Remnant Reformed Church was organized on May 22, 2023, when one deacon and several families from First Reformed Protestant Church left that congregation by signing the Act of Separation and Joining. A couple weeks later, the newly formed congregation chose the name Remnant Reformed Church.
The word remnant in Remnant Reformed Church expresses the truth that God’s church is always small and despised in the world. The remnant is the leftover part that one throws away, whether it is leftover food remnants or the leftover remnants of material after one has made a garment.
So also God’s church is not an impressive institution in the world. Rather, she is despised and cast out by the world and the false church as nothing but a useless remnant. However, God does not judge as man judges. God loves the remnant; God has eternally chosen the remnant; God has eternally given the remnant to Jesus Christ to be saved by him. Though the remnant never amounts to anything in the world or in the church world, God graciously delivers the remnant in his everlasting love.
“And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage” (Ezra 9:8).
The word Reformed in Remnant Reformed Church expresses the fact that the congregation holds the Reformed confessions as the faithful expression of the truth of the word of God.
These confessions include the Three Forms of Unity—the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Canons of Dordt (1618–19)—as well as the Reformed liturgical forms, such as the baptism form, Lord’s Supper form, and ordination forms, among others.
Members of Remnant Reformed Church confess that the doctrines of the Reformed faith are “the true and complete doctrine of salvation.” Officebearers in Remnant Reformed Church confess that “they heartily believe and are persuaded that all the articles and points of doctrine contained” in the Three Forms of Unity “do fully agree with the Word of God.”
The word Church in Remnant Reformed Church expresses the truth that this congregation has been gathered by Jesus Christ to himself by his Spirit and word and that this congregation is a manifestation of the universal body of Christ in the world.
Remnant Reformed Church, by God’s grace, strives to manifest the marks of the true church in preaching the pure doctrine of the gospel, maintaining the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ, and exercising church discipline in punishing of sin (see Belgic Confession article 29).
The word Church also expresses that the congregation is what she is only by the sovereign grace of God. It is in this confidence of faith that the congregation undertakes all of her confession and life in the world.
“The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build” (Nehemiah 2:20).