My Report on the 83rd GA of the OPC

The Rev. Matthew Kingsbury and I attended the 83th GA of the OPC as commissioners on behalf of our regional church, the Presbytery of the Dakotas, at Sandy Cove Conference Center in North East, MD from June 8-13, 2016.  The meeting of the GA also coincided with the 80^th anniversary of the OPC as a denomination.  The GA is the governing body of the OPC and the highest court of appeal in judicial matters.  

The Assembly was addressed by delegates from denominations with which the OPC enjoys fraternal relations. The delegates represented denominations from Austria, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, and several others here in the United States.  The Committee on Diaconal Ministries highlighted the opportunity for our deacons to attend Diaconal Conferences.  The Committee on Home Missions and Church Extensions now provides updates on Facebook in an attempt to provide churches with timely prayer request information about mission works.  There is also a monthly bulletin, Home Missions Today, which is posted on the committee’s website.  The Statistician reported that while total membership of the OPC reached 31, 191 members this last year, a new record high, this is only a 0.22 percent increase from the year before.  While this stagnation is concerning, we can give praise that God continues to gather in His own!

The Assembly asked the Committee on Christian Education to return to next year’s GA with recommendations on the preparation of a “Modern English Study Version” of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which would modernize the language of the catechism without changing its meaning.  The Assembly agreed to move forward in publishing the new Psalter Hymnal, a collaboration between the OPC and the URCNA.  The Committee for the Historian reported that there is a book project in progress titled Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.  This anthology, scheduled to be published fall 2016, will feature 52 essays highlighting the lives of dozens of women in the OPC.  We give thanks to our Lord for the faithful service of these women over the last 80 years!

The Assembly received a study report on the topic of Republication, which will be distributed to presbyteries and made available to interested parties for study.  In light of the report, the Assembly recommended that presbyteries examine a candidate’s understanding of the covenant of works, the Mosaic Covenant, and the specific topics enumerated in the report.  May this report be an aid in crafting more biblical shepherds charged with the preaching of His Word to the flock!

The OPC Pension Plan will now change from a trustee-directed plan to a participant-directed plan, allowing members the flexibility to choose an investment allocation that best fits his unique circumstance.  A new Committee on Ministerial Care will now be created, which will take over the duties of the Committee on Pensions, oversight of the OPC Obadiah Fund, and provide advice or resources regarding financial risk management and planning to OPC ministers.  May these coming changes meet the temporal needs of our ministers, who have so fervently labored after our eternal needs!

Praise God for His eternal faithfulness to His own as we see the Gospel of Jesus Christ lived out through the many efforts of the OPC and her fraternal denominations, all to the glory of our God and our enjoyment of Him forever!

Why We Should Love One Another

God created everything.

You.  Me.  Everything thing that we have known, will know, and all that is beyond our knowing, was created by Him.  An understandable response to this truth is praise and love from His creation.  However, God is not only worthy of this praise and love from His creation, He commands it.  When we consider His commands, it is amazing that God is not only concerned with our response to Him but how we respond to each other.

Not only is God concerned that we acknowledge that He is the only true God, but He is also concerned that we give each other proper honor and dignity.

Not only is God concerned that we worship Him properly, but He is also concerned that we preserve the life of ourselves and others.

Not only is God concerned that we use His name in a holy and reverent manner, but He is also concerned that we conduct ourselves in a chaste and modest manner toward one another.

Not only is God concerned that we reserve one whole day in seven for His service, but He is also concerned that we engage faithfully with one another in contracts and commerce, that we promote truth with one another, that we be content with our own condition and act charitably toward the condition of others.

In short, God commands us to love one another.

God could have simply commanded we acknowledge Him as the only true God, worship Him properly, use His name in a holy manner, reserve one whole day in seven for His service, and it would have been enough because He is the Creator, and a Creator owes His creation nothing.

As His creation, however, God commands us to love one another because He loves His creation.

