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. 6, No. 16 Pastor: Rev. Garry Eriks Phone: (970)
667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
The
Marks of the True Church
The
Signs of the Gospel (1)
What's
Wrong with Hyper-Calvinism?
That the true church of Christ can be found in the world is evident from Christ's promise: "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). But how and where do we find that true church in order that we may join ourselves to it in obedience to Hebrews 10:25?
That question of membership is the more urgent in light of the fact that the true church is not represented by one church or denomination, as we showed in the last issue. With the abundance of different churches and denominations around, which are we to join? The answer is that we are to join ourselves to that church which is most faithful to Christ and therefore purest (though never perfectly pure) in doctrine, life and practice.
Thus we speak of the marks of the church. These are marks that indicate the extent to which a church is true to Christ and to His Word. Insofar as a church has these marks, it is part of the true church of Christ. Any "church" that lacks these marks has become the false church, a "synagogue of Satan."
There is some debate about the number and nature of these marks. The Belgic Confession of Faith mentions the pure preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments according to Christ's command, and the faithful carrying out of Christian discipline in the church (Matt. 28:19, 20; I Cor. 11:23-34; Matt. 16:18, 19). Some would add to or substitute for the third, Biblical worship.
It is evident, however, that all these add up to one mark, that everything in the church is done in obedience to Christ. As the Belgic Confession says, the true church is where "all things are managed according to the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the church" (Art. 29).
Whether we speak of one or several marks, these things are marks of the true church because they are marks of the presence of Christ in the church. That is the thing that matters. If Christ is not present (Rev. 1:12, 13; 2:5) then all the church does is in vain and membership is pointless. It cannot even be called church if Christ is not there.
We must remember this in bringing up our children. If the marks of Christ's presence are hardly to be found in a particular church, what hope have we there for our children? Only Christ, by His presence, is able to save them and show them the way.
That the marks of the true church are marks of the presence of Christ is especially evident in connection with the preaching of the gospel. Properly carried out, the preaching is Christ Himself speaking in the church (Jn. 10:27; I Cor. 1:23, 24; Eph. 2:17). Pure Biblical preaching is proof, therefore of Christ's presence. The same is true of sacraments and discipline.
That these are marks of Christ's presence must be emphasised. We do not join the church because of the members - because of their godly conduct or friendliness, as important as those things are. We join the church in order to follow Christ, the only Savior and bishop of our souls. Rev. Ronald Hanko
And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. Mark 16:17-20
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Acts 2:43-47
One of our readers sent in these two passages with a question implied in this statement: "These two passages appear to contradict each other, though I accept they do not."
I wish the reader had been a bit more specific on precisely where the contradiction seemed to be. No contradiction seems to me to be present in these two words of God. Perhaps, if, after my remarks, the reader who submitted the question still has a problem, he or she could send in a more specific question. In the meantime, we shall deal with these two passages and say a few things about them, for there are some important ideas found in them.
The first thing we will want to notice is that not all Bible scholars accept the last part of Mark's gospel as genuinely a part of Scripture. Even my own AV has a note after Mark 16 which reads: "Verses 9 to 20 of the last chapter are omitted by the two oldest Greek manuscripts. Other authorities have a different ending to this Gospel." This is the only place in this entire printing of the AV where such a note appears.
I mention this rather in passing because, if my Bible has such a note, perhaps other printings of the AV have the same. And I do not want our readers or any other people of God to be confused on the matter. I have no desire to enter the arguments for or against. For our purposes it is sufficient to assert, with all the emphasis I can muster, that the entire section belongs to God's Word, that it is misleading, to say the least, to speak of 2 oldest manuscripts which omit the passage, and that there is no reason in the text itself why this should be omitted. We may be confident that it belongs to Scripture.
The second comment I wish to make is that I appreciate very much the sentiment expressed in the last words of our reader's comment: ". . . though I accept they do not." This statement expresses the faith with which every child of God must come to Scripture. Many point to seeming contradictions in Scripture to prove that God's Word contains errors. We may not do this.
An important point is wrapped up in our approach of faith. We do not argue about contradictions, nor do we attempt to defend the Word of God by a rational demonstration that such contradictions do not exist. We assume that, because Scripture is God's Word, there can be no contradictions. The fact that it is the Word of God does not depend on our successful efforts to demonstrate that no contradictions exist. We know they do not. It is God's Word. There cannot be any.
