Herewith Rev. John H. Piersma presents the first two of a series of articles on Main Lines of Reformed Doctrine. These articles are written especially for church societies and classes, study groups, and all others interested in knowing more about Reformed doctrine. Rev. Piersma is pastor of the Bethany Christian Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois.
TO HELP YOU WITH THESE LESSONS . . .
A “FEW INTRODUCTORY REMARKS”
(1) We assume throughout that knowledge of the teachings of the Reformed Faith is important and desirable. We are not minded here to deal with such questions as, “It is really necessary to know all of that, to be saved?” Our attitude is rather that if God revealed something it is no more than proper that we give it proper attention.
(2) These lessons are intended to provide a basis for and hopefully to provoke Christian discussion of the Truth by believers and their friends. You will have to put forth some real effort on your own. You ought at least to have your Bible handy and a copy of the Reformed creeds honored by the Reformed churches (the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dordt). As much as possible, Bible references will be printed in full in the text of the lessons. An additional help would be Louis Berkhof’s Manual of Christian Doctrine (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Grand Rapids, Mich.).
(3) There is a dominant point-of-view in these lessons. It is the Biblical idea of the Covenant. This idea, although often mentioned in Reformed circles, is not easy to grasp. It has also suffered from considerable difference of opinion as to its nature and from certain controversial developments known to many of us. In our opinion the Covenant rightly understood well serves as a key to the understanding of the Bible‘s teaching.
LESSON 1
What is “Reformed Doctrine”?
When we speak of “Reformed” doctrine we use the term in a popular sense to indicate that teaching which is most specifically identified with the teachings of John Calvin. Those of us who love that faith can only applaud when the late R. B. Kuiper writes. “. . . the Reformed faith is the Christian faith in its most comprehensive and consistent formulation and … Calvinism is Christianity in its purest and most precise expression.”1 Sometimes the Reformed faith is identified with the five “tulip doctrines”: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints. For most of the readers of this periodical, Reformed doctrine is that teaching which is set down in the creeds of the churches to which they belong, particularly the Canons of Dordt, the Heidelberg Catechism. the Belgic Confession and the Westminster confessions.
We are already at the point where we must say that “doctrine” for us is more than mere opinion or tradition. People of Reformed persuasion never remove Christian doctrine from the territory of the church and its authority. For this reason one finds in such works as Louis Berkhof’s Reformed Dogmatics and in the theological writings of Herman Hoeksema and others2 opening statements on the meaning of the word dogma. Especially in the Dutch tradition doctrine is treated as dogma. What does this mean?
When Reformed Christians talk about doctrine as dogma they are emphasizing the necessary and authoritative character of that doctrine. It is necessary: the Biblical interpretation of the “wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11) is the very substance of their faith. And it is authoritative: in the course of its turbulent history the church, led by the Spirit. has proclaimed and promulgated certain statements as dogma, i.e., declarations which govern the confession and walk of its members. The propriety of this word is easily recognized when we read Luke 2:1, “Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled.” The word decree is a translation of the Greek dogma, used here to describe an authoritative pronouncement on thc part of a political ruler.
Speaking of doctrine as church dogma suggests three questions:
1. Where does church dogma get its certainty? Church dogma demands of church members agreement (cf. Form of Subscription now in effect in the Christian Reformed Church, which says, “we heartily believe and are persuaded that all the articles and points of doctrine contained in the Confession and Catechism of the Reformed Churches, together with the explanation of some points of the aforesaid doctrine made by the National Synod of Dordrecht, 1618–’19, do fully agree with the Word of God.”). It must be confessed by them as the truth. Where does dogma get that status as authoritative, certain truth? 2. There is an institution which proclaims dogma. This institution is the church. Where does the church get its authority to proclaim dogma? 3. Finally, what is the content of dogma? What is the church talking about in its dogmatic proclamations?THE CERTAINTY OF DOGMA
In the church, doctrine as dogma has church-type authority. It comes to us there with the authority of the church which proclaimed or promulgated it.
