            The
STAAlDARfI
          BEARER
             A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                                             \





                                                        SPECIAL
                                                                  ISSUE



        THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

"...God, who might pel-feet  his people in a moment,
chooses not to bring them to manhood in any other
way than by the education of the church."





                                              "...our weakness does not permit us to leave the
                                              school until we have spent our whole lives as
                                              scholars."                            John Calvin
                                                                  Institutes of the Christian Religion




                                                        Volume LVIII, No. 11, March 1, 1982        1


242                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER
                             CONTENTS                                                                            ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                        Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
   Meditation-                                                                                Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                              Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Love for the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242          Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                              denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David  J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
   Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245    Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
                                                                              Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
   The Institute and Its Importance . . . . . . . . . . 245                   Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
                                                                              Rev. Gise  J. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
   Parachurch Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248                Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                               4975  Ivanrest Ave.  SW.
                                                                                               Grandville, Michigan49418
   The "Electric" or "Media" Church . . . . . . . . 250                       Church News Editor: Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek
                                                                                                    1313  WilsonAve. S.W.
   The Institute and the Office of Believers. . . . 252                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
                                                                              Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
   The Church and the Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . . 255                     articles, Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
                                                                              Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to ap-
   The Marks of the False Church. . . . . . . . . . . . 256                   proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
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MEDIZ'AT'ION

                                           Love for the Church
                                                                   Rev. Carl Haak


         ~.             "Pray fov the peace ofJerusalem:  they shall prosper that love Thee. "Psalm 122:6


  Do you love the church?                                                        the church as he loves Christ.
  Love for the church is the mark of a Christian.                                    It is a noteworthy and beautiful thing that the
Devotion to the church of Jesus Christ is the duty as                            Psalms are filled with this idea of love for the
well as the privilege and born again desire given to                             church. If we were to confine our search of this
the child of God. The reason for this is to be found                             love to the Psalms only, we would find sufficient
in what the.church  is: she is the bride of Christ, the                          material in which to discover that the Old  Testa-
dwelling place of God, the mother of believers, the                           ' ment saints loved the.church. We are well acquaint-
body of Christ. Therefore a believer in Christ loves                             ed with this idea by our singing Sunday after Sun-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               243



dav from the PscrZter.  How many times in- our lives      a believer for the church as a "longing for" and a
ha;e not we gathered on Sunday mornings in the            "sighing after." All earthly joy was forfeited for
various sanctuaries across the land. to sing from         Zion. They were willing to forsake friends and kin-
Psalm 84: "How lovely, Lord of Hosts to me the            dred, goods and life itself for the church. They tra-
tabernacles of Thy grace; 0 how I lo'ng, yea, faint to    veled to Jerusalem in joyful tunes of praise. They
see Thy hallowed courts, Thy dwelling place; for          wept and fell into depression when separated from
Thee my heart and spirit sigh, for Thee, 0 living         God's house. And repeatedly, they pledged undy-
God, I cry." And again the versification of Psalm         ing love for her.
87, "When the Lord shall count the nations, sons            Does this love characterize the church today?
and daughters He shall see, Born to endless life in
Zion, and their joyful song shall be, Blessed Zion,         Does this same devotion belong to us?
All our fountains are in Thee."                             This warm love for the church expressed in the
  But there are many more examples. Consider              Psalms stands in bold contrast to the current cold
Psalm 137, the mournful cry of the captives in Bab-       indifference evidenced in much of the church
ylon who sat down and wept when they remem-               world. Men and women are filled with apathy
bered Zion. Jerusalem was a pile of rubble, her           towards the church. They arrogantly claim no need
honor lay in the dust, her people were scattered,         for the church, and they attack those who love the
and the public worship of Jehovah on Mt. Zion had         church. They loudly proclaim allegiance to the
been stamped out. Their captors jeeringly required        Cross of Calvary; they insist that they are members
of them a song of mirth and joy. Yet their harps          of Christ's universal body, but they despise, ignore,
could not comply. No mirth, no joy was possible           and ridicule the instituted church. "The Bible is
while they were separated from the church. And in         enough," they claim, and besides,, "the church
Babylon they make a vow: "0 Zion fair,. God's holy        cannot save you." They say that the organized
hill, wherein our God delights to dwell, Let my           church, which displays the three marks of the true
right hand forget her skill If I forget to love Thee      church, the pure preaching of the Word, the admin-
well...let my tongue from utterance cease, If any         istration of the sacraments, and the exercise of dis-
earthly joy to me Be dear as Zion's joy and peace."       cipline, is old-fashioned, out of date, and a relic of
What love for the church! It is a love which prompts      the past.
the Old Testament believer, speaking at the end of          Such people hate Christ. They hate Christ
the psalm, to call upon God to curse and destroy          because they hate His body which is the church.
those who jump up and down with glee over Zion's          Anyone who despises or speaks scornfully of the
low estate (Edom). "Happy shall he be, that taketh        local church, which manifests the marks of the true
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."          church, speaks scornfully of Christ. We may justly
  Remember David, how he made God's house his             apply the contrasting style of the Apostle John: "He
care, as revealed in Psalm 132; how he swore              that loveth not the church institute which he hath
before the mighty God of Jacob that he would give         seen, how can he love the church universal which
no rest to his eyes nor seek any earthly pleasure         he has not seen?" "He that says he loves Christ and
until he found a habitation fit for Israel's mighty       hates His body, the church, which is the gathering
God. Recall how the glory of the church is so beau-       of believers and their children under the pure
tifully described in the conclusion of the psalm, as      preaching of the Gospel, is a liar."
versified in  Psalter  number 367: "Thou, the Lord,         But our love for the church can fall far short of
hast chosen Zion, Thou hast ever loved her well;          the high standard set forth in God's Word! We are
This my resting place forever, Here, Thou sayest, I       not always running and jumping with the love
choose to dwell."                                         which we are in duty bound to show to the church
  This love for the church found in the Psalms is         of Jesus Christ. Church attendance can become a
perhaps best summed in Psalm 122: "I was glad             drudgery, a mere habit involving no conscious spir-
when they said unto me, let us go up into the house       itual thinking and preparation. Sunday mornings in
of our God." Psalm 122 is a song of degrees, that is,     our homes often reveal an attitude far poorer than
a song which the Old Testament pilgrim would sing         the one conveyed in the versification of Psalm 122:
as he journeyed across Canaan en route to Jerusa-         "My heart was glad to hear the- welcome sound,
lem. In the Psalm, David makes the welfare of the         The call to seek Jehovah's house of prayer." We
church a matter of sincere prayer before God:             easily seek our own interest and recreation above
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." He takes upon          the church. We find little time for the church and
his lips the vow, "And for the house of God the           her activities which seem to interfere with our busy
Lord, my care shall never cease."                         calendar. How sharp we can be in criticism of the
                                                          church. The notion lurks within us that respect for
  Beautiful, isn't it? The Psalms portray the love of     the officebearers of the church applies only'when


