This first page was
adopted at the 257th Synod of the RCUS meeting in Eureka, South
Dakota, May 19-22, 2003
This
copy is made available by Rev. C. W. Powell
Note: The full report, without this page, was submitted to the 2002 Synod, where no action was taken, but the report was resubmitted to the committee. In 2003, the report was resubmitted without change, except for the following resolutions which were adopted by Synod.
Resolutions:
Resolution 1.: Our Covenant God gives
the responsibility for the education of our covenant children to their parents.
Although the tasks related to education may be delegated, parents may not
abdicate their responsibility by delegating it to either the state, the church,
or to any private educational institution. Grounds: Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Proverbs
22:6; Psalm 78:5-8; Ephesians 6:4.
Resolution 2: The education of our
covenant children receive ought to have as its purpose their being equipped to
fulfil the cultural mandate in the church militant; i.e. personal fellowship and
communion with God, evangelistic and apologetic endeavors, and being salt and
light in the world. In order to achieve these and other purposes to the glory
of God, the knowledge to be gained must be in the context of God as the
Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and Judge, through Jesus Christ the Mediator, and
the advancement of His Kingdom until the church is triumphant. Grounds: Psalm
111:10; Prov. 1.:7; Prov. 15:33; John 17:1-3; 2 Peter 1:3-11; Eph. 3:14-19;
1John 1:1-5; Romans 1.1:36
Resolution 3: Pastors, elders, and
deacons are called to assist parents in the carrying out of their educational
responsibilities by encouraging and supporting educational endeavors that are
grounded upon the philosophy teaching, and presuppositions of the Reformed
faith as expressed by the Reformed Confessions. As much as is feasible given
the available means, including assistance from the church, covenant parents
ought to seek to provide some form of such covenantal education. Grounds I
Timothy 3:1.5; Prov. 1:20-33; Prov. 2:1-9; Eph. 4:1.1-14 and Heidelberg
Catechism Q/A 103
Resolution 4: That this report, along
with the supplementary material, be made available to the churches of the RCUS.
C. W. Powell, H. Opp, G.
Homer, D. Kauk
Covenant Education
Special Committee
Christian Education and Nurture
Reformed Church in the United States
May, 2002
Contents
Part
One: Creation and Communication, Page 2
Communication
and Fellowship in the Godhead
Fellowship
and Communication in Creation
Part
Two: A Fellowship of Death Page 11
Part Three: The Promise,
Page 16
Part
Four: The Communication of Faith, Page 25
The
Church Not Alienated from God
The New
Conversation of the Church
Part
Five: Spiritual Sacrifices, Page 33
God’s
House Is a House of Prayer
Communication
Is a Two Way Street
Why
Listening Well Is Important for the Church
Part
Six: The Scriptures, Page 39
Communication
with God Is Indirect
Part Seven: The Christian Home, Page 42
Communion
and Conversation in Marriage
Inclusion
of Children in Covenant Communication
Part Eight:
Institutions of Education, Page 45
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law
doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which
the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Part One: Foundation: Creation and Communication
A fundamental contrast between the
true and living God and all idols is given in Habakkuk 2:18-20:
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? Woe unto him that
saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it
is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst
of it. But the LORD is in his holy
temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
The temples of
idolatry are silent, except for the worshippers. The deaf and dumb idols cannot speak because there is no life and
breath in them. The only communication
is between the worshippers, who are trying to get the wood and stone to speak;
failing that, the devotees speak for them.
Idols are helpless
and pitiful things. They are formed by
the labors of man out of the material that they find. Their helplessness is described by the Psalmist: 115:4-8
Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they
see not: They have ears, but they hear
not: noses have they, but they smell not:
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not:
neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in
them.
Worst of all, idols
are silent things. In the houses of the
idol worshippers, the silence is broken only by the voices of men, who pretend
to speak for God. Because their gods
are silent, the voices of the worshippers are voices of lies and deceit and the
idol temples become centers of lies, deceit, and human tragedy.
Contrast this with
the temple of the Lord: "Let all
the earth keep silence before Him."
God speaks from His temple, and men can understand Him, because the
Living God is the only true and speaking God.
Communication is central to the Godhead and, therefore, central to the
universe. We do not live in a silent
and meaningless universe, because the God who made them is not silent.
