Contents

Faith and Learning:
The Heritage of J. Gresham Machen

Katherine VanDrunen

The Personal Side of Charles Hodge

Alan D. Strange

The Legacy of Geerhardus Vos

Danny E. Olinger

Planning for a Minister’s Retirement

Douglas L. Watson

Home Missions

Under Construction

Christian Education

New Books on Old Princeton

Foreign Missions

Gospel Challenges in South Africa

Stewardship

The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21)

Prayer Calendar

October

News

Letters

Reviews

Announcements

New Horizons
in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
October 2012 • Volume 33, Number 9

© 2012 by The Committee on Christian Education of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Editorial Board: The Committee on Christian Education’s Subcommittee on Serial Publications

Editor: Danny E. Olinger

Managing Editor: James W. Scott

Editorial Assistant: Patricia Clawson

Cover Designer: Christopher Tobias

Proofreader: Sarah J. Pederson

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Articles previously published may have been slightly edited.

New Horizons (ISSN: 0199-3518) is published monthly except for a combined issue in August-September by the Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 607 N. Easton Road, Bldg. E, Willow Grove, PA 19090-2539; tel. 215/830-0900; fax 215/830-0350.

Send e-mail correspondence to the editor. Letters to the editor are welcome. They should deal with an issue the magazine has recently addressed. Their language should be temperate, and they may not charge anyone with an offense. They should be brief, and they may be condensed.

Views expressed by the writers do not necessarily represent the position of the magazine or of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

The OPC website contains an archive of past articles.

Print copies are distributed free to members and friends of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Nonmembers are asked to donate $20.00 annually. Foreign subscribers must remit USD 40.00 annually to receive the magazine (USD 30.00 in Canada). Anyone may request a free e-mail PDF subscription. Requests for a print or e-mail subscription (and address changes) should be sent to CCEsec@opc.org.

An “Extreme Makeover” team transformed the building and grounds of New Covenant OPC in South San Francisco, Calif., in July. The workers came from five OP churches in California: South San Francisco, San Francisco, San Jose, Torrance, and San Marcos. Workers also came from four OP churches outside California: Doniphan, Mo.; Vienna, Va.; Middletown, Pa.; and Toms River, N.J. The workweek was organized and led by Jon and Lindsay Sanchez with much help and financial support from Julie Hirtzel, Robert Stark, David Crum, Matthews OPC in Matthews, N.C., and the building and grounds committee of New Covenant. For more on this story, see News.

Faith and Learning:
The Heritage of J. Gresham Machen

Katherine VanDrunen

JGresham Machen was raised with the values of honest scholarship and confessional Reformed Christianity. That made him well suited for his studies and his later teaching career. These values were long held on both sides of his family.

Machen attributed his exceptional knowledge of Scripture and his love for Reformed Christianity to his parents’ example and instruction. In this article, I will bring out some relatively unknown facets of his heritage.

Machen received an essential element of his intellectual and religious foundation from his father, Arthur Machen. Arthur was confident that honest inquiry was useful, rather than dangerous, to the Christian faith—so long as reason never superseded the authority of Scripture. He viewed reason as a gift from God and free inquiry, “pursued in a reverent spirit,” to be “our vocation as rational beings.”

While living and working in Washington, D.C., Arthur’s father, Lewis, chose churches based on conservative confessional principles, either Presbyterian or Episcopal. When the Machens moved to Virginia, their only choice was the Episcopal Church, which had been greatly influenced by the Calvinist bishop John Johns, a graduate of Princeton Seminary and a good friend of Charles Hodge. Johns’s theology was described as “built on the holiness, justice and mercy of God … and on the guilt and depravity of man.”1 Arthur settled in Baltimore and attended Central Presbyterian Church, whose organizing pastor was Stuart Robinson. Arthur described him as a man of intellect and energy, fervent in his work. However, Arthur eventually settled at Christ Episcopal Church, which had been founded by Johns before he became bishop of Virginia, and which had maintained the Reformation gospel.

Although appreciative of the Episcopal liturgy, Arthur insisted on joining Minnie Gresham after their marriage at Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, where he held a pew for his mother and sister. His seriousness regarding this decision is evidenced by his analysis of the differences between the Thirty-nine Articles and the Westminster Confession. His grandson, Arthur III, observed that this revealed the scholarly atmosphere of the Machen household and that having the family united in the Presbyterian Church greatly aided “Uncle Gresham’s” ministry.

J. Gresham Machen described his father:

He was a profoundly Christian man, who had read widely and meditated earnestly upon the really great things of our holy Faith. His Christian experience was not of the emotional or pietistical type, but was a quiet stream whose waters ran deep. He did not adopt that “Touch not, taste not, handle not” attitude toward the good things or the wonders of God’s world which too often today causes earnest Christian people to consecrate to God only an impoverished man, but in his case true learning and true piety went hand in hand.2

In his wife, Minnie Gresham, Arthur found an intellectual and spiritual equal. Of his mother, J. Gresham Machen wrote: “I do not see how anyone could know my mother well without being forever sure that whatever else there may be in Christianity the real heart of Christianity is found in the atoning death of Christ.”3 Minnie was actively involved in the religious training of her sons. Sunday afternoons were regularly spent studying questions she prepared ahead of time about a book of the Bible, and correspondence with her adult sons included such subjects as prayer life, Bible reading, and Christian faith.

Minnie came from a strong, conservative Presbyterian heritage. Her father, John Gresham, joined the Presbyterian Church in Athens, Georgia, while attending Franklin College (University of Georgia). In his membership class was his future wife, Mary Baxter, whose Presbyterian heritage was unequivocal. Mary and her sister had been tutored by B. M. Palmer while he studied at the university and lived in their home. When Mary’s mother died, Palmer, by then a Presbyterian leader, wrote, “Her brave heart preserved an equal trust in the God of her salvation. A sweet and winning piety was hers … rendering her whole life a sweet gospel, full of the savor of Christ.”

John Gresham expressed his strong Reformed beliefs in a letter to his daughter: “You must never imagine that you can save yourself by any thing you can do. Reading the Bible, attendance on church, and even prayer has no merit in them except as acts of obedience to God. They cannot save you.… We must admit that we are unprofitable servants and rely entirely on the merits of Christ for salvation.” He encouraged her to rely on Scripture to “explain” itself and to leave the mysteries of God to God.

John Gresham was described as a natural leader with a powerful personality. He started the first manufacturing company in Macon, Georgia, had a part in the development of the railroad lines and the state bank, and served as a state senator. An elder for forty years at First Presbyterian Church in Macon, it was said at his death, “He gathered up in himself the history of the Presbyterian Church in this city and section of the State. The two Presbyterian churches of Macon are, to no slight degree, the monuments of his loving purpose, his constant prayer, his indefatigable zeal, his generous giving.”4

John Gresham had such an impact during his life that his funeral closed the public schools in Macon, closed the offices of both the Southwestern Railroad and the Central Bank of Georgia, and recessed all activities at the University of Georgia, which held its own memorial service. In addition, Second Presbyterian Church and the high school that bore his name were draped in mourning. His desire for honesty and justice, his strength of character, his conviction to stand for what he saw as right, and his interest in education, the church, and the work of the state, were important values passed down to his grandson and namesake.

The value of education ran deep in J. Gresham Machen’s heritage. Although his grandfather, Lewis Machen, had limited formal education due to financial circumstances and familial responsibilities, he was an avid book collector and taught himself several languages. His son Arthur was given a strong formal education in Washington, D.C., and thereafter Lewis guided his study while Arthur worked on their farm in Virginia. Arthur went on to Harvard Law School and became a successful and respected lawyer. He was praised by his colleagues for his logical and reasoning mind that produced convincing arguments amply supported by precedent and authority, masterfully unfolded, giving him “influence and sway with the Courts.”5 This clear oratorical style and straightforward approach would carry down to his son Gresham.

J. Gresham Machen’s grandfather, John Gresham, experienced the educational opportunities of early nineteenth-century agrarian Georgia, from primitive one-room schools to the state college and on to legal training. His wife, Mary Baxter Gresham, also came from a family that valued education: all five brothers graduated from the University of Georgia, and she and her sister were tutored and provided with the formal education available to women in the university town of Athens. Their son Thomas earned his college and legal degrees, and Minnie graduated from one of the first women’s colleges that strove to provide an education equal to a men’s college. Her professors later wrote to Minnie’s mother: “Miss Minnie’s high mental and moral worth, her uniform courtesy and the Christian graces that adorn her character have given her a permanent place in our esteem; and we will never cease to feel an interest in her success and welfare.” One of Minnie’s notable achievements was a book published by Macmillan on Robert Browning’s use of Scripture in The Ring and the Book. The firm foundation of her faith made it possible for her confidently to study nature and science, as well as secular literature. This enabled her to educate her sons to love the Scriptures as well as the pursuit of knowledge.

Minnie Machen was actively involved in her sons’ education—from providing instruction in the home in their early years, to choosing primary schools for them and visiting them frequently, to arranging for tutoring while on visits to Macon, to reading and critiquing their papers in college. Gresham was her willful child. He was known to his younger brother Tom as the one “who wants a spanking.” At age three, when asked why no cracker was coming to him for not complaining at washing up, he replied, “I s’pose you heard me growling.” However, he was very likeable and friendly—while his older brother read the newspaper, Gresham learned the news from the milkman. On vacation, he would quickly befriend everyone at the hotel.

Summers were filled with outdoor activities, but his intellect was never neglected. On a trip to the Adirondacks in 1895, Gresham was in a tennis tournament, Tom caught his first fish, and the two older boys camped with their father. In addition, Minnie listened daily to Arthur’s French lesson, studied Homer on her own, and on Sunday afternoons read the Bible with Gresham, heard his Bible lesson, and catechized Tom. The result of her effort was advanced degrees for every son. After graduating from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Arthur studied law at Harvard, and Thomas studied architectural engineering at Cornell and then in France. Gresham, after graduating from Johns Hopkins, spent another year there studying Greek, went on to Princeton University and Princeton Seminary, and then studied at Göttingen and Marburg in Germany.

J. Gresham Machen in Marburg, Germany, in 1906

An excellent student throughout his life, J. Gresham Machen graduated first in his class at Johns Hopkins with a bachelor of arts degree. The university had been founded to encourage scholarship and advance knowledge at the highest level, unhindered by ecclesiastical or political constraints, which was unprecedented in American academics. Gresham wrote that “even an undergraduate could appreciate to some extent the stimulus of such an environment.”6 He stayed for a postgraduate year studying Greek under Basil L. Gildersleeve, taking a course at Johns Hopkins designed for advanced research and the training of future experts in their fields.

