In recent issues of The Outlook I’ve described just a few of the edifying benefits of Christian friendship. Godly friends augment our faith, adjust our vision, and assist us through times of loneliness and discouragement in our individual pilgrimages. Through our friends, the Lord reveals his love and faithfulness to us.
Reflecting on the worldwide turmoil of the past year, I realized how I have been sustained again and again by Christian brothers whose energy and perseverance through difficulty set a challenge and example for my own walk. As an experimental new section in The Outlook, I asked three of my peers in various parts of the world to respond to the following prompt. The answers of these dear friends are below.
The Transcendence and Immanence of God
Mr. Nicholas Biancamano
The transcendence and immanence of God have been two doctrines of the Christian life that have provided deep comfort to my heart throughout this past year. There have been numerous moments where I was gripped with uncertainties and anxiety about the future. I was threatened with the loss of employment on a number of different occasions, and, being a relatively newly married man, questions and fears regarding the future abounded in my heart. Additionally, while I myself do not fall under the at-risk category, I worried for the health of my family members whose lives could very well be taken by the coronavirus. Yet the fact that God exists in a manner completely independent of the present circumstances of the day sustained me during all of the uncertainties surrounding 2020 and continues to sustain me to this day. While my employment status was unsteady, the Rock of my salvation remained ever sure. Through every moment of wondering if everything would be okay for myself and for my family, I was struck by a deep-seated recognition that my Father in heaven was accomplishing his perfect will for my life. In fact, he used this season of frailty to deepen my level of trust in his sovereign control over all things and to grow in my heart a level of contentment that is not dependent upon earthly circumstances.
Our sovereign Creator, Ruler, and Redeemer requires nothing from our hands (Acts 17:25). He is faithful to provide all that we stand in need of, and he delights in doing so (Phil. 4:19). The same God who communicated to Moses in the burning bush, “I AM WHO I AM,” is the all-sufficient Ruler who governs the world today. No matter the ills of the present moment— personal, societal, or otherwise— Christ remains seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. We, as Christians, have a source of truth which does not originate within the CDC guidelines or our social media newsfeeds; it comes directly from the God of all truth and is revealed to us in Scripture. Here we find that there is an overarching plan of redemption that cannot be thwarted, as God exists outside of time, and his word does not return to him void (Isa. 55:10–11). What comfort fills my heart and what peace penetrates the depths of my soul as I ponder this great plan of redemption and watch it unfold before my very eyes.
As I write about God’s transcendence, it is only fitting for me to reflect on his immanence as well. While God exists outside of his creation, he also takes an active and absolute role in determining the course of all things. He is with us on every mountain peak and in every valley of life—intimately involved in each and every detail of our lives. As the Heidelberg Catechism so succinctly states, “For all creatures are so completely in God’s hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.” God has not merely created the world, set things in motion, and then left us to our own devices; instead, he is near to his creatures (Ps. 139:7–12) and is actively guiding and directing the course of all history toward the ultimate consummation of his kingdom. At a predetermined moment in time, Christ will return to judge both the living and dead. This promise of final judgment and a second coming relieves me of all undue anxiety and skepticism and directs my heart to worship. I rest secure in the eternal truth that all things will be brought into submission under the authority of Jesus Christ.
Nicholas Biancamano lives with his wife, Rebecca, on Long Island, NY. He is a member of West Sayville Reformed Bible Church (URCNA).
Assurance of Salvation
Mr. Gert van Hoef
The Christian doctrine that has given me particular comfort in this past year is the assurance of grace and salvation. Before the year 2020, I didn’t know much about this precious truth. I learned when I started studying various confessions, like the Westminster Confession and the Canons of Dort. It was such a tremendous comfort for me to read about the inward evidences of God’s graces which are promised in the Scriptures. As the Westminster divines put it: “This certainty is an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, and the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made” (Westminster Confession of Faith, art. 18, para. 2). I will not mention all the graces unto which the promises are made, but I have come to discern those saving graces in my inner man, which were wrought by the Holy Spirit. This has led me to a full assurance that I am, by grace, one of his sheep. He said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28, New American Standard Bible).
I have no words to describe the great comfort and joy of this personal assurance. We all have to struggle with many temptations, but that inward sense of the assurance of his grace always lifts me up and strengthens me to persevere. Even though the world around us is quite restless at the moment, I can put my trust in God’s providential care for me. However, it’s not necessarily God’s providence that gives me the greatest comfort. I knew about his sovereignty and providence before 2020, and I know that he is in control of everything that happens. Verses like “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matt. 28:18) are wonderful and comforting. But the assurance of my salvation transcends them all, because that means that he is both almighty God and my loving Father, who witnesses with my spirit that I am his beloved child, and that nothing can harm me without his will. Thus the apostle Paul said, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28, English Standard Version). For me, loving God with a childlike faith in Jesus Christ is the secret to overcoming the world. And I believe that all genuine believers experience this in some measure, whereby they are not shaken and do not become desperate when the world is being turned upside down. It is because they are born of God, wherefore they overcome the world and get the victory by their faith in their Lord and their humble obedience to his commandments (1 John 5:3–5).
