Preamble: Welcome readers to our first offering from the wonderful trove of Trowel and Sword articles. This week we present the very first Editorial from the first issue back in October 1954. It is worth reading for a number of reasons. There is a reminder of the sense of calling that many early Dutch immigrants had when they arrived in the new lands. It was a sense of calling and urgency that would be well for us to heed some seventy years later in lands that our forebears would hardly recognise. It was a sense of calling to our region which was both farsighted and refreshing. The thought that struck us most clearly is that we are  called to be God’s people wherever we are, and not representatives of a western way of life or thinking. It is a calling to be counter cultural.

Please feel free to reflect and comment in the discussion part of the of the website. Our prayer is that we will be challenged and encouraged by the voices of the past, and our discussions together.

“Building a New Nation” by Rev. John VanderBom.

A very vast project is always present in the mind of every true believer. It is the kingdom of God, that is to come. According to our Heidelberg Catechism, that kingdom which we pray for will come to perfection on the Day of Glory.  But today, and among us, that same Kingdom has to be realised, and manifest by the submission of the believers to their Lord. Therefore we pray: so rule us by Thy Word and Spirit, that we may submit ourselves more and more to Thee… In that way a new nation is built.

In the submission and obedience of Christians in olden times, local churches were visible as parts of christ’s new creation. Their Lord Who bought them with His own blood was glorified by them. His work became visible in them. But in that same vast project, we, too are also engaged. We ministers of the Word of God, and all true believers, are very closely concerned in it. It is our responsibility that the church again in our days, may be preserved and increased. We, in our small local churches all pray for, and work in, this vast project, that Jesus Christ Himself may be visible as Head in His new creation.

With these thoughts in mind, I presume to write an article for the first copy of “Trowel and Sword,” our Reformed Monthly. In great thankfulness, but with much hesitation is our beginning, a beginning in the Name of Lord. He who also created this part of the world that His praise should be heard, and His sovereignty recognised.

There is something startling and oppressive in the thought of how this so long forgotten part of God’s world is now developing, with rapid strides, to be a stronghold of Western character and culture in the Southern hemisphere, as close as it is to the Asiatic nations breaking adrift.

Immigration was one of the measures devised to strengthen Western influence. The slogan heard so often and in so many countries after the last war (WW2) was given a special accent here: a new nation has to be built!!

Indeed, that is what we need. And less than that will not suffice. We want new nations, communities of new men. We want a new generation of men of God, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. But how is that ideal to be realised? Only by adopting a very high standard.

The solution of a new nation does not lie in the assimilation of the Australian way of life, but in accepting the very high standards of God’s Holy Word for every sphere of life. Renewal of the world and of nations, can only issue from renewed attention to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But therefore more than ever, a real, and attentive church is required. A church that maintains the golden standards in the midst of national life. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word!”

We are told, very often, that the Church is at one of its lowest ebbs. Despite many Christian individuals living an exemplary life; despite the great self denial of active missionaries in far countries; despite impressive international congresses wrestling and praying for more visible unity of churches, the real unity of that body and its head is questioned, by innumerable young people in the so called Christian countries today. How many are longing for a Church that reveals herself to be a real mother, a true bride of her Lord.

In these days we feel that church has to put first things first. Woe is unto us, if we preach not the gospel; and if we preach it not pure. That is the strenuous task laid upon our weak shoulders. Not without great cause did we choose as our title for this Monthly: “Trowel and Sword.” Just as in Nehemiah’s days we are convinced that a new nation must be built in Jerusalem. And like him, we know that God’s city must be secured by walls (while we won’t forget the gates!!) Like him, too, we fear less, danger from fighting, than from compromise with the double-hearted. We are convinced that the church can only be a blessing to this world, if she herself is aware of her high responsibility in preaching the pure Word of God, and maintaining the Divine authority of that Word.

It is our fervent desire, that the Lord may use this monthly to bring together all those in the Australasian world who are concerned in the building up of a new nation upon the foundation we have indicated. “Reformed” in the 20th century, still means the same as in the 16th century; back to the Bible, back to God. It has always been one of the marks of  genuine Calvinism, that godliness was believed to have the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. We are thankful that many believe it still today, and we feel hopeful that in many parts of the new world as of the old, a revival of the Reformed faith is visible.

The idea of coming before the public with a monthly like this did not rise in our minds in the first place. In the early days of the post-war migration the Rev. Arthur Allen (who himself is a correspondent of the “Calvin Forum”) suggested the publication of a paper for contacting all those Reformed people of Dutch origin who received hospitality in the Free Church. So “Fidelity” started, but soon had to lose its battle theough shortage of paper in Sydney!  Since then many Reformed congregations are publishing their own letters or circulars. The “Australian Free Presbyterian” has for long existed as a denominational paper. The monthly that is now on your table, was initiated in New Zealand and intends to be a mouthpiece for all of the Reformed persuasion in our countries. 

Let me add a personal note. I always feel highly indebted to the several Reformed brethren who fought here their strenuous, lonely battle for years before we came. The fact of their being here was an incentive to me to join the army of migrants coming to this far land.

The character of this monthly will be to give something for everybody. It was again the Rev. A. Allen who pioneered a Reformed theological journal, but it, alas, has, in other hands, since lost its Reformed character. But for today we do not intend a theological magazine but a popular paper for the Reformed family, talking in a kind-hearted tone about things in every sphere of life, home, science, labour unions and housework, church and schools and missions, politics and television and, indeed, everything without exception, which comes under the aspect of our Christian responsibility and the authority of God’s Word. 

We do hope and pray that “Trowel and Sword” in just this practical way, may serve as a savouring salt in society. 

For the benefit of the many Dutch readers, some part will, for a time, be written in Dutch, and other articles be summarised in Dutch. 

Lastly, do not forget, readers, we are all builders, and the wall is rising, and underneath it is the true foundation. We too, even as we build, must take to ourselves the whole armour of God – the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, must be ours in every day of toil.

J. VANDERBOM