The
Reformed Church
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This information is from, Christian Symbolics or Exposition of the Distinctive Characteristic of the Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed Churches as well as the Modern Denominations and Sects represented in this country, By E. H. Klotsche, A. M., Ph.D., D.D. Published by The Lutheran Literary Board(1929), Burlington, Iowa. ©1929 R. Neumann, Burlington, Iowa.
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I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
We use the term
"Reformed Church" as designating that body of Protestant
churches known historically in distinction from the Lutheran Church
as the Reformed or Calvinistic Churches. It is allowable to speak of
"the Reformed Churches," for the various Reformed bodies in
Europe and America are branches of the same family and recognize each
other as such. They differ from one another in church discipline and
form of worship but they adopt the doctrines of the Reformed system.
Almost contemporaneous with,
but rather independent of, the Lutheran movement in Germany was the
Zwinglian reformation in Switzerland. Zwingli's reformation differed
more than Calvin's from the Lutheran in the doctrine of the
sacraments, especially in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Zwingli
was also more radical in his reform and departed farther than Calvin
from the received traditions in matters of government, discipline and
worship. The direct influence of his theology, however, was short
lived. The Arminians adopted his doctrine of the Lord's Supper, but
it received no symbolical authority in the Reformed Church. Even men
like Bullinger, Zwingli's successor in Zurich, accepted his doctrinal
views in a modified form. Calvinism triumphed over Zwinglianism
everywhere in Switzerland.
The true founder of the
Reformed Church was Calvin. It is true the Reformed theology had its
origin in the reformatory movement begun in Switzerland under the
leadership of Zwingli, but its fundamental principles received their
ultimate form and systematic exposition through Calvin. His theology
in its essential points became the adopted doctrine of the Reformed Church.
Calvin's system of theology
is laid down in his Institutio
religionis christienae, first
published in Latin in 1536, then in French, and much enlarged in
subsequent editions. The Institutes have remained ever since the
standard of orthodox Protestant belief in all the Reformed Churches.
Luther and Caivin have more
in common than in distinction. Both agree in the rejection of Roman
hierarchism and Pelagianism as well as the recognition of the dogma
of the ancient church. There were minor differences in their
conception of the doctrine of sin and grace, faith and works,
atonement and justification, repentance and sanctification. Calvin
differed from Luther particularly in his conception of predestination
and the sacraments as also in his aim and method of practical reform.
We shall now first give a
brief historical outline of the more important Reformed Confessions.
Then we shall discuss the distinctive doctrines and characteristic
features of the Reformed Church. This will be followed by a brief
account of the various reformed bodies represented in this country.
2. THE REFORMED CONFESSIONS
Of the numerous confessions
of the Reformed Church only the more important will be discussed
under this heading. E. F. Karl Miiller, in "Die
Bekenntnisschriften der reform. Kirche, Leipzig, 1903, counts no less
than 58. None of them is so universally accepted as the Augsburg
Confession in the Lutheran Church, but with all
this variety they are as much agreed in the essential articles of
faith as the Lutheran symbols (see Schaff, Creeds, I, 356 f.).
A. The Earlier Reformed Confessions.
The earlier Reformed
confessions set forth Zwingli's doctrinal views with important modifications
largely due to the influence of Bucer's irenic efforts.
(I) The first confession of the Reformed Church
is the Tetrapolitan Cofession
(Confessio Tetrapolitana), so
called, because the four cities of Upper Germany, Strassburg,
Constance, Memmingen and Lindau, presented it to the emperor at the
diet of Augsburg, in 1530. It was drawn up by Bucer, with the aid of
Capito and Hedio. It consists of 23 articles. The Tetrapolitana
agrees in general with the Augsburg Confession but in Art. XVIII
presents a view of the Lord's Supper deviating from that of the
Augsburg Confession and leaning to that of Zwingli. In Art. XXII the
use of images is rejected. The diet declined to receive this
confession. In opposition to it the papal divines wrote a confutation
full of misrepresentations. In 1531 the four cities adopted the
Augsburg Confession to join the Smalcald League, and the
Tetrapolitana ceased to be a formally adopted symbol of any branch of
the Reformed Church, although it was held in high
esteem among the churches of Switzerland. Today it has little more
than historical significance.
(2) Zwingli's
own Confession of faith which was
presented to the emperor at Augsburg, shortly after the Lutheran
princes had presented their confession, suffered
the same fate as the Tetrapolitana. It has remained a private
document without symbolical authority.
(3) The First
Confession of Basle (Confessio Fidei Basileensis prior)
is a brief and simple creed occupying an intermediate position
between Luther and Zwingli. It was drawn up by Oswald Myconius, in
1532, on the basis of a briefer formula prepared by Oecolampadius,
and contains ra articles. It was published by the magistrate of Basle
in 1534 and adopted and issued in 1537 by the confederated city of
Mülhausen, hence also called Mylhusiana.
In 1826 it was made binding on the clergy.
It has remained the official symbol of the church of Basle to this day.
(4) The first Reformed creed of national
authority is the First Helvetic
Confession (Confessio Helvetica prior),
drawn up by the Swiss divines, Bullinger, Myconius, Grynaeus, Leo
Judae, and Grossmann, at Basle in I536. It is therefore also called
the Second Confession of Basle (Basileensis
posterior). It was composed with a
view (a) to a union with the Lutherans of Germany, and (b) to its
presentation at a proposed general council. It consists of 27
articles. Art. XXII sets forth the characteristic Zwinglian view of
the sacraments especially of the Lord's Supper. The original was in
Latin. A German translation was prepared by Leo Judae. The Confession
was subscribed, March 27, 1536, by the clerical and lay delegates of
seven cantons of Switzerland.
B. The Later Reformed Confessions.
The later Reformed confessions were drawn up,
more or less, under the controlling influence of the spirit of Calvin.
(1) In order "to
restore the catechetical instruction of the ancient church"
Calvin prepared a catechism in the French language, at Geneva in
1536, the so-called Geneva Catechism or
Catechismus Genevensis. It presents
a brief summary of the Christian religion. In a new edition of 1541
he arranged the material in guestions and answers. The Catechism was
used for a long time in the churches and
schools of French Switzerland, France and Scotland, but as a symbol
it possessed only secondary authority.
(2) The
Consensus of Zürich or Consensus
Tigurinus was drawn up by Calvin in
1549 and adopted by the churches of Zürich, Geneva, Neuchatel,
Schaffhausen, St. Gall and Basle. It was published at Zürich and
Geneva, in 1551. In 26 articles it treats of the Lord's Supper. The
united views of Calvin and Bullinger on the Lord's Supper are herein
set forth, that is, the Zwinglian type is combined with the
Calvinistic. The words of the institution are to be taken
figuratively, and yet the Lord's Supper is not a mere symbol, but
with the symbol "the elect" receive Christ with all
spiritual gifts.
(3) Calvin's doctrine of
predestination was attacked, in 1543, by Albertus Pighius, a Dutch
Roman Catholic controversialist, who taught the freedom of the will
in the Semipelagian sense and predestination conditioned by
foreknowledge, and, in 1551, by Jerome Bolsec, formerly a Carmelite
monk, then Protestant and physician near Geneva, who objected to
Calvin's doctrine of predestination as unscriptural and blasphemous.
In consequence of these attacks Calvin composed the Consensus
Genevensis, in which he defended
and more distinctly set forth his doctrine of predestination. The
Consensus appeared in Geneva, in 1552, in the
name of the pastors of that city. It is a polemic treatise rather
than a confession and was of official authority only in the Genevan church.
(4) The Reformed Church in
France had been without an official symbol. But when in Poitiers, in
1559, a dispute over the doctrine of predestination broke out the
need of a common symbol was strongly felt by the pastors of that
city, who were unable to settle the difficulties. A common confession
of faith drawn up under the influence of Calvin was adopted by the
first national synod of the Protestant Church of France at Paris, in
1559. At the colloquy of Poissy, in 1561, Beta presented this
confession to Charles IX. It was at this colloquy that the
distinctive title "The Reformed Church" originated. The
confession was soon published as Confessio
Gallicana or French
Confession of Faith. It is also
known as the Confession of Rochelle,
because it was later enlarged and ratified at the seventh national
synod held at La Rochelle, 1571. In 40 articles the Confession presents
a summary of the doctrines of Calvin. It is the adopted symbol of
the French Protestant Church.
(5) In 1561 Guide de
Brès, an evangelist and martyr of the Reformed Church of the
Netherlands, drew up a private confession of 37 articles thoroughly
Calvinistic. It was revised by Francis Junius of Bourges, and
published in the French language in 1562 and afterwards translated
into Dutch, German and English. Following the order of the Gallican
Confession it presents the symbolical statement of the Calvinistic
system of doctrine. The confession known as the Confessio
Belgica was adopted by the entire
Church of the Netherlands and publicly approved by the synod of Dort,
at the 144th session, 1619. Together with the
Heidelberg Catechism it is the official symbol of the Reformed
churches of Belgium and the Netherlands and of the (Dutch) Reformed
Church in America.
(6) The Confessio
Hungarica or Czengerina
was drawn up and adopted by a Hungarian Reformed synod held at
Czenger in 1557 or 1558. It was occasioned by the anti-Trinitarian
controversies and the controversy on the Lord's Supper. Accordingly
it rejects the anti-Trinitarian and Socinian teaching and strongly
opposes the Romish transubstantiation and the Lutheran
"sarcophagia"; it is silent about Calvin's double
predestination. The Confession was soon thrown into the shade by the
Second Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism which became
the confessional standards of the Reformed Church in Hungary and Austria
The aforementioned
confessions were drawn up, more or less,
under the influence or supervision of Calvin. In the following
confessions Calvin's influence is more or less limited.
