Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Free To Be Reformed, Or Not
BHT linked yesterday to two great posts by John H. Armstrong examining the "truly reformed" phenomena. The first post asks 10 great questions and the second is devastating.
As the TR crowd hammers at the Roman Catholic church over and over again one is forced to reflect on the fact that one of the ways the Roman Catholic Church came to have to problems it had that resulted in the Reformation was because it had an enormous amount of control. It was a poltiical entity as well as a spiritual one. And as the cliche (most of which are very true I must remind you) goes - Power corrupts.
More, as the Reformation proceeded we saw absolutely that affect on the reformed. Calvin's Geneva was not a nice place, and Cromwell's England? - they brought the Stuarts back out of self-defense for crying out loud. As Dan reminds us, even the Reformers were fallible.
At the very heart of being reformed, and particularly evangelical reformed, is the idea of personal choice, and the freedom to make it. Implicit in that is respect for those that make a different decsion than we do. Respect does not entail agreement, but it does mean reasonablness in our discussions with them.
Thus it seems to me that part of being reformed is that we avoid the perjorative, the back-handed, the insulting. We disagree, we discuss, we argue, but we don't take potshots, and we don't engage in the kind of dilettantish insinuation that gives one plausible deniability.
The very heart of the Reformation is that the TRUTH of the gospel could not be hidden from view. If we really believe that - we do not need to stifle that which we consider less than true, all we need do is confront it with truth.
Related Tags: reformed, truth, persuasion
There is very often more psychology involved in these debates than theology, at least in one fairly observable sense. Time and again I have watched as fear, insecurity and the need for approval and control all drive such debaters and their agendas. For folks who confess the sovereignty of God it does make you wonder a great deal.I don't think it is fair to debate the psychology of any blogger, particularly one I have never met, but when Armostrong uses the word "control" I had a fascinating thought.
As the TR crowd hammers at the Roman Catholic church over and over again one is forced to reflect on the fact that one of the ways the Roman Catholic Church came to have to problems it had that resulted in the Reformation was because it had an enormous amount of control. It was a poltiical entity as well as a spiritual one. And as the cliche (most of which are very true I must remind you) goes - Power corrupts.
More, as the Reformation proceeded we saw absolutely that affect on the reformed. Calvin's Geneva was not a nice place, and Cromwell's England? - they brought the Stuarts back out of self-defense for crying out loud. As Dan reminds us, even the Reformers were fallible.
At the very heart of being reformed, and particularly evangelical reformed, is the idea of personal choice, and the freedom to make it. Implicit in that is respect for those that make a different decsion than we do. Respect does not entail agreement, but it does mean reasonablness in our discussions with them.
Thus it seems to me that part of being reformed is that we avoid the perjorative, the back-handed, the insulting. We disagree, we discuss, we argue, but we don't take potshots, and we don't engage in the kind of dilettantish insinuation that gives one plausible deniability.
The very heart of the Reformation is that the TRUTH of the gospel could not be hidden from view. If we really believe that - we do not need to stifle that which we consider less than true, all we need do is confront it with truth.
Related Tags: reformed, truth, persuasion
