Rich @Mobilized1Rich - Twitter Profile

This is a long read, but the issue is too important to reduce… I have wrestled with it deeply and I hope you will take the time to read it slowly. To My Fellow Reformed Brothers and Sisters There is something heavy on my heart that I need to say plainly and honestly. What good is sound theology if it does not transform how we live and love? Too often we wear doctrine like a crown of superiority instead of a mark of humility. The very truths that should bring us low before God sometimes make us stand taller before men. Being Reformed in India is often a lonely road. We are few, scattered across a vast land. The joy of discovering the doctrines of grace is real and deeply freeing, yet it is often followed by the sobering realization that finding believers who reflect the humility those truths are meant to produce is far more difficult. Most of my interaction with Reformed believers has been online. Out of countless conversations, only a few displayed genuine grace, patience, and Christlike character. Many showed deep theological knowledge but little spiritual tenderness. Theology meant to humble the sinner had become a badge of intellectual superiority. A few days ago, someone called me a heretic over secondary issues such as the day of worship and baptism. I mentioned that Scripture does not bind believers to a specific day, pointing to Colossians 2:16–17. What followed was a rigid defence of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, quoting Calvin and the Westminster Confession of Faith. When I asked whether he has ever been to a Muslim majority country where Christian believers, gather on Fridays because Sunday is working day and whether such worship would somehow be unacceptable to God, the question was ignored. I asked what should be said about persecuted believers who can only gather secretly and irregularly on any day. Would God reject their worship because it was not held on Sunday? The heart of the matter was never addressed. Instead, the conversation shifted to baptism and the accusations intensified. Because I did not hold to the Westminster Confession’s view but to the London Baptist Confession, I was told that I was not truly Reformed and should stop using the term. The discussion revealed something deeper than disagreement. The arguments were clouded by theological pride, valuing rigid tradition above Christlike humility. This exposes a wider problem. We sometimes quote Calvin, the Puritans, or confessions more passionately than we quote Scripture itself. Their writings are valuable guides, but they were never meant to become our authority. The Reformers fought precisely against elevating human writings alongside Scripture. Their goal was always to return the church to the Word of God, not to build new camps around their own names. Our authority is Scripture alone. Confessions summarize truth but do not define it infallibly. When we treat them as untouchable, we repeat the very error the Reformation sought to correct. There is a danger here that we must face honestly. We can become so committed to being theologically correct that we forget to be Christlike. We defend positions with precision while failing to display patience, gentleness, and love. We can explain predestination flawlessly and still speak in ways that contradict the grace we claim to believe. Scripture reminds us that knowledge without love turns us into noise rather than witnesses (1 Corinthians 13:1). The doctrines of grace should produce the humblest people on earth. If salvation is entirely the work of God, then pride has no place left to stand. We were not rescued because we were wiser, more discerning, or more faithful, but because God showed mercy. That truth should soften our speech, slow our judgments, and deepen our compassion toward those still learning. I do not write this as someone who has arrived. I see pride in my own heart more often than I wish to admit. Growth happens as we sharpen one another with truth and grace together (Proverbs 27:17). The goal is not agreement on every secondary issue but maturity in Christ. Let our theology drive us to humility, not arrogance. Let it led us to prayer more than argument, to Scripture more than personalities and to Christ more than camps. Let us be quicker to listen than to speak (James 1:19). Let us pray more than we debate, remembering that God alone opens blind eyes (2 Corinthians 4:6). Let us serve with humility, counting others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3–4). Let us show patience, remembering how patient God has been with us (2 Peter 3:9). Brothers and sisters, sound doctrine was never meant to make us impressive. It was meant to make us humble. The truths that revealed our helplessness before God should never become weapons we use against one another. If grace truly saved us apart from our merit, then grace must also shape how we speak, correct, and walk with others who are still learning. May our theology drive us lower before Christ, not higher above our brethren. May those who encounter us see not merely people who argue well, but people who have been humbled by mercy and changed by truth. Soli Deo Gloria.

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J.C. Ryle

@JCRyle

6 months ago

God doesn't His word on little boxes on your arm or forehead...-Paul Washer