{"id":30358,"date":"2017-11-27T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/\/uk\/?p=30358"},"modified":"2017-12-11T15:48:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T15:48:55","slug":"sort-of-reformed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/articles\/2017\/sort-of-reformed\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sort of’ Reformed: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the mid-twentieth century, those Christians who were willing\u00a0to call themselves \u2018Reformed\u2019 or \u2018Calvinistic\u2019 were relatively few\u00a0in number. Liberalism had done its work in the large\u00a0 mainline\u00a0denominations to discredit \u2018Reformation\u2019 doctrine. Evangelicalism had\u00a0fallen so low that many dismissed theology altogether by saying that\u00a0doctrine only divides. \u2018Calvinist\u2019 was a slur to denigrate a Christian\u00a0and to advise that the warm-hearted distance themselves from him.\u00a0\u2018Orthodoxy\u2019 was a word seldom used without the adjective \u2018cold\u2019.<\/p>\n

Resurgence of Reformation Doctrine<\/h3>\n

Just at that time, in God\u2019s good providence, a number of theologians\u00a0and gospel ministers boldly reasserted biblical or \u2018Reformed\u2019 doctrine.\u00a0They were assisted by publishers who reprinted the works of the\u00a0Reformers, the Puritans, and others through the centuries who had\u00a0held to the same system of doctrine. Over the last half century the\u00a0number of these men has increased. There has been an enormous\u00a0amount of work to do, both in turning multitudes away from\u00a0bewitching liberalism to the Christ of Scripture and in reaching out to\u00a0fellow-Christians to enrich their knowledge of God\u2019s Word with the\u00a0insights of the Reformers and their children.<\/p>\n

As these important ministries have made ever-widening ripples on\u00a0the waves of the religious world more people have felt their impact.\u00a0Reformed commentaries and books are being read in places one would\u00a0not have expected fifty years ago. The work of Reformed witnesses\u00a0and Reformed preaching is having a spreading influence. One consequence of this is the growing number of individuals and organizations wanting to call themselves \u2018Reformed\u2019, \u2018Calvinistic\u2019 or\u2018Sovereign Grace\u2019.<\/p>\n

Adopting the title \u2018Reformed\u2019 is becoming somewhat popular. It is not uncommon for someone who had been self-satisfied in a \u2018non-doctrinal\u2019 Christianity to be awakened by biblical terms such as\u2018election\u2019 or \u2018imputation\u2019. Most of these people have begun to look into\u00a0Reformed truth through the doorway of man\u2019s salvation. Recognizing\u00a0the sovereign moving of God\u2019s Spirit to awaken sinners and to quicken\u00a0them to life as the prior cause of their coming to Christ opens up a\u00a0whole new outlook. Yet after going through the doorway, most of us\u00a0required years to understand the doctrinal system which is called\u00a0\u2018Reformed\u2019. One truth implies another, and then another still. The\u00a0truths are interlocking, and mutually supportive of one another.<\/p>\n

Those who are active in leading others into \u2018the doctrines of grace\u2019\u00a0are delighted when someone begins to grasp the meaning of God\u2019s\u00a0\u2018grace\u2019. It is no offence to us when such beginners call themselves\u00a0\u2018Reformed\u2019, even though we realize that novices are far from\u00a0understanding many vital elements of Reformed truth. Since it took us\u00a0so long a time to work through the implications of these convictions\u00a0we can be patient with others\u2019 journeys into truth.<\/p>\n

However, many have come to approach Reformed theology as\u00a0one would a salad bar. Such Christians seem to think that they may\u00a0choose items they personally like but turn up their noses at Reformed\u00a0doctrines that are not to their taste. Some cannot digest all of the\u00a0foundational doctrines of the Reformation. Further study leads them\u00a0to a decisive rejection of doctrines that are pillars upholding\u00a0the great Reformed confessions of faith. All the while they call\u00a0themselves \u2018Reformed\u2019. Nevertheless other men publicly set forward\u00a0leaders among this group as exemplary Reformed teachers. Entire\u00a0organizations have been begun for the purpose of including those who\u00a0are not in agreement with some very rudimentary truths on which the\u00a0Reformation stood. These organizations also call themselves\u00a0\u2018Reformed\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Authority of Scripture<\/h3>\n

Nothing was as elementary to the Reformation as the doctrine stated\u00a0by one of the Reformed creeds in this way: \u2018The Holy Scripture is the\u00a0only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge,\u00a0faith, and obedience.\u2019 This confession goes on to speak of \u2018 . . . those\u00a0former ways of God\u2019s revealing his will unto his people being now\u00a0ceased\u2019. As if this were not sufficient, the confession is redundant: \u2018The\u00a0whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own\u00a0glory, man\u2019s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any\u00a0time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Authority of Scripture and the Sufficiency of Scripture as\u00a0an authority were truths set at rock bottom of the Reformation.\u00a0Therefore, although friends and ministers who do not consciously\u00a0assert the unique and sole authority of Scripture over what we believe\u00a0and how we live may be beginning to move nearer to biblical truth,\u00a0they are not \u2018Reformed\u2019.<\/p>\n

As the Lord was reviving the Reformed system of doctrine in the\u00a0latter half of the twentieth century, there was an opposite movement\u00a0within Christianity. The longing for more than God\u2019s Word to solve\u00a0the church\u2019s weakness, the craving after modern day miracle-workers\u00a0and revelations, has also made its impact on Christendom. This\u00a0inevitably has led to a view of authority which is in conflict with the\u00a0Reformed teaching on that topic.<\/p>\n

Although Charismatic adherents believe that the Bible is God\u2019s\u00a0Word and is authoritative, they still cannot assert with Paul that\u00a0Scripture \u2018thoroughly\u2019 equips the man of God \u2018for every good work\u2019\u00a0(2 Tim. 3:16\u201317).<\/p>\n

The Reformers emerged from a medieval church which also believed\u00a0that the Bible was the authoritative Word of God. Yet this Scripture\u00a0was only selectively called to the attention of congregations by a\u00a0special class of leaders. Their teaching mixed God\u2019s words with the\u00a0interpretations or \u2018revelations\u2019 of popes and bishops. The church\u00a0vigorously downplayed Bible study while at the same time commending contemporary \u2018revelations\u2019 which attended tawdry \u2018miracle-\u00a0workers\u2019 of the times.<\/p>\n

The Reformers Were Very Definite on Authority<\/h3>\n

Nothing was clearer in the Reformation than the assertion that\u00a0Scripture stands alone as the authority which would inform our belief\u00a0and bind us to action. Perhaps the most memorable statement, because\u00a0of the dramatic circumstances in which it was uttered, was found in\u00a0Luther\u2019s words to the head of the Holy Roman Empire, to princes and\u00a0to bishops: \u2018Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason \u2013\u05bc I do\u00a0not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have\u00a0contradicted each other \u2013 my conscience is captive to the Word of\u00a0God.\u2019<\/p>\n

Perhaps equally deserving of our attention is the reply of John\u00a0Wycliffe when in 1408 a church council forbade him to translate\u00a0Scripture into English: \u2018You say it is heresy to speak of the Holy\u00a0Scriptures in English. You call me a heretic because I have translated\u00a0the Bible into the common tongue of the people. Do you know whom\u00a0you blaspheme? Did not the Holy Ghost give the Word of God at first\u00a0in the mother-tongue of the nations to whom it was addressed? Why\u00a0do you speak against the Holy Ghost? You say that the Church of God\u00a0is in danger from this book. How can this be? Is it not from the Bible\u00a0only that we learn that God has set up such a society as a Church on\u00a0earth? Is it not the Bible that gives all her authority to the church? . . .\u00a0Without the Bible, what charter has the Church to show all these? It is\u00a0you who place the Church in jeopardy by hiding the Divine warrant,\u00a0the missive royal of her King, for the authority she wields and the faith\u00a0she enjoins.\u2019<\/p>\n

In addition we have a guiding principle of John Knox as stated by\u00a0Iain Murray in his Scottish Christian Heritage, p. 14, \u2018Christians are\u00a0bound to a universal obedience to the Word of God, no matter what\u00a0the cost, no matter what the consequences. More particularly, nothing\u00a0is lawful in the church unless it is found in Scripture.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Reformed doctrine of salvation for sinners arises from a careful\u00a0study of Scripture, as do the other parts of the system of Reformed\u00a0doctrine. Its conclusions have never been reached nor can they be\u00a0supported by anything but scrupulous adherence to Scripture alone.\u00a0Human reasoning and subjective impulses untied from the\u00a0Scripture-alone approach have never arrived at these principles.\u00a0Scripture as the only authority, and Scripture interpreting Scripture,\u00a0build the superstructure of Reformed truth and maintain it.<\/p>\n

When men abandon Scripture as their sole authority leading to truth\u00a0and righteousness the door is thrown open to all of the abuses of\u00a0medieval thinking. Subjective feelings and impulses which are not\u00a0aroused by the truth of Scripture become free to roam at human will.\u00a0When leaders who follow such impressions arrive at convictions\u00a0contrary to Scripture they impose them on others in the church in the\u00a0name of God\u2019s special (but unwritten) revelation.<\/p>\n

Contributing to this movement, alien to the Reformation, is the\u00a0human thirst for the visual or dramatic rather than the verbal. But we\u00a0know that \u2018Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God\u2019<\/p>\n

(Rom. 10:17). The Holy Spirit brought this Word to man through\u00a0the prophets and apostles. He attends that Word in all his saving\u00a0operations. \u2018Having been born again . . . through the Word of God\u00a0. . . \u2019 (1 Pet. 1:23).<\/p>\n

Remove God\u2019s Word as the singular authority for truth and practice\u00a0from the collection of doctrines called \u2018Reformed\u2019, and the remainder\u00a0will collapse into a heap, unsupportable by any other system. We say\u00a0this not to suggest that such is the intent of those who hold to\u00a0authorities in addition to the Bible. It is rather an expression of the\u00a0hopelessness of upholding or conveying to others Reformation\u00a0doctrine without the basic step of commitment to Scripture alone as\u00a0the logical first principle of our system of thought. Any hedging on this\u00a0point makes the entire system of divine truth shake with instability.<\/p>\n

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This article first appeared in the November 2006 edition of the Banner of Truth <\/em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Of Further Interest<\/h3>\n