A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                                        In This Issue:
                   Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                           Reconciled to God . . . . . . . .._........................__........................................ 386
                   Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma
                           The Preterism of Christian Reconstruction (2) ........................... 389
                           Acceptance of the Challenge to Debate ........................................ 391
                           Welcome to the New PR Congregation ........................................ .392
                           1999 Synod of the PRC .................................................................... 392
                   Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._............................................................. 393
                   Marking the Bulwarks of Zion  - Prof. Herman Hanko
                           Pelagius and Celestius:
                           Enemies of the Doctrines of Grace (2)  ._..................__.................... 395
                   All Around Us - Rev. Gise VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398
                   In His Fear - Rev. Daniel Kleyn
                           Personal Devotions . . . . . . . .._.......................__.._.................................... 399
                   Contending for the Faith - Rev. Bernard J. Woudenberg
                           Schilder's "Covenant" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402
                   Come, Lord Jesus - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                           Love Waxing Cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
                   News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407





Vol. 75, NO. 17
June, 1999


                                                      Reconciled to God

                                                         To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
                                                 not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto  us
                                                 the word  of  reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
                                                 though God did beseech you by us: we pray you  in Christ's stead, be ye
                                                 reconciled to God.
                                                                                                                                  II Corinthians  5:19,20.

        econciliation.
R                                      What a rich and                   ents in Paradise. How amazed                                         and at night they lay watching the
        blessed word.                                                    they must have been as they                                         moon, the stars, the planets, and the
        Reconciliation implies that                                      walked hand in hand, united in the                                   constellations in their courses
there had existed an original                                            love of God, beholding the won-                                     throughout the broad expanse of
friendship of covenant fellowship                                        ders of God's creation in the gar-                                  the universe.
between two parties. The text                                            den of Eden. They must have re-                                              But even more, they must have
speaks of a relationship of friend-                                      marked about the soft carpet of                                     wondered about themselves, their
ship between God and us who are                                          green grass under their feet, the                                   senses of sight, hearing, feeling, and
believers. It also implies that this                                     great variety of trees, plants, and                                 smelling; their speaking; their inti-
relationship has been completely                                         flowers everywhere. They must                                       macy as husband and wife. They
severed, even possibly turned into                                       have marveled as they saw animals                                   were given dominion over the
animosity. And finally it implies                                        of all sorts - lions with their beau-                               beasts of the field, the birds of the
that blessed reality that this friend-                                   tiful manes, tender sheep calmly                                    air, and the fish of the sea. Adam
ship and fellowship between God                                          grazing, the stalwart horse with its                                was king of the earthly creation,
and us has been completely re-                                           colt, the camel with its hump, the                                  and Eve was his perfect helper.
stored.                                                                  beetle, and so much more. They                                               Yet far more wonderful than all
        Wonder of wonders! We are                                        also must have paused to listen to                                  that was the fact that they saw the
reconciled to God!                                                       the babbling stream, the roaring                                    might, the wisdom, the sovereign
        Reconciled to God.                                      Our      rivers, those many voices of the                                    majesty of their Creator. They
thoughts go back to our first par-                                       birds rejoicing in the light of day.                                knew Him, loved Him in deep de-
                                                                         And they no doubt touched and                                       votion, and took delight in serving
                                                                         smelled the beautiful bushes and                                    Him in humble adoration. Their
                                                                         flowers all around them. By day                                     souls cried out together, "Our God,
Rev.  Hanko  is a  minisfer  emeriks in fhe                              they must have watched the sun                                      how great Thou art." And just
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                            as it traveled through the heavens,                                 think, He came, walked through the


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386/Standard  Bearer/June, 7999


Garden in the cool of day, and            turned against him. Satan was              mercy, for the great love where-
talked with them at the tree of life.     now ready to.carry  on through Eve.        with He loved us from all eternity,
There was a relationship of cov-          What transpired we do not know,            came to Adam to bring reconcilia-
enant fellowship and friendship           but this we know, the friend-ser-          tion in Christ Jesus. Satan was as-
between our first parents, who            vant of God, the head of the hu-           sured that the day of his condem-
were creatures of the dust, and the       man race, our first father, also ate       nation and the condemnation of all
Lord of hosts, who was the eter-          of the forbidden tree. He fell into        of his followers would surely come;
nal, sovereign, living God!               sin and death, and we sinned and           his head would be crushed, his
       We need not pause long in con-     died in him.                               power completely broken, his just
sidering what broke this wonder-              When the king of the earthly           torment awaited him.
ful covenant relationship. Ever           creation fell, his kingdom fell with           God was in Christ reconciling
since we were children we were            him under God's curse. We still            the world unto Himself! When
taught that God made man good             hear the groaning of all creation          Adam fell, he fell into the arms of
and after His own image as His            and can also see it. The animals           Jesus, the eternal Son of God, our
friend servant in true knowledge,         suffer under the curse; the trees,         Savior. Already in Paradise the
righteousness, and holiness to love       plants, and flowers wither and die.        promise was given of His marvel-
and to serve Him. "But man, by            Even the sun and the stars of              ous birth from the virgin Mary.
the instigation of the devil, and his     heaven lost some of their brilliance.      Already then God spoke of His
own willful disobedience, deprived        The whole creation continues to            substitutionary suffering and His
himself and all his posterity of          groan and travail together as in           atoning death on the cross. God is
those divine gifts"  (Heid. Cat., L.D.    pain. Torrents of rain, floods, fam-       the Reconciler.
4).                                       ines, fires, hurricanes, and torna-            At Christmas time we sing,
       Yes, our fall was through the      does bring destruction. Sickness,          without giving it much thought,
instigation of the devil. Satan, who      diseases, along with various               "God and sinners reconciled." The
stood at the head of a mighty host        plagues and death come upon all            impression is left that Christ is the
of fallen angels, had taken upon          mankind.                                   Mediator between an angry God
himself personally to attack God by           This sin of Adam was also our          and a sinful people, and that He
attacking His earthly creation.           sin. We are, indeed, guilty of will-       brings both into reconciliation.
Carefully, even cunningly, he had         ful disobedience. Knowingly, de-           Perish the thought! God is the
prepared his attack. He would use         liberately, well aware of the conse-       Reconciler  in the person of His Son,
the serpent, which was able to com-       quences, we in Adam sinned                 who became like unto us, sin ex-
municate with Adam and Eve. He            against our Creator, the Most High         cepted. He who knew no sin was
would approach Eve first. She had         God of heaven and earth, and con-          made sin for us. Not a sinner, but
not directly received the command         sequently we are in the bondage            a sin-bearer, bearing the wrath of
concerning the  forbidden~tree. Be-       of sin and death. Sin is not a mere        God against the sins of those given
sides, if he could cause her to fall,     external act. It is a tyrant that takes    to Him of the Father; bearing them
she could be his instrument in ap-        dominion over us. Our mind is              in our stead even in the bitter
proaching Adam. We know from              perverse, so that we rationalize sin       agony of utter darkness and sepa-
Scripture how the devil aroused in        as good, proper, and necessary in          ration from God; and bearing  them-~          ~~
the heart of Eve the lust of the          our lives. Our will is corrupted.          away. He took away our curse and
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the      We desire that which is sinful, we         reconciled us guilty sinners into a
pride of life. She would decide for       crave it and yearn for it. It is only      renewed fellowship with Himself,
herself whether she would or              natural for us to sin, so that, if not     the Most High God.
would not eat of that tree. In fact,      delivered, we fall away into ever              Reconciled! God declares us
the more she thought about it the         deeper sin, only to sink away both         free from sin and guilt and worthy
more she desired it, and then it          with body and soul into everlast-          of eternal life. Our first reaction is
seemed as if her arm and hand             ing desolation. We are hopelessly          that we experience a sincere sor-
spontaneously reached out for the         lost by our willful disobedience.          row for and repentance from sin.
fruit and she ate of it.                                                             With the psalmist we cry out: "The
       At that very moment she broke             +++  +++  +++                       sorrows of death compassed me,
the covenant of friendship with her                                                  and the pains of hell gat hold upon
God. And doing so she died a                  But God!                               me: I found trouble and  sorrow:
spiritual death of separation from            No, Adam did not, could not,           Then called I upon the name of the
God under His divine wrath.               and would not seek to restore that         Lord; 0 Lord, I beseech thee, de-
There was also a breach between           former friendship. Nor did God             liver my soul" (Ps.  116:3, 4). The
her and her husband. She did not          await his response with eager              Lord hears our supplication and
love him as she now was, but              pleadings. But God, who is rich in         assures us by His Spirit in our

                                                                                               June,  7999/Standard  Bearer/387


hearts:        "Go in peace, thy sins,                     elect. Therefore Paul tells us: "The      of God our daily sins and our mis-
though ever so many, are forgiven                          creature itself also shall be deliv-      ery. We must hunger and thirst
thee."                                                     ered from the bondage of corrup-          after righteousness, in order to ex-
      Reconciled! We are made new                          tion into the glorious liberty of the     perience that we are filled with the
creatures in Christ with the resur-                        children of God" (Rom.  8:21).            righteousness of Christ.
rection life of Christ in our hearts.                             Not only we as individuals are        * By the grace of God we must
We are saints in Christ Jesus. Yes,                        redeemed and reconciled, but also         realize that the most holy among
by nature we are still incapable of                        the entire elect church, and along        us has but a small beginning, and
any good and inclined to all evil,                         with her the entire  umiverse.  God       we also have but a small beginning,
but according to the new man in                            says: "Behold, I make all things          of the true obedience. Therefore
Christ we love, seek, and serve our                        new." The entire organism of the          we must prayerfully strive to put
God. As an assurance to us the                             world is saved and renewed  - all         off the old man and put on the new
Bible speaks of Job as being "per-                         except the reprobate wicked, who          man in Christ. That requires a con-
fect and upright," of Abraham as a                         are cut off, even as the dead             stant watchfulness and struggle.
friend of God, of David as a man                           branches of a tree or of a vine are       The psalmist prays: "Let the words
who was well pleasing to God.                              cut off. We look for the full real-       of my mouth, and the meditation
      Reconciled! The relationship of                      ization of our salvation in our new,      of my heart, be acceptable in thy
friendship between God and us is                           heavenly home, in the new heav-           sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and my
restored in Christ. Not that we re-                        ens and the new earth in which            redeemer"  (I%.  19:14). Scripture
turn to the state of Adam in Para-                         righteousness dwells.                     teaches us that whether we eat, or
dise. We are restored in Christ,                                     +++  +++  +++                   whether we drink, or whatever we
and therefore we are restored in a                                                                   do, we must do it all to the glory
far richer, more intimate relation-                               That is the gospel of the king-    of God. Our goal must be to be
ship with God than was ever pos-                           dom of heaven. That is the mes-           holy, even as God is holy, and per-
sible in Adam. We now belong to                            sage of glad tidings that God sends       fect, as our heavenly Father is per-
our faithful Savior Jesus Christ.                          through Christ and by Christ's am-        fect.
We are in Christ, members of His                           bassadors to His church. That is              This means also that we rely
body, heirs of the salvation that He                       the gospel message that is preached       upon God as a little child relies on
merited on the cross, partakers of                         wherever God's Word is pro-               his father. David says, "Truly my
His glory.                                                 claimed: God was in Christ, rec-          soul waiteth upon God (literally,
      This is love, not that we first                      onciling the world unto himself,          my soul is silent unto God): from
loved God, but that He first loved                         not imputing our trespasses unto          him  cometh  my salvation. He only
us and implants His love in our                            us.                                       is my rock and my salvation; he is
hearts. We know Him as our heav-                                  Therefore the apostle Paul de-     my  defence;  I shall not be greatly
enly Father, who says to us in lov-                        clares to us the word of the living       moved"  0%.  62:1, 2).
ing kindness, as a mother says to                          God: "Now then we are ambassa-                But, above all, this means that
her newly born infant, "My very                            dors for Christ, as though God did        we live in covenant fellowship with
own son," or, "my very own                                 beseech you by us: we pray you            our heavenly Father, even as Enoch
daughter." And we say to Him-in                            in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled       and Noah walked with God and
intimate fellowship: "0 my Fa-                             to God."                                  Abraham was a friend of God. The
ther" and "0 my God."                                             To us personally comes the ad-     sweet singer of Israel could testify:
      Thus we have peace with God                          monition: Be thou reconciled to           "He that dwelleth in the secret
and we already experience the be-                          God!                                      place of the Most High shall abide
ginning of the eternal joy, a joy un-                             That includes not merely that      under the shadow of the Almighty.
speakable and full of glory.                               we need an initial conversion, but        I will say of the Lord, he is my ref-
      The wonder of our reconcilia-                        that we also need a daily conver-         uge and my fortress: my God; in
tion includes even more than that,                         sion. Sin defiles every thought we        him will I trust."
for God in Christ reconciled the                           think, every desire that arises in            May we daily learn to confess
world unto Himself! Our first fa-                          our hearts, every word we utter,          ever more sincerely: "One thing
ther was created as king, having                           every act or deed we ever commit.         have I desired of the Lord, that will
dominion over the whole earthly                            By nature we cannot nor are we            I seek after; that I may dwell in the
creation, so that when he fell the                         willing to keep any of God's com-         house of the Lord all the days of
whole human race, along with the                           mandments, but transgress them            my life, to behold the beauty of the
e n t i r e   e a r t h l y   c r e a t i o n ,   w a s    all, for we are incapable of any          Lord, and to inquire in his temple"
plunged into condemnation. By                              good and inclined to all evil. We         (Ps.  27:4). That is the foretaste of
the mercies of God the entire cre-                         must be deeply aware of and con-          eternal life with God in glory,
ation is restored along with God's                         fess in all sincerity before the face     Amen.  [7

