Christianity is an
entire life-system. It transforms every aspect of ones being. It is a call to
interact in the world, shaping it for the glory of God. Christianity demands
not just one day but all day everyday of undivided devotion. Christianity
therefore does not compartmentalize its faith; rather the Christian’s faith
permeates every aspect of ones being. Such
a comprehensive and irreducibly complex faith requires the same kind of
theological/ philosophical framework. This kind of comprehensive life-system is
found in in the Neo-Reformed tradition. This paper seeks to explore the foundations
of the Neo-Reformed life-system. It does this first by an analysis of Jean
Calvin, Abraham Kuyper and Herman Dooyeweerds theological/philosophical system.
This life-system will then be analyzed and compared with other ethical systems
displaying how the Neo-Reformed tradition stands out from the rest. Finally,
there is a section on the application of this life-system.
Background
Jean
Calvin followed in the footsteps of Luther in splitting from the Romanist
Church. Calvin was a pinnacle figure in the Reformation in France during the
1500’s. Calvin’s systematic theology found in the Institutes of the Christian Religion is the foundations for
Protestant Theology. It is a work that has shaped countless thinkers in the Reformed
tradition including that of Abraham Kuyper. Abraham Kuyper was a pastor, politician,
newspaper editor, and founder of the Free University of Amsterdam in the late
1800’s to early 1900’s. Abraham Kuyper built upon Calvin’s theology of common
grace, formulating it into a concept called sphere sovereignty. Sphere
sovereignty was developed into a modal law theory by Herman Dooyeweerd in the
mid-1900’s. Dooyeweerd took the principles of the Kuyperian structure and
established them within an epistemological framework. While Calvin and Kuyper
focused on the independence of the spheres and individuals thought, Dooyeweerd
shifts a bit towards more interdependence of the “spheres” and individuals
thought.
Jean Calvin: Reformed
Foundations
Jean Calvin laid out the foundations of Protestant
Orthodoxy. Among the doctrines re-affirmed by Jean Calvin the sovereignty of
God is at the center. Humanity on the other hand is far from it existing in a
state of total depravity. Humanity therefore needs the grace of God to be
manifested. God manifests God’s grace in a salvific manner for the elect and in
a common manner for all in accordance with God’s sovereign will. This grace
allows for freedom in Christ to overcome humanities bondage to sin equipping them
for good deeds. It is this framework that becomes paramount for the
Neo-Reformed life system.
God maintains meticulous sovereignty over the entire
creation. Nothing escapes the providence of God. Everything happens in
accordance with God’s will and for God’s glory. God acts as the creator,
sustainer, and ruler of the universe, superintending everything to the minutest
detail.core
component of God’s sovereignty is the election of a people to God-self. It is
with the elect that God has a privileged relationship, working in the elect
inwardly by the Spirit and outwardly by the Word.
From this sovereign control one sees God’s love for creation. Because God loves
the elect, their salvation “is not acquired by slavish observance of the law,
but is obtained by faith.”
One’s salvation is therefore not dependent upon works of the law but on faith.
This faith is also a gift of God.
Because it is of God, and not of oneself, there is assurance of eternal
life. Hence God receives all the glory for the work of salvation.
God’s meticulous sovereignty becomes all the more
necessary because of the fallen nature of humanity. Humanity exists in a
totally depraved state. Nothing about the human being is pure following the
fall, everything has been crippled by sin along with everything that emanates
from humanity. Humanity thereby is alienated from the
righteousness of God, incapable of desiring or doing anything pure and upright,
while outwardly it might appear as if some do righteous deeds inwardly they are
filled with corruption such that it is bound up in wickedness.
Humanity has gone astray and is only capable of going astray on its own. There
is nothing in humanity of any merit or worth, only sin and shame. Humanity
stands in utter and complete need of the grace of God. But it is only when one
understands the magnitude of the breadth and depth of sins depravity in
humanity that one can see the full sweetness of divine grace.
