                                                       The
                                   Standard
                                           Bearer
A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine

           Special
    Reformation
              Issue

                           Reformation
                                   of 1953

By Grace --  Herman Hoeksema........................................ 26
1953:  Continuing
     Reformation --  Prof. David J. Engelsma .................. 29
"Amice Schilder" --  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg ............31
Through Warfare
     To Victory --  Prof. Herman C. Hanko .......................34
God's Unconditional
     Covenant --  Prof. Robert D. Decker ..........................36
Advice or Jurisdiction (the Authority
     of Major Assemblies) --  Rev. Gise VanBaren .........38
"The Declaration of Principles"  What?
     When? and Why? --  Rev. Dale H. Kuiper ................40
How We View the Children
     of the Covenant --  Rev. Arie denHartog ..................43
The Split of 1953 --  Rev. Cornelius Hanko ......................46        George M. Ophoff


Vol. 73, No. 2
October 15, 1996


                                                           October 15, 1996                                         The
                                                                                                              Standard
  In This Issue ...                                                                                              Bearer
    This special, Reformation issue of the  Standard Bearer  is a follow-up and
companion-issue of the special issue of October 15, 1995 ("The Reformation of            ISSN 0362-4692
1924").
    On the cover appears a picture of the Rev. George M. Ophoff, a founding              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
father of the PRC and a mighty instrument of God in the controversy of 1953 to
                                                                                         4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI  49418.  Periodical Postage
keep the PRC in the way of the gospel of grace.                                          Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
    In order to include all the articles, we have had to change our format and
                                                                                         Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
leave  out  the  church  news  and  some  of  the  requested  announcements.    Our      P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI  49468-0603.
readers will understand.                                                      --DJE

  Meditation                                                                                          Herman Hoeksema


                                                By Grace

                                              dispensable  condition  for  some-               In grace your salvation has its
For by grace are ye saved through thing else, a ground, a foundation, source.
      faith; and that not of yourselves:      without which that something else                For  the  eternal  fountainhead
      it is the gift of God.                  cannot  stand.    Denying  it  is  like    whence  the  whole  blessed  stream
                            Ephesians 2:8     destroying  the  foundation  of  an        of  your  salvation  gushes  forth  is
                                              edifice: you pull down the whole           sovereign election.
    For!                                      structure.  It  is like cutting away             Chosen you are unto salvation
    Let  us  not  overlook  this little       at the root of a tree:  you kill the       before the foundation of the world.
but significant word!                         tree.                                      The motive of God's election of His
    For by grace are ye saved!  The               That for which this statement          people  is  grace,  sovereign,  abso-
conjunction presents the truth here           is  the  reason  may  be  read  in  the    lutely free grace.
expressed  as  a  reason  for  some-          immediately  preceding  verse:                   Pure grace!
thing else, an explanation of some-           "That in the ages to come he might               Nothing  else  determined  God
thing that has been mentioned in              shew  the  exceeding  riches  of  his      in predestinating you unto confor-
the context.                                  grace  in  his  kindness  toward  us       mity  unto  the  image  of  His  Son.
    It  informs  us  of  the  fact  that      through Christ Jesus"!                     There are, indeed, those who find
this  statement  does  not  stand                 God is rich in mercy!                  the reason and the determining fac-
alone,  that  it  is  not  an  isolated           And He saved us!  Even when            tor of God's election in man.  They,
truth which one can accept or not             we  were  dead  in  sins,  He  quick-      too,  would  emphasize  that  salva-
accept without much effect for the            ened us together with Christ; and          tion  is  all  of  grace,  not  of  works.
rest  of  the  contents  of  his  faith,      raised  us  up  together  with  Him,       It is grace that God sent His only
which one can either deny or con-             and made us sit together in heav-          begotten  Son  into  the  world,  and
fess as of little or no practical sig-        enly places.                               grace  that  you  may  become  par-
nificance and importance.                         All this in order that He might        taker of the blessings of salvation
    For by grace are ye saved!                show the exceeding riches of  His          in Him.  Nay more, they, too, speak
    It  means  that  salvation  by            grace!                                     of election unto faith, and election
grace, and by grace only, is an in-               Through  our  salvation  the           unto glory.  It is only the elect that
                                              riches  of  His  grace  must  be  dis-     actually become heirs of eternal sal-
                                              played.                                    vation.    But  election  itself?    Is  it,
                                                  But how is this possible unless        too, according to them, of mere and
                                              salvation be by grace?                     pure and sovereign grace?  Ah, no!
Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of           By grace only!                         It is not of grace, say they, but of
the  Standard  Bearer.    This  meditation                                               works!    Yes,  indeed,  of  works,
was taken from the June 15, 1942 issue                  333    333    333                though they themselves would use
of the  Standard Bearer.

26/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


other terms to describe their view             This infinite loveliness and di-         And  our condition was,  as far  as
of election. Or is it not an election      vine  pleasure  in  His  own  beauty         we were concerned, hopeless.  For
of works, which teaches that God           is God's grace.                              in  Adam  we  could  sin,  but  we
found  or  foresaw  in  the  elect  a          By grace you are chosen!                 could never pay a ransom for our
willingness  to  accept  Christ  and           By the knowledge of an attrac-           sin; we could die in him, but had
the terms of His salvation, in dis-        tion  to the  loveliness  of  His  own       no  power  to  regain  life  in  God's
tinction  from  others  whom  He           perfection God was divinely urged            favor;  we  could  turn  away  from
foreknew as stubborn and unwill-           to ordain His people!                        the Fount of life, but never could
ing to come to Christ?                         A  people  that  would  be  per-         we return to Him.  We could only
    Then it is not of grace!               fect  even  as  He  is  perfect,  lovely     increase the guilt of our sin every
    For then it was man, his good-         as He is lovely.  For whom He has            day,  through  every  word  we
ness, the foreseen choice of his will      foreknown, them He also did pre-             spoke,  by  every  deed  we  per-
to receive Christ, that determined         destinate to be conformed accord-            formed,  with  every  breath  we
God's choice.  Then it is not grace        ing to the image of His Son.                 took.  Enemies of God we had be-
that makes the elect acceptable to             A  people  upon  whom  He                come, hating Him and hating one
and beloved by God in His eternal          might look with eternal good plea-           another!
counsel; but it is some element of         sure, and who might taste that the               Saved we are!
goodness in man that induced the           Lord is good!                                    Saved  by  grace,  by  free  and
Most  High  to  prefer  him  above             A  people  in  whom  He  might           sovereign grace!
others.    And  when  God  shows           show  forth  the  infinite  riches  of           For even then, when we were
forth the riches of His grace in the       His grace!                                   dead in sin, objects of God's righ-
salvation of the elect, they will al-          For by grace are ye saved!               teous  wrath  who  could  never  be
ways be mixed with this excellency                333    333    333                     restored  to  the  favor  of  God  un-
of man.                                        Blessed grace!                           less  we  would  willingly  take  our
    But God forbid!                            For by grace are you reconciled          way through the depth of hell, He
    For you are saved by grace!            unto God!                                    loved  us,  and  reconciled  us  unto
    This  implies  that  your  salva-          That  same  grace  that  moti-           Himself!
tion  is of  God  from  beginning  to      vated the Most High to ordain you                Us He reconciled.  Do not ex-
end, from its eternal source in the        unto salvation, according to which           press this differently.  Do not say
counsel  of  God  to  its  final  mani-    it  was  His  purpose  to  make  you         that He reconciled Himself to us.
festation  in  glory  in  the  day  of     altogether  lovely  even  as  He  is         For to reconcile is to restore a re-
Christ.                                    lovely, explains that and why He             lation of love and faith and friend-
    It was grace that ordained you         reconciled  you  unto  Himself               ship  that  has  been  violated  and
unto salvation.  This signifies, not       through the death of His Son!                broken,  the  relation  of  the  cov-
that God's election is arbitrary, but          For, mark you well,  saved you           enant.  And on His part that rela-
that  it  has  its  reason  and  motive    are by grace!                                tion was never violated.  He is the
in  God  alone.    Of  Him  are  all           That  means  that  you  were             eternal  I  AM,  that  changeth  not.
things!   God is gracious!  Full of        lifted  from  the  deepest  depth  of        With  an  eternal,  immutable,  sov-
grace is He in Himself, apart from         sin  and  shame,  of  guilt  and  con-       ereign  love  He  loved  His  own,
any  relation  or  attitude  He  may       demnation,  of  corruption  and              even  when  they  were  rebels  in
sustain to the creature.  For He is        death, to the highest possible bliss         themselves.  But us He reconciled.
good, the sole Good, the implica-          of an eternal righteousness and life         Us  He  restored  to  that  state  in
tion of all infinite perfections.  As      and glory.                                   which  we  were  once  more  the
the  supreme  and  only  and  infi-            Saved you are.                           proper  objects  of  His  favor  and
nitely  Good,  He  is  the  perfection         Created you were, with all the           blessing, the state of eternal righ-
of all beauty.  He is pleasant and         elect, in the first man Adam who             teousness!
altogether  lovely,  and  there  are       was made a living soul; who, in-                 For such is reconciliation:  res-
pleasures at His right hand forev-         deed, had life, but not in himself;          toration to favor in the way of per-
ermore.  Eternally He is attracted         who lived without being the lord             fect justice!
by His own beauty.  For He is God          of  life;  whose  glory  was  corrupt-           And  justice  required  satisfac-
Triune,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy          ible,  whose  righteousness  was             tion!
Ghost.  And of the Father, through         amissible,  whose  life  was  mortal;            Satisfaction  of  the  justice  of
the Son, in the Spirit, God knows          and who was of the earth earthy.             God with respect to our sin could
Himself,  beholds  Himself,  His           In  him  we  violated  God's  cov-           be accomplished only by a volun-
grace  and  beauty,  and  inclines         enant,  became  guilty,  liable  to          tary act of perfect obedience even
unto  Himself  in  eternal  and  infi-     death  and  damnation,  subject  to          unto death.  No, not merely to suf-
nite divine favor!                         corruption,  children  of  wrath.            fer the punishment for sin is satis-

                                                                                       October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /27


faction.  Even the damned in hell            the work of man:  God has done                        By  grace  He  calls  us,  power-
suffer  the  agonies  of  death,  yet        His  part,  now  man  must  realize           fully,  irresistibly,  sweetly,  out  of
they  do  not  atone  for  their  sin.       what God has accomplished?  Or,               darkness into the light of the gos-
God  demands  that  we  shall  love          at  least,  shall  we  allow  the  grace      pel.
Him.  And for the sinner who vio-            of God and the will of man to mix                     By grace He implants the faith
lated His law and trampled under             at  this  point,  harmoniously  and           in  us  whereby  we  embrace  the
foot His covenant, this means that           sweetly to work together in order             Christ of God and all His benefits!
he must love Him in His righteous            that  the  salvation  manifested  on                  It  is  not  of  ourselves;  it  is
wrath, love Him in death and hell,           the  cross  of  Christ  may  be  per-         God's gift.
if ever He is to atone!                      fected?  Shall we say that on God's                   Salvation is of the Lord!
    This  act  of  perfect  obedience        part He is willing now to save all                    Wonderful grace!
we could never perform.                      men, that the reconciliation accom-                      333    333    333
    Reconciled we are by grace!              plished on the cross is offered by                    Abiding grace!
    For  when  in  sovereign  grace          God  to  all  with  the  intention  to                For ye are saved!
God chose us, and ordained us to             save, and that, for the rest, it de-                  And because it is by pure and
be conformed according to the im-            pends  upon  the  choice  of  man's           sovereign grace that you are saved,
age  of  His  Son,  He  chose  us  in        will?                                         you will surely be saved even unto
Him.    By  grace  He  ordained  His             God forbid!                               the end of eternal glory.
Son to be the Head of the church,                The  riches  of  His  grace  must                 Always  salvation  is  of  the
to become flesh, to assume the bur-          be revealed!                                  Lord, never does it become of us.
den of our sin and guilt, to enter               By grace are ye saved!                    Always it is by grace, never does
into  our  deepest  woe,  to  become             Through faith.  Mark you well:            it become of works.  Even as it is
sin for us, that we might become             through   faith  it  is  that  we  are        in  free,  divine,  absolutely  sover-
righteousness of God in Him!                 saved.    It  is  not  on  condition  of      eign  grace  that  He  chose  us  and
    By grace He was sent into the            faith, a condition which we must              ordained us to become conformed
world!                                       fulfill if God is to bestow the bless-        according to the image of His Son;
    By grace He chose the way of             ings of salvation on us.  There are           even as it was by that same grace
suffering  and  death,  the  way             no conditions unto salvation at all!          that  He  reconciled  us  unto  Him-
through the depth of hell, there to          It is not because of faith, as if faith       self through the death of His Son;
lay upon God's altar the sacrifice           is  the  new  work  which  God  re-           and even as it was by pure grace
that would be sufficient to satisfy          quires  of  us  by  which  salvation          that  He  wrought  the  faith  within
the justice of God.                          may be obtained.  There is no work            us whereby we do lay hold on the
    God was in Christ reconciling            unto salvation, not even faith, nor           Christ  of  God;  even  so,  it  is  by
the world unto Himself!                      the  work  of  faith.    For  by  grace       grace that we are preserved unto
    That He might show forth the             are we saved, through faith.                  the final salvation that shall be re-
riches of His grace!                             Faith is the  means unto salva-           vealed in the last time!
    For by grace you are saved!              tion.                                                 By grace ye are preserved!
    By grace only!                               For  it  is  the  spiritual  tie  that            And through the power of that
          333    333    333                  unites us with Christ, the spiritual          gracious preservation ye persevere!
    Mighty grace!                            faculty  whereby  we  may  know                       For, on the one hand, even our
    For grace is also the power of           Him,  taste  Him,  long  for  Him,            perseverance  is  not  by  works,  or
God  by  which  you  are  delivered          trust in Him, rely on Him, appro-             on account of works, or by virtue
from  the  dominion  of  sin  and            priate Him, live out of Him as the            of our cooperation with the grace
death!                                       young  tree  draws  its  life-sap  out        of God.  It is of pure grace.  Yet,
    Reconciliation alone is no sal-          of the ground through its roots.              on the other hand, this preserving
vation, nor could it possibly lead               Through faith!                            grace of God is not a power that
to  salvation  if  the  operation  of            It is God's means, a means of             remains external to us, so that we
grace ceased at the cross.  It must          grace, a power that is wrought in             are  passively,  unconsciously  per-
be applied, so that from darkness            your  inmost  heart  by  the  mighty          haps,  carried  into  glory.    It  is  a
we  are  translated  into  life,  from       grace  of  God.    By  grace  ye  are         power within us, that causes us to
sin  into  righteousness,  and  with         saved, through faith, and that not            hold on  to the God of  our salva-
cords of love we are united once             of yourselves:  it is the gift of God!        tion.
more with the heart of God!                      For by grace He unites us with                    Grace  preserves,  and  we  per-
    How  could  this  be  accom-             Christ!                                       severe!
plished?                                         By  the  power  of  grace  He                     And who shall separate us?
    Shall  we  say  that  from  the          quickens  us  together  with  Him,                    Unchangeable grace!   u
cross  onward  salvation  becomes            making us new creatures.

28/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


  Editorial



                                                       1953:
                        Continuing Reformation

                                          Vos, impressed upon me that the           Rapids  advertised  his  Sunday
                                          issue was this doctrine of the cov-       evening sermon topic in the Press,
                                          enant.  During my seminary days,          "Who  is  right:    Hoeksema  or  De
1953 stands for the doctrinal
     controversy  that  convulsed
     the  Protestant  Reformed            which began only seven years af-          Wolf?"    There  is  disquieting  rea-
Churches  (PRC)  in  the  late  1940s     ter  the  schism,  Vos  told  me,         son  to  suspect  that  conservative
and early 1950s.  The controversy         "People argue about the two state-        Christian Reformed ministers, then
concluded with the schism in 1953         ments.  They were bad statements.         in power in the CRC, were secretly
in  which  a  majority  of  churches,     But they were not the issue.  The         involved  with  the  Protestant  Re-
members,  and  ministers  left  the       issue was the conditional covenant        formed  ministers  responsible  for
PRC, soon to return to the Chris-         with all the children.  We all knew       the  conflict  already  before  the
tian Reformed Church (CRC).               that this was the issue."                 break took place in 1953.
    The issue was the doctrine of             The struggle was fierce, as only          The  outcome  of  the  doctrinal
the covenant, no minor matter, es-        a church struggle over doctrine be-       controversy was the declaration by
pecially  for  Reformed  churches.        tween former brothers and sisters         the  PRC  in  a  synodical  decision
The  issue  came  to  a  head  in  two    can be.  Although I was only 14 in        that the covenant promise of God,
statements  in  two  different  ser-      1953, I remember vividly the tense        particularly at baptism, is made to
mons by one of the ministers.  A          church  services,  depending  on          the elect children alone.  The faith
classis  judged  the  statements  he-     who  was  preaching;  the  loud,          of the child is not a condition upon
retical.  But the real issue was the      heated  arguments  on  the  church        which  the  promise  and  its  salva-
introduction into the PRC of a doc-       grounds after the services; and, es-      tion  depend,  but  is  itself  part  of
trine of the covenant that held that      pecially  painfully,  the  rage  and      the blessing given by the promise.
God makes His covenant with all           shouting  that  broke  up  family         The covenant grace of God is par-
the physical children of believing        gatherings of long standing and re-       ticular,  not  general.    It  is  for  the
parents alike.  God makes His cov-        duced  bewildered  children  to           elect  alone.    In  its  bestowal  and
enant with all alike by promising         tears.                                    reception, this grace is sovereign,
every one of them salvation at his            Close friends separated; fami-        not dependent on the sinful child,
or her baptism.  This promise de-         lies divided; schools and churches        nor effectual, even in part, by vir-
pends, however, on the child's per-       emptied.                                  tue of the child's will and deed.
forming the condition of believing            One needs only to read the is-            By  grace,  the  children  are
when he or she grows up.                  sues of the Standard Bearer of that       saved  in  the  covenant  through
    Implied is a grace of God -- a         period to sense the intensity of the      faith, and that faith is not of them-
covenant  grace  of  God  --  for  all     conflict.                                 selves, but is the gift of God (Eph.
the  children  of  believers,  those          Not all the fire was holy.  Not       2:8).  As is the case with all others
who  perish  as  well as  those  who      on the side of the PRC either.            who  are  saved,  the  origin  of  the
are saved, and a desire of God to             The  struggle  spilled  over  the     salvation of the covenant children
save  them  all.    Expressed  is  the    borders of the little PRC.  The Re-       is God's eternal election in Christ
failure  of  the  promise  of  God  in    formed  churches  in  the  Nether-        (Eph. 1:4).
many cases and the dependence of          lands  followed  the  controversy.            This official declaration by the
salvation, in the final analysis, on      One  of  the  Dutch  denominations        PRC on the covenant is called "The
the will and act of the child.            was  indirectly  involved  since  it      Declaration of Principles."  As the
    One  of  the  patriarchs  of  the     was  their  covenant  view  that  oc-     appropriate  and  necessary  re-
PRC,  who  also  played  a  leading       casioned  the  struggle.    A  promi-     sponse to controversy, it expresses
role in the struggle, the Rev. Gerrit     nent  Baptist  preacher  in  Grand        the faith of the PRC as to the teach-

                                                                                   October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /29


ing of Scripture and the Reformed               told  the  people  that  Hoeksema              while developing this truth in the
confessions on the covenant.                    himself  had  earlier  advocated  a            doctrine  of  justification  by  faith
        The controversy over the cov-           conditional covenant and that the              alone.
enant ended with the churches' of-              PRC had no definite covenant doc-                  The Synod of Dordt defended
ficial  condemnation  of  a  condi-             trine.                                         the Reformation's gospel of salva-
tional  covenant  (in  classis'  judg-                 But before 1951-1953, the PRC           tion by grace alone through (not:
ment that the two statements were               had not officially adopted the doc-            on account of) faith alone against
heretical) and in the churches' of-             trine of the covenant that they had            the universal, conditional grace of
ficial  adoption  of  the  doctrine  of         always  believed  and  confessed.              Arminian  free-willism.    It  did  so
an unconditional covenant of grace              Men could, therefore, contend that             in such a way as to make the pre-
(in the "Declaration").                         the  prevailing  covenant  doctrine            vailing  doctrines  of  the  Reforma-
        This  was  continuing  reforma-         was  merely  that  of  Professors              tion  the  official  teachings  of  the
tion of the church.                             Hoeksema and Ophoff.  So also, I               Reformed churches worldwide.
        It was continuing reformation           suppose, prior to the adoption of                  But  Dordt  did  not  explicitly
of  the  PRC.    The  PRC  carried              the Lutheran creeds men could say              address  the  issue  of  grace  in  the
through,  consistently,  in  the  doc-          that justification by faith only was           covenant, that is, in the family of
trine of  the  covenant the truth                      merely the view of Luther, and          believers.
of sovereign, particular grace                            prior to the Synod  of Dordt             After  Dordt,  two  opposite
that  they  had  confessed                                 men  could  say  that  double       teachings  appeared  in  the  Re-
from the beginning of their             ... the PRC        predestination was merely           formed and Presbyterian churches.
existence as churches.                    simply            the view of Calvin.                Often,  they  contended  with  each
        Make  no  mistake,  the          applied to           In  1951-1953,  the  doc-        other  in  sharp  conflict,  as  in  the
churches  had  always                  the covenant          trine  of  a  particular,  un-    churches  of  the  Secession  in  the
taught,  and  been  taught,              the truth           conditional  covenant,  in        Netherlands  in  the  19th  century.
the doctrine of an uncon-              of sovereign,         Christ  the  head  of  the        The one holds, in one form or an-
ditional covenant.  Those                particular          covenant,  with  believers        other,  that  God  makes  His  cov-
ministers who in the late                  grace             and  their  elect  children       enant with every physical child of
1940s and early 1950s be-              for which they        became  the  official  doc-       believers by conditional promise to
came enamored of a con-                  contended           trine of the PRC.                 each of them.  The other holds that
ditional  covenant  and                   in their            In  formulating  and             God's covenant is with Christ and,
were determined to intro-               controversy          adopting the doctrine, the        in  Him,  with  elect  believers  and
duce it into the PRC knew              with the CRC          PRC simply applied to the         their  elect  children,  by  uncondi-
full  well  that  they  were              over the          covenant the truth of sov-         tional promise.
overthrowing  what  the                "well-meant          ereign, particular grace for           The  former  is,  in  reality,  the
PRC had always stood for.                  offer            which  they  contended  in         teaching of universal grace in the
        As  early  as  1927,  in  a        of the           their controversy with the         covenant, grace wider than Christ
series of articles in the Stan-           gospel."         CRC  over  the  "well-meant         and His elect church, grace depen-
dard  Bearer  that  were  soon                            offer of the gospel."                dent  upon  man's  will  and  work
published  as  the  booklet,                              Thus, the teaching of univer-        (faith as a condition).
Geloovigen en Hun Zaad (Believ-                 sal,  ineffectual  grace  in  the  cov-            The latter is, in reality, the gos-
ers and Their Seed), Herman Hoek-               enant was purged from the PRC.                 pel of particular grace in the cov-
sema  had  set  forth  in  detail  the                 There was consistency.                  enant,  grace  as  wide  as,  but  no
covenant  conception  that  he  in-                    There was development of the            wider  than,  Christ  and  His  elect
sisted was fundamental to the very              truth.                                         church,  grace  dependent  only
existence of the PRC.  At the same                     There was rejection of the op-          upon  the  promising  God  and  in-
time  he  sketched  the  conditional            posing false doctrine.                         clusive of the gift of faith.
theory of the covenant with which                      There was continuing reforma-               This  latter,  the  PRC,  through
the  doctrine  that  threatened  in             tion of the PRC.                               the fire of white-hot, fierce, pain-
1953  is  essentially  identical  and                  1953 represented also the con-          ful  church  struggle,  have  been
damned it as "the old Pelagian er-              tinuation of the great Reformation             guided to believe and confess.
ror applied to the doctrine of the              of the 16th century.  Churches and                 This  is  genuine  continuation
covenant"  (Believers  and  Their               theologians will dismiss this claim            and development of the Reforma-
Seed,  RFPA, tr. and repr. 1971, p.             as ridiculous, but the fact remains.           tion of the 16th century.
20).                                                   The  Reformation  of  the  16th             Here we stand!    u
        This was in 1927!                       century  restored  to  the  church                                              -- DJE
        The schismatic preachers in the         Augustine's  gospel  of  particular
PRC  were  dishonest  when  they                salvation by sovereign grace alone,

30/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


                             "Amice Schilder"
                                                                   Rev. Bernard Woudenberg



                                          both  Hoeksema  and  Schilder,               Word,  rather  than  by  emotional
                                          hanging on their every word, and             stimulation from without.  His ef-
The Rev. Herman Hoeksema
      felt  a  deep  sense  of  friend
      ship for Dr. Klaas Schilder,        remembering what they said.                  fort  was  to  find  out  in  his  study
calling him as he did, Amice (Latin           As with their speaking, so was           the true meaning of Scripture, and
for "friend").  This from a number        it  with  their  theological  thought,       lead his congregation through it in
of close similarities and some strik-     the  same  and  yet  so  different.          terms the least could understand,
ing differences.                          Both were deeply committed to the            letting the Word then do its own
    Both  of  these  men  were  mas-      creeds, to Scripture, and to the Re-         work.  His sermons were master-
terful scholars in their own right,       formed  faith;  but  their  theologies       works  of  careful  exposition,  and
relying not on the opinions of oth-       were certainly not the same.                 little else, but presented in such a
ers  but  laying  their own  ground-          Schilder was of the  Afscheiding         way that they created a close bond
work, doing their own study, and          (Secession)  tradition,  with  its           between him and those who heard.
coming  to  their  own  conclusions.      strong emphasis on  bevindelijkheid              As different as these two were,
And both were speakers of an ex-          (the view that with careful Chris-           they  had  a  common  bond.    And
traordinary  kind  --  but  in  quite      tian living one would come to feel           both  did  what  they  did  well,  to
different  ways.  With  Schilder  it      within  himself  the  true  Christian        the  point  that  they  aroused  the
was  not  his  oratory  (he  could        experience  of  the  heart),  together       envy  and  jealousy  of  their  peers
speak indistinctly and be difficult       with the conviction that they, hav-          who could not do the same.  But
to  hear);  but  he  was  a  superb       ing  left  the  apostatizing  National       these colleagues held the seats of
rhetorician.  Artistic in nature, he      Reformed  Church,  were  now  the            power;  and  both  Hoeksema  and
could take a subject or a passage         true church of God and all others            Schilder  in  time  felt  the  lash  of
of Scripture and find within it nu-       false.    It  was  from  this  tradition     their  jealous  sting.    Hoeksema  in
ances of meaning which no other           that Schilder had come, and to it            1924  had  been  deposed  by  those
had  ever  imagined,  and  with           he spoke with his considerable rhe-          who felt his growing influence and
words  that  drew  pictures  in  the      torical abilities to arouse within his       power;  and  Schilder  was  just  be-
air he would hold his audience en-        hearers true Christian feelings, and         ginning  to  know  what  it  meant
thralled in rapt attention no mat-        by  means  of  promises,  warnings,          when he visited America in 1939.
ter how long he spoke.  In the eye        and threats move them to live as                 It had seemed a good idea to
of their imagination they could see       Christians ought.                            Mr. William Eerdmans, the Ameri-
exactly what he meant, and feel it            Hoeksema,  however,  was                 can  publisher  of  Schilder's  writ-
in their heart.  But with Hoeksema        Kuyperian,  having  grown  up  un-           ings,  to  sponsor  him  in  a  lecture
it was different.  He was an orator       der  Abraham  Kuyper,  and  as  a            tour  here.    But  already  before
by  nature.    His  very  appearance      young  man  having  followed  him            Schilder came, his colleagues in the
in a pulpit, or even in a room, was       admiringly about; and that was in            Netherlands had sent a warning to
sufficient to draw the attention of       many ways quite a different thing.           the  leaders  of  the  Christian  Re-
everyone, while with a look from          Kuyper agreed with the  Afgeschei-           formed Church that he should not
his  piercing  eyes  he  could  pin  a    denen  as  to  their  basic  commit-         be  welcomed,  and  the  people
person to his chair; and his voice        ments  and  goals,  but  differed  as        should not be encouraged to give
rang  clear  with  the  timbre  of  a     to how it should be brought about.           him their ear.  In the end, it was
trumpet which no one would fail           He was a scholar who sought his              Hoeksema  who  gave  him  the
to hear.  But the rhetoric was not        strength not in works and feelings,          warmest  welcome,  providing  the
there.  He was a logician instead.        but in the  quietness and  confidence        large  and  convenient  auditorium
His  illustrations,  when  he  used       of studying and understanding the            of  the  First  Protestant  Reformed
them, were of a homely kind, used         Word.  And so was it with Hoek-              Church as a place for him to speak,
only to make a difficult point clear.     sema too.  He was not opposed to             and on no less a subject than that
His goal was to lead his audience         feelings,  and  he  certainly  recog-        of  common  grace,  a  subject  on
clearly  with  simple  words  to  un-     nized the necessity of good works;           which he and  Schilder disagreed.
derstand  the  subject  or  text  on      but he believed those works came             To Hoeksema it was simply a mat-
which he spoke.  Audiences loved          best  from  understanding  God's             ter  of  openness.    He  believed  it

                                                                                      October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /31


was  better  to  have  the  subject          in his love for this friend, and con-       living-rooms and offices of the lo-
openly discussed than suppressed             tinued to long for a day when they          cal  manses,  that  the  meaningful
as  it  had  been  by  his  opponents        might  sit  down  and  talk  things         meetings  took  place.    Almost  in-
for so many years.  And graciously           over again -- always in the hope             variably the discussion soon gravi-
he  assured  Schilder  that  he  was         that  possibly  something  could  be        tated  to  the  subject  of  the  cov-
free to express his honest opinion           found to bring their theologies to-         enant.    Schilder  would  explain
regardless of what it might be.              gether in the end.                          how and why he was cast out; and
    But  the  matter  went  deeper               And  then  it  looked  as  if  it       then came the turn of the local pas-
than  that.    With  Schilder,  Hoek-        might  happen.    One  day,  in  a          tor to try in his own words to set
sema  had  met,  almost  for  a  first       round about way, Hoeksema heard             forth  the  problems  we  saw  with
time, a true scholar willing to dis-         that  Schilder  had  made  a  speech        the Liberated covenant view which
cuss  the  basic  problems  of  Re-          in Kampen repudiating his former            Hoeksema had so often explained,
formed theology openly with him.             view on common grace.  That was             especially  over  against  our  view
This  he  appreciated  greatly;  and,        a  conundrum  to  Hoeksema.                 of common grace and the doctrine
when they parted, it was as friends          Schilder's view of the covenant, as         of predestination.   But these men
determined  to  continue  working            he saw it, was the epitome of com-          were no match for Schilder, over-
together through the coming years.           mon grace in itself -- and now he            whelmed  by  him  as  they  were.
    But that was not to be.  To the          was claiming not to  believe com-           And now the old openness was no
sorrow  of  them  both,  providence          mon  grace  at  all?    How  could  it      longer  there.    Schilder  remained
intervened in the form of the Sec-           be?  It did not make sense -- un-            calm and gracious as always; but
ond World War.  Speaking out al-             less,  that  is,  somehow  he  and          with  that  a  certain  bitterness  en-
most alone against evils of the Na-          Schilder  were  missing  each  other        tered  in.    "I  despise  your  view,"
zis, Schilder was forced to go into          in a basic way.  In any case, this          he is known to have said, and ve-
hiding, and meaningful communi-              much  was  clear,  they  had  to  get       hemently  objected  to  linking  the
cation  was  cut  off.    Try  as  he        together once more and talk it out          covenant to election and reproba-
might, Hoeksema was able to learn            face  to  face.    So  Hoeksema  took       tion,  or  to  common  grace.      And
little about the status of his friend,       up  his  pen  and  invited  Schilder        so it went, from place to place, un-
until at last, as the war came to its        here once again.  And Schilder im-          til  the  time  of  his  visit  was  over
end, he learned that Schilder was            mediately agreed to come.  There            and as many as were able came to
alive and well -- but that during             was so much to be talked through.           Grand  Rapids  for  a  closing  con-
the war he had been deposed from                 But  neither  was  that  to  come       ference on precisely the subject of
office  and  dismissed  from  his            to  pass.    Schilder's  trip  was          the covenant of grace.
church.  It was a shock almost too           planned  and  its  schedule  set,               Almost  miraculously  Hoek-
great to imagine, and yet to Hoek-           when,  in  the  summer  of  1947,           sema had recovered sufficiently by
sema  it  was  striking  as  well,  for      Hoeksema,  always  the  picture  of         then  to  take  part  in  that  confer-
Schilder's deposition had occurred           strength  and  health,  was  struck         ence too.  He was still weak, quite
in  much  the  same  way  as                 down by a massive stroke.  It was           naturally, and far from his old self.
Hoeksema's -- only far worse, for             too  late  for  Schilder's  trip  to  be    But he was there and able to read
Schilder's  had  been  done  even            canceled.  He came; but Hoeksema            a  paper  which  he  had  prepared.
more  cowardly,  under  the  cover           was  not  there  to  meet  him  or  to      Schilder  gave  answer  to  it  in  a
of  a  terrible  war,  when  it  would       engage in that theological dialogue         rather  surprising  way.    First,  he
have been expected that Christians           they  had  planned.    Instead,             affirmed that he did not agree with
would  have  pulled  together                Schilder traveled among our small           Heyns' view of the covenant.  Sec-
against this common enemy.  But              churches to lecture and preach, but         ondly, he was sure that the differ-
in a special way it drew them even           without Hoeksema by his side  to            ences between our covenant view
closer  together,  except  for  one          fill  things  out  and  bring  them  to     and his was more a matter of ter-
thing  --  Schilder  had  been  de-           the focus they ought to have had.           minology  and  historical  back-
posed for defending a view of the            That made all the difference.               ground  than  anything  else.    And
covenant  which  Hoeksema  had                   The  lectures  and  sermons             finally, he was convinced that we
been  taught  in  seminary  by  Prof.        Schilder gave were superb, every-           were the "true church" in America,
W. Heyns, and which he had op-               one thought.  Those who could un-           so that anyone emigrating from the
posed all of his life, because that          derstand  the  language  came;  and         Netherlands ought to join with us.
view lay at  the  heart of the CRC           what he said was remembered and                 These  were  kind  words,  and
view  of  common  grace.    Instinc-         talked  about  for  years.    But  that     far from the "I despise your view"
tively he knew that this would al-           was not where the real action took          which he had privately expressed.
ways  limit  his  relations  with            place.  It was after the public was         Whether  it  was  out  of  consider-
Schilder; and yet, still he persisted        gone,  and  Schilder  retired  to  the      ation for Hoeksema, or politeness,

32/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


or because he had not really come               And then the Netherlands was              garding election, etc. is not church
to terms with our differences, it is        heard.    In  spite  of  the  silence  of     doctrine.  No one is bound by it.
hard  to  say.    But  everyone  was        Schilder,  our  doctrines  were  not          Some are emitting a totally differ-
pleased  --  except,  that  is,  Prof.       being  ignored  over  there,  so  that        ent sound.  Their opinion was that
Ophoff,  who  was  convinced  the           finally a pastor, ashamed to let us           most  (of  the  Prot.  Ref.)  do  not
real problems were simply not be-           think  everything  was  going  well,          think as Rev. Hoeksema and Rev.
ing addressed.  He therefore gave           wrote concerning Hoeksema's cov-              Ophoff.    And  sympathy  for  the
to  Dr.  Schilder  a  meaningful  list      enant view, "I am going to oppose             Liberated  was  great  also  in  the
of  questions  which  needed  an-           that view, my colleague, because I            matter of their doctrine of the cov-
swers.    Such  insistence  at  that        am of the opinion that this view is           enant.  They do accentuate differ-
point, however, had little general          untenable on the basis of the Word            ently in America, considering their
sympathy,  and  Schilder  merely            of  God  and  the  accepted  Confes-          history, but for the  conception of
thrust  the  list  into  his  pocket,       sions....  We accept the doctrine of          the  Liberated  there  is  ample
promising  to  answer  it  in  De           Prof. Heyns.  (There may be a dif-            room."
Reformatie,  which  he  really  never       ference  in  conception  here  and                One may suppose that he had
did.  In fact, once he arrived back         there:  in  the  main,  all  our minis-       misunderstood;  and  by  many  it
in the Netherlands, very little was         ters  are  thinking  in  that  direc-         was maintained that he had.  But
heard  from  him  as  to  our  doctri-      tion)."                                       history has pretty much borne out
nal differences.  His only concern              To Hoeksema it was almost a               that what he said was the way it
was  to  urge  the  Liberated               relief,  for  here  was  confirmation         finally fell out to be.  In the end a
Churches  to  establish  a  sister-         of  what  he  had  always  thought,           division  had  been  driven  by
church relation with us, and their          but which Schilder at their meet-             Schilder's  visit  through  the  heart
emigrants  to  settle  down  in  our        ing had denied; and so he replied,            of  our  churches  which  only  the
midst.                                      "We do not want Heynsians in our              Declaration of Principles could set
    Here  it  was  different.    Rev.       churches,  still  less,  to  organize         straight, maintaining as it did that,
Hoeksema did return to nearly full          Heynsian churches in Canada.  If              given  our  rejection  of  common
strength amazingly soon, and took           your  members  are  really  Heyn-             grace,  the  Liberated  view  of  the
up  his  old  duties  again.    But  the    sians,  they  must  either  become            covenant could never have a place
satisfaction in this was in many in-        thoroughly Reformed, or they had              in  our  midst.    And,  sadly,  only
stances  muted.    Things  had              better join the Christian Reformed            then in 1951 did Schilder begin to
changed.  Clearly, with many, the           Churches.  In  them there is plenty           write publicly what he thought of
old respect was slipping away.  It          of  room.    Or,  better  still,  they        our  covenant  view,  in  a  bitterly
was  as  though  they  had  taken  a        could  organize  churches  of  their          crafted  series  of  articles  entitled,
new  mentor;  and  a  kind  of  open        own, and call their own ministers             Boven  Schriftuurlike  Binding:  Een
testiness  toward  Hoeksema  and            from  the  Old  Country."    Clearly,         Nieuw  Gevaar    (Above  Scripture
his views had set in.  They, after          Prof. Ophoff had been right:  the             Binding: A New Peril).  It was al-
all,  it  seemed  to  be  thought,  had     problems  were  real  and  had  not           most  as  though  he  was  offended
come of age; and, having matched            been met.                                     that, with the tenacity he had held
wits  with  no  less  a  figure  than           But by this time a ball was roll-         to  his  views  in  1944,  Hoeksema
Schilder, were as worthy of being           ing -- or, to borrow Schilder's fig-           and the PRC should hold to theirs.
heard as he -- as the privately ex-          ure,  the  knitting  of  a  common                And yet, through it all Hoek-
pressed reflections of Schilder be-         stocking was begun -- howbeit not              sema  maintained  a  certain  affec-
gan to pour from their lips.  Hoek-         in the way that had been planned.             tion for Schilder, to the point that
sema was too doctrinal.  He talked          It  is  impossible  for  us  to  know         (almost ruefully, as though if the
about  predestination  too  much.           what  was  said  privately  between           old  openness  they  had  known
More  practical  preaching  was             Schilder  and  the  various  parties          originally  could  be  regained,
needed, with promises and threats           with whom he met in his visit here.           things might still be worked out)
and conditions which must be met.           And  we  have  no  idea  what  com-           his last words to him were --  so
Our distinctives were really not as         munications might have been car-              shortly before Schilder's death --
essential  as  we  had  thought,  but       ried on with him and other Liber-             "Vale,  Amice  Schilder"  (Farewell,
merely  a  matter  of  terminology          ated leaders later on.  But at this           Friend Schilder).  And one has to
and words.  All across the denomi-          point we cannot but take seriously            wonder  whether,  from  his  visit
nation,  the  privately  expressed          what Prof. Holwerda reported con-             here on, Schilder had actually done
thoughts  of  Schilder  were  being         cerning  a  visit  of  two  of  them,         the part of a true friend.   u
echoed again.  The fruit of his visit       "They said this:  Indeed, we have
was  a  division  deep  through  the        much  to  be  grateful  for  to  Rev.
heart of our churches.                      Hoeksema.  But his conception re-

                                                                                         October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /33


            Through Warfare To Victory
                                                                                                     Prof. Herman Hanko


                                             in general, the doctrines of a con-        Concordia to do it.  The magazine
Introduction                                 ditional salvation, and, in particu-       had appeared already in 1944, but,
                                             lar, the doctrines of a general and        ironically, in defiance of its name,
                                             conditional  promise  in  the  cov-        which means "Harmony," it sowed
The church of our Lord Jesus
          Christ on earth is sometimes
          called  the  church  militant.     enant.                                     discord and division in the church.
The  name  is  apt,  for  Christ  calls          When the Protestant Reformed           Because  it  entered  nearly  every
His  church  to  warfare  as  long  as       Churches were founded, they were           home  in  the  denomination,  it
she is in the world.  God Himself            established  because  the  truth  of       sought to introduce false doctrine
has put  enmity between  the  seed           God's  sovereign,  unconditional,          into every home.  And because PR
of the woman and the seed of Sa-             and particular grace had to be de-         homes were, above all, covenantal
tan, and that enmity can only re-            fended  over  against  common              homes, an open defense of a con-
sult in open and perpetual hostili-          grace.  The errors now introduced          ditional covenant was a direct at-
ties.                                        in  the  PRC  were  the  heresies  of      tack  on  the  spiritual  structure  of
    The  church  is  called  to  fight,      conditional salvation, i.e., that man      the home.
however,  with  spiritual  weapons,          had to fulfill the condition of faith          It  was  no  wonder,  then,  that
for the battle is spiritual.  The en-        before he could be saved.                  Rev. Herman Hoeksema, editor-in-
emy is Satan and his allies -- the                                                       chief  of  the  Standard  Bearer,  en-
world of wicked men.  Their weap-            The Battlefields                           gaged in a defense of a sovereign
ons are worldliness and false doc-               While no single congregation,          and unconditional covenant in the
trine.                                       and indeed no single home was left         columns of the paper for which he
    Sometimes  the  enemy  is  out-          unaffected,  the  battle  raged  par-      was responsible.
side the walls of the city of God;           ticularly  in  the  church  papers;  in        The      polemics      continued
sometimes  the  enemy  appears               First  PRC  in  Grand  Rapids,  MI;        throughout the controversy.  Per-
within  the  walls.    False  doctrine       and on the ecclesiastical assemblies       haps no other aspect of the battle
can  be  defended  by  wicked  men           of the churches: Classes and Syn-          involved  the  membership  of  the
outside  the  church;  more  often,          ods.                                       churches more than the conflict in
though, false doctrine is taught by              The battle was fought particu-         the church papers.
men within the church.  The latter           larly in First PRC because one of
is what happened in 1950-1953.               the  three  pastors  there,  Rev.          The Course of the Battle in First
                                             Hubert  De  Wolf,  openly  taught          Church
The Enemy and His Weapons                    heresy  from  the  pulpit  in  the             First Church could have been
    The  enemy  were  men  within            course  of  his  preaching.    It  was     called the flagship of the denomi-
the Protestant Reformed Churches             fought  on the broader  assemblies         nation  in  those  days.    It  was  the
who introduced into the teachings            because "The Declaration of Prin-          congregation in which Rev. Hoek-
and doctrine of the churches ideas           ciples"  was  hated  for  its  clear       sema was pastor at the time of his
and  views  which  were  directly            statement  of  the  truth.    It  was      suspension  from  office  for  refus-
contrary to what the churches had            fought  in  the  church  papers  be-       ing to agree to the three points of
always taught and to what was, in            cause conditional theology was de-         common  grace.    It  was  far  and
fact, the truth of Scripture and the         fended  by  the  supporters  of            away  the  largest  congregation,
Reformed confessions.                        Hubert De Wolf in public writings          numbering  some  560  families.    It
    The men who were responsible             in a paper called Concordia.               was the mother church.
for this were ministers of the gos-                                                         Because of its size, it had three
pel who occupied pulpits through-            The Course of the Battle in the            pastors,  Rev.  Herman  Hoeksema,
out the denomination, elders and             Church Papers                              Rev. Hubert De Wolf, and my fa-
deacons  who  supported  these  er-              It was really in the church pa-        ther, Rev. Cornelius Hanko.  While
roneous  teachings,  and  people  in         pers  that  the  long  and  difficult      both Revs. Hoeksema and Hanko
the pew, many of whom were men               battle began.                              were  strong  defenders  of  uncon-
of  influence  and  stature,  who                When some of the ministers in          ditional  salvation,  Rev.  De  Wolf
openly encouraged such teaching.             the  PRC  began  to  defend  condi-        was  not  of  that  mind  at  all.    He
    The weapons they used were,              tional theology, they made use of          was  intent  on  promoting  in  the

34/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


congregation  a  conditional  theol-       ment  to  conditional theology.    In       the locks, and proceeded to make
ogy.                                       a preparatory service, held with a          use of the premises.  The faithful
        While  De  Wolf  promoted  his     view to the administration of the           remnant, less than half of the con-
theology in catechism classes and          Lord's  Supper,  he  preached  on           gregation, worshiped in the chapel
personal  contact,  he  finally            Matthew  18:3  and  defended  the           of  Grand  Rapids  Christian  High
brought  it  to  the  pulpit  on  April    proposition:    "Our  act  of  conver-      School.
15, 1951, when he made the bold            sion is a prerequisite to enter the
statement in a sermon on the par-          kingdom of heaven."                         The Course of the Battle on the
able of the rich man and Lazarus:              The  congregation  nearly  ex-          Assemblies
"God promises to every one of you          ploded, and once again the elders               The  battles  on  the  assemblies
that  if  you  believe  you  will  be      took up the issues.  In February of         concentrated  in  "The  Declaration
saved."  Here was the clearest pos-        1953 De Wolf was subjected to an            of  Principles."    Because  the  PRC
sible defense of a general and con-        examination of his orthodoxy.  Be-          were working among Dutch immi-
ditional promise in the covenant.          cause  of  a  majority  in  the             grants in Canada who were for the
        The statement brought protests     consistory,  his  examination  was          most  part  from  "Liberated"
from members of the congregation           approved  and  he  was  cleared  of         churches  in  the  Netherlands,
and  put the controversy squarely          all  heresy  charges.    Some  elders       where  conditional  theology  was
in  the  hands  of  the  elders.    The    protested this decision exonerating         maintained and defended, the mis-
consistory  of  First  Church  found       De Wolf, and appealed to Classis            sionary, Rev. Andrew Cammenga,
it difficult to deal with the prob-        East of the PRC.                            asked  the  Mission  Committee  of
lem, chiefly because the elders re-            And so it came to Classis.              the PRC  for a statement concern-
flected in their own ranks the di-             The  committee  appointed  to           ing  the  doctrinal  position  of  the
visions  in  the  congregation.    But     study the matter was composed of            PRC  to  be  used  on  the  mission
with the passing of the months, the        three  ministers  and  two  elders.         field.    This  request  came  to  the
battle grew in intensity.                  The  ministers  prepared  a  report         Synod  of  1950  and  a  document
        The congregation was affected      defending De Wolf's statements as           called  "The  Declaration  of  Prin-
by it, of course.  Although discus-        not necessarily heretical.  The two         ciples" was drawn up, provision-
sions  over  the  issues  and  heated      elders,  in  a  minority  report,  rec-     ally approved, and sent back to the
debates  over  the  doctrines  in-         ommended  the  condemnation  of             churches for examination and dis-
volved  took  place  at  every  occa-      the  statements  by  Classis.    After      cussion  with  a  view  to  final  ap-
sion,  the  worst,  from  my  view-        De  Wolf  himself  repudiated  the          proval at the Synod of 1951.
point,  was  the  difficulty  in  wor-     majority  report,  Classis  decided             The  document  set  forth  the
shiping.  My father often spoke of         that  the  statements  of  De  Wolf         biblical and confessional teachings
the difficulty in preaching because        were literally heretical and that De        over against such key doctrines as
the absence of the Holy Spirit from        Wolf had to apologize for them or           common grace, the well-meant of-
the  congregation  was  palpable.          be subject to the discipline of the         fer, and conditional salvation.  Al-
But the worship of the congrega-           consistory.                                 though  adopted  nearly  unani-
tion was also noticeably affected.             A committee was appointed to            mously  by  the  Synod  of  1950,  it
        Our  home  life  was  also  af-    bring the decision to the consistory        stirred  up  bitter  debate  through-
fected.    While  we  did  not  know       of First Church, which it also did          out  the  churches  when  the  sup-
what  was  taking  place  in  the          in June of 1953.  By a majority vote        porters of conditional salvation be-
consistory meetings, we could tell         the advice of Classis was accepted.         gan  to  understand  what  was  im-
the  toll  the  battle  was  taking  on    Shortly  afterward  De  Wolf  made          plied in it.
my  father  --  and  we  were  con-         a statement to the congregation in              Although the Synod of 1951 of-
stantly worried about his well-be-         which he apologized for offending           ficially adopted the Declaration, by
ing.                                       some in the congregation, but did           a vote of 9-7 (reflecting the split in
        After almost a year and a half,    not  apologize  for  his  heresy.    A      the churches), the controversy con-
the struggle in the consistory had         meeting of the consistory on June           tinued unabated.
somewhat  faded  into  the  back-          21  ended  in  chaos.    But  on  June          Classis East, as we noticed, be-
ground, and some expressed hope            22, the faithful elders, along with         came a battlefield when it consid-
that the whole difficulty could be         Revs.  Hoeksema  and  Hanko,  met           ered protests against De Wolf from
solved in such a way that the con-         with  the  consistory  of  Southeast        First Church.  It became a battle-
gregation  would  remain  intact.          PRC and proceeded to De  Wolf's             field at the next Classis when del-
But  then,  on  September  14,  1952,      suspension  and  the  deposition  of        egates  from  De  Wolf's  consistory
De Wolf, throwing caution to the           the office bearers supporting him.          and  delegates  from  First  Church
winds,  openly  reaffirmed  in  the            De  Wolf's  supporters  took            both appeared and requested to be
most  emphatic  way  his  commit-          over the church property, changed           seated.    When  Classis  decided  to

                                                                                      October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /35


seat  the  delegates  from  First            churches, 29 ministers, 5449 indi-            revealed in the truth of His sover-
Church (after lengthy debate that            viduals.  The Yearbook of 1954 lists          eign and particular grace, is threat-
lasted days), De Wolf and his sup-           16 churches, 14 ministers, 2353 in-           ened by false doctrine.  What the
porters, also from other congrega-           dividuals.                                    cost may be  is immaterial and of
tions, walked out of Classis.  The                   Families and friends had been         no  account.    To  ask  whether  the
split then took place in the mem-            separated,  and  the  bitterness              price was too high to pay is to ask
ber churches.                                which  all  controversy  engenders            the wrong question.
    Classis West was the scene of            remained for years.                               Nevertheless,  God  gave  the
struggle when the announcements                      The work of the churches was          PRC  the  victory  even  though  at
of De Wolf's suspension were sent            made  much  more  difficult.    Mis-          times it seemed as if the denomi-
to  the  churches.    Classis  West,         sion  work  ceased.    The  Seminary          nation was to be reduced to rubble.
most  of  which  favored  De  Wolf,          continued, though with a sharply              The  victory  was,  so  to  speak,  by
repudiated  the  decisions  of  First        reduced  enrollment.    The  energy           the  skin  of  our  teeth;  but  this  is
Church.  That was the occasion for           of the churches was in a measure              the  way  God  often  works.   From
the rift to spread through the con-          devoted to legal battles rather than          the controversy emerged, through
gregations beyond the Mississippi.           the work assigned to her by Christ.           the work of the Spirit, a denomi-
    And so the battle resulted in a          The  Christian  schools,  supported           nation  stronger,  more  deeply  de-
schism  which  rolled  through  the          by  the  parents  of  the  denomina-          voted  to  her  own  distinctives,
denomination  like  a  deep  chasm           tion, were hard hit and had a more            more determined than ever to get
in the ground brought about by an            difficult  struggle  to  continue.    A       on  with  the  work  of  the  Lord,
earthquake.  All the congregations           great battle-weariness settled over           purged  from  those  who  troubled
were affected and some congrega-             the saints.  Though victorious, the           her,  and  ready  to  move  forward
tions  were  lost  completely  to  the       troops were wounded and  bleed-               when  once  it  had  caught  its  col-
PRC.                                         ing.                                          lective breath.
                                                     Was it worth it?                          God  has  blessed  us.    He  res-
The Aftermath                                        Well,  in  a  sense  the  question    cued  us  when  our  cause  seemed
    When  the  dust  of  battle  had         is inappropriate.  For in the final           to be defeated.  He has been with
settled, it became obvious that the          analysis  it  does  not  matter  at  all      us  since  that  time  and  has  given
results of the split were, from an           what  happens  to  us  or  the                us  countless  tokens  of  His  favor
earthly point of view, disastrous.           churches  of  which  we  are  a  part         and love.  And above all, He has
    The  membership  of  the  de-            when  the  truth  of  God  is  the  is-       preserved us in the heritage of the
nomination  was  sharply  reduced.           sue.    Whatever  has  to  be  done           Reformed  faith  for  which  our  fa-
The  Yearbook   of  1952  lists  24          must  be  done  when  God's  glory,           thers fought so valiantly.   u


                 God's Unconditional Covenant
                                                                                                         Prof. Robert Decker


                                             statements.    When  Rev.  De  Wolf           enamored of Dr. K. Schilder's view
                                             refused  to  apologize  for  and  re-         of the covenant.  This was the doc-
                                             tract the two statements, a split oc-         trinal  issue  which  made  the  split
In April of 1951 the Rev. Hubert
    De  Wolf,  one  of  the  three  pas
    tors  of  First  Protestant  Re-         curred in First Church in June of             in  the  Protestant  Reformed
formed  Church  in  Grand  Rapids,           1953.    The  split  soon  spread             Churches inevitable.
made the statement in his sermon,            throughout  the  entire  denomina-                To  present  an  accurate  sum-
"God  promises  every  one  of  you          tion  with  some  two  thirds  of  the        mary of Dr. Schilder's view of the
that,  if  you  believe,  you  will  be      clergy and membership leaving the             covenant  is  no  easy  undertaking.
saved."  About a year and a half             Protestant  Reformed  Churches                "It should therefore be stated im-
later  Rev.  De Wolf  made  another          (PRC).                                        mediately that nowhere in any of
statement in his sermon, "Our act                    While  the  two  statements  of       his numerous writings did he of-
of  conversion  is  a  prerequisite  to      Rev. De Wolf certainly became the             fer  a  detailed  and  systematic  ex-
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God."         immediate  cause  of  the  split,  the        position of  his views on the cov-
Protests  were  lodged  with  First's        deeper  cause  was  the  fact  that  a        enant.  The situation is rather that
consistory  against  both  of  these         good number of the ministers were             the  covenant  constantly  crops  up

36/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


in his theological writings, some-          rate the promise from the demand,             dwelt with His people.  In Psalm
times unexpectedly."1                       he would change the promise into              25:14  Scripture  declares  that  "the
    Schilder  was  concerned  with          a  mere  prediction.    If  one  would        secret  (familiar  acquaintance)  of
two  matters.    In  opposition  to         separate  the  demand  from  the              the  Lord  is  with  them  that  fear
those  (Herman  Hoeksema  among             promise of the covenant, he would             him,  and  he  will  show  them  his
them) who insisted that one's point         introduce a new law.  Promise and             covenant."  The Lord promises to
of departure in understanding the           demand are inseparable.                       dwell with the church, walk with
biblical teaching concerning God's              It  is  in  this  connection  that        her, and be her God (II Cor. 6:6).
covenant should be the eternal de-          Schilder introduced what he called            God's covenant of friendship will
crees of God, Schilder preferred to         a  "Reformed  doctrine  of  condi-            be realized in heavenly perfection
make  his  point  of  departure  the        tions."    Baptism  seals  in  a  sacra-      in the new creation.  "Behold, the
historical  deeds  of  God.    In  this     mental way the promise of the gos-            tabernacle of God is with men, and
connection  Schilder  was  deter-           pel.    But  this  promise  demands           he will dwell with them, and they
mined to do full justice to the re-         from us that we in faith appropri-            shall be his people, and God him-
sponsibility of man.                        ate for ourselves what is promised            self  shall  be  with  them,  and  be
    While Schilder taught that the          and  so  make  it  our  own.    Faith,        their God" (Rev. 21:3).  In the new
covenant  is  unilateral  (one-sided)       which  Schilder  insisted  is  God's          Jerusalem God's people shall walk
in  its  origin,  he  emphasized  that      gift  to  us,  is the  condition  of  the     in  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God,
the covenant is bilateral in its ex-        covenant.    God  has  decreed  that          and  they  shall  see  His  face  (Rev.
istence.    The  covenant  originates       salvation  can  never  be  realized           22:4).
in God.  God establishes the cov-           without  faith.    One's  baptism,                 Scripture makes unmistakably
enant.   What  Schilder meant was           therefore,  does  not  imply  a  dog-         clear as well that God establishes
that God unilaterally establishes a         matic proclamation that God con-              and  maintains  and  realizes  His
bilateral  relationship  between            fers salvation on the elect. But in           covenant unilaterally.  God said to
Himself and us.  The covenant ac-           baptism,  Schilder  taught,  one  re-         Noah, for example, "And I, behold,
cording  to  Schilder  is  a  mutual        ceives  a  concrete  address  from            I establish my covenant with you
agreement  between  two  parties,           God,  a  message  that  God  pro-             and with your seed after you; and
God and man:  two immeasurably              claims  to  everyone  who  is  bap-           with  every  living  creature  that  is
unequal  parties,  but  two  parties        tized,  personally:  if  you  believe         with you, of the fowl, of the cattle,
nonetheless.  In the covenant, God          you will be saved.                            and  of  every  beast  of  the  earth
treats  man  as  an  actual  and  re-           The  PRC,  following  the  lead-          with you; from all that go out of
sponsible partner.  The  covenant,          ership  of  Herman  Hoeksema,  re-            the ark, to every beast of the earth"
according to Schilder, is a legal ar-       acted  strongly  to  Schilder's  cov-         (Gen.  9:9-10).    And  to  Abraham
rangement that confers a legal sta-         enant views.  The view of Schilder            God said, "And I will establish my
tus upon the members of the cov-            regards  the  covenant  as  a  means          covenant between me and thee and
enant  people.    In  the  covenant,        to an end, the end being salvation.           thy seed after thee in their genera-
God's gifts of love come to us in a         The  PRC  regard  the  covenant  as           tions for an everlasting covenant,
legal  relationship  and  with  legal       the highest end in itself.  As to its         to be a God unto thee, and to thy
guarantees.                                 idea, the  covenant is the bond of            seed after thee" (Gen. 17:7).
    Further, the covenant which is          friendship which God unilaterally                  With  whom  does  God  estab-
a  bilateral  relationship  with  a  le-    establishes, maintains, and realizes          lish  His  covenant  of  friendship?
gal  character  contains  two  parts,       with His elect in Christ.                     With the elect in Christ, believers
viz., the promise and the demand.               That the covenant is a bond of            and their children.  The Lord Jesus
With  the  promise,  Schilder  said,        friendship  between  God  and  His            Christ is "the image of the invis-
comes  the  assurance  of  reward           people  in  Christ  is  clearly  taught       ible  God,  the  firstborn  of  every
(salvation) in the way of faith, and        in Scripture.  In paradise God re-            creature:  For  by  him  were  all
with the demand comes the threat            vealed Himself to Adam and spoke              things created, that are in heaven,
of punishment in the case of unbe-          with  him  as  a  Friend  with  His           and that are in earth, visible and
lief and disobedience.                      friend, and Adam knew God in the              invisible, whether they be thrones,
    In  answer  to  the  question           cool of the day.  Enoch and Noah              or  dominions, or principalities, or
whether such an emphasis on the             walked with God, implying friend-             powers: all things were created by
responsibility of man does not un-          ship and fellowship (Gen. 5:22; 6:8-          him,  and  for  him:  And  he  is  be-
dermine  the  certainty  of  the  cov-      9).    Abraham  is  called  the  friend
enant,  Schilder  stressed  that  the       of  God  (Isaiah  41:8;    James  2:23).      1 S. A. Strauss, "Schilder on the Covenant,"
promise of the covenant can never           To  Moses  God  spoke  as  a  man             in  Always Obedient: Essays on the Teach-
                                                                                          ings of Dr. Klaas Schilder,  J. Geertsema,
be separated from the demand of             speaks with his friend (Ex. 31:11).           editor. (Neerlandia, AB: Inheritance Pub-
the covenant.  If one would sepa-           In the tabernacle and temple God              lishers), p. 19.

                                                                                         October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /37


fore  all  things,  and  by  him  all        as  Jacobs.    In  the  Old  Testament     tures, and walk in a new and holy
things consist.  And he is the head          era these Esaus were circumcised           life!    This  life  of  sanctification  is
of the body, the church: who is the          and in the new they are baptized.          not to be conceived of as a fulfill-
beginning,  the  firstborn  from  the        Does this mean that God promises           ing of conditions in order that the
dead;  that  in  all  things  he  might      them  salvation  if  they  believe?        covenant may be realized.  This is
have  the  preeminence.    For  it           Never!    The  sacrament,  like  the       the fruit of God's marvelous grace
pleased  the  Father  that  in  him          preaching  of  the  Word,  is  to  the     and love at work in the hearts of
should  all  fullness  dwell"  (Col.         reprobate  a  savor  of  death  unto       His covenant people.   u
1:15-19).   To Christ are given the          death (II Cor. 2:16).
elect, conformed  by God's  choos-               Does this biblical view of the         For  further  study  of  this  impor-
ing  to  His  image  (Eph.  1).    For       covenant deny the responsibility of        tant  subject  the  reader  may  con-
these sheep Christ, the Good Shep-           man?  Again, never!  The fact that         sult:  Herman Hanko,  God's Ever-
herd,  lays  down  His  life  at  the        God  establishes  His  covenant  of        lasting  Covenant  of  Grace;
cross and takes it again in the res-         friendship with the elect in Christ        Herman  Hoeksema,  The  Triple
urrection (John 10).                         obligates them to new obedience.           Knowledge,  vol.  2,  pp.  495-527;  J
    Are all the children of believ-          To  use  the  language  of  the  Form      Kamphuis,  An  Everlasting  Cov-
ers elect, friends of God in Christ?         for  the  Baptism  of  Infants,  they      enant  (this book presents the "Lib-
We know better.  There are Esaus             must cleave to their God, forsake          erated" view).
born  of  believing  parents  as  well       the  world,  crucify  their  old  na-


                            Advice or Jurisdiction
      (the Authority of Major Assemblies)
                                                                                                       Rev. Gise VanBaren


In the controversy of 1924, the pended the Rev. H. Hoeksema and the denomination that is the
   question was raised concerning            deposed  his  elders  from  office.        "church,"  but  the  local  church  is
   the authority of the Classis or           The small minority of members of           the  manifestation  of  the  body  of
Synod  over  the  local  consistory.         that  congregation  who  opposed           Christ.  That is in distinction from
The Synod (1924) of the Christian            Rev.  H.  Hoeksema  managed,               the Christian Reformed Church --
Reformed  Church,  meeting  at               through  court  action,  to  strip  the    the  name  implying    that  the  de-
Kalamazoo, MI, adopted what was              majority  of  their  property  and         nomination  is  itself  the  "church."
known  as  the  "Three  Points  of           name.                                      A large number of those who are
Common  Grace."1    The  decision                The  Protestant  Reformed              leaving  the  Christian  Reformed
was  taken  in  answer  to  protests         Churches have expressed their dis-         Church  in  recent  years  to  estab-
which  were  made  against  the              agreement  with  the  above  action        lish  independent  congregations
teaching of the Rev. Herman Hoek-            by maintaining: 1) that the Synod          have come to understand this dis-
sema of the Eastern Avenue Chris-            had  declared  Rev.  H.  Hoeksema          tinction too -- and some have now
tian Reformed Church.  That same             Reformed though "one-sided," but           repudiated  this  position  of  the
Synod  declared  that  the  Rev.             had  refused  to  demand  his  sub-        CRC.
Herman Hoeksema was Reformed,                mission  to  the  adopted  "Three              This question surfaced again in
howbeit somewhat one-sided.2  It             Points of Common Grace"; 2) that           the split of 1953 in the Protestant
also refused to adopt a motion de-           the Classis Grand Rapids East had          Reformed Churches.  There was a
manding  that  that  pastor  submit          no  legal  authority  to  suspend  or      question of the binding nature of
to  the  decisions  concerning  com-         depose  officebearers  of  a  local        decisions of Classis or Synod (Ar-
mon grace or be suspended or de-             church;  this  right  belongs  only        ticle  31 4  of  the  Church  Order).
posed from office.3                          with the consistory of the church.         There  were  questions  concerning
    Later, when additional appeals               The  Protestant  Reformed              the idea and significance of the au-
were  made  by  members  of  East-           Church es   adopted  the  name             tonomy  of  the  local  congregation.
ern  Ave.  Chr.  Ref.  Church  to  the       ("churches" -- in the plural) to ex-        While both sides claimed to adhere
Classis East of Grand Rapids of the          press  the  truth  that  the  local        to the  principles maintained at the
CRC,  that  Classis  finally  sus-           church  is  autonomous.    It  is  not     time of the 1924 controversy, there

38/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


were obvious differences of opin-             DeWolf  if  he  doesn't  apologize,                A.  And the Church Order, Ar-
ion how all of this applied in the            do  I  understand  the  Consistory               ticle 31, allows, when it states that
situation of 1953.                            would not have to follow that ad-                all  decisions  by  majority  vote
    It is beyond the scope of  this           vice?                                            shall  be  binding  unless  --  that
article to consider all of the ques-            A.  May  I  hear  that  Question               means unless in my conscience it
                                              again? (Question thereupon read                  is contrary to the Word of God or
tions raised and issues presented.            by the reporter.)                                the  Church  Order,  then  it  is  not
By the nature of the case, there was            Q.  Consistory  of  the  First                 binding.
a very unusual situation within the           Church,  do  they  have  to  follow                Q. Is the word "conscience" in
churches.    Schism  of  this sort  af-       that advice?                                     Article 31?
fects  decisions  taken.    A  careful          A.  No,  sir,  and  Classis  has  no             A. That is our interpretation of
analysis  of  all  the  events  of  that      business giving that.  In the ques-              Article 31.
time  might  be  profitable  --  but           tion  of  suspension,  Classis  has                Q. Whose interpretation?
would involve a very lengthy ar-              nothing to say whatsoever; in the                  A. Rev. Ophoff.
ticle -- or even a book.                       suspension and deposition of el-                   Q. What is your interpretation?
                                              ders  and  deacons,  Classis  has                  A.  The  same  as  Professor
    The court case of the First Prot-         nothing  to  say.    In  the  suspen-            Ophoff.
estant Reformed Church of Grand               sion  of  the  minister,  Classis  has             Q. What is the interpretation of
Rapids, MI before Judge Taylor re-            nothing to say.  The only stipula-               the synod of your church?
veals some of the diversity of opin-          tion in the Church Order is that                   A.  I  don't  think  we  have  any,
ion.  Both sides agreed on the au-            the minister may not be deposed                  do we -- let me look up Article
tonomy of the local congregation.             without the advice of Classis, but               31.  (Referring  to  Church  Order)
But  the  two  sides  obviously  dis-         in the suspension, the Classis has               Doesn't say anything about it.
agreed  on  the  relationship  of  the        no voice at all.                                   Q.  Now,  the  use  of  the  word
local church to the classis or synod            Q. Well, how about the deposi-                 "proved" in that article has mean-
                                              tion?                                            ing, does it not?
and how Article 31 applied.                     A. The deposition is to be done                  A. Yes, do you want me to read
    The  Rev.  Bernard  Kok  ex-              by the Consistory, but according                 from  Professor  Ophoff  what  it
pressed  what  seemed  to  be  the            to the Church Order, may not be                  means?
general view of the dissidents.  His          done  without  the  advice  of                     Q.  No,  I  want  you  to  answer
statements under oath show strik-             Classis.    They  may  suspend  a                my question.
ingly  the  driving  force  behind            minister  without  the  advice  of                 A. Yes, it has meaning.
many of the decisions made by the             Classis, by the preceding sentence                 Q. To whom is the proof given?
"De  Wolf  group."    I  quote  from          of  the  consistory  and  the  neigh-              A. How?
the court records:                            boring  consistory,  but  they  may                Q. To whom is that proof given
                                              not  depose  the  minister  without              under Article 31?
                                              first  having  obtained  the  advice               A.  You  must  attempt  to  give
    Q. (by lawyer Linsey): Well, let          of Classis and the approval of the               that  proof  to  either  classis  or
  us  assume,  as  in  this  case,  that      synodical delegates.                             synod.
  Classis advised the suspension or             Q. Now, in this case, it appears
  deposition of DeWolf if he did not          that Rev. Hoeksema -- strike that
  apologize,  would  it  be  up  to  --        out  --  it  appears  that  the
  would the Consistory have to fol-           consistory of the First Church ap-
  low that advice?                                                                        1      The  Protestant  Reformed  Churches
                                              proved  the  doctrine  of  Rev.
    A. No, sir.                                                                           in  America,  Herman  Hoeksema,  1947
                                              DeWolf as explained by him, and
    Q. If they refused to follow that                                                     edition, page 85.
                                              it  appears  that  Rev.  Hoeksema
  advice,  would  that  have  any  ef-                                                    2      Ibid., p. 86.
                                              took an appeal from that decision
  fect  upon  the  local  property  or                                                    3      Ibid., p. 80.
                                              to  Classis  upon  the  question  of
  congregation?                                                                           4      Article 31 states:  "If anyone com-
                                              doctrine.  Did that give classis any
    A. No.                                                                                plain  that  he  has  been  wronged  by
                                              authority,  under  the  law  as  it  is
    Q. Here, as this has been inter-                                                      the decision of a minor assembly, he
                                              interpreted by your church, to de-
  preted,  this  law  has  been  inter-                                                   shall have the right to appeal to a ma-
                                              pose or suspend the minister?
  preted in your church, the church                                                       jor ecclesiastical assembly, and what-
                                                A. No, sir.
  is autonomous churches?                                                                 ever may be agreed upon by a major-
                                                Q. Or even advise it?
    A. Autonomous churches, yes.                                                          ity vote shall be considered settled and
                                                A. Not even advise it.5
    Q.  Is  there  any  penalty  if  you                                                  binding,  unless  it  be  proved  to  con-
                                                Under  cross  examination  by
  should  refuse,  if  the  Consistory                                                    flict  with  the  Word  of  God  or  with
                                            Attorney Tubbs, Rev. B. Kok pro-
  should refuse to follow the advice                                                      the  articles  of  the  church  order,  as
  of Classis or Synod?                      vided  further  explanation  of  his          long as they are not changed by a gen-
    A. No penalty whatsoever.               views:                                        eral synod."
    Q. Now, then, if the Classis in                                                       5      The  First  Protestant  Reformed
  this  case  would  call  in  a  neigh-        Q.  The  Church  Order,  itself,          Church of Grand Rapids, a Michigan
  boring  Consistory  and  suspend            however,  is  the  constitution  of         Corporation,  Plantiff,  vs.  Hubert  De
                                              your church, is it not?                     Wolf, etc. Vol. 1, p. 124ff.

                                                                                         October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /39


    Q. You must not only attempt,            sentation, that anyone may ignore            churches  (as  was  seen  also  in
  you  must  actually  furnish  the          the decisions of classis (or synod)          1953).  According to Article 31 of
  proof, must you not?                       if he proves to his own conscience           the Church Order, the decisions of
    A. Not necessarily.  If I do not         that  he  is  right  and  classis  is        the  broader  bodies  are  binding.
  actually furnish the proof that is         wrong.    The  only  thing  a  classis       Those who disagree with the deci-
  satisfactory  to  the  synod  or
  classis, I still have the right of my      can  do,  if  the  matter  is  of  suffi-    sions  of  the  broader  gatherings
  opinion.                                   ciently serious a nature, is to sever        must prove from Scripture and the
    Q. Under Article 31?                     relationships with the congregation          Church Order  to the satisfaction of
    A. Under Article 31.                     which refuses to follow its advice.          those  bodies  that  the  decision  is
    Q. You reserve the right to have         The statements of Rev. B. Kok go             wrong.  If that is not thus proved,
  your own opinion?                          a  long  way  to  explain  what  oc-         and if the church or individual re-
    A. That is right.                        curred  both  in  Classis  West  and         fuses to abide by the decisions of
    Q. But action of synod or classis        some  of  the  churches  of  Classis         the  broader  gatherings,  they  put
  is binding on you?                         East.  These would not be bound              themselves outside  of the pale of
    A. It is not.
    Q. You mean you can flaunt a             by Article 31 of the Church Order.           the churches -- and these gather-
  decision of classis?                           The  Protestant  Reformed                ings must declare them to be out.
    A. Yes, guaranteed by my con-            Churches  do   maintain  the  au-            If one can do as he pleases despite
  tract.                                     tonomy of the local church and its           the decisions of the broader gath-
    Q. And still remain a minister           consistory.    These  churches  do           ering, then protests, appeals, over-
  of the gospel of the Protestant Re-        make  a  distinction  between                tures  would  mean  nothing  any-
  formed Church?                             "broader"  (correct)  and  "higher"          more.
    A. Of the Protestant Reformed            (wrong) bodies when speaking of                   If  our  churches  learned  one
  Church, of a Protestant Reformed           Classis or Synod.  These churches            important  lesson  in  1953,  it  was
  congregation, yes.  Whether they
  want to put me out of the asso-            have   insisted  that  only  the             surely this: we must abide by the
  ciation,  that  is  their  privilege.      consistory can suspend, depose, or           Order  adopted  by  the  churches
  They have a right to deny me the           otherwise  discipline  its  office-          and not have each do what is right
  fellowship, but they have no right         bearers  or  members.    But  surely         "in his own eyes."  Decisions taken
  to touch my office as minister in          they  have  not  taught  that  Article       by the broader gatherings must be
  the  Protestant  Reformed  Church          31  means  one  need  merely  to             binding in the churches -- or there
  of the congregation I represent.6          prove  to one's own conscience  from         would  be  anarchy  and  surely  no
                                             Scripture  and  the  Church  Order           denominational unity.  u
    The above quotes give an idea            that a decision of Classis or Synod
of  the  erroneous  view  presented          is  wrong  in  order  then  to  ignore
of Article 31 of the Church Order.           or violate that decision.   Such ac-
It  appears,  according  to  this  pre-      tion would result in anarchy in the          6    Ibid., p. 138.

              "The Declaration of Principles"
                          What?  When?  and Why?
                                                                                                                 Rev. Dale Kuiper


                                             turning  out  tanks,  planes,  trucks,       United States in 1939 and again in
                                             ships,  and  munitions  were  being          1947.  Rev. H. Hoeksema suffered
                                             retooled for domestic production.
The closing years of the 1940s
       were  years  of  unrest  and                                                       a severe stroke in 1947.  Canada,
       change.    The  United  States        There were many shortages:  cars,            with its open immigration policy,
was welcoming home her service-              appliances, apartments.  Of course,          was welcoming many immigrants
men from active duty in the Euro-            all these things affected the mem-           from  Europe,  especially  from  the
pean  and  Asiatic  theaters  of  op-        bers of our churches as well.  But           Netherlands.    Among  these  were
erations.  Many thousands of her             there  were  winds  of  unrest  and          many from the Liberated Churches
soldiers, sailors, marines, and air-         change of a more important, doc-             of  which  Dr.  Schilder  was  the
men  did  not  return,  or  returned         trinal  nature  rustling  in  the            leader.  After a visit to the Neth-
only  to  be  buried  in  home  soil.        churches as well.                            erlands by the Revs. J. DeJong and
Huge  factories  which  had  been                Dr. K. Schilder had visited the          B. Kok, during which visit the Lib-

40/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


erated brethren were assured that          plied  to  the  area  of  the  covenant       A,  8  for  proof,  the  Declaration
there  was  no  official  view  of  the    certainly meant for our churches a            states:
covenant  held  by  the  Protestant        particular, unconditional covenant
Reformed  Churches,  the  immi-            that God establishes only with His              1.That all the covenant blessings
grants to Canada were advised to           particular  people,  the  elect.    Sec-        are for the elect alone.
join  these  churches;  there  was         ondly,  the  charge  was  made  re-             2.That  God's  promise  is  uncon-
room for them there.  Missionary           peatedly  against  the  adoption  of            ditionally for them only:  for God
work  was  carried  out  by  our           the Declaration that it was a new               cannot promise what was not ob-
                                                                                           jectively merited by Christ.
churches  in  the  Province  of            confession which we did not need.               3.That  the  promise  of  God  be-
Ontario  and  two  congregations           We hope to show this charge to be               stows the objective right of salva-
were  organized  there:    Hamilton        false, and that it was a wise, mas-             tion not upon all the children that
(1949)  and  Chatham  (1950).    By        terful,  and  necessary  compilation            are born under the historical dis-
1952  these  congregations  had  left      of articles from our existing Three             pensation of the covenant, that is,
our denomination.  This short his-         Forms  of  Unity  under  certain                not upon all that are baptized, but
tory was not  harmonious nor the           points or principles "as these have             only upon the spiritual seed.
relationship smooth.                       always  been  maintained  in  the
    In  1951,  with  one  dissenting       Protestant  Reformed  Churches"               When the Heidelberg Catechism is
vote,  the  Synod  of  our  churches       (Preamble to the Declaration).                quoted  in  proof  (L.D.  XXV  and
adopted  a  rather  lengthy  docu-                                                       XXVII,  the  Means  of  Grace),  the
ment entitled "A Brief Declaration         The Contents of the Declaration               Declaration makes the points that
of Principles of the Protestant Re-                A brief outline of the Declara-       the  promise  of  the  gospel  sealed
formed Churches" (cf.  The Church          tion  will  show  the  truth  of  the         by  the  sacraments  concerns  only
Order,  pp.  110-134).    This  docu-      above  statement.    There  are  four         believers,  that  is,  the  elect;  and
ment  became  the  focal  point  of        main points.                                  only  the  spiritual  children  of  be-
much discussion for several years                  First, the PRC repudiate the er-      lievers are meant, for little infants
throughout  the  churches  and  her        rors  of  the  Three  Points  of  Com-        cannot fulfill any  conditions, and
assemblies, and revealed basic dif-        mon Grace adopted by the Synod                if  God's  promise  is  for  them,  the
ferences in doctrinal positions be-        of  the  CRC  in  1924,  and  over            promise  is  infallible,  uncondi-
tween  the  Liberated  and  us  not        against  them  maintain  that  the            tional,  and  therefore  only  for  the
only,  but  also  between  our  own        grace of God is always particular,            elect.  The final point made under
members  and  clergy.    When  the         i.e.,  only  for  the  elect,  never  for     the second section is that faith is
smoke  cleared  in  1953,  our             the  reprobate;  that  the  preaching         not  a  prerequisite  or  condition
churches remained intact with the          of the gospel is not a gracious of-           unto salvation, but a gift of God,
same precious doctrines we always          fer of salvation on the part of God           the God-given instrument whereby
maintained, but we had lost about          to all men, (and now notice) nor a            we  appropriate  the  salvation  in
half our membership and clergy.            conditional  offer  to  all  that  are        Christ.
    Before we analyze the contents         born in the historical dispensation               The  third  main  section  repu-
of the Declaration we want to note         of the covenant, that is, to all that         diates the teachings that the prom-
two  things.    First,  the  contention    are baptized,  but  an oath of  God           ise of the covenant is conditional
of  some  that  our  churches  never       that He will infallibly lead all the          and  for  all  that  are  baptized  and
had an officially adopted view of          elect  unto  salvation  and  eternal          that  we  may  presuppose  that  all
the covenant had some truth to it.         glory  through  faith;  and  that  the        the children that are baptized are
No classis or synod had every spo-         unregenerate  man  is  totally  inca-         regenerated.    Contrariwise,  the
ken  to  this  issue  from  1924-1951.     pable  of  doing  any  good,  wholly          Declaration maintains
There was no need for such a de-           depraved, and therefore can only
cision  since  no  protest  or  appeal     sin.                                            1.That God surely  and infallibly
had ever been brought for adjudi-                  The  second  main  point  sets          fulfills His promise to the elect.
                                                                                           2.That  the  sure  promise  of  God
cation; it was assumed that all held       forth our confessional stance that              which He realizes in us as ratio-
the same view.  However, it must           election  is  the  unconditional,  un-          nal and moral creatures not only
be  remembered  that  the  view  of        changeable  decree  of  God  to  re-            makes  it  impossible  that  we
the covenant embodied in the Dec-          deem  in  Christ  a  certain  number            should  not  bring  forth  fruits  of
laration and defended successfully         of persons, and this election is the            thankfulness,  but  also  confronts
by  our  churches  in  1951-1953           sole cause and fountain of all our              us with the obligation of love, to
against all other views was inher-         salvation.    Further,  Christ  died            walk in a new and holy life, and
ent  in  our  history  and  positions      only for the elect, and the saving              constantly to watch unto prayer.
since our churches began.  Particu-        efficacy of His death extends only              3.That the ground of infant bap-
                                                                                           tism is the command of God and
lar  grace,  not  common  grace,  ap-      to them.  After quoting Canons II,

                                                                                        October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /41


  the  fact  that  according  to  Scrip-     tents  is  made  up  of  quotes  from       document of little historical signifi-
  ture He establishes His covenant           the Three Forms of Unity, our Li-           cance.  It was adopted because the
  in  the  line  of  continued  genera-      turgical  Forms,  and  the  Church          very basis of our churches was at
  tions.                                     Order.    Really,  the  Declaration         stake!  It was adopted only after a
    The last brief point states that         breaks no new ground, but brings            long  and  bitter  struggle  for  the
the PRC believe and maintain the             the  Reformed  confessions  to  bear        truth  of  God's  sovereign  particu-
autonomy of the local church.                upon  the  vital  subjects  of  the         lar  grace!    It  was  adopted  after
    This  brief  survey  shows  that         promise  of  God,  the  covenant  of        hard  toil,  through  broken  friend-
our  original,  historical  position         grace,  and  infant  baptism.    Sec-       ships, and with a split denomina-
that the grace of God is sovereign           ondly,  that  this  is no  fourth  con-     tion as the result.  To refuse to use
and particular can only lead to the          fession is brought out by the Pre-          the Declaration as it was intended
conclusion  that  the  covenant  of          amble  to  the  Declaration  which          would  be  a  betraying  of  our  fa-
God with us and our children is a            sharply limits its use.  A church's         thers  of  1951-1953,  and  a  lack  of
covenant that is sovereignly estab-          confession is not limited in its use;       appreciation  for  the  reformation
lished  and  maintained,  that  it  is       the Declaration is.  "The Declara-          which the Spirit of Truth worked
unconditional and without human              tion  of  Principles  (is)  to  be  used    in our churches just after the war.
prerequisites, and that it is indeed         only  by  the  Mission  Committee
a covenant that is dominated, de-            and the missionaries for the orga-          What Authority?
fined,  delineated,  and  controlled         nization  of  prospective  churches             Does  the  Declaration  of  Prin-
by  God's  eternal  election  of  His        on  the  basis  of  Scripture  and  the     ciples  have  authority  in  our
people!    We  plead  guilty  to  the        Confessions...."                            churches?    If  so,  what  or  what
charge, if indeed that be a charge.              Note  that  word  "only."    If  a      kind?    Even  though  the  Declara-
    This brief summary also shows            member  of  a  congregation  is  not        tion  is  not  a  creed,  even  though
that  the  Declaration,  though  offi-       satisfied with the preaching of his         its  use  is  limited  to  the  mission
cially adopted by our Synod, is not          minister, complaining that it is not        field that groups of believers who
the  full expression of our covenant         Reformed, he has no right to use            wish  to  be  organized  as  PR  con-
view.  It sufficed to safeguard the          the  Declaration  to  show  that  his       gregations may know that we do
truth  in  the  conditional  covenant        minister's  preaching  is  not  Re-         have  an  official  view  of  the  cov-
dispute with the  Liberated  breth-          formed.    He  must  use  the  confes-      enant,  the  Declaration  does  have
ren, but it does not reflect the de-         sions  in  an  attempt  to  show  that.     authority  over  every  member  of
velopment  of  covenant  doctrine            Officebearers when ordained  into           the  denomination.    Synod  has
which  had  already  taken  place            office are not required to sign the         taken  a  decision.    And  the  deci-
among us at that time, and which             Declaration of Principles; they are         sions  of  Synod  are  settled  and
continues  to  be  developed.    The         required  to  sign  the  Formula  of        binding  throughout  the churches.
word  friendship,  which  denotes            Subscription, which signifies their         Do  you want to sharpen your un-
the heart and essence of the cov-            agreement  with  the  confessions           derstanding of the Reformed doc-
enant, is not found in the Declara-          and the Church Order.                       trine  of  the  covenant?    You  may
tion.  The relation of friendship be-            On  the  other  hand,  when  a          study  the  Declaration.    Do  you
tween  God  and  His  people  in             missionary  is  laboring  with  a           have  opportunity  to  speak  with
Christ is not described in terms of          group of people with the view to            others  about  the  most  important
the  covenant  life  of  the  Triune         organizing a PR  congregation, he           distinctive  we  have  as  churches?
God, the most basic consideration            not only  may, but he  must include         You may say to them, "Here, this
in  our  covenant  view.    How  the         the contents of the Declaration in          is what we believe about the prom-
Father-Son relationship within the           his  teaching.    And  the  calling         ise of God, the covenant of grace,
Trinity  is  manifest  in  God's  sav-       consistory  of  the  missionary  as         and holy baptism."
ing  of  believers  and  their  seed  is     well as the Mission Committee that              As we reflect on the necessity
not entered into at all.  We repeat,         oversees the work for the churches          for  ongoing  reformation  in  the
the  Declaration  sufficed  for  the         in  common  must  judge  the                church of Jesus Christ, as we un-
task at hand, but it is not the final,       progress of the work, the spiritual         derstand  that  controversy  and
complete  word  on  our  covenant            growth  of  the  people,  and  their        struggle in the church always lead
position.                                    readiness  for  organization  for  one      to a deeper understanding of and
                                             thing  on the readiness of the group        appreciation  for  the  truth,  let  us
The Nature of the Declaration                to embrace, confess, and rejoice in         not  fail  to  appreciate  what  was
    That  the  Declaration  is  not  a       the contents of the Declaration.            safeguarded  and  gained  in  the
fourth confession is clear from two              We  may  not  allow  the  Decla-        early  fifties,  especially  for  our
considerations.    First,  approxi-          ration  to  lie  at  the  back  of  our     work  in  preaching  the  Reformed
mately  ninety  percent  of  its  con-       Church  Order  book  as  a  dead            faith to the nations.   u

42/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


                      How We View the Children
                                       of the Covenant
                                                                                                     Rev. Arie denHartog


W                                           cause  they  are  ours.  We  confess            We  admonish  our  children
           e believe that the doctri        with  our  baptism  form  that  we          daily to turn from their sins, in re-
           nal  controversy  of  1953       conceive and bring forth our chil-          pentance to God. We exhort them
           has practical importance.        dren in sin. There is no more hope          to  crucify  their  old  sinful  nature
It  did  not  involve  theological  is-     for  our  children  by  nature  than        and  to  live  a  new  and  godly  life
sues that are so abstract that they         there  is  for  the  poor,  wretched,       only when we properly understand
are  of  no  real  spiritual  value  for    miserable sinners that are the par-         the truth of God's covenant.  We
the daily lives of God's people. The        ents  of  these  children.  Our  only       are convinced that we are right in
two great  doctrines that were es-          hope is in the grace of God.                bringing  our  little  ones  to  Jesus,
pecially  involved  in  the  contro-            More  specifically,  in  connec-        because to such belongs the king-
versy  of  1953  were  the  doctrines       tion with the subject under discus-         dom  of heaven.   We comfort our
of  God's  sovereign  elective  grace       sion, our hope is in the sovereign,         children  with  the  promises  of
in  the  saving  of  His  people  and       gracious  covenant of God with be-          God's Word based on the truth of
the  doctrine  of  the  covenant  of        lievers  and  their  children.    We        the covenant. We assure them that
God  with  His  people.  These  two         bring  forth  our  children  as  our        the promises of the gospel belong
doctrines are absolutely central to         covenant calling before God.  Our           to them as well as to us as adults.
the Scriptures.  No truly Reformed          faith in regard to them is antithetic       We also admonish even those who
believer  would  dispute  that.  It         to the world's philosophy of birth          are of our own flesh and blood that
must  also  be  said  that  the  two        control.  There are still many large        if  they  lead  a  wicked  and  carnal
sides  which  were  engaged  in  the        families  in  our  churches  for  this      life they have no part in the cov-
controversy  of  1953  desired  to          reason.    We  take  confidence  in         enant  and  kingdom  of  God  and
maintain  these  doctrines.    Which        God's  covenant  purpose  in  our           they  stand  exposed  to  the  wrath
side  actually  has  remained  most         calling.    Without  this  confidence       of God unless they repent and turn
faithful  to  these  great  doctrines       we would despair at bringing chil-          from their wicked ways.
must be judged in the light of the          dren  into  the  ungodly,  wicked               The most excellent confessional
Word of God.  Through the stormy            world in which we live.  We bring           expression  that  we  know  of  the
history  that  always  accompanies          our children to church to be bap-           truth  of  covenant  with  regard  to
doctrinal  controversy,  the  church        tized as infants because we believe         our  children  is  the  one  found  in
is  led  by  God's  grace  and  Holy        that God in His gracious purpose            Lord's  Day  27  of  the  Heidelberg
Spirit into a deeper and richer un-         has very really included the chil-          Catechism. "Are infants also to be
derstanding  of  the  Word  of  God.        dren of believers in His covenant.          baptized?    Yes: for  since  they,  as
We  humbly  believe  that  God  has             How we view our children in             well as the adult, are included in
so  led  our  Protestant  Reformed          the covenant is of vital importance         the  covenant  and  church  of  God;
Churches.                                   for  how  we  raise  our children.  It      and since redemption from sin by
     We shall focus especially on the       is first of all the basis for our hope      the blood of Christ, and the Holy
significance  of  the  doctrinal  con-      for  their  salvation.    We  lay  hold     Ghost, the author of faith, is prom-
troversy of 1953 for how we view            by faith on the promise of God to           ised  to  them  no  less  than  to  the
our  children  in  God's  covenant.         Abraham that He will be  our God            adult; they must therefore by bap-
This is a subject very dear to the          and the God of our children after           tism, as a sign of the covenant, be
hearts  of  Reformed  believers  be-        us.  We find our hope in the prom-          also  admitted  into  the  Christian
cause we love our children as cov-          ise  announced at Pentecost:  "For          church; and be distinguished from
enant  children  of  God.    May  the       the  promise  is  unto  you,  and  to       the children of unbelievers as was
Lord keep us from carnality in that         your children, and to all that  are         done in the old covenant or testa-
love for our children, from a love          afar off, even as many as the Lord          ment  by  circumcision,  instead  of
merely  for  our  own  flesh  and           our God shall call" (Acts 2:39).  We        which baptism is instituted in the
blood, and from the proud imagi-            plead on the basis of the promise           new covenant." This beautiful con-
nation that our children are better         of the covenant when we pray for            fessional expression of the biblical
than those of the world simply be-          our children.                               truth of the covenant of God as it

                                                                                       October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /43


applies  to  children,    we  believe,       ceptivity  to  children  in  the  cov-      purity  for  the  glory  of  God  and
cannot be read to mean that God              enant.  Though their understand-            not the praise of men.
makes  only  an  objective  promise          ing  of  the  preaching  is  no  doubt          There are two errors which we
to covenant children which is con-           less than that of adults, covenant          have  sought  steadfastly  to  avoid
ditioned on their own personal  ac-          children can and do receive spiri-          in  the  covenant  perspective  from
ceptance later in life.  The children        tual  blessing  in  the  worship  ser-      which  we strive to raise our chil-
of the covenant are as much in the           vice  when  the  Word  of  God  is          dren. We have repudiated the er-
covenant from  birth as  their cov-          faithfully  preached  and  properly         ror of "presupposed regeneration."
enant parents are.                           applied.                                    This  view  holds  that  all  children
    The  promise  of  which  the                 We  believe  that    the  church        born of covenant parents are pre-
Heidelberg  Catechism  speaks  in-           must  maintain  a  solid  and  thor-        supposed  to  be  children  of  God
cludes the promise of redemption             ough  program  of  catechism  in-           until in later life they reveal them-
from  sin,  by  the  blood  of  Christ,      struction for covenant youth.  Such         selves by a wicked life-style as not
and the Holy Ghost,  the author of           programs  are  a  rarity  today  in         being  part  of  that  covenant.  It  is
faith. God does not promise these            Presbyterian       and     Reformed         simply  not  true  to  the  Word  of
things to covenant children merely           churches.  If there is still any sig-       God that all children born of cov-
objectively  or  externally.    He           nificant measure of instruction of          enant parents are God's elect; nor
promises to apply the blessings of           children  in  many  churches,  it  is       may  we  simply assume  that  they
salvation to the hearts of the chil-         done in superficial Sunday School           are.  We have always rejected this
dren of the covenant by the work-            classes, many of which are at best          error,  even  though  some  have
ing of His Holy Spirit.  The faith           very  shallow  and  some  of  which         falsely accused us of holding to it.
of  covenant  children  is  a  gift  of      are  simply  Arminian  in  their  ap-       The  error  of  presupposed  regen-
God to His elect. It is not the con-         proach  to  covenant  children.  The        eration has had evil consequences
dition which covenant children ful-          purpose of catechism instruction is         in  many  Reformed  churches.    It
fill  later  in  life.    This  God-given    to bring covenant children to ma-           has given the carnal seed in these
faith is not dependent for its ful-          turity in the faith. This would not         churches  the idea that in spite of
fillment on the action of man but            be possible if the Spirit of God was        an ungodly life-style they may as-
on God alone.  God gives faith to            not given to them in their hearts.          sume    that  they  are  children  of
covenant  children  by  His  sover-              Our covenant convictions con-           God.  Because of this false teach-
eign,  effectual  operation  of  the         strain us to establish our own cov-         ing, wicked, ungodly young people
Spirit  in  their  hearts.    This  truth    enant Christian day schools wher-           who grow up in the church are not
cannot  find  any  other  basis  than        ever  possible.  We  do  all  in  our       warned and admonished as God's
God's  election.  Without  such  a           power by the grace of God to keep           Word requires. This false doctrine
sovereign effectual working of the           the covenant  perspective of these          has over the years filled many Re-
Spirit  of  God  none  of  our  "cov-        schools.  We do not consider these          formed churches with carnal mem-
enant  children"  would  ever  have          schools  little  missionary  institu-       bers and tolerated the grossest in-
faith  and  none  would  ever  be            tions to bring people from the out-         iquity  among  the  youth  of  the
saved.                                       side world into the church.  Mis-           church.
    This is all very practical.  We          sion  work  is  the    calling  of  the         We also reject the idea that the
have these things in our minds and           church  through  the  preaching  of         covenant of God in the church is
hearts when we bring our children            the gospel and the testimony of her         conditional.  This  is  the  idea  that
with us to church.  We do not go             members,  but  not  of  the  school.        God  really  makes  His  covenant
along with the modern-day fad of             We do not throw open the  doors             with  all  the  children  of  covenant
"children's church" that separates           of  our  schools  to  anyone  in  the       parents.    In  spite  of  the  fact  that
children  from  families  before  the        community who might be attracted            God's covenant is with them, some
beginning  of  the  sermon.  We  be-         to  the  excellent  academic  charac-       of these covenant children are still
lieve that our children very really          ter  and  discipline  that  character-      lost  through  their  own  unbelief
belong  to  the  church  of  Jesus           izes  our  schools.  We  believe  that      and  rejection  of  the  covenant
Christ already as infants.  We be-           these schools are for covenant chil-        promises offered to them.  Accord-
lieve that the preaching that takes          dren.  They are not in existence to         ing  to  this  scheme  the  covenant
place  in  the  congregation  is  ad-        convert the children of the world,          promise  is  conditioned  on    the
dressed  to  children  as  well  as  to      if  that  were  possible.  All  of  this    faith confessed in later life by cov-
adults.    For  this  reason  also  the      we say  with thankfulness to God,           enant  children.    The  reason  why
inspired  apostles  of  the  Lord  ad-       to  illustrate  of  what  great  practi-    we  reject  this  perspective  of  the
dressed children as well as adults           cal importance  the doctrine of the         covenant is that the conclusion of
in  the  letters  they  sent  to  the        covenant is and how important it            this  teaching  is  that  God's  cov-
churches.  God  gives  spiritual  re-        is to maintain this doctrine in all         enant  is  based  ultimately  on  the

44/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


work  of  man  and  not  completely         sovereign  eternal  election.    We          gregation from this same perspec-
on God. Though the proponents of            read  the  limiting  clause  of  Acts        tive.  This is not the same as pre-
this theory have often denied this,         2:39,  "as  many  as  the  Lord  our         supposed  regeneration.    In  our
the conclusion is inescapable. God          God  shall  call,"  as  a  reference  to     dealing with our children we ad-
is then not sovereign in realizing          the  realization  of  God's  purpose         monish  them  about  sin.  We  call
His covenant promise in the hearts          of  election  in  the  generations  of       them to daily repentance and con-
of  covenant  children.  For  some          God's people.                                version.  We warn our carnal chil-
covenant  children  the  promise  of            We acknowledge that we bring             dren  with  grief  and  sorrow  of
God is made of none effect.  God,           forth a twofold seed, a carnal and           heart, that if they live an ungodly
from  their  birth,  promised  to  be       a spiritual.  This is a very difficult       life they have no right to be called
their God but in the end failed to          truth  about  the  way  of  God's            the  children  of  God.  We  warn
save them.                                  working.    It  is  nevertheless  the        them  about the severe  judgments
    We  believe  that  the  covenant        way  of  His  sovereign  purpose.            of God that shall come upon those
of God with the children of believ-         Sometimes  carnal  seed  in  the             who  were  taught  the  way  of  the
ers is limited by God's purpose of          church are clearly revealed  in con-         Lord  and  then  forsook  that  way
election.  This  is  not  a  truth  that    nection with total carelessness on           when  they  came  to  years  of  re-
we have come to by some sort of             the part of parents to fulfill their         sponsibility.    We  leave  the  effect
evil rationalism independent from           covenant  obligation  in  nurturing          of  such  warning  up  to  the  Lord.
a study of and meditation on the            their  children  in  the  fear  of  the      For some this warning will be unto
Word  of  God.    The  Bible  teaches       Lord.  This is not always the case.          repentance;  to  others,  to  harden-
that in the sphere of the covenant          It is very difficult to live with the        ing and judgment.
there  are  born  Esaus  and  Jacobs.       possibility  that  one  of  your  own            The mighty incentive to godly
In the Old Testament day, both of           children may be carnal and repro-            living for the children of the cov-
these were circumcised according            bate.  Paul said that he could wish          enant  is  not  the  admonition  that,
to the command of God.  Both of             that he were accursed from Christ            if only they will fulfill the condi-
these were given the same instruc-          for  his  brethren's  sake.  We  pray        tion  of  faith,  the  covenant  prom-
tion in the sphere of the covenant          for our children until the day that          ises  of  God  will  first  really  and
home and in the nation or church            we  die.    Only  God  knows  those          spiritually  become  theirs.    Such
in which they were raised.  It was          who are truly His.  But even when            admonitions will only leave these
revealed later in life that Esau was        it seems that we have carnal chil-           children with the fear that at some
a  carnal  and  profane  reprobate.         dren, our final comfort and assur-           point in life they might fail to ful-
Jacob was by God's grace, in spite          ance  is  in  God's  sovereign  pur-         fill  the  necessary  condition  and
of his sinfulness, an elect child of        pose,  which  we  know  is  always           still be lost.  The mighty incentive
God with whom God by sovereign              good and will serve for the glory            to godly living for covenant chil-
grace continued His covenant.               of His name.  Believing this truth           dren  is  the  wonderful,  blessed,
    The  inspired  apostle  Paul  an-       takes  great  faith.    But  that  faith     sure  covenant  promise  of  God  in
swers the question in Romans 9 to           alone comforts in the deep sorrow            Christ Jesus  realized from begin-
11 whether the Word of God was              of  impenitent,  rebellious  children        ning to end only by the sovereign
made of no effect by the unbelief           in the covenant home.  Almost ev-            grace  of  God.    We  have  the  sol-
of  the  majority  of  the  Jews.    The    ery pastor has been called upon to           emn obligation to live godly lives
answer of the Word of God is that           advise and to comfort godly par-             because we are by the grace of God
"they are not all Israel, which are         ents in situations such as these.  It        members of His covenant.  We are
of Israel" (Rom. 9:6).   In Romans          is  not  an  easy  task  but  one  that      moved  to  do  so  in  humble  grati-
11  he  answers  the  question              can only be performed with sound             tude  to  God  for  all  that  He  has
whether  the  unbelief  of  many  in        teaching  of  the  Word  of  God             done for us through His Son Jesus
Israel  means  that  God  has  cast         (sound doctrine)                             Christ.  We do not become God's
away His people, with the strong                When we sit around our table             covenant  people  by  our  own  ac-
statement, "God forbid!"  The pur-          with our covenant children we ad-            tion of faith.  Our faith is a chief
pose of election shall stand.  The          dress  them  from  the  perspective          part  of  the  blessings  of  the  cov-
promise  of  God  is  sure  to  all  of     of  the  covenant  of  God,  even            enant which He bestows upon us
God's elect. "Even so then at this          though  we  do  not  know  that  ev-         and  our  children.    We  teach  our
present  time  also  there  is  a  rem-     ery  one  of  them  is  definitely  an       children that because of our sinful
nant  according  to  the  election  of      elect  child  of  God.    Only  God          nature even as children of God we
grace."  We believe that these and          knows that.  Scripture gives us the          are  daily  prone  to  sin.   Our  love
other passages of Scripture clearly         direction  to  address  our  children        and  thankfulness  to  God  must
teach that God's covenant purpose           from this perspective.  The minis-           cause us to abhor that sin and flee
is  controlled  by  His  purpose  of        ter  in  church  addresses  His  con-        to the cross daily for forgiveness.

