The Movie Son of God

At the time of year called Lent, Reformed believers remember the death of Jesus Christ for their salvation. They do not remember His death legalistically by putting ash on their foreheads or by giving up some favorite pleasure, but by listening to a series of sober sermons that expound the biblical doctrine of the death of Jesus Christ. Nor are the few Sundays before resurrection Sunday and on Good Friday the only times they remember His death, but they remember it whenever the gospel is preached by believing it. Especially they remember the Lord and show His death till He comes by their obedient partaking of the Lord's Supper after carefully examining themselves. "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He come" (1 Cor. 11:26).

Remembering Jesus' death in these ways is very different from the ways in which the false church, in concert with the world, remembers the death of Jesus. 

Ten years ago the world released The Passion of the Christ, a movie purporting to portray the suffering of Jesus. The film was wildly successful: "with conservative Christian leaders across the nation urging their flocks to turn out, The Passion of the Christ brought in $83 million in its first weekend... The film went on to take more than $611 million worldwide" (Todd Cunningham, "Jewish Leader Hopes Son of God Will be Antidote to the Passion of Christ," Feb. 25,2014, http//www.thewrap.com/). Conservative Christian leaders and their followers, who turned out in droves, drove the economic success of that movie.

These Christian leaders are at it again with Son of God, a new movie that claims to show the life of Christ. Among those who are promoting the movie is Jim Daley of Focus on the Family, and well-known author and minister of Saddleback Church in California, Rick Warren, who hosted a private premier at his church.


According to Forbes the movie took in $26.4 its first weekend. As of this writing Son of God has earned nearly $58 million, as many flocked to what the producers called a "church-like" experience in the theaters. Many moviegoers have reviewed Son of God for the benefit of their fellow Christians. Many people will be swayed by the hype and by the promotion of this movie as being good for evangelism, such as Jim Daley's promotion:

Some Christian leaders, including Pastor Rick Warren, are using "theater buyouts" to help draw people to see the film in an attempt to evangelize. Many churches are actively promoting the film, hoping that, like The Bible miniseries that preceded it, people will once again be prompted to talk about faith, Jesus Christ and salvation.

This article is not a review of Son of God. A review would mean that I watched the movie, which I have not done and will not do because it is sinful. I am analyzing the phenomenon of biblically-based movies and the promotion of them by those who call themselves Christians. Son of God is the most prominent recent example. There are others. Noah, released on March 28, took in an estimated $44 million. Those who protested that movie were not flocks of evangelical Christians, but the Muslims. Heaven is For Real was released in April. These movies follow in the footsteps of The Passion of the Christ and other earlier biblically-based movies.

These are the most recent examples of what one movie industry expert calls a lesson for Hollywood that "there is real money to be made target[ing] audiences who aren't used to being targeted." It comes down to the dollar! Apostasizing Christianity has lots of them and will spend them on anything, from mugs to movies, that has a tinsel of Christianity attached. Getting dollars from apostatizing Christians has been an ongoing effort of Hollywood and one that another industry reporter feels "they have gotten right" with Son of God. To Hollywood, getting it right means that Hollywood has taken the Bible's message "mainstream."

It is no easy task to mainstream the Bible's message, especially not the message of the cross. The apostle Paul says the cross is foolishness to the Greeks, a scandal to the Jews. The Bible teaches that the cross is the condemnation of the world and teaches a God who loves His elect and hates the reprobate. Mainstreaming the message of the cross means removing the cross' offense, either its folly as the only ground of salvation and thus its exclusiveness, or its condemnation of all the works of man as the basis for salvation.

The producers of Son of God, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who were both born of Roman Catholic parents (Roma Downey in particular insists that she is a Roman Catholic), made considerable efforts to pull off this mainstreaming of the Bible and were helped by many religious scholars and consultants.

From start to finish, theirs is a much more sensitive effort. Burnett and Downey have done everything Gibson [the producer of the Passion of the Christ] failed to do. They consulted with religious scholars. They sought guidance from Catholic, evangelical and Protestant leaders. They reached out to me and others in the Jewish community before production commenced. We engaged in healthy dialogue and conversation and offered some recommendations on their original script. We asked them to incorporate those recommendations, and they have.
In the end, Burnett and Downey did a great deal to show historical perspective and sensitivity. Their film makes it very clear that Jews were occupied by the Romans in biblical times, that the Romans engaged in crucifixions every single day, and that Jesus was Jewish and loved by Jews. (Abraham H. Foxman, "Son of God Is the Anti Gibson, http//www.huffingtonpost.com)


This quote is from Abraham Foxman, nationa director of the Jewish Anti-defamation League, who was pleased with the "sensitive" way in which the producers told the story.
In the producer's own words:

We worked across denominations and reached out to the Jewish community through national director Abe Foxman at the ADL to make sure that we told this movie sensitively, setting up political and historic context, presenting the story in a way that really just emhasized the love of Jesus, and Mr. Foxman gave us a great endorsement from the ADL.

This mainstreaming, according to the producers, would enable the movie to reach members from many denominations, to introduce the story to legions of kids, and to entertain unbelievers by the "greatest story ever told."

I suppose not too different from the Roman soldiers who sat down to watch or the crowds that passed by to gawk and to toss a blasphemous jibe on Jesus' teeth, the world and the false church still make the cross into a spectacle. Legions of so-called Christian leaders and their followers enthusiastically approve of, promote, and attend the spectacle.

When Pilate was producing his spectacle, Jesus and the cross brought unity between those were enemies in the world as they gathered against the Lord and His Christ so that Pontius Pilate and Herod became friends. The world always unites against Christ. Unity was also a big part of the directors' purpose with this film.

It [Son of God] feels like a movement, and we're also deeply encouraged by what is also happening across denominations; they're coming together. We've had endorsements from all the major faith leaders, from all the major churches, and from the Jewish community as well... The intention of the movie always was about drawing people together... It's a message of inclusion. (www.aintitcool.com/node/66327)

Being Roman Catholics, the directors are one with Rome's dream of one-world religion with herself at the head.

The above are some reasons Reformed Christians may not watch Son of God; there are others. The movie is a violation of the second commandment of God's law that forbids both making an image of God and attempting to worship Him by it. Jesus is God, and to portray Him by means of an actor is to make an image of Jesus. That Son of God was produced by two Roman Catholics is perfectly natural. Rome has been and still is an enthusiastic promoter of images as "books to the laity" (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 35).

Furthermore, promoting images was part of Rome's rejection of and assault upon the Word. Being an image made after the imaginations of men, Son of God is a deliberate rejection of the Word of God as the revelation of God by which God will have His people taught. The producers promote and their supporters parrot assurances about the fidelity of the movie's details to the Bible, but the exact opposite is true. In making an image they deliberately reject the Word.

Being an image and designed and designed to bring the gospel, Son of God is also a very calculated assault on the Word of the Bible as God intended it to be preached to all nations as the means whereby God Himself brings the Word of the cross to His elect people to save them effectually by it. How shall they hear the saving voice of Jesus Christ "without a preacher"? (Rom. 10:14) The preaching of the truth of the cross of Jesus Christ is evidently, that is vividly, portrayed for the believer that he may believe on Him unto salvation. The apostle says, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Gal. 3:1). The apostle did that by preaching the truth of Christ, not by showing movies.

Being an image, the movie also teaches lies. Images always teach lies. That was God's condemnation of images in the Old Testament: 

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?" (Hab. 2:18)

The dumb images taught lies. So does the dumb image of the Son of God. It teaches the lie that the Son of God may be without consequences the object of entertainment- a spectacle. It teaches the lie that a person may entertain himself with this spectacle. It teaches the lie that the Son of God may be worshiped in that spectacle and by means of it. It teaches the lie that this spectacle may replace the preaching as the means to teach Jesus Christ. 

It also teaches the lie of Roman Catholic theology. The producer Downey says about her movie, "You can get an opportunity to fall in love with him," which is a popular way to express the classic Roman Catholic doctrine of the natural man by free will choosing Christ. It teaches the false doctrine that Christ, in the words of the producers, "suffered for all of us," Rome's universal atonement. It teaches Rome's lie that the cross can be reproduced by men as Rome does blasphemously in every mass. It teaches that the suffering of the Son of Man can be portrayed as well. Son of God, like Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, wickedly attempts to portray on a screen for the entertainment of millions the suffering of the Son of Man, which was not exclusively physical, or even mainly physical, but was the suffering of all the eternities of wrath that the elect deserved so that Jesus took away wrath for His elect and them only by making satisfaction for sin. That cannot be portrayed. That is to be preached by means of sound doctrine and believed unto salvation.

The Christian leader who promotes it to his flock promotes a lie.

The confessing Christian who watches Son of God joins himself with the world in making the cross a spectacle, supports those lies, and is corrupted by them.

Likewise, that movie will convert no one, but it will be responsible for the perishing of many. Analyzing this phenomenon of Satan's den of iniquity on the West coast, producing movies from the Bible that it hates, about the Christ that it loathes, movies that are promoted as spiritual and evangelical and that are greedily taken in by millions who call themselves Christians, many of whom will never repent of that sin-- what explains that? They reject the preaching of the Word, are bored with sound doctrine, flock to be entertained by a blasphemous movie, take in and believe lies, and suppose in the course of it that they are being worshipful and spiritual? How is that to be accounted for?

The Bible has an answer. As part of the end of all things and the revelation of that Wicked, the Antichrist, there must come a falling away first so that millions go after him and worship him whose "coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (II Thess. 2:9-10). "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (vv. 11, 12). This is the offensive gospel that this movie denies, a gospel of God's sovereignty in salvation.The lack of love for that gospel explains that millions will watch this gospel-denying movie. Furthermore, these deceptive and lying movies are part of the mystery of iniquity working in the world by the power of Satan himself and under the sovereign control of God for the falling away of many. The gullible acceptance of them is the strong delusion that God sends that they should believe those lies in preparation for believing the greatest, which is Antichrist and his kingdom.

Reformed believers, if they were swayed by the hype, must repent. Reformed believers with their eyes wide open to what these movies, including Son of God, represent and how they function in the world must "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:11).

They will also remember the Lord and believe on Him unto salvation through the hearing and believing the preaching of the sound doctrine of the cross of Jesus Christ because they received, graciously and sovereignly, "the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (II Thess. 2:10).


Rev. Nathan Langerak 
Pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Crete, Illinois
The Standard Bearer (A Reformed Semi-Monthly Magazine*August 2014), Vol. 90, No. 19, pp. 448-451         
http://rfpa.org/pages/the-standard-bearer
 

  

Meditation Must Be a Searching and Scanning

THIS meditation, besides application of the mind to the object, and intention or seriousness on it, includes a searching and scanning, or diving deep, an extension of thoughts, a looking about or endeavor of comprehensiveness in respect of the object, so far as we can. To make as perfect and full a view of it, and to see into the dimensions and extents of that we think on. Thus when a man studies a thing, he endeavors an extensive and a comprehensive seeing and having the fullest view. He sets it not before him to see a little, but the most he can.

In pondering, there is both first the mind's applying itself to a thing, and the intending its acting, and then this third, of an acting, of searching and diving into it, or knowing what we can of it.

"Pondering" is an expression taken from goldsmiths and tradesmen, that desire to know the full weight of a thing and thereby the value or worth for their profit and use. Thus the merchant weighs his merchandise, the goldsmith weighs his silver and gold, the jeweler weighs his rich pearls, rubies, and diamonds, to know them more exactly. There is exceeding great weight and worth in heavenly and spiritual things. Meditation must hold the scales to weigh, so well as we can, these so rich and precious things, these diamonds, and pearls of heavenly treasure- yea, weigh them as things that unspeakably surmount all other things. As Proverbs 2:4, Wisdom must have a searching for as for hid treasures: as the searching for and searching in the gold and silver mines, in which there is not only great earnestness of search, till the rich vein is discovered, but being once found, there is a following it with exactest industry, and utmost curiosity, to find not a part or quantity of the treasure, but all the riches scattered over the whole mine, part after part. A Christian in his exercise of meditation must act the part of the exquisite miner, to dig deep, dig over all the mine, and gather up the riches of it, the lesser and greater quantities, as they come to view, in the mines of spiritual treasure. Travelers tell us that in the Persian, at a certain season of the year, great store of a kind of shell-fish is to be found near the shore, in which shell-fish they find the precious pearls bred in their shells. But the way of finding them is by diving: there are men that have an art of diving down to the bottom of the sea and bringing up their baskets filled with these shell-fish; the shells being opened, they find and take out the orient and rich pearls, of several proportions, some of them very great and rich; whereby they greatly enrich themselves and those that deal in them. Meditation is the spiritual merchant's art of trading for heavenly riches, pearls of great price; but there must be a diving deep. If we have not this art of diving, we shall lose the rich pearls: the deepest diving down in the practice of meditation comes up with the greatest returns of soul enrichments.

Solomon,  in Ecclesiastes 7:25, has a very emphatical expression to hold forth this we are upon: our translation has it, "I applied my heart," but the Hebrew has it, "I compassed," and "My heart that is compassed" to search and seek out wisdom-- or, "I and my heart compassed," so in the margin we have it There is coming upon a thing, and a compassing a thing; the heart in meditating is to compass in a thing as well as it can. They say in philosophy that wisdom lies in perspection, introspection, and prospection-- that is, in viewing thoroughly all over, viewing inwardly, and viewing what may be eventually, what may be the issues of things: it pries into a thing, and looks round about a thing; makes the mind endeavor an extensive and comprehensive knowing, as was said. Meditation in spiritual things should be like Nehemiah when he came to Jerusalem, and would go view it; he went and viewed first one part, and then another, till he had gone round. So meditation looks largely-- views what it can take in and consider.

As God took Moses to the top of Mount Nebo, showed him all the land of promise, part after part round, Deuteronomy 34:1, thus when we go up this mount of meditation, we must search, view, look round, take in as large a prospect as we can.


Nathanael Ranew
Solitude Improved By Divine Meditation, pp. 26-28

Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen

The Bible makes the preaching of the gospel dependent upon predestination, distinguishes between the call of the elect and the call of the others, and describes the preaching of the gospel as the effectual means of grace to the elect alone. This is the doctrine of the Chief Prophet and Great Evangelist Himself in Matthew 22:1-14, which concludes with the words, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” There is a difference between the call of the many and the call of the few, a difference that explains why the many do not come to Christ, whereas the few do come. This difference is due to God’s election of the few, in distinction from the many who do not come.

God indeed calls the many. By His preachers He says, “All of My salvation is prepared now in the death and resurrection of My Son Jesus: come, by believing on Him.” But He does not call them according to election. Therefore, He does not call them out of grace. He does not call them with the will to save them. He does not call them in such a way that He draws them by the Holy Spirit.

The few, on the other hand, He does call out of love, with the will that they be saved, and by teaching them in their hearts concerning their own need and concerning the riches of the marriage-banquet. The reason for this effectual, saving call is election: the few were eternally chosen.

Denial of the well-meant offer is doctrinally sound.
It is an aspect of our defense of the denial of the well-meant offer that we take the offensive: we charge, in dead earnest, that the offer is the Arminian view of gospel-preaching…

Indeed, we ask the defender of the offer, “On this view why are some saved by the gospel, and others not?” The answer cannot be God’s grace and God’s will, for His grace and His will to save are the same both to those who are saved and to those who perish. The answer must be the will of the sinner, freewill. The well-meant offer is forced to rewrite Matthew 22:14: “For many are called, but few choose.”…

We appeal to the teaching of our Savior in Matthew 22:1-14. Although only few are chosen, many must be called. This condemns all hyper-Calvinistic restriction of preaching to the elect or to the regenerated or to the “sensible sinner.” Election in no wise hampers the promiscuous preaching or the serious call to all. But neither may the call of the many ignore or conflict with or destroy the election of the few. The sole saving purpose of God with the call of the many is the salvation of the few. The preaching of the gospel has its source, basis, and reason in the election of the church.

