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On March 5, 2025 By In Culture

Deconstruction & Reformation in the Church

In the times in which we live, deconstruction has driven many away from the church.

Deconstruction is not always a bad thing. If you are seeking to deconstruct plausible arguments (Col. 2:4), philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition (Col. 2:8), asceticism and the worship of angels (Col. 2:18), or anything that has the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body (Col. 2:23), then have at it.

But in order to do so properly, you must have an objective standard to deconstruct those systems by. You need the confession in your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Col. 1:15-17). You need His Word in hand (I Corinthians 4:1-7). You need to be united to His Church (Col. 1:18-23). You need to recognize the authority of Jesus Christ, who saves men from their sins and is Lord over all.

People are wandering to and fro. Sheep without a shepherd. Boats tossed about on the waves of false & errant doctrine and human philosophies and self-made religion. It is easy in such an ecclesiastical environment to turn to the state as a god, to turn science into a religion, to trust in the strength of man. A culture unmoored from the truth about God and man is fertile ground for cults, false religion and ultimate disaster.

In a time of deconstruction, we must turn to the Lord and His Word. There are many churches of many different denominations seeking to reform their churches according to His Word. This gives me a renewed hope for ecumenicity among Christian Churches that really believe this Word and subject their traditions to its authority. Wherever men are seeking after the Law and the testimony (Isaiah 8), there the Spirit of God is working to form a new Creation.

This means that Reformation, widespread Reformation is possible, wherever men are opening their Bibles and pointing to the glory & majesty of Jesus Christ.

Reformation is simply “the re-forming of the church according to the principles of Scripture.” This means that where idolatry has crept in, we must purge it. Where the justification of immorality has crept in, we must contest it, and win in the strength of the Spirit of Christ. Where the church has become silly & shallow, we must pursue maturity and discernment in Christ.

Where churches disagree, we can and must appeal to the Holy Scriptures. Where practices or forms or traditions differ, with no substantial disagreement on the principle of truth, we find unity in Christ and His Word.

One of the pivotal points of Scripture is how pastors & preachers handle the Word of truth (II Tim. 2:15). A pastor may say true things in a sermon, but does he open the text and go where the text leads him? Both in his exegesis and his application? If a lady pastor is opening the Bible in such a way, then why is she still pastoring?

Expository preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit, pointing to Christ, according to the rule of Scripture will indeed start to split open the idols in our hearts and in our churches. But it must first split open the idols in the pastor’s heart. Is the pastor willing to preach things that make you feel uncomfortable if that is where the Scriptures lead him? Is the pastor willing to preach things that make him feel uncomfortable if that is where the Scriptures lead him?

It was one of the theses of Berne that the church is born of the Word of God. This is true (I Peter 1:22-25).

If we would reform the modern day church then we must open and thunder from the Scriptures again, always pointing to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and opens up the way again into fellowship with the Triune God.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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Pope Francis

On February 18, 2025 By In Culture, Politics, Theology

A Dying Pope, JD Vance, and Anti-Catholic America

A few days ago, Pope Francis was admitted to the hospital with what the Vatican has characterized as a complicated health issue. At 88 years old, he has faced ongoing medical concerns, and his condition remains a matter of concern. As his condition has progressed to double pneumonia, speculation is growing about the seriousness of his health and the possibility of his passing. Christian charity, of course, calls us to pray for his full recovery.

American Catholics and the Pope

Vice President JD Vance posted on X earlier today, calling for prayer for the Pope:

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On February 17, 2025 By In Theology

A Protestant Lent in the Beautitudes

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” – Matthew 5:8

Lent is often misunderstood as a season of obligation—a time to give up chocolate, skip meat on Fridays, or endure a somber mood until Easter. But what if Lent is something far greater? Orthodox and Roman legalism have done their fair share of damage to Lent—infesting the spiritual discipline with its merit-laden system of earned grace. Yet Reformational Kuyperians should not abandon the practice of fasting or the liturgical calendar simply because of their misuse during the medieval era.

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On October 18, 2024 By In Family and Children, History, Theology

Marriage is like Purgatory

“Marriage is a lot like purgatory, not many protestants seem to believe in it.” 

&

“Marriage is a lot like purgatory, everyone seems eager to end their suffering.”

This is how I facetiously began a recent sermon on Questions 108 and 109 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which address the commandment against adultery. The catechism emphasizes the call for every believer, married or single, “to keep ourselves pure and holy.”

In the context of the 16th-century Reformation, marriage and purgatory were hot-button issues. Christian marriage was central to Reformation theology—can we tell the story of Martin Luther without Katharina von Bora or Henry VIII without his six wives? In this post I’d like to explore how these two are related in some surprising ways.

On Purgatory and Reformation 

The medieval doctrine of purgatory sought to address an important dilemma: How can we reconcile the extrinsic grace of God with the ongoing imperfection and sinfulness of individual Christians? In the medieval Roman system, God’s divine justice could purge or cleanse the souls of those who trusted in Jesus, removing their individual shortcomings in an intermediate state. However, Protestants like Luther insisted that our righteousness before God is already perfected—simul justus et peccator (“simultaneously justified and sinner”).

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On September 23, 2024 By In Culture

Cults, Sects and Catholicity

What is the difference between a cult and a sect? Here is how I define these terms. A cult is outside of Christianity – ie Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses. A cult rejects the truths of creedal Christianity that are the centre of the Christian faith. A sect is within Christianity, but separates itself from the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church in various ways. It maintains the creedal truths of Christianity, but it rejects fellowship (at times) with Christian brothers over secondary and tertiary issues. You should be able to see under those definitions how cults can so easily arise in the midst of a church that is prone to sectarianism. This is why North America has been a seedbed for cults (JWs, Mormons, etc). North America is rife with sectarianism. If Christ alone is the Head of the church and His Word is the charter for that church, and He defines the boundaries of His Church, that should put a check on sectarianism.

This is why North America has been a seedbed for cults (JWs, Mormons, etc). North America is rife with sectarianism.

Historically, the Reformed Churches sought to maintain a sense of catholicity in the midst of sectarian and even cultic teachings. It was the criticism of various Reformed pastors at the time of the Reformation that the anabaptists, the Radical Reformers, were sectarian (not cultic). Some of the anabaptist did verge on the cultic such as the anabaptists in Munster. Even though many of the Reformers had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the initial goal of the reformation had been reform, not to leave the Roman Catholic Church.

While my Anglican and Presbyterian colleagues have similar statements, which reflect the broad sense of catholicity among the reformers, I will focus on the Three Forms of Unity here.

I would encourage all Protestants who are meditating on what it means to have a Protestant (or Reformed) doctrine of the Church to read the Belgic Confession, Articles 27-32. Read the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 21. Read the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapters 25, 30, 31. Read the 39 Articles, articles 19-21.

In the Belgic Confession, the author uses the language of true church and false church, this statement of faith was formally adopted by an ecclesiastical body at the Synod of Dordt in 1620, a synod of the Dutch Reformed Churches, but a synod at which there was a substantial international delegation that included both Anglicans and Presbyterians. In the Westminster Confession of Faith, the authors use the language of pure and purer churches and acknowledge that even the purest churches on this side of heaven, are subject to sin and error, and that some have so much sin and error that they have become synagogues of Satan. The Westminster Confession of Faith was adopted by a “synod” in Scotland in 1646, following the Synod of Dordt.

The point of these remarks is to indicate that the Presbyterian Church of Scotland did not see themselves as the “only pure church” or that the Dutch Reformed Church did not see themselves as the “only true church”. Instead, they struggled to maintain a strong sense of catholicity even as there was so much foment and revolution happening across Europe. At the same time, they were determined to call “a heresy a heresy.” There are synagogues of Satan, both in their land at that time in history, and also at our time in history. At the same time, we don’t want to act in a sectarian fashion towards those who struggle with the same intermixing of error and sin that we struggle with in our churches as we fight and contend for the purity of the Church in Christ.

What does that look like?

For example, historically (with exceptions), the Reformed did not re-baptize Roman Catholics.

If a Roman Catholic family came to my church, we would not re-baptize the parents or their children. This would have been the same when I was a pastor in the United Reformed Church of North America as now in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. This really was one of the major flash-points of the reformation as the anabaptists were the “re-baptizers” and the Reformed accepted the Trinitarian baptisms of the Roman Catholic Church.

