           The
     STANDARD
      BEARER
r           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     .  .  . We must always get into the clear light of

     the cross. There the Lord lightens our dark-
     ness to see light. There we see the divine law
     satisfied                                                       wrath
     irretrievably imbedded in the cross. The
     cross alone with its mercy-drops of Christ's
     blood reveals mercy to sinners. It is at the
     foot of the Crucified One that we learn to
     pray the publican's prayer, "God be merci-
     ful to me a sinner.' '
                  See ' `Jesus Crucified' ' - page 331



                                                Vol. LXI, No.  14, April 15, 1985  -


314                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                                                                                ISSN 03624692
                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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  Meditation  -                                                                                      Secon dClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
       The Blessed Peacemakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .314                Editor-in-Chiel: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                     Deparfment  Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga.  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editorials  -                                                                      D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko.
                                                                                     Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A.  Heys.  Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
       Reformed Book Outlet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317              Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.  Miersma. Rev.  Marinus  Schipper. Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                     ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
       Still Distorted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318    Editorial O/fice: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION



                                    The Blessed Peacemakers
                                                                        Rev. H. Veldman


                 "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9



  Is not this word of our Lord Jesus Christ also of                                     meek. But men should have no difficulty with this
force in the midst of the world? Some of these                                          seventh beatitude. Is not "peacemaking" a magical
beatitudes, sayings of our Lord, may seem.paradox-                                      word, particularly in our world of today? Who to-
ical, such as those in which the Saviour proclaims                                      day does not desire peace? War is surely terrible!
blessed the poor in spirit, the mourners, and the                                       And one cannot fail to be impressed by all the  ef-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 315



forts to secure and establish peace in our present         deplores the existence of armies and navies and air-'
day and age. Was not World War I fought to make            forces and who also deplores the fact that all
this world safe for democracy? The statesmen,              swords have not become plowshares and all spears
especially of the powerful nations of the earth, are       pruninghooks has truly never known what war
continually traveling back and forth to seek and           really is, what its essence is, what the origin is from
establish peace for our children and their children.       whence it springs. In fact, he has really never seen
And is it not true that they are called blessed who        war who merely takes notice of the external fruit
seek this lasting peace and happiness?                     which is revealed upon the battlefield. We must
  However, we must be careful here. After all, also        define war as to its essential meaning; we must
this seventh saying of the Lord is a beatitude. These      identify its essence. And we must surely under-
beatitudes, we understand, set before us the char-         stand that one cannot possibly restore peace by ex-
acteristics of the citizens of the Kingdom of              ternal means. Indeed, hell and war are inseparably
Heaven. And this implies that these citizens alone         connected.
are peacemakers, that the love and desire and striv-         War is really something far more profound.
ing for peace are limited, very exclusively, to the        There is a war whereof all misery and anguish and
Kingdom of Heaven, and that therefore this striving        death, all battlefields with all their horror, all strug-
for peace is not found in the midst of the world.          gles and murders, all conflicts between nations and
Peacemaking is something that characterizes only           classes are but an outward and necessary manifes-
the children of God, is true only of those who know        tation. Essentially war is in the heart of man. Hell is
themselves as washed and cleansed by the blood of          war. The essence of war and of hell are identical.
the cross of Calvary. The rest of the children of          Man does not simply wage war; he is war. War, in
men are not peacemakers but warmongers. Only               its deepest and fundamental significance, is the ter-
the people of the living God delight in peace. The         rible operation of sin and death in the heart of man.
rest of the children of the world delight in war.          War is not occasioned by anything on the outside of
         * * *       4:    8    9: * * * *                 men; it comes up from within. Man is not a peace-
  The opposite of peace is war.                            maker, will never be called a child of God; he is a
                                                           warmonger and will be called a child of the devil.
  "War is hell," one hears in the midst of the             We  aye children of war, even as we are sin and
world. Thus spake once an American general dur-            darkness; fact is, we are against God and also
ing the Civil War. What would he have said had he          against one another.
lived through World Wars I and II, or the war be-
tween our country and Vietnam? Is not this the               It is well, also at this time, that, to understand the
opinion of all those when they are reminded of these       true significance of peace, we proceed from the
last world wars? Who can describe the horrors of           scriptural truth that God is the God of peace. The
the battlefield, the moans and agonies of the              word "peace" is literally derived from a word that
wounded and the dying? What can we say of the              means: to agree. The fundamental idea of the word
anxiety among the dear relatives and friends? What         is: to tie, unite. Hence, the idea is: to be united
an indescribable suffering these wars have left in         together, agree with one, be in agreement. Peace is
their wake! Think of the sorrow which is experi-           therefore unity, harmony and it can exist only in
enced in countless homes when word reaches them            the bond of love.
that a dear one gave his life for his country - as if a      God is the God of peace. He is that, fundamental-
dear one ever gives his life for his country! He does      ly and essentially, in Himself. God is the triune
not give his life; on the contrary, his life is taken      God. He is essentially one and personally three: the
from him. And then there is all the misery which a         Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is one. There is in
war leaves in its wake, especially in those countries      God oneness of mind and of will and thoughts and
where these wars were fought. War is surely terri-         desires. There is in God no conflict, no division, no
ble, and it is terrible of whatever nature it may be.      discord. And He is personally three: each divine
It sets man versus man, class over against class, na-      person lives the entire divine fulness in His own
tion over against nation. And in our American Civil        personal way. Hence, God is the God of peace, of
War it often set brother against brother. Hence, is it     unity and harmony in the sphere of infinite perfec-
not true: War is hell.                                     tion. This God, the alone living God, is also peace
  "War is hell." 0, it is far more correct to say that     for man. Peace, our peace, is determined by God.
hell is war. The war we have mentioned a moment            God, never disturbed by any conflict or disagree-
ago is merely an outward show or appearance. He            ment, determines our peace, which is possible only
who merely sees the external battlefield, the              as we stand in relation to Him. There is no peace
abominations of the hatred of the nations, who at-         apart from Him; we either love Him, have fellow-
tempts to discover the occasion of any war, who            ship with Him, love the neighbor, or we hate Him,


316                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



hate also the neighbor, are at war and enmity                  with all his evil works of darkness and enmity, and
against Him and the neighbor, and have no peace.               to put on the new man, walk in all good works, to
  Peace - how wonderful it is! On the one hand, it             love Him and seek Him by the grace of God. And
is the peace of soul that transcends all human un-             then we also seek peace with one another. We will
derstanding, the blessed assurance that everything             hate and fight all enmity, the war of sin. We will
between God and me has been righted, the subjec-               point the wicked to his sin, refuse to accompany
tive, personal consciousness of the objective state            him in the way of his evil and have fellowship with
of reconciliation, that I have the legal right to the          him. "I love the Lord," is the essence of his life.
blessedness of God's covenant fellowship. And, on              Unto that end, we will oppose all enmity and
the other hand, spiritual peace is spiritual har-              hatred also within the church of the living God,
mony, harmony between me and the Lord. There is                constantly admonishing one another, walking the
no enmity between us, only love. And it is spiritual           way of the precepts of the Lord. And finally, seek-
harmony between one another, and this in the love              ing peace, true peace with the neighbor, we, with
of God.                                                        our eye upon the future, long for the day when all
           * * * * * * * * * *                                 the wicked and their wickedness will be no more,
  Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called            in the heavenly renewal of all things, the eternal
the children of God.                                           realization of God's covenant with His own, in that
                                                               day when peace shall reign forever. We love the
  Who are these peacemakers? Surely, Christ does               Lord, and all things must speak forever of Gods
not refer to those who further the cause of peace in           honour and glory.
the way of worldly peace conferences. First, they                       *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
do not seek peace even outwardly. At these peace
conferences each nation is determined to seek and                Blessed are the peacemakers.
establish itself. Secondly, if they did seek peace,              Warmongers know no blessedness. There is sure-
their peace has nothing to do with real peace, the             ly no blessedness in war, even when viewed out-
peace of God in Christ Jesus. And, thirdly, if we              wardly. There is no blessedness in killing one
wish to seek peace, real peace, at these con-                  another, hating one another. War is rooted in the
ferences, let us then speak of the peace of the                hatred of God and of one another. And, secondly,
Prince of Peace, of the cross and of the blood of the          these warmongers surely carry with them in their
cross. And, of course, these peacemakers are not               hearts and consciousness the testimony that they
those who do all for the sake of peace.                        are children of the devil. The devil is exclusively a
  God is the Peacemaker. We, of course, cannot                 warmonger, a hater of God and of men. Hence, all
make peace. We are not interested in peace, true               warmongers are his children, like unto their father,
peace. We are haters of God and of the neighbor;               the devil.
we are warmongers; we delight in war and discord;                Only these peacemakers are blessed. They are
we are against God and against one another. God                blessed already in this life, having the proof within
alone can make peace, and He did make peace in            themselves that they are children of God, Who is
Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord. He paid for all our           the God of peace. And we shall be called the
sins, destroyed all the power of the devil and                 children of God. Here we are called the children of
merited covenant fellowship for all those given                the devil. Even as Christ was hated by the world,
Him of the Father, Who loved them from before the              called every name under the sun, we shall be hated
foundations of the world. God is the God of all                for Jesus' sake. But, we shall be called the children
peace, also of our peace.                                      of God. We shall be called this publicly, vindicated
  Through the grace of God we become peace-               by God, in that wondrous day when all things shall
makers, furthering the cause of peace. We seek            be made new, in the day of the heavenly renewal of
peace with God. We seek this peace judicially. We         all things.
confess our sins and seek their forgiveness through              Blessed peacemakers.
the blood of the cross of Calvary. Really, these                 Despised and reviled in the midst of the world.
peacemakers do not make peace. How shall a
creature make peace? How shall I call light out of               One day publicly vindicated by God and called,
darkness, peace out of death? But this means that         by Him, His children.
we further the cause of peace, seek it, strive for the    I                                                                        I
furtherance of the cause of peace. We seek this                         Read and Study
peace with God, beseech God for forgiveness, and
ask Him to receive us in mercy for Jesus' sake. But               The Standard Bearer!
we also seek peace spiritually. We desire to walk
unto God's glory. We desire to put off the old man


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              317



EDITORIALS
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema




                             Reformed Book Outlet


  The title of this editorial is also the name of a      ature, such as commentaries, concordances, doc-
new bookstore which will soon be opened in the           trinal studies, church history books, biographies of
Hudsonville Shopping Plaza.                              men of God, and some quality children's books. In
  What? Has the  Standard Bearer  taken to pro-          other words, the bookstore would serve as a guide
moting commercial projects and advertising the           and a help to those who ask for dependable, worth-
opening of new businesses?                               while Reformed reading and who want to build
                                                         good home libraries. There are plenty of religious
  By no means! This is no ordinary bookstore, and        bookstores, of course. But none of these is devoted
it is no commercial project. It is a venture of three    to what we would call only GOOD religious books.
societies in our Hudsonville Church, and its pur-        And it so happens that in Hudsonville there is no
pose is to promote not so much the sale, but the pur-    bookstore where church people might buy books.
chase  of good Reformed literature, and especially
that which is produced by the Reformed Free Pub-           With Rev. van  Baren's initiative and guidance
lishing Association.                                     representatives of three Hudsonville societies met
  Here is the story.                                     to form an organizational board for such a book-
                                                         store for a period of one year. The board met and
  For some time there has been talk among our            made many decisions connected with the project. A
people about the possibility of starting some kind of    small "neighborhood" bookstore, accessible to
small Christian bookstore in the area of one or          many of our Protestant Reformed people, but also
more of our churches. But it seemed such a venture       very visible to members of the Reformed communi-
could not get off the ground simply because there        ty in general, was favored. Just at this time a small
was no "take-charge" organization or individual(s)       store in the Hudsonville Plaza became available,
to make the first move. Then, when Prof. Hanko           too. Financing became available also. Everything
returned from his recent trip to the U.K., many of       was falling into place. The board decided it was the
us saw his pictures and heard his account of the         right time and place to start.
several small Christian bookshops which he
visited, shops which stocked quality Reformed              A general manager and a couple assistants were
literature, which included also our R.F.P.A. publi-      appointed, and before long there were more volun-
cations. These bookshops were able to maintain           teers to help operate the store once it opens. For the
themselves while promoting Reformed literature.          time being, all the work will be donated. The
Some of Prof. Hanko's enthusiasm about the whole         manager has already compiled a list of a good
idea rubbed off on others, and they began to ask,        representation of Reformed literature to stock,
"Why can't we do something like that?" Out of            shelving has been purchased, the store is being
some informal discussion came some initiative, and       readied; and before long the store will be a reality
under the leadership of Rev. G. van  Baren a             - quite possibly soon after you read this report.
definite plan to start such a  bookshop  in  Hudson-       The store will be called the Reformed Book
ville began to take form.                                Outlet.
  One purpose of the proposed store is to promote          They plan to advertise in local papers, to pro-
our own R.F.P.A. literature - books and Standard         mote a "book of the month," and to offer books at
Bearer  - along with other literature published in       good bargain prices, in order to encourage people to
our churches: books, pamphlets, periodicals, and         visit and to recognize the bookstore as a dependable
cassette tapes. Another purpose is to stock and          source of good literature. The possibility of expand-
make available quality, dependable Reformed liter-       ing to a mail-order business will be considered


318                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



when once the whole project gets off the ground.         and to promote more Reformed literature. The pur-
Watch for future reports and announcements!              pose of this venture is to be a witness of the Re-
  Finally, we want to emphasize that the Reformed        formed faith to the community, and especially to
Book Outlet is not established to make money. If         witness through our own Protestant Reformed liter-
there are any profits, they will be used to produce      ature.




                                       Still Distorted


  In  Clarion (Jan. 25, p. 29) the Rev. W. Pouwelse      in terms of a general, conditional promise. It is true,
begins a response to my editorial of last October 15     in the second place, because this Prof. Heyns was
in which I asked for correction of several distor-       the very American theologian who was quoted in
tions of our Protestant Reformed position. In this       support of the Liberated covenant view on the front
first installment Mr. Pouwelse deals with the mat-       page of one of the first issues of  De  Refonnatie   to
ter of distortions in connection with the First Point    reach us after World War II."
of 1924. In my editorial I complained that the Rev.        The Rev. Pouwelse interprets this objection as
Pouwelse's earlier article suggested that it was         meaning that the distortion is that "The impression
Kuyper's theory of presumptive regeneration              is given that the Synod of Kalamazoo dealt with the
which crept into the Christian Reformed Churches         theory of Dr. Kuyper, while the Synod actually
in America in 1924. This matter the Rev. Pouwelse        dealt with the doctrine of `the very American
now has cleared up. However, I must call his atten-      theologian' Prof. W. Heyns."
tion to the fact that his earlier statement was far        Now I said no such thing.
from clear. In the preceding context he had been
writing at length about Kuyper's doctrine of pre-          I did not deny that in the Three Points it is prin-
sumptive regeneration. Then suddenly, without            cipally the doctrine of Abraham Kuyper's common
identifying Kuyper's theory any further and with-        grace that is adopted, even though Point I makes no
out having made any reference to common grace,           literal mention of common grace.
he simply wrote: "The theory of Dr. A. Kuyper had          What I did indeed say is that Rev. Pouwelse
crept in also in the Christian Reformed Churches in      made no reference in his article to "het puntje van
America." Pouwelse now makes it clear that in this       het eerste punt (the real point of the First Point)."
statement he was referring to Kuyper's common              What I did say is that it is this "puntje van het
grace theory. I can accept that.                         eerste punt" that is especially of importance with
  The second distortion, however, is not corrected.      respect to the differences between us and the
I am afraid that the reason is that the Rev.             Liberated.
Pouwelse still leans too heavily on Rev. W.W.J.            What I did say, too, was that Prof. Heyns was the
Van Oene's book, though he also now quotes from          spiritual father of this general well-meant offer of
the Acts of Synod of the CRC, 1924.                      grace and salvation in the First Point.
  I wrote as follows in this connection: "What is          But the Rev. Pouwelse tries to make it an either-
worse, however, is the fact that in citing the Three     or proposition. Either Dr. Abraham Kuyper's doc-
Points no reference whatsoever is made to "het           trine is represented in the Three Points, OY Prof. W.
puntje van het Eerste Punt" (the real point of the       Heyns's doctrine.
First Point), namely, the general, well-meant offer
of grace and salvation. And this has everything to         And then he goes to great lengths in quoting from
do with the difference between the Protestant            the Acts of Synod of 1924, and he refers to the fact
Reformed and the Liberated. This is true, in the         that the Synod in its proofs makes reference to
first place, because the spiritual father of the doc-    Kuyper and Bavinck, but that it never mentions
trine of the general offer was none other than Prof.     Heyns.
W. Heyns, the man who also defined the covenant            Now what is wrong?


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                              319



   In the first place, even in quoting from the Acts              consulted the Acts of 1926, he would have dis-
of Synod the Rev. Pouwelse makes the same mis-                    covered that the Synod of Englewood, in treating a
take as in his quotation originally from the Rev. van             protest from Middleburg, Iowa, against the deci-
Oene's book. In so doing, be omits the very section               sions of 1924, spoke of "a goodness or grace of God      I
of the First Point in which the general, well-meant               in the causing to go forth of a well-meaning offer of
offer is taught. This is the same mistake, by the                 salvation to all to whom the preaching of the gospel
way, which the Rev. Kuyvenhoven made in  The                      comes." And if he had consulted all the early
Banner  some months ago. This indeed leaves one                   polemical writings of that period, he would have
wondering where the whole question of the general                 discovered that one and all refer to this matter of
offer comes from. Let me quote the First Point in                 the general, well-meant offer. I refer to such works
English translation, italicizing the part omitted by              as L. Berkhof's brochure,  De Drie  Punten in  AZZe
the Rev. Pouwelse in both of his articles on this                 Deelen Gereformeerd,  H.J. Kuiper's brochure,  The
subject: "Regarding the first point, touching the                 Three Points of Common Grace, H. Hoeksema's A
favorable attitude of God toward mankind in                       Triple Breach,  H. Hoeksema's  Het  Evangelic,  H.
general and not only toward the elect, synod                      Hoeksema's  The Protestant Reformed Churches in
declares that according to Scripture and the Confes-              America.
sion it is established, that besides the saving grace               In the third place, if the Rev. Pouwelse had ac-
of God shown only to the elect unto eternal life,                 quainted himself with some of the developments
there is also a certain favor or grace of God which               connected with the doctrine of the well-meant of-
He shows to His creatures in general. This is evident             fer, and had studied some of the polemical writings
from the Scripture passages that were quoted and                  of that period, or even if he had consulted a work
from the Canons of Dordt, II, 5 and III, IV, 8, 9, where          such as A.C. De Jong's The Well-Meant Gospel Offer
the general offer of the gospel is set forth; while it also is    (The Views of H. Hoeksema and  K,  Schilder),  he
evident from the citations made from Reformed writers             would have discovered the place and part of W.
belonging to the most flourishing period of Reformed              Heyns in all this.
theology that our fathers from of old maintained this
view. If                                                            Now I am not interested whatsoever in merely
                                                                  proving a point. I am interested in keeping the
   In the second place, the Rev. Pouwelse did not                 record of history straight. I am interested, too, in
do his homework. I advised him to go to the                       not having our Protestant Reformed position mis-
primary sources. He did this only in so far as he                 represented and distorted. Once more, therefore, I
consulted the Acts of 1924 somewhat. If he had                    ask for correction.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                                Our Order of Worship
                                                        Prof H. Hanko





   In our last article we began a discussion of those             takes on different forms, and the ministers tend to
parts of the worship service which go under the                   vary these benedictions from service to service.
name of Salutation, Votum, and Benediction. The
Salutation which is chiefly used in our Protestant                  In the last article we took note of the fact that,
Reformed congregations is: "Beloved in our Lord                   while the votum and salutation have a long history
Jesus Christ," or; "Congregation of our Lord Jesus                dating back to the time of Calvin, they are not
Christ." The Votum which is used is taken from                    necessarily required by Scripture. They are, there-
Psalm 124: "Our help is in the name of Jehovah,                   fore, to be included or excluded from the service at
Who made heaven and earth." The Benediction                       the discretion of the Consistory. We make mention


320                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of this once again because it came to our attention,       that they must continue in the same field as long as
while we were in Ireland and England, that some            the church is here upon earth. And Paul speaks of
churches there, though standing in the tradition of        the fact that not all who are of Israel are truly Israel
the Calvin Reformation, do not make use of either          (Romans 9:6).
the salutation, the votum, or the benediction.               Before we enter into a.discussion of this point, it
They begin the service with the announcement of a          must be remembered that this address is, after all,
Psalm. They do this because they believe in purity         patterned after the example of the apostles in their
of worship, i.e., they include in the worship service      epistles. In most of the epistles, not only by Paul,
only such elements as are expressly commanded by           but also by the other apostles, an address is found
Scripture. It is striking, however, that while no for-     in which, in each case, the letter is addressed to a
mal benedictions are pronounced, the concluding            particular congregation or group of congregations,
prayer, as far as its contents are concerned, is often     which are further designated as, "beloved of God,
the words of the apostolic benediction. But they do        called to be saints, " "saints and faithful in Christ
believe in keeping their worship services as simple        Jesus, " "all the saints in Christ," and such like ex-
as possible.                                               pressions. This is even true of the letter to the Cor-
  However this may be, the salutation, votum, and          inthians in which congregation were many weak-
benedictions are, if properly understood, means to         nesses and sins and even a case of incest, concern-
make the worship services more solemn and are              ing which Paul admonishes the church to cut such
valuable aids in leading the congregation into wor-        a one off from the fellowship of the church. He ad-
ship.                                                      dresses the Corinthian congregation as, "the
                                                           church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are
  Last time we discussed at some length the                sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (I
votum. In this article we shall discuss the saluta-        Cor. 
tion, and the relation between the salutation and                   1:2).  If we could say nothing else about this
                                                           matter, this example of the apostle would settle the
the votum  - a subject of some interest.                   issue once and for all.
  As was said above, the salutation usually is made          However, the Scriptures make clear that the
in these words: "Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ."        church of Christ as it is found in the world is
While there is perhaps not a great deal to say about       always addressed organically; i.e., it is addressed as
the salutation as such, there is one interesting point     an organization from the viewpoint of God's pur-
that needs to be made.                                     pose in that church. Just as a farmer calls his field a
  When the congregation is addressed in these              wheat field even though it has many weeds in it -
words, it must be clearly understood that the con-         calling it by the name of the purpose for which he
gregation is addressed as God's people! The congre-        intends it; and just as Jesus speaks of Himself and
gation as assembled at a given worship service on a        His people as the vine and the branches  - even
given Lord's Day is, by the minister, addressed as         though there are branches in that vine which must
those who belong to God, those who are God's               be cut out; so do the apostles address the church as
saints, those who have an inheritance in Christ and        church, beloved in Christ, even though there are
who are destined to enjoy the blessedness of the           unregenerated people in it, for it is addressed as one
everlasting Sabbath which God has prepared for             organism, from the viewpoint of God's purpose in
His people and which shall be theirs in the glory of       it. It is very important that this be done. And the
heaven which is to come.                                   form of the salutation has, therefore, Biblical war-
  This immediately brings up the question: how is          rant.
it possible to address the congregation in its entirety      It must be remembered that this address in-
as God's people when every one knows that there            cludes in it all classes of people in the congregation.
are, in the congregation, those who are not truly          The congregation is composed of old and young,
God's people? There are those who attend church            parents and single people, with all their individual
because they were born in the line of the covenant         differences which arise out of their own unique
and grew up in the church, but who are not true            character and walk in life. Thus also children and
people of God, for there are always Esaus in the           infants are addressed as part of those who are peo-
covenant, who manifest themselves as such later in         ple of God, beloved in Christ, saints according to
life. It is also possible that there are visitors in       God's purpose. This is clear from the fact, e.g., that
church on that particular Lord's Day, who, for             in his epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, the
whatever reason they may have come to church,              apostle specifically makes mention of children and
are not the people of God. This is not only a fact of      addresses to them a special Word of God which fits
experience, but it is also the teaching of Scripture.      their needs as members of Christ's church. It is for
Jesus assures us, in the parable of the wheat and the      this reason that these children also, saints and
tares, that the tares are not only always present, but     beloved, must receive the sign of membership in


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                321



the church and must be present also in the worship          who staggers into church under the load of his sins
service. They too have a place in the church of our         and sorrows. He believes that Word; and he
Lord Jesus Christ. They are not potential believers,        believes that God speaks to him. And the wonder of
possible converts, a segment of the congregation            it is that God Himself works that faith in the hearts
which does not really belong to the congregation            of His people so that they can and do make that
and must therefore meet separately from the con-            Word their own  - in spite of all evidence to the
gregation on the Lord's Day in some sort of                 contrary; i.e., in spite of their sins, in spite of their
"children's service." They are a part of the church         unworthiness, in spite of the fact that they deserve
which the Lord addresses.                                   only ,God's anger. At the very beginning, before all
   So, when the salutation is spoken, the congrega-         else, this Word becomes theirs. And it is this very
tion is addressed by God through the minister. This         fact that makes their worship possible.
too is important to remember. The worship service             Secondly, the possibility for this wonderful truth
is about to begin. The congregation is about to meet        lies exactly in the fact that we are beloved in our
with her God. As that momentous and significant             Lord Jesus Christ. After all, the believer must have
moment arrives, God, through the minister, ad-              an objective ground for believing that he is truly
dresses His people: "Beloved in our Lord Jesus              God's beloved, the object of God's love. He must
Christ." The congregation hears this Word of God            have this objective ground, because he knows that
and immediately realizes that God has come into             this can never be true as he is in himself. He is a
her midst to commune with her, have fellowship in           sinner. He is unworthy. He has deserved only
worship with her and speak to her those Words of            God's wrath. He is wicked and depraved. How
salvation which the saints need to hear to be saved.        then can God call him Beloved? Faith appropriates
                                                            this truth only because the objective ground is
  Two things must be said about this salutation. In         Christ and His perfect work. It serves to remind
the first place, it is interesting that the congregation    him that he is not beloved in himself  - this is far
is addressed as "Beloved." This too is Biblical. Paul       from the truth. But he is beloved in Christ, because
addresses his epistle to the Romans as, "To all that
be in Rome, beloved of God." That means that im-            Christ died for him and earned all of salvation. He
mediately the congregation hears God call them His          belongs to Christ. He is righteous because of
beloved. What a wonderful truth this is. They come          Christ's perfect sacrifice. Because God sees him in
to church on the Sabbath weary and bowed down               Christ, God calls him My beloved. The believer
with the sins of the week, the cares of life and the        must know this, and must hear this.
troubles of their pilgrim's pathway in this world.            We now turn to the question we raised in the ear-
They come, oftentimes, hesitant and wondering               ly part of this article: what is the proper relation
whether God will receive them, for their sins have          between the salutation and the votum? and, we
prevailed against them day by day. They come                might add, between the salutation and the dox-
starving for bread which they need for their soul's         ology? I ask these questions because, at least within
nourishment, but concerned about the fact that              our churches, there are different practices. Some
they deserve nothing at the hand of God. It is              congregations begin the worship service with the
almost as if they dare not lift their heads, for they       doxology, and only after the doxology is the saluta-
are in God's house. But then comes to them those            tion spoken along with the votum. Some of our con-
blessed words spoken by their God Himself, ad-              gregations have the salutation spoken along with
dressed to them in all their needs and sorrows, filled      the votum. Some of our congregations have the
with Father's concern and love: `Beloved . . .  ."          salutation first and then the votum; but others have
Immediately this fills the soul of the child of God         the votum first, then the salutation: "Our help is in
with great joy and comfort. Once again their                the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
heavenly Father shows the great mercy which is              Beloved congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ."
towards them that fear Him and which is from                  It seems to me that it is liturgically incorrect to
everlasting to everlasting.                                 have either the doxology or the votum precede the
  This gracious Word of God must, however, be               salutation. It seems to me that the salutation must
appropriated by faith as the child of God lifts his         come first. There are especially two reasons why I
weary head to hear the voice of God. It is faith that       consider this correct.
lays hold on this Word. It is faith, first of all, which      In the first place, it follows from the very nature
lays hold on it as the very Word of God - not mere-         of the salutation, as I explained it above. Before
ly the word of the minister. It is faith which ap-          anything else the people of God have to hear that
propriates this truth as the very truth of the Scrip-       God looks down upon them in love. It is psycho-
tures. And it is faith which makes this truth a per-        logically and spiritually impossible, it seems to me,
sonal possession of the beleaguered child of God            to sing, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow


322                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



       " when the child of God has not yet heard God's      of its various elements, God speaks first. Thus the
reassuring Word of comfort: "You are my                     salutation ought to precede the votum. God says to
beloved." The doxology is, in a very real sense, a          us, "You are my beloved in Jesus Christ." This
response to this Word of God. I hear, in the midst of       speech of God is followed by our response, first of
my sins and troubles, God's Word to me: "You are            all, in the votum: "Our help is in the name of the
my beloved in Christ"; and my response to that              Lord, Who made heaven and earth."
Word of God is: "Praise God from whom all bless-              As we noticed last time, this votum, while
ings flow."                                                 spoken by the minister, is nevertheless the confes-
  In the second place, we have repeatedly men-              sion of the church which she makes before Gods
tioned in these articles that worship is covenant           face. It is her response. It must follow what God
fellowship, and therefore a holy conversation be-           says. And, spiritually, it does. God's Word creates
tween God and His people. But within that cove-             in the church the church's confession.
nant we are not equals with God. He is God and we             Then everything is in order. God speaks first to
are always creatures  - and sinners. This implies           our troubled hearts as we assemble in His house:
the fundamental truth of Scripture that our "part"          "Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ." The saints ap-
of this holy conversation, our word spoken to God,          propriate that Word of God to themselves by faith.
is always the fruit of God's Word to us. God always         The perfect response to it is: "Our help is in the
speaks first and our speech follows. God's speech           name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."
creates our speech as a living response to what He          Then from the throats and hearts of those assem-
says. This fundamental truth, a truth which em-             bled arises the glad and joyful refrain: "Praise God
phasizes Gods sovereign grace, must be reflected            from whom all blessings flow." It is all right. It is all
in the worship. In the service itself, and in the order     as it ought to be. It is the church of God in worship.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS




                      Sin Found Out and Punished
                                                 Rev. John A. Heys





  When Esther finally made known to the king her            from him she received the information that Haman
request, that her life and the lives of her people be       was behind the whole scheme. Mordecai knew that
spared from the death decreed upon them, she                he had offended  Haman  by not honouring him as
branded the whole plot of Haman as an act of sell-          the king commanded. And he knew that  Haman
ing her and her people to be destroyed, to be slain,        was getting revenge upon him in a way that would
and to perish. And she was correct in this. Chapter         not only return blow for blow but add to
3:9 makes it plain that Haman bought from the king          Mordecai's misery by attacking his people. The
the decree to exterminate all the Jews in the               scribes who drew up the message which was to be
kingdom. And he promised the king ten thousand              published may also have indicated that  Haman
talents of silver, if he would agree to this slaughter.     would execute this decree of the king. They may
No doubt the money would come from the con-                 even have told Esther the details of the whole
fiscated properties of the exterminated Jews.               scheme.
  This reveals the fact that Esther was fully aware            Esther told the king that they had been sold to be
of the details in the whole plot of  Haman.  Most           destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And then she
likely Mordecai told her much of the plot. Surely           added that, if the decree were that they were to be


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               323



sold for  bondmen and bondwomen, she would                 sure your sins will find you out." We may get away
have held her peace, although the enemy could not          with our sins before man, because men are not
countervail the king's damage. It is difficult to          everywhere present and all-seeing and all-knowing.
determine just what she meant by the enemy                 But no man gets away with his sins before God.
countervailing the king's damage. According to             What a terrifying experience it must be for the
some the king would suffer financial loss, if the          unbeliever when he dies and at once stands before
Jews were exterminated or made to be  bondmen              the God against whom he sinned all his life! For
and bondwomen. The word countervail means                  him death is no blessing but the end of all hope that
equal. Some therefore rule out the idea of financial       he ever had of obtaining what he called blessings.
loss to the king but insist that the enemy, namely,        He may die unafraid of God because he has ruled
Haman  is not equal or worth troubling the king in         Him out of all his life and called the believers fools.
the matter of being  bondmen and bondwomen.                But stark terror, gripping fear will strike him in the
Regardless of what she meant, the point not to be          twinkling of an eye when his earthly eye closes and
missed is that she is playing up to the king. She is       his heart stops beating.
striving to make him think that she is so very much          This will never be the case with the child of God.
concerned with his well-being and does not want            He may fear death because he knows what a sinner
him to suffer damage of any kind, or to bother him         he is. He trusts in the blood of Christ. But he sees
with trivial matters. She is out to blacken Haman  as      no reason in himself why he should be dealt with in
much as she can and to get the king on her side by         mercy and lovingkindness. And then at once all the
showing concern for him. She wants the king to             mists are rolled away, all his doubts and fears
know that she in no way blames him for this decree.        disappear as he is received by Christ and ushered
He was to blame, for as I pointed out several times        into heavenly glories. Our sins were transferred to
before, he accepted  Haman's slander of the Jews           Christ from eternity when we were chosen in Him.
without any form of investigation into the matter,         And that we will see the moment physical death
and even without asking for any examples of the            takes hold of us. Our sins will not find us out, but
misconduct of the Jews. He,  Haman,  accused the           we will find out that our sins have been paid for in
Jews of not keeping the king's laws and of having          full, and that we are found in Christ, Who was
diverse laws that kept them from being good                made sin for us that we might be made the
citizens. But Esther wants the king to believe that        righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5: 11).
she does not blame him for this decree. It is Haman
whose life she wants ended in shame.                         Haman the unbeliever had no such peace when
                                                           he learned that the king had found out his sin. And
  When the king asked who dared to presume in              the king himself went into a form of shock. It shook
his heart to do all this that Esther related to him, it    him that someone wanted to kill his wife. And he
became plain that he in no way linked all this with        did not yet know that Haman did not try to kill his
the decree that Haman  got him to make. He had no          wife, for he too was wholly ignorant of the fact that
scruples against all the Jews. It was not his idea to      she was a Jewess. What also struck him was the
exterminate them. And when Esther speaks of the            fact that the laws of the Medes and Persians cannot
decree, he has not at all before his mind that             be altered. His wife was doomed. Besides, he had
decree. Cleverly Esther never mentioned that it            lost his right-hand man upon whom he leaned so
was his decree and that he was the one from whom           heavily. He had to go out into the garden to sort
the enemy had bought this right to destroy, slay,          things out in his mind. He wanted to keep his
and cause to perish. He had no smiting of his own          beautiful wife so badly, and he depended so much
conscience.                                                on this right-hand man. But his eagerness to keep
  On the other hand the words were no sooner out           his wife, and his anger at the one who arranged to
of Esther's mouth and Haman's  heart skipped a few         have her killed prevailed. He returned to the ban-
beats, and it was as though a knife had been driven        quet room. His hatred, mentioned in Esther  7:7,
through him. He did not know that Esther was a             had not abated. And now it intensifies. For Haman
Jewess. He was not trying to have her slain. But he        had approached Esther in an attempt to save his
knew who she meant by her people, and was quite            life, for he could see that there was "evil deter-
aware of the fact that it was his desire to exter-         mined against him by the king." She gave him a
minate the Jews. He understood now why Esther              cold stare; and if she said anything, it did not at all
wanted him at these banquets. He knew his life             allay his fears. In fact, we get the impression that
was in mortal danger and that what his wife and            his fear grew, for now he approaches even more
friends had told him was true, that he would not           closely to her, perhaps to take her hand and in
prevail in his plot to get even with Mordecai, but         tenderness to make a desperate plea. He fell on the
would surely fall before him. He experienced what          bed whereon Esther was. Now that was not a bed
Moses said, and is recorded in Numbers 3223,  "Be          for sleeping, but a couch. In that day they did not


324                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



sit at the table on chairs but reclined on couches.         Two Scriptural truths come to mind as we  con-
Even much later, in the day when Jesus was on this        sider all this history. The first is found in Psalm
earth, such was the custom. And those pictures of         76:lO where we read, "Surely the wrath of man
Him and His disciples eating the Last Passover are        shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt
so wrong when they picture Him and His disciples          Thou restrain." The king's wrath and Esther's did
sitting on chairs. Esther had not gotten up when the      serve the praise of God in the salvation of His peo-
king left his dining couch to go into the palace          ple and in the way, in His covenant faithfulness,
garden. And Haman  did not faint in his fear and fall     that He prepared for His Son to come in our flesh.
upon that couch. He came close to make a more             Haman's wrath, which would have kept God from
urgent plea for his life, probably asking her to          receiving the praise of His people in their salvation,
speak to the king and tell him that he had no             was restrained. God is in heaven and has perfect
knowledge of the fact that she was a Jewess, and          control over every creature. His counsel is fulfilled
did not plot to kill her. But, as I began to say, the     in every detail; and we shall praise Him in the new
king's wrath intensified when he saw Haman fallen         Jerusalem, when we are delivered from all our sins,
on the couch. and so close to his wife. He misjudges      for all His wisdom, power, love, and faithfulness to
Haman's deed and accuses him of trying to force           His church.
Esther.                                                     The other Scriptural passage is found in Psalm
  Esther makes no a-ttempt to correct the king. Her       7:15 and Psalm  57:6 and in Proverbs  28:lO. Let us
hatred of this enemy was so fierce that she wants         begin with that last passage. There we read,
him put to death. And if the king's wrong impres-         "Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an
sion will seal and hasten that death, so much the         evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit." Can
more would it please Esther. She could have spared        it be denied that Haman  tried to cause the righteous
his life. It seems very improbable that in his plea       to go astray in an evil way? No, he did not attempt
for his life that Haman  did not tell her in no uncer-    to lead God's people into sin. But can it be denied
tain terms that he did not know that she was a            that he would be touching the righteous, if he suc-
Jewess, and that instead he thought very highly of        ceeded in keeping the Christ from being born? Was
her, considered her to be the most beautiful and          he not touching The Righteous One? And would
wonderful queen that the nation had ever had.             there be any righteous? We need that Son of God in
Honesty and truth on Esther's part would have cor-        our flesh to make us righteous. Take note again of II
rected the king and not let another sin be attached       Corinthians 5:21: "For He hath made Him to be sin
to  Haman.                                                for us Who knew no sin; that we might be made the
  The king without hesitation revealed his judg-          righteousness of God in Him." What is more, all
ment on Haman  so that those in the room covered          our righteous deeds come out of the life of Christ in
Haman's face with a cloth, thereby indicating that        us, given to us when we are born again. And if
he was slated for execution. The form of execution        Christ's birth is prevented, there is no life of Christ
had not yet been announced. But Harbonah, one of          in us, or any righteous deeds at all. There are then
the chamberlains in the room at that time, in-            no righteous people.
formed the king of the gallows that  Haman  had             Then, too, can it be denied that the way to hell's
built for Mordecai's execution. These gallows had         torment is an evil way? And  Haman would have
been built no more than one day before, and quite         turned the believers from the upward way to glory
likely that very morning. And not until Haman  was        to the steep slide into hell, if no Christ is born. Tru-
hanged, and the king was assured that he was dead,        ly, as the Psalms above teach us, "He made a pit
was the king's wrath pacified. Surely he had              and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he
become furious upon learning that Haman  got him          made" (Ps.  7:15). "They prepared a net for my
to decree and set in motion action that would take        steps; my soul is bowed down; they have digged a
the life away from his wife, and then caught him in       pit before me, into the midst whereof they are
what he thought was an attempt to force the queen.        fallen themselves" (Ps.  57:6). Truly God is on our
                                                          side.

                        The Standard Bearer makes a
                thoughtfiJ gift for the sick or shut-in.
                            Give the Standard Bearer!'


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     3 2 5



ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren





     South African Church Breaks from R.E.S.


  The  Christian  News, Feb. 18, 1985, (and other                    -The NGK objects to the fact that the Reformed
publications) reports the break of the largest                     Church in the Netherlands continues to hold member-
Reformed Church in South Africa from the R.E.S.:                   ship in RES. Conflict has arisen in the  RBS over the
                                                                   Netherlands church because it belongs to the World
     The largest white Dutch Reformed body in South                Council of Churches and allows the ordination of
   Africa recently suspended its membership in the Re-             homosexual persons.
   formed Ecumenical Synod (RES), a conservative inter-              -The NGK claims that the sums assessed member
   national alliance with headquarters in Grand Rapids,           churches for support of the Reformed Ecumenical
   Mich.                                                          Synod are too high. The NGK, as the largest member,
     But a smaller South African church has decided to            pays $30,000 a year, or 2 cents per member, account-
   stay in the world Reformed group, by an 80-50 vote of           ing for 21 percent of the organization's budget.
   its national synod.                                               -The NGK charges that when the RES rejected a
     The decision of the small but influential Reformed           proposal for launching a four-year study rather than
   Church in South Africa [known in Afrikaans as the              immediately issuing a condemnation of theological
   Gereformeerde Kerk, or GK) to retain its membership            support for apartheid, the organization violated its
   is an indication of the sharp divisions among pro-             own constitution . . . .
   government Afrikaans-speaking churches on whether                 . . . To withdraw completely from membership in
   to break ties with international ecumenical bodies.            the international group, the NGK's general synod of
     Most major leaders in the South African govern-              600-700 representatives would have to approve the
   ment's ruling Nationalist Party are Afrikaners  -              move by a two-thirds majority. "It's questionable if
   descendants of Dutch settlers - and members of the             they can get that. I think there is hope," said Mr.
   most powerful church in the country, the 1.5 million-          Schrotenboer.
   member Dutch Reformed Church, (in Afrikaans, the                  The Reformed Ecumenical Synod has 35 member
   Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, or NGK).                        churches of Reformed and Presbyterian traditions,
     In December, the big denomination temporarily                 representing 5.5. million Christians. It represents a
   suspended its membership in the Reformed Ecumen-                more conservative, evangelical strain of Calvinism
   ical Synod. The action was taken by the NGK's                  than the larger World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
   12-member plenary executive, a top decision-making             However, two-thirds of its member churches are also
   group.                                                         members of the World Alliance of Reformed Chur-
                                                                   ches.
     The NGK's suspension of its membership was
   widely regarded as a reaction to a resolution passed              Sixty percent of RES member bodies are based in
   last August by the Reformed Ecumenical Synod.                  four southern African countries  - South Africa,
   Meeting in Chicago, the international alliance de-             Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
   clared theological justification of apartheid [the South      So the struggle against the apartheid "heresy"
   African doctrine of racial separatism) to be a heresy.      continues. While the Reformed Church in the
     The theologically conservative  RBS gave the two          Netherlands continues a member in good standing
   white South African churches until 1986 to reassess         in the R.E.S., with its membership in the World
   their failure to oppose South Africa's racial policies.     Council of Churches, with its professing homo-
     In explaining the decision to suspend membership          sexual members, with its women ministers (at least
   in the international group, the NGK gave four reasons:      one unmarried though having a child and living
     -It objects to the organization's failure to make         with her boyfriend), the apartheid "heresy" has
   "nonmembership in the Word Council of Churches"             been firmly dealt with by the R.E.S.  - now with
   a condition of membership in the Reformed Ecumen-           the above-mentioned consequences. Doubtlessly,
   ical Synod.                                                 we've not heard the last of all of this.


326                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



             Some Reformed Leaders on Abortion


  The  Christian Renewal,  January 7, 1985, presents                  Kuyvenhoven's Solution: "We can help the people
a box of short quotes from leaders within the                       of our countries with a proposal [abortion up to three
Reformed churches concerning the issue of abor-                     months) that can win wide support."
tion. If these short quotes are representative of                     James Olthuis - in Catalyst: "I don't like the idea
their views on abortion, surely there is reason for                 of absolute principles because it suggests that there
deep concern - for there is no interest expressed in                can be more than one absolute . . .  ." (Nov. 1983).
what Scripture teaches, except to advocate a posi-                    Olthuis' Solution: "Indeed, the mother does have
tion which is also a violation of the sixth command.                the right to exercise her call by choosing not to bear a
         It is ironic that choosing against the "cruel conse-       child . . . the question of making abortion legel or il-
                                                                    legal depends largely on your view of the state and on
       quences of absolutism" in reality means choosing             what is flexible in a pluralistic society."
       death for the unborn - especially those children who
       are not perfectly formed. But is this view advocated           "If we know that what is developing in the womb
       by reformed leaders expressive of the love and justice       will  probably  (emphasis added) lead to a human
       practiced by Mother Teresa? Is it not the cold and           vegetable, we are called to alleviate suffering and liv-
       calculating "love and justice" of a faceless humanism?       ing death" (Catalyst, Nov. 1983).
         Lewis B. Smedes - in his book, Mere Morality: "If            H.M. Kuitert  - in  Gezond   Gezin,  Oct. 1969, "If a
       we pass laws on the premise that a fetus is a person         woman absolutely does not want any more children,
       from conception, will we be led to cruel and crazy           then she has the absolute right to have an abortion."
       positions that few responsible people would wish to            "During the first months after conception life is
       defend?" (p. 142).                                           discernible to the biologists only. As long as it is no
         "We must . . . prevent the anti-abortion crusade           more, it is `value-indifferent' or `value-free."'
       from carrying society to the cruel consequences of its         Kuitert's Solution: Kuitert does not have to justify
       own absolutism" (p. 142.)                                    the need for abortion since abortion is not an ethical
         Smedes' Solution: (1) Abortion should be legally           problem for him. It is the woman who must decide.
       permitted during the first six weeks of pregnancy. (2)       Not God's Word but the individual is the norm for
       Abortion should be severely restricted after the first       human activity.
       six weeks and through the twelfth week. (3) Abortion        If these positions are held in Reformed circles,
       at the third month should be a crime, "a crime for        there is no more any basis for opposition to the
       which extenuating circumstances might recommend           crime of abortion today. One expects support for
       suspension of judgment."                                  abortion from a wicked world (though also there,
         Andrew Kuyvenhoven  - in  The Banner:  Kuyven-          there are many who denounce it for other than
       hoven summarizes Smedes' position as outlined in the      Scriptural reasons); but one is appalled when some
       July 18, 1983 issue of  The Banner  and writes, "I        of the thinking of the abortionists enters into the
       recommend thoughtful analysis of Smedes'
       argument."                                                thought and writings of those called "Reformed"!




                                    And. . . Euthanasia . . .

  The Calvinist Contact, Jan. 18, 1985, presents an                  in "Euthanasie en Pastoraat," a report submitted to
-Euthanasia report submitted to GKN:                                 the Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken of the
                                                                     Netherlands (GKN). The report concerns itself with
         A decision to terminate life in situations where            the question of whether under certain circumstances
       recovery is no longer possible can be justified from a        Christians may allow life to come to an end, and
       Christian perspective. This is the conclusion reached         whether such a decision can be biblically defended.


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               3 2 7



     The report makes no distinction between passive                      3. A situation can arise when death is more prefer-
   and active euthanasia. The former involves the ter-                  able than life; a situation in which the confession that
   minating of life through the discontinuation of life                 life is a gift sounds like an absurdity.
   support systems. The latter involves terminating life                  4. The commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is for
   by means of lethal drugs, injections, etc. Though it                 humans, and not the other way around. The com-
   recognizes a vast difference between the two types,                  mandments mark the parameters in which human ex-
   the report concerns itself only with the responsibility              istence is possible. If they are used to maintain an in-
   involved in accelerating the process of death.                       human situation, they cease to mark the parameters
     In coming to its conclusions, the report dealt with                defining the possibility for human life (cf. Mk.
   the following considerations:                                        2:23-28).
     1. People have increasing and far-reaching control                   5. This leads to the belief that the commandments,
   over many aspects of their lives. Couples determine,                 particularly the sixth commandment, do not concern
   for the most part, whether or not they wish to have                  themselves with an abstract notion of life. Instead,
   children and when. Choices are made regarding edu-                   they are concerned with the protection of living per-
   cation and occupation, marriage and divorce.                         sons. A deplorable and hopeless situation is not, ac-
                                                                        cording to the biblical promise, the meaning of-life:
     2. "Life" is more than a biological term. Discus-
   sions considering whether humans may have control                      6. It is precisely from the gospel of the resurrection
   over their lives are often negatively judged in many                 that death becomes relativized. Through it we become
   Christian circles. Life is considered to be a creation of            liberated from a convulsive idolization of life.
   God, and humans may not wilfully put an end to it.                     7. In light of the Bible, it is impossible in the natural
   However, the report states that God is the One who                   course of things to view a disease process, for exam-
   grants life in a manner different than our mothers                   ple, simply as the will of God.
   who also on a certain day grant us life. Nonetheless,              Though the above is not yet adopted (it might be
   our life is a gift of God. This is brought to expression
   in the belief that we are dependent on God for life. In          after two years' wait), it does indicate the trend in
   spite of everything that happens, the believer affirms           the churches - approving a form of abortion all the
   that life is a gift, and a task. It is also something to be      way to finding "good" reasons for euthanasia.
   thankful for.

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD



                               Missionary Methods (28)
                                                       Prof: Robert D. Decker




  With some variation in detail the mission writers                 sion fields in his day. Cf. especially,  The Spon-
we have studied (John L. Nevius, Henry Venn,                        taneous Expansion of the Church, but also, Missionary
Rufus Anderson) agree that the missionary must                      Methods: St. Paul's Or Ours? and The Ministry Of The
strive to establish self-supporting, self-governing,                Spirit, all published by Wm. B. Eerdmans.)
self-propagating indigenous churches. What has
become known as the "three self formula" is                            Certainly in all mission work the goal must be
helpful and has validity provided the terms be                      the gathering of the elect out of the nations into the
carefully defined along Biblical, Confessional lines.               Body of our Lord Jesus Christ as that Body of Christ
This has not always been done; neither have mis-                    comes to manifestation in the church institute. All
sionaries implemented this method along Biblical                    would agree too that such churches must be in-
lines in many instances. (Roland Allen, an Anglican                 digenous. To cite examples from our own work as
missionary around the turn of the century, points                   Protestant Reformed Churches, the churches in
to some of the inconsistencies and weaknesses of                    Jamaica must be just that, Reformed churches in
this formula as it was being applied on foreign mis-                Jamaica. The church, and we hope soon to be able


328                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



to say, churches, in Singapore must be in Singa-         everyone thinks of but one thing when he hears the
pore. Neither of these can be or ought to be part of     word, "self-supporting," viz.  money. The mission
the Protestant Reformed Churches in America.             churches ought to be financially independent from
They must be manifestations of Christ's Body in          the very outset. To build churches for the converts,
their native lands.                                      to pay the salaries either in whole or in part of the
  But what is meant by the term "church" in the          native preachers, to assist the converts in ways
"three self formula"? The reference here is to the       other than benevolence is bad mission practice.
church institute as that comes to manifestation in       Both Scripture and the history of missions, as well
local congregations of believers and their children.     as contemporary missions, make this abundantly
According to Scripture this means that "church"          evident. To assist the converts in these ways fosters
means believers and their children under the three-      an attitude of paternalism on the part of the sending
fold office of Christ. A church in that sense is         churches and an attitude of dependence on the part
organized on the basis of the Three Forms of Unity.      of the converts. This practice also breeds envy,
The church has regular preaching of the Word from        jealousy, and strife among the converts. The
Lord's Day to Lord's Day. It makes use of the            growth and development of the new churches both
sacraments as instituted by Christ and it exercises      spiritually and numerically are greatly impeded.
Christian discipline in the name of Christ. In sum a     The church at Antioch through whom the Holy
church is a gathering of believers and their children    Spirit sent the apostle Paul on his missionary
under the care of Christ through the pastor, elders,     journeys did not assist or subsidize the churches
and deacons; manifesting the marks of the true           which the Apostle organized. In fact the church at
church: the pure preaching of the Word, the proper       Antioch did not even pay a salary to the Apostle
administration of the sacraments, and the exercise       and his assistants.
of Christian discipline. This, by Scriptural and Con-      This is proper, we believe. Converts ought to
fessional definition, is the meaning of the term         build their own churches and support their own
church. Such churches were organized by the              preachers. Churches need not be elaborate build-
Apostles (especially Paul) at Thessalonica, Colosse,     ings costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ephesus, Corinth, and elsewhere throughout Asia          Native preachers ought to be supported by the con-
Minor and the Mediterranean world. As the record         gregation which they serve. Where this is done
in the Book of Acts clearly indicates, the Apostles      things will be done "decently and in good order."
preached the Word, baptized, ordained elders and           We can accept the whole idea of native churches
deacons, and then moved on. They did not remain          being "self-governing" provided this too be under-
as pastors in a given church for long periods of         stood Biblically. In the Biblical and Confessional
time. They established indigenous churches each          sense this means each congregation is under the
under its own officebearers.                             care of Christ by means of properly called, quali-
  But this definition of churches is quite different     fied officebearers. These must be natives. This
from the meaning given to the  term'especially  by       means that a large part of work on the foreign fields
Nevius and Venn and to a certain extent also by          will have to consist of the training and instruction
Anderson. Churches are not merely groups of              of qualified men for the offices of pastor, elder, and
believers and their children under the care of an        deacon. The training of native pastors can either be
unpaid native "helper." Groups scattered abroad          done by the missionaries themselves or by having
under lay leadership, without elders and deacons,        natives who aspire to the ministry trained in the
visited only rarely by the missionary and only occa-     Seminary of the sending churches. The former
sionally by a native preacher, having baptism and        method was and is being employed on our
the Lord's Supper infrequently are not what the Bi-      Jamaican field. Rev. G.C. Lubbers spent a great
ble and our Confessions call churches. In some in-       deal of time and energy instructing several young
stances (and this was not rare) a native pastor had      men who are now pastors in Jamaica. He was
anywhere from one to two hundred and fifty such          assisted in this work by emissaries from our chur-
"churches" under his care. Supervising a number          ches. Some instruction was also done by corres-
of these native preachers were the missionaries of       pondence. Revs. J.A. Heys and C. Hanko did much
the sending churches or boards. And things re-           or perhaps all of the latter. The Rev. Lau Chin
mained this way for years and years. This we be-         Kwee, currently an ordained pastor of the
lieve to be unscriptural. Mission work must not          Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore, re-
have as its goal the multiplication of mission sta-      ceived three years of instruction in our Seminary.
tions under lay leadership. Missions according to        Jaikaishin Mahtani, currently about half way
Scripture and our Confessions has as its goal the        through three years of training for the ministry, is
establishment of churches.                               studying at our Seminary. This brother hopes to
  What is meant by "self-supporting"? Nearly             return to Singapore after the  1985-`86 seminary


