Quotes About Reformation

Martin Luther was the Reformation's indispensable firestarter. Would there have been a Reformation if young Martin had followed his father's wishes and become a lawyer? Who knows, but the Reformation as it actually happened is unimaginable without him.

The Reformation became notorious for two fat men. The first, Martin Luther, we have already met. The second, King Henry VIII of England.

Luther's fire caught because fuel had been quietly building up for some time. The principal fuel was desire for reform of the church.

When the bonds which knit society to God are relaxed, selfishness soon becomes furious, and forcibly seizes what it lusts after, regardless of others' rights. Sin saps the very foundations of social life, and makes men into tigers, more destructive to each other than wild beasts. All our grand modern schemes for the reformation of society will fail unless they begin with the reformation of the individual. To walk with God is the true way to make men gentle and pitying.

I am afraid Luther will not recant, Holy Father,' Cajetan said. 'I looked into his eyes. He would not recant even facing the fire of the stake.' 'I have no problem with the fire of the stake either.' Leo X answered.

A better future for the church requires that we realign our theology and practice with the primary storyline of the Kingdom.

It took many years to cleanse Arabia of its "false idols." It will take many more to cleanse Islam of its new false idols—bigotry and fanaticism—worshipped by those who have replaced Muhammad's original vision of tolerance and unity with their own ideals of hatred and discord. But the cleansing is inevitable, and the tide of reform cannot be stopped. The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.

The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.

Alas! can we think that the reformation is wrought, when we cast out a few ceremonies, and changed some vestures, and gestures, and forms! Oh no, sirs'! it is the converting and saving of souls that is our business. That is the chiefest part of reformation, that doth most good, and tendeth most to the salvation of the people.

You are likely to see no general reformation till you procure family reformation. Some little obscure religion there may be in here and there one; but while it sticks in single persons, and is not promoted by these societies, it doth not prosper, nor promise much for future increase.

thought, the world will never be quite the same.

passages proved the correctness of Protestant teaching.

No repentance, obedience, self-denial, prayers, tears, reformation or ordinances, without the new creation, avail any thing to the salvation of thy soul.

If thou least fallen into sin through violent temptations, seek speedily for repentance for it, recovery out of it, and reformation from it.

For Luther the religious was the thing of greatest importance on earth; for Erasmus it was the human.

The one good thing about being Protestant is that we are not expected to cringe forever in contrition.

I believe student ministry needs reformation, not annihilation. I also believe the system currently in operation in many churches — more pizza parties than theological passion and more games than gospel — must be changed.

I should sit down and make a list of everything I missed while I was gone. If you can't smoke in bars anymore, what other atrocities has the world committed?

I'm looking for a second reformation. The first reformation of the church 500 years ago was about beliefs. This one is going to be about behavior. The first one was about creeds. This one is going to be about deeds. It is not going to be about what does the church believe, but about what is the church doing.

last I looked appeared to be turning the place into a Marin County whorehouse.

Reformation with men and dogs never goes very deep.

It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.

Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches.

On 23 August 1572, French Catholics who stressed the importance of good deeds attacked communities of French Protestants who highlighted God's love for humankind. In this attack, the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, between 5,000 and 10,000 Protestants were slaughtered in less than twenty-four hours.