Kuyperian Commentary -

On June 6, 2025 By Bill Smith In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Theology Like

Resting In Christ

In our fight with sin, we must rely and rest upon Christ. But what does that mean? To some, this is a spiritual cliché. Counselors and counselees alike will use “relying/resting on Christ” as the answer to overcoming a besetting sin. Okay. What does that look like? If I am relying on Christ, does that mean that I am completely passive while he infuses me with some sort of sanctification gas that will eliminate my sinful passions? Am I to “let go and let God” so that I become a marionette, my will and actions being completely overruled by the Spirit so that he is entirely in control?

None of these ideas of relying or resting on Christ fits with the commands of Scripture. This sort of passivity is like saying that you are not going to work or eat because you are relying on Christ to give you life.

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On May 31, 2025 By Nathan Zekveld In Culture Like

Icons, εἰκών, and Christendom

What is the appeal of icons in the East? How should we as Christians handle this matter of icons? What does the Bible teach us about icons?

The Bible does in fact speak of icons. The English word “icon” comes from the Greek word “εἰκών”. The Greek word simply means “image” or “likeness”. So here is a theology of iconography in Protestantism, with some refutations of other ideas. You can find a list of Bible verses that use the Greek word “εἰκών” – here. I plan to focus on key concepts in the Bible related to iconography or the study of icons in the Bible.

Just as a side note – here is an interesting article on Theopolis Institute from John Carpenter on some of the history of iconography. My interest in this short newsletter is mainly in the apostolic teaching on icons as testified to in Holy Scripture.

Jesus is the icon or image of God

You will read this in Colossians 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” You will also read in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

So Jesus is the image or “εἰκών” of God. He is God, the Son of God, the second person of the blessed unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity. As we read in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” As Christians we see the beauty and glory and majesty of the Triune God in the face of Jesus Christ. We know the Triune God in the face of Jesus Christ and we see His face in the pages of Holy Scripture.

The Church is the Icon or Image of Jesus

You will read this in Romans 8:29: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” The very language of the Church as the “Body of Christ” indicates that the true church is the very icon of Christ on earth (Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 1:22-23, 3:6, 4:15-16 and 5:23, Colossians 1:18 and 1:24). Christ continues to show His incarnate glory through the church that faithfully worships Him and follows in His footsteps.

This is why we see language in Scripture, such as the language of 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Or Colossians 3:9–10: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

Where Worship is Directed

Worship is directed towards the Triune God, who is revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. This does not mean that we are praying towards a painted image or statue which may or may not represent Jesus accurately (in fact, we must not), but to the Lord Jesus Christ who is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures.

This is reflected first negatively in the prohibition of the 2nd commandment (not the second half of the first commandment), which states:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)

Of course Christians are allowed and even encouraged to ask other Christians or the elders of the church or the church as a corporate body to pray for them, as well as to voluntarily cry out to God for others (James 5:13-18, Eph. 6:18). But we don’t pray to the church, or genuflect before the church in an act of worship. Rather, we pray before and to God alone. It should also be noted that I can ask my wife to pray when she is in the same room, but given the limitations on those who are human and not divine, she cannot hear me when she is elsewhere (unless of course, I am talking to her on the phone or Skype). On the other hand, the Bible demonstrates clearly that we can and must direct our prayers to God who is everywhere and all powerful.

And there is the positive. Scripture is constantly calling on the Christian Church to cry out to God as a Father, asking for the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and seeking salvation in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. That’s the beauty of it all. While Mary and Jael are indeed supposed to be honored in Scripture as “the most blessed among women”, yet they cannot hear our prayers. For that reason, Scripture never calls on us to prayer to them and instead forbids it. But God can hear all our prayers and it is to the Triune God that we direct all of our prayers and our praises.

So What about Beauty?

When I look at a glorious sunset or a mountain range or the vast ocean, I am brought to praise the living God as I find is supposed to happen in passages like Psalm 19. But I do not praise or pray to the glorious sunset or the mountain range or the vast ocean.

Similarly, the second commandment does not forbid beauty in the architecture of churches. The church should go ahead and build soaring cathedrals with glorious stained glass windows, but they must guard against the heart which is an idol making factory, and seek their help from God and not from stones and bricks and mortar.

So beauty is not a problem and was not a problem to the reformers.

