Sinclair Ferguson wrote:

Although provoked by the indulgences peddled by Johannes Tetzel, the very first proposition that Luther offered for public debate in his Ninety Five Theses put the axe to the root of the tree of medieval theology: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent,’ he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance.” From Erasmus’ Greek New Testament, Luther had come to realise that the Vulgate’s rendering of Matthew 4:17 by penitentiam agite (“do penance”) completely misinterpreted Jesus’ meaning. The gospel called not for an act of penance but for a radical change of mind-set and an equally deep transformation of life. Later he’d write to Staupitz about this glowing discovery: “I venture to say they are wrong who make more of the act in Latin than of the change of heart in Greek!”

Isn’t it true that we’ve lost sight of this note that was so prominent in Reformation theology? We could well do with a Luther redivivus today. For a number of important reasons evangelicals need to reconsider the centrality of repentance in our thinking about the gospel, the church, and the Christian life.

One of our great needs is for the ability to view some of the directions in which evangelicalism is heading, or perhaps more accurately, disintegrating. We desperately need the long-term perspective that the history of the church gives us.

Even within the period of my own Christian life, from my teenage years in the 1960s, there’s been a sea-change in evangelicalism. Many “positions” that had long been standard evangelical teaching are now, after less than my lifetime, regarded as either reactionary or even dinosauric.

If we take an even longer-term view, however, we face the alarming possibility that there may already be a medieval darkness encroaching upon evangelicalism. Can’t we detect, at least as a tendency, dynamics within evangelicalism that bear resemblances to the life of the medieval church? The possibility of a new Babylonian (or more accurately, following Luther, Pagan) Captivity of the Church looms nearer than we may be able to believe.

Consider the following five features of medieval Christianity which are evident to varying degrees in contemporary evangelicalism.

1. REPENTANCE.

Repentance has increasingly been seen as a single act, severed from a lifelong restoration of godliness. There are complex reasons for this – not all of them modern – which we can’t explore here. Nevertheless, this seems self-evident. Seeing repentance as an isolated, completed act at the beginning of the Christian life has been a staple principle of much of modern evangelicalism. It’s sad that evangelicals have often despised the theology of the confessing churches. It has spawned two generations who look back on a single act, abstracted from its consequences, as determinative of salvation. The ‘altar call’ has replaced the sacrament of penance. Thus repentance has been divorced from genuine regeneration, and sanctification severed from justification.

2. MYSTICISM

The canon for Christian living has increasingly been sought in the Spirit’s ‘living voice’ within the church rather than in the Spirit’s voice heard in Scripture. What was once little more than a mystical tendency has become a flood. But what does this have to do with the medieval church? Just this. The entire medieval church operated on the same principle, even if they expressed it in a different form – the Spirit speaks outside of Scripture; the believer cannot know the detailed guidance of God if he tries to depend on his or her Bible alone.

Not only so, but once the ‘living voice’ of the Spirit has been introduced it follows by a kind of psychological inevitability that it’s this ‘living voice’ that becomes the canon for Christian living.

This view – inscripturated Word plus ‘living voice’ equals divine revelation – lay at the heart of the medieval church’s groping in the dark for the power of the gospel. Now, at the beginning of the third millennium we’re on the verge – perhaps even more than the verge – of being overwhelmed by a parallel phenomenon. The result then was a famine of hearing and understanding the Word of God, all under the guise of what the Spirit was still saying to the church. What of today?

3. SACRED POWERS

It was thought that the divine presence was brought to the church by an individual with sacred powers deposited within him and communicated by physical means.

Today an uncanny parallel is visible wherever TV can be seen and the internet accessed. Admittedly it’s no longer Jesus who’s given by priestly hands. Now it’s the Spirit who’s bestowed by physical means – apparently at will – by the new evangelical priest. Special sanctity is no longer confirmed by the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit, but with signs that are predominantly physical.

What we ought to find alarming about contemporary evangelicalism is the extent to which we’re impressed by performance rather than piety. The Reformers weren’t unfamiliar with similar phenomena. In fact, one of the major charges the Roman Catholic Church made against them was that they didn’t really have the gospel because they lacked physical miracles.

4. SPECTATORS

The worship of God is increasingly presented as a spectator event of visual and sensory power, rather than a verbal event in which we engage in a deep soul dialogue with the Triune God.

The mood of contemporary evangelicalism is to focus on the centrality of what ‘happens’ in the spectacle of worship rather than on what’s heard in worship. Aesthetics, be they artistic or musical, are given a priority over holiness. More and more is seen; less and less is heard. There’s a sensory feast, but a hearing famine. Professionalism in worship leadership has become a cheap substitute for genuine access to heaven, however faltering. Drama, not preaching, has become the ‘Didache’ of choice.

This is a spectrum, of course, not a single point. But most modern evangelical worship is to be found somewhere on that spectrum. There was a time when four words would bring out goose-bumps on the necks of our grandfathers: ‘Let Us Worship God’. Not so for twenty-first century evangelicals. Now there must be colour, movement, audio-visual effects, or else God cannot be known, loved, praised, and trusted for his own sake.

5. BIGGER MEANS BETTER?

The success of ministry is measured by crowds and cathedrals rather than by the preaching of the cross and the quality of Christians’ lives.

It was the medieval church leaders, bishops and archbishops, cardinals and popes, who built large cathedrals, ostensibly soli Deo gloria – all this to the neglect of gospel proclamation, the life of the body of Christ as a whole, the needs of the poor, and the evangelism of the world. Hence, the ‘mega-church’ isn’t a modern, but a medieval, phenomenon.

