Who is a Reformed Christian?
A Reformed Christian is someone who is committed to the historic Christian faith (please go to "What do we believe?" for a more complete explanation). The Reformers, like John Calvin of Geneva, and Zwingli and Bullinger of Zurich, were men who allowed their lives - their doctrine and practice - to be shaped by the Word of God rather than the dogmas of men. They believed and taught Faith Alone, Scripture Alone and Christ Alone. They promoted the Biblical doctrine of justification by faith in opposition to the works-based righteousness of all man-made and devil-inspired religion.
A Reformed Christian is someone who has a high view of the authority of God's Word and believes that our lives must be regulated by the Word of God. A Reformed Christian believes, too, that God is at work in the believer by His Spirit to put to death the sins of the old life and to enable us to live a life that is pure and holy and pleasing to God.
A Reformed Christian rejects all that is contrary to the teaching of God's Word. In the present day, there are many evils that oppose the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The following are some of the most distinguishing features that mark the Reformed Christian:-
1. The doctrine of predestination
The Reformed Christian believes, with the Reformers and Puritans, that God has predestined in love a great number of the human race to eternal salvation in Jesus Christ, and that only those who are chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world will finally be saved. Many evangelical Christians reject this doctrine because it is hurtful to human pride. Man likes to feel that he can do something toward his own salvation, even if it is simply making a choice to believe on Christ. But the Reformed Christian knows that we are saved by grace, and even that is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.
2. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Reformed Christian believes that God's Word, the Bible, is sufficient for all faith and practice, and that it is through His Word that God speaks to us today. It is the Holy Spirit's work to bring conviction of sin and to lead us into all truth. It is He who illuminates His Word so that we are able to understand and receive the things which are revealed therein. He never acts in opposition to His Word. The Reformed Christian therefore rejects the modern Charismatic and Pentecostal trends which lead Christians away from the tried and tested authority of God's Word into unchartered territory of subjectivism, emotionalism, extra-Biblical revelations, and supposed miracles, signs and wonders which have no Biblical warrant. The effect of this unbiblical tendency is to lead Christians back into the dark ages of bondage, ignorance and superstition, and away from the glorious light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
3. The doctrine of ecclesiology
The Reformed Christian believes that Jesus Christ has instituted the Church, His Body, as the only organisation on earth constituted for the purpose of worship, fellowship, teaching, prayer, the building up and equipping of the saints, and works of ministry. A properly constituted local church should be the primary centre for missionary endeavour rather than para-church organisations such as missionary societies. It is the local church that should set apart and support men for the work of the ministry (pastors, teachers, evangelists), rather than self-appointed boards and individuals. This is not to decry the work done by missionary societies, but simply to emphasize the importance of returning to a more Biblical ecclesiology if we are to be faithful to our God in the present
generation.
The Reformation in Europe in the sixteenth century marked the recovery of the faith of the apostles - the return to Biblical faith, the "faith once delivered to the saints". Much of Europe was influenced by the glorious doctrines of the Gospel recovered at the Reformation, and governments as well as individuals adopted the Reformed faith. The tradition of the Reformers continued through the line of the English and Scottish Puritans in the seventeenth century whose practical and eminently spiritual theological writings have survived to this day. It was this Biblical Gospel that set George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards "on fire" for Christ in the eighteenth century, and that led to the modern missionary movement which began with Andrew Fuller and William Carey toward the end of that century. In the nineteenth century, Charles Spurgeon embraced the same tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, which made his ministry so mightily blessed of God. After Spurgeon's death toward the end of the nineteenth century, it was not until the ministry of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones in London in the twentieth century that there was a widespread recovery of an interest in the Biblical Gospel as taught by the Reformers and Puritans. In recent days, the baton carried by Lloyd-Jones and others has been passed on to a new generation of men whose lives breath the spirit and doctrine of the Puritans.
If you live on the Indian subcontinent, hold to the doctrinal distinctives that we have outlined above, and desire to follow in the footsteps of the Reformers and Puritans by the promotion of sound doctrine and practical Godliness, then we would like to invite you to
join the South Asia Reformed Fellowship.