          The
     STANDARD
         BEARER
r         A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





        . . .if, God had not united Himself
     to us and -become Emmanuelj none
     of the work of salvation could ever
     be possible. Indeed, in the wonder.
     of the virgin birth, in the marvel of
     the incarnation, we see the  begiti-
     ning of the realizatiog of God's COV-
     enant with us.
      See "Born of a Virgin" - page 122


                                       Volume LVIII, No. 6, December 15, 1981 J


122                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                THE  STANDARD  BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                                                                               ISSN  0362-4692
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MEDITATION


                                                          Born of a Virgin
                                                                           Rev. M. Schipper


            "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
            and shall call his name Immanuel. `I                                                                                                Isaiah  7:14.
            "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
            saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his uame
            Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."                                                                        Matthew  1:22,23.


  Prediction and fulfillment!                                                           Christ.
  In these words is described quite adequately the                                          In the one we have the prophecy of Isaiah as  de-
relation of the two texts cited above, which contain                                    livered  to wicked king Ahaz, that must serve as a
the Word of God respecting the virgin birth of                                          sign. In the other, Matthew informs us that the  pro-


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                               123



     phecy is realized in the virgin Mary, who was  es-         Greeks seek after wisdom" (I Cor. 1:22).  In the con-
i    poused to Joseph, and who'was  great with child. In        text of the latter passage it is plain that both Jew
,    the first, the predictive Word of God comes as a           and Greek categorically belong to the wicked and
     sign to Judah's king, who in the day of trouble            adulterous of whom the Lord was speaking. Ac-
     sought his help in the arm of flesh, refusing to look      cordingly, therefore, the wicked unbelievers `seek
     to the God of Judah for his aid, and refusing to bow       after the sign, and signs are given to them.
     the knee before the God of the Wonder. In the                But notably the wicked cannot, nor will they re-
     second, we see the fulfillment of the prophetic sign       ceive the signs relative to the kingdom of heaven.
     as it is interpreted to a troubled Israelite, who saw      As it is with the preaching of God's Word, so it is
     his espoused virgin great with child, while he-knew        also with the multiplication of signs, they always
     he was not responsible for her conception, and was         reject them to their own condemnation. Such was
     mindful to put her away privily, in order that she         also the case with wicked Ahaz, as we shall see in a
     might not become a public example.                         moment. Jesus also said to the Pharisees and Saddu-
       Together, these passages of Scripture. reveal to us      tees, "0, ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of
     the mystery of the incarnation, the virgin birth of        the sky; but can ye discern the signs of the times?"
     Christ, Whose birth the church again celebrates in         (Matt. 16:3). The answer, of course, to this question
     this season of the year.                                   is negative.
     As we prepare to contemplate this central event              In Scripture, signs accompany the Word of God,
     in the scheme of our salvation, it is urgent that we       and always with a twofold purpose. In respect to
     consider this Wonder of Wonders with profound              the wicked, it is that they may, with better know-
     reverence.                                                 ledge, sin to their own condemnation. And in re-
       As we meditate on the virgin birth of Christ as          spect to the righteous, it is that they may be con-
     described in the passages cited above, it is neces-        firmed in their faith in the God of their salvation.
     sary that we observe, first of all, that the virgin        As we said, in Scripture the divine intention is posi-
     birth was intended as a sign.                              tively for the believers. This is true not only of the
                                                                signs which are sacraments, such as baptism and
       A divine sign!                                           the Lord's Supper, but also of the multitude of signs
       In general it may be said of signs that they are         which have no sacramental  signi.ficance,  such as,
     visible realities which are intended to portray hid-       the sign of the rainbow to Noah, the sign of the dew
     den, invisible truths. In our world there is a vast        on the fleece to Gideon, the signs which accom-
     number of them, and in Scripture the Word of God           panied the out-pouring of the Spirit on Pentecost to
     abounds with them. In a sense one may say all              the disciples; and, according to the text, the sign of
     things are signs. And the reason is that God with          the pregnant virgin to Joseph and the believing
     design made all things visible in the creation that        church.
     they might speak of the eternal and heavenly reali-          Always the sign is from the Lord!
     ties. Thus the sun in the heavens, which gives light,
     heat, and life to the creation, is a sign of the Son of      This truth is very emphatic in the case of Ahaz,
     righteousness Who comes with healing in His                as recorded in Isaiah's prophecy, "Moreover the
     wings. The stars, which appear in vast numbers in          Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign
     the firmament, speak of the host innumerable that          of the Lord thy God, ask it either in the depth, or in
     constitutes Abraham's seed. Bread and water, the           the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask,
     lowly vine, the lamb and the lion . . . all utter          neither will I tempt the Lord" (Isa. 7: 10-12).
     speech, all point us to the Word of God concerning           Ahaz, so it appears in the context, had been
     His Son, the Saviour of His people.                        threatened by  a'powerful union of Pekah, king of
       In Scripture, signs are generally intended for the       Israel, and Rezin, king of Damascus (Syria). They
     believers. They accompany the Word of God to               had united with the intent to besiege Jerusalem, to
     them, to confirm that Word, and to strengthen their        slay Ahaz, and to set on the throne in his stead
     faith.                                                     another king, even the son of Tabeal. Ahaz was sore
                                                                afraid, not only for his own life, but also for the
       This cannot mean, however, that signs are not            future of his kingdom. Did all this move the king to
     given to unbelievers, or that they have no signifi-        seek the God of Judah for His help? Nay, rather,
     cance for them.                                            he planned to call to the king of Assyria for his aid.
       Jesus said on more than one occasion, "A wicked          It was in this situation that the Lord sent Isaiah to
     and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and        him, to inform him that the threat of Israel and
     there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of      Syria would not succeed, but also to ask for a sign
     the prophet Jonas" (Matt.  12:39;  16:4). The apostle      of Jehovah God. Ahaz refused to believe the Word
     Paul wrote, "For the Jews require a sign, and the          of the Lord, and to ask for a sign. He did not want


124                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



the Lord to help him, choosing rather to place his           gin. A virgin, who as yet knew no man by co-habi-
hope on an arm of-flesh. And with apparent piety,            ting with him. Who, before they had come together
but also in wicked unbelief he refuses to ask for a          was found with child of the Holy Ghost (Matt.
sign. Consequently Isaiah is instructed to say unto          1:18,25). And Joseph, being a just man, and not
him, "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a            wishing to make her a public example, was mind-
sign. . . ."                                                 ful to put her away privily. Indeed, so he opined, if
  Jehovah God, Who remembers His covenant                    she had committed fornication, as it seemed to him
with the house of David, and Who will preserve the           at the moment, she must be exposed publicly be-
seed of David forever, He will give the sign. "Be-           fore all according to the law. But this he hesitated to
hold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and           do because of his great love to her.
shall call His name, Immanuel.,"                               And so it was, as he thought on these things, that
  Nothing is too hard for the Lord when it comes to          the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,
keeping His Word. He will do the impossible!                 informing him that he should not fear to take unto
                                                             him Mary to be his wife, for that which was con-
  Behold, a virgin, not a married woman, shall con-          ceived in her was of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, the
ceive and bear a son. And this Son shall be called           angel revealed to Joseph that she would bear a Son,
Immanuel, God with us.                                       Whose name should be called Jesus, Who would
  That prophetic sign will be fulfilled in the birth         save His people from their sins.
of the Son of God from the virgin Mary, of. the seed           And Matthew explains how all this came to pass
of David.                                                    in order that the prophecy of Isaiah might be  ful-
  There are those who admit that the sign given to           filled-"Behold, a virgin shall be with child,. and
Ahaz points ultimately to the conception of the Son          shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name
of God in the womb of the virgin Mary, but who               Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with
further state that the sign, in order to have signifi-       us."
cance to Ahaz, must have had reference to an his-              Verily, He is Mary's first-born! Not her only son,
toric fact to be realized in the days in which Ahaz          as some have concluded, for we know there were
lived. With this latter explanation we cannot agree.         other children to be born to her. But her first-born
They contend that, as far as Ahaz was concerned,             Son, Who opened the womb and prepared the way
the sign found its historic fulfillment according to         for others to follow.
Isaiah  8:1,3 in the son Mahershalalhashbaz, con-
ceived and born of a prophetess. They also point to            But Wonder of wonders!
Isaiah  8:8 where Immanuel is addressed; and to                God's only begotten!
Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born. . . ."               Emmanuel, God with us!
  An explanation of these passages here would                  Through the conception of the Holy Spirit, Mary
take us too far afield in this Meditation, nor is this       conceives and brings forth God's Son, His only be-
necessary.                                                   gotten. "In the fulness of time God sent His Son,
  What we must see is the fact that what was said            made of a woman" (Gal.  4:4). "God so loved the
in our text in Isaiah 7: 14, relative to the divine sign,    world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John
should have been and was perfectly clear to Ahaz to          3:16). "In this was manifested the love of God
whom it was given. That Word of God by the                   toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
mouth of the prophet was that God would destroy              Son into the world, that we might live through
Judah's enemies, and that Ahaz must believe in the           Him" (I John  4:9). The Person of the Son of God
God of the Wonder. And the Wonder is, that a                 united Himself to our flesh in the virgin, and dwelt
virgin conceives without co-habiting with man.               among us.
Ahaz must see, and he does, that the.God Who will
perform such a Wonder, is the God in Whom he                   Thus the sign, and that which was signified in
ought to put his trust. The fact is, however, that           that sign, was realized, fulfilled in the conception
Ahaz will not believe in that God. Rather, he will           and birth of the virgin Mary, who brings forth the
seek an arm of flesh for his help.                           God of our salvation, Who alone is the Saviour of
                                                             His people.
   In the second place we must also note in the text
concerning that Son.                                           This is the truth which Ahaz, and all the wicked,
   A divine Son!                                             whether they be of Israel or of the world, rejected,
                                                             and always refuse to embrace, to their condemna-
   Mary's first-born, but God's only begotten!               tion. And this is the truth which Joseph, and all
   Of Mary, the last of the long line of David. For          who seek for salvation of the Lord, cling to with
the generations of the house of David end in a vir-          faith. This is the truth we confess with our lips each


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                125
~


     time we recite the Apostle's Creed in our churches:           through the old dispensation in sacrifice and cere-
     "And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our              mony, which was the central message of all the pro-
     Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born               phets, major and minor, which not only confirmed
     of the virgin Mary."                                          the promise that salvation would come through the
        Notice lastly, on the basis of our text, that it            Servant of Jehovah, Who is God Himself in the Per-
     speaks not only of the divine sign, and of the divine         son of His Son, but also clearly identifying Him, so
     Son, but also of a divine purpose. This is suggested          clearly, that no doubt could remain, as to what God
     especially in the first part of the text in Matthew,          had in mind for us. Such utterances we find in the
     "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled..."        text of Isaiah  7:14, which Matthew informs us  .is
     In these words is indicated divine intent.                    fulfilled in the virgin Mary of the house of David;
                                                                   or, that uttered by the same prophet in Isaiah 9:6,7
        And that means, first of all, that the wonder of            "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given,
     the incarnation, of the virgin birth of Christ, is cen-       and the government shall be upon His shoulder . . .
     tral in the fulfillment of God's covenant. This may           the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Or
     be disputed in favor of other wonders in `the                 attend to the prophecy of Micah (5:2) where he not
     scheme of our redemption, such as, the resurrec-               only speaks of the tribe of Judah from which the
     tion of Christ from the dead, or the miracle of Pen-          promised Saviour must be born, but also gives us in
     tecost, when the work of salvation is applied to the          most literal terms the place of His birth. "But thou
     hearts of God's people. Yet we must see that, mar-             Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among
     velous as these wonders may be, and indispensible             the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He
     as they are in the realization of our salvation, none         come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel,
     of these could ever be possible without the incarna-          Whose goings forth have been from of old, from
     tion and the virgin birth of Christ. Though it is true        everlasting:"
     what the apostle Paul later wrote, that if Christ be
     not raised from the dead, we are yet in our sins, and            Indeed, in the birth of Jesus, Who shall save His
     most miserable; though it is also true that without           people from their sins, is the beginning of the ful-
     Pentecost, the dispensation of the Spirit, we also             fillment of the promise. And that Jesus, Who is Em-
     are spiritually dead and hopelessly lost; yet if God          manuel-God with us-suffers and dies in our
     had not united Himself to us and become Emmanu-               stead, and rises again from the dead as a testimony
     el, none of the work of salvation could ever be pos-          of our justification; and by His Spirit, the Spirit of
     sible. Indeed, in the wonder of the virgin birth, in          Pentecost, sanctifies to our hearts His saving effica-
     the marvel of the incarnation, we see the beginning           cy, and brings us at last into the house of God's
     of the realization of God's covenant with us.                  covenant forever. Then the promise will be perfect-
                                                                   ly fulfilled.
       And, secondly, we see in close connection with
     the foregoing the fulfillment of the promise.                    Rejoice then, 0 believing church, with unspeak-
       The promise given at the very dawn of history-              able joy!
     the so-called mother promise of Genesis 3:15, that,              God come in the flesh!
     of the seed of the woman, one would rise up to                   Emmanuel!
     crush the serpent's head-of that promise, the in-                Born of the virgin!
     carnation, God come in the flesh, is the beginning
     of its fulfillment.                                              Amenl
       It is that promise which was foreshadowed all

