A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine




                      At the beginning of the new year
                    our prayers ascend to Thee, 0 Thou
                    great Jehovah, who dwellest in the
                    high and lofty place, far beyond all
                    that is creature.
                      We are Thy servants, Lord. Let
                    Thy work appear unto Thy servants.
                      .  ..for then we shall behold ever
                    more  clearly.Thy glory, and behold-
                    ing Thy glory we will see the beauty

                    own blessed covenant life.     And
                    thus,  0 our great God, establish
                   Thou the work of our hands.



January I, 1997


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                              January I,1997                                                                       &ndanl
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Bbarer '
Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
     A New Year's Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147                      ISSNO362-4692
Editorial  - Prof. David  J. Engelsma
     A Candid Confession of the Character                                                                                                                                                         Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
               of a Conditional Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149                                        Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                                  4949  Ivanrest  Ave.; Grandville, Ml 49416. Periodical Postage
Contribution  - Mrs. Deborah Benson                                                                                                                                                               Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
     The Church at the End of the 20th Century:                                                                                                                                                   Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
               Courting Harlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ~ . . . . . . . . .        152     P.O. Box 603, Grandville, Ml  49468-0603.
Ministering to the Saints  - Prof. Robert, D. Decker                                                                                                                                              EDITORIAL  COMMllTEE
     Ministering to Our Ministers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154                                         Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                  Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Taking Heed to the Doctrine  - Rev.  Steven  R. Key                                                                                                                                               Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
     The Antithesis ..: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                - . . . . . . . . .       157     DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Go Ye Into All the World  - Rev. Jason  L. Kortering                                                                                                                                              Rev. W. Bruinsma, Rev. A.  Brummel, Rev. R.  Cammenga,
                                                                                                                                                                                                  Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A.  denHa&g, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
     Demon Possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159                     Hanko, Rev. Ft. Hanko,  Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Koolp, Rev. J.
Church and State  - Mr. James Lanting                                                                                                                                                             Kortering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                                                                                                                                                                                                  Rev.T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren,  Rev. R.
     U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Its First Right-to-die Case . . . . . . . 162                                                                                                                   VanOverloop,  Mr. B. Wigger, Rev. B. Woudenberg.
Contribution  - Mr. Martin Swart                                                                                                                                                                  EDITORIAL OFFICE                     -CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
     The Proper Manner of Conducting Family Visitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164                                                                                                        The Standard Bearer                   Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                                                  4949  Ivanrest                        6597 40th Ave.
News From Our Churches  -  Ah-. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167                                                                                   Grandville, Ml 49418                  Hudsonville, MI 49426

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     Two contributions feature prominently in this issue of the  Stan-                                                                                                                                                                  Ballymena, Co.  &trim  BTd2 3EL
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146/Standard Bearer/January I,1997


                              A New Year's Prayer

Let thy work appear unto thy ser- all Thy glorious virtues as Thou forever and ever. Our earthly pil-
         vants, and thy glory unto their             livest Thine own blessed covenant       grimage is but a preparation for
         children. And let the beauty of             life as Triune God in Thyself and       the real life still to come!
the Lord our God be upon us: and                     in intimate love and fellowship             We know Thee, the true and
establish thou the work  of  our hands               with Thy people, of whom we             living God, and knowing Thee we
upon us) yea, the work  of our hands                 form a portion.                         have life eternal!
establish thou it.                                      We have Thy sure promises.
                           Psalm  91:16, 17          For already in the dispensation of
                                                     shadows Thou didst assure Thy
     At the beginning of the new                     saints of the coming of the Savior.'        Yet, 0 Jehovah, Thou eternal,
year our prayers ascend to Thee,                     In the fullness of time He came,        unchangeable, ever faithful cov-
0   T h o u   g r e a t   J e h o v a h ,   w h o    suffered, died, and is gone into        enant God, make Thy work known
dwellest in the high and lofty                       glory, soon to return to make all       to Thy servants.
place, far beyond all that is crea-                  things new. Thou hast partly with-          That which happens round
ture.                                                drawn the veil, that we may be-         about us distresses us. Especially
     We are Thy servants, Lord.                      hold the mystery of salvation, the      now in these evil days horror grips
Let Thy work appear unto Thy ser-                    wonder of Thy saving grace as our       our hearts as we see that wicked-
vants.                                               covenant God. 0 Jehovah, how            ness abounds, and we are daily re-
     We think of Thy work in all                     great Thou art!                         minded that the end of the ages is
Thy wide and vast creation, even                        In the light of Thy Word we          rapidly, very rapidly, approaching.
since the dawn of history, and un-                   may behold Thy work in Thy wide             Proud man, who is of the dust
til our Lord returns; Thy work                       and vast creation. We see the           of the earth, dependent upon Thee
throughout the ages as it centers                    splendor of the innumerable stars       for every breath he takes, for ev-
in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Sav-                   of the night; Thou knowest them         ery thought that flashes through
ior; Thy work of salvation as it in-                 all by name. We behold the beauty       his mind, for the very use of his
volves us, our place in our  fami-                   of the sunrise and the radiance of      fingers, has cast Thee out of his
iies, in the church, and in the midst                the sunset. We hear Thy voice in        thoughts and out of his life, even
of this present evil world. Give                     the rumblings of the thunder, in        out  ,of Thy creation, maintaining
us eyes to see and hearts" to un-                    the sighing of the wind, in the me-     that he is God.
derstand all Thy wonders that in-                    lodious song of the wren. Yea, all          He dares to boast of his om-
troduce the coming of Thy king-                      creation announces a new creation.      nipotence. He displays his great
dom and the glory of Thy match-                      For we also hear the groaning of        accomplishments.  He takes credit
less name.                                           the creature which with uplifted        for the great advancements in the
     We would not even dare to ask                   head patiently awaits our final         past century, as we have pro-
this if we did not know something                    adoption and our heavenly perfec-       gressed from the horse and wagon
about, Thy work. We have Thy in-                     tion. For that Thy name is near         to the huge trucks that rumble
fallible Word in which Thou givest                   Thy wondrous works declare.             over the freeways; from the buggy
us Thy Self-revelation, making                           Thou hast given in our hearts       and sleigh to the modern automo-
known to us on its  inerrant pages                   the resurrection life of our risen      bile;. from mail delivery by stage
                                                     Lord. As Thy servants we also           coach to E-mail; from the simple
                                                     groan as we patiently await our         farm house to the modern home
                                                     final redemption. For we know           with central heating, running wa-
Rev.  Hanko  is a minister emeritus in               that all things are ours, and we        ter, bathrooms, and all its appli-
the Protestant  R$or&d  Churches.                    are Christ's, and Christ is Thine       ances and conveniences; and from

                                                                                                   January 1,1997/Standard Bearerfl47


the feather-tipped ink pen to the         homes, and property must at all                      us and merit for us eternal life.
computer. And there is much               times be  safely   lo&e&                             We can be saved only -because
more. We have come a long way                  But worst of all is the apos-                   Christ implants His resurrection
in one century, and mere man              tasy that runs rampant. True,                        life in our hearts. We are  wiZZing
takes all the credit.                     many have no religion, or have a                     to be saved only because Christ
    Man claims to be omniscient.          religion of convenience. But even                    "produces (in  us> both the will to
He contends that anything he can          those who profess to take their re-                  believe, and the act of believing
imagine he can also do. He builds         ligion seriously resort to all sorts                 also" (Canons III/IV, 14). We  must
computers which are improved              of false doctrines. In some "Re-                    believe, not only because of the ob-
and outdated almost as fast as the        formed" circles the very inerrancy                  jective demand of Thy Word, but
plans leave the drawing board. He         of Scripture, or verbal inspiration,                 because of our subjective need for
makes automobiles that are not            is denied. Accepting the results                     salvation. By the wonder of Thy
only attractive, but can travel at        of historical and scientific investi-                grace wrought in us we do believe,
high speed with great comfort both        gation rather than the truth of                      embracing Christ and all His ben-
in the summer and in the winter.          Scripture, men call into question                    efits. Christ is our wisdom, righ-
If one wishes he can plan his whole       the wonder of creation as recorded                   teousness, and sanctification  - in
     in advance on his computer,          in Genesis, as well as the wonder                    one word, our full redemption.
     ake use of the instruments in        of the incarnation. What does one.                          Thou hast made us  willingeer-
     uto. He is always in a hurry,        have left? As our Lord warned                       vants in Thy house, each in his
and must  -do everything at top           us: When the Son of Man returns,                     own place with the gifts and tal-
speed as if there is no tomorrow.         will He find faith on the earth?                     ents entrusted to him, that we may
    Man even dreams of being om-               0 Lord, all this transpires be-                be instruments through which
nipresent. He sends his voice any-        fore Thy very face. Thy name is                      Christ carries out His work, gath-
where, even to the ends of the            dishonored, Thy people are de-                       ering, defending, and preserving
earth. As soon as something hap-          spised as the offscouring of the                    His church in the line of contin-
pens, or very soon thereafter, the        earth, Thy church is as a hut in a                  ued generations of those who be-
news is flashed on the television         vineyard, a besieged city!                           lieve. Thou hast called us to be
screen into thousands of homes.                                                               prophets declaring Thy praises,
Man lays claim to the whole earth.                                                            priests devoting ourselves in love
    also claims the heavens as his                                                             to Thee, and kings having domin-
    1. He sends satellites into the            Almighty God, sovereign Ruler                   ion over sin, in order that we may
     to search out the entire uni-        of the universe, let Thy work ap-                    live and reign with Christ forever.
verse. He sets up powerful tele-          pear unto Thy servants, for then                            Father, we still have this trea-
scopes to reach beyond our solar          we shall behold ever more clearly                    sure in an earthen vessel. Sin still
system to constellations and stars        Thy glory, and beholding Thy                        wars in our members. We have
many light years away. He sends           glory we will see the beauty of Thy                 but a small beginning of the new
a spaceship to the moon, to Mars,         glorious perfections and Thy own                     obedience. Yet Thou who hast be-
and to farther planets to investi-        blessed covenant life. And thus,                    gun a good work in us wilt surely
gate what can be found there.             0 our great God, establish Thou                     finish it unto perfection!
How great he is!                          the work of our hands.                                      Yea, Lord, establish Thou the
    In the meantime lawlessness                Give us to understand that we                  work of our hands, that we may
abounds. Scripture warns us that          are saved  purely by grace,  in no                           faithfully serve Thy purpose,
the last days will be characterized       way dependent upon us.                                         as by Thy Fatherly hand
Sy such lawlessness as has never          We are sinners who  de-                      Yea,  Lord,         Thou dost uphold and
 )een seen on the earth. That is          serve only Thy just  con-                 establish Thou          govern all things for the
 iappening.  We bitterly bemoan           demnation.             W e   a r e           the work              salvation of our souls.
rhe slaughter of the Jews during          dead in trespasses and                     of our hands,           Not a hair falls from
Hitler's regime, yet today those in       sins, capable only of  de-                 that we may             our heads except to
authority sanction the murder of          spising Thee and all that                 faithfully  serve       serve Thy divine  pur-
millions of babes in embryo or at         is holy, willfully  trans-                Thy purpose....         pose. Rulers, kings, and
birth. Crime is on the increase:          g r e s s i n g   a l l   T h y   com-                           all in authority may rage,
there are too many guns and               mandments.            We  lnay be                              but Thou hast set Thy King
knives in the wrong hands. No             saved only because Thou                                      upon the holy hill of  Zion.
one is safe anymore anywhere.             lovest us with an eternal love                      All power is entrusted to Christ in
Many of our medicines and other           which is so great that Thou didst                   heaven and on earth. All things,
products must be safeguarded              not spare Thy Son from dying our                    literally all things, must work  to;
with double seals. Automobiles,           accursed death in our stead to save                 gether for good to those who fear

148/Standard Bearer/January %I997    '


Thee, the called according to Thy         ers wait for the morning.                the glory of our Father's name.
purpose.                                      In the meantime, our God, es-            Keep us close to Thee, that in
     Thou art for us, nothing can         tablish Thou the work of our             Thee we may experience close
be against us. We come forth out          hands. Preserve and defend us            communion of life with our God,
of our present battlefield with           over against all the onslaughts of       resting assured at all times, that,
dented helmets, chipped swords,           the powers of darkness. Give us          come what may, His is the king-
breastplates awry, shoes worn out         Thy grace to realize that with Thee      dom, the power, the glory forever
- yet more' than conquerors               we are always the victors.               and ever.
through our Lord Jesus Christ. We             Use us, Thy willing servants,            Come, Lord Jesus, according to
enter the rest, where all tears are       according to the talents entrusted       Thy promise, that when all our
wiped away forever!                       to us, in the midst of our families,     works are burned as straw and
                                          in the midst of Thy people, in a         stubble, Thy work in and through
        +++   +++   +++                   present evil world, wherever Thou        us may be our eternal reward.
                                          dost place us, that we may in our        Yea, the work of our hands, estab-
     Come, Lord Jesus.      '             small way be instrumental toward         lish Thou it.
     We wait upon Thee as watch-          the coming of Thy kingdom and                Yea, come quickly! Amen.  0





                             ACandidC
                                    of the Ch
                     of a Condition

I                                         fulfill the condition of faith, the      the issue and make some progress
     n the July, 1996 issue of this       covenant will continue with him.         in the debate, I asked that, if Rev.
     magazine, the Rev. Cecil W.          If the child refuses to believe, the     Tuininga wrote again, he would
     Tuininga, Reformed minister  in      covenant that God made with him          answer specific questions that I put
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, de-            is broken.                               to him. These questions take us
fended the doctrine of a condi-               The promise of salvation made        to the heart of the issue in the con-
tional covenant with the children         by God to every child alike at bap-      troversy between defenders of a
of believers. This doctrine teaches       tism is conditional. The condition       conditional covenant and those
that God on His part makes His            is the child's act of believing. If      who teach that God's covenant
covenant with all the children of         the child will fulfill the condition     with believers and their children
believing parents alike.  At, bap-        of believing, God's promise to him       is unconditional. These were the
tism, He promises every child that        will be realized in his salvation.       questions:
He will be the child's God and that       But if the child refuses to believe,
the child will be God's child. Since      God's promise to him will fail of            1) Does the  promise  that, ac-
the covenant provides salvation,          realization. The child will perish,        cording to Rev. Tuininga, is made
God promises every child that He          despite the fact that God once            by God to every child of believ-
will save him. But the covenant is        promised him eternal life in Jesus        ing parents express God's  cov-
                                                                                     enantal love for every child?
conditional. Made by God with             Christ, just as He promised eter-            2) Does this promise indicate
every physical child of believing         nal life to the children who are          that God sincerely desires to save
parents, the covenant depends for         saved.                                     every child of believing parents?
its maintenance and continuance               In the same issue of the  Stan-          3)    Does this promise rest upon
with the individual child upon the        dard  Bearer,  I responded briefly to      and flow from Jesus Christ's
child's faith. If the child will later    Rev. Tuininga. In order to clarify         death for every child of believing

                                                                                        January  1,1997/Standard  Bearer/l49


  parents? Did Jesus Christ shed                         condition that in order to be saved        were not willing"  (Matt.  23:37)?
 -His blood for every baptized child                     he must believe. God never re-              How else can we understand  Ro-
  of believing parents?                                  moved from fallen man his re-               mans  10:21?
    4 )   A m o n g   t h e   b e n e f i t s   i n -    sponsibility to love God and serve          3.And  in this connection, does
  cluded in the promise to every                         Him, which he can do only by               God not desire the salvation of all
  child, is faith included? Does God                     faith, a faith that he can exercise        men? If not, how  do you inter-
  at baptism promise to give every                       only by God's grace. I want to             pret I Timothy  2:3,  4? Shall. we
  child faith?                                           repeat that I have never stated             do a little revising  .and  say that
    5) With regard to the second                         anywhere that the condition of             by "all" God meant the elect? But
  principal part of the doctrine of                      faith can be fulfilled by man. But          then the Word of God would have
  holy baptism in the Reformed                           that this is a condition that God           said so!    Shall we say that it
  "Form for the Administration of                        demands cannot be denied (see              means "all different kinds of
  Baptism" that Rev. Tuininga uses,                      Hab.  2:4; Rom.  1:16, 17;  10:6; Gal.     people"? If that was the inten-
  is it Rev. Tuininga's understand-                      3:14,  24; etc.)                           tion of the Holy Spirit, it would
  ing:                                                     To answer your questions:                 have been clearly stated. If this
    a) that God the Father wit-                          1. Yes, God does express His love           is not the clear message of Scrip-
  nesses and seals to every baptized                     for every covenant child.                   ture, that God desires all men  to
  child that He makes an eternal                         2. Yes, God does desire to save ev-        be saved, then what does it say?
  covenant of grace with the child                       ery covenant child.                        For a good Reformed answer to
  and adopts him or her for His                          3.No, Jesus shed His blood only            this question read Calvin on 2 Pe-
  child and heir, on the condition                       for those given Him by the Fa-              ter  3:9 and Dr. Herman Ridderbos
  that the child will believe;                           ther.                                       in  Padus,  (p. 393). But the Can-
    b) that God the Son seals to                         4.No, faith is a condition that a           ons of Dordt are also very clear
  every baptized child that He                           covenant child must fulfill but can        when they state: "As many as are
  washes the child in His blood                          only fulfill by God's grace (Eph.           called by the Gospel are un-
  from all his or her sins, incorpo-                     2:8). If they do not fulfill this con-     feignedly called. For God has
  rating the child into the fellow-                      dition they are cut off the cov-           most earnestly and truly declared
  ship of His death and resurrec-                        enant tree (Rom.  11:22).                   in His Word what is acceptable
  tion, on the condition that the                        5. a.    Yes, God makes an eternal          to Him,  namely,  that those who
  child. will believe;                                   covenant with all who are born              are called should come to Him.
    c)  a n d   t h a t   G o d   t h e   H o l y        into that covenant. To every cov-          He also seriously promises rest of
  Ghost assures every baptized                           enant child God says: You are               soul and eternal life to all who
  child that He will dwell in the                        my child. Yes, the covenant child           come to Him and believe" (chap.
  child and sanctify the child to be                     can break that covenant and be              III-IV, Article 8).
  a member of Christ, applying                           cut off from the covenant family.             The fault with Arminians is that
  unto the child that which he or                        Many covenant children do in-              they apply human logic to God's
  she has in Christ, on the condi-                       deed so break covenant and are             Word and conclude that if God
  tion that the child will believe?                      indeed cut off (Rom.  11:22).               calls men to faith and repentance
                                                           b. and c.         We must say, yes       it must mean that man can come
    Rev. Tuininga has indeed writ-                       indeed, these rich and beautiful            of his own free will and that
ten again on the subject of the cov-                     assurances are given to every cov-          Christ died for all men.  Hyper-
enant of God with the children of                        enant child. But the child can re-         Calvinists, in applying logic to
believers. He has answered the                           ject them and sad to say, many             Scripture, come to exactly the op-
                                                         do; and Hebrews 6 does indeed              posite conclusion, namely, that
questions that I had proposed. His                       teach this. In stubborn unbelief            since God from all eternity has
letter follows, in its entirety.                         they reject God and His rich                elected some to salvation and by-
                                                         promises. Covenant breakers will            passed "the vessels of wrath pre-
    This letter is in response to your                   indeed receive the greater punish-         pared for destruction" (Rom.
  comments on my letter in the                           ment.                                      9:22),  it must follow that God can-
  Standard Bearer  of July 1996. Be-                       Now allow me a few questions:            not seek these non-elect vessels of
  fore I answer your questions I                         1. Is every baptized child, accord-        wrath with an honest  .and earnest
  wish to point out, as I read this                      ing to your position, elect and             call of Gospel.  And so we pro-
  response, that you are putting                         hence saved? How then answer                ceed to reject clear teachings of
  words into my answer that are not                      for those who reject the covenant          Scripture. I would be very happy
  there.     With Dr. Hendriksen I                       promises? Do they not break cov-           to see our Protestant Reformed
  made very clear that the condi-                        enant with God?                            brothers  come to recognize and
  tion of faith  cannot  be fulfilled by                 2.Does  God not love and desire             correct their hyper-Calvinism and
  man.  That is God's work. But                          the salvation of all those within          become truly Reformed.
  the condition is so clearly stated                     the covenant? If not, why did                               Sincerely in the Lord,
  in Romans  11 that I fail to see how                   Jesus weep over the covenant                                       Cecil W. Tuininga
  anyone can deny it. That man is                        breaking Jerusalem with the
  "dead in trespasses and sins"                          words, "How often I wanted to                 The Answers of Rev. Tuininga
  (Eph.  2:l) does, not remove the                       gather your children, . . . but you       to my questions are ,remarkable for

150/Standard Bearer/January I,1997


their candor. This is how theo-          he points out that this was essen-           every baptized child  of  believing par-
logical debate, like all' discussion     tially the heresy that the Reformed          ents?
among Christians, should always          churches condemned at Dordt.                   Answer: No, Jesus shed His
be carried on. But such is by no         Whereupon the defender of a con-             blood only for those given Him
means the case. Such is not al-          ditional covenant cries, "Foul!"             by the Father.
                                                                                        4)  Among the benefits included
ways the case in doctrinal  discus-      complaining that the advocate of             in the promise to every child, is faith
siqn. Such is certainly not the case     an unconditional covenant is put-            included? Does God at baptism
in the controversy with those who        ting words in his mouth and is ac-           promise to give every child faith?
defend a conditional covenant. It        cusing him of teaching an error to           Answer: No, faith is a condi-
has proved difficult to get defend-      which, in fact, he is opposed.               tion that a covenant child must
ers of a conditional covenant to ac-         In refreshing contrast to the            fulfill but can only fulfill by God's
knowledge their position and its         typical ambiguity of a defense of            grace (Eph.  2:8). If they do not
implications with the frankness of       a conditional covenant, Rev.                 fulfill this condition they are cut
Rev. Cecil Tuininga. One can read        Tuininga makes a candid confes-              off the covenant tree (Rom.  11:22).
                                                                                        5) With regard to the second
extensively in their literature with-    sion of the character of a condi-            principal part  of  the doctrine  of  holy
out finding the unambiguous state-       tional covenant. This is to his              baptism in the Reformed "Form  for
ment, "God loves every child of          credit.    This can only serve the           the Administration  of  Baptism" that
believing parents. with His  cov-        cause of truth.                              Rev. Tuininga uses, is it Rev.
enantal love." One can press them            The significance of his candid           Tuininga's understanding:
vigorously without ever getting          confession is that it makes plain              a)     that God the Father witnesses
them to admit in so many words           to everyone what is, in fact, the            and seals to every baptized child that
that baptism represents God's sin-       real character of the doctrine of a          He makes an eternal covenant  of
cere desire to save every child of       conditional covenant, wherever               grace with the child and adopts him
                                                                                      or her  for  His child and heir, on the
believers. One cannot escape the         and by whomever it is taught.                condition that the child will believe?
impression that they deliberately        And it is taught widely in Re-                 Answer: Yes, God makes an
avoid clarity and frankness at the       formed and Presbyterian churches             eternal covenant with all who are
crucial points `because they them-       today. No doubt, it is the major-            born into that covenant. To ev-
selves hesitate to own up to the         ity opinion. Very few stand with             ery covenant child God says: You
implications of their doctrine.          the Protestant Reformed Churches             are my child. Yes, the covenant
    Whatever the explanation, this       in confessing an unconditional cov-          child can break that covenant and
lack of candor obscures the real         enant.                                       be cut off from the covenant fam-
issues for many. The result is that          In order that the real charac-           ily. Many covenant children do
                                                                                      indeed so break covenant and are
the controversy between defend-          ter of the doctrine of a conditional         indeed cut off (Rom.  11:22).
ers of a conditional covenant and        covenant may be clearly seen, let              b) that God the Son seals to ev-
those who hold that `God's cov-          us place each of Rev. Tuininga's             ery baptized child that He washes
enant is unconditional never             frank answers immediately after              the child in His blood from all his
makes progress toward a clear            the question to which it is the an-          or her sins, incorporating the child
resolution in Reformed circles.          swer. In what follows, my ques-              into the fellowship  of  His death and
     What invariably happens is          tions appear in italics; Rev.                resurrection, on the condition that
that the defender of a conditional       Tuininga's answers are in regular            the child will believe;
covenant refuses to state that his                                                      c)     and that God the Holy Ghost
                                         type*                                        assures every baptized child that He
doctrine comes down to this, that                                                     will dwell in the child and sanctify
God has a universal covenant love            1)  Does the promise that, accord-       the child to be a member  of  Christ,
for all boys and girls born to be-         ing to Rev. Tuininga, is made by           applying unto the child that which
lieving parents, which universal           God to every child  of  believing par-     he or  she has in Christ, on the con-
love depends for its efficacy upon         ents express God's covenantal love         dition  that the  child will believe?
the human condition of faith. The         for every  child?                             Answer: We must say, yes in-
                                             Answer: Yes, God does express
defender of a conditional covenant                                                    deed, these rich and beautiful as-
                                           His love for every covenant child.
refuses to state this, even though                                                    surances are given to every cov-
                                             2) Does this promise indicate
this is obviously the necessary im-                                                   enant child. But the child can re-
                                           that God sincerely desires to save ev-     ject them and sad to say, many
plication of the position that he ar-      ery child  of  believing parents?          do; and Hebrews 6 does indeed
gues. Since the defender of a con-           Answer: Yes, God does desire             teach this. In stubborn unbelief
ditional covenant will not state this      to save every covenant child.              they reject God and His rich
himself, the advocate of an uncon-           3) Does this promise rest upon           promises. Covenant breakers will
ditional covenant charges this             and flow from Jesus Christ's death         indeed receive the greater punish-
against the doctrine of a condi-          for  every child  of  believing parents?    ment.
                                           Did Jesus -Christ shed His blood for
tional covenant. At the same time,

