Volume 5: Issue 3 | June 2022
Why Start a Family?
“Do you plan to start a family?” is a question often asked of newly married couples. One doesn’t ask the question of a twosome living together without benefit of clergy, let alone of a person by himself. Another way to phrase the question is, “Do you plan to have children?” In 2022 reliable contraception – contraceptive methods have been known for thousands of years, but only recently have they become quite reliable – makes the question possible. The idea that children are a side gig to CAREER (my current translation of “mammon”), makes the question sound reasonable. “O young couple, do you plan to have children?” The retort in 1822 would have been, “Why NOT start a family?” An American farmer, a Cypriot villager, or a Chinese peasant would treat the question about planning to start a family as nonsensical. Get married and children happen. It’s the way life works.
So we’ll let these two people talk to each other. The 1822 American farmer, named Gus, asks, “Why NOT start a family?” and his 2022 urban neighbor – we’ll call him Hugh – will answer, but then he will have to listen to the 1822 reaction to his “reasons.” Then Gus will give his reasons TO start a family. Each is allowed ten reasons.
Gus: You are young, married, and strong. Why NOT have children? What are you thinking?
Hugh: (Reason 1) It is our duty not to have children. We don’t want to be selfish.
Gus: What are you talking about? Where did that idea come from? People who choose not to have children are the selfish ones.
Hugh: Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book The Population Bomb demonstrated that there are too many people in the world. In fact, catastrophic worldwide famine was already unavoidable within ten years. It is time to think of the hungry children and stop having children!
Gus: How did that work out? You look pretty well fed. And our country looks pretty empty to me.
Hugh: Well, no starvation actually came. And now governments are getting worried that not enough children are being born. But it still seems more moral not to have children than to have them.
Gus: Okay, that reason didn’t go so well for you. The Bible says it is our duty to have children: “Be fruitful, and multiply,” it says (Genesis 1:28). Give me another reason.
Hugh: (Reason 2) Children will hinder my CAREER.
Gus: What’s a CAREER? I work on a farm. I do men’s work, taking care of the cows, mending the fences and fixing the barn, and gathering hay for the winter. My wife does women’s work, tending her vegetable garden, minding the hens, fixing meals, mending clothes, and taking care of our younger children. When they turn five, they come and work with me, especially the boys. What’s a CAREER? Is it like work?
Hugh: A CAREER is the most wonderful thing you can have. We go to school for one fifth of our lives to have a CAREER. We borrow lots of money to go to college so we can start our CAREER. Then we get to begin our CAREER and work very long hours so we can pay back our loans. In that way we fulfill ourselves and live meaningful lives.
Gus: Sounds like a lot of work and wasted time to me. Does it leave you time and energy to marry or go to church? Putting CAREER ahead of family and God as the path to happiness sounds like false consciousness* to me. Give me another reason. Your CAREER simply doesn’t make sense to me. It sounds like a trick by rich people to get you to work really, really hard for them and make them richer.
*(Editor alert: anachronism alarm! Karl Marx was only four years old in 1822.)
Hugh: (Reason 3) Raising children is a never-ending bore. It never stops. I visited my sister’s family recently. They have two children. “He took my toy. I need to go potty. Why won’t you read to me now?” It’s “Me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now” all day long. And at the end of the day their tired mother or father finally gets to stupefy his children with a book already read fifty times – “Read me The Little Engine That Could!” – and has five minutes before conking out.
Gus: I guess I recognize that. We have seven children, you know. They are like my wife’s vegetable garden, needing constant attention. But let me tell you, they aren’t real work. Helping a cow give birth at 2:00 a.m., now that’s real work – so is fixing a broken fence and putting in a new fence post. Without our children, what’s the point? I always say, “No children, no future.” It’s like the Good Book says, “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox (Proverbs 14:4).” No, Hugh, having children is what life is about.
Hugh: (Reason 4) We can’t have children. How would we pay for college?
Gus: What are you talking about? Only rich people go to college. No one needs college, except I suppose CAREER chasers. Anyway, you are worrying too much about the future. Remember what Jesus said. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment (Matthew 6:24-25)?” When your baby is born, it is daft to worry about how to pay for college.
Hugh: (Reason 5) Having children will age me.
Gus: You got that right! Everything ages you. You can’t stop getting old. And when you get old, you have your children to take care of you.
Hugh: (Reason 6) I don’t know how we will have enough money to buy them clothes and feed them a really healthy diet.
Gus: Listen again to Jesus. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature (Matthew 6:26-27)?” You really need to have faith in God.
Hugh: (Reason 7) I am afraid I will do a bad job as a parent. I’m not ready to be a father.
Gus: Excellent! Excellent! Now you’ve said something sensible. Of course you’re not ready to be a father. No one is. We fathers like to laugh at the new fathers, “It’s so hard and wonderful at the same time. We can’t really tell you what’s coming. But you’ll see.” Anyone who thinks he is ready to be a father almost certainly isn’t ready. Anyway, the grandparents will be eager to help, sometimes more eager than you might want.
Hugh: (Reason 8) Too many people will ruin the earth.
Gus: It’s true. Some folk don’t know how to care for their farms. But you should see my farm. All the rocks are taken off the fields and put into neat stone fences. Now you can grow things on the fields. The wild animals are mostly gone. Have you never ridden your horse through miles and miles of wild forest? God put us here to till the earth and make it beautiful. That’s why God created Adam (Genesis 2:5). It isn’t too many people who ruin the earth; it’s lazy, greedy people who ruin it. Did you know that we are God’s signature in his Creation? And when we create order and tidiness, we imitate him when he created the world.
Hugh: (Reason 9) Our friends have no children. When we have kids, they will tie us down. We’ll lose contact with our friends.
Gus: How sad that your friends are childless. Why would you want to imitate them? Playing with your friends’ children can be fun. Watch out whom you make friends with. You’ll become like them. As King Solomon said, “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. (Proverbs 22:24-25).” If you hang out with people who are afraid to have children, or are too selfish to have them, of course you will tend to become like them.
