Vol. 79; No. 15; May 1, 2003
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Table of Contents:
Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
- Remembering the Schism of 1953
Valuable and Gripping CDs
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. Van Baren
Feature Article – Rev. Angus Stewart
- The Real Saint Patrick (3)
Patrick’s Message (1)
Grace Life - Rev. Mitchell Dick
Decency and Order – Rev. Ronald Cammenga
Ministering to the Saints – Rev. Douglas Kuiper
- The Election and Installation of Deacons (5)
The Installation Ceremony
Taking Heed to the Doctrine – Rev. Steven Key
News from Our Churches – Mr. Benjamin Wigger
Meditation:
Rev. Cornelius Hanko
Rev.
Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.
A Home in Father’s House
In my Father’s house are many
mansions…. I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Our Lord assures His disciples, “I
will come again!”
The church of the old dispensation lived in the expectation of but one coming of
the Lord. Then all God’s types and
promises would be realized. The believers
looked eagerly for the day when the Messiah would come to make all things new. To them it was one great, glorious event, even the
dawning of a new day.
We as church of the new dispensation, the dispensation of the fulfillment of all
God’s promises, stand in the midst of that coming of the Lord, a part of which has
been fulfilled, a part is being fulfilled, and a part is awaiting the final arrival of the
Lord and the renewal of all things, a new heaven and a new earth. Therefore the New Testament Scriptures now speak
of various comings of the Lord.
Jesus was partaking of the Last Supper with His disciples. It was only a matter of hours before His
crucifixion. Jesus assures His sorrowing
disciples that He would not leave them comfortless, like orphans, but He would come again
to dwell within them in His Spirit — a promise that was realized ten days after
Christ’s ascension, when He, as exalted Lord over all, poured forth the Holy Spirit
as the Spirit of Christ upon His church.
Along with that continued coming is also Christ’s sovereign reign over all as
He carries the counsel of God unto the culmination of the ages. Christ rules over His church in love, and for the
sake of His church He also rules over the entire universe.
At the same time He rules over the wicked in judgment with a rod of iron. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all
the workers of iniquity already in this present time.
This continuous coming of the Lord also includes the
coming spoken of in the text at the head of this meditation. Christ promises His disciples and us that He will
come again to take His own unto Himself, that we may be were He is, sharing His glory.
The occasion for this promise is well known to all of us. Our Lord had warned His disciples that the
Shepherd would be slain and the sheep would be scattered.
A deep sorrow fell upon all the eleven as these words penetrated into their souls. They were sorely troubled. They loved Him dearly. He was their dear Friend, who meant more to them
than life itself. He was their Lord, who had taught them with divine authority. Moreover, they were convinced that He was the
promised Messiah who would establish the throne of David forever, so that all their hopes
of everlasting salvation centered in Him. Where
was He going? What would happen to all
God’s promises and all the hopes that they had placed in Him as the promised Messiah? Was this the end of their fellowship?
Jesus assures them: “Let not your
hearts be troubled. In My Father’s house
are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you in those heavenly mansions. It is even so very necessary for Me to go that I
may carry out My work as your Savior and your Lord. A
part of that work, one of My many duties as exalted Lord over heaven and earth, is to
bring you into glory with Me forever.”
“I
go to prepare a place for you.”
Jesus prepares a place for all those given to Him by the Father, all those whom He
redeems by His death on the cross, in whose heart He prepares a place for Himself, and
will someday take to Himself in glory to abide with Him forever.
A place, a mansion, or a dwelling is being prepared in Father’s house for each
of us. The battle-weary soldier, as well as
the worn-out pilgrim, enters heaven with tear-stained eyes and finds there a place that is
ready for him. It fits him perfectly, as a
place of eternal rest, prepared just for him with Christ in Father’s house.
Paul reminds us that when our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens
(II Cor. 5:1).
We now have a house made with hands, a weak, temporary abode. That does not refer merely to our earthly bodies,
but it rather includes all our earthy relationships, our life task, the place we occupy in
our family, in the church, and in the community. This
all falls away at death. Our place soon knows
us no more. Soon we are completely forgotten.
Scripture assures us that all that pertains to our earthly house is exchanged for a
house that is not made with hands, but is eternal in the heavens. At death we immediately enter into the place which
Christ has prepared for us. We will fit right
in. Heaven is ready and waiting to receive us
at the very moment of our arrival.
As stones are placed in their proper order in an earthly temple, so also we each
have our own assigned spot, marked out for us as jewels in the temple of our God that is
being built in haven. When that spot is
ready, Christ sends His angels to take us to Himself, to take our place at the wedding
feast of the Lamb. We join our heavenly
family in Father’s glorious house, never to part again.
God is using this present existence to prepare us for our full and eternal life
with Him in His heavenly home. In the final
judgment every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, whether good or
evil. Our eternal reward of grace is in
keeping with the degree of our faithfulness as stewards laboring with the talents that God
has entrusted to us. Christ as our Judge
appoints us to our place, which He has prepared for us.
A place. To take up once more the
figure that Jesus uses, we will have a mansion, a home, made to order for each of us. No one else can take that place, nor can it be
left vacant. We are placed in our new,
heavenly environment, relationships, and fellowship, which are all our very own, as
decreed for us in the sovereign love and wisdom of our God from all eternity! We will fit there perfectly, for it is prepared
exactly for us in divine wisdom. Here on
earth we may not always harmonize perfectly. We
may rub one another the wrong way, have different habits, goals, and ambitions, but there
all disharmony falls away, we live in perfect harmony and fellowship one with another and,
more particularly, with God and His Christ.
In heaven we will not be idle, but will be continually occupied with all our
faculties and talents, living to the glory of our God.
Do we possibly have hidden talents that were never developed in this life but
become useful in our future life? We can only
surmise. This we know, we shall live and
reign with Christ over all the works of God’s hands to the glory of the Father.
The Spirit of Christ will pervade all, creating perfect harmony and unity. Even as the members of our earthly bodies are
necessary to serve the other members, so also in that Body of Christ every member serves
for the well-being of all the others. There
can be no dissatisfaction or jealousy, for all will be filled to capacity with the Spirit
of Christ. All the saints will be joined
together in perfect harmony and unity to serve one another, but also to serve to the glory
of Father’s matchless name over the entire universe.
On this side of the grave we often become so involved in our daily activities, our
duties, our cares, our families and friends, our activities in the church, that we live as
if that is all that counts. Time and again we
must be forcefully reminded that we have here no abiding city, we are only passing through
on our way to eternity. God’s purpose
with us is not solely limited to this life, our place in the world, in the church, or in
our family, but far rather in preparing us for our place in Father’s house with its
many mansions. After all, what do these few
years of our earthly existence amount to in comparison to an eternity that knows no end?
Let me hasten to add that in the new creation every creature, including all the
millions of saints in their glorified bodies, will reflect and be devoted to the glory of
God. No one seeks his own interest, but each
one exists and lives to be devoted to our God. The
purpose of every creature, as well as the desire of every glorified saint, will be to live
incessantly engaged in praising and glorifying our Creator, our Savior and Lord, the ever
blessed and adorable God.
The ultimate goal and purpose of the entire creation and all history will be
realized. As the loud voice from heaven
proclaims: “Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God
himself shall be with them and be their God.”
God will be exalted in all His glorious majesty, world without end. God’s name will be hallowed, set apart, and
praised above every other name in the new creation. The
whole creation will burst forth in the powerful refrain:
“Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the
throne forever and ever!”
Jesus
said, “Let not your heart be troubled.”
When the heart is troubled, the soul is tossed about in doubt and anxious concern,
like a derelict upon a stormy sea. How true
that was of the disciples. Their Master had
just informed them of His impending death. Upon
Him they had built all their hope and expectation of complete and blessed salvation. Now they are informed that their Shepherd will be
slain and the sheep scattered. Their future
looked utterly hopeless.
But now Jesus appeals to their faith. Ye
believe in God, believe also in Me. What now
appears to be a hopeless end is actually a glorious beginning. I go to the Father in heaven. But that does not mean that My work as your Lord
is finished. I will continue that work by
preparing a place for you, that you may be with Me in My glory forever. When that place is ready, I will come to take you
to Myself, that ye may be where I am. What
could be more blessed than that?!
Now
we have a foretaste of the life that awaits us in the world to come. We have the assurance that we belong to our
faithful Savior Jesus Christ, in whom we are assured of all God’s blessings. We experience a peace with God and the hope of
being eternally with Him in His glory. When
doubts and fears arise, we have our refuge in prayer, for the Spirit of God prays for us
with groanings that cannot be uttered. In our
darkest moments and deepest sorrows we find our comfort in the assurance that our heavenly
Father knows and understands every need far better than we can tell Him.
And always we cherish the hope that when our place is ready, we also will be ready
to fill that place and thereby join the family of God in glory. There we will always be with Father in
Father’s house. There we will be joined
with the family of God, all our brothers and sisters of all the ages. And we will be one of them, with the saints of all
ages. Yes, then we will be home. Home at last.
Editorial:
Prof. David J. Engelsma
Remembering the Schism of
1953
Invaluable and Gripping CDs
One way in which every member of the Protestant Reformed Churches
can profitably remember the schism of 1953 is by listening to a newly available set of
CDs. The CDs consist of sermons and lectures
on the history and issues of the schism, delivered at the time of the schism. The preachers and lecturers are two of the chief
protagonists, the Rev. Herman Hoeksema and the Rev. Hubert DeWolf.
The sermons and lectures were of crucial importance to the struggle at the time. They were part of the history. They helped to make the history.
The recorded messages shed light on the schism, especially the doctrinal issue at
the heart of the schism. They also radiate,
across the span of fifty years, the white-hot heat of the controversy as it was raging.
This set of CDs is simply invaluable. The
content is often gripping.
Vintage Hoeksema
Rev. Herman Hoeksema is the main preacher and lecturer, as is to be expected. Although at the beginning of the controversy in
his own congregation he deliberately stayed in the background, when the storm broke, it
broke over his head. Then that indomitable
fighter for the gospel of sovereign grace fought his last battle. He fought with
zeal. He fought by means of his editorials in
the Standard Bearer. He fought by
means of informative and hortatory lectures. He
fought by means of sermons.
Two of Hoeksema’s sermons are included. Both
are significant in the history of the schism of 1953.
Both are vintage Hoeksema—expository, doctrinal, antithetical,
Christ-centered, God-glorifying, clear, powerful, moving.
The first is the sermon he preached on Sunday morning, June 28, 1953. This was the first Sunday after the schism in
First Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan had become reality.
The faction that caused the schism had seized the church building. For the second time in his ministry, as Hoeksema
noted in the introduction, he had been put out of his church building.
He chose as his text
John 6:67-69,
“Christ as the Sure Choice of Faith.” He had preached the same text in 1925, when the
Christian Reformed Church, having deposed him, stripped him and the congregation of the
church building.
The question Christ put to His disciples on the occasion of the abandonment of Him
by the multitudes, Hoeksema put to the remnant of his congregation: “Will ye also go away?” The issue during Christ’s ministry, Hoeksema
declared, was the same as that in the present controversy in the Protestant Reformed
Churches. The multitudes were offended at
Christ’s teaching of God’s sovereignty and man’s total inability. Hoeksema had reference to
John 6:44, 65:
“No man can come unto me, except it were
given unto him of my Father.”
The second sermon is on
Acts 16:30, 31,
“The Calling of the Philippian
Jailor.” Hoeksema preached this sermon
in July 1953 in Doon, Iowa. Earlier that
week, at an informational meeting that Hoeksema conducted in Hull, Iowa, someone in the
audience had appealed to this text in defense of one of the statements Classis East of the
Protestant Reformed Churches had condemned as heretical.
The statement was that God promises salvation to all on condition of faith. In his response to the appeal of his argumentative questioner to
Acts 16,
Hoeksema promised to preach the text the following Sunday.
The sermon explained that the promise, “You shall be saved,” is given to
the believer. It is particular. Noteworthy in the sermon is Hoeksema’s
insistence that the call to believe is effective unto one’s salvation only when
Christ Himself utters the call. Hoeksema
described the work of grace in the Philippian jailor as a divine earthquake in his soul.
A Doctrinal Issue
Several CDs contain three, separate, public presentations by Hoeksema of the
doctrinal issue, as well as of some of the history, of the schism of 1953. Hoeksema gave these speeches at the height of the
controversy.
The first of these presentations was a public lecture in Hull, Iowa in July 1953. The split of First Church, Grand Rapids had just
occurred, in late June. Hoeksema insisted
that the controversy was doctrinal. He
demonstrated that the two statements that caused the schism were, in fact, heretical, as
the consistory of First Church and Classis East had judged.
These were the statement that God promises salvation to all on the condition of
faith and the statement that our act of conversion is a prerequisite to entering the
kingdom of God.
In the course of this lecture, Hoeksema said there had been harbingers in First
Church of disaffection with the Protestant Reformed Churches for some time prior to the
schism. He referred to an eagerness of some
societies to have outside speakers, rather than Protestant Reformed men, and to the
hostility of many to Protestant Reformed Christian schools.
This lecture was followed by a hard-hitting question and answer session. The audience was hostile. It must have been evident to Hoeksema that night
that much of the West would be lost to the Protestant Reformed Churches. There were many questions. The questions were pointed. Some were loaded.
Hoeksema responded calmly, even graciously, but firmly. At one point, when a question plainly expressed
its author’s sympathy with the conditional theology condemned by the Protestant
Reformed Churches, Hoeksema urged those who did not want Protestant Reformed doctrine to
leave the churches. “We are not
interested to be big. The church is not
measured by the pound. It is not a fish
hatchery. I am not here to gain converts and
followers. I am convinced that many followed
me out of the Christian Reformed Church in 1924 who never should have done so. We want to maintain the gospel of sovereign grace. We want to maintain the truth. If this is your desire, you belong with us. If not, you ought to leave.”
A number of the questions concerned the history of the events leading to the schism
in First Church. Other questions had to do
with the church polity that resulted in the suspension of Hubert De Wolf and the
deposition of some elders. Hoeksema’s
account of the history and explanation of the church polity are of interest and importance
to the contemporary student of the schism.
Standing on the Truth
The next two presentations included on the CDs were given in Fourth Protestant
Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan in April 1954 and in Doon, Iowa sometime in 1954. Although they were not exactly the same lecture,
they were similar. Both were on “Our
Present Controversy in the Light of the History of the Church.”
Hoeksema traced the confession of the doctrine of predestination in the history of
the church from Augustine to the present time. Contending
that sovereign predestination is not only a fundamental truth but also fundamental to all
truth, he pointed out that churches do not long maintain the truth of predestination. Enemies of sovereign grace within the church
always oppose predestination. Their
arguments are always the same. They have the same few texts, for example,
Ezekiel 33:11,
Matthew 23:37,
and
I Timothy 2:4.
Their philosophical arguments are also always the
same, whether Pelagius opposing Augustine, or the Remonstrants contending with the fathers
at Dordt, or the Christian Reformed Church attacking the Protestant Reformed Churches: those who preach predestination are fatalists,
deny man’s responsibility, and make man a stock and a block.
In a penetrating observation, Hoeksema noted that another way ministers who are
foes of predestination work at destroying the church’s confession of the doctrine is
by remaining silent about it. They never
mention it. This, said Hoeksema, may be the
worst opposition of all.
Standing as they do on the doctrine of sovereign predestination according to
Scripture and the confessions, the Protestant Reformed Churches reveal themselves to all
as true churches of Jesus Christ and as the faithful continuation of the Reformed church
in history. No one, said Hoeksema, can deny
it, and no one dares to deny it. Remembering
at this point the common grace synod of Kalamazoo in 1924, Hoeksema remarked, “They
never called us heretics. They never did. In fact, they said that it could not be denied
that we were Reformed according to the confessions. It
is true they went on to say that we had a tendency toward one-sidedness.” Pausing, Hoeksema then growled, “but this was
in the right direction.” He meant, of course, that his alleged one-sidedness was in
the direction of God and His glory.
The “Other Side”
Included on the CDs are two sermons and a lengthy presentation of the schism by
Rev. Hubert De Wolf. De Wolf was
Hoeksema’s younger colleague in First Church. It
was De Wolf’s heretical teaching and refusal to submit to the authority both of his
consistory and of Classis East that caused the schism in the Protestant Reformed Churches.
The first sermon of De Wolf is on
Romans 1:16,
“The Gospel: The Power of God unto Salvation.” He preached it on Sunday, June 21, 1953. This was the Sunday before the split of the First
Protestant Reformed Church. It was the last
Sunday of the union of the denomination.
The importance of this sermon is that in it De Wolf claimed to comply with the
instruction of both his consistory and Classis East that he apologize for two heretical
statements. Now the world can hear that De
Wolf did not apologize. Rather, toward the
end of the sermon, he assured the congregation (one can imagine the silence and tension of
the congregation of some fifteen hundred members as he launched his purported apology)
that if he was not clear in those statements or if there were those who misunderstood the
statements he was sorry.
The second sermon, on
Psalm 37:5,
De Wolf preached in March 1956 on the occasion of
the civil court’s awarding the property of First Church to the congregation whose
pastors were Rev. Herman Hoeksema and Rev. Cornelius Hanko.
De Wolf gave his full analysis of the schism at a public meeting in Hull, Iowa in
August 1953. This meeting followed hard on
the heels of Hoeksema’s similar meeting in Hull in July 1953. De Wolf intended to counter Hoeksema’s
presentation of the schism. This meeting too
concluded with a question and answer session. A
member of the Protestant Reformed Churches “planted” a list of questions
intended to put De Wolf on the spot. Although
he knew this, De Wolf dutifully answered all the questions.
The CDs containing this address and question and answer session give the
“other side” of the controversy from the mouth of a leading spokesman.
De Wolf was an able preacher and speaker. What
strikes the listener in De Wolf’s presentation of the schism is his denial that the
issue was doctrinal. In addition, De Wolf
made personal attacks on Hoeksema. In none of
his speeches, on the other hand, does Hoeksema ever make any personal attack on De Wolf or
on any other of his pupils now turned adversaries. He
stuck doggedly to the doctrinal and church political issues.
What strikes the Protestant Reformed listener in De Wolf’s speeches, in the
light of subsequent history, is De Wolf’s insistence that his faction is the
legitimate continuation of the Protestant Reformed Churches. Within fewer than ten years, that faction went
back into the Christian Reformed Church. Within
a few months of De Wolf’s speech in Hull in August 1953, ministers allied with him
were engaging in secret meetings with leading Christian Reformed ministers, discussing the
three points of common grace. Already in
those meetings very early in 1954, the faction represented by Hubert De Wolf was
negotiating, be it unofficially, their return to the Christian Reformed Church.
Hoeksema’s judgment in his speeches on the schism that the conditional
theology of those who had recently left the Protestant Reformed Churches was essentially
the same as the theology of the well-meant offer of the Christian Reformed Church was
proved right. And it was proved right in a
very short time.
“Al, Come in! Al, Come In!”
In his speeches on the schism, Hoeksema drops some delightful, revealing anecdotes
from his own experience. I mention two. In his first charge as a Christian Reformed
minister, Fourteenth Street, Holland, Michigan, Hoeksema encountered strong opposition to
his preaching of sovereign grace. Family
visitation the first year of his pastorate was misery for the young pastor as family after
family expressed their dislike for his preaching. One
evening, Hoeksema tells us on one of the CDs, he came to the home of a man whom he knew to
be strongly opposed to his preaching. “I
knew what his answer would be,” Hoeksema says, “but I had to ask him. ‘Al, do you like my preaching? Are you edified by it?’ ‘No,’ said Al, ‘I don’t like
your preaching at all.’ ‘You
don’t like my preaching?’ ‘Why
not?’ Al replied, ‘I like the good,
old invitation.’ ‘You like the
good, old invitation?’ responded Hoeksema. ‘Al,
suppose that next Sunday evening after church I had you over to visit. After you sat down in my living room and I gave
you a cup of coffee and a cigar, I would say to you, “Al, come in! Al, come in!
Al, come in!” What would you
think?’ ‘I would think you were
crazy,’ said Al. ‘I would think so
too,’ said Hoeksema. ‘But this is
what you want me to do when you insist that I give the good, old invitation. You are in the kingdom, by your own confession,
and you want me to keep saying to you, “Al, come in.”’”
Later in Eastern Avenue, Hoeksema ran into the same opposition. One of the members of the congregation, a
minister, had an unbelieving son. The member
asked Hoeksema to visit the son and exhort him to pray.
“Tell him to pray?” responded Hoeksema.
“If he is an unbeliever, he cannot pray.
If he can pray, he is a Christian.” “Oh,”
exclaimed the member, “You are different from Dr. Beets [a prominent minister in the
Christian Reformed Church in the 1920s]. Dr.
Beets visited my son last week and told him that if my son would pray every day for a week
he would give him a box of Dutch Master cigars.”
Now Available to All
All of this and much more can be heard on this extraordinary set of CDs. Every Protestant Reformed officebearer ought to
listen to them. I intend to find a way to
require all the seminarians to hear them, although they will need little prompting. All members of the Protestant Reformed Churches
can learn a vitally important part of our history from them.
There will be those outside the Protestant Reformed Churches who will want to
listen to the CDs. From the sermons and
speeches on these CDs, they will be able to know the real Herman Hoeksema. He was radically different from the caricature
painted by his enemies. Even though he was
past his prime—in 1953 he was sixty-seven years old, and had suffered a severe
stroke—he was still a great and gifted preacher of the Word and a powerful orator. He was also committed, heart and soul, indeed was
very really a slave, to the God of sovereign grace. He
was the worthy successor in modern times of Augustine, Gottschalk, Calvin, the Synod of
Dordt, De Cock, and the early Kuyper as defenders of the sovereignty of God in
predestination. The controversy that
culminated in the schism of 1953 roused the old lion once more. He roared. And
we can hear the echo of that roar on these CDs.
More importantly, anyone outside the Protestant Reformed Churches who cares to know
what these Churches really stand for, and what they are about, could do worse than listen
to these CDs.
There are fourteen CDs in the set. The
cost, which merely covers expenses, is $70 for the set.
The CDs are available from Heritage Recordings, c/o Earl Kamps, 17231 Kimbark Ave.,
South Holland, IL 60473. Telephone: (708)
596-8629. E-mail: ewkamps@att.net
To Mr. Kamps and Heritage Recordings, a hearty thanks for an invaluable, often
gripping account of the history of the Protestant Reformed Churches as it was being made,
by those who, in the providence of God, were making it.
Rev. Gise VanBaren
Rev.
VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.
The War
Against
Clearly, the devil and his allies, the unbelieving world,
are mounting a powerful assault against God’s law (almost successful, it would seem). Now follows the “mopping up” operations. The biggest battle focuses upon the family. If families can be destroyed, ultimately the
church itself must be affected.
Families are not simply wiped out—the foundation for proper family life is
being dismantled piece by piece.
Only about one or two generations ago, the attack began in earnest. Less than 60 years ago, the only ground upon which
divorce would be granted was proven adultery of one of the marriage partners. Though adultery might be suspected, it was
difficult to prove this in a court that would decide on the issue of divorce. Needless to say, divorce seemed beyond the reach
of most disturbed couples. There were
obviously many problems in multitudes of marriages years ago. Many would simply separate without the benefit of
divorce. Remarriage, however, in such cases
would be impossible — for one could be charged with the crime of bigamy. Within the churches divorce was a major scandal,
for it was a rare occurrence. Though the
churches allowed for the remarriage of the “innocent” party, that too seldom
occurred because of the rarity of divorce itself.
But things rapidly changed. Many
argued that it was far better that arguing, bickering parties divorce for their sakes and
for the sake of their children — than to remain together with the consequent sad
effects on the marriage partners and their children.
So the laws preventing divorce were relaxed until the common “no fault”
divorce was made legal.
The next major and apparently successful attack on the family involved the question
of headship. Though Scripture is plain that
the husband is the head of the household and exercises then also the authority, and though
Scripture emphasizes that as Christ is Head of the church so the husband is head of his
wife, that instruction was considered out-of-date. Increasingly,
women entered the work force. Headship of
the male was discarded in favor of a kind of “partnership.” Though any animal with two heads cannot function,
the family was presented as a two-headed entity. Now
women must be able to occupy any or all positions of headship: in government, in the
churches, as also within the home. The
resultant effect upon family life is obvious to all who would see.
The attack against the family is far from over.
Television and the movie present adultery and fornication as perfectly acceptable. Columnists who write in answer to questions
present these adulterous relationships as simply normal and acceptable. “Single parent homes” are mentioned so
frequently that one almost comes to believe that this is acceptable and normal. (“Single parents” can be a result of the
death of one of the partners—but that is an entirely different matter.) Many become “single parents” as a
result of fornication. Others become so
through artificial insemination. Husbands
are, for many, an undesirable appendage to their “family.”
The “family” increasingly is broadened to include the union of
homosexuals. What was considered a violation
of the law of the land is now said to be acceptable.
It is an “alternate life-style” that we are required to acknowledge and
accept. To oppose these relationships is to
place oneself in the category of those practicing “hate crimes.”
Abetting all of these changes has been the largely successful effort to remove any
references to the law of God, specifically the Ten Commandments, from society. It is not legal to place the Commandments on the
walls of public schools. The effort is made
even to remove all references to God in public society (as in the pledge of allegiance). Without the unchangeable and perfect standard of
God’s law, man has decided to take the law into his own hands, so as to determine
what is “normal.”
Cal Thomas, that usually astute columnist, writes of this in the Grand Rapids
Press, March 30, 2003:
While the war overseas continues, so does another war at home.
The latest battle in the culture war was fought last week on Supreme Court turf. At issue is a Texas “homosexual conduct
law” that forbids sodomy.
Before the Supreme Court rules that the Founders had the right to practice sodomy
in mind when they wrote the Constitution, we should ask where the chipping away at law and
morality is leading us.
Thomas argues persuasively that if “sodomy” is made legal, there would be
no more legal right to declare polygamy to be wrong.
Soon one could “marry” multiple partners.
Next would fall the laws against pedophilia. It
would no longer be regarded as “deviant” behavior (as some already argue), but
would be acceptable between consenting persons.
Thomas concludes:
Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming wrote a column for the Wall
Street Journal last Wednesday in which he argued in favor of the “gay
rights” position opposing the Texas law. Simpson
said “the proper Republican vision of equality” is “live and let
live.” Simpson thinks that laws against
homosexual practice “are contrary to American values protecting personal
liberty….”
What Simpson argues for is not liberty but license.
There is a profound difference between traditional understanding and definition of
liberty and that of license. Liberty is
presumed to depend on personal responsibility. I
like one of the Webster definitions of liberty: “permission to go freely within
specified limits.” In contrast,
“license” can mean “disregard for rules of personal conduct:
licentiousness.”
Several conservative groups filed amicus briefs supporting the law. The one by the Family Research Council sums up the
major arguments in favor:
“(1) The law has historically respected and protected the marital union and
has distinguished it from acts outside that union, such as fornication, adultery and
sodomy. To extend to homosexual sodomy the
same protections given to the marital union would undermine the definition of marriage and
could lead to homosexual marriage; (2) In order to recognize a non-textual constitutional
right to sodomy, the court must find sodomy to be deeply rooted in the nation’s
history and tradition. In fact, laws banning
sodomy are deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition; (3) Protecting
marriage, upholding morality and seeking to ensure public health is more than enough for
Texas to prove it has a ‘rational basis’ behind its law….”
The law is supposed to set parameters for a society. In the past, the law has been viewed as something
that flowed from a Law-giver, outside of the reach of humankind to create or manipulate. But since humanity now sees itself as the
law-maker (the breaking of that ancient Law is now celebrated in personal behavior and
encouraged in film, in magazines and on TV), who is to say whose morality, if any
morality, should prevail?
Having made “choice” the ultimate determiner for abortion, it would not
surprise me if the Supreme court cites the so-called “right to privacy” in this
case and replays its mistake in Roe vs. Wade, which struck down another Texas law.
Adoption laws in some states now give children to same-sex couples. If the Texas sodomy law falls,
“marriage” will be redefined and the demise of the human family will be
complete.
Thomas is correct. Sadly, what has
increasingly been accepted in our secular (though nominally Christian) society, has become
the norm within many churches as well. Divorce
and remarriage is said to be as prevalent in the churches as in society in general. The matter of headship has been altered in the
churches to conform to the practice of society at large.
Many churches have come to accept homosexuality as legitimate. There is but little of the antithesis existing
anymore between church and world. And if
families in the “churches” are destroyed, what happens to the truth of the
covenant that continues in the line of our generations?
We hear much in our day of the
“signs of the times.” To the child
of God these signs are such that they remind of the nearness of the coming day of the
Lord. We believe the word of Christ that the
“day and the hour knoweth no man.” At
the same time Christ gives clearly the signs that point to the end of the age.
