Is The Reformation Over?

On this day, 491 years ago, God used a monk with a mallet to change the world*. When Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany no one could have ever imagined what would happen next; the world was turned upside down. God wrought a work in 16th century Europe that has not since been equaled; the Protestant Reformation.

Today we celebrate Reformation Day, but is the Reformation over? One might think so. After all, that was nearly 500 years ago and it appears that the earth has ceased to quake from Luther's hammer along with the aftershocks from the Reformers who followed him. The Protestant Reformation is viewed merely as an important event in history that brought freedom along with what we now see as various Christian traditions. But I would argue that the Reformation was about more than that. It was about more than religious freedom, it was about recovering the true but hidden Gospel. It was about the glory of God.

So is it over? Our question can be answered with the cry of the Reformers: semper reformanda, a latin phrase that means always reforming. This cry can be heard again and again by every generation of reformers as they enter and exit the world. The answer is no, the Reformation is not over, not until we are reformed to the desire of God for His church given to us in Holy Scripture. Semper Reformanda.

* The phrase is from the subtitile of Stephen Nichols' book The Reformation: how a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World (Crossway 2007).