The 500-year Pattern of Reformation and Why it Matters to Us

Last week I mentioned an event in church history called the Great Schism. I’ll tell you more about it in a second, but first I want to show you how it’s part of an important historical pattern that has great relevance to us today.

Every 500 years, something very interesting happens: the church goes through a reformation. By reformation, I mean it literally "re-forms" into something new. The gospel itself is left untouched, but everything else that is called “church” is turned upside down. The church experiences such a major shift that it redefines the way it relates to the world.

Let me give you a quick tour…

1517: The Protestant Reformation

Martin Luther
(photo credit: pbs.org)

Picture a man standing in front of the big wooden door of a university building, red-faced with holy indignation, nailing up a list of complaints against the Catholic Church. You guessed it – he’s Martin Luther. His 95 Theses was the catalyst for the most recent 500-year shift, the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s conviction that mankind is saved not by works but by grace through faith sent shockwaves throughout the Christian world. Today we call ourselves Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Baptist, all because of the Protestant Reformation.

(photo credit: glogster.com)

1054: The Great Schism
Go back five hundred years and we find another reformation. This is the one that happened at the Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul (back then the city was called Constantinople). Up to that point, there had been one unified church. But in 1054, due to cultural differences, theological disagreements, and some big egos, the church split, forming Roman Catholicism in the West and Eastern Orthodox in the East. As a result, Christianity started spreading East into Russia, evangelizing that part of the world for the first time.

500 (ish) A.D.: The Monastic Movement

Ruin of Early Irish Monastery
(Photo credit: irelandhistory.org)

Go back 500 years more and you will find yet another reformation. This was the establishment of monasteries. Faithful monks like St. Patrick took the gospel all over Europe and established monasteries wherever they went. These monasteries soon became hubs of the Christian faith. In the first century, at the time of Christ and the early church, Christianity had been Roman – but after 500 years, it was reborn as European.

Ok, so here’s the interesting thing: if reformation happens every 500 years, then we are due for the next shift. The Protestant Reformation was almost EXACTLY 500 years ago!

So was Newsweek correct when in 2009 they proclaimed on their cover, “The End of Christian America?” Or could it be that God is up to something behind the scenes, preparing His people to turn the page of history and usher in the church of the next five hundred years?

If this is true, then it is cause for great hope and excitement. We may be on the cusp of a major move of God.

Will you join me in praying for the next reformation?