Christian Homeschooling: A Way to Educate Our Children the Christian Way

So why do we homeschool our children? Why do we use Biblical and Christ-centered curricula and materials in teaching our children? What is our goal?

First, we must see our children as God’s children. They are ultimately God’s. They are heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). Our children are ultimately not our own. We are God’s representative to our children. We treat our children the way God would treat them. We are to nurture, admonish, guide, discipline, and love them as God would do it.

What’s the essence of our parenting then? We are parenting our children in God’s stead.

Second, what should our goal be in homeschooling? Of course, in everything we do, our goal should always be to glorify God by obeying His commands. The Word of God requires us parents to instruct our children in the Christian faith and the doctrine of salvation. That’s what Deuteronomy 6:4-9 tell us. That's what 2 Timothy 3:14-15 shows us. This does not mean that you are talking to your children always, 24/7, all things about the Lord and you don’t talk to them about the ordinary things in life.

When the wise men of Scripture talk about setting a good example to our children and training them in righteousness, they mean that in the context of all of life – at home, at work, along the road, at the workshop, or in the market place.

Some of us, parents, especially those who are newly converted to the Christian faith, in our zeal and passion, we have the tendency to always correct and rebuke our children and talk to them only about God to the point of embittering them by always saying all the negative things. And our children actually end up saying, “I don’t like that God for MY God. That’s a horrible religion!” It’s all negative! It’s all outward behavior and performance that we are after in our children.

However, we will never win over our children to God when our religion is primarily negative. Yes, we must be correcting and rebuking our children – we must warn them about worldliness and waywardness – but that’s not the bulk of Christianity. That’s a part of it. The bigger part is the gospel, the grace of God in Christ, the glory and the purpose, as well as the meaning and fulfillment of life in God through Jesus Christ.

Christianity is essentially positive in nature. Our God who revealed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ is not a grumpy God, always correcting and rebuking, but a very attractive, joy-filled, tender-hearted, loving, and patient God. "He does not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever" (Psalm 103:9). As his children, He does rebuke us but in a very gentle way.

Here is where the education of our children comes in. We need good Christian education primarily not to get our children away from the world or ungodly children or spare them from embarrassment and bullying and materialism but PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF JESUS CHRIST! Christian education does not primarily mean teaching them good values and wisdom. That’s only a small part of it.

The bigger part of Christian education is to teach every subject or every knowledge to our children and how this knowledge relates to the Lordship of Christ and how it glorifies God! Christ is the sum and the bottom of education. He is the center of education! The positive teaching is the call of the gospel – the invitation to the fullness of Christ and the fact that Christ is both the object and subject of Christian education.

As object of Christian education, Jesus is the foundation and the goal of teaching our children. Why do we teach our children Language and Logic and Science and History and Geology and Astronomy and Anatomy and Math? So they may know God through our Lord Jesus Christ, His person and His work, His saving power and majestic rule, and in knowing Him they would learn to bow down before His Lordship and glorify Him in their knowledge.

We don’t want our children to have perfect scores in Language and Logic but they don’t understand the Bible and they do not know God. We don’t want them to have excellent grades in Science and Social Studies but they don’t bow down in adoration before the God who created our bodies and the whole universe and saved us through His Son Jesus Christ.

As Rev. Greg Lubbers writes, “This [i.e., the glory of God] is the exclusive goal of Christian education. This is what gives [Christian education] inestimable value. Where this is understood, there will be an invisible caption written above every classroom of Christian instruction and every page of Christian curriculum quoting Ecclesiastes 12:13, ‘Let us hear the conclusion of every matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man’” (The Outlook, Sept/Oct 2010, p.10).

As the subject of our children’s education, Jesus is the one who imparts His divine instruction. He acts in revealing His lordship to the hearts of our children, bringing them to bow down in humble fear. Christ accomplishes this work through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, it is the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit within the heart of our children that reveals the sovereignty of Christ and brings the appropriate response of faith, repentance and obedience.

So as the subject of Christian education our Lord Jesus acts – He does something for us that we cannot truly understand every subject without Him and without the power of His Spirit guiding our path and illuminating our mind.

Note also Ephesians 6:4 and the emphasis of nurturing our children “in the Lord.” We don’t raise our children according to OUR ideas of nurture and admonition but the nurture and admonition of the LORD and His ideas. Spiritually, morally, socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically, we are to raise our children on behalf of God according to His Word.

The whole book of Proverbs illustrates this. Parental, especially paternal (because the father is the primary teacher), and covenantal approach (God calls us “My son…”, “My daughter…”) is the Biblical pattern of educating our children. A Christian home must be a temple in which God is not forced down children’s throat but God is acknowledged and cherished and worshiped (Psalm 34:11-14).

That means we teach our children continually (day by day), as opportunities arise (formal or informal), but we do so primarily positively, truthfully, and honestly teach them all areas of life. And in all those areas, Christ is sovereign. He is Lord of all our lives. It’s a daunting and unending task – always teaching our children. But we have the promise of God that He will equip us as we faithfully teach them.

