ORDINATION IN A HUDDLE

By this time our 1962 class of candidates have all been ordained. Did you ever witness an ordination ceremony? A congregation is singularly thrilled when a young servant of the Lord is ordained and thus consecrated to the holy ministry of the Word and Sacraments. It is a solemn and impressive service. That is, it should be; but is it? The moment has come for the candidate to kneel. Usually during the singing of a song the audience in the rear suddenly begin craning their necks; the candidate has disappeared from view. Now a number of ministers gather around rum for the laying on of hands. The candidate is surrounded by their legs so no one can see him. Likely as not, he has his back to the audience, but that makes little difference since no one can see him anyway. Then the ordination ceremony is read. This over, he rises and takes his seat and the remainder of the service is concluded. Surely, this can be improved upon. This writer has had charge of a few of these ordination services where something new was added. The candidate came upon the platform and kneeled facing the audience. Then the laying on of hands took place in full view of everyone in the building. It thrilled all who were present. We commend this to every consistory that has the privilege to arrange for an ordination service.

C. Huissen

PRESIDENT PONTIUS PILATE

There is a fraternity which has as its slogan Peace at Any Price.

This fraternity is very ancient. It came into being when, in the garden of Eden, man made a league with the father of lies, and it has continued without interruption through the centuries. It is also exceedingly large. Today it has countless members in every nation under the sun, influential United States of America included. Many chant, “Better red than dead.” And it has its representatives among the adherents of diverse religions. Buddhism has a reputation for pacifism, but also within the Christian church there are multitudes who, while professing the truth, are unwilling to fight for it.

A prominent member of that fraternity was Pontius Pilate, fifth Roman procurator of Judea. Jesus of Nazareth was brought to trial before him. Under the influence of their religious leaders the Jews demanded for rum death by crucifixion. However, Pilate, who had an admirable sense of justice, was fully convinced of his innocence. Repeatedly he informed the assembled throng that he found no fault in the Galilean at all. He tried hard, desperately hard, to effect his release. As a last resort he gave the mobits choice between the benevolent Rabbi and the notorious criminal Barabbas. Fervently he hoped that this clever device would work But it did not And when the crowd became tumultuous and threatened to charge him with treason if he acquitted a self-styled king, he yielded. In order to keep himself out of trouble with the Jews and Caesar, he delivered a righteous man to be crucified. He thought to purchase peace at the price of patent justice. He sold out equity for ease, integrity for comfort, truth for peace.

Pilate felt sure that he was purchasing peace, but he was not. Instead of gaining the good will of the people and the favor of the emperor, he lost both. And once for all he forfeited peace of soul. History tells us that he was soon deposed. Tradition has it that he committed suicide in exile. No one has ever purchased peace at the price of truth or justice. To do so is utterly impossible, for peace, true peace, is invariably rooted in truth and justice.

The Roman judge has lots of company. Any number of men have sought to purchase peace at the price of virtue. But Pilate did that thing at the most crucial point in all of human history and he sentenced to death him who was at once the one and only perfect man and the very Son of the Highest. That entitles Pontius Pilate to the Permanent Presidency of the Peace at Any Price Fraternity.

R.B.K.

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS – NECESSARY BUT FRAUGHT WITH DANGER

Recently I heard a former missionary make a remarkable statement. He said that the first generation of converts to Christianity are not vexed by problems of culture and of common grace and the like, but that such matters usually do interest and at times disturb second and third generation Christians. Evidently the first generation of believers sees and experiences the absolute difference between paganism and Christianity so definitely and its joy in walking in the light is so overwhelming that problems of culture and of general and special revelation cannot make an impression sufficiently great to distract them from the one thing needful. However, the children and grandchildren of these converts are brought up in Christian homes and in a Christian environment and they begin to reflect upon such problems and are at times spiritually disturbed by those reflections.

It will, of course, be understood that I am not in position to verify this claim of the missionary. However, I have no reason to doubt it and must accept it upon face value. But then the question is unavoidable whether the condition of those first converts is not preferable to that of their followers or descendants. If so, shall we then not cling tenaciously to the level of that first generation and refuse to advance beyond its stage of development? Why should we want to be vexed by problems and allow our spiritual lives to be undermined? Would it not be better to refuse to grapple with problems?

But that would be wishful thinking. We have no choice. For I assume that most of us are not first generation Christians. At least the majority of us were born in Christian homes and were reared in a Christian environment. God assigned that position and those conditions to us and these are unchangeable. However, we can attempt to remain on the level of that first generation of converts and we can insist upon closing Our eyes to the problems which we are bound to encounter. The question should be put whether such conduct would be approved by God. Though the attitude may seem to be safe, yet it may be very wrong and even dangerous.

It should be plain to us that Scripture indeed disapproves of such an attitude and of such conduct. In Hebrews 5:12 the apostle chides the believers and says, “For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.” This admonition suggests a foul and stagnant condition among those Hebrew Christians and God never acquiesces in that. God allots time and opportunities to us. We are to employ them diligently. According to the Psalmist (84:7) we must go “from strength to strength.” It’s our task to learn to understand God’s truth ever better and thus advance beyond “the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God.”

We are to advance even though we know that we shall meet with various problems and be exposed to various dangers. Indeed, we must be interested in the truth of God, but as we interest ourselves in that truth we must watch ourselves closely. The important thing is not only that we see the problems clearly; our attitude and approach to such clearly de6ned problems is likewise of paramount significance. The danger of intellectualism is ever present and this would cause us to “play” or “philosophize” with the truth of God. Besides, while we thus misuse the truth of God the opposition will not be slow to take advantage of our awkward position. For there is opposition. Falsehood and the lie place themselves over against God and his revelation. The entire Bible is an account of the struggle against that opposition. The prophets of Jehovah God stand over against the false prophets. The worship of the only living God stands over against the worship of idols. Christ stands over against Antichrist. Moreover, that opposition and that struggle continue throughout the history of the church. That history is marked by defense and offense. The dogmas of the church are the products of the woes of the church.

Now, in addition to Our acknowledgment of the existence of such opposing and deteriorating forces, we must also learn to admit that by nature we readily yield to such forces. The apostle writes to the Galatians (1:6): “I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from rum that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel.” This is written with reference to the errors of Judaizing teachers, and the apostle expresses his astonishment that the Galatian Christians, who must have been recent converts, so quickly, or so readily, or so easily, yielded to the teaching of falsehood and thereby removed themselves from the truth of God. Deterioration must have set in almost immediately after conversion. And that was very serious. Nothing less than salvation was at stake. For that reason the apostle continues to write, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.” Evil tendencies and inclinations towards falsehood must therefore be subdued within us.

At the same time we must labor positively and adhere to that what God made us to be and what we possess through His grace and Spirit in Christ. Jesus dictated letters to John which were addressed to seven churches. The first of these (Rev. 2:1–7) was sent to Ephesus. Jesus mentions many wonderful things found in this church. Just listen, “I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false, and thou hast patience and didst bear for my name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.” Had we moved among the members of this church our impressions would have been excellent. But amidst all these virtues Jesus detects a glaring and ominous lack and fault. Says He, “But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.” The exuberance of love towards Christ and towards His truth, which must have filled the hearts of the Ephesian Christians at first, was now waning and disappearing. Were intellectualism and formalism crowding this love and its devotion out of the hearts of these believers? Were all their splendid works becoming as sounding brass and clanging cymbals? At any rate the situation was very serious. Disaster threatened. Jesus warned, “Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.”

As we apply ourselves to the task assigned and seek to make progress in understanding God’s truth, we must on the one hand resist the dangers which constantly beset us from without and from within, and on the other hand we must prayerfully seek to increase and to purify our love to Christ and to his truth. We may not and we need not leave our first love. But we must also realize that love can be retained only if we exercise it and seek to increase and to purify it. It must also be very clear to us that if we approach the problems of culture when we have left our first love to Christ, our solutions will be wrong and unbiblical, and we shall then yield to the opposition. And that would be disastrous.

N.J.M.