Sunday, November 29, 2009

Can Baptists use the adjective "Reformed"

Bob Gonzales addresses the issue in his post of the same name May Baptist Churches Use the Adjective “Reformed”? The Ongoing Debate. Dr. Gonzalez gives a brief intro to the subject in response to those who not only refuse to "permit" Baptists to use the adjective "reformed" but essentially declare baptist churches to not be true churches and therefore baptists to be outside of the body of Christ by virtue of not being a part of a legitimate "visible" church. The debate should raise an important question for all of us who are Reformed. If the marks of a "true church" are the famous "The Word rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered and discipline rightly applied", then half of us will always be wrong on the issue of baptism and therefore we must assume that half of our churches are not true churches. This is dangerous and divisive, and worse it is horribly prideful and arrogant.

We need to reexamine the concept of "what is the church" and stop letting people on the fringe declare most of Christianity to be illigetimate expressions of the Body of Christ. People like Dr. Clark who have written much of the Body of Christ out of legitimacy are every bit as dangerous to the Body of Christ as the most ardent fundamentalist and stray awfully close to heresy.


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