Publishers of THE OUTLOOK are pleased that Miss Johanna Timmer of Holland, Michigan has accepted the appointment to edit a new department for women, entitled Reformed Women Speak. A hearty welcome to Miss Timmer who is no stranger to readers familiar with her past contribution to TORCH AND TRUMPET.
A WOMAN’S PAGE
It is with a deep sense of dependence on God that I begin the challenge of editing a page for women in THE OUTLOOK. It is a “cry special honor that this appointment should come to me from the managing editor of THE OUTLOOK, with the approved of the Board of the Reformed Fellowship. In a day—when distinctions are fading out when relevance is the order of the day. when propositional truth is losing ground, when a sense of authority is fast dwindling. when Reformed leaders seem to modify the meaning of Scriptures and of the doctrinal standards of the church to fit their interpretation—truly Reformed women are thirsting for the waterbrooks of God’s infallible Word. Thus to thirst is to thirst after God Himself, for the Word cannot be separated from Him Whose Word it is.
What does “woman’s page” mean? Is it a page only woman may read? Hardly that, we hope, although it should be especially adapted to their needs. Is it the only page in THE OUTLOOK women can understand? Or is it the only section that would interest them? That would be a sorry reflection on our ability to grasp what men write. Is it a page meant to further the women’s liberation movement? The only free woman is the one who subjects herself to the Biblical concepts of woman’s place in the home, in the church, and in society at large.
We hope we can enlist the help of women of all ages who will help to adorn this page with articles that will help us women think and live Christianly—that is, that we may see our place in life as directed by Cod in His Word. Some contributors will, we hope, write thought-provoking articles, some very practical ones; some expository, some imaginative; some prose, some poetry: some might even venture a Socratic dialogue form of article as Dr. Ralph Stab used to do very successfully; but all should help women become more truly Reformed, that is, more truly Christian.
That this page may be a real blessing, we earnestly request the prayers of God’s people that in every instance the contributions made to this page may reflect Biblical concepts of doctrine and of life, for both need watching—the doctrine and the life.
DO WE PRAY WHAT WE MEAN?
We still pray, “Our Father Who art in heaven, Lead me not into temptation.” Do we really mean this, or have we succumbed to a way of life that can nicely do that myself by assigning profane, sexy literature as a reading requirement. That way they can’t escape the temptation.”
• Prays the physical education teacher, “Lead not my gym pupils into temptation,” when she apparently means, “Never mind leading my gym pupils into temptation; I can do that imperceptibly by in-stilling a desire for dancing because of the rhythmic steps I teach them. This will make the transition from gymnastics to dancing very natural; and, after all, is not dancing aestheitc?” Such a physical education teacher would sharply disagree with the late Billy Sunday who is known to have said that he would rather have his daughter walk like a hippopotamus than have her learn to dance. Billy Sunday had enough spiritual perception to know of the subtle dangers of dancing.
If those responsible for the dancing that is going on after Christian school senior class parties and otherwise, would only learn from a certain ex-dancing master of yesteryear, they might tremble exceedingly instead of proudly allowing pupil or son or daughter to run right into the temptation attending such practice. This author was a dancing master of a very refined dancing school. When he became a Christian he revealed what a source of temptation dancing is even when conducted in so-called very refined circles. The mother who believes she can trust her daughter well enough to be sure that her lower nature will never be aroused through the waltz, he warns against “the greatest temptation that can possibly come to a girl.” To such as think there is no harm in parlor dancing he issues the warning that not one in ten thousand parents can restrict their children to that only. Oh, that all parents can restrict their children to that only. Oh, that all parents, yes, Christian-school parents too. would take the advice of this former proprietor of a refined dancing academy, when he says that the safe side is the best side. What is the best side? This, “Keep them from taking the first step to ruin, and they can never take the last.”
• Prays the Christian music teacher, “Our Father, lead not my music pupils into temptation,” when he more honestly means, “Never mind leading my music pupils into temptation. I can do that more easily myself now than ever before, since some Christian groups have accepted rock music as a channel for communicating the Christian message.” What a sad commentary this is on the spiritual level of some Christian people. Read carefully the following reflections on this matter.
Bob Larsen, who “by the time he was fifteen had his own rock and roll combo,” but who experienced a radical conversion, has this to say in his book. Rock and Roll, tile Devils Diversion: “Unfortunately, even evangelical religious circles have not been exempt from the church world’s acceptance of rock and roll. Some see it as a means of reaching teenagers for Christ. Their argument is that we must translate the message of Christ into the vernacular and transmit it through the medium that the teenagers are tuned in to. In my opinion it is a serious mistake. Why adapt the sexually exhilarative rhythms of rock music to communicate Christ? . . . The church should give young people something the world can’t. If they reject it, that is a matter to be left in God’s hands” (p. 91). Larson goes on to say: “I readily admit that on occasion some have been reached through the medium of spiritual rock. But the end does not justify the means. Communicating with rock and roll implies complete approval of this music” (pp. 91–92).
With a capital “NO” Bob Larson answers the question whether rock and roll is a “style” which should be wedded to the Gospel message. I heartily agree with him that it is indeed “a sad commentary that many teenagers have become hooked on rock and roll by the rock beat generated by some Gospel groups in the name of Christ” (p. 160). Dear women, how can anyone “made to sit in the heavenlies with Christ” enjoy “the devil’s diversion?” Have we lost our spiritual antennae? Are we no longer sensitive to the difference between a hellish and a heavenly milieu? Christians should in a marked way distinguish themselves from the world, not even touching the “garment polluted with the flesh.”
• Prays the Christian teacher of science, “O God, lead not my students into temptation,” whereas some of them seem rather to mean, “Never mind leading my students into temptation. I can in a very pious way and with all sincerity lead them to believe the facts of creation as recorded in Genesis to be unscientific, by assuring them that the first chapter of Genesis only informs them of the ‘that’ of creation and not of the ‘how’ of creation, and by making them believe that the purpose of Scripture is not to impart scientific facts but rather to impart information relating to ‘the saving revelation of God in Jesus Christ.’”
• Prays many a contemporary preacher, “Heavenly Father, lead not my Hock into temptation.” To the distress of laymen in different denominations, some of the preachers seem to interpret this prayer to mean, “Lord, never mind leading my flock into temptation. I am proficient enough in the new mythology, the new hermeneutics, the new theology, the new science to do it myself in a very scholarly way. All I need to do is to put new meaning into the Scriptures which will justify me in denying the perspicuous meaning of such passages as the first eleven chapters of Genesis.” The perspicuous meaning of the creation account is that God spoke and it was. This is called “fiat creation” as over against “process creation.” The perspicuous meaning of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is that the events in it are historical facts and must be accepted as such because God Himself has c1earlv revealed them to us as such. Those of the “new” movement, however—although condescendingly, they still allow us (the “ignorant”) this literal view of Genesis—do insist that we must allow them a view that ingratiates them with “modern science” namely the “process creation” view that greatly dilutes the antithesis between evolution and creation, a view whereby, as R. J. Rushdoony would say, they are making themselves “amenable to the apostate science of autonomous man” (The Mythology of Science, pp.59–60).
• Doesn’t it thus sometimes seem as if the prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” is sheer mockery? Where is the fear of temptation? Where the evidence of fleeing away from it for fear it will enslave or destroy us? Where the determination to resist the devil? Where the not loving the world, neither the things that are in the world? Where the heeding of the warning, “touch not the garment polluted with the flesh”? Where the evidence that we are no longer “doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind?”
• Why all this on a woman’s page? This is a good question which I shall answer with other questions. Mothers, do you know what your son, your daughter are being taught in Bible, in science, etc., about the Genesis account of creation, about the historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis? Do you know what kind of books your child is required to read? Do you know what kind of program is carried out in the Gymnasium class? Are you keeping yourself wide enough awake to discern implication, to see that what your child is taught today will affect his future and the future of your grandchildren, yes, the future of the church of Jesus Christ?
The inscription which appears on the National Archives Building in Washington, is: “The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.” What kind of a heritage are the teachers of your children giving your children? What kind of a heritage are you giving your children? Are you structuring their heritage faithfully as covenant mothers? If you neglect observing what your child is being taught in school do not make the fatal mistake of assuming that because your child goes to a Christian school or college, his teachers all have a Biblical view of life, I mean a full-orbed Biblical view of life, Within the last week a Christian school principal told me he was afraid our Christian schools are losing their Christianity. If so, then our schools must be leading our precious children into the very temptations into which we are asking God not to lead them.
