Expert: Wayne Brooks - 4/21/2004

Question
Appreciate your kind replied. I now wish to ask what is actually "puritan" and "reformation". I read on the amazon.com about puritan literature and reformation literature. what is actually those two items?

Hope you can help.  

Answer
Dear Simon,

First, let me apologize for the tardiness of my reply.  I was on vacation last week and unable to respond.

Let me give you a simplified overview.  For a number of centuries prior to Martin Luther and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (1517 AD) most literature was written from a Roman Catholic viewpoint.  In 1536, a French protestant pastor by the name of John Calvin began publishing a series of theological works with a protestant viewpoint.  The ideas of Calvin became the basis of Presbyterianism and what is called “Reformed” or “Puritan” thought.  This side of Protestantism stresses the sovereignty of God in everything, including who will get saved.  They believe the unifying theme of history is a covenant of grace God made with mankind to save sinners.  They believe that history will someday culminate in a great final return of Jesus.

There are other Protestant viewpoints also taught that look at things slightly different.  One of these is the Dispensational viewpoint.  In this viewpoint the unifying theme of history is the conflict between God and Satan of which man is caught in the middle.  God has administered mankind in different ways, of which man has always come up short.  There was the Garden with Adam and Eve, then conscience up to Noah, human government to Babel, the call and promises to Abraham and his descendents, the law to Israel in the wilderness, the church and grace at the cross of Christ, and the coming 1000 year kingdom of Christ as the Jewish king over the earth.  In the end Satan will be destroyed and God will rule for eternity unchallenged.  Throughout man's history God has provided for salvation and was leading to Christ and his work on the cross.  Dispensational theology interprets the Bible more literally in the areas of prophecy than does Reform theology.  Both would agree on the way of salvation being through faith in Jesus alone.

I trust this little overview has added light rather than further confusion.

Sincerely,
Wayne Brooks