Magyar Egyház, 1966 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-01-01 / 1. szám

6

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

MAGYAR

CHURCH

O JV GUARD!

The Lord has given us the year 1966 as a gift. For many years now I have belonged to that group who look upon the years as a gift. Who can know how much joy, happiness, opportunities to serve, chances to prove our faith, how much sorrow awaits us?

God gives His gifts not to spoil but to improve.

Let us ask ourselves for what purpose are we using this unspeakable gift that we call life? God expects something in return. I, as the bishop of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America would answer with the words of the prophet Habakkuk, with gratitude in my heart and with great humility: “I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer to Him.” (Hab. 2:1)

In former issues of the Magyar Church there was a column which bore the title “From the Battlements”. A small drawing of Alexander Finta, the great Hungarian artist in America spoke more loudly than words, and this depicted that the people, leaders, ministers of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America are standing on the battlements guarding the fortress.

We, too, so to speak are standing on the battlements in 1966, and we must be on guard, because thousands of enemies are threatening our fortress. The enemy is very subtle. He does not besiege us with weapons but with smiles, kind words, and with promises that can never be kept. This ultra-modern world with its unbelief and the comfort-loving modern man with his indifference want to open wide the gates of the fortress. My dear brethren in the Reformed Church, let me warn you; “Be watchful, and be on the guard!” In the midnight hour, when darkness covers the world, and when the watchmen fall asleep at their posts, dark figures steal toward the gates, that they might open them wide to the enemy.

When the self-made gods of modern man crumble, men look for new idols to worship. We believe in the God of our fathers, Who lives and reigns, and is sovereign and has given us salvation through Christ and Who has mapped the road of our fate and Who has kept us by His grace until this hour. This coming year let us not try to depict the future by reading the stars or some crystal ball but let us heed the Word of God as it has been revealed to us and as we are reminded of it from day to day by His Holy Spirit. What the future holds for us, how we must act and what we must do with this gift of God, namely life — He will tell us if we will but faithfully listen to His voice.

May we all, including myself, each and every responsible person, be at his post, on guard.

Let everyone stand at his place whether he be a minister, a chief-elder, an elder or member of the Ladies’ Aid or Youth Fellowship. May every child in our Sunday Schools and every person in our churches stand faithfully in his place. God has assigned a task for everyone for

this year. Whether an officer or a member of the Church we must be a witness for our Savior and Lord and prove that we love our Church very much and would be willing to make any sacrifice for her.

As long as I am the Bishop, I will keep reminding you of the fact that the Free Magyar Church which is now called the Hungarian Reformed Church in America has been established because our people requested of the Reverend Endre Sebestyén and the other ministers to stand by them because they wanted an independent church wherein they could follow their faith traditions and customs freely. Our church is the church of our Hungarian Reformed people.

Our free Hungarian Reformed Church in America will continue to exist only as long as its people want to maintain it. If you with me, my dear people, will not stand faithfully on the battlements and will not be watchful we will seal our fate. Our ministers who came to

America at a later date will never be able to understand what great sacrifices our good old Hungarians and their faithful pastors made that we might enjoy a free and

independent church life. Today the world is full of strange cults and isms. Today anything and everything is good except that which is ours, which has been handed down to us from our ancestors, for which we had to suffer hard and long and for which we had to pay a

great price. Today this world is so busy chasing mirages that it has forgotten that it has a precious home, a

spiritual fortress which it must defend.

Let us dare to be confident members of the Reformed Church who read God’s Word and truly believe. Those members of our church who really value their faith will not give it up for anything.

In spite of this we can still love and respect those of other faiths and will not make light of their beliefs and will look upon them as brethren as long as they do not try to lure us from our own faith.

Yes, we believe wholeheartedly in Christian ecumenicity. We do not wish to belittle anyone’s belief yet we do not want to give up our own just to win the favor of others. We are the descendants of a people who accepted their hard fate without murmuring from the God Almighty Who predestined them to salvation, and who knew that in order to remain faithful to Christ from whom we receive the crown of eternal live they had to waste this earthly live. The members of our Hungarian Reformed Churches have always been sober, serious-minded who have considered all the facts. This is why we cannot allow the pure wine of Hungarian Calvinism to be diluted with the waters of superficial Christianity. This is why we resent the unsolicited advice and interference of those who have nothing to do with our Hungarian Reformed life in America.

Let us be faithful and stand guard on the battlements this coming year!

May this coming year be the time when our spiritual unity shall increase among all Hungarian Reformed