Calvinism and Confessional Revision

CALVINISM AND CONFESSIONAL REVISION.*

Our brethren in America cannot sufficiently realize to what an extent they have excited the interest of the Dutch Calvinists by

their efforts to reach a revision of their ecclesiastical symbols. There are three causes to which this interest is due. First of all, the remembrance of the ever-memorable fact that the first Reformed Christians to set foot on American soil embarked for the New World from the Netherlands. On this account Dutch Calvinists still feel a most intimate bond of sympathy with the Reformed in America, and thank God for each token of brotherly affection by which the latter country has so repeatedly strengthened this deep-rooted attachment. In the second place, the Dutch Calvinists have hailed with great enthusiasm the development of Amierican Church-life as called forth by the principle of a Free Church, and emulate their brethren in America in their strenuous efforts to make this only true principle victorious in the Old World as well. To which must be thirdly added that the Dutch Calvinists fully share the conviction of their American brethren, that the symbols of the sixteenth century were the product of a battle of spirits somewhat different from that in which the Church is engaged at present, and cannot consequently inspire us with the same enthusiasm with which they stirred the race of our fathers. For such reasons we feel ourselves closely allied with our American brethren as fellow-members of the one great international Reformed Church, and when tidings of revision are being wafted across the sea, we cannot help reflecting prayer-

* [Our readers are indebted to Prof. Geerhardus Vos, Ph.D., of Grand Rapids, ‘ Mich., for the translation of Dr. Kuyper’s paper.—ED1Tors. ]

370 THE PRESBYTERIAN AND REFORMED REVIEW.

fully on what has become to us a matter of almost personal interest.

For the unity of this international Reformed Church does not lie in the fact that most of our Churches are organized on the Presbyterian principle. Such an assumption would be a purely external and superficial judgment. Even Unitarians at times organize their society on Presbyterian lines, and still they have nothing in common with our Reformed Churches. On the other hand, there are Reformed Churches in Germany and elsewhere that are prevented by the civil power from fully exhibiting their Presbyterian character. And how could form of government ever determine the character of a Church, when the latter’s calling consists in “ showing forth the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light,” while the form of the Church is only one of the means by which it seeks to attain thisend? On the battlefield not those battalions fight on the same side that resemble one another in point of tactic formation; but such regiments, however differently formed, as have a common banner floating over their bayonets. But for the “hosts of the living God,” and hence also for the Reformed Churches, what could this banner be but the common confession? For however much the French and the Swiss, the Dutch and the Scotch, the Bohemian and the Westminster Confessions may differ among themselves in form and arrangement, still it is one spirit, one deep-seated conviction, the consciousness of one sacred calling, that finds expression in all these creeds. They are branches of one tree, brooks issuing from one spring, and in view of their forming one body our fathers observed the excellent custom of publishing them as one corpus or syntagma confessionum. Often a Church would send its creed for subscription to another Church; and it was owing to this historic consciousness that at the Synod of Dort, in 1618, foreign theologians were invited to meet with the Dutch delegates, and that at Westminster the foreign Churches were asked for their judgment, in order that as a single man and as members of one body, all might protest against the intrusion of Arminianism and Episcopalianism. The catholicity of the Church was not to be surrendered to Rome. The Reformed Churches were not to be allowed to degenerate into petty national bodies. Wherever they arose, they presented no less a claim than that of being a manifestation of the one body of Christ. From this they derived their authority to preach his word and to administer his sacraments in the name of Christ, our common King. By renouncing these high claims at any time or in any manner, they would have lowered themselves to the rank of private societies founded not on a divine but on a purely human right.

On this account even at the present day no strong movement can .

be started in any part of the Reformed Churches without sending a thrill of sympathy through all the other members, and making all feel an equal interest in the results to which such a movement may lead. Among us, too, the needs that produce it are felt; the same impelling forces are at work in our midst ; by us also the principles that should shape its course are recognized as authoritative and bind- - ing in a spiritual sense. As long as we remain fellow-members of this one Reformed catholic international Church, we have but one common fate in all that pertains to the confession of our Churches. The common creed can be tampered with in no part of the world without the words “Tua res agitur” passing through all the ranks of the entire Reformed camp. Political divisions and the difference in language may prevent official codperation between the other Reformed Churches and those of America, in the matter of agreeing upon one common line of action in this vital question; but the work undertaken in America still imposes a duty on the Reformed elsewhere. They will have to note the events in the New World in their bearing upon their own Churches, and must make clear to their own minds to what conditions among theinselves a revision of the common creed would be subject.

The following paper will be an attempt in thisdirection. In making it we shall presume that our American brethren may possibly be interested to learn to what terms the Reformed in the Netherlands would bind a revision of their creed. Our task will be best performed by answering the following four questions: 1. Hasa specific tendency, which, like Calvinism, leads to a separate Church organization, a right to exist in the Church of Christ? 2. What specific tendency does Calvinism represent in the Christian Church? 3. In what manner has this tendency found its expression in the ecclesiasticalsymbols? 4. To what conditions is the revision of these symbols, in the case of a progressive development of Calvinism, to be bound?