Question Regarding Netherlands Reformed Churches / Heritage Reformed Churches

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TaylorOtwell

Puritan Board Junior
Last night I was speaking with a friend who attends PRTS. Who told me that before Dr. Beeke began preaching at the Netherlands Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, there was something like 1000 people attending and only 20 communicants. I found this to be astounding.

He noted that there were/are many in the congregation who love the Puritans/theology/etc. and live very "godly" lives but who do not consider themselves converted and many don't feel internal "liberty" to believe in Christ savingly. They feel it would be presumption. I told him the real presumptuous sin in a case like that is not resting in Christ immediately.

Is this kind of situation common on the HRC and Netherlands Reformed Churches? I've never heard of this concept of feeling the "liberty" to close with Christ internally. To me, it sounded like David Brainerd agonizing in his diaries, and some kind of Great Awakening style spirituality.
 
Last night I was speaking with a friend who attends PRTS. Who told me that before Dr. Beeke began preaching at the Netherlands Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, there was something like 1000 people attending and only 20 communicants. I found this to be astounding.

He noted that there were/are many in the congregation who love the Puritans/theology/etc. and live very "godly" lives but who do not consider themselves converted and many don't feel internal "liberty" to believe in Christ savingly. They feel it would be presumption. I told him the real presumptuous sin in a case like that is not resting in Christ immediately.

Is this kind of situation common on the HRC and Netherlands Reformed Churches? I've never heard of this concept of feeling the "liberty" to close with Christ internally. To me, it sounded like David Brainerd agonizing in his diaries, and some kind of Great Awakening style spirituality.

Yes, now you are seeing what Beeke had to deal with when he started his preaching ministry. As I understand it, the split with the Netherlands Reformed Congregation was largely over the freedom with which Beeke invited people to believe the gospel.

This practical denial of the means in conversion and "waiting on God" while trying to provoke his saving grace by good works was known in Puritanism as "preparationism", a dangerous error and one of the more damanging tendencies of puritanism. The equally dangerous "new measures" adopted by Finney and those guys was largely an overreaction to this "preparationism."
 
Sadly, I've heard of similar situations in the NRC from a friend who grew up in that denomination -- that one cannot have assurance until dead. Very few would "presume" to be sure enough of their faith to participate in the Lord's Table and that likely would be limited to the church officers and perhaps some folks in their 80s.
 
Hi,

I grew up in the NRC, and much of what is written here is accurate.

The NRC in it's preaching is very focused on the experiential side of the Christian life, especially how it relates to the Spirit's work in the soul. They seemed to relish speaking of the dark night of the soul kind of stuff. For them, assurance of faith was a rare thing, possibly a presumptive action on the believer's part. And so, for the most part, only few would come to the Lord's table, lest eat and drink damnation upon themselves.

Dr. Beeke was the flash point in the split that took place about 20 years ago, and his divorce and re-marriage did come up. There was however at least a difference of emphasis between Dr. Beeke and some of the other ministers. Dr. Beeke was accused of being "too Christ centered", in his preaching as well as in his tutoring of ministerial candidates. This would inevitably lead Dr. Beeke to a "freer offer of the gospel", than was standard in the NRC. For the most part the HNRC and the NRC doctrinally agree. I think Dr. Beeke has tried to steer the HNRC more into the English Puritan direction, whereas the NRC are more rooted in the Dutch divines of the 17th and 18th centuries.

There are some lay folks in the NRC who are very well read, know their Bibles, and live godly lives.

Arie Vandenberg
FC of S
Toronto, Canada
 
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"I think Dr. Beeke has tried to steer the HNRC more into the English Puritan direction, whereas the NRC are more rooted in the Dutch divines of the 17th and 18th centuries"

So what do you think the difference would be, on this topic in particular? I see some of the same pitfalls among the English/New England Puritans.
 
Sadly, for many in the NRC, the clearest mark of a Christian is a lack of assurance regarding their salvation. Thus many need to be comforted by the gospel proclamation of justification and are in need of counseling on matters of assurance and participation in the Lord's Supper. We are in need to pray for and love these seriously misguided brothers and sisters.
 
This is a very interesting discussion and I was not aware of the issue. It reminds me of an assumption in Edwards sermon "Pressing Into the Kingdom of God" that I couldn't put my finger on but I thought implied a strange view of the conversion experience. For example, he seemed to indicate that a person could spend years of their lives earnestly pleading with God that he would reveal Himself to them before God would do so. Just call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Has anyone addressed this in Edwards?
 
I recently read the biography of Rev. M. Heikoop, a Netherland Reformed pastor in Utrecht. I noted the pattern of piety outlined in that book. Three separate steps or milestones of Christian walk are identified.
1. Come to know oneself as a lost sinner before God.
2. Learn to know Jesus as the way of salvation.
3. Receive an existential assurance of ones portion in Christ and his imputed righteousness.
Many members of Pastor Heikoop's congregation seemed to have the first two but not the third milestone.
 
Sadly, I've heard of similar situations in the NRC from a friend who grew up in that denomination -- that one cannot have assurance until dead. Very few would "presume" to be sure enough of their faith to participate in the Lord's Table and that likely would be limited to the church officers and perhaps some folks in their 80s.

Sadly, you have been misinformed regarding not having assurance until passing into the great eternity and the partaking of the Lord's table. It is true though that the Lord's supper is not taken presumptuously and haphazardly therefore far less do partake in comparison to many other denominations, but is not limited "to the church officers and perhaps some folks in their 80s".

I would like to ask those adding to this thread to exercise care not to defame a Christian denomination of about 10,000 members and also there sister denomination in the Netherlands of about 103,000 which holds to the same "old paths".



Thank you,



.




.
 
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Sadly, I've heard of similar situations in the NRC from a friend who grew up in that denomination -- that one cannot have assurance until dead. Very few would "presume" to be sure enough of their faith to participate in the Lord's Table and that likely would be limited to the church officers and perhaps some folks in their 80s.

Sadly, you have been misinformed regarding not having assurance until passing into the great eternity and the partaking of the Lord's table. It is true though that the Lord's supper is not taken presumptuously and haphazardly therefore far less do partake in comparison to many other denominations, but is not limited "to the church officers and perhaps some folks in their 80s".




.

Would you say that a minority of the church members participating in the Lord's Supper has Biblical precedent?
 
Taylor,

I suppose, if they truly feel themselves to be sinners before a Holy God and come to His table as poor and needful of His saving grace.
 
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In addition to the Netherlands Reformed Congregations and the Heritage Reformed Congregations, a third denomination in that general tradition is the Reformed Congregations of North America.
 
WLC:
Question 172: May one who doubts of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation, come to the Lord's Supper?

Answer: One who doubts of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, may have true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured thereof; and in God's account has it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity: in which case (because promises are made, and this sacrament is appointed, for the relief even of weak and doubting Christians) he is to bewail his unbelief, and labor to have his doubts resolved; and, so doing, he may and ought to come to the Lord's Supper, that he may be further strengthened.

It would be quite interesting to see interaction with this Westminsterian statement on the part of someone like Pastor Heikoop, referenced above.
 
I attended the NRC as a child, just before and after its split with the HNRC.

I recently came across the "NRC People" Facebook group and read through some of the discussions there. Sounds like the NRC today is pretty much the same as when I attended 20 years ago.

It is true that very few attend the Lord's Table. Strangely, in the NRC, men are occasionally elected church officers who have never made a public profession of faith via the Lord's Table. They are church members, of course, but one does not have to profess faith in order to become a church member.
 
I have experience with the Dutch counterpart of the NRC, the "Gereformeerde Gemeenten".

An issue in the NRC is this:
The NRC believes that a person can be regenerated, but not know Christ. To know Christ is a stage in the life of a true believer that just a few true believers experience. The result of this teaching is that very few people in the congregation consider themselves true believers (because some experience and conviction of sin), and very few of them say that they know Christ.

People are waiting for an experience like Paul experienced when he became converted. If you don't have a very special conversion (with a vision, very deep conviction of sin, or with a text that specially and sensitively is applied to your heart) the will not believe that you are really converted. It doen't matter how godly you live or how much fruit your life bears.

Also the external call of the gospel and the objective Word of God is devaluated. The call of the gospel is "just an external call", which is not enough to believe. People are wating for an "inward calling", which involves very much experience. It is so sad to see people wo are waiting till their death for an special experience, which never comes, and in this way reject Christ.

Have said this: not all Dutch reformed churches are like this. You have very different flacours of duch reformed churches, from hypercalvinist ones (like descibed above), to reformed churches where you do not need personal conversion/repentance at all because you are in the covenant.
 
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Heikoop's attitude toward the Lord's Supper

When Martin Heikoop was a young man he was drafted into military service. A Reformed [GKN] chaplain "warned the soldiers not to neglect the Lord's Supper. Especially a serious young man like Heikoop should consider it his duty to come to the communion table to glorify God., and to strengthen his faith. With suitable boldness, Private Heikoop said that without saving knowledge of God and Christ, one would eat and drink damnation unto himself."
The quotation is from page 18 of John Fama's book, The Life and Labors of The Rev. M. Heikoop.
Heikoop was right . In the military especially, a broad invitation should not be extended to come to the Lord's Table. Some effort should be made to fence the table and encourage only those who know they are lost sinners, who trust the Lord Jesus alone for their salvation, and have obtained some assurance that Christ died for him, to come to the Lord's table. Otherwise men may come to the table and receive some false assurance of their spiritual state. They will indeed eat and drink damnation unto themselves.
 
Prof. Engelsma's book 'The covenant of God and children of believers' has a section with deals with the NRC/HRC/RCNA view, and responds to some objections regarding their view by Dr. Beeke, in connection also with this letter to the Standard Bearer:


Correction from the NRC
Recently we have read Prof. Engelsma's series of articles on "The Covenant of God and the Children of Believers" with interest and appreciation (The Standard Bearer, March 15, April 1, April 15, May 1, July 1, and September 15, 1990). In the fourth article of this series, we read your brief explanation of the Free Reformed and Netherlands Reformed (hereafter, NRC) denominational views of the covenant of grace. As a NRC pastor/theological instructor and an elder/principal, we were surprised to find these denominations' covenantal views grouped together in your explanation. The Free Reformed teach a three-covenant view in which the covenant of grace is established with all the baptized seed as an offered promise of salvation, while the NRC teach a two-covenant view in which the covenant of grace is established with the elect only. ...

...

In summary, NRC teaching stresses:

1. The covenant of grace is made with the elect in Christ only, not with all the baptized seed (as taught by the Free Reformed).

2. We may not view ourselves or others as regenerate if we are not evidencing the biblical fruits of regeneration.

3. Our children who are raised under the sphere of God's covenant and are as yet unregenerate, are distinguished from heathen children in the same manner as the children of Old Testament Israel were, for they are reared under the oracles of God, which are the Lords primary means of grace. Out of sovereign grace, the covenant-keeping God is pleased to normally work along covenantal lines in regenerating the seed of believers through Spirit-worked application of His precious, inerrant Word.

We would sincerely appreciate the printing of this correction of the NRC view of the covenant of grace for your readership. We are encouraged to find in your article a clear, biblical explanation that God's covenant is established with the elect only in Jesus Christ. We continue to appreciate the quality of biblically-based instruction provided in The Standard Bearer under your editorship. May God bless and guide us in His truth.

(Dr.) J.R. Beeke (Pastor/Theological Instructor)

Grand Rapids, MI

(Elder) J.W. Beeke (Principal)

Chilliwack, British Columbia


The Standard Bearer

Wonder what he thinks about those comments regarding the FRC now...
 
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