     T h e
     STANDARD

                                                                              Y
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





      SPECIAL MISSION ISSUE

                                  .  .  .we  have  always  maintained
                                  that  the  promise  of  the  gospel
                                  and the command to repent and
                                  believe  must  be  proclaimed  to
                                  all  nations,  wherever  God  out
                                  of  His  good  pleasure  sends  the
                                  gospel.


c                                          Volume  LVII, No. 11, March 1, 1981  -


242                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER
                               CONTENTS                                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                 Published h the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                        SecondClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
  Meditation-                                                                       Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Jesus' Other Sheep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242       Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                                    denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                    Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando,  Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
  Editorial-                                                                        Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                    Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
       Our Special Missions Issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245             Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
                                                                                    Editorial Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
  Special Article-                                                                                           4975 Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                             Grandville, Michigan49418
       Protestant Reformed Missions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246                 Church News Editor; Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek
                                                                                                                   1313 Wilson Ave. S.W.
  Home Missions: Birmingham. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
                                                                                    Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
  Home Missions: Lansing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250              articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
                                                                                    Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to ap-
  Church Extension Work: Bradenton. . . . . . . . . . . .252                        proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
                                                                                    signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
  Mission Work Through Radio Broadcasting. . . . . .254                             munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
                                                                                    Reprint  Policy: Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
  Foreign Missions: Jamaica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .256             magazine by other publications, provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
                                                                                    reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgement is made; c) that a copy of the
  Foreign Missions: Singapore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259               periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our editorral  office.
                                                                                    Rusine.%s
                                                                                    _..-...---   Office: 
                                                                                                 _,.~~~ The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                          ~~~~
  Book Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262                             Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                                                                             P  0  Roxfirlfi4                           PH:  (616) 2432953
                                                                                                             _._. - _.____.
  News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263                                         Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
                                                                                    New Zealand Business Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                            c/o OPC Bookshop
                                                                                                                            P.O. Box 2289
                                                                                                                            Christchurch, New Zealand
                                                                                    Subscription Policy: Subscription price, $9.00 er year. Unless a definite request
                                                                                                                                             K
                                                                                    for discontinuance is received, it is assumed t at the subscriber wishes the sub-
                                                                                    scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
                                                                                    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 o`E delayed deli-
                                                                                    very. Include your Zip Code.
                                                                                    Advertising Policy: The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial advertising of
                                                                                    any kind. Annoucements of church and school events, anniversaries, obituarres,
                                                                                    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
                                                                                    announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                    15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                    Bound Volumes:  The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                    copies of the current volume; such orders are  rlled
                                                                                                                                                   P     as soon as possible after
                                                                                    completion of a volume. A limited number of past volumes may be obtained
                                                                                    through the Business Office.


MEDITATION

                                                 Jesus' Other Sheep
                                                                             Rev. C. Hanko


                     And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they
                     shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.                                                     John lo:16
                                                                       :.

  Our Lord is giving us a profound lesson in real                                            They shall hear My voice. Almighty calling and
evangelism, true mission work,  ,yet in very simple                                     efficacious grace.
language.                                                                                    And there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
 Other sheep I  have  - Sovereign election.                                             Preservation of the saints.
  Other sheep - This speaks of our total depravity.                                          All very profound truths of the Scriptures, a gos-
  Them also I must bring. This obviously includes                                       pel in miniature; and yet it is so simple that a child
the particular atonement for sin.                                                       can understand it.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 243


  These words were spoken in the temple at Jeru-            this that a sheep is a very stubborn creature. When
salem shortly before our Savior laid down His life          two sheep get into a fight, they will bash their
for His sheep on the cross. At the moment His chief         heads together until they are blind or killed. Are
concern is with His other  sheep.  Our eternal Pro-         you, am I, any better?
phet, Who thoroughly understands His mission as               Our Lord is the Good Shepherd, the eternal reali-
commissioned Him by the Father, is filled with              ty of the earthly picture. He loves His sheep with an
holy zeal for those sheep which are given Him of            eternal love. He claims them as His very own and
the Father, which must still be gathered into the           sole possession. He speaks to us of that love in the
sheepfold. Let us realize in fear and wonder that all       text before us.
the saints of the New Testament are included here,
also you and I!                                               Jesus speaks of "other sheep, which are not of
  A shepherd with a staff in hand guarding his              this fold." Speaking of "this fold," He obviously
flock of sheep was a common sight on the  Judean            refers to the saints of the old dispensation. They
hillside. Jesus takes this figure from our everyday         also belong to Christ's sheep and have already been
life and compares Himself to that shepherd. In fact,        gathered into the fold. Another flock must still be
a shepherd and his flock is a common figure that is         brought in. It is not as if the believers of the old dis-
used throughout the Scriptures.                             pensation form a separate people with a different
                                                            future and a different way of salvation. The very
  In the Old Testament Scriptures we read of Abra-          fact that Jesus speaks of both the saints of the old
ham, Isaac, and Jacob as shepherd kings. They               dispensation and those of the new as belonging to
were by occupation shepherds, each ruling as lord,          Him and to His fold proves that they are one. This
or king, in his own domain. Later David reigned             is confirmed by the fact that Jesus later speaks of
over the theocracy of Israel with the authority of          "one fold (or flock) and one shepherd." The Old
their Shepherd King in heaven (Psalm 80). These             Testament contains the promise given with types
were types of the Shepherd King Who was to come,            and shadows, the New Testament is the fulfillment
our Lord Jesus Christ.                                      of the Old.
  A shepherd owned his flock. This small flock of             It is interesting to notice that the ingathering of
sheep was often his sole possession, which he cher-         the saints in the old dispensation was also solely the
ished as his chief concern and livelihood. He loved         work of Christ. He is appointed from eternity as the
his sheep, leading them out of the sheepfold to             great Servant in God's house. Through Him were
green pastures, and bringing them back from the             the heavens and the earth made. Through Him God
pastures to the safety of the fold during the dark-         spoke, whether by direct speech, by vision, by
ness of the night. He was a picture of Christ, Who          dream, by prophets, or by the Angel of Jehovah.
gathers His young in His arms, carries them in His          Christ worked mightily by His Word and Spirit in
bosom, and gently leads those that are with young.          the hearts of His sheep, gathering them in the line
A shepherd would even lay down his life for his             of generations of believers from paradise even until
sheep. Again it is a picture, yet with quite a differ-      the moment when He speaks this Word. That part
ence. In natural life a shepherd nearly was forced          of Jesus' ministry, or mission endeavor, is all but
to lay down his life when a wild animal attacked; it        finished. Therefore He looks ahead and speaks of
was absolutely necessary for Jesus to lay down His          His other sheep, which must still be brought into
life to deliver His sheep from the claws of the             the fold.
enemy, and He had to do so willingly. When a
shepherd died in trying to rescue his sheep, the              Our Lord says, "Other sheep I have." Not: I hope
sheep were without a shepherd; when Christ dies             to have, if they will accept Me and come to Me.
for His sheep He remains their eternal, living Shep-        Not: I  wiZZ  have when they are finally gathered in.
herd.                                                       But: I  have.  These are the sheep which the Father
                                                            has given to Christ from eternity, which He there-
  A shepherd knew how important it was that he              fore claims as His eternal possession. No man can
constantly care for his sheep; for a sheep is a de-         take these sheep from Him. They are His, sworn
pendent animal. Some animals can forage for them-           unto Him by God's sovereign and eternal election.
selves, but not a sheep. A sheep is defenseless. The
lion has its claw, the bull its horns, the dog its bite,      Therefore our Lord can confidently say: "Them
the bee its sting, but a sheep has no defense. Be-          also I must bring."
sides, a sheep tends to wander; and having wan-               Jesus is fully conscious of the divine "must" that
dered away from the flock, it cannot find its way           weighed so heavily on His shoulders throughout
back, but goes off to be lost in the wilderness or to       His earthly ministry. He is the eternal Servant of
be the prey of some animal. Need I say that all this        God, Who came into. this world of sin and death in
is a picture of us, who always go astray, each one in       all the weakness of sinful flesh to seek and to save
his own stubborn, willful way? We can even add to           His lost sheep. He came to do the Father's will, to


244                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



surrender Himself in perfect obedience to the             those perishing, but the power of God to all who
Father's will, to carry out the eternal counsel of re-    are saved.
demption, to save those whom God has chosen                 Therefore the Savior can confidently add con-
unto Himself to be His peculiar possession forever.       cerning His sheep, "And they shall hear My voice."
When Christ was twelve years old He spoke of              His sheep recognize His voice. One reason why
being busy in the work of His Father. He bowed            they recognize His voice is that the Holy Spirit ap-
under an ever increasing burden of God's wrath            plies the Word to their hearts. We are regenerated
upon our sins, which He had to bear away through          by the Holy Spirit, so that we have the life of Christ
His atoning death on the cross. Without wavering,         in us, a new, heavenly life. To that new life the
our Lord walked the way of suffering, descending          Holy Spirit addresses the Word. Therefore, in the
ever deeper into the anguish of His approaching           second place, we agree wholeheartedly with what
death. He was despised, reproached, hated, cast           we hear. We hear the voice of Jesus calling: awake,
out, condemned to die the accursed death of the           thou that sleepest, arise from the dead. We bestir
cross for our sakes. He surrendered Himself to the        ourselves and become aware of the fact that we are
torment of separation from God in the consuming           wretched sinners, who are worthy only of condem-
fire of divine wrath to deliver us from the clutches      nation, because of all our rebellion and our sins.
of the devil, sin, death, and hell. Out of the depths     No, no one need tell us that Jesus loves us as lost
of hell arose the cry, "Behold, I have found My           sinners. How can He love me, as I am in my sin?
sheep that were lost! " He came forth out of death        But the Word does expose my sins, it does drive me
and the grave as the Shepherd of His sheep to lead        to the cross, and there I find mercy in forgiveness. I
His flock into the sheepfold of heavenly glory. He        still need that Word to guide me, to feed me, to
loved His own even to the point where He laid             bring me step by step unto my complete salvation. I
down His life to save them.                               need the defending, preserving power of my Good
  In heaven Jesus is still deeply conscious of that       Shepherd. No false shepherd can give me that. I
"must" of which He speaks. He still says, "Them           recognize his voice also, but then as a voice of a
also I must bring." Our Intercessor is in the heav-       stranger, whom I must avoid, for he never seeks
ens, pleading upon the basis of His accomplished          my good. The Good Shepherd calls, "Come unto
work of the cross, that we may be where He is, in         Me," and by the drawing power of His grace we
Father's house with its many mansions. He is pre-         come, not once, but daily, in prayer and longing.
paring a place there for each of the redeemed, who
are purchased by His blood and have the right to a           "And there will be one flock and one Shepherd."
place in Father's presence as His children. Jesus is      That is our Lord's comforting assurance and our
still our Savior in the heavens; He is still our Shep-    eternal security. If salvation depended in any way
herd. He receives from the Father the Holy Spirit of      on a preacher or on us, our Lord could never say
truth, Whom He sends to dwell in the church. That         this, and we could never be assured of our preser-
began at Pentecost. Christ also sends forth His ser-      vation, not even in the last hours of our life. But
vants, whom He calls to proclaim the gospel, the          Christ is gathering His own unto Himself, even
glad tidings of His accomplished salvation. These         until the last one is called out of death into life and
are under-shepherds, ambassadors of Jesus Christ,         prepared for heaven. Then He will come again to
whose sole calling is to preach the Word, in season       take us into the sheepfold of glory, which is the glo-
and out of season  - the whole Word, the whole            rious kingdom in which we will live and reign with
counsel of God, but also nothing but the Word.            Christ forever. There will be no missing sheep in
These messengers of Jesus are recognized by the           that heavenly flock, no empty seats at the wedding
fact that they not only believe in the infallibly in-     feast of the Lamb. Yes, perish the thought, which is
spired,  inerrant Word of God, but they are               so deeply unworthy of our God and of His Christ.
thoroughly convinced that this Word, and this             The whole assembly of the elect will be united in
Word only, is the power unto salvation, because it        one body, all its members serving each other and
is God's power, spoken by His servants, applied to        functioning in their own capacity, as each one is
the hearts of God's elect by the Holy Spirit. Faithful    given the ability to function, to the glory of the
servants know that only Christ builds His church,         Father. The bride will be eternally devoted in
not man. Only Christ can open hearts and make             loving service to the Bridegroom, that God may be
them receptive to the gospel. Only the Holy Spirit        all in all.
can open doors for missionaries to bring the Word            One flock and one Shepherd. Yes, even then we
of God to lost sinners. Therefore they need no gim-       will need Christ as our Shepherd. He will be our
micks, no human attractions, no well-oiled                Lord, our King, from Whom we receive every bles-
machinery to win souls for Christ, no prayers that        sing. In Him we shall see the riches of our salva-
are addressed more to men than to God. They               tion, the wonder of God's boundless mercy and
preach Christ, crucified and risen, foolishness to        eternal grace. In Christ we will have perfect fellow-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              245