In our congregation we welcome all Christians to the Lord’s Table who are baptized in the Triune Name and who are connected to the Church of Jesus Christ. More subjectively we warn those who are living in unrepentant rebellion and come to the Table of Christ in such a spirit, that they will eat and drink judgment on themselves. Of course, we welcome all to come and see that the Lord is good, we extend the free offer of the gospel, we welcome sinners to trust in Christ and to pass through the waters of baptism and then to come to the Table of the Lord.

It is in this way, that we seek to maintain unity with the church of all times and ages, the one, holy catholic and apostolic church, as it pursues Jesus Christ by faith.

We should take cues from how Augustine handled the donatists and from how John Calvin handled the anabaptists of his era. We recognize a sect for what it is. But we don’t act in a sectarian way towards those who love Jesus, but due to error or confusion, segregate themselves from large parts of His Church. I think here also of the way in which Paul dealt with error in Colossae. He warns against the error, but in that case, he doesn’t call for immediate excommunication for those who are struggling with the inter-mixture of strange philosophies with the doctrine of Christ. He does call for clear teaching on the supremacy of Christ, nevertheless.

Cults, on the other hand are not Christian at all. Cults abandon the true doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity and humanity of Christ. For that reason, as Christians, we should acknowledge that the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons are cults. There is also something cultic about theological liberalism in the church, in its rejection of sound doctrine, and its embrace of heretical teachings. Theological liberalism is no longer Christian or Church. If you read Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen, he makes the point well that those who reject the Trinity, the divinity & humanity of Jesus Christ, the authority of the Word of God, that is not Christianity at all. That is why you see many of the mainstream denominations dying out, as most churches that reject the Word of God will disappear or become a full-blown cult like the Mormons or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Notice how Mormons and JWs have also rejected the historic Christian Church. There is a point at which sects can verge on the cultic, especially wherever Jesus Christ is rejected as Savior and Lord. We see that in the moral chaos that has ensued in many of the mainstream churches upon their rejection of core doctrines.

The all-encompassing purpose of any true or pure church is that in everything Jesus Christ would be preeminent (Col 1). Read also the goal of Paul’s ministry in Romans 1:1-6.

Finally, in its popular use, the term “cult” is frequently used to describe the visible manifestation of power or control in a society. There are scary things and horrific abuses that happen in these cults because men (and women), being sinful by nature, tend to believe that all authority in heaven and earth belongs to them, rather than to Christ. These things do happen from time to time within the true church as well. Every visible assembly of believers has both hypocrites and sinners. In fact, the church has been described as a “hospital for sinners”. Even (especially!) the pastors of the churches must trample daily over the bellies of their own lusts. But what distinguishes the true or pure church from these cults or synagogues of Satan, is that these churches seek to correct these sins and errors, not only among their members, but also among their leaders.

You see, in this world, it is not about whether, but which, authority you will submit too. Is it the authority of Christ or the Devil? You must see here the centrality of the Biblical truth that Jesus Christ is the sole Head of the Church (Col 1, Eph 1). Any authority that is wielded by the officers of the church is delegated authority (Matt. 16:18-19, 18:18-20; I Peter 5), not transferred authority. Jesus is the King and we are His subjects. We must bend our necks to the yoke of Jesus Christ, which is easy, and His burden light. The false church does not bend its neck to the yoke of Christ and as a result places its neck under the iron yoke of the tyranny of sin & of the Devil. All ministers, pastors, elders, deacons, theological professors are servants of Jesus Christ, the only universal bishop of the Church. The officers of the church, as guardians of the church, are not called to act on their own authority, on their own whims, rolling with the tides of culture and popular opinion, but rather, ought always to guard against deviating from what Christ, our only Master, has ordained for us.

This why the Apostle Paul when he advances the ministry of reconciliation in II Corinthians 5, in the power of the Spirit says boldly: “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (II Cor 5:13-15)

You see then, how Paul directs the power of the gospel into service. The work of the catholic church is for the life of the world, in service to Christ who is the sole Head of the Church, the King of kings and Lord of lords, that in everything He might be supreme.

End note: This post was initially posted on Substack by Nathan Zekveld

Photo by ThrowBack Graphics on Unsplash

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On August 12, 2024 By In Church, Culture, Theology

What Does Baptism Accomplish? Part Two: Adoption Ceremony

When God enters into covenant with His people, there is always an adoptive element involved: He becomes their Father, and they become His children. And this has always been the case. In Scripture, even Adam’s relationship with God is expressed in terms of sonship (Hosea 6:7; Luke 3:38), highlighting the filial dimension to the covenant into which he was created. Later, after his Fall and recovery by God in Christ, that relationship was available to those who renewed their  covenant with God and maintained the true worship of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). They were called sons and daughters of God, while the rest of the world were called the sons and daughters of men (Genesis 6:2). 

