We mentioned before, just here at the beginning, that one thing we could probably use a little help on, I think since we're having a dinner tonight, we're probably going to take down about maybe half of these chairs. And so if somebody, a few of you could kind of hang around after, we'll take down these chairs, put up a few tables so we'll have enough for our meal that we're going to have tonight for our Reformation party. Tomorrow is Reformation Day. And so I want to do something today that just calls our attention to this very important day. Important day in the life of the church as a whole. It's an important day, it's an important time to the history of the world. I need to make a disclaimer here up front. At Healthy Church Conference, one of the first lessons that was emphasized was the need for expository preaching. This is not going to be an expository sermon. So I give my disclaimer up front. We'll get back to that next week. But what I'd like to do, especially in the month of October, which would be Reformation Day and Missions Month, is to either is to do a biography or historical presentation that's related to one of the other or both, Reformation or Missions or something of that sort. So it was on October 31st, the year 1517, We're not that long from the 500th anniversary of that. That'll be a big deal when that happens. That's when Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses or statements to the Wittenberg Castle church door in Germany. You have an excerpt of those in your bulletin on the green sheet there. This isn't all of them, but it's an excerpt of some of the ones there. You've probably heard of those before, but may not have read them. So there's a number there to give you an idea of what he talked about. But these were a list of points that Luther wished to discuss about things that the Roman Catholic Church was teaching. In regards to the gospel, it was an emphasis on indulgences. These 95 theses in particular were especially challenging the idea of selling indulgences to people, and they would use this money to build St. Peter's Church. I'm not going to go into all the details of what was involved with that, but the whole process of that was an obvious corruption and distortion of the gospel. And so he was calling very public attention to that. And so, because of that, October 31st then, 1517 in particular, is remembered as the beginning of the Reformation. Things that happened before, obviously many things happened after. But that's the day that's used to remember. Now the teachings of the Reformation can be summed up really in five statements, the five solas that they're often described as. First is the Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is the authority for what we are to believe and how we're to live. Scripture and scripture alone. Second has to do with the next three. Well, next four has to do with salvation in particular, and that is salvation. is given by the grace of God alone. No one does anything to earn salvation. You can never be good enough to actually stand before God. Salvation is by grace and by grace alone. And it's by faith alone, in Christ alone. And all of that is to the glory of God alone. God is the one who gets the glory for that. So those are the five basic ideas that really characterize the Reformation teachings. And these teachings begin to spread over Europe, at that time. And they had a profound influence, not just in Europe, but really across the world. I mean, it's had a tremendous influence on the United States, for example. And the person I want to talk about today, kind of in reference to that, is Abraham Kuyper. He was not specifically a part of the Reformation period. His years were 1837 to 1920. But he lived in the Netherlands, a European nation that was strongly affected by the Reformation. And he was also an important person in standing for the principles of the Reformation in his country. even when his country, in large part, was seeking to put those principles aside. And so, he continued to stand for that. So, what we're going to do is look at three things this morning. First, I want to spend a little time just talking about how the Reformation affected the Netherlands, to kind of give us a little bit of a context. Second, we're going to actually just look a little bit about the life of Abraham Kuyper, some of the things that he did, just some of the highlights there. And then, finally, I want to take some time to look at three specific emphases that he had in his life. There's many that we could talk about, but these three I wanted to focus on this morning. So, number one, the doctrines of the Reformation had a strong effect on the Netherlands, but it was a long, hard, and bloody struggle. It really took longer for the Netherlands to make a break from Catholic domination than it did for the other regions in Europe. Interesting enough that the very first martyrs who were specifically connected with the Reformation happened in the region that was at that time the Netherlands. There was an edict that had been given, the Edict of Worms, and in this edict the Catholic Church had said that anyone who actually teaches, has a scripture in their own language in their hands that they would read, anything what would actually hold to actually even have in their possession like writings of Luther or any of the other reformers that were coming along anyone who would have that should be put to death and so Now most of those regions many of those regions the princes of those regions will not allow that edict to be carried out and The Netherlands it was allowed to be carried out though Netherlands were under the Spanish Empire at this point which was strongly Catholic And so the first two martyrs actually of the Reformation were in 1523, two Augustinian monks who were burned at the stake in Brussels for their faith. And actually Martin Luther himself actually composed a hymn in their honor. But in spite of this opposition, another thing that happened in 1523, one thing that Luther did, he translated the New Testament out of the Latin, the Greek, and so forth, and actually translated into German. Well, and by 1523, Luther's New Testament had been translated into Dutch. And so the Dutch then had the scriptures in their language. And so because of that, the doctrines of the Reformation began to spread quickly through the Netherlands. But it was not well received by the authorities. So the first point to look at here is that the country was then part of the Spanish Empire, and Spanish monarchs were ruthless in seeking to destroy the Reformation work there, but ultimately in the region that became the Dutch Republic, the Reformed faith became dominant. You may have heard before of the Spanish Inquisition. Charles V was the emperor at this time, and he established the Inquisition And Netherlands, it was especially carried out in Spain. But like I said, Netherlands was in the Spanish empire. And so it was it was applied in the Netherlands and was applied ruthlessly in the Netherlands. I want to read just kind of a brief description of what took place and what the the Inquisition was addressing. It says the printing, multiplying, concealing, buying, selling or giving away any book of Luther, Busser or Calvin or any other heretic was forbidden. It was also forbidden to injure or in any way the image of a canonized saint to attend heretical meetings, to read the scriptures, could read the scriptures, or engage in religious discussion or controversy. Those who transgressed were, if they recanted, they were put to death by the sword or buried alive. If they refused to recant, they were killed by burning and their property was confiscated. Informers received a large proportion of the property of heretics convicted on their information. So there was motive to inform because you would get their stuff once they were put to death. There were thousands of Dutch who were put to death under the Spanish Inquisition as it was applied in the Netherlands. And of course the intention was to keep the gospel truths from spreading. to keep these reformation truths that we mentioned from spreading, but it didn't work. Because the reformation began to spread and take hold in the Netherlands, in spite of the opposition that was there. A big part of the struggle that took place, that made it even a longer struggle in the Netherlands, partly because it was part of the Spanish Empire at that time, but they were able to break free from that, from the domination of the Spanish. And there was actually an 80 years war. That's what it's called. It's the 80 years war that took place from 1568 to 1648. And as a result of that war, really during that war and so forth, the seven provinces that were a part of the Spanish empire that became the Dutch Republic were able to gain their independence from Spain at that point. And at that, and that, and then at that time, the reformed faith, faith that was based on these Reformation principles that we mentioned became dominant in the Dutch Republic. I can mention another key event that took place in the Netherlands. The Synod of Doort took place there in 1618 to 1619 and became part of the Three Forms of Unity which became the official statements of the Dutch Reformed Church. A university was created in the city of Leiden to educate pastors and laymen in the Reformed doctrines. And actually, the state did this because the Dutch Reformed Church was a state church. And the state did this, established this university in Leiden to teach ministers to serve the churches really on behalf of the state. Now, one of the professors who taught theology there was Jacob Arminius. And he began to question many of the doctrines that have been taught by Luther and Calvin and a number of the other Reformers. And his followers after him actually then laid out five specific statements of disagreement that they had with those doctrines. Well, the Reformed pastors of the Netherlands were very concerned about this. Really, much of Europe was very concerned about this. And so they asked the state to convene a convention. They call it a synod. And they did this and they convened it in the city of Dort, which is a Dutch city. And representatives from all over Europe were there. It was in this particular synod that lasted over a couple-year time frame that the doctrines, that the Calvinistic doctrines in particular, were strongly affirmed. And what is sometimes referred to as the five points of Calvinism, which I don't have time to get into, Those were especially established there, and those five points were written in opposition to, or in answer to, the five points that Arminius' followers had laid out. So this was really a very key thing that took place in the Netherlands. Now the statement that came out of that particular conference, that particular meeting, the statement was called the Canon of Dort, the O-R-D-T. And so when you take that Canon of Dort and put that along with the Belgic Confession of Faith, put that alongside the Heidelberg Catechism, those three things became what were referred to and are still referred to. You can buy books now, you can still buy books that have the three forms of unity actually all printed together. And they formed the official doctrinal statements of the Dutch Reformed Church at that time. Now, as always happens, You're going to have people who are going to begin to stray from the doctrines. And that, once again, begin to take place. And changes begin to happen in the church. So, point C, covering three centuries here in this one point. During the 17th and 18th centuries, liberal beliefs became common in the Dutch church. In the 19th century, revival occurred and the desire for a reformed church separate from state control resulted in the birth of the Christian Reformed Church in 1836. So one thing that began to happen in the 17th century and continued in the 18th century, the magistrates, the civil magistrates, remember the Dutch Reformed Church was a state church. It was a government church. And so the magistrates began to allow non-reformed teaching Teaching that did not follow along with those five principles that we mentioned for the Reformation, they began to allow that kind of teaching to happen in the universities. It was in the universities that the ministers, the pastors were trained, and so therefore the very, what we would call liberal, rationalistic teachings were what was taught there, and that's what the ministers were learning. So that's what they actually brought then to the people. And so, as a result, you see those teachings would include things like really doubts about Sola Scriptura, for example. Is the Bible really the Word of God? Is it really that authority? And so, that began to become widespread, real doubts about whether you could really trust the Scripture. There are all kinds of attacks on various aspects of the Gospel. And one thing you find is a very, instead of a God-centered approach to the Scripture and a God-centered approach to the Christian life, it became a man-centered approach to the Scripture and a man-centered approach to the Gospel and to life in general. And those are the kind of things that begin to kind of multiply. Well, that happened through the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 1800s, Some religious revivals began to break out at various points in Europe and some of these European countries. And a lot of these revivals occurred really in opposition to, in response to, some of these rationalistic teachings that were taking hold. And so, it was a response to these false teachings that were coming out. And you had revivals that began to show up in different places in Europe. Well, the Netherlands were affected by these revivals. And so, as a result, there was great interest in returning to those orthodox beliefs, those reformational beliefs, and actually especially just laying that out in more detail like it had been laid out from the Reformation back in the 1500s. Now, it became obvious as they began to apply that in Holland, Netherlands, that the Dutch Reformed Church was not going to go along with this. The Dutch Reformed Church, the state church, was not willing to go back to where they had come from. They were not willing to go back to the Reformation teachings. And so they wanted no part of this. So a new denomination separate from the state was created. It was called the Christian Reformed Church. And they reaffirmed those three forms of unity that we mentioned earlier and that the state church actually had rejected at this point. Now actually in the Netherlands at this time it was illegal to actually have any church other than the state church that you actually attended and were a part of. So this new denomination was an illegal denomination. And so there were people were prosecuted, arrested, and they attempted to keep these meetings from happening, keep these churches from actually meeting together. But by the 1840s, they were able to get the laws changed and that prohibition against them was removed. And so the Christian Reformed Church, separate from the state, was able to continue on and then worship. But at the same time, you still have the Dutch Reformed Church, who is continuing in their liberal and rationalistic way. So you've got two things going on within the country of Holland at this time. And one thing that's happened as well is that the state church still had control of the universities. the ones where they were training the ministers. So, therefore, they had a strong, strong influence, continued influence on the country. Now, that brings us to the time of Abraham Kuyper. So, let's look now at number two, the life and ministry of Abraham Kuyper. As you can see there, he was born in 1837. His father was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, the state church. And as best people can tell who have tried to study and find out the historical details of this, it seems that Abraham Kuyper's father was kind of trying to walk the line down the middle. You don't hear strong things from him about the liberal, rationalistic tendencies. You also only hear strong things from him about Orthodox faith. He seemed to be trying to avoid controversy. and trying to be neutral and just kind of go down the middle. Now, one of the things that Abraham Kuyper, as he grows up and matures and begins his own ministry, is going to attack greatly is that neutrality is impossible. No one, no one is neutral. And so his father was not neutral either. So even though he was trying to be neutral, when it came for Abraham, time for Abraham to actually go to college, he was sent to the University of Leiden, just where his dad went. which was infected completely with those rationalistic liberal teachings almost totally. So it's obvious that that's how Abraham Kuyper was going to come out because that's what he was being taught. And he embraced those teachings. Now, Kuyper was a brilliant man. I don't think it would be beyond a stretch to call him a genius. Maybe on the top end of genius. I mean, he was an extremely brilliant man. As a matter of fact, if you see pictures of him, He's got a big head. And actually, his parents were concerned, literally, physically, a big head. And so his parents actually took him to doctors early on to check and see what's wrong. They said, no, I guess he's fine. He just has a bigger head. And maybe that's because his brains were bigger. I don't know. But even his head was actually physically bigger. But he was a smart, smart man. Now, he graduated with his doctorate from Leiden. in 1863, and he was assigned a church and a little village called Bethed, B-E-E-S-D, in Holland. And there was a Dutch Reformed church, and that was like a village. Like I said, he was a brilliant man, but he did not believe the Scripture. He did not hold to the truth of the Scripture. He really was not even a Christian. But he was a minister that was not even a believer. which was not uncommon actually at that time. But God used this time and this small little village church to change his life. I think this is a really cool story. Point A, Kuyper brought skeptical attitudes toward the Christian faith in his first pastorate in 1863. But through the persistent witness of one of his members, Pietje Baltus. He was ultimately converted. These are all Dutch names. I know I'm just butchering this. I don't know how you're actually supposed to say that. But as Kuyper began to preach in the church, he began to notice there were several factions, several different groupings of people who were part of the church. You had some people who were just totally indifferent and really could care less about this doctrine or that doctrine. They just really were just indifferent. They did not care. You had other people who were primarily emphasizing and concerned about the morality that would be taught at the church. They felt like they needed to be a moral people, and so they were concerned about the morality. Once again, they were not that concerned about the doctrines either. But then you did have a group within the church who were very orthodox in their faith. I mean, they really held to the scriptures, and they sought to walk out the Christian life. So you have all that in the same church. Well, obviously that's not what Abraham Kuyper's emphasis was. His emphasis was not the scriptures and it was not the historic and orthodox Christian faith. And so those who were orthodox had a big problem with him. And they told him. Oftentimes they would not come to services. And some of the other elders in the church said, well, these guys are just a bunch of malcontents. We always have trouble with them. And he just kind of considered them being basically ignorant people and so forth that he wouldn't be able to reason with. But then, over a number of months, he decided to go talk to a number of these people and see what was really going on, see what the problem was. Well, they were definitely poor for the most part, but they were not uneducated, at least in the things of God. These people had been reading what they called the Dutch Puritans. They've been reading people like John Owen and Thomas Watson. They were English Puritans, but since they've been reading them in Dutch, they thought they were Dutch Puritans. So they called them Dutch Puritans. And that's who they were reading. I mean, if you've read any of the Puritans, I mean, that's challenging literature to read that. That's what they were reading. And so they began to talk to Abraham Kuyper. There was one lady in particular in the church who had a strong effect on him. I've got her name there, Ph.D. Baltus. She told him very bluntly that the problem was that Kuyper just was not giving them the bread of life. He was not giving that to them, so that's why she wasn't coming. And look at this quote by James McGoldrick, who was a professor at Cedarville. wrote a book about, it's the main book actually I read about Kuyper. Here's something he said about this. He says, Kuyper spent many hours listening to a peasant woman instruct him in the faith. Later he related that he tried to argue with her and with other Orthodox believers, but as he put it, I began to listen more than talk. Ms. Baltus asked him if he had ever read John Calvin's Institutes. She had. I mean, that's a book like that thick. John Calvin's Institutes. And she said, of course, he'd never read it, didn't have any interest in that. And she said, if I got you a copy, would you read it? He said he would. Now, most people you're witnessing to, that's probably not the tack to take. Most are not going to read the Institutes of John Calvin. Maybe a track would be better. But a track would not have worked for Abraham Kuyper. As he was reading those institutes, of course, these members were getting together and praying for their pastor. Sometimes they would have Bible studies, ask him to come lead and say, would you come tell us what the Bible has to say about justification by faith? So he had to look up what the scripture said and they were kind of just bringing him out. He got converted. He put his faith in Christ as by the influence of these peasants. who were smarter than he was as far as the doctrines of the faith, as brilliant a man as he was. They understood their faith and they were, they held to their faith and they actually were instrumental in seeing him converted. Kuyper said for the rest of his life, he kept a picture of that lady on his desk because of how influential she had been in his conversion. Now he left that church after four years. to go to a larger church in Utrecht. But of course, he left totally different than how he had come originally. He was a changed man, really, not just in the fact that he was converted, but now he understood how everything fit together. He had been taught all the false ways, and he was just dynamite as far as addressing those and attacking those things that he had been taught. so carefully when he was in school. So, and you're going to see, I mean, he had a profound effect on the nation and really on people around the world. So point B, Kuyper had a significant impact on the nation as his ministry was lived out as a pastor, theologian, journalist, educator, and ultimately a prime minister of the Netherlands. He had an amazingly diverse ministry and life, things that he engaged in. Let's look first at his ministry as a pastor. This church he went in with at Utrecht was a much larger church. It was a cathedral-type church. And really, Kuyper was just one of ten other ministers who were assigned to this church, and they had responsibility for everyone in that urban center, everyone who was in the Dutch Reformed Church, the national church. Now, this church actually had a reputation for being solidly Orthodox in their beliefs. So Kuyper was thinking, OK, we're going to be able to address some of these issues that are going on in the nation and in the Dutch church as a whole. But when he got there, he realized that was not happening. They were actually being very quiet about these Orthodox issues. They were once again compromising, trying to avoid controversy is what they were doing. Well, Kuyper was not that kind of man. And so when he preached, He went right after the false teachings that were there. And he was a strong, like I said, a brilliant man and also an eloquent preacher. Very forceful. And so he had no problem confronting false teaching and calling for others to do the same as well. And that's what he did. So he actively began to insert himself into the whole controversy between the the liberal versus the orthodox view and approach to the church, to the Christian faith, specifically within the Dutch Reformed Church, because that's the domination he was in. And he worked hard at this, and really was very long-suffering and patient. Actually, he worked at this for 20 years, actually addressing these issues and trying to get things changed. And then they came to the point where he realized it's just not going to happen. The denomination just is not going to change. And so he was instrumental in beginning and actually in leading a large number of Orthodox believers to leave the national church and to form a separate body. And this separate body later merged with the Christian Reformed Church that we mentioned earlier to become, you know, kind of an alternative church there within the nation. Now, in 1870, Kuyper went to pastor in Amsterdam. which was and continues to be the chief city of the Netherlands. And of course, he had even more opportunities to maximize his ministry and his influence on the nation. And while he was in Amsterdam, his ministry began to expand beyond his pastoral duties. He started a newspaper, I mean, a full-fledged daily newspaper that he started, that he began. called The Standard. And my understanding is it went, it continued for several decades, this newspaper did. And he used this newspaper to promote his belief that a truly Christian worldview should affect every area of life. And he made sure that that came through the newspaper and the way that they cover the various events. In 1874, he ran for Parliament. And he won. He lost at first, but then the next election he won. And so, when he took his seat in Parliament, then he resigned as pastor at Amsterdam. He remained an elder there, as I understand, I think, until he died. He remained an elder at the church. But he did resign as pastor once he took his seat in Parliament. Now, in 1880, he helped begin a new political party. I mean, this guy, it's just amazing the things that he accomplished. He began a new political party, and it was called the Anti-Revolutionary Party. Now, if you have anti in front of anything, that usually means it's not going to work. But anti-revolutionary, what they meant, that talked about what they were against, but also talked about what they were for. Anti-revolutionary had to do with anti- the truths of the French Revolution, which was a very humanistic way of looking at things. Once again, kind of taking God out of the picture, raising man to the heights. And so they were against that. They were against those truths that had been, not truths, but those teachings that had come through the French Revolution. So they were the anti-revolutionary party, and what they sought to do was to see reformation, to see biblical truth actually applied to the civil government. They wanted to see biblical truth applied to how the nation was governed. So they were anti one thing, but they were pro the Orthodox Christian faith. And they had varying degrees of success, to the point that in 1901, they got enough seats in parliament that Abraham Kuyper then was elected Prime Minister of the Netherlands and he actually served there for four years as the Prime Minister of that nation. Now, here's what else he did. He also began a university. He started a university called Free University in Amsterdam and it was free because it was free from state control. It was free because they were not allowing the state to tell them what they could and could not teach in this university. And so, Once again, he emphasized in this university and in the classes and the professors and the way the subjects were approached was that the emphasis was to apply biblical truth under the sovereignty of God to every subject. That's what the intention was in the free university. That university still exists. It doesn't have that same purpose anymore. It's fallen away from that. But that was the intention. In addition to this, he was also a a very accomplished theologian. He wrote multiple, multiple works. As a matter of fact, in McGoldrick's book, there's seven pages at the back, just listing the works, the various books that Abraham Kuyper wrote. And it takes seven pages to list them all. His works were very influential. One of his contemporaries was B.B. Warfield. Some of you have probably heard that name before. He was actually a theologian and a professor at Princeton University. They lived at the same time period, but he was an American. Well, Warfield said that he was so impressed by the things that he had heard come from Abraham Kuyper that he learned Dutch for the very purpose of being able to read the works of Abraham Kuyper. He was not going to wait for them to be translated into English or another language that he knew. He learned Dutch just so he could read Abraham Kuyper's work. That was his home. That was his purpose. That's pretty amazing. That's saying a lot. And Warfield, once again, was a was a great theologian in his own right. So God used him in remarkable, remarkable ways. But in order to understand really why he did this and really why his life went off in so many different directions, it seemed like different directions. We have to understand a number of the truths and principles behind what he believed and what he stood for, what he emphasized. So number three here, I just want to take a few moments to emphasize this particular aspect of his life. Kuyper's Reformed beliefs were the foundation for several doctrines that he gave emphasis to throughout his life. I mentioned there his Reformed beliefs. In other words, he held to those five basic psalms, Scripture alone, salvation by faith alone, in Christ alone, by the grace of God alone, for the glory of God alone. So he was clearly Reformed as far as how he understood the Scripture and how he understood salvation. This was his foundation, but there were other things that he began to emphasize off of this foundation that were inherent in these truths, but things that he probably developed to a greater degree than many other people had to this point. So I want to mention several of those things. First, Christ is completely sovereign over all things. Christ is completely sovereign over all things. Piper strongly believed and the need for individuals to need to repent of their sin and put their faith in Christ for salvation. So he definitely believed there needed to be a personal relationship between individuals and their God. But one thing he did not do, he did not feel like that once you had that relationship with the Lord, everything was over. In other words, it wasn't just the fact of, now I'm going to heaven instead of going to hell. He understood that the Christian life, that the Christian faith was a comprehensive worldview that will affect everything that you do. Everything. It's not just a matter of whether you're going to heaven or hell or not. I mean, that's a big, big deal. But the Christian faith should affect the way we think about everything and the way we approach everything in our life. And that's really what he emphasized because he says Christ is sovereign over everything. And if he's your Savior, if he's your Lord, then you need to understand how that sovereignty fits in your life and fits in the various issues of life. So he was strong at telling Christians and giving great help on the idea of understanding the scripture and understanding how the scriptures apply to every area of life. This really reminds me. This is the scripture I want to read, taking all this to kind of get to the scripture, but 2nd Timothy, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 5, it says, We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Since Christ is Lord, it says, Paul says here, we need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now that's not just talking about your temptations. It is talking about that. But your thoughts about anything. Your thoughts about the economy. Your thoughts about politics. Your thoughts about nature. Your thoughts about art. Your thoughts about biology. Any subject you can think of. Whatever subject it is, we are called on to take every thought about every subject captive to the obedience of Christ, every single one. This is what he was teaching. One of his most famous quotes is here, and he really just forcefully, I think, very clearly speaks to this. He says, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest. And there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine. Every square inch of every aspect of human existence belongs to Christ. Everything. It all belongs to Him. And the way we understand the Christian faith needs to reflect that. Because it's true. It's the reality. So we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Every belief, every opinion, every decision, every priority is taken captive to the obedience of Christ. Now, of course, non-Christians aren't going to agree with that. And we'll hit that in a moment here. But as Christians, we have the responsibility to grow in our understanding. You don't understand how all that fits right now. I don't either. But we have a responsibility to learn, to grow in our understanding and the process of beginning to take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ as we understand the various issues of life. And that's why you see Abraham Kuyper not being content just to keep his ministry within the church. That's why you see him expanding into things like journalism, because he understood Christ is Lord over journalism. He's Lord over words. Every aspect of grammar and language, linguistics, Christ is Lord over that. All of it. And he understood that. So it just makes perfect sense for Christians to get involved in journalism. It makes perfect sense for Christians to get involved in politics because Christ is Lord over every aspect of the state and over government and over political theory, whatever it might be. It just makes sense that they would do that. I mean, especially education. I mean, it makes sense that Christians would be involved in education because every thought should be taken captive to Christ. I mean, there's all kinds of thoughts. that are part of our education, all kinds of subjects that we study. They all are supposed to come into the category of obedience to Christ, every one of them. So it makes sense that you would have a university that would do that. So really what he does does not seem so haphazard when you understand what he understood here as being reality, as being truth. In 1898, Kuyper was asked to go to Princeton University, which is where B.B. Warfield was teaching. He was asked to come there and deliver a series of lectures. Well, these lectures were very well received and are very famous. You can still buy them. This is my copy. And he entitled them Lectures on Calvinism. It's what they're entitled. And there's six lectures. Let me just kind of read the titles and you can see how he understood when he says Calvinism. Basically, he's just talking about what he understands. And I would agree with him as being as being the right understanding, a proper understanding of what the Christian faith really is. And that's just kind of a nickname. But he says, first, Calvinism is a life system. It's a whole life encompassing system. Calvinism and religion, Calvinism and politics, Calvinism and science, Calvinism and art. Calvinism in the future. That's what he spoke about. So you can see his understanding. Whenever he would talk about the Christian faith, he understood it to encompass everything because Christ is Lord over everything. Now, all of these tie together, and so the next one doctrine I want to mention obviously fits with this. God has granted authority to leaders in accordance to the particular sphere of life in which they serve. Now, I'm trying to think of a better way to state that, but let me try to explain what I said. This doctrine is based on the fact that God and only God has sovereign authority. We've already said that. So this is a further development of that. Only God is sovereign. No one else is sovereign but God and God alone. And Christ is king. Christ is sovereign. What he has done, though, he has ordained various institutions where people serve in those institutions and have a derived authority, an authority they get from God. The main institutions that we would think of that are clearly spoken of in the scripture are the church. It's one institution that God has established. The state, civil government, is another institution that God has established, and the family is another institution that God has established. Each of those are individual spheres of authority, and each sphere has an authority derived from God. They have a specific jurisdiction, and they are not supposed to cross and take jurisdiction from each other. Each has an individual sphere where they have authority, especially related to that particular sphere that God has given because he's ordained those various spheres of authority. Now, Kuyper expanded this, and he said he felt like there were spheres of authority beyond just those three. So people might quibble with this, but let me read this other quote. that might be helpful to see that. He says, the family, the business, science, art, and so forth, are all social spheres, which do not owe their existence to the state, and which do not derive the law of their life from the superiority of the state, but obey a high authority within their own bosom, an authority which rules by the grace of God, just as the sovereignty of the state does. Now, the rule, the authority he's speaking of is God's authority there. He says the state needs to rule by God's authority. But all these other areas, they also rule and govern themselves by that same authority, but it's for their particular sphere. Now, the one sphere, the one authority that seems to try to regularly take and kind of overreach is the state. The state is always trying to overreach, it seems like, and take authority from these other spheres that it has no right to take whatsoever. But that happens regularly. Unfortunately, it's happened a lot in our country. Romans 13 makes it clear that the authority that the state has, the authority that the government has, has been given by God himself. It's a derived authority. It's an authority that comes from God. And so God is the one sovereign over not just the state, but also over all these other spheres as well. Now, one of the main things that Kuyper was trying to do with his involvement in civil government was to challenge the government to apply this truth, to really kind of really just engage the issue personally, to bring these applications. That's why he started a whole political party, was basically to engage these truths and see them be applied within the state, to acknowledge God's authority and to rule by God's law. He did not believe there should be a state church. He said that's an overreaching. Those are separate spheres, and a state church should not exist. He's exactly right on that. A state church is not the way it should be. That's a mixing of those spheres of state and church. It should not happen. They should be separate. But he did believe that the government should rule by Christian principles. What he taught was something that we would call maybe principled pluralism, principled pluralism. Basically, he allowed for religious freedom within a nation. Various denominations, even non-Christian denominations, non-Christian groups should be allowed to be and have freedom of religion within that nation. But he said the nation should be run on Christian principles. because the nation is under the authority of God. And it should run under Christian principles, not actually going with a particular denomination, but the nation should be run by Christian principles. He said just a couple of things that he said here. He said every government is either Christian or anti-Christian. There's no in between. Every country, every government is either Christian or anti-Christian. It's one or the other. He said a neutral state is not possible. Any denial of God's authority over the state is anti-Christian. To deny God has authority over the state, he's considered to be anti-Christian. So, once again, this fits within God being sovereign and he's making specific application on how this fit with government and he really sought to live it out. We could question, and there's all kinds of things we could get into on some areas where I think he probably could have done some things different and probably should have done some different. He's definitely got room for criticism here, but that was his intent. Now, one more area of emphasis I want to throw out here. Once again, fits with these others. Christians have a responsibility to hold firm to the antithesis between the Christian faith and the world. The idea of antithesis talks about two things that are opposite, that are opposing views. And he says, the Christian view and the anti-Christian view, so to speak, are opposing views. They are in opposition to one another. And he said, you see that from the very beginning of the Bible in the Garden of Eden. You have the word that God gave to Adam, and then you have the word that Satan gave. They were opposing from the very beginning. And Adam and Eve had to pick one or the other. You could not be neutral and kind of take a little of both. There was an antithesis from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. And he says, you see that all through the scripture. There's an antithesis there. There's an opposition. And so, if Christ is Lord over every single area of life, then any resistance to his Lordship in any area is an opposition to Christ. Now, as Christians, we're being constantly challenged to compromise his Lordship in all kinds of areas. Kuyper says here that we've got to hold firm and not compromise. He says hold firm to the antithesis, to the fact that these are opposing views. You've got to know what is Christian and stand for what is Christian. You've got to hold that and not compromise. In a loving way, but we're supposed to do that. So he talked about the need just to be diligent to approach every area of life from the perspective of God's Word. And Christ's Lordship, regardless of the opposition, even expecting opposition, because it's going to happen, but that's part of it. We have to hold to that antithesis. That's why he started Free University. He wanted to provide a school that consciously approached every subject, every single subject from the Lordship of Christ, knowing that there was another way to approach those subjects as well, an anti-Christian way. So he's trying to hold to the antithesis when he starts that university. Look at this quote. This is a very startling quote. That's from James McGoldrick. He says, Dr. Kuyper contended that the Christian and the non-Christian worldviews begin with mutually exclusive assumptions, which lead necessarily to a contest for dominion in all areas of life. Each seeks to destroy the other. So no science or discipline of learning is actually impartial. That's a strong statement. I believe he's right. There is a war, so to speak, a war of worldview, a war of understanding, a war of truth. There's a contest in every subject, every area of study, whatever it might be. There is a contest going on. In every arena of our culture, there is a contest. And he taught, he said, each worldview is trying to destroy the other one. That's the nature of being opposing worldviews. There's a constant seeking to destroy each other's worldview. I'm not talking about fighting physically and wars, that kind of stuff. But I'm talking about just understanding, our understanding of these certain things. This takes back, let me read that scripture from 2 Corinthians 10, 5 again. And listen to it in that perspective. Here's what Paul says. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are destroying those things. Every speculation and lofty thing race up against the knowledge of God. And here's the antithesis, and we're taking every thought captive to the beings of Christ. He's telling you right there, that we're supposed to destroy, annihilate, so to speak, those opposing views. How do you do that? With the Scripture. by understanding the Scripture and understanding how it relates to these various areas. It's like I said, this is a lifelong pursuit. But it's the kind of thing that I think is very important. And one thing you see about Kuyper, you don't see him kind of disengaging, pulling away from the culture because it's so bad. He gets right in the middle of it. It's really amazing how he just jumps right in with both feet and engages the culture with these issues, with truth, with Scripture. Now, how can we apply, let me just mention a couple of applications for us to make from this. One is, I think that example of those peasant Christians is a wonderful example for us. You don't have to be the smartest person in the world, but you need to know what you believe as a Christian. You need to be clear on what the basic doctrines of the faith are. And I mean, some of these books you may think, well, that's just beyond me. You need to try to read them anyway. There are some books that are beyond you that you need to try to read. You need to try to understand or maybe have somebody help you understand. We need to understand our faith so that we can be a witness. And who knows, you've probably got people that you consider much smarter than you, much more educated than you. But they're not Christians. And you feel like, well, what chance do I have to convert them? There's a lot that you can do. There's a lot you can do. I mean, if a genius like Abraham Kuyper could be converted through the influence of a peasant woman, God can use you too. But you've got to know where you stand. You've got to know what you believe. Another thing. Are we seeking, personally, to understand every area of life from the category of Christ Lordship? Let me tell you a place to start. Start with your job. What is your job? What is your main occupation? It may be, right now, it may be primarily being a student. It may be a housewife. It may be a job that's your vocation, whatever it might be. Start with the vocation you have. And begin to ask God to lead you. You can probably find some books to help you. How do I understand my particular responsibility from the scripture? How do I understand this particular role that I have being under the Lordship of Christ? How am I making sure that every square inch of this particular area I'm understanding under Lordship of Christ as best I can? Take your area first and start with that. That's a good place to start because you spend a lot of time there doing that. If you're a parent, you need to regularly help your children see the subjects that they're studying from the perspective of Christ Lordship. Be aware of this antithesis going on. It's happening in the subjects. It's happening in the books that are written, in the books that are read, in the classes that are taught, and these various things. You've got to be aware of that. And you've got to help your children be able to discern the antithesis that's there. to be able to discern the things that are Christian and the things that are anti-Christian. They've got to understand that, and you're the one that's going to have to show them that, help them see that, which means you've got to begin to understand it yourself. So it's a major, major role that we have, but one thing we can, I think that Kuyper says, and I believe it's one of the main things I've gotten from him, there is no such thing as neutrality. No one is neutral. No one is neutral. We are either for Christ, Or we are against Christ. That's it. We can't just kind of walk the line in the middle.