We do desire to understand Scripture as much as we can. Hence we compare one passage with another because we are to interpret Scripture with Scripture. If it seems to us as if a passage in one place contradicts a passage in another place, the reason is our poor understanding, not Scripture's weaknesses and proneness to human error. The arrogant and proud sinner sits in judgment over Scripture. The humble child of God comes to learn of its truth.
The two passages harmonize in this way. The words of Mark 16 were spoken to the disciples during one of the Lord's appearances. This is suggested by vs. 19, which begins: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven." However, this interpretation presupposes that Jesus gave His great commission twice: once when He appeared to his disciples in Galilee (Mt. 28:16-20), and the second time at his ascension.
At the time of the Lord's ascension Jesus not only gave His disciples the mandate to go into all the world to preach the gospel, but he also told them what miracles he would perform while preaching the gospel everywhere. We have a record of every one of these miracles as actually happening during the apostolic age -- with the exception of "if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them," although Scripture's silence must not be interpreted as meaning that it never happened.
Mark also makes clear that the main work of the apostles was preaching; and it is added that the Lord confirmed their word with the signs of which He had just spoken (Mk 16:20). The narrative in Acts repeats this, and tells us that "many wonders and signs were done by the apostles;" and that the church flourished and grew and lived in blessed unity and peace.
And so the picture is one of the fulfillment of the Lord's Word as the apostles performed the work necessary to carry out the Lord's command; and the blessings on the church as they did these things.
In our next "Newsletter" I want to say a few things about these signs and wonders.
Prof. H. Hanko
What's Wrong with Hyper-Calvinism?
We continue here our examination of hyper-Calvinism in answer to the question posed in the last issue: "What is hyper-Calvinism? How would you define it?"
In that last issue we said that hyper-Calvinism is NOT the denial that God well-meaningly offers salvation to all who hear the gospel, showing a love for all and a desire to save everyone. It IS the denial that the command of the gospel to repent and believe must be preached to all without exception.
The heart of hyper-Calvinism, therefore, is a rejection of so-called "duty faith" and "duty repentance," i.e., that it is the solemn duty and obligation of all who hear the gospel to repent and believe. Hyper-Calvinism concludes that because men are lost in sin and are unable of themselves to repent and believe, it is a mistake to command them to do so. Such a command would imply that they are able to repent and believe.
The hyper-Calvinist, then, makes the same mistake as the Arminians and free-willists, only he draws a different conclusion. Both think that to command or demand repentance and faith of dead sinners must imply that such sinners are not dead and have in themselves the ability to repent and believe. The free-willist says, then: "To command must imply ability, therefore, men have the ability." The hyper-Calvinist says: "To command must imply ability, therefore we will not command any but the elect."
This means that while a true hyper-Calvinist will preach the "facts" of the gospel to all who will hear (and insist that he is preaching the gospel), he will not command a "mixed" audience to repent and believe. Those commands, he thinks, should be preached only to those who show evidence of being "sensible sinners," that is, sinners who have come under conviction by the work of the Holy Spirit.
We reject these notions for various reasons. First, it is difficult to imagine how anyone, without divine inspiration, can ever be sure that he is preaching only to "sensible sinners" in order confidently to bring the command of the gospel. In reality, therefore, the command of the gospel will seldom, if ever, be heard in hyper-Calvinist preaching.
Second, hyper-Calvinism turns the command to repent and believe into a command to continue to repent and believe or to persevere in repenting and believing. So-called "sensible sinners," the only ones who may be called to repent and believe are those who have already begun to do so by the secret operations of the Holy Spirit. The faith called for, in that case, is not saving faith in the truest and deepest sense of the word, i.e., faith that brings a person into communion with Christ, justifies him and gives him salvation, but only faith as it continues to manifest itself in its fruits of assurance and hope.
It is in this connection that true hyper-Calvinists usually teach that person is justified completely in eternity and that justification by faith involves only the assurance of justification. Thus the faith called for in the gospel does not in fact justify us before God, but only assures of a justification that has already taken place.
It is in this connection also that hyper-Calvinists are also accused, and rightly, of a certain antinomianism (anti-lawism or anti-commandism) regarding faith. They do not take seriously the command to repent and believe, exactly because the call to faith is for them only the call to be assured of one's faith. It is on these grounds that we emphatically repudiate hyper-Calvinism.
Rev. Ron Hanko
Check out our new audio sermons listed on our web site: www.prca.org (under "News and Views")