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the chronicles of narnia book

On July 6, 2024 By In Scribblings

Men Should Read Fiction

Men who do not read good fiction will struggle greatly to understand others. They will think mainly propositionally and mechanically treat others, expecting them to engage in a particular way; reading them through encyclopedic lenses.

Good fictional works allow men to see tenderness as a virtue, the good life to be explored, and relationships to be developed within a paradigm of grace and wonder.

Too often, the hardest men to counsel are those who are theologically well-read but fictionally deficient. They assert themselves over their families with brute dogmatism and fail to embrace the good story of each child or spouse.

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On June 14, 2024 By In Culture

The Case for Attending Church During Vacation

As summer heats upon us, many will be vacationing all over the country and the world. As a pastor, I have noticed that church members generally don’t think much about the role the summer season has on their lives as parishioners.

I am particularly troubled by Christians who treat vacation as a break from work and Church. To some, if vacation involves a Sunday, so be it. It becomes the ideal day to travel to your favorite summer destination. After all, you are not missing work; you are only missing Church.

Hebrews does not treat this subject lightly. The author forbids the non-assembling of ourselves. The Apostle treats forsaking the assembly as a kind of mini-schism. Hebrews calls us not to forsake the gathering, which is simply a re-affirmation of the motif explored all throughout the Old Testament Scriptures.

The angels and archangels engage in heavenly worship day and night, and we are invited to join in this duty of worship each time we are gathered together on the Lord’s Day. After all, God has made us one.

Vacation is no substitute for worship. Missing the Lord’s Day gathering on vacation for any trivial reason is to mock the veil-tearing, which gave us access to the heavenly throne of grace. It belittles the work of Christ, who conquered our divisions and united us to Himself.

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On June 11, 2024 By In Culture

The Power of the Prophetic Word

Open the Bible and you will see prophets calling both king and priest to faithfulness to God. In David’s Palace, the prophet Nathan stands with his finger pointed, crying out “you are the man.” As Jeroboam approaches his idolatrous altar to make sacrifices to an idol, a man from Judah marches up to that place of idolatry and calls down the judgment of God on him. Amos, that rough and tumble farmer from Tekoa, cries out for the northern kingdom to return to the Lord. John the Baptist is beheaded for challenging Herod on his adulteries. The Apostle Paul goes right for the center of power as he is hauled off in chains to Rome, where Christian tradition claims that he died for his Lord.

In his commentary on I & II Kings, Peter Leithart writes (p. 97): “Prophets break into and out of the normal ‘chronicled’ history, the usual progression of kings and successors, as Yahweh slices across the grain of history with his prophetic word.”

In revolutionary times, pastors must never underestimate the power of the Word preached faithfully, in the power of the Spirit and pointed at the glory and majesty and mercy of Christ.

But there are a number of ways to empty the preaching of its power. There are a number of ways that this can be done in our time.

First, the preaching of the Word can be emptied of its power by becoming a fun little TedTalk, with all the right hand gestures and voice inflection. Not that these things don’t matter (it is said that Isaiah was silver-tongued), but is a man with great rhetorical ability drawing the attention to Christ, is he faithfully dividing the Word of Truth, or is he building a ministry on a persona?

Second, the preaching of the Word can be overpowered by the beauty of the liturgy, the presence of the sacraments, the glory of song. Word and sacrament come together. Apart from the Word, the sacrament is an empty symbol, and the sacrament is the visible sign & seal of an invisible grace that the Lord uses to confirm the Word. The song is a means of employing the Word to praise God, but it is not the teaching and application of the Word. The liturgy plays a role in effectively teaching the patterns of Biblical repentance and grace and thankfulness, but again, the prophetic Word is the centerpiece that humbles the pride of man and raises him up again to serve the Lord with a thankful heart.