Women, let us awake to what is going on in Christian circles. Yes, we are still praying. “Lord lead us not into temptation,” but how busy many of us seem to be leading ourselves, our children, our pupils, our students, and even pastors their parishioners into temptation.
Do we pray. What we mean?
LOST
Sitting near a window in our living room which overlooks the Faith Christian Reformed Church in Holland, I recently saw a little child walk on the church side of our street, crying as she went. Her cry prompted me to look eastward and westward to see if anyone was attending her. Seeing no-one, and therefore realizing she was likely lost, I dashed for my coat and hat to overtake her. She kept on crying as she hastened toward busy Michigan Avenue. I had to jog to catch up with her. Sure enough, she was lost. I took the sobbing child by the hand and brought her to our home, assuring her we would help find her Mommy.
The child was so full of grief that she could hardly give me any needed information. Between her snickering sobs she gave her name as Kristy, and her mother’s as Betty. But Kristy Who? Betty who? Still in a quandary, we solicited the help of a very kind police officer to whom Kristy readily entrusted herself, as if she sensed he could help her. Before she and the officer were out of sight, she was reunited with mother and grandmother who were overjoyed to find her, for they were already thinking the worst.
What had happened? Without the mother’s knowledge, who thought Kristy was waiting in their car for her at their home, Kristy had started walking to Grandma’s house and had lost her way. This is not uncommon among three year olds as psychologists will tell you and many a mother has experienced.
The mother’s joy was as great as Kristy’s grief had been. What a joy it was to be used of the Lord in helping an anxious mother and grandmother find their lost child, and to see a lost child safe in the arms of her dear ones.
We too were once lost—lost in sin, and we couldn’t find our way. However, our Heavenly Father came after us, rescued us, returned us to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore ordained that we should walk in them.” May we women become increasingly more alert to the good works God has prepared for us to do. May we seek to turn every work we do into a good work by doing it out of love for God, according to His will, and for His glory. Every work Jesus did was good because He only did what was pleasing to His Father.
Like Kristy, we too once walked right on as if we knew the way, but were pitifully unaware of the dangers ahead. Someone, however, saw us, and in unmerited love came to our rescue—our Heavenly Father. Let us daily rejoice in being safe in the arms of Jesus. Aren’t you glad, fellow Christian, that you don’t have to wait until you die to be safe in those arms?
A WOMAN’S PAGE
It is with a deep sense of dependence on God that I begin the challenge of editing a page for women in THE OUTLOOK. It is a “cry special honor that this appointment should come to me from the managing editor of THE OUTLOOK, with the approved of the Board of the Reformed Fellowship. In a day—when distinctions are fading out when relevance is the order of the day. when propositional truth is losing ground, when a sense of authority is fast dwindling. when Reformed leaders seem to modify the meaning of Scriptures and of the doctrinal standards of the church to fit their interpretation—truly Reformed women are thirsting for the waterbrooks of God’s infallible Word. Thus to thirst is to thirst after God Himself, for the Word cannot be separated from Him Whose Word it is.
What does “woman’s page” mean? Is it a page only woman may read? Hardly that, we hope, although it should be especially adapted to their needs. Is it the only page in THE OUTLOOK women can understand? Or is it the only section that would interest them? That would be a sorry reflection on our ability to grasp what men write. Is it a page meant to further the women’s liberation movement? The only free woman is the one who subjects herself to the Biblical concepts of woman’s place in the home, in the church, and in society at large.
We hope we can enlist the help of women of all ages who will help to adorn this page with articles that will help us women think and live Christianly—that is, that we may see our place in life as directed by Cod in His Word. Some contributors will, we hope, write thought-provoking articles, some very practical ones; some expository, some imaginative; some prose, some poetry: some might even venture a Socratic dialogue form of article as Dr. Ralph Stab used to do very successfully; but all should help women become more truly Reformed, that is, more truly Christian.
That this page may be a real blessing, we earnestly request the prayers of God’s people that in every instance the contributions made to this page may reflect Biblical concepts of doctrine and of life, for both need watching—the doctrine and the life.
DO WE PRAY WHAT WE MEAN?
We still pray, “Our Father Who art in heaven, Lead me not into temptation.” Do we really mean this, or have we succumbed to a way of life that can nicely do that myself by assigning profane, sexy literature as a reading requirement. That way they can’t escape the temptation.”
• Prays the physical education teacher, “Lead not my gym pupils into temptation,” when she apparently means, “Never mind leading my gym pupils into temptation; I can do that imperceptibly by in-stilling a desire for dancing because of the rhythmic steps I teach them. This will make the transition from gymnastics to dancing very natural; and, after all, is not dancing aestheitc?” Such a physical education teacher would sharply disagree with the late Billy Sunday who is known to have said that he would rather have his daughter walk like a hippopotamus than have her learn to dance. Billy Sunday had enough spiritual perception to know of the subtle dangers of dancing.
If those responsible for the dancing that is going on after Christian school senior class parties and otherwise, would only learn from a certain ex-dancing master of yesteryear, they might tremble exceedingly instead of proudly allowing pupil or son or daughter to run right into the temptation attending such practice. This author was a dancing master of a very refined dancing school. When he became a Christian he revealed what a source of temptation dancing is even when conducted in so-called very refined circles. The mother who believes she can trust her daughter well enough to be sure that her lower nature will never be aroused through the waltz, he warns against “the greatest temptation that can possibly come to a girl.” To such as think there is no harm in parlor dancing he issues the warning that not one in ten thousand parents can restrict their children to that only. Oh, that all parents can restrict their children to that only. Oh, that all parents, yes, Christian-school parents too. would take the advice of this former proprietor of a refined dancing academy, when he says that the safe side is the best side. What is the best side? This, “Keep them from taking the first step to ruin, and they can never take the last.”
• Prays the Christian music teacher, “Our Father, lead not my music pupils into temptation,” when he more honestly means, “Never mind leading my music pupils into temptation. I can do that more easily myself now than ever before, since some Christian groups have accepted rock music as a channel for communicating the Christian message.” What a sad commentary this is on the spiritual level of some Christian people. Read carefully the following reflections on this matter.
Bob Larsen, who “by the time he was fifteen had his own rock and roll combo,” but who experienced a radical conversion, has this to say in his book. Rock and Roll, tile Devils Diversion: “Unfortunately, even evangelical religious circles have not been exempt from the church world’s acceptance of rock and roll. Some see it as a means of reaching teenagers for Christ. Their argument is that we must translate the message of Christ into the vernacular and transmit it through the medium that the teenagers are tuned in to. In my opinion it is a serious mistake. Why adapt the sexually exhilarative rhythms of rock music to communicate Christ? . . . The church should give young people something the world can’t. If they reject it, that is a matter to be left in God’s hands” (p. 91). Larson goes on to say: “I readily admit that on occasion some have been reached through the medium of spiritual rock. But the end does not justify the means. Communicating with rock and roll implies complete approval of this music” (pp. 91–92).
With a capital “NO” Bob Larson answers the question whether rock and roll is a “style” which should be wedded to the Gospel message. I heartily agree with him that it is indeed “a sad commentary that many teenagers have become hooked on rock and roll by the rock beat generated by some Gospel groups in the name of Christ” (p. 160). Dear women, how can anyone “made to sit in the heavenlies with Christ” enjoy “the devil’s diversion?” Have we lost our spiritual antennae? Are we no longer sensitive to the difference between a hellish and a heavenly milieu? Christians should in a marked way distinguish themselves from the world, not even touching the “garment polluted with the flesh.”
• Prays the Christian teacher of science, “O God, lead not my students into temptation,” whereas some of them seem rather to mean, “Never mind leading my students into temptation. I can in a very pious way and with all sincerity lead them to believe the facts of creation as recorded in Genesis to be unscientific, by assuring them that the first chapter of Genesis only informs them of the ‘that’ of creation and not of the ‘how’ of creation, and by making them believe that the purpose of Scripture is not to impart scientific facts but rather to impart information relating to ‘the saving revelation of God in Jesus Christ.’”