(7) Frederick III., Elector
of the Palatinate, professed the Reformed creed as distinct from the
Lutheran and made it his chief object to carry out the reformation
begun by his predecessors. In order to give the Reformed party a
definite and established organization he commissioned, in 1561,
Caspar Olevianus, professor and preacher in Heidelberg, and Zacharias
Ursinus, who had studied under Melanchthon, to draw up a new church
order and to compose a catechism. In 1562 the new catechism was laid
before superintendents and ministers, assembled at Heidelberg, for
revision and approval. In the following year it was published in
German, in the name of the Elector, as the doctrine of the
Palatinate, under the title "Catechismus, Oder Christlicher
Unterricht, wie der in Kirchen und Schulen der Churfürstlichen
Pfalz getrieben wird." In the second official edition, which was
published a few weeks later, there was added a new question, the
eightieth, concerning the difference between the Lord's Supper and
the Romish mass. The third edition of the same year contains the
condemnatory words in regard to the adoration of the host: "the
mass at bottom is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and
passion of Jesus Christ and an accursed idolatry"--"eine
vermaledeite Abgötterei." The fourth edition of 1563, which
is essentially identical with the third, is to be regarded as the
textus receptus.
The Synod of Dort, in 1619,
officially declared the Heidelberg Catechism
one of the general symbolical books of the Reformed Church. It has
been translated into all European and many Asiatic languages. The
Dutch and German Reformed Churches in America accepted it as their
symbol. The General Assembly of the reunited Presbyterian Church, at
Philadelphia in 1870, officially authorized the use of the Catechism
in the churches if they desire to employ it in the instruction of
their children. The (German) Evangelical Synod of North America uses
the Heidelberg Catechism besides the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Catechism.
The Heidelberg Catechism
presents a milder type of Calvinism than the other Reformed
confessions; it says nothing of limited atonement, of a double
predestination or eternal decree of reprobation. It contains 129
questions and answers divided into the 52 Sundays of the year for the
purpose of the catechetical afternoon sermons. In its arrangement the
Heidelberg Catechism does not retain the traditional order of the
five articles of faith but following the order of the Epistle to the
Romans presents in. three parts an organic doctrinal system. After
two introductory questions the first part (quest. 3-II) treats of
man's misery (Rom. 1:18-3:20); the second (quest. 12-85), of man's redemption
(Rom. 3:21-II: 36);the third (quest. 86-129), of thankfulness, i.
e., the new life of the Christian which he lives in gratitude for
mercies received (Rom. 12 to 16).
(8) Frederick III., Elector
of the Palatinate, who had seceded from the Lutheran and joined the
Reformed Church, was, for this reason, threatened by the Lutherans
with exclusion from the benefits of the religious peace of Augsburg,
which were confined to the adherents of the Augsburg Confession. He,
therefore, requested Bullinger to prepare an expression of the
Reformed faith showing that it differs in no point from the apostolic
doctrine. Bullinger sent him a copy of a confession which he had
composed for his own use, in 1562, and which, in 1564, during the
plague, he had revised and elaborated and added to his will to be
presented, in case of his death, to the magistrate of Zürich, as
an abiding testimony of his faith. It pleased the Elector so much
that he had it translated and published in Latin and German. It is
known as the Second Helvetic Confession,
or, Confessio Helvetica posterior.
At the same time the Confession gained a favorable hold on the Swiss
churches. It was adopted not only in the Palatinate and Switzerland,
but also in Scotland (1566), Hungary (1567), France (1571), and
Poland (1578). It was held in high esteem in Holland and England.
Next to the Heidelberg Catechism it is the most widely adopted
Confession of the Reformed Church.
In the order of topics
following the First Helvetic Confession it states in detail, in 30
chapters, the articles of faith and discipline that then concerned
the church: I-II, Scripture; II-V, God and worship; VI-VII,
providence and creation; VIII-XI, the fall, and preparation of
salvation; XII-XVI, appropriation of salvation and new life;
XVII-XXI, church, minister, sacraments; XXII-XXVIII, church rites and
usages, festivals, church property; XXIX, celibacy and marriage; XXX, magistrate.--The
Confession harmonizes the German and the French Swiss, the
Zürich and Genevan theology, but with all its elasticity it
expresses the peculiarly Reformed conception of Christianity.
(9) The
Scotch Confession of Faith (Confessio Scoticana)
was constructed by John Knox and five associates appointed by the
Scotch Parliament, in 1560. It was introduced throughout Scotland by
state enactment. Though tending in a marked manner towards Calvin's
doctrine it presents in the sacramental dogma and in that of predestination
a mild form of Calvinism, but is more pronounced in its opposition
to the Roman Catholic Church than most of the other Reformed
confessions of the 16th century.
(10) The
Anglican Confession or Thirty-nine Articles
of the Church of England, and
(11) the Irish Articles of
Religion, will be treated under "Anglican Communion." (Web
Master note: see foot note "A")
(12) The Canons of the Synod
of Dort present orthodox CaIvinism over against Arminianism. Jacobus
Arminius (d, at Leyden, 1609) rejected the strict Calvinistic view of
predestination and advocated universal redemption. His followers,
notably Episcopius and Uytenbogaart, formulated their doctrine and
set it forth in the five articles of the Remonstrance, in 1610,
addressed to the states of Holland and West Friesland. A
counter-remonstrance sharply condemned the view of the Remonstrants.
To settle the dispute the National Synod of Dort was convened by the
states-general; it met November 13, 1618, and adjourned May 9, 1619.
Foreign countries had been invited to participate, and delegates were
present from the Palatinate, Nassau, Hesse, East Friesland, Bremen,
Emden, German Switzerland, Geneva, England and Scotland. It was the
largest and, next to the Westminster Assembly, the most imposing of
all synods of the Reformed Churches.
The synod condemned the five
articles of the Remonstrance and expressed its final decision in the
form of canons which define the five points of Calvinism over against
Arminianism: (I) absolute predestination; (z) limited atonement; (3)
total depravity and absolute inability of man; (4) irresistible
grace; and (5) perseverance of the saints.
The Canons of Dort were
established by law as the official doctrine of the state church of
the Netherlands, They were also officially indorsed by the Reformed
Church of France and received with respectful consideration --though
not adopted -- in Switzerland, the Palatinate,
and by the Puritans. The English Episcopal Church, however, rejected
them. The Reformed Dutch Church in America recognizes them as a
public standard of doctrine.
(13) The
Formula Consentsus Helvetica was
called out by a modified form of Calvinism held by the school of
Saumur, notably by Moses Amyraldus. He taught that God wills all men
to be saved, on condition that they repent and believe (hypothetical
universalism);and if all should repent and believe no purpose of God
would stand in the way of their salvation. But owing to inherited
corruption, they stubbornly reject, so that this universal will for
salvation actually saves none. Salvation depends upon the divine
election. The elect will be saved as inevitably as the others will be
damned. The Helvetic Consensus, composed by Professor John Henry
Heidegger Zürich, in 1675, rejects Amyraldus' view, condemns
universal atonement and the doctrine that God desires the salvation
of all, and teaches the strictest particularism in the election.
The Helvetic Consensus was
introduced in the Reformed Church of Switzerland and officially
adopted by several of the cantons. Its authority was confined,
however, to Switzerland, and even there, about the beginning of the
18th century it gradually lost its symbolical importance.
(14) The
Westminster Confession1
was framed by the Westminster Assembly, a synod consisting chiefly of
divines, hence called Assembly of Divines, which by act of Parliament
met in Westminster Abby, July 1, 1613, with the purpose of settling
the government, liturgy and doctrine of the Church of England. It
held 1163 regular sessions till February 22, 1649.
The Westminster Assembly
began with a. revision of the Thirty-nine Articles, but the work was
suspended by an order of Parliament, October 12, 1643, requiring the
Assembly "to confer and treat" of church government and
discipline. There at once serious differences arose among the members
of the Assembly which contained representatives of the Presbyterian,
the Episcopalian and Independent parties. The Episcopalians soon
ceased to attend the Assembly. The Independents were few in number.
The Presbyterians were preponderant and gained in strength.
The Confession of Faith
constructed by the Assembly is strictly Calvinistic in doctrine and
anti-episcopal in government. It emphasizes the sole authority of the
Scriptures, the sovereignty of God, the rights of conscience, and the
sole jurisdiction of the church within its own domain.
In 33 chapters the
Confession sets forth all the leading articles of the Christian
faith: I, of the holy Scripture; II, of God, and the Holy Trinity;
III, of God's eternal decree; IV, of creation; V, of providence; VI,
of the fall of man, of sin, and of the punishment thereof; VII, of
God's covenant with man; VIII, of Christ the Mediator; IX, of free
will; X, of effectual calling; XI, of justification; XII, of
adoption; XIII, of sanctification; XIV, of saving faith; XV, of
repentance unto life; XVI, of good works; XVII, of the perseverance
of the saints; XVIII, of the assurance of grace and salvation; XIX,
of the law of God; XX, of Christian liberty, and liberty of
conscience; XXI, of religious worship and the Sabbath Day; XXII, of
lawful oaths and vows; XXIII, of the civil magistrate; XXIV, of
marriage and divorce; XXV, of the Church; XXVI, of the communion of
saints; XXVII, of the sacraments; XXVIII, of baptism; XXIX, of the
Lord's Supper; XXX, of Church censures; XXXI, of synods and councils;
XXXII, of the state of man after death and of the resurrection of the
dead; XXIII, of the last judgment.
The Westminster Confession
of Faith was adopted by the Scottish Parliament in 1649, while the
English Parliament adopted it with some changes, in 1648. In
Scotland, where it took the place of the Confessio Scoticana, its
influence has lasted to the present day. In England it was modified
under Cromwell, and the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-nine
Articles were restored. The Presbyterian
Church of England, organized in 1876, has, of course, no historical
relation to the Westminster Assembly.
(15) The Westminster
Assembly framed, besides the Confession of Faith, the Larger
Catechism and the Shorter Catechism, the Directory of Public Worship,
and the Directory of Church Polity and Discipline, collectively
called the Westminster Standards though the name is usually used for
the .Westminster Confession and Catechisms
only. The Presbyterian churches throughout the world have adopted,
though with modifications, the standards of the Westminster Assembly.
(16) The
Brandenburg Confessions or Confessiones
Marchicae present a mild Calvinistic
type, and had certain symbolical authority in Brandenburg till 1817,
when under Frederick William III. the Lutheran and Reformed Churches
of Prussia were united.
They are (a) the Confessio
Sigismundi, the confession of the
Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund who
had abandoned the Lutheran for the Reformed Church. It was his own
confession of faith, moderate, conciliating and brief, touching only
the points of controversy; it was published in 1614.
