Muller's (and Riddlebarger's) main argument is that a person is not "reformed" unless he holds to all of the doctrines of the old reformed confessions (including paedo-baptism).
Here's a short quote from a very long post:
The Reformed faith includes reference to total inability, unconditional election, limited efficiency of Christ's satisfaction, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints, not as the sum total of the church's confession but as elements that can only be understood in the context of a larger body of teaching including the baptism of infants, justification by grace alone through faith, the necessity of a thankful obedience consequent upon our faith and justification, the identification of sacraments as means of grace, the so-called amillennial view of the end of the world.Whatcha think about that?
6 comments:
Hogwash.
They shouldn't label themselves as Calvinists unless they agree to EVERYTHING taught by John Calvin.
I was there for MacArthur's bashing of the Amil position. Wow.
Where do I begin?
1. I respect Kim Riddlebarger and imagine that I share a lot of his theological beliefs (including his amillenialism, but obviously not his paedo-baptism).
2. My first reaction is to say: "Who cares about whether I fit his definition of reformed?" After all, I take far greater delight in being a Christian than in being reformed. It is true that I am a Calvinist, a Baptist, an Amillenialist, a Continuationist (we'll save that discussion for another time), etc., but first and foremost I am a Christian - saved by grace and belonging to Jesus Christ.
3. My second reaction, however, is to say that there is something important about the label "reformed". It is a useful term to identify those Christians who are united by a particular understanding of the Bible's teaching. However, I wonder if Riddlebarger's definition of "reformed" is not so narrow as to detract from its usefulness. I think the historical usage is the best - "reformed" refers to those people who long to see Christ's church return to obedience to the Scriptures, particularly in reference to soteriology, the Lord's Supper, and church discipline. It seems to me that these three emphases marked those churches in the 16th and 17th centuries that were influenced by Zingli and Calvin and called "reformed". It is true that almost all of these folks practiced paedo-baptism, but it was not this practice that distinguished them as "reformed" (every other kind of church was doing this as well, except the Anabaptists). And amillenialism was certainly not a mark of these churches (it did not even have a substantial presence.)
All that said, I think I agree with Riddlebarger's concern - namely, that many people today (especially SBCers) use reformed as just another word for someone who believes in the 5 points of Calvinism (or maybe just 4, or only 3?) If Riddlebarger's definition is too narrow, I think that this one is probably too broad and doesn't accurately reflect what it has meant to be "Reformed" over the centuries.
There's my thoughts. In the end, I hope we're more concerned with brining our churches (and our lives) into conformity with God's Word, not necessarily the old confessions of the reformed churches.
The Other Justin (Justin N.)
(I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing. Justin C is the master - his comments are concise, substantial, and have pep! Oh, and I keep messing up and having to delete my comment (i.e., above).
The problem with short statements is that you often get misunderstood.
Keep up the meaty posts and comments. They are very helpful.
Justin N, is there anything we disagree on? I haven't found anything yet.
Good comments, guys.
My reaction was similar. I hope we'd all rather be biblical than "______" (insert label here). Of course, that phrase is used by all sorts of people who don't really mean it... or sometimes used to say "I'm biblical and you're not."
But that's what Riddlebarger is doing... only with the "Reformed" tag ("I'm really Reformed and you're not).
Let's stick with every "jot and tittle" of Scripture and make sure our confessions square up with it.
I think riddlebarger meant that Baptists don't old to all the things Presbyterians or Dutch Reformed churches do.
Post a Comment