     EDITORIAL

                       The Faces of Semi-Arminianism
                                                      Prof. H. C. Hoizksema



       Sometimes when I read articles which engage in                 One must be able, amid the pressures of conflict
     unfounded criticism of our Protestant Reformed                and controversy, to retain a healthy sense of
     Churches and their doctrinal position, I am                   humor. If he fails to do so and is unable to see the
     inclined both to laugh and to cry.                            humor in and laugh at the ridiculousness of false


1 2 6                                                  T H E   S-~~DARD   BEARER



charges and far-fetched and even desperate criti-                     something that is not Calvinism at all, something
cisms, he will not be able to endure the pressures                    that is worse than Arminianism, something that
and maintain his equilibrium. This was my first re-                   ought to be utterly despicable to a Reformed  be-
action to an article by Donald Dunkerley on                           liever-Semi-Arminianism.
' `Hyper-Calvinism Today" (The  Presbyterian  ]OUY-                                                  * * * * *
nal, Nov. 18, 1981, pp. 14, 15) in which he repeats
the worn-out charge that our Protestant Reformed                         From my earliest childhood I can remember that
Churches are hyper-Calvinist. Writes he:                              my father had on his study desk a tobacco humidor
                                                                      with four faces carved, or molded, on its sides. Es-
           Hyper-Calvinism in this technical sense is the offi-       pecially some of those faces I did not, as a little boy,
         cial theological position of certain denominations,          like to look at immediately before I went to bed or
         such as the Gospel Standard Strict Baptists in England       if I had to walk down the darkened hallway from
         and the Protestant Reformed Church (of Dutch back-
         ground) in our own country.                                  his study. They tended to give one a fright. Today I
                                                                      still have that humidor as a memento on my library
   I thought to myself, "The poor man has made ab-                    shelf. And when I look at those faces, I can well un-
solutely no progress since he made the identical un-                  derstand that they tended to give me nightmares
founded statement about our churches in The                           when I was a lad. There is a smiling face; but there
Banner  of Truth several years ago. He knows so little                is also a cynical face, an angry and threatening face,
about our denomination that he does not even                          and a snarling face. And the cover is a silly,  half-
know we are `Churches,' not `Church.' And ap-                         witted face. The whole thing reminds me a bit of
parently he is unaware that our `official theological                 the idol of Roman mythology, Janus, the god of
position' is none other than the Heidelberg Cate-                     doorways. Janus was originally an idol with two
chism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of                       bearded faces; looking in opposite directions. But a
Dordrecht, and that by implication he classifies as                   good encyclopedia will inform you that in the time
hyper-Calvinist all others who have the same con-                     of the Emperor Hadrian, Janus was represented as
fessions. He has apparently never taken any in-                       having four faces.
struction from David Engelsma's excellent treatise                       And this reminds me of the Rev. Dunkerley's
Hyper-Calvinism and the  Call  of  the Gqspel.  He                    monstrosity which he calls Calvinism.
knows nothing of the sharp difference between our
position and that of the Gospel Standard Strict Bap-                     Two of the faces are faces of the love of God. The
tists, also set forth clearly in the Rev. Engelsma's                  one is the face of a special love of God for the elect.
book. And yet he holds himself forth as an expert                     But wait a moment! God's love has another face: it
on the subject, able to be a teacher of babes and an                  is the face of a general love of God for all. And as
instructor of the simple." What can one  d,o, really,                 you might expect, some of the usual passages of
but laugh when such ignorance rushes into print?                      Scripture (which true Calvinists have explained a
                                                                      thousand times over) are cited as proof, such as
   And yet it makes me cry.                                           E z e k i e l   18:23,  I I   P e t e r   3:9,  M a r k   10:21,  a n d
   It makes me cry, first of all, because it is slander,              M a t t h e w   23:37.  M r .   ,Dunkerley  w r i t e s :   "As
and that, too, from the pen of one who is a minister                  Reformed (Calvinistic) Christians see it, the Bible
of the gospel and who himself purports to be a Pres-                  teaches that, while God has a special love for His
byterian and a Calvinist. And slander hurts! It hurts                 elect, there is also a general love of God for all.'
its target, the more so when it is perpetrated in a                   And following this he goes on to assert that it is not
religious magazine and publicly. It also hurts its                    " `un-Reformed' and wrong to say to an unbeliever,
author-if not before men, then before God. It                         `God loves you' or `Jesus loves you.' " And he
makes me cry, secondly, because it perpetuates a                      claims that to say this is wrong is hyper-Calvinism.
myth about our Protestant Reformed Churches in                           But there are two more faces on this four-faced
the minds of those who read the  Presbyterian JOUY-                   sculpture of the Rev. Dunkerley. They are the faces
naZ but who will never see the Standard Bearer. Mr.                   of Christ's atonement. The one is the face of parti-
Dunkerley's statement will likely be accepted as                      cular atonement; the other is the face of general
gospel truth by many, though he offers-nor can                        atonement. Writes he:
offer-a scintilla of evidence for his charge. And
thereby the myth that was begun years ago by                                 Again, the orthodox Reformed faith teaches that,
                                                                           while the death of Christ was offered with special
Christian Reformed opponents is continued and                              reference to the elect, it looks beyond, for it effects a
spread abroad among many who do not and cannot                             free offer of the Gospel to all, it is sufficient for the
know any better.                                                           sins of all and it removes all legal obstacles against
   But it makes  ,me cry, most of all, because the                         anyone's coming to God.
Rev. Dunkerley offers as a proper and Calvinistic                        If I may mix my metaphors for a moment, notice
substitute for this                alleged hyper-Calvinism            the linguistic sleight of hand that is necessary


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                             127



seemingly to get the doctrine of definite atonement               the limited quotations by Dunkerley  from John
and that of general atonement into one sentence.                  MacLeod's Scottish Theology. But it is plam that the
And notice how contrary this is both to Canons of                 Rev. Dunkerley finds these elements in  hyper-cal-
Dordrecht II, 8 and to the Westminster Confession,                vinism:
Ch. III/IV and Ch. VIII. But notice, too, that in                 1. An exaggeration of the sovereignty of God.
Dunkerley's view of evangelism it is the face of                  2. A denial of the general, well-meant offer of sal-
general atonement that is displayed: "Yet there are                  vation.
those who tell us it is `un-Reformed' and wrong to                8. A denial of the obligation to proclaim such an
say to an unbeliever, `Christ died for you.' Is this                 offer.
not Hyper-Calvinism?"                                             4. A resultant crippling of evangelism.
  Now how does the Rev. Dunkerley achieve this                      Just a few remarks about this.
monstrosity, this four-faced Janus-head, with two
Reformed faces and two Arminian faces?                              In the first place, I do not understand how it is
                                                                  possible to exaggerate God's sovereignty. To exag-
  There is more than one explanation possible.                    gerate is to present something as greater than it
  One element of explanation, as you might                        really is. How is this possible? God's sovereignty is
expect, is that he completely ignores and is silent               infinite and absolute. How can one ever present
about sovereign reprobation. This is, of course, tell-            that sovereignty as greater than it really is?
ing. For no genuinely Reformed man will do this.                    In the second place, what folly! It is true, of
But, of course, a reprobation-face would not fit on               course, that in the course of church history there
this monstrous head at all.                                       has been, and still is, a phenomenon that is genuine
  Another element of explanation is the fact that                 hyper-Calvinism. The Rev. Engelsma makes this
Mr. Dunkerley does not proceed from the                           plain, too, in his book on this subject. But, in the
Reformed creeds-neither his Westminster Confes-                   mainstream of church history, has the battle been
sion nor our Canons of Dordrecht. True, he makes                  about that? Has the great and ever-threatening dan-
some reference to the Westminster standards; but                  ger from the time of Paul to Augustine to Calvin to
he yanks this reference out of context and uses it                the fathers of Dordt to today been that of hyper-
for his own end, but meanwhile does not  proceed                  Calvinism? Has the danger ever been that men, so
from the crucial teachings of the creeds concerning               to speak, make God too sovereign? Anyone who
particular love and particular atonement. He can-                 knows anything at all about the history of doctrine
not find in the creeds the materials to sculpt his                knows that the contrary is true: the battle has
four-faced Janus-head.                                            always been to leave God GOD, absolutely
  But let us get Mr. Dunkerley's own explanation.                 sovereign!
  He arrives at this position, basically,  because-                 In the third place, the corollary of Dunkerley's
without any evidence-he first re-defines hyper-                   position would seem obvious: to do evangelism one
Calvinism. He writes:                                             must make God a little less sovereign. To mention
                                                                  this to a Reformed man is to condemn it.
     Hyper-Calvinism, then, refers to such an exaggera-
   ted emphasis on God's sovereignty that the effect is to          But, you see, this is Semi-Arminianism. And
   cripple evangelism.                                            when something is "semi-", it is always more de-
     Strictly speaking, this is the view that, because God        ceptive. The reason is that one never knows what
   has an elect people He will infallibly save, therefore         one really has in such an inconsistent mixture.
   He does not love all, there is no offer of salvation to all      This reminds me of a little ditty I remember from
   and so there is also no obligation on us to proclaim an        my childhood, one line of which ran: "Half swan,
   offer of salvation to all.                                     half goose; Alexander was a swoose."
  A little later he writes:                                         Thus it is with Semi-Arminianism. Is it Calvi-
     On the other hand, to say we are not Hyper-Calvi-            nism? Is it Arminianism?
   nists in the formal sense because it is rejected by our          Or is it Calminianism?
   creeds, does not mean that we have altogether es-
   caped its influence. The spirit of Hyper-Calvinism is            Or is it Malcinianism?
   infectious. A person may still exaggerate God's sove-            It all depends which faces you look at!
   reignty so that his evangelism is crippled, even though          But they give a Reformed man nightmares!
   he knows better than to say there is no free offer of the
   Gospel.
  Now if the above paragraphs furnish a true de-
scription of hyper-Calvinism, then I plead guilty.
This is not even hyper-Calvinism as described in


128                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



C O N T R I B U T I O N   ;

