I
      A Reformed        BAER.
     ~ Semi-Monthly
     l Magazine





                          "          according to the demands of the covenant,."
                          .  .  .





      Vol. 68, No. 1
      October 1,1991


CONTENTS: .                                                                                      October 1, 1991                                &D!D
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema                                                                                                                      Bl3iRER
     Teaching Children the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..*........... 3
Editorially Speaking - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                 ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
     The Legacy of Good Christian Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5           Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                              Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association. Inc..
Guest Article - Dr. James Eldersveld                                                                                                          4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49418. Serxnd Class
     Financing Our Christian Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~....... 7     Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In His Fear - Mr. Fred Hanko                                                                                                                  Portmaster: Send address Changes to the SUlndard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                              P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 494SBQSQ3.
     Maintaining Our Christian Schools . . . . . . . . . ..*....................................... 9
Special Article - Rev. Herman Hoeksema                                                                                                        EDtTORlAL  COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                              Edttor: Prof. David J. Engalsma
     The Place of Doctrine in the Christian School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11                           Secretary: Prof.  Robert D. Decker
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                  ManaglnQ Editor: Mr. Dcfr  Doezeme
     Catherine of Siena: Mystic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.................. 15    DEPARTMENT EDtTORB
                                                                                                                                               Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arle
Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Ronald J, VanOverloop                                                                                         dentlartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra. Rev. Carl Haak, Mr. Fred
     Mission Principles (VI):                                                                                                                  Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Hey% Rev. Marvin
                                                                                                                                               Kamps, Rev. Stavan Key, Rev. Kenneth Kc&, Rev. Jason
     The Encouragements . . . ..~~...~.............................,.................~.~..........                                   17        Korterlng, Rev. Dale Kulper. Mr. James Lanting,  Rev. George
When Thou Sittest in Thine House - Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers                                                                                       Lubbars, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                                                                               Charles Terpstra, Rev. Ronald VanCverloop, Mr. Benjamin
     The Reformed Family:                                                                                                                     wlgger, Rev. Bernard WOUdenberQ.
     The Communion of Saints ..`,.................,........,......,......,.................. 19                                                EDlTORlAL  OFFICE           CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben wlgger
                                                                                                                                               4949 lvanrest               8597 46th Ave.
     Term of Office . . . . . . . . . ..`....................................................................... 21                            Grandvllle, Ml 49413        Hudsonvllle, Ml 49428
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger .,......,.  , . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23                                    BUSINESS OFFtCE             NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                               Don Doezema                 c/o Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                                                               P.O. Box 603                   Church
                                                                                                                                               Grandvllle.  MI             8. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                  49410                    66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                               PH: (816) 243-3712          Walnulomata. New Zealand
 In This Issue .,#                                                                                                                            (ftlfj        931-1490
                                                                                                                                               FAX  (618)  5313033

                                                                                                                                               EDtTORlAL  POLICY
         During the course of the year we try to publish a couple of "Special                                                                  Every editor Is solely responsible for the contents of his Own7
Issues," devoted to a single topic. Coming up next time (October 15) is our                                                                    artfclas.  Contributlonsofgeneral  InterestfromourreaderSand
                                                                                                                                               questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
second annual Reformation issue, all of which will be devoted to the Reformed                                                                  Contrlbuttcns will  be limited to approximately  300 words and
faith's continuing conflict `with Anabaptism.                                                                                                  mwtbeneatlywrmenortypewrltten,andmustbeslllned. Copy
                                                                                                                                               deadllnes are the ftrst  and fifteenth of the month. All
      The issue you're holding in your hand is a sort of semi-special issue. It                                                                communlcatlons relative to the contents should be sent to the
seemed to us that, at the beginning of another school year, we might do well                                                                   editorlal OffIce.
to include some articles which pertain in one way or another to Christian                                                                      REPRINT Wt.&
                                                                                                                                               PermisafonI5herebyQrantedforthereprlntlnQofarttcleSinour
education. Accordingly, Rev. Slopsema preparedhis meditation on "Teaching                                                                      magazinebyotirerpublIcatlons.pmvided:a)thatsudrreprlnted
Children the Covenant"; Prof. Engelsma wrote an editorial on the Christian                                                                     artkfes  are reproduced In full; b) that proper aoknowled~ment
                                                                                                                                               is made; c) that a copy of the perfodlcal  In whkh au& reprint
school legacy which is ours; Dr. Eldersveld submitted an article dealing with                                                                  appears Is sat to our editorial offfce.
the ever-growing problem of financing Christian schools; and Mr. Hanko                                                                         SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
submitted the first of what willbe  several articles during the course of the year,                                                            Subecriptlon  price: $12Qrl per year In the U.S., $15.00
in "In His Fear," on various aspects of education.                                                                                             elsewhere. Unless a deflnlte request for dlscontlnuance N
                                                                                                                                               received,   it  IS assumed that the  subscrlber   wIsherr  the
      As a special treat we've included also a reprint of an article which appeared                                                            subscrlptlontooontlnue,andhewlll  bebllledforrenewal.  lfyou
in the SB nearly 60 years ago. The editor, Rev. Herman Hoeksema, had given                                                                     haveachanQeofaddress,pleasenotHytheBuslnessOfficeas
                                                                                                                                               earty  as posalble In order to add the inwnvenlence of
a lecture on "The Place of Doctrine in the Christian School," and chose to print                                                               Interrupted delivery. In&de your Zip or Postal Code.
it later in the December 15,1935  issue of the SB. The reader today will note,                                                                 ADVERTtSlNG  POUCY
with gratitude,  that the  "vision" of Rev. Hoeksema way back then, the                                                                        TheStandardBearetdoesnotacceptcommatclaladvertlslnQ
                                                                                                                                               at any khd. Anhounwments of church and school events,
principles laid down with a view to the beginning of our schools, have                                                                         anniversades, obkuarlee. and sympathy resolutions will be
remained ours some 45 years after their establishment. "The principle of the                                                                   ptaoed  for a 33.~) fee. These should be sent to tie Business
fear of the Lord," wrote Rev. Hoeksema, "must permeate all the instruction                                                                     otRcetvldshwldbeeccMnpanledbythe53.Wfeo.  Deadline
                                                                                                                                               for announoements ts one month prtor to publlcatlon date.
and discipline and life of the school that is really Christian. A Christian school                                                             BOUND VOLUMES
must be Christian as a school!" How thankful we should be that that has not                                                                    The Business Office will  accept standlng order8 for bound
changed. And how ready we should be, generously and enthusiastically, to                                                                       copfesofthewnentvoktme.  Suchorderearefllleda~soonas
                                                                                                                                               possible after completion of a volume year.
labor to support and preserve those schools. The covenant, writes Dr.
Eldersveld, demands it.                                                                                                                        ISmm mtaofflm, 33mm mfcrofllm  and 1fJSmm  mlcxoflche,  and
                                                                                                                                               artlcte  mpiee  are  avalleble through  Unlvemtty  Microtilms
                                                                                                                                 D.D.          Intem&lnal.
2 /Standard Baarer I October 1,lQQi


                                                Teaching Children
Meditation
Rev. James Slopsema                             the Covenant

        And these words, which I command             The same is true of our children.      Sinai. So essential were these laws to
thee this day, shall be in thine heart:.        God's covenant is with believingpar-        the covenant, that Moses indicates in
        And thou shalt teach them diligently    ents and their children. For that rea-      the previous chapter that God made
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them       son, covenant parents must instruct         His covenant with Israel through the
when thou sittest in thine house, and           their children in the glorious realities    giving of these laws. Consequently,
when thou walkest by the way, and when          of the covenant.                            when Israel kept these laws they kept
thou liest down, and when thou risest up.            Christian schools have been            God's covenant; when they trans-
                      Deuteronomy 6:6,7         formed and maintained to assist par-        gressed these laws they transgressed
                                                ents in this all-important work.            the covenant.
        Moses is addressing the people of            With another school year upon us           Theselaws  were  essential to God's
Israel in the plains of Moab. Soon              and with all the sacrifices necessary       covenant because they showed Israel
Israel will enter into the land of prom-        to maintain our Christian schools, it is    the way of salvation. The tabernacle
ise.                                            well that we are reminded of the com-       worship required by the ceremonial
        Moses reminds Israel of the cov-        mand of God to instruct children in         laws portrayed very graphically to
enant which God established with                the law of His covenant.                    Israel the great salvation that was to
them at Mount Sinai through the giv-                      *  *  *  *  *  *  *               come through the promised Savior.
ing of the law. In that connection                   "And these words, which I com-         The kingdom into which Israel was
Moses recites the Ten Command-                  mand thee this day . . . . fl               formed through the civil laws served
ments in the ears of Israel. He also                 These words were the words of          as a picture of the kingdom of heaven
mentions the other laws given at                the law God gave to Israel at Mount         that was to come. The moral laws
Mount Sinai.                                    Sinai. "These words" included the           (Ten Commandments) served a two-
        Moses then proceeds to charge           Ten Commandments inscribed by               fold purpose. First, they showed Is-
Israel to observe all these command-            God's finger on tables of stone, often      rael her sin and her need for Gold's
ments in the land they are about to             called the moral law. "These words"         Savior. But, secondly, when Israel
possess, that it may be wellwiththem.           included also the civil laws that orga-     found salvation at the house of God
        These commandments must be              nized Israel into a nation and regu-        through the priests and sacrifices, the
intheir hearts, so that they teach them         lated its life as a nation. Included in     moral law served as the rule of grati-
diligently to their children. How im-           these words were also the ceremonial        tude, pointing out to Israel how she
portant this is! God's covenant is also         laws which instructed Israel how to         must show her thankfulness for her
with Israel's children. These chil-             worship God around the tabernacle           salvation.
dren, therefore, must be instructed in          with the priests, the offerings, and the        And so it was that, through the
thelaw of the covenant, that they may           various feast days.                         laws of Mount Sinai, Old Testament
learn to keep God's covenant.                        These laws were God's covenant         Israel was instructed in the salvation
                                                with Israel.                                of God's covenant, was able to enjoy
                                                     According to the promise which         that salvation, and thus lived a cov-
                                                God made before this to Abraham             enant life of friendship with God.
                                                and his seed, God's covenant was                In these great realities of the law
                                                with Israel. This covenant was a rela-      and God's covenant, Israel's children
                                                tionship of friendship and fellowship       must be taught. And these words,
                                                between Jehovah and Israel in which         which I command thee this day . . .
                                                Jehovah was Israel's God and Israel         thou shalt teach them diligently unto
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of  Hope Protes-        was His people.                             thy children.
tant Reformed Church in Walker, Michi-              Attheheartofthiscovenantwere                The children in Israel must not
gan.                                            the multitude of laws given at Mount        merely be taught the laws given at

                                                                                                  October 1 , 1991 I Standard Bearer I3


Mount Sinai. They must alsobe  taught       children, even as the parents of Old          of the universe, the stars in the heaven.
the realities of salvation and of the       Testament Israelwere to instruct their        The command to parents is to bring
covenant which these laws revealed.         children in these same realities pic-         the light of God's covenant word to
    This was the solemn obligation of       tured in the Old Testament law.               bear on every activity of their chil-
every parent in Israel.                                *  $  * *  * *  *                  dren, so that their children under-
    The same command is laid at the                Moses has something to say about       stand how the whole of their life and
feet of believing parents today.            how these things are to be taught to          all their learning relates to God's cov-
    The same covenant which God             the children of the covenant.                 enant of grace.
had with Israel continues today with               They are to be taught diligently.          Christian schools have been
believing parents and their children.              The meaning is that this instruc-      formed to assist parents in this all-
The form the covenant takes today is        tion must be constant and thorough.           important task.
much different from what it was in          Parents must daily instruct their chil-           We live in a day when parents are
Israel's day. So much is this true that     drenintherealitiesofGod'scovenant             ordinarily not qualified to instruct
the Bible speaks of a new covenant in       and salvation. And this instruction           their children in every area of leam-
distinction from the old. Yet the es-       must be in every aspect of God's cov-         ingnecessarytomaketheirwayinlife
sence of these two covenants is the         enant.                                        and live on the earth as responsible
same.                                              Thisideaisreinforcedbythecom-          citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
    The difference between the old          mand to talk of these things with our         Consequently, covenant parents (as
and new covenants is to be explained        children when we sit in our house,            well as grandparents and other mem-
primarily by the fact that Christ has       and when we walk by the way, and              bers of God's covenant) have estab-
come andbrought into being the great        when we lie down, and when we rise            lished and maintained Christian
realities of the covenant which were        UP*                                           schools in which children of the cov-
only pictured in the law of the old                This describes a situation in which    enant are taught various disciplines
covenant. ThroughHisatoningdeath            parents are with their children all           from the viewpoint of God's cov-
on the cross, His resurrection, exalta-     day. They sit with them at meal time.         enant. These schools arenot designed
tion on God's right hand and sending        They walk with them to the fields to          to take the place of covenantal in-
forth of the Spirit of Pentecost, Jesus     work. They lie down next to them at           struction in the home, but only to
has obtained the salvation of the           night and rise with them in the mom-          assist covenant parents in these areas
church and established the greatking-       ing. This was the kind of family life         where parents are ordinarily not quali-
dom of heaven. Hence, the civil and         Israel enjoyed in Canaan. Sorry to            fied to teach their children.
ceremonial laws of Mount Sinai,             say, much of this is lost in our modem            What a great blessing the Chris-
which only pictured these realities,        society. It is important nevertheless         tian schools have been for the cov-
fall away.                                  that as parents we strive to be with          enant home!
    Besides, God's covenant is no           our children as much as possible.                 Let us thank God for our Chris-
more limited to the natural descen-                During all these activities with       tian schools!
dants of Abraham, the nation of Is-         our children, we as parents are to                Let us support them financially
rael. With the coming of Jesus Christ,      instruct our children in the realities of     and in our prayers!
God's covenant and its salvation is         the covenant. We are to instruct them             Let us as covenant parents also
brought to the nations. God's cov-          when they work as well as when they           send our children to them!
enant is with believers and their seed      play; when they rise in the morning as                  *  *  *  +  *  +  *
of every race.                              wellaswhentheyretireintheevening;                 For parents to be faithful to this
    Yet the essence of the old cov-         when they sit down to eat as well as          requirement of God's covenant, the
enant with Israel still remains. The        when they get up to do the dishes. At         word of the covenant must be in their
covenant which God has with the             all times they are to be instructed in        heart.
church today is a most wonderful            the realities of the covenant.                    What a great deal of time and
relationship of friendship and fellow-             This instruction must not be di-       energy is required on the part of par-
ship between God and the church in          vorced from the activity at hand but          ents to instruct their children in the
Jesus Christ, in which relationship He      must be applied to whatever parents           realities of the covenant as it touches
is their God and they are His people.       find their children doing. The Word           on every aspect of life!
In this covenant the church finds a         of God has something to say about                 What a great financial sacrifice is
most blessed salvation in Jesus Christ,     every area of our life and how it             often required on the part of parents
a salvation which manifests itself in a     relates to our covenant relationship          to send their children to the Christian '
life of loving service to God according     to God. The Word of God has some-             school to have their children in-
to the Ten Commandments.                    thing to say about our work, our rec-         structed in areas where the parents
    In these glorious realities of the      reation, our eating, our counting our         are not qualified to teach!
covenant, as revealed in the whole of       spelling, our reading. It has some-               Such an effort and sacrifice will
Scripture, parents are to instruct their    thing to say about history, the origin        be made only by those who have the

