      STANDARD
c          BEARER
             A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





       It is almost- as if the Lord is beginning a
     new era for us as Protestant Reformed
     Church.es in missions . . . calls for help have
     come from five places, four domestic and
     one foreign. We have mission work to do!
     Much of it! . , .  .It was the firm conviction
     of the Synod that God-had set before us
     these  op.en doors and that we, therefore,
     must go forward preaching the blessed
     gospel of sovereign grace in Christ. Jesus.

     See "The Synod and Missions" - Page  467


l                                                Volume  LV, No.  2Q,September  1,  1979  1


458                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER
                            CONTENTS:                                                                                               ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                          Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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                                                                               Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
   The Eternal God Is My Father . . . . . . . . . . . . .458                   Dapdrtmant  Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma,
                                                                               R e v .   C o r n e l i u s   H a n k o .   P r o f .   H e r m a n   H a n k o ,   R e v .   R o b e r t   C .   H a r b a c h ,
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 1       R e v .   J o h n   A .   Heys,   R e v .   M e i n d e r t   J o o s t e n s .   R e v .   J a y   Kortering,  Rev.
                                                                               George C. Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev. Marinus  Schipper,  Rev.
                                                                               James  Slopsema,   R e v .   G i s e   J .   V a n   Baren,   R e v .   R o n a l d   V a n   Overloop,
Editorial  -                                                                   R e v .   H e r m a n   Veldman,   M r .   K e n n e t h   G .   V i n k .
   The Heidelberg Catechism and Reprobation . . .462                           Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITA TION


                                                  The  Eternal God
                                                        Is My -Father
                                                                    Rev. C. Hanko


                  Question 26. What believest thou when thou sayest,  "I believe in God the Father,
              Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?"
                 Answer. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven
              and earth, with all that is in them; who likewise upholds and governs the same by his eternal
              counsel and provfdence) is for the sake of Christ his Son, my God and my Father, on whom
              I rely so entirely, that I have- no doubt, but he will provide me with all things necessary for
              soul and body, and further; that he will make whatever evils he sends upon me, in thjsvalley
              of tears turn out to my advantage; for he is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing,
              being  a faithful  Father.
                                                                                                   Lord's Day 9, Heidelberg Catechism.


                                             TliE STANDARD BEARER                                               459



   The eternal God is my Father!                            God, is more than I can understand. Too often the
  That in essence is the confession of this Lord's Day.     name of Father dies on our lips in the consciousness
What a momentous fact that is. How amazing is God's         of our daily transgressions, to say nothing of our
work of grace whereby we can say: I believe, Almost         depravity. In our daily walk of life there is far more
with bated breath we add: I believe in God. And to          reason to plead, "In Thy wrath and sore displeasure
that confession we make bold to add: This eternal           chasten not Thy servant, Lord. Let Thy mercy
God is my Father.                                           without measure help and peace to me afford." By
                                                            our first birth we are children of Adam, conceived
   Reflecting on that truth the fathers remind us that      and born in sin. We have a depraved nature that
God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They            reveals all the ugly traits of our spiritual father, the
point out that it is `only for the.sake of Christ, God's    devil. Besides, we transgress all God's commandments
Son, that we are made sons of God, and thus are             in every desire that arises from our depraved nature,
brought into the living union and fellowship with           in every thought that flashes through our `minds, in
God in Father's Family.                                     every word that passes over our lips, in every deed or
  From this follows, according to  -this Lord's Day,        action we perform. We only increase our debt of sin
that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is         constantly in all that we  do,- so that God has just
none other than the Almighty God, Who according to          reason to cast us off in His condemnation.
His eternal plan and purpose created the heavens and           What wondrous work the Lord has wrought in us!
the earth and all that  they~ contain. This same            He has made us new creatures, born of the Spirit with
almighty God carriers out His eternal counsel in His        the life of Christ. within us. Old things are passed
providence, whereby He upholds and governs all              away; for us all has become new. We have the Spirit
things.                                                     of adoption, Who assures us that we are sons of God
  The blessed significance of all this gradually dawns      and heirs of eternal- life. This same Spirit daily
upon our consciousness as we consider that this God         transforms us into the likeness of Christ, creating in
is our Father, Who "will ~provide me with all things        us the cry: Abba Father. We confess, "Behold what
necessary for soul and body." Yes, as I walk this vale      manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
of tears along the very path which He has appointed         that we -should  Abe called the sons of God." The
for me in eternal wisdom and love, and my flesh             consciousness of this  sonship  is much richer in the
raises doubts and fears, I may still rest assured that      new dispensation than in the old. The name of Father
He turns every evil to my advantage:1 may rely on           in reference to God appears only rarely in the Old
Him; come what may, for He directs all things to my         Testament. It must have been somewhat of a surprise
salvation. "He is able to do it, being Almighty God,        to Jesus' disciples that He taught them to pray, "Our
and willing, being a faithful Father."                      Father, which art in heaven." It was. the Spirit of
  One cannot help but stand amazed at the deep              Pentecost  -Who brought a richer revelation of the
insight that our fathers had in the golden-treasures of     intimate communion of life with our heavenly
God revealed to us in the Scriptures. The church of         Father. The secrets of God's heart are revealed to us
all ages rejoices to behold these riches as they are        through His Word in an ever increasing measure. Yet
summed up in the first article of our Apostolic Creed,      what secret can be more precious to us than the fact
"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of           that the eternal God calls us His sons? This is possible
heaven and earth."                                          only be cause :
  We pause a moment with the prayer that as we                He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
explore these riches the Spirit of Christ may make             Jesus is our Savior. His name means "Jehovah
this soul-stirring confession ever more our own.            saves, " for the covenant God saves His people from
  "Abba, Father.  "                                         their sins through that one and only Name whereby
  Never dare we take this name of Father on our lips        salvation is made possible, Jesus.
lightly or thoughtlessly. Only children have the right         Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed Servant of God.
to call their parents father and mother. It would be        How dare we ever think of the trinity as a cold
an intrusion on their personal rights for someone else      doctrine? For in the triune life of God pulsates the
to assume that privilege. Although all the men,             love that unites the three persons of the trinity in
women, and children born in this world-are creatures        communion. of life, and impels them to give
of God, and as such might be referred to as children,       expression to that love outside of themselves. God
sons of God, yet that right and privilege has now been      wills that all His glories must radiate in dazzling
lost through sin. How anyone who truly realizes his         splendor in all the works of His hands, that all His
own depravity and guilt before God can boldly               wide and vast creation may serve to the praise of the
assume for himself the right to be called a son of          glory of His grace in Christ Jesus. In the holy Trinity


  460                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



  the Son is the image of the Father, the duplicate of His                    He pays the ransom for sin by His bitter, shameful,
  perfections. Therefore the Son is qualified, as only He                     and painful death of the cross, not only to redeem
  can be, to reveal the glory of the Father, which is the                     His sheep, but also to redeem the whole creation
  glory that fills equally all three persons. The Son is                      from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
  the Word, appointed of God to devote Himself in love                        liberty of the sons of God. (Romans 8: 19-22).
  to God. He is the Christ, Who eternally stands before                       Wherefore God has also exalted Christ to a position
  God as the chief Servant in God's House. "I was                             of power and authority above all the angels in heaven,
  there," He says, "in the beginning of his (God's)                           above all the demons of hell, and over all the
  ways, before his works of old. . . . I was daily his                        creatures of the earth, including all the wicked. At
  delight, rejoicing always before him." (Proverbs 8).                        the name of Jesus, our Savior, every knee must bow
 To Christ God gives an elect people, the church,                             and every tongue must make the confession, "Lord
 making Christ the Head, and making us the members                            Jesus Christ," to the glory of the Father. (Phil. 2: 11).
 of His body. Or, to change the figure, we are sons in                        Our Father sits on His throne in the heavens, in order
  God's family through our Elder Brother, the First-                          to carry out His eternal purpose to bring many sons
 born., Jesus Christ. We are so intimately one with                           to glory through the death and salvation of Jesus
 Him, that -He cannot exist without us, and we cannot                         Christ, Who is our Lord, ruling over us and in us by
 exist without Him.                                                           His boundless love. All things are ours, and we are
     This is My Father's World.                                               Christ's, and Christ is God's. This is indeed our'
                                                                              Father's world. "Blessed be the God and Father of
     According to the recurring testimony of Scripture*                       our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all
 and the confession.:-of this Lord's Day, the eternal                         spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!"
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ made heaven and                              (Ephesians 1: 3).
 earth, with all that is in them." Imagine that!
 Jehovah, the God of our salvation, created the                                  On Who rn. I rely.
 heavens and the earth by Jesus.  We need not pause                              Our Catechism speaks of this valley of tears, and of
 here to consider that creation itself is a wonder, for                       doubts that assault us while we traverse this valley.
 God spake and it was, He commanded and it stood                              Scripture, speaks of it as the valley of the shadow of
 forth. "Through faith we understand that the worlds                          death, which we enter when we are born, through
 were framed by the word of God, so that things                               which we wend our way as long as we live, and pass
 which are seen were not made of things which do                              through its exit at death. It would be a valley of
 appear." (Hebrews 11:2). But here we see in awesome                          intense horrors of great darkness, without a ray of
 wonder that the first creation was made with a view                          hope, if it were not for the fact that Jesus walked this
 to the second. The first paradise was a picture of the                       valley and brought into it the dawning of a new day,
 heavenly paradise. Adam, our representative head in                          a new exit to glory. Therefore we can speak of the
 paradise, was a picture of the last Adam, Who is the                         valley of the  shadow  of death. But the shadow still
Lord from heaven.                                                             hovers heavily over us. There are tears,because  of sin
    Our fathers do not fail to add that the Father of                         and `because of the many sufferings of this present
 Jesus "likewise upholds and governs the same with his                        time; there are crosses to bear, there are trials and
 eternal counsel and providence." This truth is drawn                         temptations that weary us.
 from Scripture, which teaches us that all things were                          But our eye of faith is directed toward our Father
 made by Jesus, and for Him, and that by Him they all                         in heaven. We rely on Him, casting our cares upon.
 have their existence. (Col. 1: 16, 17). This was true                        Him, for He cares for us. What appears to be a great
 already in the old dispensation, as is evident from the                      evil He turns to our advantage. When we complain
 ever recurring appearance of the Angel of Jehovah,                           that all things are against us He assures us that He is
 Who is the Old Testament manifestation of the                                on our side, so that nothing can harm us. He holds us
 Christ. This becomes still more evident when Christ                          by His hand, directs us by His counsel, and after the
 comes into the flesh to lay down His life for His own.                       weary night is spent, takes us into His glory.
                                                                                He is Almighty God. He can do it.
  "See Psalm 33:6, John 1:3,  Colossians 1: 16, Heb. 1:2,  etc.                 He is our faithful Father. He will do it.



                                          Know the standard and follow it.
                                      Read  The Standard Bearer


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                461





                                         Editor's Notes

New RFPA Catalogue.  Within the past month a new          Bible Study Materials.  With the start of the society
catalogue of all our RFPA publications, plus most         season soon upon us, we wish to remind you that
other Protestant Reformed publications, has become        there is considerable literature available which would
available. A supply of these catalogues should soon be    be helpful both for Bible discussion and for
available in many of the churches. But if you want        after-recess discussions in your societies. Not only are
one immediately, write to RFPA Publications, P.O.         there several useful RFPA publications listed in our
Box 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501.                   new  mcatalogue, but there is a mass of material
                      *  * *  *                           available from our Seminary. This includes such
Publication  News. By the time this appears in print      things as notes on Old Testament History, notes on
the third of our Bible manual  series, Suffer Little      New Testament History, notes on the first three
Children, Book Three, will have come from the press,      chapters of Genesis by the late Rev. Herman
along with the pupil  Workbook  designed for grade        Hoeksema, notes on the Church Order, notes on the
three in our schools. The Workbook this time features     Canons of Dordrecht, Discussion Outlines on the
the art work of a professional artist. He is Mr. Jeff     Book of Acts, etc. If interested, write to our
Steenholdt, of our Kalamazoo congregation, who is         Seminary Bookstore, 4949 Ivanrest, S.W., Grandville,
now doing. the art work for all our new publications.     -Michigan 49418.
God's Eternal Good-Pleasure is at the press right now
and should soon be at the bindery. Target date for its                             * * *  *
appearance is early fall. By the way, if you are a
Standard Bearer  subscriber, you can still join our
RFPA Book Club. If you do, you will automatically         Increased Postal Costs.  Our Business Manager in-
receive all new RFPA publications (excluding educa-       formed me a few days ago that our Standard Bearer
tional books such as Suffer Little Children) at a 20%     has recently been victimized by some huge increases
discount. You will also be entitled to purchase any       in mailing costs. Last month he figured the increase
RFPA publications in stock at that discount. To join,     amounted to 23%! The result of this and some other
simply send a signed request to become a bookclub         cost increases has meant that what was once a very
member. By the way, by joining you will also help us      comfortable cash balance has been steadily de-
publish our books faster. The only thing that is          creasing, in spite of the fact that our subscription rate
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spelled $$$$$!                                            Standard Bearer in your church,





                                          A N N U A L M E E T I N G
            The annual meeting of the Reformed Free Publishing Association will be held, the Lord
          willing, Thursday, September 20, at 8 P.M., at the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church.
            Nominees for the board are Stuart Bylsma, John Cleveland, John De Vries, Leonard
          Holstege; Charles Kalsbeek and Peter Koole.
            Prof. Herman C. Hanko will be our speaker this year. All members and friends of the
       -R.F.P.A. are urged and invited to attend.
                                                                              David Harbach, Sec'y.


   462                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


E D I T O R I A L                                                                  -_
   ProJ: H. C. Hoeksemp.





                                   The Heidelberg Catechism
                                             and Reprobation


     In the discussion concerning the Boer Gravamen                    Spirit, in the unity of the true faith, a church chosen
   against the doctrine of reprobation as taught in the                to everlasting life, and that I am and ever shall remain
   Canons, it has more than once been suggested that                   a living member thereof." So here you have the secret
   there is a kind of dichotomy in our creeds and that                 counsel of God for our redemption made known, and
   while the Canons teach the doctrine of reprobation,                 a church chosen to everlasting life. That's what the
   our Heidelberg Catechism avoids it. Opponents of the                Catechism gives us, by which we weekly, daily, live,
   doctrine of reprobation suggest, therefore, that we                 in terms of instruction, in terms of proclamation. It is
                                                                       this doctrine, unencumbered and uncompromised by
   ought to follow the example of the Heidelberg                       the ever and inevitably discord-generating doctrine of
   Catechism and teach a' doctrine of election which is                reprobation, that I ask the church to return to.
   not weighted `down by the nettlesome doctrine of                       There can be no doubt about it, when you study
   reprobation. Dr. Boer followed this line of argumen-                the literature, that the doctrine of reprobation has
   tation in his (recorded) debate with Dr. Lester De                  been brought. into being and maintained in the
   Koster in Kalamazoo on March 7, 1978. From a                        Reformed tradition not by Scriptural teaching, but
   tape-recording of this debate I have transcribed the               by logical deductions of the theological mind.
   following excerpt from Dr. Boer's address:                        The question is: is it true that the Heidelberg
             Permit me now in this very connection to call your
          attention to the Heidelberg Catechism. It is the only    Catechism deliberately teaches and intends to teach,
          one of the three official creeds of the Christian        as Boer suggests, a doctrine of election without
          Reformed Church that stands in close and-intimate        reprobation? To use Dr. Boer's own language, does the
          relation to the weekly, not. to say daily, life of       Catechism purpose to teach a doctrine of election
          believers. The Heidelberg Catechism provides the         "unencumbered and uncompromised by the ever and
          weekly fare, weekly material, for the Christian          inevitably discord-generating doctrine of reproba-
          Reformed pulpit. It is the basis of catechetical         tion"  - a doctrine to which Boer asks his church to
          instruction.. Its writers stood very close -to  the.     return?
          Reformation. Martin Luther was dead only sixteen
          years when the Catechism was published; and when it        There are two tests which may be applied in
          was published, John Calvin was still living. Ursinus     seeking an answer to this question.
          and Olevianus were undoubtedly clearly and fully           The first'test is that of the confessions.
          acquainted with the doctrine of reprobation as set
          forth both by  Luther,.and more fully by Calvin. Yet       From the  point. of view of the harmony of the
          the Heidelberg Catechism makes no reference whatso-      confessions, was it ever the intent of the Heidelberg
          ever to reprobation. It speaks `plainly of redemption    Catechism to teach an election without reprobation,
          and of election, but not of reprobation. In Lord's       an election "unencumbered and uncompromised by
          Day XII it presents the Lord Jesus Christ as "our        the ever and inevitably discord-generating doctrine of
          chief Prophet and Teacher, who has fully revealed to     reprobation"? From the same viewpoint; would it
          us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our     indeed be a return, or would it, on the contrary, be a
          redemption." And in Lord's Day XXI it teaches that       departure to do as Boer requests his church to do?
          "the Son of God out of the whole human race, from
          the beginning to the end of the world, gathers,            We must remember -that our three confessions are
          depends, and preserves for- himself by his Word and      not three individual and unrelated documents, but


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     463



they are the Three Forms of Unity. This means that          enough to recognize this and not to act as though he
they are not to be understood in such a way that            has the beloved Heidelberg Catechism-on his side.
there is possibly a disjuliction  between them, so that,
for example, the Catechism could teach one thing              But there is another test - call it the historical test,
while the Belgic Confession would teach something           if you will.. From the historical point of view, was it
diverse on the same subject. No, there is unity and         ever the intent of the Heidelberg Catechism, by its
harmony among the three.                                    omission of the mention of reprobation, to teach
                                                            what Harry Boer calls a doctrine of election
  Considering this from the point of view of the            "unencumbered and uncompromised by the ever and
harmony of the Catechism and the Belgic Confession,         inevitably discord-generating' doctrine of repro-
first of all, it is clear that even though the Gate&&m      bation"?       : :  -'
does not literally mention reprobation, this by no
means implies that the Catechism teaches or intends to        Dr. Boer  makes a big  poi$ of this matter, you
teach a doctrine of election-without-reprobation. For       know. He takes pains to point out that the Catechism
the Belgic Confession in Article 16 does indeed teach,      was. -published during Calvin's lifetime and only
though in brief  f&m, a doctrine, of election  and          sixteen years after Luther's death. He points out that
reprobation.                                                the `authors of the Catechism, Ursinus and Olevianus,
  But also from the point of view of the Canons of          were "undoubtedly clearly and fully acquainted w.ith
Dordrecht, against which Boer has registered his            the doctrine of reprobation as set forth both by
gravamen, this is true. It ought to be clearly              Luther, and more fully. by Calvin. And "Yet,"
understood that if Boer does not want the position of       according to .Boer, "the Heidelberg Catechism makes
the Canons on reprobation, he is also in effect             no reference whatsoever to reprobation."
repudiating the Belgic Confession and the Heid.elberg         Now is this true? Is this a correct presentation
Catechism; the former of which speaks briefly on            historically? Is it true that Ursinus- and  Olevianus,
reprobation and the  latte! of which is silent on the       though they lived so close to the Reformation and
subject. Why is this true? It is true because the           were acquainted with its doctrines, deliberately and
Canons occupy a peculiar position among our creeds.         intentionally omitted the mention of the doctrine of
They do not stand on an equal footing with the              reprobation, lest it should encumper and compromise
Catechism  and. the. Confession  .as. far as content is     the doctrine of. election and lest .it should generate
cdncerned, but they occupy the status of a further          discord? This is  plairily  what Dr. Boer attempts to
explanation of certain points of doctrine already           suggest in the paragraph quoted.
contained in the Catechism and the Confession. It is
for this reason that the Formula of Subscription              There is, of course, another possible explanation.
refers to the Canons in- relation to the Catechism and      That explanation is anathema to the likes of Boer and
the Cdnfession by the expression, "together with the        .Daane. That explanation is that in the mind of all
explanation of some points of the aforesaid doctrine,       Reformed men, Luther and Calvin and Ursinus and
made by the National Synod of Dordrecht,                    Oleviaims and all the fathers of Dordrecht included, it
1618-`19."  The Canons are only an explanation of           is  absolutely impossible  to breathe the word "elec-
some points of the doctrine already contained in the        tion" without saying by implication "reprobation."
Catechism and the Confession, therefore. Further-           Daane scoffs at this as  t&e logic of numbers. Boer
more, at the time of the Arminian controversy and           repudiates it as being mere logic rather than
the Synod of Dordrecht everyone recognized this.            Scripture,  and makes especially Louis Berkhof the
Not only the Couriter-Remonstrants (the Reformed)           victim of his attack. The simple fact is that you can
recognized it. But the  Arminians themselves recog-         find this kind of  lo@c in almost every Reformed
nized that the doctrine of reprobation  wa,s already        theologian of note  - not apart from, but in
the doctrine of the Reformed Churches even when             connection with the Scriptures. And the simple fact
the latter did not yet have the Canons, but only the        is, too, that none of the critics of  this logic has yet
Catechism and the Confession. This accounts for the         succeeded in making plain to anyone how there can
fact  that the  Arminians wanted a national  synod at       be  tin election (I  am speaking of election in the
which they would not be defendants but would be on          Reformed sense!) without a concomitant. repro-
an equal footing at the synod, a synod which would          bation. Take reprobation in the mildest infralapsarian
review and revise the existing creeds. This also            sense of .a passing by or a non-election. How can
accounts for the fact that when the Synod of                there be an election of a certain definite  number'of
Dordrecht called upon the Arminians to state in             persons out of the whole human race without the
writing their position concerning the  first point of       passing by or  non:election of those who are not
doctrine in dispute, the Arminians promptly launched        chosen? The men who hold this position, if they want
a sharp attack against the Reformed doctrine of             to be recognized as at all credible,  @we it to the
reprobation. Dr. Boer could at least be. forthright         Reformed community to clear up this matter.


 464                                                       THE STANDAR-D BEARER


    But to return to the issue, which of these two                              thing as predestination, or election and reprobation in
 possible explanations is correct? Which represents the                         God, is proven by these declarations of Scripture:
 true position of the Heidelberg Catechism? Dr. Boer's                          "Many are called but few are, chosen." "Ye have not
 explanation or mine?                                                           chosen me, but I have chosen you." "Other sheep I
                                                                                have which  are not of this fold." "He hath chosen us
   We have an excellent court. of appeal foi- this test -                       in him before the foundation of the world; having
none other than Ursinus himself. As possibly most of                            predestinated Us unto the adoption of children by
 you know, Ursinus is the author of a lengthy                                   Jesus Christ to himself, according to the  .good
 commentary on the Heidelberg- Catechism, a com-                                pleasure of his will." "I have much people in this
mentary which was produced from his lectures by Dr.                             city."  "And as many as were ordained to eternal life
David  Pareus, the intimate friend and disciple of                              believed."  "Whom he did predestinate, them he also
Ursinus. Turning to Lord's Day XXI, the beautiful                               called." (Matt.  20:16. John 15: 16;  10:16. Eph.  1:4,
 chapter' on the holy, catholic church mentioned by                             5. Acts 18:lO; 13:48. Rom. 8:3,0.)
Dr. Boer, what do we find by way of commentary?                                    The following passages of the word of God, may
Do we find  so. much as a  hint  that the Catechism                             be regarded as having a special reference to repro-
( U r s i n u s )   i n t e n d e d   t o   t e a c h   a n   election-         bation. "God willing to shew his  wrath, and to make
without-reprobation?                                                            his power known,  endured with much long-suffering
                                                                                the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." "Jacob
  -On the contrary!  '  "                                                       have I loved, but Esau have I hated." "It is given to
   Ursinus devotes some ten long pages to a treatment                           you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
of the doctrine of predestination, including both                               but to them it is not given." "Who were before of old
election and reprobation.                                                       ordained to this condemnation." "I thank thee, 0
                                                                                Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
   He  introduces this section as follows:                                     hid these things from the wise, and prudent, and hast
          The Common Place of the eternal predestination                        reveale.d  them unto babes, even so Father, for so it
 of God, or of election and reprobation naturally                               seemed-good in thy sight." "Ye have not the words of
        grows out of the doctrine of the church: and is for.                    God, because ye are not of God." "Ye believe not;
        this reason correctly connected with it; In the                         because ye are not of my sheep." "The Lord hath
        discussion of this subject we must enquire principally,                 made  all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for
                                                                               the day of  evil." (Rom.  9:22, 13. Matt.  13:ll.  Jude
    I. Is there any predestina@on?                                             4. Matt. 11:25,26.  John 8:47;   10:26. Prov.  16:4.)
   II. What  is it?
  III.     What is the cause of it?                _'                         The entire treatment of  this.subject  by Ursinus is
  IV.      What are the effects of it?                                      instructive. But let me limit my quotations to one
   V.  Is it unchangeable?                                                  more. For in it you find, in the last sentence, the very
  VI.      To what extent may it be known by us?                            same logic  `on the part of Ursinus which Dr. Boer
 VII. Arc the elect always members of the church,                     ,-    repudiates, namely, -that reprobation is implied in
           and the reprobate never?                                         election. Take note of that sentence. In these
VIII.  can the elect  fall  Jiom the church, and may                        paragraphs Ursinus is answering the question, "What
          the reprobate always remain in it?                                is predestination?"
  IX. What is the use of this doctrine?
                                                                                  Predestination- differs from providence, as species
   When he enters upon his treatment of the above                              from genus. Providence is the counsel of God
questions, it is interesting to note, Ursinus cites some                       concerning all his creatures; but predestination is the
of the very same  passages of Scripture as those which                         counsel of God, with reference to the salvation of
the Canons quote and to which Dr. Boer objects in                              angels, and  .men.  Predestination is, therefore, the
his gravamen. What Ursinus has to say on the subject                           eternal, most righteous and unchangeable counsel of
is worthwhile, and so I will reproduce some of it. The                         God concerning the creation of man, the permission
following is from                                                              of man to fall into sin and eternal death, the sending
                            his answer to the first question:                  of his  Son in the flesh that he might be a sacrifice,
           When the question is asked, Is there any such thing                 and the salvation of. some by true faith and
        as predestination?  it is the same thing as to enquire, if             conversion through the Holy Spirit and the word for
        God has any counsel or decree, according to which he                   the sake of the mediator, by, and on account of
        has determined that some should be saved, and others                   whom they are justified, raised to glory, and
        condemned. There  are some who affirm that election,                   rewarded with eternal life; whilst the rest are left in
        when used in the  .Scriptures, means  excellence,  on                  sin and death, raised to judgment, and cast into
        account of which some are regarded worthy to be                        everlasting punishment. This definition of predesti-
        chosen unto everlasting life, just as a man may make                   nation is given with reference to men, and not to
        choice of a noble horse, or of pure gbld. It is in the                 angels, because it is of the salvation of men that we
        same way that they explain the idea of reprobation.                    shall here speak.
           This view, however, is false, in as tiuch as election                  The two parts of predestination are embraced in
        is the eternal counsel of God. That there is such a                    election and reprobation. Election  is the eternal and


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                            465


    unchangeable decree of God, by which he has                      tire  froin everlasting, or before the foundation of the
    graciously decreed to convert some to Christ, to                 world. In as much now as he has chosen us, he must
    preserve them in faith, and repentance, and through              have rejected the rest, which is still further proven by
    him to bestow upon them eternal life. Reprobation is             the import of the word election, or choice; for that
    the eternal, and unchangeable purpose of God,                    which is chosen, is selected, whilst other things are
    whereby he has decreed in his most just judgment to              rejected.
    leave some in their sins, to punish them with
    blindness, and  td condemn them eternally, not being           It is abundantly plain, therefore, that the
    made partakers of Christ, and his benefits. That both      Heidelberg Catechism - according to the testimony
    election and reprobation are the decree of God, these      of its author himself  - does not purpose to teach a
    and similar declarations of Scripture prove: "I know       doctrine of election-without-reprobation. The con-
    whom I have chosen." "According to his grace which         trary is true. And he who would keep silent about
    was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began."
    "He hath mercy on whom he                                  reprobation in connection with the mention of
                                  wilL"  (John 13: 18. 2.
    Tim.  1:9 Rom.  9:18.)  Election and reprobation           election by the Catechism in Question and Answer 54
   were, therefore, made with counsel; and hence each is       would be unfaithful to the doctrine contained in the
   the decree of God, and for tbis reason eternal:             Catechism - again, according to the testimony of its
    because there is nothing new in God, but  ail things       author.

TRANSLATED TREASURES



                         Pamphlet on the -Reformation
                                              .of the Church.
                                                   by Dr. Abraham Kuypev




(Kuyper has been talking in general about the matter           principally,, the church under the state. The struggle
of  authority in the church. He is in the-process of           which is still being carried on in Germany between
discussing different types of church government. In            t h e   P r u s s i a n   C o u r t   a n d   t h e   C u r i a   o f   R o m e   i s
the previous article, he discussed the Romish system           c o n c e r n e d   w i t h   n o t h i n g   l e s s   t h a n   t h e   a b s o l u t e
of church government. Now he turns in this article .to         opposition between this Lutheran system and that of
the Lutheran system and other systems.)                        Rome.
                                                                  According to the drift of this Lutheran system,
  The Lutheran Church attempts to solve  the                   Christ has laid the authority  over His church in the
question of the best form of church government in an           hands of the prince of the land. The king, duke, or
entirely different way. Her system is actually the             count is lord over the `church just as he is lord over
same as that which was promoted by the Remon-                  the land. The church as church has no authority of its
strants in our' land and in the  ilame of  EraStus  in         own. All authority over her is. confined to the prince
England. And, after the appearance of Thomasius, it            of the land. Men differ in how this is to be expressed.
is best known by the name of the Territorial System,           One teaches that only the former power of the
i.e., the system that the one world-church splits and          bishops was transferred to the prince. The other,
divides into as many parts Xnd fragments as there are          decidedly more logical, takes the position that the
royal provinces, each of which has its own sov-                prince, by virtue of his own princely sovereignty, is
ereignty. This system' is diametrically opposed to             also sovereign over the church. Nevertheless, both
Rome's system insofar as it deliberately breaks the            actually  confess that the prince alone possesses
unity of the world-church. National divisions are              authority over the national church according to the
permitted  to determine the  chara&?r of the church.           fatal rule: cuius regio, eius religio; i.e., "He who- is
And it does not place the state under the church, but          lord in the land determines the religion out of han,d."


466                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



The laity have no,right in this Lutheran system. The                         of confession had to be tolerated because the
defenders of this Lutheran system distinguish not two                        authority of the church might not be activated with
but three classes: the ruling class, the ministerial class,                  respect to doctrine.                  `
and the lay class. `Of these three, all authority rests in                      Thus of itself the law of contradiction brings us to
the ruling class which points out to the ministerial                         the third or Reformed  system generally known by
class in what way this authority will operate; and                           the name  of,Presbyterian or Synodical system. The
nothing remains for the lay class except what men                            chief marks of this system are: 1 j That the internal
call, in complete seriousness,. the right to obey and to                     unity of the world-church, which the Lutheran
be subject. This system~is also called Consistorial. In                      system separates into territories, is also divided by the
order that the princes are not in the final analysis                         Reformed so that the local church becomes the point
included with the preachers, the princes place some                          of departure for' all church government.         2) That
ministers under them in the form of a consistory in                          these local churches are bound in a federation in
their capital city. These ministers keep their col-                          Classis and Synodical National churches, and, al-
leagues in check. Their authority also extends to the                        though in weaker  measure: in world councils.
appointment of superintendents and general super-                             3) That here for the first  tnne the laity operates
intendents in order better to hold tight the reins of                        powerfully and, through the appointment of elders
government.                                                                  and deacons, stamps out .a11 clericalism. 4) That the
   It already appears from this how the Erastian or                          ecclesiastical authority, without in the least arrogat-
Remonstrant system, although coinciding with the                             ing itself over the state, maintains itself completely
Lutheran system in the territorial idea, yet brings into                     independent from the state. These are the four great
this system an important variation. Erastus and -the                         principles of Reformed church polity which decide if
Remonstrants taught, partly following Zwingli, that                          one moves in reformed paths rather in Romish,
there is really no authority in the church of Christ on                      Lutheran, or Congregational.
earth; that the authority exercised by the magistrates
is over the church in the same way as it is over the                            On the foreground, as the cornerstone of the entire
state and the-whole of society, although it does not as                      system, stands the theory of the local church. The
such bear a special ecclesiastical character; and that                       devout confession of the hidden, spiritual character
the preachers, as a result, have no other obligation                         of the one Holy Catholic Church of Christ which
than simply to warn and advise. They do not possess                          manifests itself everywhere, where also believers dwell
the use of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. It is                          together, is bound up in this truth. The Lutheran idea
because of this that the Remonstrants opposed a                              of one large national church, divided into sections
general synod and made their plea for a territorial or                       which men call congregations, is in irreconcilable
provincial synod. Based on this is their opposition to                       strife with this idea. The Reformed church, according
the introduction of discipline, a power for which they                       to the tenor of God's Word, has as its COY ecclesia, not
did not consider the church authorized. And finally,                         the means of grace, but the choice of the elect; and
on this basis rested their demand to tolerate diverse                        accordingly, .the church does not come to manifesta-
teachings in the church. All these ideas came forth                          tion through the introduction of a certain liturgy, but
                                                                             through the manifestation of believers. However,
out of the fact that in their opinion the ministry of                        because this local point of departure does not detract
the Word was devoid of all authority and was limited                         from the glorious idea of the~unity  of the church, the
merely to warning.                                                           second mark stands alongside of this. This second
   One. sees from this that the ecclesiastical ideas of                      mark is that these local churches must walk in union
Irenicists and the Legalists follow in principle the                         with each other and thus need to exercise Presby-
Lutheran system, and more specifically, its Remon-                           terian discipline and authority over each other. It
strant variation.* The ruler of the land decreed the                         -needs to spread out, not in a classical administration,
Church Order in 1816. The church must be one for                             but in the glorious institution of Classes and Synods,
the whole territory. The Reverend's position must set                        as at Dort, and preferably into a world-synod. This
the tone. The laity must not be included. Provincial                         confederate authority of  Classis and Synod must, in
and classical administration came in the place of                            the meantime, never nullify the character of the
general superintendents and superintendents., The                            church as a church of believers by virtue of election.
General Synodical Commission formed the Lutheran                             Hence, as the third mark, there must be the
consistory. All the actions of the church had to be                          introduction of presbyters or elders and of deacons as
purely admonitory. And finally, all kinds of variation                       representative of believers. This stops all supremacy
*The Reference of Kuyper here is not altogether clear. It is possible        of the- clergy. Finally, in the matter of the govern-
that Kuyper  refers to the history of the State Church in the period-just    ment, our Reformed churches always held in honor
prior to the Afscheiding when, under the prodding of Napoleon, the           and with firmness the distinction of secular. and
state imposed its will upon the church and ordered a fundamental
change in the Church Order.                                                  ecclesiastical authority. This appeared in the most


