The genius of John Lord provides us with the following precious vignettes depicting the two outstanding Protestants, John Calvin and Martin Luther, in his Beacon Lights of History:

Of Calvin, Lord writes: “No man who knows anything will ever sneer at Calvin. He is not to be measured by common standards. He was universally regarded as the greatest light of the theological world. . . . From Plymouth Rock to the shores of the Pacific Ocean we still see the traces of his marvellous genius, and his still more wonderful influence on the minds of men and on the schools of Christian theology; so that he will ever be regarded as the great doctor of the Protestant Church” (Vol. Ill, pp. 379–80).

And, of Luther: “. . . who, since Paul has rendered greater service to humanity than Luther? The whole race should be proud that such a man has lived” (Vol. III, p. 251).

   

“Well,” one may say, “if that’s what it takes to be a Protestant what chance do I have? Calvin and Luther are so far out of reach, there’s no use for me to try. Please count me out.”

But that’s wrong. Why? Because the great God of Calvin, Luther, Knox, and Zwingli is not dead, as some would have us believe today. He is as much alive and as powerful in our twentieth century as He was in the sixteenth. Moreover, Calvin, Luther, and those others had no monopoly on God’s grace. And besides that, the rampant religious apostasy of our day is crying to high Heavens for repentance, reformation, and a return to God and His Word no less than it did at the time of the great Protestant Reformation.

As those who call ourselves Protestants, we arc so sorely in need of someone to challenge us with that word of Mordecai to Esther: “And who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

The Porirait of a Protestant offered in these lines for our consideration and also emulation aims to be a montage or a composite picture. We want to see a genuine (not a phoney) Protestant as he assumes one posture or stance, and then another, but actually all of these at the same time.

October is Protestant Reformation month. It was on October 31, 1517, now 468 years ago, that Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the castle church of Wittenberg. However unforeseen it was that day by Luther, the monk, that was the spark that set off the explosive powers of what was to become the great Protestant Reformation.

May God graciously give us another Luther and Calvin also in our day. Who knows, He may even deign to bless our feeble efforts to bring this about by our contemplation of the “Portrait of a Protestant.” So, let’s get on with it.

1. The portrait shows the Protestant BOWING.

Bowing before whom?

Not before potentates in the church and in the State, as cowards and quislings do. But only before God and His inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word.

The thrilling saga about Martin Luther’s fearless and adamant stance in this is an oft-told tale. But now, with the Protestant Reformation being overshadowed by Halloween, and the children all agog about their trick-or-treat ventures, and with special Reformation Day rallies having fallen into poor taste, and with the Protestant church becoming increasingly chummy with Roman Catholicism and absorbed in an ecumenism that cannot stand the test of Scripture at such a time as this, it is high time that we make doubly sure that we and our children do not forget what happened when there were giants on the earth who were mightily used of God to turn men back to Him and to His Word.

At the Diet of Worms, when the Emperor demanded a forthright answer whether or not he would recant, Luther refused to yield or bow. Instead he spoke those grand and exciting words, so precious to the heart of every genuine Protestant:

“If the Emperor desires a plain answer, I will give it to him. It is impossible for me to recant unless I am proved to be wrong by the testimony of Scripture. My conscience is bound to the Word of God.” And, speaking in German, he then threw all caution to the winds by adding: “Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders.”

And what of John Calvin?

Well-known is Calvin’s coat of arms with the hand and flaming heart with these words: “My heart I give Thee, Lord, eagerly and sincerely.” He too would bow before none other than God and His Holy Word.

Excerpts from Calvin‘s Institutes make clear that he would bow before none other than his God and the Bible. Consider carefully what Calvin wrote:

“Let this be a firm principle: No other word is to be held as the Word of God and given place as such in the church, than what is contained first in the Law and the Prophets, then in the writings of the apostles; and the only authorized way of teaching in the church is by the prescription and standard of his Word” (IV, VIII, 8).

“This, then, is the difference,” says Calvin. “Our opponents locate the authority of the church outside God‘s Word; but we insist that it be attached to the Word, and do not allow it to be separated from it” (IV, VIII, 13).

This is the issue today also as the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, other denominations, and the CRC also, are engaged in the battle about the Book. To be bona-fide Protestants we are to be as bold and adament in refusing to bow before the teaching of the so-called “New Hermeneutic” by which some are now assailing the bedrock of Scripture—as bold and as adamant as Calvin and Luther and a host of others were in refusing to bow before the Pope and the tradition of men.

In his Table Talk, Martin Luther gave a ringing affirmation to all this when he said: “This is the golden age of theology. It cannot rise higher; because we have come so far as to sit in judgment on all the doctors of the church and test them by the judgment of the apostles and prophets.”

Do we want to be genuinely Protestant? Then we are to pray for the grace, the courage, and the wisdom to do likewise.

2. The portrait also shows the Protestant STANDING.

“Protestant leadership in the United States today is suffering from a loss of nerve,” according to Glenn L. Archer. He adds, “I here is no other way to describe it. The sinews of its conviction have been cut. It is no longer capable of believing in its own heritage.”

