      The
     STANDARD
      BEARER
P     A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





          If you ask  me  what is the most peculiar trea-
       sure of the Protestant Reformed Churches,  I
       answer without  any hesitation: their  peculiar
       view of the covenant.
          And what is their particular conception?
          It- stands closely connected with their denial
       of common grace, and with their emphasis on
       the doctrine of election and reprobation.
          Moreover,  il; emphasizes and carries out the
       organic idea.
          Briefly stated, it teaches that  God  realizes  His
       eternal covenant of friendship, in Christ, the
       Firstborn of every creature and' the  First-
       begotten of the dead, organically, and antitheti-
       cally along the lines of election and reprobation,
       and in connection with the organic development
       of all things.
          That is, in a nutshell, the peculiar Protestant
       Reformed heritage. [See page  2871





                                          Volume L, Number 12, March 15, 1974    -


2 7 6                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


MEDITATION


                     The Cry of the Forsaken One

                                                   Rev. M.  Schipper


             "And about the ninth hour Jesus  cried  with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli,  lama  sabachthani?
            that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
                                                                                        Matthew  27:46



   Three words of the Saviour on the cross had                   Gradually during the hours of darkness He had
already been uttered, and the third only a moment or          been sinking under the awful weight of divine
two before the sun had reached its zenith.                    judgment. And at the moment of the awful antithesis
                                                              when Light's darkness, Love's wrath, and Mercy's
    At noon, which was the sixth hour, when the sun           justice meet, then it is that you hear the piercing cry,
normally would be shining in its glory, unexpectedly          which constitutes the fourth word of the cross.
for the multitude that surrounded the cross a
mysterious darkness suddenly descended upon the                  My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
earth. An unusual and supernatural phenomenon, not               Strange question!
to be explained by natural causes! Symbol of the                 Could He, Who is the very Son of God, Who is
judgment of God, through which the world was to               eternally in the bosom of the Father, be forsaken?
pass, but also the Son of Man, the redeemer of His
people!                                                          0, indeed, we understand that He is the divine Son
                                                              in human nature, Who utters this cry! He is the
    A darkness it was which must have struck terror           Infinite in personal union with the finite, the eternal
into the hearts of the onlookers, accompanied as it           Son in intimate connection with the temporal. And
was with a terrific, earthquake which rent the veil of        we understand, too, that this is the hour of His
the temple in twain from top to bottom, and opened            deepest humiliation, when He suffers His blessed
the graves of many. A darkness it was which suddenly          body to be nailed to the cross; and, hanging on that
brought to an end the service in the temple, and              accursed tree, He gives His life for all those whom the
hushed the mockers at Calvary into amazement.                 Father had given Him. But even so, is He not the
   For three hours, from the sixth to the ninth hour,         eternal Son of God that descended from heaven,
the darkness prevailed, during which time also the            while He is still in heaven, that went out from the
Saviour hangs silently on the cross!                          Father, yet is still with the Father? Is He not
                                                              Immanuel, God incarnated, in Whom the union of
   And who can tell of the thoughts and agonies that          God and man can never be broken?
troubled His soul, and pounded in that feverish body,
as He hangs suspended between earth and heaven?                  Moreover, is it not also true that He is the obedient
God is pleased not to tell us what thoughts dwelt in          Servant in whom God always finds His good pleasure?
His soul, and what awful sufferings He endured. And           We remember, do we not, how that. only a short time
therefore we shall have to pass over these hours in a         before this hour He had the testimony of this when
silence of reverent awe.                                      He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, when He
                                                              was glorified in the presence of Moses and  Elias, and
    It is only at the very end of this period of              before the eyes of His favorite disciples? Did not the
judgment that we hear the cry that indicates the              Father exclaim on that occasion: This is My beloved
agony He bore. An out-cry that seems to rise as it            Son? Was it not a testimony which strengthened Him
were out of the very abyss of hell! "Eli, Eli,  lama          to go down from that mountain and to descend into
sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou                    the valley of suffering and humiliation? Is it not true
forsaken me?"                                                 that He always gave evidence that it was His meat and
    It is the cry of the forsaken One!                        drink to do the will of Him Who sent Him? That


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                   2 7 7



though He feared, He never murmured, though He             is precisely hell because God is there. Also on
dreaded the hour He never rebelled, though He had          Golgotha God is present, sustaining the cross and its
prayed that the cup might pass from Him, He was            Sufferer. He is present in the darkness.
always submissive to the will of Him Who had given            But to be forsaken means to lose the consciousness
Him that cup to drink?                                     of His friendship! In His friendship there is life and
                                                           joy and pleasures forevermore. Such joy and
   Is He then, in this supreme moment of conflict,         fellowship the Saviour had heretofore always
not the beloved Servant of God's good pleasure? Can        experienced. But in the intense darkness Jehovah now
God forsake Himself? Or the Father forsake the Son?        hides His face and withdraws His fellowship from
How could it be possible that Jehovah God should           Him. It is the darkness of the judgment hour! In it
forsake His Servant, leave Him in utter desolation,        God concentrates the presence of His offended
and that, too, at the very moment of His most perfect      holiness,    a n d   o f   H i s   a v e n g i n g   j u s t i c e ,   H i s
obedience, and supreme sacrifice?                          righteousness and truth upon that cross and its
   Strange question, indeed!                               victim. And withdrawing from the consciousness of
  And why does He raise the question?                      His Servant all His favor, and the joy of His
                                                           fellowship, He causes Him to feel the terror of His
  Does He not know?                                        justice; as He, the Son of God in the flesh, alone
  Listen to Him cry out: Why hast Thou forsaken            could feel it. It is the anguish of one that stands face
Me?                                                        to face with the living God as Judge of sinful man. It
  And the meaning of that "why?" is: for what              is the suffering of one upon whom all the vials of
reason? because of what? What is the ground of my          God's holy wrath are poured out. He is forsaken,
being so utterly forsaken?                                 plunged into the horror of one who is cast away in
                                                           God's holy and righteous anger. The cross and its
  Does He perhaps forget the why of this dreadful          Sufferer are, as it were, plunged into the blackness of
hour? But how could that be, when you remember             hell !
how that all along He had spoken of this very hour?
Constantly He had reminded His disciples of the               Yet, conscious that God is His God!
nearness of the hour. And even for this hour He had           In all the desolation, He is still God's Son!
prayed.                                                       Conscious He is that the Father loves Him. Never
  And how is it to be explained that while He senses       did the Son lose sight of that divine relationship, the
that he has been utterly forsaken by His God, that He      only comforting assurance He had as He entered this
still addresses Him: My God, my God?                       darkest hour. And always that Son responds to that
                                                           love of the Father. My God, my God, Thou knowest
   The answer to all these questions lies bound up in      that I love Thee!
the fact that this hour of darkness is at the same time
the hour of redemption!                                       Conscious is He also that He is the Father's
                                                           obedient Son! While He is the Son lying in the bosom
   In such an hour, and especially in its darkest          of the Father, He is also the Son in human nature,
moment, it is the meeting time, the confrontation of       doing the Father's will. He suffers not because He was
the most astonishing truths, of God forsaken of God,       disobedient, but because He is obedient, even unto
of the obedient Servant suffering God's displeasure,       death. His suffering He knows is not for His own sin,
of calling upon God, while being utterly forsaken of       of which He had none; but for the sin of His people.
Him.                                                       His most amazing passion is an act of sacrifice, a deed
   It is the redeeming hour!                               of loving obedience.
   When the most abundant mercy executes righteous            He suffers as Mediator!
judgment, when the most unfathomable love pours               The place of His brethren He took in the hour of
out vials of holy wrath, when the most absolutely          God's judgment! The chastisement of our peace was
Innocent suffers the most dreadful, just punishment.       upon Him. And God laid on Him the iniquities of  us
When  HeWho  knew no sin, is made sin.                     all. Willingly and obediently He bore it to the bitter
   Awful reality!                                          end.
   Forsaken of God!                                           Hence, the apparent conflict! The hour of the most
   Let us understand it well. This cannot mean that        perfect obedience is the moment of deepest gloom.
the one forsaken no longer has the consciousness that      Though forsaken, yet calling upon His God!
God is, and that he is not near to him and surrounds          And there is an answer to that question which was
him on every side. Even one who descends into hell         wrung out of Him as He hung midst the stream of
cannot escape His presence. Fact of the matter is, hell    Jehovah's wrath!


2 7 8                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


    You ask, My Son, why thou hast been forsaken of                             of the forsaken One! Though no answer could be
Me?                                                                             heard, nor no audible reply was given, God surely
                                                                                heard the outcry, and satisfied the quest of His Son.
    Why, My Son, dost Thou cry so loudly for an                                 The evidence must be seen in the succeeding words of
answer?                                                                         the cross: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things
    Dost Thou not remember, My Son, that when                                   were now accomplished, that the scripture might be
Thou wast sent into the world it was with the express                           fulfilled, saith, I thirst . . . When Jesus therefore had
purpose to save My people whom I have given unto                                received the vinegar, he said, It is finished . . . And
Thee from the wrath to come? Didst Thou, as Thou                                when He had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father,
didst bear the torments of hell in their stead, become                          into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said
so amazed at the terror of My holy wrath over against                           thus, he gave up the ghost." None of this could or
their sin, that Thou didst lose out of sight that                               would He have said, had He not received the
nothing less than Thy death could harmonize justice                             satisfying answer to His out-cry. When He is assured
and mercy? Hast Thou forgotten as the pains of hell                             that He has finished the work the Father had given
gat hold upon Thee, that Thy people could never                                 Him to do, only then can He commend His spirit to
endure My wrath over against their sin, so as to bear                           Him Who gave it.
it away? And that Thou alone couldst endure the                                    And all we can say after meditating on all this, is  -
judgment, while at the same time fulfilling the                                    My God, my God, how unfathomable is Thy
mandate of My holy law?                                                         everlasting love over Thy people !
    Such, indeed, must have been the answer to the cry                             And, my Saviour, how wonderful Thou art!


