There are many familiar phrases that everyone would agree with. “Would it be good to eliminate poverty in the world? It’s the one that comes to mind. It is certainly interesting to note that while there is agreement on the sentiment expressed, there are often radical disagreements over how to achieve it. In this example, some might advocate greater deregulation of international trade, others for greater aid, and others for specific educational solutions.
There are also phrases that occur in the context of the church that are similar in terms of universal agreement. The one that is robust and constant in the widely reformed evangelical circles is this: “The Reformed Church always needs to reform itself”. with that feeling? Apparently, this phrase seems to grasp some of the biblical seriousness of the Reformation; rejecting it would appear to be a complacent, if not positive, statement of the perfection of the status quo; it would also seem to undermine the most fundamental idea among the Ideas of the Reformation: the Church must always evaluate itself by the scriptures and therefore always seek to change so that her testimony is more faithful to God’s revelation.
- Unfortunately.
- However.
- Prayer lacks content.
- Over the past decade.
- It has become a cry of groups influenced by the so-called emerging church movement.
- Which for them meant that the Church had to undertake a fundamental.
- And generally continuous.
- Reformulation of its doctrine and.
- Indeed.
- Of its understanding of what doctrine is and how it should work.
- Therefore.
- Doctrines such as justification.
- Inerrance.
- And even the idea of the scriptures should only be rethinked in the context of a postmodern mindset.
We can say that when used in this way, the phrase “The Reformed Church always needs to reform itself?It was less of a basic methodological principle and more of an aesthetic principle. What I mean is this: we live in a world where the idea of truth as something fixed and stable is unpopular and even many consider it dangerous and oppressive. Instead, people prefer a world where truth is constantly changing, where it is negotiable, where, ultimately, it could be said that it requires no one.
Therefore, this phrase has an appeal, because it seems to make the truth a matter of negotiation and continuous change. Some say, “Does the church affirm that Jesus is God?”Well, that may have been true in Chalcedony in 451, but we need a different model to understand that today. Does the church deny the legitimacy of same-sex marriage?Again, could this idea have worked at a time when homophobia was dominant?In fact, it may have helped maintain exactly this homophobia, but we need to reform our understanding of marriage and sex in light of contemporary needs and demands. and uncertainty dominates them and hides them with the phrase: Does the Reformed Church still need to be reformed?gives this postmodern aesthetic an illusory orthodox appearance.
In fact, prayer is good, but only when it is understood that it reflects the fundamental biblical principle of the Reformed Church.
It takes two fundamental principles to understand the proper meaning of prayer: First, the scriptures are the final and authoritative source for the life and doctrine of the Church. Everything the Church says or does must be consistent with the Word of God and must be governed by the Word of God. One implication of this is that everything the church says and does because of the inferences of the scriptures must be examined very carefully in the light of the scriptures. There is always potential for improvement, for example.
For example, in the 3rd century, most theologians affirmed a form of what is technically known as subordinationism, that is, that Christ was not completely God and that only God, the Father, was completely God. This only happened for a while, as this idea was subjected to biblical consideration, so that the weaknesses of this perspective and the flaws became apparent and the church had to perfect its formulation of God’s doctrine to exclude this inadequate theology. Was the church being renovated? His teaching was reformed in the light of the scriptures.
The Reformation was, in many ways, the best example of this. The medieval church has preserved much of what was true: the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation are perhaps the most obvious, but its teaching on grace, justification and the sacraments (among others. others) was far removed from the teachings of Paul and the Apostles. Reformers did not abandon everything the church had taught in previous centuries and began rebuilding it from the bottom up, but subjected the church’s teaching to careful consideration of the scriptures and abandoned parts that did not correspond to the teaching of the scriptures, perfected those that lacked biblical precision, and preserved parts that were faithful to the Bible.
The second reason to understand the meaning of the term?Is it always the knowledge that human beings are fallible?In fact, not only fallible, but sinners. That is why we make mistakes, even when we try to interpret and apply the Word of God. More than that, as sinners, we are interested in misinterpreting and applying the scriptures when it suits our selfish goals.
We see it all the time. Some try to soften the biblical teaching about sin to make it seem less evil; some change the Bible’s teaching about the criminal nature of Christ’s death to avoid the terrible fact that God is angry at sin.
Perhaps we can bring this “closer to home”: reformed churches sometimes use the scriptures to justify things like racism (for example, in the United States and South Africa). The fact is that all of us, as sinners, are vulnerable to the use of God’s Word in a sinful way, and therefore we always need to be “reformed”. In the light of the scriptures. Therefore, the church must be constantly alert and demonstrate in practice that the Bean spirit will poll the scriptures to see if the things it teaches are really like this (Acts 17:10-11). This is what “Always Reform” means: Always return to the scriptures to examine the Church’s testimony in light of what the scriptures teach.
When we compare the two ways in which prayer is used, the difference is clear. When is it first used? The hypothesis is that truth is flexible, depending on context and circumstances, as malleable and adaptable as the social context in which it is located. If this is the case, it is really difficult to determine what would constitute a mistake, because the truth is so indefinite that it does not exist according to any traditional understanding of the truth. Perhaps the mistake is simply what doesn’t work in a The Key to Reform is to find out what works. This would certainly explain the mystical and pragmatic direction that the emerging church eventually took.
In the last use, the hypothesis is that, to borrow a prayer, “Is the truth there?”Writing and is truly accessible. Yes, human beings may make mistakes of interpretation because of their intellectual and moral incompetence, but they are mistakes precisely because Scripture contains truth and has a fixed and true meaning in relation to which error can be judged. God has spoken, His Word is the truth, and it is the church’s responsibility to regulate his discourse in the light of the word of God. It’s an ongoing reform. The true meaning of this prayer is that we are constantly asked to return to the scriptures as an authorized final foundation upon which to build our theology and practice.
By: Carl R. Trueman. © Ligonier Ministries. Website: ligonier. org. Translated with permission. Source: What is Semper Reformanda and what is it?T.
Original: What does it mean to reform always and what does it © faithful department. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br. All rights reserved. Translation: Camila Rebeca Teixeira. Review: André Alosio Oliveira da Silva.