Not Afraid of Bad News

Paul D. Wolfe, President

He is not afraid of bad news.

Really? He’s not? He’s not afraid of bad news?

No, he’s not.

“The man who fears the Lord,” says the Psalmist, “is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord” (Psalm 112:7).

I thought of this Bible verse this morning when I glanced at my phone (alas, the early morning phone glance) and the very first headline that greeted me was, well, viral:

“France confirms 19 new cases as officials declare epidemic inevitable.” Cases, that is, of coronavirus.

It’s a fast-moving story, especially in Europe. By the time you read this, days from now, will the numbers be higher? Lower? Will the situation be more fearful? Less? I’m no forecaster of such matters.

But what I do know is that when you’re reading this Psalm 112:7 will still be true. Those who know and fear the Lord, they need not fear bad news. Not because there’s no bad news in this world. (Obviously there is. Everything from global pandemics to personal heartbreak.) And not because the Christian is insensible to such things. (He’s not. The night before he died Jesus himself recoiled at the thought of what was in store for him, and we servants are not greater than our Master.) But we need not fear bad news in the sense that even the worst that comes our way, our wise and loving Father in heaven will have appointed it for our eternal good.

In the lovely town of Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, there’s a seminary we love, La Faculté Jean Calvin (FJC). And there, in campus classrooms and in conversations over café, faculty and staff are training men and women to grasp the gospel of Jesus Christ in a fearful world so they can go forth with it in the midst of every kind of virus and see people set free. Free from paralyzing fear. Free from the guilt and power of sin. Free from the thought that something they breathe in might be their undoing.

The Huguenot Fellowship’s raison d’être is to support FJC—with prayer, with encouragement, with financial support. Here in 2020 they need it all, just as we do! So we’ll continue to stand with them.

Join us, won’t you?

Yours in Christ,
Paul D. Wolfe

P.S. I’m grateful to the many who have reached out to me upon my becoming President of the Huguenot Fellowship to express your support. M erci, mes amis! Never hesitate to contact me with questions, observations, ideas: 703.385.9056; paul@newhopefairfax.org. The door to my office is always open.

Theological Crossroads

Calling for generosity is common. Many noble causes encourage us to be generous. Caring for the poor, supporting development, as well as the great mission to which God calls his Church all require generous commitment. But what light does the Bible give on generosity? If it is indeed a characteristic of the Christian life, how is our generosity different from that which we can see practiced by our contemporaries? Does the generosity presented in the Bible, lived by Christ, require a sacrifice of our goods? How should it be practiced on a daily basis, and to whom? The generosity of the people of Christ cannot be lived without examining all of these issues. This is what we will do at Faculté Jean Calvin during the Theological Crossroads weekend of March 13-14, 2020.

Study at FJC in English

The Huguenot Fellowship is very pleased to inform you that Faculté Jean Calvin now offers a new master’s program expressly for English speakers. Registration is now open for the 2020-2021 academic year. This may be a wonderful opportunity for you or someone you know. Please Help Share This News!

The Master of Theology in Biblical Interpretation program offers specialized training in biblical exegesis (Old or New Testament). This program in English includes a semester of modular seminars and a semester of dissertation preparation.

The first semester includes research seminars on various topics in the fields of exegesis, biblical languages ​​and the history of interpretation.

The dissertation topics can be selected from all areas of biblical interpretation: Old or New Testament, languages ​​(Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic), textual criticism and ancient versions, biblical theology, hermeneutics, and the history of interpretation.

This program offers the rare opportunity for in-depth study of the Old and New Testaments with international scholars in the land of John Calvin.

Two areas of specialization

Old Testament

The Old Testament track includes a required course called « Panorama of Biblical Exegesis », in which different research models are presented from a Reformed point of view. Seminars include topics in biblical theology, in-depth exegesis, and theories of interpretation. The academic year ends with a thesis in Old Testament.

New Testament

The New Testament track similarly includes a « Panorama of Biblical Exegesis » class. Research seminars include perspectives in biblical theology, exegesis of specific passages, and the history of interpretation. The academic year ends with a thesis in New Testament.

Requirements

• MDiv in theology, or equivalent

• English proficiency: minimum TOFEL test score of 100

• Completing the application form

• Completing the financial information form

• Statement of christian life

Study Fees = 4000 € per year

Quand Dans La Nuit

Kim Tran

Kim Tran is the multi-talented Directeur (head of operations) of the Faculté Jean Calvin seminary in Aix-en-Provence, France. He kindly provided a marvelous video performance of a French Christmas song.

Click on Quand Dans La Nuit.

To view the lyrics and translation, click here.

Merry Christmas from The Huguenot Fellowship

Faculté Jean Calvin equipped me to serve the Church

Samuel Kamano

I came to Aix-en-Provence from Guinea in West Africa in September 1992. My wife and three daughters (Cécile, Anne, Kaffa and Dorcas) came to join me in May 1993.

