           The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
            A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                           b





     . ..Mark here the unsearchable wisdom and
     grace of God! Precisely through their re-
     jection of the Son of God in the flesh, God
     fulfills His eternal purpose of redemption!. . .
       The very stone which the builders dis-
     allowed, became the Headstone of the
     corner. Of the cross of Christ, God prepared
     an altar.
          See "Cast Out By His Own" - page 290




.                                               Volume LVIII, No. 13, April I, 1982    -


290                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER
                                C O N T E N T S                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                 Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
   Meditation-                                                                                         Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                      Editor-in-Chief:   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       CastOutByHisOwn..  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .290                Deparfment  Editors:   Rev. Wayne  Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                                      denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David  J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
   Editorial-                                                                         Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
                                                                                      Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
       A Fly in the Ointment?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293           Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
                                                                                      Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
   My Sheep Hear My Voice-                                                           I .
                                                                                      Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                       4975  Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
       Letter to Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ?nr                       Grandville, Michigan 49418
                                                                            Lf3.J     Church   News  Editor:  Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek
   All Around Us-                                                                                            1313 Wilson Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
       Creation on Trial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297      Editorial  Policy:   Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                      articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
   From Holy Writ-                                                                    Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to ap-
                                                                                      proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
       The So-called Proof-texts of Postmillennialism .299                            signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
                                                                                      munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
   Taking Heed to the Doctrine-                                                       Reprint   Policy:   Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                      magazine  bv other  oublications.  Drovided:  al that such  reurinted articles are
       The Vile Sin of Homosexuality (3) . . . . . . . . . . . .302                   repyoducedin full;  bj that  proper'acknowledggment  is made;  >] that a copy of the
                                                                                      periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our  editorial office.
   Signs of the Times-                                                                Business  Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                       Mr. H.  Vander  Wal, Bus. Mgr.             PH: (616) 243-2953
       The Creation Destroyed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305                              P.O. Box 6064
                                                                                                       Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
   Translated Treasures-                                                              New  ZealandBusiness   Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                       c/o OPC Bookshop
       A Pamphlet on the                                                                                               P.O. Box 2289
                                                                                                                       Christchurch, New Zealand
          Reformation of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307                Subscriptiorl   Policy:   Subscription price, $10.50 per year. Unless a definite request
                                                                                      for discontinuance is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the  sub:
   Book Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .310     scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
                                                                                      billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please notify the Business
   Report of Classis West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 12         Office as early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of delayed deli-
                                                                                      very. Include your Zip Code.
                                                                                      Advertising PoZicy: The  StandardBearer  does not accept commercial advertising of
                                                                                      any kind.  Annoucements  of church and school events, anniversaries,  obituaries,
                                                                                      and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to
                                                                                      the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadline for
                                                                                      announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                      15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                      Bound  Volumes:  The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                      copies of the current volume; such orders are  llled
                                                                                                                                           P     as soon as possible after
                                                                                      completion of a volume. A limited number of past volumes may be obtained
                                                                                      through the Business Office.


MEDITATION

                                             Cast Out By His Own
                                                                        Rev. M. Schipper


                                   "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. "John 1:ll


  In this season of the year, when we reflect on the                                    ed of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with
passion of Christ, we observe that among all the                                        grief" (Isaiah  53:3). The psalmist David propheti-
sufferings He endured there is none that is so pro-                                     cally depicts the passion of Christ with these words:
nounced as His utter rejection.                                                         "I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but es-
  Always, according to the Scriptures, He is de-                                        pecially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine
scribed as the contradicted, the rejected One.                                          acquaintance; they that did see me without fled
Isaiah, in his monumental passage on the suffering                                      from me" (Psalm 3 1: 11). And again, "I am become
Servant, speaks of Him as "the despised and reject-                                     a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 291



mother's children" (Psalm 69:s). The aged Simeon,         all the fulness dwell, and through Whom it was the
addressing the mother of Jesus at the time of His         divine purpose that all things should be gathered in
presentation in the temple, declared: "Behold this        one in Him? Had not the poet written: "Ask of me,
Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in     and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheri-
Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken              tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
against" (Luke  ,234): The writer to the Hebrews          possessions" (Psalm  2:7,  8)? Did not the writer to
even considers it salutary for his readers to "con-       the Hebrews say of Him, "Hath in these last days
sider Him that endured such contradiction of              spoken unto us by His Son, Whom He hath appoin-
sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and           ted heir of all things, by Whom He made the
faint in your minds" (Hebrews 123).                       worlds" (Hebrews 1:2)?
  And the apostle John, already in the first chapter        Surely, in the light of the context, our text would
of his gospel from which our text is taken, speaks of     give good sense if it were to be understood as refer-
this frightful rejection of Christ. Fact of the matter    ring to the coming of Christ into the world of His
is that the apostle describes the coming of the Son       created things, with the expressed purpose to lay
of God into the world in terms of penetrating two         claim to His possessions; but that  Xie world, as it
circles, placed as it were in concentric relation to      lay under the dominion of darkness, received Him
each other, in both of which He is rejected and cast      not. It would seem on the very surface that this ex-
out. Into the first and larger circle He came when        planation would appear quite indisputable.
He entered into the world. The apostle described            Yet, there is, indeed, a deeper, a far richer mean-
Him in the context not only as the true Light that        ing. The apostle in our text is not merely repeating
penetrates the world which lieth in darkness; but         himself. He is no longer speaking of that larger
also as the Word of God, the Logos, Who was God,          circle of the world in which Christ was not acknow-
by Whom the cosmos of created things was made.            ledged. Rather, he is speaking now of that smaller
And when He entered into that circle, according to        circle within the larger circle. It  is.h$intention  to
verse ten, "the world knew Him not." This cannot          show how the rejection of Christ became progres-
possibly mean that somehow the world did not              sively magnified. He penetrated deeper into the
recognize or understand Him. Rather, it means that        inner circles, where also He was utterly rejected.
the world deliberately refused to acknowledge
Him. Mind you, He came into the world of created            The original text makes this quite evident. Our
things, of which He was the proper Possessor,             translation, as cited above, simply states: "He came
being the Creator; and they who were of the dark-         unto His own, and His own received Him not." But
ness refused to acknowledge Him. Verily, He was           the original text clearly differentiates. "His own,"
cast out of His own world.                                in the first part of the text, may properly be trans-
                                                          lated, "His own things"; while "His own" in the
  But the apostle does not stop there. He further         second part of the text may be properly translated,
describes the Son of God as penetrating still far-        "His own people," or, "His own countrymen.`,'
ther-into that inner circle. In the words of our          And when you put it all together, you have: "He
text, he writes: "He came unto His own, and His           came unto His own things, and His own people re-
own received Him not."                                    ceived Him not." But what does this imply?
  In contemplating the sufferings of Christ, we             It means, first of all, that in the fulness of time
wish now to concentrate our thoughts on Christ's          Christ came unto the things which properly be-
entrance into that second circle, and observe how         longed to Him and His people.
utterly therein He was rejected, and cast out by His        These were the things that pertained particularly
own.                                                      to the land of Canaan, the promised land. They
  It cannot be denied, of course, that our text, in       were the things that resided in the institutions of
the light of the preceding context, would give good       the old covenant, and the theocracy. He came to
sense if it were interpreted to mean that He came         the house of God with all its rites and ceremonies.
into the world, and the world received Him not.           He came to His own synagogue and temple, to His
  Was He not the Son of God, co-equal and co-             own sacrifices and- offerings, to His own Sabbaths
eternal with the Father and the Holy Ghost? Was           and feast-days. He came to His own kingdom and
He not the Logos, the Word, by Whom the world             throne. He came to His own promised land and
was made? Was He not the Creator of the heavens           people.
and the earth, and all that they contain? And as            All of this was His by divine right. He it was
such, was He not the sole Proprietor of all things?       Who founded the house of God and its service,
And, according to the Scriptures, was He not the          while Moses was only His agent. He it was Who
Person of the Son in human flesh, in Whom it was          had delivered His people from Egypt, the house of
the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should        bondage. He led them out through the Red Sea. He


292                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



led them through the dry and thirsty wilderness.        came to them in the flesh, and they recognized
He fed them with manna as the Bread of Life. He         Him, they said: "This is the heir, come, let us kill
gave them water from the rock of which He was the       Him, and seize upon His inheritance" (Matt. 21:38).
antetype, the Water of Life. He was the pillar of       They cast Him out of His own synagogue, and
cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, that     would push Him off a cliff (Luke  4:16ff.). Often
directed and protected them. He it was Who              they took up stones to kill Him, but His hour had
instituted the old covenant at Sinai. He led them       not yet come. But when His hour did come, they
after forty years into the promised land where He       took Him to their court, where under oath He had
established the throne of David, whose Son He           declared that He was the Christ; and they cried out
was. He spoke to the people through the prophets        for His death. For what they considered
and signs, through the priests and their sacrifices,    blasphemy, they decided He was worthy to die.
through the kings who followed in David's line.         With the help of the world of darkness (Pilate), they
  Verily, in the fullness of time He came in His        led Him out of Jerusalem to the hill of the skull.
incarnation, born of a virgin, of the seed of David,    They excommunicated Him, and put Him to death
of the tribe of Judah, from whose hands the sceptre     on the cross.
would not depart until He came to lay claim to it.        Why did they refuse to receive Him?
He was the Shiloh unto Whom the gathering of the          How could they possibly cast Him out?
people would be. He came in His preaching and
wonderful works. And when He declared that He             Would it not be expected that He should be
was the one of Whom the prophets spoke; when He         accepted by His fellow-citizens with open arms?
cleansed the temple, and showed how He was the            The answer to these questions is bound up, first
One Who realized all that the temple signified;         of all, in the fact that "not all is Israel which is
when He pointed to Himself as the end of all the        called Israel" (Romans 9:6). Always the line of elec-
sacrifices; when He brought an end to the priest-       tion and reprobation cuts through the church, in
hood of Aaron, and set up an eternal priesthood         accord with the counsel of God. Always the spiritu-
after the order of Melchizedek; when all the            al seed runs parallel with the carnal element. The
shadows ceased because He was the reality to            former often are small and few in number;. while
Whom they  pointed-then`He  came unto His own           the latter grows as the grass in power.
things. They were His property by divine dispensa-        And, in the second place, the answer must be
tion, to which He could indisputably lay claim.         found in the fact that the carnal seed always desires
Being One with the Father, He could rightfully say      a carnal, earthly messiah. They desired an earthly
as He did in Deuteronomy  32:9, "The Lord's por-        kingdom, with an earthly king, who would protect
tion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheri-     them from the heathen, and provide bread for their
tance."                                                 earthly stomachs. When, on the other hand, they
  But when He came unto His own things, His             realized that Christ would fulfill neither of these
own people, His fellow-countrymen received Him          prerogatives, and in Christ's kingdom they would
not.                                                    be exposed as naked and miserable, unrighteous
  Cast out was He by His own people in Israel!          citizens, they refused to receive Him.
  Israel was indeed His own people. Not only be-          They cast Him out of His own things, from His
cause He was of their flesh and blood. 0, that He       own house!
was too; there could be no mistake about it. He was
not born of the heathen, nor could He be; but He          While they continued to be as He had always cas-
took on Him of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of     tigated them-a den of robbers and thieves!
Judah, of the seed of David. Indeed, He was like          But marvel of marvels, beloved!
unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted.            Mark here the unsearchable wisdom and grace of
  But in a deeper sense they were the sheep of His      God! Precisely through their rejection of the Son of
own fold. They were the church of the old cove-         God in the flesh, God fulfills His eternal purpose of
nant, the people of God. They were Israelites to        redemption!
whom pertained the adoption, the glory, the
covenants, the giving of the law, the prophets, etc.      Of this mystery, the apostle Peter speaks on the
(Romans  9:4, 5). Moreover, they were the people        Day of Pentecost with these words: "Ye men of
that were looking for Him, and of all the people        Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man
would be expected to receive Him.                       approved of God among you by miracles and
                                                        wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the
  But they cast Him out of His own house!               midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; Him,
  This they had always done when He came to             being delivered by the determinate counsel and
them through the prophets of old. But when He           foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              293



wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:22,       that believe on His name" (John 1: 12).
23).                                                       Indeed, He is the Redeemer of all whom the
  The very stone which the builders disallowed,          Father had given unto Him, not only of Israel, but
became the Headstone of the corner. Of the cross of      of all nations!
Christ, God prepared an altar. The blood they shed          0, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom
becomes the blood of atonement. Through their            and knowledge of God!
casting Him out, Christ actually comes unto His
own-the great Redeemer of His people!                       Of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, be the
                                                         glory!
  The apostle John was also aware of this wonder.
For in the very next verse in our chapter he writes:       World without end!
"But as many as received Him, to them gave He               Amen!
power to become the sons of God, even to them