During that year, Gresham studied Plato through lectures and exercises stressing “close analysis of words, grammar, and syntax, especially origins and changing usage.”7 He later wrote:

I shall never forget the hours that I spent with the little company of students.… They were all men who intended to make the teaching of language their life work.… Never was there an environment where earnest study was had in more honor than in that group of students.… In such a company Gildersleeve would let himself go. With a magisterial disregard of anything like system, he started with Greek syntax and then allowed his thought to range over the literature of the world…. Particularly fortunate were we who sat in the seats of the learners in that classroom.8

In addition to being a scholar of whom it was said, “In sheer insight into the structure and genius of the Greek language he has no equal,” Gildersleeve came from a heritage of Presbyterianism and was a fellow member with the Machens at Franklin Street Church. Of John Calvin he wrote: “A genius for common sense, a genius for fair and honest interpretation … of unrivalled moral force.” Then he applied this observation to scholarship in general: “Honesty of attainment and honesty of temper are indispensable requisites for the scholar.… A deep sense of duty to the subject at hand … is duty to truth, and so a duty to God!, to that which is and to him that is.”9 This passion for honest scholarship in submission to God reinforced Gresham’s earlier training.

The following summer Gresham studied Pindar with Paul Shorey, another leading philologist, at the University of Chicago. During this time, Gresham realized that his work would be better spent studying the ancient texts of the Bible. His training would benefit the many later theological students who would learn biblical Greek from his grammar book (which is still in print and translated into several languages). As a professor at Princeton Seminary, he expressed frustration with students who complained of the rigors of studying Greek, and repeatedly emphasized its importance to New Testament studies as well as the entire curriculum.

Of his decision to study at Princeton Seminary, he wrote: “I turned at last to the field upon which I had for some time been casting longing eyes. How much more worthwhile it is, if one is to apply modern scientific methods of research … to those books whose every word is of an importance to humanity with which the importance even of Homer and Plato can never for one moment be compared!”10 Machen applied the training he received from his parents, from his formal education, and particularly from Gildersleeve, to his studies, writings, and teaching at Princeton Seminary.

He is remembered by his niece and students for his love of clowning and inherent gaiety, which he used to encourage people and put them at ease. Above all, he is remembered for “his ability to teach the deep things of the Scriptures with simplicity,” but also refuting every criticism of solid doctrine.11 His faith in the infallible Word of the living God and the Christ of the Word was childlike; his handling of the Word was that of an expert scholar.

The author is a member of Escondido OPC in Escondido, Calif. This article is based on her Ph.D. dissertation, “The Foothills of the Matterhorn: Familial Antecedents of J. Gresham Machen” (Loyola, Chicago).

Footnotes

1 Wm. A. R. Goodwin, History of the Theological Seminary in Virginia and Its Historical Background, 2:1–5.

2 J. Gresham Machen, “Christianity in Conflict,” in Contemporary American Theology, ed. Vergilius Ferm, 247.

3 Machen, “Christianity in Conflict,” 248.

4 Testimonials to the Life and Character of John Jones Gresham, 29.

5 Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen (OPC edition, 2004), 11.

6 Machen, “Christianity in Conflict,” 250.

7 John M. Cooper, Jr., Walter Hines Page, 34.

8 Machen, “Christianity in Conflict,” 250–51.

9 The Selected Classical Papers of Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, ed. Ward W. Briggs, Jr., 55–58.

10 Machen, “Christianity in Conflict,” 251–52.

11 “Personal Remembrances of J. Gresham Machen,” Presbyterian Journal 44.31 (November 27, 1985): 6–13.

The Personal Side of Charles Hodge

Alan D. Strange

Charles Hodge (1797–1878) embodied the ethos of Old Princeton, whose two hundredth anniversary we celebrate this year. Hodge was not the passionate pulpiteer that Princeton’s first professor, Archibald Alexander, was. Nor did he enjoy the sheer brilliance of his celebrated pupil and successor, Benjamin B. Warfield. In the fifty-eight years that Hodge taught at Princeton Theological Seminary, however, he shaped more lives with his gentle good humor and unflappable fidelity to God’s Word than any other professor who taught there.

He modeled for his students a learned piety that marked nineteenth-century Old School Presbyterianism at its finest. Princeton was appreciated by many, and despised by others, for its moderation with respect to many of the issues of the day, and Hodge embodied that moderation. He was, as Andrew Hoffecker has written in his new biography (reviewed in this issue of New Horizons), an Old School Presbyterian with New Side sympathies. He reflected, for some of us, the best of both worlds: a warm piety married to a staunch orthodoxy. In this essay, I would like to shed light on Charles Hodge, not only as a theologian or churchman, but as a Christian who was not that much different from the rest of us.

When Charles was only six months old, his father died. His brother, Hugh, who was a year and a half older than he, eventually became a sort of surrogate father, as well as a close confidant and friend. Their mother worked hard to give them every advantage. They were well taught in several schools and were catechized by Ashbel Green, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in their hometown, Philadelphia. Green later became president of the College of New Jersey (which was renamed Princeton University in 1896) and was an ardent leader of the Old School when it split from the New School in 1837. His relationship with Hodge was tense due to Hodge’s moderation when it came to Presbyterian division (as opposed to hard-liners like Green and Robert J. Breckinridge).

Hugh was a doctor, like his father (who had died treating yellow fever). He became a leading physician in Philadelphia, practicing and teaching obstetrics and gynecology (helping to establish it as a specialty, in fact) and pioneering techniques, some of which are still in use. The wealthy Hugh, both on his own initiative and at Charles’s request, gave gifts to his brother, especially when Princeton fell short in paying him. In a letter of November 22, 1860, Charles reflects his surprise that Hugh has just sent him $400 for a new carriage, protesting, “I never bought anything but a second hand carriage in my life, and I feel too old to begin to splurge now. If I get any such thing, I will label it all over, ‘A Present from a rich Friend!’”

Perhaps a more significant surrogate father, certainly in terms of his theological development, was Archibald Alexander. Hodge came to Princeton in 1812 for college. Alexander met him when he first came there and the seminary was just beginning. Alexander recognized some gifts in Hodge that others seemed to have missed, asking him to accompany him on a preaching tour in 1816, before Hodge entered seminary. Alexander greatly supported and encouraged Hodge—and later encouraged him to come and teach at Princeton Seminary.

The Second Great Awakening, which was still in its earlier Calvinistic phase, touched Princeton when Hodge was a college student there, and in 1815 he made a profession of faith in a local Presbyterian church. His profession and Alexander’s continual encouragement— it was also Alexander who insisted that Hodge replace him in 1840 as professor of exegetical and didactic theology—set him on the path that he would follow for the rest of his life.

Hodge was a good student and worked hard. Curiously, his mother and even his brother, according to their correspondence with him, regarded him as somewhat lazy, and they were always urging him on in his work. In addition to the biblical tongues, he mastered at least Latin, German, and French. He was widely read in philosophy and science, as well as theology. He was interested in farming, horses, and many other things that would mark him as industrious.

Charles Hodge

Despite all of this, he seemed unable at times to please his mother or even his brother. As close as the brothers were, their correspondence reflects certain tensions. Paul Gutjahr, in his recent biography of Hodge (reviewed in this issue of New Horizons), speaks of the distance that developed between him and his mother, especially during and after his 1826–1828 trip to Europe (Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy, pp. 147–48). So does Hoffecker, who quotes Hodge with respect to his mother after his return from Europe: “She appeared to have lost a good deal of her feeling for me” (Charles Hodge: The Pride of Princeton, p. 127).

Charles suffered from a number of maladies, particularly lameness in his right thigh, which led him to teach all his classes in his home study from 1833 to 1836. He chronicled his and his family’s maladies at length, increasingly as the years went by, in his correspondence with Hugh—which is not surprising, since Hugh was both a doctor and his closest confidant. One wonders if Hugh did not consider him something of a hypochondriac, though. In a letter of January 1862, Charles recounted several ailments, including chest pains, and wistfully observed, “All this is, I suppose, what you call nervous. Nevertheless it is dispiriting not to be able to work.” Charles had noted ten years earlier that their correspondence had lessened from earlier years (it became spotty in the 1850s, though it picked up during the war years, 1861–1865), lamenting, “It is painful, however, that we should thus drift asunder as we grow older.”

With respect to this tension, I’ll recount a particular incident, but here is the background: In 1822, the year in which Hodge became professor of oriental and biblical literature, he married Sarah Bache (a great grand-daughter of Benjamin Franklin). Hodge was a loving and attentive husband and father; he and Sarah had eight children together. Sarah died in 1849, leaving Hodge heartbroken. He sought to share his grief with Hugh. Now for the troubling episode: Charles wrote to Hugh on June 18, 1850, “This is a weary day. Twenty-eight years ago this day my blessed Sarah gave me her hand. What she was then rises as a beautiful vision … the spirit of departed happiness before my mind. What she is now I cannot realize. I only feel that she is gone—as to this world forever. No day for months has been so hard for me to get through. But I must stop these unavailing regrets. You have not much patience for them and seem to think I ought to be good enough to [forget?] I ever had such a wife—I sometimes think it would be well for me if I could leave Princeton and never come back to it. She is so associated with everything here that no moment passes without some appeal from her.” Two years later, Hodge married again. He married Mary Stockton, a friend of his first wife.

Hodge had a wonderful life, in many ways, and was deeply grateful to the Lord for all his blessings, but it is important to look at a few of these neglected matters, particularly the later tension with his brother—all I have read portrays their relationship as idyllic—so that we can that much more appreciate Hodge as a man who faced trials, tribulations, and disappointments, just like the rest of us. I agree with Hoffecker that Hodge “remained uniformly cheerful throughout his academic career” (p. 126), despite illness, church conflict, the terrible Civil War, and the strained relationship with his mother and even his beloved brother, Hugh. One might argue that Hodge’s relationships with his family members, colleagues, students, and close friends (he had and kept them) made up for that. I think, however, that his “remarkably optimistic demeanor,” as Hoffecker calls it, was such because of his unquenchable relationship with his Savior, which served him through all the ups and downs of his life.

