      BEARER
        A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          4

  Christ is the first-begotten of the
dead! He went through the grave into
the glory of eternal life as the Head of
the Church!  Z%e resurrection is begun!
And it cannot possibly stop until all that
belong to Him, and believe on His name,
and look for the city that has founda-
tions, have followed Him in that glorious
resurrection. 0, death! where is thy
sting? 0, grave! where is thy victory?
Thanks.  be  to God, Who giveth us the
victory through, our Lord Jesus Christ!

                                I.    Herman &eksemq
                                            Volume LIV, No. 13, April I,1978 1
                                                      ISSN 0362-4692


                       :,  :
          _      2,


290                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                        TH'E STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                 Semi-monthly.   except   monthly   during   June,   July.   and   August.
                          CONTENTS:                                                 Published   by  the   Reformed   Free   Publishing   Association,   inc.
                                                                                          Second   Class  Postage   Paid   at  Grand   Rapids,   Mich.
                                                                           Editor-in-Chief:  Prof.  Homer   C.  Hoeksema
Meditation  -                                                              Department Editors:  Prof.  Robert   D.  Decker,   Rev.   David   J.  Engeisma,
   The Guilt of Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . 290      Rev.   Cornelius   Hanko,   Prof.   Herman   Hanko,   Rev.   Robert   C.   Harbach,
                                                                           Rev.   John   A.  Heys,   Rev.   Mark   H.  Hoeksema,   Rev.   Meindert   Joostens,
Editorials  -                                                              Rev.   Jay   Kortering,   Rev.   George   C.   Lubbers,   Rev.   Rodney   Miersma,
                                                                           Rev.   Marinus   Schipper,   Rev.   James   Slopsema,   Rev.   Gise   J.  Van   Baren,
                                                                           Rev.   Ronald   Van   Overloop,   Rev.   Herman   Veidman.   Mr.   Kenneth   G.
   Parochiaid Revived  - In Disguise! . . . . . . . . .  .293              Vink.
   A Threatening Labor Law  -                                              Editorial Office:  Prof.   H.C.   Hoeksema
                                                                                                  4975   lvanrest   Ave.   S.W.
                                                                                                  Grandviiie.   Michigan   49418
       U.S. Senate Bill 1883 . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . .295        Church News Editor:  Mr.   Kenneth   G.  Vink
From Our Foreign Mission Committee  -                                                                    1422   Linwood,   S.E.
                                                                                                         Grand   Rapids,   Michigan   49507
  Singapore! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295    Editorial Policy:  Every   editor   is  solely   responsible   for  the   contents   of
                                                                           his  own   articles.   Contributions   of   general   interest   from   our  readers   and
The Voice of Our Fathers  -                                                questions   for  the   Question-Box   Department   are   welcome.   Contri-
                                                                           butions   will   be  limited   to   approximately   300   words   and   must   be  neatly
                                                                           written   or   typewritten,   and   must   be   signed.   Copy   deadlines   are  the   first
   The Marks of the True Church . . . . . . . . . . . .  .297              and   the   fifteenth   of   the   month.   Ail   communications   relative   to   the
                                                                           contents   should   be   sent   to  the   editorial   office.
From Holy Writ  -                                                          R e p r i n t   PO/icy:  Permission   is  hereby   granted   for   the   reprinting   of
                                                                           articles   in  our  magazine   by   other   Publications,   provided:   a)  that  such
   Exposition of the Book of Galatians . . . . . . . .299                  reprinted   articles   are  reproduced   in  full;   b)  that   proper   acknowiedge-
                                                                           ment   is  made:   c)  that   a  copy   of  the   periodical   in  which   such   reprint
The Strength of Youth  -                                                   aooears   is  sent'to.our   editoriaioffice.
                                                                           Business Office:  The  Standard   Bearer
   Letter from Christchurch, New Zealand . . . . .  .301                                          Mr.   H.  Vander   Wai,   Bus.   Mgr.
                                                                                                  P.O.  Box  6064
Triumph Through Trials  -                                                                         Grand   Rapids,   Michigan   49506
                                                                           New Zealand Business Office:                    The   Standard   Bearer,
 Earthen Vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .303                                                       c/o   OPC   BookshoP,
                                                                                                                           P.O.  BOX   2289
Guest Article  -                                                                                                           Christchurch,   New   Zealand
   Dooyeweerd's Passing  - An Evaluation (2) . .  .304                     S u b s c r i p t i o n   P o l i c y :   Subscription   price,   $7.00   per   year   ($5.00   for
                                                                           Australasia).   Unless   a  definite   request   for  discontinuance   is  received,   it
                                                                           is  assumed   that   the   subscriber   wishes   the   subscription   to   continue   wdh-
My Sheep Hear My Voice  -                                                  out   the   formality   of   a  renewal   order,   and   he  will   be   billed   for   renewal.
                                                                           if  you   have   a  change   of  address,   please   notify   the   Business   Office   as
   Letter to Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .306       early   as  possible   in  order   to   avoid   the   inconvenience   of   delayed   deiiv-
                                                                           ery.   include   your   Zip   code.
All Around Us  -                                                           Advertising Policy:  The   Standard Bearer  does   not   accept   commercial
                                                                           advertising   of   any   kind.   Announcements   of  church   and   school   events,
   The "Homosexual Battle" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .308             anniversaries,   obituaries,   and   sympathy   resolutions   will   be  placed   for  a
                                                                           53.00   fee.   These   should   be'sent   to   the   Business   Office   and   should   be
   Evangelism Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 10      accomDanied   bv  the   $3.00   fee.   Deadline   for   announcements   is  the   1st
                                                                           or   the'  15th   of-the   mbnth.
                                                                                                             ,      Previous   to   Publication   on   the   15th   or   the
Report of Classis West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .312        ist   respectively.
                                                                           Bound Volumes:  The   Business   Office   will   accept   standing   orders  for
                                                                           bound   copies   of   the   current   volume;   such   orders  are   filled   as  soon   as
                                                                           possible   after   completion   of  a  volume.   A  limited   number   of   past   voi-
                                                                           umes   may   be  obtained   through   the   Business   Office.


MEDITATION



                                                The Guilt of  Sin
                                                                 Rev. C Hanko

                 Doth not God then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in his law, that which he
             cannot perform?
                 Not at all, for God made man capable of performing it; but man, by the instigation of the
             devil, and his own wilful disobedience, deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine
             gifts. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 4, Question 9.
   A new concern                                                             Him, to reach out in eager anticipation for that day
   Do I love God? Do I love Him with my whole                                when I shall see Him face to face?
being, so that He is always first, first in my desires,                             It is the child of God who is confronted with this
first in my thoughts, first in importance in all that I                      question, as only a child of God can be confronted
say and do? Is it the zeal for His Name and cause that                       with a question of this kind. True, when we read the
characterizes my life? Do I rely on Him so completely                        question and answer of our Heidelberger as it is
that I say with Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I                          written above, we notice that our Catechism speaks
trust in Him"? Is the chief ambition of my life to                           of  man  in a very general way, as mankind is con-
enjoy fellowship with God, to walk and talk with                             fronted with God's holy law. Yet that mankind


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  291



includes me. It is of personal concern whether or not       example, who ask, Is it just of God to predestinate
I am motivated by the desire to keep God's law. My          some people to eternal life and others to everlasting
only comfort in life and death, my inner peace              condemnation because of their sins? Or, is it just of
demands that I, in submission to my God, can say,           God to make Adam the representative head of the
"Have Thine own way, Lord." The new life within             whole human race, so that the whole world stands
me pleads, "Search me, 0 God, and try my heart. If          condemned by his fall? Or again, is it just that God
there be any evil way in me, lead me in the way             should give His Son as a ransom for the sins of His
eternal."                                                   people, and not for the whole world? Or even, is it
   Already in Lord's Day 2, question 5 we were              not unjust of God to save some by the preaching of
confronted with the question, "Canst thou keep all          the gospel and to harden others by that same preach-
these things perfectly?" There we answered, "In no          ing? Or, finally, is it not unjust that God turns all
wise, for I am prone by nature to hate God and the          things for good to His people, while He uses those
neighbor." Instead of love to God we reveal the very        same things unto the destruction and condemnation
opposite, we hate God and the neighbor. There the           of the wicked? Many have found this to be such a
emphasis fell on the words  "cunst  thou?" In Lord's        hard, cold doctrine, that without exploring the Scrip-
Day 3 we confessed that we cannot keep God's law,           tures to find the answers to these questions, they
because we are born in sin, wicked, depraved, in-           conclude from their own reasoning that God must be
capable of any good, capable only to sin. There our         a God of love, and not of justice. They create for
depravity received all the emphasis. But here, in           .themselves  an imaginary god, a weak, helpless god
Lord's Day 4, our attention is focused on the  guilt  of    who appeals to their own sinful pride.
our sin. Today I stand as a guilty sinner before the           Our Catechism makes itself very bold in bringing
tribunal of a righteous God. The burden of guilt            up the subject of God's justice. Or let me rather say,
presses heavily upon me, condemning me. I deserve           the child of God places himself before the tribunal of
whatever chastisement God may deem good to lay              God as he seeks an honest answer to the questions
upon me. Were He to cast me away from before His            that persist`in arising from his sinful nature. But he is
face into everlasting condemnation of hell, I could         confident in this, and persists in maintaining this as
only admit that I deserve exactly that. I have trans-       his main premise: My God is just in all His dealings
gressed every commandment of God's law. I have              with me.
kept none of them.                                            The Issue
  A bold question                                             Once more we carefully read the question that is
  Let us take another look at the question placed at        before us. "Doth not God then do injustice to man,
the heading of this meditation. I would suggest that        by requiring from him in his law, that which he
we read it slowly, alllowing its full import to             cannot perform?"
penetrate into our consciousness. .                           What does God require of us in His law?
  We make bold to ask, "Does God not do injustice             Does God require that a husband love his wife, that
to man . .  .?" Our first reaction to that question must    he treat her well, care for her and for his children,
be, Perish the thought! When Paul in Romans 9 raises        and make a good home for them? Does God require
the question, "Is there unrighteousness with God?"          of the wife that she respect her husband, have
he immediately adds in deep offense, "God forbid!           children, do her housework well, and show a good
. . . Who art thou, 0 man, that repliest against God?"      deed to her neighbor? Does God require that we ply
Let God be just, and every man a liar. He is in His         an honest business, that we do not squander our
holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him.        earnings, that we go to church on Sunday, pay our
  Why ask a question like that? Obviously our.              alms, send our children to the Christian School, and
Catechism intends this as a rhetorical question that        show real concern for their training and future wel-
demands a strong denial. Yet our Book of Instruction        fare? Is that the extent of what God expects of us?
does this with good cause. We may as well face it, our        If so, our conscience should be at perfect ease as
sinful nature always questions the justice of God in        we stand before the tribunal of the living God. We are
regard to the guilt of our sin. We like to rationalize      reminded of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus
sin, particularly our own sins, in order to condone         with the burning question, "Good Master, what good
them. When I was still very young, I  made.bold to ask      thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"
my mother, "Why did Adam have to sin, and why               (Matthew 19: 16). The Lord referred him to the
must we suffer because of it?" The answer I received,       commandments on the second table of the law. This
as I recall, was a strong reprimand for raising a           was nothing new to one taught in the rabbinical
question like that. But that and similar questions keep     schools. He had been taught to keep the letter of the
coming up in the human mind. There are those, for           law, and he had tried desperately to do just that. This


292                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



young man could honestly say, as far as the letter of          condemnation is our' condemnation. Our fathers
the law was concerned, "All these things have I kept           humbly bow before the testimony of Scripture, as,
from my youth up." But he was still troubled with a            for example, in Romans 5: 12, "Wherefore, as by one
guilty conscience. He had found no inner peace. Like           man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
Luther, he felt the burden of guilt still weighing             so death passed upon all men,  for that all have
heavily upon his soul. Jesus reminds this rich young           sinned.  " Do not fail to see the import of those words:
ruler of the basic principle of the law: Love God, and         Death passed upon all men, because all have sinned in
love your neighbor for God's sake.                             Adam. On the other hand,, we also see already here
  What a tremendous requirement! God demands                   the wonder of grace. For, as all those who  .were in
that a husband assure his wife that he loves her  in the       Adam died in Adam, so also all those who are in
Lord,  that he treats her well because he is motivated         Christ are made alive in Him. (I Cor.  15:22).  0 the
by the love of God, that he cares for her and for his          depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
children in devotion to God, that he is always faithful        how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways
to his stewardship because he seeks only the glory of          past finding out! (Romans  11:33).
his God. God requires of a wife that she respect her             Our Catechism speaks of gifts. God created us in
husband in deepest reverence for Christ, that she have         His likeness and gave us gifts of true knowledge,
children as a covenant mother for the gathering of the         righteousness, and holiness, to know Him, to devote
church, and. that she, do her housework and show               ourselves to Him, and to serve Him in love. We were
kindness to others to give expression to her thankful-         like God. Satan so completely perverted the truth,
ness to her God. There must always be but one                  that he made us believe for a moment that to become
motivation in all that we do: The love of God!                 like God we should do something ourselves, we
  I hang my head in shame and sorrow. I do not do              should defy God and eat of the forbidden tree. What
that. I do not want to do that. I cannot do that. I            fools we mortals be! We squandered our most excel-
cannot want to do that, because of the depraved                lent, divine gifts. We died.
nature in me. The very suggestion is so repulsive to              Let it be granted that the fall came through the
my depraved nature that I sneer at the very sug-               instigation of the devil. I often wonder whether the
gestion of it, as if to say, "Who can live up to such a        fall could have come in any other way. But the fact
high ideal anyway?" May God ask the impossible of              remains that we listened to the wicked, God-defying
me? May He demand of a blind man to see, of a deaf             lie of Satan. We did that in willful disobedience. We
man to hear? Is  .that just? Does not God then do              deprived ourselves of the capability to love God, to
injustice  to  me and to mankind by requiring of us in         trust in Him, to have fellowship with Him as a Friend
His law that which we cannot perform?                          with a friend. `That is our guilt for which we are
                                                               accountable. A cashier in a bank may steal and
  The answer                                                   squander a million dollars before his crime is
  At this point I find a definite conflict within my           detected. Can he make the plea, "I can't pay the
soul, that while my flesh rebels against the demands           money back; I don't have it"? Will the law say', "You
of God's law, my heart breathes forth the prayer, "0           poor fellow, how can anyone be so cruel as to
how love I Thy law, it is my meditation all the day."          demand the impossible of you"? Or does justice
With my Book of Instruction in my hand I go back to            demand that the man pay his debt or bear the
paradise, to our first creation, our original state of         penalty.
righteousness, our willful disobedience that brought             God is just! The love of God compels me to bow
about our fall. My Catechism points out to me that             before that justice. The wonder of grace is, that I will
God endowed us with divine gifts which made us                 the -good, even though the evil is present within me. I
capable of loving Him as our highest Good. We did              join the rich young ruler; arm in arm we sorrowfully
not merely lose those gifts through some accident; we          approach the cross where our debt was paid, our
wilfully deprived ourselves of them by our dis-                salvation was merited, the adoption to sons was
obedience.                                                     sealed, our hope in the heavenly inheritance was
  It can hardly escape us that the fathers do not              secured, once for all, even forevermore.
hesitate to refer to the sin of Adam as the sin of               Forgiven! Saved by grace!
mankind. Man was made capable of keeping God's
law, but  ~z2ay1  deprived himself and all his posterity of
that capability. Our fathers simply accept the fact              Know the standard
that God created Adam as our representative head                 and follow it.
and that the whole human race was included in him.               Read
When he deprived himself of his original righteous-              THE STANDARD BEARER! 4
ness, we deprived ourselves. His guilt is our guilt; his


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       293



EDITORIALS
ProJ: H. C. Hoeksema





                                  Parochiaid Revrived-In Disguise!

  Last time we began to consider the proposal for a                           designed, would be general legislation bene-
referendum in Michigan which would submit to the                              fiting all children in all schools, and would
voters a constitutional amendment providing for a                            meet the accepted criteria of constitution-
so-called "voucher system" of paying for education.                           ality which the Court has previously laid
This would include the children of  all  parents; and                         down in many different cases.
these vouchers, which would be provided to the                       17. Q. - Would parochial schools be able to main-
parents, could be used at both private and public                             tain their standard admission requirements
schools. We saw, too, that this proposal is under the                         and their own religious philosophy under
guise of an alleged more sensible method of financing                         the voucher system?
education: it would get rid of the real estate tax as a                 A. - Yes. Civil rights laws allow such schools to
means of paying for general education costs, and                              restrict enrollment to "own religion only"
substitute some other method of taxation (probably                            status and states have no jurisdiction in this
increased income taxes) which would be up to the                              regard. In addition, civil rights laws could
state legislature.                                                            be more strictly enforced, preventing the
                                                                             maintenance of racially segregated schools
  The elements mentioned above  - and criticized in                           by imposing sanctions upon voucher re-
our previous editorial  - constitute parts of the                            imbursement.
disguise  of this parochiaid proposal. In the first place,
the voucher system constitutes an  indirect  method of              Now it should be perfectly obvious to any reader
state support of private schools. In the second place,           that Question and Answer 15 are  dishonest,  and
the elimination of the local tax  millage, while it does         deceptively so. The answer to this question is not
by no means guarantee a more sensible method of                  No, but Yes. If I am having meat and potatoes for
financing, nevertheless does enable this parochiaid              dinner, and someone asks me, "Are you having meat
proposal to  parade  as a tax-reform proposal.                   for dinner?" I do not answer, "No," but, "Yes, and I
                                                                 am also having potatoes." So here the answer should
  The next section of the informational bulletin                 be, "yes, and it is paired with a proposal to reform
addresses the parochiaid issue directly. It is entitled           the system of financing all education, K-12." Not only
"Non-Public School Student Participation." Under                 so, but there is evidence that parochiaid is one of the
this heading we find the following questions and                 main elements  of the proposal. Furthermore,. accord-
answers:                                                         ing to information which I have received from the
                                                                 office of Citizens For More Sensible Financing Of
    15. Q.  - Isn't this just another attempt to get
              Parochiaid approved and implemented?               Education, "some of the Board members are also
                                                                 members of the Michigan Association of Non-Public,
        A.  - No. This proposal presents a complete               Schools." In fact, no fewer than seven of the total
              reform of the system of financing all educa-       Board membership of sixteen are in some way direct-
              tion K-12, not merely of the dispersal of
              funds. This concept would consider the             ly connected with non-public schools. Of the other
              educational needs of each child individual-        nine it is impossible to tell from the information
              ly, without consideration for religious or         furnished whether they have any such connection.
              economic circumstances. It would give the          Now you may depend on it that such people as Dr.
              same right of choice to all parents.               Philip Elve (National Union of Christian Schools),
    16. Q.  - Is this proposal constitutional?                    who also recently plugged this proposal in  The
                                                                 Banner,  and Sister Maryellen Harmon (Archdiocesan
        A. - It is impossible to predict what the U.S.
              Supreme Court, or the Michigan Supreme              Office of Education, Detroit) and Supt. Donald L.
              Court, will do, especially in cases that           Kell (Lutheran Schools of Mich.-Missouri Synod) and
              involve the religious freedom rights of par-        other such private and parochial school personnel
              ents in the education of their children. But       have their eye chiefly on this one element of the
              it appears that this voucher proposal, as           proposal: parochiaid. It was outlawed once before in


294                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Michigan. But they are determined, in one way or           The first paragraph requires the legislature to main-
another, to win the day for parochiaid! Beware of          tain a system of free public schools without dis-
them!                                                      crimination. The second paragraph now reads as
  But there is a fundamental fallacy also in Answer        follows :
15. The last sentence states: "It would give the same              No public monies or property shall be appropri-
right of choice to  all parents." This is a myth which         ated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the
has long been promoted by parochiaid pushers. The              legislature or any other political subdivision or agency
simple fact is, however, that parochiaid as such has           of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain
nothing to do with  rights.  It has nothing to do with         any private, denominational or other nonpublic,  pre-
equal  rights. Parochiaid, whether in this form or any         elementary, elementary, or secondary school. No
                                                               payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deduc-
other, has to do with  money.  And this voucher                tions,  tuition voucher,  subsidy, grant or loan of
proposal apparently has to do with  equal  money. We           public monies or property shah be provided, directly
already have the  rights.  All parents have the same           or indirectly, to support the attendance of any
right to choose whether to send their children to a            student or the employment of any person at any such
public school or a non-public school. That right is            nonpublic school or at any location or institution
already guaranteed by law. Parochiaid proponents               where instruction is offered in whole or in part to
should quit talking about rights and should frankly            such nonpublic school students. The legislature may
admit that they are interested in somehow obtaining            provide for the transportation of students to and
state funds for private schools.                               from any school. (italics added)
  In the third place, it should be pointed out that a         In the proposed amendment the italicized words
proposal such as this will mean that, in effect, we        above ("tuition voucher") will be eliminated. Then
Protestant Reformed parents will be helping to pay         the last sentence will be made to read as follows:
for Roman Catholic schools, for Lutheran schools,                  The legislature may provide for the transportation
for non-religious private schools, and for any others          of students to and from any school, and notwith-
who choose to come under the voucher system.                   standing any other provision of this constitution, the
  In the fourth place, the grave danger of all                 legislature shall provide for the issuance of an educa-
parochiaid, of whatever form, is not avoided by this           tional voucher to each child in attendance at public
proposal. The assurances of Question and Answer 17             and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools to
are insufficient to quiet fears in this regard. The            be applied toward the cost of that child's education
simple fact is  - and history shows this to be in-             in the school of his or her parent's or guardian's
                                                               c h o i c e .   -
creasingly true in every sphere in our country  - that
what the government pays for the government con-             Notice that  twice  the words "directly or indirect-
trols. And it is easy  .to see how the state simply by     ly" occur in this article, and that it is plainly the
holding over our heads the club of threatened with-        emphatic intention of the constitution to prohibit
drawal of voucher funds or voucher eligibility could       any kind of state financial support of nonpublic
exercise -control over schools and parents. In this        schools. The proposed amendment clearly seeks to
regard we should not be lulled to sleep by allusions to    avoid a formal contradiction by the words "notwith-
civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees. Do not    standing any other provision of this constitution."
be deceived into thinking that the government(s) in        Nevertheless, the contradiction of the intent of
our land have fundamentally a benign and generous          Article VIII is obvious. An "educational voucher"
attitude toward the cause of Christ, and that they will    (the same as a "tuition voucher") is an  indirect  way
be more than happy to lend support to genuinely            of paying public monies to maintain a private,
covenantal and antithetical education. Nor must we         denominational, or other nonpublic school. And it is
dream that the public school forces will be happy to       a  direct  way of supporting the attendance of a
see Christian schools placed on an even footing            student at a nonpublic school. For according to the
financially. The contrary is true. Another campaign        brochure from which we have quoted our informa-
for parochiaid will only serve to arouse the ire of the    tion, "A voucher is a certificate representing a sum of
public school forces and to move them to seek the          money issued by the state to parents for the educa-
destruction of the Christian school movement, as           tion of their children."
they have before.                                            How any court of law could wink at this obvious
  In the fifth place, while I certainly do not pretend     attempt to circumvent the plain intent of the con-
to be any kind of expert on constitutional law, it         stitution is beyond me.
seems to me that a child can understand that this is
unconstitutional. Article VIII, Section 2 of the Mich-        There are a few more questions and answers in the
igan Constitution is pertinent here, and is one of the     brochure, but they are of no importance with respect
articles which this referendum purposes to amend.          to the parochiaid issue. We will not discuss them.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               295



   Our advice is:                                              3. If you get the opportunity, speak up against the
   1. Do not sign the petition for a referendum if you      proposal and warn other Christian school supporters
are approached. If the whole proposal can be kept off       of its dangers.
the ballot, so much the better!                                It is nothing but an attempt to revive the same old
   2. If the proposal appears on the ballot, be sure to     parochiaid  - but in disguise!
vote against it!

             A Threatening Labor Law-U.S. Senate Bill
  According to literature furnished in part by one of       at all to recognize the rights ofworkers who do not
our readers and in part by my colleague, Prof. Hanko,       want to join a union.
there is pending before the United States Senate a            Moreover, this is but the first step in big labor's
"Labor Reform Act." The House of Representatives            program. If they succeed in this step and gain
approved this bill last October. Originally I was           strength, they will, in turn, have more influence on
informed that the Senate would vote on it in                the Congress; and this will in turn give them a better
February; and therefore I did not write about the           chance of success in getting other legislation passed.
matter, thinking it was too late to publish anything        On labor's program are such items as repeal of
before the vote. Now, however, the vote has been            right-to-work laws, giving public employees the right
delayed; and perhaps it will be delayed long enough         to strike, and the legalization of common  situs picket-
for you to write to your senators and express your          ing.
opposition and displeasure. To urge you to do so is            We all know that the place of the Christian worker
part of the purpose of this editorial.                      who will not make common cause with ungodly labor
  I will not quote the technical language of the            unions is in many areas of our country already very
proposed legislation. But let me point out the follow-      small and narrow. This proposed legislation would
ing:                                                        serve to make that place even smaller. We know, too,
                                                            of course, that eventually there will be no place in
   1. Organized labor has made this bill its number         this world for the child of God. The latter fact does
one priority. That in  itself.is sufficient testimony to    not mean, however, that we may or should sit idly by
the fact that it is a bad bill to the Christian who is      with a fatalistic attitude when legislation such as this
opposed to worldly unions.                                  is pending. We may and we should, as Christians,
                                                            protest. And if by our testimony we can also succeed
   2. Labor unions have been losing ground over the         in maintaining for a time some place for ourselves in
last twenty years. In 1976, only one in five American       the midst of the world  - for the kingdom of God's
workers belonged to a labor union. Besides, unions          sake  - so much the better!
are now losing more secret ballot elections than they         We suggest and urge, therefore,  (if this legislation
win. Hence, labor wants a shot in the arm from the          has not been passed by the time this appears in print)
Federal government to assist in union organizing            that you write the Senator(s) from your state, and let
efforts.                                                    your testimony be heard. You can address your
   3. S. 1883 is designed to strengthen the hand of         senator as follows:
the unions. It seeks to require "quickie" union                                The Honorable John Doe
elections. It would allow professional union organ-                             United States Senate
izers to campaign on an employer's property and                                Washington, D.C. 20.5 10
time. It would create stiff new penalties which would       Compose your own letter. It will get more attention
apply chiefly to employers. And the bill does nothing       than a mass mailing of a form letter.

FROM OUR FOREIGN MISSION COMMITTEE

                                             Singapqre!
                                                  Rev. M. Kamps

  At the las,t meeting of the Foreign Mission  Com-         Singapore. It is our desire to inform our people of our
mittee the chairman instructed the undersigned to           activities because of your interest in the spread of the
write an informative article concerning our labors in       gospel and because we as a committee represent you.


296                                          THE  STANDA,RD.BEARER



   As I am writing this article Rev. James Slopsema of     concern has been exclusively to gain answers to
our Edgerton, Minnesota congregation and elder             theological or doctrinal questions. They want des-
Dewey Engelsma of our Hope, Walker, Michigan               perately to be instructed in the truth of God's Word.
congregation are making final arrangements in prep-        Their correspondence with us reveals therefore an
aration for their departure to Singapore later this        earnest spirituality. Especially did I appreciate the
month. Hopefully, they will begin their labors in          emphasis of a certain Mr. Johnson See Choon Hock,
Singapore on the 24th of March. Our emissaries have        who in his letter to brother. Hoeksema expressed
been asked to labor there for from one to two              himself thus: "I want to seek the truth and let the
months. The time for the actual termination of their       truth to set me free."
labors is left to their discretion. The consistory of        You may ask how the Foreign Mission Committee
our  Edgerton congregation has graciously granted our      came in contact with this group? Prof. Hoeksema
request to send Rev. Slopsema to Singapore. We ask         submitted to our committee, in October of 1977,
that you remember these brethren before God's              correspondence which he had with a leader of this
throne of grace as they bring rejoicingly the gospel of    group. Originally, this group was introduced to our
Christ Jesus in a foreign land and among people of         churches by a Mr. Van Rij, of Christchurch, New
another culture.                                           Zealand, who had arranged for Rev. C. Hanko and
   The mandate given our emissaries is to investigate      Prof. Hoeksema to visit this group on their Aus-
this field through preaching and teaching the gospel       tralasian tour.
of sovereign grace in Christ Jesus.  .They are to            It would be good to point out that our committee
determine, if possible, whether or not God has indeed      sent this group a detailed letter asking many specific
prepared the hearts of some to receive the Word. We        questions concerning exactly who they were and
want to know if God has given us as churches an            what they believed. We asked for a written response
"open door" and thus a field of missionary endeavor.       signed, not only by a leader or two of the group, but
   Let me at this time give you some specifics con-        by as many representatives of the group as possible.
cerning the physical and spiritual characteristics of      Thus we received an answer to our inquiry containing
the group of people who have asked us for this help.       the signatures of some thirty-five members of this
They are all young, English-speaking Chinese men and       grOUP.
women. They are all unmarried individuals, pre-              These young believers asked for help and guidance
dominantly in the age bracket of from eighteen to the      in their journey to an understanding of and establish-
early twenties. Some of these individuals are univer-      ment in the truth of God's Word. We felt obligated to
sity students. The group numbers about one hundred         investigate and, if possible, assist them. In just a  few,
souls. They have organized as an evangelistic society      months we will present a full report to Synod for its
and call themselves the G.L.T.D.,  that'& the  Gospel      consideration.
Letters and Tract Department.  They are not an
organized church nor are they affiliated with any            May the blessing of our covenant God rest upon
ecclesiastical body. They have no minister, nor elders     the labors of our emissaries as they bring the precious
or deacons. There are three young men who hold             gospel of Christ crucified and raised from the dead
positions of leadership in the group.                      for the justification of all those given Him of the
                                                           Father from all eternity.
   These young Chinese believers have come to the
knowledge of the Christian faith evidently through           "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem
the labors of a missionary who held to some Baptistic        heard that  Samaria  had received the Word of God,
tenets. The group has experienced considerable               they sent unto them Peter and John." Acts 8: 14.
turmoil in the past year. The missionary of Baptistic        "And the hand of the Lord was with them; and a
`convictions has resigned and no longer is affiliated        great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
with the group. The group has committed itself to the        Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of
doctrine of infant baptism. The interesting thing            the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent
about this group is that, in all their correspondence        forth Barnabas that he should go as far as
with Prof. Hoeksema and with our committee, their            Antioch." Acts.  11:21-22.


        The STANDARD BEARER
        makes a thoughtful gift
        for a shut-in.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        297



THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS




                      The Marks of the True Church
                                                    Prof Robert D. Decker

          "We believe, that we ought diligently and circumspectly to discern from the Word of God which is the true
          Church, since all sects which are in the world assume to themselves the name of the Church. But we speak
          not here of hypocrites, who are mixed in the Church with the good, yet are not of the Church, though
          externally in it; but we say that the body and communion of the true Church must be distinguished from
          all `sects, who call themselves the Church. The marks, by which the true Church is known, are these: if the
          pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments
          as instituted by Christ; if Church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin: in short, if all things are
          managed according to the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ
          acknowledged as the only Head of the Church. Hereby the true Church may be certainly known, from
          which no man has a right to separate himself. With respect to those, who are members of the Church, they
          may be known by the marks of Christians: namely, by faith; and when they have received Jesus Christ the
          only Savior, they avoid sin, follow after righteousness, love the true God and their neighbor, neither turn
          aside to the right or left, and crucify the flesh with the works thereof. But this is not to be understood, as if
          there did not remain in them great infirmities; but they fight against them through the Spirit, all the days of
          their life, continually taking their refuge in the blood, death, passion, and obedience of our Lord Jesus
          Christ, "in whom they have remission of sins, through faith in him." As for the false Church, she ascribes
          more power and authority to herself and her ordinances than to the Word of God, and will not submit
          herself to the yoke of Christ. Neither does she administer the sacraments as appointed by Christ in his
          Word, but adds to and takes from them, as she thinks proper; she relieth more upon men than upon Christ;
          and persecutes those who live  holily according to the Word of God, and rebuke her for her errors,
          covetousness, and idolatry. These two Churches are easily known and distinguished from each other.
                                                                                    Article XXIX,  The Belgic Confession

  In its previous article the  Confession  presents the              presupposition of the  Confession  is that the true
truth that everyone is bound to join himself to the                   Church does in fact exist in the world. It must be
true Church  and'no one ought to withdraw from it                     distinguished from all sects which claim to be the
and live in a separate state from it. This article                   Church and it may easily be distinguished from these
naturally follows. If it be the duty of all men to join               sects by the marks of the true Church. It remains,
themselves to the true Church, they must be able to                   therefore, the duty of everyone diligently to search
distinguish clearly the true Church from the false                    for the true Church, join himself to it and  remainin
Church. This article tells how this is done. We believe              its fellowship.
according to the teaching of the Word of God that
there are certain marks by which the true Church is                      This search is often very difficult and even painful
easily distinguished from the false. The necessity for               and must be put in its proper light. The Church, after
this lies in the fact that there are many sects in the               all, for the most part is gathered in the line of the
world which assume to themselves the name Church.                    generation of believers. The Covenant is established
By sect the  Confession  means any group which                       with believers and their seed: (Genesis  17:7) "the
purports to be the Church but which teaches false                    promise is to you and to your children and to all that
doctrine. Often, we might add, this false doctrine is                are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
accompanied by evil conduct. (Cf. II Peter  2:lff.) It               call." (Acts  2:39) This means that children indeed
is characteristic too of the sects that they exalt one               belong to the Church to which their parents be-
doctrine or a few at the expense of the rest of Biblical             longed, and because their parents belonged to that
truth. Not infrequently they claim for themselves or                 Church. This is not bad as is sometimes asserted. But
their leaders special revelation from the Holy Spirit.               the point is that one must constantly be on the alert
These have proliferated in the recent past making it                 that the Church to which he belongs does not begin
all the more incumbent upon us to maintain the truth                 the journey toward the false Church. That journey, as
as it is set forth by the  Confession.  The fundamental              the history of the Church abundantly witnesses, is


298                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



often very long. A manifestation of the true Church         cannot mean just the disciples and other followers of
does not become false over night. But long as that          the Savior at that time. Jesus means that all of His
journey may be it is irrevocable! Once an institute of      sheep hear His voice, are known by Him, and follow
the Church embarks on the journey toward the false          Him. But how can this be? How is it that we today
Church there is no turning back. If, therefore, after       hear not just about Jesus, but actually hear the voice
careful and diligent study of God's Word one dis-           of the Good Shepherd? Romans 10: 13-15 supplies
covers that the Church of which he is a member is on        the answer: "For whosoever shall call upon the name
the way to becoming the false Church he is under            of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
solemn obligation to leave that Church and either           on him in whom they have not believed? and how
re-establish the institute by way of reformation or         shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?
find an institute of the Church which manifests the         and how shall they hear without a preacher? And
marks of the true Church.                                   how shall they preach, except they be sent?" This
  In general concerning those marks of the true             passage teaches that one must call upon the name of
Church we must understand that they are defined in          the Lord in order to be saved. In order to call upon
the Word of God. They have not been determined by           the name of the Lord one needs faith. In order to
men to be the marks of the Church but the Scriptures        receive faith one must hear Christ. Note that one
teach us that by these marks the true Church may be         must not hear of or about Christ, but one must hear
known. Scripture, after all, is the objective standard      Christ Himself. And one cannot hear Christ without a
for all truth. Scripture tells us what the Church is and    preacher, and no one can preach except he be sent.
how it may be distinguished. We must also understand        Thus it is that by the means of preaching the sheep of
that the three marks mentioned by the  Confession           Christ hear His voice, know Him, and follow Him.
are not really coordinate. By this we do not mean to          That preaching must have as its content "the pure
say that all three must not be present. They must.          doctrine of the gospel." That stands to reason. The
But the preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel        pure doctrine of the gospel is simply the Holy
is the chief mark of the Church. Apart from it the          Scriptures, the Word of God in Christ. If the voice of
other two marks could not exist. If there were no           Christ is to be heard, then the Word of Christ,
preaching there could be no proper administration of        nothing less and nothing more, must be preached.
the sacraments and there could be no exercise of            And that marks the true Church. There one will find
Church discipline. Thus these marks are essentially         the proper administration of the sacraments, the
one mark: the preaching of the pure doctrine of the         exercise of Christian discipline, and all things man-
gospel. That is the one mark that matters! Where the        aged according to the Word of God. For where the
preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel is, there      preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel is, there
will be the proper administration of the sacraments         is Christ. And where Christ is, there is the true
and the faithful exercise of Church discipline, and         Church. "Hereby the true Church may be certainly
there is the true Church! On the other hand, where          known, from which no man has a right to separate
the pure doctrine of the gospel is not preached, the        himself."
sacraments are soon profaned and Church discipline
becomes non existent.                                         By way of contrast the  Confession  mentions the
  The chief mark of the Church is, therefore, the           marks of the false Church, i.e., those Churches which
preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel. This is       have over the course of time become false. In par-
abundantly evident from the Scriptures. I Corinthians       ticular, considering the historical occasion of this
1: 18-24 teaches that:  ". . . it pleased God by the        Reformation Creed, the  Confession  has reference to
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."        the Roman Catholic Church. The false Church trusts
(vs. 21 b.) It simply pleases God to use the means of       in the authority of men (popes and bishops  et.&)
preaching (considered "foolishness" by the world) to        than in the Word of God and will not submit to the
save His people and to make of no effect and destroy        yoke of Christ. The false Church adds to and sub-
the wisdom and understanding of the world. Likewise         tracts from the sacraments appointed by Christ and
Scripture teaches that the ascended Christ gave             persecutes the Godly instead of excommunicating the
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers      ungodly. This latter was reality at the time the
to His Church for the perfecting of the saints and the      Confession  was penned; indeed its author, Guido de
edifying of the body of Christ. Through the work of         Bres, himself died a martyr.
the ministry of these officebearers who are preachers         Evidently because it is one's calling not only to
the saints are brought into the unity of the faith and      seek the true Church, but also to seek the com-
of the knowledge of God and are no more tossed to           munion of the saints, the  Confession  speaks of the
and.fro by every wind of doctrine. (Ephesians  4:7-l 6)     marks of the members of the true Church. To be sure,
Jesus said: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know             where one finds the  true'church he will also find the
them, and they follow me." (John  10:27) That               people of God. These marks are: a walk of Godly


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                299



  sanctification in separation from the world and a           And, let it be understood, the weaknesses and sins of
seeking for refuge in the blood, death, passion and           the members of the Church are neither a reason to
  obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what            leave nor a reason to refuse to join that Church where
  characterizes believers, members of the true Church.        the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached, as some
                                                              allege. The one thing that matters is this: is the pure
    This does not mean, however, the article warns,           doctrine of the gospel preached in this Church? If so,
  that believers are perfect in this world. There remain      that is where I belong. That Church I must never
  in them many infirmities against which they must            leave, not for any reason: not for a husband or wife,
  fight all their life long through the power of the Holy     not for a job; no, not for any reason! There I shall be
  Spirit. The members of the true Church are but              fed with the Bread of Life; there I shall drink from
  sinners and even the holiest of them have only a small      the fountain of Living Water; there I shall hear the
  beginning of the new obedience. This is precisely why       voice of the Good Shepherd Who laid down His life
  they need the preaching of the pure doctrine of the         for me; there I shall be built up in the knowledge of
  gospel, the sacraments, and the discipline of Christ:       the Son of God; there I shall be saved!

  FROM HOLY WRIT



               Exposition of the Book of Galatians
                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers


  THE FAITH WHICH WAS ABOUT TO                                year, when each day of atonement proclaimed that
  BE REVEALED  (Gal.  3:23) (continued)                       this salvation was "not yet." Never could these laws
    If this "faith," which is about to be revealed, is the    and ordinances make those coming to the temple
  full salvation in Christ crucified, dead and buried,        perfect. (Heb.  1O:l)  Never did they feel in their
  then we can also understand that Paul can speak of          hearts and consciences that sin had been forever
  this faith as a mystery of grace which must be              removed by a perfect sacrifice for their sins. When
  "revealed." The term in the Greek is one which              finally the Christ-child is brought to the temple the
  means: take the covering off. This faith was hid prior      aged Simeon, in rapturous joy of the Holy Spirit,
  to this revelation by God. It was hid in the secret         cries out: Now let thy servant depart in peace, for
  counsel and purpose of God in Christ before the             mine eyes have seen thy salvation. (Luke  2:30)
  foundation of the world. (Eph. 3: 1-12; I Peter  1:20)        This was the great moment for which the law had
  Yes, this faith was foreknown, indeed, before the           kept Israel in ward and had  corraled them unto
  foundation of the world, but was manifested in these        Christ, separated from the nations. Ever Israel felt
  last days because of us. All through the Old Testa-         that this moment on God's clock was about to strike.
  ment Dispensation this "faith" was hid. It was hid          It was  aways  a faith which was "about" to be
  even from the very prophets who all prophesied until        revealed. Even so the prophets were told, that this
  John the Baptist, who was more than a prophet.              was not for themselves that they were searching out
  (Matt. 11: 11-16) Many prophets desired to see the          the time of the sufferings of Christ and the glory of
  things which we now see, but could not see them, and        the Church to follow. This was for us, the people of
  to hear the things which we hear now of this "faith"        the New Dispensation. It was a "light to lighten the
  and could not hear them. These prophets, who had            Gentiles (be revelation to the Gentiles) and the glory
  the Spirit of Christ testifying in them, inquired and       of thy people Israel." And this was  prepared  before
  searched diligently concerning this faith. They             the face of all the peoples. (Luke  2:29-32; Is.  40:5;
  searched for the salvation which was to be revealed,        52: 10; Is. 42:6;  49:6)
  focusing their attention upon the two main points,            Until that moment of the revelation of "faith"
  namely, the sufferings of Christ (Isaiah 53) and the        Israel was kept, shut up together  unto  this great and
  glory to follow. Dimly they saw all this glory in the       glorious revelation!. 0, there was such beauty in these
  laws and shadows of the Old Testament laws given by         Old Testament sacrifices which  alI pointed to the
  angels into the hands of Moses the Mediator for them.       great Lamb of God, Who would take away the sin of
    How Israel waited in hope! They waited year after         the world. Even while all things were, by God's


300                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



verdict as Judge of heaven and earth, placed under           of them remain in Christ Jesus for us. (Belgic Con-
sin, there was ever the promise of better things to          fession of Faith, Art. XXV)
come. But now that the awful moment of Calvary has             Paul would clinch this all with the pithy sentence,
come, and all is "finished,? shall we now once more          "Now that faith has come we are no longer under a
go back to these ordinances which were forever               schoolmaster." The law-pedagogue has served well
removed by the perfect sacrifice of Christ, who was          when it was needed by God's dispensation from Sinai,
made a curse for us under law? God forbid!                   The children-heirs were all placed under law, the
                                                             many laws and ordinances. But now that "faith has
THE LAW A SCHOOLMASTER TO CHRIST  (Gala-                     come," all that the pedagogue could do was forever
tians  3:24)                                                 finished. The ordinances were nailed to the Cross as a
  We need not be tedious in this matter. We have             hand-writing against us! (Col.  2:14,15)  We are now
really entered into this matter already in the former        no more under law! The law, as we read it each
paragraphs. However, there are a few matters which           Sunday morning, is no longer such a pedagogue which
we need to underscore here in this text in verse 24.         minutely tells us what we must do in every individual
  The term "schoolmaster" in the Greek text is               case. Christ has made this law His "precepts," which
paidagoogos.  The term means: a guardian or guide of         are a light burden and an easy yoke. (Matt.  11:28-30)
boys. "Among Greeks and Romans the name was                  He has now given us this law as a "new command-
applied to trustworthy slaves, who were charged with         ment" in his blood. (John  13:34) This is the "law of
the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys          Christ" (Gal.  6:2) which we must keep by faith which
belonging to the better class. The boys were not             is energized by love. (Gal. 5  :G),Nothing  else profits or
allowed so much as to step out of the house without          avails in Christ Jesus!
them, before arriving to the age of manhood. The               We are no longer under law-principle. We are under
name carries with it the idea of severity, as of a stem      grace. (Rom. 6: 15-23) All is gift of God. All is
censor and enforcer of morals." (Thayer's Lexicon)           fulfilled promise in Christ Jesus. If ye love me, keep
  Now this is a very helpful metaphor of speech. It          my commandments out of sheer gratitude and holy
points up that the laws and ordinances, under which          fear, which God energizes in you, both to will and to
Israel was kept, shut up to Christ, was serving a            do according to His good pleasure. (Phil. 2: 12) That
purpose for the "sons of God" in the Old Testament           is the spiritual incentive which is ours by faith always
dispensation. These sons were really heirs of the            to obey  God,in holy  fear,and love, which would not
promise. But under law they were treated like chil-          grieve the Spirit of God by whom we have been
dren who needed to have their entire life regimented         sealed unto the day of redemption. (Eph.  4:25-32)
from the cradle to the grave. Yes, these were good             Yes, since faith has come we are no longer under a
laws. Christ was the end of this law. We see this in all     schoolmaster! The severity of the law is gone. God
the feasts and the sabbath days, in their temple and         makes us very willing in the day of His power. (Psalm
priesthood, in their ceremonial, Levitical, as well as       llO:l-3)
their civil laws. These all brought the word nigh to
them. In faith they could see the "end" of these laws,
when one day the time would come when all nations            SONS OF GOD THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST
would be blessed in the promise to Abraham and his           JESUS  (Galatians 3 : 26-29)
seed. These, who understood the promises, enter-               Our text assigns a reason why we are no longer
tained no "Jewish hopes," but clung to the hope of           under a schoolmaster of the law. We are now not any
Israel, the hope of all nations. All the prophetic           longer  de  facto  servants, but we have arrived at the
psalms which were sung by them in the temple and in          permanent status of being legally sons of God. Thus
their homes were Messianic of the future glory of the        we are on the statute books of God.
nations. (Psalm  87:6; Psalm 117;  48:2; etc.)                 This is the case with "all" of us, whether we be
  The entire pedagogy of the law was to impress on           Jew or Greek. Christ came to redeem all his sheep
the hearts and minds .of the Old Testament saints,           who were given him by the Father. All must be one
that justification was not out of works of law, but          fold and one shepherd. There is no difference any-
that it was exclusively out of faith. This means that        more as there was in the Old Testament when the law
Paul is here giving to us the "key of knowledge" to          served as a middle-wall of partition. This wall con-
understand the Old Testament Scriptures. These               sisted of commandments and ordinances. But Christ
truths are profound; however, they are clear and             is our peace. He has fulfilled the law and has taken
perspective. No one who understands this will ever           this law away, so that the vail in the temple is rent
desire to go back to the law of the Old Testament. He        from top to bottom. It was the vail of his own flesh
will desire to retain substance of this Pedagogue,           through which he accomplished this. (Eph.  2:l l-22;
which pbinted to Christ, for the truth and substance         Hebrews 10: 19-22; Matt. 27: 5 1)


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 301



   Of course, that is not true of every Jew and every          between male and female. In the Old Testament,
Gentile in the world. It is true of "as many"  (hosois)        under law, there was this difference. For instance,
as have been baptized into Christ. As many as have             only the male members in the church bore the sign
not been baptized into Christ, who do not have the             and seal of the covenant and of the righteousness
Spirit, are none of His. (Rom.  8:9.) But as many as           which is by faith: circumcision. But now both male
walk by the Spirit these have the Spirit dwelling in           and female are baptized. No, they are not baptized as
them, and they are baptized into Christ. Such are              male and as female; they are baptized  as believers  and
made one plant with Him, even as the branches in the           their seed. The sole  %question  is: does one believe in
vine. (John  15:5-8) These are the ones who are                Christ. Hence, this does not put away the social and
predestinated, called, justified. For to be baptized           God-ordained difference between man and wife, slave
into Christ means not simply to be baptized with               and master, between Jews and Greeks, as the clamor-
water, but it means to be baptized by the Spirit into          ing civil-rights people assert, and as is the bold
the body of Christ, and to be joined with Christ the           assertion of those, who champion for the equality of
head of the body. (I Cor. 12: 13) By one Spirit we             men and women in Church and State, but this only
have  all been baptized into Christ, whether bond or           means that this unity in Christ is such that all of these
free, Jew or Greek.  All  the children are baptized into       relationships are embraced in a higher spiritual unity.
Christ. We are  all  sons. It is not so that the Gentiles      (Eph.  5:22-33;  I Cor.  11:4-13;  I Peter 3: 1-7; Eph.
must once more pass through the state of being under           6: l-9) This is expressed in the Belgic Confession, Art.
law. They, too, are free, and with. the Jews are               XXVII:  ". . . Furthermore, this holy Church is not
fellow-heirs of the  promis,es  in Christ. All received the    confined, bound, or limited to a certain place or to
Spirit consciously by faith, and not by the works of           certain persons, but is spread and dispersed over the
l a w .                                                        whole world; and yet is joined and united with heart
   Here we breathe the pure air of liberty in Christ.          and will, by the power of faith, in one and the same
There is here not a different category for the differ-         spirit."
ent nationalities, social distinctions or difference

T H E S T R E N G T H O F Y O U T H



           Letter from Christchurch,, New Zealand

                                  Rev. R. Van  Overloop        because I knew you would want to know what the
                                  100 Sparks Road              church is like down here. It is not easy to learn what
                                  Christchurch 2               a church is like in a brief period of time. And it is
                                  New Zealand                  even harder to describe it to others. It would have
                                  February  23,1978            been very hasty if I had told you about the church
                                                               immediately after we arrived here. That is why in my
Young People of the                                            first letter to you  (in  the  Beacon Lights)  I told you
Protestant Reformed Churches,                                  about New Zealand life in general.
c/o The Standard Bearer                                          As you probably know, my consistory (upon the
Dear Young People:                                             request of the Contact Committee) sent me to labor
    Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord            in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Christchurch,
and Savior.                                                    New Zealand, and in the Orthodox Presbyterian de-
    It has been two months since we last saw you face          nomination in New Zealand.
to face. We have been busy here in Christchurch, and             The Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Christ-
so it has not seemed as if that much time has already          church is a small congregation. The directory of the
gone by. Yet when I think of you, whom I love in               members shows eight families and six individuals.
the Lord, it does seem a long time ago that I have             Most of the families are young (five of the families
seen you. Some of you have written, and I and my               have been married for less than four years). There-
family certainly have enjoyed that correspondence.             fore, all but one of the six children of the congre-
    I have waited as long as this to write to you              gation are infants or toddlers.


   302                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



     Most of the people of the congregation have been                which we are accustomed, but we are now used to it.
   members of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand                 The Trinity Hymnal is used for the songs.
  before they joined or started the Orthodox Presby-                   Every Tuesday evening there is a prayer meeting
   terian Church in Christchurch. (This congregation                 held in the home of one of the members of the
   was organized in December of 1974.) Two families                  congregation. This is a meeting which is very common
   were members of the Reformed Churches of New                      among Presbyterian churches all over the world. It is
   Zealand. But that the majority of the congregation                a meeting which I appreciate, for it is a time of rich
   comes from  the Presbyterian Churches, and that their             spiritual fellowship. The meeting is begun with
   own name includes the word "Presbyterian" are indi-               prayers, and sometimes there is also a hymn. Then
   cations that this congregation and the denomination               there is a meditation. The purpose of the meditation
-  whitih it joined have adopted as their ecclesiastical             is to prepare one for prayer which follows. The
   ancestry the Reformation in England. There is gener-              meditations are on a text of Scripture or on a
   ally an appreciation for the works of the Puritans.               Scriptural truth. At -this time we are going through
     Before I was permitted to labor within the congre-              the beatitudes of Matthew 5. The meditation is
   gation it was necessary for the Session (consistory) to           followed with prayer, with different people leading in
- examine my doctrinal position. A thorough and                      turns.
   complete examination was not necessary because the                  Every other Wednesday evening there is a meeting
   Session has knowledge of the position of the Protes-              which is similar to the Mr. and Mrs. Societies that you
   tant Reformed Churches. This type of examination is               know. This meeting is held in our home, and we are
   also a necessity  in. our churches before one from                studying marriage and the home.
   another denomination would be allowed to preach                     Alternating weeks with the couples' meeting is a
   and teach in one of our congregations. This is a very             doctrinal study class. This is also held in our home,
   good way for the church to safeguard herself from                 and we are studying together the Westminster Confes-
   heresy.                                                           sion.
     Before I could do any work within any of the                      Every Thursday afternoon there is a catechism
   other two congregations of mission stations in the                class for the one young person (a 13 year old boy) of
   Orthodox Presbyterian Churches of New Zealand, I                  the church. This class is held after school at the only
   had to be examined by the Council of the denomi-                  Christian school in this city of almost 300,000. My
   nation. (The Council is similar to a  Classis meeting in          two oldest children also attend this private Christian
  our denomination.) This took place at a meeting of                 school. The school has an enrollment of about 650
   the Council in Wellington on Saturday, February 11.               students, ranging in ages from 5 to 17.
   The Council accepted me with my doctrinal position                  There is also a catechism class for a young man of
   and advised their congregations that I was available to           the neighborhood who wants to join the Orthodox
   help them when their respective Sessions would see                Presbyterian Church.
   fit. At this time there are no definite plans for any
   work outside of the congregation in Christchurch. Let               I am going to stop. for now. I shall, the Lord
   me tell you a little about the activities in the church.          willing, write again and tell you more. If any of you
                                                                     desire to write us, you can be assured that your
     The first day of the week, of course, is the Lord's             letters will be gratefully received.
   Day. The activities of the church begin at  9:45 with               Often we remember you in our prayers. We pray
   Sunday School. Four adults of the church lead these               that you will be faithful to God in your work, in
   classes. All of the children who attend, with the                 school, in catechism, in play, and in whatever you do.
   exception of my two oldest children, are from the                 Do all things to the glory of God.
   neighborhood. The worship services are held at 11: 00
   A.M. and 7:00 P.M. The manner in which these                        We also covet your prayers.
   services are conducted is with the same solemnity and               May the Lord bless all of us.
   sincerity that all of you know in your own churches.                                                      Yours in Christ,
   The order of worship is a bit different from that to                                                      R. Van  Overloop

                                           Subscribe Now
                                                               to
                       THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    303


TRIUMPH THROUGH TRIALS



                                          Earthen Vessels
                                                     Rev. J. Kortering

   Flower pots.                                                fully. We sincerely `plan our  -days so that we may
   Stoneware.                                                  accomplish as much as possible in the few short
                                                               hours, but night-time has a way of measuring our
   Pottery.                                                     shortcomings. As preachers, teachers, workmen,
   Earthenware.                                                parents, whatever our occupation, we must confess
   Call them what you will, they are made from mud,            with Paul, we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
turned on a wheel, baked, and used either with or                 There is a reason for this.
without painting. Though durable, they are somewhat               "That the excellency of the power may be of God
fragile.                                                       and not of us," I Cor.  4:7.
   This kind of pottery is an earthly picture of our              Power refers to that which is accomplished.
bodies.                                                        Indeed, sermons are preached, lessons taught, chil-
   "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels," II          dren cared for, work done, programs rendered, and
Cor.  4:7.                                                     on and on.
   Good comparison!.                                              Do we boast in our labors?
   Hark back to the beginning': "The Lord God                     Our earthen vessels remind us that the power is
formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed               not in us; it is in the God Who is pleased to use us.
into his nostrils the breath of life," Gen.  2:7.              Paul had to learn that personally. His earthen vessel
   Still more: "For dust thou art and unto dust shalt           had a thorn in it. Three times he prayed God to take
thou return," Gen. 3 : 19.                                      that thorn away; yet the answer came, "My grace is
   Yes, in one word, earthen vessels. We get sick very          sufficient for thee," II Cor.  12:9.
easily. It doesn't take much to get hurt. We may try              The excellency of power is that of grace.
to "paint" the outside, but the hair soon turns gray,             That keeps us going.
the skin becomes dry and wrinkled, the driving spirit
weakens, the keepers tremble, the grinders cease                  We appreciate the comparison that Paul makes in
because they are few, and man goes to his long home.           the verses that follow: troubled-not distressed, per-
                                                                plexed-not in despair, persecuted-not forsaken, cast
   Though true,  we  have a  treasure  in this earthen          down-not destroyed.
vessel.
   In the context of II Cor.  4:7 it becomes obvious              My dear reader, how many times have you wanted
that Paul is talking about the treasure of the gospel,          to do something, but you were prevented from doing
                                                               it because you have an earthen vessel? Remember
more particularly the preaching of the gospel. As a             those days of sickness, heartbreaking sorrow, being
preacher, he realized that it was a treasure to be able         down in the dumps; you suffered some spell in which
to preach the glorious gospel.                                 you blacked out; you had a lapse of memory; fear
   Though this has special meaning for all who stand           gripped your soul; somehow you had to go on but
with Paul and say, "We have this ministry," verse 1,           you didn't know how.
the idea carries over into all of our lives. Every
God-fearing husband and wife views marriage as a                  Yes, we all get these from time to time.
station of service to God. When the Lord blesses that             It's our earthen vessels.
marriage with children, the treasure of parenthood                Returning to dust.
prevails. It is a treasure to be able to arise in the
morning and have work to do. It is a treasure to sit at           That the excellency of  .what power we do have,
the table and eat and drink with our children. They             may be unto God!
are treasures because they involve us in the develop-             Though the earthen vessel crumbles back into the
ment of the covenant of grace. God uses us to further           dust, we arise with a greater awareness of the power
His cause in this world.                                        of God.
   Yet, that treasure is in earthen vessels. We may set           We sing, saved by grace!
high goals, but seldom are we able to realize them                All glory be to our God forever!


304                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



GUEST ARTICLE





            Dooyeweerd's Passing- An Evaluation
                                                   Bernie Postma

(Note: This is the second installment of brother            innermost thoughts of each and every man and Who
Postma's article on this subject. The first installment     tries the hearts, to judge whether or not Dooyeweerd
appeared in our previous issue. HCH)                        was a child of God. But that he erred with respect to
                                                            the Bible is without any doubt.
II; Dooyeweerd's View of the Bible                            Although Runner often makes mention of the
  It really concerns me that Runner does not make           Word of God in his appreciation for Dooyeweerd and
any reference to Dooyeweerd's view of the Bible.            even speaks of a Biblical foundation in regard to the
                                                            principles Dooyeweerd stood for, we do well in this
Must we assume, then, that Runner shares Dooye-             time and age of boundless confusion to ask: what is
weerd's view? We do get that impression by reading          meant by the Word of God? About a year ago I heard
his article. In fact, it seems rather obvious that          a Christian Reformed minister  - there were other
Runner backs up Dooyeweerd all the way, giving him          witnesses present  - make the remark in regard to
and his brother- in-law all the credit for changing "the    what I termed an unbiblical phenomenon in our
whole course of my life."                                   churches and school as follows: "Well, that's your
   Furthermore, he defends Dooyeweerd by saying:            Biblical interpretation, but I have mine; the Baptist
"Dooyeweerd's preference in his later years for the         has his, the Roman Catholic has again another inter-
term `ecumenical Christian' instead of `Calvinistic' to     pretation, and the Presbyterian has his; so, who are
designate his philosophical work was in no wise (italics    you going to believe?" I was amazed and stunned and
added) a departure from his Reformed heritage, as           let him know in no uncertain terms that I do not
has been charged."                                          expect such kind of confused reasoning from a
  Question no. 1: Was Calvin perhaps too Biblical in        minister of the Word, and certainly not in the
his approach to all of life, so that Dooyeweerd did         Christian Reformed church.
not want to use the designation "Calvinistic" for his
philosophical work?                                           If the Bible is treated that way, then each one may
                                                            interpret it according to his own fancies, philo-
  Question no. 2: What really does the expression           sophical or not, we'd better realize that we have
"ecumenical Christian" mean? Does it mean to sug-           removed ourselves a long way from what our Re-
gest that we must discard the Reformed Creeds as            formed forefathers stood for.
Dooyeweerd suggested in 1961, during his meeting
with the A.R.S.S. board in Canada? Does Dooye-                The Bible allows only  one  interpretation, and that
weerd mean to suggest that philosophy is so much            is the interpretation according to the sense and the
more able to unite Christians all over the world than       meaning of the Holy Spirit. If this would not be true,
                                                            then the Bible has ceased to be our only absolute and
the Reformed Confessions would be able to?                  infallible rule of faith and life. To make the Bible
  Question no. 3: Does Runner mean to suggest that          subject to all kinds of human opinions, however
Dooyeweerd was thoroughly Reformed in the true              philosophically clever, renders our  oniy  rule for faith
sense of the word? Is it Reformed to say, as Dooye-         and life arbitrary and frivolous.
weerd did, that the Bible is not God's Word, but that         Dooyeweerd was a proponent of Limited Inerrancy
God's Word is in the Bible next to a fallible human         with respect to the Bible. He believed "indubitably"
word? Is it Reformed to say that not all of the Bible       (his own word, B.P.) that next to the infallible word
has been inspired by the Holy Spirit? Is it Reformed        of God in the Bible there is a fallible human word. He
to say, as Dooyeweerd did, that the holy apostle Paul       believed firmly that not all of the Bible is infallibly
contradicts the Scripture? Or, that there are mistakes      inspired by the Holy Spirit. He did not believe that
in the Bible?    -                                          the Bible is God's Word, but that God's Word is in the
  We must leave it up to God, Who knows the                 Bible. He believed, furthermore, that there are  mis-


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     305



takes in the Bible, yes, that even the Apostle Paul           "Scripture is  only  (italics added) one form of the
contradicts  (!) God's Word.                                  Word of God." One wonders how many other forms
                                                              he had in mind! And this: "Scripture is  only  (again
  What does such a position of Limited Inerrancy              that limiting word `only,' B.P.) so many human
lead to? It leads to limited authority (divine!, that is),    words, unless we see that it is the only means there is
and via limited authority the entire Bible is taken           to connect us with the revelation of God in Christ."
away from the people of God. And, losing the Bible            By the way, John Calvin says that it is the Holy Spirit
leads to losing God Himself. They have forsaken my            which connects us to Christ through the Word (the
Word, I have forsaken them, says God.                         Bible). We are further informed that "the Bible in
  Our Reformed forefathers believed in Unlimited              isolation is not the Word of God. Scripture is  only  a
Inerrancy, so that they knew what it meant to stand           form of revelation and if we do not recognize that it
in awesome wonder before the absolute, unlimited              is  only  a form (italics added), we shall exalt the Bible
sovereignty of God.                                           above its due and do despite to Christ." This might
  To take, and for the church of God to allow for             sound rather pious, but in reality it is nothing but
the position of Limited Inerrancy, leads to absurdities       philosophical hullabaloo! Fact is that we, as sinful as
not only on the pulpit, but school, family life, and all      we are by nature, are never able to exalt the Bible too
of society is adversely affected by such a stand; since       much. In fact, the more we respect and exalt the
limited authority with respect to God, Who is the             Bible as the living Word of our God, the more we
Absolute Sovereign over all things, degenerates to            exalt God, Whose Holy Name is to be exalted above
anarchy.                                                      all else. We wish that the Bible would be more exalted
                                                              than it is today. No further comment should be
  Besides, when it is taught and believed that the            necessary.
Bible contains fallible human words, who then, I
pray, is to say which portion of the Bible is fallible?         And what about these words of wisdom (philo-
                                                              sophical, that is) by Dr: Hendrik Hart in a book,  The
  That such a concept of the Word of God, the Bible,          Challenge  of  Our Age:  "As such, as inscripturation,
carries much further than one might ever suspect, and         there is nothing unique about the Bible, for God's
influences the hearts and minds of even God's people          revelation is certainly not limited to  that  book (italics
much more strongly than one might wish super-                 added). Nor is the inspiration of the Bible something
ficially, is clearly demonstrated by Dooyeweerd's             limited to it alone. For we certainly do not believe
pupils and the facts with which we are confronted             that after the Bible was complete, God stopped
every day. Dooyeweerd's pupils, better known prob-            i n s p i r i n g   a u t h o r s . " Nothing unique about the
ably as the leaders of the A.A.C.S. movement, have            Bible . . . ! Nothing about the God-breathed, infal-
indeed carried this principle of "Limited Inerrancy"          libly inspired Word of God, which He in His infinite
farther than Dooyeweerd would have perhaps ever               grace gave to His church! Nothing unique about the
presumed. We have now come to the third part of our           Bible and its glorious unity in spite of more than four
criticism.                                                    thousand years of writing! Where does  Dr; Hart get
                                                              the audacity to write such blasphemous words?
III. How the Bible Is Viewed By Some of  Dooye-
weerd's Pupils                                                   Perhaps we might be looking forward by and by to
                                                              a new Hart Bible, just as we have been "entertained"
   In the Netherlands there is a saying which goes            not too long ago on the campus of Dordt College by
something like this, "Zoals de ouden zongen,  piepen          Dr. C. Seerveld in a talk (announced in the church
de jongen," or freely translated, "As the older ones          bulletin!), "How to read the Bible aesthetically,"
sang, so the young squeek." Now, obviously, there is          when he read his own peculiar version of the Bible,
quite a difference between singing and squeeking. But         calling it God's Word! Well, a few more or less flimsy
what can be expected of the young ones when the               versions of the Bible won't make any difference. Let's
older ones produce an unclear sound? This becomes             add to the confusion!
very apparent when one reads the various pamphlets,
brochures, and books, or attends some of their                   The same writer, Dr. Hart, informs us that "the
so-called "discovery" series meetings, where a number         Word of God is not a textbook. .  .because  it is not a
of A.A.C.S. leaders have expressed their views about          book at all!" Furthermore, he says: "The Bible is,
the Bible. A few illustrations might be sufficient to         thank God, not the pure revelation of God's Word,
show that the A.A.C.S. movement is not as Christian           because then we could not see it." Anyone who
(in the Biblical sense) that is, as it might sound on the     wants to swallow this philosophical hodge-podge
surface.                                                      should read and study Article 4 of the Belgic Confes-
   Dr. Paul Schrotenboer, secretary of the RES, had           sion before attempting to do so.
this to say when he wrote in the  International                  Another one of the A.A.C.S. leaders, Dr. Arnold
Reformed Bulletin  in the January-April issue, 1968:          DeGraaf,  states emphatically that the Bible is not a


306                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



textbook for any science, not even  theology  (italics         Sacra Scrip tura, where he writes on p. 35 that
added). "And therefore," so he writes in  The Edu-             philosophers do indeed construct cosmologies; but
cational Ministry  of  the Church,  pp. 156-158,  " Dr.        each philosopher in doing so constructs his own
Abraham Kuyper's effort to derive his theology solely          image of God. It is impossible for any philosopher to
from the Scriptures was a mistake, since the Bible             come to the true knowledge of God based upon fact
does not contain scientific theological concepts." He          gained from nature. Since a philosopher makes his
adds: "A person wanting to derive his theology from            own image of God, every philosophy is idolatry!
the Scriptures alone  will invariably be  misled." (italics       In summary let me point out the following:
added) What an audacity against God Almighty and
His Holy Spirit! "The meaning of Scripture," so                   1. There is very little mention of the true and hor-
DeGraaf informs us further, "cannot be grasped                 rible character of sin, which has deadly infected all of
without considering the creational ordinances." He             life in all its relationships.
says he found the ground plan for these ordinances,               2. There is a wrong emphasis on the redeeming and
these "law spheres," in the philosophy of Law                  saving work of God through Jesus Christ. There is an
of Dooyeweerd. DeGraaf informs us that "as a                   unbiblical stress upon the salvation of the world
systematic discipline, theology cannot do without              through so-called Christian organizations, rather than
such a theoretical account of the order of creation."          stressing the calling of the individual child of God.
Poor Augustine, poor Calvin, poor  DeCock, and                    3. There is very little mention of the need for re-
others, who all had to do it without such a theory! In         generation; but without this regeneration by the gra-
Understanding the Scriptures, the same DeGraaf tells           cious operation of God's Holy Spirit in the hearts of
us that the Bible does not teach us specifically the           His children, there is no possibility at all of even
origin of man and beast, because it does not contain           spiritually seeing the kingdom of God.
propositional truths about God, about Who and what               4. There is a high-minded  arrogancy (spiritual
He is, and about man!                                          high-mindedness!) in the AACS camp, shown by a
  Many more examples could be cited, but we                    belief that there has never been a truly Christian
would like to suggest the reader avail himself of the          philosophy until Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven devel-
booklet  Some Questions and Answers About the                  oped it! Dooyeweerdians admit that their doctrine
AACS,  by Rev. Peter  DeJong, of Dutton Christian              cannot be traced farther back than Dooyeweerd or
Reformed Church. It is made available by the Re-               Kuyper. They arrogantly believe that everyone before
formed Fellowship, Inc., Box 7383, Grand Rapids,               Dooyeweerd was wrong, but everyone after him will
Michigan 49501.                                                be right in as far as he agrees with Dooyeweerd. The
  There is indeed a lot of talk about the Word of              same spirit comes to expression in Runner's article.
God among the adherents of the AACS movement,                    5. Thus, Dooyeweerdianism, as carried out by the
and consequently it sounds so pious. But if the Bible          leaders of the AACS, is a new system of thought, new
is only one form of the Word of God, to mention                doctrine, if you will.
only one aspect of this whole matter, how many
other forms of the Word of God are there? And who                6. Our Reformed forefathers embraced this prin-
is going to explain, to exhort, and to exegete the other       ciple, that if the doctrine is true, it is not new! If it is
various "forms" of the Word?                                   new, it is not true. We do well to take these words to
  Let me conclude this third part with a word from             heart, so we may watch and try the spirits, whether
Abraham Kuyper, taken from his  dictatum  on  Loci             they are of God.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE

                                           April  1,1978
Dear Timothy,                                                  special offices in .the Church and the office of  alI
  In our correspondence together we have been                  believers. This question quite naturally arises from
discussing the rise of the special offices in the              the fact that the special offices in the Church are all
Church: the offices of minister, elder, and deacon.            the reflection in the Church of Christ's three-fold
And in connection with this discussion, we have also           office of Prophet, Priest, and King. You are fully
examined the basic meaning of the offices as they              aware of the fact that our own Heidelberg Catechism,
stand related to the one office of Christ which He             in discussing the name Christ, discusses also this
holds in His Church.                                           three-fold office of Christ. But then it adds the
  It is time now to discuss a slightly different aspect        significant question and answer: "But why art thou
of this question, that is, the relation between the            called a Christian? Because I am a member of Christ


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 307



by faith, and thus am partaker of his anointing; that          deacons that of priests  - it would seem that the
so I may confess his name, and present myself a living         office of believers is the main office in the Church
sacrifice of thankfulness to him: and also that with a         and that those who hold the special offices hold
free and good conscience I may fight against sin and           offices which are subordinate to that of the office of
Satan in this life: and afterwards reign with him              believers. The result, of course, would be a kind of
eternally, over all creatures." (Lord's Day XII, ques-         democracy in the Church where all decisions and all
tion and answer 32.)                                           authority are exercised by the office of believers and
   The whole point of this beautiful paragraph in our          the officebearers are some kind of representative
Heidelberg Catechism is that all believers also share,         assembly voted in to carry out the will of the
by the anointing of the Spirit, in the three-fold office       majority, or some kind of "Board of Trustees" to act
of Christ. All believers are also prophets and priests         in the name of the congregation as a whole.
and kings. If therefore believers hold this three-fold           But this is not the Scriptural idea. Scripture also
office, and ministers, elders, and deacons hold this           makes it very clear that those who hold the special
three-fold office, what is the relationship between            offices in the Church hold a position of authority.
believers and their officebearers? This is a very funda-       Hebrews  13:7 leaves no doubt about this at all;
mental question of Reformed Church Polity. In a                "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit
way, I would almost say that it is the most funda-             yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they
mental of all. It stands at the very heart of all the life     that must give account, that they may do it with joy,
of the Church of Jesus Christ in her institutional             and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."
form. In a way too, it is a very difficult question. I         Paul speaks to the elders of Ephesus of the authority
recall that at the time of various court cases in              which they have over the Church when he says:
connection with the split in 1953 efforts were made            "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the
to make this point of Church Polity clear in the civil         flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
courts of the land. But all such efforts proved to be          overseers. . .  ." (Acts  20:28)  And so it is clear that
fruitless. The courts, erected on a system of higher           there is an authority which officebearers possess by
and lower courts, each higher court with supervision           which they rule over Christ's Church.
over a lower court, simply could not get this point              This authority rests first of all in their office. The
through their heads. Of course, this question arose            relation between authority and obedience, as defined
also in connection with the relation between the               by the fifth commandment, extends also to the
broader ecclesiastical assemblies and the consistories;        Church of Christ. Officebearers hold an  office.  They
but at the heart of it stood the relation between the          represent Christ. They are given the  right  to rule in
office of believers and the special offices in the             Christ's name. They are authorized to speak for
Church.                                                        Christ. Obedience is their due. But their authority
  There is no question about it that the Scriptures            rests also in the Word. There have been, and always
teach that these special offices were ordained and             will be, men who hold an office in the Church who
instituted in the Church by the command of Christ              do not come with the Word of Christ, but rather
Himself through His holy apostles. We have looked              come with their own word. Insofar as they speak
already at some of this Scriptural proof and need not          their own word, they have no authority whatsoever.
go over it again. It is also clear that, by the gift of the    No man is obligated before God to bow to the word
Holy Spirit which was poured out upon the Church at            of a man. Only when they speak the Word of Christ,
Pentecost, all God's people are prophets and priests           as that is recorded in the Scriptures, do they have
and kings. To cite but one passage, Peter writes to the        authority. But these two belong together. They do
Church that "ye are a chosen generation, a royal               not have two separate sources of authority. Their
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye         authority as officebearers is directly connected to the
should shew forth the praises of him who hath called           authority of the Word. Christ has placed them in
you out of darkness into his marvellous light." (I             office with the express purpose of speaking His Word
Peter  2:9) Here, literally, God's people are called a         to His people. That is really the sole function of their
royal priesthood. And the office of prophet is implied         office. And because Christ alone has authority in His
in the words: "that ye should shew forth the praises           Church, Christ's Word alone has authority over the
of him who hath called you out of darkness into his            lives of the sheep. So the two come together. They
marvellous light," for this is exactly the fundamental         are united in officebearers appointed by Christ to
idea of the office of prophet.                                 bring Christ's Word.
  If, therefore, the people of God hold the three-fold           Now the question is: what is the relationship
office of Christ, while officebearers, in their respec-        between these special offices in the Church and the
tive offices hold only one part of that office  -              office of believers? Quite obviously, if believers also
ministers that of prophets, elders that of kings, and          hold an office from Christ, they too have authority.


  308                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  One cannot hold an office without holding authority         when they visit their fellow saints in suffering and
  at the same time. How then can believers exercise the       distress. They do this when they come to admonish a
  authority of their office and still submit to the           fellow saint because of his sin. They do this when
  authority of special officebearers in the Church? It is     they witness to the truth both within the Church and
  the answer to this question which forms the heart of        outside it. And even then that Word carries the
  Reformed Church Polity.                                     authority of the Word of Christ which they speak as
     We must narrow down the problem just a bit more          believers. There is a sense in which they even "rule"
  before we specifically answer it. The fact of the           over their fellow saints. This is especially evident
  matter is that the believer, in his office, functions as    when they fulfill the mandate of Christ in Matthew
  officebearer in all his life. The believer, be he man or    18:  15- 17 : "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass
  woman, is prophet, priest, and king in all that he          against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee
  does. He is not simply on occasion and in certain           and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained
  aspects of his life an officebearer. This is impossible.    thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take
  This world, with all its relationships and responsi-        with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two
  bilities, is God's house. God, through Christ, calls        or three witnesses every word may be established.
  every child of God to function as an officebearer in        And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the
  all His house and in everything which he does. He is        church. . .  ." Those to whom believers come are
  prophet, priest, and king in his family, in his work, in    obligated to "hear" the Word of admonition which is
  relationship to his employer and his magistrate. He is      brought. There is emphatically a certain sense in
  prophet, priest, and king every step of his pilgrim's       which believers show the mercies of Christ when they
  pathway, and nothing can ever relieve him from the          help one another with material gifts when their
  responsibilities of that office. The question, in the       brothers are in great need. In all these senses they
  narrower sense therefore, is: how does the believer         function in the office of believers apart from the
  function as officebearer, prophet and priest and king,      church institute.
  in the Church of Jesus Christ? What is the unique             But, within the church institute, they exercise their
  nature of his function in that part of his life which is    office only through the special offices in the Church.
  characterized by his membership in the institution of       It is very important that we understand this. It is
  the Church where the Word is preached, the sacra-           always the office of believers which functions in the
  ments administered and discipline exercised in the          Church of Christ. It is the office of believers which
name of Christ;! That is the question which now               preaches the Word on the Lord's Day  - but through
concerns us?                                                  the office of minister. It is the office of believers
    The answer to that question is that he functions          which rules in the Church of Christ and exercises
  within the Church as institute in such a way that the       Christ's discipline  - but only through the office of
  exercise of his office is always  through.  the special     elder. It is the office of believers which shows
  offices which Christ has ordained andinstituted. And        Christian mercy- but only and ever (within the
  the determinative word here is "through." When he           Church institute) through the office of deacons.
  exercises his office in this way, then you have, in the       We must stop for the moment. We shall have to
  Church of Christ, the officially appointed means of         demonstrate in a concrete way how exactly that
  grace.                                                      works out in the Church. But it is this singular fact
    There is a certain sense of the word in which             which forms the "anomoly" of Reformed Church
  believers are specifically prophets, priests, and kings     Polity and is at the same time its real genius.
  even in relation to their fellow saints. For example,
  believers must function as prophets and bring the                                                 Fraternally,
  Word of God to their fellow saints. They must do this                                             H. Hanko

  ALL AROUND US


                                   The "Homosexual Battle"
                                                   Rev. G. Van Baren

    One would be inclined to ignore what can only be          when Scripture so clearly condemns a thing, we
a very sickening and deplorable development within            simply remember what Scripture says  - and pretend
  many churches today. One would tend to insist that          that these evils do not exist. That Scripture condemns


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                 309



homosexuality is indeed so clear that even the most                  tional attraction rather than sexual behavior, and
ardent heretic in this regard does not dispute it.                   homosexuality "is a strong, enduring, not consciously
Those who support a "homosexual life-style," and                     chosen and usually irreversible affectional attraction
now support the ordination of such into the ministry                 to and preference for persons of the same sex."
within the churches, insist that the teachings of                         Homosexuality is "a minor theme in Scripture"
Scripture are not applicable to our own day.                          and is not mentioned either by the prophets or by
                                                                     Jesus himself.
  All of this comes down to the old evil: the denial
of the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture. Where                    In the full context of Scripture,  ". . .we must
Scripture is questioned and denied, all kinds of errors               conclude that Paul's understanding of homosexual
must enter. If there is no standard of judgment, a                   behavior does not adequately encompass the modern
                                                                     phenomenon of multiple forms of homosexuality
reliable standard, then anything goes.                                arising from a variety of psychosocial causes. . . ."
  Various magazines, and even secular news broad-                         Homosexuals may be admitted to church member-
casts, have been calling attention to a battle within                 ship or the ordained offices if they can give honest
some of the large denominations in connection with                    affirmation to the vows required and if the deciding
the ordination of homosexuals into the ministry. The                 body is satisfied that the candidates- meet all the
question appears to stir enough people within these                   criteria for membership or ordination. (Deacons and
churches to threaten some sort of division. Yet one                   ruling elders in UPC churches are ordained and take
wonders whether those who have accepted and gone                      nearly the same vows as the clergy.)
along with such a degree of apostasy within the                           Nothing in the church's constitution either pro--
churches, will not inevitably go along with all of this               hibits or requires the ordination of avowed homo-
too.                                                                  sexuals; the judgment of the ordaining body as to
                                                                      fitness of any candidate -judged as an individual  - is
  Christianity Today  reports in its Feb. 10, 1978                    the decisive factor.
issue on the United Presbyterian Church (Northern
Presbyterian): .                                                          Ordination does not set a person apart  " into a
                                                                      class or status separated from other Christians."
           Schism in the United Presbyterian Church? It
        might happen if the UPC's General Assembly this                   Continuing and widespread study is needed, in-
        May adopts the proposed policy statement of a                 c l u d i n g   e f f o r t s   t o   h e a l   t h e   c h u r c h   o f   i t s
        denominational task force that spent fifteen months           "homophobia," described as the irrational fear of
        studying whether self-acknowledged practicing homo-           homosexuality and homosexuals.
        sexuals can be ordained. In summary, the task force         Now perhaps the above hardly needs comment in
        said that according to constitutional mandate ordi-       our churches. Yet, notice the many obvious heresies
        nation decisions must be made by the presbyteries         in that which is taught. Strikingly, sin is not men-
        (area governing units) and congregations involved, not
        by the General Assembly. But it also said that            tioned. Evidently, in the minds of those who draw up
        ordination of homosexuals who are otherwise qual-         such a report, there is no such thing as sin  - certainly
   ified should be permitted.                                     not in the sense that Scripture speaks of it. Notice
           Two years ago the Presbytery of New York City  x       how these separate that which Christ taught while He
        asked the UPC General Assembly for guidance on            was on earth from the rest of Scripture  - as though
        whether to ordain an avowed homosexual under its          Christ did not speak through the apostles when they
   jurisdiction. The assembly replied that the ordination         wrote Scripture. Notice that homosexuality is termed
        of such a person was "at the present time injudicious     a "minor theme" in Scripture  - hence dismissed as
        if not improper," but it asked a representative group     not of particular concern to God. Yet on such basis
        of clergy and laity to study the issue and make           we would soon dismiss many of the teachings of the
        recommendations. The nineteen-member group                church of God. Certainly the truths of Scripture are
        finished its work many weeks ago. It issued both a        not established by the number of times these are men-
        majority and minority report. The majority report
        contained about 1.50 pages of study material and a        tioned in the Bible. If homosexuality is mentioned on-
        twenty-eight-page proposed policy statement ap-           ly once in Scripture as sin  - that is sufficient. Notice
   proving the ordination of homosexuals. It was written          how Paul is put down as one who-didn't know much
        by Byron E. Shafer, chairman of the religious studies     about the different degrees and forms of homosexual-
        department of  Fordham  University. The minority          ity-as though all of this was Paul's invention and not
        report, signed  by. five persons, asked the General       the writing of `the Holy Spirit for the church through
        Assembly to rule that the church's constitution pre-      the ages. And one could continue. The fact of apostasy
        cludes the ordination of homosexuals. . . .               is so clear that all those who love God and His Word
           Much of the material in the background paper is        can only be repelled by the corruption and must flee
        summarized in the proposed policy statement.              all such.
        Among the major points in the proposed statement
        are these:                                                  The  Lutherans  Alert, January 1978, reports on  a.
           Sexual orientation is best understood as  affec-       publication for Lutherans called  Gay Lutheran.  The


310                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



magazine professes to represent the homosexual view-                               The Old Testament, he noted, does refer to certain
point of Lutherans who are "gay."                                               kinds of homosexual acts. The "real sin" in the
                                                                                Sodom and Gomorrah story, he, said, was "inhospi-
   Another magazine, Christian News,  January 23,                               tality and injustice."
1978, reports:                                                                     . . . Dr. Nelson said there was no record of any
          Full acceptance of homosexually-oriented persons                      words by Jesus about homosexuality. The Apostle
       by the church was advocated by a Protestant theolo-                      Paul, writing in Romans 1, makes the strongest New
       gian who addressed more than 200 clergy here.                            Testament condemnation of homosexuality, he
          Dr. James B. Nelson, professor of Christian ethics                    added.
       at United Theological Seminary, New Brighton, said                          While accepting Paul as "a peerless interpreter of
       he had concluded that such acceptance is "a Christian                    the heart of the Christian gospel" Dr. Nelson said the
       mandate" and "fully in accord with the Christian                         apostle was "an historically conditioned fallible
       gospel."                                                                 human being." He noted Paul's negative views on the
          In his address to the Minneapolis Ministerial Asso-                   status of women and his support of human slavery.
       ciation, Dr. Nelson emphasized he was speaking for                          In view of this, he said, Paul's judgments on
       himself and not for his seminary or his denomination,                    homosexual acts ought not be exempted from moral
       the United Church of Christ.                                             examination.
          .  .  . Dr. Nelson said the Bible "nowhere says any-                Such is the fruit of the denial of the inerrancy of
       thing about homosexuality as a psychosexual orien-                  Scripture.
       tation."

                                                   Evangelism Efforts
   Often the church is rebuked because it does not                            What were their conclusions concerning the most
carry on an effective "evangelism campaign." Ex-                           effective way of bringing people "into the church"?
amples of zealous people in this field are mentioned:                      The study claims that "people brought into the
Billy Graham and Bill Bright, among others. But a                          church by a relative or friend" represented 70-80
report from the "Institute for American Church                             percent of the new membership within a church. If
Growth" is quoted in the  Banner,  February 24, 1978,                      such a study is valid, and  there `is no reason to believe
that points  out that these efforts are not all they are                   it is not, it should tell us something. First, all the
made to be.                                                                gimmicks and tricks to bring people into church do
          Of the 434,100 people who came to the Graham                     not even outwardly succeed in their design. The
       crusade, 18,000 "came forward" to profess faith in                  tremendous campaigns in the name of evangelization
       Christ. Of  these 18,000, 54 percent were people                    of the nation fail. But secondly, the testimony and
       rededicating their lives to Christ. Local churches                  walk of the child of God are used by God to bring
       received 8,400 cards signed by converts. Only about
       15 percent of these ended up as active church                       people to church and under the preaching of the
       members. Moreover, eight out of ten of the persons                  Word. God is not limited as to the means He uses to
       who had joined churches after attending the crusade                 save His people. He does, however, save them in
       already had friends or relatives attending the churches             harmony with what His own Word declares. And He
       they joined.                                                        uses often the lives of His own people as the means to
          Graham's results do appear to be considerably                    bring others to the consciousness of salvation. Does
       better than those of "Here's Life, America." Ac-                    your life also show your love for and concern about
       cording to the institute's study, of the hundreds of                the Kingdom and its righteousness  - so that others
       thousands of people who made "decisions to accept                   see and know where you stand?
       Christ" over the telephone, 97 of every 100 never
       joined the church.





                             NOTICE!!!                                                                 NOTICE!!!
   The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed School,  Doon, Iowa, will           The Hull, (Iowa), Protestant Reformed Christian School is in need
be in need of three (3) teachers for the 1978-79 school term. Lower        of two teachers for the 1978-79 school year. Teachers are needed for
room  - K., 1st. and 2nd. grades, Middle room  -  3rd., 4th. and 5th.      the kindergarten, 1st. and 2nd. grades and for the  3rd., 4th. and 5th.
grades  - Upper room  -  6th., 7th. and 8th. grades. Application can be    grades. Please contact Mr. Alvin Kooiker,  Boyden, Iowa 51234 or
made by writing to: The Northwest  Iowa Protestant Reformed School,        phone 712-725-2491.
Doon, IA 51235,  c/o Mrs. Ed Van Egdom or Henry  Bleyenburg,  909  -
12th St., Rock Valley, IA 51247


                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               311



              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                 `
                                                                                 1.      *

   The Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope Protestant Reformed Church              The  M;.`and  Mrs. Society of the Southwest Protestant Reformed
of Walker, Michigan, express their sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Fred             Church expresses sincere sympathy to our leader, Phil Lotterman in the
Haney in the passing of his mother, MRS. BEAULAH HANEY.                      death of his mother, MRS. MINNIE LOTTERMAN.
                                                                                May the Lord comfort him and may he know that He who controls
   May they experience that the strength of the Lord is sufficient.          all things, doeth them well.
                                   Dave Moe1 ker, Pres.                                                         Joyce Kraima, Sec'y.
                                   Mrs. Jonathan Engelsma, Sec'y.                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                The Mary-Martha Society and the Mens Society of the Hope
                                                                             Protestant Reformed Church of Redlands, California, expresses their
                                                                             sincere sympathy to Mrs. Evert Van Voorthuysen, Sr., to Mr. and Mrs.
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                         Everett Van Voorthuysen, Jr. and to Mr. and Mrs. John  Ekema and
                                                                             their families in the loss of their husband and father, EVERT VAN
   The Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope Protestant Reformed Church           VOORTHUYSEN, SR.
of Walker, Michigan, wishes to extend their sympathy to Mr. and Mrs.            "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Psalm
Greg Engelsma in the loss of his father, MR. MELVIN ENGELSMA.                116:15).
   We pray that the Lord will sustain them in their sorrow.                                                     Rev. Jason Kortering, Pres.
                                                                                                                Charles Van Meeteren, Sec'y.
                                   Dave Moe1 ker, Pres.                                                         Mrs. Otto Gaastra, Sec'y.
                                   Mrs. Jonathan Engelsma, Sec'y.
                                                                                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                                On April 10, 1978, the Lord willing, our beloved parents, MR. AND
                                                                             MRS. MAURICE KLOP will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                            We thank our Heavenly Father for the many years of Christian love,
   The Council of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church of Wyo-               guidance and instruction given us by them. We pray that the Lord will
ming, Michigan, wishes to express its sympathy to our brother Elder,         continue to bless them in the years which are yet to come.
Gerrit Boverhof, and his family, in the recent  death of  his father, MR.                                    Their children and grandchildren
RALPH BOVERHOF. May they  be  comforted in the knowledge that                                                  Ed and Mary Lotterman
our Saviour promises us that "I am the resurrection and the life; he that                                         Amy     Andy
believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever                                            Becky Heidi
liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." (John  11:25,26).                                                 Jack and Jayne Klop
                                                                             Kalamazoo, Michigan


                                             CALL TO ASPIRANTS TO THE MINISTRY

   All young men desiring to begin studies this fall in the                  comes supplied with a testimonial of his consistory that he is a
Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches,                      member in full communion, sound in faith and upright in
located at 4949 lvanrest Ave., S.W., Grandville, Michigan                    walk, and also a certificate from a reputable physician showing
49418 are hereby notified of the Theological School Com-                     him to be in good health. ,
mittee meeting to be held on April 20, 1978 at  7:30 P.M. in                    A complete high school education and the equivalent of a
the Theological School Building.                                             four year (125 hour) college education are required for en-
Preseminary Department:                                                      trance into the, seminary department. Moreover, each entrant
                                                                             into this department must produce evidence that he has credit
   Permission to pursue the pre-seminary course of study shall               for the required college courses. Requirements are listed in the
be granted by the Theological School Committee. A transcript                 school catalog, available from the School.
of grades from High School and College (if any), a letter of                    All applicants for enrollment in the seminary department
testimony from a student's pastor or consistory, and a certifi-              must appear before the Theological School Committee for
cate of health from a reputable physician shall be submitted                 interview before. enrollment. In the event you cannot be
along with the student's application.                                        present at this meeting, please notify the undersigned secretary
Seminary Department:                                                         of your intentions, prior to the meeting. Mail all  correspon-
   Permission to pursue the Theological course in the seminary               dence to the Theological School.
shall be granted by the Synod, upon recommendation of the                                                                   John Buiter, Secretary
Theological School Committee, to such an aspirant onl


  THE STANDARD BEARER
          P.O. Box 6064           - -__ .-.
  Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506    ,





  312                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

                                        Report of Classis West

                                          March 10, 1978
    Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches          new reading sermon for the Reading Sermon Library.
  convened on March 1, 1978 at South Holland, Illi-           This library, available to all our churches, is under the
  nois.  Classis lasted a full day, adjourning about 6:00     supervision of the  Edgerton Consistory  (c/o Rev. J.
  P.M.                                                        Slopsema) .
    All twelve churches of the  Classis were represented        Pella was given classical appointments: May 14  -
  by a minister and an  .elder.  Elders R. Ezinga (Love-      Rev. R. Miersma; May 28  - Rev. M. Hoeksema; June
  land) and H. Zandstra (Randolph), delegated for the         11  - Rev. K.  Koole; June 25  - Rev. M. Kamps. Rev.
  first time, signed the Formula of Subscription. Rev.        M. Hoeksema was appointed counselor of Pella during
  G. Lanting, president of the previous  Classis, led         her vacancy.
  Classis in its opening devotions, reading from I Kings         Six churches requested subsidy in the amount of
  19 and speaking on vss. 1-4. At the request of Rev.-G.      $48,450. Lynden informed  Classis that she has de-
  .Lubbers, scheduled to preside over the  Classis, Rev.      cided to become self-supporting; in fact, Lynden
  Lubbers was relieved of the task, and Rev. D. Kuiper        decided not to receive the subsidy already granted for
  served as president.                                        1 9 7 8 .
    One of the main matters on  Classis' agenda was  the,        The results of the election of various functionaries
  request of the Pella Consistory that  Classis approve       were the following: Stated Clerk  - Rev. D. Engelsma;
 `their decision  to. grant the request of their pastor,      Assistant Stated Clerk  - Rev. R. Miersma; Classical
  Rev.  G: Lubbers, for emeritation "byreason of age."        Committee  - Rev. M.  Kamps;   Primus Delegate ad
 Classis gave its approval. The date for Rev. Lubbers'        Examina  - Rev. D. Engelsma; Secundus Delegate ad
  emeritation is tentatively set for May 1. Rev. G.           Examina  - Rev. R. Miersma; Church Visitors  - Rev.
  Laming expressed to Rev. Lubbers, on behalf of the          J. Kortering and Rev. G. Lanting.
  Classis, the churches' gratitude to God for his faithful
( labors in the office of the ministry of the gospel and.        The result of the  voting.for delegates to the 1978
                                                              Synod was the following:  Primi minister delegates  -
  the desire that God will richly bless him and Mrs.          Rev. D. Engelsma, Rev. M. Kamps, Rev. J. Kortering,
  Lubbers in  .their remaining years. Rev. Lubbers is in      Rev. G. Lanting; Secundi minister delegates  - Rev.
  the 44th year of his ministry, having been ordained in      W. Bekkering, Rev. D.  .Kuiper, Rev. R. Miersma, Rev.
  1934. He has  >.served churches in  Doon, Iowa; Pella,      J. Slopsema;  Primi -elder delegates  - L.  Huisken
  Iowa; Randolph, Wisconsin;  Creston, Grand Rapids,          (Redlands), A. Lenting (South Holland), L. Regnerus
  Michigan; Southwest, Wyoming, Michigan; and, again,         (South Holland), D. Zylstra (Edmonton); Secundi
  in Pella, Iowa. Besides, he has twice served the            elder delegates  -  RTjEzinga  (Loveland), B. Menninga
  churches and his Lord as missionary, once as home           (Pella), J. Sugg (Houston),. R.  Wimberley  (Houston).
  missionary and then as missionary to Jamaica. After
  May 1, Rev. and Mrs. Lubbers plan to reside in                 Classis accepted  Doon's  invitation to hold the next
  Jenison, Michigan.                                          meeting- of  Classis there on September& 1978, the
    A. protest against a decision of  Classis to take         Lord willing.
  action to secure distribution of a legacy, prior to            After the  quedtions of Article 41 were asked,
  1983, was sustained.                                        resulting in some  disc-ussidn,  Classis adjourned; and
     Several reports were treated. In connection with         Rev. G. Lubbers closed with prayer;
  the report of the Reading Sermon Committee,  Classis                                Rev. David  Engelsma;Stated Clerk
  asked all the ministers of  Classis West to prepare a                               Classis  West'          "
                                                                                -.         `7           .'
                                                                                           `,     -I
                                                                           ,


