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Vol. 79; No. 19; August 1, 2003
Table of Contents
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Table of Contents:
Meditation - Rev. James Slopsema
- God’s Word Never Returns Void
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
- Reformed Spirituality: The Marks of God’s Children
- BRF Family Conference 2004
- New Publication from the Standard Bearer
Letters
· Reality Left Out
· Response
Ministering to the Saints - Rev. Douglas Kuiper
· The Election and Installation of Deacons: (6) Tenure of Office
Decency and Order — Rev. Ronald Cammenga
- Reconciliation of Public Sins (2)
All Around Us – Rev. Kenneth Koole
- Some “Better” News
- Giving Christianity a Bad Name
- The Real Assault Continues
Feature Article – Rev. Angus Stewart
- Patrick’s Missionary Labors
Go Ye Into All the World – Rev. Jason Kortering
- Mission Preaching in the Established Church (4): The Burden of the Messenger
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger
Debate on the issue of Common Grace
Meditation:
Rev. James Slopsema
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
God’s Word Never Returns Void
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:10, 11
The word of God calls all who hear to faith and repentance, adding the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ to those who heed.
The same word is found in this 55th chapter of Isaiah. Imitating the water vendors who sold water on the street, this chapter begins with a call to those who are spiritually thirsty. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (v. 1). This water and food are the blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. This call becomes more specific as the chapter progresses. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (vv. 6, 7).
This word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord never returns to him void, i.e., empty, without accomplishing anything. This means positively that the word of the Lord will always accomplish that for which it is intended.
What a significant truth! Many deny this reality both in their theology and in their personal, daily living. It is important not only that we understand this truth but that it guide us both in our theology and in our personal, daily living.
The Lord begins with an illustration from nature. “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater….”
Our attention is drawn here to the water that descends from heaven upon the earth and returns to the heavens, so that there is an endless cycle of rain and snow. The water that comes from heaven does not return to heaven without accomplishing something. It waters the earth. It makes the earth to bring forth and bud. In this way bread is given to those who eat and seed to the sower for next year.
This marvelous phenomenon is explained first by the fact that God made the water and snow and designed them exactly to water the earth, to make the earth to bring forth so that there is bread for the eater and seed for the sower. But there is more. God is also sovereign over the physical creation. Neither the earth, nor the seed, nor the eater, nor the sower is sovereign. God is sovereign and in absolute control of His creation. According to His purpose and pleasure, He causes the water from heaven to bring forth food and seed.
So is it with the word of the Lord. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
There is a word that goes forth from the mouth of the Lord. This word is the word of His covenant. It proclaims God’s love for His elect people and His intention to live with them forever in intimate fellowship. It speaks of mercy and salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. It calls all who hear to forsake their evil ways and turn unto Him in faith. It holds forth wonderful promises of salvation for those who do. This covenant word also speaks of wrath and judgment for those who persist in their sin. God in His covenant love strikes down in His wrath the ungodly, who oppose Him and His beloved people.
This covenant word goes forth from the mouth of the Lord. In the OT the Lord spoke this word through the prophets. Then He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, into our flesh and spoke through Him. After the exaltation of Christ into heaven, the Lord continued to speak through the apostles. This finished the revelation of God. But we still hear the word of the Lord from His very mouth today. This is true in that God’s word has been infallibly recorded in Holy Scripture by the inspiration of the Spirit. And when ministers of the gospel called by Christ to their work faithfully expound those Scriptures, the Lord is speaking His word through them just as surely as when He spoke through the prophets and apostles.
Concerning that word the Lord says, “It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Here the word of the Lord is pictured as returning to the Lord, even as the rain returns to Him. When His word returns to Him it will never return void, i.e., empty. This is because His word shall accomplish that which pleases Him, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto He sent it. This means, very simply, that there are certain things that please the Lord. To accomplish His pleasure, He sends out His word. This word shall prosper in these things. The word “prosper” describes a successful venture. And so it is that the word of the Lord never returns to Him void. It always accomplishes that which pleases Jehovah and the purpose for which He sent it out.
As it is in the natural realm with the rain, so is it true in the spiritual realm with the Word.
According to the purpose and pleasure of God, the word that proceeds from His mouth results, first, in the salvation of His covenant people.
The Lord has eternally chosen a people to Himself. It is His purpose to live with them forever in covenant friendship and fellowship.
