Reformed Faith

Oh it has been a while since I first heard of Reformed faith. What is it? The first time I heard it from a pastor who proudly, or almost arrogantly pronounced that he was 'Reformed', and I was not impressed. He is just another those kind of guys who is very proud of their denomination, like the fundamentalists, I thought.

Then a friend introduced me to R. C. Sproul's book "Chosen By God." A very small book, but it blew me off my feet.

What is reformed faith? I think for those who knows it would think that I am very annoying, and for those who do not I am even more annoying. In short, it is the part of theology that mainly deals with the doctrine of salvation. The word comes from Reformation, which is an effort started by Luther, Calvin and the others alike, to reform the church from her erroneous teaching concerning how a person can be saved. It is the teaching that God from the beginning planned the creation, the fall, and the redemption. The final decision of whether a person gets saved lays in God's hand. It is an effort to seek and search for the answers of the questions that every unbelievers have. Almost at every Bible study, I will hear unbelievers, or believers alike, asking the question: Why did God put the forbidden fruit in the garden? Or, why did God create such a miserable world. And, yes, there were many attempts to answer questions like that, but the reformed faith pushes the questions further and further until we hit the wall of God's answer: "Non-Ya". "Non-Ya Business!" "Who are you to ask me this question?" "Can't the Potter take a lump of clay and make anything he wants?" Reformed faith faces these answers in the Bible straight on, with no ambiguity. We will not answer unbelievers like: well, God created us, but he gives us free will. Or, he created us, but he also loves us and gives us salvation. Not that these answers are completely wrong, but they really do not answer the question: Why did God put the tree there if He KNEW that we would fall? Do you see what I mean? If God put the tree there first, then pity me later with salvation, and if His intention were evil, like a kid who beats up another weak one and pretends to offer bandage afterwards. No thank you, keep your salvation, you got me into this in the first place anyway. I was a born-sinner, I am so sinful that there is nothing I can do but sin, and you made me this way, so why should I need your help?

These type of questions would normally be avoided at all costs in all Bible studies. After all, how many Bible study leaders know how to answer these type of questions? And I am a product that comes from this kind of Bible study and preachings. Until I found reformed faith. There is answer, although we may not like it. The non-ya answer is based on God's incomparable glory, His absolute sovereignty, His unsearchable wisdom, His unknowable path, His unchangeable plan, and His un-reproachable holiness. That is the God whom we worship and bow down. No, the world will not like this answer, the unbelievers, or even many believers hate this kind of answers. But answers like these are abound in Isaiah, in Romans, in Job, in Genesis, in Exodus, and throughout the entire Bible.

Daniel 4:35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?"

No one, no one can say to him "What have you done?" Who are you to question God? Who are you trying to understand His ways? Theoretically, you will have to be God to understand God, but you cannot be God, because there is only One God. (Deut. 6:4) And by definition God knows all things, so he cannot learn. So the fact that you don't know all things shows that you are not God, and you will have to learn from God.

In my entire life, growing in evangelical churches, I have never, for even once, heard the teachings like that. Not that it's not in the Bible, but no one would talk about it. WHY NOT??? When I found reformed faith, I was therefore both happy and angry. Happy that I found the anchor of my faith, angry that no one in my entire life have even try to give me that anchor. I say anchor because this is indeed what holds my faith in place when things are not going well in life. How can you trust in God when He is in control of everything and He IS NOT helping you out?? What has He been up to? What's Up, God? Why does this and that happen to me? Where were you when I suffer? "NON-YA" "You have no right to question me." Answered God to Job, who lost everything he had. Who are you to ask me?

This is the God that we have, and our salvation is solely depended on Him. Our salvation is not simply a formula, "if thou doest this, thou shalt be saved." Yes, there are many these type of 'formulas" given in the Bible, if you will believe on the Lord Jesus, confess Him as Lord with your mouth, believe in your heart that he has risen from the dead, you will be saved." Yes, Paul uses these formulas, but they are not something that we can manipulate God with. Too many people in the church think of these type of formulas as "mechanical" or "mathematical". If I do this, and I will get that. If I believe, and I will be saved, and I can't lose my salvation. Too many times these type of formulas are misused in the church. What many people are overlooking is the fact that God chose you, gave you life when you were dead in sins (Eph. 2:1), helped you to meet the conditions of these formulas in the first place, then you were able to meet the requirements of faith. No one can wave this ticket of formula in God's face and say, "I believed you and was baptized, now let me into heaven." The Jews did it, and they were destroyed as a nation." Now if we gentiles do that again, how much more will God's anger be upon us?

No, reformed faith is not everything. Reformed faith is not the boat itself. The Church is the boat, the church is Noah's Ark in which we have salvation. I am in no wise trying to condemn other denominations, and in fact reformed faith is in every denomination. There is reformed baptist, reformed methodist, reformed episcopal, reformed charismatic, reformed non-denominational, you name it. Reformed is not the boat, but it is the anchor of the boat. Without it, we have no stability in our faith. Yes, there might be people who brags about the anchor all the time, who try to go out in the lake with the anchor without the boat, and that's silly. But it is pitiful for a boat not to have an anchor. I was one of them. Now I found my anchor, and that's why I am sharing it. May God bless you.