What's the Best Book You've Read on the Reformation?

David Daniel William Tyndale the David Daniels the buyer graduation of the book William Tyndale and frankly top three biographies I've ever read and could hardly put it down it is so beautifully written so engaging Lee written and Tyndale is such a riveting heartbreaking character and and I suppose the reason it's front-burner for me right now as we record is that you know that I was just in Europe we were together in Geneva so I was in Poland Geneva and Italy and I came away somebody said which was the main impact I'm a raving Protestant that I came away from the I just wanted to weep over the negatives of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy in particular where so he says as the Reformation over I say he never even got there and therefore the the burdens under which they work and and just one illustration why Kendall is so precious to me I heard of a of a nun an 80 year old nun who was converted recently who had never read the Gospel of John 80 years in the service of the church never laid eyes on the Gospel of John it makes me a man that really makes me mad and so Tyndale died they kill people they burn people to life reading the English Bible so we got a we got an issue here just you know doctrine of justification or whatever aside the Bible give me the Bible in the vernacular and I'll be burned alive to make that happen that would that was Tyndale for me and today it feels really relevant feels really big right now and the perseverance of the man when he lost manuscripts and just kept on going and going so best yeah best thing you've read or impact on information I really don't like these best questions or what what's the one thing because because I've changed my mind on such questions with time you know but if I had to listen I'll give you a wiggle room darling yeah if I had to choose one I would say Calvin's Institutes I first skim read them I mean how do you skim read I did I skim read the Institute's when I was a young man but and it's important remember that the first edition was really quite small and Calvin wrote them at the age of 26 that's staggering now the the integrative thought already at the age of 26 it's it's humbling staggering and but then he kept thinking and working and thinking and working and expanding and now why one of the reasons why I think it's important there is scarcely a major theological even theological / cultural topic in which we engage today where I can't go back to the Institute somewhere and say Calvin thought about it before I do you know and and really probing Lee - I remember working on Christ and Culture Eve is --it it and rereading chunks of book for that that has been shaping and all in all kinds of ways the man's mind was steeped in Scripture moreover he could move from from commentaries that were simply following the outline of the passage and and not always integrating things deeply into his into his institutes and yet the Institute's themselves show all of this profound integration even while he's a first-class commentator the combination of faithful knows into the text commenting on the one hand and yet this godly whole Bible whole God integration in the Institute's it's shaping it's shaping for me yeah I had my younger self I just can't stick to one my younger self did read Roland Beynon mmm here I stand who's in the my early days when I was becoming reformed and when I was during my years at gordon-conwell and that book is a kind of a mixture you know it's not quite it's probably it's probably a little too booster ish but for modern historians but it's all day on the other hand it's not just the high geography there's and it was it really was pretty pretty astonishing to me but that's almost my younger self so like I so far back I I know that the young Tim Keller loved that book at the end yet I have been back to it as much recently I did read Calvin's institutes in a year you know six seven pages a night and about five years ago I think it was and it was pretty pretty remarkable in in my case done one thing I realized was that virtually every single thought leader theologian Christian thinker that I most loved must have gotten his stuff from him or maybe Augustine because it's so clear that he pretty close Agustin you know as much as everybody else he quotes all put together either from him or Augusta I suddenly said wait a minute you know I thought Edwards came up with that I thought you know you know I thought in fact I thought everybody at different people a hyper camp with that I thought you know everybody everything I had ever loved was in there and expounded you know read in the scripture and everything the other thing is um you know our temperaments a little different John but I would have to say I'm probably not going to sound as intense when I came out of that I felt more convinced as a Protestant than ever I mean a perfect example is I got to one place in the text where I knew the next hundred twenty pages were dedicated to proving that there's there's not seven sacraments there's two so I'm sitting there say to my cheek I mean look I'm in my late 50s I know there's only two sects that's why why do I need to know I'm going to do it so I read one hundred and twenty he was amazing like when he said for example the idea that you cannot get remission for sins without going to a priest to do confession he says he even is willing to say look on the bright side that means we're not into self accreditation we're into you know you go to the church you you know he says there's there's advantage since this but he says let me tell you how that undermines the gospel which I'd never thought of he says either it'll make you a legalist which means you're gonna have to go running to a priest like every hour like Martin Luther or it'll make an antinomian who says I can go out and clobber people and do anything I want and then just show up and get confession every so many days so he says what it does is it actually destroys grace in the life and I remember thinking this is just too brilliant why didn't I ever see this before you know so just reading the Institute's made me say yes I'm a Protestant and and as far as I'm concerned the Reformation was very important yeah and and just before we walked in here don't know we're talking about that that very confessional issue is alive and well and maybe a good place to end like having people wondering do we need a hash rehashed the Reformation again indulgences at once and we were saying on the contrary that the present Pope has has established a year of Jubilee special places where you can go get these plenary indulgences so that's not now all right and Calvin just made a good case or to say it might be well-intentioned I mean it's funny you know Calvin was in spite of how it people say oh he was so anti-catholic there's plenty of places where he gives credit where credit is due where he says there's not only true Christians in the Catholic Church but true congregations he says in the Catholic Church which is a bridge I think a lot of Protestants would say it's too far nevertheless at the at the end he says this is just undermining the very idea of grace and it's not something we can compromise with it might be worthwhile adding one other one other tome I did read Roland Baynton when I was at seminary and I had didn't even think of him in this way but I remember it was shaping at the time and but at the same time it's a it's a form of history that modern historians often view as to hagiographic - it's not entirely even-handed and so on a promotional yeah it is it there's a bit too much hype but on the other hand metal doping yeas two volumes on the Reformation dispelled that for average people like me Dobie 8d ' a ubi G and E acute trauma doping ye and it's it's worth perusing to this day it's it's a banner of truth you just come up with another edition of it so everyone it was it was written a hundred years ago 100 and whatever was but it's it's got an old-fashioned style to it and it's a bit polemical but in terms of painting broad pictures and showing what some of the issues were without putting on all the footnotes it's it's a challenging and encouraging piece of work and I'd gladly give it to a lot of young young pastors

Channel: The Gospel Coalition

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Id: EtZa_CZVunM

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2016