To accomplish this, Jehovah God sends forth from His own mouth the word of His covenant. Indeed, that word comes to more than the elect. It comes to all nations. But it does come to His elect. Sometimes this word comes to them as children being raised in covenant homes. Sometimes that word comes to them as they live in the darkness of paganism. That word is always the same. It proclaims God’s love in Jesus Christ for His own. It proclaims blessings of salvation and life to those who believe in Jesus Christ. It calls all to come in faith and repentance to the Lord to find His covenant blessings.
And that word never returns to Him void. It always accomplishes the purpose of the Lord to bring His own to salvation in Jesus Christ. When it calls to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, that word works repentance and faith in the elect of God. When that word proclaims forgiveness to the penitent believer, it gives the penitent to know forgiveness. When that word calls to godly living, it produces godly living. When it proclaims peace and safety, this is brought to the people of God. And when it brings warnings of judgment, it is effective and powerful to turn His own from the way of destruction.
But we are well aware of another result that comes from the word of the Lord. Many respond negatively to the word. They do not heed the call to faith and repentance, but continue in a life of sin without Jesus Christ. The word has the effect of hardening them in their sins. The end result is that the warnings of judgment spoken by the Lord become realities in their lives.
We must not think that these are exceptions to the truth we have been considering. Even here the word of the Lord has not returned void. It is also the good pleasure and purpose of the Lord that His word harden the wicked hearts of some rather than soften and turn them to Him. This was obviously the case with Pharaoh. “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth” (Rom. 9:17, 18). Yes, it is God’s good pleasure to harden some by His word. In Pharaoh’s case it was to show His power in destroying him. Certainly God wills the hardening of some also to show His justice in dealing with their sins. But ultimately God wills the hardening of some for the salvation of His church. God will save His church by calling them out of and leading them through a world whose hearts have been hardened to God by His own word. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). This extends even to the hardening of hearts by the word of the Lord. Here we stand before the awesome and much maligned truth of reprobation.
God’s word never returns to Him void.
This truth provides comfort and encouragement, when the word of the Lord brings negative fruits of hardening. These negative fruits are seen on the mission field, in our own communities, and even in our own homes. We are inclined to become discouraged and disheartened. According to the standards of the world, much of our work to bring the word of the Lord to others appears to be nothing but a gigantic failure. Instead of becoming discouraged, we must remember that when the word hardens rather than softens, it has not returned to the Lord void. It has accomplished God’s pleasure and prospered in the thing whereunto God sent it. And we must be content to be used by the Lord to accomplish that good pleasure of His, as was accomplished through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many of the prophets.
This truth must also guide us as we seek to maintain our own faith and bring others (our children and neighbors) to faith in the Lord. The power of the word of the Lord is grossly undervalued today, even in the church world. It is viewed as a weak means to solve the problems we encounter in our lives. Psychology, medicine, and many other human inventions are looked to as being the solution to depression, marital strife, family problems, and the like. Nor do many have confidence that the word of the Lord will be powerful to bring others to faith in Jesus Christ. And so some will add all kinds of gimmicks to the word to gain others to the Lord. Others will alter the message of God’s word to make it more appealing to sinful man. This is a tragic mistake. The word of the Lord never returns to Him void. It is made powerful by the inner working of the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that the Lord in His good pleasure intends for us. By His word the Lord brings sinners to Himself. By His word the Lord also blesses us in Jesus Christ with life, peace, joy, and comfort.
Let us rely upon His word and prosper.
Editorials:
Reformed Spirituality: The Marks of God’s Children
With the publication of a lovely little book entitled The Marks of God’s Children, the Dutch Reformed Translation Society (DRTS) introduces a promising series of “Classics of Reformed Spirituality.” All the books in the series intend to set forth the characteristic Dutch Reformed view of the Christian life and experience. The authors are sixteenth and seventeenth century Reformed ministers and theologians. Either the books have never before been translated into English, or the English translation has long been out-of-print. Under the auspices of the DRTS, the translations are new. The books are not reprints of the old English texts.
First in the series is a slim volume by Jean Taffin, The Marks of God’s Children (Baker, 2003).
