     '  A  Reformed        BBER
       Semi-Month/y
       Magazine




                            holder of the truth is what the
                                  This befongs to her es-
                                     has been created by
                                      risk  It  is  not  merely
                                      task  that  has  been
                                      o that &he is still the
                                en though she fails to up-
                               truth.  Whatever  religious
                               tion fails to uphold the truth




                                          See: Editorial - page 173


I      Vol. N,  NO.
J a n u a r y   IS,1994


                                                                                                                                                                                       TkE
CONTENTS:                                                                                             January 15, 1994                                                              STANDARD
Meditation - Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma                                                                                                                                                 BHEF?
     Our Savior Who Makes Blind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                      ISSN 0362-4692
     To be Church: Upholder of the Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,.and August.
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                       Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Assoclatlon, Inc..
     God Is the Creator (2) ~....*...............,.*,..........~~*.*~*~~~`~~.............*..*~..~                                             175        4949  Ivanrest  Ave.,  Qrendvills,  MI  49416.  Second  Class
Church and State - Mr. James Lanting                                                                                                                     Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
      Recent Developments in Church-State Law ,,,,,,,,,.............~.......... 178                                                                      Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                         P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49466-0603.
GoYe Into All the World - Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop                                                                                                     EDlTORfAL  COMMITTEE
     Calvinism and Missions                                                                                                                              Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
     V. Perseverance of the Saints ..,.,........`......*.*.,.............~....~*.~~........                                                   180        Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                         Managing Editor: Mr. Don Coezema
Contribution - Mrs. Jan Westra
     A Faithful Shepherd .,..~....,.............................~.....~.........................                                              182        DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                         Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                        Decker, Rev. Ad5 denHartog, Rev. Barry Qritt5m,  Rev. Carl
     Counseling Those with Marital Problems ,..*,,~,...,,.....*.....,..........*. 183                                                                    Hack, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
                                                                                                                                                         Hays. Rev. Steven Kay, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lantinp,
Bring the Books - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.Thomas
     The Remarriage of the "innocent Party" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*.. 186                                 Miersma,  Rev.  Audrad  Spriansma,  Rev.  Charles  Terpstra,
                                                                                                                                                         Rev. GiseVanBaren, Rev. RonsldVanCverloop.  Mr. Benjamin
Book Reviews ..,...,,,,.,,...,...........,......,.,.,..I..II.I........................................                                        189        Wiggar.  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190                                         EDfTORfAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS  EDfTOR
                                                                                                                                                         The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wiooer
                                                                                                                                                         4949 lvanrest                6597 40th A&.
                                                                                                                                                         Grandvflle.  Ml  49416       Hudsonville.  Ml  49426
                                                                                                                                                         BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW  ZEALAND  OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                         The Standard Bearer        The  Standard  Bearer
                                                                                                                                                         Don Doezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                         P.O.  Box 603                66FraSerSt.
                                                                                                                                                         Grandvllle, MI               Walnulomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                           49469-0603                 NORTHERN  IRELAND OFFfCE
                                                                                                                                                         PH:  (616)  631-1490         o/o Mr. Jonathan McAulsy
                                                                                                                                                                  (616) 636-1776      164 Church Rd., Glenwf~~ny
     A theme running through this issue is that of the godly life, or                                                                                    FAX:   (616)  631-3933       Bafiymena. Co. Antrim BT42  3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                      Northern  Ireland
Reformed ethics. Homer Hoeksema declares that the biblical doctrine of                                                                                   EDfTORfAL POUCY
creation is "the basis of all morality" (see "God is the Creator"). In the                                                                               Every editor ls solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                                                         articles.  Contributionsofgeneratinterestfrom  ourreadsrsand
last installment of his series on "Calvinism and Missions," Ronald                                                                                       questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                                                         Contributions will bs limited to approximately 399 words and
VanOverloop distinguishes the Reformed doctrine of the perseverance                                                                                      mustbeneatlywrittenortypewritten,andmustbesigned.           Copy
of saints from an antinomian teaching of "eternal security." The                                                                                         deadlines  ar5  the  first   and  fffeenlh  of  the  month.  All
                                                                                                                                                         communkatlon5  relative to the contents should be sent to the
difference is that the Reformed truth of perseverance maintains God's                                                                                    sdltorlel offlce.
preservation of His people in holiness of life. The editorial sees the                                                                                   REPRINT POLfCY
                                                                                                                                                         P5rmisslonishersbygrantadforthereprfntingofartlcfesInour
privilege and duty of the church as "pillar and ground of the truth" to                                                                                  magarinebyotherpublications,pmvided:a)thatwchre~nted
include her upholding "all the doctrines concerning the Christian life."                                                                                 article5  ara reproduced In full; b) thatproperffiknowiedgment
                                                                                                                                                         Is mede: o) that a copy of Me perk&al In whkh such reprint
     In his vitally important article, "Counseling Those with Marital                                                                                    eppeem Is 5ant to our editorial offloe.
Problems," Arie denHartog reminds every Reformed pastor of his                                                                                           SU6SCRlPTlON  POUCY
urgent duty both to teach the full truth about marriage publicly and to                                                                                  Subscription  price:  $12.00  per  year  In  the  U.S.,   $15.99
                                                                                                                                                         elsewhere.  Unless  a  definite  request  for  dlscontlnuancs  Is
give private counseling to the distressed couples in his congregation.                                                                                   received,   it  Is  assumed   ihat  the  subscriber   wishes   the
                                                                                                                                                         subscrlptlontocontfnue,andhewlllbebilledforrenewal.         lfyw
Consistories might well discuss this article in their meeting.                                                                                           hawachangeofaddrees,ptsasenotifytheSu.?kressOfflceaS
     James Lanting calls our attention to the kind of (nominally Chris-                                                                                  eady  55  possible  in  order  to  avoid  the  lnconvsnlencs   of
                                                                                                                                                         lnterruplad dellvery. Induds your zip or Postal Code.
tian!) world in which the Reformed church and Christian are called to                                                                                    ADVERTISING POLICY
godliness of hfe. See his piece, "Dutch Parliament Adopts Permissive                                                                                     of any kind. Announcement5 of church and school events:
Euthanasia Law," in "Church and State."                                                                                                                  ennlwmerlw.   obikuarf55, and sympathy  resolutions wiil  b-s
     From time to time, we plan to reprint sections from published books,                                                                                plamd  for a 33.00 fw. These should be sent to the Business
                                                                                                                                                         Officeandehouldbseccompenledbythe33.OOtse.               DeadlIne
new and old. We take the name of this rubric from Paul's request in II                                                                                   for announc5ments i5 at least on5 month prior to publkation
Timothy4:13,  "BringtheBooks." Ifwereprintapaper,orarticle, wemay                                                                                        date.
change the rubric to "Bring the Parchments." The subject of the work                                                                                     SOUND VOLUMES
                                                                                                                                                         The  Business Ctfffca will  accept standing  orders for bound
reprinted in this issue, an aspect of the Christian life, is the remarriage                                                                              coplssofthecurrentvolume. SuchordersarefEedassoon es
                                                                                                                                                         po55lMe  after completion of a volume year.
of the "innocent party."
                                                                                                                                             DJE         article  copies  me  available  through  Univsrs'ky  Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                         Intarnatlonsl.
170lStandard  Bearer/January 15,1994


, Our Sav.ior Who Makes Blind

  And Jesus said, For judgment 1 am come           instructed the blind man to go wash        when He spoke of making the blind
~ into this world, that they which see not         his eyes in the pool of Siloam.            see and the seeing blind. Jesus was
  might see; and that they which see might             In faith the blind man heeded          obviously using the occasion of this
  be made blind.                                   Jesus'instruction, and returned to the     miracle and the reaction of the Phari-
                                    John 9:39      courts of the temple, having received      sees to teach a great spiritual truth:
                                                   his sight. His friends and neighbors,      Christ has come in judgment!
           "I am come . . . that they which see    in their excitement, brought him be-           That work of Jesus in judgment,
  might be made blind." A striking                 fore the Pharisees. The reaction of the    today as well as then, is two-sided.
   statement it is that Jesus makes. We            Pharisees, one would suppose, would        On the one hand, Jesus has indeed
  preach a Savior who is the light of the          be the same as that of the blind man.      come to make those who are blind to
  world. He makes the blind to see and             But the opposite was true. They said,      see. This is a beautiful truth of Scrip-
   the lame to walk. He heals the sick             "This man is not of God, because he        ture for which every chid of God
   and visits the prisoner. He seeks and           keepeth not the Sabbath day." They         ought to be thankful  - not because
   finds those that are lost and gives to          could not, however, escape the won-        this makes of Jesus a wonderful hu-
   them light where there is only dark-            der of the miracle Jesus had per-          manitarian who made the physically
   ness. Christ is the Savior, after all! He       formed. After the blind man's par-         handicapped whole again, but be-
   gives to guilty, undeservingwretches            ents confirmed that he had indeed          cause it expresses a spiritual reality
   eternallife through thebloodHe  shed            been born blind, the Pharisees still       that has to do with our salvation.
   on Calvary's tree.                              refused to believe. "Give God the              In Scripture physical blindness is
           "I come to make those who see           praise," they say, "we know that this      apictureof spiritualblindness. When
  blind." Howisit possible to hear such            man is a sinner."                          one is physically blind he is unable to
   horrible words proceed from the very                In unbelief the Pharisees again        see. Everything is dark to him. He
   mouth of our Savior Himself?                    asked the man how it was that he had       cannot find the right way. He gropes
           To understand these words of            come to see. By now he had grown           about in the darkness of his blind-
  judgment we must consider the events             weary of them, and he replied, "I          ness. The same is true spiritually.
   that provided the occasion for them.            have told you already, and ye did not      When one is spiritually blind he is
  Jesus had just escaped the Pharisees             hear: wherefore would ye hear it           totallyincapableof  seeingandunder-
   who had picked up stones to cast                again? Will ye also be his disciple?"      standing in a correct way the things of
   uponHim,  when outside the courts of            This angered the Pharisees, and they       the kingdom of heaven. Because of
   the temple He and His disciples                 reviled the man, "Thou art his dis-        sin, his heart and mind are totally
   passed by a blind man sitting along             ciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We     darkened to those things which are of
   the way. This man had been blind                know that God spake unto Moses: as         God. He may hear the things of the
   from his birth, never having seen the           for this fellow, we know not from          kingdom; he may have those things
   light of day. After Jesus approached            whence he is." When the blind man          laid out for him in the clearest of
   the blind man, he stooped to the                once more rebuked these self-righ-         terms; and he may even learn them.
   ground and spit into the dirt. Mixing           teous leaders, he was cast out of the      But if he is blind spi.ritualIy,  he cannot
   the dirt with His spittle He made a             synagogue.                                 believe them. He refuses to believe
   clay-like mixture and anointed the                  Jesus, after He heard what had         these things. Spiritual blindness is,
   blind man's eyes with it. He then               happened, went out and found the           therefore, in essence unbelief.
                                                   man. Leading this blind child of God           This terrible spiritual condition'
                                                   who could now see to a beautiful           of the human race befell man in the
                                                   confession of faith, Jesus then spoke      fall of our first parents. In Adam we
   Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protes-        the words of this passage. Everyone        all became blind in sin and unbelief.
   tant Reformed Church in Holland, Michi-         knew, including the Pharisees who          The Canons of Dordrecht, Article 1 of
   gan.                                            stood by listening, what Jesus meant       the 3rd and 4th Heads of Doctrine,
                                                                                                    January 15,1994/Standard5earerh71


