define being Reformed?

If someone were to ask you, what do you mean you are reformed? How would you answer them without a big huge theological debate that takes hours?

Also how do you in a nutshell define covenantal?

I am still a bit new and am trying to learn not only for myself but how to articulate these things to others in an understandable way.

__________________
Kristine Anderson
Member Vista Grande Baptist, Husband Chaplain USAF
We are SBC but I am PCA at heart.
I am a stay at home mother and a classical christian homeschooler to nine precious children.
www.mamaarcher.com

Oh good.. I am first to respond...


Reformed is the following...

1. Adhering to the 5 Solas of the Reformation. Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, To God Alone be the glory..
2. Adhering the the 5 points of Calvinism.. Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Irresibable Grace, Perservance of the Saints..
3. Adhering to Covenantal Theology including Moral Law... Covenantal Baptist or Covenantal PaedoBaptist.
4. Adhering to the Regulative Principle of Worship.
5. Adhering to one of the Reformed Creeds, 1689 Baptist Confession, Westminster Confession, Beglic Confession, or Savoy Declaration..

Michael

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Michael Daniels
Reformed, RPCNA
Denton, Maryland

[i][b]As For Me And My House, We Will Serve The Lord[/i][/b]

[SIZE="1"][I][FONT="Century Gothic"]Unum Deum in Trinitate: Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus [RIGHT]Sola scriptura - Sola gratia - Sola fide - Solus Christus - Soli Deo gloria - Solum psalterium - Lex talionis[/RIGHT][/FONT][/I][/SIZE]

Can you expound on #3 a little more...and #4 Regulative principle of worship, Where do you find your regulations on this? What is the standard? Or do you just mean orderly and how do you determine what "orderly" is?

Well our regulations come from the Scripture but are summarized within the Reformed Confession under the Chapters on Worship and the Sabbath Day..

Scriptural Elements of Worship Consist of Prayer, Reading the Hearing the Word of God, Preaching the Word of God, Baptism, Lord's Supper, Oaths and Vows, Singing Psalms, Decorum, and Gestures with the Occasional ones of Days of Humilation with Fasting, and Days of Thanksgiving.

I normally try to keep Covenant Theology Short when explaining.. We adhere to a Continuity of Old and New testament and that All Scripture is for the Christians Life. We adhere to the Moral Law summarized within the Ten Commandments and that Physical Israel have united with Spiritual Israel the Church as the people of God. God has one plan for his people. God Saved his people in the same way within both Covenants.. Oh and I'll throw in that there is no rapture....

Hope this helps, I know it is short.... I have a wormy little one kidding on my lap....

Michael

5 points

__________________
~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

I haven't even tried to understand this one yet! That has been so ingrained I do not even know where to start. Could someone help me with this?

I do understand it is difficult to explain things short and simple, but I do not want to overload my brain at this moment, but to have a place to begin studying.

In the SBC we are taught rapture believing pretrib..and premillinial.
How does Calvin differ?
What is the difference between premill and historic premill?

Difference between Dispensation Premill and Historic Premill (ME) are:

Historical Premills are Post Trib.. No Rapture before the Tribulation, God deals with unbelievers during the Tribulation. Church is one with Israel. The Church will reign with Christ for 1000 years on Earth during the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

Dispensation Premills are Pre Trib. Rapture the church before the Tribulation. Israel is Seperate from the Church. God deals with Israel during the Tribulation and during the 1000 year reign. Church is in Heaven. Jews will Reign with Christ for 1000 years.

What won we over first is a reading plain reading of Matthew 24. When reading, note that the Apostles who are being told this by Christ is the foundation of the Church.

There is plenty more Scripture, but that will start ya on the Rapture question.....

Michael

Calvin was an A-Mill...

Believing the thousand year reign is NOW during the Church Age.... No future Reign on Earth...

We Historic Premill believe in a Reigning Now.. The Spiritual Reign of Christ, but not the Medatoral Reign of Christ on Earth in the Future..
Read John Gill (Early Reformed Baptist 1700s) on both Reigns of Christ.

