,q `7% ,,;.gr,. "$
.j.               . .  .r:
          !  ,i;  `,;I  ' 7             The
:a         $  $3,         :1
        [lo
 ~~~,~~  :o &yf 1
      . .  a:.
         i "`.L,e&: .
E





A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                                             Rev. and Mrs. Herman Veldmian

                                                                                 See "In Memoriam" - p. 250
                                 ,r.
`vo;;  73,  ~o*y----=-~-  ...    .  .'  :-v.  --;`;,  ;.  .,  ,-  Ii  :  _  :  :  _J  :`.  .:.  :  -'  :-    I

March  I,  1997


      CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                                                March  1,  1997
 I                                                                                                                :                                                                                                              I

      Meditation - Herman Hoeksema
                      The Mutual Delight of Sinners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
      Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                            ISSN 0362-4692
                      A Candid Confession of the Character.                                                                                                                                                                           Semi-monthly,  except monthly during  June, July,  and August.
                                of a Conditional Covenant (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245                                                                 Published by the Reformed Free Publishing  Association,  Inc.,
                      Yet Another Candid Confession about the Covenant . . . . . . ...! . . . . . 248                                                                                                                                 4949  Ivanrest  Ave., Gbandville, Ml 49416. Periodical Postage
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Paid  at  Grandville, Michigan.
      Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      249
      News From Seminary Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249                                                   Postmaster:  Send ahdress changes to the  Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      P.O.  Box  603,  Grandville,  MI  49468-0603.
      In Memoriam  - Rev.  Cornelius Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                            EDITORIAL  COMMIJTEE
                      In Commemoration of What God Wrought                                                                                                                                                                            Editor:  Prof.  David  J.  Engelsma
                                Through Rev. Herman Veldman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250                                                                           Secretary:  Prof.  Robert  D.  Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Managing  Editor:  Mr.,  Don  Doezema
      All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252                                                                                       DEPARTMENT EDITORS
      Ministering to the Saints - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                                                                                                                                              Rev.  W.  Bruinsma,  Rev.  A.  Brummel,  Rev.  R.  Cammenga,
                      Called to Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254                      Prof.  R.  Decker,  Rev!  A.  denHartcg.  Rev.  M.  Dick,  Prof.  H.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Hanko,  Rev.  R.  Hank?,  Rev.  S.  Key,  Rev.  K.  Koole,  Rev.  J.
      When Thou Sittest  in Thine House - Mrs. MeryBeth  Lubbers                                                                                                                                                                      Kortering,  Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting,   Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                      The Reformed Family: Two Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..-.....................  256                                                                                                              Rev. T. Miersma,  Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren,  Rev. R.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      VanOverlcop,   Mr.  B.  wigger,   Rev.  B.  Woudenberg.
      Go Ye Into All the World - Cheah Fook Meng
                      Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore (ERCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 258                                                                                                                                   E D I T O R I A L   OFFICE         CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer                Mr.  Ben Wigger
      Report of Classis East - Mr. Jon J. /-hi&en . . . . . . ...! . . . . . . ~ .,......................  261                                                                                                                        4949  Ivanrest                     6597  40th  Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Grandville,  Ml  49418             Hudsonville,  Ml  49426
      News From Our Churches - Mr. Beniamin Wiwer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262
                                                                                                                                                        -1                                                                            BUSINESS OFFICE                    NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer                The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Don  Doezema                       c/o  8. VanHerk
        hj
                         ml%
                                             Lli%xu~
                                                                      000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      P.O.  Box 603                      66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Grandville,  Ml                    Wainuiomata,   New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         49468-0603
                      Cheah  Fook Meng, recent graduate of the Protestant Reformed Semi-                                                                                                                                              PH:  (616)  531-1490               UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
      nary and member of the First Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore,                                                                                                                                                                   (616) 538-1778            c/o  Mr. Jonathan  McAuley
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      FAX:  (616)  531-3033              164 Church Rd., Glenwhery
      informs us of the open doors that God is giving the Evangelical Re-                                                                                                                                                                                                Ballvmena.  Co. Antrim  BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Norihern lr&md
      formed Churches of Singapore  (ERCS) in foreign missions. He mentions                                                                                                                                                           EDITORIAL POLICY
      Malaysia, India, Myanmar, and China. Singapore itself, "strategic is-                                                                                                                                                           Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      articles. Contribution4 of general interest from our readers and
      land country," is a field white unto harvest: "Thousands and millions                                                                                                                                                           questions   for  The  Reader  Asks  department   are  welcome.
      of people cross our path."                                                                                                                                                                                                      Contributions   will be limited to approximately  300 wordsand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      must  be  neatly  writ&  or  typewritten,   and  must  be  signed.
                      The Protestant Reformed Churches  (PRC) are privileged to be in-                                                                                                                                                Copy  deadlines  are  the  first  and  fifteenth  of  the  month.  All
      volved in the work by minister-on-loan Rev. Jay Kortering. Is there                                                                                                                                                             communications  relative to the contents should  be sent to the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      editorial  office.
      more that we can do to help our sister churches in their great work in                                                                                                                                                          R E P R I N T P O L I C Y   '
      that part of the world? Read, discuss, and pray about  Eook  Mengrs                                                                                                                                                             Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
      report, "Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore  (ERCS)."                                                                                                                                                                   magazinebyotherpublicationb,provided:  a)thatsuchreprtnted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
         , . Benjamin Wigger's "News from Our Churches" column shows that                                                                                                                                                             is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
. the Byron Center, MI and Loveland, CO churches have already responded                                                                                                                                                               appears is sent t9 our editorial office.
      to a need in Singapore that is also mentioned in the report of Cheah                                                                                                                                                            SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
      Fook Meng.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Subscription  price:  $17.00   per  year  in  the  U.S.,   US520.00
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      elsewhere.  Unless  e  definite  request  for  discontinuance   is
                      Although the "Constitution of the Committee for Contact with Other                                                                                                                                              received,   it  is  assumed   that   the  subscriber   wishes   the
      Churches" does not mention it, surely cooperation in missions is an                                                                                                                                                             subscription  to contintie. and he will be billed  for renewal. If you
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      have a change of address, please notify the Business Office as
      important aspect of living sister-church relations.                                                                                                                                                                             early  as  possible  in  `order  to  avoid  the  inconvenience   of
                      May we hear more in the  Standard  Bearer  from our sister churches                                                                                                                                             interrupted  delivery.  Include   your  Zip  or  Postal  Code.
      in Singapore about their work of missions, and how the PRC might help.                                                                                                                                                          ADVERTISING  POLIFY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The StandardSeareriloes not accept commercial  advertising
                      At our request, Rev. Cornelius Hanko remembers the ministry of his                                                                                                                                              of  any  kind.   Announcements   of  church  and  school  eve&,
      younger colleague, Herman Veldman, who died in January at 88. See                                                                                                                                                               anniversaries,   obituaqes,  and  sympathy   resolutions   will  be.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      placed for a                fee. These should  be sent to the Business
      "In Commemoration of What God Wrought Through Rev. Herman                                                                                                                                                                                        510.00
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Officeandshouldbeaccompaniedbythe$iO.OOfee.                     Deadline
      Veldman."                                                                                                                                                                                                                       for announcements  is: at least one month prior to publication
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      date.
                      In addition to his other duties as a minister, Rev. Veldman wrote for
      the  Stamlard  Bearer  for many years. The staff of the SB express our                                                                                                                                                          B O U N D   V O L U M E S   .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The  Business  Office  Iwill  accept  standing  orders  for  bound
      sympathy to the widow, the children, the grandchildren, and the other                                                                                                                                                           copies of the currentvplume.  Such  orders are filled as soon as
      family.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         possible after complefion of a volume year.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             - DJE    16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      article  copies  are  &ailable   through  University   Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      International.

      242/Sliuuiard Bearer/March  I,1997


         The Mutual `Delight of Sinlners

            ho
W knowing the judgment Suppose that sometime later these these things, ,the things, namely,
            of  God, that they which          same men, now sober, at another           which he has, enumerated in the
            commit such things  aye           party are still enjoying that night.      preceding verses, but also have a
worthy  of death, not only do the same,       They talk about the party they had,       pleasure in them who do them, he
but have pleasure in them that  dq            laugh about the things that took          characterizes  ltheir  wickedness as
them.                                         place at that party, and still rejoice    being the depth of degradation.
                          Romans  1532        in the drunken revelry of that                That the text is very real, we
                                              party, even though it was the cause       can know from everyday life. The
Introduction                                  of the awful death of many.               sinner seeks  the sinner. Sinners
    According to the general im-                  You say, that would be the            delight in one another's corrup-
pression and opinion, the fire of             depth, of degradation. Yet this is        tion. This is evident not only from
the hotel in Lansing a few days               the picture that the text gives of        the text and in Paul's day. It is
ago was an awful tragedy." Un-                natural man. It is just exactly this      equally true in our modern world.
doubtedly it was. We can only                 that characterizes the natural man        All along the line you will find the
imagine a little of the horror of             according to my text.                     reality of  thel text. You can start
men and women trapped in a fi-                    From this point of view, verse        in the underworld. They not only
ery furnace, to be burned alive, or           32 is the climax of Romans 1. Paul        have their robberies, their holdups,
to find death in the icy waters of            does not hesitate to describe men         and their killings, but they also
the Grand River. We cannot imag-              who have been given over by the           have their parties at which they
ine the horror of it. We can also             wrath of God to a reprobate mind          tell about their robberies and the
perhaps understand that the hor-              as rejoicing to see men on their          crimes they have committed, laugh
ror changed to righteous indigna-             way to hell. This is the text. They       about them,  ,and rejoice in their
tion when it was told the next day            know; the text says, that they who        wicked deeds. Anyone who does
that the fire was probably caused             do such things are worthy of              not rejoice with them has no place
by the rowdiness of a drunken                 death. They know that this is the         among them. This is true all along
party.                                        righteous judgment of God. They           the line. Men come to the shop on
     Let us try to carry that awful           know,  ,therefore, that they who do       Monday morning and tell all about
picture just a little further. Sup-           such things are on their way to           how they spent Sunday. They tell
pose that that fire was actually due          hell. Although they know that             how they spent the pay they had
to the rowdiness of drunken men.              they who do such things are on            received on Saturday in drunken
Suppose that the majority of these            their way to hell, they not only do       revelry and  Girt and laugh about
drunken men had escaped the fire.             these things, but they also delight       the things they have committed.
                                              in them who do them. Our text,            They delight ,in each other's dirt.
                                              therefore, pictures to us the mu-             It is evident in the business
                                              tual delight of sinners.                  world.     Businessmen come to-
Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-                                                      gether and tell about how they
tor  of the  Standard Bearer.                 A Wicked Delight                          cheated and about the crooked
*"' Preaching this sermon in the late             This mutual delight of sinners        deals they pulled off, and they re-
193Os,  Hoeksema  Yefers  to a fire in        is, first of all, a wicked delight.       joice in it.
La&q, MI that captured the atten-             The apostle expresses this espe-              We find  t;hese two things: men
tion  bif  .the  public. It is worthy  of     cially in the last part of the text.      do such things, and they also have
note that Hoeksema would press such           You understand that when the              pleasure in them who do them.
an  evefit into the service  of  the Word.    apostle says that they not only do        When they come together, they
i Ed:'

                                                                                               March  1,1997/Standard   Bearer/  243


agree together and laugh about                       sinner hates the righteous, and he        But this would not make sense.
each other's corruption.                             will in principle kill him every          Besides, when Scripture speaks of
    What does this mean? Why is                      time. Why does the sinner hate            death without further designation
that delight which men have in                       the righteous? Because the righ-          it always means the final state of
each other's sin a worse sign of                     teous man, in his testimony and           death; it means eternal desolation.
men's corruption than the deed it-                   work, is a manifestation of the           Death is hell. Therefore, we may
self?                                                truth. That manifestation of the          say that men who are on that slip-
        The answer is evident. Sin                   truth, as it is in the righteous, con-    pery road know that the end is
may be committed because one                         demns that sinner. He hates that          h e l l .
looks for the fruit of that sin. Sin                 righteous man because the sinner              How do' they know this? In
looks good to him, not because of                    wants. to hold the truth under in         the first place, because God has re-
the sin itself but because of what                   unrighteousness, in order to sin          vealed it from the beginning. That
it brings him. A man may tell a                      peacefully. The sinner wants to           death is the wages of sin, God has
lie because it seems to him that in                  have company. He tries to kill the        revealed from paradise. This rev-
telling that lie he will be benefited.               testimony of the righteous. This          elation  wasi not entirely lost, so
A man may be a drunkard, not be-                     is natural man. Sinners have plea-        that men outside of the church do
cause of that sin as such but be-                    sure in one another's sin, although       not know that the wages of sin are
cause he enjoys himself in the car-                  they know that they who do such           death. This revelation was pre-
nal lust of drunkenness.                             things are worthy of death.               served.    It has been declared
        But the apostle says that this                       Let me use an illustration.       throughout history that the wages
is not all. Even if they do not do                   There is a steep, slippery road that      of sin are death. I know, men hold
these things themselves, they have                   ends in a precipice. Men are slid-        this truth  ynder  in unrighteous-
a delight in them who do them.                       ing down that slippery road. The          ness. But in his deepest heart he
Even if there is no personal gain                    text means to say that, although          knows that  the wages of sin are
in it, they have a delight in these                  they know that they are sliding           death.
things. They delight in such cor-                    down, they want to enjoy their                In the second place, this is
ruption. They will even try to                       slide. Although they know that at         what general revelation clearly re-
make you commit these things.                        the end is the precipice, they want       veals. The `apostle shows in this
The drunkard likes to see you                        others to enjoy that slide with           chapter how that by the power of
drunk. He will try to make you                       them, and they take them along.           the wrath of! God man is drawn to
drunk.        M e n   d e l i g h t   i n   o n e                                              everlasting desolation. This is sim-
another's corruption and sin.                        A Cruel Delight                           ply the direction of sin. Every-
    W h a t   d o e s   t h i s   m e a n ?   I t            This is why the text calls our    body can see that the direction of
means, in the first place, that the                  attention, in the second place, to a      natural debauchery is physical
sinner loves sin for sin's sake. He                  cruel delight. We must notice that        death. When a man lives a life of
has pleasure in corruption. He has                   this is an everyday delight. The          spiritual debauchery, the result is
pleasure in sin even if there is no                  wicked take each other along to           more spiritual debauchery, and
personal gain  in. it. It is only in                 hell. This is true of the father with     this is death:
this light that we can understand                    regard to his son, whom he does'              Finally, there is the testimony
the rest of the text. The sinner                     not want to walk in the way of            of the Spirit of God in the heart
loves sin; he has pleasure in cor-                   righteousness. This is true of the        establishing, this connection. The
ruption. This is a very wicked de-                   mother with regard to her daugh-          testimony of the Spirit in the heart
light.                                               ter.      This is true of the whole       of the wicked establishes this tes-
    In the second place, it means                    world. Knowing the judgment of            timony: the end of sin is death.
that the sinner who commits sin                      God that they which commit such           Knowing that they who do such
wants the darkness to prevail in                     things are worthy of death, they          things are worthy of death, they
general. If you ask, "Why does                       not only do the same, but also have       not only do' them but have a de-
the sinner delight in them who                       pleasure in them who do them.             light in them who do them. The
commit sin?" the answer is that the                          Notice that the apostle says      tender mercies of the wicked are
sinner's great desire is that sin                    that they know that that way of           cruel. They not only like to. slide
abound everywhere and in every-                      sin ends in death. The question           down themselves, but they want
one.                                                 has been asked, what death does           to take others along. They rejoice
    Let us ask the opposite ques-                    the apostle mean? Does he mean            when others go along with them
tion: "Why does the sinner hate                      physical death? Then the apostle          to hell. This is my text. This is
the righteous?" The sinner hates                     would mean to say: they know              awful. This is the movement of
the righteous. This is why they                      that they which commit this cor-          sin in the heart of all of us. This
hated and finally killed Jesus. The                  ruption will die the physical death.      is why sin is so terrible. We may

244/Standard   Bearer/March 1, 1997


try to cover up that sin as soon as           they know that God is. All men                     hell and damnation. It is  alright
it touches us personally. But we              know that. Atheism is a philoso-                   to tell men about it; but if the pur-
are by nature so corrupt that we              phy. All men know that God is.                     pose is to turn man from the way
not only commit these sins, but we            All know that God is eternal in                    of sin, it is at the outset doomed
also delight in them who do them.             power and Godhead. All men                         to fail. Knowing that they who
                                              know that this God must be glori-                  commit sin are worthy of death,
An Inexcusable Delight                        fied and thanked. This is the in-                  they not only do the same, but
          This is inexcusable. For the        evitable "Thou shalt" written in                   have a delight in them that do
apostle does not say merely that              the heart of man. Knowing this                     them.
they do these things and that they            truth of God, not wanting this                         What shall we do? There is
know that the end is death. No,               God, and refusing to glorify and                   only one answer.             The apostle
the apostle says two things. They             to thank Him, man knows that he                    gives that in `verses 16, 17: "I am
know that it is the judgment of               runs into eternal destruction.                     not ashamed of the gospel of
God. They know that they are                      What shall we do? What shall                   Christ." This gospel preaches the
worthy of it. They know that that             we do, if this is the condition of                 righteousness of God which is by
judgment is righteous. "Knowing               the sinner? What shall we do, if                   faith in Christ Jesus. This gospel
the judgment of God, that they                man would rather go to hell than                   is the vehicle of the righteousness
which commit such things are wor-             abandon sin? What shall we do?                     that descends from heaven. This
thy of death....? Therefore, they             Shall we scare him into abandon-                   righteousness can be had in the
are without excuse. They cannot               ing his way? Shall we preach hell                  only possible way in which righ-
say, and they do not say: this  is            and damnation to him? That will                    teousness can be had, namely, by
our lot; we cannot help  it.' No,             not help. The world tries that.                    faith.
what they say in their own con-               When corruption gets a little too                      Therefore the apostle calls this
sciousness is this: God judges me             bad, they say we must tell men                     gospel "the power of God."
to be worthy of hell, and this judg-          what will be the consequence of                        The end of it is: "the righteous
ment is correct.                              certain sins. But the text says that               shall live by faith." He puts away
          How does he know it? How            men have a delight in the sins of                  all his own righteousness, all that
does man know the righteous                   others.     T h e s e   m e a s u r e s   a r e    is of self. He puts all his trust in
judgment of God? God has re-                  doomed to fail.                                    the righteousness of God, which
vealed it. They know it, because                  Sometimes they say it in the                   is by faith in Christ Jesus. Cl
                                              church.    They say, let us preach





                 A Candid Confession of the Character of
                                    a Conclitional Covenant
                                                               (5)

     I                                        out exception. Of course, the rea-                 tional covenant and the teaching
          n defense of the doctrine of a      son why the Lord would desire to                   that God loves and desires to save
          conditional covenant with all       save all must be that He loves all                 every human without exception. If
I         the physical children of believ-    in Jesus Christ the Savior.                        God loves arid desires to save ev-
ers, Rev. Cecil Tuininga also ap-                 The  agpeal to this text by the                ery physical child of believers,
peals to II Peter  3:9. Although he           defender of a conditional covenant                 there can be no objection to the
.offers  no explanation of the text,          is significant. There is, as the Prot-             teaching that God loves and de-
it is plain that he understands the           estant Reformed Churches have al-                  sires to save every human with-
`text to teach that the Lord desires          ways insisted, a close relationship                out exception. If the love of God
the salvation of every human with-            between the doctrine of a condi-                   for our children depends for its

                                                                                                           March  1:  1997/Standard  Bearer/245


     saving effect upon their perfor-               John Calvin is unclear, if not        assumes. It does not say this. It
     mance of the condition of faith,           somewhat mistaken, in his com-            does not  itipZy  this.  For  a   R e -
     why should not the love of God             mentary on the, text, exactly be-         formed man to read a universal
     for every human also depend upon           cause he overlooks the qualifying         love of God  and. a desire of God
     his faith as the condition of salva-       phrase, "longsuffering to  us-            to save all men into this article is
     tion?                                      ward." But his explanation of the         preposterous. Have not the Can-
             In connection with his appeal      text in his "A  Defence  of the Se-       ons, in the jfirst head, taught as
     to II Peter  3:9, Rev. Tuininga ad-        cret Providence of God" is clear.         plainly as language can express it,
     vises me to read Calvin on the text.       An enemy of. divine sovereignty           that God loves and desires to save
     He also directs my attention to the        has appealed to II Peter  3:9 as          some only and that He hates and
     Canons, III,  IV/g, as though this         though the text teaches that God          wills the damnation- of the others?
     article, like II Peter  3:9, expresses     wills, or desires, something that         Have not the Canons, in the sec-
     a desire of God to save everyone           He does not bring to pass, namely,        ond head, taught as plainly as lan-
     without exception.                         that no one should perish. Replies        guage can express it, that by the
             If I should differ with Rev.       Calvin:                                   will of God Jesus Christ died only
     Tuininga's universalistic interpre-                                                  for those whom God wills to save
     tation of II Peter  3:9, I will be ex-       In as far as God "willeth that all      in the decree of election and that
     posing myself as a  "hyper-calvin-           should come unto repentance," in        Jesus Christ did not die for the oth-
     ist": "Hyper-Calvinists, in apply-           so far He willeth that no one           ers, the reprobate? Will not the
     ing logic to Scripture, come to  ex-         should perish; but, in order that       Canons,. in `what follows in the
     actly the opposite conclusion" (see          they may thus be received of God,       third and fourth heads, teach as
     the                                          they must "come." But the Scrip-
             Standard Bearer,  Jan. 1, 1997,      ture everywhere affirms, that in        plainly as language can express it,
     p. 150).                                     order that they may "come," they        that by means of the gospel the
                                                  must be prevented of God; that          Spirit of Christ effectually bestows
                    II Peter  3:9                 is, God must come first to them         the grace of faith only upon those
             II Peter  3:9 reads: "The Lord       to draw them; for until they are        whom God elected and for whom
     is not slack concerning his prom-            drawn of God, they will remain          Christ  diedi  and that the Spirit
     ise, as some men count slackness;            where they are, given  uj? to the       withholds this grace from the oth-
     but is longsuffering to us-ward,             obstinacy of the flesh. Now if          ers?
     not willing that any should per-             there were one single particle of           Are we- then to suppose that,
     ish, but that all should come to re-         right judgment in you (the man
                                                  who appeals to II Pet.  3:9 as          violently contradicting and over-
     pentance."                                   though it teaches that God wills        turning everything that they are
             Who they are about whom              to save persons whom He fails to        concerned  (0 teach, the Canons
~    God is not willing that any of them                                                                   .
                                                  save  - DJE), you would, in a mo-       suddenly affirm universal saving
     should perish and whom God wills            ment, acknowledge that there is a        love and a will of God to save the
     to come to repentance, the words,           wide and wonderful difference            reprobate for whom Christ did not
     "longsuffering to us-ward," make            between these two things  - that         die, in an article that does  not so
     clear. The Lord is not willing that         the hearts of men are made of            much as  me&ion  divine love or de-
     any of us should perish, but that           God "fleshly" out of "stony""            sire to save?
     all of us should come to repen-             hearts, and that it is thus that they
                                                 are made to be displeased and                The subject of Canons, III, IV/
     tance. His will of salvation is an          dissatisfied with themselves, and        8 is not Go'd's love and will to
     aspect of His longsuffering love,           are'brought, as suppliants, to beg       save. The subject is the call of the
     and His longsuffering love is di-           of God mercy and pardon; and             gospel,  partjicularly  the external
     rected to "us." These are the "be-          that after they are thus changed,        aspect of the call of the gospel.
     loved" of verse 1, all those, but           they are received into all grace.        The subject is the "command to re-
     those only, whom God elected in             Now God declares that both these         pent and believe" (Canons,  II/5)
     eternity (II Pet.  1:lO).                   things are of His pure goodness          that God gives to every man,
             In the longsuffering of the         and mercy; that He gives us hearts       woman,  and' child without distinc-
     Lord, not one whom He wills not             that we may repent, and then par-
                                                 dons us graciously upon our re-          tion who hear the gospel. This call
     to perish will `perish. Every per-          pentance and supplication (in            is  "unfeigneh," or "serious." The
     son whom He wills to come to re-            Calvin's Calvinism,  RFPA,  p.           explanation is not that God on His
     pentance will come to repentance,           276).                                    part loves all and desires to save
     and he will come to repentance be-                                                   all - the Canons have denied +his,
     cause the Lord will bring him to                      Canons, III, IV/8              judging this  i doctrine as heretical!
     repentance. "The longsuffering of             Nor does Canons, III, IV/8             - but rather that God sets before
     our Lord is salvation"  (v.  15), not      teach that God desires the salva-         everyone his solemn duty and in
     merely the possibility of salvation.       tion of all men, as Rev. Tuininga         dead earnest requires him to do

     246/Standard   Bearer/March  1,1997


his duty, namely, repent and be-           and to receive of Him eternal life        Already there are some who have
lieve. That the sinner lacks all abil-     and rest.                                 died impenitent and lost. Jesus,
ity to obey the command and that               Neither Canons, III,  IV/S nor        therefore, will never return! Al-
God has decreed that certain sin-          I I   P e t e r   3:9 teaches that God    ways there will be people born
ners will not repent and believe in        "desire(s) the salvation of all men,"     who are not repentant.              Jesus,
no wise detract from the utter se-         as the defender of a conditional          therefore, will never return! The
riousness of the call.                     covenant supposes.                        universalistic interpretation of II
    When the Canons go on to say                                                     Peter  3:9 destroys the comfort of
that it is pleasing to God that those        Will Jesus Then Never Come?             the second coming that the apostle
who are called should come to                  Has Rev. Tuininga (and, to be         intends to give to the waiting
Him, the meaning is not that God           fair, the multitude of other pro-         church and  Elays into the hands
on His part desires that all those         fessing Calvinists who interpret          of the scoffers of verse 4 who say,
summoned by the external call of           the text as he does) ever consid-         "all things continue as they were
the gospel should come and be              ered the implications of his expla-       from the  ibeginning  of the cre-
saved. The Canons have denied              nation of II Peter  3:9?                  ation."
this very thing in their doctrine of           1) The will of the Lord that
predestination in the first head.          no human perish, but that all with-                  Hyper-Calvinism!
But the meaning is that the good           out exception be saved, is frus-              Rev. Tuininga will dismiss my
activity of coming to Christ in faith      trated and defeated. For many             interpretation of II Peter  3:9 as the
pleases God, whereas the wicked            perish. To all eternity He will be        logic of hyper-Calvinism. Indeed,
refusal to repent and believe in           a sad and disappointed God.               he has done so in advance ("hyper-
Christ displeases Him. Even                    2) The Lord God is hopelessly         Calvinists, in applying logic to
though the unregenerated sinner in         at odds with Himself; He lives in         Scripture . ..">.
the audience cannot believe and            a state of confusion. On the one              He should be more careful.
even though God Himself has de-            hand, He wills that only some  -              The interpretation that I have
termined in the decree of reproba-         the elect  - be saved; on the other       given was also that of Abraham
tion that a particular sinner in the       hand, He wills that all be saved.         Kuyper .     The great Dutch Re-
audience  will  not believe, and even      On the one hand, He  wil%s that no        formed theologian gave this inter-
though the Holy Spirit deliberately        one perish; on the other hand, He         pretation in his book,  Dat de
declines to give this unregenerate,        designs that Christ not die for all,      Genade  Part+dier  is  (Amsterdam:
reprobate sinner faith, this man's         without which atonement they              J.H. Kruyt, 1884; the English trans-
refusal to believe in Jesus Christ is      must perish. On the one hand, He          lation would be,  That Grace is
displeasing to God  -.  terribly  dis-     wills that all come to repentance;        Particular).  Kuyper noted that the
pleasing  -  so. that God will pun-        on the other hand, He withholds           advocates of  ,universal  grace in ev-
ish him more severely on account           from many the "evangelical grace"         ery age have three favorite texts:
of his refusal to come to Christ.          of repentance which they can only         I John  2:2; I Timothy  2:4; and II
    The concluding line of the ar-         have if He gives it. What can one         Peter  3:9. But these "three main
ticle, that God in the preaching           make of a confused and confusing          texts with which men commonly
"promises eternal life . . . to as many    god like this? What can a  self-          like to scare: the confessor of par-
as shall come to him, and believe          contradictory god like this make          ticular grace, . . . prove nothing (em-
on him," does not teach a general,         of himself?                               phasis, Kuyper's  - DJE) for uni-
conditional promise to all who                 3) Jesus Christ will never re-        versal grace." Kuyper gave this
hear the preaching, in manifesta-          turn. On the explanation of II Pe-        interpretation of II Peter  3:9:
tion of a general love of God for          ter  3:9 of Rev. Tuininga (and, to
all hearers. The promise is  "to as        be fair, that of a multitude of other       In II Peter  .3:9, nothing else can
many as shall come . . . and believe."     professing Calvinists), Jesus will          be meant than this: Jesus cannot
It is not to those who refuse to           never come again. For Peter is ex-          come  befor,e the -number of the
come. Since only the elect come,           plaining to us why the promise of           elect is  full, and, inasmuch now
because God  `draws them (John             Christ's coming is not yet fulfilled,       as many  elkct have not yet been
                                                                                       converted, He delays His coming,
6:44), the promise is to the elect         why apparently it is delayed  (v.           in His longsuffering, not willing
only. But the proclamation of this         4). The explanation is that God is          that some would go lost through
promise encourages those in whose          not willing that any should per-            a prematuie return, but willing
hearts the Spirit works true sor-          ish, but that all should come to re-        that they  al! first be converted.
row. over sin and the knowledge            pentance and be saved. If now
of Jesus as the Savior from their          Jesus postpones His second com-               The explanation of the text that
Sin confidently to come to Him,            ing until every last human repents        holds that God desires to save all
expecting to be received by Him            and is saved, He will never come!         men, Kuyper called "the most  ab-

                                                                                            March  1,1997lStandard   Bearer/247


 surd reasoning imaginable and . . .     who love to appeal to II Peter  3:9,                      D a r e   t h e y   s a y   t h i s   a b o u t
 utterly senseless," inasmuch as it      n o w   c a l l   A b r a h a m   K u y p e r   a    Abraham Kuyper, from whose  in-
 implies that Jesus will never re-       hyper-Calvinist?                                     terpretation  !of II Peter 3:9 and doc-
 turn (pp. 56-69; the translation of             It is easy, and even popular in              trine of sovereign, particular,  sav-
 the Dutch is mine).                     Reformed circles, to call the  Prot-                 ing grace we do not differ?
     Will the advocates of univer-       estant Reformed Churches  hyper-                          Abraham Kuyper:  hyper-cal-
 sal grace, whether in the sphere of     Calvinists.                                          vinist?  n
 the covenant or in the wide world,                                                                                                    - DJE

               Yet Another Candid Confession
                                      about the C venant
 This one by Dr. Jelle Faber, children of believers.                                          for all the  ,children, the one as
        emeritus professor of theol-             Faber speaks of Schilder's                   "subjective grace," the other as a
        ogy in the Canadian Re-          "kinship" with Heyns in the doc-                     favorable attitude of God. Both
 formed Churches.                        trine of the covenant (p. 52). He                    teach that grace is resistible, the
     It appears in the recent book,      declares that "Hamilton" (Cana-                      one in that "subjective grace" can
 American Secession Theologians          dian  ,Reformed  seminary, teaching                  be lost, the other in that the favor-
 on Covenant and Baptism  & Ex-          the "Liberated," conditional doc-                    able attitude of God fails to save
 tra-scriptural Binding  - A New         trine of the covenant) stands in the                 many children. Both teach that the
 Danger  (Neerlandia, Alberta,           tradition, among others,. of Will-                   actual salvation of a child depends
 Canada: Inheritance, 1996). I in-       iam Heyns  (p. 53). Dr. Faber even                   upon the child, the one by basing
 tend to review the book in a forth-     criticizes Schilder for Schilder's                   salvation on: the child's good use
 coming issue of the  Standard           condemnation of Heyns (pp. 47-                       of "subjective grace," the other by
 Bearer.                                 52).                                                 making the; promise dependent
     The confession is that the doc-             Faber is correct. As Herman                  upon the child's performing the
 trine of the covenant held by the       Hoeksema always insisted, the                        condition of  ,faith.
 Reformed Churches in the Neth-          covenant doctrines of Heyns and                           Of both these views, the PRC
 erlands ("liberated") is essentially    the Christian Reformed Church                        judge that they are "Arminianism
 the same as the doctrine of the cov-    and of Schilder and the Reformed                     injected into the covenant."
 enant taught by Christian Re-           Churches in the Netherlands ("lib-                        Dr. Faber urges that those
 formed theologian William Heyns.        erated") are the same.                               churches  holiding  the doctrine of a
     This admission is of extraordi-             Heyns taught that all baptized               conditional covenant of universal
 nary importance to the Protestant       children receive "subjective grace,"                 grace unite;.          Referring to the
 Reformed Churches  (PRC).               that is, a gracious operation of the                 churches by `the name of the city
     In the controversy over the         Spirit of Christ  within themselves,                 where their seminary is located, he
 doctrine of the covenant that con-      in their hearts or souls, so that they               c a l l s   o n   t h e   F r e e   R e f o r m e d
 vulsed the PRC in the early  195Os,     are able to repent and believe, if                   Churches (Apeldoorn), the inde-
 the agreement of the "Liberated"        only they will use this "subjective                  pendent Christian Reformed
 doctrine with the doctrine of           grace," rightly  (American Secession                 Churches (Grand Rapids), and the
 Heyns was vehemently denied             Theologians,  pp. 38-41; also, H.                    Canadian Reformed Churches
 both by the PR ministers who were       Hoeksema,  Believers and Their                       (Kampen,  Hamilton) to manifest
 trying to introduce the "Liberated"     Seed,  pp. 13-33).                                   ecclesiastically their "confessional
 doctrine into the PRC and by lead-              The "Liberated" doctrine of a                unity."
_ ing "Liberated" theologian Klaas       conditional covenant is that God                          Again, he is right. One doc-
 Schilder.                               establishes His covenant with ev-                    trine of the covenant, of grace, and
     Now the Canadian Reformed           ery physical child of believers by                   of salvation certainly calls for one
 dogmatician, himself an ardent          promise, promising every child at                    church organization.
 champion of "Liberated" covenant        baptism Christ and salvation on                           And then, there is Grandville.
 theology, candidly acknowledges         the condition that the child will                                                                     0
 that there is fundamental agree-        one day believe.                                                                              - DJE
 ment between Schilder and Heyns                 These two doctrines are essen-
 on the covenant of God with the         tially the same. Both teach grace

 248/S&dard   Bearer/March  1,1997


Wholly Appropriate                       of Greek philosophy, where spirit     to say that it is this outlook which
                                         is seen as good, while matter is      is infinitely more damaging to our
   Permit me to express a word           perceived as per se evil. If Miss     young people?
of encouragement and apprecia-           Reitsma's eyes "danced with mis-           Surely, far from "having  .got-
tion where the contributions to the      chief," would it not have been        ten away from personal holiness,"
Standard Bearer  of Mrs.  MaryBeth       wholly within the framework of        it gladdens one's heart to read con-
Lubbers are concerned.                   our Creator, Redeemer, and  Sav-      tributions which invariably are
   When reading Matthew  5:28, it        iour God?                             written in accordance with the
is worth remembering the use of             Certainly, I found no offense      more thoroughly biblical concept
"desire" in Luke  22:15. Appar-          in Mrs. Lubbers' appreciation of      of holiness  lexpressed  in Mrs.
ently, not having grasped that the       Miss Reitsma. Is it possible that     MaryBeth  Lubbers' most helpful
word is used of the Lord seems to        the real departure from personal      a r t i c l e s .   Cl
lead some away from the  God-            holiness lies in an outlook which                               (Rev.) A. Strike
breathed Word and into the realm         may, possibly, smack of the  sanc-                                Gwent, U.K.
                                         timonious? Would it not be fair

                                             Trotestant ~efortnedSeminay
                                                 4949 Ivanrest Avenue
                                                 @andviCCe,  SW 49418

                                       News from Seminary  Hill
           The faculty have recently licensed two more seminarians to speak a word of edification in
       the churches: Nathan Brummel and Garry Eriks. Mr. Brummel is an unmarried third-year
       student originally from the Edgerton, MN PRC. Mr. Eriks is a married  secondLyear student
       originally from the South Holland, IL PRC. He and his wife Jennifer (Buys)  hake one child.
       The faculty are arranging an internship for Mr. Brummel later this year.
           The four seniors are back for the second semester after completing their internships. Daniel
       Kleyn was in South Holland, IL PRC; James Laning, in Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI;
       Darren Thole, in the Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church  (OPC) of Abilene, TX; and Mar-
       tin VanderWal, in the First PRC of Holland, MI. Seminarians Kleyn, Laning, and VanderWal
       will be examined before the synod of the PRC in June of this year with a view' to becoming
       candidates for the ministry in the PRC. Seminarian Thole will seek admission to the ministry
       in the OPC.
           Several men from outside the PRC will be entering seminary in the fall. Not even one man
       from the PRC will be enrolling for the  1997/1998 year. The PRC have only one student in each
       of the first three years of the four-year program.
           Through the overwhelming generosity of supporters both within and without the PRC, the
       debt remaining on the new addition to the seminary building is now under  $3,000. The total
       cost of the expansion and, remodeling of almost $500,000 was brought up within  a'few  years
       entirely by gifts, apart from assessments. We are moved by this evidence of strong support for
       our work, and encouraged. We see this support as an expression of zeal on behalf: of the gospel
       of salvation by God's glorious, sovereign grace alone.
           There have also been visible expressions of support of the seminary consisting of the dona-
       tions of original oil paintings. Some are lovely depictions of scenes in the Netherfands. One is
       a large, impressive portrait of Herman Hoeksema. The paintings add to the appearance of the
       new library. All are invited to stop by to see the addition and to view the paintings.
           May Christ the King answer the prayers of His people and bless our work by giving able,
       faithful pastors and teachers to the churches.
                                                                                          Cordially in Christ,
                                                                               fylgyp-l




                                                                                        March 1 , 3 997/Stidard Bearer/249


                    In Commemorg&ion  .of What God kkught
      :                        Through. Rev. Herman Veldmah
 I                                                                  `..j __, `1.. ,, ; . , .                              ..I ..-,_              ._, : 1
             ev.
I3 Herman Veldman was a birth. Many of the older worship-.t Rev. Veldman preached, well-
             son of. Jacob and Evelyn                    ers on Ashland Street had been in                    organized sermons  *with thorough
             Veldman. The latter was a                   America for decades and though                       doctrinal exposition. He was  .a
sister  .of. the late Rev. Herman                        they spoke intelligible, if somewhat                 staunch defender of the truth; es-
Hoeksema. Herman was born to                             accented, English on the job -and                    pecially making a strong defense
t h e m   o n   A p r i l   2 2 ,   1 9 0 8   o n        in the streets, most of them were                    of the truth; as maintained by our
Chicago's west side. He was next                         opposed to the use of that lan-                      PR, Churches. Already in Pella he
to  the. youngest in a family of                         guage in the church"  (p. 29). As                    did not hesitate to emphasize that
seven children, having five sisters                      in other Dutch communities, the                      truth in his sermons, sometimes
and one brother, the late Rev.                           people feared that the introduction                  even in rather strong language.
Richard Veldman. His father was                          of the American language in the                        This  ne%ly  organized congre-
co-owner of a blacksmith shop lo-                        services could only lead to a de-                    gation had some members who op-
cated on the corner of 14th and                          parture from Calvinism and an in-                    posed their minister because of
Raulina. His parents were mem-                           troduction of modernism. It was                      some of the statements which he
bers of the First Christian Re-                          only in the late 1940s and early                     made  from; the pulpit that. they
formed Church, where he was bap-                         1950s that the transition was com-                   considered far too strong.  ."For  ex-
tized and was a member until a                           plete.                                               ample, the Reverend had said in a
few years after the split of 1924,                            The professor also mentions                     sermon, "The Lord gives the un-
when they became charter mem-                            that the Veldman boys attended                       godly man  ,enough  rope that he
bers of the  Oaklawn  Protestant Re-                     the same school as he did and adds                   can hang himself." He was also
formed Church, which Herman at-                          that, "As we matured, we even de-                    charged with saying:  "`No: man
tended until 1929 when he entered                        bated common grace with the                          can come  toi  me, except the Father
our seminary.                                            Veldman boys, who, being neph-                       draw him.' : The reason why ev-
           For his elementary training,                  ews of Herman Hoeksema, re-                          eryone in this church does not
Herman attended the Ebenezer                             jected the concept"  (p. 38).                        come  to'fesus is because God does
Christian School located on 15th                              Herman had his high school                      not draw  him. That is gospel
S t r e e t ,   b e t w e e n   A s h l a n d   a n d    training in Engelwood. In 1929,                      preaching."  j In fact, these oppo-
Paulina. The late Prof. Henry Stob                       the year his brother Richard be-                     nents sent eight of these statements
recalls, in  Summing up Remem-                           came candidate for the ministry in                   to a Christian Reformed minister,
brances  (p.  21), that his family                       our churches, he entered our semi-                   who     wasi        criticizing      Rev.
`lived in the same Dutch commu-                          nary and studied under Rev.                          Hoeksema's: teachings in the CR
nity in which the Veldmans lived.                        H e r m a n   H o e k s e m a   a n d   P r o f .    paper called De  Wachteu.   This
He writes: "The worship services                         George Ophoff for three years.                       minister published these state-
were held in the Dutch language.                              Thereupon he received and ac-                   ments to support his. contention
This is not remarkable, it is natu-                      cepted a call from Pella, Iowa. On                   that Rev. Hoeksema and his fol-
ral that the immigrants should                           September 22, 1932, he married                       lowers erred. To this Rev.  Hoek-
want the gospel preached in their                        Flora Ezinga, the daughter of Pe-                    sema responded in the  Standard
native tongue and to sing the songs                      ter Ezinga, who served for years                     Beaver  in a/ series of eight "ser-
they' learned in the land of their                       as elder in First  .Church.  Immedi-                 mons" under the title,  "ZeZfs  in
                                                         ately after the. wedding they left                   Dien  Lompe#z  Form" ("Even in That
                                                         for his,ordination in Pella as min-                  Inept  Form);  vol. XVI, pp. 171,268,
Rev.  Hanko;  the. writer of this "In                    ister in our churches. They have                     292, 364, 390, 438; vol. XVII, pp.
Memoriam," is a minister emeritus                        four children and a number of                        31, 50,  78)  #by granting that the
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.                     grandchildren.                                       statements as such were a bit in-

25QJStandard  Bearer/March  1,1997


ept, but that in the proper context                    grants in  Chatham,  I was told by                         meeting, while he withdrew to the
they nevertheless expressed the                        one of them: "We do not intend                             background.  I Soon one of the el-
truth of the Scriptures. (It should                    to deceive you as they did in                              ders requested permission to read
b e   b o r n e   i n   m i n d   t h a t   R e v .    Hamilton.")                                                a paper in which he expressed his
Veldman, as well as the rest of us                           After various calls had been                         convictions concerning God's cov-
younger men, was still; struggling                     extended by their consistory to our'                       enant and infant-. baptism. He
to learn the Dutch language.)                          ministers, a duo was made  con-.                           made a strongdefense of the teach-
         After five years in Pella, Rev.               sisting of Rev. John Heys and Rev.                         ings of the Liberated churches.
Veldman accepted a  : call , to, our                   Herman Veldman. From the  re-                              When he had finished, the chair-
Creston Church in Grand Rapids,                        marks that were made among the                             man asked him: "But did you not
where he served for four years.                        various members one could only                             once say, in my presence, that as
Thereupon he received a call from                      have concluded that Rev. Heys                              members       o f   t h e .   L i b e r a t e d
the small, struggling church in                        would receive that call. Yet, al-                          Churches you had lost sight of the
Kalamazoo, where he labored for                        most as if God had interfered with                         truth of  pred/estination,   and'that,
nine years; from 1941 to 1950.                         their plans, when the votes were                           now that you were enlightened,
When he came to Kalamazoo the                          counted, the majority of the votes                         you agreed with the PRC?" The
congregation consisted of but eight                    were for Rev. Veldman.                                     elder immediately agreed. The
families and had no church build-                            Rev. Veldman, who would                              next question: "When were' you
ing of their own. Under the bless-                     never shy away from a challenge,                           lying, then or: now?" To which he
ing of God 35 families were added,                     weighed this `call very seriously.                         responded: "Then, of course."
so that by the time he left they not                   He even told the congregation at                               After that) another elder asked
only had 43 families but had also                      Hamilton `that if he were to accept                        permission  to; present his views on
built a new church.
    r                                                  the call he would most emphati-                            the subject. He also read a long
         Itwas during these years that                 cally condemn the Liberated view                           document in defense of the Liber-
we were working among the im-                          of the covenant and of infant bap-                         ated views. When he finished, the
migrants from the Liberated                            tism and would strongly defend                             chairman asked him: "But did you
churches who  ha.d settled in the                      the doctrine of the PR Churches.                           not say, at one time,  t.hat if you
Hamilton, Ontario area. They had                       They had the opportunity to ad-                            were to return to the Netherlands
been advised by Prof. Holwerda                         vise him to decline the call, but                          you would be compelled to  orgaL
in the Netherlands to' join with the                   they consented to his coming even                          nize a PRC there, because we have
Protestant-Reformed Churches and                       after this warning.                                        the truth? Were you lying when
exert their influence in them. As                            During. his stay Mrs. Veldman                        you said  that? The response was:
a result of the labors that the Prot-                  brought all the immigrants who                             "Yes."
estant Reformed Churches were                          had no means of transportation to                              One more question was asked
performing in that area, these new                     the church worship services. Their                         of the elders: "In how far is Rev.
immigrants stated that they had                        c h i l d r e n   a t t e n d e d   t h e   p u b l i c    Veldman responsible for the
erred in their covenant conception                     school.                                                    trouble in this congregation?" The
and that they were now convinced                             There was a group of 12 to 15                        answer was that he was not re-
of `the Reformed truth as taught in                    young people who were instructed                           sponsible in any way. He had in-
our-churches. One of the immi-                         by Rev. Veldman and came to the                            deed given them "double barrel"
grants who accompanied the un-                         consistory to make public confes-                          in his preaching, but he had as-
dersigned when he visited newly                        sion of their faith. When, Rev.                            sured them in advance that he
arriving immigrants informed                           Veldman pointed out to them that                           would do this. They had accepted
them that the earlier immigrants                       they  ,would be confessing loyalty                         him in spite of  that.
were shown  ~that they had lost                        to the truth as confessed by the                               Soon after that the consistory
sight of the truth of God's predes-                    Protestant Reformed Churches the                           met privately without the minis-
tination. They were no longer Lib-                     consistory refused to accept their                         ter and decided, totally disregard-
erated, but were now PR. Another                       confession.                                                ing the rules of the Church Order,
immigr,ant informed me personally                            A year later it was very evi-                        to depose him. When elder Sam
that if they were to return to the                     dent that things were not going                            Reitsma objected to this, he also
Netherlands they would' be com-                        well in Hamilton. The church visi-                         was illegally  ideposed  from office;
pelled to organize a PR church                         tors were informed of  this.- They                         For a short time the Veldman fam-
there as the true church. It was                       wondered what they would. find                             ily and the Sam Reitsma family
mainly on the basis of such testi-                     upon visiting-this congregation.                           held services  ,in the living room of
mony that a congregation was or-                       At the  meetingwith  the "church                           Rev. Veldman's residence.
ganized in Hamilton. (Later, when                      visitors Rev. Veldman asked the                                Hamilton! disbanded for two
I was working among the  immi-                         visitors to take over the  `.entire                        reasons. They were not at all in

                                                                                                                        March  1,  1997/Standard   Bearer/Z51


agreement with the Declaration of       The school in  Edgerton also expe-                    They also built a new church on
Principles and would have left us       rienced the results of the split and                  Ivanrest.  /-  :.
sooner or later regardless of who       found itself without a teacher for                        Those of US who knew him will
had labored there. Moreover, they       t h e   u p p e r   g r a d e s .    S o   M r s .    remember "him, not only for his
now felt strong enough, numeri-         Veldman, who had formerly                             forceful,  e$ository sermons, but
cally and financially, to organize      taught, took upon herself to teach,                   also for  hisl'warm  greetings. He
their own Liberated church.             as well as to serve as administra-                    met an acquaintance with a firm
     Rev. Veldman returned to           tor. This deprived her of much of                     handshake and a broad, pleasant
Michigan.        He taught Bible in     her time with the family, yet she                     smile. He enjoyed the fellowship
Adams Street School for `a time,        willingly gave herself for the sake                   of others, especially of those who
but his heart was still in the min-     of the school.                                        were of a like mind.
istry. That was his calling and that         Redlands  had been vacant for                        In 1978 he retired from the ac-
was what he desired. Two years          some time. When the call from                         tive  ministr$. This did not mean
after returning to Grand Rapids he      this congregation was extended to                     that he retired from all his labors.
received and accepted a call to         Rev. Veldman, he felt obligated to                    For many years he enjoyed good
Edgerton, Minnesota.                    take it. For four years he served                     health and  i continued to. preach
     He came to his new charge          there and was instrumental toward                     and to teach catechism in the vari-
shortly after the congregation had      the strengthening of the congrega-                    ous churches. He also served for
gone through the split of 1953.         tion.                                                 some time in Hull during their va-
Tensions were strong, especially             After being away from Michi-                     cancy and in Lynden while they
because of the bitterness of those      gan `for ten years he received and                    were without a pastor.
who left us. One day when Rev.          accepted a call to our  Hope church                       At his funeral service, led by
Veldman was walking in the small        in Walker. He preached, taught,                       Rev. Cammenga, it was very fit-
town of Edgerton, one of the op-        and did the pastoral work there                       tingly  stateld  that Rev. Veldman
position loudly shouted: "You           for three years and then accepted                     could say with the apostle Paul, "I
thief!" He could only wonder why        a call to our Hudsonville congre-                     have kept the faith." In doing so
he should be publicly accused of        gation, where he labored from                         he had "fought the good fight'! and
sinning against the eighth com-         1966 to 1971.                                         he. had "finished his course." He
mandment, until he discovered                One little incident showed Rev.                  now rejoices with the saints in
that those who opposed us felt that     Veldman's unique makeup. He                           heaven, where Christ awaited him
the courts should not have given        had a sense of humor all his own.                     to give him the crown of righteous-
the church property to First            One Sunday while he was preach-                       ness already prepared for him.
Church. Yet Rev. Veldman had            ing, a little girl was being taken                        We  givelmost hearty thanks to
nothing to do with what happened        out of church loudly crying: "I'll                    our covenant God for the gifts en-
in First Church.                        be good, I'll be good." The rever-                    trusted to that faithful servant, for
    As long as he was there, he         end paused a moment to remark,                        his many years of zealous, diligent
never had the use of the church         "It's, too late now," and then con-                   labor, and for all that the Lord ac-
building or parsonage, since it was     tinued with his sermon.                               complished: through him in our
only later that, through an agree-           His last charge was in our                       churches.     iMay He continue to
ment, the property was retrieved        Southwest congregation, where he                      bless his widow, who was a great
by our congregation. Yet, in spite      served for seven years. During his                    support to  j Rev. Veldman, and
of all that, he enjoyed his labors      ministry here the congregation                        their family  ,in the years to come.
there and was greatly appreciated.      grew spiritually and numerically.                                  X$XJ.   Comelius   Hanko   17




W "Trendy Sermons,                           The author of the book and its                   nit-ion of the, problem and its solu-
Vacant  Pewf                            reviewer seem to agree concern-
A                                                                                             tion. The review states in part:
       reader from Lynden, Wash-        ing the problem of the churches
       ington sends in an interest-     today. It is of interest that a pa-                       Mr. Reeqes lays out the facts
ing book review found in the  Wall      per such as the  Wall Street  Joour-                    with clarity and obvious passion.
Street  Journal,  January 3, 1997.      nnl and its reviewer should make                        Since the 19j6Os  and  `7Os, the main-
The author reviews a book called:       the kind of comments found in the                       line denominations have bled be-
The  Etipty  Church: The Suicide  of    article.  i There is not only a recog-                  tween a fifth and a third of their
Liberal Christianity  by Thomas C.      nition' of the sad state of the                         congreganfs.       The liberals in
                                                                                                charge of  tl#e denominational bu-
R e e v e s .                           churches today, but also a  recog-                      reaucracies `think they know why.
!252/Standard   Bearer/March  1,1997


In our "post-Christian" era, they          working for overtime wages or                          tian evangelist. He filed a "re-
maintain, old-fashioned Christian-         enduring pious generalities about                      quest to find" ord,er after his
ity repels potential churchgoers.          `dialoguing,' `inclusiveness,' and                     mother's disappearance. Police
The solution is to follow the de-          `sharing and caring'; studying for                     say they have no evidence of foul
scending path of modern culture            exams or hearing that the conso-                       play.       In January, Bill Murray
to whatever depths it leads. As            lations and promise of the Bible                       filed a petition to become guard-
one Episcopal priest explains:             are not `really' or `literally' true."                 ian of the estates of his mother,
"Every  time  that we ordain some-         As he admirably summarizes the                         brother,  and;  sister. United Secu-
one who is not a heterosexual              problem, "Liberal Frotestantism . . .                  larists of  Aberica,  reports that
white male, we gain hundreds of            has succeeded in making itself                         $612,000 in missing assets is "be-
new members."                              dispensable."                                          lieved to be in the possession of
  Except that it doesn't work that            . . . (A)n orthodox awakening in                    Jon Murray; former secretary."
way.    The more heterodox  -              the pews would have to get past                        American Atheists reported that
multicultural, multi-doctrinal  -          those mainline leaders who, as                         he is suspected of taking $15,500.
the churches become, the more              Mr. Reeves knows, suffer from a
congregants they lose, and yet             "lack of commitment to the au-                       n The Sa*e  Roman
they keep at it....                        thentic faith." In the meantime,
  . . . As early as 1982, at a United      serious Christians can take refuge                   C a t h o l i c   C h u r c h
Methodist Women conference, the            in serious churches, as they al-                     I have recently received in the
Greek earth goddess Gaia was               ready do, swelling the country's                         mail some, information sent by
called upon for a blessing. A 199.3        nondenominational, evangelical                       a Roman Catholic organization.
conference funded by the Presby-           Protestant groupings....                             T h o u g h   t h e   R o m a n   C a t h o l i c
terian, Methodist, Lutheran and                                                                 Church has lately been portrayed
American Baptist churches "fea-               One can only  exclaim, "From                      as a changed  I church which recog-
tured a veneration of `Sophia,           the mouth of the  Wall Street  Jour-
Creator God' . . . and rites from                                                               nizes that there is salvation out-
                                         ml!!!" If only some of the "reli-
other religions such as the Ameri-                                                              side of its  &alls,  this material
can Indian tobacco ritual."              gious" periodicals of our day were                     clearly shows' otherwise. There is,
  . . . What ordinary churchgoers        as forthright!                                         according to this article, no salva-
perceive is that their leaders have                                                             tion possible outside of the Roman
ceased to accept the authority of        n Madalyn Murray O'Hair                                Catholic church. In a "Dogma of
Scripture. "Biblical criticism"  -                                                              Faith" the following is empha-
the  deconstruction  of holy texts       Most have heard of the woman
                                                 in the title above. She is the                 sized:
for the purpose of discrediting          country's best-known atheist. An
their status as revealed truth  -                                                                    "There is  I only one universal
has been in vogue among main-            atheist who denies the existence of
                                                                                                  Church of the faithful, outside of
line clergy for decades and in re-       God would consequently also have                         which no one at all can be saved."
cent years has been joined by a          no standard of morality except                           (Pope  1nnoce:nt  III, Fourth  Lateran
campaign to cleanse the Gospels          what he invents for himself. One                         Council, 1215).
and' liturgies of anything that          is reminded of that when reading                            N . . . The Holy Roman Church
might offend a professor of multi-       the following report which ap-                           firmly  belieives,  professes, and
cultural studies.                        peared in  Christianity Today,  Feb-                     teaches, that none of those who
  Alas, the Bible as it comes to us      ruary  ,3, 1997:                                         a r e   n o t   w i t h i n   t h e   C a t h o l i c
from God and His prophets is a                                                                    Church, not only pagans, but
profoundly strange book. Once                 Two atheist organizations, for-                     Jews, heretics and schismatic, can
it and other holy documents have           merly controlled by Madalyn                            ever be partakers of eternal life,
been stripped of their "necessary          Murray O'Hair, have reported in                        but are to go into the eternal fire
offense," as the theologian Bernard        Internal Revenue Service docu-                         `prepared for the devil, and his
M.G.  Reardon  has put it, any re-         ments that $627,500 disappeared                        angels' (Mt.  ;25:41), unless before
ligion based upon those texts is           about the same time O'Hair, her                        the close of their-lives they shall
reduced to a mere adjunct of the           s o n   J o n   G a r t h   M u r r a y ,   a n d      have entered into that Church;
surrounding culture rather than a          daughter Robin  Murray-O/Hair                          also that  the, unity of the ecclesi-
challenge to it.       The typical         vanished in August 1995.                               astical body is such that the
congregant at a liberal church or             Some speculate that the trio                        Church's sacraments avail only to
temple finds it increasingly hard          may be hiding in New Zealand....                       those .abiding in that Church, and
to see why he should spend his                O',Hair,   78;became  the nation's                  that fasts, almsdeeds, and other
Sunday morning or Friday night             best-known atheist in 1962 by fil-                     works of piety which play their
in a place where secular views are         ing a lawsuit that led to the U.S.                     part in the Christian combat are
simply echoed.                             Supreme Court's prohibition on                         in her alone productive of eternal
  "Weigh the benefits," writes             public-school prayer. She filed                        rewards; moreover, that. no one,
Mr. Reeves: "Sunday with the               suit in behalf of her then  16-year-                   no matter what alms he 
family at the beach or in church                                                                                                       may.have
                                           old son Bill Murray, now a Chris-                      given; not even if he were to shed
listening to a sermon on AIDS;

                                                                                                          March  1,1997/Standard  Bearer/253


                                                                                                                             '





  his blood for Christ's sake, can                          is salvation outside the Catholic                     problem  -was that the initial En-
  be saved unless he abide in the                           Church." - Venerable Pope Pius                        glish translation of the Pope's re-
  bosom and unity of the Catholic                           IX.                                                   marks was  in&rrect."
  Church."  (Mansi,  Concilia, xxxi,                           "`There is no salvation outside                        Thomas goes on to state:
  1739;  Pope Eugene IV, in the bull,                       the Catholic Church. Anyone                                           " ,-
  Cantate  domino, 1441).                                   who resists this truth perishes."
     The implications  of  these pro-                       - St. Louis Maria de Montfort.                            The correct; translation is a long
  nouncements, taken together, are as                            "We must believe that the Ro-                     way,. indeed;! from  U.S.  News   8
  folloz~s:                                                 man Catholic Church is the only                         World   Repoyt's   statement that
                                                                                                                    "the  Pope  declared that evolution
     1.     All . . . of these statements                   true `church; hence they who are                        is `more  than  just a theory,"' an,d
  are  ex  cathedra  definitions of the                     out of our Church or they who                           said, "new knowledge leads us  ,to
  Church and of the Pontiffs who                            are separated from it, cannot be                        recognize that the theory of  eve-  i
  made them. ("Ex cathedra")  means                         saved." - St. Alphonsus Maria                          lution  is more than a hypothesis."
  that these are infallible teachings                       Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the                         . . . While secularists may have
  of the Church which all persons                           church.                                                been initially  .thrilled  by' the
  must believe in order to be saved.                                                                               Pope's apparent move towardthe
  These teachings are not subject to                            Who can claim truly that the                       thinking of the "kingdom of this
  change as the popes in making                        R o m a n   C a t h o l i c   c h u r c h   h a s           world," they and the Pope are
  these declarations of faith were                      changed? And if this is its official                       back to where  .they started. John  .,,
  guided by the Holy Ghost, Who                        p o s i t i o n ,   w h a t   c o m m o n   g r o u n d      Paul II seemed to be saying that
  is unchangeable.                                                                                                  science can  ,explain  how some
     . ..4. Such a dogmatic statement                   can be "found to cooperate with
                                                                                                                    things came  ito be, again, some-
  is not to be colored, or reduced,                    them?,                                                       times having ,to correct itself. But
  or altered, by reference to the Sa-                                                                               science cannot explain who made
  cred Scriptures. On the contrary,                    n What Did the Pope Say?                                    what is and,  / in most cases,' can-
  it is in terms of such a statement                                                                               not explain how it came to  be: As  -'
  that all the Scriptures are to be                     Inour last article we quoted what
                                                            was claimed to be a statement                           God said to Job, "Where were you
  read and understood.                                  of the Pope concerning evolution.                           when I laid the foundations of the
     . ..7. This dogma rules out the                                                                                universe?"  j
  possibility of simple invincible ig-                 It now appears that he did not
                                                                                                                      It is the  &mate  question,  .and
  norance concerning the matter of                      quite say what the press quoted                             the Pope did  j not budge from  $-he
  salvation; those who die in igno-                    him as saying. In an article by re-                          source of the'ultimate answer.  Jt  1
  rance of the Church as the only                      ligion editor Cal Thomas, that                               wasf the translator, not the Pope,
  course of salvific grace must be                     writer points out that he "was                               who proved fallible on this one....
  adjudged to have been culpably                        critical of the Pope's `remarks' and                                         ._  _,.
  so. In a word, they did not know                     suggested that he was moving in
  because they did not want to                                                                                        So it appears that the Pope did
                                                       the direction of a materialistic
  know.                                                                                                           not give the  iinging  endorsement
     Quoted below are three worthy                     worldview that is at the heart of                          of evolution. as presented in the
  statements in support  of  this Dogma                 c o m m u n i s m . . . . "                               world's press' !A but, then, neither'
  of  Faith:                                                    Now he points out that "the                       did `he rule out `the possibility  of,
     "It is a sin to believe  that, there                                                     /'                  evolution.                    0:           '



                                        Cakd to
                                             -. -;: . . . . 8,;. : :;-( y:),>;"r@!;@$, $J"
T                                                      fessions, is a very serious matter.                        tion by the  el$ers.  This would in-
           he elders of the church  ,are'               Oversight involves church disci-                          clude the visiting of the families
           called by God to take over-                 pline, and church discipline is one                        of the congregation, caring for the
           sight of the congregation.                   of the three  mar.ks  :of the true                        sick,  comfortiing the sorrowing,
This,. as is apparent from Holy                         church which easily distinguish                           bringing the  vord of God to those
Scripture and the Reformed  con-                       her from the false church,                                 who experience trials of one sort
                                                               .Church  discipline may be un-                     or another, and taking oversight
Prof.  Decker is professor  of  Practical               derstood in two senses. In the                            of the other `officebearers as  re-
Theology in the Protestant Reformed                    broader  snnse it refers to the spiri-                     gards both- their office in the
Seminary.                                               tual careiand rule of the congrega-                       church and their lives. In the  nar-

254/Standard   Bearer/March 1, 1997


lower  sense, church discipline re-             means "to go before, to be a              shepherd  of:God's  flock, they must
fers to, the  variou;s admonitions              leader,<' and thus "to have author-       care for the:congregation by means
from the  Word.of. God which the                ity." Elders have the authority of        of the  WordI   of  God. When God's
elders must bring. to those who                 Christ to rule in the church. They        people are, sick, they need the
walk in certain sins. If these re-              are the spiritual leaders of the          Word. When they mourn, their
main  impenitent,`.the  "extreme                people of God. God's people must          comfort is found only in the Word.
remedy," excommunication from                   obey them and submit themselves           When they: go astray, only the
t h e   c h u r c h   a n d   .kingdom   o f    to them because the elders watch          Word can reconcile them with God
heaven, must be applied. In this                for their, souls  (v. 17). Believers      and their fellow saints. When the
series we shall consider church                 must remember the elders and fol-         elders  visit! them on the annual
discipline in both senses, beginning            low their faith because they speak        family visitation, they must not
with the broader.                               to them the word of God (v. 7).           make this a mere social call, but
    The Belgic Confession' teaches              God's people are commanded to             they must come with the Word of
that. "the marks, by which the true             know them which labor among               God. The children and youth need
Church is known, are these: if the              them and are over them and ad-            to be instructed in the Word. All
pure. doctrine of. the, gospel is               monish them. The people of God            of God's people `must continually
preached therein; if she maintains              must esteem these very highly in          be growing in the grace of God by
the  pure.administration  of the sac-           love for their work's sake (I Thess.      means of growing in the knowl-
raments as instituted by Christ;  if            5:12-13).                                 edge of  the; Lord Jesus Christ (II
church discipline is exercised in  pim-             Scripture exhorts. the elders to      Pet.  3:17-181.
id&g   Of  s&i: in short, if all things         feed (literally, this means "shep-            The elders, therefore, need to
are managed  according.to the pure              herd") the flock of God. Elders           be men of God who are mighty in
Word of God, all things contrary                are to shepherd the flock by tak-         the Scriptures. They need to study
thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ              ing oversight of them. The elders         and meditate upon the Word of
acknowledged as the only Head of                must not do this "by constraint,          God. They  iought to have a num-
the Church. ,Hereby  the true                   but willingly; not for filthy lucre,      ber of good books in their personal
Church may certainly be known,                  but of a ready mind; neither as be-       libraries  and use them! Good de-
from which no man has a right to                ing lords over God's heritage, but        votional books are needed, as well
separate himself .  .."- (Art. 29). The         being examples to the flock." El-         as good, solid commentaries upon
Confession stipulates that there                ders who faithfully shepherd the          the sacred Scriptures. Books on
must `be' ministers. to preach the              flock are promised a crown of             Reformed doctrine are helpful and
Word and administer the sacra-                  glory at the appearance of the chief      needed, as  ;are good commentar-
ments, and elders and deacons,                  shepherd  (I Pet.  5:1-4). The apostle    ies on the Reformed confessions
":..that by these, means the true re-           Paul admonishes the elders of the         and church  iorder. All these and
ligion may be preserved, and the                church at Ephesus to take heed to         more will be good helps for the
true doctrine everywhere propa-                 themselves and to the flock over          elder as he himself seeks to grow
gated, likewise transgressors pun-              which the Holy Spirit had made            in the knowledge of God's Word
ished and restrained by spiritual               them overseers. The elders must           so as to be able to bring it to bear
means . .." (Art. 30). The Heidel-              do this by shepherding the church         upon the needs of  .God's people.
berg Catechism teaches that by the              of God which "he hath purchased               The elders as well need to be
preaching of the gospel and Chris-              with his own blood" (Acts  20:28).        men of prayer. Daily they must
tian discipline the kingdom of                      According to Scripture, there-        bring the needs of the people of
heaven is opened to believers and               fore, the elders  .are shepherds of       God to the throne of grace. When
shut to unbelievers. The church                 the flock of God. They are called         they visit the people of God in
order likewise requires the elders,             to  .represent  the chief shepherd,       their various trials or when they
to exercise church discipline and               our Lord Jesus Christ, among              are called  upon to admonish the
to see to it that everything is done            God's people. Everything which            wayward, they must never forget
decently and in good order (Arts.               a shepherd does with the sheep,           to pray! If all of God's people are
16 and 23, 71-80; cf. also the Ques-            the elders must do with the people        exhorted  to' "pray without ceas-
tions for Church Visitation).                   of God. They must protect. them,          ing" (I Thess.  5:17),  how much
    The confessions reflect the                 feed and nourish. them, lead and          more is not  this necessary for their
truth of Scripture which exhorts                guide them, seek and find them            spiritual leaders. Prayer is neces-
believers to remember and obey                  when they go astray. In sum `the          sary, we confess, because it is the
ythem that have the rule" over                  elders must  :provide  for all the        chief part of thankfulness, and be-
them (Heb.  13:7, 17). The Greek                need. of God's people.                    cause "God will give his grace and
word translated in' .these verses,                  If elders are to be faithful rep-     Holy Spirit to those only, who with
"them that have the. rule over,"                resentatives of Jesus, the chief          sincere desires continually ask

                                                                                                 March  1~,1997/Standard&arer/255


them of him, and are thankful for             acterize the elders of the church.                         be a  Chu~h.  The truth is, the ex-
them" (Heidelberg Catechism, Q.               Faithful elders will never seek the                        ercise of a faithful watch and care
116).                                         praise of men. They will always                            over the purity of each other in
    In all this work of ruling the            acknowledge that they labor only                           doctrine, worship, and life, is one
congregation,  the. faithful elders           by the grace of God. They will                             of the principal purposes for
                                                                                                         which the Christian Church was
will be motivated by the love of              acknowledge always that in all                             established, and on account of
God. Because God first loved                  their shepherding of the people of                         which it is highly prized by ev-
them they will love God. And be-              God it is God who gives the fruit.                         ery enlightened believer. And, I
cause they love God they will                      Samuel Miller, the great Pres-                        have no doubt, it may be safely
strive faithfully to govern God's             byterian and Princeton theologian,                         affirmed, that a large part of all
precious flock. They will rule the            put it well when he wrote,                                 that is holy in the Church, at the
people of God because they love                                                                          present day,; either in faith or
God. Faithful elders  will in God's                But I need not say to those who                       practice, may be ascribed, under
love always seek the eternal good               take their views of the Christian                        God, as  much  to sound ecclesias-
                                                                                                         tical discipline, as to the faithful
and welfare of the people of God.               Church, and its real prosperity,                         preaching of the gospel.
They will never be harsh tyrants                from the Bible, and from the best                          And if the  :maintenance of dis-
who "lord it over God's heritage."              experience, that enlightened, and
                                                faithful discipline is, not only  im-                    cipline be all  iimportant to the in-
Gently, but firmly, they will lead              portant,  but absolutely  essential  to                  terests of true religion, it is a mat-
the people of God by means of His               the purity and edification of the                        ter of no less importance that it
Word.                                           body of Christ. It ought to be                           be conducted, with mildness, pru-
    In all their work as elders,                regarded as one of the most pre-                         dence, and wisdom. Rashness,
these men will take great care to               cious means of grace, by which                           precipitancy, undue severity, mal-
be worthy examples to the people                offenders are humbled, softened,                         ice, partiality, popular fury, and
                                                                                                         attempting to; enforce rules which
of God. They will be exemplary                  and brought  to  repentance; the                         Christ never gave, are among the
husbands and fathers, honest                    Church purged of unworthy                                many evils which have too often
workers, and good citizens. They                members; offenses removed; the
                                                honor of Christ promoted; real                           marked the dispensation of au-
will prayerfully take heed to them-             Christians stimulated and im-                            thority in the Church, and not
selves that they grow in sanctifi-              proved in their spiritual course,                        unfrequently:  defeated the great
cation. The elders will be able to              faithful testimony borne against                         purpose of discipline. To conduct
say to God's people what the                    error and crime; and the profess-                        it  aright,  is, undoubtedly, one of
apostle said to the saints in                   ing family of Christ made to ap-                         the most  deiicate  and arduous
Philippi, "Brethren, be followers               pear, holy and beautiful in the                          parts of ecclesiastical administra-
                                                                                                         tion; requiring all the piety, judg-
together of me . .." (Phil. 3:17).              v i e w   o f   t h e   w o r l d .   W i t h o u t      ment,  patien+,  gentleness, matu-
    Faithful elders will be clothed             wholesome discipline, for remov-                         rity of counsel, and prayerfulness
with humility. Again, all of God's              ing offenses, and excluding the
                                                corrupt and profane, there may                          which can be brought to bear
children are called to be humble,               be an  assembly,  but there cannot                       upon the subject  (The Ruling El-
but this virtue must certainly  char-                                                                    der, pp.  174-175).   0
  -[Q@@yjj hl $giq&&@~ &tj liE&i@ -llla@!B3                                                              Q&?&  hxiQQE@n  LLcia&m
                                                                                                                           --             --
                                The Reformed Family:
                                              Two Women
When ye do the office of a Two women.                                                                      Shiphrah and Puah.
           midwife to the Hebrew                   Two women who, through                                  Shiphrah  iand Puah were two
           women . . . if  it be a son,       Gods gracious guidance, forever                          relatively obscure midwives living
then ye shall kill him....                    changed the course of human his-                         in the land  ofiGoshen  in Egypt un-
                              Exodus  1:16    tory.                                                    der the  crueli  and tyrannical Pha-
                                                   Two women, distinguished by                         raoh who knew not Joseph. "And
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife  and mother in         names! The first Hebrew names                            the Egyptians made the children
the Protestant Reformed Church  of            mentioned since the death of Jo-                         of Israel to serve with rigor: And
South Holland, Illinois.                      seph some 300 years earlier.                             they made their lives bitter with

256/S&ndard   Bearer/March  I,1997


hard bondage, in mortar, and in                Shiphrah and Puah understood                  antithesis. The lines have been
brick, and in all manner of service       that God's covenant is continued                   drawn since Genesis  3:15. Those
in the field..." (Ex.  1:13, 14).         through the healthy and fruitful                   lines of demarcation must not be
    Treated inhumanely, the He-           birth of children. Many children.                  blurred today. Satan hates Christ.
brews, and other foreigners in            Shiphrah and Puah would not                        His minions throughout history
Egypt, were conscripted into the          h a v e   b e e n   d a u n t e d   b y   t h e    seek to destroy the covenant seed.
work force of Rameses, coerced            anthropologist's dire prediction of                Limit the family. Delay parent-
with the whip, unpaid, and con-           over-population leading to dimin-                  hood. Prevent the birth of cov-
demned to the brickmaking and             ished food sources and planet pol-                 enant children.
the stone quarries. "And the chil-        lution. Shiphrah and Puah would                        Following hard on the heels of
dren of Israel sighed by reason of        not have bought into a sensible                    the bold decision of Shiphrah and
the bondage, and they cried..." (Ex.      and sophisticated birth-control                    Puah comes the decision of Moses'
2:23).                                    plan for Hebrew women because                      parents, Jochebed and  Amram.
    John Calvin writes that al-           of adverse circumstances.  Shiph-                  Phase III of Pharaoh's devilish plan
though the two treasure cities            rah and Puah would have objected                   was in effect. What a perfect ex-
which the Israelites were required        to the late Margaret Sanger's                      cuse not to bring forth any more
to build, Pithom and Raamses,             Planned Parenthood Federation.                     children was theirs!           The times
could be interpreted  .as granaries       Shiphrah and Puah would have                       were  desperaitely  evil; the king had
or storage for weapons, it is prob-       been stunned by the decision of a                  issued a command to drown the
ably more likely that they were for-      Supreme Court of a highly civi-                    infants; the family was threatened.
tresses; so that, in effect, the He-      lized nation to kill promiscuously                 These were not good years to be
brews were building their own             the unborn.               Quoting from             having children. But had there
prisons which, in turn, would nec-        Newsweek  (Feb. 3, 1997) in an ar-                 been no Moses  - the lawgiver  -
essarily prevent their escape from        ticle by columnist George F. Will:                 so there would be no Christ  - the
Egypt*                                    "In a partial-birth abortion, the (if              lawfulfiller.  : That is how serious
    Nevertheless, Pharaoh's first         pro-abortion people will forgive                   their decision was.            "By faith
plan to diminish the dispropor-           the expression) baby is maneu-                     Moses' parents were not afraid of
tionate growth of the Hebrews by          vered by the abortionist so that it                the king's commandment" (Heb.
rigorous labor produced the oppo-         enters the birth canal feet first and              11:23).
site result: the birth rate of the        is almost entirely delivered, with                     With all our excuses, real or
Hebrew children continued in an           only a few inches of the skull still               imagined, for refusing to bring
increased ratio, so that the Egyp-        in the (here comes another pre-                    forth children, God is not mocked.
tians "were grieved because of the        s u m a b l y   p r o b l e m a t i c    word)     Our motive to have or not to have
children of Israel"  (Ex.  1:12).         mother.         Then the abortionist               children will  ,be judged before His
    Thus, Pharaoh resorted to             makes a hole in the rear of the ex-                perfect tribunal. No extra money,
Phase II of his program: the bar-         posed portion of the baby's skull,                 no house of our own, no savings
baric slaughter of the newly-born         inserts a vacuum hose and sucks                    account, no room to put another
male children. Such a murderous           out the baby's brains." Shiphrah                   child, we can hardly care for the
program during times of peace had         and Puah would be righteously in-                  children we have, we haven't
not been known before. The two            dignant to discover that children                  taken a vacation in years, children
Hebrew midwives were to imple-            born under the best of conditions                  are so time-consuming and expen-
ment his edict. But Shiphrah and          in the most prosperous of nations                  sive  - all these will be weighed
Puah, probably the head of the            are considered to be somewhat of                   by Him. I try to imagine giving
"guild" of midwives  - and  cer-          a hindrance to one's lifestyle or a                birth to a precious infant if I knew
tainly not the only midwives in           drain on one's time, career, and                   that the  go:vernment  o f f i c i a l s
Goshen   - m a d e   s u r e   t h a t    finances.                                          waited outside the door, listening
Pharaoh's extermination policy                 It has been Satan's strategy                  for the child's first feeble cry, only
was not executed. These two cou-          since the beginning of time to pre-                to take him roughly and drown
rageous women saw to it that              vent the birth and flourishing of                  him. Would I have had the faith
Pharaoh's plan to extinguish the          covenant children.              Cain killed        of a Jochebed, or a Shiphrah and
Hebrew race by killing all males,         Abel. Esau plotted to kill Jacob.                  Puah?
the females then being absorbed by        Saul attempted to slay David.                          And, yes, there is example and
marriage into the Egyptian fami-          Athaliah conspired to destroy the                  inspiration here for doctors,
lies, would never occur. It is pos-       seed royal.  Herod  rids Bethlehem                 nurses, and all others committed
sible that the midwives never told        of all its children in his quest for               to the care of fellow human be-
the Hebrew people of the king's           The Child. The dragon lies in wait                 ings. Yours is not to terminate life,
command.                                  to devour The Child. This is the                   nor to shorte'n it, nor to assist in

                                                                                                      March 1,  1997/Sfandard  Bearer/257


preventing life, nor to play God                          There is great reward in obey-       lies and many descendants. Israel
over the petri dish. Life and death                   ing God rather than man, even            multiplied and waxed very mighty
belong to Him.                                        though that man be most cruel and        because of these two women.
                                                      powerful as was Pharaoh who ter-             Many godly women every-
    I will praise thee; for I am fear-                minated life at his caprice. Exo-        where display the spirit, the love
  fully and wonderfully made:                         dus 1 tells us that the families of      for God's covenant children, and
  marvelous are thy works; and that                   Israel were wonderfully rewarded         the courage `of these two women.
  my soul knoweth right well. My                      through the pious, heroic deeds of       May we live out of the faith,
  substance was not hid from thee,                    Shiphrah and Puah. Not because           whether in the best of times or the
  when I was made in secret, and
  curiously wrought in the lowest                     the midwives deceived Pharaoh,           worst of times, that God extends
  parts of the earth. Thine eyes did                  which they certainly did, but be-        His covenant through us. We are
  see my substance, yet being im-                     cause they feared God. God dealt         saved in childbearing (I Tim.  1:15).
  perfect; and in thy book all my                     well with the midwives, those                Shiphrah and Puah. Models
  members were written, which in                      keepers of life, because they had        for godly women in every age.
  continuance were fashioned,                         respect unto his ordinances. And             Two women who feared God,
  when as yet there was none of                       God prospered the Israelites (made       not Pharaoh.:
  them  (Ps. 139).                                    them houses); He gave them  fami-            Two women.  0

   @m V@ !l!!C@  !a!7 lt@l@ lY&fl                                ;


               Evangelical Reformed Chur@hes
                                      of Singapore (ERGS)

                                                      The pioneers of the ERCS, who            lethargy of  :the leaders and the
W                                                     had once been busy with street and       complacency of the people. The
              h e n   t h e   E R C S   `f i r s t    school evangelism, now concen-           Reformed faith is not antagonistic
              started as a new de-                    trated their efforts in studying doc-    to evangelism and missions.
              nomination with only                    trines.                                  Rather, it promotes it. It stresses
one church 14 years ago, the con-                         Someone once said that the in-       the love of God for His lost sheep
gregation was very new to the Re-                     tellectual content of Calvinism can      and emphasizes powerfully the
formed faith. The leaders had just                    easily quench the evangelistic fer-      ability and willingness of God to
emerged from a crash course in the                    vor of a new Calvinistic convert.        save.
Reformed faith under Pastor  den-                     This, they say, is true for both an          With this new found insight,
Hartog.  And even after the ERCS                      individual and a church. While the       this newly  lformed band of Re-
was instituted, leaders and people                    danger is always there, this is not      formed people in Singapore went
were still spending hours trying to                   true of the ERCS, and should not         knocking at  .doors with a power-
understand the Reformed faith                         be true of anyone or any church.         ful confidence, "God will surely
from the creeds and the Scriptures.                   The new Reformed faith and life          gather His people."
                                                      in the ERCS did not extinguish the           In the early days of our his-
                                                      evangelistic zeal of its people. In-     tory, not only did our people con-
                                                      stead, the Reformed faith gave the       tinue the evangelism spirit we had
                                                      people a new confidence in evan-         from our school days, but as a
                                                      gelism. It assures us that God will      church we now were able to carry
Cheah Fook Meng has recently gradu-                   gather His people, and that He           the message  j of the gospel to other
ated from the Protestant Reformed                     Himself will indeed give the in-         places outside of Singapore.  :
Seminary. He is a member  of the First                crease in the work. If there is any          The  fir& foreign work God
Evangelical Reformed Church  of                       decline in Reformed evangelism, it       opened for us to do was in Malay-
                            _.
Singapore.                                            must surely be attributed to the         sia. Malaysia is immediately north

258lStandard   Bearer/March  I,1997


of Singapore and has a large popu-                 the group was eager to have fur-          to this enthusiasm, a second trip
lation of  Malays.  Being an Islamic               ther contact with us.                     to India was made to investigate
state, it is not easy for Christians                       However, when we returned         the work before declaring it as a
to -carry out evangelistic work in                 to Singapore and were about to            mission field. Everything seemed
the country. Once, our Reformed                    make a second visit, news came to         good and positive. But we had
Baptist friend, Pastor Poh Boon                    us that the group had decided to          only one problem. We do not have
Sing, was put into prison  for. more               turn to the Reformed Baptists in          enough men for the work. At best
than a year for having Bible stud-                 the capital city for help. What           now, we can continue the work
ies with a few Muslim neighbors.                   transpired during that time, we           only by means of correspondence.
Angered at his efforts in bringing                 take it to be under the providence        Now and then tapes, books, and
the gospel to these few  Malays,  the              of God. The leader of the group,          materials are, sent to those people
community reported the work to                     the Australian officer, had re-           in India who  ihave shown keenness
the authorities. One night two se-                 turned to Australia.  1 Some others       in the Reformed faith.
curity officers knocked at his door,               in the group were baptistic in their          The work that is foremost in
and arrested him for what was                      view of things. And they felt also        everyone's mind now in the ERCS
supposed to be just a night of in-                 that they should ally with the Re-        is the work in Myanmar. The gen-
terrogation. But a night became                    formed Baptist group in their own         esis of the work was rather un-
days, and days became months,                      country for a united testimony to         usual. It all started with two Bur-
and the months became a year.                      the Calvinistic faith. Thus the           mese Bible students being expelled
Everyone trying to do gospel work                  group now is a Reformed Baptist           from a local  iBible college. With-
in Malaysia must be cautious.                      church. Although we were disap-           out a school to attend, they came
     Our most recent efforts to have               pointed at the outcome, we still          to us and asked if we were able to
a Reformed church in Malaysia                      maintain our good relations with          provide them the training in the
was several years ago, in a place                  them, and fellowship with each            Reformed faith. At the same time
called Penang. Penang is a place                   other in a Reformed Minister Con-         when this happened, their own
that is predominantly Chinese, and                 ference' each year in Malaysia.           church in Myanmar was going
is famous for its hot and spicy food                   Malaysia is our nearest neigh-        through a church crisis. A larger
and for its snake temple. The place                bor.      Hundreds of Malaysians          group of people under a certain
is steeped in idolatry and the city                mount their motorbicycles and hop         Moses left the denomination. The
boasts of its huge Chinese temples.                on the buses each day to come to          issues involved in the crisis were
     The contact to work in Penang                 Singapore to work. They are at-           both theological and financial. I
came when a group of Malaysian                     tracted to the good money and             was told by the two Burmese stu-
Chinese students returned from                     good life in Singapore. And  be-          dents that one of the crucial theo-
their studies in Scotland. While                   cause.evangelistic  activities  in,Ma-    logical issue concerns the doctrine
at Scotland, they came into con-                   laysia are restricted, I believe that     of limited atonement. In any case,
tact with the Free Church of Scot-                 the Singapore churches ought to           the interesting fact about this
land. There  in. the Free Church                   seize the opportunity to reach out        group is  that;they  wanted to form
they became `acquainted  ,with                     to the hundreds and thousands of          a new church under the Three
Psalm,singing  and the basic tenets                Malaysians that come to work in           Forms of  Unity.  This is quite  re-
of Calvinism. When they returned                   the country daily.                        markable,  forthese are people who
to Penang, they met in the home                        At present, the ERCS is of            are not very conversant in the En-
of an Australian military officer                  course busy with the work in In-          glish language. Little would one
who is a member of a conserva-                     dia and Myanmar. The work in              expect that continental Reformed
tive Presbyterian denomination in                  India started when a call was ex-         confessions like the Three Forms
Australia. The group, about 10 in                  tended by an Indian pastor to Pas-        would be known to them.
number, soon decided it was ready                  tor Mahtani for our pastor to speak           Through  the two expelled Bur-
to be formed into a church. And                    in a discipleship conference in In-       mese students who approached the
when they heard about the ERCS,                    dia. The opening gave our pastor          ERCS Theological Training Com-
they contacted our mission com-                    opportunity to address the issue          mittee, our churches came into
mittee, and we acted immediately                   from a Reformed perspective.              contact    w i t h   t h e i r   s e c e d e d
on that call. Both Pastor Mahtani                  When in India, Pastor Mahtani             churches in Myanmar. After much
and I were there for about four                    spoke also to several individuals         prayer and  di:scussion, the Mission
days.. During this time, we were                   about the Reformed faith. Soon            Committee of the Churches de-
able to hold worship services for                  after he returned to Singapore; let-      cided to send Pastor Lau with a
t h e m , ' a n d   P a s t o r   M a h t a n i    ters came pouring in from the In-         delegate to investigate the field.
p r e a c h e d   t w i c e   to, them. The        dia saints for more instruction in        The problem we had was that
preaching was well. received, and                  the Reformed faith.. In response          Myanmar forbids the entry of all

                                                                                                   March  1,  1997/Standard  Bearer/259


Christian pastors and missionaries.     countries like Singapore and Ma-                         pel work for us to do in Singapore.
When Pastor Lau in his visa appli-      laysia, where people are able to                         Geographically, Singapore is a
cation indicated that his occupa-       read and write English quite com-                        strategic island country. Thou-
tion was a pastor, the application      fortably, the spread of Christian                        sands and millions of people cross
was immediately turned down.            literature is very important. It is                      our path.  Many of these people
Here we faced a dilemma. I  sup-        a sad fact that Reformed churches                        have not heard the gospel. Be-
`pose, in a situation like this, one    are not always very active in mis-                       sides, we are surrounded by many
has to use his "sanctified wisdom."     sions. And for this reason most of                       unbelieving neighbors who need
We felt that having our pastor en-      the people in the third world coun-                      Jesus Christ. Economically, we are
ter the country as a tourist, with-     tries come to know the Reformed                          able to send  lmedical and financial
out specifying the occupation, does     faith through reading. That was                          aid to poorer countries. With the
not at all breach the law at work       the case with the ERCS, and it is                        wealth that the people enjoy from
in our conscience. So with this,        also the case with the Reformed                          the prosperity of the country, we
our two pastors were able to make       churches in Myanmar. Speaking                            are able to visit our neighboring
two visits to the country. During       to a key Burmese Reformed leader                         Christians to meet their needs.
these visits, conferences were held     last year, I learned that what con-                      With our advanced telecommuni-
to teach the people the fundamen-       verted him from his dispensational                       cation system, we are able to send
tal teachings of the Reformed faith.    Baptist background was the read-                         out the Reformed gospel through
    People who think that the Re-       ing of A.W. Pink's Sovereignty  of                       the  internet and such. Socially, we
formed man lacks power today            God. It was hard and slow read-                          are able to communicate both in
ought to make a visit to these vil-     ing for him, but through it he was                       English and Mandarin, two impor-
lage people in Myanmar. They            led to see the beauty of sovereign                       tant languages if one is to engage
hunger for the truth every time.        grace.                                                   in missions in Asia.
They sit for hours under the                 This is where I am sure our                            But I have in mind right now
preaching. They travel far just to      friends in the Protestant Reformed                       possible  m&ion  work in China.
be able to hear the truth pro-          Churches can help us. You do not                         Why China?. The reasons are not
claimed. They are eager to spread       have a lack of good Reformed lit-                        hard to find. In the first place,
their new love for the Reformed         erature. Friends in Grand Rapids                         China is opening its door. While
gospel.                                 especially have easy access to good                      communism: is still the main diet
    The result of these visits, con-    solid Reformed books, both rare                          of the people, free trade is encour-
tacts, and correspondence was the       and recent. But Reformed Chris-                          aged. Private enterprise is mush-
emergence of a new Reformed wit-        tians in India and Myanmar do not                        rooming in the big cities. Foreign
ness in Myanmar, the United Re-         have that access to good books.                          investments  :are increasing. Even
formed Church of Myanmar. The           Even if a copy is available, it is                       McDonalds  and TCBY can be seen
denomination has three churches,        not cheap. A school teacher's pay                        in the streets of Shanghai. Sec-
and has a membership of about           in Myanmar can buy only a bag of                         ondly, accompanying this open
1200 people. With their active zeal     rice for month.                                          door  policyi people are also be-
in local evangelism, the church              Even in Singapore, where Re-                        coming more open in their think-
could grow bigger than its present      formed books are more available,                         ing. Independent thinking has
size. The ERCS at present is com-       not many are keen on reading                             been stifled; for many years be-
mitted to holding two conferences       them. Efforts must be made to                            cause of thej communism and the
every year in the country to help       promote good reading. And for                            cultural revolution. But young
the growing saints. Besides this,       this, several members in our                             people in the recent years are be-
we are also considering having          churches are working on a first                          coming more daring in their think-
several of their pastors to be          C h r i s t i a n   p u b l i c   l i b r a r y   i n    ing, and are exploring questions
trained in Singapore for a short        Singapore, called the Evangelical                        about freedom and life. Unlike the
duration of six months.                 Library of Singapore, TELOS. The                         older generation, a growing num-
    The work in Myanmar con-            purpose of the ministry is to make                       ber of people today are willing to
vinces us that the Reformed faith       Reformed books available to the                          listen to the claims of the Chris-
is alive in Asia. Everywhere in         Christian public. For this book                          tian faith. Thirdly, what is espe-
Asia, from Japan to Korea, in Ma-       ministry to serve well we need Re-                       cially intriguing to us is that the
laysia, in Singapore, pockets of        formed books.                                            Chinese government is looking to
people are coming to know the                What about the future for                           Singapore as a model to develop
doctrines of sovereign grace. One       ERCS? Will there be more mis-                            its social aind economic plans.
reason for this awareness is the in-    sion opportunities in the future?                        Joint ventures have already been
creasing abundance of Reformed          The answer is a definite yes. From                       undertaken to develop four  indus:
literature. in these countries. In      every point of view, there is gos-                       trial cities in China. Models of

26OIStandard   Bearer/March  1,1997


Singapore's transportation and                after the cultural revolution, clear                   as a single unit. The purpose of
telecommunications are being                  theological guidance. And what                         this is obvious. The government
implemented in the Chinese cities.            is important is that it is not the                     wants  contr'ol  over each move-
Singapore's business investments              heresy of  Scofield  that is now pro-                  ment.
in China are growing at a rapid               moted in China by this new gen-                            With this new bill the Chinese
pace. With cities in China that are           eration of  theologians(though  it                     churches enter a new chapter in
inhabited by Singaporean nation-              still exists in large proportions),                    their history; What will become
als, it would not be impossible at            but it is the gospel of Calvinism.                     of the house churches is hard to
all to start a Christian nucleus in                One last reason why we in                         say at this moment. But with in-
that country for our own people               Singapore ought to consider the                        creasing control it means also re-
with the aim to reach out gradu-              suffering saints in China is that the                  stricted activities. If the Chinese
ally to the other Chinese people.             government recently passed a new                       churches outside of China do not
While we admit that this work is              bill concerning the house churches                     double their  ,help  to the suffering
hard, yet it is not impossible.               in China. There are two types of                       saints, the opportunity may not
    Fourthly, one important reason            churches in China. There is the                        come again.
why as Chinese Reformed Chris-                Three Self Churches, which are run                         How then can we help in the
tians we should consider working              by the government. There are, sec-                     ERCS? China today still does not
in China is because the outspoken             ondly, the underground house                           permit full-time missionaries in the
leader of the underground Chinese             churches. The former are really                        country. At best, we can only
churches is Dr. Jonathan Chao, a              under the complete control of the                      make short visits to bring them
Chinese Reformed theologian.                  government. The latter meet se-                        Bibles, literature, and encourage-
This man has a burden for China,              cretly in homes, and even openly                       ment.       To teach in the under-
and he has the desire to train the            in makeshift church buildings, un-                     ground churches may even invite
Chinese leaders in the proper theo-           afraid of government harassments.                      heavy persecutions to the saints in
logical truths. If we in the ERCS                  The government last year or-                      the area. What they need is Bibles
are able to help actively and con-            dered that all the house churches                      and more Bibles. This we can and
tribute to this work started by               must be registered. In this way                        must do. We in Singapore have
Charles and Jonathan Chao, we                 the authorities would be able to                       always wanted to do it, but we
would be doing a great favor for              monitor the whereabouts and the                        were slow in  ;acting on this urgent
the Chinese people. For years the             activities of these house churches.                    need. Now that we have access to
Chinese underground Christians                Those that failed to comply would                      the  addresseis of these suffering
have been running away from the               be closed down immediately.                            saints through a friend of mine in
authorities and were unable to                When the house churches re-                            Hong Kong, the duty is surely for
learn and develop theology. But               sponded immediately to this new                        us to bring them the gospel while
with Dr. Jonathan Chao and his                bill with a mass registration, the                     it is still day, for the night comes
China ministries, the Christians in           government rejected the offer. The                     when no one shall be able to work.
China are given, for the first time           government insisted that each                              China for the ERCS? Yes! Cl
                                              house church must be registered

 jjj.@m~~,~~j~ &;~&;/&3j :I -1'. :.,- j -1, -1, : :..I'
                                         .                    ,.  ~.  -

                                                                                                                              January  8,1997
                                                                                              First  (GR)  Protestatit  Reformed Church

Classis East met in regular ses- Presbyterian Church of South Ko- assist Covenant,  Classis East de-
    sion on Wednesday, January                rea, and to the church history class                   cided to adopt the advice of its
8, 1997 at the First Protestant Re-           o f   C o v e n a n t   C h r i s t i a n   H i g h    committee of pre-advice, namely,
formed Church in Grand Rapids.                School.                                                "to urge Covenant PRC to disband
Rev. A. Spriensma chaired this ses-                The burden of this  classis  was                  and report their decision to the
sion of  classis.  Each church was            to consider the future of Covenant                     May, 1997 meeting of classis." The
represented by two delegates.                 PRC in Wyckoff, NJ. After hear-                        grounds given for this decision are
Special welcome was given to Rev,             ing Covenant's response to the                         as follows: "1;) There is no present
Charles Terpstra, who was attend-             concerns raised by the September,                      possibility for addition to or rota-
ing  Classis East for the first time,         1996  classis  and hearing the re-                     tion of elders. 2) The congrega-
to Rev.  Sungho Lee of the Koshin             ports of the special committee to                      tion experiences great financial

                                                                                                              March 1,  1997/Standard   Bearer/261


strain which also affects our de-                          part of this overture to synod with                       Meulenberg, D. Ondersma, A. Rau,
nomination. 3) After 23 years, the                         its disapproval on the grounds that                       K.  Schipper;   Secundi   - J.  DeVries,
Lord has not given growth to the                           the overture only "urges' and does                        D.  Harbachi  D. Lotterman, D.
congregation. 4) There is a con-                           not require payment and that the                          Moelker, J. Kalsbeek, Jr. In other
tinued loss of membership over                             overture lacks specificity.  Classis                      voting, Rev. Spriensma was elected
several years.  5) The congregation,                       forwarded the second part to                              to a three-year term on the Classi-
because of its size, lacks, and has                        synod with its approval on the                            cal Committee; Revs. Dale Kuiper
lacked for some time, the experi-                          ground that this would show good                          and J.  Slop&ma  were chosen as
ence of a full-orbed congregational                        stewardship of these resources.                           church         visitors,            w i t h   R e v .
life. This has proved itself un-                                   The report of the church visi-                    VanOverloop as alternate; Rev.
healthy for the congregation." The                         tors was received. The report                             Gritters was elected to a three-year
prayers of  classis went with the                          noted that generally things are go-                       term as priw$s  delegate  ad examina
delegates of Covenant as they re-                          ing well in the churches under the                        and Rev. Bruinsma to a three-year
turned home with this decision.                            blessing of God. Reports were also                        secundus delegate ad examina term.
     An overture to synod from                             received from the delegates  nd                                 Subsidy `requests from Kala-
Southwest PRC concerning the                               examina  and the Classical Commit-                        mazoo  .for $19,000 for 1998 and
funding of the Emeritus Fund was                           tee.                                                      from Covenant for $10,000 for 1998
also considered. The overture con-                                 Classical appointments were                       (without's  pastor) were approved.
sisted of two  partsi  1) a proposal                       granted to Hope PRC and Cov-                              Covenant also requested that its
that synod urge each consistory                            enant PRC. A schedule of appoint-                         subsidy for  1997 be reduced from
whose pastors are not enrolled in                          ments was sent to all the churches.'                      $43,500 to $22,500. Kalamazoo
social security to contribute to the                               The following delegates to                        was granted' an additional $4,500
Emeritus Fund an amount equal                              Synod 1997 were chosen: MINIS-                            subsidy for 1997.
to' FICA taxes that would be in-                           TERS:  Primi  - R. Cammenga, B.                                 Expenses of  classis  amounted
curred. 2) a proposal to appoint a                         Gritters, I<.  Kdole;J.  Slopsema, R.                     to  $1,466.74.   `Classis will meet next
committee to study the advisabil-                          VanOverloop;                 S e c u n d i   -  W .       at-the Hope PRC (Walker) on May
ity of investing a portion of the                          Bruinsma, M. Dick, Dale  I<uiper,                         14, 1997.
Emeritus Fund in mutual funds.                             A. Spriensma,                    C. Terpstra;                            Respectfully submitted,
Classis  decided to forward the first                      ELDERS:  Primi  - C. Jonker, L.                                       Jon  J.`Huisken,   Stated Clerk

                                               `.                                 .'
 l&gig !F@lpl  @J!J!F lILZ!!@!bG _ `-                         ,~.       `-.                                           lgf&  lz&$@j!$lm   Kf3@&
                                                                               ;.,          ~,     .,,;.     ..,     1      ;                       :         -  7  -'

                                                           Divorce and Remarriage, and Eter-                         of his love for the PR churches and
Denominational Activities                                  nal Justification.  Psof. Hanko and                       his zeal for  Ithe precious, distinc-
                                                           Rev. VanOverloop each presented                           tive  Refqrmed  faith God has given
You may remember that our
      February  .lst installment of the                    two lectures, and four of the EPC                         us. We remember him as a war-
"News" included an item concern-                           ministers lectured on their' view of                      rior for  the: truth of the gospel.
ing the conference held in  mid-                           these issues. The open discussion                         May God give us all such zeal. We
January between our churches and                           which followed was deemed prof-                           remember Mrs. Veldman and her
t h e   E v a n g e l i c a l   P r e s b y t e r i a n    itable by all. The delegates believe                      family to Him who alone is able
Church of Australia. This confer-                          that, as a result of these discus-                        to comfort us in our time of need.
ence, held in Australia, was at-                           sions, a more fruitful relationship
tended by Prof. H. Hanko and Rev.                          can be established between the                            Congregational Activities
R. VanOverloop, two members of                             EPC and the PRC. Let us all re-                                 From  our Byron Center, MI
our denomination's Committee for                           member this cause in our prayers.                         PRC  `we find that the collections
Contact. Eight lectures were given                                 On Wednesday, January 22,                         taken this  Rast year during  .their
on four main issues: The Regula-                           Rev. Herman Veldman, at the age                           Sunday School season enabled
tive Principle of Worship, The Re-                         of 88, was taken by his Lord out                          them to send  100. Bibles to  Cheah,
lation between Church and State,                           of his earthly pilgrimage to his                          Fook Meng for use in  Singappre. _i
                                                           eternal reward. He served in nine                               The       c o n s i s t o r y   o f       the
                                                           of our congregations during his 46                        Loveland, CO PRC decided that.
                                                           years of- active ministry. In the                         catechism collections taken, this
                                                                                                                     year will be  ;given to the Books for
Mr.  Wigger is an elder  of  the  Puotes-                  last weeks he had been in a nurs-
                                                                                                                     Needy Servants fund administered
tant Reformed Church of Htdson-                            ing home due to failing health.
                                                                                                                     by Rev. J. Kortering in Singapore.
ville, Michigan.                                           Those of us who knew him know

262iStandard   Bearer/March 1, `1997


You may remember that this fund                        a n d   s o m e   a d d e d   b y   R e v .   R .    when parents come the first time
purchases and distributes books to                     VanOverloop             f r o m   h i s   o w n      and make a request to have their
n e e d y   p a s t o r s   i n   I n d i a   a n d    sources.                                             children  bap,tized, the pamphlet,
Myanmar. Also under consider-                               Way back in September of last                   "The Covenant of God and the
ation is the translating of various                    year, the consistory of the Hope                     Children of Believers," and the
Reformed materials into the native                     PRC in Redlands, CA was happy                        book,  Reformed Education,  be
language.                                              to report to their congregation that                 given to the parent.
       On Friday evening, January 31,                  the last payments for outstanding
and Saturday morning, February                         notes, on their church building                      School  Activities
1, members of the Georgetown                           were made in August. This means                          I n   t h e   F:ebruary  issue of a
PRC in Hudsonville, MI took part                       that their building is now free of                   "Closer Look," the newsletter of
in their second annual Winter                          all debt. We bring this up now                       the Hudsonvjlle, MI PRC, Rev. B.
Worship Conference. This year's                        because, soon after that announce-                   Gritters asks  lhis congregation the
event was held at Camp Geneva,                         ment, the consistory of Hope                         question, "Who Will Teach the
on the shore of Lake Michigan, just                    brought a proposal to their con-                     Children?" And he uses that ques-
a few miles north of Holland. Ev-                      gregation to expand the social hall                  tion to`address a situation that per-
eryone high school age and above                       of their church. It was an ambi-                     haps you have noticed as well.
was invited to attend, and 117 did                     tious plan, one that included a pro-                 Our church bulletins these days
come out on Friday night to hear                       posed         additional           women's           are full of requests for teachers.
Prof. R. Dykstra speak on the                          restroom, additional classrooms                      By Rev.  Grit&s' count, "there are
topic, "The Communion of the                           for Sunday School and other                          at least nine teachers that are
Saints."                                               church functions, a large sound-                     needed to fill vacancies in our
       Of those 117 members, 60                        proof meeting room for societies,                    schools in the coming year. Who
hearty souls stayed at the camp                        and an enlarged capacity for so-                     will teach them? How many col-
overnight, while the rest returned                     cial functions such as banquets and                  lege students are `graduating this
home and came out again the next                       wedding receptions.                                  year ready to  ;take these positions?
morning. Prof. R. Dykstra spoke                             Essentially, because Hope was                   What about you, young people?
to the group again that morning.                       now debt-free, the consistory felt                   Does the Lord call you to this im-
Not only was the group able to                         the time was right to address these                  portant calling?"
hear two lectures by Prof. Dykstra,                    needs. This proposal was then
but, between those lectures, they                      brought to the annual congrega-                      FoodFor  Ihoiglit
were able to separate into smaller                     tional meeting in December for ap-                       "A school teacher plants and
groups for discussion.                                 proval. However, for various rea-                    raises young trees and saplings in
       The committee in charge of                      sons Hope's congregation turned                      the garden. Oh, they have a pre-
this year's Retreat put together                       this proposal down. So, for the                      cious office and work and are the
packets of information on the                          present anyway, Hope remains                         finest jewels  ;of the church; they
topic, some of it taken from articles                  debt-free.                                           preserve the church."
from past issues of this magazine,                          The consistory of the Grace                                      L Martin Luther  0.
                                                       PRC in Standale, MI decided that




                                                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
              A T T E N T I O N   T E A C H E R S !         The Council of Grandville PR Church                          TEACHER NEEDED!
       Hope Christian School of Redlands,              expresses its Christian sympathy to fel-                 Adams Christian School is seeking a
California, is in need of an administrator/            low elder Jack  VanDyke, and former el-              teacher for the elementary grades begin-
teacher or teacher for the 1997-1998                   der Jon Huisken and their families in the            ning with the 1997-1998 school year. If
school year. Grade assignments are ne-                 death of their father-in-law,                        you are interested or would like more in-
gotiable. For more information, interested                     REV. HERMAN VELDMAN.                         formation, please contact our school prin-
persons should contact the school princi-                   "Truly my soul waiteth upon God:                cipal, Mr. Pete Hoekstra, at the school
pal, Mr. Ed Karsemeyer, at the school at               from him  cometh  my salvation. He only              (616) 531-0748, ,or at home (616) 896-
(909) 793-4584, or Doug Pastoor at (909)               is my rock and my salvation: he is my                9279, or Mr. Bob Faber at home (616)
792-9392, or Glenn Feenstra at (909) 794-              defense; I shall not be greatly moved"               942-7038.
5859. ' :,                                             (Psalm  62:1, 2).
.,      ..                                                                  Rev. A. Spriensma, Pres.
                                                                       Mr. Cornelius Jonker, Clerk

                                                                                                                   March 1,  l,997/Standard  Bearer/263


                                                                                                                               PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                              G r a n d v i l l e ,
                                                                                                                               Michigan
     Grandville, MI 49468-0603

I                                                                                                                                                       1

       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                            RESOLUTION. OF SYMPATHY                              RESOLUjlON  OF SYMPATHY
       The Council of the Southwest PRC                 The Council and the congregation of              The Faith  ISr. Mr. and Mrs. Society
of Grandville, MI wishes to express its             the Grace PRC express their Christian            express their sincere sympathy to Jon and
sincere sympathy to our dear sister, Mrs.           sympathy and condolences to Jeremy and           Barb Bol in the,death  of Jon's father,
Flora Veldman, in the passing to glory of           Heidi Meulenberg; to Deacon Jim Kaptein                       MR.; GERRIT  BOL.
her husband and our fellow officebearer             and family; and to Elder Larry Meulenberg             May they  land. their family be com-
and beloved Pastor Emeritus,                        and family in the stillborn death of their       forted by the words of I Corinthians 4:17,
                REV. HERMAN VELDMAN,                son and grandson,                                "For our light affliction, which is but for a
whom the Lord took unto Himself on Janu-                         DAVID JAMES.                        moment,  work&h for us a far more ex-
ary 22, 1997. May she and all of God's                  May they be comforted in His Word            ceeding and eternal weight of glory."
saints who remain to continue their earthly         and be sustained by God's grace. "The                                 Pete VanDerSchaaf, Pres.
pilgrimage find comfort in the sure word            Lord will give strength unto his people;                                 Mary Brummel,  Secy.
of our Savior, "I am the resurrection and           the Lord will bless his people with peace"
the life: he that believeth in me, though           (Psalm 29:i 1).
he were dead, yet shall he live: And who-                               Rev. Mitchell Dick, Pres.                         NOTICE!!
soever liveth and believeth in me shall                                    Don Lotterman, Clerk          All standing and special committees
never die" (John  11:25b,  26a).                                                                     of Synod, as well as individuals who wish
                             Council of SW PRC                                                       to address Syriod 1997, are hereby noti-
                  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Pres.                                                        fied that all material for the 1997 Synod
                             Ken Schipper, Clerk         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                      of the Protestant Reformed Churches
                                                        The Council and the congregation of          should be in the hands of the Stated Clerk
                                                    Grace PRC express their heartfelt sym-           no later than April 1. Please send mate-
                 CHANGEOFADDRESS                    pathy to Deacon Jim Kaptein and his fam-         rial to the Stated Clerk:
Bulletin Clerk for Byron Center PRC:                ily in the loss of their mother and grand-                      Don Doezema
                    Mrs. Jill Elzinga               mother,                                                       4949 lvanrest Ave.
                     7815  Ronson                         MRS. FLORENCE KAPTEIN,                                 Grandville, Ml 49418
                   Jenison, MI' 49428               on January  19,1997.
                    (616) 457-5260                      May they be comforted by the word
E-mail (internet) change: rjelz@juno.com            of the psalmist in Psalm 121 :I, 2, "I will                           NOTICE!!
                                                    lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from                All students enrolled in the Protes-
                                                    whence cometh my help. My help cometh            tant Reformed! Seminary who will be in
                                                    from the Lord, which made heaven and             need of financial assistance for the com-
       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       earth."                                          ing school year are asked to contact the
       The consistory and congregation of                               Rev. Mitchell Dick, Pres.    Student Aid Committee Secretary, Mr.
the Loveland PRC express their sympa-                                      Don Lotterman, Clerk      Larry Meulenberg (Phone: 616 453-8466).
thy to Mrs. Florence Schwarz and her hus-                                                            This contact should be made before the
band, Arthur, in the death of Mrs. Schwarz'                                                          next schedule4  meeting, March 4, 1997,
sister,                                                                                              D.V.            I
                  LEONA  OVERTURF.                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                             Student Aid Committee
May they experience that God, who has                   The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Faith                       Larry Meulenberg, Secretary
promised to provide grace in time of need,          PRC express their heartfelt sympathy to
comforts and guides them now in their               Mark and Lynda Scholten in the death of
time of sorrow.                                     Lynda's mother,                                              TEAkHER NEEDED!
       "Be still, and know that I am God....              MRS. FLORENCE KAPTEIN.                         The Protestant Reformed Christian
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of                May they find comfort in the knowl-          School of South Holland, IL will need a
Jacob is our refuge" (Psalm  46:10,  11).           edge that "Precious in the sight of the          teacher for the 1997-1998 school year.
                        Rev. G.  VanBaren, Pres.    Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm          Inquiries or applications should be made
                        Mr. Robert Brands, Clerk    116:15).                                         to Lamm Lubbers, Principal, 16511 South
           /                                                           Pete VanDerSchaaf, Pres.      Park Ave., South Holland, IL 60473 (708)
                                                                          Mary Brummel,  Secy.       333-9197 or  (768) 339-6586.
264/Standard   Bearer/March 1, 1997