                                                                                          January 1,1997/Standard BearerA


    Surely, the candid answers to            est issue. At stake is the issue that    head and mediator of the new  cov-
these questions alert every  profess-        lies at the heart of the Reformed        enant.
ing Calvinist to the fact that at            faith, the gospel revealed in Holy               Nothing less.  0
stake in the controversy over a              Scripture and defended in the Can-          e                             - DJE
conditional covenant is the  grav-           ons of Dordt. This issue is the  sov-                                (to be cont.)
                                             ereigntv  of the grace of God in the




                            The Church atthe End
                                of the 20th Century:
                                      Coupling  H a r l o t s

A                                            heaven, we must be zealous to look       Father seeketh such to worship
        t the end of the 20th cen-           long and hard at the church of to-       Him. God  is  a Spirit: and they
        tury God is pleased to               day, and at ourselves as individu-       that worship him must worship
        withdraw Himself from                als, to determine whether or not         him in spirit and in truth." Wor-
men. This is nowhere more pain-              we are "courting harlots."               shiping "in spirit" refers to the
fully witnessed than in the visible              In Leviticus 10 we find the          indwelling of the Holy Spirit, with-
church on earth, that earthly body           record of Nadab and Abihu, two           out the use of physical or earthly
which, in order to live (in Christ),         sons of Aaron who decided to             "props" (John  14:16, 17); and "in
must ever remain faithful with re-           come before God in the newly built       truth" refers to the Word of God,
spect to her end: that all things            tabernacle with "strange fire."          which is  the  living truth (John  l:l,
be done to the glory of God. In              God had told them exactly how He         2; I Thess.  2:13; Acts  17:ll). In the
the 20th century the church, in fol-         was to be worshiped, and they had        New Testament He commands
lowing after the world, has shifted          devised their own method of plac-        that in the worship service we
her underpinning principle from              ing fire on the altar, in direct dis-    preach the Word: sing psalms, hymns
the glory of God, to a philosophy            obedience to God's command. As           and spiritual songs; pray; give tithes;
and theology that is man-centered.           a remarkable revelation of the           and administer the sacraments  of  Bap-
The church has corporately left the          gravity of this sin, God immedi-         tism and Lord's Supper.  Nothing
pursuit of the knowledge of God              ately struck them dead with fire         else.
and His Word, to court the har-              from heaven. Our Lord says in                    Is this exactly and only what
lots of experientialism and emo-             Matthew  5:17, 18, "Think not that       we do, or do we go to worship
tionalism us  un end  in themselves.         I came to destroy the law, or the        with all kinds of "strange fire"? In
And this has resulted in the ne-             prophets: I am not come to de-           the church today we may witness
glect, and finally the loss, of the          stroy but to fulfill. For verily I       the following as part of the wor-
knowledge of God's character and             say to you, Till heaven and earth        ship service: skits, puppet shows,
of His Word. This is nowhere                 pass, one jot or one tittle shall in     soloists, candles, idols of all kinds
more clearly seen than in the wor-           no wise pass from the law, till all      (manger scenes, statues, various
ship services and external activi-           be fulfilled."                           biblically thematic paintings in-
ties of the church. If we desire to              This and every Old Testament         cluding Christ, Bethlehem walks,
preserve our generations in the in-          law applies today,  in principle.  We    etc.), missionary reports, concerts,
heritance of the kingdom of                  are given instruction in the New         Sunday school programs, liturgi-
                                             Testament about what to do in the        cal dance, responsive reading, holy
                                             worship service. Our Lord says           laughter, and many more.  Strange
                                             in John  4:23, 24: "But the hour         fire! While some of these things
                                             cometh  and now  is,  when the true      may be appropriate in another set-
Mrs.  Be,nson is a member  of  the Bethel    worshipers shall worship the Fa-         ting,  in the worship service  they are
PRC in Itasca, IL.                           ther in spirit and in truth; for the     "strange fire." That for which we

152/Standard Bearer/January I,1997


have received instruction from            God's people were martyred for                  commandment:             idolatry. If we
God's Holy Word, we may not add           their reform. Would anyone dis-                 use the "Bethlehem Walk" as a
to, subtract from, or neglect, as  did    pute that, as a  whole,  that branch            means to approach God, to "im-
Nadab and Abihu,  or we are "court-       was cut out of the tree of life? If             pact each visitor for eternity," how
ing a harlot."                            you dispute this, you must ask                  is the idol in the manger different
    "Strange fire" in the worship         yourself, "Does God's character                 in principle from any other idol?
service is only one result of "court-     and Word mean anything at all to                Is God's Word and Spirit so ane-
ing harlots." All throughout the          me?"                                            mic, so ineffective, that we desire
life of the church there is evidence             With respect to knowledge of             objects to see, smell, hear, and touch
of that courtship. God's Word de-         God's character and of His Word,                to produce or confirm-faith? This
clares in Hosea 4:6, "My people are       the church at large pays little at-             was a major principle that was at
destroyed for lack of knowledge:          tention.      It is astounding to note          issue in the 16th century Reforma-
because thou hast rejected knowl-         that in the day of experientialism              tion. Of course; we do not hear
edge, I will also reject thee, that       and emotionalism, the majority of               much about that anymore. At the
thou shalt be no priest to me: see-       the churches' children are herded               time of the Reformation it was the
ing thou hast forgotten the law of        out  of the worship service.           God      priest, the confessional, the pen-
thy God, I will also forget thy chil-     requires (OT and NT) that God's                 ance, the statues, etc. Today the
dren."                                    people worship and grow in spiri-               idols before God take a different
    As you are driving around,            tual  lcnowledge  as a family. "My              shape and character, but they are
pay attention to the signs at             people are destroyed for lack of                the `same in principle. The same
churches and Christian schools,           knowledge," and the church is de-               harlot.
advertising the latest "harlotry" to      priving the children of the preach-                  And then we have the newest
entice people into the church. God        ing of God's Word, God's primary                and fastest growing craze, that of
declares that He will draw His            means of grace  (Ram.  10:14,15).               Promise-keepers. I know it feels
people with His  living  Word and                Though there are many ex-                good. I know it is an emotional
Spirit  - but the church today does       amples to demonstrate the current               experience. I am convinced that
not trust the faithful proclamation       "harlots at large," I offer the fol-            some of the men love the Lord. I
of that Word, or is not satisfied         lowing two examples:                            know they mean well. I know they
with the results our Sovereign God               First. Recently I saw a write-           get lots of self-helps. But why do
is pleased to produce. The church         up for a "Bethlehem Walk," which                they need it? Recently I spoke
is going to use skits, seminars on        read in part as follows: "This bus-             with a gentleman who was relat-
everything from soup to nuts, pup-        tling town from history filled with             ing how wonderful his pastor was,
pet shows, self-helps, biblical dra-      smells, sights, sounds, and things to           and  `as an example he stated that
matizations. And the list goes on         touch  will  flood the senses and make          his pastor was so dynamic that he
and on to include anything                       memories  for family traditions.         got 75 men to attend the latest
that feels good and fills the                       Please begin to pray even             rally of Promise Keepers in Chi-
pews.     Along with the            Do not            now that the Holy Spirit            cago. I asked him gently, "But
"harlotry," many take             be numbed           will use this event to im-          how is his preaching?" He replied,
God's Word and change it            because           pact each visitor  for eter-        ."Well,  I   d o n 't   k n o w ,   I   n e v e r
to fit the "sensitivities" of      everybody           nity"  (italics mine). The         thought about it before." Maybe
the audience. Sin is a mis-      "feels good,"         direct  focus is on having         that is why he needs Promise
take, homosexuality is an        and is sincere,       the  experience,  so that faith    Keepers! If the church you attend
inescapable orientation,         and he pews          might be produced and'              is not placing you before the face
women preachers are filled          are full.         might work eternal  salva-          of God every Lord's Day, with a
with so many gifts that they                        tion. Romans  lo:17  says,            knowledge of His Word and char-
can bypass God's command,                        "So then faith comes by hear-            acter, then, in obedience, you must
creation is a matter of "interpreta-      ing, and hearing by the word of                 search for a church that does, not
tion," murder (by abortion) is            God." How can we bring the                      resort to "courtship with a harlot"!
choice, etc.                              knowledge of God and His Word                   (Incidentally, God's Word and the
    Do not be numbed because ev-          when our  intent  is to produce a               faithful presentation of it are the
erybody "feels good," and is sin-         physical experience?                            biblical measures of a minister.)
cere,  .and the pews are full. The               To be sure, the experiences of                Another man, when challenged
pews were full in the Roman               the senses and emotion feel good,               about his involvement in the or-
Catholic Church in the 16th cen-          but do they work faith? Not ac-                 ganization, replied with much
tury, and they are full today. The        cording to God's Word. In addi-                 emotion (and very little knowl-
church of that day was painfully          tion, this particular activity                  edge):      "How would you know?
sincere, so much so that many of          touches the issue of the second                 You can't possibly imagine what I

                                                                                                 January  1,1997/Standard Bearer/l53


I--
 felt when I sat and sang `Amazing         be pleased to spare only a small                         hearts of flesh, then and only then
 Grace' with 75,000 men. It was            remnant, as in the days of Elijah                        do we experience the eternal and
 the most awesome feeling!" No             and numerous other periods of his-                       lasting emotion of wonderful,
 doubt it was an awesome feeling           tory.                                                    peaceful, and blessed assurance in
 in and of itself, but when 75,000              One person said in a discus-                        the faithfulness of His work. He
 or even seven, men gather together        sion with me, "I know the church                         is  able to complete that work
 to sing, (or do anything else), and       needs reform,  but.I'm  not person-                      which He has once begun in us.
 several denominations are repre-          ally responsible to reform the                               To many, that is not as titillat-
 sented which do not even recog-           church." Perhaps not, but God                            ing as the harlots of  experien-
 nize the deity of Christ, then which      does require  obedience.  IEither  you                   tialism and emotionalism. But it
 amazing grace are they singing            and I are walking daily in the sight                     is God's way and will, and it pro-
 about, and to what god? I would           of God, reforming ourselves to-                          duces a full, rich, and eternal
 say it is amazing grace that God          ward God-centered life and wor-                          peace.
 does not strike us dead with fire         ship, with a knowledge of His                                Let each of us think on the
 from heaven when we yoke His              Word, or we are "courting har-                           glory of God alone! Let us reform
 name to a "harlot," neglecting His        lots."      If it is the latter, as in                   ourselves daily with that purpose,
 ordained means of feeding His             Hosea's day, our children will be                        to the end that God may be glori-
 people, the Word preached in the          forgotten of the Lord. God is faith-                     fied, being assured by His Word
 church of Jesus Christ.                   ful in  all that He promises.                            that in the way of our faithful (of-
      The church of today needs re-             Jesus Christ, who  is  the Word,                    ten painful) obedience to His will,
 forming as badly as it did in the         entered human history and took                           He will work, by the knowledge
 16th century.       But reformation       hold of His eternal kingdom with                         and use of His Word, the fruit of
 hurts! It means tremendous up-            a gripping violence (Mat-t.  `11:12,                     righteousness in us and in our
 heaval, and it never leads to a lot       Heb.  4:12, 13). When God's Word                         seed.  .He is drawing ever nearer
 of the "feel-goodies" that the            in its absolute and unchanging                           to that final day when all of His
 church has become so attached to          truth comes to us, let us pray that                      people will be gathered in. May
 at the end of the 20th century.  Per-     it does violence to our will, expe-                      we and our children be found
 `haps, if the Lord tarries, we will       rience, and emotion. If it "feels                        among that remnant which He is
 see that reform, and out of the           good" it is a harlot, or we are in                       always faithful to preserve.
 ashes will arise the glorious bride       h a r d h e a r t e d   r e b e l l i o n .   W h e n        Above all, to God be the glory,
 of Christ in the  21st century.  Per-     God's Word has cut deep and                              for of Him, through Him, and unto
 haps the Lord, for His glory, will . changed our hearts of stone to                                Him are all things! Cl





          Ministering to Our Ministers

                                           ering of believers and their chil-                       ject. The apostle Paul praises the
 I                                         dren. In this connection we pre-                         brethren, "That ye remember me
      n the previous article we dis-       sented some of the implications of                       in all things" (I Cor.  11:2). The
      cussed who and what the con-         this truth as regards the elders'                        word "remember" in this text
      gregation is. The congregation       care of the congregation. Before                         means "care for." The apostle is
 is the blood-bought, precious  gath-      moving to a discussion of more                           grateful to the saints for their car-
                                           specific aspects of the elders' call-                    ing for him both in his physical
                                           ing, we digress to a consideration                       and in his spiritual needs. The
                                           of the subject of this article, "Min-                    same apostle was deeply conscious
                                           istering to Our Ministers."                              of his need for the prayers of the
 Prof. Decker is professor of Practical
 Theology in the Protestant Reformed        T h e r e   a r e   m a n y   p a s s a g e s   o f     believers, especially that he might
                                           Scripture which speak to this sub-                       have boldness to make known the
 Seminary.CL.
 154/Standard  Bearer/January I,1997


mystery of the gospel (cf. Eph.                    for thirty weeks of the year. There             bring His Word to meet every
6:18). In I Corinthians 9:3-13 Paul                is a great deal of preparation that             need of those entrusted to his care.
affirms the truth that the church                  goes into teaching these classes.               He must weep with those who
is duty bound to support its min-                  Besides, the minister must visit the            weep and rejoice with those who
isters, but he is careful not to be                sick and shut-ins, comfort the sor-             rejoice. He must admonish the
burdensome to the churches. The                    rowing, conduct funerals, and of-               wayward, encourage the faint of
call-letter used by our churches re-               ficiate at weddings. He must do                 heart, and strengthen the weak.
flects this.     The congregation                  his share of the annual family vis-                    Do not forget either that the
promises to pay a salary to the                    iting, lead Bible Study Societies,              minister is a man of like passions
minister which is adequate to "free                and chair the consistory/council                with any other member of the
him from all worldly cares and                     meetings. And an increasingly                   church. He has the same cares and
avocations."      Scripture says in                time-consuming aspect of the                    concerns as any other Christian.
Galatians  6:6, "Let him that is                   minister`s work is counseling from              He is a husband who must love,
taught in the word communicate                     the Word of God those members                   nourish, and cherish his wife as
unto him that teacheth in all good                 who have problems and trials of                 Christ loves the church. As a fa-
things." The word "communicate"                    one sort or another.                            ther, and with his wife's help, the
in this verse means "to enter into                     The already busy minister is                minister must rear his children in
fellowship with, to join as an as-                 called upon to perform certain                  the fear of God. This involves dis-
sociate, to make another's needs                   tasks for the denomination. He is               cipline, education, and not a little
his own so as to relieve them."                    a delegate to the meetings of                   time. And the minister's wife and
    These passages and more in-                    classis and may be delegated to                 children have the same needs as
dicate that the apostles were                      synod as well. He must con-                              their peers in the church  -
deeply conscious of their own                      tribute to the  S t a n d a r d         -  -                but with this significant
needs. They needed the prayers,                    Bearer  and  Beacon Lights             G o d 's                  difference:            their pastor
the concern, the care of the church.               and other publications.                p e o p l e                happens to be their hus-
As the apostles ministered to the                  He must also give                  must  remember                 band and father. Just as
needs of the people of God, they                   speeches and lectures              their ministers                any other Christian, the
themselves needed to be minis-                     from time to time for                 in their                    m i n i s t e r   i s   a   s i n n e r
tered unto by the people of God.                   various public meetings.            private and                   saved by grace through
   The same is true of ministers                       All this can make for             family                     faith in Christ. He has
today.                                             a great deal of stress! But          devotions.                  the same sinful nature
    That this is true is easily dem-               there are other stress factors                             with all of its weaknesses:
onstrated. Consider the minister's                 peculiar to the life of the minis-                    H e   m a k e s   h i s   p i l g r i m a g e
work. His chief task is preaching.                 ter. Ministers move more fre-                   through the same sinful world. He
Preaching involves much prayer                     quently than most people. In not                fights the same devil and must
and preparation. Young preach-                     a few instances ministers find                  withstand the same temptations.
ers will find themselves spending                  themselves serving congregations                      Finally, in all of his work and
fifteen to twenty hours per week                   far from their families and friends.            life as a minister of the gospel the
in preparing one sermon.                This       There are people who are ill at ease            pastor must be an example to the
means the preacher will spend                      in the minister's presence. A min-              believers (I Tim.  4:12-16).
thirty to forty hours per week just                ister is on call twenty-four hours                    How then do we minister to
preparinghis sermons. This is no                   a day. And, he lives in a "glass                our ministers? First,  pray  for them
exaggeration! He must work from                    house."Still more, the minister is              daily. This, according to Scripture,
the original Hebrew or Greek, he                   always "spending himself and be-                is our calling. God's people must
must carefully determine the                       ing spent;" as Scripture puts it, for           remember their ministers in their
meaning of the text, he must con-                  others (II Cor.  12:15).                        private and family devotions. The
struct a good outline so as to                         But far more than all of these              children hearing those prayers will
present the sermon to the congre-                  factors, and far more than merely               develop a proper attitude toward
gation clearly and logically. Even                 the work load, it is the minister's             the minister and his work. The
the older, more experienced pas-                   keen awareness of his holy calling              people of God must assure their
tor will spend twenty to thirty                    and awesome responsibility before               ministers of their prayers on their
hours per week preparing his ser-                  God and His Christ to care for the              behalf. This is a source of great
mons.                                              flock of God that causes the stress.            encouragement to the ministers.
   In addition there is his other                  The Lord is pleased by the fool-                      The congregations must also
work.     T h e   m i n i s t e r   i n   o u r    ishness of the minister's preaching             pay their ministers an adequate
churches typically teaches five to                 to save them that believe. The                  salary. According to Scripture he
seven catechism classes each week                  minister must represent Christ and              has a right to live of the gospel

                                                                                                           January  1,1997/Standard  Bearer/l55
                                                                                                            /'
                                                                                                                     ::",        `,  `.?  .j;,


 (I Cor.  9). He must be free from             Believers are called to "bear         mentioning. God's people must
 worldly cares and avocations.             one another's burdens." The min-          give their ministers time to study
 Ministers must be free from anxi-         isters need this care of God's love       and prepare for preaching and
 ety concerning how they can meet          too! Believers must not forget the        teaching. They ought not disturb
 their legitimate expenses. If they        ministers when they have special          him during study hours except for
 are not free from this, their work        needs. When the minister or ones          emergencies. Phone calls must be
 will be adversely affected! The el-       dear to him are sick or in sorrow,        limited to ones that are really nec-
 ders must make certain that the           he must be visited by his parishio-       essary.
 ministers have adequate income to         ners. Believers must bring the                These are just some of the
 cover their needs. Ministers must         Word of God to their ministers and        ways the people of God can min-
 not be made to worry about these          pray for and with them in their           ister to their ministers. Perhaps
 matters.                                  times of trial.                           the reader can think of more!
     The people of God must learn              Ministers need encouragement              In sum, let it be emphasized
 to criticize their ministers construc-    as well. When a believer is struck        that God's people must minister
 tively.  The believer as prophet,         by a sermon he ought to tell the          to those whom Christ calls to min-
 priest, and king in Christ must ad-       minister and tell him why the ser-        ister to them.
 monish the preacher if he preaches        mon meant so much to him. The                 Pray for them. Love them in
 heresy or if he is remiss in his walk     members of the congregation               the Lord. Be thankful for the faith-
 of life. But there is  .a wrong and a     ought to befriend the minister. He        ful ministers Christ sends to care
 right way to do this. The admon-          needs wise, caring friends in             for His church. Support them also
 ishing must not be done in anger.         whom.he can safely confide.               financially. Encourage the minis-
 Constructive criticism of the min-            God's people must understand          ters and their wives and families.
 ister will not be done behind his         too that the minister cannot do it            In those congregations where
 back. The critic must not talk to         all in the larger congregations. He       God's servants minister faithfully
 others, he must go to the minister!       cannot lead all the societies, do all     and where God's people faithfully
 Constructive criticism is given out       of the counseling, visit all the fami-    minister to those faithful servants,
 of the love of God with a view to         lies on the annual family visitation.     God's blessings abound to the ad-
 seeking the welfare of both the           The elders must assist in this work.      vancing of His church. To the
 minister and the church.                      In this connection, there is a        glory of His name. Cl
                                           very practical matter that needs




                                                  God Knows


     God knows the heart of a pastor,                           God knows the way of a pastor
         How often `tis laden with care;                            And, heeding the Master's call
     In sharing the burdens of others                           He leaves one flock for another  -
         And seeking their needs in prayer.                         God knows, for He knows it all.

     God knows the work of a pastor,                            God knows there is sadness in parting,
         The many tasks he must do;                                 He knows there are blessings ahead;
     As he goes forth in His service                            And, trusting in Him for the future,
         The power of the Lord sees him through.                    May our lives by His presence be led.