We must distinguish, however, between the authority and the certainty of dogma. Doctrinal certainty does not depend upon the fact of ecclesiastical proclamation. The church is not the last word in guaranteeing the truthfulness of the church’s proclamation. That kind of authority is claimed by the Roman Catholic Church. We who are of Reformed persuasion believe that the church itself is subordinate to the Word of God as the norm for faith and conduct. The certainty of our doctrine does not lie in the fact of ecclesiastical proclamation but rather in its agreement with and correspondence to the Bible as God’s Word.
Over against Romanism all of Protestantism testifies that the certainty of doctrine or dogma does not rely upon the authority of the church. But when Protestants attempt an answer to the question, What is the real basis for that certainty? they split off in two directions.
The first is subjectivism. Subjectivism in all of its types seeks the ground of truth in subjective experience. This can be further subdivided into an individual and social subjectivism. Individual subjectivism looks for certainty and assurance in the personal experience of the individual Christian. Most mysticisms are of this sort. Social subjectivism finds its certainty in the experience of the Christian congregation or group. We think that the spirit of this brand of subjectivism is apparent today in many movements which seek truth in the way of a revival of earliest New Testament patterns of spiritual fellowship or in a rediscovery of the “spirit” of Christianity with a special application to modern social problems.
The fact is that subjective experience of any type can never provide the certainty we need, nor can it ever serve as a valid norm or standard. True enough, such people trace their subjective experience back to the influence and work of the Holy Spirit, claiming that this endows their feelings with the character of assured truth. The good intentions of such people are not in question, but even an appeal to the Holy Spirit in this fashion does not yet provide a sound criterion by which we can distinguish between that which really comes from the Spirit of God and that which rises out of our sinful hearts. In experience as such definite assurance is often lacking. and it cannot serve as a valid norm.
For that reason subjectivism is marked by a reluctance or an unwillingness to hold with finality anything as authoritatively true. At most, the views of outstanding believers or the creeds of the church are credited with a certain kind of moral authority. Nor can the attempt to overcome the individualism of subjectivism by an appeal to the religious experience of the entire group succeed because one can only evaluate the truthfulness of that group experience according to his own individual feelings and opinions.
The other direction in Protestantism, the Scriptural, confesses that the basis for the certainty of church doctrine lies in the Word of God. What God has spoken is the truth. It is .fixed and certain. The certainty of dogma lies only in its agreement with the Word of God. No doubt the church may err in its proclamation of dogma. This has happened in its history. In spite of this possibility the Word remains “living and active, and sharper than any two–edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The living, powerful Word of God itself corrects the true church and drives her to reformation!
Some have objected that this is simply the counter position to subjectivism, that it is a kind of “objectivism” equally vulnerable to a rational refutation. This is not the case. Objectivism denies the existence of a real connection or relationship between the subject and the object, that is, between the Word of God and those who confess it.
Indeed, if there is no living, loving relationship and therefore no vital connection between the Word and the believer, the Word cannot be rightly understood. It will remain strange and unfamiliar to us. We can confess the truth of the Word only when that Word itself arouses faith and conversion in us and we by faith own a living attachment to God’s Word. One must recognize the need for and the reality of the opening of our hearts and the enlightenment of our understanding by the Spirit and the Word. This change or conversion in the believing subject does not mean, however, that he makes an original contribution to the content of the confession of the church.
DOCTRINE: DOGMA PROCLAIMED BY THE CHURCH
Doctrine as dogma is officially proclaimed by the church. It is usually put down in certain creedal statements, often called the standards or the symbols of the church. The church dares to call this “the true and complete doctrine of salvation,” and to require of its membership allegiance to it.
It must be conceded that the scope of Scripture and of the chnrch‘s dogmatic proclamations is not identical. It is possible that at a given time in the history of the church a certain truth present in Scripture is not proclaimed to be dogma either because it has not yet been discovered or that there is no need for such proclamation. Quite often the urgency to proclaim a given truth as the official doctrine of the church is furnished by the threat of heresy or the opposition of those who are hostile to the church.
For doctrine to become dogma requires formal ecclesiastical proclamation. Biblicism denies the right of the church to make such a proclamation. It resists the idea of its necessity as well. The biblicist likes to say that if one will only repeat the content of Scripture in Scripture’s own words he will have no need for an officially proclaimed church doctrine. Both the right and the need of the church to proclaim dogma must be understood and maintained over against the biblicist, even though his love for and loyalty to the Bible is appreciated.