describe man's blindness in graphic           enables us to accept Christ. We are               selves already see  -  those who think
language: "entailed upon himself             blind; we cannot see Him! On the                   that they have already earned their
blindness of mind, horrible darkness,         contrary, faith is a gift of God in               salvation themselves and do not need
vanity and perverseness of judgment,          Christ. It becomes ours only with                 a Savior. The Pharisees knew Christ
became wicked, rebellious, obdurate           salvation. And that is true whether               was speaking of them. For that rea-
in heart and will, and impure in his         weareborninthechurch                                               son they asked Jesus,
affection." That is spiritual blind-          or outside the church.                                            "Are we blind also?" In
ness! So blind are we that it is impos-              In the second place,       We will go on                   response Jesus explains
sible to see (to understand and be-           the blind who are given                                           Himself, "If ye were
lieve in) salvation in Christ and the         to see realize that not         stumbling about                   blind, ye should have no
heavenly kingdom that awaits God's            everyone is given spiri-            in our sin,                   sin? but now ye say, We
people! How horrible and frighten-           tual sight. There are still         unless Jesus                   see; therefore your sin
ing!                                          many who yet walk in                 Himself,                     remaineth." And how
        And except a man be born again,       darkness. There are, in            by the power                   true that was! The Phari-
except Christ Himself comes and               fact, only a few whom                                             sees refused to admit
anoints the heart of a man with the           God through His aton-            of His cross and                 that Jesus could perform
clay of His Spirit and Word, that man         ing work on the cross              resurrection,                  this miracle. As plain as
will never be able to see the things of       makes to see and under-             delivers us.                  it was to everyone who
the kingdom of heaven. Unless Christ          stand the kingdom of                                              saw the miracle, theyre-
Himself, by an act of salvation, works        heaven. These are those                      I                    fused to believe that here
in the heart of a fallen sinner he wilI      *whom God has elected as His own                   before them was the Messiah, the Son
never believe. But in this is the beauty      from eternity. Those who are or-                  of God. They had Moses. They had
of salvation. Christ has comeinto this        dained to eternal life believe. Why               the law. This man was a sinner. They
world to give sight to the blind. He          me, 0 God, why me? Why hast Thou                  thought they had cornered the mar-
says as much in the words He spoke            opened my eyes to behold the myster-              ket on salvation. They thought they
to the blind man: "I came into this           ies of Thy kingdom and not the eyes               could see the proper way into heaven.
.world that they which see not might          of others? Certainly, I didnot deserve            All one need to do is keep the law of
see." Through His death and resur-            it! I was blind, lost in my sin and               Moses as perfectly as they did. If one
rection Christ has removed the dark-          depravity! Why me? And the answer                 could do this, he earned the favor and
ness and given us light to see. Our           we receive of Godis: "For soit seemed             love of God.
eyes are opened from their unbelief           good in my sight!" Amazing grace!                     These are those who claimed they
and we begin to understand and de-            How sweet the sound!                              could see. And we find many of the
sire the riches of the kingdom of                    And it is made the sweeter when            samespiritualcalibertodaytoo.These
heaven. We are made to know and              Jesus speaks of the other side of His              followaJesuswhoisthegreatestofall
love the God of heaven and earth and         work of judgment. "I am come into                  humanitarians. He has come to cure
Jesus Christ whom He                                          this world that they              the world of its ills, of its hatred and
has sent. We realize that                                     which see might be made           strife - a Jesus who will make this
ifitwerenotforthepow-                                         blind." To put it simply,         present world a better place in which
erful work of Christ in                The sinner             Jesus Himself destroys            to live. But these will not confess a
our hearts we would             whose eyes are                the idol-Christ of  Ar-           Jesus who has come to deliver His
still be in darkness and        made to see                   minianism. The Armin-             people from the depravity and guilt
not even know it!               realizes that he              ian Christ does not come          of their sin. If they did, they would
        Perhaps the real        was powerless                 in judgment, but dies in          not deny the incarnation, the atone-
beauty of our salvation                                       order to offer sight to           ment, and the resurrection of Christ
is this: we understand                  to open               everyone. Yet that Christ         while still claimine to believe in Him.
                                 his own eyes.
that it is entirely an act L                             1 doe; not actually make               These, like the Ph&isees, claim to see,
of the sovereign grace                                   J    one to see. He leaves it          when in fact they are blind.
of God. The sinner                                            up to the blind man to                Donotdeceiveyourself!  Weneed
whose eyes are made to see realizes          make himself see. The true Christ of               Jesus. We are blind, lost in the dark-
that he was powerless to open his            the Scriptures comes to make some                  ness of sin. And we will go on stum-
own eyes. He could not make himself          see and to make others blind.                      bling about in our sin, unless Jesus
see the kingdom of God and its righ-                 No, Christ does not come to make           Himself, by the power of His cross
teousness. He could not make him-            true believers into unbelievers. He                and resurrection, delivers us. If we
self believe in God. Christ had to           does not come to extinguish the light              view ourselves as having any ability
work faith in him.' Faith then is not an     which He has worked in the hearts of               or power in ourselves, we too are
innate power which we, blind sin-            His people. But Christ comes to make               those who claim to see when, in fact,
ners, have in ourselves, and which           blind those who think they of them-                we are blind! And these Christ actu-

172lStandard Bearer/January 15,1994


ally hardens in their sin. He makes         to his works. If one's works proceed        first, God saves in Christ; the latter,
them blind. So says Jesus Himself. I        out of a heart in which Christ has          He punishes on account of their sin.
have come to save sinners. I make           worked by His Spirit and grace, then        Then God's judgment upon all men is
sinners to see and know their sin, and      God's judgment is just in declaring         made plain. Christ came into this
as a result in true sorrow confess that     that man righteous in Christ's blood        world, and is still preached today, in
sin. But I have come to judge those         and giving him a place in His king-         order to make manifest the justice of
who in the hardness of their hearts         dom. But if those works proceed out         Godinsaving His elect and condemn-
think they have no sin and need no          of a heart which is hardened in its         ing the reprobate.
Savior. And that too, remember, is          unbelief, then God is also just in cast-        What about you? Lookinto your
rootedin  the sovereign decree of God:      ing such a one into utter desolation.       heart. Do you see, because of Christ;
the decree of reprobation. Those                Christ was sent into this world to      or do you see, without Christ? Sure,
whom God has appointed unto de-             reveal the very thoughts and intents        you go to church. Sure, you follow
struction Christ makes blind.               of the heart. He was sent then for that     the doctrines and teachings of that
    It was for this purpose, after all,     reason; and He is preached now for          church. Does that make you worthy
that Christ was sent. Everything we         the same reason. Whenmen  are called        of heaven . . . or does Christ make you
have explained is the judgment of           to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ,    worthy?
Christ for which He came into the           then there will always be one of two            If we believe that we are sinners
world. The term  "judgment"here             reactions: either by God's grace they       saved by grace, then we have much to
means that Christ has come into the         will be made to see their sin and in        be thankful for. Christ has revealed
worldtorevea2thejusticeofourGodi.n          sorrow bow before the cross of Christ       thattous. Wewereblind,butnowwe
saving some and rejecting others.           and confess their need for Him, or          see. Now we follow the example of
Christ came to make manifest that           they will in unbelief refuse to bow         the blind man in this account. We
God in His judgment of men is just          before that Savior because they see no      confess, "Lord, I believe." Then we
and righteous. We must remember             need for Him. They believe them-            fall on our knees and worship our
that God judges every man according         selves to be inherently good. The           Savior,  0                            yL





                                  Tojbe Church:
                   Upholder of .ihe Truth

    It is the honor and privilege of the    she fails to uphold the truth. What-        the truth is surpassing honor for the
church to be the upholder of the truth      ever religious organization fails to        church. Calvin remarks on this in his
in the world. The church preserves          uphold the truth is not the church,         commentary on I Timothy 395:
and promotes the truth. The truth           regardless of its claim and regardless
depends upon the church as a great          of its impressive appearance.                 No ordinary enhancement is derived
building rests upon its supporting              TheapostleofChristgivespointed            from this appellation. Could it have
pillars and stands solidly on its foun-     expression to what is said about the          been described in loftier language?
dation. Take away the church, and           church throughout the New Testa-             Is anything more venerable, or more
the truth disappears from the world.        mentinITimothy3:15:  "... the,church        holy,thanthateverlastingtruthwhich
    Upholder of the truth is what the                                                     embraces both the glory of God and
                                            of  the. living God, the pillar and         ' the salvation of men? Were all the
church is. This belongs to her essence      ground of the truth."                         praises of heathen philosophy, with
as she has been createdby the Spirit of         In view of the worth of the truth         which it has been adorned by its (.,
Christ. It is not merely a matter of a      as the revelation of God in His glory         followers, collected into one  heap,      -
task that has been assigned her, so         and as the power of the salvation of          what is this in comparison of the
that she is still the church even though    the people of God, to be upholder of          dignity of this wisdom, which alone

                                                                                              January  15,199Wtandard Bearer/l73


  deserves to be called light and truth,    leaves no doubt about this whatever.             apart from Holy Scripture and then
  and the instruction of life, and the      The church of the living God is the              demands compliance from the con-
 way, and the kingdom of God? Now           local congregation, and she is the pil-          gregations, or from the congregation,
 it is preserved on earth by the minis-     lar and ground of the truth. She is the          simply because the assembly has so
  try of the Church alone.                  upholder of the truth, however, not in           decided.
                                                                                                 Ultimately, the church is founded
    Only the church has this honor          the splendid isolation and self-suffi-
                                                                                             upon the truth. Christ taught this in
and privilege. Para-ecclesiastical  or-     ciency of congregationalism but in
                                                                                             Matthew16:18:  "UponthisrockIwilI
ganizations are not upholders of the        the bond of church-unity with other
                                                                                             build my church." The apostle taught
truth. It was to no purpose that in the     faithful congregations. Thus, indi-
                                                                                             this in Ephesians 2:20: ". . . built upon
late 1970s and the 1980s evangel&&          rectly but importantly, the denomi-
                                                                                             the foundation of the apostles and
in the United States attempted to pre-      nation of such churches is upholder
serve the doctrine of the infallible        of the truth.                                    prophets, Jesus Christ himself being
                                                                                             the chief corner stone." The truth
inspirationofHoly  Scripturebymeans             That the church upholds the truth
                                                                                             precedes the church. The truth forms
of a "council," apart from the church.      has nothing to do with Rome's proud
Man-made, quasi-ecclesiasticalmove-         claim that Scripture, gospel, and doc-           the church. The truth is the founda-
                                                                                             tion upon which the church stands.
ments are not upholders of the truth.       trinedependuponthe (RomanCatho-
The efforts onbehalf of thetruthin the      lit) Church in an ultimate and abso-             Again and again in history, the truth
                                                                                             reforms the church despite the oppo-
Netherlands by federations within           lute sense. According to Rome, the
                                                                                             sition of an institute that has hard-
apostate Reformed churches are vain.        church does not depend upon the
                                                                                             ened itself in apostasy.
Individual, sound preachers andtheo-        truth, but the truth depends upon the
logians remaining within departing          (Roman Catholic) Church. Even if it                  But the truth is the foundation of
churches can never be pillars of the        were the case that the truth of the              thechurchinsuchawaythatthetruth
truth.                                      Word of God depends absolutely                   uses the church to preserve and pro-
    The evidence is plain. The doc-         upon the church in the sense that the            mote itself in the world. As a stan-
trine of Scripture is in shambles in        church originates, determines, and is            dard bearer serves his kingdom by
evangelicalism in North America to-         sovereign over the truth, this would             holding aloft the banner of the king-
day. Witness the open denial of the         do nothing for the honor                    1                     dom, so does the church
historicity of Genesis l-11. Some of        of Rome. For Rome does                                            hold up the truth. It
the worst offenders are the very men        not uphold the truth. It      It pleases Christ                   pleases Christ to main-
                                                                                                              tain His truth in the
who were quite in prominence at the         is exactly the fundamen-         to maintain
"International Council on Biblical In-      tal description of the                                            world by means of the
errancy." The "bonded' in the Re-           church as the upholder             His truth                      church, not otherwise.
formed churches in the Netherlands          of the truth that clearly        in the world                     Therefore, to destroy the
get absolutely nowhere in checking          u.nmasksRomeasafalse             by means of                      church (which the father
the headlong falling away of their          church. Rome has al-                                              of the lie has worked at
                                                                              the church,
churches, much less in reforming the        ways been, and is to-                                             for some 6,000 years -
                                                                            not otherwise.
churches. If their magazines are any        day, an enemy of the                                              unsuccessfully) would
indication, theirwitness tothe truthis      truth and of the Re- L                                       J    be to abolish the truth.
hardly more than a feeble, pathetic         formed church that up-                                                The church upholds
bleating. Individual theologians are        holds the truth. j                               the truth by her confession. This
silenced. Over the years their own              But the churchis not the upholder            explains how upholding the truth
weakening is noticeable. They be-           of the truth in the sense that the truth         belongs to the very being of the church.
come tolerant of certain aspects of the     is subject to the sovereign church.              The church is a confessing church.
lie, and even defend them. They are         Thechurchdoesnotproducethetruth,                 She confesses in her official creeds.
able to do much for themselves per-         but the truth produces the church.               The Protestant Reformed congrega-
sonally. They do little or nothing for      The church does not determine the                tions confess by means of the "Three
                                            truth, but the truth determines the              Forms of Unity." Basic to this confes-
the truth.
    Thechurchisthepillarandground           church. The church does not have the             sion is the binding of all officebearers
of the truth.                               last word about the truth, but the               to these creeds through the "Formula
                                            truth has the last word about the                of Subscription" and the firm enforce-
    The reference is to the instituted
church. The church that God has             church. We Reformed must be clear                ment of this sacred vow.
made upholder of His truth is the           about this. It is' by no means only                  The churches confess in the
                                            Rome that likes Ito exalt the church             preaching and teaching of their pas-
local congregation of believers and
their children, organized in the of-        over the truth, that is, over the Word           tors, particularly in the worship ser-
fices of bishop (teaching and ruling        of God. A Reformed synod, or a                   vices, the catechism classes, and the
                                                                                             seminary. Through the faithful  teach-
elders) and of deacon. I Timothy 3          Reformed consistory, does the same
                                            thing when it decides contrary to or             ingofHoly  Scriptureasinterpretedin