One recalls the word of Christ in
Matthew 24:7-8:
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
The “pestilences” have become increasingly evident. For some time now we have heard of the terrible
consequences of the AIDS epidemic. Many
countries in Africa and Asia are devastated by it. We
hear of the possibility of resurgence of this disease in our own land.
Now a new disease has appeared on the horizon.
It is causing doubt and dread in many parts of the land. The disease has been called SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome). The cause of the
disease is uncertain. It spreads, evidently,
easily. There are many fatalities among those
who contract it. There is presently no cure. Some have compared it to the flu epidemic after
the First World War when at least 20 million people died because of this disease. The Grand Rapids Press has this
report from Hong Kong:
Fear gripped Hong Kong as the number of people suffering from a deadly flu-like
disease increased sharply Saturday. Thousands
of people donned surgical masks but many more refused to venture out and activity in the
usually bustling city ground to a halt.
Also, the first doctor to realize the world was dealing with an unfamiliar disease
died of the illness in Thailand on Saturday. Italian
Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, a World Health Organization expert on communicable diseases, became
infected while working in Vietnam, where he diagnosed an American businessman hospitalized
in Hanoi, the U.N. agency said. The
businessman later died.
Since then severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has claimed more than 50
lives around the world and sickened almost 1,500 people, mostly in Asia. There were 59 cases of SARS in the United States
and at least 35 in Canada, where three people have died.
Is this (and AIDS) part of the pestilences which shortly precede Christ’s
return?
We constantly hear of the war with Iraq. But
is this only a war with Iraq? Many have
pointed out that the “radical” Muslim advocates a “jihad” or holy war
against the United States and allied nations. But
is it only the “radical” Muslim? It
appears as though the nations of Islam increasingly are arraying themselves against the
“Christian” nations. Many appear
ready to follow the teachings of the Koran against the “infidel.” This could well be the prelude to, or the
beginning of, the final battle with “Gog and Magog” as recorded in
Revelation 20:7-8:
“And when the thousand years are
expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations
which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to
battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea….”
We live indeed in interesting times. One
wonders if some of us, possibly most of us, will be living when Christ returns. In the meanwhile we labor faithfully in every area
of work while we do pray, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus, quickly.”
Feature Article:
Rev. Angus Stewart
Rev. Stewart is a
Protestant Reformed minister, presently working in Northern Ireland.
The Real Saint Patrick (3)
Patrick’s Message (Part 1)
But what was the message that Patrick preached
to the Irish? Patrick leaves us in no doubt
here, giving us a simple Rule of Faith near the beginning of his Confession:
There is no other God nor was there ever
in the past nor will there be in the future except God the Father ingenerate, without
beginning, from whom all beginning flows, who controls all things, as our formula runs:
and his Son Jesus Christ whom we profess to have always existed with the Father, begotten
spiritually before the origin of the world in an inexpressible way by the Father before
all beginning, and through him were made things both visible and invisible; he was made
man; when death had been overcome he was received into Heaven by the Father, and he gave
to him all power above every name of things heavenly and earthly and subterranean and that
every tongue should confess to him that Jesus Christ is Lord and God; and we believe in
him and await his Advent which will happen soon, as judge of the living and the dead, and
he will deal with everybody according to their deeds and he poured out upon us richly the
Holy Spirit the gift and pledge of immortality, who makes those who believe and obey to be
sons of God and coheirs with Christ and we confess and adore him, one God in the Trinity
of sacred name (Conf 4).
Several things must be emphasized from this confession. First, Patrick was not a Unitarian; he was a
full-blooded Trinitarian. His creed is
structured according to the three persons of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Later he refers to the above creed as
“the rule of faith of the Trinity” (Conf 14). Near the end of his Confession, Patrick
writes, “We believe in and adore … Christ who reigns with God the Father
Almighty and with the Holy Spirit before ages and now and for all ages of ages. Amen” (Conf 60; cf. Conf 40;
Letter 21). It is this great God “who controls all things” (Conf 4),
as Patrick was to learn time and time again (e.g., Conf 17, 37).
Second, and in keeping with this, Patrick was not an Arian. The great confession of every tongue on the great
Judgment Day is “Jesus Christ is Lord and God” (Conf 4). Notably,
however, the creed shows no awareness of the controversy concerning the person and natures
of Christ. It betrays no knowledge of the Creed
of Chalcedon (451).
The Christocentric character of the Rule of Faith is reflected in Patrick’s
writing. Patrick sees Christ as the true sun
(Conf 20, 59-60). He speaks of his
whole life as nothing other than a “sacrifice … to Christ my Lord” (Conf
34), for Christ was the One who gave His life for him (Conf 24). Nowhere does Patrick mention the Virgin Mary. Patrick preached a message of “Christ
alone,” not “Christ and Mary.”
Third, Patrick was a confessional Christian. Hanson
observes that the Latin style of the creed in Confession 4 is “markedly
different from the rest of the Confession.”[1] It was not his own production. Given that Patrick was a British Christian, and
that his Confession was written for a British audience, and that he introduces his
creed with the phrase “as our formula runs,” it is highly likely that we
have in Confession 4 the Rule of Faith of the British Church in the fifth century. Patrick was not some theological lone-ranger. As a member of the British branch of the universal
church of Christ, he confessed his faith in the creed of his church. Like the Belgic Confession, the Rule of
Faith is intensely personal: “we
profess,” “we believe … and await,” and “we confess and
adore” (Conf 4).
The arch-heretic Pelagius (c.360—c.420), like Patrick, was probably born in
Britain. Moreover, they both lived around the
same time, with Pelagius being the earlier figure. This
has drawn forth comparisons. M. Forthomme
Nicholson, in a contribution to a recent work on Celtic Christianity, has written that
“Pelagius and Patrick share a similar concept of grace."[2] This is a very serious charge against Patrick.
Nicholson produces, for her assertion, only two pieces of evidence that even merit
consideration. First, she states,
“Neither [Pelagius nor Patrick] believes in a confrontation between God’s grace
and human freedom.” This is strange
language and indicates that she does not properly understand the doctrines of grace. Augustine and all advocates of sovereign grace
deny that grace “confronts” human freedom, as if grace reduced man’s
freedom of choice to some shadowy power of acquiescence or made him a mere automaton. The Canons of Dordt declare that the Lord
Nicholson’s second argument is that, “There does not seem to be any clear
concept of created grace in [Patrick’s] Confession. All is gift, but there is no special gift that can
be called ‘grace’ in the Augustinian sense.” But ought we to expect Patrick to use words in
their “Augustinian sense”? Especially
is this not to be expected if Patrick, as appears most likely, never read Augustine. And if Patrick does not use words in an
“Augustinian sense,” does this mean that his view of grace is Pelagian?
Nicholson does not bother to quote even so much as one line from the Confession
or from the Letter to the effect that Patrick was weak in his understanding of the
grace of God. Nowhere in either of his
writings does Patrick praise man’s native powers or ascribe any goodness to man. Nowhere does he glory in man’s free will or
present salvation as the result of our not resisting God’s grace. Nowhere does he speak of the possibility of
sinless perfection or of the Fall of Adam as a bad example.
Admittedly, he does speak highly of monasticism (e.g., Conf 42ff.), but this
does not make him Pelagian either. Practically
all the church leaders of Patrick’s day advocated the monastic life in one form or
another, including Augustine, the champion of sovereign grace.
Patrick’s Confession is a declaration of the mercy and faithfulness of
God to him in Jesus Christ. Always and
throughout his writings Patrick speaks of himself as only a lowly sinner who was pitied of
the Lord. We see his humility in the immortal
first line of his Confession: “I
am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the
eyes of many” (Conf 1). He speaks
of the sins of his youth and he presents them as being committed against God. He knew that “We shall all certainly render
an account even for the smallest sins before the judgment seat of the Lord
Christ” (Conf 8). In his
waywardness, he had deserted the God of his fathers and disobeyed His commandments and
neglected the church’s message of salvation, but the Lord was gracious to him (Conf
1).
And it was [in Ireland] that the Lord
opened the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins even
though it was late and I should turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, and he took
notice of my humble state and pitied my youth and my ignorance and protected me before I
knew him and before I had sense or could distinguish between good and bad and strengthened
me and comforted me as a father comforts his son (Conf 2).
Note that in Patrick’s salvation the Lord is active. The Lord “opened” Patrick’s heart. The Lord “noticed,” “pitied,”
“protected,” “strengthened,” and “comforted” Patrick. It is true that Patrick tells us that he
“recalled” his sins and “turned” with all his heart to the Lord, but
this was the result of the Lord’s work upon his heart. “The Lord opened the understanding of my
unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins … [and] turn with all my heart to the Lord my God,” he writes (cf.
Acts 16:14).
“So that is why I cannot keep silent,” he begins his next sentence. He thanks the Lord for His “great acts of
kindness” and His “great grace” and speaks of his desire to “praise
and confess his wonderful works among every nation that is under the sky” (Conf
3). Many years later Patrick still marvels at
the grace of the God who saved him:
Consequently I
am strictly bound to cry out so as to make some repayment to the Lord for those benefits
of his which were so great here and in eternity which the mind of man cannot calculate (Conf
12).
Such fulsome
praise issues only from a heart that knows the great mercy of the Lord.
Perhaps the clearest — and the most earthy — presentation of the sovereignty of God in Patrick’s salvation is found in his simile of the stone in deep mud.[3]
Before I was humiliated I was like a stone
that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in his compassion raised me up and
exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall (Conf 12).
It is hard to conceive of imagery which more sharply conceives of the passivity of
the sinner and the glorious saving power of the Almighty.
It is also significant that this language came from Patrick’s heart and
experience. Elsewhere, his writing indicates
his great dependence on scriptural language, but here he tells us what his salvation was
to him in his own words. “I was like a
stone in deep mud,” he tells us, “but the mighty God reached down and lifted me
up.”
2. M. Forthomme Nicholson, “Celtic Theology: Pelagius,” in James P. Mackey (ed.), An Introduction to Celtic Christianity (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1989), p. 404.
3. Mud, of course, requires rain. Apparently the Irish climate has not changed much over the last 1,500 years.
4. Christine Mohrmann, The Latin of Saint Patrick (Dublin: Dublin University Press, 1961), p. 25.
Grace Life:
Rev. Mitchell Dick
Rev. Dick is pastor of
Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.
Dating and the Deep Blue Sea …and the Way of Christ (8)
The man and maid who have been led to
one another covenantally, in the context of family and church, and hitherto trusting the
guiding hand of God, can know for sure very simply if they are meant to be married. This is the ninth thesis of covenant marrying (cf.
the April 1, 2003 issue of the Standard Bearer).
These two can have such certainty because their way toward marriage together has
been principled. The couple has been graced
to follow God’s way of covenant marrying as revealed in Holy Writ. They have kept themselves, and their parents have
kept them, from the wiles, the passions, and the pitfalls of the Dating Thing. Their wonderful way together has been the way of
Christ and His beloved church.
One thing remains to be done. There
needs to be confirmation of faith. The
couple at this point are confident. They do
not doubt the good thing God has done in their lives to lead them together thus far. They would only now confirm their faith that God
would have them married.
Basic to this “confirmation process” is the couple’s reflection
together on how God has led them thus far according to the truth of His covenant. Abraham’s servant was given divine leading,
and then a sign that Rebekah was the one for Isaac. He
then, before Laban and Rebekah, related this leading of God, and they all were confirmed, in the telling of it, in God’s will for Isaac and Rebekah (
Gen. 24).
Joseph, betrothed to Mary, was told not to put
away Mary, but confirmed by the angel of the Lord in his original intention to marry her.