EDITORIAL


                           A Fly in the Ointment?
                                             Prof. H. C. Hoehsema


   Thus far the Standard Bearer has not commented        candidates. So that relationship is different. Never-
editorially on the movement-chiefly in Christian         theless, the Christian Reformed Church in the past
Reformed circles-to establish the Mid-America Re-        has always accepted graduates from other
formed Seminary in northwest Iowa. From a                seminaries (Westminster, for example), provided
formal, church political viewpoint this is largely an    they did their so-called year of pennance at Calvin
in-house affair for the Christian Reformed denomi-       Seminary before they became candidates. From
nation; and if that denomination wants to tolerate a     that point of view, the new Mid-America Reformed
so-called alternative seminary, that is their affair.    Seminary could, I suppose, be granted the same
Personally, I do not believe that the establishment      status.
and operation of a seminary of any kind is the
proper work of an association, no matter how                Nor do I believe that the establishment of an
homogeneous such an association may be. I have           alternative seminary is the proper and honorable
always believed that the work of a seminary is a         way to follow. After all, the underlying motivation
phase and an extension of the work of the preach-        for this movement is dissatisfaction with the de-
ing of the Word, and that as such it is the work of      nomination's official seminary. Why, if there is such
the church institute, not of a society. Nor can          dissatisfaction and doubt concerning the orthodoxy
appeal be properly made in this connection to the        of Calvin Seminary, do not these loyal Christian Re-
example of the Free University of Amsterdam in           formed men make an issue of it and demand that
the Netherlands. It is true, of course, than an ar-      there be an official investigation conducted, and,
rangement was made between the Dutch churches            that if the outcome of said investigation reveals
(GKN) and the Free University whereby graduates          heretical teachings, there be a purge? An example
of the latter could become candidates for the            might be that of the investigation which was in-
ministry; nevertheless, this was not and is not the      stituted in  1920-`22 into the instruction of Dr.
primary purpose of the Theological Faculty of the        Ralph Janssen, which led to his deposition because
Free. It is designed to teach Theology as a science      of his erroneous views concerning the inspiration
and to grant degrees therein, just as are the various    and infallibility of Scripture. Merely to establish an
other faculties in the university, such as Law,          alternative seminary will not prove to be a solution
Philosophy, or Medicine. Besides, of course, over        to the alleged problem; and I predict it will not even
the years-putting aside the issue of how effective       serve ultimately to preserve a kind of island, or en-
they have been-there have always been supervis-          clave, of orthodoxy in the Christian Reformed de-
ing deputies of the General Synod of the GKN to          nomination.
exercise oversight over the Theological Faculty of          The  Standard Bearer, therefore, cannot laud this
the Free to the extent that it served as a source of     movement.


294                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



   But even worse, in our opinion there is already a                            the woman  (16), and the man (17-19). What is the
fly in the ointment.                                                            judgment upon the serpent? It no longer will be able
                                                                                to occupy a place of esteem-it will be lowered to
   Recently there came to my attention a copy of                                crawl on its belly and eat dust. The serpent, which is
the proposed Catalogue of the new Mid-America                                   Satan (Revelation 202)  is fallen and condemned to a
Reformed Seminary. And in it one of the profes-                                 losing  conflict  with the seed of the woman. It is  conflict
sors-elect is Dr. David W. van Gelder, a graduate of                            that will result in defeat for Satan only by the instru-
Calvin Seminary and currently at Erskine Theologi-                              mentality of a Redeemer. The judgment of the serpent
                                                                                is, then, both a lowering of status and power and a re-
cal Seminary. Along with this Catalogue, I received                             sulting conflict in which loss is certain. It is a conflict
a paper written by Dr. van Gelder, entitled "The                                with God (through Jesus Christ] in Whom the serpent
Judgment On Women (an analysis of Genesis                                       originally found its being.
3:16)." As the title suggests, the paper is concerned                          Dr. van Gelder then proceeds to deal at length
with the meaning of the judgment pronounced                                  with vs. 16 and its meaning, but all on the basis that
upon the woman in Genesis  3:16, "Unto the                                   this passage is a  poem.  And he enters into an ela-
woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow                            borate treatment of the alleged  paraZZdism   in this
and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring                               passage, all on the basis, of course, that parallelism
forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy hus-                          is the chief feature of Hebrew poetry.
band, and he shall rule over thee." The paper deals                            Now my concern is not with Dr. van Gelder's
especially with the last part of the verse quoted,                           exegesis of vs. 16 as such. Nor is my quarrel with
and especially with the expression, "and thy desire                          his understanding of Hebrew poetry and its chief
shall be to thy husband."                                                    feature, parallelism. At this stage it is not even with
   Now my concern in this editorial is not with Dr.                          his understanding of vss. 14-19 generally; he seems
van Gelder's interpretation of that expression as                            to have a fairly orthodox understanding of the
such, although I would not agree with it.                                    passage.
   My concern is rather with his view of this entire                           My concern is about the idea that this is a poem,
passage. Vs. 16 is part of the entire passage in                             rather than a literal, historical account, or
G e n e s i s   3   w h i c h   r e c o r d s   t h e   j u d g m e n t s    narrative.
pronounced by the Lord after the fall of Adam and                              Limiting ourselves to this immediate passage,
Eve. Permit me to quote vss. 14-19: "And the Lord                            vss. 14-19, for the time being, we may point out
God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done                            that there are only two possibilities here, neither of
this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above                            which is acceptable:
every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou
go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:                          1) Either this is poetry in which the words of the
And I will put enmity between thee and the                                   Lord God are literally recorded, and then you
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall                           obtain the absurd conclusion that the Lord God
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.                             pronounced stern judgments in  poems.  I say that
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy                          this is an absurd conclusion. What earthly judge ac-
sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt                              tually pronounces judgments in poetry? How much
bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy                         less the Lord God!
husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto                                 2) Or this is poetry in which we do not have a
Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto                               literal account of real words of the real Lord God
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of                        speaking in real speech which was "sensually per-
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not                               ceptible" (to use the expression of Assen, 1926 in
eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in                             the Geelkerken Case) to the real serpent and real
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;                        Eve and real Adam, who had real ears to hear these
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;                       real words. Then there is only a poetic, literary, ac-
and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat                       count here-something which opens the door to all
of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return                           kinds of possibilities of interpretation. Then Dr.
unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for                          van Gelder may have a fairly orthodox interpreta-
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.!'                            tion of Genesis 3, but the door is nevertheless
   Now what is Dr. van Gelder's view of this                                 opened to all kinds of unorthodox interpretations.
passage?                                                                       But there are other problems.
   According to him it is a poem!                                              If vss. 14-19 are a poem, what objection is there
   He writes as follows on page 3 of his paper:                              to explaining vss. l-13 (the account of the fall itself)
         The immediate context of verse 16 is the poem                       as a poem? And what objection is there to inter-
       which covers verses 14-19. (italics added) Here God                   preting the remainder of Genesis 3 as a poem. And
       pronounces His judgment upon the serpent  (14-15),                    if Genesis 3, why not Genesis 2 and Genesis l? And


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             295



why not forward into Genesis 4 and following               which will "make the ointment of the apothecary
chapters?                                                  to stink."
  And what becomes, then, of the whole position              The ironic aspect of all this is that it is precisely
that in the first chapters of Genesis we have a literal    this matter of the interpretation of the first part of
historical narrative of real events and real persons?      Genesis which has been the occasion of criticism of
  To my mind, the Mid-America Reformed                     and dissatisfaction with Calvin Seminary and in
Seminary already has a fly in its ointment, a fly          connection with the rejection of the candidacy of a
                                                           Mr. Libolt.
MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                   Letter to TimothvL

                                         April 1, 1982     possibly spend 40 hours a week on sermon prepara-
Dear Timothy,                                              tion; but it gives you some idea of the importance
  In my last letter to you, I began a discussion of        he gives to work in the study. In a very interesting
the work of the ministry and the central impor-            quote he writes:
tance of preaching. More particularly, I discussed               Facility with grammatical and syntactical struc-
the relation between the work of the preaching on             tures requires more than rote memorization or even
the Lord's Day and the pastoral labors of a minister,         the ability to locate the discussions of these items in
and suggested the possibility that it was possible for        grammars and handbooks. Eduard Haller (another
pastoral work to take so much of a minister's time            author to whom Kaiser refers in this seciton, H.H.)
that inadequate time was left for sermon prepara-             referred to the "faculty of discernment," the ability of
                                                              lovingly staying with each sentence until we can dis-
tion.                                                         cern the finer points of its style, structure, beauty, and
  I do not want to be misunderstood at this point.            the special nuance of meaning the author had in mind.
There is no doubt about it that pastoral work is also         Haste, superficiality, and an unreceptive heart and
a part of the preaching of the Word. Paul speaks of           mind are dangerous enemies to sound exegesis, warns
the fact that, while in Ephesus, he preached the              Haller. They can be even more detremental to a sound
Word from house to house; and that certainly in-              exegesis than can a lack of linguistic facility-and that
cludes what we today call the pastoral ministry of            is bad enough!
the Church. God's Word must be brought to the                    Haller also urges the aspiring exegete to have a pa-
people of God in their many needs as the minister is          tient persistence, a disciplined mind and methodolo-
shepherd of the sheep. But it remains a fact that             gy, a confidence motivated by a personal faith and
central to his work is the preaching of the Word on           born of a hunger to experience firsthand the trans-
                                                              forming impact of what is discovered in the text. Re-
the Lord's Day. That is first and foremost his                warding results will come only if the search is sus-
calling. And to be a good preacher requires that he           tained by an enthusiastic joy of discovery through the
spend a great deal of time in his study working on            long hours of hard and patient work. And in all, it
his sermons.                                                  must be tempered by the experience of prayer and
  This point was driven home to me this past week             suffering, cautions Haller, The exegetical route is not
by a book I was reading entitled, "Toward An Exege-           easy; it requires a lot of work, but in the end it is just
ficaZ  Theology. The book is written by Walter C.             as rewarding as it is awesome in its initial demands.
Kaiser, Jr. and is published by Baker Book House. I          How does one get the necessary time to do that
recommend the book to you. It is well worth read-          kind of work?
ing. In it he speaks at great length of the calling of       It is not easy. One must simply make that kind of
the minister to be a good preacher and argues in           time. It does not come of itself. With all the respon-
great detail for the need of sound exegetical work to      sibilities which come upon a minister, the time
make good sermons. He even states that a minister          available for sermon preparation gets smaller and
should figure on a minimum of about 20 hours of            smaller-unless a conscious and deliberate effort is
work for a sermon. I do not think that a minister in       made to change all this. Nor can a minister always
our Churches who has to prepare at least two ser-          do this himself; he needs the help and cooperation
mons a week and who has much other work can                of his elders. Else it would be impossible.


