Volume 3: Issue 2 | April 2020
Be On Guard:
Explanation of the Tenth Commandment
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house;
you shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey,
or anything that is your neighbor's."
-- Exodus 20:17
Jesus told us to “be on guard against all covetousness” (Luke 12:15). This tells us that covetousness is a wide-ranging (“all”) and insidious (“be on guard”) sort of sin. Coveting creeps up on you. It does not announce itself, the way lusting for a woman becomes obvious once we learn to identify it. Coveting can work that way (such lusting is itself a form of coveting), but it has other ways to operate. Coveting can operate openly or covertly, it can express itself through jealousy or criticism or overwork or schadenfreude (delight in someone else's pain).
Jesus went on to say, “one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” This is something the worldly wise also acknowledge. The best things in life cannot be bought, they rightly say. Which is better – to go on vacation in an overfilled but happy car, or to take a jet to Tahiti and vacation alone? We are social beings, we much prefer to have someone to share our joy with. And fighting ruins everything. Proverbs 17:1 says, “Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.” Humorist Art Buchwald remarked “The best things in life aren't things.” So, even the worldly acknowledge that our happiness is much more bound up with our relationships than our possessions.
But the lust of the eyes is a powerful thing, and covetousness is insidious. Before we clearly understand it, we too are foolishly thinking that our life does consist in the abundance of our possessions. And so Jesus then told the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21). He didn't stop there, he went on to speak about anxiety, and our Father's good pleasure, and the need to be ready for his return (Luke 12:22-40). It takes a good deal of clear thinking to drive covetousness away.
But to simply focus on the parable of the rich fool, Jesus concluded, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). That is what the covetous person wants to do: lay up treasure for himself. His eyes are on the treasure, and his heart is full of himself. He is not rich towards God in either his eyes or his heart.
Jesus' apostle Paul linked covetousness to sexual immorality and impurity in Ephesians 5. As noted before, looking lustfully is a form of covetousness, which is why 'your neighbor's wife' is mentioned in the commandment. But the links go further. In Ephesians 5:5 Paul equates covetousness with idolatry. How is covetousness idolatry? When you covet what God has given to another, you set God's will aside in favor of the person or the thing. God said that Frank should have the house (or wife, or car). You are not content with God's decision. You want it for yourself. You do not just have a problem with Frank. You have a problem with God, a problem in which you prefer possession of the thing to peaceful thankfulness with God. You think having that thing would give you more happiness than God is giving or will give you. When you think a mere thing can give more joy than God, you have a God-replacement, and the name for a God-replacement is idol.
We need to identify our idols – the things we think will make us happy, even though God has not given them to us at this time. We need to identify them so that we can turn from them. When you find envy within, turn this evil to good by asking, will this thing actually give more happiness than the God of eternal life? Is this true? God calls us to truth, which requires honest thinking and genuine faith in Him.
You shall not covet. It is a call to contentment. It is a call to rightly evaluate things. And it shows us that there is a God-angle to how we relate to everything: are we content with God's provision, or not? So learn to detect your own covetousness in its various forms, and be on guard against it by turning to fix your relationship with the God who gives every good gift (James 1:17). No matter how rich or poor you are, your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.
-- John Edgar
Don't Follow the Windbag's Advice
"Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered."
-- Proverbs 28:26
Do we really need to be told not to trust in our own minds? Yes, because we want to trust ourselves, and because in our day supposedly wise people constantly tell us that high self-esteem brings success. The steady thrust of American education pushes students to believe in themselves.
American schools still inflict Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Unitarian preacher and essayist from the mid-19th Century, on American students. “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all man – that is genius.” “If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.” What drivel, but 19th Century American elites ate it up!
William Shakespeare in his play Hamlet has an old scheming windbag, Polonius, give platitudinous advice to his son Laertes as he leaves home:
“This above all- to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man” (I, iii.73).
Laertes, of course, does not fare well by the end of the play.
There were no doubt Emerson and Polonius-type characters in Solomon’s day, promoting self-trust and self-help. The Bible dismisses all that line of thinking as foolish. Why? The human heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), and apart from God’s grace and the wisdom that begins with the fear of the LORD, it will deceive itself into sin and misery again and again. Excuses, rationalizations, wishful thinking, and self-serving arguments are the meat and potatoes of the human mind when it relies on itself and dismisses the wisdom of the elders and the revealed Word of God.
When the Bible teaches one thing and your “instincts,” as it were, disagree, whose wisdom do you trust, your own or God’s? American education at all levels whispers and shouts, trust Emerson when he tells you to trust yourself. The fact is that everyone needs to be delivered from his bondage to sin and folly, and only the Spirit of Christ can set one free. Emerson and his ilk naturally denied vociferously the doctrine of Original Sin, promoted the myth of the noble savage who learned from nature how to live in peace with nature and with other men, and trashed the Bible’s warning that whoever trusts in himself and his own mind is a fool. But wise people humble themselves like children and take Christ’s yoke upon themselves. They learn from him, in whom they find peace and rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28-30).
-- Bill Edgar
Atlantic Presbytery Doings:
Broomall
Operation Brotherhood is an outreach effort of Skilton House Ministries, founded by Dr. John Skilton, a former professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He started it in the 1970s as a way to promote racial reconciliation in Philadelphia at a time when there was a lot of tension.
Christians from churches and neighborhoods in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs work together in Operation Brotherhood. The ministry enables about 30 city churches to offer Thanksgiving meals as a means to meet their neighbors and invite them to church. These churches are joined in the work by other supporting churches from the city and suburbs. In 2019 more than 1600 families received turkeys and other food for a Thanksgiving meal. The food comes with a Gospel tract and an introduction to a neighborhood church.
Members of the Broomall RP Church have helped with the work over the years. Initially just a few individuals or families would volunteer on a Friday night before Thanksgiving to help pack the bags. There’s a worship service, then the bags are filled with the canned goods, onions, and potatoes. People of all ages and races work together, singing as they work. There are people from a variety of churches working together and there’s a great spirit of fellowship between people who would otherwise never become acquainted with one another. Haitians, Koreans, Spanish-speaking people, African-Americans and white folks all work together for the glory of God.
In recent years Broomall RP has gotten more involved. We had a speaker from Operation Brotherhood at our November Fellowship Dinner some years ago, and since then we have been collecting canned goods and money throughout the month of November. From time to time, Elkins Park RP church has also participated.
For the last several years, the Broomall Women’s Fellowship has done a service project by working at the Thursday packing night. They prepare the bags used for packing the groceries, break down onions and potatoes from 50 pound sacks to family-sized bags, and sort and count donated canned goods for the next night’s packing. The Korean church where the work is done also supplies snacks for us to eat while working so we fellowship around the food as well.
Several members of Broomall RP Church also serve on the Board of Skilton House Ministries.
-- Jan Comanda
Elkins Park
About ten years ago, the Elkins Park congregation was linked by family ties to Trinity Evangelical Fellowship in Cyprus. John Edgar was and is pastor of Elkins Park, and his father-in-law Bill Sterrett was pastor in Cyprus. Thanks in part to this link, the Elkins Park congregation came to know Jack Herzig, an immigration lawyer who specializes in asylum cases. Jack walked by the church at the right time on a Sunday evening, and took on the case of a family from the church in Cyprus.
John and Jack became friends who read the New Testament together regularly. Many of Jack's clients are persecuted Christians from overseas. He has introduced a number of his Pakistani clients to the Elkins Park congregation in the hope that they can find assistance. And so they have. One man has received a free used car from an Elkins Park member. When his initial asylum case was denied, his appeal was attended by members of Elkins Park and another local congregation. Another woman has received a car and also extensive elder care while she herself underwent medical treatment. Three others are now living with members of the congregation.
We thank God for this opportunity to welcome the stranger and persecuted, and to seek to build up his kingdom in love. Please thank God with us, and pray with us for the ability to help.
-- John Edgar
Providence
“This church, they are real Christians!”
I sat with Stany and Dieu-Merci in Stany’s third-floor apartment, a block away from my house, and we discussed Stany serving as Dieu-Merci’s “membership sponsor.” In our congregation, most candidates for membership must attend services regularly for at least 6 months and be discipled and endorsed by a mature Christian. Since Dieu-Merci (25) lives with Stany and Miriam and considers them his parents, this was a natural fit. I went over the areas Stany should cover in their meetings.
“In the first meeting, you should cover attending worship regularly and keeping the Lord’s Day as a day of rest. You’re a good person to talk about this because you have had to fight to get Sundays off.
“In the second meeting, tell him about prayer and Bible reading. Dieu-Merci, you have a Bible, right? Do you read it? It’s good to make a habit of reading it every day.
“In the third meeting, talk about how being a Christian changes the way we work. Working for the sake of Christ, being very honest, handling trouble with other people, and planning for the long term. Here are some Bible passages that you can look at and think about before you have each meeting.”
And so on. It was when we got to the fifth meeting (Marriage and Family) that Dieu-Merci’s eyes got a little bigger. “You can talk about how to have a peaceful marriage, but our brother isn’t married yet. One thing to talk about is that the Lord tells us not to have sex unless we are married.”
We finished the meeting, both men ready to proceed. The following Monday I saw Stany at the neighborhood recreation center where our boys have basketball practice. “You know, you surprised me a little bit,” he said. “What you said in that meeting. After you left I called my sister Clementine and told her, ‘Bo, do you know what pastor said? He said if you are Christian, you cannot have sex unless you are married.’ She was surprised too. She said, ‘This church, they are real Christians!’ ”
Clementine lives in Denmark. In Europe, she told Stany, all the Christian churches she knows turn a blind eye to sexual sin. “People come to church with their boyfriends, their girlfriends, gay people living together, they think it is okay. We thought only in Africa did they teach that you can only have sex if you are married. We know it is in the Bible, but we did not know that there were churches here that said that. That’s very good.”
Stany and Miriam are from the eastern state of Nord Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They have lived in the United States for over ten years. Stany arrived first, and was sent by the US Department of State to live in Lafayette, Louisiana. He liked Creole food (especially jambalaya) and had no problem with the climate (it was a lot like home) but he was frustrated trying to learn English: “Everybody spoke French. And it was strange French!” He had a hard time finding a church there, too. He went into one all-white church and was quickly told, “Your church is down the road.” When he moved to Providence and came to Christ RPC he was happy to find a welcome. “In this church there is no – I don’t know the English – there is no tribalisme.”
Both of the Muhindos lost family members in the African wars of the mid-1990s. Most Americans know of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, but this was just one part of a complicated years-long conflict around Africa’s Great Lakes that took the lives of perhaps a million people and displaced millions more. Tens of thousands of Congolese, Burundian, and Rwandan refugees have been permanently settled in the United States, each individual going through a years-long screening process by both the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the US Department of State. Someone once quietly asked me whether the African folks in our congregation were here legally. I thought about it for a minute. “They’re actually the most legal immigrants in the world.”
