A Radical Reformation?

How many ‘reformed’ men know anything of what has been called the “Radical” Reformation? Back in 1964 Leonard Verduin published his book entitled “The Reformers and their Stepchildren“. It is a book which echoed so much of my struggles concerning the “establishment” of the Church of England. My memory is a bit vague as to when I first read it but I think it was about 1973 – two years before I resigned my ministry in the C of E.. I was reading then, anything I could find about the search for and expression of “New Testament pattern churches”. After I left and was studying for a B.Ed. I wanted to take this subject for my thesis, but was dissuaded by my tutor and I compromised with a thesis on “The House Church Movement” – in those days with the emergence of the Charismatic movement, this was a hot potato! Since those days, I have found a great reluctance on the part of “reformed” men to give much, if any, consideration to the existence of a “radical reformation”. The chains of ‘Constantinianism‘ drag, if not bind them in ways that seriously affect the dissemination of a truly gracious gospel. The brief Foreword by H.L.Ellison ought to be enough to excite anyone who has a desire to see the church free to be in our own times and culture, and be more as it was in New Testament times. (Even Patristic studies, in my view, cloud the issue, because even before Constantine, there was the desire for a marriage between Church and State.) Today, the evangelical cause is being diverted by the same subtle hopes that the world can be “christianised”. I see this in the vast amounts of christian giving being diverted from the work of the gospel to “Christian Institute” “Christian Watch” etc. and attempting to change the morals of society by the means of laws passed by Parliament etc. (Homosexuality, Abortion, Alchohol, Drugs etc. etc.) I get literature through the post every week asking me or our church to support these causes by giving money and for prayer. (I suspect it may be more for money than for prayer.) I get only a fraction of literature in comparison promoting the spread of the gospel! Are Kings and Rulers in the hand of God or not? Do we find anything in the N.T. to suggest that Herod or Nero should be ’lobbied’ to change their objections to and persecution of believers and bring in “christian” laws? Only the briefest mention is made about it – and that concerned prayer for our rulers. (Luke 21:12 1 Tim 2:1,2 – also Jesus declared “My kingdom is not of this world.” ) What we do read (Phil 4:22) is that the gospel gained an entrance into Caesar’s household. It is the Gospel that changes men from within, not by laws from without, and these men in turn affect the society amongst whom they live, provided they are not subsumed by its wordly culture. Beasley-Murray’s postscipt too is perceptive, but the years between when it was written (1966) and the present day show little has been accepted or advanced since then. (The whole period of my ministry.) Today, the “reformed constituency” is still dominated by the “Magisterial Reformation” and fearful of anything that may question its position. How sad it is that many Baptists, of all Christians, should have been so compromised! Enough said! I did not mean to prattle on, but the subject is very close to my heart. P.S. If you can get or borrow a copy, read “The Radical Reformation” by George.H.Williams.

The Threat and Fear of NCT

In documents like “Affirmation” and in statements made from some the best of our “Reformed” men, here in the U.K., I think I detect a strong element of fear when challenged by George Ella in New Focus magazine and by those who are exploring “New Covenant Theology”.

After all, if for example you are a convinced Presbyterian, the basis by which you may judge a Presbyterian Church to be ’sound’. will be whether it holds fully to the “Westminster Standards” – and especially to the Westminster Confession of Faith.  Any presbyterian church deviating from this confession would not be regarded as orthodox.

Similarly, among “Reformed Baptists”  or “Grace Baptists” who hold to the 2nd London Baptist Confession, we find the same basis and judgement.   As is easily recognised, this Confession simply took the major part of the Westminster Confession, adapted the sections on Baptism, the Lord’s Table and some other small changes and that was it! 

The sections on the Sabbath and the insistence that the Ten Commandments comprise the Rule of Life for Christians now,  are two of the obvious stumbling blocks.

Whilst I discern a very charitable spirit coming from the NCT men in answering criticisms, sadly the same cannot often be said of the reverse. I am persuaded that this is largely due to the fear that their Confessions are under attack.  Further, unconsciously perhaps, it exposes the fact that they value the authority of their Confessions over and above and  constraining their understanding of the Holy Scriptures on which they purport to be based.

George Ella, is probably the most knowlegeable man alive today of the history and personalities of the Reformation.  (Read any of his biographies. They exhibit a great wealth of study.)  However, I must admit that in debate and dialog he is sometimes prone to use excessive language in his defence of the truth.  However, the same might be said of the Apostle Paul!
(see Galatians 1:8,9)

To attack their (reformation) Confessions is tatamount to destroying their denominational structures and certainties. Hence their fear.
Anyone who does this, will be labelled a heretic at worst, or an Antinomian or Hypercavinist at best.

Some thoughts of John Robinson 1620

The Wholesome Counsel Master Robinson gave that part of the church whereof he was Pastor at their departure from him to begin the great work of Plantation in New England. Amongst other wholesome instructions and exhortations he used these expressions, or to the same purpose:

We were now, ere long, to part asunder; and the Lord knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces again. But whether the Lord had appointed it or not; he charged us, before God and his blessed angels, to follow him no further than he followed Christ: and if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it, as ever we were to receive any truth by his Ministry. For he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word. He took occasion also miserably to bewail the state and condition of the Reformed Churches, who were come to a full stop in religion; and would go no further than the Instruments of their Reformation.

As, for example, the Lutherans: they could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw, for whatever part of God’s will He had further imparted and revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. “And also,” saith he, “you see the Calvinists. They stick where he left them, a misery much to be lamented. “For though they were precious shining lights in their Times, yet God had not revealed his whole will to them; and were they now living,” saith he, “they would be as ready and willing to embrace further light as that they had received.”

Here also, he put us in mind of our Church Covenant; at least that part whereby “we promise and covenant with God and one another to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made known to us from his written Word:” but withal exhorted us to take heed what we received for truth; and well to examine and compare and weigh it with other Scriptures of truth before we received it. “For,” saith he, “it is not possible the Christian World should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness; and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.” [.....] And so advised us, by all means, to endeavour to close with the godly party of the Kingdom of England [the Puritans]; and rather to study union than division, viz.: How near we might possibly, without sin, close with them; than, in the least measure, to affect division or separation from them. “And be not loath to take another Pastor or Teacher,” saith he, “for that Flock that hath two Shepherds is not endangered, but secured by it.”

Many other things there were of great and weighty consequence which he commended to us. But these things I thought good to relate at the request of some well-willers to the peace and good agreement of the godly so distracted at present about the settling of Church Government in the Kingdom of England that so both sides may truly see what this poor despised Church of Christ now at New Plymouth in New England, but formerly at Leyden in Holland, was and is how far they were and still are, from separation from the Churches of Christ, especially those that are reformed.

(Emphasis in italics -mine.)

Welcome

“Semper Reformanda”

Always being reformed

This blog has been initiated as a response to some recent publications in the U.K. by some highly esteemed Reformed Ministers who appear to us to fail to rightly distinguish between Law and Grace and the relationship between the Old and New Covenants.  Through a primary loyalty to some of the Reformed Confessions, they seem to us to be interpreting the Scriptures in the light of the Confessions rather than the reverse.. Also there appears to be a failure to appreciate that, as John Robinson stated to the departing Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, “that there was yet more light” to spring from the Scriptures.

However, this is not meant to be a negative blog – quite the opposite!
We trust that all entries will be made in an eirenic spirit, looking only for the truth to shine out from the scriptures to the glory of God and the salvation of souls.