The author is an OP minister and an associate professor at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. All the letters cited are in the Charles Hodge Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Art courtesy of www.reformationart.com.

The Legacy of Geerhardus Vos

Danny E. Olinger

“He was probably the best exegete Princeton ever had,” Benjamin B. Warfield once told Louis Berkhof. Abraham Kuyper was so taken with his academic acumen that Kuyper offered him the chair of Old Testament studies at the Free University of Amsterdam when he was only twenty-four years old. J. Gresham Machen commented that if he knew as much as he did, he would be writing all the time. Cornelius Van Til considered him the most erudite man he had ever known.

Testimonies like these abound concerning Geerhardus Vos (1862–1949), professor of biblical theology at Princeton Seminary from 1893 to 1932. Possessing the rare combination of first-rate exegetical, philosophical, and linguistic ability, Vos produced books and articles that remain standard reading today in Reformed theology. Although he never joined the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Vos befriended many of his former Princeton students who did, and his theological influence remains in the church to this day.

And yet, few men ever avoided the spotlight as much as Vos did. Irenic to a fault, he did not have the constitution to engage in controversy like his Princeton colleagues Warfield and Machen, although agreeing with their positions. Cosmopolitan in an age of nationalism, he was often ignored in the classroom by American students turned off by his thick Germanic accent. By the end of his tenure at Princeton, he had to resort to self-publishing what would become his most influential book, The Pauline Eschatology. In retirement, he became better known as the husband of Catherine Vos, whose Child’s Story Bible sold more copies than all of his books combined.

Vos himself attributed his quiet disposition in part to his Dutch upbringing. He wrote to a friend, “I have always been more averse to, rather than a friend of, a personal ‘stepping into the limelight.’ This is perhaps a residue of the somewhat world-repudiating spirit of the Old-Seceder Pietism in which my parents lived and in which I grew up.”1 Although Herman Bavinck said of Vos, “A man can be too modest,” Vos’s disinterest in self-promotion was consistent with his theology. Vos taught his students that their focus should be on God himself and the accomplishment of redemption, which has at its center the person and work of Jesus Christ.

As a biblical theologian, the particular area that Vos specialized in was eschatological studies—not in the narrow sense that dispensationalism promotes, but in the broader sense of what constitutes the believer’s hope and goal. An eschatological goal—communion with God in full in a higher estate—was set before man from the beginning. Forfeited through the sin of Adam, this goal has been achieved on behalf of sinners through the work of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Vos believed that this hermeneutic insight was a distinguishing hallmark of the Reformed faith and covenant theology.

Vos’s work at Princeton was distinguished from that of other biblical theologians of his era in that he staunchly defended the Bible as God’s inspired and inerrant Word. He believed that those who attacked the Bible frequently underestimated God and overestimated man. What man as the creature owes to God the Creator is to receive God’s self-revelation at its full divine value. Said Vos, “It is our duty to emphasize, especially as Reformed believers, that submission to the revealed truth is of the very essence of the Christian religion, being one of the fundamental aspects of that absolute dependence on and surrender to God in which true religion consists.”2

In his book The Biblical Theology, Vos further explained how revelation and redemption were intertwined. Scripture is the record of God’s self-revealing activity, and that activity is oriented to salvation in Jesus Christ. What is revealed in seed form in Genesis 3:15, with the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, comes to fruition with the Savior’s arrival in the New Testament. At the heart of the biblical story from beginning to end is Jesus Christ.

Vos believed that the church’s preaching should reflect that reality. Liberalism in Vos’s day had turned the message of the Bible into moralism, aiming to follow the example of the good man Jesus. “Oh the pity and shame of it,” said Vos, “the Jesus that is being proclaimed but too often is a Christ after the flesh, a religious genius, the product of evolution, powerless to save.”3 Vos admonished future preachers to do something much different. He urged them in every sermon to leave their hearers with the impression that “it is impossible for you to impart to them what you want other than as a correlate and consequence of the eternal salvation of their souls through the blood of Christ, because in your own conviction that alone is the remedy which you can honestly offer to a sinful world.”4

In The Pauline Eschatology, his last published work while he was at Princeton, Vos argued that the apostle Paul grasped through the inspiration of the Spirit that Jesus Christ had ushered in the kingdom of heaven now through his life, death, and resurrection. The Christian has the members of his body upon earth, which are to be mortified, but as a whole, the Christian belongs to the high mountain-land above. The state of having one’s citizenship above with Christ while having one’s body still on earth was described by Vos as “semi-eschatological.”

In July 1932, Vos retired from Princeton with little fanfare. The greater excitement on Mercer Street that summer was Albert Einstein’s arrival six doors down from the Voses. Vos quietly slipped away to California, where he wrote poetry. Following the death of his beloved wife, Catherine, in 1937, he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he lived with his daughter (Marianne Radius) and her family.

But, even then, the bonds with his students at Princeton who helped to form the OPC remained. Upon hearing of J. Gresham Machen’s death on January 1, 1937, Vos wrote to Machen’s brother Arthur: “Dr. Machen for a short while was my pupil at Princeton Seminary. Afterwards for many years, we were associated as members of the faculty, and the time soon came that I learned more from him than had ever been my privilege to impart to him as a teacher. He was indeed a profound scholar, but what counts for more than that, a great man of God and a true defender of our Christian faith in its Presbyterian form. His name will not be easily forgotten, for the impression he made on the religious and theological mind of the church was too deep for that.”5

After Machen’s death, Vos was informed of developments in the OPC by his son Bernardus, a member of Calvary OPC in Middletown, Pennsylvania, and during the visits of Ned B. Stonehouse and Cornelius Van Til to Grand Rapids. Earlier, in 1928, when Van Til was an apologetics instructor at Princeton, he sought Vos’s advice on whether he should become engaged in the Presbyterian conflict. Vos told Van Til, then a ministerial member in the Christian Reformed Church, “Look, this is going to be a much broader matter than a single, denominational issue. Princeton may be a Presbyterian seminary under the direction of the General Assembly of the PCUSA, but don’t forget that it is a rallying point for many, many wonderful Christian people all over the world–people who love Reformed doctrine and life.… You cannot, you dare not, stand by and look on like an indifferent spectator when a conflict is being fought in the arena.”6

Van Til would later honor the man he considered his theological mentor above all others by having Vos’s portrait hang above his desk during his tenure at Westminster Seminary. In return, Vos’s deep friendship with Van Til was seen in his request that, upon his death, Van Til officiate at the funeral service. Vos died on August 13, 1949, and Van Til, accompanied by OPC minister John J. DeWaard, conducted his memorial service at Roaring Branch, Pennsylvania. Van Til preached from 2 Corinthians 5:1, “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (kjv).

Van Til in his study with a photo of Vos

The author is the general secretary for Christian Education.

Footnotes

1 Letter to Albertus Eekhof, October 28, 1932.

2 Vos, review of James Denney’s Jesus and the Gospel, in Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation, 515.

3 Vos, “The More Excellent Ministry,” in Grace and Glory, 102.

4 Vos, “The Gracious Provision,” in Grace and Glory, 238.

5 Letter to Arthur Machen, January 5, 1937.

6 William White, Van Til: Defender of the Faith, 48.

Planning for a Minister’s Retirement

Douglas L. Watson

“Oh no! He’s talking about retirement again—funds, investments … blah, blah, blah … finance, hocus pocus, blah, blah, blah.…” Before your eyes glaze over, read on. “I’m a minister, not a financier. Why should I be distracted from the work of ministry?” Don’t turn that page; read on.

“We have a retirement allowance in our pastor’s salary package. He can take care of his retirement however he wants. That’s his business.” Elders and sessions, don’t tune out; read on.

Find out why churches and their ministers should plan for their minister’s retirement, how the church at large can help, the good it can do for the church, and the relief from distraction it provides. So read on.

Biblical Underpinnings1

In the Old Testament, there are three principles that bear on the matter of retirement planning for the church’s ministers. One, the church was to provide for the present and future support and care of God’s ministers, as seen in the priests and Levites. Israel’s tithe supported them during the years of their active service (Num. 18:21, 24, 25–28). But by God’s direction, during their retirement (Num. 8:23–26), the Old Testament church was still to support them for the rest of their lives (Num. 18:31; Deut. 14:27; 18:1–8). They had no inheritance in Israel; God was their portion. He provided for them through his people—even the places of their permanent homes in the cities set apart for them.

Two, the Old Testament church was also to provide for the present and future support of the needy among God’s people. This included those beyond the years of regular service, including God’s Old Testament ministers who could not make adequate provision for the future during their ministry (Deut. 14:28–29).

Three, good stewardship to prepare for future needs is to be practiced (Prov. 6:6–11; 10:5; 24:27).

In the New Testament, the same principles appear. One, the church is still to provide for the present and future care of her ministers and their families (Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:1–16). The New Testament teaches that ministers laboring in the sphere of the church have the right to wages from the church (Matt. 10:10; 1 Tim. 5:17–18; 1 Cor. 9:3–14). Two, the church is still to provide for the care of the needy. We see this in precept (Jas 2:14-16; 1 John 3:17) and example (Acts 2:44–45; 11:28–30; Rom. 15:25–27). Isn’t this why the Lord gave deacons to the church (Acts 6:1–6)? Surely, God’s needy ministers, who are to be considered worthy of double honor (1 Tim. 5:17), are numbered among them, along with their widows (1 Tim 5:5, 9–10). Three, preparation for future needs is still to be practiced (Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:12–28).

The church must provide for her ministers, the needy ones included. The Word of God calls for preparation, by good stewardship, for the provision they will eventually need.

The Responsibility

Responsibility to provide for ministers falls on the church. In the first place, it falls on the church at large. One of the reasons that the OPC, in good Presbyterian fashion, has diaconal committees at the presbytery level is to care for needy ministers among the other needy people in the church. The General Assembly’s standing Committee on Diaconal Ministries (CDM) backs the presbyteries in fulfilling this charge and contributes direct assistance to needy retired ministers. The OPC also answers the Bible’s demands for preparation and good stewardship in the future care of her ministers through the General Assembly’s Committee on Pensions (COP) and Pension Fund. The CDM and COP constantly seek, by God’s grace, to improve in their respective areas of service and to work together to improve the OPC’s care of her retired ministers, including needy ones.

