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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 11:36:16 GMT -5
rfpa.org/collections/standard-bearer
In previous articles we considered two significant differences between Reformed and Arminian missions, namely, the differences regarding the objects of mission work and regarding the goals of mission work. We now consider a third, namely, differences in missionary methods.
Arminians are generally results-oriented in missions. They are interested in numbers. Their purpose is to persuade as many individuals as possible to accept Christ. They view it as their duty to stop sinners in their tracks, turn them around, and thus keep them from ending up in hell. I have often spoken with such missionaries, and it does not take long for their focus on numbers to come to the fore. They very quickly speak of how many individuals have been converted, how many churches have been planted, and so on.
This goal directly affects their methods. Basically, they will do whatever it takes to get people to accept Christ. For that reason, moral persuasion occupies a prominent place in their methods. The unbeliever must be persuaded to give his life to Christ. And because they view conversion as man’s work, man is able to persuade and man is able to be persuaded.
In order to persuade someone to choose Christ, Arminians use human methods rather than God-ordained, biblical methods. Anything goes: eloquent and passionate speeches, the testimonies of worldly celebrities, emotionally stirring songs, powerful music, artistic shows, dramatic performances, and whatever else will move a person. If these are successful in drawing crowds and in convincing men and women to choose Christ, the methods are perfectly legitimate. But if these methods do not work well, then it is time to look for and try a different one. The basis for determining and judging the validity of any missionary method is simply its effectiveness. The end justifies the means.
The missiologist, John M. L. Young, rejects this idea when he states:
But we must remember that the door to the kingdom of God is not opened by the power and persuasion of human reasoning alone, nor by any other human effort. … [M]en are not argued into the kingdom of God; they are born into it.1
A driving force behind this Arminian approach is their idea that the missionary (and also the individual believer in witnessing) is responsible for the salvation of those to whom he speaks. But this puts missionaries (and believers) under duress. They must be the ones to persuade people to believe in Christ so they are saved. And if the person to whom one speaks does not believe and is not saved, it is the fault of the missionary. He is now guilty before God if that person goes to hell.
One of the terrible consequences of this Arminian approach is that the missionary and the church members live with the guilt of failing to save certain people. This is something I have personally witnessed in those who have come from an Arminian background—until, of course, the Reformed truth delivers them from that bondage. But until they are delivered from this lie, they carry and live with an unbearable burden.
Another serious consequence is the effect that this approach has on worship. Because the focus is to draw crowds and to stir people emotionally to heed the altar call, anything at all is acceptable in worship. Any semblance of true worship is hard to find, and true preaching of the Word is usually nonexistent.
But what about Reformed missionary methods?
In contrast to the above, the Reformed method is simply this: preach the gospel. The Scriptures call us to do so. In obedience to that, we faithfully declare the Word of God on the mission field and in all our evangelism labors.
Cornelius Hanko summarizes it in these words:
Never can it be emphasized too strongly that mission work is preaching of the Word. Never may it be replaced by anything else. So often, emphasis is laid upon hospitals and clinics and schools rather than on the preaching. And that is definitely wrong. True enough, the needy must be helped, the sick must be cared for, and the children must be taught. But this is all secondary and must supplement the preaching rather than replace it.2
Reformed churches and missionaries are not (should not be) interested in numbers, nor in methods that will supposedly produce great results. We are simply interested in obedience to the command of Christ. He requires that missions be the preaching of His Word to all the nations of the earth. We therefore preach Christ and Him crucified. We glory in nothing else but the cross of Christ. That cross is the only hope of salvation, and thus the preaching of that cross is the only hope of any positive fruit in missions. We preach Christ, and in that preaching we set forth the call of the gospel, “Repent and believe.”
The Scriptures are perfectly clear concerning this. Those who are called and ordained to the work of a minister or missionary must go out into all the world and preach the gospel (Matt. 28:18-20). They are charged to preach the Word (II Tim. 4:1-2). They are to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified (I Cor. 2:2, 9:16). They must be unashamed of the gospel, for the preaching of that gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:15-16).
And this is all that we need to do—simply proclaim the truth. We leave the rest to God, for He is the One who saves. We do not have to convince people to become believers and to become saved. We do not have to persuade anyone to accept Christ. For it is not of man who runs or wills, but of God who shows mercy (Rom. 9:16). We simply plant the seed, and God uses it to gather His elect.
Concerning missionary methods, Prof. D. Engelsma states it well when he says:
There is a great concern today over methods of evangelism. Men try to discover what will make evangelism effective. The danger is not only that they resort to unbiblical methods, but also that they fall back, in the matter of missions, upon their own resources—their own wisdom, their own strength, their own inventions. The method of evangelism is preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified; and that which makes this effective is the Holy Spirit.3
As far as method is concerned, therefore, the Reformed church and her missionaries understand and keep always in mind that we are simply instruments in the hands of God. We do not need to convert people. We do not have to change any hearts. We do not need to come up with persuasive methods to accomplish any of this.
This does not mean we may do the work of preaching and missions carelessly. Certainly not. We must be very careful in handling the Word of God and in declaring it to others. We must preach and teach the Word clearly, understandably and effectively, and apply it wisely to the people in their God-given situations in life. But that is all we need to do. Whether on the mission field, or in our worship services, or in our daily interaction with others, the Reformed method is simply to speak the Word of the gospel of God.
As we faithfully do so, God is pleased to use it, by His sovereign power, to bring His elect to conscious faith and salvation in Christ. He sees to it that the Word is effective. He, by His Spirit, uses it to bring the elect (usually as families) into covenant fellowship with Himself. He does what He alone can do. Salvation is accomplished, not by human might or power, but by the Spirit of Jehovah (Zech. 4:6). The power of mission work is not man (not the missionary), but the Holy Spirit.
Our mission work must be done without concern for numbers. The Reformed church ought simply to continue spreading the gospel regardless of the amount of fruit. “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (I Cor. 3:7). Reformed missions is not man-centered, but God-centered—both in its theology and in its practice.
Our mission work must also be done in humility, for we are but weak and sinful means whom God is pleased to use to fulfill His will to save His chosen.
Our mission work must be done in confidence. We may do it with the assurance that God will have the victory and, thus, also all the glory. He will gather unto Himself every member of Christ. God knows exactly for whom Christ died, and where each of them is. He therefore directs His church in the spread of the gospel.4 The result will be that all who are ordained unto eternal life will indeed believe, be saved, and be glorified—not by men, but by God. We can therefore engage in this work with the confidence of victory.
The Scriptures give us a powerful incentive for faithful mission work. It is this: when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, then the end will come (Matt. 24:14). Missions is the great task of the church that God uses to bring about the return of Christ. “We cannot change the appointed day, but our work is necessary as the appointed means to fulfill the requirement to take the gospel to all His elect before He returns.”5 And when all the elect have been saved, then the mission task of the church will be finished and Christ will appear in clouds of glory to take us home.
What an incentive! May it spur us on to carry out this work faithfully, and even sacrificially, with a view to the salvation of God’s covenant people and the glorious return of our Savior.
1 John M. L. Young, Missions: The Biblical Motive and Aim (Pittsburgh, PA: Crown and Covenant Publications, 2007), 24.
2 Cornelius Hanko, Missions, or I will Build My Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Sunday School Mission Publishing Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church), 19-20.
3 David J. Engelsma, Evangelism and the Reformed Faith (South Holland, IL: Evangelism Committee of the Protestant Reformed Church, 1994), 18.
4 See Canons of Dordrecht, Head I, Article 3 and Head II, Article 5.
5 J. Young, Missions, 13.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 11:43:55 GMT -5
A Dangerous Principle.
The exegetic trend revealed in the article of the Rev. Zwier in “De Wachter” of May 10, must be considered positively dangerous.
That Scripture need not at all times be harmonized, that the question need and may not always be asked, “How do you reconcile those teachings?” that it is rationalistic to seek to explain Scripture in the light of Scripture, is a principle that must and shall lead to corruption of God’s Word and ultimately to a denial of all that is Reformed. Any doctrine can be corrupted without much difficulty if such methods are employed.
On the basis of the above, how can particular atonement be maintained over against them who contend that atonement is general? It can scarcely be denied that there are various passages in Scripture that taken entirely by themselves teach that Christ died for all men and shed His blood for the salvation of all. What could possibly prevent me from teaching, that there is both a particular and a general atonement, even as the Rev. Zwier maintains that the prosperity of the wicked is in order that they shall be destroyed forever while that prosperity is at the same time evidence of a favorable attitude of God toward them? At the best, why should one, who might be so inclined, not have the right to place the passages that seemingly teach general atonement next to the ones that teach particular atonement and compose a “point” of his own, postulating something on this order: besides the particular atonement for the elect unto eternal life, there is also a certain general atonement, which God effected for all men in general? In fact, would it not be well, from the viewpoint of our Christian Reformed brethren, that some such basis be established for all that grace and mercy that God manifests toward the wicked from moment to moment?
There is a passage in 2 Peter 2 which reads as follows, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” In 1 John 2:2 the Spirit says: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Taking these passages entirely by themselves, might I, if so inclined, not reason as follows? These expressions teach general atonement pure and simple. Peter says very plainly, that the Lord bought also those false prophets, who bring in damnable heresies and bring upon themselves swift destruction; whereas John states in language that for clarity leaves nothing to be desired, that Jesus Christ the righteous died not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world. These statements are so lucid that they need no further explanation. Both Peter and John teach general atonement. This atonement is not unto eternal life, for the false prophets bring upon themselves swift destruction. Hence, it must be something temporary.
“But,” you argue, “this is impossible. Atonement cannot be both particular and general. Therefore, these passages must have another interpretation.”
Borrowing the language of the Rev. Zwier against us, I might serve you with the following reply. “You are prejudiced. You deny general atonement to begin with, and hence also these passages of Peter and John must be interpreted to harmonize with your prejudgments. Your prejudices in the matter of atonement lead you to corrupt these clear passages from Scripture in such a fashion that after all these false prophets were not bought at all and Jesus is not the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. You permit your dogmatics to dominate your exegesis. The result is, that your exegesis is no exegesis at all. It is not exegesis when you impose your own prejudgments upon the text of Holy Writ. That is ‘iniegkunde.’”
“But,” you object once more, “does Scripture not teach that Christ atoned for the elect only? Did He not buy only them that were given Him of the Father? Is He not a propitiation for the sins of the elect only? Must statements such as were quoted from Peter and John not be interpreted in the light of the passages that teach that atonement is only for the elect? How then can you speak of a general atonement?”
If I were to answer in the language the Rev. Zwier employs against us in “De Wachter” of May 10, might I, if so inclined, not reply to the above in the following manner? “I can speak of a general atonement because Scripture teaches it. We do not in rationalistic style endeavor to reconcile these two. We bow as well as you do before the truth that atonement is particular. But we submit just as respectfully to the truth that these false prophets were bought and that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. We are convinced that the passages on limited atonement give us no license to deprive such passages as these of their power. No, we cannot reconcile these two. For our minds they are contradictory. God is the Incomprehensible One. Hence, never again ask us to reconcile the two lines so plainly taught in Scripture. We believe both, but cannot comprehend it. You always come with your human logic. You refuse to believe that God is the Incomprehensible One. Your human logic determines your view of atonement.”
Would such an answer convince you that you have been served with a rational and correct reply?
This is but one illustration. More could be given. The reader must sense where such methods of exegesis must bring us in the end. They must cripple all consistent exposition of Scripture. And in this case they would certainly deprive the Reformed people of the argument they have always employed against the exponents of the doctrine of general atonement.
The Rev. Zwier’s reasoning in his article on Acts 14; 16, 17 is dangerous, too, because of the end to which it will certainly lead. He may tell his readers that the curse of the Lord and His blessing are in the house of the wicked at the same time; that the prosperity of the wicked is in order that they shall be destroyed forever and at the same time an evidence of God’s favorable attitude toward them; that it is sinful rationalism and entirely unnecessary to endeavor to reconcile the two; that the readers must believe both, however contradictory they may seem to us; but this latter will never be. These things are not true, neither will the Rev. Zwier’s readers believe them. The result will be that only God’s favor to the wicked will remain in the consciousness of the church and Psalms 73 and 92 and numerous other passages will be forgotten. The latter will be conveniently relegated to the secret counsel of God, to the things with which we may not concern ourselves. Only general love and grace to all men will abide in the mind of the church. All that is distinctively Reformed will be lost for the church, and the latter will become Arminian and modern more and more. Have not leaders in the Christian Reformed churches complained long before 1924 that the church was drifting rapidly into these very dangers? How much of that which is peculiarly Reformed still lives in the consciousness of the masses? And, despite his own assurances to the contrary, if the Christian Reformed churches continue to drift into waters that are foreign and dangerous and end ultimately in complete Arminianism and modernism, the Rev. Zwier may claim a full share of the credit(?). By opposing where he should have defended, he has done much to lead the church away from the unadulterated Reformed truth.
Acts 14:16, 17 explained.
Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
Finally, the passage under discussion gives no occasion whatever for the exegesis the Rev. Zwier gives of it, nor for the remarks made in his article on this text.
What does Acts 14:16, 17 teach? That God, even in the old dispensation, did not leave Himself without witness to the heathen world. He did good from heaven, giving rain and fruitful seasons, filling them with food and gladness. Thus He revealed Himself as the One Who must be thanked and served. This “doing good” does not imply an attitude of favor at all. It refers to God’s perfect actions toward the heathen. God never does evil, even though the creature’s every act is such. God acted at all times according to divine perfection and holiness. His every act reveals that He is God, and One Who must be thanked and served. That goodness is revealed here in the rain and fruitful seasons, food and gladness He gives. Good things they were, revealing God unto the recipients. However, God suffered them to walk in their own ways of sin and destruction. At the risk of again being accused of rationalism and drawing unwarranted conclusions I would ask: what kind of a favorable attitude is one that suffers people to walk in the way of iniquity and destruction? The fact is, that even though God witnessed of Himself to the heathen, yet there was no grace or gracious attitude to apply that witness unto salvation. God did good, but not in grace. The Rev. Zwier would not deny that God can also do good even though His attitude be one of sovereign and righteous indignation!
This exposition of the word in question is in perfect accord with Scripture. The Rev. Zwier writes of the “simple and natural meaning of the word, which also elsewhere in Scripture is used to denote benefits, that proceed from a favorable attitude.” There is no reason to write of this “favorable attitude.” The word used in the original for “doing good” (there are two words in the Greek, both of which, however, are so nearly alike, that they may be regarded as one) is found in but seven places, 1 Timothy 6:18, Mark 3:4, Luke 6:9, Luke 6:33 35, Acts 14:17, and I John 11. Please read these passages carefully and determine for yourself how much truth there is in the attempt of the Rev. Zwier to clinch his argument by writing about the “simple and natural meaning of the word, which also elsewhere in Scripture is used to designate benefits, that proceed from a favorable attitude.” All these passages have nothing to do with any attitude, favorable or otherwise. They speak of doing good, doing well, doing right over against that which is evil. When we interpret Acts 14:16, 17 as we do, we are in perfect accord with the common usage of the word in Scripture. The Lord did well, gave good gifts, acted in such a manner that the heathen could see Him as the good God, Who was worthy to be thanked and served. He did good, not because of a favorable attitude or to bless, but in order that He should not be without witness, while He nevertheless suffered them to walk in their own ways.
The Rev. Zwier should not have written that Acts 14:16, 17 teaches as positively as possible that God’s common goodness (favorable attitude) also extends to the heathen. Nor should he have told his readers that this passage presents irrefutable evidence of common grace to the heathen.
The Rev. Zwier should not insinuate that we explain this text as we do, because we have a preconceived notion of the grace of God. One must have just that to discover common grace in Acts 14:17.
The Reverend does wrong when he states that our exegesis of this passage is no exegesis at all and that we force our own prejudices upon the Word of God. When common grace, a favorable attitude toward the heathen who perished in their sins, and the doctrine that God blesses the wicked is all carried into the expression “doing good,” whereas the text itself interprets it as a further explanation of the immediately preceding “nevertheless he left not Himself without witness,” who is guilty of “iniegkunde”?
The Rev. Zwier should not maintain that we corrupt the simple and natural meaning of the word in question for no other reason than that we insist on maintaining our own personal prejudgments in the matter of common grace. The element of a “favorable attitude” our accuser himself forces upon the text.
