                            The
                   Standard
A Reformed         Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine



                                                  In This Issue:

                   Meditation -- Rev. Richard G. Moore
                        Valued In Contempt ......................................................................... 314

                   Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
                        Marriage:  a Lifelong Bond ............................................................. 317

                   Ministering to the Saints -- Prof. Robert D. Decker
                        The Reconciliation of Repentant Sinners .................................... 319

                   That They May Teach Their Children -- Prof. Russell J. Dykstra
                        Why Reformed, Christian Schools? ............................................... 321

                   Day of Shadows -- Homer C. Hoeksema
                        The Setting of the Stage of History (cont.) ................................... 323

                   All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ................................................. 326

                   Go Ye Into All the World -- Rev. Jason L. Kortering
                        Mission Enthusiasm--Our Solemn Duty ........................................ 328

                   When Thou Sittest in Thine House -- Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma
                        The Covenant of Marriage
                        2. Courtship Within the Covenant (cont.) ..................................... 331

                   Book Reviews ............................................................................................ 334

                   News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger................................. 335





Vol. 74, No. 14
April 15, 1998


   Meditation                                                                                                                                 Rev. Richard Moore



                                             Valued In Contempt


                                               "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And
                                              they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they
                                              of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter's field, as the
                                              Lord appointed me."
                                                                                                                                 Matthew 27:9


The event of our text took we see the true nature of the sin of man, that evil holds him in condemnation.
            place  during  the  time  be-                             and we see what man naturally thinks                              By going to the chief priests he at-
            tween the trial of Jesus before the                       of Christ.  And we read that these things                  tempts to lay the responsibility for his
Sanhedrin and the public trial before                                 must come to pass that Scripture be ful-                   transgression upon them, by giving back
Pilate, and is the conclusion of the mat-                             filled.                                                    to them the money they had given him.
ters in which Judas Iscariot was involved                                    Judas Iscariot had betrayed the                     But they respond by saying that this all
in the suffering of our Lord.  Judas                                  Lord and could now find no rest, as the                    belongs to Judas.  They say, "What is
Iscariot attempted to escape the accusa-                              sin of betraying Jesus filled him with a                   that to us? see thou to that."  They will
tions of his conscience.  He ought to have                            torment that he could not escape.  This                    not have any part in the taking of re-
fallen on his knees before the Lord, con-                             is always true of sin when true repen-                     sponsibility for what Judas did. Judas
fessed his sin, and turned to walk as a                               tance and a godly sorrow do not follow                     therefore throws the money down on the
repentant child. But for this he had no                               it.  And this was exactly the case with                    floor and leaves.  But, of course, this
heart.  So he tried other ways to escape                              Judas.  There was no true sorrow before                    would not give him rest, for he could
the testimony of judgment that was                                    God for this sin, and all that Judas' re-                  not in this way remove his guilt before
against him for his sin.                                              pentance was, as it is spoken of in our                    the Judge of heaven and earth.  Not will-
       In the account of the priests' ac-                             text, was mere despair.  Judas, we read,                   ing to turn unto the Lord, he continues
tions in respect to this activity of Judas,                           "when he saw that he was condemned,                        his foolishness of sin and hangs himself.
                                                                      repented himself."  The wicked cannot                      And the priests, with pretended piety,
                                                                      sin against God with impunity. They                        determine that they must have nothing
                                                                      may try to cover up their sin and its                      to do with this blood money.  So they go
                                                                      damning testimony, but in reality they                     to the potter with the money and buy
Rev. Moore is pastor of the Protestant Re-                            cannot.  Judas now lives with the testi-                   his field, with a view to using it for a
formed Church of Hull, Iowa.                                          mony of his betrayal of the Lord, and                      burial place for bury the poor.


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314/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


    Thus Jesus was valued at the price        prophecy also pointed out that wicked          Himself.  Jehovah is in the house of the
of a slave.  Such is man's great con-         Israel, as they stood before this Word of      Lord, He abides in His Holy temple.  He
tempt of the Christ.                          salvation, always despised that Word           is the Potter who does what He wills
    Matthew then points out that this         and the work of God through the proph-         with the vessel that is in His hand.
took place that Scripture might be ful-       ets and made it clear that they found          Jeremiah declares the essential evil that
filled.  There is no other way to consider    that Word and work of the Lord con-            Zechariah in his prophecy pointed out.
that which took place. "Then was ful-         temptible.  Thirdly, the Scriptures teach      Israel casts contempt upon the Potter
filled that which was spoken by Jeremy        that this hatred for the word of the           when they cast their contempt upon His
the prophet, saying, And they took the        prophets (which really was a hatred for        prophets.  The Potter Himself remem-
thirty pieces of silver, the price of him     Christ, the Word) was always brought           bers their hatred for His Word and their
that was valued, whom they of the chil-       by the wicked in the face of Jehovah.          despising Him that sent it.  It becomes
dren of Israel did value."  The great con-    The result is that God judges wicked Is-       the ground for His condemnation of
tempt that natural man has for Christ--        rael for their contempt of Him and de-         them.  He mars the vessel in order to
that is the meaning of the Spirit in these    stroys them, in order to bring the gos-        make it into another.
words.                                        pel to others.  This is the basic teaching
    Matthew attributes the prophecy to        also of this prophecy, which is fulfilled      Fulfilled In Christ
Jeremiah, when in fact the words quoted       when Christ, the Prophet, stands before             The shepherds of the old dispensa-
are not specifically from any single pas-     men.                                           tion, the prophets, were types of the
sage of Jeremiah, but are found quite             This is the reason why the Spirit          Prophet of God that comes as the Shep-
literally in the prophecy of Zechariah.       led Matthew to refer to Jeremiah while         herd of God's sheep.  Our Lord Jesus
"And I said unto them, If ye think good,      quoting quite literally the prophecy of        Christ was the fulfillment of all the old
give me my price; and if not, forbear. So     Zechariah.  The reason that Jeremiah is        dispensation faithful prophets, for He
they weighed for my price thirty pieces       mentioned is the fact that in the proph-       is the Word come in our flesh.  He is
of silver. And the Lord said unto me,         ecy of Jeremiah we find the truth of the       Jehovah-salvation, come to save His
Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price       prophecy of Zechariah even more em-            elect church.  On the other hand, Judas
that I was prised at of them. And I took      phatically expressed.  In Jeremiah it is       represents wicked Israel, as do also the
the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them    pointed out that the potter is God.            wicked priests.  For notice that our text
to the potter in the house of the Lord"           In the prophecy of Zechariah we            speaks in the plural.  Matthew 27:9:
(Zech. 11:12, 13).                            find that the prophet is presented as a        "Then was fulfilled that which was spo-
    Is it possible, then, that Matthew        shepherd.  As such He is God's ambas-          ken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And
made a mistake in the quote?  There           sador or representative.  The people of        they took the thirty pieces of silver, the
could, of course, have been no mistake,       Israel are the flock unto whom the Word        price of him that was valued, whom they
not because man cannot make mistakes,         of God has been brought.  The people of        of the children of Israel did value."  This
but because the Scriptures are inspired       Israel, however,  are wicked, and the          prophecy, therefore, makes reference not
by the Spirit of God, and thus without        shepherd will make an end of bringing          only to Judas.  It included the priests of
error. We believe that the Spirit led Mat-    them the word.  He will be a shepherd          the Jews, the elders, the people of Israel,
thew to write our text exactly in this        unto them no more.  He therefore asks          as well as Judas.  Judas, in a sense, rep-
way, and that it was not an error on          them his wages, so to speak: "And I said       resented this whole carnal element of Is-
the part of the writer or copyist.  To        unto them, If ye think good, give me my        rael.  The sin of all of wicked Israel
understand why the Spirit so instructed       price; and if not, forbear. So they            throughout the old dispensation and at
Matthew to pen these words, we must           weighed for my price thirty pieces of sil-     the time of Christ was fulfilled in his
understand that the Scripture is a unity,     ver" (v. 12).  Confronted with the ques-       sin.  The measure of iniquity was made
that it stands together as one, and that      tion as to the worth of the labor of the       full.  This was the culmination of the
it expresses this unity in its interrela-     prophet, they showed their utter con-          contempt of natural man for God
tion.  Surely that is the case in the         tempt for the Word of God in their             throughout the ages.  Thirty pieces of
present instance, as we find the same         midst, for there is measured out 30            silver was the price that Judas agreed
Word  of  God  set  forth  for  us  in        pieces of silver, the price of a slave (Ex.    on with the priests to betray Jesus.  For
Zechariah and Jeremiah.                       21:32).  There is thus a mocking con-          this price the deal was done.  This is
    The essence of this prophecy is to        tempt for the labors of the prophet, and       what all parties agreed was the value of
be found as the recurring theme of Old        for the covenant God who sends the             Jesus--the price of a slave.  Thus, at the
Testament prophecy.  First, consider          prophet, and for His Word, and for Je-         time of our text in Matthew, the proph-
that God always revealed through the          hovah who has sent Him.  The prophet           ecy of Zechariah/Jeremiah must be ful-
prophets that He did all things for the       was therefore called upon by God to cast       filled.
salvation of His people.  He had through      the thirty pieces of silver unto the pot-           Judas took the money and threw it
the prophets given His people the Word        ter in the house of the Lord.                  on the floor in the temple before the
of His covenant, and His promise that             In Jeremiah we find one major dif-         priests, and that money was given to
would be fulfilled in Christ.  Secondly,      ference:  the Potter is presented as God       the potter for his field.  In the prophecy

                                                                                                   April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/315


of Zechariah, the prophet was called           We have cast our contempt upon God,                     Bond
upon to bring the money, as a type, to         and we are worthy only of condemna-
the temple.  In the fulfillment, Judas         tion.  Jesus must bear that condemna-
does this. Remember that the prophet,          tion.  He is counted by God, in a sense,
by his actions, was revealing not only         worthy only of the price of a slave.  The     Over the past few months
                                                                                                      several editorials lamented
that which was true of the people in his       coins are cast upon the floor of the                   the approval by Reformed
day, but that which would be fulfilled         temple, before the face of God, that His      churches of unbiblical divorce and of the
in the coming of Christ.                       wrath may be seen as just as He pours         remarriage that invariably follows (Nov.
     The result is that the contempt of        it out upon us.  And this wrath Jesus         1, 1997; Nov. 15, 1997; Dec. 1, 1997;
the people is brought before the face of       came to bear.  He must suffer that just       March 15, 1998).  The evil is widespread.
the Lord, before the divine Potter. The        wrath of God for our counting God as          Many churches quietly tolerate this great
judgment of wicked Israel must be seen         nothing.                                      wickedness against God and the neigh-
as entirely just.  The holy God and His             Jesus must suffer this reproach in       bor.  Many others openly defend it.
prophets were held in contempt.  This          order that never may our sin come be-             Various factors contribute.  A sig-
became evident to all.  The living God         fore the face of God, never must we suf-      nificant factor is the churches' confor-
had come in our flesh.  He had come            fer the judgment of the divine Potter.        mity to the world.  In these last days,
with His work and Word now person-             He takes our place before the Divine Pot-     the churches become worldly, as Christ
ally.  But the attitude remained ever the      ter that we be not marred to make an-         forewarned.  Therefore, lawlessness in-
same.  He is held in contempt and is           other in our stead.  Christ by grace died     creases both among the membership and
valued as worthless--at the most, the           to deliver us, so that we value Him not       on the part of the institute itself.  "And
price of a slave.  What did they think of      at thirty pieces of silver, but as a trea-    because lawlessness shall abound, the
God when He came to dwell in their             sure that cannot be bought!  May we lift      love of many shall cool" (Matt. 24:12,
midst, when they witnessed His power,          all praise to the God of our salvation.       Greek text).
and when they heard Him speak His              u                                                 As the editorials showed, the root
Word with no imperfection?  Judas               Marriage: of the scandal is the churches' refusal
Iscariot and the priests give the valua-                                                     to view marriage as a lifelong, unbreak-
tion of natural man to Jesus.  He is                                                         able bond that God establishes between
worth thirty pieces of silver.  This ex-       a Lifelong one man and one woman.  Having com-
pressed their attitude toward God and                                                        promised this fundamental truth about
His Word.  Indeed, their condemnation                                                        marriage, even those churches that once
is just.                                                                                     tried to restrict the right of remarriage
     But, do not now point your finger                                                       to the "innocent party" have caved in to
at Judas and the high priests and the                                                        the pressure to tolerate the remarriage
elders of the Jews in pious hypocrisy.                                                       of any and all who are divorced, includ-
For the fact is that this is how all of
natural man responds to the Word come
in our flesh, to the Christ.  This is the                                       A speck of dust
way that you and I hold the Word and
value God who sends it. Of ourselves                                                 A  worm
this is all we think of God and His Son.                                        Insignificance
We too, by nature, are represented by
this action of Judas and the priests.  That
action expresses the contempt of our                                             Grace  appears
natural hearts to the Word.                                                           Mercy
     We again ask the question, why?
Why must Jesus fulfill this Scripture?                                         Abounding  love
Why must He suffer this humiliation?
Why could He not have been crucified
without being sold for a mere thirty                                             Regeneration
pieces of silver?  It could be no other                                             Holiness
way if He were to save us!  His death                                    A  new  creature  in  Christ!
must be an atoning death.  He came to
bear the weight of God's wrath against
our sin, and He must suffer in our place.                                                                    Thelma Westra
     Remember what we have just said,
that we ourselves have counted God's
Word and His prophets as worthless.

