Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/95

Contributor - Jeff Kingswood

Title - Editorial

Topic - Editorial

ONCE when I was preaching in North Carolina I made the mistake of referring to the American War between the States as the Civil War. The difference was not obvious to me at first but as a Senator from that State explained things I came to see and appreciate the subtle difference.

To refer to the war as the Civil War implied that a homogeneous unit was torn asunder by rebel states taking authority that was not their own. To refer to it as the War Between the States implied that States with equal rights and powers were at war to preserve their rightful authority.

The War Between the States was not first of all about slavery. Slavery was simply the issue that brought matters to a head. The war was really about authority. Who held it and how much did they hold?

The Federal government was taking more and more authority to itself. Many of the Southern states, and not a few Northerners, were concerned that the "bottom up" idea of delegated authority that federalism was based upon, had been lost somewhere along the way. The Federal government simply assumed power whenever it felt it needed to and began to interfere in places where many States felt the Feds had no business.

Both sides felt so strongly about the issue that they went to war. The South feeling that the Federal government was fighting to subjugate "inferior" governments and the North fighting to teach the "rebels" their rightful place and limit State's rights.

This is a simplified overview of course but as I thought of some of the issues that we face as a Reformed Church in 1995 the parallels became clear.

I wonder if we are on the verge of a War between the States. I wonder if the failure of classis Grand Rapids North and classis Muskegon to pay their Church Herald assessments and, as a result not being seated at General Synod last year, were the first shots? I wonder if the political compromise that has held Liberal and Conservative together for the last half a century in the RCA is about to fall apart?

General Synod has taken to itself powers that were never dreamed of by those who originally drafted our Constitution. The idea of assessing for program was certainly never considered as we see from Demarest's 1928 commentary Notes on the Constitution of the Reformed Church in America. But General Synod passed a "law" that any program can be assessed for. Out goes the "common law" or our denomination and in comes a legislatively heavy bureaucracy. However, the assessment issue is but the tip of the iceberg.

There are fundamental questions about where we are heading and what message we are to proclaim to a world lost in darkness. To read the General Synod study papers on Homosexuality, Scripture, and others, you might get the idea that the RCA once had a light but that the batteries are done for (see this month's article on The Use of Scripture in Making Moral Decisions).

Certainly this is not the historic position of the Reformed Church. Our doctrinal standards are clear and unequivocal and the church must insist with the writer of Ecclesiastes that 'there is nothing new under the sun." Man has not dreamed up new methods of sin. We don't need new interpretive principals. Ethical issues are similar. Vancouver or Corinth, Molech or the abortion clinic; what difference is there?

What is called for is for the Church of Jesus Christ to stand and boldly declare that in a world that loves pluralistic tolerance the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. That "there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved'(Acts 4:12).

We need to tell the Federalists that enough is enough and we won't pay for the distribution of heresy. We need to question our covenants with institutions that have men and women on faculty who teach positions clearly contradicting our Biblical and Confessional stance as a Church (see John Moerman's article on A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing). We need to assert that the life of the Church is found in the local congregation where sinners come to faith and obedience in Jesus Christ and not in paying for more programs and more programs or jumping on the latest theological bandwagon.

The Pioneer has sometimes been accused of being unloving, of being alarmist, of being needlessly disruptive. I assure you that is not our intent. Those who have written this month do so out of a love for Jesus Christ that hates to see the Truth distorted and misrepresented. Our hope is that the Reformed Church might be found to be a "faithful" denomination and that we northern "rebels" might continue to find a home in our "mother church." No one wants a war but Christians cannot prize peace above the truth nor may we cry peace, peace where there is no peace. We bring you these thought provoking articles in this spirit.

On a more administrative level you will have noted that we are no longer involved in joint mailing with the Church Herald. This experiment was felt by both parties to be cumbersome and more trouble than it was worth. So from now on you will be getting the magazines separately (D.V.).

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