ship with one another, with Him, and with the                  teousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I
Father. We shall see the Father in Christ, and adore           walk through the valley of the shadow of
the glorious brightness of His holiness and righ-              death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me:
teousness, His truth and His grace. Then, yes then,            Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou
I shall be satisfied.                                          preparest a table before me in the presence of
  Even now we can confess:                                     mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with
                                                               oil: my cup runneth over.
  The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. He                Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
  maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He                  the days of my life; and I will dwell in the
  leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth             house of the Lord for ever.
  my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righ-

EDITORIAL


                         Our Special Missions Issue
                                                 Prof. H. C. Hoekbema



   This is the third, and last, of our special issues for      Positively speaking, I could mention more than
this volume-year. This time the theme of the entire          one reason. One reason is suggested in Prof.
issue is our Protestant Reformed mission outreach;           Decker's article: this issue should certainly give the
and all of the articles, including our regular church        lie to that vicious little lie which our enemies have
news column, which tempts many readers to start              so often spread abroad concerning us, that "the
reading with the back page, are devoted to this sub-         Protestant Reformed Churches don't believe in
ject. I take this opportunity to express thanks to all       doing mission work. " Another version of that same
those who have contributed to this missions issue. I         lie has been that the Protestant Reformed Churches
will not play favorites and call your attention to           only do mission work among Christian Reformed
this or that article as being of special interest; read      people. In recent years we have not heard it as fre-
all of them, for they are all worthwhile.                    quently as in the past. But I would suggest that an
   Perhaps the question may arise in the minds of            issue such as this one certainly should convincingly
some: why does the  Stundurd  Bearer present this            bury that slander forever!
missions issue?                                                A second reason is simply to inform. Sometimes
   I must confess that when our staff sub-commit-            we tend to think that our various mission endeav-
tee, Prof. Decker and I, planned the issue, we did           ors are the endeavors of someone else, be it of the
not stop to give account of our reasons. The plan            "church," or synod, of this or that committee, or of
was rather spontaneous. And, as with other special           our missionaries. But the simple fact is that these
issues, we have found more than enough material              labors are not those of some impersonal third party,
to fill our pages; in fact, the editorial department         but very really OUTS. And we not only have a right to
must be abbreviated in order to provide sufficient           know what is going on, but we have a vital spiritual
room for articles which were written specifically            interest in knowing about these labors, or at least
for this issue.                                              we ought to have such an interest. Hence, this is an
                                                             effort to keep you informed; and it is an effort to
   Nevertheless, if I must give account of our rea-          stir up your interest at the same time. Personally, I
sons, I would say, negatively, that the reason is not        find this issue rather exciting; and I think that our
that we wish to brag. For if anything has become             churches are living in some exciting times!
evident in the course of the history of our Protes-
tant Reformed missions through the years, it is the             A third reason, closely related to the second, was
fact that we have nothing of which to brag. Not              suggested to me in a recent letter from an elderly
only are we small, and not only are our mission ef-          friend. I have never met this friend, but know him
forts proportionately as small as is our denomina-           only through correspondence during the  last-
tion, but also on the mission field we have learned          several years. He is not a member of our churches,
the object lesson that all our boasting must be of the       cannot be one because he doesn't live near one of
Lord our God.                                                our churches. I may be mistaken, but I think he


246                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



originally became acquainted with us through our          people with respect to the common grace contro-
radio program when it was broadcast in southern           versy. But also in recent years this has been the
California. Through the years we have correspon-           case-and probably much more often than many of
ded sporadically, and from time to time he has sent        our people realize. Those of us who are close to our
generous gifts, asking me to use them wherever             publishing efforts are aware of this and have the
they were needed in our churches. Recently this            opportunity of learning through correspondence or
friend moved to another state, and he missed re-          through personal contacts what a mighty means of
ceiving our annual Acts of Synod and Yearbook.            instruction the pen can be. Often these contacts are
Realizing, I suppose, that I might wonder why he          made in the most unexpected manner and the most
would want to read such a dry-as-dust booklet as          unlikely quarter. This past summer, for example, I
our Acts of Synod, he added his reason: "so I can         met a young man in Singapore who told me he had
pray more intelligently for your churches." Well,         purchased Behold, He Cometh! in London, England
that is a good reason for this missions issue: so you     and through it had become convinced of the error
can pray more intelligently for our missions, but         of the premillennial position and the right of the
also for our missionaries.                                amillennial position. And examples can be multi-
  A fourth reason is the fact that the  Standard          plied of people whose hearts were warmed through
Bearer and the Reformed Free Publishing Associa-          the reading of our publications and their Reformed
tion down through the years have always been vi-          testimony.
tally interested in and played an active part in our         I had intended to write a separate editorial about
Protestant Reformed outreach. If a list could be          the part of our publications in our missions. But as
compiled of all the instances in which'the Standard       usual, the editorial department had to be abridged
Beaver and R.F.P.A. publications have played a part       in order to make room for all the material in this
in getting people acquainted with our Protestant          issue.
Reformed cause and in which they have even been              But let us remember: the pen is indeed mightier
the initial means or occasion of our mission labors,      than the sword, especially when that pen is em-
I assure you such a list would be large! This was the     ployed in the service of the sword of the Spirit,
case in our early years, when the Standard Bearer         which is the Word of God!
was the chief means of informing and instructing

SPECIAL ARTICLE


                   Protestant Reformed Missions
                                             Prof. Robert D. Decker



  In the past our churches were rather severely            sons promiscuously and without distinction, to
criticized because of an alleged lack of emphasis on      whom God out of His good pleasure sends the
mission work. In fact, many accused us of not even         gospel" (Canons ofDordrecht, 1618, 1619; II, Art. 5).
believing in mission work. To a certain extent these       Precisely because of our deep commitment to this
charges are still leveled at our churches. It is said,     confession of the Reformed faith we deny that the
for example, that because we deny a "well-meant           gospel is a well-meant offer. And, precisely because
offer" of the gospel we are not able to preach on the     this is our conviction we have always maintained
mission fields. Nothing could be farther from the         that the promise of the gospel and the command to
truth. The Protestant Reformed churches have              repent and believe must be proclaimed to all
always believed it their calling to go into all the       nations, wherever God out of His good pleasure
world and make disciples of all nations. The Protes-      sends the gospel. For this reason as well the Protes-
tant Reformed Churches have always heartily con-          tant Reformed Churches have been engaged in mis-
fessed, without any reservations, "Moreover, the          sion work from the earliest days of their separate
promise of the gospel is, that whosoever believeth        existence as a denomination.
in Christ crucified, shall not perish, but have ever-
lasting life. This promise, together with the                In the earliest years this work was largely done
command to repent and believe, ought to be de-            by the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema. Taking time
clared and published to all nations, and to all per-      from his large and busy congregation, Rev.  Hoek-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             247