“Well,” says someone, “that may be true of the modernist churches around us; but, surely, that’s not true of the CRC.” It would be wonderful if that were true, but hold on a moment. When a CRC in Grand Rapids has a Roman Catholic priest take part in a Sunday evening ecumenical Pentecost service, when the consistory replies to an objector to defend what was done, and when the pastor of that CRC church is reappointed by Synod to serve on the denomination‘s Interchurch Relations Committee, we had better wake up and make sure that we are not sabotaging the Protestant Reformation instead of glorying in it.

Such fraternization, I am convinced, is a way to build bridges for our youth and others to cross over to the Roman Catholic fold. And let‘s not be deceived: Rome is still Rome no matter what the late Pope John‘s aggiornamento or updating of the church may have achieved.

Look carefully then at the bona fide Protestant.

He stands, and that in a twofold sense: he stands boldly for his Reformation heritage, and he stands adamantly against all heresy in conflict with it.

The term Protestant implies this, it has both a positive and a negative connotation. The Protestant who lives up to his name is always affirming something or objecting to something. He is man of both Yes and No. The Protestant is one who affirms, proclaims, and propagates the great truths of the Protestant Reformation and he is even willing to lay down his life to be a faithful witness to them. On the other hand, although he is not a heresy hunter or a malcontent with a chip on his shoulder, he does know that, while he is in the church militant, he must also be ready to do battle for the truth by opposing all that which is false and apostate.

Scriptura sola (Scripture alone), sola fide (by faith alone), sola gratia (only through grace)—these are some of the precious and basic truths for which the true Protestant stands and which he will defend against all attacks upon them as long as the Lord lends him breath.

However much we may disagree with Karl Barth in other matters, we do appreciate his concise and trenchant observation that it is the little word and that still separates Protestants and Roman Catholics. Scripture and tradition, salvation by faith and by works, prayer to God and Mary—of course, it is the aruis such as these to which the Protestant must still today take vigorous exception.

3. The portrait also shows the Protestant THINKING.

A picture of The Thinker, a bronze statue by Auguste Rodin, is a familiar sight. The intense preoccupation of the person shown is obvious in every line of this masterpiece of art. The Thinker would be an excellent representation of the kind of Protestant we are attempting to portray if only he had an open Bible before him and eyes lifted to heaven for divine guidance.

Luther, Calvin, and other heroes of the great Protestant Reformation dared to think for themselves. Rcsolutely they refused to kowtow to any papa dixit emanating from Rome or yield the right to their own thoughts and convictions in deference to the apodictic utterances of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Fearlessly they dared, as it were, to say: “I am a man, a rational being made in God’s image, with that image restored in regeneration, and I may never surrender what I now am to anyone who would lord it over me.”

As Protestants we think for ourselves. But do we really?

Granted, we do not today grovel before a pope or a church hierarchy as a corrupt church was doing in the sixteenth century when brave men sent from God challenged abject worshipers to stand lip and think for themselves. But let’s not be too quick to conclude that we are not guilty of the same mental lethargy and cowardice in any sense. Over and over again we ought to ask ourselves: Who does my thinking for me? Do I really dare to think for myself?

In The Banner of September 12, 1975, Dr. Martin Bolt of the Psychology Department of Calvin College has an interesting article on “Groupthink” that has a bearing on what I am trying to express in this “Portrait of a Protestant.” Dr. Bolt writes:

“Some time ago a cartoon appeared in the New Yorker magazine in which an austere judicial assembly is delivering its decision. The last judge responds, ‘Well, if all you smart cookies agree, who am I to dissent?’ The cartoon effectively illustrates how the desire to maintain group consensus can occur at the expense of critical thinking—a phenomenon which Irving Janis, a social psychologist at Yale University, has called ‘groupthink.’”

Dr. Bolt’s article on this subject is to continue in a later issue or issues not yet available to me at the time of this writing. What especially interests me in this discussion of “groupthink” is the fact that this tendency to “groupthinking” in the interest of self-preservation, and often due to cowardice or a feeling of inferiority, is an evil that can work so much harm also in the church—the consistory, at classis, at Synod, and also throughout the denomination. Our fathers used to speak of “Ja broeders” who meekly followed the leader or the group in order to play it safe. They had never studied psychology, but they did know what this was all about.

The red-blooded, wide-awake Protestant will have nothing of the spineless and irresponsible behavior of those who seek their refuge in nonentity. He never forgets the indictment in those familiar lines: “Be yourself, said someone, but he could not, for he was no one.”

Perhaps the greatest threat to the CRC or to any other church tottering on the brink of apostasy is this “groupthinking.” When a majority of ministers, elders, professors are agreed and make decisions that may appear to be suspect to the ordinary Joe, it is so easy for him to excuse himself by saying, “Well, if all you smart cookies agree, who am I to dissent?”

Of course, this does not mean that one should now pop off even though he fails to first do his homework so that he may know what he is talking about. But when he has done this and has arrived at and been confirmed in convictions based on Scripture, woe to him if he is unwilling to let his voice be heard lest he be dubbed a troublemaker or someone who is always rocking the boat.

Well, there you have it.

The Protestant bows, he stands, and he thinks.

The portrait as drawn is not exhaustive. You may add to it and finish it for yourself. Someone may fault me for not saying the Protestant also loves. Of course, he does. I have simply attempted to highlight those features that make the genuine Protestant the kind of church member we need so desperately, right now, and without whom the good days also for our CRC may very well be drawing to a close.