I heard it said recently that we are Protestant Reformed because that’s what we were brought up to be and young people from other churches are members of those churches for the same reason. Therefore, there’s no harm in dating them. I felt bitterly opposed to that since I wasn’t brought up Protestant Reformed and until a little over a year ago, didn’t have any inclination to even attend one of the Protestant Reformed churches.

This reasoning is the same as Freud’s who looks on man as formed by his environment and is not really responsible for his actions —his environment has caused him to act as he does. All over our land this same reasoning is affecting our courts, and persons who commit major crimes are getting away with very light punishments because they weren’t responsible. That is a very deceptive comfort; no matter what I do, it’s not really my fault. I doubt that wicked man has found any better way to smother his conscience. But that is not true. I am responsible personally for everything I do, and so is everyone else.

If we believe we are Protestant Reformed just because we were brought up that way, maybe we’d better check and see if we’re in the right church. And if we date those from other churches, we’d better be sure they know what they believe. If they’re just there because they’re there, they don’t care and who wants to marry a person so spiritually shallow. If they know why they attend their churches and we know why we attend the Protestant Reformed church, then how can we tolerate such a deviation from the truth in our prospective life’s partner.

After all, we are dating to find a wife or husband, aren’t we? Or do we go along with the world that we date for fun and there’s so much fun yet to be had from life. That is the world’s philosophy, you know — eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. This is the keynote to more pay with shorter working hours, houses with more and more labor-saving devices, much of the entertainment on television, a higher standard of living, and in short, the materialistic outlook on life. This is one of the ways man glorifies himself.
But if we date in search of a wife or husband, then we have to look first and perhaps only among those of God’s elect who love and profess His Word in its purest form. After all, our mate will help us raise His future covenant children.