Reformátusok Lapja, 1972 (72. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)

1972-01-01 / 1. szám

4

REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

To the Pastors and Consistories of Calvin Synod:

Our Calvin Synod is at once a blessing and an obligation.

It is a blessing because we are the heirs of the faith of our fathers. A faith for which they suffered and died for centuries. The Reformation in Hungary is a glorious chapter in the history of the Universal Church. This faith has proven a blessing for us today also as we seek to witness in the midst of a “wicked and perverse generation”.

We are thankful to God that we still worship according to the Word of God and keep the Sacraments holy and unblemished.

But we have an obligation too.

It is this. To uphold and maintain with our prayers and our financial support the work of our Calvin Synod. If we fail here, we fail. There are only three options, I believe.

1. Withhold our support. In this event we repudiate our past and forsake our future.

2. Luke-warm support. This means we give just enough support so that we neither live nor die. “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are luke warm, and neither cold nor hot,, I will spew you out of my mouth.” Rev. 3: 15-16.

3. Whole-hearted support. This means that our pastors and congregations will make a sincere effort to support the work of Calvin Synod both spiritually and financially so it may become an effective agent for Christ and His Kingdom and for the specialized ministry given to us as we seek to up-hold and to strengthen the work of our brethren at home and through-out the world.

The decision is yours to make. I most fervently hope and pray that your answer will be reflected in the report of the Synod Treasurer for 1971.

Please make every effort to send in your contributions promptly.

May our Lord bless and keep you in His mercy now and always.

Arpad L. Beretz, Bishop

♦

‘77, is

I know not by what methods rare,

But this I know — God answers prayer.

I know that He has given His Word,

Which tells me prayer is always heard,

And will be answered, soon or late,

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought Will come in just the way I thought, But leave my prayers with Him alone, Whose will is wiser than my own — Assured that He will grant my quest, Or send some answer far more blest.

THE RESPONSIBLE SERVICE OF THE WATCHMEN

Ezekiel 3:16-19

If in this hour of historical significance — when the first Bishop of the Calvin Synod — United Church of Christ will be installed — we wished to sum up the will of God in His holy Word read before, we could most appropriately summarize it with these few words: The responsible service of the watchmen. Indeed, it would be difficult to find a passage in world-literature or in another text in the Holy Scripture which would reveal to us more alarmingly the truth that man receives the sense and value of his life in service, and in this service he is responsible to the living God, the Creator of all, who entrusted him with it.

Dear Christian Friends, more than 2,500 years have passed since the days of Ezekiel. Many things have happened during this time and much has changed. Fearful powers have crumbled to dust; kings ruling over millions have become exiled; cultures nourished by tears and blood have come to naught. Only iniquity has remained unchanged; iniquity that has ever been the bane and curse of mankind. Against this satanic power does God send his chosen for service.

I. “Son of man, 1 have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.” If we heard nothing more of God’s will, blessed testament but this sentence, even this would suffice to make us feel something of His everlasting essence, power and grace; and to make us acquainted with ourselves as opposed to Him: our mortal being and nothingness. The term “son of man” opens our eyes to this double sight. The age in which the prophet lived and his life supply us with the information as regards the significance of this term. In the time of Ezekiel the people of Israel suffered a very sad and tragical fate. It was being ground between the millstones of two world-powers: Egypt and Babylonia, as the life-giving grain of wheat is ground in the mill. The catastrophic defeat at Megiddo in the year 608 B.C. at the hands of Necho II., pharaoh of Egypt who had marched against Babylonia, sealed the fate of the little country. The flower of Israel, the blooming Youth fell at Megiddo together with their gracious king, Josiah. From that time, the life of the people of Israel has been one of vegetation, misery, and destruction. The prophet considered this destruction to be a manifestation of the judgement of God. This judgement, however, does not only afflict the people of Israel. God smites the Egyptian pharaoh, too, who was defeated and crushed in the battle of Carchemish in the year 605 by the King of Babylonia. The bloody battles and the mountains of corpses reaching pyramid-like to the skies; the collapse and vanishing of peoples from the stage of history convinced the prophet that everything in this world is finite, only God is eternal; that greatness and power is but a shadow and a lie in comparison to God’s greatness and power. God is Lord of All, whose glory is served intentionally or unintentionally by every creature, when it obeys Him, in fact even when it seeks to evade His will or revolts against Him.

Then followed the carrying off of the Israelites into captivity. In order to insure his rule over Palestine, Nebuchadnezzar, this proud ruler of his country, had King Jehoiakim carried off to Babylonia with his leaders and ten thousand of his people. Among the deported was the