A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Maaazine

                     __-...      --      ..____._...      --_____-    .__._   .-_.    -  ..- ..-. -._----     .--..-  -__--.
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                                                                                                     _I





                                         r





                                                          See "Missing Children: Is Children's Church
                                                                                                              Biblical?" - p. 114


Vol. TV, No. 5
December 1, 2 993


                                                                                                    December I, 1993

Meditation - Rev. John A. Heys
     The Everlasting Glory Our Afflictions Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Editorial - Prof. David J, Engelsma
     The Problem of Evil . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.......................................................... 101                                              ISSN  0362-4692
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                                                                                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July, and August.
     Tithe ..~.......................................................................*.**.*................                                       103        Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                             4649 lvtmrest Ave., Grsndville, MI 49418. Second Class
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hank0                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at Qrandville, Michigan.
     The Story of Two Fredericks (2) . . . . . . . . . . . ..***.................................... 104                                                     Postmaster:  Ssnd address changes to the Standard Bearer,
The Day of Shadows - Homer C, Hoeksema                                                                                                                       P.O. Box 603, Grandville. MI 49466-0602.
     Introduction to Old Testament Hlstory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106                            EDKORIAL COMMIITEE
Come, Lord Jesus - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren                                                                                                                     Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                             Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
     Dinosaurs and Other Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.*.......... 109                          Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
In His Fear - Mr. Bruce VanSolkema                                                                                                                           DEPARTMENT EDITORS
     Covenant Christian Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..................... 111                                 Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
Search the Scriptures - Rev. George C, Lubbers                                                                                                               Decker, Rev. A& denHattcg, Rev. Barry Gritten, Rev. Carl
                                                                                                                                                             Haak, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
    The Spirit-Foretold Apostatizing In Latter Days (10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112                                                         Heys, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Dale Kulper, Mr. James Lentlng,
Special Feature  -                                                                                                                                           Rev. G'eorge Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. Thomas
                                Rev. Bruce C. Davis                                                                                                          Mlerama,  Rev. Audmd Sprlensma, Rev. Cherlsa Terpetre.
     Misslng Children: Is Children's Church Biblical? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114                                                      Rev. GiseVanBamn,  Rev. RonaldVanOvertoop, Mr. Benjamin
Book Reviews                                                                                                                                                 Wigger. Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
                       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..IIII.............................................117
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . ..*....................... 119                                                                    EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDKOR
                                                                                                                                                             The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wloaer
                                                                                                                                                             4649 lvanrast                6507 4oth&.
                                                                                                                                                             Qrandville, MI 46416         Hudsonville. MI 46428
                                                                                                                                                             BUSINESS OFFtCE              NEW ZEALAND OFFtCE
                                                                                                                                                             The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                             Don Doezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
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years, Professor H. C. Hoeksema taught Old Testament history in the Protestant                                                                               Grandville, Ml               Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                                          NORTHERN IRELAND OFFtCE
Reformed Seminary. For this course, he prepared his own extensive notes. While he                                                                            PH~~-1460                    c/o Mr. Jonathan McWey
was still living, the Seminary published these notes (through the book of Judges) in                                                                                  (616) 5261776       164 Church Rd.. Glenwtierry
                                                                                                                                                             FAX:  (616) 531-3023         Baliymena, Co. Antrim BT42  3EL
syllabus form. Beginningwith thisissue, wewillbepublishingtheseclass-notesin"The                                                                                                          Northern Ireland
Day of Shadows." Our editing of his material will consist only of eliding some sections                                                                      EDITORIAL PDLICY
                                                                                                                                                             Every editor I8 solely responsible for the contents of his own
that are more appropriate for the seminary classroom than for the general public and                                                                         articles. Contrlbutkwofgenere!lnterestfromwrreademand
of minor changes in the format that make it more suitable for a magazine.                                                                                    questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
     Rev. Dale H. Kuiper gives pointed instruction concerning the tithe in his column,                                                                       Contributions will be limited to approximately 200 words and
                                                                                                                                                             mustbeneatfywrittenortypewritten,andmustbeeigned.  Copy
"A Word Fitly Spoken." Here is the answer to the question that well-meaning                                                                                  deadlines are the first and fifteenth  of the month. All
fundamentalists sometimes ask us Reformed, "Why do you not practice tithing?" The                                                                            communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
"practical remark" with which he closes should be carefully considered by us all.                                                                            editorial office.
    Hand your childen  and young people this issue of the SB opened to Rev. Glse J. Van                                                                      REPRINT POLtCY
Baren's article, "Dinosaurs and Other Monsters." He warns that the fascination with                                                                          PermIssIon  lsherebygrantedfort~~reprlntlngofartlcloslnour
                                                                                                                                                             msgazinebyotherpubliations,pravided:a)thatsuchrepcinted
dinosaurs is not innocent as it might seem to be, but on the part of the world is related                                                                    articles are mpmduced in full; b) that proper ecknowfedgmant
to the theory of evolution and even to the new age movement.                                                                                                 is mcrde;  c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                             appears is smt to our editorial office.
    We welcome two contributors to this issue, Mr. Bruce Van Solkema and Rev. Bruce
C. Davis. Both make important comment on the place and instruction of covenant                                                                               SUBSCRIPTtON POLICY
children. Mr. Van Solkema, a former member of the Board of the Heritage Christian                                                                            Subscription price:  512.60 par year in the U.S., $15.00
                                                                                                                                                             slew&are. Unless a definite request for discontinuance Is
School, reminds us of our solemn calling as a covenant people to cooperate in the                                                                            reoelved,  it I8  assumed  that the subscriber  Wiahas  the
education of our children in our Protestant Reformed Christian Schools. Rev. Davis,                                                                          wbscriptiontocantinue.andhewillbebilledforreneti.  lfyw
pastor of the Grand Valley Orthodox Christian Reformed Church in Allendale, exposes                                                                          haveachangeofaddress,pleasenotiitheBusinessOfficeas
                                                                                                                                                             early as possible In order to avoid the inconvenience of
the error of a practice that is making headway in Reformed churches, namely, holding                                                                         interrupted delivery. lndude your Zip or Postal Code.
"children's church." See the special feature, "Missing Children: Is Children's Church                                                                        ADVERTtSlNQ POUCY
Biblical?"
    Do not overlook the review of the recent bookby  noted Presbyterian theologian Dr.                                                                       of any kind. Announwments of &urch and echod events,
John H. Gerstner, Wrongly  Dividing the Word of Truth.                                                                                                       anniber8a~. obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
                                                                                                    Criticizing the doctrine of a                            @aced for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
"well-meant offer of the gospel," Dr. Gerstner has written that "only the Protestant                                                                         Officeandshwldbeacwmpanisdbythe$3.Wfw.                 Deadline
Reformed Church seems willing to hold to the whole counsel of God on this doctrine."                                                                         for announcements Is at least one month prior to puMication
Rare encouragement from a highly regarded defender of the Reformed faith!                                                                                    date.
    It is also encouraging to discover from church news editor Ben Wigger that many                                                                          BOUND VOLUMES
of our congregations commemorated the Reformationlast month with special meetings                                                                            The Business offica will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                             capiaaofthecwrentvolume. Suchordersarefilledaeswnas
and programs. The truth and Spirit of the Reformation live in our churches by the grace                                                                      possible after completion of a volume year.
of God.                                                                                                                                                      16mm  microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 165mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                           --DJE             article copies are avallable through Unlvemlty MicroRIms
                                                                                                                                                             Intemetlonel.
98fSfandardBearerlDecember  1,1993


                    The Everlasting Glory
                        Our Afflictions Work

For our light ajfliction,  which is butfor a    to all men because the wages of sin is     goodwill towardme." This they sang
moment, worketk for us a far more ex-           death, he is going away from this sad      at Jesus' birth. And the glory of God
ceeding and eternal weight of glory.            life and into an everlasting weight of     is the shining forth of His virtues and
                     II Corinthians 497         glory, as Paul here declares.              strength. When He sent His Son into
                                                    We do well, however, to change         our flesh to be our Savior, He re-
    Do you agree with the apostle               one word in our translation of this        vealed His love and power; and in
Paul?                                           verse which Paul wrote. The word           that way He manifested to us how
    As far as his claim (that our afflic-       "eternal" should be changed to "ev-        glorious He is.
tions work glory for us) is concerned,          erlasting." That which is eternal has           Through His Son our God gra-
we no doubt can agree with Paul.                no beginning or end. Our light afflic-     ciously worked in us an exceeding
Surely in a physical sense that can be          tions do not work for us an eternal        and everlasting weight of glory. Gra-
very true. A very serious and painful           weight of glory. The glory our light       ciously God makes us glorious by
affliction in surgery, for example, can         affliction works has a beginning in        making us righteous and holy. He
give us misery for a few weeks, and             our lives. Our afflictions have a be-      causes us to be born again as His elect
thenbring us years of relief and a very         ginning because we come into this          children. He removes our guilt and
pleasant life.                                  world at a divinely appointed  mo:         keeps us safe from the punishment
    But in this vale of tears, does the         ment of time. What is more, that           which we deserve. God's glory is the
child of God really have only a "light          affliction also begins at a certain mo-    radiation and shining forth of that
affliction," and one that lasts only for        ment of time. It has a beginning in us,    wonderful workof His grace whereby
a moment? That word "affliction"                because we have a beginning of life.       He implants in us love for Himself,
which Paul uses is very often trans-            We are not eternal as our God is. How      even though through our father and
lated as tribulation, or even as perse-         can that which does not yet exist be       mother, Adam and Eve, we began to
cution. Can we then agree with Paul             eternally afflicted? Whatever has a        hate Him. Satan brought that shame
and call this persecution a light afflic-       beginning enjoys and experiences           and agony upon us. But God makes
tion, which is but for a moment?                nothing that is eternal. Whatever has      His elect to be people in whom He
    Yes, for if we delve into what our          a beginning is not eternal. Scripture      implants a new spiritual life; and He
God says here through Paul, we not              reveals the truth to us in that way. In    keeps Satan from taking that spiritual
only agree that this verse brings to us         Genesis 1:l we read that in the begin-     life away from them.
the truth, but also that God never lies.        ning God created the heavens and the           The affliction which we have, as
What is more, the verse assures us of           earth. These places were not eternal;      children of God, is light compared
that which is tremendously comfort-             and likewise men who are created on        with what Christ suff ered as our Head
ing for the child of God. Whether a             the earth are not eternal and have no      and representative. And that afflic-
child of God dies as the result of              eternal weight of glory. What is more,     tion is the work of God's grace. It is
persecution which Satan realizes                in Revelation 21:l we read of a new        not that which we earn, namely, that
through unbelievers, or whether his             heaven and a new earth, which John         exceeding and everlasting weight of
death is simply part of what happens            saw in a vision. And in the next verse     glory. What must be stressed in the
                                                we read of a new Jerusalem coming          church-world today is that we do not
                                                down from God out of heaven.               earn  the smallest part of our salva-
                                                    Now our light affliction does work     tion. Every bit of it, including our
                                                for us a far more exceeding and ever-      desire for it, is the gift of God's grace.
                                                lasting weight of glory. In Luke 2:14      That desire for salvation is not the
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the         we find the angels singing: "Glory to      condition which we have to fulfill in
Protestant Reformed Churches.                   God in the highest, and on earth peace,    order to have that salvation with its

