All Articles For The Power and Government of the Church

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. We now begin a study of the government of the church. When a church or group of churches departs from the truth of Scripture, this departure is often manifested in three areas—her doctrine, her worship, and her church government. Christ has specifically taught us in His Word not only what we must believe and how we must worship Him, but also how His church must be governed on this earth. It is of utmost importance that we follow these principles, striving beautifully to reflect the perfections of Christ,...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: September 1, 2005, p. 472. Two fundamental principles of Reformed church government are the autonomy of the local instituted church and the fact that a true church is called to unite with other faithful churches in a federation of churches, often referred to as a denomination. The calling of churches to federate was set forth in the previous article, over against the error of Independentism. This article continues this same subject, first considering the error of Congregationalism, since it is closely related to...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: August 2005, p. 449. Two fundamental principles of Reformed church government are the autonomy of the local instituted church and the fact that a true church is called to unite with other faithful churches in a federation of churches, often referred to as a denomination. That an instituted church is autonomous means that it is a complete picture of the body of Christ and has received from Christ the authority to preach the gospel and exercise Christian discipline. Christ from heaven is actually...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: July, 2005, p. 416. Churches err in church government not only when they allow the State to have authority in the spiritual matters of the church, but also when they pattern their church government after the governments of the nations of this world. The church is a heavenly kingdom; it is not like the kingdoms and nations of this world. Therefore, the principles of her government are markedly different from the principles that man invents and follows when building a structure according to...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: May 1, 2005, p. 351. In this series of articles we are considering some of the principles of Reformed church government. The first article was on the principle that Christ has chosen and qualified certain individuals to represent Him as special officebearers in the church. A second principle of Reformed church government has often been referred to as the autonomy of the instituted church. In this article we begin to consider what is meant by this truth. By autonomy is meant self-governing. When we say that...