Encounter with our “last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26) is never easy.
And so the news that our friend, Dr. Edwin H. Palmer, had died was not easy to absorb. Ed was healthy. He worked at keeping physically fit. And he looked it. Seeing him was pleasant for many reasons, among them the fact that the ravages of time didn’t seem quite so inevitable when this vigorous, youthful–looking man was around.
But he is now with the Lord, “which is far better” (Phil. 1:23) for him, although a great loss for us. By this little piece we of the Reformed Fellowship and THE OUTLOOK wish to express our sympathy to his wife and sons, to all who mourn because of his passing, and to pay tribute to the memory of one with whom we expect reunion one day soon in everlasting glory.
Edwin H. Palmer – as any discerning Christian Reformed person of Dutch descent can easily guess–was not born “in our circles.” I know little about his spiritual roots except that they were not typical of us. He came to us “from the outside,” and in this instance it was a very happy and fortunate accession.
I met him first on the campus of Harvard University in the Spring of 1943. He was a student there, and he made his room available to me so that I might spend a few days with a mutual friend, Dr. H. Evan Runner. Runner was then a junior fellow under the famous Greek scholar, Werner Jaeger, and they had become acquainted.
It was Runner who introduced Ed Palmer to the Reformed Faith as we know it, and he won a convert. They worshipped together in historic Park Street Church under Harold John Ockenga, I understand. Out of all this came a decision on Palmer’s part to go to Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, after which he went to Holland to do his graduate work at the Free University. From that institution he received the Th.D. degree in 1953. His sponsor , I suppose, was G. C. Berkouwer.
The Christian Reformed Synod of 1953 by way of exception (he never attended Calvin Seminary) granted him candidacy, and so it came to pass in the Fall of 1953 that Edwin H. Palmer was ordained into the sacred office of Minister of Word and Sacraments in the Spring Lake, Michigan Christian Reformed Church. Interestingly enough, this was the same congregation which had called and ordained one of Palmer’s most influential theological professors, Cornelius Van Til, some twenty–six years earlier.
Dr. Palmer was to have a varied ministry. Four years after his ordination he received a call to a new congregation, the church at Ann Arbor, and he saw in it a responsibility to do what he could to minister effectively in the Name of the Lord and in terms of the Reformed Faith there. He enjoyed that work, but it was cut short when he was invited by his alma mater, Westminster, to become an instructor in Systematic Theology.
Four years later (1964) he succeeded me in Grandville Ave. Church, Grand Rapids, at that time just about the largest congregation in the denomination. In spite of the fact that Grandville A venue was perhaps more “ethnic” in character than even most other Christian Reformed churches, this “American” fit in well and served with distinction. I felt then that his adjustment to us was complete and wholehearted. Harvard had been overcome by Grand Rapids!
Four years later Ed surprised us all by accepting a call to the Preakness Church of Wayne, N.J. so that he might assume the executive directorship of an organization quite strange so far as we midWesterners were concerned: the New York Bible Society. Frankly, I couldn’t see him as a kind of office-bound administrator, no matter how prestigious the organization. But then we learned that he had been enlisted to supervise, organize and implement the translation of the Bible into contemporary language from a believing point-of-view (like all else, translation isn’t ‘neutral’ either!).
This was a huge project, and a person of less conviction and vigor would never have attempted nor completed it. Many people and a great deal of money plus all kinds of ingenuity and perseverance were required—but Ed was up to it. Under God’s guidance and blessing the New International Version of the Bible was published. In cooperation with the Zondervan Publishing Company this version was quickly recognized as a significant event in the history of biblical translation. Acceptance by the Bible-reading public was readily obtained, and today hundreds of thousands of copies* have been distributed.
From this sketchy account of our friend’s life you can already gain some impression of his person as well as his work. To know Ed Palmer was to love him, especially if you shared with him a deep concern for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Ed loved the Christian Reformed Church because he believed that it stood for that faith, and he was minded to fight against all contrary influences. We were privileged to have him as a comrade and ally in that struggle, and we know therefore what we have lost.
I could say several things about his character and personality. But I prefer to say something in tribute to his faith. He was sincerely confessional, sensitively Reformed, and candidly Christian. He wanted the best for His Lord and for the Truth which He is and reveals. He wanted Reformed people to love their doctrine and to promote their heritage with competence, courage and conviction. My last memory of him is a speech delivered in the new chapel auditorium of Dordt College in which he pleaded with us to bring what we know and believe into the marketplace and arena of everyday life so that t he claims of the King might be heard by all.
To his dear wife, “Peter,” we say, Thank you for the support and love which made it easier for Ed to do for all of us the things he felt called of God to undertake. We commend you to the grace of Him who led Ed Palmer from Cambridge to Philadelphia to Amsterdam to us.
To his sons we say, May God ease your sorrow and at the same time stir you up to follow after a father who spoke to you the Word of God. Please follow his faith!
John H. Piersma
*An understatement, I think.