So Christian education, especially Christian homeschool education, is valuable because it is exclusive, in that it seeks to do something nothing else does – not the public education, not the mediocre Christian education, not the godless or humanistic or man-centered education – in bringing the student face to face with a sovereign Christ as He displays His sovereignty through His person and work, calling for a response of humble fear.

While only eternity will fully reveal the results of such labor, may we, by the grace of God, labor on with immovable hope that God will crown and reward faithful Christian Homeschool education with His blessings!

(This message was first shared at our December 2011 Lighthouse Homeschool Network General Assembly. The essence of the message was based on a lecture on parenting by Dr. Joel Beeke and an article by Rev. Greg Lubbers, “The Exclusive Goal of Christian Education” from the Christian magazine The Outlook, Sept/Oct 2010).

Leaving a Godly Legacy

For more than a year now I have been enjoying the privilege of teaching the Bible on air at Mango Radio Philippines, then at 97.1 FM in Davao City, now at http://mangoradio.asia/. I am thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to proclaim and teach the Holy Scripture over the radio. I also enjoy answering many practical, doctrinal and ethical issues asked by our listeners through text and Facebook messages.

As a Reformed Christian, and a minister at that, it is my joy to teach the Scripture and relate it in the daily life and personal relationships of ordinary believers. My way of interpreting the truths of the Scripture is not unique. The interpretation I express is not new but I always seek to be consistent with how faithful Christian interpreters in the past have explained the Bible and applied it in the lives of the believers.

I always remind myself that I (or anyone in this generation) am not the first who studied the Scripture and discovered the truths it bears and applied them to life’s daily struggles. Our forefathers in the faith had the same struggles that we have and they turned to the written Word of God to find answers to the issues they were facing.

Wisdom calls for us to learn from faithful and godly authors from the previous generations. They can teach us a lot of things from the Scripture about problems we face today. We can build our own new discoveries and conclusions on the solid foundations that they have laid. Of course we can also learn from their mistakes.

But I’m afraid we are losing the rich Christian legacy that our forefathers in the faith had discovered and written about and passed on to us. We will impoverish ourselves if we ignore the truths they have learned to love and preserved for us and the succeeding generations.

In trying to understand the teachings of the Scripture many of them devoted their time to extended study of it. I, for example, am greatly helped by the printed and online commentaries, treatises and sermons of faithful men of previous generations like Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, John Chrysostom, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, and many more.

Many of their precious insights and teachings are now available and accessible not only in libraries of old institutions of learning but also in the worldwide web or internet. We can easily read them there and try to understand them for our own benefit. We can especially pass on their teachings to our children and young men and women in our churches.

I am writing this essay because I want to share my thoughts on why it is important to leave a godly legacy. I wish to share my insights with you, dear readers, in order to somehow help stir within you the need to take seriously our responsibility to study the Christian faith in order to live it out and leave behind a godly legacy to the next generation.

I do believe that a good legacy one could pass on to his descendants, as I remember one radio listener has shared, is love for God and everything that pertains to Him. What I wanted to share with you here is similar to that idea. The one that I desire for my children and the next generation of believers to learn from me is the faith that I received also from faithful believers of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ultimately comes from God.

Does it sound like the one the Apostle Paul is talking about in 2 Timothy? Actually that’s the kind of heritage I desire to leave my children. Remember how Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:5 about the faith which he received from his mother Eunice and first lived in his Grandmother Lois? Although that faith that Paul is talking about pertains to the gift that God promises to give his people which the Holy Spirit creates through the hearing of the gospel of Christ that faith does not come without the knowledge of the gospel of Christ and the assurance and conviction from the written Word of God.

The faith I’m talking about is the body of Biblical doctrines handed down by the Old Testament prophets, preached by the New Testament apostles and their companions, faithfully proclaimed, guarded and defended by the Church Fathers, preserved through the Middle Ages by a few faithful monks and preachers, and fearlessly preached by the 16th century European Protestant Reformers. This body of doctrines were taught and lived by many English and Scottish Puritans as well as by a good number of French, German and Dutch Reformed Christians and their posterity.

That faith has been carried and preached by the 18th and 19th century missionaries (like William Carey, John Paton, Adoniram Judson and many others) to many parts of the world until it reached us here in the Philippines by the providence of God. This body of doctrines summarized in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creed and in many 16th and 17th century Confessions (like the Belgic Confession, Westminster Confession, Second Helvetic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechism, The Thirty-Nine Articles, etc.) is now unknown to many Christians. But this is one legacy worth leaving the next generations of Christians.

Love for God rooted in the living faith of the Apostles results in true godliness. So sound biblical teaching and diligent exposition of the apostolic faith is imperative in producing wise and God-fearing Christians. There is no fear of God without the proper knowledge of God. Godly legacy is being passed on from one generation to another as a result of faithful and godly teaching being lived out by preachers and teachers in the church and by parents at home.

