Lest my evangelical friends think I am being too hard on them, I well recognize that too many nominally Reformed or Presbyterian congregations are indistinguishable from the great mass of therapeutic, moralistic Deism that passes for Christianity in our age. It may well be possible to be a crytpo-Calvinist in a nominally Reformed or Presbyterian congregation where the substance of the Reformed theology, piety, and practice has been replaced with weak alternatives.

Calvin continued:

Then later, seeing that they still could not avoid all suspicion in this way, they considered it to be doing their duty when they concealed their Christianity altogether, not speaking a single word about God, except when they were with their close friends and family members, well enclosed in some room. Meanwhile, they permitted the truth of God to be blasphemed, and whatever dishonour anyone did Jesus Christ, not only did they not say anything against it, but they put on a good show of consenting to it, being concerned only to take care that no one perceive that they were Christians.¹

Remember, when he said “Christianity,” he was not speaking about people living in a predominantly pagan world or in a post-Christian culture (or in a pre-Christian culture). He was speaking about crypto-evangelicals who were, for reasons of safety or comfort, hiding in Roman congregations. The blasphemies to which he refers are either Roman criticisms of the evangelical (i.e., confessional Protestant) faith or/and the Roman doctrine of the eucharistic sacrifice and the like.

In response, the cryptos clam up. If they do not say anything, then no one will know that they dissent inwardly. When folk around them slander the evangelicals or invoke saints or pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, they keep their mouths shut. Calvin reminded the cryptos that, in redemptive history, God dealt harshly with those who practiced “wicked subtlety,” that God “let them stumble into an abyss of darkness, depriving them of the knowledge which he had formerly given them.”²

The proper response is not that one should seek to “justify himself in his iniquity” but rather that we should “give glory to God” by “confessing our wretchedness, rather than doubly confounding and condemning ourselves by squirming about and seeking vain excuses.”³

Over the years I have received comments from crypto-Calvinists who hide themselves in the local megachurch. Sometimes they seek to justify themselves by arguing that they are seeking the reformation of the congregation. If so, they are not really “crypto” (secret) Calvinists or Reformers at all, are they? If they are seeking reformation, then the ministers and congregational leadership will be aware of them and of their efforts. If this megachurch is worth its salt as a megachurch, they have a plan and they have read the church growth literature. Rule number one of the church growth program is to get rid of dissenters. Any “reformer” worth his salt is a dissenter from the tawdry songs, puppets, Play-Doh, and PowerPoint that passes for public piety in the megachurch. Immovable object meet irresistible force. Something has to give. Maybe the megachurch leadership will be struck in the heart, but maybe not. What then? Most of the time, however, the cryptos remain just that: hidden, quiet, secret.

The Lordship of Christ

For Calvin, the core issue of the Nicodemite (crypto-evangelical) problem is the Lordship of Christ, not necessarily in the sense in which that word was used in the recent American evangelical controversy, but in the sense that the cryptos are acting as if they were God’s “counterparts.”⁴ The issue is whether the Christian will submit to the revealed will of God. Calvin appealed to the example of Cyprian to illustrate what he meant obedience. He reminds his readers that “St. Cyprian, after being condemned to death, because he was unwilling to sacrifice to idols, was asked to consent to it in order to save his life.”⁵ The judge did not want to put Cyprian to death and urged him to simply say the magic words. Cyprian, however, was so determined to follow God’s will that he would do it even if death was the necessary result. For Calvin, Cyprian is a perfect example of one who did not “seek counsel from” his “own” head, thus “turning aside from his [God’s] Word.”⁶ Calvin offered several proofs that, in fact, it is the Lord’s revealed, moral will for the cryptos to identify publicly with the Reformation. First he appealed to Jesus saying in Luke 9:26 that “if we are ashamed of him before men, he will likewise be ashamed of us when he appears in his majesty with the angels of God.”⁷ He appealed to Romans 10:10, that if we “believeth with the heart unto righteousness” then one will confess “with the mouth unto salvation.”⁸ True faith produces confession. “Whoever draws back from doing so must seek another master.”⁹

Calvin anticipated the objection that he was attempting to make all believers into preachers. Not at all.