EDITORIALS



                                                         Editor's Notes



   Change of Address, Editorial  Office. Effective                              except the song-service is available at a cost of $3.00.
March 15, all correspondence for our Editorial Office                           If interested, send your name and address and enclose
s h o u l d   b e   a d d r e s s e d   t o   4 9 7 5   Ivanrest   A v e . ,    a check or money order for $3.00 to our Business
Grandville, Michigan 494 18. Moving is at best a rather                         Office, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49506.
traumatic experience, especially if it involves moving                                                          *****
an office and a library and trying to keep everything                             E x c e p t   f o r   t h e   b r i e f   e d i t o r i a l   a b o u t   t h e
operating smoothly meanwhile. It will help if all                               subscription campaign, we are devoting the usual
correspondents take note of this change of address.                             space of Editorials and Question Box to a transcript
Incidentally, the mailing address  - and this applies to                        of Prof. Decker's Dedicatory  .Address and some
the seminary as well as to my address  - is not                                 pictures of the Seminary Building and the dedication
Wyoming (though we are actually located in that                                 program.
city), but GRANDVILLE.                                                                                          *****
                               *****                                              We take this means of extending our sympathy to
  Recordings of the Dedication Program.  A                                      two members of our staff, Rev. Cornelius Hanko and
90-minute cassette tape recording or a reel-to-reel                             Prof. Herman Hanko, in the death of Mrs. C. Hanko
tape recording (7-inch reel) which includes all of the                          on Saturday, March 2. May the Lord comfort the
program of the Dedication of the Seminary Building                              bereaved by His  Spitit  and Word.


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     2 7 9





                                                 One Thousand!

                                                           Pro6  H. C. Hoeksema



     That is the number of new subscribers which has                       there have been some modest increases in our
  been set as the goal of  ti extended drive which the                     readership. And one of the most encouraging aspects
  Board of the R.F.P.A. is beginning with this issue.                      of this increase is that most of our new readers are
  And a committee of the Board has asked me to give                        people of God outside our Protestant Reformed
  some editorial emphasis to this drive.                                   Churches. What is even more encouraging is their
     First of all, why is this drive being conducted?  The                 almost uniform reaction to the  Standard Bearer  once
  reason is not one of money and profit. Ours is in the                    they have become acquainted with it. People will
  most literal sense a non-profit organization: our                        write to our Business Office that they are "just
  subscription-hrice  of $7.00 does not come near                          delighted" with the  Staudard  Bearer,  or that they
  meeting the ever-increasing costs of publication. And                    "read it from cover to cover," or that they "wish
  while it is true that an increase of one thousand                        they had known of the  Standard Bearer  long ago," or
  subscribers would mean a proportionate reduction in                      that they wish that many more who are of basically
  the cost per copy, this would only be a side benefit;                    Reformed convictions would read it.
  and it is definitely not the motivation for this drive.
  Fact is, we would probably need more than two                               And such kind reactions serve to confirm us in our
  t h o u s a n d   n e w   s u b s c r i b e r s   b e f o r e   t h e    conviction as to the Reformed witness of our
  subscription-price would cover actual costs of                           magazine. But they also serve to remind us of the
  publication. Besides, our supporters, both churches                      necessity and the responsibility to try to reach as
  and individuals, have demonstrated over the years a                      many readers as possible. This is not a matter of
  willingness to give generously to meet our expenses.                     pride. It does not arise out of a desire to be big,
                                                                           something which we never shall be anyway. We
     Why do we want new subscribers?                                       believe that this is our calling before God! That
     Because we firmly believe that we have a message                      explains the reason and the motivation for this
  to spread abroad, and that, too, a distinctively                         subscription drive.
  Reformed message. The purpose of our  Standard                              The goal of one thousand is rather arbitrary. We
 Bearer  from the very beginning has been to send forth                    have set that number only to have a realistic target at
 by means of the printed page a Reformed witness!                          which to aim. And personally, I consider that goal
 That remains our purpose today.                                           entirely realistic  - if only we all persistently strive to
     In fact, it is more emphatically our purpose than                     attain it.
j ever before. We are of the conviction, in this day of                      That brings up the big question: how do we reach
 galloping apostasy, that there is no other magazine                       that goal?
 quite like ours, no other magazine which consistently,
 explicitly, thoroughly, boldly, and clearly sets forth                      The problem is: how can we reach potential new
 the truth of the Word of God according to our                             readers? How can we even get others to  sample  our
  Reformed confessions. And we are of the conviction                       magazine, to taste it? For we believe that once many
 that in this day when the Reformed truth is becoming                      people of Reformed convictions get a taste of it, they
 a scarce item in the ecclesiastical marketplace and                       will want more.
 when many a church paper and religious magazine is                          This is the point at which you, the readers, enter
 offering stones for bread, it is more necessary than                      the picture.
 ever before to send forth our Reformed witness to as                        Enclosed with this issue is a reply-envelope. We are
 many as we can possibly reach.                                            asking all our readers to furnish us with one or two or
     Nor is this conviction merely our own, private                        three names of acquaintances or friends or relatives
 conviction. As has been reported to you recently,                         who do not now receive the  Standard Bearer  but


 2 8 0                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



should, in your opinion, receive it or who might be            And what will the R.F.P.A. do?
interested in receiving it. Write their names and
complete addresses (including zip codes) on the inside         The committee in charge intends to send a sample
flap of the postage paid envelope. If you need more         copy of the  Standard Bearer,  along with an
space, write the addresses on a. slip of paper and          introductory letter, to each address which you send
enclose it. And mail it promptly!                           us. Your name will not be mentioned; in fact, you
    That's all! It won't cost you a cent; only a few        need not even include your name. Just send us names
minutes of your time. With a little cooperation from        and addresses, and the Board will do the rest.
our readers, we could easily have two or three
thousand names!                                                Let me emphasize, however, the success of this
                                                            first step in the campaign for one thousand new
    But don't postpone it! And don't leave it to the        subscribers depends on your cooperation. The Board
other readers!                                              has other plans; an entire campaign has been mapped
    Here is a simple opportunity for each subscriber to     out. But let us all help to get this campaign off to a
do something to promote our magazine.                       flying start!


SEMINARY BUILDING DEDICATION


                                     That All The Earth
                  May Know That Jehovah Is God

                                               Prof:  Robert D. Decker



(The text  of  the address given at the Dedication          the lectures,  Theological Journal,  and  syllabi  for the
Program of the Protestant Reformed Seminary                 various courses of study; a library, bookstore, three
Building)                                                   fine classrooms; and a large faculty lounge which
    Mr. Chairman, Members of the Theological School         doubles as an office for conference and study. All
Committee, esteemed colleagues of the faculty,              these are completely and beautifully furnished.
students, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ;    Certainly this is a great thing which the Lord has
the Lord has done great things for us whereof we are        done for us and we are glad. It is the Lord Who
glad! This first of all! We rejoice tonight in what God     inclined the hearts of our membership to see the need
has done and not in what we have done. To rejoice in        and to give liberally so that we have not only adequate
our accomplishments would be quite vain and very            but beautiful facilities to meet the needs of an
sinful. We must be careful lest we fall prey to that        expanding curriculum and enrollment. And there it
great evil.                                                 stands, the Protestant Reformed Seminary, on that
   If we ask, what has God done to make us glad this        southwestern hill overlooking the entire greater
                                                            Grand Rapids area. After nearly fifty years of history,
evening, the answer is: He has given us a fine building     the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed
for the work of our Theological School. Though              Churches in America has a home of its own. Certainly
modest by comparison with many other seminaries, it         we ought to rejoice in humble thanks for that!
is a beautiful facility with all the necessary rooms for
the various functions and affairs of the Seminary.            But if this be the end of our rejoicing, it shall prove
There is an assembly room for practice preaching,           quite hollow. In the final analysis it is not the
chapel, and denominational affairs; an office and a         building which counts: that is only brick, stone, steel,
workroom for business affairs and the publishing of         and wood. To rejoice in that would be to rejoice in