Once one has received God’s saving grace they are no longer their own, but rather
live and die to God.
God’s sovereignty is manifested to everyone through
common grace. God acts to maintain the world, meaning that human depravity,
even in the non-elect, is restricted. Some of this is done through societal
restrictions.
Because humanity is a social animal there is a natural instinct to seek to
preserve society through civil institutions. God appoints rulers and
principalities to govern people and insure that justice is maintained between
the peoples. The necessity of this is affirmed by everyone’s God given reason.
This common grace not only acts to sustain it also acts to purify in such a way
that the elect have freedom in the world to enjoy life, provided that one
maintains a focus on living in accordance with the will of God.
This means that charity must be shown toward the entire human race, seeing them
not in themselves but in God. The
elect bear a unique responsibility as those that have been gifted with the
special grace necessary to perform these good deeds by virtue of their
regeneration.
Overall, one sees that purity, piety, holiness, and justice emanates from God,
as a gift of common grace in, from, and for, the elect.
Being equipped to perform good deeds gives the elect a
true freedom in Christ. God gives the elect both the will and the power to
perform the good work, and hence God receives all the glory.
It is thereby a gift of grace that humanity obtains liberty, is filled with
joy, is able to persevere, has a will that possesses the good, all of which
establishes the dependency of humanity on God.
This freedom is still subject to the will and sovereignty of God governing the
affairs of the world.
Christians also have a spiritual
freedom, a freedom from sin and its guilt. Part
of the Christian’s liberty is the recognition that justification is not by the
law but by the grace of God in accordance with God’s sovereignty. No
merit can possibly be derived from free will as it is all an act of God.
One’s merits are derived after the forgiveness of sins when the perfections of
Christ are imputed upon the elect.
This means that there is a balance to be had between becoming so unnerved by
one’s own depravity that one does not use their freedom to accomplish God’s
will and yet still be restrained enough not to go beyond ones calling. Any
freedom one enjoys is for life, not luxury, being content within ones station. In
the interest of charity, all excess should be used for the benefit of others. The
liberty that one has is to be subservient to one’s charity and charity in turn
subservient to purity of faith.
Ultimately if the use of one’s freedom causes another to stumble in the interest
of charity that freedom should not be exercised and both freedom and charity
are subject to one’s own faith commitments.
Abraham
Kuyper—Sphere Sovereignty
Abraham Kuyper builds from the foundations set by Jean
Calvin for the Reformed tradition. Kuyper formulates a model for Christian
engagement in the world within the Reformed framework. Kuyper begins with the
cultural mandate to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and
subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over
every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:28b). Like Adam cultivated
the garden, humanity now continues the cultivation in culture. The foundations
for culture are laid within the creational order to be developed by humanity.
Christians by virtue of their humanity, participates within culture, developing
the various spheres of culture for the glory of God. Kuyper argues for Christian engagement in the
spheres of politics, science, aesthetics, business, and ecclesial working
towards the redemption of each sphere. Kuyper is able to do this while standing
firmly within the Reformed tradition by appealing to the sovereignty of God
over every sphere and the common grace of God enabling free Christian
engagement.
Common grace is understood as a gift of God that relaxes
the curse that was upon the creation, limiting the curse only to that which is
sinful within creation.
This emphasis on common grace allows for the Reformed tradition to escape the
dualisms of human life that are established in partial religions. The Reformed tradition maintains a monism that
preserves the one-ness of human life because it is one-God that upholds it.With all dualisms removed including the nature
and grace dualism characteristic of the Romanist tradition, the Reformed
tradition is able to conclude that the grace of God restores nature.
The congregation simply cannot just retreat to their
churches and let the world do as it will.
Even though the whole creation is dead in its sin the ideal remains that the
whole creation would give glory to God and it is this ideal that the Christian
strives after.
The church exists for the sake of the world, to be the salt and light of the
world. The congregation therefore looks first to God and then to their neighbor
who is made in the image of God.The
salvation of this world is not done through ethical philosophizing but rather
by placing everything face to face with the divine that their heart might
tremble at God’s majesty.
