Introduction

In the November 2024 issue of The Standard Bearer, Prof. David Engelsma called the writers of the magazine to devote themselves to antithetical writing.

To our calling with regard to the antithesis, editors and writers of the SB, as well as the RFPA itself, must devote themselves in AD 2024—on the SB’s hundredth anniversary.¹

Professor Engelsma has completely lost touch with reality in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). Does he truly think that anyone in the PRC is going to take up this task, that anyone is going to fight for and uphold the doctrine of the antithesis, and not only fight for it on the pages of their paper and in their sermons but actually live it? There will be no antithetical writing; neither will there be any antithetical preaching and living by ministers and members of the PRC. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The professor needs to pick up the spoon and taste for himself the current state of the PRC. After a few bites he will quickly realize that it has gone rancid.

One example of this rot is found in Rev. M. McGeown’s post on the Reformed Free Publishing Association’s blog, written only one month after the professor’s article was published. McGeown wrote:

The communion of the saints includes many others apart from you. It includes the congregation where you are a member. It includes members of other denominations…And it includes Christians outside our circles, not only Christians in our sister churches abroad; it includes Christians in other Christian denominations; it includes Christians in other Christian schools.

You have Christ in common; never say, “That Baptist on the opposing basketball team does not have Christ; I can have no fellowship with him.” You have faith in common; never say, “That member of the URC or OPC has some doctrinal differences; he does not have Christ; I can have no fellowship with him.” Baptists and members of the URC and OPC have Christ. You have the riches and gifts of Christ in common; never say, “That student in the Christian school has no friends; I can have no fellowship with her.” You and she have the same Father, the same Savior, the same Lord, the same salvation, the same Holy Spirit, you bear the same fruit of the Spirit—she perhaps more than you do.²

Another instance of rot in the PRC is what amounts to an admonishment from Dr. Brendan Looyenga in The Beacon Lights to the Protestant Reformed young people to not be so narrow-minded when it comes to friendships with other Christian young people. He first feebly attempted to warn the Protestant Reformed young people about the danger of “softening…the antithesis to exclude several of the doctrines of Scripture that are defended by the Reformed confessions,” which he immediately reneged when he wrote:

But an equal and opposite error also happens among Reformed churches with regard to the antithesis. Rather than softening the doctrinal stance, this error expands the scope of antithesis to make a principal distinction between Christian denominations. In this view the differences between denominations become a matter of separation that is equal to that of the church and the world.

While we must grant that false churches, who have rejected outright the authority of Scripture and central truths of Christianity, certainly exist, it is wrong to make the distinctions between orthodox churches a matter of antithesis. I may disagree firmly (but humbly) with Baptist and Lutheran Christians regarding the nature of the covenant and sacraments, or with Anglicans regarding the right form of church government. But so long as we can agree that Scripture is the ultimate authority and are committed to defending the doctrines of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, what separates us is not the antithesis. We may—and should—fellowship with other Christians in order to learn, to serve, and to grow in greater appreciation for the body of Christ. Shunning these interactions in the name of the antithesis is simply wrong.³

What Dr. Looyenga wrote makes no sense. He wrote that he disagrees firmly with Baptist and Lutheran Christians regarding the nature of the covenant and the sacraments. These are cardinal doctrines and truths of the sacred scriptures and the Reformed confessions. Then in the next sentence, he said that as long as he and the Baptist and Lutheran Christians agree on the ultimate authority of scripture and the doctrines of salvation, what separates him and these Christians is not the antithesis. But these churches and therefore their members do not confess salvation by grace alone. They might claim the authority of scripture, but in fact they do not believe the scriptures at all! Dr. Looyenga does not believe that the nature of the covenant, which is unconditional, which is the gospel and the truth of our salvation and therefore a mark of a true church, is a central truth of Christianity. He does not believe that the proper view and administration of the sacraments is a mark of a true church and a central truth of Christianity. Churches and members that hold to such doctrines do not fall into the category of false churches for him. But the antithesis absolutely is the separation between the truth and the lie and between Reformed and Baptist churches.