                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              467



complete sense in lands where  :the magistrates                              as sovereign by the grace of God, to promote the
remained Romish, as in France and in Poland. In                              honor of God and God's righteousness in the land
those lands the Reformed churches, on Calvin's                               according to the service of both tables of the law.*
advice, developed and were organized and instituted                          These are ideas in which ,are given, according to our
completely independently. .And this was maintained                           innermost conviction, the correct lines `along which
so firmly and strongly that everybody who in our day.                        we'still must  move.in order-to arrive at a pure and
nevertheless rejects the separation `of church and state                     correct separation of church and state. If one must
becomes an opponent of the Reformed principles                               maintain a system -of absolute-separation of church
though now in these lands we live under magistrates                          and state recommended by Calvin for. France and
.who `are not: Reformed.* Yet the fact that Calvin and                       Poland, even the formerly mentioned system (that
his followers, also in this land, and in states with a                       the magistrate must enforce both tables of the law) is
Reformed magistrate, permitted interference, does                            valid. This absolute separation must never be lost
not alter the strong demand and' correct tendency of                         from sight as is the case in our country.
the principle. Only, one must correctly distinguish in                          As it was, after the total failure of the Romish
this connection. In the first place, e.g.; at Geneva, the                    system, and  the- grim disappointment in which the
representatives of the boards of the citizenry  ,ap-                         Lutheran system resulted, finally by Calvin the pure
peared not as a government having authority in the                           and best and through God's Word much sought after
church, but as representatives of the laity, something                       system of churchrule was found, and was especially
like our deputies now. In the second place, a certain                        defended with sturdy courage and striking results
ius in sacra (authority in holy matters) was not given                       against the calumnies of our Erastian Remonstrants.
to the government by virtue of her sovereign right,                          Let it therefore be here presumed that both systems
but men granted to government officials, as good                             which are still to be discussed, namely, the in-
church members, an authority of ecclesiastical origin.                       dependent and collegiate systems, bring us far from
In the third place, the control of the manner in which                       the purer systems, and in fact to corruptions of the
the church would take her constitutional and civic                           one good system.
place was left to the magistrate. And in the fourth
place, finally, men have held, and correctly, before
the magistrate the obligation, by virtue of her calling                      *Kuyper's reference to grace here is to "common grace," an- idea to
                                                                             which he held at  the'time of  the writing of this pamphlet, although
*This is, of course, a reference to the State Church as it existed in the    they were not as fully developed as they would be in his "Gemeene
Netherlands.                                                                 Gratia" and in his  `:Stone Lectures."


THE LORD GAVE THE  WORD



                                     The Synod and Missions
                                                             ProJ: Robert D. Decker


                                                                                                                       .
   It is almost as if the Lord is beginning a new era for                    Mission Committee on the island of Jamaica, and for
us as Protestant Reformed Churches in missions. This                         three  of- those years Rev. G. Lubbers labored as
is not to say that our churches have been lax in their                       missionary on that island. But now calls for help have
calling. to do mission work in the past. This, most                          come from five places, four domestic and one foreign.
emphatically, is not the case. From the very                                 We have mission work to do! Much of it! Synod
beginning of our history we have been engaged in                             responded to those calls after careful and prayerful
missions. This has been exclusively in the area of                           deliberation by appointing calling churches for all of
home missions -and church reformation and exten-                             them. It was the firm conviction of the Synod that
sion. God has richly blessed these efforts too. Many                         God had set before us these open doors and that we,
of our present congregations had their beginnings as                         therefore, must go forward preaching the blessed
home mission stations. In addition, for some sixteen                         ~gospel of sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. Truly the
years we have been laboring through our Domestic                             word of Christ, "the fields are white with harvest,"


   468                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



 remains. But Christ also said: "the laborers are few."        Victoria, Vancouver, British Columbia
 This too remains true: Besides the four vacant                   Synod heard ,a report from the missionary, Rev.
 congregations there are four mission fields which             Robert C. Harbach, concerning his labors the past
 need missionaries in the next year. This means in             ninteen months. In addition to his regular preaching
 effect that our churches have no fewer than eight             and teaching Rev. Harbach published a paper Cal-
 vacancies. How fervent we must continue to be in our          vinist Con tender,. and initiated a fifteen-minute radio
 prayers that God will give us men for the ministry! We        program, "Bible Truth Meditations." Rev. Harbach
 must labor while it is day, ere the night cometh in the       labored with a core group of three families and
 which no man can labor.                                       visitors. Because of Rev. Harbach's impending emeri-
                                                               tation and the fact one of the families has ceased
 Jamaica                                                       attending. and another has moved to our Lynden
    In our survey of Synod's actions concerning                Church, Synod instructed the Mission Committee
 missions we begin with our oldest field, Jamaica. A           that, with the concurrence of the Hope (Walker, Mi.)
 good deal of time was spent on Jamaica by both the            Council, full-time work in Victoria, B.C. be con-
 Mission Committee and its subcommittee on Jamaica.            cluded at  .the end of August 1979 if the situation
 Twice during the past year emissaries were sent to the        remains unchanged. Synod also transferred the field
 island on brief, but concentrated visits, fmt Rev. B.         from Hope to Lynden so that continued contact can
 Woudenberg and Mr. C. Prince and later Rev. M.                be maintained.
 Joostens and Mr. Prince. In addition there -was
 constant correspondence by means of both tape and             East Lansing, Michigan
 letter. As a result of these contacts the Mission               About the time of the Synod of 1978 a request for
 Committee advised Synod that the field demonstrates           a missionary came from four families in the Char-
 a receptivity to our preaching of the gospel and              lotte, Michigan area. This request was referred to the
 teaching of the Reformed faith. The ministers there           Kalamazoo Consistory. The pastor of Kalamazoo,
 are in dire need of further instruction. Specifically         Rev. B. Woudenberg, has since July of 1978 held
 they need to know how to apply the doctrines of the           mid-week Bible study classes with the group. Begin-
 Word of God to the problems of everyday life,                 ning in January of 1979 the Mission Committee in
 Whereas in times past the congregations were charac-          conjunction with the Consistory of Kalamazoo began
 terized by the old and children, there is increasingly a      worship services, with the retired ministers doing the
 number of young people in attendance at the'worship           preaching during January and February, and the
 services and showing interest in things spiritual. There      seminarians and professors during March, April, and
 continue to be problems on. the field. Upon  .these           May. Recently the group moved to East Lansing,
 grounds the Synod went on record as favoring the              which is more centrally located and has better
 establishing of a missionary on Jamaica as soon as            prospects for growth. For the summer months
 that is practically possible. Synod further instructed        Kalamazoo, with the approval of the Mission Com-
 the Mission Committee to investigate the possibility          mittee, has engaged the services of Candidate Steven
 of calling a missionary to Jamaica .after the Synod of        Houck. It may be reported with thanksgiving that the
 1980. Synod also instructed the Mission Committee             preaching is well received and there is growth both in
 to send emissaries to Jamaica, preferably at the time         spiritual knowledge and in number. The group now
 of their classis meetings, for- a period of at least three    numbers- six families and one individual. In the light
 weeks, taking into consideration a minister (or               of this the Synod appointed Hope, Walker, Michigan
 ministers) and elder or former elder who are                  the calling church for a missionary for East Lansing.
 interested in working there. Meanwhile, for the               May God prosper the work.
 interim, Synod instructed the Mission Committee to
 arrange for tape instruction for the ministers of             Birmingham, Alabama
Jamaica. Finally the Synod appointed First Church of             In a letter addressed to the Mission Committee
 Grand Rapids the calling church for the Jamaican              dated August  26, 1978  a group of believers in
 field and to take over the supervision and investi-           Birmingham requested a full-time home missionary.
 gation of this field in conjunction with the Mission          Two ministers were sent to investigate this request
 Committee.                                                    and they returned with a favorable report. In January
    It is apparent that Jamaica remains a viable field         of 1979 the Mission Committee asked South .Holland
 for mission work. There is pressing need and the door         Church to consider Birmingham as a field and to call
 remains open. -The Synod recognized this and ~took            a missionary. Rev. Ronald Van Overloop has recently
 positive and constructive action in response to it. May       accepted the call of South Holland and will be
 God bless these decisions. for the furtherance of the         installed and take up his labors there sometime this
 cause of the gospel on the island of Jamaica.                 summer. May God bless Rev.  VanOverloop and his


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      469



 family and cause his work to bear fruit toward the              you. They have been a great help to us in showing to
 establishment of a congregation in Birmingham.                  us the truth' of God's Word which we are now
                                                                 persuaded to be expressed in the Reformed truth you
 Mt. Vernon,  Monroe,  Washington                                hold. We are also much encouraged by the way you
                                                                hold the Word of God in high esteem and it is in view
    For the past few years considerable interest has             of these that we made our decision after much
been shown in our churches by the people living in               deliberation.
 these northwest Washington areas. Lynden's Con-
 &tory and pastor, Rev. D.H. Kuiper, have been .-and             "On the 8th of April 1979, our Study Commission of
                                                                 8 brothers and 1 sister (who refrain from voting
 are now pursuing this interest to the best of their             herself), who were chosen by the congregation to
 ability. The distance, involved, however, (up to 100            conduct. a study on your doctrines and make a
 miles) makes it impossible for Lynden to work this              recommendation to the Executive Committee and
 field by itself. Upon the request of Lynden Church              took a unanimous decision to recommend that we
 and the advice of the Mission Committee, Synod                  request a missionary from the Protestant Reformed
 appointed Lynden to call a missionary to labor in this          Churches. On the 15th April, a survey was taken of
 field. It is our prayer that the fruit of this labor may        the Congregation's inclinations in which out of the 54
 be that a Protestant Reformed Congregation may be               constituted members present, 32 were in favor of
 organized in this area.                                         re.questing  a missionary from the Protestant
                                                                 Reformed Churches, 14 put their confidence in
 Singapore                                                       whatever the leaders decide and 8 thought it more
                                                                 prudent to delay such a request. There were none
    We conclude our survey with a report on our first            who did not want the Protestant Reformed Churches'
 genuinely foreign mission field. In Singapore there is          h e l p !
 a group of believers (generally single and in their             Taking all these into consideration, the Executive
 twenties) recently converted from heathendom                    Committee met on the 22nd April 1979 to decide on
 (Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese Ancestral Wor-                 the course of action. We hereby request a missionary
 ship). This group suffers much persecution on                   from you to establish us as a Church holding the
 account of the Christian faith, even from  -their               Reformed Truth.
 families. There are tifty-nine members in the Gospel            We also want to add that, it is the longing and vision
Literature  .and Tract Society with some sixty to                of the leaders, as we see. that there exists in these
 seventy who visit the meetings and worship services.            parts of the world no strong witness of the Glorious
 Rev. J. Slopsema and Mr. Dewey Engelsma visited the             Gospel once delivered to the saints embodied in the
 Society in the spring of 1978 and Rev. M. Kamps and             Reformed Truth, that the Lord may raise up here and
 Mr. Engelsma and their wives labored among these                there a witness. We desire for the Church in our midst
 believers in the spring of 1979. The emissaries, in             a strong foundation established upon the Apostles
 extensive `and detailed reports to the Synods of 1978           and the prophets with Christ as the Chief Corner
 and 1979, informed the Synods that these believers             Stone, that we may act as a centre where the True
                                                                 Light of God's Word may in the future, reach beyond
 are sincerely interested in the Reformed faith. They            the shores of Singapore to neighboring South-East
 need our help. The fruit of these contacts has been             Asia, and where men of God may be trained for such
 that the G L T S addressed a letter to the Foreign              ministry. We believe you as the Protestant Reformed
 Mission Committee in which they requested a                     Churches to be God's provision for us in His grace to
 missionary from the Protestant Reformed Churches.               help us do His will.
 As noted above, this is the first call our churches have        We understand that as we make this request, we have
 received from a foreign field. That in itself makes the         placed our teaching ministry under the care of the.
 letter significant and for that reason.we quote it in its       missionary you send us. Should you grant our
 entirety:                                                       request, we have every confidence that he will work
     "Dear Brethren,                                             closely with the leaders. It is our desire, as much as
                                                                 we are able, to provide for him and his family in
     Greetings in the Name of our Rightful Lord and Most         carnal things as he minister to us in spiritual things.
     Holy Saviour Christ Jesus the Righteous.                    To Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of
    We thank God for His grace in granting us your               His Own Will we owe our thanks and praise for your
     fellowship, love and concern and in this letter we          work of faith, and  labour of love and patience and of
    wish to express to you officially our hope, vision and       hope.
     the decision we made concerning your  labour of love
    with us.                                                     Yours in Christ,
                                                                 The Executive. Committee of GLTS"
    We are thankful for the help you have rendered us
    through the sending of Emissaries last year, the tape       In response to this request the Synod appointed
    programme, literature and the Emissaries presently        Doon, Iowa as the calling Church for a missionary to
    here with us, through whom we send this letter to         Singapore. May God soon give us a man who shares


4     7    0                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



the vision of the GLTS to labor among them, in order              for the privilege of preaching the gospel and
that they may be instituted as a manifestation of the             extending our witness to the ends of the earth. May
Church of Jesus Christ.                                           our Churches be faithful to the end.
     We praise God for these mission opportunities and

FROMi2UR  F O R E I G N
MISSION COMMITTEE                                          .,                ._



                      Come Over and  Help  US
                           (from G.L.T.S. in Singapore)
                                                  ,Rev.  M:  Kamps                 .-





     The Foreign Mission Committee of our churches                Christian faith through various unusual means.
appointed  the. undersigned to write once again                   Outstanding is the witness of a public school teacher.
concerning our labors upon the mission field in                   The present core members of the G.L.T.S. were
Singapore. In March the undersigned and Mr. D.                    taught some ten to twelve years ago the Holy
Engelsma were sent. by the Foreign Mission                        Scriptures by their public school teacher, who found
committee and our Doon Church.as your emissaries                  time before school, after school, and at recess time to
to the Gospel Literature and Tract Society of                     teach these pagan children the truth as it is in Christ
Singapore. This group was formerly known as the                   Jesus. This little group gradually grew and today
Gospel Letters and Tract Department (G.L.T.D.).                   when the G.L.T.S. meets for worship there are about
They are now a society registered with the                        one hundred twenty persons in attendance. All are
government of Singapore and possess- the right to                 not members but they are there regularly to hear
sponsor a missionary from a foreign country. The fact             God's Word and to worship with God's people.
that Mr. Engelsma was one of the emissaries in the                 The G.L.T.S. is a society, not a church, even
spring of `78 proved to be very helpful unto the                  though it functions in many respects as a church. The
establishment of rapport with the G.L.T.S.                        G.L.T.S. does not have an ordained pastor, nor elders,
immediately at the beginning of our labors.                  nor deacons. This society is governed by a constitution
     The G.L.T.S. has sixty young men and women                   and directed by five young leaders, which the society
members. All these members are unmarried, under              elected to' lead her. Your emissaries stayed in
twenty-eight years old, all were raised in pagan homes       Singapore from March 23 to May 1. We preached six
where the parents are either Hindus, Buddhists, or           sermons while on the island. Sunday morning at 10
Chinese ancestral worshippers. These young people,           a.m. we met for worship in their humble building on
of course, formerly accompanied their parents to the         River Valley Road. The worship services generally
temples of the heathen gods to bow down in prayer            were finished in two hours. These sermons were
and praise of these vain idols. But our God has              thankfully and attentively heard. They were receptive
delivered them .from the darkness and wickedness of          to the Reformed, faith. This receptivity was of God's
paganism and has called them into the fellowship of          grace. Each Saturday afternoon from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.                       we met to discuss a speech which the undersigned
                                                             delivered on various subjects which the leaders of the
     Of that fact there is no doubt! Children of God         G.L.T.S. asked us to. address. Each Wednesday
they are.                                                    evening at  r/:30 they met for a prayer. service. In
     These young people had been brought- to the             addi-tion to the above meetings the G.L.T.S.


                                              THE STANDARD  BEARER                                                         471



membership ineets  once a week in various localities          Another Christian virtue evidenced  tibundantly
throughout Singapore-  1 in small groups for Bible          among them was that enjoined by the apostle Paul in
study.                                                      E p h .   4i32; "Be ye kind one to another,
   Your emissaries were impressed with the deep             tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
interest the G.L.T.S. membership had in God's Word.         Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Their love for one
They were hungry! They peppered us with questions.          another was not the superficial kind of a plastic smile
They sought instruction; they had not come to argue.        and phony sweet voice. But their love and kindness
Not only were they concerned with gaining answers           toward  .one another were the expressions of their
to personal questions, and solutions to personal            sincere love of and unity in God's Word,  and their
problems, but they wanted to know specifically what         soft  .words wel'e motivated by a mutual appreciation
this text or that text meant. They wanted to grow .in       for the work of Gbd's grace among them.,
the knowledge of  God. and of His  .Word. When we             The G.L.T.S. has experienced considerable
showed them from God's Word the proper                      difficulties in the recent past. After Rev. Slopsema
interpretation, they thankfully received our                and Mr.  Engelsma  returned from Singapore in April
instruction.                                                of 1978, approximately  twenty&e members of the
                                                            group left, because they disapproved of the continued
   I am especially at this time mindful of the young        Reformed emphasis in the preaching and teaching of
sister, who, as it became. apparent through her             the- leaders. Those who were troubled by the
questions,- did not believe that the grace of Gdd is an     Reformed emphasis in the teaching of .the G.L.T.S.
irresistible power unto the salvation of His people.        claimed that if one was  comrriitted to the tulip
She was convinced that the grace of God was mkrely          doctrines of  ,the Reformed faith it wduld be
a feeling or attitude of unmerited favor in God             impossible for him to engage in Christian witness
towards all men. She was so sweetly earnest in her          unto others.  .One of the leaders of the G.L.T.S. felt
contention. However, `how pleasant and refreshing it        duty bound to answer this allegation and thus wrote a
was for me to hear her earnest and humble                   position paper -and distributed it among the
acceptance of the truth of God's Word as we brought         membership. We want to quote some excerpts from
it to her. Another young lady asked us to distinguish       this paper to let  you read from one member of the
and clarify for her the biblical expressions, old man       group his ,concem  for the truth of God's Word and his
and new man, regeneration  and- the rebirth, and the        willingness to apply. Reformed' principles to the work
carnal mind and the flesh. Interesting, substantive,        of Christian witness and missions. However, in all
and .important questions she asked. These questions         fairness to the reader, the G.L.T.S., and Quek Kok
reveal' the searching mind and heart  .of a youthful        How (the author of this position paper), we must
saint.. Others asked. questions about the return of         take note of the fact that this young brother
Christ Jesus and the millennium. One young person,          expresses only his own. views and. does  not write
with all the simplicity of a child, said to us: "Tell me    officially for the G.L.T.S. We quote. the following
about heaven." I tried! I read to him from the bodk         with his permission.                      .
of Revelation and other passages. I felt terribly                                                                    ._
inadequate, for he wanted to see with his natural eyes            "It is not my desire in this article to try to
and handle with -his hands the realities of heaven. We       convince `others of my convictions but it is in fact
                                                               written especially for those who are already inclined
had to direct his eye of faith  tq the covenant                .to the Reformed doctrine or are unsure and are
friendship that God has now established with us in             studying and seeking- the truth. I will not deal with
Christ Jesus. Blessed work we ,were privileged to .do          the questions whether Christ died for all men and
on your behalf.                                                whether God in His good pleasure- desires all men,
  The earnestness and godliness of these young                 head for head, to be saved, but rather, how we shall'
brethren and sisters is demofistrated in their Christian       present the Gospel'after embracing these truths.
giving. Most of the members  corn,,, from poor                    "Certainly, our witnessing and preaching cannot.
families. Many still are in school. But their offerings        contradict our con+ions. To go to a person and say
are generous. The six weeks we were there the                  `Christ died for you and he loves you' is going to
offerings  totalled. as follows: March 18  - $278.60,          incur the opposition. of our own conscience if we
March 25  - $306.50, April 1  - $527.10, April 8  -            believe that Christ did not die for all men and that He
                                                               does not desire .the salvation pf all men. Even those
$522.85, April 15  - $317.00,  .April  22.  -  $317:20.        who are unsure, when they utter these words, their
They have a.yearly budget of some twenty thousand              spirits may .prick ,them, questioning their right to so
dollars. These monies are used to cover the expenses           boldly proclaim in their witnessing of the truth,
of tract distribution, the purchase of good books, to          something which they consider may be untrue.
help support two of their members who are preparing               "The question for us is `how then shall we
themselves for the ministry of God's Word, and to              witness?' We are so orierltated  to saying `God loves
pay the $241.00 rental fee for their meeting place.            you and wants to save you,' `Christ died for you,


472                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


       wouldn't you believe Him,' in witnessing that to                have we forgotten  that'our  God is the only true God?
       confront a lost soul without these words is                     The very point we need to bring out is that our
       unthinkable. If we have no universal atonement to               religion is not equal to others, our God is above all
       offer for the decision of the sinner to accept or reject        gods. We must never leave our hearers with the idea
       at the end of the conversation, it seems impossible for         -that our God is like unto an idol. Evangelism  iri this
       any evangelism-personal or from the pulpit. Yet we              present world has deteriorated to the stage that one
       cannot just say that we will not witness and avoid the          need not forsake his idols to become a Christian. We
       issue . . . the Lord's command forbids us to partake in         hear of Christians speaking of certain `converts'
       such folly. . . .                                               `saved" at certain rallies who have not yet been
          "Indeed the question `Who God Is?' is sorely                 `convicted' to stop praying to idols. Counsellors need
       missing in evangelism today and I stress that without           to tell counsellees sometime after their conversion to
       knowing God there is no salvation for `this is life             stop their idol worship. Is our evangelism bringing
       eternal, that they may know Thee the only True God              forth grotesque hybrids holding joss-sticks in one
       and Jesus Christ whom thou  hast sent.' We have                 hand and a Bible in the other? Is salvation possible
       already seen that a conviction to sin is  Godward and           for one  ivho still clings to idols just because he has
       likewise is repentance, faith, yielding and following.          `accepted Christ.' Nay, it is not ours to accept or
       The question is what God? Is it just the name Jesus             reject Christ for what He is but His to accept us in
       Christ? Not everyone who calls Lord, Lord is saved. If        spite and despite of what we are or to reject us
       we believe in the Jesus Christ of the rock opera `Jesus         because of what we are. Ours is only to receive Him
       Christ Superstar' are we thkn saved? Can one call on            just as the clay receives the shape the Potter so
       the name Jesus having in  mind  an idol like the many           desires. Clay has no power to accept nor to reject the
       one has at home  and expect salvation? Can one add              Potter's will. We need to come as needy sinners
  the  crucifur to one's trophy case of idols in one's                 without hope nor power to redeem ourselves and as
  heart and escape damnation? Putting the doctrine of                  the Word is declared to receive it with gladness rather
  Limited Atonement aside, can we tell a person  `God,                 than be as one on bargaining ground with God to
  loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,' if                accept Him should we  find Him appealing.  This
  the person has not the faintest idea that this is the                incidentally is  irresistable  grace in operation. It is  Her
  God that made heaven and earth? Surely an idolator                   who `worketh in us both to will and to do of His
  will think of his own idols with eyes, hands, feet,                  good pleasure.' Phil. 2: 13. Brethren, let us remember
  noses, which have no living function. An ordinary                    the Thessalonians who `turned  ,to God from idols to
  man-on-the-street may at best have F. impression of a                serve the Living God.' I. Thess. 1:9
  benevolent fairy-God-Father who is so perturbed by                  From the above quotes we gain an appreciation  for
  man's disobedience that he died for him. Dare we as              this young (twenty-one years old) brother's
  ambassadors risk such a gross misrepresentation of               convictions and we marvel at the fact that just some
  our Sovereign? . . . We need not always follow this set
  pattern of expressing God's attributes but I believe             eight years ago he with his pagan parents bowed
  Paul makes it clear that we must impress upon the                down to the  gods of Buddhism. It is truly amazing
  sinner the Great and Almighty God. It is pointless to            how the Lord has drawn His own unto Himself in
  proclaim to the lost that God is Love before first               Singapore and revealed to them the. truth of His
  btingirig  to them the Great and terrible God. If we             Word.
  do, how will we show them that `It is a fearful thing              Thankfully the Foreign Mission committee
  to fall into the hands of the Living God'? Heb. 10:3 1.          reported  $0 our Synod that it was the desire of the
  How can we impress upon the sinner that the wrath                G.L.T.S. that we send as soon as possible a missionary
  and anger of the God of Righteousness and Judgment
  is upon him for his sin if he does not  reperit,  if we          to labor among them: Besides this call for help they
  start off with the God of love? The truth is that                informed us of their vision: "We also want to add
  without the wrath fearfulness of the God of                      that, it is the longing and vision of the leaders, as we
  Judgment,' the grace and  `hve  of God, lose their               see that there exists in these parts of the world no
  significance and we can scarcely appreciate them.                strong witness of the Gl&ious Gospel once delivered
  Judgment for sin is that which inflicts the mortal               to the Saints embodied in- the Reformed Truth, that
  wound while grace is the balm. If we apply the balm,             the Lord may raise up here such a witness. We desire
  even the death of our Lord for sin, before exposing              for the Church in our midst a strong foundation
  the wound, the balm loses its value and the receiver             established upon the Apostles and the prophets with
  may even deem it cheap. . . . Let us come to the                 Christ as the Chief Corner Stone, that we may act as a
  realization that Christ did not die to save us from the          centre where the True Light of God's Word may in
  devil, who has no power over our soul, but from the              future,. reach beyond the shores of Singapore to
  wrath of the Living God, which wrath would
  consume us if not for Christ our Advocate. . . .                 neighboring South-East Asia, and where men of God
         Very often we are afraid to point out the sin of          may be trained for such ministry. We believe you as
  idolatry to an unbeliever in fear that he will say we            the Protestant Reformed Churches to be God's
  are arrogant and condemning other religions, which in            provision for us in His grace to help us -do His will."
  their minds are equal to Christianity. But brethren,             (From the call letter addressed to F.M.C.)


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      473



  Our Synod of 1979 granted this request of the                    who have sought our help.
G.L.T.S. Our Synod further appointed our  Doon,                      On behalf of the Foreign Mission Committee and
Iowa congregation the calling Church. The ponderous                the Doon congregation we ask for your prayerful and
ecclesiastical machine is. slowly but surely beginning             enthusiastic support in this work, which is of God in
to roll. It is the prayer of the undersigned that the              Jesus Christ and which has been laid upon us as
Lord will lay it upon the heart of one of His laborers             reapers in His Harvest.
to take up this work among his people in Singapore,                                             Reverend Marvin Kamps

FROM -HOLY WRIT                                      .



                                                -
                            .. Expositio'n of Galatians
                                                          Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                                                                        .



THE. THREATENING WARNINGS  6F THE                                     Legalists have a way of devouring one another;
GOSPEL OF CHRIST (Galatians 5: 15)                                 legalists cannot forgive in their own self-righteousness
                                                                   because they do not themselves taste the justifying
   It is evident from the Greek text here that there               and forgiving love of God. (Eph. 4:3 1, 32) Legalists
was a very bad spirit in the church. Bad doctrine and              strain at the gnat  and. swallow the camel! (Matt.
bad walk in life go hand in hand inevitably! Sound                 23:24) They look with disdain upon the repentant
words of doctrine make for healthy piety, preparing                and joyful sinner, who has found peace in the blood
us unto every good work. (II Tim. 3: 16, 17) We must               of the Cross; to kiss the' feet of Jesus in sheer joy of
be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the               heavenly gratitude. (Luke 7:45)`And now Paul warns
master's use, and prepared unto every good work. (II               these Galatians, in the Gospel context of their liberty
Tim.  2:21) But such was not the case with these                   in Christ, not to be enslaved with such a bondage of
legalizers, who would have a Gospel, which is not                  the law which can only `provoke to sin as the power
a Gospel. (Gal: 1: 7) These "troublers" of the church              of sin. They are not under law but. under grace; sons
could be seen by their fruits as being false prophets.             of Sarah they are and not of Hagar, which gendereth
(Matt. 7: 15-20)                                                   to bondage! We are from Jerusalem above, we are
  The text says: "but if ye bite and devour one                    free, and, therefore, we must not walk according to
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of                  the flesh but we must walk according to the Spirit.
another." We should notice here that, in the three                   Paul  do,es not give a little larger dose of "law" to
verbs, "bite," "devour," and "consume," there is an                correct these erring brethren in Christ. More than one
increase in the description of the destructiveness. To             minister, which I have heard, does exactly this:
bite one another is bad; however, to "devour" is                   thunder the law. Nay, we need to be called to our
much more destructive. Yet, "to consume one                        spiritual senses, when we wander away from the
another" is far worse. Then there would be nothing                 straight and narrow path of the liberty in Christ, by
left of the congregation; she would be entirely                    showing us the devastating effects of walking after
destroyed. The conditional sentence is stated as                   the flesh, which is tantamount to walking as being
presupposing a determined reality. Such is actually                "under law." The call to repentance is a Gospel-call
the condition of the Galatian churches, who do not                 to walk in our liberty in Christ: to love our neighbor
walk in their liberty in Christ, but who are now acting            as ourself, by a faith which works by love, and which
from the principle of law and of the sinful flesh.                 expects the hope of righteousness. That is the only
Having their mouth full of laws and precepts upon                 .Scriptural and Reformed pedagogy in the church; it is
precepts, they fail to grasp in a spiritual-psychological          the very quintessence of the law of God as
way what the real fulfillment of the law is: to love               promulgated from Sinai to the church of God in the
the neighbor as ourself.                                           wilderness; it is the very essence of the moral law as it


  474                                             THEsTANDARD  BEARER


  is interwoven in every Gospel-precept in the New               will be the end, once and for all, of all biting,
 Testament Scriptures, calling us to work out our                devouring and consuming one another! That will be
  salvation with fear and trembling, reminding us that it        the law written-upon our fleshy (not fleshly) hearts.
 is God, Who works (energizes) in us both to will anci           .(I1 Cor.  3:3; Jer.  31:33;Ezek.   11:19;Heb. 8:10)The
 to do after His good-pleasure. (Exodus 20: 1, 2; Phil.          only remedy for overcoming the works of the flesh is
2:12,  1 3 )                                                     that we serve the Lord in the newness of the Spirit
                                                                 and not in the oldness of the letter. (Rom. 7:6)
  THli GREAT POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
  (Galatians 5: 16-26).                                            Thus we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Paul
                                                                 begins by defining this flesh from the viewpoint  of
    Paul will now -clarify what he has said concerning           the "lusts." He begins by pointing out the deep
  this danger of a fleshly-legalistic. walk, this departure      spiritual nature of the law in opposition to the
 from fulfilling  the royal law of liberty. Writes he,           "lusts." Paul had not known "lust" to be sin, its very
 "Now I say walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil           root, if the law, the tenth commandment did not say
 the lusts of the flesh." (Gal. 5: 16) That is the thrust        "Thou shall not covet." Here Paul sees the "motions
 of Paul's argument. That is the only sound                      o f   s i n " in his members, the deep, inner,
 pedagogical approach to any trouble in the church in            uncontrollable "passions,"  (patheemata)  which are
 Galatia and to the church at any point and place in             wrought  .in him by the law. Paul could never say:
 history.                                                        walk according to the law and ye shall not fulfill the
     The church is the temple  bf the Holy Spirit, the           lust of the flesh. More law-principle would only result
  dwelling-place of God in tlie Spirit (Eph. 2:21, 22);          in more sin, more transgression! On the contrary Paul
  the only life in -the church is by the life-giving Spirit.     says: lust can only be mortified by the power of the
  Writes Paul in Gal.- 5:25, "If we live by the Spirit, let      Holy Spirit. Christ became a curse for us on the.Cross
  us also walk by the Spirit." The Greek text literally          in order that we, the Gentiles, might receive the
  states: If live we by the Spirit, by the Spirit also let us    prQmised Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3: 13, 14) That is
  walk! We can only walk by the Spirit because we live,          the starting-point of Paul's great Gospel-precept, the
  have our life's blood from the Soirit.                         warning and exhortation by which grace is wrought in
    We may remark here, in passing, that Paul contrasts          our hearts. To do less would be tempting God in the
  the Spirit  or-l the one hand  ,-with "the  flesh" in the      church. (Acts 15: 10; Canons of Dordt, III, IV, Art.
  Christian who is reborn, and on the other hand with            17)
  "the law.".For  the former see Gal. 4: 16 and for the             Hence Paul can state as a most  certBin axiom that
  latter see Gal. 4: 18. This contrast which Paul makes          when we walk according to the Spirit ""ye shall not at
  we should keep in mind and see more in depth. .The             all (021 mee) fulfil the lusts of the flesh." (Gal. 5: 16)
  truth of the matter is that, in the Bible, being "under
  law" is tantamount to being "under sin." Only when                What does it mean to "fulfil" the lust of the flesh?
  we walk according to and by ,the Spirit do we stand            The term in the Greek for "fulfill" is "teleseete. " The
  on higher ground. To that higher ground of our                 idea of the verb is: to bring to a close, to finish, to
  freedom in  Chris'c Paul exhorts Us in this passage            end. It is not the same as the term "filerooo" which
  concerning the work of the Holy Spirit. (Rom.                  means to make the measure full. Rather we are here
  6: 12-14) Only thus do we come tq the higher ground            dealing with bringing the lust to its full end, as it
  of sanctification, which cries out, "God f&-bid, that I        expresses itself in ,words, thoughts, and actions. We
  should remain in sin, that grace may abound."                  see this very strikingly set forth by James where he
                                                                 writes, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn
    Paul makes the profound and yet lucid                        away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when  sin
 pronouncement h&-e in Gal. 5: 16 that, when we walk             hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it
 by the Spirit,  we shall not  fulfil.(ou  mee teleseete)        is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1: 14, 15)
 the lusts of the flesh!.Paul puts this statement in .the        He that walks by the Spirit does not come to this
 imperative mood. L&t the entire circumference of-all            "finishing" of the lusts of the flesh in actual deeds.
 your life, your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength           Instead, he sees the fruit of the.Spirit~in his life, and
 be such that you are Spirit-led; that the inward                may with holy joy see the infallible fruits of election
 quickenilig,  drawing, sanctifying, renewing power of           in his life, and be assured of his faith by the fruits
 `the Spirit is  the motivation and power of your life           thereof. (Canons of Dort, I, 12; II Pet. 1:5-10; Matt.
 toward God, your fellowman, and @ward all things,               12:33)
 as circumscribed and demanded by the law of God, as
 fulfilled in Christ on the Cross. Let Christ- dwell in            Such is the great power of the Spirit of
 you by the Spirit.  Orzly this Spirit of  sanctification-       sanctification in our lives!
 will banish the flesh from your life;  it alone is the            Paul lays great and repeated emphasis upon the
 power to mortify our  me,mbers  Upon the earth. That            work of the Holy Spirit in this epistle to the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               475



Galatians. He reminds them that their very beginning        essays. (Gal. 4:21-31) Fbr the Lord is the Spirit, and
in grace, was by the Spirit, (Gal. 3:2) (and that they      where the Spirit of the Lord is, -there is liberty. For
must not try to be perfected in the flesh) which is the     the Spirit of grace and glory rests upon the church,
very opposite, the sin-principle, the law-principle of      which is God's dwelling-place in the Spirit. (I Peter
the- old Adamic, fallen nature, which is totally            4: 14; Eph.  2:22) Every individual believer is the
corrupt and sold under sin. (Gal. 3:3) God is the One,      temple of the Holy Spirit, the very inner sanctuary.
Who ministers the Spirit unto us, working powerfully        (naos) This temple must not be defiled! (I Cor.
in our hearts. He sent His Son to the Cross that we         6: 18-20)
might receive the promised. Spirit,; yea, He sent Him
in the fulness of time, made from a woman, and made           This we must keep constantly in mind, that we are
under law, that we might receive the Spirit of              God's holy temple in  the Spirit of Christ. We have
adoption through which we cry, Abba, Father! It             been raised with Christ unto a new life, which is not
belongs to the essence of our sonship  of adoption to       in the oldness of the letter, but which is in the
receive the Spirit of adoption, which is not a Spirit of    newness of the Spirit. We are not under law,- but we
bondage again to fear, to slavery once more, but to         are under the mighty, quickening power of grace in
freedom. (Gal.  4:6, 7) And Paul enforces this with         the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
the allegory of the two mothers, Hagar and Sarah,             And this calls for a mighty battle!
which are two mountains, as we have seen in earlier

THE DAY OF  SHADOWS-




                         Deceit in a .Divided Family
                                                Rev. -John A. Heys



  Were it not for the fact that in Hebrews 11:20 we         no attempt to show his great love for Joseph by
-read that "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau           giving him a princely coat. And Scripture is not
concerning things to come," one would never gather          recording these actions of God's people to give us a
from the account in Genesis 2'? that in this deed Isaac     pattern to follow. The very opposite is true. We must
was moved by faith. It looks like a pretty  carnal          see these sins also in the Church in order tb flee from
thing. And for this we are somewhat prepared already        them ourselves. The consequences of such divided
by what the Holy Spirit tells us in Genesis 25:28. We       families and affections should warn us not to put one
are told that Isaac's family was a divided family, for      child .before the other, not to divide our children and
"Isaac loved Esau because he did eat OX his venison,        set them against each other by favouring the one and
btit Rebekah loved Jacob."                                  nagging and shunning the other. And here it is much
                                                            more than being proud of this strong, aggressive, and
  Esau was the kind  pf son- of whom any earthly            physically promising son. Scripture uses the word
father could be proud. Yes, there was that marriage         love; and Scripture  shows that this love was upon a
of Esau to an unbelieving Canaanitish woman; and            son who manifested' no spirituality in his life. The
this  was a grief of mind to Isaac as well as to            connection - even though many years may have gone
Rebekah. They were agreed on that, and here was no          on between - which the-Holy Spirit inakes here tiust
division of reaction. But when Holy Writ says that          not be overlooked. Even though years may have
Isaac loved Esau while Rebekah loved Jacob, the ide,a       passed by  between what we read in the last part of
is that there was a strong attachment that Isaac had        Genesis 26 and the first part of Genesis 27, the Holy
for his eldest son that put Jacob in the distant            Spirit connects the marriage of Esau to an unbelieving
background as far as Isaac's affections were                woman  c+ Canaan, and Isaac's grief of mind about
concerned. It was an open thing, something Isaac in         this, with his calling of Esau to come and get the
no way tried even to hide, even as Jacob later made         blessing.


476                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  Did he not know what God told Rebekah at the              example for his son.
birth of these twin sons? Was Isaac unaware of what           What should she have done? What would faith in
we read in Romans 9:9-13, namely, that the elder            that word of God, given to her before the children
would serve the younger, and that God loved Jacob           were born, have done? Faith would have caused her
but hated Esau? Was it ignorance on Isaac's part? Was       to go to' Isaac, even while Esau was still there, and
it forgetfulness now that  he was old? His eyesight         before he could leave on his hunt for venison, and
failed. Was the process of the hardening of his arteries    would have reminded him of this w&-d of God. Faith
also at work here to cause him to forget those words        not only believes the Word of God, faith also
of the angel to Sarah and that carnal walk of Esau?         confesses it, reminds of it, and defends it when it is
Did he forget how his own father saw to it that he          brushed aside. Faith never resorts to the lie. Faith and
would get a believing wife for him, so that now the         the  truth are wedded in an inseparable bond by the
awfulness of Esau's marriage to an unbeliever did not       Spirit of God. Faith holds on to that Word, lives by it
look so bad, because he was getting so forgetful?           and lives for it. Faith finds no need for deception and
  Never may we take such a stand. Rebekah never hid         trickery. Faith commits the whole matter to God
these things from Isaac. God wanted him to know             Whose promises are true and Who is able to keep His
this as well as Rebekah. Together they were to bring        Word without one letter of it falling to the ground. It
up these sons. It was not a matter of the woman's           is the flesh that finds what it thinks is the necessity of
duty; The father is the responsible one to see that his     deceit and `trickery. Faith is wholly divorced from the
wife trains the children in the fear of God's name. As'     lie and wants nothing to do with it in any form.
head and responsible party in the family, Isaac is not        Neither can we find any spirituality displayed by
kept from this truth. No, but the Scriptures explain        the other two members of this quartet. Esau, as we
this act of Isaac as due to a fleshly love which he had     pointed out, showed no concern for God and His
for his eldest son in spite Of what God had revealed        covenant. His flesh ruled him to choose the kind of
concerning the two sons.                                    wife that  any. other unbeliever would seek. Long
  Isaac meant to give the whole birthright blessing to      before this he had sold his birthright for a mess of
Esau and to leave Jacob out entirely! You cannot            pottage; and because of this, Scripture calls him a
escape that truth. For when Esau later on comes and         profane man; and he is one whom God hated before
pleads with tears for a blessing, Isaac says to him,        he was born or had done any good or evil. We need
"`Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his             not spend much time on him in our present
brethren  have- I given to him for servants; and with       consideration of the deceit in this divided family
corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I        except to point out that he manifested no deception
do now unto thee, my son?" Note that he made                in the whole transaction. The three believers did.
Jacob lord, and asks, "What shall I do to thee?" The        Esau, in this account at least, appears to be the kind
idea is, I gave him everything, and there just is not       out of which God could build His church.
anything to give you. This is borne out in the Hebrew          By faith Jacob would have refused to submit to the.
of verse 39 where Isaac says to Esau, "Behold, thy          deceit his mother suggested. He did put up a token
`dwelling shall be away from the fatness of the earth       objection based upon a fear of having his fraud
and of the dew of heaven above." His fleshly                exposed and of making things worse for himself. This
attachment to Esau moved him to want him to have'           after all was his father. Yes, Rebekah was his mother,
it all; and his trembling so exceedingly, of which we       and he would not have wanted to oppose her either.
read in' verse 33, reveals that his conscience smote        But in such situations one has no choice. For the love
him. He did remember what God had said.                     of God, not natural love for our parents, must rule us.
  Nor was Rebekah moved by faith to seek the                And even love for Rebekah in -the true sense of the
blessing for the son whom she loved. Her deception          word would mean that.Jacob's  faith would move him
that she planned for Jacob, in order to get the             to remind her of God's law, and not of getting caught
blessing, .taught him and'encouraged him in the much        red-handed by his father in ati act of deceit. And just
deception that he practiced in later life. As the Saying    as surely it would have moved him to go in to his
goes, "The. apple does not fall far from the tree."         father and remind him of what God said before the
Jacob did not get his "apple" of deceit and trickery        twins were born. We cannot take the position that in
from somewhere in the land of Haran. It was not that        a covenant home, and in this time of the history of
Rebekah acted in a  firin conviction  67 that word of       the church, that Isaac and Rebekah never told their
God about her favoured son. With her as well it was a       children God's Word. They, and certainly Rebekah,
matter of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. Jacob        did not leave Jacob in the dark about what God
time and again revealed that he had the foolish notion      promised him. And since he had purchased the
that God needed help in fulfilling His promises.            birthright, would he not have trusted God to give him
Rebekah showed that same folly here and set .a bad          the birthright blessing? Does faith not take  .hold  of


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                            477


God's promises and say, "God's word to me cannot              5: 17, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
fail"?                                                        creature: old things are passed away; behold all things
  And the amazing thing - were it not for our own             are become new."
faith in God's Word  - is that out of this trio, each             Parents do not give spirituality to their children.
working his own works of deceit, God builds His               They do not endow them with faith. And the Church
Church. What kind of material, we might be inclined           does not continue to grow, and our children do not
to ask, is this from which to build an holy, catholic         follow us as pillars of the truth because of anything
church? Why not build it from Esau and his                    we handed down to them. God does not build His
descendants? Surely God can work conversion in him            Church out of our children because we gave them
as well as he did in Saul of Tarsus who sought to             something. Indeed, we taught them the truth  tid
destroy the church, or in an host of others` who              pointed out to them the way. We warned them and
married heathen wives, and many who were forgiven             encouraged them. We sowed the seed. But God builds
for their sins of youth and kept faithful in a                His Church. He gave the ears to hear, the mind to
sanctified life in later years.                               comprehend spiritually, the heart to embrace by
  Well, the point we want to remember is that God             faith, and behind and before it all the new life of the
does not build His Church out of ihat timber in the           Church.
sense that He uses it, salvages what He can,
iearranges, changes it a bit and makes it serve. God's            Yes, in divided families where there are parents
Church always, and that holds true for Isaac,                 who have no faith in God and spiritual life to give to
Rebekah, and Jacob as well; begins with a rebirth,            their children, it pleases God to build His Church. He
begins with the implanting of something NEW in                does not need a reborn parent to bring forth a reborn
those whom He eternally chose to be His Church.               child. And if the parents will not sow the seed and
And although this new man in Christ was not in all            train the child, God will see to it that they come in
the transaction - with the one exception of Hebiews           contact with other believing parents who, as
11:20 that Isaac performed the deed he was called             missionaries, ministers of the Word or teachers, will
upon to do, namely, pronounce the blessing upon his           cause them to become acquainted with the truth as it
sons and prophesy their future - that new man was             is in Christ.
there; and he is the member of God's Church and is                Let there not be that deceit in us that we think
built as the Church of Christ.                                that God needs our help. Let us be agreed on this one
  There is nothing, absolutely nothing, in us that            thing: God builds His Church as both the architect
God can use. What He uses is that which He puts in us         and builder. That is what Scripture says in Hebrews
by the Spirit of His Son. As Paul writes in Ephesians         12: 2. He is the author - or beginner - and finisher of
2: 10, causing the New Testament Scriptures to throw          our faith, Or, if you will, Hebrews 11: 10, where He is
its light upon this Old Testament event, "We are His          called the builder and maker of the city which hath
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good               foundation. And again, "For of Him, and through
works, which God hath before ordained that we                Him, and unto Him are all things: to Whom be glory
should walk in them." Or again in II Corinthians              forever." Romans 11: 36.

                                            SEMINARY PUBLICATIONS
                     Notes on Old Testament History (Prof. H.C. Hoeksema)
                        Introduction - Creation to Protevangel                                $5.75
                        The Prediluvian Period                                                $3.00
                        The Postdiluvian World                                                $2.50
                        The Patriarchal Period
                           Abraham                                                            $3.50
                           Isaac                                                              $4.95
                           Jacob                                                              $3.95
                        The Bondage and Exodus                                                $3.00
                        The Wanderings in the Wilderness                                      $6.75
                        The Conquest of Canaan                                                $4.50
                     Outlines on the Canons of Dordrecht (Rev. H. Hoeksema)                   $2.00
                     Notes on the Church Order (Prof. H. Hanko)                               $3.50
                     Discussion Outlines on the Book of Acts (Prof. H.C. Hoeksema)            $3.95
                       For a complete listing of our Seminary Publications, and/or to order any
                    of the above titles, write to the Seminary Bookstore, 4949  Ivanrest S.W.,
                    Grandville, Michigan 49418.