(b) Colloquium
Lipsiense, i. e., the declarations
of the theologians who took part in the Leipzig Colloquy, 1631. The
protocol of the declarations of the Reformed theologians received
symbolic authority in Brandenburg through the Elector Christian William.
(c) Declaratio
Thoruniensis. At a conference at
Thorn, 1645, which was held to prevent religious strife between Roman
Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed, the Reformed theologians presented their
generalis professio and the specialis
declaratio in which were set forth
their view both in their agreement with, and in their departure
from, the creeds of Catholics and Lutherans. It was published in
Berlin, 1646.
(17) The Bohemian Brethren, Unitas
Fratrum, before and after the
Reformation period, had numerous confessions of faith, in the Latin,
Bohemian and German languages. The
Bohemian Catechism of 1521, probably
the work of Lucas of Prague, bears a striking resemblance both in
form and substance to the Waldensian Catechism of 1489. This catechism,
however, and all other symbols of the Bohemian Brethren were
superseded by the following confessions:
(a) The
First Bohemian Confession was drawn
up, probably, by Johann Augusta, Senior of the Brethren, in agreement
with the Augsburg Confession in order to defend their ecclesiastical
union. It was signed by all members of the nobility belonging to the Unitas
and laid before King Ferdinand at Vienna, 1535. After a few changes
in the articles on celibacy and justification had been made Luther
had it printed at Wittenberg with a eulogistic preface.
(b) The
Second Bohemian Confession,
prepared by Paul Pressius and M. Krispin, was adopted by the diet of
Prague, in 1575, and presented to Maximilian, in the same year, as
the union symbol of the Utraquists, Lutherans, Calvinists and
Bohemian Brethren. It is in agreement with the First Bohemian Confession
except in the article on the Lord's Supper, which is in harmony with
the later Melanchthonian view.
(18) The only important
symbol of the evangelical churches in Poland is the Consensus
of Sendomir or Consensus
Sendomariensis. It is an agreement
drawn up between the three dissenting parties, the Lutheran, the
Calvinists and the Bohemian Brethren at Sendomir, in 1570. The
Consensus is silent on the doctrine of predestination. In the
doctrine of the Lord's Supper it adopts the later Melanchthonian or
Calvinistic view. The Consensus was confirmed by
several Polish synods. But the Lutherans, who, in the Formula, of
Concord, proscribed Philippism, withdrew from the Consensus.
3. RULE AND STANDARD OF FAITH
The Reformed Church, like
the Lutheran, regards its confessions as testimonies of its faith.
The Formula Consensus Helvetica and the conclusion of the Canons of
Dort name the Reformed confessions in conjunction with the
Scriptures. However, the Reformed Church does not give its
confessions that prominence, which the Lutheran Church accords them
as historical monuments and testimonies of divine truth. The Lutheran
Church, owing to its conservative character, duly values the
historical development of Christian doctrine and the intellectual
labors in the past by which the faith and doctrinal thinking of the
present are conditioned, and consequently assures itself of its
essential harmony with the past. The Reformed Church, owing to its
rigid Biblicism and more radical spirit and tendency, departs further
from the authority of ecclesiastical traditions than the Lutheran and
rigidly adheres to the divine Word without reference to what has been
done toward its elucidation in the past. A Lutheran welcomes and
loves those testimonies of faith that have come down from the past
and wishes, as the Formula of Concord puts it, "that the
unanimous understanding and judgment concerning the controverted
articles" as laid down in the confessions might remain "not
only for those now living, but also for our posterity" (857)
(see Walther, Symb., p. 346).
Over against the Catholic
position the Reformed Confessions, like the Lutheran, assert that the Scriptures
are the sole and complete source and norm
of divine truth. "The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies
of religion are to be determined ... can be no other but the Holy
Spirit speaking in the Scripture" (W. C., ch. I, Io; also II
Helv., II, 4; C. Sc., Art. XVIII). The confessions reject every
authority coördinate with that of Holy Scripture (C. Sc., XX;
also Inst., IV, 9, 13). The infallible rule of interpretation of
Scripture is Scripture itself (W. C., I, 9).
Because God is sovereign his
Word is the supreme law. The Scripture being the divine rule of
everything in matters of faith and practice demands unconditional
obedience on our part. The Bible as
preëminently a divine law code
each paragraph of which is equally binding on all men everywhere and
at all times. It is, therefore, "not now left to faithful
ministers to frame any new doctrine, but it behooves them simply to
adhere to the doctrine to which God has made all subject, without any
exception" (Inst. IV, 8, g). For the Scripture is the rule of
all truth containing all that is necessary for the service of God and
for our salvation (C. G., V; W. C., I, 4), and in them nothing is
taught which is not beneficial to know (Inst., III, 21, 3).
Accordingly fanatics or enthusiasts, who discard the Scripture under
the pretence of resorting to immediate revelations, are to be
rejected (ib. I, 9); "unto the Scripture nothing at any time is
to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions
of men" (W. C., I, 6; C. G., V). Since the Scripture contains
"the whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for
His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life" (W, C., ib.),
and since it is our duty to embrace "with gentle docility and without
any exception all that is delivered
in the sacred Scriptures" (Inst., I, 18, 4) it follows that one cannot
ascribe to the several books of the Bible nor even to the two
testaments different degrees of
doctrinal values (see Luther's view, p. 150). Each book is part and
parcel of the one infallible rule of faith and practice. Calvin
describes the meaning and significance of the old covenant as being
exactly the same as that of the new. " ... all those persons
from beginning of the world whom God has adopted into the of his
people, have been federally connected with him same law and the same
doctrine which are in force among us. The covenant of all the fathers
is so far from differing substantially from ours, that it is the very
same; it only varies administration" (Inst., II, to, I and 2).
"There are not covenants of grace differing in substance, but
one and the under various dispensations" (W. C., VII, 6).
The Scriptures are the
oracles of God, for their writer "under the guidance and
dictation of the Holy Spirit" were his sure and authentic
amanuenses (Inst., IV, 8, 89). The Bohemian Confession (Art. I) and
the Hungarian Confession emphatically state that the Scriptures of
the Old and New testament were dictated by God.
The Westminster. Confession calls"the Author" of the
Scripture (I, 4); referring to the canonical books the Confession
says that "all are given by inspiration. God, to be the rule of
faith and life" (I, 2).
The theory of inspiration
as a verbal dictation by the Spirit was pushed to its extreme
consequences by the Buxtorfs, father and son, at Basle, who asserted
the inspiration of even Hebrew vowels,
and by Gisbert Voet at Utrecht, who made the same claim for the
punctuation. Louis Cappel (d. 1652) professor in the theological
academy at Saumur, opposed the mechanical theory of inspiration and
disproved the traditional view of the literal integrity and
sacredness of the Masoretic text showing that the Hebrew system of
vocalization was of late origin dating from the Jewish grammarians
after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud (5th century A. D.).
The Helvetic Consensus Formula of 1675, however, affirmed the literal
inspiration of the Scriptures and the integrity of the traditional
Hebrew text of the Old Testament, including the vowels as well
consonants (Art. I, II, III).
How do we know that the Holy
Spirit is the author Scripture? On what grounds do we accept the
Scripture divinely inspired? Certainly not on the authority of an
infallible church. Calvin had broken with this ancient authoritative
system. There was for him no way to escape the necessity of
restating some new basis of authority. The conviction that the
Scripture was dictated and inspired by the Holy Spirit, says Calvin,
is confirmed by the internal
testimony of the Holy Spirit (Inst.,
I, 7, 5). Although the Scripture is the work of the Spirit we cannot
know and recognize it as such, unless the Spirit persuades us of the
divinity of the Scripture (I,9,3). The testimony of the Spirit is
therefore necessary to confirm the Scripture in order to the complete
establishment of its authority. This Spirit is not given to all, but
only to the elect. Accordingly the testimony of the Holy Spirit
"cannot be made use of for the conviction and conversion of
others; for it is experienced only by the faithful, in whom the
Spirit dwells; and therefore he would be acting ridiculously, who
should think to persuade others that the Scripture
is divine, because he himself has been taught this by the Holy
Spirit" (P. 41).
After this certainty of the
divine origin of the Scripture has been established in our minds, rational
proofs to confirm our belief of the
Scripture have their proper place and are of great value (Inst. I, 8,
I). "Reason is the instrument which the believer uses in
examining the objects of faith by the Scripture, as by the infallible
rule of truth, but it is not the rule itself of these objects of
faith ... reason and faith, though of a different nature, are not
opposed to each other. Hence we maintain that we must not admit
anything, even in religious matters, which is contrary to right
reason" (P., 59).
Since according to the
Biblicism of the Reformed theology the Bible is word for word an
authoritative law code in all matters of faith and practice it
becomes necessary precisely to determine what belongs to this
authoritative rule and what not. The Reformed Confessions, therefore,
as a rule, determine the extent of the canon, and some even enumerate
the Biblical books, e. g., the Gallican, Belgian and Westminster
Confessions, the Irish Articles of Religion, the Confession of the
Cumberland Presb. Church, the Confession of the Calvinistic Methodist
Church. Some of them, as the Westminster. and Gallican Confessions,
do not assign Hebrews to Paul.
The Reformed Church, like
the Lutheran, regards the Apocrypha as noncanonical, but usually
passes a stricter sentence upon them. "The books commonly called
Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon
of the Scripture; and therefore are no authority in
the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of,
than other human writings" (W. C., I, 3). Since 1825, after a
sharp controversy, the Apocrypha were excluded from the editions of
the British and Foreign Bible Society.
4. God
In full accord with the
ecumenical symbols the Reformed confessions assert that God exists
one in essence and three b persons. "There are three persons in
the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three
are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory"
(Sh. C., q. 6).
