What We Believe
Basic Tenets of the Reformed Tradition
Historical Roots of Presbyterianism
What is the Bible?
How Should We Read the Bible?
Which Bible Shall I Read?
Basic Tenets of the Reformed Tradition
The Reformed Tradition forms the theological basis for a number of churches commonly referred to as Protestant denominations. The theological elements of the Reformed Tradition are found in denominations at all points of the spectrum, including liberals, conservatives, and evangelicals. The word “Reformed” is actually a more specific term than “Protestant” referring mainly to Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and various Dutch churches; all of which have been influenced by the theology of John Calvin. It is a distinctive tradition with a specific origin and wide influence.
The Reformed Tradition holds all the basic theological doctrines found throughout Christianity regarding the nature and purpose of God, the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the role of the Holy Spirit. What follows is a list of theological ideas that, taken as a whole, make the Reformed tradition unique.
The heart of the Reformed Tradition is a view of the church expressed in the Latin phrase semper reforma, “always reforming.” The Church is not only reformed in an historical sense, it is being reformed even now. This means that we must be open to the new leading of God at all times, for God is not to be contained in any one form or structure. Semper reforma brings a unique dynamic of creative growth to the church in which we are called to be faithful to our heritage and to God's future for us.
The Apostles’ Creed contains a phrase that is often confusing, “I believe in . . . the holy catholic church . . .” The word catholic does not refer to one church. It literally means universal and is a reference to the whole Church. We properly refer to “catholics” as Roman Catholic or the Roman Church. The Reformed tradition asserts that the Church is a universal body made up of many different parts; therefore, we do not make any claim to be the one true Church. We see ourselves as a part of a greater whole which has many expressions which are all valuable and to be appreciated.
A second Latin phrase is sola scriptura, “scripture alone.” The Reformed Tradition is rooted in the authority of the Bible and the quest through honest inquiry to apply scripture to the contemporary scene. We look upon the Bible as the unique and authoritative witness to God in Jesus Christ, an authority without parallel and the basis for decision making in matters of faith and life.
The final Latin phrase which marks the Reformed tradition is sola fidei, “faith alone.” This is one of the marks that separates Reformed and Roman Traditions. The Roman Church held that justification came through the sacraments and rites of the church, both of which were the responsibility of the clergy. The Reformed Tradition holds that is a person’s individual faith justifies them before God. This is made possible by the free gift of God’s grace which accepts and forgives.
One result is that both the sacraments and the clergy play different roles in the Reformed Tradition. The Roman Church has seven sacraments affecting all ages of life (baptism, confirmation, penance, Eucharist, ordination, marriage, and extreme unction). The Protestant Church, including Reformed churches, has only two sacraments, baptism and communion (also called the Lord”s Supper or Eucharist). These two sacraments are both rooted in the command of Christ as opposed to the tradition of the Church. Baptism is a sign and seal of our inclusion in the household of faith. It can be administered to infants and children as a part of the church for whom we take the responsibility of nurture. It can also be administered to adults upon the profession of faith. In both instances it acknowledges the new covenant in Christ and our place in the covenant. The sacrament of communion is a means both of remembrance and renewal. In it we remember the sacrifice of Christ by which the new covenant is formed and are renewed by the spiritual fellowship of the meal.
The Reformed Tradition asserts the sovereignty of God and Lordship of Jesus Christ. In that God is sovereign, God cannot be known entirely and cannot be controlled by our actions. God is free to act in whatever way satisfies the divine will, thus we are reluctant to declare too boldly that our understanding is absolute. The lordship of Christ focuses our attention on our relation to him as Master. We are a servant people of a servant Lord seeing ourselves as stewards of God's gifts.
We are all in need of repentance and forgiveness in that we all fall short of what God has created and intended us to be. Biblically, repentance means to change one's mind. It is the act of acknowledging not only our sin, but also our inability to overcome sin on our own. Sin is seen as rebellion against God and the life God intends. It is therefore not only a matter of acts, but also of attitudes and desires. Repentance is to set in place a new understanding of ourselves and the way to righteousness. We come to the point of knowing that we are rebellious people who claim mastery of our lives and that only God's reconciling act in Christ can save us and give us new life.