The writer of “Dogmatische Onderwerpen” should not attempt to leave the impression that Scripture uses this word only to designate benefits that proceed from a favorable attitude. Nothing is farther from the truth.
The Rev. Zwier should not give an altogether unwarranted exegesis of the text and then say: Never again ask me how to reconcile it with other passages in Scripture. That is as childish as it is wrong.
The Reverend should not write, “Paul here reckons with both truths: God’s sovereign reprobation as well as His common goodness. But he does not attempt to harmonize the two.” That is untrue. Paul speaks of God’s sovereign reprobation and His not leaving Himself without witness, doing good from heaven. God “in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways; nevertheless He left not Himself without witness.” There is no contradiction here, nor even a seeming contradiction. It takes no rationalism whatsoever to see the unity in this text. While God suffers the heathen to walk in their own ways, they nevertheless receive His witness, sufficient to leave them without excuse. That witness consists in the good that God does to them even while He suffers them to walk in the way of sin and destruction.
God can also do good in wrath and sovereign hatred.
If Acts 14:16, 17 is such a perfect proof for common grace as the Rev. Zwier claims it to be,—I am satisfied.
What must we think of the passages that are less clear?
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 12:06:44 GMT -5
No one can teach God knowledge; no one can tell Him anything at all. He is God. His intelligent will is the efficient cause of the existence and subsistence of things that be, Himself excepted. He created, preserves and governs all things according to His holy will, so that nothing happens in this world but by His appointment. He keeps all things so under His power that not a hair of our head, nor a sparrow can fall to the ground without His will.
God makes history. The events of the day are but the realization of His eternal deliberations. He brings to pass what He has spoken; He does what He has purposed (Isaiah 46:10). His counsel stands and He will do all His good pleasure; calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth His counsel from a far country, (Isaiah 9).
God is first cause of the various phenomena in nature. He covereth Himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters. He maketh the clouds His chariots, and walketh upon the wings of the wind. The foundations of the earth are laid by Him, that it should not be removed forever. He covers it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At His rebuke they fled; at the voice of His thunder they hasted away. They go up the mountains; they go down the valleys unto the place which He founded for them. God has set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again, to cover the earth. He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. He watereth the hills from His chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and the herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. He appointeth the moons for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down. He makes darkness and it is night. . . .He looketh on the earth and it trembleth: He toucheth the hills, and they smoke (Ps. 104).
We conclude that the sum-total of things made, plus the things being made to transpire, do not teach God knowledge. Man and the angel cannot teach God. Being creatures they need to be taught. Neither is there another god at whose feet our God placed Himself to be formed. It must be then that God’s knowledge is original with Himself, and at once self-knowledge. Knowing Himself, He knows all there is to be known, and taught by none is the teacher of all.
As to man, he is creature and not creator. Hence, he must be told, informed, taught. Being equipped with capacities for knowing, he can be taught. He understands God when the latter speaks. Placing himself at the feet of God, man will know. He has no knowledge original with himself. What he knows is a gift of God. Thrown on his own resources, and left to himself, man can know nothing. It cannot be otherwise, for he is but a creature. The ideas embodied in things made are not his, but God’s. The glory which the heavens declare is the glory of the Creator, not of the creature. The firmament showeth God’s handiwork, His speech it is which day unto day uttereth. Night unto night showeth knowledge of the Architect of the Universe. If man refuses to listen to the speech of God, it is night in his soul. Such are the plain teachings of Scripture. Said the Lord unto Job: “Gird up thy loins now like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me, where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who hast stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened, or who laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it break forth as if it hath issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof and thick darkness a swaddling band for it. . . .? Hast thou entered the springs of the sea, or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have gates of death been opened unto thee, or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all. Where is the way where light dwelleth, and as for darkness, where is the place thereof? Knowest thou it because thou wast then born, or because the number of thy days is great? Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail. . . .? By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Hath the rain a father, or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice: and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?” (Job 38).
We conclude that man knows as man. His ideas are not original with him. There is but one such foundation of knowledge, namely, God. Men must be taught by Him. All men—the farmer and the craftsman as well as the theologian. Attend to the Scripture: “Give ye ear and hear my voice; hearken and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow, doth he open and break the clods of ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheat turned about upon the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also comes from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working, (Isaiah 28:23-29).
The Lord, then, has no need of man’s approval or advice for He is the Lord, and man is creature. Yet to such as are His friends, the Lord, great, wise, and mighty pours out His heart, reveals His secrets. There is a revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto His servants the things which must shortly come to pass. And these friend-servants approve of what the Lord is about to do and praise His name for his righteous judgments. They say, We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, arid thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth (Rev. 2:17-18). In the praise of His friends—a praise which He, to be sure, prepares, the Lord takes keen delight.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 13:22:23 GMT -5
The Reformed View of Angels
Rev. Dale Kuiper (1935-2014)
There are several reasons why we should have an accurate and extensive understanding of angels.
First, the source of all angelic understanding is the Word of God, and it is surely our calling to understand the Word of God fully. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." We may expect to receive great profit as we search out the Scriptures on the subject of angels. And we assure you that all we set forth here will be from the Word of God. When we studied the available literature on our subject, we found that as soon as an author went beyond the Bible, without exception he became speculative and fanciful. We are not interested in that. We will restrict ourselves to the Word of God as the only source of truth regarding angels.
Secondly, we find in these last days of apostasy an emphasis among many on spiritualism, demon worship, and special revelations. Along with that, angels and demons have an important part. Many are being deceived by these movements, and many others do not quite know what to say about these thing.If we have a Bible-based understanding of angels and devils, we will know how to judge these matters, and we will know how to answer the neighbor when he comes to us enthusiasticly about some meeting, or with earnest questions that he has.
Thirdly, we hope to show that a thorough understanding of the biblical doctrine of angels will enrich our lives and increase our thankfulness for salvation. May God open our eyes to this aspect of His creation and this aspect of our salvation. Martin Luther wrote, "The acknowledgment of angels is needful in the church. Therefore godly preachers should teach them logically. First, they should show what angels are, namely, spiritual creatures without bodies. Secondly, what manner of spirits they are, namely, good spirits and not evil; and here evil spirits must also be spoken of, not created evil by God, but made so by their rebellion against God, and their consequent fall. Thirdly, they must speak touching their function, which, as the epistle to the Hebrews shows, is to present a mirror of humility to godly Christians, in that such pure and perfect creatures as the angels do minister unto us, poor and wretched people, in household and temporal policy, and in religion" (Table Talk, pp. 278-279).
The great Reformation came at the conclusion of the Dark Ages; it may be argued that the Reformation was the reason the dark, middle ages came to a close! During the several hundred years before 1517, under the ignorance by which the Roman Catholic Church kept her members bound, there was a lot of superstition regarding heaven and hell, angels and devils, ghosts and goblins, etc. In the area of theology there were all kinds of speculations and endless discussions on the subject of angels. About 1200, a certain Albertus Magnus asked and attempted to answer 120 questions about angels. He discussed the language the angels spoke, and he was not afraid to write at length about the fall of Satan in heaven. About the same time, Bonaventura asked such questions as, "Can an angel be in several places at the same time?" "Can several angels be at the same time in the same place?" "How many angels can dance on the head of a needle?" Duns Scotus, the last of the scholastics or schoolmen, was so speculative in this theology that many in Europe called for saner methods of theological discussion, and Luther called him "the most arrogant of sophists" (specious reasoners). The Reformation brought an end to this wild, speculative method of biblical interpretation; it was a return to the Bible and the principles of Scripture alone and the sufficiency of Scripture.
The Belgic Confession, written about 1560, gives the Reformed view of angels, and shows the restraint that the Reformation engendered in its theologians. (We ask that you read Article 12 of the Confession.) It is very striking that in an article entitled "Of the Creation" more than half the lines are used to set forth the truth concerning angels! There are reasons for this: first, to set forth in a calm, biblical way what we must believe over against the speculations of the scholastics; and second, to distance the Reformed churches from the Sadducees and the Manichees. The former denied the existence of angels altogether. The latter taught that the devils were not created but were eternal, and did not fall but were eternally corrupted.
Angels as such
What are angels? Scripture presents us with four main teachings.
1) Angels are creatures; they were created by God, and are not to be worshiped. They are not eternal. And they are dependent. They have their being, not in themselves, but in God. The creation of angels is not recorded in the first chapters of Genesis. All those who believe in the literal meaning of Genesis 1 agree that angels were created on one of the six creation days. Some place their creation on day one, when God created the heavens and the earth. They point out that at this point the earth was without form and void, but not the heavens. We lean towards this interpretation. Others are content to say that they were created prior to the fourth day, when God made the sun, moon, and stars, basing their view on job 38:7. Herman Hoeksema prefers the sixth day, although he refuses to be dogmatic about it. Rev. G. Lubbers stated in a recent conversation that he leans toward the second day. It is enough for us to know that as creatures the angels were created during the creation week.
As creatures, angels have their own peculiar natures. They are not glorified human beings. In Hebrews 2:16 we read that Christ did not take on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Likewise, Hebrews 12:22 is careful to distinguish between the host of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. They do not have flesh and blood, although God can give them bodily form. They are spirits, not in the sense that God is Spirit, but created spirits. God made His angels winds (Ps. 104).
Angels are greater than men in knowledge, but they do not know everything. A certain woman said to king David, "My lord is wise according to the wisdom of an angel, to know all things that are in the earth" (II Sam. 14), but we also read that of the day and hour when the Son of God returns, no one knoweth, not even the angels of heaven (Matt.24:36). And Peter informs us that the angels desire to look into the things which the prophets foretold, the things of salvation. No, the angels do not know all things. Nor are they almighty, though they are stronger than men. We read of angels being mighty in strength, of angels who have power, even the power of Christ, of their work in rolling the stone from the door of the tomb of Jesus and setting the apostles free from prison. But only God is omnipotent. So angels are created spirits, higher than men.
2) Next we ought to see that God's eternal, double decree of predestination pertains to the angel world. In I Timothy 5:2 the apostle writes, "I charge thee in the sight of God, and Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things." And of the reprobate angels we read in Jude 6, "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the last day." God elected some angels, and reprobated all the rest. The Belgic Confession states that the elect angels have, by the grace of God, remained steadfast and continued in their primitive state, while others have fallen from that excellency in which God had created them.
At this juncture several important points must be made. First, according to the decree of reprobation, a large number of angels fell into sin. If you have been looking for something new here about that fall, you will be disappointed. Very likely you know as much as we about that matter. The angels fell sometime after their creation and before the appearance of the devil in a serpent to our first parents in Paradise. Their fall into sin was motivated by pride. The prince of the devils was not satisfied in being a holy angel in the presence of God, but he wanted to be God himself. He succeeded in getting a large number of angels to join in his rebellion; Revelation 12 states that his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven down with him. But how sin entered into God's holy heaven, how rebellion filled the minds of Satan and his cohorts, is a mystery that has no present answer. Will we know in heaven? Perhaps not even then.
Further, angels do not comprise a race similar to the human race, but they are a host or a realm of individuals. Angels are not organically related. They do not marry and bring forth little angels. Their number is constant from the moment of their creation. Angels are not legally related either. They do not form a corporation or federation. When Adam fell into sin, the entire human race became guilty and corrupt in him. He represented us in Paradise (Rom. 5:12). But when Satan fell into sin, all the angels did not become guilty of his sin. Those who willfully joined his rebellion became wicked and depraved, while those who remained steadfast by the grace of God remained upright and are still upright today.
The third point is that the death of Christ did not atone for the sins of a single angel. He is not the Savior of angels. The holy angels do not need redemption and the fallen angels have fallen absolutely. Yet, the Scriptures make clear that the work of Christ in His humiliation and in His exaltation does have significance for the angel world. Through His death, resurrection, and ascension to God's right hand, Christ did unite all things in heaven and on earth. He makes all of God's creation one, and He is Head over all exalted. There is that difficult passage in Colossians 1:20 ("And having made peace through the blood of the cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.") which states emphatically that through the blood of the cross Christ has reconciled all things unto God whether they be in heaven or on earth. The difficulty is that we usually think of reconciliation in terms of the removal of the guilt of sin through the satisfaction of the justice of God. But the holy angels have no guilt of sin. The answer to the difficulty must be found along these lines. The peace that Christ established through the blood of the cross is, first of all, peace with God. The opposite of peace is rebellion and war. Man is at war with God, and man is at war with man. There was also war among the angels or war in heaven (Rev. 12). Although the elect angels did not sin, yet a certain stain or reproach did attach itself to the angel realm because of the rebellion of Satan and his demons. Christ arose as the Firstborn of every creature, so that in the cross of Christ every thing is reconciled to God and every aspect of the universe is brought into peace with God. The division in the angelic realm is healed. Christ is the new Head of the angels as well, and He has the pre-eminence everywhere for uniting all things in one under Himself.
3) When God created the angels He placed them in various orders or at different levels. Angels differ as far as their glory and positions are concerned. We can call this the classification of angels. (We will limit ourselves to the holy angels; you can read C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters for the classification of devils.) Scripture speaks of the cherubim which are the guardians of God's throne, righteousness, and holiness; of the seraphim which stand above the cherubim, and lead the worship of God in heaven; of the archangels, one of which is Michael and perhaps another is Gabriel; angels entrusted with specific, great tasks by God. Paul speaks in Colossians 1 of further organization of angels when he writes of thrones, principalities, dominions, and powers, all of which were created by Christ and for Christ. One more angel is mentioned in the Old Testament, the Angel of the Lord. Really this is not a created angel, but he is the Christ as He appeared in the form of an angel before His incarnation through the virgin birth. When Christ appeared in the form of an angel, to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Balaam, Gideon, and others, there is a foreshadowing of the great mystery of godliness, when God was manifest in the flesh.
4) The last point we wish to make regarding angels as such is their number. We said earlier that the number of angels remains constant. They do not increase or decrease. Now we notice that that number of holy angels is very great! In Daniel 7 the prophet writes that "Thousands of thousands ministered unto God, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him." Literally that is a hundred million, but the idea is really a countless throng! As we read in Hebrews 12, an innumerable host of angels.
In their relation to the church
What is God's purpose with angels in regard to His church? We read in Hebrews 1:14, "Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Angels are the servants of the church as a whole and of the saints individually.
There are five items to be observed here.
1) Angels are messengers from God in heaven to His church on earth, appearing at the most critical points in the history of salvation. After the Fall God placed at the east of Eden cherubim to keep the way of the tree of life, for fellowship with God was no longer through the tree but through Christ typified in bloody sacrifices. God delivered the Law to Moses at Sinai by the hands of angels. The birth of Jesus Christ was announced to Mary and to Joseph by Gabriel, after he had announced the birth of John the Baptist. An angel appeared to the frightened shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem speaking of the birth of the Savior; then, a multitude of the heavenly host taught the shepherds and us to sing, "Glory to God in the Highest." After Jesus was baptized and had been tempted in the wilderness, angels came to Him and ministered unto Him. When Jesus groveled on the ground as a worm and not a man in the Garden, an angel came to Him to strengthen Him. At the empty tomb an angel spoke the resurrection gospel to the women, "He is not here, he is risen even as he said." On the Mount of Olives an angel asked the staring disciples, "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" and promised that Christ would return in like manner. And when Jesus comes at the end of time He will come with His angels in great glory. So angels are messengers, sent to reveal the will of God and to comfort both Christ and His church.
2) There are angels whose business it is to guard the people of God and their children. In Psalm 91 we find the wonderful words, "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." As parents, who cannot always have our eyes on our children, we take great comfort from the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:10, "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Little children of God have their own, personal angels, who go from the face of God in heaven to do His will, to watch over our children.
Not only is this physical protection that the angels give, but they safeguard our children from the devil and the world. We believe that God watches over us. We believe that He preserves us from the evil one. But we are not often aware of the means that God uses, those ministering spirits whom we may call guardian angels.
3) There is a sense in which the angels observe what is happening on the earth, at least in the life of the church and in the life of the saints. Jesus concluded two of His parables with the astounding words, "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." When there is the refusal to confess our sins to God and to one another, and to extend forgiveness to one another, we may be sure that the angels in heaven weep. But when a sinner comes to repentance, the angels rejoice before God because they understand that repentance worketh life, and repentance comes to pass only by the irresistible grace of God! Angels delight in the grace of God in Christ!