Hugh: (Reason 10) Our parents tell us only to have one or two children. So there is no hurry to get started.
Gus: What? Your parents don’t want grandchildren? That’s unnatural. “Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers (Proverbs 17:6).” They get together and say, “Let me show you some photos*.”
*(Editor alert: anachronism alarm! Eastman Kodak's Brownie camera that brought photography to the masses
debuted in 1901.)
Hugh: Okay, now it’s your turn. Why should a young married couple “start a family,” that is, aim to have children?
Gus: (Reason 1) God commanded it in the beginning. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (Genesis1:28).” It’s God’s first command, and he has not told us he has changed his mind.
Hugh: You believe God told you to have children? No, you’re wrong. That’s something you decide. When you do something because someone else tells you to do it, you are being inauthentic.
Gus: What in the world do you mean by “inauthentic?”
Hugh: It means not living out of who you really are, according to your own values and desires.
Gus: We’re speaking the same language and yet we’re not. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever (WSC Q1).” “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's (Romans 14:7-8).” If you live just for yourself, you end up just yourself, alone, closed in on yourself. You live like a child, led by every new whim that takes you. You call that “authentic?”
Gus: (Reason 2) Children are a blessing from God. As Psalm 127 says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them (Psalm 127:3-5).”
Hugh: What’s a blessing? You say it before eating, right?
Gus: Yes, we do. We ask God to make the meal a blessing to us and remember that he has blessed us with food. Children are God’s gift to us. No one in his right mind refuses a gift, not even a diseased horse. “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” And actually, children arrive corrupted, spiritually and morally bent towards evil, by Original Sin. That’s why we have to train them right and then pray, pray, pray. But they are still a blessing. How do I know? God says so, and who am I to disagree with him?
Gus: (Reason 3) God was the first father. The Bible calls Adam the “son of God (Luke 3:38). Since God made us in his image, we are like him when we have children.
Hugh: I have never heard such nonsense! You mean we are like God when we have children? Really?
Gus: (Reason 4) Children expand the love of a father and mother. Let me explain. God is love (I John 4:8). That’s why Jesus told us about the love which his father had for him before the foundation of the world (John 3:35, 5:20, 17:26). First there is love between father and mother, one bond of love. With child one, that love is tripled: father and mother love, father and child love, and mother and child love. With child two, love grows to six: add child-to-child, and new child to father and new child to mother. Euclid actually wrote a formula for how love grows as a family grows. If there are n children in a family, then love grows to n(n-1)/2. Isn’t that neat?
Hugh: Who’s Euclid, some kind of old Greek mathematician? We didn’t study him. We do 21st Century math! We have calculators. Your math sounds like mystical gibberish.
Gus: Have some children. Try it. I am talking about real life. Of course, families can be filled with hatred, anger, and coldness, but a family with God at the center, and people who know how to repent and forgive, can be filled with love.
Gus: (Reason 5) Nothing is better than a family eating dinner together around the same table. It provides deep joy and contentment amidst stories, laughter, love, and eating, of course. “Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD (Psalm 128:1-4).”
Hugh: You sound like you are describing a Norman Rockwell painting.
Gus: If I knew who he was, I guess I would like him.
Hugh: People should be protected from this kind of patriarchal oppressive romanticism. What about the wife slaving away in the kitchen? How can she be fulfilled if she doesn’t go out and have a CAREER?
Gus: It’s not the kitchen; it’s her kitchen. Her cooking is artistry, and we love it, and she makes sure we remember that it’s her kitchen. Why is a CAREER with what I guess will be a lot of hurrying around and frozen* dinners better than cooking a meal in her own kitchen?
*(Editor alert: anachronism alarm! Clarence Birdseye introduced fast-frozen vegetables in 1929, and ready-made frozen meals followed in the 1950s.)
Gus: (Reason 6) Children will carry on your name. That’s why Moses’ law allowed a newly married man one year before he could be drafted for war (Deuteronomy 24:5). Everyone likes to think of his name being carried on and being remembered himself. It is a comfort in the face of death.
Hugh: That sounds atavistic and tribal. Does your God care about Amazon tribes?
Gus: Yes!
Gus: (Reason 7) My children will take care of me and my wife, when we are old. It’s God’s way. (See Mark 7:9-13, I Timothy 5:8).
Hugh: Well, I don’t worry about that. We have a better way now that doesn’t burden our children – if we have them. There is Social Security. The government pays us when we are old so we don’t have to work.
Gus: I get it. You will have money, but you still haven’t told me who will take care of you.
Hugh: Health care workers, Amazon workers, government workers.
Gus: Where will these workers come from? The government can’t grow them in gardens. Where do the workers come from? Answer me.
Hugh: Well, of course, they were once someone’s children.
Gus: So if you don’t have children to care for you when you are old, you expect someone else’s children to care for you when you are old. You’ll pay them, of course, with Social Security money, 401(k)* and IRA accounts, your stocks and bonds, but somebody’s children will take care of you when you are old – or nobody will. You can’t escape children caring for you when you are old.
*(Editor alert: anachronism alert! While stocks and trading them dates back at least to the 1600s, ordinary people didn't invest in them, let alone have retirement accounts invented in the mid- and late-twentieth century.)
Gus: (Reason 8) It is a privilege to raise a child to serve the Lord. He wants us to have children and raise a godly seed for him (Malachi 2:15).
Hugh: Well, I live to pursue my own happiness. It’s in the Declaration of Independence. Sex makes me happy. And contraception keeps me from the burden of having children when I have sex.
Gus: I like “making love.” How much fun can “having sex” be? It sounds so sterile.
Gus: (Reason 9) Having children is one of mankind’s greatest adventures. Think of the adventure of having twins like Rebekah did (Genesis 25:23). It is a greater adventure than exploring Indian country.
Hugh: I don’t want an adventure. I want a CAREER so I will be fulfilled.
Gus: (Reason 10) You sound afraid to me. Listen: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (Isaiah 41:10).” If you trust in God, you will not be afraid to have children.
Hugh: Are you calling Gen X’ers afraid? That’s an old Boomer gibe – like we can’t stand to hear anything we
don’t agree with. Why don’t you just go ahead and call me a snowflake?
Gus: I don’t know what you are talking about. All I am saying is that you sound like Moses when God told him – at eighty years old, mind you – to go back to Egypt and rescue his people. “Why me? Who am I to do this?” “What if the Israelites ask who sent me? What will I say?” “What if they do not believe me?” “I’m not good at talking.” “Please, just send someone else.” (Exodus 3-4) It’s no shame to be afraid. But God tells you to have courage. Be a man. Marry and have children.
Both Gus and Hugh are Americans. They are basically optimists who think they are more in control of things than they probably are. Unmentioned are the dangers of mothers dying in childbirth, children rebelling, or no children arriving as would-be parents hoped. Unmentioned is the danger of a parent dying and leaving a widow behind with children or a parent deserting the family. Even worse is the danger of war overrunning the country, known often in human history, but only twice in American history. Plagues far worse than the 1918 Flu or the 2020 Covid infections have ravaged whole populations. Americans have never known famine. Only slaves and 17th Century Irish and Scottish prisoners experienced being sent forcibly into exile. What does God say to people suffering these horrors?
God tells people to go ahead in faith and have children. He told Israelite exiles in Babylon to build houses, plant vineyards, marry, and have children, and even to pray for that same Babylon that had destroyed their country, killed thousands, sold thousands more into slavery across the Mediterranean world, and taken only a remnant into exile (Jeremiah 29:1-13). In having children, they imitated Adam and Eve exiled from the Garden who went ahead and had another child after the disaster of Cain and Abel, and the Children of Israel enslaved in Egypt. They acted in faith, knowing that no children, no future is the truth concerning the human race. Finally, in regard to having children there is an important minor theme in the Bible, about those who do not marry. They are not the focus of this essay. But it should be noted that Isaiah prophesied that the Servant of the Lord, after he was buried, would nonetheless see his offspring (Isaiah 53:10). They would not be physical children but children adopted into God’s household through the Servant’s sacrifice. Paul the Apostle called Timothy “my son in the faith (I Timothy 1:2).” Even so, adopted offspring are children first born from the union of a man and a woman. And don’t forget! There is no way to the wonder of grandchildren without going through the challenge of children.
– Bill Edgar
Commandment Explanation: House Rules
"And God spoke all these words, saying,
'I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.'"
– Exodus 20:1-2
I want to observe something obvious. This is not Exodus chapter 1, 2, or 3. It's chapter 20. Why is that important?
God does not go to the slaves in Egypt and say, "Start keeping these Commandments. If you keep them well enough, I'll be back next year and free you." That's not how God operated. Rather, he remembered his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he saw their suffering, and he brought them out of Egypt to serve him. Having saved him, he then gave them his Ten Commandments.
What is more, he didn't want them to forget that. That's the opening line. "I am the Lord your God who has already brought you out of Egypt."
Now, this is what follows.
That's crucial for us to remember because as the New Testament continually says, "By works of the law, by the things that we do, we will not be justified in God's sight." You will not go to heaven because "I have kept the commandments so well." If that were possible, then what is Jesus? What was he doing on the cross?
Jesus on the cross tells us there's more to this puzzle than just my being a good person, or my keeping God's law.
So how am I saved?
Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus took up the cross to take away God's judgment against your sin. That is how you're saved. That is you coming out of Egypt. You come out of Egypt when you place your faith in Jesus and in a sense walk through the Red Sea by faith. So baptism is a picture of that repentance and faith towards God. He's brought you out, which then begs the question, "Now what?"
And that's where the Ten Commandments come in. The Ten Commandments come back into our lives, not as the standard by which we are saved, but as the life we're now called to live.
Since he has adopted us to be his children, it is for us to say, "Okay, Daddy. How do I live in your house?" The Ten Commandments come to us as the rules of the house, the rules are for those who are God's children.
And it is a guide to be like Jesus, to live pure and holy before God as Jesus did. So I encourage you to joyfully learn and do God's law , always remembering, that this is not how we are forgiven before God. This is the life we are called to live.
– John Edgar
Proverbs Exposition: Listen or Blow Off?
"A wise son heeds his father’s instructions,
but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke."
- Proverbs 13:1
What sort of people should children aspire to be, and what ideal should parents hold before them? The Book of Proverbs praises adjectives like “obedient,” “respectful,” and “humble,” rather than today’s popular aspirations of “creative” and “independent.”
When a society embraces as a first principle the bumper sticker, “Question Authority;” when professors can’t say “truth” without gesturing scare quotes, and think their main job is to teach “critical thinking;” when everyone is intent on “seeing through” everything and everyone, so that eventually no one sees anything at all, then that society is rearing a generation of scoffers.
No one is born wise. Pride and self-deception insulate a child’s inexperience, our natural state, so parents face a challenge: the young and naïve resist being taught. To break through this resistance, mothers often begin with, “Pay attention!” Proverbs 13:1 amounts to Solomon’s “Pay attention!” Appealing to everyone’s ambition to be wise, he writes, “A wise son heeds his father’s instructions, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.”
Parents and teachers, police and preachers all see the heed/refuse-to-heed scenario played out every day. “Do what I say and all will be well,” they say. “Blow me off, and trouble will follow.” Scoffers wave the warning aside with a “Pfff!” and suffer.
Young King Solomon wisely obeyed his father David’s last words telling him to deal firmly with two seditious men, General Joab, and former King Saul’s cousin Shimei (I Kings 2). Obeying his father, Solomon successfully consolidated his power as king. In contrast, Solomon’s arrogant son Rehoboam scoffed at his father’s experienced advisors and quickly lost most of his kingdom (I Kings 12).
