Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 27 October, 2024
My covenant was with him of life and peace” (Mal. 2:5)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM – Rev. W. Bruinsma
Behold Your God (3)
No Likeness Compared To God [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40
Text: Isaiah 40:18-21
I. Judah’s Sin
II. God’s Reminder
III. The Believer’s Response
Psalms: 15:1-5; 145:1-8; 76:1-4, 7-9; 115:1-11
Evening Service – 6:00 PM – Rev. W. Bruinsma
Daniel’s Firm Conviction [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Daniel 1
Text: Daniel 1:8
I. The Antithesis Revealed
II. The Antithesis Lived
III. The Antithesis Rewarded
Psalms: 66:1-5, 18-20; 48:1-2, 11-14; 35:1-5, 26-27; 91:1-2, 14-16
For CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services, contact Stephen Murray
If you desire a pastoral visit, please contact Rev. Stewart or the elders
CPRC Website: www.cprc.co.uk • Live Webcast: www.cprc.co.uk/live-streaming
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quote to Consider
E. J. Young on Isaiah 40:23: “The language is a strong denial of deism. God has created the world but He has not abandoned it. All the created universe is in His hands and under his control. This applies not alone to the inanimate creation but to man as well. Moreover, it applies to the nations, and even to their rulers. With the present verse, therefore, the prophet attains a climax in his description of the power of God … No one can resist the power of God, not even the human authorities who exercise lordship over man. God alone gives prices over to nothingness, so that they, as it were, partake of the nature of nothingness. The same thought is expressed by a writer of the exile (cf. Dan. 2:21). To give princes to nothingness is to remove them from their positions of power so that they have no power whatever” (The Book of Isaiah, vol. 3, pp. 58-59).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Copies of Life in the Covenant: In Family, Church and World by Rev. Bruinsma are available on the back table for £13.
Everyone is welcome to stay for tea after the service this evening as we say farewell to Rev. and Mary Bruinsma who are returning to the US tomorrow.
Monday catechism classes:
5:00 PM: Hannah, Penelope & Xander (Seniors OT)
5:45 PM: Grace, Jonas, Liam & Sammy (Beginners OT – Book 2)
6:30 PM: Eleanora, Felicity, Jorja & Sophie (Juniors OT)
7:15 PM: Jason, Kyan, Maisie & Sebastian (Heidelberg Catechism – Book 1)
8:00 PM: Bradley, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Essentials)
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will look at the doctrines (in seed form) that Christ taught Paul on the Damascus Road.
The Belgic Confession classes will meet this Wednesday at 7:30 PM to continue our consideration of the Antichrist (types, main views, etc.) in connection with Article 37.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Waiting on Jehovah” (Ps. 27:14).
Offerings: £1,341.55. Donations: £400 (New Jersey).
Translation Additions: 2 Hungarian, 4 Polish and 18 Spanish.
PRC News: Rev. Decker accepted the call from Hope PRC (Walker, MI). Rev. Spronk declined the call from Zion PRC. Cornerstone PRC called Rev. De Boer. Hudsonville PRC has formed a new trio of Revs. D. Holstege, Eriks and Brummel. Southwest PRC has a new trio of Revs. De Boer, J. Engelsma and W. Langerak. Rev. Brummel and Rev. Marcus continue their work in Axtla, Mexico. They plan to return home tomorrow evening.
Anabaptism and the Means of Grace (1)
Rev. W. Bruinsma, an excerpt from an article in the Standard Bearer, vol. 68, issue 2
What is to the child of God most precious in his life? To know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord …” (Jer. 9:23-24). This we believe with heart and soul. So did the Anabaptists. But what they meant by the knowledge of God and of Christ is “radically” different from what we mean by it as Reformed believers. Reformed believers, from John Calvin on, have always emphasized that true knowledge of God has both a subjective and an objective aspect to it. We firmly believe and maintain that the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16), and that as a result of this internal testimony of the Spirit we are assured that “not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God …” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. & A. 21). But never do we divorce this subjective testimony of the Spirit in our hearts from His objective testimony to us in His Word (the Spirit of God being the divine Author of Scripture). What we believe in our hearts is exactly and only that which the Spirit has revealed to us in the Bible. There is no other Word apart from that Word. Therefore the true knowledge of God also consists in holding for truth all that God has objectively revealed to us in His Word.
It was and is on this basis that the Reformed churches have always studied diligently the Scriptures in an attempt to know what the Spirit says to the churches. The result of such diligent study has been an objective, systematic development of the great doctrines of Scripture. These are truths of Scripture which generally are not to be found simply in one or two verses of the Bible, but must rather be gleaned from many different passages being pulled together. And since we certainly believe these to be the Word of God we emphasize the need to know these objective truths. They are important for our spiritual welfare, because without a knowledge of them, coupled with the work of the Spirit in our hearts, we would be unable to walk a godly life in this world. Doctrine and life are inseparable. So say the Reformed.
The Anabaptists vehemently opposed such a view of true knowledge. That which constituted true knowledge was to them simply an inner, experiential knowledge of the heart and soul which had nothing to do with an objective, systematic development of the theology of the Scriptures by men. Books on theology were, in the mind of the Anabaptist, not merely useless but actually sinful and to be discarded. This was literally carried out by the extremists of Munster when on March 15, 1534, all books other than the Bible were thrown upon a pile and burned. Bernhard Rothmann, in his “Restitution,” declared that, “since the apostasy first began through human writing and teaching by means of which the divine Scriptures were darkened, the Almighty has among us provided that all writings both new and old which are not biblical should be destroyed, so that we should cling only to the Holy Scriptures.” Perhaps it is true that the more moderate Anabaptists, such as the Swiss Brethren or the Mennonites, did not go so far as to burn books, nevertheless they certainly were sympathetic to Rothmann’s view. This is why there can be found no systematic theology developed among the Anabaptists except perhaps the feeble attempt by Balthasar Hubmaier of the Swiss Brethren. The Anabaptists were of the conviction that inner, experiential knowledge could not be pressed into a theological system. If such knowledge was made “objective” then it could easily become an idol. It was because of this error that the vast majority of the Anabaptist leaders received little formal training, if any at all. They took pride in the common proverb, “the unlearned make no heresies.”