3S&Standard  Bearer/June,  1999


                    The Preterism of Christian
                                       Reconstruction
                                                         (2)
                                            did in the previous issue of the
C                                                                                    David Chilton. All of these men,
     hristian Reconstruction is             Standard Bearer,  when a Reformed        with Andrew Sandlin, are disciples
     preterist.                             amillennialist charges preterism         of R. J. Rushdoony. They are col-
    By this is meant a serious er-          against them.                            leagues of Sandlin. With him, they
ror, or false doctrine, concerning             But this recognition of a few         are representatives of Christian Re-
Scripture's teaching on the last            unfulfilled eschatological prophe-       construction. When I demonstrate
things. Preterism is false teaching         cies, which is necessary to main-        preterism from  DeMar's book, I
concerning the second coming of             tain even a semblance of ortho-          will also have quieted Sandlin, who
Jesus Christ and the events that are        doxy, is inconsistent.        Their      was ready to cry, "twisted . . . de-
connected with this coming as               preterist theology requires that         piction"; "misinformed"; "egre-
signs. It is error in eschatology.          even these few prophecies be ex-         giously misrepresent."
    Preterism explains biblical             plained as having been fulfilled in          Here are some of the passages
prophecies of events that are               the past. This will happen. Incon-       in the New Testament that DeMar
present or future to the church at          sistent preterism will become con-       himself explicitly declares to have
the end of the twentieth century as         sistent preterism. As DeMar, Gen-        been exhaustively fulfilled in the
having been fulfilled in the past.          try, and Chilton have developed J.       past, in AD 70. (I am tempted to
It explains these prophecies as hav-        Marcellus  Kik's preterist explana-      list the passages one under the
ing been fulfilled exhntlstively  in the    tion of Matthew 24, so the disciples     other to bring home to the reader
past. There is no future fulfillment.       of these Christian  Reconstruc-          what preterist Christian Recon-
The date when these prophecies              tionists will develop their preterism    struction does with almost the
were fulfilled, according to Chris-         still further. Then, like James          whole body of New Testament
tian Reconstruction, is AD 70. That         Stuart Russell, whose book of  full-     eschatology. But I forbear in the
was the time when Rome destroyed            blown preterism DeMar and Gen-           interests of precious space.)
Jerusalem.                                  try (yes, and R. C. Sproul) have
     Preterist Christian Reconstruc-        glowingly recommended, Christian           Matt.  10~22,  23; Matt.  16:27, 28;
tion explains most of Scripture's           Reconstruction will forthrightly           Matt.  26:64; Jn.  21:21, 22;  Rom.
prophecies of the future events of          teach that Christ came in AD 70            13:ll;  Rom.  13:12; Rom.  16:20;  I
eschatology as already fulfilled.           and that no other coming is to be          Cor.  7~31; I Cor.  1O:ll;  Phil.  4:5;
All that is left after Christian Re-        expected on the basis of Scripture.        Heb.  10:25; James 5:7, 8; James 5:9;
construction goes through the                   Dutch Reformed theology,               I Pet.  4:7; I  Jn.  2:18; Rev.  1:l; Rev.
eschatology of the New Testament            which Christian Reconstruction             1:3; Rev.  3:lO; Rev.  3:ll; Rev.
                                                                                       11:14; Rev.  17:8; Rev.  22:6; Rev.
are a few passages that promise a           holds in contempt, has a proverb:          2237;  Rev.  22:lO; Rev.  22:12; Rev.
bodily return of Christ, a resurrec-        "Principles work through."                 22:20  (pp. 29-31); II Tim. 3 (p.  26);
tion of the dead, and the final judg-           Since Gary DeMar objected to           Titus  2:13  (!  p.  189); Rom.  8:18  (p.
ment.                                       my charge of preterism, it is only         191).
     At present, leading Christian          right that I demonstrate the
Reconstruction theologians do ac-           preterism of Christian Reconstruc-           Let the reader look up these
knowledge that these few-very               tion from his book, Last  Days Mad-      passages, note the context of each,
few-New Testament prophecies of             ness (American Vision, 1994; the         and compare the parallel passages.
the end are yet to be fulfilled. This       page references that follow are to       All were fulfilled in the past.
enables them to affect outrage, as          this volume). I could as well use            According to DeMar, all of
Andrew Sandlin and Gary DeMar               the writings of Kenneth Gentry or        New Testament prophecy  concern-

                                                                                                 June,  7999/Standard  Bearer/389


ing abounding lawlessness was ful-          scribing events that refer to the          live in the expectation of the com-
filled by AD 70 (pp. 26; 70, 71;            first-century church (pp. 182,183).        ing of Jesus Christ. They will not
338ff.). All of New Testament                                                          look for any signs of the nearness
prophecy concerning apostasy, in-             Consigning the book of Revela-           of His coming. Indeed, they are
cluding II Thessalonians  2:3, was        tion to the  past is, all-by itself, the     instructed by Christian Reconstruc-
fulfilled in the days terminating in      virtual annihilation of biblical             tion not to see the signs  when they
AD 70 (pp. 68, 69; 334ff.). All of        eschatology.      This alone would           unfold before their very eyes.
New Testament prophecy concern-           warrant the charge, "preterism!"
ing antichrist, the "son of perdi-            In order to accomplish the con-            In light of all of the above, can
tion" of II Thessalonians 2, and the      signment of Revelation to the past,            Christians ever assert that Jesus'
beast of Revelation was exhaus-           Christian Reconstruction must date             return is near? To ask it another
tively fulfilled in AD 70 (pp.  195-      Revelation before AD 70. Whereas               way: Can we  point to any signs
218). The "son of perdition" of II        the Christian church has always                that would indicate that Jesus'
                                                                                         coming is imminent? The answer
Thessalonians 2 was some Jewish           rightly dated Revelation about AD              is no.... There are no observable
"high priest" or other, who is long       95 and explained it as revealing the           signs leading up to His bodily re-
dead (p. 344). "The Beast of Rev-         second coming of Christ in connec-             turn! (pp. 150,151).
elation 13 is buried somewhere in         tion with events that lead up to this
the world today" (p. 218).                coming, Christian Reconstruction                      But DeMar does hold that there
    Displaying the vaunted Chris-         now dates it before AD 70. In this           will be a future, bodily coming of
tian Reconstruction exegesis,             way, it can be made to refer exclu-          Christ, accompanied by the resur-
DeMar plays the numbers game              sively to the destruction of Jerusa-         rection of the dead and the final
with the number of the beast in           lem in AD 70.                                judgment, does he not?
Revelation  13:18. He determines              What is left of biblical escha-                   He does, and I acknowledged
that the Holy Spirit refers to "Nero      tology?                                      this of Christian Reconstruction in
Caesar," the numerical value of               What is left of biblical escha-          the editorial of February 15, 1999
whose name  in Hebrew, we  are as-        tology on the explicit teaching of           to which DeMar and Sandlin ob-
sured, is 666 (p. 217).                   Christian Reconstruction, as repre-          ject.
    All of New Testament proph-           sented by Gary DeMar?                                 This is about all of biblical
ecy concerning tribulation was ful-           Almost nothing.                          eschatology that he holds. But he
filled in AD 70. This was a fore-             Only a stray passage here and            holds this.
gone conclusion when the  beast-          there that manages for the present                    However, he holds this incon-
antichrist-was safely thrust into         to escape  DeMar's  preterist razor.         sistently. His own theology forbids
the past. But DeMar devotes an                Christian Reconstruction's               him to hold this. On the funda-
entire chapter to this assertion (pp.     book on eschatology is exceedingly           mental principle of his own inter-
99-123). The first sub-heading in         slim, except for the chapter on the          pretation of the promise of the New
the chapter is, "A Past Great Tribu-      millennium.                                  Testament concerning Christ's
lation" (p. 102).                             Huge chunks of New Testa-                coming, DeMar must  deny  a future
    The entire book of Revelation,        ment Scripture are cut out as inap-          coming of Christ and, therefore, a
with the possible exception of only       plicable to the church after AD 70.          future resurrection and a future
a few, brief passages, was exhaus-        These are all the passages that ur-          judgment. At least, he must admit
tively fulfilled in AD 70. All of         gently warn the saints of abound-            that we can know nothing of such
Revelation is past. It is not proph-      ing lawlessness, of widespread               a future coming from Scripture.
ecy for the church throughout the         apostasy, of the kingdom of                           The fundamental principle of
New Testament age. It does not            antichrist, and of persecution.              DeMar and the other Christian
describe the great conflict between           Yes, and most of the passages            Reconstructionists is that "near,"
the kingdom of Christ and the             that comfort the people of God               "at hand," and "quickly" as de-
kingdom of Satan  until Christ re-        with the promise of the coming of           = scriptions of the coming of Christ,
turns at the end of the world. It is      Jesus Christ.                                as in Philippians  4:5, I Peter  4:7,
not warning and encouragement to              Preterism!                               Revelation  l:l, and Revelation
us believers and our children. It             With deadly spiritual conse-             22:12, 20, demand fulfillment-ex-
has nothing to do with us.                quences for those who are taken in           clusive, exhaustive  fulfillment-in a
                                          by it! They will be unprepared for           return of Christ in the lifetime of
  The Book of Revelation was writ-        the temptations, trials, conflicts,          the apostles. Of all these passages,
  ten before AD 70. Its purpose was       persecution, and spiritual warfare           DeMar says: "These passages and
  to describe events leading up to        that the godly must always suffer            others like them tell us that a sig-
  and including the destruction of        and that must be expected to in-
  Jerusalem.. . . The prophecy is  de-                                                 nificant eschatological event was to
                                          tensify in the future. They will not

390/Standard  Bearer/June, 7999


occur in the lifetime of those who             And this is the necessary im-           biblical prophecy of lawlessness,
heard and read the prophecies"  (p.        plication of Christian Reconstruc-          apostasy, antichrist, and persecu-
31). Again: "There is no way               tion's interpretation of Matthew 24,        tion in the last days, so that the
around these texts. `Soon,' `near,         following J. Marcellus Kik (see  An         dear "Jewish dream" of dominion
and `at hand' are explicit time in-        Eschatology   of  Victory,  Presbyterian    by the saints may have a place, as
dicators that are meant to describe        and Reformed, 1971). To explain             it is important to dispensational
a period of time in the near future"       Matthew 24, especially verses l-34,         premillennialism to get rid of the
(p. 288).                                  as referring only to the destruction        church in the rapture, so that the
   If this is so, Christ came in AD        of Jerusalem is to fall from ortho-         precious Jewish nation may finally
70 with an exclusive, final coming.        dox eschatology into heterodox              have its earthly kingdom.
There is no reason to look for a fu-       preterism. Matthew 24 is the fun-               The spiritual reason is  closely~
ture coming on the basis of Scrip-         damental passage in the New Tes-            related. It is that the hearts of the
ture. Absurd as it is to think so,         tament on the last things. Every-           Christian Reconstructionists are not
the resurrection of the dead and the       thing depends upon the right un-            set on the second coming of Christ
final judgment must have accom-            derstanding of Matthew 24. For              and the resurrection that accompa-
panied that one and only coming            my exegetical refutation of the             nies it. As yet, they confess the
in AD 70. For the only coming that         preterist interpretation of Matthew         second coming. Well and good.
New Testament Scripture knows is           24 and my positive interpretation           But the coming of Christ does not
the coming of Christ that is "near,"       of the passage, I refer DeMar and           have their hearts. Their hearts are
because He comes "quickly."                Sandlin to the April 1, April 15,           set on the millennial, earthly king-
    I give one, conclusive example.        May 1, and May  15,1996 issues of           dom in which the Christians will
According to DeMar, the coming             the SB. Can they not find time in           have dominion. This is evident on
of Jesus announced in Philippians          their busy schedule to read these           the face of all their writings. Not
4:5 ("The Lord is at hand") was His        articles?                                   "Come, Lord Jesus, yea, come
coming in AD 70. But this is the               Why does Christian Recon-               quickly," but "Let us get busy once
coming that the apostle proclaims          struction embrace and advocate              to establish the earthly kingdom"
and looks for throughout chapter           preterism?                                  is their real interest.
3, particularly verse 20: "we look             There is a theological reason,              This is why DeMar and Gentry
for the Savior." And this is the           and there is a spiritual reason.            could enthusiastically recommend
coming that raises our body (v. 21).           The theological reason is that          Russell's book that denies any fu-
    DeMar has no eschatology. He           the doctrine of a millennial "golden        ture coming of Christ, any future
has no doctrine of the "last things"       age" demands that all of the Bible's        resurrection of the body, and any
aiming at and culminating in the           prophecy of lawlessness, apostasy,          future judgment.
second coming of Christ. Oddly,            antichrist, and persecution in the              Did they not notice this in the
he admits as much. The "last               last days be got rid of.                    Parousia?
days" of Scripture were fulfilled in           Sandlin is wrong when he says               Surely they did, these mighty
AD 70 (pp. 27, 28; 57; 203). The           in his sharp letter, "Preterism has         exegetes, logicians, and theolo-
biblical "end of the ages" was the         never been a distinctive of Chris-          gians.
time prior to AD 70 (p. 57).               tian Reconstruction." Preterism is              But it did not matter.
    The "last days" are past.              essential  to Christian Reconstruc-             Because, at bottom, they do not
    Preterism!                             tion. It is as important to Chris-          care.  w
    In principle,  full-blown,  consis-    tian Reconstruction to get rid of                                               - DJE
tent preterism!

