What the Reformation was all about

"The seeds of what we enjoy in a modern democratic republic are found in the Reformation. And if there were no Reformation, if there were no sense of Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone, and there were no understanding that every man, every woman, and every child is a priest before God, not only with the right, but with the responsibility to read the Bible for himself and herself, there would never have been the country that you and I know today.

"America did not come out of the southwest where tyrants came and enslaved people."

What was the Reformation about? It was not about great men, much less perfect men, because the Reformation aimed at the Glory of God alone.

It was not about doing away with reason or tradition, but it was about affirming that the Bible alone is infallible, not reason or tradition, and that the Bible alone has authority to bind our consciences. It was about affirming that ordinary believers have the right and the responsibility to think for themselves and examine everything by the truth of God's Word.

The Reformation was about clearing away centuries of debris that had obscured the gospel and then setting that gospel forth in its biblical purity, that salvation is by grace alone and received by faith alone, and that the object of our faith is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ: we rest on Christ alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel.