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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Reformation and Reformed Theology

 

Background

1. The Christian church is founded on the reformed faith.

 

2. The church’s foundation is founded on the teachings of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone.

 Teachings passed down to our Church fathers.

 The most famous/ key figure among the Church fathers who contributed to reformed theology was St Augustine.

 

3. The Church went through the dark Middle Ages under the Roman Catholicism

 It confirmed the man’s sinful nature and God’s perfection.

 Turning point of Church history when Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the Church door in 1517.

 God started the great reformation movement through him.

 

4. The rise of reformation giants (John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, etc)

• Had differences in Christian thoughts and practices, but on the same page in key Christian doctrines (lost or deviated in the dark Middle ages).

E.g. doctrine of grace, sovereignty of God, justification by faith, scriptural authority.

• Not to start a new religion, but to recover the historic Christian apostolic faith.

 

5. Reformation brought about two dynamic/pivotal changes:
6. Change in supreme authority

 

6. Reformation

 

1. Challenged the Papal’s authority, questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice.
2. Fought for a political power and religious redistribution of power into the hands of the bible  no kings, religious leaders, traditions/ customs could supersede the authority of the bible  Only the bible has the authority to bind the conscience of believers/ all men.

• Recognised other forms of authority (eg church office, tradition, creed and confessions) but not absolutes  Fallible authorities cannot bind man’s conscience absolutely  right solely reserved for the word of God (Sola Scriptura  only Scripture highest held slogan in reformation movement, also the most critical restoration (other high point of reformation includes the issue of justification by faith alone (Sola Fide)  no longer tradition + scripture but just scripture alone (the highest authority).

1. Changed the right to read and interpret the bible from the catholic church leadership to any common believer  who then has the right to read, interpret the bible and receive conviction from it (a right they did not possess before the reformation).

 

7. Effects of Reformation

• When supreme and ultimate authority changes hands from Church (Man) to Bible (God), it will influence every aspect of our lives.
• g. government, social orders, constitutions and laws, music composition, education, human rights, social welfare, marriages.
• The church does not determine what is to be preached. The bible determines what the church should preach.

 

8. Luther said as a conclusion of the reformation movement I did nothing, the word did everything  God moved all the events in the reformation movement.

 

9. Charles Spurgeon said that the word of God is like a lion. There is no need to defend a lion, let the lion loose, it will defend itself  Need not promote the bible, release the word for what it says boldly, clearly and correctly and the power of the gospel will move hearts, societies, and nations. This is what the reformation has shown us.

 

 

10. Greatest assault against God is through the word  Syncretize church teachings  undermines and weakens the authority of the Bible.

 

11. Satan has insinuated Man to do so consistently throughout the course of history in different forms –
12. Tweaking, Misinterpreting and/or Misapplying the word of God

 formed their own doctrines, preached a different gospel.

 Problem started in the 1^st Century when Paul rebuked the foolish Galatians and this problem continues today.

1. Directly or subtly reduce the authority of God’s word in the hearts of man (direct man’s focus towards leaders, programs, traditions, experiences)  sin of apostasy  evident through church goers saying, the Church doesn’t tell us everything, or adopt the idea that the bible is not infallible, church pulpit messages with secular psychology, disguised in spiritual terminology rather than diving into biblical principles, go to counsellors, pragmatic methodologies, positive thinking, self-help, healing techniques, far-fetched end times prophecies introduced into the church and seen as part of Christian teachings.

 

12. The Church celebrated 500 years of reformation 5 years ago but the reformation goes on today. The Church is constantly in a battle against untruths, partial truths that set itself against the truth of Christ throughout history, until Christ comes again.

 

 

1. B) Gave rise to a lot of protestant bodies (e.g. Lutheran, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, charismatic, independent) and different branches of theology/ schools of thoughts (e.g. Liberal, Catholic, Dispensation, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Armenian, Reformed).

 

13. From 1 dominant denomination Roman Catholic to several protestant denominations Why so many? Which is the orthodox one?  Simplest answer  God has ordained the rise of many Christian denominations (because of Man’s fallibility, to allow for continual reformation)  To sanctify her bride the Church  to present her to Himself with splendor, without spot or wrinkle or holy, without blemish  shows how steadfast and relentless God is in preserving the purity of His bride  All for the good of the Church.

 

 

14. Danger: Unchecked rise of many denominations and forms of teachings in the church resulted in much deviations (from sound doctrines) or division  new liberal branches of theology created from human experience and pragmatism  Truncated gospel went on the rise.

 

15. Crux of the reformation movement  not only a break from the Roman Catholicism  Return and reform the Christian faith back to historical Christianity  founded upon on the gospel of Christ, based on the revealed truth originally given by God to the Apostles and Prophets (the exclusive agents of the divine revelation, they wrote the bible under divine superintendence)  should not be any more apostles and prophets today, else, it weakens what God has spoken through the scripture  Content and revealed truth must be held in the highest regard and order.

 

 

16. Reformed teaching (not just about Predestination, 5-point Calvinism et)  It is pledging full allegiance to the truths revealed through the bible, in the purest, clearest and strictest sense.

