We want again Luthers!

“Never has the need been greater for such a reformation,” writes Steven J. Lawson in The Heroic Boldness Of Martin Luther.

It seems like no matter where you turn, the call for reformation (or maybe resurgence?) is being issued. Some describe it as needing churches that are committed to seeing the presence of God at work among them; to God’s glory manifest among the people. Others say we need to get past the infighting within evangelicalism and get on mission.

What resonates with me most, though, is Spurgeon’s plea:

We want again Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitefields, men fit to mark eras, whose names breathe terror in our foemen’s ears. We have dire need of such. Whence will they come to us? They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church, and will come in due time. He has power to give us back again a golden age of preachers, and when the good old truth is once more preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the altar, this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land.…I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it. The moment the Church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless His Churches.[1. Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography Vol. 2: The Full Harvest, as quoted in The Heroic Boldness Of Martin Luther]

Men cut from the same cloth as Luther, Calvin, Bunyan, Whitefield, Spurgeon… These are the men the church needs. Men of prayer—and men of the Word. If you want revival, resurgence, reformation, whatever you want to call it, this is what you need.

“Our Word-starved pulpits beg for stalwarts of the faith to bring the Book to their congregations,” Lawson says. “Only God can give such men to the church.” Let’s thank God for the men He’s already brought forward and pray for more to rise up.