A Calvinist Heart.

The Doctrines of the Reformation were a Rescue Mission: Today Their Theology Needs Re-Rescuing.

It is a strange and sorrowful sight to see the modern church, once rescued from darkness by the light of the Reformers, who led the movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church, which they believed had become corrupted in doctrine, practice, and authority.

Their efforts gave rise to the Protestant Reformation, that reshaped Christianity and Western history. Greats like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Knox, and their inspiration brought humanity out of the dark ages, but now we see with great sadness, the church that once preached the gospel drifts again toward the very errors from which it was delivered, only this time beneath brighter lights and louder music.

These men and some women of faith fought to restore the church to her foundation, Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Gratia (Grace alone), Sola Fide (Faith alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (To the glory of God alone). These were not slogans, they were lifelines thrown into a sea of superstition, idol worship, and priestly control.

In this our beginning on the New Calvinism community, I put it to you that today, much of modern Christianity has exchanged those lifelines for sensations.

Movements promising fresh revelation, new apostles, and prophetic power have shifted the focus of the church from the Word of God in Scripture, the very Word that was made available and preached to the world over the last four hundred years.

We have gone from the truth of Christ declaring that His Word is sufficient for all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), to the modern rise of self-proclaimed apostles and prophets

They rebuild the prophetic structure, new mediators, new revelations, new authority, now clothed not in papal robes but in Pentecostal fervor. From Azusa Street and beyond, they trampled the earth.

This drift, and their way, rises again with hostility toward those who will not bow to the spirit of the age, the Calvinist, the repentant, the Reformed believer who insists that Scripture alone is the voice of God. These faithful witnesses that once thundered through Europe now often speak in whispers.

It is not hard to see, in such silencing, a shadow of that prophetic image in Revelation 11, the two witnesses whose testimony torments the nations until the Beast is permitted for a time to silence them.

God tells us in that very chapter who those witnesses are, and the Reformed Church has long understood those witnesses to represent the true Church and her faithful preaching of the Word, the candlesticks that were represented in the tabernacle and in the temple’s Holy of Holies, and God’s first witness, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And now it is the Bible, given to us for truth and salvation.

With the second witness being those filled with the Holy Spirit, standing before the world in sackcloth and bearing witness to Christ. This is what is happening to the church of the Reformers, they are slowly being killed.

Their death is the world’s temporary triumph, when truth seems extinguished and the faithful are despised. Yet their resurrection comes when the Word of God again thunders forth and the Spirit revives His people.

So it has ever been. The truth may be struck down, but it will not stay buried. The witnesses rise again when the Word is opened anew.

What the church needs today is not a new revelation, but another rescue, a return to the one already given. The gospel that turned Europe upside down in the sixteenth century is the same gospel that can turn hearts right side up today.

The Spirit of God does not build His church upon spectacle, but upon Scripture, and that Scripture is Calvinism, while the Christ who reigns calls to His people:

“If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” — John 8:31–32

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Key References: 2 Timothy 4:3–4, “They will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” 2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Galatians 1:8, “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you let him be accursed.” Revelation 11:3–12, The two witnesses slain and raised again. John 8:31–32, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples.”