r           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





       The knowledge of Christ'Jesus our Lord is
     of inestimable, incomparable value. In fact,
     it is life eternal! It is worth' living for and
     working for. That knowledge is worth dying
     for! Nothing can equal or surpass it. All
     things-wealth, pleasure,  I a name in this
     world-all things without exception are loss,
     but dung. Pursue that knowledge . . . .
     See "In Pursuit of Excellence"-page 423




                                         Volume LVI, No. 18, July 1, 1980 


4 1 0                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



                               >
                                                                                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER
                                    CONTENTS                                                                                                      ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                                          Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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         Believing While Dying.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .410                                      Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
   Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413                              Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Arie  denHart
                                                                                                                 D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard Flikkema, fG?lz%~:
   Editorials-                                                                                                   Hankq,  Prof. Herman  Hando,  Rev. John A. He s, Rev. Kenneth  Koole,   Rev..Jay
                                                                                                                 Kortenng,  Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. 4; odney   M i e r s m a ,   R e v .   Mannus
         Pre-Seminary Graduation - Class of 1980. . . . . .413                                                   Schipper,  Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren.  Rev. Ronald Van
                                                                                                                 Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman, Mr. Kenneth G. Vink.
         The Canons and Reprobation                                                                              EditorialOfficer   Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
            Reinterpreted (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .414                                                  4975  lvanrest  Ave. S.W.
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MEDITATION

                                            >Believing While Dying
                                                                                                Rev. H. Veldman



                               "By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and wor-
                         shipped, leaning upon the top of his staff "                                                                                            Heb. 11.21


    A Christian is as his faith is. This does not mean                                                                 that to doubt is peculiarly Christian, even frown
 that a man can believe himself into becoming a                                                                        upon those who would stand in the joy of salvation.
 Christian, can become what he wants to be. But,                                                                       How wrong this view' is! On the one hand, they
 faith is a bond, a spiritual bond uniting him with                                                                    deny or doubt the Word of God. The Word of God
 Christ; faith is, therefore, the source and root of all                                                               exhorts to rejoice in the Lord, to rejoice always. On
 our life; hence, as is my faith, so am I.                                                                             the other hand, this attitude of doubt is also deeply
    Faith and assurance are therefore inseparable,                                                                     sinful because then it is impossible to walk in the
 and it is certainly proper for a Christian to stand in                                                                way of the Lord and live to His glory, the glory of
 the assurance of faith. Some deny this. They claim                                                                    our Redeemer. If I doubt my salvation I cannot sing


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              411



of God's glory, love, and grace. And it is certainly         Hence, how amazing is Jacob's faith! Applying
my calling to say with our Heidelberg Catechism            this to Jacob, he was in the agony of death. What a
that my only comfort in life and in death is that I        change had come over the old patriarch! Remember
am not my own but belong to my faithful Saviour,           him when he was young, still in his parents' home,
Jesus Christ.                                              his cunning and shrewdness, when he and his
  Faith also gives us the victory. How often this is       mother would deceive Isaac? Shall we remember
emphasized in this eleventh chapter of the epistle         him when he spent twenty years in  Padan-Aram,
to the Hebrews! It is also the victory over our natur-     with his, greedy and selfish uncle, trying to outwit
al weaknesses and infirmities. How this is demon-          him...? But, then, Peniel, had entered his life and
strated in this history of Isaac when he blessed           the incident had followed at the Jabbok when he
Jacob although he was naturally attracted and              was filled with terror and the angel of the Lord had
drawn to Esau, his profane brother. Yea, what is           wrestled with him. Indeed, Jacob had changed! He
more, faith is also victorious in the hour of death.       had changed naturally. But he had also changed
This is held before us in this scripture to which we       spiritually. There was a time when he was consid-
now call attention: Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph       erably pelagian, would help God. But this had
while he was a dying. What an amazing demonstra-           changed, fundamentally, at the Jabbok. There he
tion we have here of the power of faith.                   had learned to place all his strength in his faithful
                                                           covenant God. 0, he did not lose completely all his
                                                           old tricks. But he had undergone a tremendous
                 THE WONDER OF IT                          change.
  Death-what is it?                                          And now? He is in the agony of death. The reality
  We must grasp the idea of the Word of God here,          of imminent death confronts him. And now, what
in order to understand its beauty. Jacob certainly         shall he say? Shall he think of his experiences of the
revealed his faith when he blessed the sons of Jo-         past? Does he resent the approach of death, bewail
seph. And he also revealed his faith when, as we           that he must soon die? Does he lie there in fear and
read, he worshipped as leaning upon the top of his         terror? Does he tremble now? The very opposite is
staff. But the amazing beauty of the text is ex-           true! His eyes, although physically dim, are spiritu-
pressed in the words, "when he was a dying." This          ally bright. In faith he takes hold of the promises of
expression does not merely denote when he                  his God, He is engaged with the things that are
believed. But it also emphasizes the amazing               future and eternal. His faith, also now, has the
character of Jacob's faith. We read literally that he      victory.
believed while dying. Jacob was in the final                 And what shall we say? What shall we say in the
moment of death. Of course, we are all dying, every        moment j of death? Will we also believe, so that our
day, something which we do well to remember. We            faith will overcome and have the victory in death's
are mortal. Dying we die, every day. Our life here         dark vale? This is the amazing character of Jacob's
is a journey from the cradle to the grave. But Jacob       faith in this text.
was in that final moment of dying; the arms of
death were encompassing him, taking hold of him.
He was in death's final agony.                                         '    THE EXPRESSION OF IT
  What is death? First, death is unnatural. Man              We know the history.
was created, not to die but to live. And, in the elect,
man shall live. Secondly, death is suffering and             Joseph, very busy of course in the affairs of the
agony. All men do not die the same way. Some die           land of  iEgypt, informed of the sickness of his
                                                           father, is, summoned to the bedside of his father. He
violently, as in a moment. Most people die gradual-        hurries to his father's bedside with his two sons,
ly. However, be this as it may, death is always            Manasseh and Ephraim, approximately twenty
suffering. Thirdly, death is a divine visitation. It is    years of age. It is evident that these sons,
not an accident, a merely natural process. People          considered to be of both royal and priestly descent
do not simply pass away. The unbelieving world
would, have us believe this. Death, however, is a          and therefore whose position was equalled only by
                                                           Pharaoh; himself, spent their lives in the Egyptian
divine visitation, execution. It is the result of sin.     world. And Jacob sees them now for the first time.
And this is death's worst feature; it adds to the
horror of it. Therefore, dying we must remember              First, Jacob addresses his son. He speaks about
that after death comes hell, an endless torment,           the appearance of the Lord to him at Luz, recorded
everlasting ruin and misery. That this does not            in Genesis  35:1-9. Then he speaks of the land of
apply to the Christian is only for Jesus' sake. But        promise,; the land the Lord had promised to the
then we know and must know that our sins are               fathers and also to Israel. So, in the midst of a
washed away in His blood.                                  strange land, and while dying, Jacob by faith speaks


  412                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  of the land of Canaan as the land of their people.        firstborn, in the natural sense of the word. Accord-
  Thereupon he reclaimed the two boys of Joseph             ing to all rational judgment, the birthright blessing
  and expressed his wish that they shall be to him as       would be his. But the blessing shall be divided
  Reuben and Simeon, that they shall bear the name          between Judah and Joseph. Judah would receive
  of Israel. This means that it is surely the meditation    the blessing of the covenant, to bring forth the
  of the dying old patriarch which can be expressed         Great Seed. And Joseph would receive the double
  in one word: the Word, the promise of God, the            portion, divided between his two sons. Jacob
  God of his salvation.                                     claims them as his sons, and they shall be to him as
    Secondly, Jacob now concerns himself with               Reuben and Simeon, according to his own words.
Joseph's sons. He notices the two boys as they              And, secondly, notice the crossing of the hands. To
  appear dimly before his failing eyesight. And how         Jacob was also revealed that the elder would be
  he blesses them, changing their position, is a narra-     inferior to the younger. Jacob also recognizes this,
  tive familiar to us.                                      even now in the moment of death.
    We may speak of Jacob's faith in a general sense.
  On the one hand, these sons of Joseph surely had
  access to all the glories and honour and riches of                         HOW ACKNOWLEDGED
  the world. They were Egyptians, although their               Jacob now bows himself upon his bed, assuming
  father was a Hebrew, of royal and priestly descent.       the form of worship. He lifted himself and then
  On the other hand, however, we have here the              bowed down before his God. What an act of faith!
  promises of Jehovah. Should Jacob bless them with         In this moment of death he, for one moment, by
  the blessing of Israel it would mean that they would      faith, pushes death aside as it were, to worship his
  become affiliated with the people of God, with            God.
  them who were strangers in the land. So, the
  alternative was clear: the oft-occuring alternative          What this means? Worship here is not prayer,
  between the world and the people of God. Jacob            but acknowledgment of the greatness and
  chooses the latter.                                       sovereignty of his God. He had spoken of the
                                                            promises of the Lord; he had made his son to swear
    But we may also speak of Jacob's faith in a speci-      that he would not leave his bones in Egypt; he had
  fic sense. Let us notice the situation. Jacob is in a     thereby expressed his faith in the promises of his
  strange land. He had lived in Canaan, as a stranger,      God. And now he worships God. He realizes his
  without any claim to it. And now he had been in           own smallness, sin, and unworthiness. And he glo-
  Egypt some seventeen years. And, on the other             rifies and extols his God, that to him, such a miser-
  hand, these boys were well established in Egypt.          able and unworthy sinner, the mercy of the Lord
  Things certainly looked hopeless from the                 had been sovereignly shown. And while Joseph and
  viewpoint of the promise.                                 his sons look on in silent awe and reverence, the
    What, now, shall Jacob do? Shall he maintain the        old dying patriarch lifts himself up, worships God,
  promises of God, now, in the moment of death,             and declares: 0 God, my God, my covenant God,
  over against these tremendous odds? Or will he,           all glory and praise be Thine for Thy grace and Thy
  because of the weakness of the flesh, succumb, lose       mercy, which Thou hast bestowed upon me, a
  his courage, yea his faith? Shall he judge that it is     s i n n e r .
  better for these boys to remain in Egypt? What is            Such is the power of faith, also for us, even in the
  his answer? Solemnly he declares what we read in          moment of death! Indeed, this faith is not of us. It is
  Genesis  48:15-16. Indeed, we have here the               never of us. It is solely of the Lord. And this faith,
  blessing of Abraham. The dying Israel is strong and       the gift of God, is able to preserve us, even until the
  clear in his faith; he does not waver.                    end. God's work of grace, once begun, shall be
    To this must be added two more incidents. First,        finished and completed, that He, and He alone,
  already here, Jacob, in actual fact, deprives Reuben      may receive all the praise and the glory, now and
  of the blessing of the firstborn. Reuben was the          even forever.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             413


EDITOR'S NOTES


Publication News. Behold, He Cometh! is now newly           Report on Synod `80. Since our 1980 Synod is con-
available from the RFPA, after a brief period of            vening a week later than usual, it will be impossible
being out of print. It is also available at a new price:    to carry a report in this July 1 issue. However, Rev.
$12.95, due to our increased costs. We may also             G. Van Baren has promised to prepare a report on
report that The Voice Of Our Fathers (An Exposition         this year's Synod; you may look for his report in the
of the Canons of Dordrecht]  has gone to press and          August 1 issue.
should become available sometime in early fall.
One more note-this one a note of warning. Many                                     * * * * *
of our earlier publications, when they are re-
printed, will go up in price. If you want to buy at         As you may have realized by now, we publish only
lower prices, buy now. Write to: Reformed Free              once per month during the months of June, July,
Publishing Association, P.O. Box 2006, Grand                and August.
Rapids, Michigan 49501.


EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema




     be-seminary Graduation-Class of  1980


  Friday, May 23, was a red letter day for our              May 23 was indeed a red letter day both for the
Theological School.                                         graduates and for our school. The main item on our
  Why?                                                      program was an address by Prof. R. Decker; you
                                                            will find a transcript of his address elsewhere in
  On that date three more young men graduated               this issue.
from the Pre-seminary Department of our Theologi-
cal School; and this signifies that in September, the         And so we have more fruits of the pre-seminary
Lord willing, they will be ready to begin the last          program which was inaugurated at our school
stage of their studies in preparation for the ministry      several years ago. Although the program is limited
of the gospel in our Protestant Reformed Churches.          in this respect, that we ourselves cannot teach all
The young men who received their diplomas are               the required subjects but must limit ourselves to
Everett Buiter, a son of our South Holland, Illinois        those which we deem the most important, we wish
congregation; Barry Gritters, a son of our Redlands,        to emphasize, first of all, that our pre-sem students
California congregation; and Kenneth Hanko, a son           are required to have the equivalent of a four-year
of our Hope, Grand Rapids congregation.                     college course. In the second place, we are happy to
  In years when there are no seminary graduates-            note that some of the area colleges are willing to
and this year there were none-we hold a scaled              give our students credit toward a B.A. degree for
down pre-seminary graduation program in the                 the subjects which they take at our school; and our
school's Assembly Room. The seminary personnel              students are finding that with very little additional
(professors and students), the Theological School           work they can obtain their college degree. Increas-
Committee, and the relatives and friends of the             ingly our students are taking advantage of this
graduates are represented at this program.                  possibility. In the third place, as faculty we
Although the audience this year was rather small,           continue to see the benefits of the pre-seminary
we nevertheless had an enjoyable morning; and               program in so far as it is taught at our own school.


4 1 4                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



These benefits are both academic and spiritual.          our churches, and thus the need for new students,
Eventually, of course, it is our churches which reap     continues. These students must come, in the main,
these benefits.                                          out of our own churches. Let our churches
   I cannot take leave of this subject without point-    continue to bear this need in mind in their prayers
ing out that these three graduates of our pre-sem        and in their labors with the young men in our
department will be replaced next fall by only two        congregations. Especially would I urge young men
new pre-sem  stydents. The need for ministers in         in our churches to consider this matter prayerfully.



                    The Canons and Reprobation
                                   Reinterpreted (2)


(Note! At the time this is written, the Synod of the     Study Committee would not even have had to do a
Christian Reformed Church has not yet convened;          great amount of research to discover this-if they
and therefore there has been no decision                 did not know it. This is all well documented in
concerning the Boer Gravamen. If a decision is           Klaas Runia's section of the Reformed Fellowship's
reached before our publication deadline, we will         publication,  Crisis In The Reformed Churches.
try to report it in this issue. Meanwhile, we con-       Nevertheless, while leaving the impression of disa-
tinue with our critique of the Study Report and          greeing with the Boer Gravamen and of agreeing
related items.)                                          with the Canons, the Study Committee is in basic
   Last time we called attention to the fact that the    agreement with Dr. Boer in that both deny the Re-
Study Report makes a two-pronged attack on the           formed doctrine of reprobation as taught by the
Reformed doctrine of reprobation as taught by the        Canons. The difference is that the Boer Gravamen
Canons. By means of this attack they seek to take        is brutally frank, while the Study Report is
the wind out of Dr. Boer's sails by maintaining that     deviously deceitful.
he has misinterpreted the Canons in his gravamen,          One prong of the Report's attack, we saw last
so that the gravamen was not really necessary.           time, is the changing of the decree of reprobation
Meanwhile, the Study `Report-though, mind you,           into the doctrine of limited election.
it has agreed almost completely with Boer's evalua-        The other prong of the attack is the changing of
tion of the Scripture passages cited by the Canons-      sovereign reprobation into a form of conditional
seeks to leave the impression of agreeing with and       reprobation. To this we give our attention in this
maintaining the Canons' teaching concerning              essay.
reprobation. Actually, however, the Report puts an
interpretation on the Canons which they cannot           Tampering With The Translation
possibly bear, which, in fact, they contradict. It is
safe to say that if the Study Report's view of repro-    In another connection (see previous issue) we have
bation had been the view of our Reformed fathers         already made reference to the fact that the Study
in the 17th century, there would have been no            Committee furnishes a new translation of Canons
Arminian controversy and no Canons. I would also         I/6 and 1115. The committee makes a big point of
guess that if various Dutch theologians read the         this, even mentioning the fact that they have 10
Study Committee's attempted reinterpretation of          pages of footnotes concerning the translation which
the Canons, the patently wrong interpretation of         they are willing to furnish to the advisory commit-
the Study Report must be the laughingstock of the        tee at Synod.
theologians across the sea. Dr. Boer's criticism of        Now I can only guess that these must be 10 pages
Canons  I/6 and Canons  I/15 stands directly in the      of learned malarkey, if you'll pardon the expres-
line of criticisms voiced by men like Dr.  Woelde-       sion. For the simple fact is that the original Latin of
rink, Dr. Berkouwer, Dr. Polman, Dr. H.  Ridder-         these two articles is so plain and simple that any
bos, in the line of the Brouwer Gravamen in the          reasonably good student with two years of high
Gereformeerde Kerken, and in the line of the GKN         school Latin could produce a good translation of
decision concerning the Brouwer Gravamen. The            them. In fact, I find it difficult to understand how


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           415



anyone could amass ten pages of notes about the                            their own fault, they have plunged themselves,
 translation.                                                            not to endow them with saving faith and the grace of
                                                                           conversion,
   But what is worse, the Study Committee very ob-                       but at long last to condemn and eternally punish
viously tampers with the translation. Furthermore,                         them (left as they have been in their own ways
I can only conclude that this tampering was                                and under his just judgment), not only for their
 deliberate and that it was done to suit the purposes                      unbelief, but also for all their other sins, in order
 of the committee.                                                         to demonstrate his justice.
   The first instance of tampering involves  I/6. The                  And this is the decision of Reprobation, which does
 committee's translation of the first part of this                     not at all make God the author of sin (a blasphemous
 article is: "It is, however, due to God's eternal                     thought!) but rather its fearful, irreproachable, just
 decision that some are endowed with faith by him                      judge and avenger.
within time, and that others are not so endowed."                    Now it is plain that the words "out of his entirely
The Psalter Hymnal Translation (the same as that of                free, most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable
 our Psalter) is: "That some receive the gift of faith             good pleasure" in the above translation apply only
 from God, and others do not receive it, proceeds                  to the one element of God's decision, the element
 from God's eternal decree." Now the difference in                 of preterition, or passing by, or leaving. The quoted
 this instance is not as serious as in the second                  words are deliberately placed by the committee as a
 instance (see below). Nevertheless, "is due to God's              modifier of only that one element. This suits their
 eternal decision" is not as specific as "proceeds fvom            theory, as mentioned above.
 God's eternal decree." If the committee had                         In actual fact, however, these words do not
wanted to improve the translation they would have                  belong in this position at all. They very plainly
 (in agreement with the Dutch translation, which                   belong with the words, "concerning whom God
 they mention and which they acknowledge has                       made the following decision." The clause would
 official standing) translated by "comes forth from,"              read, in part, as follows then: "concerning whom
 which is even clearer and stronger. For the Latin is:             God, out of His entirely free, most just,
 "Quod autem aliqui in tempore fide a Deo donantur,                irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure,
 aliqui non donantur, id ab aeterno ipsius decreto                 has made the following decision." And then would
provenit. " And the Dutch has: "Dat God sommigen                   follow the three items quoted above, including the
 in de  tjd met het geloof  begifiigt, sommigen niet               item of "but at long last to condemn and eternally
 begiitigt, komt voort uit  Zijn eeuwig besluit." It is            punish them.. . ." But, you see, this would not fit the
 obvious that "is due to" leaves the matter much                   committee's theory that only preterition is
 less sharply defined-particularly with regard to                  according to God's good pleasure, while the cause
 unbelief-than "comes forth from."                                 of condemnation is sin and unbelief.
   The second instance, involving  I/15, is far more                  Is there any linguistic  justificaton  for this
 serious. It involves a deliberate tampering with the              deliberate change by the Study Committee?
 position of certain modifiers in a key sentence of
 this article to suit the committee's purposes. You                   The answer is: none whatsoever! This is a delib-
 will recall that a distinction was made between pre-              erate, totally unjustified, intellectually dishonest
 terition and condemnation. Preterition, passing by,               tampering with the translation. No ten pages of
 the committee is willing to ascribe to God's good                 footnotes can ever justify it!
 pleasure. Condemnation, according to the commit-                     That my contention is true is plain from:
 tee, has its cause in man's sin and unbelief. And the                1) The accepted English translation of both the
 committee claims that this distinction is made in                 Psalter Hymnal  and the  Psalter.  They both have:
 I/15. Now for a long time, I must confess, I puzzled              "...whom  God, out of His sovereign, most just, irre-
over the reason for the committee's new translation                prehensible, and unchangeable good pleasure, has
 of 1115. While I saw some changes and some reason                 decreed," etc.
 for change, I did not realize the major reason and
 the major change. But upon more careful study and                    2) The official Dutch rendering of the Synod of
 comparison, I began to see the light. Here is the                 Dordrecht itself: ". . . welke God, naar Zijn gans vnj,
 committee's new translation of the segment of the                 rechtvaardig, onberispelijk en onveranderlijh welbe-
 article in question. In it I have italicized the crucial          hagen, besloten heeft.. . . If
 modifiers which have been moved by the                               3) The original Latin version of the Synod of
 committee to the wrong position:                                  Dordrecht:  ". . . quos, scilicet, Deus ex liberrimo, iustis-
     . ..those. that is, concerning whom God made the fol-         simo, irreprehensibili, et immutabili beneplacito
      lowing decision: to leave them, out of his entirely free,    decrevit...." Again, any reasonably capable high
         most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable good          school Latin student can see that the whole
        pleasure,  in the common misery into which, by             modifying phrase in question comes before the


416                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



verb decrevit and after the subject Deus, and there-                "official" explanation and suggest that actually Dr.
fore cannot possibly have the position which the                    Boer criticizes various ancillary teachings which he
committee gives it in its new translation.                          ascribes to the Canons. This analysis of the Canons
  But this corrupted translation is the first step in               by Boer contains four elements: "a. a divine
the committee's corruption of the doctrine of repro-                decree; b. which has been made in eternity; c.
bation. They do not want a condemnation which is                    which condemns a segment of mankind to eternal
rooted in God's good pleasure. They leave the im-                   death; d. and which is characterized by distinctly
pression of holding to a preterition, or passing by,                positive as well as negative actions on God's part."
which is according to God's good pleasure; but                      Now I have stated repeatedly that this is the funda-
even this they do not want, but change into a doc-                  mental issue in the gravamen, and that Boer
trine of limited election. But it is abundantly plain               correctly analyzes the doctrine of reprobation here.
that they deliberately change the  condemnation-                    The choice of language would not be mine. Nor, of
aspect of reprobation into a form of conditional                    course, do I agree with the inferences which Boer
reprobation and, at times, into a general, indefinite,              draws from this doctrine. But his analysis is basical-
and impersonal decree of condemnation.                              ly correct. However, the committee at no point
                                                                    deals  directly  with this analysis by Boer. Mean-
Further Preliminary Steps                                           while, the committee hedges and evades the issue,
  There are two more steps in the process which                     but nevertheless makes it plain that Boer's analysis
the committee follows in getting rid of the doctrine                of the Canons is not theirs. Rather do they reinter-
of reprobation while trying to leave the impression                 pret the Canons to teach exactly what they do not
of holding to the Canons.                                           teach. In fact, it is safe to say that if the committee's
                                                                    view on the matter of reprobation had been held by
  The first step, as we noted last time, is taken in                the fathers of Dordt, there never would have been
the Study Report's explanation of the meaning of                    an Arminian controversy and never would have
the word  reprobation,  pp. 359, 360. Here the                      been any Canons.
committee refers to the distinction between preteri-
tion and condemnation in the decree of reproba-
tion, a distinction not mentioned in the Canons but                 Direct Statements Of The Study Report
having some theological legitimacy. However, the                      The following are statements made by the Study
committee fails utterly to note that by "condemna-                  Report concerning this subject of the condemna-
tion" is meant the decree of condemnation. Second-                  tion-aspect of reprobation. For the most part, I need
ly, the committee fails to note that thedecree to                   add no comments. For the most part, too, they are
condemn some men does not have its reason in sin                    statements with which any Arminian would be in
and unbelief, but is rather a decree to  condemn                    fundamental agreement; the most significant dif-
some men on account of their sin and unbelief.                      ference is that a genuine Arminian teaches that the
This difference is crucial. And it is very plain from               only sin for which a man can be condemned and go
what we have written above concerning the trans-                    lost is the sin of unbelief.
lation of  I/15 that the committee must have been                   -p. 362: There is an eternal decree on God's part to
aware of this crucial difference, but did not want it.              the effect that he who sins shall perish, unless in
But the Study Report states the following:                          some way the sentence of condemnation shall be
       In I, 15, however, the phrase "and this is the decree of     lifted from him on the basis of something which ex-
       reprobation"  ((decretum reprobationis)  refers to repro-    culpates him (Article 1 of the Second Head). In Arti-
       bation in its broader sense, as embracing both preteri-      cle 15 of the First Head it is apparent that this
       tion `(nonelection, or passing by) with God's good           decree of condemnation is included in what is
       pleasure as its cause, and damnation, with man's sin         called the decree of reprobation.. . .
       as its cause. (pp. 359,360)                                  -p. 364: Does Dort teach that before the existence
         In this report, whenever there is a dnager of being        of human beings, thus before they have done any-
       misunderstood, we shall make clear in which sense            thing, God consigns some to destruction wholly
       we are using the word reprobation. In harmony with           apart from what they may do? Or, alternatively,
       the teaching of  I,6 and  1,15, however, the committee
       affirms that no other cause can be found for the pass-       does Dort teach that God decides to  make  some
       ing by than God's sovereign good pleasure, whereas           people perform the sins for which he subsequently
       the cause of condemnation is man's sin and unbelief.         punishes them? Worse yet, does Dort teach that
       (P. 360)                                                     God creates some people for  the purpose  of
  A second step in the process is the failure of the                consigning them to destruction? To each of these
committee to deal directly and head-on with Dr.                     questions the answer is most emphatically, "No."
Boer's analysis of what the Canons teach concern-                   -p. 364: So can we then say that God rejects those
ing reprobation. On p. 371 they call it Dr. Boer's                  who reject him? Most emphatically we can. What


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   4 1 7



Dort wishes to emphasize, however, is that God            bation, HCH), understood in its broader sense, is
does not reject all who reject Him. Some who reject       commonly called condemnation-that is, that God
Him He decides nonetheless to choose as recipients        condemns and punishes' forever all those who
for the gift of faith, and thus, for salvation....        remain in their sin and unbelief. Your committee
-p. 365: In the body of the Canons it is taught that      not only believes that, according to Scripture, God
God has not created anyone for the purpose of dam-        will condemn such people; it also believes that God
nation. Damnation is a response to the evil the           has decided from eternity, or, to use a biblical
"reprobates" do, of which God is not the cause.           phrase, from before the foundation of the world, to
                                                          condemn such people. The basis for that condem-
-p. 373: We have seen that the Canons speak am-           nation, however, is to be found solely in the persis-
biguously in their reference to a decree of repro-        tent unbelief and sin of those so condemned.
bation. In  I,6 it seems clear that reprobation is
simply passing by: From eternity God has decided to
elect some but not all to faith. In 1,15, by contrast,
what is called "reprobation" includes the sentence          The above quotations are only a few of many
of condemnation: From eternity God has decided            which could be made, but they will suffice to give
that he who sins shall perish unless his sins are         you the flavor of the report.
atoned for and forgiven.                                    What is at the root of this evident inability and
-p. 373: Our question now is this: Does Boer hold         unwillingness of the Study Committee to maintain
that there is no decision of God from eternity to         and defend the Canons and to refute the Boer
grant the gift of faith to some but not to all, and is    Gravamen?
this at the bottom.of his protest? Alternatively, does      The answer  isi  1924!
he hold that there is no decision of God from eterni-
ty that he who sins shall perish unless his sins are        Although it is mentioned  al@most  in passing and
atoned for and forgiven, and is this at the bottom of     only a couple of times, the specter of the First Point
his protest? (Note: I consider these questions face-      of 1924 and its "well-meant offer" looms in the
tious. If either of the above were the teaching of the    background of this entire report. What was impli-
Canons, I submit that Boer's Gravamen would               citly denied in 1924 is now explicitly denied, both
never have seen the light of day. HCH)                    by Dr. Boer and by the Study Committee. Neither
                                                          wants the Reformed doctrine of reprobation. Again,
-p. 385: Election is the decree which bestows the         however, if I had to choose, I would choose Boer's
gift of God's free grace, but the "just severity of       position: he is forthright to the point of bluntness.
reprobation" is the result of man's own sin, not the      The Study Committee puts on a show of adhering
result of a decree of God.                                to the Canons, and its position is for that reason
-p. 396: The other aspect of the doctrine (of repro-      deceitful.




           Christian Reformed Reactions to the
           Study Report on the Boer Gravamen

  As noted earlier, this is written before the Chris-     far, I have read no fundamentally negative
tian Reformed Synod convenes, and thus before             reactions to the report.
there is any decision concerning the Boer  Grava-           First of all, Editor Peter De Jong  (The Outlook,
men. At this writing, however, it almost seems as         June, 1980, p. 9) expresses approval of the Study
though there might be but little disagreement at the      Report. If this is representative of the "conserva-
Synod concerning the Study Report. Conceivably            tive" attitude in the CRC, the cause of the doctrine
Dr. Boer and those who agree with him might dis-          of sovereign reprobation (and with it, sovereign
agree with the Study Report; then again, however,         election) is a lost cause in the CRC. Here is what
he might swallow his disagreement, on the basis           Rev. De Jong writes:
that the Study Report  essentially  agrees with his          . ..The committee points out that the Canons do  not
position and denies sovereign reprobation. Thus              teach what Dr. Boer misrepresents them as teaching,


418                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



   that the doctrine of reprobation is a decree which                A third reaction may be found in the editorial
   makes God the cause  of man's unbelief and which                columns of  The Banner,  May 30, 1980, p. 7. The
   condemns men without merit or demerit on their                  author is Dr. James A. DeJong of Dordt College, but
   part. Therefore it recommends that the synod do not             the article is placed with evident approval by Dr.
   accede to Dr. Boer's request to take this doctrine out          De Koster, Editor of The Banner. This article is too
   of the creed or make it non-binding. The committee's            long to quote here, but it is high in its praise of the
   case is in general competently argued and its conclusion
   invites approval.  (italics added)                              Study Report.
                                                                     Finally, we mention the fact that in "Voices,"
  Editor De Jong has more remarks on this subject,                 (The Banner,  June 6, 1980, pp. 24, 25) there
but the above quoted comments obviously express                    appears a reaction from Dr. Boer. He does not
his basic (and favorable) evaluation.                              comment on the contents of the Study Report, but
  The same issue of  The Outlook,  p. 24, contains                 proposes that it would be proper to submit the
a notice and summary of a pamphlet by Dr. Edwin                    Study Report to the Churches for study and evalua-
H. Palmer,  Twelve Theses On Reprobation.                          tion, and that  synodical action be deferred until
Proposition No. 6 of this pamphlet is very telling:                1981. Who knows? Perhaps that will be the
"Reprobation as preterition is unconditional and as                direction the Christian Reformed Synod will
condemnation is coriditional. " (italics added) This is            follow. Time will tell.
evidently in agreement with the position of the                      Whatever happens, however, the doctrine of
Study Report, therefore.                                           sovereign reprobation is a lost cause in the CRC.


TRANSLATED TREASURES


       A Pamphlet Conc.erning the Reformation
                                              of the Church
                                                          Dr. A. Kuyper




   (In the last two paragraphs Dr. Kuyper has discussed            which deacons as well as preachers and elders have
   the functioning of the office of all believers in the           a place in all cases where neither the exercise of the
   church and has made some remarks concerning the                 keys nor the ministration of tables is treated but
   church's material possessions. He now continues with            where the common interests of the church are dis-
   the discussion of the government of the church.)                cussed and decided. Those concerns of a common
28. Through Which Gathering the Church Is                          character include the calling of ministers, the
       Governed.                                                   appointment of elders and deacons, the representa-
  The government of the churches is exercised by                   tion of the church with the magistrate, the care of
the consistories which in a wider sense are                        the church's possessions, etc. In the broad  consis-
composed of preachers, elders, and deacons, but in                 tory as well as in the consistory which meets for the
the narrow sense of the word are composed of as                    exercise of the keys, the preachers preside, but they
many as are entrusted with the exercise of the                     are always on a par with the elders and deacons as
second key of the kingdom of heaven, i.e., only                    far as their authority is concerned. This consistory
preachers and elders. The deacons form a separate                  ought itself to dispose of the matters coming before
group for the ministration of the tables. Although in              it in good order and must never appoint others to
smaller churches the deacons also take part in the                 do the work except for the carrying out of a specific
rule of the church in the narrower sense, this is a                task. It ought to receive into its meetings the mem-
concession to necessity and does not proceed from                  bers of the church who desire to do this. And it
principle. Decisions` are, out of principle, the                   keeps the best contact with the  chuch by granting
responsibility of the full council of the church in                to believers opportunity to be present at the gather-


                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      4 1 9



   ings as listeners. Although, naturally, the exception                       whole congregation. This administration of the
   would be when a consistory is gathered in closed                            Word bears a twofold character, according as milk
   session when the nature of the work requires this.                          must be administered or solid food. The admini-
      The ministers of the Word can form for them-                             stration of milk is the administration of the Word
   selves a gathering for the discussion of their activi-                      through catechetical instruction. The administra-
  ties. And in the same way the ruling elders can or-                          tion of solid food is the administration of this means
  ganize their own circle to discuss the division of the                       of grace through the exposition and application of
  work. But this so-called ministerial gathering, or                           the Word. In the distribution of this milk the
  this gathering of elders never possesses might,                              minister of the Word is officially mandated for
  right, or competency and was not recognized in for-                          public and private instruction; the father or also the
  mer times in our Reformed churches. The deacons                              mother, within the family; and each believer, for
  possess a distinct ministry and form for that reason                         such children for whom neither the parents nor the
1 a separate group. But teaching and ruling elders are                         relatives nor the church perform their obligation.
  members of the same group, bound together by the                             The administration of the solid food, on the other
  ministry of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and                           hand, takes place officially only by the father as
  cannot, also according to the language of our                                priest in the home, and, in the midst of the
  Formula of Subscription, form another group or                               congregation, by the minister of the Word. It is in
  fellowship which would possess power or legal                                both cases an exercise of the first key of the king-
  competency different from the common consistory                              dom of heaven, not as the so-called proclamation of
  in which they function with an equal vote and the                            the gospel, but as a speech in the name of the Lord
  same competency.                                                             and with power. It can, only in the way of transfer,
                                                                               be passed over to the ruling elders. And it takes
  29.  Concerning the Administration Of the Means                              place only in a subordinate way in the so-called
        Of Grace.                                                              prophets or by the common church members in de-
     The means of grace of the church are the                                  fault of office bearers. Further, however, the obli-
  treasures which are laid away in Christ for the elect                        gation rest on the ministers of the Word to bring
  and which are presented to us in the Word and                                this means of grace also to the homes of the church
  sealed by the sacraments. Word and sacrament are                             members: in family visitation before every Lord's
  therefore rightly named.the  two means of grace of                           Supper; in sickness and sorrow to the oppressed;
  the church. These means of grace are now adminis-                            and in connection with the approaching danger of
  tered through the church and received by the mem-                            death to the dying. Only faith is mighty to preserve
  bers. Hence the sacrament is bound to Presbyterial                           and there is no other means of grace than the Word
  service because no one can receive a sacrament                               to arouse faith and to maintain it in a lively way.
  unless there is an administration.1 On the other                               The sacrament  seals. the Word, and by this
  hand, it is different with the Word. This can be re-                         strengthens faith in the church as a whole as well as
  ceived without administration, be it in a less rich                          in each one who becomes a partaker of faith. Just as
  way. The means of grace of the Word is therefore                             every seal to be a seal must have a public character,
  only bound to the office for its exposition and appli-                       so it is also with the administration of the sacra-
  cation, understanding with this that the office of                           ments. They must be administered in conformity
  believers administers this means of grace to                                 with their public character and are, for that reason,
  everyone who will hear the admonition.2 The                                  bound to the public worship of the church. They
  priestly office of the father in his house administers                       are, on that account, administered by the church to
  the Word in his own household. The office of the                             the church under the guidance of the consistory
  ministry of the Word administers it publicly to the                          and under the application of the service of the shep-
                                                                               herds. Only in the church, under the guidance of
                                                                               the consistory, administered by the pastors, are the
  1. It is interesting to note that Dr. Kuyper emphasizes here the admini-
   stration of the sacraments. The church world of today is slipping           sacraments sacramental seals. Being seals of the
   away- from this emphasis. A very common expression used in the              Word they then must also not be separated from
   churches today is the expression, "the  celebration  of the sacra-          the ministry of the Word and they are best admin-
   ments." But this emphasis on celebration rather than administration
   is not Reformed. The Reformed view is that the sacraments are  ad-          istered after the preaching is concluded. Thus
   ministered. And this is Reformed because Christ is the one who dis-         baptism and the Lord's Supper never take place in-
   penses the means of grace within the church.                                dependently.
  2. In this remark, and in the remarks which follow, Kuyper seems to
   place the office of believers on a par with these special offices in the      Every member of the church has the right to the
   church. This is a mistake. It has always been the teaching of the Re-       administration of both means of grace - as well to
   formed Churches to make the office of believers dependent upon the          that of the Word as to that of the sacraments. But
   church. The believer, functioning in his office, is dependent upon
   the administration of the Word and the sacraments within the                the reception and use of them is an obligation for
   church institute.                                                           both means of grace. From this it follows that not


     4 2 0                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



     adult baptism, but infant baptism is the rule, and          but a spiritual right of punishment which is exer-
     no one must be denied baptism who in any way is             cised authoritatively in the name of King Jesus.
     to be considered as a member of the church. The             This right of punishment does not aim at the state
     Word and the sacraments of the Lord's Supper                of the heart or the motive of the heart. (de intimis
     must be  givg already to the smallest children in           non judicat ecclesia: the chruch refrains from
     case these are ready for it. On the other hand, if this     passing judgment on the hidden things.) Nor is it
     is impossible, the child receives first the right to the    inquisitorial.  It does not search out transgression
     Word when he can hear, and then the right to the            which takes place within the home. It is exclusively
     Lord's Supper when he can make confession. He               directed to public transgression, i.e., which is either
     who is no member of the church or comes from                committed publicly, or privately, but has become
     elsewhere out of churches which are not recog-              publicly known. This discipline is concerned with
     nized must not be permitted to come to the sacra-           confession and walk and that without respect of
     ments, just as, in the same way, all who through            persons. It is exercised over the ministers of the
     error or evil are under discipline must be shut out         Word and magistrates as well as over the forgotten
     or excluded from the sacraments.                            citizen.
        But even so, and vice-versa, each church                   It follows a regulated procedure which properly
     member is obligated to use the sacraments. Each is          ought to produce a guarantee that only the guilty
     obligated to present his child for baptism and,             will be condemned. It proceeds along definite steps
     likewise, each believer stands under the obligation,        to final excommunication from the congregation,
     as often as the Lord's Supper is administered, to           but it retraces its steps as soon as there is evidence
     receive the sacrament. This is not because his salva-       of contrition. And when this happens no trace of
     tion hangs on the sacrament. There is no good               infamy continues to rest upon the contrite saint.
     Christian who does not know better. But also there            It checks the working of the means of grace be-
     is no good Christian who, because God is free and           cause the means of grace are only for believers; and
     can save him without the sacrament, repays the              through the application of discipline the status of a
     Lord God for His mercy with contempt for His holy           disciplined person as a believer is made doubtful
     sacrament.                                                  even in an ecclesiastical way. Anyone who is under
     30. Concerning the Exercise of Christian                    discipline can be worked with by the Word, but the
              Discipline.                                        Word comes to him just as it comes to others who
                                                                 are outside the church, i.e., to judge him and to
        The administration of the means of grace must            urge him to repentance, but not to comfort him
     be kept holy and the church of God ruled with a             with God's promises. And in a yet narrower sense,
     spiritual polity. The exercise of Christian discipline      the sacrament is checked because the church can
     which is bound to the official authority in the             no longer seal the promises to anyone whose faith
     church has a twofold purpose. Therefore this disci-         is in doubt church politically. Only in connection
     pline is exercised, 1) by each and every believer in        with holy baptism is this not applicable because a
     the way of warning when one sees his brother fall;          newly born baby cannot wander or transgress, and
     2) be each and every believer to a lesser degree in         the notion of punishing the child for the transgres-
     connection with personal offenses; 3) by all. the           sion of the parents, while it can and does happen
     believers together at the time of excommunication           from God's side, never results in the exercise of
     or readmittance of those who misbehave, when the            punishment because the church possesses no
     believers express agreement with the decision of            power for this.
     the consistory or oppose that decision; and, finally,
     4) in the most principle way by the consistory over           It does not belong here to treat of the discipline
     the members of the congregation and by the classis          in the family because the authority of the father is
     over erring churches.                                       civil and not ecclesiastical in character.
I This discipline is not a brotherly warning of love,
              The STANDARD BEARER
              makes a thoughtful gift
              for a shut-in.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          421



ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren


                                What of the Hostages?

  You have heard it again and again, in newspaper,        "removed from the dialysis treatment, medication,
magazine, on television and radio-Iran continues          and special diet necessary to his survival-so that
to hold hostage some 53 Americans. They have              he might `die with dignity.' " This, in spite of the
done this for over 200 days. .Daily we are reminded       fact that the man did not want to "die with dig-
about the fact. The rescue attempt which failed has       nity." Only after a great amount of national and in-
been analyzed in detail. The whole sad event has          ternational pressure, was this decision reversed.
proved frustrating and irritating. How can someone        The article maintains, however, that many elderly
do that to our country? Perhaps each of us experi-        and sick are compelled to "die with dignity" in this
ences a bit of the frustration too-since we are           country. How many? The author claims "probably
citizens of the United States. Nor can we condone         as many Americans as have been aborted  ,as yet
that which was done.                                      unborn." the writer quotes from a book written by
  Yet one can not help but think of the hypocrisy         Dr. Koop:
of it all.  Fifty-three+ves become the deep concern            Our society, having lost its understanding of the
of the whole nation. The security of fifty-three             sanctity of human life, is pushing the medical profes-
people is of pressing concern. Dire threats are              sion into assuming one of God's prerogatives, namely
spoken against the nation should any harm come to            deciding what life shall be born and when life shall
                                                             end.... If there is not to be a Judeo-Christian ethic in
the hostages. But can this country claim such                the preservation of life in matters pertaining to eutha-
concern abut the safety and preservation of lives?           nasia, what does the future hold? The day may come
All who are so concerned about 53 lives, where is            when a death selection committee may objectively
the same concern for those million plus lives that           consider my life not to be worth much.... Certainly
are arbitrarily and evilly snuffed out each year? If         the rights of individuals will disappear: depersona-
53 lives are so valuable, what of the more than a            lization and dehumanization will reign.... Once the
million which are simply destroyed at the whim of            human-value ethic becomes weakened or tarnished, it
man? I speak of the evil of abortion. Voices are             doesn't take long for human experimentation on
raised, but little is done. Mass murder is being prac-       human bodies to take place. Auschwitz could be in the
ticed by our "Christian" nation-while Iran is                offing.
threatened that should it hurt one of the 53 lives of       So: perhaps a million and a half abortions a year;
the people imprisoned there, dire consequences            perhaps another million and a half quasi-legal
will follow.                                              "mercy-killings." But woe to Iran if it dares to
                                                          touch one of the 53 lives of United States citizens
  There is also growing concern in this country           held hostage! What kind of country are we becom-
about another evil becoming more prevalent:               ing? What ought we to day and do? How can all this
legalized euthanasia. The  Outlook,  June, 1980,          be condoned? And: are we beginning to see even
presents an article on this disturbing subject by E.L.    now the terrible judgments of God upon this
Hubden Taylor. He quotes a case where a man in            country because of these awful and growing
Massachusetts (78 years old) was ordered                  crimes?

