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NEW HORIZONS in the ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH NEW HORIZONS in the ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 5 Twenty-Two Years of Youth 22 Review: Troxel’s DECEMBER 2019 Ministry // by Mike Dempsey Priesthood of Believers // by T. David Gordon The Essential Pronouns of Christmas by Dale A. Van Dyke // 3 VOLUME 40, NUMBER 11 New Horizons CONTENTS in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church Editor: Danny E. Olinger Managing Editor: Judith M. Dinsmore FEATURES Editorial Assistant: Diane L. Olinger Proofreader: Sarah Pederson 3 The Essential Pronouns of Christmas Cover Designer: Christopher Tobias By Dale A. Van Dyke Editorial Board: The Committee on Christian Education’s Subcommittee on Serial Publications 5 Twenty-Two Years of Youth Ministry © 2019 by The Committee on Christian Education of By Mike Dempsey The Orthodox Presbyterian Church. All rights reserved. 7 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are The Problem with People-Pleasing from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing By Jonathan L. Cruse ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (We use the 2011 revision.) 9 You Are Not What You Eat Articles previously published may be slightly edited. By Ken B. Montgomery New Horizons (ISSN: 0199-3518) is published monthly except for a combined issue, usually August- September, by the Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 607 N. Easton DEPARTMENTS Road, Bldg. E, Willow Grove, PA 19090-2539; tel. 215- 830-0900; fax 215-830-0350. 10 Foreign Missions Letters to the editor are welcome. They should deal with an issue the magazine has recently addressed. The Haiti Minute Men Their language should be temperate, and they may not charge anyone with an offense. They should be brief, 12 Christian Education and they may be condensed by the editor. Send inquiries, letters to the editor, and other corres- Review: Wanamaker’s Temple • Our pondence to the editor at [email protected]. Membership Vows • Out of the Mouth … Send address changes to [email protected]. Allow 14 six weeks for address changes. Home Missions The digital edition (PDF, ePub, mobi) and an archive of Jim Bosgraf ’s Fifty Years of Service previous issues are available at www.opc.org. Views expressed by our writers are not necessarily 16 those of the editors or official positions of the Stewardship Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Hold Your Money Loosely Copies are distributed free to members and friends of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Nonmembers 17 Prayer Calendar are asked to donate $20.00 for an annual subscription (USD $30.00 if sent to addresses in Canada; $40.00 elsewhere abroad). A free e-mail PDF subscription is 19 News, Views, & Reviews also available. Requests for a subscription should be sent to [email protected] or the address below. Periodicals postage is paid at Willow Grove, PA, and at additional mailing offices.Postmaster: Send address changes to New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Image on page 12, “Philadelphia - Penn Square: John Wanamaker” Church, 607 N. Easton Road, Bldg. E, Willow Grove, PA by wallyg, is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 19090-2539. Four OP congregations lifted the promise of “that Word above all earthly powers” to celebrate Reformation Day October 27 in Leesburg, VA. This marked the eighth year these churches have enjoyed together a German- themed meal, children’s program, and worship. Pastors who preached on the strength of that Word included (left to right) Francis VanDelden from New Hope OPC (Frederick, MD), Charles Biggs from Ketoctin Covenant (Purcellville, VA), Peter Lee, professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, and George “Chip” Hammond from Bethel Presbyterian (Leesburg, VA). 2 / NEW HORIZONS / DECEMBER 2019 THE ESSENTIAL PRONOUNS OF CHRISTMAS DALE A. VAN DYKE // As you undoubtedly know, pronouns are big news today. The humble pronoun has found itself dragged to the front lines of a raging contest regarding ultimate questions of identity, authority, and meaning. Few of us could have imagined the current cultural clamor over such simple words as “he” and “she.” But here we are—and what a joy, ture of Mary’s life: “You have found fa- tions will call me blessed; then, to open the Scriptures and find vor with God” (Luke 1:30). It’s the one for he who is mighty has done great those same simple words bursting with distinction that makes all the differ- things for me, and holy is his name. the glory of gospel truth! ence. Out of all women, through all the (Luke 1:46–49) Matthew 1:21 