Approximately three years ago a small group of men in Iowa came together to talk about the possibility of forming a Christian Action organization in the States. As was often characteristic of significant Christian movements in history, there flowed out of this little meeting a gradually widening river of activity. It is truly amazing that the Christian Action Foundation, which was organized shortly after this initial meeting of a few men, has caught on so rapidly and in so many places throughout the country. One cannot help hut believe that the Spirit of God has been blowing upon the hearts of his people, stirring up the flames of reformation.
This promising response to the call from the “wilderness” for reformational Christian action has quickened large hope, a hope which has prompted concentration upon serious study, reflection and planning.
It is of utmost importance with any movement that one capture its central spirit and basic thrust. Men must wrestle together to put this spirit and thrust into words so that they may continue to enliven, mold, and direct them in their endeavors.
The Pulse Beat of C.A.F.
Christian action, properly conceived, is always reformational. It confronts an apostate world, under the grip of a false world-and-life view and moving in the wrong direction, with the call of Christ to reform, to be transformed. But it also levels an attack upon the regenerate humanity which continues by reason of the “old man of sin” to live much of its life in opposition to and indifferently to the mind of Christ. It, thus, speaks to the individual Christian, to the body of believers as an organism and to the organized church, as well as to the unregenerate humanity. The call to reform sounds wherever there is a misdirected life or activity.
The summons to repentance and faith, to a life of loving obedience to the will, the mind, and the law of God, originates with Jesus Christ. He is the exalted, triumphant King of the universe. Being God’s official Mediator, he is, through his life of obedience, love, fullfilment, and sacrifice, the redeemer and recreator of fallen men and of the entire creation. He, personally, by his Spirit and Word directs the restoration of all things in covenantal fellowship with his spiritual body, the believers. His Kingdom—which has its origin and life in himself as the One sent from heaven, and which is universal in scope and operation, he being King over all—is acknowledged by believers in their redeemed hearts and is proclaimed and manifested in all areas of their lives, individually and communally. Believers are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom. Their entire life is directed by his Spirit and Word. They represent him everywhere as his office-bearers. Tn this sense, for the believer to live is Christ.
Herein lies the basis, foundation, motivation, dynamic, and inspiration of all Christian action. The believer’s allegiance is not first of all to the Bible as such, but to the person of Jesus Christ. True, he is made known to his people in his inscripturated Word. And the Holy Spirit maintains, feeds, and develops the life of believers with their personal Redeemer through the Holy Scriptures. Yet the very intent and idea of the Bible is not only to reveal the Christ and confront men with Him, but to unite those chosen of the Father into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, only when men come through the Bible to receive Christ into their hearts do they experience and acknowledge the Bible for what it truly is, namely, the Word of the living God—not a dead letter. Yes, then men hear the voice of their personal Savior and King speaking to them.
However, it is he that believers long to hear. For their attachment is to him. Their life flows out of him and finds all its desire, meaning, motivation, purpose and direction in him, their living Lord. No part or aspect of their life lies outside of his rule. In all things, thoughts, words and deeds, they are to reflect covenantal fellowship with and loving obedience to him as their Sovereign. Not only arc they to bring homage to him in all of life but they are to call upon all men everywhere in all areas of life to honor his will.
This is the core of all Christian action. Springing from a redeemed heart, guided by Cll1’ist’s Spirit and Word, it is and continues to be deeply personal—rooted in, a response to, carried on for, and directed by the one Person, Jesus Christ.
This constitutes the real pulse beat of the Christian Action Foundation -its truly distinguishing characteristic. It aims to be alive unto Jesus Christ on all fronts. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega of the CAF.
The Significance of the Scriptures
Now this does not make the Holy Scriptures of less effect. Rather it brings to the inscripturated Word a far more meaningful, personal, vital attitude. For here is the voice of our God and King. All our action finds its basis, direction and challenge in the Bible. The Christian Action Foundation defines the inscripturated Word as divinely inspired, unique, reliable, authoritative. It is, thus, the only rule for faith and action. Being divinely inspired, the Scriptures obviously are unique. They differ from all other books in that the Holy Spirit is the primary author. This establishes the reliability, the trustworthiness, of the Bible. All that men need to know for their personal salvation and for their calling in life is contained therein. There is no fundamental issue of life which does not find its proper resolution in the Bible itself, either directly or on the basis of the principles clearly enunciated in it. Our interpretation, insight, or understanding of the Scriptures can be and often is inadequate or faulty. But never can our lack of agreement on Scripture’s meaning, or our failure to grasp its true meaning with respect to a particular item of interpretation, be ascribed to an inadequacy of Scripture itself. All that God intended to reveal in the Bible is reliably there and the failure to understand it lies solely with man, not the Scriptures. At times a crucial issue is settled by one word in Scripture. But that word is there and it speaks for itself with reliability and finality.
