From Byron Curtis, a professor at Geneva College, the denominational college of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, North America:

To be reformed means:

1) to confess with the orthodox churches the consensus of the first five centuries of Christianity, including:

* a) Classic theism: One omnipotent, benevolent God, distinct from creation.

* b) Nicene and Chalcedonian Trinitarianism: one God in three eternally existent persons, equal in power and glory.

* c) Christ, the God-Man, the one mediator between God & the human race, incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, & coming again.

* d) Humanity created in the image of God, yet tragically fallen & profoundly in need of restoration to God through Christ.

* e) The Visible Church: the community of the redeemed, indwelt y the Holy Spirit; the mystical body of Christ on earth. The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

* f) The Sacraments: visible signs and seals of the grace of God, ministering Christ's love to us in our deep need.

* g) The Christian life: characterized by the prime theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.

2) to confess with the Reformation churches the four great "Solas:"

* a) RE the source of authority: Sola Scriptura.
* b) RE the basis of salvation: Sola Gratia.
* c) RE the means of salvation: Sola Fide
* d) Re the merit of salvation: Solus Christus

3) to confess with the Reformed churches the distinctives of the Reformed faith:

* a) In salvation: monergism not synergism. God alone saves. Such monergism implies T.U.L.I.P., the Five Points of Calvinism from the Synod of Dordt:

T = Total Depravity
U = Unconditional Election
L = Limited Atonement, or, better, Particular Redemption
I = Irresistible Grace
P = Perseverence and Preservation of the Saints

* b) In worship: the Regulative Principle of Worship "Whatever is not commanded in public worship is forbidden." God alone directs how he is to be worshiped in the assem- bly of the visible church.

* c) In the Visible Church: Covenant Theology & Covenant Community. The Church is the New Israel, incorporating believers among Jews and Gentiles alike. Infant Baptism ordinarily follows from this understanding. Sacraments are not merely human observances, but acts of Jesus Christ, marking out the visible church.

* d) In life: Life is religion: there is no sacred/secular destinction. As such Christians have neither jobs nor careers; they have vocations (callings). Every calling is "full time Christian service," because every Christian is a full-time Christian.

4) finally, in everything, as Christians everywhere joyfully affirm: Soli Deo Gloria. 'To God alone be the glory.'

North of the border, here's a scary look at what's coming....

The upshot - a Christian charity was successfully sued for discrimination by a woman living in an "alternative lifestyle", who violated the terms of her contract in order to move in with her "partner", and won $23,000 and 2 years back wages, after she willingly quit the job. Essentially, the law in Canada is that nobody can refuse to employ anyone based on any "lifestyle choices" - even those religious organizations whose beliefs will not allow such a thing. We're not far from it here, folks.

A quote from Frank's "Fear of God", in which he references John Preston's "The Breastplate of Faith and Love," (an excellent work in its own right!):

In the next place, consider your fear: For if you love the Lord, it will cause you to fear and tremble at his word, and at his judgments, for whom a man loves much, he regards much, he is much affected with what he does..."(p. 14)

and also Frank quotes from William Perkins's "Foundations of Christian Religion":

The fear of God is that whereby man, acknowledging both God's mercy and justice, does, as the greatest evil, fear to displease God. (p. 14)

Our fearing God is not the fear of the slave - but the fear of a child. We fear because we love - we fear because God is great, and Holy. We are in awe of His majesty and can't bear the thought of doing wrong before Him, because He is our righteous and Holy Father.

If we fear the Lord, truly, we will walk differently because of it. Not because we are afraid of tallying up black marks in His book, as some might envision it... but because we are called into His family, and He has done all good for us in all things - and His Law we know to be righteous and just, and we aim to please Him in what we think, say and do. We fear because He is who He is - the most High, most glorious King of Kings.