296                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  But our immediate `concern is the press of             experience that oftentimes elders in the Church can
pastoral work. There are a few remarks that need to      do this work as well as, and in some instances
be made in this connection.                              better than, the pastor. After all, the elders are
  In the first place, the people in the congregation     usually members of a congregation much longer
need to learn that their pastor cannot be troubled       than the pastor. They know the congregation much
with problems which ought not really to be brought       more completely and intimately than a pastor ever
to him. I am reminded of what Jesus told a certain       can. They know the people, know their needs,
man who pressed Jesus to solve a problem he faced.       know their problems, know and understand the
You will recall that Jesus was preaching in Perea        congregation well. And the work which needs to be
when His sermon was suddenly interrupted by a            done can be done by them with greater knowledge
man who asked: "Master, speak to my brother, that        of the problems than a pastor who works in a con-
he divide the inheritance with me." Jesus' answer        gregation for a few short years and then takes up
to that man was: "Man who made Me a judge or a           his field of labor elsewhere.
divider over you?" (Luke 12:12, 13).                       There are, I suppose, objections. But none of
  There are two aspects to this matter. On the one       them seem to be insurmountable. Let us look at a
hand, there are certain problems which are brought       few of them.
to the minister's attention which are not of a kind        There is the objection that ministers are trained
with which he can deal. I suppose that one such          for this work while elders are not. While it is true
example (admittedly rather farfetched) is people         that ministers receive some instruction in these
who ask their pastor for medical advice: what            matters from the Seminary, nevertheless the
doctor to see; whether to go to Mayo Clinic;             material is available to all. And, more importantly,
whether to take a prescribed medicine; whether to        the calling is always to bring the Word of God. This
proceed with a certain operation. To such questions      elders can do also.
a minister ought to say: "Man, who made me a doc-          There is the objection that oftentimes the people
tor over you?" On the other hand, there are prob-        themselves prefer to have their pastor rather than
lems which God's people ought to be able to solve        an elder. I do not know if this is, in fact true; but it
on their own-if only they are sufficiently mature        ought not really be that way. Elders are appointed
spiritually. And if they are not, then a minister        by Christ as well as ministers are, and the Word of
ought to tell them to grow up and attain such a          God which they bring must be the authoritative
spiritual maturity that they can do these things.        Word to the flock as much as the Word which
After all, all God's people are prophets, and they       ministers bring.
need not that any should teach them, saying, Know
the Lord.                                                  There is the objection that elders are too busy,
                                                         for they must work all day and their evenings are
  But there are also many problems in the congre-        limited. There is a certain validity to this objection;
gation for which the people of God need the help of      I cannot deny it. Especially in a larger congregation
those whom Christ has put in the Church to bring         the elders are very busy and have little time home
the Word to them in their need. James specifically       with their families. But I do know too that many of
speaks of this in James 5:13-15: "Is any among you       our congregations have had elders serving who are
afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing      retired from their daily occupations and who have
psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the      served almost full time in this sort of work. I would
elders of the church; and let them pray over him,        guess that many, if not most, congregations have el-
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and      ders available of such a kind, and Consistories
the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord    ought to take this into account when nominations
shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins,       are made. It might even be well to consider keeping
they shall be forgiven him."                             such men as elders, not only for one term, but for
  While some of this work ought surely to be done        as long as the Lord gives them strength to do the
by the pastor, nevertheless it seems to me that part     work.
of the solution to our problem lies in the fact that       It has also been argued that not all elders are
much of it can and ought to be done by the elders in     equally capable of doing this kind of work. Of that
the Church. This is also the clear testimony of          there can be no doubt. This is true of ministers too.
Scripture as is evident from the passage which we        But Consistories ought to consider these matters
cited above; and this is, in fact, done when a           also when making nominations and when assigning
congregation is without a pastor of its own. There       work to various elders. It ought not be an embar-
are several obvious advantages to this, not the least    rassment when a Consistory recognizes that some
of which is that this will free the minister for much    of their elders are more gifted for pastoral work
needed time in his study. But it has also been my        than others.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           297



  The whole point is that also pastoral work begins                 The strength of our Churches has always been
on the pulpit. It is inconceivable that a minister                the strength of our pulpits. Let us labor with might
who works hard at his sermons to bring the full                   and with main to keep our pulpits strong. The Son
counsel of God from the pulpit will not also do good              of God is still pleased to gather, defend, and pre-
pastoral work. Effective pastoral work in the flock               serve His Church through the preaching of the
begins with the pulpit. There is the heart of the                 Word. That begins in the study where the faithful
preaching, the central means of grace. All the grace              minister of the Word wrestles with that Word to
of the Word brought to God's people, even in pas-                 bring it in all its power to God's people.
toral calls, begins with a strong pulpit. If a minister,                                                Fraternally in Christ,
because of pastoral demands, neglects sermon mak-
ing, his pastoral work will founder.                                                                    H. Hanko

ALLAROUND US


                                         Creation on Trial
                                                       Rev. G. Van Baren



  Anyone who keeps up with the news, must have                    made use of six lawyers-but the ACLU (American
heard in the past months of a strange court trial                 Civil Liberties Union) had some 20 lawyers. So it
which took place at Little Rock, Arkansas. It was a               turned out to be an interesting confrontation. The
trial which pitted evolution against what was called              ACLU lawyers sought not so much to discuss scien-
"creation science." The legislature of Arkansas has               tific arguments for creation, but rather attempted to
passed a law requiring the teaching of "creation                  gain their point by discrediting the creationist wit-
science" whenever evolution was presented.                        nesses. From D&over, we note:
Concerning the law,  Discover,  a secular science                       Even before the teachers' testimony, the ACLU
magazine, Feb. 1982, states:                                         lawyers had mapped out their strategy of attack
     If evolution was taught in any school, the law de-               against state witnesses. Anthony Siano talked at one
   creed, "balanced treatment" had to be given to "cre-              point of "short crosses"-quick cross-examinations to
   ation science" as well. The law specifically prohibited            discredit the witnesses, without any long discussions
   "religious instruction or references to religious                  of their scientific arguments. That was the strategy
   writings." That provision, however, seemed to mean                 employed, and Siano was the first to use it.
   little in the light of the law's nettlesome Section 4,               The first witness for the state, theologian Norman
   which becomes the focus of the ACLU complaint and                  Geisler, argued that the concept of a creator was not
   of the trial.                                                     necessarily a religious one. It was commitment that
     Section 4 rashly attempted to define "creation                  characterized religion, said Geisler, and without that
   science" to include "Sudden creation of the universe,             commitment a supernatural being was not necessarily
   energy, and life from nothing; . ..changes only within            a religious concept. Aristotle postulated a first cause,
   fixed limits of originally created kinds of plants and            an unmoved mover, noted Geisler, "but Aristotle
   animals; separate ancestry for man and apes; expla-               didn't worship this cause." Similarly, Geisler added,
   nation of the earth's geology by catastrophism, inclu-             Satan believes that God exists but by no means wor-
   ding the occurence  of a worldwide flood; and a rela-             ships Him.
   tively recent inception of the earth and living kinds."              Siano pounced on the Satan reference, pressing
   In passing, it took a swipe at evolutionary theory by             Geisler to recall any personal experience that con-
   criticizing "the insufficiency of mutation and natural            firmed his belief in the Devil. Geisler finally admitted
   selection in bringing about development of all living             that in his pre-trial deposition he had spoken of
   kinds from a single organism," a deficiency that evo-             "dealing with demon-possessed people and the study
   lutionists themselves have long since addressed. One              of UFO phenomena." Pushed further, Geisler de-
   candid state witness, theologian Norman Geisler, of               clared, "I believe  UFOs exist." He explained that
   the Dallas Theological Seminary, declared, "I think in            "they are a satanic manifestation in this world for the
   all honesty that the people who devised this (law) got            purposes. of deception." Siano: "No further
   their model from the Book of Genesis."                            questions."
  In the trial, the attorney general, Steve Clark,                  One notes too in this trial that many of the  wit-


298                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



nesses on the side of the ACLU were of various                         the same conclusions that the Bible does on the origin
churches-including George  Marsden of Calvin                           of the universe and of life, you have the right to
College who is reported to have stated, as he                          accuse them of trying surreptitiously to slip the Bible
likened the creationists' zeal with 19th century fun-                  and not science into the classroom?
damentalists, "Literal defense of the Bible is the                       "And Judge  Overton,  since when is atheism the
first defense against modern thought." From the                        official religion of this country? I thought no religion
article, one concludes that  Marsden disagrees with                    was to be favored over the other. Yet, by your own
the "literal defense of the Bible." It is a sad day                    reasoning, it appears that if it's atheistic it's on the
when such kind of support is given by a man of the                     side of the gods.
Reformed community:for it gives further occasion                         "...There  is mischief that is made of the Judge's
for the world to mock with the church and its con-                     interpretation of the Constitution. It isn't our religious
fession concerning Scripture.                                          freedom that is at question here, it's our academic
                                                                       freedom. Archbishop Iakovos is absolutely right that
  Marsden makes further comments on the trial in                       what it amounts to is a form of censorship-not about
the Reformed Journal, Jan. 1982:                                       something that might be morally reprehensible and
         . ..One of the striking characteristics of fundamen-          not good for society, but at the level of academia itself.
       talists is that while they may well attack real problems        Someone else is determining for us that we can't even
       in our society, they typically reduce the  choices.in-          discuss one hypothesis in a school classroom simply
                                                                       because the Bible isn't written in the jargon of the
       volved to simply two. "Choose ye this day," they cry,           atheist or agnostic. Medievalism is back upon us...."
       whether we be on the Lord's side or  Satan's.  The
       Lord's side is often defined by a literal interpretation       Far more than all the above, I appreciated the
       of Scripture; Satan's side is everything else. So, for       editor's comments in  Covenanfer Witness,  Feb.
       instance, Henry Morris, founder of the Institute for
       Creation Research, says that the philosophy of evolu-        1982. The editor expressed hesitation about stating
       tion was "really the foundation of the very rebellion        his opinion that the Arkansas law was wrong
       of Satan himself.`: Theistic evolution and other com-        -though for reasons far different from those given
       promises are allowed no place in such thinking. While        by the judge in the case. His reasons are important:
       not mentioning God or Satan, the Arkansas law re-                 . ..First of all, the law would have required teachers
       flects such dichotomized thinking. Whenever natural-            to teach a portion of God's Word in the context of the
       istic evolution is taught in public schools, it must be         science curriculum. I do not believe that God
       balanced by instruction, textbooks, and library re-             intended for His Word to be dissected, divided into
       sources teaching creation-science. Creation-science is          parts and analysed in order to "prove" that what He
       defined to include "a relatively recent inception of the        said to be true was indeed true. God's Word is a whole
       earth and living kinds" and an "explanation of the              unit. And God's Word from beginning to end points to
       earth's geology by catastrophism, including the occur-          His Son, Jesus Christ, and shows the way of salvation
       rence of a worldwide flood." Virtually the only views           through Jesus. The Genesis account of creation plays a
       and publications fitting this definition are those of the       fundamental role in pointing to Christ as Creator and
       Institute for Creation Research and related agencies            eventual Redeemer of a yet-to-be-fallen creation. To
       which teach that creation occurred in six twenty-four           strip away this glorious doctrine and teach the
       hour days, that the earth is about 10,000 years old,            remaining skeleton in a junior high school science
       and that the geological evidence is explained by the            class is inconceivable.
       Genesis flood.                                                    . ..The law also places the Genesis account of cre-
  Marsden concludes that the solution to many                          ation on an equal footing in the classroom with the
problems "could be found in public support for al-                     theory of evolution. Now, of course, Christians
ternative educational systems, such as Christian                       believe creation is true and evolution is false. But,
schools...."                                                           even the Christian teacher has no freedom in his or
  It is sad to hear a man of Marsden's position and                    her classroom to instruct the students as to the truth
                                                                       of the matter. Both God's Word and Darwin's Theory
ability mocking the position of "fundamentalists"                      would be taught side-by-side. The individual student
in stating that "the Lord's side is often defined by a                 would be left to make up his own mind....
literal interpretation of Scripture; Satan's side is                  One could, of course, strongly deplore the ruling
everything else." He is combatting the Arkansas                     of the Arkansas judge who would so emphatically
law for improper reasons-unreformed reasons.                        condemn what was called "creation-science" while
  Others report the decision of the Arkansas court                  insisting that evolution is "science." In upholding
with severe denunciations. The  Presbyterian                        evolution as the sole "scientific" possibility, the
Journal, Feb. 17, 1982, quotes approvingly in an edi-               judge continues in the footsteps of so many of the
torial from columnist William F. Willoughby:                        educated men. His "science" is based obviously
         "Judge  Overton,  let me ask you: Why is it that           and first on a "uniformitarian" principle-that is,
       simply because creation-science proponents (real live        that all things always remain constant. That itself
       scientists, some on major faculties) arrive at precisely     can not be scientifically proven. It ignores too the