     God knows the joy of a pastor
         In teaching and preaching the Word:
     When souls are brought into the Kingdom                                                            Annetta Jansen
         To serve Christ as Savior and Lord.                                                           Dorr, Michigan



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                                             The Antithesis
Having briefly considered it applies to man's life and calling way is not to go outside into the
                the various aspects of               in the world. God has willed that                        bright sunshine and shine the
                Bible truth concerning               man's calling in the world have                          beam of that flashlight against the
the doctrine of man, or anthropol-                   not only a positive, but also a                          bright white siding of your house.
ogy, we would normally proceed                       negative aspect.                                         You likely will not even see the
now to the third area of study in                          But what we must realize is                        light. Rather you will go into a
Reformed doctrine, which is  Chris-                  that the antithesis did not come                         dark place and turn on that light
tology, the doctrine concerning the                  into existence after the fall, but be-                   to see its brilliance in contrast to
Christ. But before moving on to                      fore. It stands connected with                           the darkness.
that area of study, there is one                     God's own revelation of Himself                                 God, who is light, and in
other truth that I would treat un-                   at the very beginning. The truth                         whom is no darkness at all (I John
der the doctrine of man. I refer to                  of the antithesis, therefore, is in-                     1:5), determined that the glorious
the doctrine of the antithesis.                      tricately connected with all  theol-                     light of His infinite perfections
     The antithesis, which I will de-                %Y*                                                      would best be seen against the
fine and explain presently, is not                         The thesis  - that which is set                    background of darkness.
usually given separate treatment in                  forth  - is exactly the Word of God                             He indicated His purpose al-
the study of Reformed doctrine. It                   concerning Himself.                                      ready in the very first day of cre-
is, however, a critical truth that                         God speaks. He speaks eter-                        ation. Out of the darkness of His
presses upon the very lives of the                   nally. He speaks concerning Him-                         first creative handiwork, God said,
children of God.                                     self. Within His own Triune Be-                          "Let there be light: and there was
     We could, I suppose, discuss                    ing, among the three Persons of                          light. And God saw the light, that
the `antithesis when we treat the                    that holy Trinity, God bears testi-                      it was good: and God divided the
Reformed doctrine of sanctifica-                     mony' concerning Himself, His                            light from the darkness"  (Gen.  1:3,
tion. It is a truth that comes `to                   will, His perfection, His glory.                         4).
expression in our lives as re-                            But it also pleased God to re-                             In other words, God willed the
deemed saints. But it is not with-                   veal Himself to a creature outside                       existence of that darkness in or-
out reason that we treat it now.                     of Himself. That was His own                             der to say "No" to it and to reveal
The antithesis, after all, was estab-                g o o d   p l e a s u r e ,   a c c o r d i n g   t o    that in Him there is no darkness
lished by God at creation.                           Ephesians, chapter 1. It was not                         at all.
                                                     that He needed man. But out of                                  God  creates the antithesis.
The Meaning of the Antithesis                        His own sovereign good pleasure                                 God created that antithesis
     The word "antithesis" is not a                  God willed to reveal Himself to                          also for Adam, that Adam might
term found in Scripture, but a term                  the creature of His own making,                          see all the more clearly His glory,
that expresses a biblical truth. The                 man. He willed to do so in Christ.                       and that Adam, seeing God's
word "antithesis" comes from two                          God reveals Himself in such a                       glory, might himself show forth
w o r d s - " a n t i , "   w h i c h   m e a n s    way that His glory is seen in all                        the glory of his Creator.
"against," and "thesis," or "that                    its brilliance. He will be seen as                              So already in the first paradise,
which is set forth." The antithesis                  God, who is God alone.                                   God created two special trees that
is a  contrasting  position.                              How does God do that?                               set forth this fundamental truth of
     In terms of Bible doctrine, we                       We might ask another question                       the Christian life  - the tree of life,
usually speak of the antithesis as                   by way of illustration? If you have                      and the tree of knowledge of good
                                                     a flashlight that you have not used                      and evil. With those trees, dis-
                                                     for a while, and you want to check                       tinct from all the other trees of the
Rev. Key is pastor  of  the Protestant               out the power of the batteries and                       garden, God gave man the calling
Reformed Church  of  Randolph, Wis-                  the brightness of the light, what is                     to show forth His glory in all its
consin.                                              the best way to do that? The best                        beauty.

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    The positive side of Adam's                          has given to His people. The  an-                which proceeds from His mouth,
existence was to eat of the tree of                      tithesis is not the devil's  opposi-             the voice that proclaims His love
life, to enjoy the life and fellow-                      tion to God. Antithesis is not  du-              and fellowship.
ship of Jehovah. He was to live as                       alism, the battle between two  op-                   That grace of God is revealed
God's servant-king in the midst of                       posing powers. God alone is God.                 most beautifully in this, that God
God's creation. He was to say                                        So when God created man              saves sinners, delivering them
"Yes" to God by subduing the                             and gave man his fundamental                     from the corruption of sin and
earth and exercising dominion                            calling to love Him, God also  de-               death into which they willfully
over all things and in all  relation-                    termined that the beauty of that                 plunged themselves.
ships of life to God's glory                                     life of obedience and the joy                The God who creates light out
and in God's service.                                               of His covenant fellowship            of darkness, the God in whom is
    But that in itself was                  God  willed                    should be seen against the     no darkness at all, is also the God
not enough.                       the existence  of                         dark background of  dis-      who calls His people out of dark-
    So God placed in                that darkness                           obedience and death.          ness into His most marvelous light.
the midst of the  gar-                       in  order                       Sin also serves God's
den, in addition to                   to say  "No"                           purpose.    The fall of      Our Antithetical Calling
the tree of life, the                          to it                         man was under God's              But with this sharp antithesis
tree of knowledge of                 amI to reveal                           sovereign control and        established by God from the very
good and evil. That                    that in Him                           direction and  determi-      beginning there is also pointed ap-
tree of knowledge of                         there is                       nation. We have  spo-         plication for you and for me.
good and evil was not                 no darkness                          ken of this truth earlier.     God gives us the calling to express
a poison tree. It was a                       at all.                        Behind it all lies God's     that antithesis in all our life. We
perfectly good fruit tree,                                         purpose to glorify Himself.            must learn to  live  antithetically.
bearing fruit good to the taste                                  When God determined to re-               We have a calling to live a life of
and pleasant to the sight. But con-                      veal Himself to man as the cov-                  contrast, the life of pilgrims and
cerning that tree God said to                            enant God, He determined to re-                  strangers, who serve God and not
Adam, "This tree is off limits for                       veal Himself as He is-the God of                 Satan.
you."                                                    light, the God of infinite perfec-                   We must learn not only to say
    "Of the fruit of this tree, thou                     tions, the God of perfect holiness,              "Yes" to God, but also to say "No"
shalt not eat: for in the day that                       the God who alone gives life.                    to all that God says "No" to.
thou eatest thereof thou shalt                                   Man must understand that life                For that is the way of fellow-
surely die," or literally, "dying                        cannot be sustained but  bv the                  shin with the God of the  antith-
thou shalt die."                                         Word of God's grace, the Word                    esis.z  0
    So that tree represented to
Adam this aspect of his calling,
that there is always a negative side
that contrasts with the positive and                                                     T r a n s f o r m a t i o n
that sets the positive in ever
clearer light. There is always a                                          I am a sinner  - depraved, loathsome, vile,
"Yes" that proclaims God's glory.                                         I wallow in filth and the good I defile.
But it does so in contrast to the                                    `Jesus comes; reaches down in His mercy and grace
"No" that serves in a negative way                                        And with tenderness shows me the light of His face,
to magnify that glory of God.                                             Implants in my heart penitence for my sin  -
    If the "Yes" is the  thesis,  the                                     A sorrow profound He instills deep within.
proclamation of God's glory, then                                         He sows there a seed that will grow and mature,
the  "No"  is the  antithesis.  It is to                                  A belief in my Lord that will ever endure.
take the contrasting position  Over                                       He justifies, sanctifies, helps me to stand
against  all that which would op-                                         And prepares me for heav'n, at the Father's right hand.
pose God's glory. To say "yes" to                                         How could a creature so foul be reversed  -
God, it is necessary also to say                                          Changed so completely from what I was first?
%o" to sin.                                                               The answer of course: it is God's work alone;
                                                                          He's omnipotent, gracious, and calls forth His own.
God's Sovereign Purpose                                                   While on earth, a beginning is all that will be,
    This implies, of course, that                                         But in glory complete transformation I'll see.
God is sovereign also over sin.
When we speak of the antithesis,                                                                                         Thelma  Westra
we are speaking of that which God
                                                           -7       :>
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                 ,ii.  I      .1.5111~`.


                          Demon Possession

T                                              Upon the writing of the Holy                         then again I suppose a person
      he subject of demon posses-        Bible, the need for such external                          could put off  .writing  on almost
      sion is super-charged with         signs and wonders ceased, as ex-                           any topic because of this feeling
      both controversy and emo-          p l a i n e d   t o   t h e   C h r i s t i a n s   i n    of inadequacy.
tion. It can easily get out of hand.     Corinth. The idea of demons actu-                               In addition to this, there is
Our purpose is to write soberly          ally taking possession of human                            something reprehensible about this
and carefully so that we can re-         beings ended along with the other                          subject. Fact is, the more I learn
flect upon this aspect of missions       signs and wonders. The devil was                           about it the more I tremble at the
as well.                                 defeated by Jesus Christ. His head                         horror of it. We must not approach
    Prior to coming to Singapore,        was crushed at the cross, and he                           this subject with such curiosity
I pretty much accepted the idea          now is made subject to Christ and                          that we are willing to place our-
that demon possession was part of        is denied such power.                                      selves in spiritual danger. Demons
the phenomena which marked the                 Though there is much truth                           a r e   r e a l   a n d   they,  h a v e   g r e a t
apostolic age. I felt very comfort-      stated above, there is more to be                          power. They hate God and hate
able placing it in the same category     said about demon possession. My                            God's people and always work
as miracles, speaking in tongues,        concept of what demon possession                           havoc in the lives of those who
and such like. My understanding          is all about has greatly expanded                          yield themselves to their power
was that during this particular age      through            working            h e r e   i n        and control. Any account of de-
Jesus and His disciples (apostles)       Singapore. I would be the first to                         mon- possession carries with it
demonstrated the Lordship of             admit that living in a western cul-                        nothing but horror. Instinctively,
Jesus over all things natural and        ture, which tends to discredit such                        as Christians, we ought to run as
spiritual. Jesus was confronted by       things anyway, and not having                              far from this sort of thing as we
people who were demon pos-               contact with heathen culture,                              can. The purpose of writing on this
sessed, and He showed His ma-            where demon possession takes on                            subject is to alert all of us to the
jestic power by casting them out.        an entirely different perspective, I                       reality of demons, and to try to
Upon Jesus' resurrection and as-         was a bit naive in this regards. I                         bring us to some understanding of
cension into heaven, the early           do remember reading of the esca-                           how we are to deal with it both in
Christian church needed the same         pades of the Volta Evangelistic As-                        heathen and nominally Christian
outward sign to establish the            sociation brothers who would go                            cultures.
power of the living Lord as He           into the back country of Ghana,                                 Our approach must be that of
dwelled with His church by His           Africa and recount for us in the                           the Bible. We are warned that in
Holy Spirit. Jesus worked a mighty       Foreign Mission Committee their                            the latter days "some shall depart
work through His apostles, and           battles with demons. Also, I was                           from the faith, giving heed to se-
this included such signs and won-        most intrigued with missionary ac-                         ducing spirits and doctrines of
ders. By doing this, Jesus made          counts of personal struggles with                          devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy,
very clear who His apostles were.        demons, and I wondered how that                            having their conscience seared
He gave them such signs and won-         all could take place.                                      with a hot iron" (I Tim.  4:1, 2).
ders to distinguish them from im-             Living in Singapore for about                         The devil is so subtle that we are
postors.                                 five years does not make me an                             told in II Corinthians  11:13-15,
                                         expert on demonology by any                                "For such are false apostles, de-
                                         means. In fact, I hesitate writing                         ceitful workers, transforming
                                         on demon possession for the very                           themselves into the apostles of
Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Re-       reason that I would like to study                          Christ. And no marvel; for Satan
formed minister-on-loan to Singapore.    much more on this subject; but                             himself is transformed into an  an-

