An excert from "Reformed: What it Means, Why it Matters"

How did Calvin get along with other church leaders of his day? Opposing Roman Catholic teachings of the time, he agreed with the other Reformers that

* Salvation is by grace alone through faith, and not by our own good works.
* The Bible alone is the authoritative Word of God for our lives—not church tradition or what church leaders say.
* All believers are priests of God, anointed in Christ to serve him always, everywhere, in all they do.
* God gave us two sacraments, baptism and communion, which are signs and seals of God’s promises.
* A clergy’s blessing of the communion bread and wine do not really turn them into the actual body and blood of Christ.
* The original sinful condition in which we are born as well as our actual sins are all fully washed away by Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross.
* Prayer should be directed to God alone, not to saints or to Mary. In fact, all believers are both sinners needing God’s constant forgiveness and saints whom the Holy Spirit is already remaking to be like Jesus.

So what were some of the differences that have kept the followers of these Reformers in separate denominations ever since? Here are a few:

* Calvin differed with Luther on how Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper. Calvin taught that Jesus was not physically present but was spiritually present through the work of the Holy Spirit in believers’ hearts. Luther taught that Christ was in some sense still physically present in the bread and wine. Calvin also had a different view of how the kingdom of God actually operates in this present world. And Calvin placed more emphasis on how we should live as a result of God’s grace while Luther placed more emphasis on continually experiencing that grace itself.
* Calvin differed with Zwingli on the Lord’s Supper. Calvin taught that in communion Jesus actively participates. Jesus is our host who actually gives us his grace through the operation of the Holy Spirit. Zwingli taught that communion was our own doing—our remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross.
* Calvin differed with the Anabaptists on the role of civil government. Calvin saw government as a necessary agent of God to which Christians had to submit and which they had to actively support. The Anabaptists taught that civil government was only for non-Christians and that those within the kingdom of God had to separate themselves from civil society. Calvin also maintained the tradition of infant baptism, a practice rejected by the Anabaptists in favor of believer’s baptism.
* Calvin differed with the Anglicans/Episcopalians on many of the same points as he did with the Church of Rome. Anglicanism broke with the corrupt leadership of the Roman Church but retained many of its teachings.

Pros and Cons
Before he went to the cross to earn our salvation, Jesus prayed to his Father:
“My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe
in me through their message, that all
of them may be one, Father, just as
you are in me and I am in you. May
they also be in us so that the world
may believe that you have sent me.”
—John 17:20-21

Clearly Jesus wanted the church to be one unified fellowship around the whole world. But through these two millennia the church has been fractured into different groups—groups that often tear each other apart over relatively unimportant things. There’s no denying that the Reformation contributed to this fragmentation. So was it good or was it bad that it happened?

Thoughtful Reformed Christians would probably answer that question by saying it was both. It was bad that the Reformation had to break up the visible unity of the church. But it was good that it did so because the church in those days had gone so far astray. Luther, Calvin, Knox, and Zwingli never wanted to break up the body of Christ. That’s why we call them “Reformers.” They wanted to stay in the church. They urgently tried to get the Church of Rome to re-form, to become obedient again to the Word of God. That was their aim—not to establish their own brand of Christianity. But they ran out of choices when the church leaders of their day stubbornly refused to budge and persecuted them ruthlessly. The Reformers had to break from the existing church. Notice in the verse above how Jesus prays not only for unity but also asks that believers will remain in God. When the church drifted away from God, the Reformers saw no option but to return to the straight and narrow as commanded by Scripture, even when it meant breaking ranks with the Roman Catholic Church.

Where does that leave us? We need to stay true to the teaching of Scripture. That’s the only way we can stay in Christ. However, we should always, always be looking for opportunities to join with other Christians. We should work with them even if our differences will not allow us, yet, to routinely worship with them. We need to keep reaching out to each other as we continue to reach for our Bibles. We may not always agree on doctrine or on how to worship. But there’s plenty we can agree on that God wants us to do in this impoverished, sin-wracked world. So let’s join efforts and do what needs doing together. Let’s make our own unique contribution to God’s mission, using the particular gifts God’s Spirit has given us. That way we may be the hands and feet and voice of our Savior for those who need to share in his goodness. Then we’ll still be functioning as Christ’s body. And the world will experience God’s reconciling love.

As Reformed Christians we want to keep praying both of these: “Lord, keep us obediently in you” and “Lord, make us one.” And to the best of our ability we’ll need to work at both, right along with our Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, and Baptist sisters and brothers.