Fathers and mothers aiming to raise wise children know two things: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (1:7),” and “A wise son heeds his father’s instructions, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke (13:1).” Such parents will practice daily family worship with Bible reading and prayer. They will take their children to church. And they will teach their children God’s Word, including the proverbs of Solomon, one by one, as they walk the dog, eat fries at Chick-fil-A, drive to the orthodontist, and clean up Legos before bed.
– Bill Edgar
Adopted, So Imitate!
The American evangelist Francis Schaeffer, born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, established L’Abri in Huemoz, Switzerland in 1955. “L’Abri” is French for “The Shelter.” Over the next two decades, thousands of young people flocked to L’Abri, sometimes arriving because they heard they could stay there for free, sometimes because they wanted to talk Bible, philosophy, or the arts, and sometimes because a friend said, “When you go to Europe, you should go to L’Abri.” It became a sort of tourist stop for young Americans and Canadians. I stopped at L’Abri three times, in 1968, 1970, and 1974; in 1968 with four others on our tour of Europe, in 1970 with my wife Gretchen, and Don and Boni Piper on our way to Cyprus as missionaries, and in 1974 driving through Europe with Don Piper from Cyprus to Ireland. To this day, I remember things Schaeffer said. One thing was how young people had changed from the 1950s to the 1960s.
In the 1950s at L’Abri, when a young person would believe, there would often be tears of repentance for sin and joy that Christ forgives our sins. That changed by the late 1960s, when a new believer would leap for joy at discovering what Schaeffer called “true truth.” Concern for personal sin would show up months later. The question had changed from, “How can my sins be forgiven?” to “What is the truth?” One might relate this change to the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In the 1950s there was joy at the answer to Question 33, “What is justification?” “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.” By the late 1960s there was joy at the answer to Question 24 about Christ as prophet. “Christ executeth the office of a prophet in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.” “Truth found” replaced “sins forgiven” as the great felt need of young people. The 1950s young knew they were sinners because they had an awareness of God and knew he has given us his law. The 1960s young were far less aware of God and his law, but they hungered for what was true.
The world has changed again. As one should understand from reading both the Book of Judges and the Books of I and II Kings, the hopes and needs of generations can change very fast. Young people today are unaware of God and his law, and they have no hope of finding the truth, so they are not looking for it. They look now for a safe home. Young people are adrift from shattered families, miserable families, or no families at all.
Every schoolteacher knows this. Three of my many such memories: 1) From student who always did her homework, “I’m sorry, Mr. Edgar. I tried, but I couldn’t concentrate.” Tears. “Last night my parents told me they are getting a divorce.” 2) From a student teacher: Me – “Tell me about yourself.” She – a few items, and then, “My parents are divorced.” Me – “Do you see your father much?” She with sad, sad hurt – “Never. The judge told him he had to give up his drinking, but he loved his alcohol more than me.” 3) Student arrives in October: “I was living with my Mom, but she doesn’t want me anymore. So now I’m living with my Dad.” Same boy in February, with candy for every class member: “This is my last day here. I’m going to a boarding school. My father doesn’t want me either."
What Catechism answer do young folk feel the need for now? The answer to Question 34, “What is adoption?” “Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God.” I worked for many years with a Christian woman in our math department. She and her husband adopted one of her students. She told me that when they came to write their will, they asked their natural children whether they should give their adopted child an equal share with them. “I’ve never seen our children so angry with us: "YES. SHE’S ONE OF US!"" Their adopted daughter had been received into the number and had a right to all the privileges of being a child in the Kolloff family. When the Elkins Park young people were asked what topics they would like addressed in evening preaching in 2022, the resulting series was about “Bodies, Family, Marriage, and Sex.”
What does this development in the felt needs of more and more Americans for a safe home mean for the church’s life, preaching, and public prayer?
1. For life, it means that we have to make every effort to cultivate families where love prevails. Hospitality to both friends and strangers should become the central virtue that it was in biblical times. No visitor to our churches should go home without an invitation to dinner. Church members should care for each other, especially with food when babies come or when they are seriously sick, but also with money and even a car when they need one.
2. For public prayer, it means that thanksgiving to God should focus on thanks that we call God our Father, that in him we have a home to which we are going.
3. For preaching, it means that the Bible’s themes of exile and return, of being lost and then found, of being orphans in the wilderness whom God has found and adopted, should be preached often, maybe more often in our day than law broken and sins forgiven.
Like so many young people today without happy families, all mankind since Adam have been born into exile. God expelled Adam from the Garden and blocked him and his children from coming home. Only Jesus Christ can open the door to home, where we can call God “Father.” In Christ, God adopts us as his sons, along with all of his other sons, and gives us the same privileges that they have. God promised Abraham that his family would have a home in the land of Canaan. In Christ, God extends the same offer to all nations. Just from one book, Ephesians: “God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ (1:11).” “And you also became God’s people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation (1:13).” “But now, in union with Christ you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ (2:13).” “So then, you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now citizens together with God’s people and members of the family of God (2:19).” In chapter 5 of Ephesians Paul instructs wives and husbands how to live in marriage, wife submissive to her husband her head, and husband loving her as Christ loves the church and as he loves his own body. Such marriages are happy places for children to grow and people to visit.
Our adoption to be the sons of God is sufficiently prominent in the Bible that the Westminster Confession of Faith devotes an entire chapter to it, chapter 12, “Of Adoption.” It gets one paragraph. Because it was written in the 17th Century when people agonized about their sins, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms give more emphasis to justification, how our sins are forgiven in Christ. Chapter 11, “Of Justification,” has six paragraphs. The Larger Catechism has one question on Adoption (74) and four questions on Justification (70,71,72,73). Chapter 13 of the Confession, “Of Sanctification,” deals with putting sin (breaking God’s law) to death. There is no chapter or question dealing with how we become like our brother Jesus Christ by imitating him.