sema went on preaching and lecture tours through          measure of our God-given ability.
Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and California. God gave          "We believe that this missionary activity
the increase. In the first ten years of our existence     includes the work of church extension, and church
as a denomination our churches grew from the ori-         reformation, as well as the task of carrying out the
ginal three to nineteen congregations. During this        Gospel to the unchurched and heathen. However,
time (1931) the Domestic Mission Committee was            we are convinced that our present duty lies pri-
organized. This committee, in cooperation with the        marily in the field of church extension and church
Reformed Publishing Association and the Sunday            reformation." This priority is still maintained by
School of First Church in Grand Rapids, published         our churches, as is evident from the fact that two of
many books and pamphlets which were distributed           our ministers, the Rev. Steven Houck and the Rev.
both in this country and abroad.                          Ronald Van Overloop, are engaged in home
  In 1936 the Rev. Bernard Kok was called as our          mission work. Rev. Houck preaches in East Lans-
first missionary. For some five years Rev. Kok            ing, Michigan and Rev. Van  Overloop  preaches in
labored in the Midwest and West preaching the             Birmingham, Alabama. It should be added that
gospel of sovereign grace. The fruit of his work was      several of our ministers, having taken calls to small
the organization of the Edgerton, Minnesota and           congregations, concentrated their ministries on
Manhatten, Montana congregations. In 1943 our             church extension. In two instances God blessed
church in Randolph, Wisconsin was organized               this work with abundant growth. When Rev. Ber-
through the work of Rev. C. Hanko, who was                nard Woudenberg arrived in Lynden, Washington
pastor of Oak Lawn at the time. In subsequent             in 1965 the congregation had shrunk to five
years, up to the split of 1953, various of the minis-     families. When he left for Kalamazoo in 1976  Lyn-
ters labored in the West and among the flood of           den numbered twenty-four families. Today Lynden
post-war immigrants in Canada. The only congrega-         has forty-two families. Rev. Woudenberg continues
tion to be organized and which is still a part of our     to operate an extensive tape and radio ministry in
churches was in Lynden, Washington. For ten               Kalamazoo. When Rev. John Heys arrived in Hol-
years after the split of 1953 (1954-1964) Rev.            land, Michigan in 1967 the congregation numbered
George C. Lubbers was our home missionary. That           fifteen families. When Pastor Heys became emeri-
God blessed the faithful preaching and teaching of        tus in 1980, Holland had grown to nearly fifty
Rev. Lubbers is abundantly evident in the congre-         families. Finally, it should be noted that First,
gations of Loveland, Colorado and Isabel, South           Grand Rapids is currently doing home mission
Dakota which he organized. The church at Forbes,          work among a fairly sizable group in Bradenton,
North Dakota, also organized as a result of Rev.          Florida. God has blessed our churches with the
Lubbers' work, eventually disbanded when most if          heritage of the Reformed faith, which maintains
its families moved to other of our churches. In the       and defends the absolute sovereignty of God. A wit-
seventies Rev. Robert Harbach and Rev. Dale               ness has gone forth from our churches to this
Kuiper served as home missionaries in Houston,            blessed truth. The calling remains the same for the
Texas and in Maine, respectively. The Trinity Prot-       churches today. May God give us grace as churches
estant Reformed Church in Houston was organized           in these troubled and wicked times to be faithful to
as a fruit of these labors.                               the Reformed faith and to preach it from our pul-
  Accompanying the work of the missionaries and           pits and on the mission fields wherever He opens
ministers through the years has been the work of          doors for us.
local church extension committees, radio programs           In the history of Protestant Reformed missions,
by some of the ministers, the Reformed Witness            two dates are of great importance. The first of these
Hour, and the printing of thousands of tracts,            is 1962. In this year the scope of our mission vision
pamphlets, and booklets, and public lectures.             was significantly broadened by our contacts and
  This was home mission work or church exten-             work with the people of the hills of Jamaica. In-
sion work. It has always been the Protestant Re-          terestingly enough, this contact was initiated by our
formed position that our first duty and responsibil-      radio ministry, the Reformed Witness Hour. This
ity lies with those who are nearest to us. This is ex-    broadcast was aired on Transworld Radio, which
pressed in the Preamble to the Mission Constitu-          covered Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Tas-
tion: "The Protestant Reformed Churches believe           mania. A pastor from England, hearing the broad-
that, in obedience to the command of Christ, the          cast, began corresponding with Rev. C. Hanko and
King of the Church, to preach the blessed Gospel to       told him of the mission field in Jamaica. Our
all creatures, baptizing them and teaching them to        churches took over that field and have been busy
observe all things which Christ has commanded, it         there ever since. In 1970 Rev. Lubbers again
is the explicit duty and sacred privilege of said         heeded the call of Christ to the mission field and
churches to carry out this calling according to the       began his labors in Jamaica. In the course of his


248                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



ministry and in addition to regular Sunday                                group called the Gospel Literature and Tract
preaching and teaching, Rev. Lubbers trained                              Society (G.L.T.S.). Their goal is to be organized into
several young men to become pastors of the indi-                          an indigenous Reformed Church in Singapore. One
genous churches of Jamaica. Other of our mini-                            of their number, Mr. Lau Chin Kwee, is currently
sters, notably Revs. Heys and Woudenberg and C.                           studying at our Seminary. Another may be coming
Hanko, have faithfully provided tapes and study                           to the Seminary next year.
materials for the Jamaican pastors and their                                In addition to its home mission work the Protes-
families. Several of our Elders have gone as emis-                        tant Reformed Churches are deeply involved in
saries and aided the Jamaican saints in countless                         foreign mission work. The churches are committed
ways. Our prayer is that God will continue to bless                       to this task, as well they should be. Christ has com-
His church in Jamaica with growth in the know-                            manded the church to go to the nations, and the
ledge of Him Whom to know is life eternal.                                Protestant Reformed Churches desire by God's
      The second date is 1979. During the course of                       grace to be faithful to this great work. May God
this year the Rev. Arie den Hartog was called by                          use our churches, also in the days to come, for the
Christ through the  Doon,  Iowa church to preach                          gathering of the elect out of all nations, and thus for
the gospel in faraway Singapore. Having accepted                         the coming of His Kingdom. May all of our people
the call, Rev. den Hartog became the second mis-                          support this work with fervent prayer and generous
sionary from the Protestant Reformed Churches to                          offerings. And above all may the glory belong to
preach the gospel of sovereign grace on foreign soil.                     God Who works all things after the counsel of His
Pastor den Hartog is presently working with a                             own will.




                            Home Missions: Birmingham
                                                             Rev. R. Van Overloop



      It is truly with good purpose that Scripture so                         brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle,
often speaks of the preaching of the gospel under                             because the harvest is come.
the figure of farming. Increasingly, in mission                             I believe it fitting to quote the brief expositional
work, we see the appropriateness of this figure and                      remarks John Calvin makes on this passage in his
learn the lessons it teaches.
         -                                                                commentary.
      Probably the best known use of this figure is in                         Although this parable points in the same direction
the parable of the sower sowing the seed on the dif-                         as the two previous ones (the lowly beginnings of the
ferent kinds of soil (Matthew  13:1-g,  18-23). In this                      Gospel-R.V.O.), yet Christ seems particularly to
parable we learn of the various responses which                              refer to ministers of the Word, lest they should exe-
the preaching of the good news receives. These                               cute their office with less enthusiasm when.no fruit of
responses are determined by the soil upon which                              their labours  appears immediately. Therefore He tells
the seed of the Word falls.                                                  them to be like farmers who sow seed in the hope of
                                                                             harvesting it and are not worried and anxious but go
      Paul uses this same figure in I Corinthians 3:6,7.                     to bed and get up-in other words they get on with
"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the                           their daily work and are refreshed by a good night's
increase. So then neither is he that planteth any                            sleep-until at last in its own time the corn is ripe.
thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth                         Therefore, although the seed of the Word lies choked
the increase."                                                               for a while, Christ bids all godly teachers to be of good
                                                                             cheer and not to let distrust diminish their zeal.
      Another (not so well known) parable which uses
this figure is found in Mark 4:26-29.                                       We learn from the hand of the Lord in experience
                                                                         as well as from His holy Word the necessity of pa-
         And He said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man              tience. Someone has said that the,first fruit any gar-
       should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep,               den or field produces is patience in the one who
 -     and rise night and day and the seed should spring and             planted and waits for the harvest. How true that
       grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth               is in the mission field. All good things come slowly.
       forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after
       that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is                 The field on which I report in this article is


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             249



centered in Birmingham, Alabama. For approxi-             Scriptures. Rather than letting the Scriptures inter-
mately a year and a half we have set ourselves to         pret themselves, people allow historical and
the task of scattering the precious and pure seed of      current events to do the interpreting. Therefore we
the Word of God. This we have done under the              are finding this study enlightening and enjoyable.
watchful care and helpful supervision of South              Currently we are advertising Christian Literature
Holland Protestant Reformed Church and of the             distributed by the Protestant Reformed Churches.
Mission Committee of the Protestant Reformed              The last ad elicited five telephone calls requesting
Churches.                                                 some or all of the six pamphlets and two booklets
  The sowing of this seed of the Gospel is in the         which were listed in the ad. We anticipate also
preaching of the Word. Therefore we gather every          some written requests. This is another excellent
Lord's Day for worship services. These are at 10          way to spread the pure truth. Again, it is very diffi-
A.M. and 6 P.M. We meet in an upper room of a             cult to anticipate the fruit which might be pro-
local labor union hall. An ad in the religious section    duced. We can only exercise ourselves in patience.
of the local newspapers gives public notification of        In the last few months we have had contact
our worship services and welcomes others to               with a local Christian High School. We have con-
worship with us.                                          ducted chapel on four occasions. Also we have
  The Scripture reading and the sermon from the           taught two Bible classes on two occasions. This
services are recorded. This is for duplication and        contact too can only be considered as a very good
distribution on cassette tapes, which is an excellent     way to scatter the seed of the Gospel. And again,
means of extending our witness. Each family of our        once we scatter the seed, then all we do is water
group is given a tape for their own use or for distri-    and wait. But this waiting is upon Jehovah Who
bution to others. As is well known, this is a very        alone gives the increase.
good way to develop interest in our preaching,              There is something to be said about this field of
when people can listen to the tapes in the privacy of     mission labor, in my opinion. It has to do with the
their homes.                                              location of this field, rather than the labor. We are
  Our radio program is another reason a portion of        referring to the fact that Birmingham is located in
our worship service is recorded. We have rented an        the southeastern part of the United States. There
hour time slot on a local 100,000 watt religious FM       are a lot of churches in that portion of our country
radio station. There is not a lot of obvious fruit to     which is sometimes referred to with the
radio broadcasting. However, in several curious           designation "Bible-belt." But in this area there is a
ways we have learned that there are those who             dearth of that which is called Reformed. Histori-
listen to our radio broadcast. We do feel that we are     cally the Presbyterians were Reformed; but we are
able to reach quite an audience through this means.       grieved to say that is, for the most part, no longer
Thus the goal of giving a witness is certainly            true. They either ignore their historical creeds or
attained. We pray that He Who sovereignly                 have changed them so as to remove their Reformed
controls all things will direct others to turn their      character. The remaining portion of the Bible-belt
radio dials to hear us and that He will open their        is so stretched and even broken that it is badly in
hearts to hear and believe and join us in worship.        need of suspenders to help it maintain its former
                                                          name. The name  `,`Reformed" is unknown for the
  To date the field has produced a harvest of four        most part. So we, from our human viewpoint, see
families who have expressed themselves as                 Birmingham, which is centrally located in the
committed to our cause. Interestingly, these four         southeast, as possibly an excellent center from
families are all young. Of the seven children, there      which we can extend our witness. With that too in
is only one over the age of five. We find this an en-     mind, we are zealous for the cause of God and pray
couraging sign for future labors. We can see several      for His blessing in the way of an increase and fruit.
sprouts coming forth from the field.                      We ask for your prayers as well.
  Within this group the Seed of the Word is also
sown. We meet in our homes for our midweek
meetings in which we have gone through the
Sermon on the Mount and are now taking a  22-                 The Standard Bearer
week examination of the Book of Revelation. The
choice of this book for Bible study was that of the         makes a thoughtful gift.
group. They felt strongly the need for the light of
Scripture taken as a whole on the subject of the
"things which must shortly come to pass." In the                       for a.shu t-in.
Bible belt there is much talk about the last times,
but very little is done with a careful study of the


250                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



                          Home Missions: Lansing
                                                Rev. Steven Houck.