 Acceptance of the Challenge to Debate
Gary DeMar challenges me to a This is the second time that range a time for the debate. But I
     public debate.                        DeMar has issued this challenge.            heard nothing more from him.
    In his letter to the  Standard         The first time was his letter in the            Now, of course, I know why.
Bearer  that ran in the previous is-       March  15,1995  issue of the SB.            That busy man could not take the
sue of this magazine, he said, "Let's          My response then was that I             time to read the SB in which I re-
have a debate at your seminary.            was interested.                             sponded to his challenge. I admit
Have your students decide who's                I expected that Mr. DeMar               that this strikes me as odd. He
telling the truth."                        would get in touch with me, to  ar-         read the editorial on "Jewish

                                                                                                    June, 1999/Standard  Bearer/391


Dreams" that provoked his re-            doubt the debate will be advertised                      Third, after the debate is held
sponse and challenge. He wrote a         in Western Michigan, so that inter-              in the Grand Rapids, MI area, there
long letter to the SB issuing his        ested persons can attend, includ-                must also be a debate on the same
challenge. But then he neglected         ing the students in the Protestant               topic between Mr.  DeMar and my-
to read my answer. As a result, he       Reformed Seminary.  ~-                           self in Atlanta, GA for the benefit
was ignorant of my willingness to                There are three conditions.              of Mr. DeMar's supporters. As I
debate.                                          First, the proposition that I will       will be responsible for arranging
    Now, the champion of Chris-          defend, whatever the formal topic,               the debate in Grand Rapids, Mr.
tian Reconstruction postmillen-          will be, positively, that  amillen-              DeMar must be responsible for ar-
nialism issues a second challenge,       nialism is biblical and Reformed                 ranging the debate in Atlanta.
which he has also published on the       truth concerning the last days and,                      I await Mr. DeMar's response
Internet.                                negatively, that Christian Recon-                to my acceptance of his challenge.
    I have no choice but to accept       struction postmillennialism is false                     In case he neglects to read this
his challenge.                           doctrine.                                        issue of the SB (which will be sent
    I will see to it that, at a time             Second, the basis of the debate          to him), this acceptance of his chal-
mutually agreed on, there is a suit-     must be Holy Scripture as summa-                 lenge will also be sent to his ad-
able auditorium in the Grand Rap-        rized in the Reformed confessions.               dress by certified mail.  n
ids, MI area for our debate. No                                                                                                      - DJE


   Welcome to the New PR Congregation
    On behalf of all our readers, the    were then chosen by the male con-                tact with the church can address
Standard Bearer  heartily welcomes       fessing members of the new con-                  the vice-president of the consistory,
the new Protestant Reformed con-         gregation.                                       Mr. George Vroom, 16525 Louis
gregation. We rejoice in a work of               At organization, the congrega-           Ave., South Holland, IL 60473
God, who, as Article 28 of our  Bel-     tion consisted of 24 families and                (telephone:[7081   596-1771),  or the
gic Confession of Faith instructs us,    four individuals.                                c l e r k ,   M r .   R i c k   W o r i e s ,   3 9 9
is the one who "establishes" every               For the time being, the congre-          Greenbriar Lane, Crete, IL 60417.
true church.                             gation will hold worship services                        The formation of the new
    The new congregation is an-          in the Scheub Community Center,                  church enriches the fellowship of
other daughter of the Protestant         1 5 1 5   W e s t   L i n c o l n   H~ighway,    the covenantal federation and ex-
Reformed Church of South Hol-            Schererville, Indiana. This is in                tends the witness of the gospel of
land, IL.                                northwest Indiana, a little east of              sovereign grace to the world with-
    The church was instituted in a       Dyer. Services will be at 9:00 AM                out.
worship service of the South Hol-        and 6:00 PM on the Lord's Day.                           Under the indispensable bless-
land congregation on May 5. Rev.                 By the time this welcome is              ing of the King of the church.
Allen Brummel preached on I              published, the church will have                          Let us pray for the new con-
Timothy  3:15b, "The Church: Pil-        chosen a name and called a minis-                gregation, and for all our churches.
lar and Ground of the Truth."            ter.                                                                                               n
Officebearers of the new church                  Those who want to have con-                                                        - DJE


                            1999 Synod of the PRC
    The annual synod of the  Prot-               The pre-synodical worship  ser-          preach the sermon.
estant Reformed Churches will            vice, conducted by the First PRC                         Synod will hear the oral exami-
meet this year in Holland, MI in         of Holland, will be held on  Mon-                nation of Mr. Garrett Eriks,  gradu-
the fine new building of the First       day evening, June 7 in the  audito-              ating senior seminarian at the PR
PRC of Holland.                          rium of the Holland church  begin-               Seminary.
    Synod will convene on Tuesday        ning at  7:30. Rev. Gise  VanBaren,                      The Contact Committee  (CC>
morning, June 8, God willing.            president of last year's synod, will             will report on meetings with the

39Z/FXandard  Bearer/J&?,  7999


Committee for Ecumenical Rela-              kane, WA. The DMC also reports            Moore plan to be in Ghana by June
tions and Church Unity of the               that Rev. J. Mahtani has accepted         of this year.
United Reformed Churches in                 the call to be a home missionary              Synod must approve details of
North America and with the Com-             and is presently working in Pitts-        the  75th anniversary celebration of
mittee for Ecumenicity and  Inter-          burgh, PA.                                the PRC scheduled for June 19-23,
church Relations of the Orthodox               A special study committee of           2000 on the campus of Calvin Col-
Presbyterian Church. The CC is              synod on financial support of             lege in Grand Rapids, MI.
proposing to synod that Prof. H.            emeriti ministers recommends that             There- are appeals. One is
Hanko work in Singapore for six                                                       against a decision of  Classis  West
months beginning in the fall of              payment from the Emeritus Fund           concerning a protestant's use of an
1999 on behalf of the theological            continue to be on a "needs" basis,       "advocate" to plead his case. Oth-
school of the Evangelical Reformed           but with the added provision that        ers are against decisions of  Classis
Churches in Singapore. The CC                some defined or specified amount         East concerning separate mainte-
also proposes the establishment of           be made avaiiabie  to all retirees
                                             and/or their spouses upon request        nance in a case of marital discord.
a sister-church relationship with            but with no questions asked                  Visitors are welcome at most
the Covenant Protestant Reformed              ("Agenda," p. 92).                      sessions of synod.
Church in Northern Ireland.                                                               May God guide this broadest
    The Domestic Mission Commit-            The committee suggests that the           assembly of the PRC by His Word
tee  (DMC) informs synod that the           specified amount be about $15,000.        and Spirit and thus bless the con-
mission in Colorado has been                    The Foreign Mission Commit-           gregations, and indeed all His
closed and that missionary T.               tee reports that Rev. R. Moore has        church, by means of our synod. 0
Miersma is now stationed in Spo-            accepted the call to be missionary                                        - DJE
                                            in Ghana, Africa. Rev. and Mrs.




                                                Of course, even in the best           tance for sin and a profession of
                                            Christian literature one finds points     faith indicate otherwise. But what
                                            of disagreement, or issues that one       I cannot understand is how Prof.
                                            finds difficult to understand. For        Dykstra can express himself in such
W Breathtakingly                            me, one such issue that comes up          unqualified and objective terms.
Unfounded Presumption?                      from time to time in the SB cropped       What are his biblical grounds for
                                            up recently in an otherwise fine ar-      using such categorical language?
It was in 1985 that I first sub- ticle on Reformed education by                           Anyone reading that article
                                                                                      without prior knowledge of the PR
  scribed to the                            Prof. Dykstra. In reference to the
                     Standard Bearer, so                                              position could be forgiven for con-
now I have accumulated fourteen             covenantal character of Reformed
                                            education he described the children       cluding that the PR churches, or at
volumes on my shelves, where they                                                     least Prof. Dykstra, believe that  all
form a highly valued spiritual as-          of believers in the following terms:
                                                                                      the children of believers are elect
set. The                                    ".  .-these children have been re-
             SB  is the most instructive                                              and born again; that they are all
Christian periodical I know,  andis         deemed from sin. They are sancti-
                                                                                      not only to be 
a great blessing to me. The clear,          fied by the blood and Spirit of                              viewed  as born again
                                                                                      but are as a matter of fact elect,
incisive writing of the contributors        Christ. They have within them the
on a wide range of highly relevant          principle of a new and holy life"         redeemed from sin, sanctified by
                                                                                      the blood and Spirit of Christ, and
topics is a refreshing antidote to the      (15 Jan. 1999; p. 189). Now I think
                                                                                      possessors of the principle of a new
woolly-mindedness so prevalent in           we would both agree that God
evangelical circles. When the                                                         and holy life. Does Prof. Dykstra
                                     SB     saves His people principally in the
arrives at my door, invariably the          lines of generations, and also that       realize that this comes across to the
                                                                                      reader, especially one reading the
first page I turn to is the one with        God's covenant is with believers
"News From Our Churches." It en-            and their  elect  children. Of course,    SB  for the first time, as a breath-
                                                                                      takingly brazen and unfounded
ables me to enter into the life and         we do not know who are the elect,
                                                                                      presumption, whether intended or
fellowship of the churches a little,        so I can understand why, from a
                                                                                      not? Even to someone like myself,
even though the news is months              subjective  point of view, believing
late by the time I read it! Thank           parents may wish to look on their         who has some familiarity with the
                                                                                      PRC's "election theology of the
you for the                                 children (all of them) as being born
                  SB.  I would not be                                                 covenant," it appears at best  mis-
without it.                                 again, until the absence of repen-
                                                                                                 June.  7999@andard  Bearer/393


leading and confusing, and at              in that context. In the first install-       that God has not established His
worst contradictory.                       ment (Dec. 15, 1998, p. 140) we              covenant with every child.
    Perhaps the problem is prima-          wrote as follows:
rily one of language rather than                                                       It is on that basis that the state-
theology, but even so the choice of            The covenant is therelationship         ment in question can be made.
words turns it into a theological is-        of friendship that God sovereignly            Notice also the immediate con-
sue and presents a major stumbling           establishes with His people in            text of, and the biblical support for
block to someone like myself, out-           Christ. God establishes this cov-         the statement.
side the PRC, who struggles hard             enant with believers and their
                                             seed in the line of continued gen-
to understand his position on this                                                         Secondly, the instruction is  cov-
                                             erations (Gen.  17:7). Within the  _
matter. It underscores the need for                                                      enantal in the manner in which
                                             sphere of the covenant, God ordi-
care in one's use of words.                                                              teachers deal with students. That
                                             narily regenerates His elect as             is to say, the students are viewed
    But there is another possibility:        children.  Thus parents are able to         as covenant children. They are not
simply that I am dull of under-              give instruction to their children          treated as unbelievers, those who
standing and need the matter to be           and that instruction does not fall          need to be regenerated. Rather, the
better explained to me. Perhaps              on dead, stony hearts, but on re-         . students are considered to be what
Prof. Dykstra could give of his time         generated hearts changed by the             the Bible calls them, namely,
to show me more clearly from the             Spirit.                                    Jehovah's heritage (Psalm  1273)
Scriptures what he means.                                                                and God's children (Ezekiel 16:20-
    Over the years I have grown to             This agrees with what you                 21).
love the PR churches, albeit from          write, that God's covenant is with              Christian schoolteachers thus
                                                                                         deal with their students as regen-
afar, and have the deepest respect         believers and their  elect  children,
                                                                                         erated, believing children. They
for their ministers. Their firm ad-        not all children of believers.                know assuredly that these chil-
herence to the truths of sovereign             In that first article, the next           dren still have their evil natures.
and particular grace marks them            doctrine discussed was the organic            They are sinners. Christian school-
out'as the brightest of lights against     nature of the covenant. This is the           teachers know that their students
a church world that is descending          key for understanding the Protes-             will sin. They will need the rod
rapidly through Arminianism into           tant Reformed doctrine of the cov-            and reproof.
apostasy. I fear for the state of          enant, and I am glad for the op-                At the same time, these children
evangelicalism in this country.            portunity to emphasize it. In that            have been redeemed from sin.
                                                                                         They are sanctified by the blood
                            John Hooper    first article, then, the above was fol-
                                                                                         and Spirit of Christ. They have
                   Cornwall, England       lowed with this:                              within them the principle of a new
                                               How do believing parents deal             and holy life. They can and must
RESPONSE:                                    with their children? Because of the         be called to a life of thankful obe-
                                                                                         dience.
A                                            promise of God to establish His
      hearty thank you for the kind          covenant with believers and their
     words for the  Standard Bearer          seed, believing parents deal with             One  thing more must be noted,
and for the Protestant Reformed              their children as covenant chil-          and that is what the statement does
Churches. May all the readers of             dren. Though the parents know             not say. It does not say "all" these
the  Standard Bearer  be so apprecia-        and believe that the lines of elec-       children have been redeemed from
tive and careful in their reading!           tion and reprobation cut through          sin, or that "all" these are sancti-
    I also appreciate your taking            families of believers, they view          fied by the blood and Spirit of
                                             their children organically. In the
the time and effort to write about           same way, Paul addressed the              Christ. Nor is this the intent. I
my article, and am happy to re-              church of Philippi:  To all the sainfs    would not make such a statement
spond.                                       in Christ Jesus which are af Philippi.    if it were meant to be a pronounce-
    The statement which you ques-            Again, as he wrote to the church          ment that all these children of be-
tion is, as you recognize, part of           in Ephesus:  To fhe saints which are      lievers  were=  elect. However, the
the very difficult doctrine of the           at Ephesus, and  to  the  faithful in     believing parent and the teacher in
place of children of believers in the        Chrisf Jesus  (Ephesians  1:l). Paul      the Christian school view these
covenant. The article in the Janu-           knew that not everyone in the             children organically. They do not
ary 15, 1999 issue was a continua-           churches of Ephesus and  Philippi         presume that these children are all
                                             was a  believer. Why then address
tion of an earlier article in which          them thus? He did so because he           regenerated. Nonetheless, they
this issue was discussed. Although           viewed the group organically, as          must treat children of believers in
the statement in question was sepa-          one, as the church of Jesus Christ.       harmony with what God calls them
rated from the earlier installment,            In the same way parents view            - the heritage of Jehovah and God's
the view of children expressed in            their children as covenant chil-          children, as noted above. 0
this statement must be understood            dren, even though it may well be                            -Prof. Russ Dykstra