How is sanctification understood within the context of adoption? Imitation! Younger children imitate older ones as well as father and mother, and Christ is our elder brother. I Corinthians 11:1, “You are to imitate me just as I imitate Christ.” “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children (Ephesians 5:1).” “For I gave you an example that you should also do as I did to you (John 13:15).” “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord (I Thessalonians 1:6).” “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith (Hebrews 13:7).” Believers grow into Christ by aiming to keep his law and also by imitating him. “What would Jesus do?” Being fully sanctified is to become fully like Christ, our elder brother. “Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the eldest brother in a large family (Romans 8:29).” As the writer to the Hebrews teaches, Christ is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11).
Men trained at seminaries that teach Reformed theology, and church members who have studied the Westminster Standards and used them for years as the Bible’s summary, easily use the language of sin and forgiveness, in public prayer, in preaching and teaching, and in evangelism. All of these things are true and important. The problem is that few people in our day think about their sins and how they can be forgiven. Few think much about what is true, only what is “true for me.” They do think about their miserable family lives, if they even have families. Happily, we have the doctrine of adoption in the Bible and the Westminster Standards, and the resulting call to growth in Christ by imitating him that runs throughout the New Testament. Indeed, Jesus tells us to imitate God our Father (Matthew 5:48). In the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, first, he teaches us pray to “Our Father in heaven,” and later in that prayer teaches us to ask God “to forgive us our sins (Luke 11:4).” And notice the plurals throughout: “Our Father,” “Forgive us our sins.” We pray as individuals, but also as the whole family of God.
Adoption can sometimes be a forgotten doctrine, the less important companion of justification. In our day, we need to put adoption front and center. People need a home and they know it. They need a Father in heaven who adopts people without a home and calls them his sons and daughters.
– Bill Edgar
Francis Schaeffer and Me
In 1964 my parents decided to send me to Switzerland for the summer between my junior and senior year in high school. We were living in Rome at the time where my parents were missionaries. I’m not sure exactly why they wanted to send me. I was pretty excited about it, even though I didn’t really know much about the place I was going to.
The place in Switzerland was called L’Abri (the shelter). University students went there to study under Francis Schaeffer. I was too young for that, so I was going as a “helper” to work in the gardens and such.
It turned out to be a very important time in my life. I refer to it as my intellectual awakening.
Before I went, I had what I had learned at home and what I had learned at school, but they didn’t add up to a larger view of things. By the end of the summer everything seemed to fit into the big picture of what God was doing in the world that I was a part of too. My course in European history senior year was also my history. The story of Rome was about Christianity’s clash with the civilization of its time. The Reformation was about what really mattered. The time since was taken up by the struggle for and against a Christian understanding of the world. At the time, it ended with Logical Positivism, Linguistic Analysis, Existentialism, and Marxism, all failed attempts to reimagine the world without God. Sixty years later most of them are already gone, and the world is rushing down other false paths, but that’s another story.
Even as a helper, I was able to soak up what was going on. I took turns eating meals with the L’Abri families along with the students and slept in one of the L’Abri chalets. Sometimes, there were lectures in the evening. In free time, I was also able to listen to reel-to-reel tapes of earlier lectures. On Saturday night there was always an open-ended question and answer session where anyone could ask anything. The sessions went on for hours, and Francis Schaeffer from his spot on the fireplace hearth at the end of the packed room would give serious answers—even to me.
In many ways the whole place revolved around Francis Schaeffer. Even so, he was usually not out in the open unless he was lecturing or preaching. The rest of the time, he tended to keep to himself. You might get to eat with him if your turn was to have lunch at his chalet.
He was an American who had gone native. He wore the breeches and stockings of a Swiss mountaineer.
On Mondays, he always went on day-long hikes in the surrounding mountains, usually by himself. Sometimes he would invite a student or two along. I hoped I would get my chance, but I never did.
My time at L’Abri was in the early days. The Schaeffers had started it in 1955. They had first gone to a Catholic part of Switzerland as Protestant missionaries. When they got kicked out for proselytizing, they had moved to the small village of Huemoz in a Protestant section. Visitors would come by, student friends of their daughters and others. Word got around that this was a place where you could get answers to questions about the meaning of life. Time even wrote an article about them in 1960, characterizing their work as a “mission to intellectuals”. After that it became an even more popular stopping point for students wandering around Europe trying to find themselves.
Later, Francis Schaeffer would become famous in America. He engaged in speaking tours with C. Everett Koop, made movies (Whatever Happened to the Human Race), and was instrumental in awakening the Evangelical world to the evil of abortion. All of this was ahead of him when I knew him. He hadn’t published any books yet. Many of his books that appeared in the 1970s were transcriptions of the tapes his students listened to in the Farel House chalet at L’Abri in my time.
After I left L’Abri, I had two other notable interactions with him. I asked him to write a letter of recommendation to Swarthmore for me when I was a senior. He did so and also wrote back a very kind and fatherly letter in which he said, among other things, that I should be careful to guard my relationship with the Lord during my time there, that it was the most precious thing I had.
In January 1968 he came to Chicago to participate in a dialogue/debate with Bishop James Pike on the subject “What Relevance Has Historic Christianity for Modern Man?” Jan, who is now my wife, and I went to hear them and greeted Schaeffer backstage at the break. Schaeffer demonstrated both his unshakable confidence in his beliefs and his care for both Pike and the people who submitted questions. Pike was more evidently unsure of what he believed. He made an attempt to respond honestly to the hand Schaeffer extended to him, but he was a broken man. He was by then a defrocked Episcopalian bishop and deeply into the occult, trying to make contact with his son who had committed suicide. In less than two years he was dead, having disappeared into the desert on a trip to Israel.
Francis Schaeffer died of cancer in 1984. Over the years his reputation has waxed and waned. Critics have said he wasn’t enough of a scholar. They are probably right about that, but then he never claimed to be. Many others can testify to what they learned from him, how he helped them, what an important part he played in their lives.
