Memorial Sermon for Thomas Shepard Bunker

March 18, 2005

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Let me first say that we are not of those who believe that as a maxim “all babies who die in infancy infallibly are ushered in to heaven”, or that “all who die before the age of reason (or responsibility) go to heaven”.  Our reasons for denying these falsehoods are these:

1.     They deny the penalty of Original Sin that all men are fallen in Adam, born in sin and corruption from their mothers wombs.  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom 5:12).  “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).  “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3).

2.     They deny that God’s gifts of compassion and mercy are of Himself, and are dependent totally on His own will and eternal divine purpose, and are never received by merit or work by the creature – nor is God ever under compulsion to extend mercy or salvation to any creature.  Salvation is of the Lord (Jon. 2:9):  “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Rom 9:15).

3.     They extend comfort to the children of those who are not extended comfort in the scripture, namely the wicked and estranged from God.  The parents of the wicked have no promise that their children will be saved.

4.     They are completely foreign to scripture, and fly in the face of the plain teaching of the scriptures concerning the Sovereignty of God in election and reprobation.

5.     They deny the Biblical doctrines of Original Sin, Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, and Limited Atonement – and therefore they are fundamentally NOT Christian ideas.

We do believe that God is completely and utterly sovereign over salvation.  God, who will be found at the last judgment to have done all things well, is Omniscient and has all the information necessary to rightly deal with all His creatures according to His own sovereign will and decrees made from the foundation of the world.  Contrarily to what is taught today in so-called “christian” circles, our God is a King who reigns supreme over His creatures.  “Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” (Ecclesiastes 8:4).

We are not of those who believe in happenstance.  We have stricken from our lexicon the names of the pagan gods, such as “Luck”, “Chance”, “Fortune” – we don’t even like the term “accident”.  We believe that the Doctrines of an Omniscient, Omnipotent and Benign God effectively lay the axe to the root of all these false delusions.  All things come about under the Sovereign hand of our Lord, Master and King.  We believe that the pulpits of America wickedly ring, and the presses rebelliously sing with the Romish Antichrist doctrines of Free-Will, Chance and Luck.  We believe the hearts of the people are dull and full with the false image of a weak and powerless god.  We believe then, like the great hymn writer Augustus Toplady – who wrote the song Rock of Ages which we just sang.  Toplady said,

“According, therefore, to the Scripture representation, Providence neither acts vaguely and at random like a blind archer who shoots uncertainly in the dark as well as he can, nor yet pro re nata, or, as the unforeseen exigence of affairs may require, like some blundering statesman who plunges (it may be) his country and himself into difficulties, and then is forced to unravel his cobweb, and reverse his plan of operations, as the best remedy for those disasters, which the court-spider had not the wisdom to foresee.  But shall we say this of God?  It were blasphemy.  He that dwelleth in heaven laugheth all these miserable after-thoughts to scorn.  God, who can neither be overreached nor overpowered, has all these wretched post-expedients in derision.  He is incapable of mistake.” (Augustus Toplady, Preface to The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination by Jerome Zanchius)

We believe that God is Good; that God is wise; that God is powerful; and that God does all things well, which is why we have chosen to place a scripture from James the 1^st Chapter in your memorial brochures:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

Now then, how do we reconcile the idea and belief of a good, gracious and powerful God – with the death of infants and children?

Are we now, having praised the equity, justice and mercy of God, to question his judgments concerning the dispensation of His creatures?  Admitting our inability to know the fullness of truth exhaustively, or to see that which is beyond our view, do we now rail against the Creator or demand answers for that which we do not understand?  God forbid.  God has done that which was necessary to serve the best interest of His beloved, and to bring about His decreed will, and to chastise those who He would have perfected, and to bring down the pride and insolence of those who claim His name.  God is good, and He is good even when we don’t understand it.   God is good when we find ourselves under His rod.  God is good when we are persecuted by our enemies and abandoned by our friends.  God is good when the forces of evil seem to triumph, and the mouths of God’s Saints are silenced by both ignorance and fear.  God is good all the time.

Just as we believe that God is sovereign over all things that befall His creatures, we also believe that God is gracious towards those who He has called to Himself – to reward the offspring of the Covenant, and to sanctify the product of His true Church.  God can and does save babies, without any intermediate means.  We believe that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit of God in his mother’s womb.  We believe that 10’s and 100’s of thousands of God’s infant and children Saints, now in heaven, were slaughtered by the Roman Catholic Antichrist throughout the dark ages and during the Reformation – some while in the womb, some being  just born, some as children who were learning to say the Lord’s prayer in their native tongue.  We believe that among the multitudes of Saints that cry out to God from under the altar, that the voices of many of God’s saved infant and children are heard.