There are immense
implications for this fundamental idea for Christian education and nurture. But first, let us look at the theological
underpinnings.
Christians confess that God is Three in One. As the Belgic Confession puts it:
According
to this truth and this Word of God, we believe in one only God, who is the one
single essence, in which are three persons, really, truly, and eternally
distinct according to their incommunicable properties; namely, the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the cause, origin, and beginning of
all things visible and invisible; the Son is the word, wisdom, and image of the
Father; the Holy Spirit is the eternal power and might, proceeding from the
Father and the Son. Nevertheless, God is not by this distinction divided into
three, since the Holy Scriptures teach us that the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit have each His personality, distinguished by Their properties; but
in such wise that these three persons are but one only God.
Hence,
then, it is evident that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, and
likewise the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. Nevertheless, these
persons thus distinguished are not divided, nor intermixed; for the Father has
not assumed the flesh, nor has the Holy Spirit, but the Son only. The Father
has never been without His Son, or without His Holy Spirit. For They are all
three co-eternal and co-essential. There is neither first nor last; for They
are all three one, in truth, in power, in goodness, and in mercy.
To put it another way,
each Person is self-conscious and knows who He is, and Who He is not. The Son knows that He is not the Father and
the Holy Spirit knows that it is the Son who dies on the cross, for instance. But there is more, much more.
Jesus said
in John 5:20 That the Father loves the Son and shows the Son all things. In other words there is a free flow of
information and love between the Father and Son. I Cor. 2:9,10 also includes the Holy Spirit in this free flow of
information, for the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God. It is impossible for us to know the nature
of this flow of information. It is
enough for us to know that it exists.
Only
rational beings can communicate. There
must be thought before there can be communication, because if thought is absent
there is no true communication. Words
without thought are vain things, meaningless vibrations in the air, like the
mutterings of the insane. Communication
can take place by gestures, pictures, or other ways, but men have developed
very sophisticated ways of communication, which we might expect from a creature
made in God's image.
If man is to be like God, a very high order of knowledge is
required.
Jeremiah
9:23,24: Thus saith the LORD, 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 which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
The highest wisdom,
which must be the foundation of fellowship, is expressed in the words “lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness,” which reflect the very nature of God
Himself. That God is love has been the
witness of the Christian faith from Creation, and Abraham, Isaac, and the other
patriarchs spoke of the lovingkindness of God.
God has good will toward men and desires their good and their
salvation. But God also understands
judgment, which is the ability to distinguish between good and evil, between
right and wrong. God exercises judgment
in the earth because He cannot deny Himself.
God cannot approve of that which is contrary to His loving nature, and
He cannot deceive or lie. The word
"judgment" means to render a verdict, to make a decision. God's very nature demands judgment, because
He cannot lie, or do or approve anything that is contrary to the truth which is
His very essence.
Besides lovingkindness
and judgment, man is called to understand that God exercises righteousness. God knows the difference between right and
wrong, because wrong is that which is contrary to His essence and He cannot
deny Himself. Not only is God loving
and true, but He is good. He does that
which is right, according to the truth and holiness that makes is His very essence. This is why sin is defined as that which
comes short of the glory of God (Romans 2:23).
This is contrasted with
the idols in the idol temple, who cannot think, who are not self-conscious, and
have no communication to men. What
comes from the idol temples are lies, the fabrications of men, speaking for the
gods, or the fabrications of lying devils, who pretend to be gods. The images are therefore lying images,
imparting false and deceptive ideas to men.
They are lies in their very essence, for God cannot be imaged.
The true glory of man,
then, lies in understanding, the receiving of true ideas about God. These true ideas are clearly expressed: lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness. But there is even more than this: these things are exercised in the
earth. God is not remote, an unconscious abstraction. Instead, He is active in the earth and His
purpose is to establish lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the
earth. These self-conscious purposes of
God are communicated to men, and men are responsible to receive them and to
understand them.
This self-consciousness
of God in lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness is a Trinitarian
consciousness. In loving Himself, God
is not engaging in autoeroticism, because God is One in Three. The Father loves the Son and the Holy
Spirit; the Holy Spirit loves the Father and the Son; the Son loves the Father
and the Holy Spirit. The Father does
not talk to Himself, but communicates all things to the Son. Father and Son communicate all things to the
Holy Spirit, Who knows the deep things of God.
The Holy Trinity is an infinite and intimate fellowship in the Divine essence,
a fellowship of knowledge, righteousness, judgment, and love.
The intimate nature of
this fellowship is expressed in Proverbs 8: 22-36:
The
LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23 I was set up from everlasting, from the
beginning, or ever the earth was. 24
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains
abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains
were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 26 While as yet he had
not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the
world. 27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass
upon the face of the depth: 28 When he established the clouds above: when
he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 29
When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his
commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with
him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; 31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his
earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. 32 Now therefore hearken
unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it
not. 34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates,
waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoso findeth me findeth
life, and shall obtain favor of the LORD. 36
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate
me love death.
The Persons of the Holy Trinity were
present, and rejoiced in Creation. The
Father sent forth His Powerful Word, and the Spirit brooded upon the waters and
brought order from chaos, according to Genesis 1. They together agreed to the Creation of man, and they saw that
everything was good, and rejoiced together.
This fundamental nature
of God is expressed in the creation of the world. This is revealed everywhere in Scripture. Because man is in the image of God, he is
called to glory in the things that God glories and delights in. (Jeremiah 9:24
“But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I
delight, says the Lord.”) The glory of God is revealed not only in His
wisdom and power, but in the righteousness, judgment, and goodness that
characterizes His operations in the world.
He loves His creation and broods over it in righteousness, judgment, and
goodness. This is His glory. We also are to glory in these things. “God
loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the
LORD." (Psalm 33:5). Thus, even the heavens declare the glory of
God (Ps. 19).
In the passage quoted before from Proverbs 8,
Wisdom (the Word of God, for the Logos is not external to God, but of His very
essence) calls men to watch and hear and understand, for what is contrary to
Wisdom is contrary to the life and happiness of man.
This doctrine has profound implications for
the nature of man and man’s purpose in creation. These implications are for every individual man as well as for
mankind in general. If the Holy Trinity
rejoiced in perfect fellowship and communion before the world was made, then
the purpose for creation could not have been because God was lonely or needed
companionship. I John 1:
That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of
life; (For the life was manifested, and
we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which
was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
John says that the Apostles were
preaching the Gospel because they desired fellowship with those who heard, a
fellowship that was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Creation was an expansion, not of the being
of God, which cannot be, but of His fellowship. God is light and the nature of light is to shine forth, as Calvin
says. This came to pass, not because
God needed fellowship, but simply because of His mercy and grace. His lovingkindness caused Him to create the
heavens and the earth, in order to have rational and loving beings who could
share in the fellowship of the Triune God, to the extent that a created being
could have such fellowship.
This fundamental principle permeates all
of creation and is written in the very nature of man, who was created in the
image of God. As the image of God, man
must first of all love His Creator with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength
for this is the center of the fellowship.
This fellowship with the Apostles and with the Triune God is the result
of a message that is preached. John
goes on to say: (John 4:4-10):
And
these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the
message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not
the truth: But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. If we say that
we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in
us.
Because God is light, those who have
fellowship with Him manifest this fellowship by their walk, for it is
impossible to walk in fellowship with God and to be in darkness. If the truth is in us, sin is exposed in us
and forgiven. Denial that we have sin
is a certain evidence that there is no light in us and we are self-deceived. Even worse, we make Him out to be a liar.
The very creation of man himself was the
result of a conference in the Holy Trinity.
It is impossible to know the exact process whereby the Persons
communicate, but Genesis 1:26-27 puts it:
And
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The unique character of man is emphasized
by the recording of this council in the Godhead, as well the description of
man’s creation in which God formed man in His image, of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into him the breath of life.
The figure of a potter, carefully forming the clay into a work of art is
the language of Genesis 2:7. After man
had fallen, the Persons of the Trinity again take counsel:
And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever: Therefore
the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from
whence he was taken. Genesis 3:22,23
Without the
Trinity there is no speaking God. There
would be no one for God to speak to until He made something other than
Himself. Proverbs 8 tells us that God's
word and wisdom are from the beginning.
Thought and communication are not new arts that He acquired when He
created rational beings, but God did widen the circle of His communication in
order to include men in this fellowship.
He walked and talked with man; Adam knew the voice of God. God had fellowship with the man that He
had made, a fellowship that involved words and communication, a fellowship of
love, righteousness, and eternal Wisdom in the Holy Trinity.