478                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER





                                         Book Reviews

THE UNITY IN CREATION,  by Russell Maatman;                     cerning the ability of the unregenerate to do science,
Dordt College Press, Sioux Center Iowa, 1978;. 144              nevertheless, the distinctions between the work of the
pp., paper. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                        believer and the unbeliever were not always clear.
  In a Foreword by Bernard  Haan, President of                  This, I know, is an epistemological question too, tid
Dordt College, this book is introduced with the                 perhaps the author did not intend to enter into it.
following:                                                        There is one bad typographical error on page 83.
          This work by Dr. Russell Maatman is the first to      The sentence reads: "God does exist. He was created,
       be published by the newly formed Dordt College           and He does uphold." The sentence should read: "He
       Press. Furthermore, it is the first in a forthcoming     was not created."
       series, "Mandate," which the Dordt College Press
       intends to produce within the next few years. Both         The book is written so that anyone can read it. The
       the Board of Trustees and the faculty of the college     author  ,purposely steered away from technical lan-
       are truly excited about this publishing venture. Not     guage as much as possible. So we recommend the
       only is the need for Biblically-directed, Reformed       book to all our readers, but especially to those in our
       publications urgent in our day, but also getting such    schools who teach science courses.
       works on the market is becoming more difficult.
  The burden of this little book is not merely to               HISTORICAL THEOLOGY  - AN INTRODUCTION,
show that there is a basic unity in the creation, but to        Geoffrey W. Bromiley; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co.,
demonstrate that this unity is possible and present             Grand Rapids,  M.ich.; 464 pages, $14.95 (cloth).
only because God Himself is the Creator of it. In               (Reviewed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema)
dealing with this fundamental subject the author
repudiates strongly any form of evolutionism, dis-                I can best describe this book by quoting the
                                                                following accurate -description from the dust jacket:
cusses the interesting question of whether the
non-Christian is able to do science, proves the                    " `An ideal historical theology, or even an intro-
orderliness of the creation from the unity of God and           duction to it,' says Geoffrey Bromiley, `lies beyond
the  Headship  of Christ and discusses ways in which            the limits of human- possibility.' And he does not
teachers can teach science from a Christian perspec-            intend this volume to be an all-inclusive, theological
tive in Grade School, Junior High, and Senior High.             study about everybody and everything. Rather, `this
                                                                work is composed for beginners, for inquirers, for
  We enjoyed the book and commend Dordt College                 those who -know nothing or very little of the history
for publishing it. We hope that their new publishing            of theology, but who want to know something, or
venture may prove to be successful. We look forward             something more.'
to receiving other books in this "Mandate" venture.                "The approach here is theological rather than
  I have a few points of criticism, although. these are         strictly historical. And among the implications of this
not intended to detract from the general value of the           approach are the acknowledgement that God has
book. In the first place, while the unity of the                really spoken to the church, a genuine and specific
creation was the main theme of the book, it seemed              Christian commitment on the part of the historical
to me that insufficient attention was paid to the               theologian, the belief that historical theology is a
Scriptural view of the organic unity in the creation,           discipline of the church, and the view that historical
an idea which, I think, would make the author's                 theology serves the mission and ministry of the
discussion much richer. Secondly, and in connection             church.
with this, it seems to me that insufficient attention
was paid  tQ the Scriptural doctrine of  siri  - the              "Bromiley maintains that the student learns theol-
effects of sin both on the creation and on man. The             ogy best by reading theologians, not by reading about
author repeatedly states that man is able to do                 them: Thus, in selecting those theologians included in
science because he is a part of the creation, but stands        this volume, he has considered not only their  rep-
in the creation as image bearer. While this is partly           resentativeness in the total flow of historical theol-
true, Scripture also teaches that  mati has lost the            ogy, but also the availability of their work in English.
image through sin and this image is only restored by            Likewise, his bibliographies concentrate on primary
grace through Jesus Christ. In the third place, while I         sources."  ~
agree generally with the author's statements  con-                This is an excellent contribution in the field of the


                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       479



history of dogma. It is interestingly written and well                         of our ministers and students, and it should serve the
organized. The author has achieved his purpose of                              purpose of kindling a greater interest in the study of
writing an introductory work for beginners. This                               the history of  .dogma, a study which, in this  re-
book will make an excellent addition to the libraries                          viewer's opinion, is too often neglected.



                             NOTICE!!!                                                                    IN MEMORIAM
   Rev. Van Overloop's mailing address in Alabama was incorrectly                 On July 27, 1979, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto
published in our August issue. His new address is:                             Himself our beloved husband, father and grandfather, JAY BOMERS,
                                                                               at the age of 55 years.
                                   Rev.  R, Van  Overloop
                                   5080 Sunny Dell Drive                          "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall
                                   Hueytown, AL 35020                          bring it to  passO" (Psalm  37:5).

                                                                                                                        Mrs. Jay Bomers
                                                                                                                        Mr. and Mrs. William Huber
                 WEDDING ANNIVE'RSARY.                                                                                    Heidi, Billy, Chad
                                                                                                                        Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Bomers
   .On September 7, 1979, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND                                                            Carli, Jessica
MRS. JOEL SUGG celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. We are                                                         Mr. and Mrs. John Schipper
thankful to our heavenly Father for giving us God-fearing parents to                                                        Angela, Nathaniel
bring us up in the admonition of the Lord.                                                                              Mr. and Mrs. Phil Baas
   "This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes." (Psalm                                                          Lisa
118:23).                                                                                                                Tim Bomers
                                                                                                                        Brenda Bomers
   We pray He will continue to bless them in their years ahead to-
gether.

                                  Their children and their granddaughter
                                     Allan and Cassy Carter
                                     Elisa Sugg                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                        Emily Rose
                                     Cari                                          The Council and the congregation of the Southwest Protestant
                                                                               Reformed Church  (Grandville,  MI), express sincere sympathy to one of
                                     John                                      their fellow elders, Arie Griffioen, in the death of his brother, and to
                                     Paul                                      their former pastor and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. H. Veldman in the loss
                                     Christiana                                of their brother-in-law, MR. ALEX GRI FFIOEN.
                                     Monica
                                                                                   We are assured that they, and all of God's people will find comfort
                                                                               in the Word of God as found in Romans  8:39,40. "For I am persuaded,
                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
                                                                               nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
    The Mr. and Mrs. Society of the  Hull.  (IA) Protestant Reformed           other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
Church wishes to express  their,sincere  sympathy to Mr. Gerb De Jong          is Christ Jesus our Lord."
and son, Todd, in the loss of their wife and mother, BARB DE JONG.                                                   Rev. M. De Vries, Pres.
    May our heavenly Father strengthen them by His Spirit and Word,                                                  Phil Lotterman, Clerk
"Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee: He shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved." (Psalm 55:22.)
                                                      Brenda Bylsma, Sec'y.


                                                                                               RESO,LUTION OF SYMPATHY
               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                             The Council of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church expresses
    The Ladies Society "Ruth", of the Hope Protestant Reformed                 Christian sympathy to Mrs. Jay Bomers and her family in the recent
Church (Walker; MI), expresses their sincere sympathy to-their fellow          death of her husband, their father, and our fellow officebearer, ELDER
member, Mrs. J. Bomers, in the sudden death of her husband, MR. JAY            JAY BOMERS. May the family and we find comfort in the fact that
BOMERS.                                                                        God is wise, that he doeth all things well and in his own time. May we
    May she and her children "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust              and they trust Him knowing that "The eye of the Lord is upon them
also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." (Psalm 37:5).                     that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy." (Psalm  33:18).
                                    Mr.  J. Huisken, Vice Pres.                                                      John Buiter, Vice-President
                                    Mrs. P. Zandstra, Sec'y.                                                         Jon Huisken, Clerk



               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   The Junior Mr. and Mrs. Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed
Church (Walker, MI), expresses sympathy to its members, Mr. and Mrs.               The Ladies Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church
Phil Baas and to Mr. and Mrs. John Schipper in the sudden death of              extends its heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Hilbert Kuiper in the death of
their father, MR. A. JAY BOMERS.                                                her sister, MRS. SAM ALTENA.

   "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine             "And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." (John
heart: wait, I say on the Lord." (Psalm  27:14).                                11:26).

                                   Mr. Larry Meulenberg, Vice Pres.                                                  `Rev. Gise Van Baren, Pres.
                                   Mrs. Daniel Schimmel, Sec'y.                                                       Mrs. Phil Dykstra,  Ass?. Sec'y.

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



480                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                News From Our Churches
   There is quite a bit of news concerning calls                          Rev. Marvin Kamps has declined the call extended
extended and trios formed. A trio for home                            to him by our church in Loveland, Colorado. From a
missionary to serve in the northwestern Washington                    trio of Rev. David Engelsma, candidate Ronald
area consists of Rev. Arie den Hartog, Rev. James                     Hanko, and Rev.. Kortering, Loveland has extended a
Slopsema, and Rev. Jason Kortering. Lynden, Wash-                     call to Rev. Kortering.
ington is the calling church. From a duo of Rev. den                      Rev. and Mrs. Robert Harbach planned to leave
Hartog and Rev. Bernard  Woudenberg; our Hudson-                      Victoria,. B.C. on July 30. Rev. Harbach served our
ville Church extended a call to Rev: den Hartog to                    churches as home missionary in Victoria for the past
serve as minister-on-loan to Christchurch, New Zea-                   several years. Rev. Harbach observed his 65th
land, Orthodox Presbyterian Church.                                   birthday on July 29 and has now retired from the
   Some information concerning Rev. den Hartog's                      active ministry.
call is found in a newsletter attached to Hudsonville's                  Our  Doon, Iowa church has formed a trio from
bulletin. The church at Christchurch, New Zealand                     which to call  a. missionary to Singapore. The trio
specifically and urgently requested the loan of one of
our ministers for a period of not less than three years.              consists of Rev. den Hartog, Rev. Richard Flikkema,
They desired this assistance in order that such a man                 and Rev. Meindert Joostens. There has been some
could serve in preaching, pastoral labors, and in giving              discussion as to whether this is a proper trio. Neither
some basic instruction to several of their young men                  Rev. Flikkema nor Rev. Joostens have served their
who aspire to the ministry. Our Synod of 1979 has                     respective congregations for more than two years.
agreed to provide that assistance and appointed the                   The decision of our. churches pertaining to Article 5
Hudsonville congregation to be the calling church for                 of our Church Order states that ministers who have
such a man.                                                           not served their present congregations two' years not
  Concerning the 0. P. church of New Zealand, it                      be placed on nomination unless "there be preponder-
may be pointed out that they have no relationship to                  ant considerations." The question is whether or not
the Orthodox Presbyterian Churches of our country.                    "preponderant considerations" exist.
The denomination consists of three or four small                          Hope Church in Walker, Michigan has extended a
churches. The Christchurch congregation is very                       call to Rev. Kortering. Their trio also included Rev.
active, supporting a bookshop, a tape library, and is                 den Hartok and Rev. Kuiper. From a trio of Rev. den
responsible for printing their denominational maga-                   Hartog, Candidate Steven Hauck, and Rev. Wouden-
zine, The Gospel Witness.                                             berg, Hope extended a call to candidate Hauck to
  Our Synod decided that this Minister-on-loan                        labor .as home missionary in the Charlotte - Lansing,
"have the status of associate pastor of the calling                   Michigan area.
church, that accordingly he also be under the                             After receiving reports from Jamaica that a severe
supervision and discipline of his home consistory . . .               storm had struck the island, emissaries from our
ultimate responsibility for the supervision of this                   churches were sent to the island to assist the churches
minister and responsibility for discipline  in case of                and their members there. An immense amount of rain
deviation in doctrine and walk rests solely with the                  had  .fallen in a short, while, resulting in a loss of
calling consistory."'                                                 animals, damage to fields, crops, fishing equipment,
  The Synod further decided: "that the original term                  etc. Rev. Woudenberg, Mr. C. Prince, and two
of service shall be three years. This shall be subject to             deacons from Hudsonville, T. Miedema and M.
renewal for periods of two years, with the consent of                 Lubbers made the trip the first week in August.
the minister concerned, at the discretion of the                      About 3,000 lbs. of clothing was  .distributed.  The
calling church, to whom the request of the Christ-                    deacons also disbursed money in cases where they
church Session  (cotisistory) shall be directed." Ad-                 saw immediate need for food or medical attention.
ditional details On this decision will soon be available              The deacons of Hudsonville will continue to work in
in the 1979 Acts of Synod.                                            relieving this situation with the financial assistance
                                                                      from the special `offerings received in our churches for
  Candidate Ronald Cammenga was called to serve at                    this purpose.
our Hull, Iowa church and candidate Carl Haak was                                                                     K.G.V.
called to serve our Southeast Church in Grand Rapids.


