Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Feb/93

Contributor - Jonathan Gerstner

Title - As For Me and My House : The Synod of Canada and Its Focus on the Family

Topic - Reformed Church In Canada

The Synod of Canada, as it enters its final stage of prenatal care, has a special responsibility to keep in front of us all the issues facing our Canadian families. One strong element of the Reformed tradition is its emphasis on God's covenant relationship with believers and their children. The Christian family, from a Reformed perspective, is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church. Husbands are called to reflect the loving headship which Christ provides for the church. (A tyrannical husband disgraces Christ whose headship is exercised in love for His bride.) Wives are called to reflect a loving submission of their wills to their husbands to image the loving submission with which the faithful church submits its own wishes to those of Christ. (The unfaithful apostate church is fairly identified in God's Word as spiritually adulterous.) The teachings presented so far are standard Christianity, yet it is truly astounding what a large portion of professing Christendom has caved in to the culture and rejected these holy truths which give spiritual meaning to marriage. The Synod must work to keep us faithfully proclaiming these truths.

The Synod of Canada must also keep us ever rediscovering the covenantal truth that children of believers are set apart for God in His covenant. It must avoid two errors. First it must not identify being born in the covenant with being automatically saved. The Christian family is called to pray and work for the conversion of all its members. Children of the covenant need the new nature only God can give, not nurture based on the false assumption that they are already redeemed. (It is depressing to note how theological liberalism and some professedly Reformed thinkers who have fallen into the trap of automatic covenantal grace, come to the same unbiblical conclusions when it comes to child rearing.) We need to echo, with all evangelical believers, that only through personal conversion will one receive the blessing of eternal life.

On the other hand, we need to reject the understanding that children are neutral from birth and do not need to be washed in the blood of Christ to inherit eternal life. Infant baptism reminds us that children need to be washed, even as it calls them to a future conversion. All children are born dead in trespasses in sin.

The Synod of Canada must work to equip our families to raise their children as set apart for God and call them to personal conversion. When one understands the key role conversion plays in a reformed biblical understanding of the covenant, one will never fall into the error of divorcing reformed theology from conversion in general, and the need to work to reach out with the gospel to our communities.

How will the Synod help in our covenant life? First, by providing a magazine like Pioneer, where there will be commitment to present articles which lift up the Lordship of Christ over the family. The editorial will be held accountable to the Synod in this important mandate, even as we are all held accountable to God. Secondly, the support services commission of the Synod will be responsible for providing opportunities for educational events for the training of Christian families. This will be done both by informing congregations of the needs of biblical seminars provided by other solid ministries, and planning our own events as funding permits. Similarly, the Synod needs to provide continuing education opportunities for our pastors and lay leaders in areas of concern to the Christian family. At a recent Classis Ontario meeting, in which three pastors were examined to enter the Reformed Church ministry, one pastor pointed out how much all of us would benefit from continuing education. The Synod must work to provide biblically-based opportunities. Thirdly, the Synod will keep a close eye on trends in our denomination to depart from biblical understandings of the covenant. We thank the Lord that the attempt to open the communion table to all baptized children failed our General Synod, but the very fact that some advocated for such an unhealthy misunderstanding of the covenant points out our need to be alert. Finally, the Synod will use our unified voice to speak up for the cause of God's holiness and the rediscovery of a biblical understanding of Christian family ethics in our society.

Christian family issues will be a crucial test for our Synod. If we do not work to strengthen these values, we will simply become another declining church judicatory. We will stand or fall on how we live and speak for the glory of the God of the Covenant. TO Him alone be the glory.

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