The Church’s Perpetual Need: The Preservation of Old Paths (1)

On July 25, 1992, the Lord willing, we hope to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the founding of our denomination in the Netherlands. This series of articles, based on Jeremiah 6:16, aims to expound our rich heritage by emphasizing the important paths upon which our fathers have walked. It is our prayer that the Lord may preserve among us that old, balanced truth of free and sovereign grace in which the personal experience of misery, deliverance, and gratitude continue to be emphasized as essential to the life of true conversion.

Jeremiah was very young, probably a teenager, when called and sent by the Lord to be a prophet in Israel. He was sent to testify that the truth of God knows no generation gap, but remains the same from generation to generation. His primary calling was to pronounce woe to the youth, middle-aged and elderly in Israel if they wandered from the old paths of their forefathers, and well to Israel if her generations would walk in such paths.

Jeremiah was God’s young messenger to proclaim an old message. He was God’s ambassador to a wicked king, to a worldly and corrupt people, to a backsliding church, to a dead and formal priesthood. He was sent by God to denounce the cold, hard formalism and covetousness that pervaded Israel; as such, he was a reformer who received little support in his own country and from his own people.

Jeremiah lived a hard life. His message was rejected in his youth and in his old age he lived to see the fulfillment of all the warnings he had proclaimed to Israel. The complete ruin of church and state, the destruction of the temple of Solomon, the burning of Jerusalem, and the carrying away of young and old into captivity all became reality in the life of a man who zealously desired the welfare of Israel. Tradition tells us that after being dragged into Egypt by Jewish refugees, he died in old age as a martyr to the cause and kingdom of God.

Jeremiah 6:16 summarizes the entire ministry of Jeremiah: seeking to preserve and conserve what God had given to Israel by directing its citizenry to maintain its good old paths. Standing, as it were, in a multiple-road intersection, Jeremiah faithfully guided the Jewish people to those paths in which the Lord had preserved and established Israel for thirteen hundred years — from the times of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David and Hezekiah until the present hour. Despite the unpopularity of his views, he admonished Israel that a return to her forefathers’ old paths was the only means available to escape divine judgment. His message was an ultimatum to Israel: Barring national repentance, Israel was doomed to captivity. Her new ways of form worship, ritualistic lip-service, pleasure-seeking and covetousness bespoke inevitable, speedy annihilation. Though God’s judgments were ripe, Jeremiah trumpeted forth that Israel was still at the crossroad of survival — it was still not too late to repent, to turn to the Lord, to seek the good, old paths. Mercy was yet to be had upon confession and return. Thus, Jeremiah had nothing new to proclaim. Proclaiming the necessity that the old be revived, his sermons were full of quotations from his godly prophetical predecessors. Not out of weakness, nor because his intelligence lacked originality, but because the Word of God remains constant and relevant in all domains of life and society, Jeremiah testified, “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way.”

Articles of Institutional Unity of the Church of Christ

The articles of institutional unity of the church of Christ, solemnizing the union of the “Reformed Congregations under the Cross” and the Reformed Congregations which originated from the action of the late Rev. Ledeboer, at meetings held on May 23 and June 5, 1907 at Rotterdam and Middelburg respectively, and approved by the appointed delegates on July 25, 1907 at Rotterdam in the church building at Boezemsingel 48, are as follows:

Article 1: As the basis for ecclesiastical accord the Church Order of Dort, composed in the year 1619, shall be adopted and maintained with the exception of those articles which are no longer in effect due to the difference in relationship between church and State or the lapse of the Walloon language. The churches shall determine for themselves which articles to exclude.

Article 2: In accordance therewith the churches shall no longer meet in Classical or General Ecclesiastical Assemblies but in Classes and Synods, both Provincial and General.

Article 3: Grouping of the churches into Classes shall be done by the first General Assembly according to their geographical location.

Article 4: Each Classis shall assist its own vacant churches as much as possible by making appointments for that purpose. Whenever the number of ministers in any Classis is small it may solicit the help of a neighboring Classis having a greater number of ministers.

Preaching assignments shall be so regulated that, if possible, no church shall have reason to complain.

Article 5: The churches shall be united both Classically and Synodically. In localities where churches of both groups are established the consistories shall have the power to effect a union of these churches with the consent of Classis.

Article 6: The formal recognition of one another’s office bearers and official proceedings agreed upon last year shall be unconditionally continued.

Article 7: Examination for the admission of new ministers or exhorters shall be conducted by the Classis to which the calling church belongs under the supervision of delegates from Synod.

Article 8: All ministers or exhorters who conduct services in congregations where Datheen’s version of the Psalms is sung shall make use of this version in the services. Ministers or exhorters who have objections against the New Version of the Psalms and have never made use of it in public worship shall be given the liberty to use the version of Datheen when conducting services in any of the congregations where the New Version is preferred.

Article 9: No minister shall ever be compelled to serve a congregation if he has objections against the version of the Psalms used by that congregation. Likewise no congregation shall ever be compelled to invite a minister if it has objections against the version of the Psalms used by that minister.

Article 10: Datheen’s version of the Psalms shall be sung in all Classical and major assemblies.

Article 11: In order that the unity of the churches may become manifest to the world they shall bear the name “Reformed Congregations.” In case complications should arise from interference by the authorities, or from financial obligations, or from any other cause, patience shall be exercised toward the congregations involved if the name must be changed.

Article 12: All the ministers of the Word shall subscribe to the Confession, Catechism, and the Canons of Dort in accordance with the Form adopted for this purpose. (Post Acta Session 164 VI.)

Article 13: At the first General Assembly called for the definite purpose of approving all points pertaining to this union a committee composed of its own members shall be appointed by the Assembly. It shall have authority to investigate and settle any and all differences between the congregations regarding the subject already mentioned (not including, therefore, any article of union) and all parties concerned shall submit themselves to the judgment of this committee.

Approved at Rotterdam on July 25, 1907 by the following delegates appointed for this purpose at Middleburg on July 5, 1907:

Rev. N.H. Beversluis, Chairman A Werner

Rev. L. Boone H. Vander Tholen

Rev. G.H. Kersten, Clerk J. Glas

Rev. A. Janse D. Fiksen

Rev. J.R. Van Oordt J. Vander Velde

Rev. J. Overduin C. Van Dam

Rev. H. Roelofsen J. Corree

H. Kieviet C. Hoogerland

M. Romein A. Baan

This identical message we are called to bring still today. Eighty-five years ago it has pleased the Lord to establish the Netherlands Reformed denomination. And we too stand at a crossroad, at a crucial intersection: Shall we reject the good old paths established by our forefathers, confirmed and preserved by God in our denomination, forsaking them for worldly, unbelieving, and loveless ways, or shall we return and seek true, old-fashioned grace and conversion? Despite its richness, we are in great danger of losing our God-given heritage. The Lord’s ultimatum to us is no different, no less serious or imminent: Barring denominational repentance and restoration, we are destined to slide into the fatal, murky waters of dead orthodoxy at best, or doctrinal liberalness and experiential ignorance at worst. Therefore we wish to stress what we believe, on the basis of God’s Word, to be the major good paths into which the Lord has brought, and we hope, preserved our congregations to greater or lesser degree until this very day and hour — paths, seven in number, which we are called to safeguard and nurse as our divinely entrusted heritage.

1: The Historical Path

The first path we must mention, and that very briefly, is the rich, historical way through which the Lord has been pleased to form our denomination. Our Netherlands Reformed Congregations, as many of you know, presently number approximately 160 congregations in the Netherlands and twenty-five in North America, as well as a few churches in various countries. To date our denomination has grown to total 100,000 professing and baptized members, of which less than 10,000 are North Americans. Though denominationally small in comparison to the majority of Reformed branches, we trust that God has left among us “an afflicted and poor people, who shall trust in the Name of the Lord” (Zeph. 3:12). May the grace of God be multiplied and their number increased!

