Loveland Protestant Reformed Church
709 East 57th
Street; Loveland, CO 80538
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through August)
Vol. 5, No. 24 Pastor: Rev. G. Van Baren Phone: (970)
667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Contents:
There are many different names for the church in Scripture. Each of these names tells us something important about the church. The names used are revelation - part of God's revelation concerning the church.
The name "church" itself, as we have seen, means "called out" and refers to the word and work of God by which He calls His people out of darkness into marvelous light and forms them into a peculiar (unique) people - the church of Jesus Christ (I Pet. 2:9). That this name is most commonly used is not surprising. It shows us that the existence and blessedness of the church are all the result of God's calling and sovereign grace.
That church is also called the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:12-27, Eph. 1:23, 4:12, 5:30, Col. 1:18, 24, 2:17-19). This name emphasizes the glory of Christ as the Head of the church, the church's living union with Christ, and the relationship of the members of the church to one another - in the body they are members one of another as well as of Christ.
This name is used especially in Ephesians and Colossians, though with a slightly different emphasis in each epistle. In Ephesians the emphasis is on the church herself and on the glory that she has with Christ. In Colossians the emphasis is on Christ as the glorious Head of the church. This explains the similarity and the differences between these two books.
Scripture also compares the church to a vine (John 15:1-6) or a tree (Rom. 11:16-26). The fact that the same comparison is made in the OT (Psalm 80, Isaiah 5:1-7) suggests that Israel and the church are one. In any case, the comparison shows the close relationship and union between Christ and his church, as well as the church's complete dependence upon Christ. He is the root, we are the branches.
Somewhat different is the name "temple of God" (I Cor. 3:16-17, II Cor. 6:16, Eph. 2:20-21), or "house of God" (I Tim. 3:15, Heb. 3:6, I Pet. 2:4-9 - note that not the building in which the church meets, but the church itself is the house of God!). This name teaches us several things.
That the church is compared to a building reminds us of her beauty, her orderliness and unity (every member has his own place in that spiritual building). It also reminds us (as does the name "body") of the diversity of the church in which each member is different and has a different place (I Cor. 12), yet all together are one spiritual building belonging to God.
The main emphasis, however, of the names "temple," "house," and "building," is upon the blessed truth that the church is the place where God dwells with His people. He dwells with them as it were under one roof as one family, through Christ, their Head. There God and His people commune with one another and thus He keeps covenant with them and blesses them forever. Ronald Hanko
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" I Peter 3:15.
The question which is asked is this: "How much do you believe we as God's people need to take the initiative in witnessing considering that men are dead in sins (in my experience very few actually do what I Peter 3:15 says)?"
* * * *
Christian witnessing is such an important subject that I am thankful for the reader who has given me an opportunity to discuss it.
Before I answer the specific question, however, there are a couple of things which need to be said.
In the first place, when we witness to others we do not know who are God's people and who are not. It is the same with the preaching. The gospel must be proclaimed promiscuously. So must Christian witnessing be made without any distinction as to elect and reprobate.
In the second place, when people ask us a reason of the hope that is in us (as Peter expresses it), this does not necessarily imply regeneration on their part.
I remember many years ago when my mother was in the hospital that other women in the same ward (these were in the days when wards sometimes had as many as 15 patients) were discussing the fact that they missed their movies, parties, beer halls and other places of worldly amusement. When they asked my mother if she missed these things, she informed them that she had never been to any of these things. In amazement they asked: "What in the world do you do for fun?" That gave my mother an opportunity to witness. They were asking a reason for the hope that was in her. But they were not regenerated.
I myself have been asked by people why I pray at the beginning of a meal when we are in a public place.
* * * *
In the third place, it is possible that few ask a reason of the hope that is in us because our lives are not characterized by hope -- at least, not as much as they ought to be.
This is the point Peter is making. The main theme of his epistle is "the hope of the Christian pilgrim." Peter is saying that God's people are pilgrims and strangers in the earth (1:1) because their home is in heaven. It is to heaven that they want to go. They live in the hope of the day when they shall be home.
This hope is not a peripheral attribute of their lives; it is a walk of life, a way of living here in the world which is fundamentally different from the world in every conceivable respect.
That great difference catches the attention of the wicked (4:4). They are puzzled. They can't understand it. And so they inquire why one lives the way he/she does.
That is the occasion for witnessing concerning the hope that is in us.
I say again: maybe we live too much like the world to attract their attention. Maybe they can't see that we are different from them. Maybe our lives indicate that we are as much of the world as they are.
Maybe that is the reason why few ask us any questions.
It is worth asking ourselves that question. The Scriptures have a way of calling us to self-examination. And sometimes the self-examination is painful.
We have not yet answered the question.
We will do that next time, the Lord willing. Prof. H. Hanko
How Did the Fall Affect Creation?
Our question for this issue takes us back to the beginning: "In what way did the fall of the human race affect the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom?"
This question is important because it gets at one of the problems with evolutionary theory. Evolutionism has no explanation of the fact that there is death, decay, thorns, weeds, suffering, and waste in the creation, except to say that they were always there.
That these things are still around is a problem first for secular evolutionists. It contradicts the idea that there is gradual, positive development in the creation.
Indeed, in spite of men's bright hopes of conquering death and disease, the situation grows worse. They find a cure for one disease only to have many other new diseases develop (AIDS, C.J.D., etc.). They eradicate one, smallpox (the only disease they can claim to have eradicated) only to be faced with a host of others. Not only that, but their cures often prove worse than the diseases, and new forms of the diseases develop that are resistant to their cures. So they get farther and farther behind in the battle.
But what poses a problem for secular evolutionists is a far greater problem for so-called theistic evolutionists - those who try to find a compromise between Scripture and evolution. These teach that God created the world, but many millions of years ago, and that the creation, including people, animals and plants, have evolved since then.
These people (God judges their hearts), are also teaching, whether they like it or no, that disease, death, waste and weeds have always been part of the creation. They cannot avoid that conclusion. Yet, that is to say that God did not create all things very good.
So too, their inability to explain the presence of these ills is part of their denial of the fall and the coming of sin. Evolutionism has NO explanation of sin, and consequently no need of Christ and His atoning work.
Believing what the Bible teaches, that God created the world in six days about six thousand years ago, we believe that all these things are the result of the fall. The creation as God made it was perfect (Gen. 1:31). Sickness, pain, death, killing, weeds, thorns, waste, came into the animal and plant kingdoms as well as into the life of man.
As difficult as it might be for us to imagine a creation where there were no "thorns and thistles" (Gen. 3:18), no sickness, death, decay, or waste, it is nevertheless the clear teaching of Scripture that it was so before the fall. All these came in with the fall.
Paul teaches this in Romans 8:19-22. Here the creation is pictured as a living thing and groaning. It groans because it is subject to vanity and corruption, but it is subject to these things "not willingly," that is, not by its own willful disobedience. Rather, as we learn from Genesis 3:17-19, this is all the result of man's sin and God's curse.
It was so, because man was the king of creation under God (Gen. 1:27, 28). Because he held dominion over the whole earthly creation, his fall affected the creation as well as himself. He dragged it down with himself.
Certainly we may learn from this the exceeding sinfulness of sin. So great is our sin in Adam that it has affected not only ourselves but the rest of creation as well! How then shall we be saved except through the mercy of God?
It also reminds of the glory of the new creation, for "the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God" (Rom. 8:21). How great, then, will be that glory! Rev.Ron Hanko
Last modified: 29-Oct-1999