What Are The Netherlands Reformed Congregations?

Viewed from outside her ranks, the Netherlands Reformed denomination is often relegated to the uncomfortable position of being labeled either a “non-existing denomination” or the “non-TV church.” Netherlands Reformed congregations (hereafter: NRC) are often perceived as being overly conservative, overly experiential and mystical, overly separatist in nature, and overly critical of a looser form of doctrine and life. The visitor, however, who actually takes the trouble to overstep unjustifiable accusations and attends worship service(s), usually has quite a different response to NRC preaching. Sermons are viewed as long but also as intensely Biblical, informative, searching and practical. Over and over again, visiting listeners remark how entirely different the NRC is from what they have heard about it. In essence, the NRC is nothing more nor less than a denomination intensely serious about living the Reformed heritage throughout their entire lives, believing the Reformed doctrine with their entire minds, and experiencing Reformed truth in their entire hearts.

Yes, but…Reformed, Christian Reformed, Protestant Reformed, Free Reformed, Reformed Church in the U.S….and Netherlands Reformed? Is it any wonder that many find Reformed splits mind-boggling? Is not the NRC just another redundant and unedifying schism within the Reformed family? Does the NRC possess unique viability? What is the relationship of the NRC towards other churches of Reformed persuasion?

Origin

The Netherlands Reformed Congregations, presently numbering 165 congregations in the Netherlands (90,000 members), 25 congregations in North America (9,000 members), and a handful of congregations in various foreign countries, organized denominationally in 1907. The so-called “Churches under the Cross” (established in 1839, after breaking away from the 1834 Secession congregations) and so-called Ledeboerian churches (established in 1841 under the leadership of Rev. Ledeboer who seceded from the Reformed State Church), united in 1907 under the leadership of the then 25-year-old Rev. C.H. Kersten to form the Netherlands Reformed Congregations (Gereformeerde Gemeenten). (Many of the North American congregations left the CRC to join the NRC after the Kuyperian presupposed regeneration doctrine began making serious inroads into that denomination.)

Rev. J.R. Beeke is pastor of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Forms of Unity & Liturgy

All Netherlands Reformed congregations, office-bearers, and members subscribe to three Reformed Forms of Unity: the ße/g/’c Confession of Faith (by DeBres), the Heidelberg Catechism (by Ursinus and Olevianus), and the Canons of Dort. Both the ße/g/’c Confession and the Canons of Dort are frequently read at worship services, and the Heidelberg Catechism is preached weekly except on church feast days. Godly sobriety dominates NRC liturgy out of deep reverence for God and His holy congregation. Prayers, psalter singing, offerings, and benedictions consume approximately thirty minutes of a typical worship service, while the central emphasis on preaching the Word of God is vigilantly maintained. Large numbers of songs, choirs, testimonies, and congregational readings are all rejected because they are viewed as intrusions on the church’s highest and most sacred calling—to unashamedly preach the whole counsel and Word of God: Biblically, doctrinally, experimentally, and practically.

Doctrinal Emphasis

NRC preaching stresses the vertical line of the gospel, believing a right relationship between God and man is indispensable to the resulting horizontal, person-to-person relationship.

Consequently, God is never left out of preaching. God, in and through Christ, is the center and heartbeat of every message. His Being names, attributes, and divine Persons—the electing love of the Father, the redeeming love of the Son, and the applying love of the Holy Spirit, is continually brought to the fore. NRC preaching cautiously seeks to maintain the Biblical balance between God’s justice and His love; divine love is preached without the relinquishment of divine justice. The Lord is too holy and righteous to be satisfied through any other channel than the blood of His only begotten Son.

Man’s lost state and condition by nature due to his deep fall in Adam, his dire need for a meriting and applying Savior outside of himself, and his hopeless inability to accept such a Savior in his own strength, are continually emphasized. NRC members are constantly told that total depravity must become total reality and not something prevalent only on the printed pages of the church’s creeds and confessions. The necessary work of the Holy Spirit in uncovering a person’s total sinfulness to himself in order to make room for this same Spirit to apply and glorify Christ within the soul, is a Biblical truism oft repeated. The grand gospel truth of free and sovereign grace which stresses that man must be abased to the lowest and God exalted to the highest in the salvation of a sinner, is considered to be of inestimable, prime value.

Consequently, in distinction from most present-day Reformed denominations, NRC inevitably place heavy emphasis on the necessity of being born again. True conversion is never assumed. The child growing up in the pale of the church receives the outward benefits of the covenant (which are many) but its true essence can only be received via regeneration.