A Prominent Reformed Minister
Taffin was a prominent, influential minister in the Lowlands in the latter half of the sixteenth century. He worked in Belgium and the Netherlands on behalf of the Reformed faith and churches with such worthies as Guido de Bres and Peter Datheen. He corresponded with Calvin and Beza, seeking advice how to defend and promote the Reformed churches in the period of their beginnings in the Netherlands. It was also a period of severe persecution. With Datheen and Colonius, Taffin took the lead in arranging the first Dutch Reformed synod in Emden in 1571. From 1573 to 1583, he served as court preacher and advisor to Prince William of Orange, father of the Netherlands. For a short while before his death in 1602, Taffin was a colleague in Amsterdam of James Arminius.
During the latter half of the sixteenth century, the empire and the Roman Catholic Church persecuted the Reformed churches in the Netherlands with one of the fiercest persecutions in all of history. Taffin witnessed this fiery persecution at first hand. He himself suffered the persecution, being forced to flee his homeland more than once. The Marks of God’s Children reflects the author’s experience of persecution. There is graphic description of the cruel afflictions of the people of God. Almost half the book is devoted to suffering as a mark of the children of God.
Assurance of Salvation
The subject is simple and basic: the marks that assure the believer that he possesses, and shall forever possess, the blessedness of eternal life promised by the gospel. Assurance of salvation is precious: “In this present life there is no greater joy or contentment, nothing more certain or necessary for rising above all the difficulties we face, than to know and feel that we are children of God” (p. 35).
The marks by which the Spirit assures every believer of his salvation are external and internal.
The external mark is membership in a true church of Christ. Taffin identifies a true church much as had Article 29 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, written some thirty years earlier than The Marks, in 1561.
Now we call that the church of Christ the place wherever God’s Word is truly preached, wherever the sacraments are purely administered, and wherever the one God is addressed in the name of his only Son, Jesus Christ (p. 36).
The internal mark is Spirit-worked faith in Jesus Christ with its fruits.
These witnesses of the Holy Spirit include the internal marks of a peaceful and quiet conscience before God, the experience of our justification by faith, our love for God and for our neighbor, our changed life, and our desire to walk in the fear and obedience of God (p. 40).
As regards the internal mark also, Taffin is in agreement with Article 29 of the Belgic Confession, which gives not only the marks of the true church but also the mark of the true Christian: “With respect to those who are members of the church, they may be known by the marks of Christians, namely, by faith.”
Taffin guards against doubt of salvation by contrasting the shallow, temporary feelings of reprobates in the sphere of the covenant (those, in the language of Romans 9:6, who are merely “of Israel”) with the deeply rooted, enduring affections of the elect believer. In this connection, Taffin correctly explains Hebrews 6:4-6. The passage does not teach the falling away of some who were regenerated and true believers, or, what amounts to the same thing, some who were covenantally united to Christ. If it does, it terrifies us all. Rather, the passage admonishes us by the example of the falling away of reprobates who for a time were mentally enlightened and emotionally moved by the gospel.
This is what happens with the reprobate. When they hear or read what the Bible says about God’s rich grace for sinners or about the supreme glory of the heavenly kingdom, they are moved by it since they understand it with their minds. They even feel something of it, as the apostle says. But because these benefits are not for them, those emotions and feelings do not take root in them. They do not penetrate their hearts. They disappear very quickly. They die. With God’s children it is very different. They have a strong attachment to these blessings as belonging to them. That feeling may temporarily grow lukewarm and drowsy, but it can never die…. Whatever emotions, insights, and spiritual stirrings the reprobate ever have, they never have the Holy Spirit in their hearts as the Spirit who testifies that they are God’s children. If they had this testimony, then they would be God’s children and remain such, since the Holy Spirit can neither lie nor deceive (p. 65).
The second half of the book assures the Reformed believer that neither apostasy nor suffering, especially the suffering of persecution, is cause for doubt. The apostasy of some is no proof that the believer may also fall away. Only hypocrites fall away, never the true believer.
As regards the tribulation of the Reformed church and the suffering of the Reformed believer, these are not signs of God’s disfavor, but the inescapable lot and glorious privilege of the church of Christ and of the children of God in this world. “The children of God, as long as both the devils and they remain in the world, should expect nothing less than that the devils will use every kind of instrument and power to persecute them” (p. 84).
The chapters on apostasy and suffering are powerful and comforting. The topics are urgent for Reformed churches and Christians today.
Distinctive Reformed Spirituality
The characteristic Christian life and experience of the Reformed faith, as presented in The Marks, differs radically from the life and experience of superficial fundamentalism, triumphal postmillen-nialism, and giddy neo-Pente-costalism.
Genuine Reformed spirituality differs also from the life and experience practiced and promoted by some Dutch Reformed and Scottish Presbyterian churches. Some claim Taffin as the father of the movement known as the “nadere reformatie”—a second, or further, reformation of the church following the Reformation of 1517. Others deny the claim. But it is certain that Taffin did not countenance the obsession with introspection, the encouragement, if not glorification, of sinful doubt, and the reliance on mystical experiences that came to devastate at least some strains of the nadere reformatie, as these evils also devastated certain, prominent strains of Puritanism. The result was, and still is, churches, Reformed in name, full of members—adult members, respected adult members—who their life long doubt their salvation and refuse to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
This life (spiritual death, rather) and experience are not Reformed, as they are not Christian. Nor is the religion that spawns such life and experience, and tolerates them, or even encourages them, Reformed Christianity. It is a caricature of Reformed Christianity: “What is thy only doubt in life and death?”
Taffin held that all believers, even the weakest, can and must have assurance of salvation. “Among God’s children one who in his life has the very weakest faith will possess Jesus Christ completely and totally and will receive not just a small or halfway salvation but the perfect salvation of life eternal” (p. 54). For Taffin, the desire to be holy is evidence of the indwelling Spirit. “When you yearn for the work of the Spirit, then you belong to this Spirit and you are no longer condemned (Rom. 8:1) ” (pp. 56, 57).
Like Calvin, Taffin was vehement in condemning the Nico-demites, those who profess the Reformed faith, but for all kinds of self-serving reasons remain in churches that are false or apostate. Taffin, who was master of the apt, homely illustration, compared the Nicodemite to the wife who loudly professes the love of her heart for her husband, but meanwhile gives her body to another man. Consideration of the error of Nicodemism occasioned an urgent admonition to the reader, to join and “continue steadfastly in God’s church” (p. 134ff.).
Early Reformed Orthodoxy
The importance and interest of the book are not limited to its description of Reformed spirituality. From the book one also learns the doctrine held and taught by one of the earliest ministers and theologians of the Reformed churches in the Lowlands. The characteristic Reformed spirituality, of course, is fruit of the distinctive Reformed doctrine. Sound doctrine is fundamental. The craving of some today for spirituality while despising doctrine is as foolish as would be the love of the farmer for apples who hates trees.
Long before Dordt, Taffin boldly taught double predestination, reprobation as well as election:
By the illustration of the potter who has “the right to make from the same lump of clay some vessels of honor and others of dishonor” (Rom. 9:21), Paul shows that God has the right to choose the one for salvation and to reject the other. Thus, the reprobate destined for eternal doom has no right to contradict or complain against God (p. 107).
He defended the truth of the perseverance of saints, quoting Augustine: “He who made us good also moves us to persevere in the good. But those who fall away and perish have never belonged to the number of the elect” (p. 77).
“Faith,” wrote Taffin, “is a gift of God and has its source ‘in his exceedingly great power,’ as the apostle Paul teaches (Eph. 1:19). ” He went on: “Faith comes only to the elect, as it is written, ‘And as many believed as were ordained to eternal life’ (Acts 13:48) ” (p. 48). Taffin may have been a colleague of Arminius; he was no friend of Arminius’ theology.
With all Reformed, indeed Christian, orthodoxy, Taffin conceived the kingdom of God as spiritual. In view of the widespread, and spreading, notion that the kingdom is earthly and political, it is worth quoting Taffin at length on this matter.
The Jews longed for the Messiah and prayed to God for his coming. For a long time God delayed, but finally he sent the Messiah. But he did not send the kind that most Jews and even the apostles expected—a conqueror in battle, another David, to deliver them from the yoke of the Romans. He did not send one who like Solomon would be resplendent in wealth and glory. Instead, God sent a Messiah who, having conquered the devil, sin, and death, established a spiritual kingdom of everlasting life and glory (pp. 58, 59).
For Taffin, the church is the kingdom of God: “This church, first of all, is often called ‘the kingdom of heaven’ because through the church, which could be considered its outskirts or gate, we enter heaven” (p. 36).