Faith that glorifies God does not come in a vacuum. The Holy Spirit brings it into our hearts by using preachers and teachers as well as godly parents who are soaked in and renewed by the Word of God. As the Holy Spirit uses their words and deeds and as He enables us to understand the holiness of God, the severity of His wrath against sin, the graciousness of His love and goodness and the super-abundance of His mercy in Jesus Christ to undeserving sinners, like us, we are empowered to believe.

These kinds of teaching and practices are becoming extinct in many churches and homes today. Teaching the Christian faith by pastors and parents used to be practiced in previous generations. If we read historical accounts we will discover that basic doctrines of the faith were being taught first by parents to their children at home. Conscientious Christian parents used to pass on their faith to their children in an ordinary house setting as well as in their more formal daily family devotions or family worship.[1]

Of course the church has a responsibility to nurture the believers and their children to mature in the faith. But this does not excuse parents from their responsibility to train and teach their children in the ways of the Lord. Believing parents are the main discipler of their children. They ought to teach their children the teachings of the Holy Scripture.

This is not the case in many Christian homes anymore. If we are going to ask a typical young people in our churches why he is a Christian, or why he or she goes to church, or what does it mean to be saved, you will usually get blank stares. Ask him about the basic doctrines of the Christian faith (such as the person and work of Christ, or the gospel, or faith and repentance, or justification and sanctification) and challenge him to defend these doctrines from the Holy Scripture and you might get frustrated.

But ask him to sing the latest composition of Hillsong or Integrity Music or Contemporary Christian Music and he will do it with gusto. Not that all contemporary praise songs are really bad (some of them are theologically sound and their melodies are quite singable, even a few of them might be sung in our church fellowships) but most of these songs are theologically erroneous.

One Vineyard song that I used to like is the song “Beloved.” Its chorus goes,

I’m Your beloved, Your creation, and You love me as I am;
You have called me ‘chosen’ for your kingdom,
Unshamed to call me, ‘Your own,’ I’m Your beloved.

To a typical evangelical Christian that song may not present any theological problem. But the thing is, when it comes to the love of God, God does not love me “as I am,” but He loves me “in Christ” and “through Christ.” He does not consider me His child apart from His Son, who is the Beloved. If God is going to deal with me “as I am” I will perish. “As I am,” in my natural state, I am a child, an object, of God’s wrath (Eph. 2:1-2) deserving judgment. But “in Christ,” I am God’s beloved.

That’s the problem of this contemporary song. God does not love me “as I am” but He does love me “in Christ” and “for Christ’s sake” by grace through faith in His Beloved.

I could cite another example but I think you get what I mean. Some contemporary songs that many Christians sing in church may sound nice and orthodox at first hearing but to a theologically-trained mind they are erroneous or unscriptural.

How sad it is to see many shallow and immature young people in our churches uninformed of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith! But there are elementary teachings of Scripture that we can’t live without as Christians (see, for example, Hebrews 6:1-2). Unless we grow in these basic doctrines we can’t go on to maturity in the faith.

How come many professing believers don’t know much about these fundamental doctrines anymore? I could safely say that many in our Evangelical churches today are Biblically and theologically illiterate. I was such an illiterate Christian once! If not for the gracious providence of God I could have remained immature in the faith oblivious of the precious and glorious doctrines of God’s amazing grace in Christ Jesus.

In His own time, God sent me faithful believers who diligently taught me the Biblical faith. He also gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of these Christian truths from faithful ministers of Christ in a Reformed church and at Mid-America Reformed Seminary.

By the grace of God, I’m still learning a lot from the Holy Scripture about the Christian faith. My learning of and training in the holy faith does not end when I took a three-year formal seminary education. As a pastor I continue to study and learn the faith ‘once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).

If church pastors and teachers won’t go back to the basic Biblical teachings taught by the Apostles and by our forefathers in the faith sooner or later the church would lose its power and the world around us won’t see our holiness (which literally means “set apartness” or “separateness”) and godliness as the people of God called to be salt of the earth and light of the world for our Lord Jesus Christ. How I wish that pastors and teachers, together with parents, would diligently teach their youth the whole counsel of God and the most holy faith, not man-centered and ear-tickling teachings!

By the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I desire to leave these Biblical doctrines that I’ve learned and am still learning from others to my children, and Lord willing, to the young men and women and the next generation in the church.

There seems to be a prevailing myth among many pastors today that teaching solid Biblical doctrines bears no relevance in our lives since the 21st century has brought a lot of technological advances that renders the Christian faith irrelevant, if not obsolete. It’s kind of boring to them and besides, they would reason out, no one seems to like that kind of stuff nowadays. They are ‘nose-bleed’ for them. People in the pew, they would argue, have felt needs to be met that doctrinal or solid Biblical preaching would not be able to address.

That claim might be true if the teaching of these Biblical doctrines is devoid of practical applications. I’ve seen it done that way. But I have also seen faithful preachers and Bible teachers proclaim and teach these doctrines with relevant, day-to-day and down-to-earth applications. This kind of teaching does not only fatten the mind and gladden the heart but it also strengthens the feet and hands ready to go and do the will of God in the daily grind of life and every relationship.