174lStandard Bearer/January 15,1994


the Reformed confessions by their                come controversial because of the                The truth is not only all the doc-
ministers, the Protestant Reformed               teaching of error. The church does           trines concerning Christian belief as
congregations are pillar and ground              not forever allow debate over the            made known in Scripture, centrally
of the t&h.         -                            historical reality of Genesis l-11, over     the doctrine of Jesus Christ as God in
    The church con-                                              theoriginoftheuniverse       the flesh. It is also all the doctrines
fesses in her singing at                    I                    by creation in six days,     concerning the Christian life. For
public worship. The                                              or over the eternal, un-     example, the church is called to up-
songbook  of the Protes-            A church                     conditional predestina-      hold the truth of marriage. The world
tant           Reformed            that cannot                   tion of all humans to ev-    certainly will not. It cannot even
Churches, basically the             say "no"                     erlasting bliss or to ev-    defend the-truth that marriage is ex-
Psalms with their mag-              to the lie                   erlasting woe. But she       elusively  for a man and a woman. The
nifying of the covenant          is a crumbling                  preserves and promotes       church must be pillar and ground of
God, their message of                                            the truth by condemn-        marriage and, thus, of the family.
gracious salvation from               pillar                     ing the view of Genesis          The individual member of the
sin, and their call to a          of the truth.                  l-11 as unhistorical, the    church is not excluded from this call-
thankfullife of obedience                                   J    theory of theistic evolu-    ing. As member of the church he or
to the law, is an impor-                                         tion, and the teaching of    she is included in thii zlling. Let him
tant aspect of the support of the truth          a universal, conditional love of God.        or her know the Reformed confes-
by these Churches.                                   The condemnation of the lie that         sions; see to it that the truth is soundly
    The church also confesses by the             is part of the church's upholding of         preached and taught; receive the
official decisions of her consistory, as         thetruthincludes also that the church        preaching with a believing heart; do
well as by the official decisions of the         disciplines the impenitent heretic and       his or her part in discipline; speak out
classis and synod, for which each                transgressor. Their mouths must be           in defense of the truth personally;
church is responsible.                           shut. They must go out. Otherwise,           practice the truth; and support in ev-
    Being upholder of the truth in-              as far as that institute is concerned,       ery way the church that shows herself
volves definite, sharp condemnation              they pull down the whole structure of        the upholder of the truth.
of the lie. A church that cannot say             the truth. That institute is respon-             To be upholder of the truth is, as
"no" to the lie is a crumbling pillar of         sible.                                       Calvin put it, uso magnificent a title."
the truth. The creeds condemn error.                 A calling is implied by the honor-           It is also awesome responsibility.
The preaching necessarily does this.             able designation of the church as the            It is to be the church of the living
Consistorial and synodical decisions             upholder of the truth. The calling is,       God.  0
must do this.                                    "Be what you are!" "Uphold the                                                - DJE
    This involves the church's judg-             truth!"                                                                             wf-
ing on confessional issues that be-




                                            Chapter 1 (cont.)
                            God k the -Creator
                    7
    Scripture begins the narrative of            and darkness was upon the face of the        ture does not tell us the details con-
the coming into existence of our uni-            deep. And the Spirit of God moved            cerning the mode of this revelation. It
verse with the statement of Genesis              upon the face of the waters."                is not impossible, but in fact very
l:l, 2: "In the beginning God created                The question as to how this narra-       likely, that the origin of the universe
the heaven and the earth. And the                tive of creation came into being can         was first revealed to Adam. It maybe
earth was without form, and void;                have but one answer. That answer is:         regarded as a matter of course that
                                                 by revelation. God Himself revealed          God would reveal to the first man,
                                                 that He created the world, and how           who stood as friend of God in Para-
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor            He created the world.                        dise, not only the manner of his own
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the                It is a question of minor impor-         creationbut also the way in which the
Protestant Reformed Semina y.                    tance how God revealed this. Scrip-          entire universe came into existence.

                                                                                                    January 15,19H/S:mdard Bearer/l75


For it is especially in the mighty act of    tigate the creation of that world. The        and does not properly give expres-
creation, first of all, that God revealed    origin and formation of the world are         sion to the rich idea of God's creative
Himself as God. Nor is it at allimpos-       strictly a matter of revelation.              work, nevertheless it expresses some-
sible, but again very likely, that this          It follows, therefore, that we take,      thing of the unique nature of creation.
revelation of the creation-narrative         and must take, the narrative of cre-          God is the God who calls the things
was preserved in the line of the gen-        ation in the book of Genesis in the           which be not as though they were.
erations of God's covenant in the old        literal sense of the word. When we            And through faith we understand
dispensation even before the Flood,          read of the beginning,                                        that the things which are
and that after the Flood it was trans-       we understand it to                                           seen were not made of
mitted in the line of those same cov-        mean the very com-                    . . . unless            things which do appear.
enant generations to the time of Moses.      mencement of time and               the creation-             The idea of creation, in
Then Moses, under the influence of           the beginning of all                                          distinction from all work
infallible inspiration, put the narra-       things. When we read of               narrative               of man, therefore, is that
tive into writing. All this, however, is     days, it can only refer to          is under&doll             manneeds somethingin
of relatively minor importance in this       days as we know them.                 literally,              order to make some-
connection.                                  And when we read that                  we can                 thing. Man cannot sim-
    What is of importance to remem-          God created, we under-                                        ply bring something
ber is, first of all, that creation can                                      pnly coine to the
                                             standthat allthingscame                                       forth. But God brings
onlybeanactofGod.  Godonlyisable             into existence by His al-            conclusion               forth; and in that sense
to create. And therefore the act of          mighty Word. This does              that we have              He simply calls things,
creation is a deep mystery  - some-          not mean that we can                 no account               as it were, out of noth-
thing that can be known only by rev-'        fathom the divine mys-               of creation              ing. This is a work that
elation. Only God Himself can shed           tery of creation. It al-                                      can be predicated only
any light on the matter of creation and                                          whatsoever
                                             ways remains a unique                                         ofGod. Itisonlythrough
can reveal to us how He made the             work of God who is re-               in any real              the Word of God that
world. Secondly, this account or rev-        ally God. But it does                  sense.                 anything is and can be
elation Moses, under the influence of        mean that God makes L                                         created. He is the God
infallible inspiration, put into writ-       known to us this mys-                                         who is powerful to call
ing. God knew and spoke with His             tery on our level, so that we can un-         the world into existence of Himself.
friendMoses  face to face (Deut. 3410).      derstandalittleofthemarvelouswork             Of nothing, that is, purely of and
That is sufficient for faith. Thus, we       of God. And unless the creation-              through and by Himself, God made
are assured that what we have in the         narrative is understood literally, we         the heavens and the earth. Creationis
account of Genesis 1 is not one of the       can only come to the conclusion that          purely and absolutely an act of God.
many cosmogonies and mythological            we have no account of creation what-          Nothing determined Him. Nothing
accounts that were in existence at the       soever in any real sense.                     limited Him. No one counseled or
time when Moses wrote, and which,                To create is a unique work of             aided Him. He used no means, for
according to higher criticism, Moses         God.                                          there were none. There was no mate-
must have known and used. Nor is                 The root meaning of the term              rial from which the world might be
Genesis 1 the product of humanimagi-         usedinGenesis  1:l for "create" seems         formed. There was no space in which
nation. But it is the account of what        to be "to cut, to divide, to separate."       the world might be fixed. There was
actually took place in the creation of           We must remember that we shall            no time in which the world might
the universe.                                never be able to fathom this work of          develop. In the beginning God cre-
    Thus, in connection with this ac-        God. Our work and our manner of               ated the heavens and the earth, call-
count, the Spirit witnesses in our           working are but a faint reflection of         ing them into existence by His Word.
hearts: "In the beginning God . . . . II     God's work. Nevertheless, we may                      As we remarked, the root mean-
Whatever trouble the fool unbeliever         form some conception of this unique           ing of the term "create" appears to be
may have with the problem of                 work of God; Frequently the work of           "to divide, to cut, to give separate
origins,and  whatever difficulty he          creation has been described as "cre-          being and existence to something."
may have in hunting for "missing             ation ex nihilo. II And a rather popular      And in this sense the term is plainly
links," the people of God have no            definition of creation has been: "to          applicable to all the various creative
trouble. God reveals to us how He            make something out of nothing." Also          acts of God. God divides the light
made the world. Apart from that              ourHeidelbergCatechism,Lord'sDay              from the darkness, the waters from
revelation and apart from faith,the          IX, speaks of the fact that the eternal       the waters, the sun and the moon and
problem of origins is indeed a prob-         Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "of           the stars. Calling grass and herbs and
lem -an insoluble problem. Science           nothing made heaven and earth with            trees out of the earth, He gives them
can investigate the created world,the        all that is in them." And while this          separate existence, distinct from one
things that are made; it cannot inves-       definition, as a definition, is defective     another and distinct from the earth

176lStandard Bearer/January 15,1994


     which brings them forth. And thus          in the term "create," is applicable to      allits fullness and clarity. Christ is the
     God gives to all creatures an existence    the original act and idea of creation as    SonofGodindeed;butsoareweSons
     separate from the chaos, or the            it is set forth in the opening words of     of God, and that in the same sense as
     unformed world material, which He          Genesis. God is alone, in eternity. He      He; and the supreme significance of
     first created, as well as separate and     is the eternal and infinite God. There      Christ is then that He taught us the
     distinct from one another.                 is nothing outside of Him. There was        worth and importance of man, that
         In this connection, we may take        no counselor or instructor with him.        He teaches the true dignity of man,
     note of the other terms which are          There were no means for Him to use.         and that through His teachings all
     used in the creation-narrative for this    There was no material; there was no         men may come to the realization of
     same idea of creation, but with a dif-     space; there was no time. There was         the great truth that they are the Sons
     ferent connotation. Repeatedly we          God! That is all! God is, in and of         of God and may learn to practice the
     find in the Genesis-narrative the term     Himself, as the Triune God, frometer-       brotherhood of man under the uni-
     "to make" and also the term N to form."    nity. From eternity He has His eternal      versal Fatherhood of God.
     The term "make" simply denotes the         conception of all things, His thoughts          The testimony of Scripture, how-
     general idea of giving existence or        of all creation, His divine counsel.        ever, is that this is not so. Between the
     being to anything. And the term "to        And in the beginning God separated          world and God's Being stands God's
     form" conveys the notion of giving         all things and the whole creation by        sovereign will and His sovereign
     distinct form to any being outside of      an act of His almighty will out of that     Word of  calhng. All things were
     God and in distinction from the form       eternal counsel and gave to them, not,      called into existence by God's om-
     of other creatures. Moreover, while        indeed, independent existence, but          nipotent will. He is the Creator!
     the term "to create" is used here to       existence, separate being, outside of           Nor was creation an act of com-
     denote the act of God whereby He           His own Being. Creation, therefore,         pulsion on the part of God. If a man
     calls the world and its creatures into     maybe defined as that mysterious act        eats, he certainly wills to eat. But he
     existence of Himself alone and brings      of the almighty will of God whereby         must eat, or die. God's act of creation
     into existence the as yet unformed         He gave to the things that were eter-       is not to be understood thus. There
     mass of the universe, the other terms      nally in His counsel existence in dis-      was no necessity from within Him.
     point to a creative act of God out of      tinction from Himself.                      God is the perfect and infinitely
     material already existing. Neverthe-           In this connection, we must re-         blessed God in Himself. He needs no
     less, also when Scripture speaks of        member, in the first place, that cre-       men's hands in order to be glorified.
     God making things and forming              ation is an act of God's sovereign and      He is Triune, and all-sufficient. He
     things, we must remember that this is      omnipotent will. It is not an act of        created: .-and&t. is an act of His
     the work of God, and particularly the      necessity, but of perfect freedom. Fire     sovereign will. Neither was there any
     work of God whereby He simply calls        emanates heat. A stream runs down           constraint or limitation from with-
     things which be not as though they         its bed to the sea. A tree grows. Thus      out. There was nothing outside of
     were.                                      some have conceived of the relation         God. No material could constrain Him
         We are certainlynot to conceive        between God and the world. The              to create, or limit Him, or determine
     of the creative workas though God          world simply emanated from God,             Him in creating. Between the world
     labored and toiled, as a man labors        and God evolves in the world. God is        and God is His will, and nothing else.
     and toils, and in the physical and         the source of all things, and creation          In the second place, creation is an
     human sense of the word made things        emanates from Him, even as the light        act of divine wisdom. God created.
     and formed things out of other things.     issues forth from the sun. But follow-      And God is no blind force. Nor is He
     It is wicked blasphemy, for example,       ing up the line of this proud philoso-      a mere first, or ultimate cause, operat-
     to make a caricature of the work of        phy, we lose our God                                      ing of necessity through
     creation and to mock the truth of          and our Christ. For a                                     second causes and ordi-
     creation when it speaks of God form-       source does not create;                                   nances and law as of
     ing man out of the dust of the ground      andifcreationemanates


                                                world, not transcendent
                                                above it. Then man also r
                                                                                 If God is not            nature so-called - as
     by picturing it as though God was          from God, then God is          in the beginning           theistic evolution would
     playing with mud-pies. God is the          not. distinct from the         He is not at.all.          have it. A cause is not
     Creator, not a creature. And when He                                                                 sovereign. It is subject
     makes and forms the works of His                                                                     to law. It must of neces-
     hands, He does so as the Creator, not      is but an emanation of                                    sity produce its effect. It
     as the creature. He creates, He calls.     God, part of the divine Spirit; and His     is not free. It does not counsel. It does
     He speaks, and it is done; He com-         redemptionreallyconsistsinthis, that        not intelligently determine. But our
     mands, and it stands fast.                 He attains to a clear consciousness of      God is a personal Being, of infinite
-        In the deepest sense of the word,.     His own divinity. And the great sig-        wisdom and goodness and perfec-
     therefore, this same idea of dividing,     nificance of Christ is that in Him this     tion. And His creative work is an act
     cutting, separating as it is conveyed      God-consciousness broke through in          of that infinite wisdom. By His om-

