Is Reformed Theology something new?
Is it in addition to Biblical teaching?
Why can’t you just teach the Bible?
The word “reformed” is defined in two ways:
1) Reformed is a reference to our historical link to the Reformation of the 16th century. It describes us as the heirs of the movement that resulted in Protestantism (those who protested the corruption of the Scriptures, which resulted in the corruption of the church) which began with Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and other reformers who strove to bring the church back in line with the Scriptures.
2) The word reformed is also used to refer to theological distinctives, particularly those in the Calvinist tradition.
These distinctives can be summarized by our glad affirmation of the responsibility of every person to repent and believe on Jesus Christ, and that it is God who, by His sovereign electing grace, draws men and women, otherwise dead in sin, to faith in His Son. This faith alone justifies God’s people.
Reformed distinctives include the sovereignty of God in His creation, providence, and election of believers apart from any merit of their own; the irresistible grace of God provided for and preceding the faith of the individual; the sufficiency of God’s grace apart from which man is dead in sin and wholly defiled in all his faculties of soul and body; the efficacy of Christ’s death for God’s elect, and the safeguarding of all those for whom Christ died for eternal life.
Antioch Presbyterian Church 