The priesthood of all believers is another key distinguishing mark from the Roman Church. The place of the clergy in that tradition was pointed out earlier and is very different from our view. In the Reformed Tradition everyone has equal access to God, there is no need for any intermediary. In addition, every believer has a Christian vocation of equal importance. We assert that there are different gifts and that each gift is important to the whole; therefore, ordination does not set one above others, but rather signifies accepting a call to use the gifts God gives. This is why in the governing bodies of the Presbyterian church laity and clergy have an equal vote.
A Reformed idea of equal significance to the priesthood of all believers is the assertion that each Christian has the right of conscience before God. No church governing body can compel or bind a person's conscience. While the church teaches and exhorts, faith and practice are to be resolved as matters of conscience by individuals before God. This also means that there is no higher authority which holds sway over an individual believer. This has led people of the Reformed Tradition to rebel against unjust governments and to stand in the forefront of many social reform movements.
Historical Roots of Presbyterianism
While Presbyterians see themselves connected with the whole of Christian history, the particular community of faith emerged from the Protestant Reformation and the theological genius of John Calvin.
The term “Protestant Reformation” is a summary of a series of historical events that occurred in the 1500s, events preceded by several centuries of reform efforts within the Roman Church. These events center around four major reform movements: the Anabaptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and the Reformed Tradition.
Lutheranism was formed out of the life and work of Martin Luther (1483-1546) who led the Protestant Reformation in Germany. In October 1517 he issued his Ninety-Five Theses against the abuse of indulgences. His Small Catechism, written in 1529, is a basic statement of faith for all Lutherans. One of Luther's significant contributions to all of Christianity is his emphasis on singing hymns in worship, many of which he authored.
Anglicanism takes its historical root in an essentially political battle between the papacy and the English King, Henry VIII (1491-1547). The intrigue of Henry's reign and the matter of his several wives is well known. The result of it all being that in 1534 Henry declared himself head of the Church of England in direct defiance of the papacy. Henry’s concerns were more secular than theological. He was never truly “Protestant”, holding on to the essentials of Roman Catholicism. His efforts in church affairs were clearly aimed at strengthening England’s position in the power structure of Europe; consequently, the Episcopal Church, which is Anglican, is much closer in theology, government and practice to the Roman Church than to the Protestant Church with which it is usually associated.
The term “Anabaptist” refers to a collection of the most radical groups within the Protestant Reformation. The term literally means “re-baptizers” a reference applied by their opponents because Anabaptists did not believe in baptizing infants and so insisted on the re-baptism of all believers. There are four general categories of Anabaptists: the main liners, those who formed communities to live a strict biblical life; the spiritualists, those who appealed to the Holy Spirit more than the Bible; the rationalists, those who read the Bible in the light of reason and thus rejected many traditional beliefs; and the revolutionaries, those who proposed bringing in the Kingdom of God by the sword. These groups were heavily persecuted and except for the Mennonites have few descendants.
The greatest intellectual genius of the Protestant Reformation was John Calvin (1509-1564). His work, The Institutes of Christian Religions, written in 1536, systematically presents a Protestant response to Roman Catholic doctrine and formed the theological basis for the Reformed Tradition. It is a work generally viewed as one of the great classics of Christian history.
Calvin, trained as a lawyer and theologian, centered his activity in Geneva where he served as a teacher, pastor, and mayor of the city. One of the many people influenced by Calvin while in Geneva was a Scotsman named John Knox (1513-1572). Through a series of violent events and imprisonment on a gallery ship, it was Knox who would lead the movement forcing the abdication of the Roman Catholic monarch, Mary, Queen of Scotland, in 1567. Knox played a substantial role in authoring The Scot’s Confession, one of the important Reformation confessions of faith.
Presbyterians and Puritans, with a strong Scot’s influence, came to power in England in the 1640s and through the Westminster Assembly, which met from 1643 to 1658 produced the great Westminster Confession of Faith. This linkage of Presbyterians and Puritans would have profound consequences in America.