We should try to understand most charitably the work of the iconoclasts. There may have been iconoclasts at the time of the Reformation who were tearing down statues and removing stained glass windows in a spirit of evil. But I’m sure that there were others who had seen the vast idolatry of that time, and it was not so much that they hated beauty, they could not enter a church building without their hearts being turned away from the true worship of God. So it was not so much a hatred of beauty as it was a hatred of idolatry, an idolatry that the culture of that time was steeped in.

Beauty is good. My wife is an artist, and I married her in part, because she makes beautiful things and I found that utterly jaw-dropping and incredible in a wife. But we do not worship beautiful things, rather, we worship God who is the source of all beauty.

The Preaching of the Word & the Administration of the Sacraments

God has ordained that it is through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments that He communicates grace to a battle weary people. You will also see that the Presbyterians (I come from a continental dutch reformed tradition) also include prayer among the means of grace. God wants His Word to be taught faithfully and the sacraments to be administered faithfully in the church. It is in the context of the gathered church as it seeks to assemble faithfully in obedience to Christ that we learn more about who Christ is. We should not resort to dumb images, that can neither speak nor tell us about who God is.

In Summary

Jesus is the image or icon of God. The church is the image or icon of Jesus. We worship the Triune God and we worship Jesus who brings us to see the full-orbed beauty of the Triune God. The Church must hear the Word preached, receive the sacraments, submit to the discipline and admonition and encouragement of the church, and offer up prayers and praise to the glorious Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity. It is in this way that we are transformed into His image weekly and even daily. We must not eclipse God’s means of worship with idols of our own making that cannot speak and cannot talk.

Photo by Andriy Tod on Unsplash

On May 29, 2025 By Bill Smith In Church, Discipleship, Theology Like

Born Again

American Christians within the Reformed and Evangelical stream are familiar with the phrase “born again.” While the concept has been around for millennia in the church based on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, the phrase gained prominence during the American Great Awakenings of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The call to be born again was the call, not merely to come to faith in Christ (though that was certainly necessary), but rather to have something of a dramatic experience of conversion. This experience was pretty much divorced from the sacraments of the church and, in many ways, replaced them as true religion.

In the mid-to-late 20^th century, being “born again” once again became a catchphrase among evangelicals. Billy Graham wrote a book, How To Be Born Again, and called packed stadiums around the world to be born again. Chuck Colson, who served as President Richard Nixon’s special counsel, wrote his memoir, Born Again, concerning his rise and fall in politics and eventual conversion. President Jimmy Carter was known for his profession of being a “born-again Christian,” which he ironically first proclaimed in an interview with Playboy magazine.

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On May 25, 2025 By Kuyperian In Culture 2

Women, Head-Coverings, and the New Reality

Guest post by Rev. James Zekveld

The Corinthian church has many problems, but it is doing well in respecting the creational order of men and women in its assemblies by requiring the women who might pray and prophecy to wear a head covering.

We should be cautious about stating, “This is what Paul teaches us to do in this passage normatively.” There is a different moral weight to varying passages in scripture. Some are clearer, “I delivered to you what is of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Some are less clear, “Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:29). The number of interpretations by godly men, illuminated by the Holy Spirit on the head coverings (1 Corinthians 11:1-16) passage reveals something less than clear. Paul’s references to custom should make us cautious about putting great moral weight on this passage.

That doesn’t take away one iota from the call to each Christian to take seriously what Paul is teaching here. After all, each ought to be convinced in his mind. But we need to be careful how we bind one another. Here, I offer my understanding so that those whose consciences are burdened may be unburdened and those who are overconfident in their interpretation may refrain from lording it over their brothers.

Paul is applying the scriptures to two new realities in the assembly: a new unveiled worship of God through Christ and the unique manifestations of the Spirit in the first century through prophecy and tongues. To understand Paul’s goal in this passage, we need to understand the implied order of the assembly, the prophetic realities of the first century, and the gendered hair symbolism behind Paul’s recommendation of head coverings.

The Assembly

The Apostle is addressing the question of order in the assembly. Corinth is dealing with new covenant realities. The temple in Jerusalem is no longer the central place of worship among the people of God; instead, God is worshipped in Spirit and Truth anywhere the body of Christ gathers for that purpose. The church returns to the Garden of Eden, where God freely interacted with Adam.

