Heavenly Minded Earthly Good! - Johan D.Tangelder

Heavenly Minded Earthly Good!

Current events in the USA and Canada have shown to all once again that the structure of our society is sick nigh unto death. Hasty legislation has been enacted to close the sluices of evil.

For Christians, the time has arrived to speak out against the evils of today. With the Word of God in our hand, we must offer an annihilating critique upon our unhealthy society.

Critique? Yes! The Word of God gives each Christian the right – true, not to grumble, not to rebel in bitterness, much less to threat riots, but to complain and to take to task social arrangements which make us do without what God has destined for us.

Never can the Christian be satisfied with the structure of society until it offers every human being a worthy existence. Never can a Christian be satisfied with the injustice of today! A Christian cannot live in hiding, unconcerned with the needs of the world.

The blood in the streets of Memphis, Tenessee, the starving children in India, the great disparity between rich and poor ought to move him into action for the glory of God. Not that every problem will be solved immediately. But a Biblically orientated Christian will seek to overcome the evil of society with the principles which are clearly spelled out in the Word of God.

Let us bring the Word of God out into the open. Let us use the Word to bring about a better world, and let us continue to strive for this until the return of the Lord.

It has been said "Oh, it is so profoundly untrue that God's Word lets us hear only appeals for the salvation of our souls. No, very definitely also for our national existence and for our social life together. God's Word gives us fixed ordinances; it marks out lines that are very clearly visible; and it is unfaithfulness in us Christians if we, noting this fact, impiously permit our theory and practice to be determined by ruling opinion or conventional law, consulting our own comfort." (p. 55 Abraham Kuyper. Christianity and the Class Struggle)

No longer can we afford to be dominated in our social and political life by the God provoking "No God, No Master," or, in different words, man alienated from God and His established order.

The Bible gives us definite rules for all of life, and Christians who say that they bow before God's Word but go along with non-Christian principles in education, politics etc. are ambiguous and do not fully realize the power of God's Word – they minimize it instead.

In order to obtain justice today, just legislation must be sought. However, it must be realized also that no number of laws can cure our sick society or change the hearts. No number of laws can take away by one stroke of a pen, racial hatred, unfair labour conditions, and hardships caused by present labour and management relationships.

The medicine for our society must reach the hearts of all concerned. Sin is so powerful and so deeply entrenched in every-thing that it can only be overcome by the gospel of Jesus Christ. For our difficulties cannot be overcome if we do seek our answer from men. Our difficulties cannot be conquered if our vision does not reach any further than earth, for then we have done injustice to the cause of God's kingdom.

It is therefore your duty, for you who profess Jesus Christ and desire to challenge the spirit of the age, to place in the foreground the life eternal. For he who reckons with eternal life knows the real value of this earthly life. Therefore, let us be so heavenly minded that we will be earthly good!

Johan D. Tangelder
August, 1968

		Reformed Reflections
	Heavenly Minded Earthly Good! Current events in the USA and Canada have shown to all once again that the structure of our society is sick nigh unto death. Hasty legislation has been enacted to close the sluices of evil. For Christians, the time has arrived to speak out against the evils of today. With the Word of God in our hand, we must offer an annihilating critique upon our unhealthy society. Critique? Yes! The Word of God gives each Christian the right – true, not to grumble, not to rebel in bitterness, much less to threat riots, but to complain and to take to task social arrangements which make us do without what God has destined for us. Never can the Christian be satisfied with the structure of society until it offers every human being a worthy existence. Never can a Christian be satisfied with the injustice of today! A Christian cannot live in hiding, unconcerned with the needs of the world. The blood in the streets of Memphis, Tenessee, the starving children in India, the great disparity between rich and poor ought to move him into action for the glory of God. Not that every problem will be solved immediately. But a Biblically orientated Christian will seek to overcome the evil of society with the principles which are clearly spelled out in the Word of God. Let us bring the Word of God out into the open. Let us use the Word to bring about a better world, and let us continue to strive for this until the return of the Lord. It has been said "Oh, it is so profoundly untrue that God's Word lets us hear only appeals for the salvation of our souls. No, very definitely also for our national existence and for our social life together. God's Word gives us fixed ordinances; it marks out lines that are very clearly visible; and it is unfaithfulness in us Christians if we, noting this fact, impiously permit our theory and practice to be determined by ruling opinion or conventional law, consulting our own comfort." (p. 55 Abraham Kuyper. Christianity and the Class Struggle) No longer can we afford to be dominated in our social and political life by the God provoking "No God, No Master," or, in different words, man alienated from God and His established order. The Bible gives us definite rules for all of life, and Christians who say that they bow before God's Word but go along with non-Christian principles in education, politics etc. are ambiguous and do not fully realize the power of God's Word – they minimize it instead. In order to obtain justice today, just legislation must be sought. However, it must be realized also that no number of laws can cure our sick society or change the hearts. No number of laws can take away by one stroke of a pen, racial hatred, unfair labour conditions, and hardships caused by present labour and management relationships. The medicine for our society must reach the hearts of all concerned. Sin is so powerful and so deeply entrenched in every-thing that it can only be overcome by the gospel of Jesus Christ. For our difficulties cannot be overcome if we do seek our answer from men. Our difficulties cannot be conquered if our vision does not reach any further than earth, for then we have done injustice to the cause of God's kingdom. It is therefore your duty, for you who profess Jesus Christ and desire to challenge the spirit of the age, to place in the foreground the life eternal. For he who reckons with eternal life knows the real value of this earthly life. Therefore, let us be so heavenly minded that we will be earthly good! Johan D. Tangelder August, 1968

Reformed Reflections