I can attest that he was someone who worked hard to understand his times and to rescue people from the perils of them. At that, he was very good and served his Lord well. Os Guinness, a colleague, wrote this about him on the L’Abri website: “I have never met anyone with such a passion for God, combined with a passion for people, combined with a passion for truth. That is an extremely rare combination, and Schaeffer embodied it."
– Joseph Comanda
Pray For An Hour Or More?
In a recent sermon I made reference to a comment of Jesus’ to Peter in Gethsemane. He was about to be arrested, tried and crucified. He had taken three disciples with him, told them to “watch and pray” then went off by himself to pray. When he returned to them, they were sleeping rather than praying. Then he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?” (Mark 14:37-38) “Keeping watch” is coupled with praying. Praying for a whole hour is what had arrested my attention and Jesus says it as if it is to be expected. There seems to be a hint of incredulity in Jesus’ voice as if to say, “You couldn’t even pray with or for me for one hour!” In the sermon I asked those present to answer in their own hearts when the last time was that they had prayed for an hour.
Immediately after the service someone approached me asking with a hint of incredulity, how can one pray for an hour! Excellent question! A pastor loves to receive that sort of response to his preaching. This is my opportunity to provide a fuller answer to the question.
The Context
That same evening Peter had declared that he was ready to go to prison or even to die with Jesus. Our Lord responded, “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith might not fail.” (Luke 22:31-32) Jesus had told Peter and the others of his pending crucifixion. This was a tremendous trial for Jesus as evidenced by his prayer, “Let this cup pass from me.” It was time for the disciples to pray for him to remain faithful to the Father’s will for him on our behalf. It was also a time of great temptation for the disciples. In fact, they would all desert him in a short time. An hour of prayer for him and for themselves in that evening might have been a paltry amount considering their burdens.
Please don’t set yourself up for failure by saying something like this: “Wow! Jesus wants me to pray for at least an hour at a time! Okay, I’ll pray for an hour or more every day from now on.” Like the new year resolutions that fall by the wayside before the end of the first week in January, this one would likely be on the same junk heap. Note that in Jesus’ lifetime he sometimes rose early to pray and at other times spent the whole night in prayer. One of those occasions was the night before he chose the twelve. Those special occasions compelled him to spend more time in prayer. This observation ought to inform us about when to have more extended times in prayer. In the past, the church typically spent the whole day in prayer and fasting when a pastor was being ordained.
It is possible to pray for an hour or more. Here is an attempt at practical advice. After all, is there any end to the praise we can and ought to give to the Lord? To the thanks we owe to him? To the confession of sin we need to make? To the intercession that we must take to him? There will be times that you don’t sense a special occasion requiring an extended period of prayer but you are compelled to pray for a longer period anyway. The following suggestions may help you.
Printed materials to help you in praying
Often the good advice is given to pray the Psalms. Some Psalms are more suited to this use than others but praying them is not only proper, it is also good training in prayer, especially for praising the Lord. Other prayers in the Bible are good examples for us to follow: Solomon’s prayer dedicating the temple (1 Kings 8:22-53); the apostles’ prayer in Acts 4:24-30. Paul’s letters often include how he is praying for the church that will receive his letter.
Q&A #4 in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) reminds us of the attributes of God for which to praise him. Three of them belong to the Lord alone and modify the remaining attributes.
Q&A #100-107 in the WSC point us to the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and what we are praying in each of them. For a little more understanding of these petitions and what to include in our prayers there are books such as G.I. Williamson’s work on the Shorter Catechism. And for even more intense help the Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC) also covers these same issues. G.I Williamson compiled J.G. Vos’ notes on the WLC from the Blue Banner Faith and Life. It’s available from Crown & Covenant Publications as The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary.
Matthew Henry composed a volume entitled A Method for Prayer, which has been printed by many publishing houses. A great portion of this book is quotations from Scripture suitable for praying in our current context.
Praying for current needs
Remember your promise to pray for infants as they are baptized or those who made professions of faith. This promise should not be considered a ‘one-off’ duty. The next time your church receives members, ask them how you can pray for them so you can fulfill your promise.
As you visit with other church members and visitors, ask how you can pray for them. Then use your church directory to help you remember to pray for them.
Pray for specific people you know to hear God’s Word and come to faith in Christ. Remember that those in other religions need to know that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. Pastors and their families are special objects of Satan’s warfare. Pray for their protection. Do you know what missions your church is sponsoring? Ask how to pray for them and the missionaries serving them.
Pray for churches to be started in Atlantic Presbytery. At our recent presbytery meeting we heard of the possibility of new churches being started in Oneonta, NY; Mountaindale, NY and on the Delmarva peninsula. The Cambridge and East Providence churches are praying for more churches in specific areas of New England.
Pray for the churches in America to become faithful to Christ and his Word.
Presidents, cabinet members, senators, representatives, judges, governors and all in public office must answer to God for their decisions and actions and they need your prayer support.
Conclusion
By now you may be overwhelmed by how much praying can be done. Praying is work and can be exhausting. You may even ask, “How can I limit praying to one hour?” Of course, you don’t need to limit yourself that way. But neither should you start out thinking, “I’ve got to pray for a whole hour.” Then prayer will be a burden. But you can extend your prayer time a little at a time as you grow in your enjoyment of being with Christ.
– Bruce Martin
REVOICE: What Is It? What Should We Think of It?
REVOICE is an organization seeking to make room for “sexual minorities” in orthodox churches. It is part of what is called Side B Gay Christianity, which celebrates a gay identity devoted to celibacy.
REVOICE has a presence in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Some in the Southern Baptist Convention played a part in starting it around 2017. The intriguing name REVOICE suggests that until now orthodox Christian theology and churches have gotten basic issues of sexuality and identity wrong: it is time to voice in a new way the Christian message to make room for openly declared “sexual minorities.”
From its website: “Mission: To support and encourage gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other same-sex attracted Christians – as well as those who love them – so that all in the Church might be empowered to live in gospel unity while observing the historic Christian doctrine of marriage and sexuality.” Elsewhere on its website: “Revoice exists to support and encourage Christians who are sexual minorities so they can flourish in historic Christian traditions.”
