RCUS to RCN: Your Choice

7 July 2016 by Wes Bredenhof

Over the last year or so, we’ve seen both the Free Reformed Churches of Australia and the Canadian Reformed Churches issue stern warnings to their sister churches in the Netherlands.  If there is no turn-around at the next synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (RCN), then these relationships will, in the words of the FRCA, “become sadly untenable.”  Now you can add an American voice to that of the Australians and Canadians.  The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) held its synod on May 16-19 in Bakersfield, California.  The RCUS has also maintained a voice of witness against the deformation in their Dutch sister church.  Like the Australians and Canadians, however, the RCUS is now just about finished with the RCN.  This is the decision you’ll find in the Abstract of the Minutes for the 270th Synod (page 76):

RCUS on GKN

The Dutch Synod next year is going to be a nail-biter.  Will the RCN really throw away relationships with sister-churches in Australia, Canada, and the United States to continue their current path?  Is it worth it?  One would hope that they would value these relationships and want to hold on them.  But more importantly, one would hope that they would see the validity of the concerns expressed and repent because they agree that they have departed from Scripture — and therefore realize that it is repentance that would please God above all.