The second proof we have for the position that angels are aware of what goes on in the church below is the rather difficult passage found in Ephesians 3:10, "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" Paul says that he preaches among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, that he makes known the mystery which was hid from the beginning of the world, with the intent that the angels might know these things by means of the church!
When the church preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, and when the members of the church confess and live that gospel, the wisdom of God in saving His church through Christ is made known to the angels. They are not saved by that gospel, but they are deeply interested in it, and that interest is satisfied as the angels are attuned to the life of the church.
4) The angels of God are reapers in the great harvest at the end of the world. In the parable of the tares and the wheat (Matt. 13), the field is the world, the good seed stands for the children of the kingdom, and the tares are the children of the wicked one. At the end of the world, the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.
And those same angels shall bring the righteous into the kingdom of their Father. Accordingly, Jesus teaches in Matthew 24 that He "shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Angels reap, they gather, they bring together the elect unto Christ, and bring the wicked unto the flame.
5) Finally, we must notice that there is a change worked in the relationship between the angels and us due to the great victory that Christ achieved as the Captain of our salvation. According to our creation, and according to the manhood of Jesus Christ, we were both made a little lower than the angels. But because of His perfect obedience unto death, God has so highly exalted Christ that He is now higher than the angels. Thus Hebrews 1:4, "Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."
Because the child of God is represented by Christ, and is engrafted into Christ, we share in His exaltation and honor, and are given a place above the angels in the world to come. One of the implications of the church's sharing in Christ' s glory is that when Christ returns to judge the quick and the dead, we are going to judge with Him, and according to I Corinthians 6:3, we are going to judge the angels.
Questions that often arise
When the subject of angels is discussed, there are particularly two questions that people seek to have answered. The first one is, Do angels appear just before a child of God dies? Or, just as a saint expires, is it possible that he sees angels?
The question is prompted by certain remarks made by people as they die. You have heard of such statements, I am sure. Although I have been at the bedside of several saints as they died, I have not heard these words firsthand; but they have been repeated to me by other family members whose parents have gone the way of all flesh. For example, "Oh, it's very beautiful!" "I hear music!" "I see angels!" What are we to think of this?
Our response is that it is entirely possible. Who are we to say that it is not true? If we keep in mind that the soul of the redeemed child of God enters into glory at the moment of physical death, and if we keep in mind that Christ sends His angels to gather His people home, why is such an experience not possible? Although this may not be experienced in every case, we see no reason to doubt the authenticity of these remarks.
Another question that needs answering today goes something like this: "What do we say to those who claim to have seen angels in their lifetime, have had visions of angels, and have even heard angels speak?"
That is an entirely different question. Not as someone is dying, but while he is living! We do not believe it. We do not believe it because there is no longer any reason for God to send us angels, and to give us messages by angels. Not since the canon of Holy Scripture has been completed. We put such visions of angels in the same category as speaking in tongues, miracles of healing, and special revelations from God. All these were common during the days of the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles. The reason for such things was that there was no New Testament yet - no full, written Word of God. Further, these miracles and revelations had the purpose of proving that what the prophets and apostles were saying was indeed true. But there is no longer any need for that.
This all reminds one of the rich man in hell of whom we read in Luke 16. This rich man says to Abraham in heaven, "I pray thee, father, send Lazarus to my father's house that he may testify to my five brothers, lest they also come into this place of torment." And Abraham says to him, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." In other words, they have the Bible. Let them give careful heed to what God says in the Bible. But the rich man objects (implying that he was brought into torment unfairly), "Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." And the final word of Jesus in the parable is, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." The Scriptures are sufficient. God does not speak through other means since the time the apostle John finished Revelation, and pronounced woe upon those who added to or subtracted from the Word of God.
The Standard Bearer, Feb-Mar 1996
--Rev. Dale Kuiper
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 13:24:34 GMT -5
The expression, mystery, occurs frequently in the Holy Scriptures. In I Tim. 3:16 Paul, writing to Timothy, speaks of the great mystery of godliness, consisting of: “God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” Also in I Cor. 15 the same apostle speaks of “mystery.” There he writes of the great change which shall take place when, at the last trump, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed. And in Ephesians 6:19 Paul speaks of the mystery of the gospel. It is to this last expression that I would call attention in this article. And it is my intention to emphasize not the idea of the gospel but the fact that it is a mystery.
The gospel, we know, is the glad, joyful news concerning God’s promise of our salvation. The word itself means literally “good news.” And in Gal. 3:8 it is identified with the promise. The gospel is “good news” exactly because it concerns this promise of God. Were salvation merely an offer and therefore dependent upon our acceptance of it, the gospel, as the proclamation of such an offer, would hardly be “good news”. We must remember that the sinner is born dead in sins and trespasses, unable to will the things of the Kingdom of God. He is carnally minded and cannot will the things of the Spirit. Now it is, of course, true that repentance must be demanded of the sinner who cannot repent. But, to proclaim unto him that salvation is his if he will accept it, that his blessedness is, as far as God is concerned, merely an offer, means that he will never be saved because he cannot will the things of God and accept the “offered” salvation. And this is hardly good news. However, the gospel, never to be confused with an offer, is the blessed proclamation of God’s promise. And God’s promise is His solemn declaration of what He can and will do. The gospel is “good news” because it speaks of our salvation in Christ Jesus as dependent upon and realized by our faithful covenant God whose word never faileth.
This gospel is a mystery. A mystery, in Scripture, is not a contradiction. It is often presented as such today. The term, mystery, then, is conveniently applied to “truths” which are in irreconcilable conflict with each other, such as the sovereign will of God and the “offer” of salvation or of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Of course, God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility must never be understood as contradicting each other. That man is responsible never means that he is independently free, that he can and does determine his own destiny. But it does mean that he consciously and willfully chooses his own course of action. Only, it must never be separated from God’s sovereignty but included in it and determined by it. This, then, does not involve us in a contradiction but in a truth which is far beyond all human understanding. Neither is a mystery in Scripture specifically something which we cannot understand. Of course, we do not wish to imply that we would eliminate this element from the concept, mystery. Fact is, there is nothing which we really understand. All things, also in creation, are far beyond our human comprehension. And this is particularly true of Scripture. Who will even begin to fathom the divine Trinity? The truth that God is one in being and three in persons, that the three Persons are co-eternal and co-essential surely transcends all human understanding. Or, who can grasp the Incarnation? Fact is, this truth is reflected creaturely in our own life. The human person operates through a body and a soul which are wonderfully adapted to each other. This is beyond our human comprehension. How much greater then is the “mystery” of the Incarnation, God in the flesh! Besides, this same element may also be applied to the gospel. Who would presume to understand the gospel, that work of God which is so strictly divine, which must be revealed to us, which never could arise in the heart of man! Yet, in the light of the Scriptural passages which we have quoted, I think we may safely conclude that a mystery in Scripture is not specifically a matter which is beyond our human understanding, although this consideration must not be excluded. When Paul, speaking in I Cor. 15 of the change which shall take place in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, calls this a mystery, he would not emphasize the idea that this is something we cannot understand. And I believe that this must also be applied to I Tim. 3:16.
A mystery, “eene verborgenheid,” is that which lies beyond the scope of all human thought and life, which could never arise in the heart of man, which essentially lies beyond this world and all human, earthy existence. It is super-worldly, above and beyond this life. It must therefore be revealed unto us shall we ever learn of it. In this sense the apostle, in I Cor. 2:7, speaks of “the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,” as something which, according to verse 9, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” In the same sense the Scriptures speak of the mystery of godliness. Godliness is a mystery because it concerns the manifestation of God in the flesh. Also here the truth is emphasized that godliness must come from above and could never have entered into the heart of man to conceive of it. And when Paul speaks of that great change which shall occur at the last trump, he emphasizes the same thought. Hence, a mystery, is truly something which is beyond our human understanding, is essentially that which is other-worldly, lies beyond this present life, above and beyond the scope of our earthy existence. Salvation is a mystery because it is from above and will culminate in that world which surely never could be conceived of in the heart of man.
In this sense we also speak of the mystery of the gospel. The gospel is essentially the proclamation of that work of salvation which is exclusively divine. It speaks of the promise of Jehovah which He alone fulfills. Surely the work of salvation is a work which does not originate within us but from above. And, it leads us into the heavenly life. Firstly, the blessed realization of God’s covenant with us in Christ Jesus could never have entered into the heart of man. We could not even have conceived of it. For man is by nature dead in sin and misery, barred from God’s blessed fellowship. To return into God’s favor is impossible for him, inasmuch as the righteous judgment of God demands a payment for his sin which he cannot bring. Besides, he is filled with darkness, is a hater of God, and therefore does not will to experience God’s favor and bend the knee before the Most High. Because of this salvation cannot enter into the heart of man. Add to this the fact that the gospel speaks of a heavenly salvation which will ultimately be revealed in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. How shall man, who, besides being sinful and therefore not desirous of returning unto God’s fellowship, is of the earth earthy, ever conceive of a glory which is other-worldly, heavenly, not of this earth! Salvation therefore must come from above.
The gospel of our salvation is a mystery, being beyond the scope of all human life and understanding, firstly because it is a matter of God’s own sovereign will. Jehovah, whose ways are unfathomable, past finding out, Who had no counsellor with Him, was not determined by any creature, willed, for His own Name’s sake, to glorify Himself in a heavenly renewal of all things through sin and grace. Hence, the gospel originated in the eternal God Himself. However, also when Jehovah realizes His blessed covenant in time, this fulfilment of His promise lies over and beyond the sphere of this world. The gospel is distinctly otherworldly. This is true of Bethlehem. What we see is a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, as miserable a birth as one could possibly conceive of. What we do not see and cannot see at Bethlehem is the fulfilment of the promise. We cannot see the Incarnation, God Himself assuming our human nature in the Person of the Son. The same is true of Calvary. We see a sufferer, a most extraordinary sufferer, it is true, we hear groans ascending from the bottomless pit. But again the gospel is hid from us. The mystery of the cross, God in Christ reconciling the world with Himself, we cannot possibly see. The human mind could never conclude from the cross that Jehovah was saving His people. And is this not also true of Jesus’ exaltation? We see the empty grave but the resurrection was witnessed by none. Shortly afterwards Christ disappears entirely from our view, is taken up into heaven, receives all power at the right hand of God. From out of heaven He saves us, by His Spirit, calling us out of sin into the blessed reality of God’s covenant communion. And His work of salvation will continue until all the elect, the entire Church, shall have been called out of this earthy into that heavenly state of things which God has willed from before the foundation of the world.
Therefore the gospel is a mystery. It is so otherworldly. It is so exclusively divine. It lies entirely beyond the scope of our human, earthy life. It originates in God, is realized alone by God, will culminate in the heavenly state of glory. Because of this the gospel must be revealed unto us by God. We read in Lord’s Day 6, concerning this holy gospel, that it was first revealed by God in Paradise and lastly fulfilled by His only begotten Son. How necessary that God should reveal it in Paradise! In what other way could we ever learn of a salvation which never arose in our hearts and which is so exclusively divine? And, how necessary that God Himself, in the second Person, should fulfil this gospel, this divine promise of our salvation! Finally, having fulfilled this promise by His only begotten Son, in Bethlehem and upon the cross, how necessary that He Himself should infallibly lead His apostles into this truth which never could have entered into our mind! Bethlehem, Calvary, the resurrection and ascension, so exclusively divine, must be revealed unto us by God Himself. This God did when He Himself imparted unto His apostles the knowledge of this work of salvation. And then, when Jehovah realizes this work of salvation in our hearts, sanctifies His own revelation unto our souls, we bend the knee before Him in all praise and adoration, exclaiming: “For of Thee, and through Thee, and to Thee, are all things: to Thee be glory for ever. Amen.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 13:42:26 GMT -5
Previous article in this series: December 1, 2021, p. 114.HOLSTEGE, DANIEL
In my last article, I began to examine the truth of the covenant as it relates to our mission mandate and our antithetical calling in the world. Our antithetical calling must not become a separatist mentality. We may not hunker down inside our covenant community, consolidate our resources, enjoy our riches, and wait it out until the Lord comes. In addition, we must not be too quick to elevate our own needs as churches above the needs of the elect who are still lost in the world. We must have a covenantal culture for missions, a growing zeal for evangelism, not only on foreign fields but also in our own backyards. Then, it seems to me, we may expect to see more men who are eager to go into the world, locally and internationally, to declare among the heathen that the Lord reigns.
We now focus for a time on those missionaries who go out from the covenant community into the world to “preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things” (Rom. 10:15). Yet, much will apply to local pastors as well.
The missionary is a man of the covenant. He has been brought by divine grace into an intimate relationship of fellowship and friendship with God through Jesus Christ. Baptized in the name of the triune God. Admitted into the Christian church. Distinguished from the “strangers from the covenants of promise” (Eph. 2:12). He grew in his faith, grew closer to God, and lived for some time in covenant with Him…for a missionary is not a novice. For years, he heard God talk to him through the preaching of the Word, partook of holy communion, and received the assurance that Christ loved him and died for him. For years, he learned to walk with God in joyful thankfulness, daily prayer, ongoing conversion, and weekly worship on the Sabbath day. He came to love the life of the covenant in the household of God with his brothers and sisters in Christ.
But now God through the call of the church has sent him outside the covenant community into the world of darkness. He must now live as a man of the covenant in antithesis to the darkness where he finds himself. He must also preach as a man of the covenant in antithesis to the lies of the world.
First, regarding his life, living as a man of the covenant does not mean he must maintain all the customs of his own church culture on the mission field. Rather, he must adapt himself somewhat to the customs of the native people, like the great apostle who said, “I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews…. To them that are without law [Gentiles], as without law…that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (I Cor. 9:19-22). The great desire of the missionary is to gain into the covenant those whom God has ordained to eternal life for the praise of the glory of His grace. Believing that God became man to save him into the covenant, the missionary is willing to become like the people of the culture he enters to gain them into the covenant. Believing that Christ left behind His life in heaven and gave up His life on earth to save him, the missionary is willing to deny himself the comfortable life he once enjoyed and to lose that life for however long a time to gain others to Christ. He adapts. He does not compromise with evil. But he contextualizes. He places himself into the context of the people and adapts himself to their way of life for the sake of the gospel. He lets go of customs that might hinder or spoil the work of the Lord. He does not rigidly cling to all of his own customs with regard to eating and drinking, clothing and shopping, time and money, language and music, accomplishing goals and maintaining relationships, and more. When we lived in the Philippines, we needed to remind ourselves often that our American cultural ways were not necessarily better than their Filipino cultural ways. Different does not always mean better.
But living as a man of the covenant means the missionary lives the Christian life in an exemplary way, as all ministers must (I Tim. 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9). On the one hand, it is crucial that he keep himself unspotted from the world. The missionary goes into the world! He should expect to encounter spiritual darkness because the world is the realm of Satan where evil reigns, idols stand tall, debauchery prevails, and lies run wild and free. But he must not become one with the heathen in their sins. He must not stroll into the pagan temple or down a dark alley in the city to join himself to a harlot. He must not drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils, or partake of the Lord’s table and the table of devils. He must not feast gluttonously before the poor or drink excessively with the fools or dance to the beat of worldly music. He must not join them at their gambling tables or otherwise show himself to be a lover of money. He must not swear in his anger or react to opposition or criticism with rage. He must not strut about as if he is someone important, looking down his nose at others. Such are the behaviors of the ungodly among whom he labors. Such must not be his behavior. O, what damage is done to Christianity and the honor of God by the missionary who is supposed to represent the glorious covenant of God but who acts like the heathen and joins in the darkness!
On the contrary, he must live as a man of God who shines in the midst of the darkness. Such is a man who knows the God of the covenant personally and intimately as One who loves him and dwells with him. He is a man who has tasted the goodness of the Lord and found it sweet beyond all else, who testifies that the lovingkindness of God is better than life, than all the glittering pleasures that intoxicate the men of the world. He is a man whose heart is truly with God, who truly enjoys fellowship with God by faith from day to day. A man of fervent, thankful, and intimate prayer. A man who knows the forgiveness of his sins by his gracious and merciful Father in heaven through Christ. A man who forgives others, strives against his indwelling sins, flees from temptation, runs with patience the race set before him, looks to Jesus the Author and Finisher of his faith. In his love for the God of the covenant, he is willing to sacrifice the comforts of home and friends. He is able to live joyfully and contentedly in an unfamiliar place with earthly challenges like a harsher climate, a less developed infrastructure, cultural distance, heavy traffic, and even persecution. For he walks near to the Lord his God and drinks deeply from His fountain of grace day by day in the communion of prayer and songs of thanksgiving. Daily he contemplates the cross of Jesus, which stands ever before his eyes as the most amazing and astonishing reality he has ever seen, and which takes his breath away time and time again. That amazing cross guards his soul from fastening on the illusions of happiness and pleasure that are the empty things of the world.
