What is Reformed Christianity?

By Shiao Chong, Christian Reformed Campus Minister
Serving at York University, Toronto

This ministry (LOGOS Campus Ministry) and its services (e.g. Leadership, Culture and Christianity student club) are affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). Often, the question is asked, “What is Reformed Christianity? What’s the difference with other Christian traditions?” This article helps to briefly (and inadequately!) answer that question.

Reformed History. Way back in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation occurred where protestant churches broke away from the Roman Catholic church over what the Reformers saw as corruptions in the then Catholic church. This eventually resulted in four main branches of the protestant movement: Lutheran (named after the German monk Martin Luther who started the protestant reformation), Anglican or Episcopalian (when the Church of England broke away from the Pope), Anabaptists/Mennonites (followers of Menno Simons) and Reformed (heirs to the French theologian John Calvin). There were Reformed churches in France (a.k.a. Huguenots), Hungary, Germany, Scotland (a.k.a. Presbyterians), and Holland, among others. Thus, Reformed Christianity has been around for at least four centuries. Since its European origins, Reformed Christianity has spread globally. The CRCNA has been in North America for 150 years thanks to Dutch Reformed immigrants to the US (in Canada for just over 100 years).

Reformed Teachings. Calvinism, the system of Christian theology named after John Calvin, is often stereotyped as a rigid and rationalistic system devoid of joy and flexibility! Though some Calvinists were guilty of such stereotypes, the reality is a lot different. Reformed Christians share a lot in common with other Christians—Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and Evangelicals. Reformed Christians, along with most Christians, hold to the historic Christian beliefs summarized in the 4th century Apostle’s Creed. Reformed beliefs can be found summarized in historical documents such as The Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism (both in 16th century), and The Westminster Confession of Faith (17th century). Most of the difference between Reformed Christianity and other forms of Christianity are in emphasis rather than content. I will summarize these emphases under four headings:

A Comprehensive View of God’s World
Unlike some Christian traditions that see the world as evil or superfluous, Reformed Christianity views the world as belonging to God, its creator. Reformed Christians believe that God loves the whole world, not only human souls in the world. The whole world, and all in it, were created by God and is good. All of the world, not just parts of it, belongs to God. There is no spot on this earth that is outside of God’s rule or outside of God’s grace: “the whole earth is full of God’s glory” (Isaiah 6:3) The whole world includes human institutions, such as, families, governments, education systems, judicial institutions, etc. All of these also belong to God as God created humanity with the potential and ability to develop these cultural institutions.

That is why Reformed Christians tend to have Christian schools, Christian universities, Christian labour associations, Christian counselling services, Christian philosophers, Christian scientists, Christian artists, Christian teachers, Christian businessmen, and on and on. Because God’s rule and love is comprehensive, so the Christian’s involvement in the world can be comprehensive too. The world is inherently good, not evil, and Christians are free to engage the world and engage human culture responsibly.

A Comprehensive View of Sin
Just as the whole world belongs to God, Reformed Christians also see that the whole world, not just parts of it, is affected by sin. Reformed Christianity do not define sin merely as moral flaws or failures to obey God’s moral standards. Sin is primarily an alienation or separation from a loving harmonious relationship with God our Maker. Reformed Christians claim that not only humans are alienated from God but all of creation—animals, plants and, derivatively, human social institutions.

But this comprehensive view of sin does not mean that everything and everyone is now evil. Rather, it means that the line between good and evil runs THROUGH everyone and everything! It is not that some people are good and some are evil, or some things (like church, family and morality) are good while others (like sex, politics, science) are evil. No. All things and all peoples have good and evil intertwined within them.

All things belong to God but all things have also been tainted by sin. There is nothing either in creation or in ourselves that we can point to and say, “Look! This here is untouched by sin, this here is as good as it was originally when God created it – this we can use to bring us closer to God!” For example, some Christians believe that our human reason is untouched by sin, and we can rely on that to help us reach God, to understand God fully. But Reformed theologians have resisted this kind of thinking. Even our reason is affected by sin and we cannot depend on it wholly to get us to God (even though we still use reason as part of God’s good creation).

A Comprehensive View of Salvation
That is why Reformed Christians see salvation not only as a gift from God, but as entirely, not just partly, a gift from God: from start to finish. Human beings cannot do anything to contribute to their salvation. Where some Christian traditions see salvation as partly God’s work and partly human work, Reformed Christians see salvation as entirely God’s work. There is nothing we can do on our own to bring us closer to God. Even our faith, our ability to believe, as far as the Reformed tradition is concerned, comes from God, is God’s gift! Reformed Christians also see God’s gift of salvation as not only for saving human beings or human souls, but God’s gift of salvation is for the whole world – the creation, the creatures, our souls AND our bodies. Reformed Christianity believes that God will “reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through [Jesus’] blood shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20). All things, the whole earth, belong to God; all things are tainted by sin, alienated from God; and God will reconcile all things, the whole earth, back to himself in Jesus Christ. And human individuals receive this gift of God’s reconciliation by trusting in Jesus Christ and committing to live all areas of their lives under Christ’s Lordship or direction.

A Comprehensive View of Godly Service
Because salvation is totally God’s work and we contribute nothing to it, Reformed Christians have always seen good works and service for God’s cause as ways we say, ‘Thank you’ to God for his gift of salvation. We serve God, do good works to others, obey God’s laws, not to earn our salvation, but as gratitude for our salvation. In fact, our whole lives should be nothing short of one big “Thank You” to God. That is why Reformed Christians have a comprehensive view of godly service. We not only serve God in church, but we also serve God in all areas of our lives: we serve God at work, at play, at rest, at worship, at ministry, at the school, at the marketplace, everywhere. Reformed Christians see godly service as co-operating in God’s mission to reconcile the alienated world back to God. When a Reformed Christian philosopher, for instance, seeks to find how his research in epistemology can be accurate, relevant and God-honouring at the same time, he is serving God. Or when a Reformed Christian attempts the same in the field of microbiology, she is also serving God as a scientist. Godly service is not simply the domain of clergy and church. Our guides for such godly service are a Christian perspective found in the Biblical story and Christ’s reign in our lives through his Holy Spirit. Since all things are intertwined with good and evil, Reformed Christians need a biblical perspective—a Biblical worldview—to discern what is good, God-honouring, life-promoting and what is not in any given field, area, work, institution or cultural domain. Reformed Christians also seek to promote the welfare and the good of all humanity and of all the earth, not just for Christians or the Church, in their godly service.

The whole earth, not just parts of it, is full of God’s glory; the whole earth, not just parts of it, is tainted by sin; the whole earth, not just human beings, will be saved by God, and our whole lives, not just part of our lives, are in service to God as gratitude—we serve God by serving the whole earth, not just Christians. This is Reformed theology and spirituality in a nutshell.