I hope that the reader will be encouraged and comforted by reading this. Assurance of your salvation doesn’t come in a day. It’s why Peter said, “Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10, New King James Version). And also the writer of Hebrews: “We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end” (Heb. 6:11). Let us therefore “be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14).
It’s yet uncertain what the remainder of the year 2021 will bring for us, but as long as we set our minds on the things above (Col. 3:1–2) and run with endurance the race that is set before us, while looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:1–2), we will continue to be transformed into his image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Rev. 21:7). “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
Gert van Hoef is a twenty-six-year-old concert organist in Barneveld, The Netherlands.
Everyday Apocalypses
Mr. Dawid Bodych
How many ends of the world have we lived through? I would say the rough estimate of frightening, worldwide visions of doomsday per annum is at least two or three. Whether it’s a flaming meteorite, an enormous volcano, or a global, deadly pandemic, some of us say, “Well, it just makes sense that everything is going under since we have strayed so far from God.” Of course, there are also those that state on the contrary that every generation believes it lives in the final days and that everything will stay as it is. However, both the former and the latter are only somewhat right. We should stay prepared for the ultimate end and judgment, but what makes Christians to be on guard and alert is constant struggling with and rising from everyday apocalypses. We may live another day, or even for a century, but not everything will stay as it is—in that we should rejoice.
The year 2020 was such a revolutionary and peculiar time that as I write these words, although it has come to an end in calendar terms, it still remains one of the most decisive determinants of our everyday life. Regardless of where we live, every one of us has felt its often devastating impact. Many have had to change their plans; many have lost their jobs or even their loved ones. I and my then fiancée, for instance, had to postpone our wedding—fortunately only for three months. On another personal note, my student fraternity could not celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its foundation, which has been several years in preparation. The well-known saying still persists: “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.” Fortunately, all crises, whether big or small, not only test our humility but also are an excellent occasion to see what has been hidden from us. For “there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known” (Matt. 10:26, New American Standard Bible).
To understand how we can more abundantly draw good from bad times, we should focus on two Greek words, apokálypsis and krísis, for these can have both fearful and regenerating connotations. Regarding the first, we often tend to bind it with purely eschatological matters. It may not be wrong to do so, but it often seems like reading only the last chapter of a book. Krísis is similarly understood as the end of something or a great turmoil but not as often as a start for something new. Nevertheless, both of these words announce an event of judgment and uncovering. Whether or not we like it, these two, apokálypsis and krísis, are the daily bread of God’s people. Even as the destruction of the temple in AD 70, foretold by Jesus, was in some ways the end of the world for Jews, so the global coronavirus pandemic is the end of some things we were used to. When Jesus announces the tribulation, he commands his disciples to flee to the mountains when they see the coming judgment (Matt. 28:16). Because of these “ends” on our Christian pilgrimage, we constantly have to move our tents to different places. When our earthly dwelling becomes too comfortable and we prefer to stay where we are, we often riot like the Israelites: “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Num. 14:3, New International Version).
We die on a daily basis. Our “beloved” world dies in front of our eyes every day. But as wounds after a crucial operation, we rise to live better and to be closer to God. For Jesus has said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). He is with us always, to the end of the age, changing the bad into good and glory into glory. This process of new creation that we as members of the church take part in cannot be instant or infinite. Indeed, we know how God’s holiness contrasts with our fallen nature and how stubborn we are to accept it. As the Israelites were blinded by God’s glory coming from Moses’ face, we still cannot bear the full revelation of his kingdom. Things are changing according to God’s plan. We might often be surprised by this process, but there is one thing that will not change. He is the Alpha and the Omega; everything leads to him—heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away (Mark 13:31).
Is the coronavirus pandemic the end? Absolutely yes and categorically no. Polish poet and Nobel laureate Wiesława Szymborska has written, “We know ourselves only as far as we’ve been tested.” It is the time to see what we still hide from ourselves and change it according to God’s image. With the help of God, that’s how we take part in the new creation.
Dawid A. Bodych is a Reformed Christian programmer and amateur student of theology in Poznań, Poland.
Contributed by Michael R. Kearney, who is a graduate student and research assistant in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He is a member of Covenant Fellowship Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA) in Wilkinsburg, PA.