Michael

Actually, I think (5.) is sufficient... though traditionally the Belgic, Heidelberg Catechism, and Canons of Dordt are held together as the "Three Forms of Unity."

Now we can argue about which Confessions are Reformed <ducking>.

__________________
BJ Mora
Grace OPC, Modesto, CA
Reformed & Presbyterian Churches & Denominations in North America

5points.
5solas.

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Donald Jacobs
Marysville. WA
Cascade Church (CRCNA)

Cum vero infirmor tunc potens sum.

I agree, Reformed = 5 points and 5 solas. This might seem an inadequate definition but it's surprising how few churches hold to this consistently.

VanVos

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Rev Jonathan James Goundry
*Calvinist @ Heart
Missionary with International Christian Institute www.iciministry.org
www.fide-o.com
www.vanvos.blogspot.com
www.unchainedradio.com

We had this discussion over on my blog if you want to check it out...
http://theologian.wordpress.com/2006...formed-or-not/

__________________
Larry Bray
Elder - Reformed Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, PCA
Boothwyn, PA - http://www.rpcb.org/
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
-----------------------------------------------------
“The Christian must not be of such a complying nature as to cut the coat of his profession according to the fashion of the times…" - William Gurnall

To someone new to the Reformed faith, I would say that being Reformed is trying to be self-consciously Biblical. It is very simply trying to reform oneself to Christ's service. You don't have to be one thing or the other to be Reformed, just willing to obey the Bible's teachings and commands out of a sense of thankfulness to Christ for salvation. The Sola's and the five heads of doctrine come afterwards, as you learn more. And as you learn to read the Bible within its own context, you end up reading it in terms of what has been called Covenant Theology, because that's how the Bible reads.

To the more mature, being Reformed becomes a little more tricky. It sometimes isn't enough just to say that it consists of following the five sola's or the five heads of doctrine. For such people we also have to stress the limits of doctrine, and the limits of the sola's not to go beyond them.

__________________
JohnV :detective:

John Vandervliet
Ontario, Canada
member of: Canadian Reformed Church
"In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are" C.S Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

Back Then: 5 points + 5 solas + covenantal (specifically with infant bapstism)

Later: 5 points + 5 solas + hold to a reformed confession (WCF, Belgic, LBC II)

TODAY: 5 points + 5 solas + overally Christian worldview and *some* covenantalism. This includes reformed baptists as well as all the presby folks. And yes, it even includes MacArthur. There's a quote from MacArthur on podcast I need to dig up, but if you hear it (and it's him talking about 1 Cor. 7), you'd swear he was paedo and had accepted covenant theology.

And all orthodox positions on the 2nd coming have a rapture. The word simply means 'caught up' (translated from the latin 'rapere' in the Vulgate version of 1 Thess. 4:16). The only thing all of the positons differ on is the TIMING of the rapture and exactly what happens after that.

Don't be so quick to throw out biblical terminology just to spite dispensationalism.

__________________
K. Joel Gilliard
Theologically Correct dot Com
http://www.theologicallycorrect.com
Sunday School Teacher (Elementary 2), Grace Communion Church (EFCA) formerly Gaithersburg Community Church
http://www.gchurch.org
The Blog: THINK! - Wrestlin' With Wordz -N- Ideaz
The Upcoming CD: The Definition

BIBLICAL!
Biblical Christianity.

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Jim
An Elder, Harvest Reformed Church (RCUS)
http://www.harvestreformedchurch.org/
http://tbftgoggi.wordpress.com/

Upon a life I did not live; upon a death I did not die, Another's death, Another's life, I'd rest my soul eternally
Omnia dicta fortiora,si dicta Latina
Si vis pacem, para bellum

I, personally, don't define being reformed. I don't find all of the terms we apply to so many things helpful. As far as I'm concerned, there is Christian and non-Christian; there is godly and ungodly; there is Christlikeness and Christlessness. It doesn't matter how many -isms you apply to yourself or others. You either walk in God's ways or you don't.

