A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
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Vol. 66, No. 5
December 7, 1989


 Contents                                                                                        THE
                                                           December 7,7 989              STANDARD
Meditation  -  Prof.  Robert  D. Decker                                                       BEARER
   DEATH A GAIN                                                                    99
                                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING.. .                                                         100      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
                                                                                          and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
Editorial  - Prof.  David  /.  Engelsma                                                   lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
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   REPLY TO THE REV. STEVE SCHLISSEL                                             101      POSTMASTER:  Send address changes to The
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LETTERS                                                                          103     EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                          tditor: Prof. David  I. Engelsma
The Day of Shadows  -  Rev. John A. Heys                                                 Secretarv:  Prof. Robert D.  Deckel
                                                                                         Mana&&  Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
   ETERNALLY CHOSEN AND GRACIOUSLY CALLED                                        106     D E P A R T M E N T   E D I T O R S
                                                                                         Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
Decency and Order                                                                        Arie  denHartog.  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                         -  Rev.  Ronald C. Cammenga                                     Gritters,  Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
   THE OFFICE OF PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY                                           109     Hanko. Rev. Ronald Hanko. Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
                                                                                         Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jason  Kortering,  Mr. James
                                                                                         Lanting,  Rev.  George  Lubbers. Mrs.  Marybeth  Lub-
From Holy Writ  - Rev. George C. Lubbers                                                 bers. Rev. lames  Slopsema,  Rev. Charles  1.erpstra.
   EXPOSITION OF PHILIPPIANS  1:27-30 (2)                                        111     Rev.  Cise  VanBaren.  Rev. Ronald  VanOverlodp,
                                                                                         Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
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98 I The Standard Bearer  / December 1, 1989


Meditation
Prof. Robert D. Decker                    Death a Gain

   "For to me to live is Christ;          always, Christ is magnified in his         But, there is more! Much more!
and to die is gain. "                     body. Whether by life or by                Death is unspeakably horrible!
                   -Philippians I:21      death!                                   Why? Because it is the expres-
                                            Why is this true? Because "to          sion of God's wrath.
   Life and death! Of these               me to live is Christ," Christ is           Death is not, as some say, the
realities the Apostle speaks. And         magnified by life in me. "And to         natural end of life. Just as you
these are opposed to each other.          die is gain," Christ is magnified        are born, so your natural end is
Where there is death there can            by death in me!                          death. There is, therefore,
be no life!                                 Amazing confession! Amazing            nothing to fear in death.
  Death is the destruction of life,       victory!                                   Oh, no! Death is the violent in-
the final end of life!                      To die is gain. How can this           terruption of life. By God! It is
  Yet, the apostle puts them              be? It seems incredible! Death is        the consequence of our fall into
together in a marvelous confes-           horrible from every human point          sin. The wages of sin is death.
sion. "For to me to live is Christ;       of view. Horrible because it is the        God speaks in death: "1 am
and to die is gain."                      loss of all earthly ties. When           God, righteous and holy! The
  Can you say this? To me to              death strikes, a husband is torn         soul that sinneth, it shall die."
live (i.e., all my life in all its        from his wife or a wife from her         The ungodly may boast in his
details) is Christ? If you cannot         husband, and one lives on in sor-        pride of many things: his intellec-
say this, you can never say, and          row and loneliness. A child loses        tual abilities, his medical
to die is gain!                           a parent or a brother or sister. A       discoveries, his skills, inventions,
  The text begins with the Gord           friend loses his friend. All these       his scientific achievements, his
"for." This means that the text is        ties, these relationships, are utter-    technology. The ungodly may
the reason for the preceding. The         ly broken and lost. Death cuts us        boast of his strength, but God has
apostle rejoices in the fact that         off from all that is earthly: our        the last word.
the gospel is being preached.             homes and families, our work               And that word is DEATH!
Some were preaching out of bad            and play. Our hopes and dreams             And death is unending misery
motives, while others were                and plans come to nothing before         in hell. It's eternal separation
preaching out of love and good            the blast of death.                      from the joy of God's blessed
will. In either case Paul rejoices          Death is so terribly final!            fellowship and friendship in
because, whether in pretense or             . . . and inevitable!                  Jesus.
in truth, Christ is preached. This          We have a saying among us:               How then can Paul say, "To
will be for his salvation through         "the old must die, the young can         die is gain"? It certainly appears
the prayers of the Philippians and        die." How true! Unless the Lord          that to die is to lose everything!
the supply of the Spirit.                 returns, everyone of us . . .              He can say this because his
  Paul knows all this according           sooner or later . . . will die!          confession is, "To me to live is
to his earnest expectation and            Nothing stays the cold hand of           Christ."
hope. That hope is that he will           death. The moment we are born              Note, the apostle speaks of liv-
be ashamed in nothing. All things         we begin our journey to the              ing. To be alive is Christ. Paul
are for him. This is true because         grave. We are like the grass, the        means this present earthly life.
now, at the moment, as well as            Bible says, grass that flourishes        And this is life from every point
                                          for a little while and then withers      of view. Life in all of its spheres,
                                          and dies.                                in all of its relationships, this life
                                            How then can death be gain?            is Christ. My life as husband or
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical    From an earthly point of view            wife, as parent or child. My life
Theology in the Protestant Reformed
Seminary.                                 death is utter loss!                     in the home as well as the

                                                                                   December  I,1989  I The Standard Bearer  I99


church. My life at work, my life                     This is the confession of the        grace in you. You may rejoice.
of recreation and pleasure, my                    Christian. The man untouched by         To you to live is Christ.
life in this world is Christ. My                  grace (fallen, sinful, depraved           And to die is gain! Gain,
thinking, my willing, my plan-                    man) will never say this! Only          because death has been changed
ning, and all my doing. It's all                  one overpowered by the wonder-          - no, conquered by Jesus for
Christ.                                           ful grace of God in Jesus says,         you. Through His cross and in
   Christ lives in me. I was                      "To me to live is Christ."              His resurrection Jesus destroyed
chosen in Him before the founda-                    Do you say this?                      the power of death. He who lives
tion of the world. For me and for                    This is the personal confession      and believes in me, said the
all whom the Father gave Him                      of the apostle. But it's the per-       Savior, shall never die!
Christ laid down His life at the                  sonal confession of every Chris-          Now, my fear of death is gone.
cross and took it again in the                    tian,                                   Last enemy though it be, death is
resurrection. By His Holy Spirit                     It's easy to say, "for the Chris-    but the passage into the presence
Christ made His home in my                        tian to live is Christ."                of God!
heart. My body is His temple.                       But can you and do you say              And there is fullness of jo:y.
   And, living in me, Christ                      this? The question is crucial, for      Yes, confess with Paul: "For to
directs my life so that I live out                if you cannot say this you have         me to live is Christ; and to die is
of Him.                                           no comfort. Death is terrible loss      gain!" 0
   My life is radically different                 for you! Just change this confes-
from the life of the world. To the                sion and see what happens. To
world to live is sin; to me to live               me to live is money; death is
is Christ. Living out of Christ, I                loss. To me to live is my home,                         Night
hate and fight against all sin. I                 pleasure, my job or career; death       Dear Lord, I do remember Thou
strive to live in obedience to His                is loss. All of these are lost in            hast said
Word. His mind of perfect obe-                    death.                                    That I may cast my every care
dience to God is my mind, His                       Jesus put it best when He said,                  on Thee;
will is my law. Every word I                      "What shall it profit a man, if he      But see, this deep oppression will
speak, every thought I think,                     gain the whole world and lose                not go,
every desire of my heart, and                     his own soul?"                            But with its leaden hands holds
every deed I perform is Christ.                     Do you know your sins? Are                   fast on me.
                                                  you sorry for them? That's God's        Holds fast, and drags me down,
                                                                                              and shuts my mouth,
                                                                                            Strangles the cry that fain would
                                                                                                 pierce the skies;
Editorially Speaking . . .                                                                Helpless I lie before Thee, with no
                                                                                              words
                                                                                            Upon my lips, with sad yet tear-
                                                                                                 less eyes.
   Each issue of The Standard                       Elsewhere in this issue appears       So be it, Lord; my joyous soul has
Bearer is available on cassette                   an advertisement of a sale on the           need
tape for those who are blind, or                  books published by the Reformed           Of its dark days, and in this
who prefer hearing The S.B. to                    Free Publishing Association. The               dreary night,
reading it. This is an excellent                  books are soundly Reformed              Roots that strike downward, that
ministry of the Evangelism Socie-                 works, covering the whole range             anon shall shoot
ty of the Southeast Protestant                    of Christian doctrine and life. At-       In rich and living branches to
Reformed Church. The reader is                    tractive "package deals" are                   the light.
Ken Rietema of Southeast                          available. The savings are              Oh may these branches bear some
Church. Anyone desiring this ser-                 sizable. This sale will serve you           fruit for Thee,
vice regularly should write South-                well in your giving at Christmas.         In grateful memory of the
east PRC, 1535 Cambridge Ave.                     And at the same time, you will                 loving hand,
S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49506. If                  be helping the worthy cause of          That cast me in this gloomy
you send your request to The                      publishing Protestant Reformed              cheerless spot,
S.B., we will pass it on to South-                and other Reformed books. Look            And al1 its dreariness and dark-
east's Evangelism Society.                        over the offerings! q         -DJE             ness planned.
                                                                                                            -S.B. Oct. 15, 1927

100  / The Standard Bearer  / December 1, 1989


                                       Reply to the
Editorial                              Rev. Steve Schlissel

   Elsewhere in this issue appears     himself somewhat from this              truth of God's Word and for the
a letter from Rev. Steve M.            charge ("rural and isolationist"),      welfare of God's people. Rev.
Schlissel, Christian Reformed          this was definitely intended to be      Schlissel's misrepresentation of
minister in Brooklyn, New York,        condemnation of the PRC for             the PRC is, in reality, a falsifying
objecting to my editorial in The       their denial of common grace. He        of these churches' good confes-
Standard Bearer of October 15,         made this emphatic in his article       sion of the Reformed truth of
1989. Because his original attack      in Christian Renewal by im-             sovereign, particular grace. What
on the Protestant Reformed             mediately adding, "I remain             is more, writing in Christian
Churches in the September 11,          suspicious of any brand of Chris-       Renewal, Rev. Schlissel misrepre-
1989 issue of Christian Renewal        tianity which requires a                sents the PRC and their good
was aimed squarely at these            monastery (large or small) to sur-      confession before a Reformed
churches' denial of common             vive" (a line that I charitably         audience, many of whom are dis-
grace as adopted by the CRC in         omitted in the windbagging              tressed by the apostasy from the
1924 and because his letter again      editorial to which Rev. Schlissel       Reformed Faith in their own
raises the issue of common grace,      takes exception). Rev. Schlissel's      churches and are struggling with
a reply to his letter in the           meaning was plain: The PR               their calling from God in the face
editorial column of The SB is          denial of common grace is a form        of this departure from Christ in
warranted.                             of physical world-flight, in princi-    His Word. Accepting Rev.
  I am baffled by the suggestion       ple and in practice; the PRC are        Schlissel's report of the PRC,
that an apology is in order for        a brand of Christianity, like the       these people will certainly write
the "sin" of defending the PRC         monastic element of Roman               the PRC off. They will not even
against Rev. Schlissel's misrepre-     Catholicism, that requires a            consider the possibility that the
sentation of these churches and        monastery to survive. Since Re-         PRC are a denomination of Re-
their opposition to the doctrine of    formed Christians (for whom Rev.        formed churches clearly display-
common grace. Rev. Schlissel's         Schlissel writes in Christian Re-       ing the marks of the true church
article in Christian Renewal was       newal) know that biblical Chris-        as defined in Article 29 of the
a caricature of the PRC. It was        tianity does not require a              Belgic Confession, and therefore
not at a11 a careful examination       monastery to survive, but rather        a refuge for Reformed Christians
of the PR position, in order. then     forbids world-flight (John 17: 15),     in this present storm.
to refute this position from Scrip-    they must conclude that the PRC            Rev. Schlissel's false report of
ture and the confessions. This         are not a brand of biblical Chris-      the PRC must be challenged. To
kind of disagreement and debate,       tianity.                                allow it to stand would be un-
the PRC have always welcomed.            For protesting this attack upon       conscionable.
Rather, having passed upon the         the PRC and defending them                 1 note that, in all his lengthy
PRC his apodictic judgment, "just      against it, apology is owed!            letter to The SS, Rev. Schlissel
plain wrong" (which could have           If defense of the PRC against         does not retract so much as one
been endured), Rev. Schlissel          such defamation be "sin," I give        word of his misrepresentation of
blackened the PRC with virtually       notice that, so far from apologiz-      the PRC in Christian Renewal -
every false charge that has ever       ing, I intend to be an energetic        not "rationalism"; not "obsessed";
been hurled against them.              sinner, God helping me.                 not "deformity"; not even "rural
  This included the charge that          The reason is not only simple         and isolationist." It is all well tha.t
they are guilty of anabaptistic        justice - those unfairly attacked       he expresses his appreciation for
world-flight. Although Rev.            have a right to defend them-            the PRC in a letter published in
Schlissel now likes to distance        selves, but also concern for the        The Sf?; but the injury to the

