George: Christians must return to principles of Reformation

by James A. Smith, Sr.                                                                                  Vol. X, No. 5, May 1997

With a "culture that has gone mad in its divorce from God and his ways," 20th-century Christians need to "come back to the Reformation," Timothy George contended Oct. 31 at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Rather than a "nostalgic fit" over the Reformation, modern-day believers need to return to the theological principles which were the basis of the 16th century's revolt against the Roman Catholic Church, George said.

"In all of their sinfulness and humanity and depravity, the Reformers saw so clearly the truth that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And we have this confidence on the basis of Holy Scripture alone," George said. "Those are the only things that are going to see us through the next century and whatever years God may give us before he comes again."

The chapel address by George celebrated the Kansas City, Mo., seminary's "Reformation Day," the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting the "Ninety-five Theses" on the Castle Church door in Wittenburg, Germany, in 1517. Luther's call for a debate on the granting of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church is dated by historians as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Although indulgences and other practices of the church had caused cries for reform throughout Europe, "At the heart of (Luther's) protest, there lay a deeper concern," George said. "Fundamentally, the Reformation was about the Word of God." Luther's theological convictions came about as a result of intense Bible study in the course of pursuing his doctorate in biblical theology. The discovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Romans 1:16-17 settled Luther's tormented soul concerning how he could have peace with God, George said.

"The Reformation grew out of that fundamental insight into the gracious character of God," said George, dean of Samford University's Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala. "The gospel of his righteousness comes from outside of ourselves, imputed to us by the merit of Jesus' finished work on the cross of Calvary."

The result of Bible study in Luther's own spiritual pilgrimage caused him to believe that everyone should have access to the Scriptures. For that reason, Luther translated the Bible into the German language, George noted. "One of the great inheritances that we receive from the Reformation today is the legacy of an open Bible. "

According to George, a church historian who is an expert on the Protestant Reformation, throughout history the devil has used three strategies "for undermining the Scriptures." The destruction of the Bible "literally, physically" is the first satanic strategy. "But it never has worked because God's Word is alive and powerful and, in the providence of God, he has never allowed his Word to be completely destroyed, but has sustained it and preserved it even to this very day," George said.

Noting the devil's question to Eve in the Garden of Eden: "Hath God really said?" George said Satan's second strategy against Scripture is to "undermine confidence in its truthfulness." Although there have been theologians and biblical scholars "who have questioned the truthfulness of God's Word," this design has also largely failed, George said. Wherever there is a people of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, sustained by the Spirit of God, there is a hunger and thirst for the Word of God."

Calling the question of biblical authority among Southern Baptists a "settled conviction," George declared, "We can confess today, as we Southern Baptists do and should, that we believe that what the Bible says, God says. What the Bible says happened, happened. Every miracle, every event in every book of the Old and New Testament is altogether true and trustworthy."

A third strategy of the devil, George said, is "to get people who believe the Bible is the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God to neglect the Bible ... to use it as a shibboleth or to put it on their shelves and never, or seldom, to enter into it faithfully, steadily, with an open heart seeking for God."

Seminary students and theologians, George warned, are not "exempt from this temptation. Sometimes we are the most vulnerable to this kind of temptation. And we need, as much or more than anyone else, to come anew and afresh like a little child to the living waters of God's holy Word." George told of a student who approached him after he had given a lecture on the Reformation years ago. The student was puzzled by the willingness of the reformers to die on behalf of their cause and told George, "I don't think I believe in anything that I would be willing to die for."

"Do you believe in anything deep enough, hard enough, long enough, strong enough, that, if necessary, you would be willing to die for it? Or even live for it?" George asked the Midwestern Seminary chapel audience.

"Luther said there are some things more important than personal security," George said. "There are some things more important even than institutional survival."

Reminding the seminarians of Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" which they had sung heartily minutes before he spoke, George quoted, “Let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also. The body they may kill. God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever.” [BP]