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gel of light. Therefore it is no great              of the devil. 2) Jesus stripped Sa-                   that until Jesus finished His work
thing if his ministers also be trans-               tan completely of any control or                      of redemption, Satan had the right
formed as the ministers of righ-                    authority over His people, the                        to exercise His lordship over the
teousness; whose end shall be ac-                   church. 3) Christians can never                       entire earth. The very first prom-
cording to their works."                            be demon possessed, though they                       ise given by God to Adam and Eve
    We can be sure that Satan, as                   can be harassed by demons.  4) If                     by way of Satan was that Satan
the chief of all demons, would like                 God is pleased to deliver a  non-                     would have his head crushed by
nothing better than that we imag-                   Christian from demon possession,                      the Seed of the woman, Jesus
ine that he has little power. Such                  He does it not through exorcism,                      Christ. The history of Job not only
a' response would allow him to do                   but through the ministry of the                       teaches us that Satan had to re-
his wicked work unopposed and                       gospel. and prayer.                  5 )   T h e      ceive permission from God to
he could strike as he would. The                    Christian's security against the as-                  touch Job, but it also teaches us
Holy Spirit makes perfectly clear                   saults of Satan is to live the holy                   concerning the exalted position Sa-
to us that our real enemy in the                    life. 6) Jesus Christ is Lord also                    tan had among the "sons of God
spiritual battle of faith is none                   over the devil; that is our great                     which presented themselves before
other than demons. "Put on the                      comfort as Christians.                                the Lord," as Satan was among
whole  armour of God,... for we                                                                           them (Job  2:lff.).
wrestle not against flesh and                       All non-Christians are under                              This helps us understand the
blood, but against principalities,                  the dominion of the devil                             temptations of Jesus as well. Sa-
against powers, against the rulers                      The Bible uses this language.                     tan offered to Jesus the nations of
of the darkness of this world,                      In three passages, John  12:30;                       the world without having to go to
against spiritual wickedness in                          14:30;  and  16:11,  Jesus calls                 the cross (Mat-t.  4:B). Satan is
high places" (Eph.  6:11, 12).                             Satan the prince of this                       prince of this world because of
Here Paul refers to ranks of                We can          world. In John  8:44, Jesus                   God's curse and judgment upon
demons which are under                      be sure          i s   d i s p u t i n g   w i t h   t h e    the world. When Jesus finished
the direction of Satan,                  that Satan,         Pharisees subsequent to                      His redemptive work on the cross,
their chief. The picture                 as the chief         His exposing their hypoc-                   He settled it once for all that Sa-
which the Holy Spirit con-             of  all demons,        risy when they brought                      tan as prince of this world is
veys to us here is that the               would like          the woman taken in adul-                    greatly limited. Satan was cast out
air is literally filled with           nothing bettei         tery to Jesus, and He says                  of heaven and given the earth as
demons: who are well or-                   than that          to them, "Ye are of your                    his domain (Rev.  12:gff.l.  Hence
ganized and marshalled                   we imagine           father the devil, and the                   the cry of the angels went to the
for battle against the                   that he has          lusts of your father ye                     earth, "Woe to the inhabiters of the
church of Jesus Christ in                     little         will. do. He was a mur-                      earth and of the sea! for the devil
this world.                                 newer.           derer from the beginning,                    is come down unto you, having a
    O u r   R e f o r m e d   f o r e f a -   r-           and abode not in the truth,                    great wrath, because he knoweth
thers understood this well                               because there is no truth in                     that he hath but a short time" (Rev.
when they wrote the Form for the                    him. When he speaketh a lie, he                       12:12).
Lord's Supper and included men-                     speaketh of his own: for he is a                          When we say that Satan has
tion of tampering with demons as                    liar, and the father of it."                          control of this world under the
reason for one not to partake of                        When Jesus presented to His                       rule of Jesus Christ, we must un-
the Lord's Supper. "Such as all                     disciples the only two possible al-                   derstand that this control is exer-
idolaters, all those who invoke de-                 ternatives, God or mammon, He                         cised in varying degrees. Satan ex-
ceased saints, angels, or other crea-               said, "No man can serve two mas-                      ercises his control over the whole
tures, all those who worship im-                    ters: for either he will hate the                     world and from his point of view
ages, all enchanters, diviners,                     one, and love the other; or else he                   marshals his forces in spiritual
charmers, and those who confide                     will hold to the one, and despise                     battle. From a general point of
in such enchantments"  - all these                  the other. Ye cannot serve God                        view we can say that all the
are admonished to abstain from                      and mammon"  (Matt.  6:24).  Mam-                     wicked are soldiers in the army of
the meat and drink of the Lord's                    mon is the material world under                       Satan. He has his own strategy for
Supper.                                             the direction of Satan. It is either                  battle. He has his own ranking of
    Beginning with this article, I                  Christ or Satan as master.                            spirits as described in Ephesians
would like to set forth six prin-                       Having said this in no way                        6. Some devils are like generals,
ciples which I trust will help put                  contradicts the biblical truth of                     others like captains, sergeants, or
into perspective the Bible's teach-                 God's sovereignty in Jesus Christ.                    infantrymen. He has his choice
ing about demons.            1)  A l l   non-       We must add that God is always                        men in high places in the nations,
Christians are under the dominion                   sovereign over Satan. The point is                    schools, and churches, wherever

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they can exert their greatest influ-            tives, he knows how to place him-               display of mind over body,. but
ence. He has a purpose for the                  self in a trance and function as a              also a religious festival in honor
drunk that wobbles in the alleys                direct agent of Satan. It is strik-             to their gods. T h i s   i s   a   f e s t i v a l
of our broken cities. Everything                ing that the families of such medi-             which is actually demon con-
outside of Jesus Christ is part of              ums are usually affected as well.               trolled.
Satan's own massive offensive                   In many instances their wives and                    We had an interesting conver-
against Christ's church.                        children get involved in this.                  sation with a young man on his
    The worst form of Satan's con-                  Sometimes their demon pos-                  way to serve as missionary in In-
trol comes in the form of demon                 session is more controlled. The                 dia. He was born in a Christian
possession. It is called "worst" not            medium may take on a terrible ap-               family, but he went through a pe-
because of the amount of influence              pearance of death, and tremble,                 riod of spiritual backsliding. Dur-
such a person has, but in the sense             and his voice will sound exactly                ing this time he took up New Age
of the horrible expression of what              Iike that of the dead person when               meditation. While he was doing
Satan is all about and what hor-                he was yet alive.                               this, a devil moved in and took
rible power he possesses. What we                   We should understand that                   possession of his mind. For over
see in a demon possessed person                 mediums are not able to awaken                  a year, he told me, he lived. in lit-
is an outward and tangible display              the dead, nor to communicate with               eral hellish torment, for this devil
of what is true in the lives of all             the dead, but the devils have such              taunted him and challenged him
those who are non-Christian. Sa-                power that they are able to mimic               that he was not a Christian.  He
tan still rages as a horrible lion, or          it. We know of a Christian who                  could hardly sleep at night, and
dragon, seeking whom he may de-                 attended such a visit to a medium               always the inner voice of the devil
vour (I Pet.  5:8 and Rev.  12:17).             when her  mpther  wanted to make                inside of him harassed him. He
    This takes place where fallen               a financial decision but wanted to              thanks God for his deliverance, for
men invite him into their lives and             consult her dead husband before                 he sees the demon possession as
openly desire to have the power                 finalizing it. When the medium                  an attempt of a devil to take con-
that Satan gives to them. Demon                 was in the trance he spoke with a               trol of him; but he had had enough
possession takes place in an envi-              voice just like her father's. This is           spiritual strength given him by
ronment where he exercises his                  the terrible deception.                         God that he could still resist,
rule in horrible wickedness.                        At other times the demons take              though it involved a year-long in-
    A couple of examples may                    possession of a person, usually in              ternal. fight.
help.                                           connection with temple worship,                      The Hindus and Buddhists do
    You can see demon possession                and control him in a violent way,               the same with their meditation to
in the heathen temples where the                very similar to what is described               achieve karma. This is a realm in
worshipers literally give                           in the Bible. Such a person can             which Satan holds sway.
themselves over to be  will-                          know full well that a demon                    Devils are real, and the spiri-
ful servants of the devil.              What           is within him and that the               tual battle is intensifying as we en-
The worst form of this is              we see           demon is using him.                     ter the final moments of history,
the temple medium.  Hea-          in a demon-                  We know of a person              during which Satan will put forth
then people are very  su-          possessed             here in Singapore who                  his last effort to deceive the very
perstitious. They are  ba-             person            was born and raised in                 elect of God. There is however
sically afraid of their  dei-    is an outward           such a medium family                   much comfort for us as Christians.
ties. They imagine that           and tangible           and was also at one time               We will examine that in our next
their temple gods and                  display           himself demon possessed.               article, the Lord willing. Cl
even their ancestors  con-       of  what is true        He tells how he  experi-
trol their lives. Unless          in the lives           enced this.         The devil
they appease them with            of all those           would speak through
sacrifices and prayers, the            who are           him, and he had no  con-
gods will do them harm.                 non-            trol over what he was  say-
    In such a setting, the         Christian.          ing.      H e   s a w   h o w   h i s
temple medium plays an im-                            brother, while in a trance,
portant role. He is the one                         had the end of his tongue cut
who is literally under the control              off by a medium with no blood
of Satan., He acts as the  interme-             shed, and later how the medium
diary between the living and the                placed the piece back on the
dead. When the, worshipers want                 tongue with no sign of it ever  hav-
to know their. future or want to                ing been cut off. The Hindu  prac-
communicate with their dead  rela-              tice of fire-walking is not only a

                                                                                                      January 1,1997/Standard Bearerfl6i


    In addition to- finding "power-          condition and wishes of the per-        colleagues in the Washington case,
                                                                            A
ful" precedent in the abortion               son whose life is at stake.             the New York court  nevertheless-
cases, the court also looked to the                                                  accomplished the same result by
landmark 1989  Cruzan  case in             The court went on to hold that            striking down the state law as vio-
which the U.S. Supreme Court               here the individual's fundamental         lative of another section of the
ruled that there is a constitution-        right to control the time and man-        Constitution  - the Equal Protec-
ally protected liberty interest in         ner of his death prevails, because        tion Clause. The Equal Protection
terminating. unwanted medical              the state's general interest in pre-      Clause requires government to
treatment:                                 serving life is "dramatically dimin-      treat in a similar manner all indi-
                                           ished" if the person involved is          viduals who are similarly situated,
  . . . the Court majority clearly rec-    terminally ill and expresses a wish       and any state legislation which
  ognized that granting the Cruzan         to die.                                   does otherwise must be "rationally
  family's request to remove the               The court also examined other         related to a legitimate state inter-
  tubes through which Nancy                interests asserted by the state: pre-     est."
  Cruzan received nutrition and hy-        vention of suicide; avoidance of              The court noted that New York
  dration would lead inexorably to         undue influence by third parties
  her death. Accordingly, we con-                                                    and many other states, although
  clude that Cruzan, by recogniz-          who wish the patient dead; avoid-         outlawing doctor-assisted suicide,
  ing a liberty interest that includes     ance of the adverse effect of the         do'nevertheless  permit competent
  a refusal of artificial provision of     suicide on children and other fam-        patients to refuse unwanted medi-
  life-sustaining food and water,          ily members; the integrity of the         cal treatment such as lifesaving
  necessarily-recognizes a liberty in-     medical profession; and other ad-         nutrition and hydration.  Thisl'the
  terest in hastening one's own            verse consequences. The court rea-        court ruled, is a distinction with-
  death.                                   soned, however, that none of these        out a difference:
                                           governmental interests outweighs
    Thus, claiming to follow the           the individual's newly-discovered             It seems clear that New York
lead of the Supreme Court which            right-to-die with the assistance of         d,oes not treat  similarly  circum-
recently discovered "implicit" in          his physician.                              stanced persons alike: those in
the Constitution the right to pri-                                                     the final stages of terminal illness
vacy (abortion cases) and the right                                                    who are on life support systems                            : -.
to terminate unwanted medical              The New York Case  -                        are allowed to hasten their deaths;
treatment  (Cruzan),  this court in-                                                   but those who are similarly situ-
                                           No Right-to-Die
troduced yet another fundamental                                                       ated,  except for previous attach-
                                               Another federal appellate               ment of life-sustaining equipment,                              .  :
Constitutional right  - the  right-        court recently faced a similar suit         are not allowed to hasten death
to-die. But what about the state's         in New York, where the doctor               by self-administering prescribed                   .,.
historical interest in preserving          plaintiffs likewise challenged their        [lethal] drugs. This is violative
l i f e ?                                  state's law criminalizing  physician-       of the Equal Protection Clause of
                                           assisted suicide. Facing the iden-          the 14th Amendment.                     :
                                           tical issue of whether terminally
State's Interest in Preserving             ill patients have a constitutional
Life Outweighed                            right-to-die, the court, contrary to      No State Interest in
    The court conceded this  newly-        the Washington case, refused to           Preserving Life
discovered, fundamental due pro-           identify a new fundamental right:             The Court noted, however,
cess right must nonetheless be bal-                                                  that this denial of equal protection
anced against the state's historical           The right to assisted suicide         must be weighed against the state's
interest in preserving life in gen-          finds no cognizable basis in the        interest in preserving life. But here
eral. However, the state's interest          Constitution's language or de-          the state's interest was' found  ..
in preserving life, the Court ruled,         sign.... We therefore decline the       wanting:                                                    .*
is not always controlling:                   plaintiffs' invitation to identify a
                                             new fundamental right-to-die, in          But what interest can the state
    Although the state's interest in         the absence of a clear direction          possibly have in requiring the-                    `-'
  preserving life may be unquali-            from the Supreme Court whose              prolongation of a life that is all
  fied, and may be asserted regard-          precedents we are bound to fol-           but ended? And what business is                      .
  less of the quality of life at issue,      low.                                      it of the state to require the con-          ~_
  it is not  always.controlling.  Nor                                                  tinuation of agony when the re-                      :
  is it of the same strength in each       Denial of Equal Protection                  suit is imminent and inevitable?  :.  ..
  case. To the contrary, its strength          Although the New York court             What concern prompts the state               -: y.
  is dependent on #relevant  circum-       declined to  .invent a new Consti-          to interfere with a mentally corn-                   .:..
  stances, including the medical           tutional right-to-die as did their          petent patient's right to define his                 `..

