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                                                                      Read "Counseling Hopelessness,
                                                    the Heart Sin of Spiritual Suicide" - page 470


Vol. 69, No. 20
September 2,1993


CONTEfiTS:                                                                                  September I, 1993

Meditation - Rev. Carl J. haak
       Redeemed Souls Freed From Fear ..**...............,.......................*....                                               459
Editorial - Prof. David J. fngelsma                                                                                                             ISSN  0 3 6 2 - 4 6 9 2
       A Holy Nation ~~....~~.~~.....~~~.~.....~~~~~...~~~.................~.................,.......~. 461
Letters ,,.....,.,.............,,,.....,.,,,........,......I.................,,,............,...,.,.,...,...                         463        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                Published by ths Reformed Free Publishing Associeticn, Inc.,
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker . . . . p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s . . . . . . . . . 463    4949 lvanrest  Ave., Qrandville, MI 49419. Second Class
Strength of Youth - Rev. Barry L. Gritters                                                                                                      Postage Paid at Qrandville; Michigan.
       Renewing the Battle (5); Drama, Television, and Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466                                                     Portmratrr: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                P.O. Box 603, GrandvEe. MI 49468-0603.
Church and State - Mr. James Larding
       Michigan Home Schools Lose Teacher Certification Battle . . . . . . . . 468                                                              EDlTORlAL  COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                                Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
Guest Articles                                                                                                                                  Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
       Counseling Hopelessness,                                                                                                                 Managlnn Editor: Mr. Don Dcezema
          the Heart Sin of Spiritual Suicide - Mr. Joe/ Sugg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470                                          DEPARTMENT EOtTORS
                                                                                                                                                Rev. Rcnatd Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arie
       Counseling Those Who Lack                                                                                                                denHartog. Rev. Barry Grttters.  Mr. Fred Hanko, Prof. Herman
          the Assurance of Salvation - Prof. Robert D. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472                                               Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth
                                                                                                                                                Kcote,  Rev. Jason Kortertng, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                    Laming, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
       Theodore Beza: Reformed Theologian . . ..***...*............................. 475                                                        JemesSlcpsema,Rev.ChadesTerpstra,  Rev.QiseVanEaren,
Special Article - Mr. Joe/ Sugg                                                                                                                 Rav.RonatdVenOvertcop,Mr.Ben]aminWrgger,Rev.Bemard
                                                                                                                                                Woudenberg.
       Come Over and Help Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~.............................. 478             EDtTORlAL  OFFtCE           CHURCH NEWS EDtTOR
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479                                The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                4949 ivanrest               9597 49th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                QrendvEe, MI 49418           Hudsonvilla, Ml 49426
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       "Shepherding God's Flock." That was the theme of the officebearers                                                                                (816) 531.1499
                                                                                                                                                FAX (616) 531-3033
conference held a year ago in Colorado, in conjunction with the semi-annual
meeting of Classis West. Because those who attended were convinced that the                                                                     EDrfORIAL POLtCY
                                                                                                                                                Every edkcr  is act&y responsible for the contents of his own
subject matter warranted further study, it was decided to make the March                                                                        artktes.  Contributlonsolgsneraltnterestfmmwrresdarsand
conference a continuation of the one held last fall. A couple of last fall's                                                                    questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                                                Contrlbutlons will be limited to approximately 3W words and
sectionals were repeated, for further exploration; and a number of new subjects                                                                 mustbeneatfywrittenMLypewritten,andmustbesfgned.  Copy
were introduced. And again the speakers kindly consented to submit their                                                                        daadllnas  are the first  and  fifteanth  of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                wmmuniwticms  relatii  to tha ccntents  ahculd bs sent to the
manuscripts for use in the SB.                                                                                                                  edn0tialOffi09.
       Having fewer manuscripts this time than last, we decided to divide them                                                                  REPRINT POLtCY
between a couple of issues. In this issue we carry two: one on the work of                                                                      Permleston  isherebygrsntedtot~reprintinOo(arliclesinoor
                                                                                                                                                ~azinebyotherpubllcaUons,pmvkled:a)thatsuchreprinted
"shepherds" in counseling those who lack the assurance of salvation, and the                                                                    artiOla6  are repmduced  In full; b) that proper acknowledgment
other on counseling in relation to suicide.                                                                                                     ls made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                appears Is wnt to cur ednoriel  0ffi0e.
       Actually there is in this issue a third article which fits well with that same
general theme. That's Rev. Haak's Meditation, which, though it does not                                                                         suB.scRIPTloN POUCY
                                                                                                                                                Subscription p&e: S12.09 psr year In the U.S.. 515.09
address directly the work of shepherds, does nevertheless deal with the hurt,                                                                   eteewhere. Unless a definite request for disccntinuance is
the distress, of the sheep which makes that care necessary. All kinds of reasons                                                                recatvad,  tt is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                wbscr@tiontomntim~a,  andhawillbaMlledforrwal.  lfycu
there are, says Rev. Haak, for being afraid in this life. But Jehovah God says                                                                  haveachangeofaddreas,pleMenotifytheBuslnessWceas
"Fear not!" why not? Read "Redeemed Souls Freed From Fear."                                                                                     early as possible In order to avofd the lnccnvanlence  of
                                                                                                                                                interrupted dethntry. Include your tip or Postal Coda.
       Mr. Joel Sugg, another speaker at that conference, originally chose for the                                                              ADVERTISING POLtCY
title of his presentation, "PastoringThose Who Have Gone Through Suicide."                                                                      The StanderdSeanardces  not accept commercial advertising
One might be inclined to think that the speaker ought to have been more careful                                                                 of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                                                                                annhmmarles,  o&luariw,  and sympathy resoluttcns  will be
with his choice of words. It should be obvious, after all, that a person who has                                                                placed for a 53.M) fee. These shcuhd be sent to the Business
committed that&is beyondthehelp of a shepherd. Mr. Sugg, however, meant                                                                         Office end should be acoompanled by the 33.oOfee. Deadline
                                                                                                                                                fcr MnrnJncemenb  I8 at least one month prior to publlcat]on
it, just that way. For, his thesis was that the sin of suicide can no more be                                                                   date.
confined to the outward act than can the sin of, say, adultery or murder. He                                                                    BOUND VOLUMES
did however change the topic, to reflect more clearly that "basicpremise." You                                                                  The Business Dfflw will  accept standing orders for bound
will surely want to read "Counseling Hopelessness, the                                                                                          wpieeofthecurrentvdume.  Suchordarsarafilladassocnas
                                                                                                     Heart  Sin of Spiritual                    poaslbte  after completion cf *volume year.
Suicide."
                                                                                                                                  D.D.          16mm  mlcrofllm,  35mm microfilm and 195mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                artide copies are available thrwgh University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                Intematlonat.
458 /Standard Bearer /September 1,1993


                             1 `Redeemed Souls
                                 Freed From Fear

"ButnowthussaiththeLoiwthatcreated             doubts, become weighed down of              two examples are given which would
thee, 0 Jacob, and he that formed thee, 0      heart, and fail to glorify'God  in lives    cause the most intense andnaked  fear
Israel, Fear not: I have redeemed thee, I      of holy confidence.                         to arise in our souls: drowning and
have called thee by thy name; thou art             The Word of God is: fear not!!          burning. When thou passest through
mine. "                                            Fear must not hold sway in our          the waters . . . when thou walkest
                               Isaiah 439      hearts! Why? Not because our fears          through the fire . . . . M Have you ever
                                               arenot real, only figments of an active     experienced what it is like to drown?
        Fear.                                  imagination. Not because our judg-          You are held under the water, lungs
        How true to our lives! We are so       ment of what those things we fear are       screaming for air, a panic and horror
often filled with fear.                        able to do to us is a faulty judgment,      seizes you, your legs and arms ache
        Fear of the future, of what will be    and therefore our fears are ground-         with weariness. And fire? The flames
and what will happen to us. Fears of           less. And certainly not because there       are on your flesh, causing you to
present troubles and trials which              is something in ourselves which is          scream in horror,  ,rolling on the
would threaten to overcome us and              bigger than the things we fear and          ground and beating the flames with
drown us in sorrow. Fears for our              will protect us from them. That's the       your hands in an attempt to extin-
loved ones: children, husbands, and            false bravado of the world which dis-       guish them. Do you know such fears
wives. (Will they be able to contend           appears as a mist when once the mon-        which can cause you nightmares and
with what they must face now and in            ster of fear unveils itself and stands      make you wake up bathed in sweat?
thefuture?) Fearof  death, thelast and         before us to swallow us up.                     We must understand that al-
unavoidable enemy who comes for                    No, our text gives us the only          though fear is common to man, yet
each one of us. Fears of tomorrow,             reason why we must not fear. It gives       out text is referring to those fears
thequakingin our souls that the worse          us an all-sufficient and abundant rea-      which are unique to the children of
thing, that thing we dread the most,           son why fear must be vanquished in          God - fears which come upon us
will happen and crush our life in              our hearts. "Fear not: for I have           exactly because we have been made
despair. Fear caused ; by the con-             redeemed thee, thou art mine!" Be-          God's people, real fears which the
sciousness of our  sins\ The devil             cause God has given His Son to ran-         wicked simply could not understand
accuses us, our conscien'ce  condemns          som us from our sins and death, be-         even if you tried to explain it to them.
us, andwe can tremble over the ques-           cause we belong to Him by sovereign         Isaiah is comforting God's people in
tion whether God is for us, whether            redemptionrootedineternalloveand            the context of the Babylonian Captiv-
He will help and save us.                      gracious election - that is why we          ity. He speaks of the time when Judah.
        The pathway of every child of          need never fear!                            would be placed under the thumb of
God in this life is strewn&with fears on           Redeemed souls are freed from fear!     a wicked nation, chastened for her
every side. It is not fornothing that                                                      sin, and persecuted by a world which
Jesus said, "Fear not little flock," for                *  *  *  *  *  *  *                stood in opposition to God. The fears
the truth of the matter is that we can                                                     they would experience are peculiar to
spend the majority of our lives in a           The Present Fears                           them as children of God; they come to
sense of gloom and foreboding. The                 We all know what fear is. Fear is       them as a result of their present posi-
Lord knows that fear is one of the             painful. Fear is paralyzing. Fear is        tion in the world. Possessing thelight
great enemies of His people; for when          ensnaring; it grips our hearts with         of Christ,. against which the world
we are caught in fears we fall into            strong hands and pushes us down             knows only hatred, and possessing
                                               into horror and darkness. We feel we        the life of Christ, which now must be
                                               cannot escape, for everything is press-     subjected to the purification of the
Rev. Haak is pastor of (he Protestant          ing in on us, leaving nowhere to turn       furnace of trial, it is inevitable that we
Reformed Church of Lynden, Washing-            for relief.                                 are exposed to fears in this life. You
ton.                                               In the second verse of Isaiah 43,       can never avoid them.

                                                                                             September 1,1993 I Standard Bearer I459


    That fear is the present reality for      The Certain Redemption                        which was with me always. "Have"
God's people is brought out when                  God says to us,"Fear not, for I           - it is done, completed, finished!
God says to us, "0 Jacob, . . . 0 Israel."    have redeemed thee!" That is why we           Nothing can change or alter this fact.
Jacob is "heel-holder," the one who           may know with unshakable certainty            "Redeemed" -that is, the price which
relied upon his own strength. Israel is       that our present trials and all our sins      had to be paid to secure your release
"prince with God," the one who                cannot drown us, cannot destroy us.           from eternal torment has been ren-
learned to trust in God for all good.         We have been redeemed by Jehovah              dered. "Thee"-personal! You, who
Exactly as Jacob-Israel, as the blessed       Himself. What wonderful depths of             by My Spirit know yourself to be
of the Lord, yet now with our sinful          consolation for every fear-stricken           utterly unworthy. You, whom I have
pride and our weak faith, we are              child of God is found in that certain         loved and called to myself in the gos-
prone to fear! Andhowwecanfear-               fact!                                         pel of My Son.
fear as did the disciples, even to the            We must not fail to notice the                "I have redeemed thee . . . thou art
point of the desperate accusation:            primaryreason whywemustnotfear                mine!" Do you not see why we shall
"Lord, carest thou not that we per-           as stated in our text. "Thus saith            not fear? No matter what, do not fear!
ish?"                                         Jehovah that created thee, 0 Jacob,           Youwillnotbedrownedinyourtrials
    Those fears are, first of all, con-       and he that formed thee, 0 Israel...."        and sorrows, you will not bum in the
nected to the present trials of faith to      Jehovah is the sovereign originator of        flames of God's wrath, you will never
which the Lord is pleased to subject          His people. Why are we His? Not               be forsaken, destroyed, left to perish.
us - our times of perplexity, when            because of anything in us, but rather         You are not going to experience some-
we cannot see our way, and when we            because God has created His people            thing which will succeed in yanking
struggle with the will of God for us.         out of His own good pleasure. As He           you out of the Father's hand. Why? "I
We find our present situation impos-          created the world and fashioned the           have redeemed thee, thou art mine!"
sible to accept, and we become en-            earth in the beginning according to
gulfed in a sea of anxiety. We have           His own will, so God also made His            The Wonderful Assurance
times of weariness, when we say we            people out of His own good pleasure.              God swears these things to us in
cannot go on anymore, and we feel             What is God saying to us? He is               the Holy Gospel of His Son. That is
panic and worry threatening to eat us         telling us that our existence as His          our comfort and assurance, our peace
up. There are times when we dread             children, our life now with all its trials    amid perplexity.
the next moment, for fear that we will        and circumstances, is all of Him. God             Fears on every side for you to-
not be able to hold up under the stress       has made us as His own creation and           day? Here is the Word of God which
and pressures. Always, and that ac-           is busy fashioning us for the day of          is more than equal to all the things
cording to the good pleasure andper-          perfection. Andnow listen, if there is        which cause you to tremble. "Hear
feet will of our God, we endure many          one thing true of Jehovah it is this: He      this, 0 poor in Spirit," the Lord says,
fears in our lives as pilgrim strangers.      neverforsakes the workof His hands. He        "I have already brought you out of
    Butevenmorethanallthesefears,             never leaves His creation undone.             the lost pit of sin, I will lead you
our present fear has to do with our           Fear not!                                     through the maze of trial. I will bring
sin. AveryimportantquestionImust                  Yet more: "I have redeemed thee,          theblindbyawaythattheyknownot.
put to you? Does your sin make you            I have called thee by thy name, thou          Iwillbringagain.Jacobfromthedepth
afraid? Have you ever trembled in             art mine."                                    of the sea." Your way is especially
horror over your sin? Not just, have              Redemption?          A thousand           difficult? Our Redeemer liveth. He
you sorrowed over your sin, have              tongues could not tell or express the         will guide you even through death.
you grieved andrent your heart? But,          beauty and majesty of that truth. To          He will lead you through the days
have your sins ever caused you to             redeem is to buy back, to ransom out          ahead, along paths which are un-
fear?  Have you ever feared that God          of captivity by paying the price for          knowntoyou.  AndHewillcauseyou
does not love you; that He will not           release. It is, thus, to purchase for         to triumph and soon rest forever.
hear your prayers; that jrou, who have        oneself. Redemption is the truth on               That too is our peace before the
done.and  thought such things, cannot         which eternity rests, namely, that the        terror of our sins. You say, but my
possibly be one of His? Have you              gracious Jehovah has purchased for            sins are too great, surely He will have
known moments when you were con-              Himself a chosen people with the              nothing to do with me? Our gracious
vinced that you were so worthless             price of the blood of His pure Son, so        God puts an end to those thoughts
and evil that God could not love you?         that we who desired only the dun-             and tells us to be still, for `"I have
Has the guilt of sin weighed upon             geons of despair and eternal ruin,            redeemed thee." He paid the price for
your converted conscience so that             might enjoy Him forever!                      you, He will never cast away what
you feared that God had forgotten                 "I have redeemed thee!"                   was so sacredly purchased. Will you
you and that the wayback toHim was                Let each word sink in. "1, rr Jeho-       cast away what you purchased with
closed?                                       vah, the Almighty One, have done              sweat and blood, with all that you
           *  *  $  *  +  * *                 this out of My own lovingkindness             had? Much less will the unchange-