                                              1
                        Non-Fuhctional by Reason
                                 of Losing the Marks

Dear Prof. Hoeksema:                                             relevant. I believe that Articles 27-29 of the Confes-
  You quote Rev. Kuyvenhoven in the  Standard                    sion are functional for God's  .people; and Kuyven-
Bearer of Nov. 15, 1981 as having said in the Banner            hoven ought to take the instruction to heart and
editorial of Oct. 26, 1981: "The views of the Re-               look where he may find those marks of the church.
formers are no longer ours. And the kind of think-              There is no unity where the pure preaching is not
ing about the church that is recorded in the Belgic             maintained, the sacraments are not administered as
Confession is no longer functional in the Christian              appointed by Christ, and discipline is not exercised.
Reformed Church.`" Further, you quote Kuyven-                    Kuyvenhoven, as Prof. Hoeksema quotes him, is
hoven that "the church had an artificial unity                  talking about the Confession, Artt. 27-29. He takes
before" the time of the Reformation, but that "it               these Articles and reduces them to "views" and
has suffered a genuine disunity ever since."                     "thinking" of the Reformers. The Confessions are
                                                                not merely views and thinkings about the true and
  Now really, after all these years of apostasy in              false church. They are the Confessions that have
the CRC is it any wonder and isn't it very clear                been loved and held by God's people to be true on
what is taking place? After all, when Kuyvenhoven               the basis of God's Word. Kuyvenhoven does not
tells us that Articles 27-29 are no longer functional           have the "right" to call them "views" and "think;
for him and his church, it ought to be as plain as the          ing." On the basis of these Confessions the people
sun in the heavens that they are fast losing the                of God not only can distinguish, but these two
marks of the true church. The CRC has for 58 years              churches "must be distinguished." (Art. 29) They are
been in the process of losing those marks that iden-            binding and correct. If this is "absolutist thinking,"
tify the true church. It is exactly what our fathers            we have these Confessions, nevertheless, as the
said would happen because of 1924.                              expression of our faith.
  The splintering and the suffering of genuine dis-                            Your brother in Christ,
unity of the true church is not true. To prove that
this is correct, we have the very articles of the Con-                                Bill Kamps
fession which Kuyvenhoven says are no longer                    Editorial comment:
functional for his church. Article 27 says that "this              As is plain from my editorial of 11/15/`81,  I am in
holy church...is joined and united with heart and will,         agreement with the thrust of this letter. Neverthe-
by the power  of  faith, in one spirit." Article 28 says        less, I must caution that my statement stands: "The
"that all men are in duty bound to join and unite               views and statements of the Reformers are not
themselves with it;  maintuining the unity  of  the             necessarily correct in every instance; and they cer-
church. " The true church is certainly not genuinely            tainly do not constitute binding doctrine in any Re-
disunited. Those splinters Kuyvenhoven is looking               formed church." The Confessions are binding, not
at and calls "disadvantaged" are the splinters of               the statements of any Reformer. The latter are
reformation that are left behind when the church                binding only when they coincide with Scripture
reforms and when those splinters finally realize                and the Confessions.
that the confessions are no longer functional and
THE LORD GAVE THE WORD

          Church Extension and Evangelism (2)
                                                   Prof. Robert D. Decker

  In the recent special issue of the  Stundard Bearer           extension and evangelism. With this article we con-
we began a survey of what each of the Protestant                elude that survey.
Reformed Churches is doing in its locale in church


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                129



SOUTH HOLLAND, ILLINOIS                                  FIRST CHURCH, HOLLAND, MICHIGAN
  South Holland, through its Evangelism Commit-            Iti additiofi  to sponsoring lectures, Holland distri-
tee, is very active in this work. Tapes are made of      butes cassette recordings of the sermons upon re-
every sermon preached and lecture delivered. Ef-         quest. Standard Bearers are also mailed to interested
forts are currently underway to expand this aspect       people outside of our churches. The Worship ser-
of the work and distribute these tapes as widely as      vices and sermon titles are placed in the Saturday
possible. For the past ten years South Holland has       newspaper along with a brief declaration of the Re-
been broadcasting one of the Sunday sermons over         formed Truth. Holland's committee is presently in-
a local. F M station. In this connection Edward          vestigating the possibility of airing a fifteen-minute
Stouwie, secretary of the committee, writes:             radio program to be presented by its pastor.
"Speaking of radio broadcasting, at the time of this     FAITH CHURCH, JENISON, MICHIGAN
writing (Sept. 26), we have just been the recipients
of a most unusual largesse. A lover of the Reformed        In addition to cooperating with the other
faith in an Eastern state has offered to sponsor Rev.    Michigan churches in lectures and radio broadcast-
Engelsma's series of thirteen 15 minute radio mes-       ing, Faith mails "Studies In Bible Doctrine" (writ-
sages on The Fundamentals of the Reformed Faith          ten by Rev. B. Woudenberg) to 1200 addresses.
over a powerful A M station in his area. With anti-      These are mailed for six months and then a
cipation we look forward to this hoping that the         response is sought. Those who respond are placed
station has the time segments and a suitable day         on a permanent mailing list. The study sheets are
available to us."                                        then mailed to another group of 1200. Faith intends
                                                         to do this until every home in Jenison has been
  South Holland gratefully reports that they             reached. Faith also distributes literature from the
receive requests for their literature from all over      R.F.P.A. in restaurants, doctors' offices, etc. The
North America and even overseas. Many of their           newest project is placing an ad, "In Love Of The
publications are distributed through the R.F.P.A.        Truth," in the local shopping guide. Faith's pastor,
(Henry  VanderWal). Over the past ten years or so        Rev. W. Bruinsma, will be writing brief articles in
South Holland has published some eight                   this ad explaining various truths of Scripture over
pamphlets. The first and most popular one is the         against prevalant errors and misconceptions.
series of brief meditations written by the late Her-
man Hoeksema entitled: "God Is Our Refuge And            HUDSONVILLE CHURCH, HUDSONVILLE,
Strength." This pamphlet proved to be the begin-         MICHIGAN
ning of South Holland's publishing efforts. Over           Hudsonville, now our largest congregation, mails
ten thousand copies of this have been printed. The       about three hundred bulletins to addresses mainly
newest pamphlet is "Remembering The Lord's               in the Hudsonville area. This attractive bulletin has
Day," by Rev. Engelsma. This and all the pamph-          a picture of the church, together with Pastor Van
lets are free upon request. Other pamphlets are in       Baren's name, address, and phone number on the
the planning stage.                                      front cover. The back cover contains a brief state-
  As is the case with several other of the churches,     ment of the history and doctrine of the Protestant
South Holland sponsors a Reformation Day lecture         Reformed Churches in America (we shall have to
annually.                                                change this to  North  America now that there is a
                                                         congregation in Canada). Inside, the bulletin con-
  In all this work, the secretary writes, the com-       tains an essay on some. aspect of the Reformed
mittee has the "loyal, spiritual,' and financial sup-    faith. The sample sent to me carries an essay by
port" of the congregation.                               Rev. Woudenberg on the subject, "The Bond Of
                                                         Marriage."
COVENANT CHURCH, WYCKOFF, NEW                              Hudsonville underwrites the cost of the
JERSEY                                                   Reformed Witness Hour over WJBL, a Holland
  Covenant is limited in its work because of small       radio station. Sermon tapes are sent to Family
size. Nevertheless the little congregation and its       Radio, a network of nine non-profit religious sta-
pastor do what they can. Two lectures (spring and        tions. Nine of the sermons have been broadcast this
fall) are sponsored every year. Pastor Hanko is          year. Those who respond to the radio sermons are
privileged to preach on the average of once per          sent, at their request, cassette copies. These people
month in the People's Park Reformed Church               are placed on the mailing list for the bulletin men-
(RCA) of Paterson. There are a few families in           tioned above. In addition, they are sent sample
Vermont to whom sermon tapes and literature are          copies of the Stczndurd Becwer, as well as other litera-
sent. These people have been active in distributing      ture. An ad is placed in the local "shopper" expres-
our literature and books in the communities in           sing a point of our faith and listing the time and
which they live.                                         place of the worship services. The consistory has


130                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



scheduled,. a biweekly "catechism" class in the          "Christ's Predetermined Death," authored  by Rev.
Byron Center Library (a small town south; of Hud-        R.C. Harbach.
sonville where there once was a Protestant Re-           FIRST CHURCH, GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
formed Church) where Prof. Hoeksema tedches  the
Canons of Dordt. A number of Hudsonville families          As many of our readers know, standing in the
committed themselves to attend these meetings            heart of what once was the Dutch ghetto but now is
regularly to form a "core" group. Others  `are invi-     the Black ghetto of Grand Rapids is First Church.
ted to attend through personal contact an: through       As is true of her sisters in the denomination, so
advertising.                                             from First too goes forth the command of the gospel
                                                         to repent and believe. We quote the letter received
KALAMAZOO CHURCH, KALAMAZOO,                             from the church extension committee:
MICHIGAN                                                   "The Reformed Witness Hour originated in the
  With the Rev. Bernard Woudenberg as its pastor         Young Men's Society of First Church, and soon
it comes as no surprise that Kalamazoo (with First,      came to function under the sponsorship of the Con-
Grand Rapids and Hope, -Walker one of the                sistory of this church. For many years the late Rev.
"mother churches" of the denomination) is active         Herman Hoeksema, pastor of First Protestant
in evangelism. The pastor's letter to me is 6f such a    Reformed Church, was the radio speaker for the
nature that it is probably best to quote :it in its      program. Over the years many other of our clergy
entirety:                                                have recorded radio sermons, many new stations
       "We publish our regular study sheet,' `Studies    have been added, and many other churches have
in Bible Doctrine,' every two or three weeks. These      become involved in the financial support of the ra-
are sent through the mail to anyone desiring them        dio broadcast. But the Radio Committee remains
(several hundred at the moment, R.D.D.). At              responsible to the Consistory  01 First Church and
present we are starting a series on the growth of the    remains dependent on it for the largest single con-
Church.                                      I           tribution to the cost of maintaining the broadcast.
  "These sheets are followed a week later by a             "First Church has a library of tapes which are
study tape enlarging on the subject. Theselare sent      used in its `Recording Ministry.' Sermon tapes are
out on a loan basis and without charge to be lis-        made available on a loan-free basis, both to  shut-
tened to and returned for reuse.                         ins...and to others at their request. The cassette li-
  "For a while now we have been using, the Re-           brary includes a number of titles of lectures. The
formed Witness Hour radio time to experiment             Church Extension Committee is currently frying to
with different approaches to broadcasting, At pre-       establish a working relationship with a Christian
sent we are holding an open line type of broadcast       Bookstore chain in ordkr to provide for a wider dis-
with questions and comments taken from the lis-          tribution of our tapes."
teners by telephone. It is proving quite intefesting.      In addition First is the calling Church for Jamai-
  "We are presently publishing several small tracts      ca. "Progress is sometimes disappointingly slow,
which can be used for handout distribution.              but the Consistory's Jamaican committee continues
  "We regularly conduct a number of  Bible study         to work long and hard in this very complex aspect
classes to which outsiders can be invited. '             of our mission endeavor."
  We hope to hold a number of lectures  lthrough           First, with the help of Southeast Church and
the course of the coming year in our  new church         with some Synodical Funding, supervises the work
building."                                               being done in Bradenton, Florida.
HOPE C                                                     Finally, many of the pamphlets advertised in the
             HURCH,  WALKER,  MICHIGAN                   brochure of the R.F.P.A. originated with the
  Hope Church does its church extension work             Sunday School of First Church. The Sunday School,
mainly through its "Reformed Witness Commit-             with     supplementary       funding     from     the
tee." Cassette tapes of the Reformed Witness Hour        congregation, continues to publish new pamphlets
and of the Sunday Worship services of Hope are           and reprint older on& as the need arises.
mailed to about sixty addresses on a permanent                                  *****
mailing list. The recipients are from the states as
well as from Korea, South Africa, Tanzania, Malay-         Thus it is that from twenty-one little churches
sia, and the Republic of China. Many of these write      who bear the name Protestant Reformed, scattered
periodically, informing Hope of their deep appreci-      from Wyckoff, New Jersey in the shadows of New
ation for these tapes and requesting other reading       York City to Redlands, California and Lynden
materials.  ,' Prof.    Hanko's pamphlet series,         Washington on the shores of the Pacific and from
"Covenant Witness," is being reprinted for distri-       Houston, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta there goes
bution. Recently Hope printed a pamphlet,                forth the pure and sweet sound of the gospel of the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              131



  sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. All this in       labor while it is day, ere the night comes in which
  addition to the work of the churches in common in         no  Aan can labor. The fields aie white with  har-
  East Lansing, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama;              vest.
  and Singapore and Jamaica. How thankful we must              Looking at it all we say: "For of Him, and
  be for the work God has given us to do and for the        through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom
  grace to do it. Let us be zealous in our efforts and      be glory forever and ever. Amep." (Romans 11:36).

