Reformed Forum is a Christian non-profit organization that exists to assist the church in her call to discipleship. We serve the church by communicating the riches of our theological tradition and advancing it according to our confessional boundaries through in-depth research and scholarly discourse. In this collection of essays, the authors set forth the salient features of their shared Reformed identity, a distinct theological voice.
Lane G. Tipton establishes our redemptive-historical approach to the Scriptures with an essay on Jesus in the Old Testament. He demonstrates that the Scriptures of the Old Testament presuppose a progressive, organic, revelation of the Messiah in promise form that gives way to eschatological fulfillment in the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus Christ. Christ is not an afterthought. The church must receive the Christ who is truly revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments by the supernatural agency of the Spirit. He speaks powerfully in Scripture as a revelational record of the history of special revelation.
Camden M. Bucey builds upon Tipton's work by demonstrating our belief in the relationship between biblical and systematic theology. While both disciplines are based on exegetical theology, systematic theology organizes the teaching of Scripture topically while biblical theology studies Scripture as it progressively unfolds. We believe a true Reformed theologian must not only be systematic but also biblical-theological.
Jeffrey C. Waddington addresses the doctrine of salvation with his chapter on union with Christ and the ordo salutis. Nothing is more significant about a Christian than the fact that he is united to Christ. The good news is that the triune God has brought us into a blessed relationship, a covenantal communion bond with him through his Son. We have every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3). In accord with that glorious truth, Glen J. Clary reminds us that Reformed theology is not merely intellectual. It has bearing upon our practice. We were created to glorify and enjoy God forever, and therefore Reformed theology must be directed toward worship. By following his Word, we experience his grace and grow ever closer to him.
Our identity is hidden away with Christ in God. Yet Jesus calls us to be salt and light in the world. As such, we are separatist though not isolationist. James J. Cassidy explains this existence. We are citizens of heaven and not of this world. We are pilgrims traveling through the wilderness unto the Promised Land, our eternal rest in the New Heavens and New Earth. Cassidy develops an ecclesiology and ethic of heavenly-mindedness. We are in a war, but "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12). As such, we fight not with the weapons of this world, but with the weapons of Christ's heavenly kingdom.
Jeffrey C. Waddington directs us in this fight with a concluding chapter about Reformed apologetics. We defend the faith on the basis of the self-attesting Word of God. We seek to share the uncompromised message of Christ crucified and raised for sinners.