Their experiences, and especially that of Miriam, who was left an orphan in the course of the conflict, led them to work with other transplanted Congolese to start a home for war orphans in Kampala, Uganda (where the Muhindos met and married) and their home city of Goma, DRC. Stany’s sister Clementine led the effort. A trained nurse, Clementine helped organize medical care of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) during the war years. As thanks, UNHCR fast-tracked her for “third country resettlement” and she wound up in Denmark.
Today Watoto Kwa Babu orphanage (the name means literally “Children Staying at Grandpa and Grandma’s”) feeds, houses, and educates dozens of children in Goma (the orphanage in Kampala has been closed). Many are AIDS orphans or are simply very poor. Kwa Babu keeps them off the streets and out of theft and prostitution, and teaches them about Christ. A few years ago, they built and staffed a hospital of 40 beds, one of the largest in a city of one million. The organization is largely supported by monthly remittances from refugees living outside of Africa (although Christ RPC has supported it in the past as well).
This year a young man contacted Stany and Miriam via Facebook. He was raised in the Kwa Babu orphanage: Dieu-Merci (his name means “Thank God” in French). He had been settled in the US five years ago, and was living in Arizona. Without living family except a brother in Europe, he was overjoyed to connect with the Muhindos, whom he calls “my Mommy and Daddy” (they will quickly tell you they are hardly old enough to be his parents!). He is young and energetic, and considering a career in HVAC. And he is preparing for church membership.
-- Daniel Howe
ADDENDUM:
The hospital connected with Kwa Babu (it currently has no name other than the informal “Clementine’s House”) is staffed but severely under-equipped. Stany and other leaders are in the process of applying for a Project C.U.R.E. equipment gift. This organization assesses applicant hospitals and, if they are approved, sends containers of beds, medicines, bandages, and other equipment valued at $400,000 apiece. Before approval is granted, Project C.U.R.E. personnel travel to the applicant hospital for a fee of $4,000. After approval is granted, they assess a processing fee of $22,000. If you are interested in helping with this project please contact Stany for more information.
Kwa Babu orphanage: watotokwababu.org
Stany Muhindo: mubawa02@gmail.com
Project C.U.R.E.: projectcure.org
Some Questions Answered Concerning the Use of the Psalms in Worship
by J.G. Voss
Reprint from the Covenanter Witness, October 11, 1933, p. 232
(This is the second in a series of five articles the CW ran concerning the use of Psalms in worship. Vos's scriptural references are all to the King James translation.)
5. What songs or hymns has God commanded to be sung in His worship?
The songs or hymns found in the Book of Psalms of the Bible. This is shown by the following places in the Bible:
(a) I Chronicles 16:9, Psalm 105:2, James 5:13, Psalm 81:2, Psalm 98:5. In these places the words translated “psalms” mean “songs of praise.” This is the original meaning of the word “psalms.” In the Hebrew Bible the Book of Psalms is called “Praises.”
(b) Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16. “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.”
6. How do we know that these verses do not mean “hymns” or songs in the ordinary sense, rather than the Psalms of the Bible?
Because hymns in the modern sense did not exist at the time when the Bible was written. The earliest Christian hymn outside the Bible is probably the “Gloria in Excelsis,” composed in Greek in the third or possibly the second century after Christ, and translated into Latin in the fourth century. The oldest Christian poem that can be traced to an individual author was written about the year 200 A.D. by Clement of Alexandria, and was neither intended nor adapted for use in public worship. (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume II, pages 227, 228) It is obvious that the writers of the Bible could not be referring to something which was not in existence in their time. They could not urge people to sing songs which had not yet been written. Therefore we may reasonably conclude that the Scripture verses cited refer only to the Book of Psalms in the Bible.
7. What is suggested by the fact that in both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 the apostle Paul uses the same three terms (Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs)?
The use of the same three terms in both places suggests that these three terms were commonly used in his time to designate a definite collection of songs, known to his readers.
8. What is the grammatical structure of these two verses in the original Greek text of the New Testament?
The word “spiritual” is an adjective which may be taken as modifying the noun “songs,” or it may be understood to modify all three nouns, “psalms, hymns, songs,” indicating that all three are to be “spiritual.”
9. What is the meaning of the word “spiritual” in the New Testament?
It means connected with the Holy Spirit. A spiritual man is a man in whom the Holy Spirit is found. A spiritual song is a song produced by the Holy Spirit, or related to the Holy Spirit in such a way that we say it is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
10. What meaning does the word “spiritual” often have in modern usage?
It is often employed with a loose, general meaning, something like “religious” or “devotional.” It is also used to mean “inspiring” or “inspirational” in the sense that it causes religious feelings to arise in the heart. Similarly, the word “spirit” is often employed in modern speech with a loose, general meaning, especially in such phrases as “the spirit of patriotism,” “the spirit of Americanism,” “the spirit of Christmas,” etc.
11. Does the word “spiritual” ever have those meanings in the Bible?
Never. It always refers definitely to some personal spirit, which may be either the spirit of man, or the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.
12. Where else are the three terms “psalms, hymns, spiritual songs” to be found?
They are found in the headings or titles of the Psalms in the Septuagint, which is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. This suggests that the apostle Paul derived these three terms from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (which was the one he commonly used), and therefore that he is definitely referring to the Psalms of the Bible.
13. Why should we obey the command of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16?
Because it is the command of God himself. Paul wrote not for himself but as the representative of Christ. See I Corinthians 14:37, “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandment of the Lord.”
