                                   THE
 STANDARD
 A Reformed
 Semi-Man thly
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                                    ./,- 
                                    ./,-                                 ii
                                                                                                                                                                                                 I

Vol.  68,  No.  9  : 
February                 1,1992


CONTENTS:                                                                                          February 1, 1992                            &DMD
Meditation - Rev. Barrett L. Gritters                                                                                                                  BMER
       Love's Covering of Sins `.~~~~~~,.,..,*.,...,...,.,,,,....,.....**..,....~.....~..~..... 195
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                           l@N 0362-4692
       Church Unity, Refoimed Synods, and Independency (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . `197
Letters .,..........,...........,,,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . ..I....,,,,,,,......... ..,.....,,,,,,...,............... 199           Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                              Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Qecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202    4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Second Class
In His Fear - Mr. Fred Hanko                                                                                                                  Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
       Tkie Education Game ,........................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*...................... 204                      Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                              P.O. Box 693, Qrandvllle, MI 49466-0693.
The Day of Shadows - Rev. John A. Heys
       All is Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~...................................................~.........    205    EDITORIAL COMMRTEE
                                                                                                                                              Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
Search thG Scriptures - Rev. Carl J. Haak                                                                                                     Secretary: Prof. Robert  D. Decker
       Malachi, Lesson 5                                                                                                                      Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
       Judah's Treachery Against the Marriage Bond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207                                DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                              Rev. Ronald Cemmenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arie
Contribution - Rev. Kenneth Koole                                                                                                             ddnHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra. Rev. Carl Haak,  Mr. Fred
       Committed to Exposing Old Wolves in New Wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209                                         Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko. Rev. John Hey% Rev. Marvin
                                                                                                                                              Kamps. Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Kcole, Rev. Jason
Book Reviews ,,..,II,,,,,,,,,.,.,,,,..,.,,...*,....,,..,,....,....I.IIIIII.I.........~...............                                  213    Kcrterlng, Rev. Dale Kulper, Mr. James Laming, Rev. George
Report of Classis East - Mr. Jon J. Huisken ..,..,....................,...............                                                 214    Lubbers, Mrs.MaryBelhLubbers,  Rev. JamesSlopsema, Rev.
                                                                                                                                              Charles Terpstre. Rev. Ronald VanOverloop, Mr. Benjamin
News From Our Churches - Mr. ,Benjamin  Wgger ,.........,.....,..a.*........*. 215                                                            Wiggsr, Rev. Bernard Wcudenbsrg.

                                                                                                                                              EDITORIAL OFFICE                     CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                              The Standerd Bearer                  Mr. Ben Wlgger
                                                                                                                                              4949 Ivanrest                        6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                              Qrandville. MI 49416                 Hudscnville, MI 49426
In This Issue .mg                                                                                                                             BUSINESS OFFICE                      NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer                  The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                              Don Doerema                          c/c Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                                                              P.O. Box 693                            Church
        Have you ever wondered why your children's school teachers do not                                                                     Grandville, MI                       B. VanHerk
make more use of educational games in the classroom? In this issue Mr. Fred                                                                      49416                             66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                              PH: (616) 636.1776                   Wainuiomata, New Zealand
Hank0 looks at the pros and the cons of such use. After noting that educational                                                                        (616) 531-1496
                                                                                                                                              FAX: (616) 531.3033
games can serve a number of useful purposes, he concludes, in effect, that, ifall                                                             EDflORlAL POLICY
that a teacher had to be concerned about was his students' mastery of subject                                                                 Every editor Is solely responsible for the contents of his own
matter, he might very well be quite enthusiastic about the myriads of games                                                                   articles. Contributions of general interestfrom cur readers and
                                                                                                                                              questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
which flood the market today. But, bearinginmind that education involves also                                                                 Contributions will be limited to approximately300 words and
the teaching of values and the communicating of attitudes, a Christian teacher                                                                mustbeneatlywriienortypewritten,andmustbeslgned. Copy
                                                                                                                                              deadlines are the ffrst and fifteenth of the month. All
is compelled to take another, more critical, look at all of the enticing advertising                                                          communicatirms relative to the contents should be sent to the
put out by the manufacturers and distributors ,of the games:  For a better                                                                    e d i t o r i a l   o f f i c e .
appreciation of this question, read "The Education Game."                                                                                     REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                                                              Permission is herebygrantedfcrthe reprinting of articles in our
                                                    *  *  *  *  *  *  *                                                                       magazine byothsrpublicaticns,  provided: a) thatsuch reprinted
                                                                                                                                              articles ere reproduced In full; b) that proper ackncwlsdgment
         In this issue's Meditation, Rev. Gritters probes the essence of friendship.                                                          Is made; c) that a copy of the periodical In which such reprint
                                                                                                                                              appears is sent to cur editorial office.
Rather than examining the many psychological factors which are undoubtedly                                                                    SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
involved in establishing close friendships, Rev. Gritters advises that a chiid~of                                                             Subscription price: $12.99 per year in the U.S., $15.66
God who'is faced with a question of how, properly, to m$ritain  or restorea                                                                   elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                                                                                                                                              received, It Is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
friendship does well to look to the cross, where one will drscdver  "the model,                                                               subscdpticntcwntinue,andhewill be billedfcrrenewal.  Ifyou
the motive, and the power for friendship among us." Read "Love's Covering                                                                     haveachangeofaddress, pleasenotifytheBusinussOfficeas
                                                                                                                                              early as possible In order to avoid the inconvenience of
of Si.i-6"                                                                                                                                    interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal (ade.
                                                    +  *  Y  *  cf  +  *                                                                      ADVERTISING POLICY
         Ofspecial interest in this issue will surely be the printing of Rev. Koole's                                                         The Standard Bearerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
address at the annual meeting of the R.F.P.A. After presenting compelling                                                                     of any kind. Announcements of church and schccl  events,
                                                                                                                                              anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions Will be
evidence that apostasy is enveloping the church world today, and pointing out                                                                 placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
the urgency of a defense of the Reformed faith, also by polemics in the Stan&z&                                                               Qfficeandshouldbeacccmpanied  bytheQ.COfae. Deadline
                                                                                                                                              for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
Beaver, Rev. Koole offered this word of advice to those who are weary of, or                                                                  date.
question the propriety'of, our ministers flying all over the globe to preach to                                                               BOUND VOLUME5
small groups of believers looking desperately for help: N Stop the silly printing                                                             The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                              copies of the current volume. Such orders arefille~d  assccn  as
presses. N Ah yes, youwon't want to miss "Committed to Exposing Old Wolves                                                                    possible after completion of *volume year.
in New' Wool."
                                                                                                                                 D . D .      16mm  microfilm, 35mm micrciilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                              article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                              International.
194 /Sta&iard  Bearer I February 1,1992


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                                              Love's Covering of
 Meditation
 Rev. Barrett Gritters                        .SinS                                                                                                       "


 He that covereth a transgression seeketi      By assuming there is friendship                friendship will send one -off unb,al-
 love: but he that repeateth a matte           among the members of the church.               anced and lopsided as well. Let us
 separateth ve y friends.                      By assuming that there is love among           not make the same mistake and not
                             Proverbs 17::     these friends. This is the way it ought        speakabout this greatest of gifts in the
                                               t6 be among us: that we assume there           church.
        Love for the church of Chris           is friendship and assume that these                          Delight of married life! Joy of
 implies love for the brother. in the         friends love one another.                       family life and children! The pleasure
 church. Every good Christian has E                     Great gift of God! Friendship         of being close to a brother or sister in
 heart of love for the church. ~Thi:          and communion! If "repeating a                  Christ is love and friendship!
means he will be `a member of the             matter" separates very friends, then                          Love and friendship rooted in
 church institute. It means that ir           to refrain from doing so promotes               God! Nq mere morals, these! Com-
 every way he will live the love he           close friendship. Friends are close in          munion exists among us because there
professes  to  have in his heart.             the congregation.                               is communion in God! Intimacy ex-
        If we love the church, we will              Friendship is intimate fellow-            ists among us because of intimacy
love the members of the church. Why,          ship. By definition, friends are famil-         among The Three in One! The holi-
the church is made up of its members.         iarwitheach other, are accustomed to            ness possible in our circle of friend-
Apart from the members, there is no           each other's company, know one an-              ship finds its spring in the Holy One!
church. It would be as foolish to say         other in an intimate way. This is the           As for love? "God is love, and he that
that you love the church but do not           wajr friendships in the church ought            dwellethin love, dwelleth in God; for
love the individual members of the            to be.                                          God is love."
church as it would beto say that you                If it will be that, friendships                         God's great love He showed to
love your body but you do not love            must be among saints. Apart from                us in Jesus. By it He reconciled us to
your arms, legs, head, torso. That is         holine&, there can be no intimacy               Him. Through it we have friendstip
nonsense. If we love the church, 1we          that pleases God, no familiarity that           with Him. Delightful friendship, in-
love the members of the church. And           finds the blessing of God on it.                timate friendship, holy friendship,
we will demonstrate that love in our                What drives this friendship and           driven by and lived in the sphere of
dealings with them.                           communion is love. N Love covers                love!
        One of Scripture's reminders to       sins." In these friendships, the friends                      And since we are friends of God,
us how that ought to go, specifically,        give themselves to each other. In-              that friendship iS reflected among us:
is the wisdom of God in Proverbs              stead of asking what we can receive             Friends with each other because God
17:9. "He that covereth a transgres-          from the friendship, and instead of             is Friend of us. Intimate with each
sionseekethlove; but he that repeateth        determining the value of the friend-            other because Jehovah God is inti-
a matter separateth very friends."            ship on that basis, love asks, "What            mate with us. Sanctified friendship
        Emphasis is placed here on the        can I contribute for the help of my             because of the sanctity of God's with
good life that the child of God must          friend?"                                        us. Able to be driven by love in these
live in the communion of saints. How?               Ah, friendship, and love in the           friendships, because God first love
                                              :hurch! Blessed friendship! Delight-            US.
                                              Ful `love!                                                    Love and friendship! What a
                                                   Do not say, "Bah, I don't want to          3lessing!
                                              Iear about that love stuff.  Thzit's                            rc  *  +  *  Y  *  +
                                              what all those other churches are talk-                  Reality is that sin separates
                                              ing about!" It may be the other                 friends. Poisonous gossip! Perni-
Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Pr&es<ant      churches are talking about that, or' cious backbiting! Venomous tongues!
Reformed Church  of  Byron Center, Michi-     only about that. Let them be lop-               Oh, for the antivenin of love, true
gan.                                          sided.  Failing to emphasize love and           love, to heal the wounds! Oh, for the

                                                                                                     February 1,1992 I Standard Bearer / 195


covering of love, to avoid  the damage!     announcements is the painful truth           chest...." Love does not bring it. up
     Love covers sins. But he that          that sin crea.tes  a barrier that must be    over coffee on Sunday .night. Love
repeats a matter, separates very            removed. And, far from being an              keeps its mouth shut. Love hides the
friends.                                    announcement to inform the congre-           sins of its friend. In our own heart and
     The repetition of a sin, the dig-      gation or alienate and hurt the mem-         our own life they stay!
ging up of old transgressions, sepa-        ber, the announcement is to inform              : Then love covers sins by forgiv-
rates friends. Not so much the act of       the congregation of repentance! Even         ing them, by going out of its way to
repeating, but the bringing back of         though so and so has fallen so hard,         make ,sure that it cm forgive them.
the sinful behavior into the heart and      Godhas given the grace of confession         Love does not say, "Well, he never
soul of the friends is what wreaks          and repentance. And then fellowship          asked me for forgiveness, so I can't.
havoc in friendships.                       is restored! The sin is buried under         I'll just stew in my heart against him
      Even childrenknow the destruc-        the mercy of God and, by the same            for therestof mylife."*Love  says, "I'll
tive power of repeating a story about       mercy of God, is neverresurrectedby          go to my friend and tell him of his sin
someone's sins. Every newspaper             us again!                                    so that I can work wit6 all my might
editor knows the destructive power               Oh,letuscoverthesinsoffriends.          to f&give him." And then, even if
of a "juicy story."                              The demand of the Scriptures            forgiveness is impossible, love wants
      Behind his back; a child's friend     that we harmonize Proverbs 129 with          to forgive.
speaks mean of him. If the child never      Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 brings us                This way of love is built right
hears it, little damage is done. But                                                     into the official life of the church. The
whenwothertellshimwhathisfriend                                                          elders must cover sin as far as pos-
said, it will take some time to muster       To overlook a sin is not love.              sible for them, too: They expose no
up the &rage to speak to his "friend"                                                    brother when he sins. Not a soul in
again. If we hurt a friend in sdme                                                       the church must-know. Warned re-
way, and apologize for that hurt, but       to see that this is nqt a call to ignore     peatedly in. consist!ory  rooins that
the friend keeps on bringing up that        the sins of friends. Avert our eyes          matters raised there stay there, the
hurt, talks to other people about that      when the friend breaks the covenant          elders are under solemri oath before
hurt,refusestoburyitasitoughttobe           of Gdd? Turn our head the other way          God to hide sins. They do.
buried, our friendship with him is          when he violates the commands df                  This principle is built right into
strained. If a husband deals foolishly      our Lord? Some may wish this were            the of&id  life of the church. When a
with his wife, and she keeps on resur-      God's way. The Scriptures tell us            member commits a sin that is re-
recting`that matter, pretty soon abar-      otherwise.                                   ported to the consistory, there is "Si-
rier is raised between these closest of           Even sanctified wisdom of God          lent Censure," barring the member
friends. Why? Because sin separates         in .Jesus Christ that dwells in our          from communion without anyknowl-
f r i e n d s !                             hearts tells us.that it cannot be so. To     edge by the congregation. If repen-
      Some important implications of        overlook a sin is not love. To let our       tance does not follow, an ann'ounce-
this truth bring it close to home.          friends go onin their sinisnot seeking       ment is made to the congregation that
      First, we cannot really have          their good. No real friend winks at          a member is caught in the clutches or
frieridships with unbelievers. .Cer-        another's impenitence. Why, to think         sin  - without a name mentioned!
tainly the Bible says that we may not       that, God would fail to ,deal with my        Why? To cover the sin of the brother!
have them. It also says, "we cannot         sin because he did not want to offend        Only when he is obstinate and the
have them." The onlywaytruefriend-          me is to think the unthinkable. To           cdngregation  must become involved
ships can survive is by dealing with        imagine that God would leave me in           is the name publicized - and then
sins properly: confessed, forgiven.         my. sin, hoping that our friendship
      Second, living in sinful practices    would somehow stay on track, is to                    . . . in love we will
in our earthly relationships does not       imagine a God without love for me.              put the best construction
nurture friendships, but damages            Unthinkable!                                      on what we observe in
them, breaks them. There is a warn-               Love covers sins!
ing here for young people on dates:               Love goes to the brother to seek              or hear from others.
sin separates (does not bring closer!)      his repentance, prays for his godly
friends. There iS a wa.rniFg  here for      sorrow that brings him to the cross.'        only in order to call the members
allGod'speopleintheirdeali.ngswith                Love does not tell another soul        personally to exhort the sinningmem-
each other: for God's sake and thus         about it, riot even the pastor who           ber to come to- God, to know His
for your friendship's sake, flee sin!       "surely would not tell anyone else."         friendship.
      Third, this is why public an-         Love does not get on the phone and                This is the way love and friend-
nouncements are made in the                 say, "I really shouldn't be telling you      ship work in the church.
churches regarding repentance from          this, but I needed to get it off my                Thus, inlove wewillput the best
public sins. Brought out by these                                                        construction on. what we observe in

