appealed to the God of battles. They grew harsher, fiercer, —
if you please, more fanatical. It was extremely natural that they should. They dwelt, as
pious men are apt to dwell in suffering and sorrow, on the all-disposing power of
Providence. Their burden grew lighter as they considered that God had so determined
that they must bear it. But they attracted to their ranks almost every man in Western
Europe that 'hated a lie.' They were crushed down, but they rose again. They were
splintered and torn, but no power could bend or melt them. They abhorred as no body
of men ever more abhorred all conscious mendacity, all impurity, all moral wrong of
every kind so far as they could recognize it. Whatever exists at this moment in England
and Scotland of conscious fear of doing evil is the remnant of the convictions which were
branded by the Calvinists into the people's hearts. Though they failed to destroy
Romanism, though it survives and may survive long as an opinion, they drew its fangs;
they forced it to abandon that detestable principle, that it was entitled to murder those
who dissented from it. Nay, it may be said that by having shamed Romanism out of its
practical corruption the Calvinists enabled it to revive."2At the time of the Reformation the Lutheran Church did not make such a complete break
with the Catholic Church as did the Reformed. In fact some Lutherans point out with
pride that Lutheranism was a "moderate Reformation." While all protestants appealed to
the Bible as a final authority, the tendency in Lutheranism was to keep as much of the old
system as did not have to be thrown out, while the tendency in the Reformed Church
was to throw out all that did not have to be kept. And in regard to the relationship which
existed between the Church and the State, the Lutherans were content to allow the local
princes great influence in the Church or even to allow them to determine the religion
within their bounds — a tendency leading toward the establishment of a State Church —
while the Reformed soon came to demand complete separation between Church and
State.As stated before, the Reformation was essentially a revival of Augustinianism. The early
Lutheran and Reformed Churches held the same views in regard to Original Sin,
Election, Efficacious Grace, Perseverance, etc. This, then, was the true Protestantism.
"The principle of Absolute Predestination," says Hastie, "was the very Hercules-might of
the young Reformation, by which no less in Germany than elsewhere, it strangled the
serpents of superstition and idolatry; and when it lost its energy in its first home, it still
continued to be the very marrow and backbone of the faith in the Reformed Church, and
the power that carried it victoriously through all its struggles and trials."3 "It is a fact that
speaks volumes for Calvinism," says Rice, "that the most glorious revolution recorded in
the history of the Church and of the world, since the days of the Apostles, was effected
by the blessings of God upon its doctrines."4 Needless to say, Arminianism as a system
was unknown in Reformation times; and not until 1784, some 260 years later, was it
championed by an organized church. As in the fifth century there had been two
contending systems, known as Augustinianism and Pelagianism, with the later rise of the
compromised system of Semi-Pelagianism, so at the Reformation there were two
systems, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, with the later rise of Arminianism, or
what we might call Semi-Protestantism. In each case there were two strongly opposite
systems with the subsequent rise of a compromised system.Footnotes:
1Calvinism, p. 42.
2Calvinism, p. 44.
3History of the Reformation, p. 224.
4God Sovereign and Man Free, p. 14.