This makes
the gift of communication and speech a reflection of the eternal order, not something
that only pertains to creation. The
ability to speak and communicate lies in the very nature of reality. Creation itself is not deaf, blind, and
dumb; but articulate. Wisdom cries out
to man from the very stuff of which all things are made; speech and wisdom are
not accidental to creation, but in the very design and substance of the
universe. There are a thousand passages
that show this. For instance, Ps.
19:1-3
The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
We might also instance
Psalm 33:
Sing
unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. For the word of the LORD is right; and all
his works are done in truth. He loveth
righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. By the word of the LORD were the heavens
made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
Because God’s
works are done in truth, they communicate what they are designed to communicate
and there is no lie in the communication:
the earth is therefore full of the goodness of the Lord, which is a
cause for the saints to sing the new songs of Zion and offer praise to
God. These are neither personifications
nor hyperbole nor the imaginations of a poet, but the expression of truth: the
whole creation is designed to communicate the truth of God. Each fact cannot be understood in isolation,
no more than a word can be understood apart from the sentence and context in
which appears. But within the context
of sentences and paragraphs each word does communicate. Neither does a single fact communicate in
and of itself, but in the context of the whole creation every fact speaks its
own truth concerning its Creator.
Creation is not dumb.
But there
is more. Consider a good man talking to
his wife. He communicates consciously
and rationally, with emotion and love.
But his fishing shoes in the bedroom closet also communicate real
truth. The man has left the marks of
his habits and his personality upon his shoes, but the shoes are not conscious
of it. Something that is unconscious
can communicate, but only to a conscious, rational being. One rock cannot speak to another rock, but a
rock can communicate guilt or innocence to a jury in a criminal case. So a man’s fishing shoes may communicate
powerful emotion and meaning to those who love him.
In like
manner, everything in the universe communicates the glory, wisdom, and power of
God, but the physical universe does not do so consciously. This is where man comes in. The great purpose of God in creating the
world was for the purpose of having rational, conscious beings read of His
glory and power in the creation and giving Him praise, glory, and love. Without the consciousness of man, the
universe would be incomplete, for the glory of God must become conscious in the
souls of men. What the angels provided
in Heaven, man was to provide upon the earth.
So we read in Psalm 8:
O
LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy
glory above the heavens. Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine
enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of
thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned
him with glory and honour. Thou madest
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet: All sheep and oxen,
yea, and the beasts of the field; The
fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!
God was mindful of
man, and “visits” him, as a great lord would visit his subjects, learning about
their needs and desires. God delighted
in man and gave him dominion over all things.
Man’s holy response was to praise the Lord and to delight in the things
that God made. Adam threw this great
privilege away, but Jesus Christ, the last Adam, seized it again for man, as
the writer of Hebrews tells us in interpreting this Psalm.
God would come to
walk with Adam in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8,9). Man could have fellowship with God because God delighted in
man. Though no creature could know the
essence of God, yet man could participate in the communicable attributes of
God, the attributes of wisdom and righteousness, with dominion over the
creatures. On the basis of these
communicable attributes man could know something of God and could participate
in friendship with God to the limits of his finite capacity. Man was not created to be a slave, but a
friend.
These concepts are beautifully expressed
in Psalm 139. The Psalmist rejoices
that he has access to the thoughts of God, and they are precious to him:
How
precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If
I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am
still with thee. (Ps. 139:17)
How could
the writer know the thoughts of God, which in another place are said to be
“higher” than ours? The answer is in
the first part of Psalm 139:1-4
O
LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine
uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted
with all my ways. For there is not a
word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Although it
is impossible for man to penetrate the thoughts of God, yet God penetrates
man’s thoughts completely, for there is not a word in our language (or
languages!) that God does not know.
This means that He, the Creator, knows everything about us and the
universe, about everything that He made.
He understands all the actions, the things, the relationships, the
qualifications, and the purposes for all things, including the angels and
demonic beings. Such a God is perfectly
capable of communicating to men the things that we have the capacity to
know. Man cannot receive God’s thoughts
exhaustively, but what man is capable of receiving man can know truly. Man could know God’s thoughts truly and
could delight in them and count them precious.
