19 April 2015 A.D. Rev. Van Horn on WSC Q.15
19 April 2015 A.D. Rev. Van Horn on WSC Q.15
Editors. “April 19: Van Horn on WSC Q.15.” This Day in Presbyterian History. 19 Apr
2015. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2015/04/april-19-van-horn-on-wsc-q-15/.
Accessed 19 Apr 2015. April 19: Van Horn on WSC Q. 15
STUDIES IN THE WESTMINSTER
SHORTER CATECHISM
by Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn
by Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn
A.
— The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were
created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.
Questions:
1.
Why did God forbid our first parents to eat this fruit?
He
forbade them because He was making a test of their obedience. It was not
that the fruit had in itself any evil. It was God’s method of seeing
whether or not they recognized His Lordship over them.
2.
Were our first parents guilty of sin before they tasted of the fruit?
Yes,
they were guilty of listening to the devil. But when they tasted of the fruit
they completed the act of sin.
3.
Where was the first sin committed?
The
first sin was committed in Paradise where God had placed man and created
woman.
4.
Was Adam deceived in this first sin?
The
Bible tells us that he was not deceived. Probably his love for Eve motivated
him to join her in this transgression. But he suffered the consequence of
this sin just the same and betrayed the whole human race whose
representative he was.
5.
What was involved in the eating of the forbidden fruit?
There
were many sins involved in this act of disobedience. By eating they
rebelled against their Sovereign God. By eating they were guilty of
treason as they were in league with the devil. By eating they
were gratifying ambition, to be as God. By eating they were guilty of
unbelief because God had said it was wrong. By eating they
were bringing death upon themselves and all their posterity.
6.
If one word had to be used in describing this first sin, what word would
be best?
Probably
the word “pride” would come closer to describing it than any other one
word. Calvin states, “Augustine is more correct, who says that pride was
the beginning of all evils, and that by pride the human race was ruined …”
THE SECOND LOOK
One
often wonders how much time Adam spent in meditation and prayer in the Garden
when he was offered the forbidden fruit by his wife. He knew that it was
forbidden. He knew the rule of obedience set up in the Garden. He had
everything he wanted. And yet he disobeyed the command of his God and
accepted the fruit as offered to him. One wonders whether or not Adam took
a second look, whether or not he did much thinking about the step he was about
to take.
A
great lesson to be learned by God’s children today from the trial in the
Garden of Eden is the lesson of thinking twice, of praying twice, before
taking important steps. God’s children always need to learn the lesson of
resistance, the resistance of the first temptation to sin In the heart.
The hymn writer put it this way: “I want a principle within of watchful,
godly fear. The sensibility of sin, the pain to feel it near.” Yet so
often God’s children move into the realm of sin without giving it a second
thought, without thinking the matter through, without praying to the Lord
for help and guidance. Many times a second look would save them from
sinning against God and thereby sinning against themselves and others.
Wordsworth
has a few lines in one of his poems that has a great lesson in it which
Christians might apply to the matter of temptation. “Look for the stars.
You will say there are none; look up a second time, and one by one, you
mark them twinkling out with silvery light, and wonder how they could
elude the sight!”
Many
times we wonder why we did not take that second look, why we could not see
the evil surrounding the thought, the action, the word when we first saw
it and it seemed good to our eyes. How can we be sure we take a second
look? Only by recognizing that we are kept by the power of God and that
power will be operative in us if we keep living close to Him and keep His
commandments. We can not, we dare not, trust ourselves but only in Him. We
must stay close to Him through the study of the Word, through prayer,
through service to Him, all to His glory. May God help us ever to take the
second look before we leap. (2 Tim. 3:13-17
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