The dominant thought in
Calvin's doctrinal system is the infinite and transcendent sovereignty
of God. God is the Lord who rules
omnipotently (I., 16). Calvin's concept of the sovereignty of God,
and Luther's concept of God's love in Christ Jesus, are vitally
related to the practical life of the believer. "In the one case,
we have acts of compulsion even in the heart, subjection, law,
service; in the other, inward conquest by the power of love, free
self-surrender, filial love without compulsion. The one does not
necessarily exclude the other; but the tone and emphasis give rise to
the differences which undeniably exist. From the practical energy of
the Reformed ideals--with which praxis has not always been able to
keep pace--the Lutheran Church may learn a valuable lesson. But when,
in any age of evangelical Christianity, faith grows dim, and love
grows old, and it seems as though the gospel were no longer
sufficient to satisfy the advanced spirit of the "modern"
world, then will deliverance be found, not in the views of Calvin,
but in return to the Gospel: and faith of Luther. Evangelical
Christianity has yet much to learn from her Luther" (Seeberg,
Hist. of Doctr., vol. II, 416 f.).
In Protestant thought and
life of today we note a deplorable lack of Calvin's reverence for the
majestic and sovereign God. "It would do much of modern
Protestant thinking and preaching some good if that attribute of the
divine character received more emphasis. There is such a thing as
bringing God so close to the human level as to lose all reverence for
Him. We have heard of sermons and prayers that were shockingly
familiar and irreverent. Calvin would rise from his grave if he were
in a position to know how little the majesty and sovereignty of God
count in the teaching and preaching of today. He would be shocked to
find how the love of God is exalted to the virtual denial of His
holiness and justice" (Lutheran, July 28, 1927, p. 14).
God is the author and
director of all things. The will of God is the cause of all events.
Even the actions of the wicked must be referred to the determination
of the divine will. All things minister to the glory of God (Inst.,
II, 18; C. G., VIII; II Helv., VI). "All things in heaven and
earth, visible and invisible, have been created, are preserved, ruled
and guided by his inscrutable providence to such end as his eternal
wisdom, goodness and justice have appointed them, to the
manifestation of his own glory" (C. Sc., I). The holy angels
"having been preserved by the grace of God, are ministers to
glorify God's name and promote the salvation of his elect" (C.
G., VII). Man was created "to the end that he may serve his
God" (C. B., XII). Even if the Westminster Catechism says that
"man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever"
(q. I) it means that man's chief end
is God's glory and that man can be
happy only as he glorifies God. "Not to increase his excellence
or blessedness did God create the world, but to manifest his glory
outside of his own being. The chief end for which we and all things
exist is, therefore, not first of all our happiness,
but God's honor. Our happiness and welfare are gained, however, when
God's purpose is reached. God's glory and man's welfare are
inseparable" (B., 65).
Even the
election of some and the
reprobation of others redound to the glory of God. "The great
and only object of our election is, that we should be to the praise
of divine grace" (Inst., III, 22, 3); "the reprobate are
raised up for this purpose, that the glory of God may be displayed by
their means" (ib. 11). "All things being ordained for the
manifestation of his glory, and his glory being to appear both in the
works of his mercy and of his justice, it seemed good to his heavenly
wisdom to choose out a certain number towards whom he would extend
his undeserved mercy, leaving the rest to be spectacles of his
justice" (Ir. Art. XIV; also W. C. III, 7). "God determined
the fall of the first man only because he foresaw it would tend to
the just illustration of the glory of his name" (Inst. III, 23, 8).
The Reformed theologians
maintain that God's providence according to which he ordains, rules
and governs the minutest detail does nevertheless not destroy the
freedom and responsibility of man. But if all things happen because
God wills and ordains them, is there any room for man's liberty and
responsibility! Calvin attempts to explain the difficulty by
distinguishing between necessity
which is "in some measure voluntary," and external
coercion. Man having been corrupted
by his fall, sins voluntarily ... with the strongest propensity of
disposition, not with violent coercion; with the bias of his own
passions, and not with external compulsion...Thus the soul, in a
certain strange and evil manner, under this kind of voluntary and
free yet pernicious necessity, is both enslaved and free; enslaved by
necessity, free by its will; and what is more wonderful and more
miserable, it is guilty, because free" (II, 3, 5). Bosma
attempts a similar explanation. "God rules us," he says,
"but he does not force our will or control our lives contrary to
our nature, but within our soul God by suggestion and persuasion
influences us in such a way that we voluntarily do as he wills" (82).
It is further maintained
that althoughGod has created all things and "rules and governs
them, according to his holy will, so that nothing happens in this
world without his appointment, nevertheless God neither is the author
of, nor can be charged with, the sins which are committed" (C.
B., XIII; C. G., VIII). Calvin, however, objects the idea that God
merely permits the reprobate to be blinded by Satan and maintains
that God's providence "not only exerts its power in the elect,
who are influenced by the Holy Spirit, but also compels the
compliance of the reprobate" (I, 18, 2; also II, 4, 3). God even
determined the fall of the first man (III, 23, 8). "Man falls
according to the appointment of Divine Providence," says Calvin,
but in order not to represent God as compelling a reluctant person to
commit sin, he adds immediately "but he falls by his own
fault" (ib.). This is the so-called supralapsarian view,
(from supra--above; lapsus-the
fall). The supralapsarians place the decree of predestination
"above" or before that of the fall, that is, the objects of
predestination are viewed as not yet fallen.
According to the supra-view the order of decrees is as follows: (I)
the decree to elect of all possible men some to salvation and others
to damnation, for the end of his own glory. Then follow as a means to
that end (2) the decree to create those already elected or
reprobated; (3) the decree to permit the whole race to fall; (4) the
decree to provide salvation for the elect. The infralapsarians (from infra--below;
lapsus--the
fall) place the decree of predestination "below" or after
that of the fall, that is, the objects of predestination are viewed as fallen.
According to the infra-view the order of decrees is as follows: (I)
the decree to create man; (2) the decree to permit man to fall; (3)
the decree to elect out of fallen humanity some to eternal life, and
to leave the other to the just consequences of their sins; (4) to
provide salvation for the elect. The doctrinal standards of the
Reformed Church, except the Consensus Genevensis (N., 299), and the
Formula Consensus Helvetica (Art. IV-VI), either leave the question
undecided whether infra- or supra-lapsarianism is the correct view,
or support the infralapsarian interpretation. The synod of Utrecht,
1905, expressed the position of the Reformed Churches of the
Netherlands as follows: "there is no right on the one hand to
present the supralapsarian view as being properly the doctrine of the
Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, nor on the other hand to annoy
anyone who has accepted the supralapsarian interpretation for
himself." The synod concludes this decree with "the warning
to bring such profound doctrines, which are beyond comprehension of
plain people on the pulpit as little as possible, and to adhere to
the presentation given in our doctrinal standards in the preaching of
the Word and in catechetical instruction" (H., 52). The
Heidelberg Catechism ignores the question altogether and speaks of
the providence of God only in its relation to God's creation
"that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren
years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea
all things, come not by chance but by his fatherly hand" (q. 27).
Providence in its relation
to the eternal destiny of mankind is known as predestination.
Calvin defines it as a twofold decree, a decree of election and a
decree of reprobation. "Predestination we call the eternal
decree of God, by which he has determined in himself, what he would
have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all
created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for
some, and eternal damnation for others" (Inst., III, 21, 5). The
ground of election is not the foreseen faith of the persons elected,
but the sovereign good pleasure of God. The ground of reprobation is
not the foreseen sin in the reprobate, but the just, but unknown,
will of God. "We affirm that this counsel, as far as concerns
the elect, is founded on his gratuitous mercy, totally irrespective
of human merits; but that to those whom he devotes to condemnation,
the gate of life is closed by a just and irreprehensible, but
incomprehensible, judgment" (ib. 7). The end and object of God's
predestination is the honor and glory of His name (ib. 3).
There has also been an
election of some angels (I Tim. 5:zI) and a reprobation of others
(Matt. 25:41), and the reason why some were chosen and others
rejected was in the sovereign will of God. The Westinster. Confession
fully states the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination: "By the
decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and
angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others
foreordained to everlasting death" (III, 3)..."and their
number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased
or diminished" (ib. 4) ... "according to his eternal and
immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his
will," God "hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory,
out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith
or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing
in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto; and
all to the praise of his glorious grace (ib. 5)..."Neither are
any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted,
sanctified, and saved, but the elect alone" (ib. 6). Their
salvation is so absolutely certain that even "elect infants,
dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the
Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth. So also are
all other elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called
by the ministry of the Word" (ib. X, 3). In 1913 the American
Presbyterians adopted as an explanation of this last passage the
following declaration: "We believe that all who die in infancy
are included in the election of grace." The Confession of the
Cumberland Presbyterians has changed the word "elect"
infants to "all" infants. The Confessio Sigismundi states
that the pretemporal election is the cause of our salvation, but
denies "that God does not desire to have all saved" (N.,
650) In the Heidelberg Catechism predestination is not expressly
treated. Questions 53 and 54, however, maintain for the believer the
inamissibility of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Gallican
Confession does not speak of a double predestination. It states only
that out of the corruption and general condemnation in which all men
are plunged God has chosen some, "leaving the rest in this same
corruption and condemnation to show in them his justice" (XII).
The Canons of Dort (c. I) present the Calvinistic predestination in
its unadulterated form though in a decidedly infralapsarian manner.
The Formula Consensus Helvetica, however, condemns universal
atonement and the doctrine that God desires the salvation of all, and
teaches the strictest particularism in the election (Art. XIII, XVI, XIX).
The controlling idea of the
Calvinistic system, that of the sovereignty of God, leaves no
room for mediators whom God himself
has not chosen or ordained. To worship them is to deprive God of his
honor and glory which belongs to him alone. The same is true of
image worship. It is held that Ex.