David J. Engelsma
Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of the Gospel, pp. 110-111, 113,122

Call, Not Offer

The term “offer” according to its original Latin meaning, refers to “setting forth” or “putting before.” Originally, in connection with the Gospel, it simply meant the declaration of the Gospel promise and command to repent and believe through the preaching before whomever God sends the Gospel. The use of “offer” in the Canons of Dordt and the Westminster confessions is not what is meant today in the church world. Now, it means that God intends to save those to whom God presents the promise of the Gospel and the call to repent and believe. Instead of a declaration, now the offer is a “well-meaning, well-intended desire of God to invite people to salvation, if they fulfill the condition to believe.” As a result, in today’s church history, the term “offer” is synonymous with the Arminian “well-meant offer of the Gospel.”

Ronald Hanko writes:

There are many who prefer to speak of the gospel as an "offer" rather than a call. It is interesting, to say the least, that Scripture never uses the word offer to describe the gospel. We have no objection to the word offer as such. In its older sense it means only that in the gospel there is a "showing forth" of Christ. The Westminster Larger Catechism, for example, defines an offer of Christ as a "testifying that whosoever believes in Him shall be saved" (WCF, Q&A 65).
In its modern sense, however, the word offer suggests and is used to teach that God loves all men and wants to save every one of them, that He makes an effort to save all of them in the gospel, and that whether or not a sinner will be saved is dependent on the will of that sinner. These teachings are all contrary to Scripture.
Scripture does not teach that God loves all men (Ps. 11:5; John 13:1; Rom. 9:13), nor does it teach that God is trying to save all of them (Isa. 6:9-11; Rom. 9:18; 2 Cor. 2:14-16). Certainly it does not teach that in saving sinners God can be frustrated by their unwillingness, or that He waits, cap in hand as it were, for them to accept His salvation (Ps. 115:3; John 6:44; Rom. 9:16; Eph. 2:8-9). For these reasons we prefer not to speak of the gospel as an "offer."
A call is different from an offer. It reminds us of the sovereignty of God. He, as King, summons sinners to believe and obey the gospel. It even intimates that He actually does bring salvation by His sovereign call. When we remember that it is God who calls, it is not difficult to understand this. He is the one who "calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17).
That call is heard in the preaching of the gospel. It is made effectual to salvation by the inward work of the Holy Spirit, so that some not only hear, but also obey that call. By the Spirit's work it is God in Christ who calls, not the preacher. The preacher is only an instrument.
That is the reason the ungodly are condemned for disobedience when they refuse to heed the call. By their unbelief they do not refuse a mere man, but the living God Himself as He speaks through His only begotten Son. That is serious.
It is also the reason the preacher must bring nothing but Scripture. Those who hear must hear God's Word, not the preacher's notions, philosophies, political commentaries, etc. The preacher must even be careful that He does not obscure the sovereign call of God by adding all sorts of unnecessary begging or "hard sell" tactics, leaving the impression that God waits upon the will of sinners.
It must be clear in the preaching of the gospel that God sovereignly demands faith and repentance of sinners- that He, the Almighty, the Judge of heaven and earth, requires obedience and will punish disobedience. By such preaching sinners are saved, and God is glorified. (Doctrine According to Godliness, pp. 191-192)

God's Sovereignty and Prayer

To pray is to enter into the holy of holies, to ascend Mount Horeb and stand there in the full force of the storm and yet hear the still small voice of calm.
                                                 -Oliphant Olds-

The truth of God's sovereignty is such an important part of prayer that it needs to be mentioned and defined at the very outset. I do not believe it is possible to pray properly without believing the truth that God is sovereign.

This is a truth that is almost universally denied. One writer, for example, commented on a prayer made at the funeral of the boys of Susan Smith, who had drowned her sons in John D. Long Lake. The prayer quoted was, "We'll never know why you took them from us, O Lord." The writer commented on this prayer in a blasphemous way:

Huh? It wasn't God who sent the car into John D. Long Lake: it was Susan Smith. God doesn't go around drowning little boys. The week after his twenty-four-year-old son died in a car wreck, William Sloan Coffin stood tall in the Riverside pulpit and proclaimed: "Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn't go around this world with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels."

It is true, of course, that taken as it stands, this tirade against God has in it an element of truth. The sinner is always responsible for his own sins and cannot blame God's sovereignty for his evil deeds. It is true that God did not put His hands on the steering wheel of that car as if He were the driver. But in another, more profound sense God does indeed go around with His hands on steering wheels, for He created the hands on the steering wheels and He gives life and movement to the hands that turn the wheels so that the wheels are turned where the Lord has determined. All such language as that of Coffin denies the sovereignty of God over evil.Even among today's evangelicals, not only is the truth of God's sovereignty never mentioned, but it is openly and freely repudiated. To cite another example, from a transcript of a "Larry King Live" program, not one of the clergy present would come to the defense of this truth. All specifically repudiated it. It was to be expected from a Jewish rabbi; perhaps it was not surprising that a Roman Catholic priest should oppose this doctrine, either; but when an outstanding and well-known evangelical expressed his disagreement with the truth of God's sovereignty, we raise our eyebrows. The discussion was the terrible attack of terrorists against the United States on September 11, 2001. All the panel speakers on Larry King program specifically repudiated the notion that God had had anything to do with this tragedy, except perhaps to assist in saving as many of New York City's firemen and policemen as he could.

The Scriptures are absolutely clear on the truth that God is sovereign in all His creation. It is not my purpose to argue the point here. We shall assume it, for Scripture is clear. We are interested in how this truth touches upon prayer.

The Relation Between Sovereignty and Prayer 

I cannot understand how anyone can make a single petition in prayer to God without confessing God's sovereignty. We are commanded by the Lord to pray for our daily bread. Why ought we to pray for our daily bread unless we believe that God sovereignly gives us our bread or sovereignly withholds it? Why should I ask a man for fifty dollars if it is not in his power to give it? Why should I seek the things I need from a God who may or may not be able to give me what I ask? Yet such is the position of so many who piously speak of prayer. 

These might answer my questions by saying, as some do, that good things come from God but bad things do not. They would say that God gives food ad drink, health and life, but God does not send starvation and thirst, cancer and death. But how can that be? If God gives health, God withholds health. And if God withholds health, God gives sickness, for it is impossible to withhold health without sending sickness.

In any case, why pray? Does sickness come from somewhere else- perhaps the devil? Does health come from heaven? Are we caught in a life and death struggle between God and Satan, the outcome of which is always uncertain? Are we the helpless inhabitants of a battlefield where the forces beyond our control fight to the death over our lives and souls? What kind of a world is that?

Yet, as Larry King himself, in the interview mentioned above, readily detected, the main question is, "Who is your God?" He saw, even if his panel did not, that if these men believed in God, it was difficult, if not impossible, to speak of God in any real sense of the word without maintaining that He is in control even of the events that took place in New York City. Yet not one of these clergy dared to raise his voice in defense of God. Whimpers and mindless statements were all we heard.

Prayer presupposes the truth of God's complete and absolute sovereignty, but it also determines the character of our prayer. God is God alone; He does all His good pleasure. He holds the hearts of kings in His hands and turns them whithersoever He will (Prov. 21:1). If even the hearts of kings are in is hand, everything else is as well. We pray because God is sovereign. If He were not, there would be no point in praying.

God is sovereign in the work of salvation of His people through the perfect work of Christ. If all salvation is the sovereign and irresistible work of God, then it follows that God also works our prayers in our hearts.

The blessing of prayer which God gives includes the privilege of prayer, the right to pray, the knowledge of how to pray, and the ability and power to pray. It is all of God. God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). He, as it were, carries us into the throne room of prayer and puts our prayers in our hearts by His Holy Spirit. Our prayers are earned for us on the cross and worked in us by the Spirit.