Since the very existence of the church is due to the working of the Word itself, the right to establish confessional statements as authoritative must he found in Scripture. To do that we ought to note the following:
a. Scripture is not a book full of ready–made statements or formulations of faith or doctrine. The truth is revealed in connection with certain times, situations and people. This does not mean that these times, situations, or persons determine the content or validity of the truth revealed, however.
b. It is necessary that the truth revealed in Scripture be seen and known by us in its inner structural relationship in order that we may most consistently and sincerely confess it. This cannot be achieved by individual effort alone. It is the task and responsibility of the church as a whole. There ought to be a common, total effort by the church to enter upon the truth of God’s Word which Christ alone can open for us (“Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth” [Rev. 5:9, 10]). That this can only he done by the church as a whole is indicated in Ephesians 3:17–19: “. . . that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge . . . .”
c. This common task follows also from the fact that the Word of God is not addressed to individuals but to the church, to which the Word is entrusted.
d. The church is required to testify openly to the truth as truth for all ages, and it must uphold and maintain her against all kinds of unbelieving and ungodly ideas and forces as they appear in different times in history. The right to declare doctrine as dogma is part of the ongoing obligation of the church to be relevant. Therefore the Bible calls the church “the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15). This does not mean that the truth as such depends upon the church—the truth of God as the only firm foundation has no need for such help! God’s truth rests directly and immediately on God Himself. But in this world the truth finds in the church that fellowship which devotedly and lovingly cherishes and upholds her.
e. For the fulfillment of this task Christ has promised the leading of the Holy Spirit (“But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things . . .” John 14:26a: “and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” Matt. 28:20b; cf. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day XVIII, 47).
There are also practical reasons for the framing of church confessions. Already early after the death of the apostles, the church shows a need to express a main point (the Trinity) of the truth of God in a creed. It did this in the so-called Apostles’ Creed. It served two purposes thereby: it sought to preserve the unity of the church within and to testify to the world without.
The confessions of the church do not put the Scriptures into the background. On the contrary, they save the church from the danger of one-sided and arbitrary uses of certain Bible truth as this is found in sectarian movements, which are often grouped around a single leader and a narrow emphasis upon a single idea or teaching.
The church must never forget that she is subject to the Word and that she has no authority in herself. All church authority is derived from the Word of God. She exists only by virtue of the Word of God. If that is kept in mind the church will never intrude between the Word and the believer so that the church stands in the way to obscure the authority of the Bible. The authority of the church must serve the truth and must make easy its approach to us.
To help with discussion:
1. Why are the “tulip doctrines” called by some “the doctrines of grace”? 2. Why has the word dogma and its adjective, dogmatic, become both unfamiliar and unpopular today? Why does modern mall shy away from being “dogmatic” in matters of the faith? 3. What is the nature of ecclesiastical authority in contrast, say, with the magisterial authority of the government? 4. Is the Belgic Confession subjectivistic when it says that we receive the books of the Bible as canonical “not so much because the Church receives and approves them as such, but more especially because the Holy Spirit witnesses in our hearts that they are from God” (Art. V)? 5. Do you sec a relationship between some subjectivisms and the selfish tendencies of the sinful heart? 6. Does the church demand perfect understanding of its creeds for those who seek admission to membership? What is the proper standard for good judgment as to a given person‘s acceptability? 7. Do you see traces of biblicism on the current religious scene? Does this account for the evident dislike of some for “catechism preaching”? 8. In our opinion texts such as Revelation 5:9, 10 indicate that only Christ can open the Scriptures for us. Do you agree? What does this mean for the believing Bible reader? 9. Some say that there is no “propositional truth” in Scripture. Does that mean that there are no simple, direct statements of a doctrinal or ethical character in the Bible?LESSON 2
In our previous lesson we discussed the nature of Reformed doctrine as dogma (the official doctrinal pronouncement of the church), its certainty and. its proclamation as such. We go on now to the question as to the content of Christian doctrine, and, from there, to other related matters.
THE CONTENT OF DOCTRINE
In her dogma the church expresses that which God has revealed to us in His Word. The content of the church‘s doctrine must be in agreement with the content of the Word of God.
The Bible is an amazingly perfect and profound book! It really defies all easy attempts to reduce its revelation to a single theme, and yet we believe it to be important to offer an answer to the question, What is the primary subject of God‘s speech in Scripture? Our answer is not intended to suggest that other biblical matters are therefore unimportant. No Word of God could be without the highest significance!
It seems to us that we must see in Scripture, the Book of the Covenant. a primary concern for the true relationship between God and His creature. This relationship has been established by Him in His Covenant. Because He Himself reveals that relationship to us in His Word, this revelation makes Him knowable to us and gives us light by which to see and know His created handiwork even as He speaks about Himself in His relationship to the creature, so He speaks a?out all of creation in its relationship to Him. Scripture does not Just talk about things in a general and unrelated manner. It wants us to see things in their relationship to God. And It does that in order to encourage faith. The Bible is a book with a very definite and consuming purpose. It wills that we believe Yahweh, the God of the Covenant!
This is the point at which we ought to remark that Scripture is therefore not a book of science nor does it offer scientific pronouncements. It does speak about all of creation in its relationship to God, but it does that in the language of everyday experience. This our highly-trained television meteorologists also do as they tell us when the sun will “set” tomorrow.
We must always keep this in mind in our daily use of Scripture. This is not to say that the Bible does not illumine all of creation or that every branch of science ought not to reckon with it. There is a Christian science which in all of its branches examines the whole world in the light of God’s Word. Christian science is not merely scientific endeavor attempted by Christians. It is science which takes into account the data of the Word of God, and honors such data as such. Because Christian science possesses data which unbelieving science does not own, it can come to different results and conclusions than unbelieving science.
But we are not discussing science now. We are talking about the doctrine or dogma of the church. The content of this doctrine must agree With Scripture, with the truth which God has revealed in His Word about Himself and about His creatures in their mutual, covenantal relationship.
A DEFINITION OF CHURCH DOGMA
Upon the basis of the preceding we can repeat this as a definition of ecclesiastical dogma. An ecclesiastical dogma is a truth which God has revealed in His Word concerning Himself and concerning His creatures in their mutual relationship, a truth which the church in obedience to the authority of the Word proclaims and confesses both within and without its own fellowship.
THEOLOGY AS SCIENCE
The place of theology as a science in the life of the Christian community has provoked some controversy. Theology has been called “the queen of sciences,” and Christians have often tended to reward their brightest theologians with highest honors. I remember a theological professor who was not afraid to say that theological seminary professors were together “the locomotive which pulls the entire church.”
Dogma or church doctrine as such is to be distinguished from scientific theology in this sense that dogma is the fruit of a non–theoretical, non-scientific reflection on the part of the church. The church must stand in the very center of life, reflecting upon God‘s truth and confessing this truth in her dogma, which as such carries real authority.
The task of science is quite different. Science in its several branches reflects upon phenomena discoverable in this world. Every branch of science directs its attention to a particular side of the cosmos, concentrating upon that particular aspect even though it looks at such phenomena their connection with all other aspects of reality. For example, physics looks at the physical aspect, biology at the biological, psychology at the psychological, jurisprudence at the juridical, etc.
It must be remembered that although scientists achieve certain results and conclusions they cannot make their results authoritative in any of life‘s spheres. In some particular school of scientific endeavor certain these may be established as recognized presuppositions, but in other areas of life, such as church, state, society, and family, science has no right to enforce its will.
Theological science has its own particular task. It investigates the relationship between God and all of creation. Its results, like other scientific discoveries, are never as such authoritative for the church, although the church may and does make use of these results.