Needed: Preacher to Manage & Encourage
Eventually, every Presbyterian congregation must find a new pastor. What should the believers look for? Two overlooked qualities are enthusiastic cheerleading, exhibited by Paul himself in most of his letters, and management skills. In listing the qualifications of a bishop (episkopos, the same men as elders, often translated “overseer”), Paul devotes more words to management skills than to anything else. “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?” (I Timothy 3:4-5)
In the ancient world, most economic production took place within household precincts, not in offices or factories. So managing a household well went far beyond what we think of as family matters. A good household manager oversaw its economic consumption and production: plan the day/week/year’s work; evaluate talent and delegate tasks wisely; deal promptly and fairly with problems as they arise; purchase and sell wisely; foresee challenges and opportunities, preparing to meet them. The former slave Joseph exemplified a good administrator. His first owner, Potiphar, saw that whatever Joseph oversaw prospered, so he gave him ever-increasing responsibility until he became the CEO of his property. Later, Pharaoh saw the same talent in Joseph and made him ruler of all of Egypt. A second paragon of administrative skill is the gallant woman of Proverbs 31. She works hard, sees opportunities and takes them, and her household prospers.
Seminaries rarely teach administrative skills. They may not even let their students know that such skills are vitally important in pastoring a church. Seminaries teach the Bible, its original languages, church history, how to preach, theology, and how to give people sound advice. But a congregation requires more from a pastor than what seminaries teach. Elders are bishops, that is, overseers or managers. Therefore, Paul emphasizes the importance of administrative ability; he asks rhetorically, if a man cannot manage his own household, how can anyone reasonably expect him to manage a church? Churches seeking a new pastor should ask: how are your personal and household finances? Do you plan your work more than a day ahead? Are your sermons finished before Saturday night? Can you systematically practice hospitality and visitation among your church members? And so on.
The other part of household management besides economics is rearing children. Someone who fails to raise his children so that they are obedient to their parents and to God, showing respect to both with dignity, will be unable to help other parents do the same. Therefore, God’s Word tells us to evaluate men by their children. That may seem unfair, but that is God’s Word. Children, of course, should be evaluated according to their age, but observant people can see even when children are young whether they are growing up well managed by their father. “Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and upright.” (Proverbs 20:11) When a church overlooks the state of a man’s children, whom he teaches and admonishes daily, it ignores a most practical and visible test of his readiness to be a pastor.
A second quality that churches may overlook when seeking a pastor is being a cheerleader. Paul regularly praised and cheered on the churches he wrote to. Here are four examples out of dozens, three from a letter to Thessalonica’s church and one from a letter to Corinth’s church. Praise: “For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.” (I Thessalonians 1:8) Praise: “Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them.” (II Corinthians 9:1-2) Cheering on: “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.” (I Thessalonians 4:1) Cheering on: “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.” (I Thessalonians 4:9-10) Paul was enthusiastic about the churches he oversaw and praised them to each other. He cheered on his collection of funds for the poor in Jerusalem. Above all, of course, he was enthusiastic about the Word that he preached.
A good pastor rallies his congregation to good deeds, to study of the Word, and to godly lives. When talking to people, he does not adopt a “take it or leave it, your choice” stance. He urges, praises, promotes, and recruits people to what he and his church are doing for the Lord, leading by both word and example. The biblical word is “exhortation.”
To sum up: congregations looking for a new pastor should seek someone with management skills, including of his children, and cheerleading enthusiasm. They are not the only things, of course, but they are important and often overlooked. If you doubt their importance, read through Paul’s letters and note how Paul repeatedly exemplifies both.
-- Bill Edgar
Thoughtful Questions I've Been Asked During the Past Month
1. Why does the Christian Church worship on the first day, even though the Fourth Commandment plainly names the seventh day as our day of rest and remembrance?
The names of the seven days of the week in modern Greek are “Lord’s Day,” “Second Day,” “Third Day,” “Fourth Day,” “Fifth Day,” “Day of Preparation,” “Sabbath.” Note, instead of “First Day,” it substitutes “Lord’s Day,” because on that day Jesus rose from the dead and so it became the day on which Christians gather for worship. The name for that day goes all the way back to the Bible. John wrote: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” (Revelation 1:10) Paul expected the church to gather on the first day of the week. “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” (I Corinthians 16:2) Luke writes, “On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread….” (Acts 20:7)
Ignorant people sometimes argue that Emperor Constantine or the Pope “changed the Sabbath” hundreds of years after the Apostles. However, early Christian writings show that the Christian Church met for worship on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day as it was soon called in Greek, the language of the New Testament. (If you want to research this further, go to a book written long before Constantine, the Epistle of Barnabas 15:8-9, which calls the first day the eighth day. See also the very early Teaching of the Apostles 14:1 (Didache), for an early use of the term “Lord’s Day.) There was a lot of early Christian thinking about the significance of the “eighth day,” which is what they also called the first day sometimes, for example, its connection to being circumcised on the eighth day after birth, the Feast of Booths ending on the eighth day, and so on. Ancient baptismal fonts were octagons to show that in baptism all things are made new in the new Creation Jesus has made.)
2. Do I Corinthians 3:11-15 and II Corinthians 5:6-11 support the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory?
The context of I Corinthians 3:11-15 is the work of building the church in Corinth by Paul, Apollos, and Peter. Are preachers building on Christ or something else, like tradition, or psychology, or family ties, or whatever? People gather followers and build “churches” in lots of false ways. God’s judgment will show which is which. This passage does not speak to the doctrine of Purgatory at all. II Corinthians 5:6-11 refers in context to our “earthly bodies,” and has a dual intent: a) we are made of soil and will die, returning to soil so we long for something better, and b) we remain imperfectly sanctified in this life, even as we carry the treasure of the Gospel in our clay jars. (II Corinthians 4:7)
God’s Word knows only this: we die and then face judgment, “… just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment….” (Hebrews 9:27) There is no halfway house of purgatory after death. Jesus’ parables of judgment refer to sheep and goats, with no category of goats to be made into sheep after death. (Matthew 25:31-46) His parable of the rich man and Lazarus describes only two places, either beside Abraham in Paradise, or in a place of torment, with a deep gulf between them that cannot be passed. (Luke 16:19-31) The doctrine of Purgatory is an oddly comforting one – there is still hope! – but it has no grounding in the Bible.
-- Bill Edgar
George Jackson Retires as Elder
George Jackson, ordained and installed an elder of the Broomall Reformed Presbyterian Church February 21, 1960, retired early in 2020, just short of sixty years as an elder. In recent years, George’s main contribution as an elder was to serve as Clerk of Session, a job that takes more time than most people realize. He also opened up the church most Lord’s Day mornings, attended Session meetings, of course, and took his turn in leading the congregation in prayer during worship.
What did George do as a young elder, long before most of the present Broomall congregation had been born? The Session immediately sent their new elder off to Synod. “George Jackson of United Philadelphia” was “introduced as member of the Court for the first time.” (Minutes of Synod, 1960, p. 5) “Synod took recess in prayer by George Jackson.” (Minutes of Synod, 1960, p. 27) The Moderator put him on the Time and Place Committee for the 1962 Synod. (Minutes of Synod, 1960, p. 124)
The editor of the church paper recruited him to write. He wrote the CYPU (Covenanter Young People’s Union) topic, “The Welfare Work of the Church,” based on Acts 6:1-4 and focusing readers’ attention on the Aged People’s Home and the Ministerial Relief and Orphans Fund. (Covenanter Witness, 1/15/61, p. 107) A few months later he wrote another CYPU topic, “THE MIDDLE EAST NEEDS THE GOSPEL,” a survey of Islam. (Covenanter Witness, 6/21/1961, p. 395)
On the congregational level, “George Jackson is the sponsor of the CYPU.” (Covenanter Witness, 4/18/1962, p. 255) A later Witness noted that George W. Jackson was re-elected to the Board of Trustees of the Broomall RPC. (Its name was changed from United Covenanter Church at a special meeting 6/6/1962 to “Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church of Broomall, Pa.” (Covenanter Witness, August 1, 1962, p. 78) ) Then George turned up in the news of the New York City (Bronx) church. “George W. Jackson of our Broomall congregation, who is employed at Allied Chemical Corporation, just across the Hudson River, is a regular attender at prayer meeting. We welcome him.” (Covenanter Witness, 3/4/1964, p. 159) He was also a counselor at White Lake Covenanter Camp. (Covenanter Witness, 12/16/1964)
At Synod again, George got put on the “Committee on Instrumental Music in Worship.” (Minutes of Synod, 1967) In 1970, he appears as a member of the Foreign Mission Board, which he actually joined in 1967. (Minutes of Synod, 1970, p. 108) And so it goes for an elder: congregational, presbytery, and synod responsibilities, with a little writing on the side. George did it all, working with four pastors, Paul D. McCracken, Harold B. Harrington, William J. Edgar, and Alex Tabaka, two associate pastors, Richard Ganz and Zack Kail, and a changing roster of fellow elders, faithfully attending Session meetings, worship services, prayer meetings, attending to Church work year after year.
And now George has retired as an elder, and with him goes sixty years of contributions as an elder, sixty years of memory, the energy he had when young, and the wisdom he accumulated with age. And still he prays for everyone in the Broomall church, greets people at church, and contributes to our congregational life in whatever way he can. Thank you, George.
-- Bill Edgar
Purpose in Suffering: A Testimony
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (II Corinthians 1:3-7)
January 10, 2017 dawned with one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen. It was a day I had been waiting for. Its beauty was the perfect reminder that no matter what that day brought, God was with me and He was faithful. We found out that day that the baby I carried in my womb would not survive long once he was born, if he even survived through labor.
Three weeks earlier, at our twelve-week ultrasound, our obstetrician told my husband Adam and me that there was the possibility that the top of our baby’s head had not formed correctly. Given that he was only two inches long, the doctor could not make a definitive diagnosis. So three weeks later, we went back, and found out that our son James had a condition called anencephaly. Portions of his scalp, skull, and brain never developed, and while there was no way to predict how long he would live, it would not be long.
The days, weeks, and months that followed were a roller coaster. Some days were full of grief. Some days we were numb. Some days we forgot what was going on. But throughout all that time, Adam and I were able to find peace and comfort in the character of God and the truth that He had a plan and a purpose for our family. God was in control and the suffering we were facing was not a result of caprice. I found special comfort in Psalm 18:30-31 which says, “This God – his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?”
God does not promise that we will ever know all His specific purposes for suffering that He brings into our lives. Years later, Joseph could look back and see how his brothers’ treachery led to the salvation of not only his family, but an entire nation; but Job never knew why God took away his family, his wealth, and his health. The Bible does, however, give direction and guidance as to some broad, general ways that God uses suffering in the lives of His people.
As Paul wrote in II Corinthians 1, when we are afflicted, we know the comfort of God, which in turn helps us to comfort others. We heard the doctor’s diagnosis of James; we faced months of pregnancy without the hope of bringing our son home; and God gave us peace that passes understanding. Until I suffered the anticipation and death of my child, I did not know how tangible the peace of God is. He made me able to rest in Him in a way I never had before. I knew His comfort. “In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.” (Psalm 86:7-10)
As a result of experiencing that loss, I am more aware of suffering around me. I find myself particularly sensitive to parents who lose children – there are so many mothers who suffer miscarriages, have stillborn children, or lose babies to SIDS. Before losing James, I didn’t realize how many people in our day still lose children. After losing James, I know better how to comfort them than I did before losing James – partly from ways that God Himself comforted me, and partly from ways that He used His church and His people to comfort me. The notes written, the books sent, the meals prepared – God used all of these things to comfort me and teach me how I can comfort others. God comforted me in my affliction so that I would be able to comfort others in theirs.
Our church was a huge blessing to our family in the months leading up to and following James’s death. We knew many people were praying for us – many whom we had never even met. We needed help and the church stepped in. We were broken and our brothers and sisters helped us heal. The body of Christ is beautiful, and the way that we can serve one another and love one another during times of suffering is a light to the rest of the world. As Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) I think that it is in times of hardship and suffering that the peace we have in Christ, the hope we have in the gospel, and the love that we have for one another stands out more starkly against the hopelessness of lost people in a broken world.
As I write this, almost three years after James’s death I still struggle with knowing how to talk about him. What do I say when people ask, “How many children do you have?” But in this way, God is providing me with opportunities to share about His goodness and provision for our family. We have four children – three here with us, and one waiting for us in glory. How do I respond to the ensuing awkward pause and uncomfortable, “I’m so sorry”? Yes, losing James was the hardest thing I have faced in my life, but God was faithful and we know His plan for our family is perfect. James’s life and death provide us many opportunities to witness to the world. Suffering opens doors to talk about life and death, and Jesus who has overcome death.
Suffering not only provides opportunities to share the gospel, it reveals the glory of the gospel. Through suffering we can see who God is and who we are. Like Job, we can walk through trials and come out saying “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” and “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (Job 42:2, 5) There is great freedom in the humility that comes from recognizing that we are powerless and broken, but God is the Almighty creator and sustainer of all things. We can say with the Psalmist, “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.” (Psalm 6:6-7) And then we can still conclude, “The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.” (Psalm 6:9) In the end, we have to come back to Him because He is the only One who has the power to sustain us. Suffering brings humility.
Suffering increases our communion with Christ, the suffering servant. I remember being powerfully struck by the fact that God the Father willingly gave up His only Son to bring sinners like me into fellowship with him. I felt that in my son dying, I was able to gain a tiny glimpse of the sacrifice of Christ on my behalf. I was astonished at the immensity of that love poured out for me. As we suffer, we understand what Christ chose to experience in this world. Suffering brings thankfulness.
Finally, suffering brings hope. When we suffer, we are brought face to face with the reality that this world is broken. This world is not our home. But we have great and precious promises of the eternal rest with Christ that awaits us when this world passes away.
After he was born, James Renwick Edgar lived for five hours. God blessed us to share that time with family and friends who came to know our boy. His grandfather baptized him in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He belongs to Christ. After James died, we began to look forward to being reunited with him one day in glory.
I don’t know what suffering you, my reader, may be are enduring, but I do know that if you are united to Christ, you have hope. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-3)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1:3-9)
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
-- Lisa Edgar
Preacher! The Children Are Listening...
1) I don’t understand why the pastor said there’s no point in being good? I try to be good. (Julian, age 7)
The preacher pointed out that the things we do are never good enough by themselves to make God accept us. No matter how hard we try, our actions are all twisted by sin ever since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The only way to be reconciled (made right, at peace) with God is through Jesus, who became a man and lived the perfect life that we cannot live. God puts Jesus’ goodness over his people like a cloak to hide our sins from his view. Then he can look at us as righteous. Because of this we rejoice in pleasing God and obeying him in order to say thank you for making us right with himself through Jesus. It’s very important to be good, and I’m glad you try. But without repenting of your sins and looking to Jesus for salvation, it is pointless to try to be good.
2) Is God a girl on one side and a boy on the other? (Zada, age 7)
God is a spirit, so he does not have a body. But when Jesus came to earth he was born a boy, and the Bible tells us to call God "Father," and the Holy Spirit “He,” not “She.” We only know about God what he has told us about himself. Jesus does compare God to a mother chicken, a hen, gathering her chicks under her wings for safety (Luke 13:34). So, although God always describes himself, all three parts of the Trinity, as “He,” the images of himself that he has put into creation include the loving protection that a mother creature has for her young. We also know that God has made all people, both male and female to bear his image (Genesis 1:27). They are equally valuable in his sight.
3) The preacher just said that Jesus became sin. But Jesus never sinned, so what does that mean? (Simon, age 5)
You are right – Jesus never sinned. He lived a perfect life, pleasing and obedient to God his Father. But when Jesus was dying on the cross, God put all the sins of all his people on Jesus so that Jesus could be the sacrifice that God required to pay for those sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). It showed Jesus’ great love for us that he did this. It was very painful to bear our sins and be separated from God while he bore them. Jesus even asked God to find another way if it was possible (Matthew 26:39). But God said it was not possible. The sinless man dying as the sacrifice was the only way our sins against God could be forgiven, and Jesus was the only sinless man. So that is how Jesus became sin – by taking on all of our sins as if they were his, dying for us, and rising again, thus opening the way for us to come to God.