I came to the Faculté Jean Calvin because I wanted to get a better grasp of Reformed theology in all its diversity. From very early on I was excited to be exploring so many different areas of theology (soteriology, ethics, ecclesiology and practical theology etc.) and I enjoyed all the courses. The teaching was interesting and highly motivational, so boosted my enthusiasm for academic work. I made good progress though it was a real challenge for me to get through the academic program and I had to put in a lot of hard work.

What I was taught at the Faculté Jean Calvin equipped me to serve the Church in Guinea. Reformed education not only impacted my pastoral ministry but also enabled me to be useful to my country in various ways.

- National Reconciliation

Guinea has been through some very difficult times in recent history. From 2006 to 20O9 the whole country was in turmoil and we were even on the brink of civil war. During this time God used the Christian Council of Guinea, made up of the leaders of the three major churches (Catholic, Protestant and Anglican) to find a peace process, and indeed, lasting solutions were found. At that time, I was writing my doctoral thesis on Psalm 85 (Righteousness and peace kiss each other).

- Church planting in Conakry City

When I came back to Guinea in January 1997 the leaders of my church put me in charge of a local church in the capital with 150 members. Having defined my objectives and set up a plan of action I started working hard, putting into practice all the pastoral techniques I had learned at the Faculté Jean Calvin. Before long there were eight large churches in the Conakry area.

- Media (National Radio and Television)

I have both trained preachers to take the gospel to unreached peoples and set up a team of technicians to produce films to help people become aware of the issues that plague our society and to teach a biblical view of civic responsibilities.

- President of the EPEG (l􏰁’Eglise Protestante Evangélique de Guinée) In April 2006, during the most difficult period in our country, the National Council of the Evangelical Protestant Church of Guinea asked me to become its president. Lots of things have happened in the life of EPEG, lots of progress has been made but it hasn􏰁’t been all smooth sailing.

- Founding a school in the city of Conakry

On our return to Guinea in October 1997 we founded a school (nursery, elementary and secondary) in Enta Sud Fassa, Conakry. Since that time God has blessed us in so many ways. At present there are 1,725 students in the school. Soli Deo Gloria! For two years we tried to get the Guinean Secretary of State to visit the school and finally he came. He was surprised by what he saw and this is what he said: "I enrolled all my children in Emmaus school as soon as it opened because I knew that Christians provide a good education. I could have sent them anywhere, to a French school, for example, but something attracts me to this place, something that I find nowhere else..." Our response? "In God we will do mighty deeds".

Samuel Kamano

Passing the Baton

William Edgar

November, 2019

Dear Friends,

After more than thirty years of writing these newsletters, I will be moving to pass the baton over to our splendid new President, Paul Wolfe, although occasionally I may collaborate. I wish to express my profound gratitude for the opportunity the newsletter has afforded me to reflect on the need for the gospel in France, and especially to the kind readers, many of whom have expressed their appreciation. For the moment we do not plan any radical changes. So, the remaining text will be authored by Paul, in his maiden foray. Again, many thanks.

Very Truly Yours,
William Edgar

Paul D. Wolfe

And with that, I take the baton from Bill and I start running. And I hold on to Isaiah 40:31 as I get going: “they shall run and not be weary”!

As some of you are aware, at the most recent meeting of the Huguenot Fellowship, Bill Edgar brought to a close his lengthy and faithful tenure as our President. And the Board elected me to the role after him. (Thankfully, Bill and his wonderful wife Barbara will remain on our Board and continue to lend their wisdom and creativity.)

I suppose a word of introduction is in order. I have had the privilege of serving on the Board of the Huguenot Fellowship since 2015. The congregation I serve as Senior Pastor, New Hope Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Fairfax, Virginia, supported the Huguenot Fellowship for many years prior to my joining the Board, and has continued to do so. My wife Christy and I live in Fairfax with our three children, whom we have promised to take to France on vacation soon. And they are most unlikely to let us forget the promise!

The opportunity to serve the Huguenot Fellowship in this new capacity is simultaneously humbling and exciting for me. The seminary’s ministry is vital, my fellow Board members are fantastic, and the need for the gospel in France (of which Bill has already made mention) is great.

Which brings me back to Bill. Surely words of honor are in order too.

The Huguenot Fellowship was founded in 1977 for the purpose of rallying support here in the United States for the Reformed seminary in Aix-en-Provence, France, now known as Faculté Jean Calvin (FJC). That means it’s been 42 years! Forty-two years of getting the word out about FJC and supporting it from across the Atlantic. Forty-two years of newsletters and prayer, soirées and more prayer, receiving contributions from donors far and wide and providing crucial financial assistance to the seminary—and more prayer. And for thirty of those forty-two years, Bill Edgar has wisely led and guided us.