God did not
create man because He desired a servant, because He had a bunch of commandments
that needed to be kept. He created man
as an expression of His lovingkindness, His judgment, and His
righteousness. Man therefore was
created capable of loving God in return, of discerning between truth and error,
capable of obeying God and worshipping Him.
Man could be God’s friend, to the extent that a creature could be a
friend to God. Thus Abraham, who exemplifies
those made righteous by faith, is called the friend of God. (James 2:23) How was Abraham a friend?
He was a friend because he could talk to God, and God talked to
him. Thus we read in Genesis 18:17, 18:
And
the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that
Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed in him?
And in
Genesis 18:27:
And
Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the
Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
This
two-way communication is the essence of friendship, as Jesus in John 15:13-15
Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his
lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of
my Father I have made known unto you.
What great
grace and love there is here! Although
the Master-Servant relationship between God and His creatures can never be
eliminated, yet God graciously admits us into friendship with Him through Jesus
Christ. And because we are His friends,
He tells us all things that we are capable of knowing. These great and wonderful things are told to
us in Scripture, for so the Apostle Paul claims in I Corinthians 2:0-13
But as it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual
things with spiritual.
The Holy Spirit
has taken the things of God and revealed them to the apostles (the “we” of the
passage, as the context shows—See Calvin), and they spoke in words that the
Holy Ghost taught them, for God does have words that are understandable to us,
as we saw before. There is no connection
with God more intimate than our connection with Him through the Scriptures for
they are the very breath of God to us.
Jesus said
of the men of his day, “Ye are blind leaders of the blind.” The blind have no understanding either of
God or of His words. Man was not
created to be blind, but to understand that God exercises lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
But there
is more here, for Christ calls us His friends if we do the things that He has
said. It is important to understand
that true fellowship and friendship involves more than just empty chatter. There must be action in terms of the
communication. Just as God exercises
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, so man is called to
live in fellowship and speak and act in terms of the communion. Because of this, there is a path of holiness
and righteousness described in the Scriptures, a way of faithfulness and truth.
God did not
create man because he needed a servant.
God did not create man in order to have a slave. God created man for fellowship. He was enlarging the circle of his communication:
to the rational beings that he had made in his own image.
This view
militates against all evolutionary theories for the origin of man. If man was created for the purpose of
fellowship with God, then man was created upright, good, rational, with
language, and a created but everlasting soul.
Man does not possess immorality in the Greek pagan sense, as if he were
a piece of God. But he does have
immortality in the sense that both the righteous and the wicked will continue
to exist throughout all eternity. All
evolutionary theories degrade man to the level of the beasts, or at best
elevate a beast to the image of God by infusing something else into him.
We maintain
that the image of God was not something added to man to elevate him above the
beasts, but was essential to the very soul and life of man from the
beginning. The image of God permeates
the very essence of man and makes man what he is. Man is not defined by his flesh, but by the inward spiritual
traits which distinguish him from the animals.
These attributes cannot be erased, no matter how insane, depraved, or
cursed he becomes.
Even after
his fall, man was to be treated with dignity and respect, his life preserved
and respected. (Genesis 9:1-6) Modern theories have treated man like
garbage to be thrown away in great numbers as we try to build a new world order
which ignores the curse and the Promise.
These efforts and the theories and compromises that support them belong
to the evil fellowship of death and ruin.
For there is such a fellowship and we are called to reject and reprove
it.
Thus, the
Holy Spirit calls Christians to turn away from idols and their fellowship, away
from the communication of lies that corrupt our actions. In I Corinthians 6:14-16 we find:
Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the
temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.
There are
two fellowships described in this passage.
One is a fellowship of light and includes the Holy Trinity through faith
in Christ. The other is a fellowship of
darkness, and includes the devil and his works of rebellion and unbelief. The Christian is called to reject the second
and abide in the first. In the next
section we will attempt to see how the fellowship of darkness was introduced to
the world.
Part
Two: A Fellowship of Death
A Murderer and a Liar from
the Beginning
Jesus said that the devil was "a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44) Satan did not abide in the truth, in the communion and light and
truth that is of the very essence of the Holy Trinity. Therefore he could not abide in heaven and
was cast down, becoming a prince of darkness.
He is the father of lies, the source of all rebellion against God.
Satan, though a great a powerful being, does not
possess the incommunicable attributes of God.