316/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


  Editorial




ing the guilty party.  This necessarily follows from the granting of a right of remarriage to the "innocent party."  For if the
"innocent party" may remarry, it must be that his original marriage has been dissolved.  If the original marriage has been
dissolved, it is dissolved not only for the "innocent party" but also for the guilty party.  And if the marriage of the guilty party is



                                                 practice of many evangelical and Re-          dead, she is at liberty to be married to
dissolved, she may marry again, just as          formed churches resembles nothing so          whom she will; only in the Lord" (I Cor.
every unmarried person is free to marry.         much as a "Great Wax Nose" in heaven.         7:39).  The point now is not that the
The church may not forbid it.  The                   There is no excuse for the churches'      bond is broken only by death (which the
church may not refuse the membership             rejection of the truth that marriage is a     text teaches in language that cannot be
of the remarried guilty party, at least          bond created by God.  The testimony of        misunderstood), but that marriage is a
not on the ground simply of the remar-           Scripture is clear and compelling.  A         binding and bonding.  To be married is
riage.                                           child can know it.  The cleverest theolo-     to be bound, to be bonded.  What binds
    The epidemic of divorce and remar-           gian cannot explain it away.  At the in-      and bonds is the law, that is, the living
riage among their members and, espe-             stitution of marriage in the beginning,       Word of God.  Of a contract, the apostle
cially, the scandalous presence at the           the Word of God described the very es-        knows absolutely nothing.
Lord's Table of many who have unjustly           sence of marriage as a man's cleaving             The alternative to the view of mar-
divorced and then remarried ought to             to his wife in a "one flesh" union (Gen.      riage as a bond is the notion of mar-
drive the churches to reconsider their           2:24).  Where was the contract in the         riage as a contract.  James Fitzjames
doctrine of marriage.  Specifically, this        garden?  Where was the conditional            Stephen was right in his debate with
evil should compel the churches to con-          agreement, implying the possible dissolv-     John Stuart Mill when he put the alter-
sider seriously whether marriage is not          ing of marriage?  Marriage is, by God's       natives as he did:  "(Is marriage) a di-
a lifelong bond established by God, which        own ordaining and effecting, a bond, a        vine, indissoluble union governed by the
no one and nothing can dissolve as long          wonderfully intimate oneness.  It is such     paterfamilias, or is it a contractual unit
as the two live.                                 a close oneness--"one flesh"--as unavoid-       governed and dissolved by the wills of
    Instead, the churches more and               ably raises the questions, "Can this one-     the parties?" (John Witte, Jr., From Sac-
more view marriage, if not in theory,            ness be dissolved?  Who or what can           rament to Contract:  Marriage, Religion,
then in practice, as a contract drawn            possibly make two again of those whom         and  Law  in  the  Western  Tradition,
up and entered into by the married per-          God has joined together?"                     Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, p.
sons mutually.  It is dependent upon                 Appealing to the institution of mar-      198).
their pleasure.  As a conditional con-           riage, specifically the words of Genesis          All contract-theory of marriage
tract, it can be broken by one or both of        2:24 that describe marriage as a bond         shatters on Ephesians 5:22ff.
them.  In this case, the marriage is ab-         (with the express purpose of forbidding           Is the relation between my head and
rogated.  It is as if it never existed.  Both    divorce!), Jesus sharpened and strength-      my body that of a contract?  Did my
may then make another contract with              ened the biblical revelation that marriage    head and my body agree conditionally
other parties.  Ad infinitum.   Ad nau-          is a God-formed bond:  "What therefore        to live together for their mutual advan-
seam.                                            God hath joined together, let not man         tage and pleasure, or even for their life?
    A spineless church enthusiastically          put asunder" (Matt. 19:6).  Essentially,      Is it part of their "co-living" and of their
blesses every new contract and dutifully         marriage is God's joining together of hus-    cooperation that if one fails in its duty
approves the breaking of the old ones.           band and wife as one flesh.  It is a bond.    the other may sever relations and find
    What part the great God of heaven            There is no room in Jesus' authoritative      another, more agreeable body or head?
and earth plays in this abuse of His holy        doctrine of marriage for the notion of        If the head should become senile, may
ordinance is a mystery.  It seems to be          marriage as a human contract, not even        the body leave and re-attach?  If the
His role genially to validate every abro-        if God is allowed to peer over the shoul-     body becomes paralyzed, may the head
gation of the old contract and compli-           ders of the contracting couple to ratify      dissolve the relationship?
antly to ratify every new one.  What-            their bargain.                                    Can they dissolve their union?
ever suits the will and pleasure of the              Christ's apostle taught the same,             Nonsense, you say.
men and women who marry, divorce,                and ordained it in all the churches:  "The        And you are right.
and remarry, He sanctions.  The god of           wife is bound by the law as long as her           No fool represents the relation be-
the marriage doctrine and marriage               husband liveth; but if her husband be         tween physical head and physical body

                                                                                                        April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/317


as a contract.  It is a wonderful, close,       the covenant of grace.  And this grand       "marriage, a calling."
ultimately mysterious bond established          gospel of the covenant as a bond of fel-         Will you consider this with me next
by the Creator in His creation for every        lowship between Christ and us, estab-        time?   u
one who partakes of human nature.               lished, maintained, and perfected by the                                             -- DJE
Such is the bond that head and body,            triune God in sheer, unilateral, uncon-
though distinct, are one.                       ditional grace and, therefore, unbreak-                        The
    But now the inspired apostle de-            able and everlasting, is the "best thing"
scribes the relation of husband and wife        in the Protestant Reformed Churches, as
exactly as that of head and body:  "the         it is the "best thing" in the Bible.         Reconciliation
husband is the head of the wife" (v. 23);            On the day (which may God gra-
"men ought to love their wives as their         ciously forbid!) when the Protestant Re-
own bodies" (v. 28).  No more than that         formed Churches give in to the pres-                           of
of head and body is the relation of hus-        sures of the world, which are heavy,
band and wife a contract.  As much as           and to the desires of their own mem-
the relation of head and body, marriage         bers, which can be strong because of the     Repentant
is a bond of intimate fellowship in which       hard, marital circumstances of ourselves
the two share one life.                         or of our children, and permit remar-
    Not even this in Ephesians 5, how-          riage, on that day they will repudiate            Sinners
ever, is the most powerful testimony            marriage as a bond.  And on that day
against the sterile, fragile contract-theory    they will be committed to a doctrine of
of marriage and for the fruitful, solid         the covenant as a contract--a conditional,    Part of the elders' care of the
                                                                                                    people  of  God  involves  su-
doctrine of marriage as bond.  The most         breakable contract.                                 pervising the reconciliation of re-
powerful testimony is the apostle's                  By virtue of Ephesians 5:31, 32.        pentant sinners with God and His
teaching that earthly marriage symbol-               Marriage is a bond.  God the Cre-       church.  In distinction from Article 73
izes the relationship of Christ and the         ator made it so.  He made it so for the      of The Church Order of the Protestant
church.  Having quoted the fundamen-            sake of the redeemed and for the sake        Reformed Churches, which speaks of the
tal Word of God at the institution of           of His own covenant as Redeemer.             reconciliation of private sins,  Article 75
marriage, the apostle exclaims, "This is             The question then is:  Can the bond     speaks of "The reconciliation of all such
a great mystery:  but I speak concerning        be broken?  and if so, by whom?              sins as are of their nature of a public
Christ and the church" (v. 32).                      God must answer this question.          character, or have become public because
    If earthly marriage is not a bond,          Marriage is His institution.  He has         the admonition of the church was de-
but a contract, such also is the relation-      formed every marriage-bond as with His       spised."   The article reads as follows,
ship between Christ and the church.  If         own hand.  Men and women may not
earthly marriage is a mere contract, de-        speak here.  All must listen to the Word         The reconciliation of all such sins as
pendent for its endurance upon condi-           of God.  Then they must confess what           are of their nature of a public character,
tions fulfilled mutually by husband and         God has said.  They must ignore what           or have become public because the ad-
wife, so also is the relationship between       the world says.  They must pay no at-          monition of the church was despised,
Christ and the church.  If earthly mar-         tention to the answer pleaded for by           shall take place (upon sufficient evi-
riage can be dissolved by one or the            their own circumstances or by the cir-         dence of repentance) in such a manner
                                                                                               as the consistory shall deem conducive
other of the parties at his or her will         cumstances of those whom they love.            to the edification of each church.
and pleasure, or even by his or her sin,             God's answer, given in Holy Scrip-        Whether in particular cases this shall
so also can the covenant between Christ         ture, is plain.                                take place in public shall, when there is
and the church be dissolved by the will              Earthly marriage can be dissolved.        a difference of opinion about it in the
of Christ or by the sin of the church.          It can be dissolved only by God Himself.       consistory, be considered with the ad-
And then, a remarriage, at least on the         He dissolves it by the death of one of         vice of two neighboring churches or of
part of Christ.                                 the married persons (I Cor. 7:39).             the classis.
    Years ago, a dear sister, who was                Fornication on the part of husband
not at that time enamored of everything         or wife can so strain the bond that di-          Public sins according to Article 75
Protestant Reformed, said to me, "The           vorce in the sense of full, legal separa-    are of two kinds.  There are those sins
best thing that the Protestant Reformed         tion is allowed.  But even then the bond     which are "of their nature of a public
Churches have going for them is their           is not broken, so as to permit remar-        character."  It's very likely that these
stand on marriage."  She was not far            riage (Matt. 19:9; I Cor. 7:10, 11).         are sins reported in the news media.
wrong.  For in addition to its being a               Only the death of one of the mar-       However that may be, a sin which is in
blessing to many families, as well as to        ried persons dissolves the bond, for the     its very nature public is a sin that is
the churches made up of these families,         bond is superhumanly strong:  "one           known to the congregation.  It would be
the doctrine of marriage as a lifelong,         flesh" by the joining of the Almighty.       impossible for an unmarried woman who
indissoluble bond serves the gospel of               "Marriage:  a lifelong bond" implies    gives birth to a child to hide her trans-

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gression of the seventh commandment                announce the matter to the congrega-          few cases that the sinner confesses the
from her fellow saints.  The second kind           tion (Article 77).  It is then, only after    sin and is reconciled  with the church,
of public sin is a sin that was private            the sin has been announced, that the          and then falls into the sin all over again.
but became public "because the admoni-             sinner repents and needs to be recon-         It is with this possibility in mind that
tion of the church was despised."  In              ciled with God and the church.                the fathers speak of "sufficient evidence of
such an instance the matter was brought                The ground of reconciliation is "suf-     repentance"  in  this  article.    The
to the consistory in the way of Matthew            ficient evidence of repentance."  Usually     consistory must be certain that the sin-
18.  The consistory made every effort to           "sufficient evidence of repentance" is a      ner is sincerely repentant.  To attain this
bring the sinner to repentance, but the            confession of the sin by the sinner to-       certainty the consistory may very well
sinner refused.  Because of this impeni-           gether with a promise on his part to          place the person on probation for a des-
tence the consistory was compelled to              leave that sin.  But it happens in not a      ignated period of time.  Each case will


  Ministering to the Saints                                                                              Prof. Robert Decker


have to be considered on its own merits, but there are some sins which because of their very nature would require placing the
sinner on probation.  Drug abuse and continual drunkenness are two such sins which come to mind.  A man may be exceedingly
sorry for his sin of drunkenness, but soon thereafter fall into that sin again.  If the sinner is placed on probation for a time, he is
allowed back into the church, but is for a time barred from the use of the sacraments until the consistory is certain that he has
forsaken his sinful ways.  The consistory must exercise great caution lest the discipline of the church be despised and the church
herself become the object of ridicule.