196 /Standard Bearer / February 1,1992


or hear from others. In love we will         that we seek to cover, in the earthly       ally and powerfully realized in our
believe all things, bear all things, hope    manner that is possible for us, the sins    hearts, so that we know the friend-
all things,,endure all things. We think      of our friends.                             ship of God and experience friend-
no evil. Rejoicing not in iniquity, we                As well, God's love is the mo-     ship with others. And our love for
rejoice in the truth.                        tive.                                       God knows no bounds!
                                                 God so loved the world that He               So we obey this call. We do not
       . . . we seek to cover,               gaveHisSon, so thatHispeople.could          repeat a matter, fanning the flames.
     in the earthly manner                   be one in Him. Sinning, by exposing         Out of love, we cover sins.        1
     that is possible for us,                the sins of other members, is schism             But there is no way we can do
                                             - ripping the body of Jesus Christ.         that of ourselves. To look at the
     the sins of our friends.                We may not seek to destroy God's            example of Christ and say, "I will do
                                             work.                                       it," is hopeless. To be moved merely
     The model is God's covering of                   Obeyingthiscallisthankfulobe-      by observing the love of God is not
our sins in Jesus Christ. In the cross,      dience-forwhatchristhasdone  for            possible. By the power of thelove and
the loving purpose of God with us            us. In eternity He chose us to be His       friendship of God working in our
was revealed  - His will to cover,           friends, and willed for us to have          hearts, by faith, we are able to have
forever, all our sins. Now His love is       friends through Him. We love Him            friendship in this way.
such that, by the power of His grace,        for that. At the cross, He gave us the           Observethecross,infaith,where
He covers them in our lives. And by          right to live in this friendship with       our sins were covered. Find there the
His grace that love is reflected in our      Himself and with others. And we             model, the motive, and the power for
lives. Not that we bear the punish-          love Him even more for that. Through        friendship among us.
ment for the sins of our friends; but        the Holy Spirit this friendship is actu-         Believe!  0



                                             Church Unity,
                                             Reform-ed Synods,
                                             and Indqpendency
`Editorial                                                                        (1)
     An astute reader of the  Standard       theapostasyofal?rotestantReformed           church government. For him,  the
Bearer in England asks some pen-             synod would not force the faithful          essence of biblical Presbyterianism is
etrating questions about Reformed            congregations into independency.            a body of elders gov&ning the inde-
churchgovernment (cf. theletter,,"Re-                 These questions about synodand     pendent congregation.              True
formed Synods and Independency,"             independency are timely. About the          Presbyterianism is perfectly compat-
elsewhere in this issue). Basically he       same time that the letter from our          ible with independency. Alexander
asks for a defense of the synod, or          correspondent in Liverpool arrived,         rejects the connection  oflocal churches
general assembly as it is called in the      the Evangelica  Times, aleadingevan-        in authoritative broader assemblies
Presbyterian churche+in  the.system          gelical paper in England, ran an ar-        as unbiblical. He notes that the
of Reformed church government. He            ticle entitled, "Biblical  Pres-            Westminster Confession of Faithsup-
is moved to do this by the attack on         byterianism" (Januaryl992,  p. 6). The      portsits  teachingof "synodsandcoun-
the synod within Reformed circles            author, Eric Alexander, attacks the         cils" in Chapter 31 with only one
today and by instances, real or al-          position that holds that presbyteries       biblical passage, Acts 15. He con-
leged, of the abuse of their authority       (classes) and general assemblies (syn-      cludes with a call to Presbyterians in
by synods to the detriment of the local      ods) are an essential aspect of true        theBritishIsles  to"lookagainatwhat
churches and their members. He also          Presbyterianism, that is, essential to      makes us biblical Presbyterians." This
asks the practical question, whether         genuinely Presbyterian, or Reformed,        is a challenge to do away with the

                                                                                            February 1,1992 / Standard Bearer I197


denominationalbond. The Evangeli-           tion within the denomination. Each          is the church to which the congrega-
caZTimesthinksthatthisisa"tho~ught-         local congregation is a complete mani:      tions ought to be subject and which
fuland challenging article:!'          s    festation of. the  body  of. Christ.        they must serve as members of abody
     As our English correspondent           Through the body of elders chosen           serve the head.
observes, lwith reference to articles       out of the congregationby the congre-            Against this departure from
that have recently appeared in the          gation herself, each congregation is        Christ's government of His church,
(ChristianReformed)  OutZook, those         self-governing (autonomous). It `is         the PRC have protested, even though
Christian Reformed people who are           the congregation that preaches, ad-         their protest has fallen on deaf ears.
now threatening secession advocate          ministers the sacraments, and disci-        But the protest of the PRC has always
independency as the solution to their       plines.                                     been against synodicalism, not against
problem with synods that adopt                   The jealousy of the PRC for the        synod. Therefore, today, when a
unbiblical decisions.                       rights of the local congregation is evi-    clamor for independency arises from
     Rejection of synodical union for       dent in the name of the PRC. The            Reformed churches that have lately
independency becomes more and               name of the denomination is Protes-         come to realize the evil of synodical
more common in the United States            tant Reformed Churches (plural), not        hierarchy, there is no incongruity in
and Canada. Individuals leave Pres-         Church (singular). If I had a dollar for    the PRC's rising to the defense of
byterian and Reformed churches for          every time that the former editors of       synod, and thus of the denomina-
the large, flourishing, popular, inde-      this magazine patiently corrected           tional bond. The deepest concern of
pendent churches. Congregations             those who referred to the denomina-         the PRC, as a Reformed denomina-
break away from apostatizing de-            tion as Protestant Reformed Church          tion, is neither for the authority of the
nominations and decide to remain            and explained why the name is               local congregation nor for the author-
independent. Or congregations be-           Churches, I likely could take my wife       ity of the broader assemblies, but for
gin with the determination to exist         to dinner at a fancy restaurant.            the government of the true church by
outside of any denominational con-               The local congregation is the in-      N that spiritual policy which our Lord
nection.                                    stituted church of Jesus Christ. The        has taught us in His Word" (Belgic
                                            denomination is the federation, or          Confession, Art. 30).
                                            union, of autonomous churches,                   Synods are Reformed. General
  . . . synodical union is basic            which do not surrender their au-            assemblies are Presbyterian. Rejec-
            to the Reformed,                tonomy by membership in the de-             tion of authoritative broader assem-
            or Presbyterian,                nomination.                                 blies is un-Reformed. Refusalby con-
                                                 With an urgency born of their          gregations to unite with like-minded
        view of the church.                 own suffering at the hands of hierar-       congregations in a church federation
                                            chicalmajor assemblies, the PRC have        that is realized in presbyteries and
                                            unceasingly warned against the evils        general assemblies whose decisions
     There is talk that we are seeing       of denominational hierarchy. These          have binding authority is un-Presby-
the end of denominations. Like the          include the major assemblies' exer-         terian, even though the congregations
dinosaur, the denomination becomes          cisingthe key power of discipline, the      rule themselves by a body of elders.
extinct. Many are ready to say about        usurpation by synodical committees          Theloose  association of local churches
the passing of the denomination, as         (boards) and personnel of power that        in an organization that meets spo-
about the extinction of the dinosaur,       belongs to the congregations, a tyran-      radically and whose decisions are not
"Good riddance!"                            nical, sheep-scattering manner; and         binding on the local churches is no
     What is called for by these omi-       the intrusion of the major assemblies       different and, therefore, no better.
nous developments is a clear, strong        into the life of the congregations by
testimony that synodical union is ba-       taking up matters that are not right-
sic to the Reformed, or Presbyterian,       fully before the assemblies. Underly-          . . . major assemblies have
view of the church. Since the Re-           ing all this is the notion that synod is          an .authoritative  role
formed view of the church is biblical,      the church, whereas the local congre-
synodical union is a fundamental as-                                                            in vital aspects 
                                            gations are merely branches and parts                                    of
pect of the Bible's teaching about the      of the church.                                       the life and work
church..                                         Thus a hierarchical "Reformed"               of the congregations.
      Itispassingstrange,somewould          denomination comes to resemble the
say wildly incongruous, that this tes-      Roman Catholic Church. Not only
timony must come from the Protes-           does the synod with its increasingly             This is not even a debatable is-
tant Reformed Churches. Through-            intricate machinery, its permanent          sue. It may not be. For the standard
out their history, for almost 70 years,     personnel, and its all-powerful com-        that determines what is Reformed, or
the PRC have vehemently insisted on         mittees lord it over the congregations      Presbyterian, is the creeds and church
the autonomy of the local congrega-         fromthe top down, but also the synod        orders. And they plainly affirm that

198 /Standard Bearer  / February  1,1992


genuine Presbyterianism is synodi-        3 of the same chapter affirms the                 It is possible that Reformed con-
cal. The Reformed church order of         authority of these *denominational           gregations renounce synodical union
Dordt declares that good order in the     assemblies:                                  and thus the denominationalbond. It
church of Christ requires classis and       It belongeth to synods and councils        is also possible that they do this be-
synod as well as consistory (Art. 29);      ministerially to  determine controver-     cause they suppose synods to be
ascribes to classis and synod a juris-      sies of faith, and cases of conscience;    unbiblical and independency, or con-
diction (Latin:  aucforitas)  over the      to set down rules and directions for       gregationalism, biblical. They are
consistory (Art. 36); and states that       the better ordering of the public wor-     mistaken. Carrying out this errone-
the decisions of the major assemblies       ship of God, and government of His
                                            church; toreceivecomplaintsincases         ous idea, they sin against the unity of
aretobe"consideredsettledandbind-           of ma&administration, and authori-         the church of Christ. Still it is possible
ing" (Art. 31).                             tatively to determine the same . . . .     that formerly Reformed churches
     In addition, the Dordt church             The Westminster Assembly's              make this decision. But it is not per-
order so structures the life of the       "Directory for Church Government"            mitted that they yet consider them-
churches that the major assemblies        (not to be confused with the "Form of        selves Reformed, or Presbyterian. The
have an authoritative role in vital       Presbyterian Church Government")             creeds and church orders, official stain-
aspects of the life and work `of the      states that "it is lawful, and agreeable     dards, judge that by forsaking the
congregations. One instance is that       to-the  Word of God, that the churchbe       synodical union they have abandonled
the congregation may neither call nor     governed by several sorts of assem-          Presbyterianism and are no longer
dismiss a minister without the ad-        blies, which are presbyteries and sjj-       Reformed churches.
vice, or approval, of the major assem-    ods; or assemblies congregational,                I do not refer to congregations
blies (Articles 4,5, and 11). Another     classical and synodical." The "Direc-        that find themselves temporarily
is that the congregation may not ex-      tory" explicitly condemns and for-           alone because a denomination has
communicate a member without the          bids independency:                           wickedly expelled them, or because
advice of classis (Art. 76).                To gather churches into an indepen-        faithfulness to the Head of the church
     This defines Reformed church-          dent form of government out of             has compelled them to separate fraim
life and government.                        churches of a presbyterial form of         an apostatizing denomination. But I
     The Westminster Standards  de-         government, upon an opinion that           refer to congregations that repudiate
finePresbyterianism&milarly.  Chap-         the presbyterial government is un-         synodical union as a matter of settled
ter 31 of the Westminster Confession        lawful, is not lawful and warranted        policy.
of Faith teaches that "for the better       by the Word of God (for this "Direc-            To be Reformed, or Presbyte-
government, and further edification         tory,N cf. Wayne R. Spear, "The
                                            Westminster Assembly's Directory           rian, is to be synodical. 0
of the church, there ought to be such       for Church Government" in Press-                                              - DJE
assemblies as are commonly called           ing Toward theMark, ed. Charles G.
Synods or Councils" (Art. 1). Article       Dennison  and Richard C. Gamble).


