Rev. VanderWal joined the annual meeting from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and delivered his speech via livestream.

First of all, let me thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. I especially appreciate the opportunity because of all that Reformed Believers Publishing has meant to me over the past while. It has provided me the opportunity to stand fast for the sake of God’s truth and confess his truth. By means of this wonderful instrument and organ of the truth, Sword and Shield, a magazine devoted to the truth, we have been able to stand together for the sake of the truth. The support and encouragement that I have received and enjoyed through this publication and its fruit have been such a blessing to me over the past months. The strength to continue in our stand together for the truth and unity is ours to share and grow in by means of Reformed Believers Publishing and Sword and Shield. All of us have such a role and a part to play in strengthening each other because Sword and Shield is a real organ—an organ for the sake of God’s truth and its presence among us in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to spend a few moments giving you a few remarks about that strength to stand fast and what that means to me.

I listened to Rev. Lanning’s presentation very carefully because I think we are covering much of the same territory. I want to express that my remarks go within the content of his speech and take us, I think, to the heart of what Reformed Believers Publishing is, as well as its organ, Sword and Shield.

As I was thinking about what to talk to you about tonight, John 8:32 kept coming back to me: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The two terms there, truth and freedom, really represent what we are and what we have by and in the truth through faith. That is, the truth makes us free. The truth makes us free in such a way that we rejoice in the truth and we become more deeply rooted and grounded in the truth by faith, so that we understand that our freedom is such a joy and happiness in the truth that we keep going back to the truth to draw from its wellspring and to drink deeply of the freedom that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Now, we keep in mind that our freedom is exactly in the truth and upon the truth, and no other place.

In fact, the very context of John 8:32 distinguishes the truth from the lie and teaches that the lie is only slavery and that only in the truth is there freedom. This is the truth that is in God’s word. This is the truth that leads us to our Lord Jesus Christ and God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also the truth that we have in the Reformed creeds. They are confessions of faith. They are the summary of the faith, they are the standard of the faith, and they continually bring us to the foundation that is in God’s holy word, the scriptures. And in the confessions is our freedom. Upon the confessions is our freedom. It is the way that the truth makes us free and we enjoy freedom in the truth.

The truth brings the knowing believer freedom from the darkness of the lie. The knowledge of the truth is the fruit of the effectual grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit graciously, powerfully, as well as sweetly and gently, illuminates the heart and mind of the elect child of God. The Holy Spirit so works a desire and delight for the truth, to have that truth fill the regenerated heart and mind with its light and to dispel all the shadows of darkness. The truth must chase out all that is false and of the lie. As that is done, the believing child of God rejoices in the truth as his freedom. The truth sets him free! He understands the freedom of his salvation. He is free from sin, free from its guilt and condemnation. The truth also frees him to seek in truth the God of his salvation. The truth frees him to live with his God and to walk with him in covenant fellowship and friendship. He is free to serve his God and the truth that makes him free. In this service he truly delights because in the truth he is free.

This brings me to what ties me and what binds me gladly and willingly to the truth: the Formula of Subscription. Part of the Formula reads:

We heartily believe and are persuaded that all the articles and points of doctrine contained in the Confession and Catechism of the Reformed Churches, together with the explanation of…the aforesaid doctrine made by the National Synod of Dordrecht, 1618–’19, do fully agree with the Word of God.

We promise therefore diligently to teach and faithfully to defend the aforesaid doctrine, without either directly or indirectly contradicting the same, by our public preaching or writing.

We declare, moreover, that we not only reject all errors that militate against this doctrine, and particularly those which were condemned by the above mentioned synod, but that we are disposed to refute and contradict these, and to exert ourselves in keeping the church free from such errors. (Confessions and Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches, 326)

All of these “articles and points of doctrine” represent a room, a building, or a house that we are free to live in. It is our freedom to be built on the truth. It is our freedom to be surrounded by the truth. So it is proper and right and necessary that we have, and we have built, something akin to a house that is founded on the truth of God’s word and that arises out of that truth: as ecclesiastical assemblies, magazines, preaching, teaching, and discussions of believers. The truth lives in our homes, among our families; it lives in our hearts. All of it is a beautiful house. And that house is our freedom. It is our freedom to live in that house; it is our freedom to live on that truth; it is our harmony. And it is Reformed Believers Publishing that is an extension and an expression of that freedom that is in the truth.

Because that freedom of the knowledge of the truth is precious and delightful to us, we delight in that house. We rejoice to know its integrity—that it is built squarely on the foundation of the truth that makes us free. We know that its symmetry, beauty, and ornamentation are all that they are because the house is centered on its foundation. The blessedness of life in the house for believers and their seed is all from its foundation on the truth.

But that truth is always under attack. Satan, the enemy of God and of the church, furiously and proudly strives to take away the freedom of the church in the truth and to bring the church back into the bondage of sin and the lie. So Satan works to remove the truth from the church. The deceiver endeavors to introduce the lie in the most deceptive ways, in order to avoid detection. He works through confusion and carelessness just as much as through apathy and pride. He seeks an entrance to insert the lie in the most innocuous manner and perhaps under the guise of righteous and holy motivation. His aim is to exchange the truth for the lie, beginning at the smallest point and spreading through to take the whole. Such is the history of apostasy throughout the history of the church.

