r/Reformed

Hello everybody! My name is Noah and I have recently became a Calvinist. I first became a Christian about 2 and a half years ago, by having the gospel shared and taught from me from individuals from a college based ministry called Chi Alpha. Over the last several months, I slowly started to agree more and more with reformed theology. I was a 3.5-4 point Calvinist for over a year (Limited Atonement was the hardest tenant to accept and I mostly agreed with unconditional election). It wasn't until I read RC Sproul's "What is Reformed Theology" (amazing book btw) that I finally fully embraced TULIP and reformed theology as a whole. Unfortunately, reformed theology is not a popular form of theology among my friends/peers who are overwhelmingly evangelical/non denominational and have built a straw man view of Calvinism (that our view of God makes him a monster and strips humanity of free will). Needless to say, its a little discouraging. While I still love my evangelist brother and sisters in Christ, its clear that God is setting me on a different path from those of my peers and I am in need of a strong, wise and godly mentor to help me navigate through my new theology. If there are any older and experience men on this subreddit willing to take up this task I would be very grateful, even if it can only be online. I ask this here because my city only has one Calvinist/presbyterian church (which I do attend), and its leadership is almost entirely women, which is a bit of a red flag for me. God bless you all.

My question is essentially identical to the title. I am after books about sin. I believe harmatiology is the systematics term. I'm not looking for books on resisting sin and mortifying it so much as about sin itself.

I would lean more towards the popular level but I can handle some pretty heavy reads.

I'd like a variety of perspectives if possible; a biblical survey, a systematic analysis, historical views.

I want to understand more about it.

I've got a few Audible credits I need to use up soon and I'm looking for recs. Reformed books are my preference but ecumenical is fine too. Also open to your Christian fiction recommendations. Thanks in advance!

I go to a reformed church, I've been a member for about a year. What initially started out well has with some slight issues with others has reached a tipping point.

Example, there is a church member who initially started talking to me but then abruptly stopped talking to me for whatever reason, I also noticed he would sometimes be rude when interacting with me. Same with a few other members.

There are 2 deacons and 2 elders. I have a decent relationship with one of the elders despite some ups and downs, the other elders and deacons I have rarely gotten the chance to speak with and again with some rude behavior, one of them it feels like they try and avoid me.

It's gotten to a point where I feel anger welling up inside of me as to why I am being treated like this especially by officers of the church. My thought process is I am in a somewhat rural area in America and I am not caucasian/hispanic or American while 95% of the church I go to is very right wing caucasian the other 5% is hispanic. I believe I am being treated with partiality. I am probably the first non-caucasian/hispanic non american member they have had in a while.

I feel the need now to reach out directly to people that have wronged me to address it for the sake of my own sanity and to obey the Lord where he says if you have a grievance with a brother to address it with them directly.

I do accept that people will doubt this post and think I am the problem however I have done what I could to build bridges with church members, I have tried to invite people over to my home on weeknds for coffee, I have tried to build an online chat group where members can reach out to each other about social events. I have tried to go to members social events and things when they are inviting people. Again, what started off well has slowly went downward because I believe these cultural/ethnic differences were always there boiling at the surface especially with certain people that I feel the need to address directly at this point.

Appreciate prayers and insight moving forward.

I’ve been reading through the reformed confessions and I’ve been pleased with how faithful the reformers tried to be to 1) what scripture says and 2) what the early church believed.

However, all the confessions seem to imply the spiritual presence of the Eucharist is the orthodox view and we explicitly do not believe in the body of Christ over, under and within (WCF 29:7). (Although I’d argue some of the earlier confessions such as the French confession are closer to the Lutheran view). But I don’t see this view in history prior to the reformation. Is there a church father or any other place we see the reformed view of the Eucharist prior to the reformation?

Hello :) I wonder if anyone will read this and send me any wise words. I am for real struggling with this silly thing I am about to describe:

For the last 1.5 years, I have been going to a small nondenominational church (less than 50 people typically) with a pastor who says he is reformed baptist but… he’s dispensational. Almost everyone else is also dispensational, except me, and the one other person of the same mind as me (amillennial), left half a year ago for job reasons. The more I have looked into eschatology, the more I have begun to pick out different ways of interpreting passages, and these differences are injected into seemingly unrelated topics with a lot more frequency than I ever thought.

I love the church fellowship, but I have increasingly found difficulty with sitting through sermons. I used to attend more things at church led by the pastor (like bible study) but have decreased my attendance in hopes of lessening my sensitivity and triggers lol. I’ve really tried to pray to God to give me a more gracious and patient heart and to take away my own pride.

I have told my pastor about my struggles in this topic (as well as some older folks in my small group) multiple times, asking for peace, but he doesn’t really have a pastoral interest/answer. He recommended me to read a book by Vlach on Israel, lol. Pastor is mostly interested in preaching and teaching his POV, lol. I have no idea how he turned (this past Sunday) Acts 1:5-8 into a defense on dispensationalism (which he actually did, saying it was not a creation by Darby, that Spurgeon believed in a revival, etc, etc). By the grace of God, I did not leave mid-sermon. That was a real temptation.

I have been praying to God asking Him if I should be looking for another church. Thing is, I really do love the fellowship. The hymn singing and no drums worship delights me. My previous long term church did not preach the gospel so well, though they were bigger and actually did missions (my small church does not). I love the people. I am just increasingly annoyed by the preaching and various other things.

When I share this topic of dispensationalism to a few friends outside of my church (who attend other non-dispensational churches) they always ask me why this one ‘secondary’ topic is so important to me. Haha. It just is. And despite prayer, I continue to struggle with it for much too long.

Should I keep praying and struggling? Or do I start the difficult task of looking for another imperfect church? I’m afraid I might stop attending any one altogether.

Christian nationalism seems to be in the Reformed wheelhouse. Thought you would like this.

If you have requests that you would like your brothers and sisters to pray for, post them here.

I think I may be introverted. Early in my life I was extroverted.

Fast forward and I’m married (greatest blessing next to Jesus Christ) with 5 children.

I attend church regularly and have very few friends.

Anyone else experiencing this or have and overcome this?

I’ve been asking the Lord for him to brings friends into my life.

Not reformed but I have a genuine question that I would like to understand. Under the notion of "unconditional election" if I am not elect am I just out? Like if I have a desire to follow God but I am not part of the elect then too bad? Or is the position more that if I have any desire to follow God that makes me elect?

Cool lecture series on overcoming porn. Link

Hi all! Husband is military and we just got orders to the Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana area. Does anyone have any Reformed Baptist church recs? I’m aware of the usual resources (we’ve been doing the military thing for a hot minute) but wanted to hear some personal anecdotes if possible!

Edit: also open to PCA et al in the case we don’t find a solid reformed baptist church

My church has started using clearly AI generated images for announcements, events, and even sometimes sermon illustrations. These are posted on social media as well. To me it feels tacky, but not an outright issue. I've heard many on the church rumble about it. I use AI for my work, probably more than the average person, but I can't shake the feeling that this is a poor choice for the church.

What feels the most strange about it is we have graphic designers in the church who have always put together our graphics. So I don't know what might have happened there. I'm concerned it might turn potential new visitors away.

I'm wondering if other churches are doing the same things? How would you feel about this in your church?

It's Free For All Friday! Post on any topic you wish in this thread (not the whole sub). Our rules of conduct still apply, so please continue to post and comment respectfully.

AND on the 1st Friday of the month, it's a Monthly Fantastically Fanciful Free For All Friday - Post any topic to the sub (not just this thread), except for memes. For memes, see the quarterly meme days. Our rules of conduct still apply, so please continue to post and comment respectfully.

I'm looking for a playlist of the Psalm section of the recently published Sing hymnal. I've heard a few here and there, but wondering if anyone has the collection on YouTube or Spotify? Would love to suggest a few of these in my church or for my denominations hymnal.

My brother and his family are active members in a conservative reformed Presbyterian church. His kids also go to private Christian school and they seem to only associate with people who go to their church and school. My kids and I go to a non denominational church (a seeker’s church according to my brother) and public school. For years now I’ve gotten the sense from them that we are not good enough to be in their company or to let their kids associate with mine. Family is very important so me so their behavior has been perplexing and hurtful. I’m respectfully curious if this type of Christian classism is possibly a side effect of reformed culture or if it is completely unrelated. Do conservative reformed Christians believe they should be set apart from other Christians? Thank you for any insight.

When I was 12, I watched porn and masturbated for the first time. I am 22 now and still struggle with it. I'm married now to my wife who's 23, and I try and talk to her about it to keep myself accountable to stay away from it. But the fact of the matter is, I'm still addicted and I don't know how to get away from it. I consider self harm when I get the urges in hopes that it distracts me enough when the wave passes. I've tried going to my wife when I get these urges, but it's often so inconvenient that I feel like such a burden to her to ask of her all the time. I've prayed. I've tried decreasing my screen time all around. I don't really know how to deal with it anymore. If anyone has any advice or has been in my shoes, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I know part of this is what marriage is for, so we can healthily release our sexual desires in a way that glorifies God. But why can I not seem to break free from this?