                                                   (Matt. 18:22).                                This announcement ought not to be
     Admittedly the line here can often                Further, Article 75 speaks of the         printed in the weekly bulletin, but read
be very fine indeed.  The whole matter             method according to which this recon-         from the pulpit by the minister.  The
calls for a good deal of sanctified wis-           ciliation must take place when it says,       purpose of all this is, and this is what
dom, and, as was said earlier, each case           "in such a manner as the consistory shall     the consistory must strive for also when
has to be dealt with on its own merits.            deem conducive to the edification of the      it oversees the reconciliation of penitent
But, let it be emphasized,  when there is          church."  The chief concern here is the       sinners, the removing of the breach
sufficient evidence of repentance, the             congregation, the church, the body of         struck in the congregation by the sin
consistory must forgive the sinner and             our Lord Jesus Christ.  The holy name         committed, the restoration of fellowship
so must the congregation.  The penitent            of Christ and the reputation of His be-       between the congregation and the peni-
sinner must be unconditionally received            loved, blood-bought church are always         tent sinner, and keeping the church pure
into the full communion and fellowship             affected by the public sins of her mem-       in the world.  In this way the name of
of the people of God.  Jesus taught us to          bers.  However the reconciliation of re-      God is glorified.
pray, "forgive our debts, as we forgive            pentant sinners takes place, it must be           The article also provides for the
our debtors" (Matt. 6:12).  Scripture              in a manner that is conducive to build-       possibility of the reconciliation taking
teaches that when we confess our sins              ing up of the church.  This is the deter-     place "in public."  Reconciliation in pub-
God "is faithful and just to forgive us            minative factor involved in the recon-        lic does not then take place in the pres-
our sins and to cleanse us from all                ciliation.  The elders, then, must take       ence of the consistory with an announce-
unrighteousness."  "If we say that we              into account the nature of the sin, the       ment made from the pulpit as we de-
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and             penitent sinner, and the circumstances        scribed above.  Rather, the reconcilia-
the truth is not in us....  we make him a            prevailing in the congregation, and then      tion takes place under the supervision
liar and the truth is not in us" (I John           determine how best the spiritual well-        of the consistory, but in the presence of
1:8-10).  But let it also be emphasized,           being of the church will be served.           the entire congregation at a divine wor-
there must be sufficient evidence of re-               Usually what happens is that the          ship service.  In such cases the consistory
pentance, for God forgives only those              sinner goes to the consistory and con-        would formulate two or three questions
sinners who by His grace confess and               fesses his sin and expresses his desire to    concerning the sin, the sinner's desire
leave their sins.  The church must do              be reconciled with God and His church.        to confess that sin to God and the con-
likewise "until seventy times seven"               Upon determining that the sinner is sin-      gregation, and the sinner's resolve to
                                                   cerely repentant, the consistory prepares     leave the sin.  During a worship service
                                                   an announcement in which the congre-          the sinner would be asked to stand and
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology    gation is informed of the sinner's repen-     give answer to these questions.
in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.               tance and exhorted to receive him into            While allowing for reconciliation to
                                                   her fellowship in the way of forgiveness.     take place in public, the Reformed

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churches, also our own Protestant Re-            Christian of the children. This is a blessed benefit
formed Churches, have approached it                                                            of Christian education, but not its foun-
with a great deal of caution.  The synod                                                       dation.
of Emden (1571) in the Netherlands               Schools?                                          Similarly, some in the Christian
ruled that a unanimous vote was re-                                                            school movement wish to use the school
quired by the consistory before this pro-                                                      as a means to gain unbelievers to Christ.
cedure could be followed.  The synod of                                                        They attract children outside the cov-
1586 decided that in churches served by        The title expresses a question
                                                      faced by believers in various            enant, children of unbelievers, into the
only one minister, no public reconcilia-              situations. Sometimes it is asked        school. Even though every Christian
tion should take place, except with the        by a neighbor or fellow worker who,             ought to have a zeal for evangelism and
advice of two neighboring churches.  (It       having sent his children to the public          mission work, this is not the purpose of
should be borne in mind that the larger        schools, wonders why a Christian would          the Christian school.
urban churches in the Netherlands of-          spend "all that money" to educate his               Additionally, the goal of Christian
ten had several ministers serving them,        children when it is available free. At          education is not parochial, that is, to be
while the smaller congregations had but        times a student faces the question from         a teaching arm of the church and to in-
one minister.)  Prior to this the synod of     a coworker who attends a public school.         culcate the doctrines of the church in
Middleburg (1581) had ruled that               Our own sinful flesh may raise the ques-        the students. Assuredly this is a benefit
consistories had to seek the advice of         tion in order to undermine our enthusi-         of the faithful Reformed, Christian
the classis before a sinner could be pub-      asm for Christian education, hoping our         school, namely, that children learn the
licly reconciled.  The Church Order gov-       time and money can be diverted to the           same truth in school that they learn in
erning our churches requires a unani-          pleasures of this world.                        home and church. Nonetheless, Chris-
mous  decision  on  the  part  of  the             So, why do believers expend "all that"      tian schools are not parochial.
consistory if the reconciliation is to take    time, effort, and money for Reformed,               Finally, notice that the purpose for
place in public.  This is implied by the       Christian education? The answer must            the Christian school is not social, that is,
words, "when there is a difference of          be, in a word, God's covenant of grace.         to mold students into socially active
opinion about it."                                 To put it another way, the basis of         workers. In such schools the emphasis
     If the consistory cannot agree by         Reformed, Christian education is God's          is placed on "service," that is, that stu-
unanimous decision, the procedure to be        covenant of grace with His people. Chris-       dents must go out and improve society.
followed is one of two.  The consistory        tian education is covenantal education.         This is increasingly the motive today in
must either seek the advice of two neigh-      Everyone involved in education--parents,         Christian schools. This motive is driven
boring consistories, or the consistory         teachers, students, school boards, and          by three influences, and it varies from
must seek the advice of the classis.  The      supporters, must understand and em-             school to school as to which dominates.
former procedure would likely be cho-          brace this truth, and make it the touch-        First, it is driven by common grace,
sen if the next meeting of the classis were    stone of all their labors. If they do not,      when this theory includes the postulate
a long way off.  In that case the neigh-       the Christian school will go awry, and          that Christians may fellowship with the
boring consistories would meet with the        will either eventually collapse, or offer       ungodly. Soon this turns into a need to
consistory to hear the details of the case.    something other than Reformed, Chris-           join hands with unbelievers to improve
After this the two consistories whose ad-      tian education.                                 our world. This is essentially the social
vice was being sought would meet sepa-             The basis of Reformed, Christian            gospel preached in so many churches.
rately to formulate their advice.  In the      education is not world-flight, i.e., the de-        The second influence toward a ser-
event that the two consistories came           sire to separate our children from the          vice-oriented instruction is all forms of
with contradictory advice the matter           evils of society, the godless and immoral       post-millennialism. Since this imagines
would have to be resolved by the classis.      lives, the blasphemous language, the            a glorious kingdom of God here below
     The reconciliation of sinners who         drugs, etc. This is a proper and under-         before Christ returns, Christians are told
have been excommunicated is the sub-           standable desire, and increasingly so due       to get busy in this world, building the
ject of Article 78 of the Church Order         to the vile iniquity and the anti-Chris-        kingdom.
and will, D. V., be discussed in our next      tian instruction in the state schools; but          The final influence is the view that
article.    u                                  it is not the foundation of the Christian       the Christian must be busy christianizing
                                               school.
             Why                                                                               the world by reforming all areas of life,
                                                   Neither is it proper to view Chris-         as, for example, business, art, law, la-
                                               tian education as a mission work, either        bor, etc. This is the fruit of the AACS
                                               for children of believers or for children
Reformed,                                                                                      (Association for the Advancement of
                                               of unbelievers.  Some church members            Christian Scholarship), formed so many
                                               see their children as unconverted, and          years ago in Toronto, Canada, and now
                                               hope the school will bring them to faith.       having its headquarters in the Institute
                                               No doubt, sound Reformed instruction            for Christian Studies. This theory em-
                                               should strengthen and nourish the faith         phasizes training the student for "Chris-

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  That They May Teach Their Children                                                              Prof. Russell Dykstra



tian service."  This is not the proper goal or the basis for Christian schools.
     Christian schools are rather covenantal--in basis, principle, instruction, and practice. Historically this was true of Reformed,
Christian education, even if this has been lost (replaced) in many a school. Protestant Reformed schools are emphatically
covenantal.
     To understand this, we do well to review the main elements of the doctrine of the covenant.*  The covenant of grace is a
relationship of friendship and fellowship that God sovereignly establishes with His people in Christ. The covenant is not a



                                                continued generations. Genesis 17:7          with His people, He reveals Himself to
contract or a promise, nor an agreement         teaches this in so many words, when          them. This revelation is through Christ,
based on conditions fulfilled, but a rela-      God promises Abraham,  "And I will es-       who as the Word and the Mediator of
tionship.                                       tablish my covenant between me and thee      the covenant speaks even today through
     The nature of the covenant is de-          and thy seed after thee in their genera-     the preaching. God expects that His
termined by God Himself. This is based          tions for an everlasting covenant, to be     people will seek to grow in the knowl-
on the truth that God's ultimate pur-           a God unto thee, and to thy seed after       edge of Him.
pose is to glorify Himself, and that, by        thee."                                           Since God establishes His covenant
revealing Himself to the creature. Fur-             The Scriptures emphasize this in the     with children of believers, these children
ther, God would reveal Himself in all           history of the church. Genesis includes      also must know God. God, in His per-
His glory as the triune God, causing the        the record of the line of continued gen-     fect wisdom, has determined to gather
creature to know the glory of the life in       erations all the way from Adam to            His church in the line of continued gen-
the Trinity. Amazing to consider, God           Abraham, and beyond! Israel knew the         erations so that covenant children can
determined to cause man to know this            importance of this covenant. Not hav-        learn about God from their infancy. To
life by enfolding man in His own cov-           ing any children was an unspeakable          that end, God commands parents to
enant life of love and fellowship!              grief for believers because it meant that    teach their children His words--"And
     This glorious covenant God realizes        God was cutting them off in their gen-       thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
in Jesus Christ, the divinely appointed         erations.                                    children, and shalt talk of them when
Mediator of the covenant. God estab-                Since God established His covenant       thou sittest in thine house, and when
lishes His covenant. He determines ev-          with believers and their seed, this means    thou walkest by the way, and when thou
erything about this covenant, its char-         that children are in God's covenant. The     liest down, and when thou risest up"
acter, realization, and members.                Reformed believer confesses with the         (Deut. 6:7). Fathers are admonished to
     The covenant people are thus cho-          Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 27        "bring them up in the nurture and ad-
sen by God. The elect are eternally cho-        that infants, "as well as the adult, are     monition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). Chil-
sen in Christ and given Him by the Fa-          included in the covenant and church of       dren are admonished to "hear... the in-
ther. These favored ones are given to           God."                                        struction of a father, and attend to
know God through Jesus Christ. They                 In this context, then, the question      know understanding" (Prov. 4:1).
come to know, from experience, God's            must be faced, how is the covenant the           Failure of the Israelites to instruct
grace that delivers from sin, His mercy         basis of Christian education? The an-        their children in the days of the judges
that forgives, and His love that draws          swer: the very nature of the covenant        led to the horrible situation that "there
them into His fellowship. They come to          as a relationship of friendship and fel-     arose another generation after them,
know that they are adopted children of          lowship demands it. Friendship is based      which knew not the LORD, nor yet the
God and have the right to communion             on knowledge. Virtually no fellowship is     works which he had done for Israel"
with God and to His inheritance.                possible with a total stranger. Fellow-      (Jud. 2:10). The same neglect resulted in
     Of particular importance for us in         ship is based on mutual knowledge as         the cutting off of Eli's priestly line (I
this context of Christian education is the      well as on elements of life or character     Sam. 2, I Kings 2).
fact that God establishes His covenant          that the persons have in common. This            Believing parents take this covenant
with believers and their seed in the line of    is why the fellowship within the Trinity     obligation most seriously. They vow be-
                                                is so glorious--the three persons of the      fore God at baptism to give faithful in-
                                                Trinity are one essence! They have not       struction to their children. They are
Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church History    only perfect unity and harmony, but also     thrilled by the knowledge that in the way
and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed    perfect knowledge of each other.             of faithfulness God is pleased to gather
Seminary.                                           When God establishes His covenant        His church from their family. Take note

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of that. God gathers His church from            ents to band together to form schools--         plants and the animals--all of these are
the families of believers, not because of       parental schools--where their children can      included.  In other words, the whole
the faithful efforts of parents, yet in the     be taught all the subjects in the light of     sphere of earthly life is affected by them.
way of faithful obedience.                      God's Word. They ask the teachers to           The entire realm which forms the stage
    Believing parents carry this out to         do the work in the place of the parent.        for the development of the human race,
the best of their ability--faithfully in-        They bring their children to school with       both the seed of the woman and the seed
structing their children in the home, and       the demand, "Teach our covenant chil-          of the serpent, and which constitutes the
in and through catechism and the                dren as we, the parents, would, if we          stage of the history about to be unfolded
preaching. They are mindful of God's            could. Rear them in the fear of the Lord.      is affected by them.
command to instruct these children con-         Teach them history, reading, mathemat-             The reason for this lies in the fact
stantly--"when thou sittest in thine house,      ics, biology, literature, and all the rest,    that creation is one whole, an organism.
and when thou walkest by the way, and           in the light of the Bible. But above all,      Man was created originally at the head
when thou liest down, and when thou             and in all, teach them to love God and         of that organism, and all things earthly
risest up" (Deut. 6:7). But they face two       to keep His commandments. Teach them           were adapted to him.  This essential re-
problems in this regard. The first is that      to live as God's friend-servants in the        lationship does not change when sin en-
most fathers cannot be home any longer          midst of a hostile world."                     ters the world.  But the king becomes a
to give this constant instruction. Their            The covenant of God with believers         fallen king, a rebel and a usurper.  He
work carries them away from the home            and their demands this kind of instruc-        drags the entire earthly creation with
for much of the day, leaving the whole          tion.   u                                      him in his fall.  And thus all things,
burden on the mother. These mothers                                                            including all of the brute, irrational cre-
are well equipped to teach their daugh-                                                        ation, come under the dictum of these
ters the needed skills for running a            * It is not the time or the place for an       judgments of God.  Scripture points to
home. However, mothers are less quali-          extensive development of the doctrine          this elsewhere also.  This is pointed out,
fied to equip their sons for a life of la-      of the covenant. Interested readers are        for example, in Romans 8:20-22:  "For
boring in the world to support a family.        encouraged to consult Prof. H. Hanko's         the creature was made subject to van-
    The second problem is that a cer-           God's Everlasting Covenant of Grace, Rev.      ity, not willingly, but by reason of him
tain level of knowledge is needed to live       H. Hoeksema's Believers and their Seed, or     who hath subjected the same in hope,
as covenant people in the midst of this         a pamphlet by Prof. D. Engelsma en-            Because the creature itself also shall be
world. The people of God, though called         titled "The Covenant of God and the            delivered from the bondage of corrup-
to be not of this world, must nonethe-          Children of Believers."                        tion into the glorious liberty of the chil-
less live in this world. Christians are                                                        dren of God.  For we know that the whole
called to press into the service of God                       Chapter 8                        creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
everything they can legitimately use of                                                        together until now."
the knowledge gained and the technol-                          The                                 Further, we may note that the indi-
ogy developed by man. The body of                                                              vidual pronouncements of these judg-
knowledge, as well as the technical level,                                                     ments are characterized, in the first
has been continually increasing through          Setting of place, by sorrow.  Of this the world and
the centuries. The result is that many                                                         all of human existence is full.  There is
believing parents find themselves un-                                                          suffering in body and soul--pain, grief,
qualified to teach in all the areas of            the Stage broken hearts, trouble, tumult and con-
knowledge that their children should                                                           fusion, war, danger, fear, storms and
have.                                                                                          pestilence, floods and fire.  Secondly, all
    At the same time, believing parents         of History of human existence is characterized by
cannot in good conscience simply send                                                          vanity.  Not only is the creature subject
their children to the state schools for                                                        to special judgments and manifestations
this more technical knowledge. On the                  (cont.)                                 of the curse, but the bondage of corrup-
one hand, this runs contrary to the                                                            tion permeates all things, so that there
command of Deuteronomy 6 that par-              God's Temporal Judgments (cont.)               is an underlying vanity in every phase
ents must be teaching their children                                                           of existence.  There is toil, there is labor
God's words constantly. On the other            In this context we may try to dis-
                                                    cover  something  of  the  mean-           without fruit.  Things come and go, come
hand, parents realize that all instruc-             ing of each of those pronouncements        and go, like ever-rolling rivers.  Crea-
tion is either for Christ or against Christ.    of the Lord and its effect upon human          tures appear as shadows, as specters on
Public education legally may not be, and        existence.                                     the stage of life for a moment.  They
in reality is not, for Christ. It is there-         We may take note, first of all, of the     labor, they suffer, and they disappear.
fore anti-Christian instruction.                extent of those judgments.  They embrace       "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity, and
    The desire to be faithful to their          the entire earthly creation.  The woman,       vexation of spirit."  In the third place,
covenant obligations leads believing par-       the man, the ground, and with it the           there is death, the controlling factor in

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all of human existence, death which al-          are, who seem, at least on the surface of     not hang the cloud of death, stark, grim
ways casts its shadow over all.  Notice          things, to escape much of their effects.      death, and all that is connected with it?
how the Word of God here character-              Yet, when we consider the existence of        There is nothing but labor and vanity
izes that death and pictures the exist-          men in connection with the whole of hu-       for all!  That is:  for all except those
ence of mankind from now on:  "Dust              man existence, and when we view it            who have the victory in Christ Jesus our
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re-           from the view point of its end, then the      Lord!
turn."  Such is life:  nothing but a con-        only judgment that can be expressed is             In this connection, let us study the
tinual death--a coming from the dust and          that the very best of it is labor and sor-    separate sentences expressed by the
a returning to the dust, along with all          row.                                          Lord.
the suffering connected with this return.                In the second place, consider this         To the woman, God said, first of
    This is denied sometimes.  The claim         present existence in comparison with          all:  "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
is made that life is not all trouble and         Paradise.  You know, in a sense it can be     and thy conception."  Literally the text
sorrow.  Think, they say, of all the mu-         said that one becomes accustomed even         here reads:  "I will make very great thy
sic and the dancing, of all the real joy         to living in prison.  Well, such is the       sorrow and thy conception."  From this
and the pleasure which are to be found           existence of fallen man:  through all of      it is plain that the text does not presup-
in this present world.  It may be con-           this present time he is in the prison-        pose a sorrow before the fall which is
ceded, they will tell you, that life has its     house of death.  He is living in death-       now increased.  The text points to the
darker moments.  But it is not all dark          row, so to speak.  This is all he ever        sorrow of the woman in connection with
moments.  In fact, men try to say that           knows, and there in death-row he may          her bearing children.  In connection with
the outlook is even bright.  But let us          deceive himself that life can be some-        this it points to an increase in the re-
observe, first of all, that a man must be        what enjoyable.  But in it all he knows       productive capacity of the human race
a fool to entertain such a superficial           that death awaits him at the end and          after the fall.
view of things with any seriousness.  Re-        will surely swallow him up.                        The significance of this sorrow of
member that we must view things or-                      In the third place, we must never     child-bearing must be seen in the fact
ganically.  These judgments do not make          forget that in this vale of death ungodly     that it is a Word of God's wrath.  It is a
themselves felt alike in the existence of        men vainly attempt to cover up their          clear testimony that we bring forth chil-
every individual, nor in all the branches        troubles by a superficial cloak of joy and    dren of wrath unto death.  Nor is this
of the organism, nor equally at various          to drown their sorrows in drunken rev-        sorrow to be limited specifically to that
times in history.  Some individuals, there       elry.  But upon whose life does there         particular suffering and sorrow that is


  Day of Shadows                                                                                             Homer Hoeksema


connected with child-birth.  But although medical science may even succeed to alleviate the latter, it can never eliminate the
untold misery and grief that are the result of the fact that children are brought forth under the wrath of God.  For the believing
women of God's covenant, however, who bring forth their children with their eye of faith on the promise, this wrath and this
death and sorrow are overcome through the crushing of the head of the serpent by the Great Seed of the woman.  They are
saved in child-bearing (I Tim. 2:15) and bring forth their children in the blessed hope of eternal glory in the kingdom of our God
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
    It is not difficult to understand how all this affects history and affects the stage on which humanity is henceforth to
develop.  Think, for example, of the tremendous "population explosion" that there must have been in the age before the flood,
when in the space of some 1,600 years the world became ripe for judgment.  Think how this affects the development and growth



of civilization and culture.  Think how          shall appear finally in glory.                relation is now affected by the curse.
today our world is preoccupied with                      In the second place, the Lord pro-    The result is a ruling on the part of man
what is called the population explosion.         nounces this judgment upon the woman:         in pride and tyranny, and a subjection
But think, too, of the fact that this pro-       "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and      of the woman in spite of herself and in
nouncement of the Lord must serve to             he shall rule over thee."                     spite of her every effort toward the so-
bring forth the millions of saints that                  These words do not refer to the       called emancipation of woman, so that
                                                 original headship of the man and the          it is also impossible for her to escape
                                                 original subjection of the woman, for         the divine pronouncement concerning
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of         that was a subjection of love, rooted in      her great sorrow and conception.  Even
Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant    creation.  "For Adam was first formed,        though God makes great her sorrow and
Reformed Seminary.                               and then Eve" (I Tim. 2:13).  But this        her conception, her desire must needs

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be to her husband.                             come toil.  In the state of righteousness       fire, in which the very elements shall
     Again, it is not difficult to see how     he ate in order to work, that is, in order      melt with fervent heat.  That end shall
this drive, this urge, which is impelled       to serve God, so that his work was al-          be reached as soon as this creation shall
by the divine pronouncement of judg-           ways pure delight.  After the fall, man         have served its purpose according to
ment both with respect to the desire of        must work in order to eat.  Moreover,           God's counsel.  When it has fully served
the woman and the rule of the husband,         that work has become hard toil, drudg-          its purpose as the stage for the develop-
deeply affects all of human existence,         ery:  he can eat only in the sweat of his       ment of the fallen human race, dead in
and frequently in a very overt way.  It        face.  Even when the individual appar-          sin, from death unto death, and when it
would not be difficult even to point this      ently succeeds to a degree in escaping          has fully served its purpose also as the
out in detail.                                 the physical exertion and exhaustion of         stage for the revelation of the wonder
     But again we must also note that          that toil, he does not really succeed.  For     of grace, intervening unto salvation,
the only real freedom from the wrath of        all man's labor, in a very real sense, is       then it shall be destroyed.
God in this connection is by grace and         performed in the sphere of vanity.  For             Every attempt of man to stem the
in Christ Jesus our Lord.  It is only in       death hems man in on every side.  The           tide is absolutely in vain.  To repair this
Christ that the mutual relation of the         very creation in which he exists is also        world, to remove suffering, to make this
man and the woman is put in the sphere         subject to vanity.  Man is never really         a good world to live in--that is all in vain.
of true liberty, wherein the woman's           able to accomplish anything.  He works          The evolutionary philosophy makes a
adornment is that of a meek and quiet          and eats and drinks unto his own death.         terrible mistake when it looks on the
spirit, wherein she is not afraid with any     The vain expression of this very reality        world as normally developing from lower
amazement in her subjection to her hus-        is finally pressed from his own soul in         to higher, from good to better to best.
band, and wherein the man dwells with          wicked self-condemning testimony:  "Let         This world is abnormally developing un-
his wife according to knowledge, giving        us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."         der the curse, going deeper and deeper
honor unto her as to the weaker vessel,        Everywhere, not only in the soil as such        into corruption and death, to the very
and wherein husband and wife dwell to-         but also in all the earthly creation in         end.  God has spoken!  Shall puny man
gether as joint-heirs of the grace of life     which he moves and develops, is the op-         remove His Word?  Vanity of vanities!
(I Pet. 3:1-7).                                eration of the curse.  He can never es-             Yet there is victory.  God has re-
     To the man God speaks as follows          cape it, nor, in spite of all his boasts to     moved that curse as far as the seed of
(and let us note, by the way, that in the      the contrary, can he ever overcome it,          the woman is concerned in Christ Jesus.
case both of the woman and of the man          even though he may boast of someday             This He announced by way of promise
their judgment is closely associated with      conquering the power of physical death.         in the beginning.  He announced victory
their peculiar sin):  "Cursed is the           For that latter reality, in the third place,    through the crushing of the head of the
ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt           is the end for him.  It is no merely natu-      serpent.    That  victory  cannot  be
thou eat of it all the days of thy life;       ral process.  Nor is it a mere formal sepa-     achieved by stepping on the serpent's
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring        ration of soul and body.  It is that op-        tail.  His head must be crushed.  Christ,
forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb     eration of the curse in his entire earthly      through the satisfying of the righteous-
of the field.  In the sweat of thy face        nature and existence which results in           ness of God, crushes his head and
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return         the total corruption, dissolution, and          achieves the victory.  Moreover, that vic-
unto the ground; for out of it wast thou       destruction of that earthly existence.  He      tory is wrought on the plane and the
taken:  dust thou art, and unto dust           returns unto the dust, and his place            stage of this present earth and its exist-
shalt thou return."                            knows him no more.                              ence.  Hence, the pain and the sorrow
     There are several elements to be              Nor is there any way out, except by         of this present time remain, but by faith
considered here.                               the power of grace and in Christ Jesus.         the woman in sorrow brings forth chil-
     In the first place, there is the curse    It is only by the favor of God that man         dren of heaven, and with Mary, the
upon the ground, the very source of            can ever be exalted above the ground            blessed among women, she is blessed.
man's existence and sustenance.  This          from which he was taken again.                  Man labors and toils still, but by faith
curse entails that the earth brings forth          What is the end of it all?                  all his labor is subservient to the eternal
thorns and thistles, representative of all         This power of the curse will con-           glory.  Death still comes, but for the seed
noxious weeds and pests which make it          tinue and increase, and that, too, in           of the woman it has been transformed
incumbent upon man to wrestle a living         spite of all human efforts to overcome          into a passage to life.  In the midst of
from the ground.  It entails, secondly,        it.  There are always new manifestations        this present existence, with all that be-
that man shall labor with great toil, in       of it and an increase in the force and          longs to it through God's temporal judg-
the sweat of his face, and in sorrow.          effect of that curse, even as sin devel-        ments, in the light of the promise the
The cursed earth produces corruption           ops and as the full fruits of the first,        seed of the woman lives in the hope and
for man's corruptible body, and in the         root sin come to manifestation.  The end        the assurance that presently all things
sphere of corruption he eats and drinks        of it is catastrophe.  Even as man re-          shall be made new and shall be deliv-
unto death.  Man's labor under the judg-       turns to the dust, so the end of the natu-      ered.  Adam glimpsed this afar off.  In
ment of God after the fall is indeed be-       ral, this present creation, is universal        faith and hope he named his wife Eve,