394/Standard  Bearer/June, 7999


                            Pelagius and Celestius:
   Enemies of the Doctrines of Grace (2)

                                              be ordained and that he was, in                        settled in the church and thus open
The Beginnings of the Conflict                fact, a heretic.                                       for discussion. Hence, he ought not
        lagius  moved to Rome about                The charges which were made                       to be condemned for his views. But
       400, the year Augustine fin-           against Celestius will give us an                      the synod of Carthage had other
Pished his Confessions. It was                idea of the very heart of Pelagian                     ideas.       Without hesitation, they
probably in Rome that Celestius               heresy.        He was charged with                     condemned as contrary to Scripture
was converted by Pelagius and be-             teaching:  1) That Adam was cre-                       every one of these propositions.
came his disciple and friend. Al-             ated mortal, and would have died                       Celestius was ordered to recant,
though Pelagius, for nearly ten               whether he had sinned or not. 2)                       and when he refused, he was ex-
years, openly preached his views              That Adam's sin injured himself                        communicated from the church.
in Rome, he never got into any                alone and not the human race. 3)                           That did not, however, deter
trouble with the church or the theo-          That newborn infants are in the                        Celestius. He promptly moved to
logians there.                                same condition in which Adam                           Asia Minor, where, before too long,
    In 411 both were in North Af-             was before his transgression. 4)                       he was ordained a presbyter in the
rica, where Augustine was already             That as the human race did not die                     church of Ephesus.
bishop of Hippo. The date they                by the death and the transgression                         It was not long before the news
went to North Africa is hard to de-           of Adam, so will the human race                        of what the synod of Carthage had
termine. Probably Celestius went              not rise again on account of                           done came to Bethlehem, where
first, around 409. In 410 Rome was            Christ's resurrection. 5) That the                     Pelagius was enjoying himself. It
sacked by the barbarian Alaric. In            law guides into the kingdom of                         was widely known that Celestius
411, it seems, Pelagius moved to              heaven as well as the gospel. 6)                       was a student of Pelagius, and so
North Africa. But he soon moved               That there were men who lived                          the views of Pelagius himself came
to Palestine and was warmly re-               without sin before the advent of                       under attack. It was not long be-
ceived by Jerome in Bethlehem,                our Lord.                                              fore a council was called in Jerusa-
where Jerome had established a                     Although these were the spe-                      lem under the direction of Bishop
seminary of great repute. Celestius           cific charges, we might add to these                   John, bishop of Jerusalem. The
remained in North Africa.                     heresies two more. Then we will                        council was held in 415, and
    Celestius decided that he                 have a pretty complete summary                         Pelagius was completely exoner-
wanted to be a presbyter (elder),             of the doctrines of Pelagianism.  1)                   ated.
and so applied for the office. But            That the grace of God is not abso-                         We can find reasons for this
the church in North Africa was                lutely necessary to lead men to ho-                    vindication of Pelagius' views, and
strong. Those who were consid-                liness. 2) That  grace-his  given to                   these reasons give us insight into
ered for presbyter were subjected             men in proportion to their merit.                      the state of the church.
to a rigorous exam and a careful                   That is the Pelagian system of                        In the first place, the East, you
scrutiny of their views. In the               doctrine.                                              will recall, was strong on the doc-
course of the exam, Paulinus, a                    These charges were brought                        trine of the freedom of the will.
deacon from Milan (a city in Italy            against Celestius to the synod of                      Pelagius made it clear that this doc-
north of Rome), came to the con-              C a r t h a g e   w h i c h   m e t   i n   4 1 2 .    trine was all he was really inter-
clusion that Celestius ought not to           Celestius' defense against these                       ested in.
                                              charges was ineffective. He argued                         In the second place, Pelagius
                                              mainly that the differences between                    was not forthright in the explana-
Prof.  Hanko is professor  bf  Church His-    him and his accusers were minor                        tion of the views which he offered
tory and New  Testament'*in  the Protes-      and of no importance to the faith;                     the council. As is so characteristic
tant Reformed Seminary.                       that, in fact, they were matters not                   of heretics everywhere, he  equivo-

                                                                                                                  June,  1999/Standard  Bearer/395


cated, used ambiguous terminol-             onerated. Almost the entire East-                          ianism, and as the church came to
ogy, tried to present his views in          ern church agreed with these deci-                         realize that the two heresies of
the best possible light and in agree-       s i o n s ,   a n d   i t   a p p e a r e d   a s   i f    Nestorianism and Pelagianism
ment with the accepted doctrines            Pelagianism would win the day.                             were related, so too Pelagianism
of the church, and never forth-                   Although most of the East cer-                       came more and more into disre-
rightly stated what his own posi-           tainly agreed with Celestius,                              pute.
tion was.                                   Jerome did not. It will help our                               One additional event brought
    This point is worth emphasiz-           readers at this point to remember                          the matter to a certain climax.
ing. One man writes concerning              that Jerome was a noted scholar in                             The two synods in North Af-
Pelagius evasiveness:                       hisown  right, that he was in al-                          rica appealed to Pope Innocent I
    Pelagius escaped condemnation           most constant communication with                           for support of their decisions. He
  only by a course of most ingenious        Augustine, and that he was a man                           approved of what they had decided
  disingenuousness, and only at the         deeply devoted to the whole                                and commended the African bish-
  cost both of disowning Celestius          church. He is probably most noted                          ops for their diligence in remain-
  and his teachings, of which he had        for his translation of the Bible into                      ing faithful to the truth and for
  been the real father, and of lead-        Latin, a translation that became                           their zeal in combating heresy. But
  ing the synod to believe that he          known as the Vulgate and became                            Innocent died and the opportunity
  was anathematizing the very doc-          the official translation of the Ro-                        to make his decisions stick was lost.
  trines which he was himself pro-
  claiming. There is really no pos-         man Catholic Church. Neverthe-                             Zosimus came to the papal throne
  sibility of doubting, as any one          less, Jerome's condemnation of                             in his place.
  will see who reads the proceed-           Pelagius was weakened by his own                               Pelagius, having heard of his
  ings of the synod, that Pelagius          insistence on the freedom of the                           condemnation by North African
  obtained his acquittal here either        human will and on conditional pre-                         synods and confident of the back-
  by a "lying condemnation or a             destination.                                               ing of the synods in Palestine,
  tricky interpretation" of his own                                                                    wrote a letter to Innocent to defend
  teachings; and Augustine is per-          The Counter-Attack                                         himself against the excommunica-
  fectly justified in asserting that the          The West was not about to take                       tion that had been imposed on him.
  "heresy was not acquitted, but the
  man who denied the heresy, and            these decisions in Palestine sitting                       But the letter came instead to
  who would himself have been               down. The theologians in the West                          Zosimus, the new pope. At about
  anathematized if he had not               poured out a stream of books and                           the time that the letter arrived,
  anathematized the heresy."                pamphlets showing how the views                            Celestius himself appeared in
                                                                                                       Rome in an effort to defend him-
    In the third place, already ani-        of Pelagius (and Celestius) were
                                                                                                       self before the pope. Zosimus read
mosity between the East and the             contrary to Scripture and the his-
                                                                                                       Pelagius' letter and heard Celes-
West was dividing the church. The           toric faith of the church. August-
East took the attitude: What do we          ine himself concentrated almost ex-                        tius' plea, and decided that both
                                                                                                       had been unjustly treated, that
care what the West decides? We              clusively on the Pelagian heresy in
                                                                                                       their condemnation was wrong,
are determined to show our inde-            his writings, and spent the last
                                                                                                       and that the views they taught
pendence and we are not about to            twenty years of his life writing
                                            against them.                                              were in perfect keeping with the
let the West lead us around by the
nose. So true was this that when it               Two synods were also held in                         teachings of the church. He or-
                                                                                                       dered their excommunication to be
was pointed out to the Jerusalem            N o r t h   A f r i c a   i n   4 1 6 ,   o n e   i n
council that Augustine had joined           Carthage and one in Mileve, both                           lifted and ordered the North Afri-
                                                                                                       can bishops to remove their con-
in the condemnation of Pelagius,            of which condemned Pelagius and
one delegate scornfully shouted:            Celestius  in absentia.  Gradually the                     demnation of Pelagius and Celes-
                                                                                                       tius.
"And what is Augustine to me?"              course of the struggle began to tip
                                                                                                           It is interesting to note, though
The East, I suspect,  -took a great         in favor of the West. Among the
deal of delight in making a deci-           more serious and biblical theolo-                          in passing, that Zosimus thus ap-
                                                                                                       proved of heresy, a bit of church
sion which flat out contradicted the        gians in the East, the light began
                                                                                                       history which the Roman Catholic
decision taken at Carthage.                 to dawn that Pelagianism could
    But Pelagius' vindication con-          h a r d l y   b e   s e p a r a t e d   f r o m            church has difficulty in defending
                                                                                                       in the light of their view of papal
tinued. When two presbyters from            Nestorianism. We must remember
                                            that Nestorianjsm was still a threat                       infallibility.
Gaul were present in Palestine and
warned the church there of the di-          in the East. We are talking about                              But the North African bishops
sastrous consequences of Pelagius'          the years 420-430.  Chalcedon was                          were convinced of their position
                                            not till 451. The battle against                           and were not at all inclined to com-
views, another council was called                                                                      ply with the dictates of Zosimus.
and again he was completely  ex-            Nestorianism was still raging. But
                                            as the tide turned against  Nestor-                        They very carefully drew up their