Taffin knew nothing of an earthly kingdom of God—a “Christianized culture”—being built by a common grace of God, at least, not in this book. He also rejected, beforehand, the erroneous teaching that the prosperity of the wicked must be viewed as a divine blessing by virtue of a common grace of God. This teaching, of course, prevails today as the veriest Reformed orthodoxy.
Taffin rejected this teaching as wrong and dangerous practically. The prosperity of the godless is a temptation to the suffering Christian to doubt the goodness of God to the Christian, and his own salvation. Taffin quoted Augustine on the earthly prosperity of the ungodly: “There is no greater calamity than the happiness and prosperity of the ungodly; it is a strong wine which makes them drunk in their unrighteousness, and they incur thereby a huge amount and heavy load of God’s wrath” (p. 127).
Insisting that we must judge both the temporal suffering of the believer and the temporal happiness of the unbeliever in the light of the coming eternity for both, Taffin called on Reformed Christians to curse the prosperity of the wicked:
Let us then curse the state of the rich man, as pleasant as it seems, and praise that of the poor, oppressed Lazarus as blessed, and let us look forward to the time when we will too be taken up into eternal glory. For the wicked there is nothing in heaven, for us nothing in this world (p. 129).
If we are called to curse the prosperity of the ungodly, that must be because the prosperity of the ungodly is accursed of God. We hardly dare to curse His blessing.
But perhaps Taffin was an early hyper-Calvinist.
One passage is doctrinally dubious. Taffin spoke of the proclamation of a “general pardon” in connection with the external call of the gospel (pp. 45, 46). Dordt would clarify and establish that the death of Christ was not a general, but a particular atonement; that the proclamation of the gospel based on Christ’s death is not the announcement of a general, but a particular pardon; and that the errors of a general atonement and a general pardon imply each other.
Conniving at the Sin of the Prince
Puzzling in the introduction to the work, which gives a brief account of Taffin’s life and work, is a long paragraph detailing, without criticism, Taffin’s approval of and involvement in William of Orange’s remarriage. Prince William remarried while his first wife was still living and only “estranged from him.” Taffin’s conduct reminds one of the similar shameful behavior of Luther in the bigamy of Philip of Hesse and of Cranmer in the great marital matter of King Henry VIII. When ministers curry favor with earthly princes, supposing that the fortunes of the church depend upon these princes, invariably the Word of God is compromised and the name of God, dishonored.
The introduction acknowledges that the remarriage of William “caused some scandal.” Indeed. The remarriage was scandalous. So was Taffin’s participation in the remarriage.
Mention of Taffin’s connivance at the sin of adultery in an introduction to a work on Reformed spirituality virtually begs this observation concerning genuinely Christian and Reformed spiritual life. Reformed spirituality is first and foremost obedience to the law of God. It is obedience from the heart, but it is obedience to the law. The law of God includes the seventh commandment.
All talk about spirituality, experience, piety, godliness, and religious feelings, when there is impenitent disobedience to one of God’s commandments, is just that: talk. “If you love me,” said Christ, “keep my commandments” (John 14:15). He did not say, “Have warm feelings.”
The Good Work of the DRTS
The translation of the book by Dr. Peter Y. De Jong is faithful and flowing.
The editing by Dr. James A. De Jong, which includes helpful notes, useful maps, and copies of appropriate paintings, enhances this attractive, significant volume.
Soon to follow in the series, “Classics of Reformed Spirituality,” are books by Koelman, by Voetius and Hoornbeeck, and by Teellinck.
For information concerning the DRTS and its work, current and projected, write the DRTS, P.O. Box 7083, Grand Rapids, MI 49510.
— DJE
BRF Family Conference 2004
The British Reformed Fellowship (BRF) has asked that I announce and promote its family conference scheduled for August 13-20, 2004. A goodly number of the Standard Bearer’s readers have attended this conference in the past.
The BRF has sponsored these family conferences every two years since 1990 somewhere in the British Isles. The conferences are a happy mix of instruction in the Reformed faith, good fellowship with likeminded Christians from different nations, and sightseeing in the area of the conferences.
Next year’s conference will be held at High Leigh Conference Centre, a Christian conference site not far from Cambridge, England. The conference center has forty acres of lawns, parkland, and woodland. It is near many tourist attractions. It is conveniently located for day trips to London and Cambridge. These delightful day trips are part of the conference. Pictures and more details of the conference center can be found at <http://www.cct.org.uk/highleigh/
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