There is another way to look at these same tactics of the adversary, as an attack on the house that is built on the foundation of the truth. By introducing false doctrine, the devil’s method is to take the house that is built on the truth off and away from that foundation of the truth. He introduces various means. He can introduce humanistic elements: man; man’s pride; man’s works, effort, and will. And with that he tries to introduce heresy into the church, which will be followed by apostasy. It takes wisdom and discernment to see Satan’s introduction of error into the church of Jesus Christ. That is why believers need discernment. Discernment that is fueled by love for the truth and love for the freedom that is in the truth is of great value.

In this house founded on the truth we have lived, some of us for our whole lives. We know the house and our freedom in it. We love the house. We treasure it. We have invested our lives in it, and we desire to pass it on to our children, for it to be their dwelling. In our love for this house, we understand the absolute need of the foundation it is built upon. Without the foundation under it, we have no house.

But something happened. Some of us felt a movement. Some felt it keenly, some slightly, while others felt nothing at all. What happened to the house? And you might look at the house; you might look at the walls; you might look at the windows; you might look at the doors; and you say, “It’s still the same house, the same persons, the same assemblies, the same magazines, the same preaching and teaching”; but there still remains a sense that something has moved. So you go down to the foundation. You look down at the truth, and you say, “Where is this house with respect to the truth? Is it where it needs to be? Is the bottom of the house properly aligned with the foundation? Has it been moved, if ever so slightly?”

Has the house moved? Can you tell?

There is a way to tell. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” How is the freedom? Has the freedom that you possess and enjoy because of the truth been altered in your heart and soul? Do you feel that freedom curbed or diminished? Freedom to rejoice in grace? Freedom to walk humbly with your God? Freedom to speak and live in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free? Freedom from the rules and opinions of men? Free from legalism? Free from fear of men? Free from respect of persons? Free to discuss and deliberate? Free to write? Free to publish?

Walk through the house. Go from room to room, exploring the corners even to the outside walls. Wherever you go, do you have that sense of freedom that comes from the truth? Or in some rooms or corners does that freedom grow dim or even cease its existence in your heart and soul? Where are those places? Are they off the foundation of the truth? Are they off the foundation of grace, the truth that makes us free?

And then the question arises further: do we have the freedom that we are supposed to have and meant to have, grounded and rooted in the truth, or is that freedom somehow affected? Do we feel bound, do we feel controlled, by some other kind of element? It is the responsibility of believers to remember wherein their freedom lies. It is the responsibility of officebearers in the church of Jesus Christ, having signed the Formula of Subscription, to say, “The church must be founded upon the truth.” It is the responsibility of believers to ask and to look and to say, “Are we always grounded on the truth? Is the house always built on the truth? Or is it moving? Is it moving its place? Is it changing its direction? Where is the house going, if it is going anywhere?”

That is the point of Reformed Believers Publishing and Sword and Shield. Sword and Shield is the means that you have given to me and to the other editors to be able to take up and realize our vows that we made when we signed the Formula of Subscription. Let me quote that again: “We not only reject all errors…we are disposed to refute and contradict these, and to exert ourselves in keeping the church free from such errors.” Sword and Shield is our opportunity to communicate the truth to Reformed believers. It is our opportunity to lay out the foundation to ensure that Reformed believers stand squarely upon the truth and remain there. For there alone are we truly made free—by the truth.

Your support of and care for Reformed Believers Publishing are for the spiritual house of faith for Reformed believers. You have begun now to see among us the benefits of the magazine. There is growing awareness of where we must be with respect to the unchanging truth of God’s word, and where we are. Reformed believers are growing in their understanding of the truth that makes us free and seeing the importance of maintaining and defending it. Love for the truth and the freedom it brings are evident in the support of Sword and Shield. Reformed Believers Publishing is growing in membership. Subscriptions to Sword and Shield are on the increase. It is especially a blessing to see the appreciation and love expressed for the magazine with so many letters and notes of encouragement. And I want to urge you to continue to express that encouragement and gratitude for the magazine.

I want to end on a personal note. I have been privileged to exercise myself in writing for the magazine, and it’s been such a tremendous blessing in these past months. Standing for the truth in the Protestant Reformed Churches, even for the truth established by our synod, has brought trouble. Faced with suspension and threatened with possible deposition turned so much upside down. But in the midst of that trouble, in the midst of that difficulty, I enjoyed a tremendous sense of peace and of help. Thinking of my livelihood stripped away, standing in our churches stripped away, support stripped away, and a voice for the truth silenced, yet I had a tremendous sense of peace, security, and strength. That sense was from the truth and the freedom of that truth identified in John 8:32: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I want to stress: for the enjoyment of that peace and that security, Reformed Believers Publishing was a tremendous help. I received from the board not only expressions of support in that trial, but also the pledge that they would continue to be glad to have me writing for the magazine. That support involved the board. It involved the organization of Reformed Believers Publishing. It involved its membership, now growing and increasing. It is my privilege to testify to you this evening the importance that Reformed Believers Publishing has had for me in my trials. You must know that as an organization we together can enjoy and rejoice in that same support as we together know the truth that truly makes us free.

Thank you.