Volume 1: Issue 4 | November 2018
Editorial: A Christian “Elevator Speech” for Today
“Jesus is who He says He is, the Son of God,
who rose in His body from the dead and is alive now,
and everyone will have to answer to Him someday.”
What is an “Elevator Speech?” I heard a business type on Geneva’s Board of Trustees use the term ten years ago, as though everyone knew it. I had to ask. An “Elevator Speech” is a sales pitch for your company, short enough to tell someone on a ride in an elevator. It gets in the essentials in a way that evokes interest and makes the listener say, “Tell me more about your company.”
Ten years later, I am teaching a high school class the Gospel According to Mark, and I realize that the opening sentence, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” is an elevator speech! “Jesus” names the person you want to talk about, and there are three buzz words that in the First Century A.D. invite the request, “Please tell me more.”
“Gospel” for both Jews and Greeks meant, “announcing the one who brings peace won through victory.” “Son of God” meant kingly divinity for both Jews and Greeks. “Christ” meant “Messiah” to the Jews, the anointed Son of King David who would claim David’s long empty throne as God’s prophets promised. Hardly anyone in the ancient world could hear that first sentence of Mark and not want to hear more about Jesus. The word “beginning” promises that there is much more to hear.
Unfortunately, Mark 1:1 is not a good Elevator Speech in the Twenty First Century A.D. First, most people hear “Christ” and think it is Jesus’ last name, so it communicates nothing special to them. Second, “Gospel” means either the Christian message in general, or the empty etymological meaning, “Good News” Christians often give it. “Son of God” still carries much of its original punch.
In Paul’s visit to Athens recounted in Acts 17, there is a second “Elevator Speech.” Preaching to whomever he can, Paul tangles with some Stoic and Epicurean philosophers and gets arrested for preaching about two new gods, a male one, “Jesus,” and a female one, “Resurrection (feminine in Greek).” On trial, Paul cleverly clears himself of the charge once made against Socrates, of preaching new and foreign gods, by saying, “I am preaching about the ‘Unknown god,’ whose statue I saw in your city. Furthermore, the God I preach is not new; He is the oldest God, the Creator of all nations. Until now, He allowed them to go their own way, searching for Him, but now He commands all nations to repent [of their idolatry] and worship Him. He has shown His intent by raising a man from the dead, who will be Judge of all.”
Paul’s defense before the Athenian court, the Aeropagus, suggests what his “Elevator Speech” was in Athens. “The Creator Himself has sent Jesus to turn you away from idols; He raised Jesus from the dead and appointed him Judge of all.”
Paul’s “Elevator Speech” in Athens will not work much better today than Mark 1:1 will. Why? First of all, “Judge” does not mean “King” like it did to all ancient peoples. Second, in America, Jesus raised from the dead is not new news, thanks to our annual Easter holiday and the general knowledge of what Christians believe. There is also a tendency among the more kindly unbelievers, to patronizingly psychologize the Resurrection: Jesus lives in the hearts of Christians by faith, but smart people certainly do not believe that a dead body came back to life. An awareness of the supernatural, a Creator capable of acting in our world, is weak today.
So what might a suitable “Elevator Speech” be today? I asked an adult class at Broomall that question recently, after we had discussed Mark 1:1 and Acts 17, and got three quick answers. One, “Where do you think you would be if you died tonight?” Two, “Do you know that you are in an elevator and it is plummeting earthwards?” Three, “You are like a person with terminal cancer.” The trouble with all three of these suggestions is that they are not about the person we want to talk about, Jesus. They are not Elevator Speeches. Each is about the person to whom we are talking, not Jesus.
After I criticized the first three suggestions, a fourth hand was raised. “Jesus is who He says He is, the Son of God, who rose in His body from the dead and is alive now, and everyone will have to answer to Him someday.” I like it. It puts the name of Jesus front and center: he is the man we are talking about. Second, it makes the further claim that he is the Son of God, the part of Mark 1:1 that still immediately gets attention. Third, it asserts the supernatural, historical, bodily Resurrection of Jesus, meaning He is alive now. And fourth, it warns that both speaker and hearer will one day answer to Jesus. Unlike Mark 1:1 in its day, it does not invite, “Tell me more.” It is a little more like Paul’s preaching in Athens, inviting a disputation about the truth concerning Jesus: Paul was always ready to argue his case for Jesus.
This modern Christian “Elevator Speech” does not mention forgiveness of sins, nor how to bridge the gulf between sinful created man and the eternal holy God, but neither does Mark 1:1, or Paul in Acts 17, or Peter on the Day of Pentecost. Peter only gets to forgiveness of sins after his frightened audience asks desperately, “What shall we do?” when they hear that Jesus – whom they themselves crucified – is alive and is the heavenly enthroned King. However, that we will someday answer to Jesus does raise the question, “What will I answer? How will He judge me?”
--Bill Edgar
“The Poor” and “Poverty” in Proverbs
Sermon Excerpt: Daniel Howe
According to Proverbs, what are the causes of poverty? Laziness is a major one: “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man (6:10-11).” Others include ignoring instruction (13:18), talk without action (14:23), and activity without planning (21:5; 28:19). Substance abuse is both a cause and an effect of poverty (23:21; 31:6-7). Ironically, greed can plunge you into poverty (28:22). Poverty brings the temptation to steal (30:8-9). But poverty is not proof of sin: you can be a poor man and have integrity (19:1, 22).
The book has many things to say on poverty that are not practical instruction, but simple observations. “The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat, (13:8);” in other words, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” On the other hand, “The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice, (13:23);” injustice prevents investment that could lift the poor out of poverty. Wealth brings friends and impunity; poverty brings loneliness and importunity (14:20; 18:23). Wealth is protection, poverty vulnerability (10:15). And wealth and poverty are relative: all have one Maker and stand before him. Neither wealth nor poverty have moral high ground.