The general mood and attitude of the ministers and members of the PRC are not that of promoting, defending, and living the antithesis but of attempting to destroy the sharp divide that God has placed between light and darkness, Christ and Belial, and holiness and profanity in order to make their place larger in the world, cultivate friendships, and make nice with other churches. As a whole the PRC is actively obliterating any semblance of the antithesis. Where will the PRC draw the line? Where will the denomination ever take a stand? The answer is that she will not. Her entire existence will be one of constant retreat and capitulation on cardinal truths of the gospel.

According to both Reverend McGeown and Dr. Looyenga, the Protestant Reformed members should be seeking fellowship with those outside the PRC in the nominal church world. Protestant Reformed young people should befriend and date Baptist and Lutheran young people. There should be a general amalgamation of the members of these churches. And the only reason for different denominations is that there are some differences in non-essentials, such as common grace, divorce and remarriage, the well-meant gospel offer, and infant baptism, among other small, pesky doctrines of the sacred scriptures. For McGeown the basis for fellowship is being a believer. In the previous article in his blog series, wherein he laid his foundation for what communion and fellowship is, he had defined believers as those who hold for truth all that God has revealed in his word, citing Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 21. But when he wrote about the practice of the communion of the saints in his next article, he refused to apply the words of the Catechism to anyone. He simply swept away the foundation he had laid and left the basis for fellowship to be simply that someone says that he or she is a believer. And Dr. Looyenga’s basis for fellowship is just as broad: As long as you can agree with someone that you both believe in the ultimate authority of scripture and salvation by faith alone, you should fellowship with and even learn from that one.

There is nothing to learn from Lutheran churches today. The Lutheran churches are the bastard children of Philip Melanchthon and his false doctrine of synergism—God and man working together. There is nothing to learn from Baptist churches. They deny the truth that infants are to be baptized, and their theology of salvation shows through their baptizing only adult believers. One in a Baptist church does not enter into the kingdom of heaven as a helpless baby, but he enters in by his choice to believe. There is nothing to learn from the Christian Reformed Church and her theory of common grace, rejection of the authority of scripture, denial of the headship of the male, universal atonement, and the well-meant gospel offer. There is nothing to learn from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and her well-meant gospel offer and approval of divorce and remarriage, which are both nothing less than denials of the gospel and the covenant. There is nothing to learn from the Protestant Reformed Churches and her denial of the unconditional covenant and justification by faith alone and her false doctrines of forgiveness by prerequisite repentance and blessings in the way of obedience. There is nothing that can be learned from these churches because they teach the lie. Therefore, Christ does not speak in these churches because Christ does not speak a lie.

The safety of the church of Jesus Christ is her aloneness. Her safety is that she is hidden by God like a little bird in the cleft of the rock while the storm rages outside. What is happening in history right now is exactly what happened in the prediluvian world. The sons of God—not true sons by election, but those who outwardly confessed that they were of the church—saw the daughters of men that they were fair. I can imagine a scroll being written or maybe a nice speech being given by a prominent man in the line of Seth proclaiming, “Our sons should marry these daughters of men. We ought to have fellowship with them. They have so much culture. They live outwardly good, decent lives. They believe basically the same as we do.” And hearing that, those sons of the church went off with heathen women from the wicked nations. There were great wedding feasts, and the families were getting together, drinking wine, eating, and making merriment. And soon enough, more and more men and women from the line of Seth were living among the heathen of the world. So great was the amalgamation with the world and apostasy from the line of Seth that by the time of the flood, there were only eight souls left that belonged to the church.

37. As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

38. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

39. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matt. 24:37–39)

When I was a member of the PRC, the doctrine of the antithesis was never taught. Already the denial of the antithesis had taken place in a practical way by the lack of instruction about it. I never heard the antithesis in the preaching. I never heard it for chapel, in prayer, or in classroom instruction. The truth of the covenant and also the antithesis should have been taught and brought to bear on all the teaching and instruction, but the antithesis was a covenantal truth relegated to the closet. I knew the history of 1924 and common grace and of 1953 and the conditional covenant. But never was the teaching of the covenant related with the truths of the antithesis and God’s holiness. I learned that long after I left the PRC.