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                        281


the earthly, which perishes. It is the world, not the        only mean; "There hath not failed one word of all his
church, which rejoices in buildings and lands. So we         good promise." Precisely according to every word of
rejoice in this: God has preserved the TRUTH among           His promise God has given His people the rest of
us! Think of it! We are able to say at this late date in     Canaan. The only response to that can be: "Blessed
history and in the context of rampant  apostacy  that        be the Lord."
the faith of our fathers, that great heritage of the             A parallel situation obtains for us at the occasion
Reformed Truth, is living still in our hearts and lives.     of the dedication of our new Seminary building. The
That is  the  great thing the Lord has done for us           occasion itself simply impels us to look back over the
whereof we are glad.                                         course of the nearly fifty years of our existence as
   To this end we dedicate the new building. It must         P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d   C h u r c h e s .   P r a c t i c a l l y
be dedicated as the place where the task of the              synonomous with the origin of our denomination was
Theological School of the Protestant Reformed                the beginning of our Theological School. The
Churches continues to be performed as long as time           beginning was small and there did not seem to be
endures. And, that task is: the defense and exposition       much prospect for the future. There were only a few
of the Truth set forth in the Confessions (Heidelberg        students, three protesting Christian Reformed
Catechism, Canons of Dordrecht, Belgic Confession            congregations, and one of these was very small.
of Faith) according to the Holy Scriptures. This must        Though we never did become big, God provided in a
be done in order that young men may be trained to            wonderful way. Churches were organized until we
be pastors and teachers in the churches.                     numbered some twenty-four or-five congregations by
   In order to reach this purpose of dedication we call      the late forties. But there was always trouble. The
your attention to I Kings  8:55-61;  the passage             history of the Protestant Reformed Churches has
containing the concluding speech of Solomon to the           been stormy. By the beginning of the second semester
children of Israel at the dedication of the temple. In       of the very first Seminary term one of the faculty,
the form of a prayer to Jehovah Solomon reminds              the Rev. Henry Danhof, resigned and with most of his
Israel of three great truths evident in the completion       congregation in Kalamazoo became independent. The
of the temple. The first of these is:  ". . . there hath     churches were  ne-ver  large, they were widely
not failed one word of all his good promise . . .  " (vs.    scattered, and often beset by internal difficulties.
56). God in His  convenant  faithfulness has given rest      Then there were the sad events of 1953 when nearly
to His people. This implies a calling:  ". . . The Lord      two-thirds of our clergy and membership departed
our God be with us . . . that he may incline our hearts      from the truth. And, even apart from all this, the
unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his           Protestant Reformed Churches have either been
commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments            ignored or despised for the truth's sake. One can well
         9,
. . .          (vss. 57, 58) Finally the purpose of this     imagine that our leaders must often have wondered
obedience must be:  ".  .   . That all the people of the     what would come of it all. But, God has been
earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there          faithful. He provided a goodly number of students,
is none else." (vs. 60) It is true, of course, that our      professors of theology, and a beautiful building in
seminary does not occupy the place in our fellowship         w h i c h   t o   w o r k .   W e   a r e   s t i l l   v e r y   s m a l l   a s
which the temple did in Israel. Yet, there is a              denominations and seminaries go, but surely the fact
legitimate parallel here to our place and calling as part    that by the grace of God we have built this building is
of God's church. Therefore as we dedicate this               testimony to the faithfulness of God. Indeed, "There
building let it be along this same threefold line. Let us    hath not failed one word of all his good promise!"
acknowledge, then, God's great faithfulness.  ,Let us           But there is a much greater testimony to the
dedicate this building to sanctified obedience to the        faithfulness of God and that is: WE HAVE NOT
Word of God and let us do this in order that the             CHANGED! We are still preaching and teaching both
purpose of God may be attained: "that all the earth          in the churches and on the mission fields the same
may know that Jehovah is God".                               precious Reformed Faith of the Scriptures as
I. God's Great Faithfulness                                  expounded in the Creeds. The same truth prevails in
   At the dedication of the temple, Solomon simply           our fellowship, the truth on account of which our
could not help but be reminded of the great                  fathers were expelled from the mother church.  Fr.om
faithfulness of Jehovah. He thought, no doubt, about         our youngest to our oldest pastor comes the same
the deliverance from Egypt, the wilderness                   blessed truth of the Word of God! And with the same
wandering, the conquest of the promised land begun           emphases! The absolute sovereignty of God, the total
by Joshua and completed by his father, David. Now            d e p r a v i t y   o f   m a n , God's eternal covenant of
the inheritance is complete and God's dwelling place         friendship with His elect in Christ, salvation by grace
is made permanent on Zion's holy hill. Jehovah is            through faith, the gift of God; without shame and
present with His people in the sanctuary. All this can       without a bit of compromise this is what is being


2 8 2                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



taught in our Seminary and preached from our                  Israel. The fact that God realized every word of all
pulpits. It is an account of this that we are becoming        His good promise implied a calling for Israel. Israel
more and more unique among the seminaries of the              must walk in God's ways by keeping God's
world. The Theological School is unique in  havini   a        commandments, His statutes, and His judgments.
faculty of professors who believe heart and soul in           And, because Solomon knows only too well that Israel
the inspired and infallible Scriptures,  - this is rare in    can never persevere in obedience in its own strength,
our times! We are unique in our uncompromising                he prays that Jehovah may be with them just as He
commitment to the truth of the Word of God set                had always been with their fathers, that He may never
forth in the Reformed Creeds; the truth in all of its         leave or forsake them; but, that He may maintain His
constituent parts is defended and taught without the          cause by inclining the hearts of Israel to obedience. (I
slightest reservation on the part of any of the               King 8: 57-59)
professors. Creation in six days by the Word of God              Surely this is our calling today! God has not failed
according to Genesis 1  &  2, the fall of the human race      in all these years; He has faithfully kept every word
into sin, the flood and all the miracles recorded in the      of His promise. This means we are to walk in His
Bible, sovereign election and reprobation, the eternal        ways by keeping His commandments, His statutes and
r,ovenant  of grace established, maintained and               His judgements. We are to be faithful to His Word.
realized by God in Jesus Christ by His Spirit and             Apart from thankful obedience to the Word of God
Word; all these truths and more form the content of           in the days to come all these blessings become a
all the instruction given in our seminary just as they        witness against us. To this end let us dedicate our new
always have in the past. This, more than anything             building. Let it be the place where the Word of God is
else, is clear testimony to the truth: "there hath not        always honored, where professors and students alike
failed one word of all his good promise!" We did not          always bow before the Scriptures in humble
accomplish all this. God forbid that we should ever           submission.
boast in ourselves. God by His wonderful grace
preserved us in the truth! One aged saint of one of             And, thus let our seminary be a place where
our Western churches is fond of putting it this way,          preachers of the Word are trained. This has always
"Our God kept us by the truth."                               been the emphasis. It must always be the emphasis.
                                                              And for good reason! If God's people are going to be
    Let us dedicate this building, ourselves, and all that    obedient to the Word and live lives of gratitude to the
God has given us to thankful praise to our faithful           praise of God; if indeed they are to call upon the
God Whose promise has not failed. And may it be by            name of the Lord and be saved, they need faith in
God's grace that we and our children and our                  Christ; and the Bible says to believe in Christ one
children's children, should the Lord tarry, say:              must hear Christ, and to hear Christ one needs a
"There hath not failed one word of all his good               preacher who is sent. (cf. Romans 10: 13-17) God's
promise."                                                     people need preachers committed to the Word,
II. The Call To Obedience                                     preachers who will say, "thus saith the Lord." They
    This means we must dedicate the use of this               need such preachers so that in all their wanderings,
building to sanctified obedience to the Word of God.          troubles, sicknesses, sorrows, and burdens they may
Solomon made that very clear to the children of               hear the voice of Jesus.





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                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                             2 8 3



   Our Seminary is unique in this respect too.                       and why does He preserve that church? Why must the
Everyone knows that preaching has fallen on hard                     church preach the Word, train pastors and teachers
times these days. The office of pastor-teacher (the                  for the work of the ministry? Why? The answer is:
"parish ministry" in today's terminology) is held in                  "That all the people of the earth may know that
disrepute. Seminaries are training specialists in church             Jehovah is God!" That is God's purpose with the
a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , institutional chaplaincy, social       Protestant Reformed Churches and their seminary.
ministries, and what have you! By the grace of God                   S o m e t i m e s ,   o f t e n   e v e n ,   w e   c a n   b e   s o   v e r y
our Seminary still trains men to know the truth and                  s h o r t - s i g h t e d .   O u r   c h u r c h e s   a r e   s m a l l ,   t h e
to preach and teach the Word. To this  let,us  dedicate              denomination so insignificant on the church-scene,
ourselves and this new building. Let us do it in the                 we cannot accomplish much. Then we ask, what's the
awareness that this is what the church so sorely needs               use? Why spend all the time, effort and money to
in our times  - preachers of the Word! The church                    erect a building in which to train a few men for the
needs pastors who truly represent Jesus Christ, good                 ministry and missions? It seems so hopeless. Let it be
Shepherd of the sheep. By preaching the church will                  said, we must never think and talk this way! Our task
be saved; and only by preaching will the church be                   as Protestant Reformed Churches and as part of the
saved! Let the world call that preaching of the cross                universal Church of Jesus Christ, and, therefore, the
"foolishness"!      By that "foolishness" God destroys               task of our Seminary is world-wide! Jesus said it, too:
the wisdom and power of the world and saves His                      "Go ye into all the world baptizing and preaching and
church! (I Cor. 1) Our prayer then as we dedicate this               teaching the gospel", Think of that! ALL THE
facility is : "Lord incline the hearts of thy people to              WORLD! All the people of the earth must know that
walk in all thy ways by keeping thy commandments,                    Jehovah is God! Not in some post-millennial sense so
statutes, and judgments. Never leave or forsake us,                  that all will ultimately be converted so that Christ
Lord. Be with us as thou hast been with our fathers.                 may come to claim His kingdom. But, all the earth
Maintain thy cause among us. Give us preachers of                    must know in the sense that the elect out of every
the Word, Lord; and continue to give us a Theological                nation must be gathered, sin must be revealed as sin
School to train them."                                               in all its horror and in all its terrible rejection of God.
                                                                     Then shall the end come. Christ will come and every
III. The Purpose                                                     eye shall see Him and He will judge all men. The
  For what purpose ? "That all the people of the                     present earth and heaven will be destroyed in the fire
earth may know that Jehovah is God." (vs. 60) That                   of God's wrath and a new heaven and earth will be
was God's purpose with Israel. He redeemed them                      created. Then, all the people of the earth will know
from Egypt's bondage and gave them the rest of the                   that Jehovah is God. Every knee shall bow and every
promised land, and lived with them in covenant                       tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of
fellowship as their God and Father and called them to                God the Father! Every knee and every tongue! Of the
obedience to His Word in order that all the earth                    wicked too. They shall have to confess out of eternal
might know that Jehovah is God. By divine intent                     hell that Jehovah is God. The righteous shall know in
God's glory is inseparably bound to His people in                    glory!
Jesus Christ. Everything serves them in order that                      To that end we dedicate this building! It is a
they may serve Jehovah so that His glory may be                      glorious task! Let us be on with it! In great courage
revealed in them.                                                    and boldness of faith, without shame or compromise,
  That is God's grand purpose always. Why, we may                    and without apology let us train pastors and teachers
ask, has God elected a church in Christ to everlasting               and let us vindicate sound doctrine. God is with us
life, why has He washed that church in the blood of                  and God will use us. Nothing can be against us! Praise
Jesus, why has He called and sanctified that church,                 His Name!

                                               Photos following on pages 284 and 285.





                        Know the standard and follow it. Read THE STANDARD BEARER.


2 8 4                  THE STANDARD BEARER




                        .:: i..