                                                                                                 December 1,19?33/Standard  Bead99


blessedness. The Arminian philoso-                  God sends upon us in His holy wrath.        very painful and everlasting weight
phy of Christ offering salvation to us,             Our afflictions are sent in God's love.     of God's wrath in hell! But the child
waiting to see whether we will ask                  We do well to bear in mind that each        of God, when the Antichrist comes
Him to begin it in us, is Satan's devil-            one of those whom God eternally             with affliction upon the members of
ish philosophy. Nowhere can we in                   chose to be a member of the body of         the body of Christ, must hold on to
Scripture find Christ -                                             Christ belongs to  -the     this comforting truth that such afflic-
or for that matter the  -                      I                    church which tie de-        tion is light in comparison with what
Triune God - asking us             . ..our afflictions              signed. And God de-         God is preparing.
to let Him begin salva-                                             signed a particular             Thank God for all the afflictions
tion in us.                          . . . are designed             place for every single      which He sends, and say with Him
     Look up Psalm                        and decreed               one of His elect, with a    what He says through Paul in Ro-
139:14.  There we read, "I                  by God                  particular work to per-     mans 8:28: "We know that all things
will praise thee; for I am                to bring us               form as the member of       work together for good to them that
fearfully and wonder-               to a particular                 Christ's body, and with     love God, to them who are the called
fully made: marvellous                                              a particular work to        according to his purpose.n
are thy works; and that                   place in the              perform in a particular         Now, to see that more exceeding
my soul knoweth right               body of Christ,                 place in that body of       and everlasting weight of glory we, as
well." Likewise in John                   which body                Christ.                     the next verse tells us, must look by
13:7ChristJesuspresents              God designed                     Our hands do differ-      faith at that which our fleshly eye
to us the awesome truth:                  and builds                ent work than our feet,     cannot see. By faith we can see the
U What I do thou knowest                                            and are in different        tremendous significance of Christ's
not now; but thou shalt                    perfectly.               places in the body. And     cross. By faith we can see Him enjoy-
know hereafter." Look  -                       I                    as God is shaping the       ing that exceeding and everlasting
then also at verse 18,                                              church, that body of        weight of glory. We can see Him
namely, "I speak not of you all: I                  Christ, the elect members of thatbody       there as the Head; and we can see
know whom I have chosen." We do                     not only have a specific place de-          ourselves as the members of His body,
not get salvation because we decided                signed by God, but have a particular        each in a particular place.
to ask for it. We can and do ask for it             workwhichtheywillperform.  Wedo                 Seeing these wonderful and
only after God has implanted that                   not now see why this one dies in this       blessed things, we can and will call
desire in us. And when Christ Jesus                 way, and that one in that way. We           our afflictions light, and of only short
was on the edge of dying on His cross,              cannot now explain why these mem-           duration. Seeingtheseblessedthings,
to earn for us that exceeding and                   bers of Christ's body die at the same       we have the God-given proof that our
everlasting weight of glory, He said,               time and by the same "accident," or         exceeding and everlasting weight of
as recorded in John 17:9: "I pray for               sickness. But we do well to bear in         glory is being prepared for us, and
them; I pray not for the world, but for             mind and appreciate the fact that our       that through our afflictions God is
them which thou has given me; for                   light afflictions are designed by God,      preparing us to receive them.
they are thine."                                    and are used by Him. Do we not read             Do not then for one second ques-
     Likewise in John lo:15 we read, "I             in I Corinthians 12:12 this astounding      tion God's love and wisdom in what
lay down my life for the sheep." That               truth, namely, "For as the body is one,     He sends upon us. Instead sing with
refers to a specific number of sheep.               and hath many members, and all the          your soul the truth which we find in
Satan also has sheep; but not one of                members of the one body, beingmany,         Psalm 98 and Psalter number 261:2,
them willbe saved. God-who isnot                    are one body: so also is Christ"? And       namely:
moved and does not have His mind                    then in verse 27 we read, "Now ye are           Truthandmercytow'rdHispeople
and will changed by what men do -                   the body of Christ, and members in              He hath ever kept in mind,
chose a definite number of sheep for                particular."                                    And His full and free salvation
whom Christ would die and bring                         Look then at your afflictions in            He hath shown to  aJ.l mankind.
salvation. Consider also that Christ's              the light of what God says of it, not           Sing, 0 earth, sing to Jehovah,
church is called His body. We read,                 what men will say about it. Com-                Praises to Jehovah sing;
for example, in Ephesians 5:30, "For                pared with the exceeding and ever-              With the swelling notes of music
                                                                                                    Shout before the Lord, the King.
we are members of his body, of his                  lasting weight of glory, this affliction
flesh and bones."                                                                                                                       cl
                                                    is light. In fact, look at the light
    Now our afflictions, of which Paul              affliction as a shining light upon your
speaks here, are designed and de-                   pathway and experiences. The unbe-
creed by God to bring us to a particu-              liever, looking at his afflictions, may
lar place in the body of Christ, which              grumble and complain. He may even
body God designed and builds per-                   commit suicide, thinking that death
fectly. Our afflictions are not what                will end it for him, and then find a

1 OOIStandard  Bearer /December I,1993


                         The Problem of Evil

                                               the "holocaust" of Nazi Germany is               in sin, and, therefore, are subject to
     Evil is a problem for the child of        not a problem to anyone who believes             all miseries, yea, to condemnation
God. The problem is practical, spiri-          the Scriptures. Their suffering is dis-          itself (Reformed Form of Baptism).
tual, and urgent. Such is the problem          tressing, but it is not puzzling.
that God's child is tempted,  strongly                 God visits the wicked with the         To unbelievers, God has made no
tempted, either to despair of God's            evils that they fully deserve. Evil in         gracious promise to save their chil-
goodness or to rebel against His sov-          the life of the reprobate unbeliever is        dren. He has not included their chil-
ereignty. He struggles with discour-           divinely inflicted punishment. The             dren in the redemption of the cross of
agement and bitterness.                        Reformed faith confesses that God in           the Savior. Unbaptized, without any
     Evilis the occasion of this struggle.     Hisperfectionofjusticewillnotallow             refuge under the blood of the Lamb,
Evil here isnot sin, although it maybe         disobedience and rebellion to go un-           the children of the ungodly suffer and
caused by sin, but great trouble. It is        punished. Terribly displeased with             die,likeEgypt'sfirstbom,atthehands
the devastating sickness or debilitat-         both original and actual sins, He pun-         of God theDestroyer  (Ex. 423; 11:4-6;
ing injury. It is disappointment at            ishes them temporally and eternally.           1221-30).
work. It is the death of one whom you          The only deliverance is His mercy in               The holy God is terrible in His
love. It is the lonely life of one who         the cross of Jesus Christ (Heid. Cat.          just dealings with the unforgiven
desires marriage and family. It is             Lord's Day 4).                                 wicked.
abandonment by a faithless husband                     The climactic evil in this life for        The problem for the believer is
and father; life with a miserable hus-         every impenitent unbeliever is his             not the evils suffered by the wicked,
band or wife or father or mother; the          death at the hands of an angry God.            but the good things that they enjoy.
withholding of children in marriage;           The final evil will be his everlasting         This is one aspect of the problem of
a wayward child.                               torment of body and soul in the fire of        Psalm 73: Why do the ungodly pros-
     The trouble brings intense suffer-        hell (Rom. 2:8,9; II Thess. 1:6-9; Rev.        per in the world? (w. 2-12)
ing, whether in body or in soul, or in         20:11-q.                                           The solution of the Word of God
both.                                                  Not even the suffering of the ba-      to this problem is not that God is
     Evil in the life of the believer          bies and children of the ungodly,              gracious to the ungodly in time.
poses a problem.                               grievous as this is, constitutes aprob-        Rather, in giving them prosperity He
     It is emphatically evil in the life of    lem for the believing mind. For one            is busy setting their feet on slippery
the believer that is the problem.              thing, the world's abuse, torture, and         places so that they will smoothly slide
     The problem is not that there is          murder of their own offspring are a            into eternal destruction (Psalm 73:18-
evil in our world. We know why                 dimension, admittedly horrifying of            20). The attitude that alone accounts
there is evil in the world, and mustbe.        the depravity of fallen men and                for this activity is wrath. If compari-
The sin of the human race in Adam              women. This is the human race apart            son be made, the wrath in prosperity
ushered in the great evil, and mother          from God. Like the pagans of old,              is more fearful than the wrath in ca-
of all evils, death (Gen. 217; Rom.            they cruelly sacrifice their own chil-         lamities. For God's prosperity-wrath
5:12).                                         dren to Molech. All that changes is            gives the ungodly a "spirit of slum-
    Nor is it a problem to the Chris-          the Mole&                                      ber, eyes that they should not see, and
tian that there are evils in the lives of              But in this evil bums the punish-      ears that they should not hear" (Ram.
the ungodly. All those who live in             ingwrath of Goduponbabies. Babies              11:7-10).  If there would be any hope
enmity against God, outside of Jesus           are not innocent. The infants of unbe-         at all of the sinner's conversion and
Christ, are perishing under the wrath          lievers are guilty before God from             salvation, that hope would be real-
of the just God (Rom. 1:18; I Thess.           conception. We Reformed parents                ized through God's adversity-wrath.
1:lO). The suffering of unbelievers in         confess about our infants at baptism           Adversity-wrath might be hoped to
the floods in the Mississippi Valley,          that                                           wake the sinner to the realities of a
the fires in California, the ravages of                                                       righteous God, his own sin, and the
AIDS, the butcheryin the Balkans, or             our children are conceived and born          necessity of repentance. Prosperity-

                                                                                                   December 1,l W/Standard  Beared


wrath makes certain that he remains            believer, not by chance but by His           ately need in view of the disorderly
in his fool's-paradise.                        fatherly hand (Heid. Cat., L.D. 10; cf.      movements of our sinful nature. It
        Outside of Jesus Christ, whether       the Bel. Conf., Art. 13). Because my         takes our affections off this life and
in adversity or in prosperity, are only        suffering is so great, the one possibil-     the present world and directs them to
condemnation, wrath, curse, and de-            ity of real comfort should be denied!        the life that is hid with Christ in God
struction.                                             It does not work. In his direst      and the coming kingdom. It teaches
        The prosperity of the wicked           straits, the Christian traces his trouble    even an upright Job, indeed, it taught
should not be a problem to anyone              to the hand of God. Although the             the sinless Jesus, obedience, in that
who has studied Psalm 73. Neither              calamity may have come through the           the one who fears God learns what
shoulditbe a problem to anyone who             agency*of  sinful people                                   obedience really is when
takes seriously the necessity of the           and by the instrumen-                                      he does the will of God
incarnation andcrucifixion of the Son          tality of Satan, the suf-              In his              in pure adversity (Heb.
of God to avert God's wrath "tempo-            fering child of God                                        5%). ItemptiestheChris-
rally and eternally" from the elect            works his way up to a              direst straits,         tian of proud self-reli-
church.                                        sovereign God. Quickly.            the Christian           ance in order that the
        The problem is evil in the life of     Job did. So do we. "The                traces              power of Christ may rest
the godly. This was the other aspect           LORD gave, and the LORD             his trouble            upon him (II Cor. 12:9).
of the problem of Psalm 73: "For all           hath taken away" (Job                                      The perishing of the out-
the day long have I been plagued" (v.          1:21). Godhas delivered             to the hand            wardmanistherenewal
14).                                           me to the ungodly. God                of  God.             of the inward man (II
        This is the problem, not as it idly    has broken me. God runs L                                  Cor. 4:16). Evil in this
comes up in the discussions `of phi-           upon me like a giant (Job                                  life works good in the
losophers but as it lives in the soul of                                                                                  I, _
                                               16).                                         life to come, and the good is "far more
the Christian in that dark hour when                   This is the problem for the be-      exceedingN  (II Cor. 417).
evil falls: Where is the love of God for       liever in his anguish.                            This is the solution to the prob-
me in this evil? where, the blessing in                The problem is God.                  lem of evil in Psalm 73: "Thou shalt
this suffering? where, my heavenly                     For this God, who afflicts him,      guide me with thy counsel, and after-
Father as His child goes under?                who shatters his life, who guides the        ward receive me to glory" (v. 24).
        The solution is not a denial of        evil unerringly, is the God of love               One thing is sure: The promise of
God's govemingandsendingthe evil.              toward this believer in Jesus Christ.        the gospel is not assurance of an
This is the "solution" that prevails in        He has promised him personally in            earthly life free from evil. The mes-
the evangelical churches and that              the gospel that He will bless and do         sage of the evangelicals  and charis-
makes headway today also in Re-                good, onlyblessanddogood. Allevil,           matics that faith in Christ guarantees
formed circles. God is not sovereign           all real evil, evil that truly destroys,     health, wealth, happiness, and suc-
over evil. God is not almighty.                has been visited upon Jesus Christ in        cess is grotesque heresy.
        Some solution! God is not God.         his stead.                                        The promise of the gospel that
For a god who is not almighty is not                   This is the solution to the prob-    God will bless for the sake of Christ is
God. He is not the God of Scripture,           lem of evil in the life of the believer.     a real solution to the problem of evil.
who says, "I am the Lo& and there is                   The solution is the promise of       It enables the believer to sing about
none else. I form the light, and create        Godreceivedinfaith,better,theprom-           the evil. If he sings, the problem has
darkness: I make peace, and create             ise of God that works faith in the dark      been solved. He sings, "Affliction has
evil: I theL0s.o do all these things" (Is.     hour of the evil. Nothing else besides.      been for my profit," from Psalm 119.
45:6,7). Because of my suffering, the          There is no sight nor feeling nor ex-        One may begin to see this already in
Godhead of Godshouldbe destroyed!              planation of the goodness of God.            this life. For him, singing about evil
        Some solution! Give the troubled       Only trust in the promise of God.            becomes easier.
saint, tempted to despair, over to the                 The solutionis the promising God          Another may see nothing at all of
tender mercies of Satan, supposedly            Himself in Jesus Christ. We view the         any profit of the evil as long as he
the sovereign of evil. Or encourage            God who sends the evil in the light of       lives. But he sings too, through his
him with the comfort that evil now             the (same) God who has promised.             tears. He expects to see the profit in
runs amok, uncontrolled, purpose-              We recognize the God who troubles            the day when God makes all things
less, accidental, a force that baffles         us, although He has a frown. He is           plain.
God Himself. This is not the comfort           our Father.                                       For the present, he believes.
of the Reformed confession, which                      We can willingly submit to the            Faith is enough. 0
holds that God's power in His cre-             evil. The evil is carrying out the                                                 - DJE
ation and over every creature is al-           promise. Perhaps, it corrects us for a
mighty and everywhere present, so              specific sin. Or it may be the general
that both good and evil come to the            discipline that we children  desper-

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                                                   Tithe

