The Reformed Faith in Crisis

Beloved Brethren and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ! 

 

I would like to begin with just a few words about my approach to the subject matter of this pamphlet. In the first place, I want to say that I address you as heirs and lovers of the heritage of the Reformed faith. In the second place, that also holds for myself. I address you as one who counts himself, by the grace of God, an heir of that heritage and a lover of it. And in the third place, as far as my approach is concerned, I write as a member of the Protestant Reformed Churches, and as such, as a member of what has come to be known rather generally as the Reformed community, and as one who is concerned about the crisis in which that Reformed commu­nity at large finds itself today.

I also wish to say a few words by way of introduction about my subject. Then I would like to have it understood, first of all, that to me the Reformed faith is the faith of the gospel, and that too in its purest and most richly developed form according to the Scriptures. That in itself already makes the subject worthwhile. That makes it worthwhile in the deepest sense of the word because that means that the cause of God's church, the cause of God's Zion, the cause that is incomparably bigger and of greater significance than any human institution of the church, is at stake in the consideration of this subject.

My subject, as is plain, also presupposes the idea that the Reformed faith is in crisis, that it faces a crisis. It presupposes therefore the thought that this is a time to speak out, not to keep silence. That is the nature of a crisis. It is a time to warn. It is a time to counsel, and advise, and let our testimony upon the basis of the Word of God, our witness, be heard. That also presupposes that we believe that we have something to say, and that we have something that should be heard, and something that should be heeded. And that, by the grace of God, I certainly believe with all my heart.

With that in mind, I ask your attention for the subject, ''The Reformed Faith in Crisis.' And I call your attention to this subject under the following divisions:

I. THE REFORMED FAITH

What do we mean by that? I would describe that Reformed faith, in the first place, from a formal point of view. I cannot describe that here in all its details. It is far too rich and too all-embracing in its scope. It involves the whole body of the truth of Scripture. And to study it and set it forth in full would take far more than this one pamphlet. And therefore, I will limit myself to the chief aspects of that Reformed faith and to the salient features of that faith both from a formal and a material point of view. What is the Reformed faith? What is characteristic of it, first, then, from a formal point of view?

Certainly the outstanding feature of that Reformed faith is the fact that it is confessional. That Reformed faith has been embodied since the time of the Reformation of the sixteenth century in several creeds or confessions, some of them called Reformed, some of them called Presbyterian. They are creeds or confessions that were developed and set forth by the churches of the Reformed persuasion according to the lands in which that faith came to expression. I am sure that for most of us those creeds are the creeds of our Dutch Reformed heritage, our three great Formulas of Unity: the Heidelberg Catechism, our comfort book; the Belgic Confession, the 37 Articles of Faith; and the Canons of Dordrecht, sometimes known as The Five Points of Calvinism.

Those confessions are the official declarations in which the Reformed churches set forth systematically what they believe and hold to be the truth of the Word of God. By those creeds we set forth our faith in distinction from and over against all the world, and in distinction from other churches, in obedience to the divine calling to let our light shine as His church and to give constant expression to our faith. By those creeds also—and that should never be underestimated—our distinctive heritage is preserved and handed down through the generations of the church, in order that those generations may grow up and be instructed according to that same faith. And by those creeds our unity is expressed. Our confessions constitute the bond of union, on the basis of which Christians of one belief unite, and churches of one faith and one confession unite. It is characteristic therefore of confessions that they are binding: binding not upon the conscience, because it is part and parcel of the Reformed faith that there is nothing that can or may bind the conscience, except the Word of God as we have it in the Scriptures in their entirety. But confessions become binding through the free and voluntary obedience to and subscription to those confessions both on the part of office bearers in the church and the members of the church.

That brings me to the second aspect of that Reformed faith from a formal point of view. As I have already suggested, those confessions, in turn, have their authority and their binding power only from the Scriptures. That is the deeper aspect of the Reformed faith from a formal point of view. That implies the truth, in the first place, of the absolute authority and the absolute infallibility of the Scriptures as the verbally inspired record of the Word of God. And that is based, therefore, exactly on that truth that Scripture is the infallible and the inspired and the inerrant Word of God in its entirety, from beginning to end. That means that it is characteristic of the Reformed faith, as one of our Reformed creeds puts it, to 'believe without any doubt all things contained' in the sixty-six books of the Old and the New Testament. That is fundamental! Scripture in its absolute authority and infallibility is fundamental to all the faith. Without that Scripture and apart from that Scripture, there is no knowledge of the truth of the God of our salvation possible. That implies, too, the truth of the clarity, or as it is sometimes called, the perspicuity of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are understandable, and the Scriptures are one in their meaning; and those Scriptures are open and plain to any believer. You do not have to be a theologian to understand the Scriptures. The Scriptures are plain and they are simple. Any child of God can understand the Scriptures and read the Scriptures, fundamentally. And finally, that implies the truth that according to the Reformed faith it is the calling and the duty of believers to be in unconditional obedience to those Scriptures. The Scriptures are the only test for all of faith and all of life. They are the only and absolute authority before which we bow without reservation; the only authority upon which also the authority of any confessions in the church is based and from which it is derived. And we must remember that according to our Reformed faith that calling, that duty to bow before the Scriptures, means that we so completely bow without reserva­tion before that Word of God that if it comes to a choice of bowing before that Word or bowing before the institute of a church, we always choose the former. That is Reformed!

You understand, of course, that this really forms the foundation of the entire Reformed faith. This is the ultimate basis. That is Scripture too! The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner­stone. Take those Scriptures away, and you take that foundation away. Distort those Scriptures, and you distort that foundation. Deny the authority of those Scriptures, the infallibility of those Scriptures, and you attack the very basis, the very foundation of the faith.

With that in mind, let us turn now to the question: What is that Reformed faith materially?