So how should we treat the poor? Don’t oppress them and thereby insult God (22:16). Don’t “listen to the money talk;” money tells the rich that they’re wise, even if they’re not (28:11). Be generous to the poor, and look to God for a reward (28:27); he considers giving to the poor a loan to him, and he will repay (19:17). Listen to the poor, so that God listens to you (21:13). Do justice to the poor, even though it doesn’t seem like they can help you (29:14; see also Luke 14:12-14).
Let’s draw a few things together. First, it might seem like the rich deserve their wealth and the poor deserve their poverty. Proverbs notes many behaviors that lead to poverty, and condemns them, while praising hard work, planning, and wise use of time. God is on the side of the rich, right? No: “The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all (22:2).”
Second, we must be wise and loving with our generosity. We don’t want to produce “co-morbidities”— laziness, substance abuse, or debt — in our effort to help people out of poverty. The Law of Love rules us: we must do the same kind of good to our poor neighbors that we would want for ourselves in their shoes. The greatest earthly way to help the poor is to provide meaningful work at a fair wage (Acts 20:35; Ephesians 4:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:13-14). Further, the poor have unused resources —“fallow land” (minds, hands, skills, connections, time) — that need investment and encouragement (a book I highly recommend: Charity Detox by Robert Lupton).
One last note: a classic debate within Christianity is whether to give only to the “deserving poor.” Should we only be generous to the poor if they are morally upright? No. All the poor are undeserving, and so are we. God’s generosity toward us in Christ is the reason for our generosity toward others. We should be generous even to people whose actions put them where they are. This is the attitude of Christ toward us: he doesn’t ignore us on the grounds that it was our own fault. He doesn’t encourage us to continue in sin. Instead, he gave himself sacrificially so that we could have eternal wealth and fellowship with him.
Explanation of the Seventh Commandment
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
-- Exodus 20:14
God’s Seventh Commandment puts a fence around marriage. Like any good fence, it keeps intruders out and makes a safe space inside. Obedience to this command does not guarantee a happy family, but disobedience all but guarantees an unhappy one. God requires the exclusive sexual loyalty of husband to wife and wife to husband; hence the old English wedding vows pointedly included the phrase, “and forsaking all others.”
Sexual fidelity in marriage is so important that the Protestant Churches recognize that sexual relations with another person give the innocent party just grounds for seeking a divorce and then being free to remarry (see Westminster Confession of Faith, 24.5, citing Matthew 19:9). Before the spread of “no fault” divorce laws in America in the 1970s, many American states likewise listed adultery as a legal ground for seeking a divorce. The adultery had to be proven, of course.
Not every instance of breaking the Seventh Commandment, however, counted as legal grounds for divorce in the eyes of either the Church or the State. For example, the Westminster Larger Catechism lists dozens of sins that break the Seventh Commandment, including “unclean thoughts” and even “gluttony.” It ends with a list of sins that today we often lump together under the ill-defined term “pornography:” “lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays.” However, neither Church nor State ever considered “unclean thoughts,” “gluttony,” reading dirty books, or looking at lascivious pictures legitimate grounds for divorce, even though they all break the Seventh Commandment. Adultery allowing for divorce required the actual union of physical, material bodies. Paul specially warned against resorting to prostitutes, asking rhetorically, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh (I Corinthians 6:16).’”
While the Seventh Commandment forbids sexual union outside of marriage, it has a corollary implication for what goes on inside marriage. Two biblical expressions for sexual relations are “becoming one flesh” and to “know” one another (Genesis 2:24, 4:1). The first expression graphically describes what happens when male and female join together in the way God designed to create new humans made in his image. The second term, “to know,” describes the full intimacy of physical, emotional, and even spiritual knowledge involved in sexual union. Sex is NOT just another pleasurable bodily function like eating or sleeping! Physical sexual relations, in fact, serve as the “sign” of the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. Historically, a marriage was considered “unconsummated” if the couple never came together for sexual union, and thus was not a real marriage despite vows having been exchanged; it would be a situation rather like a former Muslim or Hindu avoiding baptism as the final step to become a Christian.
God commands married husbands and wives not to deny one another except by mutual agreement, and then only for a short time and for a spiritual purpose (I Corinthians 7:3-5). Joseph did not “know” his wife Mary until after Jesus was born (Matthew 1:25). Later on, we find that Jesus had four brothers and also some sisters, which shows that Mary was not perpetually a virgin, nor is this any loss, since the marriage bed is undefiled (Matthew 13:55-56, Hebrews 13:4).
The male-female sexual nature of Man is inherently very good (Genesis 1:31). To restore and protect its goodness in our fallen world, we must learn from God in his Seventh Commandment how to protect his good gift, so that we can enjoy it and be fruitful. The starting point is that every man must be a one-woman man, and every woman must be a one-man woman.
-- Bill Edgar
Article Review:
"Retracing Slavery’s Trail of Tears"
Smithsonian Magazine, November 2015.
According to our Covenant of 1871, “the history of the government has been largely one of oppression and injustice towards its aboriginal and colored people" (my italics). Southern apologists, both before and after the American Civil War, have argued that northern denunciation of their “peculiar institution” was both hypocritical and overdone. There were abuses, they concede, but the institution itself was lawful, and essentially good for all involved. Such sentiments are still current among some southern Presbyterians. I have heard them expressed.
If you are tempted to believe such historical nonsense, or you have heard such things from others and wonder about them, a long article in the November 2015 Smithsonian will clarify matters. It deals with the inland slave trade, from the Tobacco South to the Cotton South. Everyone should read it. American Southern slavery was unspeakably evil. Period. Period. Period.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/.
Here are a few items from the article.
“The Slave Trail of Tears is the great missing migration – a thousand-mile-long river of people, all of them black, reaching from Virginia to Louisiana. During the 50 years before the Civil War, about a million enslaved people [were] moved from the Upper South – Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky – to the Deep South – Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama... The forced resettlement was 20 times larger than Andrew Jackson’s ‘Indian Removal’ campaigns of the 1830s, which gave rise to the original Trail of Tears…. It was bigger than the immigration of Jews into the United States during the 19th century, when some 500,000 arrived from Russia and Eastern Europe. It was bigger than the wagon-train migration to the West…. It gave the Deep South a character it retains to this day; and it changed the slaves themselves, traumatizing uncountable families.”