4 /Standard Bearer / October 1,199l


word of the covenant in their hearts.           The word of God's covenant is in         with God's covenant word and
        To have the word of the covenant    the heart of every true covenant par-        prayer.
in your heart means that the Word of        ent. God's covenant grace places that            May God lead us in these things
God concerning the covenant is very         word in his heart.                           and bless our precious children as
dear to you. You love and cherish it.           However, this is something in            they begin again another year of cov-
It is that which you treasure most of       which we all must grow and develop.          enant instruction in the Christian
all.                                        We do this by spending much time             school!  0


Editorially Speaking . . .

        The October 1 issue of our maga-    Fred Hanko, veteran teacher in the           But all will be acknowledged.
zine always represents the beginning        Protestant Reformed Christian                    We remind our readers that the
of a new volume-year. In this issue,        Schools, will share with Rev. Arie           "Letters" column is open to them. We
therefore, we inform our readers as to      denHartog  the responsibility of pro-        welcome reflection on articles that
what they can expect in the Standard        ducing articles for "In His Fear." Mr.       appear in the SB.
Bearer in the coming year, as this has      Hanko will write on Christian educa-             The staff reappointed all func-
been decided at the staff meeting held      tion. We welcome these brothers to           tionaries of the magazine as is indi-
in June.                                    the staff, appreciative of their willing-    cated on the masthead. The excep-
        Changes from the past year are      nesstomakeroomintheirbusysched-              tion is that Rev. Jay Kortering was
few. Rev. Barry Gritters and Rev.           ules for the hard work of writing.           appointed general adjunct since the
Gise VanBaren  asked to be relieved             Althougharticles,areassignedfor          incumbent is no longer on the staff.
from writing for a year. We express         the coming year, the editorial com-              We ask the continuing coopera-
our thanks to them for past contribu-       mittee is on the lookout for worth-          tionofallourwritersinmeetingdead-
tions to the magazine and entertain         while contributions arising from             lines. We covet the prayers of our
the hope that they will be back on the      speeches and lectures. Those who             readers on behalf of the SB's faithful
staff soon. Replacing Rev. Gritters as      wish to submit an article for publica-       testimony to the Word of God as
a writer for the rubric, "Strength of       tion are encouraged to do so. Not            confessed by the Reformed faith. CI
Youth," wilI be Rev. Steven Key. Mr.        every contribution will be published.                                         - DJE



                                            The Legacy of
                                            Good Christian
Editorial                                   Schools

        One of the most precious aspects    there is still the legacy of the idea of     estant Reformed Christian School
of the inheritance of the Reformed          Christian education as a goal to be          building with their own hands after
faith and life that has come down to        prayed and striven for.                      work and on Saturdays. Adams St.
us in the Protestant Reformed                   For many of us, it is true in the        Christian School in Grand Rapids,
Churches is the Christian school.           most literal sense that we have re-          Michigan came into existence in 1950.
Our fathers in the faith have handed        ceived the legacy of our schools from Both were preceded in 1934 by the
over to us the priceless legacy of a        ourfathers. Inthemid-1940s,asaboy            ProtestantReformedChristianSchool
solidly established system of good          of, seven or eight, I watched my fa-         of Redlands, California. Since then
Christianschools. Wheresuchschools          ther, my future father-in-law, and the       many others have been establishled
arenotyetpossible,  becausethenum-          other men of Hope PRC in what is             throughout the United States.
berof cooperating parentsis too small,      nowWalker,MichiganbuildtheProt-                  But when I speak of Christian

                                                                                               October 1,199l I Standard Bearer I5


education as a legacy bequeathed to           "councilmen" by "parents with the             common grace, wiping out the an-
us by our fathers in the faith, I refer to    encouragement of their consistories"          tithesis between the Christian and
Christian education as part of the            and you have the two main parts of            the world in regard to civil matters,
Reformed tradition. Our Christian             Article 21 of the church order of the         willbearfru.it,willobliteratetheprac-
                                                                                            tical difference between Christian
schools have their roots in a long and        PRC: II The consistories shall see to it      and public instruction, and thus will
noble history. They differ signifi-           that there are good Christian schools         prove to be the real cause of the
cantly in this respect from the Chris-        in which the parents have their chil-         failure of the Christian School move-
tian schools of the evangelicals  and         dren instructed according to the de-          ment. That we dare no longer to be
fundamentalists who suddenly be-              mands of the covenant."                        distinctive as a Reformed people in the
came "Christian school minded" in                 The foresight of our fathers in           declaration of the truth certainly im-
the late 1960s and 1970s when the             their advocacy of good Christian              plies that we do not want to be really
state schools took a nosedive mor-            schools was unerring, and of the great-        distinctive in the practical life  ("The
ally. It is amusing to the heirs of           est practical benefit to us their heirs.       Christian School Movement: Why a
                                                                                             Failure? VI," in The Standard Bearer,
Christian education in the Reformed           Today's newspaper announces the                Vol. 8, p. 319).
tradition to see these "johnnys-come-         trialof a longtime teacher in the state's    This warning is now being realized
lately" to Christian education con-           schools for the murder of a prostitute;      with a vengeance in the crumbling of
gratulating themselves in the religious       the conviction of another teacher in a       the Christian schools based on the
press on being the source and stan-           local state school for the homosexual        notion of the goodness of the unre-
dard of Christian education in the            seduction of a teenage student; and          generate world under the favor of
United States.                                the continuing strike by a teachers'         God.
     Our own Christian schools carry          union in the area for higher wages               We have a precious legacy in our
on the commitment to Christian edu-           that shuts the doors of the schools to       Protestant Reformed Christian
cation that was foundin the Christian         any education of the children. These         s c h o o l s .
Reformed Church  from  the late 1800s         things have become everyday occur-               They are covenant schools.
on. This commitment motivated  Re-            rences. They are the fulfillment of              They arenotmerereactions to the
formed parents to maintain the Chris-         Luther's warning to parents who re-          godlessness, utter this-worldliness,
tian schools during the depression of         ject Christian teachers in good Chris-       profanity, immorality, and dis'order
the 1930s by sacrifice that was noth-         tian schools:                                of the state schools. They are not
ingless thanheroic. Ourfathersin the            Because they are not now willing to        merely islands of academic excellence
faith - and the Christian schools -             support and keep the honest, up-           in a sea of mediocrity. They are not
lived then by the principle, "The               right, virtuous schoolmasters and          fertile fields for child-evangelism, as
schools first."                                 teachersofferedthembyGodtoraise            though the Christian teachers work
     The tradition extends back into            their children in the fear of God, and
                                                in virtue, knowledge, learning, and        for the regeneration of the unsaved
the life of the Reformed saints in The          honor by dint of hard work, ciili-         children of church members, count-
Netherlands. Way back. One of the               gence, and industry, and at small          ing the /I decisions for Christ" or first-
articles of the church order adopted            cost and expense, they will get in         time conversions as the best fruits of
by the Synod of Dordt of 1618/1619              their place incompetent substitutes,       their labor.
read: "Everywhere consistories shall            @orant louts such as they have had
see to it, that there are good school-          before, who at great cost and ex-
masters who shall not only instruct             pensewill  teach the children nothing           Opening up the schools
the children in reading, writing, lan-          but how to be utter asses, and be-
guages and the liberal arts, but like-          yond that will dishonor men's wives                   to the children
                                                and daughters and maidservants,
wise in godliness and in the (Heidel-           taking over their homes and prop-                    of unbelievers,...
berg) Catechism."                               erty, as has happened before. This                   is the subversion
     At the very beginning of the Ref-          will be the reward of the great and                   of the ve y idea
ormation, Martin Luther himself                 shameful ingratitude into which the
called for the establishment of Chris-          devil is so craftily  leading them ("A        of the Christian school....
tian schools as an essential element of         Sermon on Keeping Children in
the Reformation. In 1524, he wrote              School," in Lufher's  Works, Phila-
the tract, "To the Councilmen of All            delphia: Fortress Press, 1967, p. 218).        Neither are good Christian
Cities in Germany That They Estab-                Ourmoreimmediatefathersfore-             schools agencies for the improvement
lishandMaintainChristianSchools."             saw thecertaindestructionof distinc-         of society or for the help of the disad-
This plea for the establishing of Chris-      tively Reformed education by the             vantagedin the neighborhood. Open-
tian schools was followed in 1530 by          secularizing doctrine of common              ing up the schools to the children of
a powerful appeal to the parents to           grace. Writing in 1932, Herman               unbelievers, whether  povlerty-
use the schools, "A Sermon on Keep-           Hoeksema prophesied:                         stricken minorities or rich whites, is
                                                I assure you, that this principle of
ing Children in School." Replace                                                           the subversion of the very idea of the

6 /Standard Bearer  I October 1,1991


Christian school, the destruction of               In the covenant-nature                        We look in vain, no doubt, to the
truly Christian education, and the                         of the schools                   state to reduce our taxes as would be
ruin of the children of the covenant                                                        just since we ourselves provide the
who now are thrust into friendship                        lies the solution                 education of our own children.
with theheathen withalltheperilthat               to the financial problem.                      The solution is to be found in the
this entails.                                                                               covenantal nature of the schools.
     Our schools - good Christian                                                           Parents bring up the tuition, as best
schools-are institutions of the cov-          thankfully, maintaining it and, wher-         they can, with the willingness that the
enant. Article 21 of the Reformed             ever possible, building it up. Since          covenant of God alone can compel.
church order of Dordt describes them          the Lord Jesus gives it to us to be used,     Teachers are willing to make sacri-
as "demands of the covenant." Their           to be invested in the children, we            fices for the cause of the covennnt.
origin is the covenant of gracious            parents are to use the schools, send-         But all members of the churches, old
friendship in Jesus Christ by the Holy        ing our children with the obedience           and young, whether they have chil-
Spirit that God establishes with be-          that a demand of the covenant re-             dren in school or not, have reasoln to
lievers and their children. The reason        quires.                                       contribute liberally to the schools. In
for their existence is God's demand               In the covenant-nature of the             the covenant, schools and children
that believing parents rear His little        schools lies the solution to the finan-       are the schools and children of all. In
people, their children, in the truth of       cial problem. The financial problem           the covenant, the friends of God work
Jesus Christ, their Lord and Saviour.         is especially twofold. There is the           together with each other.
The pupils are our children, our dear         inadequacy of the wages for teachers.              Widows should give their mites.
children, doubly dear as our own              Married men with families are forced          The rich - and we have them -
blood, bought with God's blood. The           out of teaching into other work in            should give their thousands or mil-
subjects are two great books written          order to supply their needs. Others           lions. The schools should be named
by God about Himself: Holy Scrip-             are required to supplement their sala-        in wills: The plates passed regularly
ture and the elegant book of creation.        ries by taking on other jobs, not only        in the worship services for the Chris-
The basis and standard of all the in-         during the summer months but also             tian schools should be filled, espe-
struction is the Bible, the book of the       throughout the school year. This              cially by those not paying tuition -
covenant, as expressed in the Re-             should be intolerable to the covenant         the young people with good jobs; the
formed confessions. The rule of all           community that is responsible for the         single people; the couples whose chil-
behavior in the schools is the law of         schools.                                      dren are out of school; the grandpar-
God, the guide of covenant-life. The              The other aspect of the problem,          ents.
purpose of the schools is the enabling        working against the remedy of the                 Not to relieve the parents of their
of the children to carry out their part       first, is the high tuition, threatening to    responsibility.
in the covenant in the service of God         overburden many parents. Parents                  But to make their responsibility
as mature men and women in all                are oppressed by tuition bills that           manageable.
areas of life now and eternally. For          they cannot pay. Others may con-                  For the sake of the children of the
the children, this is life, peace, and        sider taking their children out of the        covenant.
honor. For God, it is glory.                  schools. Or mothers go out to workto              God forbid that we despise, and
     We ought to receive the legacy           make ends meet.                               lose, the legacy. 0
                                                                                                                                - DJE

                                              Financing Our
Guest Article
Dr. James Eldersveld                          Christian Schools.
    Train up a child in the way that he           Our Christian schools are a most          dence that Satan is at work to destroy
should go: and when he is old, he will not    precious heritage. Theirpreservation          our schools.
depart from it.                               depends on God's grace and our obe-               In late 1988, the Board of Hope
                          Proverbs 22:6       dience to God's demand that we edu-           Protestant Reformed Christian School
                                              cate our children in His fear. This is        appointed a special committee to
                                              accomplished by our diligent use of           study gross income and tuition costs
Dr. Eldersveld is a member of Southeast       the means that God provides, while            since 1957and to "recommend guide-
Protestant Reformed Church.                   we heed the sometimes subtle evi-             lines for . . . a broader base of support

                                                                                                     October 1,1991/  Standard Bearer I7


for Protestant Reformed Education."              First of all, it is important that we    use. Our calling to educate (God's
Their findings may surprise you.             reaffirm our commitment to Chris-            covenant children in His fear, and our
    First of all, they found that tuition    tian education. Because understand-          calling to return to God a portion of
costs are rising faster than income. In      ing the necessity of Christian educa-        His gifts, leave us with a profound
30 years, tuition costs for three chil-      tion is basic to committing to it, I         responsibility to give generously to
dren increased by a factor of more           recommend that you read Prof.                the Christian schools. Having been a
than13,whilegrossincomeincreased             Engelsma's booklet, Reformed Edu-            deacon and a school board member, I
by a factor of less than 5. In other         cation, for a full explanation of the        have witnessed firsthand the tremen-
words, for every $1.00 of increased          necessity of Christian education as          dous response of God's people to an
income, tuition increased by more            revealed in the Word of God. I will          immediate financial need. Such a
than $2.50!  In 1957, tuition costs were     simply say, that the Christian educa-        responseisneedednowbyourschools
only 7.6% of gross income, but had           tion of our children is not merely a         and it must be sustained. This may
increased to 20.8% by 1987.                  parental privilege; it is a divine man-      involve giving up something that we
    The Hope committee also re-              date, an essential aspect of the cov-        desire but don't need. Thinkof  some-
viewed thehistory of non-tuitioncon-         enant that God has established with          thing unnecessary that you regularly
tributions (gifts, fund drives, church       His people. Because our Christian            spend money on and resolve to do
collections, etc.) receivedby the school     schools complement the Christian             without it, giving the money instead
and found that their percentage of the       education given in part by the home          to the Christian school.
cost of education has been steadily          and by the church, it follows that the           Finally, if God has blessed us in
declining. For the same 30-year  pe-         covenant demands that we labor to            excess of our needs in this life, good
riod, gift increases were nearly iden-       support and preserve our Christian           stewardship requires that we prop-
tical to salary increases but did not        schools.                                     erly allocate that surplus in a. last-
keep pace with increases in the cost of          Secondly, providing Christian            will-and-testament to ensure that it is
education. In 1957, gifts financed           education is not only the responsibil-       not wasted. Others must not be mak-
almost 50% of the school's budget,           ity of parents; it is the duty of all        ing these decisions for us-God has
but they financed less than 13% by           members of God`s church. We are              made us overseer of these gifts. Seri-
1987.                                        reminded of this each time aninfant is       ous consideration must be given to
                                             baptized: "Whetheryoupromiseand              including the Christian school(s) in
                                             intend to see these children when            our wills. We should have a will even
         . ..our schools may be              come to the years of discretion              if we feel that the value of our estate
     financially threatened                  (whereof you are either parent or            willnotbe significant. Expensiveand
         unless we take action               witness) instructed and brought up in        unnecessary fees and taxes are in-
                                             the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause     curred when an estate must be settled
            in the present.                  them to be instructed, to the utmost of      without awill. Thisiswasteful. Think
                                             your power." All (parents and wit-           of what it would mean to the Chris-
                                             nesses) must labor to support and            tian school(s) to have that money in-
    These records indicate that in-          preserve the Christianschoolbecause          stead. The professional advice of a
creased tuition costs since 1957 were        it complements theinstructionof these        lawyer and/or accountant may result
not due to the increased cost of edu-        children. Single people, young and           in significant additional tax savings
cation alone but were due, in large          old, you are included. Couples with-         that could be allocated to the Chris-
part, to a significant drop in the level     outchildren,youareincluded. Young            tian school(s).
of contributions. If thelevel  of contri-    parents with preschool children, you             After careful study, each slchool
butions had remained at 50% of the           are included. Parents educating your         must determine the extent of its need
school's budget, tuition costs would         own children at home, you are in-            and determine the specific action re-
have increased only to 12% of gross          cluded. Parents with school-aged             quired to fulfill that need.
income by 1987 rather than to 20.8%.         children, though you are currently               HopeProtestantReformedCluis-
    I believe that the records of Hope       paying for the Christian education of        tian School has decreased the per-
Protestant Reformed Christian School         your own children, you are included.         centage of its budget that is to be paid
are representative of our other Chris-       Older parents, though you have paid          by tuition, effectively doubling the
tian schools. At least, they carry a         dearly for the education of your own         amount of non-tuition contribu.tions
warning that the future of our schools       children, you are included.                  that must be raised to meet all ex-
may be financially threatened unless             Thirdly, God calls us to be good         penses. The tuition percentage will
we take action in the present. We            stewards of the gifts that He has given      be decreased by 1% each year until a
must be more diligent in using the           us. Our human nature fights against          ratio of 70% tuition to 30% gifts is
means that God has given us to en-           the truth that the fruits of our labor       reached.
sure that Christian school education         belong to God and tempts us to be                Adams Street Protestant Re-
remains affordable.                          selfish when putting this money to           formed Christian School has focused

8 /Standard Bearer I October I,1991


on establishing a new source of in-        (that is, promised but delivered at        the Adams Street Christian School
come for the school - a special type       some future date) and may be given         Board via reports of annual audits by
of endowment fund. The Adams               directly or through special vehicles       an outside party, and to its constitu-
Street Christian School Foundation,        such as wills, trusts, life insurance      encyby means of regular newsleti:ers.
as it is called, will provide supple-      policies, annuities, etc. So as not to         The Foundation works  person-
mental, long-term financial support        interfere with other fundraising ef-       allywithprospective contributors and
for the school. The Foundation is          fortsfortheschool(whichtheschool's         gives general assistance in the way of
legally incorporated in the State of       budget is currently dependent upon),       suggesting possible methods of giv-
Michigan and is recognized by the          the Foundation is presently concen-        ing. When necessary, the Foundation
Internal Revenue Service as a chari-       trating its efforts toward non-cash        makes referrals to Christian attor-
table organization. Therefore, the         gifts and deferred gifts. The busi-        neys and accountants who have expe-
Foundation can solicit tax-deductible      ness of the Foundation (including          rience with charitable foundations.
gifts which, rather than being spent       control of disbursements to the school)        South Holland Protestant Re-
by the school, are retained for invest-    is governed by a seven-member Board        formed Christian School has estab-
ment purposes. Investment earnings         of Trustees, separate from the School      lished an Endowment Fund to con-
are the new source of income for the       Board. An exception to the control         trol tuition costs. Though still in its
school. Gifts to the Foundation are        exercised by the Board of Trustees is      infancy, this Fund has demonstrated
not merely contributions, but are per-     that contributors to the Foundation        the potential of the Foundation/En-
manentinvestmentsinChristianedu-           may designate how their gifts are to       dowment Fund concept: it disbursed
cation.                                    be used.                                   $7,500 of income from investments to
    In addition to cash, the Founda-           Thoughoperatingindependently,          the school this year, and the principal
tion can accept other types of gifts       the Foundation and its Trustees are        is still earning income for next year.
such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds,       accountable for their actions at sev-          With foresight, commitment,
land, buildings, personal property,        eral different levels: to the Internal     stewardship, and God's blessing, the
andvirtuallyanyotherthingofvalue.          Revenue Service by virtue of the           heritage of our Christian schools will
Gifts may be immediate or deferred         Foundation's tax-exempt status, to         be preserved for our posterity. ~1




                                           Maintaining. Our
In His Fear
Mr Fred Hanko                              Christian Schools
    These are interesting times in the     are unable to read or write.               such as reading and mathematical
field of education. Once again there           Since this kind of thing has hap-      computation. Therefore, we can ig-
are reports that the American system       pened several times in recent years,       nore the test results.
of education is not doing its job. SAT     we can predict the results of all this         After this initial phase, most
test scores that measure students'         publicity. First, therewillbevigorous      people will agree that there is indeed
readiness for college are declining.       denials from many that the tests are       a crisis in our schools. It is important
Employers are complaining that             valid. The kind of students tested is      that people agree on this point be-
graduates of high schools are not able     different from the kinds that were         cause that will lend urgency to the
to perform basic reading and compu-        tested previously: there are more of       obvious solution which will then be
tation that are required for them to       them and they come from different          promoted with great fanfare: splend
hold jobs. Once again horror stories       social and economic levels and so on.      more money. Somehow it seems that
are being circulated about students        Then there will be some who will say       money is the solution to all educa-
who graduate from high school and          that the tests are accurate, but we        tional problems.
                                           don't care. The tests don't measure            That seems to make sense, also.
                                           the things that we consider impor-         Money will make possible new  re-
                                           tant. It's more important that our         searchin the ways that childrenlearn.
Mr. Hanko is a teacher at Hope Protes-     children be able to think and make         This research will presumably result
tant Reformed School in Grand Rapids,      decisions than that they be able to        in new educational methods that will
Michigan.                                  perform these mechanical functions         solve learning problems and make

                                                                                            October 1,199l I Standard Bearm  IQ


teaching more efficient and effective.          The first and most important rea-           Generally, we have agreed about
Universities throughout the country         son for the decline of the schools is       the goals of our Protestant Reformed
will conduct new experiments and            that the homes are declining. Single        schools. We want to train our cov-
studies that will produce solutions to      parent homes, breaking or broken            enant children so that they will func-
our problems. That's how programs           homes, workingmothers, parents that~        tion as Christians in their jobs, their
involving"cooperativelearning"  and         are too busy to attend to their chil-       families, and their churches. We want
"critical thinking" became part of the      dren, and all of the other problems in      our children to learn facts - as we
educational process.                        the homesisprobably the single great-       find them in the Word of God and as
    The results. of the research, of        est cause for the weakness in Ameri-        we find them in the world and inter-
course, will require new textbooks          can education.                              pret them by the Word of God. We
and other teaching and learning ma-                                                     want ourchildrentolearnskills. That
terials. Textbookcompanies then will                                                    willhelpthemfunctionintheparticu-
hasten to produce a multitude of new                   To the extent                    lar calling God has given to each one.
learning materials, outdating all pre-               that the stability                 We want our children to be able to
vious textbooks, workbooks, and               of our homes is threatened,               make judgments and decisions as citi-
other educational devices. Schools                                                      zens of the kingdom of heaven first.
throughout the country will spend                     our schools are                       We are, however, influenced by
vast amounts of money to purchase               immediately weakened.                   our society, and are sometimes at-
the new materials and to train teach-                                                   tracted by its goals. I'm afraid some-
ers in the use of new materials and                                                     times that we are too much attracted
methods.                                        As a teacher in a Protestant Re-        by the development of athletic skill as
    Now the politiciansYwillbe  happy       formed Christian School I thank God         a goal in itself or for the fame that it
because they have money to spend,           every day for the support that I have       brings. There seems to be increasing
andmoneymeansvotes. Educational             from stable, godly homes. I can feel        support for getting the schools more
publisherswillbehappybecausethey            their support in the obedience of the       involved in developing social skills.
will sell all these new materials.          children, in their readiness to learn,      In moments of discouragement I won-
Schools will be happy because they          andin theirresponse todiscipline. As        der whether student happiness is not
will have new buildings and materi-         long as we work together, we are            a sufficient goal for some. Perhaps the
als.Eventhetaxpayersmightbehappy            successful. Our schools have out-           means for amassing great wealth is
because they will feel that they have       standing attendance at parent-teacher       enough of a goal, at least for some of
contributed to the welfare of the chil-     conferences. Many parents become            our students. I have detected at times
dren.                                       actively involved in their children's       among our children and young people
    Now everything will be fine for         education by helping their children         a contempt for the idea that their
several years until someone notices         with their school work, and by show-        education should prepare them for a
that the SAT scores have not, in fact,      ing interest in their children's perfor-    life of Christian service.
improved. Then we will begin again          mance and encouraging them, show-               One of the strongest features of
the familiar cycle of denial, recrimi-      ing that they consider education im-        our schools in the past has been that
nation, vast expenditure, smug satis-       portant. A sound Christian home is          wewereagreeduponwhatwewanted
faction, and neglect.                       the foundation of a sound and effec-        our schools to do and how we wanted
    My purpose, though, in this ar-         tive school. To the extent that the         them to do it. I think that is still true,
ticle is not to find satisfaction in the    stability of our homes is threatened,       but I see increasing signs of disagree-
failures of public education, but rather    our schools are immediately weak-           ment about priorities in our educa-
to observe some of the reasons for          ened.                                       tional  goals. We need a common
those failures so that we might, per-           Another problem that afflicts           purpose if our schools are to continue
haps, avoid having our Christian            public education is the lack of clearly-    to survive and prosper.
schools follow the same path.               defined and agreed-upon goals. What             Until now our schools have pros-
    Why do all the new facilities, the      do they want the schools to do? Must        pered under the blessing of God.
new methods, the marvelous materi-          they produce socially adapted people?       Considering the threats to education
als and equipment fail to improve the       Are theyinterestedprimarilyintrain-         today, our schools have continued so
SAT scores? The fact is that none of        ing students to get and hold jobs and       far to provide sound Christian in-
these address the real problems. Why        perhaps even make lots of money?            struction. In our country today it's
don't they deal with the real prob-         Do they want to offer students the          becoming increasingly difficult to
lems? Attacking the real problems           opportunity to develop every ability        maintain sound Christian schools, but
would involve making some changes           or interest they might have? At this        at the same time it is becoming lmore
in our society and in the American          time learning facts is frowned upon,        and more vital that we do so. May
way of life that most are unwilling         but critical thinking skills are consid-    God give us both the will and the
and possibly unable to make.                ered very important.                        means to do so in this year. 0

10 /Standard Bearer 1 October it1991


                                            The Place of
                                 Doctrine in the
Special Article                             Christian School*
Herman Hoeksema

    The home, the school, and the           same and the severalparts, the home,         the first few years of their life, and
church have sometimes been called           the school, and the church perform           long before they go to school th.ey
the tiple alliance for the purpose of       similar tasks, yet they are also dis-        have laid the foundation for their
instructing and training the children       tinct. They are related, but they are        future training. And if we make a
of the covenant. And not improperly         not identical. They may inevitably           distinction between the task of the
so. For,`it cannot be denied that all       overlap somewhat, but they are not           home and that of the school and the
three are of great importance in the        mere repetitions and reduplications          church, we may probably say, that
education of our children. None of          of one another. Hence, the question:         the part of training the children, of
them can be missed, none of them can        what is the calling of each of these         bringing them up, of doing what is
afford to be negligent in performing        agencies to educate the covenant-            calledin the Holland, very suggestive
its part in this significant task, with-    child?                                       term, "opvoeding," belongs especially
out causing a gap in the training of the        Itisnotthepurposeofthispresent           to the home, while both school and
child. Nor can it be  gainsaid  that        article to answer this question in allits    church emphasize rather the part of
there should be unity and co-opera-         implications. Yet, my subject is re-         instruction. The two cannot be sepa-
tion between these different agencies       lated to it. In order to answer the          rated, to be sure. All instruction must
as each accomplishes its own part in        question, what may be the proper             needs also be training. And training
this work. The training of the child        place of doctrine in the Christian           cannot be divorced from instruction.
should be systematic, must be one in        school, we must needs deal some-             But if a distinction is made, we may
principle, especially from a religious      what with the relation of the school to      surely say that the home is especially
viewpoint. And as each of the differ-       the church as agencies for the training      the institution for training; the school
ent agencies accomplishes its part the      of our children. And I will try to           and the church are agencies for in-
instruction of the child should be one      develop especially three aspects of          structing the children of the covenant.
whole, preparing him for life in all its    my subject: the school and its calling,          The school is, undoubtedly, born
different departments in a general          the proper place of doctrine in it, and      out of practical necessity. It is not an
and elementary way. For this reason         the way to afford doctrine its proper        institution that is given with creation
it is not improper to designate home,       place.                                       as is the home; neither is it a specially
school, and church as a triple alliance                                                  instituted body as is the church, it is
with a view to the education of the         The School and Its Calling                   man-made. Yet, although this is true,
covenant children.                              The school is, no doubt, to be           it cannot be said that it was quite
    The question arises: in this im-        consideredasanextensionofthehome             mechanicallyimposedonlife.  Itrather
portant work of instructing our chil-       as an agency for the training of its         arose quite spontaneously from the
dren, what particular part must be          child. We are all agreed that the duty       development of life in general. Time
assigned to each? It may be admitted        of bringing up the children rests pri-       was, especially among Israel, when
that to a certain extent, their several     marily and principally upon the shoul-       the parents shouldered the task of
callings are quite similar. All three       ders of the parents. To them, Scrip-         instructing and training their chil-
aim, not only at instructingbut also at     ture assigns the task. They are the          drenalone. Life was still simple. And
training the child. The principle of        most natural educators of their own          because of this fact few demands were
instruction is the same, whether the        children. They are in a position to          made of the instruction of the young.
home, the school, or the church is the      know them in their different charac-         And these demands could readily be
agency; it must always be the fear of       ters and dispositions better than any-       met by the parents. But as life devel-
the Lord. Yet, it can easilybe seen that    one else. They, especially the mother,       oped, became more complicated in its
although their calling is in general the    are with their children from their very      various departments, more was de-
                                            entrance into the world. And they            manded of that training that was sup-
                                            love them as no others can possibly          posed to prepare the child to take his
                                            love them. They are the exclusive            place in life. And the parents had
*Rep&from  theSB, December 15,193s.         instructors of their children during         neither the time nor the ability :to
                                                                                              October 1,199l I Standard Bearer I `11



                                                                                                                                  -


finish the task of educating their chil-    the church purposes to prepare its           power, a living power that purposes
dren. It is out of such conditions that     seed for their place in the Kingdom of       to permeate all of life. The Christian
the school arose. Parents banded            God, the school has the .calling to          is called to be a Christian always and
together, employed someone of abil-         prepare its pupils for their place in        everywhere. It is his confession that
ity and character to educate their chil-    this present world.                          with body and soul.and in life and in
dren in the knowledge .of those sub-            If this distinction-is correct, we       death he is not his own, but belongs to
jects which they could not possibly         will also be ready to define what is         his faithful Savior Jesus Christ. And,
teach themselves, and which must            really a Christian school in the true,       therefore, with body and soul, with
nevertheless be taught to prepare the       Reformed sense of the word. Indeed,          mind and will, in society and the
child.for its place in society..            the proper conception of the idea of         state, as well as in the church, he
                                            the Christian school depends upon            serves the,Lord. Personally&din the
                                            our view of life in general. If it is our    home, in the relation of `parent  and
           . . . the school is              view that things natural and spiri-          child, of man and wife, in business
   .an extension of the home,               tual, things heavenly and earthly,           andindustry, as servant or as master,
           an institution                   things of the kingdom of heaven and          as magistrate or as subject, it is his
                                            the affairs of this present world have       calling to serve the Lord Christ: But
       properly controlled                  nothing to do with each other, if we         if this be true, it must also be evident
           by the parents.                  separate them, it  ,is quite impossible      that a Christian school is not inerely  a
                                            to see the necessity of Christian in-        copy of the public school except for
                                            struction in the school; and if we still     the addition of some biblical instruc-
    From which it follows, in the first     prefer the Christian school to thepub-       tion, and religious exercises, but that
place, that the school is an extension      lit school it must be from-the practical     it purposes to be Christian through-
of the home, an institution properly        principle that our children can never        out,Christianinallitsinstructionand
controlled by the parents. The state        receive too much instruction in the          training of the child. The principle of
may be interested that its citizens do      Scriptures and that the time which           the fear of the Lord must permeate all
not remain illiterate but are properly      the church is able to devote to the          the instruction and discipline and life
instructed; the church may have the         education of its seed is necessarily         of the school that is really Christian.
calling to watch that her children re-      limited. In that case we will look           A Christian school must be Christian
ceive such instruction as is in har-        upon the school, if not as an institu-       as a school!
mony with the pledge made by the            tion of the church, nevertheless as an
parents at the occasion of baptism;         institution that can be very helpful to      The Proper Place of Doctrine
both may, therefore, have a certain         the church in indoctrinating the chil-       in the School
interest in the school; but they do not     dren of the covenant. And the school             If thisviewof the Christianschool
control the school. The school is not       will naturally be an institution which       is correct, it should not be difficult to
an institution of the church, nor of the    is in every respect like the school of       arrive at a correct conceptiiqn  of the
state, but of the parents. And the          the state, except for the Christian at-      proper place of doc'trine in such a
latter are primarily responsible be-        mosphere that is created by the open-        schqol. When I speak of doctrine I
fore God for the instruction given          ing and closing with prayer, the sing-       mean Reformed doctrine, because I
even though it is not given by them         ing of a Christian hymn, and the in-         am speaking of our own Christian
personally. And, in the second place,       struction in biblical history, perhaps       schools. It is sometimes emphatically
it follows that the purpose of school-      even in the catechism. The Christian         advocated that the Christian charac-
instruction is chiefly to instruct the      school in that case is a school that has     ter of our schools must be made as
children in those subjects the knowl-       assumed part of the task that prop-          general as possible. We should not
edge of which is essential to prepare       erly belongs to the church.                  really speak of Reformed schools, but
them for their place in society in gen-         Quite different, however, will be        rather emphasize that our schools
eral. In this respect the calling and       our conception of what a Christian           purpose to be generally Christian.
purpose of the school differs from          school ought to be if we understand          But this is a mistake. It is quite impos-
those of the church. The church has         that the natural and the spiritual can-      sible to be generally Christian, with-
its origin in grace, the school in na-      not and may never be separated, but          out sacrificing all the salient doctrines
ture; the churchis  heavenly, the school    that in every department of his life in      of Christianity. One cannot be an
is earthly; the church is the guardian      the world the Christian has the calling      Arminian and a Reformedbeliever at
of spiritual things, the school is the      of living from the subjective principle      the same time. He cannot be Re-
custodian of temporal matters; the          of the life of regeneration and accord-      formed, Lutheran, Baptist, andMeth-
church aims at the growth in the            ing to the objective standard of the         odist all at once. If he would, never-
knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus       Word of God. Religion, the Christian         theless, be generally Christian in his
Christ, the school at the development       .religion,isnotsomethingthatisadded          teaching in the sense that he would
in the knowledge of earthly relations;      to life; but it is a power, a living         avoid all such points of doctrine that

12 /Standard Bearer I October 1,199l


causes the different branches of the         viewpoint of ability to teach it. We         receives its doctrinal principles, upon
Christian church to differ from one          believe in a thoroughly trained              whichallitsinstructionmustbebased,
another, so that his Christian instruc-      ministry, in order that  our  ministers      in harmony with which all its teach-
tion would be the largest common             maybeable toinstructinallthecounsel          ingmust be offered, from the church.
denominator of all Christian beliefs,        of God. Instruction in doctrine is the       It applies them. It stands to reason
education would necessarily become           proper domain of the ministers of the        that there is a difference of degree in
quitevague and colorless. And, there-        Word. For they are specifically              which these principles can be applied
fore, I cannot conceive of Christian         prepared. This is not true of the            to different subjects. But in the greater
doctrine that is not specific. And in        teacher in the school.                       or smaller degree these principles
the concrete a Christian school must             And, therefore, I maintain that          must be manifest in all the instruction
be Christian in the specific sense of        the place of doctrine in the Christian       given. How important this plase of
`theword. ItsChiistiancharactermust          school cannot be that of a subject in        doctrine is will be evident if I only
be representative  ofthe specificbelief      the curriculum. This, the church does        draw a few general lines and show
of~the  parents that support and spon-       in preaching and teaching, from the          with respect to some of the subjects
sor .the school, that is, in our case,       pulpit and in catechism classes. And         taught what this application of Re-
Reformed. When, therefore, I speak           never can the Christian school take          formed principles would mean.
of doctrine in this connection I mean        the place of catechetical instruction.          `Let us take the subject of history.
specifically Reformed doctrine.              There maybe no objection to the sub-         Inthefirstplaceitwillbeveryevident
    And, then, I wish to say, first of       ject of biblical history; there is surely    that it will make a world of cliff erence
all, that it cannot be conceived of as       no objection to the direct reading of        whether this subject is taught accord-
the proper task of the school, even of       Scripture in the Christian school. But       ing to the philosophy of evolution or
the Christian school, to teach               its task cannot be, and should never         in harmony with the biblical doctrines
Reformed doctrine, to include                be delegated to it, to instruct in doc-      of creation and the fall of man. The
Reformed doctrine as one of the              trine directly. And if the church of-        same historic facts appear in each
branches of its curriculum. This             fers proper catechetical instruction         instance in a wholly different light.
certainly is the task of the church. To      and the coming generation is never-          But, further, it will also be evident
watch over the flock, to preserve            theless ignorant of the Reformed truth,      that there is a wide difference be-
soundness of doctrine, to develop the        the blame ought not to be laid at the        tween the Arminian view that man is
truth as it is revealed in Scripture, to     door of the Christian school, but the        the maker of his own destiny and the
establish what is to be considered as        accusing finger must be pointed at           Reformed view that all things are but
`accepted truth, to express this in her      children or parents, at young men            the unfolding of the eternal counsel of
confessions, to maintain it in               and women that have been negligent           God, and that all creatures, even the
opposition to all error, and to instruct     in attendance and inproperlyprepar-          rational moral beings, must certainly
all her members, believers and their         ing for catechism-work                       execute that counsel. It will make a
chil&e~, inthe truth as it is in Jesus -                                                  world of difference whether the one
that is the groper task of the church as                                                  or the other principle is applied to
instituted, that is, through her office-        The school tiust not teach                and permeates all the teaching of his-
bearers, particularly through the                   Reformed doctrine,                    t o r y .
ministry of the Word. For this purpose                                                        Take another example, the sub-
Christ instituted the offices, for the               but it must apply                    ject of civics. It will be seen, that it
well-being of the church, for the                     the principles of                   makes an important difference,
upbuilding of the saints, for their                  Reformed doctrine                    whether the subject of  magic&rakes,
growth in the knowledge of the truth,                to all its teaching.                 the state and its power and calliug, is
that they might not be tossed to and                                                      taught from the viewpoint of revolu-
fro by every wind of doctrine. This                                                       tionary unbelief or from the Christian
calling, therefore, is inseparably               However, this does not mean that         viewpoint of authority and obledi-
connected with the office. It cannot         doctrine, Reformed doctrine, has no          ence for God's sake. But even apart
be delegated to the school, for our          place in the Christian school. On the        from this general difference, it can
Christian school is no Church-school.        contrary, it has properly a very im-         easily be discerned that it is by no
The teacher is no officebearer, nor          portant place. Its place is basic to all     means indifferent, whether the sub-
does he labor under the direct               its instruction and training to all its      ject is taught from the viewpoint of
supervision of and as appointee of the       school-life and discipline. The school       common grace or from the viewpoint
Consistory. ,And not only is this calling    must not teach Reformed doctrine,            of the antithesis. In the one case, one
connected with the office and,               but it must apply the principles of          would consider a government con-
therefore; with the church institute,        Reformed doctrine to all its teaching.       sisting of godless magistrates Chris-
but the latter is also the proper agency     All its instruction must be Reformed         tian because they rule by the common
for instruction in doctrine from the         instruction. The school, therefore,          grace of God; in the other, one would
                                                                                               October 1,199l I Standard Bearer I 13


maintain that we must strive for Chris-      lical history that is largely doctrinal        be instrumental in making the school
tian rule over us.                           and belongs to the task of the church.         what it ought to be, in causing us to
    Take the subject, social science.        Special textbooks in mimeographed              reach the ideal. He must not merely
What a difference the application of         form have recently seen the light,             be an able scholar and an accom-
Reformed doctrine makes for such             guides for teachers and pupils that            plished teacher, so that he is thor-
important subjects as the relation of        are based upon .the common grace               oughly acquainted with the subjects
man and wife; parent and child; au-          conception throughout. We have                 he is required to teach, but he must
thority and obedience; divorce; birth        schools that open and close with               also be able to apply Reformed truth
control; employer and employee; la-          prayer and that are given to the sing-         to all the different subjects in which
bor conditions and relations; strikes        ing of hymns, by no means always               he instructs. He above all must be
and uprisings; and similar subjects.         Reformed in contents. But we do not            thoroughly convinced of its truth,
Andthusitiswitheverysubjecttaught            have schools that are based upon               must carry the truth in his heart and
in the school, physiology and geogra-        Reformed principles. There is room             love it. Only love of the Reformed
phy, yea, even reading and writing           for the question: what ought to be             truth will inspire him not to be satis-
and arithmetic.                              done, what is necessary in order to            fied with conditions as they are but to
    And not only is this true of the         strive for the ideal?                          strive for the ideal.
subjects that are being taught in the                                                           In the third place we are in need
Christian school, it is equally true of             . . . thk doctrinal level               of teachers that will make it their life's
the life and discipline in the school-           of the school will not be                  tasknot only to teach, but to bring the
room. The opening and closing                                                               Christian school to its proper level.
prayers certainly must be Reformed.          higher than that of the people                 Teaching has too often been looked
The songs that are sung and learned                    that support it.                     upon as a stepping stone. Compara-
by heart may never be in conflict with                                                      tivelyfew have given their life to their
the principles of the Reformed faith,                                                       profession thus far. Yet this is neces-
but ought to be expressive of it. The            I will begin with the people that          sary. In the first place because the
teacher must certainly consider his,         sponsor and control and support the            experienced teacher is certainly the
children as covenant children and in         school. They must first of all be Re-          best. Experience trains him for the
all his instruction, attitude, and disci-    formed, not only in name, but accord-          task and all the while makes him
pline it must become evident that he         ing to their deepest conviction. After         more fit for the work In the second
bears this in mind and that he aims at       all, the school is the institution of the      place, because experience will (cause
the development of the perfect man           parents. Its standard can hardly be            him to become more thoroughly ac-
of God, thoroughly furnished unto all        expected to be higher than that of the         quaintedwiththerealneedsofatruly
good works as far as his life in this        parents themselves. If we do not               Christian school. In the third place,
world is concerned. And even in its          remain a Reformed people, we shall             because it is not merely the work of a
programs, given outside of the school-       not attain to the ideal of truly Chris-        Christian school teacher to teach, but
room proper, the school must be-             tian schools in which Reformed doc-            also to supply the school gradlually
come manifest as based upon the Re-          trine lies at the basis of all instruction.    with textbooks that can be used in the
formed truth. In one word, the place         In that case the cause of Christian            schoolroom, in which the principles
of doctrine, of Reformed doctrine, in        instruction is a hopeless one. And,            of Reformed truth are applied to the
the Christian school is basic. It deter-     therefore, we must have a truly Re-            subjects to be taught. One who gives
mines the religious character of all the     formed people that support and con-            himself to teaching for a few years has
instruction and life and discipline in       trol the school, a people that clearly         neither the experience nor the ambi-
the school!                                  understand what a Christian school             tion to accomplish this work V?e are
                                             ought to be and that want it, and              in need of men and women thad will
The Way to Afford Doctrine                   wanting it, willnot  rest until the ideal      make teaching their life's work
it& Proper Place                             is attained. This truly Reformed                   But once more, we must have a
    If such is the ideal of Christian        people must~form the school society            thoroughly Reformedpeople tostive
school, if that should be the place of       and must elect from its midst a school         for this ideal. Without them all the
doctrine in it, it is very evident that      board that is in harmony with the              other factors cannot be had. And the
we have not reached the ideal as yet.        principles and ideals of the society.          doctrinal level of the school will not
Yet, that is not the saddest aspect of       This I consider the strength of the            be higher than that of the people that
the whole situation. It is far worse,        Christian school, its very backbone.           support it. If, then, we are a truly
that it cannot be said that there is a           In the second place, we must have          Reformed people, it is possible to
serious strife after the realization of      thoroughly Reformed teachers. The              strive in the direction of the ideal
that ideal. The present situation  is        teacher is the heart of the school. It is      Christian school; if not, the cause of
that we have schools that offer some         he, not only, that must give the in-           Christian instruction is utterly Ihope-
biblical instruction, instruction in bib-    struction, it is also he that must chiefly     less!  IJ

14 /Standard Bearer / October 1,199l


A Cloud Of                                   Catherine of Siena:
 Witnesses                                   Mystic                                              `.
Prof. Herman Hanko

    It is not possible to understand         cannot long satisfy, and the life of the       time, over Which her gracious genius
the strange times which we call the          church swings backtigainon  its weary          sheds a soft radiance."'
Middle Ages without understanding            course towards rationalism and an                   Catherine Benincasa was born in
mysticism. Mysticism was a current           exclusive emphasis on knowledge for            Siena, Italy around 1347. She was the
whichranthrough the church of Christ         knowledge's sake.'                             25rd child and a twin in a family of 25
throughout her history, beginning                In the Middle Ages, the Romish             children~ Her father, Jacobo,  was a
already in the third century, and it         Church developed rapidly towards                dyer and belonged to the lower
continues to the present.                    outward forms of worship. The vor-             middle class. Her mother, Lapa, was,
    That this should be so is not sur-       ship of the church was filled .with             quite obviously, a housewife. She
prising. The pendulum in the spiri-          liturgy; the mass was said in Latin;           received no schooling at all and
tual life of the people of God swings        the life of the people was regulatedby         learned to read and write only in later
from one extreme to the other. On the        law upon law and precept upon pre-             l i f e .
one extreme lies a cold and lifeless         cept. And the worst was that the                    She was born in a time of up-
dead orthodoxy which is often char-          salvation of the people of God was             heaval in Europe, but especially in
acterizedbyrationalism; on the other         placed in the hands of the clergy and          Italy. The Renaissance, that great
extreme lies the fervency of mysti-          the church so that nothing was re-             pagan revival of learning, was sweep-
cism. Between these two extremes             quired of the saints but outward con-          ing Europe and clashingwiththe dark-
the life of the church swings. It is         formity to the regulations of the es-          ness of preceding centuries. National,
difficultforthechurchtokeepaproper           tablishment. It is not surprising that          economic, social, and educational
spiritual balance. The swing is to be        mysticism should flourish. It was an           changes Were in the wind. Under the
explained by the fact that neither ex-       understandable reaction to the exter-          influence of Frenchcardinals inRome,
treme satisfies.                             nal form of religion.                          the papacy had been moved to
    When the church falls into the               Mystics abounded. They were                 Avignon, France and had come com-
spiritual graveyard of dead ortho-           present in every decade of Medieval            pletely under the domination of the
doxy, the people of God want more            times. They Were present also at the           French. This so-called Babylonian
from religion. They desire a spiritual       time the Reformation burst over Eu-            captivity of the church had resulted
life which is warm and fervent, filled       rope.                                          mthe secularization and moral decay
with the personal experience of union            As an example of mysticism,                of the papacy. No longer was the
with Christ, characterized by piety          Catherine of Siena stands high above           church trusted-it had lost the pres-
and godliness. If this desire is not         all the others. Of her such eulogies as        tige of its apostolic seat in Rome, and
kept inproperbalance, the pendulum           these have been spoken: "She is the            a general dissatisfaction with .the
swings towards mysticism with allits         most eminent of the holy women of              church prevailed throughout Europe.
emphasis on feeling, subjective expe-        the Middle Ages whom the Church                     Catherine's mystical life began.
rience, evidences of conversion, inner       has canonized. Her fame depends                early. At the age of 7, she claimed to
union with God, and genuine piety.           upon her single-hearted piety and her          have seen a vision of Jesus with Peter,
But because mysticism tends to deni-         efforts to advance the interests of the        Paul, and John, which led her to the
grate the Iozmowledge  of faith, this too    Church and her nation..;. Although             resolve to devote her life to religion.
                                             the hysterical element may not be              While first her parents objected on the
                                             altogether wanting from her piety,             grounds that she suffered from delu-
                                             she yet deserves and will have the             sions, they were persuaded at last of
                                             admiration of all men who are moved            her claims and set aside a part of the
                                             by the sight ofa noble enthusiasm . . . . W
                                             "She is one of the most wonderful
Prof. Hanko z's professor of Church His-                                                                                           -
                                             women that have ever lived."
toy and New Testament in the Protes-         "Catherine's figure flitslike thatof  an       `Quoted from Philip Schaff, The Histo y
tant Reformed Semina  y.                     angel: through the darkness of her              of the Christian Church, Vol. VI, p. 194.
                                                                                                  October 1,1991 I Sfandanl  Bearer I15


