The
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was the second largest
Protestant churchProtestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
until it merged into the
Protestant Church in the NetherlandsThe Protestant Church in the Netherlands is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the Netherlands. With 2,000 congregations and a membership of some 1.8 million , it is the second largest church in the Netherlands after the Roman Catholic Church.It was founded 1 May 2004 as a merger of...
in 2004.
History
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was founded in 1892 in a merger of two groups that had split off from the
Dutch Reformed ChurchThe Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
(
Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk):
- a part of the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands (Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in Nederland, CGKN), which originated in the Afscheiding
The Secession of 1834 refers to a split that occurred from out of the Dutch Reformed Church in the year 1834. The federation of churches resulting from this Secession, the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken , still exists in the Netherlands today...
("Secession") of 1834, and
- the group around Abraham Kuyper
Abraham Kuijper generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a Dutch politician, journalist, statesman and theologian...
, which was formed in the DoleantieThe Doleantie was the name of a prominent schism in the Dutch Reformed Church which took place in 1886 and was led by the renowned minister Abraham Kuyper. The Doleantie was not the first schism in the Dutch Reformed Church...
of 1886.
The other part of the CGKN that stayed out of this union remains independent; it was renamed to "
Christian Reformed ChurchesThe Christian Reformed Churches are a Protestant church in the Netherlands with about 75,000 members.The original name of the church was Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands . The church was formed in 1869 by the merger of two churches, both separated from the Dutch Reformed Church in 1834...
" in 1947.
Abraham Kuyper was the most important leader of the movement, and under his leadership the
gereformeerden became a separate so-called "pillar" in Dutch society, next to the
hervormden and the Roman Catholics. Part of the
gereformeerde pillar were for example the
Vrije UniversiteitThe Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
and the
Anti Revolutionary PartyThe Anti Revolutionary Party was a Dutch Protestant Christian democratic political party. The ARP is one of the predecessors of the Christian Democratic Appeal. After 1917 the party never received more than twenty percent of the vote.-History before 1879:The anti-revolutionary parliamentary caucus...
, a political party now part of the
Christian Democratic AppealThe Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
.
Since its founding in 1892, two groups have separated from the GKN (Gereformeerde Kerk Nederland). The first split was in 1926, over a conflict about the literal interpretation of the Bible. The orthodox majority of the church concluded from the story of
Adam and EveAdam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
that the
serpentSerpent is the term used to translate a variety of words in the Hebrew bible, the most common being , , the generic word for "snake"....
had been given the power of speech. The members of the more liberal wing of the church viewed the story as an allegory. After the Synod of Assen concluded that the story in was a report on a factual and observable reality, the
Gereformeerde Kerken in Hersteld Verband ("Reformed Churches in Restored Union") were formed by the dissenters. The conclusion of the Synod of 1926 was retracted in 1971/1972 by the GKN.
The second schism, called the
Vrijmaking ("Liberation", that is: from synodal authority), occurred in 1944, when the
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) (
Gereformeerde Kerken vrijgemaakt) split off from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.
The long process of reuniting with the Dutch Reformed Church began in 1962 and ended on May 1, 2004, when the GKN, the NHK and the Evangelical Lutheran Church merged to form the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. At that time, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands had around 675,000 members, 400,000 of whom were churchgoers. There were 857 congregations, with some 1,000 church buildings.
Seven congregations did not agree with the merger and founded the 'Continued Reformed Churches in the Netherlands' (
voortgezette Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland) on May 8, 2004.
Theology
Until
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the
Gereformeerde Kerk was characterized by a classical
neo-CalvinistNeo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is the movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper.- Introduction :...
belief. The church thought of itself as the most true church of Christ. The main influence on the
theological- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...
views was from Abraham Kuyper and
Herman BavinckHerman Bavinck was a Dutch Reformed theologian and churchman.-Background:Bavinck was born in the town of Hoogeveen in the Netherlands to a German father. He first went to theological school at Kampen, but then moved on to Leiden for further training...
. After World War II, the character of the church changed. After 1962, the church became an open church, with space and freedom for various beliefs. Modern theologians in the
gereformeerde church are
Gerrit Cornelis BerkouwerGerrit Cornelis Berkouwer was for years the leading theologian of the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands . He occupied the Chair in systematic theology of the Faculty of Theology, Free University in Amsterdam.Berkouwer was born in The Hague. He was raised in Zaandam...
(1903-1996) and
Harry M. KuitertHarry M. Kuitert is a significant theologian of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands .Harry Kuitert - baptised Harminus Martinus - was a rector at Scharendijk and a student pastor at Amsterdam before he became a professor of theology...
(born 1924).