So I agree that there’s a way to teach theology that can give knowledge but could not transform the thinking and lifestyle. But I disagree that theology is hard and irrelevant, unable to address the needs of ordinary people. People in the pew may have many felt needs. However even if these felt needs are somehow met or addressed by ‘practical preaching’ devoid of the gospel of Christ, yet if their basic human need is not met, that is, to be reconciled with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching of the holy gospel, these people will remain discontented and lost.

So many preachers today don’t preach anymore the doctrines of God’s sovereignty in creation and redemption, the fall of man, redemption in Christ in His substitutionary death at the cross, justification and union with Christ by faith alone, suffering for the sake of the kingdom of God, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and other basic Christian tenets.

Our forefathers in the faith were so moved by these doctrines that they can’t help praising God, serving Him with all their heart, soul and strength, living a life of gratitude, and pleasing Him in everything they say and do. Just the glorious thought and true knowledge of God moved them to endure fire, sword, persecution and many other forms of trials and sufferings to keep the faith and to stand for it. The book Foxe’s Book of Martyrs testifies to this.

Today we often hear many preachers talk about “Five Steps to Financial Recovery,” or “Ten Steps to Financial Success,” or “Five Steps to a Happy Marriage,” and other similar teachings without laying the Biblical foundations of these teachings or disconnecting them from the gospel – the redeeming and transforming work of God in Christ.

Worse yet, they tend to emphasize success and prosperity in life as if by his own wisdom and power man could achieve it by doing certain things that would oblige God to bow down to his selfish desires and demands.

Of course we need practical teaching but not at the expense of Biblical and doctrinal truths. If church members are being taught that financial success or career advancement is up to them – it’s their choice – apart from the sovereign will of God and from the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary, the church of Jesus Christ will produce many selfish, greedy, immature, and worldly people, ready to leave the church at the first sign of failure or disappointment.

Professing Christians who are unaware of the essential truths of Christianity on which practical issues, such as marriage, parenting, giving, prayer, stewardship, etc., stand will not grow deeper and stronger nor will persevere in the faith when the going gets rough and tough. Faithful and persevering Christians are enamored by the glory of God in Christ in the gospel. And this kind of believers would be willing to ‘give what they cannot keep to gain what they cannot not lose’ as missionary martyr Jim Elliot once said.

As long as the Lord gives me the strength and the voice to speak for Him it is my aim to proclaim the whole counsel of God and the Good News of salvation which is in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. I pray that the Lord would preserve me in this faith and will not let me go astray from it for the sake of His name.

I also wish that our faithful Christian listeners at Mango Radio Philippines would be vigilant in guarding the faith which we proclaim over the radio. I pray that they would be discerning, scrutinizing the kind of teaching that we promote and teach and let us know when we say things that are not consistent with the Word of God.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 and 4 that there will come a time, in the last days, when people become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power… they will not put up with sound doctrine but, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. The only way for us to endure and counter such a terrible time is to do what Paul charged Timothy to do, that is, to “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2).

It is my desire that the Biblical faith is being handed down by this generation of believers to the next. That I believe is one legacy worth leaving behind. While the church through its pulpit is the primary place to preach the Word of God, yet the homes, and even radio stations, like Mango Radio Philippines play a vital role in the propagation and the preservation of the true faith once for all entrusted to the saints.

I pray and work hard for this godly legacy to be passed on to the next generation for God’s greater glory and praise!

[1] Dr. Francis Nigel Lee’s 1987 Doctoral Dissertation, Daily Family Worship: Household Devotions Each Morning and Evening as a Chief Means of Church Revival, available at http://www.ebooklibrary.org/details.aspx?bookid=690203

The One Thing

A meditation on Psalm 27:4

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

The psalmist David expresses his great confidence in the Lord in Psalm 27. Whether he is assailed by his foes or surrounded by his enemies David does not fail to recognize his only protection and deliverance in the Lord. No wonder his only desire, his one burning passion in verse 4 is to dwell in the house of the Lord: that he may be enthralled by the beauty and majesty of his God and Redeemer. He knows that in the mighty presence of God, under His protective care, no enemy is able to harm him. No evil can terrorize him. Nothing can cripple his living faith in the Lord.

In the midst of our busyness and challenges in daily life, it is always refreshing to go to the house of the Lord on His Day worshiping Him with His people, listening to the preaching of His Word and responding in joyful praise.

As a pastor one thing that gives me fresh air of God's presence is the Wednesday night Bible study at a member's house. We enjoy studying the Word of God meditating upon His glorious works in the gospel and savoring the beauty of His majesty. For two years, we were studying the amazing and life-transforming book of Revelation (that was on Saturday night). Just this month we started studying the book of Romans, the epistle about which John Calvin said, “When any one gains a knowledge of this Epistle, he has an entrance opened to him to all the most hidden treasures of Scripture.”