                                                                                                  January  15,lQQ4/Standard  Bearedl77


nipotent and intelligent will alone        existence to no one outside of itself. If    lute sense of the word, of all that is.
were all things - in the beginning         God is not in the beginning, He is not       And then He is also Lawgiver in all
and throughout creation-week -             at all. Nor must the church deny her         the universe. That universe is abso-
called into existence. For that reason     faith and her character as witness of        1utelyHis  own house; and He ordains
there is plan and purpose and design       the living God by assuming an apolo-         all the ordinances for all His crea-
in creation. That purpose could not        getic attitude to the theory of evolu-       tures. Herein lies the basis of all mo-
be outside of God. The reason and          tion. She has been often tempted to          rality. For this truth of creationmeans
purpose of all things must be in the       do so when unduly impressed by the           with respect to His moral creatures
Most High. And so Scripture teaches        pretended results of science falsely         thattoHimalltheirlife-theirthink-
us that God created all things for His     so-called, and to compromise with            ing and willing and loving and desir-
revelation and His glory.                  and apologize to the philosophy of           ing and acting - must be. His will
    Such is the language of revela-        evolution. It must be well under-            must be theirs; His purpose theirs;
tion! God is the Creator! Never must       stood that we have no quarrel with           His work theirs. Their whole life
the church exchange this testimony         true science. But the proper domain          must point in this direction. They
for the language of man's wisdom.          of science is limited to the things that     shall love the Lord their God with all
By faith the church looks up from the      can be weighed and measured, ana-            their heart and mind and soul and
beginning directly and immediately         lyzed and demonstrated; and when             strength. That is responsibility. That
to the eternal God alone. Of Him,          science reaches beyond this limit and        is morality. That is religion. That is
therefore, and to Him are all things.      pretends to explain the origin of            the highest good. The theory of evo-
    This is not true of any form of        things, it steps over into the domain        lution destroys all this. But God the
Pantheism, which has found its place       of mere philosophy and becomes               LordmaintainsHimself,andHemain-
in modern philosophy and theology.         scientism. No theory of evolution can        tains His truth. He is the almighty
Then the world is its own god. Then        reach beyond the things that do ap-          Creator of heaven and earth. Of Him,
there is no God outside of the world.      pear.                                        and through Him, and therefore to
Then there is no God. Nor is it true of        But again, according to revela-          Him are all things. To Him be glory
evolution. If the world somehow            tion, God is the Creator. And if He is       forever!  Q  P
evolved of itself, that world owes its     Creator, He is Possessor, in the abso-




                    Recent Developments
                       in Church-State Lau\f

n Congress Passes Significant              two years of political maneuvering           narrow i5-4) Smith decision effec-
Religious  Freedom Law                     and debate before both houses of             tively StrippedtheFirst  Amendment's
    OnNovember16,1993,ataWhite             Congress agreed upon the  final lan-         "free exercise" clause of any mean-
House ceremony largely ignored by          guage of the federal statute.                ingfulprotectionforreligiouslymoti-
the secular press, President Clinton           Church/state scholars and reli-          vated activity.
signed into law the new Religious          gious leaders have hailed the new law            In the somewhat unusual  Smith
Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).            as a significant measure insuringreli-       case, two members of the-so4led
Although the bill was supported by a       gious freedom in this country.               Native American Church were fired
smorgasbord of religious organiza-             The official title for the law in-       from their jobs and later denied un-
tions of every stripe, it took almost      cludes the word `"Restoration" be-           employment benefits because they
                                           cause its sponsors sought to restore         admittedlyused'sacramental'peyote
                                           religious freedoms "lost" in the 1990        (an illegal drug derived from cactus
Mr. L.anting, a member of S&h Holland      Supreme Court case of EmpZcyment             plants) during a sanctioned religious
Protestant Reformed Church, is a prac-     Division v. Smith. It was the consen-        ceremony. The Court majority held
ticing attorney.                           sus among court watchers that the            that since the state law against drug

178lStandard  Bearer /January  151994


                                                                                        and vague guidelines, if followed,
                       Religious Freedom Restoration Act                                make it virtually impossible to pros-
        OnNovember  16,1993,  the ReligiousFreedom  Restoration Act (RFRA)              ecute doctors who engage in such
   became law. This federal statute restores certain religious freedoms                 activity.
   arguably lost in a recent Supreme Court decision (see text). The core                    The new guidelines provide that
   la,nguage  of the Act reads as follows:                                              no legal action may be taken against a
                                                                                        physician who assists a patient in
      Sec. 3. FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION PROTECTED.                                      dying who repeatedly and lucidly
        (a) IN GENERAL. - Government shall not substantially burden a                   requests death when suffering from
      person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of           "unbearable pain." The only excep-
      general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b).                      tions are comatose patients and de-
        (b) EXCEPTION. - Government may substantially burden a person's                 formed newborns, where the physi-
      exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden       cian presumably cannot obtain "re-
      to the person -
          (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and              peated and lucid" requests for death.
          (2) is the least -restrictive means of furthering that compelling             The maximum penalty for violating
      governmental interest.                                                            the law is a sentence of only 12 years.
        (c) JUDICIAL RELIEF. - A person whose religious exercise has been                    Although tits new law gives the
      burdened in violation of this section may assert that violation as a claim        Netherlands the world's most per-
      or defense in a judicial proceeding and obtain appropriate relief against         missive mercy killing law, in reality
      a government. Standing to assert a claim or defense under this section            euthanasiahasbeenwidelypracticed
      shall be governed by the general rules of standing under article III of the       by the Dutch for the last decade, even
      Constitution.                                                                     without government imprimatur. A
                                                                                        recent report indicated that approxi-
                                                                                        mately 3,000 cases of euthanasia oc-
use was "facially neutral," the Native        can demonstrate that the challenged       curred annually in the Netherlands in
`Americans were not exempt from the           law is both (a) "in furtherance of a      recent years, representing2.1 percent
law even though it allegedly inter-           compelling governmental interest,"        of all deaths there. The report also
fered with their religious ceremony           and  (b) the "least restrictive means"    disclosed that "accelerated clinical
that traditionally incorporated theuse        of accomplishing its alleged compel-      measures," with or without request,
of peyote.                                    ling interest. (See box above.)           resultedinanadditiona18,800deaths.
    Although the sponsors of RFRA                  The sponsors of RFRA contend              The Hemlock Society, Kevorkian
have little interest in the religious use     that this new federal law will restore    supporters, and other "right-to-die"
of illegal drugs, the Smith decision          religious freedom because before the      advocates in this country will un-
was nevertheless of dire concern be-          government can now "substantially         doubtedly be exploiting the Dutch
cause the Court majority arguably             burden" a person's religiously moti-      legislation in their crusade to legalize
abandoned the traditional "compel-            vated conduct, it must satisfy this       mercy killings and assisted suicide in
ling interest" test forthe  govemmen-         two-pronged test.                         the U.S. and Canada.
tal interference in religious activity             In conclusion, under RFRA the
when the challenged law is viewed as          government cannot interfere with a        n School Voucher Initiative Fails
"facially neutral" toward religion.           person's religious beliefs or practice         The widely publicized California
    Within months of the notorious            unless it has a "compelling" reason       school-voucher initiative was soundly
Smith  decision, religious leaders be-        for doing so. In addition, the govern-    defeated by California voters last
gan sponsoringbills in the House and          ment must also prove that its goals       November. Initiative 174 - a pro-
Senate to overrule legislatively the          under the challenged law cannot be        posal to give a$2,600  tax-paidvoucher
despised  Smith  ruling. RFRA does            achieved by some other means which        to every parent who enrolled a child
essentially that and arguably restores        would avoid such interference with a      in a non-public or private school -
the freedom traditionally associated          citizen's religious conduct.              was vigorously opposedby teachers'
with the free exercise clause of the                                                    unions and their allies who spent in
First Amendment.                              n Dutch Parliament Adopts, Per-           excess of $10 million in a TV cam-
    RFRA essentially states that the          missive Euthanasia Law                    paign against the proposal.
state or federal government may not                After lengthy debate,the Dutch            Former Secretaries of Education
"substantiallyburden" acitizen'sfree          parliament recently passed what has       William Bennett and Lamar
exercise of his religion, .even if the        been describedby the secular press as     Alexander strongly supported the
burdenresultsfromanallegedly"neu-              "the world's most liberal euthanasia     measure, and the voucher concept
tral" law (one of "general applicabil-        policy." Although thelegislation does     was again widely debatedin the secu-
ity"), with one exception. This excep-        notlegalizeindiscriminatemercykill-       lar press and education journals. Al-
tion exists only when the government          ing, the loose reporting requirements     though the voucher proponents con-

                                                                                               January 15,1994/Standard Seared1  79


 cededdefeatinCalifornia,theyvowed            "choice"and education vouchers.          because the concept has lately been
 that vouchers are the wave of the                School vouchers, once an ignored     endorsed byblackeducators and par-
 future for American education. Many         and despised alternative to tax-sup-      ents who argue minority children are
 other state legislatures, including         ported public schools, have recently      locked into the notoriously deficient
 Michigan and Illinois, are quietly as-      gained surprising political viability     inter-city public schools  Q
 sessing the merits of school





                                           Calvinism and Missions
    U Perseverance of the Saints

     We have tackled the "toughies."         state of grace. It is obvious that if     entirely free of the ruts of sin. He
 Those who have difficulties with the        grace can be resisted, then there al-     knows that he is freed from the do-
 doctrines of "Calvinism" ordinarily         ways remains the possibility that one     minion of sin, but sin is still very
 have their problems with the doc-           who accepts grace today might resist      much present in him. He knows that
 trines of total depravity, uncondi-         it or not cooperate with it tomorrow.     sinfulness clings even to his best
 tional election, irresistible grace, and    So the Remonstrants, or Arminians,        works. Daily he must fight against
especially the doctrine of limited           concluded that it is not biblical to      sin. He recognizes in himself the
 atonement. With those we have dealt         teach that true believers will perse-     capability and possibility of falling
in previous issues. Some, but fewer,         vere in salvation.                        into grievous sin, as did David and
have a problem with the fifth and last           Just as the five points of Calvin-    Peter.
of the doctrines of "Calvinism,"             ism stand or fall together, so also do        The presence of sin and of this
namely, the perseverance of the saints.      the five Arminian positions stand or      sinfulness can make the believer won-
Many who deny the previous four              fall together.                            der whether he is really saved, and
points of Calvinism profess to main-                 *****Et+                          whether he might not be destined for
tain the fifth. They say that they hold          Consider with me the great and        eternal damnation. The devil de-
to the preservation.of the saints, but       wonderful comfort which can be de-        lights in nothing more than in giving
they often speak of it as "eternal secu-     rived from being able to preach the       the adopted children of God doubts
rity."                                       perseverance of the saints, especially    about the reality or the continuance of
     It should be noted that these           on the mission field andin the workof     their adoption.
Arminians of today are inconsistent          local evangelism.                                   *****al.*
when they do not have a problem                  Every convert to the faith soon           It is to this present reality of sin
with the preservation of the saints.         finds that he begins to doubt his sal-    within every convert that the Calvin-
They ought to. Their spiritual fathers       vation. He joins every other believer     istic or Reformed missionary pastor
did, and theyletit beknown that they         in needing a reassuring and biblical      has an answer. His answer will not
did. The Remonstrants or Arminians           answer to the doubts and fears he has     leave the convert in a worse state than
in the Netherlands stated their doubts       about the reality of his salvation and    when he began with his doubts. He
in the fifth of the five articles they       about the possibility of his remaining    will not tell these converts that there
presented to the Synod of Dordrecht          saved. Sometimes he may even won-         is the very real possibility that some
in 1618. The old Arminians said there        der whether he ever was saved. These      day in the future they might choose
could be no certainty as to abeliever's      doubts and fears arise because he         not to cooperate with God's grace,
continuance in salvation and in the          finds sin remaining in himself.           and that they might fall from grace.
                                                 St is the universal experience of     Nor will he tell the believer who is
                                             the child of God that, though he is       frightened by his sin that he is not
Rev. VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel        saved and forgiven, he still battles      really as bad as he thinks, or that his
Prof&tant  Reformed Church in ElkGrove       sin. He believes that Christ gave His     sins are not to be considered serious.
Village, Illinois.                           life a ransom for him, but he is not      Such a response belittles the horrible

IBOIStandard Bearer/January 15,1994


nature of all sin. It also errs by focus-    them will not leave them until that              The Reformed missionary pastor
ing attention on the sinning believer        work is fully done in the day of             alsb can comfort those who are con-
rather than turning and keeping one's        Christ's return (Phil. 1:6). "God is         verted, because he can proclaim the
attention fixed upon God. With re-           faithful" (I Cor. 1:9) to His own eter-      Godwhois"richinmercy"  (Eph.2:4).
spect to the question of giving or           nal decree of election. The eternally        There are no limits to God's riches.
maintaining salvation, the Calvinist         determined decree of election cannot         His riches are infinite. And so is His
andReformedpastorhasbeentaught               be frustrated by any                                        mercy. This mercy He
by the Scriptures to focus on the un-        weak creature. God is                                       extends to His people.
changeable and most merciful God.            faithful to those whom                                      And His mercy endures
    The Reformed missionary will             He has spiritually                The security              forever (Ps. 136).
teach that every believer, left to him-      adopted to be His own              of the saint                God's mercy is ac-
se& will easily stumble into specific        children, though they           does not depend             companied by God's
sins and will certainly fall away from       may fall into sin, even            on the state             "great love" (Eph. 2:4),
grace. This is as certain as the rising      deeply and bitterly.                                        which never slackens,
of the sun every day.                        Also, God is faithful to         of his feelings,           and is unchangeable,
    Also the Reformed missionary             His just determination          but on the gredt            though the manifesta-
will be teaching with an abundance           of righteousness when             love of God.              tions of this love may
of scripturalproof, that there aremany       He declared them iusti-                                     vary. The security of the
reasons why the believer is never left       fied. So nothing will al-                                   saint does not depend
to himself and will never fall out of        ter His judicial decree. God is faith-       on the state of his feelings, but on the
favor with God. Briefly, those rea-          ful!                                         great love of God. The Holy Spirit,
sons ate: God's eternal plan cannot                  The Reformed preacher proclaims      throughPaulinRomans8,defiesany-
change; God's promises cannot fail;          the good news of the Gospel that He          thing in heaven or on the earth to
God's calling cannot be revoked; the         who gave the Holy Spirit will never          separate a single object from this love
merit of Christ's life and death cannot      take Him away, even though the Spirit        of God in Christ. Is there any passage
be destroyed; and the sealing of the         may be grieved by the sins of those in       of Scripture which states our assur-
Holy Spirit cannot be withdrawn.             whom He dwells. The Spirit's pres-           ance of salvation more powerfully?
Simply put, the Calvinist who is ac-         ence in a believer is the "earnest," or          And the Reformed missionary
tive in the work of missions can and         guarantee, that full redemption shall        tells those converted to Godthatwhen
will proclaim the biblical and Re-           be given (II Cor. 5:5). Believers are        they begin to wonder whether they
formed truth that Godis the Almighty         "sealed with the Holy Spirit of prom-        might fall away from salvation, they
and ever faithful God.                       ise, which is the earnest of our inherit-    neednot fear, for the honor of Christ's
    God is Almighty. His power is            ance" (Eph. 1:13, 14). After all, the        name (Matt.  1:21) is at stake. His
the greatest. Therefore,those whom           work of the Spirit is sovereign, irre-       name declares that He saved from all
He is pleased to regenerate are regen-       sistible, and efficacious; so He and         their sins every one of those the Fa-
eratedunto"aninheritanceincorrupt-           His work cannot be stymied or frus-          ther gave to Him. The Savior will
ible,andundefiled,reservedinheaven           trated by any believer's fall into sin.      certainly preserve those for whom He
for you, who are kept by the power of                In addition, the Reformed mis-       came to earth in order to save from
God  through faith unto salvation" (I        sionary pastor will preach and teach         their sins!
Pet. 1:4,5). All who are born into the       that God and Christ would never                  This is the comfort the Reformed
family of God shall gain their inherit-      leave those for whom Christ died. If         under-shepherd proclaims to the
ance because not only is it reserved         Jesus gave Himself unto death for            sheep of the Shepherd and Bishop of
for them, but also they are kept for it      those who were ungodly and sinners,          our souls.
by the omnipotent power of the Al-           how much more will He not, by His                     *  *  *  * * * *
mighty. God is the One who "is able          life at God's right hand, ever work to          It has been said that the Calvinis-
tokeepyoufromfallingandtopresent             save them to the uttermost (Rom.             tic doctrine is a dangerous doctrine.
you faultless" (Jude 24). This is His        530). He tells us that He gives "unto        Some have made a caricature of this
power. Also, to Christ was given "all        them eternal life; and they shallnever       doctrine by re-defining it as "once
power" in heaven and on earth to             perish, neither shall any man pluck          saved, always saved." Then the beau-
save. As the Captain of our salvation        them out of my hand. My Father,              tiful doctrine of the preservation of
He has never suffered defeat. This is        which gave them me, is greater than          the saints is presented as meaning
an integral part of the message of the       all; and no man is able to pluck them        that once someone makes a profes-
Reformed missionary pastor.                  out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28, I sion of faith, they can be assured of
    The Reformed missionary will             29). What a comfort this knowledge           going to heaven regardless of how
also be teaching to fearful Christians       is to the believer. This knowledge           they live the rest of their life. It has
the biblical truth of God's faithful-        calms his fears and assures him of the       been said that the preservation of the
ness. He who began a good work in            certainty of his salvation.                  saints means that things are so settled

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     that we can enjoy the pleasures of sin.     weakness, willaccept  theresponsibil-        and all who come unto Him shall in
         It is good to remember that this        ity of living a life of gratitude, a life    no wise be cast out (John 6:37).  The
     caricature is not new, but was exactly      worthy of his profession and of the          Reformed missionary declares that
     the opposition the Arminians put up         God he professes to have saved him.          anyone who says it doesnot make any
     against the Reformed position at the            God preserves through the use of         difference how a believer lives is ei-
     Synod of Dordt. Note well that those        means. These means are the hearing           thernotregeneratedordoesnotknow
     who wrote the Canons of Dordt de-           andreadingofGod'sWord,andmedi-               God's Word. Those who have faith
     liberately identify the Fifth Head of       tation on the exhortations, threat-          live for Him who saved them. They
     Doctrine, not as the preserving, but as     enings, and promises of God's Word.          will not say that it does not make any
     the perseverance of the saints. The se-     Believers persevere by using these           difference how they live.
     lection of this word was deliberate,        means. Saints are responsible to use             The Reformedmissionary is quick
     And notice that this is called the per-     the means that God has given to pro-         to point out that this, in turn, does not
     severance of the saints, i.e, the holy      duce and to preserve faith. The saint        mean that the believer does not sin.
     ones. Not everyone who professes to         will desire to use and will be diligent      We sin, even terribly! But while a
     believe is a saint, for some deny their     in using the means God has ordained          Christian may be overtaken in sin, yet
     profession with a life and life-style       for strengthening his faith and his          he mourns over it. He repeatedly re-
     which are contrary to it.                   walk of obedience.                           pents and earnestly desires to flee
         Those who are preserved by God              The Reformed missionary will             from his sin. And he persists in using
     in the faith do persevere init. The true    proclaim from the pulpit and in pri-         the means God is pleased to use for
     believer shows God's preservation           vate conversation that anyone who            his perseverance.
     by persevering. Those who sincerely         would sincerely call upon the name of            Those chosen in Christ shall by
     profess a true faith, howbeit with          the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13),        grace certainly persevere.  Cl1




                                                 A Faithful Shepherd
                                                                                                                     Mrs. Ian Westra
     Pastor-that faithful shepherd of God's chosen flock.
     The flock which, by the shed blood of His own Son,
     He has purchased for His very own.
'    That shepherd called by God according to His heart.
     Mere man, in flesh weak, but through the Holy Spirit
     To him much knowledge has been shown.
                                                                       Preaching repentance and salvation  thrgggh faith in
     A faithful shepherd called to lead in pastures green,             Christ alone, a faithful shepherd always near,
     God's sheep. Feedingthe flock with nothing else but               His flock down life's pathway.doth lead.
     The preaching of God's Holy Word.                                 By God's grace he's given strength to uphold the Word,                .
     Guiding with the staff of righteousness given from above.         Instructing, admonishing, comforting, reproving,
     Protecting from heresy by sound doctrine firm,                    According to everyone's need.
     So nothing but the truth is heard.
                                                                       He joys with us as we give birth to God's cov'nant  seed,
     A faithful shepherd administers the sacraments                    A heritage of the Lord, a gift from God,
     Which the Lord our God Himself has instituted                     Indeed, a very great reward.
     As a seal of His grace to them.                                   He comforts us when God sees fit to take our little ones
     Baptizing in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;                    home,
     Seeing that they receive the holy bread and wine.                 Bringing the covenant promise; we trust those :.,
     In sure remembrance of Him.                                       Little lambs are safely with our Lord.               .,      '  ._

     He keeps his flock in good discipline before God,                 Little lambs also, a faithful shepherd must guide.
     As a faithful watchman guarding through the night;                He does this in the Catechism classes
     Praying for God-given wisdom,                                     He teaches from week to week
     That he-may faithfully lead his flock in pastures green; :        And in his preaching also, he leads them in their
     Wisdom and grace that he may always use aright                    ~Childlikefaith;instructingandadmonishing
     The keys of the heavenly kingdom.                                 That they the ways of the Lord must seek

     182lStandard Bearer /January 15,1994


As our children grow, a faithful shepherd doesn't leave              And so, our heavenly Father, it is our earnest prayer
These young sheep to question the truth and wonder                   That by Thy Holy Spirit Thou wilt give us humble hearts
In what they must put their trust;                                   Thy true and Holy Word to hear.
But leads them down life's pathway, instructing as they              For Thou dost give us pastors according to Thy heart.
                                                                     We know that weakest means fulfill Thy will and                  `-  z  `-
                                                                                                                                                 _  _
Teaching sound doctrine, that through the Holy Spirit                Lead us in Thy name to fear.
They too God's truth will confess.
                                                                     Be with the faithful shepherd that Thou hast given us.                             __
In marriage also a faithful shepherd must guide.                     Lord, give to him new strength from day to day;
His life he lives as an example to us.                               Be Thou always at his side.
A faithful husband of one wife.                                      He knows the weakness of his flesh; he needs Thee every -
Teaching his sheep that marriage must be in the Lord                        hour.
As a picture of Christ and His bride the church;                     As Thy chosen flock, we lift our hearts in prayer:
For God will surely bless this life.                                 Bless our pastor, Lord, with him abide.

As some of God's flock, God's aged saints, the end of life's
Pathway see; still some are called throughpain andsuff'ring
On this earth yet to remain.                                                 Mrs. Westra, a member of Hull PRC, pre-
By their side, with those they love, a faithful shepherd                     pared this reading for a program marking
           stands,                                                           Rev. Moore's 25th year in the minist y of the
Bringing to them all, God's most precious Wordi
"To live is Christ, to die is gain."



                                                                                                                                               _...
                            Counseling
                      with Marital Pr
     The article which follows is the first    almost as many divorces and remar-          largely responsible for the many solid
part  of  a  pape?"bresented  by Rev;          riages in the church today as there are     Christian marriages which we see in
denHartog   a t   t h e   Classis  weit        in the world. This is an alarming thing.    our churches. Definitely apostasy in           _
Officebearers `Conference held las t March     Immorality and unfaithfulness are in        many churches, even in Reformed  - -  -.
in South Holland, IL.                          many churches accepted as the inevi-        churches, has resulted in the disre-
                                               table product of our contemporary           gard for the sanctity of marriage and
     The Lord has greatly blessed our          society. All the marriage counseling        the breakup of many marriages.
churches with many strong Christian            in the modem-day church has done                The best marital counseling is                     `_
marriages and homes. This is a won-            little to stem the tide of trouble in       good solid preaching. Even the
der of His grace, especially in the age        marriages.                                  preaching of the great truths of God
we live in. We see in the world around             In the midst of this world one of       such as His absolute sovereignty and
us more and more the destruction of            the greatest blessings that the Lord        holiness serve for the good of mar- -.
marriage and the home. Andin much              has given to our churches, second           riages in the church. Such preaching
of the modem-day church we find the            only to the blessed truth of His Word,      instills the fear of God in the members
same miserable and wretched situa-             -is the blessing of many strong Chris-      of the church. The fear of God is the
tion as in the world at large. There are       tian marriages. I have heard visitors       main principle for all Christian living
                                               to our churches express amazement           and also for Christian marriage.
                                               at the strong Christian marriages and       Preaching the truth of the absolute
                                               families that our churches in general       infallibility and authority of the Word                            I
Rev. denHarfogis pastor  of Hope Prot&-        have. I believe that the truth that is_     of God for all of life is necessary for
fanf Reformed Church in Redlands,  Cali-       preached and maintained in our              maintaining marriages in the church.                  .`:-
fornia.                                        churches is, by the grace of God,           Sharply antithetical preaching that  `-l  _1

                                                                                                 January 15, I9WStandardB8ar8rM3


 reveals the absolute difference be-              because He knew how much His                 for the welfare of the sheep of our
 tween the philosophy of the world people needed constant instruction                          LordJesus  Christ. As pastors we may
 and the truth of God is necessary for            onmarriage. This needis greater than         not ignore this part of our calling or
 maintaininggoodChristianmaniages                 ever because of the ungodliness of           give it to someone else. There is
 in the church. In particular, preach-            our age. There is needin our churches        prevalent in the church-world the
 ing that emphasizes the                                         for pre-marriage  coun-       notion that most marital problems
 great truth that mar-                                           selingfor couples intend-     are of such a nature that they need to
 riage is an ordinance of                   The best             ing to get married. It is     be dealt with by a professional coun-
 God and that it is an                                           good for us as pastors to     selor, they are too difficult for the
 unbreakable, lifelong                      marital              deal directly with mar-       ordinary pastor to handle. Many
 bond is the preaching                     counseling            riage questions in young      pastors therefore quickly send their
 that will foster strong             is good solid               people's society and          parishioners to such professional
 marriagesinthechurch.                     preaching.            couples' groups in our        counselors if they imagine that they
 In short, faithfulpreach-                                       churches. In  Redlands        cannot handle the problems them-
 ingof the whole counsel L                                       we recently spent a           selves. We believe this is wrong and
 of God is the greatest                                          whole season studying         also very dangerous. Among the  so-
 powertomaintainChristianmarriage                 marriage and the family in our Young         calledprofessionalmarriagecounsel-
 in the church. I believe that the Lord           Adults Fellowship.                           ors in the world there are very few
 has greatly blessed in our churches                     But in addition to public teaching    that hold to truly biblical principles of
 the strong position that we have by              and preaching there is a great need          marriage.Manyinfactpromote some
 His grace maintained regarding mar-              for pastoral work to help members of         of the  most  ungodly principles of
 riage and the home.                              the church with serious marital prob-        marriage imaginable. I recently heard,
     At the same time, our churches               lems. We are, sad to say, seeing more        for example, even of a so-called Cluis-
 and her members are threatened by                and more marriages in deep trouble           tian counselor giving advice to an
' the increasingly ungodly world that             also in our churches. These troubles         unmarried man struggling with
 we live in. There is hardly an area that         are bringing great grief and anguish         sexual temptations to go out and find
 more reveals the ungodliness of this             to the people involved. Marital prob-        himselfawomanwithwhomhecould
 world than the evil philosophy it                lems among the members of the                obtain relief from his sexual tensions
 propagates regarding marriage.                   church are some of the most difficult        by satisfying his desires. As pastors
 Worldly philosophy regarding mar-                problems we face in the pastorate.           we had better realize the tremendous
 riage is also making inroads into our            Often such marital problems are so           amount of ungodly advice that is be-
 churches. Even philosophies as evil              extremely difficult that God's people        inggiventocoupleswithmaritalprob-
 as those of the feminist movement are            cannot solve themwith-                                     lems. We are respon-
 having subtle influences on thethink-            out outside help. That                                     sible before God for this
 ing of our church members. There is              help must be given by                                      when we send the sheep
 evidence of a relaxing attitude to-              the pastors of the church,                                 of Jesus: flock to such
 wards the seriousness of the sins of             including ministers of           faithfZ;asto*             evil counselors!
 immorality. Thoughwestronglycon-                 the Word and elders. We               who is                   The faithful pastor
 demn worldly amusement in our                    as churches take a strong           thoroughly             who is thoroughly
 pulpits there is evidence that movies            and uncompromising                   equipped              equippedwiththe Word
 and videos, even with grossly im-                standonmarriage on the                                     of God is the best mar-
 moral themes, are being watched for              basis of God's Word.                 with the              riage counselor. He is
 entertainment in some of our homes.              This stand however is             Word of God              qualified to do marriage
 Some of our members are adopting                 not one without compas-             is the best            counseling even where
 worldly life-styles that in a large mea-         sion. In fact, the strong            marriage              there are difficult mari-
 sure contribute to the breakdown of              stand of Scripture is also          counselor.             tal problems. He is
 marriages and homes. The devil is                at the same time the most                                  equipped for two rea-
 working hard in our, churches. He                truly compassionate                                        sons especially: because
 well knows that one of the best ways             stand. Pastors must                                        he stands in the office of
 to destroy the church is by destroying           have deep sympathy for those who             Christ and has the authority of that
 her marriages.                                   are struggling with marriage prob-           office, andbecause he has the Word of
     There is a great need in our                 lems. They must reach out to help            God which reveals the perfect wis-
 churches for specific preaching about            them by the grace of God.                    dom of God concerning marriage.
 all the various aspects of marriage.                    Pastors are called to be involved     This Word is all-sufficient, powerful,
 The Bible enables us to do that be-              in counseling couples with marital           authoritative, compassionate, effec-
 cause it is full of specific instruction         problems. Such counseling is part of         tive, and saving. God's people with
 on marriage. God gave us all of this             the spiritual labors we must perform         marital problems need to hear the