20:4, 5 does not only forbid the worship of images, but also the
imaging of God. The Heidelberg Catechism says that God requires in
the second commandment "that we in nowise make any images of
God, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his
Word" (q. 96). "God may not and can not be imaged in any
way" (q. 97). "Christ indeed did take upon himself a
visible human nature, but not for the purpose of serving as a model
for makers of statues and images" (II Helv., IV, 2). Nor should
pictures be tolerated in churches even though many regard them
"as books for the laity; for we should not be wiser than God,
who will not have his people taught by dumb idols, but by the lively
preaching of his Word" (H. C., q. 98). "All knowledge of
God sought from images is corrupt and fallacious" (Inst. I, 11,
5). In obedience to the commandment Ex. 2:4, 5 "the Reformed
Churches have removed from the church buildings which were allotted
to them after the Reformation, all images and paintings and other
sensuous elements which were destined for use in worship and to
enhance its beauty and solemnity. It was also in obedience to this
command that they instituted simple services, though that there would
be no danger of arousing sensuous feelings which have no religious
value, and to which such value can so easily be attached. Thus the
old Reformed Churches not only abolished the beautiful choir music,
but did not even wish that the organ should be
used to lead in the singing. In this last point we do not agree with
them; but let us not forget, that to call in, for the benefit of the
service, all manner of sensuous elements, even
moving pictures, as is done at present in not a few Churches, is a
sign of spiritual and religious anaemia" (H., 302).
5. CHRIST
(a) Christ's Person.
In agreement with the ancient creeds, particularly the Chalcedonian, the Reformed Church states that in Christ there is but one person, and this one person has two natures which exist "without mixture, without change, without division, and without separation" (Creed of Chalcedon),... "two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man" (W. C., VIII, 2; C. G., XV; C. B., XIX).
As to the mutual relation of the two natures in Christ there is disagreement between the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches. The controversy arose in the sacramental contention between Luther and Zwingli. Luther explained the ubiquity of the body of Christ on the ground of the personal union of the two natures. This personal union involves a communion of properties (communicatio idiomatzcm) of one nature to the other, or to the whole person (see p. 185 f.). Zwingli and the Reformed Church deny this. Starting from the proposition finitum non est capax infiniti, the finite cannot take up the infinite, Zwingli carefully discriminated Christ's two natures in the state of humiliation as well as in the state of exaltation. The one nature does not participate in the life and experience of the other. If the Bible attributes properties of one nature to the other or to the entire person this must be explained by the way of Alloeosis, i. e., a rhetorical exchange of one part for another. Explaining John 12:32, "And I, if I shall be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," Zwingli refers the first clause of this passage to the human nature, the second, to the divine nature of Christ (see Zwingli's Fidei ratio and Fidei expositio).
Calvin's Christology does
not essentially differ from that of Zwingli. He repudiates the idea
that "the Word of God was confined within the narrow prison of
an earthly body," and goes even so far as to say, "the Son
of God miraculously descended from heaven, yet in such a manner that
he never left heaven" (Inst., II, 13, 4). Speaking of Christ's
agony in Gethsemane Calvin says, "We see that what was contrary
to his will as man, was agreeable to his will as God" (ib. 16,
12). The Heidelberg Catechism (q. 33) states that Christ only in his
human nature, that is in soul and body, suffered for us. "His
Godhead, by its power in such wise strengthened the assumed human
nature that it could bear the burden of God's wrath against sin, and
deliver us from it" (q. 34). Accordingly it was not Christ who
suffered and died for us, but his human nature. The Second Helvetic
Confession (XI) admits a communication of properties of both natures
to the whole person so that whatever is done by the divine or human
nature is attributed to the person; and yet the same Confession also
asserts that "neither the divine nature in Christ suffered, nor
that Christ according to his human nature is still in this world or
everywhere" (VIII). " ... according to his human nature, he
is now not upon earth; but according to his Godhead, majesty, grace,
and Spirit, he is at no time absent from us" (H. C., q. 47). In
opposition to the Lutheran view of a real communion of the two
natures Professor Heyns states the Reformed Christology plainly in
these words: "God is infinitely exalted above all creatures,
and essentially different from it, so that between the Divine and
the human there is a chasm that cannot be bridged over" (H., 93).
(b) Christ's Work.
The Reformed Confessions
adopt Calvin's threefold division of the work of Christ, prophet,
priest, and king (H. C., q. 31; W. C., VIII, I). The distinctive
Reformed teaching is chiefly apparent regarding the priestly office
of Christ. On the one hand, Calvin lays great emphasis on the
objective necessity of Christ's redemptive work. "Christ by his
obedience has really procured and merited grace from the Father for
us ... Christ has satisfied for our sins. We have been purified by
his blood, and his death was an expiation for sins" (II, 17, 3,
4). On the other hand, in viewing Christ's atoning sacrifice Calvin
is influenced by his conception of God's sovereignty and
predestination. God has chosen the elect before the foundation of the
world. He is sovereign; therefore there can be with him no necessity
of Christ's work for the salvation of the elect. "When we speak
of the merit of Christ, therefore, we do not consider him as the
origin of it" but we ascend to the ordination of God which is
the first cause; ...Christ could merit nothing except by the good
pleasure of God, by which he had been predestinated to appease the
divine wrath by his sacrifice" (ib. I).
From the fact that God has
purposed that only the elect should be saved, and others left to the
just consequences of their sins, it follows that
Christ did not die for the whole world
and consequently, the atonement is
particular and not general. Over
against Arminianism the Canons of Dort expressly set forth the
doctrine of limited atonement in c. II and VIII. " ... it was
the will of God that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby he
confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every
people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who
were from eternity chosen to salvation" (see also Sh. C., 21; W.
C., VIII, 5). With this does not conflict question 37 of the
Heidelberg Catechism which says that Christ "bore the wrath of
God against the sin of the whole human race." These words do not
mean to teach general atonement. "For there the question is not
for whom but what Christ has suffered, and the redemption of but one
person would also have demanded sustaining the undivided wrath of God
against the sins of all mankind. This is the reason that the
atonement, as far as its worth is concerned, would be sufficient for
all men" (H., 104).
The vicarious satisfaction
of Christ is said to be inseparably connected with election, the
former being possible only through the latter.
"Even human law, although it does permit that one pay for the other in money matters, will not permit the suffering of one for the other in cases of moral guilt. It insists that the guilty one shall beat the punishment. And this is also the demand of the divine law: the soul that sinneth, it shall die, Ezek. 18:4, 20. Through election, however, the atonement of Christ was in full accord with this demand. For it was an election in Him, Eph. 1:4, a deed, therefore, in virtue of which the elect were from eternity one with Christ, they one with Him as His body, He one with them as their Head. Thus His suffering and dying for the body of the elect was not a suffering and dying for another, but for His own body. The possibility, therefore, of a vicarious suffering and dying of Christ stands or falls with election. We admit both, the Pelagians deny both" (H. 105 f.).
Concerning the states of Christ there is a difference between the Reformed and the Lutheran teaching. According to the Lutherans Christ's descent into Hades is the first stage of his exaltation (see p. 160). According to the Reformed it is the last stage of his humiliation. The Lutherans hold that Christ after his death descended into hell to triumph over the power of darkness and preached to the lost spirits confirming their sentence of condemnation. The Reformed hold that Christ on the cross when he felt himself forsaken of God, experienced in his own soul the pains of the lost. "If his soul had experienced no punishment, he would have been only a Redeemer for the body" (Inst., II, 16, 12). "He suffered in his soul the dreadful torments of a person condemned and irretrievably lost" (ib. Io). "The order of things in the Apostles' Creed, according to which the descent is subsequent to the burial, which really preceded it" is to be explained not chronologically but logically. "For the relation of those sufferings of Christ, which were visible to men, is very properly followed by that invisible and incomprehensible vengeance which he suffered from the hand of God" (ib.).
6. MAN
Lutherans and Calvinists agree in their opposition to the Romish dogma of man's original state, but differ among themselves, in two points, in their definition of the compass of man's primitive perfection.
(I) In the anthropology of Calvin there is to be noted a decidedly low, estimate which he places upon man's physical body. "Let it be understood that by his being made of earth and clay, a restraint was laid upon pride; since nothing is more absurd than to glory in their excellence, who not only inhabit a cottage of clay, but who are themselves composed partly of dust and ashes" (Inst., I, 15, I). The body is "but a prison"; we are "kept in bondage by the fetters of the body" (ib. III, g, 4). "We are absent from God as long as we dwell in the body,... but when absent from the body we are present with the Lord." The soul's "liberation from the prison of the body" is the "introduction into complete liberty," hence it should be understood that this mortal life is "of itself nothing but misery," and that therefore the terrestrial life as compared with the celestial "should undoubtedly be despised and accounted of no value" (ib. I, 15, z).
The Lutheran conception of man as a harmonious unity is foreign to Calvin's anthropology. He admits that the glory of God is displayed in man's external form, yet he thinks that "extending the image of God promiscuously to the body as well as to the soul confounds heaven and earth together" (ib. 3). This Platonizing and spiritualistic tendency which resembles very much the dualism as we find it in the Romish anthropology (comp. pp. 76 ff.), is still more apparent in Zwingli's anthropology. In his De providentia he says, that in man there are conjoined two completely divers natures: "the soul was deposited into the clay of the body; the body was prepared out of clay to be the dwelling place of the soul. But neither part can deny its nature. The spirit loves truth and worships the Godhead; the body likewise is drawn toward its origin, the clay and the flesh, and follows their nature."
The doctrinal standards of the Reformed Church, with but one exception, do not support the dualistic view of Calvin. The Second Helvetic Confession, however, expressly states that "man consists of two, i. e., two divers substances in one person, an immortal soul, inasmuch as separated from the body it neither sleeps, nor perishes, and a mortal body which nevertheless shall be raised from the dead at the last judgment" (VII). Benedict Pictet (d. 1724), in his Christian Theology, reproduces Calvin's theory: Man's body was formed of the dust of the ground; "not of rich materials or precious metal, but of the earth which we tread under our feet;... God was pleased to create man in this way, that he might remember his origin, and thus constantly carry with him grounds for humility, nor ever set himself up against his Creator" (p. 131). The Reformed theologians of today have generally abandoned Calvin's dualism and approach, more or less, Luther's view. "The body of man may also be included in the image of God in a wider sense. We do not mean to say that God has a body, but man's body as an organized unity with the soul as the animated habitation and instrument of the soul also reflects in a material form the glory of God. The entire man is a manifestation of the image of God" (B. 89).