house for her in which to pray, medi-        magistrates, she comforted him in his       lem - a problem which was not re-
tate, and receive visions and trances.       despair, taught him to be joyful in the     solved until the Council of Constance
In her own corner of the house she           face of death, and was present with            the same Council which burned
became something of a recluse: she           him on the block when he was be-            John Huss at the stake.
refused to sleep, ate almost nothing,        headed. She caught his head in her              Her efforts were not always wel-
and beat herself three times a day           hands and was pleased to be splat-          comed. At Avignon the cardinals
with a whip or a chain. When at 14 her       tered with his blood. She is said to        treated herwith coolness, the influen-
parents arranged a marriage for her,         have performed miracles of healing          tial women with disdain, and the
she cut off her beautiful hair to dis-       and raising the dead during a plague        bureaucrats with hatred. The niece of
suade her intended husband. When             which ravaged the city. At every            the pope, whiie kneeling at her side in
her face was pock-marked from an             opportunity she preached to the             prayer, ran a sharp knife through
attack of smallpox, she accepted it as       people and soon gained a large fol-         Catherine's foot, which gave her a
a special gift of God which would            lowing of men and women who were            permanent limp.
make her unattractive to men. Her            mostlyfrom thelaityandwhowanted                 She died before reaching her 33rd
biographer describes her vividly.            to imitate her piety.                       birthday, with final words to her com-
    Nature had not given her a face              It is not surprising that the fame      panions: "Dear children, let not my
  over fair,  and her personal appear-       of such a selfless woman spread rap-        death sadden you, rather rejoice to
  ance was marred by the marks of            idly and she soon found herself in-         think that I am leaving a place of
  smallpox. And yet she had a win-           volved in the affairs of the church at      many sufferings to go to rest in the
  ning expression, a fund of good spir-
  its, and sang and laughed heartily.        large. It was at this time that she         quiet sea, the eternal God, and to be
  Once devoted to a religious life, she      began writing her  fa.mous  Letters,        united forever with my most sweet
  practiced great austerities, flagellat-    400 of which are extant. They were          and loving bridegroom."
  ing herself three times a day, - once      written to family members, poor and             The mysticism of Catherine is
  for herself, once for the living and       distressed, sick and dying, princes         typical of many in the Medieval Pe-
  once for the dead. She wore a hair         and rulers, popes and cardinals, for-       riod. Dreams, visions, and trances
  undergarment and an iron chain             eign kings and soldiers. They were          continued throughout her life. She
  (boundaboutherwaist). Duringone            filled with admonition, sharp reproof,      claimed to have drunk the blood of
  Lenten season she lived on the bread                                                   Christ which flowed from His side
  taken in communion.             These      comfort, advice, and details of her
  asceticisms were performed in a            own mystical experiences.                   and the milkof Mary, Christ's mother.
  chamber in her father's house. She             Because she operated so freely          At an early age she said that she had
  was never an inmate of a convent.          outside the church's official authcr-       been married to Christ and th,at she
  Such extreme asceticisms as she prac-      ity, she was tried for heresy by a          wore His ring on her finger - al-
  ticed upon herself she disparaged at       Dominican tribunal, but was cleared         though no one else could ever see it.
  a later period.2                           of all charges. The court did, how-         Because she meditated too often and
    At about the age of 20, in obedi-        ever, appoint for her a spiritual ad-       so intenselyon the sufferings of Christ,
ence to what she considered a vision,        viser, Raymond of Capua, who be-            she professed to have Christ's "stig-
she joined the Sisters of Penitences,  a     came her friend, secretary, biogra-         mata" (the wounds of the nails and
Dominican Order, although she                pher, and confessor.                        the spear-thrust) in her body - al-
refused to become apart of a convent,            Her participation in church af-         though these too were invisible to
disdaining the restrictions which            fairs involved her in efforts to orga-      everyone but herself. Many of her
convent-life required. Her life was an       nize another crusade, which she in-         "Letters" were written in a trance-
activeinvolvementin the daily affairs        tended to be used to bring the gospel       like state.
of the people in Siena and in the            to the Moslem Turks. She worked                 The goal of Medieval mysticism
problems of the church.                      hard in getting the papacy out of           (as with all mysticism as it has ap-
    Her reputation is based in large         Avignon and finally succeeded in re-        peared throughout the  ages)1 was
measure on her many charitable               storing it to the ancient papal see in      "union with God." This was the high-
works. She went among the poor to            Rome. Her first trip to Avignon to          est ideal of the saints. But such union
alleviate their suffering. She nursed        speakwith the pope resulted in bitter       with God could come about only
the incurably ill, especially those with     disappointment, for she found the           throughrigorousspiritualandphysi-
cancer and leprosy. She worked with          papacy to be "a stench of infernal          cal exercises. It required of one that
prisoners, staying with them during          vices" rather than " a paradise of heav-    he (or she) meditate unceasingly on
their trials and executions. When a          enly virtues," as she expected. But         the suffering Christ; that the world
young nobleman was condemned to              the return of the papacy to Rome            with all its attractions be forsaken;
die for words of disrespect of the           resulted in graver problems - the           that sin be rigorously suppressled  by
                                             great Papal Schism in which two rival       fierce ascetic practices, for only in this
                                             popes claimed the papal chair. To her       way could one escape from what was
2Quoted  from Schaff,  p. 195.               despairshefailedinsettlingthisprob-         called "the dark night of the soul."

16 IStandard  Bearer I October 1,1661


Emerging from this dark night, one          God is the portion of the righteous        us free. And to know God and His
awoke to glorious, unearthly, su-           even here in the world.                    Son Jesus Christ is to have eternallife.
premelyblessedunionwithGodHim-                  Where the mystics went wrong           After all, faith-the faith that unites
self. This is what Catherine meant by       was that they reduced all religion to      us to Christ in the mystical union of
her marriage to Christ.                     experience and feeling. Mediated by        His blessed body - is first of all
    Union with Christ is taught by          dreams and visions, trances and ap-        knowledge. It is more than knowl-
Scripture as the blessedness of salva-      pearances of saints and angels, the        edge, but it is knowledge for all that.
tion. The joy and comfort of the            Christian life is defined in terms of      The spiritual experience of the child
assurance of salvation is the experi-       subjective andindefinable inner states     of God may and does ebb and flow;
ence of God's people. Meditation and        of feeling. Knowledge is spumed and        butweknowwhomwehavebelieved.
study of God's Word are held before         true knowledge is considered unes-         And that is salvation. 0
usasobligatoryforagodlylife. Genu-          sential. But this is terribly wrong. It
ine piety and a life of fellowship with     is the knowledge of the truth that sets


Go Ye Into All                              Mission Prhciples (VI)
the World                                   The
Rev. Ronald Van
Overloop


    In the Puritan classic by Richard       manded? What local congregation or         commission just seconds before th.eir
Baxter, The Saint`s EverlastingRest,        even denominational mission com-           Master left them on their own. They
Mr. Baxter speaks of the duty of the        mittee feels itself sufficient for the     were therefore to do the task without
people of God to excite others to ob-       task of going into all the world and       the help of His presence.
tain the saint's rest, but he gives a       teaching all nations?                          The missionary enters into a field
caution about the manner of perform-                    *******                        of labor knowing that he has the su-
ing this duty.                                  Take a look at that group of men       pervisory care and support of the
    But because the manner of per-          who received the "great" commis-           elders and congregation which were
  forming this work is  of great mo-        sion. Their number was very small.         God's instruments to call him to his
  ment, observe, therefore these rules:     Most of them had not received any          field of labor. However, that care and
  Enter upon it with right intentions.      formal education. The profession
  Aim at the glory of God in the                                                       support is often far away from :the
                                            most of them formerly had was the
  person's salvation. Do it not to get a                                               day-to-day labors which are his as
  name,  Or esteem to thyself, or to        rather ignoble one of fishermen from       missionary. There are many times
  bring men to dependupon thee, or to       Galilee. These men who were un-            when he is very conscious of the fact
  get  thee followers,  but in obedience    trained in the ways of the world were      that he is the point man, well ahead of
  to Christ, in imitation of Him, and       to go into all the world. They were        the front line of troops and in enemy
  tender love to men's souls.               sent to accomplish the impossible,         territory. He preaches and teaches
     These "right intentions" of obey-      namely, demand of people that they         faithfully, but alone. He is without
ing and imitating Christ serve to em-       submit themselves to Christ as Savior      the presence of a body of elders who
phasize the greatness of this noble         and Master. They were to demand            can affirm to others the biblical nature
calling.                                    that people turn from sins which were      of what he is preaching and teaching.
     The task of missions is great -        as dear to them as their right eye.        No one is there to lend the emotio:nal
too great. What missionary believes         They were sent to tell all religious       support often needed. The Scriptures
himself capable for the task of teach-      people that they should consider as        record a time when the apostle Paul
ing all the things God has  com-            dung all former and present efforts to     experienced discouragement (Acts
                                            please God. In addition, as they           18:5ff.),anditisworthyofnotethatat
                                            sought to carry out the commission         that time he was alone, without ,the
                                            Christ gave them they would be fac-        assistance of those helpers who usu-
Rev. VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel       ing all the opposition of the powers of    ally accompanied him on his mission-
Protestant Reformed Church in ElkGrove      hell. To make matters even more            ary journeys.
Village, Illinois.                          difficult they were given this great            An individual congregation also
                                                                                             October 1,i B91 I Standard Bearer I 17


can experience discouragements. In          from the realization that we do evan-            In addition, the fact that all au-
size it is usually considered to be         gelism and mission work in the con-          thority has been .given to Christ has
insignificant, a nothing. The truth         text of Christ's exaltation to power.        implications for the manner in which
which it presents in its witness is             As the fruit of Christ's work of         the message of Christ is presented.
ridiculed as being restrictive, and its     humiliation, God highly exalted Him          We are not selling Christ like a piece
worship is characterized as being           to the position of all authority, giving     of merchandise, hoping that men will
ancient and prohibitive. Often there        Him a name above every name. Christ          accommodate the Son of God and
are periods of time when there seems        is invested with all this authority in       vote for Jesus. Notice that modem
to be absolutely no fruit given to their    order to carry out His work as Media-        evangelism usually speaks about the
labors. Discouragement can easily           tor. A motley group of unschooled            man of Galilee, while the apostles
settle upon all, bringing the hands         men had to do a world-encompassing           always preached the exalted Christ,
down to the knees, doing nothing.           task in a hostile world. They must           the Sovereign Lord. Peter on Pente-
    The denomination, expressing the        face the great Roman empire, other           costbeganthiskindofpresentationof
unity of faith and striving to do to-       hostile governments, and the devil           Jesus, declaring that He was "both
gether what cannot be done by indi-         himself. Therefore, Jesus tells the          LordandChrist"  (Acts2:32-36).  Later,
vidual congregations, faces an over-        disciples not to forget the context in       before the Sanhedrin, Peter was quick
whelming task of going "into all the        which they evangelize. As soon as            to point out that God exalted Christ
world" and preaching to "every crea-        they forget that all authority has been      "to be a Prince and a Saviour" (Acts
ture." Often the denomination sees          delivered to Christ, their taskbecomes       5:31). Quickly scan the preaching of
many opportunities to work, but finds       burdensome. If they do not remem-            the apostles in the bookof  Acts and in
itselfhandicappedbylimitedfinances          ber that all authority belongs to their      the epistles and see how Jesus is pre-
and manpower. The laborers are few          Lord, they will fold under the pres-         sented. We must be careful not to say
while the harvest appears to be plen-       sure, or will deviate from the goals or      that Christ is waiting and pleading,
teous.                                      think them unattainable.                     but to declare that He is enthroned.
    Who is sufficient for so great a                                                     We must preach that man can be
task!?                                                                                   saved only at the foot of a throne-a
    How can we maintain our zeal                   We will not be careless               throne of grace and mercy.
and enthusiasm for the work? How            with the goals of our mission work,              The fact that Jesus is exalted with
can we hold back the fog of discour-                 if  we remember that                all authority makes us careful to ad-
agement? How can we develop and                the One who defines the goals             here to the Word of Christ in the
maintain an evangelistic zeal, which                     has all power.                  totality of our endeavor. We will not
is according to knowledge?                                                               be careless with the goals of our mis-
             *******                                                                     sion work, if we remember that the
    I propose that our Lord Jesus               The fact that all authority is           One who defines the goals has all
Christ gave all the encouragement we        Christ's makes His church very con-          power. Nor will we be indiffemnt  to
will ever need in order to maintain a       fident that His (and theirs) is the ulti-    the work, for the mandate is of our
proper zeal for missions and in order       mate triumph. From a certain per-            sovereign Lord. He gives it as a
to avoid discouragements. Jesus gave        spective the evangelism efforts of the       command. He assumes that we are
this two-part encouragement at the          church are impossible. The church            going and teaching. And we will stick
very time that He gave the Great            must demand of men that they deny            carefully to the method Jesus has
Commission. In Matthew  2898 He             themselves and submit to Christ as           given, namely, preach and ten&, not
said, "All power is given unto Me in        their Savior and Master. The church          music, drama, etc. King Jesus has
heaven and'in earth." And in the last       faces all the opposition of the powers       spoken about our mission and evan-
part of verse 20 He said, "Lo, I am         of hell. Our hope for "success" is not       gelism work, and He is worthy of
with you alway, even unto the end of        that we,can scare the devil away with        being obeyed.
the world." These two statements of         our clever schemes, nor is it that we                     ****s-e*
our Lord are specifically given in con-     can make the message of the gospel               The second encouragement Jesus
nection with the Great Commission.          palatable tounregenerateman. Rather          gives us in our work of missions and
They should never be separated from         our confidence of triumph arises from        evangelism is that He is the ever-
it. I am sure that our Savior, knowing      the fact that all authority has been         present Christ. He is present with us
well His little flock of weak sheep,        given to Christ. Remember that oneis         always, even to the consummation of
anticipated their needs perfectly, and      made a disciple of Christ only through       this age.
purposefully bracketed His Great            the gracious exercise of Christ's sov-           Though in His Person He was
Commission with these two encour-           ereign power in his heart. When He           going back to the Father, He prom-
agements.                                   puts forth the arm of His strength,          ised to send the Spirit, with whom He
             *******                        then sinners repent and are brought          is one. In the presence of the Spirit
    The first encouragement arises          unto Him.                                    Christ, the One whom the disciples

18 /Standard Bearer I October 1,iWl


knew so well, would be with them.                to give us success, we will have great      mission work with those who are
He is present with us always (liter-             humility. When the devil cannot dis-        theological liberals.
ally, "all the days") - on those days            tract us from obedience to the Great            Finally, the ever-present Christ
when many are added to the church,               Commission through depression and           makes us careful to carry out His
and on those days when there is no               discouragements, he often succeeds          goals. We arenot to stop theworkjust
response to the proclamation of the              intrippingupGod'speoplebygiving             because we may be discouraged. We
gospel, and on those days when we                them success, so they forget that it        have not the right to cease our efforts
are persecuted for the sake of preach-           comes from the Lord. He delights in         just because we may have limited
ing His Word. The extent of Christ's             convincing the messengers that they         finances or manpower. Nor may we
presence with us is the *consumma-               are the reason for the message and its      let the eschatology of a-m.illennialism
tion of this Gospel age. During this             "success." However, "who then is            make us pessimistic or hesitant in our
age the door of God's mercy is open              Paul, and who is Apollos, but minis-        mission and evangelism labors. We
and the command of men to come is                ters... I have planted, Apollos wa-         do not have to carry out God's plan
present. As soon as this age ends,               tered; but God gave the increase"           for history. But we do have the calling
God's command ceases and the door                (I Cor. 3:5-7). If the hard heart of any    to be obedient to His command to go
is shut - and no man opens.                      childof Adamrepentsandbelieves,it           and teach. And the promise of His
     Christ's constant presence with             is only because God gave the increase.      presence makes us not only active to
us has several implications for the              The ever-present Christ is alone able       be obedient but also optimistic con-
carrying out of our mission and evan-            to bring positive fruit to our feeble       cerning the possibility of fruit.
gelism work                                      labors.                                         We are told that we must make
     First, we can have great consola-               Because Jesus is ever present with      disciples of all the nations, which may
tion over against much apparent fail-            us, every agent of missions will be         be a back- and heart-breaking activ-
ure and many reasons for discour-                very careful not to offend Christ by        ity; but we have the consciousness of
agement. We can constantly preach                tampering with His message. He has          Christ's presence. Problems begin
the Gospel, just as though Jesus, who            given us the message to preach, and it      when we become smug and content,
can do the greatest wonders, were at             is a most terrible thing to manipulate      without any burden to make disciples.
our side. In the face of repeated                it. Paul was conscious of this when he      Christ withdraws from that church
rejections we can keep on teaching               told the church at Corinth that he was      which has no burden to disciple the
and preaching and striving to make               not like many who corrupted the             nations!
disciples. When discouraged, then                Word of God, but "as of sincerity, but                       *******
we should read of that time when                 as of God, in the sight ofGod speak we          The spiritual context for true mis-
Paul was discouraged (Acts 18:5-14),             in Christ" (II Cor. 2:17). His constant     sion and evangelistic work is two-
and consider that God encouraged                 presence makes us conscious that we         fold: the exalted and ever-present
him in part with the words, "I am                must give an account to Him. It is          Christ. May God be pleased to in-
with thee" (v. 10).                              exactly His presence which makes it         crease our understanding and our
     IftheLordoftheharvestispleased              impossible for us to cooperate in our       zeal.  0


 When Thou                                       The Reformed Family:
~~~;~in EWE The Communion of
Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers                            Saints
     But if we walk in the light, as he is in        The family-husband, wife, and           although Satan launches fierce attack
the light, we have fellowship one with           children -constitutes the very clos-        at this fortress, and sin always man-
another...                                       est relationship on this earth that is      ages to cross the drawbridge, never-
                                I John 1:7.      possible. In contrast to the trouble        theless here there is peace and pllea-
                                                 andturmoilofourage,thefamilyunit            sure.
                                                 is a little, tightly-sealed kingdom.            There is, however, another fam-
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the         Within its walls there is fellowship        ily, a larger family, which also makes
Protestant Reformed Church of South              and nourishment as each member              up the Christian's kingdom. This
Holland, Illinois.                               serves the welfare of the other. And        larger family is the great company of

                                                                                                      October 1,199l I Standard Bearer J 19


believers of all ages, past, present,      ingly stripped himself of fame and           And when my brother confesses his
and future. This is my family, too.        fortune for the sake of friend David.        sin to me ALONE, the sin is forever
    Each Sunday evening I confess          One need only be reminded of John            buried in the great sea of God's
with the churchin SouthHolland and         theBaptist,thepopular,fierypreacher          forgetfulness...and mine.
with the church of all ages in the         along the Jordan who encouraged his              I believe this.
Apostles Creed: I believe the com-         disciples to leave him and follow after          And I believe that as much as is
munion of saints.                          the One whom he deemed greater.              possible I must seek tangible fellow-
    I don't merely enjoy the com-              I believe this.                          ship with all God's saints, but espe-
munion of saints, although I do that           I am so closely knit to my fellow        cially with those in the church which
too; I don't only appreciate the fact      saints that their sorrows become my          I attend. Following the worship ser-
that there are other saints standing       sorrows. I help my fellow saints in          vice, I form no group so rigidly de-
with me and out there in other lands       distress; I assist them when they are        fined that others walking past are
who are one in Jesus Christ. But I         down and out. I hold the hand of my          intimidated. There may not be "a
believe that. It is a credo with me. It    dearbrother as he awaits the doctor's        north-side-of-church group" and  "a-
is a tenet of my faith. It is of equal     ominous report. I frequent hospitals,        south-side group." Sometimes young
importance with my apostolic con-          jails, and old peoples' homes. With          children like to make camps, and the
fession: I believe the forgiveness of      heavy heart I attend their funerals,         purpose of the camp is not so much to
sins.                                      believing that "It is better to go to the    include members, but to exclude cer-
    I believe this.                        house of mourning, than to go to the         tain children. This may never be true
    Ibelieve  the communion of saints.     house of feasting..." (Eccl.  7: 2).         in the church. No cliques, no elitism,
The communion of ALL saints. Those             I believe this.                          in the sanctuary. And the stranger
whom I do not even know, and as yet            And what is even more difficult,         who attends my church receives hos-
have never met, as well as those who       I joy when my fellow saint joys. The         pitality from me; I do not wait for
balance the pew in which I sit Sunday      honors which are conferred upon him          someone else to extend the right hand
after Sunday.                              are, as it were, laurels on my own           of fellowship.
    I believe this.                        head. I am happy for his job promo-              I believe this.
    I believe the fellowship of the        tion, pay raises, exotic vacations, and          Today, more than ever before,
church gone on before, long now in         successful children - even though            our lives are full and busy. Fathers
glory - a Daniel, a Paul, a Polycarp,      my life is seemingly swollen with            are occupied with making a living;
an Augustine. Truthto tell, it`s rather    disappointment.                              mothers are busy with the homle,  chil-
easy for me to confess a oneness with          I believe this.                          dren, and school-related activities.
the saints with whom I've never had                                                     Often days goby when one cannot see
to brush elbows - or exchange dif-                                                      beyond his immediate family situa-
ferences - rather than to confess a                   I do not wait                     tion. Yet, there must be some little
unity with the crusty old parishioner               for someone else                    way that one can show hislove for the
who harrumphs past me, or the spite-                                                    larger extended Reformed family.
ful woman, chin in air, who chooses            to extend the right hand                     I believe this.
to ignore me, or the mischievous                      of fellowship.                        In my own church, there are
youngster who treads on my ankles                                                       women who regularly take the wid-
on his mad dash through the foyer.                                                      ows out for lunch; they pick up those
    I believe this.                            And I never talk or gossip mali-         who cannot drive a car; they include
    The communion which I share            ciously about my brother or sister in        them in their plans. In one of our
with all my fellow believers is a one-     Christ, for I am keenly aware that my        Grand Rapids churches, there is a
ness that is mine through the blessed      indiscriminate talking reflects poorly       business man, who, while wheeling
atonement of my elder brother, Jesus       on Christ. Whenever my brother errs          from job to job, carries with him a
Christ. He condescends to commune          or slips on the treacherous path of life,    copy of a booklet which is handed out
with me, and so I enjoy sweet com-         I'm there to steady him and help him         each month in his church, a booklet
munion with Him and with all those         stand erect again. And when there is         listing everyone's birthday for that
for whom He has spilled drop after         a sin of such magnitude that my              month. On his truck phone he calls
drop of His precious blood.                Savior's name is dishonored, I go to         each of these people just to wish them
    I believe this.                        mybrotherallbymyself. And,oh, the            a happy birthday. The thoughtful
    And I have such a love for these       trip to his home is long, and my feet        gesture, the simple kindness--primer
fellow saints, poor sinners such as I,     are slow and reluctant to walk up his        lessons for fellow Christians.
that I promote their advantage even        sidewalkbecause no one understands               Ibelieve  the communionof saints.
at great cost to my own pleasure and       better than I that my own sidewalk               Lord, now grace me so that I may
personal satisfaction. One has only to     would be worn thin should the sins           live my belief. 0
think of Prince Jonathan, who will-        which I've committed be revealed.

20 /Standard Bearer  I October 1,199l


Decency and
Order                                          Term of OffiCe
Rev. Ronald Cammenga



    The elders and deacons shall serve         that office in the Roman Catholic             followed the practice of permanent or
two or more years according to local           Church was for life.                          life tenure. In the Presbyterian tradi-
regulations, and a proportionate number            Early on, the Reformed Church in          tion, he who is once put into office,
shall retireeach yeur. The retiringofficers    The Netherlands adopted the prac-             whether minister, elder, or deacon,
shall be succeeded by others, unless the       tice of limited tenure.                       ordinarily remains in office for life.
circumsfances and fhe profit of any                Apart now from every day prob-            Even removal of membership from
church, in the execution of articles 22 and      lems, it goes without saying that the       the church in which he was ordained,
24, render a re-election advisable.              elders and deacons who have faith-          or old age, or debilitating illness does
              Church Order,  Article 27          fully served for a certain period of        not force one to relinquish the office,
                                                 time have not done this except at
                                                 great disadvantage to their family          only active service in the office.
                                                 affairs. Thereforeweconsideritprof-
Historical Background                            itable that every year new elders be        Arguments for and against
    This article establishes the policy          elected . . . (Synod of Wezel,  1568).      limited tenure
of limited tenure for elders and dea-              The elected elders and deacons                Several arguments canbe put for-
cons. Article 12 set forth the  Re-              shall serve two yezgs of which half         ward in support of life tenure for
formedview that those who are called             the number shall be changed each            officebearers. The following are the
to the office of the ministry are called         year and others chosen in the pre-          principal ones.
for life. In distinction from ministers          scribedwayshallbeinstalledintheir               ~1t seems inconsistent with the
who are permanently in office, the               place under the same condition. But           principle of equality of the offices
elders and deacons serve for a limited           as far as the secret congregations are
                                                 concerned, or those which cannot              that the ministers serve for life,
term of office, usually between two              maintain this order, they are given           while the term of the elders and
and five years.                                  the freedom to shorten or lengthen            deacons is limited.
    It was especially Calvin who in-             the time according to their need and            A In the Old Testament all three
troduced the practice of limited ten-            circumstances, concerning which if            offices of prophet, priest, and king
ure into the Reformed Churches. In               any difficulty arises the classis  shall      were for life. So should their coun-
Geneva the elders were appointedby               judge (Synod of Dordtrecht, 1578).            terparts be in the New Testament.
the government and were retired each               Elders and deacons shall serve two            rTh.is was the practice of the
year. The elders who performed their             years, and every year one half shall          early church until the time of the
duties well might be recommended                 retire and other installed in their
                                                 place, unless the circumstances and           Reformation, and therefore is the
by the ministers for reappointment.              welfare of any church demand oth-             historical precedent.
Calvin's main motivation for intro-              erwise  (Synodof Middelburg, 1581).            .A Since thesemen  possess the gifts
ducing limited tenure was the pre-                 To this general practice of the             for office in Christ's church, the
vention of the tyranny that had been           DutchReformed  Churches there were              church should not be denied the
prevalent in the Roman Catholic                a few exceptions. The Dutch Refugee             use of their gifts by forcing them
Church due, at least in part, to the fact      Congregation of London chose their              into retirement, even if only for a
                                               elders for life, although their deacons         time1
                                               served one-year terms. Also some of               ALimited  tenure adversely af-
                                               the Dutch provinces retained perma-             fects the continuity of the labors of
                                               nent tenure: Groningen, Leyden, and             the consistory.
                                               North Holland. However, the Synod                 A,The  benefits of experience in
                                               of Alkmaar, 1587 compelled these                the workof  the officebearers favors
                                               provinces to conform to the practice            gepanent  tenure.
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protes-         of the others.                                  * Ai the same time, strong argu-
tant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colo-            In distinction from the Reformed          men&in favor of limited tenure can
rado.                                          churches, the Presbyterian tradition          also be put forward.

                                                                                                  October 1,1991/ Standard Bearer I21


    A The Scriptures do not stipulate        elders and deacons. Length of term            of re-election, a man is includedin the
  the term of office. There is no ex-        mustbe stipulated at the time that the        slate of nominees put before the con-
  press command that requires el-            election of officebearers takes place.        gregation who would otherwise be
  ders and deacons to serve for life.        That there should be "local regula-           retiring from office.
  Scripture's silence on the matter          tions" means that each consistory                 Article 27 does not prescribe the
  indicates that the church is at, lib-      should have an .adopted policy.               number of years a man must be re-
  erty to regulate this matter accord-           The article does lay down a mini-         tired from office before he is again
  ing to her own discretion, taking          mum length of term of two years.              eligible to serve in the consistory.
  circumstances and the best edifica-        Anything less than two years would            There is, of course; ordinarily a one-
  tion of the church -into consider-         be detrimental to the continuity and          year minimum. Some consistories
  ation.                                     stability of the consistory. It usually       have the policy of two or three years
    A The office does not cleave to the      takes several months for new                  of retirement before a man (can be
  person, but to the church. It is the       consistory members to become accli-           again nominated for office. This is
  church who puts a man into office.         mated. The general practice in our            feasibleinlargercongregations where
  The church, therefore, may deter-          churches is three-year terms of office.       the necessary number of qualified
  mine how long a man shall have the             Article 27 prescribesthat "a pro-         men to serve in office is more readily
  office.                                    portionate number shall retire each           available. In determining the length
    AUninterrupted labor in the              year." Strictly speaking, proportion-         of retirement, consistories must be
  consistory places a hardship onmen         ate retirement means that, when serv-         carefulnot to exclude competent men
  who have other personal, family,           ing two-year terms, half of the               from serving in the consistory for too
  and vocational responsibilities. It        ~officebearers retire each year; when         long a period of time.
  cannot be denied that often a man's        serving. three-year terms, one-third              Sometimes it is asked how long a
  temporal and family .life suffers          retire each year; and when serving            retiring officebearer continues to func-
  when he is in consistory. Justice          four-year terms, one-fourth retire each       tion officially. The answer to this
  demands that the work of the               year.                                         question is that he retains his office
  consistory be shared by more than              Proportionate retirement assures          until his chosen replacement is or-
  just a very few.                           that not more than half of the                dained into office.
    ~Limited tenure is a necessary           consistory will retire in a given year.           May a retiring deacon be nomi-
  preventative to hierarchy, which           There will never be an entirely new           nated for the office of elder? The
  can easily creep inwhen  a veryfew         consistory. Continuity of labor from          answer to this question is yes. 14rticle
  men serve for anextendedlength of          one consistory to the next is thus            27 calls for retirement from the office
  time. Experience and the history of        safeguarded.                                  in which a man is presently serving.
  the church bear this out. With the                                                       A retiring elder may also be nomi-
  Reformers this was the compelling          Varia          '                              nated for the office of deacon.
  reason for introducing limited ten-            Our Protestant Reformed                       May a non-retiring deacon be
  ure.             :            `
                                  I,         Churches have appended the,folIow-            nominated for the office of elder? The
    ADefinite  retirement also, pro-         ing decision to Article 27:                   answer to this question is also yes.
  vides the church with a way of                 In case of difficulties in the congre-    The office of elder and deacon are two
  replacing less qualified men with            gation, the officebearers then serv-        different offices. A non-retiring elder
  those who are more qualified.                ing shall continue to function until        may also be nominated for the office
    Taking all the arguments into              their chosen successors can be in-          of deacon.
consideration, it is not difficult to see      stalled.                                        Should the number of elders and
why our Church Ovderfavors limited This provides for continuation in of-                   deacons always be equal? This is not
tenure. However, this is a matter of         fice because of diiculties within the         necessary, but should be determined
preference, more for practical consid-       congregation, as, for example, a seri-        by the needs and circumstances within
erations than for reasons of principle.      ous discipline case, or a case involv-        the congregation. However,insmaller
                                             ingone of the officebearers. Continu-         congregations where the deacons are
Definite Retirement                          ation in office is a decision of the          joined to the elders in the con&tory,
    TherulelaiddowninArticle27is             consistory.                                   there should be at least as many el-
that elders and deacons shall serve a            Besides continuation in office,           ders as deacons. 0
definite length of time, followed by         there is also the possibility of the
retirement from office and replace-          immediate re-election of an office-
ment by others.                              bearer. This is an exception that Ar-
    The article leaves the exact length      ticle 27 allows, if such immediate re-
of term to "local regulations." Each         electioncanbejustifiedonthebasisof
consistory is at liberty to determine        II the circumstances and the profit" of
what the length of term shall be for its     a particular congregation. In the case

22 IStandard  Bearer I October 1,199l


News From Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger


Evangelism Activities                       Minnesotawas heldin theFirst Chris-         youth. Those yet in high school will
    Rev. W. Bekkering of the Pella, IA      tian Reformed Church of Edgerton,           continue to meet every Sunday
l?RCwasinBoise,ID duringthemonth            MN. Rev. MichaelDeVries,  pastor of         evening during the society season.
of August preaching for the Sover-          our Edgerton PRC, spoke on the topic,       All those young adults who are past
eign Redeemer Fellowship. Rev.              "Lovers of Pleasure -the Christian          high school age will meet on alternate
Bekkering's visit to Boise completed        and Entertainment." A topic very            Thursday evenings. In addition, one
the six-month preaching schedule the        relevant this is, especially for today's    Sunday night each month the two
Council of the South Holland, IL PRC        children. and young people.                 groups will meet together for discus-
had set up in February.                          The Evangelism Committee of our        sion and fellowship.
    Itwillinterest ourreaders  toknow       Redlands, CA PRC informed their
that the group there has requested          congregation not very long ago, that        Mission Activities
further help in terms of preaching,         the new brochures they have been                Rev. Joostens wrote to his con-
and they are organizing a Reformed          working on for a long time are now          gregation at First Church in Grand
Conference for this FalI with one of        ready. These brochures were made            Rapids midway throughhis and Rev.
our pastors or professors as the            especially to invite people to their        denHartog's visit to Jamaica that
speaker. It will also interest you to       church. (I mention this here because        "twelve men have attended from six
know that in response to the request        one of these brochures came along           of our churches. The sessions have
fromSovereignRedeemerFellowship,            with bulletins from California, and I       been enjoyable and the men are again
and because the work in Boise has           just had to say what a nice job they        eagerly receiving the Reformed truth
gone very well, the Council of South        did. I would encourage any of our           presented to them. Each session gives
Holland decided to continue to sup-         church evangelism committees who            rise to many questions and teaching
ply them with preaching and teach-          may be looking for just such a bro-         opportunities. The saints on the is-
ing for another six months.                 chure, to send for a copy. It could be      land arevery appreciative of the cloth-
        While in Boise, Rev. Bekkering      just what you are looking for.)             ing that has been sent to them, espe-
also had plans to make a visit to                                                       cially the shoes."
Spokane, WA to meet with Rev. Rob-          Congregational Highlights
ert Hargrove, pastor of the Sovereign            On September 6, the congrega-          Ministerial Calls
Grace Presbyterian Church, who has          tion of our Lynden, WA PRC cel-                 Rev. and Mrs. Kortering have left
been in contact with the Evangelism         ebrated their 40th Anniversary. The         to work with our two sister-churches
Committee of South Holland and has          occasion was marked with a program          insingapore,  where theywillbeforat
a real interest in our churches.            t h a t   e v e n i n g .                   least'four months, the Lord willing.
        We are happy to report that, be-         Rev. B. Woudenberg, one of                 The Hope PRC of Isabel, SD has
ginning August 25, the Reformed             Lynden'sformerpastors,waspresent            formed a new trio from which to call
Witness Hour can be heard over ra-          for the occasion. While in Lynden he        a pastor. This trio includes the Revs.
dio station KFCV AM 1090, a Chris-          was also able to show a slide presen-       M. DeVries and R. Moore, and Candi-
tian radio station in Ft. Wayne, IN.        tation of his visit to the Reformed         date M. Dick
This is sponsored by South Holland,         Churches of Romania and Hungary.                Rev. R. Hanko declined the call
but paid for by the Bible Study group            At a Congregational Meeting in         he was considering to serve as mis-
in Fort Wayne.                              early August, the congregation of the       sionary pastor to the group in Larne,
        On August 22, a public lecture      Hull, IA PRC approved two propos-           Northern Ireland.
sponsored by the Reformed Witness           als. First, they approved.plans  sub-           Due to Rev. Hanko's decline, our
Committee of the Doon, Edger-ton,           mitted by their Council for a new           Hudsonville, MI PRC has formed a
and Hull l?R Churches of Iowa and           church building. And second, they           new trio consisting of the Revs. R.
                                            approvedafinancialplantopayforit.           Cammenga, B. Gritters, and C.
                                            The Lord willing, building will begin       Terpstra. The congregation was to
                                            in 1992.                                    call on September 22.
                                                 Following suggestions for their            And on September 12 the congre-
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant    young people, the Council of the            gation of our Southeast PRC in Grand
Reformed ChurchoJHudsonvilZe,  Michi-       Randolph, WI PRC decided to have            Rapids, MI called Rev. Ronald
gan.                                        two Bible Study societies for their         VanOverloop  to be their pastor. [I
                                                                                             October I,1991  I Standard Bearer I23


                                                jl____~
                                           /                                                                         SECOND CL4SS
                                                                                                               ._    Postage Paid at
                                          ,I                                                                         Grandville, Michigan
      P.0. Box603                          /
      Grandville, MI 49468-0603            I


      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
       The Consistory and congregation of             The Council of the Hope Protestant            INTERDENOMINATIONAL
the Randolph Protestant Reformed Church           Reformed Church (Walker, Ml) extends
expresses sincere sympathy to the family          its Christian sympathy to its fellow             CONFERENCIE
of                                                officebearer, Elder John DeVries, and his
 MRS. CLARA (DeVries) GRIFFIOEN,                                                                       Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 1991
                                                  family in the death of his mother and their
who went to be with her Lord on August            grandmother,
31,199l.                                              CLARA (DeVries) GRIFFIOEN,                                "The
       "From the end of the earth will I cry      on August 31,1991, at the age of 84. "For
untothee, when myheartis overwhelmed:                                                                      Reformed
                                                  we know that if our earthly house of this
lead me to the rock that is higher than I"        tabernacle were dissolved we have a                       Doctrine
(Psalm  61:2).                                    building of God, a house not made with
                           G. Buteyn, Clerk       hands, eternal in the heavens" (II                         of Holy
                                                  Corinthians 5:l).                                       Scripture"
                                                         President, Rev. James Slopsema
                                                                             Clerk, P. Koole                    Topics
                                   The Fear of the Lord                                              "The Inspiration of
The fear of the Lord our days will prolong;                                                             Holy Scripture"
In trouble afford a confidence strong;                                                               Prof. Robert D. Decker,
Will keep us from sinning, will prosper our ways,                                                       Prot. Ref. Seminary
And is the beginning of wisdom and grace.
            The fear of the Lord preserves us from death,                                        "A Reformed Hermeneutic"
            Enforces His Word, enlivens our faith; -                                                 Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
            It regulates passion, and helps us to quell                                                 Prot. Ref. Seminary
            The dread of damnation and terrors of hell.
The fear of the Lord is soundness and health;                                                    "Holy Scripture and Ethics"
A treasure well stored with heavenly wealth;                                                        Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman,
A fence against evil, by which we resist                                                         Mid-America Reformed Seminary
World, flesh, and the devil, and imitate Christ.
            The fear of the Lord is clean and approved;                                           "Genesis Chapters 1-l 1:
            Makes Satan  abhorr'd  and Jesus beloved;
            It conquers in weakness, is proof against strife,                                         Myth or History?"
            A cordial in sickness, a fountain of life.                                               Prof. David J. Engelsma
The fear of the Lord is lowly and meek,                                                                 Prot. Ref. Seminary
The happy reward of all that Him seek;
They only that fear Him the truth can discern,                                                              to be held at
For, living so near Him, His secrets they learn.                                                   The Protestant Reformed
            The fear of the Lord His mercy makes dear,                                                       Seminary
            His judgment adored, His righteousness clear,                                               4949 lvanrest Ave.
            Without its fresh flavor, in knowledge there's fault;                                      Grandville, Ml 49418
            In doctrines no savor, in duties no salt.
The fear of the Lord confirms a good hope;                                                            $25 cost includes conference
By this are restored the senses that droop;                                                                  and 3 meals.
The deeper it reaches, the more the soul thrives;                                                    Lodging -Single  $25, Dbl$30
It gives what it teaches, and guards what it gives.
            The fear of the Lord forbids us to yield,                                              Write/Fax (818) 531-30331  or
                                                                                                      Phone (818) 531-l 490
            It sharpens our sword and strengthens our shield.                                         for further information.
            Then cry we to heaven with one loud accord,
            That to us be given the fear of the Lord.
                                                                       SB, October 15,1932
24 /Standard  Bearer  I October  l,W91


