A Reformed Baptist Church is Ruled by the Bible. The simple answer to the question, ‘What is a Reformed Baptist Church’, is a church that recognises the ‘Word of God is the only rule for their faith and practice.’ I was amused what Richard Dawkins, the world famous atheist said recently. Apparently he feels unloved and misunderstood … and is bothered by it. He senses that the public has an unfavourable perception of him. He said, “I seem to be perceived as aggressive and strident.” But he is not being honest with himself. He said, “I don’t actually think I am strident and aggressive. What I think is that we have all become so accustomed to seeing a protective barrier around religion that when someone like me delivers even a mild criticism of religion, it’s heard as aggressive when it isn’t. I like to think I’m more thoughtful and reflective.” – But is he being honest? Is a man who described religion as a ‘virus of the mind’ giving ‘mild criticism’? Is a man who said ‘parents giving children religious instruction were guilty of ‘child abuse’, simply being thoughtful and reflective? We may expect this of unbelievers like Dawkins, but it is frightening when those who profess to be believers hide behind a cloak of lies and contradiction when they refuse to be honest with God’s word. A Reformed Baptist Church Follows the Principles of the Reformation. Human nature follows the sinful tendency to repeatedly go astray. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” The history of Israel in the OT is a history of people repeatedly going astray. They would be called back to the Lord by a deliverer like one of the Judges, or by a prophet, or by one of the good kings. Some kings are called good kings, because they ushered in reformation – such as Hezekiah & Josiah and others; but after reformation, the tendency was to drift away again; to go astray. In the time of Christ, the Jews had drifted away from God and were buried under their oral law and traditions and such; The out pouring of the HS on the day of Pentecost was essentially a day of reformation, when the church, which was entirely made up of Jews took on their new reformed identity and were openly owned by God, and after Peter’s preaching, there was an immediate surge in church membership. The rest of the NT was almost entirely the ministry of the Apostles calling believers back to the authority of Scripture. Correcting their departures; you can see that especially in the letters of Paul; they were constantly battling with this tendency of human nature to depart from God’s word. Paul said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” And the same is true for the history of the church. There have been periods of revival and reformation, followed by periods of decline. The protestant reformation of 1517, which began when Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, began a period of great reform. And from the reformation there was born the Lutheran church under Martin Luther. The Lutherans were not as thorough as the Reformed Church under Calvin, and this in turn was not as thorough as the Baptist Church through its many splinter groups. The Baptists were known as ‘total reformers’, because they went further than most protestant churches, particularly with the mode of believers baptism. But every period of reformation, is followed by decline and departure from the Word of God. And for that reason, a reformed Baptist church must be always reforming. Unless we pay close heed to the Word of God, we will go astray. A Reformed Baptist Church embraces change. Reformation is a word which means change for the better. When I was a boy, anyone who went to Reform School was presumably being changed for the better. And change usually stirs up opposition and resistance. It breaks with tradition. And this was particularly true for reformed churches. One of the obvious changes was in the appearance of churches. Both inside and out. The RC altars, images, crosses, candles, stained glass windows were labelled idolatry and unbiblical and were cast out and destroyed. Changes not only affected the appearance of the church, but also the program. The so-called church calendar was abandoned. Periods of Lent & Advent were cast off. The Pastors and theologians of the day, followed the Reformers & abolished Easter & Christmas, and other religious festivals, which had been promoted by the Roman Catholic church for centuries. A Reformed Baptist Church embraces the 5 Sola’s of the reformation. The protestant reformation was summarized under 5 headings. They still apply today. Salvation is:- According to the Scripture Alone - Sola Scriptura: We have already emphasised this, so I won’t say anymore, except to quote the words of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, he declared his conscience to be captive to the Word of God saying, Hia stan ich; ich can nicht andes; Got helf mia.” To the Glory of God Alone - Soli Deo Gloria! As we learned in the Catechism, Mans chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The Bible says, “salvation is of the Lord. Paul said in Eph. – ‘we are saved to the glory of His grace. God has all the glory – for electing us; calling us; providing redemption for us; for keeping us & finally glorifying us. Through Christ Alone - Solo Christo! Roman Catholics kept people in bondage with their teaching of purgatory. They still teach it. Souls are held there in torment and released only by the intercessions of the faithful – which is why they often talk on the news of the Pope praying for the dead after some major air crash or terrorist attack. The Reformation rejected all that and returned to the Bible’s teaching that salvation was by Christs work alone. As John Calvin said in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Christ stepped in, took the punishment upon himself and bore the judgment due to sinners. With his own blood he bore away the sins which made them enemies of God! By Grace Alone - Sola Gratia The Roman Catholics taught that only through the Mass, where Christ is repeatedly sacrificed, through the action of a Priest, only then, could sinners receive grace & forgiveness. In the time following the reformation, this was enforced by law; anyone who refused was arrested, interrogated under torture, then burned as a heretic. During our trip to Europe we visited one of the places where protestants were interrogated – you have heard of the rack & red hot pinchers, - we saw other inventions that just the sight of them struck terror into your imagination. But Christians chose this, than to deny their faith, that they were saved by the grace of God alone. They refused to rely on the intercession of a priest. Through Faith Alone - Sola Fide It is faith to the exclusion of works and all self effort. Think of all the places where the Bible keeps on repeating – it is ‘not of works” – Rom.4:5 “to him who works not, but believes.” – Tit.2:9 “Not by works of righteousness” – Eph.2:9 – “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” All we can offer to God is a broken heart for our sins & ungodliness. All we can do is cast ourselves upon Christ completely – and He has promised, those who come to Me, I will in no way cast out. Salvation through faith alone. So there we have it. An introduction which answers the question, “What is a Reformed Baptist?” There was a period when the word ‘reformed’ was unnecessary with Baptists. It was understood, that to be a Baptist, you were reformed. That is no longer the case. You will hardly find any Baptist today, that knows anything about the things you have heard today. By calling ourselves reformed Baptists, we are making a statement about other Baptist churches. So many of them are no longer careful to live under the rule of Scripture. That doesn’t mean there are no other Baptist churches who teach some measure of reformed doctrine. If you choose this path, for our gathering, to be a reformed Baptist church, then be prepared to be viewed with some degree of suspicion and misunderstanding. Reformed Baptists are not changing to something new, they are changing, by returning to something old. We would simply be returning to the old Biblical standards that once characterised Baptist churches, when they adopted the 1689 Baptist confession of faith. May God bless us with understanding – may we together grow in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and live for His glory.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 05:53:03 +0000
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