Time

Quite often the world measures time as a comparison. The most obvious is the distinction between BC and AD. But when you think about it, there are a lot of things when reading or thinking about history you need to be reminded this was before or after such and such. The Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, the development of atomic weapons, etc. These, and many more are water-shed moments in human history. These events had such an impact that life cannot be seen but different after the fact.

These water-shed moments do not need to have a global impact to be the "before and after" moments for certain people. For myself and my family that moment occurred on August 15, 2000. Since that time our lives have been radically different. Time is relative to that moment.

It was ten days since my sister's wedding. I was back in Escondido (CA) for a few days to celebrate which was nice because I hadn't been home since Christmas. We had a great time the days surrounding the wedding with friends and family (a lot of whom made the trek out for the wedding, which was great!). A week later I was back in Chicago and back at work (for a few days now). On this Tuesday morning I was driving a 24' box truck with a co-worker to Rockford, IL for a job. Around 7:00am I got "911" on my pager. "911" normally meant there was an emergency spill that I needed to respond to, however, I was on a scheduled job. I was kind of frustrated that I got this page, "Don't they know I am on a job?" I called the office and got a message to call either my Grandpa or my mom. I immediately knew something was wrong, but I thought something had happened to my Grandma. What else could it have been?

So I called my mom. Then my world caved in.

It took me a few seconds to actually understand what she was saying. I started to scream into the phone. By this time I was trying to drive the truck onto the shoulder of Interstate 90 so I could stop. I stopped the truck and continued to "talk" to my mom in shock and disbelief. I don't think there was much of a conversation except her telling me, "Dad had a heart attack last night and didn't make it." All I could yell into the phone was to clarify that my Dad, Keith Vander Pol, was the one who had the heart attack and didn't make it.

The next couple of days were surreal to say the least. It is one thing to know people liked your dad. But to find out from hundreds of people from across the country how much he was respected and loved is something I will never forget. The director at the mortuary told us before we went in for the family visitation that he had never seen so many flowers, and he didn't see our house! The number of cards was almost overwhelming and the church was packed for the funeral service. Even to this day I hear from people how much he meant to them.

God's omnipotence is an amazing thing. Even though he took my dad home in what we thought was the prime of his life (age 48) he obviously had done all that God required of him. The Westminster Seminary California Chapel was a project that my father had worked on for years. It is fitting, then, that a climax for him was to see his daughter get married in that very chapel. Last week I was looking through some blueprints of the seminary. In one roll were some sketches of chapel designs. On one of the designs were some pieces of paper taped to the architect's drawings where my dad had put his ideas for certain elements of the building. I loved seeing that! I love being around the seminary once again. A place that my dad loved and cared for deeply. I may never know why my heavenly Father took my earthly father away, but I do know that God in his Providence has blessed my family beyond measure.

So much has happened in my family and in this world since that day, and I am constantly relating those events in time to August 15, 2000. Before and after dad's death. So many things have happened in my life that I would give anything to have my father there to experience them with and to talk with him about. But I know that he is in a far, far better place worshipping with the saints waiting the return of Christ and the resurrection of his body which will then be glorified! Amen!

I will end with the passage we chose for the funeral service was underlined in a couple of my dad's Bibles.

³³Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!

³⁴"Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?"

³⁵"Who has ever given to God,

that God should repay him?"

³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever!

Sola Deo Gloria

Sheltered or Trained?

I grew up in a Reformed Christian home.  I went to a CRC church (Christian Reformed Church) and attended a school that held to Reformed distinctives.  My friends from first grade through high school also attended the same church and school and were being taught the same things at home that I was being taught.

I also went to a college that held to the Reformed Confessions and close by was another CRC church that I attended.  Until the age of 21 I really had only minimal, cursory contact with people outside the Reformed tradition, let alone outside of Christianity.

Some would probably say that I lived a sheltered life.  In a way probably so.  However, looking back I would not have it any other way.  In those formative years of growing up, especially in adolescence, Christ and the gospel were being given to me.  Altough I was not as strong in my doctrine as I should have been (a problem that needs to be addressed in today's churches) the foundations were there.

As far as I know, the eight or nine of us who grew up in the same church and went through elementary, junior high, and high school together are all still believers in Christ.  Something must have been done right!

Being that I grew up in a strong Reformed community, I did not know (thankfully) how messed up the rest of Evangelicalism was.  Even after graduating college and beginning to work in "the real world" I was working largely with non-Christians.  Those that were Christians I didn't interact with enough to really get a feel for what they believed and what they practiced. 

When I began to listen to The White Horse Inn radio show they were making mention of certain thoughts, trends, and practices in the Evangelical Christian world that I did not know people actually believed.  It is one thing to read about Arminianism in a high school doctrine class, but to actually hear how pervasive that teaching is in American Christianity was an eye opening experience. 

It was not long before I would be immersed (in a weird, unorthodox manner) into this world and experiencing, dialoguing, arguing, and defending the Biblical truths.  Not only was I blown away at the scary doctrines of many Christians, but my own faith was strengthed as I was defending Scripture truths using the Reformed system I had been taught and was, in effect, re-learning .

The reason I called this immersion a little unorthodox was because it took place for the most part entirely on-line in a discussion board of a popular TV preacher.  A weird medium, but an interesting one for these types of discussions.  The "conversation" can be read by many people and can spread over many days.  The board I chose to which I posted was for "the discussion of the inspiring messages" of this TV preacher.  By asking simple questions concerning these "sermons" I was caught off-guard by having to defend the very Gospel itself.

Because this post is getting quite long, I will have to continue later.  But before I do let me leave you with some quotes from the "sermon" that prompted me to jump into this bulletin board in the first place.  I wish I could say these are taken out of context, but alas, they really are not.

"For the first few weeks of this year we are preaching on my new book."

"Yes, I believe that this book can really make a difference and I want to pray for God's blessing on it.  I want to dedicate it the way you dedicate a child in baptism, the way you dedicate a new building when it is finished.  The whole concept of this book is to keep us believing in the future and so I want to read just one page, the epilogue. It is short and then I'll have a prayer of dedication."

This was just the tip of the iceberg! This piqued my interest and as I kept reading and exploring I got more and more discouraged. I naïvely thought the people in the discussion board would show me something that would tell me I was wrong in my brief assessment. I was not wrong and these people made the situation worse!  I hope to discuss more of these experiences in the next couple of days because as you know our personal experiences are all that we can give another person!

Sola Deo Gloria

Sorry. Time flies.

Wow, I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted. I hope that nobody was holding their breath! It is not like I don't have things to say that the world needs to hear, but that my time was filled with other things.

I just got back from vacation to Santa Cruz, CA with my wife's family. Anybody that knows me, knows that when it comes to vacation (especially when the outdoors are involved) I tend to go overboard on the planning and research. So that took up a lot of my time in the past couple of weeks.

I do plan on posting a link to some vacation photos when I get that website made. But in terms of my blog I am going to begin, shortly, to talk about my "involvement" in the ministry of a popular TV preacher. That experience (still ongoing) has really opened my eyes to American Evangelicalism.

I hope everybody who reads this is doing well.

Mark

****
Furthermore, grace is not an impersonal substance, but a personal attribute. It is not a spiritual tonic that can be passed from one person to another, but is God's own attitude and action that he shows to those who deserve the very opposite.
- Michael Horton, God of Promise, p.164