God gave the divine reason for the antithesis. God’s name is holy; and because he is holy, he has separated his people out of the world into his own fellowship. Because God is holy and righteous, he cannot countenance iniquity and thus has placed a separation between his people and the world, including the world of apostate Christianity. Therefore, we are called to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. We are called to be holy. When God so reveals himself savingly in Jesus Christ to an elect sinner, then that one, tasting that God is his God, cannot countenance anything that is an offense to and that besmirches the holiness of the name of his God.

6. Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

8. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut. 7:6–8)

The PRC’s rejection of the antithesis and desire for synthesis with other denominations are rooted ultimately in a rejection of God himself. The PRC has denied who God is in his covenant life and how God saves his people. In doing so the PRC has also corrupted every other attribute of God, for God is one. God dwells in an unapproachable light. His eyes are purer than to behold iniquity. He is a consuming fire, and he stands against all who would fashion an idol like unto himself. But man knows not the holiness of God and fashions for himself an idol to worship.

Who God Is

Antithesis is not a term used in scripture, but it is a theological term. Although the term antithesis itself is not used in scripture, the doctrine is found everywhere in scripture and the Reformed confessions. Standing behind the reality of the antithesis is the truth that God is holy. God’s holiness is

that wonder of the divine nature according to which God is absolute, infinite, eternal, and ultimate ethical perfection, himself being the standard, motive, and purpose of all the activity of his personal nature so that he is eternally consecrated to himself alone as the only good.⁵

God in his triune being eternally wills and seeks himself and is completely consecrated to himself as the only good. God is wholly dedicated unto himself in his own triune life. He is absolutely separated above all creatures in his glory and dignity. God seeks himself out because he loves himself. He is perfectly and infinitely devoted to and delights in himself.

When scripture says that God’s name is holy, it means that he is the perfectly exalted one. God seeks only his glory in all that he does. That God’s name is holy means that in all that God speaks and in everything he reveals and does in the world, he alone will be glorified. In all the works of his hands, in creation and the salvation of the elect and the damnation of the reprobate, God seeks his glory alone.

The main idea of the perfection of God’s holiness is that of separation. God is set apart from all that is profane and corrupt. In his being God is incomparable in character and distinct from all creatures. In the Old Testament God is oft referred to as the “Holy One.” We read in Hosea 11:9: “I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.” Notice the contrast in the text. I am God, the Holy One, and not man. In the original Hebrew the emphasis is laid on the word “I” in distinction from “man.” God stands distinct and separate. God cannot be classified. No comparison can be made between God and the creature. That God is holy also stands behind the idea that he is “a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). God burns in zeal for the glory of his name. And God burns in fury against all ungodliness, unrighteousness, and deceit. All iniquity he must consume out of the earth.

God in his holiness is not only separated from all that is profane, but he is also consecrated to himself because he is absolutely pure. Holiness is God’s absolute purity. This is what the apostle means in 1 John 1:5 when he says, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” The scriptures are very clear on the complete antithesis between light and darkness.

6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:6–7)

19. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:19–21)

God is free from all defilement of sin. He cannot be tempted with sin. He stands above sin; yea, in his sovereignty he uses all wickedness for his own purpose, though he hates all corruption and iniquity. God as absolute light stands opposed to all darkness. Light is truth. Light is righteousness, goodness, love, and holiness. Darkness is all that is evil and corrupt. Darkness is the lie. Darkness is iniquity and corruption, hatred and envy, adultery and uncleanness.

God is light. God is holy.

Revealed in Jesus Christ

The holiness of God is revealed in Jesus Christ. As the mediator, Jesus Christ was completely consecrated to God and God’s glory. Jesus Christ was dedicated to fulfill God’s will in perfect service and love to God. Christ came to destroy the kingdom of darkness. The Father sanctified Christ, separated him out from the common, sinful world. The very incarnation of Jesus Christ teaches the truth that God separated Christ out of the sinful world and unto himself. God took the holy child Jesus out of the corrupt, dead womb of Mary with the power of the Highest overshadowing her. Not even the corruption of Mary’s womb could defile the holy child. Christ was separated from sinners and unto God. Christ is spotless, pure, and sinless. And in our flesh God came and warred against sin, Satan, and the world. Christ came as a warring Christ. He waged war against all that stood against God. Christ stood in the service of God to put all things in subjection unto God.

