Four years ago, on January 21, 2021, the Act of Separation was signed by believers who previously were members of the Protestant Reformed Churches, thus forming First Reformed Protestant Church. Two nights prior, five officebearers from Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church met to draft the Act and distribute it to the members of the Protestant Reformed Churches. It was a chilly winter evening, with the snow gently falling to the ground, the glow of the streetlights illuminating the road, and a serene silence lingering over the creation—the calm before the storm.
The Protestant Reformed denomination had clearly manifested herself as the false church and had cast out Christ and the truth.
For this reason, the undersigned, officebearers of Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church and members of the Protestant Reformed Churches, now flee from the coming destruction, according to the solemn warnings of the Word of God. “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction” (Jer. 5:30–6:1; see also 6:10–12). “Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it” (Jer. 6:17–19).1
The Act called believers to separate from the Protestant Reformed Churches.
According to the Word of God and the holy duty of believers, we separate ourselves from this untoward generation and come out from among them…2
The document flew through the denomination at warp speed. On January 21, 2021, men, women, and children, convicted of the departure of the Protestant Reformed Churches from the fundamental truths of the unconditional covenant and justification by faith alone, met and signed the Act. God had said to flee from the coming destruction, and in obedience to the word of God, many heeded the call to separate from the Protestant Reformed Churches. Truly, God plucked out his people like brands from the fire and freed their souls as birds from the snare of the fowler. God had begun his reformation of the church institute.
Since then the Reformed Protestant Churches fiercely have been battling the foes of the gospel. Many who originally joined have departed. They are the fearful and unbelieving (Rev. 21:8). They are those who heard the word and anon with joy received it for a time but in the end were revealed to have a false, imitation faith—faith that never was united to Jesus Christ, for true faith united to Christ never turns back (Heb. 10:38–39).
There is once again controversy within the Reformed Protestant Churches. The struggle in the churches can be summarized in one word: the antithesis. However, this concept is not new. The very foundation of the Reformed Protestant Churches is the covenant and the antithesis.
The idea of the antithesis and its calling to come out of the apostatizing Protestant Reformed Churches is writ large all over the Act of Separation. Many of the scripture passages cited refer to the antithesis. In accordance with Belgic Confession article 28, the writers of the Act called it “the holy duty of believers” to separate themselves from the false church. While article 28 refers to the church institute, the child of God does not divide his life in such a way that how and where he worships on Sunday is fundamentally different from his life of worship the other six days of the week. The very fact that anyone is a member of the Reformed Protestant Churches demonstrates that while the antithesis is a spiritual reality, there is a duty and a calling that flows out of that spiritual reality. If the antithesis is only spiritual, why did any of us bother to leave the Protestant Reformed Churches? The Protestant Reformed denomination had manifested herself as an enemy of God and of the truth. Being made God’s friends, and at the same time being enemies of all those who oppose God, we heeded the call to separate ourselves from her and her members.
God says to his people, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:6). God is the holy God. And he manifested his holiness in his Son, Jesus Christ, who warred against all profanity and corruption. In Christ God’s people are made holy. They are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God’s dear Son. When God calls his people to be holy, that is the living reality of the elect children of God.
God causes his people to know the holiness of his name. He brings them into his fellowship and makes them holy. The elect children of God are holy in Christ, and being holy in principle now, they war against all that is unholy. The child of God will always manifest himself as a child of the light. He will inevitably bear fruit in keeping with the wonder of grace that God has performed in his heart. Thus when God calls his people to be holy, it is impossible that they not walk accordingly, separating themselves from unfruitful works of darkness and the unclean thing in obedience to God’s command.
The blaspheming of God’s holy name by the lie of man is intolerable to God’s people. Knowing the holiness of God’s name and the darkness from whence he delivered them, God’s people seek to walk in the light. In zeal and love for God’s holy name and out of thankfulness for the gracious salvation given to them, God’s people obeyed the call to separate from the Protestant Reformed Churches. And with the word of God living in their hearts by grace, they continue to confess the truth of that word over against those who remain in that apostate church.
There is perhaps no doctrine more hated and snarled at in the church than the doctrine of the antithesis. I emphasize that—in the church. That was taught to and impressed upon me early and often in seminary.
Those who constantly ignore the antithesis are ignorant of God (2 Cor. 6:14–18). That is the practical significance of God’s holiness. Those who violate the antithesis deny God’s holiness. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What concord hath Christ with Belial? None! It is a rhetorical question. Come out from among them, and be ye separate. Be holy! Live the antithesis. Stop fellowshiping with the impenitent, ungodly, temple of idols, and Belial. We are the temple that the train of God filled and that he took his place in as the holy God, and the calling now is to be holy. A major aspect of that calling is to be separate. It will be one of the most hated things in the church. In preaching this we will be fighting for and defending the holiness of God and the holiness of the people of God. Be separate from the world. Being separate does not bring us to God.3
The antithesis is one of the hardest doctrines because it demands of the believer that he condemn the lie and those who walk in darkness. The darkness is not some nebulous, faceless entity out there somewhere, but darkness often includes people whom you love—your parents; your children; your brothers and sisters; or those with whom you grew up, went to church or school, or played cards or baseball.
When I was taught that the preaching of the antithesis would be one of the most hated doctrines in the church, I believed it intellectually but not in my heart and experience. I thought that the Reformed Protestant Churches would love the preaching of the antithesis. I thought, “It is different now. It will be different for me in my ministry.”
It is not different. It is the one doctrine in my preaching against which there is almost unrelenting pressure to capitulate.
Instead of yielding to that pressure, I am going to write on this subject. The purpose of this series of articles then is to develop the doctrine of the antithesis and the calling of the antithesis. There is opposition to my preaching of the calling or demand of the antithesis. My preaching is being labeled and slandered as legalistic, extreme, and radical. No one has yet to prove from scripture or the creeds how these charges are true; the opposers simply make assertions and baseless accusations and level their unfounded charges of sin against the preaching.
To begin this series I am going to let our Reformed father, Rev. Herman Hoeksema, speak.