Every opportunity to know God in Jesus Christ through His Word by His Spirit brings pleasure and delight into our souls that it makes us confident in God and His providence even in dark and difficult times. I praise the Lord that He gives us this great privilege to know Him more as we study His Word in church, in a small group setting, and in our own personal and family devotion at home. Regardless of our circumstance we ought to be continually captivated by the glory of God as He is revealed in the pages of the Holy Scripture.

Do you think it's being unrealistic to meditate upon the glorious attributes of God when life and ministry is becoming hard? Finding time to meditate on God’s majesty, much less making it the “one thing” to which all else is subordinated seems almost unimaginable when one’s life is falling apart. But it’s precisely when life is at its worst that focusing our hearts on Him is the most reasonable thing to do.

If you think David can say what he does in verse 4 because, as king over Israel, he is out of touch with the pains and problems of everyday life look closely at verses 1-3. What we discover there, in conjunction with what we know elsewhere concerning David’s experience, indicates that he didn’t lead an easy life. The shattering consequences of David's adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his murderous scheme with Uriah brought on him and the nation of Israel as a whole can hardly be imagined. That is why his resolution in verse 4 is so stunning.

In view of David's circumstances, one might have excused him had he opted for a little peace and quiet or perhaps a safe home away from his enemies and away from troubles. With all the struggles he faced and the heartache he endured most of us would be willing to grant David a sabbatical leave.

But look at verses 1-3 again and get a sense of what David faced, maybe even on a daily basis. “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident” (Ps. 27:1-3).

He speaks of “evildoers” who “assail” him (v. 2). Their ravenous desire is to “eat up” his flesh (v. 2), a vivid description of their murderous intent. He speaks of “adversaries and foes” (v. 2) who sought every opportunity to destroy his reputation. He envisions an “army” (v. 3) of enemies encamped around him and “war” (v. 3) rising up to undermine his achievements. This reference to an “army” and “war” conveys the truth that no matter how great or threatening the danger may be, his confidence in the Lord never wavered.

In spite of these factors, he declares: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” If distress and trouble are as darkness, the Lord is his light! If trial and tribulation are as an army, the Lord is a mighty fortress! He is confident that God is able to protect him and save him from his foes.

Greater still is his undying aspiration to see and savor the beauty of God! “One thing have I asked of the LORD,” said David; “that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (v. 4).

When troubles come you and I are tempted to look for help and refuge in something or someone else somewhere. That thing maybe is our financial resources, which always isn’t much, or our skills and talents, which are not always reliable. Or in most cases we would be tempted to look to our family and relatives or our employers and masters for help.

David, however, fixed the focus of his faith on God: His uncreated beauty, His undeserving favor, His unfailing love, and His awesome power and majesty. He thought of one thing: to find a way to break free of routine entanglements that he might dwell in the presence of God; to avoid trivial activities that might divert his eyes from beholding God; to clear his mind of unnecessary details that he might meditate upon the beauty and splendor of God; to set aside less important tasks that he might bask in the light and glory of everything that makes God an object of our affection, delight and adoration.

I admit that aside from reading the Bible this year, I also enjoy (as I always do) reading J. I. Packer's “Knowing God.” I've read the book several times but every time I read it, I'm always fascinated by God, how He reveals Himself through Jesus Christ in the pages of the Holy Scripture. And it gives me that longing to know Him more.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,” says King David, “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord...to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” In Psalm 145:5, David also makes the same point declaring: “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.”

I long for this unitary, single-minded resolve. Note in verse 4 how the future tense ("I shall seek") is combined with the past tense ("I have asked") to express an ardent longing which extends out of the past and into the future and therefore runs through his whole life.

Thus one writer says, “How utterly, absolutely, and incomparably practical this is! Nothing brings greater peace to the troubled soul than meditating on the majesty of God! Nothing puts life and its competing pleasures in greater spiritual perspective than a knowledge of the surpassing greatness of God as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ! Nothing empowers the will to make hard choices, often painful choices, to forego the passing pleasures of sin than does a view of the superior reward of knowing and enjoying the fellowship of our triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit!”

It is my prayer that God will enable us to gaze upon His beauty as we seek to know Him in our daily walk with and service of Him. And may the knowledge of God embolden us to face every trial that comes ahead of us.

PRAYER: Oh, Father of glory, make us a people of one thing! Give us one heart, one mind, one all-consuming passion for your name! Daily may we find you to be our life-giving light in the midst of today’s darkness. May we, like your servant David, find comfort in You as our light, salvation and stronghold. You grant sanity and peace in the midst of trouble and chaos. Bring us to Your presence by Your Spirit where our faith is strengthened and our fears are stilled. Bless our souls with Your life-giving Word, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

Covenant Theology and Family Life

The church elders and I have recently seen the need to strengthen our grasp of the doctrine of the covenant and its ramifications and applications to our relationships in the family. We are convinced that godly families make a godly church. So we prayed and keep on praying that the families in church would grow not only in their knowledge of God and His covenant dealing with us but also in godliness in the home and in the body of Christ that we might not blaspheme the Name of God.

Thus beginning October 2011, the elders decided to change our Sunday afternoon worship service into a Bible study with the focus on God’s covenant and its implications to marriage, family, and parenting. I have been using the materials of Dr. Joel R. Beeke – both his writings and audio lectures – as our study guide.

Since almost all of the members of the congregation did not grow up in a Reformed family with covenantal perspective, the Sunday afternoon Covenant Bible study has enriched our understanding of Covenant Theology. All the more we appreciate our rich heritage as Reformed believers. Some of the topics we have covered include 'How to View our Covenant Children,' 'Family Worship,' 'Building Convictions in Our Children,' 'Cultivating Healthy Relationships Among Children,' and 'Raising our Children as Gatekeepers'.

Here's what Dr. Beeke says in his lecture on Building Convictions in Our Children:

"Teach your children to seek communion with God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. You want to stress with your children through evangelizing [and catechizing] them that all of life is empty without God and they must be always seeking God. What’s important in everything in life is that we seek God’s will. Seek communion with God...All of life revolves around God. Without God all of life is empty. That’s the conviction you want to instill upon your children.

Then there is nothing other than the conviction of the motto of the Reformers that says, “Coram Deo,” which means “In or before the face of God.” You want your children to live with the consciousness that God is always present. That will keep them not only not to commit sin but also help them to seek the Lord’s presence and the Lord’s will. And if that is foundational in their lives, ultimately when you teach them to live on praying ground and to living lives seeking God, and God the Holy Spirit blesses it, you’re 90% on the way home in terms of childrearing because your children leave your home seeking God, knowing to pray spontaneously over everything. It’s going to be alright. They are going to be alright. They’ve got a good foundation. They’ve got built-in convictions. So this is absolutely critical – to be seeking God and be aware of God’s presence."

How to Benefit from the Preaching of God’s Word

To all of us, including our children, who regularly listen to the preaching of the Word of God, Puritan preacher Thomas Watson has some guidelines on how to benefit from the preaching of God's Word:

1. Prepare to hear the Word by bathing your soul in prayer.

2. Come to the Word with a holy appetite and a tender, teachable heart.

3. Be attentive to the preached Word.

4. Receive with meekness the engrafted Word (James 1:21).

5. Mingle the preached Word with faith.

6. Strive to retain what has been preached and pray about the Word proclaimed.

7. Put the Word into practice; be doers of it (James 1:22-25).

8. Beg the Spirit to accompany the Word with effectual blessing.

9. Familiarize yourself with the Word by sharing it with others.

THE BOOK OF PASTORAL RULE - PART 2

Here's the summary of Part (Book) III and IV of the Book of Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great (c.540-604)

Part III. How the Spiritual Director Who Lives Well Should Teach and Advise the Laity.

Prologue

No same exhortation is suited for everyone for everyone does not share the same quality of character, as an exhortation for a child may not be useful for a grown up. A wise pastor therefore must know how to adapt his teaching or sermon to the various groups of his audience so it can address specific needs without downplaying the communal edification of the saints.

39. The preacher should avoid preaching over the heads of his hearers but should aim for simplicity and clarity of doctrine and life application.

40. He should learn to live by example what he preaches. The flock hears louder the actions that the pastor shows than the words that he speaks.

Part IV. The Preacher Should Always Remember His Humble Beginning So He Does Not Become Proud in His Life or Preaching.

Pride is a constant temptation to a preacher, especially when he is a gifted one. He thus have to remind himself of his many weaknesses before God so he learns to continually humble himself. God does perfect His servant but He often leaves him with imperfections that the servant might learn to despise himself and seek the grace of God and not the flattery of men.

Herman Bavinck: His Life and Theology

(This article was originally written by my seminary professor, Dr. Cornelis P. Venema, for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's denominational magazine, New Horizon. See the full issue of the magazine here: http://www.opc.org/nh.html?issue_id=151)

Earlier this year [2008], the fourth and final volume of Herman Bavinck's great Reformed Dogmatics was published in English.[1] At last, this model of Reformed theological scholarship is available in English to students of Reformed theology. This year also marks the one hundredth anniversary of Bavinck's Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary. The time is ripe, therefore, to get (re)acquainted with Bavinck.
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BAVINCK'S EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Herman Bavinck was born in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands, on December 13, 1854. His father, Rev. Jan Bavinck, was a respected pastor in the Christian Reformed Church. This denomination was originally formed in 1834 as the result of a 'Secession' (Dutch: Afscheiding) from the Hervormde Kerk, the state Reformed church of the Netherlands, which had become increasingly liberal and estranged from the Reformed confessions.

Already in the early years of his formal education, Bavinck consistently excelled as a student. At the age of sixteen, he was enrolled at the 'gymnasium' in Zwolle, a boarding school that was in many respects comparable to a North American college, and completed the normal four-year programme in three years. While at Zwolle, Bavinck expressed his desire to attend the University of Leiden for his seminary training. The University of Leiden was perhaps the most liberal, and certainly the most academically prestigious, of the Dutch universities at the time. The faculty at Leiden was known for its repudiation of confessional Reformed theology and its advocacy of an 'ethical' and 'critical' reinterpretation of the Christian faith. Bavinck's parents and others prevailed upon him to commence his studies at the seminary of the Christian Reformed Church in Kampen. However, Bavinck's desire for a full university training at an institution widely renowned for its outstanding scholarship compelled him to transfer to Leiden, much to the chagrin of his parents and many others who feared that he would be unable to retain his convictions under the pressure of a Leiden education.

