Contents

Choosing the Good Portion

An Interview with Patricia E. Clawson and Diane L. Olinger

The Reformation: Then and Now

John Muether and David Noe

How Calvinism Became a Global Faith

David C. Noe

Foreign Missions

Multiple Witnesses in Quebec

Home Missions

Foreign Missions at Home

Christian Education

New Editions of Important Books by Van Til

Stewardship

King David’s Cheerful Gift

Prayer Calendar

October

News

Letters

Reviews

Announcements

New Horizons
in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
October 2016 • Volume 37, Number 9

© 2016 by The Committee on Christian Education of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Editor: Danny E. Olinger

Managing Editor: James W. Scott

Editorial Assistant: Patricia Clawson

Cover Designer: Christopher Tobias

Proofreader: Sarah J. Pederson
Editorial Board: The Committee on Christian Education’s Subcommittee on Serial Publications

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 previous issues.

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.

Discover how the Lord used generations of women to help mold the Orthodox Presbyterian Church into what it is today. Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church will be available by the end of October. To order online and pay by credit card, go to store.opc.org and click on “Church History.” If you prefer to order by email and be billed, write to bookorders@opc.org. The price for this 475-page hardback, containing photographs of nearly all the women, is $15.00, plus $4.00 shipping. Shipping is free for orders of $35.00 or more.

Choosing the Good Portion

An Interview with Patricia E. Clawson and Diane L. Olinger

The Committee for the Historian is publishing Choosing the Good Portion, a book telling the stories of many women who have made important contributions to the life of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church over the years. New Horizons editor Danny Olinger here interviews the two editors of that volume, Patricia E. Clawson and Diane L. Olinger.

NH: How did the idea for the book come about?

Pat: When Grace Mullen was battling cancer, I would visit her. Since she was the OPC archivist and was interested in OPC history, I told her about the vignettes on men and women that appeared in Today in OPC History on OPC.org. One day I mentioned Polly Gaffin. “What a marvelous person Aunt Polly was!” exuded Grace. She then leaned forward and said, “Pat, I think you should write a book on Polly!”

I wasn’t confident that I could write a book about her, but her encouragement made me think about the historical information available on OPC women. I wondered if the godly women who helped start our church would be forgotten. I asked the Committee for the Historian what they thought about a book that would tell the stories of the women of the OPC. They were excited and agreed immediately to support the project. However, I didn’t want to develop the book on my own. Diane Olinger, with whom I had collaborated on several New Horizons articles, loved the idea of this book and agreed to coedit with me.

Diane: I was excited to be part of the project after receiving Pat’s invitation to coedit with her. In years past, we had brainstormed about what we could do for women’s history in the OPC. For instance, we kicked around the idea of a cookbook with inserts about women’s history. We were looking for a format that would get people excited about reading about these women and also give us an avenue to research them. I was excited to see this come to fruition with Pat taking the lead.

NH: Once you had the idea of the book in place, how did you decide which women to include?

Diane: Pat and I spent several months thinking about this. Some women were easy to pick out, like many of the foreign missionaries. But we wanted to go beyond that. We researched the Presbyterian Guardian and New Horizons to find out about the contributions of other women. We sat down with individuals like John Galbraith and Charlotte Kuschke to gather names.

Pat: We also sent a communication to the stated clerks of all seventeen presbyteries and asked for recommendations from individuals and churches. Once we received the feedback, we were able to identify over ninety women whom we wanted to include in the book. We would have loved to feature many more women, but who could pick up such a volume?

NH: How did you find the authors to write the stories?

Diane: We wanted our writers to be either members of the OPC or those who were raised in the OPC. We tried to identify those women who had a personal connection with the woman they would be writing about, or who knew how to find the sources. Many of the authors turned out to be daughters, daughters-in-law, or friends of the person. That’s why we included short biographies of the authors at the end. We wanted to show the relationships that often existed, whether it was through a blood relation or through someone’s church family or through a common interest or ministry.

Pat: A good example of what Diane is talking about is Trudy Bosman. If you look at the bio, she and her husband moved deliberately near the Menominee Indian Reservation. He got a job in the community, so that they could serve there. So she wrote about Hermima Davies, who labored with her husband, John, in helping to organize an OP church on the reservation.

Diane: Fifty-five women accepted our invitation. They put in many hours researching and writing their chapters, and we couldn’t be more pleased with their work.

The editors working on Choosing the Good Portion

NH: What advice did you give your authors?

Diane: We tried to pick out stories in which you ask yourself while reading, “How did she have the fortitude to do that?” or “How did she have the time to do that?” This is why one of the things that we asked our authors to do was to find out what the struggles were for a particular woman. We didn’t want to hear only what her achievements were. What gave her problems? The Lillian Young chapter is a good example. Her daughter, Jean Gaffin, wrote that her mom had a melancholic personality. Even though Lillian found love and a productive life as a Christian, she still struggled with the early heartbreaks she had when both a fiancé and a husband died before she met E. J. Young. The answer in the Young chapter is that God was faithful to her, even as she struggled.

NH: How did you come up with the title of the book?

Pat: The title Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church comes from Luke 10:38–42. Martha fixed a meal for Jesus and many other guests, but was “distracted” in her efforts. Her sister Mary appears to have helped her, then “left” to sit with the disciples and listen to Jesus’ teaching. Martha was intent on “much serving,” and complained to Jesus that Mary had “left” the serving to her. Mary may have thought that what she had helped to prepare was adequate, so she sat down to listen to Jesus. He told Martha that “one thing is necessary” and that Mary “has chosen the good portion.”

The women featured in this book are like Martha because they served the church with great zeal. Yet even more they shared Mary’s love for God’s Word, and that was the reason and guide for their service. We believe these women chose the good portion. The stories relate not just that these women served in the OPC, but why they served.

NH: What came through to you from the stories about the women who served in the 1930s and 1940s?

Diane: Because at that time the OPC’s very existence was in question, the cause was ever present to them. They were fighting for the gospel itself. They were leaving the mainline church, where the inerrancy of Scripture and its foundational doctrines were under attack. So, for them, finding a truly orthodox Presbyterian church where they could worship was all-important. They were committed to serving the OPC in any way they could because the church stood by Christ and the Scriptures.

Pat: At the beginning, the commitment to the cause was much stronger. They all had to sacrifice and make very difficult decisions. They lost their pensions, their homes—all sorts of things— to come into this denomination. I think of someone like Hattie DeWaard leaving everything for the gospel.

My husband, Doug, and I made a decision to come into the OPC. We wrestled with all the issues. Our kids didn’t wrestle with any of them. Everything was handed to them. There is something to fighting for something, making a decision for something. It is much more precious.

NH: From reading the chapters, it appeared to me that these women were passionate about sound doctrine. Did that strike you also?

Pat: Yes. I think of Dorothy Anderson Barker. She wrote the Great Commission Publications materials that helped educate the next generation in the OPC on Scripture. I think her work there was tremendous.

Diane: I think you see that in Judith Dinsmore’s chapter on early financial contributors to the church. They were very careful about where they put their money. When Pastor John Galbraith and Gethsemane Church in Philadelphia in the late 1930s were seeking a loan from Miss Marguerite Montgomery to help purchase a building, she demanded first that she hear Mr. Galbraith preach. She wanted to make sure that he proclaimed sound doctrine. He passed the test, and she loaned the church the money.

NH: What did you learn from editing this book?

Pat: I have been amazed at what so many women have done over the years to serve the Lord in so many different ways. They were missionaries, pastors’ wives, VBS teachers, those who reached out to different cultures, and those who helped to start churches. That wasn’t easy, as some had lost their husband or a child, served solo, or struggled with their faith. And their service was so joyful, even in the midst of difficult times. I am hopeful that it will encourage us in our service today.

Diane: Many of these women served beyond hearth and home in their congregations, regional churches, and even the denomination as a whole. For example, in the 1930s, the Shillito sisters of Cincinnati were friends of J. Gresham Machen and instrumental in forming and financially supporting an OP church in their area, as well as contributing to Westminster Seminary.

The new church formed missionary societies and women’s presbyterial auxiliaries to encourage women’s involvement in presbytery-wide and denominational concerns, particularly foreign missions. JoAnn Vandenburg of Lark, North Dakota, faithfully journeyed to the Dakota Presbyterial, which sometimes met as far away as Texas. She had a large family and many responsibilities at home, but she believed it was important to enlarge her heart for God’s family in other places.

NH: Is this a book for women only?

Diane: This book was written for all the church—both men and women—because everyone can benefit by learning how these women chose the good portion. We think that women will especially relate to these stories because their own challenges, joys, and sorrows, as well as their opportunities for service, are similar.

Pat: I think this book is primarily for women. Women often learn from example. That’s how I have learned. I’ve learned how to do Sunday dinners and teach women’s Bible studies from watching other women. However, it is far more than that. It tells the history of the OPC and what the OPC went through in various times, and I think that is for everyone.

NH: Is the book for individuals or study groups?

Diane: While the book was written with the individual reader in mind, it could profitably be used by study groups. The book is divided into four parts, each emphasizing an aspect of one period in OPC history: (1) making sacrifices in the 1930s and 1940s, (2) building the church in the 1950s and 1960s, (3) opening opportunities for service in the 1970s and 1980s as the church matured, (4) and living for Christ in the 1990s and 2000s. Each of these parts could be examined both historically and devotionally. In other words, readers could ask, “What was God doing in the life of the OPC at this time?” and “What was God doing in the lives of these women, and what can I learn from their example?” This book will have accomplished its goal if you ask after reading it, “Am I choosing the good portion?”

NH: Which stories caught your attention as you were working on the book?

Pat: While I was truly blessed with getting to know all the women in the book, one in particular made me yearn to have such devoted, service-oriented moxie. Pat Hill, a widow, wanted to serve the Lord. When she heard about a fledgling OP congregation in Alaska, she packed her belongings into her car and headed there. Such a heart to build up God’s church!

Diane: One of my favorites is Florence Handyside. In 1949, Florence became the first single woman missionary in the OPC, serving in Korea. Months later, she contracted polio and died, becoming the first OP missionary to die on the field. Our author, Caroline Weerstra, made an already poignant story even more real to me.

I’m also very thankful for Donna McIlhenny’s willingness to share her story about how the saints at First OPC in San Francisco suffered intense persecution, even death threats and firebombing, for their gospel stance against homosexuality. This persecution took a terrible toll on Donna and its effects lasted for years. Her story was not an easy one to tell, but I think it will be a help to others.

NH: Is one of the goals of the book to encourage the younger generation of women in the church?

Pat: Yes. Recalling our heritage reminds us of who we are within Christ’s church. While much has been written about our faithful fathers in the faith, we also benefit from learning how their wives, sisters, daughters, and friends encouraged, supported, and suffered alongside them while they witnessed the OPC blossom and grow. By sharing the stories of these “older women,” we hope to “teach what is good” to the younger women (Titus 2:3–5). Recording the stories of those at rest with the Lord and those edging toward glory hopefully will encourage younger generations to steadfast service and sacrifice for the sake of Christ.

Diane: If you take any one of these stories, it may not seem like this person made a great impact in the world for Christ, but over time these ladies have enriched not only their own families, but also congregations and sometimes even presbyteries and the whole denomination, through their daily covenant faithfulness.

The ladies interviewed are both members of Calvary OPC in Glenside, Pa.

The Reformation: Then and Now

John Muether and David Noe

At the end of this month, many Orthodox Presbyterians will celebrate Reformation Day. October 31 marks the day that Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517. While this has become a common way to date the “birth” of the Reformation, it is rather arbitrary: the thirty-four-year-old monk was not calling for separation from Rome, but simply inviting his academic colleagues to debate the practice of selling papal indulgences (certifications that one’s sins have been forgiven).

The events that followed are familiar to many Orthodox Presbyterians. Luther’s concerns drove him to the heart of the abuses in the Roman Church—her perversion of the doctrines of Scripture, denial of the means of grace to all her members, and moral corruption. After efforts to achieve internal reform came to an end when Luther was excommunicated at the Diet of Worms in 1521, Western Christendom was divided into Protestant and Roman communions.

Early Reformation celebrations focused on the birth of Luther (November 10, 1483), his death (February 18, 1546), or the presentation of the Augsburg Confession (June 25, 1530). Only later would the practice emerge among both Lutherans and Calvinists of locating the onset of the movement in Luther’s posting of his ninety-five theses.

When the Protestant world next year marks the 500th anniversary of Luther’s hammering on the Wittenberg door, there will be many commemorative events. Joining in that observation, New Horizons magazine commences, with this article, a multipart series on the sixteenth-century movement and its ongoing importance for the life and witness of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

As we mark this occasion, it is fitting to consider why we do so. Is it appropriate to celebrate this tragic division in Western Christendom? What exactly did the Protestant Reformation set out to do, and what did it accomplish? As extensive as next year’s celebration will be, there continues to be widespread disagreement on all of these questions. For many, the “light” of the Reformation that came after medieval darkness was only an extension of Renaissance humanism. Others claim that Protestantism ushered in the modern world—including science, economics, and nation-states—and culminated in the Enlightenment project. For many, the inheritance of the Enlightenment is a mixed blessing. Still others argue that sixteenth-century “protests” prompted a season of Roman Catholic reform (the Counter-Reformation), rendering Protestant separatism unnecessary and even schismatic.

Discontent with the Reformation

As further doctrinal divisions dashed hopes of Protestant unity, many perceived virtues of the Reformation became the vices of modernity. Splintered into multiple traditions and denominations, Protestantism now seems incoherent and impotent to address an intensely secular world. So even if it did accomplish a measure of good, has the Reformation run its course? Is it worth celebrating after all?

There is also another consideration. Even among many Protestants, the principles of the Reformation have been largely forgotten or ignored. Mainline Protestantism has forsaken its allegiance to Scripture in its desperate efforts to be relevant to the modern world. The Word of God has been exchanged for the word of man, lodging the church’s faith in higher criticism and secular science. The staggering decline of mainline Protestantism in America is well-documented: the practices of Protestant piety have largely disappeared from among them, including prayer and Bible reading.

In reaction to mainline infidelity, American evangelicalism promotes least-common-denominator affirmations of faith that often yield intellectual shallowness. A new priesthood of celebrity pastors, whose success is measured by the size of their megachurches, demonstrates greater familiarity with church growth techniques than the articles of the Apostles’ Creed. As much as it champions the good news of the gospel, contemporary evangelicalism fails to bear witness to the gospel in its full and mature expression.

Thus, waning enthusiasm for the Reformation in our age can be tied to the precarious state of American neo-Protestantism. Rejecting both the banality of the mainline church and the shallowness of evangelicalism, Orthodox Presbyterians seek to champion the cause of historic, confessional Protestantism. And yet, even confessionalists today may be tempted to misinterpret the Reformation. For example, a commitment to the spirit of the Reformation does not mean merely expounding the “five solas”: by Scripture alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. These are essential features of the faith we confess. But even they can serve as a reductionistic distortion of the achievement of the Reformation, and they do not at all exhaust the character of a church committed to a full-orbed expression of the Reformed faith.

To be Reformed is to submit to the Word of God willingly and to embrace the wisdom of the Reformed confessions in interpreting that Word. To be Reformed is also an aspiration to be conformed ever more consistently to what the Scriptures teach. The zeal for the ongoing reformation of the church and her members is captured by the Reformation motto Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda: “The Reformed church always needs reforming.” Ironically, both the mainline churches and evangelical Protestantism seem to share the same agenda. Their jettisoning of the practices of the Protestant past is often presented as following this motto. But change and incessant innovation are not reformation. They are an abuse of the Reformational principle. Contrary to the apostles of modernity and the prophets of church growth, the burden of the church today is not to keep up with the culture that surrounds her (nor to romanticize some bygone age). It is, rather, to be reoriented by Scripture, attentive to the voice of her Shepherd heard in those pages. The Reformed church is always being reformed by the Word of God. It must be a listening church, and no human word can be elevated above or alongside that Word.

A Reformation Today: The Need for Healthy Discontent

The sixteenth-century Reformers claimed that the Roman church had submitted to “a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). A similar bondage of human contrivances takes on many modern forms, and it warrants our considering whether the church today is in a “Babylonian captivity” of a sort similar to what Luther described five centuries ago.

What would continuing reformation entail today? Paul Woolley, a founding minister of the OPC and professor of church history at Westminster Seminary, challenged the OPC, early in her history, to cultivate what he called “healthy discontent.” He defined this as a frustration over the “lack of enthusiasm for the Reformed faith and a lack of completeness in its presentation.” Healthy discontent makes “the maintenance and propagation of the Reformed faith” the chief love of the church.

The series of articles we present will urge, just as Paul Woolley did, that there is continued need for growth in the faith and practice of the OPC. Contributors to the series, all voices in our denomination, will focus on different topics, such as preaching, the sacraments, prayer, song, worship, and church polity—all essential to our life and health together as a Reformed communion. We will focus, unapologetically, on the Reformed confessional tradition, begun in the sixteenth century and culminating in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. When we are rooted in the continuity and stability of these confessional documents, pledged to a tradition both fixed and reforming, we are protected from superficial and idiosyncratic versions of the Reformed faith.

Contributors will explore such questions as these: Do we have confidence in the means of grace? Can we assert the church’s essential spirituality? Is God’s power made manifest in our weakness? Do we really believe that the Spirit uses the Word to create and sustain new life? These articles will demonstrate that the Reformed confessional tradition brings plentiful resources to bear on these and related matters.

Almost fifty years ago, the Presbyterian Guardian had these wise words about observing the Reformation:

If our celebration of Reformation Day is to possess any real spiritual significance, it will, to be sure, demand more than a nostalgic meditation upon the good old days of the past. If our thinking about the historical situation reduces us to inactivity, we had better not engage in it. But the consideration of history may arouse us to fruitful action if it is integrated with our religious faith and life. History may be a teacher of life if it brings renewed devotion to the God of history. What is demanded at the present time, then, is that the truths and principles which were so full of power at the time of the Reformation should again be seized and should seize us. A steadfast commitment to our God-glorifying faith, and a new zeal to proclaim it in these days of unbelief and apathy, will constitute a celebration of Reformation Day of solid and lasting worth.

We hope that this series will nurture this sentiment among us as we reflect on our Reformation heritage in the coming months. And in pursuing the continuing reformation of the doctrine and life of our church, may we pledge to maintain and carry forward our calling as Protestants, committed to proclaiming the whole counsel of God.

Mr. Muether is the historian of the OPC. Dr. Noe is a member of the Committee for the Historian.

How Calvinism Became a Global Faith

David C. Noe

“In a bold act of defiance, comparable to flag burning today, the assembled ate the sausages served by the host.” This is how D. G. Hart begins Calvinism: A History, his comprehensive social history of the branch of Protestantism most familiar to Orthodox Presbyterians, namely the Reformed faith, which takes the biblical teachings of John Calvin and others like him as its guide. The story recounts an act of Lenten rebellion that broke out in Zurich in 1522. The priest Ulrich Zwingli attended this table of discord, and a month later he preached a sermon with the title “On the Choice and Freedom of Foods.”