But furthermore, the missionary of the covenant must also preach the gospel of the covenant, a message that is antithetical to the lies of the world. He must preach the message that Jehovah alone is God, the personal Creator of the universe, who dwells eternally in covenant within Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, and there is no other god beside Him. That message is distinct and bold in a world that worships a pantheon of gods and detests the exclusivism of Christianity. He must preach the unpopular message that we are all corrupt sinners in Adam, conceived and born totally depraved by nature. Then he must also preach the gospel that there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved than the name of Jesus, the promised Messiah, Son of God, and Mediator of the covenant, who through His crucifixion and resurrection has made a way for sinners to inherit eternal life. That message is also scandalous to the world that seeks salvation in other names, that scoffs at the cross, or prays to spirits. He must preach the message that God establishes an everlasting covenant of intimate fellowship and friendship with all whom He predestined to eternal life. That message of unconditional election will also incite opposition and stand out as distinct in a world that praises the free will and equal opportunity of every man. The message must emphasize that God does not establish His covenant with sinners on the condition that they do something first, but God brings sinners into His covenant by sovereign grace and gives them faith whereby they experience a small foretaste of fellowship with God in this life.
The missionary must also preach the call of the gospel, which is likewise antithetical in nature. In a world that rushes headlong toward the damnation of hell, the missionary must utter from the housetops, “Repent! Turn from your idols to the living God.” He must preach the warning of the gospel that those who walk in darkness and reject the gospel will be damned. He must preach the promise of the gospel that those who come to the Light and believe the gospel will be saved. Although the promise of the covenant is particular, the proclamation of that promise must be general. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” the missionary must cry out, “and thou shalt be saved into the everlasting covenant, in which God will be your God and dwell with you forever.”
Finally, the missionary must teach believers all the antithetical commands of Christ. “Follow Christ,” he must say, “by keeping all His commandments in gratitude for what He has done for you.” When the missionary himself is practicing what he preaches, living an antithetical and thankful life on the mission field, his exhortations will carry more weight and be more effective. He must call converts to live the life of the covenant, the life of thankfulness to their God who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. He must patiently disciple them and call them to be transformed from their former conduct to the Christian life by the renewing of their minds.
May God prepare many such men as shining heralds of His covenant in the world.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 13:52:04 GMT -5
4/1/1941
Supplication (Psalm 28)
VOS, GERRIT
Article
Home / Archive / Vol 17 Issue 13
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There is a difference between prayer and supplication.
Prayer is that activity of faith whereby you turn your soul to God as the Fountain of all good things, thirsting for Him and very desirous to be filled by Him with all the good things you need for time and eternity.
Supplication is all that, but it is prayer colored by your distresses, woes, miseries. Also herein that you turn yourself tempestuously toward Him. If I was writing in the Holland language I would say: supplication is that “ge Hem aanloopt als een waterstroom”!
Well, the latter you find in this psalm.
David is in trouble.
As such, it is also a prophecy of the Christ of God, Who poured out His supplication unto God. A fit commentary on that truth you will find in Hebrews 5:7. His prayers and supplications were characterized by “strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death.”
Surely, supplication is tempestuous prayer.
And exactly that you will find in this psalm.
Attend unto the opening: To Thee, O Jehovah, do I cry! It is no serene, calm restful prayer that flows from David’s lips at this occasion. The matter is urgent.
It is also evident in the opening strophes of this song that Jehovah had been silent. There was no help; the wicked that were around David seemed to have the ascendency over him.
And David is horribly afraid of a silent God. Such a God is the God of wrath over the wicked. Of them the Lord says: I am silent; and the wicked go down to the pit under the roaring of the Almighty when His silence is explained.
O Jehovah, when I cry unto Thee, do not treat me as Thou dost treat the wicked. In all the crying of the wicked in their distresses there is no answer from the heavens, because Thou art far from them.
But do not treat me thus when I raise the voice of my supplication unto Thy inner sanctuary.
David has his face turned to the place where the Lord dwelled: the holy of holies. Such is the meaning of verse 2.
David is horribly afraid of being treated like the wicked. It seems as though there was a conspiracy against the anointed of the Lord. There were wicked people that spoke peace to David while evil was in their heart. And David was under condemnation; he seems to have been the victim of a vile plot, so that he groaned under the accusation of being “ungodly and a worker of iniquity,” vs. 3.
Now if only Jehovah would have shown that He understood, that He knew that David was innocent: he could have borne it. But Jehovah was silent. Therefore we hear that anguished cry: “Carry me not away with the ungodly and with the workers of iniquity.” For that is exactly the way which God holds with the wicked. For a long time it seems as if there is no God in the heavens: they multiply evil and are pregnant with unrighteousness. And the heavens are silent. Until the Lord comes and takes them away; then they are carried along as with a flood; a swift recompense is their portion at the time of God’s righteous anger.
David dreads this. Therefore his supplications are heard, with a strong crying and tears.
Certainly, it would be divine equity when the evil doers were destroyed from the face of the earth. They had deserved it. Their behavior testified of their hellish origin. Notice: they spoke peace with their neighbors while evil was in their hearts. That action characterized them. That is exactly the behavior of the devils: deception, foul lying and dissimulation: their deeds were wicked.
Accordingly, David calls for a swift punishment on such evil men. And notice that David asks the Lord for punishment according to strictest justice. He will delight in righteous recompense. Therefore he pleads that God give them according to their evil deeds.
And the deepest reason is that these wicked men do not regard God. They have no eye for all the wonderful work of Jehovah.
Such is also the greatest sin of all. It shows how much they despise God. They act and speak and walk as though there is no God at all, while all things are a loud testimony of Him. The heavens and the earth and all the host of them is like a veritable chorus of voices. They all sing of His wonderful virtues. Even the bodies and souls of the wicked join in with this concert of God’s praises. They have occasion to view the work of God’s hands in their very being and yet they act as though He is not. It shows the devilish pride of these enemies of David.
And if the voice of created things is glorious so that not even the blindest heathen is without excuse, how shall it fare with them if they have not regarded the works of His hands in salvation? Remember that it is David, the anointed of the Lord, who cries out against these evildoers in this psalm. Note that in verse 8 David is exulting in the fact that God has been the defense of him, the anointed of the Lord. It shows that these evil people have attacked the work of salvation in Israel.
That work of salvation is above all things glorious. These evil men, whoever they may have been, knew about salvation. The beloved of God, for that is the meaning of the name David, was their king. Against him they plotted and meant his hurt. And doing so they had no regard for the work of the covenant God, Jehovah.
That, my brethren, is a grievous sin.
And that sin is full-borne when Jesus pours out His supplications unto the God of His salvation. This psalm fits the complaints of Jesus entirely. He has relived this psalm so many centuries later.
Jesus, our Lord, was in the midst of just such people who would not regard the works of Jehovah’s hands. They acted as if God did not exist, although He surely did not leave Himself without witness. Christ, the beloved, could work miracles, do good, bless and save—but they acted as though Jesus was a malefactor. They spoke peace to Him, but evil was in their heart. Think here of that devilish kiss of Judas, the foul mouth of the Sanhedrin.
Yes, we can understand how David calls down God’s righteous judgments upon them. Give them, o God, according to their work! And we see also that David was experiencing before the strong supplications of Jesus, standing in the midst of those that hated Him and His Father who sent Him.
And because they will not regard God who works all this beauteous salvation, David knows that God will pull them down and not build them up.
He will pull them down: it shows their lofty pride and arrogancy. But God will pull them down and will not build them up. He will build up all those that pour out their supplications before Him.
This last truth as confessed by David in verse 5 seems to bring him to the wonderful outburst of faith and trust in the last verses of the psalm. It is the transition of strong crying to the jubilant song of praise and adoration.
Note how different is the tenor of his song from verse 6 onward to the end.
Even while David is writing down his strong crying to God, he begins to experience the answer from the God of his salvation.
Blessed be Jehovah, because He hath heard the voice of my supplication. That is the experience of every soul that pours out his heart to God. The faithful covenant God never slumbers nor sleeps. How could it be otherwise? He has given the Spirit of prayer and supplication to David. And that Spirit always prays according to the will of God.
Now the tenor of the song goes upward and onward.
Jehovah is my defense and my shield. Yes, the wicked will shoot their poisonous arrows to the pure in heart, but God is their defense. He is always as a strong tower round about those that fear Him. He defends them because it is His own cause for which they are suffering. Listen to the song of the church of all the ages: For Thy sake are we killed all the day long! We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Therefore God will defend them. And that defense is first of all experienced in the heart. David felt this defense even before he looked up from his document. As he poured out his soul unto God on the written page, God came to him and caused him to sing: In Him my heart trusted and I was helped—therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth! And with my song will I praise Him!
Incidentally, that is also the reason why the Lord seemed first to be a silent spectator. The Lord will send all these trials and temptations to His children so that they may be helped by Him and return to Him in praise and adoration. The Triune covenant God wants to be all and in all. Through the deep way of sin and grace He brings His church to the inner sanctuary of His heart so that they will everlastingly remember it and confess it: Salvation belongeth to the Lord! And that is heaven. It is supreme happiness for the church to stand around the throne and cast their crowns before Him and tell Him that all majesty, strength, power, dominion, glory and honor belong to Him.
And finally, David’s heart is enlarged; he beholds the whole church in the midst of their misery and struggle with the wicked. And seeing the trials of the body of Christ, he prays for them: surely, David is the anointed of the Lord. He is concerned about the people of God and acts as their representative: O help Thy people and bless Thy heritage. And feed them, and bear them up forever!
This final prayer of David again directs us to the fulfillment of David, Jesus Christ the Lord!
Such prayers are uttered by our great High Priest.
Such prayers are uttered by Him when hanging on the accursed tree. It seems as though we hear it again: Help Thy poor people, O Father! Forgive Thine heritage: they know not what they do!
Such prayers are uttered even now, my brother! He ever lives, this better David, this beloved of the Father, to pray for us.
At the right hand of God, Jesus prays. And is always heard. When the night is so dark that you cannot pray any more, He sends His Spirit to pray within you with groanings that cannot be uttered.
So that you may be helped, lifted up upon the Rock of God’s salvation and everlastingly may be to the praises of God!
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 14:17:09 GMT -5
5/1/1940
Let Thy Light So Shine
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Home / Archive / Vol 16 Issue 15
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The phrase “of the world” denotes the relation which the Church sustains to the world. It signifies that the Church was given to the world as light; that this light must shine, in order that men (the elect) may glorify God.
“A city set upon a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” The Church, then, is a city. Scripture frequently calls the Church a city. “There is a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God” (Ps. 46:4). Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King” (Ps. 48:12). Abraham is said to have looked for a city that hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:12). But ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. . . . (Heb. 12:22). And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2).
The Church a city, the people of God, a distinct commonwealth, a separate society, constituted of such as have been redeemed to God by the blood of the Lamb out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation—a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, whose King supreme is God.
This city cannot be hid, as it sets on a hill. Calvin’s commentary on this utterance reads as follows: “This means, that they (the apostles and the pastors) ought to live in such a manner, as if the eyes of all were upon them. And certainly, the more eminent a person is, the more injury he does by bad example, if he acts improperly. Christ, therefore, informs the apostles, that they must be careful to live a devout and holy life, than unknown persons of the common rank, because the eyes of ail are directed on them, as to lighted candles; and that they must not be endured, if their devotion and uprightness of conduct, do not correspond to the doctrine of which they are ministers. . . . After having taught the apostles that, in consequence of the rank in which they are placed, both their vices and their virtues are better known for good or bad example, he now enjoins them to so regulate their life, as to excite all to glorify God.”
The assertion that all eyes are upon such as do occupy positions of prominence and that the vices and virtues of such persons are better known for good or for bad examples, and that, finally such persons should, for that reason, be careful to live devout lives is all very true in itself. However, such are not the sentiments circulating through Christ’s words. Such, very plainly, was not His point of view. The matter upon which He was discoursing was not the conspicuousness of the Church or the individual Christian as such, but the duty of this church to render itself conspicuous by letting its light shine. The Christian, being light, must emit light, may not cover his light by his vices. Doing so, he places himself under a bushel.
By others it is maintained that Christ meant to caution his people against retreating from the affairs of the larger world into the smaller circle of their own. Doing so, they place their light under a bushel, come down from the crest of the hill to the valley below. The believer, Christ is supposed to have meant to say, should cast him in the deep stream, or take his seat in high places, enter, let us say, politics, engage in big business, join the union, in a word, mount himself upon the candlestick. If one of the gifted God’s people could persuade his countrymen to elect him president of our own United States of America, the angels in heaven would rejoice, so it is argued. For this particular disciple, having been raised to the aforesaid height, would be shedding his light over the vast expanse of our land from one of its borders to the other.
It is altogether possible that such a one would be hailed by men as a great light. It is a matter of doubt, however, whether the light radiated would continue to be the light of Christ. The world refuses to come to this light, so that this particular disciple might soon conclude that he had better ‘place his pure light of heaven under a bushel, would he get along. Be this as it may, it must be supposed that Christ was urging His disciples to make themselves conspicuous in the aforesaid sense when He said, “Let your light shine.” This, of course, is no plea for the view that the believer may not take a hand in helping to run the affairs of the state, that he may not hold office. The question confronting us in respect to the matter at hand, is whether Christ in this particular discourse or in any other discourses of His, urged His followers to seek places of prominence in this world. Fact is, no such admonition ever passed from His lips nor from the lips of His servants—the apostles. Paul does say: “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of no man” (1 Thess. 4:14, 15). And again: “Now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly, for yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man’s bread for naught; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you; Not because we have not power; but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. For even when we were not with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. . . . (2 Thess. 3:6-13).
Here the believer is told how he should conduct himself as a member of society. He may not lead a shiftless life, eating the bread of another. But nowhere in Scripture is he told that he should contend with his fellows for a place in the limelight for the reason that the world may know he is on earth. The matter Scripture stresses is godly conduct. To let our conversation be in heaven is the great injunction of the Lord. “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. . . . But now ye also put off these: anger, malice, wrath, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. . . .
Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man hath a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also ye do” (Col. 3).
Once more, a city on a hill cannot be hid. A city will not be passed by unnoticed. Not in Christ’s day at least when travel was slow and dangerous and the attending difficulties many. A city spied in the distance was therefore a welcome sight. Behind its walls the weary wayfarer would retreat for the night and be safe against the prowling beast. Add to this because of its position alone, the city set on a hill is most conspicuous so that it cannot in truth be hidden. In the last instance, however, it was God’s city of light on earth—the church—that Christ had before His eye, so that the thought circulating through His speech must be, then, that the church, by reason of its emitted light, is as conspicuous as a city set on a hill. The individual Christian is here enjoined to render himself noticeable not by seeking places of prominence in the world, but by radiating the light kindled within his bosom by the Spirit of Christ, in that particular station in life where Providence placed him. It is a mistake, then, to appeal to the aforesaid Scripture in support of the contention that the believer should aspire to a seat in Congress or join himself to a labor union in order to provide himself with an opportunity for letting shine his light.
Christ does not say, it should be noticed, that the burning candle and the city cannot be hidden. Had He said so, He would not have added, “Let your light so shine.” The burning candle can be placed under a bushel, and the city might have sprung up in the valley. As the measure in this case would hide the candle, so the hills would hide this city. The believer, too, can hide his light by projecting that part of self which ought to be put off, to wit, the old man of sin. And the church, likewise, ceases to be seen when it loses sight of its calling, and involves itself in the secular affairs of this life. Ascending the hill to its crest, coming from under the bushel to mount the candlestick are processes constituting the other side of the mortification of earthly members. In a word, the church: is the city on the hill when it preaches and lives the Word, and the burning candle mounted upon the candlestick is the emblem of the believer whose conversation is in heaven.
