Rev. Martin Vander Wal in a recent lecture for Free Covenant Reformed Church spoke about a search he has been conducting.1 In this search he has been looking for answers to these questions: Why have the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) fallen into “a decade of strife and controversy,” and why do that strife and controversy continue to this day? He has been searching with the expectation that these questions are answerable by the wisdom and intellect of man. Reverend Vander Wal has a hypothesis, but he will not find the truth of the matter in himself.
Now, an obvious place to find answers to these simple questions would be in the Reformed creeds and confessions. But what if you would throw them out? You would be in the same situation in which Vander Wal finds himself, along with many who have left the Reformed Protestant Churches. He believes that the creeds and confessions are pesky obstacles to their freedom and the fulfillment of their lusts. Besides, he believes that the creeds and confessions have no bearing on the believer.
In order to create his hypothesis, Reverend Vander Wal said that he has spent two or more years “digging and sorting out” all the events that pertain to the PRC and to her fall. He has been searching for an earthly explanation because that is all the wicked can do. With no faith, with no Spirit, with no creeds, and in principle with no scripture, one is left with himself. What can man do on his own? What is man on his own? Man is a heaping dung pile who can produce no good and furthermore corrupts and defiles everything he touches. The natural conclusion that one would draw from this truth is that man would be left speechless and with no answer to any question. But man is proud and not satisfied with who he is by nature, and he gives an answer out of his own heart. So also, Reverend Vander Wal leaned on his own understanding and gave his answers under the disguise of “observations,” but he did not heed the instructions of Proverbs 3:5–7:
5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
Throughout history it has been custom to use false piety to deceive and control—the first to come to mind are the Pharisees and their long-winded prayers, intellectual questioning, and their criticism of Jesus for healing on the sabbath day. Vander Wal follows suit. His false piety revealed itself when he emphasized more than once to those in the audience that he was not giving a lecture. Rather, he was sharing his ideas and observations with them. He refrained from calling his observations a lecture because he did not want his listeners to think he was telling them what to do or what to believe. A few more examples of his false piety and deception were his use of the words “general” and “abstract” when he spoke about the true church and her offices, words that a deceiver uses to lead others from any concrete truth. Someone who uses such vague words seeks to minimize the truth and its authority and to create a world where there are many so-called truths and where people get to pick a truth that gives to them the lives they want on this earth. It takes effort to manipulate, twist, and lie; the truth is simple and gives freedom. The truth was nowhere to be found in Vander Wal’s lecture, and that is why it was confusing.
Confusion is another tactic of a deceiver. Sermons that are confusing? Catechism classes that leave you questioning? Doctrinal conversations that make no spiritual sense? The truth of the gospel is not confusing, so understanding and believing the gospel do not require an intellectual mind, philosophical reasoning, or a high IQ. The gospel is simple—simply do nothing and receive the gospel with childlike faith.
Those who are against this truth rely on their intellects, and by their intellects they abuse; they seek to take hold of the children of God and steal every bit of joy from them by pointing them away from Christ. These abusive deceivers delight in tempting men to think according to their own understanding rather than to rely on the Spirit. Abusers do that after they have sown a deceiving seed so that God’s children will doubt the truth that the Spirit has already put in their hearts. Even speaking the truth to an abuser is not good enough for him because it has not come out of his own lips. He will do only that which is right in his own unspiritual eyes.
Such abusive behavior and doctrine, which have no part in the gospel, seek to rend and mutilate God’s sheep and to kill them. Those who teach this delight in it because their delusion makes them believe that they get to be God and that they can pick and choose what is truth and who are the elect. This false election is handed to whomever they please or, rather, to whomever pleases them.
Reverend Vander Wal manifested himself to be a proponent of this dogma, and he moved about with calculations—calculations to better himself and his position among churches and the world, calculations to see who would give him an ear. He continues to search for candidates to appease these earthly desires, and he has found that in Free Covenant Reformed Church.