In the second place, does not the local congregation bear responsibility to provide for its minister’s future retirement? Elders and sessions, are you not obliged to oversee this duty? It takes more to fulfill this responsibility than simply segregating a portion of his pay package on paper, calling it “retirement,” and leaving the minister to fend for himself. To properly oversee his provision for old age, it seems, the session should at least make certain that those funds actually are being set aside. No one is suggesting that the session or individual elders must manage the investments themselves. There are plenty of experts available for that. But the session needs to implement the biblical principles by arranging for the minister’s retirement funds to be set aside and work to his later benefit.

One simple way to accomplish that is to use the church’s mechanism for retirement savings and investment, the OPC’s Pension Fund, and contribute the recommended amounts for the pastor’s retirement allowance. In this manner, the local church works together with the church at large to fulfill the biblical mandates. There are other ways, and there are plenty of variables that are unique to each minister’s situation that a session must consider. But elders and sessions, at least take on the responsibility and get started. You will very likely help your minister take full advantage of tax relief now, as well as prepare for old age later. By this you become the Lord’s instrument to use more efficiently the resources available for the advance of his kingdom. But the buck doesn’t stop here.

In the third place, ministers themselves bear biblical responsibility. The Bible says, “If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). Even if you live and labor to a ripe old age, the Lord requires you to provide for yourself and your wife for the rest of your lives. If you go to be with the Lord before her, should you not provide for her continuing well-being?

“But I’m only 28, for crying out loud! Why should I care about retirement now?” The earlier you start, the more you can save and the longer the investments can grow. “I’m no financial expert. I’m a minister. Why can’t I just concentrate on ministry?” No one is saying that you must manage your investments yourself. You simply need, along with your session, to make the arrangements for your retirement funds to be put aside and well managed. If you do, you will find that you worry less and concentrate on ministry more—not vice versa.

A little preparation now will avoid much worry later, when the years of your old age and inability to labor for the Lord arrive. So at 28 or 58, don’t wait to implement biblical wisdom to prepare for retirement. But there is another facet to your responsibility that you may not have recognized. You are responsible to see to the best use of the Lord’s resources.

The Need

Poor retirement planning now can easily result in the need for diaconal care later. There are always some situations in which, in God’s providence, the diaconal care of aged and infirm ministers is unavoidable. Some, such as early ministers of the OPC, labor faithfully and self-sacrificially all their ministerial lives in small or poor churches, with no hope of retirement funds, yet they serve God’s people. Some cannot put money aside for retirement due to difficulties that exhaust their funds. Some are disabled early in life, and thus have no hope of retirement funds. In such cases, with joyful thanks to the Lord for their labors, the OPC seeks to address their needs as the diaconal funds of local churches, presbyteries, and the Committees on Diaconal Ministries and Pensions permit. But would it not be a pity if those resources had to be additionally burdened simply because local churches, along with their ministers, failed to plan well?

This points out a potential difficulty looming on the OPC’s horizon. Many of the church’s ministers will reach retirement age in the next few years. Many will live longer than their forefathers did. How many will have adequate funds to support them and their wives for the rest of their lives? Possibly, fewer and fewer. The Committees on Diaconal Ministries and Pensions have begun to face that future now. They are working diligently, and now more closely together than ever before, to plan and implement strategies to provide adequate resources for the needs that come along and to avoid the looming crisis. Sessions and ministers, you can help the OPC avoid the crisis by diligently preparing for your pastor’s retirement, seeking God’s blessing upon it.

Yes, we depend upon the Lord always for all that we need. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We must always be ready to submit ourselves and our plans to God’s providence and be ready to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (Jas. 4:15). But planning for retirement is an instrument the Lord might use to give us our daily bread in later years. It is just as biblical as planning for the continuing well-being of Christ’s church. Retirement planning is important; do it, and do it wisely.

The author is pastor of Redeemer OPC in Pearl City, Hawaii, and a member of the Committee on Pensions.

Footnotes

1 Much of what follows was condensed and adapted from “An Outline of the Biblical Philosophy of Mutual Protection, Care and Dependence as the Principle Underlying the Program of the Committee on Pensions.” See www.opc.org/pensions.

Home Missions

Under Construction

Neon, Kentucky, is a town the people of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church have known for the past decade. In “The Father’s Home,” published in this magazine ten years ago, you learned of the deep economic and spiritual needs of the community.

Over the years, you have prayed and given financially as the mission work forged ahead. Many went and labored. By God’s grace, much has been accomplished. Neon (formerly Covenant) Reformed Presbyterian Church (OPC) is being established.

People have come to know the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ and have been united to the church. The Word of God is being heralded from the pulpit and from house to house. Elders have cared for Christ’s sheep.

With large doses of outside funds and the help of many workers from other congregations, Neon OPC has its own building. A dilapidated building in downtown Neon was purchased. The interior of the first floor received an extreme makeover to be used for worship, education, and fellowship.

Worship at Neon Reformed Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Neon, Ky.

The Rev. John Belden was a significant part of this ministry from its inception until 2010. At that time, he accepted a call to a congregation in California. God used John’s ministry in Neon in many ways.

Finding God’s man to take up this unique ministry took some time. In late 2011, the Rev. M. Jay Bennett began to fill the pulpit. Earlier this year he was called and installed as an evangelist.

Jay was a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America without call. He had graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2007. He grew up in Baptist churches in Georgia.

While serving as a pastoral intern before going to seminary, he began reading R.C. Sproul, James Montgomery Boice, Lorraine Boettner, and Jonathan Edwards. As he headed off to seminary, he was convinced of the basic Calvinistic doctrines of salvation, but knew little of a full-orbed Reformed theology.

At Dallas he was introduced to dispensationalism. He knew that was not what he believed, but he certainly was not able to articulate covenant theology. God led him more and more fully into an understanding of his Word. By the end of seminary, Jay realized he was Reformed and Presbyterian. Following seminary, he did an internship at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas and became part of the PCA. He went on to serve as assistant pastor of Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church in Ballwin, Missouri.

Now, as a young, solo pastor in Neon, God is continuing to stretch Jay. Preaching morning and evening every Lord’s Day is new to him, but he loves it. He finds that he is expending a great deal of energy on preaching, but God is energizing him.

Jay loves to help people. Ministering to them by household has been exciting. Every family visitation is being initiated by the session. Jay has been able to prepare one household of five for membership in the church. He has been working with another household, preparing mom and dad for marriage and the father and son for baptism.

Jay finds hunting and fishing to be enjoyable hobbies. As a husband, father, and pastor, he has little time to pursue them. He and two other elders in the presbytery are planning to fish and fellowship for a few hours each month. His wife, Andrea, homeschools their two children and enjoys cooking and crafting.

Downtown Neon is seeing some revitalization. A new bank has gone in across the street from the church building. Next door to the church, a new public library is under construction. One project that Neon OPC wants to finish is sprucing up the exterior front of its building. Funds and energy were in short supply when the first floor was rehabbed, so the exterior still looks shabby.

A second project is to refurbish the upstairs apartments. This is the manse for the Bennett family. One of the apartments is in really poor condition. The two apartments also need to be made into one unified dwelling area. Little Farms Chapel (OPC) in Michigan has sent a gift to help provide materials for this project. They may also be sending a work team in January. Would you be able to assist with these projects?

Please pray for Neon OPC and its new pastor, Jay Bennett. Ask God to keep him faithful in the proclamation of the Word. Ask God to bless the preaching to the edification and peace of believers and the salvation of the lost. Pray for wisdom and grace in reaching out to lost neighbors. There are still great needs in this part of Appalachia. Pray that the church will be joyful and content with who it is in Christ.

Give thanks for the commitment and faithfulness of the households in the congregation and for the families being added to the membership.

Good News in State College

Bad news has dominated State College, Pennsylvania, the home of Penn State University. But Pastor Jeremiah Montgomery and the people of Resurrection OPC herald God’s good news of redemption. Each Lord’s Day the mission work gathers to praise the Lord for life and peace, forgiveness and transformation, truth and glory.

Resurrection OPC is the newest mission work in the newest presbytery of the OPC (Central Pennsylvania). The work was begun with the encouragement and support of Westminster OPC in Hollidaysburg, where Mark Brown has been pastor since its inception in 1977.

Pastor Montgomery is a home-grown shepherd. He grew up as a covenant child in Westminster Church, where his dad serves as a ruling elder. He went to college locally. His seminary training was through the extension program of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Pastor Brown was his mentor in preparation for ministry.

Jeremiah observes that the fundamentals in Resurrection OPC are strong. The people love worship. They come faithfully to morning and evening services on the Lord’s Day. They are committed to the Lord and to doing the work that will help the mission work to mature as a congregation. They are united.

The congregation has faced some struggles and disappointments together. Their facilities are less than ideal. They worship in a banquet facility in the morning, without additional space for Sunday school, and in a different facility in the evening. Their prayerful and diligent search for one facility that would accommodate their growing ministry has not yet born fruit. Please continue to pray with them that God would meet this need.

God is gathering in more people. A family with five children is in the process of uniting with the church. The parents of the first Penn State student to join Resurrection OPC have become members.

The congregation has many talented people. Incredible musicians assist with the musical accompaniment for the congregation’s worship. A woman in the congregation bakes the bread for communion. She is also an avid gardener and brings floral arrangements to grace the worship space. Other members serve faithfully behind the scenes: coordinating refreshments, designing advertisements, keeping the books, and operating the sound system. Every need at Resurrection OPC finds willing hands.

Some of the ladies at Resurrection OPC in State College, Pa.

Early in the life of Resurrection OPC, God gave them a new convert. He found eternal life just two months before he died. His widow is part of the congregation.

Jeremiah is laying plans to engage in open-air preaching on Fridays, once again on the campus of Penn State. Typical open-air preachers on campus are “screamers” who angrily yell at students passing by. Others are Eastern Orthodox mystics. In this venue that seems much-abused, Jeremiah announces, “We want good things for you.” As he tells them of Christ, he invites students to engage him in a discussion of their religious beliefs. In the spring, Jeremiah preached on campus six times. Resurrection Church’s students were very supportive, as was the wider Christian community on campus. As Christian students accompanied him and listened, some passersby would heckle. But others would stop and converse with the group.

Jeremiah and his wife, Beth, are expecting their fifth child and first girl soon. Their boys love Legos. They are avid readers, an interest they learned from their parents. Jeremiah is also an author. P&R Publishing has recently released his first novel, The Dark Faith. He also listens to fiction as he runs. He completed a full marathon in 2011, and has just completed his second half-marathon for 2012.