And again I say, I cannot possibly mention all that belongs to the material of that faith. There is no time for that. But I want to try to emphasize as pointedly and as clearly as possible what especially distinguishes the Reformed faith from every other faith. What distinguishes the Reformed faith from Modernism, for ex­ample—Modernism, which still calls itself the church, Modernism which nevertheless denies all the fundamental truths of Christendom, the Bible, the Vicarious Atonement, the Incarnation, the Resurrec­tion, and the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? And still more specifically, what distinguishes that Reformed faith from orthodox Christianity in general—orthodox Christianity, which in general may still confess the great truths which I mentioned a moment ago, and which may still pride itself to a degree on being what is called Fundamentalist or Evangelical? What distinguishes that Reformed faith from Lutheran faith? What distinguishes it from Methodism, from Dispensationalism, from Baptist faith, from Arminianism? What distinguishes it even from Roman Catholi­cism, which still to a certain extent holds to some of those fundamentals? That is the question!

In distinction from all of those, our faith is Reformed! And that it is Reformed means, in the first place, that it holds to the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God in the salvation of His people. That is characteristic of the Reformed faith: that it holds to the truth of sovereign, particular grace, without reservation. At the very heart of that truth is the truth that has many, many times come under attack and which is in crisis again also today, the truth of predesti­nation, sovereign predestination, election and reprobation. Our forefathers in the Reformed faith many times called that doctrine the heart of the church. It is central! It is controlling! But the whole of that truth of sovereign, particular grace has been spelled out in the well known TULIP, or Five Points of Calvinism.

They are briefly: Total Depravity, in the first place, the truth that man apart from the regenerating grace of God is by nature incapable of doing any good and prone to all evil. That is Total Depravity, no matter what may be said nowadays under the name of Total Depravity that is not really Total Depravity. Total Depravity means that the natural man cannot, and will not, and cannot will to do anything good, to do anything but sin. That is man! That is characteristic of the Reformed faith, because it is of the essence of the Reformed faith that according to it man is nothing, and God is all. In the second place, there is that truth, already mentioned, of Unconditional, or Sovereign Election, and with it necessarily the truth of sovereign, righteous Reprobation. The truth that is, therefore, on the one hand, that God from eternity and solely because of His own divine good pleasure chose certain definite persons, and chose, in fact, an entire church, an entire body, unto salvation and unto everlasting life in Christ Jesus. And this includes the truth, on the other hand, that God in absolute sover­eignty destined the others, the reprobate, unto eternal damnation in the way of their own sin and unbelief. In the third place, the truth of Limited, or Definite, Atonement, that is, the truth that Christ laid down His life for His sheep only, thereby bringing the sacrifice of infinite value that made complete satisfaction of the justice of God with respect to all the sins of all His people, and of them only, and thereby obtaining for them all the blessings of salvation. In the fourth place, there is the truth of Irresistible Grace, the truth that God through the Spirit of Christ actually saves that elect sinner, who is in himself totally depraved, and capable only of sin—God makes of that sinner a child of God. He does that all alone. He does that when He regenerates that sinner, unconditionally, irresistibly. He does that when through the Word of the gospel and by the power of His Spirit He sovereignly and unconditionally and effectually bestows the gift of saving faith. That is God's work, not man's. He bestows the gift of repentance and conversion; that is God's work. He does that when He bestows upon His people sovereignly, and imparts to them as conscious partakers of it, all the benefits of salvation. That is a wonder of grace, pure, sovereign grace, in no way dependent upon the will of man. And, finally, there is the truth of the Perseverance of the Saints, that is, that the sinner, totally depraved in himself, unconditionally elected from eternity, re­deemed and atoned for by the precious blood of Christ, and irresistibly called out of darkness into God's light, is preserved by that same grace and perseveres to the very end. God preserves His people, so that there is no falling away from grace, and so that His people persevere unto the end and endure and overcome temptation and fight the battle of faith and obtain the final victory in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the first fundamental feature of that Reformed faith materially: the truth of sovereign, particular grace.

That is not all. There is another truth that is, if anything, still more distinctive as far as the Reformed faith is concerned, but a truth that is very, very much neglected and forgotten in our day. I refer to the truth of the Covenant of God. Reformed theology and Reformed faith is covenant theology! That is a central and characteristic truth of the Reformed faith. It is very little thought of and very little taught in our times, and still less understood and appreciated in our times. There is very little covenant conscious­ness in the church nowadays—in the Reformed church at large also. Very little! There is very little proceeding from and living out of that truth of God's covenant. But it is a very precious truth. It is not very precious as long as you conceive of the covenant as a sort of an agreement or contract between God and man. That is not really the covenant at all. The Reformed truth of God's covenant means that God establishes and realizes His eternal covenant of grace as a covenant of friendship with His people in Christ Jesus, with believers and their seed, in the line of continued generations.

And the relation between that and the previous truth which we mentioned is this, that this covenant is established and realized with God's people and in God's people by absolutely sovereign, particu­lar grace. There are others outside of the Reformed faith who hold to these Five Points of Calvinism, but they cannot hold to them successfully and permanently because they do not at the same time hold to that fundamental Reformed truth of God's everlasting covenant of grace. That is why ultimately, historically also, Baptist doctrine, for example, ends in Arminianism, even though it may begin with Calvinism.

The third fundamental truth which follows from these two is the truth of the absolute antithesis, another forgotten and neglected truth in our day. The antithesis is between light and darkness, between the truth and the lie, between the church and the world, between the believer and unbeliever. That truth, characteristic of the Reformed faith, means that as a covenant people, in the first place, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them. And it means, secondly, that God placed that people, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, in the midst of a world that lies in darkness. And He gives to that people the grace and the calling to be His people in that world, that is, to be in principle a spiritually separate people in that world. We have in us as the people of God, a new heavenly life, the life of regeneration. And the world, in the midst of which we live, lives and moves and acts out of a principle which is the very opposite of that, the principle of sin, the principle of enmity against God. So that, as God's people in the world, we have all things in common with that world, except grace. That is the Reformed truth. We are a separate people, pilgrims and strangers in the earth, to be and to shine as lights in the midst of darkness. As such—and there you have the practical aspect of that truth, something else that is more and more forgotten and neglected and denied in our day—we have the calling and the sacred duty to put on no unequal yoke with unbelievers and to make no common cause with the world in any sphere of life. We have the calling to walk as of the party of the living God, and to live and walk in every sphere of life out of but one principle, the principle of regeneration, the principle of the new life.