Those who do not agree with this view of the reliability of the Scriptures are not eligible for membership in the Christian Action Foundation.
The reliability of the Scriptures also establishes their authority. Scripture attests to its own authoritative character. When the Bible speaks men must bow before this authority. Since the inscripturated Word addresses itself to all areas of thought and conduct, faith and action, God’s people must study, listen, and apply the principles and the teachings of this authoritative Book. On all the vital issues we rely upon the Scriptures to find and to test the answers.
The Christian Action Foundation takes its stand within the sphere of Scripture and then believingly works out its principles deductively. It does not take its stand outside of Scripture and then inductively seek to derive guiding principles from God’s Word.
The Demand for Communal Action
Inseparably related to the whole concept of the Christian Action Foundation is the demand for communal action. The Word of God clearly teaches this. There is no support for individualism as such in the Scriptures. This does not mean that we as individuals are not responsible for our deeds. Paul informs us that “everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.” Romans 14:4. Nor does this imply that we are not to witness as individuals. But this is not an argument for individualism. Indeed not! Scripture speaks of Jesus Christ as the Head and the believers as his spiritual body. Christ is not united to each believer separately. Such does not constitute a body. Rather we are all members of one body. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” I Cor. 12:12.
In the exercise of his Kingship, Christ speaks to, works with and through his spiritual body. His marching orders are given to his body, the Church. And his people go forth as Christ’s body. Think of the song “Onward Christian Soldiers,” particularly the words, “all one body we.” Even our individual study of the Bible and our individual witnessing are never separate from the activity of the body. Through our personal Bible study we grow in our understanding, assurance and appreciation of our fellowship and calling with Christ, not apart from his body, but precisely in his wholeness, he the Head and we his body. When the individual witnesses, he does so in the name of and for the sake of Christ and his body. It is simply not Biblical to live apart from the body. In that sense Scripture renounces individualism.
Obviously, therefore, Scripture emphasizes the communal character of the believer’s task. Unless we stand together, study together, speak together, work together there cannot be an expression of the unity of that body. Nor can there be an effective carrying out of its responsibility. It is simply contrary to the very nature of the body not to identify itself wherever it functions within Christ’s Kingdom and to manifest the mind of him who is the Head. In Romans 15:5, 6 we read, “now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That is why our fathers pleaded for communal action in the areas of education, scholarship, labor, politics, amusements, communications, etc. And truly this is the crying need of our day. If we are to hold our youth and the coming generations from the devastating influence of humanistic secularism and the temptation to engage in all sorts of strange projects, we must open for them the vision of sound communal Christian action in all areas of life. And if we truly desire to realize the purpose of our existence, find meaning, walk together as young and old by reason of a basic tie that binds, we do well to ponder the propriety, potency, and prospects of corporate action. The Christian Action Foundation offers a glorious opportunity for such a program.
The Importance of the Instituted Church
This group of believers affirms that the church as organism rather than as institute is to be involved in social-political action. Yet it emphasizes the importance of the instituted church in challenging believers, through the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom, to Kingdom, communal action. The instituted church, in fact, holds a position of priority among the Kingdom spheres. For God leads men into fellowship with himself through the redemption of Jesus Christ as Head and King of the instituted church. One may say that God returns in his fellowship, restores his covenant initially through the instituted church. This can best be viewed by looking at the New Testament church. When Christ was upon earth, he instituted his church through the calling of the disciples. On Pentecost he, by his Spirit, took up his abode in his spiritual body, officially represented by the apostles. Christ, then, returning to his spiritual body, takes up his program and directs it, as Head and King, through the ministry of the instituted church. Through the preaching and teaching of the Word entrusted to the office of the instituted church, Christ calls men back to a covenant relationship with God through faith in himself.
