Covenantalism and Reformed Presuppositons

The Reformers came out of the darkness of unbelief, and particularly the unbelief of the Roman Catholic Church, into the light of the Gospel. They realized that, despite the world around them (or even what was called the "Church") they had to stand on the basis of Pauline truth. They were not alone. The basic Gospel truths which they received from the Bible were given of God, held by the Apostles and early church, and echoed to some degree by men such as Augustine. The Reformation spread from England to Bohemia to Germany, Switzerland, and France. The Reformers realized that the Bible was true and not a lie, and those who opposed it; no matter what they called themselves or how gloriously they were heralded by the world, were liers who stood not on the side of truth. They valiantly fought for the Pauline and Apostolic faith as they saw it. The historical witness and stand of the Reformers has proven of invaluable benefit to Christians today. BUT, they were not the Apostles. They were a shining light in testimony to the truth of God, BUT they were not that truth. The held an infallible Bible, BUT they did not proclaim it infallibly. What I am trying to say is this: if in any point the Reformers contradicted the word of God; the Apostolic, Pauline, infallible Scriptures are to take precidence; since, as they put it, Scripture is the ONLY rule of faith and practice (i.e., SOLA SCRIPTURA). It is important to both uphold the Biblical truths displayed and defended in the Reformation, AND to also set aside what is not Biblical truth, lest we set up the Reformers above the Scriptures. It is important to realize the context of the Reformation in order to help us to properly benefit from it. The Reformers came out of the Catholic Church. Originally, they wanted to Reform the Catholic Church. But eventually, they came to see that that Church is ruled by the Pope, and as it is with the Devil who rules this world, the Pope keeps his goods in peace. NO one is going to take authority away from the Pope, not even if the Scriptures necessitate it, because the Pope will not allow it. Add to this the Sacramental traditions of Rome, which make the Word of God to no effect, and you begin to see what the Reformers saw: they had to "come out of her". But when they began to set up Biblical Churches as best as they knew how, they carried with them certain assumptions and presuppositions which they obtained from the Roman Catholic system. These beliefs have the ability to seriously hinder fidelity to Divine Revelation (i.e., the Bible) and the NT pattern for the Church. One of these beliefs was that of a State Church versus a regenerate Church membership. Another was the belief that Sacraments can help or somehow add to faith, or else serve some kind of Covenantal purpose. Yet another was Covenantalism, which was a dispensational (really, an anti-Dispensationalist view; so I used "dispensational" showing that it is a view about how God deals with man over the ages or dispensations, hence "dispensational" versus "Dispensationalism" which is a seperate and distinct view of how God works in dispensations) view that kind of worked together the State Church, infant baptism as the sign of membership into the Covenant, and Amillenialism (the belief that the Millenium is not a literal thousand years). And these groundless traditional assumptions and presuppositions of the Roman Catholic system are contrary to the entire idea of the New Testament. I will try to deal with this in further posts, but let me summarize my statements here: in order to be a Biblical Christian with a Biblical view of Christianity, there is a certain amount of Reformed teaching which you MUST accept, because it is clearly Biblical; however, there is also a lot of Reformed teaching (such as the common sacramental & Covenantal presuppositions of the Reformers) which you MUST reject, because it is simply neither part nor parcel of what the Scripture teaches. Here are a couple of good links on Biblical errors which are found in Covenant Theology and in some Reformed teaching: Dr. Chafer on Covenant Theology & The Subtle Errors of Covenant Theology. It might also be beneficial to check out Jim McClarty's Sermon in the "Plank of Wood" video below all of the posted items.