That is our faith, that is our Reformed faith, objectively.

Let me conclude this part of my subject by emphasizing that that objective Reformed faith is for the Reformed believer the object of faith. That is not something that leaves him cold, something that is of no importance. He believes it! He believes it with all his heart! And he believes it with all his heart to be the truth of the gospel, according to the Scriptures.

II. THE CRISIS IN WHICH IT IS INVOLVED

And if you are at all alert to things ecclesiastical, you certainly cannot fail to be aware today that that Reformed faith is in crisis. That is a rather generally acknowledged fact today in the church, churches of the Reformed community. That is not just my claim. And that is not just the claim, or the particular hobby of the Protestant Reformed Churches. There are many, many others that recognize and begin to recognize that too. There are those who seek a change and who seek a broadening out, and who are having a part in bringing about the present crisis; and they recognize that there is a crisis developing and that they are bringing it about. They talk about the winds of change in the churches. And there are also those who are genuinely concerned about the dangers and the crisis. We live in an era of change, rapid change, change also in the sphere of the church and change in the sphere of the Reformed community. There is an air of expectancy in the church; there is something brewing, something that must happen; and at the same time there is an air off ear and of recognition that all is not well in Reformed Zion. There is a crisis.

The idea of a crisis is that it is a crucial point, or a crucial stage, of longer or shorter duration, at which it is determined whether or not a certain state of affairs shall go on or not. Thus, for example, we can speak of a crisis in the economy. Let us say there is economic prosperity. That builds up to a crisis. And at that point of crisis it is determined whether that economic prosperity shall continue or whether there shall be a crash and a depression. That is the idea of crisis.

So here there is a crucial point, a crucial stage at which it is determined whether or not that Reformed faith shall continue. That crisis implies, of course, that there are opposing forces, and that there are contrary tendencies operating in the Reformed commu­nity, tending to bring about that crisis. Those opposing forces and tendencies are present for a longer or shorter period of time, and they build and build and develop; and finally a crisis is reached, a crucial point. It comes to a head, and a determination is made, and a decision falls. The future is decided, one way or the other.

There have been many such crises in the history of the church. This is not the first one.

I like you to understand, too, very clearly that in the deepest sense of the word there is not, and there cannot be a crisis for that Reformed faith as such. That Reformed faith is the truth; and that truth is surely going to stand, whether it stands with our standing in it, or whether it stands without our standing in it, that truth is going to stand. There will always be God's truth, and there will always be God's church in the world to the very end, with us or without us, with or without your church or mine. That is the truth of the Scriptures, and God will preserve it. That is not dependent on us. That is our hope and our comfort in the time of crisis too. God maintains His cause. Do not worry about that!

But the crisis or turning point concerns us very really. It is a crisis with respect to that Reformed faith for the so-called Reformed community. And from that point of view that crisis involves the question whether we and our children, whether our churches and denominations, belonging to that Reformed community, will con­tinue in and according to that Reformed faith or not. That is the question in the crisis. That crisis is a point, or a stage, at which it will be decided whether that Reformed faith is held at all any more, or not. It will be decided whether we continue even in name and in general Reformed profession in our ecclesiastical life, or whether we abandon that faith in its essentials and its distinctiveness and depart farther and farther and farther, until finally we end in modernism outright. I say such a crisis, if it has not been reached in some cases already, is fast approaching! The seeds, the germs of a crisis like that may have been present for a long time. They usually are. But today as never before there is a massive crisis approaching. There are forces and tendencies more numerous in the church than ever before. And I speak of the Reformed community! There is development and change more rapid than ever before. You can hardly keep up with it. And what is especially characteristic is that those opposing forces and tendencies arise not from outside the Reformed community. They are always there. But they arise within. They arise in high places, places of leadership and influence. They arise in the seminaries, in the pulpits, and the journals of today.

The evidences of it are manifold.

There are doctrinal evidences. Scripture is attacked. That is one thing. In the Reformed community Scripture is attacked in its inspiration, in its infallibility. There are many, many attacks like that going on from many angles. Covert attacks, and in some cases, open denials! In close connection with that is another evidence. Creationism versus theistic evolutionism has become an issue in the church. That is a bad sign. It forebodes crisis. It does so because for the Reformed faith in the deepest sense of the word that is an undebatable issue; and at the same time it is an issue that involves Scripture very, very closely and intimately. To adopt evolution you have to throw the Bible away. In the third place, in the Reformed community sovereign, particular grace is under open attack; and that open attack goes on undisciplined and unstopped. It is taught that God loves all men, and Christ died for all men; and the gospel purposes and the church purposes to save all men that come under its preaching.

There are other symptoms, symptoms of what I would call ultra-liberalism. It arises in the colleges, in the seminaries, and the churches of the Reformed community, even to the point of bowing to higher criticism, unbelieving higher criticism of Scripture. With that, of course, goes this, that the authority of the confessions is flouted, openly contradicted. Those confessions are archaic, old­ fashioned; or, to use the favourite word of the day, they are not relevant! They are too narrow! And the attempt is under way to change them, to revise them. In the sphere of ecclesiastical action we have an evangelism that is thoroughly Arminian and conducted at the expense of the truth. Or, you have, on the other hand, that ultra-liberalism which more and more imitates the social gospel. That, by the way, is not something new, but it is presently being re­emphasized and modified, and it is being introduced as something rather new in the Reformed community. And with that goes, of course, the fact that the church is not content to preach, and especially is not satisfied with expository preaching. That is largely a lost art—distinctive Reformed preaching and teaching that is expository, that expounds the truth of Scripture, and builds up the church, and sends the church home with a solid comfort.

