HISTORY OF CRC

I attend a church with the denomination of CRC. The CRC technically came from the Netherlands. But we can’t really be called a Dutch because there are members from all over ethnic areas from Koreans to Hispanics to mosaic. The early church was one in body, one single denomination. But soon views began to change and the church eventually split in two. The Eastern and the Western churches. In 1517 the Protestant Reformation spit the Roman church into several new branches. Among these new branches came the Lutheran church, guided under Martin Luther. Another branch broke off influenced by a different man, this man was Ulrich Zwingli and then later it became John Calvin. This branch was typically referred to as “Presbyterian” or “Reformed”. Reformed churches were very prosperous in the Netherlands and eventually some of these Dutch Reformed people migrated over to the United States, and began the Christian Reformed Church in North America in the year 1857.

GREAT HISTORY

John Calvin is a very very important person in the Christian Reformed Church’s history. “In a nutshell, these all center on the sovereignty of God. The biblical teachings of predestination and election give us comfort because they assure us that no one and nothing, not even our own bad choices, can snatch us out of God's hand. And the realization that God owns all of creation and continues to assert his rule over it gives us a sure hope for the future.” (crna.org) His teachings spread to many countries, including the Netherlands. Since the Netherlands were still mainly Roman Catholic, the CRC planted itself first as the state church. Politics and church, as we all know, are not a very good combination. This church began to gradually become more and more theologically liberal, mostly pushed on from the start of Enlightenment. Some people however, did not follow along with this and stuck to simple, practical faith based on traditional Calvinist doctrines. Because the churches did not support such faith, those that joined gathered for worship in smaller groups called “conventicles”. The Reformed Church began to persecute the leaders so Rev. Hendrik de Cock and others came to the decision to secede from the church thus being the branch of Dutch Calvinism to ultimately boost up the Christian Reformed Church.

The Bible translations for the CRC have gone from KJV to NIV. Worship style in CRC is varied greatly. Some will go contemporary and others will stick to the doctrinally “pure” worship. Our denomination is not required to wear any sort of formal dress. The style typically seen today is mostly things like business casual. Our doctrine is a reformed belief based on Calvinism. Heavily based on predestination grace, not man's free will and choice. CRC is primarily consists of Dutch and European descent.