Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1959-01-01 / 1. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

11

To be sure, the “crucifix” has no place in Protestantism, except as a pictorial presentation of the historical act. It is the “empty” cross which stands before Christ’s people to symbolize that death could not hold Christ, who has become the Victor. And as the Christian looks upon it, realizing that neither the cross nor the grave could hold His dear Saviour, he joins with Paul in glad praise, “Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The crucifix, as used in the un-reformed churches, symbolizes that it is through the continuing sacrifice of Christ that men are saved. However, it is the empty cross that best symbolizes what is expressed in the letter to the Hebrews: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are consecrated” (10:11-14). “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (9:25-26).

How good it is for the Reformed catholic churchman to sing, “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time...”.

ALBERT W. KOVÁCS------------o-----------PRAYER

(continued)

In our previous article about prayer we stated that God wants us to pray to Him first, to strengthen us in our belief that He is a loving heavenly Father and we are His beloved children who are not supposed to be afraid to call upon Him. Secondly, He wants us to pray and tell Him all our requests in order to make us realize that He is the giver of blessings and we have to depend on Him, for our physical as well as spiritual well-being. Thirdly, God made praying our duty to thank Him for all His goodness. Furthermore, we stated that Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer as to what a true prayer should contain.

Now we want to know what kind of an assurance we have that God listens to and accepts our prayer.

The following words of the Bible should be remembered at this point. “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in my name”, says Jesus. John 16:23. “There is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timoth. 2:5. “Jesus is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest.” Hebr. 7:25,26. From these Bible verses it is clear that the assurance of the acceptance of our prayers by God is the blessed fact that the resurrected ever-living Jesus Christ is in heaven and pleading to His Father for us,

earthly sinful men. He is constantly asking the Father to bestow upon us all the blessings of His death and resurrection, in other words, He is asking the Father to forgive us and love us and bless us with all the necessary things in this earthly life and afterwards with a blessed eternal life in heaven. Jesus is pleading the Father to give all this to us for his sake and not because we would deserve them.

In the light of the above quoted Bible verses we should say that indeed it is not only senseless but also sacrilegious to ask either the Virgin Mary or the “saints” to do for us what only Jesus can do. It is sacrilegious because it tries to endow mere human beings with the divine glory and power of Jesus Christ, our only Mediator. It is also senseless to ask the Virgin Mary and the “saints” to plead for us and take our prayers to the Father or to ask Jesus in our behalf, when we have the privilege to call directly upon the Father with the help of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the Virgin Mary and the “saints”, after they left this earthly life, did noti receive any divine ability to acknowledge the prayers of earthly men. Only God can do this.

Of course, what we said does not exclude the possibility to remember our fellowmen and their requests in our prayers. It does not mean that we try to take the place of Jesus, it means only that we include our brethren and their requests among our own requests which we ask God in the name of Jesus.

To the question, where should we pray, we answer that we should pray privately and in communion with our fellowmen. in the church or anywhere. Prayer in communion reminds us that God is OUR Father and. we are brethren. It helps to clean our souls of those feelings which are not becoming to brethren, like pride, selfishness, cruelty and indifference. As it is necessary for us to stand alone before the holy God, it is also necessary to come together before Him as children before their Father. “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” Matt. 6:6. But the Bible also says this: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him, bless His name!” Psalm 100.

STEPHEN KOVÁCS.

CONFERENCE OF ELDERS

The Eastern Classis of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America will sponsor a Conference of Elders to be held in the new Church Center of our Perth Amboy Church, Kirkland Place, Perth Amboy, N.J. on Sunday afternoon and evening, March 1, 1959.

The preparatory committee includes the Dean of the Classis, the Rev. Gábor Csordás, the Rev. Dezső Ábrahám. Perth Amboy and the Rev. Dr. Andrew Harsanyi, Carteret, pastors.

The February issue of Magyar Church will publish the full program of the conference. We urge each and every elder of the congregations of the Eastern Classis to plan to attend this conference.