We need neither signs nor angels. We
have the Word of God. That Word directs the
way of the covenant man and maid. According
to the faith which comes by hearing that Word, the way proceeds, and men and maids
proceed, along that way. And the godly couple
then will remember that Word, and that Way, and be directed in their conversation and
activity with Truth and the faithfulness of God in mind and heart.
This cannot, seems to me, be stressed enough.
The godly couple will be confirmed in their faith that God has led them together by
continually reflecting, now together, upon God’s covenant and promises, and
upon how God’s hand has led them hitherto. They
will be focusing still and ever on God! They
will in prayer and conversation express their thanks to God. They will show their commitment to yield to
God’s will. They will be, be-lievingly, not
looking around anymore, but humbly receiving this one, as from the hand of God. Their time together will be this simple and
joyful verifying of what they have been led, clearly, to believe all along in the
covenant, familial preparation for marrying. They
believe that their heavenly Father is blessing their way, His way.
This believing couple continues to talk of other and many things in that light of
the Word of their covenanting and covenant God. They
talk to each other of God, and Christ, and salvation, and their views of marriage —
views known already as believers who know each other in Christ, but now heard from the
horses’ mouths, as it were, and in the pursuit, together, of marriage with
each other. They also talk of hunting, the
weather, Iraq, terrorism, work, card playing, Sabbath keeping, money, children, the
woman’s place, and the man’s responsibilities.
Yes, they talk, and talk, and listen and listen, confirming with their mouths and
by their hearing the will of their Father. Their
talk, a prayer. Their time, a song. Their communion, the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. Their way, the way of God’s man with maid. Who can know it?
They can!
They can also go bowling, of course. And
this, in order to be assured of what they have believed all along, and now that they
are thinking of a life of bowling together!, that
indeed this man’s theology reaches down to his bowling shoes (and his attitudes
towards his or her scores!). Bowling,
O.K. And they should do other things
too….
But all of this—this talking, these activities, should be in a family
and/or church setting, and with parental supervision. It
will not be alone. Nor will it be in a group
that just has to be without parents at the convention when the lights are out and
curfew is on, or at the campfire when the moon is out, and the love songs are on. A godly couple will not balk at this, the
parenting of their way, but they will be glad for this.
Little will be, and little needs be, the time alone, or at least altogether alone. Certainly unnecessary are nights out till the wee
hours of the morning, spring breaks together with a bunch of friends sans mom and dad,
and having to see her, all by herself (or even with her parents, for that matter!), in her
summer loin cloth (aka bikini). Covenant is
family. Covenant goes from family to family. It recognizes no independent, isolated duo which
craves for time alone and needs it to figure out God’s will. The great secrets of daters and Dating separate
friends (e.g., especially children and their parents); the secret of the Lord is
with them that fear Him — to them, together as family!, He will show His covenant
(Ps. 25:14).
In all things, also in our marrying, we must focus
on Jehovah’s friendship-secrets. And
these, who would want to hide?
To be sure, the man and woman are not marrying a family, but only into one. And, therefore, “space” and
“time” ought to be granted for the two to talk in relative privacy. But highly dubious is what more a single
man with maid who are altogether and repeatedly alone can and will find out about
one another with a view to marriage than if they are supervised and even chaperoned
by parents. Highly tempting is it, as well,
when on your own and going nowhere fast, to dream up a silly and even dangerous
conversation, or to want to know more about a person than one needs, or can know,
before one is married to that person. Besides,
a couple’s trying to “get to know” one another independent of parental
supervision is a great, no a GREAT threat to emotional and physical chastity.
Which leads me to this: biblical marrying knows of no “romantic” touching
of a single godly man with a maid. This is
the reading of I Cor-inthians 7:1, or I am blind. “Pecking”
(and then some, always then some!) goodnight at the door, playing around in the car or in
the basement or behind the barn (and parents letting them), is not good. It is not just a bad idea; it is not good. It is sin. It
is sin for what it is. It is sin for what it
leads to. It is sin because such touching is
meant for the sanctified love-relationship of marriage.
Romantic touching (let us define it this way: all kissing of a man and a woman
other than the “holy kiss” of believers, which kiss is not just for one “special” person, but for all in the body of Christ
(2 Cor. 13:12);
all touching
which is more sensually suggestive and stimulating than the extension of the right hand of
fellowship, or the embrace of those who are grieving or rejoicing in the Lord
together…) is the prelude to Solomon’s Song.
That Song, you recall, is for two lovers who belong to each other (6:3a), and who
not only kiss, but who feed between the lilies (6:3b).
It is the Song, as well, which invariably and inexorably moves along from adagio
to allegro (8:14). May married
folk sing that Song, and often! May those who
are not, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and no other.
Romantic touching is not meant for the pleasure of two who have no intentions of
marrying. Nor is it meant to further the
commitment of two who are on the way to marriage, or even engaged to be married. Such touching, in fact, is always the way
of miserable emotional confusion, carnal lust, and unholy defilement and conception (cf.
Heb. 13:4;
James 1:13-15).
Only “not touching,” and therefore not
drawing lines as to how far one will go! is
what God says is “good” — for God’s glory, for a person’s purity,
and for the honor of marriage. To
fornicate, step by step, down down down we go, a man will peck and pet and pervert his
maid, and the maid will let him. To avoid fornication let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband
(I Cor. 7:2)!
To flee fornication
(I Cor. 6:18)
and youthful lusts
(2 Tim. 2:22),
and to abstain from all appearance of evil
(I Thess. 5:22),
and for positively godly confirmation of God’s will, couples must keep
their hands at their sides, their feet on the floor, minds on the Word, parents close by.
Finally this: believing marrying does not drag its feet— either prior to engagement or afterwards. In the biblical way of a man with a maid, so much of the ascertaining of God’s will for a mate is done before there is the coupling of a man with a maid. And then, when the godly covenanting couple is seeking to confirm God’s will, the conversations, the activities, the time together in family and church settings — is all full of faith and singular of purpose! In this way the will of God is surely known, and in good time! In the time of l