Therefore NRC congregations feel compelled to build and promote their own Christian education. They agree entirely with Archibald Alexander (d. 1851), renowned professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, when he said:

The education of children should proceed on the principle that they are in an unregenerate state, until evidences of saving grace clearly appear, in which case they should be sedulously cherished and nurtured. These are Christ’s lambs whom none should offend or mislead upon the peril of a terrible punishment. But though the religious education of children should proceed on the ground that they are destitute of grace, it ought ever to be used as a means of grace. Every lesson, therefore, should be accompanied with the lifting up of the heart of the instructor to God for a blessing on the means. “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.”

(Thoughts on Religious Experience)

NRC members believe that more than historical faith (believing Biblical truth and doctrine with the mind) is necessary for salvation. True saving faith (Biblical doctrine and truth formed within the soul by personal experience via Word and Spirit and wrought out in practical life) is essential to obtain everlasting life. A true Christian shall surely be able to tell in some measure how the Lord converted him/her, and how he/she has experienced and is experiencing the misery-deliverance-gratitude order of salvation (see the Heidelberg Catechism).

The NRC maintains the historic Reformed position of a visible/invisible church, that is, many members (though believing Reformed doctrine with their minds) are still lacking true heart conversion, which reveals itself in the fruit of their lives (Matt. 7:16); other members, out of free and sovereign grace alone, are recipients of Spirit-wrought regeneration and conversion. Biblical marks, fruits and steps of grace which distinguish genuine spiritual life from counterfeit Christianity are continually emphasized from the pulpit out of love so that members may examine, under the Spirit’s guidance, whether they are, in fact, true believers. This is not mysticism. Mysticism separates Christian experience from the Word of Cod, but the historic Reformed stance demands Cod-glorifying, Word-centered, Spirit-wrought experiential Christianity.

This emphasis inevitably yields the fruit of a smaller percentage of believers partaking of the Lord’s Supper than in most Reformed churches of our day. Most NRC members would find it next to impossible to partake of God’s Holy Supper with levity and lack of spiritual life, as many seem to do in our generation.

Practical Emphasis

The NRC not only endeavors to buttress the historic Reformed stress doctrinally, but also practically in daily life. The denomination takes God’s Word seriously when the Lord continually commands His people not to mingle with sinful, worldly people, worldly customs, worldly practices, and worldly places. Not to merit salvation, but as an inevitable consequence of salvation, the believer will “come out from the world and be separate” as Cod’s Word commands. Therefore, the church unflinchingly condemns those things which tend to provoke sin or the lusts of the flesh. Television, dancing, theater-attendance, over-indulging in sports, modern fashions, materialism, etc., are forbidden on the basis of God’s Word: “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thes. 5:22).

This conservative way of life, however, far from being meritorious, is a spontaneous outgrowth of bowing gratefully under divine Lordship, for the true Christian will have no desire to set his heart on trivialities of this world that tend to interrupt his close walk with God.

The true Christian’s life is meant to be a preparation for the life to come. His godly walk and tempered concern over the lawful matters of this world will cause him to be salt of the earth and light on the hill. His walk, talk, and even withdrawal and silence will also testify to the living principle of real Christianity in exercise within him.

Such an approach to daily, practical life is viewed as Biblical and realistic (not radical!) within NRC circles. When the majority of programs that come across a television set, for example, are basically evil and morally warped, a true Christian should no more purchase such an instrument than he should purchase a 90 percent warped piece of furniture. He is also acutely aware of the fact that his old, corrupt nature would not allow him to “control” television to the extent that it becomes a God-glorifying instrument in his life.

Thus the NRC rejects two streams of thought current today. On the one hand, it rejects the Amish line of thought which literally separates its members totally from the world. NRC members maintain the Biblical injunction that Christians must remain in but not of the world. On the other hand, the denomination also rejects the imagined notion that the Christian sanctifies worldly transactions and happenings by his/her presence and intervention. NRC members firmly believe, for example, that dancing corrupts the Christian more than the Christian sanctifies the dance. The transition of many Reformed denominations from the traditionally Reformed perspective necessitating separation from the world towards the “Christian-sanctifying” theme, is viewed in the NRC as a free license to sin. It strips the church of its precious antithesis heritage.

Conclusion

The NRC are far from being perfect churches. We never claim to be the only church. Rather, we hope and pray we may be counted among the number of churches who, by grace, have remained faithful to the truth — Biblically, doctrinally, experientially, and practically. We trust that God’s Word is proclaimed, discipline exercised, and sacraments administered as instituted by Christ. We trust the Lord has enabled us in some measure to carry the banner of truth delivered to us by our Reformed forefathers without compromising or surrendering to corrupt influences which are incessantly at work — forces which seek either to destroy the only foundation of salvation (Jesus Christ and Him crucified), or to undermine the absolutely necessary experiential knowledge of God’s only way of salvation. ?

Copies of this article in tract form (10¢ each) may be ordered from:

Neth. Ref. Book and Publishing Committee 1020 N. Main Street, Sioux Center IA 51250

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen