          BEARER
f           A  REFORMEP  SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                       T



     . . .Sometimes it is easy for us to give abstract
     defenses of doctrines but very difficult to
     speak personally and spiritually about our
     faith in God. We must be able to tell  men'
     how wonderful and .blessed our ~God is. We
     must be .able'to tell ou,r neighbor,- who is not
     of our church, what wonderful things the
     Lord our God  .has done for us. We must be
     able to tell our neighbors in a personal way
     of the great blessedness of salvation in the
     Lord Jesus Christ, how great His forgiving
     mercy, how marvelous His love, how amaz-
     ing His grace.
     See -"The Calling of All Believers in the Work
                                 .of Evangelism" -page 175

\                                           Volume  LVII, No. 8, January 15, 1981


                                                                                                                                                                               -
170                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                              1
                                 C O N T E N T S
                                                                                                     Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
  Meditation-                                                                                            Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                         Editor-in-Chief:   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       The Faith of Amram and Jochebed. . . . . . . . . . . .170                         Department  Editors:   Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
  Editorial-                                                                             denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                         Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A.  Hays, Mr.
       The E.P.C. of Australia-                                                         Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                         Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
       Revisited (Conclusion). . . . ,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173            Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
                                                                                         BditoriaZ   Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
  Report From Singapore-                                                                                    4975  Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                           `Grandville, Michigan49418
       The Calling of All Believers in the                                               *Church   News   Editor:   Mr. Calvin Kaisbeek
                                                                                                                     1313  WilsonAve. S.W.
       Work of Evangelism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; . . .175                                          Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
  From Holy Writ-                                                                        Editorial   Policy:   Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                         articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
       The So-Called Postmillennial Proof-texts                                          Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to ap-
                                                                                         proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
       in Holy Writ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177     signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
                                                                                         munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
  Signs of the Times-                                                                    Reprint   Policy:   Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                         magazine by other publications, provided: a] that such reprinted articles are
       The Shame of a P.R. Minister. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179                   reproduced in full;  bJ that proper acknowledgement is made!  cl that a copy of the
                                                                                         periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our  editorral office.
  Bible Study Guide-                                                                     Business   Office:   The Standard Bearer
       Mark-The Gospel of Jehovah's Servant [ 1). . . . 182                                                 Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                                                                            P-0.  Rex 6064                             PH:  1616)   2432953
  Guest Article-                                                                                            Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
                                                                                         New Zealand  Business  Office: The Standard Bearer
       Be Ready With an Answer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184                                                      c/o OPC Bookshop
                                                                                                                             P.O. Box 2289
  The Day of Shadows:                                                                                                        Christchurch, New Zealand
                                                                                         Subscription   Policy:  
       Jacob's Faith Triumphs. . . . . . . . . . ; . . . . . . . . :. 186                                            Subscription price, $9.00 per year. Unless a definite request
                                                                                         for discontinuance is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
                                                                                         scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
  Translated Treasures-                                                                  billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please  notif the Business
                                                                                         Office as early as possible in order  .to avoid the inconvenience  or delayed  deli-
       A Pamphlet Concerning the                                                         very. Include your Zip Code.
       Reformation of the Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . . 188                  Advertising  PoZicy: The  Standard   Bearer  does not accept commercial advertising of
                                                                                        any  kind.  Annoucements  of church and school events, anniversaries, obituaries,
  Question Box-                                                                          and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to
                                                                                         the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadline for
       Those Who Fall Away.. . . . . :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19b                announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                         15th or the 1st respectively.
  News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192                     Bound   Volumes: The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                         cooies. of the current volume: such orders are  riled
                                                                                                                                                 P     as soon as  uossible after
                                                                                         cohpletion of a volume. A limited number of  past.volumes  may be obtained
                                                                                         through the Business Office.

MEDITATION.


                  .The Faith of Amram and Jochebed
                                                                           Rev. H.  Veldman

                          "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents,' because
                      they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid  of the king's commandment."
                                                                                                                                           H e b .   1123,


  Amram  and Jochebed, the parents of Moses,                                                Jochebed is that they hid Moses for three months!
both of the tribe of Levi-why are they mentioned                                            One might ask:, how can this be `considered an act
here in Hebrews 1 l? What a difference between all                                          of faith? Is this not the least that one might expect
these "heroes" of faith! What deeds of faith are                                            of them? Would we, for .example, compare this act
listed of Abraham! And notice what we read in the                                           of Moses' parents with what we read of Abraham
verses 33-34. But all that we read of  Amram  and                                           and of the three friends of Daniel?


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  171'
                                                                                                                        ~

   What a comforting scripture this is! Presuppose        always molest and harass and -persecute that
that only the heroics of Abraham and other similar        church of God, only because they are evil and the
heroics were mentioned here in Hebrews 11.                church is the church of God!
Wouldn't we become very discouraged? Must we,               Specifically, one more thing must be said at this
to show our faith, match the heroics of Abraham,          time. We now refer to  .Pharaoh's  devilish and  in-
quench the violence of fire (as did the three friends     hum,an  decree. Having subjected the people of God
of Daniel) and stop the mouths of lions (as did           to a hard and cruel bondage, Exodus  1:13-14, he
Daniel)? However,  Amram  and Jochebed are also           had failed in his purpose; Israel had continued to
l i s t e d   h e r e .                                   grow. Then the king had commanded the midwives
                ITS DARK BACKGROUND                       to kill the child immediately upon birth if it were a
   Egypt had become for the children of Israel an         son. Howevxr,  these midwives feared God and did
house of bondage. Israel had entered the land of          not heed the king's commandment. So, finally, the
Egypt as a guest, invited by the king. However,           king issues the inhuman decree to his  own.people
Israel's status had been changed from that of a           that they must throw every male child of the
guest to that of a slave. This history we know.           Hebrews into the River Nile. It is this which con-
                                                          stitutes specifically the background of the birth of
   How must we account for this change? On the            Moses. This decree of .the king could not have been
one hand, it was certainly an act of cruelty. To          in effect very long inasmuch as Moses' parents did
change the status of a defenseless people, invited as     not seem to have any difficulty when Aaron, three
a guest,  to-,that  of a slave, and then to attempt       years older than Moses, was born. And it does not
deliberately to destroy them, was a cruel act             seem to have been in effect long after the birth of
indeed. It is true that a new pharaoh had ascended        Moses. But it was in effect when  Amram  and
the throne of Egypt, a pharaoh who was an Egyp-           Jochebed were expecting Moses. How anxious they
tian, having succeeded the shepherd kings who             must have been as Moses' birth drew near!
were Hyksos, and who knew not Joseph and re-
garded him not. What Joseph, a Hebrew, had done                         ITS MANIFESTATION
for Egypt did not interest him in the least. Besides,       Apparently, from the viewpoint of reason, the
there was also the tremendous growth of the               hiding  pf the child was surely an act of folly. First
children of Israel. Israel might therefore threaten       of all, there is the commandment of the king, that
Egypt, later ally itself with forces and powers that      all the male children of Israel must be cast into the
would seek the overthrow of this mighty nation.           river. This is the third and most effective attempt of
   However, this does not constitute the fundamen-        Pharaoh to destroy the children of Israel. How
tal reason for this bondage. After all, Egypt had         foolish therefore is the attempt to save the child by
nothing to fear from Israel. Besides, the king could      hiding it three months! We read that Moses'
have requested or commanded Israel to leave               parents acted by faith. And faith is what we read in
Egypt. The cause for Israel's oppression was spiri-       Hebrews  ll;l, the substance of things hoped for
tual. It is true that Israel was not a warlike people.    `and the evidence of things unseen. What they did is
They were a shepherd people. But it is also true,         apparently contrary to all human reason. Their
and most emphatically, that they were a different         action of faith is surely not as great as the faith
people. Egypt was a heathen, idolatrous nation.           action of Abraham. They did not protest against the
Israel worshipped Jehovah. Israel, therefore,             king. They simply hid the child. Nevertheless, it is
remained alone, did not amalgamate with Egypt, re-        called an act of faith. But it surely appears to be the
tained its own peculiar identity. And Egypt, we can       height of folly. We may be sure that Pharaoh,
readily understand, hated that life of the people of      having issued his decree, would have  .his secret
Israel; Israel was a constant testimony against           agents, his gestapo, throughout the land of Goshen.
them. And, of course, Egypt and Pharaoh were              Besides, it must have been known that Amram  and
moved by the devil to destroy this people of God          Jochebed were expecting a. baby. They certainly
and  to. frustrate the coming of the birth of the         were placing their lives in danger by disobeying the
Christ. This is vividly held before us in Revelation      king. How foolish they apparently were because
121-5.                                                    they would never be able to hide him from Pharaoh
   Is it not always thus? Does not the same thing         and all his secret agents.
happen when Israel, enroute to Canaan, requests of          Secondly, it was apparently an act of folly be-
Edom permission to pass through its land and              cause of their own people. The impression we re-
Edom denies them this? Do the children of God             ceive of the people of Israel at this time is hardly
ever threaten the world? Are they not pilgrims and        attractive.  .In  .fact, it is actually repugnant. First,
strangers here below, desirous only of reaching the       there is their reaction to their servitude. They
City that has foundations? And yet the world will         simply submit. Then, they actually fought one


172                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



another. Did not Moses find. two Israelites fighting      child because they saw he was a  beautiful'baby.
each other? And. when finally Moses and Aaron            The definite decision to hide the child was reached
appear in their midst, after Moses' return. out of       -. when they saw he was such a beautiful baby. The
Midian, and Pharaoh increases their burdens              text surely means this.
because of Moses' resolve to deliver them, they             What does this mean? Indeed, the motive for
resent what Moses and Aaron had done and com-             hiding the child was not its beauty. This motive was
plain bitterly. All this simply adds to the folly of     faith. However, that which served as the occasion
Moses' parents  inhiding him three months. Pre-          to arouse this faith into action and strengthen it was
suppose that a neighbor who had his baby cast into       the beauty, of the child. We are always determined
the river would become jealous because  Amram            first by motives from within. But we are also
was attempting to frustrate the king!                    guided by circumstances and occasions from
   Thirdly, how could Moses' parents keep the            without. Moses' parents believed. But their faith, or
birth of their child a secret? On  the  one hand, the    believing, was weak. And now the Lord uses the
imminent birth of Moses must have been generally         beauty of the child to persuade these parents to
known. And, on the other hand, a growing child           hide that child. Let us understand this. Amram  and
would certainly make himself known.                      Jochebed did not save the boy because he was so
   How, then, did they reveal-their faith? Would not     beautiful. Parents certainly do not love a beautiful
any parent, from a purely natural-point of view, do       child more than a child not as beautiful. We do not
what Amram:and  Jochebed do here, that is, attempt       believe in mercy killings. However, this beauty of a
to save their child? First, Pharaoh had no jurisdic-     baby was surely a special sign from the Lord. This
tion over them. They  had'been  invited as guests,       beauty was so outstanding that it served to impress
were no part of the' %gyptian  nation. Secondly;         the parents that the Lord had reserved for this baby
what else could  Amram  and Jochebed do but              a special calling in life. God had given this child
disobey the king? The king had demanded of them          such a beauty that it was divinely marked. The
that they murder their son. Besides, the king's          parents saw that this child was a special child.
design was to destroy the children of Israel and         Hence, the beauty,of the child served to strengthen
frustrate the birth of the seed of the woman. Had        the faith of, these parents. Now they place their
not the Lord given Israel the promise  .of the           faith completely in the .Lord their God.
Messiah, and was it not clearly the design of               How comforting this is for us! Perhaps at times
Pharaoh to frustrate the fulfillment of this promise?    we have our moments of sorrow and grief and
How could the children of Israel obey the king's         despair; we are ready to cry out, what is the use?
direct violation of the Lord's own promise and com-      And then the Lord gives us a sign, shows us some-
mandment, kill the children of the covenant?             thing from His Word, and our faith is renewed and
Hence, living by faith, clinging to the promises of      we once more cling to the promises of,the Lord. Be-
Jehovah, the believing people- of God could not          sides, God also watches over the weak as well as
obey the king's command. Thirdly,  Amram  and,           the strong. 0; this faith may not compare with that
Jochebed did  .what they did by  faith.:  It was not     of Abraham and Daniel and Daniel's three friends.
merely parental love. Of course, this parental love,     But if we read.only of Abraham's faith in the Bible,
also here, must have been. very strong. However,         we might conclude that, for such a little one as I
they were moved -by faith. Indeed, parental love         am, there is hardly a' place in the church and
itself would not have been  sufficie,nt for them to      covenant of the Lord. But the Lord also cares for
defy the king. How terrible were the conditions          His little sheep and lambs, also for you and me, and
under which Moses was born! Would not parental           in due time- also our little faith will come to mani-
love rather cast the babe. now into the river than       festation as the fruit of His grace and it will speak of
have it killed some weeks or months later?               the glory and power of His grace.
However, what parental love could not do, faith                                                                 -
could do and did. They hid the child, b,ecause they
feared not the commandment of the king., That
commandment did not dictate their action. They                The Standard Bearer
believed, and faith also here' is the evidence of
things unseen and the `substance of things hoped
for.                                                        makes a thoughtful gift
            ITS ENCOURAGEMENT'.                                      for a shut-in.
                                                                               I
  Moses, we read, was a proper child. Literally we
read that he was very fair and beautiful. Stephen
also mentions this in Acts 7. Moses' parents hid the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 173



EDITORIAL


               The E.P.C.  of Australia-Revisited
                                         (Co'nclusion).
                                              Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


  On the last weekend of our stay in Australia we         various grains of drought-resistant varieties. But in
enjoyed what was probably the most different of           the Hurse's case it has been ten years since they
our experiences there. For example, who would             have received even that average four inches! When
expect to find on a 2,000-acre  ranch in the interior     we visited, there were crops of oats and wheat
of Australia, in sparsely populated country, where        coming up; Mr. Hurse told us that if they received
the postal service is only twice weekly, where it is      just one more inch of rain, there would be a crop.
possible for days on end to see no one but members        Later we heard that the one more inch never came;
of your own family-who would expect to find               there was nothing to do but allow the cattle to eat
there, thousands of miles from home, a Reformed           what was left of the drought-stricken crop which
Book Shop which features Protestant Reformed              never grew. You can'understand, then, that water
literature? Yet such was our experience.                  is a very precious  com.modity in a place like that.
  Let me explain.                                         And, in a most direct sense of the word, children of
                                                          God in such a situation learn to live directly from
  Already before we left Grand Rapids, Pastor             the hand of their heavenly Father.
Coleborn had promised to show us something of
the Australian Midwest and to take us to a place            But why would there be a Reformed literature
called Chinchilla, some 200 miles or so from Bris-        center in such a place?
bane. So, early on the last Saturday of our stay we         That stands connected with another aspect of the
started out. We had rented a larger car for the trip,     Hurse ranch. On their property is a large. area of
so that the Coleborns and we could travel together.       petrified wood. To obtain specimens of, this petri-
Our destination, Chinchilla, was on the western           fied wood, as well as of  .various semi-precious
side of the coastal mountain range; and as soon as        stones in the same area, people come from all over
one crosses this moderately high range, he finds          the world. One of the special attractions is the fact
himself in  a- different kind of countryside. This is     that one kind of petrified wood is found only here,
the "midwest" of Queensland. It is rich farm              on the Hurse ranch, and at one other location in .
land-that is, wherever there is an adequate water         South America. So when visitors come to dig for
supply. But where the latter is lacking, it is country    petrified wood on the Hurse property, they are not
which begins to remind one of the waste and arrid         only introduced to  .the various kinds of wood and
"outback" of the Australian interior. The land is         stone available, but also to Reformed literature.~
extremely flat. One can see for miles and miles. The        Well, it was here that we spent a very interesting
sky was an unbroken blue. And in July, when we            weekend. For at the Hurse ranch is also a "preach-
were there, the days were comfortably mild-shirt-         ing station" of the Evangelical Presbyterian
sleeve weather-while the nights were still cold           Church. There are two families committed to the
and frosty.                                               Reformed faith here: Mr. and Mrs. Hurse and Mr.
  We were headed for the ranch (Australians call          and Mrs. Kenneth Bell and their young son. For
them "stations") of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hurse,            these two families, plus the Coleborns, plus. my
who live several miles from the village of Chinchil-      wife and daughter, I preached the Word on that
la. To give you some idea of the kind of country this     Sunday. It reminded me of the times when I had
is, let me explain that at the Hurse's ranch there is     preached for an even smaller congregation in Pella
no possibility of irrigation either from a river or       several years ago. But we had a blessed Lord's Day.
from wells. The latter [irrigation from  .wells)- is      There was a real interest in and receptivity for the
impossible because the ground-water is- brackish.         Reformed faith. Again I had the opportunity to tell
They are completely dependent, therefore, on              about our Protestant Reformed Churches and their
rainfall. The average `rainfall is four inches per        history. And all day long we exercised the com-
growing season. This would be sufficient to raise         munion of saints.


174                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  Early on Monday morning we left the Hurse               missed the contact which this magazine provided;
ranch to go back to Brisbane. We were scheduled to        and from our point of view this would be a valuable
leave Brisbane shortly after noon to fly to  Singa-       means of strengthening ties. But I believe-and in
pore, at which we would arrive some ten hours             our own churches we  know`.this  by experience in
later. That noon at the Brisbane airport Pastor Cole-     connection with the  Standard  Bearer-that your
born assured me that he had not quite exhausted           own churches would profit and be strengthened
the list of subjects about which we wished to talk        through this means. You are small and widely
during our visit,`but  would save the remainder for       scattered in vast Australia. Especially the churches
our next visit! I could not quite believe him: for we     in Queensland are separated from those in  Tasma-
talked all the way to Chinchilla and all the way          nia. The reintroduction of your little magazine
back to-Brisbane, even to the extent that I took the      could serve as an excellent means of keeping in
wheel so that Pastor  Coleborn could concentrate          contact with one another and strengthening the ties
wholly on the discussion!                                 in your denomination. 2) I believe a second area in
                                                          which the E.P.C. should work. is that of providing
                                                          future ministers and providing them with a
  This marks the end of our account of last               thorough theological education. No communion of
summer's visit among our'friends in the Evangeli-         churches can long lead a distinctive existence with-
cal Presbyterian Churches of Australia. Permit me         out this. 3) I would urge, thirdly, that the E.P.C. not
a few general observations and conclusions.               only work harder at keeping in contact with us of
  In the first place, we found ourselves thoroughly       the Protestant Reformed Churches, but also that
at home among the people of the E.P.C. and in their       they explore the question of ways and means of
churches on the three Lord's days which we spent          strengthening the ties between our two denomina-
among them.. They are Reformed. They love to              tions, as well as making our ecclesiastical contact a
speak about the'things of our Reformed faith. And         practicaZ  reality in spite of the vast expanses of
they want to live and practice their Reformed faith.      ocean between us. Although I am not a member of
In the second place, I believe that I could detect        our denomination's Contact Committee, I know
growth and development and progress among                 that the committee feels this way and that they
them. This is, of course, not always so easy, to          have often wished to hear from you more frequent-
assess. But I believe that their congregations, in so     lY*
far as I could observe, are more stable than five                Finally, I would like to make a general suggestion
years ago. Further, they have grown in their under-       which both of our denominations could explore.
standing of us and of our position, and attitude. I       There simply is no substitute for face-to-face and
believe our contact and'our literature has contribu-      person-to-person contact when it comes to  ecclesi-
ted to this. There was a time when at least some of       astical fellowship. I believe it would be very bene-
the E.P.C. were fearful that it was our purpose to        ficial to have a conference of representatives of our
overwhelm them and swallow them up. I believe             denomination and the brethren of the E.P.C. When
this has lessened considerably. There was a time,         I was in Australia and some of us discussed this
too, when the E.P.C. feared that our position was         idea, it was suggested that such a conference, if
that of "automatic grace" or presupposed regenera-        held, should be in Australia, so that all the men of
tion. This fear, too, has lessened. There has also        the E.P.C. could share in it. Such a conference, of
come about a significant understanding and                course, should be well planned in advance. It
appreciation of the truth of the covenant of grace.       should be designed to provide for discussion of
This has become practically manifest in an increas-       both similarities and differences. It should  .be
ing interest in providing Christian education for         mainly theological in. nature, and there should be
their covenant children. All of these things are rea-     definite assignments of subjects and introduction of
sons for rejoicing and gratitude.                         these subjects by men of both denominations,  fol-
  In the third place, if I may make a few positive        lowed by full opportunity for discussion. This, I
suggestions to the brethren and sisters of the            believe, could be productive. I suggest that the men
E.P.C., they would be the following: 1) Try, if at all    of the E.P.C. think  .about this, and also that this
possible, to revive the publication of your quarterly     possibility be considered in our own churches, par-
magazine in the near future. We in the U.S. have          titularly by our Contact Committee.                     1
                      Know the standard and follow it.
                      :, Read The Standard Bearer..


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               175



REPORTFKOh&SINGAPORE

               The Calling of All Believers in the
                            s Work of Evange1is.m
                                               Rev. Arie den Hartog


  The work of evangelism is a very important part          the preaching of the Word. The preaching is the
of the calling and work of the church of Jesus             official proclamation of the gospel of the LoFd Jesus
Christ. It is not the only work of the church, as          Christ through His ordained ambassador. We as
some today would have it, nor even the most                Protestant Reformed Churches have always
important. It is nevertheless a very important             stressed the importance of preaching. In this we
work; so much so that no church that is not actively       have done well. The scriptures stress the impor-
involved in it is fulfilling the whole of her calling      tance of the preaching. Without the preaching there
and purpose. The work of evangelism is surely part         is no evangelism. The preaching is the primary
of the great commission which our Lord Jesus gave          means whereby the Lord will have the gospel pro-
to the New Testament church. This great commis-            claimed and through which He will gather His
sion stands for our church today. Our reference to         church. Never ought we in any way to minimize
evangelism shall be limited in this article especially     the importance and significance of the preaching.
to the work of proclaiming the good news of salva-
tion in Christ Jesus to those who -are outside of our        There  is. however, we believe, an area of the
own church. Evangelism in the broadest sense of            work of evangelism which has not always received
course refers to the proclamation of the gospel also       the proper emphasis in our midst. This is the whole
in and for the established church, for the building        area of the calling of all believers in the work of
up and preservation of the saints already gathered         evangelism. This is a very important part of the
into the church. The work of evangelism has been           work of evangelism. In fact it is very doubtful that
variously designated also as mission work, or              there will ever be `any successful evangelism when
church extension work. We prefer the term evange-          this aspect of the work is neglected. The involve-
lism. Those outside of our own church to whom we           ment of every believer in the work of evangelism
must preach the gospel are usually divided into two        goes much further than just the sending and sup-
classes. There are those who never before have             porting of a missionary. That is surely important.
heard the gospel. These' are found ,particularly  on       Furthermore it is important that we as members of
the foreign mission field, such as the field in which      the church pray constantly for our missionaries.
we have the blessed privilege to labor. Secondly,          But there is much more than this. The believer's
there are those who have before heard the gospel.          involvement in the work of evangelism must be
There are those who have apostatized from the true         such that he also gets involved in the actual procla-
faith and must be brought back. There are those            mation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. By
who are in apostatizing churches that must be              this we do not mean that every believer must
called out to join the true church of JesusChrist.         become a preacher or missionary in his own right.
                                                           Rather the calling  ,of the believer is that he must
  The work of evangelism is a glorious and won-            give a living and personal testimony of the gospel of
derful work. It is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ       the Lord Jesus Christ that he hears  in. the
Himself, a work which He alone accomplishes                preaching. The apostle Paul writes concerning this
through the sovereign working of His Word and              when he describes the outstanding faith and activi-
Spirit. It is through evangelism that the Lord Jesus       ty of the saints of Thessalonica. "For from you
is pleased to gather the church.of  His elect from all     sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Mace:
nations, tribes, and peoples. The Lord is pleased to       donia and Achaia, butalso in every place your faith
use His church for this glorious work. To accom-           to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not
plish this task the Lord has empowered His church          speak anything" (I Thessalonians  1:8). The  Thessa-
with His Word and Spirit. The Lord'has also given          lonians had heard the gospel as the elect of God.
to every believer in the church a place and calling        Through the mighty operation of the Spirit, the
in this work. On this we would like to concentrate.        Word of God had been effectual in their hearts, so
  Evangelism is accomplished centrally through             that they believed. They were filled with the truth


 1 7 6 '                                       THE  STANDARD BEARER



 of the  gospel.`They  rejoiced greatly in the blessed        deeply and richly. That surely means that we eager-
 and glorious gospel delivered unto them. They zea-           ly and earnestly attend the gatherings in our church
 lously published the truth of the gospel by giving a         where the Word of God is proclaimed and taught
 living testimony of the truth of the gospel to all with      and discussed. There is in some of our churches
 whom they came in contact. Therefore the Word of             very poor attendance at societies and Bible classes.
 God echoed and re-echoed throughout all of the               There are many who care not to come to these. This
 land, from one believer to another.                          is serious. It is a sign.of  apostacy.
   That we are to be personal witnesses of the gos-             Thirdly, a zealous love for the truth,of the gospel
 pel of the Lord Jesus Christ is possible because the         must be revealed in an intense desire to speak of
 Lord has anointed us with His Holy Spirit to the             that gospel. As the old proverb has it; what the
 office of all believers. Included in the fact that we        heart is full of, the mouth will speak of. That must
 are anointed to the office of all believers is the won-      be  the,case.  There is no such thing as a silent pro-
 derful fact that we are all made the prophets of the         phet; that is a contradiction in terms. As prophets
 Lord, who can and must give testimony with the               we must speak of the blessed and glorious truth of
 mouth concerning the truth of the gospel, and                the gospel that God has given to us in a living, per-
 priests who must consecrate their lives in holiness          sonal, and spiritual way. It is not enough to be able
 unto God and walk in all good works which the                to speak in an abstract way about doctrine. Surely it
 Lord has before ordained.                                    is important to maintain and defend the doctrines
   Now this has great significance for the believer's         of the scripture. But we must also be able to speak
 calling in evangelism. First of all, we have received        spiritually and experientially about what these dot-
 the truth of God. He has revealed His. truth to us           trines mean to us. Sometimes it is easy for us to give
 and has caused us to know it spiritually and believe         abstract defenses of doctrines but very difficult to
 it with `our heart. This in itself is a most glorious        speak personally and spiritually about our faith in
 and blessed thing. -This is the result of the grace of       God. We must be able to tell men how wonderful
 God and not at all due to our own wisdom. The                and blessed our God is. We must be able to tell our
 blessed and wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus               neighbor, who is not of our church, what wonder-
 Christ has been preached to us and it has come to            ful things the Lord our God has done for us. We
 us with the power of the Holy Spirit so that we have         must be able to tell our neighbors in a personal way
 believed. This is particularly glorious. and blessed         of the great blessedness  of'salvation  in the Lord
 because to us has been preached `the Reformed                Jesus Christ, how great His forgiving mercy, how
 Faith. This faith is the true faith of the scriptures. It    marvelous His love, how amazing His grace. We
 is therefore the most blessed and most glorious              must be able to admonish and exhort  and.encour-   -
 faith. It is the wonderful gospel of sovereign grace         age our neighbors with the Word of God and with
 which exalts and glorifies God alone. -Any other             our faith in God. That is what it means to give a
 faith than this is not only contrary to the truth of         living testimony of our faith. In this way we must
 the gospel; it is also impoverished, it is a miserable       be active in evangelism.
 gospel which really is no gospel at all.                       The testimony of the saints must be subservient
   In order to see our calling in the work of evange-         to official preaching of the gospel. We must give a
 lism we must first of all see the blessed and glorious       living testimony of the truth that we hear in the
 character of the gospel that has come to us. It is sad       preaching. .With that testimony we must encourage
 that so- many Reformed Christians have no real               others to come to the house of the Lord with us.
 sense of this. Therefore they are silent about the           How beautiful are the words of Isaiah  2:3,-  `,`And
 gospel they believe. Many who are Arminian put               many people shall go and say, Come ye, and,let us
 them to shame in the manner in which they publish            go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house
 the gospel;                                                  of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His
   Secondly, our involvement in evangelism must               ways, and we shall walk in His paths." When.we
 come out of a fervent and-zealous love for that gos-         hear the gospel preached to'us we must be so filled
 pel that has been delivered to us. It is this that must      with love and zeal for it that we tell others about it:
 compel us to speak. of it. Many of us are to be              If we as a church are going to carry out the work of
 blamed for our lack of zeal concerning the gospel            evangelism this is a necessary part. This is the part
which God in His wonderful grace has delivered to             of every believer. This is where I believe that the
 us. We are in danger of losing our first love. This is       young Christians in Singapore excel so greatly. And
 very serious. We,must remember from whence we                we can learn from them in this. It is simply amazing
 have fallen and repent lest the Lord remove His              how many visitors come to the worship services
 candlestick from our midst. The fervent and                  and the many  .other meetings we have in the
 zealous love for the gospel must be evident in our           G.L.T.S. How do .these visitors come? They do not
 earnest desire to know that gospel ever more                 come by newspaper advertisements or by radio an-


                                            THE STANDARD- BEARER                                                               177


                                                                   ,.
`nouncements. They come because the members of                 all of the elect will`be gathered and the Lord Jesus
the G.L.,T.S. say to relatives and friends and neigh-          Christ will return for the perfect salvation of His
bors and working colleagues and~school  classmates,            church. The Christian may not have a smug  atti-
come with us to the house of the Lord and hear the             tude concerning `his own church, having no
wonderful gospel of our God and our Savior Jesus               concern for those who are not yet brought into the
C h r i s t .                                                  church. He does not take the attitude that those
   This same kind of thing must be practiced at so-          : who are outside of the church are hopelessly lost
cieties and Bible studies. These can be `very  effec-  .*      and reprobate. It is his sincere desire by every
tive  means for doing evangelism. That is true, of             means to gain those of the saints of `God who are
course, only if we as members of the church are                still without the church.
first of all zealous and faithful in our participation            Thirdly,    w e   m u s t   b e   m o t i v a t e d   b y   t h e
at these gatherings. Then we can encourage others              compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ for lost
to join us to study the Word of God. With personal             sinners. The Christian is deeply conscious of the
encouragement outsiders can be brought into our'               awful judgment and condemnation that is upon the
midst and come into the place where they can hear              sinner. He knows that all, who do not repent will
the Word of God regularly and grow in the faith                perish everlastingly in hell. He knows how  dread-
and knowledge of salvation.                                    ful and awful  thisis. It is his earnest desire to call
   There are several motives that must drive us to             men everywhere to repentance and. faith in the
be faithful in our personal involvement in the work            Lord Jesus Christ. It is the desire of every true child
of evangelism. The first and primary motive must               of God that all of the Lord's own shall be brought
always be the glory of God. The great theme of the             out of the depths of their sin and misery to the
Reformed Faith is this: to God alone be the glory.             blessedness of salvation and life in the Lord Jesus
When the Word of God and the greatness and                     Christ. Therefore  the, heart of the true Christian
might of God, the righteousness, holiness, and                 burns with compassion also for those who are with-
                                                               out. He will therefore do, everything he can by his
truth of God, the wonderful salvation of God in
Christ Jesus, when all of this is published abroad by          personal testimony to exhort and admonish, to urge
the personal witness of the saints, God's name is              and encourage men everywhere unto.faith and re-
glorified. If we are truly Reformed Christians  .we            pentance and obedience in the name of our Lord
will seek to tell of the great glory of our God                Jesus Christ.
through our testimony before men.                                We have not yet said anything about the impor-
  -The second motive must be the desire for the                tance of the holy and godly life of the Christian in
gathering of the church of Jesus Christ. The true              the  work  Of  evange1ism*   Perhaps   On  another
Christian earnestly desires the salvation of all those         occasion we shall address this very important
ordained to eternal life. He longs for the time when           subject..

FROM HOLY  WRIT
                  ~.

                        The So-Called Postmillennial
                            Proof-texts in Holy Writ
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers



                        Chapter 2                              kingdom themselves, and them who were enter-
        : The Iqfallible Jcey Of Knowledge                     ing they hindered, by confusing them with their
  In Luke'11:52  Jesus speaks of the "key of know-             legalistic teaching which denied the glad-tidings.
ledge." He has a word of rebuke and reproof for the            Now, we must beware that we do not fall under
Bible teachers of His day, the "lawyers" who give              this rebuke from Christ in our own writing. It is a
instruction in the schools and in the synagogues.              fearful thing when Christ says to a writer, "Woe, I
These "have taken away" the key of knowledge, so               say unto you." We must be workmen who rightly
that they are become blind men who lead the blind.             divide the word of truth, workmen who are not put
They are very evil teachers; they do not enter the           r to shame before the Lord. We must find the "key of


1 7 8                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



knowledge" and follow sound hermeneutical                   teaching to them which He had given them while i
principles laid down by Christ Himself and by His           He was with them before His death and resurrec-
holy .apostles.                                             tion: all things must be fulfilled which were spoken
  It is a remarkable thing that Christ, after His           by Moses and the Prophets,. the entire Old Testa-
resurrection, gave His apostles such hermeneutical          ment Scriptures (Luke  24:44). Yes, "thus it is writ-
principles, and gave an infallible interpretation of        ten, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to
the Old Testament Scriptures. When He had not               rise from the dead the third day, and that  repen-
yet died and risen again He said that He had many          tance should be preached in His name among all
things to say to them, but that they could not re-          nations, beginning at Jerusalem." This was Jesus'
ceive them now (John 16: 12). Yet when the Spirit of        interpretation of the central thrust and fulfilment of
truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. But        all the Scriptures: Moses, Psalms, and all the
immediately after Christ's resurrection He taught           prophets.
them, "speaking of the things pertaining to the               Here we have the infallible "key of knowledge"
kingdom of God" (Acts  1:3b). We have the record            of which Jesus spoke to the lawyers of His day!
of this instruction in Luke  24:25-27  and in Luke            Here we may pause and note that this does not
24:44-4-g; it is the instruction in which we have           yet say anything concerning the doctrine of the last
given to us the "key" to understanding the Scrip-           things, although the text speaks of "all the nations"
tures of Moses and of all the prophets. The latter          hearing the preaching of the gospel of Christ. We
includes also the Messianic Psalms. And we ought            shall return to this matter of "all nations" later in
to notice that this instruction gives us  pure.princi-      another. connection. What we are interested in
ples of hermeneutics, the science of Biblical inter-        doing here is to show that here is a' certain
pretation. For the term "expounded" in the KJV is           "pattern" of teaching indicated. It is the same pat-
the translation of the Greek verb `,`di-ermee neuein":      tern which Paul signals in, II Timothy  2:8, where
to interpret, to make very clear  (dutch:  verdeudelij-     we read, "Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed
hen); it means to unfold the meaning of what is said,       of David was raised from the dead according to my
explain, expound. That is Christ's hermeneutics to          gospel."
His apostles. And thus He gives us, His church, the
"Key of knowledge," knowledge of the things of                Peter must have learned his lessons in Scripture
the kingdom of God.                                         interpretation well. We see this in that great ser-
                                                            mon-address which he spoke `at the feast of Pente-
  What is particularly striking in Jesus' interpreta-       cost in Jerusalem, as he shows from the Old Testa-
tion is that He interpreted the entire Old Testament        ment Scriptures Christ's death, resurrection (Psalm
Scriptures to His disciples, setting everything into        16:8; Acts  2:25), ascension (Psalm  16:10, Acts 2:27-
perspective, in such a clear and understandable             30). However, what Peter writes in his first epistle
way that the two travelers to  Emmaus exclaim               demonstrates beyond a. shadow of doubt the great
later, "were not our hearts burning withm us, while         perspective and hope of the grace which is to be
He talked with us by the way, and while He opened           ours in the "last time." In I Peter  1:3-12 we deal
to us the Scriptures?" (Luke  24:32). And what had          with a section which gives us eschatological per-
Jesus done in interpreting the Scriptures, opening          spectives of the "last time." And it ought to be clear
them? He had chided these'two sorrowful and be-             that in this perspective of the very last time, just
wildered and groping men that there was really no          before the return of Christ, no mention is made of
need of their deep perplexity, if only they believed        the great and  .wide influence which the church
"a2Z of the Scriptures." They must believe not              shall exert in the world, but that this last time is the
simply certain parts, but they must believe all of          very moment when we shall have the "revelation"
the Scriptures. They were such that they could not          of Jesus Christ (I Peter  1:8, 13). This "last time"
put all the teachings of Scripture in perspective, see      when the "salvation," the final glorious eternal
the unity of their message, as all is comprehended          salvation, of the eternal state shall be ushered in.
in the simple, brief, and clear statement: The              That is-now the hope that is "ready to be revealed
Christ, the Messiah, must suffer all these things           in the last day." It is. the living hope, the inheri-
and thus enter into His glory! That is the "pattern"        tance which is ours, and which is incorruptible,
of the Old Testament Scriptures (Luke  24:26). He           undefilable, and which does not fade away. It is the
spoke of the things concerning Himself  (fu  peri           state of eternal immortality. in Christ (I Peter 1:3, 4;
heaufou).  Yes, Jesus isthe great subject of the entire     I Cor.  1553-55). It is the inheritance which is ours
Old Testament Scriptures, that He through suffer-           in the ages to come after Christ's Parousia (Matt.
ing must enter into His glory. Furthermore, Jesus, a        24:3), that is, in the consummation  (sunteleias)   of
bit later in this resurrection day evening, also inter-     the ages (Matt.  28:20). This is not a time, a proper
preted the Scriptures to the apostles in the upper          time  (hairos)  she@ before the last and visible ap-
room at Jerusalem. He here sets in perspective His          pearance of Christ, but it is the finaZ return of Christ,


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  179



when He shall come `with the sound of the trumpet            use this "key," as given in the New Testament'
and with the voice of the archangel, when the re-            Scriptures, we will need to start comparing passa-
 deemed church shall be caught up in the air, and            ges in the Old Testament  ad infinitum,  and come
thus ever be with the Lord (I Thes. 4;16,17).                only to the Jewish interpretation of them: somehow
   When Peter speaks, in I Peter  l:lO-12, of all the        a kingdom of God  here on earth,  prior to Christ's
prophets of the Old Testament dispensation                   return from heaven upon clouds. Then that reign
 "searching out what time or manner of time the              shortly, before the return of Christ will need to  be'
 Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify;             fulfilled here up earth!
when it testified beforehand the sufferings to come           ~Dr. Lorrain Boettner writes on Page  14. of his
 upon Christ and the glory to follow," he is                 "The Millennium" as follows:
 employing the "Key of Knowledge" (Luke  11:53)                       We have defined  Postmillenialism as that view of
which the lawyers in their hermeneutical  Jewish-                   the last things which holds that the kingdom of God is
principles took away. -They deliberately kept the                   noti  being extended in the world through the preach-
truth of the gospel down in unrighteousness. Here                   ing of the Gospel and the saving work of the Holy
 Peter rightly divides the Scriptures, giving us an in-             Spirit in the hearts of individuals, that the world even-
 fallible pattern of sound doctrine, so that we may                 tually will  .be Christianized, and that  the.return  of
 enter into the kingdom of God, the Kingdom of                      Christ shall occur at the close of a long period of righ-
 heaven in hope, and presently in abiding possession                teousness and peace commonly called `the  "Millen-
 in the ages to come. Post-millenial writers of our                 mum"....
 day like to speak of an  Eschatology  of Victory,  as                `The Millennium to which the Postmillennialist
 does Marcellus Kik, but Peter gives us an eschatolo-               looks forward is thus a golden age of spiritual pros-
gy of victory which shall be ours in the revelation                 perity during this present dispensation, that is, during              '
 of Jesus Christ, that is, the "glory to follow" in the             the Church age, and is to be brought about through
                                                                    forces now active in this world. It is an indefinitely
 eternal state. That is victory, the victory when                   long period of time, perhaps much longer than a literal
death shall be swallowed up in victory (I Peter                     thousand years. The changed character of the indivi-
 1:12). This will, be the "glory after these things" (tas           duals will be reflected in an uplifted social, economic,
me ta tau tas doxas)  .                                             political, and cultural life of mankind. The world at
   We do safely when we follow this hermeneutics                    large shall then enjoy a state of righteousness such as
concerning the concept "last times" as far as the                  ,the  present time has seen only in relatively small
 "glory" is concerned of which the Old Testament                   :groups,  as for example in some family circles, some
                                                                   `Jocal church groups and kindred organizations.
prophecies are so replete. For the Old Testament.             i
 often speaks of the glory which shall be seen in the              ' This does not mean that there even will be a time  `
last days, when the whole earth shall be full of His               :on this earth when every person will be a Christian, or
glory (Numbers 14:21).                                              that all sin will be abolished. But it does mean that evil
                                                                   ;in all its forms will be reduced  `to'negligible.   propor-
   We shall need to show in succeeding chapters of                 ,tions,  that Christian principles Will be the rule, not the
this study that this Scriptural pattern concerning                 `exception, and that Christ will return to a truly Chris-
the doctrine of'the last times, as we have attempted                tianized world.
to elicit this from the various Scripture passages, is             Truly, we are called upon to study the represen-
the "key" to understanding prophecy, when it                 tative Scripture passages of Scripture which
speaks in many passages and by various prophets              Postmillennialists cite for this rather bizarre and
and in divers times (Heb.  1:l) of "all nations,"            fantastic presentation of the Kingdom of Christ on
 "kindreds of the nations," and "uttermost parts of          earth and we shall need to apply sane and Biblical
the earth," and  ."the last time," etc. If we do not         methods of exegesis, to say the least.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                           The Shame of a P.R. Minister                                                              -
                                                  Rev. R.  FZikkema


   Well, this is the last article that you will read         to Rev. Bruinsma and Rev. Koole. It is my prayer
written by the undersigned, at least for awhile., For        that you who took the time to read my articles
the next twelve articles in this rubic you must look         might have been edified by them. And further, it is


180                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



my prayer that you who take the time to read the            fest in our schools. How marvelous that is!" But
future articles written by my-colleagues might also         when I got to the article written by Mr. Don Doeze-
be edified by them. I am confident that you will be.        ma, my marveling was diminished somewhat.
   For a.subject for this last article from my pen' I       Some of the things that I read in that article I had to
was somewhat, at a loss. I really did not.know about        read  .over again. I said, to myself: "What in the
what I should write. That loss did not occur                world is going on? Are these, things really
because of a, scarcity of subjects. But, rather, that       happening in our high school? I am just a simple
loss occurred because of-an abundance of, subjects.         country pastor of a congregation which must of
As you `have probably noticed in-my past articles,          necessity send its children t.o a public high school;
"food for thought" for my articles have been                and things are not much worse in that public high
derived from magazines such as the Rea'cler's Digest        school!" And, too, so I thought to myself, "ignor-
or Time. In the past two issues of Time magazine I          ance is bliss," as the saying goes. Maybe it would
found an abundance of "food for thought." As I              have been better had Mr. Doezema not informed
read those two issues I thought to myself that an           me about some of the things that go on at our high
article could be written on religious persecution.          school. And not only that, but maybe it would have
There is a great deal of that going on these days in        been better if he had not informed all of the readers
the Soviet Union. Or, so I thought to myself, I could       of The Standard Bearer about some of the things that
write an article on a recent Supreme Court decision         go-on at our high school. Some of the readers of our
to ban the Ten -Commandments from public                    Standard Bearer are not Protestant Reformed. What
schools. -Or, so I thought to myself, I could write a       are they going to think about our high school? In
sequel to my article entitled "Who. Shot  J;R.?" In         fact, it is undoubtedly the case that some of the
the December 1 issue of  Time  the answer to that           readers of our Standard Bearer are deeply opposed
question is given. I said in my past article, .and I say    to our Protestant Reformed Churches. What are
it now in this one, I am not interested in the answer       they going to think? Having read that article,  sp I
to that question. But I and you with me should be           thought; they will just laugh to themselves and say
interested in a quote made by one of the actors of          to themselves "See? Things are not so rosy in the
the program about future episodes: "We've just              P.R. churches  after.all."
scratched the surface of evil. Just wait," I won't!           And when those thoughts arose in my mind, I
Or, so I thought to myself, I could write an article        was ashamed! And I am not ashamed to admit that
on the Pope's recent visit to Luther's Germany and          either. From a negative point of view I was not
his attempt to reunite the Romish Church and the            ashamed of-Mr. -Doezema's  article. Let me state that
Lutheran Church. Maybe Luther was not so wrong              very clearly. Without reservation and without
after all when he called the Pope the Antichrist. I         qualification I was not ashamed of his article. And
could write an, article on the poor state of  `the          let me state this also very clearly: Mr. Doezema
economy; blatant sexuality in the television                need not be ashamed of his article either. He, in my
commercials; the recent earthquake in Italy in              opinion, did nothing wrong in writing what he did.
which many thousands were killed and many more              In fact he did everything right in writing what he
were left homeless. And last but certainly not least,       did. I commend him for having the courage to tell
I could nicely write an article about the Bible             the readers of The Standard Bearer about some of the
-being accused today of sexism; `male chauvinism,           things that- go on at our high school. Ignorance is
and anti-women!                                             not bliss! Our readers must be informed as to what
  As you can see, much "food for thought" did I             happens in our high school. Yes, even those readers
have for this article. But this article.is not about any    who are deeply opposed to our cause as churches
of those "foods for thought." Rather, this article is       must be informed about the situation in our high
about another "food for thought" about which I              school. Especially they have to be informed when a
have not written anything yet.                              man is called upon to write about that school. After
  Allow me to explain. Usually, so I said, I find           all, a writer must speak the truth. And if that writer
"food for thought" in issues of the Reader's Digest         must write about a rose that has some withered
and Time magazine. Usually I do. But not this time.         petals, that writer may not write only about the
This time I found  "foqd  for thought" in our own           petals that are not withered, but he must also write
Standard Beaueu! As I look at the calendar I discover       about the withered petals. To do anything else, on
that it is December 9. I received my December 1             the part of that writer, is false and deceitful. Yes,
issue of The Standard Bearer yesterday. Last night I        therefore, it was perfectly right and proper for Mr.
read the issue in one sitting. As I read that issue I       Doezema to write what he did before the eyes of
thought to myself: "What a marvelous, marvelous             each and. every reader of The Standard Bearer! But I
issue this is! This issue is all about our schools! This    must say more about that a little later in this article.
issue is all about God's covenant faithfulness mani-          But from a positive point of view my shame


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     181

                                                                          . .
arose exactly because of the things that go on at our      young people, our parents,, our office bearers, our
own high school. Of that I was ashamed! And my             ministers-must fall down together before the foot
ashamedness at that led to concern-concern at the               of-the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and say,  `I.0
inroads that the devil and all his hosts are making             God, be merciful to me the sinner." That must be
in the sanctified, godly walk of life of some of our            done.
young people!~That is a sign of the times! Make no                Why? The reason lies exactly in a question that
mistake. We as Protestant Reformed Churches are                 our Lord Jesus spoke many years ago. That ques-
the purest manifestation of the body of Christ in the      tion is found in Luke 18:8, "Nevertheless, when the
midst of. this world. We believe that, and we may               Son of man  cometh, shall He find faith on the
never forget that. But it is simply a fact that in the          earth?" Shall He? Shall He find faith in the purest
purest manifestation of the body of Christ, the devil           manifestation of. the body of Christ in the midst of
works the hardest. That too, we may never forget.               the world? The answer to that question is a re-
The devil does not have to work so very hard in the             sounding no, if in the purest manifestation of the
world or even in churches that have long ago                    body of Christ there is no repentance!' But the
departed from the truth. He has them! What he                   answer to that question is a beautiful yes, if there is
does have to do, and does do, is work very hard in              repentance. .
those churches which do manifest the marks of the
true Church. How does he do that? He does that in                 Is there? There is in me. Having read the article
the first place by attacking the precious truths that           of Mr. Doezema, I in my shame was brought by the
that church holds dear, and by attacking the                    grace of God to repentance. Were you? Were you as
preaching of those truths. But in a very real sense of          the young people of our churches? Were you as the
the word he does that by attacking the covenant                 ministers of all our  yo,ung people? Only you can
homes of that church, and the parents and young                 answer that question before the face of our God.
people in those covenant homes. His word is: if I                 If we are, then it is not so bad that those who
can't get the preaching, I will strive to get the young         deeply oppose the cause of our churches read Mr.
people! And if I can get the young people, they,                Doezema's article. Let them laugh! Let them say
who will be the future parents-fathers and                      that things are not so rosy in the P.R. churches after
mothers-of the true Church, won't listen to the                 all. Let them say that! I assure all you who read this
preaching anyway! That is what the devil says.                  article  who.oppose the cause of our churches that
                                                                things are not so rosy in the P.R. churches. We who
  What then must we  ,say about that? Must we                   comprise the Protestant Reformed churches are not
ignore that? Must we overlook that? Must we say to              perfect. Far from it! We are sinners! But let me also
ourselves, "We cannot do anything about that                    assure all you who read this article who oppose the
anyway. That is just -the way it is. And besides,               cause of our churches, that we are repentant
young people decades ago were just as bad, and                  sinners! We are! We are repentant sinners who
look how they turned out." Is that what we must                 boast not in ourselves. Nothing of ourselves do we'
say? Oh,  .no! I for one refuse to say that and take            bring. It is only to the cross that we cling, and to
that position. Sin may never be overlooked. That                God's covenant faithfulness-Christ's word of for-
first of all. And secondly, maybe it is true that               giveness, and God's promise to uphold believers
young people decades ago were just as bad. But                  and their seed in His `gracious faithfulness. Of that
with respect to that, let me assure you in the first            you may be sure,!
place that I am not concerned. about young people                 And having said that, I have come to the end of
decades ago; and in the-second place, let'me assure             my article. But this article is not the end, is it? I
you that those young people who maybe did do                    have used this expression in one other article, and
things just as bad decades ago were brought by                  now I use it again: "It is only the beginning"-the
God's grace to repentance! And that is exactly the              beginning of a humble repentant Church and
answer to. our question. What must we say about                 people in whom the Son of man shall indeed see
that? We must not say, overlook it. But we must                 faith manifest.
say, repent! And having said, repent, we must              I                                                            I
repent! Notice reader, I said we! And that we is all-
inclusive. It does not only include our young                     JYheStandardBearer
people. That to be sure. But it also includes the
parents of our young people-the parents of  all .our
young people. .And it also includes every single one             kakes a  thoughtfid gift
of our. ministers and office bearers, including my-
self. Why? Because we are all sinful! We are all in                      on any occasion.
need of repentance. Not a one of us may be exclu-
ded. In shame, in sorrow for sin, all of us-our


1     8    2                               THE STANDARD BEARER



BIBLESTUDY GUIDE

                   Mark,-The Gospel of Jehovah's '
                             '             Servants  '                                 -
                                                Rev. J. Kortering


When trying to determine a specific theme for              events. It is generally agreed that the "upper room"
each of the gospels, a person encounters some diffi-       was in her house. Here Jesus celebrated the last
culty. Evidence of this can be seen in the variety of      Passover. The disciples met there after the resurrec-
themes suggested for this  ,gospel of Mark. Among          tion of Jesus from the dead, and waited for the
them we find Jesus, the Son of God; the gospel of          coming of the  Holy. Spirit to this place. This ex-
the Lion of Judah's Tribe; Jesus the Mighty King;          plains why Peter, being released from prison, went
Jesus the Servant of Jehovah. Some draw their              there without hesitation, because it was there he
theme from a general overview of the entire book;          was sure to find his fellow saints.
others focus attention upon some specific text. In
this instance, it would seem appropriate to view              This being true, Mark witnessed at least some of
this gospel as a record of the ministry of Jesus,          the ministry of Jesus. As a young man, the presence
culminating in the cross. He is the Servant of Jeho-       of Jesus in his house was common. He must have
vah, Isaiah  42:1, 2, Who is "come not to be minis-        heard Jesus preach, saw His. miracles, and
tered unto but to minister and to give His life a          personally, to some degree at least, received the
ransom for many," Mark 10:45.                              gospel of the Son of God. The garden scene which
                                                           he describes so vividly in chapter  14:43-53,
THE AUTHOP                                                 contains a reference to a young man who followed
     The authorship of this gospel by Mark is uncon-       Jesus, even after the disciples fled, whom the sol-
tested. All agree that he is the John Mark men-            diers grabbed, but he fled away naked. This is men-
tioned in Acts 12:12: "And when he had considered          tioned only by Mark and we consider this a per-
the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother         sonal reference to himself. In addition to this, he
of John, whose surname was Mark;. where many               made a reference to "Simon the Cyrenian, the
were gathered together praying." This is a refer-          father of Alexander and Rufus," Mark 15:21. These
ence to Peter, who after the angel had led him out         probably were personal acquaintances of Mark and
of the prison gates', went to the home of John             known to his readers, giving indication that Mark
Mark's mother.                                             was knowledgeable of the people associated with
     This tells us something about him. We do not          the history of the crucifixion.
know much detail about his personal family. We do             John Mark became involved in the active
know he was a cousin of Barnabas. We learn of this         ministry of the early church. In Acts 12:25 we read,
in Colossians 4:10, "Aristarchus my fellow prisoner        "And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem,
saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas,        when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took
(touching whom ye received commandments: if he             with them John, whose surname was Mark." This
come unto you, receive him)." Barnabas hailed              same Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on
from the island of Cyprus. He is mentioned-in Acts         their first missionary journey, Acts. 13:5. However,
4:36, 37 as one who contributed money to the cof-          according to Acts  13:13 John Mark left them at
fers of the early church and he is called, "Joses,       : Perga and returned to Jerusalem. Why, we `do not
who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas                  know; but Paul considered this to be disloyalty and
[which is being interpreted, the son of consolation),      refused to take him along on the second journey.
a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus." Whether           Barnabas felt differently, and this difference
this means that Mark was also from Cyprus, we              brought about the separation of the two. Paul took
cannot be sure.                                            Silas on his journey and Barnabas went in a dif-
     We do learn from the gospel accounts that Mary,       ferent direction with Mark.
Mark's mother, was a wealthy woman. She                       Evidently, Paul and Mark were reconciled to
evidently owned  ,her own house in Jerusalem and           each other later on. The reference in Colossians
had servants. This is drawn from the fact that her         4:lO indicates that Mark was with Paul while the
house became the meeting place for important               latter was imprisoned in Rome. The same is  indi-


                                            THE STANDARb  BEARER                                                  183



cated  in Philemon 24. Paul, in his letter to Timothy,       One cannot help but read this gospel narrative
`instructs him to "take Mark, and bring him with           and conclude that there is little reference to Jewish
thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry" (II     law and custom. This is especially noticeable when
Tim. 4:ll).                                                compared to Matthew. Mark did not see the need
  Finally, we also conclude from Peter's reference         for such when he had Romans in mind.
to Mark in I Peter  5113, "The church that is at             The style of writing- also leads to the same con-
Babylon, elected together with.  ,you, saluteth you;       clusion. I suppose that the style reflected the
and so doth Marcus my son,". that he was with Peter        character of Mark, just as the style of other books of
to a great extent. This is confirmed by the early          the Bible reflected their respective authors. He
church fathers, such as Iranaeus, Clement of Alex-         writes in short, concise sentences, omitting long
andria, and Jerome that Mark spent much time               discourses, stating the facts and moving on to more
with Peter, in fact wrote down much of what Peter          events..This was especially adapted to the Roman
preached, and that this makes up the bulk of the           world and, we might add, to our day and age as
material in his `gospel. It is confirmed to this extent    well. In the gospel of Mark we find a concise state-
that Peter's sermon,  .recorded  in Acts  10:34-43,        ment about the ministry of Jesus. A few things
preached in the home of Cornelius, is a condensa-          serve to illustrate this. The conjunction "and" is
tion of this gospel. The gospel of Mark follows pre-       used 1,33 1 times in this gospel. It serves to join long
cisely the order mentioned in that sermon of Peter.        sequences of events. Also `the Greek word transla-
                                                           ted "straightway, immediately, forthwith" is used
DATE, PURPOSE, AND THEME                                   42 times in Mark, more than all the rest of the New
  The question of date of authorship is closely con-       Testament put together. The present  .tense of the
nected with another question which deals with              verb is used 151 times, this too indicating action.
Marks relationship with Peter. Did Mark write
during the lifetime of Peter and therefore have his          This is not to say that Mark was not concerned
personal authorization to publish what he had              about the gospel and its  .impact  upon his readers           '
preached, or did he write after Peter's death? It          and the church of all ages. It certainly would not do
cannot be proven with conviction either way. The           for us to say that the gospel of Mark is nothing more
earlier date would place it about A.D. 60, and the         than a record of events. The opening sentence dis-
later date A.D. 70. It is quite commonly agreed            proves this idea, "The beginning of the  gospeZ  of
among conservative Bible scholars that Mark wrote          Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark  1:l). The
first and that Luke and Matthew used his gospel as         gospel contains a record of events in the life of
source material.                                           Jesus which make up the good news, the evangel.
                                                           Jesus' ministry of teaching, miracles, warning the
  There are a number of considerations that lead           wicked, comforting His people, chmbing the hill of+
us to believe that Mark had a, Roman audience in           Calvary, rising from  ,the dead, and His promise of
mind as he wrote this gospel. A first consideration        return make up the content of the gospel. Mark's
is. the reference to Simon of Cyrene, who is               record is the beginning, the setting forth of the first
identified as "the father of Alexander and Rufus"          principles, of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(Mark  15:21). Not only does this tell us that Mark
knew the people involved in the history of the cru-          This leads us to consider briefly what .the theme
cifixion, but one thing further must be stated and         of this gospel is. It would seem that we should
that is that this Rufus became a member of the             follow the identification given in the first verse of
-church at Rome. Paul extends his personal greet-          the `gospel, "gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of
ings to him in his letter (see Romans 16:13): "Salute      God." The identification "Son of God" ,is not inclu-
Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and               ded in the Nestle's Greek text though  .included  in
mine." We would ask, why would Mark identify               the KJV. This becomes a disputed point dealing
the man who carried Jesus' cross as the father of          with the reliability of manuscripts. Besides this, it
Alexander and Rufus unless he thought it would             would seem proper to bring together the general
bring the gospel closer to those who would read it?        emphasis that Jesus worked and taught and did
They would be-able to identify with Rufus because          miracles as God's servant. He came to be busy in
they were Romans.                                          the things of His Father's house. Mark records this
  Mark also used Latin expressions which he                in detail and we must conclude from this that Jesus
favored over against similar Greek  ,ones which he         is in truth God's servant.
could have used. Examples of this include  modion            His service however is not external, that is, He
for bushel in Mark 4:21, heenson [census) for tribute      has not come to serve man, but He is God's servant
in Mark  12:14,  hentuvion  for centurion in Mark          to do His will. As Isaiah declared, "Behold my
15:39. He used these Latinized forms because they          servant,  whom'1  uphold; mine elect, in whom my
would be more understood by his readers.                   soul delighteth; I have put  .my spirit upon him: he


184                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall.          God's saints in order to please the bloodthirsty lust
not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard          of these depraved people.
in the street" (Isaiah 42: 1, 2). Mark gives us an                The comfort- comes in Mark  10:29, 30 where
account of the ministry of this Servant of Jehovah.            Jesus assured Peter, "There is no man that hath left
   Well may all who read take comfort in the work             . house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
which the Lord Jesus accomplished as God's                     or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the
servant. Bear in mind that the Christian Romans of             gospel's, but he shall receive an  hundr,edfold now
Mark's day were in the midst of the severest  per-             in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and
se&ion.  Mark more than likely lost his trusted                mothers, and children, and lands; with  persecu-
spiritual fathers, both Peter and Paul, in the blood-          tions; and in the world to come eternal life."
bath of Nero. `This monster hunted, burned, tore         .        That is good news from the Servant of Jehovah.
apart, ruthlessly made the sport of the wicked,                   Well may we read and believe.
GUESTARTICLE


                             .Be Ready with an Answer
                                                Rev.]. Slopsema


  There is a Word of God that the church today                 "hope" has taken on the idea of doubt. To say, "I
needs to hear. This Word is found in I Peter  3:15,            hope it, rains today" means "I would like it to rain
"Be ready always to give an answer to every-man                but I really don't know, if it will." The element of
that asketh youa reason of the hope that is in you."           doubt, however, has no place. in the Christian's
  Peter speaks here of the "hope that is in you."              hope. Hope as the Bible speaks of it is an assured
Hope is a term used  .throughout the Scriptures to             confidence. It is the confidence that Christ is
describe the power of the born again heart which               coming again and that His coming will be soon. It
causes the-Christian to look with eager expectation            is, furthermore, a personal assurance that when He
for the coming of the Lord Jesus. To this hope                 comes, He will bring me to the  .final glory of the
belongs especially three elements. First, hope, is             new creation.
expectation. The Scriptures very clearly teach that               Such is the nature of hope. Do you possess this
Christ is coming again and coming soon. When `He               hope? Is this hope strong in you so that you look to
comes He will destroy the world and bring His                  the day of Jesus Christ with eager expectation and
church to the glory of a new creation. There. are              longing? It may be worthwhile to stop and reflect
even certain signs in history and nature which                 on that a bit. In our day the tendency is for the
indicate that these things are so..Hope is that power          children of God to be rather weak in hope so that
of regeneration which-enables the child of God to              their longings and expectations are more earth-
discern these signs of Christ's coming so that he              bound than heavenward.
lives in constant expectation of that coming. One
who lives in hope,, therefore, does not place the                 When God's people are strong in hope as they
coming of-Christ  into the far and distant future. He          ought to be, this hope necessarily determines the
lives rather in the constant expectation that the end          course and direction of their life. It only stands to
of all things is at hand.                                      reason that the person who longs to dwell with God
                                                               in perfection will not walk in the wickedness of this
  In the second place, hope is an earnest longing              world. Neither will he make common cause with
for the day of Christ. There are some things which             the world, joining them' to help build their  anti-
we expect to happen but dread. Other things we                 Christian-kingdoms. He will rather live in spiritual
anticipate, but we take an attitude of indifference.           separation. He will be a pilgrim and a stranger here
Still other things we know will come, and we desire            below. He will have different goals, different
them. This latter is the idea of hope. That which              attitudes, different customs, different speech,
one expects in hope he also desires. He who lives in           different dress. Everything about him will be basi-
hope longs for the day of Christ and the salvation             cally different. The world  .which lives in darkness
that shall be revealed.                                        will consider him to be very strange and odd. That
  Finally, hope is certainty. Today the word                   is because one who lives in hope walks not in dark-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    185



ness but in light. And, therefore, even though he          This is not being ready to give an answer to every
appears odd  ti the world, he is the delight  6f the       man who asks for a reason of the hope that is in
living God.. This, too, is something we ought to           you. To be ready with an answer is to be ready with
examine about ourselves. Does the world see any-           an answer from the Scriptures. Are you able to
thing strange about your behavior? If not, you are         demonstrate from the Bible why we have Christian
not living in the power of the Christian hope as a         schools, why we do not allow union and lodge
spiritual citizen of the kingdom of heaven.                membership, why we do not condone movie atten-
  The child of God who in hope lives as a pilgrim          dance, why we do not make common cause with
and stranger will sooner or later be questioned by         the world? Many in the church today are woefully
the world. There is not much that the church does          unprepared to give answers to these and other
but that the world is watching. And when the               important questions. And remember, many  well-
ungodly notice that the saints live differently and        meaning saints have done harm to the cause of the
will not make common cause with them they ask              church when they give the.world and even those of
for a reason. They demand an explanation. Often            other churches the wrong answers.
these questions will come" in a spirit of hostility.         But in the second place, we must be ready with
The world does, not appreciate those who do not            an answer from a spiritual point of view. As we
`conform to their ways. They are especially intoler-       have-already indicated, when the ungodly ask us
ant of those who walk in the light and not in the          for a reason of the hope that is in us they usually
darkness, who will not join in with them in the            ask in a spirit of hostility. When in turn we give
pursuit of their antichristian goals:For this kind the     them an answer they are often offended so that
world has no use. It's either join in with the world       their hostility increases. For that reason the saints
and do as the world does; or there is no room for          of God are sometimes intimidated. They become
you on the earth. And so it is  with.a spirit of hos-      afraid to give an answer. They become ashamed of
tility that the world will approach the spiritual          the gospel. That in turn ,leadsmthem  to compromise
pilgrim with the question: why don't you send your         their pilgrim's life and  ,walk, to  ,hide their light
children to our schools? Why  -don't you join our          under a bushel. It takes courage to live as a pilgrim-
labor unions and lodges? Why don't you go to our           here below. It takes courage to face the hostilities of
movies and dances? Why doesn't your church get             the world and explain to the world why we live in.
involved in social issues and community affairs?           spiritual separation. That courage we must have if
Why won't you work with us to make this world a            we will be truly ready to give an answer to every.
better place in which to live?                             one that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us.
  These and other questions may come from a                  Are  ~you ready to give an answer? That state of
number of different sources. They may come from            readiness is not easy to attain, nor easy to maintain.
various individuals with whom we  rub. elbows              It requires daily use of God's Word and constant
every day. They may come from different organiza-          prayer. These two are on the wane in the church
tions of the world which level their'attacks  against      today. In many homes Bibles are left to collect dust.
the church. We may `one day be asked some of               Prayer bones are seldom used. That explains why
these questions in court. It may be very soon that         there is such a lack of readiness in the church to
we will be asked in court why our children do not          give an answer to the world.
attend the public schools. Should we live to see             Yet it is important that we be ready. God re-
Antichrist enthroned as ruler of the world we will         quires it. He will use the answer we give to accom-
be asked why we will not receive the mark of the           plish His purpose. He  .will use our answer first to
beast. Live as a pilgrim and stranger in the power of      harden the heart of the reprobate unbeliever. There
hope and the world will question you, often in a           is a hardening process that God works in the heart
spirit of hostility. Have you ever been questioned         of the reprobate. Through this hardening process
by the world?     :                                        the reprobate grow and increase in sin until they fill
  When we are questioned we are to be ready with                        .
                                                           the cup of iniquity and make themselves ripe for
an answer. The meaning is that we are to be pre-           final judgment. God works this hardening process
pared to give an answer; we are to be properly             through the Word. This Word is first the Word as
equipped so that we can give an explanation. This          faithfully preached by the Church. But this Word is
must be true first of all from an intellectual point of    also the Word spoken by the saints daily as they
view, from the viewpoint of knowledge. All too             give an answer to the ungodly who ask them a
often when the saints are questioned by the world          reason of the hope that is in them. Positively,
as to the reason for this practice or that stand, the      however, God also uses the answer of the saints to
only answer they can manage is that this is the rule       bring the elect to repentance and salvation. For the
and stand of the church. The church tells me I must        Word of God is also the power of God unto salva-
live this way. The church says I may not do this.          tion. Again, that Word must first be preached by

                                                                                                                          I


  186                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



  the Church. But in the power of the preaching the                Do you stand- in the service of God's cause and
  saints must also walk as pilgrims and strangers,               purpose? Then live in the power of the Christian's
  bringing the Word to all who ask them for a reason             hope. And be ready always to give an answer to
  of the hope that is in them. These two together, and           every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that
  not the one without the other, God uses to gather              is in you.
  His church.

_-. THEDAYOFSHADOWS


                             Jacob's Faith Triumphs
                                                      Rev. John A. Heys


    All in all Jacob's life was a troubled life.                 came to live with him and serve his family in the
    There were moments when he experienced great                 declining years of her life, died, and it robbed him
  happiness, and when life seemed. good to him. He               of some of the little comfort that he knew in his life.
  had his moments when he rejoiced because he had                And now the unexpected and painful blow: his
  attained to what he set his hand to get. He wrestled           beautiful and beloved wife, Rachel, died shortly
  with his hungry and weary twin brother for the                 after giving birth to his twelfth son.
  birthright and got it. He-deceived his blind father              Let it be stated that part of his rough life which
  and obtained the promise of the birthright blessing.           was filled with disappointments and difficulties
  ,He fought his uncle  Laban and got the flashing               was due to his own nature., Jacob was a very com-
  beauty he wanted for a wife. In a struggle for his             petitive man, and his birth indicated what kind of
  uncle's cattle he came out the victor and could eye            life he would live. He was born holding on to the
  hundreds upon hundreds of sheep and oxen and                   heel of his twin brother in an attempt to prevent
  call them.his own.                                             him from being the firstborn. The name Jacob actu-
    But his many disappointments and difficulties                ally means heel catcher, and the last four letters in
  were too many to characterize his life as a long and           his name come from the Hebrew word for heel, the
  happy life. He knew sorrows too often and had                  word being aqeb. And when a man with a competi-
  moments of deep grief. As a little boy he grew up in           tive spirit meets and works for an uncle with an
  the awareness of the fact that his father preferred            equally competitive spirit, you can expect life to be
  his older twin brother. And although he had the                rough and to have problems arise, especially when
  heart and preference of his mother, he had to leave            both resort as well to trickery.
  her and spend twenty years as an outcast while his               And the question that needs to be asked is,
  brother`enjoyed all the pleasures of the home. His             "What would you and I do if we had to experience
  wedding turned out to be a disaster. He woke up                all Jacob went through, and if we had his nature
  and found himself married to a woman for whom                  and lived under the same circumstances under
  he had no love, tricked by his uncle+Laban after he            which he lived?" It is easy, some three thousand
  had worked hard for seven years for the beautiful              yearslater, to sit in judgment upon Jacob. But let us
  sister of the woman he had married! Those twenty               heed Jesus' words, "Judge not that. ye be not
  y"ears of working for Laban were not under pleasant           judged." For it is simply a fact that we always judge
  working conditions by any stretch of the imagina-              others according to what we ourselves would,
  tion. And when he left Laban, he was pursued and               except for the grace of God, have done. We know
  accused of great evil by him. Then came the con-
" frontation with his twin brother whom he had                   what our own evil nature would have done under
                                                                 those same circumstances, and we are able to judge
  cheated out of the birthright blessing. When that              others so correctly exactly because we know this
  crisis was over and he could breathe a bit more                sin so intimately in our own souls.
  freely, his daughter Dinah was defiled by Shechem;
  and his sons, in cold-blooded murder, brought him                Let us therefore instead rejoice in the fact that
  great embarrassment-to say the least-by killing               Jacob's faith does triumph in this sad hour of the
  all the Shechemites in a very cruel but also tricky            death of his beloved wife. It is stated that the true
  and dishonest way. Soon after this the faithful ser-           man in us comes to manifestation when we are in
  vant of his mother, who nursed him as a'child and              difficulties and under stress. Men otherwise calm


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                187



and collected will show, when a serious situation          moment, the name Son of My Sorrows was a name
confronts them, what is really in them. And in             only his flesh could accept, a sorrow over the death
Jacob's moment of intense sorrow at the death  ,of         of his wife. Yet, over against this sorrow was the
Rachel, the new life of Christ did come out into the       fact that his quiver was now full, and he had twelve
open. So often it was so deeply hidden in his soul         sons. He had -both honour and strength, and the
that we would be tempted to question whether he            blessing..of  God was upon him. Two sons he now
had ever been born again. But now the grace of God         had from his beloved wife; and subsequent history
upon him fans to a bright flame his faith in God.          show how much these two sons, Joseph and Ben-
And Jacob revealed himself as a true child of God's        jamin, meant to him. The joy of another covenant
covenant.                                                  son would never allow him to let this child go
  Rachel had an unusually hard labor so that the           through life with a name that reminded him of his
Scriptures make mention of it twice. God had told          mother's sorrow.
Eve that she and all women would "in sorrow...               Yet we must not explain Jacob's changing of the
bring forth children." But when Scripture twice            name as nothing more than a concern for the son,
calls it hard  labour,   and, Rachel died shortly after    and a joy because of earthly strength and honour.
giving birth to a son, we may believe that this was        Benjamin means Son of My Right Hand, and can
unusually painful labour that God gave her. It was         mean Son of My Strength. The idea of Son of My
more than Rachel's body could take, and her soul           Honour cannot be ruled out however. The Hebrew
departed and left that body. But before she did die        word  yamin  means right hand, or right side; and
she named this son Benoni, which means Son of              being seated at or being at one's right hand meant
My Sorrow.                                                 being in a place of honour as well as in a place of
                                                           power. Thus Jesus' being seated at God's right hand
  Now there are different opinions as to what she          means that He has been given all power (both in the
meant. According to some she expressed her reac-           sense of strength and of authority) over all things,
tion to that hard labour,  considering it a shame that     and therefore has the highest honour the creature
she was npt able to stand this pain, that she was          can have before the Creator. For now He is Lord of
such a "weakling" in comparison with other                 all lords, and King `over all kings, which is quite
women who also had hard  labour.  She gave that            some honour! Either way-Son of My Strength, or
name as she felt her life slipping away, though at         Son of My Honour-Jacob's faith triumphs over his
the moment she may not have expected  it to take           flesh in so changing the name.
her life. At least at the moment nothing mattered to
her except her own terrible pains and discomfort.            Consider that Rachel was his beloved wife, for
Her mind certainly was not at the moment upon              whom he worked fourteen years, and for whom his
                                                           love did not fade or diminish. His raising up a pillar
God and His covenant. Others explain the name as           over her grave shows that. For his mother's nurse's
meaning that she was defeated in her,warfare with          grave he used  `an oak tree already standing. And
Leah to supply Jacob with sons. Because of the hard
labour she would never again compete with Leah             this pillar was no mere formality. It spoke of his
                                                           love and of loving memories which he had for
this way. It was too painful and terrifying for her to     Rachel. And that made it hard for his flesh to go
bear sons for Jacob. She admits defeat, and realizing      contrary to the dying wishes of a beloved wife. His'
the sorrow of the shame of having lost the battle,
she names her son Benoni. Herein also is no faith          flesh undoubtedly cried out to do what his wife
                                                           wanted done. And we may believe that it was hard
on her part to be found. Covenant-mindedness is            for him to change the name.
certainly not evident in such naming of a child.
There is no rejoicing that another covenant child is         Sons and daughters will often contest the will of
born. There is no singing of, "Lo, children are an         a father or mother for what earthly possessions are
heritage of the Lord-; and the fruit of the womb is        left behind. Such action does. not stem from love for
His reward." There is no happiness over the fact           that parent. It rather shows a love for money,
that another arrow has been placed in Jacob's [and         which is the root of all evil. It is not concerned with
her) quiver. We say, then, "What a way to die!"            the wishes of the departed parent, because there is
                                                           not the love there that ought to be present. The love
  "But his father called his name Benjamin."               of the money, is greater and rules the actions of
  That little word  ,"but" and the name Benjamin           those who contest the.will.
give us an entirely different picture of Jacob. No, he       Now, granted that by doing this the departed
was not about to die, and his body felt none of those      parent is neither hurt nor benefited, for we cannot
pains  that, Rachel suffered-though his soul did in        touch them after they have left our earth, and also
his great love for her. And although from that point       conceding that out of sight so often means out of
of view, and because'of the death of Rachel, there         mind, and fleshly, earthly love needs constant
was reason to say that he had his sorrows at the           reminders to keep the love burning brightly, yet


1 8 8                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



contested wills often have their beginning even             light affliction which is but for a moment works for
before the funeral arrangements are made.                   us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
   None of this was true of Jacob. And he did not           (II Corinthians  4:17). And nothing, not extremely
change the name months or years later but before            hard  labour;  nor even death, can separate us from
or at least on the eighth day of the child's life, and      the love of God (Romans  8:38, 39). These can only
when he was circumcised. While his own sorrow               bring God's covenant people to endless, heavenly
over the death of Rachel was still great, he went           joys.
contrary to her dying wishes and refused to call his          Rachel expresses the pessimism that .must be the
son Son of My Sorrow.                                       world's. For-we live in a vale of tears, and there is
  Consider also that with all the other eleven sons         no hope that unbelief can see, or can ground on a
his wives picked the names, and he let them stand.          solid foundation. Look at man-and Rachel was
Here he makes the only exception and that for the           looking at herself-and you can only rightly call
child of his beloved wife whom he had just lost             your children sons of sorrow, and you can give to
through death. We cannot escape the fact that               this world the name Vale of Tears. Faith in Christ,
Jacob realizes that this is something that he just          Who removed the curse by His cross, makes one an
cannot allow. His faith in God will not allow this. It      optimist in the true sense of the word. He sees his
will not  let- him accentuate and perpetuate the            children as an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of
remembrance of Rachel's sorrow-whether that be              the womb as His reward. He has hope even in
because of the pains of her labour,  or of her defeat       death. Death and the sorrow of bearing children is
in her struggle with Leah. A name that avoids-and           part of the curse because of man's sin. Faith sees
indeed even denies-the joy of an inheritance from           sin paid for by the blood of the cross, and conse-
God, and a reward given in the covenant sphere,             quently sees the curse removed. Faith sees the
must not be carried on in that covenant home.               strength and honour of having children in God's
Rachel's name expressed her fleshly sorrow, but in          covenant, and it has hope of seeing the children's
the covenant  @here  there are spiritual joys. `Our         children in the new Jerusalem.
TRANSLATED TREASURES


                       A Pamphlet Concerning the
                       Reformation of .the Church
                                                   Dr. A. Kuyper


(Kuyper has discussed the unity of the church as            Thirdly, the church must send evangelists or
that unity is expressed in broader ecclesiastical           missionaries to otherregions and areas to plant the
assemblies and in relationship with other denomi-           church where it is not yet found. The church's
nations worldwide. He now concludes chapter 2 of            work is the work of philanthropy, evangelization,
his book with.the following paragraph.)                     and missions.
33. Whether the Churches Ought to Interfere in                Mercy towards those outside must be shown, not
What Does Not Belong to the Church                          in order to obtain a good reputation, but because it
  A church of Christ ought not to be locked up              is God's will and because the church lives in the
within itself in order to live for itself only. It also     consciousness of common guilt as the fountain of
has a calling over against that which is outside, and       common misery.
that in three respects. First, after the members of           Evangelism must have as its exclusive purpose
the family of faith are properly cared for, the             the extension of the church in places where it is
church must extend her alms .and the care of her            already established, and it ought to extend to Jews
mercy to the wretched ones outside her gates.               and heathen, to unbelievers and superstitious, to
Secondly, the church must win, through evange-              the poor as well as to the rich. The preaching of the
lism, for the confession of Christ, those who live          gospel to those baptized is not evangelism but rath-
together with the church in the same city or village        er catechizing, and must proceed from the ministry
but do not participate-in her glorious confession.          of the Word; or, if the ministers are neglectful of


                                                   `THE STANDARD BEARER                                               189



 this, from the office of all believers. Each person in            work ex  opere  operato,  and even if there were to-
 particular is called for the work of evangelizing                 gether legions of preachers loosely joined, outside
 among those who are outside the church in so far as               of a church connection, these have neither the
 God the Lord brings him in contact with outsiders.                authority  i nor the least competency to grant a
 But the church as church is called so that definite               commission which can only be granted by the
 men may be appointed as evangelists. Their activity               church federation.
 must lead to the bringing in of these outsiders into              34. What the Calling of the Churches is With
 the church. This is true because a go'od student who              Respect to the Schools
 wants to make confession ought also to be baptized
 and the right to administer holy baptism belongs                    Education forms a uniquely independent sphere
 only to the church.                                               of spiritual activity just as home upbringing does.
                                                                   Therefore it is not, proper for the church to assume
   Missions to `other regions or lands can in the                  public education as part of its duties. This would
 same way be either particular  or' ecclesiastical.                restrain civil development even as Rome's strong
 Each believer who knows himself to be called to                   meddling in family life has killed family life in a
 this must go to strange lands or regions to preach                number of lands.
 the gospel, and  .one could wish that more people
 felt themselves compelled to do this.1 On the other                 On the other hand, it is good that the church has
 hand, particular mission societies who wish to,send               dealings with the school in three respects: 1) The
 with authority in order to establish the ministry of              church must establish, support, and maintain
 the Word, to organize an administration. of the                   schools in so far as it sees that these are lacking due
 sacraments, and to erect a church of .God must not                to neglect or else by interference of incompetents in
 be tolerated. What individuals may do is bring                    schools which exist but exist in a wrong spirit. 2)
 together money to help a believer who wants to go                 The church has to care for the children of the needy
 so that. he has travel money and provisions. But                  that they be educated which, for the sake of ,thrifti-
 then such a one is no missionary, no sent one, no                 ness, leads to the establishment of diaconate
 minister of the Word; he does not have the right to               schools. 3) The church'has  to watch: over the inde-
 administer the sacraments and all he may do over                  pendently existing schools for good instruction in
 there is to be a witness of Christ, and to preach the             the pure truth which is according to the Word of
 gospel. If such an individual, however, succeeds in               G o d .
 converting Jew, heathen, or Mohammedans, and                        The first and the last of these rules apply to
they request baptism, then such an individual                      education in all grades, including higher education.
 ought to turn to his own church or to a neighboring               According to its nature and essence it is  ,not the
 church so that this church, now sending, can                      business of the church to educate scientifically,
transfer a missionary, and, by this missionary can                 although she is perfectly free to establish semi-
 administer holy baptism to these converts. Then                   naries to prepare candidates for the holy ministry.
he, by uniting them to a church, can prepare,                      If, on the other hand, there is no occasion to receive,
through the choice of elders and deacons, the                      education in the higher sciences, or the- existing
ministry of the Word for that'group. But a church                  education for  C.hristian youth is useless, then the
 can also directly send, i.e., dispatch an evangelist or           church would be properly held responsible, not by
minister of the Word with the mandate to preach                    virtue of her office, but, being made aware of the
the gospel, and with power, if the Lord gives                      lack, to provide in this deficiency. But also where,
converts, to administer baptism to those in the                    whether through individuals or through the magis-
name of the church, to gather them ecclesiastically,               trate, high schools are established which are useful
 and to introduce among them the ministry of the                   for the children of holy baptism, the church should
Word.                                                              always have to watch and to see to  `it that the
   Only a mission on this foundation may  continu-                 content of the education given is the truth and is
.ally rely on the sympathy of the Reformed                         not detrimental to the truth:
churches. No one has the. right, while he himself                    The church of Christ is the pillar and ground of
does nothing, to judge others who do what their                    the truth and thus where that truth which is
hands find to do.                                                  according to  the,Word of God is threatened or in
   Only one matter must be positively condemned.                   danger, whether inside or outside her sphere, it is
The so-called commission of Mission Societies by                   her right and her calling to raise her voice loudly
certain preachers is an action which must be called                and to rise heroically for the rights of her King and
irresponsible. Preachers are no Roman priests who                  Lord.
                                                                                         Chapter III
   `It is clear the Kuyper here denies that mission work always    Concerning The Deformation Of The Churches
proceeds from the church and is always the official work of the
church.~                                                           35. What We are to Understand by the  Deforma-