The biggest challenge for Jeremiah and the people of Resurrection OPC is meeting people and having spiritually significant conversations. Please pray that God would give them many divine appointments. They long to see many people come to a committed faith in Christ. Remember to pray for a better meeting facility.

Praise God for his covenant faithfulness and for the gifts and graces he has poured out on the people of Resurrection Church.

Home Missions Today

For up-to-date Home Missions news and prayer updates, e-mail HomeMissionsToday@opc.org. New editions: October 10, 24.

Christian Education

New Books on Old Princeton

D. G. Hart and John R. Muether

To mark Princeton Theological Seminary’s centennial in 1912, the school’s faculty contributed to a fairly nondescript volume of essays. It included “Jesus and Paul,” by J. Gresham Machen, “The Eschatological Aspect of the Pauline Conception of the Spirit,” by Geerhardus Vos, and “On the Emotional Life of Our Lord,” by Benjamin B. Warfield. But without an introduction, preface, or acknowledgments, readers would have needed to know the seminary’s history to recognize the book’s significance. The seminary made up for the lack of fanfare with another volume. The Centennial Celebration of the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church included hundreds of congratulatory addresses from leaders of schools and churches located around the world, from Burma to Hungary.

If Princeton’s centennial could set off this kind of fanfare, what of its bicentennial? Surely the founding of Princeton would not generate festivities in 2012 like those in 2009 celebrating the five hundredth anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, an occasion that launched international conferences, various biographies, and many more collections of essays. Even so, Princeton marked a turning point in American Presbyterianism. The institution not only addressed a serious shortage of ministers, but also defined American Presbyterianism’s theological identity. Eighteenth-century Presbyterian theology on both sides of the Atlantic had been a work in progress. Ecclesiastical moderates in Scotland resisted difficult parts of Reformed orthodoxy, Irish Presbyterians played second fiddle to the Anglican establishment, and American colonists were simply struggling to found a Reformed communion. But by 1812 Presbyterians possessed sufficient resources to found a seminary. Princeton’s combination of Reformed orthodoxy and experimental Calvinism set the standard for conservative Presbyterians in the United States. In fact, it is hard to imagine the existence of the OPC or the PCA without “Old Princeton”—a phrase that refers to the seminary prior to the reorganization of 1929 that prompted J. Gresham Machen to found Westminster Seminary.

This year, bicentennial celebrations for Princeton took two forms. The first was the academic conference. The conservatives who organized the two-day conference at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary featured addresses before audiences in the hundreds. In contrast, Princeton Seminary’s own conference drew audiences that rarely topped sixty persons who listened to talks on topics that in some instances were tangential to the seminary.

The Princeton anniversary also yielded a handful of books. Again, the differences between conservative and mainline Presbyterians are unmistakable. For mainline Presbyterians, Old Princeton marks a bygone era before the school adjusted to modern times. This is one theme of James Moorhead’s forthcoming Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture (Eerdmans, $60). Moorhead arranges the narrative around the theme of theological education’s aims and purposes. As a result, when he arrives at the presidency of James Mackay in 1937 (the first new president after the reorganization), Moorhead notes Mackay’s preservation of the seminary’s heritage—training pastors, theology’s centrality, and the importance of piety. In Moorhead’s words, for Mackay the question was whether Princeton’s heritage would become “fossilized” or “enriched.” One underdeveloped theme in the book is confessional subscription, a matter that animated Old Princeton as an Old School institution and that prompted Machen’s critique of liberal Protestantism. Without attending to subscription, Moorhead has an easier time seeing continuity before and after 1929.

From conservative hands have come two new anthologies in 2012, both edited by James M. Garretson. Princeton and the Work of Christian Ministry (Banner of Truth, 2 vols., $59) is a collection of over seventy shorter writings from Old Princeton luminaries, a rich sampling that ranges from the charming (“The Use and Abuse of Books,” by Archibald Alexander) to the profound (Warfield’s inaugural address on the “Idea of Systematic Theology Considered as a Science”). Together, these pieces exhibit Princeton’s commitment to training Presbyterian ministers and testify to the enduring wisdom of the faculty’s reflections for students and pastors. Garretson’s companion work, Pastor-Teachers of Old Princeton (Banner of Truth, $32), contains funeral sermons, memorial addresses, and other articles. The inclusion of less familiar figures, such as Henry A. Boardman, Alexander T. McGill, James C. Moffat, William Henry Green, and William M. Paxton, is especially useful.

Of course, Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield command pride of place in considerations of Old Princeton, and 2011 marked the publication of two new biographies of Charles Hodge, both of which are reviewed in this issue. Not to be overlooked is the republication of A. A. Hodge’s tribute to his father, The Life of Charles Hodge (Banner of Truth, $32).

The Reformed world owes a debt of gratitude to Fred G. Zaspel (pastor of Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia, Pennsylvania) for his recent studies of Warfield. In his Theology of B. B. Warfield (Crossway, 2010, $40), Zaspel assembles Warfield’s occasional writings into a thematic arrangement that is suggestive of the systematic theology that Warfield never wrote.

More recently Zaspel penned the first in a new Crossway series on “Theologians on the Christian Life.” In Warfield on the Christian Life: Living in the Light of the Gospel (2012, $17.99), Zaspel dubs the Lion of Princeton a “Christologian,” a term that underscores how the person and work of Christ informed Warfield’s teaching. The “dones” of Christ (i.e., the indicatives) inform the duty of the Christian (the imperatives). Contrary to the standard caricatures of Old Princeton, Warfield was a theologian of the heart who expanded our understanding of the Holy Spirit, even while critiquing perfectionism and counterfeit claims of the miraculous. While acknowledging Warfield’s high regard for the Westminster Confession, Zaspel overlooks Warfield’s polemics regarding confessional revision in the Presbyterian Church. Thus he underestimates, not unlike Moorhead, the importance of confessional subscription.

Zaspel claims that interest in Warfield is higher now than it was in his own lifetime, evidence for which is found in Paul K. Helseth’s Right Reason and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal (P&R, 2010, $21.99). Challenging the prevailing notion that Alexander, Hodge, and Warfield championed an antiquated approach to faith and reason, Helseth denies that Old Princeton was captive to common sense philosophy. He proposes instead that Princeton’s “ministerial use” of reason was more consistent with the broader Reformed tradition than interpreters have appreciated.

Two hundred years after its founding, Old Princeton still generates new books. Far from being fossilized in the past, it is a heritage that continues to enrich confessional Presbyterianism.

OPC Ministers Who Studied at Old Princeton

Allen, Samuel

Bordeaux, Harley

Brown, James

Chrisman, Charles

DeRuiter, Peter

DeVelde, Everett

DeWaard, John

Duff, Clarence

Faucette, Frank

Freeman, David

Griffiths, H. McAllister

Hamilton, Floyd

Hunt, Bruce

Jamison, Milo

Jongewaard, Lawrence

Kuiper, R. B.

Long, Craig

Machen, J. Gresham

MacRae, Allan

Marsden, Robert

McIntire, Carl

Mitchell, Thomas

Murray, John

Myers, David

Pearson, Manford

Rankin, John

Rian, Edwin

Rohrbaugh, James

Simpson, John

Stonehouse, Ned

Sutherland, Samuel

Thwing, John

Toms, John

Van Til, Cornelius

Vining, Robert

Welbon, Henry

Wideman, Charles

Woodbridge, Charles

Woolley, Paul

Out of the Mouth …

My five-year-old son stopped me as we were working on the Children’s Catechism: “Dad, why are we doing all this? I know how it works. You just stand in front of the church and say yes five times!”

—Chad Van Dixhoorn

Vienna, Va.

Note: If you have an example of the humorous “wisdom” that can come from children, please send it to the editor.

New Shipping Rates Policy

Materials sold by the Committee on Christian Education and by the Committee for the Historian will have no shipping charge on orders of $35.00 or more. Smaller orders (no minimum order) will be subject to a flat $4.00 shipping charge per order. This applies to both online orders (paid through PayPal) and e-mail, phone, and mail orders (which are invoiced). Customers with shipping addresses outside the U.S. may not order online and will be charged for shipping at cost. (Free digital editions of a growing number of our publications are available online.)

Foreign Missions

Gospel Challenges in South Africa

Brian T. Wingard

Some in our denomination may be wondering why the OPC has sent a missionary couple to South Africa. After all, it is the most developed country on the African continent, and it has several Reformed denominations. The question is a natural one, but there are good reasons for the OPC to be involved in mission work here.

In the first place, the development of South Africa says nothing about the spiritual state of the people. A nation can be “developed” and, at the same time, spiritually needy.

Secondly, the development of South Africa is spotty and uneven. Sitting in a traffic jam on one of Pretoria’s superhighways may cause one to think that South Africa is no different than the West. But when one pulls up to “the crossings” in KwaMhlanga, where Mukhanyo Theological College is located, one gets an entirely different idea.

Furthermore, the predominantly white Reformed denominations face a number of challenges within their own communities, and the erosion caused by secularism and suspect theology poses problems for them.

There are challenges that make missionary endeavor here both understandable and welcome. These challenges exist in both the black and the white communities.

Brian Wingard (right) with two South African pastors

Challenges in the Black Community

Mukhanyo Theological College, where I teach, draws its students almost exclusively from the black community of South Africa (and other African nations). The challenges to the gospel presented by this community are many. Some of these challenges mirror those met all over Africa. Others are more characteristic of this nation. They all illustrate the need for a vigorous proclamation of a full-orbed gospel in this nation.

• Lack of Theological Knowledge among Church Leaders. As in much of Africa, the level of theological and biblical knowledge is low within many black churches of South Africa. Great numbers of pastors possess no theological training of any kind. There are many others whose entire training consists of a year of fairly low-level study at a Bible institute. Contributing to this challenge is the idea that “if you can’t do anything else, you can always be a pastor.” As a result, biblical and theological understanding among professing Christians is very poor—and that includes the basic doctrines of grace. This challenge contributes to a number of the challenges listed below.

• Witchcraft and Syncretism. Although witchcraft is seen throughout sub-Saharan Africa, its effect upon the churches in South Africa is more pronounced than I have experienced elsewhere. In other places, the problem is one of inconsistency—Christians backsliding into the use of practices they know to be non-Christian. In South Africa, there is a mixing of the occult practices of “African traditional religion” with Christianity. On our first Sunday of residence in South Africa, we ate lunch in the home of Pastor Samson, the pastor of several Reformed congregations. He told us that it was only during his time of study at Mukhanyo that he became convinced of the need to do away with the ancestor shrine in his home. Ancestor worship is quite prevalent within the church, but this is often defended as the proper “respect” enjoined by the fifth commandment. “Christian” funerals are sometimes fraught with this kind of syncretism.

• The Prosperity Gospel. The “prosperity gospel” has made inroads throughout the Christian world; in Africa, however, its influence is greater because its false promises appeal especially to those who perceive themselves as hopelessly poor. South Africa is no exception. For example, the principle of “multiplication in giving” was defended in class by one of my students as meeting the need of the poor to have “a word from Christ” that speaks hope to them in their poverty. Great numbers of people here have been promised prosperity in the name of Christ, and, when the prosperity does not materialize, they fall away from the church.

• Large Cult Followings. One of the largest cults in South Africa is the Zion Christian Church (popularly known as the ZCC). The founder of this cult, Engenas Lekganyane, was treated by his followers as a quasi-deity. It is now led by two of his grandsons. Near their home, in a neighboring province, thousands gathered (by some estimates, over a million) over the Easter weekend. The line at the tollbooths of those traveling there from the Pretoria and Johannesburg area was reported to be twenty kilometers long.

• Major Social Challenges. There are major social issues in the South African community that represent a challenge to, and show the need for, the gospel of the free grace of God through Jesus Christ. HIV/AIDS affects vast numbers of people, who need, in addition to medical care, the hope that only Christ can provide. There is great frustration and bitterness among the youth because of unemployment and the lack of signs of hope for a brighter future. There is often a spirit of entitlement, which is so destructive to the work ethic. These issues have led many in the black community to place their hope in man-made social and political solutions, when the real need is for a transformation of society that begins with the transformation of individual hearts through the gospel of grace.

Congregation of the Reformed Church Ramotse, at which Dr. Wingard preached

Challenges in the White Community

Although my primary calling is to teach at Mukhanyo Theological College, I assist the pastor of an English-speaking congregation of the GKSA (Reformed Churches in South Africa). The congregation is ethnically diverse, including white “English” South Africans, black South Africans, ethnic Chinese, and a number of white families where one spouse is Afrikaner and the other is English. This has also allowed me to see the gospel challenges affecting the white community. The white Reformed churches on their own are not going to be able to fully meet the gospel challenge faced by the nation as a whole. This community has much to do to put its own house in order. A few of their challenges I mention below.

• Galloping Secularism. Although the Afrikaans-speaking white community was once overwhelmingly Christian and largely Reformed, secularism has now become rampant. The Afrikaners are no more likely to be Christian than white people in the United States. Ignorance of the gospel is widespread, and the churches for the most part are not growing.

• Creeping Theological Liberalism. Once a bastion of Reformed orthodoxy, the institutions of higher theological education in South Africa now exhibit the inroads made by theological liberalism. New ideas of biblical interpretation challenge the view of an infallible and inerrant Word in many institutions. This has had an effect even within ostensibly orthodox denominations.

• Political Resentment. The black community has no monopoly on political and social resentment. However we may regard the justice of the situation, many white South Africans believe that they have been politically marginalized. A report that I received indicated that the segment of South African society least likely to land a job, if unemployed, was that of white males. Even when they are employed, many of them hold relatively menial jobs, and this presents a challenge to the gospel.

Conclusion

Is there work here for missionaries to do? I hope that what I have said above has shown that there is. In light of these challenges, I would substitute for the question “Why has the OPC sent a missionary couple to South Africa” a different question: “Why has the OPC sent only one missionary family to South Africa?”

What’s New

Comings/Goings

• Dr. and Mrs. James D. Knox, having concluded a seven-month furlough, are scheduled to return to Uganda on October 15.

• Rev. and Mrs. Mark E. Richline, after concluding a yearlong language study program in Costa Rica, arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, in mid-September to take up their labors.

• The following missionary associates have concluded their terms of service and returned home: Miss Christina N. Hartwell (Cedar Presbyterian Church, OPC, Hudsonville, Mich.), Asia; Miss Hyojung Lee (RCNZ), Asia; Mrs. Joel LeMahieu (formerly Heather M. Baumgardner, RPCNA), Uganda; Rev. and Mrs. Wendell S. Stoltzfus (pastor, Covenant OPC, Reading, Pa.), Asia.

Stewardship

The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21)

Arthur J. Fox

Once, when Jesus was teaching a crowd, a man was having an argument with his brother over a family inheritance. He demanded that Jesus “tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus refused to do so, replying, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Building on this, Jesus told the crowd to beware of covetousness, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

One might be tempted to conclude that Jesus is against wealth, but that is not the case. After all, God made Solomon one of the richest men in all of history. But Solomon eventually lost his “Lord-centered” focus and fell into sin. Later Solomon warned, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13).

Jesus’ teaching is consistent with this. Similarly, Paul equates covetousness with idolatry (Col. 3:5). We think that if we get all we want, we will be happy. From there it is but a short step to equating life with possessions. Hence, Jesus warns us about that.

As he often did, Jesus reinforced his warning with a parable about a man who owned a lot of land that produced a large volume of crops and found he had nowhere to store it all. After some thought, the man realized he had an opportunity. So he planned to build bigger barns and store his grain away for the future. “And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Sounds like a good retirement plan, doesn’t it?

But God had not yet had his say! When he spoke, it was devastating: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

Jesus’ application is simple and to the point: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” He is a fool. In all his saving, the man did not consider that in addition to earning his wealth, he had not been concerned to entrust his welfare to God. The Lord’s brother makes the same point in James 4:13–16: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” The point is, God is not opposed to wealth that is honestly gained, but he is opposed to wealth that becomes your god. He is opposed to relying upon that wealth apart from God’s blessing upon it.

The Shorter Catechism (Q. 104) tells us, “In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread, we pray that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.” Ah! There’s Jesus’ lesson in a nutshell. Seek wealth, but do it in the proper proportion. Seek for a competent provision for your future, but ask for God’s blessing to accompany it! That is all Jesus is concerned about. Such a concern will not then degenerate into idolatry.

Finally, here is a simple test to apply to your attitude toward money. Are you giving a portion of your gain to God as a tithe? If not, you have not recognized it as God’s gift and are not enjoying his blessing. Worldwide Outreach, anyone?

The author is pastor of Calvary OPC in Middletown, Pa. He quotes the ESV.

Prayer Calendar

October

1. Ben and Heather Hopp, Haiti. Pray for the spiritual growth of believers who faithfully attend worship services each week. / Todd and Cheryl Bordow, Rio Rancho, N.Mex. Pray that God would bring families with teenagers to the OPC of Rio Rancho. / Pray for Danny Olinger, Christian Education general secretary, as he reports to the Committee on Christian Education, meeting Oct. 1–3.

2. Home Missions general secretary Ross Graham. / Pray for missionary associates Jana Crum (Uruguay), Tessara Raposa (Uganda), and Marcie Winslow (Haiti) as they assist our missionary families. / Lou Ann Shafer, music editor for the Psalter-Hymnal Committee.

3. Pray for Mark and Jeni Richline, Uruguay, as the family adjusts to their new living and working situation in Montevideo. / Philip and Jenny Dharmawirya, Philadelphia, Pa. Pray for successful completion of the basement renovation project at Emmanuel Indonesian Protestant Church. / Pat Clawson, Christian Education office secretary.

4. Larry and Holly Wilson, Airdrie, Alberta. Pray for unity and growth within the congregation of Redeemer OPC. / Steve and Linda Larson, Uruguay. Pray for continued spiritual growth and maturity in the churches with which they work. / Pray for yearlong intern opportunities for seminary graduates.

5. Mr. and Mrs. F., Asia. Pray for opportunities for Mr. F. to talk to students about Christ. / Christopher and Della Chelpka, Tucson, Ariz. Pray that the people of Covenant OPC will grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. / Geoff (and Heather) Downey, yearlong intern at Trinity OPC in Hatboro, Pa.

6. Brian and Sara Chang, Cottonwood, Ariz. Pray that the Lord would bless Verde Valley Reformed Chapel with new growth. / Mr. and Mrs. M., Asia. Pray for Mr. M. as he teaches a weekly “English Corner” Bible study directed at non-believers. / Air Force chaplain Cornelius (and Deidre) Johnson.

7. Missionary associates Mr. and Mrs. C., Asia. Pray for Mr. C. as he assumes some leadership responsibilities for the Mission team. / Drew and Sonya Adcock, Williamsport, Pa. Pray that God would bring new families to worship at Omega OPC. / Pray for the work of Andrew Moody, OPC website editorial assistant.

8. Chad and Katie Mullinix, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Pray that the people of Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church will grow in grace and knowledge of Christ and have opportunities to spread the gospel. / Pray for the teaching being done by missionary associates E. C., T. D., E. H., and T. L. L., Asia.

9. Brian and Dorothy Wingard, South Africa. Pray for Dorothy as she leads a women’s Bible study. / Stephen and Catalina Payson, Mifflinburg, Pa. Pray that Providence OPC will have a clearly defined vision for Reformed witness, mission, and ministry. / Pray for the work of Kathy Bube, Loan Fund administrator.

10. Todd and Julie Wagenmaker, St. Louis, Mo. Pray for Gateway OPC’s Immigration and Composition Outreach Ministries. / A Presbyterian Church in the Horn of Africa. Pray for those providing guidance to the children in the church. / Pray for the work of Doug Watson, staff accountant.

11. Mark and Michele Winder, Collierville, Tenn. Pray that recent visitors to Wolf River Presbyterian Church will continue to attend. / Affiliated missionaries Jerry and Marilyn Farnik, Czech Republic. Pray for their efforts to witness for Christ in their community.

12. Brad Hertzog, Queens, N.Y. Pray for men who can lead to be raised up and brought in to Reformation Presbyterian Church. / Pray for Foreign Missions general secretary Mark Bube as he provides counsel and encouragement to missionaries living overseas. / Navy chaplain Bryan (and Shelly) Weaver.