324/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


that is, the mother of all living.                    costs, is willing to let the body of Christ         tion," Schmidt said.  "They're looking
                          to be continued...  u         come together.  It isn't for the faint-             for ways to help people take seriously
                                                      hearted."                                           their journey with God."
s      "Promise Keepers                                 The reason there isn't a Catholic                   He's found people increasingly com-
Woos Catholics"                                       men's group filling stadiums around the             fortable  with  wearing  the  ashes
W                                                     country "is because God wants us to-                throughout the day.
              e continue to read much con-            gether," he suggested.                                "It's almost like the `What Would
              cerning the "Promise Keepers."            Archbishop Charles Chaput, who                    Jesus Do' bracelets," Schmidt said.
Recently this organization has decided                embraced McCartney as he came off the               "This is the deeper tradition than the
that there will be no more charge for                 stage, had said in an interview before              bracelets, a testimony not just to the
attending meetings.  The organization                 McCartney's talk that he viewed Prom-               world but also to yourself."
will continue in "faith" that God will pro-           ise Keepers as another evangelical
vide what they need.  Bill McCartney                  movement trying to bring people closer
has asked that each individual church                 to Christ, and it should be encouraged....       s      "W.W.J.D.?"
in the United States contribute $1000 to-                                                            The above article refers to brace-
wards this "ministry."                           s      Protestants Adopt Traditions                        lets with the letters "W.W.J.D." on
       Despite its obvious slant towards         of Ash Wednesday                                    them.  The abbreviation stands for:
Pentecostalism and its increasingly open         A Grand Rapids MI reader sent "What Would Jesus Do?"  There's some-
embrace of Roman Catholicism, many                        in an article appearing in the             thing striking about that.  Young people
find nothing wrong with the organiza-            Grand Rapids Press. The report indicates            especially are wearing such bracelets.
tion.  Does it not promote the good of           the growing trend to adopt increasingly             Surely when confronting the many temp-
family life?  (But then, so does Mormon-         the Roman Catholic practices.  It is a              tations in this world, the question might
ism in its advertisements!)  Does not the        further "breaking down the walls," which            well be asked.  Years ago there was the
organization emphasize that fathers              is the goal also of Promise Keepers.                question asked, "Would you take Jesus
must be proper "promise-keepers"?                                                                    with you?"  It is a sobering question.
       Its agenda, however, becomes in-                 Cornelius Plantinga remembers a                     But what must always be remem-
                                                      time when people in the Christian Re-
creasingly clear.  The goal is to break                                                              bered is that we need far more than a
                                                      formed Church never observed Ash
down the walls which divide Protestants--              Wednesday by having ashes rubbed on            bracelet to remind us what Jesus would
and Protestants from Roman Catholics.                 their foreheads.                               do.  Too often subjective judgments are
In the Denver Post, March 3, 1998, an                   Today, most of the 550 Calvin College        made.  Individuals tell themselves,
article appears with the title, "McCartney            students who gathered in the campus            "Surely Jesus would join me in doing this
preaches togetherness in meeting at John              chapel received the ashes as a witness         if He were here."  But did they check His
Paul II Center."                                      to their faith.                                Book?  We must not do what we think
                                                        Mainstream Protestants' increasing           Jesus might do, but we are to search
       Bill McCartney and his Promise                 embrace of this traditionally Catholic         Scripture to find out for sure what He
     Keepers were embraced by the Denver              ritual is a healthy sign, said Plantinga,      requires.
     Catholic Archdiocese Monday night at             who presided over the chapel service.
                                                        "In the past when there was more an-                An article in the Rocky Mountain
     a gathering of more than 250 men, and a                                                         News, January 26, 1998, stated,
     handful of women, at the John Paul II            tagonism between Catholics and Prot-
     Center in south Denver.                          estants, we tended to avoid deep old
                                                                                                            If Jesus Christ were preaching on
       In his first address to a group of             things of the Catholic Church that had
                                                                                                          Earth today, he would have been where
     Catholic men, McCartney--former foot-             real value," said Plantinga, dean of the
                                                      chapel at Calvin.  "We are rediscover-              you probably were Sunday afternoon--
     ball coach at the University of Colorado                                                             at a Super Bowl party.
     and founder of the Denver based evan-            ing them."
                                                                                                            "(swear word eliminated), Jesus
     gelical Christian men's organization--              Many area Protestant churches as
                                                                                                          would have thrown a Super bowl party,"
     told the gathering that one of the great         well as Catholic parishes began the
                                                                                                          says Chuck Wilkes, the amiable pastor
     things about sports is that if you love          Lenten journey today with somber ser-
                                                      vices symbolizing the beginning of                  of Highlands Ranch Community Fel-
     sports, it doesn't make any difference                                                               lowship: "And whatever conversation
     what denomination you are, "they'll let          Christ's journey to the cross.  Falling
                                                                                                          came  up during  the  game,  Jesus
     you in."                                         46 days before Easter, Ash Wednesday
                                                                                                          would've thrown in a gospel message."
       "It has become clear to me what God            is a day of repentance and a reminder
                                                                                                            Like a good servant, Wilkes and his
     has in mind" for Promise Keepers,                of human mortality.
                                                        At Zeeland's Second Reformed                      wife, Mitzi, threw the party in their
     McCartney said.                                                                                      master's name.  They opened the doors
       The answer, he said, was found in              Church, members were offered the im-
                                                                                                          of their gracious Highlands Ranch
     the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are            position of ashes every hour beginning
                                                                                                          home, which doubles as the church's
     the peacekeepers, for they are the sons          at 6 A.M.  The Rev. John Schmidt began
                                                                                                          parsonage.  Their guests were members
     of God."  A peace-maker is one who               the practice four years ago as an invita-
                                                      tion for "people to take their spiritual            of a growing, 70-member congregation,
     brings warring factions together, he                                                                 part of the 1.2 million-member Church
     said.                                            life seriously."
                                                                                                          of the Nazarene....
       "A peacemaker is one who, at all                 "Protestant churches (are) recovering
                                                      a deep sense of spirituality and tradi-               Winning souls at a Super Bowl gala?

                                                                                                             April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/325


  The prospect might have made the more                                                               with Flinn, communicating his view
  proper founding members of the 90-            s      "Adultery: The Next                            that the idea of punishing adulterous
  year-old church blanch....                      Moral Domino to Fall?"                                behavior is a leftover relic from the era
     ...Wilkes is also a practicing civil law-                                                          of witch trials in Salem....
  yer, part of a trend of pastors who came      Cal Thomas, Los Angeles Times
                                                        Syndicate writer, makes some                    Rushing to keep pace with the cultural
  late to the ministry....                                                                              decline are at least 40 member churches
     In short, the old 19th-century rules of    pointed comments about adultery in an                 of the Presbyterian Church (USA),
  what makes a church tick don't apply.         article appearing also in the Loveland                which last week signed a "covenant of
  Says Wilkes: "The successful pastor of        Reporter-Herald:                                      dissent" signaling their noncooperation
  the 21st century will know how to                                                                   with the denominations "fidelity and
  preach a 2,000-year-old message in a                 Following the "normalization" of pre-          chastity" law.  That law, to be adopted
  way 21st-century people can under-                 marital sex, divorce and homosexual-             this spring, requires church leaders not
  stand."                                            ity, I have been wondering when and              to engage in sex outside of a male-fe-
     Sunday, so they did.                            which of the few remaining dominoes              male marriage bond.  If some churches
                                                     dealing with personal morals would               start going wobbly on a central biblical
     So: is that what Jesus would do?  I             fall.  It appears the next to go will be         teaching, what are the rest of us to
would rather think that His address to               adultery.                                        think?
the Pharisees of His day would be                      Several press reports indicate the               Psychiatrist and family therapist
equally appropriate for those of our day             adultery domino is already teetering.            Frank Pittman has written about adul-
                                                     The Air Force brought several charges,           tery, calling it the "primary disrupter of
who would desecrate the Sabbath day                  including adultery, against Lt. Kelly            families, the most dreaded and devas-
in His name.  And may all those who                  Flinn, the first female B-52 bomber pi-          tating experience in marriage.  It is the
truly ask, "W.W.J.D.?", turn first to Scrip-         lot.  Flinn admits to an affair with a mar-      most universally accepted justification
ture to find out for sure.                           ried man....  CBS's Morley Safer rolled            for divorce.  It is even a legally accepted
                                                     his eyes during a "60 Minutes" interview         justification for murder in some states


  All Around Us                                                                                             Rev. Gise VanBaren

                                                     That is why it is incorrect to assert that     church to bring the gospel to the lost.
  and many societies."                               a politician, or anyone else, can be one       The same Spirit used the Reformation to
     Indeed, the author of the Mosaic code           person in his or her "public life" and an-     liberate the saints so that they could
  deduced from the Seventh Command-                  other person in private.                       properly and enthusiastically bring the
  ment prohibiting adultery that people                ...It won't be long before adultery is
  who committed it were to be stoned.                                                               gospel to all nations.
                                                     taught in our public schools as "nor-
  Jesus said of the woman allegedly taken            mal," "human," and even beneficial.                This applies in two ways.
  in adultery (which looked like a setup                                                                The Reformation gave back the mes-
  to entrap Him) that she should "go and               The man surely speaks the truth.             sage to the church.  Not that it was en-
  sin no more."                                 But is anyone listening?   u                        tirely gone.  Rather, it was obfuscated
     Adultery is about breaking an agree-                                                           by an apostate church.  God's work in
  ment--to forsake all others until death                                                            the heart and life of men like Luther,
  parts the agreers.  That some high-pro-               Mission                                     Calvin, and others so affected them that
  file people ... engage in adultery does not                                                         they once again had good news to speak.
  repeal the law given for our individual
  and corporate benefit.                        Enthusiasm-- Freed from the shackles of work-righ-
     Why do we treat perhaps this most                                                              teousness, they could enthusiastically
  sacred of human contracts in such a                                                               declare to the nations that there is sal-
  cavalier manner?  Today, adultery is                            Our                               vation in none other name than that of
  largely regarded as less offensive than                                                           Jesus.  Salvation in Christ is God's work
  a politician's broken promise.  The                                                               from eternity to eternity.  Such a work
  breaking of a business contract is more                                                           was planned in the eternal counsel of
  universally condemned than the viola-                  Solemn                                     God, grounded in the perfect work of
  tion of a marriage contract.  Yet, the                                                            the Lord Jesus, and now declared and
  consequences to a society which low-
  ers its standards for such things is bro-                       Duty                              applied to the hearts of men through
  ken homes, broken children and, ulti-                                                             the sovereign grace of God.  Men every-
  mately, broken society.                                                                           where were commanded to repent and
     Infidelity is primarily about lying.
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant       God did great things for the
                                                            spread  of  the  gospel                 believe in this God.
                                                            through the seventeenth cen-                Personally, I am so thankful that
                                                tury Reformation.  From Pentecost on-               this is the same word which we can
Reformed  Church  of  Loveland, Colorado.       ward, the Holy Spirit has moved the                 preach to the nations today.  The gospel
                                                                                                    as taught in the Holy Bible, so beauti-

