Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.

Thanksgiving to Whom?

“Diverse religious groups get together for a special Thanksgiving service” read the headline in the religious section of the Grand Rapids’ Press. In the name of “unity”, Reformed, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Jewish gathered together for thanksgiving to “god”—a “god” common to all these diverse religions. The article stated:

Unity in the name of a common God was the theme. 

Jews sat next to Dutch Reform and Roman Catholic sisters were blessed by the traditional incense of a Greek Orthodox priest. 

These four diverse religious groups gathered Tuesday night for a special Thanksgiving service, one that the walls of the Third Reformed Church, 2060 Michigan Ave. N.E., have likely never seen.

The service included hymns of praise, scripture readings and a dialogue sermon by the Rev. Lawrence Doom of the Third Reformed and Rabbi Michael Rascoe of Congregation Ahavas Israel. 

The night was, in Doom’s words, an “experience of worship in celebration of our common American heritage.” 

The Rev. James Bogdon of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church echoed these thoughts in his opening prayer. 

“We, though diverse in tradition and belief,” said Bogdon, “come to You on this day of Thanksgiving to offer You all we have and all that we are.” 

The idea for the unusual ecumenical experiment, one involving both Christians and Jews, was first proposed to Doorn by Rascoe, his neighbor, while the two were standing in Doorns driveway one night last summer,

Doorn jumped at the idea, and together with Rascoe invited the Greek Orthodox congregation and the Dominican Sisters of Marywood Academy to join in. 

The Rev. Gregory Heille and Sister Virginia Smith, partners in the liturgy team at Marywood, helped plan the service. 

For all of their lives, the four congregations had worshipped separately right next to each other. 

Never before had all four worshipped together. 

The chief ground rule in planning the service, Rascoe said, was that nothing exclusionary of any other group was to be included. 

“The idea of Thanksgiving is common lo all of us,” the rabbi said, “and can overcome anything specifically denominational.” 

If the four congregations involved give a positive response, Doorn said, the service will become an annual event, replacing as it did this year his own church’s traditional Thanksgiving celebration. 

“I don’t know of anything like this in the community, with both Christians and Jews together,” Doom said. 

Emphasizing the uniquely American nature of the day, Doom read President Reagan’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, and quoted George Washington in his sermon: 

“May the Father of all mercies shed light and not darkness in our paths.”

Rascoe said, “Coming together tonight is proof enough of what this country can do, of where we are and where we are going. . . We must be grateful for that. “

Rascoe is correct at least in his statement: “. . . Tonight is proof enough . . . of where we are and where we are going . . . .” But no Christian could possibly be “grateful for that”.

Such a “worship” service could be conducted only with this “chief ground rule”: “Nothing exclusionary of any other group was to be included.” That means, of course, that God could not be named as Triune; He could not be addressed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It means that God, Who sent Jesus Christ, could not be presented as the God Who blesses only through Jesus Christ. The cross could not be mentioned. These could not come to God in thanksgiving on the basis of that cross. That would prove “exclusionary”.

So, how could there be true thanksgiving to God?

And has not the Word of Scripture been taken seriously: “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” How, then, could there be worship and thanksgiving together with such as have so distorted the truths of the cross as to make necessary the Reformation? And worse: how can deniers of the trinity and of the cross of atonement, join hands with those who claim to believe both? God is not mocked. What must have been excluded in that “worship” service, means that God was not properly thanked; His Name was not honored; His Son was ignored. Shame indeed to all such as participate in this mockery.

The “Cost” of Orthodoxy

The Christian News, Oct. 26, 1987, quotes from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 20, 1987, as follows:

Missouri Baptist College is showing three faculty members the door in a dispute over the teaching of evolutionary theory. Every private school has the right to teach its mandate; we do not dispute this. The ability to hire and Fire goes with it. But few institutions are so closed off from the rest of the world that when they exercise this right they do not risk inviting public ridicule and, more seriously, sanctions from bodies on whose approval hinges their own credibility. 

Thus, by ruling out all instruction of evolution as a scientifically respectable theory of the Earth’s origin, Missouri Baptist has made of itself a laughing stock. The degrees of its graduates are compromised, and their chances of obtaining employment as teachers of history and science in public schools are made negligible. By so closely intertwining a narrow, fundamentalist view of science with the school’s curriculum, the board of trustees has also possibly thrown into jeopardy its accreditation and thereby undermined the ability of its 903 students to receive government loans and grants for their education. 

The school is yet young and has much to learn about the vital role that academic freedom and unimpeded inquiry play in the cultivation of bright, inquisitive minds. Evidently, its directors place greater importance on obeying the doctrinal dictates of the Rev. Gary Taylor of Tower Grove Baptist Church. As religious policy, this is questionable. As an educational standard, it’s abhorrent. 

If Missouri Baptist wants to be Rev. Taylor’s school, it has embarked on the correct course. But in so doing, it has forfeited its right to be taken seriously as an institution of higher learning.

One notes the threats and intimidation included in the above article. Because a religious college refuses to teach evolution as a “respectable theory of the Earth’s origin,” it makes itself a “laughing stock”. Its graduates ought not to teach history nor science in public schools. Such a school does not deserve accreditation. With that, its students ought not receive any government loans or grants for their education. It has “forfeited its right to be taken seriously as an institution of higher learning”.

And though the article insists that this college is obeying “the doctrinal dictates of the Rev. Gary Taylor”, the fact is that it evidently obeys the dictates of Scripture—specifically the first chapters of Genesis. One knows that this type of scorn comes upon the faithful church—yet it is rather shocking to see it in print. The courts have declared that the creation account may not be taught as a “scientifically respectable theory of the Earth’s origin” in public schools. Yet it is now said that evolution must so be taught in private Christian colleges.

Buddhism’s Growth in America

The Christian News, Nov. 2, 1987, reminds of the growth of open idolatry in America. It writes (quoting from RNS),

“. . . Buddhism has taken hold in America. The most concrete sign yet of Buddhism’s emergence as a major religion in the United States will occur during November in Los Angeles when leaders of a variety of American Buddhist groups will meet to create a national organization designed to enhance the spread of the Faith in this country. 

About 150 Buddhist leaders from around the country are expected to attend the first convocation of the American Buddhist Congress (ABC) set for Nov. 10-12 at the Kwan Um Sa Korean Buddhist Temple near downtown. 

The leaders will adopt a constitution, elect officers and pass resolutions on matters of mutual concern to all American Buddhists.

Within a few years, so we are told, Buddhism will outnumber those of the Jewish religion in our country and become the second major religion after “Christianity”. Only a few years ago, we were inclined to think of the United States as a “Christian” nation. Now, with apostasy in the ranks of the churches, and the rise of heathen religions, with the rise of atheism and the eradication of all reference to God and His Word in public places, the United States is rapidly becoming godless and antichristian. But all of this is truly fulfillment of the testimony of Scripture which speaks of the signs of the end of time.