I want to begin by underlining the remarks made earlier by Reverend Langerak in his speech about the reformation (not schism) brought about in the church of Jesus Christ, that its real occasion was the beginning of Reformed Believers Publishing (RBP) and Sword and Shield. The real occasion was not blog posts or protests or appeals or sermons preached. It was Sword and Shield. The leadership in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) saw Sword and Shield to be such an imminent threat that the magazine required consistories of Protestant Reformed churches to spring into action. Consistories had to issue condemnations of the magazine. Ministers had to warn their congregations from their pulpits and keyboards about the magazine. The magazine itself drew the charges of schism and slander. Sword and Shield was the reason that consistories acted so swiftly and decisively against officebearers and members with the key of Christian discipline. Even though the ecclesiastical decisions themselves never mentioned the periodical, its publication provided the energy and motivation for the actions of the PRC.

But what made the magazine such an imminent threat?

It was not because the magazine was schismatic and slanderous. It was not because the magazine was being published by a society of Protestant Reformed men known to have certain grievances with the leadership of the Standard Bearer and the denomination and their weaknesses and failures. It was not even because the magazine was perceived as a rival to the Standard Bearer.

It was because of the magazine’s discernment.

The Protestant Reformed Churches had been covered with the smoke and fog of confusion. Confusion dominated consistories, classes, and synods of the PRC. Confusion characterized the officebearers of the churches. Confusion filled the minds of Protestant Reformed members who were trying to understand the events unfolding in their churches. Preaching and teaching from the pulpits created the confusion. The attempts of deliberative ecclesiastical assemblies to justify that preaching and teaching against protests furthered the confusion. Questions about what was being preached and taught were either ignored or did not receive straight answers. The Standard Bearer failed to lead by making things clear as the deliberative assemblies addressed the ongoing trouble. The denomination’s leadership worked both to downplay the troubles and to rework them into an entirely different matter. No, these troubles were not about the role of good works in salvation, to exclude them. Rather, the troubles were about ensuring that the churches knew and understood how necessary and important good works are for continuing blessings from God.

That deliberate confusion was threatened by Sword and Shield. Sword and Shield threatened with its clear light of discernment. Its articles exposed the original doctrinal issue. Its articles revealed exactly how deliberative assemblies failed in their work to condemn the false doctrines with the clear light of God’s word. The magazine’s articles further showed precisely in what way the Standard Bearer in its articles and editorials practiced perversion of and distraction from the true issues.

Sword and Shield brought discernment. It blew away the smoke and burned through the fog.

It is important also to take note of where Reformed Believers Publishing stands in relationship to history. Reformed Believers Publishing in the present stands where the Reformed Free Publishing Association stood at the beginning of the Protestant Reformed Churches in the early 1920s. At that time the Standard Bearer brought a similar, unwelcome discernment into the Christian Reformed Church. The magazine discerned in the light of God’s word and the Reformed creeds the error of common grace and the error of the well-meant offer. The Standard Bearer also discerned the work of other Christian Reformed ministers and writers who were introducing doctrinal errors into the denomination. Correctly, the Standard Bearer’s discernment was perceived as a threat to the introduction of these errors. By means of the ecclesiastical assemblies, the Christian Reformed Church rejected the clarity and sharpness of the Standard Bearer, first by the Christian Reformed Synod of 1924 and then by Classis East and Classis West of Grand Rapids in the depositions of Rev. George Ophoff, Rev. Henry Danhof, and Rev. Herman Hoeksema with their respective consistories.

But now where are the Standard Bearer and the Reformed Free Publishing Association?

How is the clear discernment of Sword and Shield and its support by Reformed Believers Publishing to be kept from the same awful end of confusion?

By the continued exercise of discernment. By the continued exercise of discernment on the part of believers—not merely by the editors and not only by those taking their place on the board of RBP, but also by believers who practice discernment and require discernment both in their churches and in organizations such as Reformed Believers Publishing.

Hence the subject of my speech: “Reading for Discernment.”

First, discern reading. Screens of every kind—tablet screens, cell phone screens, computer screens—you ought not to think of as good for reading. These screens are mediums that include all kinds of distractions. Whether you can turn the distractions off makes little difference. When you use screens, you expect distractions. As you use screens for many other purposes besides reading, having them in front of your eyes keeps your mind open to all those different purposes, a distraction in itself. We have learned to use screens chiefly for entertainment, not for serious thought or critical evaluation. All of these factors inhibit good reading habits.

Additionally, censorship of the Internet is more and more a real possibility. Faced with the real possibility of no longer having access to Christian books and materials online ought to make us keen to build up libraries of physical books and magazines. Even printing material that we find on the Internet will not only make for better reading than reading online but will also ensure that we can keep it as part of a library that we can access at any time because it is in our own physical possession.