,
toin
The unity of the Universal church is therefore a spiritual unity that finds its
basis for its existence in heaven.
The state is derived from an extension of the creational
normative of the family as a necessity for societal living.
The magistrate on the other hand comes about because of sin as an instrument of
common grace to restrain the forces of sin/ evil in the world.
The magistrate thereby has the God given authority to bear the sword in three
ways: the sword of justice, the sword of war and the sword of order.
The sword of justice is to insure that justice is given to all regardless of
means, that the spheres maintain their own autonomy and are not threatened or
threatening the autonomy of others and that the spheres are properly fulfilling
their creational duties.
The sword of war is for the defense of the people against an attack. The sword
of order is the power to tax and do everything that is necessary to preserve
the proper ordering of society. The government also must be held in check by
the other spheres as not to exceed its bounds.
For instance the government does not possess the means to properly interpret
scripture, that is the duty of the church, and therefore there should be no state
religion.
Nevertheless, all political systems find their basis in religious/
anti-religious conceptions of reality. There
is not religious neutrality in government. Government is capable of going
beyond its sphere of control and going against the law of God. But
nevertheless, government must still be submitted to by Christians as much as
possible because governments are an instrument of God at work in the world.
Each sphere therefore maintains its own God given
authority.
The spheres do not derive nor depend upon government, the people, nor any other
entity for their authority, but it is given to them by God, to be used in
accordance with God’s will. The spheres have an independence that they might
use their freedom to accomplish the task that is assigned to them without
interference of the rest. In the scientific sphere therefore the normalist has
just as much right to build an argument to support its conclusions, but the
abnormalists must be given that same freedom as well.
Neither the church nor the state should stop the normalist from articulating
its conclusions even if it does disagree with the biblical narrative.
The Christian is therefore to conduct themselves in the
way of godliness in each of the sovereign spheres. This way of godliness is in
part submission and in part resistance. As has been discussed in part one submits to
the rulers of each sphere that God has appointed in accordance with God’s
sovereign providence. But on the other hand sin is still an active and vibrant
force in the world impacting every aspect of creation including the demonic,
nature and humanity. As Christians encounter these forces at work
in the world they are to operate in accordance with the guiding principle of
what is the will of God concerning this?
God must mediate this process as human effort alone is vain and abominable.
It is only with the assistance of God that humanity is able to resist the
threats posed in these three areas.
As the world now stands the kingdom of God and the
kingdom of Satan are pitted against each other.
But in principle Christ has conquered Satan at Calvary with the final defeat
happening at the consummation.
God now permits Satan to molest creation but Christians are called to resist
the devil’s schemes.
One must accept that it is under God’s dominion that they suffer and that from
that suffering there is no escape. Nevertheless, by the sweat of one brow one is
to work, battling with nature and all the other forces that stand against the
righteousness of Christ. In some cases God has provided remedies in nature,
herbs that assist in the healing process.
However, one should not zealously seek after conquering nature, all attempts to
see after medical help which excludes the LORD must be condemned. In conflicts with other human beings,
Christians do not resist, however, governments are exempted for the purposes of
defense.
However, Christian’s passivity is even limited only to it affecting finances,
comfort and pleasure, Christians cannot violate God’s law.
This does not give Christians the grounds to have a rebellious spirit.
Rather instead of ones guiding principle being peacekeeping it should be what
is right according to the word of God.
This posture is done in all of the spheres including the church and state. In
the church Christians hate all untruth seeking to win back all who have
strayed.
There is tolerance where there is not fundamental doctrine on the line, and
patience with those who are weak in the faith, but zealous resistance for the
strong who are seeking after followers to false beliefs. It does this because
there can be no lasting peace in the church without full harmony of belief.
The battle for the LORD in the various spheres begins
within oneself.
The holier than thou attitude is sinful and abhorrent.