Christ, as the servant of Jehovah, is the “Holy One of God.” In Mark 1:23 we read the narrative of the man who had an unclean devil, who cried out, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?…I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” There was nothing in common between that unclean spirit and Jesus. In fact there was an infinite gulf of separation between the Holy One of God and that profane spirit. The unclean spirit apprehended the antithesis between himself as profane and corrupt and Christ as the Holy One.

Jesus Christ demonstrated the awesomeness and exaltation of God in his holiness. In Luke 5, Peter, upon seeing the catch of many fishes, fell down at Jesus’ knees. Being impressed upon by the holiness of God in Jesus Christ, Peter was also struck by his own sinfulness and wretchedness. And Peter cried out, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (v. 8). Fear, awe, and reverence are the only proper responses of the believer to God’s holiness.

Jesus Christ made known God’s hatred of evil and sin at the cross where Christ suffered the wrath of the holy God for the sins of his people. Jesus’ name is the name of salvation. He is Jehovah-salvation. Jesus is God come down to man in the form necessary to save his people. God burned in his hatred against sin and burned in his love and mercy for his people. And God crucified his Christ because God is holy. God cannot abrogate his holiness, and he punished all his people’s sins in his dearly beloved Son, who satisfied God’s justice. Therefore, we are justified before God for Christ’s sake and are brought nigh unto him in fellowship and friendship.

Jesus Christ makes the people of God holy (Heb. 10:14). There are perfections that God shares with us. God communicates his holiness with us in Jesus Christ through his Spirit. God does not share any of his perfections apart from Christ and his Spirit. Neither does God share all his perfections. Some are incommunicable, such as his eternality and immutability. Jesus Christ possesses the Holy Spirit, and Christ pours out the Holy Spirit on us and makes us holy. As the consecrating Spirit, the Spirit separates us from darkness and brings us into the light of God. That is sanctification. Sanctification is the work of the triune God to consecrate his elect people unto himself, the fruit of which is that they serve him in love. God separates us out of the world and consecrates us to himself. He breaks the ruling power of sin over us; he delivers us from the dominion and pollution of sin; and he renews us according to the image of Christ in true righteousness, knowledge, and holiness.

Significance for the Believer

The very word church in the New Testament means those who are called out. The word church indicates her separate, antithetical existence from the world of sin and darkness and her consecration unto the Holy One of Israel. Saints are called “holy ones,” that is, those who are dedicated and devoted unto God, living by faith unto him in every sphere of life.

The first petition of our Lord’s prayer is “hallowed be thy name” (Luke 11:2). To utter this petition means to pray that God so set his holy name apart in our lives that his name stands out in all its holiness. At its heart this petition is a prayer for the antithesis. In this petition for the hallowing of God’s name, we pray that God so reveals the holiness of his name unto us, so that we sanctify, glorify, and praise him in all his works. We pray that God’s holy name consumes us and that we hate all that is profane and ugly, including our own sinful flesh, sin within the church, and the world and false church. A man cannot pray this prayer for the hallowing of God’s name in his life with a lie in his heart. Those who deny the antithesis deny God’s holiness. Those who deny the antithesis can never utter this petition.

In praying this petition you also are praying that God so consume you with his holiness that you cannot countenance the lie, false doctrine, the false church, and even family and friends who hold to that lie. There is the positive calling—not only to be separate but also to be holy because God is holy. As the apostle says, “If we say that we have fellowship with [God], and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6). The manifestation that we are washed in the blood of Christ and sanctified by him through his Spirit is that we walk in the light.