(The Reformed Presbyterian Church after the Civil War established a mission in Selma, Alabama, one of the poorest regions of the Deep South. Its full history remains to be written.)
Certain continuing English phrases stem from this forced migration: the fearful “sold down the river,” and “chain gang,” from how slaves on forced marches south were often chained together the entire way. The article describes how slaves were acquired for the trip south, travel conditions, what slave auctions were like, the “fancy trade” (i.e, young pretty women and teens sold as concubines), and, perhaps most heartbreaking of all, the separation of children from their parents for sale.
“During the 50 years of the Slave Trail, perhaps half a million people born in the United States were sold in New Orleans, more than all the Africans brought to the country during two centuries of the Middle Passage across the Atlantic.” The other half million were sold in other slave markets in the South.
After the Civil War newspapers in the South carried hundreds – no, thousands! – of notices, seeking family members lost to them. These ads, paid for by children separated from their parents, and by parents who had lost their children, continued up until World War I, as they tried to locate one another. Few succeeded in reuniting families ripped apart by an extraordinarily profitable and cruel slave trade. The American Constitution ended the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, but not the domestic slave trade. Only the Civil War ended that trade.
The Bible nowhere praises slavery as good. God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, that deliverance being the basis for His Ten Commandments. He delivers us from bondage to sin, the power of Satan, and the fear of death, setting us free. He told slaves in Corinth to be content in their situation, but if they got a chance for freedom, to take it. Jesus’ Golden Rule teaches us, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Any slave owner suddenly enslaved himself would want his freedom back. How could any Baptist, Presbyterian, or Methodist with Bible in hand ever argue with a straight face that slavery was good for the black slaves in the American South? Yet the two foremost Reformed theologians of the South, Thornwell and Dabney, did just that!
The slaves were very profitable! In 1860, three-fourths of American exports came from the American South, mostly cotton. The market value of slaves in 1860 exceeded the value of American railroads, factories, and banks combined. Thank God that the cruel and barbarous inland slave trade in our country is no more.
-- Bill Edgar
Get to Know Your Members:
Gabriel and Megan Wingfield, Christ RPC, Providence, RI
Where are you from?
Megan: Where am I from? Or where am I really from? I’m Chinese-American, but I grew up in Plano, Texas. My parents are from Hong Kong.
Gabriel: I grew up in Asheville, North Carolina.
What did you believe about God growing up? What did your family teach you?
Megan: I did not grow up in a Christian home. But I believed that there is a God that I could talk to, and every now and then I did (talk to him). But that was about it. My family members are kind of like Stoics. They taught me about working hard, rising from your circumstances, doing what is right, and honoring your elders. These are all good things--but without any recognition of God or his care for us.
Gabriel: We read the Bible every day and went to church once or twice a week. My parents really emphasized God’s sovereignty. Both my parents had come out of very Arminian Baptist churches, but my family joined a PCA church just before I was born. So I think that God’s sovereignty in choosing us, rather than our decision to choose God, was always something my family talked about. I knew I was a sinner and can remember being scared of hell when I was quite young. But I also knew that Jesus could save me from hell. I was always conscious of being a Calvinist (in a “cage-stage” sort of way) and not an Arminian. Even in middle school I liked talking about theology, but Reformed theology was just intellectual for me. God had not yet humbled me.
Did you go to church? Where?
Megan: I did not go to church. I occasionally attended some youth group events with my best friend growing up, and my Chinese school met in a church. Sometimes I would read the Bibles in the church for fun. I thought the stories in Genesis were really weird, but fascinating.
Gabriel: I grew up at Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Asheville, North Carolina.
How did things change as you went through high school and beyond?
Megan: In late middle school, my friend Jennifer was very excited to show me her very new, grown-up Bible. One afternoon while we were playing at her house, she took me to her room to show me her Bible. She walked me through major stories of the Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. I was struck by the person of Jesus in the Gospels. I felt really drawn to him. So she lent me her old Bible to take home, and I took it home and started reading the four Gospels voraciously. I felt a lot of comfort reading them, and I was also deeply drawn to Jesus’ teachings. Sometime in high school I started attending a Chinese Bible church. I think that I considered myself a Christian at that time, but there was a lot I did not understand, like how Jesus dying on the cross saved me. I was more attracted to living righteously, and my parents did not object because they thought church was a good place for a teenager to be.
During undergrad at Rhode Island School of Design, I became involved with RUF (Reformed University Fellowship), and through weekly preaching and Bible studies I began to really hear the Gospel. Through that experience, combined with more complicated personal relationships, I began to understand myself as a sinner in need of a Savior.
While I was in Seattle one summer for an internship, a girl invited me to be part of a Bible study. It was an interesting study, but she made some bold claims that did not seem right. They drove me to investigate Scripture more closely myself, and I quickly found those claims to be untrue. (For example, she said that Jesus did not need to die, and he could have done so much more if he had lived longer. She also said that her leader was the second coming of Christ!)
Back at school, our RUF minister’s wife encouraged me to consider baptism and church membership. Up until that time I had not thought much about it. She actually presented me with a photocopy of the Westminster Confession’s chapter on baptism. The following summer I did an internship in Houston, where I regularly attended a PCA church. The pastor there was preaching through a series he called “Dusty Doctrine.” He presented foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. I had never encountered Reformed teaching presented so systematically. By the end of that summer, I knew for sure that I was a Christian and that I wanted to be baptized and join the church.
