All Articles For Gritters, Barry

Previous article in this series: November 15, 2015, p. 77. The church that is Reformed is also a confessional church. That is, the church officially embraces, genuinely believes, and actively teaches the Reformed confessions in her life. For the PRCA, these creeds are the Three Forms of Unity and the ancient ecumenical creeds in these confessions.1 We have shown so far that to be Reformed is to be Covenantal, to be Calvinistic, and to have a proper view of the Church. The fourth “C” I am proposing is Confessional. That is, if a person properly identifies himself as Reformed, he...

Previous article in this series: October 15, 2015, p. 29. Am I Reformed? Is my church Reformed? These are important questions for those who identify as such. And these are the questions we have been answering in this series of editorials—partly because being Reformed is somewhat faddish these days, and many “New Calvinists” are not Reformed, even if they make that claim. It’s not that they are as fake as the “Siwss-Made” watch my brother bought for five dollars in Mexico when we were boys (no, in our excitement we did not notice the misspelling), a watch certainly not Swiss-made...

Previous article in this series: October 1, 2015, p. 5. As a Reformed Christian, I love the church of Jesus Christ. And love for the church commits me, as it does all Reformed Christians, to devotion to the church. So much is devotion to God’s church a part of being Reformed that, if I did not love the church, my profession of being Reformed would be empty. We saw last time that this is the teaching of the Reformed creeds. The True Church A Reformed believer’s love for the church, however, is not a love for any church. His love...

Previous article in this series: May 15, 2015, p. 365. Introduction For some Christians these days it’s almost trendy to claim a Reformed identity. But being Reformed takes more than claiming “I am Reformed,” just as being a Christian does not come from saying “I am Christian.” Being trendy is not what we are about. All of us who have “Reformed” in the name of our church need to be concerned that we are indeed Reformed. In these editorials1 I have suggested that to summarize accurately what it means to be a Reformed Christian, we must emphasize and be committed...

At the PR seminary this past June, as takes place every year, the Standard Bearer Staff (all the writers) met to plan the next volume year, which begins with this issue—October 1. There are very few changes for the upcoming year. A few (younger) ministers have been asked to write guest articles. One writer, Rev. C. Griess, has asked for a year off. Otherwise, the writers and rubrics remain the same. Welcome back! The SB staff approved two special issues. First, our annual Reformation issue, coming soon. This year, 2015, the writers will treat the history leading up to the...

Previous article in this series: May 1, 2015, p. 340. There is one more implication of Calvinism that deserves treatment on its own. Last time we saw that Calvinism’s doctrines of grace, genuinely embraced, will lead to humility—humble worship, humble assurance, and humble treatment of others. That is, proud worship, proud assurance, and haughty treatment of others may be traced back to a counterfeit Calvinism. We also saw that genuine Calvinism leads to those Christian graces of godly living, and not to what opponents of Calvinism charge. Being militant Calvinism is also militant. In fact, militancy is not so much an implication of Calvinism...

Previous article in this series: April 15, 2015, p. 317. Introduction Since summarizing what it means to be Reformed is really summarizing what it means to be Christian, we are necessarily brief in this series of editorials. So far, we have said that to be Reformed is 1) to embrace the beautiful truth of God’s gracious covenant of friendship, and 2) that this covenant is to be understood Calvinistically. That is, the “doctrines of grace,” or the “Five Points of Calvinism,” and the “Five Solas” of the Reformation are the necessary and controlling biblical framework for understanding the covenant. In this...

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2015, p. 292. More than the Five Points Calvinism is more than the “TULIP” of the Five Points. Identification with Calvin’s thought is at least an embrace of the Five Points. Real Calvinism is not “Four Point Calvinism” in which one denies, for example, limited atonement. Real Calvinism is also a genuine embrace of the Five Points. That needs to be said with an exclamation point, because a flurry of books have been published recently to explain Calvinism, but accomplish only to explain away Calvinism. Those who outrightly reject Calvinism are honest. But these...

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2015, p. 269. Introduction What it means to be Reformed, as we have seen so far, is to believe heartily the biblical doctrine of the covenant, to confess that truth openly, and to live it with greatest joy. Covenant! This is Reformed. And Christian. In this 90th anniversary year of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America (1925-2015), we are reflecting on the heritage God has given to us as a Reformed denomination. There are many things that we could say about the PRCA but, being Reformed Christians, what we want most to say is...

Previous article in this series: March 1, 2015, p. 245. From God’s covenant flows everything! If God’s covenant is the heart of the Christian faith and life, as well as the heart of what it means to be Reformed, one would expect that from this central truth come many other truths. As a matter of fact, from the covenant comes everything. This first “C” in our five identifying characteristics of a Reformed church leads to everything else in the Christian and Reformed faith. In the effort to clarify what is Reformed, we can say “covenant” is the heading under which all...