L e t t e r s

                                          the OutZook,  which contain articles         minister, attended a requiem mass,
0  Reformed  Synods  and                  called " Synod-ocracy: Cause and             perhaps as an observer? The synod
Independency                              Cure." The writer's complaint is that        handed down an arguable decision.
                                          the synod of his church (the Christian       In the Church of Scotland, the general
     May I request clarification on       Reformed Church) had opened the              assembly or synod, has authorized
the editorial titled, "The Binding De-    doors of local church office to women.       female ministers. The deposition `of
cisions of a Reformed Synod" (Stan-       His solution is virtually a modified         Schilder in 1944 was an objectionable
dard Bearer, June 1,1991)?                form of independency, unless I read          event surely, even if the doctrinal
     It is clear that many Christian      him wrongly.                                 issues relating to baptism and cov-
folk regard the whole matter of how            Consider -some of the other oc-         enant are in dispute. Sometimes the
the church is organized as a matter of    casions, thankfully few in number            synod does not accept the Word of
little consequence. For this reason it    compared with the multiplied injus-          God, so it is no use arguing that we
is good to see church power and           tices and unhappinesses inside inde-         will prove the synod wrong using the
church polity being taken seriously.      pendency. What of theFree Presbyte-          Word of God.
As it happens, a friend lent me the       rians in Scotland dividing because                Now just suppose that the synod
March, April, and May 1991 issues of      one of their members, a government           oi: the Protestant Reformed Churches

                                                                                          February 1,1992 I Standard Bearer I 1!39


became corrupt and handed down a              Response:                                      that the professon  in the. title above
decision contrary to the Word of God.              It has never been, and is not             his article, speaks of Jesus as the son
I assume that you are going to tell me        now, the policy of the SB to review            of Nathan? This, of course; is under-
that local presbyteries (called classes       onlybookswrittenby "trulyReformed              standable in light. of the fact that the
intheReformedchurches-DJE)and                 writers." The SB reviews books by              writer does not believe that Jesus and
local churches need not, indeed must          authors who are heterodox, as well as          Mary were in the royal line of David.
not, accept such decisions. That turns        who are orthodox. The criterion is             However, Scripture surely empha-
your local churches into indepen-             that the.bookmay  possibly hold some           sizes that Jesus is the Son of David,
dents, does it not?                           interest for, or be of some use to, our        and that He is this Son in the royal
     I must add that I am strongly            readers. Regarding the book that               sense of the word.
persuaded that only connectionalism           contains error, it is the duty of the               Secondly, we will not call atten-
leading to synod is Scriptural. The           reviewer to point out the error.. The          tion to the fact that Nathan and not
problem comes when the synod acts             reviewer of the bookat  issue did this:        Solomon is mentioned in the geneal-
in a way not warranted by the Word            "It has one great weakness that must,          ogy of Luke 3, whereas Sblomlon and
of God. What is your response to              in our opinion, be pointed out. It is          not Nathan is mentioned in Matthew
that? And have you read the articles          dispensational in its perspective . . . . n    1. Frankly, I do not understand why
in the  Outlook?  I would value a                   The review of a bookin  the SB in        this is as it is in these genealogies.
response to "Synod-ocracy: Cause              no way constitutes promotion of ev-            However, I do not consider it neces-
and Cure," unless you agree with the          erything taught in the book, or even of        sary to do this in this letter. I do wish
articles, of course.                          the book itself. I remind our readers          to focus attention upon the fact that
                            D. I. Stephens    what was said about book reviews in            our editor contends that neither Jesus
                   Liverpool, England         the January 1,1989  issue of the SB:           nor Mary is in David's royal line, the
                                                Reviewing religious books has al-.           line that brings forth the Christ.
                                                ways been, and will continue to be, a             Thirdly, Prof. Engelsma calls
Response:                                       regular feature of the SB.... It willbe      attention to Mary's astonished reply
     For my response to this letter             ourpolicytoreviewonlythosebooks              to the angel, as recorded in Luke 1:34:
and its questions, expressed and im-            thatseemtoustobeofrealinterestto
                                                Reformed men, women, and chil-               "How shall this be, seeing I know not
plied, see the editorial in this issue of       dren, usually books that some will           a man?" As we all understand, this
the  Standard Bearer.                           want to buy. (It hardly needs to be          statement of Mary is vital in this dis-
                                   - Ed.        statedthat areview, or evenarecom-           cussion. Prof. Engelsma interprets
                                                mendation, does not imply approval           the word "know" in this statement as
                                                of everythingthe  bookteaches.) Even         refeiring to sexual intercourse. With
                                                if a reader has no intention of buying       thisinterpretationwecannotagree. It
                                                the book, he will profit from reading
0 Ban the Book                                                                               is, of course, true that this word does
                                                the review in that he learns what is         have the meaning of sexual inter-
                                                being published today and in that a          course in Holy Writ, but it is also true
     I never thought that I would see           reviewer often treats issues raised in       that it also has anothermeaningin the-
abookby Lewis Sperry Chafer  favor-             the book that are of concern to the          WordofGod.  Nowwemustnotethat
ably reviewed in your magazine (the             r e a d e r . . . .                          Mary does not say here: "I have not
handard Beareu, Dec. 15,199l). Are                                                - Ed.      known a man," but, speaking in the
there not truly Reformed writers who                                                         present tense: "I know not a man."
can tell us about the wiles of Satan? I       0 The  Genealogy  ,of  Jesus:                  As of that moment, Mary does not
wonder what the devil has in mind             A,  Reply  to  Prof.  David                    know aman. If JosephwereofDavid's
when he uses the pages of the SB to           Engelsma                                       line, not in the royal sense of the word
promote a book that tells of his great                                                        (which is .possible), then Mary cer-
lie of dispensationalism. Doesnot  the            In an article in the  Standard             tainly knew of a man. She was es-
Word itself tell us about Satan and           Bearer  of December 15, 1991, Prof.            poused to a man whose name was
what he will and can do? I also saw           Engelsma called attention to the ge-           Joseph, of the house of David. Now,
writings of Dr. James Dobson and              nealogy of Jesus (or, Jesus the Son of         there had been nothing in what the
other Arminian psychologists pro-             Nathan). In. this article the writer           angel had said to her to suggest that
moted in Protestant Reformed publi-.          contends that Jesus and Mary were              the Holy Ghost would overshadow
cations. How clever the devil is. If it       not in the royal line of David but that        her and that, through the Holy Spirit,
were possible, even the elect would           Joseph was a physical descendant of             she would conceive and bring forth a
be deceived. Why are Reformed                 Solomon, Rehoboam, Hezekiah,                    son. Was it, therefore, not natural of
people helping the Arminians out?             Josiah, and Jehoiachin. With this pre-         Mary to think that, marrying Joseph,
                         Erika H. Lavender    sentation I cannot agree.                       she and he would have a son to-
                        Lee's Summit, MO            First of all, is it not a bit strange     gether? Nevertheless, Mary is  aston-

200 /Standard Bearer I February I,1992


,


ished, replying to the angel: "How           utes, and the keeping not of His com-         vocates. These problems include the
shall this be, seeing I .&ow not a           mandments (vss. 30, 31). Prof.                harmony of the two genealogies in
man?" This can only mean that Mary           Engelsma calls attention in his article       Matthew 1 and in Luke 3; the tracing
did not know a man who was in the            to these sins, the sins of Jehoiachm.         of Jesus' descent from David through
royalline of David, thatthere was not        And the Lord declares, in verse 32,           Nathan in Luke 3:31; the listing of
such a man. Joseph, .therefore,  was         that He will visit their transgressions       Joseph, not Mary, in the register of the
not of David's royal line. And Mary          with the rod, and their iniquity with         "royalline" inMatthew,  as one begot-
is astonished because how could she          stripes. Thirdly, now notice what we          ten of the kings of Judah and Israel;
conceive and bring forth a son with-         read in verses 33-37: The Lord will not       and the express declaration of God1 in
out a man?                                   forsake his covenant, nor alter the thing     Jeremiah 22:30 that no one descend-
     Fourthly, we must bear in mind          that is gone out of his mouth. Once has       ing from Ring Jehoiachin, who ap-
that it is Prof. Engelsmats  contention      He sworn by His holiness that He will         pears in the genealogy of Matthew 1
that Mary was not of David's royal           not lie unto David. David's seed shall        as Jechonias (v. 11), shall sit upon
line but that Joseph didbelong to that       endure for ever, and his throne as the sun    David's throne. (This last is a prob-
line. If this be true, then we cannot        before him. Indeed, it shall beestablished    lemfortheviewheldbyRev.Veldman
escape the conclusion that David's           for ever as the moon, and as the faithful     in thatifMarywasinthe "royalline,"
royal line runs dead in Joseph with-         iuitness in heaven. I cannot, therefore,      Jesus was a man of Jehoiachin's seed,
out bringing forth the Christ, inas-         agree with Prof. Engelsma's presen-           so that a descendant of Ring Jehoiachin
much as Mary was not of David's              tation. I have always believed that           sits on David's throne, seemingly in
royal line but Joseph was. However,          Mary was of David's royal line, not           flat contradiction of God's Word in
Joseph was not the father of Jesus;          Joseph, and that the royalline of David       Jeremiah 22:30.) Rev. Veldman's ob-
hence, David's line comes to an endin        ran out in a virgin, Mary, the mother         jection to my explanation of Jesus'
Joseph without bringing forth the            of our Lord.                                  genealogy consists of a different in-
Christ. Now Prof. Engelsma attributes              Prof. Engelsm,a,  concluding his        terpretation of Luke 1:34 from that
this failure of David's royal line to        article, calls attention to certainimpli-     which I gave and of an appeal to the
bring forth the Christ to the, sins of       cations of his view. May I conclude           Davidic promise'in Psalm 89:20-37.
Jehoiachin, to the fact, that David's~       <my letter by calling attention to a               The difference over Mary's re-
royal line had become unfaithful, dis-       {more wonderful implication of my             sponse to Gabriel in Luke 1:34 centers
obedient and apostate, that the judg-' %iew which I consider to be Scrip-                  on the word "know" (Greek:
mentof Goduponitwasthatitwouldt              jtural. Is it not more wonderful that         ginooskoo). I explained it of sexual
notproducetheeverlastingKingwho'             God fulfills His promise of the Mes-          intercourse. Rev. Veldman undier-
establishes the kingdom of God.              siahoutofutterhopelessness  (bornof           stands it as Mary's awareness of a
     Finally, we cannot harmonize            avirgin as the sole survivor.of David's       suitable candidate for marriage. The
this presentation of Prof. Engelsma,         royal line), that He alone saves His          lexicons explain the word in Luke
that the royal line of David may not         people when everything has become,            1:34 as referring to sexualintercourse
produce the Christ because of the sins       humanly speaking, impossible and              (cf. Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon
of Jehoiachin, with the Word of God          hopeless, that He callslife out of death,     and Arndt and Gingrich's A Greek-
as recorded in Psalm 89:20-37.0,  yes,       and that His faithfulness to preserve         English Lexicon of the New Testa-
we are quickly reminded in this con-         David's royal line remains unbroken?          ment).
nection of another Word of God, Gen-         Indeed, the Lord will not lie unto                 Calvin, Geldenhuys, Greijdanus,
esis 49:lO: "The sceptre shall not           David;David'sseedwillbepreserved              and Hendriksen, with virtually all
depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver            forever, culminating in Christ, the           other commentators, explain "know"
from between his feet, until Shiloh          Royal Seed of David, Israel's Re-             in Luke 1:34 as sexual intercourse (cf.
come; and unto him shall the gather-         deemer and Savior. 0, brother                 Calvin's Commenta  y on a Harmony
ing of the people be." Notice: the           Engelsma, I know that you maintain            of  the Evangelists,  Vol. 1; N.
scepter shall not depart from Judah . . .    that God's saving of His people in            Geldenhuys, Commen ta y on the Gos-
unti2 Shiloh come. Shiloh is'the  Christ,    Christ is almighty, irresistible, and         pel of Luke; S. Greijdanus, Lucas, in
the Restgiver. Now notice in this            sovereign. But I surely prefer my             Korte Verklaring and W. Hendriksen,
passage in Psalm 89 the following.           view which Ibelieve to be in harmony          New Testament Commentary: Expo-
First, the Lord's mercy Jehovah will         with the infallible Word of God.              sition  of  the Gospel according to
keepforDavidforevermore;  theLord                            (Rev.) Herman Veldmbn         Luke). Hendriksen is representative
will make his seed to endure for ever,                                   Jenison, MI       of the commentaries:
and.his throne as the days of heaven                                                         She (Mary) has correctly interpreted.
(vss. 28, ,29). Secondly,. this passage      Response:                                       the angel's message to mean that
speaks of David's children as forsak-             Rev. Veldman makes no effort               without the assistance of a husband
ing Jehovah's law, walking not in His        to solve the problems inherent in the           she is about to conceive a child. So
judgments, the breaking of His stat-         view of Jesus' genealogy that he ad-            far so good. But how  was this pos-

                                                                                              February 1,1992 / Standard Bearer I2101


  sible? Among humans conception              II sole survivor of David's royal line"      passage upon which Psalm 89 de-
  without insemination was unheard            and that there is no male in that line to    pends, II Samuel 7:11ff.,  is this stated
  of (p. 88).                                 beget the Christ. Nevertheless, she          as part of the promise. The Davidic
         There is also the fact that the      permits herself to become engaged to         promise was that the Messiah will be
word is used elsewhere in the account         amanwho cannot produce the Christ,           David's seed, proceeding from
of Jesus' birth to refer to sexual inter-     thus ensuring, as far .as she is con-        David's bowels (II Sam. 7:12). This
course between Joseph and Mary:               cerned, that the Christ will never come.     promise is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus,
"And (Joseph) knew her not till she                As for the appeal to Psalm 853,         eventhoughHedescendsfromDavid
had brought forth her firstborn son"          the assumption that underlies the            through David's  son  Nathan rather
(Matt. 1:25).                                 appeal is that God promised David            than through Solomon. In this case
         Has Rev. Veldman considered          the Messiah out of the "royal line,".        too, JesusisSonofDavidtheKing.  By
the difficulty involvedin his explana-        that is, the family of Solomon. Nei-         blood, He-is royalty. By divine elec-
tion of Mary's, "I know not a man"?           ther in Psalm 89 nor in the historical       tion, He is the royal child. 0
Mary has determined that she is the                                                                                          - DJE