And he’s been uniquely qualified to do so. Bill has brought to the role of President his “perfect storm” of experience, wisdom, and dedication: not only did he grow up in France, but then he taught at the seminary in Aix for eleven years before moving his family to the United States in 1989 to teach at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Bill knows France well: its language, its history, its people, its mindset. His ties to FJC have been close, strong, and long-lasting. Most of all, he’s spent a lifetime teaching and defending the very gospel that FJC continues to inculcate into the hearts and minds of its students. It would be difficult to overstate the impact Bill has had during his long service as our President.

As a way of marking this moment of transition in the life of our organization, would you consider contributing a special financial gift this year in honor of Bill’s service—a gift not only to support FJC in its ongoing mission, but also to express your gratitude for Bill’s extraordinary decades-long leadership? You may do so...
By mail: The Huguenot Fellowship; P.O. Box 877; Glenside, PA, 19038.
Online: Visit www.huguenotfellowship.org, and follow the “Contribute” link in the upper right.

Faculté Jean Calvin stands as a beacon for the gospel in France today, and the Huguenot Fellowship remains resolved to see that light shine for generations to come. Keep standing with us, dear friends!

Yours in Christ,
Paul D. Wolfe

To keep the flame alive!

As we recently celebrated just over 500 years since the Protestant Reformation we felt grateful for one of the most important treasures this movement entrusted to future generations: submissive and intelligent commitment to the Bible, the ability to discern the truth in the text, to distinguish between good and bad interpretations and to listen to the voice of God revealed in the Scriptures. The spirit of the Reformation leads us into thinking in a way that is captive to Christ and his kingdom, wholly other than all imposed dogmas and issues pushed by the contemporary powers of "this world". If the church is to fulfill its calling, it must remain faithful to this inheritance. Should the church stray from its true vocation, it is liable to fall prey to the pressures of power groups, ideological factions and economic trends.

The Kingdom of God is based on a different mindset from the one that governs the social and political fabric of this world (Mk 10:35-45).

The principles of life and the norms of behaviour that correspond to the calling of the church must be governed by􏰀 Christ’􏰁s mindset. As we remember the Reformation ideal, we can affirm that the church is, or should be, a community that hears in the Biblical text a voice that speaks louder than the multiple voices in society which seek to control the way we think and behave.

And such is the vocation of the Faculté Jean Calvin: to keep the flame of this ideal alive! By supporting the work of the FJC, you are helping to ensure that the church in the French-speaking world (and beyond!) can still be trained and equipped to respond faithfully to the Master's call.

Rodrigo F. de Sousa
Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament
Director of 􏰄Master’s Program
Faculté Jean Calvin

Gert Kwakkel / Old Testament & Hebrew

DURING THIS SEASON OF THANKSGIVING, LET’S INCLUDE OUR THANKFULNESS TO GOD FOR EACH OF THE DEDICATED, GIFTED, HARDWORKING TEACHERS AT THE FACULTÉ JEAN CALVIN.

Gert Kwakkel, Ancien testament et hébreu

Professeur d’Ancien Testament à la Faculté de Théologie des Églises Réformées (Libérées) à Kampen, Pays-Bas.

Formation

Licence et Maîtrise en Théologie à la Faculté de Théologie des Églises Réformées (Libérées) à Kampen, Pays-Bas, et à la FLTR à Aix-en-Provence.

Doctorat en Théologie et Sciences des Religions à l’Université de Groningen, Pays-Bas, en 2001. Sujet de thèse: exégèse des psaumes 7, 17, 18, 26 et 44 (les dits psaumes d’innocence).

Publications

‘According to My Righteousness’. Upright Behaviour as Grounds for Deliverance in Psalms 7, 17, 18, 26, and 44, Leiden, Brill, 2002.

« Prophets and Prophetic Literature », dans H.G.L. Peels et S.D. Snyman (eds), The Lion Has Roared. Theological Themes in the Prophetic Literature of the Old Testament, Eugene, Pickwick, 2012, p. 1-13.

« Hosea, Prophet of God’s Love », dans H.G.L. Peels et S.D. Snyman (eds), The Lion Has Roared. Theological Themes in the Prophetic Literature of the Old Testament, Eugene, Pickwick, 2012, p. 27-39.

« That Practical Old Testament », dans Lux Mundi, no. 31, 2012, p. 80-82.

« Calvijns evangelisatiekamp in Frankrijk », dans Nader Bekeken, no. 20, 2013, p. 81-83

Articles récents

Les Israélites devaient-ils être sauvés par leur obéissance à la loi ? in Y. Imbert (dir.), Foi et Oeuvres, Actes du Carrefour théologique 2017, Kerygma et Excelsis 2019, p. 25-44.

Le désespoir d’Elie et la thérapie de Dieu en 1 Rois 19.1-8, La Revue Réformée n° 283, Kerygma 2017, p. 39-48.

La violence envers les incroyants dans l’Ancien Testament, La Revue Réformée n° 282, Kerygma 2017, p. 19-36.

Le lecteur comme objet principal de l’exégèse biblique, La Revue Réformée n° 281, Kerygma 2017, p. 1-12.