          Seminary
          Building
         Dedication


THE STANDARD BEARER                                              285





               1. Front view of building from parking lot.
               2. North exposure - classrooms.
               3. South Holland visitors at open house.
               4. Part of the audience at Dedication Program.
               5. Profs. Hank0  and Hoeksema talking
                 things over at open house.
               6 & 7. Views of the library area.
               8. Workroom and bookstore area.
               9 & 10. Classroom views.


2 8 6                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER





                      The Standard Bearer
                                In Retrospect

                                        Rev. G. Van Baren



                   [It was the year 1950.        The Protestant Reformed Churches were in the process of
                  celebrating their 25th anniversary. On what would have normally been an occasion of great
                  joy, there was reason for sorrow. Disagreement on fundamental doctrinal issues was evident
                  in the churches. It seemed not impossible that a rift would occur. Rev. H. Hoeksema writes
                  his editorial for the March 15th issue of the Standard Bearer in a spirit of gloom and
                  disappointment. At the same time, he pinpoints the reason for the existence  of  the
                  Pro  testan   t Reformed Churches and expresses their calling for the future. G.  V B.  1

                                                    "PROTESTANTREFORMED"

                                                          Rev. H. Hoeksema

    It is by no means with an unmixed feeling of joy                   cast out once more; yet it cannot but be a cause of
that  The Standard Bearer  celebrates the twenty-fifth                 deep sorrow when, after so short a time, this
anniversary of the existence of our churches.                          departure from the pure basis of the Protestant
                                                                       Reformed truth becomes evident.
    Rather is our sentiment expressed in the text from
Ezra 3: 1 O-l 3, on which the Rev. C. Hanko preached                      You probably consider me a pessimist.
on the occasion of this celebration; and while we are                     But this I deny.
thankful to the Lord for what it pleased Him to do                        I am thoroughly convinced that God will preserve
for and through our Protestant Reformed Churches in                    His Church through Jesus Christ our Lord even unto
the past, nevertheless we feel like "many of the                       the end of the world, and that the gates of hell shall
priests and Levites and chief of the fathers", who                     never overwhelm her. And in that faith no one can
"wept with a loud voice", when they compared the                       ever be a pessimist.
foundation of the house of God that was then laid
with the glory of Solomon's temple which they had                         But, at the same time, I am also thoroughly
seen.                                                                  convinced that Christ uses His Church as His battle
                                                                       host overagainst the powers of darkness, that His
    The reason for this attitude on our part must be                   Church is where the Word of God is maintained and
evident to all that read our papers.                                   preached in all its purity, that the Protestant
    A                                                                  Reformed truth is the expression of that pure Word
         S     Protestant Reformed Churches we no longer
present a united front as far as the truth is concerned.               of God, and that exactly in the measure that we
                                                                       depart from the basis of that pure Protestant
    And although it might probably be expected that no                 Reformed truth we lose our power as `the battle host
church in the world could stand for any length of                      of Jehovah, and compromise with the enemy.
time on the basis of such pure and strong Reformed
truth as that which is represented by the Protestant                      Recently there are indications of such compromise.
Reformed Churches; and although, years ago, at an                         It is not necessary for me to point out those
outing of our young people, I said that I conceived of                 indications. You know as well as I do to what I am
the possibility that, if I lived long enough, I would be               referring.


I                                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         2 8 7

         It is being said that some are emitting an  entirely                                   truth than other Reformed churches, but it cannot be
     different sound  from that which is blasted from the                                       said that the doctrine of sovereign grace is their
     trumpet of those men that always stood for the                                             peculiar heritage.
     Protestant Reformed truth, that the conception of                                             If you ask me what is the most peculiar treasure of
     the latter is not the doctrine of our churches, and                                        the Protestant Reformed Churches, I answer without
     that most of the Protestant Reformed do not think as                                       any hesitation: their peculiar view of the covenant.
     t h e y .   A n d   a   c o n d i t i o n a l   t h e o l o g y   i s   b e i n g             And what is their particular conception?
     introduced the sound of which is surely foreign to
     our Protestant Reformed truth.                                                                It stands closely connected with their denial of
                                                                                                common grace, and with their emphasis on the
         The statements to which I refer above have never                                       doctrine of election and reprobation.
     been openly challenged, still less contradicted. And as                                       Moreover, it emphasizes and carries out the organic
     long as they are not given the lie, I have no choice but                                   idea.
     accept them as true.
                                                                                                   Briefly stated, it teaches that God realizes His
         Are you surprised, then, that on this twenty-fifth                                     eternal covenant of friendship, in Christ, the Firstborn
     anniversary, I rather mourn. than celebrate with                                           of every creature and the Firstbegotten of the dead,
     rejoicing?                                                                                 organically, and antithetically along the lines of
         But, I ask, what is the heritage of the Protestant                                     election and reprobation, and in connection with the
     Reformed Churches? Is there any part of the truth                                          organic development of all things.
     which they have emphasized and further developed in
     distinction from other Reformed Churches?                                                     That is, in a nutshell, the peculiar Protestant
                                                                                                Reformed heritage.
        To this question some, perhaps most of us, will                                            He that has been captivated by this beautiful
     answer: the Protestant Reformed Churches deny the                                          Reformed truth must have nothing of anything that
     theory of common grace. And that is, of course, true.                                      smacks like Heynsian theology, nor will he ever
     But that is a mere negative answer. And we must have                                       retrogress into a traditional conditional theology.
     something positive, No church can live by a mere                                              But rather than go backward, he will go forward
     negation.                                                                                  and continue to develop the pure Protestant
         Others will answer more positively: the Protestant                                     Reformed truth of God's eternal covenant.
     Reformed Churches teach the doctrine of sovereign                                             To do this is the specific calling of the Protestant
     grace; and that is also true. But, after all, that is not                                  Reformed Churches.
     t h e i r   p e c u l i a r   h e r i t a g e   a n d   t h e i r   p a r t i c u l a r
     contribution to Reformed theology. Do not all                                                 Failure to do this is our death. It is the end of our
     Reformed Churches believe, officially at least, the                                        distinctive existence.
     same truth? Do not even some Baptist churches                                                 And that is the reason why, under the present
     confess this? It may be true that the Protestant                                           circumstances, I cannot wholeheartedly join in with
     Reformed Churches lay more emphasis upon this                                              the joy of celebration.





                            "There is not a phase of character or experience which is not touched on and
                           treated in the contents of Scripture; and it is a profound loss to a congregation
                           if it is not fed on the entire wheat of the Divine Word. Eliminate from our
                           food-stuffs one ingredient, and the children around your board will pay dearly
                            for your neglect. Similarly, it is impossible to omit any of the teachings, re-
                           proofs, corrections, or instructions of Scripture without leaving the man of God
                           incomplete and inadequately furnished unto good works. `Every Scripture in-
                            spired of God is profitable.'  "
                                                                                                                           - F. B. Meyer


2 8 8                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


CRITIQUE


                                     Scripture, Tradition
                                          and Infallibility

                                                   Proi  H.  Hanko




SCRIPTURE, TRADITION AND INFALLIBILITY,                        We characterized the deductive method as being
by Dewey M. Beegle; Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand          the method of faith; while the inductive method is
Rapids, 1973; 332 pp., $4.95. (Continued).                  basically rationalistic. These two stand opposed to
   In our last article, we began a review of this book      each other. One can learn the doctrine of Scripture,
and promised to continue it in a further article. We        not by a rationalistic approach to God's Word, but
think the book deserves lengthy review because it           only by a faith which confesses that this truth is a
promotes a view of Scripture's infallibility and            part of the whole of the faith of the child of God.
inspiration which is increasingly influential in            The battle in the defense of the Scriptures is a battle
evangelical and Reformed circles.                           between faith and unbelief.
   The book is an open and unblushing attack on the            What are the views which the author develops in
doctrine of inspiration, inerrancy and authority. It        this book? We cannot, of course, treat them all; nor
repudiates the traditional view which has been held         can we even treat the ones we discuss below in any
by the Christian Church, and substitutes a view which       kind of exhaustive fashion. But there are a number of
makes major concessions to the rationalistic higher         points which ought to be made.
critics of more modern times. The book does this, not          The first question is: Why does the author
because it is written from the viewpoint of modern,         repudiate the historic view of inspiration? Why does
higher criticism, but because the author is convinced       he inveigh against the traditional conception of verbal
that the time has come for all the Church to abandon        inspiration, of inerrancy, and of absolute authority of
what he disparagingly calls a "Maginot-line                 Scripture?
mentality"; i.e., a position which, in the face of the
evidence, can no longer be maintained.                         There are several answers to this question. In the
                                                            first place, proceeding from his starting point (the use
   We-  remarked last time that the author's basic error    of the inductive method) he concludes that the
is that he approaches his subject and examines the          evidence does not warrant this. And that evidence is
question of the doctrines of inerrancy and inspiration      to be especially found in the fact that there are many
from the viewpoint of the inductive method. He              discrepancies, self-contradictions, obvious errors in the
specifically repudiates the deductive method as an          Scriptures. A rather large number of these he treats -
inadequate tool in his search for a doctrine of             some of them in considerable detail. We shall not
Scripture. By the latter (i.e., by a deductive method)      enter into this question in this review, chiefly because
is meant that method which inquires what Scripture          the author does not come up with any essentially new
itself teaches concerning its own inspiration and           data; his "errors, discrepancies," etc., are, for the
inerrancy. By the former is meant the scientific            most part, the same as those which have been brought
approach which takes into account all the available         up dozens of times over the years by others who have
evidence garnered through a study of Scripture, of          attacked Scripture's inerrancy. And they have been
non-canonical writings, of the styles, habits,              adequately answered time and time again by scholars
characteristics, etc. of the so-called secondary            who have believed in the Scriptures as God's inspired
authors; and which, on the basis of this evidence,          Word. It is only necessary to point out at this point
comes to a conclusion concerning the doctrine of            that here is already an indication of how far apart the
inspiration, inerrancy and authority.                       views of those who believe in the doctrine of


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        2 8 9



inerrancy are from those who deny this truth. The               any more; nor do we have that  inerrant  Bible which
author mocks those who take the position that any               came, through men of God's choice, to the Church.
seeming discrepancies and self-contradictions are                 But the author misses here a very important point.
easily solved with adequate study or are, as of now,            We readily grant that a translation of the Bible cannot
not yet capable of solution because all the necessary           be inerrant. We also readily grant that through
light has not been shed on the problem. The author              innumerable  copyings  of the autographa various
claims this is merely refusing to face the issue in             errors have crept in. But two points must be made. In
honesty. Nevertheless, this is precisely the issue at           the first place, every child of God who holds in his
stake. One who adopts the so-called deductive                   hand a reliable and accurate translation of the Bible
method, i.e., one who comes to  Scriptulle  with the            may be absolutely certain that he has in his
basic assumption of faith that Scripture will give us           possession the Word of God. Though there be perhaps
its own doctrine of inerrancy and inspiration, assumes          thousands of different "readings" in the Greek and
that there are no discrepancies, errors and                     Hebrew manuscripts of Scripture which are in our
self-contradictions in God's Word. This is an article of        possession today, every Bible scholar knows that not
faith to him, and he approaches Scripture assuming              more than a minute part of 1% of these various
that any kind of error is impossible. While the author          readings has any effect upon the sense of God's Word
mocks this position, it is nevertheless the position of         or upon a point of doctrine. This is a marvelous
faith, and we must not be ashamed of it. It is the              display of God's providential care of Scripture. And
inductive method which finds all kinds of errors                every Bible student knows that a translation, reliably
because the approach is not of faith, but of reason.            made, while not infallible, brings to God's people
Edward J. Young, in his important book, "Thy Word               God's very Word. On this there can be no dispute.
is Truth" deals with this very matter. He writes: (p.
165)                                                               In the second place however, even though we
                                                                readily admit that we do not have an  inerrant
        The proper method of dealing with difficulties is       Scripture today, it is of essential importance to
    not to dismiss them as positive errors, for if the Bible    maintain that the autographa were inerrant. Perhaps
   is indeed God-breathed, it follows that it must be true      it is true that the Church herself does not need an
    and infallible. To assume that God could speak a            inerrant  Bible in order to know the Word of God. But
   Word that was contrary to fact is to assume that God
   Himself cannot operate without error. The very               one thing is true. The whole doctrine of the authority
   nature of God therefore is at stake. If we assert that       of Scripture stands or falls on the question of
   the autographa of Scripture contain error, we are            inerrant  autographa. If the autographa are not
   saying that God is guilty of having told us something        inerrant, they are not authoritative. The authority of
   that is not true . . .                                       Scripture rests upon Scripture's inerrancy. And while
                                                                the Church does not need an  inerrant  Scripture, it
  The approach of faith is the only proper approach             desperately needs an authoritative Scripture. Thus,
to the Scriptures. Only the one who comes with                  God's Word is authoritative because it is God's Word
humble faith will be able to hear the Word of God.              in all its parts and down to the very words. Take
  But there is one point which the author makes in              away the inerrancy of the autographa and you have
his vendetta against inerrancy which is worth a bit of          robbed Scripture of its authority, for to the extent
discussion. The author's reasoning goes something               that Scripture is not inerrant, it is not God's Word
like this. During 99% of the Church's history, the              and has no authority of God.
Church has lived withqut an  inerrant  Scripture. This            We turn now to his view of inspiration. As far as
is true because of the fact that, if Scripture is               the author's general view of Scripture is concerned,
inerrant, only the autographa are inerrant. (The                he writes:
autographa are the original manuscripts which Moses,                   From the objective side of the issue, therefore, the
David, Solomon, Paul, Peter, etc., wrote). These                    gospel consisted of that collection of books and
autographa have not been in existence for many                      letters which were written (for various reasons) by
hundreds of years. Hence, it is obvious that an                     the apostles and their associates as witnesses of the
inerrant  Scripture is not necessary for the Church                 incarnate Christ. On the subjective side, the gospel
since it has lived without them during most of her                  was the experience of the presence of Jesus Christ
history. Or, if it is necessary for the church to have an           made possible by the aid of the Holy Spirit at the
inerrant  Bible, then we must conclude that all the                 hearing or reading of the gospel content. p. 112.
copies made of the autographa, all the translations, all          The Scriptures themselves were formed by various
the various transmissions are also infallible. This             authors, scribes and editors who gathered traditions,
argument seems,  ai first glance, to be rather plausible.       historical data from various records, religious
And the fact of the matter is that everyone knows               experiences of Christians, etc., and who incorporated
that we do not have the autographa in our possession            them into the Scriptural records or who edited


2 9 0                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



material, rearranging, rewriting, and reworking all the                                   authority that confounded their  opljonents  and
material which occupied their attention. The contents                                     convinced their followers. There is a genuine
of Scripture are therefore due to all kinds of factors                                    difference in their understanding of inspiration and in
including the insights of the authors. This does not                                      the way they use the Old Testament. p. 131.
mean that the Spirit was totally inoperative in the                                   He concludes that all the copies, transmissions and
work of Scripture, but his work is limited to a                                       translations of the Bible which have appeared over
certain control of the central contents of Scripture.                                 the years are just as inspired as Scripture is. (pp. 174,
          In order to understand this, we must understand                             175). He writes of Luke:
the author's view of revelation. He distinguishes                                            What distinguishes Luke from Christians today is
between what he calls primary and secondary                                               not inspiration as such, but rather the unique period
revelation. He writes:                                                                    of revelation that he was privileged to witness . . . p.
                                                                                          258.
            In summary, the purpose of the designation
         "primary revelation" is to highlight the fact that God                       He goes so far as to deny that God is the Author of
         made known to a few  gifted  people the basic insights                       Scripture:
         concerning his redemptive purposes for his creation                                 While Scripture claims unequivocally that God was
         and his creatures. In the words, deeds, and death of
         Jesus, the Living Word, God made the ultimate                                    the source of revelation and inspiration, it is
         disclosure                                                                       interesting that nowhere does the Bible teach that
                        of himself. With the interpretation of                            God was its author. p. 203.
         Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension by his
         disciples and some of their associates the                                     Quite naturally, such a conception has all kinds of
         determinative history of God's redemptive activity                           serious consequences. There is a tendency in the book
         came to a close . . .                                                        to deny some of the miracles. The miracle of the
            On  the other hand, God worked through the                                passage of Israel through the Red Sea, e.g., is a
         rational capacity of his servants to draw out from the                       tradition inserted in the record by an editor. (p. 202.)
         major insights such references and implications as                           There is also the rather natural consequence of raising
         were appropriate for the covenant community.                                 scientific discoveries to a position of superior
         Although secondary in development, some of these                             authority in relation to Scripture. (pp. 187, 188.) But
         insights preserve the permanent quality and relevance                        most seriously, this whole conception leads to
         of primary revelation . . .                                                  erroneous ideas concerning the canon of Scripture.
            Not all the insights of secondary revelation had                          The author argues against the canonicity of such
         permanent relevance, however . . . pp. 73-7.5.                               books as Esther. He describes the canon as something
   In other words, primary revelation has to do with                                  flexible (pp. 262,  263), by which he means that there
that which is "redemptive" in content, while                                          is room for the addition and subtrac'tion of books in
secondary revelation has to do with interpretation,                                   Scripture. He states that the apochryphal books have
added data, etc. In connection with this, primary                                     more value in some instances than the Scriptures:
revelation ceased with the close of the apostolic age                                        Some portions of the apochryphal books appear to
(p.  74),  but secondary revelation goes on and                                           have greater worth than some sections of the
continues even today.                                                                     canonical books . . . p. 260.
   I n   t h i s   c o n n e c t i o n ,   t o o ,   t h e   a u t h o r   a l s o      All of this, of course, means that one must separate
distinguishes between primary and secondary                                           the truth from error in Scripture by means of human
inspiration. The former is connected with primary                                     judgment. (p. 282). But this only means that the
revelation; the latter with secondary revelation. Also                                author sets human judgment above the Scriptures,
the latter type of inspiration continues beyond the                                   and ultimately, above God.
writing of Scripture and is to be found in valuable
books which interpret Scripture, hymns and songs                                        We have not treated all the data in this book, but
                                                                                      our main concern is to demonstrate that the results of
which the Church writes, etc.                                                         a rationalistic approach to Scripture, in distinction
   This view of revelation and inspiration has all sorts                              from the approach to faith, leads to the most serious
of consequences. For one thing, the author argues for                                 consequences. The fact of the matter is that the
the multiple authorship of the Penteteuch and                                         inevitable results of such an approach is the loss of
concedes, in  certains  respects, arguments to the                                    Scripture as the Word of God.
higher critics. (p. 28.) He speaks of the fact that                                     Let all this be a warning that we tamper with the
Matthew and Jesus both held different views of the                                    truth of Scripture only at the peril of our soul's
inspiration of Scripture.                                                             salvation. The child of God comes to Scripture in
            It is quite clear, for example, that Matthew is close                     faith and confesses that the Scriptures are God's
         to the rabbinical concept of inspiration. On the                             Word in all their parts before which he must bow in
         other hand, Jesus and Paul spoke  with a unique                              humble submission.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                291


T'HE DAY OF SHADOWS


                        God's Bow In God's Cloud

                                                 Rev. John A. Heys



  In all of this earthly creation there is no               be forgotten that God explained that bow to them,
phenomenon as beautiful as God's rainbow upon the           and that before the flood they had never seen
background of His storm cloud. It has color like            anything like it.
nothing else. It has such perfect symmetry. It is such
a welcome sight after the thunder rumbles at a point             Being a sign it was also the speech of God. Also
beyond where it shook our homes just moments                as a sign it was a visible manifestation of an invisible
before, and after the brilliancy of the frightful           reality. It was that which man could see, and it spoke
lightning-flash has also been dimmed by the distance        of that which the natural eye cannot see. It was (and
of the storm beyond our position of the moment.             is) a token of God's grace in the midst of a world in
                                                            which His curse is still so clearly seen and sorely felt.
  Being a natural phenomenon it has a natural               And let it not be overlooked that God says to Noah
explanation. Man will tell you that it is caused by the     and his family as He explains this rainbow, "And it
infraction of  .the white light of the sun, as it passes    shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the
through the falling rain of the receding storm. At          earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,"
such an angle does this light of the sun strike those       Genesis 9 : 14. Plainly enough God is going to send His
drops and sheets of rain that the one white light of        cloud again. The whole earth will not be covered with
the sun is broken up into all the colors, and shades of     water. But there will be storms. Not always will it be
colors, from red through violet. (We used to learn          a gentle cheering rain. There will be severe storms in
those seven colors by remembering the name of the           which God will thunder, and wherein He will blow
fictitious boy, Roy G. Biv, and thus red, orange,           with winds before which man cannot stand. He will in
yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.) Where the rain     these display His fierce wrath and speak of His curse
storms come from the east and recede into the west,         upon the world because of sin. He is not going to
we had the unique experience in 1967 of seeing a            bless all men. Besides His bow, which speaks of His
rainbow caused by the brilliant light of a full moon in     love and mercy and grace, there will be fierce and
the sparklingly clear atmosphere of Jamaica. The            violent demonstrations of His holy wrath. The two
perfect arc was there. The colors were not brilliant,       shall be in the world until He comes with the
but more on the order of different shades of gray.          judgment of fire.
But it was unmistakably a rainbow caused by the               Two seeds are upon the earth; and God's dealings
light of God's moon, reflecting the light of His sun.       with them is different, even as these seeds are
Four of us saw it; and it was no dream.                     spiritual opposites. On the seed of the serpent His
  But, natural phenomenon that it is, and one that          wrath and the curse will continue to rest. On the
man can duplicate by sending up a spray of water in         seed of the woman His mercy and grace in Christ will
the bright sunlight, it nevertheless is God's sign, and     unwaveringly rest. That you must see in every
thus God's speech to us, as well as it was to an            rainbow; not only the beauty of His grace to His
amazed and entranced Noah and his family after the          Church, but also His abiding wrath upon the world.
flood. They had never seen anything like this before;         Here, too, in the rainbow you have a general
and we may believe that it was a most perfect and           "preaching" of a particular promise. It is all there for
extremely brilliant rainbow at that, one that reached       those who want to see the truth. The bow is in the
in a perfect arc from the earth to heaven and down          cloud and never appears apart from it in this life.
again to the earth. We can only wonder at what went         Soon there will be the sea of glass like crystal with no
through the minds and souls of the family of eight          ripple of discontent and perfect peace between God
when they saw this piece of beauty in God's creation        and  His people. That new creation will have no
that had such tremendous significance. For let it not       storms to disturb it. There will be no curse there or


2 9 2                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



sign of a curse. Heaven and earth will be united  - as                                 speaks of wrath and judgment (condemnation) at the
they are by the rainbow  - as one realm far more                                       same time that the bow speaks of grace and mercy.
beautiful than any earthly rainbow can be. All the                                           And referring back again to Galatians 3 : 16, that
shades, all the degrees, all the delights, the joys and                                Seed with Whom God establishes that covenant in
wonders of God's grace will be seen in all that                                        both Noah and Abraham, is not Shem and Isaac but
creation. The reality of that of which the rainbow is                                  Christ. As the arc of the rainbow begins on the earth
only a sign will be seen and enjoyed every moment of                                   and reaches to the heavens and then returns to the
that everlasting life. But until that day that curse                                   earth, Christ, who was born on this earth of the virgin
most assuredly will still be here in all its power.                                    Mary, crucified and buried, rises to the heavenly
"Smile, God loves You" is a wicked lie that is not                                     heights where He now is, and returns at the end of
borne out by the works of the holy God every day in                                    time to confirm that covenant in its glorious
this creation. He preaches no covenant with all men                                    fLllfillment.  And here, too, you have that dark cloud
in the rainbow. He promises no grace and blessing to                                   of God's terrible and holy wrath against sin for He
all mankind. But exactly in the midst of all the curse,                                comes  in judgment.  You and I can see and appreciate
w h i c h   s t i l l   b r i n g s   s u f f e r i n g   a n d   d e a t h   a n d    the beauty of the bow of the arch of Christ's
bereavement also to the believers, God says to His                                     descension into hell, ascension into heaven and return
church in His rainbow, "Be of good cheer. I do love                                    in glory at the end of time, only on the background
you. My grace unto you is exceedingly rich and                                         of the awful judgment of God upon our sins. That is
colorful. I reach down in it to bless you. Look at my                                  why Christ had to go down to hell for us, being one
dark cloud, for it speaks of my holy wrath against My                                  of us by a virgin birth, having the beginning of His
and your enemies. But fail not to see my bow, for it                                   human nature here on this earth, lifting it to heavenly
speaks of my grace to you."                                                            glory through his resurrection and ascension and
    And it does this exactly because it is the token or                                insuring a beautiful and glorious return with all the
sign of  His covenant of grace. It is in connection with                               degrees of the glory of our salvation.
telling Noah (verse 11 of Genesis 9) that He will
establish his covenant with him and his seed that God                                    There is no pot of gold where the rainbow touches
gives this token in the sky. In the same sky -that                                     the earth, but there is a glorious salvation when Christ
poured out such terrible devastation upon the first                                    returns to this earth. Think about that return of
world, God now puts His bow that speaks of the                                         Christ when you see that rainbow reach with its
covenant of grace.                                                                     beauty to a point of this earth. Look at that dark
                                                                                       background, those clouds that symbolize God's
         That God will establish that covenant that Noah                               judgment upon sin; but do so appreciating the smile
does not mean that God will begin a new covenant                                       of  His love that causes this life of His Son on our
with Him. It means that He will  continue  His                                         earth and descension into hell, His resurrection,
covenant with him and with his seed after him.                                         ascension and return with glory for us.
Referring to Galatians  3:16,  which speaks of
Abraham rather than of Noah, we find that the Seed                                       A rainbow will not be seen except upon the
with Whom God establishes that covenant is Christ.                                     background of clouds of a rainstorm. But a rainbow
For here, too, with Abraham it is the same covenant                                    likewise will not be seen except there be the bright
of grace that God made known to Adam immediately                                       shining light of the sun. And God is that Light. It is
after his fall into sin. And the word establish does                                   His smile of love and approval upon us in Christ that
have the meaning of confirm. Thus the word is                                          brightens the dark night of sin for us and confirms
translated in Esther 9: 29 and Ezekiel 13  :6 among                                    His covenant friendship with us and with our seed.
other passages of Holy Writ. It is one covenant of                                       And 
grace from paradise to the fulfillment in the day of                                             you  and I must not simply stand in awe when
                                                                                       we see such a rainbow  - how often do we?  - but we
chlist.                                                                                must also stand amazed at the faith of the Old
    But, as we began to say, the rainbow was a                                         Testament saints who lived in the day of the shadows.
particular promise that is preached to all mankind. It                                 They saw so little in comparison with what has been
was not with Noah and  all  his seed. There is Canaan,                                 revealed to us, and yet they enjoyed  sd  much! They
the son of Ham, who is cursed. And this clearly                                        had no cross yet. For they had no Bethlehem yet. But
indicates, since it is the work of an unchangeable                                     in spite of all this they walked by faith and took God
God, that God did not have in mind all men when he                                     at His word. They trusted  Him  and never questioned
said to those out of whom the whole human race                                         His faithfulness nor His love. They with so little saw
would be born, "I will establish (confirm) my                                          so much. We with so much, often see so little. They,
covenant with you, and with your seed after you,"                                      living under the shadows, and in the shadows, saw
Genesis  9:9.  There is that dark cloud, remember,                                     richly what we in the  day after the Light is come
which forms the background of the rainbow that                                         often see so weakly and meagerly.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             2 9 3



   Surely it was that grace of God that opened their       a   g e n e r a l `  ` p r e aching" of God concerning His
eyes so that they could believe in a coming  Christ;       covenant. Before the gospel shall have been preached
And it is that same grace of God that enables us to        to all nations, that sign will have been seen by all
see the Christ Who is come. We ought never to forget       peo  pies,  tongues and tribes. That they do not
that. The faith of the Old Testament saints who lived      understand it as a sign of His covenant does not alter
in the days of the shadows, and the New Testament          this fact. They have seen the sign. But the promise is
saints who live in the year of our Lord have the same      only for some who see the sign of that covenant
faith. The only difference is that the Old Testament       promise. That was true even of the eight who saw the
believer looked for Christ to come and was sure that       first one. Only a comparatively short while after they
He would, while the New Testament saint looks at a         saw this sign in the heavens the curse was pronounced
Christ Who is come and is sure that He came and has        upon Canaan, the son of Ham. And thus that
ascended to God's right hand after making atonement        promise, given by an unchangeable God, could not
for our sins.                                              mean and did not mean  all   of his seed. The sign,
                                                           indeed, is general, being displayed to all  the  peoples
   Since that day when Noah and his family saw that        of the world in a most literal sense. The covenant is
first rainbow, countless `thousands have seen God's        continued and confirmed only with those chosen in
bow in His cloud. It has always been and still is today    Christ, the Seed of Noah and of the Woman.


IN  HIS  FEAR


                                        Two By Two?