                                                                                        October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /45


    It  is  such  teaching  that  God        God's  mercy  or  continue  in  sin,        by  evil  men  unto  their  own  de-
uses  and  applies  to  the  hearts  of      knowing that God has established            struction.    Teaching  God's  sover-
the  true  children  of  the  covenant       an eternal covenant of grace with           eign elective grace in His covenant
as He realizes His sovereign, gra-           us.  The teaching of God's sover-           to  our  children  will  by  the  grace
cious covenant purpose with them.            eign  grace  does  not  lead  to  care-     and  Spirit  of  God  be  the  mighty
When we and our children some-               lessness  in  the  lives  of  God's         incentive  to  them  to  live  godly
times fall into sin, and we  do all          people, no matter how often it has          lives. This is the calling of God to
too often, we must not despair of            been  falsely  charged.  This  teach-       His covenant people. u
                                             ing will do that only if it is wrested


                             The Split of 1953
                                                                                                    Rev. Cornelius Hanko


                                               Thy path of life I choose for mine        Rev. Hoeksema, even accusing him
                                                 and walk with purpose true.             of being domineering.
                                               For help, O God, I cry to Thee,               There  was  also  an  effort  to-
                                               Assured  that  Thou  wilt  answer         ward  independentism,  that  is,
                                                 me."
Forty-three years later it is still
      painful for me to think back
      upon  and  write  about  the               The question often arises, was          members of Classis West were un-
split of 1953.  This is because I was        this split unavoidable?  The answer         willing  to  cooperate  in  the  work
personally involved in all that took         is  that,  under  the  circumstances,       that  was  being  carried  on  in
place,  sat  through  many  difficult        it was inevitable.                          Classis  East.    A  radio  broadcast
meetings of consistory, classis, and             In  1945,  when  I  was  still  in      had been started in Grand Rapids
synod, experienced that there were           Oaklawn, Illinois, I accepted a call        over  radio  station  WFUR,  called
those, among whom were my most               from Manhattan, Montana, which              "The  Reformed  Witness  Hour,"
intimate friends ever since the stu-         brought me out of Classis East and          which  was  also  aired  over  other
dent  days  in  the  seminary,  who          into  Classis  West.    Soon  after  at-    stations.  But men of Classis West
now  were  out  to  destroy  our             tending  classis  meetings  a  few          began  their  "Sovereign  Grace
churches  by  opposing  the  truth           times I noticed a spirit of discon-         Hour."  In Grand Rapids a weekly
that we held most precious.  I re-           tent.                                       paper was published known as The
call  the  nights  after  consistory             Some of the ministers were un-          Church News.  Our churches in the
meetings when Rev. Ophoff and I              happy  that  their  congregations           midwest  began  to  publish
would  walk  the  streets  of  Grand         failed to grow.  They had looked            Concordia.   Still worse, the synod
Rapids  in  utter  weariness,  how  I        forward  to  a  more  or  less  rapid       had  adopted  catechism  books  to
would  receive  unpleasant  phone            growth,  and  yet  there  seemed  to        be used in our churches, but in the
calls just before going to the pul-          be so little outside interest.              midwest they prepared their own
pit, and how difficult it often was              Contact  had  been  made  with          catechism books.
to preach, knowing that there was            the German Reformed churches in                 In 1948 I received a call from
so much opposition in the congre-            South  Dakota,  and  conferences            First  Church.    Since  Rev.  Hoek-
gation.                                      were  held  between  both  groups.          sema had suffered a stroke in June
    In  times  like  that,  the  devil       But  Rev.  Hoeksema  and  Rev.              of  1947  the  consistory  decided  to
seems  to  work  overtime.    He             Ophoff discovered that some of the          call a third minister.  While I was
knows  how  to  create  dissension,          German  churches  were  far  from           considering  the  call  I  received  a
arouse suspicions, gossip, backbit-          Reformed,  judging  from  the  re-          letter  from  Rev.  Hoeksema,  ex-
ing,  and  slander,  stirring  up  bit-      marks made at the conferences and           plaining the need for another min-
terness,  wrath,  and  even  hatred.         from  the  literature  they  distrib-       ister, adding that there were seri-
These  were  also  times  of  much           uted.  These ministers discouraged          ous problems in the congregation
prayer,  fervent  prayer,  pleading          any effort to join with them, which         which  he  hoped  I  would  not  ig-
with God.  To put it in the words            was  likely  a  contributing  factor        nore in considering the call.
of the psalmist:                             that brought an end to these con-               After  I  accepted  the  call  and
                                             ferences.  It was quite obvious that,       came to Grand Rapids I soon dis-
  With  steadfast  courage  I  design        particularly in the west, the min-          covered that the problems referred
    no wrong to speak or do;                 isters  resented  the  leadership  of       to  by  Rev.  Hoeksema  were  far

46/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


more serious than I had realized.             salvation.    No  matter  how  they         own  they  left  us  and  organized
        From the very beginning of our        tried  to  defend  that,  it  had  the      their own churches.
existence  as  Protestant  Reformed           Arminian  connotation  of  man's                Obviously the split of '53 was
churches  some  individuals  had              part in the work of salvation.              inevitable.
joined us, not for the sake of prin-              What brought this to a head is              We  may  also  ask:    Was  the
ciple or out of conviction, but for           the  fact  that  immigrants  began          split  necessary  for  the  welfare  of
various other reasons.  Since First           coming into our country and into            our churches?
Church  was  a  large  congregation           Canada,  many  of  them  from  the              This question could also be for-
it demanded no sacrifice to join us,          Liberated Churches and seeking to           mulated to read:  Did God have a
so that various outsiders, some of            join with us.  These Liberated had          divine purpose with this split for
whom  married  a  member  of  the             just  gone  through  a  doctrinal           our  good?    The  answer  is:    We
church, joined without actually de-           struggle in the Netherlands, which          would have lost the very truth of
siring the truth that was preached.           had resulted in the birth of the Lib-       God's  sovereign  grace  for  which
In fact, these outsiders, and possi-          erated  Churches  in  distinction           we have always striven.  Today we
bly  others,  complained  that  the           from the  Gereformeerde (Reformed)          can plainly see that, had it not hap-
preaching  was  too  doctrinal,  the          churches.  These individuals were           pened, we either would no longer
society life too formal and lifeless.         determined  to  cling  to  their  con-      exist  or  we  would  have  no  right
They wanted skits and other forms             ception of the covenant and "con-           of existence as defending the truth
of  entertainment.    A  spirit  of           ditions" in the covenant even when          of God's sovereign grace.
worldlimindedness  was  creeping              they joined us.  This was evident,              It is indeed true that we were
into the church.                              for  example,  from  a  protest  that       decimated at the time.  In fact, we
        On  family  visitation  I  discov-    was  sent  to  our  consistory  from        lost more than half of our minis-
ered  that  there  were  people  who          two  young  men  who  had  come             ters,  churches,  and  membership.
showed  no  interest  in  the  church         from  the  Liberated  Churches  and         Yet the Lord has turned that to our
or in spiritual matters.  There was           now  were  protesting  against  the         good.  The Lord has plainly sent a
a  lethargy,  but  also  a  cold  indif-      sermons of Rev. Hoeksema and me             purifying trial as by fire, through
ference.  They objected to solid Re-          as not being Reformed.                      which our churches not only sur-
formed preaching, and they espe-                  All  this  forced  the  Mission         vived,  but  also  were  spiritually
cially shied away from the idea of            Committee to propose to synod to            blessed.
being distinctly Reformed.  Many              adopt  a  Declaration  of  Principles           Our  view  of  God's  covenant
objected to having our own school.            in  which  would  be  clearly  ex-          friendship  established  with  His
In fact, there were a few who were            pressed  the  specific  truths  main-       people in Christ has not only been
members  of  the  labor  union,  but          tained by our Protestant Reformed           preserved, but also delivered from
had  managed  to  remain  undetec-            Churches  in  regard  to  common            any  taint  of  "conditions"  that
ted.                                          grace,  the  general  offer  of  salva-     might  have  been  found  in  it  be-
        All of this came to a head with       tion, and the covenant.  Especially         fore the conflict.
the visit of Prof. Klaas Schilder to          this  truth  of  God's  covenant,  fol-         Still more, that truth has been
America.  He sought contact with              lowing out of our stand for God's           more  fully  developed.    We  see
us,  was  heartily  received,  and            sovereignty, as developed by Rev.           more  clearly  than  ever  that  this
spoke  in  our  various  churches.            Hoeksema,  we  considered  to  be           covenant  view  is  entrusted  to  us
Many of our ministers and mem-                our  peculiar  mark  of  distinction        to cherish and to find our comfort
bers  of  the  congregations  found           among the churches.                         in it.  The very idea is worth giv-
him to be a very congenial person,                This Declaration was adopted            ing our lives for, for we are sons
whose visit and interest in us was            by the synod of 1950 with but one           and  daughters  of  the  living  God,
greatly appreciated.                          dissenting vote.  It was only later         having  a  rightful  place  in  God's
        In the effort to be more practi-      that  serious  opposition  arose            house as part of that blessed fam-
cal in their preaching, to lay more           among  our  ministers  and  mem-            ily that will be completely united
emphasis on man's responsibility,             bers.                                       in  heavenly  perfection  before  the
many  of  the  ministers  began  to               In  fact,  in  Canada  two              throne, forever reflecting the glory
preach the "conditional" theology             churches were organized under the           of God and living in intimate com-
of  the  Liberated  Churches.    Ar-          pretense of agreeing with us doc-           munion  of  life  with  Him  to  the
ticles appeared  in  Concordia,  not          trinally.  I was personally told by         praise of the glory of His grace!
only defending the idea of "condi-            more than  one of  the immigrants               Are there lessons to be learned,
tions"  unto  salvation,  something           that  the  people  in  Hamilton  had        danger signs that must be heeded
that man must do, emphasizing the             deliberately  deceived  us.    When         as a result of this experience?
"must,"  but  also  defending  the            they  felt  strong  enough  numeri-             Having lived through the ref-
idea that faith is a condition unto           cally and financially to be on their        ormation  that  took  place  in  1924

                                                                                         October  15,  1996/ Standard  Bearer /47


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and  the  split  in  our  churches  in            in  our  churches  who  showed  no                         ties  which  they  could  not  obtain
1953 I cannot avoid comparing the                 desire at all to be distinctively Re-                      in the home church.
events that led up to both.                       formed  and  to  manifest  that  in  a                            As a result, the preaching and
       In  both  instances  there  was  a         truly  sincere  Christian  life  and                       teaching  became  less  doctrinal.
strong  opposition  to  sound  doc-               walk.                                                      God did not receive the emphasis
trine.  Before 1924 there were those                   Along  with  this,  there  was  a                     but  man  did.    There  was  in  both
in  the  churches  who  emphasized                cold  lethargy  preceding  both  the                       instances an emphasis on man's re-
the  general,  well-meant  offer  of              reformation of '24 and the split of                        sponsibility,  man's  part  in  the
salvation.  The Arminian theory of                '53.    Church  attendance  was  for                       work  of  salvation,  man's  activity
the  free  will,  so  strongly  con-              many a mere formality, something                           of faith.  People did not know, nor
demned  at  the  Synod  of  Dordt,                that was expected of them.  Soci-                          were they interested in, sound doc-
1618-19,  was  again  lifting  its  vile          eties for Bible study in many cases                        trine.  Religion became a mere for-
head in the church.  In the '53 con-              languished.  There was no longer                           mality  for  many,  setting  them-
troversy the truth of God's sover-                a  keen  interest  in  the  study  of                      selves wide open for heresy.
eignty was challenged by the am-                  God's Word.  Few prepared for a                                   Is there among us today a lack
bition to introduce conditions unto               lively Bible discussion.  Instead, in                      of  interest  in  sound,  doctrinal
salvation which man must fulfill.                 order  to  retain  interest  in  the                       preaching?  Do we clamor for less
       In  1924  there  was  the  evil  of        church, there was a clamor for en-                         emphasis  on  doctrine  and  more
worldlimindedness.  There was the                 tertainment  in  the  church  activi-                      emphasis on daily living?
common grace theory holding that                  ties.    Church  papers  that  empha-                             Is there a trend among us to-
natural  man  can  do  much  that  is             sized the truth, like the  Standard                        ward  worldlimindedness,  even
good in the sight of God.  A bridge               Bearer, were either not desired, or                        though  we  may  not  be  aware  of
was  being  spanned  between  the                 laid aside unread.  Along with all                         it?
church and the world, striving for                this, there were those who felt that                              Have we become lethargic?
a certain synergism, or working to-               they were spiritually benefited by                                A bit of self-examination may
gether.  In 1953 there were many                  some  outside  meetings  or  activi-                       be beneficial to all of us.   u


                                                              ANNOUNCEMENTS

                                                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                       On September 14, 1996, our parents and
                 FREE CLASS                       grandparents,                                                           PUBLIC LECTURE:
      "The Role of the Church in Society"                MR. and MRS. JOHN DE VRIES,
 Ì                                                                                                                    "The Reformation Betrayed"
        Does the church have a calling in the     celebrated their 40th anniversary.                                   Thursday, October 31, 1996
                 modern world?                         We  give  thanks  to  our  heavenly  Father
 Ì                                                                                                                              7:30 
           Is the church a social institution                                                                                            P.M.
                                                  for  His  faithfulness  toward  us  all.    We  pray                 Lynden Prot. Ref'd. Church
                 among others?                    that God will continue to bless them and keep
 Ì                                                                                                                          315 N. Park St.
          Is it necessary to join oneself to a    them in His care in the years ahead.                                    Lynden, WA  98264
                     church?                           "For this God is our God forever and ever:                                 and
 These  questions  and  others  will  be  dis-    he  will  be  our  guide  even  unto  death"  (Psalm                  Friday, October 25, 1996
 cussed in the light of God's Word.  Class is     48:14).                                                                       8:00 
 free and open to the public.  A short lesson                                                                                            P.M.
                                                  y    Herm and Lorraine DeVries                                       Immanuel Lutheran Church
 will be followed by refreshments and a ques-                John, Sarah, Amy, Laura, Timothy                                3232  272 St.
 tion/answer period.  Take a friend with you!     y    Don and Shelly DeVries                                           Aldergrove, BC, Canada
              Thursday, October 24                           Kari, Daniel, Abigail
                    8:00 P.M.                     y    Byrant and Ruth Cox                                             Speaker:  Rev. M. Joostens
         Muskegon Community College                          Eric, Scott, Kyle, Anna                                     Pastor of Lynden PRC
           High Ed Center, Rm 1200                y    Tom and Brenda DeVries                                 *Cassette Tapes requests (free) can be sent
       Sponsored by Faith PRC of Jenison                     Jeffrey, Jared                                   to above US address.
         and First PRC of Holland, MI.            y    Mike and Amy DeVries
                                                             Kiley, Casey                Grand Rapids, MI


48/ Standard  Bearer  /October  15,  1996