460 /Standard Bearer / September 1,1993


able One let go of any He has pur-               With this Word of God hidden in          thou walkest through the fire, thou
chased with the blood of His only            our hearts we may well cease from            shalt not be burned; neither shall the
begotten Son. The cross stands. The          fear. We may walk with quietness             flame kindle upon thee."
price is paid. The ransomis  accepted.       and confidence. We may assuredly                 Oh, let our fearful hearts prize
The prison doors must spring open.           believe His words, "When thou                above everythingHisredeeminglove,
There is no going backwith  God. His         passeth through the waters, I will be        and be strengthened with the word
redemption in Christ will redeem, it         with thee: and through the rivers,           which proceeds from His own mouth:
will secure us unto eternal glory.           they shall not overflow thee, when           "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee."





                            A Holy Nation

                                             ingofthechristian:  "Leteverysoulbe              Sinking now to the depths of na-
    This does not refer to the United        subjectuntothehigherpowers" (Rom.            tional decay, the United States is in
States.                                      13:1), or, as Peter puts it, "Honor the      the process of legalizing homosexual
    The United States never was a            king" (IPet.217).                            behavior. Congress legislates; the
holy nation.  Some  think  so.-`Calling          It certainlyisnot a Christian, holy      courts uphold; the president advo-
on the citizens to return this country       nation today.                                cates, appointing notorious homo-
to its roots, they insist that the United        Officially, publicly, nationally, the    sexuals to high positions in his ad-
States was originally a Christian na-        nation declares itself hostile to the        ministration. With this legalizing of
tion. They are mistaken.                     Christian faith.                             homosexual behavior goes a national
    Originally there were Christian              It maintains a system of educa-          program of educating the people in
influences on the nation, but it was         tion from which the God and Father           the naturalness, goodness, andneces-
never a Christian nation. Many of the        of Jesus Christ has beenbanished and         sity of homosexuality, especially by
most prominent andpowerfulfound-             that trains its citizens to be godless.      means of the state's schools.
ing fathers were infidels. Thomas                It has made lawful the murder of             The life of the people corresponds
Paine was a wild-eyed rebel against          millions of unborn babies. This is           to the unrighteousness of the govem-
all authority, mainly Gods. Thomas           murder by the state. This is disobedi-       ment. The nationallife is greedy; mad
Jefferson, chief author of the Declara-      ence to the calling that God gives the       for pleasure; violent; unfaithful in
tion of Independence, denied the             state to protect those who are inno-         marriage and family; sexually de-
Godhead of Jesus Christ and reduced          cent before the law of the land. This        bauched. The Word of God precisely
theBibletothe"SermonontheMount"              is in most cases the state's connivance      describes the life of the nation at the
(which he explained as mere moral-           in the sexual promiscuity of the citi-       endof the %Othcentury, specifically as
ism). The fornication of Benjamin            zens: Kill the unwanted consequences         regards homosexuality, in  Remans
Franklin in his old age astounded            of fornication so that men and women         1:32: "Who knowing the judgment of
even the French.                             can go on fornicating freely. This is        God, that they which commit such
    The foundational' documents -            the state's taking into its own hands        things are worthy of death, not only
the Declaration of Independence and          the sovereign authority of God the           do the same, but have pleasure in
the Constitution - do not establish          Creator over life and death: In legal-       them that do them." The people have
the United States as a Christian na-         izing abortion, the state cl&ns Deity.       pleasure in those who commit the
tion. If they did, they would ex-                All threebranches of government          abominations that they know bring
pressly declare Jesus Christ to be the       cooperate in this antichristianity. The      down upon them the sentence of
Sovereign; the Bible to be the law; and      Supreme Court has judged. Con-               death. Violence and sexual perver-
the glory of the Triune God to be the        gress at the very least acquiesces.          sity are their summer reading, their
goal.                                        One of theveryfirst acts of the current      favorite television programs, their
    The act that gave existence to the       president was to relax all restrictions      movies and videos.
nation, the revolution of 1776, trans-       enacted by previous presidents                   The United States is an unholy
gressed thefundamentalpoliticalcall-         against easy abortions.                      nation.

                                                                                           SepteItIbOr  1,1993  I Standard Bearer I461


sity are their summer reading, their          No earthlv nation has ever been, is           Messiah, Jesus Christ.
favorite television programs, their           now, or e;er will be a Christian, holy            Her territory, her fatherland, her
movies and videos.                            nation.                                       country, is heaven, from which the
    The United States is an unholy                For God has not purposed or               members of the church militant are
nation.                                       privileged any merely earthly nation          presently pilgrims and strangers on
    God does not bless America.               to be a holy nation.                          the earth. HerconstitutionistheBible
    I write this editorial over the 4th           This is reserved for one people           as expressed in the Reformed confes-
of July weekend. I notice that                and one institution only.                     sions and in the church order of Dordt.
churches, preachers, and patriotic                The one, only "holy nation" is the            Her law is the Decalogue.
gatherings of Christians assure them-         church of Jesus Christ.                           The Spirit of Christ is her unity.
selves that God is indeed blessing                Under the old covenant, before                Her might is the gospel.
America and beseech Him to con-               Christ, this was Israel: "And ye shall            This nation is holy. She is holy.
tinue to do so. It is aninsult to the holy    be unto me . . . an holy nation" (Ex.'        Her holiness is a fact. Her continued
God to ask Him to bless this nation.          19:6).                                        holiness is assured. This is great com-
The just God blesses only the righ-               Under the new covenant, after             fort and encouragement to preachers,
teous nation, andHe blesses it only in        Jesus Christ, this is the spiritualbody       elders, parents, and all church mem-
the way of its holiness of life. We           of all those in all the world who be-         bers in the face of the increasing threat
should thank God for the United               lieve in Christ and are sanctified by         to the church's holiness. In the midst
States. By this nation, God gives us          theSpirit,whichuniversalbodymani-             of all the unholy nations on earth, this
the good gifts of earthly freedom and         fests itself in congregations and de-         nation is gloriously and infallibly holy.
outward order in society. But we              nominations that clearly show the             She has been separated spiritually
may not ask Him to bless it.                  marks of the true church.                     from the unholy nations, their unholy
    God is sparing still this nation              That the church is now God's              citizens, and their unholy way of life.
because there are in it yet at least 50       u holy nation" is the teaching of I Peter     She has been separated unto God, to
righteous persons - His church -              29: "But ye are a chosen generation,          have fellowship with Him and to live
but He is not blessing it.                    a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a         His way of life. When a member of
                                              peculiar people.... " The largely Gen-        this nation falls, as fall he or she can,
                                              tile church is the fulfillment and real-      even deeply, he or she does notjustify
           It is an insult                    ity of Old Testament Israel. Peter            the sin and continue in it, but repents
  to the holy God to ask Him                  applies to this church all the titles and     in order to take up again the holy life.
       to bless this nation.                  descriptionsthatOIdTestamentScrip-
                                              ture applied to Israel: "chosen gen-
                                              eration"; "royal priesthood"; "holy           The calling of the true church
                                              nation" (cf. Ex. 19:5,6; Deut. 7; Is. 43).
    On the contrary, His wrath is                                                                 in the United States,
                                              The notion, therefore, that the "holy
falling on this nation ever more              nation" will be the Jewish race in a               more urgent than ever
heavily. In wrath, God gives the              future kingdom-state of Israelis gross        as our earthly nation decays,
nation the miserable rulers that it           false doctrine. The hope for such a           is to be what we are by grace:
deserves. In wrath, He visits upon            "holy nation" is a vain dream. The                       a holy nation.
the godless education the irrespon-           spiritual church is the holy nation.
sible people in business, politics, and           Similarly erroneous and vain is
family who are the products of that           the hope for a "holy nation" of a
education. In wrath, He gives over                                                              For God has chosen her to be His
                                              restored or reconstructed America or
the population to the "vile affection"                                                      holy nation in eternal election. God
                                              any other earthly nation that will be
of homosexuality. What is so often                                                          has bought for her the privilege to be
                                              the kingdom of God in the world,
overlooked in the debate over homo-                                                         His holy nation by the redemption of
                                              fulfilling the national aspect of Old
sexualityis thatRomansP18ff.  teaches                                                       the cross. God sanctifies her to be His
                                              Testament Israel and even carrying
that the approval and practice of this                                                      holy nation by the Spirit working
                                              out the judicial, or civil, law of that
sinis itself the awfuljudgmentof God                                                        through the Word and church disci-
                                              nation. Whatever "truth and sub-
upon a people that has deliberately                                                         pline. He has not done so with any
                                              stance" of the civil law of Israel re-
held the truth of God under in                                                              other nation.
                                              maininJesusChristareexecutedspiri-
unrighteousness. This shameful, de-                                                             The calling then of the true church
                                              tually by the church. The national
structive wickedness is divine pun-                                                         intheUnitedStates,moreurgentthan
                                              aspect of Old Testament Israel is ful-
ishment: "For this cause God gave                                                           ever as our earthly nation decays, is to
                                              filled in the church. The spiritual
them up . .." (Rom. 1:26).                                                                  be what we are by grace: a holy
                                              church is the kingdom of God, the
    The United States is not a holy                                                         nation. We must preach, pray for,
                                              "holy nation." There is no other.
nation. It never will be a holy nation.                                                     and practice holiness. Eventually,
                                                  God is king of the church in the

462 /Standard Bearer / September 1,1993


this will mean persecution. An un-             the nation that excommunicates those          not deter the church from her calling.
holy nation cannot tolerate the holy           who advocate or practice this perver-         She is, and cannot but be, holy. God's
nation within her borders. A nation            sity, For the darkness hates the light        purpose with her has become her
that kiIls its unborn must silence the         of the purity of God. The church to           own purpose: "that ye should show
nation that calls this murder. A na-           whom Peter wrote suffered persecu-            forth the praises of him who hath
tion that places practicing homosexu-          tion (cf. I Pet. 1:6, 7; 2:12; 3:9, 13ff.;    called you out of darkness into his
als in prestigious and'powerful gov-           4:lff., 12ff.; 5:8-10).                       marvellous light" (I Pet. 29). CI
ernment office will make war with                  But the threat of persecution does                                           - DJE




n Self-Esteem in the Lord

    Enclosed is a short poem I re-                  I can be abased; I can abound.                                     (Phil. 4~12)
cently wrote in response to the many                I can make plans; Thou dost surround.                             (Prov. 16:9)
ideas I have encountered concerning                 Nothing escapes Thy all-searching eye.                               (I%. 139)
"self-esteem."
    It seems to me that this subject,               Thou givest my thought, and even my sigh.
which has become so explicit, is so                 "IamThine,  save me," my guilty soulcries.                        (Ps. 119:94)
much an implicitly inherent quality                                                                                       (Is. 43:l)
of every child of God, that it wouldbe              "Fearnot, little lamb," my Savior replies.
                                                                                                                      (John 15~18)
very interesting to have a large num-               "Enemies hate you? They hated Me, too.
                                                    I will destroy them, though suffer you do."                    (I Thess. 1:4-9)
ber of your readers submit written
expressions of their personal experi-               "For consolation, and comfort, your wife
ences of "self-esteem" in the Lord.                 Will help you always, throughout this hard life.                   (Gen. 2:18)
    As I wrote my poem, it seemed                   Cherish her, love her, as I loved the church.                      (Eph. 5:25)
that there were endless scriptural                  Honor her purely; your heart will I search."
passages that flashed across my mind
in this connection, and that God's                  "We made you in our likeness (We, One-Three)                       (Gen. 1:26)
promises to His people fill them with
an infinite variety of ways that they               To be lord over the earth, air, and sea."
                                                    Mindful of 
cryoutwiththepsalmist,"Iwillpraise                                 me, 0 Father, in such love?                            (Ps. 8:4)
thee; for I am fearfully and wonder-                To rule with Christ Jesus o'er all, above?                       (II Tim. 212)
fully made: marvellous are thy works;               "For all things are yours," the good Scriptures say-              (I Cor. 3:21)
and that my soul knoweth right well"
(Ps. 139:14).                                       (Things now, and things then, through Christ, the good Way).
    Although admittedly a very ill-                 No glory for flesh; the Lord rules alone.
accomplished poet, I found this exer-               But those who o'ercome  shall sit in His throne.                   (Rev. 3:21)
cise spiritually rewarding, and
thought perhaps other readers might                                                                                    John Hilton
enjoy expressing their thoughts, too.                                                                              Edgerton, MN




                                               n ADayintheU. S.A.                                   * 2,795 teen girls get pregnant
                                                    According to the Children's De-                 * 372 teens miscarry
                                               fense Fund, the following happens                    * 1,106 teens have abortions
                                               every day in the United States:                      * 1,295 teens give birth
                                                    * 7,742 teenagers become sexu-                  * 2,556 children are born out of
                                                    ally active                                     wedlock
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-         * 623 teenagers get syphilis or                 * 135,000 children bring a gun to
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-              gonorrhea                                       school
nary.                                                                                               * 10 children are killed by `guns

                                                                                                  September 1,1993 / Standard &am I 463


+    6 teenagers commit suicide              agreed that they would accept Angli-        tianity is coming at next month's
* 211 childrenarearrestedfordrug             can congregations en bloc along with        Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
     abuse                                   their priests.                              At last year's convention, delegates
*  437childrenarearrestedfordrink-               Converting Anglican congrega-           approved an SBC Home Missions
     ing or drunken driving                  tions will be allowed to retain tempo-      Board study on this issue. In March,
*    1,512 teenagers drop out of school      rarily some Anglican practices dur-         however, the Home Missions Board
* 3,288 children run away from               ing transition. Guidelines adopted          issued another report which says,
     home                                    by the Roman Catholic bishops em-           "many tenets and teachings of Free-
*    2,989 children see their parents        phasize, however, that eventually all       masonry are not compatible with
     divorce                                 Catholic beliefs and practices will have    Christianity," yet,becauseoftheSBC's
                                             to be accepted. Cardinal Basil Hume         ti deep convictions regarding the
Shocking statistics! Frightening!            offered no compromise to disaffected        priesthood of the believer and the
Tragic! But this is what happens             Anglican ministers and others who           autonomy of the local church, mem-
when God's will for marriage and the         may be seeking to join the Roman            bership in a Masonic order should be
covenantfamilyandhomeissoopenly              Catholic Church. Hume made clear            a matter of personal conscience."
and flagrantly disobeyed. Evidence           that, "The aim for those who seek to        Those opposed to Freemasonry be-
these statistics are of the fact that God    enter into fulI communion with the          lieve the SBC's leaders are afraid of a
is pouring out His judgments on our          (Roman) Catholic Church must be             financial fallout if last year's decision
country. Sooner or later, probably           their total integration into the life of    is retained. Well they might! Of the
sooner and certainly inevitably, the         the (Roman) Catholic community.             nation's 3.5 million Masons, 1.3 mil-
United States, the world's wealthiest        There is no question of a Uniate            lion are Southern Baptists, according
and most powerful nation, will fall          Church or a personal prelature....          to Associated Baptist Press. In addi-
just as did the Roman Empire. God is         There is no question, too, of becoming      tion, 14% of SBC pastors and 18% of
not mocked.                                  Catholics by accepting the teaching a       deacon board chairs are Masons.
     But, let us be warned by all this!      lacarte. You have to take the menu-             n Declaring that the faith and
As covenant parents let us prayer-           or go to another restaurant." The           practice of thelarges t worldwide ecu-
fully bring up our children in the fear      bishops official statement said, "Those     menical and Reformed bodies "are in
of the Lord. Let us show our children        entering into full communion with           apparent contradiction to the faith
by the words we speakand the deeds           the (Roman) Catholic Church are re-         embodied in the historic Reformed
we perform how they are to live in           quired to accept the teaching author-       confessions," eighty church leaders
obedience to the Word of God. Let us         ity of the church in matters of faith       from ten nations, fifteen denomina-
as husbands and wives never enter-           and morals, as exercised by the Pope        tions, and eighteen seminaries met in
tain the thought of separating or get-       as successor to St. Peter, and by the       PasadenainlateFebruarytoorganize
ting a divorce. Rather let us love our       college of bishops in full communion        an alternative body. By unanimous
wives as Christ loved the church and         with him."                                  resolution on February 20, those
submit to our own husbands as the                St. Matthews is one of ten tradi-       presentatthePasadenameetingvoted
church submits to Christ. Let pastors        tionalist congregations that are ex-.       to organize a new group and named
and elders in their preaching and            petted to join the Roman Catholic           it the "International Reformed Fel-
teachingandrulingceasenot  dayand            Church.                                     lowship" (IRF). Co-presidents of the
night to warn and instruct the people                             The Church Herald      new body will be the Rev. Sam Sung
of God concerning the truth of God's                           The Evangelical Times     Lee, moderator of the General As-
Word as it applies to marriage, di-                                                      sembly of the Hapdong Presbyterian
vorce, and the covenant family.              n News Briefs                               Church in Korea, Dr. John E. Kim,
                   Statistics quoted by          n Knox Theological Seminary,            senior pastor of Los Angeles Korean
                    The Church Herald        founded by D. James Kennedy who is          Christian Reformed Church and presi-
                                             its chancellor, and located in Fort         dent of International Theological
n Anglicans Defect to Rome                   Lauderdale, Florida, will open a sec-       Seminary, and Dr. Luder Whitlock
     Last November the Church of             ond campus in September in Colo-            Jr., president of Reformed Theologi-
England decided to allow women               rado Springs. "With the growing             cal Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.
priests. In reaction to this decision St.    number of Christian ministries mov-         The IRF General Secretary will be Dr.
Matthew's, one of the largest Angli-         ing to the Rockies, Colorado Springs        Ananda Perera,  professor at Intema-
can congregations in London, has             has become a center of Christian min-       tional Theological Seminary. Dr.
voted unanimously to convert as a            istry that needs its own seminary,"         Perera  will be assisted by Recording
group to Roman Catholicism. This             said Kennedy.                               Secretary Dr. W. Robert Godfrey,
decision was announced after                     n A showdown over  Free-                president elect of Westminster Theo-
England's Roman Catholic bishops             masonry'sincompatibilitywithChris-          logical Seminary in California. Much
                                                                                         of the groundwork for the new orga-

464 /Standard Bearer / September 1 ,1993


nizationwaslaidbyDr.Kim,  anelder               ders have infuriated many in the Ko-          committed to the inerrancy  of Scrip-
statesman among Koreans in the                  rean minority and produced open               ture and the sovereignty of God as
Christian Reformed Church (CRC).                calls for secession if the CRC allows         taughtbytheReformedconfessions."
Kim has been a pastor in the CRC                women to servk in all offices of the          Will the Protestant Reformed
since 1976. His congregation num-               church. A major Korean secession              Churches be invited to participate in
bers 14,409 members, making it the              could triple the number of churches           the International Reformed Fellow-
second largest congregation in the              pulIing out of the CRC. According to          ship?
CRC. The formation of the IRF could             an IRF press release, the new fellow-                             Christianity Today
mean serious consequences for the               ship "seeks to bring together churches,          Reformed Believers Press Service
CRC. The debates in the CRC over                seminaries, and mission organizations                                                 0
ordaining women ministers and el-





                         Renewing the Battle
                                   Drama, Television, and Movies




            In our renewed campaign against drama, television, and movies, we began by sharpening the battle lines,
        showing precisely what the issues are. We pointed out that the battle is not against the television as an
        instrument, for it can be put to good use if extreme care is exercised. The battle is against the context of most
        television and movies, as hostile towards the Christian faith and life. The attack was leveled against television,
        movies, and drama from the viewpoint of the ruinous eflects they have on the Christian life -marriages, family
        life, personal holiness, and more. And, last time, we argued that drama i&&snot  a behavior that Christians ought
        to engage in or be e'ntertained  by.
            We have not y&t asked the question of history.



        WHY HISTORY?                            plays for entertainment and educa-            impressed us with the need to "hold
        By"thequestionofhistory"Imean           tion. Has the church made any judg-           fast to the traditions which ye have
this: what has the church in the past           ment on the matter? Have God's                been taught...." Even worldly wisdom
said about drama, television, and               people in the past judged favorably or        calls us to learn from history.
movies? We have analyzed drama                  unfavorably? That's the question,                 @story is not the rub. It's not the
and movies in the light of the Bible.               The question of history is an im-         final word.  The rule and final word is
Has the church in the past come to the          portant one.                                  the Bible. But that Word of God has
same conclusion as we have? Obvi-                   We make a serious mistake if we           been read, studied, and applied for
ously, there were no television and             neglect to ask (at the very least only        thousands of years. We do well to
movies before about 75 jrears  ago, but         for information) what the fathers have        hear how God's people have been led
there certainly were drama and stage            said about a particular matter. Pride         by the Spirit of truth who promised to
                                                at its height ignores the question of         guide the church "into all truty- (John
                                                history. Wisdom will not die with us.         1693).
Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant       We have learned to sin& from Psalm                As for progress, history implies
Reformed Church of ByrotiCenter, Michi-         78, "Let chiIdren thus learn from             progress, development. But before
gan.                                            history's light . . . . 0 The apostle Paul    we change direction, we ought to

                                                                                                September 1,1993  I Standard Bearer 1465


 study carefully where the church is              REFORMATION HISTORY                     Reformation time? The authors call
 coming from, and listen to what they             As often happens, what was once         the church to witness for the defense
 have learned.                               condemned soon gained favor in the           of the theater. But by their own ad-
     We will honor Jesus' Spirit by          churches. By the time of the Reforma-        mission, they "benefit from revision-
 examining the history of His Church,        tion, plays were common. Luther              ist historians."1° One of the two au-
                                             was using drama to instruct the              thors gives aid to our cause by admit-
     THE ANCIENT CHURCH                      schoolboys, andcalvin's  Genevaper-          ting that her research of church de-
     From the beginning, the church          mitted acting troops to enter the city.      crees up till A.D. 750 "confirmed the
 frowned on plays as entertainment           But "some early Reformers expressed          existence of the official negation of
 for Christians.                             ambivalence and even hostility to-           the Roman theatre by the Church . . . . N
                                             wards scenic spectacle . . . . N4 William    And the publisher of one boasts that
   The generality of good Men, both in       Fare], who brought Calvin to Geneva,         the author argues "contrary to re-
   former and in latter Ages, have           wrote to Calvin on June 16,1546, that        ceived wisdom."
   looked upon Stage-Plays as abomi-         "actors who delight in assumed char-
   nable Vanities. The Fathers (as they                                                       All this "new research" should
   are called) do with one Voice vehe-       acters when they should conform their        carry no more weight with us than
   mently Condemn them....  In those         own to Christ in every kind of -duty,        would a man's argument 100 years
   days (of Tertullian,  AD ca.160-210,      do grave spiritual harm to themselves        from now (if the Lord tarries) that
   BLG) they would not Baptize any           by representing the sins of others."5        "SomesynodsandReformedchurches
   Person, that should be so much as a       This criticism was not unique to Wil-        of the last century denied the infalli-
   Beholder, much less one that should       liam Farel.                                  bility of theBible." We willhold to the
   be an Actor in a Stage-Play. Yes, if          Certainly, some Reformers did            "received wisdom."
   Christians did afford their presence      not condemn drama. But this was not
   at such Stage-Plays, they were by the     the only remnant of corruption that
   Ecclesiastical Constitution judged as                                                      POST-REFORMATION HIS-
   guilty of a Crime deserving no `less      remained to be rooted out until other        TORY
   then Excommunication?                     men of God were raised up to call the            The national Synod of Holland at
                                             church to holiness.                          Dort, 1587 (and several provincial
If you wish, you may read the church             After the Reformation gained             councilsin theNetherlands)  outlawed
father Tertullian, and hear his sound        momentum, the "oneVoice" sounded             plays. Voetius, one of the delegates
condemnation of the plays. For he            again against drama and the theater.         to the 1618/  1619 Synod of Dort, "De-
"led the way for a `theatre-criticism'       "By 1580 or so, the old consensus of         clares that Stage-Plays hadbeen quite
during the time of the Church Fathers        opinionamongI?rotestantleadersand            banished out of the City of Utrecht,
as well as for the critics of the theatre    writers in supporting or tolerating          and other places, and not practiced
of centuries to follow...."2                 the theatre was over. There was now          for many years....""
     Looking back on this history,           a pronounced division of attitudes,              In 1687, Increase  Mather, re-
Thomas Brainerd, Presbyterian min-           apparently with most siding with the         garded by many as the greatest na-
ister in Philadelphia, lectured in 1840      opposition...."6 In Shakespeare's En-        tive-born American Puritan, wrote a
on "Influence of Theatres: A Lecture         gland, "there does appear to have            "Testimony" against "several
on the Nature and Tendency of the            been a decline in number as the (16th)       Prophane and Superstitious Customs,
Stage." After denouncing the evil            century came to a close... at least to       Now Practiced by some in New-En-
content of plays, he pointed out that        the extent that they were a distant          gland," in which he includes stage
"An English writer (William Prynne,          memory for Samuel Harsnet in 1601            plays. Mather  agrees with Dr. John
BLG) in the time of Charles I. `made a       who recalled fondly the `old church          Rainolds "who said that it is not only
catalogue of authorities against the         plays, when the nimble Vice would            Unlawful to be an Actor, but a Be-
stage, which contains every name of          skip up nimbly like a Jack an Apes           holder of those Vanities." Mather
eminence in the heathen and Chris-           into the devil's neck, and ride the          believed, as we have earlier argued,
tian world - it comprehends the              devil a course.' "' Another reason           "that to set forth Sin Dramatically or
united testimony of the Jewish and           given for the "decline of Protestant         SportfulIy,  is inconsistent with that
Christian churches  - the deliberate         drama during the early sixties (156Os,       Sorrow for Sin, as Sin, which is every
acts of fifty-four ancient and modern,       BLG) is a changed attitude towards           man's Duty.""
general, national, and provincial            drama per se by returning Marian                 On the day after Christmas, 1811,
councils and synods, both of the west-       exiles of a Calvinist persuasion."8          a crowded theater burned in Rich-
ern and eastern churches; the con-                                                        mond, Virginia killing 75 persons,
demnatory sentence of seventy-one                A NEW LOOK AT CHURCH                     including the governor of the state.
ancient fathers, and one hundred and         HISTORY?                                     At the request of some young men,
fifty modem Catholic and Protestant              I am aware that two recent works         the Rev. Samuel MiIler, of the First
authors."3                                   make the claim that drama was al-            Presbyterian Church in New York
                                             lowed in the early church and during         City, preached a sermon against the-

466 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1993


ater attendance. He said, "You ought             A N D   T H E   D U T C H   R E -                  There are some today who want
to know, that even pagans, and Chris-        FORMED...                                      to change worship practices, modify
tians of all denominations and in ev-            AbrahamKuyper,  spokesman for              apositionon  diyorce and remarriage,
ery period of the Church, haye united        the Reformed cause in the Nether-              allow membership in unions, and
in denouncing this class of amuse-           lands last century, once said to an            more. Their reasoning is that "Other
ments, as essentially corrupt and de-        American audience, a Calvinism . . .           ChurchesandOtherDenominations"
moralizingin their nature." He quotes        placed a barrier against the too               allow these things. It should be im-
from ancient authorities. He contin-         unhallowed influence of this world             portant for them to know that most
ues:  fi All the Fathers, whospeakon the     byputtingadistinct'veto' uponthree             ti other churches and denominations"
subject, with one voice attest that this     things, card playing, the&es, and danc-        did not, before, hold that position
was the case. A number of early              ing . . . . * He pointed out what was          which they now preach as gospeltruth.
Synods or Councils, passedformalcan-         offensive to Calvinists: "the moral            Formerly they forbade remarriage;
ons, condemning the theatre, and ex-         sacrifice which as a rule was de-              formerly they disallowed member-
cluding actors, and those who inter-         manded of actors and actresses for             ship in unions; formerly they disci-
marriedwith them, or openly encour-          the amusement of the public." A                plined those who danced; formerly
aged them, from the privileges of the        "low moral standard resulted partly            their worship was not lie today.
church." Again, he provides proof.           from the fact that the constant and                    Formerly, these churches forbade
In addition, "The churches of France,        everchangingpresentationof the char-           also attendance at theaters and mov-
Holland,  and  Scotland,' have declared      acter of another person finally ham-           ies.
it to be `unlawf$ to go to comedies,         pers the .moulding of your personal                    Why, now, the change?
tragedies, interludes, farces,.or other      character . . . . "I6 This is precisely the            Why do the churches today run
stageplays,actedinpublicorprivate;           argument that we have used against             madly after drama? Why the strong
because in all ages, these have been         drama itse2f.                                  attraction to theaterandmovies? Why
forbiddenamongChristians,asbring-                Early ChristianReformedhistory             do they not only promote ungodly
ing in a corruption of good man-             harmonizes well with this united tes-          moqies in the church magazines and
ners.'  "I3      ,:                          timony. Although theirSynodof  1928            school papers, but include drama in
    It should not be left out that the       condemned only the evil content of             their worship services and schools?
American Congress,: following the            the movie and theater, thus showing            Why are they so strongly attracted to
famousDeclaration  of Independence,          itself poised to recommend drama to            it?
passed a resolution that declared,           her children, some leading spokes-                     Is it because they have learned
"Whereas true religion and good              men for the church felt differently.           more than our fathers? Is it because
morals are the only solid foundation         Respected CRC pastor Leonard                   they have studied the Scriptures more
of public liberty and,happiness,  Re-        Greenway  said, "Some of us, how-              carefully, that some new light has
solved, that it be and hereby is ear-        ever, are indmed to believe that dra-          been shed from the Bible, and they
nestly recommended to the several            matic and theatrical filming is busi-          havefoundthatourfatherswerebadly
states to take the mar: effectual mea-       caZZy wrong. We believe that God has           mistaken on these important matters
sures . . . for the suppression of theat-    giveneveryindividualhisownunique               of the Christian walk and life?
rical entertainments . . . and Such other    creatural distinctions in life, and that               Orisitnotrather that the daysare
diversions as are productive of idle-        it is sinful for anyone habitually to          evil, and that the temptations that our
ness, dissipation, and a general de-         reshape his individuality and to twist         fathers resisted are not resisted any-
pravity of principles and manners."14        his personality for dramatic purposes.         more? Has not the history of the
    C.H. Spurgeon  (of late last cen-        To `make love' or to display anger,            church always gone that way? The
tury) has already been called to wit-        sorrow, fear or elation under artificial       day of Christ is at hand. The mystery
ness against drama. If theatre-going         stimulation  is a profanation of gifts         of iniquity is working powerfully.
becomes general among professing             and powers which God intends shall                     If we are not careful, watching
Christians, he said, it "willsoonprove       be used only in sincerity and truth.""         and praying, will that not happen to
the death of piety." In reaction to              The testimony of the church, with          us?
church members who wanted to in-             few exceptions, is not only that the                   Resist.
troduce plays in Sunday School and           content of the theater is evil, but the                You will be in good company.
church, Spurgeon  pleaded to keep it         theater itself is to be avoided by Chris-
out, maintaining thaf it only "whets         tians.                                         (Concluding  nexf fime, God helping, we .
the appetite for the real thing, breaks                                                     will stand back and point out the basic
down the barriers, and swells the                CONCLUSION                                 issueinourattitudetowardDrama,  Tele-
throng of saints and sinners at the              This testimony of the church is            vision, and Movies.)  Q
opera and the theatre. The church-           important.                                                        Endno tes:
theatre trainsfor theworld-theatre."`5           Church history should always be            1. Increase  Mather,   A Testimony
                                             important for us.                              Against Several Prophane and Super-

                                                                                              September 1,1993 I Standard Bearer I467


stitious Customs . . . London, 1687,        7. White, p. 139.                          the City of New York . . . . II Printed in
from the "Preface," pp. 16,17.              8. White, p. 60.                           New York, 1812.
2.      Christine Schnusenberg, The         9. Paul White, Theatre and Refor-          14. Quoted from S.M. Houghton,
Relationship Between the Church and         mation and Christine Schnusenberg's        "The Christian and Theatrical Enter-
the Theatre,  University Press of           Relationship Between The Church            tainment," The  Banner  of  Truth, De-
America, 1988, p. 40.                       And The Theatre.                           cember, 1971, p. 29, although many
3.     Pamphlet printed in Philadel-        10. White, p. xiii.                        other sources provide the same quo-
phia, 1840, no publisher given.             11. IncreaseMather,A  Testimony....        tation.
4. PaulWhitfieldWhite,  Theatre and         Preface, p. 17.                            15. SM. Houghton, in Z'ke Banner of
Reformation,  Cambridge University          12. A Testimony... Preface, p. 15.         Truth, p. 32.
Press, 1993,  p. 163.                       13. Samuel Miller, "A Sermon Deliv-        16. Lectures on Calvinism, pp. 73-75.
5.  White,p. 170.                           ered January 19,1812,  at the Request      17. Basic Questions about Christian
6. White, pp. 163,164.                      of A Number of Young Gentlemen of          Behavior,  Zondervan, 1949, p. 86.





          Michigan Home Schoolers
           Lose Teacher Certification
                                                      Battle

      "...we have not found and defendants have not presented any case that finds the existence of a Fourteenth
      Amendment fundamental right of parents to direct their children's secular education free of reasonable
      regulation. We conclude that parents do not have such a constitutional right requiring a strict scrutiny standard.
      On the contrary, the state may reasonably regulate education, including the imposition of teacher certification
      and curricula requirements on home-school programs, in order to advance the legitimate interest of compulsory
      education."
                                                           People v. Benneft,  Michigan Supreme Court (May 251993)

      "We hold that the teacher certification requirement is an unconstitutional violation of the Free Exercise Clause
      of the First Amendment as applied to families whose religious convictions prohibit the use of certified instructors.
      Such families, therefore, are exempt from the dictates of the teacher certification requirement."
                                                           People v. DeJonge, Michigan Supreme Court (May 25,1993)

State Regulation of Home Schools            other states in the U.S. (Alabama and      lenged  not  only the despised certifi-
      Michigan home  schoolers  have        California) continue to insist on          cation requirement, but also other
long chafed under an onerous state          teachercertificationforhomeschools.        regulations imposed on non-public
education law that requires parents         In contrast, by far the majority of        schools (e.g., curricula requirements,
who home school their children to           states thatregulatehomeschoolsnow          180 school day minimum, and record
provideinstructors who are state cer-       require only that the parent-instruc-      keeping). In May of this year, the
tified. Curiously enough, only two          tors have a high school education and      Michigan supreme court finally ad-
                                            that the home school students submit       dressed all of these issues in lengthy
                                            to periodic academic achievement           opinions in three unrelated home
Mr. Lanting, a member ofsouth Holland       t e s t s ,                                school cases that were consolidated
Protestant Reformed Church, is a prac-           During the last decade Michigan       for purposes of hearing. In the Bennett
ticing attorney.                            home school advocates have chal-           and CZonZara  companion cases, al-

468 /Standard Bearer  /September 1,1993


though the truancy convictions were         such a fundamental right to a "strict         carve out a special exemption to
overturned because of procedural ir-        scrutiny" test. This test would shift         teacher certification for "families
regularities, the court essentially up-     the burden to the state to prove that         whose religious convictions prohibit
held Michigan's regulatory scheme           teacher certification, for example, is        the use of certified instructors."
over home schools, holding that the         the "least intrusive means" of attain-            Mark and Chris DeJonge of
regulations reasonably advance the          ing the state's compulsory education          Allendale, Michigan taught their chil-
state's legitimate interest in compul-      goals.                                        dren at home since 1984 because of
sory education. In the DeJonge  case,           Regrettably, the court disagreed.         their desire to provide them with a
the court carved out a limited excep-       Although the majority grudgingly              "Christ-centered education." They
tion where family religious convic-         recognized the parental right to di-          likewise enrolled their children in a
tions forbid use of certified teachers.     rect the education of one's children,         HBEP administered by the Christian
                                            the court stopped short of calling it a       Liberties Academy in Illinois.
The Bennett Case                            "fundamental" constitutional right.               Nevertheless, because neither of
    Dissatisfiedwith thepublicschool            Accordingly, having found the             them were certified teachers, the
system in the. Detroit area, John and       absence of a fundamental right, the           DeJonges  were convicted, fined $200,
Sandra Bennett withdrew their chil-         court held that the state's teacher cer-      and sentenced to two years proba-
dren. and began teaching them at            tification requirement need only sat-         tion. On appeal to the Michigan Su-
home. The Bennetts enrolled their           isfy the "minimal scrutiny" test  -           preme Court the De Jonges contended
children in a home-based education          whether the regulation is "reason-            that the certificationrequirementvio-
program (HBEP) sponsored by                 ably related" to a legitimate state in-       lated their First Amendment right of
Clonlara, Inc. .of Ann Arbor, Michi-        terest. The court held:                       free exercise of their religion.
gan. The Bennetts occasionally trav-                                                          A split court (4-3) ruled in the
eled to Ann Arbor where their chil-           . ..itwasincurnbentupontheBennetts          DeJonges' favor, creating an excep-
dren were instructed by certified             to show the unreasonableness of the         tion to teacher certification where
teachers about four to six hours per          ce&ication  requirement, and they           certification would violate a parent's
month on Clonlara's campus. The               have been unable to do so. We are           religious beliefs. Mark DeJonge had
Bennetts held classes five hours per          simply unconvinced that there is any
                                              reason to find that the teacher certifi-    apparently testified at trial that it was
day, made monthly attendance re-              cationrequirement is anythingbut at         his sincerely held religious belief that
ports, prepared individualized cur-           least reasonably related to the state's     it is sinful for anyone other than par-
ricula for each child, and adminis-           legitimate interest [in compulsory          ents to teach their children.
tered standardized achievement tests          education]."
for each of their four children.                                                          Strict Scrutiny Test
    Despite these activities, the               Finally, the court determined the             Writing for the majority, Justice
Bennetts were tried and convicted of        Bennetts' convictions should be over-         Dorothy Riley held that, because (un-
failingto send their children to school     turned andvacatedbecause  theywere            like the Bennett case) the DeJonge's
in violation of Michigan's compul-          not afforded a proper hearing  prior  to      religious  beliefs were being burdened,
sory education laws. The trial court        their prosecutions. The court then            the First Amendment requires the
held that the Bennettsfailed to utilize     ordered the state superintendent of           "strict scrutiny" test to be applied.
the services of a certified teacher for     education to conduct a new hearing            Accordingly, the application of this
at least a substantial'portion of the       to determine whether the Bennetts'            test shifted the burden to the state to
school day, and also failed to main-        homeschoolmetstateeducationlaws.              prove that teacher certification is the
tain certain attendance and curricu-            In conclusion, the court obsti-           "least restrictive means of achieving
lum records. The Bennetts appealed          nately refused to jettison the teacher        the state's interest" in education.
their convictions to the appellate court    certification requirement for home                Applying the strict scrutiny test,
and then to the state supreme court.        schools, even though this question-           Justice Riley opined that teacher  cer-
                                            able regulation is used in only two           tificationisan"archaicnotion," noted
No Fundamental Right                        other states in the U.S. Even more            that the "nearly universal consensus
    Although the Bennetts did not           regrettably, the court refused to rec-        of [other] states is to permit home
contend they had withdrawn their            ognize the parental right to educate          schoolingwithout demandingteacher
children from the public school sys-        children as a protected fundamental           certified instruction," and further
tem for religious reasons, they none-       constitutional right.                         noted that over twenty states have
theless argued to the supreme court                                                       already repealed teacher certification
that parents' right to direct the educa-    DeJonge Case -                                requirements for home schools.
tion of their children should be classi-    Religious Exemption                               Accordingly, the DeJonge's con-
fied as a "fundamental" right. Such a           In the companion case of  People          viction was vacated and the court
favored classifica tion would then sub-     v. DeJonge,  however, which was de-           held that, although  Bennett  stands
ject any attempted state regulation of      cided the same day, the court did             for the general principle that home

                                                                                           September 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I499


schools  are  subject to teacher certifi-     need only pass a minimal "reason-            DeJongecaseisarguablyverynarrow
cation requirements,  DeJons;!   carves       ableness" test. This ruling is clearly a     and thus will be of limited use to
out a specific exemption or exe ption         loss for all non-public school parents       Michigan home schoolers. This is
                                   %
for families whose religious c nvic-          sensitive to control over their              because Justice Riley's majority opin-
tions forbid the use of certified teach-      children's education.                        ion restricts the exemption of "fami-
ers.                                              Secondly, in the  Bennett  case the      lies whose religious convictions pro-
                                              Supreme court stubbornly retained            hibit the use of certified teachers."
Shallow  Victories                            the teachercertificationrequirements         Mark DeJonge apparently believed it
        Although the Home School Legal        for both home schools and all non-           tobe a sin to send his children to a day
DefenseAssociation,thesecularpress,           public schools. Teacher certification,       school (even a Reformed Christian
and Michigan home schoolers quickly           then, is regrettably still alive and well    day school with certified teachers)
declared a victory in the Bennett and         in Michigan. This adverse ruling, too,       because, he insisted, the Bible teaches
DeJonge  cases, a close reading of the        isamajordefeatforallparentalschools          that onZy parents may teach their chil-
court opinions demonstrates other-            birdenedwithongoingstatebureau-              dren. Consequently, it would be a sin
wise. Even though the Bennetts' and           c&tic rules and regulations, particu-        to delegate teaching to a certified tu-
DeJonges' convictions were over-              larly the archaic teacher certification      tor or Christian school teacher.
turned, these cases accomplishedlittle        scheme                                       DeJonge also maintained it was a sin
if anything for the home school move-             Th&ly, although the DeJonge              for him or his wife to submit to state
ment, and may have signaled a set-            truancy convictions were overturned,         authority and become certified.
back for parental rights in Michigan.         only three of thefourmajorityjustices            ButsinceMarkDeJonge'sunusual
There are several reasons for this.           ruled that the teacher certification         if not bizarre notions are shared by
        First, the central important issue    law was `an unconstitutional viola-          few if any home schoolers (indeed,
in the Bennett case was whether the           tion of fieJonges' religious freedom.        the appellate court noted that
parents' right to direct the education        Accordingly, the religious freedom           DeJonge's  own wife and pastor did
of their children is a. "fundamental"         aspect of the DeJonge case has dubi-         not share these beliefs), it appears
constitutional right enjoying favored         ous precedential value.                      that the DeJongereligious  exemption
status over state regulatory schemes.                                                      can be claimed by few parents. Ac-
The court unequivocally ruled to the          The Sin of Delegation                        cordingly, as a parental religious free-
contrary, declaring that such state               Finally, the religious exemption         dom decision, the DeJonge case may
regulations over parental education           to teacher certification created by the      be of limited significance.  0




           Counselin Hopelessness,
                                 the eart
                                                 I?                  Si.n of'
                                Spiritual Suici.de
                                                                                                              Mr. Joel Sugg

        Whenever the word "suicide" in        sufferings. It is sometimes simply           sin of suicide can be committed with-
its literal sense appears, it causes dis-     unexplainable. It is occasionally seen       out a person physically taking his
quieting dread, a dread of death, of          assin. Butitisonlyrarelyseenasasin           own life, just as the sin of adultery in
death deliberate and appalling. Sui-          that can be wholly contained within          the heart of a man can be committed
cide is always a human tragedy. It is         the heart of a believer. This is an          in the sight of God without that man
often the cause of yet other human            important focus of this paper.               ever touching a woman.
                                                  Thus a basic premise of these re-            Another premise is that many
                                              marks is that sin is always committed        believers may be guilty of this sin
Mr. Sugg is an elder in Trinity Protes-       in the heart, but does not necessarily       unknowingly, that even among the
tadReformed  Church in Houston, Texas.        show itself outwardly. Therefore, the        most spiritual there is but a beginning
470 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1993


realization of living a truly sanctified    ers of Christ with their great deeds            His people is most powerfully mani-
life, a life of seeking to obey God out     and profession of Jesus' name, upon             fest. The dejected believer is effec-
of loving thankfulness for God's great      whose ears fell those terrible words of         tively stripped of every earthly sup-
goodness to him. Consider the per-          ourLordHimself,  "Ineverknewyou."               port. The loss of all help from this
sonal disgrace in public exposure of                 He willfully closes his mind to the    world is undeniable.
our disobedience compared to the            psalmist's admonition, "Whyart  thou                ButthenSatan'slieofGod'srejec-
shame felt when that same sin is            cast down, 0 my soul? and why art               tion is mercifully unmasked. And the
known only to the believer and God.         thou disquieted within me? hope thou            revivedbelieverbegins  tobe restored
Not often does the child of God feel        in God . . . . U                                with comfort, his only comfort, that
the same degree of baseness in these                 Instead, helistens woefully to that    he is not his own but belongs to his
two cases, and yet both are equally         wicked self of the old man, within              faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He be-
heinous and deserving of condemna-          him, flooding the eargate  of his mind          gins to learn that no matter what the
tion. It is true that the present human     with endless recriminations from that           circumstances, whether in direstneed
consequences of outward sin are or-         great Deceiver, accusing him night              to the point of death or in the fullness
dinarily much greater than those            and day. Being overcome, he listens,            of earthly riches beyond any want, he
present human consequences of sin in        and that real life within dies to his           knows (but to forget and learn again)
the heart alone. But this fact itself       consciousness, or is seen as having             that it is God's sovereign hand alone,
shows that too often we are more            never really been alive. In emotional           and no earthly means however cher-
concemedwithhumanconsequences               turmoil, he becomes a walking dead              ished, which holds him from destruc-
than with Divine judgment. Too of-          man, and Satan growls as a hungry               tion and the pangs of hell. For some
ten we fear men and not God. And as         lion at the prospect of his helpless,           this is a lesson taught in a grievously
we repent of spiritual frailty, we are      hopeless prey. And are there not                severe school, but for all of God's
graciously brought to our knees and         more than a few battle-scarred people           people, howeverleamed,itis  themost
are shown more sharply hour total           of God who have heard the stricken              precious Truth of their lives.
dependence upon God. How could              words of our Lord Himself, "My God,                 Satan's lie that the believer has
we not know that God, always and            My God, why hast Thou forsaken                  beenrejectedbyhisLordisunmasked
everywhere, sees the full depth and         me?" resonant upon their ownlips as             only by the hand of God Himself,
the darkest corners of our sinful           they hung comfortless in the grasp of           working out of a reservoir of many
hearts, even things beyond our own          hopelessness?                                   means. But all these varied means,
consciousness?                                       At the center of this hopelessness     including the counsel of fellow-be-
    If then this offense is so great,       lies the sleeping dragon of unbelief,           lievers, must have but a single pur-
what exactly is it, how may its many        and what readily stirs this monster             pose - to leave the beset one finally
aspects be described, who is called to      within is severe trial. The testing             standing emptied and alone in the
confront, or counsel, or comfort the        ultimately comes from the Sovereign             world, yet bathed in the love and
sinner, and when and how? We can            hand of God, but He often brings it to          mercy of his heavenly Father. What a
only suggest some responses to some         us through the means of the physical            paradox! One who has lost every-
of these questions. Our main purpose        pain, injury, disease, or even trau-            thingbut possesses all! How striking
here is not to learn so much from           matic cure. It can come from loss of            that the great truths are great para-
these few words as it is to be encour-      loved ones, of material possessions,            doxes! The untouchable and perfect
aged to examine further these mat-          of useful independent life. It can              God .bending down to embrace the
ters in our own experience andin that       come from shame, the public expo-               base and cursed man! Resurrection
of those near us.                           sure of weakness, failure, or wicked            rising out of crucifixion, glory com-
    Our subject addresses this heart        deeds. It can even come from various            ing forth from shame, life bursting
sin of suicide as "hopelessness," a         manifestations of melancholy arising            out from death, one's belief made
hopelessness which arises from the          from physical dysfunctions. One who             strong despite one's unbelief!
paradox of a believer's unbelief, the       is hopeless finds nothing with which                However stark is our naked de-
child of God being `drawn into the          to support his life, and thus death             pendence on God alone, our heavenly
black hole of self-pity by the twisting,    appears as welcome release from                 FatherisutterlygraciousinHismercy
goading thought that any new life           present suffering.                              to His children. He leads us to this
from above is now dead, if in fact it                In all this, Satan's purpose is to     pointwithmuchhumansupport,even
had ever lived. Closing his ears be-        convince the believer that there is no          as a father holds his toddler's hand in
cause of searing pain from the sharp        one who understands, that there is no           his first efforts to walk. And He
blade of the Word of God, he sees           help, that God has rejected him, that           continues to provide such blessings
himself as the hated Pharisee, dead         he is utterly abandoned, that all is            so long as we remember our ultimate
within despite his outward form. Or,        lost.                                           dependence upon Him alone.
even worse, he sees his own life re-                 Yet within this excruciating plight        Good counsel is such a support.
flected among those so-called follow-       the foundational lesson of God for              In counseling the hopeless we must

                                                                                             September 1,1993  i Standard Bearer / 471


first ask for the gift of wisdom, espe-             We must show him that the trials        vocative, are both futile, for the effort
cially the wisdom of sensing what he            of the helpless faithful were fully en-     falls upon an emotionally deadened
will listen to, if he will listen at all. Of    compassed in the hateful thorny             spirit. There are the times when God
course it is our prayer that we may be          crown of Jesus Christ, who drank to         closes both the ears of the counseled
wise to choose the proper words of              the very last drop the punishment           and the lips of the counselor. But
Scripture; but emotional stress can,            due His people, suffering the anguish,      when this happens, He does not leave
for a time, close the ears of the be-           shame, sorrow, pain, and loneliness         us disarmed in the midst of battle. It
liever even to Gods Word. Then,                 of the desolate in the black night of       is here  thatHe teachesbothcounselor
perhaps, the counselor has experi-              His own soul. All this infinitely sur-      and counseled a very great lesson.
ence like that of the troubled one.             passed any human trauma and ac-                 We might call it the lesson of
Wisely stated, this could serve as a            complished all our salvation out of         God's faithful dog. Indulge the writer
means of his seeing he is not alone, a          His loving obedience to the Father          for a moment and picture a dumb
key element in counseling the deso-             and in loving concern for His people.       creature, one without humanvoice or
late. And if his ears are opened even               Now we see another purpose of           reason- a dog, a four-legged, maybe
for a moment by the compassion of               Godin thesufferingofJesusChrist,  to        a flop-eared, long-tailed, pantingcrit-
some mutual experience, Scripture               show us the way as He draws us              ter, whose eyes are filled with faithful
must then be brought to him, particu-           along that narrow, flinty path which        love as he rests at his discouraged
larlythe many trials there are of God's         leads to His presence, beginning now        master's feet. Just the presence of the
people, once again helping him to see           and leading into eternity. Again the        dog's unvoiced, unconditional con-
he is not alone in his loneliness and           paradox - eternal hope out of hope-         cern can be used to bring the one who
defeat, Elijah flees what he thinks is          lessness! Seekingrelease from suffer-       thought himself alone andabandoned
the desolation of his life, and, coming         ing, we find that everythingwevainly        out of his desolation,
to the cave, he groans "... I, even I           grasp is taken away - except one                When the forlorn, forsaken, de-
only, am left, and they seek my life, to        thing: God alone, our heavenly Fa-          serted, forgotten, cast down, dejected
take it away." David abjectly con-              ther, manifest in Jesus Christ, and         can give neither lips nor ear, let us
fesses his sin in despondence, "For             engraved upon our hearts by the Holy        pray that we may be able to counsel
mine iniquities are gone over mine              Spirit. This must be the heart lesson       that hopelessness, the heart sin of
head: as a heavy burden they are too            in consoling the disconsolate.              spiritual suicide, by our simple,
heavy for me. My wounds stink and                   There are times when wisdom in          unvoiced presence. And in that pres-
are corrupt because of my foolish-              counseling should be judged by the          ence may there be found the Holy
ness.... For I am ready to halt, and my         skill in asking good questions, more        Spirit showing forth the abiding love
sorrow is continuallybeforeme." The             than in giving correct answers. Yet         of the Living Word for His people,
despairing one must hear first the              often the suffering ones are left deaf      until hope is revived, and we are able
depths to which the godly often sink,           and dumb by their conviction that           to feed the spoken word of Scripture,
beforebeingshownthroughthemercy                 nobody understands, and that there          even the word, When thou passest
of God the visit of the Day-spring              is no solutionin thislife  to theirprob-    through the waters, I will be with
from on high who brings light `where            lem. So attempting to give answers,         thee; and through the rivers, they
there was before only darkness.                 however true and valuable, or asking        shall not overflow thee...." 0
                                                questions, however incisive or pro-