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My name is Davis. I am the Lord's.

I gather with saints at Bethel Presbyterian Church here in Lake Charles, LA, where I live.

[b][SIZE="3"]"[/SIZE][/b][COLOR="RoyalBlue"]I dwell in the high and holy place, also with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones[/COLOR].[b][SIZE="3"]"[/SIZE][/b] -Our Father, the Lord God (Isaiah 57:15)

Kristine:

The Reformers would not recognize many of the groups who call themselves 'Reformed' today as Reformed. The easiest way to identify what is Reformed and whether or not a particular ecclesiastical body is Reformed is to examine whether or not they faithfully adhere to the confession(s) of the Reformed faith. This would include the Three Forms of Unity (the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism & the Canons of Dordrecht) and/or the Westminster Standards.

Other groups identify with many of the tenets of these standards but deny essential points that undermine the system of doctrine upheld in the aforementioned doctrinal standards and thus cannot properly be called Reformed. This is why, among other reasons, church history and the historical creeds and confessions of the church are so important: people keep trying to change definitions and it gets rather confusing!

Signed,

A confessional curmudgeon

__________________
Rev. Daniel Kok
Pastor of Grace Reformed Church (URCNA)
Leduc, Alberta CANADA
Church Blog

"there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ"
Belgic Confession, Article 26

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Nice to see another historic premil on the Board, Michael. We're taking over!

Actually, there IS a rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:17). What counts is where you put it in the premil scheme.

__________________
Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
Ruling Elder, OPC (not currently serving)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC)
www.reiterations.wordpress.com
www.foft.wordpress.com

"When I cease to preach salvation by faith in Jesus, put me into a lunatic asylum, for you may be sure that my mind is gone." - Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Historic Premils of the PB UNITE...

I agree with you that there is a rapture in that passage and it counts where you place in the scheme... "Post Tribulation", but for sake of argument most people think today, rapture, oh church raptured before tribulation and we are gone... So normally I either not mention the rapture aspect or mention it with the greek word "Apentsis" (sp) which means to return right away to Earth after meeting Christ in the Clouds.

Michael

<===generic premill. Only thing I'm dogmatic about is Rev. 20:4-6.

And I think I'm posttrib.

and Christ is reigning now.

and the 'last days' began at Pentecost.

I guess that would make me vaguely historic premill.

Daniel F.N. Ritchie, The Regulative Principle of Worship, pp. vii-viii:

__________________
Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/how-many-points/

You'll find this essay by Muller on "How Many Points" the best short summary of what is truly Reformed. The system builds and stands upon every single point including the use of the sacraments. It was a Lutheran, Herman Sasse I believe, who once said that if you don't understand the sacraments you will misunderstand other Scripture. And he is right. If you study the different systems out there even just neutrally you will find they all build on themselves around the sacraments be it Reformed, Lutheran, Roman Catholic or Baptistic. Each system's theology is a shadow of their understanding of the sacraments from start to finish even if you take a pure neutral analytical look at them without saying X is right and Y is wrong. That's at least an honest "look at it". But you'll find this essay the most helpful as a summary as to why what is Reformed in the sense of the term versus not.

I hope this helps,

Larry

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Larry Hughes
Geologist
Tates Creek PCA
Lexington, KY
PCA

Galatians 4:29, "But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also."

How do I define reformed theology?

Bibical Christianity.

__________________

Travis Speegle
Redeemer Presbyterian, PCA (Waco, Tx)
Pacific Cross Roads, PCA (Los Angeles, CA)


"When it comes to trustworthy theologians one can usually honor the rule of thumb that the deader the better."-Dr. John Hannah, DTS (of all places)

I looked up “being reformed” and “covenantal” in a standard dictionary, and found that the first word, reformed is made possible because of the second, covenant. Reformed describes a per