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              329



term in order to be examined and ordained in the          God's appointed means: "the foolishness of
ministry of the Evangelical Reformed Church of            preaching" (cf. I Corinthians 1). The whole counsel
Singapore. There are advantages and disadvantages         of God must be proclaimed publicly and from
in both methods, but both have worked out rather          house to house (cf. Acts 20: 17-35). Our goal must be
well. As the mission churches grow and develop            to organize believers and their children into mani-
they will supply their own theological training for       festations of the Body of Jesus Christ.
prospective ministers and missionaries. Concern-            Doing this we may be confident that God will
ing the training of elders and deacons, we believe        give the increase. God's Word does not return void.
this is an important part of the work of the mission-     He is pleased to save His elect by the foolishness of
aries. Promising men, men who possess the                 preaching. By that same foolishness God is pleased
necessary gifts for church office, must be in-            to make of no effect the wisdom and power of the
structed in the fundamentals of Reformed doc-             world. In the way of faithfulness to this calling we
trine, Bible History, and Church Polity. Instruction      may confess with the Apostle, "Now thanks be-un-
must also be given in the calling and duties of           to God, which always causeth us to triumph in
elders and deacons. In sum, these men must be             Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his
trained to assume leadership in the congregation.         knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto
  The new church must also be "self-propagating."         God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved,
By this we mean that the newly organized congre-          and in them that perish: To the one we are the
gation of believers and their children under the          savour of death unto death; and to the other the
care of Christ through the officebearers has the          savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for
mandate of Christ to "go into all the world"              these things? For we are not as many who corrupt
preaching and teaching the gospel. The mission            the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God,
calling applies with  equal force to them as to the       in the sight of God speak we in Christ" (II Corin-
older, established, sending churches.                     thians 2: 14-17). We may be confident too that when
  This, therefore, must be the goal of our mission        the gospel has been preached to the nations for a
labor. Wherever God out of His good pleasure              witness, God will bring the end of all things (Mat-
sends us we must preach the gospel commanding             thew 24: 14). In no less a work of God are we in-
all to repent and believe. We must do this with           volved in the work of missions. May the Lord give
                                                          us grace to persevere to His glory.

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS




                                         Nicene Creed
                                             Rev. James Slopsema




Article 10 (cont'd.)                                        That baptism is for the remission of sins is cer-
  Article 10 of the Nicene Creed reads, "We               tainly Biblical. In Mark  1:4 we are taught that
acknowledge one baptism for the remission of              "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the
sins."                                                    baptism of repentance for the remission of sins."
                                                          Peter uses similar language in his speech on Pente-
  In this article the early church acknowledged           cost. In response to those who were pricked in their
first of all the existence of one baptism. This idea      hearts Peter exhorted, "Repent, and be baptized
we considered in our last article. The early church       every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
also connected baptism to the remission of sins. She      remission of sins" (Acts  238).
also confessed in this article that baptism is for the
remission of sins. It is this idea that we now con-         That baptism is for the remission of sins is a very
sider.                                                    beautiful and comforting truth. However, when the


330                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



early church confessed a baptism for the remission         powers of baptism after the sins of youth had been
of sins she had a warped view of what this means.          committed. In like manner, adult converts fre-
Already at this early stage in her history errors con-     quently postponed baptism as long as possible.
cerning baptism had arisen in the church. Hence,           Again, the purpose was to take the greatest possible
although the confession she made here in this arti-        advantage of the forgiving powers of baptism. In
cle of her creed is Biblical, what she meant to ex-        many cases the postponement of baptism was
press was not. What we wish to do in this article          motivated by a desire to live in sin as long as possi-
therefore is to set forth the teaching of the early        ble. One could live as he pleased so long as there
church on baptism. And having done that we will            was time for baptism before death. Then all sin
set forth the true Biblical idea of baptism, especially    would be wiped away. Consequently, many were
that baptism is for the remission of sins.                 not baptized until they were on their death bed, as
   In this early period of the church's history there      was Constantine, the first "Christian" emperor of
was no fully developed doctrine of baptism. The            Rome. In turn, in times of catastrophe and calamity
early church fathers emphasized that baptism is a          the church witnessed many baptisms,
sacrament of regeneration. The trouble was,                  We find, then, in this early period of the church's
however, that the church fathers had no clear con-         history the seeds of the Roman Catholic doctrine of
ception of regeneration. They did not distinguish          ex opere operato. This is the view that the water of
between regeneration and justification, as we have         baptism itself washes away sin, that this washing of
learned to do on the basis of God's Word. Conse-           baptism is accomplished in all who receive the
quently, when the early church fathers spoke of            sacrament, and that this is indispensable for salva-
regeneration in connection with baptism they had           tion.
in mind primarily the idea of the remission of sins.         Much different is the teachings of the Scriptures
In addition to the remission or forgiveness of sins        in this matter as summarized in our Reformed
they also included in regeneration the idea of             creeds.
spiritual renewal by the Holy Spirit. Along with this        According to Scripture, baptism is a sign and seal
idea of regeneration the early church fathers also         of salvation. More particularly it is a sign and seal
saw in baptism a translation out of the kingdom of         of the washing away of sins in the blood of Jesus
Satan into the kingdom of Christ. Baptism was the          Christ.
rite of initiation into the kingdom and church of
Jesus Christ.                                                The washing away of sins involves a twofold
                                                           spiritual reality. Included in the washing away of
  The early church fathers also had the idea that          sins is, first of all, the remission of sins. That our
somehow the sacrament of baptism itself had the            sins are washed away means that God forgives our
power to save. It was taught, for example, that bap-       sins for the sake of the shed blood of Christ. But the
tism washed away all sins committed prior to its ad-       washing away of sins is more. It also is an inner
ministration. At this time the church had no real          cleansing of heart and soul by the Holy Spirit. The
conception of original sin. Her attention was fo-          washing away of sins implies spiritual renewal  -
cused on the actual sins committed in this life. It        regeneration and sanctification. This certainly is the
was the teaching of the church that all sins commit-       teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism, LD 26, Q 70.
ted prior to baptism were forgiven through baptism.
Quite in harmony with this line of thinking it was           Now, baptism is a sign and seal of that spiritual
also the teaching of the church fathers that baptism       reality.
was necessary to enter into the kingdom of God.              That means, negatively, that the water of bap-
Consequently, infants who died without the benefit         tism itself does not wash away sins. The water of
of baptism were considered to be damned to eternal         baptism has not the power to wash away so much
perdition. This idea was based primarily on Jesus'         as the least of our sins. Its only power is to wash
words to Nicodemus, `"Verily, verily, I say unto           away the dirt from our bodies. For that reason
thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit,        neither is baptism indispensable for salvation. We
he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven" (John          need not fear that an infant who dies without being
3:5).                                                      baptized is thereby doomed to eternal perdition.
  Arising from this idea of baptism, especially the          Baptism is merely a sign and seal of the washing
idea that all sins committed prior to baptism are for-     away of sins. And that means, positively, that the
given through baptism, came the abuse of postpon-          spiritual reality of the washing away of sin is sym-
ing baptism. Infant baptism was practiced in the           bolized in baptism. Because water has the power to
early church. However, many parents postponed              wash away the dirt of the body, God has ordained it
the baptism of their children. Some did this out of        as a sign and symbol to depict the washing away of
indifference. However, others did so that their            sins in the blood of Christ. Furthermore, baptism is
children could take advantage of the forgiving             a seal of the washing away of sins. A seal is a


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                             331



pledge, a guarantee. In baptism, therefore, God             he is also renewed spiritually so as to live a new and
pledges salvation. He guarantees the washing away           holy life. Through the confirmation of his faith by
of sins depicted in the washing of water. This              baptism the believer is comforted and refreshed in
pledge of salvation doesn't come to all, not even to        all the blessings of God's salvation.
all who are baptized. The seal of baptism is to the           In this sense baptism is a means of grace to the
believer. Baptism is God's seal that He will most          believer.
certainly wash away the sins of all and every
believer in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son.               And it's in this sense, too, that we acknowledge
                                                           one baptism for the remission of sins.
  For that reason baptism is also a means of grace
to the believer.                                              By this confession we do not mean, then, that the
                                                           water of baptism washes away our sins. Nor do we
  It is through the sacrament of baptism that the          mean that baptism somehow magically washes
Holy Spirit strengthens the believer in his faith.         away all sin prior to baptism so they are all for-
Baptism serves the strengthening of faith, of              given.
course, exactly because it is a seal. Through bap-
tism God seals or guarantees to every believer that           By this confession we mean rather that baptism
He will certainly wash away the believer's sins in         is a sign and seal of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus
the blood of Christ. In that way the believer's faith      Christ. And when that seal, therefore, is admin-
is strengthened.                                           istered to the believer, or when the believer
                                                           witnesses that seal administered to others, his faith
  And it is through the strengthening of his faith         is made strong even to the enjoyment of the forgive-
that the believer comes to partake in richer               ness of his sins.
measure of the grace of the washing away of his
sins. Through the strengthening of his faith in               What a glorious thing is baptism!
Christ he comes to the glad assurance that his                And what a glorious confession we are able to
wretched sins are all forgiven for Christ's sake.          make!
Through the strengthening of his faith by baptism

GUEST ARTICLE




                                 3. Jesus Crucified
                                              Rev. Robert C. Harbach





  "And when they were come to the place which is            death of the cross cursed of God. For the law says
called Calvary, there they crucified Him."                 (Deut.  21:23), "he that is hanged is accursed of
                                       -Luke  23:33        God." Paul refers to this law in his letter to the
  On the basis of this word of God we confess, in          Galatians when he writes, "Christ hath redeemed
the words of the Apostolic Confession, "I believe          us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
He was crucified." The Heidelberg Catechism, ex-           us" (3:13).  The law curses sin, that is, God by His
plaining this confession, says that there is more in       law curses sin. The crucifixion is God cursing sin; it
His being crucified than if He had died some other         is the crucifixion of sin. On the cross, God bore His
death. For by His crucifixion "I am assured that He        own curse, so that His was the curse, ours the bless-
took on himself the curse which lay upon me; for           ing.
the death of the cross was accursed of God." He               THE MEANING. "They crucified Him." That
was hanged upon the tree of the cross, making the          was the mode of His death. He did not and could


332                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



not die any other death. He died not by poisoning,          and finally the altar of burnt-offering.
drowning, starving, nor by any of the other com-              The cross also appears, typically, in prophetic
mon ways men die. Both John the Baptist and                 revelation. As David had, Zechariah prophesied of
James Zebedee were beheaded. Stephen was                    the cross in, "They shall look on Me whom they
stoned. Capital punishment, according to Israel's           have pierced." The Jews try to elude the force of
law, was also by burning. It is possible to die by          these prophecies, but without success. This evasion
stoning, or by burning, yet no blood be shed. But           was not made in Old Testament times, but in the
without the shedding of blood there is no remission         New Testament day, and only after the crucifixion
of sin. He could not die in any of these other ways,        had become history. There was no effort made to
nor by assassination, much less by suicide (for that        explain away these prophecies before the death of
is sin, and He died for sin, not in sin).                   Christ. The endeavor to do so after the fact reveals
  He died solely by crucifixion. After the Jewish           the desperate weakness of the Jewish prophetic in-
Old Testament form of capital punishment by ston-           terpretation. The historical fulfilment record of the
ing, the dead body would be hanged on a tree. But           crucifixion as preserved in the inspired Scripture
Jesus was hanged on the cross alive. This was not           accounts leaves all attempts to undermine these
Jewish, but pagan Roman torture punishment. He              prophecy records ridiculous. The cross on Calvary,
was crucified, nailed through hands and feet. This          the Place of a Skull, is symbol of rationalism con-
was done by the power of the Roman government               demned and the death of all human wisdom.
under the political pressure of the Jews. For Peter,          According to the New Testament record, Jesus
missionary to the Jews, charged their council, the          was actually crucified. Judas had betrayed Him for
Sanhedrin, thus: "whom ye slew and hanged on a              that purpose. "The Son of Man is betrayed to be
tree." For they had actually utilized a heathen form        crucified." The Jews clamored for His crucifixion,
of deadly torture to do away with Jesus.  (They were        screaming over and over the awful word,  crucify!
the ones who repeatedly had cried, "Crucify                 Pilate finally gave in and ordered, "Take ye Him
Him!"). The Egyptians in Joseph's day executed by           and crucify Him.1" Then the Roman soldiers of the
hanging; so did the Persians in Esther's day. But the       governor "led Him away to be crucified." At the
Romans in Jesus' day used the most inhumane and             place called Calvary, "there they crucified Him."
barbaric form of execution. The Jewish council had
passed sentence on Him, had actually in their im-             THE TRUTH by which we must live and die is
placable hatred imprecated His blood upon them-             expressed in all these texts. The great truth the true
selves and on their children to get the deed done.          church here confesses embraces the whole of our
They not only were responsible for His death, but           theology. "He was crucified" is the very center of
for His dying the most accursed death.                      the gospel. The glory of the church universal, of the
  THE FORESHADOWING of the crucifixion is                   church militant, is not in some denominational
seen in the Old Testament types of patriarchal              form of worship, not in a peculiar emphasis on one
revelation as exemplified in the coats of skins with        sacrament, not in some oddity of doctrine (for ex-
which God clothes Adam and Eve. (Animals had to             ample, millennialism), but it shines in the cross.
be sacrificed to provide this "covering" or "atone-         "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of
ment.") Abel's lamb, offered on the altar just out-         our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
side the garden of Eden, is type of the Lamb of God         crucified unto me, and I unto the world!"
whose sacrifice of himself opens the way into the             Passing strange it is then to read in a British
heavenly Paradise. Isaac, Abraham's only son, is            special bulletin, a "Mission to England Bulletin,"
type of Gods only begotten Son bearing His cross            published by the British Council of Protestant
in our place. Christ made sin for us on the cross is        Churches, and printed by the Newtownards
the  antitype  of the brazen serpent lifted up on a         Chronicle, that Billy Graham does not emphasize
pole in the wilderness, so that there is life for a look    "The Blood" in his ministry as an evangelist. The
at the crucified One! Jesus applied this type to him-       bulletin states, "In a letter of 29th February, 1968,
self as the Antitype. David prophesied of Him in his        W.H. Martindale, writing on behalf of the Billy
twenty-second Psalm, "they pierced My hands and             Graham Association, said, `There are many aspects
My feet." The wave-offerings with the  heave-               of the Christian life that Mr. Graham does not
offerings prefigured the cross. The homes of the            touch upon because he does not believe that they
Israelites at the Passover had blood on their doors         are the duty and responsibility of the evangelist.
in the form of a cross, the blood marking lintel,           Mr. Graham believes that we are saved through the
doorpost, and threshold. The cross is observable in         blood of Christ; however, this aspect of Christian
the layout of the tabernacle, first in the mercy-seat,      doctrine he does not emphasize in His message.
then in the altar of incense, then opposite each            This is the duty and prerogative of the pastors."'
other the lampstand and the table of showbread              Astounding! But is this practice of Graham's in har-


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                              333



     mony with the divine injunction, "Do the work of           can's prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." A
     an evangelist" (II Tim.  4:6)? Is it conceivable that      mercy apart from Jesus' blood, or apart from an
     the two New Testament evangelists, Stephen and             emphasis on His blood, is a mercy outside the
     Philip, did not emphasize the blood of Christ in           cross. But there is no such mercy! Flowing from the
     their messages since that is for pastors and not           blood of the Crucified there is not a drop of "com-
     evangelists to do? Will Scripture bear out such a          mon grace." What do men of the world have in
     strange idea? Take any preaching, sermon, or               common? Sin! What do men of the world have
     "message" that does not have any emphasis on the           which Christian men do not have? Condemnation!
     blood of Christ: can the content of that discourse be      (See John 3:36;  5:24). What do Christian men have
     said to be the gospel? or wouldn't it be "another          which men of the world do not have? Eternal life!
     gospel"? How can one preach, teach, or evangelize          Christian unity comes through the same channel,
     and not emphasize the gospel? Doesn't this "work           Christ crucified. Every covenant blessing bears the
     of the gospel as an evangelist" (Westminster Form          same sacred blood-mark of His atoning sacrifice.
     of Church Government, XV) require not only a bit           The cords of love which bind the sacrifice to `the
     of emphasis on the blood of Christ, now and then,          altar of Calvary bind brethren closely together.
     but a concentricity to that theme so that the              Their prayers, from whatever race, tongue, tribe, or
     preacher (Graham  is  a preacher, isn't he?) never         nation (Rev.  5:9), all meet at the great throne of
     gets away from it?                                         mercy. There alone is blessed union in Christ.
       In this great fundamental, indeed, essential of
     the Christian Faith, we have the point of unity for
     all believers. The point of Christian unity is not
     found in the doctrine of the second coming of
     Christ; it is not in "prophecy preaching," nor in                  Take time to read
     what some term "church truth." We must not
     allow anything to becloud the issue of the Word of                    and study the
     the Cross in Jesus' blood. We must always get into
     the clear light of the cross. There the Lord lightens              Standard Bearer!
     our darkness to see light. There we see the divine
     law satisfied and its lightning bolts of holy wrath ir-
     retrievably imbedded in the cross. It is at the foot of
     the Crucified One that we learn to pray the  publi-
     QUESTION BOX





                           Ahab's Wicked Humiliation
                                                       Rev. C. Hanko





       A reader sent in the question:                           ceptance of Ahab's humbleness is a bit puzzling to
/      "I Kings  21:29. Seest thou how Ahab humbleth            me. Could you explain?"
     himself before Me? because he humbleth himself               In this account of Ahab's humbling himself
     before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but      before the Lord we read that king Ahab coveted the
     in his sons' days will I bring the evil upon him. Ac-      vineyard of Naboth, which appealed to him as an


334                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



attractive addition to his palace grounds in Jezreel.       In the first place, God's judgment upon Ahab
Even though Naboth had good reasons for refusing          was not lifted. It was not even changed into a
to sell this vineyard to the king, Ahab still coveted     lighter sentence. It was only postponed. True, this
it. One received the impression that Ahab put on a        somewhat pleased this selfish, cowardly king. Even
scene in front of Jezebel, his ruthless wife, in order    though he would suffer a tragic death, he would not
that she would obtain the vineyard through tac-           have to witness God's judgment upon his house.
tics he was too  colwardly  to use. In any case,          That was a cowardly selfishness. He seemed little
Naboth was killed, Ahab claimed the vineyard, and         concerned about the fact that his wicked sons
the prophet Elijah was sent to him to pronounce           would continue in his wicked ways, and that the
Gods judgment upon him for his wicked idolatry,           sins of the father would be visited upon the sons in
his covetousness, his theft of the vineyard, and the      their hatred against the living God. Nor did it great-
murder of Naboth.                                         ly concern him that his entire house would be
  King Ahab humbled himself. But this humilia-            wiped out by Jehovah, Whom he had so deeply of-
tion was not a sincere sorrow for the sins he had         fended with his wickedness. His only concern was
committed, nor was his repentance a true turning          Ahab, and that concern was satisfied in part by
away from his sin unto God with a broken heart            the postponement of judgment upon his house.
and a contrite spirit.                                      But why, we ask, did God postpone His judg-
  In II Corinthians 7: 10 Scripture speaks of a "god-     ment upon Ahab's  pretence of humiliation? The
ly sorrow" that works repentance unto salvation,          answer is, that the measure of Ahab's iniquity and
not to be repented of. On the other hand, it speaks       guilt was not yet full. As long as this wicked king
of "the sorrow of the world" that works death.            could still show a semblance of remorse, he was not
Ahab's sorrow was of the second sort. His sorrow          yet ready for God's judgment to fall upon him.
was not the fruit of God's grace and of the opera-        Soon Ahab's sorrow and fear for Gods judgment
tion of the Holy Spirit in his heart. Nor was he          faded away and he continued to increase his sins
sincerely sorry that he had sinned against God by         before the face of God. There was a hardening pro-
transgressing God's commandments. Ahab's sor-             cess going on in his soul. Not long afterward he was
row did not bring about a lasting repentance in turn-     warned by the prophet Micaiah that, if he went out
ing away from sin and hating it. The king's sorrow        to battle against the Syrians, he would not only lose
was of the sort that one finds in the world of wick-      the battle, but Israel would be like sheep without a
ed men, a deep concern about himself and the bit-         shepherd. The judgment that God had previously
ter consequences of his sins. He did not want to die.     pronounced upon him would certainly come to
Much less did he want to die the shameful and hor-        pass. But Ahab preferred to listen to the four hun-
rible death that would result in the dogs licking his     dred false prophets who told the king only what he
blood. He fasted, put on sackcloth, and thus hum-         wanted to hear, assuring him of the victory over the
bled himself in the hope that he might escape the         Syrians. Cowardly Ahab still felt the fear of death
consequences of his evil deeds. He hoped that this        because of the prophecy of Elijah, confirmed now
act of humility would bring a reversal in God's           by Micaiah, so that he disguised himself to deceive
judgment.                                                 the enemy. But God he could not deceive. Well
                                                          aware that Jehovah is God, and fully conscious of
  So far we face no serious problem. The ques-            God's righteous judgment upon him, he went to
tioner is evidently in full agreement with that. The      battle and met his death.
problem arises when we consider that God sent the
prophet Elijah on a return mission to tell Ahab that,       This should have been a warning to Israel that
because he humbled himself before the Lord there          the way of the transgressor leads to hell. God is not
would be a postponement of judgment.                      mocked. He who forsakes the living God and turns
                                                          to idols will certainly be judged in righteousness.
  This may well be considered to be God's curse
reward on a wicked humiliation.

                          The Standard Bearer makes a
                          thoughtful gift for any occasion.
                             Give the Standard Bearer!


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             335





                             News From Our Chkhes
                                                March 30, 1985




   Rev. Slopsema has declined the call from our          Calling of the Reformed Faith in England Today."
Lynden Church in Washington; Rev. Van  Baren             In the afternoon there will be a special report on
has declined the call from our Hull Church in Iowa;      the work of Mr. Deane  Wassink, who is currently
and Rev. Engelsma has declined the call from our         teaching at Covenant Christian School in  New-
Edgerton  Church in Minnesota.                           townabbey, North Ireland. There will also be a
   With the advance of the Mission Committee the         round-table discussion with Prof. Hanko and Rev.
consistory of Holland Church, Michigan, has              Engelsma regarding their visit.
authorized Rev. R. Miersma to organize a Protes-           Rev. Van Overloop  has completed some changes
tant Reformed Fellowship of Wellington, New              in the fifteen-minute radio broadcast on clear chan-
Zealand, on the basis of the Three Forms of Unity,       nel station, WCFL,  lOOO-AM,  11:45 AM each Sun-
into an indigenous congregation. The organization        day.  "Among other things we are giving our tele-
took place March 17.                                     phone number and address, along with the time
   A result of the work of Prof. Hanko and Rev.          and place of our worship services. Also we make a
Engelsma in the United Kingdom last fall is that the     point of mentioning a pamphlet in connection with
Bible Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland has        the subject treated in the broadcast. We have heard
requested a sister-church relationship with the Prot-    some good news from as far away as Delavan,
estant Reformed Churches. Our  synodical Com-            Wisconsin."
mittee of Contact has approved the request and is          The Sunday School Teachers' Mass Meeting will
recommending that Synod, 1985 establish such a           be held April 18, at 8:00 PM in Hope Church; The
relationship. The Bible Presbyterian Church of           topic will be a workshop on the  motivation.`of
Northern Ireland is sending the Rev. George Hut-         children in the Sunday School.
ton to the States this June to be present at Synod         Rev. Joostens spoke to the Eastern League of
when the request is treated.                             Men's and Ladies' Societies on Tuesday, April 9, in
  The Committee of Contact received a letter of ap-      Southeast Church on the topic, "World Hunger and
preciation from Measbro' Dyke Evangelical Church         Our Responsibility as Church and Individuals."
of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England (Rev. Philip
Rawson,  Pastor) containing these statements:  ". . .      Doon  Church's Young People's society gave a
At the beginning of November we were privileged          gift of $500.63 to their church to purchase new
to welcome into our Church, Rev. & Mrs. Engelsma         Psdters  and Bibles. The  Adult.Bible  Society gave a
and Prof.  & Mrs. Hanko . . . . These were days of       gift of $170 for a new pamphlet rack. Doon's  Con-
great encouragement and refreshment from on high         sistory scheduled a special congregational meeting
to our souls. Rev. Engelsma and Prof. Hanko              March 27 to consider proposals to purchase four
brought the pure word of God to us in a powerful         new pews, to accept the plans for a new parsonage,
and profitable manner. Our hearts rejoiced in the        and to gain permission for a drive to raise funds for
love of God our Saviour, Whose Name and glory            downpayment on the parsonage.
was so evident in the preaching and conversation of        South Holland Church in Illinois had an interest-
our brethren. This visit under God was a means of        ing announcement in their bulletin: "Parents, or
strengthening existing friendships and creating          others, who have Baptism Certificates from our
new ones. The communion of the saints was a              Church that were not stamped with the official
blessed reality . . .  ."                                Church seal can have them sealed by the Pastor.
  The `Activities Committee of Kalamazoo Church          The State now requires this, for the Certificates to
in Michigan has developed an "International Day"         be used in acquiring legal documents, e.g., a Social
for their annual spring conference, April 19, at         Security card and number."
Kalamazoo Church. Rev.  Rawson will be speaking            The new clerk in Loveland Church is Frank Van
twice. In the morning, he will speak on his personal     Baren, 5530 Janna Dr., Loveland, CO 80537. The
experience in regards to his coming to the Re-           new clerk in Hudsonville Church is Pete Hoekstra,
formed faith. In the evening, he will speak on "The      1278 Greenly, Hudsonville, MI 49426.


     THE STANDARD BEARER
             P.0.  B o x   6 0 6 4
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





                                                                                                        --
336                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                   `--


                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
     On April 29, 1985, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.                   On April 19, 1985, our parents, MR. AND MRS. KENNETH  LANN-
ERNEST MEDEMA, will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.                      ING will celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.

     We, their children, thank our Heavenly Father for blessing us with               We, their children and grandchildren thank our Heavenly Father
God-fearing parents who have and continue to guide and instruct us                 who gave them to us. We are grateful for the years of love and in-
in His ways. Our prayer is that God will bless them and keep them in               struction they have given to us. It is our prayer that God will continue
His care.                                                                          to be near them and bless them in the years ahead.

     "For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth  en-              "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
dureth to all generations.`: (Psalm  100:5)                                        them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children."
                                                                                   (Psalm  103:17)
Thomas Grant                  Matthew Wayne
Peter Randall                 Kimberly Joy                                         Judy Lanning                             Gary and Pat Lanning
Nancy Jo                      J. Scott                                             Les and Mary  Barnhill                      Andy, Nathan,  Kerri
Ralph Ernest                                            South Holland, Illinois       Lisa, Danny, Melinda, Tommy


                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     With thankfulness to God, our parents and grandparents, MR.                      The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed
AND MRS. ROBERT NOORMAN, will celebrate their 30th wedding                         Church of Walker, Michigan, extends its Christian sympathy to Mr.
anniversary, the Lord willing, on April 21, 1985. We are grateful to               and Mrs. David Hop in the loss of her father, MR. JOHN FLIKKEMA,
the Lord for the years they have shared and for the abundant love and              SR. who passed away on March 18, 1985.
covenant instruction they have given us. We pray that they will con-                  "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."
tinue to experience the blessings of our faithful God in the years to              (Psalm 1  16:15)
come.
                                                                                   Prof. H. Hanko, Pres.
     "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is           Carole Reitsma, Sec'y.
unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and
shall declare thy mighty acts." (Psalm  145:3, 4)                                                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Rick and Sue Noorman                          Jim and Faith Noorman
     Michael, Joel, Denise                                                            The South Holland Ladies Society expresses its sympathy to
                                              Keith Noorman
Gary and Joyce Noorman                                                             fellow-members Mrs. Cobie Lenting, Joyce Lenting and Trude  Len-
     Lisa and Chad                                                                 ting in the sudden death of their son and brother-in-law. On March
                                                                                   25, 1985 the Lord called HENRY J.  LENTING  to his eternal home at
                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                          the age of 44 years.
     The Ladies Aid Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church of                We especially remember his bereaved wife,  Johanna,  and young
                                                                                   sons David and Daniel. We commend them to our Father's care, that
Grand Rapids, Michigan expresses its sympathy to one of our                        He will comfort and sustain them with His mercy as He has promised.
members, Mrs. Catherine Flikkema, in the death of her husband, MR.                 May they ever be mindful that "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the
JOHN FLIKKEMA.                                                                     day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him." (Nahum  1:7)
     "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."               Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.
(Psalm 116: 15)                                                                    Kathy Vander Meulen, Sec'y.
Mrs. G. De Vries, Pres.
Mrs. C. Pastoor, Sec'y.                                                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                                      The Lord willing, on April 25, 1985, our beloved parents, MR.
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                           AND MRS. JACOB KUIPER, SR., will commemorate their 50th wed-
                                                                                   ding anniversary. It is with much thankfulness and gratitude to our
     On April 10, 1985, our beloved parents, grandparents and  great-              heavenly Father that we, as their children and grandchildren, come
grandparents, MR. AND MRS.  GERRIT LUBBERS celebrated their                        before Him, for with His guiding hand to help them, we have been
55th wedding anniversary.                                                          taught the truths of the Scripture.
     We are thankful to our Heavenly Father for these many years they                 It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to bless them and
have had together and for blessing us with God-fearing parents who                 whatever the future holds we may truly say  - the Lord has been
guided us in His ways. It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to             good to us.
bless them and keep them in His care during their remaining years.
                                                                                      "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
     "So we Thy people and sheep of Thy pasture will give Thee thanks              them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children, to
forever; we will shew forth Thy praise to all generations. (Psalm                  such as keep his commandments to do them." (Psalm  103:17, 18)
79:13)
                                                                                   Henry Kuiper                      Art and Mary Bleyenberg
Bernie and Ruth Lubbers                   Ted and Gloria Miedema                   Isaac and Jane Kuiper             John and Marie Hoekstra
Jay and Donna Lubbers                     Dave and Marcia Doezema                  Jacob and Nancy Kuiper            Rich and Betty Peterson
Paul and Carolyn  Schipper                    26 grandchildren                     Gerald and Bonnie Kuiper          Robert and Laurie Kuiper
Glenn Lubbers                                 32 great-grandchildren               Robert and Etta Van Dyke          Ron and Linda Corson
I                                                                                  Clarence and Jan Kuiper                50 grandchildren
                                                                                   Al and Sharon Brummel                  6 great-grandchildren
     Read the Standard Bearer today!                                                 An open house will be held in their honor on Saturday, April 27,
                                                                                   from 2 to 4 P.M. in the Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,
                                                                                   Michigan.


