Chapter 20 - Reformed Tradition

what was march 1529 - imperial diet

• March 1529 - imperial diet convened in city of speyer, Emperor Charles sent brother Ferdinand

  • Purpose: to consolidate support of the territorial princes behind Charles in order to present a united defense against the Turks

  • Ferdinand’s method: repeal religious toleration that had been extended in 1526 whereby each prince was allowed to follow the dictates of his conscience regarding religion

  • Outcome of decree: decreed that all territories within the Holy Roman Empire would be loyal to Roman Catholicism

  • Response: many princes protested the decision and these people were called Protestants

3 unifying doctrines of Protestants (sola statements)

• Sola gratia: 

  • means grace alone in Latin

  • justification is by God’s gift of grace, not because of any merit on the part of humans

• Sola fide:

  • Means faith alone in Latin

  • This gift is received through faith, not by doing any good works

• Sola scriptura

  • Means scripture alone in Latin

  • The final authority of doctrine and practice is the Bible, not the Church

what does sola mean?

• Sola = alone in Latin

• Consequences for sola scriptura

• Catholicism believed that Scripture is on equal authority with rulings of the church 

• Protestants now believed that rulings of the church were to be subjected to the message of the Bible

• Issue was that not everyone agreed what the message was

• Ultimately, sola scriptura became the reason there are so many divisions in terms of denominations because each branch believes the Bible says something different

who was Zwingli: (1484-1531)

• swiss theologian and pastor who greatly influenced the reformed tradition

Zwingli vs Luther debate:

• debate about the nature of the Eucharist - watershed event for Protestants bc their inability to agree led to further divisions

results of Zwingli and Luther’s debate

• Luther’s view resulted in the term consubstantiation: real presence of Christ’s body and blood joined with the substances of bread and wine during Lord’s Supper 

• Zwingli said that the bread and wine were wholly symbolic (very humanist approach)

consubstantiation

• Luther’s view of the Eucharist

• real presence of Christ’s body and blood joined with the substances of bread and wine during Lord’s Supper 

how did Zwingli and Luther differ in terms of the scripture

• Zwingli preached straight through the New Testament so that they could hear the entire gospel instead of the lessons of the church calendar

• In this way, Zwingli and Luther also differed

  • Zwingli emphasized the importance of every piece of scripture

  • Luther emphasized a kind of “canon within the canon” and therefore elevated certain portions of scripture above others

• Zwingli’s thoughts on scripture

• Viewed God as the supreme good

• Argued that all created things derive their existence from and are dependent on God, for God would be deficient if there were things that escaped his supervision

• Actions of humans are secondary causes, they are only instruments through which God as the primary cause effects his will 

• Once it is established that the providence of God determines every detail of creation, election and predestination follows easily and seem to comport well with the Reformation doctrine of justification by grace (God chooses - or elects - some people to bestow grace upon)

• The doctrine of God’s sovereignty becomes the center of Zwingli’s theology

  • Sovereignty in the sense that he leaves no room for any will but his own

Augustine’s version of predestination

all people are sinners so all deserve damnation but God in his mercy, allows some to go to hell and for others to get what they deserve (God does not CHOOSE for them to go to hell)

Double predestination

• Zwingli’s version: believes that God predestines both the elect and the reprobate

Aquinas’ version of predestination and Zwingli counterargument

• God bases predestination on foreknowledge, God knows who will respond positively to the gospel and therefore predestines just those as the elect 

  • Zwingli’s counterargument: God’s foreknowledge of the future is certain because he has predestined what will happen 

• John Calvin

• Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) - magnum opus, received lots of praise

• Became the chief pastor of Geneva and ruled on all matters including those of faith

• Most influential theologian of reformed tradition

• Most famous doctrine attributed to him was predestination

• Objective: producing Scriptural support for the idea of God that Zwingli had derived from natural theology and ancient Greek philosophy

Calvin on predestination:

• “By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and accordingly, as each has been created for one or the other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.”

• Calvin said that it is your faith that saves you, but how does one know if they have faith, or enough faith 

• According to Calvin, faith is “a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favour toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ and revealed to our minds, and sealed in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit”

Calvin’s conversion experience:

if you have been called by God, you can have assurance that you are among the elect

Theodore Beza (1519-1603)

• Calvin’s successor in Geneva

• Wanted to understand logical order of God’s eternal decrees 

• There were some that everyone agreed on

  • God’s decree to creation included the provision that humans would fall through sin 

  • Predestination of some to heaven and some to hell was an eternal decree

  • agreed with supralapsarians

Supralapsarians

(means “above the fall”): said that decree of predestination was above the decree for creation and fall

Infralapsarians

• (below the fall) reversed the order

  • God’s higher priority was to glorify himself through his creation 

Jacob Arminius (1560-1609)

• Educated under Beza

• Came into conflict with Reformed church because he criticized the supralapsarian position

• Believed that humans must exercise their free will in accepting the gift of salvation which is offered by the grace of God 

• Advocated for synergism: doctrine that salvation is effected by God in cooperation with human will 

synergism:

doctrine that salvation is effected by God in cooperation with human will

monergism:

• opposing doctrine to synergism

• states that it is God alone who brings about salvation for humans

what happened in 1610 that led to remonstrance of 1610

• In 1610, students of Arminius wrote document detailing their disagreement with strict Calvinist theology

  • God predestines for salvation those who will believe and persevere in their faith

  • Christ’s death was for all people, but only those who believe benefit from it

  • People cannot do, think, or will anything that is truly good apart from the grace of God

  • The grace offered by God to people can be resisted

  • It may be that true believers could abandon their faith and so lose the saving grace they once had 

the remonstrance of 1610

• response to document written by students of Arminius

• allowed them to teach their doctrine and hold office

• Led to unrest so the prince controlling army sided with Calvinists and jailed the remonstrants 

Synod of Dort (1618):

• Convened under extreme Calvinist John Bogerman

• Presented responses to each point in the document (TULIP)

• Total depravity: since the Fall, every person inherits a corrupt nature that makes them incapable of any good

• Unconditional election: God’s predestination is not based on his foreknowledge, but completely on his own choice

• Limited atonement: Christ did not die for the sins of all, but only for the elect

• Irresistible grace: God’s saving grace offered to the elect cannot be refused

• Perseverance of the saints: once saving faith has been given to people, cannot be revoked

what were the main points of Calvinism (TULIP)

• Total depravity: since the Fall, every person inherits a corrupt nature that makes them incapable of any good

• Unconditional election: God’s predestination is not based on his foreknowledge, but completely on his own choice

• Limited atonement: Christ did not die for the sins of all, but only for the elect

• Irresistible grace: God’s saving grace offered to the elect cannot be refused

• Perseverance of the saints: once saving faith has been given to people, cannot be revoked

Zwingli’s arguments on the Eucharist came from what educational approach

humanist

Beza was influential in developing _________version of Calvinism

stricter supralapsarian version