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              299



testimony of Scripture which speaks of the flood,             Scriptural creation account.
the fall, and creation-all of which point to the                 Fourthly, the law implies that school children
error of "uniformitarianism."                                 can make a choice between alternative views.
  It is of interest in this connection to observe that        Scripture does not allow for that either. Children
the evolutionist himself is having trouble with               are to be taught the correct view and reminded that
some elements of the theory (it is not an established         only to this can they hold.
scientific fact) : ' ' . . .Mutation and natural selection       Fifthly, the law required that teachers are to pre-
are insufficient to account for evolution-is hardly           sent impartially the two contradictory views. That
at issue. Evolutionists already admit that objection,         is surely impossible. An evolutionist will assuredly
since other processes, like recombination of genetic          present creationism in an absurd way and will indi-
material, are also necessary."                                cate in his very presentation his scorn for the view.
  One also could object that man should arbitrarily           An impartial presentation is hypocritical and ulti-
rule out of public school education all Scriptural            mately impossible. I surely would not want my
truth. The judge wants to rule out religion based on          children taught a view of creation by an evolu-
Scripture-but allows religion based on humanism               tionist .
and atheism. Such is the mark of the rebellious sin-             Finally, it seems to me that this law would place
ner.                                                          the Christian schools in great jeopardy. If the law
  Yet, if I properly understand the law in Arkan-             demanded equal time for both views in public
sas, we too must object to it. First, it places light         schools, it must inevitably demand that also within
and darkness side by side. It is nothing less than            Christian schools. The law must then insist not sim-
compromise, so strongly condemned by Scripture,               ply that Christian school children be taught the idea
when evolution and creation are presented as alter-           and error of evolution (as they already are), but that
native possibilities for the origin of the universe.          the view be presented fairly, without prejudice,
The Christian must rather insist that there is but            without condemnation. There too, the children
one possibility with respect to origins: that is cre-         would be the ones called upon to choose for them-
ationism. One can not, while maintaining                      selves which view they would prefer. And that, we
Scripture, allow even for the possibility of                  could never approve.
evolution.                                                       The Christian must face reality. There is no way
  Secondly, as the editor of the Covenanter Witness           in which Scripture can be imposed by law upon the
pointed out, to isolate the idea of creation from the         world. They will not have it. Nor will they teach
rest of Scripture is to separate it from the cross. No        according to its principles. The wicked reject the
Christian can possibly condone that sort of thing.            word of God and teach rather the philosophies of
Scripture is a whole and, says Jesus, can not be              man. For that very reason the Christian can not
broken.                                                       have his children instructed in such schools. The
  Thirdly, the Arkansas law evidently ignores the             only alternative open to us is that we, parents, see
Scriptural truth that creation itself can be                  to the instruction of our own children. Christian
understood and confessed only by faith (Heb. 11:3).           schools alone can present the truth concerning ori-
Though there might indeed be evidences which                  gins-and the reason for the existence of all things:
could be pointed out showing a young earth and                the glory of God in Christ. We must work hard and
universal flood, basically only faith holds to the            sacrifice much in seeking that goal!
FROM HOLY WRIT

                           The So-called Proof-texts
                                of Postmillennialism
                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers

                    Chapter XIII
        Perfect Peach Among The Nations                       to the word of prophecy found in Isaiah  2:1-5 and
                                                              Micah 4: l-5. In these verses the Holv Snirit teaches
  In this our final chapter in this series of articles        us the mystery of the Kingdom through the
on Postmillennialism, we call attention once more             prophets of old (Heb. l:l, 2).


300                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



  It is our settled conviction that Postmillennialism      word that God speaks is law: it is binding on man."
reads its own interpretation into these prophets and       We shall not go far afield to refute this thesis. We
does violence to the clear teaching of the Bible in        only desire to have the reader notice that the Bible
many, many passages of Scripture. They interpret           ever clearly distinguishes between the concepts
these passages as referring to the "golden" age of         "law" and "gospel" and such concepts as "law"
the "Messianic Kingdom" which will be attained             and "grace." In the former we are then dealing
under the preaching of the Word, as they conceive          with a "law-principle" and in the latter with a
of it as being the "Gospel." When we read that             "grace-principle." It is true: faith and grace do not
"war shall have ceased" in the earth, this means           set the law aside, but they most emphatically estab-
that the total fulfillment of this shall be in the         Zish the Zaw! (Rom. 3:31; Matt. 5:17; Rom. 6:14.) If
"golden era" of the Postmillennial Kingdom. All            there had been a law given which could make alive
will be Christ's kingdom, conquered by the Gospel          a dead sinner, then righteousness could be out of
under "Law." As one Postmillennialist writer states        law (Gal. 3:21). When God saves His own elect out
it, and we quote,                                          of every tongue, tribe, people, and nation, He
         "Postmillennialism believes that man              writes His law in their hearts as His Covenant
       must be saved, and that his regeneration is         Words. Such is the New Covenant which He will
       the starting-point for a mandate to exercise        make in the latter days according to Jeremiah
       dominion in Christ's name over every area           31:31-34,  and Hebrews 8:8-12.
       of life and thought. Postmillennialism . . .          This grace-principle is a far-cry from the "law"
       does not neglect to work for a Christian            concept set forth as the principle of Postmillennial-
       State and school, for sovereignty and the           ism by Rushdoony. Here the matter is not simply a
       crown rights of the King over individuals,          "law" in the Constitution, the ordinances of human
       family, institutions, arts, sciences and all        institution and civic by-laws, but it refers to the
       things else. It holds that God has provided         divine and gracious and omnipotent putting of the
       the way of conquest in His law. Every word          law in the hearts of the elect children of God,
       that God speaks in His law; it is binding on        whose names have been written in the Lamb's
       man. Grace, love, law are really contraries         book of life (II Cor. 3:3). And the glory of this writ-
       in the pagan view; in God they serve a com-         ing of the law is that it is not with ink, but by the
       mon purpose, to further His kingdom and             Spirit of the living God. What a glory of grace this
       His glory." (Pages 122-127 of Vol. III, No. 2       is! It is a glory which outshines the glory of all the
       of the  Journal  Of  Reconstruction.  Here Dr.      law-giving of Moses; it is as when the moon fades
       R.J. Rushdoony writes under the caption of          and pales in the heavens before the rising sun. Of
       "Postmillennialism versus Impotent                  this is what the prophets speak in both Isaiah 2 and
       Religion.")                                         Micah 4 when they say "for out of Zion shall go
  The basic thesis of Rushdoony is that both A-Mil-        forth the law, and the word of the LORD from
lennialism and Pre-Millennialism foster an impo-           Jerusalem." Gazing by faith into this mirror we are
tent religion, which is not able to lay the entire         changed from glory unto glory as by the Spirit of
world at Jesus' feet. A-millennialism really is a posi-    the LORD Jesus (I Cor. 3:17, 18).
tion which does not allow the man, the rider on the          Such is the grace-principle in the elect children of
white horse, to conquer and to conquer, until there        God, who are blessed with all spiritual blessings in
is a perfect world. Now the fact is that this is an un-    heavenly places, even as they were elected in him
true allegation. It is only the judgment of one who        and foreordained unto the adoption of sons. Now
sees all things through the spectacles of Postmillen-      this is not an "impotent religion" at all! It is that
nialistic prejudice, and assumes that only the view        which is ours by means of the exceeding great
of their Millennialism squares with the teaching of        power of God, which He wrought in Christ, when
the prophetic word, which shines more and more             He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His
unto the perfect day. The A-Millennialist does not         own right hand far above all principality and
help to work for the "golden" era of the realization       powers and might, and every name in this world
of the Messianic Kingdom, which shall be prior to          and in the world to come (Eph. 1:20-23).
the final return of Christ.                                  Now if one will put off his Postmillennial glasses,
  The question is not determinative whether Rush-          and put aside his philosophical jargon and abstrac-
doony's  ,analysis is correct on the basis of his pre-     tions, will become willing to interpret the Scrip-
suppositions and teaching, but rather whether his          tures according to sound rules of exegesis and Bibli-
entire view of world-history agrees with the teach-        cal Hermeneutics, he will see the glory road of
ing of all the Scriptures: Moses, Psalms, and all the      grace, as this was seen by all the prophets of God in
Prophets. We might be tempted to take rather ela-          the Old Testament. Did these not inquire after and
borate issue with the bold statement that "every           search out diligently the sufferings to come upon


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             301



Christ and the glory to follow? And this glory "to           fore their eyes. There is none that seeketh out God.
follow" refers, according to the entire context in I         If the condition among the nations were thus, out-
Peter 1, to the great event in the last day, to the          side of the church of God, we would not have news
revelation of Jesus Christ in the last day (I Peter 1:5,     for our newspapers, magazines, radio, and televi-
13). And such a blessed, living hope is the religion         sion; there would be no headlines in the paper.
not of weakness, but of power; a religion which              Think what a different world it would be if the
keeps its sights straight and keeps the course.              "mandate" of God to subdue the world in the fear
  A careful study of Isaiah  2:4 and Micah  4:3 will         of God would succeed here in this present age as
prove that the text speaks prophetically of what the         preached from the housetops by the Postmillennial
risen and glorified Christ will do from out of Zion,         dreams!
the heavenly Jerusalem. And the word which goes                What the prophets here foretell began prin-
forth from Jerusalem is not the same as the law              cipally in Pentecost when the Spirit was shed forth
going forth from Mt. Sinai with its terrifying glory.        in the church, and the promise came to "you and
Rather this is the power of the Gospel, the power of         to your children, and all that are afar off, even as
God unto salvation with its justifying power and             many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:37-38).
message, as well as its message of the calling for           And thus these became a peaceful people by the
sanctification in those created in Christ Jesus unto         Spirit of the God of all peace in Christ. And so the
good works, before prepared that they might walk             church receives grace and peace from God, and she
in them (Rom.  1:16, 17). Of such a Gospel no                receives Christ's peace in a far different way than
preacher need be ashamed; it will perform all that           the world can give (John 14:27). It is to be placed in
unto which it was sent (Isaiah 55:9-11).                     a new legal and spiritual relation to God (Rom. 5: 1).
  We must not be deceived into thinking that a               And when we are admonished to peace and walk
law-principle "gospel" is gospel at all. Such a              therein, we are walking in the Son to Whom all
gospel could never "rebuke" the nations  into  the           things are subjected. And thus the kingdom of
new obedience of faith, where the law becomes the            heaven is ours; we are then the blessed peace-
rule of life of faith in Christ Jesus. For the law is the    makers, who will be called publicly before men and
"strength of sin." It only genders to bondage. Such          angels, to be the children of God (Matt. 5:9).
are the principles of all "impotent religions" built            But in this world there will ever be war. No
upon weak and beggarly principles of law (Gal.               amount of preaching the kingdom and its righteous-
4:9; Col. 2:20). But in Isaiah 2:4 we are dealing with       ness will change the wicked world. But the idyllic
a word which is so strong and saving that it brings          scenes of the prophets shall be fulfilled when the
to radical repentance and conversion, and to                 "house of Jacob" shall "walk in the light of the
newness of life. It causes men and women to "un-             Lord." Perfectly walking as children of light in dis-
learn war, ' ' that is, all enmity and hatred, jealousy      tinction from the children of darkness, the church
and envy, and to learn the truth in Christ, to put off       shall walk in the perfection of heaven. That will be
the old man of sin with its lusts, and to put on the         in the heavenly Jerusalem and Zion, which is exal-
new man, created after the image of God in true              ted above the mountains. Here the church shall
knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Eph. 4: 17-          dwell safely in perfect peace. No more war in that
24). Hence, they walk in newness of the Spirit and           future glory shall ever be experienced. Jerusalem
not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:6).                 shall perfectly have risen, and shall never more be
  What is pictorially stated in the text, in figures of      a lodge in a cucumber patch, a small hut in a vine-
speech derived from the pastoral scenes? In beauti-          yard in shame of sin and guilt. There shall be the
ful idyllic language the texts speak of a people who         city of God's love of whom God in His great love
are so peace-loving, that "they shall beat their             and compassion says, "0 thou afflicted, tossed
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pru-           with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay
ninghooks." And thus it shall be universally on the          t h y   s t o n e s   w i t h   f a i r   colours,  a n d   l a y   t h y
earth. For the text adds "nation shall not lift, up          foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war           windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and
any more."                                                   all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy peopZe
   Beautiful prospect indeed as portrayed by the             shaZ1 be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the
prophetic seer.                                              peace of thy people" (Isaiah 54:11-13).
   In all the world of the nations this has not yet
been seen anywhere at any time in the history of the                          Take time to read
New Testament Dispensation. And this "peace on
earth" is not practiced by the nations at all. It is not                The Standard Bearer
practiced in their personal, family, community and
state and national life. There is no fear of God be-


302                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


               The Vile Sin of Homosexuality (3)
                                               Rev. David Engelsma


  The sin of homosexuality is vile. The punishment         abounded. As Paul was writing Romans 1, he had
of it is severe. The cause is dreadful: God's giving       Greece and Rome specifically in mind.
up of men and women to the sin. Three times does             This is the reason for the astonishing prevalence
the apostle speak of this "giving up" in Romans            of the sin in Western society today. God is giving
1: 18-32 as the cause of homosexual sin in the socie-      apostate Europeans and Americans up to this sin.
ty of ungodly and unrighteous men who are hold-            Included in this Divine work is all the promotion of
ing the truth in unrighteousness. He writes in verse       the evil by the media; the defense of it by the wise
24: "Wherefore God also gave them up to unclean-           of this world; and the acceptance of it by the public.
ness through the lusts of their own hearts, to  dis-       A special agent of the Divine giving up is the apos-
honour their own bodies between themselves." In            tate Christian Church which approves homosexu-
verse 26, we have: "For this cause God gave them           ality in the Name of God. As once the Lord sent a
up unto vile affections...." And we read in verse 28:      lying spirit into the mouth of the false prophets in
"And even as they did not like to retain God in            Israel, in order to persuade Ahab to go up and fall at
their knowledge, God gave them over to a repro-            Ramoth-gilead (I Kings  22:19-23), so today does
bate mind, to do those things which are not conve-         God put a lying spirit in the mouth of preachers and
nient . ' ' Homosexuality in society is not simply the     synods, in order that ungodly men and women may
natural development in wickedness by men es-               dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
tranged from God. This would be bad enough. But
it is a depth of evil that is reached under the active       Homosexuality is punishment. It is not only itself
power of a vengeful God. This is worse.                    sin; but it is also punishment for sin. God punishes
                                                           sin with sin. The sin for which homosexuality is
  The Divine giving up is more than God's permit-         punishment is men's refusal to glorify God, which
ting wicked men and women to debase themselves             refusal is expressed in their rejection of the truth. A
so. There is a definite decision of God with respect       sin of the spirit in man is punished by God with a
to them that they will become thus vile; and there is     gross sin of the flesh.
a definite operation of God's power within them
and upon them, effecting their  practising this ini-         God gave men and women up to these vile affec-
quity. It is not the case that God makes good men         tions, according to verse 26, "for this cause." What
bad. It is not the case either that God puts into the      cause? This, that "they changed the truth of God
hearts and lives of bad men a particular corruption       into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature
that was otherwise foreign to them. The unclean-          more than the Creator, Who is blessed forever" (v.
ness, the vile affections, and the reprobate mind to      25); they "changed the glory of the  uncorruptible
which God gives them up are their own. The lusts           God into an image made like to corruptible man,
that now are inflamed are those of their own hearts.      and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
But this extreme manifestation of the extent of their     things" (v. 23); and "they did not like to.retain God
depravity is due to the awful action of God's giving      in their knowledge" (v. 28).
up. Men and women would otherwise not behave                 Heathen society is confronted with the truth that
themselves this way. This is not because the               God is and that He must be worshipped. God Him-
tendency is not present in sinful human nature, but        self shows them His eternal power and Godhead
because the sin is unnatural-"against nature" (v.         through the creation in which they live and of
26). Also, the sinner's selfish self-respect would re-    which they themselves are part (vss. 19, 20). The
strain him from shaming himself with this vileness.       result is that they "knew God" (v. 21). But they do
Besides, society's self-interests demand that homo-       not like to retain God in their knowledge (v. 28).
sexuality be pitilessly opposed, which our nation         Literally, the apostle writes: "they did not  approve
has been learning by horrible experience, since it        God, to have Him in their knowledge." Looking
will not learn from the Word.                             Him over, they judge God unworthy of their
  This was the reason for homosexuality in the in-        worship. They reject Him. They do worse. They in-
glorious cultures of Greece and Rome, where it            variably make an idol and worship it instead of the


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    303



blessed Creator. This is robbery of the glory of                            deep is their darkness! But these are the guides of
God-a creature receives the worship that is due to                          the saints and their children in the ways that please
the Creator. At the same time, they dishonor God                            God and lead to heaven. Such churches are "blind
by presenting the Deity, in their idols, as a man, an                       leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
eagle, a lion, or a crocodile.                                              both shall fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:14). All who
   Therefore, God gives them up to homosexuality.                           desire to see, and walk, in the light will "let them
This is God's just retribution for their rejection of                       alone." As the men of Ninevah will rise up in the
Him. Do they dishonor Him? He will abase them,                              judgment, to condemn Israel, so will a heathen
"t o   d i s h o n o r   t h e i r   o w n   b o d i e s   b e t w e e n    such as Juvenal rise up to condemn the Christian
themselves" (v. 24). Do they disapprove God? God                            churches of our day, who, in his  Satires,  railed on
will give them over to an "unapproved mind" (v.                             Rome for its homosexuality, appealing to his gods:
28). Do they decide that God is not to be glorified                           0 Romulus, where did such wickedness
by man; and do they even defile the glory in idola-                              come from to assail
try? God will show in them how vile is man.                                   Your shepherds? How, 0 Mars, did
   Homosexuality in society is an expression of the                              this itch spread to your sons?
wrath of God revealed from heaven against the un-                             Just look-a rich man of high birth
godliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold                                   wed to a man...'(The Satires of Juvenal, Trans-
the truth in unrighteousness (v. 18). It is, according                                  lated by Hubert Creekmore, Chapter II).
to verse 28, itself the recompense of the error of re-                        But, of course, the churches can see well enough
jecting the truth, and a fitting one.                                       the doctrine of Scripture. Their trouble is their re-
   If the Divine giving over to this abomination was                        jection of Scripture (`I...who hold the truth in un-
the judgment upon pagan Greece and Rome, who                                righteousness"). They have disarmed its
had only the knowledge of God as Creator from                               inspiration, obscured its clarity, denied its author-
creation, how much more is not this to be expected                          ity, and questioned its reliability. Now, all things
as the judgment upon those nations which have                               are possible to them, including the contradiction of
known God from His Holy Word, but reject Him-                               the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality. That
the nominally Christian nations of the 20th centu-                          this rejection of Scripture is the hinge on which all
ry?                                                                         turns is plain in the books of Helmut Thielicke and
                                                                            of  Letha Scanzoni and  Virgina Ramey Mollenkott
   In the light of Holy Scripture, especially Romans                        referred to in a former article (Thielicke's The Ethics
1, the stand to be taken by Christ's Church is plain:                       of Sex and Scanzoni and Mollenkott's Is The Homo-
she condemns homosexuality in root and branch.                              sexual My Neighbor? Another Christian  View).
Homosexual nature (lusts) and homosexual deeds
(practice) are vile sin. The practice of it is for-                           Thielicke begins his examination of the teaching
bidden. The impenitent practice of it shuts one out                         of Scripture by asserting, ominously, that it is not
of the congregation and out of the Kingdom of God                           enough to cite Scripture; one must also interpret
everlasting, by the discipline of the Church. "Be                           the quotations "in accord with the kerygmatic pur-
not deceived..  .effeminate, nor abusers of them-                           pose" (p. 277). (The "kerygma" of Scripture is its
selves with mankind...shall inherit the kingdom of                          central, gospel-message. Theologians use this con-
God" (I Cor. 6:9, 10).                                                      cept to set aside any teaching in the Bible that of-
                                                                            fends them and to twist the nose of every passage of
   But the churches cannot see this! Reformed and                           the Bible to the shape that suits them. It is, by this
Presbyterian and Evangelical churches cannot see                            time, a rule of thumb that,. when a believer hears
thisr Can it be? Can they not see it in the history of                      the words, "This passage should be interpreted
Sodom? Can they not see it in Romans l? Can they                            kerygmatically," he must brace himself for a  con-
not see it in I Timothy 1:9, 10: "...the law is...for the                   tradiction'of a plain teaching of the Bible; just as the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for                            heading on an ecclesiastical document, "Pastoral
sinners, for unholy and profane...for them that de-                         Advice to the Churches," will almost always herald
file themselves with mankind...and if there be any                          the trampling on one or another of the command-
other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine"? Can                        ments of God's Law.) Thielicke does not consider
they not see it in the warning of Jude 7: "Even as                          Romans  1;26ff. to be decisive on homosexuality.
Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in                            For we must discover what in the passage is
like manner, giving themselves over to fornication,                         "kerygmatically `binding' " (p. 279). Fact is, Paul's
and going after strange flesh are set forth for an                          reference to sexual perversion comes "from the
example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire"?                          stock of the tradition with which Paul was
Can they not see it in I Corinthians 6:9, 10)                               surrounded, above all the Stoic catalogues of  vi-
   How advanced, then, is their blindness! And,                             ces...we must reckon with the fact that Paul's con-
since they darken the clear light of Scripture, how                         ception of homosexuality was one which was affec-