  In Matthew  16:18 the evangelist records for us          rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Re-
one of the most encouraging promises our Lord has          formed Faith, though it is very precious to us, is
ever given to His people. Jesus said, "I will build        despised by the world. And those who call them-
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail         selves Christians are often times the most vicious
against it." Encouraging indeed! For by that short         enemies of what we preach. To them the things we
statement our Beloved Saviour tells us that the            teach are "hard sayings." The bondage of the will,
church is His church, and therefore that we who            particular redemption, election and reprobation,
belong to that church belong to Him. Is not that the       the particular love of God, the Sovereignty of God,
very word of comfort which we confess with our             these are all truths that the natural man rejects and
fathers, "that I, with body and soul, both in life and     refuses to believe. And yet, all these belong to the
in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful         gospel of God's sovereign grace which we preach.
Saviour Jesus Christ"? Certainly that is our only          It should not be difficult to understand, therefore,
comfort; for that means that we belong to the One          why we make such slow progress toward the es-
Who redeems us from sin and death and Who holds            tablishment of a church in the Lansing area. Unless
us so securely in His hands that nothing "shall be         God Almighty works in the hearts of men, to turn
able to separate us from the love of God which is in       them unto Himself and to an acceptance of the Re-
Christ Jesus our Lord." As He Himself said, "the           formed Faith, we can do absolutely nothing to
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The           change their beliefs. As Jesus said, "without Me ye
Church is His and it is most certainly saved with          can do nothing."
His precious blood and given eternal life in Him for          This is not to say, however, that God is not work-
the glory of God.                                          ing here in a positive way, for  w'e have very defi-
  And yet, in these words of Jesus, there is some-         nitely experienced His presence among us. For one
thing else which is especially encouraging to a mis-       thing, we have seen among those who regularly
sionary. And that is the expression, "I will build."       attend our services and Bible studies definite
Our Lord tells us that He is the One Who builds His        growth. Although we do not agree on all points of
Church. It is not the work of man. It is not a             doctrine, yet for over a year we have been studying
missionary or any other man who saves souls. It is         God's Word together; and that has been very bene-
not even a joint effort of God and man together. No,       ficial in many ways. It has given us the opportunity
it is God's work exclusively. He alone can and does        to study the particulars of the Reformed faith and
build His church. That does not mean that He               especially the distinctive teachings of our Protes-
doesn't use means; for He certainly does. The              tant Reformed Churches. And that is essential to
Church may not neglect her calling to "go and              the work of missions. One can not embrace the
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the       truths which our churches hold dear if he does not
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Nor        know what they are. That is why we have geared
must a missionary ever think that he does not have         both the preaching and the Bible Studies in such a
to work and work hard to fulfill his calling. But it       way that we focus our attention on that truth. In
does mean that both the missionary and the church          our preaching on Sunday mornings we follow the
can have the confidence that whatever the outcome          line of instruction given in the Heidelberg Cate-
of our labors, God's purpose in Christ Jesus for His       chism. In our Wednesday evening Bible study we
church is always accomplished. God, in Christ              consider together the teachings of the Canons of
Jesus, through the Spirit of Christ is the One Who         Dort. It is especially this study that has given those
does the work of missions.                                 who worship with us an opportunity to consider
  It is that fundamental principle of missions             what we believe in the light of the Scriptures. It also
which encourages us as we endeavor by God's                has given them the opportunity to ask questions on
grace "to preach the gospel to every creature," both       a variety of issues.
from the pulpit on Sundays and from door to door             Besides this work among the adults, we have
as we make contact with the people of the                  been very active in teaching the children. We now
community. Much of the time it is very difficult, if       teach a total of five catechism classes. After the
not impossible, to know exactly what fruit our             morning service on Sundays, we teach a class on
labors yield. And when we do see fruit it is, many         Essentials as well as a class on the Heidelberg Cate-
times, negative rather than positive. There is much        chism to the older children of the group. On


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 251


Monday evenings we teach two Bible history                        with any regularity (sometimes we have many in a
classes to the younger children. On Tuesday                       short time; other times we have none for a long
evenings we go to the MSU campus and have a                       period of time), they do come and they do hear the
Catechism class with our P.R. students there. In all              preaching. Yes, many seem to be hostile to the
of this instruction we have been blessed by the way               Word and others seem to be indifferent to it; but
God works with our children. It is very encourag-                 they hear the call and with that call God works in
ing to see especially the younger children so eagerly             their hearts according to His purpose.
absorb the truth of the gospel. We as churches                      Besides the preaching on Sunday we have been
ought to thank God for the tradition of good  cate-               able to make many personal contacts with the
chetical instruction among us. We as parents must                 people of the community, especially some of the
take great care to be faithful to teach our children              students at MSU. We regularly advertise some of
the truth. As missionary, I see in a very dramatic                our RFPA literature in several local newspapers.
way, the difference between the reaction of adults                We distribute this free of charge to anyone who
to the Word of God and the reaction of children to                asks. At times the response to these ads has been
it. While many adults whom I contact outside of                   very good. We keep a record of all requests and
our group have great difficulty with the truth, our               then follow them up with personal contact. In all of
children receive it without question. It reminds me               this the Word of God is getting out into the com-
of the words of Jesus; "Verily I say unto you, who-               munity.
soever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a                    More recently we have begun two new programs
little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mark 10:15).           designed to reach out into the community. For the
   We have been very pleased with the way God                     first time it is now possible to hear the Reformed
has given us opportunity to preach the gospel to                  Witness Hour in the Lansing area. A radio station in
many people of the community. Although we can                     Charlotte (WGWY  - AM 1390) airs our programs
do nothing to save men, our calling is to be an                   every Sunday at  1:30 P.M. Not only is this a bles-
"ambassador on behalf of Christ." We must                         sing to those who are a regular part of our group,
"publish the (particular) promise of the gospel to-               but it is a witness of the gospel in the whole com-
gether with the command to repent and believe to                  munity. We have not seen a very great response to
all persons promiscuously and without distinction                 these programs as of yet, but it is too early to evalu-
to whom God, out of His good pleasure, sends the                  ate their effectiveness. Besides, we have the
gospel" (Canons II, 5). This, by God's grace, we are              promise that God's Word never returns unto Him
doing. We can definitely state that much of the                   void.
community is aware of our presence here, and                        Our newest venture is a public Bible study held
many have heard the call of the gospel to repent                  on the MSU campus. Every Tuesday evening we
and believe. In the first place there is the preaching            meet for an hour with our P.R. students, Tom
on Sunday. Over the course of our time here we                    Yeutter from our group, and any visitors that may
have seen many visitors attend our services. The                  have come. We are studying Luke's account of the
fact that our meeting place (University S.D.A.                    gospel. We want to present the simple facts of the
Church) is so close to the MSU campus and there-                  gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as they are revealed
fore very accessible to visitors has been a great                 in His brith, ministry, suffering, death, and resur-
asset to our labors. Although visitors do not come                rection. We hope that our humble beginning of this
                                                                  endeavor will blossom into bigger and better
                                                                  things. It would be nice if eventually there would
                                                                  be a large group of students meeting together with
                                                                  us. But, for that, we will have to wait and see what
                                                                  is the will of our Heavenly Father.
                                                                    And that brings me to a very important point
                                                                  which I would like to make. We have several mis-
                                                                  sion fields in which we are presently laboring.
                                                                  Some of these fields are more fruitful than others.
                                                                  With respect to the less fruitful fields, it is very easy
                                                                  for us as churches as well as for us as missionaries
                                                                  to become impatient and to give up almost before
                                                                  we have become settled in our labors. In our fast
                                                                  moving world it seems that we want everything to
                                                                  happen right away and everything to happen big.
                                                                  Our idea of success so often is no different, in
Our meeting place: University S.D.A. Church, 149 Highland Ave.    practice at least, from that of the Arminian. We


252                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



want to see numbers; we want to see great "reviv-         us not become impatient with what God is doing or
als'.`; we want to see some kind of a massive public      not doing; that is sin. But let us be faithful in the
movement to the Reformed faith. But our own               work to which He has called us. It takes time,
experience with mission work in the U.S.A. ought          sometimes a very long time; to establish a new
to teach us that, at least at the present, that is not    church. Things do not happen overnight. Let us
the way God is working. Do we not believe that            therefore persevere in our labors. Let us work even
"God sends the gospel" to whom  He.desires  "out          harder. Pray for our missionaries and for those with
of his good pleasure" (Canons II,  5)? Do we not          whom they work. Take an interest in what is hap-
believe that those who hear that gospel and believe       pening on the mission field. Get involved in what-
that gospel and are thus "delivered and saved from        ever way you can, as churches and as individuals.
sin and destruction," are "indebted for this benefit      But above all, wait patiently upon our Sovereign
solely to the grace of God"? In short, do we not          God to do all His good pleasure. Jesus said, "I will
believe that this work is God's work? Then we             build my church." Do you believe that? I do, and
must learn to recognize the present condition of our      that is my comfort and encouragement as your mis-
mission work as God's good pleasure, and patient-         sionary laboring in Lansing.
ly, in faith, wait upon Him in all our endeavors. Let




           Church Extension Work: Bradenton
                                                 Rev. C. Hanko


  Sunday morning. There is an air of `eager expec-          Soon others arrive. Some of them are well known
tancy among the early arrivals at the Christian           to us, because, even though they are not members
School in Bradenton, where the Protestant Reform-         of our church, they faithfully attend our services.
ed Churches are now holding services. Formerly            Some have relatives or friends in our churches.
we met in the Manatee River Hotel, but for various        Some have had earlier contact with our churches,
reasons we sought a new meeting place and gained          either having been members, or having attended
consent from the local Christian School Board to          services in our churches, or having read our per-
use one of the classrooms for our meetings. Those         iodicals. Some never attended our services before,
who have come a bit early are eagerly ,awaiting the       and some never knew of our existence, but saw our
arrival of others, especially of new faces, as is         ads in the local paper. Most of those who are from
experienced every Sunday. This is so different from       other denominations are either from the northern
some of my earlier experiences in mission work.           States or from Canada. Our audiences number all
Often when a new field was opened, and I hap-             the way from twenty-five at the beginning of the
pened to be present, we were filled with anxiety,         season to more than seventy at the height of the
wondering whether any one at all would show up            tourist season. To date this audience consists quite
for our meetings or services. Our hearts virtually        consistently of two-thirds of our own people and
missed a beat every time another car drove up. We         one third from other churches. This means that at
were happy when we had enough people to hold a            our services we have from ten to twenty-five or
meeting. Here in Bradenton we anticipate seeing           thirty people present who do not regularly enjoy
many who attend our services regularly, and are           the truths as proclaimed from our pulpits. We must
always eager to make new acquaintances. It is true        remember that this audience changes somewhat
that many who attend our services and our weekly          from week to week. Those who are here for a short
Bible Study Group are members of one of our Pro-          visit return to their homes, new faces appear and
testant Reformed Churches, who are spending a             new acquaintances are made. The result is that
few weeks or a few months in Florida; These are a         during the winter season we do have contact with a
God-given support in the mission efforts that are         number of people from various parts of our own
being carried out. They make it so  ,much more            country and of Canada.
pleasant for strangers from other denominations to
come to our services, since these visitors know that        Every minister who has been here has greatly en-
they will not be the only ones there. Besides, many       joyed preaching the Word to this audience and
fr,om other churches plainly enjoy the fellowship         leading the Bible Study Group from week to week;
that they have with us.                                   From the attention and from the singing it becomes