                               "An Ounce of Mother"

  The Presbyterian Journal, May 14, 1980, in an                "An ounce of mother can be worth more than a ton
article by Dick  Hillis,  makes some interesting             of clergy." I don't know the author of this quote but
comments about mothers. Some of the things  re-              I am sure his purpose was not to down-grade the cler-
corded in the article need saying. I quote just the          gy but rather to  @ornote  true Christian motherhood.
first and last part of the article:                            We know that most of the men ministering in for-


422                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



       eign lands and in the pulpits of America come from                to preach the Gospel, but'the trouble is that I have
       Christian homes. Our missionaries speak of a deep                 twelve children to raise. What shall I do?'
       sense of God's direction in their lives. They tell of the            The loving Gypsy wrote, "My dear lady, I am hap-
   `inescapable conviction that they should serve Him                    py to hear that you have been saved and feel called to
       abroad. They mention their awareness of the terrible              preach., But I am even more delighted to know that
       lostness of men. These things influenced them to go to            God has already provided you with a congregation of
       foreign lands as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. But they            twelve." The mother got the point.
       do not stop there. They readily acknowledge the deep                 When did you last stop and thank God for the high
       influence of a godly mother.. . .                                 calling of motherhood?
         Yes, "an ounce of mother" if that mother is a godly           The point is, of course, that Mother has an
       one, is of far more worth than a ton of jewels. So if you    extremely important place in the home. How fool-
       feel your duties as a busy Christian mother are pre-         ish when some seem to think that it were better to
       venting you from doing many of the things you would          be engaged in daily work, along with the father, in
       like to do for the Lord outside the home, remember           order to gain a bit more of the earthly possessions
       that motherhood and your ministry in the home are
       very important to the Lord.                                  which so many esteem. How silly to regard this
                                                                    i m p o r t a n t   p o s i t i o n   a s    "degrading" and
         A woman once wrote the great evangelist, Gypsy             "demeaning." True it is, that if this "ounce of
       Smith, and told him she had been converted in one of         mother" is gone, then the "ton of clergy" will serve
       his campaigns. She said, "I believe the Lord wants me        but poorly as well.




                                   "State-Owned Children"


  In an editorial in the  Christian  News, April 14,                     charged with truancy because he is attending a Chris-
1980, the editor reminds us of the direction the                         tian Day School which employs teachers who are not
world and our country is headed with respect to the                      certified by the state. Forty-four of the states do not
care and training of children. He writes:                                require accreditation of teachers in private schools
                                                                         but Nebraska happens to be one of the six that does.
         The International Year of the Child has ended, but              There have been similar suits in several other cases
       there will be no doubt repercussions of itsinfluence              involving Christian schools.
       for years to come. Certainly permissiveness and chil-
       dren's rights have been given further impetus.                       It- was part of my testimony to point out that chil-
                                                                         dren are not owned by the state but by the parents
         In April, 1979, the Swedish Parliament, by an over-             who have been given this prerogative by God. It was
       whelming vote, passed a law prohibiting parents from              the doctrine of state-owned children that prevailed in
       striking their children or treating them in any "hu-              Hitler's Germany and in Mussolini's Italy in their to-
       miliating" way. The law which went into effect July               talitarian regimes. It is a dangerous doctrine with
       1, clearly prohibits punishment as slapping, whacking             wide ramifications, and by all indications, considering
       or spanking children, but the area of "humiliating                present trends; there may be some real tensions ahead
       treatment" is more vague, possibly including such ac-             for us between the state and the home in regard to
       tions as sending them to bed without supper.                      child control. The Bible seems to predict such a time
         In American a number of legal actions have leaned               when children will rise up against parents in defense
       in the same direction so that possibly in the near                of their so-called rights.
       future similar laws may be enacted here.                        The above editorial points out what we have long
         The doctrine of state-owned children has in fact
       been with us for some time but in a subtle form. Com-        emphasized. The time may be at hand that parents
       pulsory education, a form of conscription, has for           are not allowed to instruct their own children. The
       years been accepted as a fact of life, but there is good     "rights" of children would then be compromised.
       reason to believe that it would not stand the constitu-      Children, so it will be said, have the right to deter-
       tional test if it were ever to be tested before the U.S.     mine for themselves if they will worship God-and
       Supreme Court.                                               how. No parent may impress his own religious
         This editor sat in the witness chair in a Seward           views, at home or school or church,  upon his
       County, Nebraska court room on January 19 in behalf          children. We are rapidly headed in this direction of
       of a young student, Ronald Troyer, who is being              `!rights" for the child.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            423




                     The GKN and the Homosexual

  In the  Banner,  April 25, 1980, Rev. Haverkamp                       c. to let the mutual faith-bond in Christ between
presents his translation of the decision of the                       homosexual and heterosexual Christians again and
Reformed Church in the Netherlands (GKN) with                         again receive inspiring form in the united experience
respect to the homosexual. I quote only the most                      of the worship service, through administration and re-
pertinent part of that decision:                                      minder of baptism, via participation in the Holy Sup-
                                                                      per.
     To direct a communication to the churches with the                 d. so to use the gifts unto service, also in the office
   call to officebearers and church members to:                       granted to all, homosexuals and heterosexuals, that
     a. let the mutual bond and service to one another                they function to the upbuilding of the congregation.
   also in the relationship between homosexual and                      e. to promote mutual discussion between homo-
   heterosexual church members ever anew proceed                      sexual and heterosexual church members locally.
   from the acceptance of one another under the
   authority of the proclaimed gospel of grace and of                   f. to make use in this discussion of the report "con-
   service to the Lord Jesus;                                         cerning people who are homosexual", which was
                                                                      brought to the attention of the church by the Synod of
     b. also in the presence of the differing view of the             Dordrecht 197111972.
   Scriptural data involved, to keep in mind that-in rev-
   erence for one another's life-secret, with respect for               g. to signalize the disdaining and slighting of the
   the individual responsibility over against God and in              homosexual person in society and to help conquer
   the light of Gods justification of the humanity of us              these.
   all-it is not for us to condemn fellowmen in their                Haverkamp concludes that "the time has come
   homosexual disposition and the practice thereof; since         to take steps to sever the existing relationship with
   the last word also concerning `this belongs to the Lord.       the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands."


PRE-SEMINARY GRADUATIONADDRESS


                                 In Pursuit of Excellence
                                                      Prof Robert D. Decker


  Congratulations and God's blessing! A significant                  But graduation is also commencement, a
acomplishment has been made by you who gradu-                      beginning. Not only do we look back with thanks
ate by the grace of God. Virtually no one takes note               on what has been accomplished, but we also look
of this accomplishment. But you may be sure that                   forward. That you graduate from the pre-seminary
God does. What has been accomplished is of great                   course means you are about to embark on the final
significance for our churches and the cause of Jesus               leg of your educational journey. Graduation means
Christ in the world. You have completed your                       the beginning of your seminary career.
college education, your pre-seminary work. That is
the first and necessary step in your training for the                It is from that point of view that I wish to speak.
ministry of the Word. You have studied many and                    In all of your work from this point on, in the
varied courses as preparation and background for                   seminary and, the Lord willing, in the ministry of
your work in theology. You have acquired a work-                   the Gospel in our churches, you must be doing just
ing knowledge of the original languages of the                     one thing: you must be pursuing excellence. That
Scriptures. In every sense of the word your educa-                 excellence is the knowledge of Christ Jesus our
tion has been pre-seminary. We (your wives,                        Lord. That knowledge is revealed in the inspired,
parents, professors, and friends) are grateful to God              infallible, holy Scriptures. That you must pursue
for making this possible.                                          with all that is in you. You must strive to acquire it


4 2 4                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



and grow in that knowledge, now and for the rest of         That knowledge is set forth in our creeds. The
your lives. You must make everything in your lives        Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and
subservient to that. In a real sense of the word the      the Canons of the great Synod of Dordrecht (1618-
pursuit of that excellence must be a total life           1619) contain that excellent knowledge. In a truly
commitment. That was the commitment and con-              marvelous and eloquent way these creeds systema-
fession of one of the greatest preachers who ever         tize the truth of the Word of God. They are a beauti-
lived. The Apostle Paul tells the Philippians and us:     ful summary of the truth of Scripture. What I am
"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for       saying is that this knowledge is the Reformed Faith.
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my        The Reformed Faith preaches but one theme: the
Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all            absolute sovereignty of God! That theme proclaims
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win        the total depravity of man, his guilt and corruption
Christ" (Phil. 3:8). This must be your confession as      and inability to do any good apart from grace. This
you graduate. Unless it is, you cannot be a Preacher      faith proclaims the absolute sovereignty of God's
of the Word and a Pastor of God's people.                 grace in Christ by which the elect are saved apart
   The excellence you must pursue is this: "the           from works, and the calling of the redeemed to live
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." That is the           in thankfulness to God. That knowledge is what is
knowledge of the Saviour. It is the knowledge of          taught in our Seminary and preached in our
Christ and as Christ the Saviour is God's annointed.      churches. This knowledge must be maintained at
Christ is ordained from eternity to be the Mediator       all costs.
and Saviour of the elect. As the anointed One He is         This knowledge is not merely theoretical. It does
the officebearer in God's kingdom. Christ is our          not consist of some dry, abstract dogmas. Nor is it
prophet Who makes known the will of God to us.            mere intellectual, theological theory. Yes, of course
He is our merciful High Priest Who sacrificed             you need to know what the Bible teaches. You need
Himself on the cross for our sins and Who constant-       to learn Reformed theology. This is a must. Without
ly and perfectly prays for us before the throne of        a thorough knowledge of the teaching of the Word
grace. Christ is our King, and as King He has pre-        of God no one can preach. But that must be the
eminence in all things. Christ is Head over all           knowledge of experience. It must be the fruit of the
things to the Church which is His body. Him, the          work of the Holy Spirit applying the Word in our
-Christ of God, you must know.                            hearts. Then we know our sins-and sinful natures.
   It is the knowledge of Jesus you must acquire. He      We know the forgiveness of our sins through the
is named Jesus by God,  `I.. .for He shall save His       shed blood of Jesus Christ. We know God in Jesus
people from their sins" (Matthew                          Christ as the God of our salvation Who turns all
                                      1:21).  As Jesus
He is Jehovah salvation. You must pursue the              things to our profit. It is that knowledge which is
                                                          life eternal. This excellent knowledge is the
knowledge of Jesus.                                       foundation of our lives. It motivates us in all of our
   It is the knowledge of our Lord. Christ is Lord of     activity and governs us in all our way.
lords and King of kings. All power in heaven and on         That knowledge you must pursue. This means
earth has been given to Christ. Christ rules all          very simply that you must strive to acquire this
things in such a way that nothing can be against us.      knowledge. And that means in one word, study. A
All things are for us. In our Lord we are more than       wonderful privilege is yours for the next three
conquerors. That knowledge you must pursue.               years. Day after day you will be taught the doc-
   That knowledge has content, and the content is         trines of the Word of God. You will learn how to
found in the holy Scriptures. Scripture is all about      mine the truth out of the Scriptures. You will learn
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is on every page and in     the lessons of the church of the  p'ast. You will be
every passage of the Bible. Scripture reveals Christ      taught how to construct a sermon and preach. You
in Whom God determined to reveal His glory.               will learn how to pastor God's flock. Do not abuse
Scripture reveals Christ in Whom God elected His          that privilege. Seize it! Grow in the knowledge of
people before the foundations of the world; Christ        Christ Jesus your Lord. If that knowledge is not in
by Whom and for Whom all things were made;                your mind and in your heart you can never be a
Christ Who redeemed us by His suffering and               minister of the Gospel.
death from sin and death; Christ, raised and exalt-         Understand, and understand it well, this pursuit
ed, Who has the pre-eminence in all things. And in        involves your all! This is true of the next three
Christ the God of our salvation is revealed in all His    years. Seminary must not be something incidental
sovereignty and almighty power, in all His glory as       to your lives. It must in a real sense  be your lives!
the ever blessed God. The knowledge of the Scrip-         The same is true of the ministry. The ministry is not
tures, therefore, you must pursue if you are going        just a forty-hour-perweek job. Nor is the ministry
to know the Lord Jesus Christ.                            merely a profession among other professions. The


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                425


ministry involves the totality of one's life! You            Paul could have been a doctor of the law. He evalu-
must be in pursuit of that knowedge  for the rest of         ates all of that over against the knowledge of Christ
your lives. This is your calling all your life long.         Jesus his Lord. And his conclusion? I count all those
There is no end to it; you must always grow in the           things loss, of no value whatsoever. Not only that I
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your             count all things loss, but dung compared with the
Lord. One of our Protestant Reformed fathers                 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
remarked near the end of his life: "I preached               Lord. That is the Apostle's confession.
nearly fifty years. If the Lord gave me another fifty          May that be your confession as you graduate and
years I still would only scratch the surface." That's        commence your seminary career. The knowledge
true! The riches of the knowledge of Christ Jesus            of `Christ Jesus our Lord is of inestimable, incom-
our Lord are unfathomable.                                   parable value. In fact, it is life eternal! It is worth
  Be assured too that knowledge is excellent. The            living for and working for. That knowledge is
Apostle Paul did some reckoning. "I count," he               worth dying for! Nothing can equal or surpass it.
said. This means the Apostle did some considering,           All things-wealth, pleasure, a name in this
comparing, and evaluating. He compared all things            world-all things without exception are loss, but
on the one hand: his circumcision, his being a He-           dung. Pursue that knowledge for God's sake and
brew of the Hebrews and a Pharisee. Paul could               the churches'. May God richly bless you in that
have gone places humanly speaking. His was an                pursuit.
excellent pedigree, and He had a good education.


QUESTION BOX


                      About the Origin of the Soul

                                                    Rev. C. Hanko



  From Lynden, Washington we received the fol-               ates the soul of every individual at the time of con-
lowing questions concerning the origin of the soul:          ception. It was used in the latter part of the 19th
  "Do we receive or inherit our souls from our               century to oppose the evolution theory. As the
natural parents? If so, from father, or mother, or           questioner remarks, this would be an on-going
both? That would seem to pose some difficulties. If          creation. In that case, the human body comes from
not, is each individual soul an immediate creative           the parents, but the soul in each instance is created
act of God? Consequently, is God still creating?             by God. Traducianism is the theory that the soul as
                                                             well as the body comes from the parents. As is evi-
  Allow me, first of all, to apologize for the delay in      dent from the liberal theology of our day, that
answering this and other questions that have been            raises the question whether man evolves from a
sent in to the Question Box. Various other duties,           lower animal, or even whether God has anything at
such as spending nine weeks in Bradenton, Florida,           all. to do with the origin of the soul, or if this is
have kept me occupied, so that the questions had to          merely a natural process.
wait. I appreciate the patience of those who sent in
questions and assure you that, D.V., I will answer             The first question that must be answered is, what
the questions on hand in the near future.                   `do we understand by the "soul"? Does man consist
  The question that is raised about the origin of the.>      of two separate parts, soul and body? Did God
soul is, indeed, interesting. The individual,wh&nt           create man's body from the dust of the earth, and
the question mentioned in his letter that he wajac-         then add a soul, or a spirit? Or is the soul an integral
quainted with the terms Creationism and  Tradu-             part of man's being, so that soul and body are inti-
cianism. To refresh our memories, the term Cre-             mately related and essentially one?
ationism has been used ever since Aristotle and the            In Genesis  2:7 we are told, "And the Lord God
early church to designate the theory that God cre-          formed man from the dust of the ground, and


426                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and          after the  fall.`Therefore also at death his "soul"
man became a living soul." Obviously, this is not           from that spiritual aspect (or spirit, as Scripture
two separate creative acts, as if God first formed a        refers to it), leaves the body to enter into eternity,
human body and then added a soul. But this is two           either in heaven or in hell.
aspects of one divinely creative act. God made man            What helps us to understand the origin of the
a human being, with a nature that is different from         soul is the wonder of the incarnation. The person of
that of the animals. This human nature has a physical       the Son of God joined His complete divine nature to
and a psychical, or spiritual side. Man came forth          a complete human nature which He took from the
from the hand of the Creator as a rational, moral           virgin Mary. Christ had a complete, yet impersonal
creature, capable of thinking, willing, speaking,           human nature, for the divine person of the Son of
and acting. He is a natural being of the earth earthy,      God took on our flesh, completely God and at the
yet at the same time he is a spiritual being who            same time completely flesh of our flesh and bone of
stands as an accountable creature before the living         our bone, both as to body and soul.
God. According to his creation, he was an image
bearer of God, with a mind that was capable of                This gives us certain definite directives as to the
knowing God, a heart that was capable of loving             origin of the human soul. At conception not merely
God, and a will that could direct his entire being in       the body is called into existence, but a personal
the service of God. He stood in relationship to God         being, consisting of body and soul. God creates a
as Gods friend-servant to devote himself in                 new individual, a new person with individual gifts
covenant fellowship to the living God.                      and talents. Therefore, the soul and body are
                                                            brought into existence from the parents, the person
  Man's "soul" therefore also has a twofold aspect.         is from God. God brings about each conception,
On the one hand, man is capable of seeing, hearing,         creating at the moment of conception a new person
feeling, speaking, thinking, willing, planning, and         which must serve his or her unique purpose with
carrying out a conscious, deliberate work. On the           the particular gifts and talents, personality and
other hand, man's soul stands in relation to God as         character traits, as God has determined from
knowing that God is God, aware that God's law is            eternity.
the rule of life, and that he is responsible to God for
all his desires, thoughts, words, and deeds. He can           I hope that this may be of some help to under-
never lose that spiritual, moral consciousness, even        stand the origin of the soul.

THEDAYOFSHADOWS


            FearfulJacob Meets Fearsome Esau
                                                 Rev. John A. Heys



  For Jacob the inevitable meeting with Esau could          sheep, with kine in abundance, not to speak of
not have come at a worse time. Physically the man           camels, and with unarmed servants and four wives
was in no shape for this ordeal. For he had spent a         and twelve children, the oldest of which cannot be
sleepless night in a bone-wearying wrestling match          more than thirteen years old, and one of them is a
with God Himself. He was left physically exhaust-           daughter, must meet, and is on a collision course
ed. And, what is more, he was now a cripple who             with, an advertised murderer who has no fewer
was in no condition to do any more wrestling with           than four hundred armed men with him. Jacob had
men. Yet he must go and meet the brother who                just gone through a similar ordeal with his  father-
threatened to take his life away as soon as their           in-law,  Laban,  when his life and that of his family
father was dead.                                            were threatened with harm. One must, therefore,
                                                            consider that there is also a psychological element
  And now, if you please, we are about to have the          to be borne in mind. We certainly can pity the man,
most unusual meeting that can be desired. This              and before we take a pharisaical attitude of thank-
exhausted cripple with a tremendous herd of                 ing God that we are not like Jacob, we had better


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             427



try to understand his position, and then look at           "Who are these with thee?"-and he had reference
what we do in situations less tense. Jacob's sins and      to the wives and children of Jacob-Jacob's words
weakness of faith and its works must not be mini-          go unanswered. Jacob replied to Esau, "The
mized or lauded; but we had better remember that           children which God hath graciously given thy ser-
God has these matters recorded for our instruction.        vant." Esau has no reply, because he cannot under-
And to ignore Jacob's weaknesses and sins as               stand such language.
recorded in God's Word is to ignore what God is              Jacob, on the other hand, in addition to posses-
saying to us on these pages of Holy Writ.                  sing the new man in Christ has his old man of sin,
  There is also, therefore, that element that must         and can therefore understand his brother. And his
be kept in mind, namely, that the tricky one now is        old man of sin knows how to handle the man of sin
about to meet the one whom he cheated out of the           of Esau as well. Let it be noted that the child of God
birthright blessing by his trickery. This is not           has an  old  man of sin, because in his rebirth he
simply a meeting between twin brothers who have            obtains another and a new man. The unbeliever has
not seen each other-and perhaps not even heard             only a man of sin, just one, and therefore it cannot
about each other-for twenty years. On the part of          be called an old man. But this does give the child
both of them there is an element of uncertainty as         of God an advantage which must not be abused. It
to what to expect. Esau comes with four hundred            pleases God to use men with a new life and an old
armed men not knowing how many Jacob has, not              life to preach the gospel to those yet in unbelief.
even knowing Jacob's purpose in coming back. He            And having that old flesh, knowing the very
may have surmised, because of past history, that           motions of sin in his own flesh, the preacher of
Jacob is coming now to claim the birthright blessing       today is able to understand the ways of the unbe-
and take all of his father's possessions, perhaps          liever and his needs.
even by force. Esau's band of men seems to suggest           Jacob is to be commended for his language of
that. Jacob does not know how wealthy Esau is,             faith here when he confesses God in His grace as
and how much resentment he still holds. Neither            the answer to the question as to who these wives
one is expecting a joyful family reunion.                  and children are. God graciously gives them to us-
  One truth needs to be kept in mind, and that is          our wives as well as our children, and our children
that a believer is coming to meet an unbeliever.           through our wives. No room for boasting is there;
One whom God loves is meeting one whom God                 nor for that matter is there room for complaint and
hates. And no amount of philosophizing will                resentment when God gives another child. That is
change Romans 9:13 that, "Jacob have I loved, and          not the language of faith or the speech of the new
Esau have I hated." That word hate is hate and not         man in Christ. Jacob does approach Esau as a be-
"love less." Never, and I say  never,  in Scripture        liever is called to witness before the unbeliever. He
does that word have the meaning of containing a bit        does manifest his faith here; and in this we ought to
of love. It is the same word that we find in I John        rejoice.
3:15, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life               But there is much of Jacob's old man of sin here
abiding in him." And murderers do not kill because         as well. And for that we ought to weep, and from it
they love less. They kill because they hate.               we ought to learn the lesson which Paul teaches us
                                                           in Romans 7, that when we would do good, evil is
  Now two believers walking in their faith would           present. This explains-although it does not ex-
on meeting only create an atmosphere of "How               cuse-the works of Jacob that did not proceed from
pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in          faith. They did embrace, kiss each other and weep,
unity" (Psalm  133:l). How delightful this meeting         because those natural, blood ties were still there.
would have been, if both Jacob and Esau had met as         Not only were they brothers according to the flesh,
fellow believers after a separation of twenty years,       but they were twin brothers. Not only did they live
even if the separation was caused by the sin of one        together in one family from birth, but before they
of them. In forgiveness, in meeting in the shadow          were born they were together as womb mates,
of the cross of Christ, in confession of past evil, and    Jacob even having his little chubby hand around
in mutual rejoicing in God's pardoning grace and           Esau's heel when he was born.
mercy, we could say of it, as the Psalmist continues
to do, "There the Lord commands His blessing."               It may be argued that it was the oriental custom
That we do not have now; and such a meeting is not         of the day for men to bow, and call each other lord.
to be expected, for these are not men with the same        That kissing and weeping also may be attributed to
spiritual life bestowed upon them. No, Esau does           the emotional character of certain peoples of that
not understand Jacob, and cannot be expected to            day. But what is true of the world and its man of
understand him. When, therefore, Jacob speaks              sin, need not be and often should not be what the
those words of faith in answer to Esau's question,         child of God with his new man in Christ ought to


  428                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  have attributed to him. And that Jacob wanted to             gift, even after he said that he had enough. This fail-
  give his brother a gift need not be an evil deed and         ure of Jacob to say one word of being sorry for his
  one that is lacking in faith. Faith will cause the           sin  colours the work of his hands when he gives
  believer to give to the poor unbeliever. Is not that         such an overwhelming gift and insists on Esau re-
  the point of Jesus' parable about the Merciful               ceiving it even after he has stated that he has
  Samaritan? He did not ask whether that wounded               enough. Here, too, it may be stated by some that
  man was believer or unbeliever. He asked himself             this refusing was the custom of the day and the
  the question, "Whose neighbour am I?" The                    oriental way of politeness. But that addition of Esau
  wicked Jews asked Jesus who their neighbour was.             that he has enough explains his refusal to accept as
  Jesus in the parable taught them and us that this is         being other than the fact that it was the way of the
  not the question, but that we should always ask,             day not to appear too anxious and eager to get a gift.
  "Whose neighbour am I?" The question concerns                Jacob is trying to buy his way into the good graces
  those whom God has caused to cross our path in               of Esau  by. his gift instead of confessing his sin
  order that we might help, show mercy, assist with            before him.
  spiritual as well as material gifts. We cannot fault           How true that even "the holiest men, while in
  Jacob for giving his brother a gift, if indeed it was        this life, have only a small beginning of this obedi-
  intended to show his love for his brother. And let it        ence," as the Heidelberg Catechism so correctly
  even be stated that Jacob did not know at that               states it. We have only a beginning, and with Paul
  moment what Esau revealed later, "I have enough,             must say that we have not yet attained (Philippians
  my brother., keep that thou hast unto thyself." If           3:12) and are not already perfect. And even that
  his conscience bothers him now about what did not            beginning is a small beginning; and we have far to
  touch him twenty years before, namely, that he by            go and stand in need of much until the day of our
  trickery had gotten his blind father to bless him            death, when God graciously takes from us  that.
  while thinking it was Esau, let him now make                 whole old man of sin.
  amends and bestow upon his brother a goodly gift.
  Let him repay what he took away. Let him make                  And let it be pointed out that Esau is more
c amends and plead for-forgiveness.                            honourable here than Jacob. Jacob, instead of all          _
                                                               that bowing from a distance, should have run up to
    You do not find that  ,plea for forgiveness here.          Esau with a confession on his lips. Instead it is Esau
  Jacob wants reconciliation-even before he knows              who runs up to Jacob and embraces and kisses him.
  that Esau comes with four. hundred men-and                   Esau showed a far more forgiving nature than Jacob
  being sent back by God, he knows that he must live           showed a penitent one. Had Jacob run up with a
  near Esau, but in vain do you find a suggestion of           confession, Esau would have understood that great
  such confession on Jacob's part.                             gift of Jacob. Now he is puzzled and must ask what
    It is true that he had a right to all the goods which      it means.
  he had. It is also true that he had a right to the birth-      The question does arise, "Did Jacob really learn
  right blessing, not in himself, but because God gave         his lesson that he must wrestle with God in prayer
  it to him through his blind father. But all this does        and not with men in the arm of flesh or with trick-
  not excuse him from his calling to confess before            ery?" The answer is that he did. But we must not
  Esau his works of deceit. The meek shall inherit the         expect Jacob to be perfect. How wonderful it would
  earth. All things are ours for Christ's sake. But this       be if, having learned a lesson in the preaching of
  does not mean that we may deceive, steal, cheat,             the gospel, we would walk always in that way and
  and take by force from the neighbour, and having             never go back to our former sins. But the flesh is
  done so to take the position that we owe them no             there and asserts itself. And this underscores not
  apology, no confession, and we need not have                 only that we have great need to wrestle with God in
  sorrow in our souls for sin.                                 prayer for the grace that will keep us in the narrow
    This lack of one word of confession on Jacob's             way, but also that we are saved by grace. In
  part means that Jacob's old man is at work in this           heavenly glory we will look back on this life and
  gift, in the bowing seven times before he comes to           realize that we do not deserve to be there, and that
  Esau, and his act of calling him lord. In that light         we are in this glory only by God's grace.
  also must be seen his insistence that Esau keep that

                                  Know the standard and follow it.
                                  Read The Standard Bearer


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  429



SIGNS OF THE TIME


                         Environmental Pollution
                                                  Rev. K. Koole


  Over the last few years man has become                   among their people because of contaminated fish.
increasingly alarmed about pollution. In our day           The Great Lakes themselves are continual objects
and age, when man talks about-pollution he is not          of deep concern because of pollution from the large
talking about the pollution of his soul; he is talking     industrial cities on their shores. So the list goes on
about the pollution of his soil and of his air and         and on-smog, pesticides, oil tanker sinkings, etc.
water. Man's alarm is understandable. When you             Newsweek Magazine, Oct. 29, 1979 carried this
talk about the earth and threats to its environment        ominous news:
you are talking about man's very existence. Man                    In a field near Louisville, KY.,  a rusty jumble of 17,000
lives not only on the earth, but out of the earth.                 metal drums is leaking a witch's brew of unidentified
God made man a creature whose very physical                        chemicals into a tributary of the Ohio River. In Harde-
existence is dependent upon the means only planet                  man County, Tenn., at least a dozen dangerous pesti-
earth can provide. Earth's clean air, fresh water,                 cides oozed out of a dump site into the local water sup-
and nourishing food are vital. Foul air, contamina-                ply. In Denver, cancer-causing radon waste from
ted water, and poisoned food spell disaster. Every                 long-abandoned radium mines is seeping into build-
other planet in the vast universe is alien to man.                 ings and under city streets. And in Elizabeth, N.J.,
What happens when the earth itself becomes alien                   40,000 barrels of toxic, flammable and explosive
to man, so that even it poisons man? Then death is                 wastes are piled precariously close to giant propane
multiplied upon death. It does not take a scientist to             and natural-gas storage tanks a quarter mile away.
tell us this; common sense is sufficient. The human                  How to dispose of dangerous chemical wastes is fast
race, however, is not particularly renowned for the                becoming the nation's No. 1 environmental problem.
last mentioned quality. So mankind continues to            Every major, national magazine regularly carries
abuse earth in an astounding manner and to lay it          similar articles. The magazine "U.S. News & World
waste at an alarming rate.                                 Report" recently' has published a book entitled
  The evidence of man's negligence, waste, and             "Our Poisoned Planet: Can We Save It?" Man
abuse of this creation is everywhere. Man himself          recognizes that things are reaching a critical point
can no longer ignore it. Over the last decade, and         in the environment. There is an undercurrent of
the last few years especially, the threat of man to        fear among us. Who wants to die the slow, painful
his environment has been vividly shown. Incidents          death of poisoning?
have occurred which threaten the environment                 Now, when man writes books about saving  this
with such widespread damage that prophets of               poisoned planet, he is, of course, considering
doom have arisen in man's own midst-prophets               salvation in a wholly earthly sense. He is talking
whose concern is purely earthly and man centered,          about salvation through the means of water and
but who see that the greatest threat to man is man         soap, rather than about salvation by blood and the
himself. He is always the cause of his own misery.         Spirit. Unbelieving man is no more interested in the
  We do not have to search very far to find causes         true world-saving power of Christ's blood than he
of man's alarm. There has been the "Three Mile             is in the soul's pollution. Those who do talk about
Island" incident with its lingering threat of nuclear,     Christ's blood in connection with the poisoned en-
radio-active pollution. If such an accident can occur      vironment do so out of a desire to enlist its power to
in one nuclear energy plant, what is to prevent it         realize their dreams of an enduring kingdom on this
from happening to others? There has been the               earth. What unbelieving man desires is a living
rampaging oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, its oil          earth that is self-perpetuating, and which can,
gushing out into the open sea for over half a year,        therefore, nurture and support mankind indefinite-
fouling the coast up into Texas. There has been the        ly. The only poison in this planet that man is con-
poisoning of a large part of the Bay of San                cerned about is the chemical kind. From the chemi-
Francisco, killing much of its life. The Japanese          cal concoctions that man himself has brewed up,
have had to contend "with mercury poisoning                man wants to save himself. Man wants to reverse


