Bahaya Menjadi Seorang Reformed

Saya tidak akan ragu mengaku bahwa saya seorang Calvinist, dan berpijak kepada teologi Reformed. Namun konfiksi seperti ini saya sadar betul dapat dengan mudah membawa seseorang menjadi arogan dan membuatnya merasa superior dibanding orang yang berseberangan. Tanpa sadar, bahaya tersebut mempersempit konsepsi kita tentang tubuh Kristus, sehingga pola pikir kita menjadi binary: Either kamu reformed atau bukan reformed. Tidak beda dengan label-label lain yg sama fatal-nya seperti "Orang Kristen yang penuh Roh Kudus atau tidak ada Roh Kudus" yang beredar di kalangan Karismatik.

Ray Ortlund menulis sebuah artikel tentang isu diatas dengan menarik persamaan dengan apa yang terjadi dengan jemaat Galatia yang begitu membanggakan keliwat batas trademark mereka: Sunat. Berikut cuplikan artikelnya:

I believe in the sovereignty of God, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Solas of the Reformation, I believe that grace precedes faith in regeneration. Theologically, I am Reformed. Sociologically, I am simply a Christian – or at least I want to be. The tricky thing about our hearts is that they can turn even a good thing into an engine of oppression. It happens when our theological distinctives make us aloof from other Christians. That’s when, functionally, we relocate ourselves outside the gospel and inside Galatianism.

The Judaizers in Galatia did not see their distinctive – the rite of circumcision – as problematic. They could claim biblical authority for it in Genesis 17 and the Abrahamic covenant. But their distinctive functioned as an addition to the all-sufficiency of Jesus himself. Today the flash point is not circumcision. It can be Reformed theology. But no matter how well argued our position is biblically, if it functions in our hearts as an addition to Jesus, it ends up as a form of legalistic divisiveness.

My Reformed friend, can you move among other Christian groups and really enjoy them? Do you admire them? Even if you disagree with them in some ways, do you learn from them? What is the emotional tilt of your heart – toward them or away from them? If your Reformed theology has morphed functionally into Galatian sociology, the remedy is not to abandon your Reformed theology. The remedy is to take your Reformed theology to a deeper level. Let it reduce you to Jesus only. Let it humble you. Let this gracious doctrine make you a fun person to be around. The proof that we are Reformed will be all the wonderful Christians we discover around us who are not Reformed. Amazing people. Heroic people. Blood-bought people. People with whom we are eternally one – in Christ alone.

John Piper memberi beberapa tips yang penting ttg bagaimana kita dapat mengkotbahkan dan mengajar Calvinism tanpa kedengaran seperti orang paling arogan didunia. Tiga point yang menurut saya perlu digarisbawahi adalah sbb:

- Speak of your own brokenness in regard to these things (ie., Calvinistic teachings like TULIP) and how they are precious to you and why and how they minister to your soul and help you live your life.

- Make Spurgeon and Whitefield your models rather than Owen or Calvin, because the former were evangelists and won many people to Christ in a way that is nearer to our own day.

- Work the five points out from the "I" in tulip not the "U". That is, show people that they don't really want to take final credit for their coming to Christ. They don't want to stand before God at the judgment day and respond to the question, "Why did you believe and others with your opportunities didn't?" with the answer, "Well, I guess I was smarter, or more spiritual." They want to say, "By grace I was brought to faith." Which is "irresistible grace." That is, grace that triumphs over all resistance in the end.