396/Standard  Bearer/June, 7999


case against Pelagius and Celestius,                     ingly, he objected to Augustine's        points of Calvinism.
stated their own position on the                         emphasis on-sovereign grace be-                  The Roman Catholic Church,
doctrines in question as clearly as                      cause, so he said, God seeks the         however, never accepted Augus-
they could, and politely but em-                         salvation of  allmen.   And in sup-      tine's teachings. This is another
phatically informed  Zosimus-that                        port of this contention he appealed      story. We hope to tell that story in
he had better change his mind be-                        to I Timothy  2:4 and Romans  2:4,       future articles, for there were good
cause they were not going to                             both of which are quoted today by        reasons why the Romish church
change theirs. This happened in                          those who teach a well-meant of-         found it impossible to accept
418.                                                     fer. Strange company these people        Augustine's views. The irony is
        Z o s i m u s   c o n c u r r e d .   H e        keep.                                    that, while they hail Augustine as
changed his mind, so informed the                                                                 their spiritual and theological fa-
bishops in North Africa, and or-                         The End of the Matter                    ther, and even though they have
dered all the bishops to sign a dec-                         Because Nestorius took under         canonized him, they repudiate
l a r a t i o n   o f   c o n d e m n a t i o n   o f    his wing those from the West who         what was the most important as-
Pelagius and his cohorts. Thus the                       refused to repudiate Pelagius and        pect of Augustine's theology.
fortunes of men are changed in a                         Celestius, the teachings of these                But the issues raised in the
moment as God executes His coun-                         heretics were soon associated in the     Pelagian controversy are the great
sel.                                                     public mind with Nestorius' her-         issues over which countless battles
        All the bishops in the West                      esy concerning Christ. And, when         have been fought in the history of
agreed except eighteen from Italy,                       Nestorius himself was finally con-       the church and which still today
who were promptly excommuni-                             demned in the East at the council        are the great issues of our times.
cated. They fled to Constantinople                       of Ephesus, held in 431, one year        Calvin especially reached back be-
where they were welcomed by                              after Augustine died, Pelagianism        yond Rome to that time a millen-
Nestorius. Some of them later re-                        was condemned in the same breath.        nium earlier when Augustine had
canted and returned to Italy, where                          That was the end of Pelagius         taught the great truths of sovereign
they were once again accepted into                       and Celestius. Celestius is not          grace. Calvin made them his own
the church. The followers of these                       heard of again. Pelagius nearly the      and gave them as his heritage to
eighteen bishops were ordered ex-                        same. Some say that he died in           the church which followed him.
communicated and banished from                           exile somewhere in Gaul. Others                  One author has correctly writ-
the empire, and all their goods                          say that he returned to Jerusalem        ten:
were ordered confiscated by impe-                        and lived there until he died at the             Up to this time the controver-
rial decree.                                             age of 70. But no one knows.               sies that had been carried on
        One of those who refused to                          We have not the space, nor is          within the Church had references
sign the papal condemnation of                           it our purpose, to discuss in detail       mainly to the doctrines of the per-
Pelagius was a man named Julian.                         the teachings of Augustine. He             son of Christ and of the Holy Trin-
We mention him here because he                           taught emphatically everything             ity.... But now, for a number of
became a bitter opponent of Au-                          concerning the doctrines of grace          years, the whole energies of the
gustine and wrote extensively                            which we hold dear today. He be-           Church were concentrated on the
against Augustine's views. He be-                        lieved in sovereign predestination,        discussion of the doctrines of sin
                                                                       ..~                          and of grace in connection with
came, in fact, the most articulate                       both election and reprobation. He          the Pelagian controversy. The
spokesman of Pelagianism, and                            believed that Adam's fall brought          controversy did not terminate
Augustine considered his writings                        both the guilt of sin and the cor-         with Pelagius and his immediate
so important that he wrote an en-                        ruption of sin on the whole human          associates.       Others arose after.
tire book to answer Julian. The                          race. The result of the fall was the       them. The forms and aspects of
book was entitled  Against Julian.                       total depravity of man, so that he         the       controversy        gradually
        To listen to Julian's objections                 is unable to do any good. Christ           changed. In some respects, in-
against Augustine's teachings on                         died on the cross only for the elect,      deed, that controversy may be said
sovereign and particular grace is                        and by His death Christ earned             to be continued to the present day;
                                                                                                    for it is the old opposition to the
something like having an ear to the                      grace for all those and for those          doctrine of the sovereignty of di-
door of a meeting in which the                           only for whom He died. That grace          vine grace, the old overestimating
well-meant offer of the gospel is                        is sovereignly given and is be-            of the value of human effort,
being defended. Julian objected to                       stowed only on God's elect. It is          which lies at the root of many of
sovereign predestination because,                        the power of all the good which            the doctrinal controversies of
he said, it makes God the author                         the people of God do. These elect          modern times.
of sin, it is deterministic and fatal-                   are preserved throughout all their               Let the church then be faithful
istic, and it teaches: that God re-                      life and brought faithfully to glory.    to these truths.  Cl
spects persons. But, more interest-                      In short, Augustine held to the five

                                                                                                                June,  1999/Standard  Bearer/397


                                                         Abortion, which years ago was           ances  in their hearts and  weapons
n    "Littleton and                                  considered a horrible crime, is now         in  their hands, students who
Columbine High"                                      legal. Partial birth abortions can          should be planning for life instead
Two weeks ago (from the time I be performed. A baby must be plot death. They wound and kill
     write this article), few people                 completely out of the womb before           fellow students for reasons known
even in Colorado knew where these                                                                only to demons. Are these cries
                                                     killing it is considered murder.            for help from an abused, neglected
were. Today the names are in                         Life is "cheap." Children and               and abandoned generation, or is
headlines in every  newspaper-                       young people soon learn this                this the price we continue to pay
perhaps in the whole world and                       too. And then could the ques-               for believing we could live as we
surely in all parts of our country.                  tion be asked, "What makes these            wish, laugh at morality and imag-
We have heard an endless reciting                    young people think murderous                ine judgment day would never
of events at Columbine High. We                      thoughts?"                                  come? Why should young people
have heard countless analyses of                         Violence is portrayed on tele-          take life seriously when their over-
the event. This was not a matter                     vision and in the movie.
                                                                                M a n y          worked, aborting,  daycare,  eutha-
just of local news. This one caught                                                              nasia culture does not? Life is so
                                                     have testified that it incites to vio-      cheap, relationships are so mean-
the attention of the national news                   lence. Murder is commonplace in             ingless-children get the message.
broadcasts. It was the subject of                    these dramatic presentations. Now             We await the psychiatrists' ex-
discussions in homes, schools, and                   video games are available as well,          planation, but don't we secretly
in churches.          Two young men                  so that one can kill in realistic man-      know what it is? When you mix
slaughter 13 others-and then                         ner on the screen. Ought then we            the ingredients for a cake, you get
promptly kill themselves. Why?                       to ask: "Why?"                              a cake. When you mix the vola-
W h y   s h o u l d   t h i s   h a p p e n   a t        As many as 50% of homes are             tile ingredients of a corrupted cul-
Littleton? The question of "why"                     "single-parent" homes. Otherwise,           ture, vulgar entertainment and
was repeatedly brought up in                                                                     broken, loveless families, you get
                                                     often both mother and father are            child killers. OK, so these are
many of the reports. The "why"                       in the work-force. There is little          rare, but their rarity is small com-
was part of the cover of  Newsweek                   time to care for children within the        fort when you are the victim or
magazine, May 3, 1999. And tele-                     home. The younger children might            the parents of a dead child.
vision and newspaper pictures                        be shipped off to day-care centers.           The initial profiles of the young
brought close-up views of the in-                    The older are often "latch-key"             people allegedly responsible for
dividuals who were weeping and                       children, who are on their own af-          the killing fields that have now
embracing in their sorrow.                           ter school until parents return             come to Littleton are familiar:
     Many reply: because of the                      home. And still the question is             They  were into Satanism, Nazism,
availability of guns in society to-                                                              hate and violence. What is mak-
                                                     asked, "Why?"                               ing so many young souls so sick?
day. Others point to indifferent                         And while prayers are not al-           There will be the predictable ex-
parents and inadequate supervi-                      lowed within the public schools,            planations from clinicians. And
sion of children.                                    suddenly everyone from the Presi-           factual reports. But who can ad-
         But the answer is surely more               dent down to the Governor and               equately explain this?
than that. For years now the at-                     news commentators are urging                  The end of the Cold War was
tempt has been  made-to  remove                      prayers for the families directly af-       supposed to usher in a new age
anything and everything religious                    fected, for the school, and for the         of world peace and security, but
from public schools. The ten com-                    community at large. It seems there          we are less secure than ever.
mandments may not be posted on                                                                   Genocide occurs in our "enlight-
                                                     is no place for God-until disaster          ened" age, and mass murder oc-
the walls of those schools. There                    strikes.                                    curs at home. This is progress?
must be no religious instruction                         Cal Thomas, syndicated writer           This is peace? This is security?
within them. The Bible may not be                    for the Los Angeles  Times,  wrote          Wasn't the Brady bill supposed to
used there for devotions. Prayer                     an article that appeared also in the        protect us from such things? Or
is forbidden. Ought then the ques-                   Loveland  Reporter-Herald,  April 27,       maybe it was those 100,000 police
tion be asked, "Why should this                      1999 pinpointing some of these              officers....
happen?"                                             same obvious problems.                        We are being reminded daily
                                                         After Paducah, Ky., after             that when the morality and law of
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor of the Protestant             Jonesboro, Ark., after Springfield,     God are forsaken, the consequences
Reformed Church of Loveland, Colo-                     Ore., the pattern is familiar. With     will surely  be seen.
rado.                                                  chips on their shoulders, griev-            In the meantime, any  sem-

398/Standard  Bearer/June, 1999


blance of any kind of religion is still        First, one wonders what such         far. The weather man claimed that
being rooted out of the schools.           clergy would talk about. Eliminate       likely damage from one of these
The Associated Press reports on a          religion, prayer, sex, and abortion,     hurricanes along our east coast
case in Texas:                             and what is left? Without religion,      could well produce as much as 100
                                           how can one speak of the 10 com-         billion dollars of devastation. So:
    A school  program  that brought        mands? There would appear to be          what's going on here?
  local clergy to counsel students         nothing religious in the program.           From a different source comes
  about morality and civic virtues             But secondly, even that is too       the information that in some Afri-
  was ruled unconstitutional by a          much for some groups and parents.        can countries the life expectancy
  federal appeals panel.
    A three-judge panel of the U.S.        Is it any wonder that terrible things    has declined drastically to about 38
  5* Circuit Court of Appeals, vot-        are going on in the schools and out-     years. This is primarily the result
  ing 2-l on Friday to overturn a          side of the schools as well.             of AIDS disease. So: what's going
  1996 federal district court ruling,                                               on here?
  sided with seven students and            w "What's Going On Here?"                    The fear of incurable diseases
  parents who argued the Beaumont                                                   is growing. There is a strain of TB
  Independent School District pro-         The question was asked a num-
                                               ber of times this year by Tom        said to be immune to the medicines
  gram violated the Constitutional         Brokaw, news anchor on NBC.              of our day. There is the fear that
  separation of church and state.          Each time he relates certain natu-       some rogue nation will unleash the
    In the "Clergy in the Schools"
  program, which began in 1996, lo-        ral disasters which appear greater       smallpox virus. Smallpox was
  cal religious leaders were invited       than anything which has been seen        eradicated in the 80s from the face
  to counsel elementary and second-        in earlier years.                        of the earth. But some of the virus
  ary  students at the schools during          He spoke of the number of tor-       was preserved in a frozen state.
  school hours.                            nadoes in January-more than              Hardly anyone is inoculated for it
    The district said the program let      twice as many as any previous            today. There is not sufficient vac-
  students discuss morality and            January. So: what's going on here?       cine to protect the population.
  civic  virtues, helped increase              He presented the forecast of         Should the disease come back, one
  school safety and gave a local           one weather man who claimed              out of every three with the disease
  group an interest in the schools.
  The clergy were not to discuss re-       there was evidence that the hurri-       will die. So: what's going on?
  ligion, sex or abortion and were         canes this season and in the fore-           One wonders indeed if the
  not to pray with students....            seeable future will be far worse         trumpets of Revelation are not
                                           than any we have experienced so          sounding. Do we hear?  Q




                                Personal Devotions

                                           gin and end the day without spend-       we do, and  especiallv  that fathers
           he
T one aspect of our spiritual ing a single moment alone with see to it that this is done. For even
           life which we most fre-         God. This can only mean that we          this, it seems, is being lost.) But
           quently neglect in any given    think it is possible for us to sur-      what about regular private devo-
day, it seems, is the time we should       vive spiritually without God. The        tions? Do we take the time each
spend alone reading the Scriptures         Bible at our bedside falls into dis-     day for them? Or do we satisfy
and praying to God. We skip right          use and collects dust. And worse         ourselves with the idea that the
over this. At the most we perhaps          still, our souls languish. Our spiri-    reading of Scripture and prayer as
utter a quick, short prayer  - if we       tual life suffers. While God never       a family will suffice? Do we allow
remember. And sometimes we  be-            forgets us, we constantly forget         family devotions to be a substitute
                                           Him.                                     for daily private devotions?
                                               The excuse we usually have is            To say that we are too busy is
Rev. Kleyn  is pastor of $ze Protestant    that we are way too busy. Perhaps        a sad excuse - and wrong too. For
Reformed Church of &lgerton, Min-          we find enough time for regular          the fact of the matter is that it is
neso ta                  "li               family devotions. (I certainly hope      exactly because we are so busy that
                                                                                                June,  7999fitandard  Bearer/399