                                                                               December 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  I101


 name of the PRC was done in                       Murray and Stonehouse, "The                   What is important here is that
 Christian Renewal, before the                     Free Offer of the Gospel,"                  Rev. Schlissel accuses the CRC of
 readers of that magazine, many                    presented to the Fifteenth                  sin in expelling the opponents of
 of whom do not receive The SB.                    General Assembly of the Or-                 common grace because the issue
 Despite his letter to The SB, the                 thodox Presbyterian Church in               of common grace was (and is) un-
 damage remains among the                          1948 as a study-report, contends            important. Of all the cutting
 readers of Christian Renewal.                     that God is gracious in the                 criticisms that Rev. Schlissel dealt
 Rev. Schlissel ought to publish a                 preaching of the Gospel to all              the PRC, this is the most painful:
 retraction of his misrepresenta-                  hearers, reprobate as well as               the whole common grace con-
 tion in Christian Renewal. At the                 elect, sincerely desiring the salva-        troversy was not worth fighting!
 very least, he should inform the                  tion of them all. This teaching is-           Accordingly, Rev. Schlissel
 readers of that magazine that the                 the very same as the "well-meant            likes to have the rift healed in
 PRC vehemently repudiate his                      offer of the Gospel" which the              the way of the CRC's confessing
 characterization of their denial of               CRC adopted in the first point of           the sin of putting men out of the
 common grace.                                     their doctrine of common grace. 1           church over a trivial matter -
    Rev. Schlissel's explanation (in               do not, as Rev. Schlissel rather            one that did not bear on a funda-
 his letter to The SB) of his                      ungraciously suggests in his let-           mental truth of the Reformeld
 defense of common grace against                   ter, regard men who hold this               Faith. There is no danger of the
 the PRC is completely unsatis-                    doctrine "with . . . disdain." But 1        CRC's doing this. But if there
 factory, and strange. It is the                   did point out to Rev. Schlissel, in         were, I would plead with the CRC
 claim that he was defending the                   four windbagging columns, the               not to make such a confession of
 position on common grace, not                     consequences in his church of               sin. For one thing, they should
 of the CRC, but of the                            the doctrine of common grace as             not insult their fathers and ours.
 Presbyterian theologian, John                     adopted by the CRC in 1924,                 Neither their Louis Berkhof ((one
 Murray. But, first,`as a CR                       from which doctrine the teaching.           of the authors of the CRC's doc-
 preacher, Rev. Schlissel is respon-               of John Murray does not differ.             trine of common grace) nor our
 sible for the binding decisions on                  The passage in Christian                  Herman Hoeksema was a theo-
 common grace of his own                           Renewal in which Rev. Schlissel             logical babe, fool, or knave, the
 church, not for the views on                      stated his conviction that the              one willing to depose collea;gues
 common grace of John Murray.                      CRC sinned in driving out the op-           and risk a church-split and the
 Second, Rev. Schlissel's original                 ponents of common grace is not              other willing to hazard ecclesi-
 pronouncement on common                           as significant as Rev. Schlissel            astical death, over doctrinal
 grace (quoted in the article in                   thinks it is. This is apparent as           trivia. For another thing, the
 Christian Renewal in which he                     soon as one considers the lines in          prophet pronounces woe over
 misrepresented the PRC) oc-                       the article in Christian Renewal            those who heal the hurt of the
 curred at a meeting of concerned                  that Rev. Schlissel omits in his            daughter of Jehovah's people
 members of the CRC. In this                       letter to The SB. Immediately               slightly.
meeting, before a CR audience,                     following the statement of his                 If, in fact, the issue of common
Rev. Schlissel declared:                           conviction that the CRC sinned in           grace is the insignificant thing
 the "common grace" doctrine, as we                driving out "those who demurred             that Rev. Schlissel supposes it to
 historically understand it, is correct            from the church's position on               be, the PRC are every bit as guil-
 and the Protestant Reformed                       common grace," Rev. Schlissel               ty for the division as is the CRC.
 brothers are dead wrong on this                   wrote this:                                 For the founders of the PRC took
 issue..                                             I believe both positions offer            their stand for sovereign, partic-
 Surely, this referred to common                   credible biblical arguments. Though         ular grace as for a fundamental
 grace as held in the CRC, not to                  both  cannot be correct, like infra- and    truth of the Gospel, condemning
 common grace as taught by John                    supralapsarianism, both are Truly           common grace as a form of the
 Murray.                                           Reformed.                                   Pelagian-Arminian heresy.
    Third, John Murray's doctrine                    1 leave aside the question,                  How Rev. Schlissel can believe
 of common grace does not differ                   whether Rev. Schlissel does not             that both the affirmation anld the
 from that of the CRC. Rev.                        owe it both to the sinning CRC              denial of common grace offer
 Schlissel's quotations in Christian               and to the sinned-against PRC to            credible biblical arguments and
 Renewal indicate that Murray                      make his conviction that the CRC            that, although both cannot be
 taught a grace of God for the                     sinned in 1924 and 1925 the mat-            correct, yet both are truly Re-
 reprobate in temporal gifts and in                ter of an urgent overture to the            formed, I leave with him. The
. restraining sin. The booklet by                  1990 synod of the CRC.                      PRC are convinced that the truth

 102  / The Standard Bearer  I December 1, 1989


of Gods revelation in Holy Scrip-      The notion, admittedly prevalent,      byterian churches. He should be
ture is consistent, logical, and       that contradictory doctrinal state-    careful to refrain from sweeping,
non-contradictory. Of two contra-      ments are Christian truth is,          authoritative pronouncements
dictory propositions, at least one     according to the firmest convic-       upon this, or any, issue, until he
must offer specious, not credible,     tions of the PRC, no small part of     has thoroughly studied the mat-
biblical arguments; at least one       the error of the CR doctrine of        ter. Especially should he guard
must be false, not truly Re-           common grace and no negligible         against uninformed condemna-
formed. Either God is gracious in      cause of the theological confusion     tion of Reformed men and
the Gospel to all men without ex-      that reigns in Protestant churches     women.
ception, desiring the salvation of     today.                                    It is not merely a windbagging
them all, or God is gracious in the       1 ask Rev. Schlissel not to take    voice out of the PRC, but the
Gospel to the elect alone, desir-      it ill of me when I urge him care-     Heidelberg Catechism that warns
ing their salvation only. One or       fully to study the issue of com-       every Reformed believer, "that 1
the other of these assertions is       mon grace as it has come to            do not judge, nor join in con-
Reformed. The other is doctrinal       divide the CRC and the PRC, and        demning any man rashly, or
error - serious doctrinal error.       as it has come to distinguish the      unheard." 0                            -DJE
                                       PRC among Reformed and Pres-




Letters

  This is a belated expression of         I do appreciate your continu-       1 Windbagging
sorrow over the passing of one of      ing to send The Standard Bearer
your godly and able leaders,           even though I neglected to send            I am disturbed by the way in
Prof. Homer Hoeksema. 1 had            in my renewal at the proper             which you responded (Stundurd
been in contact with him over          time. I consider The Standard           Bearer, October 15, 1989, pp.
the years and always had the           Bearer as one of the best               29-31) to my comments about the
highest respect for his leadership     religious magazines that comes          Protestant Reformed Church. You
and scholarly work in the cause        into my home. It thrills me to          chose to quote from my Christiun
of Reformed Christianity. His          know that there is a group of           Renewal article only those por-
work as editor and writer in The       churches (Protestant Reformed           tions that would tend to (un-
Standard Bearer for so many            Churches of America) that               necessarily) inflame the defensive
years stands as a monument to          upholds the eternal, uncondi-           passions of your readers. Surely
his uncompromising defense of          tional election of a specific por-      you know that "the Lord hates
the Reformed Faith in our              tion of Adam's race to be finally       . . . one who sows discord among
generation. Prof. H. Hanko's           glorified in heaven . . . . 1 do        brethren." Why, then, did you
tribute to his collegue in The         want you to know that I ap-             not give the full picture? I am re-
Standard Bearer (9-15-89) was a        preciate The Standard Bearer and        questing that you print this letter
beautiful, well-deserved state-        other writings and books by your        not only in the cause of God and
ment which is appreciated by           ministers. I look forward to            Truth, but also Christian peace.
many of us outside your                receiving each issue and do read          First, you failed to inform your
denomination.                          the contents with great in-             readers of the specific definition
  His labors on earth are now          terest . . . .                          of common grace which I de-
over, but his good works in the                  Gene Thomas                   fended: "Every favour of what-
Spirit will be eternally rewarded.               Scottsboro, AL                ever kind or degree, falling short
(Rev. 14: 13)                                                                  of salvation, which this undeserv-
        (Rev.) Norman Jones                                                    ing and sin-cursed world enjoys
        Pierre, SD                                                             at the hand of God."
                                                                                 Second, you omitted the fact'
                                                                               that the position 1 defended in
                                                                               my article was not that of the

                                                                              December 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  / 103


Christian Reformed Church in                       mark, or failed to address the          area, that our evangelism com-
 1924, but that of Professor John                  key concerns, or perhaps mis-           mittee members-were asked to
Murray, whose article on the sub-                  represented Scripture teaching.         read Evangelism and the Re-
ject I urged to the attention of                   You did none of these. Your            formed Faith, authored by you,
my readers. With this simple fact                  response was ad hominem all the         that we used Homer Hoeksema's
in hand, four of your seven col-                   way. This is one man whom you           Voice of our Fathers, as a prime
umns are reduced to mere wind-                     have unjustly tarred, but the tar       resource book in our congrega-
bagging, as you attribute to me                    won't stick. Facts are stubborn        tional study of the Canons, that
one position after another which                   things. You are a subscriber to        we have publicly recommended
you did not find me defending in                   Messiah's Mandate. Why didn't          much PRC literature and stock
the piece in question. Further-                    you inform your readers that, in       many titles on our congregational
more, Professor Murray                             response to a letter by PRC            bookshelf, and that I frequently
represents no small number of                      minister, Rev. Steve Key, I wrote      quote from PRC material in -my
Orthodox Presbyterians on this                     (Messiah's Mandate, Vol. 2, #l, p.     public lectures. Furthermore, my
issue. May I inform these                          2%                                     preaching has been influenced by
brothers that you regard them                      I will gladly open the pages of the    the writings of Herman
with the same disdain you dis-                     Mandate to a discussion of the com-    Hoeksema. More than one ser-
played toward me for putting                       mon grace question.                    mon has been almost plagiarized
forth Murray's .quote?                               Better yet, instead of venting       from him, so difficult was it .to
   Third, why did you not quote                    steam in the Standard Bearer           improve on what he said about
this significant passage of my ar-                 over my Christian Renewal arti-        certain matters. I might add that
ticle?:                                            cle, why didn't you employ your        one of the most deeply moving
It is my conviction that the Christian             efforts constructively by respond-     religious experiences I have had
Reformed Church sinned against Cod                 ing to my invitation (issued 9         was when I was thrust to mq
and man in persecuting and driving                 months earlier) for "a living Prot-    knees before the true God while
out those who demurred from the                    estant Reformer" to set forth          reading the first chapters of :Rev.
church3 position on com,tion  grace                their case for our readers?            Hoeksema's Reformed Dogmatics.
     It is my prayer that'the grace of               Sixth, you wrote, "a member
&&I that brings salva,tibn                                                                Do you still think I was "being
                               would               of the PRC might even have
graciously heal  the:.&ft that oc-                                                        flippant" when I proposed a joint
                                                   entertained the thought that a
curred in some L&Y which He alone                                                         family conference in 1990? I
can bring aLx-#                                    Reformed preacher who has ex-          assure you, I was not.
   How do& this square with                        pressed his love for the Reformed        Seventh, I am not from the
your g&ment that "the PRC                          traditions would have a word of        Bronx, thank you. I am born,
rec&e(d) a crueler, more, cut-                     praise for a denomination of Re-       bred & buttered right here in
tiri'g, and more contemptuous                      formed churches that still stead-      Brooklyn. I invite you to visit
<criticism from this `conservafive'                fastly holds the faith and life set    here someday to see our town,
than the `liberals' are wont to                    forth in the Three Forms of Uni-       meet our people and leave your
give."? I can only surmise that it                 ty." That was the deepest cut of       prejudices. In fact, any PRC
is your conviction that no one                     all, for I hold the Protestant Re-     members visiting our area are in-
may disagree with you on this                      formed Churches in the highest         vited to contact us for hospitality.
issue in any way, shape or form                    regard. It is that very love that        I believe you owe me an
or they risk the wrath of your                     gave me the confidence to ex-          apology. I trust that the good
journal.                                           tend the above-mentioned invita-       Lord will use this letter to heal
   Fourth, your insinuation that I                 ti'on, even the confidence to          the rift which you have created,
cast a slur against farmers is un-                 challenge you in the Christian         which rift was made known to
worthy of a Christian journalist.                  Renewal pi&e (challenges to            me by members of your
Comments about the PRC being                       which-you did not respond with         denomination in no uncertain
"rural and isolationist" have been                 even common grace).                    terms on a recent trip to Grand
shared with me by PRC members                        I would like your readers to         Rapids.. I pray that God would
themselves, both lay and clerical.                 know that we have purchased            not only heal the rift, but
   Fifth, my understanding of the                  much literature from the               graciously bring us yet closer
common grace issue is not set in                   evangelism committee of the S.         together in Christ.
cement. I can be taught. You                       Holland PRC, that we regularly                (Rev.) Steve M. Schlissel
made no effort, however, to                        offered your book (Try the                    Brooklyn, N.Y.
show how my paragraph of                           Spirits) on our radio show broad-
Biblical proofs either missed the                  cast in the greater New York

104  I The Standard Bearer  I December  1, 1989


Response                                  is not the fault of this doctrine of       `resley and Joseph Stalin were
                                          common  grace; and it should not           righly favored by God. By this
  The letter of Rev. Schlissel            3e faulted for this . . . . I would ap-    oken, the beggar Lazarus lying
published above appears in its            ?reciate your appropriate                  it the door of Dives was the ob-
entirety.                                 response to this in The SB . . . .         ect of Gods wrath, for he had
  My reply is found in the                        Peter J. Sluys                     rothing. Grace is the attitude of
editorial in this issue of The                    Kalamazoo, MI                      `avor that God freely adopts
Standard Bearer.                  -Ed.                                               .owards elect sinners in Jesus
                                                                                     Christ before the world began (II
In Defense of                             Response                                   rim. 1:9). In this favor, God not
Common Grace                                The doctrine of common grace             only forgives their sins, but also
                                          is not only the teaching that God          nakes all things earthly work
  Your October 15, 1989                   shows favor to the reprobate               :ogether for their good, poverty
editorial response to Brother             unbeliever in time by means of             1s well as wealth, sickness as
Schlissel ("The Rural, Isolationist,      rain and sunshine ("temporal               well as health, death as well as
and Deformed PRC") was amus-              blessings"), but also the teaching         ife (Rom. 8:28; I Cor. 3:21-23).
ing and yet not one of your bet-          that God is gracious to the                Ie blesses them in all cir-
ter ones . . . As to the issue of         reprobate unbeliever in the                :umstances of earthly life.
common grace, allow me to say             preaching of the Gospel by                   Psalm 73 clearly teaches that
that I personally think the in-           means of the "well-meant offer of          earthly life with its weal or woe
famous CRC Synod of 1924                  the Gospel." Mr. Sluys does not            nust be analyzed, not in itself,
should never have made "com-              refer to this aspect of the                lut in light of the eternal goal
mon grace" a cardinal doc-                adopted doctrine of his church.            Lowards which one's earthly life
trine . . . But I believe that God        But it is this above all that Henry        s tending. Gods gift of earthly
does bestow non-saving blessings          Danhof, Herman Hoeksema,                   prosperity to the wicked is His
or favor, albeit temporary in             George Ophoff, and the men and             setting them in slippery places
nature, to the non-elect. I submit        women who were put out of the              and His casting them down into
                                                                                                                       -_- -. .
that if common grace were not             CRC with them found objection-             destruction (v. 18). Such prosperi-
operative in this world it would          able in the CRC's doctrine of              ty is no blessing. On the other
not be possible for you and me            common grace. This is the in-              hand, Gods daily chastening of
to live in a very wicked                  troduction of the Arminian '               His Israel, His chosen church, is
world . . . The rain and the sun-         heresy into the Reformed church;           His guiding of them to glory
shine benefit not only God's              and this has developed, naturally          "afterward" (v. 24). Such adversi-
elect, but also the non-elect,            and inevitably, into the accep-            ty is no curse. Call the rain and
which are all God's created sons          tance of universal atonement               sunshine that all men share
and daughters . . . If this is not        (through the Dekker controversy            "common bounties of Provi-
so, then it is hypocritical for any       in the 1960s); the rejection of            dence." But do not call them
minister, PR ministers included,          reprobation (in response to the            grace. If for no other reason, do
at Thanksgiving to speak about            Boer gravamen in the 1980s);               not call them grace lest you
God's favor resting upon our na-          and a rampaging universalism in            make yourself responsible for
tion . , . If the PRC can come up         the preaching and writing of the           causing the child of God to slip in
with a better word than "com-             ministers and theologians in the           his great spiritual struggle,
mon grace," let's hear it . . . As        church of Mr. Sluys (exemplified           whether God is good to Israel, as
for those who appeal to common            by the now common practice of              he sees the earthly prosperity of
grace for the allowance of the            explaining the world of John 3:16          the wicked and experiences his
dance, the theater, and repudia-          as referring to every human be-            own troubles.
tion of the "Five Points of               ing without exception).                      The statement, "rain and sun-
Calvinism," they have not only               As for the good gifts of rain,          shine benefit not only Gods
abused this doctrine, but have            sunshine, health, and family that          elect, but also the non-elect,"
also read into and extracted from         the ungodly receive in this life in        where "benefit" refers to Gods
it something which this doctrine          the Providence of God, earthly             blessing, stands diametrically op-
never intended to do . . . But this       things are not in themselves               posed to the teaching of Question
                                          grace; nor can Gods favor be in-           125 of the Heidelberg Catechism.
                                          ferred from an abundance of                The Catechism explains the peti-
                                          things that a man possesses. If it         tion, "Give us this day our daily
                                          could be so inferred, Elvis                bread," as implying "that neither

                                                                                     December  1,1989 I The Standard Bearer  1105


our care nor industry, nor even                   to be evident from the simple         of the objectionable decisions,
thy gifts, can profit us without                  fact that its God is not Jehovah.     and even though these decisions
thy blessing . . . ." The Catechism               God has given the citizens of our     follow perfectly logically from
insists on a sharp distinction be-                country many good, earthly gifts,     common grace, the "concerned
tween Gods gifts ("rain and sun-                  chief among which is earthly          members" insist, "this is not the
shine") and Gods blessing. A                      liberty. His purpose is the           fault of this doctrine of common
man can have the gifts without                    development and enjoyment of          grace." What can one say about
the blessing. Without the blessing                the Reformed faith and life by        this finally, except that none is so
of God, the gifts ("rain and sun-                 His people; and His purpose is        blind as, he who will not see.
shine") do not profit anyone. If                  the development of sin by the            In any ease, Mr. Sluys should
they do not profit a man, they                    reprobate wicked to an un-            allow the Protestant Reformed
work his loss, inasmuch as now                    precedented extent, as we all         Churches themselves to explain
he is responsible to God for his                  see. The blessing of God does not     that which in them he finds
unthankfulness and for his misuse                 rest indiscriminately upon all        praiseworthy. Midway in his let-
of these gifts. It is the plain          *        members of a nation. It did not       ter (edited in the interests of
teaching of the Reformed confes-                  rest indiscriminately upon all the    space), Mr. Sluys writes:
sion that rain and sunshine do                    members of the nation of Israel.      Certainly, I very much appreciate the
not "benefit . . . the non-elect."                "The curse of Jehovah is in the       concern and the fidelity to the Scrip-
This is why it instructs the                      house of the wicked: but He           tures (of3 the PRC We need more of
believer to look to the Father of                 blesseth the habitation of the        it in churches who go by the name
Jesus for necessities for the body                just" (Prov. 3:33).                   of Reformed, and in an age when so
and to ask Him, not only for the                    To Mr. Sluys' attributing           much superficiality (characterizes)
gifts, but also for His indispens-                various (bitter) fruits of common     theology.
                                                                                        This is high praise. Indeed, thlere
able blessing. Only then are the                  grace to an "abuse" of the doc-       is no higher praise for a'
gifts of any benefit to him.                      trine rather than to the doctrine     denomination of churches than
  I agree that it would be, if not                itself, my response-is amazement      the witness that they are faithful
hypocritical, at least inconsistent               at the refusal of those members       to Scripture. This is an encour-
with the PR doctrine for a PR                     of the CRC who are unhappy            agement. We thank him for it.
preacher to speak of God's bless-                 with the present condition of         The explanation is solely the
ing of the nation of the United                   their church to re-examine,           Lords mercies. No small part of
States, at Thanksgiving or any                    critically, the doctrine of com-      these mercies is His founding of
other time. But no PR minister                    mon grace, whether it is not a        these churches upon the Rock of
speaks like this. God does not                    significant cause of the condition    particular, sovereign grace and of
bless the United States. The na-                  they deplore. Even though Her-        a sharp, spiritual separation (anti-
tion spoken of in Psalm 33:12,                    man Hoeksema and others proph-        thesis) between church and world
whose God is Jehovah and which                    esied every one of these conse-       and between believer and
is blessed, is the church in every                quences of common grace some          unbeliever, that is, deliverance of
nation (cf. I Pet. 2:9). That the                 60 years ago, even though the         these churches from the doctrine
United States is not blessed, or                  theologians and synods of the         and fruits of common grace. 0
any other earthly nation, ought                   CRC explicitly adduce the doc-                                           ,-DJE
                                                  trine of common grace in support


 The Day                                          Eternally.Chosen and
of Shaciows
Rev. john A. Heys                                 G.raciously Called

                                                    A truth which we should hold        pens, and that He always without
                                                  on to tightly is the undeniable       any exception gets His way. No
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in               fact that the almighty, sovereign     one ever stopped Him from
the Protestant Reformed Churches.                 God decides everything that hap-      realizing exactly what He eter-

106  / The Standard Bearer  I December 1, 1989


nally planned would take place.       impossible work of a virgin birth.     was created. And so that man
Do we not in Genesis 1:31 read,       And, surely, before he fell into       might receive even a richer love
"And God saw every thing that         sin Adam could not praise God          for God, in testing His mercy and
He made, and, behold, it was          for His mercy. He knew Gods            grace thrqugh the work that thle
very good"? Does not the              love. He enjoyed God's grace in        Seed of the Woman would per-
psalmist say in Psalm 33:9, "For      the sense of receiving all his         form, God in His eternal counsel
He spake, and it was done; He         material needs as a free gift from     decreed that fall and salvation lfor
commanded, and it stood fast"?        the hand of the almighty and all-      part of the human race. Get that
  Then too, in the light of and in    wise God. But mercy, pity, com-        also: it was only for those calleld
connection with this truth, we        passion could not be known until       the seed of the woman and not
must maintain and insist that He      man fell into sin and deserved         for the seed of the serpent.
is the all-wise God Who planned       the everlasting torment of hell!          Gods sovereign, eternal, and
the right things and the right        He could and did praise God for        unchangeable election and repro-
way, as well as the right time, so    His wisdom and strength, for His       bation must be revealed; and for
that what He planned would and        sovereignty and exclusive divini-      it He must be praised. God was
did take place. He always in in-      ty. But the fall of man must come      not frustrated by the devil. He
scrutable wisdom planned all that     in order that God's mercy might        did not have His eternal plans
happens and chose the right           also be revealed, and a people         changed by a wicked creature
means for them to come to pass.       could be brought into being who        that then and today depends
  The fall of man through the         would in the New Jerusalem             completely and every moment
devilish lie of Satan was not due     praise Him for that mercy. After       upon God. We should avoid and
to a temporary slipping of things     the fall, man could and does sing      fight against all the false doc-
out of God's hand. It did not         those words in Psalm 139:14            trines which today deny this elec-
reveal that a creature will and       which our Psalter versification        tion and reprobation and make
can interfere with Gods plans;        expresses so beautifully:              the almighty, sovereign God
nor that He should not have                All that I am I owe to Thee,      dependent upon the will of fallen
created the devilish angel who             Thy wisdom, Lord, hath            man, as to who will become the
caused man, created in the image             fashioned me;                   elect, and who will remain
of God, to fall away from Him              I give my Maker thankful          reprobate. THAT is not praising
and into sin.                                praise,                         God but is making Him depen-
  Did He not tell us in Isaiah             Whose.wondrous  works my          dent upon man; and it in effect
43:2 1, "This people have I                  soul amaze.                     says that He is not God! But man
formed for myself; they shall           Adam could not have sung             does not decide whom God will.
show forth my praise"? Yes, that      that before he fell into sin and as    save. The almighty God does not
fall into sin was planned by God      a result, learned that he owed to      have to wait for man to decide
in His wisdom, so that a people       God not only his physical, earthly     how big the body of Christ, His
would be formed to show forth         existence, but his very salvation.     beloved church, is going to be.
His praises as the God of salva-      Yes, God had His reason for the        Man does not decide Gods
tion. He created man in His own       fall of man. It happened therefore     future. God decides man's future.
image so that he would show           according to His sovereign, eter-         Taking note of all of this we
forth God's praises. For a brief      nal wisdom. God decreed that           can appreciate the awesome
time Adam did do that. But take       fall, along with its cure in His       truth presented to us in Genesis
hold of this truth and hold on to     own Son's blood, so that we            12:1-3. There we read, "Now the
it tightly: as perfectly as Adam      might know His mercy and might         Lord said to Abraham, Get thee
was and able to praise God, there     praise Him for it.                     out of thy country, and from.thy
was praise to God that he was           The fall of man does not mean        kindred, and from thy father's
not yet able to render. Adam          that things temporarily slipped        house, unto a land that I will
could not yet, and had been           out of God's control, and that         shew thee; And I will make of
planned by God not yet to be          Satan forced Him into a new            thee a great nation, and I will
able to, praise God for His mer-      work. What Paul wrote - or             bless thee, and make thy name
cy. In fact, Adam could not           rather what God wrote through          great; and thou shalt be a bless-
before he fell praise God for         Paul - in Romans 8:28 was true         ing; And I will bless them that
salvation. No one in the Old          the moment that man fell into          bless thee, and curse him that
Testament dispensation could          sin. ALL things work together for      curseth thee: and in thee shall all
praise Him for that wonder-gift of    good to them that love God. Yes,       families of the earth be blessed."
a Savior through the humanly          Adam loved God the moment he              Take note first of all that this

                                                                             December 1, 1989  / The Standard Bearer  I107


was not Abraham's idea. Here we                   Abraham's day. Did he not send         definite number of members, but
have Gods command: "Get                           to Haran to get a believing wife       also just exactly so many mem-
thee." No offer, no invitation, in                for Isaac? Was Jacob not sent by       bers of every kind necessary for
fact no suggestion, is here in                    Isaac and Rebekah to Haran so          it to be a wonderful, perfect body.
these verses. God told Abraham                    that he also would get a believ-       There are ten fingers and ten
what he must do and what HE,                      ing wife? And in Genesis 14: 17-20     toes, two eyes and two ears in
the almighty, sovereign God, was                  we read that Melchizedek, the          our bodies. And these members
going to do. No suggestion is                     king of Salem there in that land       have parts without which the
there here of merely what He                      of Canaan where God brought            members would be imperfect and
would like to have happen. He                     Abraham, was a believing child         not able to do their calling. One
tells Abraham what he must do                     of God. But that call of Abraham       may be sure that Christ's bod.y,
and what will happen. Notice                      in Genesis 12 does reveal that for     the church, is not going to be dis-
also that Abraham must leave his                  a time God is going to gather His      figured or unable to do fully the
father's house, and that in Joshua                elect people almost exclusively in     work for which God designecl it,
24:2 we read that Abraham's                       the line of Abraham's seed. He         because one whom God wanted
father and other fathers "served                  will, according to those words         there in that body of Christ did
other gods." Plainly, in the line                 spoken to Abraham, bring forth         not accept an "invitation" to
of Shem's descendants, as well as                 the Christ in the line of              become a member.
in Ham's and Jepheth's descen-                    Abraham's seed. For He tells              From Abraham's day until
dants, there was reprobation as                   Abraham that "In thee shall all        Pentecost most of the members
well as election; and Abraham                     families of the earth be blessed"      of that body of Christ were of
plainly was an elect child,of God                 (Genesis 12:3). This does not          Shem's and Abraham's seed; but
chosen by Gods grace, and not                     mean that out of every individua11     there were a few exceptions such
accepted by God because of what                   family an .elect will be gathered,     as Rahab and Ruth. That body
he did in distinction from what                   and that from that day onward          will be perfect; and where God
his father did. And, again, God                   God is going to gather the elect       decreed a Gentile to be a mem-
commands him and does not                         out of every believer's family. In     ber, there he will be. That body
merely suggest it, or ask him to                  much broader lines He will in          will not be imperfect and marred
leave his country, father's house                 families from Shem, Ham, and           because someone God desired to
and kindred.                                      Japheth gather only those He           have in that body failed to believe
   This happened many years                       eternally chose in Christ.             in Christ. Man, who is so utterly
after the confusion or confound-                    What particularly we ought to
                                                                                 .       dependent upon God, is not go-
ing of the language of man. And                   see here, and maintain and insist      ing to frustrate the almighty God.
the descendants of Shem, Ham,                     upon, is what God reveals to us          The day. is coming when we
and Japheth had already moved                     as He approached Abraham. As           will see that whole body of Christ
away from the ruins of that                       already pointed out, He com-           with all its members, which came
tower of Babel. Shem's descen-                    mands Abraham to separate              out of every nation, tongue, and
dants remained there in                           himself from his idolatrous, kins-     tribe. We will see the wisdom1
Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2). And now.                  men to become the father of a          and power, the mercy and
God called Abraham away from                      unique people. We have here            faithfulness of our God, the rich-
those descendants of Shem, to go                  Gods word, which He has-given          ness of His love and grace. What
into the land where the descen-                   us to maintain, namely, that HE        is pictured in His call to Abraham
dants of Ham, namely, the Ca-                     is going to realize a unique           is but a shadow of what we will
naanites, dwelt.                                  people through Christ, Whom He         soon see in all its fulfillment. And
   Plainly we do have here a                      will bring forth through Abraham.      because He Who commanded
shadow of the realization of                      The line is clearly drawn and the      Abraham is the almighty God,
God's sovereign predestination as                 fact clearly pointed out that God      Whose name is I AM, we can be
it will shine forth the day when                  has His entire church chosen and       sure that all His elect shall be
Christ returns, but also as it                    planned. He  eternally chose           brought together with glorified
manifested itself ever since the                  every single elect and will bring      bodies to realize the perfect body
day of Pentecost, when God                        every one of them to the faith         of Christ, His church. Then all
began to gather many from all                     and into the new Jerusalem.            the elect, all the seed of the
the nations, tongues, and tribes                    The New Testament brings out         woman, will enjoy an everlas,ting
upon the face of this earth.                      this truth so clearly when it calls    and sweet communion with God.
  There were other elect                          the church the body of Christ.           Eternally we are chosen and
children of God living in                         For a body has, not only~.a            graciously we are called. 0

108  I The Standard Bearer  / December 1, 1989


Decency                                The Office of
and Order
Rev. Ronald Cammenga                   Professor of Theology

  "The office of the professors of     from the Latin "docere," which         who aspired to the ministry. In
theology is to expound the Holy        means "to teach." A doctor,            turn, Paul commissioned Timothy
Scriptures and to vindicate sound      therefore, is simply a teacher.        to the same thing: "And the
doctrine against heresies and er-        Under the influence of Calvin,       things that thou has heard of me
rors." Church Order, Article 18.       our  Church Order  treats the of-      among many witnesses, the same
INTRODUCTION                           fice of professor of theology as a     commit thou to faithful men, who
  Articles 18-20 of the Church         separate special  office in the        shall be able to teach others
Order deal with the work of the        church, alongside the offices of       also" (11 Tim. 2:2). Early in the
churches in training young men         minister, elder, and deacon. This      history of the New Testament
for the gospel ministry. Article 18    was Calvin's understanding of          church schools arose for the pur-
describes the task of the pro-         Ephesians 4: 11. Calvin mistakenly     pose of training men for the
fessors in the seminary. Article       interpreted the phrase "pastors        ministry. Outstanding among
19 speaks of the calling of the        and teachers" as referring to two      these early schools were those at
churches to provide students for       distinct groups, pastors of local      Alexandria and Antioch. In the
the seminary and to support            congregations' and teachers in the     Middle Ages the monasteries
these students while they are be-      theological school. For an evalua-     were centers of theological
ing trained. Article 20 discusses      tion of this interpretation confer     education and training for the
the subject of "student                our treatment under  Church            clergy. At the time of the Refor-
preaching" in the churches as          Order, Article 2. Our position.is      mation universities were founded
part of the preparation for the'       not that professor of theology is a    in which there was almost always
ministry.                              fourth office in the-church, but       a theological faculty. After the
  The original of this article         that it is an extension and special    Reformation, and at various timles
spoke of "Doctors" of theology.        application of the office of the       since the Keformation, young
The  Church Order  adopted by          ministry of the gospel.                men received private instruction
the Synod of Middelburg, 1581,         HISTORY OF THEOLOGICAL                 by active ministers who took
Article XIII read: "The office of      TRAINING                               them under their tutelage. This
the Doctors in Theology is to ex-        It will be worthwhile briefly to     was the case, for example, in the
plain the Holy Scriptures and to       trace the history of training for      early history of the Afscheiding
defend the pure doctrine against       the ministry.                          movement. But gradually, as cir-
heresies and errors." Article            Reference is made in the Old         cumstances allowed, seminaries
XVIII in the Church Order of           Testament to the sons of the proph-    were established for the ex-
Dordtrecht, 161%`19, read: "The        ets (II Kings 2:5, 15; 4:l). These     clusive task of training prospec-
office of the Doctors or Pro-          were not literal, physical sons of     tive ministers, seminaries staffed
fessors of Theology is to expound      men who were prophets, but             by those who devoted themselvles
the Holy Scriptures and to defend      these were men who were being          full time to this task.
sound doctrine against heresies        schooled by the prophets. Christ       PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING
and errors." The term "doctor" is      Himself taught the apostles and        ARTICLE 18
                                       equipped them for their calling of        Important Biblical principles
                                       preaching the gospel after His         underly the provisions of Article
                                       resurrection and ascension. The        18.
                                       apostles followed the example of          First, it becomes plain from
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the         Christ. Paul personally instructed     this article that the Reformed
Protestant Reformed Church of Love-    Timothy and other young men            churches believe in a trained,
land, Colorado.

                                                                              December  1, 1989  /  l'he Standard Bearer  I.109


educated ministry. Although the                   task, of course, of the ministry.        tegen de ketterijen en dolingen
ministry requires God-given gifts,                   That our seminar professors be        voor te staan." He is not simlply
it is necessary that those gifts be               ordained ministers is required by        to vindicate sound doctrine. But
developed and enriched. The dia-                  our "Form For the Installation of        he is, literally, "to stand agailnst"
mond in the rough must be                         Professors of Theology." The             heresies and errors.
shaped and polished. In close                     "Form" addresses the one to be              The "Form For the Installation
connection to this, the education                 installed as professor of theology       of Professors of Theology"
of ministers ought to be a broad                  as ". . . our brother in the Holy        describes the task of. the
education. Prospective ministers                  ministry . . . .`* And the "Form"        seminary professor in similar
ought to receive instruction in                   refers to him as our "reverend           terms.
the liberal arts and languages, as                brother."                                  In behalf of our Church the
well as those subjects directly                      This is the explicit policy of        Curators charge thee, esteemed
related to the work of the                        the Christian Reformed Church.           brother, with the task of instructing
ministry.                                         Article 20 of the revised Church         and establishing in the knowlea'ge of
   A second principle that comes                  Order of the Christian Reformed          God's Word, the students who hope
out of this article is that it is the             Church  reads: "The task of the          once to minister in his Church. Ex-
duty of the church as institute to                                                         pound to them the mysteries of the
                                                  ministers of the Word  who are
train young men for the ministry.                 appointed as professors of               faith; caution them in regard to the
                                                                                           errors and heresies of the old, but
This is an important though                       theology is to train the seminary        especially of the new day; seek to ex-
neglected principle today. It is                  students for the ministry of the         plain how they not alone as teachers
the calling of the church institute               Word, expound the Word of God,           are to instruct but also as pastors
to preach the Word and to over-                   and vindicate sound doctrine             are to shepherd the flock of the
see the preaching of the Word.                    against heresies and errors." The        Lord.
This certainly includes the                       Christian Reformed Synod of                 In this connection the "Form"
preparation and training of those                 1958 ruled concerning the calling        also mentions the importanoe of
who are going to preach the                       of a professor of theology that          the godly example of the pro-
Word. It is not the calling of in-                "He should ordinarily be an or-          fessors of theology: "Be a good
dividuals or groups of individuals                dained man who has had pastoral          example to the students, that
to train for the ministry. Nor is .it             experience."                             they may not only profit from
consistently Reformed to                          TASK OF PROFESSORS                       thy learning, but also find in thee
establish independent seminaries,                   Two tasks of theological pro-          a living illustration of the power
self-governing and not directly                   fessors are mentioned in Article         and practice of true godliness."
under any ecclesiastical super-                   18: expounding the Holy Scrip-             Where are the professors to do
vision. The work of the pro-                      tures and vindicating sound doc-         this? Where are they to expound
fessors in the seminary is, strictly              trine against heresies and errors.       the Scriptures and vindicate
speaking, the work of the                           Their calling is positive, first of    sound doctrine against heresies
churches.                                         all. They must expound the Scrip-        and errors? Obviously they are to
   A third principle underlying                   tures. If young men are to preach        do this in the classroom for the
Article 18 is that those who labor                the Scriptures, they must know           benefit of their students. This cer-
as professors of theology ought                   the Scriptures. This implies a           tainly has the priority. But they
to be ministers of the gospel. If,                thorough acquaintance of the             are also to do this in their
indeed, it is the task of the                     professor of theology with the           preaching and lecturing in the
church as institute to train young                Scriptures, and that in the              churches, and in the writing of
men, it follows that the church                   original languages in which the          books and articles for the church
does this through its teaching of-                Scriptures were written. It goes         magazines. They are also to do
fice, the office of the ministry.                 without saying that the view of          this at the meetings of the cl.asses
That the professors are to be                     Scripture that the professor must        and synod of the denomination,
ministers is plain from the                       have is that it is the divinely in-      which they ought to attend and
description of the task of the pro-               spired, inerrant, authoritative          at which they are given advisory
fessor of theology in Article 18:                 Word of God.                             vote.
SL . . . to expound the Holy Scrip-                 But their calling is also                Sad to say, this task of the pro-
tures and to vindicate sound doc-                 negative. Our English version of         fessors of theology is not being
trine against heresies and errors."               Article 18 speaks of "vindicating"       carried out today. Rather than to
Whose task in the church is it to                 sound doctrine against heresies          defend sound doctrine and vin-
expound the Holy Scriptures and                   and errors. The Dutch is                 dicate the truth against heresies
defend sound doctrine? It is the                  stronger: ". . . en de zuivere leer      and errors, the seminary pro-

110  I The Standard Bearer  / December 1, 1989


-.





fessors promote heresy and error.          and in this discussion the advice of      reason urgent, cogent, and
How thankful to God we ought to            the Theological Faculty shall be          legitimate.
be as churches that our seminary           sought. After this discussion and con-       The professor of theology is
professors show themselves to be           sultation, the synod shall proceed to     considered a retired minister of
faithful in their calling! And how         make a nomination from the ag-            his last serving congregation. His
we ought to pray for them so               gregate, From this nomination synod       ministerial credentials remain in
that in the grace of God they              elects a professor. In electing pro-      that congregation and classis. His
                                           fessors, synod shall give preference
continue to be faithful!                   to one already a minister of the          personal membership papers
PROCEDURE FOR CALLING                      Gospel.                                   reside in the congregation he at-
PROFESSORS OF THEOLOGY                        As far as the tenure of pro-           tends for worship.
      The procedure for calling a          fessors is concerned, Article VII            Professors of theology may be
professor is outlined in the "Con-         of this same constitution states:         called, like other ministers.
stitution of the Theological                 A professor shall serve three           Whereas a minister must first
School of the Protestant Re-               years, and after that four years if       have served his congregation two
formed Churches," Article V:               reappointed. If after this he be re-      years before being called, a pro-
      Whenever a professor is to be ap-    appointed, such appointment shall         fessor must wait until permanent
pointed, the Theological School Com-       be permanent. Thereafter his services     appointment. It is a question
mittee shall propose names at the          at school can be terminated only          whether the calling of our pro-
meeting of the synod. The aggregate        through the synod formally retiring,      fessors is in the best interests of
shall be discussed at this meeting,        expelling, or deposing him and for        the denomination as a whole. l.j




                                           E x p o s i t i o n   o f
Fr0n-j Holy Writ
Rev. George C. Lubbers                     Philippians 1:27-30 (2)

      ITS MILITANT MANNER                    Shall we walk as citizens of               This calls for the entire multi-
(verses 27b-28)                            heaven, from which we expect              tude of the believers who con-
      Writes Paul, "Stand fast in one      Jesus as our Savior, then this im-        quer the world by faith to stand
spirit, with one soul striving for         plies that we earnestly contend           in one spirit. The spirit in this in
the faith of the gospel (good              for the faith which was once for          stance is not the Holy Spirit. .
tidings)."                                 all delivered unto the saints (Jude       Guided by the Spirit of Christ
      In our former article we             3b). And this means that the              who testifies with our spirit,.we
touched upon the implication of            church should have a united               are to stand in the great unity of
the phrase "for the faith of the           front in the battle. We must be a         the one Lord, one baptism, one
gospel." We ended by stating               phalanx strong, as a body of              faith, one God who is over all;
that, although we could interpret          heavily armed infantry formed in          and through all, and in all (Eph.
this phrase as meaning by means            close deep ranks, all in close ar-        4:5, 6). Thus we maintain the
of the faith, and although this            ray. The evil enemy must not              reality of our human, created
was surely the great teaching of           find weak spots in our troops             spirit, yet not apart from the
Scripture (see Eph. 2:8), we none-         where he can penetrate and                sanctifying power of the grace of
theless believed that Paul makes           make a break-through. All the             the Spirit. Here we can do all
the Gospel tidings that which              troups must stand as one man! As          things, all in our human spirit,
must be defended and upheld at             citizens of the kingdom of                through Christ who empowers us
all costs. The translation "for the        heaven, with the right and hope           (Phil. 4:12, 13).
gospel" is the correct rendering.          of eternal victory, we must dare             Now let us turn our attention
                                           to stand, and never stampede as           to the term "spirit" in the text.
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus        do frightened war horses in the           This spirit has been interpreted
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.       fray when their riders fall!              as being man's intellect, his ra-

                                                                                     December 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  I111


                                                                                                                                      1


tional mind, while the term                       of Christ. For such wisdom we         have set themselves in a determi-
"soul" then is called man's will,                 must seek in the united battle of     nant position of being "anti."
his volitional faculty. We feel that              the faith once and for all            They have no positive plan of
this interpretation is not only an                delivered to the saints!              salvation; they reject the great
over-simplification, but that it                    Next let us turn our attention      gospel of the glory of the blessed
does not do justice to the biblical               to the term "soul." The KJV           God. Slaves of sin they are, in .
meaning of the terms. It is said of               renders the Greek term psuche         the service of the Evil One,
the lad John, in Luke 1:80, that                  with the term "mind." The             Satan. They are connected
he grew and waxed strong in                       Holland translation has gemoed,       spiritually with all the demons in
spirit, as he grew from childhood                 that is, the deepest aspirations      hell. They are in the service of
into manhood, when upon God's                     and feelings in man. Perhaps we       and represent antichrist. They
bidding he manifested himself to                  have this in the phrase "he had a     are antichrists, who deny the
Israel. John was not a mere reed                  mind to do it," or "he did not        Father and the Son. They thus
shaken with the wind. He grew                     mind doing it" - it was not con-      are themselves spirits of the
to be a spirited man of parts, so                 trary to the deepest desires and      father of the lie, who is the liar
that he resembled the power and                   aspirations of the heart. In any-     from the beginning, because
greatness of Elijah who withstood                 thing well done we say our soul       there was no truth in him (John
both the wicked queen Jezebel                     was in it. We felt for it; it         844).
and king Ahab, calling forth fire                 warmed the cockles of our heart.        When we see such mighty
from heaven. Such was the                         The same may be said of the           hosts of enemies there is a
"spirit" in a mighty man of God                   united front of the church as the     danger that our hearts will falil.
in Israel! This indicates that the                citizens of heaven, fighting the      For we wrestle not with flesh and
spirit refers to strength of                      battle of the Lord here on earth:     blood, but against the rulers of
spiritual character! Interesting it               they must be of one mind. Paul        darkness, against the spiritual
is to notice that the same char-                  writes in chapter 2:2, "Fulfill ye    hosts of wickedness in the
acterization is given of Jesus in                 my joy, that ye be likeminded."       heavenly places. In this battle we
Luke 2:40. There we read "And                     The terms in the Greek mean:          see also the good angels en-
the child grew and waxed strong                   mind, ponder, seek, love ye all       gaged, Michael and his angels,
in spirit, and the grace of God                   the same thing. He adds, having       warring with the dragon and his
was upon him." There is another                   the same love, being fellow-          angels before the very throne of
reading in some Greek texts                       souled. There must be the sym-        God. But we notice too that
which goes as follows: "And the                   phony of the bowels and mercies       Satan, the deceiver of the whole
child grew and filled with wis-                   of Christ. There must be a deep       world, was cast down to the
dom . . . ." This last reading in-                yearning of the soul among the        earth, and his angels with him.
dicates that this spirit was filled               members of the church. Does not       Notwithstanding, this Satan still
with manly, godly wisdom. When                    Paul pray constantly that the         has great wrath, knowing that he
James and John would ask fire                     love on the members abound            has but a short time.
from heaven to destroy the                        more and more in love, in all           Such is our formidable foe!
Samaritans who would not offer                    knowledge and spiritual sensitive-      And now what do we do? `This:
a night's lodging to them, they                   ness of Christian conscience?         we stand in nothing affrighteld.
revealed a very bad "spirit." Says                  Such a oneness in spirit and in     The term in the Greek is
.Jesus, rebuking them, "Ye know                   soul is the quintessence of good,     tpuromenoi. This active partilciple
not what manner of spirit ye are                  solid soldiers in the fray. It is     passive indicates that continually
of."                                              therefore quite proper to             our stance in the battle is that we
  From the foregoing we learn                     translate that "with one mind'        know that we are more than con-
that the term "spirit" is not mere-               we strive for the faith of the        querers (Rom. 8:37). Nothing in
ly human intellect, but it refers to              Gospel. Only thus do we walk in       all the world can separate us
a wise and informal mind in the                   a way which becometh a striving       from the love of God in Jesus
things which pertain to the king-                 together for the faith. For we are    Christ our Lord. So we need lnot
dom of heaven. In this wisdom                     contending with formidable op-        fear. We hear the great cheering
and understanding the saints                      ponents of the gospel.                word of Jesus in the upper room
must stand as one man. All the                      Let us take a hard look at          in the night in which He was be-
folly and ignorance of foolish,                   these who oppose. In the text in      trayed, "in the world ye shall
weak striving is excluded. Only                   the Greek the term indicates that     have tribulation, but be of good
in such a "spirit" shall these                    they are one great class of           cheer, I have overcome the
saints walk worthy of the Gospel                  enemies. They are such that they      world" (John 16:33).