Gabriel: A couple of big things happened to me in high school. With a bunch of Baptists, I worked on a grounds crew at the Billy Graham Training Center. They were all career grounds crew guys, and I was an arrogant high schooler. One day one of grounds crew men pulled me aside and rebuked me very directly for how I disrespected the other men and talked down to them. I could tell he was angry with me, but he was also restrained, and I could tell that he wanted me to learn. I got home that day from work and completely fell apart. My impression of myself was, naturally, pretty flattering. I thought people liked me. I thought I had a good reputation. But he had blown that image to pieces. At the same time, God laid a lot of pressure on me in other parts of my life: my family and school friends. I began to know just how sinful I was, and I saw how helpless I was to do anything about it. I knew I needed a savior and that only Jesus would do. My coworker telling me off was the turning point in my life.
How did you meet?
Megan: We met through RUF. I was a junior, and Gabe was a new freshman. He rather persistently pursued me over the course of an academic year. We began dating at the end of my junior year, and we got engaged my senior year and were married a year later.
Gabriel: I showed up to RUF my freshman year at Brown University, and Megan was one of the upperclass girls. Megan was very hospitable. She would have students over to her dorm suite and cook dinner for them. (That was unusual and very attractive.) I was impressed by how she spoke to me: she took our friendship very seriously, and she spoke her mind freely and thoughtfully. It was important to me to meet and marry a godly woman, and the more that Megan and I got to know each other, the more I saw how serious she was about following Jesus. It was a relief to me that whatever we would talk about, Megan cared what the Bible had to say about it. That common ground of faith in God and obedience to his Word -- I cannot overemphasize how important that was to me. Plus, Megan is beautiful and loves to invite people over to feed them her good food. How could I not want to marry her?
What led you to God?
Megan: God used different people and circumstances in my life to reveal himself slowly to me, to bring me towards him. Also, as I grew and matured, God enabled me to see my own sin and the fallenness of the world more, my own helplessness and need for Jesus.
Gabriel: Suffering. Partly it was the suffering of feeling trapped in my own sin, but there was suffering from other people’s sin in there too.
What led you to visit Christ RP Church?
Megan: Gabriel was already attending Christ RP Church in Providence, and he invited me to come visit his church. I was interested in joining another church at the time, but since we were dating I thought I should at least visit.
Gabriel: My older brother Isaac and his wife Emily had moved to Providence for grad school just before I arrived in town for college. I had been going to another church in town, but Isaac and Emily were still looking around for a church to join. One of the members at Christ RP Church had known Emily from way back, and when he found out that she and her new husband were in town, he knocked on their door and invited them to church. Isaac told me a week later, “Hey, we visited this church last week. They only sing Psalms. They don’t use instruments. They wouldn’t let us take the Lord’s Supper because we hadn’t met with the elders. It was great!” So I went with them the next week and stayed. I was impressed immediately with how seriously the church took worship (without being grumpy about it) and how hospitable they were to visitors. Plus, the preaching was solid.
What led you to join Christ RP Church?
Megan: My first day visiting, I was struck by the warmth and hospitality of its members. I was blown away by the Psalm singing. We sang Psalm 119W, and I didn’t know where we were in the music. I really enjoyed Daniel’s preaching through Luke. It really opened up Scripture to me in ways that I had not seen before. I decided to pursue membership and began meeting regularly with Daniel. Then I was baptized and joined at the end of my senior year. I think it was a week after the church organized.
Gabriel: I knew pretty quickly after I started attending that I wanted to join. Being under the care of a local pastor and session was very important to me.
How has God helped you in the last few years?
Megan: For most of my life I have prided myself on my own strength and abilities. For a long time I was able to get away with that, and was also probably blind to God’s hand in giving me success. With his gift of children, God has enabled me to see my helplessness apart from him. I have been driven to prayer because I have been challenged so much beyond my abilities. I also see more clearly the many ways in which he loves me and loves his people. I think I have grown in thankfulness to him.
Gabriel: We made it through four years of seminary relatively unscathed. We always have bread on the table and a roof over our heads. Megan has given birth to four healthy babies in five and a half years without any drama. When we first arrived at the RPTS in 2014, I thought I would find work as a paralegal, since that had been my line of work between college and seminary. After receiving no callbacks from any of the law firms in Pittsburgh, I got a minimum wage fast food job. The evening after my first shift, a fellow from another RP church in Pittsburgh offered me work. He employed me the whole time we lived in Pittsburgh, paid me a living wage, gave me finals weeks off, and insisted that I not work on Sundays. I could not have asked for better employment. That is just one example of how God has taught us to wait on God, to pray, and to work with the hope of his reward.
What are you most thankful for at this point in your life?
Megan: I am thankful that God didn’t give me up to the lust of my heart. I’m thankful that God didn’t let me continue in blindness and life apart from him. While the process of being sanctified and living in a still fallen world is difficult, I’m thankful that I have the hope of the Resurrection and the New Heavens and New Earth. And I am thankful for the family God has given me.
Gabriel: Judgment Day. The longer I live, the more I see people getting torn up by evil. I am thankful for how God has kept me and my family, both spiritually and physically, but it is a daily comfort for me to look forward and know that Jesus will come back, he will set everything straight, he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
I’m also thankful for Megan and our four children. Our household is so much more peaceful and enjoyable than I thought possible. Being free to confess our sins to God and to each other and to repent has given us a path forward through life together.
Becoming a pastor this year was huge. It was about thirteen years from when I began to feel a call to the ministry until I was ordained. None of those years passed quite as I had expected them too, but God has always given me a way forward. I am thankful for that also: to know that God will provide.
What is Freudianism?
Reprint from Christian Nation, March 20, 1927, p. 3.
Some years ago Sigmund Freud made a discovery – or an invention, according to your point of view – that all human motivation came from a single source. This was not an altogether new idea. Marx had said that all human activities were dominated by the economic motive. Freud claimed that all found their source in sex impulses. It was as if one had said that all birds were moved by the catching of worms and the other had insisted that it was due to the mating instinct.
The possible criticism of both views is that they claim too much. One has a great interest in his legs, but it is scarcely possible to show that his whole interest centers there. Yet legs have played a great part in every movement. Without legs Helen would not have run away with Paris and caused the siege of Troy, Caesar would not have crossed the Rubicon, Columbus might not have discovered America, Luther stood before the Emperor at the Diet of Worms, or Bryan run for President of the United States. Yet one would hesitate to say that all conduct finds its motivation in the legs.
