Reformed Theology

Has God Really Said? Resisting the #ReformedDowngrade /  by Shane D. Anderson

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In the long run, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ always wins. It rises up by the Spirit into life, trampling serpents, breaking down idols, filling the earth with generations of faithfulness, and praising the Triune God from shore to shore. But anyone who has lived the Christian life and is familiar with biblical and church history knows that this upward trajectory of victory is marred by many sad declines, beguilings of the devil, and little idols that gain temporary residence in heart, home, church, society. These downgrades from our upward calling in Christ are caused by a lack of faith, for without it, no one can please the Lord.

The occasion of one such downgrade in the church, where unbelief slid the church into temporary ruin, started when a brilliant, learned, appealing, and highly-effective leader ruined everything by asking a question, “starting a conversation” with the wife of the priest-king of a holy and tranquil realm. Having studied the cultural baggage she had inherited (rife with authoritative rules that forced the queen into involuntary submission and kept her in ignorance) he stirred up this queen’s desire for more from this life than mere fruitful multiplication by asking “Has God really said?”

And by the end of that conversation, the world was plunged into our present state of sin and misery.

I am going to say something you may not yet believe: we are currently heading into a great crisis in the conservative Reformed churches, we have begun a precipitous slide into sin and misery. It has not reached its conclusion, like it already has in the PCUSA, the United Methodists, and the old Reformed Church in America. It has not progressed into complete institutional compromise with liberalism like in the CRC. But all the beginnings of our repeating the feminist-liberal decline are there: women theologians advocating for “more women’s voices”, seminiaries enrolling women in MDiv programs, churches hiring more and more not-officially-ordained-yet women “ministers” of this and that, denominations calling for hiring parity between men and women, creative theologians tinkering with the plain teachings of scripture through the use of sophisticated argumentation, more and more women writers in the place of ordained men in our denominational magazines, etc., etc., etc. 

I don’t write this post to convince you that the decline is happening. (Though it is. Just ask those who lived through the fall of the CRCNA how this works.) But I am writing to alert you to a type of thinking that is itself a downgrade and apart from repentance will always lead to a further downgrade: a lack of faith in God’s Word. 

There is a footing we can have, a stance, a gait as we approach Scripture that will always stumble and fall: unbelief. It comes to the Bible on the defense. It comes to the Bible “concerned,” with personal problems and feelings it wants addressed adequately and comfortably. It avoids parts of the Bible that would correct the person. Or it comes to passages it describes as difficult, complex, and easy to misunderstand not first asking with humility to learn and be changed—it marches up to them with sandpaper in hand, ready to smooth down all the pointy parts. “Let’s have a conversation… let’s discuss the complex issues… let’s explore the rich tapestry of meaning and context and all the other rich things we can explore… you know, ‘Has God really said?’”

And at the end of the “discussions”... the “conversations”... the “explorations”... the “rich tapestries of meaning”.... we are left with something quite different than the authoritative, sufficient Word of God where yes is yes, and no is no. Once you begin to admit that this approach is itself a sinful capitulation to self-worship, you are well on your way to understanding why feminist exegesis is itself, apart from its ungodly conclusions and practices, its own sort of ungodly downgrade. 

Let women clothe themselves with modesty such as is fitting for godly women… “Has God really said? Who determines what is modest or fitting to godly womanhood? Is there even such a thing as godly womanhood?”

Women may not teach or have authority over men but are to learn in silence with subjection…. “Has God really said? How will men represent women’s unique perspective? How will the rights of women be preserved without women having power in church structures?” 

The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is of the church…. “Has God really said? Can’t we move beyond authority and submission? Why is there so much fixation on headship?”

Man was not made for woman, but woman for man… “Has God really said? I’m an ezer warrior, a coequal life partner!” 

Imitate Sarah who obeyed her husband and called him Lord… “Has God really said? I shouldn’t be forced to obey! Oppression!!”

The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God… “REEEEEEE! HAS GOD REALLY SAID! PATRIARCHY!”