Without fear of this sort, we are free agents and will do whatever pleases our flesh most. We'll blindly walk along, and practically speaking the existence of God will be irrelevant to our daily actions. We'll be concerned only with pragmatic advantage-seeking, and at best, doing "good" for fellow men because they are fellow men, or because we seek a pat on the back in return. We'll look no different than the other "good people" we live and work with. Without this fear, we approach things from a practically atheistic worldview.

How shall we then live?

Of what does the proper fear of God consist? Oftentimes I think we are under the impression (I know this is true for me) that the chief reason that God must be feared (unpopular doctrine today, to be sure) is that we are sinful creatures, carrying with us the burden of original sin.

While surely because of our sinful nature we do have good reason to tremble at the unmitigated holiness of God, this doesn't quite measure up as the proper fear of God for the faithful - for our fear goes well beyond any consequences for sin. We who stand in the righteous robes of Christ still must fear God - even as our Lord did.

In Arthur Frank's "The Fear of God", the author quotes John Murray, writing in "Principles of Conduct" (another EXCELLENT and very worthwhile book):

The fear of God in which godliness consists is the fear which constrains adoration and love. It is the fear which consists in awe, reverence, honour and worship, and all of these on the highest level of exercise. It is the reflex of our consciousness of the transcendent majesty and holiness of God. It belongs to all created rational beings and does not take its origin from sin. (quotation from Frank, p. 18)

How different this is than our gut-level fear, which stems from our being unworthy due to our sin (like Isaiah at his call as prophet). Simply because of the majesty of God, his holiness and supremacy, we must fear and tremble at His very being.

William Teelinck, in his "The Path of True Godliness" addresses several ways in which Satan attacks the Christian's pursuit of a godly or holy walk before the Lord. Among these methods is the attack he describes below, in which the Christian is tempted to "take it easy", rather than have a concern for holy thought and conduct:

..from the true teaching that even the most holy saints stumble in many things and that all men are sinners, he draws the false conclusion that it does not matter much if one falls into sin or yields to a darling sin to which the heart clings and thinks most desirable, provided one takes care not to belong to the worst class of offenders. After all, the devil says, "Everyone has his own peculiar sins. It would be too severe to label everyone as bad and mark their favorite sins as evil. Surely, if judged in this way, no one could be saved." Everyone has his own sins, and all are tarred with the same brush. If someone wants to dispute this, followers will soon cry out, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her" (John 8:7). Satan tells us, "You should not be so concerned whether you live with some particular sin, for you simply have this sin, and someone else has another sin; there is no one without fault. It will be just as well with you in the end as it will be for anyone else, provided you make sure that you are not the worst offender."

I'm afraid this kind of thinking is very prevalent in the church, and is a great temptation. For, as we look at the world around us, we see all manner of ugliness, all manner of openly defiant sin. We're tempted, too, to look within the church, and see sin struggles that others have, and say within our hearts, at least I'm not doing THAT, or I'm glad I'm over that sin myself. How deep is sin ingrained in us that such temptations become so prevalent!

Rather, we should recognize the truth - if we have sinned in any particular, we have no recourse but to come to Christ in faith - for in sinning in even the smallest particular manner, we have broken the whole Law, and no degree of penitence, no good deeds, no nothing but the blood of Christ can save us. Even apart from this smallest particular sin, we carry with us the guilty verdict of Adam - and this, too, requires but one solution if we are to be sanctified with God's flock - the blood of the resurrected and perfectly spotless Lamb of God.

How, then, can we take Satan's bait, and swallow it whole like we do at times? Our lives cannot be ones of "keeping out of the *really* dirty stuff". There is NO CLEAN SIN that we don't have to be concerned with. Sin in our lives, if our perspective is sound, should always be unwelcome - and our lives will, by God's grace and with the indwelling Spirit at work within us, be a constant battle against sin. Complacency and satisfaction in ourselves as to our current level of sanctification is completely forbidden for the Christian. If we think we've "arrived", we'd better check again, and continually be returning to the Cross wherein is our only hope. Always is, always was, always will be.