reads, “She will bear ages of time, God chose this specific In the mystic muddle of a pagan a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, teenager to be the mother of the Son world, Mary sang with piercing clarity for he will save his people from their of God. Imagine the astounded look on the glory of a mighty God who does sins” (emphasis added). Here we have, her face as the angel of God told her great things for the humble. While in one verse, four key pronouns that es- the news: the Roman Catholic Church is surely tablish the saving purposes of God in The Holy Spirit will come upon you, wrong to venerate her, let us be eager Christ for this rebellious world. They and the power of the Most High will to delight in and with her—to embrace represent all the essential participants overshadow you; therefore the child her joy and celebrate her indispensable in the story—a woman, a man, a Savior, to be born will be called holy—the part in the gospel story. and the sinners he came to save. Son of God. (Luke 1:35) You: “You Shall Call His Name She: “She Will Bear a Son” Mary, the unknown and unre- Jesus” The first gospel pronoun refers markable, was called by God to carry The second pronoun we find in to Mary, the young peasant girl from in her own body the Messiah. It was verse 21 is you. Nazareth, betrothed to a man named completely implausible and yet mys- It is clearly referring to Joseph, the Joseph. teriously believable. Mary’s song, re- man betrothed to Mary. It is clear that Scripture doesn’t point to any corded in Luke’s gospel, expresses her he loved her, and he was undoubtedly noteworthy characteristic about Mary. incredulous joy: undone by the news of her conception. What stands out is how very common My soul magnifies the Lord, His bride-to-be was with child. It was she seems: living an anonymous life in and my spirit rejoices in God my a devastating development, particu- a nondescript little village in the back Savior, larly in an honor-based society. Joseph hills of Galilee. There is nothing re- for he has looked on the humble es- was an honorable man, and Mary had markable here, except for one thing. tate of his servant. brought shame upon him. Her preg- The angel reveals the defining fea- For behold, from now on all genera- nancy was irrefutable evidence that she NEW HORIZONS / DECEMBER 2019 / 3 had been unfaithful and immoral—and his own creation to redeem it, to defeat while the stigma of that is barely felt “This baby boy is the power of the Devil, to remove the today, in those days it was a public dis- darkness of the curse, and to make all grace, a moral debacle. Everyone would the most perfectly things new. know what she had done, and no one named baby boy He “will save his people.” There is would blame him if he put her to pub- certainty in Gabriel’s voice. This Jesus lic shame, naming her in the synagogue in the history of was not born to attempt a rescue but as an adulterous woman. But, being a to accomplish a redemption! He came kind man, he “resolved to divorce her the world. Never to actually, truly, irrefutably, and im- quietly” (Matt. 1:19). This was clearly mutably save a people from the peril not a hasty decision, but an inescapable has a child been of divine, eternal damnation. In a few conclusion based on the indisputable born to address short years, Gabriel’s prophetic prom- facts of Mary’s condition. ise would be answered and sealed with Ah, but the whole of the story had such a peril as the Christ’s own victorious verdict, “It is not been told! finished” (John 19:30). In that atoning peril of a justly moment and dying declaration, the sal- But as he considered these things, vation of all of his sinning people was behold, an angel of the Lord ap- condemned race.” sealed. peared to him in a dream, saying, This brings us to the last pronoun “Joseph, son of David, do not fear of Christmas: their. to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Their: “From Their Sins” Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 1:20) The angel’s words tell us three es- In this cynical world, such an an- sential things: First, Jesus has a people, nouncement calls for serious faith. he—and it will never have a greater ref- given to him by the Father before the Joseph, and everyone he knew, under- erent than this. world began. Second, they are all sinful stood that babies aren’t born of virgins. I recently read an interesting ar- and continually sinning people. Their But an angel of God had told him the ticle that asked this question: Why is a possessive pronoun. It shows own- miracle of Spirit-wrought conception, wasn’t Jesus named Immanuel? That’s ership.
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