         It belonged to the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament that the head of each family
    contribute annually one tenth of the produce of the ground and every tenth animal that passed
    under the staff (method of counting) to the support of the Levites (Lev. 27~30-32).  The Levites
    gave a tenth of these tithes for the support of the high priest (Num. l&21). This was really very
    simple; all the Israelite had to do was count his blessings, move the decimal one figure to the
    left, and give that amount unto the Lord. God's institution of tithing was in line with His
    treating of the Israelites as children.
         The number ten in the denominator of the fraction one-tenth spoke of fullness and
    perfection. By willingly paying the tithe, the believing Israelite was confessing that the earth
    and its fullness belongs to the Lord, that He alone gave the increase, and He makes rightful
    claim to all that a man is and has. A refusal to pay the tithe was a denial of all this and meant
    that a man was really robbing God (Mal. 3:8). Apparently after the captivity some were
    withholding the tithe in the notion that they could not afford it. But God assured them that in
    the way of bringing their gifts to the storehouse, He would "open the windows of heaven,and
    pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:lO).
         That tithing is abolished amongst Christians is clearly shown by the fact that the New
    Testament Scriptures never call upon us to practice tithing. Not once is it enjoineduponus! We
    read of it in a highly critical sense when Jesus castigates the scrupulous tithing of the Pharisees,
    including even the mint, cummin, and anise (Matt. 23:23), and in the Lord's parable of the self-
    righteous Pharisee who went to the temple to pray (Luke l&12). Mention is also made in
    Hebrews 7 of Abraham's giving a tenth of the spoil to Melchisedec (Gen. 12). That the New
    Testament saint is not called to pay tithes rests upon the truth that the ceremonial laws ceased
    at the coming of Christ. Yet, the truth and substance of tithing remain with us: God is still the
    sovereign Owner of all things in the universe, our possessions, incomes, and selves. In glad
    acknowledgment of this we offer our gifts for the support of the gospel ministry, the relief of
    the poor, and other kingdom labors and causes.
         How shall members of the Spirit-filled, mature church conduct themselves in regard to
    giving? What guidelines shall we use in this present dispensation? Well, God lets that up to
    you and to me! I mean, He requires of us to figure that out. And that is not always so easy, surely
    not as easy as dividing our incomes by ten. Under the guidance of the Spirit and Word, we are
    to exercise the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free! The New Testament guidelines are:
    as a man purposes in his heart, not grudgingly, but cheerfully (II Cor. 95); and, liberally,
    regularly, and as God has prospered (I Cor. 16:1-3). Many are the saints who testify that as they
    give in this way, God pours out such a blessing upon them that there is not room to receive it!
    The Lord loveth a cheerful giver, and it is better to give than to receive.
         Perhaps there is room for a practical remark here. In our small part of the universal
    kingdom of Christ, we are faced with many expensive building projects: seminary, churches,
    new schools, and expansion of our schools. In our estate planning, ought we not keep these
    needs in mind?
                                                                                                               Cl


Rev.  Kuiper  is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

                                                                                        December 1,1993/S'tandard  Bead1  03


     The Story of Two Fredericks
                                                           0

Introduction                                Frederick. John was a close friend of       together they had eleven children,
    Two Fredericks, both magistrates        Charles V, emperor of the Holy Ro-          only seven of whom reached matu-
in Germany, played significant and          man Empire (which some wag has              rity. He himself once complained: "I
important roles in the Reformation of       dubbed as being neither holy, nor           am like a sooty kitchen maid sitting
the 16th century. Both were called          Roman, nor an Empire). Yet Charles          behind the stove, concerning whom
FrederickIIIandbothwererenowned             was ruler of Spain, Germany, and the        no one askedbecause she was so poor
for their godly character. The first        Lowlands. In the court of Charles,          and dirty."
Frederick was called Frederick the          Fredericklearned the skills of knight-
Wise; the second, Frederick the Pi-         hood; in Europe's royal courts he           His Commitment to Lutheranism
ous. Although Frederick the Wise            learned the life of royalty.                    A bit of background is necessary
remained a Roman Catholic all his               The glitter of royalty, however,        to understand the important role
life, he was Luther's protector and         never appealed to him and he soon           which Frederick played in the Refor-
made reformation in Germany pos-            left to test his skills in battle. At 18    mation in Heidelberg.
sible. Frederick the Pious became a         years old he fought the Turks and               Germany itself was tom by war,
Calvinist, though not without great         earned knighthood for bravery and           war which, before it was over, was to
struggle, and is sometimes referred         skill in battle. An intriguing story of     leave much of Germany in ruins. The
to as the father of our beloved Heidel-     these early years makes one wonder          Protestant Lutheran princes had
berg Catechism. To the story of             whether his thoughts were not soon          formed a league to defend themselves
Frederick the Pious we now turn.            turned to the Reformation. While still      against Roman Catholic attempts to
                                            in the court of Charles, he had a pri-      destroy them by the sword. Between
His Early Life                              vate meeting with John B Lasco, the         Protestants andRoman Catholics war
    Frederick was born in 1483, a few       renowned Polish Reformer, whose             periodically broke out.
WeeksafterthebirthofMartinLuther.           work meant so much to the hard-                 Calvinism, born in Switzerland,
He was born in Simmem Castle, for           pressed Protestants in the Nether-          had made inroads in Germany, espe-
his father was Count John II, Elector       lands.                                      cially in those parts bordering on the
of the Palatinate. His mother, Beatrix,         His courtship years were filled         Swiss cantons. It is not an exaggera-
was a very beautiful woman, pious           with disappointment. For two years          tion to say that many Lutherans hated
and upright in her life, a godly mother,    he wooed Elenora, the sister of Charles     the Calvinists as much as or even
and one who gave lavishly to the            V, but lost her to the old king of          more than the Roman Catholics, and
poor. Frederick was the oldest of           Portugal. In despair he returned to         they fought bitterly to preserve Ger-
eleven children, of whom two be-            Heidelberg in the Palatinate, but when      many for Lutheranism. The Electors
came priests and five, nuns.                the old king died, he once again            ofGermanywereunderconstantpres-
    Frederick's father was a Renais-        pressed his suit with Elenora, but lost     sure to joinone  side or the other-or,
sance man and wanted his eldest son         herasecondtimetoFrancisIofFrance.           perhaps, the Roman Catholic forces.
to have the best education available.       He tried to persuade Maria, another             After Luther's death,  Luther-
But he also opened the doors of             sister of Charles V to marry him, but       anism itself was divided. Radical
Europe's courts and chancelleries to        failedalsoin this endeavor. In 1537he       Lutherans out-Luthered Luther, while
                                            married another Maria, of royal blood,      some Lutherans, including Melanch-
                                            and a Lutheran.                             thon, moved in the direction of the
                                                Although of royal blood,                Protestant view of the Lord's Supper.
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-     Frederick's years were spent in fight-          In the midst of all this confusion
toy and New Testament in the Protes-        ingpoverty. With his wife he lived in       and distress, Heidelberg itself re-
tant Reformed Semina y.                     an old castle of Berkenfeld, where          mained, under its Elector, solidly

104/Standard Bearer/December 1,1993


Roman Catholic. Yet the people were                 He and Maria also suffered great           vinistic position was in keeping with
far ahead of their ruler and wanted         tragedies during this period. All the              the Word of God. To its defense he
the Reformationintroducedinto their         divisions of Protestantism  were in                now dedicated himself. We may add,
city. While the Elector hesitated, the      their families: some were ardent                   byway of parenthesis, that before she
people themselves, in a mighty burst        Lutherans, some Melanchtonians,                    died Maria also embraced Calvinism.
of enthusiasm, brought its beginnings       some Zwinglians, and some Calvin-                      It was this bitter controversy,
about. On Sunday, December 20,              ists. One of his sons was drowned                  which nearly tore Heidelberg apart,
1545, the citizens were gathered for        and another was killed in battle de-               that was the immediate occasion for
the worship of God in the Church of         .fending Protestants in the Nether-                Frederick to order the writing of a
the Holy Spirit. As the priest was          lands. Two of his children turned                  new Catechism. From the Preface to
making preparations for the celebra-        against him as he moved away from                  it, which Frederick himself drew up,
tion of the mass, a member of the           Lutheranism towards Calvinism.                     we learn that Frederick's reasons for
congregation began singing the Ref-                                                            it were to have a document which
ormation hymn "Es ist das Heil Uns          His Adoption of Calvinism                          would serve the spiritual welfare of
Kommen  Her" ("Salvation Has Come                   In 1559, about four years before           his realm, aid in reaching doctrinal
To Us"). The first stanza goes:             Calvin's death, Frederick became                   unity among the people; and serve as
                                            Elector of the entire Palatinate. From             a guide for preaching and the instruc-
  Salvation unto us has come                that moment on he knew not a mo-                   tion of the youth.
     By God's free grace and favor;         ment of peace.                                         Although they were assisted in
  Good works cannot avert our doom,                 Four individual factors played             their work by others, Zacharius
     They help and save us never.
  Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,        their part in bringing Frederick to a              Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, whom
     Who did for all the world atone;       Calvinistic position -in spite of the              Frederick had rescued from a prison
  He is our one Redeemer.                   opposition of his Lutheran wife. Men               in Trier, bore the major responsibility
                                            who were Calvinists were appointed                 for drawing it up.
Suddenly the whole congregation             to offices in the church and the state.                From the pens of these two gifted
joined in singing the hymn, and the         Continued reforms gradually elimi-                 men emerged our present glorious
Reformation began.                          natedbothRomishandLutheranprac-                    confession of faith which has meant
     In the meantime, under the influ-      tices and brought about reform in                  so much to the church of Christ over
ence of his Lutheran wife, Frederick        church government and worship. A                   the years.
became wholly committed to the              flood of refugees came into the                        Its beauty and worth lie espe-
Lutheran faith. One incident in             Palatinate and Heidelberg from                     cially in the fact that its motif is com-
Frederick's life in Berkenfeld showed       France, England, and the Netherlands               fort. One cannot, I think, appreciate
his steadfastness and courage. After        - all of them Calvinists and all of                this motif unless he is aware of its
Roman Catholic successes on the field       them helped by Frederick's generos-                tremendous significance in the times
of battle, Frederick was asked to sign      ity.                                               in which it was written. Roman Ca-
the Regensburg Interim, which had                   But the most imuortant factor was          tholicism, with its doctrine of salva-
as its goal the complete suppression        the eruption in He>del-                                          tion by meritorious
of the Reformation. This he refused to      berg of the so-called                        I                   works, is a comfortless
do and wrote the Emperor: "Rather           Hesshus-Klebitz contro-               Roman                      doctrine  - as is all
than do this, I will by God's help          versy over the presence         Catholicism,                     Pelagianism            and
suffer anything; and if I am not safe in    of Christ's body and                                             Arminianism which
this country on account of my faith, I      blood in the Lord's Sup-        with its doctrine                bases salvation on hu-
maybe able to live at some other place      per. Hesshus was an                          of                  man works. Luther ex-
with God."                                  arrogant and outspoken             salvation by                  perienced that fully in
    In 1556, after his appointment as       Lutheran; Klebitz was a            meritorious                   his own life, until he
governor of the Upper Palatinate,           Calvinist. Frederick de-              works,                     came to the truth of jus-
Frederick made every effort to bring        voted days and nights to                                         tification by faith alone.
about reform in his province. He            a study of the question,         is a comfortless                The Roman Catholic
moved his castle to Amsberg and             searching the Scriptures            doctrine . . .               Church had written, as
brought about reforms by appointing         to come to his own con-                      I                   it were, above the doors
Protestantministers,rootingout such         clusions. He was pres-                                           of its churches and ca-
Romish practices as masses, indul-          sured towards Lutheranism by his                   thedrals: "Abandon all comfort, ye
gences, and worship of images, and          wife and some of his children. He was              who enter here."
curbing such sins as immorality,            pressured towards Calvinism by                         When the glorious truths of the
drunkenness, ignorance, and super-          many gifted professors in the Univer-              Reformation began to be preached,
stition.                                    sity. When he finally made up his                  the Reformers, with one voice, shouted
                                            mind, he was convinced that the Cal-               to all the world: "We come to you

                                                                                                    December 1,1993/Standard  Bearetil 05


with a gospel of comfort!  That comfort           "What is thy only comfort in life       ther, not a hair can fall from my head;
is in the full and free grace of God in       and death?                                  yea,  that all things must be subservi-
Jesus Christ our Lord; justification by           "That I with body and soul, both        ent to my salvation, and therefore, by
faith alone without works!"                   in life and death, am not my own, but       his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of
     No wonder that that gospel               belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus        eternal life, and makes me sincerely
spread like wildfire through Europe,          Christ; who, with his precious blood,       willing and ready, henceforth, to live
for it alone could bring peace to the         hathfullysatisfiedforallmysins,and          unto him." 0
troubled souls of God's people.               delivered me from all the power of
     TheHeidelberg  Catechismpicked           the devil; and so preserves me that
up that theme.                                without the will of my heavenly Fa-




                                     Introduction to
                    Old Testament History

     By way of introduction, we may           what is called sacred history. We will        ems all things that they must infalli-
point out that it is certainly impos-         not go into detail on this score, but         bly lead unto that end. All things
sible to have a proper conception of          refer the reader to the discussion of         under God's providence cooperate
either history in general or sacred           God's providence found in Herman              unto that end. All things  in heaven
history apart from the idea of God's          Hoeksema's  Reformed Dogmatics,               and on earth and in hell, angels and
providence and God's counsel. But             pp. 227-244. We do, however, wish to          devils, righteous and wicked, the
we hasten to add that the purely for-                                                       curse, death, and all the suffering of
                                              quote two significant sections from
mal idea that history is the working                                                        this present time, sin and grace, fruit-
                                              this chapter in connection with the           ful and barren years, rain and
out of God's counsel, or that all his-        present discussion. The first is found        drought, war and peace, sickness and
tory takes place according to the sov-        on pages 240,241:                             pestilence-all things work together
ereign government of the Most High,                                                         to the glorification of all things when
is not adequate. For one thing, we                Hence, we may never separate in           the tabernacle of God will be with
may never separate in our minds the             our minds the providence of God             men. Of course, the devils and the
providence of God from the facts of             from the facts of sin and grace. There      ungodly cooperate unto that end in a
sin and grace. Closely related to this         is no operation of God's providence          different way from that of the angels
is the fact that there is no operation of      next to and apart from that of grace         and righteous. Hence, the former
God's providence next to and apart             and the curse, love and wrath, elec-         gather unto themselves treasures of
                                                                                            wrath, while  they nevertheless coop-
from that of grace and the curse, favor        tion and reprobation. The govern-
                                               ment of God is exactly of such a             erate in the execution of God's coun-
and wrath, love and hatred, election           naturethatitguidestbeorganicwhole            sel; and the latter receive the eternal
and reprobation. The merely formal             of creation unto the final glory of the      reward of grace. There is no dualism;
fact that all history takes place ac-          new heavens and the new earth, to            all work together unto the realiza-
cording to the sovereign counsel of            the glory of God's covenant and to           tion of the counsel of the Lord. God's
God,  or that all history takes place as       His  eternal tabernacle which shall be       government is motivated by electing
God in His providence sovereignly              with men, while through the same             and redeeming and glorifying grace,
executes                                                                                    on the one hand, and by reprobating
             His own counsel, is of no aid     government of the Most High the              wrath on the other.
as such in gaining a proper concep-            reprobate element falls away and
tion either of history in general or of        becomes ripe for eternal desolation.
                                               For it is God's positive purpose to            Thesecondpassagefromthesame
                                               unite all things in Christ as the new      chapter to which we would call atten-
                                               Head of all creation, to preserve and      tion is found on pages 243,244:
                                               perfect His covenant and His ever-
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor          lasting kingdom. Unto this end all             A wonderbelongsentirelyas  toits
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the          things in heaven and on earth are           idea in the sphere of grace. In gen-
Protestant Reformed Semina y.                  directed; and the Most High so gov-         eral we would circumscribe a won-

I OGIStandard  Bearer /December 7,7 993


der as that act of God whereby He            to descend upon the desert, whenHe                     ing to His eternal counsel, to the
raises the whole of His creation, fallen     breaks down the walls of Jericho,                      glory of I3im of whom and through
in sin and under the curse, into the         when He causes the sun and the                         whom and unto whom are all things.
glory of His eternal kingdom and             moon to stand still, when He causes
everlasting covenant. As we have             great hail to rain upon the heads of                     When we understand this idea of
said, the final purpose, the final des-      the enemies of His people, the main                  the wonder, we can understand, too,
tination of all things lies in the glori-    questionisnotwhetherornotwecan                       the meaning and significance of his-
fication of God's everlasting cov-           interpret these events; but the chief                tory in general. Understood in this
enant. Creation, which at present            idea is that under God's providence
lies under sin and under the curse,          all things must serve to redeem and                  light, all of history from the bereshith
mustnotmerelyberestored,inorder              to save the people of His covenant                   ("beginning") of Genesis Motheomega
to be brought back to her former             and to lead them into the eternal                    ("goal") of the parousia of our Lord
state, but must be exalted into heav-        inheritance. And when Immanuel                       Jesus Christ is one. And, in that deep-
enly glory. That act of God whereby          comes into the world, He is the Won-                 est sense of the word, all of history is
He raises the work of His hands              der par excellence. He is the Lord out               sacred. It is that organic complex of
through the deep way of sin and the          of heaven in our flesh, God with us,                 events which involves the whole of
curse from  its misery into the glory        the central realization of the cov-                  the human race and the whole of the
of God's everlasting kingdom is the          enant of GodwithHispeople.  When                     creationwhereby Godleadsalltbings,
wonder, the wonder of grace. It has          He comes into the world, He per-
its centrum  in the incarnation of the       forms many wonders. He stands, as                    in the way of sin and grace, unto the
Word of God, the Wonder of won-              it were, in the midst of the accursed                glory of His eternal kingdom and
ders, the central wonder, from which         creation and shows by the wonder-                    everlasting covenant in Christ Jesus.
flow all the separate miracles, or, of       works of His hand that He is the One                     In this light, in the second place,
which they are types and shadows.            who should come, in order to raise                   we can understand the meaning and
Ithasitsfinalrealizationintheretum           all things from the misery of the                    significance of sacred history. Sacred
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the           curse  into the glory of God's eternal               history is not a different history from
very elements of this present world          kingdom. He causes the deaf to hear                  the history in general. There are not
shall bum and perish, in order to            and the blind to see. He removes all
prepare a new heavens and a new              our sicknesses and pains, and He                     two histories - a general and a sa-
earth, in which the tabernacle of God        raises the dead. All these miracles                  cred history. But what we designate
shallbe with men. And wherever the           were only shadows and signs of the                   as sacred history is that aspect of
power of thatwonderbreaks through            reality, manifestations of His divine                history which is directly concerned
increation,whichliesunderthecurse,           power to redeem all things. Pres-                    with the revelation of the wonder of
you have a wonder in the proper              ently He rises from the dead to enter                grace and with the establishment,
sense of the word. Understood in             into the glory of the heavenly life as               maintenance,andrealizationofGod's
this sense, the whole of God's provi-        the head of His people, ascends into                 eternal kingdom and everlastingcov-
dential government in this world is          the highest heavens, and sits at the                 enant. In this light, too, we canunder-
really a wonder: for by His almighty         right hand of God the
hand He directs all things unto that         Father, pours out His                                           stand the relation between
                                                                                            I
end. His providence is motivated by          Spirit in the midst of                                          sacred history and Scrip-
His grace over His people in Christ          His  church, regener-                    there is a             ture. We can understand
                                                                             . . .
Jesus. And whenever this power of            ates His people              relationship of                    whysacredbistoryissome-
grace comes to  manifestation in any         through. the wonder            subservience                     times referred to as Bible
domain of creation, we have what             of grace, callslight out                                        history. For the account,
Scripture calls a sign that the God of       of darkness, and re-                     between                the record, of that sacred
the covenant in Christ Jesus redeems         creates a people that                    the rest               bistoryisfoundintheinfal-
His people and presently makes all           is given to Him, in                                             lible and inspired Scrip-
things new. Wonders, therefore, are          order that it should              of history
also signs that point to the complete        be aneverlastingrev-                and that                    tures. But we must remem-
redemption of the church. When               elation of the wonder            particular                     ber that there is an organic
Israel passes through the Red Sea,           of His grace in the                      aspect                 connectionbetweensacred
the great questionis not whether this        midst of the world.                                             history and history in gen-
is a natural or supernatural act of          Presently He leads                of histo y                    eral. They are not essen-
God, stillless whether in that act God       them through death           which is called                    tially different. They are
worksmediatelyorimmediately;but              into life and raises         sacred histo y.                    not to be separated, though
in that act the Almighty reveals the         their bodies from the                                           they may be distinguished.
great power of His grace, whereby            sleep of  death, glori-                        I                They are organically one.
He makes a path for His people               fies and unites all
through the sea and redeems them                                                                             And the stream of sacred
                                             things in Himself, in order to cause
from the bondage of Egypt in order                                                                history may be said to run-in the
                                             the tabernacle of God to be with men
to lead them to the haven of rest.           everlastingly. Through the wonder                    riverbed of history in general.
When God brings forth water from             of grace the government of God                           Then, too, we canunderstand the
the rock, when He causes the manna           reaches its final destination,  accord-              relationship between general history

                                                                                                       December 7,1993lStandard  Bearer/l  07


and sacred history. That relationship           And so, finally, we can under-           history. Also this division may be
is fourfold. In the first place it is       stand also that that relationship is         accepted, provided we bear in mind
organic. And it is organic in such a        soteriological. But again, it is soteri-     that it is basically a division of conve-
way that what is included in sacred         ological, never in the sense that the        nience, rather than a division of prin-
history constitutes the core, the cen-      world as a whole goes lost, while God        ciple. For we must remember that
trum, the central meaning and signifi-      the Lord manages to salvage some-            Old Testament history, that is, the
cance of all history.                       thingoutofit.Ratherisitsoteriological        history recorded in the Old Testa-
     This already implies, in the sec-      in the sense that God saves the world,       ment, does not include all of the his-
ond place, that there is a relationship     His world, according to His eternal          tory of the old dispensation; secondly,
of subservience between the rest of         counsel. Itis soteriologicalinthe sense      the history of the intertestamentary
history and that particular aspect of       that God saves the race, the elect race,     period (the history of the 400 years) is
historywhichis called sacred history.       the church. The organism is saved            not recorded in Scripture at all; and
All the rest of history stands in such a    through the way of sin and grace,            the history recorded in the New Tes-
relation to that which is included in       while some reprobate branches are            tament includes part of the history of
sacred history that it stands in its        cut off and destroyed.                       the old dispensation and of the tran-
service. Sometimes, indeed, that rela-                                                   sition from the old to the new dispen-
tionship of subservience maybe diffi-       The Divisions of Sacred History              sation. Nevertheless, to maintain an
cult to discern. This is true especially        Traditionally, sacred history has        orderly and balanced treatment of
when general history deals with na-         been divided, first of all, into biblical    sacred history, these divisions may
tions andwithaspects of their history       historyandchurchbistory.  Theency-           be observed and followed.
which are peripheral. At other times        clopedic place of the former, then, is
that relationship is very clearly dis-      in the bibliological branches, while         The Division of Old Testament
cernible. And there are, of course,         the encyclopedic place of the latter is      History
manypointsinsacredhistoryatwhich            inthehistoriologicaldepartment. This             Most schemes of division which
the history of the nations in general       is correct, provided that we remem-          have been suggested with respect to
touches it and very plainly serves it,      ber that church history is an integral       OldTestamenthistoryhavebeenchar-
so that the history of the powers of        part of sacred history, not something        acterized by the fact that they are
this world is intertwined withthat  of      new and different and added. The             divisions of convenience,and  there-
God'speopleandisrecordedinScrip-            distinction lies, of course, in the fact     fore rather arbitrary, rather than by
ture. But always, even when we can-         that church history is not recorded in       proceeding according to a certain prin-
not clearly discern it, that relation-      Scripture as history. And it is legiti-      ciple of division. Thus, for example,
ship is one of subservience.                mate to recognize this distinction. We       you can conveniently speak of the
     In the third place, the relation       must remember, however, that es-             prediluvian period, the postdiluvian
between the two is antithetical. We         sentially church history is the con-         world, the period of the patriarchs,
must be careful, however, not to con-       tinuation of the line of sacred history      the period of the bondage and exo-
fuse antithesis with dualism. There         after the death of the last apostle and      dus, the period of the wilderness
are not two forces in history battling      after the completion of the canon.           wanderings, the period of the con-
against one another in such a way that      And, secondly, we must bear in mind          quest of Canaan, the period of the
the outcome is in doubt, or even in         that principally church history is still     Judges, the period of the kings, the
such a way that the light finally tri-      concerned with the things which Jesus        period of the captivity, and the post-
umphs over the darkness and in spite        continued to say and to do after His         captivity period. This may be conve-
of the darkness. The relationship           exaltation. Thirdly, while it is true        nient, and even helpful, but it does
between the light and the darkness is       that church history cannot appeal to         not pay attention to the significance of
certainly such that in the ethical sense    any historical record of Holy Scrip-         Old Testament history and of its vari-
of the word they stand diametrically        ture for its source, we must neverthe-       ous aspects. And to that extent it also
opposed to one another. Yet we must         less bear in mind that prophetically,        detracts from one's conception of the
understand that the light is not merely     particularly in the Book of Revela-          unity of Old Testament history. It
revealed over against the darkness,         tion, all of church history is also set      tends to view history in terms of bits
and life is not merely revealed over        forth in the Scriptures. For as we           and pieces, rather than to offer a uni-
against death. But all the forces of sin    know, in the Book of Revelation are          fied conception.
and death and darkness are, accord-         written the "things which must shortly           We propose that all of Old Testa-
ing to the purpose and counsel of the       come to pass" and "the things which          ment history may be divided into
Almighty, in subservience to the light.     must be hereafter."                          various epochs of salvation. Each of
iGod accomplishes His purpose along             The division of biblical history is      these epochs  is. characterized by the
the way of sin and grace, bringing          usually threefold: Old Testament his-        fact that it represents a victory of the
light out of the darkness,the new out       tory, the history of the  intertesta-        seed of the woman, a fulfillment of
of the old, life out of death.              mentary period, and New Testament            the protevangel of Genesis 395. Yet,

7 08lStandard  Bearer /December 7,7 993


 in the second place, each of these            out the ages, and in terms of the            creation, the fall, and the protevangel
 epochs is characterized by the fact           victory, through the wonder of grace,        of Genesis 3:15.
 that the specific victory of the seed of      of the seed of the woman over- the               2) From the protevangel to the
 the woman in that period is not the           seed of the serpent. And this, in turn,      victory of the seed of the woman in
 final victory, but a typical representa-      implies that the very first period of        the Flood.
 tion of it. It is not the wonder of grace,    Old Testament history which we                   3) From the Flood, through the
 but u wonder of grace that is revealed        would distinguish is that which in-          bondage and exodus, to the victory of
 in each period. And, in the third             cludes creation, the fall, and the an-       the seed of the woman in the inherit-
 place, each of these periods is charac-       nouncement of the promise, the               ance of the land of Canaan under
 terized by the fact that while it is in       protevangel. This period is introduc-        Joshua.
 itself a typical revelation of the won-       tory to all of Old Testament history in          4) From the inheritance of
 der of grace, it represents an advance        the sense that it represents the setting     Canaan through the period of the
 over the preceding period, and an             of the stage for the rest of that history    Judges and Saul to the victory of the
 advance toward the full revelation of         as it ends in the fullness of time. We       seed of the woman under David-
 the wonder of grace in the fullness of        may remark further that during the           Solomon.
 time, when the Seed of the woman,             various main periods which may be                5) From Solomon through the
. our Lord Jesus Christ, accomplishes          distinguished there may also be dis-         Babylonian captivity to the victory of
 the victory over the seed of the ser-         cemed at many times various sub-             the seed of the woman in the return
 pent. This already implies that we            periods in which the same motif noted        from captivity and restoration of
 wish to view all of Old Testament             above may be distinguished.                  Jerusalem.
 history in terms of the protevangel of            In this light, we would make the             6) From the return to the full-
 Genesis 395, that is, in terms of the         following divisions:                         ness of time and the incarnation of
 battle between the seed of the woman              1) The introductory period of            our Lord Jesus Christ. 0
 and the seed of the serpent through-





                                    Dinosaurs and
                                  Other Monsters

        One thing that has attracted the       Popular eating places offer mugs or          such disruption that life became im-
 attention of the nation in recent             other toys as enticement to come to          possible for these large beasts. Re-
 months is the dinosaur. Not only has          their establishments. Cartoon char-          cently the supposed spot where this
 the evolutionist continued his theo-          acters portraying the friendly dino-         meteor crashed into the earth was
 rizing concerning the subject, but a          saur are popular with the children.          located off the coast of Mexico.
 popular movie has caught the imagi-           Questions are raised and discussed               Thequestionwouldbe:what  does
 nation of the nation. The movie is, of        concerning  these monsters. When             alI of this have to do with the end of
 course, in our estimation, out of             did they live? What brought them to          the age? What bearing do fanciful
 bounds for the Christian. Yet the             extinction? Children like to ask the         imaginations have on the testimony
 movie has generatedmuch additional            question, "Were there dinosaurs in           of Scripture concerning Christ's re-
 hype concerning dinosaurs. Little             the ark?" Scientists too have been           turn?
 children want models of these beasts.         pointing to supposed reasons for the             Several articles published by the
                                               apparently sudden demise of the di-          Institute for Creation Research (El
                                               nosaur. Science textbooks come with          Cajon, CA) werebrought tomyatten-
                                               "answers" which many presume to              tion. The author of `one article,
 Rev. VanBarenispastoroftheProtestant          be scientific and factual. Commonly          "Dinosaurmania Strikes Again," was
 Reformed Church of HudsonvilkMichi-           it is claimed now that a large meteor        Ken Ham; another is an article writ-
gun.                                           must have struck the earth causing           ten by Henry M. Morris. Ham points

                                                                                                December 1,1993/Sfandard  Bearer/l 09


out the various misconceptions that                This almost worshipfulfascination        including witches, to establish a  cer-
Christians have concerning these                 (with dinosaurs) is nothing new,.          tam concept of morality which must
mighty beasts. Some have denied-'                though its extent is'growing explo- :      govern all peoples. It is not strange,
their very existence. Others have                sively. One wonders howmanylead-           then, that a certain admiration also
asked whether these animals were in              ingmodern evolutionists were drawn
                                                 into evolutionism through theirchild-      grows towards great "dragons." It is
the ark at the time of the great flood.          hood study of dinosaurs. Stephen           not the cross of Christ which is the
Ham maintains that "dinosaurs are                Jay  Gould, for example, testifies that    center of attention-but the serpent
used more than any other topic by                he got his start that way, and he is       and its adherents.
evolutionists to brainwash our  chil-            probablytoday'sleadingspokesman                The world has been using this
drenintoacceptingevolutionaryideas               for evolution.                             fascination to teach its theory of evo-
and rejecting the Bible as God's iner-                                                      lution. This has been true for the past
rant Word." He quotes from a book,                 Morris quotes Scripture to show          50 or more years. I recall distinctly
A New Look at the Dinosaurs, by                that these large monsters are men-           the sign of "Sinclair" gasoline with its
Charig:                                        tioned from Genesis on. He states,           picture of the dinosaur which1 saw in
                                               "TheBiblicaIwriters,inspiredbyGod,           my childhood. Today we have not
     "...we can only confess our su-           also wrote about dragons. The first          just an advertising picture, but a por-
  preme ignorance of the real causes of        reference to created animals, in Gen-        trayal of the dinosaur as the prime
  dinosaur extinction and say, quite           esis 1:21, says that `God created-great      example of the evolutionary process.
  simply: `We don't know."                     whales,' but the Hebrew word for             This affects the youth - especially
                                               `whales' is translated `dragons' in over     those very young. That is the intent of
    Ham continues to explain his own           20 other passages. Note especially           Satan, no doubt.
viewpoint:                                     Isaiah27:1:`InthatdaytheLord...shall             All of this points out how impor-
                                               punishleviathanthepiercingserpent,           tant it is that parents carefully super-
    It is interesting to note, however,        even leviathan that crooked serpent;
  what the author says when trying to                                                       vise that which their children read,
  explain why the dinosaurs died out:          and He shall slay the dragon that is in      watch, and learn. We might mini-
  "Every year people come up with              the sea."'                                   mize the seriousness of the attempt of
  new theories on this thorny problem.             One finds references to the Beast        the world to indoctrinate our chil-
  The trouble is that if we are to find        andthedragoninconnectionwiththe              dren. But be sure that there is a goal
  just one reason to account for them          development of the antichristian             which the world and Satan himself
  .all, it would have to explain the           world power. We read in Rev. 13:3,4,         have in mind. That goal is to subvert
  deaths, all at the same time, of ani-        "All the world wondered after the            the church, to contradict the Word of
  mals living on land and of animals           beast. Andtheyworshipedthedragon             God, to persuade many to believe the
  living in the sea; but, in both cases, of    which gave power unto the beast."
  only some of those animals, for many                                                      lie. God sends strong delusion into
  of the land-dwellers and many of the             Morris, in his article, points out       the world. The world would want to
  sea-dwellers went on living quite            that what we see today is fulfillment        impress this delusion also upon the
  happily into the following period.           of that WordinRevelation.  The world,        church - especially its youth.
  Alas, no such one explanation ex-            especially its youth, is obsessed by           ~ The task of the church and Chris-
  ists."                                       dinosaurs (dragons). This is seen in         tian parents is to teach children from
    But one such explanation DOES              the appeal that movies and video             their youth on the truths of Scripture.
  exist! If you change the timescale to        games have to the youth in which             Genesis l-11 is especially important.
 thousands of years instead of mil-            monsters abound. Is it coincidence           That is not a section of the Bible that
  lions, and then think about the event        that these "dragons" are the focus of
  of the Flood of Noah's day and the                                                        is insignificant. Genesis is the first
  animals                                      attention at the end of this age? Morris
              that escaped on the Ark,                                                      book in the Bible -but also founda-
  there is an explanation that fits with       points out that "Jurassic Park," the         tional. He who questions or denies
  what Charig stated above.                    movie attractingrecord-breakingau-           Genesis l-11, soon loses the entire
                                               diences,ismadebyHollywood'slead-             Bible as the inspired Word of God.
    Ham continues by pointing out              ing "New Age" producer.                      We must, therefore, remind our chil-
that there is reason to believe that               One of the signs of the end of the       dren what Scripture says concerning
forms of the dinosaur family existed           age is that many follow after the lie.       origins and great dragons. By all
even up to modern times. He points             False  christs and false prophets            means remind them of that Beast who
to writings that refer to "monsters"           abound. God sends strong delusions           gives power to the dragon at the end
which seem to fit the description of           that these might believe a lie (IIThess.     of time. The world may-hold to its
the dinosaurs.                                 2:ll). Perhaps as never before one           dragons and speculate about its dino-
 7:  ,Morri$ in another article, also          sees this in our own time.                   -saurs, but we have the cross of our
comments on the fascination with                   There is today the practice of           Lord Jesus Christ. 0
dinosaurs. He states:                          witchcraft. Evensomein the churches
                                               join hands with other world religions,

11 O/Standard Bearer/December 1,1993


 Covenant Christian Education,
      - Survival by Commitment to Obey our Covenant God

                      and Fulfill the Demands of the Covenant


                                              therefore, by God's grace, as mem-            tion (whereof you are either parent or
    Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is       bers of that covenant, must fulfill cer-      witness) instructed andbrought up in
one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord        tain demands of that covenant,                the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause
thy God with all thine heart, and with all    namely, faith and obedience in our            them to be instructed therein, to the
thy soul, and with all thy might. A,nd        Savior, Jesus Christ.                         utmost of your power?n
these words, which I command thee this
day, shall be in thine heart: And thou          We are to do this in every sphere of        How is this Practically
shalt teach them diligently unto thy chil-      life in the place in which God has put      Accomplished?
dren, and shalt talk of them when thou          us. We are to establish Christian               1.  By the home.  Fathers and
sittest in thine house,and when thou            homes in which husband and wife             mothers have the primary duty to
walkest by the way, and when thou liest         reflect that glorious covenant rela-
                                                tionship between Christ and His             teach their children. In Psalm 78:5-7
down, and when thou riseth up.                  church (Eph. 5:22-33);  we are tobring      we read: "For he established a testi-
                   Deuteronomy 6:4-7            forth the chiidren  of God's covenant       mony in Jacob, and appointedalawin
                                                and teach them the ways of Jehovah          Israel, which he commanded our fa-
What is the Basis for Covenant                  (Deut. 6:49; Ps. 78:1-t?); we are to        thers, that they should make them
Christian Education?                            trainourchilchenincovenantschools           known to their children: That the
    The basis for covenant Christian            in which the fear of the Lord is the        generation to come might know them,
education is the triune God, Father;            beginning of all wisdom; we are to          even the chiklren which should be
Son, and Holy Spirit, as revealed to us         live holily  and righteously in every       born, who should arise and declare
in the Bible, the Word of God. The              part of life to the praise of the God of
                                                our salvation                               them to their children: That they
                                                                   (God's Everlasting
Trinity is the deepest reason why God           Covenant of Grace, by Prof. Herman          might set their hope in God, and not
is a covenant God and lives a cov-              Hanko, p. 196).                             forget the works of God, but keep his
enant life within Himself, a life of                                                        commandments." Parents are to see
friendship and fellowship. God by             Who is Responsible for Supporting             to it that their children are taught and
His covenant of grace takes us into           the Cause of Christian Education?             instructed in the doctrines contained
that fellowship and friendship and                The answer is simply that all those       in the Old and New Testaments and
establishes that covenant with us             who are in the covenant share a part          in the Articles of the Christian faith
through His Son, Jesus Christ. We,            in the responsibility and privilege of        which are the true and complete doc-
                                              the support of covenant Christian             trine of salvation in Jesus Christ our
                                              education. We call this "corporate"           Savior. They are to see to it that they
                                              covenantal responsibilities. Corpo-           are taught in the Christian schools
                                              rate means "shared by all the mem-            where "the fear of the Lord is the
                                              bers of a unified group." This means          beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7).
                                              that in all spheres of life, namely the       They should also make every effort
Mr. Bruce VanSolkema  is a member of the      home, church, and school, there is a          possible to afford this education by
Byron Center Protestant Reformed              responsibility,as  the thirdquestionin        not making luxuries of life become
Churchand aformer member of the Board         theBaptismFormasks,"whetheryou                necessities to which they cling. Un-
of  .@ritage  Christian School,  Hud-         promise and  intend  to see these chil-       married young people, those couples
sonville, ML                                  dren,, when come to years of discre-          who do not have children, and all

                                                                                                 December 1,1993/Standafd  S8af.9~111


older people and grandparents share           Consistories must promote the orga-           home schooling as an option. This
in this responsibility to support this        nization and proper maintenance of            means that certain sacrifices have to
cause by their prayers and by their           good Christian day schools bybeliev-          bemadebyallofusinordertoaccom-
gifts. This also means that we should         ing parents, and must                                       plish this. Let us remem-
desire to become members of the area          urge the members of our                                     ber that money, by it-
school societies and to participate in        churches to use these                                       self, does not make qual-
those society meetings. We should             schools for the educa-                 Are we               ity education, but stew-
also remember that the calling to ful-        tion of their God-en-              robbing God              ardship of that money
fill these demands continues as long          trusted children.                when we do not             and commitment does.
as we live, for the covenant continues             3.  By the school.                support                  Do you want to have
from generation to generation until           The parent-run school                 the cause             "covenant" Christian
Christ returns.                               has the privilege to par-                                   education for our chil-
       2. By the church.  The church          ticipate actually and               of  Christian           dren today and tomor-
institute has an important part in            physically in the educa-             education              row? Are we robbing
"Covenant Christian Education" for            tional process in the in-             required              God when we do not
she must be faithful in instructing her       struction of the covenant         in the demands            support the cause of
members about our covenant and                children. We must real-          of the covenant?           Christian education re-
triune God and in the demands that            ize that these schools are                                  quired in the demands
He places with those in that covenant         an extension of the home L                                  of the covenant? Let us
of grace. The minister as the mouth-          and, therefore, ought to                                    all meditate on Malachi
piece and servant of Jesus Christ must        be controlled and run by covenant             3:10, where-Godcommandsus, "Bring
show the congregation the pathway             parents. These schools must hire com-         ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
to faith and obedience in Christ as           petent teachers who are totally de-           that there may be meat in mine house,
they fulfill those demands. Article 21        voted to instructing covenant chil-           and prove me now herewith, saith the
of the Church Order states that "the          dren in the fear of the LORD in every         Loanofhosts,ifIwillnotopenyouthe
Consistories shall see to it that there       area of the curriculum taught in the          windows of heaven, and pour you
are good Christian Schools in which           school. The school board must make            out a blessing, that there shall not be
the parents have their children in-           Christian education affordable to all         room enough to receive it." 0
structed according to the demands of          those who desire it for their children,
the covenant." This means that our            so that some are not forced to look at




                          The Spirit-Foretold
         Apostatizing in Latter Days
                                                           Lesson IO


                                              Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in    latterdays.Itisthefirstmanifestation
                                              thelatter times someshall departfrom the      of the spirit of anti-Christian  teaching.
                                              faith....                                     It is the first view of the proud boast-
                                                                      I Timothy 41-5        ing of many who shall come saying "I
                                                                                            am Christ." These shall deceive many
                                              Some Introductory Observations                (Matt. 24:4, 5). We must not be de-
                                                   First, we notice that the verses l-      ceived!
 .:                                           5 delineate some particulars concern-              Secondly, the false teaching will
                                              ing this departing of some from the           be another form of what Jesus called
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the    faith. We are told that such apostatiz-       "the leaven of the Pharisees" (Matt.
Protestant Reformed Churches.                 ing is the particular earmark of the          X6-11). It willbe a teaching which is

1 WSfandard Bearer /December 1,1993


inspired by Satan, the liar from the         not human spirits, but they are de-          pressly." Here is not a muttering and
beginning. "...seducing spirits, doc-        monic spirits which entered into their       peeping,butareturntothe"oldpaths"
trines of devils, `speaking lies in hy-      thinking. These induce them to reject        spoken of in Jeremiah 6:16,17. For
pocrisy" (I Tim. 4:2).                       the "truth of the gospel, the true faith,    notice thatinITimothy4:1-5  the basic
    Thirdly, such who "depart from           the great mystery." God is manifest          truth is at stake: What did God say in
the faith" never were of the number of       in the flesh, the truth of the Logos-        Genesis l:l-31 and  2:15-25?  Jesus'
those whose names are written in the         Incarnate (John  1:14). Those who            approach in Matthew 19:4-6 is "have
Lamb's book of life (I John 215-29;          depart are ever being seduced in-            ye not read?" It is not a matter con-
4:1-S; II John 7).                           wardly in their spirit.                      cerning the sanctity of marriage, as
    The Scriptures teach that Christ is          b) And thus with the tongues of          we read in Deuteronomy 14:lff.,  but
a "stone of stumbling, and a rock of         the seduced they preach Satan's doc-         concerning how things were when
offence, even to them which stumble          trines. They preach a false gospel           they were created by God "in the
at the word, being disobedient:              which has its source in the liar from        beginning." The Holy Spirit writes in
whereunto also theywere  appointed"          the beginning. They do not preach            I Timothy 4:3b, "...which (both mar-
(I Pet. 2:8).                                the one, true gospel of forgiveness in       riage and meat) God hath created to
                                             the atoning blood of the Son of God.         bereceivedwith thanksgiving of them
"Some Shall Depart From the Faith"           Their doctrine is that man is become         which believe and know the truth.
                               - verse 1     God. The true "faith" is that God is         For every creature of God is good . . .
    The text does not say "some of           "manifest in the flesh, justified in the     for it is sanctified by the word of God
you will depart from the faith." This        Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto        and prayer." These matters are mys-
"departing" of some does not merely          the Gentiles, believed onin the world,       teries of salvation. They are not mere
refer to some "individuals," but also        received up into glory" (I Tim. 3~16;        trifles!
to some in their generation. Yes, out-       Phil. 25-11; Heb. 1:lff.). From this              Let us now analyze these clear
wardly they were organically in-             faith they who departed apostatized,         assertions from the sacred record as it
cluded in the visible church. How-           never to return in repentance (Heb.          was uttered by the very mouth of God
ever, they were not ingrafted into           6:1-8; 10:25-31).                            and recorded in the Theopneustic Scrip-
Christbyatrueandlivingfaith. These               This is a New Testament phe-             tures (II Tim. 3:16,17).
arethebrancheswhoneverwerefruit-             nomenon in history. It was approxi-               2. The holy ordinance of Gen-
bearing. These stumbled at the word          mately A.D. 200, when the church             esis 2:23,24 was believed by our first
of the Cross. These are the heretics         had spread abroad over three conti-          parents before their lamentable Fall.
which must needs appear, that they           nents, that this horrendous lie not          It was so holy a union that we read
who are approved may come to mani-           only came to manifestation in small          "Therefore shall a man leave his fa-
festation. Did not Christ come to            dimension, but the gates of hell did         ther and his mother and shall cleave
make division? (Matt. 10:31-39).             their utmost to prevail against the          unto his wife, and they shall be one
                                             confession of the entire catholic church     flesh." Now no man is ashamed of his
TheGreaVdepartingfromthefaith"               to subvert the truth in manifold "doc-       own flesh in private, but men can in
Clearly Set Forth                            trines." This lie needed to be rejected      good conscience be ashamed pub-
                          - verses 16-30     in confessional form. The basic ques-        licly. Our first parents were "both
    1. We should notice the gram-            tion was and ever will be: Who do            naked, the man and his wife, and they
mar. Paul writes one rather lengthy          you say that I the Son of Man am?            were not ashamed." Thereisno shame
sentence here, the entire sectionmade        (Matt. 16~15-19).  Look in the back of       in holiness. And again, only those
up of verses l-5. It is really a sentence    your  Psalter  and read the Ecumeni-         who believe and know the truth can
in which we see the spiritual-psycho-        cal Creeds, three in number: the             and may receive this holy bond of
logical downfall of a heretic. Paul          Apostles', the Nicene,  and the              marriage with thanksgiving. He-
says of such that their conscience is as     Athanasian Creeds. In this "depar-           brews  13:4 says, "Marriage is honor-
it were cauterized, made unfeeling.          ture of some" there was a total depar-       able in all, and the bed undefiled: but
No, their conscience is such that these      ture from the "faith." Christ indeed         whoremongers and adulterers God
really do not need to be warned more         came to make "division on the earth."        will judge." The sacred trust of mar-
than twice. The reason? These hypo-          The sword of the Spirit must there-          riage is a pearl of great price; it was
crites are to be rejected. We must           fore be wielded (Matt. 10:34; Eph.           purchased by the blood of the Bride-
know that such are subverted, and            6:14-V).                                     groom Jesus. Itis themysteryof Christ
that they sin, being condemned of                c) Someone will say: What a              and the church. This is not under-
themselves (Titus 3:10,11).                  fuss and ado over such a minute,             stood by a world characterized by
    Notice the steps in the doctrinal        harmless matter as "forbidding to            adultery and sodomy.
"departing from the true gospel."            marry" and "to abstain from meats."              "Meat" also is ours as a good
    a) This pictures a "giving heed"         But let us see! Not so, in the mind of       (fitting) gift. We do not allow Satan
to seducing spirits. These spirits are       the Spirit who speaks so very "ex-           and.all his cohorts, demons and men,

                                                                                               December 1,1993/Standard  Bearer/l 13


to beguile us of our reward in avolun-        grounded refutation of the error of a       knowledge and wisdom of God is in
tary humility such as consists in in-         work-religion attempting to replace         Christ, in whom is the fullness of the
sisting on keeping mere human ordi-           the gospel of grace without works of        Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9).
nances, summed up briefly in the              the law?
triad "touch not, taste not, handle                 4. Does the "forbidding of the            For those who are interested in
not" (Col.2:13-23).  Wewilllivebythe          saints to marry" in one stroke affect       these two 2nd century errors called
rule which is the great truth expressed       the entire "pattern of sound doctrine"      Gnosticism and Ebionism we recom-
inMatthew 15:10,11,  and which Jesus          to which the church has been deliv-         mend The International Standard
further explicates in Matthew 15:16-          ered (Rom. 4:15-18)?  Notice how of-        Bible Encyclopedia (vol. 2, pp. 1240-
20!                                           ten Paul speaks of the "pattern of          1248). The author of the piece is Dr.
                                              sound doctrine," particularly in I          Rutherfurd. This gives helpful infor-
Some Suggested Questions for                  Timothy 4:1,6,13,16,17; 5:17; 6:1,3.        mation on the entire scope of Gnostic
Further Discussions                           The implication in the Greek term is        teaching in its attempt to overthrow
       1. How could a matter of "for-         the "substance" of what is taught.          the Christian faith. The attempt of the
bidding to marry" and "to abstain                   5. The "creature" is made             "synagogue of Satan" to prevail
from meats" have such great mean-             "good." Does the good creatureneed          against the truth that Jesus is the Son
ing that it implied a total apostatizing      sanctification? For a good example          of the living God needs refutation.
from thefaith?                                notice that God "blessed the seventh        Read  ISBE  on the subject called
       2. Did this "departing from the        day and hallowed it" (Gen. 2:2,3)!          "Ebionism" (vol. 2, pp. 890-894). See
faith" have such serious implications               6. Can the theory of common           also the article on the "Gospel of the
that it called for the Spirit of Christ to    grace. be placed in the category of         Ebionites" in "ISBE,  (vol. 1, p. 196). It
reveal this New Testament develop-            what is good and hallowed by believ-        is given under the heading, "Hereti-
ment as taking place in "the latter           ers? How would you interpret Mat-           cal Gospels."
times"? Was this a matter which               thew 5:45 in the light of I Timothy 4:3,        For good measure, ministers and
called for Timothy to receive special         4?                                          professors could `read the very in-
instructions to study this matter, to be            7. Both the teaching and ethics       structive word study on the verb
"a good minister of Christ Jesus"?            of Gnosticism (finding God by means         gnoosis  in vol. 1, pp. 706ff. Anyone
Compare Paul's instruction to the             of a certain special, mystical knowl-       interested in the fatal fruit of depart-
church of Ephesus recorded in Acts            edge  [gnosis])   and the teaching of       ing from the faith will be able to trace
20:28-32.                                     Ebionism (a Jewish perversion of the        the dogma-historical development of
       3. Do we have in I Timothy 4:3,        fear of God) are in church history part     the "leaven of the Pharisees." 0
4 a good example of biblically                and parcel of the teaching that all





                            Missing Children:
 Is Children's Church Biblical?

                                              Saved to Worship                            ment of His seeking lost sinners to
                                                    Christians are saved from their       make them worshipers in the Son of
                                              sins to become worshipers of God.           man's coming to seekand to save that
                                              The Father seeks true worshipers (John      which was lost (Luke 19:lO). Chris-
                                              4~23). His seeking is saving. He seeks      tian worship is an issue of salvation in
Rev. Davis is pastor of the Grand Valley      sinners to save them that they might        Jesus Christ. God's elect are redeemed
Orthodox Christian Reformed Church in         become true worshipers of God Most          in order to worship Him in spirit and
Grand Rapids, Michigan.                       High, and the Father finds the fulfill-     truth (John 4%).

114lStandard  Bearer December 1,1993


 The Regulative Principle                  a big question today, although it              temative to keeping children in the
 of Worship                                should not be a question at all. The           worship services. They believe that
     Foundational to the proper wor-       practice of children's church is to be         regular worship services havelittle or
 ship of God is what is commonly           decisively and completely rejected.            no meaning to children and young
known as the regulative principle of       Historically it has not been a practice        people; therefore a separate serviceis
worship. This principle, so skillfully     accepted by the church. There is no            necessary to meet their needs.
 described by our Reformed confes-         biblical basis for it, and it is not in any          How did children's church ever
 sions, means that God regulates His       way based on Reformed theology or              start? Where has it come from? It has
 own worship by His Word. God              Reformed methodology. It is a new-             not come from the Bible, but from the
prescribes and governs His own wor-        fangled modern invention not rooted            world of modern, secular, and hu-
 ship; He alone appoints what is ac-       in the historic Christian faith andprac-       manistic psychology. It is not the fruit
 ceptable to Him, and all else is to be    tice of the church. While there are            of some fresh insight from Scripture
 excluded. Only those elements which       many arguments brought forth in fa-            that our forefathers did not have. It
 are derived from Scripture are pleas-     vor of children's church, the argu-            has crept into the church from the
 ing and acceptable to the Lord. The       ments represent the voice of pragma-           world in the guise of pragmatic meth-
Westminster Confession (1:6; 21:l)         tism and-not the voice of                                     odology according to the
 and the Belgic Confession (Art. 32)       the Word of God. The                           1 latest psychological and
 are one in setting forth this standard    advocates of children's              Our Reformed             educational theories of
 for the worship of God. The biblical      church are actually ad-                                       child development. Ad-
basis for the statements made by the       vocates of "R-rated wor-              forefathers             vocates of children's
 confessions is seen in such verses as     ship" - worship re-                   would have              church appeal not to
Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:30-32  and Exo-        stricted to adults only.              considered              Christian theologybut to
 dus  20:4-6. The second command-          The        p r a c t i c e   o f       children's             modern psychological
menthistoricallyhasbeenunderstood          children's church, while                church                and educational theories
by Reformed Christians to be part of       on the surface seeming                                        to state and make their
the biblical basis for the regulative      to be well-intentioned,             unthinkable and           case; and in light of the
principle of worship. The Heidelberg       plausible, sensible, and              intolerable.            Word of God they come
 Catechism (Q&A 96) and the                advisable, has been L                          I up empty every time.
Westminster Larger (Q&A 109) and           nothing less than a spiri-                                    One thing that all advo-
Shorter (Q&A  50,51)  Catechisms ar-       tual disaster for the church of Jesus          cates of children's church have in
ticulate this.                             Christ. It is one of the most, if not the      common is a lack of respect for and
     Everythingin the worship of God       most,damaginganddestructiveforms               adherence to the regulative principle
that is not sanctioned, taught, com-       of Christian education ever devised            of worship.
manded, or prescribed by His Word          by man. It would never have come
 is, in the words of Leviticus lO:l,       into vogue if the church had not aban-         The Biblical Basis
"strange fire which the Lord com-          doned the regulative principle of              for the Reformed Position
manded not." That there is much            worship. Our Reformed forefathers                    The Bible regulates the public
 "strange fire" being offered to God in    would have considered children's               worship of God by calling for the
many evangelical and Reformed              church unthinkable and intolerable.            whole covenant community, young
churches today is beyond dispute. A                                                       and old alike, to be present during the
growing and glaring example of this        Children's Church -                            worship services. This is the consis-
is the phenomenon of children's            Its Definition and Origin                      tent and exclusive teaching of God's
church.                                           Children's church is that practice      Holy Word (Ex. 10:8; 12:24-26;  Deut.
                                           which has the children and. young              29:9-13;  31:10-13; Josh.  8:34-35;  II
Missing Children                           people of local churches (even through         Chron. 20:5,13;  Ezra 1O:l; Neh. 8:1-3,
     Children'schurchisamajorprob-         high school in some cases) miss all or         5, 6; 12:43; Joel 2:15; Matt. 21:15, 16;
lem today. Children from Christian         part of the worship services, includ-          Eph. 6:l; Col. 3:20).
homes are missing. Where have all          ing and especially the preaching of                  There is nothing in all of God's
the children gone? They certainly are      God's Word, in order to be in their            Word that even remotely resembles
not in the worship services of local       own age-segregated setting for "age-           children's church. There is express
churches. They are in children's           appropriate" singing, instruction, and         biblical warrant for the inclusion of
church (meaning junior church,             other activities. Advocates of                 children in the public worship ser-
children's worship, children's activ-      children's church consider traditional         vices of the church of Jesus Christ;and
ity center, etc.) which is run at the      Reformed worship services tobe hard            because there is biblical warrant for
same time as the worship services.         on children and not "child-friendly";          including children, the church is pro-
    To have or not to have children in     thus they consider children's church           hibited from excluding them. Thus
the worship services of the church is      a creative, proper, and legitimate  al-        no Reformed confession,, when ad-

                                                                                                 December 1,4093/Standard  Beared


dressing the proper elements of wor-                  with families and perpetuates a be-              they have as they replace preaching
ship according to the Word of God,                    lieving remnant along the lines of               with such things as films, concerts,
includes children's church among                      continued generations; thus covenant             drama, testimonies, missionary pre-
them.                                                 families are to be present to worship            sentations, and elaborate services that
     The objections against the bibli-                the Lord of the covenant.                        leave little or no time for preaching.
cal and Reformed position raised by                       The essential unity of the congre-           Those favoring children's church de-
                       J.
children's church advo-                                             gation is broken-by                clare that the instruction of children's
cates, like their argu-                          I                  children's church. It              church amounts to the equivalent of
ments for their position,                                           makes a division in the            the Word of God preached in the
arebased  on expediency               The essential                 covenant community at              power of theHolySpiritbymencalled
and pragmatism, rather                        unity                 the very point where it            and gifted by God. What a serious
than on biblical author-                      of the                should be one, in the              and tragic mistake! What a low view
ity. All the objections                                             public worship of Jeho-            of preaching and of the public means
representman'swisdom                  congregation                  vah. Children are not              of growing in grace.
protesting against the                 is broken by                 second-class members of                Reformed confessions, in har-
wisdom of God.                              children's              the covenant and of the            monywith the whole counsel of God,
     So, for the question,                   church.                church of Jesus Christ;            teach with one voice the biblical view
"Where should the chil-                                             they are to be included            of preaching (Westminster Larger
dren be during public                                               in the life of the church          Catechism Q&A 154,155; Heidelberg
worship services?" the                                              and especially in the              Catechism Q&A 54, 65, 83, 84, 98;
answer is clear and unambiguous.                      highlight of the lie of the church, the          Belgic Confession, Art. 13, 29, 30;
They, along with the adults, are to be                public worship of God. That families             Canons of Dordt II:S;III/IV:17).  Re-
in the gatheredcongregation, actively                 should worship together has been the             formed Christianity maintains that
participating according to their abili-               historic position of Reformed                    preachingis the chief meansbywhich
ties in the worship of Jehovah. Why                   churches. Children should increas-               God shows Himself gracious to His
has God, in His perfect and infinite                  ingly enter into the worship of the              electinChristinestablishingandcon-
wisdom, ordained this to be so? I will                congregation. The services are for               firming them in everlasting life and
now give two major reasons.                           them also, and the Lord of the church            glory. The preaching of God's Word
                                                      who dwells with the church blesses               is of first and primary importance in
The Biblical View of Children                         His elect members, young and old                 the life of the church. The Lord Jesus
from Christian Homes                                  alike.                                           Christ is made known to people of all
     The Reformed practice of includ-                     In the life of the church, the chief         ages in the preaching of His Word. It
ingchildrenin the worship services is                 meansbywhich Jesus Christ, the Head              is the chief means whereby He, by His
consistent with the biblical view of                  of the church, gathers and builds up             Spirit, communicates to us the ben-
children from Christian homes. The                    His people is by the preaching of His            efits of His redemption (I Cor. 1:18,
Bible teaches that children of believ-                Word. The primary                                             21, 23, 24; Rom. 10:12-
ers are included in the covenant of                   place of preaching in the                   I                  17; John 10:4,14,  16,27,
God's grace according to His cov-                     life of the church is an-            Is there                  28). The Bible teaches
enant promise. They are members of                    other major reason why         anything better                 that preaching is  the
the church and are to be incorporated                 children ought to be                                           means of grace for the
into the life of the church (Gen. 17:7;               present in the worship           for covenant                 ingathering and  up-
Acts2:39).  That children areincluded                 services.                           children                  building of God's elect
in the covenant of God's grace and are                                                    than the                   of all ages. All age groups
members of the church is articulated                  Preaching and Children          living presence                are commanded to re-
by the Heidelberg Catechism (Q&A                      from Christian Homes            of Jesus Christ                spond to the preaching
74), the Westminster Larger Cat-                          A d v o c a t e s   o f        mediated                   of God's Word by ac-
e c h i s m   ( Q & A   62),  a n d   t h e           children's church also                                        knowledging Jehovah as
Westminster Confession (25:2); thus                                                    by His Spirit
                                                      show an unbiblical view                                       the God of their salva-
children from Christian homes are                     of the preachingof God's          through His                  tion and by living ac-
really and truly expected and wel-                    Word. They show at                   Word?                     cording to the require-
come in the services, not as spectators               least by their actions, if                                    ments of the covenant in
or silent observers but as active par-                not by their words, that                    I                 true faith, repentance,
ticipants. God requires the presence                  they do not believe in                                        and obedience.
of the covenant children in the wor-                  the primacy and centrality of preach-                To suppose that children might
ship services. They not only have a                   ing in the lives of God's people. Prac-          be more profitably occupied during
right to be there; they ought to be                   tically speaking, they have the same             the time of the sermonbybeing given
there. God establishes His covenant                   view of preaching that others show               another form of instruction is a seri-

11  G/Standard Bearer  /December  1,1993


ous error. It is taking the children        Word? Is there any legitimate substi-       without compromise (I Tim. 3:15).
away from the very place where they         tute for this? God forbid! Rather,              Parents, God's covenant promise
ought to learn of the power, impor-         heads of families should lead in such       is to you and to your  children;  for
tance, authority, necessity, centrality,    a way that they confess in the words        together you are embraced in God's
and efficacy of the preached Word of        ofComeliusinActs10:33,"Nowthere-            covenant and are members of His
God. It takes them away from the            fore are we all present before God, to      church. The worship of God is for
chief means by which Christ is made         hear all things that are commanded          you, and for your children as well.
known to His people.                        thee of God."                               May God give you grace to appreci-
         Children's church practitioners                                                ate our Reformed heritage in this area,
are like the disciples in Mark 10:13-16     Conclusion                                  and may He as well enable you to
who sought to prevent the Lord Jesus            Families, stay together on Sun-         resist the practice of children's church
Christ fromblessing the children who        days. Worship theLord  together. Seek       by a positive cleaving to the regula-
werebroughttoHimbydenyingthem               the grace of God to develop a solid         tive principle of worship, based on
the presence of their Master.               and biblical view of the Reformed           I-l% holy Word, for His Name's sake.
Children's church arouses the holy          practice of including children in the       "Both young men and maidens; old
indignation of the Lord even as that        public worship services despite the         men, and children: let them praise the
notion of the disciples did. Is there       great pressure today to compromise          name of the Lord: for His name alone
anythingbetterfor covenant children         this practice. The church should be         is excellent; His glory is above the
than thelivingpresence of Jesus Christ      the pillar and ground of the truth          earth and heaven" (Ps. 148:12,13).  0
mediated by His Spirit through His



Wrongly Dividing the Word of  Truth:        have Jesus as Savior without having         three main parts. The first is an infor-
A Critique of Dispensationalism, by         Him as Lord of his life. Leading            mative account of dispensationalism's
John H. Gerstner. Brentwood, Ten-           dispensationalists have responded,          origins and development. Of particu-
nessee: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Pub-             defending this Nicolaitan doctrine and      lar interest is Gerstner's tracing of the
lishers, Inc., 1991. 274 pages. $15.95      striking out at the truth that the faith    influence of dispensationalism within
(hardcover). [Reviewed by the Edi-          thatjustifiesis always a working faith      the Reformed churches from the late
tor.]                                       as Ulegalism.N Also, at the present         19th century on. One instance was
                                            time men are working to reconcile           the dissemination of dispensational
    Dispensationalism will never be         dispensational theology and covenant        doctrines within the Christian Re-
the same. Presbyterian theologian           theology. Leading Presbyterian theo-        formed Church by Harry Bultema.
John H. Gerstner has written the de-        logians leave theimpression that cov-           In the second main section, Dr.
finitive, Reformed critique of this         enant theology can make peace with          Gerstner examines  dispensation-
popular heresy. It is devastating. The      dispensationalism, if  dispensa-            a&m's  vaunted hermeneutics of lit-
recent (19th century) product of dis-       tionalism will only modify its theol-       eral&m. He convincingly demon-
reputable origins (JohnNelsonDarby          ogy. Contemporary dispensational            strates, as others have done before
and the Plymouth Brethren), center-         theologians are, in fact, furiouslyback-    him, that dispensationalism does not
ing on the bizarre notion of a "pre-        ing away from positions once pro-           carry through its program of a strictly
millennial, pretribulation rapture,"        claimed as basic to dispensational          literalinterpretationof OldTestament
dispensationalism is "spurious Cal-         theology (cf.  Dispensationalism, Is-       prophecy. But he argues also that,
vinism," "dubious evangelicalism,"          rael and the Church: The Search for         contrary to its boast that its (literalist)
and "deviation from essential histori-      Definition, ed. Craig A. Blaising and       hermeneutic determines its theology,
cal Christianity" (p. 68). Gerstner         Darrell L. Bock, Grand Rapids, MI:          the theology of dispensationalism
demonstrates that  n dispensationalism      Zondervan Publishing House, 1992).          determines its hermeneutic.
is a cult and not a branch of the Chris-    Nevertheless, no peace is possible              The third section on the theology
tian church" (p. 150). His conclusion       between genuine covenant theology           ofdispensationalismisbyfarthelarg-
is that "dispensationalism is another       and dispensationalism.  Dispensa-           est, as it is also the most important. In
gospel" (p. 259).                           tionalism must not merely modify its        it Gerstner does what has rarely, if
    The bookis timely. Popular radio        expressions and positions. It must          ever, been attempted: he examines
evangelist JohnMacArthur,  Jr.`s book,      confess that dispensational theology        the theology of dispensationalism
The Gospel According to Jesus, has          is false doctrine, and convert to cov-      according to the standard of the Re-
occasioned the "Lordship contro-            enant theology. This, Gerstnerinsists       formed faith. Gerstner's main con-
versy." MacArthur condemned dis-            on and demonstrates.                        cern is to expose dispensational the-
pensationalism's teaching that one can          Wrongly Dividing  consists of           ology as heretical by virtue of its

                                                                                             December 1,1993lStandard  Bmretill7


antinomism. Dispensational&m de-            point Arminianism" in the hard-hit-            we know, all of the faculty, have
nies that the law of God, that is, the      ting, critically important chapter  en-;       favored it. The Christian Reformed
decalogue, is the rule of life for New      titled, "Spurious Calvinism" (pp. 105-         Church had already  in 1920 taken
Testament believers. It opposes this        147). The gravity of this criticism of         this  sad step away from Reformed
doctrine as Jewish legalism. As the         dispensational theology, Gerstner in-           orthodoxy and has been declining
                                                                                            ever since. The Presbyterian Church,
present "Lordship controversy" has          dicates when he remarks that "Cal-             U.S.A. had even earlier, though
brought to light, dispensationalism         vinismis just another name for Chris-           somewhat ambiguously, departed
teaches that one canbe saved through        tianity" (p. 107).                             and  the present mainline Presbyte-
faith in Jesus, even though he goes on          The chapter, "Spurious Calvin-             rian church affirms that "The risen
living in flagrant, impenitent disobe-      ism," is of special interest to the Prot-       Christ is the savior for all men."
diencetothelawtotheveryendofhis             estant Reformed since in it Gerstner                 The Presbyterian Church in the
life. Gerstner is correct when he de-       condemns the doctine of the "well-             United States (now part of the Pres-
scribes this teaching, basic to             meant offer of the gospel." Because of         byterian Church, U.S.A.) is not far
dispensationalism, as not only  un-         Gerstner's stature as a Reformed theo-         behind, and the separatist Presbyte-
                                                                                           rians such as the Orthodox Presbyte-
Reformed but also "another gospel."         logian and in view of the almost uni-          rian Church and the Presbyterian
    Antinomism is an aspect of              versal acceptance of the "well-meant            Church in America are following in
dispensationalism's central and non-        offer" by Calvinistic churches, this           this train. Only the Protestant Re-
negotiable doctrine of the essential        repudiation of the "well-meant offer"          formed Church seems willing to hold
difference between Israel and the           as un-Reformed has sent a tremor               to the whole counsel of God on this
church. The law is for Israel, not for      throughout the Reformed world. The              doctrine (pp. 127,128).
the church. The other side of this          passage deserves to be quoted in its
heresy is that the gospel is for the        entirety. In the context of his treat-               Wrongly Dividing  takes its place
church, not for Israel. Inherent in         ment of dispensationalism's denial of        with O.T. Allis's Prophecy and the
dispensationalism's denial of the           limitedatonement, Gerstnernotes that         Church as outstanding Reformed cri-
unity of Israel and the church is the       also some Reformed theologians dis-          tiques of dispensationalism and out-
teaching that Old Testament Israel          play weakness regarding this doc-            standing defenses of covenantal the-
was saved in some other way than by         trine. He then takes up the issue of the     ology against dispensationalism.
faithin Jesus Christ. Gerstnerpresses       "well-meant offer of the gospel":                    Thebookwillserveoneveryprac-
this charge against dispensational&m,                                                    tical purpose: Put it into the hands of
showing that even those contempo-             We must also sadly admit that the          the man or woman who professes to
rary theologians who try to distance          majority of Reformed theologians to-       be Reformed but who is contemplat-
themselves from Scofield's teaching           day seriously err concerning the na-       ingleaving the Reformed church for a
that the Jews were to be saved by the         ture of the love of God for repro-         dispensational church. W
law deny that the object of faith in the      bates. We mention this here only                   (Editor's note: A lengthier re-
Old Testament was Jesus Christ.               because this defect in contemporary        view of this book has been published
                                              Reformed theology makes it all the
    But dispensationalismwithholds            easier for the dispensationalists to       in the Fall 1992 issue of theprotestant
the gospel even from the New Testa-           continue in their abysmal error.           Reformed Theological Journal.)
ment church. For in spite of the pro-           Most Reformed theologians also
testations of some dispensationalists         include, as aby-product of the Atone-      God's Law in theModern World: The
that they are "four-point Calvinists"         ment, the well-meant offer of the          Continuing Relevance of Old Testa-
(they openly admit to denying the             gospelbywhichallmencanbesaved.             ment Law, by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
doctrine of limited atonement), dis-          Some Reformed theologians take a           Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Pub-
pensational theology is "five-point           further step still and say that God        lishing, 1993. 81 pages, $4.95 (paper).
Arminianism" (p. 149). It rejects and         even intends that they should be           [Reviewed by the Editor.]
                                              saved by this Atonement which nev-
opposes every one of the five points          ertheless was made only for the elect.
of Calvinism, that is, the gospel of          For example, John Murray and Ned                   Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. is a U theon-
salvation by free, sovereign grace.           Stonehouse write: "Our Lord . . . says     omist." He tells us that the purpose of
The only one of the five points of            expressly that he willed the bestowal      the book is "briefly to introduce the
Calvinism that dispensationalism              of his saving and protecting grace         reader in a nontechnical way to the
makes any substantial pretense of             upon those whom neither the Father         case for the modern use of God's Law
holding is the fifth, the perseverance        nor he decreed thus to save and pro-       in ethics." According to Gentry, "the
of saints. But this is thoroughly cor-        tect." One may sadly say that              ethic thatisrigorouslybased on God's
                                              Westminster Theological Seminary
rupted by dispensationalism's anti-                                                      Law is known as theonomic  ethics fl (p.
                                              stands for this misunderstanding of
nomian doctrine of the "eternal secu-         the Reformed doctrine since not only       Xi).
rity" of those who live impenitently         John Murray and Ned Stonehouse                      Much of the very short book is
in wickedness. Gerstner demon-               but also Cornelius  VanTil,  R.B.           basic Reformed teaching on the place
strates that dispensationalismis "five-       Kuiper, John Frame, and, so far as         of the law in the life of the redeemed

118Etandard  Bearer/&cember 1,1993


Christian. The law has the important         still binding in the New Testament;          tain an ethics "rigorously based on
functions of making us to know our           that the state today is called to enforce    God's Law"? If a Reformed or Pres-
misery and of guiding our thankful           the Mosaic law, including the civil          byterian believer holds what the Hei-
life. The law does not justify. What         code; and that church and state were         delbergCatechismortheWestminster
Gentry has to say on these matters,          separate institutions in Israel. What        Larger Catechism teaches about the
every Reformed person raised on the          little is said about these notions ap-       Law, does he have an ethics "rigor-
Heidelberg Catechism has known               pears in five pages in chapter six.          ously based on God's Law"?
from his childhood.                                 Who has decided that the ethics           For such a big subject, the bookis
        The characteristic theonomic         rigorously based on God's Law shall          exceedingly brief. There are barely 70
views are for the most part merely           now be called "theonomic ethics"? If         pages of text, and the text is inter-
asserted, and not proved, e.g., that         one rejects theonomy because of its          spersed with large areas of blank
Old Testament Israel's civil laws are        peculiartenets,canhenolongermain-            space.  0



Reformation Day Activities                   next week by Rev. A. Spriensma               was the featured speaker for a Refor-
        It was only a few short weeks ago    speaking on the topic, "The Woman's          mation Weekend sponsored by the
that we joined with God's people             Role in the Church."                         congregation of the Hope PRC in
throughout the world to celebrate the               Rev. Ron VanOverloop was the          Redlands, CA.
Reformation of the 16th century.             featured speaker at a Reformation            Congregational Highlights
Many of our congregations took the           Dayrallysponsoredbythehnmanuel                   The congregation of the  Souih-
time to commemorate this event by            PRC of Lacombe, AB, Canada. Pastor           east PRC in Grand Rapids, MI has
sponsoring a Reformation lecture             VanOverloop spoke on October 29.             recently organized a Men's Bible
around the end of October.                          While on a visit to the congrega-     Study Society. What makes this soci-
        The congregation of the Trinity      tion of Covenant PRC in Wyckoff, NJ          ety a little out of the ordinary, at least
PRC inHouston, TX sponsored atwo-            to conduct church visitation with Rev.       to my knowledge, is that they meet
day Reformation program entitled             G. VanBaren,  Rev. Dale Kuiper was           for Bible Study at  7~00  A.M.  That's
"The Reformation of the 16th Cen-            able also to speak on Millennialism at       right, 7~00 A.M. All men are welcome.
tury Lives On Today." On Friday              a lecture sponsored by Covenant's            Coffee and donuts are also provided.
evening, October 29, Pastor Jai              congregation.                                    Rev. C. Terpstra, South Holland,
Mahtani, Trinity's pastor, gave a mes-              The Pella, IA PRC sponsored a         ILPRC'spastor,isleadinganewclass
sage on "The Gospel of the Reforma-          Reformation lecture by Rev. C.               for adult members of the congrega-
tion." This was followed on Saturday         Terpstra, who spoke on "The Beauty           tion. This class was set up to treat
morning, October 30, by a slide pre-         and Benefit of the Reformed Confes-          various ethical and spiritual topics
sentation on "The Spread of the Re-          sions."                                      relating to practical Christian living.
formed Faith to Singapore and In-                   "Soli Deo Gloria" was the topic       Their first topic was to be drama.
dia." In preparation for this two-day        that Rev. W. Bruinsma chose to use at            Pastor M. Dick of the Immanuel
program, Pastor Mahtani hoped to             a lecture on October 28 sponsored by         PRC in Lacombe, AB, Canada has
visit with some of the many Chinese          the Bethel PRC of Elk Grove Village,         also sta.rtedaReformedDoctrine  Class
and Indian peoples in and around the         IL.                                          for all members of his congregation.
Houston Area.                                       Rev. C. Haak spoke on "To God         Plans called for the group to cover
        The Byron Center, MI PRC once        Alone the Glory," for a lecture spon-        such subjects as the church, and the
again sponsored a Reformation lec-           soredby his congregation, thelynden,         end times.
ture at South Christian High School.         WA PRC.                                          Three members of the Building
Rev. Barry Gritters, Byron's pastor,                Prof.R.Deckerchoseasthetheme          Committee of the Peace PRC in Lan-
spoke on the topic, "Virtuous Women:         for his Reformation Day lecture the          sing, IL recently met with Lansing
Valuable Above Rubies." Two fol-             topic, "TheFoolishness  of the Preach-       Village officials to solve some prob-
low-up Bible classes were also held at       ing." He gave this lecture for the           lems concerning annexation. The ac-
Byron's church with Rev. C. Terpstra         congregation and friends of the Hull,        tual construction of the church build-
leading a discussion on "The High            IA PRC.                                      ing is not likely to happen until next
Callingof Motherhood," followed the                 The Evangelism Committee of the       spring because of uncertainty about
                                             South Holland, IL PRC invited Rev.           obtaining all the needed permits,asd
                                             A. Spriensma to speak at their annual        getting bids from contractors.
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant     lecture. He spoke on November 5 on           Evangelism Activities
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,  Michi-      "Living the Reformation."                        The Evangelism Committee of the
gan.                                                And finally, Prof. D. Engelsma        South Holland, IL PRC has begun a

                                                                                               December 1,1993/Si%ndafd  SearefYll9


&DMD
   BHEF?                                                                                                                SECONDCLASS
                                                                                                                        Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                        Grandville, Michigan
   P.O. Box 603
   Grandvile, MI 49468-0603


new venture entitled the "Reformed                 Mission Activities                         events that Rev. Hanko had arranged
Book Shelf." This is the name they                     On October 28 two elders,along         for the elders while in Ireland, there
have given to a "book store" they                  with their wives, from the  Hud-           appeared to be very little free time. It
have set up in their church basement.              sonville, MI PRC left by plane to          must have been a very busy 10 days
This book shelf contains good solid                spend ten days with the Covenant           for all involved.
Reformed books on sale for South                   Reformed Fellowship of Ballymena,                                                            cl
Holland's own members and forvisi-                 Northern Ireland. The Council of
tors or friends and relatives. These               Hudsonville had decided some time
books are available for purchase Mon-              backthatsuchavisitwiththeHankos,
day through Saturday. Every book                   as well as the families of the Fellow-
has a card in it which must be filled              ship, would be a good way to evalu-        FooLfJFor 5T-iougAt
out and left behind. The purchaser                 ate the mission field in Northern Ire-          "Better is it to go with a few to
will then be billed for the book(s).               land. By all accounts the visit was        heaven than with a multitude to hell, and
There are no immediate cash pur-                   very worthwhile for all parties in-        be a?amned  for the sake of company. I'
chases.                                            volved. And from the schedule of                                                      Parr




    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
    The Lord willing, on December                      The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society             With gratitude to God, on November 26,
13, 1993, our parents and grandpar-                of the Southwest Protestant Reformed       1993, our parents,
ents,                                              Church expresses its Christian sym-          PETER ROY and JOHANNA  WESTRA,
     MR.. and. MRS. ROBERT J.                      pathy to fellow members, Al and Marie      celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
                   HUIZINGA,                       DeYoung, in the passing away of their           We, their children and grandchildren,
will celebrate their 30th wedding anni-            step father and step father-in-law,        rejoice with them on this occasion. Their
versary. We thank God for giving us                     MR. HENRY WEEMHOFF.                   faithful instruction, guidance, and loving ex-
these covenant parents who  have                       May they find comfort in the words     ample have been a blessing for us through the
raised us in the fear of His name. It is           of I Thessalonians  4:14, "For if we       years. It is our prayer that God will continue to
our prayer that God may continue to                believe that Jesus died and rose again,    bless and keep them in all their ways.
bless them in their life together.                 even so them -also which sleep in               "So we thy people and sheep of thy
    "Know therefore that the Lord thy              Jesus will God bring with him."            pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will
God, he is God, the faithful God, which                        Don Doezema, President         shewforththypraise toallgenerations"(Psalm
keepethcovenantandmercywiththem                                 Florence Key, Secretary       79:13).
that love him and keep his command-                                                           e Arthur and Karen Flier
ments to a thousand generations"                                                                         Duane, Laura, Kara, Jon
(Deuteronomy  7:9).                                                                           # Peter and Janet Westra
$+ Robert and Lynne Huizinga                                                                             Peter, Kevin, Jason, Brian, Kristin
         Trevor                                                                               9 Marlin and Sandra Westra
$ Keaton and Kathy Stearns                                       NOTICE!!                                A&on, Robyne, Sara, Philip, Katelyn
$+ Jeremy Huizinga                                     Classis East will meet in regular      d Edwin and Verna Westra
                                                   session on Wednesday, January 12,
                           Qrandville, Michigan                                                          Eric, Valerie, Joel, Evan
                                                   1994, at the Southeast Protestant          $+ Gary and Jeralyn Westra
                                                   Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Ml.                    Jeff, Glenda, Steven, Brett, Kyle,
                                                   Material for this session must be in                    Janelle
                                                   the hands of the Stated Clerk by De-       d Bruce Westra
                                                   cember  13,1993.                           * Bartel and Janice Zandstra
                                                                          Jon J. Huisken                 Brianna, Brent, Justin
                                                                             Stated Clerk                                              Hull,  Iowa

120jStandard  Bearer/December 1,1993