112  / The Standard Bearer  / December 1, 1989


   Do not forget that there is an          My shield, my righteousness,         God sees and remembers all our
armor of God. It is the same ar-           My strong high tower, my             patience and faith in all the
mor which God in the flesh wore               Saviour true,                     persecutions and afflictions which
in the battle both in Gethsemane           Who doth my enemy subdue,            we endure to the end, that we
and in the three hours of agoniz-          My shelter in distress.              may be counted worthy of the
ing darkness on the Cross. Isaiah             Psalter #392                      kingdom of God for which we
59:16, 17, "And he saw that there       THE GREAT GIFT OF GRACE                 suffer. And it is a righteous thing
was no man, and wondered that         TO SUFFER IN THE BEHALF OF                with God to recompence  afflic-
there was no intercessor (one to      CHRIST (Philippians 1:29, 30)             tion to them that afflict us. Thus
interpose); therefore his own arm       "Which is for them (the adver-          we are given rest at the revela-
brought salvation unto him, and       sary) an evident token of perdi-          tion of the Lord Jesus Christ from
his righteousness, it upheld him.     tion, but of your salvation and           heaven with His angels to render
And he put on righteousness as a      that of God . . . ."                      vengeance to them who know
breastplate, and a helmet of             Here the horizons lift upon the        not God and who do not obey
salvation on his head. He put on      mystery of the sufferings of the          the gospel of Jesus Christ (II
the garments of vengeance for         believers as they battle together        Thes. 1:5ff.). Yes, the entire battle
clothing, and was clad with zeal      in one spirit and by one soul for        with the victory crown is of
as with a mantle."                    the truth of the gospel. It is all of    God! Cl
  Such was the full armor of God      God. His is the battle which we
in which the Son of God ap-           wage. It is not our own little                                                      n
peared, when in utter humility he     puny personally-initiated battle. It     Whom Have You Helped.?
humbled himself even unto             is the battle of the ages, the
death, the death of the Cross! In     manifestation of the enmity              Many are anxiously seeking today
that victory-armor God clothes        which Jehovah placed between                 For wisdom to guide them
us. That great panoply of God is      the seed of the woman and the                       aright;
for us to put on. It is not an un-    seed of the serpent. And the out-        Almost discouraged they grope
tried armor. We need not fear         come is not doubtful. Satan shall               on the way,
that it is a cumbersome. armor, as    indeed shortly be forever                    Like wanderers in the night.
was Saul's armor for the stripling    destroyed. Writes Paul, "And the         Many have burdens of sorrow to
David. It fits us when we say to      God of peace shall bruise under                 bear,
Satan and all his hosts, "I come      your feet shortly" (Rom. 16:20).            And crosses you never have
to you in the name of Jesus             Now we come to stand on                           known;
whom ye defy - in the name of         higher ground in this battle. Yes,       Trembling, they halt on the brink
Jesus, who clothes me so~that I       in this battle we are often hurt.               of despair,
am strong in the Lord Jesus and       Men speak reproachfully of us,              Dejected, unsought, alone.
in the power whereby He clothes       they persecute us and say all            Many around you are sorely in
me! Look at my armor. All ye          manner of evil against us falsely              need
opponents come in the power of        for the sake of the gospel of               Of words you might easily
the lie. I have a girdle of truth,    Christ. But have no doubt; each                   speak;
the truth of the Christ on the        tear that is shed by the righteous       Patiently, earnestly, mutely they
Cross, which knits all the pieces     saints the Lord has collected in               plead
of my armor together as a             His bottle. They who persecute              With you for the aid they seek.
mighty and sure defensive and         the church are really persecuting
offensive armor in which to fight,    Christ the Lord of glory Himself         Only a word as you hurry along!
                                                                                  Who knows the good it may do?
so that having fully gone through     (Acts 9:4). As Paul writes in Co-
the battle we stand unscathed.                                                 Spoken in love, God will make it
                                      lossians 1:24, "Now I rejoice in
No, we do not have the least          my sufferings for your sake, and,              a song
                                                                                  Of blessing and peace to you.
reason to be terrified. Rather we     fill up on my part that which is
sing in trustful praise and prayer    lacking of the afflictions of Christ,    Whom have you helped today?
with the Psalmist:                    in my flesh for his body's sake,         Whose cares have you lightened?
    Blest be the Lord, my rock,       which is the church."                    Whose face have you brightened?
       my might,                        Every stroke with the scourge          Whose tears have you wiped
    My constant helper in the         upon Paul's bleeding back cried             away?
       fight,                         for just retribution upon those                                -Chas. H. Gabriel
                                      who were disobedient to the                                     S.B. July 1, 1928
                                      gospel. God is not mocked. For

                                                                               December 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  I113


                                                  Committee for Contact
Newsletter
Prof. Herman C. Hank0                             with Other Churches

Dear Brothers and Sisters                         formed faith. The light of the        making plans to come at the time
in the Lord,                                      Reformed faith burns low in the       that our churches will be holding
   The Committee for Contact                      British Isles, and the Synod of       the Conference of sister churches
continues to be busy with the                     1990 shall have to consider the       so that he can be a part of that
work of the churches. We take                     question of sending a missionary      important event in our churches'
this opportunity to report to you                 to that land.                         history.
on some of the more important                       Through the means of the              The work in the Reformed
work which we have performed                      money collected'in our churches,      Evangelical Churches of Singa-
since the Synod of 1989 met.                      a tape duplicator was sent to         pore continues to prosper and
   We have received periodic                      Larne, which is being used to         grow. Pastors Lau and Mahtani
reports from Rev. K. Hanko con-                   copy tapes of the sermons and         are extremely busy, not only
cerning the.work in Larne, North                  lectures for distribution to those    because the congregations re-
Ireland. Rev. Hanko is busy in                    who are interested.                   quire a lot of attention, but also
the Covenant Reformed Fellow-                       In connection with this, the        because new contacts are con-
ship holding various classes for                  Contact Committee wishes also to      stantly being made and the work
all the people, teaching                          express our thanks for the            continues to expand. New con-
Catechism to the children and                     generous love gifts which have        verts are, by God's gracious call-
preaching on the Lords Day.                       been sent to the Committee to         ing, being added to the church.
Under God's blessing, the work is                 help the Measbro Dyke congrega-         Rev. A. den Hartog and his
prospering. Public lectures are                   tion in Barnsley, England. About      wife recently traveled to
also being held and visitors at-                  $3000.00 has already been sent        Singapore at the invitation of the
tend, some of whom have shown                     and more remains to be sent in        ERCS to speak at their annual
interest in the work. One family                  the future.                           Reformation Day Rally. It was a
with children has firmly com-                       We do not have much to              wonderful opportunity for the
mitted itself to the Fellowship,                  report concerning the work in         den Hartogs to return to that
and others attend the worship                     New Zealand. Rev. Miersma con-        field of labor where they spent
services regularly.                               tinues to labor faithfully in that    seven years of their lives.
   Rev. and Mrs. Hanko also                       congregation, and the members           The Covenant Evangelical Re-
made a trip to England to contact                 are working diligently to extend      formed Church has recently
various people there. The result                  their witness. Up. to this point,     moved into its new quarters, pur-
of this trip is that a public con-                however, although contacts have       chased with the help of our
ference is being.planned  for                     been made, few have shown any         people here in the States. But the
December to which all who are                     interest in the work.                 First Church has had to movie
interested in the Reformed faith                    As many of the readers of The       from its old quarters in the
will be invited. It is the prayer of              Standard Bearer may have              Kampong and find a new place
the Contact Committee that these                  noticed, the Lord took one of the     to meet. From the last reports we
efforts will bring together the                   men from the Protestant Re-           have received, it appears as if the
scattered people of England who                   formed Church of New Zealand          church has not yet found a
struggle to maintain the Re-                      to glory. He was Mr. Anton            suitable place for purchase and is
                                                  Vooys, a member of the church         meeting in rented quarters. They
                                                  from the very beginning.              have, however, found places
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church                  Rev. Miersma will, the Lord         suitable for their use and are at-
History and New Testament in the                  willing, be coming to this country    tempting to secure government
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                     next year on a Sabbatical. He is      approval for using one of them

114  I The Standard Bearer  I December 1, 1989


for a church building. Such           men are coming (perhaps with           many of our people, from all
places are not only scarce in         their wives) from the Covenant         parts of the country, will attend.
Singapore, but the prices are         Reformed Fellowship in Larne.          A general program will be
very high. First Church must          Pastor Rawson  and his wife are        published when all the details aire
figure on spending in excess of a     coming from the Measbro Dyke           finished. The sub-committee is
million dollars (Singapore            congregation in Barnsley,              working on an attractive booklet
money), perhaps as much as            England. Perhaps Mr. Tony              which will serve not only as a
$1,300,000,  to obtain a meeting      Horne (Editor of a magazine            program, but also as a com-
place. This would not be a new        called The Presbyterian) and his       memorative book for this historic
building which the congregation       wife are coming. From Singapore        event in our churches.
would build, but an old building      Pastors Lau and Mahtani will at-          We might mention in this con-
which can be used as a church.        tend; and because the ERCS are         nection that the Synod of 1989
Let us remember the congrega-         sister churches, they will also at-    authorized the taking of collec-
tion in our prayers as they seek a    tend our Synod as official dele-       tions for this Conference in our
building suitable for their needs.    gates. Rev. Miersma and one of         churches. Some of our congrega-
   The Contact Committee, chief-      his elders will be coming from         tions have already done this, and
ly through a sub-committee, has       New Zealand. And two pastors           our Treasurer reports that a fund
been working diligently on plans      and their wives will be coming         has been established for the Con-
for the Conference of Sister          from the Evangelical Presby-           ference. There will be many ex-
Churches in June of 1990.             terian Church of Australia.            penses, of course; and, if possible,
   This sub-committee, made up          The general subject of the Con-      we would like to help some of
of five couples from churches in      ference is, "The Work of the Ho-       the delegates who are coming
the Grand Rapids area, and of         ly Spirit." Men from our own           from overseas with their travel
which Mr. Dewey Engelsma is           churches and from churches             expenses, for these expenses arle
the chairman, has been doing          across the seas will be speaking       very great. Please give liberally
much work and making exten-           on subjects related to this general    when the opportunity comes in
s i v e   p l a n s .                 theme as well as other subjects of     your congregation.
   As many of our people already      interest to the churches who will         The members of the committlee
know, this conference is going to     send representatives. Most of the      thoroughly enjoy their work, and
be held at the time of our Synod      meetings, some held during the.        commend the work to the
of June of 1990. To it are coming     day and some in the evenings,          prayers of our people. May God
men from our sister churches and      will be open to the public. People     bless us as we seek fellowship
men from churches with which          throughout the denomination            with like-minded saints through-
we have had and now have con-         have expressed interest in the         out the world as we are called to
tact. As plans now stand, two         Conference, and it is the hope of      maintain together the blessed
                                      the Committee for Contact that         cause of the Reformed faith. 0