(2) The Reformed confessions, with one accord, emphasize that man, created in God's image, was in a state of original purity, integrity and sanctity (C. B., XIV; Ir. Art., XXI; W. C., IV, 2). "God created man ...after his own image and similitude, to whom he gave wisdom, lordship, justice, free will, and clear knowledge of himself, so that in the whole nature of man there could be noted no imperfection" (C. Sc., II). Here we notice the second point of difference between Lutheran and Calvinistic anthropology. The Lutherans see in the free will of man in his original state the right direction of the natural will, so that nothing in man or outside man could hinder him from being what he was, holy and righteous; the possibility of sinning being merely a possibility of giving up his god-given freedom. Calvin sees in man's original freedom a mere formal freedom, a power of contrary choice. Leaving aside "the question respecting the secret predestination of God,... what was the real nature of man? Adam could have stood if he would, since he fell merely by his own will; but because his will was flexible to either side, and he was not endued with constancy to persevere, therefore he so easily fell" (Inst., I, 15, 8). The Second Helvetic Confession (IX) likewise sees man's original freedom merely in this ability of either persevering in goodness or inclining to evil.
We should like to know how the idea of man's will being "flexible to either side" harmonizes with man's concreated holiness and righteousness. This conception of man's original righteousness comes very near the Romish idea of the superadded gift of grace which man needed to prevent an inner moral contradiction. The following, much discussed, passage (Inst., II, 2, 12) seems to be proof of the assertion made. "And, indeed, I much approve of that common observation, which has been borrowed from Augustine, that the natural talents in man have been corrupted by sin, but that of the supernatural ones he has been wholly deprived." The same distinction between the natural and supernatural powers of man is made by Bosma (Expos. of Ref. Doctr.), "God gave Adam all the natural powers necessary to do what he was required. God withheld from him, during his probation, the higher supernatural powers that might have made it impossbile [sic] for Adam to sin" (99).
For reasons sufficient unto himself God sovereignly decreed to permit Adam to fall from the state of integrity and holiness. "Our first parents ... sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory" (W. C., VI, I). "By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body" (ib. z).
Their fall involved the whole human race "descending from them by ordinary generation" (ib.3). Original sin, i. e., the hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature attaches to all men and pervades the entire being of man. "I am by nature prone to hate God and my neighbor" (H. C., q. 5). The depraved nature of man comes "from the fall and disobedience of our first parents,... whereby our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin" (ib. 7). "All the posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived corruption from their original parent" (C. D., c. III, Art. II). Original sin first makes man an object of God's wrath and then manifests itself in the works of the flesh (ib. Art. III). It is truly sin and, like actual sin, brings guilt upon the sinner. "This evil is truly sin, sufficient for the condemnation of the whole human race, even of little children in the mother's womb" (C. B., XI).
Man lost the freedom of the will to do good, but he commits sin by free will and not from coercion (II Helv., IX). Zwingli's theory of original sin as a defect, which one derives from birth without his own fault, and which therefore involves no sin, was not adopted by Calvin nor by any of the confessions.
What is sin?
The Reformed confessions answer, "disobedience" (H .C., q.
7), or "sin is any want of conforming unto, or transgression of,
the law of God" (Sh. C., q. I); "revolting from the
government of the Creator" (Inst. II, 1, 4); "eating the
forbidden fruit" (W. C., VI, I). Likewise original or inherited
sin "is the breaking of the probationary: command in Adam, our
representative. We are not charged with all of Adam's sin, only his
sin of eating of the forbidden tree" (B. 101). According to the
Lutheran conception original sin is
the breach with God, the lack of true fear of God and trust in him,
the active power of a life contrary to all that God wants and is. And
this sinful habitus is transmitted from Adam to his descendants and
charged against them by God, and not merely the single act of
disobedience of the eating of the forbidden fruit.
The question, how is Adam's
sin transmitted to all his posterity? is answered by Calvin
"because it was ordained by God, that the gifts which he
conferred on the first man should by him be preserved or lost both
for himself and for all his posterity" (Inst., II, I, 7).
Following Calvin the Canons of Dort (c. III et IV, Art. II) state
that "all the posterity of Adam ... have derived corruption from
their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old
asserted, but by propagation of a vicious nature in
consequence of a just judgment of God."2
The Reformed theologians explain the
fact that the sin of eating of the forbidden tree is charged against
all the posterity of Adam by the idea of the covenant
of works. "Adam," says
Bosma (p. 92), "was the covenant or federal head of the human
race. The covenant of which Adam was the head is called 'covenant of
works,' because it was through work of obedience that he was to gain
eternal life, in contrast to the covenant of grace, wherein eternal
life is obtained as a free gift of God's grace." Scriptural
grounds for this covenant idea are said to be found in Hos. 6:7 and
Rom. 5: 18, 19. The doctrine of the covenants received dogmatic
formulation and symbolic sanction at a comparatively late period;
hence the earlier confessional standards do not mention it, but it is
clearly set forth in the Westminster Confession, ch. VII, of God's
covenant with man. The significance of this doctrine for the Reformed
teaching concerning the imputation of Adam's sin to all his posterity
is stated by Heyns as follows:
"The Covenant of Works explains the imputation of Adam's sin to all his descendants, as if they all personally had eaten of the fruit of the tree. This cannot have its ground in our relation to Adam as our ancestor alone, for that would be contrary to the divine rule, that the son shall not bear the unrighteousness of the father, Ezek. 18:20. Adam's sinning as our ancestor may offer an explanation for our natural depravity as inherited from sin, but it offers no explanation for the imputation of his guilt on us. The imputation of Adam's sin as our own sin is possible only through the fact that Adam as our ancestor was at the same time our representative Covenanthead, acting in our place and on our behalf, and this covenant relation to Adam as our representing head was established by the Covenant of Works" (H. 70).
7. MAN'S CONVERSION
Fallen man has lost
all ability of will to any
spiritual good and is therefore utterly unable, "by his own
strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto"
(W. C., IX, 3). Man destitute of saving knowledge and dead in sin, is
called to salvation by the preaching of the gospel. But only the
elect are called effectually
(irresistible grace). "All those, whom God has predestinated
unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and
accepted time, effectually to call" (ib. X, I). And whosoever is
called effectually, "not only can come, but also actually
comes" (Inst., III, 24, I). The Reformed theologians, therefore,
sharply distinguish between the external
calling taking place only through
the word as an outward means, and the internal
calling being effected by the
Spirit accompanying the word. Hence the Westminster Confession (ib.)
says that God is pleased "effectually to call by his Word and
Spirit" (see also C. D., c. I, Art. VII). The external calling
very often takes place without the inner calling, but the latter
always presupposes the former. "There is a universal call, by
which God, in the external preaching of the word, invites all,... and
a special call,.., when by the inward illumination of His Spirit, he
causes the word preached to sink into their hearts" (Inst., III,
24, 8). Explaining John 6:45, "Every one that hath heard and
learned of the Father cometh unto me," Calvin says, "when
the Father is heard within he takes away the heart of stone and gives
a heart of flesh" (ib. I). This special call "favors only
believers, i. e., the elect," while the external call is
intended to be "a savour of death, and an occasion of heavier
condemnation" to the reprobate (ib. 8).
The theory of the twofold
calling as set forth by Calvin in its baldest form is also reproduced
by the Westminster Confession in ch. X, of effectual calling
particularly section 4, which is omitted in the Confession of the
Cumberland Presbyterians; in ch. XI, of justification, section I, the
words "those whom God effectually calleth" are changed into
"those whom God calleth and who obey the call." The Canons
of Dort (ch. III and IV, Art. VIII) state the doctrine of the calling
in a milder form: "As many as are called by the gospel are
unfeignedly called; for God hath most earnestly and truly declared in
his Word what will be acceptable to him, namely, that all who are
called should comply with the invitation. He, moreover, seriously
promises eternal life and rest to as many as shall come to him, and
believe on him." And yet, the same Canons (ch. I, Art. VII)
declare that "God has decreed ...effectually to call" the
elect only. But if God withholds from the majority that which alone
makes their coming to God possible what does it mean that "as
many as are called are unfeignedly called" and that God
"earnestly and truly" and"seriously"
desires "that all who are called should comply with the
invitation?" And if it is not the word, but the Spirit
accompanying the word who calls effectually, may conversion not be
effected without the word by the immediate operation of the Spirit
upon the heart of man? Reformed theologians, indeed, speak of an ordinary and
extraordinary calling; "the one
is that which God uses in the ordinary dispensation of his grace
through the ministry of men; the latter is out of the common course,
and respects those persons, whom Christ immediately called" (P.
290). This theory comes very near the idea of the Enthusiasts of an
inward operation of the Spirit without external means of grace. And
how do I know that I am called effectually, or, which is the same,
that I am an elect? The Canons of Dort answer: "By
observing" within me "the infallible fruits of election,..,
such as true faith in Christ, filial fear, a godly sorrow for sin, a
hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc." (ch. I, Art.
XII). But then the assurance of my salvation
rests after all on something subjective, something within me, on my
feeling and my experience of God's grace, and my own good works.
The first act of inward
calling is faith
which the Holy Spirit works in us. Calvin and the Reformed
confessions, like Luther, maintain that faith is a free gift of God,
"a gratuitous and special gift which God grants" (C. G.,
XXI), but they lay more stress than Luther upon the intellectual
element of faith. "Faith consists in a knowledge of God and
Christ" (Inst. III, 2, 2. 3). "Faith is a knowledge of the
will of God respecting us.... And the foundation of this is a
previous persuasion of the divine veracity" (ib. 6). "By
this faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in
the Word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein" (W.
C., XIV, 2). The Heidelberg Catechism, although stating that faith
"is not only a certain knowledge .. but also a hearty trust"
(q. 21), at the same time emphasizes the intellectual side of faith
asserting that it is necessary for a Christian
to believe "all that is promised us in the Gospel, which the
articles of our catholic, undoubted Christian faith teach us in
sum" (q. 22). Heyns defines saving faith as "the living
conviction, wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, that the Gospel
is true, John 3:33" (H., 266).
From faith proceeds repentance
which extends through the whole life of the believer. It consists in
the mortification of the flesh together with the crucifying of the
old man within us and a vivification by the Spirit. In
contradistinction to the Lutheran teaching that contrition or
repentance wrought by the law precedes faith, Calvin maintains that
repentance follows faith. "Repentance not only immediately
follows faith, but is produced by it" (III, 3, I;also Cat. Gen.,
I, de Fide).