                                                                                              January 1,1997/§tandard BearerA                    .:  `.

                                                                                                                                                 ..`. .
                                                                                                                                          :.,,


  own concept of existence, of                                As was predicted by conser-            preme Court abortion decision).
  meaning, of the universe, and of                        vative Constitutional scholars, the            Regrettably, it appears that the
  the mystery of human life? None.                        Supreme Court abortion decisions           U.S. is now heading down the
                                                          are bearing fruit as precedent to          same road as the Netherlands,
Coriclusion                                               establish ever more the autonomy           where physicians notoriously prac-
 T h e s e   t w o   f e d e r a l   a p p e l l a t e    of the individual over against the         tice not only assisted suicide, but
court decisions striking down phy-                        sanctity of life and the state's in-       non-voluntary euthanasia when-
sician-assisted suicide laws now                          terest in preserving life. What is         ever the patient's "quality of life"
existing in forty states should be                        now apparently paramount to the            does not measure up to their stan-
very troubling for the Reformed                           federal courts is the individual's         dards. Unless  the  U.S. Supreme
Christian. Both cases noted but                           "right to define his own concept           Court overrules  .these two deci-
effectively ignored centuries of En-                      of existence, of meaning, of the           sions next spring, Dr. Kevorkian
glish and American common law                             universe, and of the mystery of            and his allies will have achieved a
that criminalized suicide and as-                         human life" (quoting from  Planned         frightening victory in this country.
sistance to suicide.                                      Parenthood v. Casey,  a 1992 Su-                                              cl





                            The Proper Manner of
           .Conducting FamilyVisitatioti

T                                                         members. All that we can really            acknowledgement of sin to the
         .he subject concerns the                         do is to consider the fundamental          priest in order to  ,obtain  forgive-
         proper manner of family                          principles that lie at the basis of        ness through him. In the Roman
         visitation. By way of intro-                     family visitation, in order that,          Church no one is permitted to go
duction, this subject can only be                         guided by these principles, we             to the mass unless he has been to
treated in a general way. It is `im-                      may conduct the work according             confession just previous to the cel-
possible to state. in detail what                         as circumstances and conditions            ebration of the mass.
would be the proper manner of                             may demand and according as the                Now the Reformers did not fa-
procedure in every. individual                            need of the individual member              vor this Roman confession to the
case. Much depends upon the cir-                          may require.                               priest. They not only found no
cumstances and conditions as they                             This being the case, I would           scriptural basis for this practice,
exist, not only in the various fami-                      like, first of all, briefly to call at-    but they also were aware of the
lies called upon, but also in the                         tention to the history that lies back      many evils which attended it. But
congregation as a whole, and es-                          of our custom of periodically call-        although this custom in the church
pecially upon the spiritual state                         ing upon the members of the con-           which they had left did not appeal
and condition of the individual                           gregation. I do this, not only be-         to them, the Reformers did feel the
                                                          cause of the fact that this history,       necessity of personal supervision
                                                          to a large extent, determines the          by the overseers of the church, and
                                                          purpose of family visitation, but          personal consultation by the over-
Mr. Martin  Swlirt  was for  rnaxv  years                 also because it provides us with           seers, in order to instruct, correct,
a member  of  the First Protest&t Re-                     many valuable suggestions as to            and comfort each one according to
formed Church in  Grand' Rapids, MI.                      the proper way of conducting it.           his individual need. They believed
He served as, elder many times, which                         In the first place, our custom         that this could best be carried on
invqlved  him in the work  of  family                     of periodically calling upon the           through periodic visits on the part
visitation.       This article, discovered                membership of the congregation             of the officebearers at the home of
among his papers  after  his death, was                   really took the place of the Roman         the members. This was necessary
first delivered as an essay to the First                  Catholic practice of auricular and         especially in view of the fact that
Church  Men's  Society.                                   sacramental confession, i.e., the          many in the Reformed churches

164/Standard Bearer/January I,1997


had only recently left the Roman              lated, as we have it today in Ar-           or warning, and of admonition,
Church and were not well-founded              ticle 23 of our Church Order:               as well in the  ~ministry  of the
in the truth, making repeated in-                                                         Word as in Christian teaching and
struction and constant conferences                The office of the elders, in ad-        family-visiting.
necessary.                                      dition to what was said in Article
    It is interesting to note that the          16 to be their duty in common           Also this article sheds light on our
"major assembly" of the Reformed               with the minister of the Word, is        subject. This article originally
churches in the Netherlands, the               to take heed that the ministers, to-     dealt with the censuring of books.
                                                gether with their fellow-elders
Wezelian Convention held at                                                             Briefly, the Reformed churches of
                                                and the deacons, faithfully dis-
Wezel in the year 1568, ruled that                                                      Holland, following the example of
                                                charge their office, and both be-
these visits should be conducted                                                        Rome and the general conceptions
                                                fore and after the Lord's Supper,
every week. It may be that in this                                                      of their day, decided that no one
                                                as time and circumstances may
they simply followed the practice               demand, for the edification of the      should publish a book or writing
of the church of Rome.              Loyal       churches, to visit the families of      without the approval of the minis-
Catholics, to this day, still go to             the congregation, in order particu-     ters of his  classis or particular
confession every week. However                  larly to comfort and instruct the       synod or the professors of theol-
this may be, the ruling of the                  members, and also to exhort oth-        ogy. The first synod of the Re-
                                                ers in respect to the Christian re-
Wezelian Convention, in part,                                                           formed churches of the Nether-
                                                ligion.
reads as follows:                                                                       lands, the Synod of  Emden,  held
                                                                                        in  Emden,  German, in 1571, even
                                                  We may notice that this article
    They (the elders)                                                                   went so far as to rule that no one,
                          shall faithfully    stipulates that the elders shall visit
  investigate whether they (the                                                         regardless whether he was a mem-
                                              the members not only before but
  church members) manifest them-                                                        ber of the Reformed churches,
  selves uprightly in walk and con-           also after communion. Also this           should be permitted to publish a
  duct in the duties of godliness, in         gives us a valuable suggestion with       book without proper authoriza-
  the faithful instruction of their           respect to conducting family visi-        tion. They evidently nursed the
  households in the matter of fam-            tation. It may be that the fathers        mistaken hope that the govern-
  ily prayers (morning and evening            stipulated this because of the Ro-        ment would become wholly Re-
  prayers) and such like matters;             man Catholic custom of going to           formed and eventually take the
  they shall admonish them to these           confession before partaking of the        same stand. This was confirmed
  duties with consideration, but              mass,  ahthough  there is no proof
  also in all seriousness and accord-                                                   by other synods. This hope, of
                                              for this. But at any rate, the fa-
  ing to conditions and circum-                                                         course, did not materialize. Hence
  stances; they shall admorrish  them         thers were convinced that a per-          the synod of 1586 limited the re-
  to steadfastness, or strengthen             sonal talk by the elders with the         striction of Article 55 to those who
  them to patience, or spur them on           members of the congregation con-          professed to be Reformed, and
  to a serious-minded fear of God;            cerning the significance of the           therefore to those over whom the
  such as need comfort and admo-              Lord's Table and the spiritual at-        churches had supervision and con-
  nition they shall comfort and ad-           titude of heart and mind in which         trol.
  monish, and if need be they shall           they should come would be of
  report a matter  to their fellow el-                                                      But for various reasons the
                                              great benefit. They thought also
  ders, who together with them are                                                      censuring of books in the above
                                              that a personal visit after the cel-
  appointed to exercise discipline;                                                     sense proved to be impractical.
  and besides these matters they              ebration, to speak on the benefits        Therefore the Synod of Utrecht, in
  shall correct that which. can be            derived from it, would be of great        1905, changed the article to its
  corrected according to the grav-            value.       They had witnessed the       present reading. The intent of the
  ity of the sin committed; nor shall         corruption of mere formalism in           present reading is that undesirable
  they neglect, each one in his own           the church they had left and keenly       books and literature shall be coun-
  district, to encourage them to send         felt the need to promote true spiri-      teracted, not by prohibiting their
  their children to catechism.                tuality in the churches that had          publication, but by teaching, refu-
                                              been liberated from this corrup-
    It must be admitted that we                                                         tations, warnings, and admoni-
                                              tion.
have in this designation a wealth                                                       tions, not only in the preaching of
                                                  We should also take note of
of suggestive material for conduct-                                                     the Word, but also in family visi-
                                              Article 55 of the Church Order:           tation.
ing family visitation, also for our
own day. Nevertheless, it was                                                               Now all this certainly throws
                                                  To ward off false doctrines and
soon felt that this formulation was                                                     much light on the subject under
                                                errors that multiply exceedingly
too long. Hence the Synod of 1586                                                       discussion. It tells us, in the first
                                                through heretical writings, the
gave a summary of what the                      ministers and elders shall use the      place, that the purpose of family
                                                                                        visitation is to promote true  spiri-
Wezelian Convention had  formu-                 means of teaching, of refutation,