But Freud insists on his single uncaused cause. If one has a dream of meeting a friend it arises from a sexual impulse, also if he has a dream of not meeting a friend… So it is from the cradle to the grave. So far has the Freudian idea obtained currency that it is about as unfashionable to be without a complex as without a complexion.
He has also discovered that there is a lustful rascal in each of us who is always trying to break through into outward expression. For instance, if one leaves an e off made and makes it mad, it shows he has murder in his heart….
But the element in the teaching of Freud that seems to fit into the time spirit is the claim of Freud that these sex impulses should not be suppressed. To do this is to interfere disastrously with conduct. We may discriminate between them but all of them should be satisfied…
Gnosticism Today
Gnosticism, the first and most dangerous heresy to threaten the Gospel of Jesus Christ, had its own teachers, such as Valentinus, Scriptures like the fake Gospel of Thomas, and even 150 hymns gathered by Marcion. Combining Greek ideas with Christian words, it appealed to many in the ancient world. Early Church Fathers, like Justin Martyr (c. 100 – 165 A.D.), Irenaeus (c. 140 - 202 A.D.), and Tertullian (c. 145- c. 240 A.D.) refuted the various Gnosticisms, and helped the Church to reject their lies. Two central Gnostic lies, however, continue to influence Christians to the present: 1) The god of the Old Testament was cruel, while the god of the New Testament is kind and loving, and 2) The human soul is good and eternal, but the material body is bad and temporary. The second idea – soul good, body bad – runs rampant through today’s American culture.
The main fight in our time about human nature is no longer about whether man is born naturally good or corrupted by Original Sin, but whether the body is central to human identity. From time to time, therefore, A Little Strength will quote and briefly discuss some expressions of deceitful Gnostic views about human nature. We begin with three in this issue.
1. A First Things blog post entitled “Kissing Purity Culture Good-bye” (11/6/2018) began with Joshua Harris’ apology for his popular book, I Kissed Dating Good-bye. He has withdrawn it from publication. Some commenters defended the book, while some applauded its withdrawal, but one comment caught my eye. It came from “Karen,” a woman apparently on the fringes of Roman Catholic social media. She wrote, “I don’t like traditional men. Traditional men keep women from using our minds, which is the only really human activity" (my italics). Like many on the Catholic left, Karen holds a Gnostic view of human nature. By writing “using your mind is the only really human activity,” she scorns all activities of the human body, like nursing a baby, as not really human. “Breeders,” as some derisively call those who bear children, are thus inferior to women who work with their minds, especially those professional women who do tasks requiring the verbal and mathematical talent measured by the SAT exam. How does Mary, the Mother of our Lord, and most blessed among women, measure up to this Gnostic criterion of being human? Not well, it would seem. Karen has no respect for the human body, only for the human mind.
2. The November 2018 Atlantic magazine contains a scary article, “Can the Pentagon Weaponize the Brain?” It begins with a 2012 quotation from Justin C. Sanchez, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and neuroscience at the University of Miami. “Tonight I would like to share with you an idea I am extremely passionate about. Throughout all human history, the way that we have expressed our intent, the way we have expressed our goals, the way we have expressed our desires, has been limited by our bodies.” Gesturing toward his body, he said, “We are born into this world with this. Whatever nature or luck has given us.” The Atlantic article goes on to quote Geoff Ling, a neurology-ICU physician. “How can I liberate mankind from the limitations of the body?" (p. 86). The article mainly describes the work of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a Pentagon department that since 1958 has explored a variety of both good and wacky ideas. In response to their projects and overall attitude, the writer asks several times, almost plaintively, “What is a human?” Yes, indeed. Does my body have anything to do with who I really am, or can I set myself free from my bodily limitations? Here is Gnosticism in the secular world, with the word “mind” substituted for the Gnostic word “soul,” or “spirit.” It is the ancient human temptation “to be as God,” unlimited by the bodies our minds inhabit.
3. From the web page of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The Children’s Catechism, which some of our churches use to catechize their preschool children:
Q. 19. What else did God give Adam and Eve besides their bodies?
A. 19. He gave them souls that will last forever.
Q. 20. Do you have a soul as well as a body?
A. 20. Yes. And my soul is going to last forever.
No ancient Gnostic could have stated his exalted view of spirit better, or dismissed the body so easily. At the very end of the Catechism, Christian orthodoxy appears:
Q. 147. Will the bodies of all the dead be raised again?
A. 147. Yes, at the last day some will be raised to everlasting life and others to everlasting death.
However, if the child ever gets to Q. 147, she will have long since learned the idea that her soul, in contrast to her body, “will last forever.” The Westminster Shorter Catechism, by contrast, makes no mention of body and soul when it comes to creation:
Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. 10. God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the animals.
When it gets to the death of believers, it emphatically teaches the eternal destiny of our bodies:
Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive at death?
A. 37. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
Because our bodies remain united to Christ even in death, the Christian Church teaches that even a dead body must be treated with respect. Until very recently, all Christian Churches absolutely opposed the pagan practice of cremation, intended to free the human spirit from its entanglement in degrading matter by burning away the imprisoning fleshly matter of the body.
Here is how the Bible exalts the material human body:
"As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’ But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them." (Luke 23:36-43)
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
Left-wing Catholic responding to a blog, secular neuroscience professor and government researchers, and the popular Children’s Catechism all express the ancient Gnostic heresy that our humanity resides in our minds/souls/spirits and not also in our bodies. As you read and talk with people this month, watch for similar expressions of the idea that the REAL person is the mind or soul, while the body is a mere temporary tool of the soul or mind. If you send them to us at williamjosephedgar@gmail.com, we can perhaps include them in a future issue of A Little Strength. This Gnostic view of the human body is one of the most destructive ideas loose in American society in our day. We need to recognize it when we see it and resolutely reject it.