Like any proper non-profit organization, REVOICE has a “Vision” as well as a “Mission,” along with stated “Values.” Their orthodox “Statement of Faith” comes from the Langham Partnership, an interdenominational coalition of Christians worldwide with roots in the ministry of the Anglican preacher John Stott. They have a three-member staff, a three-member Board of Directors, and an eight member Advisory Council.
Where does REVOICE’s money come from? That is unclear. As a not-for-profit “ministry,” it “relies on the support of financial partners to sustain its day-to-day operations and to achieve its mission.” It does not publish a list of donors, so it cannot be known who is behind it financially. One might guess, but only guess, that it has a patron with deep pockets
who wants to further the cause of “sexual minorities” in orthodox and reformed churches – win there and the culture war is almost over! REVOICE publishes a Newsletter one can subscribe to and get access to its conference materials for $49/year. It sponsors local Chapters as well as Online Care Groups. Its annual conferences, the first of which was held in 2018 at Memorial Presbyterian Church (PCA) in St. Louis, have speakers, breakout groups, and opportunities for networking.
REVOICE invites testimonials from its supporters. Here is one published on their website from Nathan in Oklahoma, age 23. “I came out for the first time in April 2019 and felt exceptionally alone as a gay celibate Christian. To go from that to sitting in a room with tons of people just like me in less than 3 years was one of the most profound showings of God’s love and provision I’ve ever experienced, watching both the speakers and attendees at Revoice 2021 be so fully and unabashedly themselves showed me that this is a path I can walk with confidence and joy. I’m now exploring ways to make my sexuality part of my role in my local church and could not be more optimistic about the future in that regard. God is always good, always!” Nathan is just one example of thousands of “gay/SSA” Christians “around the world” who want to Grow Home. Gifts to Growing Home can help to teach Nathan’s church how to find his place for flourishing there.
In its “Statement of Sexual Ethics and Christian Obedience,” REVOICE adds “sexual orientation” to Galatians 3:28, where Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Here is how REVOICE rewrites Paul: “…we believe that other features within the composite of
individual identity – such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation – do not change or add to this spiritual identity….” Paul’s opposite pairs are all morally neutral. The question to be answered is whether the category “gay Christian” is either morally neutral or helpful?
Here are seven reasons to say NO to REVOICE.
1. The notion of “sexual orientation” as morally neutral denies Original Sin. Part of our Original Sin is the corruption of our whole nature – desires, thoughts, decisions, and emotions – that makes us inclined towards evil. Since REVOICE confesses that sexual relations outside marriage are sinful, it makes no moral sense to call such “orientations” morally neutral. Imagine conferences made up of “adultery oriented” people who covet other people’s spouses. Such coveting should be repented of, not adopted as an “orientation” to be welcomed into the Church. The same is true of “minority sexual orientations”.
2. The term “sexual orientation” proposes no limit to what counts as a “sexual orientation.” Its focus is on LGBTQ+, an evolving category. Why limit it to the categories recognized thus far? The term “sexual orientation” gives no reason not to include people who are attracted to members of their own families, father to daughter, brother to sister, son to mother, and so on. It provides no reason not to include the well-known historic interest of older men in boys, the pederasty recently come to light in the Roman Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America. In fact, there is no reason not to include a “sexual orientation” towards one’s dog or a plastic doll.
No doubt REVOICE would find these last observations insulting, even slanderous. But the term “sexual orientation” provides no grounds whatsoever for a limiting principle. The prohibitions in Leviticus 28 reveal that, except for the plastic doll, such practices (and therefore the “orientations” behind them) were known in the world of Moses well over 3000 years ago. Dig into online pornography (No, don’t!), and such things, it is reported, are
available for pixel viewing.
3. Another problem with the concept of “sexual orientation” as a morally neutral quality on a par with Jew and Greek is, why limit it to matters sexual? Why should one not extend the concept of “orientation” to other strongly felt temptations to sin? Some people have an orientation towards temper losing and violence, others towards witchcraft, others towards arson, and others towards theft. There could be conferences for people who had “come out” as kleptomaniacs or pyromaniacs. Would that be wise? Helpful? Or would such gatherings confirm to participants that wanting to steal, start fires, fight, and engage in witchcraft was not something to be repented of?
4) The word “homosexual” itself is suspect. There was no thought of a “latent sodomite” in the ancient world. In 1868 Karl Maria Kertbeny invented “homosexual” (in German) to describe a desire for sexual relations with people of one’s own sex. “Heterosexual” was for those who desire the opposite sex. The terms sound scientific and neutrally descriptive, but they are confusing. They combine an inward psychological state with certain outward actions in the same word, like the now wisely abandoned words “kleptomaniac,” one who steals because it is part of his inner nature, or the similar “pyromaniac.” Ancient Greek had no such word as “homosexual.” The Greek words “malakos” and “arsenokoites” are act-defined from a Greco-Roman world that thought of sexual activity quite differently than we do (I Corinthians 6:9; see also I Timothy 1:10.) They have no precise English equivalents. All English translations unavoidably obscure what they refer to, and preachers who understand their actual meaning are understandably and rightly reluctant to explain to congregations what they describe.
As the understanding of human nature became more psychological in the 19th Century, the new terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual” gained currency. They entered general usage, and their history is complex. Psychiatrists officially categorized “homosexuality” as a “psychiatric disorder” until in 1973 the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association changed that evaluation to “sexual orientation disturbance.”
5) Side B Gay Christianity, while professing to believe God’s teaching about where sexual behavior belongs – inside the marriage of a man and a woman – nevertheless wrongly accepts the idea that one’s sexual appetites provide one a basic and lasting identity. The notion that sexual appetite lies at the center of one’s “identity” has roots in several post 1800 writers, most notably in the teachings of Sigmund Freud. (See the reprint of a 1927 article, “What is Freudianism?” for a mocking and trenchant critique of Freud’s reduction of everything to sex.)