God's sovereignty in prayer means even more. It also means that God has determined all our prayers from eternity, that God has determined all the answers to these prayers, and that God has so determined all the pathway of our life that not one thing happens to us but what He has decreed. Your heavenly Father, Jesus tells His disciples, knows what you have need of before you ask (Matt. 6:8). He knows not merely because He can anticipate our needs, but because He so rules in our lives that He creates all our needs by His own sovereign and providential control of the whole of our pathway.

The Responsibility to Pray

We are commanded in Scripture to pray. We are even told to pray without stopping (1 Thess. 5:17). The Heidelberg Catechism insists that God will give His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who ask for them (Lord's Day 45, Q&A 116).

The question arises, Why are we under solemn obligation to pray when everything else has been determined already? We ought to say a word or two about this. 

Various solutions have been proposed to this problem. W. Bingham Hunter comes very close to the truth of the matter. He mentions the very common view which teaches that God has determined all things in His counsel, yet the execution of His counsel awaits our prayers. He rejects this view as one that "makes the sovereign, omnipotent Creator dependent on the consent and willingness of his sinful, fallible creatures."

Hunter goes on to insist that "It seems better to think that prayer has been ordained by God as a means to accomplish aspects of His will." But then he adds, "Nevertheless, apparently there are some activities which God has chosen to accomplish in a way which allows men and women to cooperate through prayer in bringing His will to fruition."

He himself, however, senses the incongruity of this position. To his credit, he wants a God who is absolutely sovereign. "A major rub in the 'cooperation' approach is the priority of God's will. If God gives us the ability and impulse to pray for what He wants to accomplish, then our prayers are not the free expressions of responsible creatures. They are like the 'words' spoken by puppets whose strings are pulled by someone else."

The solution, Hunter thinks, can be found in a figure. Our relation to God in our prayers is not like a mother cat that carries her kittens by the nape of the neck, but is more like a mother monkey who carries her young on her back. The little monkey must hold on!

When God accomplishes His purpose in the hearts of His people, the work is so glorious and powerful that it is also mysterious and beyond our understanding. 

In pondering the whole matter one soon realizes that the age-old question of the relation between God's sovereignty and the accountability of man is at the root of the problem. I do not want to go into that question as such, for it is hardly appropriate in this book. But it must be stated with all possible emphasis that God is completely sovereign and man is completely accountable before God for his sin. Whether one understands how both are possible, or whether he fails to understand, makes no difference at all. The potter has power over the clay (Rom. 9:21), and we perish for our sins (Matt. 11:20-24).

We will also understand the relation between God's sovereignty and our responsibility to pray if we remember that God is pleased to save His people in such a way that they experience their salvation. If I may put it into concrete terms, God wants us to know our salvation consciously because He saves us so that we may give glory to Him. "This people have I formed for Myself; they shall shew forth my praise" (Isa. 43:21).

In the work of saving His people so that they are conscious of their salvation, God works in them in such a way that they work. It is something like the grafting of a branch to another tree. The grafted apple branch lives out of the peach tree, draws its life from the roots of the peach tree, becomes a part of the peach tree, and brings forth its fruit in living connection with the peach tree. But its fruit remains apples. So all the power to do our work, a part of which prayer, comes from God and is ours only because we are grafted into Christ our life. The prayers we raise on high, though completely worked in us, are our prayers. we are profoundly conscious of them and of our work in making these prayers. So we become conscious of God's great grace in us.

Prayer is indeed an obligation and calling. The commands of Scripture that exhort us to pray come to us as commands, because God has determined to save us so that we become conscious of His blessings and learn to appreciate them for that they are. 

God does not save us as stocks and blocks. He does not take us to heaven, as the pastor of my youth often said, in the upper berth of a Pullman sleeper. He does not tow us through this life to heaven as a child pulls a mechanical, quacking duck across the floor. He saves us as rational and moral creatures. And so He comes to us with commands, prohibitions, admonitions, threats, chastisements, and incentives, so that as He works our prayers within us, bringing us blessings, we may, through the great struggle with our sins, see the greatness of all God gives. He works in such a way that our prayers are inspired and wrought in us by the commands and injunctions of His word. He uses all the means of Scripture's pleadings and warnings, promises and threats, to work prayer in us. And the prayers He works in us become themselves a part of the blessings we receive through prayer. Never is the Christian so blessed as during those times when He is with his God in the secret places of the Most High. The prayer itself becomes the greatest blessing of all. 

We may profitably learn to pray Augustine's well-known prayer: "Give what Thou dost ask, and ask what Thou wilt."  

From this it follows that we strive earnestly to pray as much as possible. The very idea of striving means that we are very sinful and struggle to live a life of prayer. In this way, too, God demonstrates to us that He gives us the great blessing and high privilege of coming into His courts in heaven on the wings of our prayers even though we are not deserving of doing this, incapable of praying it in our own power, and devoid of His grace without it. IT is when we recognize what a great wonder God works in us that we may and can pray and that we persevere more faithfully in our calling to pray. God's sovereignty enhances and even works our responsibility.

With these truths before our minds, we are able to turn to prayer itself.


Herman Hanko
When You Pray, pp. 15-20

Are Riches A Blessing and Sickness a Curse?

Those who hold to common grace teach that the favor and grace of God towards a person can be seen in the possession of material and physical gifts. Wealth is equated with God’s favor and health is equated with God’s love. God shows His favor towards all and His enduring love to all men by giving them material and physical abundance. This view is very commonly held throughout the church world, by cleric and layman alike.

It ought to be obvious, however, that earthly good things, though given by a good God, cannot, in themselves, be indications of God’s favor, for God also sends poverty, starvation, cancer and death. On what grounds ought we to say, therefore, that earthly well-being is to be explained as evidences of favor, and yet deny that poverty and suffering are evidences of anger, hostility and hatred? To tie God’s favor to the possession of an abundance of material things and to interpret health as an indication of God’s love gets one into all sorts of difficulties and ultimately ties God’s favor to our own personal desires, carnal though they may be. We all would like to have more money. None of us enjoys cancer. To cater to our earthly covetousness would be for God to bless sin and to despise holiness. God’s holy saints are frequently very poor. We must not be so foolish; nor does Scripture give us any ground for interpreting life in such a fashion.

The Bible does show us the direction we ought to go as we interpret the things of this world as things which God sends. We do well to pay close attention to this instruction from the Word of God, for we are prone to fall into the same error as those who teach common grace. How often is it not true that when some calamity befalls a child of God, his first reaction is, “What have I done wrong to deserve this? Of what sin am I guilty, because God has sent this trouble upon me? Why do I have to suffer in this way?”

Questions like these are our natural reaction to life’s trials. We frequently come perilously close to agreeing with the basic premise of common grace.

But there is no hope for us if we go that direction to solve the problems that adversity brings. We get caught in a muddle of questions to which there are no answers. We are lead by such thinking into dead-end paths that have no outlet. We trouble the tender consciences of God’s beleaguered saints in the midst of their woes of life. We take away the one hope and comfort they have and leave them with nothing to lighten their gloom. All they know is that material prosperity and physical well-being are indicative of God’s favor. But I am dying from cancer and have just lost my only son in an accident.

What now?

God’s works are quite different. Scripture is very clear on the whole matter.

In this life we and all men live in the world. God gives all men without exception the things of the world. Without distinction, all men receive from God rain and sunshine, warmth and cold, money and homes, automobiles and television sets, automatic washers and clothing to wear. God disposes of all these gifts as it suits Him. To some He gives much, to others little. Some have health and strength all their life, others are sick from the date of birth. Some have cancer, others have Lou Gehrig’s Disease. God may and does give to His creatures as He pleases. No one gives Him advice on the matter. He consults with no one and seeks no one’s opinion. He pays no attention to outward appearance, rank, prestige, honor, nobility of birth or any other consideration. From the day an individual is born until the day he dies, God determines with absolute wisdom the entire pathway of a man’s life and what of the things of this earth he may have.