4 3 0                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



the accelerating progress of death in and to this          multiplied upon death. Creation's deterioration is
creation. It is a vain hope. Man's vision of paradise      hastened, and man works his own misery and
regained under man's benevolent and wise                   death. In a cursed creation in which the earth is es-
direction and patient care is not to be. And the           tranged from man and opposed to him, such a
reason man is not going to succeed in cleaning up          situation is inevitable. Man is never going to
this polluted environment with water and soap (be          reverse the realization of the curse.        '
it with or without phosphates) is because of a               The other obstacle to a paradise regained, or to a
deeper, more fundamental pollution, the pollution          saving of our planet's environment, is man's own
man does not reckon with, the pollution of man's           greed. The environmentalists hope to escape the
own soul. The two are inseparably related. The filth       consequences of the curse thru education, which
of man's soul reflects itself in creation. You might       means alerting man to his danger and pleading with
say that the filth of man's soul rubs off on the earth.    him to use wisdom in caring for his environment.
Man leaves his mark behind. As long as polluted            They hope that technology will enable man to pro-
man walks on the earth, pollution of creation will         duce and to consume without polluting in the
continue to increase.                                      future. They plead with man to be content to do
   Polluted man has two formidable obstacles               without things until that day comes so that man-
standing between himself and his visions of a              kind is not poisoned before the man-made paradise
paradise regained, namely, the curse, and his own          can dawn tomorrow. But how futile! Give greedy
insatiable greed. The curse strikes a breach               man the choice between living at a high level today
between creation and man. The curse means that             and endangering life tomorrow, or making sacri-
essentially man is an alien in what was once his           fices today in order to protect the world of the
homeland. Now the creation itself opposes man. It          future, and what do you think the choice of greedy
is true that man has been able to eke a living out of      man is going to be? Why should the world be well
the earth, and has  .`n some instances even pros-          off tomorrow at my expense today? Let tomorrow's
pered; but for that iiving, man has had to -pay a          generation take care of itself. Let us take care of
price. From the time of Adam that price has been,          ourselves today. Such is their attitude. The environ-
in part, the sweat of the brow, unceasing labor, and       mentalists who want to regulate greedy man's mad
weariness. The earth  will> not support man except         rush to fill his carnal appetite must feel a bit like the
she be forced to do so. When man was pure, the             steward of the King of Israel who stood at the gates
earth yielded to him as her Lord-given lord, bounti-       of  Samaria  during the time of Elisha and tried to
fully and spontaneously. Now the only thing the            regulate the starving Israelites as they poured
earth will yield to man voluntarily in abundance is        through the city gates to get down to the empty
weeds. Instead of the fruit tree comes the thorn;          camp of the Assyrians. The heedless mob simply
instead of the vineyard comes the brier patch;             trampled the foolish fellow under foot and he died.
instead of wheat comes the thistle. Creation does          So the environmentalists are involved in a losing
not recognize man as her king any more; he is a            battle. They can not scrub man's soul clean, and
usurper. And she yields to man in subjection only          being unable to remove the true source of all poison
after man by tyrannical strength overpowers her            in creation they can never succeed in saving cre-
and strips from her her increase. The earth is more        ation in any sense.
hospitable to the hordes of insects than to man.
And the insects together with the weeds compete              Pessimistic, you say? No, realistic-as realistic as
with man for his harvest. So man can not relax his         Scripture. In Revelation you read of the develop-
vigilance if he is to prevent the weeds and bugs           ment of the manifestation of the curse in this old
from getting the upper hand; If the land is going to       creation, from the seals in chapter 6, to the trum-
support `society's ever growing population, man            pets in chapter 8, to the emptying of the vials in
must use every available means. High production            chapter 16. One reads there of creation becoming
depends on applying highly potent chemicals.               increasingly inhospitable to man, working death in
Nothing else is adequate for our society, at least not     increasing measure. These chapters speak of the
as judged by standards of profit and production. In        signs of the intensification of God's wrath as time
a society in which the ratio of consumer to food           nears its end, of signs of judgment that appear in
producer is over 50  - 1 it is not feasible to depend      creation. And God exactly works His wrath
on man power; machinery is needed. And for                 through the foolishness of greedy men, so that they
machinery you need industry, and for industry you          bring wrath upon themselves in all its forms. As we
need fuel for energy, and with fuel comes pollu-           see creation becoming more polluted and poisoned
tion. Forests are laid waste, hills are leveled, and       and ever more instrumental in working suffering
 man drills beneath the depths of the sea. Fuel is         and death, we know that the end must soon come.
 spilled, and fuel is burned. The waters turn black        The creation groans to be delivered. To us that
 and red, the air becomes brown. Death is                  groan speaks of hope and-of Christ's coming. Man


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                431



imagines that he might die at his own hands                                the signs and workings of judgment, workings by
through self-inflicted environmental poisoning.                            which we also are affected. But do we despair? No,
And humanly speaking, if man continues polluting                           we-place our faith and trust in the one Savior, Who,
as he is at the present rate, this could happen. But                       having redeemed the world with His precious
that is not to happen, for God will not allow the                          blood, is now coming to cleanse it from its filth
human race to die off of itself. Before that point is                      with a refiner's fire. We do not despair, for our
reached Christ will come in judgment and salva-                            hearts are not fixed on the things here below, but
tion. And it does not seem as though that time can                         on the things that shall be, the new heavens and the
be far off.                                                                new earth, which shall be free from all pollution,
   Today, everywhere we look, we see the evidence                          and in which we too shall be pure, not only in prin-
of man's greed and of the curse. In creation we see                        ciple, but in our entirety.


                                                      Book Review

ON YOUR WAY REJOICING,  by Louis M.                                        Bible. Each brief, meditation is concluded with a
Tamminga; Paideia Press,  1979; $4.95 (paper),                             brief prayer. The readings are not very exegetically
$6.95 (hard cover). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                           based, do not emphasize sharply the Scriptural doc-
                                                                           trines of sovereign grace, and are not the kind of
   Paideia Press has given a sampling in this book of                      meditative readings which have appeal to this re-
what are, for the most part readings, similar to the                       viewer. But those who once enjoyed the Daily
old and familiar Daily Manna Readings which were                           Manna readings might also enjoy this book. It
once found in so many homes. Each page gives a                             should be read, however, with care and should
daily reading founded on a particular passage in the                       never be a substitute for personal Bible study.


                              IN MEMORIAM                                                                  NOTICE!!!
   It was the good pleasure of our heavenly Father to take unto               Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in
Himself our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and brother,             Pella, Iowa, on Wednesday, September 3, 1980, the Lord willing.
GEORGE  POSTMA,  at the age of 72 years, that he might join the               Material for the Agenda must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk
saints who now stand before the King robed in the glorious white           thirty days before Classis convenes. Delegates in need of transporta-
robes of salvation, on the twentieth of May, nineteen hundred and          tion from the airport or lodging should inform the clerk of the Pella
eighty.                                                                    Consistory.
   "My flesh and heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart,                                            Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
and my portion forever." (Ps. 73:26).
His loving wife,
    Gertrude Postma (Haak)
His dear children,                                                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    Albert and Jenny Huizenga
    .Doede and Marge Postma                                                   The Faith, Hope and Love Society of the South Holland Protestant
    John and Betty Postma                                                  Reformed Church expresses sincere sympathy to several of its
    George Jr., and Faye Postma                                            members, Thressa Haak, Dora Haak, Jeanette Van Baren,  Pat Haak
           and his 14 grandchildren                                        and Marilyn De Jong in the passing of a brother-in-law and uncle, MR.
           and 4 great grandchildren                                       GEORGE POSTMA.
He is survived by four sisters and one brother in the Netherlands.            "And we know that all things work together for good to them that
   The Rev. D. Kuiper conducted the funeral service and he was put         love God." (Remans 8:28).
to rest in the Monument Cemetery in Lynden, Washington on May                                                      Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.
23, 1980.                                                                                                          Mrs. Richard Poortinga, Sec'y.



                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   The members of the Adult Bible Study Society of The Southeast              The Ladies Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed
Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, extend               Church wishes to express its heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Peter
heartfelt and sincere Christian sympathy to their fellow members, Mr.      Poortinga, Mrs. Ernest Medema, Mrs. Don Haak, Mrs. Peter
and Mrs. Donald Hauck, in the loss of his father, MR. ENOCH HAUCK.         Poortinga, Jr., and Mrs. Dewey Vander Noord in the recent loss of
                                                                           their sister-in-law and aunt, MRS. HELEN IPEMA.
   May our Covenant God comfort them with His Word and Spirit in
the assurance that "all things work together for good to them that            "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in
love God." (Remans 8:28).                                                  Him will I trust." (Psalm 91 :2).
                                        Rev. M. Schipper, Pres.                                                    Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.
                                        Mrs. S. Vander Wal, Vice Sec'y.                                            Mrs. Richard Poortinga, Sec'y.

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





                                                                                              -
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      432                                              THE STANDARD BEARER
:*
      REPORT OF CLASSIS EAST
                              May 14,198O                                 "Mav God continue to bless our churches and snur
                    Southeast Prot. Ref. Church                           us on to stand for the truth entrusted to us, and
                                                                          zealously strive to grow in sanctification to His
         Classis East met in regular session on May 14,
      1980 at Southeast Church. With the exception of                     glory."
      Kalamazoo, the churches were each represented by                      The Stated Clerk brought two proposals which
      two delegates. Rev. R. Hanko had his initiation as                  were adopted by the  Classis:  1) that the rule of
      chairman.                                                           classis that material be in the hands of the Stated
                                                                          Clerk ten days prior to the convening of the meet-
         Hope      and Holland requested classical
      appointments. The following schedules were ap-                      ing be, changed to read that material must be in the
                                                                          hands of the Stated Clerk at least three weeks prior
      proved: HOPE: June 1  - Bruinsma, June 15 (eve)  -                  to the meeting. 2) that the classical archives be
      Haak, June 22 (eve)  - Haak, June 29 (both)  -  Joos-               microfilmed at an approximate cost of $1500.00.
      tens, July 13 (eve)  - Bruinsma, July 20 (eve)  -
       Bruinsma, August 3 (both)  - Haak, August 17                         It was noted that this would be the last time that
      (both)  - Van  Baren, August 31 (both)  - Joostens;                 Rev. Heys would serve in official capacity as a
      HOLLAND: June 8  -  DeVries, June 22  - R. Hanko,                   delegate to  classis. The chairman expressed thanks
      July 6 - Van Baren, July 20 - DeVries, August 3 - R.                to Rev. Heys for the years of service which he has
      Hanko, August 17  - Bruinsma, August  31- De                        given both to the classis and to the churches.
      Vries, September 14 - Haak.                                           Classis wil1 meet next at First Church on Septem-
         The report of the church visitors was given. The                 ber 10, 1980.
      report began with the words, "It was extremely                                               Respectfully submitted,
      gratifying to find peace, harmony, and unity prevail                                         Jon Huisken
      in all of our churches," and ended with this prayer,                                         Stated Clerk
                               News From Our Churches
         Hope Church in Walker, Michigan extended a                         The new address of Rev. Robert C. Harbach is
      call to Rev. Gise Van Baren which he subsequently                   3409 Goodman Ave. S.W., Wyoming, Michigan
      declined. Their trio also included Professor Homer                  49509.
      Hoeksema and Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.                                 Our church in South Holland, Illinois has been
       Our Holland, Michigan congregation extended a                      charged with the oversight of the Mission work
      call to Rev. David Engelsma. Their trio also                        being conducted in Birmingham, Alabama, by Rev.
      included Professor Herman Hanko and Rev.                            Ronald Van Overloop. In line with that responsi-
      Woudenberg.                                                         bility, the South Holland Council sent their pastor,
         Redlands, California elected to call Rev. James                  Rev. Engelsma, and elder Vroom to Birmingham in
      Slopsema from a trio which included Rev. Marvin                     early May. Rev. Engelsma preached there on
      Kamps and Rev. Dale Kuiper. Rev. Van Baren had                      Sunday, May 11, and also preached along with Rev.
      declined a call from Redlands previous to their ex-                 Van  Overloop  at a two day Sovereign Grace
      tending a call to Rev. Slopsema. Rev. M.  Schipper                  Conference. The two evenings of meetings
      spent several weeks in  Redlands preaching there.                   consisted of a speech (sermon), a short break, and
      He concluded his work there on Sunday, June 1.                      another speech. Even though this format required a
      Professor Robert Decker plans to preach in                          good deal of sitting and listening on `the part of the
      Redlands for the six Sundays beginning June 15.                     audience (neither Rev.  Engelsrna`,lfor~.~Rev.  Van
                                                                          Overloop  are noted for their, brevity)  [Rev. Van
         Everett Buiter, Barry Gritters, and Ken Hanko             ,  Qverloqpreported  that the  meetings  were quite
      graduated from the pre-seminary department of.                                                                _-
                                                               - well received.
                                                               . . . _
      our Theological School on Friday,  ,May   231                                                                             K.G.V.


                                                                                                                          ;
                                                                                                                   -,  i=  .:  ,.I-