    Counseling Those Who Lack
         the Assurance of Salvation
                                                                                                      Prof. Robert Decker

                                                    At the outset we wish to assert as      of assurance of salvation is not a sign
                                                strongly as possible that lackof  assur-    of a deep spirituality. There are those
                                                ante in the experience of the believer      in the Reformed tradition who teach
Prof. Decker is professor ofpractical  The-     is abnormal. Doubt concerning one's         that doubt or the lackof  the assurance
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-          salvation is not the norm of the            of salvationis anindication of spiritu-
nary.                                           believer's life. And certainly the lack     ality, so that the more one doubts, the

472 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1993


more deeply spiritual that person is.       grace, only for the sake of Christ's       emphasis on sin and misery and too
This notion must be rejected.               merits."4                                  little on the wonder of grace in Christ
    What is normal in the life of the            That faith includes assurance is      Jesus can produce in somebelievers ,a
Christian is that he not only knows         also the clear teaching of Holy Scrip-     lack of assurance or, at best, a misun-
and assents to the truth of Scripture,      ture. The Christian confesses with         derstanding of the truth.
but also is assured in his heart that       the apostle Paul, "for I know whom I           In close connection with this last
Jesus died on account of his sins and       havebelieved,andampersuaded that           mentioned cause, a lack of the knowl-
was raised on account of his justifica-     he is able to keep that which I have       edge of faith may very well produce
tion, The child of God is assured of        committed unto him against that            a lack of assurance. If it is true, and it
his salvation.                              day."5 And, with the same apostle,         is, that the confidence of faithis rooted
    That the assurance of salvation is      the Christian is persuaded that noth-      and grounded in the knowledge of
the norm for the life of the child of       ing is able to separate him from the       faith, one will lack the assurance of
God ought to be evident from the fact       love of God which is in Christ Jesus       salvation in the measure that he lacks
that both Holy Scripture and our Re-        his Lord.6                                 the knowledge of faith.
formed Confessions teach that assur-             The fact that assurancebelongs to
ance belongs to the essence of faith.       the essence  of faith does not mean
Assurance is not merely one of the          that Christians never doubt their sal-            . . . counseling those  I
fruits of faith which m,ay or may not       vation. Indeed most, if not all, Chris-           who lack assurance
accompany believing in Christ and           tians struggle at one point or another
appropriating the benefits of salva-        and to one degree or another with a               begins in the pulpit.
tion. Assurance is essential to faith.      lack of assurance. We pastors and
    John Calvin defines faith as "a         elders in God's church know this.
firm and certain knowledge of God's         Scripture and our Confessions recog-           From a negative point of iview,
benevolence towards us, founded             nize this as well.'                        this last observation provides the key
upon the truth of the freely given               What may be some of the causes        toproper,effectivecounselingofthose
promise in Christ, both revealed to         of lack of assurance in the lives of       Christians who lack the assurance of
our minds and sealedupon our hearts         God's people? Sin is of course the         salvation. Effective counseling of
through the Holy Spirit."l Note the         cause of all of the problems of the        those who doubt their salvation can
"both . . . and" of Calvin's definition.    people of God, including the lack of       take place only in an environment of
Faith is knowledge of God's benevo-         assurance. When we say sin is the          good, balanced preaching i.e., preach-
lence towards us, both revealed to          cause we mean specific sins, besetting     ing which proclaims the whole coun-
our minds and sealed upon our hearts        sins, against which Christians have to     sel of God. To put it another way,
through the Holy Spirit. By the seal-       fight. The Canons speak of the fact        counseling those who lack assurance
ing of the Holy Spirit Calvin means         that  sometimes  Christians "sinfully      begins in the pulpit. Preaching after
assurance. In his discussion of this        deviate from the guidance of divine        all, is the chief means of grace. By
concept, Calvin even goes so far as to      grace, so as to be seduced by, and         means of preaching, God's people hear
say that "the knowledge of faith con-       comply with the lusts of the flesh....     the voice of their Savior, believe on
sists in assurance rather than in com-      This, the lamentable fall of David,        His Name, call upon Him, and are
prehension."2  Insections 15 and 16 of      Peter, and other saints described in       saved.g Such preaching will never
the same chapter of the Institutes,         Holy Scripture, demonstrates." "By         minimize sin. Such preaching wiIl
Calvin argues at length, and with           such enormous sins," the  Canons go        emphasize that sin is an enormous
many references to Scripture, that          on to say, these Christians "some-         offense to the thrice holy God. Such
belonging to faith is the assurance of      times lose the sense of God's favor,       preaching will be constantly calling
salvation.3                                 for a time...."*                           God's people to faith in the Lord Jesus
    The Heidelberg Catechism too                Depressed Christians often lack        andrepentance towardthelivingGod.
makes assurance part of the essence         assurance, even to the point of believ-    But, balanced preaching will never
of faith, when in answer to the ques-       ing they have committed the                sell short the almighty power of God's
tion, "What is true faith?" it says,        unpardonable sin. These Christians         sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. Such
"Truefaithisnotonlyacertainknowl-           are often plagued by severe inferior       preaching will be constantly direct-
edge, whereby I hold for truth all that     feelings. They believe they are bad,       ing God's people to the cross of Jesus
God has revealed to us in his word,         unlovable people. They are convinced       and His resurrection from the dead.
but also an assured confidence, which       others do not like them. Then they         It will stress the sovereign power of
the Holy Ghost works by the gospel,         often transfer these feelings to God.      the Holy Spirit who can and does
in my heart; that not only to others,       I'm so bad, God must not love me           break the hardest of hearts.
but to me also, remission of sin, ever-     either.                                        But even in those congregations
lasting righteousness and salvation,            Unhealthy teaching and preach-         blessedwithfaithful,balancedpreach-
are freely given by God, merely of          ing in the church, laying too much         ing the pastors and elders will en-

                                                                                        September 1,1993  / Standard Bearer I473


 counter those who lack the assurance            salvation), we must grow in the grace        shepherd the flock of God be much in
 of faith. How must these be coun-               and knowledge of our Lord and Sav-           prayer for those of our congregations
 seled?                                          ior Jesus Christ (II Pet. 3:17,18).  As-     who struggle with doubt. Let us
     The answer to this question is              surance springs from the knowledge           strive to be sympathetic, patient, and
 perhaps best summed by Article 10 of            of faith.                                    kind, as faithful servants of the Chief
 the Canons, "This assurance, how-                   But, faith is the gift of God. If        Shepherd of the sheep. Let us above
 ever, is not produced by any peculiar           God's people are to possess what the         all, bring these troubled souls the
 revelation contrary to, or indepen-             Canons call "solid comfort," the Holy        Word of God. 0
 dent of the Word of God; but springs            Spirit must witness with their spirits
 from faith in God's promises, which             thattheyarethechildrenofGod(Rom.
 he has most abundantly revealed in             8:16). The Holy Spirit witnesses with
 his Word for our comfort; from the             our spirits that we are God's children                        Endnotes:
 testimony of the Holy Spirit, witness-         by means of the Word!  Hence, those
 ing with our spirit, that we are chil-         who lack assurance must be exhorted           1.     John Calvin, Instz'tates  of the
 dren and heirs of God, Rom. 816; and           to use faithfully the means of grace.         Christian ReIigion,  trans. by Ford
 lastly, from a serious and holy desire         Privately we must bring them the              Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: The
 to preserve a good conscience, and to          Word as well, in the confidence that          WestminsterPress,1960),I:551.  (Book
 performgoodworks. Andifthe elect               the Holy Spirit will use that means to        III, chap. II, 7).
 of God were deprived of this solid             comfort God's children. Still more,           2.    Ibid., p. 560.
 comfort, that they shall finally obtain        they must be urged to pray. Scripture         3. Ibid., pp. 561-562. In these sec-
 thevictory, andofthisinfalliblepledge          exhorts us to rejoice in the Lord al-         tions Calvin makes very strong state-
 or earnest of eternal glory, they would        ways, somethingwe can do only when            ments concerning faith as assurance.
be of all men the most miserable."              we are assured of  our salvation, and         "By these words (a reference to
     Note well that the assurance of            something we cannot do if we are              Ephesians  3:12, RDD) he obviously
 salvation is not produced by any pe-           anxious. Hence Scripture tells us to          shows that there is no right faith ex-
culiar revelation contrary to or inde-          pray. By this means God blesses us            cept when we dare with tranquil
pendent of the Word of God! Assur-              with His peace (Phil. 4:4-7). If God's        hearts to stand in God's sight. This
ance does not come from some mys-               people cannot pray, they must call for        boldness arises only out of a sure
tical experience. God, the Holy Spirit,         the elders of the church and let them         confidence in divine benevolence and
grants assurance by means of the                pray over them, and the prayer of             salvation. This is so true that the
Word. Therefore, we must bring the              faith will save the sick (James 5:13-         word `faith' is very often used for
Word of God to those wholackassur-              15). Those who lack assurance must            confidence.... Here, indeed, is the
ante. They must be taught and even              also be reminded that Jesus, their            chief hinge on which faith turns: that
admonished(withpatienceandkind-                 sympatheticandmercifulHighPriest,             we do not regard the promises of
ness) to rely on the promises of God            prays for them (cf. Heb. 414-16;  218;        mercy that God offers as true only
which are most abundantly revealed              9:24).                                        outside of ourselves, but not at all in
in the Holy Scriptures. Assurance                                                             us; rather that we make them ours by
springs from faith in the promises of                                                         inwardly embracing them. Hence, at
God. We must direct God's people to              Assurance springs from faith                 last is bon that confidence which
God's promises. We must exhort                       in the promises of God.                  Paul elsewhere calls `peace'.... With-
them to believe those promises of                                                             out it the conscience must be harried
God. Andagain  the element of knowl-                                                          by disturbed alarm, and almost tom
edge, the knowledge of faith, is cru-                                                         to pieces.... No man is a believer, I
cial. God's people must grow in their               Still more, these troubled souls          say, except him who, leaning upon
knowledge of the truth of HolyScrip-            mustbeexhortedtostrive topreserve             the assurance of his salvation, confi-
ture. The  Heidelberg Catechism  em-            agoodconsciencebyperforminggood               dently triumphs over the devil and
phasizes this in Lord's Day I,                  works, i.e., by living a life of sanctifi-
                                   Q.  2. In                                                  death.... And elsewhere he (Paul) so
order to live and die happily (live and         cation. The  Catechism  teaches that          teaches as to intimate that we cannot
die with the assurance of salvation)            one of the reasons we must do good            otherwise well comprehend the good-
we need to know how great are our               works is "that every one may be as-           ness of God unless we gather from it
sins and misery, how we may be de-              sured in himself of his faith, by the         :he fruit of great assurance."
livered from our misery, and how to             fruits thereof...."lO                         g. Question 21. Cf. also Question 1
live in thankfulness for that deliver-              The assurance of salvation flows          md 2. Zacharias Ursinus was obvi-
ance. We must know this. This is                out of reliance on God's promises, the        >usly influenced by Calvin.
Scripture as well. If we are to avoid           witness of the Holy Spirit with our           i.    I Timothy 1:12.
falling from our  own  steadfastness            spirits, and a life of sanctification.        6. Romans  8:38-39.
(and that includes the assurance of                 Finally, let us who are called to         7. Many of the psalmists struggled
474 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1993


with this problem. Cf. for example,          8. Canons  of  Dordrecht,  V/4,5.          10. The Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 86.
Psalms 42, 73, and 77. Cf. also The          9. Cf. Romans 10:13-17.
Canons of Dordrecht, V/5.





