At this first annual meeting of Reformed Believers Publishing (RBP), I would like to speak to you about the fundamental principle that defines and governs our magazine, Sword and Shield. That fundamental principle is this: Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth. We must take hold of this principle—and this principle must take hold of us—at the outset of our endeavor as a publishing organization. This principle will be challenged and will be difficult to maintain. Nevertheless, this principle is fundamental to our organization and to our magazine. Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth because it is a believer’s paper. Sword and Shield arises out of the office of believer. The believer is free to know the truth, to confess the truth, and to publish the truth. As members of Reformed Believers Publishing, we are the believers who publish Sword and Shield. The magazine that we publish partakes of the freedom of our office of believer to confess the truth. It is from the office of believer that we derive the fundamental principle of our magazine: Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

My topic, then, is “A Believer’s Paper: The Freedom of Sword and Shield.”

 

The Freedom of Sword and Shield

Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

This is the fundamental, defining, guiding principle of our magazine. Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

The emphasis of this foundational principle is the freedom of Sword and Shield. Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth. It has the right to publish the truth. There are no restrictions on its publication of the truth. No topics are off limits to Sword and Shield in its publication of the truth. Sword and Shield is free to publish safe things, and it is free to publish controversial things. Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

The freedom of Sword and Shield is with regard to the truth of God’s word. Sword and Shield does not claim freedom to publish the wisdom of man, which is always darkness and deceit. Sword and Shield’s freedom is freedom in the truth. Sword and Shield is free to confess the truth of God’s word, to witness to the truth, to promote the truth, to teach the truth, and to glory in the truth. Inasmuch as the Reformed faith is the faithful confession of God’s word, Sword and Shield is free to publish the Reformed faith. This commitment to the truth is established in the very first sentence of the constitution of RBP: “The members of Reformed Believers Publishing have organized for the express purpose of witnessing to the Reformed truth.” Sword and Shield claims no right to say anything it wants. Rather, Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

An important aspect of publishing the truth is exposing, judging, and condemning the lie that militates against the truth. In this work, too, Sword and Shield is free. Sword and Shield has the right to bring the truth of God’s word to bear on anything and everything in order to evaluate and judge all things in the light of God’s word. It is free to condemn everything that is contrary to God’s word as false, wrong, and evil. It is free to embrace everything that is in harmony with God’s word as true, right, and good. Sword and Shield is free to expose the opinion of man as foolish and to reject it. Sword and Shield is free to receive the wisdom of God as truly wise and to magnify it. Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

In its freedom to publish the truth, Sword and Shield is not restricted by man’s response to the truth. Whether the content and the tone of the magazine make everyone happy, or whether the content and tone make everyone mad, Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth. Whether the response to the magazine is a deafening silence in the churches, or whether the response is a deafening tumult in the churches, Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth. Whether the response is a line around the block to pick up one’s copy before it is even mailed, or whether the response is to make a beeline with one’s copy to the trash can, Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

Sword and Shield is so free to publish the truth that it even has complete liberty to comment on the decrees of ecclesiastical assemblies in light of the truth. Sword and Shield may approve of, disapprove of, suggest improvements to, explain, criticize, promote, commend, or condemn the decisions of classes and synods. Let us be specific. The editors and writers are members of the Protestant Reformed Churches and love these churches. The editors and writers are free in the magazine to bring the truth of God’s word to bear on the decisions of Classis East, Classis West, or the synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). In bringing the truth of God’s word to bear on those decisions, the editors and writers of Sword and Shield may commend or condemn the decisions of the Protestant Reformed assemblies. The commentary of Sword and Shield on the ecclesiastical decisions neither nullifies those decisions nor establishes those decisions. Sword and Shield does not have power to decide for the churches where the denomination shall stand or what the churches shall decree. But Sword and Shield does have the freedom to publish the truth, also regarding the ecclesiastical decisions of the PRC.

This is the fundamental principle of our magazine: Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

Sword and Shield’s freedom to publish the truth without restriction is being denied and challenged. In response to early issues of the magazine, many Protestant Reformed consistories addressed letters to their congregations warning them about the magazine. All of the letters deny Sword and Shield the right to publish the truth freely regarding the ecclesiastical assemblies of the PRC. All of the letters appeal to article 31 of the Church Order as though that article limits the freedom of Sword and Shield to publish the truth. One example will suffice. After quoting a portion of the first editorial, which claimed the right of Sword and Shield to comment on ecclesiastical decisions, a consistory wrote:

The consistory informs you that such a practice is not according to Reformed church government and has potential to create schism in the Protestant Reformed churches. 

The loving and orderly way for members of a Reformed congregation to voice their objections with any decision of an ecclesiastical body is the way of protest and appeal to the various ecclesiastical bodies, as our Church Order, article 31, states.

Rev. Nathan Langerak has begun a masterful defense of Sword and Shield that decisively answers these charges. Rather than repeat his arguments, I refer the readers to his explanation of article 31 of the Church Order in the October issue of Sword and Shield and to his explanation of the Formula of Subscription in the November issue. I add only these few comments of my own.

First, up to this point the editorials in Sword and Shield have not explicitly claimed the right to condemn ecclesiastical decisions. The first editorial claimed the right to comment on ecclesiastical decisions. However, the first editorial perhaps implied the right to condemn ecclesiastical decisions, and consistories have certainly inferred that to be the claim. Let us make explicit what so far has only been implied and inferred: Sword and Shield is free to condemn ecclesiastical decisions that contradict the truth. This is part of Sword and Shield’s freedom to publish the truth.

Second, Sword and Shield’s freedom is with regard to the truth. Sword and Shield is free to condemn ecclesiastical decisions that compromise the truth of God’s word and the doctrine of the Reformed confessions. Not every decision of synod is in view here. Sword and Shield will not lurch higgledy-piggledy through the Acts of Synod like some drunken Old MacDonald with here a “Fault!” there a “Fault!” everywhere a “Fault! Fault!” But when the truth of God’s word and the doctrine of the confessions are at stake, Sword and Shield is perfectly free to judge erroneous decisions of the assemblies.

Third, no editor or writer in Sword and Shield has condemned ecclesiastical decisions of the PRC. To my knowledge no editor or writer has plans to condemn ecclesiastical decisions of the PRC. In fact, under the blessing of God, Sword and Shield has done more than any other publication to uphold the ecclesiastical decisions of Synod 2018 and to press those decisions home to our consciousness as churches. Nevertheless, what Sword and Shield has not yet done, it has the freedom to do if necessary.

Fourth, Sword and Shield’s right to publish the truth does not ignore or supersede the duty of an editor or writer to protest and appeal erroneous decisions of ecclesiastical assemblies. An editor or writer can do both: protest a decision and write about a decision. This raises an interesting practical question of when an editor or writer should exercise his freedom to write about an erroneous decision. Only at the end of the process, when all protests and appeals have been exhausted? At the beginning of the process, so that he is simultaneously writing about decisions while he is protesting them? Probably there is no single answer to this practical question. In some cases a writer may consider himself to be compelled to write immediately, while in other cases he believes he must wait. We do have an example in the fathers of the Protestant Reformed Churches, who immediately began writing against the decisions of the Christian Reformed Synod of 1924. While their protest to the following synod was pending, they repeatedly condemned in writing the synod’s three points of common grace. Nevertheless, though it is a weighty question for the individual who is protesting, the question of when to write is only a practical question. It does not affect the principle that Sword and Shield has the right at any time and at all times to publish the truth.

 

A Believer’s Paper

The freedom of Sword and Shield to publish the truth arises from the fact that it is a believer’s paper. Sword and Shield arises out of the office of believer. Sword and Shield belongs to the believer as the possession of the office of believer. The witness in Sword and Shield is part of the activity and exercise of the office of believer. When we say that Sword and Shield is a believer’s paper, we are dealing with the office of believer.

So important is this fact that it is prominent in the name of the organization that publishes the magazine: Reformed Believers Publishing. The word “Believers” sits in the middle of the organization’s name as a jewel in the name: Reformed Believers Publishing. Central to the name, and central to the organization and the magazine, is the office of believer. Sword and Shield is a believer’s paper.

The constitution of Reformed Believers Publishing teaches unmistakably what the word “Believers” means in the name of the organization.

Preamble: The members of Reformed Believers Publishing have organized for the express purpose of witnessing to the Reformed truth. The organization is rooted in the office of believer, by virtue of which every believer has the privilege and calling to confess the truth and contend against the lie. Reformed Believers Publishing is non-ecclesiastical, is self-governing, and is not the possession of, or under the governance of, any church institute. An invitation shall be extended to all who desire to share this opportunity to sound forth a true Reformed testimony in the discharge of the office of believer.

The office of believer is a marvelous gift of God to his people. It is a gift that the believer has by virtue of his union with Jesus Christ by faith. The believer is truly and spiritually one with Christ. He is one organism with Christ, one plant with Christ, one body with Christ. From Christ, who is the believer’s life and root and head, the believer receives all the riches of Christ and all the blessings of salvation.

Being a member of Christ by faith, the believer also shares in the anointing of Christ. Christ was ordained of God the Father and anointed with the Holy Ghost to be God’s officebearer and representative. He was anointed to the position and the task of the salvation of God’s people for the glory of God. Being anointed of God, Christ’s office is to be our chief prophet and teacher, who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption. Christ’s office is to be our only high priest, who by the one sacrifice of his body has redeemed us and makes continual intercession with the Father for us. Christ’s office is to be our eternal king, who governs us by his word and Spirit and who defends and preserves us in the enjoyment of that salvation he has purchased for us (Lord’s Day 12). Jesus’ title “Christ,” which means anointed, reveals him as God’s prophet, priest, and king.

The believer partakes of the anointing of Christ. Just as the oil of anointing ran down Aaron’s head all the way to the hem of his garment (Ps. 133:2), so the Holy Spirit, who anoints Jesus the head, also anoints the believer as a member of Christ’s body. The Spirit, descending from heaven upon Christ, the head, is in turn poured out by Christ upon all of his members. “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:33).

This anointing by the Spirit of the Anointed gives the child of God the office of believer. That is, as a believer he has an official position and calling and task before Christ. In the office of believer, he represents Christ and his cause in the world, which cause is the glory of God. In the office of believer, he has the blessed privilege and calling to serve his head, Jesus Christ. Christ is anointed prophet, priest, and king to save us. In him we are anointed prophets, priests, and kings to serve him.

It is exactly here in the office of believer that Sword and Shield has its roots, especially in the believer’s calling as a prophet. Believers have an unction—an anointing—from the Holy One, and we know all things (1 John 2:20). That anointing Spirit is the Spirit of God, who searches all the things of God, yea, the deep things of God, and knows all the things of God. We have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God (1 Cor. 2:10–12). The things of God that the Spirit reveals to the believer are true and are not the lies of man or the false wisdom of man. “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). 

The anointing Spirit reveals God to the believer by revealing Jesus Christ, who is the truth and the revelation of God (John 14:6–9). Jesus is the eternal Word made flesh, full of grace and truth (1:14). The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (v. 17). To this end was Jesus born, and for this cause came he into the world, that he should bear witness unto the truth (18:37). The unbelievers hated that truth and sought to kill Jesus for it (8:40). God’s people know the truth, and the truth makes them free (v. 32). Having died and risen again for the salvation of his people, Jesus sends his people the Comforter, who is the Spirit of truth, who is their unction, and who guides his people into all truth (14:17; 15:26; 16:7, 13;
1 John 2:20). 

The anointing Spirit reveals God in the face of Jesus Christ in the scriptures, so that the believer knows his savior through the word of God. All scripture is given by God’s Spirit and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). Through all the world Jesus sends forth the word of truth, which is the gospel of his people’s salvation (Eph. 1:13). By that truth, laid upon our hearts by Christ’s Spirit, we have eternal life, which is to know God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent (John 17:3).

Knowing God by virtue of the Spirit’s anointing, believers confess him. Christ’s Spirit poured out upon all flesh causes even our sons and daughters to prophesy (Joel 2:28). The Christian is a member of Christ by faith and thus is a partaker of his anointing, so that he may confess Christ’s name (Lord’s Day 12, Q&A 32). He confesses Christ before men and does not deny him (Matt. 10:32–33). He speaks the truth about Jesus, that he is the Christ, the son of the living God (16:16). The child of God exercises his office of believer by asking for the old paths (Jer. 6:16), standing fast and holding the traditions that he has been taught (2 Thess. 2:15), and earnestly contending for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). The believer sounds forth his confession with other believers: “We all believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth” (Belgic Confession 1).

Sword and Shield is a unique way for the believer to discharge his office. On a platform that can reach the ends of the earth, and with solid Reformed content, under the blessing of God, that makes young and old alike set down their screens for a moment, the believer can confess the truth. Through the magazine that he publishes as a member of RBP, the believer joins his fellow believers “to promote, defend, and develop the Reformed faith, which is the truth revealed in the Word of God and expressed in the Three Forms of Unity, with special emphasis on the truths of the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation, particular grace, and the unconditional covenant.” Through the magazine the believer joins his fellow believers “to expose and condemn all lies repugnant to this truth.” Through the magazine the believer is able “to give a theological and antithetical witness to the Reformed church world and beyond by broadcasting this distinctive Reformed truth to the people of God wherever they are found” (RBP Constitution, article 2).

Being a publication of believers, whose office and calling are to confess the truth before men, Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.

 

The Truth Is Above All

Ultimately, the freedom of the believer, and therefore the freedom of Sword and Shield, is that the truth itself is free. And the truth is free because God, whose truth it is, is sovereignly free. God sends forth the word of truth out of his mouth to accomplish what he pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it, and it does not return to him void (Isa. 55:11). No man is able to silence that word. Though man may even go so far as to bind an apostle, the word of God is not bound (2 Tim. 2:9). God sends forth his word and its joyful tidings of salvation in Christ to whom he will and at what time he pleases (Canons 1.3).

God’s word of truth enlightens the eyes of the believer (Ps. 19:8). The believer’s eyes of understanding are opened by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God (Eph. 1:17–18). The believer, thus illuminated by the Spirit according to the word, knows all things and needs no instruction from blind and ignorant man, who can only come with the wisdom from below (1 John 2:20, 27). 

Knowing the truth from God, the believer stands above all things with the word of God and judges all things (1 Cor. 2:15). He compares spiritual things with spiritual (v. 13). He receives and discerns the spirit of God from the spirit of the world, which he does not receive but rejects (v. 12). As the believer judges all things by the truth, the believer’s doctrine and knowledge and truth are not judged—and cannot be judged—by any wisdom of man (v. 15). He believes not every spirit, but he tries the spirits and discerns the false prophet (1 John 4:1). He judges the teacher who comes to his door, whether that teacher has the doctrine of Christ, and based on that judgment either receives him into his house and bids him Godspeed or not (2 John 10). The believer tries even those who say they are apostles and are not, and finds them liars (Rev. 2:2). The believer judges Paul by Paul’s own gospel. And if an angel from heaven would appear and teach him, the believer would judge the angel and its doctrine according to the word of truth. If he found the angel a liar, teaching another gospel than the truth, the believer would curse the angel according to the truth (Gal. 1:8).

So free is the truth! So free is the believer in his confession of the truth and in his judgment of all things by the truth!

The believer is jealous of the word of truth. He suffers nothing to be its equal or to supplant its authority and judgment. He insists on “The Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures to be the Only Rule of Faith” (Belgic Confession 7). He suffers no rules or decisions of man contrary to God’s truth to bind his conscience. If the lawful rulers of the church—the ministers, elders, and deacons—would depart from those things that Christ, their only master, has instituted, the believer would reject those unlawful rules. “Therefore, we reject all human inventions, and all laws which man would introduce into the worship of God, thereby to bind and compel the conscience in any manner whatever” (Belgic Confession 32). He would do this, not because he is a lawless radical who seeks to overthrow the lawful authority of the special offices under Christ, but because God’s word stands above and judges even the lawful rulers of the church, and the believer is committed to God’s truth above all. The believer confesses that the holy scriptures fully contain the will of God, and he holds all other things under the scriptures and subject to the scriptures. He confesses,

Neither do we consider of equal value any writing of men, however holy these men may have been, with those divine Scriptures, nor ought we to consider custom, or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times and persons, or councils, decrees, or statutes, as of equal value with the truth of God, for the truth is above all; for all men are of themselves liars and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore we reject with all our hearts whatsoever doth not agree with this infallible rule, which the apostles have taught us, saying, Try the spirits whether they are of God. Likewise, if there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house. (Belgic Confession 7)

“The truth is above all!” This is the freedom of the believer to judge all things, including councils and ecclesiastical assemblies. This is the freedom of Sword and Shield, as a believer’s paper, to publish the truth.

You believers, who publish Sword and Shield as members of Reformed Believers Publishing, let this principle take hold of you at the outset of our work: Sword and Shield is a believer’s paper, and therefore Sword and Shield is free to publish the truth.