In the recent controversy in the Reformed Protestant Churches over the antithesis, men were not honest one bit about their relationships with friends and family who sit in darkness in the false church. Men wanted and desired those relationships. Now that they have left, they will rekindle old relationships, they will get their friends and families back, and they will send their children back to the Protestant Reformed schools. Men charged sermons with legalism and so-called exclusive rebukeism. While no one seemed to have a problem with the sermon at the time, a sermon on Philippians 3:1–2, where the apostle called the teachers of the concision dogs, especially drew much ire from those who have left. In the sermon members of the congregation were admonished to bring this word of God to their friends and families in the PRC: Tell them next time you get together that their ministers are dogs and are of the concision. Tell them that their ministers have corrupted justification by faith alone and the unconditional covenant. Tell them that they are in a false church with false prophets. The word must stand at the center of all our relationships. The word must stand at the center of the school, the church, the family, and our lives. Do not just bring a generic word of the gospel but bring the word of God specifically to bear against the lie. That word will offend because the word is offensive to the natural man.

False doctrine blasphemes the holiness of God’s name. Those who hold to the lie—yes, friends and family members too—blaspheme God’s name. Nothing less than God’s holy name is being assaulted! The holiness of the name of God never gripped those members who have left. They would allow God’s name to be blasphemed. While ministers who teach the lie and members who hold to the lie assault God’s holiness, those who have left were willing to sit mute on the crucial issues and to hold back the sword. Men were not offended by the lie; rather, they were offended by the preaching that stood in defense of God’s holy name. They have shown that they are darkness and of the world.

The apostle Peter admonished the members of the church,

15. As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.

16. Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Pet. 1:15–16)

God has called the elect sinner. That call is the saving call of God, who takes his people into his own covenant life and bestows upon them all the blessings of salvation in Christ. He who has called you is holy and separate from sin and sinners. The word translated as “so” in verse 15 is the Greek word for and. Implied then are both the calling and the inevitable fruit of God’s work. Those who stand in God’s covenant as his friend-servants are called to be holy in conversation. “Conversation” refers to all manner of your life: your walk and deportment, not merely in speech but also with the feet. With whom you visit, what you say, what you see, and where you go are all included in your conversation. That conversation is the expression of the faith of the child of God in God’s holy name as the Holy One of Israel.

The child of God is made holy and separate from sin in the wonders of regeneration and sanctification. While justification is a legal act of God, regeneration and sanctification belong to the renewing acts of God by grace on an elect sinner. In principle God makes the believer holy in the believer’s heart. That principle is perfect, but it is never more than a principle. Even the holiest of men in this life have only a small beginning of the new obedience. The principle never grows; the believer never gets more holy. Yet that principle comes to expression in that the believer lives holily in all his life. He shares in God’s aversion to sin. The believer hates sin and flees from sin. Though in his flesh he loves sin, in his heart he hates sin. He loves God, and the fruit of that is that he loves the things of God, Christ, the truth, the church, and members of the church.

The antithesis stands in 1 Peter 1:15–16. To “be holy in all manner of conversation” is to live the antithesis. This does not mean that we make ourselves holy. Nor does it mean that by living antithetically we are made holy. But to be holy is to carry out the warfare that God himself set against sin, profanity, and corruption when he separated us unto himself. Standing behind the carrying out of the antithesis is God himself, who prosecutes that warfare in and through his people against all iniquity. You have to say then that the man who fellowships with darkness has no light in him. He is not holy in all manner of conversation because God has not called him and made him holy in Jesus Christ.

14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15. And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

18. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor. 6:14–18)

To be holy or to be separate means that we may not be members in an unholy church where the truth is corrupted. It means that we may not have fellowship with family and friends who do not believe the gospel. The anthem of the Old Testament regarding the antithesis was that Israel shall dwell in safety alone. And still today the church that has been separated out of the world unto God dwells safely in him. The true church has no fellowship with the apostate church. The members of the true church have no fellowship with the members of the apostate church. To do so would be utter folly. It would be like a married man climbing into bed with a diseased whore. What does that man expect will happen, except that he will catch her sexual diseases? “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid” (1 Cor. 6:15). To refuse to dwell alone is a wicked denial of the holiness of God.

If the truth of God’s all-consuming holiness lives in the heart of a man, then that man will understand the antithesis. He will not rail against it. He will not charge the doctrine of the antithesis with legalism. He will not leave or forsake where the note of the antithesis sounds forth in the earth. He will love the doctrine of the antithesis with his whole heart, because he will see in it the holiness of his God.

Next time, we will consider the covenant and the antithesis, the Lord willing.