-- Bill Edgar
Notable Reformed Presbyterian Ministers Serving in the Atlantic Presbytery Churches
Robert Sommerville
1837-1920
Several thousands of Irish and Scottish Covenanters settled in Novia Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec in the 19th Century, organizing over sixty societies and congregations. When these provinces formed the Confederation of Canada in 1867, however, these Covenanter congregations did not come together as a Reformed Presbyterian Church of Canada, let alone start their own Canadian seminary. One minister only in the 19th Century came from their ranks, Robert Sommerville. He served mostly in New York City and made a signal contribution to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.
Robert’s father, William, was a life-long Irish missionary to Novia Scotia. At fourteen, Robert came before the Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as a prospective student of theology. Two years later, he went to Belfast and in due time was graduated from Queen’s College and the Irish Theological Hall. The Irish Synod licensed him to preach in 1861, at age twenty-four. Turning down a call from the Irish congregation of Coleraine, Robert returned to Novia Scotia, and was soon installed as co-pastor with his father of Horton and Cornwallis congregations.
Robert and his father did not mesh well as co-pastors. First, Robert married a Baptist woman who had been immersed. William insisted she had to be baptized again by sprinkling. Second, church finances could not support two pastors, and Robert had to get a second job. Third, he wanted his own church. In 1873, Robert finally left Nova Scotia, landing as associate pastor to the aged Andrew Stevenson of Second New York, himself a worker with William Sommerville in New Brunsick long before, in 1831-33. When Stevenson retired in 1875, Robert became the pastor of Second New York, the largest congregation in the Reformed Presbyterian Church with 385 communicant members. When ill health forced Sommerville’s retirement in 1912, Second New York had 225 communicants.
Robert Sommerville preached consistently well-prepared and eloquent sermons covering all of the Bible’s content. He was also the Foreign Mission Board’s Corresponding Secretary from 1875 to 1912, an office crucial to mission success but which usually gets little notice. Sommerville’s organizational labor and skill supported the comings and goings of missionaries to Syria for decades and laid the foundations for the first arduous years of mission work in China. Finally, for twenty-nine years, Sommerville edited the monthly Herald of Mission News, which he started in 1887 and renamed Olive Trees in 1898. (These papers still make interesting reading and can be found at rparchives.com.) When Robert could no longer handle the paper, he gave it to the Foreign Mission Board to continue.
Sixteen years before his death, Robert Sommerville left instructions for his funeral in the church: casket closed; Psalm 66 two stanzas; read Psalm 103; brief prayer for the prosperity of Second New York; read Romans 8:28-39; prayer for the pastor of Second New York that he would preach with God-given power to declare God’s message of salvation; Psalm 72 the last stanza. There was to be no sermon. And so it was done, in the midst of a raging snowstorm on February 6, 1920. The next day he was buried in the Bronxville Cemetery outside New York, there to await the Resurrection.
-- Bill Edgar
Prayer Request
O God, cultivate in us humility before You, to believe Your Word implicitly, to trust in Jesus alone for salvation, and to accept Your Providence in our lives as always for our good. Grant us also humility before others, so that we view no one as too lowly to deal with, and consider the needs and aspirations of our brothers and sisters as important as our own are.
We ask you again, O Lord, give each church in our Presbytery two nearby places to pray for as sites for new congregations; cultivate in us the grace of hospitality both to strangers and friends; and help us to be thankful in all things with contentment.
Autumn Meeting of the Atlantic Presbytery, 2018
The autumn meeting of the Atlantic Presbytery began with a collective gasp as we learned that a car accident had delayed our moderator, Daniel Howe. Nevertheless, when he arrived, he was able to lead us through our business, even as we missed and prayed for our Ridgefield Park brothers, Bruce Martin and David Weir, who went home to recover. We felt both relief and gratitude to God as our meeting got underway.
The Presbytery gave most of its time at our Fall meeting to preparations: examining students preparing for pastoral ministry, discussing care of congregations preparing to grow, and adopting plans preparing to plant new churches.
Two men, Hunter Jackson and Zach Dotson, have sensed a call to pastoral ministry and the Presbytery has taken them under its care, giving them spiritual oversight through its Candidates and Credentials Committee, financial support, and lots of informal help. My previous presbyteries enjoyed larger classes of prospective pastors and had more formal procedures for examinations, with study guides, a handbook, and stated standards for each exam. The Atlantic Presbytery handles examinations with a personal and unpredictable touch. Each examiner decides on the questions that he will ask, and then all of the elders have a chance to ask further questions. The value and limits of this approach were on display at this meeting, as both students stumbled and shined their way through their exams. Each man took a step forward towards licensure to preach.
Our students are not the only ones struggling forward. Some of our congregations are seeking a path toward stability and vitality. Presbytery decided that every congregation should select two neighboring communities as prospective sites for future RP churches and pray that Jesus would work there. This timely challenge matches the efforts of RP Presbyteries to our west to strengthen struggling congregations and to add new ones. In Midwest Presbytery, working to establish a new church proved a boon to a small existing one. Hebron RPC in Clay Center, KS, repeatedly reported that they did not expect to survive their church-planting efforts in Manhattan, KS. The year the Manhattan congregation was organized, however, the pastor of Hebron, Ron Graham gave a stirring speech at Presbytery, the gist of which was, “We’re still here!” Courageous and self-sacrificing outreach does not kill a congregation, it seems; not even a small one. The Atlantic Presbytery is taking small steps toward strengthening existing churches by pursuing new ones.
Home Mission Board representative, John Edgar, noted that church planting efforts are moving forward in other Presbyteries. The Atlantic Presbytery cannot rest contented with its new congregations in Providence and Hazleton. The Presbytery set January 9, 2019 as a day in which we will “confess our collective lack of zeal in seeking the lost, ask God’s blessing on our congregations, and ask for a greater share in the growth of Christ’s kingdom.” For, as the Presbyteries west of us have found, God builds His Church when we humble ourselves and pray, as our Pacific Coast Presbytery did a few years back and has now seen significant growth. The Atlantic Presbytery is ready to undertake the praying which necessarily precedes planting.