And with that goes a symptom that is well known to you all, and that is making rapid strides in our day, the symptom of ecumenicalism, the attempt to merge all into one great world church of some kind or other. This attempt is not marked by discussing and deliberating upon the truth, but by ignoring it and by discarding creeds as walls of separation, and by neglecting discipline, and by leaving all free to believe and to live as they please. It is marked by emphasizing so-called practical Christianity, and world improve­ment, and world involvement, and philanthropy, and world peace. It is represented in our day especially in movements like the World Council, which should never be an issue for a Reformed church. They have no business there. It is represented by a movement like COCU, Consultation On Church Union. Those things are not new, of course; but that the Reformed community is more and more becoming involved in them, that is a new development. And be warned! Those things stand in the sign of the beast and the false prophet of the Book of Revelation! That movement moves in the direction of Antichrist!

And with all that goes the fact that to a large extent in the church, in education, in the home, in labour and industry, in politics and economics, in amusements and art, and what is commonly called culture, there is world conformity. The art of Christian separation according to the principle of the antithesis is largely a lost Christian art today. And you do not have to look far to find evidences of that.

III. OUR CALLING IN THAT CRISIS

What is our calling then?

Negatively, we certainly must not assume the ostrich attitude, putting our heads in the sand, and trying to convince ourselves that everything is all right, and everything is going to turn out all right; just do not pay too much attention to it. That is wrong! Certainly our calling is not either to have the dyed-in-the-wool attitude: 'My church, right or wrong!' There is not any church loyalty, any loyalty to a certain institute, that may ever go as far as that! You take that stand, and you will surely end up ultimately with your church all wrong. Depend on it! Remember this, too: the Reformed faith is larger, is more important, than any particular institute! Nor must our attitude be—and that is a very common thing today: 'Well, after all, all these things are not for us laymen. Let us leave it to our leaders, to the clergy; they know best.' That is wrong! It is your church and your faith that are involved. And, above all, it is wrong to take that attitude of unconcern and neglect, because it is the cause of Christ that is involved, and the truth of God. We may not neglect that! Nor must you take the attitude according to which you are very troubled; and you complain, probably complain that you come home from church nowadays with practically nothing; and you probably propagandize a little bit. But for whatever may be the reason, you really do nothing. You take no stand, and you take no action. Nor, as far as the older generation is concerned, may your attitude be that of Hezekiah, ''There shall be peace in my time.' Maybe there will be, maybe. But what about your generations?

What then must be our stand?

Maybe there are some of you that think I am going to say: 'Well, you had all better become Protestant Reformed!' I would to God you were! I mean that! But that is not my point. I do not want to leave that impression at all. That is not my purpose. That is not the purpose of our churches. Surely, it is not our purpose to try to get a few members—even though it is true that the denomination to which I belong does not itself face this crisis. We do not have it. But the situation is much too serious to make it a question of simply some proselytizing.

There is a spiritual principle involved here, and a spiritual course of action, that the lovers of the Reformed faith must understand. And whatever practical questions may be involved in it will take care of themselves then.

There is one thing that you and I must always do as Reformed believers, without any compromise, without any reservation, no matter what the consequences may be. And that is: we must seek the true church! And we must let that be the controlling thing in our ecclesiastical attitude and life. We must not seek simply our church—whatever that is, whether that is the Reformed Church in America, or Christian Reformed, or Protestant Reformed, or any other. We must not seek simply that. There is a principle here ­the church! And that means that the principle at stake here is the Reformed faith.You and I must insist upon and judge things in the church according to the marks of the church which our confessions mention: the pure preaching of the Word. That is the chief mark. The church must preach! It must preach the Word! And it must preach that Word purely! And in connection with that the other marks stand: the right administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. That is our Belgic Confession on the church.

Operating out of that principle, our calling is to stand shoulder to shoulder with all everywhere who profess that precious Re­formed faith. If that means internal conflict in your church, then let it be! That may not stand in the way. If that means ultimately separation, and even re-affiliation, then let it be! That is not the question. The question is: do you seek the church, God's Zion? If it means that you look to us for fellowship, for counsel, for leadership, then I like you to know that we extend that fellowship to all who hold the Reformed faith dear. We must stand, stand in the unity of the faith.

For where that faith is, where those marks of the church are, there Christ is. Where they are not, there Christ is not. Where they are corrupted, the church must repent or perish! And where they are kept purely and held high, there Christ is, and Christ commands His blessing in life that is unending.

May God grant to you and me that we may hold fast to these principles; that, if we have at all departed from them, we may return; and that holding fast, we may experience His blessing. Amen.

Prof. Homer Hoeksema

http://limerickreformed.com/articles/by-topic/reformation/item/213-faith-of-our-fathers-living-still 

limerickreformed.com 
http://www.prca.org/resources/publications/pamphlets/item/1603-the-reformed-faith-in-crisis 

What it Means to Be "Reformed"

 

Reformed Christianity is strictly Biblical and faithful to the heritage of the Reformation.

“Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3)

That is the word of God—the Word of God to the church. In the light of that Word of God, what it means to be Reformed is an important subject to discuss.

It is generally well known that the word “Reformed” has come to have such a variety of meanings in our day that in fact it has come to mean nothing at all. There are churches which call themselves “Reformed” who are not any longer Reformed not only, but who have become in fact enemies and opponents of the Reformed faith.

