A Battle for the Heart of "Reformed"

It seems to me that there’s a fight going on right now over exactly what it means to be “Reformed.” Now, I’m generally Reformed, but in a kind of post-Barthian, Moltmannian way. The term means little to me, and I don’t regard Calvin, Westminster, or Dordt too highly. So, I really don’t have a dog in that fight.

But for those of you who do, I’d say, “Wake up!” I talk to a lot of moderate Reformed folks, and they generally poo-poo the “Reformed Resurgence” of Piper, Driscoll, et al. They consider the conservatives to be modern-day fundamentalists, to be ignored like all other fundamentalists. But I say to all Reformed Moderates, watch out! The conservatives are building a movement, and they’re happy to be ignored.

Meanwhile, Christianity Today is planting it’s flag in ground on the same territory as the conservatives. For three issues in a row, they’ve shown their true colors: 1) a cover story on the preeminence of the penal substitution, 2) a cover story on the conservative Reformed movement (an article which has been described to me as “uncritical” and “polemical”), and 3) a 50th anniversary issue that leaned heavily on Reformed experts — at the expense of other voices — to predict the future of evangelicalism.

Like I say, I’m really watching this all from the sidelines (except when Emergent gets dragged into the fray). But I will say this: if the moderates ignore the conservatives, the conservatives will win.