The city on the hill cannot be hidden. A church emitting its light will not fail to attract attention to itself. By the world, this city is cursed; the walking altars of Jehovah despised. The prophets were, Christ was. So too, (His followers, especially in the first few centuries of our own age. The eyes of the world were upon the disciples of Christ of that day. For they let shine their light. Were they men of high estate, these disciples? Not according to the testimony of the apostle which reads: “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are caked: but God hath chosen, the foolish things of the world to confound the things, which are mighty” (1 Cor. 1:21, 26). It was these foolish men after the flesh, men devoid of power, ignoble and weak things who in that day attracted to themselves the attention of the world.
History cannot once be appealed to in support of the contention that the candle on the candlestick is the big and useful man to whom the world will lend an ear and for whom it makes room. The joint testimony of history is that the city on the hill is the persecuted church, constituted of such as had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments. The light of the church shines brightest when its members are men of low estate, occupying humble places. There is a reason then why the Bible turned out to be a written record of God’s message to a persecuted church, to a church buffeted by a world incensed by the living testimony of the just.
Let your light shine. A very necessary admonition. For the inhabitants of the city on the hill may be tempted to hide their light under a bushel for more than one reason. As was said, the light emitted incenses the adversaries of the Lord, who, infuriated by the light, lay siege to the city of God. In order to pacify the wolves without, the citizens of the city of God may be tempted to obscure their light. This may not be done. Let your light shine.
There may still be another reason why believers should want to render their light inconspicuous. It may happen that the crave to again sit at the fleshpots of Egypt becomes strong. In the city on the hill are no fleshpots, but the manna from heaven, good for food, and the pure water from the rock. However, when in a carnal mood, the citizens of the celestial city go to weeping and say; “Who shall give us flesh to eat. We remember the flesh which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions and the garlic: but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, besides this manna before our eyes.” However, these fleshpots and cucumbers, and leeks and melons and onions and garlic thrive in Egypt. The Egyptians must be pacified, their favor won, before they can be expected to admit the citizens of the aforesaid city to their fleshpots. This is done. Lights are placed under measures and simultaneously the Egyptians lauded as a people of superior virtue, shaming by the fine moral quality of their deeds many a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. The Egyptians are told, further, that they are the blessed of the Lord. This flattering speech has its desired effect. The wrath of the adversary subsides. The long standing feud comes to an end. Light and darkness lock arms and make for the coveted fleshpots. With the aid of the good will and support of the Egyptians, the citizens of the city of light prosper, grow fat, and become famous and the world deems them worthy. But let it be born in mind that while the flesh was still between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a great plague (Num. 11:33).
Cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic—it is all good food. However, if not a gift of grace, if secured at the expense of a principle, we die while we eat. “And while the flesh was yet between their teeth. . . . the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.” If the flesh and the cucumbers arid the onions and the garlic are ours because of our having obscured our light, we may feel assured that we shall come to grief.
Seated at the Egyptian fleshpots, the citizens of the city of light feel ill at ease, as is evident from their attempt to compel Scripture to sanction their upward climb. We, so they say, are the light of the world. A city on a hill may not be hid. Nor do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but upon a candlestick. Hence, we have found our place. Forsooth, a nauseating distortion of Christ’s words, indicating a shifting of emphasis from heavenly to earthly treasures, and the loss of both the desire and the inclination to serve as heaven’s channel for heaven’s light. True, it takes courage and means self-denial. For “this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth, the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:19, 20). And the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months (Rev. 11:12). And they went up on the breath of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them (Rev. 21:9).
Let your light shine. Light is life revealed. Let your light shine that men may see your good works. All the organs of self-expression are involved in this command,—the tongue, the hand, the eye, the foot. All must be placed in the service of the new man in order that this man may shine forth. “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” (Heb. 12:12). “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing” (Isa. 35:5, 6). “I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto my testimonies” (Ps. 119:59). “I have refrained my feet from evil ways that I might keep thy word” (Ps. 119:21). “So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us” (Ps. 123:2). And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the daylong” (Ps. 35:28).
“And glorify thy Father in heaven.” The light emitted attracts, then, as well as it repels,—attracts, draws those foreknown before the world’s foundation. By the light of the church Christ draws all men—such He loved unto death—to Himself. These men, and none other, glorify God, so that this Scripture can neither be quoted in support of the view that the reprobate wicked, as a result of having been brought under the influence of Common Grace, glorify God when they see the good works of Christ’s followers.
The light shed, finally, is the believer returning to God whose workmanship he is. The good deeds done image the glories of God. He, then, is glorified.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 14:50:59 GMT -5
7/1/1939
Baptized In Moses (I Cor. 10:1, 2)
VERHIL, WILLIAM
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Home / Archive / Vol 15 Issue 19
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Strange words these.
Peculiar admonition.
I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant concerning the great event of the passing through the Red Sea. Moreover, I would not that ye should be ignorant. In this clause we find the conception with the preceding chapter. The exhortation at the end of the chapter pictures a sharp contrast between the athletes in the Olympic stadium and those who run the spiritual race. There is first of all similarity between them. The contestants strove for the reward or the crown which was to be had when the race was finished. The difference is, the one received a corruptible, the other an incorruptible crown. Secondly, many began the race, but only a few received the reward. This implied that to enter the race is not sufficient, the race must be finished and it must be done at the expense of all other things. The big question was not am I a contestant in the race, but is my running of such a nature that I will reach the end and thus receive the reward. It is not sufficient to enter the spiritual battle, we must keep fighting because only in that way shall the end be reached.
The Apostle applied the admonition to his own life, says he: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my ‘body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
You must reach the end or perish.
What the purpose of Paul might be? He means to instruct the Corinthians that they should not deceive themselves by thinking that all is well with them and that they should not worry about the outcome of their race which is to be run. He means to say, you are still at the beginning and you cannot make matters easy. The battle is now, and he alone who perseveres to the end shall receive the crown.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant. Ignorant about the history of the Church of the living God. The Apostle points to the history of the Old Testament Church. More particularly to the exodus from Egypt. He refers to the fact of God’s demand to Pharaoh to let God’s people go, that they may serve the Lord and sacrifice unto Him in the wilderness. This demand of the Lord was presented to Pharaoh toy Moses and Aaron. It was an easy command to obey, but Egypt’s king chose not to comply with it and thereby denied Jehovah the right until the Lord poured out His wrath upon the Egyptians.
Moreover, brethren, remember God’s peculiar way with Israel. This also refers to the difficult journey through the wilderness. Soon after they left the house of bondage, on the third day, the Lord commanded Moses to turn sideways. If Israel had travelled in a straight line the promised land could have been reached in a considerable short time. However, this was not the Lord’s purpose. He sent His people in a direct line toward the Red Sea. And standing before the sea they were closed in by mountains on each side. Their situation is precarious. The sea before them, the mountains on each side and behind them the onrushing Pharaoh and his host. Consequently, certain destruction would be their end. There was no way of escape left.
The reason? For one thing, Israel was a child and must be instructed. Israel was not ready to inherit the promised land and had to attend the school of Jehovah. And one of the most important factors was, that Israel must learn and understand its relation toward Jehovah. The journey was one of the means in the hand of the Lord to reveal His wisdom, His power and His love. And through it all the people must become conscious of the covenant relation, to be a separate people, whose help was in the Name of the Lord and that without Him they could do nothing. Another reason for the lengthy journey was, that the cup of iniquity of the Canaanites was not yet full.
The Lord intends to reveal from the outset that He is the Unchangeable One in regard to His people and in His relation toward the enemy. Pharaoh must be brought low and become the occasion of God’s revelation of His love toward His people at the expense of their tormentor. Therefore the precarious condition at this moment. True it is, Israel did not understand all this, to the contrary, they murmur and find fault with the Lord and Moses. The majority considered the servitude in Egypt easier to bear than to walk in faith with the Lord. And thus it continued in the desert at several occasions. Nevertheless, the Lord leads, leads all the way in spite of the rebels. He opened the way by commanding the sea to provide a dry path in its midst and by destroying the enemy. The sea became the watery-grave for Pharaoh and his army.
I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant.
Did the Corinthians not know about this episode of Israel’s history? Is it Paul’s intention to enrich their knowledge with some historical facts? Was it only a question of some information? If that were the case the preceding and the verses following have no sense and cannot be understood. But if the same people knew this history (and they did) is the question not absurd?
The answer is, they knew the history and yet the question of the Apostle is not foolish in the least. What Paul means to convey is this, do you understand the spiritual significance? He had said, all ran the race, but the greater part of them did not reach the end of the journey. I want you to know this concerning Israel in spite of the miracle at the Red Sea, in spite of all the other miracles performed by the Lord. I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant. History is not simply the happenings in time of some natural phenomena, but the revelation of God, of His counsel and covenant, of His love and also of His wrath. It is the manifestation of His good pleasure and it reveals His divine purpose.
The passage through the Red Sea meant to Israel to be baptized unto (into) Moses.
That some explain this to mean, when Israel passed through the Red Sea they walked in or through the water and were thus baptized. The water, it does not make any difference whether it was much or little, was for them the water of baptism.
Others say, while Israel went through the Red Sea a strong wind blew across the sea and sprinkled some water on their heads and thus we have a prophecy of baptism by sprinkling instead of the baptism by submerging. In both cases one marvels at the ingenuity of such fertile minds. I prefer to call this home-made typology clear and simple, without Scriptural basis and very dangerous. Besides, if one holds to such an explanation, I am sure that no one among the Israelites (not even Moses) understood their baptism and could not derive any spiritual benefit from it. And the Lord does not reveal anything whereby His people are not benefited.
As to the first explanation, namely, that Israel walked through the water, it can be said that the opposite was actually the case. The people went in the sea on a dry path. That was part of the miracle. While the waters stood on each side of them like a solid wall, their path was perfectly dry. And as to the sprinkling of the water by means of the wind, Scripture does not refer to this historical fact with a view to baptism. Besides, what kind of baptism must it be to be baptized unto Moses?
No, but Moses’ calling and his appointment to be the mediator were now made plain. The people did not know that this man Moses was appointed to lead them, to intercede for them, to be their mouthpiece unto the Lord and the Lord’s mouthpiece to His people. And up to this moment it seemed to the contrary, that they were an ignominious part of Egypt, the slaves of Pharaoh, they and their children. But in the passage through the Red Sea two things became plain. First, the fact that Moses and the people became one. This the Lord clearly revealed by the miraculous act of His almighty power. Through it all it became plain that under the leadership of Moses they were to set out to the land of promise. Moses was to lead them to the borders of Canaan. Moses’ calling and his place in the midst of Israel as mediator was confirmed.
And they were all under the cloud. In the cloud the Lord was present to lead and to guide, to protect and to fight for His people. We read of it when the children of Israel were pursued by Pharaoh: “And the Angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all night—And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen” (Ex. 14).
In the cloud the Lord was present and as we quoted, in the Red Sea the cloud moved between Israel and the Egyptians so that the one came not near the other all night. The Lord provided for Israel a shining light out of the midst of the cloud, while darkness prevailed over the Egyptians. Hence, that cloud was a sure sign of the one fact, the face of the Lord is over His people. And on the other hand, His wrath is upon Egypt. His people were protected, being under the cloud of the Angel of the Lord (Jesus Christ) and with and through Him, the ever faithful covenant God. Israel was under the cover of Jehovah’s wings. Therefore they were safe. Egypt was doomed through that same cloud, lightning flashing and thunder rolling, causing chaos in the army of Egypt while it was in the midst of the sea.
And in the sea.
The sea was also instrumental in bringing Israel unto Moses. It was the final act of the Lord. First, to bring His people before and in the sea and finally to lead them through the sea.
And through the sea they were separated and set free from the tyrant Pharaoh and from Egypt, the house of bondage. In a certain sense they were separated from the sinful world. The Lord’s command was fulfilled, “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.” And thus the Old Testament form of worship in a nationalistic sense came about and was inaugurated. Moses was to be their leader and mediator, the means of grace and the privileges connected with the covenant were to be given to Israel as a nation separated from the world. Israel was under the protection and guidance and the instruction of the Lord. And all of Israel were on their way to Canaan.
This fact therefore, is typical of the New Testament Church and its baptism. I would not that ye be ignorant brethren. Nor would we know, had not the Apostle Paul explained it to us, that the passage through the Red Sea was as such a type. We must not spiritualize, the Scriptures will interpret its own types for us.
What happened in the Old Dispensation is here explained to us. Israel and the New Testament Church are essentially one. Israel was separated by the cloud and the sea and thus baptized unto Moses. To follow, to be prayed for and instructed and finally to be led into the land of Canaan was the goal. And in it and through it all Israel is held before the eyes of the New Testament Church. The Church is separated from the world and the devil to be a peculiar people unto the Lord. And thus the passage through the Red Sea is type of baptism. Beautifully expressed in our well-known form “Thou, who hast drowned the obstinate Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, and hast led thy people Israel through the midst of the Sea upon dry ground, by which baptism was signified.”
For even as Israel was separated from Egypt and Pharaoh to be God’s people, dedicated unto His service, a peculiar people in distinction from the nations round about it, so also the baptismal sign and seal preach, be ye separated from this sinful world, the dominion and power of the devil and of sin. The water of baptism speaks of the cleansing of the unclean heart. For in the submerging or sprinkling of the water and the returning out of the water we have the sign and the seal of entering spiritually into the death of Christ and the returning out of the water, a return unto a new and sanctified life unto the Lord. No, not in the water as such (for then there be no sign nor seal left), but in the blood of Christ Jesus, Who died and was raised for us and we with Him. And by grace, through His Spirit, gives us that pure conscience toward God, through which grace we enter into the covenant fellowship of God Triune.
And thus Israel never returned to Egypt and the bondage of Pharaoh, so also the believer is freed from the bondage and service of Satan, the world and his sinful flesh.
That happened to the believing Israel in the passage through the Red Sea, under the cloud, following Moses. Freed from Egypt and their tormentor they were called to be an holy people unto the Lord.
For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant.
All were under the cloud.
There is no difference, according to the Apostle Paul. The emphasis must be placed in the all. All were baptized unto Moses and all passed through the sea. The privileges connected with Israel were enjoyed by all. The means of grace were administered to all. All left Egypt, were fed in the wilderness and were called by the name ‘the people of God.’
They all entered the “race” to Canaan.
Did they all enter?
The answer is: “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
Now these things were our examples. Not some but many (het meerendeel) never reached the promised land.
The believers alone were saved. They were the spiritual people of God, separated from Egypt and look forward to the Canaan that is above. When they entered the promised land they had the hope eternal in their hearts. That was their final goal, looking for the better Mediator, Who was to give them eternal rest.
For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant.
Also for the Church of today the admonition is imperative. It must be preached and taken to heart. There is no essential difference for the Church is one even as the Covenant God is One in the Old and the New Dispensation.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 14:57:50 GMT -5
6/1/1939
Prophecy Fulfilled (Acts 2:14-18)
VERHIL, WILLIAM
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Home / Archive / Vol 15 Issue 17
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One of the most difficult feasts to celebrate is the feast of Pentecost. Difficult because of its unique character. A wind is heard that does not blow, a fire that does not burn, and a speech that was never heard before. It is the feast where all is so extremely difficulta to understand. Intangible are the signs, their meanings, and also their applications. For, after the signs are seen and heard the multitude asks: ‘What meaneth this?’ while others mocked. Mocked, because Pentecost brings to light two spiritual powers. The power from above, descending upon the Church here below and praising God for His mighty works, and the power of darkness, not being satisfied with the perfect revelation of God. For the power of darkness, always being centered around itself, denies the great works of God. They may be stricken with fear for a moment, but when danger is passed they will manifest their boldness anew. What after all is a sound that cannot be explained and a fire that gives no heat? And what difference does it make whether man makes use of his own tongue or speaks in a different language?
The same is true of every-day life. The power that is revealed in the mighty works of God is minimized. And the whole race is divided into two groups, the ones who are for and those who are against God and His anointed. When the revelation of God comes to man the race is divided into two groups: the children of light and the children of darkness. Man is for or against. A third possibility is impossible.
On the day of Pentecost this is clearly revealed when the Holy Spirit is poured out. The eleven speak, inspired by the Spirit, with different tongues. They speak concerning the wonderful works of God, which He wrought through Christ.
