Anko Scholtens: Lay Leader of Reformational Movement (4)

Herewith I continue my translation of Anko Scholtens’ booklet, Verbond and Kenmerken Prediking (1936). . . . “In our formulary for baptism it says so clearly that through baptism the Triune God signifies and seals that the Father adopts as His children and heirs, that the Son washes us of all our sins in His blood and that the Holy Spirit desires to live in our hearts and sanctify us as members of Christ.

Baptism, therefore, is not about what is in that child, or whether that child is regenerate, but about what God says about that child, what He has signified and sealed. I believe that much of the debate over “presumptive regeneration” could have been avoided if baptism had been seen in this light.

We must understand this now in terms of preaching. We are of course all convinced that God means what He says and that His promise is firm. This must be our starting point and thus we must embrace this covenant-promise in its full and rich meaning as the background of preaching.

The covenant of God, one-sided in its origin, is two-sided in its outworking. We are therefore required to acknowledge God’s covenant rights, accept his covenant promises and live according to his covenant demands. And the first of these covenant demands is the embrace of God’s promises, saying ‘Amen’ to what God promises, and therefore faith, true faith. That is the first of these covenant demands which must be proclaimed; this must also be proclaimed in preaching as the beginning of covenant obedience. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29). “And this is his command, to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23).

Of course it must always be stated that what does not embrace what God promises is unbelief. Unbelief is thus all worrying about and doubting about our state before God. God’s children must first of all say ‘amen’ to what God says, to his covenant promises as well as his covenant threats. In this way the demand of the covenant is automatically included—namely, to walk in all of life as obedient children.”

Anko Scholtens: Lay Leader of Reformational Movement (3)

I’ve been using this forum to introduce my grandfather’s uncle, Anko Scholtens who, though a layman, was somewhat influential in the development of covenant theology in the Netherlands. His most important contribution is probably a booklet he wrote (which I recently acquired) entitled, Verbond and Kenmerken Prediking, which was published in 1936. In the coming weeks I’ll be translating and reproducing this booklet on my blog with the goal of eventually publishing a complete English translation of this important historical document. Here’s the first section . . .

In all the differences of opinion which have become apparent in our churches lately there appears to be one thing with which people are still inclined to agree—namely, the desirability of so-called covenant-preaching. This unity, however, is only apparent because whenever people are asked what is meant by this we encounter quite diverse opinions. Clearly there's little agreement about what this notion, in fact, entails.

Warnings are often expressed against one-sided covenant-preaching and against covenant-methodism in which it's clarified that textual covenant preaching is really what's desired. This one-sided covenant-preaching appears to be only a caricature of covenant-preaching and not something actually proclaimed from any pulpit in our churches. Regarding covenant-methodism, about which people warn, I have yet to hear a reasonable definition, while the character of textual covenant preaching, which people crave, is not clearly demarcated. These popular terms in use among us often obstruct the clarity of expositions and viewpoints.

Is this notion of covenant-preaching in fact so obscure? Not in my opinion. And I want to try in this article to say in simple terms how I see covenant preaching, especially in connection with so-called discriminatory (Kenmerken) preaching . Regarding this, I understand the impulse to seek personal assurance of salvation through the investigation of certain marks (kenmerken) of grace by means of which people can discern whether faith is really true.

Covenant-preaching is about the reality that God has established covenant-loyalty, his marriage-covenant, with his bride-church (see, e.g., Ezekiel 16:20-21), such that the children of believing parents are God's children, which God signifies and seals to them by baptism. God therefore says to his bride-church in her entirety, to us and our children: "You are mine."

Anko Scholtens: Lay Leader of Reformational Movement (2)

In my previous post I introduced Anko Scholtens, my grandfather's uncle after whom I was indirectly named. After I had completed the memoirs of Douwe Van Dijk, My Path to Liberation, which I mentioned last time, I sent an email to Roelof Janssen, the book's publisher, to express my appreciation for the book and to inform him of my relationship to Anko Scholtens, who of course was mentioned in the book.

Roelof forwarded my email to the book's translator, Dr.Theodore Plantinga of Redeemer University College, who indicated that he, one of few people who knows that my first name is Anko, had thought of me while translating the book. Dr. Plantinga also alerted me to an essay he had published tracing the history of the Reformational movement in the Netherlands--essentially the history neo-Calvinistic worldview thinking, in which he indicates that according to Cornelis Veenhof, the main players in the early history of this movement were, among others, Herman Dooyeweerd, Dirk Vollenhoven, Klaas Schilder and Anko Scholtens.

Dr Plantinga was referring to Veenhof's book Unica Catholica: Een Beschouwing over de Positie van de Bezwaarden onder en over de Synodocratie (Goes: Oosterbaan & Le+Cointre, 1949) in which Veenhof writes, "In Groningen God awakened the incomparable Anko Scholtens. In his inner communion with the Scriptures, something had come to life for him. He came to understand what believing is: relying directly on the Word of God and living out of it. And he understood again that God's Word is a word of promise, a word of grace, that it is always up-to-date and is spoken by God directly. Naturally, he came to realize that a regimen of self-examination coming between believing and the assurance of salvation, or between believing and Christ or His Word, is an absurdity; he realized that both believing and the Word of God are thereby denatured, with the life of faith being affected in its root. Through his faithful service, the eyes of many in the North were opened to the reformational sola fide. And it was especially the powerful voice of Douwe van Dijk [1887-1985] that carried this ancient and ever new treasure into the hearts of thousands!"

I indicated earlier that Van Dijk was a powerful and popular preacher in the city of Groningen where he ministered. He was also the main spokesperson for Dr. Klaas Schilder's view of the covenant at the famous synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands that wrongly and regretably deposed Schilder in 1944. A subsequent synod expressed regret at this action, but the damage was done and a new federation of Reformed churches was born, occasioned largely by the ouster of Schilder."

Anko Scholtens: Lay Leader of Reformational Movement (1)

Many of you know (and some of you are amused!) that my full name is Anko William DeJong. Anko is an unusual name my Dutch immigrant parents gave me in honor of my uncle Anko who in turn had been named after his father's uncle Anko. The original uncle Anko (Scholtens) was a remarkable man and my recent foray into Dutch Reformed theological literature has uncovered his legacy at several places.

From what I can gather Anko Scholtens’ career began as a math teacher (whose genes I evidently did not inherit) and ended as the principal of a Teacher’s College. During the second world war he was arrested (possibly for affiliations with underground resistance) and shipped off to a concentration camp in Germany where he would donate his blankets to Jews who had none. The Germans were infuriated by his mercy and in the cold of winter they stripped him naked and put on water hose on him till he died. The year was 1943.

There are many accounts of his piety and tenderheartedness as a father and a teacher. But he was also theologically astute. As an elder in his church he influenced many, including his own pastors. This became apparent to me this past December when I read My Path to Liberation (Neerlandia: Inheritance, 2005), the memoirs of the late Douwe Van Dijk, a powerful Dutch Reformed minister who for many years pastored the largest Reformed congregation in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands. These memoirs were translated from the Dutch by my friend and former philosophy professor Dr. Theodore Plantinga.

Van Dijk records his own theological and spiritual pilgrimage as a pastor and at one point writes (p.212), "It took me a long time to understand these things, which is why I believe some of the points I am making here bear repeating. The man who helped me especially in gaining insight regarding these matters was brother Anko Scholtens, one of our elders, who later died while he was a prisoner of the Nazis. Brother Scholtens was a means in God’s hand to open my eyes to the great truth that our certainty is to be sought only in God’s promise. I thank God repeatedly for all that He has given me through my contact with this brother."

Next time I’ll say more about his life and legacy.