 

17. Pastor’s readings from RC Sproul

• RC Sproul – a leading theologian in this era, the effects of his works continue to influence the evangelical world.
• Sproul shared similar ideas about reformation as Rev Stephon Tong – also a leading reformation figure in the Chinese world.
• Both had similar ideas and vision on how reformed teachings should be taught  Not just to bring theology to the seminary (preachers/ full-time church workers) but to the layman, those interested in knowing God and educate the general common believers on theology.
• None of the reformed preachers hold a monopoly of reformed ideas and essence.

 

18. Criticisms of Reformed teaching

• Good in bringing out doctrines and technical terms but fall short in living the reformed spirit in the way they pastor and shepherd the church.
• Teach well only in the seminary context, but inadequate in bringing impact to the outside world or to people outside the church.
• Doctrine (grace, predestination) may be right, but the spirit of it or the way to apply it is not grasped well in reality.

 

19. Restoration of the Reformed Faith, not doctrine/idea. From the scripture, faith is to be lived out  ultimately faith brings work  commanded by God to follow/emulate Him, live the way of the cross by faith, Book of Romans  we are justified by faith alone, and the righteous should live by faith  Faith and living inseparable.

 

20. Yet, what is the content of this faith? Who and what are we believing in?

 

21. Faith  Not just to be sincere, pious, religious etc  Such belief communicates the idea that God is only concerned on whether we are sincerely religious which is in a collision course to biblical Christianity  In the Old Testament, when God was angry with His people not because they were not religious but because they worshipped Him not as He is, worshipped Him without a sense of separateness, or a sense of who the Holy God is.

 

22. When we talk about the reformed faith, we must talk about reformed theology, which is not only for those in seminary.

 

23. 12 years ago, while ministering in China, Pastor got to know a pastor who gave him interest in reformed theology. In their discussion, they noted that some who graduated from seminary were nowhere near the exemplary life of Christ, neither did they preach with anointing. There were also non-seminary trained preachers who preached clearly, boldly, convincingly.

 

24. Conclusion: Not everyone is theologically trained but everyone has a theology.

Your idea and understanding of God/His character and the way you present God reflects your theology. We bring with us our notion and knowledge of God to live our lives.

E.g. As long as we are sincere, God will listen to our prayers (those who were delivered through sincere prayers then concluded that sincerity was what mattered to God),

E.g. Those who only live religious life in church probably emulate their parents unwholesome Christian lives) notional God where we form our theology/own idea/ knowledge of God from our background, our experience/ individual encounters and the message we listen to  prosperity God, legalistic God, impersonal God and then go on to teach our church, our spouse, our children about this God.

 

25. Source of Passion

• Pastor’s passion when preaching the word of God comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit, nothing to do with charisma or charm, or intrinsic quality. Rather, it has everything to do with knowledge of the One that he is speaking about  true passion comes from wanting to make God known clearly, present God (and all He represents) wholly to the listeners
• Not from motivation, positivity to follow God, enticement with carnal blessing
• Because the knowledge of God is held in such high esteem, reformed teachers make a clear distinction between gospel and truncated one, reformed teachings are controversial and counter cultural at times as they are mindful not to let the Gospel be watered down by cultural norms.
• 2 Co 10: 5 (ESV) We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ
• Reformation is absolutely necessary as the knowledge of God is at stake. The ultimate aim is to go back to the right theology.

 

26. Theology is the study of God, Who He is and His Character

• Theo = God
• Logy = logos/Knowledge/ Study
• Both Luther and Calvin  Not for man to speculate about God but to go back to the revelation of God to get right the foundation of theology.

 

27. A primary idea RC Sproul brought out is that Reformed theology is a theology, not another denomination, not a study on Predestination, 5 point Calvinism.

 

28. The western world is reflective of the world we are living in today:

“We live in a day where people say that theology doesn’t matter, what counts is feeling good, being ministered to in our psychological needs and having a place where we can feel the warmth of fellowship and have a sense of belonging and relevance, but theology is something that seems to divide, stir up controversies and debates. We have often been told, we do not need theology, we need life.” – RC Sproul

 

29. Misunderstanding about theology; Man needs life and edification which are taken as a premise to reduce the content of our faith  In the search for Life, Church played down on sound theology, pursue supernatural experience of life edification, theology subtly watered down by contemporary Christianity.

 

30. RC Sproul concluded, “At the heart of reformed theology, is the affirmation that theology is life because theology is the knowledge of God and there is no other more important knowledge that exists to inform our lives than the knowledge of God itself.”  Richness of Christianity can never come from watering down its theology.

 

31. Superficial assumptions – when we see exemplary role models, we think their theology must be right)  If they have bad morals, their theology is wrong.

 

32. Scandals in church, and everywhere; same problems in different churches and denominations; Martin Luther admitted to this effect that we see scandalous behaviours even among Protestant believers.

 

33. Do not skew our judgement because of these scandals, but come to a sound understanding of God. Our life will never be reformed and brought into conformity to Christ, until we first have a clear understanding of true humanity that is found in Christ.

 

34. Different ppl has different understanding of Christ. The most perfect model of humanity that is Christ. To know Christ is a matter of theology.

 

 

 

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