                                                Rev. D. H. Kuiper



  As our churches become more and more engaged in          that this has long been his position. In the Acts of
mission work, this activity becomes increasingly a         Synod, 1972, p. 78, we find in the Supplemental
topic of conversation: among ministers, on Sunday          Report of the Mission Committee: "The Mission
evening visits between saints, even among the young        Committee received a letter from Rev. Lubbers, dated
people. Frequently questions arise concerning the          April 7, 1972, in which he stated, in part, "I do
methods that we presently employ and have                  believe that Synod should be notified and instructed
employed, in Jamaica and in other places. The remark       to face seriously the question of calling another
is even heard from time to time that one reason our        missionary to the island; there should be no  less than
mission efforts have been only meagerly successful is      two ministers here. Grounds: 1. A missionary needs
that we do not follow the Scriptural principle of          t h e   s p i r i t u a l   a n d   m o r a l   s u p p o r t   o f   a
sending out two missionaries to work the same field        fellow-missionary. Paul even had such a man. Christ
together. Therefore, the question to be answered is        sent out two by two." (Other grounds follow here,
whether or not the Scriptures do indeed teach that         not pertinent to our subject.) The Mission Committee
the Church of Jesus Christ perform her missionary          forwarded this request to Synod, the Committee of
function through the labors of two or more                 Pre-advice advised Synod to call another missionary
missionaries. And in close connection with that,           for Jamaica on the first three grounds supplied by
another question: Do the Scriptures teach this as a        Rev. Lubbers, and the Synod decided to refer this
principle? That is, does working "two by two" on the       matter to the Mission Committee for further advice
mission field belong to fundamental doctrine and law       and grounds. (Cf. 1972 Acts of Synod, Arts. 111,
as, for example, do the sacraments and the offices in      122) No recommendation on this matter was made to
the church? Our recently-returned missionary from          the 1973 Synod, although we find in the Acts of this
Jamaica, Rev. G. C. Lubbers answers the question           Synod that ministers were sent to Jamaica to help our
with an unequivocal "Yes." When his permission was         missionary for approximately six months during the
obtained to record his answer here, it was pointed out     early part of 1973.


2 9 4                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



A BRIEF HISTORY                                                                          missionary labor ought to be conducted by two
    Before we examine Biblical passages that speak to                                    ministers working together, and that this was
this question, we want to call attention to some                                         Scripturally and principally correct.
positions taken by our Synods in the past when this                                         4. There is one more chapter to this history of
matter was brought before them. In fact, a little                                        missionary thought. The Mission Committee asked
history of past years will prove interesting here.                                       the 1952 Synod to go on record "that the mission
                                                                                         committee be permitted to send out two missionaries,
    1. In the Acts of Synod, 1946, p. 69, there is a                                     at such time as the Lord again gives us two
Supplement IV that proposes "that the Mission                                            missionaries in the field, either to work together or
Committee suggests to Synod to arrange for the                                           alone, according to the discretion of the mission
calling of two home missionaries instead of one so                                       committee in conjunction with the calling church."
that these brethren may labor together in this work."                                    (Cf. Acts of Synod 1952,  p. 43) Under grounds, the
Five grounds are offered, the first of which is: "This                                   Mission Committee calls attention to some of the
is a sound Scriptural principle with respect to Mission                                  decisions listed above, as well as stating that there
labor. Cf. Luke  lO:l, Acts  10:23,  Acts  13:2,  etc."                                  were many Scriptural instances when men were sent
(The interested reader will want to read the rest of                                     out alone. We will come back to the passages that are
the grounds.) In Articles 82 and 83 Synod decided to                                     cited a little bit later. The committee of pre-advice
assure the Home Missionary of assistance in his labors                                   urged Synod to adopt the above recommendation,
by permitting the Mission Committee, in conjunction                                      which Synod did not decide to do. Rather an
with the calling church, to ask the help of a fellow                                     amendment was made to refer the Mission Committee
minister. This decision was thought to be of sufficient                                  to former decisions of Synod, to continue to operate
i m p o r t a n c e   t h a t   i t   i s   i n c o r p o r a t e d   i n t o   t h e    under them, and to appoint a committee to study the
Constitution of the Mission Committee (Cf. p. 44 of                                      M i s s i o n   C o m m i t t e e   R e p o r t   a n d   m a k e
the Church Order Book.)                                                                  recommendations to the 1953 Synod.
    2. On pp. 60-61 of the Acts of the 1947 Synod, a                                        This study committee advised the 1953 Synod to
committee of pre-advice again urged Synod to                                             adopt the request of the Mission Committee upon the
mandate the Mission Committee to call two                                                grounds advanced, (Cf. Acts of Synod 1953, pps. 42,
missionaries to labor together in the work of home                                       43) and Synod did so.
missions. This committee reminded Synod of the five                                         Whatever conclusion is reached as to whether
grounds presented to the 1946 Synod (see above) and
stated that to ask for the aid of another minister                                       Scripture demands that we labor "two by two," it
would never prove feasible. In Article 83 Synod                                          will have the support of at least one Synod of our
decided "that the calling church call two missionaries                                   churches. Of course, the decision of the last named
to labor together in the work of home missions."                                         Synod has the binding power.
    3. In September of 1947 Rev. W. Hofman and Rev.
E. Knott accepted calls to be our home missionaries.                                     EXAMINATION OF GROUNDS
After both missionaries labored for a time in Byron                                         We want to examine briefly the grounds offered by
Center, Michigan, Rev. Hofman was sent to                                                the study committee to discover whether they are of
investigate prospects in Lynden, Washington, while                                       sufficient force to maintain our present policy and to
Rev. Knott continued in Byron Center. (Cf. Acts of                                       quiet the fears of those in our midst who claim we are
Synod 1948, pp. 24-26.) That these two men were                                          not altogether correct in our approach. It ought to be
separated by thousands of miles is further evident                                       remembered that no one claims a man may not be sent
from the Acts of Synod 1949, p.14:  ". . . that the                                      out alone ever; that is, we are all agreed that there
Rev. Knott take up his residence in Lynden, Wash., to                                    may be times when there simply aren't two men to go
labor there and that Rev. W. Hofman reside in                                            out. The point is, if there is one missionary, should
Ontario, Canada to begin work there . .  ."  This                                        the church stop calling for a second? What is the
separation of missionaries was vehemently protested                                      optimum, the Scriptural way? If the Lord gives us a
by the late Rev. Ophoff against First Grand Rapids,                                      home missionary soon, ought we immediately call
the calling church. (Cf. Acts of Synod 1949, pp.                                         another or would it be possible to let it remain there?
24-47) First Consistory did not sustain him, but upon                                    The first grounds given by the study committee are
appealing to  Classis East he was sustained by that                                      those advanced by the Mission Committee in 1952. In
body. Next, First Consistory appealed to Synod, and                                      the first place this ground states, "The Scriptural
Synod expressed agreement with the decision of                                           proof, cited in favor of having two missionaries labor
Classis East in sustaining the protest of Rev. Ophoff.                                   side by side, has no intention of laying down this
Thus, at the end of the 1949 Synod, the Protestant                                       method as a rule for the church." Reference is made
Reformed Churches held to the position that                                              to Luke  lO:l, Acts  10:23,  and Acts  13:2. The very


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                2 9 5


fact that no explanation of these verses or their           are many instances in Scripture where men were sent
context is given means that the question is  begg@.         out alone. References made to the O.T. prophets, of
What must be proved is simply stated. Take, for             course, are non-applicable since no one claims the
example, Luke 10: 1, "After these things the Lord           church of the Old Dispensation did mission work in
appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and         the sense of the New. The church was restricted to
two before His face into every city and place, whither      national Israel. The other references of Philip being
He Himself would come." Is this not normative for           sent to  Samaria,  to the Ethiopian, to other cities
mission work? What about verses 2 and 11:                   (Acts 8) and of Peter and Barnabas laboring alone for
"Therefore said he unto them, The harvest is truly          a while have some weight, although it ought to be
great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the      remembered that Philip  seeins to have been sent to
Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth               confront a single man, and Barnabas was on the way
laborers into His harvest . . . Even the very dust of       to join Paul.
your city which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off                The next ground offered by the study committee is
against you; not withstanding be ye sure of this, that      that our churches have received a rich blessing during
the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." These            the time one man labored alone. The examples of
thoughts are always thought to be valid for present         Rev. H. Hoeksema and Rev. Kok are cited. Could
labors.                                                     there have been success if a principle of Scripture was
     Acts 10:23,  "And on the morrow Peter went away        violated? No one denies that in times of stress and
with them, and certain brethren from Joppa                  trouble, when a supply of men is very limited, the
accompanied him" (to Cornelius), does not constitute        Lord can and will use an individual man. But is this
proof one way or the other since these brethren are         optimum, and ought this to be always followed? The
not designated `as office-bearers. Acts 13: 2, "As they     next ground is also a simple practical matter: "If it is
ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost           a Scriptural principle that there must always be two
said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work            men working side by side in mission activity, then our
whereunto I have called them." This is, in all minds,       present missionary must be barred from doing any
the crucial text. In the first place we ought to            more such work until we can obtain a missionary to
remember this is found in the book of the Acts. In          labor with him." Again, if we call several and only get
this significant book we find recorded the history of       one, he ought to get to work in the field, but then
Pentecost; the rest of the contents of the book gives       could we not continue to call others? And finally, the
us not the acts of the apostles but those things which      fourth ground again begs the question badly: "The
Jesus continued to do through His Spirit. Without           decision of 1949 does not, in practice, give the
great fanfare we find in chapter six the institution of     Mission Committee the permission it now requests."
the office of deacons. It is not literally stated that      That is no ground!
this is normative for the church for all time, yet we         As far as the grounds of 1953 are concerned, at
believe this to be so, mainly because the Spirit has        best they are indecisive, present little Scripture and
been poured out in the church. That same Spirit             no explanation, and contain practical arguments that
speaks, mind you, in Acts 13 : 2, "Separate Me              are not overwhelming. The result is that some
Barnabas and Paul for the work . . . " Acts 14:23  also     members of our churches hold to the decision of
gives us a church principle for all time: elders must be    1949, some to 1953, and the latter decision is binding
ordained in every church. Yet this is not stated in         as far as our mission labors are concerned.
terms more binding than Acts  13:2.  Our conclusion,
tentative at this point, is that it is not sufficient to      The next time, the Lord willing, we hope to
say simply that these texts do not constitute binding       examine closely various Scriptural passages as well as
proof for the "two by two" principle. In the second         to face some of the practical problems that a lone
place, the study committee reminds Synod that there         messenger faces.  -

y


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2 9 6                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER





                    How Many People Do You
         Who Should Receive the Standard Bearer,
                                                                    BUTDONOT?

                                                        Give Us  Their  Names And Addresses
                                                    Use The Envelope Enclosed In This Issue
                                                                       Mail It TODAY
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                                                  CALL TO ASPIRANTS TO THE MINISTRY
    All young men desiring to begin studies this fall in either the  pre-         granted by the Synod, upon recommendation of the Theological School
                                           _.                 ~.                                                                              . . . .
seminary or semmary department  ot  the Theological School of the                  Committee, to such an aspirant only who comes  supplrea       Wlth  a  testr-
Protestant Reformed Churches are requested to appear before the                    monial of his consistory that he is a member in full communion, sound
Theological School Committee at its meeting to be held on Friday,                  in faith and upright in walk, and also a certificate from a reputable
March 29, 1974, at 7:30  P.M. in the Theological School Building, 4949             physician showing him to be in good health.
lvanrest Ave., S.W., Grandville, Michigan 49418.                                       A complete high school education and the equivalent of a four year
Pre-seminary Department:                                                           (125  hour) college education are required for entrance into the
   Permission to pursue the pre-seminary course of study shall be                  seminary department. Moreover, each entrant into this department
granted by the Theological School Committee. A transcript of grades                must produce evidence that he has credit for the required college
from High School and College (if any), a letter of testimony from a                courses.  *
student's pastor or consistory, and a certificate of health from a                     In the event you cannot be present at this meeting, please notify the
reputable physician shall be submitted.                                            undersigned secretary of your intentions, prior to the meeting. Mail all
                                                                                   correspondence to the Theological School.
Seminary Department:                                                               *Requirements are listed in the school bulletin, available from the
   Permission to pursue the Theological course in the seminary shall be             school.                                   Richard H. Teitsma, Secretary




               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                 Dedication Program Tapes
  The Ladies Aid Society of First Protestant Reformed Church of                   A  go-minute  recording of the Seminary Dedication Program may be
Grand Rapids, Michigan, hereby wishes to express its heartfelt                    obtained for $3.00 by writing to the business office, P.O.  BOX  6064,
sympathy to one of its members, Mrs. Dick Dykstra, in the death of her            Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49506. Please note whether you want a cassette
beloved husband, MR. DICK DYKSTRA.                                                tape or a reel-to-reel tape.

  May the God of all grace comfort the sister and her family with the
hope of eternal salvation for them who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.
                                                    Mrs. T. Newhof Sr., Pres.
                                                       Mrs. C. Pastoor, Secy.                                     NOTICE!!!
                                                                                     Classis  East will meet in regular session, the Lord willing, on April 3,
                                                                                  1974 in the Hope Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be treated
                        Change of Address                                         in this session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at least ten days
                                                                                  prior to the convening of this session.

                        Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                     Jon Huisken
                        4975 lvanrest Ave., S.W.                                                                                                 Stated Clerk
                        Grandville,  Mich. 49418



                              NOTICE!!!                                                                           NOTICE!!!
   The Free Christian School of Edger-ton, Minnesota, will have an                   The Loveland Protestant Reformed Christian School will be in need
opening for the 1974-75 school year. A teacher for the lower grades is            of a teacher for the  1974-75  term. Those interested in teaching the
needed. Those interested, contact Allen Brummel, R.R. 1, Box 115,                 lower grades at this school should contact Mr. Max H. Moore, 707 N.
Edgerton, MN 56128.                                                               County Road, Loveland, CO 80537.


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                        2 9 7


                                           News From Our Churches

                                                      REPORT OF CLASSIS WEST

    Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches                     have not returned them after using them. Churches
met in  Doon,  Iowa on February 6. The  Classis met a                    that have these reading sermons are asked to return
month earlier than the date originally scheduled, in                     them to the committee. Our  Edgerton  consistory is in
order to examine the then Cand. M. Hoeksema, as was                      charge of these sermons.
requested by the Ebenezer Church of Forbes, North                            Classis  also heard reports from  its- Classical
Dakota. Nine ministers and thirteen elders represented                   Committee, its Taped Sermon Committee, the Stated
the eleven churches of  Classis West. Three ministers                    Clerk, the Church Visitors, and the Delegates ad
from the East, Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. J. Heys, and Rev.                     examina.
G. Van  Baren,  attended  Classis as delegates ad
examina. Rev. R. Moore ably presided over this                              Attached to the Stated Clerk's report was a letter
Classis.                                                                 to  Classis  from Mr. L. Regnerus, clerk of the
                                                                         consistory of the Oak Lawn Protestant Reformed
   The main work of  Classis was the examination of                      Church. This letter informed  Classis that all of the
Mark Hoeksema, who had accepted the call to our                          properties of Oak Lawn had been sold. The assets of
Forbes Church. Cand. Hoeksema preached the                               the church, in the amount of  $37,786.19,  were
required sermon, before the delegates of  Classis,  at a                 divided equally among three funds in the Protestant
special worship service of the  Doon  congregation on                    Reformed denomination: the R.F.P.A., Domestic
the evening before  Classis.  The sermon was on                          Missions, and the Emeritus Fund. The letter also
Romans 1: 16. In accordance with the requirements                        stated that the necessary legal steps had been taken to
of the decisions appended to Article 4 of the Church                     d i s b a n d   t h e   c o n g r e g a t i o n   a n d   d i s s o l v e   t h e
Order,  Classis examined the candidate in dogmatics,                     c o r p o r a t i o n .   Classis   a p p r o v e d   O a k   L a w n ' s
in his practical qualifications, in his knowledge of                     distribution of its money, and sent the information to
Holy Scripture, in his knowledge of the confessions,                     Synod.
and in controversy, as well as in his ability to preach.
With the concurring advice of the delegates ad                              Loveland was given classical appointments: March
examina,        Classis approved the examination and                     17, 24, 3 1  - Miersma; April  21)  28  - Kuiper; May  5,
advised Forbes to proceed with Cand. Hoeksema's                          12, 19  - Hoeksema; June 2, 9, 16  - Moore. Rev.
ordination.  Classis expressed its heartfelt thanks to                   Miersma was appointed counselor of Loveland.
God for the gift of another pastor to His Church and                        Classis  granted subsidy to Edgerton, Isabel,
for the gift of a seminary where young men are                           Loveland, Lynden, Pella, and Randolph. Forbes is to
trained to be capable, faithful undershepherds of                        send its request to Synod through the Classical
Christ. May God bless this young servant and make                        Committee of  Classis West.
his ministry fruitful.                                                      Classis decided to revise its classical diploma in
   The Reading Sermon Committee reported that few                        conformity with the revision recently made by  Classis
churches are requesting reading sermons, and that                        East.
many reading sermons are missing, because churches




            STUDENT AID APPLICATIONS                                                                 ATTENTION!!

   Pre-seminary or seminary students who intend to enter the                            SECRETARIES AND CLERKS!
Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches in the
1974-75 Term and who are in need of financial aid are  requested   to
contact:                                                                    Reports of standing and special committees of Synod must be
                                                                         submitted to the undersigned by April 15 if they are to be included in
                                                                         the Synodical Agenda. These reports ought to be typewritten; if
                       Mr. Theodore Engelsma,                            lengthy, please follow standard outline form for easy reference.
                      2333 Clyde Park Ave., S.W.
                       Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 49509
                                           o r                                                                                        Rev. D. H. Kuiper
                       Mr. Gerrit Pipe,                                                                                         Synodical Stated Clerk
                       1463 Ardmore, S. E.                                                                                            1314 Main Street
                      Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49507                                                                                     Pella, Iowa 50219


 THE STANDARD BEARER
            P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





298


   Forbes' request that it be permitted to ask for
collections in the churches of the West to help pay
for its  r?ew  parsonage (a new mobile home) was
granted. The request was sent  tq Synod for approval
as regards the churches of the East.
   In its evening session,  Classis conducted elections.
The results were the following.
   Rev. J. Kortering was elected to the Classical
Committee.
   Rev. G. Lanting was chosen as  pvimus   delegate ad
examina; Rev. R. Miersma and Rev. W. Bekkering
were chosen as  secundi  delegates ad examina.
   Chosen as church visitors were Rev. J. Kortering
and Rev. G. Lanting.
   The ministers elected as delegates to Synod are: D.
Engelsma, J. Kortering, D. Kuiper, and G. Lanting.
Their alternates are: W. Bekkering, M. Kamps, R.
Miersma, and R. Moore.
   The elder delegates to Synod are: E. Bruinsma
(Loveland), E. Gritters (Hull), J. Hoekstra (Hull),  and
H. Huisken (Edgerton). Their alternates are: A.
Hendriks (Edgerton), B. Menninga (Pella), D. Rolffs
(Pella), and H. Vander Veen (Lynden).
   The cost of this  Classis was $2,303.05.
   The next meeting of  Classis will be held in
Randolph, Wisconsin on September 4, 1974, the Lord
willing.
                                   Rev. David Engelsma,
                                               Stated Clerk
                                               Classis West

   On Tuesday afternoon, before  Classis,  the delegates
and officebearers from the area attended a conference
on the office of the deacon. Rev. R. Moore gave a              . . . . . . . . _ . . . .279
paper on the subject of the offerings taken in our
worship service. An animated discussion followed.
The men decided to pursue the subject of the
diaconate at a later conference. It was suggested that
the conference be longer, perhaps two days, and that
deacons be invited to attend. How such arrangements
can be made remains a mystery as yet; suggestions are
welcome. Rev. W. Bekkering was appointed to serve
with Rev. Engelsma as the committee on conferences.
                                                      D.E.


