개혁교회의 실제적 교의

The positive doctrine of the Reformed Church

이 글은 초기 개혁교회의 신앙고백들에 나타난 개혁교회의 실제적 교리를 살펴보는 데 목적이 있다 이 신앙고백들은 중세 로마 가톨릭에 대한 저항에서 루터파와 비교되는 개혁교회의 독특한 특징을 보여준다. 개혁교회의 신앙과 신학은 처음부터 하나님을 올바르게 영화롭게 하고, 하나님을 바로 아는 방법에 관심을 가졌다. 칼빈에 의하면 하나님은 우리가 전적으로 신뢰하고, 거룩한 뜻에 복종하면서 하나님을 섬기고, 우리의 일체의 궁핍 가운데서 구원과 모든 선한 것을 하나님 안에서만 찾고 구하며 기도할 때, 그리고 우리가 유일한 구원자이신 하나님께 찬양과 감사를 드릴 때, 올바르게 영화롭게 된다고 주장한다. 개혁교회 신학은 믿고, 순종하고, 기도하고, 감사하는 이 모든 일을 하나님께만 초점을 맞추고, 하나님만이 활동하신다는 이 전망 아래서 모든 것을 이해하고자 한다. 바로 이 일을 해내는 것이 개혁교회의 교리적 과제이다.

This article is to trace the positive doctrine of the Reformed Church which appears in the old Reformed confessions. Those confessions show what was distinctive in the doctrine of the Reformed Church and imply resistance to the Medieval Catholic Church, comparing to the Lutheran Church. The Reformed reformers charged that Catholic church falsified the theme of Christian preaching and perverted Christianity itself by the expedient of putting human in the place of God. In ecclesiasticism’s attempt to become a means of salvation, in its vast system of compromise between nature and grace-in all devices characteristic of the last phase of medieval Christianity, they saw only an offense to the God who refuses to be possessed and from the beginning to the end remains the Possessor. That is why they wanted to have reestablished that the subject in the religious relation is not human, but God. The Reformed Faith and Theology are concerned about the method of honoring God duly, knowing him aright. According to Calvin, God is duly honored when we place our entire trust In him; when we earnestly seek to serve him with all our lives and willingly to obey him; when we turn to him in prayer for every need, whether a matter of our own salvation or something else; when we present to him our praise and thanks as the sole Author. For the Reformed Theology, believing, obeying, praying, thanking are focused upon God. Then the historical traditions of Christian religion are to be understood under the one perspective that the issue is God, God alone, God himself at work. This is duly to honor God, this is to know him aright. I would say that the above is the positive doctrine of the Reformed Church.