190                                         THE STANDARD `BEARER



tion of the Churches                                      but she must always hold high her glorious banner
   Deformation develops in churches which were            so as never to rest with what is wrong or faulty.
once properly formed but have now lost their              Nevertheless, this way of judging is wrong for two
purity. All imperfections which characterize the          reasons. First, it is wrong because our ideal must
church in the process of formation are not dis-           never be borrowed from what is sometimes seen in
cussed here. In the Apostolic church in Jerusalem,        an individual church for a short time, but must
Antioch, Rome, etc., the formation of the church,         always be taken from God's Word. Secondly, it is
during the life of the apostles, was still far from       wrong because we do not do justice to the differ-
perfect. Many parts of the ecclesiastical organism        ences of places, times, and occasions;  .and to set
were not yet developed. Likewise, the churches            forth the exception or the rule discourages, is
which came to manifestation anew in this country          unfair, and works toward Donatism. It is therefore
during the time of the Reformation often did this in      pertinent that, with respect to the ideal, our only
a very effective way. Before 1563, even a common          lawful ideal is that which Holy Scripture sets before
confession was lacking. Yet this was never consid-        the church of God as an obligation, whether direct-
ered deformation, either in the First or Sixteenth        ly or by lawful conclusions, also with respect to the
century, because deformation, disfigurement, cor-         interpretation -of the Holy Spirit in history. This
ruption, degeneration, imply that the form or the         high ideal, just because it is an ideal, is never fully
nature was first good but since then has suffered         attained for any length of time on earth. And fin-
and decayed. Nor must failure to attain the ideal be      ally, with this in mind, one can properly speak of
understood as deformation. In connection with the         deformation if the church to which one belongs
deformation of churches one can imagine an ideal          declines and sinks away from a higher, level to a
situation, and that in a twofold sense. One can           lower one. It surely remains the obligation of a
think of the condition of the heavenly church as an       church which has never occupied a higher level to
ideal here upon earth. But. this will not do because      strive for a more perfect state. And it is also per-
it challenges God's order over this dispensation and      missible to consider that striving for a more perfect
opposes His arrangement. Or one can imagine a             state as reformation. But it does not under such
condition on earth which only one, in a single            circumstances come to  .deformation,  i.e., corrup-
place, under very favorable circumstances, can            tion. To proceed with discretion and clear insight,
exist and have existence for a short time, and which'     one must make a threefold distinction: 1) Church
one now chooses as a model for the formation of all       formation which is still in the process of attaining a
churches in every place and in every time. Mea-           fixed form; 2) church formation which, though
sured by this standard and compared with that             having arrived at a fixed form, still has to strive for
ideal model, nearly all churches will fall short and      a more perfect form; 3) church formation which
fall under the judgment of being incomplete.  1.t is      having given way from an earlier, purer church
good, in this strong criticism, to have a living con-     form must now lift itself up from that into which it
sciousness that the church never may have peace           has sunk. And only the last mentioned has to do
with itself nor fall asleep on what she has acquired,     with a deformed church.

Question  Box

                             Those Who Fall Away
                                                 Rev. C. Hanko


  A question has been sent in to the Question Box         and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were
concerning Hebrews 6:4-6. The writer asks                 made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted
whether those who -have tasted of heavenly gifts          the good word of God, and the powers of the world
and were partakers of the Holy Ghost, and later fell      to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them
away, were actually in the sphere of the covenant         again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to them-
before they fell away. He likes some clarification        selves the  Son.of~ God afresh, and put him to an
on this matter.                                           open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the
  The passage before us reads as follows: "For it is      rain that  cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth
impossible for those who were once enlightened,           herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiv-


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     191



eth blessing `from God: but that which beareth                                   They fall away, not from grace, but from the way of
thorns., and briers is rejected,  .and is nigh unto                              truth as professed by the church. They put Christ to
cursing; whose end is to be burned."                                             open.  s.hame. In the verses' 7 and 8 they are set in
   It immediately becomes evident that these indi-                               contrast to the soil that produces wheat. They
                                                                                 belong to the soil that is full of seed of tares and
viduals who are described here must be outstand-
ing members of the church institute as long as they                              produces nothing but tares. They are so corrupt
are on its rolls. They were once enlightened, that is,                           that even the fruits they produce, their knowledge
they were well instructed in the Scriptures. They                                of the Scriptures, their powers of the Spirit, their
understand the doctrines of the Scriptures very                                  enthusiasm about the Word of God and their
                                                                                 exuberance concerning the world to come are fruits
thoroughly, so that they can very well be scribes,
teachers, ministers, or doctors of theology. They                                of darkness, mere thorns and thistles, .worthy only
tasted of the heavenly gift. This gift is Christ. They                           to be,condemned  by God, exposed, and destroyed,
know about the riches of salvation which are in                                  so that they are cast into hell.
Christ Jesus. The glad tidings of salvation have a                                  From  this.it must be evident that these tempor-
pleasant ring in their ears. They were made par-                                 ary members of the church institute were not and
takers of the Holy Ghost. We think of Saul, the first                            are not members of the church in the real sense of
king of Israel, who for a time had the gift of the                               the word, neither of the church invisible nor of the
Holy Spirit which enabled him to be a king over                                  church visible, which is the body of Christ. It is not
Israel, the theocracy. We think of Judas who had                                 all Israel that is called Israel.
the power to heal and to cast out devils for a time.                                Thus it must also be maintained that these indivi-
We think of those in the early church who pro-                                   duals who fall away are in no sense  within  God's
phesied, performed miracles and spoke in tongues.                                covenant. They are not the true seed of Abraham.
We can even think of preachers and evangelists                                   For God establishes His covenant with Abraham
who by their oratory seem to be filled with the                                  and his seed, which are the believers and their
Holy Spirit. They have tasted of the good word of                                spiritual seed. Yet these unbelievers are for a time
God. They give others the impression that they are                               in the  sphere  of the covenant. They come in very
sincere Christians, for they can speak enthusiasti-                              close contact with that which `is holy. That is
cally about the sermon they heard, about the                                     evident, first of all, from the description that is
worship service and the works of "charity" that                                  given of them. That is evident, in the second place,
they are privileged to.perform. They give evidence                               from the fact that in verse 8 they are compared to
of all the exuberance of those who experience                                    thorns and briers, which have had the rain fall and
temporal faith, an external excitement about salva-                              the sun shine upon them. It is true, that they tem-
tion, even of the glories of the world to come, of                               porarily enjoyed the rain and the sunshine. But it is
which they speak and sing with vim and vigor.                                    equally true that this rain and sunshine exposed
   They fall away. They are in no sense of the word                              them for what they are, corrupt soil that can only
the elect of God, children of the Most High. They                                produce thorns and briers, which is fit for destruc-
never know regeneration or conversion, nor the gift                              tion. *
of a true and saving faith. Upon this we are fully                                  I hope that this may help to clarify the problems
agreed, for there is no falling away of saints. Scrip-                           that arise in connection with Hebrews 6:4-6. If not,
ture is very clear on that. Also the `text points out                            call again, and I shall give it another try.
that they are guilty of crucifying Christ anew, just                             *See further The Standard Bearer, volume 55, page
as the Jews once did, both in their  sham-enthusi-*                               222, and "The Believers and Their Seed,"by Rev.
asm and in their departure from the way of truth.                                 H. Hoeksema, pp. 137-145.
                                                                            -
                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                           WEDDING  A N N I V E R S A R Y

   On January 25, 1981,. the Lord willing, our beloved parents, MR.                 On Janurary 9, 1981, our parents, MR. AND MRS. HENRY
& MRS. HERMAN C. OPHOFF, will celebrate their 30th weddina                       HOEKSTRA celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
anniversary. It is with deep gratitude and thankfulness in our  heart:
to our heavenly Father that we, their children, take this opportunity to            We, their children are deeply grateful to our heavenly Father that
thank them for the years of loving, covenant guidance and instruction            He has seen fit to bless us with these God-fearing parents, who have
they have given to us. We pray that God will continue to sustain them            instructed us in His ways. We pray that God will always be near them
in their life together and that they may constantly experience His               `and bless them in the years to come.
blessings.                                                                          "For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth
 "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting' upon             endureth to all generations." (Psalm  100:5).
them  thatfear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."             James and Gladys Koole            Mark Hoekstra
Psalm  103:17.                                                                   Pauline Hoekstra              M a r y   H o e k s t r a
Steven and Karen Ophoff                                                          Linda Hoekstra                    Rosalynn  Hoekstra
Bruce and Rosanne Van Solkema                                                    Harlan Hoekstra                   Patricia Hoekstra
John                                                                             Vernon Hoekstra


    T H E   STANDARD  B E A R E R .
            P.O. Box 6064
G r a n d   R a p i d s ,   M i c h i g a n   4 9 5 0 6   .





                                                          __-.     ~_.___.~ ____--   ~--~-. _~-

1 9 2                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


                                           News From Our Churches
                                                                    .

     Following Rev. Kuiper's decline of their call,                                 basis of the inspired Scriptures as interpreted in our
Redlands has extended a call to Rev. Flikkema,                                      Reformed Creeds and confessed by our Protestant
from a trio which included also Reverends Bekker-                                   Reformed Churches.  We. are called to teach our
ing and Prof. H. Hanko.                                                             children to live the life of the antithesis in the
    From a Hull, Iowa bulletin, under the heading,                                  world, out of the principle of regeneration."
"News from our sister churches," we find in rather                                    A Hudsonville bulletin announces some changes
concise form a report concerning the building                                       in their worship services: "the doxology of Psalter
projects of several of our churches: "Our church in                                 197 will be sung at the conclusion of the morning
Kalamazoo, Michigan has plans for their new                                         service and the apostles' creed will be recited in
building. Those plans may be seen on the bulletin                                   unison while the congregation remains standing
board in the back of church. Our Loveland PRC has                                   (this latter is for a three-month trial)."
proposed the building of an addition to their                                         In a recent letter from our mission field in Singa-
present sanctuary which has become too small for                                    pore, Rev.  denHartog  writes of many. exciting
their congregation. And also our Lynden PRC -has                                    activities that are currently taking place there. In
decided to build a new sanctuary due to the growth                                  that connection he writes: "During the past two
of the congregation. Because of the required pay-                                   weeks, I have had the opportunity to give instruc-
ment of taxes, the building project of our congrega-                                tion to a group of Singapore University students in
tion in New Jersey has received a bit of a set-back."                               the doctrines of grace or the Five Points of Calvin-
In connection with the tax payment by our New                                       ism. This was indeed an unusual experience. We
Jersey congregation we have learned that tax must                                   had `altogether five sessions with a group of 12-14
be paid until the building is used for services.                                    young men. With only one exception, all of these
    While we're on the subject of building projects,                                brethren are strangers to the G.L.T.S. They came
from a South Holland bulletin we learn that a 5,000                                 from different churches of Singapore. We were
square foot addition to their present school building                               quite overwhelmed by  .their interest.  .Evidence of
was approved at their last Association Meeting.                                     this is that all of the sessions which. we had  w.ith
                                                                                    them lasted from 2% to 3 hours. It was amazing
    In a bulletin two weeks after the one mentioned                               how.many  questions they had and how keen they
.above, we find that South Holland's Council called                                 were on searching out the implications of the truths
`!a meeting of all the men in our congregation who                                  of sovereign grace for all areas of Christianity, es-
are interested in establishing a society for a Protes-                              pecially the area of evangelism." Later in that same
tant Reformed High School."  `rhe South Holland                                     letter Rev. den Hartog wrote: "It really continues to
Council further stated: "Our motivation in this is                                  amaze us how filled with zeal the members of the
not mainly the weaknesses of the existing Christian                                 G.L.T.S. are. It is indeed wonderful to see how
High  .Schools. But our motivation is positive-the                                  much time  .and labor is spent by the members
very same as that which motivated us to establish                                   directly in the work of the church. Some of the
our Protestant Reformed Christian Grade School. It                                  members of the G.L.T.S. are busy with church
is our covenant calling as Protestant Reformed be-                                work almost every evening as well as most of the
lievers to instruct and bring up our children in the                                Lord!s Day. They do this in spite of the opposition
doctrine taught in our churches to the utmost of our                                many receive from their homes." And in closing he
power; and we promise to do this when we present                                   asks for "your continued prayers on our behalf and
our children for baptism. (see our Form of Bap-                                     on behalf of the saintsamong whom we labor."
tism]. We are called to teach our children on the                                                                                    CK