This truth points to something far more shocking than the amazing fact that God cares about how we treat each other.   While God is under no obligation to make a promise to us, He is obligated to keep it once He has made it.  God must keep His promise because His character demands it and He promises that all in His creation that believe in Jesus Christ will not experience eternal torment for their sins against the Creator, but rather will experience eternal life.  This Jesus Christ is the Creator embodied in flesh, i.e. Incarnate.  

The scope of this post was not to get into the details as to why the Incarnation was necessary, but know that it absolutely was and it cost the Creator dearly.  The death of the Creator paid the penalty due for the sins of His people.  God is so concerned for His creation that He laid down His life for it.  This sacrifice is undeserved, but that is why it is called grace and it is truly amazing. 

Our Response to the Attack in Paris

I am not going to get into the long-term solution to Islamic-based terrorist attacks.  That is not the point of this post.  The point is to warn us from stepping into hate and radicalism ourselves as a result of such attacks. 

I intentionally waited to post comments about last night’s attack in Paris.  Some of the online commentary I have seen over the last 24 hours has been very concerning.  I have seen calls to kill all Muslims.  I have seen calls to round Muslims up and place them in internment camps.  I have seen calls from Christians for a new Crusade.  I am going to be blunt; these calls to harm Muslims are more than Islamophobic, it is insanity.  These calls are unchristian. 

I should point out that these calls are coming from people that are normally pretty rational, normally pretty “christian.”  This type of mob insanity happens, however, when we fail to control our fear.  A wise man once said,

“Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.”

Right now people are scared.  Do you know who else is scared?  Muslims.  Millions of non-violent Muslims right now fear retribution from both totalitarian acts of governments and vigilante “justice” from mobs of equally fearful people. 

Anger is an appropriate response to evil.  What happened in Paris was evil.  However, when we find our world crashing down we need to slow down, think, and keep our emotions in check, otherwise we will find ourselves making poor judgments. 

Hate breeds hate.  Radicalism breeds radicalism.  This also happens to be our enemy’s goal.  Their goal is for governments to respond with totalitarianism.  Their goal is for you and I to respond with pitchforks, torches, and a burning stake.  They want us to meet them on the field of hate and radicalism.  When we do that, they have already won.  The suffering continues.

I will work on another post that deals with the long-term solution, which entails a different foreign policy from the current one we have driven by fear.

Refugees Welcome - Flüchtlinge Willkommen

When refugees from the middle east are told they cannot stay in eastern European countries they all consistently reply, "We don't want to stay here. We're headed to Germany." Refugees will always head to the most rich and powerful countries. 

That includes the United States, which has seen its own share of refugees, primarily from Mexico. The US's part in the War on Drugs has created and empowered the cartels in Mexico, turning parts of that country into a war zone. 

The process of providing aid and absorbing refugees into a country can be daunting. Germany is doing a phenomenal job and are not even responsible for the middle east crisis. That is what great countries do.

Auf Deutsch:

Wenn Fluechtlinge aus dem Nahen Osten gesagt werden, dass sie in osteuropaeischen Laendern bleiben koennen nicht alle konsequent zu antworten, “Wir wollen nicht, hier zu bleiben. Wir sind nach Deutschland fuhren.” Fluechtlingen werden immer fuer die meisten reichen und maechtigen Laender leiten.

Dazu gehoeren die USA, die seinen eigenen Anteil von Fluechtlingen, vor allen aus Mexiko gesehen hat. Die uns das Teil im Krieg gegen Drogen schuf und ermaechtigt die Drogenkartelle in Mexiko, Teile dieses Landes in ein Kriegsgebiet verwandeln.

Der Prozess der Hilfeleistung und Aufnahme von Fluechtlingen in einem Land kann entmutigend sein. Deutschland macht einen phaenomenalen arbeit und sind nicht selbstverantwortlich fuer die Krise im Nahen Osten.  Das ist, was grosse Laender tun.

The Wisdom of Al Swearengen

The character Al Swearengen from the television series Deadwood once said,

“Every beatin’ I’m grateful for.  Every one of them.  Get all the beat outta you.  And you know what the world is.” (I took the liberty of omitting no less than three f-bombs from this quote.) 

I found myself thinking about Swearengen’s “wisdom” recently because there is some truth to be found here.  I doubt I am the only one out there that entered this world naively trustful and optimistic.   After a few years I got “the beat outta me” and saw “what the world is”; corrupted by sin.  That sin hurts and in the face of that pain trust turns to distrust, optimism to pessimism.  In order to not be disappointed or let down we simply lower our expectations and standards.  I do this all the time.  Swearengen trusts no one and assumes the worst intentions from them until proven otherwise.  His response is understandable, especially in the town of Deadwood.  This response starts off defensive, but eventually we are taking offensive action, as well, contributing to this world’s corruption. 

We end up with Swearengen wisdom when we forge our discernment from the beatings we receive in this world alone.  This is not what the people of God are called to do.  True discernment comes from the Word of God, which reveals the truth about good and evil.  God’s Word reveals that we are called to love our neighbor, which means that we are to assume the best regarding another’s intentions until proven otherwise. There is risk with this.  We might get hurt.  No, let us be honest.  We often will get hurt and that is not Swearengen pessimism, either.  God’s Word warns us of this reality and still calls us to longsuffering.  Longsuffering sounds bad, but here is one word we loath even more; patience.  We can hardly stand to wait in a line at the supermarket.  How much harder is it to patiently endure injury caused by those we love, let alone a stranger?  This kind of patience we are called to, however, is a reflection of the patience God had for us in the moment of our worst sin.  Consider the patience of Christ as he suffered for our sins on the cross.  Yet He did so willingly.  In fact, Christ also could have uttered the same words as Swearengen (without the f-bombs) yet the meaning would be quite different.

“Every beatin’ I’m grateful for.  Every one of them.”  Why?  Because with His stripes we are healed.  “Get all the beat outta [Me].  And [I] know what the world is.”  Why?  Because Christ’s suffering on the cross redeemed a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Himself from bondage to sin and death.  The world is fallen and corrupt in sin, yet through the sacrifice and righteous works of Jesus Christ, those that trust in Him alone are empowered by the Holy Spirit to assume the best in others today and a have a sure hope in the life and resurrection to come.

Is Our Universe a Simulation?

One of the popular subsets of the field of space is cosmology, the study of the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe.  Space.com recently posted an article with a rather philosophical view on the topic.

The philosophical atheists in the article wrestle with the concept that our universe might be a simulated reality, created by transcendent, hyper-advanced beings, existing above and beyond our simulation.  They consider five premises to the simulation argument:

(i) Other intelligent civilizations exist

(ii) Their technologies grow exponentially

(iii) They do not all go extinct

(iv) There is no universal ban or barrier for running simulations

(v) Consciousness can be simulated.

If one of the above premises is to be rejected, then it must always be rejected, everywhere, for all time, in all universes, without exception.  That, of course, makes no sense.  The philosophers, therefore, conclude that our universe is very likely a simulation.

Yet, despite all this, the philosophical atheists in this article still refuse to accept that the maker of this “simulation” is God.

If our universe was a simulation created by transcendent, hyper-advanced beings, then who created those beings and the simulation they exist in, and so on?  If we went back far enough we would eventually, out of necessity, run into a supreme Being that is not confined to a simulation, but rather exists in a beginningless state.  That Being would be God.  And why a beginningless state?  Because something cannot come from nothing.  Nihil fit ex nihilo. Nothing comes from nothing.

Dresden Firebombings

On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, it is worthy to note that it was not the first time that such a terror attack had been committed by Allied Forces in the year 1945. On February 14 of 1945 (ironically Ash Wednesday), Allied Forces firebombed the German city of Dresden, creating a firestorm that killed an estmated 25,000 civilians. The British Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill, was so appalled by the event that he had this to say:

"It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. The Foreign Secretary has spoken to me on this subject, and I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive."

WWII was a dark time for all parties involved. May we never hide from the horror of war that we may seek the way of peace even just a minute longer when we are called to the test.