          The.            -
                                                                              ^
                                                                     ,x       .


                                                                       \,.
      STAAIDARD `"-5 :.
           BEARER                                                                  _
r           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE



     . . . .God says, thou shalt not kill; and man
     says,  ' I will kill! God says, thou shalt- not
     commit `adultery; and man says,  I  will
     commit adultery, not j-ust once but over and
     over again! God says, thou shalt not steal;
     thou shalt not bear. false witness; thou shalt
     not covet. And -man says, I will . . . . In short,
     the word of man today is: I love the abound-

     ing  of iniquity and  1. will do everything

     within my power to cause sin and iniquity to
     abound evermore!,

                    see `Who Shot J.R.?"-page  14


                                         9 Volume LVII, No. 1, October I,1980


2                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                                    THE  STANDARD  BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                       :-            :                                            ISSN 0362-4692.
     Meditation-                                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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                                                                                      B+tor-in-Chief:   Prof.  Homer  C.  Hoeksema
     Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5     Department Editors:  Rev.  Wayne  Bekkering,  Rev.  Wilbur  Bruinsma,  Rev.  Arie
                                                                                      denHartogy  Prof.  Robert  D.  Decker,  Rev.   David  J.  Engelsma,  Rev.   Richard
     E d i t o r i a l -                                                              Flikkema,  Rev. Cornelius  Hanko, Prof.  Herman Hando,  Rev.  John  A. Heys,  Mr.
                                                                                      Calvin  Kalsbeek,  Rev.  Kenneth  Koole,.  Rev.  Jay  Kortering,  Rev.   George  C.
        No Size Does Not Matter, But Faithful-                                        Lubbers,  Rev.  Rodney  Miersma,  Rev.  Marinus  Schipper,  Rev.   James  Slopsema,
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M E D I T A T I O N   ,.-,  - -




                           Ques. 33. Why is Chr&t called the only begotten-son of God, since we are also ihe--
                       children  of  God?
                           Ans. Because Christ albne is the eternal and natural Son of God; but we are children
                       adopted  of God, by grace, `for his sake.                                                    Heid. Cat. Lord's Day 13.


     Amazing confession! Jesus Christ, God's Son!                                         the confession that He is God's only begotten Son,
     With the church of all ages we confess in our                                       We echo the song of the church of the shadows,
-Apostolic Creed that Jesus is the Son of God. After                                     "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
declaring that we believe in God, our Father, the                                        and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
`Almighty Creator, we confess our faith in Jesus,                                        and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
Who is the Christ. Concerning this Jesus we make                                          The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 3


of Peace". (Isaiah-  9:6). We hear Nathanael say,          ginning for the Father nor for the Son, nor is there
"Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King         end of days for either one of them. The Father is
of Israel" (John  1:49).  We delight in Peter's confes-    never without the Son; the Son is never, without the
sion as mouthpiece for the disciples, "We believe          Father. In the Holy Spirit, Father and Son meet and
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the     live an intimate life of everlasting fellowship as the
living  God!' (John  6:69). With Thomas we bow.            c o v e n a n t   G o d .
before Him in worship saying, "My Lord and my                 He is the natural Son. The second person posses-
God" (John 2028).                                          ses, along with the Father and the  Holy- Spirit, all
  Anyone who denies this fundamental truth                 the divine perfections. The Son is almighty, omni-
undermines the entire Word of God. Take away               present, omniscient, and all-wise. He is holy and
Christls divinity and you' have no virgin-birth, no        righteous. He.is love, grace, and truth. He is, in one
signs and wonders, no preaching of our Lord. All           word, fully and completely God.  He. lives the
His testimony would only prove Him to  `be the             divine life in-perfect harmony with the Father and
biggest deceiver that ever lived. Without this we          the Spirit. With the Father and the Spirit He fore-
have-no cross; no resurrection, no Lord of .Glory in '     knows and decrees all things. With them He
the heavens, no return of Christ with the clouds, no       creates, upholds, and directs His creation to its pre-
final glory. In fact, we would have no God, for            destined goal. As one of the persons of the triune
Jesus is God. Our faith  would,be worse than vain.         God He redeems the world for the sake of the elect.
The matter is as serious as that. "Who is  a.liar but      The wicked are destroyed like dead branches of a
he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He~is  anti-     tree, or like the chaff in a field-of wheat, but the
christ, that denieth the Father and the Son" (I John       organism' of God's world is redeemed and brought
222).  On the contrary, this is the  triumphi of the       to glory.
faith of the believer. ,For -"He .that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life: and he that'believeth not       Amazing truth! Glorious reality! Blessed
                                                           confession!                  .'
the Son shall not see  life.; but the wrath of God
abideth on him" (John 3:36).                                  Scripture speaks of Christ as the Firstborn of
                                                           every creature, even among many'brethren. The
  .The Only Begotten Son of God. There are other           firstborn in -the old dispensation opened the way
references to sons of God in Scripture. Adam is            for other children to follow. When the father died
called the son of God. Angels are referred to as sons      the firstborn became the head of the family and of
of God. Also believers are called sons ,of Gqd. Yet,       the tribe. Therefore the firstborn received a double
in distinction from any other sons of God, Jesus is        portion of the father's inheritance. This was a type
the only begotten, the eternal andnatural Son.             of Christ Who is appointed of God as the Firstborn
  He is begotten: The Creator has given, us an             to bring many sons into glory. He receives the
earthly picture to help us understand this eternal         birthright blessing from the Father as a reward on
reality. An earthly father begets a son through his        His accomplished work on the cross to share that
wife. Without the father a woman could not                 blessing with His brethren, that they may live and
possibly conceive and give birth to a child. The           reign with Him eternally.
child that is'born bears the resemblance of both the          In the old dispensation God was still at a distance
father and the mother. A father rejoices to see his        from His people. It is true that He appeared to them
likeness in his child, so that with a sense of joy he      either by direct speech or through the Angel of
says, "my son," or "my daughter." The eternal              Jehovah. He brought His Word to them through
reality pictured here is the generation of the Son by      angels, or through visions and dreams, or through
the Father. This  is. without the medium of a              prophets. God came to dwell with His people in the
woman,  `as is the case with us. This is also not an       tabernacle and in the temple in the.Most Holy Place
act of a moment, but is an eternal  .generation. The       behind the veil. Yet there was a barrier, a wall of
Father continuously gives life to the Son, and the         separation between the living God and His church
Son continuously draws His life from the Father.           simply because the Christ had not yet come. Now
The.Son bears the very image and likeness: of the          God is come very near to us. The Son of God-took
Father, so that the Father turns to the Son in love,       on our human nature from the virgin Mary. The
saying, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten         person of the Son dwelt among us as both God and
Thee."                                                     man. This makes the mystery of our salvation all
  He is the eternal Son. As hard as it is for us to        the more amazing. God formed His own human
conceive of eternity, so hard it is to understand this     nature in the womb of the virgin. God lay in a barn.
eternal generation of the Son. Many questions arise        God walked among us in all our weaknesses as one
in our minds that remain shrouded in the mystery           -of us. God showed His power in signs and wonders
of the Godhead. Yet we know that  t.he Father is           as the man Jesus. God spoke our language in such a
eternal, and the Son is also eternal. There is no be-      plain and simple way that children enjoyed  listen-


4                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



ing to Him. God was hated, spit upon, reviled,             Adam- and Eve. We belong to a human race that is
accused and condemned as a malefactor not                  sold under sin, which increases the guilt of sin by
worthy to live among men. God `surrendered                 its sinful transgression of God's law and willful re-
Himself into the hands of sinners to be nailed on          bellion from day to day, even until the measure of
the cross, suffered torments of hell under His own         iniquity is full and God destroys them in righteous
wrath, shed His blood as an atonement. for the sins        judgment. But in sovereign good pleasure God has
of His people. God arose in the man Jesus, took our        eternally separated us from this present evil world
flesh into heaven, and was exalted in  IJesus to the       and adopted us to be His sons with the right to
position of power .and glory at His right hand. As if      eternal life. Christ sealed that eternal adoption with
all that were a small thing, God came `in the Spirit       His own life blood on the. cross. He took away our
on Pentecost to take up His abode in the hearts of         curse and. merited for us the right to a place in
His saints, who thereby become temples of the              God's family forever. Christ was delivered over
Most High God. God in Christ will appear again, so         unto death for our transgressions; He was raised for
that every eye will. see Him, also: those who              our justification. He is now the exalted Lord in
crucified and rejected Him. He will take His people        heaven, Who sends His Spirit into our hearts as the
unto Himself, so that the tabernacle of; God will be       Spirit of  .adoption,.  assuring us that we are sons of
with  .man. God will dwell with them and be their          God and heirs of eternal life. We are heirs of God,
God and they will be His people forever. There is          and joint heirs with Christ, now to suffer with Him
no other name under heaven whereby we can be               for a while, that we may be glorified with Him
saved.        '                                            forever. Soon we shall stand before the great white
     This deserves all our emphasis. The truth that        throne, where Christ Himself will assure us of our
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is         eternal adoption, of our right to enter into Father's
often denied. It is often ignored. Ignoring this truth     House, of our appointed place at Father's table, to
may be even more dangerous than  1 an outright             praise and glorify His boundless grace. Saved!
denial. Often we hear hymns sung about a kind,             Saved by the blood of God's eternal Son, our Lord
loving, gentle Jesus. Children are taught to pray to       Jesus Christ.
Jesus. The impression is left that Jesus is readily.         Even that. does not fully express the great wonder
approachable, but God is a harsh and stern Being           of our  sonship.  God does what no human parent
Who might frighten a child. Let us maintain with           can do when he adopts a child. God not only
.a11 our might, Jesus Christ is God,  for- He is God's     assures us that we are adopted as sons in His
only begotten Son, in Whom is all our salvation.           House, but He also makes us sons. Eternally God
     Behold and tremble, for we stand on holy              regards us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are
ground!                                                    in Christ Jesus. We were one with Christ when He
                                                           suffered as an atonement for our sins on the cross.
     Our Catechism discusses the Sonship  of Christ in     We were so completely one with Him, that when
connection with our  sonship. On the one hand, it          He stretched out His arms to-be nailed to the cross,
shows the vast difference between Christ's sonship         we did just that in Him. When He suffered tor-
and ours. Christ is the natural Son, we are sons by        ments  oft hell, we suffered those torments for our
adoption. Christ is the eternal Son; although our          sins in Him. When He died, we died. When He
adoption is from eternity, we are made sons in             arose, we arose. So that when He went to sit at the
time. On the other hand, it shows how intimately           right hand of God in the highest heavens, we went
our  sonship is related to Christ's. For it is only be-    to sit with Him there. By His Spirit Christ implants
cause Christ is the eternal Son of God that we can         His resurrection life in our hearts, and thus trans-
be made sons in His image and likeness. Moreover,          forms us into His likeness in true knowledge, righ-
we have the right to adoption by the sacrifice of          teousness, and holiness, so that we know God, love
God's dear Son on the cross, Who makes us sons by          Him, and serve Him in love. Now we are sons. We
His Spirit in our hearts.                                  know not fully what we shall be. But this we know,
     We are called sons of God. Actually we have no        we will be like Him in His glory, beholding Him
right to this exalted privilege. By our natural birth      face to face in Christ Jesus to the praise of the glory
we bear the guilt of the sin of our first parents,         of His grace, world without end!

                    Know the standard and follow it-.
                             Read The Standard Bearer


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                                         5


                                       Editor's N&es

News Editor Change                                        Can You Still Join?
Beginning with this'issue you will'no longer see the      Yes, and if you join  before  our new book comes
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at the annual meeting that he felt compelled to           will be able to keep that discount at 30% perma-
resign as news editor, due to an overload of tasks.       nently. Do you still think it isn't worthwhile?
We take this opportunity to thank him sincerely for       Listen! At our recent annual Publications Commit-
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his replacement, Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek. Brother             as reprinting becomes necessary, is going to go up
Kalsbeek is a member of our Hope, Walker,                 in price. Right now we have three books in need of
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What, after all, is a news editor to write if you do      Michigan 49501. Membership obligates you to
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Other Plans                                               Have you written the den Hartogs in Singapore?
As Volume  57  of our  Standard Bearer  appears
throughout the coming volume-year-yes, this
issue marks the beginning of our fifty-seventh                                                      I.,.,DITIL~ZllYIEI
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year!-you will be noticing a few changes. Per-                I_TITLLOI.Y~US..IID"                                    A,WBL,D\TIOM NO.          LD*YzOr  ,IL,"S
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editor) the addition of the Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma to
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6                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


EDITORIAL                                                     j.//
                           No, Size :Doks Not Matter, But
                                              Faith4ulness Does!                                                                       ,
                                                              ILorh
                                                              /
                              Dr.  Ta$o#Iisses The Point `.                                                                      I .
                                                          Pr$ H. C. Hoeksema


     Several months ago I made some editorial com-                       enjoy much growth in size...:But  it is a fact of church
ments on a Presbyterian merger  prbposal   !and,                         history and of experience that smallness and faithful-
along with those comments, a few remarks about                           ness  to the truth go hand in hand."
urgings. on the part of  Dr.. Edmund  Clowneyi  that                    Dr. Taylor then goes on to adduce instances
the OPC join in a (conservative) Presbyterian amal-                   when, acc,ording-to him, smallness did not go hand
gam. At the conclusion of those remarks I  called                     in hand with faithfulness to the truth and to suggest
attention to what I called "a lesson in all this."-                   that it is more accurate to say that churches with
     In The Presbyterian Journal (Aug. 6, `60)  Editor G.             rigid standards, "churches -whose distinctives in
Aiken Taylor takes occasion from my editorial to                      worship or practice demand personal discipline or
write on the question, "Does Size Matter?" In so                      sacrifice,  ' ' seldom grow large and are likely to
doing, however, he seems to have missed complete-                     remain small.
ly the point of my "lesson."                                            At the conclusion of his article he writes:
     And this is too bad! For I think it is a lesson                       Back to our original question: Does size matter?
which all the Presbyterians who are at:present dis-                      Size, pursued for its own sake, surely is a form of here-
cussing the subject of merger might well consider,                       sy. But so is smallness, defended as an excuse for the-
rather than being seemingly preoccupied with the                         ological, or pastoral, failure.
possibility of getting together to form  :a  Zarger   and               My own answer to Dr. Taylor's question,
more influential denomination and  jeven being                        however,-and this was true in the editorial last
charmed by the prospect of participating in a                         March as well as now-is, first of all, that size does
"national" Presbyterian church which might have                       not matter, whether big. size or little size. The main
some "standing" and recognition as far as churches                    subject of my discussion in the article referred to
go in this land of ours. Thus far I have read a lot                   was not at all size, but an undue concern about size
about the benefits of merger, but very little about                   and desire for bigness as over against a concern
the question of Presbyterian distinctives. No one                     about the truth and faithfulness. This will be plain
seems to examine the question whether those in-                       from the fact that I was writing in the context of Dr.
volved in the proposed amalgam are truly Presby-                      Clowney's apparent interest in growth and in
terian, whether the churches involved truly stand                     merger with the PCA. It is evident above all from
on the basis of and maintain the Westminster                          the fact that I specifically wrote that the church
Confession of Faith.                                                  "has but one, calling, regardzess of the consequences,"
     Dr. Taylor begins his editorial by the following                 in other words, regardless of whether it is big or
reference to what I wrote last March:                                 small and whether it becomes bigger or smaller.
                                                                      But it is faithfulness to the truth of the Word of God
        In an editorial comment on trends within the Pres-
      byterian and Reformed families of churches, the Rev.            and to the creeds that matters, in the second place.
      H.C. Hoeksema of the Standard Bearer had something              And if Dr. Taylor had quoted my "lesson" in full,
      to say about the  size  of churches.                            instead of quoting part of two sentences from two
                                                                      paragraphs, this would have been plain. For here is
        Wrote Mr. Hoeksema, whose publicationspeaks for               the "lesson" to which I called attention:
      the Protestant Reformed Churches, a tiny denomina-
      tion of some 21 congregations and some 4,000 mem-                    It is, of course, not pleasant to be small, not to enjoy
      bers: "It is, of course, not pleasant to be small, not to          much growth in size, to be limited in financial power


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 7



   and in the  abilitv to accomplish things. The  CPC              themselves and one another with  resnect to the
   knows something of this by-experience. We of the                question whether the proposed amalgam-church
   Protestant Reformed Churches `certainly also know               will be really, and truly Presbyterian in the sense of
   something of this by experience. We know what                   the Westminster Confession of Faith.
   it means to struggle, to fight for survival, to sac-
    rifice, to be despised, to be ostracized for the sake of         Perhaps that examination could begin with the
   the truth. We know what it means "not to count" in              PCA. Is it true that the PCA is already an umbrella *
   the ecclesiastical world.                                       large enough to cover millennials of all shades? Is it
      But it is a fact of church history and of experience         true that the PCA is already an umbrella large
   that smallness and faithfulness to the truth go hand in         enough to include Arminians as well as those who
   hand. And not infrequently has it been demonstrated             are truly Reformed? Is it true that the PCA can still
   in church history that outward growth in size and fi-           have communion with the PCUS, the so-called
   nancial power and standing in the world goes hand in            Southern Presbyterian Church, where most  PCAs
   hand with a relaxing of the reins as far as doctrinal           had their origin?
   purity and faithfulness to the creeds are concerned. If
   you wantto  grow, you must not be too precise dohtri-             I am reminded of an incident a few years ago
   nally, you must not be too insistent upon the truth,            when Prof. Hanko and I visited at Reformed Theo-
   you must not enforce the creeds and the Formula of              logical Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi. At an infor-
   Subscription too strictly. Be content to be "evangeli-          mal faculty luncheon we were asked a good many
   cal." Be content to be generally Presbyterian or  ,Re-          questions about-our Protestant Reformed Churches.
   formed. Be not righteous over much!                             One of the questions was whether there was com-
      But remember: the end of that road is the loss of            munion between the Protestant Reformed Churches
   your heritage. All the large denominations which to-            and the Christian Reformed Church. After I replied
   day are modernist and completely liberal have trod-             emphatically in the negative, I thought that turna-
   den that same path before!                                      bout was fair play. So I returned the question and
      The church has but one calling, regardless of: the           asked whether there was communion between the
   consequences: maintain the marks of the true church!            PCA and the PCUS,from  which the former separa-
      The Lord will take care of the rest!                . .      ted. The answerwas "Yes." When I asked the fur-
  To date, in the current discussions about merger                 ther question, ""Why then did you ever separate?"
I have not seen much of the kind of concern about                  the response came rather quickly, "That's a good
maintaining the marks of~the  true church called for               question." I thought, .-too, that it was a good
above.                                                             question. But I have never received an answer to it.
                                                                   And it makes me wonder sometimes how much
  And I strongly urge that before the various Pres-                genuinely Presbyterian principle is involved in the
byterian groups involved in these merger                           existence of the PCA.
discussions proceed with the merger, they eicamine

T@EDAYOFS&IADOWS


                                  Delay and Defilement =
                                                        kev. John A. Heys



                                                                                        `
                                                                                        .

  With a sigh of relief Jacob watched Esau and his                 dron of blood had been shed, and not one blow had
four hundred men putting. distance between them-                   been struck, Yea, not one angry word was spoken!
selves and himself. What a great relief! For what                  What is more, the cheated brother goes home from
fear gripped him when he heard that Esau was                       the brother who cheated him with the parting
coming with four hundred men! And he, with an                      gesture of promising to protect him and ensure a
unarmed band of wives, children, and cattle, was                   safe journey back to their father. And even when
as a sitting duck in a wide open country! He was                   this kind offer is turned down, the cheated brother
heeding the command of God, Who ordered him to                     does not respond in an offended way and with
return to the land of his fathers. And God saw to it               misgivings and  accusationssthat  his brother was
that after the meeting of Esau and Jacob not one                   resorting to his old- tricks. He considers Jacob's


8                                          : THE STANDARD BEARER



excuse to be reasonable. The little children and            Me?" One can keep the letter of the law in love of
cattle cannot travel as fast as the  foiur hundred          self. That does not count. Keeping the letter of the
would want to ride back to their home.                      law in a fleshly love for the neighbor is not.
     Truly He that watcheth over Israel neither             enough. The second table of the law demands a
slumbereth nor sleepeth. He will keep our going             love for the neighbor that flows forth from the love
out and our coming in, as Psalm 121 so beautifully          of God required in the first table of the law.
declares. On Him we can depend. Great is His                  We may note here in Genesis 33 that Jacob does
faithfulness. It is of His mercy that  :we are not          two things. He settles down in the land and builds
consumed. Jacob, who experienced that mercy all             a house near Shalem. And he bought a parcel of
night in -that- wrestling match that did j not destroy      land-that which neither Abraham nor Isaac had
him but taught him, now finds that mercy renewed            done before him. They did not buy a piece of land
in the morning, and he is free to return to the land        whereupon to spread their tents. Plainly Jacob has
that was promised to him.                                   no intention of returning immediately to the sphere
                                                            of the covenant.
     We cannot ascribe such faithfulness to Jacob,
even though he bears the name of God in his new               What must be added is that he showed no
name Israel. He was, indeed, in the land of Canaan.         concern for the spiritual well-being of his children.
We read that in Genesis 33:18, "And Jacob came to           Had this concern burned in him, he would with
Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of          haste have traveled to that covenant sphere. He
Canaan, when he came from  Padan-aram;  and                 would have wanted his growing children to have
pitched his tent before the city."  Gob, however,           companions with the children of believers. He
had not simply called him to return toi Canaan but          would have been concerned with their physical
to "the land of his fathers" and to his "kindred."          well-being and traveled at a pace that they could
He was to go back to the sphere of the covenant.            take. But he would have been driven by an
What is more, he had definitely left the impression         eagerness to get them where they would be able to
with Esau that he was going home, that is, going to         say with the psalmist in Psalm  119:63, "I am a
where his father  still,lived.  He had  in: fact said to    companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them
Esau, "I will lead on softly.. ..until I come unto my       that keep Thy precepts."
Lord, unto Seir." Instead he went northward from              We may recall that although Esau was an
Jabbok and Penuel to Succoth. Now Jacob could               unbeliever, and Jacob could rightly have no interest
soothe, or try to soothe, his consciencei by claiming       in having his  .children  associate with his children,
to be in the promised land of Canaan.' But he was           there were those other children of Abraham
dragging his feet rather than hastening to do what          through Keturah, as well as believing families like
God called him to do. And we do well to bear in             those of Melchizedek, and of the men confederate
mind that keeping the letter of the law,lwhen in the        with Abraham (Genesis  14:13), whom we may
heart we break the spirit of the law, means that we         believe were children `of God, or otherwise
are not keeping the law. And this will' never bring         Abraham would have had no fellowship with them.
us a blessing. The mere conforming to'the letter of         He lived as a pilgrim and stranger in the land,
the law carries no blessing from God Who reads              walking by faith and looking for the city which
and searches the heart. God does not call mere              hath foundations whose architect and builder is
conformity to the letter of the law a good work. He         God.
declares that if we seek Him with all our hearts, we         And while it is true that in Isaac Abraham's seed
will surely find Him. And finding Him is finding a          would be called, so that the covenant line would be
blessing. The Pharisees with their outward                  continued through Isaac's seed, which would bring
conformity to the law were called whited                    forth the Christ, there were other covenant
sepulchers and not children of light. In fact such          children of God living in that day, and were the
deceit of trying to keep only the letter of the law         kindred of which God spoke when He called Jacob
leads us into temptations and to further departures         to leave  Laban's house and return to his kindred
from God's law. For then the heart is not right; and        and to the land promised him. Bear in mind that
hearts that are not right are ripe for temptation and       Jacob knew where there was a place where
lawlessness. Out of the heart are.the issues of life;       believers dwelt, and where  .his children, and he
and a heart that cares not about the spirit of the law      himself could find companions that feared God.
will move to keeping the letter of the law only for a       He knew where  he. could enjoy the fellowship of
carnal advantage and not in the love of ,God. And so        the communion of the saints. It may be argued that
that mere outward keeping of the letter: of the law is      he simply built booths and not a house. The fact
sin and is never called by God a good work. By men          remains that Jacob delayed his journey to his
it may be lauded, because man does not see the              father's house and to his spiritual kindred by as
heart. Before God the question is, "Do you love             much as ten years!