For, since it is a particular office to preach publicly, it is not necessary, nor even expedient or suitable for everyone to intrude himself in it. . . . I do not therefore mean for everyone to climb up into a pulpit to prove their Christianity. . . . However, let everyone take thought to give God glory in the vocation in which he finds himself.¹⁰

He would have it that every professing Christian should confess his faith in the place and station in which he finds himself. He appeals to 1 Peter 3:15. We should each be ready to give an account of his faith. It is “the office of every believer” to “take his neighbor by the hand and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of Zion, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he shall teach us to walk in his ways’ (Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2)”.¹¹

What does this have to do with crypto-Calvinists in the local evangelical congregation? Well, the fundamental point about submitting to the revealed will of God applies to all Christians everywhere, but particularly where a crypto-Calvinist finds himself in a congregation dominated by therapeutic, moralistic deism, where the gospel is absent, where the means of grace are deformed or ignored, and where discipline was banished by the church growth gurus as impractical.

Calvin did not call the cryptos in his day to superhuman feats. He only wanted them to speak to the truth in love and to trust the providence of God. It is true he was, in effect, calling many to great suffering and possibly even death. In our case, however, there is much less at stake and even less reason why our cryptos cannot confess their faith openly before men, since, in many cases, it merely involves stopping at that local NAPARC congregation by which they drive on the way to the mega-church.

What Will They Find?

Once more an admonition to my NAPARC brothers and sisters: If our evangelical crypto-Calvinists do step out in faith to lay hold of the blessings of the heritage of the Reformation, what will they find this Sabbath in your congregation? Will they find what they just left behind—cliques, clans, and clowns—or will they find the law distinguished from the gospel and the latter preached sweetly? Will they find joy in the Lord or some nasty congregational contention over who is in charge? Will they find a socio-political rant or the ministry of Christ? When they visit, our evangelical friends are looking for three things: the pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and discipline. Indeed, that is what the Lord asks of us. It does not seem unreasonable that we should be doing these things, even if no crypto-Calvinists visit.

Calvin recognized that there is a certain degree of subjectivity in deciding “how far and how much we must proceed.” Therefore each one must “pray our Lord to direct him in true prudence, in order to judge what will be suitable.”¹² For Calvin, the driving principle, is the same in any case: “There must be in us such a zeal, both to exalt the reign of God and to edify our neighbors, that we extend all our powers and apply all our efforts to it.”¹³ In other words, because Calvin would not go beyond Scripture and good and necessary deductions, and because he recognized that circumstances would vary, he was unwilling to legislate exactly how each one must act in every case. Nevertheless, it was clear to Calvin that each one must act. Our goal is the appropriate imitation of Christ, who was consumed by zeal for the house of God (Ps 69:9; John 2:17). This zeal caused Christ to be restless in his desire to glorify and serve his Father. Calvin reminds us that some of his followers “did not dare to confess Jesus Christ after having believed on him: ‘They loved the glory of men better than that of God’ (John 12:43). How sad and perverse a choice it is to prefer men to God!”¹⁴

Notes

1. Calvin, 49.
2. Calvin, 49.
3. Calvin, 49.
4. Calvin, 51.
5. Calvin, 50.
6. Calvin, 51.
7. Calvin, 51.
8. Calvin, 51–52.
9. Calvin, 52.
10. Calvin, 52.
11. Calvin, 52.
12. Calvin, 53.
13. Calvin, 53.
14. Calvin, 53.

©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.

Editor’s Note: This essay was first published serially in 2009 and appears here slightly revised.

You can find the whole series here.

---

RESOURCES

• Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
• Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
• The Heidelblog Resource Page
• Heidelmedia Resources
• The Ecumenical Creeds
• The Reformed Confessions
• The Heidelberg Catechism
• Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
• Why I Am A Christian
• What Must A Christian Believe?
• Heidelblog Contributors
• Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

---

Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

  More by R. Scott Clark ›