There are also people who call themselves “Reformed.” Perhaps the church of which they are a part do not use the name “Reformed” in its ecclesiastical title, but they call themselves “Reformed.” If you would ask them, “Are you a Reformed person?” they would without hesitation say, “Yes, indeed.” But if you would ask them to give an account of what it means to be “Reformed,” or if you would ask them, “Why is it that you call yourselves Reformed?” they would be unable to give an answer. They have no conception of what it means to be “Reformed.” These simply cling to the title because it sounds nice, or perhaps it has a venerable history, or because there is something traditionally appealing about it. But as far as what it means to be “Reformed” is concerned, they have not the faintest notion.

It is important to know what it means to be “Reformed.” It is important that we understand it so that there can be no confusion on the matter. It is not a question, at least as far as I am concerned, whether or not you are truly “Reformed.” If you are, well and good. If you are not, you are responsible yourself for what you believe, but you must give an account before the Judge of heaven and earth for what you maintain to be the truth. Whether you are Reformed is not my major concern. It is of great concern to me that once and for all people cease to bandy about the term “Reformed” as though it has no specific and concrete meaning. Let us be honest before God, before the church, and before the King of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ. If we wish not to be Reformed, let us have the courage to say that the Reformed faith is not for us. We are not playing word games when we are talking about what it means to be Reformed.

I am Reformed. I am “Reformed” because I believe with all my heart that the Reformed faith is the truth of the Scriptures. And the truth of the Scriptures is eminently important because it is the difference between heaven and hell. We are not playing games. We are not engaging in semantics. We are not bandying about terms. We are talking about matters that are of eternal import: the truth of the Scriptures, the truth of God Himself, the truth of our salvation.

There are many, many different kinds of people who claim to be “Reformed.” There are those who claim to be “Reformed” who are known as “fundamentalists.” In the United States fundamentalism is a mighty religious and ecclesiastical movement. It is said in our daily papers that fundamentalists have been responsible for putting our last two presidents into office. That is some kind of power! Fundamentalists claim to be Reformed. But they are not.

Fundamentalists hold, of course, to the “fundamental” truths of the Scriptures. They hold to the infallible inspiration of the Scripture, to the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, to a belief in miracles or the miraculous. They hold to creationism instead of evolutionism. They hold to the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and they hold to a coming again of Jesus Christ upon the clouds of heaven. Those truths are all truths of the Scriptures. There is no question about that.

To believe these truths, however, does not make a man “Reformed.” There are many, many Roman Catholics in the world who believe those same fundamentals of the Scriptures. I have met them myself and spoken with them. Who among us would possibly ever call a Roman Catholic, “Reformed?”

One of the characteristics of fundamentalism is that it teaches what has become known over the years as “Arminianism.” Arminianism is not “Reformed.” Many, however, who are Arminian, parade under the Reformed flag. These boast of being Reformed. They claim that in fact they are Reformed though they hold consistently to doctrines that are thoroughgoing Arminianism.

What does Arminianism teach? It is Arminian and not Reformed, to teach that salvation is dependent in some respects upon man: upon the will of man, or upon the choice of man, or upon man’s power to accept or reject Jesus Christ. That is not Reformed! Arminianism teaches, in keeping with this, that God did not elect a people unto Himself from all eternity, but that God rather chooses to be His people those who He foresees will believe, and that He rejects those who He foresees will reject the gospel. That is exactly the definition of election and reprobation that a Roman Catholic priest said he held to when we were discussing the matter. He said, “Picture yourself on the top of a large building of many stories that overlooks an intersection in a busy city. Picture for yourself two cars speeding on different streets towards that intersection at 60 miles an hour. And picture that these cars are only 100 feet from the intersection. You can quite safely predict that those cars being about equidistant from the intersection and travelling at a rapid rate of speed will collide. So God predicts who will believe and who will reject the gospel. On that basis He elects His people and rejects others.” That is not Reformed. It is Arminian. It is a disgrace to the gospel and a contradiction of the Scriptures. Anyone who holds to such a view and says that he is “Reformed,” knows not of what he speaks.

It is Arminian and not “Reformed” to teach that Christ died for all men. It is a doctrine commonly held, so commonly held, in fact, that when anyone should venture to contradict it, people look astonished and amazed as if they have never heard in all their lives anyone teach anything else but that Christ died for all men head-for-head. But that is not Reformed! It never has been, it is not now and it never will be!

It is not Reformed to teach that the gospel, which God causes to be preached in all the world, is an invitation to all men to be saved. It is not Reformed to teach that the gospel expresses God’s willingness, or longing or desire to save all that hear the gospel as One who, with arms outstretched, pleads and begs with men to come to Him, accept Him, and find their rest and hope in Him. The Reformed faith is not “decisionism.” It does not teach that the gospel is an “offer” to all.

The Reformed faith does not teach that it is possible for man to resist the work of the Holy Spirit. He can not successfully resist the overtures of the Spirit nor successfully restrain the spirit from accomplishing His task. A man can not successfully continue in the way of unbelief and sin in spite of the Spirit’s best efforts. He can not successfully continue his road to hell though the Spirit does all in His power to bring him to salvation. That is not Reformed! It never has been, it is not now and it never will be!

It is not Reformed to teach that once a child of God does not necessarily mean always a child of God. It does not teach that I could be a child of God today, be lost tomorrow and perhaps one week hence again be saved—and one month hence once again be on the road to destruction. That is not Reformed. It never has been, it is not now and it never will be!

It is not Reformed to teach that God loves all men. It is not Reformed to teach that God blesses all men or is gracious to all men or gives His gifts of grace to all men—earnestly seeking their love and their returning favours to Him. That is Arminianism. Anyone who parades with those doctrines under the flag of “Reformed,” either has no conception of what the Reformed faith is, or lies before God and before the church.

The word “Reformed” has come from the Calvin Reformation. It is the genius of the Calvin Reformation that it was a reform of doctrine, of church worship and of church government. All of these things had been thoroughly corrupted by the Roman Catholic Church.