Many OP mission works engaged in significant outreach events over the summer months. Sovereign Grace Church in Davenport, Iowa, was able to engage a number of people in significant gospel conversations at a fair (shown at left). Hillsdale Church in Michigan had a Bible study series at the public library that was well attended. Young people from throughout the presbytery distributed 1,900 pieces of literature in the Cottonwood, Arizona, area in one day on behalf of Verde Valley Chapel. This is a sampling of what was done. Rejoice in the sowing and prayerfully look for a great harvest. Pray (1) that the Spirit will use this witness to bring many to a committed faith in Christ Jesus, (2) that God will be truly worshipped, and (3) that many will be brought in to the OPC’s mission works across North America and the Caribbean.

13. Pray for Foreign Missions administrative assistant Linda Posthuma and secretary Janet Birkmann. / Ben and Sarah Miller, Huntington, N.Y. Pray that God would help Trinity OPC build redemptive relationships with the unchurched and underchurched. / Jan Gregson, office manager and assistant to the director of finance.

14. Home Missions associate general secretary Dick Gerber. / Pray for safe travel for James and Jenny Knox, M.D. and R.N., Nakaale, Uganda, as they conclude their furlough and return to Uganda tomorrow. / Pray for stated clerk George Cottenden as he puts the final touches on the Minutes of the 79th General Assembly for publication.

15. Pray for Al and Laurie Tricarico, Nakaale, Uganda (on furlough), as they maintain a busy furlough schedule. / Vern and Olena Picknally, Fremont, Mich. Pray for God’s continued blessing on Fremont OPC’s Leadership Class. / Short-term missions coordinator David Nakhla asks for prayer for construction teams going to refurbish the Ishinomaki Chapel in Japan.

16. David and Rashel Robbins, Huntington, W.Va. Pray that God would bless the outreach efforts of Trinity Presbyterian Church. / Eric and Dianna Tuininga, Mbale, Uganda. Pray for Eric as he works with and encourages the pastors of local OPCU congregations. / David Haney, director of finance and planned giving for the Committee on Coordination.

17. Pray for new missionary associates Christopher and Chloe Verdick, Nakaale, Uganda, as they assist the Uganda Mission. / Geoffrey and Sharon Willour, Cleveland, Ohio. Pray for outreach, church growth, and congregational solidarity at Lake OPC. / Army chaplain Kyle (and Laurel) Brown.

18. Ken and Cressid Golden, Moline, Ill. Pray that God would bless the follow-up from the Streetfest outreach and provide similar opportunities for Sovereign Grace OPC this fall. / David and Sunshine Okken, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for Sunshine as she homeschools their children.

19. Pray for safety in travel for Foreign Missions associate general secretary Douglas Clawson. / Doug and Kristi Bylsma, Beamsville, Ontario. Praise God for regular visitors at Living Hope Presbyterian Church and pray that they will desire to join the congregation. / Sarah Pederson, New Horizons proofreader.

20. John and Wenny Ro, Chicago, Ill. (downtown). Pray that God will bless Gospel Life Presbyterian Church’s Bible studies in new areas of Chicago. / Pray for the labors of missionary associates Erika Bulthuis, Heather Foss, Leah Hopp, and Emily Pihl, Nakaale, Uganda.

21. Bob and Martha Wright, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for Bob as he oversees the physical plant and vehicle maintenance at the Karamoja Station. / Home Missions administrative assistant Sean Gregg. / Jim Scott, publications coordinator for Christian Education.

22. Sacha and Martina Walicord, Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Pray for a new worship location for Knox Presbyterian Church, as the building they rent is being sold. / Heero and Anya Hacquebord, L’viv, Ukraine. Pray that seekers will clearly understand God’s Word. / Pray for the Great Commission Publications trustees meeting Oct. 22.

23. Pray for new missionary associates Adam and Sarah Thompson, Sendai, Japan, as they settle into their new life and labors. / Andrew and Billie Moody, San Antonio, Tex. Pray that visitors will continue to attend worship at San Antonio Reformed Church. / Carson Ryan, yearlong intern at Lake Sherwood OPC in Orlando, Fla.

24. Everett and Kimberly Henes, Hillsdale, Mich. Pray that the saints at Hillsdale OPC will be built up through the Word and sacraments. / Woody and Laurie Lauer, Numazu, Japan. Pray for church members with major health problems. / Cerrone (and Yolanda) Brown, summer intern at Emmanuel OPC in Wilmington, Del.

25. Cal and Edie Cummings, Sendai, Japan. Pray that God will work in the hearts of those attending Bible classes. / Kent and Laurie Harding, Doniphan, Mo. Pray for the right men to sense God’s call to serve as officers at Sovereign Grace Reformed Church. / Camden (and Erica) Bucey, yearlong intern at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, Ill.

26. Carlos and Diana Cruz, San Juan, P.R. Pray that construction at Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada’s building will soon be completed. / Affiliated missionaries Craig and Ree Coulbourne, Urayasu, Japan, and Linda Karner, Chiba, Japan. / Mark (and Karissa) Soud, yearlong intern at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Ariz.

27. Kaz and Katie Yaegashi, Yamagata, Japan. Pray that God would bless and encourage the faithful members of Yamagata Chapel. / John and Lois Hilbelink, Rockford, Ill. Pray for those taking the inquirers’ class at Providence OPC. / David (and Jenna) DeRienzo, yearlong intern at Second Parish OPC in Portland, Maine.

28. Jeremiah and Elizabeth Montgomery, State College, Pa. Pray that new families and individuals will come to Resurrection OPC. / Ben and Melanie Westerveld, Quebec, Canada. Pray for open doors as they seek to make contacts and share the gospel. / David (and Karen) Koenig, yearlong intern at Covenant OPC in Orland Park, Ill.

29. Pray for missionary associate Debra Blair, Quebec, Canada, as she assists with outreach programs at St-Marc Church. / Brandon and Laurie Wilkins, Crystal Lake, Ill. Pray for Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church as they bear witness to the gospel in Crystal Lake.

30. Roberto and Marieta Laranjo, Lowell, Mass. Pray for a new facility for Igreja Presbiteriana Brasileira, as they must move from their current location. / Pray that the congregations of the Ethiopian Reformed Presbyterian Church will be a powerful witness in their communities.

31. Pray for the needs of retired missionaries Betty Andrews, Greet Rietkerk, Young and Mary Lou Son, and Fumi Uomoto. / Tim and Joanne Beauchamp, Bridgton, Maine. Pray for steady growth, unity, and outreach at Pleasant Mountain Presbyterian Church.

News

Carl Trueman Installed

Linda Finlayson

On August 3, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Ambler, Pennsylvania, celebrated the installation of our new pastor, Westminster Seminary professor Carl R. Trueman. Derek Thomas, a minister at First Presbyterian Church (ARPC) in Columbia, South Carolina, preached a sermon from 2 Timothy 1:1–14. Todd Pruitt, a pastor at Church of the Saviour (independent) in Wayne, Pennsylvania, gave the charge to Dr. Trueman. George Cottenden, stated clerk of the General Assembly (OPC), gave the charge to the congregation.

Cornerstone is very thankful for God’s provision of a new pastor, and we ask for the prayers of the church as Carl begins his ministry among us.

Participants in Carl Trueman’s installation service: (standing) George Cottenden, Carlton Wynne, Doug Watson, Richard Gaffin, Trueman, Tom Sorkness, Todd Pruitt, and Derek Thomas; (seated) Sandy Finlayson

Update

Churches

• Covenant OPC, in Pensacola, Fla., formerly a mission work of Calvary OPC in Tallahassee, Fla., was received as an organized congregation by the Presbytery of the South on June 9.

Ministers

• M. Jay Bennett, formerly a PCA minister, was installed as pastor of Neon Reformed Presbyterian Church in Neon, Ky., on June 29.

• John J. Schortmann, formerly an evangelist working with Covenant OPC in Pensacola, Fla., was installed as pastor of that congregation on June 9.

• On July 28, the Presbytery of the Northwest dissolved the pastoral relationship between G. Mark Sumpter and Faith OPC in Grants Pass, Ore., effective August 1, and approved his work as executive director of the Rogue Valley Youth for Christ–Grants Pass.

• Carl R. Trueman, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, was installed as (part-time) pastor of Cornerstone OPC in Ambler, Pa., on August 3.

Extreme Makeover: OPC Edition

Jon Sanchez

On July 9, a group of more than thirty people came from nine churches across the country to transform the inside, outside, and grounds of New Covenant OPC in South San Francisco. We bit off more than we could chew, but we had a great time doing what we could.

New Covenant OPC getting an extreme makeover

The participants were a huge blessing to our small church, and their involvement stirred up our own members to increased unity, renewed vigor for Christ’s church, and deeper friendships. We are delighted with our new building, and our desire to spread the good news throughout our community is at an all-time high.

Could your church benefit from such an event? If you would like to lead the next Extreme Makeover: OPC Edition for your church, contact David Nakhla at OPCShortTermMissions@opc.org.

Letters

Was Jesus’ Body Broken?

Editor:

The three-year-old girl who wondered if Jesus’ broken body has been fixed (Aug.–Sept., p. 15) will be glad to learn that Jesus’ body was never broken. Pierced and put to death for your sins, yes; broken, no. The apostle John wrote that this was to fulfill prophecy (John 19:31–37), and he quite likely had in mind that just as a Passover lamb in the Old Testament was not to have its bones broken (Ex. 12:46), so also the body of the final Passover Lamb was to remain intact.

Furthermore, modern translations do not include the word broken in Jesus’ statement in the Upper Room, as given by Paul in 1 Cor. 11:24, because the word is not in the best manuscripts. Jesus’ breaking of the bread was simply part of the distribution process that he used.

In 1976, an OPC ruling elder challenged the General Assembly to rule that the words of institution for the Lord’s Supper, as given in our Directory of Worship, should state that Jesus’ body was “broken, given for you,” not just “given for you.” An advisory committee reported that the KJV’s use of the word broken in 1 Cor. 11:24 isn’t based on the best manuscripts. Furthermore, Luke records that Jesus said that his body was “given for you”—not “broken for you.” The committee asked this penetrating question: “Are we to hold that Luke isn’t representing what Jesus said properly?” The GA rejected the elder’s challenge, and the OPC’s Directory for Worship therefore does not include the word broken for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

The three-year-old can be comforted that the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, and that Jesus is the perfect Passover Lamb for sinners.

Roger W. Schmurr

Georgetown, Tex.