By repentance Calvin means the renewal of life which follows faith.
He admits "that many are overcome or led to obedience by terrors
of conscience before they have imbibed a knowledge of grace"
(ib. 3, 2), but this he would not call repentance. Nor is it
necessary according to Calvin that a person pass through this
"initial fear," these terrors of conscience, for Christ has
many ways to draw us to himself. Bosma, answering the question,
"Which of the two parts of conversion precedes, repentance or
faith?" follows Calvin and advises to "be very careful not
to dictate a certain method of conversion to all alike, different
characters will be differently led by God in their experience of
conversion" (B. 188).
We Lutherans certainly do
not want to dictate a certain method of conversion, but we do
strictly hold to, and insist upon, the only safe and certain, because
Biblical, method of conversion, according to which the Holy Spirit,
through the law, working recognition of guilt and remorse for sin
leads man to repentance so that he cries out "What must I do to
be saved?" and, through the gospel, revealing to the repentant
sinner God's love in Christ works faith which receives and accepts
the righteousness which God gives.
Calvin felt that his
arrangement of faith and repentance was not quite in harmony with
Scripture, as when Christ and the Baptist "first exhort the
people to repentance, and afterwards adds that the kingdom of heaven
is at hand" (ib.). But even in these texts Calvin sees nothing
but proof of his idea of faith and repentance and says of those who
do not see this that "they superstitiously attend to the
connection of syllables and disregard the sense and coherence of the words"
(ib.). Yet, leaving aside superstitiously attending to the
connection of syllables and merely regarding the sense and coherence
of these words: "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven
is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel," Mark 1:15, we
cannot but say that repentance must precede faith.
8. JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION
The believer united to
Christ by faith or "grafted into him" receives a duplex
gratia, a double grace, namely, justification and
regeneration or sanctification.
(a) Justification.
In full accord with Luther,
Calvin and the Reformed confessions assert that justification
consists in the forgiveness of sin and in the imputation of Christ's
righteousness. Calvin says, God justifies "by absolving and
pardoning us; we are justified by gratuitous imputation.... Sinners
being invested with the righteousness of Christ ... are accounted
righteous. ... Justification is opposed to accusation; which
antithesis clearly demonstrates, that the form of expression is
borrowed from the practice of courts" (III, 11, 11). "Man
is justified by faith only" (ib. 19). Not that "faith were
to justify of itself, or by an intrinsic efficacy"; it is only
"a vessel," "the instrument by which righteousness is
received" (ib. 7).
Justification as a forensic
act must not be confounded with the
renewal of life; "it is one thing to be justified, and another
thing to be made new creatures." Osiander in confusing the two
"erroneously made of two good parts one corrupt whole."
" ... in justification there is no regard paid to works"
(ib. 6; see also the Confessions: H. C., 60-62; C. B., XXIII; I
Helv., XII and XIII; II Helv., XV; C. G., XVIII; W. C., XI).
This clear-cut presentation
of this doctrine, however, suffers some eclipse from Calvin's theory
of predestination. Although he states that "Christ is
apprehended and possessed by us by faith and we, being by his
innocence reconciled to God, have a propitious father instead of a
judge" (ib. I), he also maintains "those, whom God has
chosen, he designates as his children, and determines himself to be
their father" (ib. 24, I). The Westminster Confession likewise
teaches that "God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all
the elect," but also adds that "they are not justified
until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto
them" (XI, 4). Accordingly, justification which is decreed from
all eternity actually takes place in time. This is, indeed, the usual
and popular presentation of justification in the Reformed theology.
Many Reformed theologians, however, follow Calvin and view
justification as having taken place in eternity. God, they say, does
not first justify the sinner who by faith apprehends Christ's
righteousness; God has from eternity determined to look upon him as
being righteous in his sight. By faith the sinner merely realizes
that he is justified and in virtue of this realization has peace with
God through Jesus Christ. Says Calvin, "Though by choosing his
people, the Lord has adopted them as his children, yet we see that
they enter not on the possession of so great a blessing till they are
called; on the other hand, as soon as they are called, they
immediately enjoy some communication of his election" (ib. I).
As proof text for this theory is usually quoted Rev. 13:8, "whose
names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world."3
"Here it is stated that the sacrifice of Christ has been brought
from eternity, not that it was decided before the foundation of the
world that it would be brought in time, but that it was brought from
the foundation of the world. So also it was not merely decided from
eternity in respect to the elect, who were regarded as included in
that sacrifice, to justify them in time, but they were actually
justified in eternity and their names written in the book of life as
righteous. When therefore the Scriptures speak of a justification
through faith, i. e., of a justification in time, they cannot mean
an actual justification, for that has taken place in eternity. What
it can mean is only the realization of justification through
faith" (H., 290). The idea of eternal justification and
consequent perseverance is rejected as unscriptural by the Cumberland
Presbyterians (see note attached to section 3 of ch. XVII of the
Cumberl. Confession).
(b) Regeneration
or Sanctification.
The word regeneration is
here not used in its narrower sense meaning the procreation of a true
and saving faith, but in its broader sense designating the moral
renewing of man, or sanctification.
Calvin uses the term in this wider sense and calls it also
repentance. "No one can embrace the grace of the gospel, but he
must depart from the error of his former life, enter into the right
way, and devote all his attention to the exercise of repentance"
(III, 3, 1). The Belgic Confession describes regeneration with these
words: "We believe that this true faith being wrought in man by
the hearing of the Word of God and the operation of the Holy Ghost,
doth regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to live a new
life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin" (Art. XXIV).
Sanctification comes to the
believer from Christ no less than justification. But the two are not
to be confounded, neither are they to be separated. "You must
first possess Christ; but you cannot possess him without becoming a
partaker of his sanctification; for he cannot be divided.... Union
with Christ, by which we are justified, contains sanctification as
well as righteousness" (Inst., III, 16, I). This way of
regarding the matter is said "to maintain the glory of God
unimpaired and undiminished and to assure rest and peace to us"
(ib. 13, I).
Since Calvin represents God
as working effectually in the predestinated to the end of the
sanctification of man it cannot be said that his theory of
predestination leads to moral indifference,
on the contrary "it should rather awaken and stimulate us to a
cheerful practice of it, than be used as a pretext for
slothfulness" (ib. 23, 12).
It should be noticed that
Calvin concludes the discussion of man's salvation with a
presentation of the doctrine of predestination. He does that in order
to make predestination a support for
the certainty of salvation. The
assurance which the believer has of salvation rests on the divine
choice of the man to salvation. This assurance is but increased by
the fact that God "adopts not all promiscuously to the hope of
salvation, but gives to some what he refuses to others" (ib. 21,
I). "They who know not themselves to be God's peculiar people
will be tortured with continualanxiety." On
the other hand, there is not "any other basis for solid
confidence" but God's eternal predestination "even
according to the authority of Christ ... who promises to preserve in
safety all whom the Father has committed to his care" (ib). They
alone receive the gift of
perseverance (donum perseverantiae),
and continue in faith and holiness unto the end. There can be
retrogression in sanctification, a "falling short of the grace
of God" (Hebr. 12: 15), but there can be no falling from grace.
The basis of the doctrine of
the inamissibility of grace is not the teaching of Scripture, but the
error of identifying the elect with the regenerate. An elect may
totally, but not finally, lose faith. Luther rightly held that David
and Peter had fallen from the state of grace when they fell into
heinous sin. The regenerate can totally and finally lose faith. He
cannot renew himself. The renewal is God's work alone. But the
regenerate man is able in coöperation with the Holy Spirit to
nourish, cultivate and develop the new spiritual life; at the same
time, he has the freedom not only to stunt the growth of his
spiritual life, but utterly to destroy it, to commit spiritual
suicide so that his falling from grace becomes irreparable. In Hebr.
6:4 f. we read "it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the
powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance." Here we notice three things: (I) the
text speaks of regenerate
persons. Or are they not regenerate who are said "to have tasted
the heavenly gift, who have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the powers of the world to come?" A Reformed
theologian particularly, according to his own idea of "the
effectual call by the word and the Spirit," cannot but refer
these words to the regenerate. (2) The text speaks of a possibility
of the fall of the regenerate, "if they should fall away."
(3) If the text says that they cannot be renewed again it presupposes
that they were once renewed. Calvin attempts in vain to show (Inst.,
III, 2, II) that this passage refers to reprobate hypocrites and not
to regenerate persons.
The Canons of Dort devote a
whole chapter (V) to "the Perseverance of the Saints." Even
if they fall into "such enormous sins" as David and Peter
did, and thereby "highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt,
grieve the Holy Spirit, interrupt the exercise of faith, very
grievously wound their consciences, and sometimes lose the sense of
God's favor for a time" (Art. V), nevertheless, God
"according to his unchangeable purpose of election, does not
wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from his own people in their
melancholy falls" (Art. VI); " ... in these falls he
preserves in them the incorruptible seed of regeneration from
perishing or being totally lost; and again by his Word and Spirit he
certainly and effectually renews them to repentance" (Art.
VII);comp. also W. C., XVII, XVIII. Accordingly, those who once have
had saving faith even though they be "drawn into great and
heinous sins" or "actually fall into these evils,"
they can nevertheless be absolutely sure of their salvation, which,
"through faith, becomes a possession which can never be lost. He
that believes on the Son hath eternal life, John 3:36, and after we
have believed, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise"
(H., 299). " ... of their perseverance in the faith, true
believers for themselves may and do obtain assurance according to the
measure of their faith, whereby they arrive at the certain persuasion
that they ever will continue true and living members of the Church;
and ... at last inherit eternal life" (C. D., ch. V, Art. IX).
But if I obtain assurance
"according to the measure of my faith" and that faith is
very weak, my assurance cannot be very firm and strong either. And if
the "exercise of my faith is interrupted, for a time," then
I am to ground the certainty of my salvation upon a subjective
experience of God's grace in the past. Suppose this experience was
never real but only imagined, is not the assurance thus obtained mere
self-deception? Calvin's theory of the certainty of salvation either
makes men self-confident and secure or drives them to despair. Calvin
himself admits, that believers, "in recognizing the grace of God
towards them, are not only disturbed with inquietude which frequently
befalls them, but sometimes also tremble with the most distressing
terrors" (Inst., III, 217).