304                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



ted by the intellectual atmosphere surrounding the          of love between homosexuals analogous to hetero-
struggle with Greek paganism..." (p. 280). There-           sexual marriage (pp. 71, 72).
fore, Christians today have  a."certain freedom to          For them to add, "But would such a relationship be
rethink the subject" (p. 281). This freedom extends         permissible according to Biblical standards?" (p. 72)
to consideration of the question, whether a con-            is hypocrisy. The doctrine of Scripture which they
stituted homosexual may  practise homosexuality             espouse recognizes no Biblical standards.
(we have seen that Thielicke answers, "Yes"). For
"even the New Testament does not provide us with              Evangelical and Reformed churches that permit
an evident, normative dictum with regard to this            the "new hermeneutic," i.e., the new overthrow
question" (p. 294). Thielicke has a freedom to stand        of Holy Scriptures, do so with their eyes open to the
in judgment on Holy Scripture; a freedom to re-             practical consequences for the life of the congrega-
think God's thoughts on sin; and a freedom to in-           tion and the life of the church-member.
terpret Scripture according to the mind of scien-             The Church that contends for the Faith once de-
tists, ethicists, modern man, and his own notions.          livered to the saints proclaims this Faith's condem-
The Reformation renounced this "freedom" once               nation of homosexuality. No more than she does in
and for all as the worst bondage. We will not go            the case of other sins does she do this in a spirit of
back to this "Babylonian Captivity" of the Church           self-righteous pride. On the contrary! She sees in
and the Christian man.  Sola  Scriptura!,   which in-       this vile sin the deep depths of the depravity of
cludes that Scripture alone interprets Scripture.           fallen human nature and the shame of man in
   Scanzoni and Mollenkott, also, are able to defend        revolt against God. This nature is not foreign to us;
and advocate homosexuality as a Christian condi-            it is ours. Who says, "This sin, at any rate, I could
tion and life-style, because they set aside the             never commit; it, at least, is alien to me," speaks
authority of Scripture. This is done, not by a forth-       foolishly; he does not know the greatness of his sin
right denial of Scripture as the rule of Christian life,    and misery, under the judgment of the gospel. It is
but by a new, private, wilful interpretation of Scrip-      grace, free grace abounding, that has called us out
ture. In the chapter, "What Does the Bible Say?,"           of the ungodliness and unrighteousness that holds
having considered the account of Sodom's behavior           the truth under in unrighteousness, thus bringing
towards Lot's visitors in Genesis 19, these authors         down on us the wrath of God that gives over to the
conclude "that the Sodom story, says nothing at all         vile affections. It is grace that reveals the truth in
about the homosexual condition. The only real               our hearts, so that we worship and serve the
application to homosexuals would have to be a               blessed Redeemer and Creator. It is grace that
general one: homosexuals, like everybody else,              orders our steps aright, in conformity with the Law
should show hospitality to strangers..." (p. 59). To        of God revealed in Scripture and in nature. It is
fix on inhospitality as the main sin of the Sodomites       grace that moves us daily to pray, not without
in Genesis 19 is akin to faulting Nero for inept            trembling, "Keep back Thy servant also from pre-
musicianship.                                               sumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over
                                                            me" (Psalm 19:13). And it is grace that answers the
   As for Romans 1, its censure "does not seem to           prayer with the mighty, sanctifying operations of
fit the case of a sincere homosexual Christian" (p.         the Holy Spirit of Christ.
62). "The passage in Romans says nothing about
homosexual Zove" (p. 63). "No reference," in                  No, the Church is not motivated by pride. But
Romans 1, "is made to persons whose own                     her motivation is zeal for the holiness of her God
`nature,' or primary orientation, is homosexual, as         and love for God's people, whose welfare is threat-
that term is understood by behavioral scientists"           ened by the spread of abomination among them.
(p. 65). By means of a sleight-of-hand word-study,          Her clear, unequivocal "No!" to homosexuality is
doubt is cast on I Corinthians 6:9, 10 and I Timothy        the javelin of Phinehas that stays the plague from
1:9, 10, whether they refer to homosexuality at all.        the children of Israel. This "Phinehas-seal" carries
Thus, Scanzoni and Mollenkott, "two outstanding             away the praise of Jehovah: "Phinehas, the son of
evangelical -authors," arrive at the conclusion             Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My
which they were determined to reach from the out-           wrath away from the children of Israel, while he
set:                                                        was zealous for My sake among them, that I con-
   Since the Bible is silent about the homosexual           sumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy.
condition, those who want to understand it must             Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My cove-
rely on the findings of modern behavioral science           nant of peace" (Numbers 25: 11, 12).
research and on the testimony of those persons                Nor does this condemnation exclude the penitent
who are themselves homosexual.                              homosexual from salvation, or the child of God
  The Bible furthermore, does not mention the               who fights against homosexual lusts from the com-
possibility of a permanent, committed relationship          fort of the gospel of God. Homosexuality is not the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  305



unforgivable sin. I Corinthians 6:9-11 teaches that        tion of this sin." There is abundant pardon in the
there were saints in the Church of Corinth who had         cross of Jesus Christ for every homosexual sinner
been "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves               who repents; and there is power in Christ's Spirit to
with mankind." But they were washed, sanctified,           sanctify him to walk on the narrow way and
and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by         through the strait gate which leadeth to life. The
the Spirit of our God. The blood of Jesus, applied by      Church may confidently ignore the psychologists,
the Holy Spirit through the gospel, cleansed them          sociologists, and theological statisticians who chal-
from this sin. It broke the ruling power of this sin in    lenge this power of the gospel of Jesus Christ the
their lives. It forgave them of all the former deeds       Lord, and continue to proclaim the good news:
and of all the lusts that still remained against their     "Come unto Me, all ye that  labour and are heavy
will in them. Because of this cleansing, they are no       laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon
longer homosexuals, just as a converted adulterer is       you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in
no longer an adulterer, or a converted drunkard, a         heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My
drunkard. "Such were some of you," Paul writes in          yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-
verse 11, implying, "But such  are  you no longer."        30).
Now, they are saints. Such they are in the estima-            This, in the end, is the purpose of Scripture's ex-
tion of the Church; such they are in their own esti-       posure of homosexuality in Romans 1. Seeing the
mation; such they are, most importantly, in the esti-      abomination all about her in the world, the Church
mation of God. They no longer practice homosex-            resolves never to be ashamed of the gospel, but to
uality, fleeing temptation; and they daily crucify         be ready to preach it everywhere and always. Apart
the lusts of the flesh that remain, hoping for the         from the gospel in which the righteousness of God
Day of Christ, when sin shall be abolished.                is revealed from faith to faith, this is all that there is
  The gospel gives hope to homosexual sinners, in          in the world: the wrath of God burning against un-
the way of repentance. It is not a sin that is stronger    godly men, giving them over to enormities. With
than the Spirit of the crucified Christ and from           Paul, the apostolic Church exclaims: "I am ready to
which there is no possibility of deliverance. No one       preach the  gospel...For  I am not ashamed of the
may respond to the call to come to Jesus Christ by         gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto sal-
saying, "But there is no pardon for this sin; and          vation to every one that believeth."
there is no power in Christ to purify from the pollu-
SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                           The Creation Destroyed
                                               Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma



  When Noah, by faith, witnessed to the ungodly             that great day of the Lord this creation will be utter-
of the first world that God would soon send a               ly  d&troyed, we meet with criticism and scorn.
deluge of water that would destroy the world he be-         According to evolutionists man is developing in
came the object of scorn and ridicule. These scof-          such a way that soon he will be intelligent enough
fers who followed after their own lusts derided             to control his own destiny. He will be able to pro-
Noah with these words: "Where is the promise of             duce the master race which by means of medicine
His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all          and technology will usher in a perfect earthly
things continue as they were from the beginning of          utopia which will last forever. What makes the
the creation (II Peter 3:4)." The fact that God would       situation more pathetic is that there are theologians
utterly destroy the earth with a flood was far be-          who support, with only minor changes, this corrupt
yond      their    sin-darkened        imaginations.        humanism. These claim, that, prior to Christ's re-
Nevertheless, it came to pass while they ate and            turn, this world will have developed into its perfect
drank and made merry, and while they married                state. When man has achieved that state then
and were given in marriage, "the world that then            Christ will come and take His place upon His
was, being overflowed with water, perished."                throne and rule over a perfect earthly kingdom.
  Today too, when we confess before men that in             God will not need to destroy this earth, but things


306                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



will continue to exist as they have been. One need          means of the destruction of this present creation
not look far to find the parallel between modern            and then by means of its renewal. Whenever Scrip-
thought and the thought of wicked men prior to the          ture speaks of a new heavens and earth it does not
Flood. For sure, sudden destruction will come upon          mean that God begins again by calling into exis-
this modern world just as it did with the Flood.            tence something new, but it means that this old,
  The clear testimony of Scripture is, "But the             worn-out, destroyed world will be made new.
heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same             Of this whole idea the Flood is a type. At that
word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against          time the entire earth being covered with water per-
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly                ished. It was destroyed! That did not mean that the
men." Such are the words of Peter in II Peter  3:7.         entire earth had been annihilated so that there was
Later in this same chapter (verses 10-13) Peter de-         nothing left of it. Not at all! Obviously, God by
scribes that destruction of this present creation:          means of this destruction renewed the earth,
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the        cleansed it from ungodly men and delivered His
night; in the which the heavens shall pass away             church. It must be remembered, however, that this
with a great noise and the elements shall melt with         Flood was merely a  type  of the destruction of the
fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are         last day. There are some essential differences be-
therein shall be burned up. . . . Looking for and           tween the two. In the Flood the earth was de-
hastening unto the coming of the day of God,                stroyed; in the last day the entire creation will be
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be  de-             destroyed. In the Flood the earth was destroyed by
solved...." There must be no doubt in the mind of a         water; in the last day it will be shaken and de-
child of God that this present creation will be de-         stroyed by fire. In the Flood the earth was renewed
stroyed to be replaced by a new earth. In contrast to       only in a temporal way; in the last day the earth and
the fleeting dreams of worldly men stands the sure          heaven will undergo a spiritual transformation.
promise of God to His people: "For, behold I create           In order to understand this spiritual transforma-
a new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65: 17).             tion (concerning which our understanding is very
  The child of God who maintains this promise of            limited) we must first of all consider the relation-
God must himself be careful, however. Never must            ship of this creation to man. When we do, then we
he find himself swinging to another extreme by              will also understand  why  this present creation is
claiming that this present creation will be totally         changed and not abolished. The very act of Adam's
annihilated. He must not believe that the destruc-          creation witnesses to his relationship to this earth.
tion of this creation will leave nothing left of it, so,    Man was formed out of the dust of the ground and
as a result, God will have to create a new earth out        received the breath of life, thus becoming a living
of nothing, as He did in the beginning. It is easy to       soul. After the fall we were told that our body will
do this, especially when superficially considering          return to the dust from whence it came. It is evi-
the language of certain passages. When we picture           dent, therefore, that man and the creation are inti-
to ourselves that the sun, moon, and stars will fall        mately related. This earth and all it contains was
from their places, that this earth will be dissolved        created by God for the purpose of sustaining man's
with a fervent heat, that God will create a  new            earthly life. In Genesis  1:28 and 29 we find that
heavens and a  new  earth then it is easy enough to         God supplied man with every herb bearing seed
imagine that nothing will be left of creation and           and every tree bearing fruit in order to feed man. To
God will begin anew. This, once again, must not be          man himself God gave the command to be fruitful
our conception of the destruction of this creation. It      and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue
will not be annihilated but it will be qualitatively        it. Such was man's relationship to creation. In fact,
changed from old to new.                                    so close was that union between man and the rest
  It is true, that the elements of creation will be         of creation that when Adam sinned the earth was
dissolved and this earth shall pass away, but it will       cursed for his sake and the creature was made sub-
be in such a way that through this destruction God          ject to vanity. Now creation, along with God's
will miraculously transform this old creation into a        children, awaits the final redemption of man. That
new. Perhaps a passage such as Psalm  102:25-26             is the point of Paul in Romans  8:19-23 where he
best explains it for us; "Of old hast Thou laid the         writes, "For the earnest expectation of the creature
foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the            waiteth for the manifestations of the sons of God.. . .
work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou              Because the creature itself also shall be delivered
shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a         from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and           liberty of the children of God. For we know that the
they shall be changed." This passage speaks of the          whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
"perishing" of this old earth and heaven in terms of        together until now. And not only they, but our-
"changing." That "changing" comes about by                  selves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                3 0 7



even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting                 bodies are by means of the resurrection changed
for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our                   into immortal and incorruptible bodies, so also will
body." God's children long earnestly for the resur-               God miraculously transform this temporal, finite,
rection from the dead, for it is then that this cor-              sin-corrupted creation into an everlasting, spiritual,
ruption will put on incorruption and this mortal                  perfected realm. He will do that by means of the de-
shall put on immortality. "For in this we groan,                  struction and renewal of this present creation. How
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our                    that transformation will take place is beyond all
house which is from heaven" (II Cor.  5:2). In that               human comprehension. This too is a wonder of
resurrection from the dead our present bodies will                grace, somewhat on the same order as the resurrec-
be changed. We will not be given an entirely dif-                 tion from the dead.
ferent body, but we will be given a renewed spiri-                  That is why this world must be destroyed,  and
tual body.                                                        that is  why  this world is not annihilated. The
  The destruction of this present creation is  inti-              wicked of this world may continue to dream  con-
mately related to our resurrection. Even as God                   cerning the bright future of this sinful world, but
purposed this earth and all it contains to support                their dreams will be s,hattered. Sin will develop into
our earthly, physical life so also has He purposed it             perfection. The child of God continues to watch for
to support our heavenly, spiritual life. But in order             Christ's return when he and this present creation
for this to take place this creation must go through a            will be made new and the tabernacle of God will be
transformation. Even as our mortal and corruptible                with men.
TRANSLATED TREASURES