 1 f34lStandard Bearer /January 15,1994


Word of God. They need that more           flock. It takes skillful handling of the      elaborately furnished home; several
than they need anything else, cer-         Word of God with patience and per-            automobiles; frequent, expensive, ex-
tainly more than they need the hu-         severance. There must be a real will-         citing vacations; and more. To keep
manistic advice of ungodly men.            ingness to listen to the deep hurt which      up the great expense of such a life-
Pastors need to have a thorough            marital problems cause. Needless to           style, both husband and wife have to
knowledge of the biblical principles       say, all of this takes much prayerful         work. Not only this, they have to
of marriage. We need to be thor-           preparation and wisdom on the part            work so many hours that they hardly
oughly convinced of the power of the       of the pastor.                                have any time for their marriages and
Word of God. We need to rely en-               Books on this subject list various        families. The women of the world
tirely on the wisdom and power of          causes of marital problems. Some of           imagine that they have the right to
Gods Word.                                 the chief ones are 1) disagreement            forsake entirely their calling in the
    We need to show ourselves to be        over financial matters in a marriage;         home to seek a glamorous career in
pastors indeed to members of the           2) sexual problems between couples;           the world. Men in turn often make
church of Jesus Christ, men who are        3) a lack of communion and commu-             their careers the absolute number one
carefully studied and have the wis-        nications between husband and wife;           priority of their life, and they devote
dom of the Word of God, and men            4) difficulties of life that drive couples    to it all their time and energy. At the
who are full of the compassion and         apart rather than together because            same time they grievously neglect
love of the Lord Jesus Christ. We          such problems are not being dealt             their responsibility and calling in
must have a reputation in the church       with together as husband and wife,            marriage and the home. The world is
of Jesus Christ that we are warm,          are not dealt with in a biblical man-         caught up in a rat race to succeed and
personal, and deeply concerned, and        ner, and are not borne by the grace of        get ahead and to be prosperous.
easily approachable by Gods people.        God; 5) the burdens of raising chil-              Many Christians have made
Our demeanor must be such that the         dren not shared by husband and wife           themselves part of this rat race. This
first person that God's people will        together; 6) constant cruel and harsh         is a great evil. This is not justified by
seek out when they face marital prob-      criticism of one partner for the other;       convincing oneself that all this is nec-
lems is not some worldly professional      7) many ways in which husbands or             essary to support a wife and family.
counselor but the pastor of the church     wives do not fulfill their responsibil-       This kind of life-style is destroying
of Jesus Christ.                           ity and duty in the marriage; 8) physi-       many marriages. There is the com-
    Because of the deeply sensitive        cal abuse of wives by their husbands.         mon philosophy among many that, as
nature of marriage problems most               I am sure there are many more.            soon as problems arise, either of the
who are experiencing these are very        Life in the world today certainly puts        partners has the right to forsake the
hesitant to go for any outside help.       great pressure on marriages that              marriage. Every man has the right of
We therefore need to live among the        greatly contributes to the breakdown          happiness in this life and he need not
people of God so that we can spot          of many marriages. There are many             put up with trouble for any length of
marital problems as early as possible.     ungodly philosophies that militate            time. Many have forgotten the tradi-
One of the great tragedies of marital      against God'sWordonmarriage.  We              tional vow "for better of for worse."
problems is that it is often the case      are living in a sex-crazed society that                            . . . to be continued
that those with such problems do not       instills in people the expectation that
seek help until their marriages are        sex between husband and wife must
totally on the rocks. They are then at     always be passionate and extremely                     Remember:
a stage in which helping them is ex-       exciting. There is propagated by the
tremely difficult. Often deep-seated       mass media an inordinate emphasis
bitterness and despair have set in, the    on outward bodily appearance, which                             The
feeling of love has been destroyed,        leaves the idea in people's mind that
and there is a tangled web of sinful       the worth of a marriage partner is                   Standard Bearer
words and deeds that couples have          dependent entirely on sexual attrac-
done to each other, and after a long       tiveness. There is a commonly ac-
period of time this has resulted in the                                                                  is still
                                           cepted notion that if you no longer
absolutebreakdownoftheirmaniage.           find your partner sexually attractive,                    half  price
Sometimes decisions for separation         there may be someone else available                           for an
and divorce have already been firmly       who is more attractive, and you have
made.                                      every right to forsake your spouse to               introductory
    Marital counseling takes a lot of      find someone more exciting.                           kubscriptioti
pastoral work. It takes a lot of com-          The world we live in is extremely
passion and willingness on the part of     materialistic. Everyoneimagines that                 ($6.00 domestic,
the pastor to deal personally and ex-      he has a right to be wealthy and to                    $7.50 foreign).
tensively with the members of his          have all the luxuries of a beautiful,

                                                                                               January 15,l QQ4lStandard Bearerll55


                  The Remarriage of the
                                ",lnnocent ~Party"

         And I say unto you, Whosoever         bers who sin in the matter of mar-         what God said about marriage in
shall put away his wife, except it be for      riage.                                     Matthew 19 is the rule for marriage,
fornication, and shall marry another,              Not long ago, a deeply disturbed       divorce, and remarriage in evangeli-
committeth adultery: and whoso  marrieth       church member related to me that he        cal churches today.
her which is put away doth commit              had gone to his minister pleading that         The consequences are dreadful.
adultery.                                      he teach the congregation the will of          Divorce and remarriage are de-
                        - Matthew 1919         God concerning marriage. He had            stroying Christian families by the
                                               made this plea because of the abomi-       thousands. Countless wives and hus-
S c a n d a l                                  nable events that were occurring in        bands, wickedly divorced by their
    It is painfully evident to everyone        the congregation. Members were di-         mates, and multitudes of children,
that the dishonoring of marriage in            vorcing their own wives and hus-           abandoned by one of their parents,
evangelical Protestant churches  to-           bands and remarrying each other's          are ruined. They are ruined psycho-
day is scandalous. Divorces for every          wives and husbands. The minister's         logically, spiritually, and eternally.
reason and remarriages abound. It is           response was, "I would not touch that          Worse still, divorce and remar-
now lawful for a man to put away his           subject with a ten-foot pole."             riage disgrace God's Name. People
wife for any cause and to marry an-                Pt the International Council on        called by the name of the God who is
other, often someone else's wife, and          Biblical Inerrancy held in Chicago,        faithfulin His covenant are unfaithful
to be a member in good standing in an          Illinois, in 1986, where inerrancy was     in the most basic of all the relation-
evangelical church.                            to be applied to the Christian life,       ships of life. Their claim is that the
    The causes of this scandal are             some proposed a strong statement on        God of Christianity justifies and ap-
many. For one thing, the churches are          the lifelong nature of marriage, con-      proves this gross unfaithfulness. They
conformed to this world. In North              demning divorce except in the case of      ransack His Word to discover war-
America we live in a society in which          fornication and forbidding remar-          rant for their violation of their sacred
one of every two marriages breaks up           riage. Pastors of the large evangelical    vow of marriage. When theyremarry,
in divorce and in which it is accept-          churches opposed the proposalvehe-         often another man's wife or another
able to remarry. Like Israelunder the          mently since it would have created         woman's husband, they do so in a
Old Covenant, the churches have                trouble in their churches, filled as       Christian ceremony, using an oblig-
learned well the ways of the heathen           they are with divorced and remarried       ing minister of the gospel, and with
among whom they live.                          members. Needless to say, the pro-         yet another pledge of godly fidelity.
    Another cause is the silence of the        posal got nowhere.                         It is common in evangelical churches
pulpit and the neglect of the key-                 Fundamentally, the cause of the        that this is repeated three and four
power of Christian discipline. Due             scandal is that the churches refuse to     times. This is a profaning of the name
partly to their sympathy for the hard          bow, unconditionally, to the sover-        of God.
lot of some members and due partly             eign autho+y of theHoly Scriptures.            It is urgent that the true church of
to theti fear lest they cause trouble in       When the Pharisees asked Jesus about       Christ and her faithful ministers bear
their congregations, ministers refuse          the lawfulness of divorce, He replied,     witness to God's truth concerningthe
to preach the truth about marriage,            "Have ye not read?" that is, "What         unbreakable bond  of marriage.
divorce, and remarriage, and elders            does theBible say?" "What does God
refuse to exercise censure upon mem-           say in His inspired Word?" (Matt.          The Snocent Party"
                                               19:4). What God said "at the begin-            A serious challenge to this testi-
                                               ning" in Genesis 2:24 was decisive for     mony about marriage is the claim that
Excerpted from fhe new book on single life,    Jesus as regards marriage and di-
marriage, divorce,and remarriage by David                                                 the "innocent party" in a divorce has
]. Engelsma, Better to Mary. Copyright by      vorce. Not so for the evangelical          the right to remarry. The "innocent
the Reformed Free Publishing Association.      churches. Neither what God said            party" is the faithful husband whose
Reprinted with permission.                     about marriage at the beginning nor        wife commits adultery against him or

188lStandard  Bearer/January X,1994


thefaithfulwifewhosehusbandwick-            precede the words "and shall marry              There is one exception to this for-
eclly divorces her for another woman.       another." The exception applies to          bidding of divorce: the fornication of
Some who oppose other remarriages           the prohibition against divorce. Had        one's mate. Fornication in the text is
as unlawful have great difficulty with      Jesus meant to give an exception to         sexual unfaithfulness to one's hus-
the prohibition of the remarriage of        His prohibition against remarriage,         band or wife in that one has sexual
the innocent party.                         He would have placed the exception          relations with another. Usually, it is
    People are naturally sympathetic        clause after the words, "and shall          adultery, but it refers as well to homo-
to the innocent party and suppose           marry another." The text would then         sexual sin.
that the Scriptures would make al-          have read, "Whosoever shallput away             Fornication is the one biblical
lowances for them and their need.           his wife and shall marry another, ex-       ground for divorce. This brings home
    But there is also biblical argu-        cept it be for fornication," etc.           to Christians the importance of sexual
ment for the position that the inno-             The deliberate placement of the        faithfulnessinmarriageandthegrav-
cent party may remarry. Appeal is           exception clause following the men-         ity of the wickedness of adultery. It
made to Jesus' words in Matthew             tion of divorce but preceding the           also brings out that the wisdom of the
19:9. Although Jesus forbids divorce        mention of remarriage indicates that        Lord is practical. No one-is required
and remarriage, there is an exception:      Jesus is giving an exception only re-       to live with a fornicating mate with all
"except it be for fornication." Surely,     garding the prohibition against di-         the dangers to soul and body that this
say the advocates of the remarriage of      vorce.                                      involves.
the innocent party, this establishes             That Jesus is not teaching that the        There is an exception to the pro-
the right of the innocent party to di-      innocentpartymayremarryisproved             hibition against divorce. There is no
vorce his or her unfaithful mate and        conclusively by the second part of the      exception to the prohibition against
to marry another.                           text: "and whoso marrieth her which         remarriage. All who remarry after
    Marriage, then, is not a lifelong,      is put away doth commit adultery."          divorce, regardless of the fact that
unbreakable bond. Men and women             It is a serious violation of a basic law    they are the innocent party, commit
can break it. They can break it by          governing the interpretation of the         adultery. The guilty husband who
fornication.                                Scriptures that men ignore the other,       has divorced his faithful wife and
    This popular understanding of           clearerpassagesonremarriageintheir          married another commits adultery.
the text, however, is mistaken. The         explanation of Matthew 19:9. It is an       But also the man who marries the
text itself makes plain that the remar-     even worse error that they commonly         innocent divorcee commits adultery.
riage of the innocent party is forbid-      ignore the second part of the text              Interpreted in this way, Matthew
den by the Lord....                         itself.                                     19:9 harmonizes with the teaching of
    . ..Our question concerning Mat-             The second part of the text refers     Christ and His apostles elsewhere in
thew  19:9, remember, is whether the        back to the wife of the first part. Her     the New Testament, that marriage is
exception clause is intended to qualify     husband has divorced her even               for life and that all remarriage after
only the prohibition against divorc-        though she was not guilty of fornica-       divorce is adultery. It also accords
ing or also the prohibition against         tion. He has since married another          with the fundamental, Word of Jeho-
remarrying. Nowhere else do the             and, according to the judgment of           vah God about marriage in Genesis
Scriptures teach that fornication is a      Christ, is living in adultery. The          2:24 to which Jesus has referred in
ground for remarriage. Rather, the          woman referred to in the second part        verses 4 and 5 of Matthew 19: "... For
Scriptures elsewhere teach that all         of Matthew 19:9, therefore, is the in-      .this cause shall a man leave father and
remarriage after divorce is adultery.       nocent party. According to those            mother, and shall cleave to his wife:
But Matthew 5:31,32  does teach that        whoitidinthefirstpartofthetextthe           and they twain shall be one flesh."
fornication is a ground for divorce.        right of the innocent party to remarry,         This explanation fits the context,
This would lead us to suppose that in       she should be free to marry another         for the question of the Pharisees con-
Matthew  19:9 the exception clause          man. But Christ denies this: "Whoso         cerned divorce, not remarriage: "Is it
must be taken to qualify only the           marrieth her which is put away doth         lawful for a man to put away his wife
prohibition against divorce.                commit adultery." Even though she           for every cause?" (v. 4). Jesus is
                                            is the innocent party, she may not          answering the question "Are there
No Remarriage                               remarry. If she does, her marriage is       grounds for divorce?" He is not an-
    A careful examination of the            an adulterous marriage.                     swering a question about grounds for
Lord's words in Matthew 19:9 re-                 The doctrine of the Lord in Mat-       remarriage. Jesus mentions remar-
veals that this is exactly His teaching.    thew 19:9 thenis this: Husbands may         riage because remarriage is invari-
This is evident from the placement of       not divorce their wives. If they do,        ably in view when a man divorces his
the exception clause in the text. The       they sin. The rule in the kingdom of        wife.
words "except it be for fornication"        Christ is that expressed in verse 6:            It maybe noted that thisinterpre-
immediately follow the words y who-         "What therefore God hath joined to-         tation of the text, with its prohibition
soever shall put away his wife" and         gether, let not man put asunder."           against the remarriage of the inno-

