Church and Secularization⤒🔗

What plagues a church member can sometimes be that which is most dear to him: the church itself. In what aspect does the church differ from the world? Are its members less connected to this temporal life? Do they know better today than others who do not go to church, that one day they have to let go of everything? Are they less fearful of dying? Do they keep down their pride more easily than would be the case in the non-churched world? Are they able to solve disputes? Do they know the humility that has its source in the living encounter with the living Saviour? Do they know the cause of their stubbornness better than people who never listen to sermons?

Are they more moderate in their judgment about others than unbelievers are? Do they display a more holy life, a greater degree of tolerance and love for their neighbour? We could fill an entire page with similar questions, to which the answer would not be uncertain. Often there is little difference between church and world. Church members do not behave better. Even the leaders often set a poor example, if any at all. The quarrels that are taking place inside its walls would be deadly for the participants if instead of words, sticks were being used. In this way the church is like someone who has died. It is in need of reformation, of true change. The most painful thing is that whoever concurs with this, often experiences this in their own church or church federation.

Suffering on Account of the Church←⤒🔗

This is what we mean when we speak of suffering on account of the church. You need to know what you will say when it comes to speaking about this matter. It is so easy to fall prey to feelings of self‑pity, because of what someone had to experience. Was our own heart pure in all of this? Very easily it becomes a matter of irritation, which has nothing to do with the skandalon (offence, stumbling block) of the gospel. Before we take it on our lips, this suffering on account of the church, there needs to be a proper self‑examination in which we place ourselves before him of whom we confess that he has suffered; that he has died for the scattered sheep of the house of Israel. In our life, this suffering of Christ becomes the means by which any self‑imposed self‑pity is cleansed away.

Christ’s suffering also prepares us in such a way that, for his sake, we take upon ourselves the suffering on account of the church. This also concerns disappointment, the letdown of our own inabilities and of our shortcomings. Here humility becomes real and true. And it is the source of hope, because this humility ties us to Christ, and to the “remnants” of his suffering in the church of which the apostle speaks. In this framework, our activities will also be different. Here the prejudice, something many churches belabour, will break down because of this broken heart.

Calvin: Grief Because of the Church, Yet Not without Hope←⤒🔗

At times a person simply has a need to read something about the church and its true condition, without losing hope in the process. I collected some quotes from Calvin. They speak of the ecclesiastical reality in his days, and they address our current situation as well. I will present them in the order I have them on my desk before me. After all, it depends on God’s guiding hand, on him who shows and has shown his power, as appears from this word of John Calvin:

“The restoration of the church is in God’s hand such that it gathers new strength and flourishes anew as never before… It is important that we do not despair, even though at times the church is no different from a dead, or rather, an entirely disfigured person.

For surely the Lord will often raise those who are his, as he has raised the dead from their grave, and we need to pay careful attention to this, such that when the church of God does not shine its light that we would assume that it has expired entirely and been destroyed. The church, however, is safeguarded in such a way that it rises immediately from death, and if it should come down to it, the preservation of the church will again be accompanied with many miracles. We have to hold on to this: that the life of the church does not exist without it being raised; yes, even, to put it this way, that it goes through many resurrections…

All of this is emphatically said, such that the believers would understand that God could lead from the grave those whom he had given over to death. For surely it is God’s unique work to raise the dead from the grave, because it is only given to him to cause us to die.”

Indeed, we are living by many miracles that fill the history of the church: as if being brought back from the grave. After all, it has been Easter!

Promise←⤒🔗

“Especially where it concerns the restoration of God’s church, we need to remind ourselves of God’s promises. Let it therefore be a regular rule that when the Lord has given us a promise, we will not begin to measure his power as if we think we can judge this externally. We need to know, however, that he has power to such an extent that he can fulfill all matters against our hope, and this through means that are incomprehensible to us.”

Losing Heart?←⤒🔗

Speaking of the disheartened, who are no longer interested in the church:

“For they think as follows: now that the circumstances in the church have become so corrupt, people look in vain for medications, for there is not a single hope of restoration of its health. Therefore, they are of the opinion that now that the evil has entered the church they can do nothing better than remain immobile. Those who speak in this way do not comprehend that the restoration of the church is the work of God, and that it does not depend on the hope or opinion of men any more than the resurrection of the dead or any other miracle of this sort.

And therefore the readiness to do something about it is not dependent on the will of the people, or on the one or other turnaround of the times. It will instead depend on the readiness to pave the way forward right through all despair and hopelessness. God wants his gospel to be preached. We have to obey that command, and follow wherever he calls us. It is not our business to consider whether it will be successful.

We will desire this with our wishes as strongly as possible, and implore the Lord with our prayers. It befits us that we work for this to happens with all our zeal, effort, and dedication. In the meantime we may bear these things with confidence, no matter what happens.”

Restoration of the church is the work of God:

“People are gravely mistaken if, in the restoration of the ruins, they do not consider that we are labouring for the Lord, as he assigns and demands it of us, in such a way that the restoration of the church will, nevertheless, be entirely and fully his work.”

God’s Hidden Work

“Let us therefore consider that as often as it concerns the origin, the restoration, the condition, and the general well‑being of the church, we will not seek counsel or rely on our own impressions and experiences, but we will attribute all the honour to the power of God, such that we marvel more and more at his hidden work.

When it concerns the restoration of the church, the Lord promises that her children will be taught through God’s instruction. It is obvious therefore to accept that the church cannot be restored in any other way than when God himself takes up the task of instructor and leads the believers to him. The way of instruction is not found exclusively in the external voice but also in the hidden work of the Holy Spirit. In short, this teaching office of God consists of the inner illumination of the heart.”

The Unity of the Church←⤒🔗

The true unity of the church is to be found in the Scriptures:

“Let no one be offended by the comparison, that as once Christ’s garments were divided by the unholy soldiers, so today corrupt people are tearing apart the entire Scripture, with which Christ clothes himself to make himself visible to us, with their corrupt inventions… The unity of the church is not a matter of a name, as if the unity of the church itself would be founded on something else than faith in the Scriptures.”

Storms in the Church

“There may be times like this for the church, and storms like that may rage in such a way that it may seem to have ended the church. However, God himself shall apply a remedy in an incomprehensible way. And in that way he will resurrect, under his protection, those who had appeared to be dead.”

Realistic←⤒🔗

“The church cannot be immediately reformed in such a way that there is nothing left to improve upon. And we cannot have prepared an edifice of such great importance all in one day without there being many things still to make it complete. Let us also learn, that apart from this, there is no institution of God, be it ever so holy and lofty, that through human error will not be diminished in quality or made less useful. Let us not be surprised that there never was a matter in this world, so well‑prepared, that there was nothing bad mixed in with the good. But that is the work of our depraved condition.”

Useful Doctrine←⤒🔗

“It is a useful doctrine: the church is lasting in the sense that her condition is not always the same. We have often seen that God interrupted the progress of his grace before the coming of Christ. What happened then can also be applied to our present time… The church was not only dead; it had already been buried. It was not only a decayed corpse but had already perished to dust and disappeared completely. After all, what remnants could one still have found in the entire world for fifty years?”

A Lesson from History←⤒🔗

“And in truth, we have seen all of this in our own time…It is true, people prided themselves a lot on the Christian name…and just like the soul brings life to the body, so it is also necessary that this life comes from God’s word. But of this the whole world was robbed…nt  And truly! There is talk of some sort of new creation. We can even say that the world as it were has changed when God once again allowed the pure doctrine of the gospel to conquer, and that he enlightens us today so that we would live for him. There we see a creation unfolding.”

Reformation As Resurrection←⤒🔗

“And in our age he has established his church again, like the skeleton of a decayed body takes on flesh and vitality again. For who were we in our unbelief? Consequently, we see here a wonderful resurrection which God has brought about”.

For Calvin, reformation is nothing else than a revival, an awakening, a resurrection from the dead. Nevertheless, his writing echoes that it is God who calls and awakens us. I am thinking of that beautiful line in which Calvin says that God paves the way forward right through all despair: per mediam desperationem prorumpere convenit. Despair about the church can do no harm, for there is a way, right through all of it. God raised Christ from the dead. And that is how the church lives at Easter: in hope against hope, right through all human despair toward his future. The church’s strength is “that I may know him in the power of his resurrection” .