Indications are that the pause will soon be over, and life in ministry will be restarted. I believe then God will ask us, “What did you do with the time I gave you, all of you, in the whole nation, to seek Me and my Word?” I can’t speak for other Reformed denominations, but I can say this about us; if we in the RCA go back to business as usual, we might as well, like Amos said, “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” God has never tolerated what the RCA is tolerating. Perhaps, this is our time-out; our time to smell the air, to look at the sky and see what might be coming (Mt.16:3).

On so many levels we as leaders should be concerned about the situation the Church finds itself in this very month, this very week. Thinking of the North American Church in particular, we should be smelling something in the air that makes us suspicious of the times we are seeing unfold. In our hundreds of years of history we have never seen anything come that has shut down every place where the True God is worshipped. No matter how bad things got, in whatever way they got bad, we still gathered for worship.

We literally live in unprecedented times. It’s not just about suspended services, but in times unprecedented since the Reformation.

God’s voice in troubled times

Let me explain what I mean: I have been studying and preaching Isaiah 6 and its influence within the rest of the Scripture for some time now. While doing this the Lord kept drawing me over to the book of Amos, in more than coincidental ways. In uncanny, providential ways, so I felt I had to dig deeper.

This prophet ministered just before Isaiah, but it is amazing how the Holy Spirit says almost the same message through both of them, yet from a different angle. Compare Amos 4 & 5 to Isaiah 5 & 6 and an over-lapping of messages becomes clear in 3 part structures; there are 8 “woes” (Is. has 7), the warning that they are going to “meet” God (in Isaiah it is fulfilled beginning in 6:1), and then lastly the judgement of an initial 90% reduction, and then a second 90% of the remaining 10%. God’s judgement would reduce the nation to 1% of its former population (Am.5:3, Is.6:11-13). All this happened in 722 B.C., and then the second phase in 605-587 B.C., to fulfil the Word of the Lord.

As the Reformed Church in America (RCA), and other Reformed denominations, struggle with the issues that face us at this present time, and hopefully will come to a head at the next General Synod, how Amos interprets the troubles Israel was facing is, I believe, directly applicable to what we are facing in this time of suspended services, General Synod, and this time at home to think.

The “woes” sent on Israel, Amos says, were a painful barrage of tribulations (with echoes of the plagues in Egypt). Their goal was that they “return.” When they would not listen (“Yet, you have not returned to me.”), Amos warns them; “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel” (4:12).

Troubles and trials were sent to the people of God for two purposes; to drive them away from syncretism with the world, and to drive them to “return” to their only Refuge and Strength.

This was illustrated to me recently by what happened to a godly young man I know. A promising career in both golf and soccer was in his future (at 17 he sometimes drove 330 yards, and could Eagle a par 4). One day, in the Army Reserve’s training, a stupid little accident resulted in not just him being medically released, but, the constant pain ended all sports career plans. A life of difficulty had begun for him, and there were spiritual struggles as well. Yet, one day he spoke to his pastor about what God was saying in all this; “God is driving me away from having affections for this world, and what it has to offer,” he said. “He is driving me to put all my trust and joys in Him.”

The only time I had the privilege of hearing Joni Erickson-Tada speak at a Ligonier conference, she beautifully said the same thing, for an hour. There was a noticeable pause when she finished, before anyone clapped. We were all choked-up and humbled. I got the impression that we could all feel Christ calling us; “Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See the winter is past; the rains are gone… Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me” (Song 2:10-13). When she left the stage, Sinclair Fergusson was next to speak. Like us, he too was speechless. Finally, he lifted his head and said, “I feel like a spiritual midget.” We all felt the same. In the misery of this world, Christ calls us to himself.

Calvin says the same thing; “…because we are too lazy, God pricks us the more sharply, as occasion demands, to pray more earnestly…the more harshly troubles, discomforts, fears, and trials of other sorts press us, the freer is our access to him, as if God were summoning us to himself” (Inst.III.XX.7).

God sends us troubles to wake us up. To wean us off of this world, that we might seek Him. That is God’s message through Amos chapter 4; “Is your stomach empty? Go to the Lord and ask why he is doing this.” Or to us, “Have your services stopped? Ask why.” The voice of God in troubled times is almost always: “Leave the world. Return to me.”