All have sinned, including the leaders of the various spheres. The leaders are
not in the position they are in by their own virtue but by the LORD’s sovereign
providence.
One’s task is to resist the forces of evil in every sphere, not for oneself but
for the glory of God.
While the final defeat of evil is only completed upon Christ’s second coming
there is still work that must be done in the meantime. While one watches for
the LORD’s coming they are not to be idle, rather be preparing the way for the
LORD.
Kuyper therefore has much in common with Jean Calvin. Like
Calvin, Kuyper holds that all authority emanates from God in all areas of life.
Like Calvin, Kuyper sees a God that wants his creatures to put their resources
to use and not be idle.
Like Calvin, Kuyper holds to the necessity of Christ for restoration and freedom.
However, Kuyper understands freedom a bit differently. When Calvin speaks of
freedom it is freedom from the power of sin that one might become a servant of
Christ. For Kuyper however, freedom is expanded to include a physical
component, for instance for Kuyper there is freedom in government or church to
elect ones leaders, or the insistence that Christians should be free to assert
their own scientific findings. This expanded view of freedom comes from an
expansion of Calvin’s conception of common grace. Under the old form of
Reformed thought things like cards, theater, and dance were thought of as off
limits for Christians because of some demonic underpinnings. There was still
some things that were wrong in and of themselves. But Kuyper begins to
challenge this notion, arguing that by virtue of the core goodness of creation
and that in Christ all things have been made new such that nothing might be
declared unclean, nothing is outside of the grace and sovereignty of God such
that it would be forbidden to Christians.
Herman
Dooyeweerd—Modal Law Theory
Dooyeweerd
searches for the starting point for philosophical thought. On the side of
theoretical thought many including Kant seek to root its foundations within
itself. Others have sought to come at it from the position of the naïve essence
in the phenomenological field but are still unable to escape the self. Each
have rooted their thinking in the autonomy of thought, and found no need for
justifying it.
In thought there are various modal aspects in which an entity participates in,
these modal aspects include: a numerical aspect, a spatial aspect, an aspect of
extensive-movement, an aspect of energy, a biotic aspect, a feeling/ sensation
aspect, a logical aspect, a historical aspect, aspect of
symbolical-significance (linguistic), aspect of social intercourse, economic,
aesthetic, juridical/ moral aspect, and faith/ belief aspect.[66]
These modal aspects function as special sciences, each playing a vital role in
understanding the real phenomena itself but each in and of themselves still
constitutes an abstraction of the real phenomena. Therefore,
Dooyeweerd preserves Kuyperian sphere sovereignty assigning particular tasks to
each of the special sciences but goes beyond Kuyper to assert that in and of
themselves they are incomplete. These special sciences require philosophy to
combine the various modal aspects to get a fuller picture of the entity itself
within its temporal horizons.
However, this cannot be done in theoretical abstraction it must be brought into
coherence with the naïve experience. The
philosophical analysis of the entity must be done without the absolution of any
particular modal aspect but must account for the irreducible diversity of the
various modes of experiencing the entity. The
individual ego that is doing the experiencing and interpreting becomes of great
importance in the quest for the starting point for philosophical thought.
Some like Martin Buber have asserted a core relational
nature to the human ego, an ‘I-thou” relationship. However, for Dooyeweerd, a
temporal love as exists in an ‘I-thou’ cannot be the central nature of
selfhood.
The core of the human ego must therefore be of divine origin, a sensus
divinitatis. At the core of the human ego is a religious ego that functions as
a guiding life-system for one’s life. It is only in the assertion of this
religious ego that one can assert an absolute truth, although because of sin it
is corrupted.
This religious basic motive is conditioned by it giving rise to a common belief
within the faith aspect and gain a socio-cultural power within the historic
aspect. Western philosophy has always been ruled by
religious basic motives whether it be the Hellenistic form-matter motive, the
radical biblical basic motive of creation, fall into sin, and redemption by
Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit, the scholastic motive of
nature and grace or the Humanistic motive of nature and freedom.
