Bob den Dulk: Building Bridges

Ecumenism is incredibly overrated, as it often assumes that various denominations will diminish key distinctive in order to reach this higher ideal of "unity." This concept of unity is an appealing bowl of stew for the weary Christian, but often comes at the cost of one's confessional birthright. At Calvin College, I saw this tendency at work in a meeting between some CRC leaders and many Mainline leaders. At the time, I didn't realize that the only commonality amongst that group was the belief is some vague notion of Jesus. That seemed enough to build unity amongst those people. My denomination, the EPC, suffers a similar desire for unity. Like the fundamentalists of old, the EPC seeks to unite its church to a small list of "essential" doctrines, while ignoring other key distinctives.

True unity for Christians is found in the historic confessions. All true Christians believe in the Bible as God's authoritative Word, but each denomination has a confession that says is essence "We hold these truths to be self-evident." A sign of denominational decline is found in the sacrifice of any part of a confession for the sake of unity; a sign of its growth is found in gathering people around the deep unity forged upon a confession.

Bob den Dulk, like most Dutch men, was a giant. Also like many of the Dutch, he was gentle giant. He was an ordained elder and administrator in the greatest of Dutch-American denominations, the Christian Reformed Church. From early on in his life, he knew that a non-compromising unity was a blessing, and sought that unity amongst Reformed denominations with similar confessions. As a little boy, he spent time with one of the great leaders of the ecumenical movement: Cornelius VanTil. As the PCUSA succumbed to heresy and apostasy, the CRC quickly sent aid to the beleaguered conservatives under Machen. This mostly came in the form of three professors to Westminster--the foremost being VanTil. While unknown to the public at-large, VanTil in my estimation may have been the greatest theorist of Christian apologetics in the modern era. He was also a symbol of historic Reformed unity.

It was not surprising then that little Bob den Dulk eventually went to a Dutch Reformed school, Calvin College, followed by a Presbyterian seminary, Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. For years he faithfully labored as an administrator at Westminster until called upon to help plant a Reformed seminary on the West Coast, later known as Westminster Seminary California. Early on, WSC was known as a Presbyterian school, adhering to the Westminster Confession. In Bob den Dulk's five years as President of WSC, he was able to convince the seminary to also adopt the Three Forms of Unity, the Dutch Confessions, as another point of adherence. In doing so, he created a legacy in which students from the URC, CRC, OPC, PCA, and EPC come together as a unified body of Reformed Christians under the two beautiful banners of historic Reformed unity.

Bob den Dulk not only sought out God-honoring ecumenism between people of similar confessions, he demonstrated that warm-hearted love most characteristic of the Dutch brethren. When he met a firey Christian in the Philippines who wanted seminary training, den Dulk helped him through the admissions process at WSC and took him into his home, treating him like a son. This man, now a Christian leader in the Philippines, wept the last time he saw his "American" father. Bob den Dulk also seized opportunities given to him to share the Gospel. One of my elders at New Life Presbyterian Church was a non-Christian when overseeing the construction of the WSC chapel...before he met the Lord through Bob den Dulk. My housemate Zach now has several shelves of his bookcase filled with Calvin's commentaries, given to him by Bob den Dulk this past summer.

Bob den Dulk died in early August, leaving behind a legacy amongst friends, family, Westminster Philadelphia, Westminster California, Covenant College, and a host of Reformed denominations of various backgrounds. Every path he blazed was done with the grace of God. My one memory of this giant of a man was from Board luncheon at WSC where he was explaining to Dr.Kim (one of my professors) that conservative churches might leave the embattled CRC for the PCA if only the PCA let them continue to hold to their Dutch confessions as well as the Westminster Confession. I inwardly wondered, "Why not?" As his death loomed, Bob den Dulk sent out many letters of hope amidst his suffering. Westminster Seminary California demonstrates the best of true ecumenism, united upon the greatest of historic confessions. Much of that spirit can be traced to a giant of a man, whose shadow still lingers over the faithful remnant of Reformed Christians in the United States.