This is true of all men. The wicked and the righteous receive all things in common and share all the bounties of this earth as well as all its calamities. A tornado destroys the home of an ungodly prince, but also a believing pauper. Cancer strikes without discrimination. Wealth is sometimes given to the wicked, but sometimes to God’s people. Poverty stalks pagan lands where the name of God is not mentioned, but Christian communities are not immune to starvation. My wife and I have been in Myanmar (Burma) and seen the lodging places of the people there. I have eaten with them of their paltry handful of rice. I have been in their huts and shacks. I found godliness there – perhaps beyond our own, if godliness includes contentment. I have heard pastors in Myanmar tell of holding their dying children in their arms, because medical help was beyond their means.

Shall we stand in the doorway of such a shack and tell grieving parents who are ready to bury their child that God’s favor is shown in the material bounties of life as well as in health?

To possess or to be deprived of the things we desire here in the world is no indication of God’s favor or disfavor. These things, in themselves, have nothing to do with grace and love or anger and hatred. They must not and cannot be interpreted in terms of God’s love or hatred, God’s blessing or wrath, God’s kindness or vengeance.

All that I have said does not, however, mean that God’s disposal of all that belongs to this life in this present world is arbitrary. We must not look on this divine disposal as being done willy-nilly, without reason or design, on the basis of spur-of-the-moment opinions. Nothing God does is done without the very best of reasons and as means to accomplish ends known only to the mind of God and belonging to His unsearchable ways. Whether we know God’s purpose or do not know it, makes no difference. Most – indeed, nearly all God’s ways are beyond anything we would think or imagine. God does not take us into His counsels, nor does He explain to us why He does what He does. He is not answerable to us nor are we permitted to summon Him with a subpoena that we may put Him in the dock and force Him to give an account to us of what He does.

God is not accountable to man for anything He does. This is the great lesson of the book of Job. Job was afflicted as few men are afflicted. His friends thought to solve the problem of Job’s sufferings by pointing to the fact that Job had sinned a great sin and was being punished by God for his sin. Job rejected that charge, for, although he knew that he was a sinner, yet he clung to the righteousness of Christ as his own (Job 19:25-27) and confessed repeatedly his trust in God’s sovereign control of his life. But Job did have one question. He wondered why all this evil had come upon him and admitted that if God would only tell him the reasons for his suffering, he would bear his anguish with patience. (Job 23:3-10). But God’s answer, when He spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, was, “Job, I am God. I do as it pleases me. No one may question my ways nor challenge my actions. No one may bring me into the witness stand and force me to give an account of what I have done. What I do is my work alone even if you do not understand it.” God’s ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8- 9).

God’s purpose in giving all things to all men in common is to show, on the one hand, His justice in His just punishment against sin, and on the other hand, to show the riches of His grace and love to His people whom He has redeemed in Christ. Thus, though all men have all the things of this creation in common, God’s attitude towards the wicked is different from His attitude towards His elect. God is never gracious, or loving, or kind, or filled with compassion to the wicked. Because He is sovereign, He sends them all that they receive; but all is His just judgment on those who hate Him. Equally, He is sovereign in all He gives to the righteous, but all that He sends them is blessing. We must understand this and confess it; it is the teaching of Scripture. Poverty, but also riches are curses on the wicked. Strokes and diabetes but also health and strength are curses on the wicked. Riches but also poverty are blessings to the righteous. Health and long life but also heart failure and genetic illnesses are blessings to God’s people.

The key text here is Proverbs 3:33: “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.”

The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. That is, the curse of the Lord is with the wicked in everything that happens to them. They eat and drink the curse of the Lord. The curse accompanies them into their sitting room and bedroom and is upon all they do in these rooms. The curse of the Lord comes along with the husband when he brings his wages home. The curse of the Lord is in the work of the mother, going about taking care of the house and preparing to satisfy the needs of her husband and children. If they live in a castle or in a hut, the curse is there. If their home is turned into a hospital ward or a palace, the curse of the Lord is there. All the experiences through which the wicked pass are curses. All they possess and use in their daily lives are curses. Nothing but curse is upon them, for the curse of the Lord is in their house.

But the opposite is true of the righteous. Always blessing is in their habitation. If they are prosperous, it is the blessing of God. If they are poor, their poverty is sent because God loves them. If the family returns sorrowing from the cemetery, their grief is the direct fruit of God’s tender care of them. If trouble and sickness come their way, God’s blessing is not only in spite of the trouble, but through and by means of the trouble. All is curse for the wicked; all is blessing for the righteous. All this is taught us in the sacred Scriptures and we must take hold of it by faith.

It can be said without exaggeration that Proverbs 3:33 sums up the entire Scriptural teaching on this matter of our pathway in life. All Scripture testifies of the same truth. Read, for example, Psalm 1; and as you read the sharp antithesis between the wicked and the righteous, read it aware of the fact that Psalm 1 is the first Psalm in the Hebrew Psalter, because it defines the one theme that runs like a thread through all the songs. One does well to read meditatively this ancient Psalter of the church, The one constant refrain is the sharp contrast between the rich blessings bestowed on God’s people and the dreadful judgments God in His anger pours out on the wicked. My wife and I just finished reading the Psalms (our favorite book of the Bible) once again. We were struck by this repeated contrast. We tried to find a passage where Zion’s songs speak of God’s love towards His people and the wicked. We could not find one. I recommend to anyone to whom a common love of God towards all men seems a viable doctrinal option to read these delightful songs and try to find just one place where the church happily sings of a universal love or mercy or grace of God. One may start with Psalm 3:7-8, go on to Psalm 5:4-7, pause for a moment at Psalm 9:5-9 and move carefully through the Psalter until he comes to the end in which concluding songs the Psalmist calls upon the entire creation to join with the church in praises to God who alone is worthy of all praise. But even then, with heart full of praise, the Psalmist reminds us that part of God’s great works for which He alone is to be praised, is God’s two-edged sword, “to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written; this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 149:6-9).

It is our honor to praise God for His judgments upon the wicked?

Indeed it is. Then what is it to the defenders of common grace to speak of love towards the wicked and grace towards them that hate God?

It can only be their condemnation.

Herman Hanko
http://testallthings.com/2012/03/10/herman-hanko-are-riches-a-blessing-or-sickness-a-curse/

Examining Our Imperfections

Let us learn also to humble ourselves, seeing that the devil is trying to put us to sleep by hypocrisy in order that we may not recognize our faults, and that they may grow worse and worse. Let us then look within ourselves, and after we have examined our imperfections, let us cry before God, "Alas, Lord! Thou hast given me Thy grace to go forward in Thy service; I do my best, I strive, I resist all my passions, and I fight against myself; and yet I am not righteous before Thee, but there is much wrong with me still." That is how the faithful, after striving to the limit of their strength, ought always to retain this option when there remains any sinfulness mingled with the good which God enables them to do; they must learn to plead guilty before Him and to humble themselves, that they may receive grace.

But although we have many fantasies running in our heads from day to day, and thereby perceive that there is terrible corruption in our nature, yet we must not lose heart, but march on still, praying God that He Who has begun to give us progress will continue to set us forward and increase in us the strength of His Holy Spirit. And when the devil comes to incite us to evil, let him not succeed against us, but let us look for help from above; and let us pray that God's Spirit may so reign in our hearts that though there be wicked affections there, they may be so bridled and fettered that they should not toss us hither and thither but that we may stand steadfast, and be always ready to say, "It is good that god should govern us, and that we should follow His holy will.


John Calvin 
Sermons
Source: (Thine Is My Heart Devotional Readings From John Calvin: Reformation Heritage Books, 1958): 238

God's Blessing, Sure and Constant

God's blessing is His creative word of goodwill over us.