Bavinck completed his studies at Leiden in 1880 with the degree of doctor of theology, having written a dissertation on The Ethics of Zwingli. He distinguished himself at Leiden as an exceptional student, and was granted the doctor's degree 'with honours.' During his study at Leiden, Bavinck learned much from his teachers, but also faced many challenges to his personal confession and convictions. To one of his close university friends, he confided that 'I have learned much at Leiden, but also unlearned much.'2

PROFESSOR OF DOGMATICS

After completing his studies at Leiden, Bavinck entered the ministry in the Christian Reformed Church of Franeker. While in Franeker, Bavinck twice declined an appointment to teach theology at the Free University in Amsterdam. However, in 1882, when the General Synod of the Christian Reformed Church invited him to fill the vacant chair in dogmatics at its seminary in Kampen, Bavinck accepted and began his labour on January 10, 1883, with an inaugural address on 'The Science of Sacred Theology.' This address was well received throughout the churches, and it caught the attention of Abraham Kuyper, who reviewed it in De Heraut (January 21, 1883), observing that 'I have hardly ever read a treatise with such undivided attention, from start to finish, as this inaugural.' With this inaugural address, Bavinck embarked upon a twenty-year period of productive labour at Kampen. Much loved by his students for his modesty, unusual eloquence, and extraordinary breadth of knowledge, Bavinck produced during his Kampen years his Reformed Dogmatics in a first edition of four volumes (1883-1901).

In 1892, Bavinck made the first of two trips to America. He gave an address to the Alliance of Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System in Toronto, Canada. He took the occasion to visit his close friend, Geerhardus Vos, who was then teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary. He also visited Princeton Theological Seminary, where he met and befriended professor B. B. Warfield.

During the struggle that took place in the 1880s to unite the churches of the Secession (1834) with the churches of the Doleantie (1886),3 a dispute arose over the question of church control of the teaching of theology and the preparation of students for the ministry. Most of those who stood in the line of the Secession of 1834 wished to maintain the principle of church control, whereas those who stood in the line of the Doleantie under Kuyper favoured the principle of 'free study,' or the location of the discipline of theology in a university setting. Bavinck, who participated significantly in the process that led to the union of these churches in 1892, was something of an anomaly in his own tradition, for he was sympathetic to the idea that theology should be pursued in a university context so as to encourage the most rigorous academic and 'scientific' approach. This helps to explain Bavinck's decision, upon the fourth occasion of an appointment in dogmatics to the Free University, to accept the appointment in 1902.

In 1908, Bavinck visited America for a second time, principally to deliver the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary. On this visit, Bavinck was also privileged to visit President Theodore Roosevelt. There is evidence of some shift in Bavinck's scholarly interests during this later period of his teaching. As he confided to a close friend, 'As I grow older my mind turns more and more away from dogmatic to philosophical studies and from these to their application to the practical needs of life about me.'4 In many of his later writings, Bavinck attempted to offer a broad philosophical and pedagogical basis for the pursuit of excellence in Christian schools at every level, including the university.

In the providence of God, Bavinck's life ended unexpectedly, at a time when he was still engaged in a variety of academic, political, cultural, and church activities. After offering an eloquent address on the floor of the synodical meeting of the Reformed churches in Leeuwarden, Bavinck suffered a heart attack, from which he first rallied but never fully recovered. After a prolonged period of illness, Bavinck 'fell asleep' in the Lord on July 29, 1921. Among the poignant memories recorded of visits with Bavinck at the time was his reply to the question of whether he was afraid to die: 'My dogmatics avail me nothing, nor my knowledge, but I have my faith, and in this I have all.'5

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF BAVINCK'S THEOLOGY

Although it is difficult to capture the person of a figure like Bavinck, the profile that emerges from his writings and biographies is that of an exceptionally gifted, yet modest and unassuming, scholar. When he engaged the views of others, even those with whom he strongly disagreed, Bavinck was uncommonly courteous and respectful. Wherever possible, he would acknowledge the partial truth expressed by other theologians, even though he could not finally concur with their viewpoint. Consequently, although he was ultimately uncompromising in his convictions as a Reformed theologian, Bavinck was often respected by contemporaries who were not sympathetic to his confessional position.

