Theopedia

Reformed churches

Definition

The Reformed churches are a family of Protestant denominations holding a common Calvinist system of doctrine while remaining organizationally independent of one another. Each nation in which the Reformed movement took root developed its own church government rather than submitting to a single international body, and most of those national churches have since divided into several denominations.1 No common governing structure ties them together; what they share instead is the conviction that Christ alone, not the pope or the state, is head of the church.1

Historical Origin

The Reformed movement began independently of Martin Luther’s Wittenberg, first at Zurich under Huldreich Zwingli and then at Geneva under John Calvin, and from there spread into national churches across Europe, each retaining its own form of government rather than answering to a single center.2 Zwingli instituted the first Reformed synods at Zurich in 1528, convened by the city council to hear complaints against the conduct and teaching of preachers.2 Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Ordinances at Geneva required preachers to meet every three months to review one another’s doctrine and conduct, and from 1546 added an annual visitation of the churches.2

A fully synodical form of church government, in which local consistories send delegates to broader assemblies, first developed in France, where the rapidly expanding Reformed churches came together in a general synod at Paris on May 26, 1559, and adopted a common confession and church order.2 There, unusually, the general synod came first and gave rise to the provincial synods beneath it, with a classis (a regional assembly between the provincial synod and the local consistory) inserted only later, in 1572.2 The same synodical pattern subsequently took hold, in varying national forms, in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, England, and eventually America.2 Writing in 1932, Loraine Boettner quoted a Presbyterian historian, identified in his text only as “Dr. Smith,” who described the family as established “in more continents, among a greater number of nations and peoples and languages than any other evangelical church in the world,” and named standing Reformed churches across continental Europe, the British Isles, and the Americas.3

Confessional Basis

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, which centers doctrinal authority in the magisterium, no single confession binds every Reformed church. Each national branch instead adopted its own confessional standard, generally the one already taking shape where the Reformed movement first reached that country.

Continental European Reformed churches, particularly those with roots in the Netherlands, hold the Three Forms of Unity: the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Belgic Confession of Faith (1561), and the Canons of Dort (1619).2 The Synod of Dort that produced the Canons has been called “the only Synod of a quasi-ecumenical character in the history of the Reformed Churches,” more significant in that respect than the Westminster Assembly held a generation later.4

Reformed churches with origins in the British Isles, generally known as Presbyterian, hold the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) and its accompanying catechisms, or, in Scotland, the earlier Scots Confession (1560).4 Particular Baptist churches share Reformed soteriology but differ on baptism and church government, and hold the London Baptist Confession of 1689 instead, which follows Westminster’s own wording except where believer’s baptism and congregational polity required otherwise.

Church Government

Reformed churches do not claim that every detail of their government is fixed by Scripture, only that its fundamental principles are.1 The first of those principles is that Christ alone is head of the church. The Reformers directed this claim first against the papacy and later, in battles fought in Scotland and then in the Netherlands, against the state’s own claim to govern the church.1

Reformed government is representative rather than either one-man rule or pure congregational democracy: local congregations choose ruling elders, who together with the minister or ministers form a consistory (also called a session) to govern the local church.5 Above the consistory, Reformed churches are organized through an ascending series of assemblies: the classis (or presbytery), composed of ministers and elders from several congregations in a district; the synod, drawing an equal number of ministers and elders from each classis; and, in some Presbyterian churches, a general assembly above the synods.5 Berkhof notes that the terminology and composition of these assemblies differ somewhat between the continental Reformed and Presbyterian branches: in a Presbyterian church the presbytery includes every minister within its bounds, along with one elder from each congregation, and the general assembly is drawn from the presbyteries directly rather than from the particular synods.5

Related Doctrines

External Links

References

  1. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1969), 565-66: “Reformed Churches do not claim that their system of Church government is determined in every detail by the Word of God, but do assert that its fundamental principles are directly derived from Scripture… CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH AND THE SOURCE OF ALL ITS AUTHORITY… the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches had to fight another battle later on, the battle for the Headship of Jesus Christ in opposition to the unwarranted encroachments of the State. This battle was fought first of all in Scotland, and later on also in The Netherlands.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 21, “The Church as a Spiritual Reality”: “In 1528 at Zurich, Zwingli instituted synods convoked by the [city] council… Calvin similarly laid down in the Ecclesiastical Ordinances that the preachers had to assemble every three months to supervise each other’s teaching and conduct and, additionally, introduced an annual visitation in 1546. A synodical church order first came into being in France… first came together in synod at Paris on May 26, 1559, and united in adopting a common confession and church order… in 1572, a classis was inserted between the provincial synods and local church councils. Later such a synodical form of church government was also introduced in other Reformed churches: in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, England, America, and so forth.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1932), 259, quoting an unnamed Presbyterian historian identified in the text only as “Dr. Smith.” ↩

  4. Samuel Eldon Waldron, “The Canons of the Synod of Dort, A.D. 1619,” in “Faith, Obedience, and Justification: Current Evangelical Departures from Sola Fide” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2005), 117, quoting Philip Schaff: “The Synod of Dort is the only Synod of a quasi-ecumenical character in the history of the Reformed Churches. In this respect it is even more important than the Westminster Assembly of Divines.” ↩ ↩2

  5. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 572-73: “Reformed Church government is characterized by a system of ecclesiastical assemblies in an ascending or a descending scale… the consistory (session), the classis (presbytery), the synod(s), and (in some cases) the general assembly… This is somewhat different in the Presbyterian Church, however, where the presbytery includes all the ministers within its boundaries, and one elder from each of its congregations… the general assembly is (in the case of the Presbyterians) composed of an equal delegation of ministers and elders from each of the presbyteries, and not, as might be expected, from each of the particular synods.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3