Ideal congregational size and specific ecclesiastical architecture thankfully are matters of indifference. That’s not really the central concern here. Rather it’s the almost endemic addiction of contemporary evangelicalism to size and numbers as an index of the success of ‘my ministry’ – a phrase which can itself be strikingly contradictory. We must raise the question of reality, depth, and integrity in church life and in Christian ministry. The lust for ‘bigger’ makes us materially and financially vulnerable. But worse, it makes us spiritually vulnerable. For it’s hard to say to those on whom we’ve come to depend materially, “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent,’ he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance.”

from https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2002/medieval-mistakes/

Jeff Stivason writes:

I love to see families entering the doors of the meeting house on Lord’s Day mornings. I see each of them as a living stone gathering to form a living temple in order to worship the living God. Once they were like the dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision. They were scattered throughout the valley of the shadow of death. But now, by God’s sovereign grace, they’ve got spiritual muscles, saintly sinews, and new hearts. They belong to Christ. They’re glorious to behold.

However, I’m under no false impressions. I realise that these beautiful families have their mornings – even on the Lord’s Day. On some Lord’s Days, these same folk might describe their trip to church in the words of Ezekiel 37, “There was a noise, and behold a rattling; and the bones came together!” Especially on mornings like these, it’s important for us to keep track of things we shouldn’t forget when we go to worship. So, let me give you five crucial things to remember when going to church – no matter what the morning may be like.

First, remember that worship is not about you, but it does call for your full participation. Most likely, every believer would give this a vigorous “amen!” On difficult mornings, though, the one thing you’re thinking about is yourself and your family – and not all of it’s good. For instance, on the way to church maybe your heart is still stewing about the kids’ bad behaviour. Maybe their hearts are still stewing about yours. What a great opportunity to bring the gospel to bear on the life of your family! What a great way to help everyone understand that you’re on your way to meet personally with the exalted Saviour who’s the source of our reconciliation before God and each other.

Second, remember that while worship’s not a lecture hall, it’s also not a living room. Some mornings it’s hard not to feel like your family just crash-landed in the chairs. Sometimes that sense of chaos follows you into worship, at least, in your mind. The Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God supplies some practical direction at just this point. It says that if any are providentially hindered from being present from the beginning of worship they ought to come in and compose themselves to join with the assembly in that ordinance of God which is then in hand. In other words, come in, get situated quickly, and join in worship! To put it another way, join the family activities!

Third, remember that, while the preacher is leading, it’s the Lord himself who’s actually speaking. Paul reminds us of this several times throughout his letters. Take Romans 10:14–15 for example, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” Or, think of Ephesians 2:17, “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” Clearly, when we listen to Bible preaching in faith, it’s actually the Lord’s voice we hear. And that ought to motivate us to fully devote ourselves to listening as we ought. Brothers and sisters, what can be more encouraging than to realise that the God of heaven and earth himself is speaking to you and your family?

Fourth, remember that what you sing teaches and admonishes your brothers and sisters (see Colossians 3:16). Think of how wonderful it is on a difficult morning to be encouraged in God’s providence by your spiritual siblings singing the great themes of forgiveness, grace, and God’s good commandments. And remember that your singing does the same for them. Put your heart and voice into it.

Fifth, remember that not only are you glorifying God, but also in worship, God is doing something in you and your family that will last for all eternity. Brothers and sisters, take heart. He is forming Christ in you. Let me tell you what that means practically. It means that God is re-shaping you and your family to be like Jesus. No, you won’t be perfect this side of eternity. But from the inside out, you’ll grow more and more Christ-like – and so will your family. That alone should give you and your family hope every time the Lord’s Day approaches.

Many theological institutions and ministries spent much of 2017 commemorating the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, one of the greatest revivals in the history of the church.

But the church in our day is once again greatly in need of reformation and revival! Among other things, because of the neglect of pastoral care and church discipline, the Lord’s sheep are scattered, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (see Mt. 9:36). This, I believe, is one big reason why the Lord is raising up churches such as Redeemer in various places.

People make solemn membership vows to God, promising to be subject to their brothers and sisters in the Lord. But often they take those vows very lightly. Again and again, members attend their church for a while. Then they disappear without ever speaking to anyone. They join other churches without ever bringing their grievances before the church they left (in direct disobedience to our Lord, Mt. 18:15ff.). Rather than seeking to resolve their grievances in a biblical way, they simply leave. Such people don’t perceive Christ as actually exercising any authority over them through the church. They don’t perceive themselves as having any “one-anothering” responsibility to their brothers and sisters in the body. They seem to have no love for their brethren or desire to bear the burdens of the body to which they’ve sworn loyalty. And what’s the result? Christians, churches, and the witness of the gospel to the world have grown weaker and weaker.

The situation has become so bad that the very idea of church membership has come to require defence. Much more can be said, but in a nutshell:

• God commands Christians to obey their leaders (Heb. 13:17).
• He also commands Christians to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).
• These obligations mean nothing unless they are undertaken towards particular believers with particular leaders.
• To take on such obligations is, in effect, to take a membership vow.

Not only that, but also:

• The leaders of a church need to know specifically whom they are responsible to serve (Mt. 20:20–26; Acts 20:28–31). The Good Shepherd knows his sheep by name; so must his undershepherds.
• Hence, it’s not asking too much for believers to let them put their names on a list.
• Such a list is, in effect, a membership list.

Accordingly, one component of the reformation and revival of the church is shoring up this notion of living church membership – of shoring up the commitment of the leaders to shepherd the particular sheep that Christ has entrusted to them while at the same time shoring up the commitment of the members to love one another, to bear one another’s burdens, and to bear with one another in specific.

[adapted from Evangelical Reunion by John Frame]