Presbyterianism came to America and Jamestown in 1611 in the person of the Rev. Alexander Whittaker. Presbyterian churches were also organized in Connecticut (1630), New York (1640), and throughout New Jersey (1643-1692). In New England the Puritans carried the essentials of Calvinism. It was not until 1683 and the arrival of the Rev. Francis Makemie (1658-1708) in Maryland that organized in Philadelphia, the first Synod in the same city in 1717, and the General Assembly in 1789.
Presbyterians played a major role in developing the intellectual and political climate that brought about the American Revolution and the American form of government. John Witherspoon (1723-94), a Presbyterian minister, was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. Throughout most of the first one hundred years of American life the Presbyterians remained united and played the dominant religious role in shaping American life.
In the great turmoil of the Civil War Presbyterians were divided into the what would become known as the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (north) and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. in 1983 resulted in the reuniting of these two bodies into the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
What is the Bible?
The Bible is God’s Word. But who determined that, and just what does it mean? The Bible is the book of the believing community: the Israelites of Old Testament times, the Jews of the days of the Second Temple (including the days when Jesus was on earth), and the Christians. We use the term believing community to include all who accept the Bible (Old or New Testament or both) as of divine origin and authoritative in matters of faith and life.No one person wrote the Bible, and no group or council made it the Word of God. The Bible, for the large part, began as oral accounts. Some were stories told around the campfires or in the tents or in religious congregations, telling of God's wonderful works. Some of the “books” of the Bible are accounts of messages proclaimed by God’s prophets. Others are letters written by the Apostle Paul or one of the other apostles. Psalms are hymns and prayers used by the believing community to worship God. Proverbs are collections of observations on life made by members of the community. In some cases -- for example, the prophets -- those who spoke, believed that God had given them the message. At times, it was not even what the prophet desired to say (for example, Jeremiah or Ezekiel), but what God told him to say. Over the years and centuries the believing community came to the conviction that God was speaking to them through ‘holy men of old time.’
By the end of the first century (A.D.) the Jews believed that God had spoken in certain writings, which we as Christians know as the Old Testament. The Jews know it as the Hebrew Bible. It was therefore considered to be canonical, that is, with binding authority in matters of the beliefs and the life of the community. Likewise, the Christian church came to accept the Scriptures (the term used for the Old Testament), and they also believed that certain writings by the apostles were of equal authority. As the Church grew and spread, some portions of the Church accepted certain writings as canonical which were not accepted by other portions. Hence we have a “Catholic Bible” and a “Protestant Bible.” Actually, the difference is not great, for the sixty-six books of our “Protestant” Bible consist of the thirty-nine books accepted by Jews and Christians, and the twenty-seven books accepted by Protestants and Catholics. Other books are considered to be of value, but not of equal value in establishing the doctrines of the church (Catholic or Protestant).
So we speak of the Bible as God’s Word. But we do not believe that God dictated it word for word. Many Muslim traditions believe Allah dictated every word, including the vowel marks and punctuation to Muhammad. Many Christians believe God’s Spirit influenced holy men of old time in such a way that what they spoke or wrote was what God wanted to say to His people. The Mormons believe that Joseph Smith discovered certain golden documents which he translated as the Book of Mormon. Christians do not believe that the books of the Bible were given by any such miraculous manner, but were written down by human beings in their own words (occasionally, they give us the exact words which God spoke to them), using their own style and vocabulary. Among Jews there is the belief that God gave both the written law (the Torah) and the oral law (later incorporated in the Talmud) to Moses on Sinai, but this view is modified even in the Mishnah to include the work of human agents such as the “men of the Great Synagogue.” In certain teachings of Jesus, He seems to reject the authority of the oral tradition of His fellow Jewish teachers.
There are a number of ways to read any book. Usually we begin at the beginning and read through to the end. Mortimer Adler, in How to Read a Book, suggested that it is sometimes better to begin at the end, discover what the author is trying to say, and then read the book to see how the author proceeded. Since the Bible is both the Word of God and the words of people - that is, God used human beings to receive and transmit His word to the believing community - we should use various methods of study.
The separate books should be read as individual works. We should read Luke and Acts as documents written by Luke to a specific person (Theophilus) for a specific purpose (see Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-5). The Gospel of John was addressed to the believing community for a specific purpose (see John 20:30-31). In every case, we should begin with the author’s purpose (stated or implied) and the person or persons to whom the work was addressed. In some cases this is difficult or impossible to determine. Then we should seek to discover the original purpose and consider it as addressed to a part of the believing community.
Since we as members of the believing community should accept the conviction of the community that God has spoken and is speaking in these biblical writings, we should move on from the original situation to the long-term application. Those who collected, persevered, and believed the Scriptures were not merely interested in what Paul, for example, said to the Corinthians. They were seeking to hear what God was saying to their own situation (note the words that follow each of the letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches”). In other words, we begin with the particular situation in which the revelation was given by God to His servant the prophet, and then we seek to learn what lessons in that situation apply to us in our own situation.
But God spoke at different times to different situations (see Hebrews 1:1). It was always the same God, but the message varied to suit the need. This may seem to introduce contradictions. Therefore the students of the Bible have developed the concept of the analogy of faith, or comparing Scripture with Scripture. To understand God's word, we need to seek to comprehend all of His revelation to His people. This is not an easy task, and it requires careful and continued study.
The application of the revelation in specific situations to its relevance in modern situations can and does provide opportunity for difference of interpretation. We therefore find Bible students disagreeing over the meaning of a passage of Scripture. Jewish scholars have been content to allow these differences. “Rabbi so-and-so says...but Rabbi so-and-so says...” is found often in the Talmud. Christians have instead tended to accept only one interpretation and divide into sects and denominations over the differences. It would seem to be more mature to agree that no one of us has the entire truth; rather “we know in part,” and we seek to learn from each other's interpretations.
What about reading the Bible from beginning to end? A method often recommended is to read “three chapters a day and five on Sundays” and go through the Bible in a year. This is only valuable after the Bible student is fairly familiar with the significant portions of the Bible. The Scriptures are designed to teach us what we need to know about God and His will, about how we should serve Him by loving Him and our neighbor. (See 2 Timothy 3:16-17.) This instruction has been given, we believe, by God's activity on behalf of His people in historic situations, and His interpretation of those acts. By reading the Bible through it is possible to get a grand view of this revelatory and redemptive activity of God, in other words, what God has made known to His people concerning His redeeming love. But in many cases, the person who has not yet learned that God loves us, that God wills that we should love one another, that His will can be done on earth only as we love Him and love our neighbor, that person will have difficulty comprehending God's actions by reading through the Bible from beginning to end.
Which Bible Shall I Read?
The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (portions of Daniel and Ezra and a few other verses are in Aramaic). The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Many translations have been made in many languages. There is no single translation or version that is perfect. It is therefore better to use two or three different translations.
There are two main types of translations: the literal, which seeks to translate the original word-for-word, and the dynamic equivalent, which seeks to present in English (or another modern language) what the original meant to its original readers and what it means to the modern person. The New American Standard Bible is an example of a dynamic equivalent. What about the “King James Version”? It is a literal translation in the language of the Elizabethan era (17th century), and frequently difficult to understand in the twenty-first century. The Revised Standard Version (and it’s revision – the New Revised Standard Version) was an attempt to remove difficulties and inaccuracies from the King James Version, while retaining the language of the KJV. The Bible you will use is largely a matter of personal choice. God’s word comes through loud and clear in any version - but it is often clearer in the dynamic equivalent translations.
Obtain two or three Bibles. Select a passage you wish to study, perhaps something about Jesus in the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of John. Read it several times in each of the translations you have at hand. Use a Bible dictionary or a Study Bible to understand technical terms or difficult portions. Ask yourself often, “What is God saying to me in this Scripture?” Make it a practice to study the Bible regularly. Expect God to speak to you. He will.