When we pick up and read physical books, magazines, and even printouts, we are engaging in an activity that we have developed from earliest childhood. This is the way that we have been taught to read. It was part of our education in the home and in the school. Information is in books. We find the books and go through them to find out what we need to know. Having physical books in a library means we can look over them, read them, and remember what we have seen and read in them. Even the physical action of picking up a book and looking at it brings back into our minds what we have learned from it.

Second, in considering all the books that you have read or can read, among them all you discern one book that towers completely above them all. It is the only book not written by any man. It is the book written by God alone: his holy word, the Bible.

There are three ways in which we must discern the Bible. The first way is to discern it as a holy book. Written by God alone, it is the word of God. It is the speech of the invisible, infinite, and eternal God. It is the word of him who sits on his throne established forever in the heavens, and before whom the nations are as nothing. It is the voice of him who does his good pleasure throughout the heavens and the earth, all the works of his hands. Discerning this truth, we must open up that book and be filled with a sense of awe, wonder, fear, and reverence.

The second way in which to discern the Bible is to know it as a book that is delightful and lovely, telling us the wonder of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our savior and redeemer. The Bible shows to us the wonder of our salvation by the eternal mercy of God in the gift of his only begotten Son. It describes the incomprehensible wonder of our complete savior, who graciously works every part and aspect of our salvation from beginning to end; to whom to belong is our great, everlasting, and unshakable comfort. We are to find our enjoyment and peace in all the promises that declare the fullness of our salvation as the work of our faithful God in his Son, with the end of perfect conformance to his holy image. Knowing scripture’s message, we discern it as the sole fountain of the knowledge of our salvation and our happiness and joy to open, to read, and to store up in our hearts.

The third way to discern the Bible is to know it as the book of all discernment. It alone is the source of all light and the fountain of all truth. The exclamation of the Holy Spirit in Paul is very clear: “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). The proper object of that discernment is first of all ourselves, not other persons nor other institutions. Scripture’s first purpose must be self-judgment.

It is so easy to fail in this third matter of discernment. We live in an ungodly time, when everyone demands affirmation. We look for affirmation of ourselves. We look to affirm our viewpoints and utterances. We need to have our institutions affirmed. We become easily offended when we are criticized for the slightest lacks and failures. It is easy to look to God’s word only for affirmation, to prove that we are right.

Let us discern the word of 2 Timothy 3:16. The very same word that informs us that the word is “given by inspiration of God” also tells us for what purpose it has been so inspired. Two of the words—“rebuke” and “correction”—that explain that purpose deny affirmation. They affirm in-
stead the discipline of the word. The word of God comes to us as we are walking in our sinful ways, thinking our sinful thoughts, and following our sinful desires. It comes to us in our proud, vain seeking of self-affirmation. It tells us that we are in the wrong way. Scripture must rebuke and correct us.

Taken together, these three ways bring us to the first proper object of discernment: ourselves. This is the way prescribed to us in Psalm 19. This psalm glorifies the law of God first by praising its perfection and second by the application of that perfection to the people of God.

7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

8. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

In the light of that perfect word of God, the inspired psalmist speaks of himself. “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” (v. 12).

Discerning scripture as the holy word of God alone fills us with a deep sense of awe and fear. Such an awe and fear does not make us flee away, however, as we delight to see in scripture the wonder of our salvation. In that salvation we must discern the evil in ourselves, from which we seek our redemption in the blood of Christ, and which is our depravity, the great enemy against which we must fight all the days of our lives. We also discern the truth and righteousness that we must pursue and embrace with all the strength promised and granted us in that same word of God. We trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, the author of his glorious word, to conform us more and more to the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Discerning ourselves by the word of God, we have a proper understanding of the discernment that the word of God gives us. That discernment is far more than being able to tell some differences between good and evil, between the truth and the lie, and between right and wrong. Discernment is the ability to see deeply these differences when they lie beneath the surface of things. Discernment is more than setting the Bible alongside of whatever must be discerned in the light and moving back and forth between the two to see what is true and false. Discernment means also having scripture with its truth living in our hearts and minds, so that while reading we can identify what is true and what is false. Discernment is also the ability to go beyond merely knowing and understanding for ourselves what is right and what is wrong in all that we read. Discernment is the ability to explain to fellow believers what is right or wrong and why it is right or wrong. Discernment is a gift to be shared for the benefit of the communion of the saints in the truth of God’s word and the application of that truth.

Reading for discernment means reading. The reader must practice discernment in order to grow in it. Reading widely is necessary. Do not read only material that stands in agreement with the truth of God’s word. Read also material that is published by the world. Read material that is published in the church world in general. Read material that is clearly heretical. As you read, practice discernment. Practice discernment not merely to see what is true and what is false. Discern why and how what is true is true and why and how what is false is false. Discern what you find to be questionable. Take time to think through and to see whether what you first see as questionable might actually be true and thus important for your increase in knowledge or, if it is actually false, why it is false, and thus grow in your discernment.