The world also speaks, accusing the Church of being filled with new wine. The well-known weapons of mockery and slander are employed to ridicule the events of the great and powerful revelation of God. Of course, there is nothing strange in this. Man by nature will deny God and His Christ. Man will always reveal who he is, because in such things he cannot be neutral. For it is either or, for or against. Peter, standing with the eleven, shall answer the mockers and refute their arguments. Yes, sometimes it is better to remain silent, and as a rule it is a more effective weapon, when man attacks us. We should not make too much of it and rile back when mockery is the instrument that intends to hurt us, but on this blessed day it was not a question of man over against man. But the work of the Holy Spirit is the object of ridicule and therefore an answer must be given.
From a certain point of view Peter is the leader who shall answer the enemies and he shall do it with their own arguments. His testimony shall be the testimony of the whole Church. We do well to take note that this fearless champion is ready to testify in such a way that the enemies will never try again, in his presence to mock again.
How simple is his approach. Let us, for this is the meaning, let us be reasonable about your accusation. (I believe Peter had his eyes fixed on the scoffers when he spoke) and examine your charges for just a moment. O, how simple are his words and at the same time how accusing. Peter could have started out with all kinds of arguments, but he simply says let us consider your grievances. You say these men are drunk, filled with wine? You mean to tell me that they are perhaps used to drinking and now have forgotten themselves? Peter realizes that they are far away from the spiritual things. Hence, leaving the spiritual rest for a moment, let us argue from your own point of view. So let this be known, no man is foolish enough to start drinking at such an early hour.
Moreover, granting their arguments, that it is possible to be filled with wine at such an hour, Peter asks, do such people gather for the purpose of prayer? Explain what is happening from your own point of view, but dare you or any one maintain, that ever man came together for the purpose of prayer in such a condition? Canst thou conceive of a better explanation? Let me prove to you, from your own point of view that your arguments cannot be maintained in view of this early hour.
‘Be this known unto you and hearken to my words.’
Peter means to say, the way you try to explain the miracles just seen and heard will never do. But let me inform you concerning all that has happened in this early morning hour.
Remember, Peter does not speak to strangers but to Jews and men of Jerusalem. His preaching is positive. He speaks to the seed of Abraham. Peter confines himself to the Scriptures. That is, to the revelation of God. Not in any wisdom of this world should anyone find its foundation, but in the revelation of God. Without it there cannot be surety. We will fail in our attempt to take the position that our enemies should be met in their own territory. Never attempt to place yourself on their basis. No. But always reserve the right to argue from the point of view of the Word of your God. There is your foundation that will make the argument possible and convincing. If then you must seemingly lose before the enemy, which by the way, never happens, all is lost when one does not cling to the Scriptures.
Peter refers his audience to the Scriptures. He may expect a common basis even from the side of the scoffers. I know that they did not understand him spiritually, but that does not make any difference. They most assuredly understood these things intellectually. Apart whether this is a question of favor, they must be willing to admit that they knew what it was all about. It is not true when we say they did not know, for they did know. Peter refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. More particularly to Joel. Joel spake about the things that happened at Jerusalem in no uncertain terms. That we must note first of all. How important it is to maintain any given circumstance, as far as the basis is concerned, the Scripture. Especially when our opponents are acquainted with the Scriptures.
Peter refers boldly to the Scriptures because he speaks to men of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem should know concerning the Scriptures. The world does not know, but Jerusalem does. And in referring to the Scriptures it will not be difficult to explain this great holiday of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Without the light of the Word the feasts of the Church lose their significance. And in the case of the Jews it proved how far away they lived from their own Scriptures. Had not Joel spoken concerning these things? He prophesied concerning the latter days as to the end of the shadows. True it is, Joel’s prophecy did not keep all the features of this great feast rigidly separate, for that is the case with every one of the prophets. They received, so to speak the broad announcement, the whole and not every particular part. They themselves did not understand their prophecy to the full as is plain from the following ‘Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow’. Thus it was concerning the Savior as the incarnated Word and the suffering to follow and the glory for the Church (Isaiah’s prophecy). So it is here. Joel spoke of the great day of the Lord to come and in that light of his prophecy an undeniable reality became manifest of the fulfillment of what was said before. Men of Jerusalem cannot plead ignorance on this basis and they must confess: This is the day.
Of the last days it is spoken. It may mean, from our point of view, the days immediately before the second coming of the Lord. And we know that also the last days are included. But as far as the feast is concerned it refers first of all to the day of Pentecost. Christ was crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven. And to crucify the Lord, to mark Him as a deceiver, makes it impossible to understand this great day of Pentecost. But it does not change the prophecy of Joel. And the important fact, prophesied before, that the Spirit was to be poured out upon all flesh is to them of great importance. In Joel’s day the Spirit was not upon all, but upon some. Only a few knew concerning the plan of salvation. And not a great, but a small number of prophets instructed the people of God. First of all, because the people were not of a mind to serve the Lord and consequently could not understand the Word of the Lord with a view of the day that was to come. And secondly, because the prophecy itself was clothed in such language that it demanded spiritual effort to somewhat grasp its meaning.
Hence, God’s people found no relief except that the prophecy comforted them: It will come, it shall not be this way forever. And it came to pass. Literally Peter says, referring to Joel’s prophecy, it is realized now! Now it is realized that the Spirit is poured out without measure. The power of the Holy Spirit descended upon all of them. The fire upon the congregation, the speaking with different tongues, are as so many proofs of this great fulfilment. All received instead of a few. All flesh was to be partaker. No longer a select few. No longer confined to one people. No longer confined to prophet and priest. But every one small and great shall partake of Christ’s work. The servant of the Old developed into the son of the New Dispensation on the day of Pentecost.
That is the excellency of Pentecost!
All received the Spirit, even as Moses prayed so many centuries before, “O, that they all were prophets,” is now fulfilled. This is clear from the text. It does no longer speak of the aged alone (certain officebearers), of rich and poor. No, it speaks of sons and daughters, of servants and handmaidens and thus upon all flesh, according to character and talents, the Spirit shall make his abode with them. One people prophesying and seeing the wonderful work of God.
The result of this outpouring shall be that “your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”. Notice how revelation was given in the Old Dispensation. Prophecy, Visions and Dreams were the ordinary means employed by the Lord to make known unto His people His eternal counsel. Being filled with the Word of God, prophecy signified the rare and excellent gift of understanding. Every individual in the Church of God, in connection with the whole of the Church, shall understand and thus know the Lord. The congregation of Christ knows all things. All the riches are bestowed upon it, because all is prepared for them by their Christ and all that is necessary to be known by them. The thoughts of the Lord, the whole of His revelation is given, through the Spirit, to her.
Not as some would have it. Now as yet dreams, visions and prophecies. In the sense as it is practiced by certain sects, who separating themselves from the Word of God, claim new visions and dreams and prophesies. This would mean that again the Church is placed under tutors and teachers, waiting for maturity. In other words, it means a return to the Old Dispensation. Which in turn is a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit and the pouring out of all the benefits of salvation, and is also a denial of the completeness of Scripture. Besides, in such cases all this bombast is unintelligent and never in harmony with the Scriptures.
But the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh results in young men who do not desire to serve the world. They understand spiritually the Word of God, love it, and they live.
Daughters whose souls are not filled with the pleasures of the world, clinging to the Word of their God.
Old men who are filled with the salvation of the Lord.
And all of it in subjection to the Word of God. Visions not of false and vain ideals. But the visions in perfect harmony with that Word alone, visions received through the Spirit from the Lord.
They prophesy. Being filled with the Word of their desire, holy desire is fixed upon the final coming of their Lord, expecting the New Jerusalem that shall descend from heaven.
Hence, servants and handmaidens. Which does not mean to distinguish between one and the other, but serves as a distinction of equality. My servants and my handmaidens. One who belongs to the company of the saints is first of all a servant and handmaid. For although he is at the same time a friend of God, nevertheless this is not at the expense of being a servant.
And together they prophesy.
They speak in connection with present and future of their hope and their peace, theirs through liberty in Christ Jesus.
To the end, that He alone may be great in the Church and through Him God shall be praised for ever and ever, when the day shall be fulfilled in His return upon the clouds of heaven.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 18:48:00 GMT -5
11/1/1943
The Hardening of the Heart
DE WOLF HUBERT
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Home / Archive / Volume 20/1944 / Vol 20 Issue 03
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What Scripture Teaches
Various questions arise in the consideration of the subject, the hardening of the heart. Perhaps the most discussion centers about the question that is raised with a view to the cause of this hardening. The most popular view contends that this hardening has its primary cause in man himself. Even in those passages of Scripture where this hardening is directly ascribed to God, the majority of Bible expositors attempt to pass by this difficulty (or should we say so-called difficulty?) by explaining that God hardens the heart of man only after He has made many futile attempts to turn him from his evil way and man has consistently refused to heed the voice of God. Hence, according to them, only after man has hardened his heart against the Word of God and because man has done that consistently, does God harden his heart and make it impossible for him to repent and be converted. We need not say that this is the prevalent view today and is in full accord with the almost overwhelming trend in religious circles to get away from the whole idea of predestination as an eternal decree of God and to make salvation dependent upon the choice of man’s free will. Any doctrine that holds that some individuals cannot believe and be saved because God has from eternity ordained that they should not be saved and therefore in time hardens their hearts, is of course incompatible with their free-will conception of salvation and therefore cannot be entertained. The result is, naturally, that men have been compelled to distort the teaching of Scripture in such passages in which this fact is clearly taught in order to make it fit into their scheme.
However, before we say any more about the subject itself, let us see what Scripture teaches us in this respect.
The Scriptural references that speak of this hardening of the heart are too numerous to mention. We do not intend to burden the reader with a mass of Scripture texts but shall call attention to those only that are outstanding in what they reveal about our subject. In case anyone is interested in reviewing all the passages that speak of this hardening of the heart, a good concordance will serve the purpose. All the texts that speak of this reality may be grouped into three classes; those that ascribe this hardening to man himself, those that ascribe this hardening to God and some that leave the cause of this hardening undetermined, ascribing it neither directly to God nor to man himself. It may be noticed also that Scripture uses various terms in the original to denote this hardening, all of which are translated in the English by some form of the verb “harden.” In the original, Scripture uses such terms as, “to strengthen, to make hard, to make strong, to make heavy, to make sharp, to make dry or stiff.” Finally it is also interesting to note the various connections in which the word “harden” appears. In this respect we find that Scripture speaks of this hardening as a hardening:
Against God’s Command. In this respect the classic example of Pharaoh is outstanding. God had commanded through His servant Moses that the Egyptian king should permit Israel to go out and serve their God. But Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he does not let the people go until the Lord has brought upon him His terrible judgments in the ten plagues. See in this connection the history recorded in the book of Exodus, chapters 4 to 14.
Against God’s fear. This appears in the first place from Isaiah 63:17, “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?. . . .” Also Proverbs 28:14 teaches this, “Happy is the man that feareth alway; but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
Against loving the neighbor. Deut. 15:7. “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother.”
Against God’s way, and His voice. Ps. 95:7, 8. “For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart, as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” See also Heb. 3:8 and Heb. 4:7.
Against God’s judgments. Not only does the example of Pharaoh and the Egyptians serve here but also that of the Philistines who had taken the ark of God. I Sam. 6:6, “Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?. . . .”
Against true understanding. After the Lord has warned His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, they reason among themselves thinking that it is because they have not taken bread that Jesus speaks thus. Then we read in Mark 8:17, “And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not, neither understand? have ye your hearts yet hardened?”
Against believing in Jesus. John 12:39, 40. “Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”
Wherein it consists.
From the above quotations we may gather various elements that are present in this hardening of the heart, which are also to be identified with it. There is in the first place the element of pride and rebellion. This is especially plain from the example of Pharaoh. The Lord had commanded that Pharaoh should let Israel go but Pharaoh says, “Who is the Lord? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” In his pride Pharaoh refuses to acknowledge any master over him and therefore also rebels against performing any command which God may give him. Even when God sends His judgments upon him, he refuses to bend and though he seems to relent momentarily, he consistently refuses to heed the voice of God. This same pride and rebellion becomes manifest in Israel when time and again the people refused to hear God’s Word, refused to repent and confess their sins but proudly continued in their own wicked way. Almost the same idea is expressed in Scripture when we read of “hardening the neck.” Essentially this pride and rebellion is the expression of man’s sinful desire to be as God and to determine for himself what is good and evil. A second element found in the hardening of the heart is that of spiritual blindness and therefore the inability to understand the truth of God. This is evident from both John 12 and Mark 8 which we have quoted above. A third element is that which Scripture characterizes as folly: to say that there is no God. It reveals itself in a refusal to fear Him and acknowledge His sovereignty and majesty, in a manner of life in which He has no place. Finally there is the element of unbelief which causes one to deny the truth and love the lie. Perhaps we may summarize it all in the following definition: hardening of the heart is an act of proud rebellion against the Sovereign God, whereby the whole man is set to resist the truth and confess the lie, to desire and do the evil, so that he is willfully blind and deaf to the things of the Spirit and as a result is unable to perform or even to desire that which is good but instead strengthens himself in his unbelief and, persisting in his wickedness, subjects his whole life in the service of sin and darkness.
This hardening of the heart is not always a permanent reality but is somewhat also temporary. In the case of the reprobate sinner, the vessels of wrath, this hardening is permanent; in respect to them i is a hardening in the absolute sense of the word. However Scripture also speaks of this hardening with respect to God’s people. When God’s child continues for a time in a way of sin and refuses to confess and leave it, he becomes guilty of hardening his heart. Moreover, Isaiah speaks of the fact that God Himself has hardened the hearts of His people from His fear, Isa. 63:17. We also find such a temporary hardening in the life of David after his sin with Bathsheba, as well as the time he insisted on numbering the people despite Joab’s warning and attempt to dissuade him. It is possible that also we can recall a similar experience in our own life.
Its Source.
We mentioned before that Scripture ascribes the cause of this hardening either to man himself or to God. In some cases it is clearly stated that God hardened the heart of man. It is of course to this statement that the greatest objection is raised. It is argued that God is good and kind and therefore we may not ascribe such a thing to Him. The usual explanation of such passages that state this is therefore, that God hardens the heart of man only after man has first hardened his own heart, only after God has first given man many opportunities to repent and be converted. It would be, so many contend, unrighteous of God if He never gave a man a chance to repent but hardened him from the very beginning of his life we know that there is no unrighteousness with God, hence, this is the only possible explanation. However, the question arises, is that really true? Is it true that God hardens the heart only after He has first given man an opportunity to repent and after man has first hardened his own heart? Now, even though we stand in jeopardy of holding a very unpopular view, we shall nevertheless have to answer that question in the negative. In the first place it is simply nonsense to say that God hardens only after man has first hardened his heart. To what, then, does that hardening on the part of God amount to? Why should God harden the heart of him who has already hardened it? Does not the very fact that man has hardened his heart mean that he consistently refuses to repent? What sense does it make to say that God makes it impossible for someone to do something which he himself has never desired and never shall desire to do? In the second place Scripture teaches the very opposite from what is generally contended. It is not true, for example, that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh only after Pharaoh has first hardened his own heart. Exodus 4:21 contradicts this contention. There God tells Moses before he goes to Pharaoh that the Egyptian king will not let Israel go because He would harden Pharaoh’s heart. Surely this cannot be denied. In this same respect, John 12:37-41 is equally clear. Here Christ explains the failure of many to believe in Him in the light and as the fulfillment of the saying of Esaias. They could not believe! And why not? Because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not be converted. Moreover we cannot so easily dispose of the saying of Jesus in Luke 10:21 where He thanks God that He has hidden these things from the wise and prudent. Notice also how Jesus explains why He speaks in parables, in Matt. 13:11, “because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” And the apostle Peter explains the stumbling of many as that whereunto they had been appointed, I Peter 2:8. Finally the apostle Paul is very clear on this matter when he states in Romans 9:18, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”
We should not be afraid to confess this. We surely may not deny this in an attempt to justify God; God will justify Himself. We need not fear to confess what God has declared to be the truth in His Word. And only when we do confess this do we give to God the glory that is due Him. For then He is not an impotent being dependent upon the acts of His creatures but the almighty, sovereign God whose counsel shall stand and who doeth all His good pleasure. Then, too, we stand on solid ground and have comfort and certainty. Let us confess then with the inspired apostle in Romans 9:16, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 18:50:33 GMT -5
6/1/1944
Grieving the Spirit
DE WOLF HUBERT
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Home / Archive / Volume 20/1944 / Vol 20 Issue 17
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In Ephesians 4:30 the apostle writes to the church, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’’ Although Scripture does not elsewhere speak of “grieving the Spirit” in so many words, the idea is expressed more often in somewhat similar terms. In Isaiah 63:10 we read, “But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.” In the above passage the word “vexed” may also be translated “grieved.” Other passages do not single out the holy Spirit but refer to the triune God as being grieved. In Psalm 78:40 the psalmist declares, “How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert!” In Psalm 95:10 the Lord Himself declares through the mouth of the psalmist, “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” And again in the same connection, with a view to the same historical incident, this verse is quoted literally in Heb. 3:10, while in verse 17 of this same chapter the writer to the Hebrews adds, “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?” And finally it is said of the Lord Himself in Gen. 6:6, “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.”