There are several outstanding qualities that characterize Bavinck's work as a theologian. One of these qualities reflects what we have noted about his person, namely, his sympathetic treatment of the views of others. Throughout his writings, Bavinck exhibits a meticulous care in representing alternative positions. Before he critically engages a position with which he disagrees, he is at great pains to represent it in the best possible light. He also resists the temptation to arrive prematurely at a conclusion. In his Dogmatics, for example, Bavinck evidences an extraordinary familiarity with the discussion of theological topics throughout the history of the church. When he addresses a theological topic, he takes account of the spectrum of opinion throughout history and among the most diverse confessional communions (whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox). Only after a thorough canvassing of the biblical, historical, and confessional discussion of any particular topic does he arrive at a conclusion of his own. However, these qualities of meticulous and catholic scholarship, painstaking research, and consideration of the possible answers to a question, are among the reasons why Bavinck's Dogmatics continues to be a model for contemporary Reformed theologians.

THREE BROAD THEMES

Three broad themes recur throughout Bavinck's writings as a Reformed theologian. The first of these, the subject of his Stone Lectures, is the philosophy of revelation. In the face of the withering philosophical and critical attacks upon the historic doctrine of divine revelation, Bavinck worked consistently throughout his life from the settled conviction of the reality of the triune God who reveals himself through all of his works in creation and redemption, and who has provided for an inscripturation of that revelation in the Old and New Testaments. Reformed theology must build, even as the church is built, upon the sure foundation of God's own testimony to himself and the manifestation of his grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second of these themes is Bavinck's emphasis upon the 'catholicity' of the church and the Christian faith. All truth, in whatever sphere or academic discipline, derives from a knowledge of God's works in creation and redemption. Reformed theology may never, therefore, fall prey to a parochial or narrow spirit that eschews the pursuit of scholarship or abandons the academy to unbelief.

A third and final theme that pervades Bavinck's theological writings is one that he shared fully with his contemporary, Abraham Kuyper, namely, that 'grace perfects nature' — or, better, that redemption involves the renewal and consummation of all creation. The purposes of the triune God in redemption culminate not only in the re-creation of a new humanity through the work of Jesus Christ, but also in the realization of God's purposes for the whole of creation itself. Like Kuyper, Bavinck could not be satisfied with scholarship that does not seek to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Nor could he be content with the idea that any dimension of truth is separable from the truth that is in Christ, to whom all things in heaven and on earth are subject.

These themes, and the general outline of his Dogmatics, were to exercise a profound influence on such well-known North American theologians as Cornelius Van Til and Louis Berkhof.

It has been suggested, not implausibly, that Bavinck's theology reflects a kind of 'duality' that corresponds to his personal biography. Bavinck was both the faithful son of the Secession of 1834 and the scholar who deliberately chose to study at the most liberal university in the Netherlands. On the one hand, Bavinck endeavoured to adhere faithfully to the authority of the Scriptures and the subordinate standards, or confessions, of the Reformed churches. On the other hand, he read widely and engaged sympathetically the best of modern theological scholarship and culture. One could characterize Bavinck as, in these respects, a 'man between two worlds.'6 This duality in Bavinck's life should not be overstated, however, since it expresses in the arena of theological scholarship an inescapable feature of the life of every Christian who is 'in but not of the world.'

It can only be hoped that, with the publication of Bavinck's Dogmatics in English, more readers will have access to the contributions of this remarkable theologian. Although readers will not always agree with Bavinck's conclusions, they will find him to be an outstanding model of Reformed theological scholarship — deeply rooted in the riches of scriptural revelation, sympathetically informed by the great confessions of the Reformed churches, instructed by the history of the church's reflection upon the Word of God, and carefully engaged with the broad range of contemporary challenges to the Christian faith. If readers learn anything from Bavinck, they should learn much about how the work of theology is to be conducted. In a beautiful passage from his Dogmatics, Bavinck offers a glimpse of his understanding of his calling as a Christian theologian:

Dogmatics shows us how God, who is all-sufficient in himself, nevertheless glorifies himself in his creation, which, even when it is torn apart by sin, is gathered up again in Christ (Eph. 1:10). It describes for us God, always God, from beginning to end — God in his being, God in his creation, God against sin, God in Christ, God breaking down all resistance through the Holy Spirit and guiding the whole of creation back to the objective he decreed for it: the glory of his name. Dogmatics, therefore, is not a dull and arid science. It is a theodicy, a doxology to all God's virtues and perfections, a hymn of adoration and thanksgiving, a 'glory to God in the highest' (Luke2:14).7
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Endnotes

[1] Translated from the Dutch by John Vriend, edited by John Bolt (Baker Academic, 2003-2008).

[2] Valentin Hepp, Dr. Herman Bavinck, p. 87.

[3] The churches of the 'Doleantie' ('Grieving') were a second secession of churches from the Reformed Church in the Netherlands. These churches, under the leadership of Abraham Kuyper, would soon join with the churches of the Secession of 1834 to form the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands (Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, or GKN).

[4] Henry Elias Dosker, 'Herman Bavinck,' Princeton Theological Review 20 (1922), 457-58.

[5] Dosker, 'Herman Bavinck,' p. 459.

[6] John Bolt, 'Editor's Introduction,' in Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1:12.

[7] Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1:112.


Cornelis Venema is President and Professor of Doctrinal Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana, and the author of The Promise of the Future, Getting the Gospel Right and The Gospel of Free Acceptance in Christ, published by the Banner of Truth Trust.