All Around Us,
Prof. Robert Decker

0 Cults in Eastern Europe                     fifteen lectures to students at                ence Land  I noticed her eyes were
         With the collapse of Commu-          Leningrad Technological Institute in           drawn to me," recounts Mickelsen.
nism and the disintegration of the            St. Petersburg. They taught prin-              "`She just melted at our singing of
                                                                                             `Love So Amazing, So Divine,' a song
Soviet Union came an open door to             ciples of free market economics as             about Christ on the cross. We kept
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.          well as how Christian ethics can be            looking at each other through the
As reported earlier in these columns          incorporated in the business world.            rest of the concert - and I sang the
the Back To God Hour of the Chris-            Last year when the exchange agree-             songs as my testimony to her with all
tian Reformed Church will be heard            ment was formulated a top Russian              my heart." Mickelsen's testimony?
on Soviet radio. Other churches are           official asked the CCC to help Rus-            She's a Mormon, a member of the
sending missionaries to Eastern Eu-           sian schools restructure their busi-           famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir,
rope. Bibles and other Christian lit-         ness and economic curricula to in-             which completed a highly successful
erature are being widely distributed          clude an emphasis on free enterprise.          tourthroughEasternEuropeandthe
                                                                                             Soviet Union last summer.
throughout these countries. A grow-           The CCC is now close to completing           As of October 1991, the Mormons
ing number of Soviet students and             an MBA (Master of Business Admin-            reported six to seven hundred active
professors are linking up with U. S.          istration) curriculum `which will be         members in the former Soviet Union.
Christian colleges as part of an ex-          used in twenty-se'ven  Russian insti-        The Mormons had missionaries to
change program adoptedlast year by            tutes and universities.                      Eastern European refugees in Vienna
the Christian College Coalition (CCC)              For these open doors to the gos-        before the Berlin Wall fell.
andRussianuniversities.  Twelve stu-          pel we ought to be thankful. No one                The Jehovah's Witnesses re-
dents from Yaroslavl Polytechnic In-          would have dared to imagine that
stitute spent three weeks this January        this could happen one year ago. Ii is        ported that altogether more than
                                                                                           370,000 attended conventions in the
at two CCC-affiliated schools in Penn-        now possible to preach. the gospel           summer of 1991 in Czechoslovakia,
Sylvania: Geneva College in Beaver            freely and openly in countries which         Hungary,Yugoslavia,Poland,Roma-
Falls and Messiah College in                  promoted Atheism and persecuted              nia, and the Soviet Union. A total of
Grantham. Last December, three                the church for decades.                      18,293 converts were baptized dur-
business professors from Gordon                     Regrettably the cults are also         ing thirty convention gatherings.
College in Wenham, MA, presented              aggressively at work in these same
                                              countries and gaining adherents                    Unification Church foundler Sun
                                              among their peoples.                         Myung Moon, an avid opponent of
                                                Kathleen Mickelsen's eyes panned           communism, met privately with
                                                the crowded music hall in Leningrad        Mikhail Gorbachev on April 19,1990,
Prof. Decker is professor ofPractical The-      asherchurchchoirperformed. "Half-          and promised to help finance the ail-
ology .in thk Protestant- Reformed~Se"mi-       way through the concert, my eyes           ing' Soviet economy. In exchange,
nary.                                           were drawn to a woman in the audi-         Moon was allowed to fly an estimated

202 /Standard Bearer 1 February 1,1992


1,400 "elite students" from Moscow,         Reformed Churches in The Nether-           0  A  Church  Split?  "
Leningrad, Kiev, and Tashkent to the        lands, hereafter RCN. This is the               A new'nationwide diocese, led
U. S. for field trips and indoctrination    denomination where many of us have         by conservative bishops, was an-
in Moon's teachings.                        our spiritual roots).                      nounced at a meeting of the Episcopal
     A number of New Age groups                  First the committee considered        Synod of America (ESA), November
are already based in Moscow alone.          the documents on Scripture which           8, in Fresno, California. The ESA
Among them are five .National UFO           theRCNhaspublishedinrecentyears.           claims- there are two religions in the
study centers;: four astrology study             Second, it examined. the RCN's        Episcopal Church, "one accepts the
centers; the Russian Theosophical           current position with respect to ho-       gospel, the other the ways of the
Society; two national  parapsychol:         mosexual members.. The REC had             world." The ESA is opposed to libetal
ogy schools; eight centers for study-.      requested the RCN to rescind its ac-       theology, to admitting homosexuals
ing folkmedicine and natural healing        ceptance of homosexual practice. The       to the ,ordained  ministry, and to or-
techniques; and five yoga training          RCN decided not to rescind the ad-         daining women. It claims not to be
centers.                                    vice it gives its churches. The RCN        schismatic, but Presiding Bishop
     Soviet Armenian psychiatrists          will continue to encourage its congre-     Edmond L. Browning and his ninle-
now recommend transcendental                gations to accept those homosexual         bishop Council of Advice called on
meditation to their population for          memberswhoarelivinginlovingand             the ESA u to cease from implementing
dealing with stress and pain. In Feb-       faithful relationships. They declare' this plan which clearly points toward
ruary of 1990, a group of Western           that they want their church to-have        schism."
experts trained over 12,000 Arme-           "room for homophilical brothers and             Will this cause a split in the Epis-
nians in TM. As of the end of 1990,         sisters."                                  copal Church? We shall see. c;I
thereweremorethanl,OOOavidprac-                  Third, the Interim Committee                      National and International
titioners in Moscow.                        discussed and- analyzed the RCN's                                Religion Report
     The Hare Krishna cult and the          response to the REC Hermeneutics
Christian Scientists have also made         and Ethics report.
deep inroads into Poland especially,             Fourth, thecommittee discussed
but also elsewhere in Eastern Europe.       the RCNs own view of its future
     While we regret the influence of       within the REC. The RCN pointed
these aberrant andunorthodoxgroups          out that the REC is the only confes-
on the peoples of Eastern Europe, we        sional body that it belonged to. They
are certain that God has His church in      repeatedly told the Interim Commit-
these countries. Jesus Christ will also     tee that the RCN wished to remain in
gather His church out of these nations      the REC.
by His Word and Holy Spirit. But                 In the last section of its report,
Jesus will do that by means of the          theInterim  Committee concludes that
preaching of the Word. Our prayer is        the RCN has not violated the Consti-        All my life I still have
that the church will be faithful to         tutional Basis and Purpose of the REC.
Jesus' call to make disciples out of all    The committee noted that ,there had           foupd,
nations, the nations of Eastern Eu-         been a departure in "some degree,"               And I will forget it
rope as well!                               but the committee declared it "could
                    Christianity Today      not say without any doubt ,that we             never;
            National and International.     have reached the limits in regard to        Eve y sorrow hath its
                       Religion Report      RCN membership in the REC." The                bound,
                                            InterimCommittee  is advising the
                                            REC to continue discussions of these             And no cross en-
                                            issues.                                        dures forever.
0  TheGKN                                        Already several denominations,
                                            the Orthodox Presbyterian Church            All things else have but
and The Reformed                            among them, have withdrawn from                their day,
Ecumenical Council                          the REC because  of its persistent re-       Only God's love lasts
     AtitsmeetinginHararein1988,            fusal to terminate the membership of
at the request of several member de-        the RCN. We wonder, will others               for aye.
nominations, the Reformed Ecumeni-          follow suit after the 1992 Assembly of
cal Council (REC) instructed its In-        the REC meets?                                              Standard Bearer,
terim Committee to examine, in four                         REC News Exchange                             March 15,1933
major areas, the position of the
Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (the

                                                                                          February 1,1992 I Standard Bearer I203


                                   `1 The Education
In His Fear
Mr. Fred Hanko

      Bang! Pow! Johnny is busy re-          theirlagginginterests, stimulate their        nent (the means or methods are less
pelling the alien enemy invaders. He         desire for learning,,solve  your class-       important than the result); obtain the
does not even hear the call to dinner.       room discipline problems, and pre-            highest score you possibly can (the
When we finally go to get him, he            pare students to march on further             level of the score is the only thing that
snaps at us, "I can't come now. Can't        educational triumphs. It looks as             is important); enjoy the instant grati-
youseeI'msettinganewrecord?"  He             though education is becoming an               fication (move up in the "Hall of
remains totally concentrated on the          enormous game.                                Fame," earn "big money," or gain a
game until it is over and Johnny has                  It is exactly this that I am con-    promotion).
run up a record-breaking score. We           cerned about: are our students treat-              Consider the kinds of problems
wonder: why cannot Johnny show a             ing education as though it were a             that we have when these ideas are
fraction of such intensity upon his          huge game, and are we encouraging             promoted in education: The goal is to
school work?                                 them to thinkso? Now please do not            get the highest possible number or
      Perhaps in the hope that educa-        misunderstand me. I have a number             letter on the top of that paper. To gain
tion can become so absorbing, games          of educational games in my class-             this most efficiently, of course, one
havebecomemoreandmoreapart of                room. Some of them I use regularly,           must avoid being delayed by time-
education in recent years. Although          especially for drill purposes. I also         consuming learning along the way.
when we were young we also played            use games now and then to try to              You get the right answers to the prob-
our little games of "streetcar," and         illustrate a particular principle, or         lems in your math lesson. If you can
held our spelldowns, games are now           sometimes even for a change of pace           do that without doing calculations, so
a part, it seems, of nearly every sub-       to break out of routine. Educational          much the better. If you can get an-
ject. Computer games give us prac-           games have a useful place in educa-           swers to the questions without read-
tice in mathematics and a variety of         tion.                                         ing the assignment, so much the bet-
other subjects. Simulation games                      Some schools have become             ter. If you can say, "I passed the test
gives us "experience" and under-             places where students learn prima-            and never cracked the book," you
standing in social studies. Other            rily through games. Suddenly, chil-           havegainedmanypointsinthegame.
games offer easy ways to master the          dren who used to hate school now              Education is a contest between the
facts of geography, history, and any         love it. Children who used to be inert        student and the teacher, in which the
other subject you might choose. In           and inactive in school are full of am-        student tries to win the highest grade
schoolandoutwearebecomingmore                bition, activity, and enthusiasm.             possible while expending the least
and more a games-oriented society.           Manufacturers of school supplies love         amount of effort.
Sometimes it seems that education            it. Parents love to see their children             Although you will say it has al-
itself has become a game.                    having fun in school. It seems that the       ways been thus, and I will agree, I
      The manufacturers and educa-           only ones who are reluctant are a few         insist that there are signs that work-
tional materials suppliers offer seem-       reactionary teachers who just don't           ingforgoodgradesisbecomingmore
ingly endless choices of games of all        want to change their ways.                    unfashionable, and the methods by
sorts that are practically guaranteed                 I think, however, when we real-      which one obtains those grades more
to motivate your students, arouse            ize what this implies, we may not be          acceptable. As in the games we play
                                             so enthusiastic about it.                     in real life we rarely consider how we
                                                      One of the greatest problems         won, only whether we actualhy won,
                                             with making education a game is that          so in the game that education has.
                                             we educate by the modern rules of             become we do not ask whether some-
Mr. Hanko is a teacher at Hope Protes-       games. You know that it is becoming           thinghasbeenleamed,butwhatscores
tant  Reformed School  in Grand Rapids, more and more true that the goals of               or grades resulted. I do not mean that
Michigan.                                    games are these: -defeat your oppo-           all students cheat (although cheating

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  seems to be becoming more accept-                 The fact is that-one of the things     "educating children for the real
  able because, after all, it does not         we want students to learn is that in        world" and then go on to excl.ude
  matter in the games we play). I do           life there are some' things that we         from the classroom anything that
  mean that few students accept the            have to do even though they are te-         might not be sufficiently exciting.
  fact that the goal of education is learn-    dious and'boring and hard to do and         Games are fun, and they are useful,
  ing, not gaining grades.                     are things we cannot do as well as          but they are not like the real world;
       There is another-difficulty that        others, but we have to do them any-         and there are some things about the
  arises from making education a game          way. We have to do them even though         real world that cannot be taught with
  or a series of games. We are doing           theyarenot anyfunandwe donotget             games.
  much more in education, I hope, than         any recognition in the Hall of Fame.                 It is important for our children
 learning a collection of facts and accu-      We will not make "big money" from           to know the satisfaction that comes
  mulating a large quantity of informa-        doing them, nor wiIl we accomplish          from having worked hard out of a
 tion.. Please remember that the accu-         them to the cheers of thousands. I am       sense of duty and having accom-
  mulation of facts and information is         talking of.course,  about teaching chil-    plished something for the benefit of
  extremely important in education,            dren about duty and about work, two         the Kingdom of God. In our peculiar
  contrary to many current educational         concepts that have disappeared from         society the game has become an end
  theorists. But, perhaps .more impor-         the objectives of modern educators.         in itself and not, as it ought to be, a
  tant, we are also teachingthe children                                                   means to something with real value.
  habits and attitudes that we hope will                                                   In our schools we are teaching for life
  also serve them well throughout their                  It is importun  t                 -the Christian life. And the Chris-
  lifetimes.                                      for  our children to know                tian life means many things that are
       It seems to me that games are                                                       unpleasant in worldly terms because
 very weak in teaching habits and atti-          the satisfaction that comes               it means self-sacrifice, self-effacement,
 tudes. In fact, they are positively             from having worked hard                   dedication to the cause of the King-
 harmful at times. Besides promoting                out of a sense of duty                 dom, and work, all characteristics
  the idea that the final score is all that       and having accomplished                  that are not learned through games.
  counts and that winning is the most             something for the benefit                "Oh," you say, "but those things aren't
 importantthingtheysometimesseem                                                           any fun." Perhaps they are not - or
 to encourage the idea that if it is not           of the Kingdom of God.                  perhaps we ought to reexamine our
  entertaining, it is not worth doing.                                                     definitions. But somehow we need to
  "I'm not. interested," seems to be                                                       teach our children that real joy lies in
  sufficient reason to excuse students              I am constantly amazed that            work for the Kingdom of Heaven and
 from obligations.                             educators can seriously talk about          the people of God. 0




  The Dav of
  Shadok                                       Aii is Well
  Rev. John Heys

       When Eliezer, Abraham's ser-            seeking a God-fearing wife for Isaac,       again, but instead complete separa-
 vant, asked Rebekah's parents for             Rebekah's parents called her and            tion.
 permission to take her to Isaac the           asked her whether she would be will-                 When they called Rebekah'and
 very day after he had come there              ing to go that day. They had, we read,      asked her whether she was willing to
                                               told Eliezer that they wanted her to        go that day, she replied, "I will go."
                                               stay with them at least ten more days.      She was willing to go because she had
                                               For after her departure they would          been informed not only that Eliezer
                                               never see her again. In effect it would     had come for a wife for Isaac, but also
                                               be as though she had died, for, as          of the astounding work of  IGod
                                               pointed out last time, without mail         whereby He had moved Eliezer to ask
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the        service, telephones, or trains and          for a woman who would draw water
 Protestant Reformed Churches.                 planes, they would have no contact          for him and his camels. For  ,that,

                                                                                              February 1,1992 / Standard Bearer I205


Eliezer had prayed to God. And do           have contact with believing children         camels coming in the distance, he was
not overlook the fact that Eliezer, al-     of God. Our young people also must           very interested in seeingwhether this
though an aged man, had taken ser-          hold fast to the truth that their calling    was Eliezer comingbackalready; and
vants with him. And they could have         is to seek a husband or wife who will        whether he did have a wife for him.
-drawn that water. Our God did work         help them, not hurt them, in training        He may even have wondered whether
an amazing thing here; and Rebekah          children in the fear of God's name.          perhaps Eliezer had failed in his mis-
realized that it was not merely             Behind all love and seeking of aloved        sion and was therefore returning so'
Abraham's desire to have her be             one is the call to love God. THAT            quickly because things were different
Isaac's wife, but also God's plan which     comes first! Indeed it is a good mo-         over there than they had thought.
she must not ignore or reject.              tive to want to build up someone else             We also read that Rebekah saw
      So they did leave that day. And       in spiritual strength. But never over-       Isaacin  the distance, and asked Eliezer
a few days later they met Isaac in a        look the fact that our own spiritual         who that man was. Then, learning
very striking way. By God's provi-          life must be strengthened day after          that it was Isaac, whom she was being
denceandgraceIsaachadbeencaused             dayandyearafteryear;andweshould              brought to marry, she got off her
to go out into the field to meditate.       take no step that would turn our lives       camel and put on a veil to cover her-
UndoubtedlyhedidnotexpectEliezer            the other way.                               self. Then when Isaac came before
to come back so quickly with a wife              In that light Isaac's meditation,       them, Eliezer told him "all the things
for him. Very smoothly and quickly          while he was there in the field, was a       that he had done." He told Isaac how
our God arranged all things for the-        spiritual meditation. We may be sure         he had been led by God to know that
fulfillment of His covenant promises        that he meditated and prayed to God          Rebekahwastobehiswife. Rebekah's
to Abraham. There can be no doubt           that Eliezer would bring him a wife          physical beauty was hidden by that
that Abraham had told Isaac why             who would not harm his spiritual life,       veil, and Eliezer did not call Isaac's
Eliezerwas sent toMesopotamia.  We          but help him in it. And we find in           attentionto what a beautiful woman
do not read of such a revelation to         Genesis  24:67 that, having met              he had brought to be his wife. Notice
Isaac by his father; but we can be sure     Rebekah and having known and                 that simple yet profound statement.
that he did tell Isaac that Eliezer was     learned,about  her spiritual life-not        "The servant told Isaac all the things
getting a wife for him.                     herphysicalbeauty,whichisnotatall            that he had done." He told Isaac
      Let us not forget that there was      mentioned here - Isaac loved her,            basically what he had prayed to God,
no God-fearing woman there in that          and was comforted. This was not a            and wanted as the sign that this was
land of Canaan for Isaac to have as a       physical comfort and delight in her          His, that is, God's, choice of a wife for
wife. Recallwhat anunbelievingwife          appearance, but in the fact that they        Isaac. Isaac must know that God has
Lot had obtained there in Canaan.           were one from a spiritual point of           sent Rebekah to be his wife.
Abraham was not -fussy and con-             view, and could help each other in                And by all means note that it
cerned about facial beauty. He did          service to the al.mighty  and holy God       was not a case of love at first sight
not send Eliezer to go and look for         who brought them into being.                 when Isaac saw her. He may have
that kind of woman. There were                   We may believe that Isaac loved         been very pleased that Eliezer suc-
several there in the neighborhood           Rebekah and was comforted after his          ceeded in getting a wife for him; but
where Abraham lived. He wanted a            mother's death, not merely because           Isaac must know that this is God's
believing child of God. He was not          now he did not have physical loneli-         will and that she was a spiritual
interested either merely in getting a       ness, but because he found her to be a       woman who agreed to become his
bloodrelativeforIsaac.  HesentEliezer       believing child of God; and he would         wife, because she knew that she was
there because he wanted Isaac to have       then enjoy fellowship with her be:           the fulfillment of Eliezer's, prayerunto
a believing wife, a child of. God who       cause they believed in the same God.         God.       !     `,     :     ~/     i
would with Isaac train up their chil-       and wanted in all things to serve Him            `We read that Isaac took her unto
dren in the fear of God.                    together. God gave Isaac a blessed;          his mother's tent, and:-that ,`shortly
                                            wife; and they strengthened each other       thereafter Abraham die: Abraham
                                            spiritually because of their common          -had, according to Genesis 25:5, given
          Behind all love                   faith in God, and were able to bring         Isaac all  his earthly possessions.
  and seekiqof  -a loved one                up children in a faith in Him.               Plainly Isaac was to take Abraham's
     is the call to love God.                    Sarah, his mother, had died; and        place, and he, was the one through
                                            spiritual companionship was-gone in          whom God would fulfill His cov-
                                            the degree that he had before enjoyed        enant promise, and would therefore
                                            it. Andtherewerenobelievingyoung             bring forth covenant seed.
      Our children must also be thus        men or women for Isaac to have com-               When Abraham died, Ishmael,
trained, and therefore we must have         panionship with, and join in spiritual       that other son of Abraham, came for
Christian schools where they can be         matters. We therefore can also be            his burial. This must have been quite
taught the truth, and where they can        sure that when Isaac saw a host of           an experience for Isaac. For one thing,

206 /Standard Bearer  I February  1,1992


we read that Ishmael begat children          are clearly taught that there is by God     tion 21:1,2 that we shall be Christ's
while Isaac and Rebekah remained             an enmity implanted in the seed of the      "bride," adorned for Him as our hus-
childless for some time. In Genesis          woman against the devil and his spiri-      band. And make no rnistake abomit,
25:13 we read that Ishmael was given         tual seed. Our God implanted that           ALL is well for <every elect child .of
twelve sons. We read in Genesis 25:21        new life in us in order to make us          God. For that union between Isaac
that Isaac prayed to God because             Christ's bride. And as Rebekah was          and Rebekah presents to us a $cture
Rebekah was barren. And that prayer          brought from Mesopotamia to                 - a shadow, if you will - of our
of Isaac was answered; Rebekah begat         Canaan, we will by God's grace and          beingbrought out of theMesopo&amia
a set of twins whose names were Esau         power be brought out of this vale of        in which .we now live, and of our
and Jacob. It was because he believed        tears and sorrows, and away from            beingbrought unto the heavenly land
God's covenant promise that Isaac            sins of every kind, into that heavenly      of Canaan where Christ now is. Our
prayed for a son.                            Canaan where we will love God with          souls will come there the moment we
        And let us bear in mind that, in     all our hearts, souls, minds, and           die. Be sure of that! Be sure also that
our two previous installments in this        strength, and enjoy fully His love. As      even as God wrought all this for Isaac
department of The Day of Shadows,            Rebekah was by God's grace brought          and Rebekah, we will with ourbo'dies
we noted that the church is Christ's         to be Isaac's wife in a different land,     soon be brought to live with Christ in
bride. In Isaiah 6190 we read, "I will       we will by that grace be brought to be      that promised land presented in IRev-
greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul         Christ's bride in a new creation which      elation 21, where God will wipe away
shall be joyful in my God; for he hath       our God will bring into being.              all tears from our eyes. That new
clothed me with the garments of sal-              Then, too, let us take hold of that    heaven and earth, that holy city, the
vation, he hath covered me with the          other comforting truth, namely, that        new Jerusalem, where as Christ's bride
robe of righteousness, as abridegroom        all this will happen because our al-        we will live with Him in a bliss and
decketh himself with ornaments, and          mighty God decreed it eternally, and        blessedness, our present words can-
as a bride adorneth herself with her         most assuredly will cause it fully to       not fully now present.
jewels."                                     come to pass. He moved Abraham to                  All IS well! All that God prom-
        There are then truths for us to      go to the promised land. He caused          ised us will come to pass in rninutest
holdon toforourcomfort,andfor the            him to want a believing wife for Isaac.     detail. Goodness and mercy shall
strengthening of our faith. First of all,    HeimplantedinEliezerthatforwhich            follow us all the days of our earthly
there is that truth that our God made        he prayed as a sign indicating what         life, and we will dwell with God, and
us to be Christ's bride. By nature we        woman he was to bring to Isaac. He          with His Son as our Bridegroom, and
do not want that. Genesis 3:15 pre-          caused Rebekah to go with Eliezer to        as His bride. All is well and working
sents two people in this world,              be Isaac's wife. He moved Isaac to          together for our everlasting good. 0
namely, the seed of the serpent and          receive her and love her.
the seed of the woman. There, too, we             Enjoy then that truth in Revela-

                                                                             Malachi
                                                                                  Lesson 5
                                                Judah's Treachery
Search the                                                    Against the
Scriptures                                              Marriage Bond
Rev. Carl Haak                                                            (Malachi 2:11-l 71

                                                  In the first part of chapter 2,        pure grace. In the covenant God
                                             Malachi beautifully describes God's         blesses His people with life and peace.
                                             covenant, the bond of friendship He         And those in the covenant have the
Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant        makes with us in Christ. Malachi            calling to walk with God, turn from
Reformed Church of Lynden, Washing-          showed that this was an eternal cov-        iniquity, oppose evil, and love God's
ton.                                         enant established by Jehovah out of         truth.

                                                                                              February 1,1992  / Standard Bearer I207


      Against this background the sin       riage overrule the Word of God.            in marriage selfishly, we will live con-
 of the people of Malachi's day stood            We should ask the question as to      sciously for His approval and glory.
 out in all its naked ugliness. Their       why..Malachi  zeros in on this evil                 Verse 17 stands somewhat in
 religious attitude was-cold and indif-.    rather than some other. There were         isolation from verses 11-16.  It is yet
 ferent. A corrupt priesthood failed to     certainly other gross violations of        another complaint of Jehovah against
 teach God's law. ,They dealtfraudu-        God's law present (see ch. 3:5). Why       His people. This time it is directed
 lently with their brothers.                does he concern himself especially         against their attitude.. The Jews
      Now we learn that their sin           with the sinful abuses of the marriage     thought that Jehovah favored the
against the covenant of God was. es-        b,ond? The answer is this: Marriage        wicked in that He did not punish
 pecially in the evil practice of mixed     is a picturepf Jehovah's covenant It ,' them. They accuse God of injustice
 marriages, divorce and remarriage.         mirrorsGod'sintimatebondbetweeh            (cp. Ps. 73). Most likely this stemmed
 This is the burden of the Word of the,     Himself and His people (Hosea 2:19,        from: the fact that they were experi:.
 Lord in verses 11-16.          .           20; Eph.  521-33).  By establishing        encing  severe economic hardships
      The sinful abuses of- marriage        mixed marriages and being unfaith;         and the lack of any national prom%
 were twofold:                              ful in marriage, they had profaned         nence.
      1. The young men of Judahhad          the covenant of God. Because of what
,profaned  the covenant of God by           marriage is, God requires holiness of      Memory Work:
-`marrying the daughters "of a strange      Hispeopleinthemarriagebond.;This                          Hosea  2:19,20
 god" (vs. 11,12).  This was not new to     He loves. All profaning of marriage                 And I will betroth thee unto me
`-Malachi's day. From the days of           He hates (vs. 16);                \        forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sons             Jehovah looked upon, these            righteousness, and in judgment, and in
 of God had been warned against this        `abuses as treachery (vss. 11, 15, 16).    lovingkindness, and in mercies.
 and exhorted to marry in the Lord          Treachery isbeingfalse to the one you               I will even betroth thee unto me in
 (see Gen. 24:1-9; 26:34, 35; 28:2). It     confess to love; and secretly working      faithfulness; and ,thou shalt know the
`was especially this sin which led to       to destroy them. Judah's treachery         Lord.
Israel's problems and to a generation       was saying, "I am God's friend" (note
 whichknewnottheLordorHismighty             vs. 12 mentions they still offered to      Questions for Study:
 acts(Ex.34:15,16;Deut.7:3,4;IKings         the Lord), and yet making a mockery          1. First, we must remember what
i ll:l-13). As late as the days of Ezra     of that confession in the way they         marriage is and how it serves as a
 `andNehemiah,Israelhadcommitted            married and lived in marriage. :You        picture of God's covenant with us.
this sin. No sooner had God brought         could not see devotion to God in the       Only then can we see the "treachery"
 Judah back from Babylon's captivity        waytheyselectedawife, orin theway          of mixed marriage and divorce and
 than the men of Judah began to marry       they lived with their wives. It was "an    remarriage. Only then can we see
 heathen wives (Ez. 9:1-12; Neh.`10:30;1    abomination" to the Lord, something        how we must live in marriage.
 13:26,27);  ,Now, some 60 years after      .He "hated." God-would "cut off the                 a. Look up the following texts
 Ezra, the"men  of Judah were again         man that doeth this" (vs. 12).             and state briefly what they say about
 looking for their wives outside the             How urgent this Word of God           what marriage is:
 boundaries of Israel. They contracted      becomes to us today! In our passage                   Genesis 2:24 (I Cor. 6:16)
 mixed.marriages,  spiritually m,ixed.      God shows'how  sacred the bond of                     Proverbs l&22
 They built their marriage on the sand      marriage is, how pleasing it is to Him,               Ephesians 5:32
 and mire of carnal lust and set aside      and how He hates and punishes all                     I Corinthians ll:ll, 12
 the rock of spiritual oneness in the       violation of the marriage vow. God                    I Timothy 4:1,3
 promise of Christ (Mt. 724-27).            will uphold marriage. He will aid               b. How is marriage a picture of
      2. The sins against marriage,         and support married persons, even          God's covenant? (See Hosea2:19,20;
 were not confined to the youth, for        when we are the least deserving, be-       Eph. 5:21-23)
 the married. men violated the sacred       cause it is an institution pleasing to              c. Explain how the following el-
 bond of marriage in divorce. Liter-        Him. (See theFormforMarriage,in  the       ements arenecessary for marriage ifit
 ally, verse 13 reads, "And a second        back of The PsaIter.)                      is to picture the covenant of God.
 thing ye do." That second thing was             "Take heed to your spirit that ye     (Find texts to support your answer.)
 the sinful practice of "putting away,"     dealnot treacherously'! (vs. 16). Love              1) Spiritual oneness
 divorcing "the wife of thy youth."         the sacred bond of marriage! This                     2) Faithfulness
 The men of Judah grew tired of their       means we will daily  desire to be clean               3) Forgiveness
 wives. The weaknesses and prob-            before God kn all we do in marriage.                  4) Companionship (friend-
 lems which every marriage encoun-          We must remember. that the Lord            ship and communication)
 ters were not overcome with God's          stands witness over our marriages            2. The treachery of mixed marriage
 Word. Rather they let their personal       (vs. 14). Then, rather than establish-     ( v s s .   11,12)
 desires and the difficulties  of:mar-      ing our marriages carnally and living               a. Look up the following pas-

