In this video, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey explains why John Calvin considered worship the central issue of the Reformation, and what that means for how churches approach worship today.
As a Reformation historian, I think people have a number of misconceptions about the Reformation and in some ways, it may be hard to think about the biggest misconception. I suspect particularly in our politically charged world, many people may not realize how much the government, the civil government in Europe, was involved in the success or failure of the Reformation and that’s an interesting subject.
But Ligonier is most interested in theological questions. I suppose theologically what often surprises people the most is that John Calvin would say that the issue of worship is the most important issue that the Reformation was about. We usually talk about Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone—all those things are absolutely appropriate to talk about—but Calvin had a profound sense that our understanding of grace and Christ and faith are means to an end and the end is meeting with God and worshiping God and honoring Him according to His Word.
So for Calvin, worship was a tremendously important subject, and I think Calvin might be most surprised today to look at Protestant churches and see that too often when Protestants gather to worship and think about worship, they’re asking the wrong questions. What will attract people? What makes people feel good? What do people like? And for Calvin, the only question was: What is God like? What has He told us in His Word about worship? So that might be a surprise to a lot of people and it’s certainly a call to us to study the Bible to see what it says about worship.