Time for a New Reformation

I love B. B. Warfield, but when he claimed the Reformation was the triumph of Augustine’s doctrine over grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the church, he was wrong. See Calvin’s Institutes Book 4. 

The Reformation – at least at its best – was the *integration* of Augustine’s doctrine of grace with Augustine’s doctrine of the church. Augustine never fully integrated these two sides of his theology; Calvin accomplished that integration, though sadly later Calvinists have failed to keep these two sides of his teaching together. 

It’s a high time for another Calvin and another Reformation to put Augustine back together again. Sovereign grace and Mother Church are not enemies; they belong together. Sovereign grace without a high view of the visible church tends towards Gnosticism. The church without sovereign grace tends towards humanism and sacerdotalism.