4) Why, if someone in Cyprus hugs you, is he holding a knife behind his back? (Julian, age 7)
You can’t trust all people at their words and gestures; and in some countries and cultures in particular, many people are used to lying and not feeling guilty about it. The person giving the hug wants you to think he is your friend, but you have to be on your guard because not all friendship is sincere. The person who shows friendship may later attack or betray someone he had earlier shown friendship to. He didn’t mean it after all. (Psalm 41:9)
5) Who is Beelzebub? (Julian, age 7)
Beelzebub is the name of a demon. In the Old Testament, he is mentioned as a god of the Philistines. King Ahab asks this false god for help when he is injured. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the New Testament call Beelzebub the ruler of the demons, making it another name for Satan. When the Pharisees, the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, see Jesus casting out demons they accuse him of casting them out by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus tells them this is silly. Why would Satan want to cast out himself? That would just make him weaker by dividing his power. Jesus told the Pharisees he was casting out demons by the power of God but they didn’t want to believe him. They were willing to believe anything else instead.
6) The preacher said something about a new body! Is he talking about the new heavens and the new earth? (Owen, age 5)
Yes and no. He is talking about Jesus in his new, resurrected body, which is like the bodies you have heard that we will receive when Jesus comes back and fixes all things. This new body is free of all the problems of our current bodies! It cannot be harmed or injured in any way. But it is a real human body that can eat and touch and walk and talk. Jesus was the first one to get his new body when he rose from the dead after dying for our sins. It is his permanent body and he is in it where he is with God the Father. We are waiting until Jesus’s return to receive our resurrected bodies. When he comes back to earth, we will rise from the dead and be changed in a moment into our new, perfect bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52). Then we will not suffer sickness or feel pain any more. We will be free from both sin and the effects of sin on our bodies.
Has a young person recently ask you a theological question - perhaps in response to a sermon, lesson, or Bible reading? Send these questions to Susan Edgar (susanledgar@gmail.com).
-- Susan Edgar
Other Translations Than the King James Bible: Synod’s 1973 Ruling
The government of King James I of England authorized the use in churches of what came to be called the King James Bible in 1611, or the Authorized Version. The new English translation was based on earlier English translations and the original texts. King James’ goal in sponsoring the translation was to unify his realm religiously. This new version took about fifty years to replace the older Geneva Bible, so that as late as 1678 John Bunyan was still using the Geneva Bible in his book Pilgrim’s Progress. After 1700, however, the KJV remained the virtually unchallenged English translation until the middle of the Twentieth Century.
After the Revised Standard Version appeared in 1946, our Synod faced a variety of papers asking for its judgment of this new translation. While acknowledging the long-held position of the Authorized Version (KJV), Synod regularly declined to condemn other translations. The New Testament translation first called Good News for Modern Man (later Today’s English Version (TEV) and since 2004 the Good News Bible) came out in 1966. In response to papers asking Synod’s opinion of the new translation, a committee considered it. Here are excerpts from the committee report, found in full in the 1973 Minutes of Synod, pp. 82-88.
The report began by reviewing its assignment. Then it observed: “No version of the Bible has been officially approved or required by the Reformed Presbyterian Church for either congregational worship or private reading.” (p. 83) It noted the tacit, but incorrect, assumption of some that the Synod required the use of the KJV and then continued: “Modern speech translations of the Scriptures are encouraged by our own doctrinal standards. The Westminster Confession of Faith…underlines the need of such translations. ‘But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God…therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation….’ (WCF, 1.8) The TEV uses contemporary English.
What about literal versus dynamic equivalence translations? “It is erroneous to suppose that a translation must slavishly conform to the syntax, metaphors, and idioms of the Biblical text in order to be judged a faithful translation.” Literal translations in some places are unintelligible to English speakers. “An example is the literal translation of KJV in Mark 2:19, ‘the children of the bridechamber.’ TEV correctly converts this phrase into a meaningful modern equivalent, ‘the guests at a wedding party.’” (p. 84) After a second example, the report asserted, “The mark of a faithful translation is dynamic equivalence rather than formal equivalence (word-for-word rendition).” That was how Luther translated the Bible into German, explaining his method, “Whoever would speak German must not use Hebrew style.”
What about the Greek text used for the translation of the Good News Bible? The report notes that it uses the United Bible Societies 1966 text, which, the report concludes, “is superior to that which underlies the KJV.” (p. 85)
“This committee regards TEV generally as a good translation of the Greek text into common English,” so that “ ‘not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of [the Scriptures].’” (WCF 1.7) “Far from teaching heresy, as has been alleged, TEV retains with clarity the basic truths of ‘the faith which once and for all God has given to his people (Jude 3).’” The report then listed basic biblical teachings then being controverted by modernists in liberal Protestant churches, such as the deity and pre-existence of Christ, his virgin birth, his sinlessness, his miracles, his substitutionary atonement, his resurrection, and the personality of the Holy Spirit, and quoted TEV verses which clearly taught each doctrine. It then discusses some technical theological vocabulary, which TEV renders into common English, and defends the TEV wording.
