What is Reformed Theology?

From what I've read so far, Reformed Theology is that system of scriptures that primarily teaches God's Sovereignty with comparison to Human Responsibility. So, a Reformed Christian is a Christian that believes that the Bible teaches the teachings (or doctrines) usually associated with the historical event of The Reformation. People who affirm Refo rmed Theology as what the Bible teaches have been traditionally called 'Calvinists.'  Calvinism isn't a denomination of Christianity as one would think of Baptists, Methodists, Anabaptists, Assemblies of God, and so on. Rather, it's a system of thought or a theology, a way of reckoning the scriptures. So, you can have Christians who call themselves Reformed Baptists and so on (Christians in different denominations that affirm Reformed Theology). So, a Reformed Christian is someone who believes the Bible teaches teachings&nb sp;associated with the Reformation. This is sort of the same way we call ourselves Trinitarian. But we don't call Trinitarianism a particular denomination or group or class of Christians. Rather, a Trinitarian believes that the Bible teaches that God is triune.

Reformed Christians are traditionally called 'Calvinists' after a theologian named John Calvin, who wrote a work in Church History (The Institutes of the Christian Religion) that includes these teachings. He is recognized with these teachings because&nb sp;his particular treatment of them was so prolific and thought-through. Because of his book, his name is associated with these teachings as 'Calvinism.' However, Reformed Christianity didn't begin with John Calvin. Martin Luther, who is associated with starting Protestantism, was as Calvinist in his theology as John Calvin was! You can say the same about Augustine of Hippo, who lived in the 4th century many hundreds of years earlier. So, it would be an anachronistic fallacy to call it Calvinism and associated with men born before John Calvin. But, it is associated with the Reformation, the event in the history of Christianity, lead by Martin Luther, where the Church began to put an emphasis back on the Scripture's authority rather than the authority of church leaders. Even though Martin Luther was born 50 years or so before John Calvin, he said about Calvin and his works, "Now here's a theologian with hands and feet!" And this is the guy that was associated with starting Protestantism!

Think of it This Way:
Most Christians in America today would think of themselves as Evangelical Christians. Do we really understand what Evangelicalism is?

Evangelicalism - it is a protestant movement which began in my country, Great Britain,  in the 1730s that considers its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion (or being "born again"); some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for biblical authority; and an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Definition taken right from Wikipedia.)

So, an Evangelical is a Christian who puts an emphasis in four areas of their teaching or system of Bible-thought: (1) Conversion, (2) Activism, (3) Biblicism, and (4) Crucicentrism. This is the basis of Evangelicalism. These are four distinctives, or priorities, if you will, in their Bible-teaching. So, when listening to an Evangelical preacher's sermon many times you'll hear him very slowly creep into a message about how someone should be saved and come to Christ (because they emphasize (1) conversion), or you'll hear them all throughout their teaching basing their point on scripture (because they emphasize (3) Biblicism).

Now, let's look at Reformed Christianity, or Calvinist Christianity as it's often referred to:
Since Reformed Christianity has an emphasis on the Sovereignty of God and Human Responsibility, its major distinctives or priorities are: (1) Total Depravity, (2) Unconditional Election, (3) Limited Atonement, (4) Irresistible Grace, and (5) Perseverance of the Saints. These are also called the 5 Points of Calvinism. So, someone who would say that these teachings are what the Bible says is sometimes called a 5 Point Calvinist. These teachings also have another historical name - the Doctrines of Grace. The word 'doctrine' just means teaching! So, the 'doctrine' of the Trinity just means 'the teaching of the Trinity.'

So, it's a form of Christianity that puts an emphasis on these five areas. There is a deep history that is associated with how we have these five emphases that I hope to describe in another post later on! But, in my next post I hope to very straightforwardly break down the 5 teachings of Calvinism and how a Reformed Christian derives these 5 teachings from Scripture. :-) Also, we'll delve into its heavy scriptural foundation and Biblical basis. For example, Evangelical Christianity is often associated with John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, and so on. Well, Reformed Christianity is associated with the bottom half of Romans 8, Romans 9, Romans 10, and Romans 11.

Introduction 

I'm very gradually being introduced to Reformed Theology. So, this is meant to be a very loving introduction to Calvinism for everyone else, too. :-) I hope and pray that you are edified with the same loving care that God's shown me. Also, I've noticed that there really are no good introductions to Reformed Theology! It's really a shame because it descends from such a rich Christian heritage of loving pastors and teachers such as Charles Haddon Spurgeon, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, and so on.

However, there really is no way to be introduced to what it is or, from really searching around, know what it is without learning copious amounts of Church history or books on systems of theology and the like. So, as I'm introduced to it I'm going to try to track that progress and record it on my blog here. So this is really my introduction to Reformed Theology as well as an introduction I write for other fellow believers.

I'd like to also keynote the controversies it is causing today. I get that Calvinism gets a bad rep. today. However, mostly all of the 'bad' that I'm seeing is on the opposing side. I've seen a lot of hatred come from those who oppose Calvinism. And when I ask them why, they have no other reason than Calvinists themselves, their arguements against the theology or shallow or unbased, and/or they don't really know or understand what Calvinism is yet alone why its so bad. They just see its effects and judge it based on that.

However, I'd like to focus on Calvinism as a system of theology or thought and Calvinism or Reformed Theology in the Bible and what God has to say about the topic rather than just man. This is sorely needed, in my opinion. A lot of the troubles people are having with the reformed system of Bible-thought is that they think its alien to the scriptures and something being brought in, not many Calvinists are really supporting it from scripture but are primarily using Church History first before Scripture (when the Body of Christ responds best to the God-given Holy Bible and Church History to back it up, in priority), and are being told that they're to join the 'Calvinist' club -- not that this is a Bible-based teaching to be believed by all believers.

No one seems to be making things simple for everyone else! No one really knows the Five Point Teaching of Calvinism very well enough to give scriptural reasons for the teachings as to why it should be believed by all the Body! So, this is my attempt on digesting these teachings and showing why they're to be believed by the whole Body.

* I put the introduction at the bottom so that people would read the most important part of this blog first. I didn't want to scare anyone away by my introduction and get the wrong idea before they got the point of it - the definition.