Luther too, was an opponent of Roman Catholicism. Luther however is not called “Reformed” though not because he did not in essence agree with the doctrines of Calvin. Rather, his place as appointed by God in the Reformation was to fire the mighty cannon shot of the truth of justification by faith against the imposing and seemingly impregnable fortress of Rome’s godless, apostate and idolatrous sacerdotalism. And in firing this cannon shot, Luther demolished this imposing structure.

It remained for Calvin to engage in the true work of Reformation. He must not simply destroy that which was opposed to God and His Word, but he built up and established what was the truth of the Scriptures. The Reformed faith is, therefore, that body of doctrine which the great Reformer of Geneva set forth.

I call you attention to the fact that the Reformed faith is a body of doctrine. Let us be very clear on that. Let there be absolutely no misunderstanding on that question at all. We live in an age in which there is little or no interest in doctrine. Men speak of a passion to “save souls.” Men speak of the need to go to the unconverted. Men speak of the importance of missions (and indeed our Lord Himself commands us, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel” [Mark 16:15]. Those are the marching orders of the church). Nevertheless, the life of the church is not only seen in her mission calling. Indeed, any church that forgets that her fundamental calling is to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, is a church that has made herself incapable even of doing mission work. The Reformed faith, let it be said and let it be said with as much emphasis as possible, is a body of doctrine: clear, careful, precise, spelled out doctrine. That is the Reformed faith. If you are not interested in doctrine, you have no claim to the name “Reformed.”

If you do not believe that Calvin set forth a body of doctrine. I suggest that you sit down tonight in your living room chair with a copy of the Institutes for five minutes of paging through the Institutes will persuade you beyond any contradiction that Calvin indeed set forth doctrine.

The Reformed faith is a body of doctrine. It is not like a book on solid geometry which has in it propositions and theorems which, whether you believe them or not, makes not one iota of difference in your life (except perhaps if the man for whom you wish to work requires of you some mathematical knowledge). Rather, this body of doctrine is the truth concerning God. One who is a Reformed man is careful about this, exactly because it is doctrine concerning God. If you are walking down the street, fore example and you overhear three men who are, with leering smirks on their faces, speaking evilly of your wife, calling her a public whore, you will certainly do everything you can to correct their mistake and to save the reputation of your wife. You will do this because you love her. The gossip and slander, which is being spoken of her, cuts you to the quick. You want your wife to be known for what she truly is.

So a Reformed man wants God to be known for what He truly is. He dislikes, not only, but hates with all his being, the slandering of his God. He dislikes, not only but hates with all his being, those who will not speak the truth concerning God but who come with human inventions or with their own ideas—their gossip and slander about God. These will not bow before the truth of the Scriptures The Reformed faith teaches the truth of God! And one who knows the Reformed faith, and loves it, is jealous for it. He echoes the words of Elijah under the juniper tree, repeated on Mt. Horeb: “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Israel” (I Kings 19:14).

What is the Reformed faith? Because the Reformed faith is the truth concerning God, it teaches, as Calvin did, that God is God alone, absolutely sovereign in all His works and ways. He does all His good pleasure, and accomplishes all of His sovereign purpose. The Reformed faith teaches that God is the Creator of heaven and earth. He sustains every creature by the Word of His power and rules over every creature by His sovereign might, so that every creature can only perform His will. This is not only true of the stars which He moves in their courses in the firmament, it is not only true of the path a beetle makes as it wends its way across the sidewalk, it is true also of the heart of kings. “For the king’s heart,” Solomon says, “is in he hand of the Lord as rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever He will” (Prov. 21:1).

The Reformed faith believes in a sovereign God. The Reformed faith believes, as Isaiah proclaims, that even Assyria, the world power of that day, was a saw and an axe in the hand of the Lord to saw and hew as He wills (Isa. 10:15). The Reformed faith teaches that although our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered by Pilate and Herod, and by the wicked hands of the Jews, it was nevertheless according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). The Reformed faith believes, as the prophet Amos confessed, that if there is evil in the city, the Lord has done it (Amos 3:6). That is the Reformed faith. The Lord is sovereign. The Lord does all His good pleasure. The Lord does as He pleases in heaven above and in the earth beneath. The Lord sets kings on their thrones and throws them down at His will.

The Reformed faith demands the question which confronts us: Is our doctrine that which holds high the sovereignty of the Lord of heaven and earth? That is, after all, the question which we confront. Do we want, do we worship, do we serve, and do we put our trust in, a sovereign God? Or is it satisfactory to us to have an idol, one helpless before the sovereign will of man? Do we serve one who is unable to save those whom He wishes to bring to heaven: a pleading God, a pleading Christ, while man is sovereign to do as he wills? That kind of God I don’t need and I don’t want. I need a God who can save a helpless, depraved, corrupt sinner. If I have not that kind of God, it is all hopeless.

The Reformed faith believes, and Calvin taught, that God is sovereign in the whole work of salvation from beginning to end. Man contributes nothing. The Reformed faith believes, and Calvin taught, that from all eternity, before the worlds were formed, before the foundations of the creations were laid, God chose unto Himself, without any regard to works or man’s merits, a people that He gave to Christ (Eph. 1:4). These were destined to be His own, and were destined to live with Him in eternal glory in the world that shall come.

God determined sovereignly who were the reprobate (Rom. 9:22). He determined, as a manifestation of His justice, that the reprobate would reveal this justice in the way of their sins everlastingly in hell.

God, as the sovereign Lord, gave His Son, not to die for all men, but to die for His sheep (Matt. 1:21). For those who were given Him of the Father (John 6:37), He made atonement. Thus He, by His perfect obedience on the cross, accomplished for His elect, who were precious in His sight, the fullness of everlasting salvation.

The Reformed faith teaches that the Spirit of the Christ who is the exalted Lord at God’s right hand is irresistible in His power to save. That Spirit goes through the length and breadth of this vast creation. He knows who are the elect for whom Christ died, and for whom He shed His blood. He enters into their hearts, overcoming their resistance, battering down the walls of their rebellion, overcoming their bitter hatred and enmity against God. He sacks the citadels of their unbelief. Moving into their hearts, He creates of sinners, saints. Out of blasphemers, He creates those from whose mouths arise praises to God. By an altogether irresistible, mighty power He transforms and delivers from the bondage of sin.

The Reformed faith believes and teaches, as Calvin taught, that man is himself totally depraved (Rom. 3). He is so totally depraved that he can not only not do any good, but he can not even will the good. He can not want the good. He can not seek the good. He can not search for it. He has no taste for it. All he has is hatred, bitter, undying, unrelenting hatred of all that is good and of all that is of God. His salvation depends in his entirety upon the sovereign and irresistible work of the Spirit.

The Reformed faith teaches, and Calvin taught, that “once a child of God, always a child of God” (Phil. 1:6). As the Lord Himself says in John 10:28, “No one can pluck them out of my hand.” We may fall ever so deeply into sin, we may stray ever so far from the way of God’s commandments; yet we are held safely by the Almighty Hand of our Saviour who preserves us and keeps us. He will once again, through it be through chastisement, restore us to repentance and confession. Then we fall on our knees and cry out for forgiveness as the spirit drives us to the cross. Then once again we cling to the bleeding body of our Saviour.

The Reformed faith teaches that faith, by which we cling to Christ, is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). God not only gives us the power to believe, but He works in us the act of believing itself. The Reformed faith teaches that the gospel, therefore, is not an invitation, not an offer, not an expression of the universal love of God, not a presentation of a pleading Saviour. It is rather, as Paul says in Romans 1:16, “The power of God unto salvation.”

The Reformed faith does not believe that God loves all men. Not that all men are the objects of His favour and of His grace. Rather, God is angry with the wicked every day, as the Psalmist again and again expresses it (Ps. 7:11, etc.). The Reformed faith believes, as the wise man of Israel in Proverbs expresses it, that the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but He blesses the habitation of the just (Prov. 3:33). The Reformed faith believes that there is nothing but hatred, nothing but curse, for the ungodly God drives them, as Asaph sings in Psalm 73, on to the slippery slopes of destruction (Ps. 73:18).

The Reformed faith teaches, and Calvin taught, that all things are for the salvation of the elect for whom Christ died (Rom 8:28). The Reformed faith teaches these things because it maintains that God is God! He does all His good pleasure. He is alone the sovereign, the Holy One of Israel to whom belongs all praise and glory and power forever and ever. That is the Reformed faith. That alone is the Reformed faith.

That which denies those truths is not Reformed. One who holds to anything else can not claim to himself the name “Reformed.” It has never been Reformed to teach anything else, not since the days of the Reformer of Geneva, it is not today, it will not be until the Lord comes back.

Those who claim to be Reformed and teach otherwise, either do so out of ignorance or else are sailing under a false flag. They fly the flag of Her Majesty’s navy on a pirate’s craft. They do so in order that with deceit they may lurk here and there and deceive others this leading them to destruction. These are enemies of the Reformed faith. Let us be sure we understand that.

The Lord was very clear, when He said to His disciples, there are only two positions which you can occupy: either you are for Me, or you are against Me (Matt. 12:30). One of the two. There is no neutral ground. There is no “grey” area where a man can stand as he tries to make up his mind. You are for the Reformed faith or you are against it. You believe it and love it with every fibre of your being or you oppose it. The Reformed faith claims for itself that kind of exclusiveness because it claims the exclusivity of Scripture and of a sovereign God who has revealed Himself on the pages of Holy Writ.

In the second place, the Reformed faith is a “world and life” view: the way at which one looks at the world.

The Reformed faith teaches that the child of God, the elect believing child of God, in the midst of this world, is, to use Jesus’ words in John 17:14, “Though in the world, not of the world.” Let it be clearly understood that doctrine and life go together.

What a tragedy it is that in our doctrinally illiterate age, in our time of doctrinal carelessness and indifference, people piously prate about the fact that doctrine is unimportant. It only makes a difference how one lives, they say. Has the whole of the Reformed faith and has the whole of the Christian religion been reduced to a morality play? Is that the position that we are supposed to take? God forbid! Morality without doctrine is nothing. The world, the world of unbelief, the world of paganism has produced some of the most moral men of all time. Greek philosophy produced men of great moral stature. Is that Christianity? Is that what the Reformed faith? It is not. Doctrine and life go together. What a man believes determines his life. And if his life is not rooted in his faith, it means nothing at all. In fact, what a man believes concerning the truth of the Scriptures, is itself a way of life. That is what is meant by the “antithesis.”

It needs to be emphasized that if, as is commonly held in our day, God loves all men, that all men are the objects of His grace, that all men are the objects of His benevolence, kindness and graciousness; if all men are the objects of His “common grace;” if all men are the objects of His love revealed in a cross on which Christ died for all men, head-for-head, then there is no longer any “antithesis” between the world and the church.

And if God loves all men, if God is gracious toward all men, if God is kind towards all men, that results in a certain goodness that you find in the world at large. There are the monsters of iniquity, the Stalins and the Hitlers of history; but on a whole, men have a lot of good in them. There are men of philanthropy. There are men capable of producing tremendous works in the field of arts: paintings of great beauty and musical compositions of unsurpassing glory. They are capable of giving of their millions to works of philanthropy, such as building hospitals. They are capable of striving for good goals in this world of sin, goals such as, for example, a world in which peace reigns and wars are abandoned. You will even find in the world such good men who oppose abortion, who oppose homosexuality and the corruptions of sexual depravity and perversity. If you ascribe all of these things to the gracious, kind and benevolent work of God through the universal operation of His Spirit and His goodness towards all, then you see that by that kind of “common grace,” you destroy the deep chasm that God has struck between the church and the world. Common grace builds a bridge over that chasm. Common grace allows the world to flood into the church and the church to rush eagerly into the world. It encourages the church to unite with the world in all kinds of common causes. Whether it be in the field of science, in the field of philanthropy, in the field of morality, in the field of politics (in the interest of putting certain men in office), in the field of economics, or whatever, there is plenty of room for cooperation and agreement. There are many occasions for the wicked and the righteous to work together, arm-in-arm and hand-in-hand.

