Critiquing Critique

When the previous editor, J. Van Overloop, retired from the editorship of Beacon Lights, he composed a letter for all the editors and writers in the magazine — at least I assume he did, because I received one. In this communication he stated that Beacon Lights contains all the rubrics to make it a good magazine for our young people. The statement pointedly reminded me at that time that we do have all the rubrics that our young people need in their magazine and I have a special responsibility as a writer in that magazine to write articles that help our young people.

It is necessary that we be reminded of this fact occasionally because we tend to forget and lose our perspective. This loss of perspective and the accompanying loss of a genuine and well-defined sense of purpose results in a deficiency of zeal for a very important cause.

I can remember well my attempts to write the first article that I ever wrote for Beacon Lights. I was a teenager then. That was a score of years ago or more and it was such a struggle to write that article. Writing is still a struggle. To write well and effectively demands arduous effort. Just ask those who are required to write, and they will tell you that it’s labor; but it’s rewarding effort.

There was a time when I was a far more frequent contributor to this period­ical than now. This is not caused by a lack of interest in the activities of young people. It is chiefly because I am much more involved in the activities of young people in other significant areas.

The rubric “Critique” has been the chief recipient of the articles I have written since the inception of the rubric in the October-November, 1959, issue. It was often difficult to write an article which seemed to fit exactly the terms of the rubric. The original idea resulting in the birth of the rubric was that it would contain articles which reported and com­mented on important events which occur in the secular world and in the church world. Comment in “Critique” would include discussion of the intellectual and religious movements which affect the life of the child of God. It was the intention of the originators of the rubric, therefore, to publish articles which would apply the principles of the Word of God, the truth of the Ecumenical Creeds, and the truths of the Reformed Confessions to these events so that Protestant Reformed young people would receive assistance and direction in establishing a proper attitude toward these events and intellectual movements.

Young people continue to need this kind of assistance and direction in the very complex and sinful world in which they are called to live. The errors of the world are increasingly deceitful, and one can easily be deceived if he does not carefully examine the basic ideas held by the proponents and leaders of these move­ments.

In order that we may reestablish our direction and rededicate ourselves, we need to critique and evaluate our own attitudes and our individual and collective activities. We need this in every area of our life. We also need such evaluation of our attempts to assist young people in their contemporary and on-going struggle against sin.

* * * * *

A New Year Resolution

As I contemplated the difficulties of sound critique and proper evaluation, I was reminded that we are entering a new calendar year. This new beginning com­pelled me not only to look ahead but reminded me to evaluate and judge the past. This process of evaluation is a painful one because it tends to reveal garish sins, numerous mistakes, and scores of miserable failures.

Evaluation throughout the history of the world always has been a painful process. We learn this when we study the Holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise. At the beginning of each day my first hour study hall students and I have been reading the minor prophets for devotion. Recently we have been studying the stunning message that Amos, the sheep-herder and fig-gatherer of Tekoah in Judah, had to deliver as a prophet of Jehovah God to the rebellious and idolatrous ten northern tribes of Israel. They had ostensibly departed from idolatry. The blatant Baal worship which was prevalent in the days of King Ahab had been annihilated; but they continued other forms of idolatry. They did not worship Jehovah in spirit and in truth as they had been commanded to do in Jerusalem. They continued to worship in Bethel and in Dan by bowing down to the calves of Jeroboam. They supported the schismatic and wicked priesthood of the gainsayer Amaziah. To this wicked and covenant-breaking people the prophet Amos came with a message of judgment. The evaluation of Jehovah God was that they had not departed from idolatry. Amos, who undoubtedly was dressed in the rough garments of a shepherd, told the sophisticated people of Samaria that as a nation Israel would be destroyed and would be led into captivity. This was a frightening message of the judgment of God, but the men of Samaria would not heed the warnings of Amos. Because of their rebellion and hardness of heart, they were taken into captivity and as a nation they were never restored to power or to honor.

When we examine and evaluate our own lives and our own activities, this also can be a painful experience. I refer to the kind of spiritual inventory we are called to conduct at the end of each day and at certain other specified or unspecified periods in our life. You, who are the youth of the church, who are recipients with your parents of great and precious promises, are called to take spiritual inventory of your lives. This is the kind of critique that is both helpful and necessary.

The painful and honest evaluation which we conduct will uncover errors and faults. When these faults and errors are uncovered, they demand correction. Such remedy is part of the painful process.

If a broken member of our bodies is left to heal without proper splinting, it will not grow correctly. When the proper corrective measures are utilized, the patient suffers discomfort and incon­venience; but the corrective measures are necessary if the improperly healed member of our body is to contribute to the beauty and best functioning of our bodies.

This is the way it is also in other areas of our lives as Christians. Some of you, who read this contribution, are going to make a public confession of your faith. This will be a “new year” or a new beginning in your life. When we become confession members of Christ’s church, we are asked to make some solemn resolutions. We resolve to adhere to the true doctrines contained in the Old and New Testaments and in the Articles of the Christian faith. We resolve to reject all heresies repugnant to this true doctrine. We resolve to lead a Christian life and to forsake the world and its evil lust. We resolve to submit ourselves to Christian admonitions. We resolve to submit to church government and to church disci­pline if that becomes necessary.

If you have studied the form used in the Protestant Reformed Churches for making confession of faith, or have studied the questions asked in the form for the baptism of adults, you will recognize the similarity to the resolutions in the previous paragraph. These things we must affirm with all our hearts as we begin this New Year in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1977.

Because we are young people who are regenerated by the Spirit of Christ, let us with a firm resolve live according to all the commandments of God. As we conduct our New Year evaluations of the past and pledge a new beginning, may each one examine his own conscience to determine whether he has resolved to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life.

If this is your new beginning, although it be only a small beginning of the new obedience, you will live thankfully in the New Year, because the dwelling of God is with the men of His good pleasure. God, who dwells with us by His Spirit, wipes away all tears, takes away all death, and says, “Behold I make all things new.”