Transcript

You may have heard that Calvinism means you believe in predestination, but originally Calvinism referred to a specific view of how communion works.

The reason there's not just one protestant church is because the early protestants couldn't agree on the sacraments.

This is why the Reformation branched in different directions.

Protestants generally agree that there are two sacraments, baptism and communion, but they disagree on what the sacraments actually do.

There's a spectrum of protestant views on the sacraments.

On one end, you have the Baptist view, which is that it's basically just a symbol.

The sacraments don't actually do anything.

On the other end, you have the Lutheran view, which is that the sacraments always do something and they're necessary for salvation.

The reformed view is in between these two views.

So the Lutherans think baptism saves and communion is the real body and blood of Christ.

Baptists think baptism doesn't save, it's just a symbolic declaration that you've been saved, and they think communion is just a symbolic remembrance of Christ.

Now, the reformed view, which is in between the two, is that baptism saves if and only if you have faith in Christ and communion is the real body and blood of Christ only if you have faith in Christ.

So that means the body and blood of Christ are only spiritually present in communion.

Wait a minute, I thought we're saved by faith alone.

So why are you saying that baptism saves?

Like, did you ever hear about the thief on the...

That's a good question.

Does baptism save?

Because the reformed answer is kind of complicated.

When we're talking about baptism, we're talking about both the outward baptism with water, which doesn't save, and the inward baptism of the Holy Spirit, which does save, because that's the same as a person coming to faith.

But we can say baptism saves in general because these two things are connected in a sacramental union.

Baptism with water is a sign, but it signifies the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Our Westminster Confession says that every sacrament is a sacramental union of the sign and the things signified, so the effects of one can be attributed to the other.

That's why the Bible says, "Baptism now saves you," but it clarifies that it's not the physical aspect of baptism that saves, it's the spiritual aspect of baptism that saves.

So if someone's been baptized with water, but they never have faith, that baptism won't save them because they're only getting the sign, not the thing signified.

That's why Jesus says, "You need to be born of water and the spirit to be saved." Now, what if someone does have faith, but they don't get baptized with water?

Can they still be saved?

Well, if they're not able to get baptized, yeah, they'll be saved.

But if they're refusing baptism, if they're refusing the sign, it's safe to assume they're also refusing the things signified because of how spiritually connected the two are.

To put it more simply, baptism makes you Christian.

Outward baptism with water makes you outwardly Christian.

Inward baptism of the Holy Spirit makes you inwardly Christian.

But you can't separate the two.

It's the same for communion, which is the other sacrament.

The sign is physically receiving bread and wine and the thing signified is spiritually receiving the real body and blood of Christ.

This is why the reformed view is spiritual presence.

But just because the body and blood of Christ are only spiritually present, that doesn't make it any less real.

As the Westminster Confession says, "The bread and wine can be called the body and blood of Christ because they are spiritually united to them, but they still remain physically bread and wine." They do not change substance.

But even so, when we receive the bread and wine, we are also spiritually receiving the real body and blood of Christ if we have faith in Christ.

So if someone who does not have faith in Christ takes communion, they are only receiving the bread and wine.

They are not receiving the body and blood of Christ.

They are only receiving the sign and not the thing signified.

So from our perspective, the Baptist view separates the sign and the thing signified too much because they think communion is just a symbol of the body and blood of Christ.

Whereas the Lutheran view mixes the sign and thing signified too much because they think the bread is objectively the body of Christ, even if an unbeliever takes it.

The reformed view properly distinguishes the sign and thing signified, but without separating them.

If you remember the Christology video, the Baptist view can be compared to Nestorian Christology because it separates the natures.

And the Lutheran view can be compared to Monophysite Christology because it mixes or conflates the natures.

But only the reformed view can be compared to Chalcedonian Christology where we distinguish the natures without separating them.

So if someone says, "Water baptism doesn't save, only spirit baptism saves," we would call that sacramental Nestorianism because while that's technically correct, it's wrong to separate baptism into two subjects, water baptism and spirit baptism.

Even though baptism is of water and spirit, it's one concept in our mind.

It would be like saying human Jesus isn't divine, only divine Jesus is divine.

Or Mary isn't the mother of God, she's just the mother of Jesus.

That's what we call Nestorianism.

That is separating Jesus into two different subjects.

Okay, but if we're saved by faith alone, why do we need the sacraments?

Good question.

So we're saved by regeneration, which is the same as coming to faith or the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

But what do we have faith in?

We have faith in Christ.

So we're also saved by our union with Christ, which gives us eternal life because Christ lives in us.

And that happens when we spiritually feed on Christ.

