                  SPECIAL REFORMATION ISSUE

                              Calvin on the Anabaptists
        When the light shining from on high in a measure shattered his
     (Satan's) darkness.. . he began to shake off his accustomed drowsiness
    and to take up arms. And first, indeed, he stirred up men to action that
    thereby he might violently oppress the dawning truth. And when this
    profited him nothing, he turned to stratagems: he aroused disagreements
    and dogmatic contentions through his catabaptists (anabaptists) and other
    monstrous rascals in order to obscure and at last extinguish the truth.
                                         -"Prefatory Address to King Francis"
                                                               in the lnsfitufes

                             The Reformed Confession on the AFabaptists
                     Therefore we detest the error of the Anabaptists, who are not content
                  with the one only baptism they have once received, and moreover
                  condemn the baptism of the infants of believers, whom we believe ought
                  to be baptized and sealed with the sign of the covenant.
                                                        - Belgic Confession, Article 34


                  The Reformed Conflict with Anabaptism

Vol. 68, No. 2
October 15,199l


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                    October 15, 1991

Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema
     The Kingdom Not of This World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
     The Enemy on the Left . ..**...........................................**.*,....*...........                                                                                29        ISSN 0362-4692
The History of Anabaptism -                                                                                                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
       Prof. Herman C. Hanko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31                  Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
The Anabaptist View of Church and State -                                                                                                                                                  4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandvilla, MI 49418. Second Class
                                                                                                                                                                                           Postage Paid at Grandville. Michigan.
       Mr. Gerald Kuiper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Conflict with Anabaptists: Infant Baptism -                                                                                                                                                Poatmrrter:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                           P.O. Box 603. Grandville. MI 49466.0603.
     Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36                           EDITORIAL  COMMITTEE
Infant Baptism and Sovereign Grace -                                                                                                                                                       Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
     Rev. Ronald J. Hank0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38             Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                           Managing Editor: Mr. Don Dc%zema
Anabaptism and the Means of Grace-
     Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40                    DEPARTMENT  EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                                                           Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arie
The Reformed Controversy with Anabaptism over Church Government-                                                                                                                           denHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Carl Haak, Mr. Fred
                                                                                                                                                                                           Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Hays, Rev. Marvin
      Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42                         Kamps, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jason
The Reformed World and Life View -                                                                                                                                                         Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting, Rev. George
                                                                                                                                                                                           Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
      Rev. Kenneth Koole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45      Charles  Terpstra, Rev. Ronald VanOverloop, Mr. Benjamin
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47                                                                        Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
In This Issue . . .                                                                                                                                                                        EDiTORlAL  OFFICE           CHURCH  NEWS  EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                                           4949 lvanrest               6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                           Grandville, Ml 49418         Hudsonville, MI 49426
       InhiseditorialProf.EngelsmaasksconcemingtheconflictwithAnabaptism                                                                                                                   BUSINESS  OFFICE             NEW  ZEALAND  OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer         The Standard Bearer
whether the threat of it today warrants even the aftention of a Reformed church,                                                                                                           Don Doezema                 c/o Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                                                                                                           P.O. BOX w3                     Church
let alone the devoting of an entire issue of the SB to its errors. Answering the                                                                                                           Grandville, Ml               B. VanHerk
question in the affirmative, he goes on to demonstrate that the                                                                                                                              49416                     66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                    spiritual              PH: (616) 243-3712          Wainuiomata, New Zealand
descendants of the Anabaptists not only are still to be found, but in fact                                                                                                                          (616) 531-1490
                                                                                                                                                                                           FAX: (616) 631-3033
"dominate the American religious scene."
       The truth of that will, we trust, become abundantly clear as you read the                                                                                                           EDlTORlAL  POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                           Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
various articles in this special issue. For the Anabaptists of the 16th century                                                                                                            articles. Contrlbutionsofgenerallnterestfrom  ourreadereand
                                                                                                                                                                                           questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
were far more than simple "re-baptizers"; and the spirit of Anabaptism in the                                                                                                              Contributions will be limtied to approximately 300 words and
20th century is found not only in the Amish but within the very churches which                                                                                                             mustbeneatiywdtienortypewritten,andmustbesigned.           Copy
                                                                                                                                                                                           deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
go still by the name Reformed.                                                                                                                                                             communications relative to the contente should be sent to the
       FromProf.Hanko's"H%toryofAnabaptism"  welearnthatthe Anabaptists'                                                                                                                   ediiortal office.
rejection of infant baptism, though it was the one important issue which united                                                                                                            REPRINT  POLICY
all Anabaptists, was by no means their only errant view. There was first of all                                                                                                            Permission Is herebygrantedfor the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                                                                                                                           magazine byotherpublicatkms,  provided: a) thatsuch  reprinted
the Anabaptist dream of a kingdom of heaven established on this earth. Rev.                                                                                                                articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
Slopsema addresses that, from the positive point of view, in his "Meditation"                                                                                                              is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                                                           appears is sent to our editorial office.
on John 18:36. Rev. VanOverloop treats the Anabaptist insistence on believers'
baptism. Rev. Ron Hanko argues that a rejection of infant baptism is by                                                                                                                    `SUBSCRIPTION  POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                           Subscription price: $12.00 per year in the U.S., $16.00
implication a denial of the doctrines of sovereign grace. Mr. Gerald Kuiper                                                                                                                elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance  is
                                                                                                                                                                                           received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
demonstrates that the Anabaptists' views regarding the necessity of re-baptiz-                                                                                                             subscriptlontocontinue,andhewillbebilledforrenewal.        lfyou
ing those who were baptized as infants came in turn out of their view of the                                                                                                               haveachangeofaddress,pleasenotiitheBusinessOfftcaas
                                                                                                                                                                                           early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
church, which they defined, not as a gathering of believers and their seed, but                                                                                                            interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
as the community of regenerated believers.                                                                                                                                                 ADYERTlSlNG   POLICY
       Rev. Bruinsma, by dealing in this issue with the Anabaptists' errant view                                                                                                           The StandardBearerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
of Scripture, lays the groundwork for a treatment of their teaching concerning                                                                                                             of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                                                                                                                           anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
the means of grace. Rev. Cammenga shows that Anabaptism's low view of                                                                                                                      placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
offices in the tihurch,  as well as its independentism, has not only survived to the                                                                                                       Offiie and should be accompanied by the 33.OOfee.  Deadline
                                                                                                                                                                                           for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
present but thrives in Reformed circles. And, finally, Rev. Koole distinguishes                                                                                                            date.
carefully between the Anabaptistic notion of world-flight and what we know                                                                                                                 BOUND VOLUMES
as the life of the antithesis.                                                                                                                                                             The Business Off? will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                                                           copiesofthecurrentvolume. Suchordsrsarefill~sdassoonas
       No wonder the Reformers considered the Anabaptists to be worse en-                                                                                                                  possible after completion of a volume year.
emies than Rome.
                                                                                                                                                                            D.D.           16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                           article copies are available through Universtly Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                           International.
26/StandardBaarerlOctoberl5,1991


                                                                                                                                --


                                               The Kin dom Not
 Meditation                                     of This I/orld
 Rev. James Slopsema



          Jesus answered, my kingdom is not    a member of this kingdom. In this          tion. The Jewish leaders were plot-
of this world: if my kingdom were of this      kingdom he finds his salvation.            ting Jesus' demise. They had arrested
world, then wouldmyservantsfight, that              However, there are many mis-          Jesus during the night. Now they
Ishould  not bedelivered to theJews: but       conceptions that have arisen about         have brought Him to Pilate to be
now is my kingdom not from hence.              this kingdom, which lead the saints        condemned and executed. From a
                                John 18:36     away from the kingdom and their            human point of view the situation
                                               salvation. These misconceptions all        was desperate for Jesus.
          The Jewishleaders have brought       deny that the kingdom is not of this             Were Jesus' kingdom of this
Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman             world.                                     world, He would definitely have com-
governor.                                           We do well, therefore, to sit at      manded His servants to fight that He
          The charge these leaders bring       the feet of Jesus as He teaches us of      not be delivered into the hands of the
against Jesus is very serious. Jesus           His kingdom.                               Jews. Were His kingdom to arise out
perverts the nation. He forbids the                      +  *  $  *  *  *  *              of worldly power, certainly now
people to give tribute to Caesar. He                Mykingdomisnotofthisworld.            would be the time for His servants .to
says that He is Christ, a king (Luke                This means that Jesus' kingdom        take up the sword. But Jesus had
23:2).                                         does not originate out of this world,      forbidden this. When Jesus had been
          In the privacy of his own room       does not find its source in this world.    arrested the previous night, Peter had
Pilate asks, "Art thou the king of the              By the world Jesus means the          taken up his sword to defend Him.
Jews?"                                         world of ungodly men and women             The result was that the servant of the
        In response Jesus answers, My          with all its earthly wealth and might      high priest lost his ear. But Jesus had
kingdom is not of this world....               as well as its ungodly ideas, philoso-     rebuked Peter, commanding him to
        In this answer Jesus, first, ac-       phy, wisdom, learning, and rhetoric.       put up his sword. Certainly Jesus'
knowledges to Pilate that Heis a king.              From this world have arisen al-       kingdom is not of this world.
For He speaks of His kingdom. How-             most all the kingdoms of history.                If Jesus' kingdom is not of this
ever, Jesus also assures Pilate that His       Some kingdoms have arisen out of           world, from what then does it arise?
kingdom is not the kind of kingdom             sheer military might, as marching                It arises out of that which the
that Pilate and the Jewish leaders en-         armies overthrow strongholds and           world despises and dismisses as of no
visioned. It certainly is not an earthly       subdue nations to the rule of one man.     account. For Jesus' kingdom arises,
kingdom that will rival the govern-            Other kingdoms have arisen out of          first, out of His death on the cross.
ment of the Roman Caesar. For His              the charm and rhetoric of golden-                Remember, Jesus' death was
kingdom is not of this world.                  tongued orators who have promised          imminent. He had been brought be-
        How important this is for us to        good things to the masses. Some have       fore Pilate, the Roman governor, by
consider!                                      arisen out of material resources and       the Jewishleaders. Serious charges of
        This kingdom is of extreme im-         wealth, and still others out of a com-     treasonhadbeenleveledagainstHim.
portance to the born-again believer.           bination of these elements.                OnthisverydayJesuswillbepublicly
Beingborn again in Jesus Christ he is               Jesus indicates that none of this     condemned to death as a threat to the
                                               is true of His kingdom. His kingdom        Roman state and be executed by cru-
                                               does not arise out of human might or       cifixion.
                                               wealth or rhetoric or wisdom.                   What good, much less a king-
                                                    As proof of this, Jesus points out    dom, can possibly arise from the ex-
                                               to Pilate that were His kingdom of         ecution of this Jesus of Nazareth, who
                                               this world, then would His servants        flourished for a few years among the
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protes-        fight, that He should not be delivered     people and now has fallen in dis-
tant Reformed Church in Walker, Michi-         to the Jews.                               grace? For this reason the cross of
gan.                                                We must remember the situa-           Jesus became a stumbling stone to the

                                                                                                October 15,1!391/ StandardBearerl27


Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (I         lem, not only over the Jews but also         God with all his heart and walks only
Cor. 1:23).                                   over the nations. The Temple wor-            in sinful rebellion against God's law.
     Yet out of this shameful death,          ship will be restored. The modern            This can only lead to man's eventual
which the world dismisses as noth-            state of Israel is also viewed as God's      destruction in hell.
ing, Jesus' kingdom arises.                   preparation for this earthly kingdom              Jesus, however, has established
     Closely related to this, Jesus'          of Jesus.                                    a kingdom in which He conquers the
kingdom-also arises out of the preach-             Others there are who envision           hearts of those whom the Father has
ing of the cross. After Jesus' death          the kingdom of Jesus being realized          given to Him. Through a great work
and resurrection the church preached          on the earthbefore Jesus returns. This       of grace Christ breaks the spiritual
the cross. The great apostle Paul             kingdom will arise not only out of the       dominion of the devil and`enthrones
indicated that in his preaching he            preaching of the gospel, but also out        Himself as Lord and Ring. The result
came not with enticing words or the           of Christians entering into every area       isawonderfultransformationsoradi-
wisdom of men but he knew only                of life (politics, education, business,      calthatitiscalledanewbirth. Through
Jesus and Him crucified (I Cor. 2:lff.).      etc.) to bring the world under the           this spiritual rule of Christ His people
Down through history the true church          control of Jesus.                            are filled with love for the Lord their
has proclaimed the gospel of the cross:            Still others speak of no literal        God. Willingly they walk in His com-
there is full and free salvation in the       return of Jesus at all. They also deny       mandments. Joyfully they live a new
cross of Jesus to all and every one who       the existence of heaven and hell.            life of friendship and fellowship with
believes.                                     Heaven and hell are simply condi-            the ever blessed God. All this is, of
     If the cross is foolishness to the       tions we make for ourselves on earth.        course, only begun in the earthly pil-
world, so is thepreachingof the cross.        They envision a heaven on earth in           grimage of this life; it is made com-
Consequently, theapostlel'aulspeaks           which all the ills that have plagued         plete in eternity.
of the foolishness of preaching (I Cor.       mankind down through history will                 Obviously this  kingdlom  and
1:18,21).  Werethechurchtoproclaim            be forever eradicated. They intend to        spiritual rule does not arise out of
the wisdom and ideals of mankind,             achieve this utopia through educa-           earthly might and wealth or human
the world would listen. But the               tion, medicine, technology, litigation,      wisdom and rhetoric.
preaching of the cross the world dis-         and the like. Another key ingredient              Such a kingdom can arise only
misses as sheer nonsense!                     in all this is the wonderful example of      out of the death of Jesus Christ on the
     Yet from this preaching arises           Jesus. All will follow His principles        cross and out of the preaching of the
the kingdom of Jesus!                         so thatthis heavenwillineffectbe the         cross. For through His suffering and
           4  *  *  *  *  *  rc               kingdom of Jesus.                            death Jesus paid the price of sin, which
     In harmony with the fact that                 All these earthly views of Jesus`       is the onlybasis for such a great salva-
Jesus' kingdom is not of this world is        kingdom, however, fly directly in the        tion as being delivered from the do-
the fact that it is not earthly in nature.    face of the simple fact that Jesus' king-    minion of the Devil and beingbrought
        This certainly is the implication     dom is not of this world.                    under the gracious rule of Jesus Christ.
of Jesus' remarks to Pontius Pilate.               If Jesus' kingdom is not of this        And it is through the preaching of the
The Jewish leaders charged Jesus with         world, the clear implication is that it      cross that Christ sees fit actually to
seeking to establish an earthly king-         is heavenly and spiritual in character.      change our hearts and enthroae Him-
dom that would rival and eventually                This does not mean that Jesus'          self as Lord and King.
overthrow the Roman empire. With              kingdom is less than real. It is very                 *  *  *  $  *  *  Y
that concern Pilate questions Jesus           real. Jesus established this kingdom              For this kingdom we must fight.
whether He is the king of the Jews. In        upon His ascension into heaven. In                Peter's mistake in drawing his
response Jesus assures Pilate that His        harmony with this, Jesus' kingdom is         sword at Jesus' arrest was not that he
kingdom is not of this world. The             centeredin heaven. Hence, it is called       fought for Jesus and His kingdom.
very clear implication is that neither,       the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus            His mistake was that he fought for an
therefore, must His kingdom be con-           comes again His kingdom will dis-            earthly kingdom and thus fought in
ceived of as being an earthly king-           place all the kingdoms of the world          the wrong way.
dom.                                          and of men and stand eternally in the             The kingdom of Jesus has en-
        This needs to be emphasized in        new creation.                                emies and will continue to have en-
light of the trend in the church to                That Jesus' kingdomis heavenly          emies until Jesus comes again to de-
conceive of the kingdom as being              and spiritual means that this is aking-      stroy them. These enemies are the
earthly in nature. Some speak of a            dom in which He rules in the hearts of       devil and his host which have gained
1,000 year reign of Jesus on the earth        His people in grace and salvation.           spiritual control over the world of
after a rapture of the church and a                Ever since the fall of mankind          fallen mankind.
seven-year tribulation period for the         into sin the heart of man has been                We must fight these evil forces,
Jews. During this reign Jesus will            ruled by the devil. The result of this       first,byperseveringingodliness. The
rule, from David's throne in Jerusa-          rule is that natural, fallen man hates       devil seeks to destroy the kingdomby