Our congregations were organized under God’s blessing by the able leadership of the Rev. G.H. Kersten in 1907, when only twenty-five years old. Rev. Kersten labored for several years to bring together various groups of kindred belief into one denomination. When his efforts finally received God’s stamp of favor on July 25, 1907, two significant groups formally merged, pledging unity in the truth for the truth’s sake: the so-called “Churches under the Cross” (established in 1839, after breaking away from the 1834 Secession congregations) and the so-called Ledeboerian churches (established in 1841 under the leadership of Rev. Ledeboer who seceded from the Reformed State Church). Subsequent to Rev. Kersten’s preparation of thirteen articles which he submitted to Rev. Beversluis (chairman) for approval, eighteen delegates from the Churches under the Cross and the Ledeboerian Churches met on July 25, 1907 to give their unanimous approval. Entitled The Articles of Institutional Unity of the Church of Christ, this document was ratified at a larger gathering on October 9 and 10 (see p. 173). We may believe that this historical path was one in which the Lord reigned and ruled, for it was a God-made, not man-forced merger between two denominations. Rev. Kersten later wrote that he only had to follow the ways of God in it. Thus, truth was not sacrificed for merging’s sake, as is common today, but a genuine merger was formed by the Spirit on the foundation of truth. May God grant more historical awareness and appreciation among us.

2: The Biblical Path

The second major mark, representative of our eighty-five-year denominational heritage, is the biblical path. We are grateful that the historic principle and overriding conviction of our denomination has been that: all that we do, say and think as members of the NRC must be based on the infallible Word of God. Historically, our denomination has earnestly sought to prioritize God’s authoritave Word as the Church’s rightful and central foundation. Everything in life — be it reason, emotion, common sense, science — must be adjusted to Scripture and not Scripture to it. Every divine Word from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 we thoroughly believe is God-breathed. Today even self-denominated Reformed Churches are embroiled in turmoil over the historicity and canonicity of the Word of God, especially concerning the first chapters of Genesis. Compassionately we may observe such a warning sign, not despising such churches, for we are no better. God forbid that we ever stray one inch from the grand truth that the Bible is the library of the Holy Spirit! Let us maintain that by this Word the blessed Spirit of God both breeds and feeds grace within His chosen people, for we read in James that God’s people are born by the Word of truth and in Peter that they grow by the sincere milk of the Word. Thus, the divine librarian, the Holy Spirit, uses the sixty-six sacred books of Scripture as a touchstone for all His elect students and His church-at-large.

We must sustain and promote the highest reverence for the Word of God if we are to remain in God’s good old paths, for the Word of God is foundational, central to everything. It is our compass for spiritual life: if we cannot find our spiritual experiences in God’s Word, they are satanically wrought experiences, not Spirit-wrought. It is our guide for marital and family life, for social and practical life. Scripture dictates invaluable principles to lead us in every decision; it is worthy to be the major volume in every area of our lives.

Scripture must become a light for our paths and a lamp for our feet. Sadly, we are in grave danger today of taking for granted our belief in the Word of God, neglecting to put into practice its personal, domestic, and ecclesiastical guidelines. We are in danger of minimizing God’s Word, of not seeking life, hope, and all that we stand in need of within its sacred, inspired pages time and again by the Spirit’s indispensable application. Seldom do we hear in our day that the Word of God read or preached drives a sinner to his knees, which, in turn, drives the soul back to the Word. May God preserve and return us to the good, old path of the Bible. May His Word become our bread when hungry (Is. 55:10), our honey when faint (Ps. 19:10), our milk when babes (1 Cor. 3:2), and our strong meat when men in grace (Heb. 5:12-14). May we be brought by exericised faith to “embrace with meekness the engrafted Word” (James 1:21), to keep this Word (Jn. 1 7:6), to continue in this Word (Jn. 8:31), and to live in this eternal Word (2 Cor. 3:3).

Ask for grace to truly read the Bible, believe the Bible, pray over the Bible, and live by the Bible.

[to be continued]

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