We may be apt to say when reading the Anabaptists in this regard that this whole concept has some appeal. After all, does it really make a difference whether we know systematic theology as long as we have the Bible? It surely does! This does not mean we must all be profound theological thinkers, but it does mean that we must learn and know the wonderful truths or doctrines which the church has gleaned from the Scriptures. This invariably affects the way we handle the Word of God. And this shows itself also in the writings of the Anabaptists.
The Anabaptists claimed to “cling only to the Holy Scriptures.” They would claim too that doctrine and walk are inseparable, as long as by doctrine is meant the simple teachings of the Bible … Because they refused to search the deep things of God their treatment of the Scripture became shallow and lopsided. The Anabaptists placed all the stress on passages which deal with Christian walk and discipleship since they felt this was the sole duty of man. Other Scriptures which dealt with such matters as God’s counsel, predestination, total depravity, providence, and so on received rather cursory treatment with no real attempt to understand them. So much emphasis was placed on those passages which dealt with sanctification and exhortation that as a result the whole counsel of God unto salvation was ignored. Besides this, the lack of training on the part of their leaders in proper exegesis and biblical interpretation often resulted in what was at best an improper interpretation of a passage and at worst an allegorical interpretation of Scripture.
Against this error John Calvin repeatedly warned the Anabaptists. In his commentary on II Corinthians 3:6 Calvin writes, “They have given rise to the most disastrous error that Scripture is not only useless but actually harmful unless it is allegorized. This error has been the source of many evils. Not only did it open the way for corruption of the natural meaning of Scripture but also set up boldness in allegorizing as the chief exegetical virtue.” This misuse of the Scriptures was true of them because of their rejection of an objective, systematic knowledge of the Bible and its truths.
What is more, though the Anabaptists claimed that the Scriptures were their infallible guide, this was not true of them. They placed much more emphasis on subjective knowledge. They called this the inner Word of God or the inner Light. And it was this “Word of God” that truly served as the guide in the life of a child of God. This error is clearly propounded in the writings of Thomas Muntzer and those who followed him (known as the Prophets of Zwickau) in Wittenberg. Ulrich Stadler in his writing, “The Living and Written Word,” unabashedly claims, “whoever wishes to use the Scripture with true reverence and not attribute to it more than it deserves or belongs to it, the same must radically separate the Scriptures and the spoken word from the inner word of the heart … The outer word is that which Christ commanded his apostles to preach … A genuine preacher must receive the true Word of God in the abyss of his soul through much tribulation. This is the Word of God in the abyss of the soul. But the preached word is only the witness or the sign of the true Word. This eternal Word is not written on paper or tablet. Nor is it spoken or preached.”
Now, it is true that Stadler was far from a moderate Anabaptist. The Prophets of Zwickau were radical mystics. However, the same thread of thought weaves itself through the writings even of the moderate Anabaptists. Hans Denck of the Swiss Brethren wrote in “Recantation,” “I value the Holy Scripture above all human treasures but not as high as the Word of God, which is living, powerful, and eternal, and which is free and unencumbered by all of the elements of this world. For insofar as it is God himself it is spirit and not letter, written without pen and paper that it may never be expunged. Therefore also salvation cannot be tied to Scriptures, however important and good they may be with respect to it.” Menno Simons too, when discussing the “seed of the Word of God” in his writing, “Spiritual Resurrection,” makes the same separation between the objective Word of God in the Scriptures and the subjective seed of God’s Word in our hearts which is, in his thinking, the more important of the two.
This view of Scripture is rooted in the existential (that truth is rooted in experience) Christianity of the Anabaptist. As we mentioned, the Anabaptists err in their entire concept of sanctification. Proceeding from the truth of total depravity the Reformed believer knows and confesses according to God’s Word that the work of sanctification is an ongoing process. Though Christ has cleansed us from sin and corruption in His blood and instilled in us a new life, we yet realize that we are sinners. We have only a small beginning of the new life of Christ. And we long for the day when in heavenly perfection there will be no more sin. Unlike the Reformed believer the Anabaptist believed that after “much perseverance in many tribulations in the Lord” (Stadler), one is given the true inner Word, the eternal power of God. At that time one is completely transformed out of the darkness and abyss of sin and given the light of Christ. He now takes on the image of God and is renewed in such a way that from that point on in his life he can serve God with zeal and enthusiasm. In that zeal the Christian is able to reach heights of perfection in life. He may still make mistakes, he may even still sin unwittingly, but as far as his conscious activity is concerned he serves God with almost “angelic purity.” This power of God in one’s heart is the inner Word of God which takes precedence over the written Word. This is the true Word unadulterated by man. This therefore must be one’s infallible guide in life because it alone will spur one on in proper Christian conduct. And only as the Scriptures can incite this inner Word of God are they of any importance in the life of a child of God.
This is the error of subjectivism, that is, reliance on one’s feelings and emotions to be the guide in life. Truth is relegated to the sphere of subjective opinion rather than to that objective, written standard to which everyone must conform, namely, the written Word of God! Perhaps this is the reason thee is so much diversity of thought among the Anabaptists. It is this error that had deadly results on the Anabaptists’ teaching concerning the means of grace.