Flowing from the same source as Martin Luther’s first act of soul-searching devotion to the principle of sola Scriptura, Calvinism developed several different emphases. It is therefore significant that Hart begins with Zwingli, in addition to Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito. Although these men and later the Genevans—Farel, Viret, Beza, and Calvin himself—shared with Luther an unwavering commitment to justification by faith alone, they went on to shape teaching for the Swiss, French, English, Scottish, and American families of Protestantism that Luther would not recognize—and indeed some of whose doctrines he opposed in his own lifetime.

Before describing the contents of this 350-page work, it will be helpful to explain what the book is not. First, it is not a systematic theology or a theological tour of Calvinism. Although any book like this must by its nature contain doctrinal discussion, Hart’s brief is not to explain dogma. For that, readers will better consult Calvin’s Institutes or a more modern work like Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. Nor is this a biography of Calvin. Indeed, he is last mentioned in a historical context on page 80. Bruce Gordon’s recent biography entitled Calvin, also from Yale, serves this purpose very well, as does Alexandre Ganoczy’s classic The Young Calvin.

Rather, Hart is concerned with highlighting not how Calvinism played a “role in the forces of globalization” so much as the “unlikely ways by which it became a global faith” (p. xii). Touching on one of Hart’s favorite themes, and of our communion in general, Calvinism seeks to explain how the Reformed faith “circumnavigate[d] the planet … not by underwriting the political and economic forces of the modern West or by preaching humanitarian ideals, but [due] to the ordinary—and often accidental—efforts of average pastors and laypeople” (p. xii). In other words, this is a story of divine providence—and in telling it, Hart succeeds admirably.

The volume contains thirteen chapters, beginning with the episode in Zurich and ending in the late twentieth century with an analysis of the legacy of Karl Barth. As a representative of neoorthodoxy (Calvinism can be a big tent), Barth is compared to three separatist leaders in Scotland, the Netherlands, and the United States: Thomas Chalmers, Abraham Kuyper, and J. Gresham Machen, respectively. Along the way, Hart carefully details most of the unexpected twists and turns in Calvinism’s surprising story. In chapter 1, for example, he discusses not just the political and social changes that the Reformation wrought in Switzerland, but also the experience of worshippers in the churches. He tells the familiar anecdote of Farel inducing Calvin to stay in Geneva with threats of God’s condemnation (p. 17). Yet he also explains the reformation in worship that Calvin inaugurated with his insistence on psalm singing in 1537 (p. 19).

As the story leaves Geneva and Zurich, Hart moves rapidly back and forth between developments on the continent and those in Britain (chs. 3–4), eventually arriving in New England (chs. 5–6). Some of these transitions are not entirely comfortable or natural, but they are obviously necessary because of the nature of the subject. Writing a history of a system of thought is no easy task, especially one driven by many prominent political and theological figures on multiple continents. The churches of the Dutch West Indies, South Africa, the American South, and everything in between must at least be mentioned and made to fit into a coherent whole.

In addition to dealing with the big names, Hart also endeavors to keep the experiences of lesser-known pastors and laypeople front and center. In chapter 6, for example, “New Communities in the Land of the Free,” he recounts the career of Francis Makemie (1658–1707). His story is a fascinating one, which Hart makes emblematic of the intersection of religion and culture in the New and Old Worlds: “The Presbytery of Laggan ordained Makemie, either in 1861 or 1862, and … [he] boarded a ship for North America. He took with him a commission from the Presbytery to plant churches among the British colonists. Beyond that mandate, he had the freedom to channel the energies of a twenty-five-year-old into a productive pastorate; he also had no financial provisions beyond his own ingenuity” (p. 121). This tale of the devotion and commitment of faithful and unheralded saints is told under many different names and in many different settings. But Hart does not neglect the more familiar and historically dramatic episodes either. Adequate coverage is given to all of the major confessions and assemblies (Augsburg, Dort, Westminster), and even some lesser ones (Tetrapolitan) receive attention.

Chapter 9, “Missionary Zeal,” gives significant weight to the thesis presented in the introduction about the unlikely spread of Calvinism. Detailing the nineteenth-century efforts of such trailblazers as Theodorus van der Kemp (d. 1811), Joseph Kam (d. 1833), and Alexander Duff (d. 1878), the author shows the painful tensions that arose from differing and sometimes conflicting views of the church and her mission. Hart deals with the issues particularly well in the section of that same chapter entitled “To Civilize or Christianize?” The imperial and commercial expansion of Western society and norms (i.e., colonialism) carried the Protestant faith, including Calvinism, around the globe. In the process, the heirs of the Reformation sought to decide whether the church was “chiefly a vehicle of evangelism” or an “institution that nurtured and instructed the faithful” (p. 194). At the same time, seeking to disentangle the faith from the indifferent and nonessential trappings of a particular culture proved hazardous. The contrast between Duff’s program of Western inculturation in India, which was sometimes a prerequisite for the preaching of the gospel (pp. 194ff.), and the approach of missionary to China John Nevius (d. 1893), is powerfully instructive.

Hart clearly hits his stride in chs. 12 (“American Fundamentalists”) and 13 (“The Confessing Church”), where his expertise and long résumé in American church history are fully on display. This reader found it particularly interesting to hear Hart interpret these events (e.g., the Old Side/New Side controversy, the careers of Hodge and Warfield and their interactions with Darwinism, the Presbyterian reunions of 1867 and 1869, and Machen’s career) for a much wider audience than when he tells them in OPC-sanctioned publications or in books from evangelical publishers.

The story of our own communion, the OPC, is told with appropriate brevity, given the larger history of which we are a small part. Hart himself, along with others, has told our story before. But in Calvinism the OPC resides in the context of Machen’s life, who is himself, as mentioned before, part of a larger narrative that includes other advocates of the ordinary means of grace. Men like Chalmers, Kuyper (despite his political engagements), Van Raalte, and Machen opted for the church’s spirituality, and so are presented as genuine heirs of the churchly spirit of Zwingli and Calvin, seeking to restore to the people the spiritual benefits denied to them by broader historical forces.

Other Calvinists of previous generations, like Frelinghuysen, Edwards, and Tennent (pp. 164ff.), do not fare as well in Hart’s treatment. But his hand is lighter here than in other works where he criticizes the theory, proponents, and practice of revivalism and worldview thinking. On page 247, for example, he writes: “For all of the problems that attended the Neo-Calvinist movement, it was a testimony to the genius of Kuyper and his organizational abilities.”

The work ends with a thoughtful conclusion, a succinct four-page time line, a compact and yet extensive bibliography, and a comprehensive index. Hart’s writing is generally winsome and brisk, and, as is appropriate for a work of this type, he relies considerably on the research of Philip Benedict, Bruce Gordon, Richard Muller, Steven Ozment, and many other fine scholars. There is also some decent work in primary sources. While the author cannot be held responsible for the not infrequent small editorial blemishes, they are somewhat of a nuisance. In conclusion, this is an outstanding and ambitious book, and highly recommended for scholars and the nonacademic alike.

Dr. Noe teaches classics at Calvin College. Calvinism: A History, by D. G. Hart, was published by Yale University Press in 2013. Dr. Hart teaches history at Hillsdale College.

Foreign Missions

Multiple Witnesses in Quebec

Bernard Westerveld, Jr.

“I’m not here to talk to you about Jesus!”

That was quite the opening line from a door-to-door salesman peddling discount coupons to a local massage clinic.

When he knocked on our door, we should have realized right away that he was not doing door-to-door evangelism. He was alone. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons always go two by two as Jesus had instructed his disciples (Mark 6:7).

How do we apply this instruction as we share the gospel?

Pastor-missionary Bernard Westerveld (left) in discussion

At Least Two Witnesses

Why did Jesus send his disciples out two by two? Part of the answer is that the Mosaic law required two or three witnesses to confirm a statement (Deut. 17:6; see also Matt. 18:16). As he sent out his disciples to preach the gospel, Jesus sent two at a time so that the testimony of the first disciple would be confirmed by that of the second.

As we read through the Acts of the Apostles, we frequently see two apostles working together. Peter and John go to the temple to preach (4:1–2). Paul and Barnabas head out on the first missionary journey (13:4), and when they separate, each of them takes along an apprentice (15:39–40). Several of Paul’s letters are written in the first person plural because he wrote on behalf of himself and one or two others.

There are exceptions, most notably Philip teaching the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26–40). However, as a rule, at least two witnesses preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. How do we apply this rule in our missions and even our evangelism? Allow me to share a few examples of multiple witnesses from our missionary context in Quebec City.

Neighborhood Witnessing

Do we go two by two to witness in our church neighborhood? No. On occasion we inform neighbors about our church by knocking on the door and offering a flyer in which our beliefs are clearly spelled out.

While I admire the tenacity of those who do door-to-door evangelism, I have observed that our door knocking is in general not well received. People in Quebec, like most of North America, are tired of being solicited. For our part, we do not want to use high-pressure tactics to sell the gospel. We want to develop significant relationships that will convince people that they need to hear the gospel.

To help develop our relationship with the church neighborhood, we regularly advertise our activities for the neighborhood. Each year we distribute a thousand flyers inviting neighbors to our annual Fête des voisins (Block Party) and twenty thousand junk mail flyers advertising our English for Kids & Teens Bible camps. We also put a prominent advertisement in the local newspaper, which reaches about 47,000 homes, welcoming readers to our Christmas Eve service and communal meal. (And yes, all these ads go on our website and our Facebook page, and are sent out by email.) These are activities of our church, and even for our church community, but also for the benefit of our neighbors. We want to be a church community involved in and serving the neighbors that the Lord has given us.

Do we receive many responses? Quite frankly, no. Apart from English for Kids, we get about a dozen inquiries or visitors each time we advertise. They are mostly repeat visitors, but repeats are important! Each visit by the same person provides another opportunity to show Christian love in action. Multiple witnesses may eventually convince them to listen more closely to the message that inspires our loving service.