The Reformed faith pronounces with all of its might, an anathema, a fierce anathema, on that sort of thinking. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hat he that believeth with an infidel, and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (II Cor. 6:14-17). That is the Reformed faith: the cutting knife of the antithesis cuts through every part of the life of the child of God in the midst of the world.

Yes, we are in to world, and the wicked are in the world. The wicked work next to us in the factories and they live next door to us on the same street. We go to the same grocery store, we eat the same food, and we share this creation of God equally and in common. There is no question about that all. But in every single part pf his life, without exception, the unbeliever lives out of the principle of his hatred of God; the believer lives out of the principle of the life of Christ in his heart. Paul even talks about the fact that our weeping is fundamentally different than the weeping of the ungodly: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (II Cor. 7:10). Your rejoicing is different from the laughter of the world. Your whole life is different because there is born in you, by the power of the Spirit of the Christ, the life of heaven. You are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. You are walking in this life as a pilgrim and a stranger in the earth. You “sit loose” to the things of this present world. Your citizenship is above. The goal of your life’s journey is your Father’s house. The things of this world only occupy your attention in so far as they are necessary for you to continue your calling as a pilgrim and a stranger in thankfulness to your heavenly Father. You serve the Lord Christ all your life. And His kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is from heaven (John 18:36).

The Reformed faith has had as its motto since the days of John Calvin this: “A Reformed church is a reforming church.” What does that mean? That means, briefly, no church can ever be stagnant. A stagnant church is like a stagnant body of water: It soon is covered with green slime and begins to stink. A church can not be stagnant. It either moves forward or it slides backward, one of the two. The great tragedy of our day is that the church, the nominal church, that which calls itself “church,” has gone backward. It has gone so far backward that it has lost any sense of what it means to be “Reformed” not only, but it has lost any sense of what it means to be church! Though it has imposing structures, though it has mighty programs, programs that cost millions of pounds, though it speaks loudly of all kinds of social endeavours, though it raises a loud and clamouring voice in the counsels of men and nations, it has ceased to be “church.”

A Reformed church moves ahead. Why? Because the unsearchable riches of the knowledge of God in the Scriptures are depths, depths of glory, depths of truth, depths of blessedness, which no one will ever be able to plumb on this side of heaven (Rom. 11:33). “We see,” Paul says as we look into Scriptures, “through a glass darkly” (I Cor. 13:12). The Scriptures are as a mirror. Behind us shines Jesus Christ. The Scriptures pick up Jesus Christ and reflect some of His glory. And the glory of Christ is the revelation of God to us in the Scriptures. That which we see there is overwhelmingly beautiful. But we can only know the part of it. Someday Paul’s says, we will turn around and we will see Him face-to-face (I Cor. 13:12). And then we will not need the glass anymore because we will be with Him and know the truth in all the fullness of its perfection. Nevertheless, the Scriptures are a mine which, if the world should last ten thousand times ten thousand years, would continue to contain the truths which our feeble minds only begin to understand. This is the revelation of God in the face of Christ. The Reformed church recognises that.

It does not turn its back on the past. God forbid. It receives that glorious legacy of the Reformed faith as the gift of the Spirit of truth to the church. It receives it with humble thanksgiving. It receives it as the priceless possession for which countless have died. For this, they have shed their blood, loving not their lives unto death. Saints and martyrs who have now gone to join the company of just men made perfect. It is a legacy written in the blood of our fellow saints with whom someday we shall live in glory. We receive it in all humility and reverence. It is almost as if, taking it into our hands, we understand that He puts us in charge of a priceless possession.

What shall we do with it? Shall we sell it for a mess of pottage? Shall we scatter it to the four winds? Shall we be unfaithful to the blood of those who bought it in the face of suffering? Shall we speak carelessly, indifferently, foolishly of a “Reformed” faith while we betray those who gave their lives for it? No; we take it as a most cherished possession to be faithful to it. We give it to our children to commend it to their care because it is the knowledge of God. “This is eternal life,” Jesus prays, “that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

When we have that treasure, that faith once delivered unto the saints, then it is our calling earnestly to contend for it (Jude 3) though it means that we are scorned and mocked. Though we are small in number, it is far too precious to sacrifice on the altar of popularity and the pleasing looks of mere men. It is our salvation.

A Reformed church takes that heritage and moves ahead with it in excitement and eagerness. In joy in the truth, it searches the Scriptures so that it may come to a clearer, fuller and more blessed understanding of that precious Word of God. A Reformed church is a faithful church, a church who continues to develop the truth of Scriptures.

That is the Reformed truth. Are you “Reformed?” If you are not, if those doctrines are not the doctrines you want, that is your business. You have, after all, in this world the right to believe as you will—although you must give answer before Him who sits on the Great White Throne. And when you stand before Him who sits on that Great White Throne, He is not going to ask you, “What mighty deeds did you do? How many souls did you try to save for Me?” He is not going to ask you whether you tried to make this world the kingdom of Christ. He is not interested in that. He is going to ask you one question: “Where you faithful to My Word and Truth?” That is all.

If you do not want it, so be it. But do not, in all honesty before God and the church, say you are “Reformed.” Whatever you want to believe, that is your business; but do not call yourself “Reformed.”

If you are Reformed and want to be Reformed and if you love the truth of the great glory of Almighty God, then stand with us in these evil days and fight with us in the cause of the truth of the gospel. The time is short. The end is at hand. Let us work while it is yet day ere the night comes in which no man can labour (John 9:4).

Prof. Herman Hanko

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