326/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


fully summarized in our Reformed con-           sion enthusiasm will be silenced and cur-      generated where we live.  It is the easi-
fessions, and taught by the Protestant          tailed.  In this brief article I will say a    est thing in the world to love the neigh-
Reformed Churches and the Evangelical           few things about this twofold duty.            bor who lives on the opposite side of
Reformed Churches of Singapore, is a                                                           the earth from us, and to send a mis-
wonderful word.  In no way does it              The Duty to Preach                             sionary off to bring the gospel to him.
hinder mission work.  Those in whom                 The great commission has been ex-          It is much more demanding and mean-
the Spirit works respond with thankful          pounded among us many times (Matt.             ingful to love the lost neighbor next door
hearts wherever we preach.  We have             28:18-20).  The purpose of my article is       and obey Christ's command to make him
had opportunity to bring the word in            not mission theory, but to generate mis-       a disciple by teaching and baptism.
Singapore, in India, in Myanmar, and            sion enthusiasm.  The duty assigned by             The church, however, must do more
in the Philippines.  We can truly shout,        our Lord and Master to the church is to        than that.  The church must go out to
Hallelujah!  there are those everywhere         make disciples.  Our KJV translates            the nations.  When the apostle Paul car-
who love the good news of salvation as          "make disciples" as "teach."  Jesus ex-        ried out this great commission he began
summarized in the Reformed faith.  God          plains that making disciples is done by        in Jerusalem, traveled to Antioch, and
gave this to us through the Reforma-            "teaching them to observe all things           from thence to the world.  If you stop to
tion.                                           whatsoever I have commanded you" and           think of this, it is rather instructive how
    The same Reformation also gave to           "to baptize them."   These disciples are       the church at Antioch placed such pri-
the church the messengers!  Good news           to be from "all nations."    We can de-        ority upon the "go ye therefore" when
which is not heralded is constricted.           bate whether this means countries or           they sent Paul and Barnabas on their
Such was the case prior to the Reforma-         people groups, but such debate to me is        journey.  The church of Antioch was a
tion.  Both the clergy and the people           useless.  As long as there is one disciple     young, newly organized church.  They
were bound to silly practices and clubbed       to be made from any country under              must have lacked much in this great
to spiritual death with the constant bar-       heaven, the great commission stands as         work.  Yet they did not hesitate to send
rage to do more penance, work harder            it is, a solemn duty to make disciples.        Paul, who must have been the most
for their salvation, appease an angry           The object of this activity is one who is      qualified and needed man in the con-
God.  What a change came over the               not a disciple, one who is lost in sin.        gregation.  If we see missions as obedi-
church when all the members of the              "Go ye therefore" indicates to us that, if     ence to duty, we do not put it at the
church were not only told that they were        disciples are going to be made from all        bottom of our list of things we do as a
free from such burdens, but also given          nations, the church has to send some-          church.  Our local congregations have
the mandate once more to preach this            one away from his home to travel to            many responsibilities; our parents must
gospel and bring it to the nations.  This       another place.  This is the particular         operate Christian schools; our denomi-
was true because the Reformed churches          duty of missionaries, as the Form of Or-       nation has much work to do.  It is all
instructed their members that they all          dination of Missionaries in the back of        wonderful work of the Lord.  But mis-
were officebearers in Christ's church.          our Psalter explains.                          sions must never be viewed as some-
They were not, and are not now, all alike           Let me interject briefly at this point     thing we can do if other things are done
in their office, but they are all in office.    that the duty of the local pastor is af-       first.  No duty may ever be approached
Christ gave to the church the special           fected by this commission as well.  It is      in that fashion.  We all have the duty to
offices, among which is that of minister        clearly biblical that the pastor of an es-     train up our children, and other duties
of the Word.  The Reformation equipped          tablished congregation functions as a          often impinge on that.  Yet, we may
pastors and motivated them to go and            shepherd of the flock.  Most of his work       never say to God, "Sorry, other duties
preach the gospel.  Think of Calvin's           is to nurture and build up the church          demanded our time, so we didn't get
school in Geneva.  What an influence to         of God.  When Christ gave this "com-           around to training our children."  A
spread the Reformed faith!  Christ also         mission" to the church, He did not mean        duty is a duty, no matter what.  Mis-
gave to the church the common office            that no concern had to be shown to the         sion work is a duty that may never be
which every saint possesses, the office         lost at home.  They must be "discipled"        neglected.
of believer.  In this capacity of believer,     on the basis of our love for the neighbor          We have to prioritize properly in
we all have the commission to witness.          who crosses our path.  Those who are           order to do what God requires of us.
When Christ instructed the church to            lost in sin around us serve as the ulti-       The same applies to mission work which
go and make disciples of all nations, He        mate test of our love of the Lord Jesus        we do together as churches.  This re-
gave that great commission to the en-           Himself.  This is very crucial for mis-        lates to manpower, funds, time, and all
tire church, so that every member must          sion enthusiasm for the lost.  We pas-         the rest.  I don't think God is much im-
face this calling as a solemn duty before       tors must develop a real sensitivity for       pressed if we try to reason among us
God.  Pastors and missionaries must             this and act as examples to the flock.         that we can't afford to send missionar-
make disciples by preaching and bap-            Unless there is obedience to make dis-         ies to other countries while we sit in our
tism; members are involved in making            ciples of the lost in our own hometown,        beautiful churches with plush pews, en-
disciples by witnessing.                        there will be little or no obedience to        joy exhilarating organ music, and have
    Unless we understand this, our mis-         "Go."   The burden and enthusiasm is           good preaching every Sunday.  I wish

                                                                                                    April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/327


all of you could visit in the homes of the        which is made up of fellow believers           measure that we are faithful in our duty
poor, or join them in their hovels of wor-        from every nation on the earth?                in missions, we also experience the joy
ship, and then look into the face of God              As we fulfill our duty as churches         of the Lord.   Nothing can compare to
and say, we cannot afford missions.  I            we experience joy! One aspect of this joy      the joy that comes in making a disciple
don't think you would sleep well at               is doing mission work.  Personally, my         as Jesus has commanded.  We parents
night.  God doesn't even ask of us to             wife and I are much encouraged by the          experience something of it when we see
give up any of these luxuries.  He just           response of our people to the work we          our children walk in the fear of the Lord.
requires of us a heart that cares!  Out of        and the ERCS are doing here.  I hope it        What joy that is! Similarly, when we see
that care for the lost, more missionary           will increase, for it is only the beginning    one who has been born of the Spirit
families will arise out of the churches.          of so much more work that can be done,         leave behind a life of heathen supersti-
As congregation we will give up our               if the Lord should so will.  Stop and          tion and unbelief and cast himself on
pastor for this work because we value             think, obedience generates joy.  It does       God and His Son, the whole church re-
it.  And yes, if necessary, we may have           in your personal life.  Every parent           joices.  Our baptism services are the
to live a notch lower on the economic             knows what it means in the family situ-        highlight of the year.  This is the goal of
level to contribute to the work.  Haven't         ation.  Do what God wants you to do            missions.  Jesus said, "Make disciples!"
we all done this for our family?  Why             and you will have a real sense of fulfill-
not then do it for the family of God,             ment under the blessing of God.  In the        Duty to Witness
                                                                                                     How thankful we all must be that
                                                                                                 our churches have properly emphasized
  Go Ye Into All the World                                                                             Rev. Jason Kortering


the preaching of the gospel as the way to do mission work.  We all know Romans 10 and we can all understand the need for
Antioch to lay hands on Paul and Barnabas and send them.
     Independent and individual evangelism is a hindrance to the gospel.  The charismatic movement has many sins to account
of before God, and this includes missions as well.  Just last June we had opportunity to sit down at the breakfast table with a
group of them who went to Myanmar from the USA "to pray for salvation of Burmese people."   One gave an account of how the


                                                  of this may very well be reactionary to        Acts 18:26).  Think of the Lord Jesus
Holy Spirit indicated to him that he had          the abuse of almost everyone around us.        Himself as He labored with the Samari-
to climb up a rather high mountain, on            This is understandable and shows care          tan woman as recorded in John 4.  To
top of which was a Buddhist temple, in            for faithful obedience to the gospel man-      me this is a beautiful example of the re-
order to "dispel the devils out of their          date.  Yet, as we go along, we must not        lationship between preaching (Jesus) and
stronghold."   His account was punctu-            stay out of balance.  The church can           witnessing (the Samaritan woman).  She
ated with hair-raising details and, of            never do her work of the Lord by em-           brought to Jesus many from the city who
course, heroic results.  Even my attempt          phasizing preaching at the expense of          responded as recorded in John 4:42,
to put some of this in perspective was            witnessing.  This is particularly crucial      "Now we believe, not because of thy say-
resisted as "against God."   These well-          for outreach ministry, both in the local       ing; for we have heard him ourselves
meaning people think missions can be              congregation and on the mission field.         and know that this is indeed the Christ,
done apart from the preaching of the                  Again, I do not want to spend time         the Savior of the world." If we question
gospel.  They come and go, and then               demonstrating this to be true.  I rather       how Reformed this is, we all know the
what? The devils return, I suspect.               want simply to emphasize it in order to        beautiful expression in our beloved
Never do we want to discredit prayer              generate mission enthusiasm.  Let me           Heidelberg Catechism, as our fathers ex-
and its importance for missions, for              just make brief mention of Acts 8:4,           plain the prophetic office of every Chris-
without it all our labors are in vain.  Yet       "Therefore they that were scattered            tian:  one of the purposes of being
prayer, apart from God's ordained way             abroad went everywhere preaching the           anointed by the Holy Spirit is "that I
of salvation, is futile.                          Word."   Yes, this included preachers,         may confess His name and present my
     It seems to me that our emphasis             but the verse can never be completely          body as a living sacrifice of thankful-
as churches has been so much on                   appreciated without accepting the his-         ness to Him" (A. 32).  As a result of this
preaching that we have neglected the              torical evidence that it included many         we are able to walk in good works, one
other aspect of duty, that of all our             converts who assisted them in witness-         purpose of which is, "by our godly con-
members in the office of believers.  Some         ing of the gospel to many people, wher-        versation others may be gained to
                                                  ever they went.  The Book of Acts shows        Christ" (A. 86).  This I call witnessing.
                                                  how helpful, non-ordained people as-               Such activity God expects, and as
                                                  sisted Paul in the spread of the gospel        we perform it, it functions as an indis-
Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed minis-
ter-on-loan to Singapore.                         by their faithful witness to others (see       pensable support for the preaching of