While the overall response to our advertising is limited, we nonetheless persist in doing the same advertising every year. Recently, as I distributed invitations to our Fête des voisins, one neighbor commented, “Ah, the neighborhood picnic. You have been doing that for several years, haven’t you?” It is wonderful that he noticed. We want our neighbors to know that we are not a fly-by-night operation. We are there; we are there to stay; we are there to serve over the long haul.

For Quebecers, relationships are fragile—and often broken or forgotten. (We have one of the highest rates of common-law relationships and divorces in North America.) We want to bear witness to the faithful love of God. We pray that our multiple witnesses will bear fruit, whether next year or in thirty years.

Worship and Fellowship Witnessing

We invite non-believers to worship with us, and when the service is concluded, we urge them to join us for our time of fellowship. I tend to refer to it as “time of friendship,” since “fellowship” is an unknown term. A fellow pastor refers to it as “our second worship service.” It is very important to our Christian witness, as all sorts of people mingle and chat for about an hour, sometimes more. For former Roman Catholics, who went to Mass and then straight home, our fellowship time is incredible and heartwarming.

Fellowship is our second witness. By the time the believers and guests enter our fellowship hall, they would have already heard the first witness: a solid, lively teaching sermon applicable to their daily life. The preaching of the Word of God remains central to our witness, and the message focuses on salvation in Christ Jesus alone. That exclusive claim of the gospel is a hard pill to swallow for many postmodern Quebecers muddled in choose-your-own-truth pluralism. While I seek to teach convincingly the reasonableness of the biblical message, our fellowship time closes the argument with Christian love put into practice.

By the way, in addition to coffee, we also offer tea, juice, and snacks (both sweet and healthy). We communicate the message that our bodies belong to God, and we take care of them. Instead of using disposable cups, we wash the dishes, being good stewards of God’s creation. For Quebecers, health and ecology are primary concerns. How we conduct our fellowship time demonstrates that our faith interacts with those convictions by providing better, eternal reasons for it.

Ironically, washing the dishes becomes an easy way for a regular visitor to get involved with the life of the church. He feels that he is contributing to the Christian ministry. Doing the dishes is a great time to chat and build friendships, which encourages the visitor to return to hear the gospel preached during the worship service.

New Convert Witnessing

When a person demonstrates an interest in exploring the gospel, we seek to multiply the witnesses in his life. Yes, we witness to people, but we also want to be witnesses with them. New converts—or those not yet converted, but intrigued by the gospel—need multiple witnesses in their lives. Of all the new converts who joined our congregation in the past fifteen years, not one became a member of the church because of the witness of one member. Every one of them testifies to the influence of multiple Christians.

Recently a young lady began worshipping with us. She is interested in a young man from our congregation. For years they have been part of the same group of friends, connected mostly through common work interests. The young man is the only believer in the group, and despite comments and jokes about religion, he has continued to live out his Christian faith.

The young lady was intrigued by his conviction. She came to church—something she had never done before. She explained to me, “I want to learn how to practice a religion for myself.” I meet with her once a month in order to hear her comments about religion, answer her questions, and begin explaining the Christian faith.

She is meeting other young people in our congregation—friends of the young man—with whom she now spends time in social activities, as well as on Facebook. When she visits the family of the young man, she witnesses how they live their faith, read their Bible, and pray together. This young lady likes to serve, so we invited her to get involved in our Kids’ Day activity, as well as to help organize our Fête des voisins (Block Party). Last Sunday I overheard her being invited by another young lady to join their weekly prayer group.

Bit by bit, multiple witnesses are entering her life. Each one becomes a living example of the Christian faith calling her to believe. And, of course, we are praying for the great witness of the Holy Spirit to convict her heart.

Multiply the Witnesses

My primary work as pastor-missionary is to be a witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to talk to people about Jesus. As I reflect upon my ministry, I realize that a significant part of my time is spent “networking” multiple witnesses into the lives of young converts and non-converts. Multiple personal contacts with the Christian faith in word and action open up hearts to desire, and possibly even to ask, “I would like you to talk to me about Jesus.”

The author is the pastor of Église réformée St-Marc in Quebec City, Quebec, and a missionary serving in the OPC’s Quebec Project.

What’s New

// Appointments

Missionary associate appointments to Asia: Miss Elizabeth M. Kleitsch (Grace Reformed Church, OPC, Reedsburg, Wis.) for two years, Mr. Donald J. McCrory (Harvest OPC, Wyoming, Mich.) for six months, and Miss Stephanie L. Zerbe (Manor Presbyterian Church, PCA, New Castle, Del.) for one year (reappointed).

// Comings/Goings

Missionary associate Mr. Michael S. Durant (Cedar Presbyterian Church, OPC, Hudsonville, Mich.) has completed his term of service in Asia and returned to the U.S.

Home Missions

Foreign Missions at Home

Al Tricarico

In July 2016, David Nakhla and I attended the annual Refugee Roundtable sponsored by the Refugee Highway Partnership of North America. Representatives from more than fifty churches and Christian agencies gathered in Toronto to discuss ministry in the present migrant crisis.

We learned about the many ways in which people are reaching out to refugees whose population worldwide is large and rapidly growing. Currently there are 65 million, and the number is rising at a rate of over 30,000 souls per day. One out of every 113 people living on this planet is displaced. One Christian leader observed that if the Syrian refugee crisis were to take place proportionally in the U.S., the entire population west of Ohio would flee from their homes.

About two-thirds of the 65 million are internally displaced. Some of the others have found their way to North America. One result of this is a growing intersection between home missions and foreign missions. The nations are coming to us. We should be ready to receive them, serve them, and bring the gospel to them.

A wide range of activities was represented at the conference, from the operation of refugee houses and resettlement processing to stand-by services ready to collect people from the airport when needed. We were amazed at the number of Christians actively involved in ministry to refugees. And we were pleased to observe that all of the participants were committed to serve with a focus on gospel witness.

The Call to Love

We are called by Christ to love as he loves, and to love all people—those who are in the household of faith and those who are not. We are to identify with them and do good to them (Gal. 6:10).

At the last judgment, love will be tested. The goats will hear the rebuke of Jesus, who will expose their failure to feed and satisfy the thirst of the needy, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and serve those in prison. The sheep will receive the approval of Jesus, who accepts the love delivered to others as love directed toward him. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

Among the commended acts of love is welcoming the stranger (Matt. 25:35). A person who welcomes the stranger, welcomes Jesus. The current migrant crisis provides many opportunities to welcome Jesus in this way.

While the king’s brothers (believers) are in view in verse 40, there is no reason to think that Jesus means for us to exclude a broader reach. He wants us to love all people (Luke 6:35). We have been rescued from stranger status and have been welcomed by Jesus into the home of his Father. Let’s remember that and gladly welcome strangers.

We should also keep in mind that while we are to love all people, there is a special household love that applies to the present crisis, in which many displaced people are fleeing persecution because of their Christian faith. They are the king’s brothers.

And think about God’s love for the sojourner as you consider how you might deliver that same love. Why should we so love? Because we were sojourners, enslaved to sin and in need of the grace of God (Deut. 10:17–19; 15:11; Lev. 19:33–34).

These great realities (God’s love for the stranger, along with our duty to love Christ by welcoming strangers) beckon us to engage with special interest at this moment when opportunities to serve refugees are on the increase.

How to Engage

There are many ways to welcome strangers, from a handshake and smile when meeting one, to full-throttle engagement in the resettlement process. While we can’t all do everything, it is good to do something. Those who want to do something can consider the following suggestions, beginning with some self-reflection.

Deal with your fears. Most honest people will admit to feeling some uneasiness when it comes to interacting with people from other cultures. We need to identify our fears, repent of them, and start loving our guests. Test yourself the next time you see a woman wearing a burka or hijab. What is your immediate response? Do you look away? Do you speed up your step? It may not be a moment to engage with substance, but your smile or greeting may be the first positive attention that person receives that day.

Refugees are not terrorists. While it is possible that someone you meet may wish you harm, it is unlikely. It is also irrelevant. There are no exceptions to the command to love, and Jesus never promised that love would be risk-free. It wasn’t for him, and it isn’t for us. Most refugees are positive souls who want to live at peace and provide for their families. The spirit God gives us is one of power and love, not fear (2 Tim. 1:17).

Be a good neighbor. A lawyer once asked Jesus a good question with a bad motive. “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ ” It was a question that Jesus did not answer, at least not directly. His response was the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37).

The Samaritan saw a beaten victim and delivered the needed help that was not given by those who knew better. He found a neighbor in need, had pity on him, and generously gave of himself to bring healing. But at the end Jesus suggested that the lawyer really asked the wrong question.

The direct answer is obvious. All people are our neighbors. Our duty is to love God and to love everyone. But there is a deeper question: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” asked the master. The lawyer said, “The one who showed him mercy” (Luke 10:36-37). Let’s not ask the question, “Who is my neighbor?” We know that answer. Let’s ask, “How can I be a good neighbor to those I am called to love?”

Let’s have compassion on those who suffer, with a view toward doing good to them in Christ’s name. Many are the suffering strangers in our midst. And if we think deeply and pray in faith, we might just discover ways to live beyond ourselves in love. A greeting, a conversation, an offer of friendship, an expression of thanks, a meal at our home, an invitation to church, a loving gospel word. These may not seem profoundly merciful, but they are acts of love to bruised people who likely feel very unloved.

Visit ministries dedicated to immigrant and refugee outreach. Once back from Toronto, I learned through minimal effort that there are many ministries in and around Philadelphia that are actively involved with outreach to refugees and immigrants. Northeast Community Church (PCA) is a good example.

NCC runs a successful ESL program. In addition to teaching English to the nations, they offer other opportunities to reach out to immigrants and refugees with the gospel. One is a ministry called Conversation Café, a regularly scheduled event where students are invited to come to the church for refreshments and to practice their English.

NCC welcomes volunteers to the café to mingle with the students. Friendships are forged through this ministry, and opportunities for witness naturally emerge. Any Christian can participate and offer a welcoming hand to the strangers of Philadelphia.

Discover needs that you can meet and be ready to meet them. There is a ministry in Worcester, Massachusetts, called WARM (Worcester Alliance for Refugee Ministry). WARM’s small staff stands available to assist larger religious or governmental agencies. They do what needs to be done within their limited capacities. They visit newcomers, cook meals, and provide friendship. The ministry’s director is currently teaching a young refugee how to drive a car. Surprisingly, one of their most fruitful ministries is airport pick-up. They find out who is coming and when they are landing. They collect them and take them to their temporary residence.

It may seem like a small gesture, but a simple welcome and car ride can make an enormous difference in the life of a newcomer. David and I heard the testimony of a certain refugee from Cameroon. She identified two expressions of kindness that brought healing to her soul. One was the provision of time and space to decompress after her long and stressful journey from Africa. A ministry called Matthew House hosted her. She was given a clean, quiet room and offered as much rest and food as she needed until she was ready to start ordering her life. A comfortable bed, an open fridge, and plenty of time. Just right!

But the first thing she mentioned was the love she felt through someone coming to the airport who knew her name. She mentioned it in her testimony, and when David and I spoke with her afterwards, she said it again. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Imagine coming to an unfamiliar place with no sense of how to manage life. What a difference it can make to receive a warm, familiar greeting. “They even knew my name!” she said.

Her name is Maria. She now serves on the Matthew House board of directors.

Be hospitable. This is a command of Scripture. We are to be hospitable in the church, for sure (Rom. 12:13). But the word itself contemplates the welcoming of strangers. You can welcome them first with a greeting, then a conversation, and then a meal in your home. It will make an enormous impact on them. There are people who are so marginalized that your friendly efforts may be the first they have ever received. I have heard stories to back this up. “I have lived here for years and have never been invited to someone’s home.” “Thank you for talking to me. No one ever talks to me.”

Ask questions about family. Family history is very important to people in other cultures. They love to talk about their origins and relations. Show your interest in their personal history and you will have a friend. Tell them about yours as well.

Take your time, but be intentional about gospel witness. Immigrants and refugees expect people to speak about their faith. Those who believe in something ought to speak openly about what they believe. That is their view. So let’s share freely with prayer for a harvest of souls for Christ.

A friend gave me this statement about personal witness: “It is ordinary people, doing ordinary things, with gospel intentionality.” That is a good statement that applies to all of our interactions. And it is an especially helpful statement to those who want to reach out to strangers. Be a friend. Ask questions. Listen to stories. Share a gospel word. Bring new friends to a spiritual Sabbath feast and introduce them to your Father and to your family. This is positive Christian witness, I believe.

Christian Education

New Editions of Important Books by Van Til

William D. Dennison

P&R Publishing and K. Scott Oliphint (editor) have provided the church with wonderful, fresh editions of two important works by Cornelius Van Til: Common Grace and the Gospel (2015) and Christian Theistic Evidences (2016). To Van Til’s corrected text Oliphint has added introductions and explanatory footnotes.

These works address two of the most controversial subjects in Van Til’s apologetic method: does he truly hold to common grace as well as evidences for Christian theism? The simple answer to both questions is yes! But in each case, he has his own construct that does not follow a traditional grid.

Concerning common grace, he notes how the subject matter is unique to Reformed thought because of its view of the fall into sin affecting all of our human faculties. If every aspect of one’s human nature is affected by sin, how can a fallen human have an accurate knowledge of anything? Reformed thought has responded with the notion of common grace.

In Van Til’s estimation, Reformed thought has suggested three different answers to the previous question: (1) the traditional position (Kuyper, Bavinck, Hepp): God restrains the sinful human state through history; (2) the denial position (Hoeksema): the term grace should only be applied to redemption and has no relationship with what the believer and unbeliever have in common; and (3) the reconstructionist position (Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven): in an integrated view of God’s creation, all creation ordinances are viewed in submission to God’s will, which demands a response from every human heart.

As Van Til distanced himself from the denial position, he maintained that the traditional position was foundational to his position as he expressed sympathy with the reconstructionist viewpoint. With this being said, Van Til presents his own unique contribution on common grace. In my judgment, it is genius. He grounds his position in pre-redemptive revelation (pre-fall) and bases his understanding of common grace on the federal headship of the two Adams.

Two terms become crucial in Van Til’s construction: sameness and difference. Applying biblical revelation in accordance with confessional fidelity, Van Til views all humans as the same in Adam’s original perfection. However, in light of God’s eternal decree, there is a difference among all humans in that some are elect in Christ and some are reprobate. After Adam’s fall, all humans became sinners and are subject to God’s wrath. Sameness and difference continue: all humans are the same as subject to God’s wrath, but they are different in that some are elect in Christ and some are reprobate. For Van Til, common grace between the elect in Christ and the reprobate in the post-fall era must be traced to the sameness that all humans share in the first Adam. Statements made by humans after the fall can be accurate only because the pre-redemptive revelation of God to Adam remains somewhat intact in humanity, even though all human faculties of the mind are fallen as it interprets God’s revelation. The reprobate will interpret the facts by exchanging the truth for a lie, whereas the elect in Christ will interpret the facts in submission to Christ.

Van Til’s work on Christian Theistic Evidences is also unique. He is not concerned with arguing the rational validity of theism and Christian theism on the basis of neutral empirical facts. This particular work is devoted to confronting modern science with a holistic and coherent view of Christian theism based upon the revelation of Scripture as summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith and orthodox Reformed systematic theology. The reader is invited into a remarkable synopsis of the history of modern science. The breath of Van Til’s scholarly engagement should not be overlooked; his careful study and analysis of over fifty-five primary sources in multiple disciplines needs recognition—from such notables as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Newton, Laplace, Kant, Lamarck, and Darwin to lesser notables as de Vries, Cohen, Bavink, Conklin, Mather, Millikan, Joad, Eddington, and Jastrow.

Van Til’s basic theme throughout the volume is easy to follow: throughout history, the continual attempt of modern scientists to view the empirical world as brute facts without the need to understand and interpret those facts on the basis of the authority of Christian theism, is a failure. Specifically, any individual or scientific discipline that begins with the presupposition that brute facts are to be understood and interpreted entirely by human reason and/or experience has already fallen prey to a fallacious explanation of those facts.

The finite mind can only remain within the limitation of the finite. Thus, in such a construct, those brute facts have appeared upon the scene by chance. For Van Til, the modern scientists’ explanation of brute facts (object) has no analogical reference point except fallen, finite reason and/or experience (subject). Each autonomous mind provides its own meaning, understanding, and interpretation of the facts, and so their reference point reduces to absurdity. In the chance world of autonomous science, there can never be unity within diversity. Without presupposing the God of the Bible, there is no verifiable evidence at all for any discipline of science. Hence, in its holistic construct, modern science is mythology.

For apologetic purposes, it is not a coincidence that Van Til opens the volume with an extensive discussion of Bishop Butler’s apologetic method (Arminian/Thomistic) and David Hume. He points out that Butler’s argument for Christianity does not hold up to Hume’s skepticism, since Butler starts with Hume’s view of brute fact. The only way in which facts have meaning is within a full-orbed Christian theism. The facts are the absolute evidence for Christian theism. With this approach, the Christian engages modern science with a biblical view of the Creator, creation/providence, teleology, and psychology. The evidence for God’s person and character is revealed in the execution of his plan and purpose in history, centered in the exaltation of his Son and the glory of the church. Any truth that modern science has discovered (by common grace), in spite of its presuppositions, is “borrowed capital of Christian theism” (p. 113). Only God creates and verifies the evidence of empirical facts that science uses in its craft.

The author teaches at Covenant College. Common Grace and the Gospel: 328 pages, list price $17.99. Christian Theistic Evidences: 288 pages, list price $19.99. Both books are paperbacks, sold by P&R Publishing.

ABCs of Presbyterianism

Independence versus Interdependence

Larry Wilson

An independent church assumes that it has all the powers needed to accomplish all the purposes of a church of Christ. Accordingly, in independency, congregations and pastors are not accountable to anyone beyond their own congregational meetings.

But does this not fly in the face of the scriptural pattern of unity and connection in the body of Christ? King Jesus lays down a pattern of connected churches sharing a presbyterial government.

Independency not only goes against the grain of this scriptural principle, but also gives rise to many practical problems. Suppose that a local church lacks the necessary wisdom or resources to solve a problem or a conflict. But there is no provision or permission to appeal to others. The church is stuck.

An example shows how painful this can be. Some years ago, a well-known American politician, a member in good standing of an evangelical church with independent polity, was caught in notorious sin and deception. Throughout his federation, pastors and others pleaded for and exhorted his local congregation to exercise church discipline over him. But his local congregation refused. And the other churches could do nothing about it. They were all independent. There is no accountability beyond the local church.

According to God’s Word, however, things should be very different. A problem arose on the local level in Antioch. They couldn’t resolve it there. Acts 15 shows how they appealed the matter to a broader assembly of elders who could settle the matter.

A prominent feature of Presbyterianism is that it entrusts the duty of ruling the regional church to the regional presbytery—that is, to the elders of the regional church in their assembled capacity. This means that congregations don’t have to stand alone. Instead, in unity and mutual deference, with interdependence and accountability, they can work together to build up one another as parts of the whole body of Christ.

Out of the Mouth

After reading the story of Ehud, whom God raised up to deliver Israel, I asked my children, “Who is our deliverer?” Henry, 5, responded immediately, “The mailman!”

