11th August eighty years ago the Lord graciously liberated His church in the Netherlands. We Free Reformed Churches of Australia trace our linage, the linage of Christ’s church, back through that Liberation, then further back through the Union of 1892, the Second Secession of 1886, the First Secession of 1834, the Great Reformation of the 16th century, right back through the time of the apostles, through the Old Testament church, all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve. It is one church which Christ gathers, defends and preserves through His Spirit and Word (LD 21). We call ourselves Free Reformed, here in Australia, because God set us free to hold fast to the truth of His Word. The Lord set us free from being tied to unscriptural teachings imposed upon us, free from the hierarchical oppression of a wayward synod. We are also called Reformed because we want to submit to God’s Word alone.
This article is by Rev van Gurp at an earlier commemoration of the Church Liberation. It has been translated from Dutch and slightly modified and updated for today’s readership. Being a theological student at the time of the Liberation of 1944 Pieter van Gurp was acutely aware of what was happening and of the feelings, at the time, of those who were at the meeting at which the ‘Act of Liberation and Return’ was presented and adopted. I publish this article because it shows something of the situation at that time and has, I believe, some valuable lessons for us.
JN
On the 11th August 1944, a meeting took place that marked the beginning of our church liberation in the Netherlands. Men and women, boys and girls, flocked to The Hague where the organisers had rented a meeting room in the Salvation Army building, expecting only a few people to turn up. But there were so many people that the Lutheran Church had to be used. Far more people came than the organisers had dared to hope for. Nevertheless, it was still a relatively small number when you consider that the Reformed Churches had more than 800,000 members. However, it was still war time, and some people wondered whether it was responsible to call people to this meeting; after all, the Germans still occupied the Netherlands, the trains were regularly targeted by Allied planes, and there was a looming railway strike (requested by the Dutch government-in-exile in London) that would bring all transport to a standstill.
Yet it did not stop many from going to the meeting. With worry in their hearts, reformed people travelled to The Hague by the hundreds because of their concern for the church following synod’s bad decisions and actions. They also feared a church split. They did not come together to applaud those who had been falsely accused by synod; nor did they come to wave their fist in the air and demand that synod reinstate those who had been wrongly suspended and deposed.
No, they came hesitantly, unsure of how to proceed now that synod had acted so badly. They came, wondering what to do now. They sought to be encouraged by one another, to sing and pray together, to call on God for deliverance in the depths of their sadness, to seek the help of the LORD to rebuild Zion (Psalm 102:16). They asked themselves: How could God’s people be released from the prison of false teachings imposed on them by a hierarchical synod?
SNARE AND PRISON
Not only had office bearers and ministers of the Word been suspended, deposed from office and dismissed, not only had a church been excluded from the federation, not only had a faithful candidate been denied permission to serve in the ministry – but above all: the door to further overtures regarding Synod’s decisions had been slammed shut and locked: Synod had emphatically declared that henceforth nothing was to be taught in the churches that was not in full agreement with its doctrinal statements, and these had then to be read in the light of its explanatory notes and advice.
Despite many entreaties from the churches, despite desperate attempts to still reach a consensus, a doctrinal agreement, despite promises and assurances from “concerned members” seeking to prevent a break in the church federation, the synod was unyielding: it had locked the door to further considerations and it remained locked.
That was a snare, a prison. For that disastrous year 1944 marked the culmination of a church group [who clung to theories of Abraham Kuyper] which for some years had wanted to put an end to what it wrongly called ‘deformation’, but which was in fact reformation: a return to Scripture and Confession.
That reformation movement had gathered momentum in the 1930s. It had breathed new life into the congregations, it had promoted a return to Scripture and Confession and it had infused and enthused church members; it was indeed a reformation, a return to living out of Scripture and Confession, and it permeated the whole church community; it was a return to living in the light of Scripture and Confession and showed how they applied to the broad field of life in church, state and society.
However, a certain group in the church resisted this reformation. These leaders [who wanted to stick with Kuyper and ideas extrapolated from his views] resisted a Scriptural and Confessional reformation of life. They felt they had to defend Kuyper’s legacy; they felt they had to defend what they called the “reformed heritage” of Kuyper’s ideas against a movement they labelled deformation.
But they failed to realise that this movement—which they labelled as revolution and deformation instigated by some ‘beardless fellows’—was actually the Lord’s work. That ‘deformation movement’, they thought, had to be stopped for good before it got to the point that the whole church would be infected by it. That attempt to snuff out what was really a reformation movement became the snare, the prison of the church.
