The theme of this present article reflects on the terrible spiritual state that faces many of our sympathizers and friends still in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). This spiritual condition is one of paralysis. It is the state of being unable to move, of being completely stuck. When we consider this subject, we can call to mind the faces and names of family members, friends, and other loved ones. They say that they agree with the Reformed Protestant truth, but their church membership says otherwise. As time, like an ever-rolling stream, flows on, the threat that confronts these brothers and sisters is that they become paralyzed in the PRC.

In the dead of winter 2021, an Act of Separation was issued in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That generation was the result of over half a century of slow apostasy from the truth, so that when the truth came in all its force, wicked men in the Protestant Reformed Churches condemned the truth and those who witnessed thereof. When that separation occurred, there were a variety of reactions. Some people were outright offended. Some rode the fence. Some doubted. Many were enraged with hatred. Each man and woman was confronted with the gospel, especially in its negative presentation in connection with the sin of God’s people and their calling to come out of a denomination that had in principle become the whore of Babylon. And the question, the inescapable question, was, “What is the truth, and where must my church membership be?”

There were those who knew that they should join the newly formed Reformed Protestant Churches when the split occurred. Even their own consciences convinced them. The marks of the true church were corrupted in the PRC for all to see. The marks of the false church were clearly manifested. But they did not act. And they still have not moved.

Christ created division in the home. Husband and wife divided. Children against parents and parents against children. A great many considered their families to be most important, more important than church membership. Sad indeed is the state of those who, while they see the corruption of the Protestant Reformed Churches, languish Sunday to Sunday under a false gospel, observe the tide of apostasy and generational rot, and continue to register their membership in such churches. These are those who face being paralyzed in the PRC. 

What is the thinking behind this paralysis? The thought processes follow these lines: “I can’t leave my husband/wife/children behind, for to do so would be unloving.” “The PRC is bad but not past reform.” “Although there were some bad things said and done recently in the PRC, there are still godly people there.” “Reformation takes place within the church, not outside it.” “Perhaps if I stay in the PRC, I can win over my husband/wife/child.” “If I leave my husband/wife/child, they will never come to the truth but will resent me.” “Leaving would cause disharmony in my marriage.” “I don’t like what I am hearing in the PRC, and I like what I hear from the Reformed Protestant Churches, but I would never go there because they are full of angry people.” “If only there was a church in between the Protestant Reformed Churches and the Reformed Protestant Churches.” All of these thoughts and rationalizations amount to one thing: unbelief. What these thoughts tend to is the justification of one’s own conscience before God. But they do not hold water or stand the test of scripture.

Here is the plumb line of God’s word: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed” (Gen 3:15). The doctrine of the antithesis, right in the midst of believers and their seed, manifested in the line of continued generations, reveals a corrupt stock, which has warfare according to God’s decree against the pure offspring of the woman’s seed. This enmity was expressed by Christ when he said,

34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matt. 10:34–39)

To stay in the PRC and in the end to be completely paralyzed is to find one’s life. Shortly after the recent split, a young and once noble minister in the PRC was admonished to stop running, turn around, and die for the sake of the gospel. He was told that if he ran away and would not fight, he would never be able to stop running. The same word of admonition applies to the figure of paralysis. Lose your life, therein to find life; or save your life, therein to lose life.

Article 7 of the Belgic Confession says that “the truth is above all” (Confessions and Church Order, 28). For the believer his church membership is one of utmost seriousness. Christ, through the mouth of his prophet, said,

5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. (Ps. 137:5–6)

Zeal for the house of God consumed Christ. Such zeal is also the zeal of God’s people in connection with their church membership. So much so that they pronounce judgment upon themselves were they to forget the church or desire anything else than communion in her midst. Based upon that scripture, Guido de Brés could write,

We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are saved, and out of it there is no salvation, that no person, of whatsoever state or condition he may be, ought to withdraw himself to live in a separate state from it; but that all men are in duty bound to join and unite themselves with it, maintaining the unity of the church; submitting themselves to the doctrine and discipline thereof; bowing their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ; and as mutual members of the same body, serving to the edification of the brethren, according to the talents God has given them.

And that this may be the more effectually observed, it is the duty of all believers, according to the Word of God, to separate themselves from all those who do not belong to the church, and to join themselves to this congregation wheresoever God hath established it, even though the magistrates and edicts of princes be against it, yea, though they should suffer death or any other corporal punishment. Therefore all those who separate themselves from the same, or do not join themselves to it, act contrary to the ordinance of God. (Belgic Confession 28, in Confessions and Church Order, 60–61)

Do not gloss over this language because you have heard it a thousand times. The Reformed believer has a certain confession here. Agreeing with the Belgic Confession, he gladly submits to its every word. Did you hear what the Confession said? That outside that true instituted church there is no salvation? That your sacred duty is to join yourself to it? Also that when the church apostatizes there must be an act of separation? That it does not matter where you live but that you must join yourself thereto “wheresoever God hath established it”? That it matters not whether your church, spouse, child, family member, friend, or government opposes it but that even the threat of death does not free you of your calling to be a confessing member in a true church?

Homer C. Hoeksema (HCH) drove the gravity of this home when he wrote,

For remember: the church needs Christ! It is only in living connection with that Christ that the church is the church, and that the members possess the life of Christ. And the only contact which we have with Christ as long as we are in this present world is through His Word (not man’s word), through His sacraments, and through His government and discipline. Where these are missing, Christ is missing. Where they are corrupted and to the extent that they are corrupted, there I am being separated from contact with Christ my head! This is the life-and-death seriousness of this entire question of the marks of the true church!¹

Hoeksema rightly made a connection between our lively membership in a true church and our very lives in Christ. The two stand or fall together. We have contact with Christ through his word, his sacraments, and his government in the church and only in the church. And do not forget, when those marks are corrupted, you are being separated from Christ!

There is another word of admonition from the late church father HCH to those who think that they must stay in a church and protest until the cows come home. This word ought to be addressed to those in the PRC who are ensnared with this futile and soul-destroying approach.

Moreover, if protest fails, and the carnal element begins to dominate in a church, and the institute will not listen, his calling is not to protest endlessly and at the same time to bemoan his frustrations of protest. In such a case his duty of reformation means, in obedience to the will of God, that he must separate and institute the church anew if necessary.²

In this light all of the rationalizations of the carnal mind must fall away. The believer who is tempted to think after the flesh must set his heart upon scripture and the Belgic Confession. There, and there only, will he find solid ground and sound principles upon which to live.

One final word from HCH, who wrote these things not only for the PRC of his day but also for us who are alive this day:

This is a very painful and also a very serious matter, a step which may not be taken for any carnal consideration. But for Christ’s sake, for the truth’s sake, for the love of Zion’s sake, if he prefers Jerusalem above his chief joy, he will do it. He will refuse to promote the false church, and he will seek and join himself to the true.³

I wish to conclude with a word of warning. The Lord Jesus, through the psalmist, spoke in Psalm 95: “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart” (vv. 7–8). In the midst of the PRC yet today, there are those who do not believe her doctrine. They rather confess the Reformed Protestant truth that God is all and man is nothing. And yet they, for whatever carnal reason, maintain their membership in the PRC. God’s word to them is this: “If ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” You indeed have heard his voice, the living voice of God, which speaks of himself as the overflowing fountain of all good, as the one who has accomplished salvation for his people and in his people without any will or works of theirs. Yea, that he is first, and his activity always comes before ours. That our life of obedience is the fruit of his work and not the way unto his communion. Yea, that all things are of God, who fills all in all. The very truth that God is God! Have you heard that voice? Harden not your heart! While it is yet today, do not permit your carnal mind to dominate your will. Harden not your heart, lest God also harden it so that it may forever be hard and you become completely paralyzed in the PRC.