Reformed Church, Always Reforming

The Presbyterian Church belongs to the Reformed family of churches. Historically, these churches grew out of the Reformation in Geneva Switzerland in the mid fifteen hundreds when John Calvin and others discerned that the Roman Catholic church of that time had departed from scripture in many ways. They particularly found in scripture an emphasis on the sovereignty, majesty, and holiness of God who had condescended to become human and die for our sins through His Son Jesus Christ. They had a high view of scripture as God's Word and as the only rule of faith and practice. Calvin had a high view of the Holy Spirit as the One who draws us to Christ and who teaches us scriptural truth. Calvin also believed that the church's job was not only to save sinners for eternity through their response to God's love, but also to create a more Godly society here on earth.

Reformed churches spread to Scotland (Presbyterian Church), Holland (Dutch Reformed Church, now Reformed Church in America and Christian Reformed Church), England (Congregational and Presbyterian churches) and to many other nations.

One motto of the Reformed churches was "sola gloria dei"--"all glory to God." Things were to be done not to give glory to any human being but to God. This is very much in line with John the Baptist's statement about Jesus, "he must increase and I must decrease." Another motto of the early Reformed churches was "Reformed church, always being Reformed."

The understanding was that God constantly reforms His church. He is the potter, and we are the clay. ( Jeremiah 18:3-11). This idea has also been stated in the popular song, "Spirit of the Living God", written by Presbyterian pastor Daniel Iverson earlier in this century. The song says, "Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me."

What Iverson wrote about an individual, we can also say about God's whole church. In every age, the church of Jesus Christ needs the Spirit of the Living God to fall upon it afresh. We need the Spirit first to melt us and then to mold us, then to fill us, and finally to use us!

In his book on the Puritans, A Quest for Godliness, JI Packer points out that the Puritans understood a reformed church to be the same thing as a revived church. He points out that in sending revival or reformation, God first has to tear down. He points out that the devil often counterfeits true revival, and that excesses often occur right alongside true revival. Packer writes:

"Revival means renewal of life, and life means energy. It is true that revival delivers the church from the problems created by apathy and deadness, but it is equally true that revival plunges the church into a welter of new problems created by the torrential overflow of disordered and undisciplined spiritual vitality. In a revival, the saints are suddenly roused from a state of torpor and lethargy by a new and overwhelming awareness of the reality of spiritual things and of God. They are like sleepers shaken awake and now half blinded by the unaccustomed glare of the sun. They hardly know for the moment where they are; in one sense they now see everything as they never saw it before, yet in another sense, because of the very brightness of the light, they can hardly see anything. They fall into pride, delusions, unbalance, censorious modes of speech, extravagant forms of action....a revival , accordingly, is always a disfigured work of God, and the more powerful the revival, the more scandalizing the disfigurements we may expect to see. Hence we cannot wonder if the revival comes to be bitterly opposed by respectable church members of limited spiritual insight, on account of the excesses linked with it; nor can we be surprised to find--as we regularly do--that many ministers stand aloof from the revival and even preach against it and try to suppress it." Packer, pp. 317-318.

To me, Casey Jones, Reformed Church, Always Being Reformed means a number of things:

1. The church cannot rest on her laurels; in every age she needs to be renewed. In fact, what was wrong with the Roman Catholic Church in the fifteen hundreds was that that church was more led by tradition than by scripture! But this can easily happen to a modern day Presbyterian or Methodist or Baptist Church! We can resist change, try to hold onto the past, and esteem our tradition over scripture! We betray our Reformed heritage when we esteem tradition over scripture. For example we may not have a tradition of anointing the sick with oil, but it's in the Bible. We may not be used to having a lot of instruments in worship, but it is in Psalms 150. We do not have to do these things, but the Spirit may lead us to. To be Reformed is to choose the Bible over tradition.
2. God reforms the church by the Holy Spirit and by the Bible. These two cannot be separated. We cannot understand the Bible except by the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit (Westminster Confession), but the Holy Spirit will never contradict scripture as a whole.
3. Therefore not all change is true Reformation. Much change is bad. Some change is counterfeit, Some change goes too far. But the way we decide is not by what we like or don't like, not by what we are uncomfortable with and what makes us comfortable, but by what God's Word says. Change which goes against God's word is not Spirit-led reforming change. For example, the change of blessing homosexual practice or fornication goes against God's Word and is therefore false reformation. But the change of using different musical instruments, writing new songs, laying on of hands, or anointing with oil are consistent with scripture and may be Godly Reformation depending on how they are instituted. Change which holds the traditions of men up against God's Word and finds them lacking is most likely led by God, because it is inspired by God's Word.
4. However if this change is not instituted in a spirit of love, if it is done self- righteously, it may not be of God, or at the very least, it may be a distortion of what God wants.
5. I believe a Reformed Church which is not continually being reformed by God through scripture and His Spirit is not really a reformed church anymore, though it may once have been. A church which pays more attention to tradition than to the Bible is no longer truly a Reformed church, but it has become like the Roman Catholic church of the sixteenth century which God sent the Reformation to change!