However, while there are multiple religious starting points, each by virtue of
common grace having something to contribute,
nevertheless do not force a relativizing of truth, but rather in illustrating
where the core of the differences lies begins the real conversation about which
religious system can lead to the absolutes being understood by the naïve
essence and theoretical thought.
Several distinctions need to be made in how Dooyeweerd
uses the term theology which is a special science concerned with the modal
aspect of faith rooted in a biblical tradition, philosophy which operates as
the framework for the dialectic between the modal aspects and their interaction
with the naïve essence, and religion which acts as the core operating framework
of one’s basic beliefs about the transcendent. Theology is just one modal
aspect among many, it has no right to absolutize its particular modal aspect
over and against the others as the queen of the sciences.
In this respect Dooyeweerd departs from not only the Thomist/ Romanist
tradition and Barthian tradition but Kuyper as well. The theological cannot
take the place of or supplant the philosophical. Theology in its scientific sense
is bound to philosophical fundamentals which in turn are dependent on the
central religious motive of theoretical thought.
The theological is nevertheless a significant special science in no small part
because of its relationship to the core religious ego. For instance the
theological doctrine of sin is going to have implications on the undergirding
religious motive of creation, fall, and redemption.
The Word-Revelation plays a central role in the creation,
fall, redemption religious ego occurring through the Holy Spirit to members of
the true Catholic Church. God’s revelation is not preferential. “God
does not speak to theologians, philosophers and scientists, but to sinners,
lost in themselves, and made into his children through the operation of the
Holy Spirit in their hearts.”
No specific modal aspect has a monopoly on the revelation of God, nor is any
deserving of it. Rather by common grace in a Christo-centric sense all dualisms
or privileging of particular spheres is rejected.
Dooyeweerd is a unique figure of the three
studied in this paper in that Dooyeweerd is a self-proclaimed Christian
philosopher while the others see themselves as theologians. Nevertheless,
Dooyeweerd still preserves many of the same aspects of Kuyper and the Kuyperian
reading of Calvin. Common grace and freedom of the spheres certainly binds
Dooyeweerd to Kuyper. However, while Kuyper seems to emphasize a core
creational independence of the social spheres, Dooyeweerd sees some need for a
dialectic between the special sciences through philosophy. Each of the sciences
still maintain their own autonomy and freedom, but in order to arrive at the
real phenomena itself a dialectic must take place between them and with the
naïve essence. Dialectics were used by Calvin as well in Calvin’s portrayal of
faith and repentance
and between justification and sanctification
but certainly nothing as broad sweeping as Dooyeweerd irreducibly diverse modal
aspects that are at work in the real phenomena.
A core staple for Dooyeweerd was the core religious ego
which was derived from Calvin’s sensus
divinatis via Abraham Kuyper. In Calvin everyone has a sense
of the divine, in some it is distorted, but in everyone there is some concept
of a god, that God has implanted in the hearts of humanity. In
Kuyper the sensus divinatis
takes on the role of God’s working in humanity to stir and subject them to
God’s judgment.
It is part of the confrontation God has with the various spheres such that they
act in conformity with God’s will. Certainly like Calvin, Kuyper preserves the
core religious nature of all things, holding that nothing can be religiously
neutral. However, Kuyper has much more compulsion to conformity coming from the
sensus divinatis than Calvin does.
Dooyeweerd seems to revert back to Calvin in this regard having less compulsion
to conformity than Kuyper’s use. For Dooyeweerd, it is a core piece of ones
humanity receiving paramount importance, whereas in Calvin and Kuyper it is
dealt with more in passing.
Ethical
Approaches
The Neo-Reformed tradition offers a complete life-system
for the Christian life in the world. This completeness is best seen in its
comparison with the major ethical traditions, virtue ethics, deontological
ethics and utilitarian ethics. Virtue ethics was developed by Aristotle. It
sees the excesses as vices and the golden mean as that which is ethical. For
instance when it comes to military valor cowardliness and rashness are vices
acting as outliers on each side of the virtue of courage. One being a good
person is based upon one living a long and virtuous life. However, for the
Neo-Reformed tradition one is incapable of anything but vices on one’s own. It
is only by the grace of God that humanity is equipped with the ability to do
good. One’s righteousness is not based on works, but on the righteousness of
Christ being imputed onto the elect.
Deontological ethics was developed by Immanuel Kant. Kant
affirms a categorical imperative which is acting only upon the maxims by which
one would will to become a universal law. The ethical comprises part of the
noumena, lying outside of observable phenomena. However, although it cannot be
observed ethical principles can be affirmed as universal laws that govern every
action. These universal laws are to be fulfilled by the individual out of duty.
What one sees is therefore a duty to keep a universal law that is derived from
the maxims that the rational individual determines. The deontological ethic has
close connection to the golden rule of doing onto others as one would have them
do unto you. However there are some stark contrasts particularly in its attempts
to determine right and wrong outside of the ordinances of God, its conclusion
that right action must emanate only from duty and the false dichotomy it is
rooted in between the phenomena and noumena.
Utilitarian ethics was primarily developed in large part
by John Stuart Mill. It seeks after accomplishing the greatest good for the
greatest number. It seeks after establishing what will create the most about of
joy for the most people. Its ethical value is entirely determined by the result
rather than the means. However, this ethical system requires the ability to
predict the future and the ability to make value judgments on how much pleasure
one receives. For Mill it is the intellectual pleasures which are the highest
pleasures and would therefore have the most weight in the determination. Every part of this ethical position stands in
contrast to the Neo-Reformed position. First in the Neo-Reformed tradition
every step of the process matters, not just the ends. All actions not done from
the primary motivation of the glory of God is deemed vain and abominable. Joy
in and of itself is not wrong, but when it takes the place of God as it does in
the Utilitarian ethic it runs against the Neo-Reformed tradition.
The Neo-Reformed
Option
For all of these theories ethics is part of a
philosophical study that assigns a particular merit to some human actions
because of a reasoned good nature of them. However, this is not the case in the
Neo-Reformed tradition. In the
Neo-Reformed tradition ethics functions as a special science operating the same
sphere as the juridical. Every real phenomena functions ethically, that is to
say the entity is not value neutral. A nuclear warhead is capable of only death
and destruction and therefore would be ethically problematic because of that
chief operation. As a modal aspect, ethics functions alongside of the other
modes with the same freedom of operation. In isolation, ethics remains as much
of an abstraction of the real phenomena as the others modal aspects.
Moral law for the Neo-Reformed tradition is not something
that originates from nature but rather is imposed upon nature by God who gives
them their authority.
It is therefore not natural law but a creational normative established in
common grace by divine intervention. However, this is creational law is
obscured such that God gave humanity a written law, a law rooted in love of God
and love of neighbor to guide ones actions.
The guiding action for the Neo-Reformed tradition is seeking after the will of
God in everything they do, whether it causes controversy or not, always
standing up and resisting evil wherever it is found. It recognizes that no good
works emanates from humanity, all is a gift of God to humanity, therefore there
is no merit to be had in the doing of good works. Rather they are simply acts
of obedience. Christians are not to go sin all the more that grace may abound
rather in the doing of good deeds give all the glory to God who has bestowed
it.
Application of
the Neo-Reformed Life-System
As Abraham Kuyper once said, “there is not a square inch
in the whole domain of human existence over which, Christ, who is sovereign
over all, does not cry ‘mine.’” Every square inch, every fiber of the created
order has been claimed by Christ for the kingdom people to enjoy. Christians
therefore must be workers with God in every sphere of life, preparing the way
for the redemption of Christ. This is the task of all Christians, not just a
select few ‘ecclesial leaders.’ Everyone is called to work, to be an active
participant in the world, in the process of bringing about reform in the
culture.
This involves a total transformation of one’s
world-and-life-view. No longer does one see the world in dualistic categories,
but rather sees the world and life as an irreducibly diverse entity in its own
right. This world was created as such by one God who sovereignly directs its
path. Given this one’s life and conduct do matter as economics, aesthetics,
government and other spheres are not estranged from the covenant of grace.
Because all of creation matters to God one must take seriously the call to
stewardship in every sphere of life. For the Christian call is not to just be
Christians in the sphere of the church, but to allow Christianity to permeate
every fiber of ones being such that it flows out of one in every sphere of
life.
Perhaps most importantly the Neo-Reformed life-system
offers a comprehensive framework for the biblically rooted life. At its core it
operates from a central religious ego of creation, fall, redemption which
constitutes the crux and monistic nature of the biblical narrative. Because of
these deep religious convictions there is a resistance to corruptions of the
creational normatives be it from demons, nature or humanity. It allows its faith in the meticulous sovereignty
of God to saturate the believer’s life in these trials and in all of life. This
allows one to escape looking at one’s own works and instead turning to the
perfection of Christ.
It is because of the goodness of God that one’s works become meritorious and
thereby one endeavors to live in obedience to God. It is this belief that allows the Neo-Reformed
believer to no longer live for themselves, giving up their body as a living
sacrifice for the sake of God and by extension God’s image bearers on earth. Therefore
the Neo-Reformer will help the poor, support good caused and prevent the weak
from being harmed.
The only limit to one’s beneficence should be a failure of means.
However, as the curse extends beyond humanity, so to must the Neo-Reformers
work, seeking to redeem each and every sphere to a right relationship before
God.
Concluding
Remarks
Ethics therefore has a role to play in the Neo-Reformed
tradition, it occupies a modal aspect all its own within each real phenomena.
But it is just a component and not the whole of the real phenomena itself. The
modal aspects, ethics included, are shaped by a religious ego. For the
Neo-Reformer rooted in the creation, fall, redemption religious tradition they
will have an ethical tradition that is rooted in discovering the will of God
and seeking to obey that will by the strength and power that God provides such
that God might receive all the glory. Nevertheless, try as one might
righteousness is not obtained by moral works but rather by the imputed
righteousness of Christ. It is Christ that gives Christian’s freedom, in common
grace, to engage the world and participate with God in the restoration of the
spheres.
One’s religious beliefs are not a component of ones
humanity, but are the crux of ones humanity in which the rest are dependent
upon. The Neo-Reformed tradition believes that every aspect of one’s life is sacred,
not just the soul and church, and therefore, Christians need a framework for
putting ones faith into practice in every aspect of life. The Neo-Reformed
tradition does this through the establishment of sphere sovereignty, spheres in
which all people participate on a regular basis each with its own God given
autonomy. Christians are called to engage in these spheres, working in them for
the glory of God. Hence the Neo-Reformed tradition offers a complete
life-system for Christians as they live their lives in the world that God
created, and by God’s sovereign will placed them in to be doers of the divine
will.
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(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
6467-6469). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
12773-12776). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
4875-4877). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
4885-4886). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2012-12-17). The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works (Kindle Locations
32853-32855). . Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
7618-7620). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
4726-4727). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
5862-5863). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
5427-5429). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
5538-5544). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
5663-5665). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
15599-15601). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
15500-15502). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
5756-5758). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
15057-15059). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2012-12-17). The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works (Kindle Locations
32908-32910). . Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
15622-15626). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
15683-15684). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
7358-7360). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2012-12-17). The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works (Kindle Locations
33227-33228). . Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2012-12-17). The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works (Kindle Locations
33377-33380). . Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
11076-11078). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin,
John (2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
14782-14788). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
6741-6743). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
13770-13771). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
13845-13847). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2012-12-17). The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works (Kindle Locations
32777-32778). . Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2012-12-17). The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works (Kindle Locations
33881-33882). . Kindle Edition.
Calvin, John
(2008-04-03). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Kindle Locations
12909-12910). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.
