by In high school, I was introduced to words like carbon, swatchist, doubler, whistling, and mono among others. As a new student, I was assigned the responsibility of serving carbon. I proudly served it twice a day. Since carbon as an element in the period table is black, a clever old boy decided to call black tea with no milk carbon. This word was handed down to my fellow high school old boys and we used it several times a day. “Carbon will be late” “Carbon is served” “This carbon is conc” “Drink your carbon you don’t swatch in class.” “You are whistling your carbon.”
As people interact, they come up with acronyms, jokes, or ways of saying things specific to them. Most Kenyans who went to boarding school are familiar with this. Insider language gives people a sense of joy and belonging. A group member doesn’t feel like a stranger.
The group’s ethos is more easily explained using insider language. The obvious disadvantage is the feeling of exclusion by non-members. There is a sense of culture shock that an outsider experiences when they join a group rich in insider language.
When a new Christian joins a church, they soon discover the church has a way of communicating with its members. They also realize theology has a poverty of words. You can use a word and it carries baggage that either makes you included or excluded in different theological camps or even your local church. Take the word reformed. If we go by an English dictionary definition, to be reformed is to change in such a way as to be improved. This, however, is not the “theological” definition of the word as used by many churches.
M.E. Manton in his book, A Dictionary of Theological Terms, defines reformed as “belief in scriptures as the inerrant Word of God; belief that God is sovereign in his world; that he has elected his people to salvation and will effectually call them in his time, through the preaching of the true gospel; that all worship be in accordance with Scripture; and that the lives of believers as individuals, family members, members of the state and members of the Christian church, must be increasingly conformed to the standard of God’s word.”
Manton’s definition gives one strand of reformed Christianity. If we were to think of reformed churches as museums, we would have several, each with statues of their champions. One reformation champion is John Calvin. This museum is called Calvinism and its insiders use the acronym TULIP a lot. TULIP here has nothing to do with the showy, brightly coloured flowers that symbolize happiness. It’s an acronym that stands for:
T: Total depravity
U: Unconditional election
L: Limited atonement
I: Irresistible grace
P: Perseverance of the saint
Calvinism museumgoers flesh out soteriology (the study of salvation) using definitions like Manton’s of being reformed. This is where the problem starts. Here we have one camp of Christianity that has often equated being saved to being reformed. It means if you are not “reformed”, you are not saved. To explain the acronym:
T: Total depravity:
Depravity in the world means moral corruption. In theological terms, it relates to everyone who is a descendant of Adam. All of us cannot save ourselves or please God.
U: Unconditional election
This means that God has elected his people to salvation and will effectually call them in his time, through the preaching of the gospel.
L: Limited atonement
That Jesus only died for the church, his elect.
I: Irresistible grace
That those whom God has chosen will ultimately be saved. They cannot resist him.
P: Perseverance of the saint
Once saved, you cannot lose your salvation.
If I were to change Manton’s definition of being reformed to:
“Belief in scriptures as the infallible Word of God; belief that God is flexibly sovereign in his world; that he has elected his people to salvation who can resist this grace preached of the true gospel; that all worship be in accordance with Scripture; and that the lives of believers as individuals, family members, members of the state and members of the Christian church, must be increasingly conformed to the standard of God’s word, Christian reasoning, experience, and church tradition”… I would still be reformed. However, many Calvinists would disagree with my definition.
The contention, therefore, remains how to accommodate other faithful Christians who take the Bible seriously but don’t believe it is inerrant. Or others who believe you can lose your salvation or resist the grace of God . Still, others believe God’s election of his people is conditional, dependent on those that God foresees will have faith in him. All these believers in the classical sense are improving on the doctrine of salvation. They all are reformed.
If we join a church or social media group or a theological discussion, the fruit or evidence of being truly reformed is being Christlike and not affirming our denominational biases or holding new members captive with our insider language.
