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Scripture, as we have noticed, uses many different names and descriptions of the church to teach us what the church is and to help us love the church. The number of these names and descriptions shows how important the church is in God's eyes and ought to be in ours.
There are, for example, a whole list of names in Hebrews 12:22-24. In that passage the church is called "mount Sion," "the city of the living God," "the heavenly Jerusalem," and "the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven." She is also the holy nation of the NT (I Pet. 2:9).
From this we learn that Israel and the church are one. Israel is the church of the OT and the church is the Israel of the NT. The names that are used to describe the capital of Israel, the city God chose as His own and where He established His dwelling place (Ps. 68:16, Ps. 132:13-14) are the names used in the NT for the church. This is also in Revelation 21 where in showing John the city of God, the new Jerusalem, the angel shows him "the bride, the Lamb's wife" (vss. 9-10ff, comp. Eph. 5:32).
There is a kind of cumulative witness here. That the church is the vine (compare Jn. 15:1-6 and Psalm 80), the temple and house of God (Eph. 2:20-22, I Tim. 3:15), mount Sion, Jerusalem, and the city of the living God, ought to teach us that the church is everything that Israel was in the OT.
Before we speak more of this, however, we wish to point out the importance of these names. That the church is described as a city or nation or kingdom, remind us that she is a spiritual commonwealth with a king, law, custom, and language all her own. Her members are citizens of a kingdom with all the rights and privileges of citizens. In that kingdom they are protected from their enemies and well governed by the King of kings.
The church was and is, however, a spiritual kingdom and nation and city. Her walls are salvation, and her gates praise (Is. 60:18). Her keys are the preaching of the gospel and the exercise of Christian discipline (Matt. 16:19, 18:15-20). Her foundations are apostolic and prophetic teaching - nothing less than the Word of God itself (Eph. 2:20-22, Rev. 21:14).
That the church is further described as the fortress mountain, Sion, serves to show us that under the rule of her King, she is invincibly strong (Ps. 48:12-14). How could she be otherwise with such walls and gates and foundations and keys? No wonder the gates of hell cannot prevail against her (Matt. 16:18).
This is seen only by faith, however. In the eyes of the world the church is a small and despised remnant, a little flock (Luke 12:32), a cottage in a vineyard, a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, a besieged city (Is. 1:8). Only by faith is it evident that she is "comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners" (Song 6:4, 10). Let us, then, by faith walk about Zion, tell her towers, mark well her bulwarks, and consider her palaces. It will always be evident that God is her God! (Ps. 48:12-14).
Rev. R. Hanko
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" I Peter 3:15.
Although we treated this passage briefly in our last article, we ought to have the question before us once again: "How much do you believe we as God's people need to take the initiative in witnessing considering that men are dead in sins (in my experience very few actually do what I Peter 3:15 says)?"
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Christian witnessing is crucially important. It is our calling before God. Scripture everywhere impresses its importance on us.
But it must be understood that our whole life must be one of witnessing. So often witnessing is defined in terms of speaking only. That is a mistake. Witnessing can and must be a characteristic of our lives.
If our lives are contrary to Scripture, not one word of witnessing which we speak will have any effect. Especially in the life of a Christian, "Actions speak louder than words."
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At the same time, we must also speak readily of our hope. This is Peter's point. And again this is emphasized in Scripture. Jesus speaks of confessing him before men (Mt. 10:32), and Paul speaks of believing with our hearts and confessing with our mouths (Rom. 10:9, 10), and, in fact, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Our words must always reflect the grace of God in our hearts; but we must also take the initiative in witnessing whenever we have the opportunity.
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And this brings up another point.
It is not our calling to walk down the street button-holing everyone we meet to witness to our faith. We must not, in our places of employment, be forever speaking to everyone about his (and our) salvation. There is such a thing as casting our pearls before swine (Mt. 7:6).
But we must make confession of our faith whenever we have the opportunity -- our whole life being, in the meantime, a living confession.
The importance of witnessing only when we have opportunity is to leave the matter of our specific witness with the Lord.
Our neighbor is, after all, the man whom the Lord places upon our pathway.
The one to whom we must witness is the one whose pathway crosses ours by the Lord's direction. Then we will know to whom to witness, and we will know too what must be the specific content of our witness.
That witness will be used by God to accomplish His purpose.
Even if the one to whom we witness mocks, our witness will be used for his judgment and God's glory.
But God may also use our witness to bring sinners to repentance and to the church. The Heidelberg Catechism speaks of the necessity of doing good works because "by our godly conversation, others may be gained to Christ" (Q & A 86). And this is in keeping with what Scripture says in such passages as Mt. 5:16, Prov. 11:30, etc.
So important is this matter of witnessing that a church which is engaged in the calling to go into all the world and preach the gospel can fulfill this missionary mandate only when it is a witnessing church. I mean, not only must the missionaries go forth to preach the gospel, but the church which sends them must be, in her own place and location, a witnessing church composed of witnessing members. Then there will be blessing. Prof. H. Hanko
Did the Reformers Persecute People?
Our question for this issue is: "Arminians are often quick to point out the persecution perpetrated by the Reformers on groups such as the Anabaptists. They say - 'How can you follow the teachings of men like Calvin and Luther who were involved in such atrocities?'"
In answer, we need first to correct some historical inaccuracies. The question leaves the impression that Calvin and Luther and the other Reformers were involved in widespread and regular persecution of the Anabaptists and others. This is simply not true.
Calvin can be accused of persecution in only one instance that we are aware of, the execution of Michael Servetus in 1553. In Calvin's defense we present the following:
(1) Calvin was not directly responsible for Servetus' death. The city council of Geneva tried and executed Servetus, a council controlled by Calvin's enemies. Calvin functioned only as an expert witness at the trial. Indeed, by their burning of Servetus they meant to demonstrate their authority in Genevan affairs, by way of undermining Calvin's.
(2) Calvin had warned Servetus to stay away from Geneva, tried to visit him in prison during his trial, and pleaded with the city council for a more humane form of execution (beheading rather than burning). The attempts, therefore, to make Calvin out as some sort of cruel monster are mere slander.
(3) Not only was the execution of Servetus a city council matter, but was carried out with the advice of the cities of Berne, Basle, Zurich and Schaffhausen. It was not even Geneva alone that was responsible, much less Calvin alone.
More generally, concerning other instances of so-called persecution, especially in Zurich, where a number of Anabaptists were executed with Zwingli's consent:
(1) The Anabaptists were radical seditionists, completely antiauthoritarian and tending to communism. Their views of civil government and society, therefore, threatened the whole social order of the day (contrary to Rom. 13:1-7) and it was for this, far more than for their religious views, that they were executed.
(2) The same is true of the execution of Roman Catholic priests in Elisabethan England. Their presence, rightly or wrongly (we believe rightly) was perceived to be subversive in light of the attempts, especially of Roman Catholic Spain to overthrow the Protestant government of England.
(3) Blasphemy and sedition, crimes of which Servetus was guilty were capital crimes in those days. Nor is it evident that they ought not be such today (Rom. 1:28-32).
Luther is usually accused in connection with mass execution of peasants after their uprising (1525). In his favor, it should be remembered that, though Luther concurred in the wholesale suppression of the uprising, that he had rebuked the rulers for their oppression of the poor people, as well as the warning the peasants against rebellion. When they did rebel, Luther advised their suppression in the conviction that Romans 13 considers rebellion not only worthy of the death penalty, but of eternal damnation!
However, though we would disagree with them at certain points and even condemn their actions, that in no way means we cannot benefit at other points from their teaching. It is abundantly clear that God used them, weak and sinful men though they were, to restore the truth of His Word in a time of great spiritual darkness. For that we continue to give God thanks. Rev. Ron Hanko