709 East 57th Street; Loveland, CO 80538
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June
through August)
Vol. 5, No. 1 Pastor: Rev. G. Van Baren Phone: (970) 667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Contents:
The Order of Salvation
Remission of Sins on Earth and In Heaven (1)
What About Investing in Shares?
We have written before and in more detail on the so-called "Order of
Salvation". We only wish, therefore, to
point out some more important features of the "Order" in this article.
When in theology we speak of the "Order of Salvation" we are speaking of
the different parts of salvation as they are applied
and given to God's people by the Holy Spirit. In
other words, the "Order of Salvation" describes the work of God's Spirit in us.
The closest thing we have to an order of salvation in Scripture is Romans 8:30. But
that is not an "Order of Salvation" in the strict theological sense in that it
speaks of predestination, which is not part of God's work in us, but something He did for us before the foundations of the world.
A typical order of salvation, therefore, is that followed by the Westminster Larger Catechism, i.e., Union with
Christ, Effectual Calling, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, and Glorification. Other orders would be different. Many, for example, would include regeneration and
faith. But in any case the purpose of such an
order is to try and understand the relationship between these different parts of our
salvation, all described in Scripture.
Several things must be remembered in speaking of such an order.
(1) We must remember that this is only
an attempt to understand these Biblical concepts and is in no sense to be understood
mechanically as though we first receive one, then the other, and so on. The fact is, that in our experience many of these
blessings are received at the same time. Also,
many of them are not one-time spiritual "happenings." Sanctification, for example, is something that
begins when a person is first saved and continues to the very moment of death.
(2) The "Order of Salvation"
does emphasize one important truth, however, and that is that the application of salvation
does not take place all at once, but is something lifelong - something finished only when
we are finally with Christ in heaven. This
is, of course, denied by those who believe in perfectionism and entire sanctification -
they tend to see the application of salvation as a one-time thing.
(3) In a Reformed "Order of
Salvation" there are a couple of things that must be emphasized and cannot be
changed: (a) regeneration and effectual calling must come before faith, or we have faith
as work of man, which is Arminianism; (b) faith itself must come before justification to
maintain the great Protestant truth of justification by faith alone; and (c) justification
must come before sanctification, or we have the Romish doctrine of justification by works.
All this is only to say, however, that the one thing any "Order of
Salvation" must teach is that also in its
application salvation is entirely the work of God Himself through the sovereign
operations of the Holy Spirit. Salvation,
therefore, is all of grace. "SALVATION
IS OF THE LORD" (Jonah 2:9). Rev. R. Hanko
Remission Of Sins On Earth and In Heaven (1)
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye
retain, they are retained. John 20:23
Although two readers sent in this text, no question accompanied it. I have assumed that the readers would simply like
an explanation of the passage.
* * * *
One who is acquainted with the gospel narratives will recall, upon reading the
above text, that Jesus spoke similar words to His apostles in Caesarea Philippi when Peter
made that wonderful confession: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (See Mt.
16:19). And these same words are repeated in
Mt. 18:18.
In the context of these words in John 20, the Lord had appeared to His disciples in
the upper room on the evening of the day of His resurrection. Thomas was not there at the time, but the other
disciples, with, of course, the exception of Judas, were present.
The preceding vss. are important. Jesus
said to His disciples: "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I
you." After He spoke these momentous
words, really giving to the disciples their commission, He breathed on them and said to
them: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Then
the words of the text are spoken.
In other words, the disciples could not fulfill their commission without the Holy
Spirit Whom Christ now gave them.
We all know the arrogant claim of the Romish Church concerning the passage in
Matthew.
Rome claims that Christ gave to Peter and to him alone the power on earth to
forgive sins. Peter, the first pope, gave
that same power to his successors, the bishops of Rome.
So all the bishops of Rome have the power here on earth to forgive sins.
This is an arrogant and preposterous claim. And
the claim itself does not even stand up under the statement of this text, for here Christ
is speaking to all his disciples, and not to Peter alone.
But we have heard Rome's boastful and blasphemous claims long enough and we will
not trouble ourselves with them here.
When Christ, the Head of the church, establishes his church as a church institute
in the world, He gives the church her work and calling.
That work is: the preaching of the gospel, the administration of the sacraments,
the exercise of Christian discipline, and the care of the poor.
