Reformed Rookie Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the Reform Rookie website. Thanks for clicking on this introductory video. I'll be going through exactly what the Reform Rookie is and what our goal is in putting it on the internet.

So the Reform Rookie obviously is about Reform Theology. We want to have people take a look at what Reform Theology is and teach it to them in an easy and understandable way. Basically, it's Reform Theology for beginners or rookies.

You and I were once rookies too, and I'm hoping that this website and this training will help you understand the richness and the beauty of Reform Theology. So the first question I'd have to ask is, why Reformed?

What is this word Reformed, and where does it come from? Well, it actually comes from the Reformation, which happened in 1517. You might have heard of a monk by the name of Martin Luther who nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg in an attempt to reform the church.

The church was losing its... It was going in the wrong direction. There was corruption in the church and doctrines became blurred and marred, and it turned into something that it wasn't meant to be. Now, Martin Luther didn't try to split the church.

He tried to reform the church from the inside. However, it did end up splitting it, and in the midst of the split, it also corrected the errors that the Roman Catholic Church were putting forth and the direction that it was going in.

The Reformation actually was a matter of authority and doctrine. Who was it that had authority over God's people, and what exactly did the Bible teach? Well, the Reformers came to the understanding that Scripture is the ultimate authority for the believer, and the doctrines that are taught by the pastors must come out of the Scriptures.

If they don't come out of the Scriptures, well, then they're not God-breathed. This was a big sticking point for the Reformation and why it happened. So, there were certain doctrines that came out of the Reformation different than what the Roman Catholic Church was teaching, and one of our goals is going to be to go through those doctrines step-by-step to show you exactly what they fought for and why this is so important today.

Now, out of the Reformation, there were several men who spearheaded the movement. You might have heard of them. I mentioned before Martin Luther. There's also John Calvin, John Knox, Jan Hus, Ulrich Swingly, John Wycliffe, and many, many more.

And these guys formed the basis for Protestantism. In other words, the doctrines that they brought forth and what they were moving the church to, reforming the church to, becomes the basis for the Protestant Church.

We protested against the Roman Catholic Church, and now there's a whole new movement called Protestantism or Evangelicalism. Now, the differences were moral, doctrinal, and procedural. Obviously, there was moral corruptions happening in the church.

There were wrong teachings being put forth in the church, and procedurally, as far as the teaching magisterium went, and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was not biblical. So, what are we looking to do?

What was the result of the Reformation? Well, several things. First, the authority of scripture was recovered in the Reformation, as well as making the scriptures available to all people. Up until that point, the Catholic Church would not allow scriptures to be put in the hands of the common man.

And this was a sticking point for the Reformers. They thought it was everybody's duty to read the scriptures. So, they translated it into the language of the people and started circulating that to everyone who wanted to be a Christian.

Now, many of them were put to death because they translated the scriptures into the language that people could understand, and we're going to be going through some of those. We're going to be doing videos on some of those people and what exactly happened to them.

Also, something else that came out of the Reformation was something known as the five solas. And the word sola is Latin for only. So, one of the five solas is sola scriptura, scripture alone. In other words, scripture is the sole infallible rule of authority when it comes to a believer.

And again, we're going to go through videos. We're going to do videos that go through all five of the five solas. Also, we come to know the doctrines of grace from the Reformation, also known as TULIP.

T stands for total depravity. U stands for unconditional election. L stands for limited atonement. I is irresistible grace. And P is perseverance of the states. And again, we'll be doing videos on each and every one of those things, breaking those doctrines down into their simplest form so that we can all understand them.

What also happened was the corruption and unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic Church were exposed for everyone to see, and it caused quite a stir. We're going to be going through that in some videos with regards to the history of the Reformation and how they got to that point and how we got to where we are now.

The good thing was that the church grew as a result of the Reformation. Many people came to saving faith in Jesus for their salvation because of the Reformers and the doctrines that were recovered in the Reformation.

So, what are the distinctives of Reformed Theology? Because Reformed Theology is different than many theologies that you may have encountered. So, one of the distinctives is the sovereignty, power, and holiness of God.

That is a big emphasis in Reformed Theology. And again, we're going to be going through podcasts and blogs and videos on these distinctives so that you can know what they mean and be able to explain them to someone else, hopefully.

Reformed Theology also talks about the weakness and the inability of man, his bondage to sin, and his inability to save himself. This is something that man lost at the fall. He lost his ability to be connected to God.

And again, we'll be going through videos on that also. One of the distinctives of Reformed Theology is monergism versus synergism. Monergism is the one working of God. Synergism is the work of God and man together to accomplish salvation.

Reformed Theology holds to monergism, that salvation is the monergistic work of God alone. He and he alone is the one who brings a dead sinner to life, apart from the cooperation of man. It's centered on God.

So, Reformed Theology has a God-centeredness about it, not a man-centeredness about it. Reformed Theology is also known as Covenant Theology. In other words, Reformed Theology looks at all the covenants of the Bible and sees how God relates to man through covenant.

We also hold to the threefold use of the law, the moral, civil, and ceremonial, and again, we will be going through each and every one of these things. Reformed Theology holds to Jesus as prophet, priest, and king.

Now, there are many different theologies that hold to some of these things. These are just distinctive for Reformed Theology because they're biblical, basically. Reformed Theology holds a high view of Scripture, that Scripture is inerrant, infallible, and inspired.

Many liberal theologians are going the way of saying that Scripture is not inerrant, and it is infallible. So, this is something that's going to root us and ground us in the truth of God's Word. Reformed Theology also holds to the analogy of faith.

In other words, that Scripture interprets itself. Scripture interprets Scripture, and the regulative principle of worship. In other words, we worship God based on the principles that he has placed in the Scriptures, and we don't go beyond that.

Reformers are usually confessional, creedal, and vocational. Confessional in the sense that they hold to certain confessions of faith that were penned years and years and years ago by the early Reformers and modified.

As long as they're biblical, most Reformed Theologians or Reformed people would hold to a confession of faith. It's creedal in the sense that it holds to the historic creeds of the church as they imitate or mirror Scripture, and it's vocational.

In other words, Reformed people believe that nobody just has a job. You have a vocation, and your vocation is your ministry. It could be driving a limousine. It could be flying a plane. It could be selling insurance.

All of those things could be vocations where your ministry would come into play. Finally, a big distinctive of Reformed Theology is Solo Deo Gloria, that God gets the glory in all things, because God is supreme.

He is sovereign over everything, and we want to make sure that we don't steal glory from God, and he gets it all. So, what is the goal? The goal is to produce video lessons in these categories of the things that I went over with you just now, and we're going to define and explain Reformed terms and doctrine, again in a basic, understandable way, using illustrations so that you can understand them.

Then we're going to review a Reformed Catechism. We're going to do videos on each of the questions, because that's a great way to learn Reformed doctrine, even just Biblical doctrine. Teach it to your kids, or just memorize it for yourself.

We're going to go through profiles of historical Reformers, who they were, what they did, and how they influenced the culture. We're also going to do podcasts with Reformed pastors and teachers who are going to be able to give us insight into Reformed Theology and help us clear up some things.

We'll tackle some tough subjects and topics and try to break it down to its most basic level so we can all understand them. We'll also be putting up blog posts that involve all of these segments. So, please hit the the website www .reformedrookie .com.

Check out the blog and check out the videos that me and the other people from my church will be putting up. The lessons on Reformed terms and doctrine will answer these questions. My goal is to tell you what it is, where it is in Scripture, and why it matters.

Once we get those three things down, we'll review the lesson, we'll summarize it, so that we'll make it easy and memorable for you. Again, the website is www .reformedrookie .com. Thanks again for listening, and we look forward to learning and growing with you in Reformed Theology.