Even when you read material from sources that you trust, reading for discernment means that you always maintain a certain degree of suspicion, even healthy suspicion. Keep in mind the powerful exclamation of Romans 3:4: “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” Healthy suspicion will keep you from blindly following any man. Healthy suspicion will also give you the strength to ask important questions if you discern error in the writing of those you trust. Healthy suspicion will also help you discern when men you have come to know and trust turn into paths of error, so that you can labor for their correction and restoration.

It is indeed helpful for the editors of Sword and Shield to know that their readers are discerning readers!

So it is helpful in the church of Jesus Christ when its fellowship is made up of reading and discerning members. In such a fellowship of discernment, members are able to serve each other in the cause of the truth for the maintenance and development of the truth. In this fellowship not only are officebearers helped in their faithfulness to the truth of God’s word, but there is also encouragement for the development of the truth. Discernment learns to look deeper not only into what is written by men but also into God’s word itself, to see more and more into its glorious and wondrous depths. Discernment also helps to bring those depths out into the communion of God’s people, for greater strength in the pursuit of the truth to God’s honor and glory and the salvation of God’s people.

Much fruit there is also from reading for discernment. Practice and training yield results.

One example is the federal vision. When this heresy was introduced into conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches and denominations, it had arrived along a certain, definite pathway. Before Norman Shepherd introduced it to his students at Westminster Theological Seminary and published his popular book Call of Grace, the federal vision had been presented and worked out by others further away from those circles of influence. Another man, far more popular in evangelical and liberal circles, N. T. Wright, had developed his theology in a book he had written, What Saint Paul Really Said, in which he worked his historical revisionism. He denied that Paul’s message and theology were about justification by faith alone for salvation. They were really about which people are truly God’s covenant people: whether the Jews alone or everyone who believes and does good works. But Wright himself was influenced by other theologians less popular and more academic, E. P. Sanders and James Dunn. Those two theologians did much of the exegetical and theological work that N. T. Wright then applied in his popular writings.

Who indeed would have read widely enough to run across theologians like Sanders and Dunn? Who, upon reading those theologians, would have been able to discern the errors in their work? Who would have been able to see those errors running through such authors as N. T. Wright and Norman Shepherd? Who would have been able to see how the errors of Sanders and Dunn would come to have their enormous, destructive influence in all conservative Presbyterian and Reformed churches? Who would have been able to see and sound the alarm, explaining clearly how the destruction would be channeled in?

How powerful a tool discernment is!

Reading for discernment also produces strength. From the word of God, the believer is deeply impressed with the glory of God’s word that towers above all the vanity of men to see their names and reputations as nothing. Delight in the word of God as it gives the knowledge of Christ the savior far exceeds any delight in men or the writings of men. Discerning the word of God with all its clarity and light gives the ability to see through confusion generated by the writings of men who hide their errors and heresies in that confusion. So impressed with the word of God, discernment refuses to be impressed with the names of men. Discernment is strong to pursue the truth and to discard and repudiate all that stands in its way.

Reading for discernment is also safety. It helps you grow deep roots into the word of God. That growth happens because you are always returning to that word of God for proper discernment. That happens when you go back to that word by opening it up and finding out from it the light that shows what is true and what is false. It also happens when you go back to that word as you have learned it to have it in your heart and mind. But that very same movement is the activity of faith. You are trusting that word to be the light you need to discern everything else you read.

Those deep roots are important in the present time of confusion and apostasy. Amid all the winds of doctrine that blow, you remain in your place. You cannot be blown every which way or tossed to and fro. You cannot be enticed by the multitude to follow the winds of false doctrine. You cannot be seduced by the lie. You have the truth as your rock and your strength, knowing it in all its glorious power.

In a similar way, reading for discernment helps you follow the truth, no matter the cost. You see that your salvation does not lie with this or that church institution. You understand that the church institute must serve the truth of God’s word. When the church fails to serve that word alone, compromised by the fear of man or respect of persons, you understand that the institution has become a great liability instead of a strong asset. You understand the glory and preciousness of the truth, to pursue it at all costs. Even though the cost is institution and financial security or the love and acceptance of family and friends, no cost is too great to follow the truth of God’s word wherever it takes you.

May God graciously grant Reformed Believers Publishing and Sword and Shield the continued provision of clear, discerning testimony from the word of God. May he grant them to continue that faithful testimony for the growing discernment of believers. May he also graciously grant a readership built up in the faith to discern properly all that they read, including Sword and Shield. So may God graciously grant by these instruments faithfulness to his word of truth for years to come!