                                           THE' STANDARD BEARER                                                9



  We are not told what Jacob's reason was for             only  :daughter  would be tempted to do this. In a
stopping here for so long a time. Nor are we told         family of eleven sons and one daughter, it was
what reaction this had on Esau, who expected              but natural that she craved companionship of other
Jacob to come in the area, certainly within a year.       young women. As a teenager she craved fellowship
They did not need to travel that slowly. And a little     with other teenage young women. Let us believe
thought to the matter will show that Jacob delayed        that Jacob and Leah warned her of the dangers of
as much as ten years. Jacob married Leah after            rape by appearing alone among the Shechemites.
working seven years for  Laban. After that, he            But when Jacob had the express command from
served  Laban another thirteen years during: which        God to go to his kindred and the covenant sphere
all his children, except Benjamin, were born.             of that day, let him do more than warn and forbid.
Benjamin was the only child of- Jacob born in the         One cannot by one's deeds say, "This is a good
land of .promise. And thus, when Jacob left Laban's       place to live, and life among these inhabitants is
house, his oldest child was not yet thirteen years        pleasant," and then with one's words warn the
old. Now Dinah, his only daughter, was born about         children of dangers and the unbelief of the inhabi-
a year after Leah had born Jacob six sons. One child      tants. Jacob delayed heeding God's command, and
a year-if indeed this was the case-would mean             must not be surprised if his children ignore his
that seven of those thirteen years had come and           commands.
gone before  Dinah was born. She must have been             Yet that one brief but powerful statement stands
about five and at the most six years old when Jacob       that Dinah went out to see the daughters of the
and Esau met and parted in peace. And the incident        land. 0, Dinah, do you not realize that the
in Genesis 34, wherein we read of the defilement of       daughters of unbelievers have a lot to teach you?
Dinah, implies that she was a young woman,                And do you go to learn some of their ways? And do
physically and sexually attractive enough and             parents today send their daughters to the world and
developed for Shechem to want her for a wife. She         its schools, and its sons and daughters to have a
was definitely of a marriageable age, so that             broader education, and to learnwordly  things that
Shechem did not commit a crime  of: child                 are not taught in home and church? Dinah was
molestation but of fornication, and probably with         attracted to the world. That is what that statement
her consent. We read of no opposition which she           means. Our sons and daughters are attracted to the
gave or of a report to her father of being abused: All    world, and they need not go to. Shechem. In the
we read is that "Jacob heard that he (Shechem) had        living room, or even in theirbedrooms, they, with a
defiled Dinah his daughter." And we read  ,this in        flip of the wrist, can go and see the daughters of the
connection with the statement that Shechem spoke          land,. and the sons of the land in their immorality,
to his father and asked him to get Dinah for him as       lawlessness, fashions, ways; and philosophies. Our
a wife because his soul clave unto her. We read that      young people have it spiritually harder than Dinah
he defiled her, but not, as is often reported -in         did,- for they need not go as far, need not leave the
Scripture, that he forced her.                            home and-sad to say-have parents who install in
  That Dinah went out to see the daughters of the         their homes that device that enables their sons and
land does not speak well of her. We are not told          daughters to go and see the sons and daughters of  I
whether she went with the permission of her               the world in all their evil ways, and to learn to
father, or whether she went in spite  pf his              know them and have them for their heroes, yea to
protestations. But by settling there for about ten        take their time away from the study of the Word of
`years Jacob gave sanction to fellowship with these       God and from knowing better the giants of faith
unbelieving Canaanites. We would say today that           written upon its pages, and the.Christ Himself.
he could certainly see something like this coming, if       Disapprove of Jacob's delay  in keeping God's
not with Dinah, then that his sons would defile the       command. Condemn Dinah's action of going to see
Shechemites, or at least take them to wife. Children      the daughters of the land. All this you must do. But
will do such things in  spite: of their parents           you may not stop there. -You must go and look into
instruction and warning. But often, when parents          the mirror of the law of God to see yourself, and
ask, "What did we do wrong? Where did we make             then to make sure that you are not creating
our mistake?"  .They can rather ask themselves,           situations for the defilement of- the  -souls of your
"Did we select our living quarters as ruled by the        sons and daughters; and as young people make sure
dollar, or because here our children will get the         .you are fighting the flesh and seeking with might
pure preaching of the truth and find companions           and main to be a companion of those that fear God.
who fear God?"
  We stated above that it does not speak well of             The Stan'dard Bearer makes
Dinah that she went to see the daughters  .of the           a thoughful gift for-a shut-in.
land. But Jacob created the situation wherein his


10                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



GUESTARTICLE'                            `-


                                 E&a&e Thy Tent
                                                 Mr. M. A. Straayer



      Last year in the Standard Bearer there were-two        churches' denominational statistics, because
articles by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema dealing with our            through them the Lord speaks the same language
apparent over-supply of ministers.. Prof.                    that He speaks to us in giving us such an abundance
Hoeksema, however, pointed out that although                 of ministers and in then giving us so many new
there might beh surplus at present, figured over the         f i e l d s .
next five years or so, there is no surplus at all; and          Through the analysis of the statistics we can not
he very directly asked the question whether the  _           only-hear the same message, but it also gives us the
Lord had a purpose in providing us with such an              opportunity to project in a very concrete way the
abundance.                                                   promises which our Lord gives to us when He
      He stated what should be a firm belief among us,       commands us to enlarge thy tent.
that if the Lord provides us with ministers He will             The gathering of statistics and their correlation
also have and provide work for them: In the past             has generally the purpose of showing "Where we
two to three years-we have seen how the Lord has             were," "Where. we are,`! and then projecting
abundantly given us men into the ministry, .and we           "Where we are going." Of course, everybody in
started worrying so much that we almost encour-              business does this, and we find it quite normal to
aged our older ministers to seek emeritus status, (if        talk about it. However, as soon as we come to doing
the church had been an ordinary business, we                 this with the church, we actually don't know if we
would have given them financial encouragement to             are allowed to do this. First this comes about
retire early, as they do in Holland at age 66). Were         because the church is not a human institution; it is,
we right? We also started to worry  ,already  about          unique, because the Lord very directly calls it into
places for- the class of  179. And what happened?            being. However, that same God-also gives us under-
From one home mission post (Victoria),, we went to           standing and knowledge to use also these talents in
four new fields: Birmingham,  Bradenton;   Monroe-           His service. That same God also says to the rem-
Mt. Vernon; and  LansingCharlotte;  From one                 nant, "Enlarge thy tent," make it sturdy because
foreign mission field, we went.to two;; Jamaica and          thou shalt break out-with other words, burst at
Singapore. And. there is'still a request for help from       the seams.
New Zealand. Therefore at present we; have 21 + 3                God does not say, "Maybe prepare for expan-
 + 3 + 4 = 31 openings, and only 25 ministers.               sion, ' ' or "Get material ready for expansion," or,
      Do we see what the Lord is telling us? From a          "Pray for expansion," or, "Look at it and figure out
surplus in one year' we went to, a shortage-a still          how it can be done, but don't do anything-because
healthy situation, but nevertheless .a shortage. Two         it is all My work.".No, but He says to~the  remnant,
times now the Lord spoke to us, and He is still.             "Enlarge thy tent,." period.  And then that remnant
speaking to us: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and          has to get.busy:  And who before he.builds  a house
let- them stretch forth the curtains of  thine habita-       does not sit down and figure it all out?
tions: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen             Our denomination is very small, and therefore
thy stakes; `for thou shalt break forth! on the right        using figures per church becomes meaningless. But
hand and on the left; and thy seed ,shall inherit the        the same holds true for most businesses. Therefore
gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabi-         Descartes gave us a concept rule that works in most
ted. "' "Fear not.:' for thou shalt not. be ashamed:         cases; and it basically involves building figures to
neither be thou-confounded; for thou shalt not be            the greatest possible combination, and then break-
put to shame: for thou shalt forget. the Ishame of thy       ing these totals down again into components. This
youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy            process; of course, generally is done in different
widowhood any-more."  -~                                     ways till we see a pattern developing; and then we
 In this article I want  .to. look with you at our            start projecting that pattern.


                                                        Ti-li STANDARD BEARER                                                       11



   For the purpose of this study, therefore,' I took                      probably  be. at the end of our projection period
the figures of our total membership from 1964 to                         `when the average congregation in Grand Rapids
1979 and divided these into three periods of 5 years                      should have 390 members.
each: 1964 to 1969,1969  to 1974; and 1974 to 1979.                       Presently  ~we.have four mission posts; assume 2
                            period 1 period 2  p&idd  3                   new'congregations  out of our home mission work.
total membership at end
  of period                  3107           3471         4235                Look at your.' map. of Canada, and realize that at
total membership at                                                       present 5 families from our Lynden church are
 beginning of period         2885           3 1 0 7       3471            living in the B.C. lower mainland and have to.cross
increase during period        222            3 6 4       7 6 4            the border every Sunday. The, area. has something
% increase from begin-                                                    like 23 churches of Dutch Reformed background. It
  ning of period              7.5     -.- 12                22     .,    seems logical that with a few more families a new
average % increase                                                        congregation would be born in that area.
  annually                    1.5.           2 . 4         4.4
average membership per                                                       In Alberta there. is the beginning of 2 young
  congregation at end of               :                                  families and 4 individuals  (,12 members) in
  period                      163 .            i73         ;261           Lacombe. They are now travelling a.l60-mile round -
Over the whole period  Classis  East grew from 257 members                trip every Sunday.                :
per congregation (7) to 277 members per congregation (9).                    Our church in South Holland should have'grown
Over the whole period Classis  West grew from 92 members per,.            too large by the end of the period.
`congregatiorrto  145 members per congregation.
   Let me now on the basis of these  nast statistics                         There are now inquiries out of the province of
project the next  .five. years, Dec. 31,  i979 to Dec.                    Ontario, where there is the greatest concentration
31, -1984. Our past growth period shows each                              of Reformed churches in Canada.
period at an almost doubling growth of 1.5%                                  The above are only things that I am aware of. But
2.4%, 4.4%. We project therefore for. the next                            I think it shows that an expectation of five new
period an average of 8%`per year, which.means an                          congregations is not  ~too. high.  ,Except for First,
increase of 1694 members from 4235 to 59291.                              Grand Rapids- and Isabel, all our congregations,
   Projecting-8%, you ask, if .I am not too optimistic-                   although there are ups and downs, show a continu-
(actually, you probably use another word). I feel I                       al increase and'steady growth.
am not: first, because in our last 5-year period we                          So what should we expect by the end of  1984?
showed a growth greater than the national popula-                         May I project that we have grown to 26 congrega-
tion growth; and that is generally a healthy  .sign.                      tions, still 2 classes, from 4 home mission fields to
There are all indications that there is a growing                         8, from,3  foreign.missions  openings to 6, including
interest in our denomination by others, by  :people                       possible assistance and help to churches in New
who are coming to their wits' end and finally.have                        Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa,
to come to that little and despised church to be fed                      Ireland, Scotland, Holland; Germany, etc. All of
again from sabbath to sabbath with the sinceremilk                        -this adds up as follows:
of the gospel. Our  .present  average is 201 members                                                     26 congregations
per congregation; with a 1694 increase, we must                                                           4 theol. professors
expect five new congregations in. the next' period,                                                       8 home missionaries
bringing at the end the'average per congregation to                                                       6 foreign missionaries
228 members. Past figures seen above; show                                                               44 ministers
increases from period to period of 10 and 20 mem-                         Presently we have 25 active ministers, from which
bers per congregation; this increase calls roughly                        during that period probably 2 will seek emeritation,
for 30 more members per congregation, including 5                         leaving us with 23 ministers. We have 6 students,
new congregations.                                                        and we will need in the next five- years 21 new
   Five new congregations over the next five  .years                      ministers. Considering all the above, there is no
is,not much if you consider all direct facts available                    surplus. We are heading for a shortage. So-we had
to us. Grand Rapids: one more congregation.                              better start asking the Lord, Who also commands
Grand Rapids statistics:                                                  us, "Enlarge thy tent," to call men to the ministry.
      1964: 5 congregations, 354 members average                          And we also should start asking our young men
      1972: 5 congregations, 362 members average                          very directly, intreatingly, to consider the call to
      1973: 6 congregations, 324 members average                          the ministry. See, the fields are white for the har-
    1979: 6 congregations, 368 members average                            vest! Pray the Lord of the harvest that He send
You can see from these statistics that in  :Grand'                        f o r t h   r e a p e r s .
Rapids we are almost due for a seventh congrega-                             We have heard about reformation in the-past, but
tion, although due to the relocation of First this will                   we do not expect one more today. 0 ye of little


12                                                     Tl-iE STANDARD BEARER



faith!  .If ve had faith like a mustard seed! Whv no                     Let us therefore come boldlv before the throne of
more  refdrmation? Is it for us to decide that there                   grace as congregations  andL ask for additional
will be no more reformation? Could it be that the                      ministers. Let us therefore come boldly as young
Lord will use us, even us? Could it be that for that.                  men and say, "Speak, Lord, `for thy servant
gathering, that reformation, He created the  Protes-                   heareth." So that generations not yet born may say
tant Reformed Churches in 1924, and that therefore                     of us, "By faith....'
1953 was necessary?

THE LORD,GAVE THE WORD.


                .Mission  work Among the Jews
                                                         Prof. Robert D. Decker



      There has always been a good deal of discussion                     emphasized, for we now read-that the apostles must
(and no little disagreement) in the church concern-                       be witness of Christ "both in Jerusalem, and in all Ju-
ing the Jews. Just what place.do the Jews occupy in                       dea and in Samaria,  and unto the uttermost part of the
the history of redemption? What does the future                           earth" (Acts  1:8).  Missions to Israel and missions to
hold for the Jewish people? Will there be a mass                          the  heatherrare here simply `mentioned in conjunction
conversion of Jews at the end of the ages? These are                      toeachother:                        '
just some of the questions debated andidiscussed in                          Other passages of Scripture also give the impression
the church for years already. But in that discussion                      that since the rejection of Christ by official Israel,
there is  one. question which dominates and that is                       through the Sanhedrin and the leaders of the people,
this: what is the church's calling with respect to the                    Israel has lost any special claim. Israel is now as any-
Jews? Ought the church direct a significant part of                       one else: since it rejected the kingdom of God, the
its missions work to the Jews? Some churches do.                          kingdom must be given to "a nation bringing forth the
They have special missions to the Jews. It is our                         fruits thereof" (Matthew  21:43). Among this new
                                                                          people there will also naturally be many Israelites, but
purpose in this and succeeding articles to examine                        they are not an elite with special privileges but are
the question of the "priority of the  ,Jews" in the                       simply ordinary members of the church of Christ. It is
light of Scripture.                                                       noteworthy that in the missionary command of the
      Among the  .plethora  of books dealing with the                     Lord,. reported in Matthew and Mark, mention is
principles of missions (many of these are of little                       made of going "into the whole world" and of "making
value) is an excellent work by the late Dr. J. H.                         disciples of all people," but in neither of these instan-
Bavinck, a Dutch missionary and professor of                              ces is Israel expressly named. Israel now simply be-
                                                                          longs to the "vyorld,"  to "the nations."
missions, An Introduction To The Sciende  of Missions.
On pages 69-74 Bavinck has this to say concerning                           Nevertheless,  ~the  book of Acts gives sufficient re-
the "Jewish question":                                                    cognition to the fact that Israel enjoyed a temporal pri-
                                                                          ority, since Jerusalem was the point at which mission-
         Any discussion of missionary activity `requires a                ary activity was to begin. And as a matter of fact the
       threefold distinction between the work among the                   history of missions did begin in Jerusalem. In fact if
       heathen and Mohammedans, among  the. Jews, and                     God had not adopted special measures to open the
       evangelization. The question of the mutual relation                door to the outside- world, missionary activity would
       between these aspects can then be raised.                          have been in danger of also ending at Jerusalem. Paul
         The Scriptures do not make a distinction in princi-              was conscious of the priority of Israel in all his work.
       ple between missionary activity among the heathen                  It was to the Tews of Antioch that Paul stated, "it was
       and among the Jews. In Luke 24:47  Jesus; instructed               necessary that the word of God should first have been
       the apostles by saying "and that repentance and re-                spoken to you: but seeing that ye put it from you and
       mission of sin should be preached in his name among                judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we
       all nations beginning at Jerusalem." These  bards  indi-           turn to the Gentiles' (Acts  13:46). In the next verse
       cate that Jerusalem has a preferred position at least              Paul quotes from the Prophet Isaiah, "for so hath the
       with respect to temporal sequence. However, in Acts                Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a
       1:8 the privileged position of Jerusalem is no longer              light of.the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for  salva-


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             13



tion unto the ends of the earth" [Acts  13:47). In con-           -.z And finally, the fourth promise refers to the mighty
nection with the first proclamation of the gospel the            salvation that shall be displayed before-their lowered
                                                                 _ _I-
issue was as to how far the Jews, both in and outside             eyes.
the land of Israel, approved the official condemnation              ..Now it is evident that the first of these promises
of Jesus by the.Sanhedrin. If they disapproved a:nd re-          was fulfilled in principle when Israel returned from
cognized Christ as the Redeemer then they belonged'               Babylon. It was spiritually fulfilled when many Jews
to Him, to the true Israel around whom God would                  who had been dispersed in Greece and Rome, and
build His church. Such was the manner in which God                throughout the world, were-converted to Jesus Christ
fulfilled His former promises to Israel.                          and thus reunited to the people of God. This promise
   A certain priority, in so far as temporal order was            was not concerned with the city of Jerusalem, the
concerned, was assigned to missions to Israel in the              local Jerusalem, but with the Jerusalem that refers to
first church. Israelites who believed in Christ,                  the great King, the great son of David. It is
however, did not hold any special or privileged                   exceedingly difficult to answer the question as to
position within the church. It is of course, true that at         whether or not there is an unfulfilled element in this
the very beginning the church.of  Jerusalem exercised             promise which has now begun to be fulfilled in the
a certain supervisory capacity, and the conclusions               formation of the state of Israel. But in any case a single
that it reached through its elders and the apostles had           element of this prophecy ought not to be isolated from
a certain authority in the other churches. -However,              the other three. For within the context of the
this authority subsequently disappeared of itself and             prophecy, return from captivity and dispersion  is.
the other churches assumed a position of equality.                intrinsically connected with genuine conversion and
   The question as to whether or not a priority `ought            a new entrance  .into the salvation of the Lord. The
still to be assigned to Israel must in my judgement be            return of  ~countless  Jews to the present  .day  land of
answered negatively. The first missionary work began              Israel contains many elements which remind us of
in Jerusalem, and outside of Jerusalem it first took             -ancient prophecies. Nevertheless it may be the case
place in the Synagogue. For it was then necessary that            that in principle, from a spiritual point of view, this
all Israel be confronted with the choice as to whether            return is something completely different, something
they would concur in the decision of the Sanhedrin.               that is entirely outside of the horizon of the prophets.
Such priority (which never involved a priority  in,               And yet it appears to me that it is possible that God
position but only in time) received its full recognition,         may use this reunion of the people of Israel as a means
however; in the first missionary activity. Missionary           to a new spiritual growth. For this reason missions to
activity did begin in Jerusalem and in the Synagogue,             Israel and particularly in the land of Israel have a
but once the majority of the Jews assented to the                 great importance, and we must reverently await what
decision of the authorities in Jerusalem and judged               God may do.
Jesus to be a false Messiah, they lost all preferential                   The second Old Testament promise of the
treatment. From then on Israel simply belongedIt  the             conversion of Israel is regarded by the New
nations, to the world  to. whom the gospel must be                Testament as having been fulfilled by the outpouring
preached. It no longer had a special position, since the'         of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the conversion of
kingdom of God had been taken away from it.                       thousands of the children of Israel which followed.
   The question remains as to whether or not there are           -Peter refers with great boldness to the well-know
still promises which are unfulfilled concerning the               words of Joel. The conversion of Israel foretold by
future of Israel. This problem has become urgent                  Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets has been
since the establishment of the state of Israel.       `~          fulfilled. It has become a fact in Jesus Christ. It was
                                                                  not the entire people of Israel that were converted but
   The Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel                 those who came to conversion were indeed the Israel
are of four-fold character.                                       of God, the Israel that `had received the promises
   The children of Israel who lived in the dispersion             which were "for them and for their children" (Acts
are repeatedly promised that they will return to                  2:39).
Jerusalem. Isaiah writes, "Lift thine eyes round about                    The fulfillment of the fourth promise lies to a large
and see: all they gather -themselves together, they               measure outside the dimensions of world history. The
come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy               glory and perfect peace that God shall give when the
daughters shall be nursed at thy side" [Isaiah 6!:4ff.).          wolf shall lie down with the lamb can be tasted and
Hostile heathenism will release the children of Israel            foreshadowed here on earth to a degree, but its
and they will again gather together in Jerusalem.                 `deepest reality cannot be realized until God "shall
   The second type of promise refers to the genuine               wipe away all tears from our eyes" [Revelation 21:4;
conversion of Israel. We have already referred to the             cf. Isaiah  25:8).
well-known thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah and to the                    It is thus extremely difficult to determine whether
thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel. Numerous references              all the promises of God concerning Israel have already
are found in all the prophetic writings to the coming            .been fulfilled. One thing is certain,  : the New
conversion and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.                 Testament proclaims that all these promises,
   Thethird  type deals with the spontaneous coming               including the fourth promise, have been  fulfilled in
 up of the heathen to Mount Sion, attracted to the new            the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
 glory of the reborn Israel.                                      They are therefore realized in principle; no single


14. --                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



        word-of God is m-vain.-God has done what  He.said  He -~                          Israel will be converted. More than this we dare not
        Cll'do.  But the Bible itself teaches that some of the                            say. It is therefore evident that in addition to missions
        words of God receive more than one fulfillment, and                               to other nations, missions to Israel demand our full
        from time to time God `weaves the threads of history                              attention. Israel has no priority,. no, preference, but it
        in an unsuspected way. Thus the above-named                                       must  not be forgotten. It is indeed possible that God
        promises shall first receive their complete realization                           still has amazing plans for His people. It is possible
        in theday  when the majesty and glory of the people of                            that.this is what Paul meant when he said: "have they
        God shall be brought within the new Jerusalem.                                    stumbled that they sh,ould  fall? God forbid: but rather
              Is there then no single promise concerningjIsrae1  of                       through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles,
        which we can say with certainty that it remains to be                             for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of
        fulfilled within the course of this world's history? This                         them be the riches of the world and the dishing of
        question again brings us back to Romans 9 to 11 and                               them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their
        particularly to Romans  11:25, of which  &e have                                  fulness" (Romans  ll:ll-12).
        already spoken. If we understand. the-"all Israel" in                                  The only proper attitude for us is to wait, with.
        the second part of the text as referring to the natural                           reverence and humility, to-see what God is going to do
        descendants of Abraham; there is then-reason-to hold                              in this perplexing moment of world history.        -
        that the gathering of the gentiles will, again, quicken
        many Israelites to jealousy (as it did in the past), and                     -' We shall comment on this position of Bavinck in
        bring them to repentance,- "so that" the chosen of                           the next issue the Lord willing.
                                                                                          .
SIGNS. OF'THE TlA@S ;i i
 _.                                                           7... . .
                                                        `.
                                    -:                                    ('
                                           ..  _._
                  ,     :           .            .-b;`wbo                       Shot            J.R.?"-Of,                            -,
                                          ~-          -A,Cgdebration~mof  S i n   `..-,
                                                                                                                  (-
                                                                          Rev. R. Flikkemiz

                              `_





       "Who shot J.R.?" That questionhas become,                                     understand, no one will. know until the beginning
what Time Magazine in its August 11 issue calls, an                                  of the fall season. And, therefore, the question,
"obsession" for "300 million souls in 57 countries"                                  "Who shot J.R.?"
around the, world. Staggering figures, aren't they? It                                   And therefore too, `the title of this article. Right?
is a question which is seen on bumper stickers;                                      Wrong! I am not in the least bit interested, in this
heard expressed, on radio and television; and yes,                                   article, in giving my own personal opinion
even used by the political candidates for the.                                       concerning the  ~answer  to that question To put it
presidency of the United States. It is undoubtedly                                   bluntly; I could not care less! Nor am I interested in
the case, therefore, that you are familiar with that                                 this article in writing a condemnation of the
question.                                                                            program out of which the title of this article arose,
       If, however, you are not, then allow me to                                    or even a condemnation of television in general for
explain. The question, "Who shot J.R.?`,' arose out                                  airing such a program. I am not interested in that as
of a much talked about. and extremely popular                                        such.
television  ,program. The program is entitled                                            But this I am interested in, and this I do care
"Dallas.." It appeared on the television screens a                                   about. I am interested in and I care about the signs
year ago, and has, practically from the very outset,                                 of the times. The signs which our Lord Jesus Christ
been the number one rated. show of the -year. It is                                  talked about and which the holy Apostles of our
(so I understand, for I have never watched the                                       Lord Jesus Christ talked about, and for which signs
program, nor do I intend to watch the program) all                                   we the chosen people of our Lord Jesus Christ must
about a rich family living in Dallas, Texas. The                                     watch. Jesus told us to "watch for ye know not the
central character of this family, and indeed of the                                  day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."
whole program, is a man,by the name.of  John Ross                                    Watch! For what must we watch? The answer to
Ewing Jr., hence the initials J.R. On the last                                       that question is, for many things. But one of those
program of the past season this man, John Ross,                                      many things is exactly the abounding of iniquity. In
J.R.;was shot. By whom, no one knows. And so, I
        7.                                                                           fact, Jesus literally says that in Matthew  24:lZ.


                                                   THE STANDARD' BEARER                                                     15



There Jesus' says, "And because iniquity  shall-                     answer to the auestion, "Who shot T.R.?" Not in
abound, the love of many shall wax cold:", In the                    the-least. But  rather the interest  that*this program
last times,- Jesus would have us understand,                         ha_sfor millions of souls around the world is none
iniquity, sin, in its basest and worst forms shall                   other than evil, lust, corruption, `adultery, stealing.
abound. It shall overflow. The cup of sin and                        In one word, sin! Sin and the advancement of sin is
iniquity shall be filled to overflowing. And sinful                  what interests millions the world over. The
man who causes the cup of sin and  ~iniquity  to                     celebration of sin is what interests millions the
overflow  wills glory and boast in the sin and                       world over. A life of sin according to  J.R.`s own
iniquity. For that we-must watch!                                    words, which we quoted above; is "a cause for
                                                                     celebration." Mind you, a cause for celebration!
  Andit is exactly because of that, that sign of the                 And the millions the world over who  -cannot  wait
times, the abounding sin in' which sinful man                        until this program is aired each week, also consider
glories and boasts, that I write this article. -The                  sin a celebration.                          `-
program "Dallas," with its much talked about
question, "Who shot J.R.?" is proof positive that                       Man today is not interested any more in living a.
indeed in the last times iniquity shall abound. I                    new and holy life. Man today is not interested any
have already stated that I have never watched the                    more in striving evermore to keep God's
program. But I do not have to watch the program in                   .commandments:  thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not
order to say what that program is all about,; and that               commit adultery;- thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not
it promotes nothing less than,, the abounding of                     bear false witness; thou shalt not covet; and all the
iniquity! I know that from that article in  Time                     rest. All that man- today is interested in is living a
magazine to. which I referred above. When I read                     life of sin and living a life that is a total violation of
that article I was just shocked, and so also should                  God's commandments. God says, thou shalt not
every child of God in  ,,whose heart the' love of                    kill; and man says, I will kill! God says, thou shalt
Christ, and Christ's commandment to live in a new.                   n&commit adultery; and man says,  I will commit
and holy life, is still warm and vibrant. If you read                adultery, not just once' but over and over again!
that article you will discover that the central                      God says, thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear.
character, J.R., is a man who is totally evil; All that              false witness; thou shalt not covet. And man says, I
he does is evil. All that motivates him is evil. There               will steal, bear  .false witness,  and-' covet! I will!
is not a single redeeming factor about him. He loves                 Violating God's commandments is what life is `all
nothing better than to commit adultery, the lust of                  about. Life and life's celebration is no fun unless I
his flesh. He thrives on nothing better than lying,                  do violate God's  .,commandments.  In short, the
cheating, and stealing in order to advance his                       word of man today is: I love the abounding of
material gain. He is a very vain and proud man-who                   iniquity and I will do everything within my power.
will do anything to enhance his proud, vain person.                  to cause sin and iniquity to abound evermore!
As evidence of that fact, so that you may know that                   I insist that; because that is the word of man
what I am saying is a fair, and in the final analysis,               -today, and because that word of `man-is  so vividly
mild description of this man, I quote from the                       portrayed on  the'. program "Dallas," 300 million
beginning of Time's article. As this man lies on the                 people watch it so faithfully and glory in it. It is no
ground, having been  -shot,  these thoughts arise in                 small wonder that, with 300 million people
his mind:                                                            glorying in that vivid portrayal of sin, there are very
   As he lay crumpled on the floor of his office, with two           few left across the world who glory in the Word of
   bullets in his stomach, his thoughts pinwheeled off               God and in God's precepts; It is no small wonder  -.
   into fantasies -of his real-and idealized past. His first         that, with the abounding iniquity in our day and
   word had been  "Mammon;" As a child'he  hadtorn                   age, the words of Jesus-are true, "the love of many
   wings off flies and sold the insects' bodies to science.     .    shall wax cold;" It is no small-wonder!
   In high school he had peddled  `exam-  answers to his
 fellow students, then told his  .teacher  that they were               But,' thanks `be to- God, when Jesus told -us that
    cheating:.In  college he had impregnated an `entire              the love of. many shall wax cold, He did not say the
    sorority and used the offspring to stock  ablack  market         love  of.,izZZ shall wax cold. Oh, no! The love of all
   agency.                                                           shall not wax cold. We may be sure that there will
      No wonder he proved such a  .success  when his            -    always be -a faithful few in comparison with the
    daddy brought him into the family business:                      millions -of ungodly .whose~ love remains warm. In
    skewering the town's most  poyerful  men out  -of                the midst of abounding iniquity, in the midst of the.
   `millions while he was seducing their wives. All in all,          world's celebration of sin, is your love warm?
    a cause for celebration.                          ,- :           Watch then! Do not join the. world's millions  who,
  That is the man J.R. And that is what-this whole                   watch this damnable  -program. Do not join  the-
program is all about. The interest that this program                 world's millions, who glory in what this program
has.for millions of souls around the.world is not the                portrays. But watch! Watch for ye know neither the


16                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.               Christ the Son of Man would have you live, even
And be faithful, faithful in your calling to live  .as        unto the end.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY $OICJ3                                         :.


                               " Letter to Timothy

                                       October  1,  1980
Dear Timothy,                                                 possesses them a certain "power" over his patients
      We must conclude, in this letter, our  idiscussion      or over those who come to him for help. And there
of the conscience. We talked last time! about- the            are those who like this sense of power. This is a
fact that one who does not walk  .accor&ng to his             very evil thing, rooted in pride, and must be
conscience (as enlightened by the Word of God)                resisted with might and main. Still others may be
creates many problems in his life so that he suffers          tempted to forsake the Word of God because
great mental and spiritual distress. I want to discuss        sometimes God's Word does not work as swiftly as
with you what a pastor must do under these                    we would like to see it work. God has His own
circumstances as he comes face to face `with this             purpose and time for all things. The power of the
problem.                                                      Word -is God's power through Jesus Christ. And
                                                              God makes that Word effective in His own way.
      It is well to remind ourselves at  this! point that     The minister who relies.upon the Word relies upon
our problems in life are the result of sin. There is,         God. He is deeply aware of the fact that he is
according to the Word of God, only one solution to            ineffective and can do nothing other than work as a
the problem of sin: the cross of our Lord Jesus               servant of the Word. But, not content with leaving
Christ. The healing power of the cross  `of Christ            the matter in God's hands to be worked according
comes to the people of God-through the preaching              to God's purpose, he becomes impatient or dissatis-
of the Word of the cross; more specifically, as the           fied with the Word and determines to  set.out upon
pastor brings that Word of God to  .`the sheep                his own way. The Word does not seem to be doing
entrusted- to His care as he deals with them                  what `it ought to do in his judgment. And so he
pastorally. This is- a fundamental position and we            resorts to be `doing what it ought to do in his
must not be permitted to stray from it.                      judgment. And so he resorts to other techniques
      The pastor is a preacher of the Word of `God.           and methods in the hopes of gaining.his  ends.
That is all he is called to do. He is not a psychologist
or psychiatrist and ought not to presume to be one.             All of this must be strenuously resisted. I cannot
He  is' not a director or counselor [if something            warn you enough against the temptations which
different from preacher is meant by this) or consul-         these things bring about. And it cannot be said
tant. He is not an expert in mental disorders or a           often enough. that the minister of the gospel is a
narrowly trained professional in a particular                preacher.  He had better  preach.  There is nothing
branch of learning. He is a preacher. That is all. He        else which he can do or ought to do.
must always only bring the Word of God.                         But at the same time, that Word which he brings
      There are many temptations to stray from this          is the greatest power this world -has ever seen.
calling in the course of his work: The lofty claims of       There is no power like it anywhere, simply because
psychiatry and the promises which this branch of ,.- it is  -the power of God unto salvation. He is a
healing hold out to ministers often tempt him  to.           servant of that one power which is able to heal
enter this rather esoteric world. It  apceals to a           broken hearts, bind up all the wounds that sin
minister, who is not on his guard, to gain                   makes, bring comfort and peace to the troubled,
competence in this field because it gives him a              and solve the problems which sin creates in this
sense of possessing something others do not -have.           sorry life. If he is properly impressed with the great
Further, the temptation to engage `in a bit of               power of the Word, he will be content to limit
psychology is strong because some have the idea              himself to that Word in all his work.              _
that- psychological techniques give one who                     Now, just because the Word is the Word of God


                                               TtiE STANDARD BEARER                                                17



which always accomplishes God's purpose, it is                so it is that the Word will not only guide the
well also that the  min&ter  be reminded of the fact,         conscience but. also show us how  we have
that the Word also carries with it a two-fold power:.         tormented~our  consciences by refusing to walk in
it is a savor of life unto life, but it is also a savor of    God's way; It isthe.Word of God which will bring
death unto. death. It is a two-edged sword which              confession of sin and the healing  .power of
saves and hardens. It is the effective means in Gods          forgiveness.
hand to accomplish His purpose in the salvation of              But it is this which presents a problem. The
the elect and the damnation of the wicked. God is             conscientious minister who takes seriously his
at work in the preaching of the Word. And God                 calling to bring the Word of God knows too that the
works to do what is His good pleasure to do.                  Word must be addressed to the particular needs of
  This is important to remember because the                   the people who come to him for help. To use an
preaching of the Word will not have always -its               example, it is not, quite obviously, satisfactory to
desired effect-i.e., from our point of view. We               read to a couple having marital problems the his-
would like it if the Word were always the means of            tory of Jonah in the whale's belly. He may expound
healing and saving. But we know that God wills                that history in all faithfulness according to the
otherwise. And the preacher of the Word must                  Scriptures, but those whose marriage is. coming
reckon with this fact.                                        apart in their lives will wonder a bit what the
  The point is that we are not only the victims of            history of Jonah has to do with all this. He is under
our sins when we suffer all the troubles and                  some obligation to bring that particular Word of
problems which sin brings, but we are so opposed              God which fits the need of those in trouble.
by nature to.all that is of God that we reject out of           But the problem is, at least on many occasions,
hand and with total disdain the Word of God which             that the minister himself does not always know the
is the one power which can heal us and  solve.`our            deeper need which a person has. If a person is in
problems. We all have this natural aversion to and            deep trouble because of a troubled conscience,
hatred of the Word of God. This will. not  .be                neither the person himself nor the minister may be
changed until God in His grace is pleased to make             clearly aware of the sin which lies at the root of the
our hearts receptive to that Word so that we receive          problem. And if he does not know what the deeper
it, bow before it, and submit ourselves in all our            problem is, he finds it difficult, if not impossible, to
lives to its good instruction.                                find an appropriate Scripture passage.
                                                                Now this problem must not be over-exaggerated.
  This will never happen to the wicked because                There is a point here which needs to be very
God is not pleased to give to them this saving and            `strongly stressed. Any minister who has any
sanctifying power. Upon them the Word will come               experience in this kind of work knows that God
as a hardening power. And this too is according to            uses His own Word in very  sur@sing  ways, and
the purpose of God W-ho does all His good pleasure            uses unusual passages to accomplish His purpose.
and acts always according to the counsel of His               It is not strange that a sermon on the doctrine of
will.                                                         creation, e.g., is able to bring a sinner to repentance
  But even in those who are the saved and'                    -although the' relation between the truth of
redeemed, there. is this natural aversion, to  the-           creation and the sin of the sinner is not clear to us.
Word. It is not necessary to point out  -to you in            Nor need we be always emphatically and deliber-
detail how we too prefer the ways of our sin to the           ately subjective and personal in our bringing of the
ways of God's commandments. We press our sins                 Word. I myself witnessed a minister speaking to a
closely to us, are most reluctant to give them up-.           very old woman, who `was very confused and
even when we.know they are the source of all `our             troubled, of the objective truth of justification by
grief and trouble, and steadfastly resist submitting          faith alone as based on Romans 4,.and who brought
to the Word of our God. Thus, oftentimes even in              peace and joy to her heart. There was nothing
God's people will that same resistance to the Word            subjective about his ministry at that point and there
be found which is present in the wicked. But                  was no effort made to apply that particular Word to
through the faithful ministration of the Word, God            the needs of that person at that moment. But the
will, in His mercy, be pleased to make that Word              Word of God did its work.
effective-but always in God's time and in His                   If, therefore, a minister does not know what the
way.                                                          particular problem of an individual might be,
  When all of this is applied to the question of the          rather than -make wild guesses he might better
conscience, the implications are readily apparent.            choose to read and discuss a passage of Scripture
The conscience is the voice of God in us passing              which speaks of the power of sin and the cleansing
judgement upon all that we  do: But that voice of             power of the cross. Once again, the point is that his
God speaks only in connection with His Word. And              reliance must be on the power of the Word.


1          8                                THE STANDARD BEARER



     Nevertheless, a minister must know, insofar as       and walk in the way of transgression. But it must be
that, is possible, what the need of the person who        also pointed out from God's Word that there is
seeks him is. And if and when he comes to know            peace and' joy, blessedness and true spiritual
that need, he must bring the Word of God which            serenity in the way of  .obedience  to God.
addresses itself specifically to that need. God's         Confession of sin carries us to the cross. And the
Word speaks to all the circumstances .of :life-with-      cross is the power of forgiveness for all our sins no
out, exception. God's Word  _ is everlastingly matter how great they `may be. The blood of
relevant. There is no problem, no trouble, no             Calvary cleanses from sin and gives us the power of
temptation, no sin which lies outside the reach and       a new obedience. Through that cross is life and joy,
power of that Word.                                       peace and happiness. There is no other way. In the
     And, particularly in connection with the             cross we are able to walk in good conscience before
conscience, the minister,must bring home in a very        God.
forcible fashion-that there is only increased trouble                     Fraternally in Christ,
and sorrow in the way of sin. God's wrath and hot                              H. Hanko
displeasure rest upon all those who forsake His law

TmNSLATED.TREASuRES


                       A Pamphlet Concerning the
                       Reformation of the Church
                                               Dr. A. Kuyper


fKuvner  has been talkinn about the institute of the      to declare the sin of the congregation and God's
ch&h and particularly ibout the special offices in        unending.mercy; and, likewise, in the name of the
the  .church. In connection with the latter, he has       gathered multitude, to go to God the Lord with
just finished in the previous paragraph a discussion      prayers, doxologies, and thanksgiving. A certain.
of Christian discipline.)                                 fixed procedure is indispensable for this. If all the
                                                          ministers change, or also, .in larger churches, more
31. Concerning Worship.            I                      than one minister. work alongside -each other, it
     Public worship aims exculsively at, the holy         must always remain the one church which in all its
activities which take place-in the public gatherings      many services finds again her unity and continuity.
of the churches. Neither that which happens in            For that reason, formularies for the administration
families nor that which happens. in particular            of the sacraments, for `installations, for public
gatherings may be included undei this title. Public       exercise of discipline, etc., are explicitly com-
worship is that which the church as church does in        manded. A general order of worship ought to
the hour of spiritual fellowship and  :communal           be established for the public worship in large
worship under the, exercise of the keys' of the           churches; That which must be sung ought to be
kingdom of heaven. From this follows, first, that         determined. And even a certain form prayer ought
the leadership of the public worship must be placed       not readily to be condemned. Also, it must be
in the hands of the minister of the Word and  t.hat       understood in this connection, that no form
the direction of it belongs to the jurisdiction of the    worship or formalism must be introduced. The free
con&story. If.many churches are gathered together,        utterance of the Spirit in the congregation ought not
then the control for those churches must be               to be bound by. human regulations. Finally, in the
established by the  Classis.   Or-if yet more churches    same city or large village more than one church
are gathered, the control is by the Synod. But also       building may be used for worship. Likewise,
classical and.  synodical decisions are ruled by the      certain definite preachers and certain definite city
decision of the consistory. Secondly, it follows that     districts,in  `the'form .of parishes may be limited to
the minister of the Word does not function in the         individual church buildings. But all these worship
gathering. of the congregation to express his             services ought always to belong under  .one
personal spiritual life, but, in the name of the Lord,    consistory so that in each of these worship services,


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                19



no matter in what church  building they are held,                 to the Word of God. This is true because then that
the same confession is made and the same liturgy is               change takes place in the legal way and not, as in
followed.1                                                        our case, in an illegal manner.
  Looked at from this viewpoint,. the so-called                   32. How A Church Enters Union. With Other
hymn question is an ecclesiastical question of                        C h u r c h e s .
serious' concern. As long as, e.g., the church of                   A church must not stand alone, because it is not
Amsterdam is connected with other churches with                   the church of Christ but only a manifestation of the
which it was one since 1775, the regulation and                   church.of Christ in one single place. Gatherings in
direction of the public worship of what.  ;may be                 other places which, in the same manner, are
sung is exclusively the determination  : of the                   manifestations  of. the same body of Christ belong
national synod. All earlier synods decided that only              with her and-she with them. From this emerges the
the Psalms should be sung and so-this decision can                explicit obligation to maintain correspondence with
only rightly be revoked by the national synod. The                other churches within the realm of the possible.
synodical  deputies, however, who in 1806                         That obligation originates only then, when, in other
introduced the hymns had not received a mandate                   places, the' church of Christ comes to such a
to do this from `any single national synod. But,                  manifestion that it is recognizable as the, church of
according to Reformed church polity, a, deputy                    Christ. If this is ,not the case, then a church cannot
neither can nor may do anything but what ,a synod                 begin correspondence with it. If the other churches
charges him and specifically orders. And because a                lose that character, then they must cut off corres-
provincial synod never can nor  may,undoi  what a                 pondence with them. Unity of confession is the `in-
national synod has decided, so the provincial synod               dispensable  foundati.on upon which all ecclesiasti-
of 1805 possessed absolutely no authority to nullify              cal correspondence, and thus also all church union,
the decisions of the national synod of i619; It thus              must stand..                            ~
could not transfer a power to. her deputies which                   Where such a-unity of principle appears, and this
she herself did not possess. The introduction of.                 church union be sought through correspondence,
hymns was thus illegal in the fullest sense. And the              this church union ought to have the purpose: 1) of
synod of  1816.  could not justify this illegal deed              the drawing up of a common confession of the
because it, following her mandate, was.  .only a                  churches and the treatment of any gravamena
ruling body, and all introduction of changes in the               against. these confessions; 2)  the- regulation of
spiritual matters of the church were  .intentionally              public worship and the public ministry; 3) the
excluded from her jurisdiction Thus we  -will not                 maintenance of mutual oversight over each other;
discuss the question whether it is good or bad to                 4) the common defense of the `rights of the church
sing hymns along with the Psalms in the public                    over against third parties; 5) the- removal of
worship of the congregation, something which is                   differences between the churches mutually; 6) the
now commonly the practice. We express  ;only as                   care of the ministry of the Word through the estab-
our opinion that the introduction of the  socalled                lishment, if necessary, of seminaries, the examina-
evangelical hymns was church politically illegal in               tion of candidates, the approbation of called
every respect and thus far has never been made                    ministers, the dismissal of those who depart, etc.; 7)
legal.                                                            the regulation of the transfer of members from one
  The opposite idea, that people must still only sing             church to another, whether for  -the administration
the' Psalms. of  .Dathenus, will not do. This is a                of baptism or the Lord's Supper, through so-called
question of practice which says nothing about the                 attestations; 8) the maintenance of fellowship by
great principle whether men are bound to God's                    delegating deputies to each other's gatherings.
Word in their singing in Gods house; That great                     The maintenance of the confession in the
principle is: "In God's house nothing else but God's              ministry and worship service stands on the
Word, also in our song!" That principle our legal                 foreground because the spiritual character of the
and spiritual synods have emphatically confessed                  church is symbolized by this. To establish
after the example of Dathenus and Mar-nix. This                   Formulae of Unity and to see to it that these are
was done also over against the Remonstrants who                   maintained is the  -first obligation of all churches
first demanded hymns. And such a principle can,                   which enter church union. Not, and this stands
yes, most certainly must be changed by a later                    sharply on the foreground, in order to hold these
national synod if it appears to be wrong according                writings as  oft equal value with the Word of God,
                                                                  but because anyone who stands outside or inside
`Kuyper is referring here to the practice- in the Netherlands     the church must be able to know'what the church
where all the people in one city belenged  to the same'congre-    confesses concerning. the Word of God. These
 gation even though they met in various church buildings          Formulae never bind the conscience. Only Holy
throughout the city.                                              Scripture binds the conscience and these


20                                                   THE STANDARD. BEARER



formulations always remain subject to examination                        From this classis and by this classis the delegates
by Scripture. On the other hand, no one is free to                   of synod are chosen. The connecting link of a
teach against these Formulae in the church.                          provincial consistory is in every respect in conflict
Properly, each one who has a gravamen ought to                       with the principles of Reformed church polity, and
bring this to the church so that it may be examined.                 now, all the more, when men have allowed
And each one is obligated to submit to. the                          provincial synods to lapse. The church ought to
expression `of the church in this matter or to                       delegate directly from the  classis to the synod
separate from the church which according to his                      whether to the provincial synod which, in its turn,
cpnviction chooses against the Word of God. It is at                 appoints to a general synod, or whether directly to
this point that all the difference exists: between a                 a national synod. But whether the climb is made to
Remonstrant and a Reformed church union.                             the general synod by one or two steps, the same
      This church union or this correspondence with                  regulations- apply to the provincial and general
other churches is under the government .of a synod.                  synod as applied to the classis. They come and they
But, because not all the churches which stand                        go without leaving behind a synodical committee or
together in correspondence can come. together  `on                   synodical officers and are called together again and
synod, people have, from old timesand rightly so,                    again by a church or  classis which has received a
organized the neighboring churches along the lines                   mandate for this.' Upon meeting, the body then
of districts in smaller groups under the name of a                   names its officers and discharges them when it
Classis.  In this  Classis,  then, all the churches from             adjourns. Committees are charged with the
the district come together as freely confederated                    carrying out of the decisions, but always for a
and united. Yet, since the whole congregation and                    definite matter and with a definite mandate. These
even its consistory cannot appear in full number,                    committees report only `when the synod comes
only the ministers with the elders come together.                    together again. On the general synod effort is put
These ought to vote not by roll call but ecclesiasti-                forth, and rightly, to hold correspondence with
callyz  and under the direction of officers who are                  foreign churches insofar as they have the same
chosen before every gathering and whose office                       confession, This correspondence can be expressed
disappears when the gathering ends. If there is no                   in a mere greeting or, as at Dordt, it can have a
classis then there is nothing but individual                         double purpose: to help churches which find them-
churches existing alongside each other. And. every                   selves in difficulties and to express the unity of the
idea of perpetual officers or moderamen must be                      Reformed church world. over against those who
zealously averted in the church of God as an                         think differently.
intrusion of papal tyranny. Indeed, the classes may                     The churches do not maintain correspondence
commission deputies but never in any other way                       with churches of another  confessions although the
than with a definite mandate. Thus, never must a                     closer relationship to the Lutheran churches has
committee be appointed which would deliberate                        always led to a brotherly inclination towards those
and decide as a sort of college, but rather separate                 churches who have' this name. And it remains the
committees must be appointed which carry out the                     calling of the church always to strive towards
mandate of classis.                                                  reunion of that which belongs together and yet
2Kuyper  means here, to vote by consistory; i.e.,:that  each con-    cannot live together until it. becomes one in its
 sistory receives one vote.                                          c o n f e s s i o n .

QUESTION B.OX
Rev. C. Hanko                              _, ,


                                Writing a Minister-elect

  A question was given to me by one of the readers                   sistories do write the minister they called, some
of the Standard Bearer who wishes to kn:ow whether                   societies write him, and some individuals. But
it is proper for the consistory and members of a                     there are also consistories and members of the
vacant congregation to write to a minister whom                      congregation who think it is very wrong to write
they have called.                                                    the minister-elect. They reason that they must not
  There are various opinions about this. Some con-                   try to influence the minister to accept their call, nor


                                              TljE STANDARD BEARER                                            2    1



must they try to influence him in any way. The               needs of the calling church. He  .does not receive a
minister must be,guided by the Holy Spirit to make           voice from heaven telling him what he must .do. He
a decision pleasing to God:                                  cannot judge by mere feeling, or by what appeals to
  The main question is, what `is the  pur$ose in             him personally. He must objectively weigh the two-
writing a letter to the pastor-elect? If the intent is to    calls in prayer before the face of God, asking,
persuade him to come, to try to talk  ,him into              "Lord, what wilt Thou have me -do?" The result
accepting the call because he is a man whom every-           may be, after prayerful considerati.on,  that he feels
body likes, then certainly this is wrong: The                that the needs of the church he is serving outweigh
congregation may be sorry in the future that they 1 the needs  -of the calling church. Or he may even
resorted to those tactics.                                   conclude that he does not have the necessary gifts
                                                             and talents to take up the labors in the church that
  But there can also be a good motive and a sound            is calling him. It may also be -that he comes to the
purpose in writing the minister who is considering           conclusion that the Lord is telling him that his work
the call. This purpose must be to inform him of the          is finished in his present field of labor and that the
needs of the congregation and the specific labors            Lord wants to use him in the church that has called
that will fall upon him if he accepts the call: This is      him. In either case, he has objectively'weighed the
especially true if the minister is rather far removed        facts, has answered the call, and has peace with
from the congregation and may not know the                   himself that he has done the right thing.
particular needs of that flock. In that  cas,e, particu-
larly the consistory should write him, giving him an           I see no reason why individual members should
honest account of the needs of the flock.       :            not write the minister-elect, if only they bear in
                                                             mind that they are not trying to influence the
  We must bear in mind, that when a minister                 minister to act contrary to his convictions, but are
considers a call from another congregation he is             sincerely informing  him. of their own personal
actually confronted with two calls, the  callof  the         needs in the church. But it is my humble opinion
church he is serving and the call from another               that a consistory should by all means write the
church. He must decide whether the Lord wants                pastor-elect to  ,present to. him in all sincerity the
him to stay where he is, which should always have            specific needs of the flock entrusted to their care.
the preference, or whether he is called of Christ to'        God will use also these means to guide a minister in
labor elsewhere. He knows the needs of the flock.            what is always a difficult and painful decision to
he is serving. But he may not know the specific
                                                     ,       make.


                         Praying f&r Babylon's City

  A request came to me from one of our  Ireaders             arrived  in. the  mace of their  captivitv, probably
that I should make a few comments on the ;passage            during the earlypart of the reign bf Zedekiah.  The
from Holy Scripture in Jeremiah  29:7, "And seek             occasion for this letter was the deceptive lies of the
the peace of the city whither I have caused you to           false prophets -who tried to assure the people that
be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for          their stay in Babylon would be very brief. Soon
it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."           they would return to their own country. Nothing
  The question centers about the fact that the Jews          could be more demoralizing than to wait year upon
in Babylon are told to seek the peace of whatever            year for their return, which did not come. Jeremiah
city in which they find themselves. They must also           warns the captives that they should not listen to
pray for the city. The question is therefore twofold:        these false prophets, for their sojourn in Babylon
First, why would they be admonished to pray for a            would be for a long time, even for three
wicked city of a nation upon which the judgment of           generations, a period of seventy years.
God rested? Secondly, what was to be the content               Because of this long stay in Babylon they must
of those prayers?                                            settle down, build themselves houses and  dtiell in
   From the context it is evident that  Jere:miah  is        them, plant gardens and eat of their fruit (verse 5).
instructed by God to write a letter to the caitives in       They must not forget God's  convenant,  but
Babylon, who were brought there with Jeconiah,               remember His promise, "I will be thy God and the
the king of Judah, and. a number of his princes. This        God  of. thy seed after thee" for an everlasting
letter was written shortly after these  captiies had         covenant. Only because of this promise they would


22 .                                          THE `STANDARD  BEARER



in due ,time return to Canaan; that the Christ might          of Sion in this strange land, they should receive
be born:In that confidence they must marry wives,             grace to cling to God's promises, continue to bring
beget sons and daughters, take wives for their sons          forth children and seek grace to train those children
and give their daughters to husbands from among               in the hope of God's promise. Finally, their prayer'
their own people, that they may bear sons and                 should include that they might be faithful
daughters  ,and may increase in the land of their            witnesses of their God, testifying of Him as the only
captivity.                                                   true God, that God might use their witness in this
   It is from that point of view that they. must seek         strange land to His own good purpose, always
the peace of the city in which. they `sojourn; and .. praying with their faces toward Jerusalem in the
must also pray for the city. They must not despair,          hope of their deliverance. Excellent. examples of
as if the future. held no ray of hope for them. They         this were, Daniel and his three friends.
must not engage themselves in underground                      .That this is the idea of the text is evident from the
activities or in riots or any kind of disturbances, but      verse itself, "For in the peace thereof shall ye have
they must live peaceably as strangers in a strange           peace."          j
land, going about their affairs in a normal manner;             This is also evident from other parts of the
They must also pray that God would be `with them             Scriptures. We likewise are called to be pilgrims
in the land of their banishment, supplying their-            and strangers in the enemy's  - country, the evil
every need both physically and spiritually.- They            world round about us. And we also are exhorted by
must pray for rain and sunshine, for food and                God to make `!supplications,  prayers, intercessions,
drink,  for. clothing and shelter, making all their          and giving of thanks for all men; for kings, and for
needs known in prayer and supplication. But they             `all that are. in. authority; that we may lead a quiet
must also pray that, even though  they: hung their           and peaceable life in  all. godliness- and honesty"
harps.on-the-willows and  could,not sing the songs I Timothy 2:1,2.