With this knowledge of who Reverend Vander Wal has shown himself to be, we can investigate his “central thesis,” which was “that authority has been shifted” within the PRC. While he was correct about the sin of hierarchy that is prevalent in the PRC, throughout his lecture he made it clear how little he thinks of the authority that God has given to his church. The authority given to the broader assemblies, consistories, and the Reformed creeds and confessions is, in the end, denied by Reverend Vander Wal. The only authorities that he claimed to be spared from his attack are the Bible, ministers, and the magistrate. He had no principles for excluding these, and by that he demonstrated that he is not worthy of an ear. But why stop at the creeds and confessions? Why not do away with all authority? Reverend Vander Wal robs the church of her God-given authority that hinders the progression of his false doctrine. By this God is exposing Reverend Vander Wal, who has built up a wall and used untempered mortar for the building of it.
In Ezekiel 13:10–15 God reveals to us what will befall those who do this:
10. Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
11. Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
12. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it.
14. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
15. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it.
This prophecy remains true today for those who preach and believe the lie. Reverend Vander Wal is building his own wall, and he seeks out those who give him an ear to daub this wall with untempered mortar. The end is inevitable for those who partake in building up this wall. Their untempered mortar is missing the essential element of Christ and his truth. God has shown the beginning of that judgment. At times they may appear to succeed in the construction of their wall; but in the day of judgment, hailstones will destroy and rend all these works of men as well as themselves. But man is not concerned with this coming judgment, so he proudly continues in his sin. He sees the cracks that are showing in the mortar, but he continues to build, ignoring the obvious end. God gives these builders over to their delusions.
Many carry on without regard to the coming judgment. They ignore the obvious warnings, and they also ignore the obvious answers. Reverend Vander Wal ignored the only answer to explain his questions pertaining to the PRC’s fall. Article 29 of the Belgic Confession gives us the answer: “The marks by which the true church is known” (Confessions and Church Order, 62). We know the necessity of these marks, but there was only one that Reverend Vander Wal talked about in his lecture, and that was the mark of the pure preaching of the gospel. Reverend Vander Wal successfully found the mark from which the other two marks flow, but only because logic has led him there. There is a definition in that mark that must be given, a definition that makes or breaks this mark.
Reverend Vander Wal understands this, but he also knows that he cannot say it, for that would topple his house of cards. After Vander Wal repeatedly avoided giving a definition of the gospel throughout his lecture, the question period arrived, and the dreaded question was asked: “What is your definition of the gospel?”
“Um, uhhhh, why did I include a question-and-answer period?” Reverend Vander Wal thought in retrospect. “What do I do? Ah! I got it!” He came up with a plan. First, attempting to cast doubt on the importance of the question, he said, “Creating and making a definition is a risky thing.” After that, he flooded what should have been a simple answer with all sorts of distractions and convolutions, making sure to use highly esteemed men such as Hoeksema for so-called proof. Then finally, after all the mental gymnastics, he finished with what he really thinks: “If we define it [the gospel], we’ve got something to fight over.”
God completely exposed Reverend Vander Wal in that moment and gave the answer to the overarching question of his lecture. The PRC, Free Covenant Reformed Church, and Reverend Vander Wal all have corrupted the pure preaching of the gospel. And when this mark is corrupted, the others are corrupted as well. God has removed the gospel so far from them that they will not define it.
The gospel is a mark! How can one expect to know the true church by her marks if one cannot or will not define them?
The gospel is Christ and him alone—Christ, the Word made flesh, the only power to save, to justify, and to sanctify. Our salvation is found only in the gospel, so therefore the gospel can be defined as one thing alone, Christ—Christ in all his attributes as our head, as the Word, as the full satisfaction for our sins, and as the sole power to raise us to life everlasting.
Could Reverend Vander Wal have defined the gospel? I firmly believe that he could have (just as the ministers in the PRC could), but he would not. All false prophets are ashamed of the gospel; they hate it. The gospel is added to the list of pesky obstacles that keep these men from their lusts. They have not “made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord” (Ezek. 13:5). Instead they preach peace when there is none. They seek to seduce the sheep and tempt them to put down their swords. False prophets prophesy of peace, but the peace they promise is not given.
Reverend Vander Wal did that when he refused to say what the gospel is. He exposed himself as the false prophet in Ezekiel. Reverend Vander Wal wants relations with the false church; he wants to be seen as an intellectual voice in the so-called Reformed community; he wants all that the apostate church has to offer, and all his desires are achieved with only the expense of one six-letter word: gospel. The flood gates are opened, and now nothing is off the table; he has a beginning of freedom. The doctrine of common grace, the well-meant gospel offer, and the conditional covenant, as well as all the other false doctrines, are no longer that bad to Reverend Vander Wal.
With the blockade of the gospel having been dealt with, Reverend Vander Wal treaded forward and continued his assault on the truth. The massacre of the gospel was not enough for him; he had to pick off any loose-end doctrine that remained loyal to the gospel. Although he indirectly had killed authority in the church in his lecture, the question remained whether the creeds and confessions and the broader assemblies still held authority that was above the word of Reverend Vander Wal. If he could not get rid of these loose ends that would leave his teachings without excuse, then his doctrine would be at stake. This thought upset him and heightened his rage.
And so, after indirectly killing authority in the church in his lecture, Reverend Vander Wal momentarily explicitly stated his position in another one of his answers during the question period. The question put to him was this: “Is that [church] authority ever in office?”
“The authority is never.” Reverend Vander Wal slipped, and his scales showed for a brief second. And for the first time in his entire lecture, he gave a straightforward answer. But he quickly pulled his hood forward to cover his face and muddled his unmistakable reply with more cartwheels and somersaults. Vander Wal believes that no office in the church ever has authority. The authority given to the consistory, the creeds, confessions, classis, and synod is simply not there.
With the first mark of the true church corrupted by a non-existent gospel definition, Vander Wal arrived at the corruption of another mark: That church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin. No discipline can be carried out to its end when there is no authority. It is impossible for a church to be the gathering of the elect. Wolves will rise up in the church; at first, a rebuke might come, but there is no authority to remove the wolves as God calls his church to do. In the end no man will ever rebuke another because of the fear that the rebuke will come against him. A church of hatred, a church centered on herself, cannot be called church at all because Christ is not her head. Such a church will be manifested as the synagogue of Satan that is mentioned in Revelation 3:9: “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”
This brings us to the final mark of the true church: That the sacraments are faithfully administered as appointed by Christ. This mark simply flows out of the others. How may the Lord’s supper be administered in churches in which there is no gospel and there are impenitent wolves in the congregation who have exposed themselves as such? The sacrament may not be administered, and the Form for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper gives clear warning against that by citing 1 Corinthians 11:29: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (Confessions and Church Order, 268). Despite this divine warning, such false churches press forward and desecrate this holy sacrament and thus heap judgment upon their heads.
In all this we see the marks of the false church in Belgic Confession article 29 manifested and purposefully glossed over by Reverend Vander Wal in his lecture. The article says,
As for the false church, she ascribes more power and authority to herself and her ordinances than to the Word of God, and will not submit herself to the yoke of Christ. Neither does she administer the sacraments as appointed by Christ in His Word, but adds to and takes from them as she thinks proper; she relieth more upon men than upon Christ. (Confessions and Church Order, 64)
God’s judgment is and will continue to be heavy upon those who hold to Reverend Vander Wal’s doctrine. His doctrine leads men to hell and nowhere else. Hailstones from God’s own hand are coming to destroy this wall and those who helped in its creation, and no one will be spared who continues in it and delights in it. This doctrine has been exposed, and will continue to be, by God’s people who have not built up their own wall. Flee from the wall built with untempered mortar and come behind the great wall built by Christ that stands on the firm foundation of Christ. The attacks from all the heathen nations are to no avail, and Christ’s wall will stand firm forever. Look down, look at your wall’s foundation. Is it Christ? If not, you must run, lest you be consumed by the coming judgment. Come out from the shadow of the wall built by man.
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