Let’s begin with some definitions. The word reformed means to be “made again” or “shaped again”. So, reformed what? The reformed movement is the idea that we should reform or reshape our worship and our Doctrine according to scripture, in particular, the new testament.
If you know anything about church history, the early church was a vibrant Christian movement but as you get into the middle years what some people call the Medieval ages or the Dark Ages it’s reformed conviction that the theological moorings of that particular time strayed quite a bit away from what the Bible and especially the New Testament actually teaches. The church began to get all sorts of amalgamated teaching and convoluted traditions adding which are not found in the scriptures.
In the 1500s, there was a major revival movement which sought to reform the shape, direction and trajectory of the church back to what we read in the Bible and especially in the New Testament. Recovering that ancient original church in its power, its evangelism its convictions and its doctrine. When we talk about reformed what we mean is reforming the medieval theology church from the dark ages the middle ages and getting back to what the New Testament really teaches.
The application of the reformed movement was expressed in two forms. Doctrine on one hand that is what we believe and worship and that is how we practice worship especially when we’re gathered together as Believers on the Lord’s day.
This great revival movement is sometimes called the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation primarily took place in the 1500s although there were some tremors and indicators that something like this was going to happen in the 1400s. The ramifications of the reformation movement continued on for many centuries and even today we’re still experiencing some of the joys of that great revival that God poured out in the 1500s using men like Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox. The five watchwords of the reformation or five solas as they’ve become to be called were actually coined in the post-reformation era by people trying to summarize what was taught in the Reformation. These three reformers and others would not have necessarily appealed to the five Solas but they are a good distillation of what the Reformation movement is primarily about.
Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone as opposed to papal decrees or Amalgamated Church tradition layering teaching upon teaching that’s not found in the Bible then we have Solus Christus that Christ Alone is the savior and so therefore there is no rival to his greatness as the Son of God that wouldn’t including not the pope or not Mary or not Saints or Angels or anything like that Christ Alone is the savior and the mediator between God and men Sola Gratia is the idea that we’re saved by grace alone and not by works of the law or the performance of religious duties Sola Fide again similar theme that we saved by faith we call this the doctrine of justification by faith a very important Doctrine especially in the writings of St Paul and books like the book of Romans or the book of Galatians and other places as well the Salvation doctrine of sola fide is very important to reform Theology and then therefore this last one here Sola Deo Gloria means to God Alone be the glory and if it’s true that our primary teaching is from scripture alone that Christ Alone is the savior that we saved by grace through faith and of course it’s logically it follows that all glory then goes to God alone so we say the five Solas are a good summary of what was being discussed at the time of the reformation.
When we say reformed we need to clarify that a little bit of this is historical and a little bit is even geographical. In the 1500s the Roman Catholic church had the primary ecclesiastical power. Early on, some nations did not really participate in the Protestant Reformation other than to perhaps try to squelch it and to persecute. The big three Roman Catholic nations that persisted in Roman Catholic theology would be France, Spain and Italy and even today those three nations are still ardently Roman Catholic, for the most part. Unfortunately reformed theology did not seep all the way into the cultural and theological ethos. From the perspective of protestants who are reformed that is unfortunate because we think that protestant and reformed theology is a great Improvement on the medieval dark ages theology of the Roman Catholic church.
Martin Luther is obviously one of the great reformers but we usually call his movement the Lutheran movement after his own name. Germany, where Luther was from, became primarily Lutheran in its theological underpinnings. The nation of Germany primarily followed after the teachings of Martin Luther whose nailing of the 95 thesis on the Wittenberg Church door was a fundamental starting point to what we now call the Reformation.
The reformation in its Doctrine did go to other places besides Germany like the United Kingdom and its Anglican Reformation. Thomas Cranmer who’s one of the Anglican reformers reforming the Church of England. The english reformation was for slightly different purposes than Martin Luther. Luther came to the reformation with a great conviction of heart whereas in this case it had to do a little bit more with politics. England would be reformed to some extent but I do want to differentiate reformed theology from anglican theology which has its own emphases that is closer to Roman Catholicism than what we might call the reformed movement is.
Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and of course Scotland would basically Institute reformed theology and reformed doctrine in their churches and for the most part they are the the inheritors of what we would call reformed theology.