He is not self-existent (he has no life in himself), immutable,
infinite, or simple. As a creature, he
yet abides under the government of God and, though Satan's kingdom is
formidable from our perspective, yet it is an instrument used by God to
accomplish His perfect and incomprehensible will. Evil, therefore, is not within the essence of creation, for God
made everything good. It is the holy
fellowship of life and light that defines the nature of the universe, and evil
is unnatural, a terrible abnormality that God has permitted for reasons that cannot
be entirely clear to us, but involve His glory and purposes of grace.
It is of the nature of God to reveal Himself (to
communicate His lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness), for He is Light,
and it is the nature of Light to shine forth.
It may very well be that God has permitted evil in the world that He
might be perfectly revealed as longsuffering, kind, patient, and forbearing. His patience and forbearing hold His
judgment in suspension until the time that He has appointed to judge the world,
which will come with terror and an overwhelming fire against those who refuse
the light and persist in the darkness of the lies and deceit of false
gods. This is expressed in Nahum 1:2,3:
God
is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the
LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his
enemies. The LORD is slow to anger,
and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Although God is a
God of judgment, He has other things to do than to bring the wicked into
judgment immediately. He is patient,
because He calls men to repentance, to show them mercy and grace. He therefore holds back judgment until the
appointed time in which He will judge the world, as He says in Isaiah 30:18:
And
therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore
will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of
judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
Even though Israel's sins cried out to God for judgment, which was like
a wall ready to fall upon them, and the time would surely come that they would
be broken like a potter's vessel (Is. 30:13,13), yet God has power over Himself
and will not allow His judgment to overwhelm the ungodly until all the wheat is
gathered in and His purposes of grace and mercy are fulfilled. Because God has patience, we are also to
have patience. We are perfect like the
Father is perfect when we are able to show mercy and patience like He
does. (Matthew 5:48)
In the Garden of
Eden, the head of the human race, Adam, refused to live within the circle of fellowship
and communication for which God had created him. He listened to the voice of the serpent, tried to find another
word, another communication. It was
death to him then, and it is death to us now.
See Proverbs 8:35, 36:
"Whoso findeth me [wisdom]findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."
There is life only
in fellowship and communion with God.
Jesus Christ is the Divine Logos (John 1) and has life in himself (John
5:26) just as the Father does. His
words parallel Proverbs 8:35,36:
"My sheep hear my
voice, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand..." (John 10:27,28)
On the other hand,
the enemies of Christ live in a fellowship of darkness and sin and can not receive
the words of Christ:
Why do ye not
understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe
me not. (John 8:43-45)
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my
sheep, as I said unto you. (John
10:26)
When we understand these things, a new
understanding comes to us of the Temptation of Adam and Eve. Satan introduced a new fellowship and
communion into the world. Fittingly, it
centered on the core of God's reason for creating Adam and Eve.
To reveal to Adam and Eve the full reason
for their creation and to test them that they might know themselves, God
created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The reason for the tree was to teach mankind that our very life
depends upon hearing the voice of our God and obeying Him. Unless we live in this fellowship of life
and truth we perish, just as Satan perished when he abode not in the truth.
The test involved knowledge and truth,
the very core of the fellowship and communion in the Holy Trinity. How could man know the truth of the Tree in
the midst of the Garden? If he could
know the way of that Tree, he would know the way of every part of God's
creation. This was the exact point
where the temptation came.
Man did not become a moral being after he ate
of the Tree, as if it took the eating of the Tree to make Adam aware of the
difference between good and evil. As
the image of God, he certainly knew the difference between right and
wrong. Eve also knew that God had
forbidden the tree and knew that it was wrong to eat of it.
The Temptation was about the way that
man discerns right and wrong and how moral truth is determined. Here was the heart of the temptation. The only way that Adam and Eve could know
the truth concerning the Tree was to take God's word for it. They must believe what God had said and live
in terms of that belief. They could not
know the meaning of the Tree by experience--if they experienced eating the fruit,
they would die and it would be too late.
The Tree was not forbidden to the animals or birds which must have shown
Adam and Eve that the Tree was good for food.
It was not food for them, however, and no experience could teach them
this.
Neither could they know the meaning of the Tree by examining their own hearts and thoughts, as though the meaning of the Tree was what they thought it was. The meaning of the Tree was objective to