                                      Book Reviews

A CASE FOR ARMINIANISM:               was limited to a few die-hard          be noted that among them are
THE GRACE OF GOD, THE                 Calvinists taking pot-shots at 17th    Seventh-Day Adventists,
WILL OF MAN, Clark H. Pin-            century ghosts, A Case for             reckoned by the general editor as
neck, General Editor. Grand           Arminianism will set his thinking      evangelicals.) Arminianism is
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing      straight.                              frankly described as the doctrin.e
House, 1989. 318 pages. $14.95          Fifteen leading evangelical          that ascribes the salvation of the
(paper). Reviewed by the Editor.      theologians and philosophers col-      sinner to the cooperation of the
   If anyone thought that the war     laborate in a vigorous defense of      grace of God and the free will of
between Arminianism and               Arminianism and an all-out             the sinner. Hence, the title of the
Calvinism was over, or that it        assault on Calvinism. (It should       book. Indeed, in this cooperation,

                                                                             December 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  I115


the grace of God is dependent                     ality of salvation, is the unani-       case for Arminianism is especial-
upon the choice of the sinner's                   mous judgment of the Arminian           ly strong, but in order to be re-
will: "For Arminianism, salvation                 authors that the essence of             minded of the undying opposition
is conditional upon human                         genuine Calvinism is its confes-        to the gospel of salvation by
response. We have the option of                   sion of the unconditionality of         grace alone on the part of those
accepting or rejecting God's                      salvation from beginning to end,        infatuated with salvation by the
grace" (p. 131).                                  whereas the hallmark of Armin-          will of man, and in order to
   All of the old Arminian                        ianism is conditionality in the         become familiar with late 20th
arguments in defense of salvation                 entire process of salvation (cf. pp.    century development of the basic
by the will of man are trotted                    171; 254). These foes of                Arminian doctrines.
out, e.g., appeal to the biblical                 Calvinism know it better today            It will be very interesting to
texts that describe the objects of                than do many of its supposed            see who among the Reformed
God's love as the "world" and                     friends. Similar is Pinnock's           and Presbyterians will have .the
"all men." All of the old slanders                shrewd observation that                 courage to take up the challenge
of Calvinism are enthusiastically                 Calvinists often weaken the             of this "Goliath" and present the
resurrected. General Editor Pin-                  detested doctrine of total depravi-     case for Calvinism. 0
neck assures us, in the opening                   ty by the notion of "common
chapter, "how morally loathsome                   grace," thus playing into the             Helps for Bible Study, for
the doctrine of double predestina-                hands of the Arminians:                 Understanding the Catechism,
tion is" (p. 19). William G. Mac-                 Augustinians (Calvinists  - DJE)         and for Personal Devotions
Donald, in a chapter entitled,                    themselves often and suspiciously           (Reviewed by the Editor)
"The Biblical Doctrine of Elec-                   qualify their notion of "total"           Three recent publications will
tion," castigates the Reformed                    depravity very considerably and in-     serve the saints well in their
doctrine of predestination as                     vent the notion of common grace to      study of Scripture itself, in their
fatalism and determinism, and                     tone it down (p. 21).                   understanding of the Heidelberg
the God of this doctrine as a                       Although the book repeats the         Catechism, and in their personal
tyrant, "a potentate like the                     old Arminian line, it would be a        devotions and meditation on the
Muslim God, who loves most to                     mistake to suppose that it is only      eternal things of the heavenI:y
impose his will" (p. 224). Mac-                   a rehashing of old material in the      kingdom.
Donald's fury against the Re-                     interests of maintaining the posi-        Strong's Exhaustive Concor-
formed doctrine of reprobation                    tion of Jacobus Arminius and of         dance of the Bible  (Grand  Ralpids:
knows no bounds:                                  John Wesley. There is real and          Baker Book House, 1420 pp.,
It is pagan determinism that                      astonishing, if consistent,             $22.95, cloth) is an excellent con-
fabricates a parallel doctrine of fore-           development of the Arminian             cordance, giving the occurrence,
ordained damnation from eternity,                 theology. God's dependence upon         in order, of every word in thle
where inexplicable hatred for certain             man and the limitation of His           King James Version of the Bible.
ones replaces grace and Christ is ex-             power by the will of the sinner,        It is complete, simple, and ac-
cluded from the choosing transaction              ever the fundamental elements in        curate. Every serious student of
altogether" (p. 228).                             Arminianism, are explicitly             Scripture (and what Christian is
Concerning these very "calum-                     related to modern-day process           not?) should have, and use, a
nies," the "Conclusion" of the                    theology. Our conception of God         good concordance such as
Synod of Dordt said that those                    must be that of a God Who is            Strong's It will heal the common
who wished to persuade the                        always responding to man and            malady of one's knowing that the
public that these were indeed the                 history, and Who is in the pro-         Bible teaches something but not
teachings of the Reformed Faith                   cess of becoming. What is re-           knowing precisely where. Does
"violated all truth, equity, and                  ferred to as "classical theism"         someone want to locate where
charity." The "Conclusion" also                   must go. This is the knowledge of       the Bible speaks of "the third
warned the "calumniators them-                    God as omnipotent, omniscient,          heaven"? Turn either to "thirld"
selves to consider the terrible                   immutable, and sovereign. The           or "heaven"; and run through the
judgment of God which awaits                      God of this book does not even          listings until you come to "II Co
them, for bearing false witness                   know beforehand what men will           12:2 an one caught up to the
against the confessions of so                     decide with their free wills!           third heaven." All the other oc-
many Churches . . . ."                              Reformed preachers,                   currences in Scripture of the
   Telling, in an age in which                    theologians, teachers, and think-       word being looked up will be
even professing Reformed                          ing church members ought to             found in the section consulted. A
churches speak of the condition-                  read this book, not because its         bonus for seminarians and

116  / The Standard Bearer  I December 1, 1989


preachers is the Hebrew and                    For those who find daily                      This book is a short biography
Greek dictionaries of the words             devotional readings a stimulus                about St. Augustine when he was
of Scripture at the end of the              to their own piety, A Closer                  a boy. Augustine was a strong-
Concordance. In appearance, the             Walk with God: Daily Readings                 willed, very intelligent person
book is a large and distinguished           from Matthew Henry (Grand                     who lived in a world filled with
volume with a rich red binding.             Rapids: Zondervan Publishing                  many temptations. During his
  The Commentary of Dr.                     House, 1987, 320 pp., $12.95,                  early years he respected the pi-
Zacharias U-sinus on the Heidel-            cloth) is recommended. It con-                 ety of his mother, Monica, but
berg Catechism  (Phillipsburg,              sists of short selections from the             seemed to be attracted more to
New Jersey: Presbyterian and                writings of the Scottish preacher              the heathenism of his father,
Reformed Publishing Company,                and Bible commentator, Matthew                 Patricius.
704 pp., $24.00, cloth) is a                Henry (b. 1662). Henry combines                  He was an able though
reprint of the authoritative com-           sound teaching, ardent godliness,              mischievous scholar. He won top
mentary on the Catechism by                 and practical application. There               honors as a student and was
one of its authors. Ursinus wrote           is a reading for each day of the               praised by all of his teachers.
the Commentary, not for                     year. The reading for June 9 on                  Life became a time of fun and
theologians, but for the saints. It         Ephesians 5:17, 18, "Be filled                games, and a time of idleness for
is clear and easy to understand.            with the Spirit," gives the flavor:           Augustine. The world with all its
It helps that the Commentary,               Here the apostle warns against the            glitter attracted him and he was
like the Catechism itself, is writ-         sin of drunkenness: And be not                determined to enjoy it to the full.
ten in question-and-answer form.            drunk with wine, v. 18. This was a            Later, as a student in Carthage,
Explaining Question 54 of the               sin very frequent among the                   he was attracted to the teachings
Heidelberg Catechism, concern-              heathens . . . it is certain that             of Mani. He became a Mani-
ing the Church, Ursinus asks, in            drunkenness is no friend to chastity          chaean, which became a grief of
the Commentary, "Is There Any               and purity of life, but it virtually con-     mind to his mother.
                                            tains all manner of extravagance,
Predestination?," and answers:              and transports men into gross sen-               Although Augustine was a
. . . election is the eternal counsel of    suality and vile enormities. Instead of       child of God and would someday
God. That there is such a thing as          being filled with wine, he exhorts            become a hero of the faith, his
predestination, or election and             them to be filled with the Spirit.            early life was a life of sin and
reprobation in God, is proven by            Those who are full of drink are not           reproach.
these declarations of Scripture (then       likely to be full of the Spirit; and             Young people then and young
follow several texts - DJE) . . . The       therefore this duty is opposed to the          people today face similar prob-
following passages of the word of           former sin. The meaning of the ex-             lems and difficulties.
God may be regarded as having a             hortation is that men should  labour             The world of Augustine's day
special reference to reprobation            for a plentiful measure of graces of
(then follow several texts that teach                                                     is strikingly similar to the world
                                            the Spirit, that would fill their souls
reprobation - DJE) . . . . (pp. 293,                                                      of today. As wise king Solomon
                                            with great joy, strength, and
294)                                        courage, which things sensual men             said in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "The
Making' the Commentary especial-            expect their wine should inspire              thing that hath been, it is that
ly interesting is Ursinus' custom           them with . . . we ought not to be            which shall be; and that which is,
of considering the objections to            satisfied with a little of the Spirit, but    done is that which shall be done:
sound Reformed doctrine after he            to be aspiring after greater                  and there is no new thing under
has explained the truth. Im-                measures, so as to be filled with the         the sun."
mediately after the treatment of            Spirit . . . . 0                                 The world beckons and calls
predestination in the passage re-                                                         out its siren song. It's full of
                                            FOR YOUNG READERS
ferred to above, Ursinus poses                                                            deceit and temptation and sin. It's
the objection, "But the promise             AUGUSTINE - THE FARMER'S                      attractive to the flesh. Today, as
of grace is universal." To this he          BOY OF TAGASTE by P. De                       in the days of Augustine, this is
responds . . . but read it for your-        Zeeuw J. Gzn; ln,heritance  Publi-            true. I would dare say it is way
self. This book makes a fine gift           cations, 1988; 93 pages; U.S.                 more alluring today than it was
to Reformed people, or to those             $6.00, Canada $7.95 (Reviewed                 then.
willing to investigate what the             by J. Kalsbeek, Jr.)                             Human nature is the same to-
Reformed Faith is. The Reformed                This a sad book that has a                 day as it was then. Young people
Church in the U.S. is to be                 happy ending.                                 strive with all their might to be
thanked for seeing to it that this             It's a book written especially             independent, to make their own
work, out of print for a long               for young people but one that                 decisions, their own mistakes.
time, has been republished.                 can be enjoyed by adults as well.             They refuse to listen to reason.

