A High-Definition, Flat-Screen Reformation

On this very day, October 31, Protestants are remembering their past. One of the chief points of the Reformers was to draw our eyes back to the ministry of the Word—the expository sermon, and to the sacraments and the work of the visible church. The Reformers unearthed God’s sharper focus by grabbing the TV remote and pointing at the Word to teach us what it means to see the kingdom of God.

As part of the work of church reformation, the Genevan pastor, John Calvin, along with others, blew the whistle on the radical spiritualists and subjectivists of his day, these subjectivists were known as the Anabaptists.

A primary concern of the Anabaptists was to pursue all-out holiness and piety—to a near perfection—in the church. So, they taught: no church offices, no order, and little traditional structure to ministry. Such structures inhibited holiness. It was akin to the Costa Mesa, California early 1970s Jesus Movement, and as such, a Jesus Movement precursor. Conversions, one on one ministry and Christian communal body life were premium. There were several doctrinal strengths for the Anabaptists, one of which was encouraging a corporate practice of the faith.

There’s a correct seeing that Calvin and other Reformers taught; it’s a faith that sees with and through church-based Christianity. That is, piety flourished most faithfully in the corporate and visible worship of the church, in addition to the lock, stock and barrel of ordained officers, a liturgical order, preaching and the administration of the two sacraments—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This chiefly promoted the church’s way of unity, holiness and witness.

Contemporary writer, historian and OPC ruling elder Darryl Hart suggests that classic 16^th and 17^th century Protestant faith busied herself with a churchly Christianity. He notes how the Reformed were church-driven, and in being church-driven, they continue to offer correction to us who are given to our own private, spiritual subjectivism. To make a point about this, Hart cites the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question and answer 85:

Q. 85. What doth God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?
A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption.

Hart comments:
"In question and answer eighty-five [the Westminster teachers] elaborate three responses to the gospel required of true believers. The first two, faith and repentance, are standard fare. But the third, “the diligent use of all the outward means,” is often a surprise to low-church Protestants of the revival-friendly variety, an unexpected response because of the new Protestant assumption [in our day] that genuine belief is virtually independent of the ministry of the church."

Hart stands on historic Reformed teaching that sees with the eyes of faith, that God has ordained the means of addressing the world, calling His people unto Himself, and feeding the body of Christ through the churchly work of the exposition and teaching of the Word and the faithful administration of the sacraments. I usually think of seeing God in a personal, individualistic way. The Reformers called us to God’s appointed, visible means through His church. As Calvin put it, “There is no other entrance into life, save as she may conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us from her breasts, and embrace us in her loving care to the end.” (Book IV:I of his Institutes)

G. Mark Sumpter