Are You Reformed?

I have always been reluctant to use or claim the “Reformed” word because I have never been fully sure of how it is defined. I was, earlier in the year reading B.S Poh’s book “Beware of the Ecumenical Agenda! A Response to More Calvinistic than Calvin?`” On p83 he writes: “A Reformed person or church, would uphold The Five Points of Calvinism, The Five Principle of the Reformation (the Five Sola’s), subscribe to one of the Confessions of Faith that arose from the Reformation and Puritan Age, uphold the Regulative Principle of worship, and hold to Covenant Theology.”

Now, Dr. Poh is no casual thinker! Rather, he is a thorough investigator and portrayer of the truth as revealed in scripture and as it is in our Lord Jesus. So, this statement is worthy of our attention.

One of the implications is that it rules out a lot of people (me included!) from being included under the “Reformed” umbrella. Not subscribing to one of the confessions of faith and not subscribing to covenant theology would exclude myself.

Oh and there is the eschatology issue as well. I presume, because Covenant Theology, is amillennial, then a premillenial like myself is not welcome in the “Reformed” fold.

Further, the thrust of all the relevant confessions of faith, referred to by Dr Poh, would be to be cessationist. That is there is a belief that the sign gifts evidenced at the beginning of the church age have passed with the passing of that era. This would make the “Reformed Charismatic” moniker to be inherently contradictory. That is because those who embrace charismatic theology believe in the ongoing experiencing of those sign gifts.

This definition by Dr Poh thereby leaves me, perhaps less me even less inclined to use the “Reformed” word. Now, many would demur from his definition and offer a less restrictive understanding of the term. Nevertheless it all reveals how elastic the term is.

So are you “Reformed”? And if you are in a “Reformed Baptist Church” do you know how the term “Reformed” is defined by the church so as to make them “Reformed.”

For myself I prefer the “Calvinistic” term because of it being a term specific to the achieving of salvation in Christ. When someone calls themselves “Calvinistic” the understanding rendered up is far less open to misunderstanding than the “Reformed” term.