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


(Kuyper has begun his discussion of how a church which has        works were not perfect. The Lord has a few small
deteriorated must be reformed. In the last paragraph which ap-    things against them. The ideal was lacking. Never-
peared he strongly emphasized that all reformation must be the    theless the churches as such were not yet apostate,
work of God alone.)                                               nor corrupted, nor worldly in the sense in which
53. Concerning Reformation By Means Of Spiritu-                   we complain about our churches. They were still
     al Awakening.                                                confessing and believing churches. Yet for all that,
   "Spiritual awakening," reveil, or revival is a                 Christ takes hold of these churches powerfully and
word that came into general usage for that which                  sharply for these small imperfections (as we would
our fathers preferred to call "renewal of the cove-               call them), so that they are warned to "conver-
nant." The church of God possesses, in the seven                  sion," to "the strengthening of what remains, of
letters which Christ sent through His holy Apostle                what would otherwise die," to a pondering of the
John to the seven churches of Asia Minor, the                     state from which they have fallen. He calls them to
beautiful pattern which inspires such spiritual                   perform the first work; and He does this under the
awakening. These letters, as they are found in                    stern threat that if they do not obey, "the candle-
Revelation 2 and 3, still speak to us.                            stick will be removed from its place."
   These letters are not directed to heathen people                 The Lord would not have sent these letters to the
or to unconverted. With the exception of the                      churches of that time nor kept them for the
church of Laodicea (brevity prevents us from dis-                 churches of all ages if this false security in Zion did
cussing this letter in detail), there is presupposed in           not again and again appear in the church, and if the
all these letters the truth that the churches to which            words of Scripture, "Awake thou that sleepest and
the letters were directed stood firmly in their con-              Christ shall give you light," were not continuously
fession, and the powerful seal of faith shone bright-             applicable for the chosen church and in her for the
ly for far and away the majority of their members.                people of God.
Wrong elements had crept in. In part, sinful                        To call to repentance and conversion, to admon-
teaching sought and found an entrance. Their                      ish to confession of sin and a holy walk, is also the


308                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



calling of the minister of the Word in all the            ing of the Bible. It is the renewed discovery of the
churches of God. It is a calling which must never         lost Comforter in our heart. The secret of the Lord
be neglected because the Word, which is the  God-         is once again revealed to those who fear Him and
ordained means, is given for crucifying and burying       keep His covenant. Above all, it is a blessed experi-
the indwelling sins of believers. The sound of that       ence. It is a present tasting of the manna which
trumpet call to repentance must grow in urgency as        comes from heaven.
frequently as the judgments of the Lord are heard           Distinct from this is the stream which refers to
from afar, or come closer, or as a plague breaking        the holiness of walk. This is not (lest it become sec-
out in the places themselves where the church of          tarian) to be thought as something unique, some-
God exists.                                               thing higher than others can attain, but simply as a
  That calling to spiritual awakening ought to take       renewal of conversion; it is thus marked by a morti-
on a particular character if, by the permission of        fication of the old man. It is more and more to hate
God, an unholy worldlimindedness or some speci-           and flee from sin. It is characterized by a quicken-
fic sin clearly raises its head and painfully affects     ing of the new man in a hearty desire and love to
the tender consciences which are concerned for the        live not only according to some, but according to all
honor of God.                                             the commandments of God.
  But in the fullest sense of the word these preach-        To this is still added the holy passion to reveal to
ers of repentance arise only when it pleases God to       others the greatness of the love of Christ. Or, if one
bind overwhelmingly on the souls of His children,         so wishes, the work of missions. The Lord Jesus
i.e., a few of His elect, the spiritual decline of the    wrote to Philadelphia, "Behold, I have set before
life of the congregation, so that they must call and      thee an open door. . . . Behold, I will make them of
cannot hold back because they, as Amos expressed          the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews,
it, have heard the roar of the lion.                      and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to
  Then it is the acceptable time that God visits His      come and worship before thy feet." And in a simi-
people. He visits them with the revelation, influen-      lar sense, the Lord grants to each church, which
ces, and inworking of His Holy Spirit Who pene-           awakens spiritually from her sleep of death, power
trates the souls of His people more powerfully than       to win others for His kingdom. This is done not
has happened for a long time. Because of this a dis-      only by missions among the heathen, but more glo-
satisfaction with the spiritual condition of the          riously by the winning of those who live near the
church is born in each heart and gradually is born        church.
in larger circles. Souls again cry out from the             The secret of whether such a spiritual awakening
depths. What appeared frozen, melts. Tongues are          shall remain pure lies in the question whether these
loosened. A desire for renunciation comes and the         three streams remain in proper relation to each
Word and prayer and Psalm singing have an inner           other. If this does not happen, then the danger of
sweetness which is thought heavenly compared to           sectarian deterioration arises, which results in a po-
the drought concerning which complaints were              lite holiness in people of will power or in a superfi-
made for so long.                                         cial bustle of busyness with externals in the life of
  Such a watering of the garden of the Lord by dew        the members.
from on high, such an anointing of the oppressed            On the other hand, if these three streams stay in
with fresh oil, such a glittering of the garment of       proper relation, so that in the one church of God
praise for an oppressed spirit, is contagious. It         the members who live by feeling, by strong deter-
spreads as a fire which carries itself from spark to      mination, or by busyness, hold each other in
spark. It jumps from soul to soul, from house to          balance, then sectarianism is avoided, the disci-
house, from church to church, always under the            pline of the church is mutually sought, and the rich
flowing of the winds of the Spirit. And the result is     life of grace which blossoms in such a church is
that again in a wider circle, much deeper than it         very glorious.
was for a long time, the damnableness of our nature
is plumbed, our impotence is confessed without              All artificially motivated revivals are therefore to
reservation, the cross is seized more fully, the king-    be condemned. They bring forth nothing but wind.
dom of Christ is enjoyed with greater blessings, and      And if it may please the Lord God sometimes to
the fruits of the Spirit are multiplied more abun-        broadcast on the wings of this wind a seed of life,
dantly in meekness and longsuffering.                     then this never happens in any other way than in
                                                          spite of such an unnatural movement and it is
  This stream of life flows in three different river-     never a natural fruit. It must, however, never be
beds.                                                     forgotten that the right to condemn such false revi-
  It flows first of all in an enrichment of the hidden    vals can never be made by one who does nothing;
life of the heart before God. It is the mystical work-    but it can be condemned only by those from whom


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  309



(whether a church or its individual members) pro-                       never stain their zeal for God's honor by a con-
ceeds a genuine awakening which is willed by God.                       tempt for the office instituted by God. Thus fre-
  In circumstances where things have sunk too                           quently, by the Holy Spirit (for without His work
deeply, the members of the church receive the                           all work is only a sham), children of God are seized
stimulus for such a covenant renewing from the                          outside the office by the conviction of communal
shepherd,    n o t   t h e   o t h e r   w a y   a r o u n d - t h e    guilt, and a fire of jealousy for the honor of God is
shepherds from the members. The Lord does not so                        ignited in their bosom so that they are angry with
readily forsake His church that He does not set in                      the sin of the people. However, the evidence of
office at least a few sensitive children of God, en-                    their zeal ought to proceed from love for the
dowed with the ability to shine as light-giving stars                   leaders.
in the middle of the darkness which has fallen upon                       The first impulse for renewal ought to be directed
the church. Shepherds are called to a closer fellow-                    towards the leaders. There must be no desire to do
ship with their Sender, to let their light shine in a                   it themselves apart from the leaders, but a quiet
holy walk and to bear in their priestly heart the                       desire and prayer, "Oh, if only they would be
honor of God and the salvation of souls. They are,                      aroused to reformation!" And only when pressure
more than others, the appointed watchers, the                           and entreaty appear useless and the shepherds
faithful dogs who must bark for their Lord. They                        either harden themselves in their faithlessness or
must see the wolf before the sheep sense it, and                        the faithful shepherds continue in the half-hearted
woe to the shepherds who do not seize the wolf and                      lack of zeal, then the moment has come for the
lay down their own life for the sheep. Joshua and                       members of the church themselves to call the
Josiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, are the shining                              church to repentance and conversion.
examples who spur on each shepherd of God to                              Let no one trifle with honoring God's ordinances,
faithful labor in his calling. And the history of                       nor must anyone ignore these ordinances with an
Jesus' church in the days of the New Covenant is                        attitude of self-sufficiency. One must bear in mind
rich with inspiring images of this sensitive life of                    that all our calling to repentance and conversion
the shepherds in the church who labor before the                        can produce nothing but death unless God the Lord
face of the Lord. Their cries for repentance still                      seizes the heart; that all called to repentance are
speak through their writings. Yet there is more.                        only instruments and the glory of God alone is the
Also in our land history testifies of more than one                     One Who shakes awake; and that the invoked
classical gathering at which the ministers of the                       blessing of His Fatherhand is only forfeited and
Word together confessed their own guilt and un-                         virtually banished as long as we carry on in a self-
faithfulness, and together before His face promised                     willed way and do not follow His path.
revival in their own ministry and life. It is known
that all the preachers in all the churches in London,                     If one tests what has happened to us with these
in the year 1660, in connection with the threat of a                    main principles, then the following must be stated:
fearful danger, announced in this large city their                        1) That in the preaching of our day the call to re-
sins and admonished the city to covenant renewal.                       pentance and conversion is heard much too weakly
Even in more recent church history examples are                         from the people of the Lord, while most of the noise
not lacking of churches who sealed anew their                           comes from the wild crowds.
covenant faithfulness. After having fallen into guilt                     2) That among the ministers of the Word both in
before God, such revival was sealed by the Lord at                      their mutual contact and in their concern for the
the preaching of repentance by her shepherds, in                        church of God, one can weep because of a sad lack
the house of prayer, with fastings and prayers.                         of that spiritual awakening which does not rest
  Yet there are worse conditions imaginable in                          until the shame of the decline of the Lord's
which the Lord God either has deprived His church                       inheritance is turned away.
almost entirely of faithful watchmen, or has with-                        3) That. spiritual awakening which came from
held from these faithful watchmen whom He still                         ,-here and there among the members was made
allows to work, the grace to be zealous for His holi-                   powerless by various weaknesses, weaknesses of
ness. In such a miserable condition, the lack of zeal                   which these four are the most important. First, that
of the faithful or also the faithlessness of the re-                    people bypass the office, sometimes even disdain-
maining shepherds does not free any of them from                        ing it. Second, that men urge toward sanctification
the obligation of arousing God's people to godli-                       without the conviction of guilt. Third, that men
ness. This has no other result than that the-duty of                    pursue either the mystical in a one-sided way, or
taking the initiative, which the members before                         emphasize life improvement, or are overflowing in
had left to the shepherds, is now transferred to the                    works, and by this one-sidedness become sectarian.
members themselves. Yet the regulation of the                           Fourth, that men hunt the extraordinary in place of
Lord is to be honored also in this that the members                     scrubbing clean the ordinary house furnishings.