It is interesting to note that, with the exception of the latter, the work which
Christ gives the church to do is composed of three tasks which are also the marks of the
true church by means of which the church of Christ may be known in the world.
The reference to remission of sins in John 20:23 is a reference to the exercise of
discipline.
This exercise of discipline is called in Mt. 16 the use of the keys of the kingdom. This is a striking metaphor which our Lord uses.
The picture is of the church as a city in the world attacked by many enemies. The city is surrounded by high walls with iron gates which can be locked. As with any city, the gates can be the most vulnerable part of the walls; yet they are crucial and no city can be without them.
The gates of the city which is the church are for four purposes, all of which
require the gates to be opened and shut. The
gates must be shut to keep wicked people out of the city; and they must be shut to keep
the people of God in the city, for, sad to say, they sometimes try to get out. The gates must be opened to let into the city
those people of God who are born outside, but have to be brought in. And the gates must be opened to put out those who
are born inside the city but are really wicked and allied with the enemy.
While the preaching of the Word and the exercise of discipline are both the key
power, in this vs. in John, Christian discipline is especially emphasized.
Hence, the power to remit sins is the power to open and close the gates. It is the power of discipline.
The elders in the church are given these keys; the keys, so to speak, hang on a
nail in the meeting room of the elders. They
turn the keys and open and close the gates when they preach the gospel and exercise
Christian discipline.
But we will continue our discussion of this in our next article.
One
of our readers has asked about investing in shares, and added an additional question about
specific shares: "Should a Christian invest in quoted shares and if one has invested
in a company that trades on the Sabbath, e.g., Tesco, is a shareholder as part owner,
guilty of Sabbath breaking?"
Regarding the more general question about investing in shares, we can see no
objection to this, all other things being equal. Scripture
certainly does not condemn investing one's money and would even seem in some places to
promote it as a matter of good stewardship (Matt. 25:14-30, Lk. 19:11-28). Nor can we see that investing or trading in shares
is different from any other kind of investing or trading.
We would caution, however, against speculating. There is a point where investing passes over into
speculating and at least in its more extreme forms such speculation is little other than a
kind of gambling, something condemned by Scripture (Prov. 18:9, Lk. 15:13). It is also motivated by the same sins of greed and
covetousness that motivate gambling (Ex. 20:17, Col. 3:5).
Nor is it good stewardship and use of what God has given us (Gen. 39:5, 6, Prov.
27:23-27).
The question about investing in a company that trades on the Sabbath is more
difficult. On the one hand, we must remember
that the Christian is not responsible for all the wickedness that is done by wicked men,
when he lives or works among them. If that
were the case, it would be difficult even to find any work where the company or management
were not guilty of evil-doing.
The principle of I Corinthians 5:9, 10 applies here.
Our calling to be separate and holy does NOT require us to go out of the world altogether. In that case we would fall into the error of
Romanism with its monasteries and nunneries, its view of evil as something inherent in things, and its definition of holiness in terms
of world-flight.
Nor, with regard to the Sabbath, can the Christian be responsible for all the
Sabbath desecration that is so prevalent today as he lives his life in the world. If so he would not be able to use electricity
(produced and distributed on the Sabbath), the Postal system (which operates on the
Sabbath) or buy most products (many of which are produced by companies that work on the
Sabbath).
There is, however, an additional factor involved
in shares, and that is the fact that a shareholder is a part-owner. We
find it difficult to see how such a person, as part -owner, can avoid being responsible
for the evil that is committed by a company that openly and publicly desecrates the
Sabbath (or engages in other open or public dishonesty or wickedness) - Cf. Exodus
21:28-36.
We do not mean to say that a shareholder, who is, in the very nature of the case,
not involved in the everyday affairs of the company, can or ought to be responsible for
every detail of a company's business. Thus we
have spoken of companies that openly and publicly
violate the law of God. That, it seems to us,
is a different matter altogether.
In any case, however, if one cannot in good
conscience before God invest in shares or purchase shares in a certain company, then
he ought not do it, even if it is not wrong in
itself. Then the rules of Romans 14 apply:
"To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean" and
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (vss. 14, 23).
Rev. Ronald Hanko
We have available a new pamphlet, The Children of the Promise, which is a sermon by the late Herman Hoeksema on the passage of Romans 9:6-8. It was originally preached in the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We would be pleased to send a copy of this sermon to those who write—to the address given in the heading of this leaflet.