                                                                                                 January 1,1997/§tandard Bearerfl65


r--tuality in the midst of the congre-. Also the needs of the indi- part of the people.
      gation. But if that purpose is to            vidual members differ. The need                       What is more, the different cir-
     be attained, it certainly will have           of the father, as head of the family              cumstances and conditions that
     to be conducted according as  cir-            and in his position  in  the broader              you meet with do not allow it.- The
     cumstances, conditions, and need              sphere of life, is different from the             topic to be discussed cannot be de-
     may require. These circumstances,             need of the mother in the home                    termined beforehand, but is deter-
     conditions, and needs vary.                           and in the bringing up of her             mined by the need of the various
     There is, in the first place,                            children. The need of the              people you call on. It is sometimes
      a difference among the               . ..we izust         young men, especially in             said of certain officebearers that in
     families as such. In                  conduct  our           our modern age,  dif-              family visitation they talked about
     some homes you have                family visitation          fers from the need of             nothing but the weather. That is a
     o n l y   h u s b a n d   a n d    according to the          the. old  ma,n  who is             figurative way of saying that they
     wife; `in others you                circumstances             nearing the end of                talked about everything except the
     have young people;                  and conditions             his journey here  be-            spiritual things. But taken liter-
     in still others there                 as we meet               low. Then there are              ally, the occasion could arise that
     ar'e small children.                  with them,               some who live in the             the elders would be obliged to talk
     T'his       d i f f e r e n c e        and speak              assurance of faith,               about the weather. If, for example,
     among families  cer-               with each member           w h i l e   o t h e r s    are    a farmer, is faced with complete
     tainly must be taken                according to his          weak in the faith and             crop failure due to weather condi-
     into `consideration in                   or her              lack this assurance.               tions, and he is in rebellion against
     family visitation. So,             individual need.          Some are burdened                  that  ,weather, or discouraged be-
     for example, in a family                                    with'the weight of their            cause of it, it certainly would be
     pf young-children,  thatfa-                               sins, while others rejoice            in order to admonish that farmer,
     ther and mother must not                               in the forgiveness of sins.              or comfort him, as the case might
     only be' addressed. as persons, but           Now with a view to all these vari-                be, with respect to that weather,
     also as parents in their relation to          ous circumstances and conditions                  and to point out to him that also
     their children. In a  famiIy where            and relationships of life, the elders             that weather is in the hand of God,
     there are young people, these                 in family visitation must edify, in-              who causeth all things to work for
     young people must be instructed               struct, admonish, rebuke, comfort,                the-salvation of His people.
     .and warned against the many                  and encourage, according as the                       So it is with everything. If one
     temptations by the which they are             need may be. The purpose of fam-                  is negligent in church attendance,
     -surrounded. If they have come to             ily visitation is to guide the lives              he must be admonished with re-
     years of discretion, it should be             of the people of God and to help                  spect to his neglect. If one com-
     PO1`nted out to them that it is their         them in their spiritual battle of                 plains that he is not edified by the
     calling before God to confess the             faith. Family visitation, therefore,              preaching of the Word, the elders
     name of Christ in the midst of His            is a serious business.                            should inquire as to the reason for
     church and willingly and con-                         From all this it ought to be              this. If it becomes evident that the
     sciously to assume their place in            plain that we cannot properly con-                 fault lies with the member himself,
     `the  church.         Also the parents        duct family visitation by approach-               this should be pointed out to him,
     should be exhorted to  `use their in-         ing people with a topic determined                and an attempt be made to correct
     fluence in this respect.                      upon beforehand. That would de-                   the situation.
          Conditions vary in the differ-           feat the very  .purpose  of family                    Instead of approaching people,
     ent families. In some families you            visitation and make it unfruitful.                therefore, with a pre-determined
     `meet with a condition of true god-          We must not make of family visi-                   topic, we must conduct our fam-
     liness in their family life, in their         tation a sort of individualized cat-              ily visitation according to the cir-
     family worship, in the instruction            echism class. Surely in family visi-              cumstances and conditions as we
     of,`their children, in their attitude         tation people must be instructed.                 meet with them, and speak with
     to the things of this world. Other            But they must be instructed, not                  each member according to his or
     families live just on the border line,       in certain points of doctrine, but                 her individual need.
     `and in their family life there is but       with respect to their own personal                     Of course, this must all be
     little manifestation of true godli-           spiritual life and walk. Besides,                 done by means of the Word of
     ness. In other families you meet             we must remember that, although                    God. That simply implies that we
     with a spirit of indifference, a lax-        the elders may prepare themselves                  must diligently search the Scrip-
     ity with respect to church atten-            for the topic they plan to discuss,                tures and be founded in the truth,
     dance and `with respect to  admon-            the people will not be Ijrepared  for             in order that we may be able to
     ishing  their children and sending           it. The result will be that there                  meet the needs .of the flock of Jesus
     them to catechism.                           will be little or no response on the               Christ over which He has made us

     166/Standard Bearer/January 1,1997


overseers, not with our own  phi-         strongholds in the past. Let us                      mere formality. If we continue to
losophy, but with the living Word         keep it that way. Most Protestant                    conduct our family visitation  ac-
of God, which alone can edify,  in-       churches have done away with it,                     cording to the  purpose.for  which
struct,  comfort, and build up in the     undoubtedly to their hurt. For                       it was instituted, it will prove to
most holy faith. Family visitation        others it has become no more than                    be a power for good, also in the
has undoubtedly been one of our           a mere social call. Let us beware,                   future.  0
                                          lest also in our circles it become a




Evangelism Activities                     on December 3, and later that                               The Choral Societies of the
    The  M e n 's' Society of the         month in Singapore as well.                          Edgerton, MN and  Doon  and Hull,
Hudsonville, MI PRC recently                   With recent additions to their                  IA  PRCs combined their voices this
thought it appropriate to give their      mailing list, the Evangelism Com-                    past Christmas season to present
congregation and catechism chil-          m i t t e e   o f   t h e   H o p e   P R C   i n    a choral program at Hull on De-
dren a little update on how things        Redlands, CA now has more than                       cember 8. Each choir sang sepa-
are going with sending Bibles to          300 subscribers to their monthly                     rate numbers, with all three choirs
Ghana. During the  1995/96 sea-           newsletter, "The Reformed Wit-                       joining together at the end in sing-
son they sent out 471 Bibles.             ness." And they also report that                     ing praises to, God.
Along with these Bibles they sent         the Christian Discount Bookstore                            The Choral Society of the
out also additional reading mate-         in Ontario, CA is now selling                        Loveland, CO PRC invited their
rial such  .as some of Hudsonville's      RFPA books.                                          congregation to their `program af-
unused Sunday School papers,                                                                   ter their evening. service on De-
Beacon Lights,  and the  Standard         Congregational Activities                            cember 8.
Bearer.  So far in this society year           In early September, the ladies
they have sent out an additional          of the Grandville, MI PRC were                       Young People's Activities
156 Bibles.    The majority of re-        asked to remember to reserve Sep-                           The Young People's Society of
quests come from young people             tember 19, 26, and October 3 for                     the South Holland, IL PRC invited
ages 12-15. Hudsonville's Men's           the "Women Caring for Women"                         members of their congregation, as
Society of course does not know           seminar in their church. Each of                     well as members from the nearby
what the Lord has in store with           these sessions were led by Rev. A.                   Bethel and Peace PRCs,  to a Christ-
all these requests, but they feel         Spriensma, Grandville's pastor,                      mas Singspiratipn on December 8,
compelled to supply Bibles to these       and were  f&owed  by discussion                      The audience sang from the Psalms
young people, letting God deal            groups. Some of the goals of this                    and Christmas carols, plus they
with the increase. We know that           seminar were:  1) to receive bibli-                  were  able-to enjoy some special
His Word does not return unto             cal instruction and to discuss to-                   numbers by the young people.
Him void. This project continues          gether the `role of women, based                            The Young People's Society of
to be financed from various indi-         on Titus 2, 2) to foster relation-                   the       Georgetown        PRC in
vidual donations as well as yearly        ships for daily personal edification                 Hudsonville, MI hosted this year's
catechism collections.                    and that of Grandville Church, and                   Thanksgiving Mass Meeting for all
    Rev. J. Mahtani was able to           3) to evaluate if there is a desire                  young people's societies around
show his slide program, entitled          and need for a Ladies' Bible Study                   Grand Rapids, on December 1 at
"Reaching the Nations with the            in Grandville Church. We are                         Heritage Christian School. Rev.
Gospel of Grace," at a mid-week           happy to report that one visible re-                 Doug Kuiper, pastor of the Byron
Bible study for his own congrega-         sult of this seminar was the orga-                   Center, MI PRC, spoke on the
tion at the Trinity PRC in Hous-          nization of a Ladies' Bible Study                    theme "A Pharisee, a Leper, and a
ton, TX in mid-November. This             at Grandville. They began their                      PR Young Person." Rev. Kuiper
served as preparation for showing         meetings together on October 30,                     used the accounts of the healing
the same program to sister congre-        with Rev. Spriensma leading dis-                     of the ten lepers in Luke 17, and
gations at South Holland, IL on           cussion centered on Women of the                     the parable of the Pharisee. and
December 1 and Hudsonville, MI            Bible.                                               publican in prayer in Luke 18, as
                                                The Choral Society of the                      a springboard to show the young
                                          Hudsonville, MI PRC presented                        people the proper way to show
Mr.  Wigger is an elder in the Protes-    their annual Thanksgiving/Christ-                    thankfulness to God for all He has
tant Reformed Church  of  Hudson-         mas Concert on December 1.                           done for us, His people.
ville, Michigan.' ;*I

                                                                                                       January 1,1997/Standard BearerA


                                                                                                                                           PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                           Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                           G r a n d v i l l e ,
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                          M i c h i g a n
    Gsandville, MI 49468-0603


   Minister Activities                                   ering to serve as our denomi-                          Dale Kuiper to serve as their next
        Rev. and Mrs. G. Lanting ar-                     nation's missionary to Ghana, W.                       pastor. Rev. Kuiper was chosen
   rived at the Trinity PRC in  Hous-                    Africa.                                                from a trio which included also the
-,ton, TX in early December to take                           Rev. B. Gritters received the                     Revs. R. Cammenga and K. Koole.
t ~o'n the care of the congregation                      call to serve as pastor of the South
  .there  i n   t h e   a b s e n c e   o f   R e v .    H o l l a n d ,   I L   P R C .   W i t h   R e v .    Food for Thought
  ,$Iahtani. Rev. Lanting was sched-                     Gritters on the trio were Rev. S.                            "People who teach that God is
   uled to lead the divine services on                   Key and Prof. H. Hanko.                                love without teaching that He
   December  8,15,22,  and 29, as well                        O u r   v a c a n t   H o p e   P R C   i n       hates sin are presenting another
   as all special services.                              Walker, MI extended a call to Rev.                     God  - essentially Satan with a
        Rev. W. Bekkering has de-                                                                               mask on."
   clined the call he had been  consid-                                                                         - Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  Cl





                                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                      NOTICE!!                                The Men's and Ladies' Society of                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
        The. Board of Covenant Christian High            Southwest PR Church express their Chris-                    The Martha Society of the  Doon Prot-
   School is seeking two teachers for the                tian sympathy to Don and Judi Doezema                  estant Reformed Church wish to express
   1997-1998 school year. We will consider               in the death of his mother,                            their Christian sympathy to our members,
  ,applicants with backgrounds in a variety                           NELLIE DOEZEMA,                           M r s .   E d   VanGinkel,   M r s .   E l m e r
   of subjects: English, history, math, for-             and to Gerald and Jean Driesenga in the                VanDenTop, Mrs. John VanDenTop, Mrs.
   eign languages, business and economics,               death of his brother,                                  M i n a r d   V a n D e n T o p ,   M r s .   P e t e r
   or music. Applicants should have, or be                           FRANK DRIESENGA.                           VanDenTop, and Mrs. Bob Blankespoor,
   working toward, certification in secondary                 May they be comforted by the words                in the death of their mother and grand-
   education. Those interested should send               of the psalmist, !`Precious in the sight of            mother,
   applications to Peter VanDerSchaaf,  sec-             the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm                     MRS. MINNIE VAN DEN TOP.
   retary, 1451 Broadview Dr., Jenison, Ml               116:15).                                                     May they find comfort in the words
   49428, (616) 455-6605.                                                         Marvin Kamps, Pres.           of Psalm 116:15,  "Precious in the sight of
                                                                                  Ann Clawson,  Secy.           the Lord is the death of his saints."
                                                                                                                                             Rev. R. Smit, Pres.
         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                      CHANGE OF ADDRESS                                                   Henrietta Klein,  Secy.
        The Men's and Ladies' Society of the                  The new  adress of Rev. and Mrs.
   First Protestant Reformed Church of Hol-              Charles Terpstra and family is:
   land, Ml express their Christian sympathy                             300 E. 18th St.
   to Cornie and Fran Doezema in the death                             Holland, Ml 49423
   of his mother,                                                        (616) 396-8303                                    ATTENTION TEACHERS!
            MRS. NELLIE DOEZEMA,                                                                                      Hope Christian School of Redlands,
   at the age of 95.                                                                                            CA, is in need of an administrator/teacher
        May they find comfort knowing that                                                                      or teacher for the 1997-l 998 school year.
   He who holds us in life is our sure hope                                                                     Grade assignments are negotiable. For
   in death. `Surely goodness and mercy                                                                         more information, interested persons
   shall follow me all the days of my life:                                                                     should contact the school principal, Mr.
   and I will dwell in the house of the LORD                                                                    Ed Karsemeyer, at the school at (909)
   forever" (Psalm  23:6).                                                                                      793-4584, or Doug Pastoor at (909) 792:
                              Terry Elzinga, Pres.                                                              9392, or Glenn Feenstra at (909) 794-
                      Gwen VanKampen,  Secy.                                                                    5859.

   168/Standard Bearer/January 1,1997


