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Hudsonville, Michigan 49426
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Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Vol. 8, No. 21
Content:
God’s Hammer (10):
Unbreakable Scripture (Part 1)
Seeking the Unity of the
Church (5)
Reverend
So far we have seen that God's hammer (Jer. 23:29), the "more sure word" of Scripture (II Peter 1:19), has its origin in God and not man (II Peter 1:21) for it is God-breathed (II Tim. 3:16). Because Scripture is God-breathed, it has certain perfections or characteristics, one of which is inerrancy.
The inerrancy of Scripture has been a battleground between conservatives and liberals for the last 150 years. Controversies have raged in churches, missions, theological seminaries and religious societies often bringing disruption and division. A large number of books, pamphlets and sermons have been spawned by the inerrancy debate and even some heresy trials. Today the majority of instituted churches and professing Christians don't even see it as an issue worth considering. Evolution and higher criticism, they believe, have made it impossible for modern man to confess the inerrancy of Scripture. They say, "Sure everybody knows that there are mistakes in the Bible. And anyway whether you believe the Bible is inerrant or not doesn't make any real difference to the Christian life." Thus inerrancy is both intellectual suicide and spiritually unnecessary.
But these are just the slippery words of compromisers who have been conformed to the world. Jesus did not believe that inerrancy was intellectual suicide, for He urged it in a theological debate with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus did not believe that it was spiritually ‘unnecessary', for He used it in defence of His claim to Deity. These are the words of the incarnate Son of God: "the scripture cannot he broken" (John 10:35).
Christ had been teaching that He was the Son of God (36):
"I and my Father are one" (30). The Jews rightly understood Him to be claiming
Deity (33) and so they are about to stone him (31). Jesus uses two arguments against them.
First, He states that His good works sustain His claim (32). Second, He reasons from the
OT Scriptures. He quotes Psalm 82:4: "Is it not written in your law, I SAID YE ARE
GODS?" (34). Then he identifies the ones addressed as "gods:" "he
called them gods unto whom the word of God came" (35). Finally, he makes a deduction:
"If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot
be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world,
Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (35-36). Note the linchpin of
the whole argument: "the scripture cannot be broken" (35). Do you quote all
Scripture's declarations with absolute confidence? Those who deny inerrancy can't for they
don't believe that scripture cannot be broken. This is Christ’s way of
wielding God's hammer; it must be our's.
Rev. Angus Stewart
Seeking the Unity of the Church (5)
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all
lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3).
We have discussed this passage in the last four issues. Last time I stressed that if we are to keep the unity of the Spirit as manifested in the church, we must make the church of which we are members the centre of all our lives. The church must never be a peripheral institution. It must control and regulate all our life in the world.
The various Christian virtues that the text mentions are intended to stress this very fact. The apostle says that, in order to keep the unity of the Spirit, we must be characterized by "all lowliness and meekness," by "longsuffering," by "forbearing one another in love."
The apostle refers, in these virtues, to our relationship to God first of all. This is especially stressed by the word "lowliness." In our relationship to God we are to be lowly. What does this mean? It means that each of us considers the fact that we are members of the church of Christ by sovereign grace. We have not chosen to join the church. We have not enlisted in the armies of Christ. We have not made ourselves a part of the church, nor have we done anything to merit a place in that church.
The church of Christ is the most wonderful institution in the world. It is the earthly manifestation of the body of Christ. It is the gathering of those whom God chose from eternity. It is the body for whom Christ gave His life in the sufferings of Hell. It is the covenant people of God, the redeemed of Christ, the object of God's everlasting love, the people in whom the Lord delights. It is destined to live with God in perfect covenant fellowship in the kingdom yet to come.
God has graciously and sovereignly made us members of that church. We have not deserved it, but have done all to forfeit our right to God's favor. Membership in the church is a free gift of God to us poor and undeserving sinners. It is grace alone that has given us such blessedness. Indeed, this is what Paul refers to when he urges us to walk worthy of our calling. Our calling is God's gracious, irresistible and efficacious calling by which we are brought out of the fellowship of the world and Hell, into the fellowship of the church. Now, Paul says, conscious of this, walk worthy of that calling!
How is it possible that anyone, captured by the wonder of this, should be anything but very lowly before God and before his fellow saints? All we can do, overwhelmed by the greatness of this wonder, is fall on our faces on the earth to adore the name of our great God.
