The Necessity Now

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Reformed, Study, Jesus, Preaching, Christianity, Scripture, Spirit, Bible, Holy, Theology, Christian, God, Teaching

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We must not leave the Reformation in the 16th century. Aligning our theology and our worship with God’s Word is a needed work in our day. Today, W. Robert Godfrey presents the crucial way forward in reforming the church to the glory of God.

For your donation of any amount, get John Calvin’s book The Necessity of Reforming the Church, plus lifetime digital access to W. Robert Godfrey’s video teaching series and study guide on Calvin’s classic treatise: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/4259/offer

Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Request digital access to the teaching series, study guide, and ebook with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global

Meet Today’s Teacher:

W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the great way forward, I think, to reforming the church in our day, to invite people
0:04.7	to study the word on the matters that we're concerned about. And if people won't study the word,
0:10.7	then maybe that's a sign that's not a good church to be. And a necessity of reforming the church
0:16.1	may mean changing churches.
0:23.6	In 1544, John Calvin wrote a treatise titled The Necessity of Reforming the Church.
0:30.8	The reformers were facing opposition from church leaders, accusing them of moving too quickly,
0:36.3	pushing too hard, but reformation was necessary.
0:40.4	And that's our topic today on this Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
0:45.5	If you'd like a hardcover copy of Kelvin's The Necessity of Reforming the Church,
0:51.0	plus digital access to the six-part study of this book and the study guide until
0:56.1	midnight tonight, make a donation in support of renewing your mind at renewingermind.org
1:01.5	and we'll send it to you.
1:03.2	However, this is a one-day-only offer, so don't delay.
1:08.0	In what is the final message in the necessity of reforming the church series?
1:12.7	Ligeneer Chairman W. Robert Godfrey reflects on the relevance of Calvin's treatise for the church in the 21st century.
1:20.2	Here's Dr. Godfrey.
1:23.5	When we look at discussions of how to reform the church in Calvin's Day, we'll see they're
1:30.3	not immediately applicable often to our day, but it will still raise the question, how do we
1:38.4	go about improving the church in our day? Well, what does he talk about in this last section? He says, we have been accused of
1:48.4	changing things in the church without waiting for a consensus to emerge about it. And he says,
1:58.1	all we can say in response to that is, things were so bad we couldn't wait.
2:03.6	Things were so bad we couldn't wait.
	...

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