In the temple, all sorts of veils protected those not ritually clean from God’s presence. The priests, too, were to come covered: covered before God in special clothing, even wearing special turbans and caps when entering God’s presence. All those veils are removed now. Christ’s flesh is the veil. He protects us from God’s holiness breaking out against us. The assembly returns to its Edenic glory, communing with God in union with the true High-Priest, Jesus Christ.

In the Garden, Adam was the liturgical speaker. Paul sums this up when he writes that Adam was created first, and Eve came from Adam. Paul says in verse 3, “I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” The word translated husband in the ESV is the more generic word for man. Paul is not saying every man is the head of all women. The context is the assembly. The liturgical speaker is to be a man. He is speaking to the congregation, the wife, the bride of Christ. He will tell Timothy, “I do not permit a woman to teach a man with authority.” Appointing female speakers in the assembly undermines the authority and power of the church.

According to the garden pattern, the assembly is to be led by men. The congregation is the bride, hearing and receiving the word through their symbolic, liturgical husband.

Pentecost

Yet in this moment of history, there are new realities as well. The Spirit has been poured out so that both men and women see visions. God is speaking through all members of the congregation, emphasizing the ability of all to come before him based on the righteousness of Christ. There may also be an eschatological reality in this. There will be no giving or receiving in marriage in the new heavens and the new earth. It is hard to imagine that the same order we experience now will be experienced in heaven.

Regardless, God in his sovereignty moves through women to pray and prophecy in the congregation. Paul and Corinth recognized that this sovereign movement ought to be respected. Therefore, in this exceptional circumstance, women are allowed to address the assembly. But in doing so, they ought to signify that they recognize the good order God established at creation. Therefore, Paul approves of the Corinthian decision to require head coverings for their women when they pray and prophesy.

They put on this symbol for the sake of the angels. The reference to angels may be a double entendre. They do it for the sake of the ministering spirits who serve the elect so that the angels might rejoice in the good order of the service of God. Angels can also refer to human messengers. So, the Corinthian women also do it for the sake of the ambassadors of God, the pastors, who speak the Word of God, and who earnestly desire the good order of the church of God, even as the angels in heaven do. Considering how the assembly reflects heaven coming down to earth, Paul’s double entendre is apt.

Long Hair

Why head coverings? Paul is not raising some new veil here, particularly for women, while men may come before God unveiled. The key verse here is verse 6: “For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.”

It is customary across all cultures for men to have shorter hair than women. Of course, there are exceptions, even in Israel, where Nazirites, both men and women, grow out their hair long, picturing in their bodies the bridal status of the body of Israel. However, in general, women delight in growing their hair long as a glory to their husbands. In the assembly, if moved to prophecy, they should simulate masculinity by covering up that glory with an artificial covering. For a moment, they are God’s glory, rather than their husbands’ glory.

Summary

Relying then on custom and general observations about hair length, Paul advocates for head coverings to continue to honor the order that God has established. In doing so, he honors the work of Spirit-filled prayer and prophecy in women, as the word of God. Therefore, based on this passage, no woman should feel obligated to wear a head covering while seated in the congregation of God. This is true, despite the many wise and venerable men who have lauded such a practice.

Pastor James Zekveld serves as Pastor in Trinity Covenant Church in Fort St. John, B.C. Canada. He is married to his dear wife Hannah, and has three children, Victor, Arley, and Phoenix, with a fourth coming soon.

On May 15, 2025 By Bill Smith In Discipleship, Wisdom 1

Jesus Fans

People are naturally drawn to strong, confident masculine leadership. On the sports field, in the military, on the job, in politics, or in the church, when men show strength and confidence, exuding competence, others begin to look to them for leadership. This masculine leadership can be and has been faked and perverted. Charismatic leaders who portray confidence will be followed by those who are unstable. Even though they are incompetent and ignorant, they can nonetheless gather crowds of fans around them. In a world racked with anxious uncertainty, it is easy to get fans. However, these fans are fickle and can turn on you just as quickly as they started following you.

Jesus had fans. That is understandable. When he went into the Temple and threw out the moneychangers, overturned tables, and drove away the sacrificial animals, he showed strength directed against corruption. During the week following that incident, he performed signs in Jerusalem so that “many believed in his name” (Jn 2:23). He was strong. He was confident. He was a wonder-worker. He could do things for them. They were fans.