 208 /Standard Bearer / February 1,1992


  sages. to determine .whom  a child of :                         1) "wife of thy youth"                     2) Answer now the following:
  God.is to marry. Also, state the im-                            2)  U thy companion"                          Is divorce ever permissiblev?  -l".,
  portance for this restriction:                                  3) U the wife of thy covenant"                Is remarriage ever allow-                       .'
          Genesis 24:1-9                          `.    (Prov. 2:17)                                able while one's first spouse lives? .
          Genesis 26:34,35                                    b. Explain what verse 15 means                    Why is it  <important  to
          G e n e s i s   28:2                          and tell how it is such a powerful          maintain- that marriage is a lifelong
          Deuteronomy 7:3,4                             argument against "puttingaway." (A          bond broken only by death?
          E    x     o     d      u    s         34:16little help. God is referring to Genesis           d . T h e   w o m e n   w h o   w e r e
          I Corinthians 7~39                            2:18-24  and the fact that He created       wrongly divorced brought their an-
          II Corinthians 6:14                           one woman for the man, even though          guish to the Lord (vs. 13).
     b. Why is spiritual oneness a ne-                  He could conceivably have made                       `1) Explain verse 13:                  . .
cessity for marriage? (I Pet. 3:7)                      more. "Yet had he the residue of the                 2) Compare it to I Peter 3:7.
       c. What does the Word of God                     s p i r i t . ")                                     3) Explain how our ownspiri-
  mean in verse 12, "The Lord will cut                     c. "He hates putting away":              tual life and health are tied to our
  off the man that doeth this...."?                               1) Look up the following pas-     marriages.
       d. How can we teach our chil- -                  sages and take brief notes on what            4 .   V e r s e   1 7 :
  drenthenecessityofestablishingsolid                   they teach;                                      a. Explainwhatthisversemeans.
Christian marriages?                                                  Matthew 5:33                      b. Compare it with Psalm 73, and
    3. The treachery of putting away                                  Matthew 19:3-12               then express how we often give this _
  the wife of thy youth:                                              Mark 10:3-13                  same complaint and thus weary the
      .a. Explain what is meant by the                                Luke 16:18                    Lord.
  expressions used in verse 14 to de-                                 I Corinthians 7:29              5. Can you write from ,memory
. scribe marriage, and then apply them                           Romans 7:2-4                       Hosea   2:19,20?  Q
  to marriage:                                                        Deuteronomy  24:1-4


                                                  " Committed  to.  5'
                                                        Exposing                                             .`,'               I                   :
                                                  Old'WolveS  i n                                                                                   :...
  Contribution  `.New Wool
  Rev. Kenneth Koole                              I                                                                     -.~                              .._

                                                                                                                                                    _'

       After his address last fall at the ~             speaks of old wolves clothed in new         dualism andmysticism), of the Arians,  1'. i
  annual meeting of the R.F.P.A. (thepub-               wool - the teachings of the latest          the Pelagians, the Arminians, et al.
  lishers of the SB), Rev. Koole was asked to           theological fashion.                             The StandczrdBearerin  its incep- /
  submit a transcript of the speech for pub-                   As the theme implies, however,       tion was committed to promoting the
  lication in the Standard Bearer. This                 it is our contention that these new         Reformed faith and, hence, to oppos-
  "Contribution" is that address.                       teachings, though of the latest theo-       ing such errors and those who taught
                                                        logical fashion, are not so new after       them (as well as warning against doc-
       I do not intend to say much that                 all. Contrary to what modern-day            trines compatible with such errors).
I is new this evening. The theme of my                  theologians assert, what they are           This ought to continue to be its func-
  speech should indicate that. The very                 teaching is not the advancement and         tion in present times.
 theme ties us in with the past. It                     developmentof the timeless Word of               Today there are false teachers
                                                        God at all. Rather they are teaching        who are new in the sense that the:y are
                                                        doctrines the roots of which can be         our 20th century contemporaries;but, `,
                                                        traced back to old errors, heresies         for all that, their hearts, their mten- _
                                                        which the church of Christ has ex-          tions; their ingratiating procedure,
  Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant              posed and rejected again and again.         and their root error are the same as
 Reformed Church in]enison, Michigan. I                 We think of-the Gnostics (and their         that of their predecessors, the old

                                                                                                       Februarjr  1,1992 j Standard Bearer / 209


heretics. Underneath it all they and         duction (p. ix) Editor Nash (who op-            not anymore what He once was.
their teachings, despite all their dis-      poses this theology) writes: "What is                ConcerningGodyoucannotsay,
claimers, are cut out of the same cloth,     process theology? To its proponents,            "He is," but "He is becoming.`: He is
namely, anti-truth. They must be             process theology is the most impor-             not the eternal God with respect to
exposed and renounced in uncom-              tant development in Christian thought           time; but is Himself "temporal, rela-
promising terms.                             since the first century. It is signifi-         tive, dependent, and constantly
     There is today great evil loose in      cant, they think, because the move-             changing" (pg. 17). He is growing
the protestant church world.                 ment gives sophisticatedmoderns an              with His creation, and developing in
     The last thing the church needs         intellectually and emotionally satis-           His response. What is this but the old
is more watchmen who, when they              fying reinterpretation of Christianity          pagan pantheism, that God Himself
lift the trumpet to their lips, blow an      that is compatible with late-twentieth          is part of the creation process, part of
uncertain sound.                             century ways of thinking." (In reality          an awakening mind? There is noth-
     This has been brought home to           it gives these theologians anumbrella           ing new here. This is return to early
me with special force by a couple of         under which to hide in order to save            Greek notions.
recently published books which               their academic reputation in                         But what anaudacity to say this,
served for summer reading. The one           sophisicated,  modern circles.)                 while claiming to be a Christian theo-
is entitled Setting Our Sights By The              "Moreover, they add, process              logian. And then to think that this
Morning Star, by He&&Hart. It is             thought finally removes from                    finds a hearing in the church! That in
a book written in popular fashion,           Christianity the dominating influence           itself is a scathing indictment of mod-
and is meant to shape the manner in          of Greek and Hellenistic notions that           ernprotestantism. I could thinkof  no
which the Bible is to be read, inter-        have, in their view, distorted the es-          greater honor than to be called upon
preted, and preached. It also makes          sence of Christianity for almost two            in the judgment day to usher these
clear in alarming fashion the extent to      millenia." (For "Greek and Hellenis-            theologians into the presence of Jeho-
which agents of Satan have been per-         tic notions" read - "creedal theol-             vah God as His glory is in the face of
mittednot only to infiltrate Reformed        ogy." TheReformedcreedsare,  these              Jesus, and to say, fl Gentlemen, I intro-
Protestantism, but also to occupy seats      men allege, "scholastic," which is to           duce you to the Great I Am. Now let
of leadership.                               say that the Reformed theologians               us hear you theologize!"
     Dr. Hart is of the ICS - the            who drew them up simply applied                      Whydomenpositsucha"god?"
Institute of Christian Studies (once         Platonic and Aristotelian concepts to           Let's be clear, not because they are
known as the AACS), which in the             the Being and attributes of God.)               attracted to or comforted by such's
past has been associated with Re-                  Wenote  that thesenincompoops,            being, or because they are moved to
formed, conservative scholarship. His        for all their alleged scholarship, are          magnify his glory, but for one reason
book is an evil book. It is a book that      unable to distinquish between the               and one reason only, because they are
shows how far the darkness has ad-           Romish, Thor&tic creeds (which are              dead set against Jehovah God, the
vanced. I intend to quote a few brief        indeedAristotelianinapproach),and               God of, the Scriptures, the God of
sections to give you the flavor of this      the Reformed, biblical creeds (prov-            Elijah, and of Paul, Augustine, and
midnight darkness in which all the           ing just how unscholarly and dull               Calvin. His power, knowledge, and
light of God's Word is effectively           their thinking actually is). Unbelief           holiness they dread and hate.
quenched. The audacity of it is that         has such blind spots!                                Now, I remind you that Nash
Hart does so in the name of Christ, the            "To its critics, process theology         states that there are those who say
MorningStar.  Theotherbookiscalled           is the most dangerous heresy pres-              this theology is the greatest threat to
Process Theology, edited by Ronald           entlythreateningtheChristianfaith....           the Christian faith of our day. That in
Nash. It is a bit more technical in          Process thought is a total capitulation         itself should show how weak, limpid,
nature, dealing with issues that  per-       to paganism." In this last assessment           and without defense the vast portion
taintoGod'sownBeingandattributes.            its critics are absolutely correct.             of Protestantism is today. Who will
It consists of responses of scholars               In simple terms, process theol-           speak for the Lord's side? Who will
from a variety of theological back-          ogy, for all its being a recent innova-         withstand evolutionism in all its
grounds to this most recent innova-          tion, is a return to an old error. It is the    forms? Who will declare the Creator
tion and aberration in the field of          application of Darwinism, evolution-            God in all His power, "who in six
dogmatics, called"process  theology."        ism,tothebeingofGod.  GodHimself                days created the heavens and the
     I make mention of these two             (itself?) is in the process of flux and         earth, the sea and all that in them is"?
books because their pages make clear         development (hence the name, pro-               Who will bear the reproach of the
just how far the darkness has ad-            cess theology).                                 "learned" of our age, and encourage
vanced in the historic Christian                   With respect to God, then, faith          the 7,000 who have not bowed the
church.                                      is not the confession that Jehovah              knee to this Baal? In this area the
     Let me acquaint you with pro-           Godisthegreat "IAM," butthatHeis                Standard Bearer has a service to ren-
cess theology first of all. In his intro-    the great "HASBEEN," because He is              der. (Interestingly enough, in its Au-

210 /Standard Bearer I February 1,1992


gust 1, .1991  issue you will find a          roads and vehicles" (p. 28). So, the        when that will be the charge which is
review @y' the editor]. of a book by          Spirit leads apart from Scriptural          going to be lodged against you by
RonaldNash, "The Concept of God,"             propositions.                               men who are dead serious. You, with
which deals exactly with this new                  In fact, Hart makes explicit ref-      your dogmatic Christianity, are what
theology.)                                    erence toPsalm 119:105,  "Thywordis         has been wrong with the Christian
     But now I want to give you a             a lamp unto my feet." His exegesis?         faith for centuries. Away with you!
taste of what this Hendrik Hart is            "Literally, this text does not refer to          Theupshot? As.onemanpointed
teaching. Hart's articulation of. the         the Bible.... Gods Word, not the Bible,     out at the close of J. GreshamMachen's
modern assault against the historic           is called a lamp" (emphasis mine -          kangaroo-court trial by the apostatiz-
Christianfaithisbeingmetwith"great            IO (P.22).                                  ing PCUSA, and his consequent d#epo-
delight, and with thorough-going                   What is this but the age old her-      sition from office, "Dr. Machen was
agreement" (Nicholas Wolterstorff,            esy of subjectivism? It is the continu-     tried for the heresy of opposing her-
back cover). What Hart's agenda is is         ation of the theology of a man like the     esy." This is the situation in most of
not so difficult to detect. He speaks of      late Karl Barth, who made a distinc-        which goes by the name of Christ's
mankind being threatened by a great           tion' between Gods authoritative            church. There is only one heresy,
darkness, and of the church's calling         Word and the Bible. We will `hear'          namely, to oppose the wolves and
to be a light in the world and to lead        the Word of God as we confront things       their heresies. Those who do are
men out of this darkness. We are              out there and bring forth our own           heretics. That's the charge that is go-
called to "embody the light that Jesus        truth as we respond by faith and love.      ing to stick.
is" (p. 13). In fact, on page 12 Hart              Now let me quote a passage that             And this is Dr. Hart.
speaks of the church's calling I to con-      demonstrates how clever this wolf in             "Godachieves [repentance], says
tinue incarnating God to save the             sheep's clothing is. Hart writes of         Paul, by tolerance.... Tolerance is
world"! What is this but incipient            God's wrath spoken of in the latter         God's way to repentance.... We must
process theology?                             part of Romans 1 and the first part of      learn to trust God's tolerance."
     But how are we to embody the             Romans 2. These passages you prob-               That will not only help us be-
light? Listen: "...we need to focus our       ably have understood to be an apos-         come receptive to others, but we'll
faith on practice rather than on theory,      tolic word against the prevailing sins      also find it easier to believe God is
by walking in the light ratherthan  an        andimmoralities of the age. But guess       kind toward us. God is tolerant and
understanding doctrine" (p. 13).              again. According. to Hart this is an        patient, God is kind and ecumenical.
Again, "...[In] chapter three [I argue]       indictment against N our confessional,      Though there is a limit to this toler-
that the Bible can be read as a book of       doctrinal, church-orderly, synodical        ance. In Romans 2:5 God visits with
light better than as an infallible text of    heritage" (p.58). He then goes on to        wrath those who show contempt for
objective truth" (p. 16). What is this        assert that those who stand for such a      divine tolerance. Otherwise, says Paul
but the ongoingassault againstpropo-          heritage are against God's grace.           in 11:6, grace would no longer be
sitional truth and biblical inerrancy?             "We shall not experience grace,        grace (pp.58,59,60).
Again, "In the Bible truth is related to      because grace is a fruit of justice as           If you go to the last chapter you
being on the right way, more than to          mercy. A psychologist described             will find that this tolerance is espe-
(our western) having the right infor-         Christian families neglecting the           cially to be displayed towards those
mation" (p. 30).                              mercy of God's justice as rigid and         of the church who are living in the sin
     Notice the asininity of this wolf        rule bound, male dominated, Iegalis-        of homosexuality.
-we must follow the right way, but            tic about church attendance and Chris-           But you see what has happened.
withoutareliableroadmap!  Oragain,            tian behavior, interpreting the Bible       The man has stolen our biblical vo-
"So the Bible and Western tradition           literally, disciplining harshly, and in-    cabulary. And we be those who tfeach
do not simply coincide. Truth in the          tolerant of change in church or soci-       the doctrine of devils. They are the
Bible cannot simply be understood as          ety. This is the tradition which sternly    angels of light and love. And if i.n the
what is the case, the right view, the         warns: repent! God accepts you in           endtheymustputusaway,itcanonIy
correct formulation, the one accept-          Christ; if you repent. No real grace        be because we, beyond all endurance,
able articulation, objective informa-         here, no awareness that the Heidel-         have tried even their patience and
tion, historical accuracy" (p. 31). How       berg Catechism knows the law as rule        tolerance. And so they will at last be
do we know what this truth is? He             of gratitude and obedience as fruit of      compelled to put us away, but it will
points us of course to John 14 and 16         new life; obedience of faith, as Paul       be with tears, weeping all the while
and the Spirit of truth. "But in giving       calls it (Romans 15)"                       that we have rejected their overtures
such specifics (as you findin the New              Mercy! Are you all ready f or the      of love in our hard-headed way. 0 Oh,
Testament Scriptures--I(K), the Spirit        psychiatrist's couch (and psychiatric       Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how we in love
primarily gives directions and direc-         treatment) or what! Brethren, we            would have gathered you, you chil-
tives that go beyond these specifics...       may treat such as a joke now, but you       dren of the pharisees...."
the Spirit is not limited by existing         must realize that the day is coming              So what can they do except in