This latter passage may be excluded as far as the practical significance of our subject is concerned. However, it adds emphasis to the question which naturally arises in the consideration of our subject: How must it be explained that God can be grieved? Essentially it makes no difference whether one speaks of grieving the holy Spirit or of grieving God. The holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity and therefore truly God. And what affects the holy Spirit must necessarily affect the triune God. The difference pertains not to the grieving as such but to the mode of this grieving. However, as far as the above mentioned question is concerned, it makes no difference whether we speak of grieving the holy Spirit or of grieving God, as is evident from the fact that Scripture speaks of both.
The question how God can be grieved and wherein that divine grief consists is by no means a simple one and is not to be answered in an off-hand way. The question is certainly worthy of serious thought. Moreover, the more one attempts to find a solution, the more problems seem to arise. Hence, we would not even for one moment contend, nor would we have the reader think that any solution which we may offer is to be considered’ the final word on the subject. It would not be difficult to show that any solution which might be offered still leaves room for many questions, questions that are difficult to answer.
One’s first inclination, when faced by this question, is perhaps to explain it by simply saying that God is grieved just as we are. However, one immediately realizes that this will not do. For God is God! He is not a man that He should be subject to affliction, sorrow, grief or disappointment. Man may suffer loss but God cannot suffer loss. Man may suffer a wound either in his body or in his heart but God cannot be wounded. God is certainly, as far as these things are concerned, the untouchable one. He is that because He is absolutely Sovereign and Independent. He is in no sense of the word dependent upon His creatures. We cannot enrich Him, we cannot impoverish Him. We cannot add to His glory, we cannot detract from it. We cannot increase His blessedness nor can we decrease it. He is in Himself the ever blessed God. He is highly exalted above all that He has made and dwells in everlasting perfection. We are affected by time, condition and circumstance and our joy or sorrow depends largely upon them. This is not so however with the Lord. He is Himself, as the Sovereign, Independent and Infinite God, the source of all His perfect life and blessedness. Hence it must be clear that, from this point of view we cannot speak of grief in respect to God. It is impossible that God, Who is truly God, should ever suffer grief as we are caused to bear it.
Someone might suggest that this “grieving” does not have the same meaning when applied to the holy Spirit or to God as it does when applied to man. In the first place, the question arises, what meaning would it have then when applied to God? However it is evident, in the second place, that this same word is used in the original in both instances. In, the texts which we have quoted above the original uses more than one word for “grieved.” Yet, in every instance, we find that the same word is used with a view to man’s grief also. And, when in Ephesians 4:30 we are admonished to “grieve not the holy Spirit,” the original renders the word “grieve” as, “to make sorrowful, to affect with sadness, cause grief, to throw into sorrow.” Hence we find no solution here.
Most commentaries explain the expression as an anthropomorphism. Rather than to explain the term, we quote Barnes’ Notes where the idea is clearly expressed. He says, “We are not to suppose that the Holy Spirit literally endures grief or pain, at the conduct of men. The language is such as is fitted to describe what men endure, and is applied to him to denote that kind of conduct which is fitted to cause grief; and the meaning here is, ‘do not pursue such a course as is fitted in its own nature, to pain the benevolent heart of a holy being. Do not act towards the Holy Spirit in a manner which would produce pain in the bosom of a friend who loves you.’” Our objection to this view is that it does not do justice to the expression. Although it has significance for the believer, it nevertheless does not answer to any reality in God. When Scripture speaks anthropomorphistically of God’s hand or eye, there is an actual reality suggested. Here however, that is not true.
The editor of the Standard Bearer, in one of his meditations, gives another interpretation, (See Vol. 7 No. 19). He presents the view that, although the holy Spirit as the third person of the holy trinity cannot suffer and endure grief, this is not the case with the holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ in the Church. He says, (we translate from the Holland, H.D.W.), “As the Son of God could suffer, not in the divine nature but in the human nature, so can the holy Spirit as the Spirit of and in the church of Christ, be grieved.” Whether this view can be maintained in the face of all the questions that arise is yet to be seen. Personally we are convinced that it can stand a great deal of elucidation and is worthy of being further developed. We are attracted to this interpretation because it holds that this grieving is a reality not only with a view to him who grieves but also the holy Spirit Who is grieved. Whereas the anthropomorphistical view must necessarily deny any reality at all with a view to this grief on the part of the holy Spirit, the above mentioned view retains the basic implication that the holy Spirit can actually suffer, although not as the third person of the trinity but as the Spirit of Christ in the Church. In this light “the grieving” answers to a reality in God. Hence, when we become guilty of grieving the Spirit, we are not simply doing something that ordinarily would cause someone to suffer but actually does not affect the Spirit, but we are actually causing the holy Spirit to suffer; He is actually afflicted by our misconduct. Nevertheless, it is a question whether the analogy which the editor makes between the Son of God in the human nature and the holy Spirit in the Church will actually hold. With a view to the former, there is an actual union of the divine and human, natures. The Son of God actually assumed the human nature and He became true man. And although it was truly the Son of God that suffered, He nevertheless bore His suffering and endured His grief in His own personal human nature which He had assumed. With a view to the Holy Spirit in the church, the case is different. Although He has been, poured out in the Church and actually dwells in the heart of the individual believer, although He bears witness with our spirit and even prays for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, He nevertheless remains exclusively divine in His nature. He does not, as did the Son of God, enter into a personal union with the human nature. He does not possess a Personal human nature in which He can suffer. And therefore, unless the above reasoning is incorrect, the question as to wherein this grief consists, still remains, and especially so in the light of Genesis 6:6 where we read of God that “it grieved Him at His heart.”
There are also other questions that persist. And although we feel that it would be beneficial to reason “out loud” and “on paper” space will not permit in this instance. Moreover, we are not prepared to give a solution that is satisfactory in every respect. We are convinced however that the solution must not be sought by anthropomorphistically explaining the difficulty away. We believe that this grieving does in some way answer to an actual reality in God. We also suggest that, in the light of the last mentioned view, there is a third possibility, namely, to explain this grieving in a relative sense. Although in the absolute sense of the word God cannot suffer and endure grief because He is the most blessed God forever and ever, isn’t it possible that in a relative sense God can actually suffer grief with a view to a certain relationship which He has sovereignly assumed with a view to His creature and, more particularly, His people? And isn’t it possible that God can suffer with a view to a specific relationship without it actually affecting Him in His divine Being so as to cause Him to suffer loss, just because He is the Sovereign, Independent One? And doesn’t this seem the more possible in the light of the fact that, in every instance in which this grieving of God or the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Scripture, a very definite relationship with His creature is implied; and also in the light of the fact that all things, even sin, is made to serve the purpose of God’s eternal glory? How else can we explain God’s wrath and displeasure? If we hold to the fact that God is God we shall have to confess that God is pleased in His displeasure, paradoxical though this may seem.
We had intended to say something about the practical significance of this grieving of the Spirit. However, also here, space will not permit. We shall be content therefore if our writing has served in some small way to cause the reader to think about this deep spiritual reality. And so much more so if it might result in a clearer understanding of this thing which God has revealed concerning Himself.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 19:19:51 GMT -5
10/1/1944
Foreknowledge and Predestination
HANKO, CORNELIUS
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Home / Archive / Volume 21/1945 / Vol 21 Issue 01
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There are possibly no two other terms in the field of theology more commonly confused and misunderstood than the terms foreknowledge and fore-ordination, or the more familiar word, predestination.
Both these terms have this in common that they are Scriptural terms, each referring to some definite phase of the eternal counsel of God’s will, in which divine election and reprobation take a prominent place. They are intimately related to each other as cause and effect, since God’s sovereign foreknowledge is the determining cause of His eternal predestination.
Turning to the Scripture we meet various passages, particularly in the New Testament, that speak of God’s foreknowledge. Peter addresses the strangers of the dispersion as “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” making God’s foreknowledge the basis for their election. I Peter 1:2.
In this same chapter he speaks of Christ as a lamb without spot or blemish “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.” verse 20. Although the translation speaks of “foreordained” the word in the original is the same as is used in the second verse and definitely means “foreknown.” (The word is proginooskoo, not pro-oridzoo). The Dutch accordingly has “voorgekend.” Thus Peter speaks also of Christ, as well as of the elect, as having been foreknown from all eternity. He was foreknown as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.
In his Pentecostal address Peter speaks of Christ as having been delivered into wicked hands to be crucified and slain “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Acts 2:23. Never could wicked hands have taken Him had these hands not been determined by God according to His eternal foreknowledge. God determined the time, the place, the occasion, the circumstances and the persons for carrying out the atrocious act of crucifying the Lord of glory. By that very act He would make atonement for sin. God willed to save His people, whom He foreknew as His own, by the death of His Son on the cross.
In this connection it is interesting to note that when Scripture states that God knows His people, this divine knowledge of His own is rooted in foreknowledge. God says of Abraham, Gen. 18:19, “For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.” This can only mean that God knew Abraham with an eternal knowledge. He foreknew him in sovereign, unchangeable love. And that is true of all His people. He has chosen them on the basis of His eternal foreknowledge. By grace He redeems them on the cross, makes them His people through the indwelling Spirit in their hearts and blesses them with all spiritual blessings to fit them to His service. God forms them as His own according to His eternal good pleasure.
But Scripture also speaks of predestination. In the first chapter of Ephesians Paul states, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption through Jesus Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.” Verse 5. And in the eleventh verse, “Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will.” Both passages refer to the divine purpose of God’s predestination. God predestinated His people unto a very definite purpose, a definite and exalted glory, which is realized in their adoption unto Himself in Christ Jesus.
A very significant passage for our purpose is Rom. 8:29, “For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This passage is particularly significant because both foreknowledge and predestination are mentioned together. The more so, because they are mentioned in their relation to one another. The apostle is giving assurance of the fact “that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose.” He does this by showing that the salvation of the called ones is an established fact with God Himself from eternity.
The chain of salvation is eternally bound fast in God. For whom He foreknew He also predestinated. . . . and whom He predestinated He also called, and whom He called He also justified, and whom He justified He also glorified, (verses 29 and 30). The viewpoint is not of what takes place in time, but of what is established already in the counsel of God’s will. The elect are not only foreknown and predestinated, but they are also called and justified and glorified in God’s eternal decree. Nothing can change that established fact. It rests on eternal foreknowledge, which is the divine motive why God predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. No wonder, then, that all things must necessarily work together for good for those who love God.
In speaking of God’s foreknowledge we may never forget that God is God, the wholly other, also in His eternal foreknowledge. Man knows as man, but God knows as God. Man may make certain observations of existing circumstances and thereupon make some uncanny predictions. The weatherman, for example, may be quite correct in determining the weather and temperature more than twenty four hours in advance. The news commentator may shock the world with his predictions based on events that have already transpired. But in either case this foreknowledge is only a conclusion based on certain established facts. And the prediction has but a limited degree of certainty and accuracy. But God’s foreknowledge is original in God, sovereignly independent from any outside circumstances or conditions.
God’s foreknowledge is even the determining cause for that which is. God does not see in advance that a certain series of circumstances must have a certain definite result, but God wills the circumstances and the conditions in His eternal foreknowledge. But God is the originator, the creative cause of all that He foreknows. He wills it, determines it, and it happens accordingly. He foreknows it because He wills it so. As an artist conceives of a beautiful painting in his own mind and gives expression to it only as his brush sweeps over the canvas, so God in His eternal foreknowledge conceives of all things which He calls into being in time.
In that way God also foreknows His people in Christ Jesus. He does not foreknow His people because of foreseen faith and works and perseverance, as the Arminian likes to present it. Election based on such a knowledge is no election, is not worthy of the sovereignly independent God. Such a presentation of God’s foreknowledge is a flat denial of God Himself. Not God, but man then determines who shall be saved to enter into God’s glory.
On the contrary, God foreknows His people in Christ Jesus with an eternally sovereign, independent, determinative, creative knowledge. God foreknew Christ, Who is the Son, the express image of His likeness and the effulgence of His glory. God willed that Christ should be the Servant par excellence, in whom all the fullness of divine blessedness should dwell forever. In Christ God foreknows His people, chosen unto Himself with a foreknowledge of love. God knows them collectively as the assembly of the elect, the body of Christ. But He also knows them individually, each one by name according to his person and nature, according to his place and position in the household of faith. He conceived of them as so many brethren in Christ Jesus, and engraved them in the palms of His hands. He loves them for His own Name’s sake in Covenant friendship, delighting in them as His masterpiece, which perfectly shows forth the glorious praises of His name forever.
That is God’s foreknowledge. In distinction from that, predestination is the eternal act of God whereby He sovereignly determines all things to serve His supreme purpose, the most excellent glory of His Name. This predestination is God’s plan of the ages. Not as an architect makes a blueprint of the structure he intends to build, which is but a lifeless slip of paper and becomes useless as soon as the structure is complete. God’s predestination is the almighty, living thought of the eternally counselling God, coming into full expression when God’s counsel is realized. As a result of this divine decree He commands and it stands forth. All rational and irrational creatures, men and angels, good and evil, things in heaven and things on earth belong to that living counsel of the Most High. The time and place of our birth and death, our daily existence and our place in life form a part of that decree. Even the good works of the believers have been prepared beforehand that they may walk in them during this present time. Eph. 2:10. Together all things serve the purpose which God has established from eternity in that counsel of His will.
Especially God’s people form an integral part of that predestination. “For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren.” God’s foreknowledge is the divine motive for His predestination. God willed Christ to be the firstborn, for which reason He gave Him many brethren, God chose these brethren, ordained them unto eternal life. Election is first of all personal. Every one of the elect is personally chosen, known of God. Each one has his name written in the book of life from before the foundation of the world. But election also includes that God has ordained them to become partakers of a definite and exalted glory, the end unto which they were chosen. That end is the adoption to sons, the conformation into the image of God’s Son, so that He is the firstborn among many brethren. Many sons must carry and radiate the glory of the firstborn of the Father. His glory must be reflected by thousands upon thousands who are sons through Him and are made like Him. So that even as He reflects the glory of the Father, the Triune God, so God Himself may be glorified forever in Christ and in all those who belong to Christ. The glorified saints shall share the likeness and life of Christ, to be like unto God, as sons in His house, to dwell with Him, to experience and tell His praises forever.
Foreknowledge and predestination, though each distinct in itself, are most intimately related. The former is the divine motive for the latter, that to God may be the praise and glory eternally.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 20:05:07 GMT -5
6/15/1945
Man’s Responsibility and God’s Providence
DOEZEMA, L
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Home / Archive / Volume 21/1945 / Vol 21 Issue 18
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The reader will notice that the; above subject is formulated differently from the usual formulation. Usually our attention is drawn to the formulation: “God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility”. Essentially there is no difference in expressing problem in these two ways. However, as the problem formulated above it seeks to bring out the impossibility of denying the sovereignty of God sir any way in history. If we confess God’s providence, as it is implied in Scripture we do more than just speak of God’s sovereignty in His counsel, but we also explain His counsel as a living counsel, a sovereign rule executed over all things. That makes the problem of man’s responsibility more acute.
It is the purpose of this article to present the problem of mail’s responsibility and to maintain that the sovereign power and rule of God brings out and maintains man’s responsibility.