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On May 12, 2025 By Jon Herr In Culture 1

We Were Made for Liturgy

For a little more than the past year, my two oldest sons and I have taken part in Trail Life, what we might describe in short-hand as “Christian Boy Scouts.” Or perhaps, what the Boy Scouts were always supposed to be. As of 2023, there were more than 1000 Trail Life troops all around the United States, and that number has only risen. The program offers a lot, which my boys and I don’t even take full advantage of, but it has been a great opportunity for us to spend time together, meet other Christian men and their sons, and do various activities together.

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On May 8, 2025 By Bill Smith In Church, Discipleship, Theology, Worship 2

House Inspection

If you don’t care for your house for a while, you slowly grow accustomed to your surroundings. You adjust. Those things that are broken that you couldn’t get to quickly, you learn to work around and may even eventually think that you have no need for them. Those holes in the wall become a part of the décor. Those bad smells from different sources become a part of the atmosphere of your home, so that you become nose blind to them. What initially repulsed you is now a part of your environment.

You may not notice the things in disrepair or the smells in your home, but others will. If someone comes from a place where things are kept in good order and the source of repugnant smells is dealt with immediately, he will notice the things in your home.

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On May 1, 2025 By Kuyperian In Culture 1

The Problem with Gospel-Centered Movement

We transitioned from the “Gospel-Centered” movement of the early 2000s, which advocated that our natural loves were actually idolatrous, to the “Gospel-Rare” movement of our day, which suggests that our natural loves only require the Gospel in those rare spiritual experiences.

The Gospel-centered movement chastised anyone who maximized the natural biblical order. They offered pilgrimages towards absolution if only we loved family less and Jesus more. But the result of such dangerous bifurcation was an idolatrous view that minimized the spheres of society for some nebulous piety.

On the other hand, the “Gospel-rare” movement sees the Gospel as completely dispensable when it comes to the salvation of the nations. They wish to divorce Politics from the Gospel and treat the Gospel as merely a message about eternal life. They limit the Gospel to spiritual realities.

However, the Apostle Paul views the Gospel, particularly the promise of the Resurrection, as deeply rooted in the conquest of the nations (I Cor. 15:24-26). For the nations to come to Christ, we need neither a distorted view of the Gospel that minimizes our earthly concerns nor divorce it from its political implications.

The Gospel is a full-orbed, redemptive-historical message that draws people to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and turns our affections rightly to our families and friends, as well as to the victory over principalities and powers.

On April 30, 2025 By Bill Smith In Church, Theology Like

The Surprise Bridegroom

Weddings are proclamations of the gospel. They are either faithful or unfaithful proclamations of the gospel, but they are proclamations of the gospel. They can take the gospel seriously and proclaim it with dignity, or they can be turned into a trivial ceremony of self-expression. In every wedding, nonetheless, there is a proclamation of the gospel. This is so because marriage is ultimately the story of Christ Jesus and his bride, the church.

Weddings begin and end the Scriptures. The world begins with a wedding on the sixth day of the first week, and, in Revelation 21-22, the bride is adorned for the bridegroom at the end of history. God gave marriage to man as a gift to reflect the marriage of Christ and his church and to participate in the mission of Christ and his church. It is no wonder, then, that Jesus begins his ministry of signs at a wedding (Jn 2:1-11). Jesus quietly surprises us at the wedding in Cana as he shows himself to be the true Bridegroom.

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On April 24, 2025 By Bill Smith In Discipleship, Theology, Worship Like

Stairway To Heaven

Nathanael is flabbergasted at Jesus’ knowledge of him before they met face-to-face. Philip told Nathanael that they had found the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote: Jesus, the son of Joseph, the one from Nazareth. Nathanael was in disbelief that God’s “good one” would come from Nazareth. Philip called him to “come and see.” Once he met Jesus and Jesus told him about his “vision” of Nathanael under the fig tree, Nathanael confessed that Jesus was the Son of God, the King of Israel. Jesus tells him that if he believed because he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, just wait. He and the rest of the disciples will see greater things than these; namely, they will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (Jn 1:43-51).

This scene of calling Philip and Nathanael fits within a larger structure in the opening of John’s Gospel. After strongly alluding to the fact that the Word-made-flesh has come to make a new creation in his Prologue (Jn 1:1-18), John then lays out a week in 1:19—2:11 marked out clearly by John’s “and the next/following day” (1:29, 35, 43). Days five and six are skipped to move to the seventh day in 2:1 (“after three days”) when Jesus brings in a Sabbath rest by turning water into wine. Each of these days has echoes of the original creation days.

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