we need, more than ever, to have           through our prayers. Such devo-          sary because of the unique life each
private devotions.                         tions are therefore covenant fellow-     of us lives in this world. Each of
    It is certainly true that our lives    ship with our God.                       us, on account of his unique char-
in this world are busy, often very             The necessity of regular per-        acter, his unique calling, and his
busy. And it is also true that much        sonal devotions can be demon-            unique circumstances in life, has
of our busyness is legitimate, such        strated-by a comparison to the need      u n i q u e   p e r s o n a l   n e e d s and
as daily work outside the home as          of regularly eating food. One who        struggles. There are the needs that
husbands and fathers, and daily            neglects prayer and the study of         arise because of temptation and sin.
work in the home as wives and              Scripture is like the person who         Some are tempted to be covetous.
mothers. In addition to that, there        fails to eat. Such a person does         Some are tempted by drunkenness.
is the extra work done by men who          not receive the necessary nourish-       Some are tempted to hate a fellow
are on consistory, by men who are          ment for his physical body. Very         saint. And then there are other
on school boards, by women in-             soon he becomes weak and sickly          struggles in life. Some struggle
volved in ladies' circles, and so on.      and loses the ability to live a nor-     against depression. Some struggle
But from all this busyness we need         mal, healthy life. He will not sur-      because of loneliness or sickness.
a rest. For this reason we take a          vive very long at all. He will die.      Some struggle because of troubles
day or two off work, we take a va-             That applies to us spiritually.      in their families. Each of us knows
cation, we participate in recre-           The Word of God and prayer are           his own needs and struggles.
ational activities.                        food for our souls. The Scriptures            Some of these unique needs
    What we forget, however, is the        themselves indicate this (I Cor. 3, I    and struggles are known only to
kind of rest that we really need,          Pet. 2). To neglect the spiritual        God. That is exactly why we need
and that we need every day  -              food which God provides is to            to commune privately with Him.
spiritual rest. This is the rest that      starve our souls. What we need to        He is our covenant Friend to whom
gives us the strength and courage          do is to be just as regular with the     we bring all our burdens.
to go on in life. This is the rest         reading of Scripture and  weith               In private prayer we are able
that helps us have the proper per-         prayer as we are with eating food.       to be very specific about our needs
spective and obedience to God in           David was, for he confessed in           and struggles. We can also be spe-
all our work. Without that, all our        Psalm  55:17: "Evening, and morn-        cific about the needs and struggles
work is in vain. This is the rest, in      ing, and at noon, will I pray."          that we know others in the church
other words, that enables us to con-       Daniel also was, for of him we read      and in our families have. And not
tinue in our pilgrimage through            that "he kneeled upon his knees          only are we able to be specific with
this life with our heavenly Father         three times a day, and prayed, and       regard to our needs, we can be spe-
at our side.                               gave thanks before his God" (Dan.        cific also with regard to our thanks
    When we speak of personal or           6:lO). These were not cases of fam-      to our Father for His  ~grace  and
private devotions we are referring         ily devotions, but personal. And         help. This applies just as well to
to the time that the child of God          each of these men did it three times     our reading and study of the Scrip-
takes privately to read and study          a day!                                   tures. We are able to read and
the Scriptures, and privately to               Perhaps we feel that it isn't so     meditate on these things privately
pray. He or she does this  inaddi-         necessary to have private devotions      in a way we cannot do publicly.
tion to the time that the family, as       because really we obtain enough              The Bible itself demonstrates
a family, spends doing it. He or           spiritual nourishment by hearing         how important the Word of God is
she does this in addition to the time      two sermons each Sunday. We              for us. First of all, there is the well-
spent preparing for Bible Study. A         convince ourselves that that will be     known comparison of the Word of
child or teenager does this in addi-       sufficient to uphold us spiritually      God to a lamp and a light  0%.
tion to the time spent preparing for       throughout the week. But does            119:105). As those who live in the
Catechism lessons. A minister of           that really work? Is it possible for     darkness of sin and of this wicked
the gospel does this in addition to        a person to survive physically by        world, we need this lamp to guide
the time he spends studying the            eating food on only one day of the       our feet. Without it we will surely
Scriptures in preparation for              week? Is it any different spiritu-       stumble and fall.
preaching, for visiting, for counsel-      ally? It isn't! We need regular               The beauty of having the Word
ing, for catechism teaching, and for       spiritual food. Our attitude should      as our lamp and light is that, as
Bible studies.                             even be that we desire this more         we walk through this darkness, the
    Personal devotions are wor-            than we do our daily food. Job did.      Word sheds light on a different
ship. Consciously we enter the             He said: "I have esteemed the            pathway, a new and a better path-
presence of Jehovah to listen to           words of his mouth more than my          way. Though all around us is dark-
Him speak to us through His Word.          necessary food" (Job  23:12).            ness, the pathway on which we
And consciously we speak to Him                Personal devotions are neces-        walk as guided by the Word of God

400/3andard  Bearer/June, 1999


is the pathway that leads to eter-       "What is it that God teaches me in      the reading of Scripture a mere
nal life and glory.                      this passage concerning Himself         duty. Amazingly, he desires to do
    The Scriptures are also com-         and the blessed gospel of salvation     this. He desires to be nourished
pared to a weapon in warfare,            in Christ? And how shall I, this        by the Spirit of God through the
namely a sword  (Eph.  6:17). The        day, praise my God for this? How        Scriptures. He desires to express
implication, of course, is that we       shall I express thanks to Jehovah       in prayer his thanks to God and to
are soldiers in the battle of faith.     for the works of His grace in me?"      cast all his burdens on Jehovah. He
We are fighting a spiritual warfare          Finally, memorization can also      desires to express through his
against great spiritual forces. We       be a very profitable tool in our        study of the Scriptures and his
therefore need armor, both defen-        meditation on the Word of God.          prayers to God his dependen-ce
sive and offensive. We are given         Then we are able, throughout the        upon his heavenly Father. He
one piece of offensive armor to          day, to remind ourselves of what        seeks from God, through His Word,
fight that good fight of faith. It is    God says to us.                         the blessing and leading that he
the sword of the Spirit, which is            In connection with our study        knows he needs in his daily life.
the Word of God. But it is not           of God's Word, we must also pray.       He begins every day by seeking
enough for us simply to have in          Prayer is crucial to our spiritual      that blessing. During the day he
our possession the Bible as our          welfare. Through it we have the         stops frequently from the busyness
sword. We must use it in battle.         privilege of speaking directly to       of life and again expresses his
That is exactly why we need to           our heavenly Father. We bring be-       thanks and seeks the Lord's guid-
study it and meditate upon it, so        fore Him all our needs and give         ance.    And he ends the day in
that we are ready and equipped to        thanks to Him for all His blessings.    heartfelt thanksgiving to God for
use it when the time for combat          When we do this the Lord is             keeping him and guiding him
arises throughout the day.               pleased to give us what we need         through yet another day on his
    The proper way of using the          for our spiritual life.                 earthly pilgrimage.
Bible in our personal devotions is           The reading and study of the           He who regularly does this is
not simply that we rapidly read a        Word of God gives us, first of all,     one who, like  Enoch and like
passage and then utter a quick           content for our prayers. However,       Moses, walks with God. He real-
prayer. One who does this is like        the Scriptures also instruct us con-    izes that he cannot walk alone in
the man who comes to the meal            cerning the blessedness and neces-      this dark world of sin and spiri-
table and merely looks at the food.      sity of prayer. Philippians  4:6, 7,    tual death. He needs the lamp of
Without taking a single bite, he         for example, tell us that prayer is     the Scriptures to guide him. He
leaves the table imagining that he       the solution for worry. Instead of      needs his God to lead and uphold
is full. That simply does not work       worrying, we should pray. Instead       him. He is conscious always of his
- not with regard to physical food,      of attempting to bear all our bur-      need of Jehovah. And he depends
nor with regard to spiritual food.       dens on our own, we are to cast         constantly on Him.
After reading a passage of Scrip-        our cares upon Jehovah. If our             As children of God we cannot
ture we need to study it in order        lives are characterized by worry,       afford not to set aside time every
to understand what it means. Only        the reason is that we have not          day for private devotions. It is our
in this way does that Word become        prayed  - or at least that we have      life. Regularity is the key. If we
food for our souls.                      not prayed sincerely and as we          do not set aside a certain time each
    Once we understand the mean-         ought. Through prayer, "the peace       day, more than likely we will not
ing of the passage,  we_must  also       of God, which passeth all under-        do it. And it is good to remember,
meditate on it. Such meditation on       standing, shall keep your hearts        parents, that you have a responsi-
God's Word includes many things.         and minds through Christ Jesus."        bility with regard to your children
It is that part of our devotions             Much more could be said about       in this. Not only must you instruct
which is a contemplation on the          how necessary prayer is for our         them concerning their personal de-
wonders of God as He reveals             spiritual welfare. Let us remem-        votions, but you should also be ex-
Himself to us in His Word. We            ber, at least, the following. Again     amples to them.
consider the greatness of God Him-       and again in the Gospel accounts            Is all of this difficult? Yes. It
self. We think on the marvelous          we read that our Lord Jesus Christ      requires much work and effort.
works of God. We contemplate es-         prayed. Sometimes He did so for         But through this means, God gra-
pecially the depths of God's work        hours on end. If He the eternal,        ciously and abundantly blesses. So
of grace toward us in and through        sinless Son of God in our flesh         read the Scriptures. Meditate on
Jesus Christ.                            needed to do so and did so, how         them. And pray!  tl
    As part of meditation we make        much more ought not we?
application of God's Word to our             By God's grace, the child of
own lives.       We ask ourselves:       God does not consider prayer and

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                             Schildefs 66Covenant99

                                                         tism and what it says to, and means      Appeal!,  which he published back
                                                         for, the individual being baptized       in the late  194Qs,  just as our rela-
      For the promise is unto you, and                   - even when that individual is an        tionship with the Liberated was be-
to your children, and to all that are                    infant so young that it can hardly       ginning to develop into a contro-
afar off, even as many~as the Lord our                   be aware of what is going on, much       versy:
God shall call.                                          less of what is being said. But that
                                      Acts  2:39.        does not matter, for, as they are            When a child is baptized the
H                                                        quick to remind us, baptism is a           LORD Himself comes to that child,
            aving examined the history                   forensic act, a legal proclamation         He Himself sprinkles the water on
            of the Schilder/Hoeksema                     which has effect on that                   its head and says very really and
                                                                                                    personally: John, Mary, Anna, I, the
            c o n t r o v e r s y   a t     some         individual's life whether he con-          LORD  Himself, baptize you in my
length, it is perhaps time to focus                      sciously participates in it or not,        Holy Name. You are now of me! , . .
our attention now on the doctrinal                       and will affect that person through        That baptism, which has been per-
aspects of it. And that leads us,                        the rest of his life, and even be-         formed by the  LORD, always remains
first of all, to the question of what                    yond it into eternity. Actually, it        of  power; every day, every hour; un-
Schilder and the Liberated actually                      is much like what happens when a           til our death, yea to all eternity.  It
had in mind when they spoke of                           small child is taken to court to be        is essentially so that the Lord con-
the "covenant."                                          adopted by a new set of parents.           tinuously baptizes us. After He
      For us this is not an easy ques-                   There the judge makes a legal, fo-         sprinkled us with water when we
                                                                                                    were but a few days old, He al-
tion. In spite of all that was writ-                     rensic declaration that gives to that      ways keeps, so to speak, that wa-
ten, what the Liberated actually be-                     child a new family and makes him           ter fresh and living and powerful
lieve remains difficult for us to                        a legal heir of those new parents          upon our foreheads. And the
grasp  - while to them it appears                        who bring him there. He may not            Word which He first spoke, He
to be so perfectly obvious and clear                     be aware of what is going on, but          continues to speak through  ou,r
that they have no real concept of                        that pronouncement of the judge            whole  Iife! Every second Jehovah
the problems we see. Clearly, be-                        will change his life in every way          repeats: Carl, William, Mary, I
hind both sides there is a mental-                       as long as he lives. And so is it,        baptize you in the Name of the
ity which does not easily see the                        the Liberated will insist, with a          Father and of the Son and of the
                                                                                                    Holy Spirit. Or, better said,  Jeho;
concerns of the other. Each side                         child that is baptized. It is not the      vah does  not repeat that Word, He
thinks on a plane all its own, to                        parents, it is not the administrat-        continues to say it. It continu-
the point that what is centrally im-                     ing pastor, it is not the individual       ously comes to us, earnestly and
portant to the one side, the other                       receiving the sign, but it is God         graciously out of His heart, in un-
p a s s e s   b y   w i t h o u t   a   s e r i o u s    who declares at that moment that          broken power . . . It should ring in
thought. But, if this whole history                      the child being baptized is hence-         our hearts: The LORD baptizes us and
is to have meaning, it is important                      forth a member of His church, of          contim&  to baptize  us from  day to
for us to try to grasp what the Lib-                     the body of Jesus Christ as it is         day and hour to hour. He said once
erated have in mind.                                     manifest here upon this earth; and        and continues to say now from
                                                                                                   day to day and hour to hour: "I
     To begin with, we should note                       with that pronouncement of God            am the  L
that, to the Liberated mind, of cen-                     the individuars  life is changed for-                 ORD  your God and you
                                                                                                   are completely mine."
tral importance is the act of  bap-                      evermore. This is what happens
                                                         at baptism. And connected to this        To us these words come with a
                                                         are all of the implications of what      strange and disconcerting force;
                                                         the Liberated see to be the covenant     and yet in a very real way they ex-
                                                         of grace. Prof. C. Veenhof said as
Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeritus                                                            press the heart of what the Liber-
                                                         much in a little pamphlet called
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                              ated Churches had in mind.