T H E D A Y Q F S H A D O W S

                            A Bitter Cry of Unbelief
                                                 Rev. John A. Heys


    With heavy hearts, because they had to leave            one man in Egypt that was a friend to  th&.`And
  Simeon behind in one of Egypt's prisons, the nine         what about Simeon being kept in prison? Is it any
  brothers of Joseph mounted their beasts of burden.        wonder that, when they did return with Benjamin,
  And yet with a sigh of relief they headed northward       one of the first things that they did was to explain
  for. the land of Canaan. How wonderful to be out of       that they had found this money and were bringing
  prison and away from rough speech!                        it back? And is it any wonder that, upon being
    The relief, however, was soon replaced with in-         brought into Joseph's house, they first said among
  creasing anxiety, so that their hearts became heavi-      themselves, "Because of the money that was re-
  er each step that they took homeward. For now a           turned in our sacks at the first time are we brought
  new trying situation began to impress itself upon         in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall
  their consciousness. They must face their father          upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses"?
  and explain to him Simeon's absence, the fact  tha't      Note, by the way, how averse these brothers, who
  they found a sack's worth of money in the sack of         sold Joseph as a slave, are to becoming slaves theni-
  grain that they had opened, and that they must take       selves. But they can find only one explanation for
  Benjamin along, if they are to return and get food        the money in their sacks, and that is that it is an
  again out of Egypt. What troubled them especially         attempt to prove that they are spies, and thieves as
  was the fact that they had to persuade their father,      well.
  who now looked upon Benjamin as his most be-                 Imagine then their consternation, and their
  loved son, to let them take this youngest son along       father's, when arriving home they open all the
  on their next trip.                                       other eight sacks, and find in each one the money
    Now, ordinarily, to find a sum of money brings          they gave for the contents! What is more, we may
  elation. To get a large discount on the things you        believe that each brpther recognized the fact that he
  buy does not move to tears of sadness. To come            got exactly the same money-not merely the equi-
  home from the grocery store with a large bag of the       valent of what he bought the corn for-and in the
  necessities of life for which the owner refused to let    same purse or package in which they brought `it! If
  you pay, and said that it was on the house, will not      you will turn to Genesis  42:35, you fill find this,
  bring frowns and grumblings. More likely your step         "And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks,
  will be quicker and lighter; and you will want to         that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in
  hurry home and tell others of your "good fortune."        his sack; and when both they and their father saw
  But the nine brothers did not look forward to telling     the bundles of money, they were afraid." Now this
  this to their father after they opened one of their       word bundle is elsewhere translated three times as
  sacks and found to the last penny the cost of that        bag, and it is not the same word as sack. There was
  sack of corn lying on top of the food. They were          a bundle or bag of money in each sack. The word
  filled with consternation to find this money, and         bundle or bag means that which is compressed; and
  with,stark fear looked at each other in dismay. We        it gives the idea of a sum of money that is not loose
  read that their hearts failed them. The treatment         but in some way wrapped up together. And "every
  that they had received in Egypt gave them no assur-       man's bundle" means that the same bundle, bag, or
  ance that this was a gift of kindness-even though it      wrapping is there with the exact coins that they had
  was-or the deed of a good friend. Going home to           brought to buy the corn. No wonder they were
  get proof that they were true men, they knew of not       afraid and that their hearts failed them, and said,


132                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



"What is this that God hath done to us?" There was        good; but it will take some time yet before God will
everything to give circumstantial evidence that           make this plain. God's calendar and clock are
they stole the money they brought down  to: Egypt.        seldom our calendar and clock. And God's way is
  Fear, although it may not leave entirely, does          the best way because it is the only way. The salva-
tend to lessen after a period of time during which        tion of these sons of Jacob demanded all this
no evil befalls one. But the fear of the brothers be-     history. They must be brought to conviction and
came far more intense when they opened all the            confession of their sins. Joseph must go ahead to
other eight sacks upon arriving home.  In, Genesis        spare the lives of his father's house during those
42:28 in connection with opening only one sack, we        seven dreadful years of famine that the covenant
read that their hearts failed and they were afraid.       line die not out, and the Christ in due time may be
The word afraid here means troubled. That their           born in the line of Jacob and his son Judah.
hearts failed we would probably explain as skip-            The trouble with us (and the trouble here with
ping a beat. However, the word means to go out or         Jacob) is that we look at things instead of looking at
go forth. And the idea more closely then is that          God Who is behind all that which happens. And we
their hearts pounded with fear, and seemed almost         look at the work of one particular thing or event
ready to break out of their chest cavities because of     and quickly come to a conclusion, while God has
the fierceness of the pounding. But upon, opening         an  .eternal,  unchangeable counsel or plan wherein
all the sacks they are gripped with even greater          all things work  together,  and are not just so many
fear. The word fear, or the statement that they were      separate works. We must get that truth and hold
afraid when they opened the eight sacks means  that       fast to it, that all things work  together  for good.
they trembled, could not control their limbs. And         Alone they may work us physical harm and be very
the word is the same one that is used of fallen           distasteful and hard to bear. And taken all by them-
Adam when he heard God coming in the cool of the          selves and failing to see God behind them working
day, and when Moses was  afraid "to look upon             out a good and wonderful plan, we will so often cry
God" at the burning bush. This is a dreadful, over-       out with Jacob that all is against us.
whelming fear.                                              A little experience from every day life will show
  Jacob also was afraid. The sons had  alr$ady  told
him of their experiences in Egypt. Now  s?ch fear         us how to judge what God sends us, and help us to
                                                          see that all things work 
grips him that he cries out, "Me have ye bereaved                                      together  for good to those
of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeoh is not,         that love Him. While your wife or mother is baking
                                                          a cake that calls for many ingredients, one of which
and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are
against me." Note how Jacob blames it all on his          is flour, take a tablespoon of that flour and put it in
                                                          your mouth. It will not taste good to you. It will
sons, even that Joseph "is not." He  knee not the         work no good in your mouth, as far as your taste is
details. He believed Joseph to have been slain by a       concerned. It, even as bitter medicine may cure
wild beast; but he harboured in his soul  all these       you of your ailment, will provide your body with
years the suspicion that they had something to do         nourishment, in spite of its unappetizing taste. But
with that tragic "death." For he knew the vehe-           by itself you are not going to'enjoy it. It will go
ment hatred that they had for Joseph.                     against you. Now let your wife or mother, or the
  Surely Jacob was not walking by faith here in this      baker down the street, mix that flour  jn the right
outburst. The smouldering dissatisfaction which he        proportion with the other ingredients, bake the
had with these ten sons through the years, the pain-      mixed ingredients for the right length of time at the
ful loss of Joseph, and now because these sons had        proper temperature and then serve it to you.
told Joseph so much in Egypt that it resulted in          Together with the other ingredients and the heat,
Simeon being held as a hostage, and Benjamin              that flour will work together for a delicious cake.
being required to be brought to Egypt, as. undeni-        The end product is very delightful, even though at
able evidence that they were true men, mcived him         any stage of the preparation, and alone, the ele-
to express that which was pure unbelief. He cried         ments may bring discomfort rather than joy.
of all these things being against him, while faith de-
clares that all things work together for good to those      And the reason why all the ingredients in our
that love God, and that nothing is able to ,separate      lives, all our experiences and every historical event
us from the love of God.                                  in the history of this world from creation onward,
                                                          work together for our good is that God works them
  Once again it may be stated that we can'pity the        all together. He, the All-wise Chef, knows just what
man, that we can understand how trying alid disap-        ingredients are necessary and for how long a period
pointing all these events must have been for him.         of time we are to be exercised by  them.`He  knows
But we must not defend him in it. For what he said        how hot it must get for us. And His measurements
simply was not true. All this was working for his         are always exact. His mixture of the bitter with the


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                133



sweet is always in the most complete sense of the         sins and weaknesses of the saints and sinners
word according to His perfect recipe.                     recorded on those pages that cover  the day of
  No, Jacob, God did not give you something that          shadows.
was against you. All these things occurred at the           Looking at Jacob here we quickly say, "Oh,
time that they did take place because there is a          Jacob, do not talk that way," and hardly have we
great good toward which the God of all mercy was          spoken these words and we dare to speak of our
working. Leave out any one of these things which          own "bad luck," ruling God completely out of our
Jacob called against him, and there will be no            lives and denying that this present inconvenience is
happy, delightful end. How foolish to go to a             working together with the rest of God's works upon
bakery and watch a renowned baker make a cake,            us and round about us for our everlasting good.
and then, not knowing what kind of cake he is             Looking at the ten sons of Jacob we want to shout at
preparing, begin to criticize the adding of  .this or     them, "Tell your father the truth! Do not let him for-
that ingredient and question the oven temperature         one more second carry that grief; and go down into
and time of baking.                                       Egypt and see if you can find his beloved son and
  And yet with God we do that time and time               buy his freedom again." And yet are.we not just as
again. We do that even though we do know, for             reluctant to confess our sins? If  Asher, Dan, or
God reveals it in His Word, what He is preparing          Judah do it, it is bad. But we had a good reason for
for us. We even know from His own mouth that              doing the same thing. After all this is a different day
there will be bitter ingredients and that our light       and age!
affliction works for us a far more exceeding and            How comforting to know that God works all
eternal weight of glory. Yet we  quickly.say,  "Oh,       together for our good, and that we do not need to
no, all these things are against us!"                     depend upon each other. How wonderful that in
  From the Psalms we sing, "Let children thus             God's eternal plan, and because of it, the cross of
learn from history's light to hope in our God and         Christ is a historical fact! What Joseph told his
walk in His sight, The God of their fathers to fear       brothers, many years later, is so true of that cross,
and obey, And ne'er like their fathers to turn from       "Ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."
His way." But one of the biggest mistakes we make         For Christ's brethren meant to destroy Him, but
when we trace the history of God's people in the          God meant that cross that we might live forever in
Old Testament is to fail to see ourselves in all the      the kingdom of His Christ.

MYSHEEP HEAR MY VOICE

                                   Letter to TitiothvL

                                  December  15,198l
Dear Timothy,                                             words be few." Do we really know how to do this?
  In the last letter to you I mentioned, somewhat in        It is, it seems to me, elementary that how we
passing, that our attitude towards the preacher and       listen, to the preaching in Church is determined by
our attitude towards the preaching were insepara-         other'important and related matters. I refer, in the
bly related to each other. I want to say a bit more       first place, to the fact that our listening to the
about that in this letter, especially from the view-      preaching will be determined in large measure by
point of what is involved in listening to a sermon. I     our attitude  towards and interest in spiritual things.
wonder sometimes whether we have not lost the art         This is not something which ought to characterize
of listening. Or, if I may repeat that passage from       our lives only on the Lord's Day, but something
Ecclesiastes which. I quoted last time, "Keep thy         that  Ijersists through all of life. Jesus points to the
foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be          very heart of the matter in His sermon on the
more ready to hear,. than to give the sacrifice of        mom-it  when He says: "For where your treasure is,
fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not    there will your heart be also" (Matthew  6:21). If
rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be           our treasure is upon earth and not in heaven, then
hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in        we will not listen very attentively to the preaching,
heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy            for the preaching is all about spiritual treasures. It


134                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



may be that,a very interesting sermon delivered by          of spirituality of the listener.      c
a very gifted speaker captures our attention and              Always listening is an act of worship. The whole
holds  otir interest in spite of the fact that our trea-    of the church service on the Lord's Day is worship,
sures  are on earth; but this "hearing" of the Word         of course. Fundamentally, worship, according to
will be iike the seed that fell upon thorny ground.         the Scriptural idea, is "bowing the knee towards"
"And the care of this world, and the deceitfulness          God, for that is the most basic meaning of the word
of riches, choke the word, and he becometh un-              which is consistently translated as worship.
fruitful" (Matthew  13:22). Nor can one "lay up"            Worship is, therefore, an act of adoration and
treasures on earth during the week and expect to            praise. It is an acknowledgement of God as the
lay up treasures in heaven on the Lord's Day. And           sovereign Lord and as the One Who alone is worthy
this is simply because a person cannot "serve God           of all honor and glory. All worship basically in-
and mammon," as Jesus points out in the following           volves this. Whether we sing or pray, whether we
verses.                                                     confess our faith or bring our offerings, this is the
  This is important to remember too. There are so           essence of worship. But listening to God's Word is
many people who leave God's house unmoved by                also worship. It is an act of adoratioli  and praise at
the sermon and untouched by the Word as it is               bottom and an acknowledgement of the absolute
preached and dissatisfied with the preacher and his         Lordship of Almighty God,
message. But the trouble lies with themselves.                Listening to the sermon is an act of worship,
Their treasures  are really on earth. They are basi-        however, in its own unique way. Listening is wor-
cally and fundamentally uninterested in the trea-           ship because our listening must be an inward con-
sures of heaven. But rather than admit this, they           fession that the almighty God of heaven and earth,
are quick to blame the preacher and his preaching           our Jehovah Who saves us, has the sovereign right
for their own disinterest. They prefer to blame             to speak to us and require of us that we listen to
someone else rather than their own carnal-minded-           what' He has to say. There is an element here of
ness.                                                       listening as acknowledgement of God's absolute
  This stands closely related to another  matter-           sovereignty over us. We  must  listen because God
that of spiritual preparation. This too is an impor-        has authority over us. Listening is acknowledge-
tant matter. There are many in the Churches today           ment of that. But there is also the aspect of praise
who remember days when preparation for the Sab-             and adoration because we listen to Him Who tells
bath began already on Saturday. There were many             us what great things He has done for us.
homes in which it was a common practice to have               There are illustrations which help make this
all the work finished by late Saturday afternoon or         clear. If a parent is giving his child instruction in a
early Saturday evening. Not only was the house it-          certain matter and is using that instruction as a
self  spick and span, but the clothes for Church            basis to admonish the child, the parent expects the
were laid out, the potatoes for dinner on the Lord's        child to pay attention. If the child does not pay at-
Day were peeled and standing in a pan of water, the         tention, lets his mind wander while the parent is
work on the farm was finished for the week, and             talking and assumes an attitude of indifference,
the thoughts of the family could turn to the Sab-           then the child, by such conduct, refuses to acknow-
bath. No one might, except under extraordinary cir-         ledge the authority of the parent in his life and the
cumstances, leave the house on Saturday night be-           parent has the right to say: "Listen to me; I am your
cause the parents firmly believed that it was impos-        father." The other aspect can also be illustrated.
sible to get ready to worship God by gallivanting all       Supposing that I am a very poor beggar who has
over the country. This has all changed. There is not        nothing in the world and who can survive only by
that sense of getting ready for the Sabbath that once       eating out of garbage cans, fighting with wild dogs
there was. Work continues at its normal pace all            for a place to sleep, and struggling to keep warm in
day Saturday and on into the evening. Or, if one            cold weather by lying near doors of locked build-
can escape the work, then Saturday is a time to go          ings where a bit of heat may seep under the door;
visiting until very late in the evening, and little or      supposing further that the king of the land, for
no thought is given to the Lord's Day. The result is        some reason known only to himself, calls me into
that many come into God's house on the Lord's               the palace and begins to tell me that he intends to
Day with absolutely no thought at all given to the          give me a very important place in his kingdom
fact that they have entered God's presence and that         where I will have riches and influence, and oppor-
they are now to.hear what God has to say to them.           tunity to join in policy discussions and decisions,
There is no surprise then when such people receive          and the rule over others; supposing that while the
little or nothing from the preaching. And, once             king is talking about all this I am so unmoved by
again, as often as not the blame is shifted to the          what he says and so indifferent to what he is talking
preacher, in an effort to cover the frailties and lack      about that I simply pay no attention and do not


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              135



even hear what is being said-such conduct is an             struction in righteousness. If we listen  to the
insult to the king and brands me as the crassest of         preadhing bf-the Scriptures we Will be profited. We
fools.                                                      will learn doctrine, we will be reproved  and  ,cor-
  To listen with thankfulness and joy, with adora-          rected, we will be instructed in righteousness. And,
tion and praise to what God tells us of the salvation       according to vs. 17, this is all that we need that we,
He has graciously given in Christ is the worship of         as men of God, may be perfect and thoroughly fur-
listening. To listen with humble submission to the          nished unto all good works.
authority of our heavenly King is to worship in lis-          All :of this requires that our listening be spiritual.
tening.                                                     But I think it best to discuss this with you in a sub-
  Paul tells us in II Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture       sequent letter.
is given by the inspiration of God. But He tells us                                               Fiaternally  in Christ,
too why God gave the Scriptures: they are profit-                                                 H .   H a n k o
able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in-

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

                                    "Anything Goes"
                                                 Rev. R. Flikkema:



  As the end of time approaches us the cup of sin              That that sin is being advocated today the abpve
and iniquity becomes &ire and more full; the viola-         mentioned article gives ample proof. In that article,
tion of God's holy law becomes more and more pro-           entitled "Cradle-To-Grave Intimacy," you will find
nounced, and the horror of sin, as sin develops, is         a  piciure of a book that goes by the title Show Me.
simply beyond belief. As the end of time approach-          Diredtly under that title you will find the picture of
es us, sin is no more called sin but acceptable prac-       two children sitting naked. Directly under that you
tice, and almost anything goes.                             read these words, "A Picture Book of Sex for Chil-
  Yes indeed, almost anything  .goes! What is that          dren  `and Parents; Photography and Captions by
anything to which I refer? What is the sin which is         Will `McBride; Explanatory Text by Dr. Helga
simply deemed acceptable practice, but which is in          Fleischhauer-Hardt." And you also discover that
reality so horrible that it is beyond belief? That sin      that book is a national bestseller for the meager fare
you can read about in the September 7 issue of Time         of only $7.95. In the article itself various quotations
magazine. It is a sin that has to do with sex. Not,         are given which represent the views of various
you understand, sex between a man and a woman               people who openly advocate this horrible sin.
with whom he is not married, or sex between a               Allow me to present a few of those quotations.
woman and a man with whom she is not married.                     According to the argument, (the argument for child-
That horrible sin the Bible calls adultery and forni-          sexuality-R.F.) children are sexual beings who need
cation, and it has been deemed acceptable practice,            to  ;develop  skills early in life. The child has a funda-
or if not acceptable practice, at least practiced for          mental right, says Mary S. Calderone, head of the in-
                                                               fluential Sex Information and Education Council of
many years. Nor do I refer to the sin of homosex-               the U.S., "to know about sexuality and to he sexual."
uality, the sin described thus in Romans 1: "...men,
leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in                   And stranger is the theory that children will grow
their lust one toward another; men with men work-              up, askew if they do not have early sex. As Sexologist
                                                               John Money of John Hopkins wrote in The  Sciences
ing that which is unseemly...." That sin too has               magazine: "It is almost certain that human beings,
been practiced for many years; and today, even in              likk the other primates, require a period of early
the so-called church it is becoming acceptable prac-           sexual rehearsal play."
tice. But I refer to sex as today it is being deemed                  One of the more intellectually dishevelled of the
acceptable amongst children. Not  meh with men,                new  apostles of child sex is Family Therapist Larry
not women with women, but children with child-                 Constantine of Acton,  Mass., whose views sould like a
ren, and even parents with their children, which is            satire on how to raise children. Says  .he: "Children
incest! That is that acceptable practice-that "any-            really are a disenfranchised minority. They should
thing goes" sin-that is being advocated today.                 have the right to express themselves sexually, which


136                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



       means that they may or may not have contact with                Testament for that matter, is an ancient relic of the
       people older than themselves." What about older men             past that applied only to the day and age in which it
       preying on four-and five-year olds? Constantine                 was written, but which does not apply to our day
       would argue that if children were properly educated             and age.) There God says in -verse six, "None of you
       about sex, a child could always say no.                         shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to
         Wardell  Pomeroy, co-author of the original Kinsey            uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord." That is
       reports, says incest "can sometimes be beneficial" to           what God says. God, and we with God, must call
       children. Dutch Psychologist Frits Bernard, author of           such abomination, sin! A sin it was, so God told the
       numerous       articles    and books on pedophilia,             children of Israel, that the Canaanites who dwelt in
       [abnormal sexual desire in an adult for children-R.F.)          the land before them openly advocated and
       says adult-child sex is basically innocent.                     practiced. God says in verses 24 and 25, "Defile not
         Another common theme is that adult-child sex must
       be judged by the quality of the relationship involved.          ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these
       Sociologist Floyd Martinson of Minnesota's Gustavus             the nations are defiled which I cast out before'you:
       Adolphus  College thinks adults involved in affection-          and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the ini-
       ate sexual relationships with tots should not go to jail.       quity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth
       "Intimate human relations are important and                     out her inhabitants." Evidently the Canaanites who
       precious," he feels. "I'd like to see as few restrictions       dwelt in the land of Canaan had practiced all the
       placed on them as possible." Psychologist Douglas               vile sins that are described in this chapter,
       Powell of the Harvard Health Service says: "I have              including the one with which this article deals. And
       not seen anyone harmed by this so long as it occurs in          for those sins God spued forth His wrath, His judg-
       a relationship with somebody who really cares about             ment, His fiery indignation upon the ungodly world
       the child."                                                     of the Canaanites of that day. And we must make
         Valida  Davila of the Childhood Sensuality Circle, a          no mistake, God will surely do so again! God is not
       far-out sex group in San Diego welcomes the new wri-            mocked! Upon a world which condones such sins,
       ting: "We believe children should begin sex at birth. It        and yes, even upon a world which condemns such
       causes a lot of problems not to practice incest."               sins merely on the ground that such sins do psycho-
  Now, as far as the article in which all these quo-                   logical damage, God will come in judgment! And
tations are found is concerned, a few observations                     when He does, the sin of child-sexuality will not be
are in order. In the first place, as is evident from the               like playing with a loaded gun, but on the contrary,
very quotations themselves, the article is not at all                  it will be playing with fire-the fires of everlasting
in favor of this "anything goes" form of horrible                      hell!
sin. That is simply obvious from the quotations.
And too, that is obvious from the fact that this arti-                   That first of all. But the second observation that
cle quotes from various individuals who stand                          must be made concerning this sin and this article is
opposed to such a sin. So that what we have in this                    that the article points out that this sin is rarely
article is really the world condemning (at least after                 advocated openly and directly today. It says:
a fashion) what the world itself is advocating. How-                            The idea (notice, it calls child-sexuality, and along
ever, it must be clearly understood that this                              with that, incest, an idea and not a sin-R.F.) is rarely
condemnation, on the part of the world, of what the                        presented directly-most of the researchers, doctors
world itself is advocating is only "after a fashion"!                      and counselors who believe it have the wit to keep a
The world's condemnation of what the world itself                          low profile and tuck the idea away neatly in a longer,
is advocating has to do only with the reality that if                      more conventional speech or article.
sexuality is practiced amongst children, and that if                   Perhaps! But I wonder about that. I wonder if it can
sexuality is practiced between parents and their                       even be said that such an idea is rarely presented
children, untold psychological damage and hurt                         directly and advocated openly. The reason I
may be done to the children. The article quotes a                      wonder about that is that if it is true that such an
psychiatrist by the name of Edward Ritvo who says                      "anything goes" sin like child-sexuality and incest
this concerning this child-sexuality: "Childhood                       is rarely presented directly and advocated openly,
sexuality is like playing with a loaded gun." That is,                 why then is it that a book entitled Show  Me,  a
it can have a horrible effect upon all concerned. But                  picture book of sex for children and parents, is a
nowhere in the article does the article condemn this                   national bestseller? Why is that?
horrible sin to be exactly that, sin! A filling up of                    Let us not be deceived. Such sins are openly ad-
the measure of iniquity! A horrible abomination in                     vocated. They are advocated in a world that is
the sight of God! The article does not do that. The                    rapidly becoming ripe for judgment. The cup of ini-
Bible does. Read for example the eighteenth chap-                      quity is almost full. The day of our Lord Jesus
ter of the Book of Leviticus. (And we must have                        Christ, when He shall come to do judgment and jus-
nothing of those who say that what we have in Le-                      tice, is not all that far off. It can not be, when we
viticus 18, or in any of the other chapters of the Old                 live in a world, a wicked world, where anything goes.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                137



BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


                  Romans-Justification by Faith
                                            (Conclusign)
                                                   Rev. J.  Kortering


  We continue with our outline of the book of                 that the view of these people was not an attack
Romans. So far we have seen that in chapters 1:16-            upon the heart of the gospel as it was before in
11:36 the Holy Spirit led Paul to set forth the exal-         other places. Here it is more a matter of "weaker
ted theme of justification by faith. This we call the         brethren." We must be charitable in dealing with
doctrinal part of the book.                                   these people. We must not judge them harshly, but
  3. We now come to the next main division of the             rather deal with them as Christ would have us do.
book which deals with the practical application of            We must be careful not to offend, that is, to cause
the doctrine of justification by faith (12: 1-15: 12).        our weaker brother to fall into sin because of our
                                                              example. We must do all things by a true faith
  We must demonstrate our gratitude for this justi-           (14:7-23). The strong must bear with the weak
fication by walking in holiness in all areas of our           (15: l-7). Once again Paul exhorts the believers to
life  (12:1-21). This is accomplished by presenting           recognize that in the church there must be room for
our bodies a living sacrifice through the renewing            both Jews and Gentiles because Christ came to die
of our mind. By the grace given us we are to think            for both (15:7-13).
humbly and soberly  (12:1-3).  All the gifts which
God bestows upon us must be used for the welfare                 4. Conclusion of the epistle  (15:13-16:27).  Paul
of the whole body of Christ (12:4-8).  This requires a        expresses a prayer that God  may, fill the Roman
sincere love for one another (12:9,  lo), kindness, in-       congregation with joy and peace. He expresses con-
dustry, patience, hospitality, compassion, and a              fidence in them that they will receive and act upon
willingness to take abuse but return only good, "be           the things he wrote in this epistle  (15:13, 14). He
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good"            assures them that he is an apostle to the Gentiles
(12:11-21).                                                   and that God confirmed this with many signs and
                                                              wonders  (15:15-21). He expresses his desire to
  The believer has a duty regarding civil magis-              come to see them after he is finished in Jerusalem.
trates (13: l-7). The higher powers (civil rulers) are        He seeks their prayers on his behalf that God may
ordained of God (13: 1). The believer may not resist          spare his life in the face of opposition  (15:22-33).
them  (13:2). The calling of civil rulers is to protect       Paul then extends his personal greetings to many
the citizen by punishing evil doers, even bearing             individuals whom he knows in the Roman  congre-
the sword-exercising capital punishment and                   gationand  also gives the greetings of many who are
fighting wars  ,of defense  (13:3,4). Our response as         with him in Corinth that desire to be remembered
citizens must be to honor them, obey them, and pay            to the Romans as well, (16: l-24). He closes with the
our taxes (135-7).                                            apostolic blessing (16:24-27).
  The apostle now explains how the believers are
to deal with each other within the church (13:8-              DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
15:13). We are to love one another and so fulfill the            Upon. reading the entire letter of Romans, one
law  (13:8-10). This is necessary, for the night is far       cannot help but appreciate  ,the close relationship
spent and we have the Word as an armour  of light             between doctrine and life. Frequently, in our day,
(13:11, 12). By doing this, we will put on the Lord           we hear a clamor for less doctrine and more empha-
Jesus Christ (13:13, 14).                                     sis on the practical side of the Christian's life. This
  There were in the church then, as there are also            comes to expression in evaluating the preaching of
now, weaker brethren who considered it sin to eat             the gospel. How often ministers are criticized be-
certain foods (probably food offered unto idols), or          cause there is too much doctrine and not enough
they thought all eating of meat was wrong. Others             practical material! This criticism may be directed
were preoccupied with the observance of festal                against the selection of a text used for the sermon,
days (14: l-6). Paul does not warn as severely as he          or it may be directed against any one sermon that
did in the epistle to the Colossians. The reason is           contains too much doctrinal emphasis over against


138                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



the practical application. We do well to examine         we should gradually teach new converts their
the book of Romans from this point of view. Here         meaning. In this way they will find not only the
the inspired  ,apostle sets forth a strong doctrinal     Bible open to them, but also our Reformed confes-
basis (justification by faith) upon which he builds      sions and writings of our church fathers. Reformed
the structure of a holy Christian life. We should        vocabulary is Scriptural vocabulary. The book of
keep this in mind at all times, for life without a       Romans is rich in this, and we should make use of
foundation will surely fail. The holy life must be       such a letter as this in our teaching.
thoroughly grounded in the finished work of                The above points explain why there is little direct
Christ. Within the doctrinal section of Romans, we       application of the word of this epistle to the Roman
find many important truths emphasized: we are            situation. Most other letters of Paul to individual
righteous, not by the works of the law, but by faith;    churches include references to special problems in
Christ's work of redemption constituted the only         the congregation and how to deal with them. This
basis for our righteousness before God; by grace we      letter doesn't do that. We should remember that
are freed from the law of sin and death and brought      Paul had not personally visited Rome. He was not,
forth unto the liberty of Christ; God is sovereign in    therefore, directly acquainted with the situation, as
our salvation; He determines who will be saved           he was in other churches. Paul's intent was to set
(predestination) and He applies that salvation by        forth the principles of the faith for all saints. Hence
grace. Only when we understand these doctrines           the letter is well reasoned, systematic, and orderly
are we able to go on to the holy life. We will never     developed. Any would-be opponents that Paul
boast in our works, rather we will glory in the God      brings up are interjected as typical objectors in
of our salvation.                                        order that by answering them, the truth may be set
  A second feature to be noted is that the emphasis      forth understandably. The Holy Spirit used Paul,
on doctrine applies to mission work of the church        who already now had much experience in preach-
as well. We stated before that Paul considered the       ing the gospel and dealing with opponents, to set
Roman congregation crucial to the spread of the          forth this mature statement of the faith for the
gospel. This is true, in the first place, because the    benefit of the church of all ages.
congregation was typical in that it was made up of       QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Jews and Gentiles. Both had to learn to cooperate
and rejoice in the one gospel of Christ. Secondly, it       1. We pointed out that this letter was written as
was strategically located in the world. Out of Rome      a "mature" statement of faith. Look in the book of
the gospel would literally be spread to the ends of      Acts and other letters that Paul wrote and find evi-
the earth. Hence, while Paul wrote to this. mission      dence that Paul wrote this letter after much experi-
church, he did not down-play the doctrines of            ence as a missionary.
grace. He didn't say to them that he had much to           2. As Reformed believers we hold to the Heidel-
tell them, but they had to wait awhile because they      berg Catechism as one of our confessions. The well-
had to mature before they were ready to be in-           known division of this catechism is: first, how great
structed in, e.g., the profound doctrine of predes-      my sin and misery is; second, how I am delivered
tination. No, the holy apostle considered the gospel     from this sin and-misery; and thirdly, how I show
as one whole, and all its elements to be presented to    gratitude to God for such great deliverance. Make
the entire church. True, some could understand the       reference to this letter of Romans and show that the
"milk" better that the "meat"; yet, he did not           doctrinal part of this letter follows this same order.
withhold  the meat. The gospel must not be divided       3. Discuss the relationship between doctrine and
up. Rather it must be set forth in its entirety, and     life and point out from this letter of Romans that
the Holy Spirit will apply it as He sees fit. Surely,    God gives us direction in a proper understanding of
when Paul estabkshed  the churches in the truth, he      this.
did just that, and we do well to follow this example.      4. How do we explain the extensive introduction
  Because this letter is so explicit in doctrinal in-    (1: 1-15) and conclusion (15:  13-16:27)(which in-
struction and in the practical Christian life, we de-    cludes reference to 35 different people) if it is true
rive a great deal of our ecclesiastical vocabulary       that Paul had not been to Rome before and did not
from this epistle. The question often arises about       know the church personally.
the words we use in preaching and in discussion.
Do people who are not acquainted with the Scrip-           5. Make a list of ten doctrinal terms used in this
ture even understand the terminology? To be sure,        letter. Indicate where they are used in this letter,
one unfamiliar with the Bible must consider the          and define their meaning on the basis of what you
language we use as Reformed believers difficult to       learn about them from the letter itself.
understand. Yet, the solution for the Christian             6. Review the passages that deal with the rela-
church is not to abandon Scriptural terms. Rather        tionship between Jew and Gentile withing the


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         139



church. Show that Paul did not separate them as the                 Be sure to write down where they are found in this
dispensationalist does, but rather united them                      letter. What can you conclude from this list?
together in one faith in Christ Jesus. See  l:l-3:20;                 `8. Make reference to passages from the letter
3:21-31; 4:12-25;  and chapters 9-11.                               that shows that the Christian life consists of liberty
  7. Make a list of the different areas of Christian                not slavery. How do we explain that we are free to
life in which the apostle gives specific instruction.               obey God's law?                         _  __:.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G1 Van Baren


                                              Voting on Sunday

  The idea of rest for Sunday has well-nigh disap-                        . ..A new bill has been introduced into the U.S.
peared from the land. There is seen hardly any ob-                     House of Representatives by Mario Biaggi, a Con-
servance of this special day any more. There is buy-                   gressman from New York. His bill would move all
ing and selling on Sunday. Entertainment and other                     general elections from Tuesday to Sunday on a  six-
activities are available and used on Sunday. Yet the                   year trial period. He believes where Sunday elections
Christian could continue still in observing this day                   have been used in some European nations, the voter
                                                                       tu&out  has been traditionally higher than in the
of rest. The temptations to abuse it are great. But                    United States.
the child of God understands that the fourth com-
mandment still applies.                                                   This bill is receiving increasing support from some
                                                                       of the most influential politicians in this country. Re-
  But now we have been hearing of various reports                      cently, in the Athzta  Constitution dated May 8, 1981,
of an attempt to change the day for voting in our                      in an article entitled, "Sunday Voting Proposed;" it is
country from the traditional Tuesday to Sunday.                        reported that three former presidents back this bill in-
This represents an attempt. to force faithful Chris-                   troduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator S.I. Hayakawa
tians to choose: to honor their responsibilities as                    of California...
citizens of the country, while violating the fourth                        The article concludes with the following
command-or honor the fourth command even                                encouragement:
when he is excluded from the privilege of voting                          Write your Congressman today regarding H.R. 84.
thereby. It comes down to the choice of honoring                       It is urgent that you do so. Politicians respond to let-
God or man.                                                            ters written to them. . ..The march towards secularism
                                                                       is set by those who have been made to believe that
  Some thoughts on the problem are given in the                        Sunday is just another day. Sadly, many Christians
Herald of the Covenant, October 23, 1981, a paper of                    nod assent through silence. Write your letter today!
the Covenant Presbytery of the Presbyterian
Church in America. The writer states:


                Gospel According to Recrder's Digest

  Christianity Today,  Oct. 23, 1981, reports on a                        Walsh said Reader's Digest editors who had profes-
new project of Reader's Digest:                                         sional knowledge of condensing procedure were "spe-
                                                                        cifically trained to work on Bible text...."
       Editors of the Reader's Digest are nearing the com-
   pletion of a major book-condensation project: the en-                  Walsh said that though the condensing technique
    tire Bible. Publication date is September 1982, but so              developed by  Digest  editors for the Bible was basically
    far,  Digest  editors are saying little about it.                  the same one used for other books, there were some
      Jack Walsh, who is overseeing the Bible project, did             differences. "We had to adapt it to some extent be-
    say that work on it was being done under the direction              cause of the nature of the Bible," he said. As an exam-
    of "one of the world's most respected Bible schol-                 ple, he said, editors will change a word or phrase to
    ars...."                                                           clarify or shorten it. In working with the Bible,  how-


140                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



       ever, unlike other books, "we could not use any                condensation, however good it may be, is not the
       words that came from our editors. We used only                 Bible as God has given it.
       words that actually appeared in the RSV, preferably in
       the same book we were working on...."                            Secondly, though it is difficult to judge the con-
                                                                      tent of a condensation which has not yet appeared,
         Walsh explained why  Reader's Digest  .undertook             there is an obvious danger here: man condenses out
       this project. "The orginal full-length Bible is very long
       and tends to be obscure in many places," he said. It is        of the Bible also those doctrines, thoughts, or prac-
       not easy to read the full, original Bible in any version.      tices which he does not appreciate. Whether the
       Other Bibles made to simplify the text are always              Digest  condensation will do that, remains to be
       either full-text versions or simple abridgments.               seen.
         "Of course, these have their own purposes to                   In the meantime, let us remember that God gave
       serve," he said. "But the Digest Bible offers the whole        us His infallible-Word to use faithfully. Those who
       Bible, reduced by 40 percent....                               constantly want to "cut corners" in their study of
         "It does not cut out whole blocks of text, but is in-        Scripture, find decreasing interest in continuing
       stead a line-by-line cutting process. True condensa-           study. If there is not to be that "lack of knowledge"
       tion never interferes with the essential substance of a        against which Scripture so strongly warns, then the
       text."                                                         child of God ought faithfully to study Scripture as
  There have been condensed Bibles in the past.                       God has given it to us. He may make use of proper
But this condensation might become the most                           "helps," but let him turn to Scripture itself as the
popular and better known than any of the preced-                      final and reliable authority. To rely on "crutches"
ing ones-if only because it has the backing of the                    instead of the Book God Himself gave, would be
marketing techniques of the  Digest.  (And, inciden-                  dangerous and utter foolishness.
tally, I can well imagine that the Digest will include                  Nor can this kind of condensation serve a useful
in its offer of this Bible to the public the opportuni-               purpose in mission work, I believe. It is argued, of
ty also to enter one of its "drawings'`-a form of                     course, that the unbeliever might be "turned off" at
gambling which has made its other publications                        the length and difficulty of the Bible, while,
more attractive and appealing.)                                       perhaps, he would be attracted to a "condensa-
  What must one say of this attempt? Is it correct to                 tion." Now it is also true that God uses excerpts
state, as one did, that it is "a hellish plan.... It's cen-           and quotes from Scripture, written in other books
soring God"? First, we must be aware that often in                    and pamphlets, to bring His people to desire the
preaching and teaching, we present summaries of                       reading of the whole Word of God. However, we
what Scripture teaches. These are indeed "conden-                     ought never to minimize the power of God's work
sations" of a passage. However, this is not set forth                 in the hearts of elect sinners. Where God works re-
as the "Bible," nor is it implying that there is extra-               .pentance, there He also works a hungering and
neous material in the Bible, but clearly the                          thirsting for things spiritual-including diligent
summary is presented of a selected passage in                         reading of Scripture as God gave that to us. Such a
connection with teaching. The  Digest  project could                  one would never be content with man's condensa-
well lead into the error of selecting the "condensa-                  tion of that Word, but surely will want to hear from
tion" as one's Bible-while neglecting or ignoring                     the Mouth of God Himself.
the Bible as God Himself infallibly gave it to us. A


                                            t'christian", Rock?

  The Christian News,  Oct. 5, 1981, contains a                                The drug theme and the revolution theme are not as
number of articles treating the subject of "rock"                        prominent in rock music today as they were in the late
music. Much of what is there written, emphasizes                         sixties when they were shrieked and dinned by the
the point found in the articles recently of our                          rock stars and combos; but the sex has stayed in. It
Beacon Lights. Our young people ought to pay close                       may not be as raw as it was when Jimi Hendrix, Janis
heed to what is said.                                                    Joplin,  Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, and their ilk sang
                                                                         and mimicked fornication to worshipping audiences,
  One short piece in the  Christian News  treats                         and when they delighted to "turn  on" thousands of
"Christian" rock. It merits careful study and                            young girls to "dancing with the ceaseless enthusiasm
serious thought. The writer, Carleton Toppe, states:                     of bottled lust."


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            141



     The rhythmic, pounding beat, especially when it is                 Some music is neutral regarding good and evil, and
   loud and driving, is primarily sexual and physically               it can be used for either good .or evil; but rock is not
   hypnotic. Quite frankly, in its pulsations if not in               neutral. It appeals to man's baser nature, to his sen-
   shameless lyrics, it appeals to sex and desire. Jan                sual pulse beat.
   Berry of the singing duo, Jan and Dean, freely                       The Christian worships the Lord in the beauty of
   admitted, "The throbbing beat of rock-and-roll                     holiness, and angels join that worship. Vulgar, sexual
   provides a vital sexual release for its adolescent audi-           rock beat was always part of pagan worship; it has no
   ence." Time writes: "By its very beat and sound (rock)             place in the Temple of God.
   has always implicitly rejected restraints and has cele-
   brated freedom and sexuality." A former writer and                The young people especially ought to be aware of
   singer of rock states simply, "Rock is sex."                    the fact that one does not accept as "good" and
                                                                   "pleasurable" what everyone seems to find attrac-
     Now what is "Christian." rock or "gospel" rock                tive. The question must always be faced, "Do I de-
   music? Essentially it is the attempt to unite Christian         sire this because of that old, sinful nature of mine?"
   words to beat music. Thus it is a yoking together of            And the kind of music that "everybody" of the
   the spiritual and the carnal. The words intend to glori-        young people listens to, and seems to enjoy, of
   fy God; the beat appeals to the flesh, even to sen-             which the above quotation speaks, seems clearly to
   suality. The words say one thing, .but  the music says          fit into the category of the "fleshly" and "lustful."
   something else.                                                 "Flee youthful lusts, " states the Word of God.

GUESTARTICLE

                                          Man's Chief End
                                                      Rev. Robt. C. Harbach


  "My aim in life is in finding happiness!" It seems               God? Could you be happy in ignorance, in not
almost everybody these days says this. There is                    knowing anything of God's truth? (Is ignorance
nothing really wrong in wanting happiness, is                      bliss?) Could you be happy intellectually knowing
there? No, indeed; not if you want to obtain it in the             the truth, but never having a lick of godly conform-
right way. On this note there is much to be said.                  ity to truth? David has said, "Cause me to know
But pause for a moment and consider that the word                  the way wherein I should walk . . . Teach me to do
"happiness" is not found in our King James Bible.                  Thy will", (Psm.  143:8, 10). Happiness comes by
Yet it is still the world's "best seller" book. (I                 knowing the way, plus an obedient going in the way.
wonder how that "grabs" modern joy-seekers!) The                   Knowledge without obedience is lame; and obedi-
word "happy" is found in the King James Bible                      ence without knowledge is blind. Therefore, for
about twenty-eight times. But the word "obey," in                  lasting happiness, divine knowledge and holy
all its forms, appears there about one hundred                     obedience may not be separated. Could you be sat-
forty-six times. Why is that? Isn't the Lord telling us            isfied with a temporary happiness, one which does
something in this comparative word emphasis? He                    not endure? Do you imagine happiness would be
sure is! For one thing, as the "happy" texts show,                 obtained if only you could succeed in removing all
happiness comes to us only in the way of doing                     suffering from your life? If happiness comes in the
right. For example, it comes: in showing mercy to                  way of suffering for righteousness' sake and for
the poor (Prov.  14:21),  trusting in the Lord (16:20),            Christ's sake, then are there, after all, many, or
keeping His law (29:18),  in knowing and doing the                 any, happy people in the world?
word of Christ (Jn.  13:17),  by enduring patiently
(Jas. 5: 10, 1 l), and suffering for righteousness' sake             It is plain that everybody wants to be happy. But
(I Pet.  3:14)  or for Christ's sake  (4:14).  Further, to         do we realize that we can never attain to happiness
be happy, would you be willing to sell all that you                by trying to be happy? Make happiness your aim
have and give to the poor? One rich young man                      and you will always miss it. For happiness is the
could not do that, and, consequently, `went away                   child (fruit) born of the inseparable union of its
sorrowful and unhappy. Do you imagine that you                     parents,     knowledge         and     obedience.        Then
could be happy in any enterprise in which you                      happiness is not a goal in itself, but the result of
would not be trusting in the Lord? Is there happi-                 pursuing the right goal. So that that pursuit is not
ness in any way of sin or transgression of the law of              the pursuit of happiness as such, but the pursuit of


142                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



that which results in happiness. Nor is it according     It is man, in the Man Christ Jesus, that is ultimately
to scripture that all men are endowed by God with        crowned with glory and honor, to have dominion,
an inalienable right' to the pursuit of happiness.       with all things under his feet (Psm. 8:5-6). It is man
Like sleep, keep pursuing it and it keeps eluding        as chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
you.                                                     universe to be holy and blameless before Him who
  Put happiness first and we think like neither Cal-     shall in the way of a holy life enjoy God forever. In
vinists nor Christians. For the Christian puts first     this lies the happiness the world neither knows,
God and how best to worship and serve Him. Cain          gives, nor is able to remove.
did not do this. He supposed God could be wor-             Does this chief end imply that there are other
shiped and served as he felt was good enough for         ends which are subordinate? May man live and
Him. Actually, though not literally, he offered God      strive for the subordinate ends? May we speak of
the lame and the blind. No wonder he did not know        subordinate ends, proper in themselves, as: (1) the
happiness! For Cain's face fell and he was misera-       earning and procuring of temporal support; (2) the
ble. He would have done well if only he had sought       acquisition of knowledge; (3) the indulging of
God's chief end for man. "What is the chief and          lawful tastes; and (4) helping forward the welfare of
highest end of man? Man's chief and highest end is       society? Making a living is a necessity, but that ac-
to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever"          tivity does not necessarily aglorify  God. But procur-
(Westminster Larger Catechism). Glorifying God           ing and maintaining temporal support must be
must be my chief and only good. When it is, then I       done only in such a way as to glorify God. Then this
shall enjoy Him, and  that  will make me happy.          is not a subordinate end, but the chief end kept
That, too, is the order of the gospel. "Whether          prominent and held in reference to the matter of a
therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do       livelihood. Neither does the attainment of know-
all to the glory of God" (I Cor.  10:31). The glutton    ledge necessarily glorify God, since more often
has it all wrong-seeking happiness in gorging and        than not in this way man is glorified. The acquisi-
swilling. Happiness is to be found in these common       tion of knowledge which glorifies God alone has
and necessary activities only if we enjoy God in         His approval. Any acquisition of knowledge with-
them. What is it to glorify God? It is to honor Him,     out glorifying God is a form of ignorance. As for the
to praise Him, to boast of His wonders, of His lov-      indulgence of lawful tastes, what can they be but
ingkindness and tender mercies, to extol the praises     only those which glorify God? As for furthering the
of Him Who hath called us out of darkness into His       welfare of society, it must first be known what is
marvelous light (I.Pet. 29). It means to make great,     the welfare of society. What is the good of society?
to magnify all His magnificent attributes. It means      Not the greatest good of the greatest number (what-
to show God inHis'essence. Of all the multitude of       ever that is), but it must be that which is done in
God's attributes, they are comprehended in the           faith, and according to the Word of God, and for
mass of them we call His gZory. For just as the seven    the praise of God rather than the usual laudation of
hues of the rainbow are the manifold beauties            man. Repeal of the death penalty for murder does
which belong inherently to the one essence, light,       not further the welfare of society, and is not  God-
so all the attributes of God are His essence, and are    glorifying. It only pampers and idolizes the dregs of
summed in the one all-embracive attribute, glory.        society. The so-called sociological experts who
Scripture calls Him the God of glory, the Father of      know nothing of what it takes to glorify God are not
glory, the Lord of glory. Also it strikingly informs     competent to propose anything for the welfare of
us that the heavens declare (show) the glory of God.     society. Therefore, "chief end" is to be understood
We glorify God by showing forth His excellencies,        in the sense of "exclusive end."
that is, the attributes of His Being, by honest be-
havior and good works (I Pet.  2:9, 12). "Happy is         The other aspect of man's chief end is the enjoy-
that people that is in such a case!" (Psm. 144: 15).     ing of Him forever. What is it to enjoy God? To
                                                         worship and serve Him, always striving to do so
  We are really, here, speaking of God's chief end,      more perfectly (Psm.  27:4;  96:6; Acts  27:23; Rev.
which is the purpose God had in creating man, and        23:3, 9). For never could anyone enjoy God apart
also the ultimate purpose man must always have in        from worshiping and serving Him (Psm.  43:4).
conception and conduct. God's purpose for man is         Those verses in the Revelation show that the happi-
one, with two aspects, namely, to glorify Him and        ness of heaven consists in worshiping and serving
to enjoy Him forever. The catechism does not             God there. They also reveal how long God is to be
speak of "all men," although all men shall certainly     enjoyed, namely, forever. If this enjoyment of the
glorify Him, whether willingly or unwillingly.           eternal God should or could come to an end, it
Rather, it speaks of man, that is, mankind, namely,      would so spoil present enjoyment as to turn it into
elect mankind. Therefore, God's purpose that man         nothing more than a forlorn hope. So the glorifying
should enjoy Him forever shall surely be realized.       and enjoyment of God are to be considered one, not


                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     1 4 3




     two ends. There are two aspects of one end, the re-                       offend. We continually stumble and fall into sin.
     lation between them being that of cause and effect.                       But may we keep short accounts with God to re-
     Enjoyment of God is the effect of glorifying Him.                         pent, confess and forsake `our sins;ask forgiveness
     These two aspects are inseparable, so that we may                         for them, and then on our knees give thanks to the
     not seek, neither can find the one without the other                      Lord for His pardoning mercies. Thank Him that
     (I Pet. 4:ll; I Cor. 15:58).                                              He causes us to know the way in which we should
        If life oriented to the glory of God and the enjoy-                    walk. Give thanks that He answers the prayer,
     ment of Him is what really motivates us as Chris-                         "Teach me to do Thy will" by giving us His good
     tians, so that we desire no more on earth or in                           Spirit to empower us to do His will. Thank Him
     heaven than to worship and serve Him, we ought                            that because we are so dead, dull, and slow, He will
     not to be plagued with bitterness, wrath, anger, re-                      quicken us to righteousness and bring our soul out
     sentment, envy, jealousy, foolish talking, jesting,                       of trouble (Psm. 143:8-l 1). That way we immediate-
     rotten words, quarreling, evil speaking, yelling,                         ly get back on the track to the life motivated to glo-
     sharp envenomed language, the fang of malice with                         rify God and to enjoy Him. This way we give heed
     its vicious intent to hurt, coldness, indifference,                       to the command, "My son (daughter), forget not
     apathy, impoliteness, lack of love, lack of disci-                        My law, but let thine heart keep My command-
pline, lack of shepherdizing. This is a black catalog                          ments" (Prov.  3:l). Then our life in the Lord's ser-
     of wickedness, but it is only a preface to the cult of                    vice will be characterized by  cairn,  fruitful, and
     the ungodly. What is so sad is that we are all capa-                      happy activity.
     ble of every bit of it. In many of these things we all
I              Know the standard
                        and follow it.
         ,The Staridard Bearer

                     ATTENTION GIFT GIVERS!
        ln  the Sanctuary,  an exposition of the Lord's Prayer, by Herman                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     Hoeksema, is available in time for Christmas. Price is $3.95 (add
     20% postage). Mail your orders to:                                          The Council of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,
                  Reformed Free Publishing Association                         Michigan, expresses its sympathy to elder John Buiter in the death of
                  P.O. Box 2006                                                his father, MR. JOHN  BUITER  and to deacon  Mile  De Wald in the
                  Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501                                 death of his mother and elder Alvin Rau in the death of his  mother-in-
                                                                               law, MRS. ELLA DE WALD.

                           ANNOUNCEMENT                                           "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
                                                                               Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though
       The faculty of the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed        the mountains be carried into the sea." (Psalm  46:1,  2)
     Churches announces that Messrs. Barry Gritters, Kenneth Hanko,
     and Lau Chin Kwee have been licensed to speak a word of edification                                                           John Kalsbeek, Clerk
     in the churches under faculty supervision.

                                                   H.C. Hoeksema, Rector                                 IN LOVING MEMORY
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                          On October 29, 1981, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto
                                                                               Himself our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, ARTHUR DE
        On December 19, 1981, our parents, REV. and MRS. H.C.                  JONG. We are grateful to God for the instruction and guidance given
     HOEKSEMA, will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.                  unto us through him. We pray that Jehovah, our Covenant God, will
                                                                               uphold us by His grace that we may walk according to His Word all
       We, their children and grandchildren, thank them for the covenant       the days of our lives.
     care they have given us. Above all, we thank our Father in heaven for
     our parents and pray that He will show mercy on them in the years to         "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor  life...shall be able to
     come.                                                                     separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
                                                                               -Remans   8:38-39
        "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
     them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To       "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." -Phil.  I:21
     such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His com-            Mrs. Arthur De Jong                     Donald and Cindi De Jong
     mandments to do them." Psalm  103:17, 18                                  Frank and Joyce Antczak                 William and Patricia De Jong
                                           Mark and Ruth Hoeksema              Arthur H. and Sarah De Jong             Anita De Jong
                                              Stephen, Michael, and Sarah      Harold and Carol Brands                 Lewis and Janet De Jong
                                           Kenneth and Eunice Kuiper           Kenneth and Marilyn De Jong             Esther De Jong
                                             Jonathan and David                Wayne and  Vicki De Jong                John De Jong
                                           Carey and Lois Kamps                James and Becky Hanemaayer              Ann De Jong
                                              Matthew, Timothy, and Kyle       George and Denise De Jong               Henry De Jong
                                           Candace Hoeksema                    Homer and Evelyn De Jong                   and 34 grandchildren

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



                                      -
                            .
  144                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                                 News From Otir Churches
     Since a news editor merely writes about events           In the school news department we learn that,
  that happen and'does not make them happen, the            prior to the beginning of 1981-82 school year, our
  news in our November 15 column concerning the             Hull, Iowa school held a "Teachers Welcome."
  newly elected members of the Reformed Free Pub-           Apparently more than teachers were welcome,
  lishing Association Board is of no effect. John N.        however, because the bulletin announcement con-
  Dykstra, Cornelius Pastoor, and Robert Garvelink          cerning this activity concluded by saying:  "Evey-
  are the retiring board members rather than the new-       one (emphasis mine, C.K.) is welcome to come and
  ly-elected ones as was erroneously reported. My           enjoy an evening of fellowship."
  apologies to you gentlemen, and to the following            On November 18 our Adams Street Christian
  reul newly-elected board members of the R.F.P.A.:         School in Grand Rapids, Michigan invited parents,
  Gerard Bylsma, William Corson, and Arnold  Dyk-           grandparents, and friends to attend a Visit Adams
  stra.                                                     Day.
     Concerning our calling churches we learn, that
  Rev.  Houck, who is presently home missionary in            Our Hope School in Walker, Michigan presented
                                                            an all-school program in our Hudsonville Church
  East Lansing, Michigan has declined the call of Isa-      on the evening of November 20. The theme of their
9 bel, South Dakota; and from a trio of Reverends           program was, "Thanks be to God."
  Bruinsma, Kamps, and Kuiper, Redlands, Califor-
  nia extended a call to Rev. Bruinsma of our Faith           The Twenty-Seventh Annual Convention of The
  Congregation in Jenison, Michigan.                        Protestant Reformed Teachers' Institute was held
     Recent bulletins indicate that the annual process      at Covenant Christian High School of Grand
  of selecting new office bearers is again in full          Rapids, Michigan on November 5 and 6. Schools
  swing. While in most of our churches this means           from Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Texas were
  replacing the retiring office bearers with an equal       represented. Those interested in a detailed ac-
  number of men, from a bulletin of our Trinity             count-with pictures-of that activity should be
  Church Houston, Texas we learn that: "The                 sure to obtain a copy of the winter edition of
  Consistory has decided to add a third elder to aid in     Perspectives  in Covenant Education  (a publication of
  our time of adjustment and assimilation." What is         the P.R. Teachers' Institute).
  referred to here is, of course, the large increase in       While attending the above-mentioned conven-
  their membership which we reported in our                 tion, a discussion with Mr. Sugg of the Houston,
  November 1 news.                                          Texas school confirmed what Rev. Bekkering had
    Apparently quite a large number of the member-          written on a bulletin which he sent to me a few
  ship of our churches participate in what is called        months ago, namely, that due to an increase in stu-
  "Discussion Groups." For the most part this               dent enrollment, Miss Anita De Jong from South
  activity takes place on a once-a-month basis with         Holland, Illinois is now j'helping with kindergarten
  those involved gathering in homes in small groups         and 1st grade." Rev. Bekkering also wrote that,
  after the evening worship service to fellowship           "the little house in the pasture is rapidly taking -form
  with one another by means of a discussion on a pre-       as the future school house." Apparently additional
  determined topic. The informal setting lends itself       students have made plant expansion necessary as
  to lively, spiritually uplifting discussions on a         well. Pictures that Mr..Sugg brought to the teach-
  variety of worthwhile topics, e.g. "The Signs of          ers' convention verified that it is indeed a "house in
  Christ's Return," "Christian Giving," "Singing as         the pasture." According to Mr. Sugg, one feature of
  part of our Worship," "Bible Translations,"               their new school is a built-in-or should we say,
  "Prayer, " "The Sabbath Day and Its Observance            live-in-school entrance test: all students must be
  and Preparation,"              "Christmas Observance,"    able to get past the cow to attend school.
  "Church Extension, " "Self Examination," "Disci-            We conclude this column with some wonderful
  pline in the Home and School," and countless              news: Our brothers and sisters in Singapore plan to
  others. Some groups have also discussed various           organize as an earthly manifestation of the Body of
  pamphlets and books.                                      Christ on December 27. We rejoice with them! CK