Our Presbytery enjoys a unique place in the RPCNA. The Presbytery of the Alleghenies contends with the challenges of RP institutions: Geneva, RPTS, RP Home, and Crown & Covenant. Great Lakes-Gulf and Midwest Presbyteries struggle with great geographical distances that old mergers and new works have created. The Atlantic Presbytery remembers being a remnant of our former selves. It witnesses in the shadow of great American cities and institutions, and wants to do so with courage and humility.
-- Noah Bailey
Asylum Hearing For "Timon"
Some of our churches in big East Coast cities help Christians who have fled their homelands. To give you a glimpse of what these saints are fleeing, I report on a public asylum appeal before a judge in Philadelphia by a Pakistani Christian named Timon. (All names and dates have been changed.) A Homeland Security representative had denied him asylum at an initial hearing.
I like to introduce Timon by saying, “Have you heard the joke about the Jewish lawyer who sent the Pakistani Roman Catholic to the Scottish Presbyterian church?” Timon’s lawyer, a good friend of our church who earlier helped a family that is now part of Broomall RPC, sent him to Elkins Park RPC. Church members have hosted him for meals, helped him get his driver’s license, reviewed his resume, and helped him practice his English. During one of his early visits to my home, he sipped his lunch while murmuring, “Tomato soup, tomato soup,” so as to learn the words. Timon has been a smiling presence at our worship services and men's breakfasts for four years, so it was only natural that we, together with a nearby Episcopal church, send a delegation to witness his asylum hearing. Here is Timon’s testimony.
Timon came to America in 2014, fleeing threats to his life from a Muslim organization that took violent exception to his humanitarian work on behalf of a Roman Catholic NGO. In the early 2000s, they beat him up twice, accusing him of trying to convert poor Muslims to Christianity. His NGO superiors advised him not to go to the local police, but instead move elsewhere in Pakistan.
For a few years, Timon and his family were safe in their new city, where he continued working for the NGO as an office-based program coordinator, invisible to the community. However, in early 2014 he took a call on the office phone from the Muslim radicals that had beaten him up earlier. The man said, “We know who you are, and what you are doing, and we know your daily routine.” They also knew the names of his wife, son, and daughter, and their schools. “We are tracking you ever since 2009, and all your movements we track. You are an agent of the West, and we know that you are trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. This is the last time we will warn you, and if you do not leave the country we will kill you.” Timon's bosses advised him to leave Pakistan. After more threatening calls, Timon left for America. He left behind his wife, 18-year-old son, and 9-year-old daughter. Upon arrival, he asked for asylum.
Before the hearing began, the judge and the two lawyers held a conference. The government's lawyer had heard that fifteen members of an Episcopal church were on hand to support Timon, so she disputed that Timon was a sincere Catholic! She exclaimed, “It's impossible for him to go to an Anglican service! I'm Catholic, I know! He must not be a real Catholic. There was a huge split in the 1500's because of Henry the Eighth wanting a divorce!” The Jewish judge ended this discussion by observing that the Muslims in Pakistan were not likely to make such fine distinctions. Timon is a Christian in Muslim eyes.
Once the hearing began, the government lawyer expressed “concern” that two children were present. The judge questioned the parents of the six and eight year old children. Why have you brought them? Their mother answered, “Timon is a friend; he eats at our table. We strive to raise our children to know what is in the world and in the USA, and to appreciate what we have here in the United States. What better way to educate them about our legal process than to be here?” The government lawyer objected further: “The court should not be viewed as an arena for theater.” The judge drolly responded, “First of all, ALL courtrooms are theater. On the other hand, courtrooms are an integral part of our system. This is an excellent educational opportunity. Let the parents decide.”
When the hearing finally began, the judge paged through a thick stack of documents, to make sure that absolutely all of the details on Timon's application were “true and correct.” If anything on the two hundred pages is wrong, the judge emphasized, “especially if it is pertinent to issues for asylum, then the judge must deem all of it 'frivolous' and deny the application. Then you will not be eligible ever again to apply for asylum.” Timon signed and printed his name in his native alphabet on the documents.
As the hearing progressed, a translator relayed everything to and from Timon sequentially, but during the judge's detailed oral decision the interpreter sat beside Timon and gave him a simultaneous translation. Very impressive translator!
Timon was the only witness to speak. His lawyer questioned him, and Timon answered with his account of beatings, moving, hiding, and threats. The government lawyer’s questions focused largely on the status of Timon's co-workers, mostly still in Pakistan. Timon's lawyer asked a few further clarifying questions, and finally the judge asked several questions. He noted that Timon had available two witnesses, who had both worked for the same Christian NGO, and who had already received asylum in the United States.
The judge asked the government lawyer what the government's position was.
“The government reserves the right to appeal the judge's decision, Your Honor.”
The judge asked, “What are the government's concerns?”
She answered, “Timon's credibility is NOT an issue. He is a credible witness. However, how much threat is there, given that his supervisor is still in the country? And there is the concern of the temporal issue, given that he went for some years with no threat.” The judge then added to the hearing record the 2017 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom report, especially its relevant passage on Pakistan.
After a half hour break, the judge delivered his oral decision. He started by handing a ten-page summary of applicable law to each lawyer. After reviewing relevant case law, the judge moved on to Timon's case. A condensed version (shown below) is part of the judge's oral decision.
Summary of Facts:
Respondent [i.e., Timon] IS a credible witness. He clearly and succinctly answered all questions.
The Department of Homeland Security opposes his asylum because (1) Timon's fellow employees are still in country. (2) Respondent avoided threats for twelve years. (3) He should seek internal relocation.