Of late we have been reading and hearing about the subject of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility as a mystery. With this is meant that it is impossible for man to harmonize the sovereignty of God on the one hand with the responsibility of man on the other. So far it is easily understandable how that our interpretation of the Scriptural teachings about God’s sovereignty and its emphasis upon man’s responsibility may lead us to such a conclusion. However, it is altogether another matter to dogmatically assert that one’s own teaching of the relation of the sovereign God to man who is responsible is the correct teaching of Scripture. Furthermore, it is another matter to use the conclusion that this is a mystery as an excuse for the failure to study the problem any further.
We should realize that although our finite minds cannot fathom the infinite, nevertheless, we may not despise the teachings of God or say and teach anything contrary thereto. We should realize that although we are dealing with a problem, it is exactly at this point of difficulty that the danger of error is so immanent. Our calling to warn from heresy is in place here especially.
History reveals that many conceptions of the relation of the divine to the human are contradictory to the plain teaching of the Bible. Usually human responsibility is emphasized to make room for the Pelagian and Arminian desire to make man somehow a determining factor in the matter of salvation. Often the emphasis upon human responsibility is nothing more than an emphasis upon the Pelagian teaching human ability.
The problem of human responsibility in. relation to God’s providence arises from the problem of the freedom of the will. Human responsibility implies human freedom. Moral accountability demands a free moral agent. Thus the problem is to explain how such a moral agent, man, is free and accountable to God who is sovereign in determining all things, whose will is free in the sense that no one can resist it.
If we approach this problem from a philosophical rather than a theological point of view we are doomed to failure. G. Watts Cunningham in his “Problems of Philosophy” and in his chapter on the Problem of freedom begins by stating that there was always a controversy in theological discussions about this subject. However, he decides upon the approach, to eliminate the theological setting. He writes, “Enmeshed in its theological setting the problem is practically hopeless from the beginning. There are here so many by-paths not clearly marked, so many labyrinths of traditional feelings and preconceptions, so much vagueness in short, that a straightforward following of the main problem is rendered practically impossible. So we shall arbitrarily leave aside the religious bearing of the problem and endeavor to fix attention upon its simpler and more immediate phases.”
If we believe in the sovereign God of the Scriptures we cannot begin a study of any problem without approaching it from that point of view, that is, asking what the Word of God teaches us. We must consider ourselves in the light of God; our problems in the light of His Word; history in the light of His counsel; our life and accountability in the light of His law and providence.
The Heidelberg Catechism gives us in a brief statement the teaching of the Word of God about His providence. It states that it is the almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby as it were by His hand, he upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures. . . . so that all things come, not by chance but by His fatherly hand. For our purpose it is only necessary here to emphasize the point that the Scriptures explain that this almighty power of God also governs the moral actions of mankind. Thus we are not only concerned here with the sovereignty of God in His counsel, in the matter of choice, but with the sovereignty of God in action, His power and the direction of that power in the development of all things.
The Bible teaches us plainly that the governing power of God determines the good and the evil deeds of men. Ephesians 2:10 is a proof for his determination of the good deeds of His saints. The text not only says that the good works “were afore prepared that we should walk in them”; it also states that we are His workmanship.
Proverbs 21:1 is a very strong statement of the word of God respecting this problem, and which gives definite proof of the determining power of God with respect to moral actions of men. We read, “The king’s heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the water courses; He turneth it withersoever he will.” Out of the heart are the issues of life. The Lord therefore controls the source of the actions of mankind. Everything serves God’s purpose. Proverbs 16:4, “Jehovah hath made everything for its own end; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” There are besides these passages many others which speak of this providence of God, See, for example, Acts 2:23; Psalm 115:3; Daniel 4:35; Romans 11:36.
If we were to leave the subject of God’s providence here without giving the further elucidation of Scripture as to the responsibility of man, we would leave room for the charge that this is determinism.
Determinism contends that man’s will is determined by his nature. It, therefore, denies man’s responsibility, if it does not explain itself further in the light of the truth of Scripture. There is an element of truth in the position of the determinist. Correctly he states that man’s will is largely determined by his nature. Who can deny the reality of heredity and the part it plays in our choice of action. Psychologists are observing a truth and are correct with qualifications in their contention that man is a victim of circumstances. In the Bible the truth of man’s total inability to do any good is clear. He is born in death, and unable to will even to do the good. The truth of Scripture is that man is not morally free and able to will the good. His will is in bondage. In our consideration of the problem of the responsibility of man we must take this truth by all means into our consideration. From the philosophical point of view the freedom of the will is postulated without consideration of the truth of Scripture and the truth of experience. Only a few exceptions of children and mentally incapacitated individuals are made to their assumption that man has a free will. In the Bible there is no such distinction made. The demon possessed are examples of all mankind in the service and bondage of the devil. The miracles of Jesus in casting out the demons is the gospel to us that so He shall deliver us from the bondage of sin.
Nevertheless, each individual is responsible. That is each moral rational creature of God is held accountable before God of the deeds he has done in the body. (Cf. 2 Cor. 5:10 et. al.) Furthermore, the law and the admonitions of the Word of God irrevocably place before mankind their responsibility.
This places the problem squarely before us. We are now committed to the truth of the position of the determinist; yet we must maintain the responsibility of man. We maintain the providence of God and also the responsibility of man. K. Schilder correctly warns us that between “natuurwetten en normen, natuur en Geest, noodwendigheid en vrijheid nimmer een tegenstelling mag worden gezien, die mij of anderen zou machtigen het eene tegen het and ere uit te spelen.” (Heid. Cat. Bijlage, II 25).
We get no further by taking the position of A. Kuyper who distinguishes between absolute providence, that is the theological point of view, and the providence of God from the human subjective side. (Cf. his chapter, “Gebonden toch Vrij, in De Gemeene Gratie, vol. II, p. 387 ff.) If I from my subjective point of view am impressed with my responsibility that does not answer the problem at all how that God from His point of view, from the point of view of the preaching of His law, can hold me responsible.
If we explain human responsibility as human ability we have denied the sovereign power of God and His claim in His Word that there is no possibility of salvation except by Himself, through His Son, Jesus Christ. This position destroys the problem and cuts the Gordian knot.
However, we should not, contend that the problem is a “Gordian knot” for the Scriptures. Our effort should be applied to searching its unfathomable depths.
There are some passages in Scripture which will enlighten us more. Proverbs 16:1 explains that God is not the author of sin. He does not determine man so that he forces him to sin. Sin arises out of the heart of man. “The plans of the heart belong to man”. Yet God determines the course. “But the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah.” God made Balaam speak, contrary to his own plans. Yet Balaam sinned and was held responsible for his plan and given no credit for his praise of Israel.
God did not make us with a depraved nature which only gives us the will to sin, to hate God, and our neighbor. He made us in His own image, free to serve Him. The Bible explains the situation very clearly in Romans 5:12. There is the explanation that we are responsible for our sin because we have sinned in Adam. Though we now do not have the will to serve God, that does not mean that God deprived us of that will. We deprived ourselves of that freedom in Adam. So we are yet held responsible in the way of righteousness, upon the basis of having the freedom of will in Adam.
In the providence of God all creatures are caused to enter the situation in which they stand condemned before the bar of God’s justice. In the providence of God their responsibility is made plain to them for their sin in Adam and the actual sin which develops from it. So it is ordained and who can speak against the sovereign Lord who has ordained it so and works it out in His providence. Compare Romans 9.
As new creatures in Christ we are given a new will and ability to fulfill the law of God. We do so now by faith. That faith in Christ also causes us to see how that we could not fulfill our responsibility in our old nature, and cannot even now with a new nature fulfill it in the old. We see the power of our bondage and cry out “who shall deliver?” (Romans 7). Our deliverance is in the mortifying of the old and the putting on of the new.
The solution of the problem is not in ability of the old but in the ability of the new man, which is given m in God’s providence, by grace in Christ
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 20:09:57 GMT -5
11/15/1945
The Fear of the Lord (4)
VELDMAN R.
In His Fear
Home / Archive / Volume 22/1946 / Vol 22 Issue 04
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The rubric “Education” covers a vast territory. It deals with the entire bringing up of the child from the moment, practically, that it is born until it reaches the age of maturity and is prepared to take, its own individual, responsible place in life. True, even then man continues to be educated, to receive instruction. Speaking generally education does not cease until the end of life itself. All a man does, all he ever sees and hears, all his reading and recreation, all the contacts he makes in the world educate him in one way or another, to the good or to the bad. However, in the more specific and restricted sense wherein the word is meant to be taken in this rubric, “Education” deals with the child and its preparation for life, its physical and mental and spiritual development. The rubric covers the period of infancy and early childhood, those wonderful years of boyhood and girlhood as well as that trying period of adolescence. It embraces the entire calling and influence of that threefold agency that the Creator has ordained for the bringing up of the child, the home, the church and the school. It requires a study of the child to be taught, its physical, psychological, mental and spiritual makeup, as well as of them who have the responsibility of performing this task, the parent, the teacher and the preacher. It includes all the instruction of our children, direct and indirect, by word of mouth and by example, in doctrine and in practice, in theory and in life, in the knowledge of the truth and revelation of the Word of God as such and its application to all of life. All this must be “in His fear”.
The phrase that heads this department and expresses its general theme is exceedingly well chosen. “In His fear” means, of course, “in the fear of the Lord” the Lord being the object here of the action contained in the word “fear”. It is certainly true, that the Lord is also the subject, the fountain and source, of this same fear. It must come from Him as well as be directed to Him. Also in this sense it is His fear, the fear of the Lord. With a view to our subject this must be well understood. This means that our children must be trained, educated in that fear that they have received from the Lord. To educate means literally and basically “to bring, lead out”. It is that fear that is graciously instilled into the minds and hearts of our covenant children by God Himself that must be brought out. This means, furthermore, that unless God Himself grants His fear in the hearts of us and our children there can be no positive fruit and benefit unto salvation in the education we give and they receive. In fact, without this work of divine grace there can be no true education at all, since in Scripture only that is true instruction that has the fear of the Lord as its center and aim. Nevertheless, as the phrase is consistently used in Holy Writ and is to be understood in this rubric “the Lord” is not the subject of the fear, but its object. The fear is not from, but unto the Lord. Thus the meaning is that our children must be educated, instructed, trained in all that belongs to the fear that has the living God for its object. That is the burden of the phrase: In His Fear. That is the meaning of the phrase in Scripture. And that, constitutes the heart and soul of all education.
That the phrase is taken directly from Scripture and expresses a wholly Scriptural thought is not difficult to demonstrate. Basic as is the fear of the Lord to all Godliness and constituting as it does the entire duty of man, Scripture speaks of this fear, times without number. Synonymous as it is with religion itself there is no concept in all the Word of God that is brought to our attention more frequently and more forcibly both in the Old Testament and in the New.
The word most frequently used in the O. T. Hebrew is the word “yirah”, meaning “fear, reverence”, and “yare”, meaning “to be afraid, to fear, to reverence”. Both refer almost exclusively to the fear of God, not of men or things. It is this word that the sweet psalmist c-f Israel uses when he prophesies shortly before his death, “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord.” 2 Sam. 28:1-3. The judges of Israel must let the fear of the Lord be upon them, and in that fear of the Lord they must judge, faithfully and with a perfect heart. 2 Chron. 19:7, 9. To the nobles and rulers of the people Nehemiah spoke in no uncertain terms, “It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?” Neh. 5:9. “Unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:28. It is also the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do His commandments. Psalm 111:10. Here the fear of the Lord is synonymous with doing His commandments. Also, “the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Psalm 19:9. The fear of the Lord, therefore, is synonymous with the keeping of His judgments. It assures us of all we need, “for there is no want to them that fear Him.” Ps. 84:9. “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Psalm 34:11. And then he goes on to say, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” vs. 13, 14. The fear of the Lord is also the beginning of knowledge, Prov. 1:7, and they that do not choose the fear of the Lord hate knowledge, vs. 29. Of all the latter Jehovah says, “I will also laugh at your calamities; I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.” vs. 26-28. To fear God is to hate evil as and because God hates evil. Prov. 8:13. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, Prov. 10:27; in it is strong confidence and they that know it always have a place of refuge, Prov. 14:26; it is also “a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death”, Prov. 14:27; it is the instruction of wisdom, Prov. 15:33; it “tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied and shall not be visited with evil, Prov. 19:23; and by it are riches and honor and life, Prov. 22:4. Proverbs, the book of wisdom, as is to be expected, is full of this “fear of the Lord”. Also for Christ Himself the fear of the Lord is everything, for of the rod that should come forth out of the stem of Jesse it is said, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:2, 3. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man Eccl. 12:13: In all these passages the word used is “yirah”, “fear, reverence.”
Also used in the O. T. is the Hebrew word “pachad”, meaning “fear, terror, dread.” Here the element of terror, rather than that of loving reverence is on the foreground. You feel the difference the moment you turn once again to Scripture. Of the wicked it is said, “that there is no fear of God before his eyes,” Psalm 36:1; and in Psalm 119:120 the psalmist confesses, “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.” The difference between the two words is clearly illustrated in Prov. 1:26, 27, 29. “I will mock,” says the Lord, “when your fear (pachar, dread) cometh; as desolation, . . . . . For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear (yirah, reverence) of the Lord.” Isaiah says of the wicked, “And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isaiah 2:19. Other Hebrew words are likewise translated “fear”, but they are used less frequently, add little or no significance to the general meaning of the term, and are not used in Scripture with application to God.
The Greek words most frequently used in the N. T. are phobos, “fear, fright, awe”; the verb phobeo, “to put in fear, frighten”; the adjective phoberos, “fearful, terrible”; and the related ekphobos, meaning “frightened out (of one’s senses, no doubt), greatly terrified.” There are also the words deilia, “timidity fear”, and eulabeia, (properly “caution, circumspection” and used also for “godly fear, reverence, awe.” As far as the significance of the concept is concerned, the N. T. has nothing to add to the old.
From all this it should be clear what is implied in that all-important concept “fear”, the fear of the Lord. Its deepest ground is that truth of all truths: God is GOD, the immeasurable Maker of the heavens and the earth, the infinite comprehension of all perfection, the eternal, infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, independent, immutable, incomprehensible GOD. The “fear of the Lord” has that God as its object, is directed to Him, seeks Him, acknowledges Him as God alone. Never does it seek itself or the mere creature. It is all that the creature feels in the presence of the only, living GOD. It is the acknowledgement with one’s whole being and life that God is GOD. It is reverence, awe, terror, dread, all that and much more; everything that follows from the acknowledgement of God and the consciousness of His nearness in all His divine power and majesty. Yes, it is also terror, dread—dread of such greatness and holiness and might, dread of ignoring His precepts and incurring His awful and consuming wrath. But it is much more. Rather it is reverent regard for the living God tempered with awe and fear of the punishment of disobedience. It is awe of what God IS rather than dread of what He might DO. It is the reverence and awe that is born of and permeated with love. It implies that we know our God, know Him as He is and as He reveals Himself in His Word, know Him in all our lives. To fear the Lord means that we seek Him, serve Him, worship Him and scrupulously consecrate our whole lives to that single end. As such it is “the whole duty of man”. Eccl. 12:13. Without it the rulers cannot rule and the judges cannot judge. It alone is wisdom and without it is only the utter foolishness of the natural man. It is the beginning, the principle of all wisdom and without it the latter is impossible. It is the beginning of knowledge and without it, whatever the so-called education of the world may accomplish, is only consummate ignorance. It manifests itself as departing from evil, keeping one’s tongue from evil, hating evil as and because God does, doing God’s commandments, keeping His judgments, doing good and seeking peace. It alone endures forever, while all else is vanity and as a shadow than declineth. It satisfies every needso that they who know it shall know no want, while without that fear of the Lord there is only calamity and desolation and destruction as a whirlwind. It prolongeth one’s days, gives prosperity and riches, honor and life, hut apart from it is only misery, poverty, adversity, dishonor and death; not, perhaps, according to the standards of sinful men, but according to truth. It alone gives blessedness and joy, for “blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways”, Psalm 128:1; it alone guarantees the friendship of the highest, for “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and he will shew them His covenant”, Psalm 25:14; and it alone gives the promise of everlasting life, for “Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.” Psalm 85:9.
What all this means in the sphere of education should be obvious to all. In that fear of the Lord our children must be brought up. Nothing else matters. “Fear” is the keyword in all that can be said about the instruction of our covenant seed. May we know its significance and may “the fear of the Lord” be our sole aim and consideration in all the training of our covenant seed.
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