Godliness and Knowledge

Rev. A. Moerkerken, Capelle a/d Ijssel, the Netherlands

(The following was an address given by Rev. Moerkerken at the conclusion of a course in doctrinal instruction given by our churches in the Netherlands.)

As I was thinking about the message with which I must IV leave you, the address which Gijsbertus Voetius gave in 1634 when he assumed his professorship at the Illustere School of Utrecht came to my mind. This school was a sort of intermediate between a high school and a university. Two years later the Illustere School became an academy, which it remains until the present time.

Voetius was the pastor in Heusden and was, at that time, about forty years old. He filled this position with brilliance until his eighty-seventh year. When he assumed this post, he gave an address on the theme, “Godliness must be joined to knowledge.” We see that two words formed the basis of his address—godliness and knowledge.

Permit me to begin with the latter, that is, with knowledge. Our forefathers placed a great value on knowledge. Take Calvin, for example; what concern he had to establish his academy in Geneva in 1559. He wrote to the congregations spread throughout Europe, “Just send me wood and I hope, with God’s help, to make arrows from it.” What arrows have come from Geneva, from Calvin’s academy. Think only of Guido de Bres. What men of learning graduated from this academy, men who formed the backbone of the young churches of the Reformation.

If you would read the speech by Voetius, you would be deeply impressed by the outstanding intelligence of this man. He was educated in Leiden by Franciscus Gomarus, the great opponent of the Arminians, and this lecture is a witness of his development. Our forefathers also attached great value to it.

Today you often meet people who make a contradistinction between godliness and knowledge. It must not be in the head but rather in the heart. Voetius, however, placed emphasis on the fact that it must be in the head and the heart. The fear of God must pervade our entire existence. There can indeed be a conflict between godliness and knowledge. I, too, was once afraid that the people who would graduate from this course would be wise in their own eyes. The greatest danger is, I think, that a spirit would arise in our churches of learning without piety. Then we would alienate ourselves from the humble people of God. That is the greatest danger which threatens us—knowledge without godliness.

On the other hand, it may not be a contradiction. Godliness must be joined to knowledge. This is what Voetius titled his address. It would be profitable if we were given such people in our congregations, people enabled to combine godliness with knowledge, wisdom with an everlasting inheritance.

What is godliness? Voetius did not title his address “Faith and Knowledge,” but rather, “Godliness and Knowledge.”

Godliness was the heart of the Later Reformation (or, as it is sometimes called, the Second Reformation).

I believe that William Teelinck was one of the men who gave the word godliness its great power. In his youth, Teelinck studied law in England. There he came into contact with the English Puritans, and the piety of these Puritans made a deep permanent impression on his young heart. The manner in which they kept the Sabbath was not legalistic but rather a genuine evangelical sanctification which impressed him as did the manner in which the fear of God permeated the lives of the Puritans in all of their relationships. The family life and the family worship which he encountered there also impressed him. The English Puritans used the word godliness to describe this life with the Lord, this pious life. It is also a word which the Apostle Paul used frequently in his pastoral Epistles.

When Teelinck returned to the Netherlands, he tried to bring the spirit of the Puritans into the Dutch churches. The movement known as the Later (Second) Reformation arose from these efforts. This Later Reformation did not have as its vision a reformation of doctrine but rather had as its aim that the teachings of the Reformation would permeate the lives of the authorities and of the citizens, of young and old, of nobility and servants, and that the entire life of the people would be brought under the discipline and rule of God’s Word. This was the aim of the Later Reformation.

We must never forget that the strength of the Later Reformation lay in the fact that it called the entire nation back to the observance of God’s commandments and also pointed out that a reformation of the understanding and doctrine is not sufficient but that the teachings of the Reformation must be experienced practically in the heart; it must be known experimentally and practically. This is what godliness is, and this is what Voetius meant by godliness—an inward experiential knowledge of the doctrines of the Reformation. My friends, hasn’t this been the strength of our churches? It is for this reason that I so genuinely love the Netherlands Reformed Congregations because they have followed in the path of the Later Reformation and certainly also in the footsteps of Reformation.

Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is a work which we must still value highly among us. I am sometimes afraid that Calvin is somewhat suspect among us because those who oppose us and who are critical of our preaching so often appeal to Calvin to support their viewpoints. If you truly understand and know Calvin, however, then I believe that you will find that he stands very close to what we believe. It is for this reason that God’s humble people love Calvin so. He should not be suspect among us. I have known humble farm people who have read through Calvin’s Institutes five times. Can you say that, too? I can’t. These people were rooted in Calvin’s Institutes and, therefore, both in the Reformation and Later Reformation.

This is the life of the Netherlands Reformed Congregations. That was also the preaching of Rev. Kersten. He said one time, “I have thoroughly studied Comrie and immersed myself in his works.” He was grounded in the preaching of the Later Reformation. Godliness has been the essence of our churches. If we lose this, we will be left with nothing but a dead form of religion.

What about knowledge? In his writings, Rev. Kersten encourages our young people to pursue a career in education. From week to week he would report in the De Saambinder that this one or that one had received his or her diploma. Young people, study, study, study. Rev. Kersten was not a man who said if it is in your head it need not be in your heart. He followed in the footsteps of Voetius. Godliness and knowledge must be joined together for the welfare of our congregations. When I read the address of Voetius this week, I thought how far we have strayed, how far we have departed from these people. Not only have we gone away from their godliness and their practical fear of God, but also we are so far behind their knowledge. How very necessary it is to study. May you also be enabled to join godliness and knowledge in your personal lives.

I have some catechism students who can read Hebrew better than I can. This is a sign of the times. Our young people are advancing in knowledge, and we who are of another generation must take care that we can continue to provide them with the proper guidance. May these two subjects, godliness joined to knowledge, be indispensable to you, and may they continue to form the backbone of our congregations.

We must fear knowledge without piety, for this destroys the church. You can see in other denominations who formerly lived closer to us what knowledge without piety leads to. They are misled and destroyed by the theologians. On the other hand, the fear of God without knowledge can not give an answer to the many questions which our children have and with which they turn to us for instruction. Therefore, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

It may be a critical time, but at such a time we may then think of the fifth vision of Zechariah. Zechariah was sitting in sackcloth and ashes, for the future of the church looked dark. The temple had to be rebuilt, and the foundation had already been laid, but because of the agitation of the Samaritans, the work had stood still for sixteen years. Deep despondency had the upper hand among the people. How must they continue? Then the Lord instructed the prophet by means of a dream. As he sat down in despair, not knowing how the church must go forward, he saw two olive branches. These branches bent toward the earth, and from them ran golden olive oil which ran into a bowl. The bowl had forty-nine pipes which ran down and emptied into a candlestick, made of all gold and having seven lamps. This candlestick was burning.

Of what is the oil a figure? The oil is the work of the Holy Spirit. Of what is the candlestick a figure? It is a figure of the church of God. Then the Lord allowed His servant to see that the oil ran into the bowl and from the bowl into the forty-nine pipes and from there into the candlestick. No man is able to do this. God preserves His church. Then the Lord asked,” Knowest thou not what these be?” Zechariah had to answer, “No, my Lord” (Zechariah 4:5). Then the Lord said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).

That, my friends, is the word of comfort which we may have from God’s Word—He cares for His Church. It is necessary for you and me that the golden oil of God’s dear Spirit runs into our candlestick and flows into our lamps, for this is godliness. A candlestick without oil is knowledge without godliness. The wise virgins had this oil in their lamps, “godliness joined to knowledge.”.

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