What Do You Mean You're Reformed?

Recently, we had a family over whose Wife/Mother-of-nine was interested in learning about Kombucha.  I had not met any of them previously and the husband and I quickly began getting to know one another.  They had moved from West Virginia just over a year ago to Springtown and, so, I naturally asked him what brought them to Texas.  I soon learned that he had been involved in a Christian healing ministry whose leader lived in Springtown.  He had travelled to different countries with this leader doing healing ministry and he wanted to live closer to the ministry’s leader.

I showed him around and we talked about a variety of things until late in the evening he asked me what kind of church we attended.  I explained briefly that we are a Reformed Presbyterian family integrated congregation.  His reply was pretty typical: “I don’t know what a Presbyterian church is.”  Sometimes I hear, “Reformed?  What kind of religion is that?”  Many of us have been on both sides of questions like that – the asking side and the answering side.

Of course, Presbyterian refers to the type of church government we employ to rule ourselves.  Explaining what it means to be “reformed” is more involved.  Actually, with all the notions out there about what it means to be “reformed”, it is easier to discuss with someone who doesn’t already have preconceived ideas.  I like to use 3 C’s to define Reformed Theology – Covenantal, Confessional, and Calvinistic.

To be Covenantal is to accept that God has made a covenant, an agreement, with all His creation and creatures.  He is the initiator of the covenant as Creator and He establishes the terms of the agreement by which all creation and creatures adhere to.  Because all creation and creatures (past, present, and future) are thereby connected together by the terms of the covenant, Covenant Theology places an emphasis on connectivity (rather than discontinuity) in history and relationships.  Community rather than individualism. There are, therefore, implications to all of life and living that results from covenant thinking and practice.

To be Confessional is to simply accept that God is faithfully superintending His Church toward fullness and maturity and, therefore, the Church is continually applying His revealed word (the Scriptures) to life disciplines by formulating statements of Christian faith and practice.  These formulations throughout history we know as Confessions of Faith.  Confessions of Faith deal with the essentials of Christian life and belief – those things that make Christianity distinctly Christian.  While formulated from the Scriptures, Confessions are not God inspired or error free and do not stand equal to or above the authority of Scripture.  Accordingly, it is the duty of the Church to continually examine her confessions of faith and make changes as the Church matures.

To be Calvinistic simply means that we agree with The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in dispute in the Netherlands in the early 1600’s.  The Canons were not intended to be a comprehensive explanation of Reformed doctrine, but only an exposition on the five points of doctrine in dispute. These Canons set forth what is often referred to as the Five Points of Calvinism also known as the Doctrines of Grace, that is, what is man’s spiritual condition and how is it that he is saved.  The Doctrines of Grace are known for the acronym TULIP:  Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.

The 3 C’s lay the foundation for a cohesive and rational understanding and practice of the Christian Faith and leads the Church to better understand the nature and attributes of God, the nature of general and Special Revelation, the nature of man, the fall of man, and the redemption of mankind provided for by God.