328/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


the gospel.  Every member of the local        said to my members is, "I will help you
congregation, every Christian, carries        continue your work.  No one can take               The Covenant of
love of the neighbor in his heart.  The       your place at this crucial point of con-
love of the neighbor motivates him to         tact."  Here in Singapore members have
carry a burden for his spiritual condi-       one-to-one Bible studies with those who                   Marriage
tion.  It grieves us much to see a fellow     show some interest.  Sometimes they or-
human being making a mess out of his          ganize a "BS" (Bible Study) at work dur-                         2.
life, hurting himself and his neighbors,      ing noon break and use the time to dis-
and, in the process of such sin, living       cuss spiritual things.  The point is, one-
on the slippery slope of destruction as       to-one sharing of the gospel is crucial in         Courtship
described in Psalm 73.  The love of God       the early phases of witnessing.
makes us care.                                        Thirdly, when some degree of trust
    This produces action in at least          has been established, they invite the in-         Within the
three ways.                                   quirer to a gospel meeting or Bible Study
    First, there is the need to try to        in the church to acquaint them with the
reach out to such a neighbor.  I recall       church in a more informal setting.                  Covenant
that, when I first came to Singapore, I       Sometimes they are ready for worship,
preached a sermon on I John 2:15-17           but to most non-Christians the worship
and  emphasized  the  antithesis  so          service is a bit intimidating.  Ultimately,                  (cont.)
strongly that a sister came to me after-      the goal is to get the interested person
wards and shared with me her frustra-         to come to church and hear the preach-
tion at that sermon.  I understand much       ing of the gospel and to worship.  Even        Where to Search for a Spouse
better now what she was driving at.           then, when they show up, the members
There is no contradiction between lov-        of the church must show genuine inter-         Jack had been wandering the
                                                                                                 aisles of a large hardware store
ing the neighbor and "not loving the          est in them, sit next to them, help them           for about a half hour before being
world," as described in John's epistle.  A    find the Bible text, find the songs in the     approached by a store assistant.  When
careful distinction must be maintained.       book, and afterwards sit down with             asked if he needed help, Jack explained
We must not have friendships with the         them to discuss what they have heard.          that his teacher in school had instructed
world that will deny our witness and          When the person is ready, he is taken          the class to purchase a book on ancient
corrupt our souls.  Our avoidance of          into a membership class for formal train-      history.  He had been looking for that
such friendships, however, must not           ing.                                           book for some time now but could not
separate us from the world so far that                We do tracting.  It is used by God     seem to find it.  The assistant stood there
we do not have opportunity to witness         in a very limited way.  Never is tracting      with his mouth open.
to them.  Any effective witness to our        done by just inserting some literature in          "Um, sir," the assistant finally re-
lost neighbor necessitates contact with       a mail box.  This is generally useless.        plied, holding back a hearty laugh, "this
him which can be interpreted as genu-         Rather, material must be given at the          is a hardware store.  You cannot find a
ine concern.  This takes much effort, to      door and a brief conversation engaged          book on history in a hardware store.
build bridges with the non-Christian so       in to be followed up later.  God did use       You are looking in the wrong place.  You
that witness can be effective.  Much          this lately at CERC when contact was           must find a store that sells books."
grace and wisdom is needed in this re-        made with a 91-year-old lady who has               Only a bit embarrassed, Jack did not
gards.                                        now been baptized in Christ, a great           dwell on how foolish he was to look for
    Second, when such contact is estab-       thrill for the church.  Most of the time       a book in a store that sells tools.  In-
lished, the Christian must know how to        members come to the church and to faith        stead, he quickly drove over to the
speak of the gospel and share faith.  No      in Christ by being personally worked           nearby grocery store, where he had spied
one can do this better than the person        with by the members.                           a small rack of books while shopping
who has made the contact.  I learned                  This makes clear the twofold duty.     one time with his mother.  Five times he
here in Singapore that I made mistakes        Witnessing serves the preaching.  The          now went over this rack of books.  Nope,
in this connection when pastoring in the      two must not be confused.  Neither must        there was no book on ancient history
States.  More than once, members would        they be neglected.  They go together as        here either.  This time Jack grabbed the
come to me and tell me that they had          Christ's way to make disciples.                arm of a passing clerk and asked where
witnessed to certain individuals at work,             May God give us enthusiasm for         he might find a book on ancient history.
and then they would ask that I take up        this important work we call "outreach."            This clerk was not as nice as the
the work.  I kindheartedly agreed, and        u                                              hardware assistant.  "Are you some kind
in most instances it was ineffectual.                                                        of a nut or something?" the young clerk
Most of the time they never wanted to                                                        retorted sharply.  "You are not going to
meet with me.  My being a "preacher"                                                         find a history book on a rack that stocks
scared them away.  What I should have                                                        only love novels and science fiction!  Go

                                                                                                  April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/329


to a book store!"                             personality, rather than whether these          The young women of the church were
    Once more Jack jumped into his car        men loved and feared God.                       also given permission by their parents
and this time drove to the Barnes &               We read of the result of such mar-          to marry unbelieving husbands.  The re-
Nobles Booksellers about a block away         riages in verses 4 and 5 of Genesis 6:  "...      sult?  The nation of Israel forgot Jeho-
from his house.  It did not take long,        when the sons of God came in unto the           vah, ignored the covenant relationship
then, to find the book that his teacher       daughters of men and they bare chil-            in which they stood with Him, and
told him to purchase.  On his way home        dren to them, the same became mighty            turned to worshiping the idols of the
Jack lamented, "I flew all over town          men which were of old, men of renown.           wicked.
searching for a book that was almost in       And God saw that the wickedness of                  The New Testament sets forth for
my back yard!"                                man was great in the earth, and that            God's people today an underlying prin-
    Jack was obviously foolish!  Who          every imagination of the thoughts of his        ciple that must govern where we are to
could be so ignorant as to look for a         heart was only evil continually."  From         search for a wife or a husband.  It is
book in a hardware store?  Who could          these unions there came forth men of            laid out for us in the clearest of terms
be so lacking in common sense as to           great renown in the earth.  Their chil-         in II Corinthians 6:14-18.
search for a history book in a grocery        dren were mighty, famous in the stan-
store?  It is true!  Who could be so fool-    dards of this world.  But, from a spiri-          Be ye not unequally yoked together with
ish as this?  Yet, how often in my own        tual point of view, "every imagination            unbelievers:  for what fellowship hath
ministry have I observed the foolishness      of the thoughts of his heart was only             righteousness with unrighteousness?
of young people who sneak out on dates        evil continually."  The true church of            and what communion hath light with
                                                                                                darkness? and what concord hath Christ
with unbelieving young men and women          God in this world dwindled, until just            with Belial? or what part hath he that
of this wicked world.  Never would they       prior to the Flood there were only eight          believeth with an infidel? and what
be so foolish as to search for a book in a    souls who remained faithful to God.               agreement hath the temple of God with
hardware store.  But they would be so             A similar phenomenon took place               idols? for ye are the temple of the liv-
foolish as to search for a life's mate in     after the nation of Israel was given the          ing God; as God hath said, I will dwell
the wicked, unbelieving world!  The con-      land of Canaan.  It was during the time           in them, and walk in them; and I will be
sequences of the latter are far more dev-     of the judges, a time during which the            their God, and they shall be my people.
astating than the former.                     spirituality of this nation was at a very         Wherefore come out from among them
    Everywhere the Scripture is clear:        low ebb.  During this period the people           and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and
                                                                                                touch not the unclean thing:  and I will
we may not date the unbeliever!  We           of Israel did that which was right in             receive you, and will be a Father unto
learn in Genesis 6 of the demise of the       their own eyes.  They forgot God and              you, and ye shall be my sons and
covenant line prior to the Flood.  In         what He had done for them in the wil-             daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
verses 1 and 2 we are told how this hap-      derness, and they served the gods of the
pened:  "And it came to pass, when men        heathen around them.  How did this              Implied in these Scriptures is the fact
began to multiply on the face of the          happen?  We read in Judges 3:5-7:               that we do not search for a marriage
earth, and daughters were born unto                                                           partner among unbelieving and worldly
them, that the sons of God saw the              And the children of Israel dwelt among        people.  That is like looking for a book
daughters of men that they were fair:           the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites,       in a hardware store!  It is like looking
and they took them wives of all which           and  Perizzites,  and  Hivites,  and          for a piece of candy in a dung pile!  Par-
they chose."  This scene is not foreign to      Jebusites:  and they took their daugh-        ents may not allow their children to date
us.  Young men of the church (sons of           ters to be their wives, and gave their
                                                daughters to their sons, and served their     in the wicked world.  Neither must
God) looked upon the outward beauty,            gods.  And the children of Israel did evil    young men and women of the church
the sweet personality of wicked, unbe-          in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the      even desire to look in the unbelieving
lieving women (daughters of men).               Lord their God, and served Baalim and         world for a spouse.  That is utter fool-
These young men were so spiritually             the groves.                                   ishness!
shallow that they looked no deeper than                                                           How can we who are spiritual ig-
mere externals.  Because of this, they        The children of Israel did not destroy          nore the disastrous effects this has upon
saw no reason that they could not             all the wicked nations as God had com-          God's covenant with us?  God has called
marry these women and bring them into         manded them.  Instead they "dwelt               us out of the darkness of unbelief and
the church with them.  Although the           among" them.  That does not mean that           sin.  He has made us righteous in the
young women of the church at that time        Israel simply lived in the midst of these       blood of Christ.  In that blood we have
are not mentioned in this passage, we         Canaanites.  They intermingled with             been adopted to be His sons and daugh-
can assume that many of them too              them.  They allowed their sons and              ters.  We are joint heirs with Christ to
looked only upon the outward charac-          daughters to make friends with these            our Father's house of many mansions.
teristics of unbelieving young men and        wicked people and to "date" them.  The          By the very work of salvation in us, God
married them.  They assessed the young        result is that the young men of the             has separated us from this world of sin.
men of the world simply from the point        church married unbelieving wives and            We are a "chosen generation, a royal
of view of their good looks and warm          took them with them to live in Israel.

330/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar          spouse.  The first of these is:  I am not       earnestly that man or woman God has
people" in this world (I Pet. 2:9).  We         dating that person because I want to            intended for one to marry.  That is the
belong to the family and household of           marry him.  I am dating him just for            sole purpose for dating.  I may not,
God.  When we deliberately ignore this          fun.  Don't worry, I do not intend to get       therefore, go out on a date with an un-
fact and develop friendships or estab-          serious with him.                               believer just for a good time.
lish ties with the ungodly, then in prac-           This excuse is fallacious from be-              A second excuse that is often raised
tice we deny the very truths we claim to        ginning to end!                                 is one by parents themselves:  but I was
believe.  We who are believers enter into           First of all, what is your relation-        an unbeliever when my husband or wife
unholy union with unbelievers, despis-          ship, then, with this unbelieving young         dated me and now I have become a
ing God's covenant with us.  This pol-          man or woman?  Is he just a friend?             member of the church.  God used dat-
lutes the covenant line and ultimately          Are you just sharing some good times            ing as a means to bring me into his cov-
leads to divine severance from the              with him?  If so, God's Word is clear:  "...      enant and church.  I feel dating can be
friendship of God with our generations.         know ye not that the friendship of the          used effectively as a means of witness-
     Furthermore, as was already estab-         world is enmity with God? whosoever             ing and bringing others to the church.
lished, dating is courtship.  It is to be       therefore will be a friend of the world is      We must answer this very carefully, of
used to find a wife or husband with             the enemy of God" (James 4:4).  We may          course.  To such a one who by God's
whom we can share a lifetime of fellow-         not date a young man or woman of this           grace was incorporated into the church
ship and friendship.  In marriage we            world just for their friendship, or just        by means of dating we say:  how thank-
will be able to experience in a limited,        to have some good times with them.  "I          ful we are for that!  God was good to
earthly way that blessed fellowship we          am a companion of all them that fear            you.  He was gracious to make you see
have with God!  Our marriage is not             thee, and of them that keep thy pre-            your sin and salvation in Christ.  He
only to be a picture of this union be-          cepts," the young man of Psalm 119 says         was gracious to use, as a means to ac-
tween Christ and the church.  It is a           of himself in verse 63.  This does not          complish this your dating a young per-
means by which we are given a real taste        mean that I am not friendly towards un-         son of the church.  That young person
of that blessed union we have with our          believers. This does not mean I cannot          himself whom you dated was not obey-
Savior and with our God!  Will we               speak with them and express concern             ing God when doing that, yet God some-
achieve such when married to one who            for their soul.  But it does mean that I        times saves His people despite the wrong
is an unbeliever?  The true joy of mar-         may not seek out unbelievers with the           they do.  How gracious God is!
riage is bestowed by God upon a man             express purpose of companionship.                   What happened to you, however, is
and his wife who are heirs together of          God's Word prohibits that.                      not the rule, but the exception.  Most
the grace of life.  Is that not what we             Secondly, the fallacy involved with         often when young people date an unbe-
want?  We will not find it when looking         such an excuse is the view of dating it-        lieving young man or woman they are
in the wrong place.                             self.  Dating is not vain frivolity!  It is     drawn away from the church--not into
     There are a number of excuses that         not meant to be used for simple fun             it.  And there are also cases (and this is
have been raised to answer parents or           without any commitments or responsi-            evident from Scripture itself) when that
pastors who insist that the unbelieving         bilities.  Dating is courtship; and it is to    unbelieving young man or woman joins
world is not the place to be looking for a      be used only to seek out seriously and          the church, yet is never truly brought
                                                                                                to faith and repentance.  Such people
  When Thou Sittest in Thine House                                                              attend simply because this makes their
                                                                                                    Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


spouse happy and it is the path of least resistance. The church then is severely weakened by such parents.  Children grow up in
the realm of the church and the covenant who do not truly know God and love Him.  Instead, within the church these children
serve the idols of this wicked world (its pleasure and its heroes) rather than the God whom we profess to serve.
     A third excuse is one that I can find some sympathy for.  There are times when God calls His church in a place where
believers are, for the most part, isolated from fellow believers.  There is a handful of believers, but most of them are related.
Whom can these date, except an unbeliever?  It is true that this is a very difficult situation to be in.  The only answer the Word of

God gives to this dilemma is the godly          Esau was forty years old when he took           27:46:  "I am weary of my life because of
example of Isaac and Rebekah in deal-           to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the        the daughters of Heth:  if Jacob take a
ing with their son Jacob.  Of their son         Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of          wife of the daughters of Heth, such as
Esau we read in Genesis 26:32, 33, "And         Elon the Hittite:  which were a grief of        these which are the daughters of the
                                                mind to Isaac and Rebekah."  In response        land, what good shall my life do me?"
                                                to this situation in the life of their elder    This prompted the action of Isaac in Gen-
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protes-                                                    esis 28:1, 2:  "And Isaac called Jacob,
tant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan.    son, Rebekah spoke these words to Isaac
                                                concerning their younger son in Genesis         and blessed him, and charged him, and

