REFORMED WITNESS
Volume VIII, January 2000, Number 1
Training Men for the Gap
By Prof. Herman Hanko
The text of the address at the convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary held at Southwest Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville, MI, on September 7, 1999, as published in the November 15 and December 1, 1999, issues of The Standard Bearer.
IntroductionIn the year of our Lord 1999 the seminary begins a critical two semesters of studies. This is not simply because the new year will span the end of the second millennium of the new dispensation and the beginning of the third, but the passing of this second millennium reminds us forcibly that time is running towards its close and our Lord will soon bring history to an end.
Scripture makes abundantly clear that as the church nears the end of the ages, evil will grow significantly, and the powers of darkness will increase in boldness and in the ferocity of their attacks on the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. What person here tonight who has paid attention to what is happening in the world today and in the church both in this land and abroad can doubt that the return of the Lord is near?
That makes the work of the seminary all the more crucial. Perhaps the final, great battle lies just over the next hill as the armies of Christ march onward under the Captain of their salvation.
In some respects, this thought makes what is no doubt my last speech at Convocation somewhat sad for me. Only the Lord knows what lies ahead for all of us. But it seems likely that my teaching days are all but over, and I cannot help but feel a bit as if I am leaving the battlefield as the last and most crucial battle is about to be fought.
But God has so willed it, and I am thankful that I need not leave with fear in my soul about the future of the seminary. God has given us faithful men to carry on the work, and I bid you farewell with confidence in the integrity of the seminary and a sure hope for the ultimate victory of our cause.
I have chosen to speak to you tonight on a striking passage of God's Word, Ezekiel 22:30: "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
Zion's Walls
Because the language of our AV [Authorized Version] may be a bit misleading, I offer you the translation of a noted Bible scholar which is closer to the idea of the text: "I seek among them for a man who might build a wall and step into the breach before me on behalf of the land, that I might not destroy it, but I find none."
It is obvious that the Lord is speaking, through the prophet Ezekiel, of the city of Jerusalem with its mighty fortress on the hill of Zion. Ezekiel was with the captives in Babylon, on the river Chebar, after Jerusalem had been sacked by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. This text was God's explanation for the necessity and inevitability of the captivity. God had looked for one to stand in the gap in the wall of Zion. One. Just one. One would have been enough. One to step into the breach. One to build the wall. One to lead the cowering armies against the enemy.
But there was none...
The references to Zion as a strong fortress and a walled city are many in Scripture. I need only remind you of Psalm 48: "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: count the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces..." (vv. 12, 13). Zion's citizens (and anyone of interest outside Zion) must do this, for Zion is "beautiful for situation." It is "the joy of the whole earth." It is "the city of the great King." "God is known in her palaces for a refuge," and the kings of the earth, when they looked upon Zion, marvelled, and were troubled, and hasted away, because "fear took hold upon them there..." (vv. 2-5).
That great and mighty city was now destroyed and her citizens were in captivity - because when God had looked for one to stand in the gap, there was no one. Not even one.
God had built Zion as an almost impregnable fortress because it was an abiding picture of His church in the world. It was the church of God in the old days when the nation of Israel sought refuge behind its walls. It remains a picture of the church throughout all time. No wonder that the author of the epistle to the Hebrews could say in astonishment: "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:22, 23).
Even today the church sings of her own glory:
Zion founded on the mountains,
God thy Maker loves thee well.
He has chosen thee most precious;
He delights in thee to dwell.
God's own city:
Who can all thy glory tell?When Scripture compares the church with the walled and fortified city of Zion, Scripture does so for two reasons. The first is that by means of the walls built on Mount Zion and surrounding Jerusalem the church is pictured as separated from the world. The church is in Jerusalem; the world is outside. The people of God are within the walls; the enemy, on the other side. The wall is between them as a mark of separation.
The second reason for Scripture to present the church as a city with mighty fortifications is to depict Zion as indestructible, a city which cannot be taken, a fortress against which the enemy forever battles in vain. The reason is clear. God is the strength of Zion. "Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever." Forever and ever and ever. It is a city beyond capture into all eternity. It is a fortress against which the enemy hammer, but finally break themselves into pieces. Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor in Geneva, was speaking of the church when he said to one of the bloodiest persecutors of the church: "Sire, it belongs, in truth, to the church of God, in the name of which I address you, to suffer blows, not to strike them. But at the same time let it be your pleasure to remember that the church is an anvil which has worn out many a hammer."
There is one other point that needs making.
When the church, whether in the old dispensation or in the new, is pictured by Mount Zion, it is the church of Christ in her historical manifestation. That is, the church is here pictured with elect and reprobate alike within her walls. Already in the Old Testament times not all those of Israel were truly Israel (Rom. 9:6). This is not less true today.
So, when we think of the figure so graphically used by Ezekiel in chapter 22:30, we must not think of one denomination such as our own Protestant Reformed Churches. We must think of the church at large, the church in her historical reality, the church represented by many denominations.
If I may extend the figure a bit, the church is like some castles which one can still find in the British Isles. While the castle as a whole is surrounded by thick walls and various towers and fortresses, in the middle of the castle is what is called a "keep." This part of the castle is a high tower with its own thick walls, its own source of water, large stock piles of food, living quarters for many people on many different floors. It is the last line of defense, should the walls of the castle be breached. To it the defenders flee. It is a last resort. If it falls, the castle is taken. The faithful church is today the "keep" of the castle.
Perhaps God has given to us the calling to be the "keep" of the castle. May we have the grace and strength to realize this and to welcome within the walls of our "keep" those who flee for safety to this last line of defense.
Breaches in the Walls
The city of God in this passage in Ezekiel is pictured as having breaches or gaps in its walls. This is, at it were, a given in the text. The Lord does not seem to be surprised by the fact that the gaps are there. What is a matter of some surprise is that no one can be found to stand in the gaps.
We ought not to be surprised that there are gaps in the walls.
One obvious reason why these gaps are always there is the fact that the city is under constant attack. The city is, after all, something of an anomaly in the world. Satan succeeded in gaining man as his ally and the world as his possession when he successfully persuaded Adam and Eve to join his cause. The world, under the leadership of Satan, is God's enemy. The world is determined to destroy God's cause, rob God of His world, banish God from the creation which God Himself made, and make all the creation useful in the cause of sin and unrighteousness.
Into that world God puts the church through the power of His Son Jesus Christ. That church testifies of God's cause, God's truth, God's claims to this present creation. That church is a heavenly institution, a bit of heaven, so to speak, planted in the soil of this earthly abode. The church is an alien presence, a perpetual condemnation of Satan and the wicked hosts of men and demons. It is, therefore, an intolerable institution, a city which cannot be permitted to stand, a nagging, incessant reminder to all wicked men that Christ is on His throne and that they shall end up in hell. The church has got to go. The city of God cannot be permitted to survive. And so it is under constant attack.
No wonder that as Isaiah casts about for figures which adequately depict the church he speaks of it as "a besieged city" (Is. 1:8). The enemies are many, are fierce, are determined at any cost to destroy this citadel which always spells the defeat of their plans.
The world, incessantly bombarding the city, breaks down here and there parts of Zion's walls. That is not surprising. That ought not to catch us off guard. Indeed, if we are caught unawares at the breaches that are made it is because we have a view of the enemy which underestimates seriously the severity of the hatred of wicked men and sees the world through some kind of rose-tinted glasses.
We ought, I think, to mention some of these gaps in the walls, these breaches, which, if left unguarded and unprotected and without repair, will be holes through which the enemy can pour in hordes to take over the entire city.
Some of these gaps are false doctrines. One such doctrine is the doctrine of common grace, with its Arminian teaching of the well-meant gospel offer and its serious compromise with worldliness. Already in the early history of our churches, Herman Hoeksema wrote a pamphlet in Dutch which, in its English translation, is familiar to us under the title "A Triple Breach." Through the breach created by common grace rush, unless a man can be found to stand in the gap, the enemies of Arminianism, the advanced skirmishers of modernism, and the cold and deadly force of worldliness. The gap is there. Can a man be found to stand in the gap?
Another such gap is the breach of higher criticism of the Bible, a serious and awful hole in the wall, to which most of the seminaries in the land are committed. It is a gap which, left unguarded, will permit the enemy to destroy the Scriptures themselves. It is a gap which already has been widened by the errors of evolutionism, denial of the miracles, and attacks on Scripture's clear and obvious condemnation of women in office.
We do well to mention the gap of postmillennialism, through which pour enemies who rob the people of God of their hope of the coming of Christ. Should they lose their hope of the coming of Christ, they will be content in the world, will leave the safety of Zion's walls, and will make their dwelling among the enemies of the church.
Another significant gap in the walls is the error of a conditional covenant, which leaves the city wide open to Arminian hordes who destroy the one reason why Zion was built in the first place: to give all glory to God who alone does wondrously.
Add to that the significant gap of an erroneous doctrine of divorce and remarriage. Through it stream those enemies that are bent on the destruction of the home and family - enemies which have already left certain quarters of the city of God a desolation and a ruin.
We need look at our own churches, represented here tonight, to find gaps of worldliness, Sabbath desecration, a certain toleration of the enemy which results in speaking well of those who wish Zion's overthrow, and a certain softening of the battle cries as if the church has shouted "wolf" too often in her history. A perpetual clamor for change in worship, for an abandonment of the Psalms, for the introduction of hymns - all these things are gaps in the walls, breaches in Zion's defenses. Perhaps they are not yet as serious as to let the enemy flood the church; perhaps they are only cracks appearing as the walls are battered; but once a gap is struck, there are only two things to do: man the gap and repair it, or see the gap widen until it can no longer be defended.
Men for the Gap
God is pictured in the text as casting about for men who will stand in the gaps.
It is clear from the context that the prophet has officebearers in mind. This verse appears here in the text as the conclusion of sharp condemnation of Judah's prophets, priests, and kings. "There is a conspiracy of her prophets..." (v. 25). "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things..." (v. 26). "Her princes ... are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls..." (v. 27). "Her prophets have daubed ... with untempered mortar ... divining lies..." (v. 28).
This is the reason God could find no man to stand in the gap. The kind of men for whom God was looking were unavailable. The ones appointed to be in the gaps had joined the enemy and were working for Zion's destruction from within. Leaders had turned traitor. No one could be trusted to stand in the gap. The men available would only have knocked additional stones out of the wall to make the passage of the enemy into the city easier.
The prophet does not mean that the people of God themselves are not to stand in the gaps. Indeed they are. And the prophet has a word to say also about their contribution: "The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully" (v. 29).
But the point that has to be made is that no army can fight without leaders, no citizenry can be rallied to the battle without a clear trumpet call, no soldiers in the ranks can fight effectively without men to guide them to the gaps, lead the way into the gaps, and show them where and how to fight.
That totally pathetic word of Jehovah, that word which makes one who loves Zion weep with shame, that word which spells Zion's doom, is "I looked for a man.... But I found none!"
The gaps are there. Where are the men to lead the people? Where are the preachers who will cease their endless prattle that all is well in Zion and shout to the people about Zion's dangers? Where are the leaders in the churches who will once and for all quit worrying about being nice, and pleasant, and good ol' fellows, and who will warn the people that Zion's walls are crumbling and the city is about to go down to defeat? Where are the leaders who will wave the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17), at the head of Christian soldiers of the cross and call them to battle, to battle unto death? Where are they? Are they attending their committee meetings, visiting nicely over a cup of tea, soothing God's people by telling them that those who shout danger are the ones troubling Zion, healing the wounds of the daughters of God's people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace?
It is not only that those who should be in the forefront of the battle are openly and boldly expressing their desire to see the enemy win. It is not only that so many are unfit that women are now set in those positions of leadership where only men ought to stand. But it is also that even those who profess to love Zion are timid, fearful, unwilling to move unless they can fight from positions of guaranteed safety, hiding in trembling and shaking fright behind every corner of every building in the city, carefully straightening their neckties while Jerusalem's walls are crumbling, and diligently counting the troops behind them so that they will be sure, before they march forth to battle, that they outnumber the enemy.
God, through Ezekiel the prophet, is disconcerting when he uses the singular: "I sought for a man among them...." One man. just one.
I find two reasons for this disturbing, yet comforting singular.
The first is to the everlasting shame of the church. There is not even one!
The second is that God can use just one. One is enough. One will often do. An Athanasius contra mundum (against the world). An Augustine against Roman Catholic Pelagianism. A Gotteschalk against the powerful men who tortured him. A Luther at Worms with his "Here I stand. I can do naught else." Finally, a Hoeksema and an Ophoff: "I prefer facing a firing squad to signing the three points." One man and God, it has been said, is a majority.
This is because the strength of Zion is the Lord of Hosts, mighty in battle. And the Captain of our salvation is our ascended and exalted Lord Jesus Christ.
"But I found none." None. Not one.
Our Seminary and Men for the Gap
But this is the seminary convocation; and I must make this text bear upon the work of another year in our theological school.
Let it be said, first of all, that I believe with all my heart that we have men in the Protestant Reformed churches to stand in the gap. There are men in the gap now. They are there every Lord's Day. They are there during the week, fighting against the enemy.
We may and must be thankful for them. We must not sap their courage and attempt to destroy their morale with words of encouragement to the enemy. We must pray for them, follow them into battle, put ourselves under their leadership, march behind them in the cadenced steps of the Word of God.
But the seminary is my concern tonight. The seminary must prepare men to stand in the gaps. Such is, without any doubt, not only its most important calling, but its only calling.
The seminary is, so to speak, officers' training school. Especially the training of ministers.
Let me reiterate what it is in which that training consists.
Men attending seminary must, most importantly, be taught to preach. The church does not need executives, board chairmen, administrators, scholars with Ph.D.s from prestigious universities, church planters, number-sensitive leaders of megachurches who preach a "number-sensitive gospel." The church needs preachers. Nothing more, nothing less. Seminaries must teach men to preach. Nothing more, nothing less. Every subject of the curriculum must be taught only if it helps men be better preachers.
The strength of Zion is Jehovah God; and the battle for Zion is fought with only one weapon: the Word of God. By that Word Zion's recruits are irresistibly called into battle, are armed with the weapons needed to fight, are taught the wiles of the devil, and are steeled for the rigors of hard and ceaseless sacrifice.
Let the seminary continue to train preachers.
In the second place, these preachers must be taught to fight. The gaps are there. They are the vulnerable points in Zion's defenses. They are the places where the enemy concentrates her forces. They are where the battle is the hottest. Men must be prepared for war. It is all-out war. It is a battle to the death. It is heated and fierce. Men who will not fight against the enemy get in the way when they stand in the gap. Stand aside, God says to them. Let the warriors in. The gaps must be defended. The way to defend is not the way of white flags, coffee with the enemy, blandishing words of praise to those whose only purpose is Zion's destruction. The way to defend is to fight. I know of no other way than that.
In the third place, the text reminds us too that the walls have to be built.
Undoubtedly the reference is first of all to those parts of the walls where there are breaches, where stones have been knocked out of place, where gaps appear that need to be repaired.
Two things come to mind.
The first is that the walls are rebuilt by sound doctrine. The walls are, after all, the doctrines of the church, which have ever been Zion's strength. Preachers must be trained in the seminary to know, understand, love, and defend sound doctrine.
If they are not prepared for that, they are of no use in the battle. Preachers have to be taught to rebuild the gaps by teaching and preaching sound doctrine, so that the truth may stand firm once more over against the lie.
But, secondly, these same preachers must develop the truth as well. The truth is always developed in battle with the lie. No truth comes out of ivory towers, far from the noise and smoke of battle. No truth comes out of morality-preachers who cave in to the incessant cry for practical preaching. The walls of Zion are built under fire, with the enemy at hand, amid the arrows and shot of a powerful foe. The truth is developed when the truth is attacked.
Such men the seminary must train. Consciously, deliberately, with all its energies fixed upon that goal.
For 75 years the seminary has been committed to training such men. We ought to be thankful for this. It is the strength of our churches. It has not happened often that God sustains a seminary that long in the truth of His Word. May that training be our goal in the year ahead.
Judgment for Unfaithfulness
The Lord speaks in the text and in the following verse of His anger that in His search for a man, none could be found: "Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath."
The nation was destroyed. Judah was led into captivity. Jerusalem was left a smoldering heap of rubble. Zion's walls existed no longer.
But the nation is punished, for the nation is responsible for the lack of a man for the gap.
So it always is.
The responsibility for men to fill the gap lies, in the first place, in the home and in the local congregation. Parents are to blame when none can be found to build the wall. Congregations must answer to God when no men climb Seminary Hill to attend classes there.
Not only must parents and congregations point the young men of families and churches to the magnificent calling of being warriors on behalf of God's troops, but homes and congregations must tell their young men of Zion's wars, Jerusalem's present dangers, and the need for men to stand in the gap. Let them show their sons that the battles to be fought are a part of the battle of the ages, that the warfare is unending, and that life itself is a battlefield. Let them try to turn the ears of their sons to the call of the trumpets, the cadence of marching feet, the noise and fury of the combat.
When parents, congregations, and the seminary do their work, then men will be there to stand in the gaps.
But where no men are found, judgment will come. I presume there are many denominations which are full of ministers. I recently read that the list of ministers looking for positions is very long. The pulpits have their robed orators; the land is flooded with administrators. But where in all God's world are there men for the gap? When none can be found, none among the thousands of ministers, then judgment comes.
God is angry. The cause of His truth and His righteousness is the only cause of value in the world. But none can be found to stand for it. Judgment is the inevitable result.
Such judgment is inevitable because when no one can be found in the gaps, the enemy pours in. Soon his brigades flood the pulpits of the churches, take over the positions of power, implement their devil's agenda, and make the church a habitation of dragons.
The gaps are undefended. What else can be expected?
But let it be clearly understood that apostasy, worldliness, and the resulting unfaithfulness of churches is God's judgment upon those who will not fight for God's truth and for the cause of God's Son. The enemy is unopposed because professed preachers commit treason. The gaps are undefended because good men are too timid to fight and look askance at the slaughter in the gaps. The breaches are enlarged by the enemy because too many shout "Peace, peace!" when there is no peace.
Will it be so in our churches? May God graciously forbid.
Maybe the day is not so far off when retreat to the "keep" will be necessary. So let it be.
I wish to close with two reminders.
The one is this. The cause of God cannot go down to defeat. It will be victorious, for the enemy has been defeated at Calvary, where the Captain of our salvation fought alone and conquered; the enemy is in the hands of our Christ, who moves their armies according to the will of God and who cannot permit any harm to come to His cause. The strength of Zion is her God. And God cannot be defeated in any battle.
The second is this. It is a glorious thing to fight on behalf of the King of kings. It is not an onerous task, a burdensome obligation, a ceaseless grief. It is glorious. It is thrilling. It is filled with the excitement of salvation. For we fight in a cause which cannot go down to defeat. The day comes when the shouting and the tumult dies, when the battlefield is stilled, when the smoke of battle drifts away, when the enemy is slaughtered in the streets of the Holy City which has become Egypt and Sodom, and when the weary Christian warrior exchanges his helmet for a laurel wreath, his armor for a white garment of spotless purity, and his sword for a palm branch of victory.
May that hope press upon you and give you faithfulness.
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