310                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  4) That it must be said especially of Moody's          gathering of the unconverted. It is, however,
work that this has nothing to do with spiritual          entirely off the track in so far as this movement
awakening when it aims only at the preaching of          moves outside the channels of the church, throws
the gospel to the wild masses. We need no awaken-        pearls before swine, and with respect to the exer-
ing out of indolence; but conversion out of spiritual    cise of influence, has recourse to means which run
death is necessary. In how far the lack and the          counter to the spirit of the Word.
neglect of duty of the church in England and                7) That among the people of God in our own
America compel such a work of Moody, remains             land this spiritual awakening and covenant renewal
outside our judgment.'                                   demanded by God shall arise only if each person
   5) That the spiritual awakening to which Piersall     lays the axe at the root of his own ego; proceeds
Smith called people, went in the right direction         from the conversion of his own heart to the better-
when it was applied, not to the wild masses, but to      ment of his own household; and without asking
those who were already brought into the church.          what another does, descends before his own house
But, on the other hand, it went in the wrong direc-      and family into that humility which has the un-
tion, when it evaded the ecclesiastical channels,        changeable promise of grace.
corrupted doctrine, and sought its power in over-
stimulating gimmicks.                                    1. Moody was a well-known evangelist in the earlier part of our
   6) That the Salvation Army, even as Moody's            twentieth century who did his work here in America and
work, intended no spiritual awakening, but the in-        who established the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.



                                       Book Reviews

PROMISE AND DELIVERANCE,  vol. IV, Christ                LESSER PARABLES OF OUR LORD,  William
And The Nations, S. G. De Graaf; Paideia Press, St.      Arnot; Kregel Publications, 1981; 464 pages, $10.95.
Catherines, Ontario, Canada; 294 pages, $12.95           (Reviewed by Prof. R.D. Decker)
(cloth). (Reviewed by Prof. R. D. Decker)                GOSPEL  IN LEVITICUS,  Joseph A. Seiss; Kregel
  This is the fourth and last volume of a series ori-    Publications, 1981; 399 pages, $10.95. (Reviewed
ginally published in the Netherlands under the           by Prof. R.D. Decker)
title:  Vevbondsgeschiedenis,  (History of the Cove-     GOSPEL OF LUKE, W.H. Van Doren; Kregel Pub-
nant). The author, the late S. G.  DeGraaf, was a        lications, 1981; 1078 pages, $22.95. (Reviewed by
minister in the Reformed Churches in the Nether-         R.D. Decker)
lands. The translators, H. Evan and Elisabeth  Wi-
.chers Runner, have provided a very readable               All three of these books are part of Kregel's
English translation and are to be commended for          "Bible Study Classics." These are reprints of works
that.                                                    by preachers and theologians of the 18th and 19th
  These volumes sketch the history of God's Cove-        centuries. The book entitled, LESSER PARABLES
nant from Genesis to Revelation. Volume Four,            OF OUR LORD, contains what must have been the
Christ and the Nations, covers the history of the in-    author's sermons on various passages of Scripture.
carnation, the ministry, the cross, and resurrection     There are four divisions: Lesser Parables Of Our
of Christ from the viewpoint of the Gospel Accord-,      Lord, Lessons Of Grace, Lessons In I Peter, Life In
ing to John. The history of Acts is covered. The         Christ. Why the book has this title is a mystery.
realization of all things, "Christ's World Wide          Even in the first section many of the passages
Reign," is treated from the viewpoint of Matthew         expounded are not even parables. For the most part
24, 25 and selected passages from Revelation. All of     the expositions are sound. The author's treatment
this is done in 294 pages. Obviously this is no more     of I Peter 2:6-8 is not merely less than satisfactory,
than a sketch.                                           it is simply erroneous. If used with discretion the
  There are some helpful insights. There is some         book would make edifying devotional reading.
questionable exegesis. If used with discretion the         GOSPEL IN LEVITICUS is  a.good  book. As the
book could prove helpful for students and teachers       title itself would indicate, the  typology  is sound.
as well as the layman.                                   The author proceeds exegetically and allows Scrip-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              311



ture to interpret itself. The exposition of chapter 23,       It is impossible in a review to give any kind of
the feasts and holy convocations, is particularly          detailed account of the contents of a book like this.
good. The book would be useful for ministers and           Suffice it to say that it is evident that there is a
teachers, but also for any others in the church.           tremendous amount of research behind the writing
  GOSPEL OF LUKE is the strangest commentary               of this book. It goes into great detail concerning the
I have ever seen. It is a good book and worth having       early beginnings of the RCA. The book appears to
even at the cost of $22.95. The more than one              be well documented at every point. Yet the author
thousand pages are filled with exposition and              has succeeded in writing this history in an interest-
homiletical aids, all in very small print. It is almost    ing manner. There is a sufficient number of anec-
a word by word exposition. There are numerous              dotes to spice the book with a bit of humor here and
references to other good commentaries (Calvin.,            there.
e.g.) as well as numerous cross references to other           For anyone interested in this particular aspect of
passages of Scripture. Much of the exposition, and         church history, this book is a worthwhile purchase.
this is what I mean by "strange," is not even given        The copy sent me for review is a paperback, and I
in full sentences or paragraphs. The exegesis is just      do not know whether there is also a hard-cover edi-
in terse phrases. But it will set the reader to think-     tion. To my mind, there should be.
ing and aid him in seeing "things new and old" in             One personal note. I was interested in the history
the Gospel According To Luke. Ministers and                of the translation of the confessions, particularly in
students would no doubt benefit most from this             the translation of the Canons of Dordrecht and the
book.                                                      question why the RCA did not include the Rejec-
                                                           tion of Errors. While there is considerable informa-
THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH IN THE                           tion in this book about the transition to the use of
AMERICAN COLONIES,  Gerald F. De Jong;                     English during the early history of the RCA, I
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich.            looked in vain for any information about this parti-
279 pp. (paper), $6.94 (Reviewed by Prof. H.C.             cular subject.
Hoeksema)
  This volume is Number 5 in "The Historical
Series Of The Reformed Church In America." It
covers in great detail the history of the Reformed
Church in America from the time of its founding in
1628 until 1772, shortly before the Revolutionary                                     NOTICE!!!
War. Incidentally, there is a discrepancy between             Classis East will meet in regular session on May 12, 1982 at our
the Foreword and the Preface with respect to the           Holland Church. Material to be treated in this session must be in the
                                                           hands of the Stated Clerk at least 3 weeks prior to the convening of
terminal date of this history. The former makes it         this session.
1792, while the latter - correctly - makes it 1772.                                                    Jon Huisken
                                                                                                       Stated Clerk,  Classis East



                                     YOU ARE INVITED!!!
                                To'the Annual Spring Lecture
                                to be held, the Lord willing, at
         The South Christian Auditorium, Cutlerville, Michigan.
                              The Speaker - Prof. R. Decker.
                      The Theme - The believer and his Bible.
                           Thursday, May 6, 1982 - 8:00 P.M.
                -Plan now to attend - and bring your Friends-
                                                                      The Lecture Committee


       THE STANDARD BEARER
                P.O. Box 6064                                                                          SECOND CLASS
     Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                     POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                                GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.





     312                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


                                     Report of Classis West
       Classis West of the Protestant Reformed                warding them to Synod.  Edgerton  and Isabel re-
     Churches met in Randolph, Wisconsin on March 3.          quested additional subsidy for 1982 in the amount
     The churches of the West were represented by nine        of  $5,000.00, which was granted. Edmonton re-
     ministers and fifteen elders. Rev. R. Van Over-loop      quested $12,000 for 1982, a smaller subsidy than
     was also present.  Classis  gave him the right of the    had previousiy been granted, in view of her vacan-
     floor on all matters before Classis  and asked him to    cy.  Classis  granted the request of Isabel for help in
~    address the  Classis  on his work as missionary in       the moving expenses of her pastor.
     Birmingham, Alabama.                                       A Classical Appointment Schedule was adopted.
       Rev. K. Koole led  Classis  in opening devotions.      Edmonton: March 28, April 4, 18 - Kuiper; April 25,
     He read Isaiah 62 and spoke to the Classis  from the     May 2, 9  - Cammenga; May 16, 23, 30  - Engelsma;
     chapter. Rev. G. Lanting presided over this Classis.     June 13, 20, 27  - Lanting; July 11, 18, 25  -  Korter-
     Elders J. Hoksbergen (Hull), H. Meulenberg               ing; August 15, 22, 29  - Koole.  RedZands:  April 25,
     (Houston), and J. Soodsma (Randolph)-elder dele-         May 2,9 - Kamps; May 16,23,30  - Bekkering; June
     gates to  Classis  for the first time-signed the For-    13, 20, 27 -Moore; July 11, 18, 25  - Slopsema;
     mula of Subscription.                                    August 8, 15, 22  - Van Overloop. It was recom-
       Classis  approved the "Ministerial Certificate of      mended to Redlands that she seek pulpit supply for
     Dismissal and Testimonial" of Edmonton concern-          the summer from the Seminary or from an emeritus
     ing Rev. R. Moore, who has accepted the call from        minister.
     Isabel.                                                    Classis appointed Rev. D. Kuiper moderator of
       Among the various reports given to the  Classis        Edmonton during her vacancy.
     was that of the Reading Sermon Committee (Edger-           Results of the necessary voting were the follow-
     ton Consistory), which informed  Classis  that "we       ing:
     still need more sermons. The committee would re-           - Classical Committee: Rev. J. Slopsema.
     mind the ministers of the decision of  Classis  that       - Delegates ad examina:  Primus  - Rev. D.  Engel-
     each minister submit one sermon per year due at                  sma; Secundus - Rev. J. Slopsema.
     the Fall Classis." The Taped Sermon Committee              - Church Visitors: Rev. J. Kortering and Rev. G.
     (South Holland Council) informed  Classis  that a                Lanting.
     catalogue of available cassettes has been prepared.        -  Primi minister delegates to Synod: Rev. D.
     "This catalogue can be used by those requesting                  Engelsma, Rev. M. Kamps, Rev. J. Kortering,
     tapes to request specific tapes."                                Rev. D. Kuiper.
       The Church Visitors reported that, in the course         - Secundi minister delegates to Synod: Rev. R.
     of their work, they treated at some length the sub-              Cammenga, Rev. K. Koole, Rev. G. Lanting,
     ject of the evaluation of the preaching with each                Rev. J. Slopsema.
     consistory. They stated also that "from all indica-        -  Primi elder delegates to Synod: Mr. G. Griess,
     tions the preaching of the Word, administration of               Mr. B. Haak, Mr. J. Regnerus, Mr. C. Van Meet-
     the sacraments, and exercise of Christian discipline             eren.
     is being faithfully performed according to Scripture       - Secundi elder delegates to Synod: Mr. E. Bruin-
     and the Reformed Confessions."                                   sma, Mr. A. Brummel, Mr. H. Meulenberg, Mr.
                                                                      E. Stouwie.
       In executive session,  Classis dealt with the
     appeal of a member against the decision of his con-        Expenses of the Classis  were $4,375.23.
     sistory to suspend him from the Lord's Table.              Classis  will meet next in Doon,  Iowa on Septem-
       Edgerton, Edmonton, Houston, Isabel, and  Pella          ber 1, 1982, the Lord willing.
     requested subsidy for 1983 in the amount of                                     -Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
     $68,954.00; and Classis  granted these requests, for-                           Classis  West