These realities are invisible so God links them to visible signs so that we can see our salvation.

That's what the sacraments are for.

God is the source of salvation and our faith is what receives salvation, but the sacraments are called means of salvation.

So we can say God saves, we can say only faith saves, and we can say baptism saves with no contradiction.

The best verse to explain reformed sacramentology is 1 John 5:8 which says, "The Holy Spirit, baptism, and communion agree in one." So you can't have an effective baptism or an effective communion if you don't have the Holy Spirit, if you're not born again.The purpose of baptism is to be a sign of God's promise, and God doesn't make this promise to individuals.

God makes it collectively to His people.

That's why we baptize babies.

In the Bible, we see baptism as a collective reality.

That's why entire households were baptized at once, and why Peter said, "Be baptized and the promises for you and your children." Baptism is what circumcision was in the Old Testament.

Circumcision made someone a citizen of God's kingdom.

That's why the Bible says that baptism replaces circumcision, because the inward realities of both are the same.

We know that the New Testament church is the same group of people as Old Testament Israel, so baptism is citizenship in God's kingdom.

If you're born in a country, you become a citizen of that country at birth.

The same way if you're born in the church, you should be baptized as a baby.

Wait, so, like, I was baptized as a baby, but I didn't really mean it back then, so do I need to get re-baptized?

No, you do not.

The Baptists think baptism doesn't do anything, which is why they say it needs to be a personal choice.

That's why they won't baptize babies, and if you were baptized as a baby, they'll re-baptize you.

Lutherans think baptism saves everyone who receives it as a baby, so of course they baptize every baby, because they think it saves them.

The Reformed think baptism only saves those who trust in the promises given in baptism, so that means we should baptize all the children of the promise.

The Westminster Confession says the efficacy of baptism is not tied to the moment when it's administered, so you could be baptized with water as a baby and not come to faith until much later, but those things are still sacramentally connected 'cause God is outside of time.

This would still be an effective baptism.

Or you could come to faith before you get physically baptized with water, but you can still say that you were saved by that baptism because the promise of baptism extends to the entire life.

This is why Reformed Baptists are not reformed.

Re-baptism or ana-baptism is bad.

Baptists make baptism into a work of man 'cause they say it's you declaring your faith in God, but actually, baptism's a work of God 'cause it's God declaring His faithfulness to you.

Re-baptism basically says one promise from God wasn't good enough.

I need another one.

That's why John Calvin said Satan wants us to reject infant baptism.

Modern Baptists will call themselves Reformed 'cause they believe in predestination, but historically, the definition of Calvinism had nothing to do with predestination.

It was used by Lutherans to describe Calvin's view of communion.

Lutherans don't like the Calvinist view because we don't think the body and blood of Christ are present in the bread and wine like they do.

We think they're present in heaven, but the Holy Spirit forms a bond between us on Earth and Christ in heaven, so that means only people with the Spirit will receive the body of Christ when they eat the bread.

The Calvinist view is summed up in the Scot's Confession by John Knox, which says that the Lord's Supper is nourishment for our souls and that the Holy Spirit transcends the physical distance between the bread and wine and the body and blood of Christ.

The Scot's Confession also says the purpose of eating the body and blood of Christ is so that we are united to Him, so that Christ lives in us and we in Him, and this gives us eternal life.

That's right, folks.

According to John Knox, the founder of Presbyterianism, the purpose of communion is theosis, or partaking of God's life and immortality.

This is often called union with Christ in Reformed circles.

Saint Athanasius said, "God became man so that man might become God." Becoming God doesn't literally mean becoming what God is, but it means partaking of God's eternal life.

Okay, this is cool and all, but, like, why haven't I heard this at my Presbyterian church?

Well, there's a lot of Presbyterians, or Presbyterians with a semi-Baptist view of the sacraments, basically a bunch of people who do baptize babies but don't understand why.

Part of it is because they're worried if they say the real Presbyterian view, they'll be accused of being too Catholic.

If you want to know the real Reformed view, just read our confessions, especially the Scot's Confession, where John Knox says baptism forgives our sins.

Or read Calvin's Institutes, where he says he's not satisfied with people who don't think we receive the true body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper.

You can find the Scot's Confession in the description of this video.

It explains all of Presbyterian theology in a very quick and easy way.

This Reformed theology course is made by Presbyterians for the Kingdom, a non-profit dedicated to restoring good Biblical theology in our denomination, the Presbyterian Church USA.

To find out more about us or to donate, visit our website linked in the description.

For more resources on Reformed theology, go to Theology Matters, an organization of Bible-believing pastors and seminary professors also in the PCUSA.