28/StandardBearerlOctober15,19!31


r
     leading us away from our Savior and          kingdom can not be complete until all      weapon Christ has given us: His
     thus destroying the good work of             the elect of God are brought under the     Word. The word of the cross is the
     God in us. The devil hopes to accom-         spiritual domain of Jesus Christ.          power of Jesus' kingdom. In that
     plish this through the many tempta-          Consequently, the devil fights furi-       word the members of the kingdom
     tions he places before us every day.         ously to keep the elect under his con-     find the.power to persevere in the face
     Were the Devil to succeed in leading         trol, so that the kingdom may suffer       of the devil. Through that word oth-
     so much as one saint away from Jesus,        ruin. Our calling is to fight for the      ers are gained to Christ, as many as
     the kingdom of Jesus would be ru-            kingdom by gaining others to Jesus         are ordained to eternal life.
     ined. And so we fight for the king-          Christ.                                            Let us fight, therefore, for Jesus'
     domby resisting the wiles of the devil            In this great battle we cast aside    kingdom with the sword of the Word.
     and persevering in our salvation.            all human weapons so that we may                   Andsincewefightintheshadow
          But we also fight for the king-         arm ourselves with the one spiritual       of the cross, we fight with the assur-
     dom by gaining others to Christ. The                                                    ance that the victory is ours! 0



                                                  The Enemy on the
     Editorial                                    Left

          Anabaptists?                            left wing of the Reformation." This          malice  of the Devil fighting against
          Who are they?                           name is wrong because it describes           Christ is more covert, and therefore
          And does a Reformed church              the Anabaptists as part of the Refor-        moretobefeared;forunderthecolor
     have to bother itself with them?             mation movement itself. Although             andcloakof mortification of the flesh,
          Are they such a threat to the           the Anabaptists followed Luther and          of godly life, and of Christian justice,
     Reformation faith as to warrant de-          Zwingli out of the Roman Catholic            they have become privy  blasphem-
     voting an entire issue of the Standard       Church, they were not part of the            ers of Christ Jesus . . . and manifest
     Bearer to their errors?                      movement. For immediately they               enemiestothefreejustificationwhich
          Our people must know that the           also separated from the Reformation          comes by faith in his blood.... the
                                                                                               general consent of all that sect is that
     Anabaptist heresy is alive and well.         churches. They went out, as John             God . . . has no sure election, neither
     Indeed, it is thriving as never before.      writes in I John 2:19, that they might       yet any certain reprobation, but that
     Of the two great foes of the faith of the    be made manifest that they were not          every man may elect or reprobate
     Reformation in history, Roman Ca-            of the Reformation.                          himself by his own free will.
     tholicism      and         Anabaptism,            The Anabaptists were not "the                 What was it about Anabaptism
     Anabaptism is by far the more serious        left wing of the Reformation" but the      that made it abhorrent to the Reform-
     danger to the faith today. Every Re-         enemies of the Reformation on the          ers?
     formed Christian worthy of the name          left. They were not the "radical Ref-              The Anabaptists were a diverse
     is on his guard against Rome. But            ormation" but a radical departure          lot. They ranged from the pacifistic
     many are swept away, almost un-              from the Reformation.                      Menno  S i m o n s   t o   t h e   m a d
     awares, by the seductions of                      The Reformers regarded them           millennialists of Munster. Almost  in
     Anabaptism.                                  as worse enemies than Rome. Luther         wonderment, the Reformers spoke of
          Part of the problem is that the         declared that the Anabaptists were         the "marvellous and manifold divi-
     people do not know that the great            further removed from the gospel than       sions and bands (of Anabaptists)."
     Reformation of the 16th century had          Rome and that if he had to choose he       What they all heldin common was the
     to struggle to the victory of a sound,       would rather return to Rome than           rejection of infant baptism. This meant
     truly Reformed church against en-            become Anabaptist. The Reformer of         that all those who had been baptized
     emies on the left as well as against the     Scotland, John Knox, agreed. In his        as infants were required to be m-
     enemies on the right. The foe on the         "Awarningagainstthe  Anabaptists,"         baptized as adults. Hence their name,
     right was Rome. The foe on the left          he wrote:                                  "Anabaptists," that is, "Re-baptizers."
     was Anabaptism. Historians have                But of the other sort (the               Their rejection of infant baptism was
     wrongly called the Anabaptists "the            Anabaptists-DJE) . . . the craft and     not an incidental matter to the

                                                                                                     October 15,199l  I Standard Bearer I:29


Anabaptists but the chief article of         revolutionary spirit. Not only did the      characteristic of revolution. The lat-
their religion. In a letter to Thomas        Anabaptists despise and reject civil        ter-day Anabaptists are willing to re-
Muntzer, Conrad Grebel railed on             government as the epitome of the            sort to force against the state over
infant baptism as "a senseless, blas-        godlessness of the world, feeling free      their church-schools, over abortion,
phemous abomination, contrary to             to overthrow government whenever            and over other laws that the:y judge
all Scripture." Thevery  first article of    this was deemed necessary and pos-          oppressive and unjust.
the document that comes closest to           sible, but they also yearned to over-               These churches call themselves
beingan  Anabaptist statement of faith,      turn the entire established order.          evangelical or fundamentalist. In fact,
the Schleitheim Confession of 1527,          Fueling this fire was the dream of          they are Anabaptist.
repudiates infant baptism as "the            establishing the kingdom of heaven                  The preachers who are the suc-
highest and chief abomination of the         here and now. The saints must rule.         cessors of Karlstadt, Muntzer, Grebel,
pope."                                       The "Fifth Monarchy" of Daniel's vi-        Hut, and Joris are Graham, Hyles,
      The rejection of infant baptism        sion must become an earthly reality         Falwell, Ed Dobson, Hybels, and the
involved the denial of the covenant,         through the efforts of the saints.          entire charismatic swarm.
both as regards the inclusion of the              It should surprise no one that                 In one of history's ironies, the
children of believers and as regards         both the Institutes of Calvin and the       Anabaptists who once skulked in
the unity of the old and new testa-          Belgic Confession had as one of their       woods and fields, the outlaws of soci-
ments. It also meant the denial of           main purposes to disassociate the           ety, now worship in huge cathedrals
original sin and total depravity. A          Reformed churches from  Ana-                and command the attention, and even
leading Anabaptist, PilgramMarpeck,          baptism.                                    deference, of the president.
wrote, "When the children grow in                                                                The Reformed churches are wide
the knowledge of good and evil, only                                                     open to the Anabaptist influence.
then do sin, death, and condemnation              Non-Roman Catholic                     They eagerly adopt Anabaptist doc-
come into play."                                    religion  in America                 trines and ways. In Grand Rapids,
      With one voice, the Anabaptists                                                    Reformed people flock to the
preached the false gospel of salvation              is overwhelmingly                    Anabaptist services.  Re5ormed
by free will. Such was the place of,                     Anabaptist.                     consistories welcome the popular
and so did they stress, good works in                                                    Anabaptistpreachers to their pulpits.
their teaching that they denied, if they                                                         A recent account in a Reformed
did not set aside entirely, justification         It is, however, the urgency of the     periodical of a convention of suppos-
by faith alone - the heartbeat of the        conflict of the Reformed faith with         edly young Calvinists read like the
Reformation and the cornerstone of           Anabaptism in our day that needs to         description of a wilder Anabaptist
the biblical gospel. The first article of    be sounded and appreciated. If one          evangelistic meeting: invitations to
theconfessionof faithof  Anabaptism's        thinks only of the physical descen-         children of the covenant to walk the
leading theologian, Balthasar                dants of the Anabaptists, the               aisle to embrace Jesus for the first
Hubmaier, was, "Faith alone makes            Hutterites in South Dakota and the          time; music calculated to stir the emo-
us holy (German:  Fromm,  that is,           Amish in Indiana, he will regard the        tions; arms waving in the power of
`pious') before God." Thus he clearly        notion of a conflict as nonsense. But       the Spirit; and even a ritual of Chris-
expressed Anabaptism's radical dif-          let him consider that the spiritual         tian hugging. And the leaders in the
ference from the Reformation. For            descendants of the Anabaptists domi-        denomination approve. All that re-
the Reformation, the first article of        nate the American religious scene.          mains is to rebaptize as adults, repu-
faith is righteousness by faith alone, a     Non-Roman Catholic religion in              diating infant baptism. This is com-
righteousness that has nothing to do         America is overwhelmingly Ana-              ing.
with man's works but consists of the         baptist. It rejects infant baptism; the             Is the warning against  Ana-
imputation to him of the obedience of        covenant; total depravity; justification    baptism urgent in our day?
Christ. For Anabaptism, the first ar-        by faithalone; and sovereign, gracious              Anabaptism has almost extin-
ticle is man's own holiness, a holiness      predestination. Its gospelis salvation      guished the light of the Reformed
that does not have its source in a           byfreewillandgoodworks.  Itisanti-          faith rekindled by the Spirit of Christ
preceding justification.                     doctrinal and anti-confessional. It         at the Reformation.
     But the Anabaptists had little          spurns the unity of the church as                   But not quite. And not ever.
use for sound doctrine, and none for         manifested in a denomination. It is                 There are still confessional Re-
creeds. Their concern was instead the        individualistic; experience-centered;       formed churches that maintain the
Christian life, good works, spiritual        and millennial, dreaming the                life-and-death conflict of the Refor-
experience, and a holy congregation.         Anabaptist dream of the thousand-           mation with the Anabaptist radicals.
     Running strongly through the            year, carnal reign of Christ on earth.      Among them are the Protestant Re-
movement until the debacle at                     There is even in some quarters         formed Churches. This too is an irony
Munster dampened its ardor was a             the surfacing of the latent Anabaptist      of church history. For the beginning

30/StandardBearerlOctoberi5,1991


of the existence of the PRC was that              mined that this people of the Lord,          Anabaptist churches as they do with
they were cast gut as "Anabaptistic."             which is His covenant people, shall          Rome. Like Rome, the Anabaptists
"Doopersch, " their adversaries                   not forsake or deny its God in any           are false churches. This is the official
shouted. It was a ridiculous charge.              area of life. In every sphere, that          Reformed judgment upon them  in
Denial of common grace was sup-                   people has been called to live out of
                                                  grace, out of the one grace, by which        Article 29 of the Belgic Confession.
posed to lead to "world-flight." In               it has been implanted into Christ . . . .         In this conflict, we renounce the
their response, Niet Doopersch Muar               "World-flight," therefore, is not ap-        physical means that were once sin-
Gereformeerd (Not Anabaptist but Re-              plicable to us.... If by "world" you         fully used against the wretched
formed), Henry Danhof and Herman                  mean "nature," you see clearly that          Anabaptists-drowning, fire, and
Hoeksema dismissed the pitiful accu-              we do not separate nature and grace,         sword. Those weapons accomplished
sation as mere "mud-slinging."                    but everywhere want to live out of           nothing anyway, except to spread the
  "World-flight" is absolutely not our            grace. And if you mean "world" in            heresy.
  view. Exactly the opposite is our               the evil sense,we do not take to flight           We use the weapon of the Word
  view. We exactly are determined not             from the world, but fight the good           of God, .the Word of free, sovereign
  to go out of the world. It is exactly           fight to the end . ..(my translation of      grace in the covenant.
  our intention to abandon not one                the Dutch).
  single area of life. We have exactly               Let it be known that the Protes-               Precisely the same weapon with
  called to God's people that it must        tant        "Anabaptist" Reformed                 which we contend with Rome. 0
  occupy all of life. Only, we are deter-    Churches contend as sharply with the                                                 - DJE

                                             The History of
                                             Anabaptism,
Prof. Herman Hanko

     The Reformationof the sixteenth         contrary to Scripture. It would have              on other issues. And within the sepa-
century was a mighty work of God by          been easy and was often tempting to               rate branches of the movement, con-
which the church of Christ was pre-          the Reformers to incorporate such                 troversies led to many schisms and
served through church reformation.           radical movements within biblical                 splinter groups. For the purposes of
To the student of history, it never          Protestantism. To reject them splin-              this article, we will divide the move-
ceases to be a wonder how God                tered the churches of the Reformation             ment into three branches.
brought about this reformation and           badly and opened the Reformers to
kept it on a steady biblical course.         the charge that by abandoning the                 Carlstadt and the ZwickauProphets
Not only were the Reformers giants           authority of the pope they tore to                     The Lutheran Reformation
of theology who successfullycombat-          pieces the unity of the church of Christ.         reached a climax at the Diet of Worrns
ted the errors of Rome in doctrine,          And so often these radical movements              when Martin Luther, the fearless R.e-
worship, church government, and the          seemed to be standing for all the right           former of Germany, stood alone and
Christian life, but they also success-       things.                                           defenseless before the emperor of the
fully steered the church away from                    Nevertheless, it is part of the          Holy Roman Empire, the princes of
radical movements on the left which          wonder of God's work that the Re-                 Germany, and the higher prelates and
threatened the Reformation almost            formers succeeded in opposing Rome                theologians of the Roman Catholic
from the beginning.                          ontherightandtheradical Anabaptist                Church to take his stirring stand on
     Theseradicalmovements joined            movement on the left.                             the basis of the Word of God. After
themselves to the Reformation and                     The Anabaptistmovement at the            the Diet, Luther found refuge for a
seemed at first to have an important         time of the Reformation was an ex-                while in a castle at Wartburg.
role in the battle against Romish er-        tremely diverse movement.' Al-                         During Luther's stay in
ror. But they were intent on leading         though all Anabaptists agreed on cer-             Wartburg, certain men within tlhe
Protestantism in a direction wholly          tain ideas, they disagreed violently              Lutheran camp began to push their
                                                                                               radical ideas in Wittenburg. Thley
                                                                                               were dissatisfied with the  slalw
                                             1                                                 progress of the reformation, especially
                                                      Balke speaks of seven different
Prof. Hanlco is professor of Church His-                                                       in purging the church of the remain-
                                             branches of Anabaptism. Calvin and the
toy and New Testament in the Protes-                                                           ing elements of Romanism: vestiges
                                             Anabaptist Radicals,  Willem  Balke
tant Reformed Semina y.                      (Eerdmans Publishing Co., l?Sl), pp. 2-4.         of the mass, pictures, icons, altars,

                                                                                                     October 15,1991 I StandardBearer  I31


monkery, colored-glass windows,             the Lowlands by Melchior Hofman as                  went under the name of "The Swiss
andsuchlikethings. WithoutLuther's          early as 1530. Hofman was a strange                 Brethren" was the least radical of all.
calm guiding hand on the tiller they        man and an erratic thinker. He also                 It repudiated especially the violent
saw their opportunity to destroy all        was strongly chiliastic, expected mo-               excesses of the Zwickau Prophets and
the hated elements of Romish prac-          mentarily the return of Christ, and                 the followers of Jan of Leyden.
tices. They unleashed in the city a         relied heavily on special revelations.                   The movement had its begin-
wave of iconoclasm. Their followers         He made use of fanciful and allegori-               ning in Zurich.2  In this city Ulrich
went through the city and into the          calinterpretations of Scripture topro-              Zwingli was pressing his reforma-
churches smashing everythingwhich           mote his views.                                     tory work. Here too certain men were
displeased them and introducing                  But two men, followers of                      not satisfied with a slow reformation
practices which, whileinkeepingwith         Hofman, introduced what was the                     and were impatient with those who
Reformationideals, werebeingintro,          most radical form of Anabaptism on                  counseled carefulness. The chief lead-
duced slowly by Luther as he sought         the continent into The Netherlands.                 ers were Conrad Grebel (often con-
to bring the people to an understand-       They were Jan Matthys, who claimed                  sidered the founder of Anabaptism),
ing of the Word of God. The leaders         to be Enoch, and Jan of Leyden, who                 Felix Manz, George Blaurock,  Simon
were  Andreas Carlstadt and Justus          claimed to be King David. Accepting                 Stumf, and Balthasar Hubmaier.
Jonas.                                      all the strange views of Hofman, they               Zwingli, in keeping with current
     They were soon joined by men           determined to establish the kingdom                 views on the relation between church
from Zwickau led by Nicholas Storck,        of heaven, with its center in Munster,              and state, wanted the City Council of
Marcus Stubner, and Thomas                  which they called the New Jerusalem.                Zurich to be in control of reform.
Munzer. These "Zwickau prophets,"           They reached the pinnacle of their                       When at a public disputation in
as they came to be called, were radi-       power in 1535 and 1536 when, within                 October of 1523, the Council decided
cals who combined an inward mysti-          the walls of Munster, a community                   in favor of Zwingli and his followers,
cism with a destructive radicalism.         was established which practiced adult               the men who opposed him separated
They relied heavily on dreams, vi-          baptism, community of goods and                     themselves from the Swiss Reformer
sions, and direct revelations; they re-     wives, and a church which relied more               to establish their own party,
jected infant baptism; they were            upon revelation through special vi-                      While the immediate issue was
chiliastic, i.e., they were of the opin-    sions given the leaders than through                the question of the speed of reform
ion that the millennium had dawned          the words of Christ in Holy Scripture.              and the support of the magistracy,
and that it was their calling to estab-          The city was attacked by the                   other issues soon arose. In rejecting
lish the millennium of the kingdom of       forces of the emperor, overcome, and                the control of the Council in reforma-
Christ here on earth. Wittenburgwas         destroyed, with the citizens put to                 tion, these men went further and es-
in an uproar, and hasty and urgent          flight or death. The horrible experi-               tablished the principle of separation
letters were sent to Luther to stop the     ment of this radical wing of                        between church and state. But the
stampede.                                   Anabaptism lasted but a short time.                 defense of this position led to more
     While the Elector forbad Luther             T h i s   f a n a t i c   b r a n c h   o f    radical positions. Grebel himself de-
to return, fearing for Luther's life,       Anabaptismwascondemnedbyother                       nied the legitimacy of the oath for
Luther felt compelled to return to          Anabaptists, even in the Lowlands.                  Christians? the propriety of Chris-
Wittenburg and, `in a series of eight       The successors of the Anabaptists,                  tians going to war, and the use of the
powerful sermons preached on eight          without the fanaticism of Munster,                  civil courts in matters of dispute
successive days, put all the radicals to    were followers of Menno Simons.                     among Christians.
flight and restored the peace of the        These were the beginnings of what                        The goal of this movement was
city. It was a remarkable demonstra-        today is known as the Mennonite                     the establishment of a Christian com-
tion of Luther's powerful pulpit            Church.                                             munity, separate from the world, in
preaching and a proof of his conten-             Our Belgic Confession, which                   which the principles of the kingdom
tion that the Reformation could not         often mentions Anabaptist errors, was               of heaven, especially as outlined in
be accomplished by rioting and in-          written with the Anabaptists of the                 our Lord's Sermon on the Mount,
surrection, but only by the power of        Lowlands in mind, including the fol-                were practiced.
the Word of God. Munzer was later           lowers of Menno Simons. The views
instrumental in the Peasant Uprising        of Menno Simons receive special at-
and died at the hands of the armies         tention in Article XVIII, for it was                2 Some claim that the entire Analbaptist
sent out to quell the insurrection.         Menno Simons who taught that the                    movement began with these men. `Others
                                            human nature of Christ did not come                 claim that the Wittenburgiconoclasts  were
The Munster Debacle                                                                             the beginning.
                                            from Mary.
     The Reformation had come early                                                             3 Cf. The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's
to what is now The Netherlands, and         The Swiss Brethren                                  Day XXXVII, which was written in an-
Anabaptismhadbeenintroducedinto                  The wing of Anabaptism  which                  swer to the Anabaptists.

32/StandardBearerlOctoberl5,19!N


        The question of believers' bap-     traveled throughout Europe spread-         especially true of the Anabaptists in
tism, in distinction from the doctrine      ing their views. They found ready          Moravia, who, under the leadership
of infant baptism, came almost imme-        ears in many places and Anabaptism         of Jacob Hutter, founded the
diately to the fore. It was first intro-    became a constant thornin the side of      Hutterites.       H a n s   Denck,  a n
duced by Wilhelm Reublin, a pastor          the true reformation.                      Anabaptist in southern Germany,
of a church in a village near to Zurich.         The price the Anabaptists had to      anticipated later Arminian thought
This denial of infant baptism became        pay was great. They were hunted,           withhis teachings that the atonemlent
the one great issue between                 imprisoned, tortured, killed. They         of Christ was universal in its scope,
Anabaptists and the other branches          met in private homes, woods, and           though efficacious only for the elect.
of Protestantism. The denial of infant      caves. They suffered untold hard-               Because the denial of infant bap-
baptism was based partly upon the           ship. They were put on the rack,           tism was the one great doctrinal point
fact that the Anabaptists could find        roasted in the fire, drowned in the        which united all Anabaptists, it was
no New Testament proof for it and           rivers and lakes, beheaded, tortured       this doctrine which received the most
partlyon the fact that they considered      almost beyond endurance. Yet their         attention from the Reformers. In
it to be an innovation brought into the     views continued to spread.                 Switzerland especially, under the
church by the "Antichristian Romish              Closely connected with their          leadership of such men as Zwingli,
Church."                                    views on believers' baptism was their      Bullinger, and Myconius, and over
        When the Anabaptists were ex-       position of a pure church, their em-       against Anabaptism, the doctrine of
pelled from Zurich, they gathered as        phasis on holiness and godliness in        the covenant of grace (with its co:rol-
a hunted handful of people. At this         life, and their opposition to any sup-     lary in the unity of the Old and New
meeting Blaurock begged Grebel to           port of the secularmagistratesin eccle-    Testaments) was first developed.
baptizehimwith"trueChristianbap-            siastical affairs.                         Here too we have a remarkable dem-
tism." This was done, and Blaurock               Other doctrinal aberrations soon      onstration of God's wise providence
then proceeded to baptize the others        appearedin their thinking. They con-       in using error to promote the cause of
in the group. From that time on, no         sidered the sacraments to be of mere       the truth.
children were baptized and all bap-         symbolic value. In keeping with all             Between the extreme of
tized adults were re-baptized.4             baptistic thought, they considered the     Anabaptism and the corruption of
        In the decades following, the       Old Testament to be so distinct from       Rome, the Reformers had to steer
Anabaptists became evangelists who          the New that it was of lesser authority    their way. That they did so success-
                                            than the New for Christians. Some          fully is due to the sovereign grace of
                                            practiced community of goods in an         the Holy Spirit of Christ, who leads
4 Hence the name, Anabaptism, which         effort to restore the church to the        the church into all truth. 0
means: Re-baptism.                          purity of apostolic times. This was


                                            The Anabaptist
                                            View of Church and
ML Gerald Kuiper                            State                                                                                    I
        Elsewhere in this issue we are      church and he was persuadedbyFare1         tines. Calvin in this pamphlet re-
introduced to the history of the            and others in 1544 to write against        sponded to the seven articles of the
Anabaptists. In the light of that his-      them in a pamphlet entitled, "Brief        Anabaptist Schleitheim Confession
tory it is clear that the Reformers         Instruction for Arming all the Good        which was written in August of 1527,
regarded them as great enemies of the       Faithful Against the Errors of the         primarilybyMichae1  Sattler, an Evan-
Reformed church. John Calvin was            Common Sect of the Anabaptists."           gelical Anabaptist. John Knox, also,
aware of the danger they posed to the       This pamphlet was translated and           in 1557 wrote in his "Letters to His
                                            edited by B.W. Farley, and published       Brethren, and Lords Professing the
Mr. Kuiper is administrator of Heritage     by Baker Book House in 1982 in a           Truth in Scotland" a brief essay en-
Christian School in Hudsonville, Michi-     book entitled Treatises Against the        titled "A Warning Against the
gan.                                        Anabaptists and Against the Liber-         Anabaptists," edited by Kevin Reed

                                                                                             October Xi,1991  / StandardBearerJ33


and published in 1984 by Presbyte-              When Constantine excused the          Christian, and at worst, of the devil
rian Heritage Publications. In this        clerics from paying taxes he did so        and demonic, the Anabaptist move-
essay Knox exposed the erroneous           because "their conduct of the greatest     ment began. The birth of Anablaptism
views of the Anabaptists in regard to      worship toward the Divinity will, in       has been traced by some to Switzer-
salvation, the doctrine of the church      my [Constantine's] opinion, bringim-       land in the dispute between Zwingli
and the sacraments, their doctrine of      measurable benefit to the common-          and Conrad Grebel and Simon
God, and their mistaken notion of          wealth" (from a letter quoted by           Stumpf. Whereas Zwingli wanted
free will. Zwingli also battled the        Verduin, p. 99). Shortly after,            the city council to speak concerning
Anabaptists in the church in Switzer-      Constantine proclaimed the death           the abuses of the mass, Grebel and
land. The dangers these Reformers          sentence for those who attended a          Stumpf insisted that a decision con-
saw in the Anabaptist movement to a        conventicZc(anon-publicgatheringfor        cerning the mass could not be made
great extent remain today  - Perfec-       religious purposes). The assumption        by the council, "for the decision has
tionism, Free-Willism, and Separat-        was that these conventicles were gath-     already been made, the Spirit of the
ism.                                       erings of heretics. Thus "heresy" be-      Lord decides" (p. 91,ProtestantCon-
        In this-article we will examine    came sedition, or crime against the        ceptsofChurchandState,byWiUiam
the controversy between the Reform-        state. Verduin calls this the "new         R. Estep). Estep explains onpage'194,
ers and the Anabaptists regarding          sacralism." Membership in the church       "For the Anabaptists, the most dam-
their concepts of church and state.        became forced by the state and             aging element in the fall of the church
We find that it was primarily due to       Verduinstatesonpage104that"what            was its alliance with the state. When
the Anabaptists' view of church and        had happened is that the church as         church and state were joined, the
state that they insisted on rebaptism      Corpus Christi (the body of Christ)        church ceased to be the church." As
or adult baptism only. To understand       had given way to Corpus Christianism       a result, Grebel and Stumpf and their
this we liave to recognize that the        (the body of the christened)." The         followers separated from the church
"Bruder (Brothers)" or "Swiss Breth-       ideaofmissionworkwasnottopreach
ren," as the Anabaptists called them-      and let men accept or reject the Word,
selves, regarded the high point of         but to compel men to j&n the church.            Calvin and Knox both
Christianity and the church to have        This destroyed for them their concept                condemned the
lasted from the time of the apostles to    of free will. The Anabaptists then
the time of Constantine. They be-          maintained that, since preaching was            perfectionist  leanings
lieved that the Edict of Toleration in     virtually eliminated, passive submis-             of the Anabaptists.
A.D. 313 was the beginning of the          sion to the sacraments became domi-
downfall of the church because this        nant. The Lord's Supper for  believers
Edict made the Christian religion a        only, they saw replaced by the mass,       and formed conventicles, communi-
"permitted cult." Soon after that,         in which everyone partook. Baptism         ties of those whose religious sexperi-
Constantine made Christianity the          for all infants became mandatory by        ence denoted their conversion. There
only religion. Leonard Verduin, on         the ruler of the parish. Shortly after     they formed a brotherhood in which
page 95 of his book, Anatomy of a          this, "rebaptism" was punished by          they felt they could practice the vir-
Hybrid, states the following: "All         death for anyone who did it or par-        tues of regeneration such as joy, love,
that happened was that the roles were      took in it. In "Christendom," good         forgiveness, and humility. This sepa-
reversed: the Christian faith now          standing in the state required good        ration from the Reformed churchpro-
occupied the place from which the          standing in the church and vice versa.     duced tension with the state, for the
ancestral faith had been expelled.         Thomas Aquinas further declared that       Anabaptists defined the churclh as the
Whereaschristianityhadbeenperse-           heretics not only deserved to be ex-       community of regenerated believers
cuted hitherto, it now found itself in     communicated from the church, but          over against the idea of the "visible"
the position to do some persecution        also should be removed from the            and the "invisible" church.
of its own, which it began at once to      wdrld of men by death. Then, to                 Some of the Anabaptistsbecame
do."      Verduin maintains that           complete the ruin of the church, the       further hated for using the holy kiss,
Constantine had the keys for opening       Synod of Toulous in 1229 forbade           for anointing feet, for wearing veils,
and closing churches' membership           translations of the Scriptures inlo the    and for refusing luxuries through
lists. He built churches at public         vernacular and prescribed punish-          simple clothing. According to Article
expense, made the "Lord's Day" a           ment for anyone possessing a copy.         One of the Schleitheim Confession,
holiday, paid money to church offic-            History, therefore, had inter-        baptism was only for those "who have
ers, and constructed an "iron cur-         twined the church and the state so         been instructed in repentance, who
tain" about the church by refusing to      that they were inseparable. When the       believe that their sins have been blot-
allotithe Donatists in Africa to sepa-     Reformers refused completely to            ted out by Jesus Christ, and who want
rate from what they believed was a         separate from the state which the          to walk in His resurrection." Article
corrupt church.                            Anabaptists called, at best,  sub-         Two established "the Ban" to be used

34/StandardBearer/Octoberl5,1991


against those "who have been bap-             and referred to many biblical cases         raised up by God, and that kings of
tized, but who . . . have fallen into         such as Abraham's lie, David's adul-        Israel and even prophets, such as
some error inadvertently without in-          tery, and the like. Therefore, the Re-      Daniel, handled the sword as part of
tention." This led, of course, to per-        formers maintained it was wrong of          their office. Moses also accepted this
fectionism in the church. Article Six         the Anabaptists to separate them-           task in obedience to God. In his trea-
deals with the Anabaptist view of the         selves because of sin in the members        tise against the Anabaptists, Calvin
Magistrate. "We hold that the sword           of the church. Calvin, in his Treatise      wrote the following:
is an ordinance of God, outside the           Againstthednabaptist,  spoke of this          We worship the same God that the
perfection of Christ" (italics mine, GK).     when he said concerning the                   fathers of old did. We have the same
Their members were not allowed to             Anabaptists: "Thereforedotheysepa-            law and rule that they had, showing
fight, to hold office, or to take an oath.    rate themselves from holy churches,           us how to govern ourselves in orde:r
Althoughmost Anabaptists paid taxes           in the which the doctrine is purely           to walk rightly before God. It thus
and even prayed for their authorities,        preached, taking this color, that they        follows that a vocation that was con-
                                                                                            sidered holy and lawful then cannot
their refusal to fight or hold the office     will not be partakers of that pollution       be forbidden Christians today, for a
of magistrate made them hated. They           which is done there; because those            vocation is the principal part of hu-
held to a radical dualism. Estep, on          which have deserved are not ban-              man Jife and the part that means the
pages 94-95, quotes from the                  ished." Calvin said that each member          most to God. From which it follows
Schleitheim Confession to illustrate          of the church must be responsible for         that we should not deny ourselves
this dualism. "The government mag-            self and leave the rest to God. Calvin        the vocation of civil justice, nor drive
istracy is according to the flesh, but        states also on page 61 of his Treatise        it outside the Christian church. For
the Christians' is according to the           Against theAnabaptists:  "We, to the          our Lord has ordained it and ap-
Spirit; their houses and dwellings re-        contrary, say that a Christian ought          proved it as good for the people of
                                                                                            Israel. And He has appointed His
main in the world, but the Christians'        certainly to be sad whenever he sees          most excellent servants to it and even
citizenship is in heaven; the weapons         the Lord's Supper being corrupted . . .       His prophets (p. 78, B.W. Farley).
of their conflict and war are carnal          to the best of his ability, he ought to     Most of the Reformers believed they
and against the flesh only, but the           work to see that such does not hap-         could call on the civil magistrates to
Christians' weapons are spiritual,            pen. Nevertheless . . . it is not lawful    judge evil-doers. Many Anabaptists
against the fortification of the devil.       for him to withdraw from commun-            were either banished or put to death
The worldlings are armed with steel           ion . . . . Rather he ought always con-     in the 16th century on the basis of the
andiron, but the Christians are armed         tinue to worship God with the others,       old laws that those who re-baptized
with the armor of God, with truth,            listen to the Word, and receive the         or attended conventicles couldbe put
righteousness, peace, faith, salvation,       Lord's Supper as long as he lives in        to death. In some cases excommuni-
and the Word of God."                         that place." The Anabaptists, how-          cationbecame extermination. Article
     Calvin and Knox both con-                ever, maintained their own conven-          36 of the Belgic Confession states that
demned the perfectionist leanings  of         titles, their emphasis and doctrines
the Anabaptists, and their use of the         largely dependent not on creeds but
ban by which they expected a perfect          on the leader who happened to be in                Revolution  against
church on earth. Calvin's concern             charge.
was not for the purity of the church in            When the Anabaptists refused             the established government
itself, but rather was motivated by a         to serve as magistrates, they appealed                 was abhorred
respect for the greatness and the glory       to the example of Christ when He                     by the Reformers.
of God, and a concern that rather than        refused to be King and refused to                                                    E;
being banned, the member who has              judge. Regarding the Anabaptists'
gone astray should be brought back            low view of the magistrate and their        God appoints rulers for men so that
to the proper path. John Knox spoke           refusal to serve, Luther wrote the          all things may be "carried on among
of those who "will join themselves to         following: "Therefore, should you           themwithgoodorderanddecency . . . .
no congregation, except that which is         see that there is a lack of hangmen,        He  hath invested the magistracy with
perfect in all things." Calvin and            beadles, lords, or princes, and find        the sword, for the punishment of evil-
Knox both held to the idea of the             that you are qualified, you should          doers, and for the protection,of  them
"Visible" and the "Invisible Church"          offer your services and seek the place,     that do well." Article 36 also states of
and point out that it is not the free will    that necessary government may by            the magistrate that "... their office is,
of man that determines membership             no means be despised and become             not only to have regard unto . . . the
in the church, but the work of God in         inefficient or perish. For the world        welfare of the civil state; but also that
the heart of the sinner as the Spirit         cannot and dare not dispense with it"       they protect the sacred ministry; a:nd
turns his heart to Christ. Knox and           (p. 39, Estep). Calvin was even stron-      thus may removeand prevent all idola  t y
Calvin (especially Calvin) spoke of           ger, when he stated concerning the          and false worship  (italics mine,  GK);
God's sovereign decree of election,           office of the magistracy that rulers are    that the kingdom of anti-Christ m.ay

                                                                                                October 15,199l I StandardBearer/


be thus destroyed." Our mother                    Regarding fighting in wars, it         Kevin Reed, in his book (pp. 16-18) on
church, in the Acts of Synod in 1910,        should be pointed out that Zwingli          John Knox's pamphlet about the
pointed out that this part of Article 36     died while fighting, and both Luther        Anabaptists, states that we have to
supports the principle of an Estab-          and Calvin maintained that it was the       insist in the first place on true doc-
lished Church, and of State domina-          duty of the citizen to fight in wars,       trine-notFreeWillandPelagianism,
tion over the Church, and that history       although they both defined just wars        but predestination. Tn the second
does not support that principle, be-         as those wars which are fought for          place, we have toinsist that the church
cause Scripture does not subject the         protection and self-defense. They           exists where the true marks are found,
Christian Church to the authorities of       maintained that wars of "aggression         namely, "the Word rightly preached,
the State that it should be governed         and pillage" are unjust, and that the       and the sacraments rightly adminis-
and extended by political measures.          Christian is to obey God rather than        tered." In the third place, we guard
In Estep's book on Church and State          the ruler when told to fight (p. 42ff.,     against the spread of Anabaptist no-
he points out that separation of church      Estep). Revolution against the estab-       tions by proper examination of the
and state as we know it presently,           lished government was abhorred by           teachers and leaders in the church.
was largely due to the amendment in          the Reformers. Luther said that sub-        The conventicles of old continue to-
the United States constitution which         jects are to suffer in love and self-       day with the charismatic and th.e self-
states that Congress may make no             sacrifice according to the pattern of       proclaimed evangelists who "hawk"
law regarding the establishment of           Christ, while at the same time he           the name of Jesus Christ. And finally
religion. Most Reformed denomina-            reserved the right to reprimand the         he calls the church today to purity of
tions today believe it is the Christian's    government when they saw "gross             life as well as of doctrine. He con-
duty to be subordinate to govern-            miscarriages of function by the politi-     cludes, "There is no substitute for
ment, to obey it, to support it finan-       cal authority" (p. 55, Estep).              true doctrine and godly living. When
cially and personally, to hold office if          Today, when we see the                 these two elements are combined, the
elected, and to pray for it. In return,      charismatics, the perfectionists, the       modem Anabaptistswillbedisarmed,
the state should protect the church          cultists,    and     the     free-will      and the church will again exhibit the
without interference in its doctrine         "evangelicals," we have to apply the        beauty which is fitting for the bride of
and discipline (p. 57, Estep).               same remedies as the Reformers did.         Christ, to the glory of the triune God"
                                                                                         (p. 18, Reed). 0


                                             Conflict with Anabaptists
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                      Infant Baptism.'

      The Anabaptists (as distinct from      faith" (Philip Schaaf, Histoy of the        and the synagogue." Therefore, while
Paedo-baptists) thought the Reform-          Christian Church, Vol. VII, p. 607).        rejecting the papacy, Luther "never
ers stoppedhalf-way, and"didnot go                 The Anabaptists believed that         doubted the validity of the ordinances
to the root of the evil. Their funda-        infant-baptism "was an invention of         of the Roman Church, having himself
mental doctrine was, that baptism is         the popish Antichrist, and therefore        been baptized, confirmed, an.d or-
a voluntary act, and requires per-           invalid." (Philip Schaaf, History of        dained in it, and he never dreamed of
sonal repentance, and faith in Christ.       the Christian Church, Vol. VII, p. 529).    being re-baptized or re-ordained"
They rejected infant-baptism as an           Therefore the Anabaptists underwent         (Schaaf, p. 529). Later this position
anti-scripturalinvention. They could         the sacrament of baptism  again.  The       was expressed in a creed of the Refor-
find no trace of it in the New Testa-        "ana" part of their name means              mation, the Belgic Confession.
ment, the only authority in matters of       "again." Latertheydroppedthe"ana"             Thereforewebelieve,  thateveryman,
                                             and became designated simply "Bap-            who is earnestly studious of obtain-
                                             tists."                                       ing life eternal, ought to be but once
                                                   The Reformers were very firm in         baptized with this only baptism,
                                             the position that they did not need to        without ever repeating the same:
                                             be baptized again. Philip Schaaf de-          since we cannot be born twice.
                                                                                           . ..therefore we detest the error of the
Rev. VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel        clares that Luther "assumed a posi-           Anabaptists, who are not content
Protestant Reformed Church in ElkGrove       tion to the Pope and his church simi-         with the one only baptism they have
Village, Illinois.                           lar to that of the apostles to Caiaphas       once received, and moreover con-

36/StandanlBearer/Octoberl5,1961


  demn the baptism of the infants of       with the name should really have the        and thee and thy seed after thee in their
  believers, whom we believe ought to      name) believed that the Scriptures          generations for an everlasting cov-
  be baptized and sealed with the sign     teach paedo-baptism.                        enant, to be a God unto thee, and to
  of the covenant..." (Article 34).             A creed of the Reformation, the        thy seed after thee" (Genesis 127; cf.
     The Westminster Confession of         Heidelberg Catechism, gives as its          also Acts 2:39). When God gave His
Faith is just as direct, "The sacrament    first ground for infant baptism that        law to Israel and to us, then the fact
of baptism is but once to be adminis-      which is the chief biblical defense for     that thereis acommandment directed
tered to any person" (XXVIII - 7).
           ***+***                         thebaptismoftheinfantsofbelievers:          to the children of believers indicates
                                           "they, as well as the adult, are in-        that God considered them to be in His
     Further, the Anabaptists were         cluded in the covenant and church of        covenant and church. If there is still
seriously wrong in concluding that         God." This is the essential ground for      some doubt, the apostle Paulremoves
infant baptism- was an invention of        paedo-baptism.        The lambs of the      it when he addresses the Christian
the popish Antichrist. Infant baptism      sheep are in the flock as much as the       congregation at Ephesus as "saints,
did not begin with the Pope in the         sheep are.                                  and to the faithful in Christ Jesus" and
Roman Church. Consider the follow-              We will prove this from Scrip-         then later directs himself to the chil-
ing quotes of men who lived long           ture later. First, we show that this        dren of the congregation (6:1-3).
before there was even a bishop in          essential ground for paedo-baptism               Let it be noted well that the in-
Rome.                                      arises from an even more fundamen-          fants of faithfulbelievers are not bap-
     Pelagius, who was born about          tal foundation, namely, the unity ofthe     tized because these children are re-
330, developed a most terrible con-        covenant, of the Scriptures, and of the     generated or presupposed as being
cept of salvation, but this well-trav-     people of God. Because the relation-        regenerated. What is to be ascer-
eled man said, "I have never heard of      ship between the Old and New Testa-         tained is not whether the child is
even any impious heretic who as-           ments is one of continuity (of promise      regenerate but whether he/she is to
serted that infants ought not to be        and fulfillment), we can understand         be regarded as a member of the cov-
baptized" and "Who can be so impi-         the continuing validity of the prin-        enant, which baptism signifies and
ous as to hinder the baptism of in-        ciples behind Old Covenant circum-          seals.
fants?"                                    cision, which the Holy Spirit has trans-         Those who are of age and who
     Augustine, who answered               ferred into the New Covenant bap-           are from outside the sphere of the
Pelagius' heresy with Scripture, says      tism (confer Colossians  2:11,12).  The     truth enter the covenant when they
about infant baptism, "The whole           covenant sign has changed because           confess their faith in the Christ of the
Church practices infant baptism. It        after Christ no more blood is to be         Gospel. Once in the covenant, their
was not instituted by councils, but        shed. Now the water shows the for-          children come with them, for the chil-
was always in use." He also said           givingandcleansingpowerof Christ's          dren of one or two believing parents
"This (infantbaptism) the Church has       sacrifice.                                  are "holy," that is "set apart from the
always maintained."                                                                    world unto God." Therefore they are
     Origen was born about the year                                                    entitled to the sign and seal of the
184, only about 84 years after the                                                     covenant. Whilerepentanceandfaith
apostle John had died. In his com-                          . ..infants                is required of one of age and from
mentary on Romans he says, "For this              of faithful believers                outside the covenant before they are
cause it was that the Church received                    are not baptized              baptized, we administer the sacra-
an order from the apostles to give               because these children                ment of baptism to the infants of re-
Baptism to infants."                                     are regenerated               pentingandbelievingparentsbecause
     From these quotes (many others                                                    God commands the church to admin-
couldbegiven) wecanclearlyseethat                        or presupposed                ister the sign to those in the covenant.
infant baptism was not an invention              as being regenerated.                           The child's membership in the
of the popish Antichrist, but was ob-                                                  covenant with theirbelievingparents
viously the common practice in the                                                     is because the family, not the indi-
church of Jesus Christ already just              Once we understand the unity          vidual, is the basic unit in Scripture.
after the death of the apostles.           of the covenant, then we can see the
           *  *  *  * *  *  *              Scriptures teachingandimplyingthat          The promise is to us and to our chil-
                                                                                       dren. Therefore, it is most natural to
     Did the Reformers simply walk         the children of believers are included      find the New Testament speaking of
in the footsteps of the church fathers     in thq~covenant-and-church  of God          household baptisms (whether there
and of the Roman church without            along with their believing pare&(s);        were infants in them or not), in which
much study and thought? Absolutely         God declared to Abraham, "the fa-           all the household servants were bap-
not. They were much better students        ther of all them thatbelieve" (Romans       tized along with all the immediate
of Scripture than that. The Reformers      4:ll; cf. also Galatians 3:7), "I will      family members. This is our answer
and their faithful disciples (not all      establish my covenant between me            to the request of the Anabaptists for a

                                                                                                 October 15,199l IStandardBearer  I37


biblical example of an infant being         dently believers in their confession         out of darknesslaterin their life. They
baptized. Anabaptists must give a           and walk. It is to be assumed that it        areimmediatelyincorporatedintothe
biblical example of adult baptism be:       was by means of a confession of their        covenant and have the promise of
ing administered to someone who             personal and subjective faith they           God that He gathers His people in
was born to and raised by believing         became members of the local church,          their generations.
parents. I would contend that they          and that the content of their faith was
can find none.                              in harmony with the objective faith of
     Another creed of the Reforma-          the Scriptures. This faith they must                "`Believer baptism"
tion, the Belgic Confession, Article 34     be willing to confess again publicly                 is not a safeguard
-Of Holy Baptism, defends the bap-          just prior to the baptism of their child.
tism of the infants of believers on the     This makes as apparent as possible                  against baptizing
basis of four grounds. First, because       that they are believers.                               some who are
"the children in Israel formerly were            That only the children offaithful                     not elect.
circumcised, upon the same prom-            believers are baptized is confirmed
ises which are made unto our chil-          bythefactthatthebeginningofChris-
dren." Secondly, the children of be-        tian discipline consists of what is               There is a charge made by Ana-
lievers "ought to receive the sign and      called "Silent Censure." This latter         baptists against  paedo-baptists' that
sacrament of that which Christ has          consists of prohibiting that person          the former baptize willy-nilly, because
done for them" because He "shedHis          from participating in the administra-        there is no evidence that the one bap-
blood no less for the washing of the        tion of the sacraments. One who is           tized has faith. We have two re-
children of the faithful, than for adult    under discipline is not permitted to         sponses. First, Scripture requires that
persons." Thirdly, "the Lord com-           have his child baptized. The proper          baptism be administered, not upon
manded in the law, that they should         administration of paedo-baptism in a         evidence of faith, but upon proof of
be made partakers of the sacrament          truly Reformed church holds to the           membership in the covenant. And
of Christ's suffering and death,            position that only the children of faith-    secondly, Anabaptists do not really
shortly after they were born, by offer-     ful believers are baptized.                  hold to "believer's baptism," as they
ing for them a lamb, which was a                 There is more. Not only must            contend,butto"professor'sbaptism,"
sacrament of Jesus Christ." And             the parents be evidently believers,          for no honest Anabaptist would say
fourthly, "what circumcision was to         but also they must be vowing believ-         that everyone they baptize is really
the Jews, that baptism is to our chil-      ers. Before they are allowed to have         and ultimately saved. "Believer bap-
dren," for which reason "Paul calls         their child baptized they are asked to       tism" is not a safeguard against bap-
baptism the circumcision of Christ."        make a vow. The content of this vow          tizing some who are not elect.
     The Heidelberg Catechism adds          is the promise to train up their infant           Where paedo-baptism is prop-
that "the Holy Ghost, the author of         child in the nurture and admonition          erly administered, it is accompanied
faith, is promised to them no less than     of the Lord. Of this vow they will be        with the faithful preaching of the
to the adult."                              frequentlyremindedbythechurchin              Gospel which includes the admoni-
            *******                         the preaching and by the elders in           tion to be ever repenting and believ-
     Paedo-baptism is accurately de-        their on-going. oversight of the con-        ing. It is also accompanied witlh the
fined as the baptism of the' infant         gregation.                                   proper exercise of Christian discipline.
children of faithful and vowing be-              Let it be crystal clear that the        It is constantly being pointed out that
lievers.                                    proper exercise of paedo-baptism is          the covenant obliges one to a new
     It is not just any infant who is       not the baptism of babies at random.         obedience. Also, those  who1 are
baptized, nor is every infant of any-       The proper administration of paedo-          brought up within the sphere of the
oneonthechurch'smembershiproles.            baptism is within the sphere of a            covenant but who refuse to repent,
This must be said loudly and force-         church where the instruction and             believe, and obey are disciplined; and
fully,formanyBaptistschargepaedo-           admonitions of the Gospel are always         their baptism is and will be a witness
baptists withbaptizingalmost at ran-        brought and where Christian disci-           against them. This is a mighty force
dom. We sadly acknowledge that              plineisbeingproperlyexercised. Note          against the dangers of complacency
some churches misuse the sacrament,         well that the three marks of the true        and irresponsibility.
baptizing quickly the infants of mem-       church go together.                               May God grant the grace that
bers even though they might never                         *  *  *  +  *  *`*,            we, children of the Reformation, may
see the parents again. (Some Baptist             Some concluding observations.           be faithful to the proper exercise of
churches however are just as quick to            The position of paedo-baptism           paedo-baptism. 0
immerse everyone who comes for-             is not to be taken to mean that all the
ward and makes a decision.)                 children of believers are saved. Nor                               . r
     The proper use of infant baptism       does it teach that only the children of
requires that the parents must be evi-      believers are saved. God calls some

38lStandirdBearerlOctober15,%91..


                                             Infant Baptism and
Rev. Ronald Hanko                            Sovereign Grace

     And although our young children         simply on the ground of God's prom-         of infant baptism fits the doctrines of
do not understand these' things, we may      ise to be the God of His people and of      grace and the truth that salvation is
not therefore exclude fhem from baptism,     their children (Gen. 17~7, Acts 2:31).      by grace al&e without works. And
for as they are without their knowledge,     And though on thebasis of that prom-        what a beaytiful picture of sovereign
partakers of the condemnation in Adam,       ise we may certainly expect such a          grace it is wvn a tiny infant, not even
so are they again received unto grace in     response from him in later life, nei-       aware of what is happening to him,
Christ.                                      ther his salvation nor his receiving the    receives the sign of God's grace and
                                             sign of that salvation depend in any        of salvation in the blood of Jesus.
     This passage from the Form for          way on that response.                            It is really not enough, however,
the Administrafion  of Baptism that is            The truth is, of course, that no       to say that baptism is the sign of
used in the Protestant Reformed              one is saved by virtue of his response      salvation. It is, really, the sign of
Churches very nicely sums up what            tq the Gospel. Anything else is  &          baptism - that is, what we call "bap-
we wish to show in this article, that is,    denial of salvation by grace alone and      tism" is just the sign which points to
that infant baptism is part and parcel       without works. Yet, even those Bap-         some spiritualreality also called"bap-
of the doctrines of sovereign grace,         tists who believe in sovereign grace        tism." Now we know that the real
and that a denial of infant baptism is       and salvation by grace alone say that       baptism (of which the water is the
essentially a denial of these doctrines      a person's receiving the sign of that       sign) is being washed from sin in the
of sovereign, irresistible, efficacious      salvation depends on his response to        blood of Jesus. If we see that, then the
grace.                                       the Gospel! He can receive salvation        truthbecomes even clearer. That real
     The point in the  Form for  the         "withouthisknowledge," thatis,even          baptism  is not somethingthat depends
Adminisfrution  of Baptism is that in-       before he is able to respond, while he      on our response, or even follows our
fants can be and are saved "without          is still dead in sin, but cannot receive    response, but is "without our knowl-
their knowledge" (Ps. 139:13, Jer. 1:5,      the sign of that same salvation in the      edge." Indeed, it was principally ac-
Lk. 1:15, Mk. 10:13-16),  and that they      same way. How inconsistent!                 complished already at the cross, long
can, therefore, also receive the sign of                                                 before we were born. How fitting
that salvation, baptism, "without their                                                  that the sign should match the reality
knowledge." To put it differently,                  . ..only the teaching                at this point.
there is no other way to save an infant              of infant baptism                        It is from this viewpoint that
than by sovereign grace. He cannot                                                       Mark 10:13-16  is sometimes used as a
make any response to the Gospel or              fits the doctrines of grace              proof for infant baptism even thalugh
its promises and therefore must be                   and the truth that                  it does not mention baptism at all.
saved solely by the grace of God.              salvation is by grace alone               Thepointisfirstthatthechildrenwho
     So, if an infant is to receive bap-              without works.                     were brought to Jesus were infants
tism as the sign of salvation, he must                                                   (the Greek word used indicates this
be baptized on some other ground                                                         as well as the fact that they were
than his response to the Gospel prom-             Baptism as the sign of salvation       "brought"). Thus, without even the
ises. He is incapable of such a re-          ought, therefore, to reflect the charac-    possibility of any kind of response
sponse. He must, in fact, be baptized        ter of salvation, and indeed it does -      from them Jesus grants them salva-
                                             especially the free and gracious char-      tion; for what else is it, in coming to
                                             acter of that salvation God has given       Him, being received by Him, and
                                             us in Christ. And it does that in a very    blessed by Him, but to be saved by
                                             wonderful and beautiful way when            Him? So the argument is that, insofar
                                             infants are baptized. In fact, it is our    as these children received salvation
Rev. Hanko is pastor of Trinity Protes-      firm conviction that only the teaching      "without their knowledge,".ihe  sign
tant Reformed Church in Houston, Texas.                                                  of that same salvation should not be

                                                                                               October 15,199l /StandardBearer  I39


withheld from them. How could it be         prove what everyone believes, that           that is implicit in Baptist teaching is
withheld?                                   repentance and faith are more impor-         probably also the reason why there
     The  Be@ Confession  uses this         tant than baptism. Following the Bap-        always has been a stronganti-predes-
same  argument (Article 34):                tist reasoning one might just as easily      tination sentiment among Baptists.
     AndindeedChristshedhisblood            prove from II Peter 1:lO that calling        As soon as one grants the doctrines of
  no less for the washing of the chil-      comes before election!                       unconditional election and reproba-
  dren of the faithful, than for adult                                                   tion, i.e., that salvation depends  ody
  persons; and therefore they ought to                                                   on God's free choice in election, then
  receive the sign and sacrament of
  that,whichChristhathdoneforthem.                    . ..the ve y idea                  the promise of God that He finds His
     The Baptist teaching is that re-             that one must believe                  elect especially among the children of
pentance, faith, and conversion must                  before receiving                   His people (Acts 239, Gen. 17~7) be-
precede baptism and that, therefore,                                                     comes a sufficient reason to baptize
                                                  the sign of salvation
baptism can and ought tobe adminis-                                                      those children.
tered only to adults. This teaching is                and of entrance                         This is not to say, however, that
based on a misinterpretation of Mat-                  into salqation                     those who teach infant baptism be-
thew 28:19, 20 (and the parallel in              is implicitly Arminian                  lieve or have ever believed tjhat all
Mark  16:15,  16), but is essentially                                                    their children are elect. Nor is that the
Arminian and a denial of sovereign                                                       reason why they have all their chil-
grace.                                           Both of the texts only prove that       drenbaptized. Theyonlybelievethat
     This is not to say that allBaptists    repentance and faith as well as bap-         God's elect are found among their
explicitly deny the doctrines of grace.     tism are necessary for salvation.            children by virtue of His grace and
That simply is not so. In addition to            In addition, the very idea that         promise and for that reason baptize
those who frankly call themselves           one must believe before receiving the        them all, expecting, too, that baptism
"Free-will Baptists," and those who         sign of salvation and of entrance into       will work for the salvation of those
without the name nevertheless be-           salvation is implicitly Arminian - a         who are elect and for the damnation
lieve in freewill, there are also many      denial of salvation by grace only. It is     of those who are not, that is, that
so-called "Reformed Baptists" who           obviously Arminian to say that one           baptism will have the same twofold
claim to hold both to the doctrines of      must believe or respond to God in            fruit among their children that the
grace and to "believers' baptism."          some way before one can be saved,            preaching of the Gospel has, and all
NorarewesayingthatsuchReformed              but the Baptists go way beyond this          according to the purpose of God in
Baptists do not really believe in the       and say that one must respond and            predestination.
doctrines of grace - only that their        believe even in order to receive that             Baptism in general and infant
firm belief in free grace contradicts       which is only a sign of salvation.           baptism in particular, teach us, then,
their equally firm belief in believers'          We are not saying by this that          to "loathe and humble ourselves be-
baptism.                                    the sign of baptism does not in some         fore God, and seek for our purifica-
     Thebedrockof  theBaptist teach-        cases follow upon faith. In the case of      tionandsalvationwithoutourselves"
ing is the idea, gotten from Matthew        all adult converts it is necessarily so.     in the grace of God, so wonderfully
28:19, 20, that repentance and faith        We are only saying that it need not be       revealed in the cross of our Savior. IJ
must precede baptism.                       so and that the Word of God does not
     We would point out, first of all,      say it must be so.
in connection with this and otherpas-            Even more important, in the case
sages (Matt. 19:21; Acts 2:38; 16:30),      of the Philippian jailer (Acts  16:25-                  . . . and he
that these passages do not say that         34), is the fact that on the basis of the
faith or repentance must precede  bap-      faith of the jailer, Paul uncondition-             shall be filled'
tism. Even if it is true that faith and     ally PROMISED salvation to the man's
repentance must precede baptism,            household (though not necessarily to                     with the
these verses do not say it. Nor is there    every member of the household) with-
any passage in all of Scripture which       out even having met them. We fail to                 Holy Ghost,
says that these things must precede         see why they should not uncondition-
baptism. If one argues that the order       aZIy receive the sign of that salvation                even from
of the passage demands this, that is        if salvation itself is promised to them              his mother's
simply begging the question, for it         unconditionallyandsightunseen. Yet
may be and indeed is true that the          theBaptistinsists  that theycouldonly                     womb.
order in these passages is important,       have received baptism on the condi-
but that does not prove that the order      tion of their believing and repenting.                 Luke 1:15
is a temporal order. It may simply               The denial of sovereign grace

40/StandardSaarerlOctoberl5,1991


                                            Anabaptism and
                                            the Means of Grace!
Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


        What is to the child of God most    truth all that God has objectively re-     that all writings both new and old
preciousinhislife?  ToknowGodand            vealed to us in His Word.                  which are not biblical should be de-
Jesus Christ whom He has sent. II Let            Itwasandisonthisbasisthatthe          stroyed, so that we should cling only
not the wise man glory in his wisdom,       Reformed churches have always stud-        to the Holy Scriptures." Perhaps it is
neitherletthemightymangloryinhis            ied diligently the Scriptures in an at-    true that the more moderate
might, let not the rich man glory in his    tempt to know what the Spirit says to      Anabaptists, such as the Swiss Breth-
riches; but let him that glorieth glory     the churches. The result of such dili-     ren or the Mennonites, did not go so
in this, that he understandeth and          gent study has been an objective, sys-     far as to burn books, nevertheless
knoweth me, that I am the Lord..."          tematic development of the great           they certainly were sympathetic to
(Jer. 9:23-24):  This we believe with       doctrinesofScripture.  Thesearetruths      Rothmann's view. This is why there
heart and soul. So did the Anabaptists.     of Scripture which generally are not       can be found no systematic theology
But what they meant by the knowl-           to be found simply in one or two           developed among the Anabaptists-
edge of God and of Christ is "radi-         verses of the Bible, but must rather be    except perhaps the feeble attempt by
cally" different from what we mean          gleanedfrommanydifferentpassages           Balthasar Hubmaier of the Swiss
by it as Reformed believers.                being pulled together. And since we        Brethren. The Anabaptists were of
        Reformed believers, from John       certainly believe these to be the Word     the conviction that inner, experiential
Calvin on, have always emphasized           of God we emphasize the need to            knowledge could not be pressed into
that true knowledge of God has both         know  these objective truths. They are     a theological system. If such knowl-
a subjective and an objective aspect to     important for our spiritual welfare,       edge was made "objective" then it
it. We firmly believe and maintain          because without aknowledge of them,        could easily become an idol. It was
that the Holy Spirit testifies with our     coupled with the work of the Spirit in     because of this error that the vast
spirits that we are the children of God     our hearts, we would be unable to          majority of the Anabaptist leaders
(Rom. 8:16), and that as aresult of this    walk a godly life in this world. Doc-      received little formal training, if any
internal testimony of the Spirit we are     trine and life are inseparable.            at all. They took pride in the common
assured that "not only to others, but            So say the Reformed.                  proverb, U the unlearned make noher-
to me also, remission of sin, everlast-          The Anabaptists vehemently            esies."
ing righteousness, and salvation are        opposed such a view of true knowl-              We maybe apt to saywhenread-
freely given by God . .." (Heidelberg       edge. That which constituted true          ing the Anabaptists in this regard that
Catechism, Lord'sDay VII, Q & A21).         knowledge was to them simply an            this whole concept has some appeal.
But never do we divorce this subjec-        inner, experiential knowledge of the       After all, does it really make a differ-
tive testimony of the Spirit in our         heart and soul which had nothing to        ence whether we know systematic
hearts from His objective testimony         do with an objective, systematic de-       theologyaslongaswehavetheBible?
to us in His Word (the Spirit of God        velopment of the theology of the Scrip-    It surely does! This does not mean we
being the divine Author of Scripture).      tures by men. Books on theology            must all be dogmaticians and pro-
What we believe in our hearts is ex-        were, in the mind of the Anabaptist,       found theological thinkers, but it does
actly and only that which the Spirit        not merely useless but actually sinful     mean that we must learn and know
has revealed to us in the Bible. There      and to be discarded. This was liter-       the wonderful truths or doctrines
is no other Word apart from that            ally carried out by the extremists of      which the church has gleaned from
Word. Therefore the true knowledge          Munster when on March 15,1934  all         the Scriptures. This invariably affects
of God also consists in holding for         books other than the Bible were            the way we handle the Word of God.
                                            thrown upon a pile and burned.             And this shows itself also in the writ-
                                            Bernhard Rothmann, in his "Restitu-        ings of the Anabaptists.
                                            tion," declared that, "since the apos-          The Anabaptists claimed to
                                            tasy first began through human writ-       "cling only to the Holy Scriptures."
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor ofFirst Protes-     ing and teaching by means of which         They would claim too that doctrine
tant Reformed Church in Holland, Michi-     the divine Scriptures were darkened,       and walk are inseparable, as long as
gan.                                        the Almighty has among us provided         by doctrine is meant the simple teach-

                                                                                             October 15,1991/ Standard Bearer 141


ings of the Bible. In fact,  Menno          rejection of an objective, systematic       elements of this world. For insofar as
Simons, in a pamphlet entitled "Foun-       knowledge of the Bible and its truths.      it is God himself it is spirit and not
dation," wrote, "We certainly hope               What is more, though the               letter, written without pen and paper
no one of a rational mind will be so        Anabaptists claimed that the Scrip-         that it may neverbe expunged. There-
foolish a man as to deny that the           tures were their infallible guide, this     fore also salvation cannot be tied to
whole of Scriptures, both Old and           was not true of them. They placed           Scriptures, however important and
New Testament . . . are the truescepter     much more emphasis on subjective            good they may be with respect to it."
and rule by which the Lord's king-          knowledge. They called this the inner       Menno  Simons too, when discussing
dom, house, church, and congrega-           Word of God or the inner Light. And         the "seed of the Word of God" in his
tion must be ruled and governed.            it was this "Word of God" that truly        writing, "Spiritual Resurrection,"
Everything contrary to Scripture,           served as the guide in the life of a        makes the same separation between
therefore, whether it be in doctrines,      child of God. This error is clearly         the objective Word of God in the
beliefs, sacraments, worship, or life,      propounded in the writings of Tho-          Scriptures and the subjective seed of
should be measured by this infallible       mas Muntzer and those who followed          God's Word in our hearts which is, in
rule and demolished by this just and        him (known as the Prophets of               his thinking, the more important of
divine scepter, and destroyed with-         Zwickau) in Wittenberg. Ulrich              the two.
out respect of persons." Suchwas the        Stadler in his writing, "The Living              This view of Scripture is rooted
bold claim of many, perhaps even            and Written Word," unabashedly              in the existential (that truth is rooted
most, of the Anabaptists. Butbecause                                                    in experience) Christianity of the
they refused to search the deep things                                                  Anabaptist. As we mentioned., the
of God their treatment of the Scrip-           Books on theology were,                  Anabaptists err in their entire con-
ture became shallow and lopsided.           in the mind of the Anabaptist,              cept of sanctification. Proceeding
The Anabaptists placed all the stress                                                   from the truth of total depravity the
on passages which deal with Chris-                 not merely useless                   Reformed believer knows and con-
tian walk and discipleship since they             but actually sinful...                fesses according to God's Word that
felt this was the sole duty of man.                                                     the work of sanctification is an on-
Other Scriptures which dealt with                                                       going process. Though Christ has
such matters as God's counsel, pre-         claims, "Therefore whoever wishes           cleansed us from sin and corruption
destination, total depravity, provi-        to use the Scripture with true rever-       in His blood and instilled in us a new
dence, and so on received rather cur-       ence and not attribute to it more than      life, we yet realize that we are sinners.
sory treatment with no real attempt         it deserves or belongs to it, the same      We have only a small beginning of the
to understand them. So much em-             must radically separate the Scriptures      new life of Christ. And we long for
phasis was placed on those passages         and the spoken word from the inner          the day when in heavenly perfection
which dealt with sanctification and         word of the heart . . . . The outer word    there will be no more sin. Unlike the
exhortation that as a result the whole      is that which Christ commanded his          Reformed believer the Anabaptist
counsel of God unto salvation was           apostles to preach . . . . A genuine        believed that after "much persjever-
ignored. Besides this, the lack of          preacher must receive the true Word         ancein many tribulationsin the L,ord"
training on the part of their leaders in    of Godin the abyss of his soul through      (Stadler), one is given the true inner
proper exegesis and biblical interpre-      much tribulation. This is the Word of       Word, the eternal power of God. At
tation often resulted in what was at        God in the abyss of the soul. But the       that time one is completely trans-
best an improper interpretation of a        preached word is only the witness or        formed out of the darkness and abyss
passage and at worst an allegorical         the sign of the true Word. This eternal     of sin and given the light of Christ. He
interpretation of Scripture.                Word is not written on paper or tab-        now takes on the image of God and is
     Against this error John Calvin         let. Nor is it spoken or preached."         renewed in such a way that from that
repeatedly warned the Anabaptists.               Now, it is true that Stadler was       point on in his life he can serve God
In his commentary on II Corinthians         far from a moderate Anabaptist. The         withzeal and enthusiasm. In that zeal
3:6 Calvin writes, "They have given         Prophets of Zwickau were radical            the Christian is able to reach heights
rise to the most disastrous error that      mystics. However, the same thread           ofperfectioninlife. Hemaystillmake
Scripture is not only useless but actu-     of thought weaves itself through the        mistakes, he may even still sin unwit-
ally harmful unless it is allegorized.      writings even of the moderate               tingly, but as far as his conscious
This error has been the source of many      Anabaptists. HansDenckof  the Swiss         activity is concerned he serves God
evils. Not only didit open the way for      Brethren wrote in "Recantation," "I         with almost "angelic purity." This
corruption of the natural meaning of        value the Holy Scripture above all          power of God in one's heart is the
Scripture but also set up boldness in       human treasures but not as high as          inner Word of God which takes pre-
allegorizing as the chief exegetical        the Word of God, which is living,           cedence over the written Word. This
virtue." This misuse of the Scriptures      powerful, and eternal, and which is         is the true Word unadulterated by
was true of them because of their           free and unencumbered by all of the         man. This therefore. must be one's

42/StandardBearer/Octoberl5,1991


infallible guide in life because it alone    error of subjectivism, that is, reliance    God! Perhaps this is the reason thee
will spur one on in proper Christian         on one's feelings and emotions to be        is so much diversity of thought amlong
conduct. And only as the Scriptures          the guide in life. Truth is relegated to    the Anabaptists.
can incite this inner Word of God are        the sphere of subjective opinion rather          It is this error that had deadly
they of any importance in the life of a      than to that objective, written stan-       results on the Anabaptists' teaching
child of God.                                dard to which everyone must con-            concerning the means of grace. But
         This, as we well know, is the       form, namely, the written Word of           this we will have to treat in a future
                                                                                         article.  0

                                             The Reformed
                                             Controversy wit.h
                                             Anabaptism over
                                             Church
Rev. Ronald Cammenga                         Government

         Under the grace of God, the Ref-    pectsofAnabaptistchurchpolitywith           formers that Christ has instituted three
ormation restored to the church not          which the Reformers took issue:             special offices in the New Testament
only the pure doctrine of the gospel,        Anabaptism's concept of church of-          church, the offices of minister, elder,
but also proper church government.           fice and Anabaptism's  inde-                and deacon. Neither was there among
The Reformers to a man were con-             pendentism. Both of these are vital         the Anabaptists a clear distinction in
cerned that the church be organized          and current issues for Reformed             the work of each of these special of-
along biblical lines. Part of the defor-     Christians today.                           fices. Often the Anabaptists dispensed
mation of the church prior to the                                                        with the special offices almost en-
Reformation was the deformation of           Anabaptism's Concept of Church              tirely, particularly in those places
the church's structure and govern-           Office                                      where community of goods wasprac-
ment. The Reformers reacted to the                Whereas the Reformers were             ticed. In other fellowships the office
unbiblical hierarchy of Roman Ca-            very articulate on the matter of church     of "prophet" was recognized. Those
tholicism and were determined to             office  - what church office is, the        who occupied this office were ,the
deliver the church from papal tyr-           number and nature of the offices in         subjects of direct revelations, capable
anny.                                        the New Testament church - the              of teaching the people as "messm-
         But the battle for proper church    Anabaptists were not. There was no          gers" from God. Besides prophets,
government was a battle waged on             clearcut, well-developed teaching           the Anabaptists recognized prophet-
two fronts. Not only were the Re-            concerning church office. Views and         esses, thus violating the biblical prin-
formers forced to contend with Ro-           practices among the Anabaptists             ciple that the woman is to be silent in
man Catholicism on the right, but            themselves differed widely. In this         the church (I Cor. 1434,  35; I Tim.
they also had to deal with the               area, asinmanyothers, the Anabaptist        2:11,12).
Anabaptistsontheleft. AswithRome,            movement was not homogeneous,                    These peculiarities of the
so with the Anabaptists, the Reform-              Part of the explanation for this       Anabaptist movement are seen to-
ers' controversy was not only doctri-        diversity is that Anabaptism was pri-       day. Certainly among modern Bap-
nal, but also church political.              marily a negative and reactionary           tiststheAnabaptistinfluenceremains.
         There were especially two  as-      movement. The independentism of             Often there is no honoring of the spe-
                                             Anabaptism (to be considered later)         cial offices in the local congregation.
                                             also contributed to this lack of unifor-    The congregation is served by a pas-
                                             mity in the area of church office.          tor and a board of deacons, a board
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protes-            The Anabaptists did not gener-         that is in many instances selfqer-
tant Reformed Church ofloveland, Colo-       ally share the conviction" of the Re-.      petuating. In many Baptist circles the
rado.
                                                                                               October 15,1!3!31/  StandardBearerJ43


 charismatic movement has been wel-             themselves in a secret call of God,         text for boasting of being spiritual
 comed with open arms. Along with               when all the time they are unlearned        persons, but that they are grossly
 this has come the reintroduction of            and totally ignorant.                       ignorant of all science (Calvin's com-
the office of prophet.                                  In order to guard against this      mentary on Psalm 71:15).
      But even in Reformed churches          infectious spirit of Anabaptism, the                   Historically the Reformed
today concessions are made to the            Reformers insisted on the lawful call        churches have insisted on a trained
Anabaptist conception of church of-          and examination by the churches. The         clergy. That training, with very few
fice. In many churches there is not a        third article of our Church Order lays       exceptions, includes graduation from
good understanding of the nature of          down the necessity of the lawful call.       college and the rigors of a thrlee or
church office. There is fuzziness on         Article 4 spells out the procedure by        four-year seminary course. The posi-
the distinct work that belongs to the        which a minister is called to office and     tion of the Reformed is that, although
three special offices. All sorts of addi-    the examination required of those            it is the Holy Spirit who gives the gifts
tional offices are introduced into the       entering upon the ministry for the           for the ministry, those gifts require
church. The charismatic movement             first time.                                  development and testing. This insis-
has made serious inroads into many a                                                      tence on a trained ministry follows
Reformed church. And increasingly                                                         the biblical example. In the Old Tes-
the biblical prohibition of women in             The Munster Anabaptists                  tament there were schools for the
office is disregarded.                                   prided themselves                prophets. In the New Testarnent,
                                               in the fact that at least they             Jesus prepared His disciples for some
Anabaptism's Conception of the Of-                                                        three and a half years before sending
fice of the Ministry                                      were not guilty of              them out as His apostles. Paul re-
      It was especially, however, be-                      book-learning.                 ceived his preparation in the deserts
cause of its conception of the office of                                                  of Arabia, and wherever he went on
the ministry that Anabaptism drew                                                         his missionary journeys he devoted
the fire of the Reformers.                         It was also characteristic of the      attention to the training of young men,
      For one thing, many of the             Anabaptists that they disdained theo-        like Timothy, for the work of the min-
Anabaptist ministers were itinerant          logical training as a necessary part of      istry.
preachers, wandering from place to           preparation for the office of the min-                 It is un-Reformed that there is
place, without serving in a particular       istry of the gospel. For the Anabaptist      disdain in the churches today for the
congregation or being subject to the         "possession" of the Holy Spirit more         lawful call, that men simply assume
rule of a local consistory. It was           than compensated for a regular course        the teaching office in the church. It is
especially over against this common          of theological study. In Munster,            shameful that seminary instruction is
Anabaptist practice that Article 7 of        where the Anabaptist fervor reached          not the demanding, rigorous training
our Reformed  Church Order  stipulates       its highest pitch, all of the books were     that it once was. Matters are so bad
that "No one shall be called to the          taken out of the library and publicly        today that men graduate from Re-
ministry of the Word, without his            burned. The Munster Anabaptists              formed seminaries .without  even a
being stationed in a particular              prided themselves in the fact that at        clear understanding of the Reformed
place...."                                   least they were not guilty of book-          faith, let alone the ability ably to de-
      It was also common for the             learning.                                    fend and teach it. This anti-intellectu-
Anabaptist preachers to be self-ap-                For the Reformers, on the other        alism is not Reformed but decidedly
pointed, simply taking the office of         hand, the ideal of a trained, educated       Anabaptistic.
the'ministry to themselves. It was           ministry was a priority. Both Luther
accepted among the Anabaptists that          and Calvin were instrumental in              Anabaptism's Independentism
the call of the Spirit superseded and        establishing and promoting insti-                 The confusion that characterized
rendered unnecessary the lawful call         tutions of higher learning, particularly     Anabaptism on the local level, also
by the church; Calvin was vehement           institutions for higher theological          permeated the movement more
in his condemnation of those who             learning. Repeatedly and strongly            broadly. This became evident in the
simply assumed the office on the ba-         they condemned the Anabaptist anti-          Anabaptist reaction to papal hierar-
sis of "the prompting of the Spirit." In     intellectualism. Calvin writes that          chy by going in the direction of
his commentary on I Corinthians              this is                                      independentism.
12:28, he writes:                              . ..an error unworthy of being no-              The Anabaptists disdained the
  We must infer from this that people          ticed, were it not that some fanatics      Reformed practice of denominational
  with absolutely no qualifications,           in former times, to flatter themselves     affiliation, including broader assem-
  who force themselves upon the                in their ignorance, boasted that, after    blies like classis and synod which
  Church, are fanatics, driven by'an           the example of David, all learning         exercised ecclesiastical authority
  evil spirit. There are many, for in-         and liberal sciences should be de-         within the federation of churches. The
  stance, whoboast  that theyaremoved          spised; even as, in the present day,       Anabaptist congregations would have
  to action by the Spirit, and pride           the Anabaptists have no other pre-         none of this. For them each local
44/StandardBearer/Octoberl5,1991


church was to be completely inde-            whom J.L. Schaver calls "more con-           proper Reformed church polity, a re-
pendent, without any essential and           gregational than the Congregational-         turn always to the Church Order of
vital connection to any other congre-        ists," (ThePolity  of the Churches, vol.     Don&.  The existence of a Reformed
gation. Although there might be some         I, p. 47). But this spirit of  inde-         congregation without the Church Or-
association with other congregations,        pendentism thrives evenin Reformed           der of Dordt is inconsistent, and it
it was always incidental association.        circles. Increasingly there is the rejec-    ought also to be inconceivable.
Any assembly of representatives from         tion of the binding authority of classi-          The irony of independentism is
various congregations was an assem-          cal and synodical decisions. Indi-           that whereas it seeks escape from the
bly without any real authority.              viduals and consistories refuse to con-      demon of hierarchy, it always falls
      This independentism of the             sider the decisions of the broader           prey to the clutches of this  d.evil.
Anabaptists came to expression in            assemblies "settled and binding," as         Church history shows that
"The Baptist (Philadelphia) Confes-          they are bound to do by Article 31 of        independentism is a dead-end street.
sion of 1688." This confession is really     the Church Order. There is not only          It is church federation, the expression
only an adaptation of "The                   agitation against synodical decisions,       of the unity of the church of Christ by
Westminster Confession of Faith,"            but Reformed officebearers who have          denominational affiliation, that de-
with modifications particularly to suit      signed the "Formula of Subscription"         livers from hierarchy,             Often
the Baptist views on church polity           publicly condemn the actions of the          independentism leads to ministerial
and the sacrament of baptism. In             synods in their writing and preach-          hierarchy. The minister runs the
chapter XXVI, which is entitled "Of          ing. Some churches refuse to abideby         show, calls the shots, makes all the
the Church," paragraph 15,it is stated:      those synodical decisions that they          important decisions. In how many
  It is according to the mind of Christ      have not themselves ratified. Other          independent churches is that not the
  that many churches, holding com-           churches refuse to submit to synodi-         case today. Or independentism lleads
  munion together, do by their mes-          cal decisions, although remaining in         to a hierarchy of the eldership or
  sengers meet to consider and give
  their advice in or about that matter in    the federation. This is radically un-        "board of deacons." Beyond this
  difference, to be reported to all the      Reformed.                                    board the members have no recourse.
  churches concerned; howbeit these               Thoseindividuals, officebearers,        Before this board the minister must
  messengers assembled are not in-           and churches who are honest enough           annually appear for a vote of confi-
  trustedwithanychurchpowerprop-             to leave corrupt denominations, of-          dence. Papal tyranny is replaced by a
  erly so called, or with any jurisclic-     ten establish independent congrega-          tyranny equally as cruel.
  tion over the churches themselves, to      tions, or groups of congregations that            The Reformed controversy with
  exercise any censures either over any      are only very loosely associated. The        Anabaptism goes on. The Devil's
  churches or persons, to impose their       Church Order is not adopted and no           attack on the church takes not only
  determination on the churches or of-
  ficers.                                    authority is given to broader assem-         the form of doctrinal deviation, but
      It is alarming to note that this       blies. This is not the way of genuine        also assault on the government and
Anabaptistindependentismsurvives             church reformation. Genuine church           offices of the church. God grani: Re-
to the present. Neither is its survival      reformation in the past has always           formed churches the world over the
onlyamongthemodern-dayBaptists,              been characterized by a return not           grace to stand firm in both areas. 0
                                             only to pure doctrine, but also to



                                             The Reformed
                                             World and Life View
Rev. Kenneth Koole

                                                  World-fight or world-flight?            of protestantism, given the choice,
                                             Which is the Christian life?                 would respond, "Neither." World-
                                                There was a time when all who             fight is as foreign to them as world-
                                             wentby the name of Calvinists would          flight. The threat of "worldliness" is
                                             have said "world-fight." That they           a clear and present danger on which
                                             were biblically accurate is not so dif-      far too many Protestant pulpits have
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant     ficult to demonstrate.                       become silent.
Reformed Church in  Jenison,  Michigan.           Today, however, more and more                What has occurred is rather in-