                                                                                             February 1,1992 / Standard Bearer 1211


       .
              their patient and kindhearted way                           be misunderstood. These men do not            andwho for all their double-talkwant
      `put us to death at last. That's the                                want to get rid of the creeds in order to     to bring an end to the Apostolic Word
 .: .:. spirit behind this book.                                          return to Scripture, as they so piously       ruling in Christ's church. It is this
      ..1 ;'                And now .permit me but one                    state; they want to get rid of the creeds     Faiththatpenetratestheirdeceitmost
       more brief quote to.lay bare the very                              in order to get rid of that view of           effectively, and, where applied, makes
       darkness of  thisHart.
             ;.'  _  -.                             ;,          1         Scripture, namely,. that the Bible is         theiryammeringineffective,andpre-
                            "An orthodox confessional  tra-               God's Word. Not, it contains man's            vents many from being led astray to
-  -:;$!  diti~measuresitsfaithfulnessinpart                              response to God's Word, but, it is            be devoured in their generations.
      -:`;:' w&the$a,rdstickof a doctrinalstate-                          God's Word, and as such it is infal-                   If the SB serves no other pur-
      !:i ment called a confession. The doctri-                           lible, inerrant, and filled with Apos-        pose than to promote the knowledge
      y  ,naLstatement  articulates the'confes-                           tolic precepts that apply to 20th cen-        of and esteem for the old standards of
      :' , sior$lLcon;tent  of the faith. [But] To be                     .tury man and 21st century society in         our faith, it has rendered Christ's
       1 l&yal.@.or  subscribe to such a confes-                          the same authoritative way as they            church and people an invaluable ser-
                    s$$i ikkefy different from following                  did to first century men and women.           vice.
       the  pe&on*of.Jesus" (p.122).  I                                        These men want liberty to spout                   And now one final question,  1
      _ . .                                                               their unbiblical and ungodly teach-           namely, what purpose do we hope to
                                                                     :    ings at will without the looming pres-         accomplish in all our polemical writ-
 :                            The vast majority                           ence of the creeds threatening them,          ing? Do we write in the hopes that
      4 :                      of Protestantism                           to be used at any time by the least-          perhaps we can persuade propagaters
                               has capitulated.                           schooled member of the church to               of this or that error to see and recant
                                                                          label their teaching for what it is -         their position? No, that is doubtful to
                                   Shall z$e?                             false doctrine; and to expose them for        the extreme, and almost without ex-
                                                                          what they are - heretics. It is all            ception an excercise in futility. But
                                                                          black on white. These wolves want             there are others, as should be obvi-
                           1 And then Hart goes on to say                 the license to interpret the Bible any         ous, who have an awakening interest
            . . . thisis animpediment.  In our modern                     way they please without opposition.           in true Calvinism and arelooking for.
                    age the creeds stand between the be-                  But the creeds will not let them, not as       answers, consistently Reformed an-
                    liever and the living Word of God.                    long as these men want to claim that           swers, to questions of doctrine con-
                    This is the heart of the thesis, and it               they are Reformed or Calvinistic. The          frontingthemselves.  Thereisnoihing
                    represents the agenda of the day. It is               creeds remain a witness against their         .like the printed page to allow them to
                    nothing less than a lurking enmity                    re-definitions.                                weigh the evidence.
                    against the creeds of the historic Chris-                  These men are after the jugular                   So we persist in writing and :
                    tian faith. This is where the battle                  of the present.. day? church, namely,         publishing in the interests of the Re-
                    rages. This is' the heritage, at stake,               her living confession of the  God-             formed truth  consistentZy set forth.
      ;  ._ and such must be publicized.                                  breathed scriptures. It is this and            We stress that word "consistently."
                            However, there is one problem:                nothing less that is at stake in this         There are many who are basically
                    men of Hart's calibre assure you they                 battle over the binding power of the           Reformed, but with whom we differ
                    are not interested in detroying any-                  creeds.                                        at some point, as for instance Klaas
              thing, muchless  maligning the creeds.                            This, of course, stands as a cause       Schilder. The points of difference
                    It is simply that the creeds, for which               dear to your hearts. You are the               have been and are to be examined
              they have highest esteem and admi-                          ReformedFree  Publishing Association.          and, if inconsistent with the one whole,
            :`. ration, and which have served a most                      This is what you are committed to              rejected. As the earlier writers in the
                    commendable purpose in the milieu                     promoting. The SB itself does not              SB  never wearied of stressing,
                `of a bygone era, have now outlived                       claim to be promoting theology of              beginselen werkendoor (principles work
                    their usefulness, and must be laid to                 some recent vintage, but theology of           through)! What could be plainer than
               rest. Let us bury them, then, with                         the `older, wiser sort,' namely that           the theory of common grace!
                    highest. military honors, and let the                 found in the great Reformed creeds.                    Our confidence, then, has to do
      : trumpet sound be that of the blowing                              What motivates us to write, in great          . with the power of the printed page.
              of-taps, as we garnish the sepulchres                       measure surely, is the assurance that          Surely the  16thcentury  Reformation
                    of.the prophets.                                      the creeds have not outlived their             demonstrated just how God honors
       .  :                 The vast majority of,  Protes-                usefulness, but that these venerable           truth on the printed page, and uses it
              .I tantism has capitulated. Shall we?,
            -c.:                                                          documents have something vital to              for gathering, defending, and pre-
        ._                  Why do these men stand against                say to the new forms of errors.                serving His church with its members.
      .* I:, the creeds? Why? Because the his,                                 .It is the Reformed faith as it           There is evidence that He is doing
              toric creeds without exceptionhave a                        wields the Calvinistic truth that is still     that through our written material.
       -. certain view. of Scripture, and they                            the most deadly and powerful oppo-                     The evidence? The amount of
             - forbid any other view. Let that never                      nent of those who at heart are wolves,         preaching our seminary professors

                    212 /Standard Bearer  I February  I,1992


have had to do the past year, and are       ders assisting in their absence, could        true Dayspring comes again from on
scheduled to continue.  -                   be left in peace. We as churches, at         high.
     Why is this? Because so many of        least, could be free of this drain on                 This is what the SB has endeav-
our .area  pulpits are vacated ,by pas-     manpower, andothers could carry on            ored to do in~the past 60+ years.
tors who are flying hither, thither,        the work. For who in the wide world                   The Lord has blessed the en-
and yon preaching to small groups           would ever hear of us or know what            deavor, warts and all.
scattered, it seems, all over the globe,    in the wide world we stand for and               There are few enough .who are
groups of believers who are taking us       defend? The trumpet blast would               committed to true. Calvinism. God's `-.
by violence and who persist in plead-       scarcely be heard outside. our own           universal church needs to know that -
ing for preaching.                          walls.                                        there are others, like us, who also see
    You weary of these contacts and              And this will please the Lord            the wolves for what they are (and, I
your pastors being gone?                    Christ in these last times? as God's          am tempted to say, who nail their
                                            own are confronted by the Harts of            hides to' the wall). But I will content .
                                            darkness and the doctrines of raven-          myself with a free translation of Paul's 1
      Now is not the time                   ous wolves??                                  words in Galatians  2  as he `opposed __
              to. retreat                        The very stones would testify            the  Judaizers:  To whom we give
   within our own walls . . .               against us. Now is not the time to           place by yielding our Reformed in-
                                            retreat within our own walls, and to          heritance, no,`not one inch, that the
                                            let the wolves scatter and devour out         truth of the gospel might continue
                                            there whom they will. .Now is the             with you and all those who love the
     Well, I have the solution. Stop        time to put the trumpet to the lips, the      truth as it is .in Jesus. And He shall
the silly printing presses. It is your      trumpet that blows the clear, certain        come as a refiner's fire, and who shall
own fault. If you would but roll up         sound of the truth of all the ages, the       abide the day.of His coming? Surely
the SB and stop your support of pub-        truth embodied in the clear-notes of          not any who have either added to or
lishing endeavors, perhaps all this         the creeds, echoing the timeless Mes-         taken' away from the Words of the
clamor for help would cease, and we         sianic words of the Scriptures. This is      `Book.  0 .
pastors and professors, and you el-         the urgent need of the hour,.until  the



Book Reviews

The Bo,ok of the Revelation, by Philip      takes averse by verse approach, care-         of perfect salvation is achieved in the
E. Hughes. GrandRapids:  Eerdmans,          fully explaining the text in the light of     new creation. .Hughes has done an
1990. 242 pp.; $17.95, hardcover.           the whole of Scripture, yet without           excellent job of relating the prophe-
[ReviewedbyRev. CharlesTerpstra.]           technical jargon -and cumbersome              cies of Revelation to those of the.Old
                                            sidetracks. Itis an"eminentlystraight-        Testament,' showing how the latter
     Profitable commentaries on the         forward biblicd  commentary," to use          are fulfilled by the former. His treat-
last bookof  the Bible are hard to come     the words of the publisher's blurb.           ment of the symbolism of the book is
by, especially. those written from a        For this reason it can be used by the         careful and adequate, free of  far-
conservative, amillennial point of          layman as well as by pastors and              fetchedinterpretation and sensation-
view.. This volume is an exception          Bible study leaders.                          alism.
however, and that is what makes it a             There are-other strengths to this                This is not to say that there are
welcome addition- to commentaries           commentary. It is based on the                not weaknesses and even points of
on Revelation.                              premise that the bookis  relevant and         error in this commentary. The author
     The author, who was an Angli-          applicable to the church throughout           believes that the first ,horseman of
can clergyman and a New Testament           the New Testament era; hence many             chapter 6 represents a wicked power
scholar who spent part of his career        good points of application are made,          of despotic rule with a lust for power
teaching at Westminster Theological         also in connection with the letters to        and world domination, not the pow-
Seminary (he died in May of 1990),          the seven churches. The author has            erful march of the gospel throughout
has written a very helpful exposition       properly captured and conveyed the            the world. In his explanation of the
of this difficult b.ook. Not only is his    positive outlookof Revelation, stress-        expressions "names written in the
standpoint        conservative     and      ing the sovereignty of God and the            book of life" and "names not written
amillennial, but his style is biblical,     victory of Jesus Christ over all the          in the book of life" Hughes is weak on
i.e., expository, and popular. Hughes       powers of darkness, so that His goal          sovereign election and reprobation,

                                                                                             kbruary 1,1992 / Standard Bearer / 213


                                                                   ._:
                                         "
                                          ;            ;.          .:           y:.:.
                    I             :.                                     .:~
                                                *,           ,.                                                .  .  .                                           `.