                                                                                                 January 15,l WI/Standard  Bearerjl87


I                                                                                                                                        I



     cent party, was the virtually unani-        Only God may dissolve it. Only God          her on the biblical ground given in
     mous position of the church for about       can dissolve it. God dissolves it by        Matthew 19:9. Accordingto the stand
     a thousand years after the apostles.        death. Christ's forbidding of the re-       of his church, the man- the innocent
                                                 marriage of the innocent party rests        party  - then remarries. Later, the
     The Ground of the Prohibition               .on the conception of marriage as an        unfaithfulwiferepentsandreturnsto
         The ground of the prohibition           indissoluble bond formed by God.            the church. When she desires to re-
     against the remarriage of the inno-         Verse 9 of Matthew 19 is grounded in        marry, the church must approve. For
     cent party is simply what marriage is       verses 4-6.                                 her original marriage was dissolved
     by the sovereign act of God the Cre-            Even though her husband has             by her fornication. As an unmarried
     ator. Marriage is a lifelong, unbreak-      unjustly put her away and entered           woman, she has every right to marry.
     able bond between one man and one           into an adulterous marriage with an-        In addition, her original husband has
     woman. Jesus had taught this basic          other woman, the innocent woman             been allowed to remarry so that rec-
     truth about marriage in verses 4-6 of       may not remarry. Whoever marries            onciliation with him is impossible.
     Matthew 19:                                 her commits adultery. For she has a             Or a man divorces his wife
                                                 husband. He is a wicked husband.            unbiblically in order to marry an-
       Andheansweredandsaiduntothem,             He is living in adultery with another       other woman. The innocent woman
       Have ye not read, that he which made      woman. But he is her husband. She           remarries with the blessing of the
       them at the beginning made them           is bound to him. God binds her to           church. Later, the original husband
       male and female, And said, For this       him. God binds her to him until death       professes repentance and seeks ad-
       cause shall a man leave father and
       mother, and shall cleave to his wife:     as they no doubt acknowledged when          mission into the church with his sec-
       and they twain shall be one flesh?        they married, vowing "until death us        ond wife. The church must approve
       Wherefore they are no more twain,         do part."                                   his present marriage and receive the
       but one flesh. What therefore God             If, on the contrary, the innocent       couple since his originalman5age was
       hath joined together, let not man put     party is free to remarry, the guilty        dissolved by his adultery.
       asunder.                                  partyislikewisefreetoremarry. Some              Christ approves none of this. The
                                                 like to restrict the right of remarriage    remarriage of the guilty party is con-
     In teaching this, Jesus points out that     to the innocent party. But this is          tinuous adultery: "(He) committeth
     He wasonlyrepeatingwhat  GodHim-            impossible. If the innocent party in a      adultery." Also the remarriage of the
     self had revealed about marriage on         divorce may remarry, the reason must        innocent party is adulterous: "Whoso
     the occasion of His institution of mar-     be that the marriage has been dis-          marrieth  her which is put away doth
     riage in Paradise. In Genesis2:24  God      solved. No one, except perhaps an           commit adultery." For Christ honors
     Himselfhadrevealed thatHisinstitu-          unreconstructed Mormon, would al-           His own institution of marriage as an
     tion of marriage is an indissoluble         low a person who is presently mar-          unbreakable bond. God ordained
     bond for life.                              ried to marry another. The guilty           marriage in the beginning to be the
         At issue in the controversy over        party has dissolved the marriage by         earthly symbol of His own relation-
     the remarriage of the innocent party        his fornication. But if the marriage is     ship of love with His people in Christ.
     is theverynature of marriageitself. Is      dissolved for the innocent party, it        The reality of marriage is the cov-
     marriage merely a conditional con-          has been dissolved also for the guilty      enant of grace that God has estab-
     tract hammered out between a man            party. In the nature of the case, a         lished with Israel/church. God mar-
     and a woman- a contract hammered            marriage cannot be dissolved for only       ried Jerusalem according to Ezekiel
     out in the presence of God but still        one of the married persons any more         16. The fulfillment of this marriage
     only a contract between the two? If         than a marriage can be an adulterous        according to Ephesians 5:22ff. is the
     this is what marriage is, it can indeed     marriage for only one of the persons.       New Testament covenant between
     be broken by the failure of one or the      This means that the guilty person is        Christ and the church. Marriage is
     other to fulfill the basic condition of     no longer married. In this case he is       the "great mystery... (of) Christ and
     the contract, namely, sexual faithful-      free to marry, for God gives every          the church" (Eph. 5:32).
     ness.                                       unmarried person the right to marry             God is faithful in the covenant.
         Or is marriage not a contract at all    if he wills (cf. I Cor. 7:27,28).           Henever divorces andremarries. God
     but a relationship, a union, made by            Permitting the innocent party to        is faithful at awful cost. He gave up
     God? And is it such a union, such a         remarry necessarily opens the church        His only begotten Son to the death of
     divine joining, of the two that they        up to the acceptance also of the re-        the cross. By the atoning death of the
     become one flesh? If this is what           marriage of the guilty party. Two           Son of God, faithless Israel/church
     marriage is, it cannot be dissolved by      examples reflecting that which is ac-       obtained the right to be God's bride.
     man. The' state cannot dissolve it;         tually happening in evangelical             On the basis of the cross, the Spirit of
     churches cannot dissolve it; society        churches will make this clear.              Christ cleanses Israel/ church so that
     cannot dissolve it; the married per-            A man's wife leaves him to whore        she becomes faithful to God in thank-
     sons themselves cannot dissolve it.         around with other men. He divorces          ful love.

     1 WStandard  Bearer /January l&l994


    Jesus Christ taught a doctrine of      church that is determined to teach the       the culture in which she lives; regard-
faithfulness in an indissoluble mar-       nations  N to observe all things whatso-     less of the teaching and practice of
riage bond because He practices this       ever I have commanded you" (Mat?.            other churches; and regardless of the
Himself in the real marriage.              2820). Her stand on remarriage is            opposition within her own member-
                                           determined by the doctrine of her            ship of fathers, mothers, brothers, sis-
Some  Practical Implications               Lord as revealed in the Scriptures.          ters, and friends of those who desire
    This must be the stand of the          This must be her stand regardless of         to remarry.  0


                                           the advice of the unbelieving coun-          or are struggling with homosexual
Better toMary, by David J. Engelsma.       selor and the advice of the suppos-          feelings: "It (the Gospel) forgives all
Grand Rapids: Reformed Free Pub-           edly Christian counselor." Or again          past sins of fornication, including
lishing Association, 1993. 105 pp.,        he writes, "Either the churches offi-        homosexual sins . . . and it breaks the
$9.95 (paper). [Reviewed by Rev.           cially adopt reports that sanction the       ruling power of the sin of fornication.
Audred Spriensma.]                         sexual activity of the unmarried, the        Whether the gospel has the power to
    Prof. David Engelsma has writ-         unbiblical divorcing and the remar-          deliver those who have the perverse
ten another smallbook(105 pages) on        rying of the married,and the homo-           desire for people of their own sex, so
the subject of marriage. His first         sexual lust and conduct of married           that they crucify this desire and reso-
book, Marriage: theMystery  of Christ      and unmarried; or the churches preach        lutely refuse to practice it, is not even
and the Church, was first published in     a grace of Godin Christ that approves        a question in the church where the
1975 and has been reprinted several        all this wickedness by tolerating it in      gospel is known" (p. 10). Again, "...
times. It is a fine book on the nature     the lives of professing Christians and       for those who have already broken
and demands of marriagebased upon          in the fellowship of the congrega-           God's law concerning marriage,
the teaching of God's Word from            tion." Prof. Engelsma,. correctly I          whether by fornication, by an
Ephesians 5. The Christian couple in       believe, lays the blame of much of the       unbiblical divorce, or by remarriage,
their marriage relationship are to be a    sinwhereitbelongs,i.e.,onthechurch.          there is a way of escape from condem-
picture of the glorious relationship       Office-bearers will have to give an          nation. This way is by repentance.
between Christ and His church. As a        account to the Head of the church in         Repentance finds forgiveness in the
pastor I was happy to give that book       the Judgment Day for having caused           atoning death of Jesus Christ. There
to all the young couples I married in      these little ones to stumble.                is abundant mercy in the Savior to
my previous churches.                          The theme of the book is that it is      blot out the guilt of fornication, deser-
    Now we have another book from          better to marry in order to flee forni-      tion, divorce, and remarriage. But
the able hand of this writer and pas-      cation. Fornication was common in            repentance breaks with the sin and
tor. This book is not to replace the       the pagan world of the apostle Paul's        walks henceforth in obedience to the
first book but to supplement that          day, as it is also in our day. We live in    .ordinances of God, regardless of the
teaching. Now Prof. Engelsma draws         a sex-saturated society. As Prof.            cost" (p. 87).
from the teaching of God's Word as it      Engelsma points out in regard to for-            The book contains a nice section
is found in that classic passage of        nication: "It is no different from eat-      on the single person. Single life is
marriage, I Corinthians 7. Here God's      ing, except that more effort is put          oftenneglectedorlookeddownupon.
Word gives us the very practical and       forth to stir up the appetite for fomi-      But God's Word shows that the single
earthy basis for marriage and the an-      eating than for eating." In this age the     life is honorable and even beneficial
swers to problems in marriage.             church must speak plainly and                for the Kingdom of God. Personally I
    We need this. Too often God's          unashamedly about sex in the single          would like to see the author write a
people listen to the wisdom and ad-        life and in marriage.                        separate bookon this important topic.
vice of the world concerning sex and           The author can be thanked for his        Or perhaps we wouldbe  better served
marriage, advice not based upon            careful exegetical treatment of I            with a different title to this present
God's Word and therefore advice that       Corinthians 7, pointing out howmod-          book, such as "Serving the Lord in
leads the saints astray. Prof. Engelsma    em translations have corrupted the           Single or MarriedLife."  Singleness as
writes, "It becomes increasingly rare      teaching of God's Word. At the end of        a lifelong state is honorable.
that the churches and their teachers       each chapter Prof. Engelsma sums up              Christians who desire to live for
base their instruction and guidance        the teaching of God's Word and lists         God's glory andin obedience to God's .
squarely on the Word of God . . . the      implications of this teaching for the        Word whether single or married
churches are ready to give counsel         conduct and attitudes of believers           would do well to read and apply the
that deviates from, and even plainly       and the church. And coming through           down-to-earth practical instruction
contradicts Holy Scripture. In the         loud and clear, as must be the case, is      that one finds in this book
end, there is no difference between        the gospel to those who have sinned,             Prof. Engelsma concludes the