Being both a Christian and being active in public work are causes for fear. There is meager evidence for the beatings; there is insufficient indication for past persecution. But there are indicators for future persecution. The nature of the threats and pattern of treatment of Christians means there is a well-founded fear upon returning to Pakistan. There are extensive adverse country conditions for Christians, especially active Christians. Consider, for example, the use of blasphemy laws. The lower courts in Pakistan continue to fail to use evidentiary rules for applying blasphemy laws. There is an ongoing problem of Christians being targeted, and the authorities are NOT helping Christians. The US Commission for Religious Freedom in 2017 listed Pakistan as a CPC, a Country of Particular Concern. This is very telling with respect to the risk for danger to Timon. Also, note that there are two witnesses, who have received asylum, who are ready to testify on Timon's behalf.
Is there a well-founded fear?
As per prior case law: if there is risk of further persecution as low as 10%, the applicant should be granted asylum. YES, the risk is well above 10% that Timon faces likelihood of being targeted because he is a Christian AND because of his work.
Now, to give answers to the government's concerns:
1) Why didn't Timon's fellow Roman Catholic humanitarian workers flee?
Answer: Some fled; some were not able to. They might be harmed tomorrow.
2) Why were there a dozen years between the beatings and Timon leaving Pakistan?
Answer: Timon was beaten, and then he moved to another city and was safe for a while. Then he received death threats.
3) Why not relocate internally?
Answer: The risk of harm is countrywide. There is NOT any safe mountaintop he could move to. There is no reasonable relocation place available within Pakistan. His family has not been able to settle in one place for the last four years. Timon already moved once, but then was subjected to more threats. Timon may be subject to blasphemy laws. So he may be subject to Pakistani government action to persecute him. The Court notes that the Pakistani government is weak and unable to control actions taken by religious ideologues and bring them to justice. Therefore, Islamic fundamentalism shows a risk to all Christians, especially active ones like Timon.
There is a possible course of action that Timon could take. He could return to Pakistan and live quietly, keep a low profile in a remote corner, not do his life's work of humanitarian aid. This, however, would hand a victory to those who would wish to quash those who live their faith. Therefore, the Court finds this is NOT feasible.
The Court orders: That Respondent's application for asylum is granted.
When the judge announced his decision, there was a quickly stifled gasp of a cheer from Timon's assembled friends. We had been sitting, motionless and silent throughout the judge's oral ruling, since he did not speak as in a theater, but rather in a very quiet voice.
The government lawyer reserved the right to appeal. The Board of Immigration Appeals is in Falls Church, Virginia, but the judge noted, “None of you will have to travel there, as all appeals are conducted on paper.”
The hearing over, Timon was all smiles as he shook hands and thanked his lawyer, the interpreter, the judge, and finally the government’s startled lawyer, who chuckled, “You shouldn't be thanking ME!”
At the end of the month’s time for appeal, the government’s lawyer had not appealed. So Timon has asylum in the United States and can now try to bring his family here to join him.
One final note: Timon has suffered not only the beatings in 2002, the threats in 2014 and subsequent exile, the years of separation from his wife and children, but also the deaths of both his mother and father while he has been so far from the home he will likely never see again.
-- Betsy Perkins
Obituary:
Marilyn Russell, Walton RPC
Marilyn H. Russell, 77, passed peacefully from this life, safe in the arms of her loving Savior, on August 6, 2018. She was born on November 27, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan to Leonard and Doris (Morrow) Harrington, and grew up among the Michigan pines with an active group of Covenanter young people in the Hetherton Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Marilyn graduated from the Johannesburg, Michigan high school and then Geneva College in Pennsylvania. She taught school for two years in Fairview, Michigan before moving to New York. There she taught for many years in the Walton Central Schools.
On August 19, 1966 she married Hartley L. Russell, a son of the Walton congregation and the brother of her college roommate. For almost 52 years they lived in their home on the Russell dairy farm where she balanced her duties as wife, mother, homemaker, teacher, bookkeeper, neighbor and friend. She was a devoted mother to David and Debbie, and a grandmother to Stacey, Nicole, Jamie, Eden, Esther, and Malachi. Her love of children went well beyond her own.
To call Marilyn an active member of the Walton Reformed Presbyterian Church is an understatement. She was vigorously involved as Sunday School teacher, member of the Women’s Missionary Fellowship, and assisted in the Released Time Religious Education program. She was always ready to help with church activities. She was also active in White Lake Covenant Camp and in organizing the Atlantic-St. Lawrence Women’s retreats. The church will miss her initiative, enthusiasm, and effectiveness at fostering social connections among us.
The funeral service was held on August 9, 2018, at the Walton Reformed Presbyterian Church with numerous friends and family members in attendance. It seemed apt that Marilyn should pass away in the midst of White Lake Family Camp, as several long-time camp friends were able to come up to join in her funeral. Marilyn was buried in the Walton cemetery, her body still united to Christ in the sure and certain hope of a glorious Resurrection.
-- Steven McCarthy
About the Authors
Noah Bailey, 35, is the pastor of the Cambridge RP Church. He and his wife Lydia are raising their six children for the Lord and His Church. Lydia is the daughter of Coldenham-Newburgh elder Phil Shafer and his wife Lesesne.
Bill Edgar, 72, is the retired pastor of the Broomall RP Church. He and his wife Gretchen raised their five children for the Lord and His Church.
John Edgar, 45, is the pastor of the Elkins Park RP Church, reorganized in 2001. He and his wife Evniki are raising their three children for the Lord and His Church. John is the son of Bill Edgar and his wife Gretchen.
Daniel Howe, 39, is the pastor of Christ RPC in Providence, Rhode Island, organized in 2010. He and his wife Esther are raising their four children for the Lord and His Church. Esther is the daughter of Cambridge elder Chris Wright and his wife Carol.
Steven McCarthy, 32, is the pastor of the Walton RP Church. He and his wife Emily are raising their three children for the Lord and His Church.
Betsy Perkins, 43, is the wife of elder Duran Perkins of Elkins Park RP Church. Together they are raising their five children for the Lord and His Church. Betsy is the daughter of Bill Edgar and his wife Gretchen.
Gabriel Wingfield, 29, is the associate pastor of Christ RPC in Providence, Rhode Island. He and his wife Meg are raising their four children for the Lord and His Church.