Calvin also correctly says,
like Luther, that "we shall find no assurance of our salvation
in ourselves; nor even in God the Father, considered alone,
abstractly from the Son. Christ, therefore, is the mirror, in which
it behooves us to contemplate our election; and here we may do it
with safety" (ib. 24, 5); and "the principal hinge on which
faith turns is this, that we must ... make the promises of mercy ...
our own, by embracing them in our hearts. Hence arises that
confidence which the same apostle in another place calls 'peace'"
(ib. z, 26). But by his theory of predestination Calvin again
destroys the sure foundation of assurance. I can make the promises of
mercy, which God offers, my own only, if I am effectually called, or,
in other words, if I am an elect. How do I know that I am an elect?
Calvin admits that "there is scarcely a person to be found,
whose mind is not sometimes struck with this thought: Whence can you
obtain salvation but from the election of God? And what revelation
have you received of election? If this has once impressed a man, it
either perpetually excruciates the unhappy being with dreadful
torments, or altogether stupifies him with astonishment" (ib.
24, 4).
This assurance is also said
to be produced, besides from faith in God's promises and the
testimony of the Holy Spirit, "from a serious and holy desire to
preserve a good conscience, and to perform good works" (C. D.,
ch. V, Art. X). "Why must we do good works? ... also that we
ourselves may be assured of our faith by the fruits thereof" (H.
C., q. &6). By good works "believers ... strengthen their
assurance" (W. C., XVI, 2).
My works,
then, are to assure me of my faith
and increase the certainty of my salvation. Suppose, there is a man
who strives with might and main to do good works and makes appalling
sacrifices in order to make his election sure, when does he obtain
the full certainty of his election' How does he know when he has done
enough? And if after all he is none of God's elect, there is in him
no faith of which his works are said to be the fruits.
In the official edition of
the Confession of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church there is a note
attached to Chapter XVII stating that Church's position with regard
to the perseverance of the saints; it reads as follows:
"...The idea of eternal
justification and consequent perseverance is unscriptural: the way
perseverance is insisted on by some preachers in connection with the
preceding parts of their sermons is certainly dangerous. Example:
First preach a superficial experience, then make a great many more
allowances for weakness and wickedness, stumbling, staying, etc.,
than God's Word admits, then press perseverance, and you have the
formalist or hypocrite confirmed. On the other hand, press the
doctrine of final apostasy, if the creature does not so and so,
making the perseverance of the creature depend chiefly upon his doings:
you raise in the mind of the unregenerate
professor the fear of hell, as a high excitement to duty; confirm him
in his legality; prepare his mind, indirectly at least, to give glory
to himself for his perseverance; settle him down in a self-confident
and deplorable situation. What God's Word hath joined together, let
not his ministers put asunder; but first let them give a clear,
definite description of the new birth, and then let them press the
doctrine of heart and practical holiness as the sure
consequence...,and daily evidences (not the cause) of that gracious
state which will insure their final perseverance. Then this true and
comfortable doctrine will not be perverted neither will it have a
tendency to licentiousness in him "whom the love of Christ
restraineth," or the real Christian: no, he serves and desires
to serve God with more zeal, and from pure evangelical principles,
still laying the foundation in his own mind, and
cherishing the principle of ascribing all
the glory to God for his conversion, his perseverance, and his final
and complete redemption" (Quoted from Schaff, Creeds, f II, 775 f.).
9. GOOD WORKS
In accord with the Lutheran
symbols the Belgian Confession (Art. XIV) teaches that justifying
faith cannot "be unfruitful in man"; it is "a faith
that worketh by love, which excites man to the practice of those
works which God has commanded in his Word; which works, as they
proceed from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the
sight of God ... it is by faith in Christ that we are justified, even
before we do good works, otherwise they could not be good works any
more than the fruit of a tree can be good before the tree itself is
good." The Heidelberg Catechism points out particularly the source
of good works--"true
faith," the standard of good works--"the law of God,"
and the purpose of good works--"his
glory" (q. 91). The Catechism mentions as a secondary purpose
of good works "also that we ourselves may be assured of our
faith by the fruits thereof" (q. 86) (see also W. C., XVI, 2).
While there is general
agreement between the Lutherans and the Reformed concerning the
relation of good works to justification, there are differences in
their conception (I) of the source, (2) standard and (3) purpose of
good works.
(I) How is faith the source
of good works? Calvin answers somewhat like this: Faith unites us to
Christ and this union with Christ contains both our justification and
sanctification. By faith united to Christ we are made partakers of
Christ's death and resurrection. The old man being crucified with him
we are raised with him to a new life (Inst., III, 3, 8, f.). But
Calvin does not show that faith is the propelling cause of the
believer's life. Calvin is also fond of attributing our
sanctification to the influence of the Holy Spirit. "This takes
place when the Spirit of God has tinctured our souls with his
holiness, and given them such new thoughts and affections, that they
may be justly considered as new" (ib.). The Scotch Confession
(XIII) combines both ideas and says that "the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who dwelling in our hearts by true faith, brings forth
such works" (see also II Helv., XVI, 5). But the Reformed
teaching lays the emphasis not on faith but on the
Holy Spirit as the source of good works.
The believers cannot "perform any other obedience to him, than
that which he has given them" (Inst., III, 8, 4). "Their
ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from
the Spirit of Christ. And that they may be enabled thereunto, besides
the graces they have already received, there is required an actual
influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do
of his good pleasure" (W. C., XVI, 3).
The Lutherans lay the
emphasis on justifying faith as the spontaneous source of
God-pleasing actions. Out of the same faith that apprehends Christ's
righteousness spring the motives of holy living. Faith is a living
active thing; and the living energy of faith manifests itself in good works.
(2) As far as the standard
of good works is concerned both Lutherans and Reformed agree that the
law of God is the rule of life and conduct, but Reformed theology
emphasizes the significance of the law for the believer in such a way
that a marked legalism characterizes the ethics of the Reformed
Church. Good works, says the Westminster Confession, are "done
in obedience to God's commandments" (XVI, 2). "Good works
... are performed according to the law of God" (H. C., q. 91).
"It is the duty of believers to present their bodies a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God" (Inst., III, 7, I).
"The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons
as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of
the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of
God the Creator who gave it" (W. C., XIX, 5). Speaking of the
significance of the law for the regenerate Calvin calls "the
third use of the law the 'principle one-and which is more nearly
connected with the proper end of it." He compares the relation
of the believer to the law to that of a "servant" to his
"master." "By frequent meditation, there are
differences in their conception (I) of the source, (2) standard and
(3) purpose of good works.
(I) How is faith the source
of good works? Calvin answers somewhat like this: Faith unites us to
Christ and this union with Christ contains both our justification and
sanctification. By faith united to Christ we are made partakers of
Christ's death and resurrection. The old man being crucified with him
we are raised with him to a new life (Inst., III, 3, 8, f.). But
Calvin does not show that faith is the propelling cause of the
believer's life. Calvin is also fond of attributing our
sanctification to the influence of the Holy Spirit. "This takes
place when the Spirit of God has tinctured our souls with his
holiness, and given them such new thoughts and affections, that they
may be justly considered as new" (ib.). The Scotch Confession
(XIII) combines both ideas and says that "the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who dwelling in our hearts by true faith, brings forth
such works" (see also II Helv., XVI, 5). But the Reformed
teaching lays the emphasis not on faith but on the Holy
Spirit as the source of good works.
The believers cannot "perform any other obedience to him, than
that which he has given them" (Inst., III, 8, 4). "Their
ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from
the Spirit of Christ. And that they may be enabled thereunto, besides
the graces they have already received, there is required an actual
influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do
of his good pleasure" (W. C., XVI, 3).
The Lutherans lay the
emphasis on justifying faith as the spontaneous source of
God-pleasing actions. Out of the same faith that apprehends Christ's
righteousness spring the motives of holy living. Faith is a living
active thing; and the living energy of faith manifests itself in good works.
(2) As far as the standard
of good works is concerned both Lutherans and Reformed agree that the
law of God is the rule of life and conduct, but Reformed theology
emphasizes the significance of the law for the believer in such a way
that a marked legalism characterizes the ethics of the Reformed
Church. Good works, says the Westminster Confession, are "done
in obedience to God's commandments (XVI, z). "Good works ..;are
performed according to the law of God" (H. C., 9. 91). 'It is
the duty of believers to present their bodies a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable unto God" (Inst., III, 7, I). "The
moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others,
to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter
contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the
Creator who gave it" (W. C., XIX, 5). Speaking of the
significance of the law for the regenerate Calvin calls "the
third use of the law the 'principle one'-and which is more nearly
connected with the proper end of it." He compares the relation
of the believer to the law to that of a "servant" to his
"master." "By frequent meditation on the law the
servant of God will be excited to obedience. ...To the flesh the law
serves as a whip, urging it, like a dull and tardy animal, forwards
to its work; and even to the spiritual man, who is not yet delivered
from the burden of the flesh, it will be a perpetual spur, that will
not permit him to loiter" (Inst., II, 7, 12). Commandment, law,
duty, obedience--these frequently recurring words are expressive of
the rigorous legalism which characterizes the Reformed theology.
Lutheran theology rejects such legalism and teaches that the
regenerate do good works "spontaneously and freely,"
"without constraint and with a willing spirit," "as
though they knew of no command, threat, or reward" (F. C., 807).
The regenerate are not under the law. They have been freed and
exempted not only from the curse but also from the coercion
of the law and yet they are not on this account without law. "But
the impulses to right life in the believer are not legal, but
spiritual. The New Testament, especially St. Paul in Rom. 8: I sq.,
and Gal. 5:16 sq., teaches that the believer is impelled by the
Spirit to fulfill the righteousness of the law. So the doctrine of
faith establishes the law, Rom. 3:31. The principle of life in the
believer is no longer the law, but the Spirit; but the form of the
life is defined in the law" (Voigt, Bibl. Dogmatics, p. 203 f.).
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