One who blesses, according to the picturesque literal significance of the original Hebrew, speaks a good word over him who is blessed, whether it be in the form of a mere wish, as we frequently do with respect to one another, or in the form of a prophetic reading from the counsel of God, as the old and dying patriarchs did over their sons.

Peculiarly divine is the power to bless.

Man's efforts to bless man are impotent. He may bestow many gifts upon his fellow man, but blessings is not in things, and though he enriches his neighbor with abundance and wealth according to this world, he still is powerless to bless his brother. He may express all the good wishes of a kind and loving heart upon him, but his word cannot realize the thing it conveys; it is impotent to create the thing it ardently desires; it is powerless to bless.

He is no source of blessing, for he is not the fountain of good. 

A divine prerogative and power it is to bless. God speaks and it comes to pass. His word is a creative word. He speaks before things are, and they are caused. His word calls the things that are not as if they were. So we understand by faith that the things that are seen are not made of things that do appear. When He speaks well upon a creature, the blessing comes; and when he speaks ill, who will prevent the certain curse?

His blessing is upon His people.

His powerful, almighty power, creative word for their good is constantly upon them, proceeds toward them from His mouth continuously, surrounds them, meets them in the way, guides them by day, watches over them by night, is in them to fill them with good things, dwells with them in their homes, permeates their food and drink, keeps their enemies from harming them, makes them step upon the serpent and the young adder, turns all the evil for them into eternal good, causes those to be their servants who rise up against them, guards them in danger, strengthens them and makes them patient in suffering, and follows them all the way to the eternal inheritance that is prepared for them from before the foundation of the world.

For only what is good and truly a blessing is conducive for our everlasting salvation!

Whether anything is a blessing or a curse (and it surely is one or the other) is a question that may be answered only in the light of eternity.

The human criterion of blessing and good is false. It is earthly, temporal, subjective, and shortsighted.

We are inclined to judge all things in the light of this world and of the present time, frequently of the immediate present. Of eternal values and of ultimate ends we are apt to lose sight. The fulfillment of our desires and the realization of our aspirations we consider a good. Failure to reach the desired end, disappointment with respect to our personal wishes, things that are contrary to the longings of the flesh, we deplore as evils. We confuse blessing with success and look upon prosperity as a good, long for it, aspire after it, pray for it, strive for it, and stand weeping and wailing and murmuring against our lot when our chastisement is there every morning. We forget that what appears to us to be a good may be an evil in disguise, and what presents itself to our earthly perception as a present evil may be a means to our eternal glory. Foolishly we inquire whether the road is smooth without caring about the direction, and carefully we would avoid the rougher and steeper stretches of the way, though without them we cannot reach the promised heavenly country.

The man of the word prospers in his business, accumulates much wealth, and claims that a kind providence is blessing all his efforts- and everybody is inclined to believe him. We forget that the almighty word of the Most High may be in his goods, cursing him to damnation.

When the farmer's fields yield well and an abundant crop he harvests, so that he must increase the capacity of his barns, he is considered a well-blessed man. We seem oblivious to the reality that the Lord might take his soul from him and cast him into eternal destruction.

In these so-called bad times of depression, our souls are inclined to bewail the passing of the wave of abnormal prosperity of recent years. Barely is the hand of the Lord touching us and we are inclined to pray to heaven for prosperity. We can hardly be taught to see that the good times were bad and the bad times are better than the good times for the people of God.

According to the world, a nation is blessed when it prospers and grows mighty. An army is blessed when it claims victory. A church is blessed when it grows in numbers.

Always the same false standard of blessing and good is applied: the standard that is earthly, temporal, and carnal.

But God's blessing is not so.
It is upon His people to their eternal salvation. It is upon them when every word He speaks over them flows from His everlasting good pleasure unto their eternal glory, from His counsel of salvation, from His eternal thoughts of grace and mercy and peace upon them.

When that word is spoken upon them, it causes what it expresses. It changes every apparent evil into an eternal good, for it is the cause that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

The irresistible operation of God's unchangeable, efficacious, almighty, all-comprehensive grace, through every means, in every way, in all the experiences of this present time- that is blessing.

God's blessing is His creative word of grace.


Herman Hoeksema 
All Glory to the Only Good God, (Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2013): 210-212

What is a Hypocrite?

What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is a spiritual cheat. He is, according to the simile which the Lord uses, like a whitened sepulchre, that appears beautiful on the outside, but is within full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. 
He is a man that puts on a mask of the child of God, while he is a child of the devil. He is an ungodly man that plays the part of the godly. From certain selfish motives he puts on the appearance of a good Christian in his outward confession and walk. But inwardly he is an unbeliever. His secret life is that of the ungodly. He has not the love of God. He is not filled with sorrow after God, and does not repent on sin before God. Nor does he put his trust in Christ. He is not a believer, but an unbeliever. He is a lover of self. Moreover, the hypocrite is known as an ungodly man only to God and himself. As long as he plays the role of a hypocrite, he is not known to others. You cannot therefore call a man a hypocrite. God knows him, however, and the Word of God judges and condemns him as an ungodly and wicked man. Hence, he also knows himself. Before his own consciousness he stands condemned as an unbeliever. From this it also follows that one need not be afraid that he himself is a hypocrite. It is indeed not difficult to understand that believers sometimes are struck with fear that they are hypocrites and not real children of God. We do not like to appear before one another as we appear before God. Out outward appearance is by no means always a perfect representation of our inward state and condition. In our old nature we are always insincere. Insincerity cleaves to our very best works, to our confession and walk, and even to our prayers. We need not be surprised, therefore, that even believers sometimes have the feeling that they are really hypocrites. But the difference between the real hypocrite and that feeling of hypocrisy is that the hypocrite has no life, and knows it; that he puts on an appearance of being a living child of God, while he knows that he is inwardly wicked. He is not afraid that he is a hypocrite, but he is assured of it. The principal difference between him and the child of God is always that while the latter repents of his sin before God, even of his insincerity and hypocrisy, the former never does.


Herman Hoeksema 
The Triple Knowledge, (Reformed Free Publishing Association, 1971), II: 664-665

What Prayer Is

Prayer is to the Christian what breathing is to a healthy person. Without breathing a person cannot live. Without prayer a Christian dies. 




Breathing is spontaneous; in many ways so is prayer.

Prayer is like a river that returns to its source, for prayer has its power in the Spirit of Christ working life in the heart of God's child; that life returns again in prayer to God who gave it. It is the expression of the thirst of God that makes a stag panting after water brooks an apt simile (Ps. 42:1).

Prayer is a lovers' talk, for it is a holy conversation between the living and eternal God and the redeemed child of God in which both speak to each other in the most intimate relationship of love. 

Prayer is a child coming to his father, knowing that his father loves him and will provide for him in every need. We must begin our prayers, the Lord says, with "Our Father Who art in heaven."

In prayer the believer enters consciously into God's presence. There is an earthly element in prayer, for in heaven we will not pray any longer, at least not in the sense in which we usually speak of it. We shall see Christ face-to-face (1 Cor. 13:12) and be consciously in Christ's presence every moment. But here on earth we are preoccupied with many things, and God is often far from our thoughts. Prayer is the pause in our often busy and hectic lives that brings us face-to-face with God through Jesus Christ. Prayer is also heavenly, for it takes us out of this world and carries us soaring on the wings of prayer into God's own dwelling place.

Usually we think of prayers as those moments when we fold our hands and close our eyes; and it is usually necessary for us to do this, because we are easily distracted and our minds are easily turned away from being in God's presence. But folding our hands and closing our eyes are not essential to prayer, nor do these actions guarantee prayer. A mother, while all but overwhelmed with the cares and duties of tending to the needs of her family, may offer a silent prayer to God as she has her hands immersed in dishwater. A child, taunted by cruel classmates, may seek grace from God not to retaliate against his tormentors. A father, forced to listen to a foul language in the shop, may, while operating his press, seek strength to witness properly to those who take the name of his God in vain.

To remember that prayer is consciously to be in the presence of God in order to carry on a holy conversation with Him will help us to understand how Scripture can admonish us to pray continuously. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul literally says, "Pray without ceasing." The same admonition is repeated in Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (6:18). In Colossians 4:2 the members of the church at Colosse are urged to "continue in prayer," and to the church at Rome Paul writes that they should continue "instant in prayer" (12:12). This is the high calling to which we are called, the goal of sanctification in our lives. To walk every moment in the consciousness of being in the presence of God is that which we strive here in the world, but which shall be ours only in glory.


Herman Hanko
When You Pray, (Reformed Free Publishing Assocation, 2006): pp. 1-2

Spiritual Eating and Drinking

All the Reformed confessions... emphasize that the eating and drinking which takes place at the table of the Lord is purely spiritual.

There is a spiritual food. Christ imparts Himself at the table of communion to believers as the true meat and drink unto eternal life.

There is, secondly, a spiritual operation. It is through the Spirit of Christ that He imparts Himself to believers.

And thirdly, there is also a spiritual mouth by which we eat and drink. And that spiritual mouth is faith.

But this entire spiritual mode of operation, this spiritual eating and drinking of Christ, takes place through the means of the signs of the broken bread and the wine that is poured out.

Let us elaborate a little on this idea of spiritual eating and drinking.

For the sake of clarity it may be well to compare this spiritual eating and drinking with the process of physical nourishment, as is also done in the article on the Lord's Supper in our Netherland Confession. First of all, in physical nourishment there is a physical organism, the human body. It cannot sustain its own life, but is dependent on the outside world. Constantly it must be supplied from without. Secondly, there is a physical substance, food and drink, that must be assimilated by that body. Because the body is physical, it stands to reason that the food it assimilates and can assimilate must also be physical. You could not feed a physical body with spiritual nourishment. In the third place, there is the longing of that body for physical food and drink: it hungers and thirsts. In the fourth place, there is the eating and drinking by the physical mouth. And finally, there is the process of assimilation, whereby the body changes the food and drink into its own flesh and blood, and thus is strengthened.

Al this can be applied spiritually. In the first place, there is a spiritual entity that must be nourished, the regenerated, inward man, which is created in Christ Jesus, but is not independent and cannot sustain its own life, but must be nourished from without. Now the proper nature of that regenerated life is spiritual. It consists of a spiritual knowledge of God in Christ, forgiveness of sin, righteousness before God, adoption unto children, holiness, hatred and abhorrence of sin, delight in the law of God. And that spiritual life must be nourished. It must be sustained, and it must grow and develop unto perfection.

Now even as the physical organism of our body cannot be nourished by spiritual food, so the spiritual entity of the regenerated man can never be nourished by material food, but must have spiritual nourishment. There therefore be a spiritual nourishment, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, light, knowledge, which is outside of that regenerated man and which can be assimilated by him. That spiritual food and drink is the one word: grace. And that grace is all in Christ. Christ is the food of that regenerated man, by which he is fed unto eternal life. For "of His fulness have we all received, and grace for grace." John 1:16. And again: "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Christ is the fountain of the water of life. For: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Christ is the bread of life that came down from heaven to give life unto the world. John 6:33. Hence, Christ could say: "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35. And again: "I am that bread of life." John 6:48. And once more: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:51. Christ therefore is the spiritual nourishment which the regenerated man needs to sustain his life.

But also the process of assimilation by which this spiritual food and drink becomes my own, so that I become flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, is purely spiritual. Christ must impart Himself to the regenerated believer. And the believer must eat and drink Him. And also this mode of operation cannot be physical, but must be purely spiritual. According to the Roman Catholics there is an action of Christ through the priest on that physical food by which it is changed into the body and blood of Christ. But this would place the living Christ actually beyond my reach. For that bread and wine can be taken only physically; and it can have nourishing effect only on my body. And therefore the operation in the Lord's Supper is spiritual. Christ is truly present in the signs of the broken bread and the wine that is poured out, but only in a spiritual sense. By an operation of His Spirit He imparts Himself to the believer, and that not only mystically, but also through the consciousness of the regenerate man, so that he constantly is strengthened in righteousness and holiness, in knowledge and wisdom, and grows in the grace of the Lord. And as Christ imparts Himself by His Spirit to the regenerated man, the latter eats and drinks Him, and that too, not with his physical mouth, but by the spiritual mouth of faith. Faith is the spiritual power of the soul to eat and drink Christ. And this faith whereby I receive Christ and assimilate Him is wrought and also strengthened chiefly by the Word of the gospel, but also through the signs and seals of the sacraments, in this case particularly through the signs of the broken bread and the wine that is poured out.

And herein lies the special significance of the Lord's Supper. It is not thus, of course, that in the supper a grace is imparted to us that is not and cannot be received in any other way than by eating and drinking the signs of the broken bread and the wine that is poured out at the table of the Lord. Christ always imparts Himself to the believer and feeds his soul unto everlasting life. And the chief means whereby He thus imparts Himself is always the preaching of the gospel. The sacraments add nothing to the Word. But through the signs of the broken bread and the wine poured out the Holy Spirit effects two things. In the first place, through these visible signs He strengthens the personal assurance and the personal confidence of faith, "that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits." Heid. Cat., Q. 21. And Secondly, the same Spirit through these same visible signs stimulates faith to a greater hunger and thirst for Christ, so that by faith we eat and drink Him unto life eternal, even as He imparts Himself to us at His table. And thus the supper of the Lord is a means unto growth in grace.


It stands to reason that a spiritual disposition is required in order to be truly partakers of the table of the Lord. The unregenerated and unbeliever cannot eat and drink Christ. He has no life that can be nourished. Like the gospel, the supper of the Lord is strictly particular. Unbelievers can indeed receive the visible signs; but they cannot partake of the essence of the supper. But there is more. Even believers are not always ready to partake of the supper of the Lord. Even as we may be sick in body, so we may also be sick spiritually. We may nourish a certain sin, of which we will not repent. We may fail to attend the preaching of the Word of God. We may love the things of the world and seek them. And in such a disposition we cannot fruitfully partake of the supper of the Lord. We must be spiritually healthy. And spiritual health is characterized in the first place by a sincere and heartfelt sorrow over sin, by a fervent longing for forgiveness and for the grace of Christ, by an earnest desire to live in sanctification, to crucify the flesh, and to walk in a new and holy life, and by the sincere love of the brethren. Only in this true spiritual disposition of heart and mind can we expect to receive the spiritual food and drink that is presented to us in the table of the Lord.


Herman Hoeksema
The Triple Knowledge, II: 629-633

Of the Requisites in Meditation

There are three things I shall mention as the requisites for holy meditation as a duty:

1. What I call a foundation, or preparative to it.

2. Those things that are for the forming and framing it as to the parts and proportions.

3. The things that finish it up.


1. As to the foundation, or preparative to it, this must be laid above in heaven by the dispositive or preparative work of fervent prayer. The foundation of this soul affair ,must be, as a learned man says of the foundation of the world: The foundation of the world, he says, is the third heaven which is of a "constant, incorruptible nature, of no preexistent principles, and so not liable, as other things are, to corruption and resolution; and which, as to the convex or outward superficies, or the highest part, is only bounded or terminated by its own limits, or terms of essence and quantity; but in its concave or hollow superficies, or the lowest part, contains all inferior things, and is fixed immovable." If the foundation of the great world is laid by the third heaven, the foundation of this great work of holy meditation must be laid in heaven, laid by the soul's strong mounting up thither and fixing itself there by fervent prayer, as the great preparative to this meditation. Fervent prayer: the word in Hebrew used for meditation signifies also prayer-- prayer and meditation being so near akin, and the one helping mutually the other.

(1.) To begin with a bringing the soul into the glorious and tremendous presence of the great God, and under His so pure and all-seeing eye.

(2.) To act the soul, and lay it as it were to steep in self-abasings and humblings for its former miscarriages and failings in, and present unfitness and indisposedness for, what is now undertaking.

(3.) To exercise fresh self-denyings as to any sufficiency of ability to perform any thing therein acceptably and profitably.

(4.) To act vigorous and strong recumbencies on Jesus Christ, for both His teachings and touchings of our spirits, and up holdings likewise in the work.

(5.) To procure and beget a warm temper in us, such as may make the  heart to glow all over in the duty.


2. As to the forming of the duty in the parts and particulars of it:

(1.) It must be founded on, and rise from, the spring and great principle of motion and action, which is the will, in a both free choice and firm purpose. a reservedness and rooted purpose: thus David, "I will meditate in your statutes," and "I will meditate in your precepts," Psalm 119, 48. The evil heart says, I will not meditate; Satan says (so far as he can hinder), You shall not; and the profane world says, You need not. But the holy heart says, I will meditate. This is my free and firm purpose, and nothing, by Christ's assistance, shall divert me.

The philosopher says that in every virtuous action there must be a choice of will; it must come free from the spring of the will and run in resolution, otherwise it is not a virtuous action.

The Scriptures, for all religious actings, call for willingness: "Your people shall be willing in the day of your power," Psalm 110:8--- or, as it is in the Hebrew, "a people of willingness, your people," --- and in diverse places call for readiness in what we perform to God. No work in the world can challenge such an intense degree of readiness and freeness as Christ's work, and such ways as have a clear and lively stamp of His royal will and command. No higher character is given in Scripture of real godliness than freest choice of will and readiness. To choose the good part, Luke 10:42; to choose the things that please God, Isaiah 56:4; and as in abundance of places is to be seen.

A carnal heart acts from carnal wisdom and self-interest, of from passion and self-biasing affection, but not from pure freeness and deliberate choice of will. This is not the spring of his duties, as it is in a good and holy heart. A good heart acts from purpose, a well and deep-set purpose: with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord, Acts 11:23; and Psalm 119:106, "I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep your righteous judgments." So the will, for holy duties, must put forth in purposes, firm purposes, varieties of fresh purposes; act all the still needful and conducing purposes, any duty in any respect calls for. There are many rare and rich attendants and properties, ingredients and excellencies, divine and heavenly beauties, appertaining to holy duties, which the will must intend and make its free, firm choice of, which the purposes of the will must lie level to and make after, as the proper and proportionate marks of higher tendencies.


WHAT THE WILL MUST INTEND IN MEDITATION

I shall name five particulars; there must be:

1. An aim and firm purpose to make the duty a right work, to make sure it be made true.

2. A free and full purpose of a wise work, to have it a work of spiritual wisdom.

3. A firm purpose for a vigorous and spirited performing.

4. A strong purpose of watching and earnest striving against all diversions and interruptions.

5. In a firm purpose of utmost endeavour of success and having the right and kindly end and fruit of the duty.


1. A right work. The will's purpose and intendment must be to make the duty of meditation a right work- to make sure it be made true and sincere, John 4:24. Not a carcass, not a painted piece, without soul and substance, a formality without power. Not a mere work performed, as it were to flatter God, who looks for a duty, as they in Psalm 78:36-37 are said to flatter God with their lips, but their heart was not right with Him. We are ready to flatter Him with our modes of meditation and fashions of thinkings, with our formalities, without realities and truth and the work's being sincere. It must not be a flattering of God but a true pleasing Him, from being true itself. It must not be a work daubed over with the untempered mortar of our own heart's self-deceitfulness, setting up a thing to show like it, and be something near it only, and putting thereby a cheat upon ourselves. Nor must it be a thing only to stop the mouth of our consciences, keep them from calling on and challenging of us; but we must design it strongly and firmly, to purpose, through God, to proffer to and please Him with a sincere work. "walk before Me, and be perfect," Genesis 17:1/. This must be understood, certainly, of every walk and path we go in: not a walk in some one way, or diverse, and not all; but in every walking sincerity must be a property, a qualification designed and firmly resolved; and we must not be satisfied unless it be right meditating, such as Scriptures requires, and saints in Scripture practiced; yea, that they told God Himself that they performed, Psalm 119:23. And doubtless David dared not tell the heart-searching God he meditated if he had done it formally and hypocritically, and not been sincere and upright in it.

2. The intendment of the will must be for the making this duty a wise work, to make it a work of spiritual wisdom. The apostle, in Ephesians 5:17, says, "Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." And in 2 Timothy 3:15, there is mention of wisdom to salvation, and in Proverbs 9:12, wisdom is called on for ourselves.

(1.) Wise in respect of God. Certainly, as Solomon did things of great excellence to show himself very wise, so when the most high God's honour is concerned, and when He will be present at our performances and comes as it were purposely to them, shall we present Him with any foolish piece- not design a wise work, and not be seen acting wisely?

(2.) Wise in reference to ourselves. Should we not also strongly purpose to make this duty a wise work, a work for sure wisdom for ourselves, and lay it fully level to the grand mark of eternal salvation for ourselves? Solomon, in Proverbs 17:21, says, "The father of a fool has no joy" So the parent of a foolish acting will have no joy; it is the godly, prudent acting, whose fruit is peace, and which issues in heavenly joy. Oh, how sweet and comfortable is that duty, in which we have acted up to the rule of sound wisdom!

(3.) A spirited and lively work. There must be a firm and strong purpose and ntendment for a vigorous and spirited, a lively and warm, work. "Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," Romans 12:11. in every duty we must have a purpose of striking fire, of making the heart burning hot: it must not be lukewarm, in an indifference that is but lazy; nor blood-warm, that is but low; but the soul's purpose and design must be for the highest heat and fervency, the greatest vigour and activity. As artists in some high operations, seek for the hottest fire.

As warmest preaching and warmest hearing, as the disciples' hearts burned within them when Christ opened the Scriptures, Luke 24:32; and so warmest reading and warmest meditating. In David's heart, while he mused the fire burned, Psalm 39:3. So when we meditate, we should intend a warm work, to be very warm at the heart.

4. A striving against all lets. In a strong purpose of earnest striving against all lets and interruptions. The whole work of a Christian here must not only be vigorous and sedulous, but striving and contentious. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," Luke 13:24. Every single and particular duty must bear a part of striving to enter in at the strait gate; for this is to be applied to every particular duty, though Christ speaks only in general, bidding us strive.

     Two things make up the notion of striving:
   
    (1.) Intention and earnestness.

    (2.) Contention against opposition. When a man strives, he acts earnestly; and when he strives after or for a thing, he strives also with that which is against him. Striving is against something that lets or opposes. In all soul work, and peculiarly in this of meditation, the throng of difficulties is great, the oppositions are many; therefore the purposes and resolutions of heart must be strong and high. None ever carry on their work well who are not first well resolved, and still renew and link one firm purpose to another, to hold on their course to the last.

5. A purpose for the kindly issuing of meditation. The will must purpose firmly to endeavour still the kindly issue and success of the duty. Look, says the apostle, you lose not the things wrought, 2 John 8. Who would set up at the labor in vain? Christ's sweet promise is, "The seed of the blessed of the Lord shall not labor in vain," Isaiah 65:23. The way, among others, of having it performed is by grounding our endeavours in strong and rooted resolutions for that running and pressing on, and looking after our duties doing; until the work winds up and issues in the spiritual ends, in the sweet success it is appointed unto, such as increase of holiness and grace, and improvement of communion with God. Success sets the crown on the head of the work: resolve to get the crown still set on the head of every duty, that it may shine in the glory of success.

These are the five special branches this root of resolution should put forth; these, as so many precious corner-stones, should lie at the bottom of this building, the better to bear it up. These should be as so many great arteries branching forth from the heart, to convey vital spirits into the body of this heavenly duty of meditation, and keep it alive, and warm, and improvingly active.


Nathanael Ranew
Solitude Improved By Divine Meditation, Chapters 4 and 5