                                                                                                Cctober 15,199l I Standard Bearer I45


sidious. World-fight, that legitimate       of world-flight at all. Far too many, as      comed and could participate in day-
and necessary aspect of the Christian       we have suggested, seize upon the             to-day life. The world of the unholy
life, is itself labeled as world-flight.    phrase "world-flight" in order to be          and unbelieving was walled off and
When the church calls her members           excused from engaging evenin world-           shut out. They intended to live in
to engage in the battle.of  faith, and      fight. Would to God that there were           their own self-sufficient community
world-fight, the opponents of this          a little more flight, and a lot less "Lot-    of re-baptized saints. To the extent
antithetical spiritual action shout it      like" dallying in the Sodom of this           that they could, they would ignore
down by calling it world-flight. And        world. Where would Lot have been if           the affairs of the worldly society in
thus many blacklist world-fight, in-        he had not been compelled to flee the         which they lived.
ject uncertainty and confusion into         fleshly delights of the well-watered,              The Reformed faith has never
the minds of the unwary, and justify        culturally advanced, sex-obsessed             advocated this kind of world-flight.
their own worldly lifestyle and their       valley of the doomed cities? Without          For one thing this is hardly compat-
unwillingness to forsake it. This is        a doubt standing next to his well-            ible with Christ's command to shine
nothingless thanabetrayalof Christ's        preserved, worldly-minded wife. Let           as lights in the world. You can not
cause and a desertion of the Lord's         us never forget that she stands as a          bear witness to a society from which
company.                                    monument to the folly of refusing to          you have physically isolated your-
     Those who insist on identifying        flee this world in any decisive way at        selves.
the two, "fight" with "flight," in or-      all.                                               But we, in the name of the Re-
der to justify their not having to en-               When the apostle Paul says to        formed faith, do advocate what is
gage in either, are to be numbered in       the Christians in that most civilized         called the life of the "antithesis."' Prac-
the end with Demas, concerning              and modern of cities, Corinth, with           tically speaking this means that there
whom Paul wrote, "Demas hath for-           allitsplacesof entertainment, "Where-         is muchin this life and world to which
saken me, having loved this present         fore come out from among them, and            we must say "No!" It arises out of the
world." Observing what many in              be ye separate, saith the Lord..." he         recognition that there is a "world"
Protestantism permit themselves to          certainly was speaking of a kind of           out there that is a danger to our spiri-
do one wonders what it is that falls        flight, a hasty separating of self from       tual mind and well-being. It is dan-
under this category of "worldliness,"       the lifestyle of a world and its inter-       gerous exactly because it is prolduced
if anything at all.                         ests.                                         by men who fear not God, despise His
     That there is a "world" we are                  This is necessary for faith's        holiness, takepleasurein sinandvan-
called to fight (i.e., vigorously op-       "fight," the Christian warfare. One           ity, and want others to join them in
pose, warn against, and have no part        can hardly fight an enemy if one has          this pleasure. The very purpose of
with) is apparent from many pas-            failed to flee its ranks, but rather con-     much of what they produce is to af-
sages. One by itself will do. James         tinues to be entertained by it and            fect others such that others display a
                                            imitating its pursuits and interests.         like mind.
                                                     Nonetheless, the phrase "world-           Because the reality is that also in
          Would to God                      flight" has -in the development of            the regenerated child of God there is
          that there were                   church history come to describe a             a point of contact for sin's pleasure,
       a little more flight,                certain radical mentality towards life        namely, the "flesh," precautions must
                                            in this world. The monastic move-             be taken to prevent the world. from
    atid a lot less "Lot-like"              ment arose out of this mentality. It          stirring up like passions self. If this
     dallying in the Sodom                  defined "separation" in terms of "iso-        were not so, why would the apostle
            of this world.                  lation," removing oneself physical,           John with suchvigor warn against the
                                            bodily from the flow of society - in          world that appeals to M the lust of the
                                            many instances walling oneself off            flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
declares "knowye  not that the friend-      from social contact with others in            pride of life"? This realization meces-
ship of the worldis enmity with God?        nearly every form. Evil was seen in           sitates the antithetical perspective.
whosoever therefore will be a friend        material things themselves, and hence              We understand well that the
of the world is the enemy of God"           everything of normal life was prohib-         antithesis does not forbid us to use
(4:4). How much sharper can you             ited or severely limited.                     and enjoy the world of God-created
get? There is a world out there that                 The Anabaptist movement ex-          things. The believer is free in Christ to
we are to deal with as an enemy.            hibited a surprisinglysimilarperspec-         use the things which God has Imade,
     World-fight is not to be identi-       tive. They practiced an inclusive             be it wine, pork, or sex in marriage,
fied with world-flight. And the Re-         "communalism," that is, they sought           and even things civilization produces,
formed faith has never done so. At          to remove themselves from contact             i.e., clothes and transportation (con-
the same time, it would be folly to         with the "ungodly" and the world by           fer I Timothy 4~4).
insist that world-fight knowsnothing        forming their own cities in which only             Yet, even here the Reformed
                                            converts to their cause were wel-             faith, in accordance with God's Word,

45/StandardSaarerlOctoberl5,1991


issues warnings. What we must never         subject everything to scrutiny, and         they saw that it provided the desired
do is adopt the world's mentality           critique it from a distinctively ethical    justification for Christians torunwith
towards and evaluation of the things        perspective. And it means that our          the worldlings and find pleasure with
found in this life.                         evaluation of what confronts us is          them in unholy things.
     The Reformed faith warns               going to be different from the evalu-            What is striking is that the 1924
against "concupiscence," that is, a         ation of the unbeliever, radically dif-     Synod formulated and adopted a
strong attachment to the lawful things      ferent. At least it should be, if faith     "Testimony" that indicates that they
of this life. Calvin did not hesitate to    makes a difference.                         themselves saw the danger of the
speak of the proper mindset  in terms            This, by the way, is also the rea-     theory they were imposing on the
of "contemptio mundi" (a world held         son for establishing good Christian         church, and yet would not reconsider
in contempt) [Institutes, III:9:1].  By     day-schools. A spiritual evaluation         what they were adopting. (We quote
this Calvin meant our attitude was to       of society's culture is something chil-     from this "Testimony" as it is found
be one of detachment, a readiness to        dren must be taught. An unbelieving         inRev.H.Hoeksema'sbook,TheProt-
part ways with whatever we use and          person cannot possibly teach them           es tan tlieformed Churches in America,
enjoy in this life should God so re-        this proper discrimination. Only a          pp.91-93.)
quire. This is not easy by any stretch      teacher schooled in the Reformed                 "Now synod expressed itself on
of the imagination, but this is what        perspective can.                            three points that were at stake in the
characterizes the believer when his              It is one thing to be familiar with    denial of Common Grace and thereby
faith is functioning properly.              the glory that was Greece, and the          condemned the entire disregard for
     This is not the extreme of the         grandeur that was Rome; it is another       this doctrine, she feels constrained at
Anabaptist radicals, but at the same        to glory in the Greeks (and all they        the same time to warn our Churches
timeitisafarcryfromthe"prosperity           produced, as they glorified the hu-         and especially our leaders earnestly
gospel" that has warped so much of          man mind and body), and to seek to          against all onesided emphasis on and
Protestantism today.                        emulate all found in and done by            misuse of the doctrine of Common
     Neither does the antithesis mean       Rome. Concerning everything of so-          Grace. It cannot be denied that there
that we have no use for the learning,       ciety confronting us, we must ask,          exists a real danger in this respect....
discoveries, inventions, and compo-         does it glorify sin? does it seek to             When we consider the direc-
sitions of mankind. We use today's          awaken sensuality? is it a revolt           tion in which the spirit of the time
transportation, benefit from modern         against the laws of creation's order        develops round about us, it cannot be
medicine, enjoy Beethoven's music,          and form? If so, we condemn it.             denied that our present danger lies more
read Tolstoy's books, recite Homer's                                                    in the direction  of  worldly-mindedness
poetry, learn Euclid's geometry, ap-                                                    than offalse seclusion (emphasis mine -
preciate Rembrandt's paintings, and                     . . . the theo y                KK). Liberal theology of the present
study the latest in physics, chemistry,           of Common Grace . . .                 time really obliterates the distinction
and biology. The antithesis does not                                                    between the Church and the world. It
mean that we despise all of these                     is nothing less                   is more and more emphasized by
things, consider learning what men                  than a death blow                   many that the great significance of the
have accomplished in these areas to         against the decisive character              Church lies in her influence upon
be a silly waste of time (considering                of the antithesis.                 social life. The consciousness of a
ignorance bliss), and discourage de-                                                    spiritual-ethical antithesis becomes
veloping gifts and abilities that one                                                   increasingly vague in the minds of
hasin thesevarious areas. The apostle            It is here that the PRC have raised    many, to make room for an indefinite
Paul wasacquainted with the poets of        a banner against the theory of Com-         notion of a general brotherhood....
his age, quoting themmore  than once;       mon Grace as articulated by the 1924             "...With holy zeal [the Church]
the church father Augustine used his        Synod of the CRC. We assert that this       must constantly send forth the call to
vast knowledge of the philosophies          theory is nothing less than a death         our people, especially to our youth:
of his age in order to free many who        blow against the decisive character of      `And be ye not conformed to this
were snared by their vanities; and          the antithesis.                             world, but be ye transformed by the
Calvin himself had an excellent lib-             For this rejection we have been        renewing of your mind, that ye may
eral-arts education. He used this to        accused of promoting a world-flight         prove what is that good and acoept-
good advantage when addressing the          mentality and attempting to smuggle         able and perfect will of God.' With
high and learned of his age.                the Anabaptist perspective into the         the blessing of the Lord this will keep
     In a word, the antithesis does         Reformed camp. All we say at this           our churches from  worldly-
not mean that we become isolation-          point is that such is false.                mindedness, that extinguishes the
ists, living in our own colonies of              The PRC from the very begin-           flame of spiritual ardor and deprives
saints, ignoring society "out there."       ning raised a warning against the           the Church of her power and beauty."
But the antithesis does mean that we        theory of Common Grace because                   More prophetic words could not

                                                                                              October  15,199l I Standard Bearer147


 STANDARD
   BHER                                                                                                         SECOND CLASS
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   P.O. Box 603
   Grandvile, MI 49468-0603


have been spoken. The Common                       And here you have the bridge            nothing.
Grace teaching has been used exactly          between Jerusalem and Athens, the                 Oneiswillinglyfoolishifhedoes
as the Synod feared it might be and           church and the world, between the            not see that such thinking is logically
Hoeksema said it would be.                    narrow way of Christ's discipleship          consistent with the tenants of the
        For the sake of the antithesis and    and the broad way that leads to per-         Common Grace theory.
world-fight we reject the theory of           dition. The "sons of God" have all the            What should be clear to any ob-
Common Grace. We reject it, not               excuse they need to justify their en-        jective student of churchhistory? This:
because it speaks of good things which        joyment of and indulging in almost           if you want to adopt a doctrine that
God gives to the ungodly, but be-             everything and anything the world            keeps your church and young people
cause it speaks of a power that works         produces and engages in. Why? Be-            from worldly-mindedness, colmmon
in the ungodly, a power God works in          cause if you look hard enough you are        grace is not that doctrine. It is the
them out of a favor (grace) upon them,        going to find the good element that          antithetical world and life view, free
which power, it is said, diminishes           was supposedly produced by the               from the baggage of Common (Grace,
their ungodliness, and enables them           Spirit's grace which gives the R-rated       that is going to nurture the flame of
to do things pleasing to God. And it          film, the erotic "art" exhibit, and the      spiritual ardor. Oh that concerned
is this "grace" that is said to be the        pulsating rock music (all which serve        brothers would see this!
operational power that enables chil-          to get your sexual juices flowing and             "And be not conformed ,to this
dren  of darkness to produce this             imagination working), someredemp-            world, but be ye transformed..." (Rom.
world% culture.                               tive value. We need deny ourselves           12:2).  cl

News From Our Churches (abbreviated)
ML Benjamin Wigger


Ministerial Calls                             gregational  meeting  for Sunday, Sep-       the resurrection and the life: he that
        On Sunday, September 22, the          tember 29 for the purpose of calling a       believeth in me, though he were dead,
Hudsonville, MI PRC extended a call           missionary to Jamaica. The trio con-         yet shall he live: And whosoeverliveth
to Rev. R. Cammenga, to serve as              sists of Revs. M. DeVries,  B. Gritters,     and believeth in me shall never die"
missionary pastor to the members of           and R. Moore.                                (John 11:25, 26).
the Covenant Reformed Fellowship                   And Candidate M. Dick has re-                         Rev. Carl Haak, President
of Larne, Northern Ireland.                   ceived the call to serve as pastor to the
        For the Venice, FL mission field,     congregation of our Hope PRC in
the congregation of the Kalamazoo,            Isabel, SD. 0
MI PRC formed a trio consisting of
Revs. Bekkering, Bruinsma, and                                                                             NOTICE!!
VanOverloop.  On September 15 they                                                            5th Annual Reformation Day
extended a call to Rev. Bekkering.                                                                          Lecture
        The Consistory of the First PRC         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                          October 31, 1991, 8:00 PM
in Grand Rapids, MI scheduled a con-               The Consistory and Congrega-                    Theme:  "Sola Fide"
                                              tion of the Lynden Protestant Re-                          (Only by Faith)
                                              formed Church express their sympa-                Speaker: Rev. Carl Haak
                                              thy to Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Stuit and                           Place:
                                              family in the death of their sister,             Lynden Protestant Reformed
                                                   MRS. MARGARET COLE.                                       Church
Mr. WiggerisamemberoftheProtestant            May Jehovah comfort the bereaved                           315 N. Park St.
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-      with the glorious hope of the resurrec-               Lynden,. Washington
gan.                                          tion of the dead in Jesus Christ. "I am

48/StandardBearer/0ctober15,1991