• Prays many a contemporary preacher, “Heavenly Father, lead not my Hock into temptation.” To the distress of laymen in different denominations, some of the preachers seem to interpret this prayer to mean, “Lord, never mind leading my flock into temptation. I am proficient enough in the new mythology, the new hermeneutics, the new theology, the new science to do it myself in a very scholarly way. All I need to do is to put new meaning into the Scriptures which will justify me in denying the perspicuous meaning of such passages as the first eleven chapters of Genesis.” The perspicuous meaning of the creation account is that God spoke and it was. This is called “fiat creation” as over against “process creation.” The perspicuous meaning of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is that the events in it are historical facts and must be accepted as such because God Himself has c1earlv revealed them to us as such. Those of the “new” movement, however—although condescendingly, they still allow us (the “ignorant”) this literal view of Genesis—do insist that we must allow them a view that ingratiates them with “modern science” namely the “process creation” view that greatly dilutes the antithesis between evolution and creation, a view whereby, as R. J. Rushdoony would say, they are making themselves “amenable to the apostate science of autonomous man” (The Mythology of Science, pp.59–60).
• Doesn’t it thus sometimes seem as if the prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” is sheer mockery? Where is the fear of temptation? Where the evidence of fleeing away from it for fear it will enslave or destroy us? Where the determination to resist the devil? Where the not loving the world, neither the things that are in the world? Where the heeding of the warning, “touch not the garment polluted with the flesh”? Where the evidence that we are no longer “doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind?”
• Why all this on a woman’s page? This is a good question which I shall answer with other questions. Mothers, do you know what your son, your daughter are being taught in Bible, in science, etc., about the Genesis account of creation, about the historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis? Do you know what kind of books your child is required to read? Do you know what kind of program is carried out in the Gymnasium class? Are you keeping yourself wide enough awake to discern implication, to see that what your child is taught today will affect his future and the future of your grandchildren, yes, the future of the church of Jesus Christ?
The inscription which appears on the National Archives Building in Washington, is: “The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.” What kind of a heritage are the teachers of your children giving your children? What kind of a heritage are you giving your children? Are you structuring their heritage faithfully as covenant mothers? If you neglect observing what your child is being taught in school do not make the fatal mistake of assuming that because your child goes to a Christian school or college, his teachers all have a Biblical view of life, I mean a full-orbed Biblical view of life, Within the last week a Christian school principal told me he was afraid our Christian schools are losing their Christianity. If so, then our schools must be leading our precious children into the very temptations into which we are asking God not to lead them.
Women, let us awake to what is going on in Christian circles. Yes, we are still praying. “Lord lead us not into temptation,” but how busy many of us seem to be leading ourselves, our children, our pupils, our students, and even pastors their parishioners into temptation.
Do we pray. What we mean?
LOST
Sitting near a window in our living room which overlooks the Faith Christian Reformed Church in Holland, I recently saw a little child walk on the church side of our street, crying as she went. Her cry prompted me to look eastward and westward to see if anyone was attending her. Seeing no-one, and therefore realizing she was likely lost, I dashed for my coat and hat to overtake her. She kept on crying as she hastened toward busy Michigan Avenue. I had to jog to catch up with her. Sure enough, she was lost. I took the sobbing child by the hand and brought her to our home, assuring her we would help find her Mommy.
The child was so full of grief that she could hardly give me any needed information. Between her snickering sobs she gave her name as Kristy, and her mother’s as Betty. But Kristy Who? Betty who? Still in a quandary, we solicited the help of a very kind police officer to whom Kristy readily entrusted herself, as if she sensed he could help her. Before she and the officer were out of sight, she was reunited with mother and grandmother who were overjoyed to find her, for they were already thinking the worst.
What had happened? Without the mother’s knowledge, who thought Kristy was waiting in their car for her at their home, Kristy had started walking to Grandma’s house and had lost her way. This is not uncommon among three year olds as psychologists will tell you and many a mother has experienced.
The mother’s joy was as great as Kristy’s grief had been. What a joy it was to be used of the Lord in helping an anxious mother and grandmother find their lost child, and to see a lost child safe in the arms of her dear ones.
We too were once lost—lost in sin, and we couldn’t find our way. However, our Heavenly Father came after us, rescued us, returned us to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore ordained that we should walk in them.” May we women become increasingly more alert to the good works God has prepared for us to do. May we seek to turn every work we do into a good work by doing it out of love for God, according to His will, and for His glory. Every work Jesus did was good because He only did what was pleasing to His Father.
Like Kristy, we too once walked right on as if we knew the way, but were pitifully unaware of the dangers ahead. Someone, however, saw us, and in unmerited love came to our rescue—our Heavenly Father. Let us daily rejoice in being safe in the arms of Jesus. Aren’t you glad, fellow Christian, that you don’t have to wait until you die to be safe in those arms?