                                     _ \ ~Bdok Re&&s


FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN, Expository Messages,                  evident from his exposition of I John 2:2.
by Robert S. Candlish; Kregel Publications, 1979;               Reading through the book gave me the urge to-
577 pp., $12.95. (Review by Prof. H. Hanko)                  preach more extensively from I John and it will
   Candlish lived from 1806  - 1873, was a  Scats            have, I think, this same effect on our ministers who
pastor, and became one.of the most respected pas-            read it. Purchase the book, but read it carefully and
tors in the Free Church of Scotland after the `death         thoughtfully.
of Thomas Chalmer. He served also as principal of
New College in, Edinburgh.
   This volume, part of the Kregel Bible Study
Classics series, is the author's  work- on11 John. It is     STAND BY, BOYS!  by K. Norel, translated by
not a standard commentary in the sense that it is a          Marian Schoolland; Baker Book House; 1980; 80
clause by clause exposition of the. epistle; it is rather    pages, $1.65; paper. (Reviewed by Gertrude
a reprint of the lectures which Candlish: gave on the        Hoeksema)
text. This makes this book a very  nice; addition to            This reprint of the book published by Eerdmans
one's library, whether that library be; of a pastor          Publishing Co. in 1955 is a true story of the day in
who would use the book in sermon preparation, or             1953 when the North Sea broke through the dikes
whether that be our home library where the books             and flooded much of the Netherlands. The book is
are for spiritual enjoyment and enrichment. The              an excellent translation and it is filled with drama
chapters are constructed more on the order of                and suspense. But it is more than just an interesting
sermons and have the homiletical warmth and per-             story. The portrayal of the spiritual stamina and the
sonal application which many- expository commen-             humble trust of God's people in those days of
taries lack. On the whole, the commentary is sound           disaster stands out as a theme through the whole
and is a faithful exposition of. the text,. although the     book, and is an example of faith for us. Recommen-
author believed in a universal atonement, as is              ded for covenant children (ages 8 and up).


                                                            TljE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     23
                                                                                                                                 :.


                  AFTER THIRTY YEARS .  ; .                        :.            them that fear him, and his righteousness unto-children's children; To
                                                              a                  such as keep his covenant,-and to those that remember his com-
     It was the good pleasure of our covenant God to permit our                  mandments to do them." (Psalm  103:17, 18).
  parents, MR. AND MRS. BARTELZANDSTRA to celebrate their 30th                      .                               James and Lois Rau
  wedding anniversary on September 13, 1980.                                                                           Carol, Cheryl, Kimberly, Rodney
     We, their children and grandchildren, thank our Heavenly Father                                                Kenneth and Pat Koole
  who gave them to us that we might know our God to serve Him, as                                                      Justin and Bruce
  they led us day by day. We pray that God will continue to be near to                                              David and Mary Kregel
  them and bless them as they continue to walk together fulfilling their                                               Lisa
  calling given unto them. Truly we confess with them that God is                                                   David Rau
  faithful to His covenant always.                                                                                  Michael Rau
                                                                                                                    Rosemary Rau
  Mr. and Mrs. John R. Zandstra             Miss Betti Lou Zandstra                                                 Grand Rapids, Ml
  Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Zandstra            Mr. Mark Douglas Zandstra
  Mr. David  AllenZandstra                  Miss Rosanne Marie Zandstra                                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
  Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zandstra               and their 10 grandchildren
  Rev. and Mrs. Wilbur Bruinsma             18332  Oakwood  Ave.
  Mr. Daniel Zandstra                       Lansing, IL  604381                     On October 4, 1980, the Lord willing, our dear parents and grand-
  Miss Joanne Ruth Zandstra           .w                                         parents, MR. AND MRS. JOE OOMKES, will celebrate their 45th
  Mr. Bartel Jay Zandstra, Jr.                                                   wedding anniversary. We thank our gracious God for the many years
                                                                                 He has given them to us and for their covenant instruction.

                                                                                    Our prayer is that God will bless and keep them in His care as they
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                         continue down life's pathway together.

                                                                                                                    Bill and Ardith Oomkes
     On October 1, 1980, our parents, MR. AND MRS. ALVIN RAU                                      -.
                                                                                                                       Sheryl, Joan, Mary,
  celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.                                                                           Mark and Jodi Lynn
     We, their children and grandchildren, thahk our heavenly Father                                                Herb and Karlene Holleman
  for the years of love and Christian instruction they have given us. It is                                           Beth and Joy
  our prayer that our Covenant God will continue to bless  ;them. and                                               Doug and Ruth Ryskamp
  keep them in His care.                                                                                               Ken and Betsy
     "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to, everlasting upon                                            Grand.Rapids,  Ml



                                            Report of Classis, East
     Classis, East met in regular session on September                           September 21 - Van  Baren, October 5  - Joostens,
10,  1980 at the First Prot. Ref. Church inj Grand                             O c t o b e r   1 9 -- Haak, November 9  - Woudenberg,
  Rapids. All the churches were represented  ;by two                             November 23  - Bruinsma, December.7  - De Vries,
  delegates. Rev. R. Hanko led in opening devotions;                             December 28 - Houck, January 4 - Haak, January 18
  Rev. M. Joostens chaired the meeting,                                          - R. Hanko.
     The business  was- routine. Report was given by                                The `Finance Committee reported expenses of
  the Stated Clerk. Rev. C. Haak.was elected to serve                            $746.84, the questions of Article 41  of, the Church
  on the Classical Committee.                                                   Order were asked and, answered, the concept
     Hope and Holland requested and were granted,                                minutes were.read and classis stood adjourned. The
  classical appointments. The following schedule was                             next meeting of classis will be held on January 14,
  adopted: HOPE (evening service only): September                                1980, at Hudsonville.
  21  - Woudenberg, October 5  - Bruinsma,  Gctober                                                     Respectfully submitted,
  19  - De Vries, November 9  - Haak, November 23  -                                                        John Huisken
 Joostens, December 7 - Van  Baren,, January 4  -                                                                S t a t e   C l e r k
  Bruinsma, January 18  - De- Vries; HOLLAND:                                                                            _


                                    News Frtim Our Churches                                                                            .:  '  -:
                                                                                                            _



                                                                                 little attention except for the fact that the clerk  of
     In the September 7 bulletin of our First  ,Church                           First happens to be none other than K.G.V., our
  in Grand Rapids we read: "Church News: Prof.                                   former news editor. Either Mr. Vink is so.
  Hoeksema has declined his call to  Hope; Rev.                                  programmed to church news that he cannot help
  Kamps declined Redlands; Holland has called Rev.                               himself, or he loved  .the work so much that he
  Kamps." Such an announcement would: attract                                    desires to continue it on a miniature scale.


                                                                                                                                          .j 2-j.
                                                                                                                                                j :.\

  THE STANDARD BEARER
         P.O. Box 6064                                                                               SECONDCiASS                    -             -'
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                       POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                                  GRAhlD RAPIDS, MICH.
                                                                                             I                                             I
                                --  -I__--  .~-                .__  ~_  ~-  .~~  -  ~~~~.





                                                                                                     .-+
                                        -          --~~--_.~-__---..          __


                                                                                                                   . ..i    _

                                                                                                                   a .
24  -                                              THE STANDARD  .BEARER                                    . .


                                                                                                                    1  -.-`"+:-
                                                                 ,'
   A passing glance at many of the bulletins leaves                     Apparently the Covenant Protestant Reformed
no doubt as to the time of year: announcements                   Church building project is taking a great leap
concerning the beginning of catechism, classes and'              forward, or maybe we should say, upward. In the
the openings of our schools abound. Among those                  September 1  Standard  Bearer it was reported that
school opening activities, was the convocation                   siding was being applied; now we read that the
program of our seminary on September 3 at                        steeple is in the process of being built. A glance at
Southeast Church. Prof. Decker spoke on the topic,               the drawing of the new church on their bulletin
"Getting the Principal Thing."                                   cover makes it obvious that the construction of
  While we are thinking about our schools I should               their steeple will be no small project.
make mention of a recent newsletter from the                            Among the materials that were passed on to me
Federation of Prot. Ref. Schools that was                        from K.G.V. was this item of interest on Faith's
distributed to many-if not all-of our churches. As               August 3, 1975 bulletin: "Prof. Hoeksema, his wife
many of you know, the Federation is an organiza-                 and Rev.  C., Hanko returned from their  Austrial-
tion of seven Prot. Ref. Schools whose purpose is to             Asia tour a little past midnight Thursday." One
discuss matters of mutual concern and produce                    might think that our former news editor was a little
biblically-based teaching materials  for; use in the             behind with the news; however, taking into
Protestant Reformed Schools. We are informed of                  consideration his concern for space he was likely
the Federation's desire to do  more in  :the area of             just saving it-for a time such as this when he could
producing teaching materials. However, they are                  report the more recent return of Prof. and Mrs.
restrained by a rather limited budget.`This might be             Hoeksema from those parts of the world, and
a worthy cause for some of our societies to consider             include both trips in a single news paragraph.
when they distribute their funds.             :                         In consideration of-the work of news editor, I
  .Members of Southwest welcomed' into their                     looked through ,past volumes of `the Standard Bearer
fellowship Mr. Lau Chin Kwee and -his new bride,                 in search of the roots of this column. After a brief
Foong Ngee, upon their arrival from Singapore. Mr.               search, I found in the October 1, 1958 issue,
Lau (this last-name-first business might take some               written by the hand of "see you in church" John M.
getting used to) plans, the Lord willing, to attend              Faber: "May this column serve as a means to reach
our seminary for two years in preparation for the                out to the-farout outposts of Redlands, Lynden and
ministry of the gospel in Singapore. You may have                Loveland, drawing them into a closer circle with
noticed in the recently distributed 1980  Acts of                the rest of our churches, binding us closer in the
Synod that the Foreign Mission Committee was                     bonds of love; yea, let it be a means to embrace one
instructed to see to the support of Mr. ,& Mrs. Lau              another in the communion of saints." Take note of
by means of church collections. That this is being               two things in regard to that paragraph: First,
done is verified by this announcement,' taken from               consider how the "outposts"  of.our churches have
the September 7 bulletin of First Church:  "...the               been increased since that time to include Houston,
consistory readily acceded to the  req'uest  of the              New Jersey, and Edmonton, not to mention the
Foreign Mission Committee that we take a                         active mission fields at home and abroad. And
collection for this cause. We view it as an unusual              second, one cannot help but be impressed by the
opportunity for our people to have an important                  superb work that the former editors of this column,
part in the proclamation of the gospel of sovereign              namely, or should I say initial-ly, J.M.F., D.D., and
grace among a heathen people, the hearts of a good               K.G.V., have  Idone in keeping with that original
number of whom have been opened by the Lord,                     statement of purpose. May God grant that this
also through our efforts. We therefore heartily                  work be continued by means of a new vessel.
recommend to our congregation this cause."                                                                                         C.K.