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                             253


evident that the Word is well received. It has been        to-preach I want to be with my own people in my
said that it is so quiet during the service that one       own church, and I miss that fellowship when I am
can hear a pin drop. This always makes preaching a         not there. It always saddens me when on some holi-
special pleasure, as only he can know who has been         day week end, like a Labor Day week end, a
in the pulpit. When we read of Jesus' public minis-        number of vacant seats stand out in our churches.
try, we read that there were times when He could           Yet we are living in a time when people travel and
perform no mighty works in a certain place, be-            do take vacations. I admire those who arrange their
cause of their unbelief. On the other hand, we also        vacations in such a way that they can still attend
read that there were occasions when the people             worship services in one of our churches. Therefore
eagerly received His Word, because He spoke so             I can sincerely appreciate the efforts of those here
that even a child could understand Him, and with           in Bradenton, who are here for health reasons, to
authority, which was lacking among the scribes.            arrange for our own services here and to strive for
The latter is certainly the case in our Sunday ser-        organizing a local Protestant Reformed Church.
vices. The people receive the Word with gladness.          Assuming now that most of those who come here in
They testify of being strengthened in the faith, of        the winter do so because it is important for them to
being spiritually fed, of experiencing the power of        avoid the intense cold of the north, we can see that
the Scriptures, the Gospel of salvation.                   God uses also these people to prepare for us an
  Our people here have often wished that others of         open door for the preaching of the Word in this
our churches could be present in and after our ser-        area. Who knows how God wants to use these ef-
vices. Remarks are made by those who heard us for          forts at this place for the furtherance of His church
the first time, like, "That is the kind of preaching in    and kingdom?
which I was brought up"; or, "That is the truth that         The remark has been made that by holding ser-
I learned as a child, which is so sorely lacking in        vices in this area we are encouraging members of
our day." Some express concern about the apostasy          our churches to leave their own church and come
in the churches of today. Others, as one remarked          here. It is still a question in my mind whether this
last Sunday, note that under our preaching they ex-        is any more true of the work here than it is of the
perience the riches of the truth of the Scriptures.        established church in Redlands, California, or else-
  During the week we have opportunity to meet              where. It is also questionable whether there are
some of our Sunday guests at the Bible Study               that many more now than before who spend a few
Group, where we are studying the Book of Revela-           weeks or the season in Florida. In any case, we do
tion. We also avail ourselves of the opportunity to        have members of our churches that spend their
visit people in their homes, which is usually a            summer vacations away from home, and in that
pleasant experience. About eight couples who               case we urge them to make every effort to attend
attend our services regularly have homes here in           one of our churches. Our services here in  Braden-
Florida. True, they do spend a few weeks or                ton serve the same purpose, be it during the winter
months in the north during the summer, but they            months.
do have a permanent residence here. Some have                Yet it is not for our own people that services are
trailer homes, some have apartments, and some              being conducted in this area. First Church, which
have a full house as in the north. Although it is          sponsors these efforts, wants to reach out to those
never wise to count noses in any mission endeavor,         outside of our churches, to proclaim the glorious
it can be stated that a number of those who have           truth that God has entrusted to us also to others
permanent homes here have expressed the desire             who are not privileged as we are. For this purpose
that we purchase land, build a church, and prove           the Lord has certainly given us an open door in this
that we have every intention of continuing our             area, and it is our duty to take every possible advan-
work until a church is organized. They speak very          tage of this open door. One might object that these
optimistically of a future church in this area.            people are here only temporarily, soon to return to
  Sometimes a fear is expressed among the                  their own communities, scattered throughout the
members of our churches, that we are holding ser-          United States and Canada. This is true for the most
vices here in Bradenton to cater to the few elderly        part. Yet this is also an added reason why the
couples who leave their own churches to spend the          preaching of the Word can be, under God's bless-
winter in a warmer climate. I can well understand          ing, effective here. I am convinced that those who
that fear. Many of us feel very strongly that a faith-     attend our services here have a different and better
ful member of the church should attend the servi-          opinion of our churches than before. The devil has
ces in his own congregation every Sunday, for his          found a powerful weapon against us with all kinds
own benefit, as well as for the communion of saints        of slanderous reports, which have given our
and for the welfare of the congregation. I am in           churches a bad image in the eyes of many. That
hearty agreement with that. Except when I go out           becomes evident from our conversations here. But


254                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



the truth of the Word of God is a power that refutes      idents. We are informed that there are many sum-
those evil, Satanic attacks. Just how our God will        mer vacationers, who spend some time along the
use these people for His own good purpose when            beaches here. We also have reason to believe that a
they return to their homes, no one can say. But we        congregation could be organized consisting of
do know that He is able to use His Word as He             parents and children as well as elderly people, with
deems best, for His Word never returns void. It           a full orbed congregational life that consists of cate-
always does His sovereign good pleasure, both in          chism classes and other activities, as well as Sunday
those who are saved and in those who perish. It is        worship services. There is here a rather large Chris-
our calling to sow the seed and wait upon the Lord        tian school, where we are holding our meetings.
for the harvest.                                          There is another Christian school just outside of
  It has been said that it may take years before we       Bradenton. Young families are moving into the area
have a church in Bradenton. Although this is not          as the possibility of finding work increases. There
necessarily true, let us grant for the moment that        are more young families here now than ever before,
this may be the case. Our past experience has             especially because of such modern conveniences as
taught us that a congregation which comes into            air conditioning. If  .the Lord will, He can and will
existence almost overnight soon experiences the           bring us also younger families to make up a viable
bitter agony of trouble, created by those who had         church at this place. We must go on in faith. As the
ulterior motives for joining us. Our past experience      Dutch expression has it, "Aan des Heeren Zegen is
has also taught us that the Lord takes His, own time      alles gelegen," that is, "Everything depends on the
about arousing real interest in the hearts of others.     blessing of the Lord."
He wants us to be patient and to wait upon Him.              Our big ambition right now is to be able to hold
We should also do so here, even as in our other           services here throughout the year. Then we would
fields. But I am convinced that there is reason to be-    like to see a full-time missionary working here,
lieve, even as many who live here assure `us, that in     and, besides that, our own church property. The
due time a church will be organized in this area.         people here are looking for a suitable location. May
  Nor can it be said that a congregation in this area     our God bless our churches also through these ef-
would consist only of elderly people and winter res-      forts.



                            Mission Work Through
                                 Radio Broadcasting
                                               Mr. David Harbach


  The intent of this article is to provide a concise      Hour, formerly known as the Protestant Reformed
account of the history of the Reformed Witness            Hour, is the fruition of an idea born in the minds of
Hour and a brief look at the present work, of a select    a group of young men during a discussion of the
committee to seek ways of increasing the effective-       decisions of the Synod and Classis  East of the Prot-
ness of the radio broadcasts.                             estant Reformed Churches in regard to Radio
  "Our aim is that the Reformed Witness Hour              work." It was no surprise then that the Young
serve as a propaganda agent for the Protestant Re-        Men's Society of First Church in Grand Rapids
formed Churches and a testimony to the truth of           sponsored the first four years of radio broadcasts.
God's Word as we confess it. We  have!  a definite        Later, in 1945, the consistory of First Church spon-
contribution to make to the church world. Why             sored the program. We are thankful that these pro-
shouldn't people learn to know about us and recog-        grams have been a faithful witness to God's
nize us as a group of strong Reformed churches?"          Covenant of Grace.
The preceding quote appeared in the first issue of          The first broadcast was over WLAV on October
the  Reformed Witness  News, January, 1945.               12, 1941, featuring Reverend Herman Hoeksema.
However, the Reformed Witness Hour had its birth          Rev. Hoeksema consistently maintained that God is
four years earlier. The following is a quote from the     the Lord; did not compromise the truth in order to
souvenir program of the 1000th broadcast of the Re-       satisfy the fancies of the radio audience; did wit-
formed Witness Hour; "the Reformed Witness                ness to the Reformed conception of the Word of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                255



God. Indeed, through the generous labors of Rev..          Radio Choir singing:
H. Hoeksema, the Radio Committee, and the Radio                         "Thou, 0 Lord, art God alone:
Choir, the Reformed Witness in its early years was                 .    Everlasting is Thy Throne;
a true testimony to the Word of God and His Cove-                       Through the ages men shall sing
nant of Grace.                                                          Praise, to heaven's eternal King."
  Rev. H. Hoeksema as the radio pastor spoke on                   In the early 50's the Radio Committee  saw a
many themes. The theme of the first radio broad-           sudden reduction in its membership and stations.
cast was "God is God." In 1944 he spoke on the             During this time the recording equipment was
theme "The Wonder of Grace." He also spoke on              moved into the basement  of. one of the committee
advent and  lenten themes which were later pub-            members. Even during these difficult years the
lished into hardcover books. For several years             broadcasts continued to be faithfully presented.
many people identified the voice of Rev. H.  Hoek-         John M. Faber was president during 1953 when the
sema with the Reformed Witness Hour broadcasts.            committee was reorganized. The two stations main-
During those several years that he was the main            tained at this time were WFUR and CHLO. God
speaker, many people heard the faithful witness to         preserved our ability to proclaim His Word over the
the wonderful truth that God is God.                       air waves, and to Him we are thankful.
  The early history of the Radio Committee was
characterized by a steady, moderate growth in
members and budget. In 1941 the Radio Committee            /
consisted of three members and a yearly budget of
$1200.00. In 1944, the yearly budget was
$5,500.00. In 1945, the committee consisted of thir-
teen members who worked with a monthly budget
of  $l,lOO.OO. The number of Radio Committee
members has remained the same over the years.
However, as the ability to broadcast on more sta-
tions has increased, so has the yearly budget in-
creased. The committee was mandated in 1945 by
the consistory of First Church to "maintain, direct,
and advance the cause of the ministry of the Word
of God by means of the radio, as this means is uti-
lized by the Reformed Witness Hour." By God's
faithfulness to us, His covenant children, and to
His Covenant of Grace this mandate has been car-
ried out for nearly forty years, involving almost
2,000 broadcasts. A note of interest is that our pre-
sent Editor-in-Chief of the  Standard Bearer  was the
main radio announcer for the broadcasts in the                  Recording Studio
early years. He was at that time referred to as Mr.                The 1960's promised to be a time of increasing
Hoeksema.                                                       growth. Our covenant God enabled us to broadcast
  The Protestant Reformed Radio Choir was de-                   our radio programs overseas to many European
veloped in the year 1941 at the request of the Radio            countries by the means of Trans-World Radio,
Committee. Originally there were twelve members.                located at Monte Carlo, Monaco, in southeastern
In 1945 the membership increased to eighteen                    France. A quote from God's Covenant Faithfulness,
members. The Radio Choir supplied music for                     edited by Gertrude Hoeksema, sums up the work,
three out of four broadcasts and rendered several               "The Radio Committee has usually engaged
concerts each year. The original theme song was                 stations in the areas of Protestant Reformed
from Psalter 308. This was later changed to the pre-            Churches, or in areas of home mission work. But in
sent Psalter number 276. A note of recent interest is           the early years of the 1960's, the Reformed Witness
that almost a year ago another Radio Choir was                  Hour was broadcast in Europe by way of  Trans-
formed to begin the task of recording suitable                  World Radio. The committee sent the tapes of the,
music for the radio broadcasts. Over the past few               Reformed Witness Hour to Monte Carlo in Mona-
years the tapes of recorded music have become                   co, where the program was beamed toward
well used and worn-out, so that the need arose to               England, the Netherlands, and surrounding coun-
produce a fresh quality to the musical aspect of the            tries. Although this Trans-World broadcast proved
broadcasts. Even with this recent change, the radio             too expensive for our small denomination to under-
broadcasts still begin, as in the early years, with the         write, the various branches of the denomination


256                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



still have requests for our literature from people         Colorado, and Michigan. Sometime in May we will
who became acquainted with us through our Euro-            be celebrating our 2,OOOth broadcast, D.V. We have
pean broadcast."                                           an appointed committee making preparations for
  The 1970's was a time of reorganization within           this momentous event in our history.
the committee. Many of the people who became                 We also have an appointed committee known as
members of the committee are still members today.          the       "Select Committee" mentioned in the
We also began to realize the importance of the             beginning of this article. The Select Committee is
means of the radio in our mission endeavors. Many          made up of two Radio Committee members, two
small groups of people outside our denomination            ministers from our denomination, and two people
listen to our broadcasts. The mission committee of         not on the Radio Committee but interested in radio
Synod has sponsored stations in areas where there          work. This committee is directly responsible to the
appears to be interest, in order to proclaim God's         Radio Committee. The purpase of this committee is
Word to His people. Sometimes this yields positive         to investigate all of the aspects of the radio broad-
fruit. We are confident that the Reformed Witness          cast and to determine their effectiveness. The
Hour continues to be a strong Reformed witness in          Radio Committee is vitally concerned with the suc-
many areas throughout our nation.                          cess of our programs. We need to know whether or
  The latter part of 1980 was a time of sorrow for         not we are using the money that comes to us from
the Radio Committee. Our chairman was Mr. Larry            our churches, Synod, and individuals in the best
DeMeester. After a long struggle with cancer, our          possible way for the cause of God's Kingdom here
Lord took Larry into glory during the Christmas            on earth. Over  $22,OOO.O0 a year is a lot of money
weeks. "For this God is our God for ever and ever:         and we want to be sure we are getting all that we
He will be our guide even unto death" (Psalm               can for every dollar we spend. We also need to
4814).                                                     know who our listeners are so that we can deter-
                                                           mine who we are trying to reach with our program.
  The Reformed Witness Hour is being broadcast             We need to know whether or not the format of our
over fourteen stations within the United States. The       program is effective in presenting the truth of
yearly cost of this work is now $22,000.00 or more.        God's Word. It is for these reasons and others that
This cost includes the buying of new tapes, the            the Select Committee has been working hard to de-
printing and mailing of every broadcast to 383 lis-        termine the effectiveness of the Reformed Witness
teners, the payment to the ministers in our denomi-        Hour. It is our sincere desire that the proposals
nation for going on the air, and the expenses related      which the Select Committee makes will increase
to radio work. Many of our stations are funded by          the fruit of our labors. We are responsible before
the Mission Board of Synod. First Church continues         God and to the consistory of First Church to carry
to assume the payment for WFUR and other radio             out the mandate given to the Radio Committee
stations. We have stations that broadcast our pro-         many years ago. We are confident that God will
gram in the states of Washington, California, Texas,       continue to use us to be a faithful witness to the
Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota,                  truth of His Word.



                        Foreign Missions: Jamaica
                                                Rev. G. Van Buren



  With considerable hesitation and trepidation I             One first finds reference to Jamaican mission
fulfill the request to write about our work in             work in our Acts of Synod of 1962. The mission
Jamaica. The writer has never been in Jamaica,             committee reported to Synod on their contacts with
though he has served on the mission committee for          a certain Rev. H. Morally from London, England.
many years and presently is its chairman. For the          This man had heard the broadcasts of the Reformed
latter reasons he was asked to write this article.         Witness Hour over Transworld Radio. He wrote to
  Much might be written about our mission work             request that our churches take over certain
in Jamaica. Of necessity, this article must only           churches in Jamaica over which he claimed author-
briefly present the history of this work and some          ity. Though the mission committee soon lost con-
comments upon the work itself.                             tact with this man, this contact became the means


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                           257


of reaching others in Jamaica. Soon the mission
committee was working with three ministers in
Jamaica: Revs. Elliott, Ruddock, and Frame. Of
these three ministers, Rev. Frame passed away and
Rev. Ruddock left the churches with which we
were working.
  Other ministers are now working in that field.
There is Rev. Brown, Rev. Nish, and Rev. Williams.
These three young men were trained by Rev. G.
Lubbers when he served on the island as mission-
ary of our churches. (A fourth young man, Rev.
Beckford, who was also trained by Rev. Lubbers,          Rev. and Mrs. G. Lubbers
began serving one of the churches but died shortly
after entering the ministry.)                            G. Lubbers. There was too much work and too
                                                         much pressure for one man to handle. Rev.
                                                         Lubbers tried to handle the wide diversity of labors
                                                         there: he had to serve as the diaconate; he was the
                                                         confidant of many; he was minister as well as "pro-
                                                         fessor." All this was too much to ask of one man.
                                                            Labors have continued since Rev. Lubbers left
                                                         the field. These labors have not always been as con-
                                                         sistent and well-organized as they ought to have
                                                         been. Yet, work has been done. This has been
                                                         through the emissaries who have been sent. It has
                                                         been done through tape programs, first begun by
                                                         Revs. J. Heys and C. Hanko, and now continued by
                                                         Rev. B. Woudenberg.
                                                            The question often asked is whether we have a
                                                         mission field in Jamaica or not. As I have been pri-
                                                         vileged to observe this work over the years, I can
                                                         but `conclude that the answer must be, "Yes."
                                                         There are indeed questions and problems with fhe
                                                         work, but they are of such a nature that indicates
  Part of the history of our labors on this mission      God would have us to continue to labor. If the prob-
field must include many men who served as emis-          lems there involved the lack of interest or desire
saries-some for longer, others for shorter periods       to hear the Word, one could "shake the dust from
of times. Elders H. Meulenberg and H. Zwak were          his feet." Or, on the other hand, if those with
the first, but were followed by other ministers and      whom we labored all understood and knew the
elders and deacons. Rev. J. Heys and Rev. C.             truths of Scripture, and walked according to these,
Hanko spent much time there. Revs. Woudenberg,           there would be no need of our continued labor. But
Harbach, Bekkering, and Joostens spent time there.       where there is the evident desire to hear and learn,
Then there were various elders including Mr. J.M.        though there be also questions of doctrine and walk
Faber, Mr. C. Prince, and Mr. Feenstra who were          which must be constantly faced, there the work
there. Several deacons from Hudsonville spent time       must continue.
there. All of these men, whether in greater or lesser       There have been problems with a work of this
degrees, contributed much to this work.                  nature. Some of the problems involve ourselves
  Perhaps some I have missed. Many indeed con-           and our manner of working a field such as Jamaica.
tributed to this work over the years. But it was one     Decisions must be made as to what should be done,
man, Rev. G. Lubbers, who spent several years in         when, and how. Obviously, there are differences of
Jamaica as our missionary. For him and his faithful      opinion. There have been questions concerning the
wife, those were trying but blessed years. There         relationship between the calling church and the
were frustrations-because of the government and          mission committee as to the responsibilities for
because of the problems in the field itself. Rev.        supervising the work.
Lubbers spent much time preparing the four young            Other problems in the work involve the field
men to take over the leadership in the churches. He      itself. First, one must deal with a foreign govern-
did also much teaching and preaching.                    ment which has a legal system different from ours,
  One thing became evident in the labors of Rev.          and different rules and regulations. There is the


258                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



question whether the government requires of a                 There are also sins rather unique to that area.
missionary a "work permit" to be on the island.            Legal marriage has not always been regarded as
There have arisen questions concerning duty                important. Children born out of wedlock were com-
charged when bringing in used clothing for the             mon-and acceptable in the society there. In some
needy of the churches. It is difficult to determine        cases there were old heathen practices, carried over
with certainty the laws regarding property that the        from Africa, which continued. We have often been
churches may properly secure their own buildings.          troubled by the presence of such sins.
So it goes. It seems that the government there often          On the other hand, the Jamaicans are shocked by
works in maddeningly slow ways. For foreigners to          the loose morals of our own country: the scanty
learn to deal with such a government is a great            dress and other similar practices which are ob-
difficulty.                                                served in the tourists.
  There are problems related to culture on the
island. The people of Jamaica speak English. Yet              Problems arise because of the low educational
they speak their own dialect which is at times diffi-      levels in Jamaica. There are many things which we
cult or impossible for U.S. citizens to understand.        take for granted in our own country but which are
These also have their own mannerisms and expres-           not always found there: ability to read; availability
sions which are foreign to us. Misunderstandings           and the means to obtain books.
can often arise. What we might present as personal            Many of the above problems of the field have
suggestions, the Jamaicans may regard as solemn            been mentioned through the past years. I repeat
promise.                                                   them not to point out that we have no field of work
  The grinding poverty of the island is also a prob-       in Jamaica-but that we  do  have such a field. If
lem. This creates difficulties for a missionary who        there were no problems, if there was no need-we
works under these circumstances. On the one                would have no place on that island. But where
hand, it would seem extremely difficult for a mis-         there is such a need for assistance and guidance,
sionary and family to try to live on their level of        and where there is the willingness and readiness to
poverty. All this can create misunderstanding.             listen and learn, where there is such thankfulness
                                                           for the instruction given-there we have a neces-
  Besides, there is always the question about help         sary place and an open door. Let us not complain
for the poor. By our standards, almost all of these        about these problems, but view them as the urgent
people would be at the very bottom level of pover-         reason for faithful labors there.
ty. Yet, though one can be very sympathetic
towards their needs and physical situation, it is im-         What must be done then to help? First, and not
possible probably and inadvisable surely to try to         least, there must be continued effort to train and
raise their standard of living. The people there are       guide them through use of taped instruction and
part of a culture, part of another nation. To attempt      contact by emissaries. Our last Synod provided for
to elevate some above others in the island would           some of this in its decision that two ministers or a
only create far more problems than it would solve.         minister and elder ought to go there for a period of
Those who have labored in other poverty-stricken           two or three months. It is always difficult to work
areas as missionaries have almost invariably               out the details for such labor, but that ought to con-
warned-against trying to raise the standard of living      tinue.
by pouring funds into the area. The church is there           Secondly, it would appear that the most reason-
not to change their standard of living, but to             able way of continuing the work in Jamaica would
present the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  This is not to say that there is no need for bene-
volence. There are instances where the terrible
poverty makes it impossible to obtain what seems
to be essential medical assistance. In the past, assis-
tance has been given; and doubtlessly there will be
a need for this in the future.
  Other problems arise because of the human
nature each possesses. The mission committee, the
emissaries, and now the calling church, repeatedly
must handle problems which arise between indi-
viduals, between minister and congregation, etc.
This is not unique to Jamaica, of course. But there
we are called to help-though usually no one is on
the scene to provide the immediate assistance so
often necessary.                                           Belmont Congregation


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                           259



be to call a missionary to serve there again. In that          have a calling to continue our work on the home
case it would appear also reasonable that he have              mission field. We presently have commitments in
assistance: either by having a second missionary               Singapore. This mission work requires both  man-
also called to serve there, or else that emissaries.           power and financing. Decisions are not easy to
regularly go to assist him.                                    make. Yet the pressing urgency of the tasks in
  Two other factors enter this picture. First, the             Jamaica remains. Soon, Synod might have to decide
tasks and responsibilities of such a missionary                that the requirements of the field in Jamaica  de-
would have to be defined. There ought to be no                 mand the calling again of a missionary to serve
misunderstanding as to what he is called to do.                there. Pray that God may also guide the churches to
Secondly, the Synod faces the difficult decisions              make these significant decisions to His glory and
concerning what might be called "priorities." We               the profit of the Church.




                      Foreign Missions: Singapore
                                                  Rev. Arie den Hartog





                   G.L.T.S.  - November 1980

  Greetings to you in the name of the Sovereign                the preaching of the gospel here. We are amazed
God and Savior Jesus Christ Who is pleased to                  by the response to the preaching of the gospel.
gather His church out of all nations of the world.             The numbers at our worship services continue
Let me tell you again something about how the                  to grow. The saints are growing in their knowledge
Lord is doing this through our ministry as your mis-           and love of the Reformed faith. The work is a real
sionary here in Singapore. It remains evident that             joy and blessing for us. We are overwhelmed by all
the Lord is pouring out a very great blessing upon             of the evidences of love and appreciation that we





                                   Outside place of worship    Inside place of worship


260                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



are receiving from the saints here. We are certainly         by the leaders of the G.L.T.S. in our presence. All
being very well taken care of and lack nothing. We           made public confession of their faith by answering
receive all of this too as evidences of love for the         the five questions in our baptism form at the wor-
gospel which we have the great privilege to preach.          ship service. Several of these young Christians
   It is especially since our Christmas Day worship          made this confession of faith and received baptism
services that we have seen a significant increase in         in spite of strong opposition and persecution in
numbers. At this worship service there were more             their homes.
than 140 in attendance. Ever since that time, each             Plans are to begin another class for baptism and
Lord's Day we have seen an average of 130. Last              membership in the G.L.T.S. in the next few weeks.
Lord's Day we had the greatest number ever, over             There are several persons who have already indica-
 150. The increased numbers in attendance at the             ted desire for such a class. There is still a good
worship services means that almost every Lord's              number of people who regularly attend the worship
Day there are some that must sit outside of our              services and other meetings of the G.L.T.S. who are
place of worship because of lack of space inside.            not yet baptized. All of these people are going to be
We are very greatly in need of a new place of                confronted by the  .leaders  and myself in the next
worship. To date we have not been able to find this.         few weeks. The command of our Lord Jesus Christ
A committee of the G.L.T.S. is very busy searching.          is not only to preach the gospel but also to baptize
   At the same time it is a great thrill to see capacity     all those who believe.
audiences each Lord's Day. Several new people are              The increased attendance of course also
attending our worship services regularly as well as          increases the amount of work. There is always es-
being involved in other activities in the G.L.T.S.           pecially an increase in the amount of pastoral work.
We are always amazed by the fact that the sole               There is a very great need for pastoral work on the
means through which new people come to the                   mission field. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
worship services is that  of. personal invitation and        often has the greatest effect when it is brought
encouragement of the members of the G.L.T.S.                 directly and personally to the specific needs and
While we certainly believe that it is through the in-        problems of the saints. The youthfulness of the
strumentality of the preaching of the gospel that            saints here increases the need for pastoral work.
Jesus Christ is pleased to gather His church it is           They face many of the same problems that the
evident again and again that the members of the              young people in our established churches face. But
church have a vital part and calling in the work of          they have no Christian father and mother to turn
the gathering of the church. The church grows                to. They face the added problems that come from
through the zealous witness of the saints and the            having pagan homes and from having to suffer per-
living testimony of their lives as they go forth from        secution in these homes. In fact, there is so much
the preaching of the gospel. That is how it was in           pastoral work here that it is impossible for your
the New Testament Church. That is how it is here             missionary to do this all by himself. There is much
in Singapore.                                                that should be done but that just does not get done.
   On the Lord's Day of January 18 we had another            It is for this reason that we continue to pray that the
very special Lord's Day as we witnessed the sacra-           Lord will send us an elder and his wife to come
ment of Holy Baptism. We had the unusual and                 over and help us. What these youthful saints need
blessed privilege of administering the sacrament of          is someone who can serve as a kind of spiritual
Holy Baptism for eleven brothers and sisters in the          father and mother to them.
Lord. All of these youthful saints have received               We are very thankful for the large amount of
about twenty weeks of instruction in Christian and           work which the leaders of the G.L.T.S. do. They
Reformed doctrine. All were personally examined              also take a great part of the pastoral work. Though
                                                             they are not yet officially office bearers in the
                                                             church they perform very much of the labors of
                                                             office bearers. We long for the day when these
                                                             brethren can be officially ordained as office bearers
                                                             in the church. We need this. It is our conviction
                                                             that the apostle Paul very soon ordained office
                                                             bearers in the church because he saw how greatly
                                                             the church needed them. The Lord has raised up in
                                                             the G.L.T.S. men who are well qualified to be office
                                                             bearers. We believe that a foreign mission needs
                                                             office bearers. From the start the work of the
                                                             church on the foreign mission field must be carried
Eleven young people baptized -January  18,1981               on by the saints whom the Lord gathers. The Lord


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                               261



Jesus gathers the church as a local and autonomous              gone the way of apostasy and those who first come
church. We believe that when the Lord gathers His               to the faith and are led astray.
saints on the mission field He also equips and quali-            The second thing which we are impressed with is
fies men to be office bearers. These men then serve             the eagerness that there is in the G.L.T.S. to learn.
from the beginning to lead and guide the church in-             They are conscious of being young in the faith.
to the truth of the Word of God. In all of our labors           They know they have a lot yet to learn and they
we therefore give as much of the work as possible               desire to learn this. The various Bible classes and
to the leaders of the church here, we allow them to             catechism classes are always made lively and excit-
make as many of the decisions for the church them-              ing because of the many questions that are asked. It
selves as they are able to make. As missionary it is            is very often the case that one does not get through
my calling to give leadership and instruction to                the material that he had planned because of the
faithful men whom the Lord has called to lead the               many questions that are asked. Throughout the
church.                                                         week we often get phone calls from members of the
                                                                G.L.T.S. who want to know the meaning of this or
                                                                that passage of scripture. Some of the questions are
                                                                not easy to answer and I often have to ask for more
                                                                opportunity to study the questions before I give an
                                                                answer. There is just no end of subjects that are
                                                                faced. It makes me so often wish that I had more
                                                                time to study this or that area more carefully.
                                                                Always one must come up with Biblical answers.
                                                                We often find that we take doctrines and practices
                                                                in our church so much for granted that we do not
                                                                give enough thought to the Biblical foundation for
                                                                these doctrines and practices. So we are driven
                                                                again and again to the Word of God and we must
                                                                learn these Biblical foundations anew.
           Executive Committee Meeting in Pastor's apartment      On January 1 we rejoiced at the occasion of the
  The G.L.T.S. continues to grow and increase in                engagement of another young couple who are both
the knowledge and love of the Reformed Faith. We                members of the G.L.T.S. We are now giving in-
are impressed by two things in this connection. On              struction to this young couple in the scriptural
the one hand it takes a lot of patient labors to                teachings on marriage, using as our guide the book
nurture those who are babes in Christ unto                      on marriage by our Rev. Engelsma. This couple will
maturity. The saints here are all youthful, and                 be married in May, the Lord willing. It is always a
many of them have been Christians for only a few                blessing for the church to have a marriage take
years. Not too many years ago they knew nothing                 place in her midst. This is especially true for the
at all of the Word of God. Imagine yourselves in                G.L.T.S. We can very much see that our married
such a state. We as Protestant Reformed people                  couples give the G.L.T.S. strength and stability. We
have almost all had the blessed privilege of being              find that the Chinese are somewhat slow, by our
instructed in the Reformed Faith from childhood                 western standards, to marry. Perhaps this is even
on. We have had hundreds of catechism classes,                  more so in the G.L.T.S. than in Singapore in
many of us have heard thousands of sermons.                     general. The young men are quite shy to get on
Imagine now how much instruction it takes to                    with the business of finding a life partner. This has
come to the state of being mature Reformed                      caused some problems. They need instruction and
Christians. It is a great joy and privilege for me as           encouragement on the whole matter of the impor-
your missionary to nurture these young saints in                tance of establishing Christian homes.
the Reformed Faith. In many cases I have the                      I have taken many occasions already to give
privilege to be the very first one to give to these             instruction in the truth of the covenant and the
saints instruction in the doctrines of the faith. We            importance of Christian homes for the church. I
do not therefore labor with those who have                      have emphasized that the church continues as God
developed in apostasy, as is often the case on the              is pleased to gather His elect along the lines of con-
home mission field. We labor with new saints of                 tinued generations. Thus the G.L.T.S. must under-
God. As is always true in the church, errors can                stand that the true church must be established not
easily arise. Also new Christians can be led astray             only with them personally but also with the
by false preachers and false doctrines. There are               families which the Lord in His providence will give
many of these in Singapore also. Yet there is a dif-            to them. It is obvious that also the precious scrip-
ference between those who have for a long time                  tural truth of the covenant has a large part in the


262                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



preaching on the foreign mission field.                    season of the year with prayers and cards and
  This article is again getting rather lengthy so I        letters and gifts. We are much encouraged by all of
must stop here, though I could tell you much more.         these and give thanks unto the Lord that our
Let me close with an expression of appreciation to         denomination is so vitally interested and concerned
all of you who have remembered us in the recent            about our work here.




                                           Book Reviews

PREACHING WITH CONFIDENCE,  James                          give the reader some idea of the material treated:
Daane; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand               "The Psychology of Inspiration"; "Pottery, Poetry,
Rapids, Michigan. (80 pp., paper, $3.95) (Reviewed         and Prophecy: An Essay on Biblical Poetry"; "His-
by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema.)                                   tory and Tradition in the Prophet Amos"; "The
  The sub-title of this little book is "A Theological      Antiquity of Mosaic Law"; "What Archaeology
Essay On The Power Of The Pulpit." But from the            Can and Cannot Do"; "The Method of Cultic Inter-
preface we learn that  the. book is intended as a          pretation"; "The Bible in English"; "Sumerian
homiletics textbook. As an essay, the book quali-          Literature and the Bible"; "A New Look at the
fies; as a homiletics textbook it is, in the opinion of    Babylonian Background of Genesis"; "A  Form-
this homiletics instructor, very deficient.                Criticism of the Lord's Prayer"; "The First Three
                                                           Chapters of Genesis"; "Genesis as Myth." Some of
  The book's chief merit, I believe, is its emphasis       the authors are: Edmund Leach, Kenneth Burke,
on the importance of preaching and the power of            Norman Perrin, Roger L. Cox, Bruce M. Metzger,
preaching. This is a subject which cannot be               G. Ernest Wright, William F. Albright, David Noel
stressed too strongly in our day.                          Freedman, and Northrop Frye.
  However, the subject of the  nature  of preaching
cannot be understood apart from that of the content          For those who are unacquainted with the
of preaching. Only that preaching is and can be            vagaries of higher critics, we might explain that the
powerful which stands completely in the service of         historical  - literary method of interpretation adopt-
the Word of God in Christ according to the Scrip-          ed by the critics is a method which seeks to explain
tures. Preaching must be proclamation of the truth,        the origin of the books of the Bible in terms of
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Given          history and literary development. In the nature of
Dr. Daane's view of Scripture and his view of elec-        the case, this is a very subtle error because every-
tion and reprobation, he is hardly qualified to            one who has a passing acquaintance with Scripture
instruct in the art of true preaching.                     knows that Scripture is indeed "literature" and that
                                                           it arose out of particular historical circumstances.
  While technically some of the practical chapters         The evil of this approach is the flat denial of inspir-
of this book make some good points, they are too           ation in the sense in which Scripture teaches it and
brief and scant to be of much help to a seminary           in the sense in which it has always `been believed
student struggling to learn to preach.                     by the Church of `Christ. This book is a lengthy and
THE BIBLE IN ITS LITERARY MILIEU, Edited                   wordy example of this type of higher criticism.
by John Maier and Vincent Tollers; Wm. B.  Eerd-             There are, quite naturally, some interesting and
mans Publishing Co., 1979; 447 pp., $12.95 (paper).        true ideas set forth and developed in the book.
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                              There is, e.g., a splendid defense of the King James
  This book is a collection of essays written by con-      Version-although from a literary viewpoint; there
temporary scholars who have adopted the                    is some interesting information on the formation of
hermeneutical rule of a historical and literary criti-     the Canon of Scripture-from a purely historical
cism as the way to interpret Scripture. The book is        viewpoint. But the only real value of the book is the
divided into five sections which are entitled: I. The      information it gives concerning what the higher
Word; II. The Context; III. Textual Criticism; IV.         critics are doing with Scripture and how they suc-
Literary Forms and Literary Influence; V. Ap-              cessfully take Scripture out of the realm of the
proaches to a Literary Criticism of the Bible. We          miraculous and put it in the realm of the literary
include a few chapter titles, taken at random, to          and historical. Scripture, after these men finish


                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  263



with it, is no longer the Word of God, divinely and                        profound and with very big words what every child
infallibly inspired, but is only' a book roughly on a                      of God "instinctively" knows, as, e.g., that Scrip-
par witd the writings of Homer and Seneca.                                 ture is rooted in particular historical situations; 2)
   Form critics do not like to say that a given book                       they so belabor the obvious that one cannot help
of the Bible is written by one person; they prefer to                      but become suspicious of their motives. What kind
speak of Scripture as the product of religious com-                        of spiritual blindness on the part of these critics is it
munities, gifted writers and editors. This is a con-                       which leads them to say of the Psalms that, "the
venient way to deny inspiration and to reduce                              personal, individual element is pushed into the
Scripture to a statement of the faith of various                           background"? (p. 181).
people throughout history. Their denial of inspira-                           That this kind of hermeneutics is actually accept-
tion, however, is hardly ever explicit; they simply                        ed and taught in many leading Seminaries in this
ignore the doctrine and `act as if it does not exist.                      country (including those which profess to be Re-
Although what they write concerning the literary,                          formed) demonstrates vividly how far the church
grammatical, and historical aspects of Scripture                           has departed from the faith once for all delivered to
sometimes has a grain of truth in it, 1) they state as                     the saints.



                             IN MEMORIAM

  On the evening of January 27, 1981, it pleased our Heavenly
Father to take unto Himself our beloved husband, father and grand-                                ANNOUNCEMENT
father, TED  HUIZENGA at the age of 71 years. We are comforted
with the thought that he now partakes in the inheritance reserved in          Covenant Christian High School has a position open for a teacher
heaven, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away. (I Peter
1:4).                                                                      in its science department beginning in September of 1981. Appli-
                                                                           cants are invited to write the chairman of the Education Committee:
         Mrs. Ted Huizenga                             Caroline Joy        Mr. David Ondersma, O-6761 Brookwood Dr., Grandville, MI 49418.
         Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Huizenga                  Tedd Ronald
                Jennie Catherine                       Robin Jean
                Wendy Lou                                                                               NOTICE!!!
                                                Randolph, Wis.
                                                                                                     TEACHER NEEDED

                              NOTICE!!!                                       Covenant Christian School in Lynden, Washington is in need of an
                                                                           additional teacher for the 198 l-82 school  year for either Grades 3
  The Hull Protestant Reformed Christian School will be in need of a       through 5 or assignment in the Junior High  - Senior High level.
teacher for the lower room, Kindergarten arid First grade for the          Teachers interested in filling this position should contact Mr. Harold
1981-82 school term. Please send application to Hull Protestant Re-        Tolsma, 9088 Northwood Road, Lynden, WA 98264.
formed Christian School, c/o Mr. Ronald Koole, 306 Second Street,
Box 618, Hull, Iowa 51239.
                                                                                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                        On March 1 1, 1981, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. and MRS.
                                                                           JOHN FABER, will celebrate their 55th Wedding Anniversary. We,
   On March 2, 1981, our parents, MR. and MRS. GERALD  FEEN-               their children, are thankful to God for the years He has spared them
STRA, will, the Lord willing,         celebrate their 25th wedding         for each other and for us. It is our prayer that the Lord, Who is good  to
anniversary.                                                               His people, will continue to bless them in the years ahead in life's
  We, their children, thank our heavenly Father for the years of love      journey.
and Christian instruction they have given us. It is our prayer that our       "Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His
Covenant God will continue to bless them and keep them in His care.        ways"  (Ps.  28:l).
                                    their children,                                                                Mr.  & Mrs. John Faber, Jr.
                                         Randy Feenstra                                                            Mr.  & Mrs. William Faber
                                         Greg and Nancy Feenstra                                                   Mr.  & Mrs. Marvin Faber
                                         Ryan Feenstra                                                             10 grandchildren
                                         Kathy Feenstra                                                            1 great grandchild



                                    News From Our Churches

   Although the work goes under a variety of titles,                       our attention will center on the efforts of our local
e.g. church extension, evangelism, reformed                                congregations to extend the "good news"-as our
witness, etc., the intent of our congregations in this                     Lord has privileged us to know it-to those beyond
labor is the same. In the news of this issue of S.B.                       the pale of our churches. While it is true that as a


  THE STANDARD BEARER
       P.O. Box 6064                                                             1  GiE,iz". /
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





264                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



denomination we support our denominational                they have been busy with a number of projects: up-
mission activities, it is clear from bulletin an-         dating the mailing list of those to whom they send
nouncements and news letters that our congrega-           various materials,  ,investigating  other possibilities
tions take on numerous individual evangelism pro-         in connection with their radio broadcast work, and
jects. Some of these activities are labors in the         preparing a pamphlet which,  "...we can mail to
immediate geographic locality of the congregations        each householder in Loveland, briefly setting forth
sponsoring the work, but as you will see, a large         our beliefs and introducing ourselves as churches,
amount of this work is much broader in scope-so           along with a tear-off card that can be returned
broad, in fact, that it encompasses the whole world.      postage free for additional information."
Read on and you will see what I mean.                       A church extension report on consecutive  Hud-
   An announcement in a bulletin of our First             sonville bulletins discusses some projects in which
Church in Grand Rapids informs us that the re-            they are currently involved. For one thing, "This
sponsibility for their Recording Ministry is now in       committee sends out, approximately every month,
the hands of Mr. Rich Dykstra. The announcement           a small bulletin with a one-page message written by
goes on to say: "An average of about 30 tapes of our      Rev. B. Woudenberg, to approximately 250 addres-
Sunday services are mailed out each week-not              ses." (If you are interested in receiving this bulle-
only to those within our congregation but also to         tin, you can obtain it by sending to: Studies in Bible
individuals from Maine to California, Ontario to          Doctrine,    427 North Fletcher,          Kalamazoo,
Florida. About 300 requests for sermon and lecture        Michigan 49007.) The Hudsonville report also men-
tapes were serviced during 1980. These came from          tions that, "The consistory is recording our Sunday
all over the U.S. as well as Scotland, Ireland, Aus-      sermons which are being submitted to Family Sta-
tralia, Malaysia, and South Africa." Interested S.B.      tions, Inc., a network of 9 religious stations located
readers can contact Rich by sending to: 3531              mainly on the East and West Coasts, whose chair-
Senora S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49508.                man is Mr. Harold Camping. During the period of
                                                          October 1980 through March 1981, 16 of our ser-
   A November, 1980 newsletter to the congrega-           mons are scheduled for broadcast. These stations
tion of Hope, Michigan from its Reformed Witness          are located in San Francisco, Sacramento, El Cajon,
Committee describes two activities in which they          Long Beach (all in  Calif.); Newark and Camden,
are currently involved: First, "We have again this        New Jersey; Annapolis, Maryland; Shenandoah,
fall begun the Reformed Doctrine Class meeting al-        Iowa and a shortwave station in Okkechobee,  Fl.
ternate Thursday evenings in the Allendale Chris-         They have also two affiliate stations at Lima, Ohio
tian School. We have begun where we left off last         and  Redding, Ca. The sermons are heard on a pro-
spring in a study of the Belgic Confession. The class     gram called      `Conference Echoes' which is
is once again led by Prof. Hanko who prepares             broadcast every week-day night, Monday through
study guides and questions for each class." Second,       Saturday, from 9:05 P.M. til 10 P.M." It is interest-
"Our work has also continued in the tape ministry         ing to note that there is no cost for the broadcasts
which is done by Mr. Jacob Kuiper on the commit-          since these are non-profit religious stations which
tee's behalf. Every 2 weeks 176 tapes are copied          are supported by listener contributions. By the
and sent. These tapes, by the way, go literally to the    way, people in the Grand  Rapis  area who are not
`ends of the earth.' "                                    already familiar with Mr. Camping and would like
   A Church Extension Committee report to the             to be, can listen to him Monday through Thursday
members of our Loveland Church explains that              evenings from 10:00 to 11:00 on WJBL FM.         CK