                                                                                          December 1, 1989  / The Standard Bearer  I1117


     They know better. They know                         And, yes, young people, as in       our covenant God, hears the
     what's best for themselves. They                  Augustine's day, you, too, have       prayers of those He loves. Some-
     have the mistaken notion that                     parents who are concerned for         times He answers them by bring-
     they have a right to'sow  some                    you and pray for you. There are       ing the prodigal back to the faith
     wild oats.                                        many, many Monicas in the             as He did with St. Augustine.
        Today many young people are                    church today praying for              Always He answers by strength-
     led away by various sects just as                 wayward children like Augustine.      ening our faith, and assuring us
     Augustine gave himself over to                      Young people, take an hour to       of His loving kindness and con-
     the false teaching of Mani. Young                 an hour and a half to read            cern.
     people, be on your guard. They                    Augustine - The Farmer's Boy of         Augustine - The Farmer's Boy
     are out there in the world today.                 Tagaste. The parallels are ob-        of Tagaste is a book worth a few
     Parents read about devil wor-                     vious. The message is clear. Even     moments of your time. 0
     shipers and the Moonies and                       as young people, shun the ways
     shudder with fear for their                       of wickedness, live a life of
     children.                                         holiness and purity.
                                                         And parents, there's a lesson in
                                                       this book for us also. Do not give
                                                       up on your wayward children.
                                                       Pray without ceasing for their
                                                       conversion and repentance. God,




                                                       News From
     Mr. Benjamin Wigger                               Our Churches
~



     MINISTERIAL CALLS                                 to some passages of Scripture         The Return to the Preaching of
        Rev. Russell Dykstra, presently                that bring out the precious truths    the Word."
     pastor of the Doon  P.R.C. in                     that God gave back to His church        Covenant P.R.C. also held a
     Doon, IA, has declined the call                   through the 16th Century Refor-       meeting in mid-October to
     he received from the Hope P.R.C.                  mation. The sermon on October         discuss the work of evangelism
     in Isabel, S.D.                                   15 dealt with the fundamental         and the establishment of an
     CONGREGATIONAL                                    truth that Scripture is our only      evangelism committee in their
     HIGHLIGHTS                                        authority in faith and life.          church.
        Starting with Sunday, October                    As you might imagine, there           On October 25 the congrega-
     15, and following for several                     were quite a number of Reforma-       tion of the Loveland P.R.C. in
     weeks, Rev. B. Gritters, pastor of                tion Day Lectures sponsored by        Loveland, CO also sponsored a
     the Byron Center P.R.C. in Byron                  different churches back in late       Reformation Day Lecture with
     Center, MI, preached a series,of                  October, but before that, our con-    their pastor, Rev. Ron Cam-
     sermons on the Reformation. It                    gregation in Wyckoff, New             menga, as speaker. His speech
     was Rev. Gritters' desire to call                 Jersey, the Covenant P.R.C.,          was entitled "The Reformation's
     the attention of the congregation                 sponsored a lecture entitled, "I      Recovery of the Gospel."
                                                       Believe in God the Creator," with       Everyone was invited to a
                                                       Prof. H. Hanko as speaker.            Reformation Day Lecture spon-
                                                         They followed that lecture          sored by the Evangelism Co.mmit-
                                                       with another in October with          tee of the Bethel P.R.C. in Elk
     Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Prot-               their pastor, Rev. Richard Flik-      Grove Village, IL. The Rev. Steve
     estant Reformed Church of  Hudson-                kema, as speaker. He spoke on         Key spoke on the subject, "Sola
     ville,  Michigan.                                 the subject, "The Reformation:        Gratia - Grace Alone."

     118  I The Standard Hearer  / December 1, 1989


  Also on November 2 Prof.             YOUNG PEOPLE'S                            #3
Robert Decker spoke on the             ACTIVITIES                                Lori
theme, "The Believer and His Bi-         The Young People's Society of           Marriage
ble" at a Reformation Day Lec-         the South Holland, IL P.R.C.              We and Our Children
ture under the sponsorship of the      sponsored a Fall Retreat                  Believers and Their Seed
Randolph P.R.C. in Randolph, WI.       November 3 and 4 at the Timber-           Regular        Sale             Saving.s
  The Evangelism Committee of          Lee Christian Center located in           $24.80          $15.00          $ 9.80
our Lynden P.R.C. in Lynden,           East Troy, WI, about two hours            #4
WA sponsored a Reformation             north of Chicago.                         When I Survey
Lecture Series. On October 26                Plans called for two discussion     The Mystery of Bethlehem
Prof. David Engelsma spoke on          groups under the subject of               "Whosoever Will"
"Gods Everlasting Covenant" at         "Discovering Gods Will." Friday           The Wonder of Grace
the Trinity Western University in      night's discussion groups were in-        Regular        Sale             Savings
Langby, B.C., Canada. He               troduced by Rev. Van Overloop             $32.80           19.50          $13.30
followed that by addressing the        and dealt with "Discovering
congregation of Lynden on Mon-         God's Will in Dating and Mar-             #5
day evening, explaining the scrip-     riage." Saturday's groups dis-            Behold, He Cometh! ..-
tural and confessional basis of        cussed the subject of "Discover-          God's Eternal Good Pleasure
our churches. Then on Tuesday,         ing Gods Will in Vocation" as in-         Regular        Sale             Saving.s
October 31 he spoke on the             troduced by Rev. Terpstra.                $29.90          $18.00          $11.90
theme, "The Reformation and            Planned activities included horse-        #6
Love for the Truth" at the             back riding, a hay ride, hiking,          The Voice of Our Fathers
Lynden Christian High School.          softball, volleyball, basketball,         The Five Points of Calvinism
  In addition to these lectures        football, game room, and many             In the Sanctuary
Prof. Engelsma gave a chapel           other fun activities.                     Regular        Sale             Savings
speech at Covenant Christian           SCHOOL ACTIVITIES                         $33.85          $20.50          $13.35
School on Friday and preached                Everyone in West Michigan           #7
for Lynden the coming Lords            was invited to learn what Prot-           Reformed Dogmatics
Day.                                   estant Reformed Special Educa-            Therefore Have I Spoken
  A Fall Lecture was also spon-        tion is all about by attending an         Regular        Sale             Saving.s
sored by the P.R. Churches in the      open house at Heritage Christian          $31.90          $19.00          $12.90
West Michigan area. On                 School in Hudsonville, MI in the
November 2 Rev. Bruinsma,              special education room. A special         #8
pastor of the First P.R.C. in          invitation was extended to                God's Everlasting Covenant of
Holland, MI, spoke on the theme,       parents whose children require                  Grace
"Godly Living in the Spirit" at the    additional help or instruction. 0         Mysteries of the Kingdom
First Jenison Christian Reformed                                                 Regular        Sale             Saving.s
Church.                                                                          $20.90          $12.50          $ 8.40
MISSION ACTIVITIES                                                               Postage Schedule
  The Council of the South             Inventory Reduction Sale                        1. Use the schedule below for
Holland P.R.C. in South Holland,              of Reformed Books                  orders shipped within the U.S.
IL voted to continue the work of              in time for Christmas giving             2. Use the retail amount of
evangelism in Ft. Wayne, IN for        (orders must be in before Feb. 1)         your order to figure the postal
another six months. (This was                        package deals               rate.
back in August.) Rev. G. Lanting                                                 $11.99 or less . . . . . . . . . . . .$1.75
and Rev. R. Van Overloop were          #l                                        $12.00- 22.99 . . . . . . . . . . . .$2.50
asked to conduct the Bible             Calvin  S Calvinism                       $23.00 - 43.99 . . . . . . . . . . . . $4.00
Studies there, with South              Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of           $44.00 - 59.99 . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.00
Holland's pastor serving as alter-           the Gospel                          $60 + . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10% of total
nate when either of these men          Regular         Sale           Savings          3. Foreign countries add 20%
couldn't go.                           $20.90          $12.50         $ 8.40     of total order.
  Rev. A. den Hartog spent some        #2                                              Send orders to: Reformed Free
time in October in Singapore. He       Come, Ye Children                         Publishing Association, P.O. Box
was invited to address the con-        Peaceable Fruit                           2006, Grand Rapids, MI 49501 or
gregations there on Reformation        Regular         Sale           Savings    call (616) 531-1490 collect. Please
topics.                                $32.90          $20.00         $12.90     order by package number.

                                                                                 December 1, 1989 I The Standard Bearer  Ill9


 THE                                          .__--                                                .
STANDARD                                                                                                i SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                        /i Postage Paid at
BENER                                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan
PO.Box6064
CrandRapids,MI49506


Cassette Tape Available!                           the Standard Bearer. All from the     keep His covenant, and to those
                                                   pen of the inimitable Rev. Vos,       that remember His command-
      of a speech delivered by                     the style of whose writing was        ments to do them." (Psalm
        Prof. David Engelsma                       described recently by Rev. Nor-       103:17, 18)               ,.     '
                      on                           man Jones as "a cross between         Scott  & Deb Boer
   The Genius of the Protestant                    C.H. Spurgeon's poetic brilliance       Ryan
   Reformed Faith and Practice                     and John Calvin's theological         Todd  & Eileen Boer
   This speech was delivered for                   toughness."                             Nathan
a congregational night in the                          Published by the Men's Society    Shawne Boer
Lynden Protestant Reformed                         of Hudsonville Protestant Re-
Church. The speech seeks to set                    formed Church. Price reduced for      NOTICE!
forth the distinctive points in the                Christmas giving. Only $5.00            Classis East will meet in
faith and practice of the Prot-                    each. Postage paid.                   regular session on Wednesday,
estant Reformed Churches.                              Send orders to: Men's Society,    January 10, 1990 at the Hope
Special attention is given to cove-                Hudsonville Protestant Reformed       Protestant Reformed Church.
nant youth and the heritage                        Church, 5 10 1 Beechtree Avenue,      Material to be treated in this
which is theirs in our churches.                   Hudsonville, MI 49426.                session must be in the  hancls of
Prof. Engelsma concludes with an                                                         the Stated Clerk at least three
inspiring word of direction in the                                                       weeks prior to the convening of
future. Highly Recommended!                        ANNOUNCEMENT                          this session.
   Order from: Lynden Protestant                       The Northwest Iowa Prot-          Jon  J. Huisken, Stated Clerk
Reformed Church Extension                          estant Reformed Christian
Committee, 317 N. Park, Lynden,                    School of  Doon, Iowa, is in          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
WA 98264. Cost per tape: $3.00.                    need of one teacher for grades          The consistory and congrega-
                                                   3, 4, 5  for the 1989-1990 school
Having a Heart for God                                                                   tion of the Loveland Protestant
                                                   year. Please contact Mr. Chester      Reformed Church express their
     September 22 & 23, 1989                       Hunter (106 5th Ave.,  Doon, IA       heartfelt sympathy to the family
     3 lecture tapes = $15.00.                     51235;  [712]  726-3381), adminis-    of MRS.  BERNICE SCHMIDT
          * * * * * *                              trator, or Mr. Robert Mantel (RR      who has been taken to be with
           Mail requests to:                       2 Box 92, Hull, IA 51239;  [712]      her Lord. May they be com-
    South Holland Evangelism                       726-3478), Board President.           forted by the promises of God's
               Committee                                                                 Word and sustained by His
     16511 South Park Avenue                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                   grace. "Precious in the sight of
      South Holland, IL 60473                          On November 22, 1989, our         the Lord is the death of His.
                                                   parents and grandparents,             saints." (Psalm 116:15)
   Selected Meditations                            HENRY AND CORYNNA BOER                Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.
                                                   celebrated their 40th wedding
              by Gerrit Vos                                                              Robert Brands, Clerk
                                                   anniversary.
. . . from The Psalms. . . . . . . . . . . .           We are thankful for the faith-
                            0 Taste and See                                              IN  MEMORIAM
                                                   ful instruction they have given
. . . from the life of Christ . . . . . . . . .                                            On September 19, 1989, our
                                                   us and rejoice with them on this
                  The Unspeakable Gift                                                   Heavenly Father took unto Him-
                                                   happy occasion and pray that
. . . from the Epistles and                                                              self our  beloved  sister-in-law
                                                   the Lord will continue to bless
    Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                           and aunt BERTHA ALPHENAAR.
                                                   them, and us through them, and
        The More Glorious Covenant                                                         "Precious in the sight of the
                                                   keep them in His care.                Lord is the death of His saints."
   Three delightful volumes,                           "But the mercy of the Lord is     (Psalm 116:15)
averaging more than 340 pages,                     from everlasting to everlasting       Mr. and Mrs.  lake Alphenaar
in attractive soft-cover binding.                  upon them that fear Him, and          Mr. and Mrs. Adrian Alphenaar
Each containing meditations                        His righteousness unto                Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kiel and family
which appeared over the years in                   children's children; to such as                            Kalamazoo P.R. Church


120 I The Standard Hearer I December 1, 1989