                                                                                                     April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/331


said unto him, Thou shalt not take a               And:                                           salvation conditional upon our working.
wife of the daughters of Canaan.  Arise,                                                          He asserts that we must "qualify" for
                                                     The mode of Jesus' incarnation illu-
go to Padanaram, to the house of                                                                  salvation by working, as though this
                                                     mines the mode of our own re-birth into
Bethuel thy mother's father:  and take               the kingdom of God.  Just as a virgin        conception differs from the notion of
thee a wife from thence of the daugh-                cannot naturally bring forth new life, so    merit (see pp. 17-21).
ters of Laban thy mother's brother."                 we by nature cannot regenerate our-                   Having affirmed eternal predestina-
Such is the calling of godly young men               selves (p. 96).                              tion, De Koster immediately affirms the
and women who desire to marry in the                   Into the explanation, De Koster            opposite, stating that God wishes "that
Lord.  They must go to the place where             weaves many apt quotations from Scrip-         all turn to Him and be saved" (p. 52).
God's people dwell and there find a life's         ture.  His grandchildren must learn that       De Koster may opt for a contradictory
mate.                                              the faith of the church is biblical.           Bible and, thus, a God of pure contra-
     The rule of Scripture when search-                Erudite scholar that he is, the au-        diction, but let him know that this makes
ing for a spouse is this:  we do not               thor also makes judicious references to        all knowledge of God impossible and
search in the wicked, unbelieving world!           extra-biblical literature and to secular       opens the door to every heresy.  De
It is a hardware store, and we cannot              philosophies.  This enhances the work.         Koster's Christian Reformed adversar-
find a book in a hardware store.                   Every Christian should be reminded, in         ies did this very thing with the Bible's
     But this does not end the issue, does         connection with God's miraculous gift          teaching on women in office:  yes and
it?  What about the church world in gen-           of the Savior in a virgin conception, that     no.  Stripping logical harmony and con-
eral?  May my son or daughter go out                                                              sistency from the Word of God is not
                                                     ideologies like Marxism, Fascism, Na-
on a date with one who professes to be                                                            piety.  Nor is it an incidental fault.  It is
                                                     zism and assorted lesser delusions all
a Christian, yet is not a member of my                                                            fatal to faith and faith's obedience.  I
                                                     have one notion in common, namely
church or denomination?  That question               that the human being can redeem, can         marvel at the refusal of those who have
is much more difficult to answer.  But it            reform, can refashion himself.  The goal     left the Christian Reformed Church to
must wait for our next article.   u                  of ideologies is creation of a "new man"     see this, even though the very evil that
                                                     (p. 94).                                     drove them out of the Church--women
                                                       There is sharp attack also on some         in office--established itself by asserting the
I Believe ... Living the Apostles Creed,             of the errors that undermine the faith         contradictory nature of the biblical tes-
by Lester De Koster.  Grand Rapids, MI:            within  evangelical  and  Reformed             timony.
Christian's Library Press, Inc., 1996.  174 pp.    churches today:  theistic evolution; the                In addition, it is not true that God
$14.95 (cloth).  [Reviewed by the editor.]         feminism "which degrades home-build-           "makes us free to choose or reject His
                                                   ing as `kitchen slavery'"; the charismatic     way for living" (p. 7).  The will of the
     Reformed thinker, teacher, and au-            movement; and others.                          unbeliever is enslaved to sin:  he cannot
thor Lester De Koster has written a brief,             The book, however, is seriously            choose God's way for living.  The liber-
popular explanation of the twelve ar-              flawed.  Works and working are made            ating work of the gospel consists of en-
ticles of the Apostles' Creed.  His ad-            the main theme of an exposition of the         abling and empowering the elect believer
dressing the work to his grandchildren             church's faith.  Then the relationship be-     to choose God's way for living, although
lends simplicity, clarity, and urgency to          tween faith and works is misconceived.         because of his depraved nature (which
the exposition of this summary of the              The Reformed confessions view the good         remains his life long) he does sometime
Christian faith.                                   works of believers as arising out of faith     choose the way of sin.  Gospel freedom
     Much of the doctrinal instruction is          (Heid. Cat., Q. 91).  The motive of their      is the ability and power exclusively to
sound, and much of the practical appli-            performance is faith's thankfulness for        choose God's way.    s
cation (with which the book abounds) is
godly.  Defending the reality of the vir-          gracious redemption (Heid. Cat., Q. 86).
gin birth as a miraculous conception                   At best, De Koster fears that faith
                                                                                                  A  New  Hearing  for  the  Authorized
and birth against the denial of it by mod-         may cripple a life of good works; at
                                                                                                  Version, by Theodore P. Letis.  Philadelphia,
ernism, De Koster writes:                          worst, he views good works as an as-           PA:  The Institute for Renaissance and Ref-
                                                   pect of salvation alongside faith.  Twice,     ormation Biblical Studies, 2nd ed., 1997.  34
  Jesus Christ had to be conceived by the          he questions whether salvation is by           pages.  $3 (paper).  [Reviewed by the edi-
  Holy Spirit because human generation,            faith alone.  Both times, he erroneously       tor.]
  since the Fall, is not fitted to produce         accuses Luther of mistranslating Romans
  anyone who can be true Savior  and
  Lord.  And the Savior must be born of a          5:1 as "by faith alone" (the text in ques-              Contrary to the prevailing opinion,
  virgin to escape inheriting the deprav-          tion is, in reality, Rom. 3:28; the trans-     there are solid, significant reasons why
  ity which natural descent imposes upon           lation of this text with "allein" was cor-     the English-speaking church and Chris-
  all mankind.  Those who dispute or de-           rect, demanded by the contrast in the          tian ought to use the King James Version
  cry these miracles only demonstrate just         text itself).  When De Koster comes to         (KJV) of Holy Scripture.  Use of the KJV
  how necessary they were.   It is to cure         explain the necessity of good works in         is not due to hide-bound traditionalism.
  just such blindness that Jesus came the          the light of gracious salvation, he makes               Theodore P. Letis demonstrates that
  way God miraculously provided (p. 95).

332/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


the KJV is superior to the modern ver-          a letter of invitation to their services, a
sions as regards its Greek text, its trans-     brochure about their congregation, and         Mission Activities
lation, and its English usage.  In addi-        the tract, "Does God Love You?"  They
tion, "it is a link with our past as well as    also placed an ad for their worship ser-       Rev. A. denHartog, pastor of the
                                                                                                     Hope PRC in Redlands, CA, gave a
a unifying factor for the present."  Letis      vices in the flyer "Houses of Worship,"        short slide presentation of his and Rev.
conducts a "new hearing" for the KJV in         which accompanies their local paper, the       A. Brummel's trip to the Philippines af-
language that the layman can under-             Daily Herald, and covers all of Dupage         ter a recent Sunday evening service.
stand.                                          County.                                        Rev. den Hartog also used the opportu-
    The booklet points out some of the                  The Evangelism Committee of the        nity to talk about the potential for a mis-
serious weaknesses of the modern ver-           First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI spon-            sion field for our churches in the Philip-
sions.  Especially dangerous is the theory      sored a program by the PR Psalm Sing-          pines.
of translation that controls the making         ing Choir, Sunday, March 22.  During
of the modern versions:  "dynamic-              the worship service that evening Rev. J.       School Activities
equivalence."  Letis charges that this          Slopsema, pastor at First, preached on
theory "allows the content and the form         the topic, "Singing to the Lord in             Rev. A. Brummel, pastor at the
                                                                                                     Edgerton, MN PRC, showed slides
of Scripture to capitulate to the lan-          Psalms."  Rev. Slopsema used the occa-         of the same trip to the Philippines re-
guage, forms, and culture of the given          sion to address the issue of psalm-sing-       cently at a PTA meeting of the Free
receptor peoples, even at the loss of Bib-      ing and singing versifications of the          Christian School in Edgerton.
lical teaching itself" (p. 22).  Where this     Psalms.  It was also suggested that, in              The PTA of Heritage Christian
theory of translation leads becomes clear       preparation for that special Sunday            School in Hudsonville, MI met back in
in the recent admission by those in             evening, one could read the pamphlet           February to hear Rev. C. Terpstra speak
charge of the New International Version         on psalm-singing by Rev. J. Kortering,         on the subject, "Our Children:  Reaching
(NIV) that they are in the process of           published by our Grandville, MI PRC.           their potential and finding contentment
translating the NIV according to the dic-               The Psalm choir, incidentally, is      in who they are."
tates of the feminism of the West.              composed of people from West Michi-                  This  year  Covenant  Christian
    Ted Letis is qualified to help the be-      gan PR churches who love to sing the           School in Lynden, WA celebrates twenty
lievers and the churches that are con-          Psalms.  It is under the direction of Dan      years of covenant instruction.  To mark
cerned to have the full, uncorrupted            DeMeester.  The choir sings the Psalms         the occasion, Covenant planned two dif-
Word of God in their English transla-           in a beautiful and simple manner.              ferent events for the school year, the first
tion.  An outstanding scholar in the                    The choir presented this same pro-     was an Adult Dinner Celebration on
field, with a Ph.D. from the University         gram a week earlier at the Grandville,         March 13. Included after dinner was a
of Edinburgh, he has devoted his life to        MI PRC.                                        speech by Rev. M. Joostens on the topic,
work on behalf of the original text and                                                        "God's Covenant Faithfulness," based on
faithful translation of the Bible.              Congregational Activities                      their theme text found in Lamentations
    The booklet can be ordered from                                                            3:22-24.  Also included in the program
The Institute for Renaissance and Ref-          The major item of business at last
                                                        month's meeting of Classis West was    was singing by a choir of former stu-
ormation Biblical Studies, 6417 N.              the approval given to the decision of          dents, greetings from teachers past and
Fairhill, Philadelphia, PA  19126.   u          the Trinity PRC in Houston, TX to dis-         present, and a brief recounting of
                                                band their congregation.  After 25 years       Covenant's history.
Evangelism Activities                           of faithful witness and extensive evan-                        Food  for  Thought
A  recent  bulletin  from  our gelism efforts, the light of our church                               "While wrongs are remembered,
      Loveland, CO PRC included cor-            there will be extinguished on June 7.          they are not remitted.  He forgives not
respondence from an individual living           With the concurrence of the synodical          that forgets not."
in Finland.  This reader of Loveland's          deputies, Rev. J. Mahtani was declared                                        --John Trapp   u
home page on the Internet was very im-          "temporarily emeritus" effective at the
pressed by Rev. S. Houck's article "God's       time of Trinity's closing.  Pastor Mahtani
Sovereignty in Salvation," calling it "the      awaits a call from another congregation.
best concise summary of the doctrines                   Our Lord has not given growth to                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
of grace that he had ever read."  He            the congregation.  There are only two                The Martha Society of Doon PRC express
ended his note by asking for permission         families left besides the pastor, so there     their Christian sympathy to our fellow member,
to translate the article into his native        really  is  no  way  of  continuing  a         Mrs. Henry Miersma, in the death of her mother,
                                                                                                             MRS. HATTIE VER HEY.
language, giving all due acknowledg-            consistory. Please pray for these two                May she and her family find comfort in
ments and links to the original article.        families who, for different reasons, can-      God's Word, "Blessed be God, ... the Father of
    The Evangelism Committee of the             not relocate to other of our churches im-      mercies,  and  the  God  of  all  comfort;  who
Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL began a project        mediately, and for Rev. Mahtani, who           comforteth us in all our tribulation" (II Corinthians
last month to mail to new residents in          awaits God's will regarding the minis-         1:3, 4).
Medinah, Itasca, Roselle, and Elk Grove         try.                                                                   Rev. Richard Smit, Pres.

                                                                                                      April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/333


                       Henrietta VanOort, Sec'y.

              TEACHER NEEDED
     Covenant Christian School in Lynden, WA
announces that they are in need of a teacher for
the intermediate grades (3-5) for the 1998-1999
school term.  We invite your applications and
ask you to send it to the attention of the adminis-
trator, Mr. Fred Hanko, at Covenant Christian
School, 9088 Northwood Road, Lynden, WA
98264 (school phone:  360-354-5436 or home
phone:    360-966-7950  or  e-mail:
fredncathy@juno.com).  Or send applications to
the school board secretary, Mr. Dave Zandstra,
400 Cascade Way, Lynden, WA  98264 (360-
354-1259).

                   NOTICE!!!
     Classis East will meet in regular session
on Wednesday, May 13, 1998 at the Southeast
Protestant Reformed Church.
                    Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk





  Book Reviews





334/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


  News From Our Churches                        Mr. Benjamin Wigger





Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant
Reformed  Church  of  Hudsonville, Michigan.


                                                April  15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/335


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Standard
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336/Standard  Bearer/April  15,  1998


