The Proposed Change
My attention was recently called to continuing efforts being made in some of our communities to remove from our Christian schools any commitment to the Reformed creeds and to transform them from being specifically Reformed into more broadly “Christian” institutions, and I was asked to write a reaction to this policy.
The pressure to move in this direction may come from a number of sources. Sometimes this course is urged upon us by people who are enthusiasts for community evangelism but rather indifferent to or impatient with Reformed or any carefully studied and taught Christian doctrines. Sometimes the pressure comes from the AACS whose leaders have argued that schools, being a different “sphere” ought not to be tied to church creeds, and who have often expressed a contempt for Christian doctrines even in the church.
Although one can understand the line of argument that is advanced and appreciate the concern for wider Christian influence that is expressed by advocates of this policy I am convinced that it is wrong in principle and must prove destructive to the schools that will pursue it.
What Is the Reformed Faith?
(1) First and most fundamentally, his point of view reveals a radical misunderstanding of the Reformed faith. It plainly assumes that the Christian faith is one thing and that what we call “Reformed” is a kind of additional, optional extra, a bit of refinement or trimming that can be added on to it or left out if one is inclined to do so. But looking at our faith in this way is to completely misunderstand it. It was especially B.B. Warfield who long ago especially clearly pointed out (Calvin and Augustine, Appendix article on “The Theology of Calvin”, p. 492) that there is only one Christian faith, the faith that is taught by God’s Word, the Bible, and our Reformed or Calvinistic faith is nothing but the effort to hold and teach it correctly and completely and apply it to the whole of life. The Lord Jesus commanded us to teach men “to observe all things whatsoever.” He commanded us (Mt. 28:20). The Apostle Paul, obediently carrying out that purpose of the Lord, said, “I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). The Apostle Peter pointed out that in this gospel knowledge of Christ we are granted all things that pertain unto life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Given, and committed to believing, preaching, teaching and living that whole gospel, may any Christian deliberately set out to cut that down to something less in the church, in the school or anywhere else? Can we expect any Christian activity to be made stronger and more effective by weakening its Christianity? Isn’t it foolish to think one can increase the influence of Christian teachings by mixing them with errors?
Machen’s Conviction
J. Gresham Machen, likely the greatest defender of evangelical Christianity on this continent in his time saw this point very clearly. Although he warmly appreciated the efforts of fellow evangelical Christians in many traditions, he was convinced that the most effective defence of the Christian faith was not that of a broad coalition of such Christians, but rather a specifically Reformed effort. When offered the presidency of a broadly evangelical university, he wrote, “. . . . in the presence of . . . . a common enemy those who unfeighedly believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ are drawn into a new warmth of fellowship and a new zeal for common service. Nevertheless, thoroughly consistent Christianity, to my mind, is found only in the Reformed or Calvinistic Faith: and consistent Christianity, I think, is the Christianity easiest of defend” (Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen, p. 428). Later, at the opening of the independent seminary which he had helped to found (Westminster) Machen welcomed students from various churches, but went on to say, “But we cannot consent to impoverish our message by setting forth less than we find the Scriptures to contain: and we believe that we shall best serve our fellow–Christians, from whatever church they may come, if we set forth not some vague greatest common measure among various creeds, but that great historic Faith that has come down through Augustine and Calvin to our own Presbyterian Church (p. 457). Does it make sense for us in our Christian school program to “impoverish our” education “by setting forth less than we find the Scriptures to contain?”
A Lesson From Experience
Some twenty–five years ago when we arrived in Seattle, Washington, we heard much about the frustrations and disappointments that had been experienced there by the members of our small congregation who had first helped to establish and tried to cooperate in such a broadly “Christian” school only to find it developing in directions considerably at variance with their own aims and hopes. Their bitter experience convinced them that a Christian school must be squarely and firmly founded on the full teaching of God’s Word as we in our Reformed faith try to hold it if it is to endure and prosper. Their new school, they decided, must be committed to the Reformed faith and the creeds which defined it. Although non–Reformed homes might send their children to it they would not be permitted to control its foundation or policy. May other of our Christian schools learn that lesson without having to discover by bitter experience that what is not well–founded on God’s truth cannot be expected to endure and prosper (Luke 6:46–49).