We who are the truly elect of God are the children of the Covenant.  We have come to Christ as babes and as children to worship Him with whom we have to do.  The Apostle says:  “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope”.  We would learn from this that there are those who have no hope.  There are those who have no hope concerning the disposition of their departed loved ones.  Paul, however, would not have us to be ignorant of this issue.  Those who are the elect of God are not without hope, but we have a promise of divine help and hope concerning our loved ones.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”

Now we have to examine these verses carefully, so that we do not embrace false hope.  There are many who will perish foully and finally who claim to believe that Jesus died and rose again.  Millions in cults, including them modernist free-will cult of Psuedo-Protestantism in America, claim to believe theses truths of the Bible, who will plunge headlong into hellfire upon their deaths.  Those who God has truly called and chosen are savingly brought to a knowledge of God through the invisible miracle of regeneration (the new birth).  They are given a new heart with which to believe the awesome truth of an all Sovereign God, and their stony hearts of unbelief are taken away.  These have been purchased by the specific and limited atonement and redemption made by Jesus Christ on the Cross, and have been purified particularly by His holy and precious blood.  These have been set apart by the Holy Spirit, and called to a life of Separatism unto God.  These are being sanctified and converted according to His sovereign will and purpose.  They are obedient, then, as much as they are enabled by the Spirit of God, to the commandments and requirements of God.  We, then, as God’s elect, are truly caused to believe that Jesus Christ actually died, not for the whole world without exception (as some erroneously teach), but for us particularly, and thus we were written on His hands specifically, and that we were on His mind and Heart both in Gethsemane and on Golgotha.  We know Him to have died for us, and to have risen again so that we particularly might have life.  We know that these actions were effective and efficient and infallibly brought about the salvation of all those who were in Him from the foundation of the world.  We then know that those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will be brought to God when they die and with God upon His return.  Those who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord Jesus will not “prevent” which means here “go before” or “arrive before” those who are asleep.  This is to say that all those who the Father gave unto Christ from the foundation of the world will infallibly return to God when they die.  If they have died, then they are with Him in heaven.  We must not grieve inordinately for those who are in perfect and perpetual bliss in the presence of the blessed Savior.

Paul ends this dissertation in 1 Thessalonians the 4^th Chapter by saying, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words”, which is to say, “Knowing these things, be comforted concerning your loved ones and departed friends”.  We can rest upon God’s goodness and judgment and perfect justice.  God’s providence extends to the falling of a sparrow, and to the counting of the very hairs on your head; how much more does that benevolent providence extend to the death of a small baby born to His beloved?

I want to mention here the fruit of the short life of Thomas Shepard Bunker.

I have given here, a short and incomplete summation of our beliefs on God’s sovereignty, predestination, election and divine covenant concerning His beloved people.  This is the firm Gospel that Danielle and I have believed, and it is that Gospel that we believed as we passed through this trial and chastisement.  Literally hundreds of people, maybe thousands, from around the world have commented concerning the behavior, peace, and strength exhibited by this family and ministry through this painful ordeal.  I must tell you that it is of critical importance that we trace this fruit to the proper place and person.  The strength and peace exhibited by God’s servants under the rod, under the scourge, under trials and tribulations – can only have their fountainhead in the glorious power and love of God.  This is the evangelism and mission provided to the world by God through the life of His servant Thomas Shepard Bunker.  Though we have been chastised for our sins, and for our failures – God has indeed and unquestionably been glorified by these events.  God’s true Gospel has been on display.  The false gospel of free-will theism has been on display in the mourning houses, wakes, cemeteries and so-called “church houses” for about 500 years.  If you have seen peace in us, then you must agree that this peace is the fruit of God’s true Gospel in His elect.  If you have seen strength in us, then you must agree that that strength is only possible through Christ who strenghteneth us.  If one man, woman or child in this world has been movingly affected by the grace of God shown through the behavior of His children while on trial, then the fruit of the life of this small, precious baby is made known.  I for one must praise God and give Him all the glory for His works.  I cannot second-guess Him, or question His benevolence and special love towards us.  I believe that I will see Thomas again in God’s heaven, and that just as Jesus said about the damsel in Matthew 9:24, He has said to my spirit, “He is not dead, but sleeps”, and just as Christ said concerning His beloved Lazarus, “Our friend Thomas sleepeth”.  The fruit of Thomas Shepard Bunker’s short life convinces me that I shall see Him again.  The Puritan Thomas Case said,

“That which is called death is not death indeed to the saints of God; it is but the image of death, the shadow and metaphor of death, death’s younger brother, a mere sleep, and no more” (Mount Pisgah, Thomas Case).

We are all here but a short time and pass quickly from the stage.  We all rush towards the grave and do not pause to consider it.  While it is true that the deceived religiousite, the wicked worldling and the atheistic humanist have much to fear from death, those who are God’s sheep may rightly live their lives and embrace the grave without fear.  I praise God for both the life and death of Thomas; He is safe from the wicked influences of this world and protected from the wrath of God’s enemies.  I pray that many of you would be in such a safe estate here on earth, and that the truth of God’s gospel would usher you into the assurance of such peace while you yet live.  We believe that Thomas has passed into the presence of God and that He is in a safe and glorious estate with Jesus Christ.  We, however, believe that many of you who hear and who read these words are in a more perilous condition.  Our prayers are always for the living and never to be for the dead.  Do not pass from this world without the true Gospel and without the true Christ.  Do not rest on some assumption of salvation by the performance of assumed duties.  Do not rely on your profession of faith, or your religious affections to get you to Heaven.  Examine yourself while you have time that you pass not from this world in an unregenerate state.  I do not pray, as the Catholics do, for the soul of our departed Thomas.  I pray to the one who has the power of life or death over the body and soul of all who live.  If you would have peace in tribulation and trial, and an assurance of salvation for eternity; flee to the one who made all things.  Do not just flee from Hell, but flee from sin.  Seek Christ while He may be found.  Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and throw yourself upon Him alone for mercy.  I pray that the further fruit of the life of Thomas will be the eternal salvation of many who currently slumber in false assurance while still on earth.

May the Lord be glorified in our lives, in our families in our Christian community and by the works of His Holy Spirit in and through all those who He has called to Himself.

Peace be unto each of you.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker