The term ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the reformed Church, always reformed) has been used so often that it has become a motto or slogan. People have used this term to support a surprising range of theological and ecclesiastical programs and objectives. The researchers identified their objectives, origins in a devotional book written by Jodocus van Lodenstein in 1674. Van Lodenstein certainly had no intention of creating a slogan or slogan. What was your intention and what did you mean by that expression?
Van Lodenstein was minister of the Reformed Church of the United Provinces, in what we now call the Netherlands. Was this church born of decades of faithful preaching from ministers?Many were educated in Geneva? Those who risked their lives to carry the gospel, first in the French-speaking regions of the Netherlands and then in the Dutch-speaking regions further north. Some ministers were martyred for their faith, but collected a rich harvest of committed believers. His message about the need for church reform according to the Bible influenced many. of those who perceived the corruptions of the old church.
- During the reigns of Charles V and Philip II.
- The Government of the Netherlands did its best to suppress the reformed religion.
- Which was an important part of the reason for the Dutch revolt against its Spanish backs.
- This revolt (1568-1648) became known as the eighty-year war.
- Giving rise to a new state in the northern part of the Netherlands.
- In this new state.
- The Dutch Republic.
- Also known as the United Provinces.
- The Reformed Church was dominant.
- Received government support and became the church of the majority of the population in the mid-17th century.
This church subscribes to the Belgian Confession (1561) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and has an essentially Presbyterian form of government. Interference by the Protestant civil authorities of the new state limited the freedom of the Reformed Church, especially in matters This interference, in part, led to a crisis in the Church in the early 17th century with the emergence of Arminianism, a crisis that was addressed and resolved in the great international synod held in the city of Dordrecht in 1618-19. Dort’s charges prepared for this synod have become another doctrinal authority in the life of the Church.
Jodocus van Lodenstein was born into a prominent family in the city of Delft in 1620 and was educated by two of the most distinguished retired teachers of this period: the scholastic theologian and pietist Gisbertus Voetius of Utrecht and the theologian of Franeker’s Johannes Cocceius alliance, although personally a friend of the two theologians, was more influenced by Voetius , who focused on both exact theology and Christian life. Van Lodenstein was called to serve as a pastor in Utrecht, where he served in his ministry from 1653 until his death. in 1677; as a pastor, he has always encouraged the faithful to a disciplined and vital Christianity.
Van Lodenstein was the heir to a clear structure and completely reformed according to the reformed or Calvinist interpretation of the Bible. Calvinists often described their vision of the Church in three categories: doctrine, worship, and church governance. In all three areas, the reformed Dutch The Church was completely Calvinist, similar in many respects to the Calvinist churches of the rest of Europe.
However, the life of any church remains static and van Lodenstein has certainly seen changes in his life. In doctrine, for example, reformed theologians developed a theology of the covenant that would give a great understanding of both the structure of Bible development Most reformed Christians saw this as a true theological advancement. Van Lodenstein also saw the increasing use of instruments in public worship in the reformed churches of his time. He knew the debates about whether this change was a reform or a distortion in religious service. Is that the kind of change I had in mind when you wrote about a reformed and constantly reformed church?
The answer to this question is no. ” Van Lodenstein did not think of adjustments and improvements in church doctrine, worship, and governance. These issues of external reform were absolutely necessary when reformers addressed them in the 16th and early 17th centuries. But for Calvinists like Van Lodenstein, these problems had definitely been addressed and solved. It did not consider the value of relatively minor changes. He was not a man of the last centuries who believed that progress and change were necessary and good in themselves; he believed that the Bible was clear about the fundamental principles of doctrine, worship, and governance, and that reformed churches had reformed these things appropriately. In this sense, reform was a return to biblical teaching. Reformers understood these problems and were solved.
Wasn’t ministers’ main concern, like Van Lodenstein, the external aspects of religion?As important as they are, but the interior of religion. Van Lodenstein was a retired pietist and part of the second Dutch reform. Therefore, his religious concerns were very similar to those of the English Puritans. Everyone believed that because the external issues of religion had been carefully and faithfully reformed according to the Word of God, the great need was for ministers to guide people to the true religion of the heart. They realized that the great danger of their time was not false doctrine, superstition or idolatry, but formalism. The danger of formalism is that a member of the church can subscribe to true doctrine, participate in true worship in a Bible-ruled church, and yet not have true faith. As Jesus warned against the Pharisees of his time, quoting the prophet Isaiah: “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me?(Matthew 15:8).
The part of religion that always needs to be reformed is the human heart; it is the vital religion and true faith that must be constantly cultivated; formalism, indifferentism and conformism must be strongly attacked by a faithful ministry.
Van Lodenstein and those who stayed with him believed that the Dort canons presented a vision of true religion as their own. In the battle against Arminianism, one of the main problems had been the doctrine of regeneration. In the reformed theology of the sixteenth century. , theologians used regeneration as one of the many synonyms for sanctification. Thus, for example, article 24 of the Belgian Confession could affirm that we are regenerated by faith. But in the fight against the Arminians, regeneration took on a more technical meaning, referring to the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit to establish the new life in the soul that is necessary for faith. This new use of regeneration explains how faith was a gift from God and not a work of man’s free will. but it also explains how Christians were, by God’s grace, able to live a new life, seeking holiness.
God fulfills their good purpose in the chosen and brings them true conversion as follows: He makes them hear the gospel through preaching and powerfully enlightens their minds by the Holy Ghost so that they can properly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God. But by the effective action of the same Regenerating Spirit, God also penetrates even the most intimate corners of man; it opens its closed heart and softens the hard, circumcised the uncircumcised and introduces new qualities into the will, which was dead, but revived it; it was bad, but it makes it good; she was sick, but He made her want to; she was rebellious, but He makes her obedient; encourages and strengthens this will in such a way that, like a good tree, it can produce fruits of good works.
This doctrine of regeneration was therefore used to emphasize the new principle of life in Christians and the need to live a new life. The Christian had to avoid formalism and live his faith in the daily struggle against sin, to find rest and hope in promises. and in the Spirit of God.
So what did van Lodenstein mean by his famous expression “reformed and still reforming”?Probably something like this: since we now have a reformed church in the external aspects of doctrine, worship, and government, we will always strive to ensure that our hearts and lives are reformed through the Word and the Word. Spirit of God. Regardless of the other meanings that can be obtained from this phrase, it is worth considering and preserving this original meaning.
1: CANNONS SLEEPS. Sao Paulo: Cultura Crist, s. d. , p. 38.