A Time Out

This is not an argument to resume our services, in spite of the dangers. In fact, it is more of a push to embrace it. Should we be asking ourselves if God Himself is not giving us a strategic pause, a “time out” for the sake of regrouping and self-examination? Is the purpose of this to drive us to a time of repentance (a word that means “turning around”)?

Amos was not afraid to fully confront sin when he saw it in what for him was the visible people of God; the nation of Israel. In chapter 7 the Lord gives him a message of condemnation that would have made the audience’s ears ring (and their blood boil). We read of a priest who made sure the King was aware of Amos’ message. This resulted in the king threatening him in order to get him to leave, and go back to Judah. But Amos saw this as a rejection of God’s call to repentance, and a further entrenchment in the sin that was destroying them. Amos therefore redoubled his determination, and replied to the king, [The judgement will still come, and it will be so bad that, to feed herself] “your wife will become a prostitute in the city….”

The Lord is not sending NT prophets to confront the RCA with a call to repentance. He does not need to, since everything He wants to say is already contained in His Word. It has already been issued, for we are already marching down a path that ancient Israel, and others since then, have already trodden into a well-worn trail, right over the precipice. The question now is, will we use this “time out” to humble ourselves and listen.

The RCA is facing a decision that if we feared God, would never have come up in the first place.

A Time-out Talk Topic

There are still things to do during this time of enforced isolation, for ministry continues. But also, during this extra time what the brothers with me are doing is this; we are having a serious re-examination of everything we do and teach and are comparing it to the Word of God. We are letting Calvin and Farel, Owen and Watson, in on the discussion as well. We are asking Knox if we have not surrendered in our day, what our Lord built through him in his day.

As a seed for your thoughts, let me give you an example of what is on the chopping block:

The first thing to go is going to be any support of Lent and its related unbiblical practices. Some of us were saved out of Catholicism, and know that this practice is not only absent from Scripture, but is, as Calvin said, a prime example of Rome’s utter rejection of the authority of Scripture, and the corruption of true piety through syncretism with pagan superstitions (Institutes IV.XII.19). Lent is a gateway drug for the Carnival of Mardi Gras, which is a Celebration and orgy of the Carnal. Surrounded by Protestants here, Ash Wednesday is observed merely by an indulgence of pancakes and sausage. But not historically, or in other places. If you don’t believe me, check out on YouTube how Mardi Gras opens the Lent season in the South American Roman Catholic countries. Protestants there want nothing to do with it, for they know what it’s really about, and leads to.

I bring this one up by way of example, but there are many other corruptions we have been seduced to letting creep into the worship of the Lord. Many, many martyrs died for what they passed on to us. Now, we are letting it back in, or at least tolerating it. I am reading the F.L. Battles translation of the Institutes again, comparing it to what we practice.  In it, Calvin lays this responsibility on the pastors, and begins the section on the observance of Lent with this:

But we must always take especial precaution lest any superstition creep in, as has previously happened to the great harm of the church. For it would be much more satisfactory if fasting were not practiced at all, than diligently observed and at the same time corrupted with false and pernicious opinions, into which the world repeatedly falls, unless the pastors meet it with the highest faithfulness and prudence. (IV.XII.19)

The Church has had a time of extended success and peace. Have we become comfortable, unwatchful? Have we let creep into our worship that which not only is unbiblical, but that which actually offends our God and drives the Spirit away?

This brings me back to the “woes” in Amos, and God’s voice in times of troubles. Troubles are often sent by the Lord to call us back to him. For myself, Pastoral life is often too busy to take the time to do serious reflection, prayer, and where needed, repentance. Now, I have the time, and no excuse.

I am fully convinced that this strategic pause is from the Lord, and yet I keep in mind that Israel was sent similar opportunities from the Lord, and did not take them. If we are in the midst of a warning from the Lord, this pause could be just what the Church needs; some serious self-reflection. As Paul finished the book of 2 Corinthians, this is exactly what he told them to do.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.

Indications are that the pause will soon be over, and life in ministry will be restarted. I believe then God will ask us, “What did you do with the time I gave you, all of you, in the whole nation, to seek Me and my Word?”

I can’t speak for other Reformed denominations, but I can say this about us; if we in the RCA go back to business as usual, we might as well, like Amos said, “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” God has never tolerated what the RCA is tolerating. Perhaps, this is our time-out; our time to smell the air, to look at the sky and see what might be coming (Mt.16:3).

Charles d’Espeville is a Minister in the Reformed Church in America.