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. 

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“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.