This is actually what is currently happening in the Reformed world, and it is the downgrade that begins all downgrades: “Has God really said?”

One final word: don’t just reject this false, rebellious way when you see it in others—reject it in yourself. Do you desire to approach God’s Word with faith rather than irreverent questioning but you find yourself poked and prodded by what it says  in painful ways with sensitive topics? The way forward is to recognize that the problem is always in us, not God. You and I oversleep an alarm, lose our keys, fumble at relationships, have greatly erred and, yes, in thought, word, and deed sinned in many ways. Our comfort or discomfort with God’s commands says a lot about us but nothing about the goodness of those commands. He is all wise in what He has said and how He has said it. In our rebellion, ignorance, corruption we need the mighty working of his blessed Spirit to bring us to humility before him. So, we must come to Him as a beggar in prayer through Jesus Christ who receives repentant sinners: He has given you these difficult places in His Word for your salvation. As Spurgeon once said, these hard places are for setting up an altar to worship your God! Bow under His commands, commit your way to believe and obey his Word no matter the consequences. Trust Him for the forgiveness and help you will need, and you will see that His every word proves true and in keeping His commands our foot will never slip.

The Judicial Laws of Moses and General Equity /  by Peter Bringe

To them also, as a body politic, he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 19.4)

This has been a section of the Westminster Confession which has met with differing interpretations, especially in more recent decades. In particular, it has become central to the question of whether “theonomy” is within the boundaries of the Westminster standards. It also was a point of contention when in 2001 the 68th General Assembly of the OPC declared that “the use of women in military combat is both contrary to nature and inconsistent with the Word of God.”1 A protest to this action objected to this declaration in part because it argued “largely from Old Testament narrative and civil law,” citing 19.4 of the Westminster Confession as a reason why this biblical support was “highly dubious.”2 In my own experience, talking to people and reading books on the Westminster Confession, there is a bit of confusion as to the meaning of this paragraph about the judicial laws.

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Wisdom And Authority: A Response to Brad Littlejohn /  by Michael Spangler

In a recent article, “What’s So Bad about ‘Worldview’?”, Dr. Brad Littlejohn, president of the Davenant Institute, speaks seriously about some serious issues in Christian thought. He discusses the weakness of the term “worldview” and offers as a replacement the term “wisdom,” which he defines as “the soul’s attunement to the order of reality.”

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Mark Jones on Justification and Sanctification: An Archive (Updated October 2019) /  by Shane D. Anderson

This is an index and introduction to Mark Jones’ posts on justification, sanctification, good works, merit, and future judgment. These posts address aspects of these doctrines in light of current controversies, past wisdom, and our Reformed confessional standards.

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The Lamb's High Feast: Good Reasons For Weekly Communion /  by Garry Vanderveen

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from visitors is, “Why does your church celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday?” There are several reasons for our practice and I organize them under three categories: Biblical/Exegetical, Theological/Practical, and Historical.

Since I serve in a Reformed congregation, visitors sometimes assume that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper 3, 4, 6, or 12 times a year. Some are genuinely puzzled that we would embrace a practice that is at odds with the practice of other local Reformed churches. I remind them that John Calvin advocated the “at least once a week” position. 

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Mary And The Church /  by Joshua Torrey

Since the Reformation, Protestants have looked with concern at the Mariology of the Roman Catholic Church. When a church makes doctrines concerning Mary essential to salvation there should be quizzical looks. And yet, in the rush to deny the Marian dogmas many Protestants can feel an uncomfortable tingle down their spine when they hear "Greetings Mary, God's favored one." Why is that?

Perhaps I can ask the question more practically. Why do people shudder at the sharing—common during Advent—of the depiction of Eve and Mary embraced while Mary's foot crushes a serpent? Or if I can ask even more directly, have Protestant overreacted to Roman doctrine and dismissed the true Biblical witness concerning the Virgin? Unveiled, why is it that some take issue with Mary crushing the head of the serpent?

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