With the idea that sexual desire is at the root of all human life, people start to believe that they can only live “authentic” lives if everyone around them knows their “sexual orientation,” and they can only be free to “be themselves” if everyone approves of their shared “identity.” It is quite egocentric. “Hey everyone, I am a sexual minority. Respect me, and my identity. If you do not, you are a bigot and should be reeducated.”
The purpose of REVOICE is to make a place for people who have “come out” in orthodox churches and to reeducate those churches to make a place for them and their “gifts.” Where such “reeducation” is attempted, strife, confusion, and error will result.
6) There is a stunning lack of realism in the final section of the REVOICE “Statement on Sexual Ethics and Christian Obedience.” It reads: “We believe that the Christian tradition celebrates deep, committed relationships between believers that are marked by spiritual intimacy, emotional connection, and even chaste, non-sexual expressions of physical affection.” It is not clear at all that Christian tradition celebrates such “committed relationships,” although one might perhaps find an occasional thought that appears to modern minds as tending in that direction. But what happens when people who get together on the basis of their openly expressed sexual desires of a certain sort become “spiritually intimate, emotionally connected, and physically affectionate?” The stage is set for sexual arousal and action. Imagine the idiocy of “celebrating” a “committed relationship” “marked by spiritual intimacy, emotional connection, and even chaste, non-sexual expressions of physical affection” between a man and a woman not married to each other. How long would such a relationship remain chaste?
7) REVOICE makes the common move of LGBTQ+ folk of claiming victim status as a “sexual minority.” As a “minority,” they claim all of the rights and privileges our society now accords victimized minorities. So orthodox Christian churches should be reeducated to make a place for them on their terms! The potential dangers to Christian congregations who go down that road are obvious: thought and “identity” so easily move on to action, and “role models” of “sexual minorities” will invite imitation. Any church leader who promotes the agenda of
REVOICE in the name of compassion, justice, fairness, or love should be immediately suspect as naïve (“useful idiots” in Marxist-Leninist parlance) or worse.
REVOICE is the voice of modern confusion and obsession with sex. It seeks a place in orthodox reformed churches where it can remake their theology and ethics in the image of the modern. Neither seminaries, nor synods, nor local churches, nor individuals should make room for REVOICE or for the ideas it espouses. We have no idea who is funding it, but we can guess the why. REVOICE should be shunned.
– Bill Edgar
Questions Asked Recently About Church Discipline and Gossip
1. What are the purposes for church discipline?
The Reformed Presbyterian Book of Discipline states that, “The purpose of Christian discipline is to bring about a redemptive change and a continuing growth toward holiness in the life of a Christian (E-1).” Having stated that singular purpose in its introduction, the Book of Discipline goes on in Chapter 1 to name other purposes of church discipline. “Five purposes of church are: primarily, to reclaim a sinning member; then to deter others from similar offenses; to maintain the honor of Christ and the purity and peace of His Church; to maintain the truth of the gospel; and to avoid the wrath of God coming upon the church” (E-3, Section I, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3).
There is a further purpose of church discipline: to protect the church and its members from harm. Paul writes to Titus: “Reject a divisive man after admonishing him twice (Titus 3:10).” (Note: the KJV “heretic,” which brings the Greek word directly into English, means basically a divisive person. Of course, someone who teaches heresy will be one kind of person who divides the church.) Paul warned the Galatian church that a small dose of false teaching would infect an entire church. “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is (Galatians 5:7-10).
In any given situation the main purpose of discipline will have to fit the case. For example, if a member or adherent is a sexual predator, he should be quickly and decisively separated from the church. The failure to do that with its priests has brought the Roman Catholic Church in recent years into much public disrepute. Jesus reclaimed Peter after he denied him three times, but not all are repentant as Peter was. Church elders must protect their churches from wolves, especially when the wolf comes from the inside (see Acts 20:30).
2. What is wrong with “gossip?”
People love to talk about other people. The doings of people are interesting. One kind of “gossip” is necessary, one is harmless, and one is dangerous.
Necessary “gossip” warns people about the danger another person poses. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message (II Timothy 4:14-15).” If someone is known as a seducer of young women, those who know about that should warn young women: beware of that man. Examples could be multiplied.
Harmless “gossip” is simply news. “Did you know that Sarah’s mother is in the hospital?” “I just heard that the Los Angeles pastor has been called to Orlando.” And so on. Such “gossip” is actually one way that a family or church works together.
Malicious “gossip,” however, spreads tales, sometimes lies, that set people against each other. God commanded Israel, “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people (Leviticus 19:16).” Solomon observes, “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered (Proverbs 11:13).” “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases (Proverbs 26:20).” Regarding young widows with too much time on their hands, Paul writes, “Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not (I Timothy 5:13).”
Unfortunately, in English all three kinds of communication can be described by the one word “gossip.” Warning about danger is good; passing the news is harmless; but telling stories to turn people against one another is evil. We should do the first kind of gossip; we may do the second; and we ought never do the third.
– Bill Edgar
A Little Change-Up
A Little Strength will publish a memorial issue for the 100th anniversary of White Lake Covenanter Camp. It will have more pages than usual and will be for sale at the Camp this summer. We will mail out to congregations whatever copies are left over.
A Little Help?
We warmly welcome gifts to help us stay in print and online here. If you appreciate our efforts and enjoy reading our little journal, please click here, or mail your gift to
A Little Strength
901 Cypress Avenue
Elkins Park PA 19027
Make your check out to “Elkins Park RP Church” with “A Little Strength” in the memo line.
Authors in this issue
Joe Comanda is a deacon of the Broomall RPC. He has been its long-time treasurer and also the Atlantic Presbytery's treasurer.
Bill Edgar has another book coming out this summer: History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1920-1980.
John Edgar is the pastor of Elkins Park RPC (Philadelphia).
Bruce Martin is a retired pastor of Ridgefield Park RPC (New York) and resides in Elkins Park. He is the clerk of Atlantic Presbytery.