Finally, the committee notes that TEV is not a flawless translation. Neither is the King James Version, which contains numerous mistranslations and added words and phrases. [When I learned Greek, I was startled that the common “God forbid” of the KJV (Romans 6:2 for example) is not what the Greek has at all. It reads, “May it not be,” using a tense that does not exist in English – second aorist middle, etc., here with an intensive meaning. “God forbid,” a dynamic equivalence translation if there ever was one, I have concluded, is superior to the more literal, “May it not be,” or “May it never be.”] The report ends with, “We conclude that, overall, TEV reproduces the Greek text of the New Testament truly, clearly, and unambiguously.” (p. 87)
The committee’s first recommendation was that “Synod recognize that Today’s English Version has value for reading and study as an acceptable translation of the New Testament into contemporary English.” (p. 88) The signers of the report were Joseph A. Hill, Kermit S. Edgar (no relation), Robert McConaughy, and Johannes G. Vos. “The report as a whole was approved….” (p. 82).
There continue to be people, teaching elders included, who would like the RPCNA to use the KJV exclusively. They can sometimes sound convincing when they refer to “literal” vs. “dynamic equivalence” translations and when they refer to the “Textus Receptus” that the KJV translators used. But neither argument, examined with moderate care, has merit, and neither one should sway those whom the Westminster Standards term “the unlearned.” As for the RPCNA, it allows different congregations and its members to use a variety of English translations. It would be good if people agitating for a KJV only position would accept Synod’s judgment on this matter, made after careful study long ago, in 1973.
-- Bill Edgar
When I Learned Socialism Will Never Work
The summer of 1962, the Reformed Presbyterian Church held its quadrennial conference at Carleton College, Minnesota. Like many colleges then, Carleton used waiters to serve food family style and then clear the tables – no self serve and no clear your own dishes like today. Because of a communication failure between the College and conference planners, there were no waiters lined up. So at registration, desperate church representatives dragooned teenagers to be waiters. They gave us no choice in the matter – they were desperate – and they promised no pay: waiters weren’t in the budget. By and large, they picked preacher and missionary kids, about twenty-five of us. I was one.
Before the first evening meal, the College dining folk explained our job: set the tables, get the food, clear off dirty dishes, and wash the tables. Each of us had charge of three tables. Then they left us alone in a room together. Someone proposed that the efficient way to clear tables was to all work together at that final job. I doubted the wisdom of this idea, but I was in the minority. So it was decided.
The first meal the system worked fine. But by Monday morning, most of the waiters understood that they could safely leave after breakfast. By Monday evening, only five waiters were staying to clear tables, Patricia Boyle, Bob Copeland, Paul Martin, my brother John, and I, if my memory is correct.
What happens when five do the work of twenty-five? First, we attend hardly any programs. By the time we finished clearing and washing seventy-five tables, it was mealtime again. Second, we get to know one another pretty well, which is why I remember their names (I think); I chose to forget the rest. Third, we get to know Ernie, who oversaw the washroom. When his wife had a baby during the conference, he gave each of us a cigar. Patricia lost hers, so Don Birdsall, the conference director from Los Angeles, announced one evening to the whole assembly, “If you have found Patsy Boyle’s cigar, would you please return it to her.” Fourth, I learned conclusively that socialism does not work. If a collection of church kids, presumably trained in charity and responsibility, could not work faithfully at a job for one week – even at a job none of us had signed up for or wanted to do for no pay – how can people in general be expected to work according to the socialist principle, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need?”
When the nexus between work and its reward is broken, most people slack off. Then force is needed to make them work, but force is a poor motivator, as all slave owners knew. A Russian joke from its Soviet era compared the communist Soviet Union to a train. When Lenin was engineer and the train stopped going up a hill, he ordered everyone off, made an inspirational speech, and everyone cooperated to push the train over the hill. Stalin was the next engineer. When the train stopped, he ordered everyone off the train, shot half of them, and the other half pushed the train. When Brezhnev became engineer and the train stopped, he told everyone to stay on the train and shake it so all could pretend it was still moving.
Socialism works within the family, where members love one another and will work, although not without some urging often, and all eat from a common pot. Socialism also worked in many monasteries. However, intentional communities, even the kibbutzim in Israel, have all had a short and mostly unhappy history. Nineteenth Century America had many such experiments, repeated in the 1968-80 period in our country. I know only one that has lasted a hundred years, the Bruderhof, founded in Germany in 1920.
Socialism has not worked in the past, nor will it work in the future. Proposals some American politicians and techno-utopians are now making, that every American should be given a guaranteed income from birth, will condemn most people to a life of laziness, society to widening poverty, and the government to an increasing use of coercion. We need the spur of need to work. “A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on.” (Proverbs 16:26) As Paul wrote to one of the churches he founded:
"Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you… For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.” (II Thessalonians 3:6-11).
Socialism sounds kind, even to some Christians who have not absorbed the truth of our fallen natures, but socialism is cruel. It removes the incentive we need to work. Even among Christians it does not work. How many times does the world need to learn the lesson that our 1962 Carleton College national conference taught me? “Next time it will be different.” No, actually, it won’t!
-- Bill Edgar
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Authors in This issue
Jan Comanda is a member of Broomall RPC (Philadelphia).
Bill Edgar is a retired pastor of Broomall RPC (Philadelphia).
Lisa Edgar is a member of Broomall RPC (Philadelphia).
John Edgar is the pastor of Elkins Park RPC (Philadelphia).
Susan Edgar is a member of Broomall RPC (Philadelphia).
Daniel Howe is the pastor of Christ Church RPC (Providence, RI).
J. G. Vos was a former missionary to Manchuria, Bible professor at Geneva College, and editor of Blue Banner Faith and Life. Learn more about him at https://bluebanner.org/about .
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