Reforming the Reformed (Christianity Today) 

Calvinists, says one Calvinist, misunderstand some of their history and theology. A review of 'Ten Myths About Calvinism.' (Roger E. Olson,  posted 5/18/2011)

"We need fewer angular, sharp-elbowed Calvinists who glory in what distinguishes their stance from others," Stewart argues, "and a lot more supporters of the Reformed faith who rejoice in what they hold in common with others."

AMEN to that brother!!!!

Joylessness in Reformed Chritianity

"I wasn't born and raised in the Reformed church. In other words, I am a Reformed immigrant. Like many people in the Reformed church today, I migrated out of broad based evangelicalism and non-denominationalism. Many of my friends, both ministers and laypeople, have had similar immigration experiences.

Recently, at the funeral of my father-in-law, I had the opportunity to get reacquainted with many of my Reformed immigrant friends. Much to my surprise, I found myself having a very similar conversation with this group. They shared with me that they felt like something was missing in their Reformed experience. While they were all satisfied with the doctrine, worship and government of the church they spoke of a missing intangible element. They had trouble articulating the exact nature of this missing element. I suggested a variety of terms to give it a name and the one that seemed to come closest was "joy." These immigrants perceived the Reformed church to be suffering from a deficiency of spiritual joy."

These conversations got me thinking. I did my own assessment of my Reformed experience and, I must admit, I had to agree that "joyful" was not one of the first adjectives that came to my mind to describe it. Then I began to contemplate why the Reformed church seems to be lacking in the joy department. My contemplation yielded two main reasons.

(The Joy of the Reformed by Anthony Selvaggio December 2009.)

If it was appropriate, I'd copy the entirety of Mr. Selvaggio's article. He goes on to discuss two reasons he sees for the lack of joy in the Reformed church; the migration of Evangelical malcontents into the Reformed movement, and "...perpetually circling the theological wagons." Please also note Selvaggio's evaluation comes from his position within the Reformed movement. This is coming from one of the Reformed's own.

Selvaggio proposes a remedy, and in so far as it goes, I believe the proposed remedy has merit as it does, in its own way, call for a focus on the promises of God.

That said, what was noticeable in my mind was his lack of discussion of joy as the fruit of the Spirit, and in fact, among the very first of the fruit of the Spirit as listed by Paul in Galations 5:22. This is where my own concern for the Reformed church comes to focus.

I spent a little over 25 years in a Reformed (Baptist) church. About 7 years ago we left that church and started attending a more mainstream Evangelical Baptist church. It is on the basis of that experience that I totally understand Mr. Selvaggio's statements, "...they felt like something was missing in their Reformed experience." and "These immigrants perceived the Reformed church to be suffering from a deficiency of spiritual joy."

One of the very first things we noticed about our new church, in contrast to the Reformed church we had left, was the much greater and obvious level of honest, genuine, authentic Christian joy expressed by the people and manifest in the life of the congregation corporately.

This raised a question in my mind. If, as the Bible says, joy is a fruit of the Spirit, what does that say for the joyless Reformed church? A tree is known by its fruit. If my Reformed theology and the Reformed preaching from the pulpit of the Reformed church is not producing the fruit of the Spirit in my life, then something is not right and we need to do some VERY deep soul searching.

This becomes even more critical and vital when I look at raising my children in such a church. It was that very concern that 7 years ago drove me from the Reformed church back into the Evangelical mainstream. (I'm still a Calvinist, but I no longer call myself Reformed.) If my children were to know true Chrisitan joy, the joy that is the fruit of the Spirit, then they need to be raised in a church and thological climate that clearly demnstrates that joy in the life of individual believers and in the corporate life of the congregation, and that along with all the other fruit of the Spirit as well.

I beleive there are probably some Reformed churches out there somewhere who have managed by the grace of God to hold and nuance their theology in a way that produces a noticable level of genuine Christian joy. That said, in a sizable part of the Reformed movement there is the need to do some VERY DEEP soul seaarching at this point.

Kyrie eleison...

Life After Neo-Puritanism

In recent articles, John Armstrong has commented on his journey in Biblical understanding. The first article can be found here, and the second article in the series is here. Here is a quote from the second article.

"I previously described (May 1 ACT 3 Weekly) how I have slowly moved away from my separatist and sectarian neo-Puritanism over the last twenty years. My movement has not been without profound struggles. Most of these struggles have not been within me, for there I have thrived and grown as I leaned into an assurance of faith that is still deeply rooted in Christ alone. No, my struggles have been with misunderstanding and misrepresentation in the minds of confused people who have heard all kinds of stories about me and my beliefs..."

My first acquaintance with John Armstrong goes back to his "Neo-Puritan" phase. At that time I was involved in a "Neo-Puritan" church and movement. John had come into contact with the pastor of that church, and there had been some correspondence and so forth. I may be a little foggy on some of the facts, but I have it in my head that John came to visit our church, and our pastor had visited his church in Wheaton.

It seemed like only a few years latter news came that John Armstrong had "left the fold". Like many others who did not cross all the "t"'s and dot all the "i"s of that "Neo-Puritan" church and the "Neo-Puritan" movement it was a part of, John Armstrong became "persona non grata". If his name was spoken at all, it was in that tone of voice that reminded you that the only thing worse then the devil himself is an "apostate". OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the tone of voice was un-mistakable.

It took me another 20 years to realize John Armstrong, along with many others, was right in his evaluation of the "Neo-Puritan" movement, at least the part of it I had been associated with. I too have found out there is life after "Neo-Puritanism".

Neo-Puritanism by definition is scholastic. The danger of a scholastic emphasis is that the scholasticism tends to get in the way of the Word of God. You have people who can quote the Puritan writers from memory, but you wonder if they give equal time to the Scriptures. Puritan confessional standards tend to be quoted in a way that sets them on an equal par with Scripture.

The original Puritan movement was far from perfect, and there was a lot more diversity in the spectrum of that movement then some of our Neo-Puritan friends acknowledge. The New England Puritan movement in particular was not able to keep itself from descending into Unitarianism and a splintered sectarianism.

I'm am NOT saying we can not learn things from the Puritans. I am saying they did not have all the answers as some in the Neo-Puritan movement would have us think. The Puritan writers were not above the Bible, and there is a whole lot the Christian Church has learned in the last 400 years since their time. Yes friends, there is life after "Neo-Puritanism".

Semper Reformanda!

~ The Billy Goat ~

PS: Another related article I wrote a while back can be found here.

What kind of "Reformed" are you?
(Post-Reformed Redux)
Are you...

• a Reformed catholic? (emphasis on small "c" for our purposes.)


• a Reformed Evangelical?


• a Reformed Puritan?


• Reformed? What's "Reformed"... Somebody who went to reform school?
  

The above question and the options offered come from two strands.

The first strand goes back a month or so to Tim Etherington's attempt to put some definition to the term "Post-Reformed", a term for which he was taken rather severely to task, and which term he recanted, though not recanting the ideas he was seeking to label. The new label became Compassionate Calvinism which did catch at least the spirit of Tim's concerns; concerns that I also share and enter in to.

The second strand came into play when I came across an old e-mail from an old friend, the friend who was used of God years ago to introduce me to the Doctrines of Grace and Reformed theology in general. In that Christmas e-mail of several years ago is the following:

"You are probably wondering if I've reverted back to a Puritan Scrooge?? Nah. Never happen. I am a very contented confirmed Reformed Catholic. In fact, I'm almost a confirmed Reformed Orthodox..."

By the way, the friend who made this statement is a Presbyterian Pastor in the PCA.

So there is the multiple choice question, and the answers that I believe get down to some of the issues that were of concern and discussion in the "Post-Reformed" debacle. I now better understand why I never really fit in at our former church. It was Reformed Puritan in perspective, and this round Reformed Evangelical never could really fit, nor wanted to fit, that square hole.

What kind of "Reformed" are you? It is my thesis that how you answer this question has direct bearing on how you view and understand semper reformanda...

Sola Deo Gloria,

~ The Billy Goat ~