THE YOKE CAST OFF
And then the hour of deliverance came. The Lord Himself broke the shackles; He broke the snare. We put it this way because we want to give honour and praise to the Lord, and to humble ourselves. It was not our work, but His work from beginning to end.
That meeting on the 11th August 1944 at The Hague was chaired by Rev H. Knoop [who had a little earlier been released from Dachau] and he led us in humbling ourselves, in a confession of guilt, in acknowledging our sin – because we were all part of this sinful decline in the church. There was nothing in the way of shouting about injustice, no denunciation of wrongdoing by others, no cry for justice. There was first an acknowledgement of guilt. This is how it can still be read today in that Act of Liberation. In that way it is also according to the Scriptures. Reformation of the church is always accompanied by confession of guilt. Recall how this was also what Daniel did (Daniel 9).
But the Lord then further demands Scriptural sobriety. For Scripture says that we are assured of the forgiveness of our sins only in the way of obedience, of simply obeying God. This is also how it is confessed in the ‘Act of Liberation and Return’ formulated at the meeting.
The Lord worked: He used people, who went before us and demonstrated in their lives that the Lord requires obedience.
The Lord broke the snare – and He made people willing and ready to throw off the yoke. He worked the willingness and the action.
ONGOING REFORMATION
The barriers to the church’s reformation then fell away just like that; we stood in glorious freedom. Not yet free from German occupation but free again to serve God according to His Word. We felt dizzy in the light of God’s sunshine, freed from the dungeon just like that! Yes, freed then also to serve Him; freed to now continue that ongoing reformational work which had already brought so much blessing to God’s people. For a time it had been hindered by men but now the Lord again gave ample room for it to flourish.
As reformed churches (freed, liberated) we have no separate ‘Liberation’ qualities, no special Liberation identity; merely a return to simple obedience. This is how it was professed in the Act of Liberation. Liberation is a return to the obedience we had been allowed to practise with each other prior to 1942.
So, at this 80th commemoration of the Liberation, we have reason to ask ourselves: are we still continuing the reformation of our life? The Lord broke the snare, released His people from the prison of false teaching and hierarchy. Do we now live in gratitude for that deliverance? Gratitude then is: enthusiastically continuing that obedience now even more than before. Yes, even more now, since we today can see more clearly how the Lord preserved us in a time of temptation in order to continue leading us in His way today.
We have our concerns about that. We sometimes hear sounds, especially when it comes to political and social cooperation, that does not reflect that ongoing reformation.
THOSE LEFT BEHIND
If we do not live out of the deliverance that the Lord worked through liberation, we are not only guilty before the Lord, but we are also placing a stumbling block in the way of our neighbour, and here we are thinking especially of concerned members who have remained behind. We often sang Psalm 124 and 126 in the time of the Liberation, Psalms about deliverance from the snare and captivity, but also a prayer for deliverance for those left behind. We do so even more today as we see the rubble, the ruins of Zion. We don’t say now: see, we were right after all; for we know, if the Lord had not been with us, we too would have been swept away and would have perished. A flood of water, a raging torrent, would have overwhelmed us: we too would have been destroyed, had God not saved us.
But we do say: the Lord wanted to open our eyes. Church leaders were blinded; they thought they were securing the Reformed heritage [Kuyper’s legacy] in the face of a revolutionary current. They did not see that they were fighting against the Lord’s work, that they wanted to prevent a reformation movement. And then the dike collapsed, and the current, the wild torrent, the flood of false prophecy and modernism destroyed their church – and no one could turn it back and can turn it back today.
It was from that current of false prophecy that the Lord wanted to save us. And we will continue to call for ongoing reformation and demonstrate it in all of life! We will continue to point those who have not joined us to the only way of escape. They do not have to agree to liberation specialities, they are not called to a particular liberation church identity. The Lord continues to call them from the addiction to sin – to the freedom of the children of God:
- from the dictatorship of the majority who force people to follow it in evil – to the space of binding themselves to His Word and the Confession of the church;
- from the deterioration of life through permissiveness – to healing through the ministry of church discipline;
- from false prophecy, which calls good evil and evil good – to the truth of the yes and no of the church.
From our wealth, we call them to a rest that can be found only in the reformation of our life according to God’s Word and the Confessions. And our calling will be able to stand before God and men only when we live out of the riches of deliverance, of true liberation.
P van Gurp, “De strik brak los”, gereformeerde kerkbode: Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, 11 August 1984 (vol. 40 no. 30), p. 1,2.