Another Letter of Joost Verkindert, Written to his Brothers, Michiel and Pleun

May God the Father, and our dear Lord Jesus Christ, give you a heart and mind to walk in His holy truth all the days of your life, for the salvation of your poor, naked souls, that they may be saved when the Lord visits them at the last day, when we shall all be placed before the judgment seat of Christ, where everyone will receive reward according to his deeds, whether they are good or bad. Second Corinthians 5, verse 10. To God the Father be praise and honor through Jesus Christ; may He give us His Holy Spirit as a Comforter in all our tribulation, in which we now are, for Christ and the Gospel's sake. To the Lord be praise, honor and thanks forever and ever. Amen.

This I wish you, my dear and beloved brothers, Michiel and Pleun, as a heartfelt and friendly greeting, from the inmost of my soul. Know that I am still reasonably well according to the flesh; and as for the spirit, my mind is still fixed to hold to the eternal truth with the help of the Most High, to whom I must look for comfort and help; for of myself I do not have one good thought, but only aversion; for the flesh always shrinks from suffering. Nevertheless, my dear brothers, there must be suffering, either here or hereafter, for Christ says that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent must take it by force. Matthew 11, verse 12. O dear brothers, I ask you from the heart to take heed to yourselves, to obey the voice of the Lord, so that you may not be found among those who had buried their talent in the earth, and among those who want to put a new piece on an old garment, and among those who put new wine into old bottles. Matthew 25, verse 18; Luke 5, verses 36 and 37. O my dear brothers, if you do not take heed to yourselves, God will require a strict account of you, for Christ says: "All those who will not have me reign over them, bring here, and kill them before my eyes, and cast them into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Luke 19, verse 27; Luke 13, verse 25. And further, in Luke 12, verse 47, Christ says: "That servant who knew his Lord's will, and did not prepare himself, nor do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." O my dear brothers, accept this warning of mine in good part, for it is done out of pure brotherly love, and this because I know so well that without Christ and without His Word there is no salvation. For I also, for a number of years, knew better than I did, the Lord forgive me; and if I could have served the world and the Lord, I would not be in bonds. O dear brothers, flesh and blood did not bring me to this, but the Word of the Lord, which is sharper than any two-edged sword. For no one can serve two masters at the same time; he must despise the one, and hold to the other. You cannot serve God and mammon together. Matthew 6, verse 24. And oh, it (the Word) also calls to the children of Israel and says: "How long will you halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, then follow him." First Kings 18, verse 21. O dear brothers, these and other Scriptures compelled me to renounce my own will, in order to escape the great deluge and punishment that shall come upon those who have not obeyed the Gospel of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. Second Thessalonians 1, verses 8 and 9.

O dear brothers, be afraid of that day which will burn like an oven, and when all the proud despisers, and all the wicked, shall be as stubble; but those who have kept the laws of their God shall then grow up like calves of the stall, and they shall go in and out, and tread down the wicked like ashes under their feet. Malachi 4, verse 1. O dear brothers, that we might all be found worthy to hear the pleasant voice of Christ saying: "Come, you blessed, inherit the kingdom of my Father, prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Oh, then we should indeed have been born at a blessed hour! For there are so few who seek to follow the Lord with a whole and true heart, for everyone would excuse himself; the one says: I have bought five yoke of oxen; the second: I have married a wife; the third: I have bought a piece of ground; I ask you, have me excused. Luke 14, verse 18. O dear brothers, before the Lord no excuse will be able to stand; therefore let us take heed, if we have heard His voice, that our hearts do not become hardened or stony; for we have many examples in the holy Scriptures that the ungodly cannot stand before the Lord. For we read how God punished the world with the deluge because of their sins; but He saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, and brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and overthrew and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins; but preserved just Lot with his two daughters, who were distressed by their improper and unchaste conduct. Second Peter 2, verse 5. Thus, dear brothers, though the Lord does not outwardly comfort* you as He then did, yet He will not let sin go unpunished, for the Lord is a righteous judge, who will judge the heart and the thoughts. Oh yes, man will have to give account of every idle word that he has spoken. [n1012-1] Matthew 12, verse 36. O dear beloved brothers, go out from this spiritual Egypt, from the power of the hellish Pharaoh, and from this spiritual Sodom, where they crucified our Lord, and from this spiritual Babylon; so that you may live in Zion, and there behold the beautiful worship of God; for I warn you in the name of the Lord, and my conscience, that you will find it at the last day, as I have written you here.

O dear brothers, Michiel and Pleun, I also admonish myself by this, for if I do not persevere in this conflict, all that I have suffered is in vain, for the unsaved shall be written in the earth. Jeremiah 17, verse 13. O, so many times I feel a terror of apostatizing, for I am so certain and assured that I am on the right way. For, dear brothers, you well know that no one can come into this world unless he is born; so no one can enter into the world to come unless he is born again, even as Peter clearly testifies, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. First Peter 1, verse 23. O brothers, dear brothers, happy is he who is born in this way; for such regenerated persons use the true baptism and the true Supper; they also keep away from all false doctrines, and also use the true excommunication and separation, for the maintenance of the purity of the church, or it would soon become a Babylon.

Dear brothers, I have been before a priest four different times, and we can agree in nothing. Oh, he uses such diligence to bring us to his church; and because we will not buy, or cannot accept with a good conscience, his merchandise, therefore he says that we have the devil in us, and that we are damned if we die in our belief in this way. However, I am not terrified by his judgment, but I pray the Lord to open the eyes of their understanding, that they may see against whom they are contending, that it is not against men, but against God and the Lamb; for Christ says: "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, [but I have chosen you out of the world], therefore the world hates you." John 15, verse 19. And Christ further says: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call those of his household." Matthew 10, verse 25. Oh, how truly it may be said at this time, that our life is counted madness, our going out destruction, and our honor shame. Wisdom 5, verse 4; Wisdom 3, verse 3. Oh, how the words of Christ are fulfilled where He says: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the time is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is doing God service. And these things they will do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." John 16, verses 2 and 3. And Paul also says: "If they had known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." First Corinthians 2, verse 8. O my dear brothers, remove your feet from the paths of the ungodly, for they go to hell, like sheep to the slaughter. Proverbs 4, verse 14. And do not look to the multitude, for Esdras writes: "Even as there is found much earth of which to make earthen vessels, but little to make golden ones, so are the ungodly to the righteous." Second Esdras 8, verse 2. And again: "As a flood is to a drop, so are the ungodly to the righteous." Chapter 9, verse 16. And he further says:

"What profit is it to man that a city full of all good things is promised, if he cannot enter into it? Or that an immortal life is promised, while we do the works that bring death?" Therefore we may well say with Esdras: "O Adam, Adam! What have you done! For when you fell, you did not fall alone, but also all of us who come from you." Chapter 7, verse 48. O my dear brothers, strive to become true sheep of Christ's flock, and true branches of the vine Christ, and seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth; and put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for the sake of which things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Colossians 3, verses 1, 2, 5 and 6. Thus, my dear brothers, if you desire the truth, and to escape the punishment to come, seek to order your life according to the Gospel, and deny yourselves; for Christ says in the Gospel: "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the Gospel's shall save it. For what is a man profited, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? But whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Matthew 16, verses 24 to 26; Mark 8, verse 38.

O my dear brothers, consider well these Scriptures, and meditate on them, for Christ Jesus has brought them down here from high heaven, and lived and taught them, and sealed them with His blood, and became poor for our sakes, that through His poverty He might make us rich. O consider for once how despised Christ was for our sakes. So the prophet Isaiah laments and says that there was no beauty in Him which might have pleased us. Isaiah 53, verse 2. Indeed, he [the Psalmist] laments that he was a worm, and no man. Psalm 22, verse 6. O dear brothers, let us take an example from Him, how admirably He went before us; for all those who do not accept Christ are not redeemed by Him; for Christ also says in the Gospel: "Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say? For whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock.* And everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it." [n1012-2] Luke 6, verse 46; Matthew 7, verses 24 to 27. And Christ further says, of the sower, in Matthew 13, that some seed fell by the wayside, some on stony places, some among thorns, and some into good ground, and this brought forth fruit. Oh, ponder well this Scripture, in how many a one the deceitful riches suppress the Word of God, so that it does not bring forth fruit. Thus, my dear beloved brothers, this is written in my bonds for a perpetual warning to you. Oh, that God would grant grace, that His Word might lie in your heart as it does in mine; then you would soon bid the world farewell. Yet my flesh sometimes shrinks back from suffering in a remarkable way, so that at times I am as fearful as one who is in the throes of travail. Nevertheless, Christ Jesus also shrank from suffering. Luke 22.

With this I will commend you to the crucified Christ Jesus, and to the abundant Word of His grace, as a perpetual farewell on earth, if we should see one another here no more; for my mind is still fixed this day to seal this letter with my blood, and, with old Eleazar, rather to die honorably than to live stained with disgrace. And, Michiel, I also greet your wife, sister Tanneken, very cordially, with a perpetual farewell. My brothers, always do good, and praise and thank the Lord, that you have a brother who is worthy to lay down his life for Christ and the Gospel's sake. Written to you in tears, for nature's sake. Assist Christian with the children, wherever it is possible for you; and keep this letter as a testament. By me, your dear brother,

JOOST VERKINDERT.