Third, the preaching of the Word can get lost in the pathways of a mad pursuit for political power. Rather than allowing God through His Word to do the great work of humbling the pride of kings & popes as Luther did when he was drinking beer with his friends in Wittenburg, there is a temptation for pastors to drift from their mission and seize earthly power through unlawful means that are outside their calling. A pastor is lawfully given the task to preach the Word (also to teach that Word from home to home), to administer the sacraments and church discipline under the authority of a session of elders. This does not mean that there is no place for Christians to acquire political power, but that is not the duty of the minister of the Word and sacrament. He is not called to administer God’s wrath by the power of the sword as the civil magistrate is called to do (Romans 13).

The modern Christian, and especially the modern Christian pastor, must see then the unequivocal power of the Word. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3–6: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” If it is a revolutionary aim, then it is only revolutionary in the sense that kings are established in their rule when they bow the knee to the true sovereign over the whole universe, which is Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the way that we effect this as the pastors of the Christian Church is through the bold preaching of the holy gospel and by not backing down from that high calling and task when the state threatens to disband the gathering through lockdowns or locking up a pastor in prison.

The duty of the pastor then is to bind Himself to the Word and let the Word bind his speech, his actions, everything. It is in this manner that he becomes an example to kings of the great power of the Word to transform nations by transforming individual men and their families by the power of the gospel. The minister who places himself so firmly under the Word of Christ, will be an example to his flock and to the gathered church across the nation of what fidelity to Christ looks like, imitating Christ as Christ was exalted through humiliation.

In this we ought to become an example to the kings of the earth. Every godly king to must go through a humiliation, whether that be David in the caves, King Alfred in the forests of Britain, or all the kings of both the Old Testament and New Testament times who were humbled through Christian repentance and a turning to the Lord in faith.

But remember the ministers of the gospel will break. They go into stages of depression. They are on the run. They are killed and sawn in two and live in the dens and caves of the earth from time to time. But it is when the ministers of the gospel break, that the light of Christ shines out through the cracks of earthen vessels (II Cor. 4). It is the breaking of the ministers of the gospel that God has ordained as the means by which His Word will break the pride of men. Just as Gideon’s armies moved to victory when their earthen vessels were broken open, so the armies of the Lord come to victory when pastors are “are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;” (II Cor. 4:8-9)

The Word of God is the hammer that will break the pride of men and pound out Christian men into sharp pointed weapons who are able to be more and more effective with the Word in the business sphere, in the workplace, in their homes, in the town hall meeting, equiped to love and serve their communities in truth. The pastor is the vessel that the Lord raises up to bring that Word into collision with the pride of nations. This is why Paul is so concerned that Timothy be a faithful expositor of the Scriptures. Timothy and Paul are both men under orders: farmers who patiently sow seed, athletes who obey the rules, soldiers who faithfully listen and obey the commands of their Lord & Master Jesus Christ. If we would see revival & reformation sweep our land then we must see the Holy Bible faithfully opened and applied across our nation again. We must see pastors willing to take a hit and broken open, rather than deny their Lord and Master who is the sole Head of the Church. We must grow pastors who relentlessly believe that the Word is above all earthly powers and show that they believe by obeying its commands of Christ even to the point of martyrdom.

This is the prophetic Word that slices through the grain of history. As Peter writes to the Christians in exile: “…since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (I Peter 1:23-25).

This is the Word above all earthly powers. God has invested it with the power to regenerate wicked kings, homeless men & women, and sanctimonious Christians who have a veneer of holiness but are full of dead mens bones.

So submit to it, study it, search it, love it. And preach it.

Note: this has also been posted over on Susbtack here.

Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash

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On May 29, 2024 By In Culture

Holy Sacraments in the Church of Jesus Christ

I have written here before with regards to the church and the office-bearers of the church and the preaching of the church. This will give some background to my claims here.

The signs and seals of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are holy sacraments that have been given to the church. They are to be used under the oversight of the watchmen and stewards within God’s Church. Apart from the context, the mutual love and accountability of the church, the preaching of the Holy Gospel, and everything that Christ has established for the church, they are used in disobedience. These sacraments belong neither to the state nor the family. Christ has given them to His Church.

This is the angle I am aiming at in this article (the ecclesiastical angle). It is only within the context of Christ’s church, that these sacraments become rich with meaning. Obviously, not in and of themselves, but in that they cannot be separated from the Word preached, and in that they are visible signs and seals that point to Christ who is the sum and substance of the sacraments.

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