TREASURY OF SERMONS
Puritans and Puritanism
By Rev (Dr) Jeffrey Khoo
It is good to study the lives of great Christian
men and great Christian movements of the past. It is important to
learn from their successes as well as failures. We want to take heed
of their good points, but at the same time we must take note of the
weak points. Ultimately, all that we believe and practise as
Christians must be based on God’s Word. The Puritans were devout
Christians who sought with all their hearts to live holy lives
before God, but they were not infallible or perfect. Only the Lord
Jesus Christ is infallible and perfect. That is why the author of
Hebrews when telling us to remember Christian leaders of the past
did not forget to direct our attention to the Leader of leaders—the
Lord Jesus Himself—who is infallible and perfect—the same yesterday,
and today, and forever (Heb 13:7-8).
With this in mind, let us now study briefly
about the history and theology of the Puritans.
History of the Puritans
Puritanism began in England during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I. The term "Puritan" comes from the word "pure" or
"purity," and was coined in 1564. It was part of the 16th century
Reformation movement. The Reformation in Germany started by Luther
spread eventually to England. The Protestant Reformation had caused
the Roman Catholic Church to lose its ecclesiastical grip on many
countries and churches. England was only too happy to break away
from Rome.
Although there was this break from Rome, the
break was not total. The Reformation in the Church of England did
not go far enough. After they broke from Rome, the Church of England
implemented several Romish policies: (1) In 1559, by an Act of
Parliament, the Queen proclaimed herself as the "Supreme Governor of
the Church of the Church of England." So the Queen has now replaced
the Pope as Head of the Church. (2) Attendance of services on
Sundays and holy days were made compulsory. Absence meant being
fined as much as one week’s salary. (3) The Book of Homilies was
introduced, and every pastor must preach from this book. This is
very much like what is happening in China today. Every sermon must
be vetted by the Communist government first before it can be
preached. (4) The Church of England chose to retain the religious
garb of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Puritans were against all these
implementations. They fought against the Church of England. They
said the Church though reformed was not reformed enough. So they
became Separatists. They separated and formed their own
congregations. The government imposed restrictions against them.
Without freedom to practise their faith, these Puritans left
England, and went to Holland, and finally to the USA.
Those who traveled to the USA were known as the
Pilgrims. They took the ship Mayflower which reached Plymouth
Massachusetts (at the North East coast of the USA) in 1620. That
whole region North-East of the USA became known as New England. It
is full of Christian heritage, and a nice place to visit if you are
touring States. Ivy League schools like Yale and Harvard are located
there. Although founded on the Puritan faith, these universities
have since lost that faith. Yale and Harvard have become modernistic
and anti-Christian institutions.
The Puritans were not one big happy family.
There were disagreements among themselves especially in regard to
church government. Divisions among the Puritans resulted in the
different forms of Puritanism: Anglican Puritans, Presbyterian
Puritans, Congregational Puritans, and Baptist Puritans.
The Puritans in America decided to Christianise
society. They wanted to establish a Christian state. They wanted to
create utopia on earth. In their attempts to do this, they sought to
apply the laws of the Bible to society as a whole. They felt that if
the whole society or entire nation becomes Christian and God’s Law
is implemented, the society or nation would become a perfect place
to live in. The questions we need to ask is: Can this perfection in
society happen through the Church? Does the Bible tell us that the
world is going to be more and more Christian until it becomes a
perfect place? The answer is No. The church is a spiritual body of
God’s people, and should not enter into politics. There must be a
separation of the Church and the State. The Church should not
control the State, and the State should not control the Church. Both
have different agendas.
We disagree with certain reformed theologians
today with this puritanical zeal to impose the Law of Moses on the
whole society. Some go to the extent of teaching that if a person
breaks the sabbath, he should be stoned! These are the thenomists or
reconstructionists. So there are those who say that Christians
cannot eat out on Sunday because if they do so they cause the
unbelievers to break the sabbath. To this, our reply is whether we
eat out on Sundays or not, the non-Christian chefs will still cook.
They break the sabbath not because we eat their food. They break the
sabbath because of their unbelief. If we cannot eat out for this
reason, then we should not take the public bus to church either. Why
stop at food? Some would even say that newspapers cannot be read on
Sundays. We should be careful not to go to an extreme. Jesus already
warned against such a pharisaical view of the sabbath. Jesus gave a
most wonderful sabbath principle: "The sabbath was made for man, and
not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). The puritans, in their
overemphasis on the doctrine of sanctification just like the
Pharisees of the Bible, became legalistic. Instead of stressing on
the spirit of the law, they put an undue stress on the letter of the
law. This could be one reason for the decline and downfall of
Puritanism.
The Puritans were frustrated in their attempts
to create a Christian utopia on earth. This was not God’s will for
the Church. The Church was simply entrusted with the task of
preaching the Gospel and teaching the Word to the lost and dying
world. The Church cannot create a perfect world. Only God can, and
He will do this when He returns. The world is not going to get
better and better. The Bible says that the world will get from bad
to worse, just like in the days of Noah—filled with evil and sin
(Luke 17:26 cf Gen 6:5). Jesus must return to judge this world, and
then rule a thousand years. Then will there be peace. Peace will
come when the Prince of peace returns. All man-made efforts to
create peace and prosperity on earth will end in failure.
How is it that the Puritans failed to see this?
They failed because they failed to study the doctrine of the last
things or the end times. They stressed a lot on soteriology, but
failed in their understanding of eschatology. If they had understood
what the world will become as prophesied in the Scriptures, and how
Christ must come to judge and rule, they would not have gone wrong.
Paul tells us that we need to believe and teach the whole counsel of
God (Acts 20:27). When we stress on one point and neglect the other,
we will end up unbalanced, and stunted. So many of these Puritans
are postmillennialists or amillennialists. As Bible-Presbyterians we
are premillennialists which is biblical (Rev 20:1-7).
As time went on, the Puritan community became
less and less Christian. Their own children started to rebel against
puritanical pharisaism. The church became more and more secular.
Materialism and worldliness began to creep in. By the 18th century,
Liberalism reared its ugly head and influenced the church.
Puritanism gave way to Liberalism. Puritanism was destroyed by two
enemies: an enemy within—Pharisaism, and an enemy
without—Liberalism.
Theology of the Puritans
One of the theological products of the Puritans
was the Westminster Confession of Faith. It was written by 121
theologians, many of whom were Presbyterian Puritans. The work began
in 1643 and ended in 1647. It is a fine expression of the Christian
faith, and has since become the doctrinal standard of Presbyterian
churches.
One outstanding feature of the Westminster
Confession is the high view of Scripture. In fact the first chapter
of the Confession which is on the Holy Scriptures was commended by B
B Warfield as the best single chapter in any Protestant Confession.
In this first chapter, the Puritans taught the following: (1) Only
the 66 Books of Canonical Scripture are inspired of God, and the
only authority or rule of faith and life. (2) The Bible is the only
place whereby man can know God truly, and find salvation. (3) God’s
Word has been preserved down through the ages by His singular care
and providence. And (4) Scripture has only one meaning, and in order
to determine what the Bible means, we need to use Scripture to
interpret Scripture.
One important doctrine of the Bible that the
Puritans taught is the doctrine of God’s preservation of His Word.
The WCF I:8 states that the Holy Bible was by God’s "singular care
and providence, kept pure in all ages." We believe that the God who
inspired His Word also preserved His Word and kept it pure without
error down through the generations. And that is why as
Bible-Presbyterians we hold on to the Traditional Hebrew and Greek
Texts that underlie the KJV, and reject and oppose the modernistic
text of Westcott and Hort who in 1881 tampered with the traditional
NT text and made over 5000 changes to it. Why did they make these
changes? Because they hate the Word of God. They did not believe in
the inspiration of the Bible, and were necromancers (they founded a
Ghost Club), and Mary worshippers. Most of the modern English
versions (eg, NIV) are based on their corrupted text. It is sad and
disturbing that there are Bible-Presbyterian churches which denounce
the KJV and the Traditional Text, and promote the NIV and the
Corrupted Text. By so doing, they have contradicted the Westminster
Confession they claim to uphold.
Another important contribution of the
Westminster Confession is its statement on how to interpret
Scripture. Chapter 1:9 says, "The infallible rule of interpretation
of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a
question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is
not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other
places that speak more clearly."
The trend today in the study of the Scriptures
is to see the Scriptures as having many meanings, views or
interpretations. The charismatics for instance say that the
interpretation of Scripture is subjective. If the Lord speaks to me
in this verse then that is the meaning. So if someone, thinking of
suicide, reads the Bible portion which says, "Judas went to hang
himself," and then go on to read the verse, "Go and do likewise,"
can he then conclude that God’s Word is telling him to do the same?
The Bible means what I like it to mean is the charismatic way of
interpreting the Bible, and that is very dangerous.
Then you have the neo-evangelicals who say that
the Bible has many interpretations and meanings, and we cannot be
sure which is right and which is wrong. These parachurch
organisations like the Navigators, Campus Crusade, Youth For Christ,
Varsity Christian Fellowship, Bible Study Fellowship present the
different interpretations and then give the impression that all of
them are legitimate—you decide which view you want to take. We
decide what the Bible means is the neo-evangelical way of
interpreting the Scripture, and this is clearly wrong. God means
what He says and says what He means. There is only one meaning in
Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture. And it is our duty to
ascertain what it actually means by diligent study (2 Tim 2:15).
The Westminster Puritans gave us not only a
Confession of Faith, but also a wonderful Shorter Catechism. Two
particular questions are especially well-answered: Q1, "What is the
chief end of man?" A: "Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to
enjoy Him forever." Q4, "What is God?" A: "God is a Spirit,
infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." There is an inspiring story
behind Q4 recounted by William M Hetherington in his History of the
Westminster Assembly of Divines, 360-1.
There is one anecdote connected with the
formation of the Shorter Catechism, both full of interest and so
very beautiful that it must not be omitted. In one of the earliest
meetings of the committee, the subject of deliberation was to frame
an answer to the question, "What is God?" Each man felt the
unapproachable sublimity of the divine idea suggested by these
words; but who could venture to give it expression in human
language! All shrunk from the too sacred task in awestruck,
reverential fear. At length it was resolved, as an expression of the
committee’s deep humility, that the youngest member should make the
attempt. He modestly declined, then reluctantly consented; but
begged that the brethren would first unite with him in prayer for
divine enlightenment. Then in slow and solemn accents he thus began
his prayer: "O God, thou art a spirit, infinite, eternal, and
unchangeable, in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice,
goodness, and truth." When he ceased, the first sentence of his
prayer was immediately written by one of the brethren, read, and
adopted, as the most perfect answer that could be conceived; as,
indeed, in a very sacred sense, God’s own answer, given to prayer
and in prayer, descriptive of himself. Who, then, was the youngest
member of the committee? When we compare the birth-dates of the
respective members of the committee, we find that George Gillespie
was the youngest by more than a dozen years. We may, therefore,
safely conclude that George Gillespie was the man who was thus
spiritually guided to frame almost unconsciously this marvellous
answer.
The Westminster Puritans were covenant
theologians. God’s plan of salvation is not broken up to 7
dispensations as taught by the dispensationalists, but is worked out
under 2 covenants: the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace
(Rom 5:12-21). Adam failed, but Christ—the Greater Adam—passed and
earned our salvation.
The Westminster Puritans were also Calvinistic.
They taught the 5 points of Calvinism, namely, (1) Total Depravity,
(2) Unconditional Election, (3) Limited Atonement, (4) Irresistible
Grace, and (5) Perseverance of the Saints. But on the 3rd point some
of them like John Owen faltered, and went to an extreme. Instead of
teaching what Calvin taught, they went beyond Calvin. There are
those who are so enamoured with Puritanism that they swallow hook,
line and sinker its teachings and traditions. A new generation of
puritanical hyper-Calvinists is the result.
We must always remember that the Bible and the
Bible alone is our authority of faith and practice. All our beliefs
and practices must be based on the Bible or on biblical principles.
It is also important to teach not just some, or many, or even most
of the doctrines of the Bible, but all of them. Paul told the
Ephesian church, "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you,
but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house
to house" (Acts 20:27a). What are the things "profitable?" They are
none other than all Scripture—"All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable . . ." (2 Tim 3:16). Paul went on to say,
"I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God"
(Acts 20:27b).
Our theology is not based on tradition, or man,
or book, or creed, but on the Word of God. We accept the teachings
of tradition, or human teacher, or a theological book, or a
Christian creed only if they agree with the Bible.
Puritanism was no doubt a movement raised up by
God as part of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. It was a
good but not a perfect movement. We can learn much from its
strengths and its weaknesses. We need to be discerning, and look
only to Christ—the Author and Finisher of our Faith.
Top|Back
Click here for
Sermons by Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
Click here for Audio Sermons
|
