What the Word Implies: Of Systematic Theology and The Reformation

The French historically were one of the three most zealous of Roman Catholic countries, together with Italy and Spain (though Italy quizzically at times has hated Rome, as during some regions in the later Renaissance). Machievelli was not big on Rome, for instance. Nevertheless, Rome has attacked the Protestant faithful on numerous occasions, even anathematizing the gospel of Christ in 1543 at the Council of Trent, a moment in history thereafter debated hotly even among Rome's own, for its sweeping and virulent curses imposed against what are in some cases clearly biblical teachings -- like Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Todays' wikipedia entry concerns the Edict of Nantes, an historical decree with which Protestants should be familiar.

Here is the wiki entry regard Henry IV and the bloody circumstances surrounding his savagery and political failure.

"The Edict of Compiègne (French: Édit de Compiègne), issued from his Château de Compiègne by Henri II of France, 24 July 1557, applied the death penalty for all convictions of relapsed and obstinate "sacramentarians", for those who went to Geneva or published books there, for iconoclast blasphemers against images [The very fact that one could be thought a "blasphemer against images" shows how steeped in idolatry France was at the time], and even for illegal preaching or participation in religious gatherings, whether public or private.

[Even biblical law -- which requires the death penalty for evangelizing for false gods -- permits the alien to worship whichever god(s) he chooses, so long as it remains private, and never public (except in cases of religions which swear to the death of God's people like Islam's Quran requires; God's sworn enemies cannot be permitted in any Christian nation. But a Christian king could exile them, rather than simply attack them. In no case, would the Protestant view of the Word require what Henry IV did to the Protestants. So this charge is not reversible, except in ignorance by people who know not of what they speak].

"It was the third in a series of increasingly severe punishments for expressions of Protestantism in France, which had for an aim the extirpation of the Reformation. By raising the stakes, which now literally became matters of life and death, the Edict had the result of precipitating the long religious crisis in France and hastening the onset of armed civil war between armies mustered on the basis of religion, the series of French Wars of Religion, which were not settled until Henri IV's edict of toleration, the Edict of Nantes (1598)."

"The source of the "contagion", as court pamphleteers put it, was ever Geneva, where the former Frenchman John Calvin achieved undisputed religious supremacy in 1555, the very year that the French Reformed Church organized itself at a synod under the king's nose, as it were, in Paris."

[The Scripture says, "By the blessing of the upright is the city exalted..."]

"At the Peace of Augsburg signed that same year in Germany, the essential concept was cuius regio eius religio, "for each region its religion." The petty princes of Germany were enabled to dictate the religion of their subjects, and it came to be sensed as a mark of weakness that the King of France could not do so: "One King, One Faith" would become the rallying cry of the ultra-Catholic party of the Guise faction."

The "One king, one faith" variation of "cuius regio eius religio" had other variants of similar kind. One version, "Whose state, whose church," signified what became the standard model in Europe post-Nantes.


By the time of 1620, when the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock, MA in the New World, something of a scramble was on. Colonizing the New World prefigured (after a fashion) the space race of a much later time, with many nations hurrying to cut out its own real estate, not only for the growth of the respective monarch's territorial holdings, but for the growth of the religion of each nation-state.

Thus, colonization of the New World took place with a kind of religious zeal modern readers find very difficult to understand, or place within its proper historical perspective. Maryland became a Roman Catholic colony, while Virgina was overtly Anglican. In the South, eventually Baptists and Presbyterians became predominant (for the most part), and in the North, such groups as the Friends (Quakers) and other groups settled alongside the more rigorous Puritans -- who founded Harvard and Yale universities.

This impluse to land grab in the name of one's faith becomes much more readily understandable against the European backdrop of the Edict of Nantes, and Henry VI's bloody campaign against the faithful in Jesus Christ -- men like Calvin, and many of his contemporaries.

Calvin systematized many of the cardinal doctrines of the biblical and reformed faith in a seminal (and developing over the years) work which came to be known as the Institutes of the Christian Religion. This monumental work actually began as a series of pamplets. This is how much of the Reformation proceeded across Europe, by the grace of God and with a strong and zesty renewal of the singing of the canonical Psalter in Reformed Churches everywhere. For here, more clearly than most places in the Word do we find the classic doctrines which came to be called "Calvinism," taken as a set, especially by the time of the Synod of Dordt, which set about to refute utterly (and did handsome work upon) the heretical teachings of one James Arminius. I call them "heretical," since they form a simple variant on the teachings one "Pelagius," long ago excommunicated by the Christian Church.

Wiki sums the Dordrecht work neatly thus:

"After the death of Jacob Arminius ("James" is also "Jacobus," taken from the Greek "Iakobos" into Latin; thus he is alternatively "James" or "Jacob" or "Jacobus" Arminius) his followers presented objections to the Belgic Confession and the teaching of John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and their followers. These objections were published in a document called The Remonstrance of 1610, and his proponents were therefore also known as Remonstrants. The opposing Calvinists, led by professor Franciscus Gomarus of the University of Leiden, became known as the Contra-Remonstrants.

It is notable that the "predestined" defeat of Arminius' teachings at this council paved the way for further inroads against the teachings of Rome, whose foolish and stupid pseudo-gospel -- which is no good news at all -- requires men to merit their way to God's favor, with all manner of superstition and "works of supererogation" -- from the sign of the cross, genuflecting, multiplying words in repetitious prayers, the use of beads in prayer and other iconic (man-made) "helps," confessions to a priest (who utters heresy as part of a blasphemous ritual called the "Mass") and other like works -- which are in no way meritorious, and so far from being works "over and above what God requires," that they are rather sinful additions to the Word of God, which God never required of any man, and which never entered His mind.

Thus, Dordt exemplified something a bit unique, a self-concsciously apologetic [Fr. Grk. apologia, meaning "legal defense"] application of the fruit of systematic theology. Systematic theologies at the hands of councils -- which grew over time from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scotland (lands where the Reformation took hold with some force), increasingly bore a greater scope in content, covering a wider range of topics, and especially those topics considered most theologically controversial.

This represents a renewal of similar confessional works in the early Church, wherein councils like Nicaea and Chalcedon ousted a host of heretical teachings and practices to protect the faith of Jesus from the many counterfeits common in their day.

The influence of the works of Luther and Calvin made its way to Scotland, where the Reformed doctrines resulted in a flourishing of confessions and covenants designed to secure the inegrity of bibical truth and fidelity to future generations in that kingdom, and to further the cause and kingdom of Jesus Christ. Here, the preahing of John Knox and George Wishart had done their work. The wiki entry on topic says,

"A Reformed confession of faith was adopted by Parliament in 1560, while the young Mary Queen of Scots was still in France. The most influential figure was John Knox, who had been a disciple of both John Calvin and George Wishart."

Only a few years later (1563), what are called the "Three Forms of Unity" -- The canons of Dordt, Belgic Confession, and Heidelberg Catechism were offically approved in Heidelberg.

The three kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland sought greater unity, forging a Solemn League and Covenant, which also yielded ground-breaking confessional territory in the forms of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and in a "Directory for the Publick Worship of God" (1646), which carefully follows the regulative principle of worship Calvin had sought to impose for the reformation of the Christian religion also.

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The Reformation, which made such glorious inroads and advances in Europe seems somewhat -- and for various reasons -- simply to fizzle somewhat shortly thereafter, as the known world began to expand rapidly, and new innovations in science and technology continued to astonish the West. But the intellectual capital left behind has extraordinary potential. By cross-referencing the various confessional statements, both between themselves, and with the many insights into the Holy Scriptures gained since that time, we have it within our grasp to glean all the good from the many smaller confessional statements and creeds into a much more comprehensive one, covering much new territory, than at any time before.

We also have many new heresies, false religions (of which we are both aware and which have come into existence since 1648), against which we could put the further developed systematic theology of the Word of God to use in preserving to our posterity the good things of God's Word, and in laying the foundations for a future reformation, more successful still than the first two in scope and cultural transformation.

Many churches today have lost track to this Reformed heritage which historically formed the spiritual backbone of Evangelical Christianity, both in America and abroad. This is well worth recalling then as the underground Protestant celebration of "Reformation Day" approaches again. This is something of a grassroots movement involving meetings of some of the more intellectual brethren among the saints -- Reformed people are notoriously bookworms -- in fact it has been said that there is a secret link between one's degree of sanctification and the size of his library (whether this is a tongue in cheek reference depends on the man you speak with and the size of his library).

This seems to be a day uniquely set aside for recalling the reformed heritage and historical development of sound doctrines, and to encourage one another in the faith among the people. It also often involves good beer and hospitality, along with the sound refutation of many bad ideas. And, of course, there must be Psalms. This gives us 150 chances to improve our theology, and fortunately (we can give thanks to God for this), so far, no one wants to kill us for teaching and learning good things from the Word of God -- which activities happen a good deal on Nov. 1

The codifying, and precisely declaring, of the implicates of the Word of God forms a tradition going back to the apostles themselves, who regularly refer to a "pattern of sound words," and when citing these catechetical directives affirm, "This saying is true and worthy of full acceptance."

Such are the creeds and confessions of the Church. For it is written:

"Faithful instruction is upon her lips."

I, for one, take it to be that this very apostolic and ecclesiastical tradition amount to a command from God to pursue the implicates of the Word, aggressively comparing them, one with another, in all sound documents of the Faith, both in the Word itself, and in its faithful replication and declaration by the holy Church, the pillar and ground of Truth.

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom. In all your getting, get understanding."

How is this NOT a command to pursue relentlessly, without turning to the right or to the left, the full counsel of God revealed in His Word -- maximal confessional integrity? And we also know from the previous reformation, that the more Christian groups which engage in this task, the better off we are, for each may study areas only partially or loosely covered by the others. This leaves a greater confessional scope covered for later generations, who can benefit from a more diversely applied biblical legacy.

This effort should be encouraged, if not engaged, by all God's house. And one way to do this, is, of course, by seeing to it that the foundation of Christian homeschooling includes an introduction to the content of the Bible, the confessionaly legacy of the Church, history, logic, and by a solid education in the liberal arts (classically construed).

But you already knew that.

A logic (and history) project for homeschoolers:

Pick an important section of one of the traditional confessional standards mentioned here. Ask how one might -- from the Bible -- arrive at such conclusions as penned by those responsible for the confessional section in question. This is an exercise in the reading of a confession -- and tracing backward -- which texts they might have had in mind when penning the read section.

This requires students to attempt to think like the authors, a skill which comes in very handy when handling any historical text (the author's intent determines the meaning of a passage), and in sympathizing with an author you do not personally know. This better enables both reading comprehension, and logical rigor. And it's fun.