                                Theodore Beza:
                    Reformed Theologian

Introduction                                 the Westminster divines, Perkins and       leadership in France and a haven for
     Few Reformers have been as much         Owen in England, Turretin, Abra-           the refugees who fled the fierceperse-
maligned as Theodore Beza, Calvin's          hamKuyper,andHermanHoeksema                cutions of Protestants in that Roman
successor in Geneva. The slanders            have followedBeza  andnot Calvin. It       Catholic land.
against him came in his own lifetime         is time, so these critics opine, that           Beza's formal education began in
from his Roman Catholic opponents            today's Calvinistic churches return to     1528, when Beza, scarcely nine years
who evidently feared the power of his        pure Calvinism and repudiate Beza's        old, was sent to Orleans to study
pen. But, though of a `different kind,       corruptions of what Calvin taught.'        under Melchior Wolmar. Wolmar
these slanders have been foundin the                                                    will be remembered in history as a
writings of modem-day "Calvinists"           Beza's Early Life                          man of Protestant convictions who
who charge Beza with corrupting                  Who is this Beza who is so widely      had the privilege of teaching both
Calvin's pure doctrine and giving            criticized?                                Beza and Calvin. In fact, it is quite
Calvin's teachings new twists which              Theodore Beza was born in              possible that the two knew each other
Calvin would have repudiated. Spe-           Vezeley  in Burgundy of France on          already then, for they were together
cifically, Beza is charged with alter-       June 24,1519.  He was born of Pierre       students of Wolmar. Wolmar took
ingin significant ways Calvin's teach-       de Besze and Marie Burderot, from          Beza into his own family and Beza
ings on predestination and the atone-        the lesser nobility. His mother, an        stayed with Wolmar for seven years.
ment of Christ. While we may dis-            intelligent and charitable woman,              Although Wolmar made every
miss with scorn the Romish charges           bore seven children, of whom               effort to convert Beza to Protestant-
which were leveled against him in his        Theodore was the last. She died when       ism, the young boy resisted strenu-
lifetime, the accusations that Beza al-      Beza was only three years old.             ously and refused to forsake the Ro-
tered Calvin's doctrines of predesti-            Bezaneverknewhisfamilyhome.            man Catholicism of his family. As
nation and the atonement are more            At a very young age his uncle Nicho-       Beza himself later wrote, it was not
serious. It is maintained, e.g., that        las, a member of Parliament in Paris       until much later that God caused the
pure Calvinism has been lost since           and one who was impressed with             seeds of Wolmar's teaching to grow
Calvin's time because the Reformed           Theodore'sintelligence, tookhiminto        and mature in his life.
fathers in Germany, the Netherlands,         hisownhomeinl%ristosupervisehis                Nevertheless, the affection be-
and America have followed Beza in            education. Perhaps part of the reason      tween Wolmar and Beza never di-
teaching a view of predestination and        why Theodore's father consented to         minished, andBeza followed Wolmar
the atonement which, Calvin never            this was the death of his beloved wife.    to Bourges.
taught. Gomarus, the Synod of D&t,               Protestantism had come into                In 1534 Wolmar fled to his native
                                             Francewith thefirstwritingsof Luther       Germany during the incident of the
                                             which were widely circulated and           placards. Some Protestants had dis-
                                             read. As early as 1520 many Protes-        tributed widely in Paris condemna-
                                             tants could be found in the land, al-      tions of the mass, and this brought
Proj Hank0 is .professor of CZiurch  His-    though they were isolated from each        upon them the fierce persecutions
toy and New Testament in the Protes-         other and unorganized. It was to be        whichweretobesomuchapartofthe
tant Reformed Semina y.                      the lot of Calvin and Beza to provide      life of the faithful in France.

                                                                                         September I,1993  / Standard Bearer / 475


     Following the wishes of his fa-       Beza's Conversion and Early Work            from 1559-1599 and as rector from
ther, Beza (much like Calvin) turned            God prepared Beza during these         1559-1563, when Calvin refused the
to the study of law in Orleans. His        years for greater work in His king-         position. He was pastor of the church
heart was not in it, though; he far        dom. Much like Moses, who was               in Geneva from 1559-1605 when old
preferred the study of ancient Greek       learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp-      age forced him to retire. And he
and Roman literature; especially old       tians, and much like Calvin, who was        served as moderator of the company
Latin poets. He was a literary man         educated as a humanist scholar, Beza        of pastors when Calvin died (1564-
above all, and he reveled in the writ-     too, though he did not know it, was         1580).
ings of these Roman pagans.                being fashioned and formed by his               The Academy in Geneva became
     Although he did set up a law          God for crucial labors in the Reforma-      the one most important school in all
practice with his uncle in Paris after     tion.                                       Calvinistic Europe. Students from
he completed his studies, Beza spent           Like Zwingli, Beza was brought          every part of Europe came there to
more time in reading literature and        to conversion by a serious illness dur-     study, and went forth from the Acad-
writing Latin poetry than he did in        ing which he had much time to pon-          emy to spread the truths of Calvinism
practicing law. He even had many of        der the inscrutable ways of provi-          into every part of the continent.
his poems published in a book en-          dence and to remember the faithful          Among those who studied there was
titled Juvenalia,  which made a huge       instruction of his old tutor, Mel&or        John Knox, who returned to his na-
sensationintheliteraryworldinParis.        Wolmar. Humbled and chastised, he           tive Scotland to fight for the Reforma-
His mastery of the Latin and his el-       recovered from his illness a sound          tion in that land; and  Jacobus
egant style in Latin were so impres-       Protestant who now committed his            Arminius, who, although he studied
sive that all his contemporaries agreed    life to the propagation of the gospel.      under Beza, never imbibed Beza's
that his Latin writings were stylisti-         Becausepersecutioncontinuedin           teachings on the truths of Scripture
cally more beautiful than his later        France, he took his fiancee and fled to     and returned to the Netherlands to
writings in his native French. The         Calvin in Geneva. Here he was               spread his poison in the land of our
poems, however, were indecent and          warmly welcomed by his old fellow           fathers.
were to be a source of many regrets in     student and kept his promise to                 Beza will be loved especially by
his later life.                            Claudine by marrying her publicly in        those whose ancestry dates back to
     Beza was able to enjoy a life of      the church of Geneva.                       the Hugenots (as Calvinists in France
comparative leisure because two ben-           By means of the influence of Peter      were called). It is impossible to relate
efices were arranged for him which         Viret, Beza was appointed professor         here how many trips he tooktoFrance,
provided him with a steady income          of Greek at the University of               how many years he spent among the
of 700 golden crowns a year. Such a        Lausanne. Calvin already then               Hugenots, and what services he ren-
handsome income enabled him to live        showedhishighesteemforBezawhen              dered for them. When not receiving
luxuriously in the highest circles of      he wrote to Fare1  during a time when       warmly their refugees in Geneva, he
Parisian society, where he wined and       Beza was ill with the plague:               endangered his life by preaching for
dined with the famous literary people                                                  them, marching with their armies,
of his day. While Beza, in reflecting          I wouId not be a man if I did not       writing on their behalf and in their
on this period of his life, admitted         return his love who loves me more         defense, and attending their Synods.
sadly to many indiscretions and sins,        than a brother and reveres me as a        He presided over the last French Re-
he steadfastly maintained that he had        father: but I am still more concerned     formed Synod in La Rochelle, before
never fallen into immorality or the          at the loss the church would suffer if    the horrible massacre of Protestants
more cardinal sins which were so             in the midst of his career he should
                                             be suddenly removed by death, for I       by the Roman Catholics on St.
openly practiced in the higher circles       saw in him a man whose lovely spirit,     Bartholomew's eve made further Syn-
of society.                                  noble, pure manners, and open-            ods impossible. While engaged in
    In 1544Beza was secretly engaged         mindedness endeared him to all the        peaceful worship in a barn at Vassy,
to Claudine Denosse, a girl of the           righteous. I hope, however, that he       these hapless Protestants were set
lower class. He insisted on keeping          will be given back to us in answer to     uponbytheDukeof  Guisewhobutch-
the engagement secret, for to make           our prayers.                              ered hundreds of them.
his engagement public wouldnot  only                                                       His greatest service to French
be an embarrassment to his literary        Beza's work in Geneva and France            Protestants was his attendance at the
friends, but it would also rob him of          But Geneva needed Beza, and so          Colloquy of Poissy on July 31,156l.
the income from his benefices. Yet his     in 1549 he was called to become pro-        This colloquy was called in an effort
moral principles left him uneasy even      fessor of theology in the Academy of        to bring peace between Protestants
then, and he promised his fiancee that     Calvin. Lausanne was reluctant to           and Roman Catholics. Attendingthis
at a proper time he would marry her        see him leave, but Beza felt the urge to    notable conference were 11 Reformed
publicly.                                  work with his beloved Calvin. Beza          pastors from France, delegates from
                                           served as professor in the Academy          Switzerland, French Roman Catholic

476 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1993


bishops, the king of France (though       and had kept the faith, and he then          spread far and wide. In fact, specific
he was a child), and the queen mother,    received the reward of the crown of          efforts were made to persuade him to
Catherine de Medici. It was a notable     life.                                        return to the Romish Church. On one
assembly. The discussions, however,                                                    occasion, when Beza was an old man
went nowhere. As Beza was speak-          Concluding Thoughts                          (1597), a certain  Francois  came to
ingin defense of the Protestant cause,             Though not the original thinker     Geneva to do this. He was only thirty,
hewasrudelyinterruptedbythebish-          that Calvin was, Beza was neverthe-          young, zealous, skilful in debate, and
ops of Rome who were determined           less a man of great learning, vast           the winner of countless encounters
not to allow the Protestants to propa-    intellect, and deep devotion. His la-        with adversaries. But all his skill
gate their views. After fruitless ef-     bors and writings are staggeringly           failed to move Beza. When argumen-
forts to continue the discussion, the     great. He wrote dramas, satires, po-         tation failed, he tried bribery and of-
assembly was adjourned. Yet the           lemical treatises, Greek and French          fered Beza in the name of the pope a
result was that the `king and queen       grammars,biographies,politicaltrea-          yearly pension of 4000 gold crowns
mother were exposed to Protestant         tises, and theological works. He ed-         and a sum equal to twice as much as
teaching, Catherine de  Medici was        ited an annotated text of the Greek          the value of his personal effects. This
impressed with the clarity and bold-      New Testament which he bequeathed            Beza could not tolerate. Politely but
ness of Beza's presentation, and Prot-    to Cambridge University in England,          emphatically Beza told him: "Go, sir;
estantism was given some recogni-         which text received his name: Codex          I am too old and too deaf to be able to
tion and a measure of freedom. This       Bezae. He edited the publication of          hear such words!"
however lastedbut a short time. Car-      Calvin's letters and wrote a defense             That Beza significantly altered
dinal Lorraine, the chief opponent of     of the killing of Servetus, the heretic      Calvin's teachings is nonsense. They
Protestantism,  said of Beza: "I could    who denied the Trinity and was               worked together in peace and har-
well have wished either that this man     burned at the stake in Geneva by the         mony for many years in Geneva and
had been dumb or that we had been         order of the Council. He defended            the Academy. Beza read what Calvin
deaf."                                    presbyterianchurchpolityagainstthe           wrote and Calvin read what Beza
    In a confrontation with the cruel     Anglicanism of the churchin  England.        wrote. Who can know the many dis-
andbloodthirsty Duke of Guise,Beza        He refuted the Lutheran doctrine of          cussions they had between them on
made his memorable statement: "Sire,      the Lord's Supper, defended predes-          allmatters of the truth? Not one word
it belongs, in truth, to the church of    tination against the heretic Castellio,      can be found in all the records that
God, in the name of,which I address       and defended the doctrine of the Trin-       Calvin disagreed with Beza on any
you, tosuJ@rblows,  not tostrike them.    ity against the Italian heretic Ochino.      one point.
But at the same time let it be your       His pen was sharp and often filled               Yet the slander goes on. Even
pleasure to remember that the Church      with the ink of satire; his enemies          Steinmetz calls Beza the father of
is an anvil which has worn out many       feared him.                                  Hyper-Calvinism.3 But then, we too
a   h a m m e r . "                                He attended countless meetings,     are called Hyper-Calvinists. And, if
                                          not the least of which was a meeting         Beza was a Hyper-Calvinist, then so
Beza's Last Days                          with German, French, and Swiss Prot-         was Calvin himself. It is a slander
    The last days of Beza were spent      estantsin an effort to bridge the chasm      which is easily refuted. And in any
continuing Calvin's doctrines, qui-       between Lutherans and Calvinists, in         case, sovereign, unconditional, and
etly teaching, attending meetings,        the hopes that German Protestants            particular grace, which Beza so ar-
writing and corresponding with Re-        would aid in helping the beleaguered         dently taught, is the truth of Scrip-
formers and saints throughout Eu-         French Hugenots.                             ture.  0
rope. His wife, Claudine, diedin 1588              He made explicit some of the key
and Beza married again: a refugee         doctrines of Calvinism which were                            Endnotes:
from Genoa, Genevieve  de1 Piano.         more or less implied in Calvin's writ-       1. For an example of this thinking,
When Calvin died in 1564, Beza            ings: the truths of the particular atone-    one can consult R. T. Kendall's mono-
preached his funeral sermon, and          ment of Christ, the federal imputa-          graph, "Calvin and English Calvin-
shortly after wrote a biography of his    tion of Adam's guilt, and  supra-            ism  to 1649." For a detailed discus-
mentor and dear friend.2                  lapsarianism. It is for this that he is      sion of these charges see my articlesin
    Weary of his many labors on be-       charged with altering Calvin's theol-        Thejournal, beginningwith the April,
half of the cause of Christ, he died      %Y-                                          1988  issue.
peacefully on Sunday, October 23,                  His enemies, showing their fear     2. The biography is still available.
1605 at the age of 86. At his request,    of him, did everything to discredit          3 .   DavidC.Steinmetz,Refomre.sin
written in his will, he was buried in     him. He was charged with immoral-            the Wings  (Baker Book House, 1971)
the common cemetery where Calvin          ity and with the gravest of moral            p. 170.
was buried and near the grave of his      faults. Repeatedly the rumors of his
wife. He had fought the good fight        return to the bosom of Rome were

                                                                                        September 1,19X3  / Standard Bearer I 477


    The sabbath evening of July 18,         Mahtani, were to be the first two          rian group of believers in Northern
1993 marked a historic occasion for         ministers of the new Evangelical Re-       Ireland, whom our churches have
Trinity Protestant Reformed Church          formed Church of Singapore, formally       been assisting for a number of years.
in Houston. It was such an occasion,        organized with the approbation of              In our need and our struggling in
for the whole confederation of our          our own denomination. A  sister-           prayerthatGodwouldgiveusgrowth
churches as well, and at least a rare       church relationship was formed, as         in numbers while we faithfully wit-
event in the church world at large.         we have continued to support               nessed to the Truth of His Word, our
Pastor Jaikishin Mahtani, a minister        Singapore by the presence of one of        tiny country church on the western
of the Evangelical Reformed Church          our most experienced and valued            perimeter of Houston, Texas was led
of Singapore, was formally installed        pastors and his wife as minister on        to ask for help from Singapore. We
as minister of our Houston congrega-        extended loan to them today and the        called one of their ministers to be-
tion, virtually an unparalleled action,     soon-coming of a third young student       come our under-shepherd. When we
but one made possible in the grace of       at our seminary.                           called Pastor Mahtani to come over
God through the sister-church rela-             In these and many other ways,          and help us, we were greatly influ-
tionship which our denominations            the Lord has been pleased to use the       enced by his reputation of commit-
share.                                      Protestant Reformed Churches to re-        ment to God's Truthandhis evangeli-
    The Singapore church began in           spond to the Singapore group's hun-        cal fervor to present that Truth to all
the 1970s as a group of largely Chi-        ger for the truth and high spiritual       men. Not knowing God's purpose
nese, unmarried young people living         energies, all arising and being fed by     beforehand, it came to us, at least as a
in the midst of a dominantly heathen        God's grace alone. We are brought          possibility, that his ownIndianances-
land. They formed a Christian orga-         low in humility before the wonder of       try and the Chinese origins of Esther,
nization originally called the Gospel       His work, and yet lifted up in thank-      his wife, might be used of God in
Letters and Tracts Department. Es-          fulness for the fruit of His hand.         bringing the Gospel to the extensive
sentially, all of them came from fami-          NowHehasbeenpleasedtoshow              Indian and Chinese enclaves in our
lies that were non-Christian, and           in yet another way the mystery of His      large metropolitan, as well as to the
many strongly anti-Christian.               power. The pulpit of our tiny Texas        population at large.
    In the providence of God, they          congregationhadbecomevacantear-                 Our hopes for the future are in
wereputintouchwithourProtestant             lier this year. Our pastor, who had        faith and not seen, but we have been
Reformed Churches, the year 1978            faithfully served us for seven years,      blessed far beyond our expectation
markingthebeginningofourmission             answered God's call to become mis-         with the presence of theMahtanifam-
work with them. At that time, Pastor        sionary to a Reformed and Presbyte-        ily and the preaching of our new pas-
Mahtani was a teenage Indian youth
from a Hindu family, who had to
participate with this Christian group
while under parental persecution. In
the ensuing years, we sent tapes, lit-
erature, and emissaries of pastors,
elders, and professors, often accom-
panied by their wives, to whom the
girls and young women were espe-
cially drawn in their questions.
    Perhaps of the greatest signifi-
cance were the sending of one of our
ministers and his family to serve as
missionary with them.for  over eight
years and the training of two of their
men in our Grand Rapids Seminary.              Pastor Mahtani with Esther holding Peter; Jonathan, Benjamin, Samuel, and
These men, one of whom was Pastor                        David ready to cut the cake in Trinity's Fellowship Hall.

478  {Standard Bearer / September 1,1993


tor for the few weeks since their ar-         God beyond our ability to express in       give us strength to show truly our
rival. Great has been the reward after        words, not simply for bringing this        thankfulness in our loving obedience
months of human concern and activ-            great work to pass, but for His gift of    to His Word, especially in the way of
ity during the immigration process            faithfulness to every member of our        preaching the Gospel to all the world,
and major renovation of the parson-           Protestant Reformed Churches, each         and may He send some of you who
age, allcarriedoutby numerous dedi-           of whom has contributed to ourbeing        read this to visit us in Texas so that we
cated hands. Time would fail me to            sustained for over 20 years now            maypersonallyshowourgratitudeto
enumerate all that has been done and          through the generous subsidies de-         God for His work in you. 0
by whom, but one acknowledgment               rived from synodical assessments                                          Joel Sugg,
must be made. We are thankful to              from all our congregations. May He               Elder, Trinity PRC of Houston



Evangelism  Activities                        Heidelberg Catechism. Present at           The congregation met on July 29 and
        The Evangelism Society of the         that morning service were two fami-        called Rev. Cammenga.
Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI             lies with children, two couples, and
sponsored a           conference on           three individuals. Present at the af-      Congregational Activities
Eschatology on August 4,11,18,  and           ternoon service were four families             The Consistory of the Bethel PRC
25. Each one of these sessions was led        with children, one  couple, and three      ofElkGroveVillage,ILhasappointed
by a different minister, starting with        individuals.                               two committees to work on the mat-
Prof. H. Hanko, and followedby Prof.              Sunday services continue in            ter of their future church location.
D. Engelsma, Rev. D. Kuiper, and              Alamosa, with pulpit supply coming         One committee is to investigate alter-
Rev. W. Bruinsma.                             from Loveland's pastor, or another         native locations for their present wor-
        The Evangelism Committee of the       minister from Classis West, Rev. W.        ship services, and the other was given
Immanuel PRC of Lacombe, Alberta,             Bekkering being there July 18 and 25.      a mandate to determine the approxi-
Canada sponsored a lecture given by           The services in Alamosa are attended       mate cost of a structure on their Pratt
Prof. R. Decker on the topic, "The            also by members of the Loveland, CO        Blvd. property.
Foolishness of Preaching." This lec-          congregation on a regular basis. And           The month of September marks
ture was held in mid June in the              we have learned that two families          the 50th anniversary of the Randolph,
Lacombe Christian School gym. The             fromMichiganalsoattendedrecently.          WI PRC. The congregation plans to
audience for the night numbered                                                          mark the event with an evening pro-
about 100, with one-third of them             Ministerial  Calls                         gram on Friday, September 10, a pic-
being from outside Lacombe's con-                 The evening of July 18,1993  was       nic on September 11, and specialwor-
gregation. While Prof.Decker and his          an exciting one for Trinity PRC of         ship services on Sunday, the 12th. We
wife were in Lacombe, he preached             Houston, TX. The installation of a         mention this here in the September 1
for the congregation of Immanuel for          new pastor is always cause for excite-     issue so that possibly you might be
two Sundays while Rev. Dick was on            ment, but it was especially so in this     able to attend one of these events
vacation. He also led a two-day semi-         instance because their new pastor          instead of reading about it in News
nar on. the subject, "The Office of           came to them from faraway Singapore,       From Our Churches after it has hap-
Elder in God's Church." This semi-            having before been an ordained min-        `pened.
nar consistedof fourlecturesfollowed          ister in the Evangelical Reformed               Mr. David Higgs, who is pres-
by discussion.                                Church of that country. We are thank-      ently attending our seminary, and
        We also want to update our read-      ful to God for bringing this event to      who is a member of the Evangelical
ers concerning the ongoing work in            pass. May God's blessing rest on           Presbyterian Church of Australia, was
the Alamosa/Monte  Vista, CO area             Pastor Mahtani and his family as he        in our Loveland, CO PRC this sum-
as reported in our August issue of the        begins his labors in the Houston area.     mer with his wife and family. While
"news." With theLord'sblessing,  the              Rev. J. Slopsema declined the call     there he gave a presentation concem-
first Sunday services were held there         he had been considering to become          ingtheEPCofAust.raliaandanswered
on June 20, with Rev,  `R. Cammenga           pastor of the Southwest  I'RC in           questions about that church.
(Loveland, CO PRC's pastor) preach-           Grandville, MI. And, subsequent to              And one last item concerning our
ing on the subject, "Our Comfort in           that decline, the Council of South-        Christian schools. In mid-July, Rev.
Christ," based on Lord's Day 1 of the         west formed anew trio from which to        C. Haak gave a special lecture held at
                                              call a minister. This trio consisted of    the Lynden, WA PRC on the promo-
Mr. Wiggei  is an elder iiz the Protestant    the Revs. R. Cammenga (Loveland,           tion of Covenant education, spon-
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,  Michi-       CO), T. Miersma (Edmonton, AB),            soredby the Society for PRSecondary
gan.                                          and C. Terpstra (South Holland, IL).       Education.  0

                                                                                           September I,1993  / Standard Bearer / 479


                                                                                                                                                                SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                                                Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                                Grandville, Michigan
          P. 0. Box 603
         Grandville,  MI 49468-0603





                                                                                                                                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                        The Lord willing, on August 17,1993, our
           On July 28,1993,'                                             On August 25, 1993, our parents and                      parents,
            HERM and DEANE SCHIPPER                             grandparents,                                                        MR. and MRS. CORNELIUS KAMPS,
     celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.                          MR. and MRS. TIM R. KOOIMA,                              celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
     We rejoice with them and thank God for the                 celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.                    WearethankfultoourcovenantGodforgiving
     many years they have shared. It is our prayer              We are thankful to our God for the love,                          us parents who have taught us and have
     that He will continue to,keep and bless them               guidance, and instruction which they have                         instructed us in His ways. May the Lord
     in the years ahead. "For this God is our God               given us. It is our prayer that God will continue             continue to bless them and keep them in His
     for ever and ever: he will be our guide even               to bless them and keep them in His loving                     care in the years ahead. "For the Lord is good:
     unto death" (Psalm 48:14).                                 care.                                                         his truth endureth to all generations" (Psalm
                                 The Schipper Family                     "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place                 10025).
                                            knism, Michigan     in all generations" (Psalm 9O:l).                            4%        Carey and Lois Kamps
                                                                                                                                              Matthew, Timothy, Kyle, Anna, Nathaniel
            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              EBg      Marv and Melinda VanMaanen
                                                                           Jill, Brian, Lisa, Beth, Nathan                   *         David and Karla Kamps
          The Men's and Ladies' Society of the First           $        John and Sharon Keizer                                                Laura, Sara, Betsy, Kara
     Protestant Reformed Church of Holland expresses                       Kimberly, Kerri, Michelle                         tBp       Terry and Lavonne Kooienga
     its  Christian sympathy to fellow members Mr. and         *        Steve and Rachel Kooima                                              Jarad, Tara, Ryan, Todd, Denise, Vonda
     Mrs. EdwardCammengaandtheirfamilyintheloss                            Travis                                            $         Jim and Sandra Westing
     of Mrs. Cammenga's mother,                                EBg      Glenn and Krista Kooima                                               Kimberly, Pamela, Amy, Jimmy, Nicole
                    CORA BYLSMA.                                           Justin                                            $         Dave and Ruth Gunnink
          Our prayer is that you may find comfort in the       *        Kevin and Joan Kooima                                                Heather, Jordan
     knowledge that "precious in the sight of the Lord is      4 Mark Kooima                                                 a$p       Larry and Lynn VanOverloop
     the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).                                                                                                Joshua, Lynndle, Gory, Cameron
                                                                                                               Hul, Iowa
                        Gordon Wassink, President                                                                            s$p Jonathan
                        Marilyn  Wassink, Secretary                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                      Grand Fapkb,  Mldl@l
                                                                       The Men's and Ladies' Society of the First
            RESOLUTION  OF SYMPATHY                            Protestant Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
          The Men's and Ladies' Society of the First           expresses its heartfelt sympathy to fellow member                      On September 4,1993,  our parents and
     Protestant Reformed Church of Holland expresses           Larry Dykema in the death of his father,                     grandparents,
theirsinceresympathytotheirfellow members, Mr.                                       PETER DYKEMA.                                    MR. and MRS. JACK VAN DYKE,
and Mrs. Brent Overway, `and their family in the               May he be comforted in the woids from Psalm                  will celebrate, the Lord willing, their 35th
death of Brent Overway's father,                               46:14, "For this God is our God for ever and ever;           wedding anniversary. We are thankful to our
                EDMUND OVERWAY.                                he will be our guide even unto death."                       covenant God for the love and Christian in-
          May they be comforted by the words of                                        Gordon Wassink,  President           struction we have received from them all
Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to                                 Marilyn Wassink,  Secretary          these years. May the Lord continue to bless
die is gain."                                                                                                               and keep them in the coming years.
                       Gordon  Wassink, President                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       "But the mercy of the Lord is from ever-
                        Marilyn  Wassink, Secretary                    The Council of the First Protestant Reformed         lasting to everlasting upon them that fear him
                                                               Church expresses its heartfelt sympathy to its               and his righteousness unto children's chil-
I                                                              fellow officebearer, Elder William Booth, in the             dren" (Psalm 103:lT).
               Please remember that an-                        passing of his mother,                                       a$p       Ken and Sheri Pastoor
         nouncements for this page should                                 MRS. CATHERINE BOOTH.                                              Erinn
         be sent to the Business Office, not                           May the comfort of the family be in this, that       S         Dave and Nancy VanBaren
         to the News Editor (see information           I       the death of His saints is, in the sight of the Lord,                    Melissa, Brenda, Chad, Michelle, Jessica
         on the inside of the front cover),                    orecious. (Psalm 116:15).                                    %         Dave and Julie VanOverloop
1111 Thank you                                                              Rev. Meindert Joostens, President                           Nicole, Jeffrey, Andrew
                                                                                       Theodore Looyenga, Clerk             $g       Jim and Kim VanDyke
                                                                                                                                                                          Jenlem, Mlchlgan
480 /Standard Bearer I September l,lQQ3


