Are You a Reformed Fundamentalist?

In a somewhat unrelated comment in an interview at the Vintage 73 blog the interviewee Rev. Sam Wheatley mentioned “Reformed Fundamentalist”s in a pejorative fashion and since all good nicknames (like Yankee and Redneck) start off their lives as epithets I’d like to own that name and put forward a list of “5 Fundamentals” that I would consider to be indicative of someone I would consider a “Reformed Fundamentalist”. The list of five necessarily are a little broad, but are succinct enough to be a clear marker between Fundamentalists and others.

If I was going to put a list of 5 things that would make someone a “Reformed Fundamentalist” in our context it would be:

1) 6-Day Creationism
2) Byzantine Text/Received Text/TR
3) Establishmentarianism (Original WCF 23)
4) Regulative Worship
5) Consistent Presbyterian Ecclesiology (See Westminster Directory for Church Government)

Calvin On God’s Sovereignty Over the Animals

We see indeed that wild beasts rush violently upon men, and rend and tear many of them in pieces; and if God did not wonderfully restrain their fierceness, the human race would be utterly destroyed. Therefore, what we have said respecting the inclemency of the air, and the irregularity of the seasons, is also here applicable. Savage beasts indeed prevail and rage against men in various ways, and no wonder; for since we perversely exalt ourselves against God, why should not the beasts rise up against us? Nevertheless, the providence of God is a secret bridle to restrain their violence. For, whence does it arise that serpents spare us, unless because he represses their virulence? Whence is it that tigers, elephants, lions, bears, wolves, and other wild beasts without number, do not rend, tear, and devour everything human, except that they are withheld by this subjection, as by a barrier? Therefore, it ought to be referred to the special protection and guardianship of God, that we remain in safety. For, were it otherwise, what could we expect; since they seem as if born for our destruction, and burn with the furious desire to injure us? Moreover, the bridle with which the Lord restrains the cruelty of wild beasts, to prevent them falling upon men, is a certain fear and dread which God has implanted in them, to the end that they might reverence the presence of men. Daniel especially declares this respecting kings; namely, that they are possessed of dominion, because the Lord has put the fear and the dread of them both on men and beasts. But as the first use of fear is to defend the society of mankind; so, according to the measure in which God has given to men a general authority over the beasts, there exists in the greatest and the least of men, I know not what hidden mark, which does not suffer the cruelty of wild beasts, by its violence to prevail. Another advantage, however and one more widely extended, is here noted; namely, that men may render animals subservient to their own convenience, and may apply them to various uses, according to their wishes and their necessities. Therefore, the fact that oxen become accustomed to bear the yoke; that the wildness of horses is so subdued as to cause them to carry a rider; that they receive the pack-saddle to bear burdens; that cows give milk, and suffer themselves to be milked; that sheep are mute under the hand of the shearer; all these facts are the result of this dominion, which, although greatly diminished, is nevertheless not entirely abolished.

John Calvin on God’s controlling hand over the beasts of the field and birds of the air.

From his commentary on Genesis 9:2.

The Westminster Divines and Genesis 1

There are few subjects that bring more heat than the current debate in Christian circles concerning the meaning and historicity of Genesis 1-11 and especially the 6 days of Creation. Even in the Reformed world in which we inhabit there is little coherence on this issue. One of the ways each side tries to buttress arguments is by pointing to historical examples of people who either held their position or at best  did not agree with the position they are arguing against. For those of us in the Westminster tradition it is especially important to understand what the Divines themselves understood by “in the space of 6 days” and what it meant to the authors of the Confession in chapter 4 of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

This discussion flared up again recently when the Rev. Danny Hyde notified the blogosphere that this dated article by Robert Letham that attempts to show what the church believed “in the space of 6 days” to mean from Origen to the Westminster Assembly. There is only one problem. David Hall in a an audio message you can listen to here (that predates Letham’s article) shows definitively (also in a book you can buy here) that the claims made by Letham in his article concerning the Assembly’s views on the 6 days are at best misleading.