And so we are to be meek in relation to each other. Paul explains that more fully in Philippians 2:3-5: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
In meekness we also live in peace with our fellow saints. We esteem them better than ourselves and seek their good. Specifically that means that we are longsuffering, and that we forbear each other.
To be longsuffering is to suffer along with the sufferings of our fellow saints, i.e., it is to carry, in so far as we are able, their great burdens of suffering and pain. It is to make their anguish ours. It is to be truly sympathetic in word and deed.
And this, in turn, requires that we forbear one another. That is, to put it bluntly, that we put up with each other and with each other's oddities and eccentricities. There are always people in the church who annoy us. They have scratchy personalities and are blustery and windy. They are know-it-alls who seem to think they have a corner on everything worth knowing. In addition to these "character-faults," they seem to us to have sins that they ought to have overcome by now.
The trouble is that we forget that what we dislike in others is equally true of our selves. We expect others to overlook our weaknesses, but refuse to overlook the weaknesses of others. We are blind to our own faults and sins, but extremely sensitive to the sins of others.
For the sake of the unity of the church and peace in Jerusalem, we must forbear one another. Even with respect to sin in others, we assume that, because we are all sinful and far from perfect, our fellow saints confess their sins and struggle against them. We must assume this unless we have good reason to suppose that they do not. But being the chief of sinners ourselves, we ought to be able to forbear others in their weaknesses.
How the Holy Spirit is able to penetrate our hearts and lay bare our weaknesses!
And so all these spiritual virtues are necessary to keep the unity of the Spirit. Without them the church is soon torn by discord, envy, strife, bitterness and schism. And not only do we personally suffer because the church cannot do its work, but we make it impossible for our children and grandchildren to be nourished and fed by mother church who nurtures us until we are in glory.
And so we ought all to consider our calling with respect to
this urgent admonition of Scripture. May God give us grace that we may humbly receive this
as God's Word to each one of us.
Prof H. Hanko
Several readers have inquired about the propriety of using the title "Reverend" of ministers. One cited Psalm 111:9 which says of God: "holy and reverend is his name." There are two reasons why this verse cannot be used against calling ministers "Reverend." First, if "reverend" cannot be applied to man in any sense, neither can "holy," for the text says, "holy and reverend is his name." But we know that Christians are frequently called saints (lit. "holy ones") in the Bible (Col. 1:2). Second, the Hebrew word translated "reverend" is used of people fearing a man: "all the people greatly feared [revered] the Lord and Samuel" (I Sam. 12:18; cf. Prov. 24:21).
Another reader asks, "Does the title Rev, mean a revered person or a reverent person?" Although a minister must be reverent (i.e. "show reverence" to God), the title "Reverend" indicates that he is a revered person, one "deserving reverence" of man.
The Scriptures tell us that the ascended Christ gives pastors and teachers to His church (Eph. 4:11; Jer. 3:15) as His ambassadors (II Cor. 5:20), to be His watchmen (Eze. 3:17) and angels (i.e. messengers) of God (Rev. 2:1) ordained (I Tim. 4:14) to this special "office" (I Tim. 3:1). Under Christ, ministers (and ruling elders) administer the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19; 18:18). Think of the importance of the office of minister! For "how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom. 10:14).
Thus a faithful minister is worthy of reverence. We must not only "obey" and "submit" to (teaching and ruling) elders (Heb. 13:17), but we must also "hold such in reputation" (Phil. 2:29), reckon them "worthy of double honour" (I Tim. 5:17) and esteem them very highly in love" (I Thess. 5:13).
God has created a world in which those in places of authority in family, church, state and business are to be honored (cf. fifth commandment). Children, wives, citizens and employees are to reverence their parents, husbands, civil rulers and employers respectively (Heb. 12:9; Eph. 5:33; Rom. 13:7; I Peter 2:18). Thus we give people their titles: Father, Prof., your Majesty, Prime Minister, Sir, Detective Inspector, Dr., etc. In a similar way, we believe it entirely appropriate to refer to the minister of God's Word as "Reverend." Since Scripture does not say that we must address ministers as "Rev." or "Pastor" or "Mr.," those who prefer not to use these titles are free not to use them, provided they understand that God has ordained ministers (and ruling elders and deacons) in his church and that these men must be "esteem[ed] ... very highly in love for their work's sake" (I Thess. 5:13). And remember, in honoring church officebearers, we honor Christ, the head of the church. Rev. Angus Stewart