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Reformation Sunday is
October 29th, 2006. CE&P produces an annual bulletin insert
to commemorate and remind PCA congregations of our reformed
heritage. The insert is attractively designed and is sized to be
5.5" x 8.5". Below is the text for your preview. Order
deadline is September 30, 2006.
Click here to order
“True to the Scriptures, the Reformed
Faith, and the Great Commission.”
This motto, adopted by the first
Presbyterian Church in America General Assembly in 1973, not only
set the stage for the establishment of a new denomination, but also
resonated the purpose and catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.
At the heart of both historic events, the Protestant Reformation in
the sixteenth century and the founding of the PCA, was the matter of
God’s authority and instruction to his Church and Kingdom.
This conviction that led to the
establishment of the PCA is a direct echo of the words of the
reformer Martin Luther, standing before Rome’s pope, under pressure
to recant of his charges against the Church of Rome, “If the emperor
desires a plain answer, I will give it to him. It is impossible for
me to recant unless I am proved to be wrong by the testimony of the
Scripture. My conscience is bound to the Word of God. It is neither
safe nor honest to act against one’s conscience. Here I stand. God
help me. I cannot do otherwise.”
“True to the Scriptures, the Reformed
Faith, and the Great Commission.”
“True to the Scriptures…” At the
center of the Protestant Reformation and the PCA’s allegiance to
Christ is the Bible, God’s written word. It is our standard for
faith and life. Peter wrote, “And we have something more sure, the
prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a
lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning
star rises in your heart, knowing this first of all, that no
prophecy of Scriptures comes from one’s own interpretations. For no
prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from
God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,” ( 2 Peter
1:19-21).
In the opening paragraph of the
historic Westminster Confession of Faith we read, “…Therefore it
pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manner, to reveal
Himself, and to declare that His will unto His Church; and
afterwards for the better preserving and propagating the truth, and
for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against
the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the
world, to commit the same wholly unto writing: which maketh the Holy
Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God’s revealing
His will unto his people being now ceased.” In paragraph four, “The
authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed
and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church;
but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and
therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.”
Further, “The infallible rule of interpretation of the Scripture is
Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the
true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but
one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more
clearly.” And finally, “The supreme judge by which all controversies
of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils,
opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits,
are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no
other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”
“…True to the Reformed Faith…”Growing
out of the first part of the PCA motto comes an intentional
commitment to the Reformed Faith. The Reformed Faith is linked to
the Protestant Reformation as a newborn to its mother. The doctrines
of the Protestant Reformation were taken directly from the word of
God, or as the WCF states, “or by good and necessary consequence may
be deduced from Scripture…” Whereas the Church of Rome had gotten it
wrong about God, the Reformers were committed to getting it right;
hence their complete reliance on Scripture. John Calvin, whose
theology provides the foundation for our understanding of Scripture,
was determined to articulate a theology based completely on the Word
written as the Holy Spirit gave him understanding. It has been said
that Calvin spoke with the clearest of voices regarding biblical
doctrine. His Institutes of the Christian Religion, first appearing
in 1536, has been called the clearest expression of biblically
reformed theology. These institutes have been called the “ablest
exposition of the teachings of Scripture” by B.K. Kuiper. The
Reformers, developing their commitment to God and his Word,
emphasized that we are not free to believe whatever we choose about
God but rather what God reveals to us in his Word, by His Spirit.
Another way of stating “being reformed in doctrine” is simply “being
true to the Scriptures.”
“…And the Great Commission.” What is
the great commission? “Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you,” Matthew 28:19. Those words express God’s will for
his church while linking it solidly with the Scriptures. To be a
church of the Word requires a proper view of the sacraments, here
baptism, and obedience in teaching all things, his whole counsel.
As we think about the heritage of the
Reformation, our challenge is to demonstrate the commitment and
allegiance seen in the lives of men such as: Martin Luther, Ulrich
Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox. Today’s church faces similar
challenges: lack of knowledge of the Scriptures, privately
interpreting or reinterpreting the Scriptures to fit their purpose,
selectively using certain passages while discarding others,
squeezing the Scriptures through the grid of contemporary thought
thereby changing its intent, co-mingling the Scriptures with the
“wisdom of the world,” and not being clear on the Scripture’s
message regarding a biblically reformed world and life view. William
Edgar, in Truth in All Its Glory, has clearly written, “The Bible
(Scripture) is the voice of God, speaking to the conscience by means
of the text.”
Copyright © 2006 PCA Christian
Education & Publications.
Note: Several packs of the 2002 and 2003 editions are still
available.
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