—Bill Onnink

Oviedo, Fla.

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

Congratulations

The Shorter Catechism has been recited by:

• Benjamin Fry, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Indian Head Park, IL

• Mandy Smith, Providence Presbyterian Church, Temecula, CA

Stewardship

King David’s Cheerful Gift

Christopher Chelpka

God loves a cheerful giver. In addition to blessing those around them, those who give cheerfully often inspire others to do the same. A beautiful example of this is found in the story of King David.

Toward the end of his life, in 1 Chronicles 29, we read that David decided to support the construction of the temple by giving to God a very large gift. The size is significant because cheerful giving is often extravagant. Think of the Macedonian Christians who gave “beyond their means” or of the woman who poured expensive oil over Jesus’ feet.

But while the size of the gift is significant, it is also relative in the eyes of God. Extravagance may be found in the costly gifts of the wise men or in the two copper coins of the widow. So how much would David give—a king who was greatly blessed by God?

David gave more money to the temple than most of us can imagine: 10,000 talents of gold and silver. We don’t know the exact quality of these metals, but I estimate that his gift today would be worth more than $2.5 billion. This surely places David among the generous givers of the Bible.

The size of the gift, however, is not the only important thing in cheerful giving, because even extravagant gifts can come from a stingy heart. Paul warned the Corinthians about this when he said, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion” (2 Cor. 9:7). In this, David also did well. He gave freely and willingly, knowing that God, who “test[s] the heart” (1 Chron. 29:17), is never fooled.

Another key element in David’s cheerful giving was thankfulness to God. First, David was grateful for what was given. He acknowledged that “all this abundance that we have provided … comes from your hand and is all your own” (1 Chron. 29:16). Second, David was grateful for how it was given: “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?” (v. 14). Without the grace of God, cheerful giving is impossible.

But after David decided to give his gift, he announced it to the people. Did that go against Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 6:3–4 to give in secret? The answer is no.

When Jesus told us to give in secret—not even letting one’s left hand know what the right hand is doing—he used exaggeration to emphasize his main point: don’t give in order to be praised by others. David didn’t violate this principle because he gave out of his devotion to the temple of God. That’s what he said (1 Chron. 29:3), and it’s proven by what he did.

After David announced his gift, he called the leaders of Israel to action: “Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord?” (v. 5). David told the people about his gift in order to inspire their own giving; he wanted his devotion to the temple to be their devotion too.

David’s true heart was reflected in the people’s response. Inspired by his example, Israel’s leaders pooled their resources, giving even more than David did. And, like David, they were also “offering freely and joyously” to God (v. 17) “with a whole heart” (v. 9). Their joy even carried over to the next day, when they worshipped God with sacrifices, offerings, and feasting.

David was a cheerful giver. The people followed his example and we should too, knowing that a truly generous heart is always the gift of our gracious and generous God.

The author is the pastor of Covenant OPC in Tucson, Ariz.

Prayer Calendar

October

1. Pray for tentmaker missionary T. L. L., Asia (on furlough), as she speaks at a conference in the Presbytery of the Midwest this weekend. / Larry and Kalynn Oldaker, Huron, Ohio. Pray that God would add four families to Grace Fellowship OPC this year. / Kathy Bube, Loan Fund administrator, and Mark Stumpff, office assistant.

2. Jim and Eve Cassidy, Austin, Tex. Pray for the discipleship and ministry of South Austin Presbyterian Church. / Missionary associates Mr. and Mrs. C., Asia. Pray for the outreach Bible studies taught each week. / New Horizons editorial assistant Pat Clawson and proofreader Sarah Pederson.

3. Mr. and Mrs. M., Asia. Pray for the church leaders with whom Mr. M. works. / Lowell and Mae Ivey, Virginia Beach. Pray that the Lord would provide a single meeting location for Reformation Presbyterian Church’s morning and evening worship services. / Andy (and Anna) Smith, yearlong intern at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, Ill.

4. Brad and Cinnamon Peppo, Springfield, Ohio. Pray that God would enable Living Water OPC to effectively disciple new believers who have been attending worship. / Pray for tentmaker missionary T. D., Asia, as she maintains a busy teaching schedule. / Army chaplain Stephen (and Lindsey) Roberts.

Mark and Karissa Soud

5. Mr. and Mr. F., Asia. Pray for the believers faithfully attending worship services each week. / Mark and Karissa Soud, Birmingham, Ala. Pray that the gospel will be realized in Redeemer Presbyterian Church and in the community. / Adrian (and Rachel) Crum, yearlong intern at Bayview OPC in Chula Vista, Calif.

6. Josh and Kristen McKamy, Chambersburg, Pa. Pray that God would provide a new worship facility for Covenant OPC. / Pray for a fruitful term of teaching for missionary associates E. K., D. M., D. V., and S. Z., Asia. / Ordained Servant proofreader Diane Olinger.

7. Brian and Dorothy Wingard, South Africa. Pray for Brian as he teaches courses at Mukhanyo Theological College. / Home Missions associate general secretary Al Tricarico. / Pray for General Assembly stated clerk Ross Graham as he assists presbyteries and GA committees with work assignments.

8. Tim and Deborah Herndon, West Lebanon, N.H. Pray for effective ministry to the neighborhood around Providence Presbyterian Church’s building. / Ben and Melanie Westerveld, Quebec, Canada. Pray for Ben as he leads St-Marc Church in biblical worship. / Pray for the ongoing preparations for the 2017 Ministerial Training Institute of the OPC courses.

9. Pray for Foreign Missions general secretary Mark Bube, who is attending a conference in the Netherlands this week. / Eric and Donna Hausler, Naples, Fla. Pray for the continued growth and development of Christ the King Presbyterian Church. / Ryan (and Rachel) Heaton, yearlong intern at Tyler Presbyterian Church in Tyler, Tex.

10. Pray for Steve Doe, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic, as he does church-planting exploratory work. / Foreign Missions administrative assistant Linda Posthuma and secretary Katrina Zartman. / Alan Strange and Derrick Vander Meulen, coeditors of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal.

11. Mark and Jeni Richline, Montevideo, Uruguay (on furlough), are continuing their ministry to churches in the U.S. / Jim and Tricia Stevenson, Tulsa, Okla. Pray for outreach opportunities at Providence OPC. / Pray for Christian Education general secretary Danny Olinger as he promotes the work of Christian Education at presbytery meetings and in churches.

12. Chris and Megan Hartshorn, Anaheim Hills, Calif. Pray that the people of Anaheim Hills Presbyterian Church will be bold to invite people to worship, and that many will be converted. / Ray and Michele Call, Montevideo, Uruguay. Pray for Ray’s leadership in the new church plant. / Stephen Pribble, OPC.org senior technical associate.

13. Missionary associates Markus and Sharon Jeromin, Uruguay. Pray that contacts met through outreach programs will want to attend worship services. / Paul and Sarah Mourreale, St. Louis, Mo. Pray for outreach opportunities and success in evangelism at Gateway OPC. / Jan Gregson, assistant to the finance director.

14. Joshua and Jessica Lyon, Carson, Calif. Pray that the Lord would bless Grace OPC with new families. / Retired missionaries Betty Andrews, Cal and Edie Cummings, Greet Rietkerk, and Young and Mary Lou Son. Thank the Lord for their prayers for the church. / Army chaplain Earl (and Susan) Vanderhoff.

15. Missionary associate Kathleen Winslow, Prague, Czech Republic. Pray that her English-language students will respond well to their lessons. / Mika and Christina Edmondson, Grand Rapids, Mich. Praise God for his continued blessing on New City Fellowship. / Richard (and Erin) Chung, yearlong intern at Theophilus OPC in Anaheim, Calif.

16. Home Missions general secretary John Shaw. / Affiliated missionaries Jerry and Marilyn Farnik, Prague, Czech Republic. Pray that God would continue to work in the hearts of those attending the children’s Bible club. / Ordained Servant editor Greg Reynolds.

17. Pray for Eric and Dianna Tuininga, Mbale, Uganda (on furlough), as they speak about their labors on the mission field. / Jim and Bonnie Hoekstra, Andover, Minn. Praise the Lord for answering Immanuel OPC’s request for three new families this year. / Bryan (and Heidi) Dage, yearlong intern at Covenant OPC in Komoka, Ontario.

18. Kim and Barbara Kuhfuss, Eau Claire, Wis. Pray that Providence Reformed Church will be able to reach out effectively in their new neighborhood. / Charles and Connie Jackson, Mbale, Uganda. Pray for students receiving instruction at Knox Theological College. / Doug Watson, part-time staff accountant.

19. Pray for the labors of missionary associates John and Alice Steenhof, Mbale, Uganda. / John and Wenny Ro, Chicago, Ill. (downtown). Pray that God would bring new people to Gospel Life Presbyterian Church through its outreach opportunities. / Bulut Yasar, yearlong intern at New Life OPC in Montoursville, Pa.

20. Andrew and Billie Moody, San Antonio, Tex. Pray that the Lord would raise up officers at San Antonio Reformed Church. / Missionary associate Leah Hopp, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for community health projects being promoted in local villages. / New Horizons managing editor Jim Scott.

21. Pray for Foreign Missions associate general secretary Douglas Clawson, who is in Haiti to assist with the training of church leaders. / Phil Strong, Lander, Wyo. Pray that the people of Grace Reformed Fellowship will know the joy of the Lord and delight themselves in him. / Joe Johnson, yearlong intern at Trinity OPC in Hatboro, Pa.

22. Robert and Christy Arendale, Houston, Tex. Pray that the Word and Spirit will build up Cornerstone OPC. / David and Rashel Robbins, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for the many meetings held each week where the gospel message is presented. / David Haney, director of finance and planned giving for the Committee on Coordination.

23. David and Sunshine Okken, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for God’s provision of officer candidates. / Ron and Carol Beabout, Gaithersburg, Md. Pray that recent outreach efforts by Trinity Reformed Church at a local mall and neighborhood will bear fruit. / Pray for tomorrow’s meeting of the Board of Trustees of Great Commission Publications.

24. Brian and Sara Chang, Cottonwood, Ariz. Pray for new opportunities at Christ Reformed Presbyterian Church to make known the name of Christ. / Pray for missionary associate Angela Voskuil, Nakaale, Uganda, as she teaches at the Mission’s preschool in Karamoja. / Charlene Tipton, database administrator.

25. Akisyon a Yesu Presbyterian Clinic, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray that the Lord would provide a doctor for the clinic. / Mike and Katy Myers, Royston, Ga. Pray that the Lord would use Heritage Presbyterian Church in causing an awakening in Royston. / New Horizons cover designer Chris Tobias.

26. Jay and Andrea Bennett, Neon, Ky. Ask the Lord to organize Neon Reformed Presbyterian Church as an established congregation by 2020. / Bob and Martha Wright, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for the diaconal and construction work being done in Karamoja. / David Nakhla, Committee for Diaconal Ministries administrator. Pray for the Committee’s meeting tomorrow and Friday.

Chris and Chloe Verdick

27. Pray for missionary associates Christopher and Chloe Verdick, Nakaale, Uganda, as they assist with various programs of the Uganda Mission. / Christopher and Ann Malamisuro, Cincinnati, Ohio. Pray for Good Shepherd OPC’s fall ministries. / Wayne (and Suzanne) Veenstra, yearlong intern at Harvest OPC in Wyoming, Mich.

28. Pray for Lacy Andrews, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of the Southeast, as he visits presbytery mission works and churches. / Affiliated missionary Linda Karner, Japan. Pray that she will have good rapport with her students. / Miller (and Stephanie) Ansell, yearlong intern at Faith Presbyterian Church in Garland, Tex.

29. Pray for Ben and Heather Hopp, Haiti (on furlough), as they pursue a busy furlough schedule. / Jonathan and Kristin Moersch, Capistrano Beach, Calif. Pray that the saints at Trinity Presbyterian Church will continue to grow in love and service toward God and neighbor. / Janet Birkmann, Diaconal Ministries administrative assistant.

30. Home Missions staff administrator Sean Gregg. / Heero and Anya Hacquebord, L’viv, Ukraine. Pray for those desiring to join the church through profession of faith and baptism. / Daniel (and Marcy) Borvan, yearlong intern at Merrimack Valley Presbyterian Church in North Andover, Mass.

31. Associate missionaries Octavius and Marie Delfils, Haiti. Pray for wisdom in developing strategies for ministry. / Bill and Sessie Welzien, Key West, Fla. Pray that the Lord would add to the congregation of Keys Presbyterian Church. / Ryan (and Rochelle) Cavanaugh, yearlong intern at Prescott Presbyterian Church in Prescott, Arizona.

News

Jeffrey Carter Ordained

Jeffrey Carter was ordained as a minister and installed as associate pastor at Trinity Reformed OPC in Wilmington, North Carolina, on June 24. Pastor Fred Hofland, pastor of the church, preached at the service. Pastor Dan Fincham of Covenant Presbyterian Church in New Bern, North Carolina, gave the charge to Jeffrey, and Jeremy Huntington, a ruling elder at Covenant, gave the charge to the congregation.

Participating in the ordination and installation service for Jeffrey Carter were (left to right): Irfon Hughes (pastor, Raleigh, N.C.), Jay Bennett (pastor, Neon, Ky., and moderator of the Presbytery of the Southeast), Fred Hofland, Jeffrey Carter, Dan Fincham, Jeremy Huntington, Ash Guirgues (elder, New Bern, N.C.), Marc Yandle (elder, Wilmington, N.C.).

Christopher Post Installed

The Rev. Christopher L. Post was installed as pastor of Providence OPC in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, on the evening of July 15. The Providence congregation, along with members of the Presbytery of Central Pennsylvania (OPC) and family friends from Michigan, celebrated the installation with praise, instruction, and prayer to God.

Presbyters at the installation of Christopher Post (front row, second from left)

Pastor Jeremiah Montgomery, moderator of the Presbytery and pastor of Resurrection OPC in State College, directed the vows of the pastor and the vows of the congregation. The members of the Presbytery laid hands on Pastor Post and prayed for his ministry in Mifflinburg.

Pastor Roth Reason of Redeemer OPC in Danville, charged the congregation as to its duties toward its pastor from Hebrew 13:17.

Pastor Everett Henes of Hillsdale OPC in Hillsdale, Michigan, exhorted the congregation to be willing to share in the sufferings of Christ (2 Tim. 2:1–7).

Providence OPC is delighted that the Lord has provided his man to lead their congregation.

Lawrence Oldaker Installed

The Presbytery of Ohio on July 29 installed the Reverend Lawrence Oldaker as an evangelist to serve as the organizing pastor of Grace Fellowship OPC, a mission work in Huron, Ohio. Rev. Matthew Judd, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Mansfield, Ohio, moderated the meeting and preached the evening sermon. Mike Diercks, a ruling elder at Providence Presbyterian Church in Pataskala, Ohio, and chairman of the presbytery’s Church Extension Committee, gave the charge. Rev. Stephen Dufresne, the pastor of Providence Church, prayed for the Lord’s blessing on the work of Rev. Oldaker.

Members of the Presbytery of Ohio at the installation of Larry Oldaker (front row, center)

Rev. Oldaker is the former regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Ohio. He accepted the call to serve as evangelist in Huron from Covenant Church in Mansfield, which he served as organizing pastor and then pastor from 1995 to 2004. Pastor Oldaker served as RHM for the presbytery for twelve years and was responsible for assisting in the planting of a dozen mission works during his tenure.

Summer Short-Term Missions

Janet Birkmann

One of the highlights of this past summer’s short-term missions season was the service of Team Praha in the Czech Republic. The Presbytery of Southern California sent the team to work with affiliated missionaries Jerry and Marilyn Farnik.

2016 Team Praha

Over a three-week period (July 25 to August 16, 2016), Team Praha participated in a biblical counseling conference, a mountain adventure, and a VBS. The Farniks reported in a recent prayer letter:

Just before the biblical counseling conference began, Team Praha, a group of ten young people from America, arrived to help with the children’s program at the conference, as well as other outreach events. In spite of a severe flight delay, they made it to the conference in time and did a great job of teaching the children!

We went to the White Carpathian Mountains on the Czech/Slovak border with eighteen Czech youth and Team Praha. The Lord opened up many doors for the gospel through conversations on the trails and around the campfire, when Pastor Josh Lyons (Team Praha leader) gave some challenging messages. When we returned to Prague, the youth gathered for a film night, a Frisbee tournament, and a coffee house, where several members of Team Praha talked about the importance of God in their lives.

The children who came to our Vacation Bible School were able to learn about the story of Jonah. The week was full of Bible stories, discussions about God, singing, learning Scripture, sports, and crafts. All forty-two children who attended the VBS seemed to really enjoy learning about the Lord and being with Team Praha. There were many tears when it ended and the children had to say good-bye.

Visit OPCSTM.org for more reports, testimonials, photos, and videos from the summer 2016 short-term missions season!

Gaffins Retire to Virginia

Thomas Roof

Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. retired in mid-July and moved with his wife Jean to be near family in Virginia.

For those interested in learning whom Dr. Gaffin has influenced, I highly recommend reading Jeffrey Jue’s article “Richard Gaffin Turns Eighty” on the Westminster Theological Seminary website to see just how many have benefitted from Dr. Gaffin’s work.

The vast majority of our denomination’s members will never be called to be teachers in a seminary, pastors, or even elders, but they are all called to be churchmen. Dr. Gaffin was an exceptional example of how a churchman should act. In 1996 he was appointed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia as a session advisor to then Gwynedd Valley OPC. From 2000 to 2016 he served on the session at Gwynedd Valley/Cornerstone OPC in Ambler, Pennsylvania, while often serving as clerk of session. In all of his duties, he was a model churchman. He cared for the congregants, accepted roles that fell to him, and showed up every Sunday when he was able, sitting under the preached Word for almost twenty-three years.

Saying good-bye to Dick and Jean Gaffin at Cornerstone OPC

Jean Gaffin has been his faithful and loving wife through all his years of serving at Cornerstone. She was and is a model churchwoman. She graciously served as Cornerstone’s treasurer for twenty years. She has spoken at women’s conferences, as well as serving humbly in the women’s ministry at Cornerstone. It goes without saying that she was a model for all the women at COPC. Whenever Dr. Gaffin was at church, Mrs. Gaffin would be there with him, even through the most trying times we experienced as a church.

Their lives and ministry remind me of Romans 12:10–13: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

Cornerstone, Ambler, and the OPC would like to thank the Gaffins for all that they have done, both big and small.

Update

Churches

• Verde Valley Reformed Chapel in Cottonwood, Ariz., has changed its name to Christ Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Ministers

• Christopher L. Post, formerly an evangelist at Cedar Presbyterian Church in Hudsonville, Mich., was installed as pastor of Providence OPC in Mifflinburg, Pa., on July 15.

• The Presbytery of Northern California and Nevada on June 28 dissolved the pastoral relationship between Robert A. Starke and Covenant Presbyterian Church in San Jose, Calif., effective July 31, and authorized the session of that church on that date to install him as a teacher in the congregation.

Milestones

• Jeanne Lewis, 94, the widow of Pastor Richard M. Lewis, died peaceably in her sleep on July 30.

Letters

Evangelism

Editor:

I was heartened to see the emphasis on evangelism in the July issue of the New Horizons. The article “Evangelism in the Local Church” has much to commend it, but (at least as applied to my setting) it does not adequately take into account the times in which we live or a key principle found in the Scriptures.

There has been a perfect storm of segregation and detachment of the church arising from changing cultural norms that tolerate but isolate the church. Such things as homeschooling and Christian sports, music, and debate clubs, while good, have established a Christian ghetto. We must find a way back into the world in which we live. We must find ways to go to the houses, not only of each other, but of Pharisees, tax collectors, and prostitutes, as our Lord did. That will mean “going out” at least as much as “inviting in” (see Matt. 28:19).

The statement “[Church] Members are not called to preach or even do the work of an evangelist” discourages the main method God uses to bring people to Christ. Less than 10 percent of the people I know came to Christ because a minister told them the gospel. They came because a Christian neighbor, friend, or coworker who knew Jesus shared his love with them.

In Acts 8:1, we read of persecution in Jerusalem causing a mass displacement of believers. “All were scattered except the apostles”—who, as far as I can tell, were the only ordained ministers at the time. Those who were scattered “preached the word [euangelizo] wherever they went” (v. 4). It was they who evangelized, they who brought the gospel. This tracks at least with my experience of how most people hear the gospel and come to Christ.

George C. Hammond

Round Hill, Va.

The LGBT Community

Editor:

There is an important question to answer that was not addressed in last month’s article on “Marriage, Sexuality, and Faithful Witness”: Do non-Christians have the right to define themselves as being gay or transgendered? I agree with Timothy Geiger’s statement that Christians have no such right, but is it right for society to marginalize or punish people who so define themselves? And if the church supports society in prohibiting people from identifying themselves as gay or transgendered, how can we still be faithful witnesses to them?

Rosaria Butterfield, when she was a hostile lesbian, was drawn to the gospel by love demonstrated by Christians. If Christians push society to marginalize and disrespect the LGBT community, how can we claim to be reaching out to those in that community in love?

Curt Day

Bethlehem, Pa.

Reviews

Princeton Seminary (1812–1929): The Leaders’ Lives and Works, by Gary Steward. P&R, 2014. Paperback, 321 pages, list price $15.99. Reviewed by Barry Waugh, a historian in the PCA.

This volume is an addition to the Guided Tour Series of books on church history published in recent years by P&R Publishing. Steward’s book provides a handy and accessible account of some of the key Princeton personalities and their works within the period delimited by its title. Portraits provide faces for names, and other photographs show places and writings. Time lines are included, listing key dates in the subjects’ lives. A bibliography and an index are also provided.

Following the opening chapter on the founding of Princeton Seminary, Steward provides biographies of selected professors, each of which is followed by a chapter discussing one or more of his works. For example, chapter 2 is about Princeton’s founding professor, Archibald Alexander; then chapter 3 discusses his book, Thoughts on Religious Experience. The pattern continues for Samuel Miller and Charles Hodge, but the biographies of James W. Alexander and his brother “Addison” are presented in a single chapter that is followed only by a summary of a work by J. W. Alexander, and the next biography is about A. A. Hodge. The last chapter, which is titled “Old Princeton, Past, Present and Future,” is a summary of select seminary faculty from A. A. Hodge’s death in 1886 until the division of 1929. Thus, C. W. Hodge, the more than thirty years of B. B. Warfield’s teaching, the seminary reorganization, and J. Gresham Machen and the founding of Westminster Seminary are addressed in about seventeen pages.

The book could have been improved with a more equally distributed presentation of its subjects. For example, J. W. Alexander taught on the seminary faculty for only two years, so at least with regard to his tenure, he was not a leader. Warfield’s voluminous work provided an anchor in the stormy theological sea of his era, so a fuller presentation of his life and influence is needed. The importance of Machen for confronting the transitions at Princeton in his day could also have been more fully addressed. Warfield’s defense of the doctrine of inspiration is mentioned, but his writings on the subject warrant a summary chapter, and Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism, also mentioned by the author, could have been summarized as were the works of the other biographical subjects.

Steward’s book provides a good, readable summary and overview of some of the people and influences in Princeton Seminary. Despite its abbreviation of the last decades of its period, anyone desiring to learn more about the seminary would find the book informative. For the years after A. A. Hodge, Gary Johnson’s book, B. B. Warfield: Essays on his Life and Thought, is helpful, and hopefully before too long Brad Gundlach’s biography of Warfield will be available. With regard to the Machen era, D. G. Hart’s Defending the Faith and Stephen Nichol’s book J. Gresham Machen in the Guided Tour Series are both good reads.

The Suburbs of Heaven: The Diary of Murdoch Campbell, edited by David Campbell. Covenanters Press, 2014. Paperback, 178 pages, list price $20.00. Reviewed by OP teacher James W. Campbell.

Churches and theological seminaries are good at teaching many things, such as Greek and Hebrew, theology, church history, and polity. All these things can be learned by attending classes, studying books, and listening to lectures. However, there are some topics that do not lend themselves to such educational endeavors. How does one learn to pray? One can and ought to read about prayer, but praying itself is a practical discipline; it is a matter of doing. And what of meditation? What of a close walk with God? In such areas, exemplars are more helpful than theoreticians.

Murdoch Campbell (1900–1974), a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, was just such an exemplar. He prayed and meditated upon the Word. He sought to know God in Christ in a deeper way. Some of his experiences have been recorded in previously published books: From Grace to Glory and Memories of a Wayfaring Man. Now his diary has been published, edited by his son, David Campbell.

What can one learn from such a book about the daily practice of drawing close to God? There are at least three lessons for us here: (1) Communion with God is of the Lord, not of us. (2) Such communion is something we receive, not something we do. (3) It is always to be judged by the written Word.

David Campbell uses words like “mystic” to describe his father. This can be wrongly interpreted, as many in our day struggle with subjectivity and New Age thinking. But Murdoch Campbell shows us that there is an element in the Christian life, consistent with the whole counsel of God, that rightly seeks a deeper experience of God’s presence, as the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ, blessing the Word of God to our hearts.

David Campbell writes: “For my father, it seems that there could be no greater pleasure than daily converse with God.” An example of such pleasure can be seen in the diary entry for December 10, 1958: “On Friday afternoon, when I was in my room alone, the Lord broke through my darkness and deadness and gave me a brief Bethel season of His presence which, when accompanied by His love and Word, can transform the most distressing situation into a delightsome suburb of Heaven.”

Murdoch Campbell challenges us to believe, to practice godliness, and to wait upon the Lord. At the same time, his writings give us a record of how one man found Christ’s promise to be true: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20 kjv).

A Sad Departure: Why We Could Not Stay in the Church of Scotland, by David J. Randall. Banner of Truth, 2015. Paperback, 216 pages, list price $15.00. Reviewed by OP pastor Iain Wright.

The title of this volume contains a deliberate ambiguity. Either reading is a massive understatement. For those men who have labored to preach the gospel in the established church, in some instances for upwards of four decades, the departure is beyond sad; it is a heart-breaking personal catastrophe. Hardly less disastrous has been the departure of the church from anything even close to biblical orthodoxy. The recent vote in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to permit men and women in same-sex marriages to enter and continue in ministry is but the latest bitter fruit harvested from a wholesale rejection of God’s Word.

The author, David Randall, has ably traced the decline over gender issues that has led to so many quitting the Kirk. In an appendix, their names are recorded on what amounts to a war memorial for those whose ministries were cut short in the Kirk, sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. As the reader reviews the history, there starts to emerge a seeming inevitability of the final outcome. Humanly speaking, the contest was unequal from the beginning. The denomination has long been in the hands of those espousing liberal theology. Evangelicals have been little more than tolerated. Randall shows the price that is now being paid by those who love the Kirk, but now find themselves on the outside.

There is, however, another aspect of the situation which is only lightly touched upon. A distinction is drawn between the struggle some years ago over the ordination of women and the recent struggle over same-sex marriage. The former permits of legitimate disagreement among those who hold a high view of Scripture, whereas the latter does not—or so it would appear. Though this is indeed open to debate, it does not accurately reflect the situation among evangelicals in the Church of Scotland. Evangelicals yielded to pragmatism as part of the “softly, softly” approach of the Crieff Brotherhood. At a meeting of the Brotherhood in the 1980s, Ian Hamilton set out with great clarity the scriptural reasons for rejecting the ordination of women. Equal time was given to Jerry Middleton, who agreed with Hamilton’s interpretation of Scripture, but offered pragmatic reasons why evangelical ministers should participate in ordaining women to the eldership and ministry. William Still called at least one minister and urged him to go against his conscience to ordain a woman, but offered no biblical rationale.

The weakness of the book is that it does not adequately deal with decisions of the leadership in the evangelical community and its failed policy of “infiltration.” Nor does it ask the hard question: to what extent might the outcome have been changed by a resolute commitment to the whole counsel of God thirty years ago? The roots of the present disaster run further back than Randall allows.

Announcements

New Booklet on Scripture

What is “Scripture”? How is it “the Word of God”? How did it come to be “inspired”? What are the implications of that for us? Can we really believe it in our modern world?

Find straightforward, biblical answers to these questions in this 24-page booklet, The Inspiration of Scripture, by James W. Scott, published by the Committee on Christian Education.

Order copies for $1.00 each ($0.75 for 10 or more) at CCEsec@opc.org or 215-935-1023 (to be billed) or at store.opc.org (by credit card). Shipping $4.00; free on orders over $35.00.

Women’s Fall Retreat

Oct. 21–22 • Adamstown, Md.

• Theme: Drawn to the Word

• Speaker: Margot Clenance

• Venue: Claggett Center, 3034 Buckeys-town Pike, Adamstown, MD 21710

• Further information: Nanie at 703-716-4215 or kconcepc4215@yahoo.com