                                                                                              January 15,1994lStandard  Bearetil99


book with a sermon in an appendix              able Reformed scholar. He has com-            truth," he says, "hears my voice"
regarding the sin of remarriage. It is         pared his own translation with the            (John 18:37) . . ..WhydowewiUfully
well that the book ends with a ser-            German translation of B. Spiess; the          act like madmen in searching out the
mon. It shows that not only is it              South African translation of H. W.            church when Christ has marked it
possible for the church to preach these        Simpson; and the English translation          with an unmistakable token, which,
practical truths but also necessary,           of F. L. Battles. The purpose that            wherever it is seen, cannot fail to
                                                                                             show the church there; while where
for preaching is the means of grace            guided van't Spijker in the decisions         it is absent, nothing remains that can
that God uses and blesses to lead His          that translators must make was to             give the true meaning of the church?
church in the truth. n                         m off er a good readable Dutch text, by
                                               which Calvin's intention was ren-                Then, the translation of van't
Instituf;`e  1536, Johannes Calvijn.           dered as purely as possible."               Spijker:
Vertaling Dr. W. van't Spijker. 1992               A comparison with the English
Uitgeverij De Groot Goudriaan  -               translation of F. L. Battles indicates        Op die manier worden  ons nu sommige
Kampen. 320 bladzijden.  fZ62,50.              that this Dutch translation is faithful.      uifwendige verschijnselen van de kerk
[Reviewed by the Editor.]                      This may be illustrated from VI.B.20,         voorgehouden.  Maar  die  zz@  van hef
        Some of the readers of this maga-      Calvin's powerful treatment of the            wezen  van de kerk ver verwijderd, en de
zineread theDutchlanguage. Others              mark of the true church against the.          kerk  kan hef  OQ een uitnemende manier
may want to add a Dutch edition of             "more than dangerous and deadly               zonder  stellen. Daarom hebben ook wij
Calvin's                                                                                     geen  andere  bewijsgrond  om hen to
              Institutes to their library.     enemies of the church" who pride
Especially for them, I call attention to       themselves on a "false pretext of the         weerleggen dan die, waarmee Jeremia
                                                                                             hetovermoedigeverfrouwen  vandeJoden
Dr. van't Spijker's translation of             church."                                      bestreed, en  we1 daf zijzich niet moesten
Calvin's 1536 edition of theInstitutes             First, the translation of Battles:        bercemen op leugenach f ige wooralen  aToor
from the Latin into the Dutch. Evi-                                                          to zeggen:  `Des HEREN  tempel, des
dently, this is the first time that the          So in place of the church now are           HEREN tempel, des HEREN  tempel is
1536 Institutes has been translated              displayed to us certain outward ap-         dit' (Jeer. 7:4). Want de Here erkent
into Dutch.                                      pearances which are often far re-           nergens anders iefs als zijn eigendom,
        The 1536.edition  of Calvin's great      moved from the church and without           dan waar men zijn Woord hoorf en
work was the orginal form of the                 which the church can stand at her           godvruchfigin acht  neemf. Want dif is
                                                 best. Accordingly, we are to refute         immers een alfijd geldend  kenfeken,
Institutes.  It was much briefer than            them by the very argument with              waarmee  onze Here de zijnen heejt
the final form of 1559. The impor-               which Jeremiah contended against            gekenmerkt: `Wie uit de waarheid is,'
tance of the original edition, as van't          the stupid confidence of the Jews.          zegf  Hij, `hoorf mijn stem'(Joh.  18:37).
Spijker observes in his  "Verant-                That is, "Let them not boast in lying       . . . Hoe zullen wij a'an uit onszelf  bij hef
woording," is that it was "the first             words, saying `This is the Temple of        beoordelen  van de kerk ons als dwazen
public testimony of (Calvin's) choice            the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the       aanstellen? Chrisfus heefthaar  immers
on behalf of the.Reformation." As to             Temple of the Lord"' (Jer. 7:4) For         met een feken aangeduid daf allerminst
its nature, "as catechism, a theologi-           the Lord recognizes nothing any-            dubieus is. Overal waar men dit ziet,
cal handbook in process, an apology              where as his save where his Word is         kan hef niet arulers,  of dear vertoon f zich
in the sphere of church and state, thus          heard and scrupulously observed.            zekerdekerk. Waarhetechterontbreekt,
                                                 For this is the. abiding mark with          blijjf  er in het geheel niefs over, waf een
Calvin intended his firsteditionof the           which our Lord has sealed his own           echte betekenis aan de kerk wu kunnen
Institutes."                                     people: "Everyone who is of the             verlenen  (pp. 268,269).         0
        The translator is a capable, reli-




Young People's Activities                          In keeping with the holiday sea-            The Young People's Society of
        Let's begin this issue of the          son just past,the YoungPeople's  Soci-      the Immanuel PRC of Lacombe, AB,
"News" by coming up to. date on                ety of the Byron Center, MI PRC spon-       Canada recently sponsored an
some of the activities and fund-rais-          sored a combination poinsettia and          evening of volleyball and other ac-
ers which the young people of our              fruit basket sale toward the end of         tivities for their congregation at the
various congregations are engaged              November. Members of Byron Cen-             Lacombe Christian School. Refresh-
in.                                            ter were encouraged to purchase these       ments were also provided by the
                                               items from the young people, with           young people, with proceeds from
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant       the money raised going towards this         the evening going towards this
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,Michi-          summer's young people's convention          summer's convention.
gan.                                           in Lynden, WA.                                  Following that same theme, the

190lStandard Bearer/January 15,1994


young people of the Loveland, CO            sion field in Northern Ireland, where
PRC also recently sponsored a night         they were able to visit with their mis-            BRITISH REFORMED
of volleyball for their congregation.       sionary, Rev. R. Hanko and his fam-                     FELLOWSHIP
Refreshments were  proyided,  with          ily, and the Covenant Reformed Fel-                  FAMILY HOLIDAY
donations taken for the up-coming           lowship.                                               CONFERENCE
convention.                                     Once again this year the congre-         Dates: 30 July - 6 August 1994.
    All adults of the First PRC in          gation of our Hudsonville, MI PRC           Place:  Scottish College of Textiles,
Holland, MI were invited to a Christ-       were encouraged by their deacons to                 Galashiels, Scotland,
mas dinner in early December, spon-         participate in a food-drive for the             (34 miles south of Edinburgh:
sored by their young people's society,      benefit of those in need in their own             72 miles from Glasgow).
proceeds going once again to this           congregation. The day before dis-             Speakers:  Professors H. Hanko
year's convention.                          tribution by Hudsonville's deacons,                and D. Engelsma, PRC.
    Lest you get the impression that        they had managed to collect some 45                  Rev. Sinclair Horne,
all young people's activities involve       bags of groceries, and $800.00 worth           Scottish Reformation Society.
raising money for yearly conventions,       of gift certificates from area stores.            Theme: The Doctrine of
let me include here that on Sunday              The recently completed holiday                    Sovereign Grace.
afternoon, December 19, the young           season saw many of our congrega-                Accommodations: Information
people's societies of the Hudsonville,      tions able to enjoy good, spiritually-      about different options available (all of
MI PRC spent a couple of hours going        uplifting Christmas programs pro-           them delightful and affordable) can be
about in small groups to church mem-        vided by individual church choirs.          obtained from either of the two con-
bers who are confined to rest homes,        Such was the case wheti the choirs          tact persons listed below.
or their own homes,who may be wid-          from our Hudsonville, Faith, and                Program:  The conference will be
ows or widowers, or for some other          Hope PRC's:  were able tb present ex-       of a relaxed nature, and adequate
reason may need a visit. At each of         cellent programs not only for their         time will be available for recreation
their 45 scheduled stops they sang          own congregations but also for visi-        with family and friends.
Christmas carols,and distributed            tors from other of our churches as              At the conference the glorious
some 300 greeting cards collected           well.                                       doctrine of sovereign grace will be
from the congregation during thepre-            If you enjoy .good choti music,         expounded in its relation to Predesti-
vious three weeks.                          you .may also be interested  to know        nation, the Crossof Christ, the Preach-
                                            that these choirs, along with several       ing of the Gospel, the Development of
Congregational Activities                   others in the West Michigan area, are       Sin, the Application of Salvation, and
    The Mid-weekBible  Study of the         making plans for a combined choir           the Circumstances of Life.
Trinity PRC in Houston, TX met in           program sometime this spring.                   Also ,included will be an address
early December not only to study a              As a footnote to the above,the          on the Covenanters, entitled "The
passage of Scripture, but also to work      "Voices of Victory," a quartet made         Relevance of the Covenanting Wit-
on mailing Christmas worship invita-        up of RickNoorman,  Jim Daling, Dan         ness for Today." The years 1660-
tions to their community.                   VanDyke,  and Jerry Kuiper, provided        1688, particularly, are known as the
    If there is any advantage of being      special music at both Faith's and           Covenanting Period in Scottish eccle-
without a pastor, it is that the build-     Hope's choir programs. I believe I          siastical history. Some 18,000 people
ing committee of the vacant church          speak for many when I say that they         suffered during those years for their
gets to do some repair work on the          should consider giving a concert by         allegiance to "Christ's Crown and
parsonage while it is empty. Such                                                       Covenant." Optional (and inexpen-
                                            themselves. These four men are good.
was the case recently at theLoveland,                                                   sive) tours are planned to sites asso-
CO PRC, where their building com-                                                       ciated with their memory.
mittee asked for volunteers to help                                                         Contact persons (for informa-
paint the parsonage basement as                         ~oodfor c!h@it                  tion or reservations):
needed.                                         "No sin can be little, because it is               Mr. Tony Horne
    The Bible societies of our              committed against the great God of                     9 Church Road
Hudsonville, MI PRC met in mid-             heaven and earth. To commit littie             Thornbury, Bristol BS12 1 EJ
December for their annual combined          sins the sinner must find out a little                     England
Christmas meeting. Besides  spend-          God."                                                 (Tel. 0454-41517)
ing an hour in the study of the birth of                               Bunyan  0
our Lord and Savior, as foundinLuke                                                                Mr. Bill Oomkes
2, they were also treated to a short                                                            6299 Wing Ave. S.E.
program by the two elders from                                                                Grand Rapids, MI 49512
Hudsonville's Consistory who had                                                                         USA
just recently returned from the mis-                                                             (Tel. 616-698-6697)

                                                                                              January 15,1994/Standard Bearmil91


                                          -

                                                                                                                                 SECOND CUSS
                                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                 Grandville,  Michigan
   P.O. Box 603
  Grandville, MI 49468-0603


                                                                                                                   TEACHERSNEEDED
                                                                                                                Covenant Christian High School
                                                                                                           of Grand Rapids, Michigan is accept-
                                                                                                           ing applications for teaching positions
                                                                                                           for the 1994-l 995 school year. Those
                                                                                                           interested in the position of choir or
                    SAiE                                                                                   band director are also invited to apply.
    Better to Marry by David J.                                                   ,)                       Call Miss Agatha Lubbers at school
    Engelsma, 105 pages,. pa-                                           ~               '                  (616) 4535048 or home (616) 458-
    per, $9.95.                                                 -I * .*."-,^.~                             2057, or Mr. Rick Noorman (616) 457-
           Better to Marry is avail- j                                                                     6087. Applicants may also write the
    able at an introductory price                                                                          school at 1401 Ferndale S.W., Grand
    of 25% off through January.                                                                            Rapids, Ml 49504.
    Book club members will re- :                   ,,                                                                  TEACHERNEEDED
    ceivea40%discountthrough
    January.                                                                                                   The Protestant Reformed Chris-
          To order, send $7.50 plus                                                                        tian School in South Holland will have
    $1.50 postage (foreign, $2.50)                                                                         an opening for a third/fourth grade
    to                                                                                                     teacher for the coming year. Applica-
                    RFPA                                                                                   tions and resumes should be sent to
                 P-0. Box 2006                                                                             the school at 16511 South Park Av-
      Grand Rapids, Ml 49501                                                                               enue, South Holland, IL 60473, Atten-
           Book club members will                                                                          tion: Lamm Lubbers, Administrator.
    receive their copies automati-
    cally and may order additional                                                                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    copies at $6.00 each plus                                                                                   The Council of the First Protes-
    !$$  to; postage (foreign,                                                                             tant Reformed Church expresses its
          . .                                                                                              heartfelt sympathy to its fellow
                                                                                                           officebearer, Elder FrankTriezenberg,
                                                                                                           in the passing of his mother,
                                                                                                             MRS. HAlTiE TRIEZENBERG.
                                                                                                                May the comfort of the family be in
                                                                                                           this, that the death of His saints is, in
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                    the sight of the Lord, precious (Ps.
    The consistory and congregation                 The consistory and congregation                        116:15).
of the Kalamazoo Protestant Re-                of the Kalamazoo Protestant Re-                               Rev. Meindert Joostens, President
formed Church extend our Christian             formed Church extend our Christian                                       Theodore Looyenga, Clerk
sympathyto GenevieveAlphenaarand               sympathy to Pat and Elaine
family in the death of her husband,            Triezenberg and family in the death of                                       Request
and to Mr. Adrian Alphenaar and Mr.            their mother, and to Mrs. Joahanna                              The seminary library could put to very
Fred Alphenaar and families in the             Alphenaarand family in the death of                         good use some more copies of the printed
death of their brother,                        her sister,                                                 Acts of Synod of the Protestant Reformed
     MR. JACOB ALPHENAAR                         MRS. HATTIE TRIEZENBERG,                                  Churches. We are most interested in the
on October 26, 1993.                           on November 3,1993.
                                                         `I                                                1940s and 1950s but our supply of some of
    "Thou shalt guide me by thy coun-                          . . . all things work together for          the Acts in the 60s and 70s is also very low.
cil and afterwards receive me to glory"        good to them that love God, to them                         Whatever you have, and are willing to give,
(Psalm 73:24).                                 who are the called according to his                         will be much appreciated. The address of the
                 Jeffrey Steenholdt, Clerk     purpose" (Romans 8:23).                                     seminary is:
                                                                              Jeffrey Steenholdt, Clerk                    4949 lvanrest
                                                                                                                       Grandville, Ml 49418
192lStandard Bearer /January l!j,lW4