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    Of primary importance to them          avert all evil or turn it to our        grounds upon which the baptism
in their view of the covenant of           profit. And when we are baptized        of children of believers may be ad-
grace is the covenant promise, as          in the name of the Son, the Son         ministered. In fact, Kuyper had
was indicated by Peter on Pente-           sealeth unto us, that he doth wash      gone so far as to claim that this pre-
cost Sunday when he exclaimed,             us in his blood from all our sins,      supposition is to be maintained
Acts  2:39, "For the promise is unto       incorporating us into the fellow-
                                           ship of his death and resurrection,     throughout each person's life, even
you, and to your children, and to          so that we are freed from all our       when he shows no signs of spiritu-
all that are afar off, even as many        sins, and accounted righteous be-       ality, for regeneration may lie dor-
as the Lord our God shall call."           fore God. In like manner, when          mant in him to the very end. It
This is the promise God speaks at          we are baptized in the name of          was this view, the Liberated main-
baptism as a legal, forensic pro-          the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost          tained (and in large part Hoeksema
nouncement to all believers and to         assures us, by this holy sacrament,     agreed with them), that was behind
their children, each and every time        that he will dwell in us, and sanc-     the very evident spiritual deadness
the sacrament of baptism is admin-         tify us to be members of Christ,
                                           applying unto us, that which we         that was spreading through the
istered in the services of the Chris-      have in Christ, namely, the wash-       Dutch Reformed churches every-
tian church. And it is the reason          ing away of our sins, and the daily     where, and against which  Klaas
why at the moment of baptism the           renewing of our lives, till we shall    Schilder felt driven to speak out
child's parents, after having given        finally be presented without spot       forcefully in all that he did. Salva-
expression to their own faith, are         or wrinkle among the assembly of        tion was being taken for granted,
required to answer by oath the             the elect in life eternal.              with little more being suggested
question, "Whether you promise                                                     than that everyone look within
and intend to see these children,        To the Liberated mind, these prom-        himself for some indication as to
when come to the years of discre-        ises become the lawful possession         whether or not he is elect.
tion (whereof you are either par-        of every baptized person, and their            And so it was that very early
ent or witness), instructed and          integrity must never be compro-           in his career Schilder came to place
brought up in the aforesaid doc-         mised, as has been so often done.         a great emphasis on what he con-
trine, or help or cause them to be           This they see as having been          sidered to be a clear reality
instructed therein, to the utmost of     done, for example, in the very            throughout the Word of God, the
your power?"      Henceforth that        negative and dangerous practice           fact that the promises of Scripture
child who is being baptized is to        followed by the Netherlands Re-           a r e   a l w a y s   a c c o m p a n i e d   b y
be brought up in the awareness of        formed Congregations, with their          complementary statements of de-
the Word of God, with all of the         concept of a kind of presupposed          mand and responsibility. The cov-
rich and wonderful promises which        un-regeneration. In their practice,       enant, after all, is a relationship es-
it contains.                             baptized children are told that the       tablished by God with his rational,
    This promise begins with that        promises of the Baptism Form and          moral creatures, and, accordingly,
most basic of covenant promises          of Scripture are not theirs unless        as the Baptism Form says, always
given to Abraham in Genesis  17:7,       and until they have received a clear      consists of two parts:
"And I will establish my covenant        and demonstrable experience of
between me and thee and thy seed         conversion and are brought into                Whereas in all covenants, there
after thee in their generations for      the grace of God. Then only do              are contained two parts: therefore
an everlasting covenant, to be a         they become true participants in            are we by God through baptism,
God unto thee, and to thy seed af-       the covenant of God; and only then          admonished of, and obliged unto
ter thee," and extends through all       would its promises have positive            new obedience, namely, that we
of the rich and beautiful variations     application to them. But even more          cleave to this one God, Father,
                                                                                     Son, and Holy Ghost; that we trust
on it which are found throughout         prominent in the minds of the Lib-          in him, and love him with all our
all of the pages of Scripture, and       erated people was the Reformed              hearts, with all our soul, with all
which are summarized in the bap-         (Gereformeerde)   Churches from             our mind, and with all our
tismal form:                             which they had been cast out, with          strength; that we forsake the
                                         their doctrine of presupposed re-           world, crucify our old nature, and
  For when we are baptized in the        generation. Promoted particularly           walk in a new and holy life.
  name of the Father, God the Fa-        by Abraham Kuyper, this doctrine
  ther witnesseth and sealeth unto       held that, although the covenant in       God acts; and man is required to
  us, that he doth make an eternal       the full sense of the word could          respond. This is his side of the cov-
  covenant of grace with us, and         only be with elect people, it is to       enant, and his legal responsibility
  adopts us for his children and                                                   before God, just as any child in a
  heirs, and therefore will provide      be presupposed that this is true of
  us with every good thing, and          every child born in the church.           family, while holding the rights of
                                         This presupposition provides the          an heir, also bears the duties and

                                                                                                June,  1999/Standard  Bearer/403


responsibilities which belong to         determined by introspection. Chris-       and he should focus his attention,
that home within which he has his        tian life is one of response to God       not on the question of his personal
place.                                   in recognition of and obedience to        predestination, but on the need for
    This we find throughout the          what He demands, as James said,           him to believe and live in the re-
Scriptures. Even as the wonderful        "faith, if it hath not works, is dead,    sponsibilities God brings to him in
and rich promises of God are often       being alone" (James  2:17).               the covenant of grace, confident
spoken of, they are always accom-            But there is still more. Not          that those who do so will certainly
panied with statements of the re-        only does God command, He ac-             be received of him.
sponsibilities which come to those       companies that command with                  And the second thing is that
who receive them. When God said,         warnings and threats. Life is not         these responsibilities are not given
"I will establish my covenant be-        just a matter of believing or not be-     in the supposition that anyone can
tween me and thee and thy seed           lieving, obeying or not obeying.          meet these of himself. Faith re-
after thee in their generations for      There is a great danger in rejecting      mains a gift of God, and obedience
an everlasting covenant, to be a         the word of God; and the Scrip-           can come only as a gift of grace
God unto thee, and to thy seed af-       tures throughout make this clear.         from him. God gives the power,
ter thee"  (Gen.  17:7), He also went    From Genesis to Revelation God            and in the end He does so accord-
on to add, in verse 9, "Thou shalt       thunders against sin, with those          ing to his own good pleasure to
keep my covenant therefore, thou,        same thunderings which drove Is-          whom He wills. He knows whom
and thy seed after thee in their gen-    rael back in fear from the foot of        He has chosen; and He will give
erations."     This, to the Liberated    Mount Sinai (Ex.  20:18).   S u c h       His grace when and how He de-
mind, is not a mere prediction, it       warnings go on through all of the         termines He will. But this, while
is God's demand as to how those          prophets, and through Jesus Him-          recognized, is to be left in His
who receive the covenant are there-      self when He cried, "But I say unto       hand, with the emphasis in cov-
upon required to live. And so it         you, It shall be more tolerable for       enant life placed on our responsi-
continues as one goes on through         Tyre and Sidon at the day of judg-        bility to believe and live as unto
God's Word, promises are always          ment, than for you"  (Matt.  11:22).      Him.
joined to statements of responsibil-     It is a terrible thing to reject God's
ity and demand. When Israel was          promises and demands given at                This, as I see it, and as sympa-
brought into the promised, cov-          baptism. To do so is to become a          thetically put as possible, is what
enant land, at the very entrance to      covenant-breaker, against which           the Liberated have in mind when
Canaan they were brought to those        every person raised in the church         they speak of the covenant of grace.
two mountains of which Moses al-         is to be warned again and again.          I have sent a copy of it for review
ready had spoken in Deuteronomy          It is that terrible sin from which in     to two friends who are capable
11:29: "And it shall come to pass,       the end there is no forgiveness           theologians, and essentially follow-
when the  LORD  thy God hath             (Heb. 6:4-6).                             ers of Schilder's covenant view;
brought thee in unto the land                This in brief summary is, as we       and they assure me that it is a fair
whither thou goest to possess it,        see it, the Liberated view of the         and accurate presentation. Actu-
that thou shalt put the blessing         covenant, there are however a few         ally, there is much in it with which
upon mount Gerizim, and the curse        things that should be added.              we would agree  - except for this,
upon mount Ebal." The two stand              In the first place, this view of      that that is not what the Scriptures
over against each other as the ex-       the covenant, as the Liberated see        present as the covenant of grace,
pression of the covenant of God,         it, is not to be complicated by in-       and that it leads to some serious
even as noted in Exodus  24:7, the       troducing the idea of election and        errors. But to that we must return
record of the commandments of            reprobation into it. And this is          later on. Cl
God was called "the book of the          meant in a very practical way.
covenant." It is within this frame-      That is to say, when children are
work that the covenant is always         born and raised in the covenant,
found.                                   they are not to be told to think of                 REMEMBER:
    If, therefore, we would bring        that privilege in terms of whether            The Standard Bearer
this into more immediate focus, as       they are themselves elect or not, so
it applies to each child born and        as to lead them to believe that                     is published
baptized within the church of God,       some, like themselves, who have                   only once a month
we must make it perfectly clear          been baptized are elect, and some
that the promises of the covenant        are not, and there is nothing they            during the months of
are never to be taken for granted.       can do about it. Each baptized              June, July, and August.
Election and regeneration are not        child is to be assured that he has
things to be simply presumed, or         been given the promises of God,

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                                          Love Waxing Cold

                                                            over the world. In fact, the radio            before. This is evident from the
     A n d   b e c a u s e   i n i q u i t y   s h a l l    has been virtually replaced by the            evils that have resulted from the
abound, the love  of  many shall wax                        television set, which is found in al-         automobile, the radio, the televi-
cold.                                                       most every home and keeps us in-              sion, and now the computer. Sin
                                  Matthew  24:12.           formed with all the news of the day           has also come far more out in the
I                                                           from every part of the world. The             open. Evils that were committed
     t is significant that in the twen-                     telephone, which was in its infancy           in secret, because they were still
     t i e t h   c e n t u r y      remarkable              in the early part of this century,            looked upon with disapproval, are
     changes have taken place, in-                          now transmits messages by satel-              now openly committed and con-
ventions and discoveries have been                          lite. A voice that is thousands of            doned by the general public. God
made, which stagger the imagina-                            miles away can be heard as if the             is not in all their thoughts. His
tion.                                                       other party were right in the room            commandments are transgressed in
     Horse and buggy have been re-                          with us.                                      the slums, but also among those in
placed by the automobile. When                                  Slates and pencils had their              positions of authority; among
the first auto made its appearance                          day when pen and paper were in-               adults, but also among young
it was commonly thought that this                           troduced, soon to be followed by              people and teenagers.
would never be serviceable, be-                             the manual and then the electric                  The Word of our Lord that "in-
cause there would not be sufficient                         typewriter. Now the computer                  iquity shall abound" is being ful-
gasoline to fill the need. Today,                           plays an important role in our                filled. Literally we read that  Zaw-
cars have become an indispensable                           lives, even to the extent that our            Zessness shall abound. Lawlessness
means of transportation for every                           daily existence begins to depend              certainly characterizes the times in
family. Steam locomotives have                              upon it. Predictions are made that            which we live. God's law is delib-
been replaced by diesel engines                             the micro-disc will accomplish                erately trodden underfoot. That
that are capable of hauling a hun-                          things far beyond our imagination.            law is no longer the standard of
dred or more cars of freight.                                   Automation       h a s   a l r e a d y    right and wrong, righteousness or
Homes which once received                                   brought     about     phenomenal              unrighteousness. Those in author-
their light from kerosene lamps are                         changes in our homes, churches,               ity, as well as judges, jurors, and
now lit by the power of electricity.                        and business places. Our grand-               iawyers, are swayed by public sen-
In fact, the discovery of the power                         parents never knew the conve-                 timent, the consensus of the ma-
of electricity has opened the way                           niences we now take for granted,              jority of the people. They are men-
for many modern inventions which                            such as running water, the refrig-            pleasers, rather than servants of
serve many purposes in the home                             erator, gas and electric stoves, and          God.
and in public buildings. The power                          air conditioning. Today we won-                   Even the church has fallen vic-
need be shut off for only a short                           der how they managed without                  tim to the lawlessness of our times.
time for us to realize what an im-                          them.                                         To a-great extent Christianity has
portant part electricity plays in our                           We begin only in a small way              become idol worship. God is re-
lives.                                                      to understand why the Lord waited             garded as a servant of mankind,
     When the radio first appeared                          until this twentieth century to give          awaiting and granting our requests
we listened with amazement to the                           man the ability to discover and in-           for anything we might desire. He
scratchy voice or music that came                           vent that which we now take for               sends only "good gifts" to man-
to us from a station a few miles                            granted.                                      kind. Storms, floods, and all other
away. Today there are  .innumer-                               One thing is certain, all this de-         disasters do not come to us from
able stations sending messages all                          velopment, along with our present             His hand, but are rather freaks of
                                                            affluence, has brought about an ex-           nature which must be overcome. A
                                                            tremely rapid development of sin.             good God would not send such
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                    Today there are many more means               evils upon us.
Protestant Reformed Churches.                               and opportunities to sin than ever               Many regard God as a god of

                                                                                                                   June,  1999/Standard  Bearer/405


love, who is willing and eager to          Many formerly peaceful communi-           the neighbor for God's sake. That
save the whole human race. He              ties have become centers of drug          is much richer than the mere hu-
stretches out His hand with earnest        dealings and crime, unsafe to pass        man affection which is so strongly
pleadings, but He cannot save us           through  either by day or by night.       advocated in our day.
unless we by our own volition              Because of crowded jails, criminals          Our Lord speaks of the love of
grasp that hand. All the gifts of          run loose to endanger the lives of        many waxing cold.        Literally the
salvation are available to us, except      others.                                   text says that the love of many is
faith. We, on our part, must show              Fornication and adultery are          being blown cold. Breezes of chill-
our willingness to be saved.               openly committed and condoned.            ing false doctrines sweep into the
        Some even maintain that sal-       There is an increasingly large num-       church. Drafts of worldly-minded-
vation is possible outside of Christ,      ber of single-parent homes. Di-           ness waft through the congrega-
even for those who reject Him. Se-         vorce and remarriage have become          tion. The increasing lawlessness in
rious-minded Muslims, Hindus,              a common practice, even to the ex-        the environment has its evil effect
and Jews are also saved. And there         tent that churches allow it. Though       upon the members of the flock.
are those who maintain that, while         Scripture clearly condemns it, ho-           These gentle, almost unnoticed
there is a temporary place of pun-         mosexuality finds common ap-              breezes grow stronger as Satan and
ishment, no one remains in hell for-       proval. And sex outside of mar-           his followers increase their attack
ever, for ultimately all mankind is        riage is virtually encouraged by          upon the church in order to wipe
saved.                                     making contraceptives available to        out God's cause from the face of
        I need but remind you that pro-    teenagers.                                the earth. They appeal strongly to
fanity, once frowned upon, at least            Lotteries, gambling of all sorts,     the flesh, and therefore they appeal
in public places, has become so            have become an exciting venture.          especially to the carnal element. As
common that it passes almost un-           The love of money accounts for all        these pleasing breezes increase,
noticed. Sabbath observance is in-         kinds of evil, such as theft, lying,      they become more appealing and
creasingly neglected. Shopping             cheating, backbiting, and slander.        more commonly accepted.
centers and factories carry on as          The evil tongue is a world of iniq-           Sound doctrinal preaching is
usual. Stores do their largest busi-       uity which is growing more pow-           sorely lacking. All the emphasis is
ness on that day.                          erful as the end approaches.              no longer placed upon God, but
        Maybe one of the root evils in         All this is a clear sign that the     upon man, upon public appeal, and
our time is the neglect of the fam-        Man of Sin (literally, the man of         upon external growth. The sacra-
ily.      The struggle for equality        lawlessness) is coming to his full        ments are offered to all who care
among the sexes, working mothers,          power.                                    to partake. Christian discipline is
all our modern conveniences,  ever-            Jesus warns us that the result        no longer exercised. All sorts of
increasing busyness  - all these           of this abounding wickedness is           compromise are made to make the
have had a profound effect on fam-         that the love of many waxes cold.         preaching appealing to all who can
ily life. Rarely is the entire family          Our first reaction might very         be drawn into the church.
quietly enjoying each other's fel-         well be to think that this is not true        The love of many waxes cold.
lowship at home, much less at              today. For the fact is that there is      Since they lack knowledge, they
meals. Authority and obedience,            more emphasis on  love today than         object to sound doctrine from the
instruction and training have gone         ever before, not only in the world,       pulpit because it does not appeal
by the wayside. Parents are not            but also in the church. Much of           to them. Sunday services are not
aware of where their children are          the preaching and teaching is cen-        worship services to glorify our
or what they are doing. The chil-          tered in love, loving one another         God, but places of entertainment.
dren become defiant and delin-             in the home and in the church, lov-       People come to enjoy themselves,
quent. There is something radi-            ing our neighbor, loving all men.         be aroused to enthusiasm, excited
cally wrong when teenagers can             It is even emphasized that God            not edified. Therefore many attend
and do carry guns and knives to            loves all mankind with an earnest         church only once on the Sabbath,
school.                                    desire to save all. And all this is       and complain that they must listen
        The murder of unborn and un-       stressed at the expense of God's          to a long, dry discourse from the
wanted babies has run into the mil-        justice, righteousness, and holiness.     minister.    Being ignorant of the
lions. Our daily news reports give             The love that Jesus is speaking       truth of Scripture they also become
numerous accounts of murder,               of here is not a mere outward ex-         lax in their daily life. Scripture no
committed even by teenagers and            pression of affection, but the love       longer has a prominent place in
occasionally by small children.            of God. It is the love that fills the     their homes. There is no time for
Who ever heard of school halls be-         heart of God and is spread abroad         family worship. More time is spent
ing monitored to prevent the               into the hearts of His people.            enjoying the sports and other en-
sneaking in of murder weapons?             Thereby we love God, and we love          tertainment of the world.

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        Complacency turns into apa-                    highminded, lovers of pleasure          church that falls into error to be-
thy, apathy becomes hostility.                         more than lovers of God; having a       come an apostatizing church, and
Even though at one time many                           form of godliness, but denying the      soon apostate, ready for the final
faithfully attended the public wor-                    power thereof: from such turn           judgment. Jesus warns us: Be-
ship, and even made confession of                      away" (II Tim. 3:1-5).                  ware, be alert, be on your guard.
their faith, they now turn against                         No, there will be no hypocrites     Hold that which thou hast, that no
all that is holy.  : They are cold, life-              in the church in those last days in     man take thy crown!
less, enemies of God and His                           which Antichrist reigns. Everyone           At the same time He comforts
Christ.                                                will speak of "love", more than ever    and encourages His church with
        Paul warns us in his second                    before. Everyone will "love" one        the assurance that the white horse
epistle to Timothy: "This know                         another as together they enjoy the      and its rider are going forth con-
also, that in the last days perilous                   luxuries and bounties offered to        quering.        The gospel is being
times shall come. For men shall be                     them by the Beast, since together       spread to the ends of the earth, es-
lovers of their own selves, covet-                     they bow in deep devotion and           pecially now, it seems, in the Ori-
ous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,                     worship before him. The faithful        ent. God's church is being gath-
disobedient to parents, unthankful,                    believers will be despised, hated,      ered from the ends of the earth, His
unholy, without natural affection,                     put in prison, and killed. God and      kingdom is coming, His name is
trucebreakers, false accusers, in-                     His cause must be wiped out from        glorified.
continent, fierce, despisers of those                  the face of the earth.                      The crown awaits us! The Lord
that are good, traitors, heady,                            It does not take long for a         is coming speedily!  tl





Evangelism Activities                                      The Evangelism Societies of
A                                                                                              Sunday, Rev. and Mrs. Moore
          recent bulletin from the                     First and Southeast PRC in Grand        planned to continue to work their
         Randolph, WI PRC reminded                     Rapids, MI recently sponsored a         way to the Chicago, IL and Grand
me again how our Heavenly Father                       very worthwhile and informative         Rapids, MI areas to preach and
continues to build His church  -                       lecture at First. Rev. Dale Kuiper,     give more informational presenta-
how He uses even lectures spon-                        pastor of Southeast PRC, spoke on       tions to our other congregations
sored by various congregations to                      the subject, "The Christian and En-     during the month of May.
spread His truth virtually around                      tertainment."                             You may also remember that
the world.                                                 That same evening, April 22,        our synod requested sending vol-
        Such appears to be the case                    the Evangelism Committee of the         unteers as helpers to our mission-
with a recent lecture sponsored by                     Kalamazoo, MI PRC hosted a              ary in Ghana. The  Foreign Mis-
Randolph's Evangelism Commit-                          spring lecture at their church. Rev.    sion Committee has now confirmed
tee. Prof. D. Engelsma spoke on                        R. Cammenga, pastor of the South-       sending John and Judy Bouma,
March 19 on the subject, "The Re-                      west PRC in Grandville, MI, spoke       members of the Grandville, MI
turn of Christ and  Y2K." Appar-                       on the topic of "Angels."               PRC, as assistants in Ghana.
ently a tape of this lecture was sent
to interested contacts in the Philip-                  Mission Activities                      Denomination Activities
p i n e s   a n d   t h e y   w r o t e   b a c k :        ev.
                                                       R A. Spriensma, pastor of the The Ladies' Spring League Meet-
"Thank you very much for the                               Grandville, MI PRC, returned            ing, made up of ladies from the
tape. It was very enlightening to                      home safely  from. Wales in late        Doon  a n d   H u l l ,   I A   a n d   t h e
us. I'm sending the tape to my                         April. He had been in Wales for         Edgerton, MN  PRCs was held on
friends who are equally  ,interested                   six weeks doing some work on be-        April 21 in the  Doon PRC. Rev. R.
in the truth being exposed by your                     half of our Domestic Mission Com-       Smit, pastor at  Doon, spoke on the
Church." It should make us all ex-                     mittee among contacts there.            topic, "Joy in Joppa," based on Acts
tremely thankful and humble that                           Rev. Moore planned to be in         10:32-43.
God can and does use our weak                          our Lynden, WA PRC on Sunday,               The Adult Bible Society of the
sinful efforts to gather His church.                   May 2. After leading the evening        Peace PRC in Lansing, IL invited
                                                       worship service, he intended to         members from the Adult Bible So-
                                                       give the Lynden congregation the        cieties of the South Holland, IL
Mr.  Wigger is an elder in  fhgm?&stant                opportunity to hear and ask ques-       PRC and the Bethel PRC in Roselle,
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-               tions about the preparations for the    IL to meet with them on April 27
gan.                                                   mission work in Ghana. After that       for a discussion on Peter's sermon

                                                                                                             June, 7999/StandardBearer/407


 i%arer                                                                                                                                                PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                                       Posfage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                                        Grandville,
   Grandville, MI 49468-0603                                                                                                                           Michigan


after Pentecost, recorded in Acts                                tually rewarding and comforting.                             congratulations.
2:14-40.                                                                This past Lenten season, many                                  I was reminded recently of per-
     Members of the Senior and Jun-                              of our congregations were able to                            haps one benefit of our Christian
ior Mr.  & Mrs. and Adult Bible So-                              enjoy concerts of sacred music sung                          schools that may often be over-
cieties in the Grand Rapids, MI                                  or played by different groups from                           looked. You make good Christian
area were invited to the Grace PRC                               our churches. One such event was                             friends at school, and perhaps
in Standale, MI on April 20 to hear                              the singing of an Easter cantata en-                         these friends, made when you are
Candidate N. Brummel speak on                                    titled, "Hallelujah, What a Savior,"                         young, will be your friends for life.
"Reformed but Always Reform-                                     sung by the choir of the Randolph,                           If that is true for you, as it was for
ing."                                                            WI PRC.                                                      me and my wife, then you will be
                                                                                                                              truly blessed.
Congregation Activities                                          School Activities                                                     Good Christian friends are in-
In mid-April, members of the                                                                                                  deed a fruit of your Christian edu-
   Lynden, WA PRC were invited                                   June means that school is already
                                                                       over, or soon will be, for some                        cation.
to spend an evening with the mem-                                of our younger readers. If you are                                            FoodCFor Though
bers of the Christian Health Care                                in one of those select groups who                                     "The intellect of the wise is like
Center and sing some Psalms,                                     graduate this spring, we certainly                           glass; it admits the light of heaven and
something that is always very spiri-                             want to extend to you our sincere                            reflects it."  Cl



                TEACHER NEEDED
      Hope Protestant Reformed Christian                                                                                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
School is in need of a Protestant Reformed                                                                                             With much gratitude to God we express
music/band instructor for the 2000-2001 school                                                                                congratulations to our parents and grandpar-
year. For information, please direct inquiries                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             ents,
to Mike Lotterman, 1382 Su-Lew, Walker,                                  On June 10, 1999, our parents and grand-                           JOE and  BEA MEYER,
Michigan 49544 (616) 453-4106 or the ad-                         parents,                                                     who celebrate their  50rh wedding anniversary
ministrator, Ron  Koole, (616) 453-9717.                               THEODORE and THERESA LOOYENGA,                         on June 1, 1999. We thank them for their
                                                                 will celebrate their  50th wedding anniversary.              godly example, instruction, care, and love.
                        NOTICE                                   We are thankful for the years our faithful Fa-               What a blessing they have been to us. May
      Synod of the PRC will convene in First                     ther has given them. We pray that God may                    He continue to bless and keep them in His
PRC of Holland, Michigan on Tuesday, June                        continue to bless them in their marriage in the              care.
8. The Pre-Synodical Service will be held in                     years to come.                                                        "But the mercy of the Lord is from ever-
the sanctuary of First PRC (Holland) on Mon-                     1       Joe and Mary Brummel                                 lasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
day, June 7, beginning at  7:30  P.M.                            %       Randy and Pat McCullough                             and his righteousness unto children's children;
                                                                 %       Larry and Kathy Looyenga                             to such as keep his covenant, and to those
                        NOTICE                                   $       Robert and Kathy Looyenga                            that remember his commandments" (Psalm
      The Association for Protestant Reformed                    %       Randall and Lindy Looyenga                           103:17,  18).
Secondary Education, in Lansing, IL, is seek-                    * Nancy Feenstra                                             $        John and Mary Meyer
ing experienced educators willing to work on                     %       Douglas and Melissa Looyenga                                    Janice, Joe, Shirlene, Andy, Glenda,
a consultancy basis during the summer of                         I       Mark and Sara Looyenga                                          Donald, Karen, John, Robert, Pamela,
1999. The work involves the further develop-                     z%      Pat and Karen Witherell                                         Curt, Neal
ment of curriculum, policies, and other items                                27 grandchildren                                 $        Neil and Connie Meyer
relating to the establishment of a Protestant                                1 great-grandchild                                          Annette, Chris, Ben, Jennelle, Tabitha
Reformed high school in the area, D.V., the                                  1 granddaughter in glory                         z%       Vie and Helen Paladini
fall of 2000. For particulars, contact Educa-                                                       Grand Rapids, Michigan    $        Al and Alice Kaptein
tion Committee Chairman, Barry Warner at                                                                                                 Tom, Michelle, Terry, Todd,
( 2 1 9 )   3 2 2 - 9 7 7 3   [barry.warner@henkel-                                                                                      Melinda, Melissa
americas.com] or Board Chairman, Don                                                                                          %        Randy and Connie  Maycroft
T e r p s t r a   a t   ( 2 1 9 )   8 3 8 - 3 6 0 0  [dwterp@                                                                            Kelly, Ellen, Susan
junocorn].                                                                                                                                                       Grand Rapids. Michigan


rCO@Standard  Bearer/June,  1999


