Douglas Wilson: Reformation – Scripture, Repentance, and Church

“By the grace of the Lord, we must resolve to be faithful to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. From Genesis to Revelation, we must not be embarrassed by any passage of Scripture, and once we have submissively ascertained its meaning through careful and patient grammatical, historical and typological study, we must seek to put it into practice the day before yesterday” (Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk: Essays on Church Life, 16).

“In a godly culture, the first social manifestation of grace is found in the family. But our culture is so rebellious that we have institutionalized our rebellion and cannot even conceive of how a genuine obedience would appear. We must nevertheless begin; Christians must insist on the abolition of the government school system, our nursing home system, our government welfare system, and countless other agencies and bureaucracies designed by the godless to replace the family. The family, and only the family, is the ministry of health, education, and welfare. Christians must hasten the destruction of this godless system of salvation by works through separating themselves from it. Christians must take their children out of government schools and day-care centers, their parents out of rest homes, and food stamps out of the budget.

“And this brings us to the point of this book, which is the reformation of the Church. The first duty of all Christian churches is to proclaim clearly the gospel of Christ as Scripture has revealed it to us. Our preachers must therefore repent of their ignorance, slothfulness, timidity, and prideful ‘wiser than God’ assumptions, and return to a bold proclamation of the truth of the Gospel. We need have no fear in preaching this message, for it abases man and exalts Christ. We need to tremble for having neglected it. . . . The point of this book is the reformation of the Church, and not the reformation of nations and culture. Nevertheless, if the Church were to be reformed, it would have a dramatic impact on the surrounding nations and culture” (17-18).

“Modern evangelicals in our culture have gotten money, power, and influence, and it has been like giving whiskey to a two-year-old. But the need of the hour is theological, not political. The arena is the pulpit and the table, not the legislative chamber. The message is Christ crucified and risen for His chosen sinners and now acknowledge Lord of all. This risen and conquering Christ is the Head of the Church. Before we are equipped to proclaim His lordship to the inhabitants of all the earth, we must live as though we believed it in the Church” (22).