Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/92

Contributor - Wim Meijer

Title - I Believe In Communion With The Church of All Ages And Places.

Topic -

The place was pointed out to me in the usual prairie-style way: five miles south, two miles west, one mile south, half a mile east, and indeed these instructions led me to some farm buildings. But my first impression was that I must have made a mistake, nobody is living here. The yard was a mess. The house had not seen paint for at least thirty years. Some windows had been repaired with semi-transparent plastic. If somebody is living here, I thought, either he is incapable of maintaining his property, or he does not care for it.

This is exactly how many people look at God's relationship with His creation. This world is one big mess. Either God does not care for the world at all, or He is unable to look after it.

God's providence.

We believe in God the Father, Almigbty, "maker of heaven and earth". The Heidelberg Catechism does not make any attempt to defend God as Creator over against evolutionism. Of course not. This was an issue in the 16th century. I will leave the creation-evolution discussion now for what it is. Maybe there will come another opportunity to explore this issue further. There is something else which needs our attention now. In Q.26 the catechism says that "out of nothing God created heaven and earth and everything in them" and He "still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence." One complete Lord's Day (10) with two questions (27, 28) are dedicated to the teaching about God's providence. One thing is clear: this world may seem to be a mess, yet God does care, and He is perfectly able to do so!

The Providence of the Father

Let us go back to the first book of the Old Testament. Genesis 22 tells us about Abraham who is called to sacrifice his son Isaac. At Isaac's questions, "Where is the lamb for the offerings Abraham answers: "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." And God did provide a lamb; not only the animal which was sacrificed instead of Isaac that day, but God provided His own Son as "the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). This is where God's providence begins. And we can only understand God's providence when we have become the children of God by a true faith in this Lamb of God. Only then can we see everything coming to us, "not by chance, but from His fatherly hand" as the catechism says.

All things

ALL THINGS are included in God's providence. Some people think that the good things come from God and the bad things come from Satan. That would be terrible, for that would mean that certain things are not under God's control. The catechism confesses that "leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty - all things come from His fatherly hand." In Isaiah 45:7 the Lord speaks very clearly: "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

God brings evil upon us for different purposes: for punishment, as in the case of David being punished for his sin with Bathsheba, and after he took a census of Israel and Judah for instruction, as shown by the Israelites having to travel through the desert to the promised land so that there would be an opportunity for God to reveal himself as a God in whom they could trust; and for testing faith, as pictured in the life of Job. ALL THINGS are in God's hand, the small and great things, the major events in world politics, but also the small twists and turns in one's life.

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