Being united by faith to Christ through the preaching of the church, a man at the same time becomes a member of his Kingdom and subject to his rule. In fact, the church proclaims the gospel of the Kingdom. God initiates and stimulates his Kingdom program through the instrumentality of the church. Being restored through the preaching of the Word to God’s covenant life and fellowship, man becomes again God’s official, representative prophet, priest, and king in the universe, the Kingdom of God. The church not only gains the recruits for the Kingdom but continues to nurture and feed the faith of the Kingdom, covenant members, calls them to a life of loving obedience to their Lord and brings the principles of the gospel of the Kingdom to bear upon their entire activity. The church constantly challenges them to fulfill their Kingdom obligations.
The Christian Action Foundation calls upon all believers to love, honor, and uphold the instituted church. It does not condone the attitude of many in our day who ridicule, deprecate, neglect and even revolt against the instituted church. Christ will never bless this type of action. Perhaps the instituted church has failed in a lesser or greater extent to fulfill its high calling. If so, let the believers pray and labor for its reformation. Let them call the church back to its true glory by restoring to its offices the respect owing to them and demanding from them the exercise of their Christ appointed responsibilities. But let not believers minimize that church or bypass it, as though the calling of the Kingdom can be accomplished without it. Some might be tempted to elevate all other Kingdom spheres to a position of equality with that of the instituted church, each sphere claiming equal jurisdiction from Christ over the Word of God. Such a view is fraught with grave danger simply because it cannot find support in Scripture. The reformers never taught this. A. Kuyper led a secession from the state church because it was so hopelessly derelict in its calling. But he maintained with utmost zeal the high calling of the instituted church and never entertained the thought of bypassing or minimizing the instituted church.
Many through our land and in our churches are deeply concerned about the future. Especially are they disturbed by what is happening in the instituted church. They fear the loss of our faith. They sense a departure from sound doctrine. They witness bizarre, strange, weird things among some of the church youth. There is bewilderment on all sides. What is going to be the outcome?
To all the concerned believers the CAF presents the call to come together. We believe that there is much good that can come out of this effort. If we want the instituted church to be a vital instrument in Christ’s hand, if we desire something meaningful and beautiful for our youth, if we long to have the mind of Christ proclaimed throughout our land and applied to the burning issues of our day, if we really mean business concerning the Kingship of our Lord—then, come together. Join the CAF. This is a sound, Biblical movement. It offers hope. Think about this -pray about this.
B.J. Haan is president of Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa.
This promising response to the call from the “wilderness” for reformational Christian action has quickened large hope, a hope which has prompted concentration upon serious study, reflection and planning.
It is of utmost importance with any movement that one capture its central spirit and basic thrust. Men must wrestle together to put this spirit and thrust into words so that they may continue to enliven, mold, and direct them in their endeavors.
The Pulse Beat of C.A.F.
Christian action, properly conceived, is always reformational. It confronts an apostate world, under the grip of a false world-and-life view and moving in the wrong direction, with the call of Christ to reform, to be transformed. But it also levels an attack upon the regenerate humanity which continues by reason of the “old man of sin” to live much of its life in opposition to and indifferently to the mind of Christ. It, thus, speaks to the individual Christian, to the body of believers as an organism and to the organized church, as well as to the unregenerate humanity. The call to reform sounds wherever there is a misdirected life or activity.
The summons to repentance and faith, to a life of loving obedience to the will, the mind, and the law of God, originates with Jesus Christ. He is the exalted, triumphant King of the universe. Being God’s official Mediator, he is, through his life of obedience, love, fullfilment, and sacrifice, the redeemer and recreator of fallen men and of the entire creation. He, personally, by his Spirit and Word directs the restoration of all things in covenantal fellowship with his spiritual body, the believers. His Kingdom—which has its origin and life in himself as the One sent from heaven, and which is universal in scope and operation, he being King over all—is acknowledged by believers in their redeemed hearts and is proclaimed and manifested in all areas of their lives, individually and communally. Believers are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom. Their entire life is directed by his Spirit and Word. They represent him everywhere as his office-bearers. Tn this sense, for the believer to live is Christ.
Herein lies the basis, foundation, motivation, dynamic, and inspiration of all Christian action. The believer’s allegiance is not first of all to the Bible as such, but to the person of Jesus Christ. True, he is made known to his people in his inscripturated Word. And the Holy Spirit maintains, feeds, and develops the life of believers with their personal Redeemer through the Holy Scriptures. Yet the very intent and idea of the Bible is not only to reveal the Christ and confront men with Him, but to unite those chosen of the Father into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, only when men come through the Bible to receive Christ into their hearts do they experience and acknowledge the Bible for what it truly is, namely, the Word of the living God—not a dead letter. Yes, then men hear the voice of their personal Savior and King speaking to them.
However, it is he that believers long to hear. For their attachment is to him. Their life flows out of him and finds all its desire, meaning, motivation, purpose and direction in him, their living Lord. No part or aspect of their life lies outside of his rule. In all things, thoughts, words and deeds, they are to reflect covenantal fellowship with and loving obedience to him as their Sovereign. Not only arc they to bring homage to him in all of life but they are to call upon all men everywhere in all areas of life to honor his will.
This is the core of all Christian action. Springing from a redeemed heart, guided by Cll1’ist’s Spirit and Word, it is and continues to be deeply personal—rooted in, a response to, carried on for, and directed by the one Person, Jesus Christ.
This constitutes the real pulse beat of the Christian Action Foundation -its truly distinguishing characteristic. It aims to be alive unto Jesus Christ on all fronts. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega of the CAF.
The Significance of the Scriptures
Now this does not make the Holy Scriptures of less effect. Rather it brings to the inscripturated Word a far more meaningful, personal, vital attitude. For here is the voice of our God and King. All our action finds its basis, direction and challenge in the Bible. The Christian Action Foundation defines the inscripturated Word as divinely inspired, unique, reliable, authoritative. It is, thus, the only rule for faith and action. Being divinely inspired, the Scriptures obviously are unique. They differ from all other books in that the Holy Spirit is the primary author. This establishes the reliability, the trustworthiness, of the Bible. All that men need to know for their personal salvation and for their calling in life is contained therein. There is no fundamental issue of life which does not find its proper resolution in the Bible itself, either directly or on the basis of the principles clearly enunciated in it. Our interpretation, insight, or understanding of the Scriptures can be and often is inadequate or faulty. But never can our lack of agreement on Scripture’s meaning, or our failure to grasp its true meaning with respect to a particular item of interpretation, be ascribed to an inadequacy of Scripture itself. All that God intended to reveal in the Bible is reliably there and the failure to understand it lies solely with man, not the Scriptures. At times a crucial issue is settled by one word in Scripture. But that word is there and it speaks for itself with reliability and finality.
Those who do not agree with this view of the reliability of the Scriptures are not eligible for membership in the Christian Action Foundation.
The reliability of the Scriptures also establishes their authority. Scripture attests to its own authoritative character. When the Bible speaks men must bow before this authority. Since the inscripturated Word addresses itself to all areas of thought and conduct, faith and action, God’s people must study, listen, and apply the principles and the teachings of this authoritative Book. On all the vital issues we rely upon the Scriptures to find and to test the answers.
The Christian Action Foundation takes its stand within the sphere of Scripture and then believingly works out its principles deductively. It does not take its stand outside of Scripture and then inductively seek to derive guiding principles from God’s Word.
The Demand for Communal Action
Inseparably related to the whole concept of the Christian Action Foundation is the demand for communal action. The Word of God clearly teaches this. There is no support for individualism as such in the Scriptures. This does not mean that we as individuals are not responsible for our deeds. Paul informs us that “everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.” Romans 14:4. Nor does this imply that we are not to witness as individuals. But this is not an argument for individualism. Indeed not! Scripture speaks of Jesus Christ as the Head and the believers as his spiritual body. Christ is not united to each believer separately. Such does not constitute a body. Rather we are all members of one body. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” I Cor. 12:12.
In the exercise of his Kingship, Christ speaks to, works with and through his spiritual body. His marching orders are given to his body, the Church. And his people go forth as Christ’s body. Think of the song “Onward Christian Soldiers,” particularly the words, “all one body we.” Even our individual study of the Bible and our individual witnessing are never separate from the activity of the body. Through our personal Bible study we grow in our understanding, assurance and appreciation of our fellowship and calling with Christ, not apart from his body, but precisely in his wholeness, he the Head and we his body. When the individual witnesses, he does so in the name of and for the sake of Christ and his body. It is simply not Biblical to live apart from the body. In that sense Scripture renounces individualism.
Obviously, therefore, Scripture emphasizes the communal character of the believer’s task. Unless we stand together, study together, speak together, work together there cannot be an expression of the unity of that body. Nor can there be an effective carrying out of its responsibility. It is simply contrary to the very nature of the body not to identify itself wherever it functions within Christ’s Kingdom and to manifest the mind of him who is the Head. In Romans 15:5, 6 we read, “now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That is why our fathers pleaded for communal action in the areas of education, scholarship, labor, politics, amusements, communications, etc. And truly this is the crying need of our day. If we are to hold our youth and the coming generations from the devastating influence of humanistic secularism and the temptation to engage in all sorts of strange projects, we must open for them the vision of sound communal Christian action in all areas of life. And if we truly desire to realize the purpose of our existence, find meaning, walk together as young and old by reason of a basic tie that binds, we do well to ponder the propriety, potency, and prospects of corporate action. The Christian Action Foundation offers a glorious opportunity for such a program.
The Importance of the Instituted Church
This group of believers affirms that the church as organism rather than as institute is to be involved in social-political action. Yet it emphasizes the importance of the instituted church in challenging believers, through the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom, to Kingdom, communal action. The instituted church, in fact, holds a position of priority among the Kingdom spheres. For God leads men into fellowship with himself through the redemption of Jesus Christ as Head and King of the instituted church. One may say that God returns in his fellowship, restores his covenant initially through the instituted church. This can best be viewed by looking at the New Testament church. When Christ was upon earth, he instituted his church through the calling of the disciples. On Pentecost he, by his Spirit, took up his abode in his spiritual body, officially represented by the apostles. Christ, then, returning to his spiritual body, takes up his program and directs it, as Head and King, through the ministry of the instituted church. Through the preaching and teaching of the Word entrusted to the office of the instituted church, Christ calls men back to a covenant relationship with God through faith in himself.
Being united by faith to Christ through the preaching of the church, a man at the same time becomes a member of his Kingdom and subject to his rule. In fact, the church proclaims the gospel of the Kingdom. God initiates and stimulates his Kingdom program through the instrumentality of the church. Being restored through the preaching of the Word to God’s covenant life and fellowship, man becomes again God’s official, representative prophet, priest, and king in the universe, the Kingdom of God. The church not only gains the recruits for the Kingdom but continues to nurture and feed the faith of the Kingdom, covenant members, calls them to a life of loving obedience to their Lord and brings the principles of the gospel of the Kingdom to bear upon their entire activity. The church constantly challenges them to fulfill their Kingdom obligations.
The Christian Action Foundation calls upon all believers to love, honor, and uphold the instituted church. It does not condone the attitude of many in our day who ridicule, deprecate, neglect and even revolt against the instituted church. Christ will never bless this type of action. Perhaps the instituted church has failed in a lesser or greater extent to fulfill its high calling. If so, let the believers pray and labor for its reformation. Let them call the church back to its true glory by restoring to its offices the respect owing to them and demanding from them the exercise of their Christ appointed responsibilities. But let not believers minimize that church or bypass it, as though the calling of the Kingdom can be accomplished without it. Some might be tempted to elevate all other Kingdom spheres to a position of equality with that of the instituted church, each sphere claiming equal jurisdiction from Christ over the Word of God. Such a view is fraught with grave danger simply because it cannot find support in Scripture. The reformers never taught this. A. Kuyper led a secession from the state church because it was so hopelessly derelict in its calling. But he maintained with utmost zeal the high calling of the instituted church and never entertained the thought of bypassing or minimizing the instituted church.
Many through our land and in our churches are deeply concerned about the future. Especially are they disturbed by what is happening in the instituted church. They fear the loss of our faith. They sense a departure from sound doctrine. They witness bizarre, strange, weird things among some of the church youth. There is bewilderment on all sides. What is going to be the outcome?
To all the concerned believers the CAF presents the call to come together. We believe that there is much good that can come out of this effort. If we want the instituted church to be a vital instrument in Christ’s hand, if we desire something meaningful and beautiful for our youth, if we long to have the mind of Christ proclaimed throughout our land and applied to the burning issues of our day, if we really mean business concerning the Kingship of our Lord—then, come together. Join the CAF. This is a sound, Biblical movement. It offers hope. Think about this -pray about this.
B.J. Haan is president of Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa.