Editorial: Summer 2023
Summer 2023
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. (Deuteronomy 32:7)
The believer may feel he has a somewhat uneasy relationship with the past. On the one hand he feels the need to press forward leaving the past behind. As Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (Philippians 3:13). Or as the Lord said to Moses, “Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward” (Exodus 14:15). We all understand that we cannot live in the past and that our reflections on the past may well be through rose-tinted spectacles.
During our recent week of prayer in Toronto, I was struck by the recurrence of the importance of the past in preaching and in prayer. Several men referred to God’s work in past days—even His working in our own denomination. A neglect of the past will always be harmful to the child of God. Simply recognizing that history is the story of God’s working should be enough to provoke serious interest.
By reviewing history, we glean insights into the character of God. A brief survey of the Bible and church history reveals God’s delight in doing His will through weak instruments. From the records of Gideon’s depleted army and Christ’s little band of fearful disciples we see the wonderful truth that God advances His cause when defeat would seem more likely than victory. Our denomination is small and characterized by weakness. But history encourages us that it does not preclude the working of God through us earthen vessels “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
The power of God is revealed in the passing of history. We read about the landmark events in redemptive history—the Rea Sea, the virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ, Pentecost—and we behold the power of God at work in human history. But the power of God also operates on the heart of the individual when they come to faith in Christ. Paul speaks of the “exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power” (Ephesians 1:19). Considering the history of the Free Presbyterian Church will hearten us as we remember how God worked in saving sinners. The same God with the same power is able to save souls today.
We are not the first generation to serve God in difficult times. Our forefathers in the Free Presbyterian Church faced tremendous opposition to their stand for Christ. It is never easy to preach Christ to a fallen humanity at the same time as seeking to maintain personal godliness and a witness separate from religious compromise. We can certainly learn from past mistakes as future generations will learn from ours. But we must humbly acknowledge that our forefathers sought to be faithful to their Savior. The decisions they made were made with an open Bible, while on their knees in seasons of prayer. We would do well to remember that the burning within the hearts of our founders was evangelistic. They longed for and prayed for the conversion of the lost.
May the Lord grant us the grace to value the past in a proper fashion—to humble us and encourage us. As Rev. John Greer observed while preaching in Toronto, “We want to see God doing again what He did for our fathers!”
From the past
There is no subject more affecting than the remembrance of past mercies. It is the sweetest of all subjects, the most improving of all plans of education, when a father can take his children by the hand and recount unto them the mercies of his GOD and their GOD, to him and to them, and to their father’s before them. And especially when a parent can speak of mercies in grace, as well as providence: of redemption, as well as preservation. Oh! the joy of an awakened parent, thus to relate the LORD’S dealings with his soul. The church doth this, after recounting a long series of mercies (Psalm 107:43). Reader, can you say anything of the like in your own experience? If so, you will not need my advice to tell it to your children, and your children’s children (Psalm 103:17).
Robert Hawker, Poor Man’s Commentary