Editor:

Agreeing with the little girl, Larger Catechism 169 (supported by Heidelberg Catechism 75) declares that “the body of Christ was broken.” The official OPC proof text (1 Cor. 11:23–24 kjv) quotes Jesus: “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you.” John Calvin explains in his commentary on 1 Corinthians that while no bone of Jesus was broken (John 19:31–37), his body as a whole was broken as a sacrifice for us—beaten, flogged, speared, and crucified.

Yes, an advisory committee in 1976 did express a preference for a small group of Greek manuscripts that omit the word “broken” in 1 Cor. 11:24. However, it also noted that the Directory for Worship referred to Jesus’ “broken body.” Our new Directory retains the substance of that phrase, speaking of Jesus’ “crucified body.”

Actually, a strong case (too complex to present here) can be made that the manuscripts favored by the advisory committee, however good they may be in general, are defective in this verse. But even if their short text is correct, the nuances of the Greek are such that it implies, in context, that Jesus’ body was broken (see, e.g., Meyer, Alford, Hodge, Barnett, and Ciampa/Rosner). What the shorter text implies, the longer text states.

James W. Scott

Willow Grove, Pa.

Reviews

Charles Hodge: The Pride of Princeton, by Andrew Hoffecker. Published by P&R, 2011. Paperback, 460 pages, list price $19.99. Reviewed by PCA member Barry Waugh.

On this two hundredth anniversary of the founding of Princeton Seminary, two biographies of the man who developed the Princeton theology, Charles Hodge, have appeared, written by Andrew Hoffecker and Paul Gutjahr. Previously, those interested in Hodge were limited to the biography written by his son, A. A. Hodge.

Hoffecker’s book is the fifth in a series called American Reformed Biographies, and it continues the scholarly yet popularly accessible format. The book is divided into six divisions, which correspond to eras in Hodge’s life. Each division contains three to eight chapters. Full endnotes, a select bibliography, and an index facilitate access to the vast resources accessed by the author. The author’s writing style comes across as relaxed, casual, and congenial; as I read the book, I felt as though I was in my living room drinking coffee with the author while he told me about Hodge.

Chapter 17 has the intriguing title “Old School Nurture vs. New School Revivalism.” The word nurture is not one that would be expected to head a list of Hodge’s most used words, and a “nurturing Old School” may be thought to be an oxymoron. To many, Hodge was a theological defender of slavery, the author of a turgid systematic theology text that challenges the best students, and the editor of a punishing academic journal. However, the author makes a convincing case for Old School nurture, pointing out that Hodge’s mother taught him the Westminster Shorter Catechism at her knee (p. 153). Hodge’s father died when Charles was an infant, and his mother and older brother, Hugh, were the strongest family influences on him. The nurturing model is developed further as Hoffecker relates how Hodge confronted the neglect of infant baptism by Presbyterians, which he blames on the influences of Charles Finney and revivalism (p. 155). Other aspects of Old School nurture discussed by the author include the emphasis on the Sabbath, prayer, worship, and the local church. Given the current deprecation of organized, confessional, and connectional churches, Hoffecker’s presentation of Hodge’s nurturing theology, working in the home and the church, provides encouragement for those who want to make disciples for the Lord.

Hoffecker’s scrupulous and superb biography of Charles Hodge provides readers with a flowing narrative of the life of one of the most influential American theologians. The book is thoroughly grounded in primary sources and tempered by interaction with historians and Hodge’s contemporaries. Hoffecker’s fine volume will be a standard resource for students of Hodge, Presbyterian history, and the story of Princeton Seminary for years to come.

* * *

Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy, by Paul C. Gutjahr. Published by Oxford Univ. Press, 2011. Hardback (list price $74.00), paperback (list price $39.95), 518 pages. Reviewed by OP professor Alan D. Strange. Adapted from Mid-America Journal of Theology 22 (2011): 205–6.

Paul Gutjahr has written a biography of Charles Hodge (1797–1878) that is fair and historically contextualized, showing Hodge’s importance in his time and world. The book is well written, and its short chapters are easy to read. The biographer, however, does not fully understand his subject, as he is not a theologian in addition to a historian. As a minor illustration of this, he calls, at least twice, the forbidden fruit in Paradise an apple—a common misconception among those not well acquainted with the Bible. More significantly, Gutjahr is not clear on Hodge’s position on the imputation of Adam’s sin, the nature of penal substitution and the atonement, his doctrine of Scripture, and other biblical and theological matters.

These observations might prompt one to dismiss this work as shallow. That would be a mistake. Gutjahr has delved into the original sources, especially the Hodge papers at Princeton, and has come up with many gems. His work on Hodge’s background, family, and historical context is good and at times insightful. He is as sympathetic as one might expect a historian to be who does not share Hodge’s theological convictions. Given Hodge’s importance, such a work as this is an important addition to what one can only hope is a burgeoning body of literature on the longtime professor at Princeton Seminary.

Gutjahr’s work enjoys distance, both personally and chronologically, that A. A. Hodge’s work on his father naturally could not possess. In this respect, he is judicious in his view of Hodge on the question of slavery, assessing him critically, but fairly. He is nuanced in his treatment of Hodge on politics and the Civil War. Gutjahr is also, rightly, critical of some of the deficiencies of Hodge’s Scottish Common Sense Realism. While Gutjahr does not find Hodge to be in the thrall of this philosophical view to the degree that earlier scholars did, he does not seem to be as aware of the burgeoning body of literature that attests to Hodge’s greater dependence on traditional Calvinism and acquits him of the charge of rationalism. There is a growing recognition that Hodge and his Princeton colleagues were never as captive to Scottish Realism as has been alleged, being more indebted to the classic Reformed faith in general and the Westminster Standards in particular.

Everyone interested in nineteenth-century American church history or Presbyterian history should read this work. Both the OPC and the PCA can claim Hodge as a forebear, particularly the “Northern” church. It was opined by some in his day that Thornwell was respected, Dabney feared, and Hodge loved. Gutjahr’s fine biography will give its readers a good idea of why Charles Hodge was loved by family, students, and all who knew him, while at the same time being a churchman of great significance.

* * *

Letters from the Front: J. Gresham Machen’s Correspondence from World War I, edited by Barry Waugh. Published by P&R Publishing, 2012. Hardback, 368 pages, list price $24.99. Reviewed by OP professor D. G. Hart.

Imagine yourself being a professor in your mid-thirties at a reputable theological seminary. You are also a Presbyterian minister, who preaches regularly and pitches in at your local congregation. You are only an assistant professor, but you are sitting on research for a couple of books that will likely gain you promotion and tenure. Although you are single, you are deeply involved in family matters and have a special attachment to your mother, who is a widow.

These are the circumstances of your life when your country goes to war. You believe that your nation should stay out of the conflict. You even argue with family members about the nation’s foreign policy.

Considering these circumstances, would you drop everything, even though you are a man of routine, and find a way to assist in the war effort?

This is the dilemma that J. Gresham Machen faced in 1917, when the United States entered World War I. Nothing in his life would have led anyone to believe that he would join the Young Men’s Christian Association (an organization about which he had serious theological reservations) for the last eleven months of the war. But he did just that—leaving behind work, family, comfort, and habits to endure serious hardships and expose himself to life-threatening dangers.

His work in France largely consisted of cooking hot chocolate and stocking the Y Hut. He wrote to his mother, “I feel as though I were making John Wanamaker look like a piker. Do you prefer Star, Horseshoe, or Battle Ax chewing tobacco?… And then I have handkerchiefs, fountain pens, many kinds of cigars, cakes, cigarettes, candles, letter paper, jam, tooth-brushes, a library, etc.” Only after the armistice did he begin to teach and preach to soldiers responsible for stabilizing Europe. He did all of this at the age of thirty-six, only two years before he was to give a series of endowed lectures at Union Seminary (Richmond), which formed the basis for his book entitled The Origin of Paul’s Religion (1921). It was not what any of his friends or family members would have expected, though they would not have been surprised to read about how many plays he saw in the theaters of Paris.

During the war, Machen wrote numerous letters to his family (primarily his mother). Barry Waugh has transcribed, edited, and annotated those letters in this volume. It is a welcome contribution, if only because it is the first publication of Machen’s correspondence. His observations about people, politics, routines, plays, books, cities, and religious activities would be worthwhile in their own right to anyone who admires this conservative Presbyterian. But to see his reflections during a war that devastated Europe is all the more valuable.

These letters reveal no David Brainerd–like saint, who thought only of others after glorifying God. Machen was human, and both his foibles and his virtues come through. This is all the more reason to appreciate Waugh’s effort. We need heroes who are not one-dimensional.

Announcements

Positions Available

Evangelist/Organizing Pastor: Heritage Reformed Presbyterian Church in Royston, Ga., seeks a minister for mission work in northeast Georgia. He needs to preach Christ from all the Scriptures, apply the Word effectively to all ages present, emphasize the ordinary means of grace, demonstrate an earnest commitment to the regulative principle at morning and evening worship, equip men to lead their families, and have a love for singing psalms and hymns. Contact Jon Davis at jedavis@agstrong.com; HRPC, P.O. Box 171, Bowersville, GA 30516.

OPC.org

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Santayana).

Learn your history at the OPC website:

www.opc.org/machen.html

Reformation Conference Dayton, Ohio • Oct. 27

Covenant Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio, is hosting its annual conference on history and theology on Saturday, October 27. The Rev. Dr. L. Charles Jackson will make three presentations on ”Riots, Revolutions, and the Scottish Covenanters: The Work of Alexander Henderson,”with time for questions. For more information, call Covenant Presbyterian Church at 937/387-6699 or e-mail Mr. Brad Peppo at intern@cpcvandalia.com. See also Covenant’s website at www.cpcvandalia.com.

Travelers and Retreaters

Calvary OPC in Volga, S.D., has a three-bedroom apartment available for free, short-term use. If you are traveling through our area, or if you are a pastor needing a time of retreat, you are welcome to use it. For details, contact Bob or Linda Munich at 605/697-6270, 605/695-0962, 605/651-0840, or boblindamunich@gmail.com.

Southern Caribbean Study Cruise

Hope OPC in Syracuse, N.Y., is sponsoring a ten-day Southern Caribbean study cruise on the Celebrity Equinox, sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., February 1–11, 2013. Gerald Malkus, pastor of Hope OPC, will be lecturing throughout the journey on “The Wonderful Names of Jesus.” Cabins are limited. Members and friends of the OPC who are interested in a time of wonderful fellowship, teaching, and spiritual renewal may contact Sovereign Cruises at 1-877/768-2784, ext. 112.