Once again this is an exercise in getting my thoughts down on paper. I presently am a member of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church which is solidly in Reformed on its theology. For the uninitiated few that will actually read this, notice that I capitalized the word “Reformed”. This is because this is a particular branch of Christian theology better known as Calvinism. It was born out and developed from the teaching and writings of John Calvin and his immediate followers. The key tenant or doctrine of Reformed thinking is the sovereignty of God. Even though I attend a Reformed church, I am not Reformed in my theology. This is my attempt to explain why, and utterly bury any thought of serving my church in any leadership capacity.
Before I am labeled a heretic (for the Truly Reformed I know that’s already too late) at the outset of this post I want to affirm a few things: I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe in God’s predestination and election. I believe that the Scriptures are God’s holy and inspired Word. I believe in all the statements made in the ancient creeds. I believe that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ to the glory of God. With that said let me briefly list why I am not Reformed, and then I will go forward in more detail in the future. Here are my ten indictments:
1. It stems from wrong epistemology and philosophy which was formulated as a medieval European overreaction to a corrupted Roman church and then misapplied to Scriptural interpretation.
2. It is quite simply not historically orthodox Christianity.
3. It fails to take into consideration the whole counsel of Scripture.
4. It sets up one doctrine against equally valid and true doctrines, and interprets the rest of Scripture through this unnatural grid.
5. It tends to make the Christianity into a system of logical diagrams to be intellectually affirmed, and fails to accept the mystery of the Faith.
6. It ironically takes the transcendent Creator and places unwarranted temporal restrictions upon Him in order that we temporally limited creatures might more adequately comprehend His ways, instead of just accepting the fact that we just cannot begin to fathom the depths of an eternal God.
7. It reduces man to a mere automaton, but in complete contradiction still treats him as a morally responsible agent.
8. It fails to adequately address the problem of evil as it inevitably makes God the author of evil.
9. It puts a chill on prayer and evangelism.
10. It tends to creates in its adherents the deadly vice of pride.
How’s that for a start. As always I’m open for debate.
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1 comments:
Not bad Tom, but I wish you would go in depth further with your indictments as to why you feel this way.
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