Theological science has four principal areas of investigation. These branches may be arranged in four groupings:
a. There is first of all the Word of God. Theology searches the Scriptures, recognizing them as the norm for our faith and realizing that it is in the Bible that we have God‘s primary and most necessary revelation concerning the relationship between God and His creation. This grouping is sometimes called the bibliological It includes such studies as canonics (investigation into the canonical character of Scripture as a whole and of the several books of the Bible individually), translation of Scripture, exegesis (the principles and practice of Bible interpretation).
b. Then there is the church to which God has entrusted His Word. The church is born out of the Word, believes the Word, and holds aloft the banner of the Word in the world. This may be called the ecclesiological grouping, and includes church history and church government.
c. The church proclaims God’s truth in her dogmas and confessions. The dogmatological grouping reflects upon church dogma in such branches as symbolics (the history and content of the several creeds of Christendom), the history of doctrine and dogmatics ( usually called in our country theology).
d. It is the task of the church to preach God‘s truth in the world. It does that by means of her offices or ministries. This diaconological grouping includes homiletics (the science of preaching), catechetics (the science of catechesis or the indoctrination of members and inquirers into the Christian faith), missionary science (the task of preparing men to undertake the calling of the church to evangelize the nations).
“DOGMATICS” AS A THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Dogmatics is one part of theological science (see c. above). It directs its attention to the church‘s dogma. Biblical dogmatics keeps in mind in all of its investigations that the Bible as God‘s Word is the norm for the church‘s confession. It does not merely look at the historical aspect of church dogma (how and when did this or that doctrinal pronouncement arise). It works critically as well. It undertakes, therefore, an investigation as to the actual correspondence of church dogma with the Word of God. For this task of a critical evaluation of the true biblical character of the church‘s doctrine the preliminary work of scientific exegesis (see a. above) is required.
But this does not imply that dogmatics does or ought to function with inherent authority in the church. The church posits its authoritative confession itself. The church may and ought to and does make use of the results of dogmatics as theological science, but it remains responsible for its own confession.
Without sincere attachment by faith to the Word of God as the infallibly inspired and normative Scripture and to the confession of the church, the dogmatician is not qualified to do his work properly. For scientific reflection upon the church‘s dogma it is also necessary that the heart be opened to the Word of God and the understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Faith is indispensable to the right pursuit of dogmatic research.
Presupposed in the investigations of scientific dogmatics is that the Word of God is the norm for the confession of the church, that the confession itself is authoritative also for the theologian, and that faith is in the heart of the theologian. Three one–sided tendencies which threaten the welfare of sound dogmatic work are to be rejected. They are; biblicism and its rejection of the confession of the historical church in favor of an exclusive preoccupation with the language of the Scriptures, traditionalism as found in the Roman Catholic Church with its wrong emphasis upon the proclamations of the church as the highest authority, and subjectivism which looks to subjective experience instead of Scripture as the source of dogma.
Dogmatics, as we have said earlier, is simply called theology or often Systematic Theology in modern parlance. The obvious confusion which this causes (the first locus in the traditional arrangement of this science is also called theology) makes us prefer the term dogmatics. We like especially its strong suggestion that the confessional statements of the church are normative and authoritative. And we are glad that the science of dogmatics brings to the church‘s dogma serious critical effort to improve its necessary agreement with the Word of God.
The science of dogmatics has traditionally set out to discover the system within which the truths of Scripture may find logical arrangement. That this is not without some danger is very evident! That it is also worthwhile is equally evident, since we must see the truth of God in its inner relationships and glorious symmetry. This systematizing work of the dogmatician, however, ought to proceed from Scripture itself, and never be forcibly imposed upon God’s Word.
DOGMATICS DEFINED
Dogmatics is the act of reflecting upon the truth which God has revealed in His Word concerning Himself and concerning His creatures in their mutual relationship as well as upon the results of that reflection which the church in obedience to the authority of that Word confesses.
THE DIVISIONS OF DOGMATICS
We are reviewing the main lines of Reformed Dogmatics in these lessons. Since we believe that dogmatics is the science which studies the truth conccrning Cod and His creature in their mutual relationship, and which investigates that truth as confessed by the church, our treatment ought to proceed from a consideration of the doctrine of God Himself, go on to the creature, and return to Him. This is the order of the Belgic Confession too. We will consider consecutively therefore;
- The revelation of God;
- The being of God;
- Creation;
- The Fall;
- The Redemption through Christ;
- The Order of Salvation;
- The Church;
- The End of All Things.