         '                 speaking .instead' merely of the "re-                                  EventhoughthisviewofHughes             intellectual powers . . . married! to a
                    . generate" and'%nregenerate."
                     :.                                                                      does not dominate his interpretation        genuinely pastoral heart," (from the
                            `.          Knowing that Hughes: has been                        and destroy the general value of his        front jacket  cover). He is also the
         -.                &arged  by certain evangel&& with                                 exposition, it is a serious error. It       author of a commentary on the book
               "
.                          denying the -doctrine  of eternal pun-                            stands in sharp opposition to the clear     of -Hebrews,. likewise published by
               :. ,,.ishment and teaching in its place an-                                   teaching of Scripture `concerning hell      The Banner of Truth Trust.
..  ~~`~~~`:$&$-&n   (that  the,e&ed  reprobate
     ,., I, :- .                                                                             and it takes away from the-authority            Brown's exposition is in the fla-
               '  v h$$$$riately destroyed), E deliber-                                      and justice of God in the punishment        vor of the Puritans of the century
                    $el% watched for  this. as I  w.ent                                      of the wicked.                              before him -detailed explanation of
                           through this commentary. And sure                                      With these weaknesses in mind,         the text and rich practical application.
                           eno,ugh!  I found enough evidence to                              the Reformed I Christian can never-         In other words, his concernis to reach
                    . s~uJ$tantiate  this charge. Hughes re-                                 theless profit from the use of this         both head and heart! Here is a sam-
                    "`. p$j$ly &ids using the word "hell"                                    otherwise fine commentary. l %              pling from his treatment of John :L2:27:
                           @id its implicit idea of a place of                                                                                What a wonderful display of
                           everlasting torment, even when Rev-                               Discburses and Sayings of Our Lord,           character is here made by our Savior,
                           elation speaks of everlasting punish-                             by John Brown. Edinburgh: The                 in this exercise of that love whidh is
                           ment and torment for the enemies of                               Banner of Truth Trust, 1990 reprint. 3        thefuhilhngofthelaw!  LovetoGod,
                           Christ and His church. And in sev-                                vols., approx. 528 pages per volume,          in the form of entire submission to
                           eralplacesHughesexplicitlysetsforth                               $74.95, cloth. [Reviewed by Rev.              his will  - devotedness to his glory;
                                                                                                                                           love to man, in a readiness to suffer
                           his view of annihilation.                                         Charles Terpstra.]                            the extreme of shame and agony, in
                                        For example, in connection with                                                                    becoming obedient to death-death
                           Revelation 1:18 he writes that in His                                  As the title to this three-volume        under the curse - the death of the
                           secondcomingChristwillraiseallthe                                 set indicates, this is an.exposition  of      cross -for our salvation. If we have
                           dead, "both the impenitent to judg-                               both the extended discourses and the          a particle of spiritual discernment,
                           ment and destruction and the regener-                             short sayings of Jesus Christ. It may         such calm, principled, disinterested,
                           ate to life and glory," (p. 29). In                               be classified therefore as a commen-          self-sacrificing love, must call forth
                           explaining the concept of the "second                             tary on selected parts of the four gos-     the sentiments of adoring esteem,
                           death" (chap. 20:6, 14), he writes:                               pels. Volume 1 treats John 3-6, Mat-          gratitude, and love, II, p. 219).
                           "Thus the second deathis total death,                             thew 5-7 and 15, Luke 11 and 12, and             Thosewhoarelookingforagood
                           the utter destruction of final judgment                           Mark 7; volume 2, John 7, 8, 10, 12,        supplemental commentary on the
                           executed against the obdurate en-                                 and 13; and volume, John 14-16.             gospels, or those who are looking for
                           emies of God," (p. 215). And in con-                                   John Brown (1784-1858, "of             a devotional work through which to
                           nection with God's final defeat and                               Edinburgh," as heis'known, to distin-       become better acquainted with the
                           punishment of Satan and the antichrist                            guish him from other John Browns)           Person and work of their Savior,. will
                           described in chapter 20:9,10, Hughes                              was a Scottish minister and professor       find these needs abundantly met in
                           speaks of this as "their elimination                              of theology. He has been called "one        these volumes.  CI
                           from God's creation," (p. 217) (em-                               of the finest biblical expositors of his
                           phasis mine in all three quotes, CJT).                            own or any age," with-"outstanding


                           Report of Classis East

                                                                           January 8,1992    the chairman for this session.              failure to implement a' decision of
                                                                                                  The business, for the most part,       classis  regarding the use of  The
                                        Classis East met in regular ses-                     was routine. Classis did, however,          Psalter.
                           sion on Wednesday, January 8,1992                                 spend a considerable amount of time              In other business, Classis was
                           at the Hope Protestant Reformed                                   discussing the report of the church         informedby the consistories of South-
                           Church, Walker,' Michigan. Each                                   visitors, particularly their visits to      west and Grandville that they in-
                           church was represented by two del-                                Wyckoff and Norristown. The action          tended to appeal to synod the deci-
                           egates. Also present for an hour of the                           taken by classis with regard to this        sions of the September/ October
                           morning's proceedings were the                                    report was to appoint a special com-        classis regarding their protests.
                           church history students of Calvin                                 mittee to make recommendations as           Classis also granted Covenant's re-
                           Kalsbeek from Covenant Christian                                  to the proper pr&edure  to be fol-          quest to ask the churches in Classis
                           High School. Rev. M. Joostens was                                 1owedregardingNorristownandtheir            East to take collections fortheirBuild-

                           214 /Standard Bearer I February I,1992


ing Fund. A similar request will be        Feb. 16,23-Bruinsma; March 1,8-              Joostens, K. Koole, J. Slopsema. EL-
sent to synod to ask Classis West to do    Flikkema, LARNE: Feb. 16,23,  Mar. 1         DERS:  Primi:  C. Doezema, D.
the same.                                  - K. Hanko; Mar. 29, April 5,12 -            Engelsma, P. Miedema, K. Schipper;
        Classis adopted the following      Slopsema.                                    Secundi:  H. Boer, D. Harbach, H.
appointmentschedule: SOUTHEAST                  January is the time classis  spends     Langerak, T. Looyenga. Church Visi-
(PM service only): Feb. 9  -               much time in voting. The following           tors: Revs. Kortering and VanBaren
Woudenberg; Feb. 16 - Kamps; Feb.          results: Delegates adexamina: Rev. G.        were elected to serve with Revs.
23 - Koole; March 1 - VanBaren;            VanBaren elected to a three-year             Kamps and Slopsema as alternates.
March 15 - Kamps; March 22 -               primus term; Rev. J. Slopsema elected             Expenses for this  classis
Joostens; March 29 - Koole; April 5        to a three-year secundus term. Classi-       amounted to $2,310.20.  Classis will
- VanBaren; April 19 - Bruinsma;           calCommittee: Rev. M. Kamps elected          meet next on Wednesday, May 13,
April26-Gritters;May3-Joostens;            to a three-year term. Synodical  Del-        1992 at Hudsonville.
May 10  - Kortering; May 24  -             egates: MINISTERS:  Primi:  W.                             Respectfully submitted,
VanBaren; May 31 -Koole; June 7 -          Bruinsma,M. Kamps, J. Kortering, G.                                    Jon 1. Huisken
Joostens; June 14-Kamps,  VENICE:          VanBaren; Secundi: B. Gritters, M.                                      Stated Clerk

 News From our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger

Congregational Activities                  alto, tenor, and bass. All this from a       Young Pedple's Activities
        At a congregational meeting on     choir which, according  to, our, 1991             The evening of December 22, the
October 15, the congregation of the        yearbook, consists of just 24 mem-           Young `People's Societies of our
Peace PR Church of Lynwood, IL             bers. Definitelyno.smallaccomplish-          churchesinIllinois (Bethel, Peace, and
decided to purchase 3.5 acres of land.     ment. The student body of Loveland           SouthHolland)  met at South Holland
Presently, Peace is meeting in the au-     ChristianSchoolalsosangtlireesongs           for a combined Christmas meeting.
ditorium of theIlliana  Christian High     as a special number.                         Each society gave, a special number.
Schoolin Lansing, IL. It-goes without           The Council of the -Southwest           There'iwas  carol &nging and a group
saying that any congregation desires       PRC of Grandville, MI approved the           discussion of Matthew 2:1-12, as well
to have its own home church sanctu-        public signing of the Formula of Sub-        as refreshments afterwards.
ary. Doubtless this is also true of        scription before the congregation at
Peace. This purchase represents the        the time df installation of officebearers    News from Singapore
first step down'that road.to  a church     into the office of Christ. By doing so,           We thought our readers would
home.                                      Southwest intended to underscore the         like some more highlights from one of
        Also concerning Peace Church       responsibility'&he officebearers to          the Korterings' letters written to their
we should mention here that in mid-        uphold the truth of God's Wordinter-         congregation in Grandville, MI.
DecembertheuChoralSodetyinvited            preted in our Three Forms of Unity.               In a recent letter, Rev. Kortering
the congregation to their annual                The congregation of the Hope            writes that he will be preaching at a
Christmas program.                         PRC in Redlands, CA recently spon-           combined service on Christmasmorn-
        The Church Choir of. the           sored a lecture given by Rev. ~Dale          ing. He writes: "This will be quite
Loveland, CO PRC presented their           Kuiper, pastor of the Immanuel PRC           special for us, because it will be my
Christmas program on Sunday, De-           of Lacombe, AB, Canada. Rev. Kuiper          first experience presenting the mes-
cember  15th..  This year's program        spoke on'the subject, "The Will of           sage in English and having it trans-
was comprised exclusively of selec-        God: One or Two?" While Rev.                 latedinto Chinese Mandarin, Quite a
tions from Handel's "Messiah." Not         Kuiper was in Redlands  for this lec-        number of young members have par-
only were there several chorus selec2      ture he, along with Rev. R. Moore,           ents who are not Christians and can
tions, but there were all the usual        pastor of the Hull, IA PRC,  con-            speak only Chinese. They like to take
soloists: soprano, mezzo soprano,          ductedchurchvisitation there on that         advantage of these opportunities to
                                           same weekend. And both of the vis-           have them hear the message of Christ.
                                           iting ministers preached one service         I plan to make a sermon on Luke :2:11,
                                           in Hope Church on Sunday.                    `A Savior is Born.' fl
                                                The congregation of the South
Mr. Wigger is a member ofthe Protestant    Holland, IL PRC approved a pro-              School Activities
Reformed ChurchofHudsonville,  Michi-      posal to replace their church's fur-              OnDecember 19 the students of
gan.                                       nace and air conditioners.                   the South Holland, IL PR Christian

                                                                                           February 1,1992 / Standard Bearer I215


               &DMD
                     BHER                                                                                                                                                 SECOND CLAISS
                                                                                                                                                                          Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                                          Grandville, Michigan
                     P. 0. Box 603
                     Grandvile, MI 49468-0603


               School presented their All-School                                   Sundays of the new year in Venice,                              RRC began taking video recordings
               Christmas Program. The students                                     FL.                                                             of their services for the purpose of
               developed the theme, "Worthy is the                                         And Rev. G. VanRaren, of our                            sending them on to Larne, Northern
               L a m b . "                                                         Hudsonville, MI PRC, filled a classi-                           Ireland.. Well, since that time the
                                                                                   cal appointment of three Sundays to                             video program of Hudsonville has
               Mission Activities                                                  the Covenant Reformed Fellowship                                expanded so that now videos areregu-
                        Rev. Cammenga, pastor of the                               of Larne, Northern Ireland.                                     larly sent not only to Northern Ire-
               Loveland, CO PRC showed slides of                                                                                                   land, but to Tasmania, andFt.  Wayne,
               his recent trip to Northern Ireland to                              Evangelism Activities                                           IN as well.
               his congregation after an evening ser-                                      The Evangelism Committee of
               vice in late December.                                              the South,Holland,  IL PRC reported                             Ministerial Calls
                       We should also mention here                                 recently that they received their first                                 Only one call to report on for this
               that Rev. Kamps, pastor of the South-                               letters from Russia.                                            issue. Prof. H. Hanko declined the
               west PRC in Grandville, MI filled a                                         Several months ago it was re-                           call he hadbeen  considering from the
               classical appointment the first two                                 ported here that the Hudsonville, MI                            Southeast PRC of Grand Rapids, MI.
                                                                                                                                                                                             cl
                                                                                          IN MEMORY OF                                                                                     -
                                                                                           HILDA MEELKER                                                  CONFERENCE ON THE
                                                                                    Our beloved wife, mother, grand-                                CHURCH ORDER OF  DORD'I
                                                                            mother, and great-grandmother,                                                          When:
                                                                            whom the Lord called home on No-                                              Tuesday, March 3, 1992,
                                                                            vember 2, 199i to praise our God                                                  beginning at 9 AM
                                                                            perfectly before the throne, with "joy                                                  W h e r e
                                                                            unspeakable and full of glory."                                      Doon Protestant Reformed Church,
                                                                                    When I in righteousness at last                                                Doon, IA
                                                                            Thy glorious face shall see, When all                                             Keynote Address
                                                                            the,weary  night is past, And I awake                                  "The Value of the Church Order
                                                                                                                                                                   To&y"             .-
                                                               . .          with;Tliee  To view the @pries that.
                                                                      abjde,:Then, then. I shalt be satisfied,. ,,,                                       by Rev, Ron' Cammeriga
                        `.     "      ..                                                                                                        .,  ,.'
                                                         ,.      ,,  ;.'  B&&j&lkef   -  :  a;.  `i  .z            "        1             ,'        `.,.(      a Sf&ibnals:
          :                                              "
               .'       "                                                                                               :  ":..  -'                 '  `;Que.stions  of  Article~41"
                               :  NOTl,&!,lj",:   ~  -,`;;  `,j :,  1;  HaI  aid  fiild&  S&&,m  :,  ~  `,  ;                                              I `Xei.        R,,Dykstra
I.,:,. Bible-Study at Dordt College..                                       Bernard and AnnaMae Meeiker '
                                                                      .,                                                                          "Erasure.of  Baptized Members"
                       A group of students'dedicated `,                            `Tom and  Gretine, Bodbyl                        ,
.,..`!                                                                             ,Berend and Janine Meelker                                              Rev. C. Terpstra
 ::,.to the .historic Reformed. Faith .is.                                                                                               `.         !`Deacons' Meetings," (Art. 40)
-meeting together again the second                                                 -Henry and Karen Meelker                                                   Rev.  R; Moore
,Y. semester for a Bible study. The                                                 Roger and Hilda Gritters                                         "Censura Morum," (Art. 81)
               meetings, sponsored by the Protes-                                   Dan and AnnaMae Bodbyl                                                    Rev. W. Bekkering
          tant Reformed Churches in the area,                                       Gerrit and Bonnie Meelker                                    "Consistorial Promotion of Christian
               are. held on Monday evenings at                                      Bert Meelker                                                              Schools," (Art. 21)
               7:00 in the Dordt  C.ollege  library.                                 and 22 great-grandchildren                                               Rev. A. denHartog
               Any student at Dordt is welcome to                            :-                            Redlandq,  California                 "Authority of Broader Assemblies,"
               attend. The discussions `last se-                                                                                                                 (Art; 31, 36)
               mester on the first three chapters of                                                                                                       Rev. R. VanOverloop
               Genesis were excellent. We plan to                                                                                               All past and present officebearers, as
               begin our discussion at Genesis 4.                                                                                               well as anyone who is interested is
               If you have any questions, please                                                                                                invited to attend. Hope to see you
               call Rev. Russ Dykstra (712) 726-                                                                                                there!
               3382.                                                                                                                                                                       -
               216 /Standard Bearer I February 1,1992