244                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



we agree with them, but when we disagree they are        her.
open season to ridicule. Nominations for elder and         We must love the church because she is our
deacon find us unwilling to serve. We can become         Mother (Gal.  4:26). Tenderly God through the
harsh in our judgments of the members of the             church has fed and nurtured us spiritually so that
church,  land when we are offended, we think we          we have grown up into Christ. He has instructed
can live independently from the church, not              and clothed us by her in His Word. From earliest
needing the communion of the church which is the         infancy God has protected us in the bosom of the
life of the saints.                                      church. It is an ugly thing when a man turns
  It is not for nothing that David makes the whole       against his mother. Honor thy mother, the church!
matter of love for God's church a matter of prayer!      We ought to love her for all that God has given us
The sin of our flesh is always to live independently     through her.
and selfishly. We always stand in need of the              We must love the church because of what we
prayer which beseeches God to grant us His grace         enjoy through her. God is pleased to have the voice
so that the flame of love for Christ's body may burn     of His Son heard there through the official preach-
brightly as it should.                                   ing of the Gospel. In the Gospel we hear the sooth-
  Why must we love the church?                           ing voice of the Good Shepherd calling us who
  We love her because God loves her. There is            labor and are heavy laden to rest. In the same
nothing dearer to the heart of God than His church.      preaching we receive the authoritative declaration
No writer can ever capture in mere words that love       that our sins are forgiven. In the church we enjoy
of God. God's love for the church is an eternal love     the communion of the saints which is a slight fore-
rooted in Himself. This is exactly why the Old           taste of eternal life. We ought to love the church for
Testament saints loved Zion, because God loved           all the blessings we enjoy in her, blessings which
her and held Zion as altogether precious and lovely.     are found nowhere else.
In His love for the church, God elected her in eter-       How do we show love for the church?
nity according to His sovereign good pleasure. He          We love her by faithfully attending her worship
chose each individual member of the church; and          services and by being active and lively members.
He chose a certain,, definite number. But He chose       When our Belgic Confession was written many
the church as a body as well. "But now hath God          Christians, fearing the fierce persecution which
chosen the members every one of them in the body,        raged against Calvinism, refused to join the church.
as it hath pleased Him" (I Cor.  12:18). In eternity     Article 28 of the Confession was written for the
God fashioned in Christ a beautiful body in which        purpose of condemning those who for any reason
the place of every member was decreed, a place           would separate themselves and live independently
which that member alone can occupy. And with             from the true church. "We believe...that no person
this eternal love of election, that love wherewith       of whatsoever state or condition he may be, ought
He loves Himself, God loves the church.                  to withdraw himself, to live in separation from it;
  The love of God for His church is revealed in all      but that all men are in duty bound to join and unite
of its brilliance and splendor at Calvary. "In this      themselves with it...." Our membership is to be
was manifested the love of God toward us.. .not that     wholehearted. We must use the talents God has
we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His         given us for edifying the body. We must sing with
Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:9,    all our hearts in the worship services, making
10). God's great love for the church is seen in that     melody to God. We must diligently attend to the
He gave His only begotten son for her so that He         Word of the Gospel. We must faithfully attend the
might redeem her to Himself. Upon the basis of the       activities of the church. We must seek out the
Cross of Calvary, God made the church the body of        members to comfort and instruct one another in the
Christ.. With the same love that He has for the          truth.
Head, which is Christ, so He loves the body of             There are many ways in which true love for
Christ which is the church.                              God's church will manifest itself. It will be seen in
  If Calvary does not show us the love of God for        love for the members of the church, for one cannot
the church, nothing will. If Calvary does not teach      separate between the body and its members. It will
us how precious the church is to God, we will            become evident in dedication to the truth of God's
never learn. God loves the church in His eternal,        Word upon which the church stands. It will be
sovereign, particular, unchanging, saving love. She      manifested in a respect for the development of the
is altogether His. He chooses her, He redeems her,       truth by the church in the past, especially as we
He gathers her, He defends her, He preserves her.        have that development in the three Reformed
The church is God's and is the object of His love.       Creeds. Love for the church will be revealed by
We ought to love the church because God loves            faithfully training our children to seek the church


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 245



and to live out of her.                                      of Christ lives in our homes and dominates our
  Great blessedness is to be found in loving the             lives, then by God's grace, the fruit is that we will
church. "All they that love Thee shall prosper               see joyful sons and daughters singing with us,
well." This prosperity refers to the conscious enjoy-        "Blessed Zion all our fountains are in Thee."
ment of salvation in Jesus Christ. In a hearty love            How blessed are they who dwell in Zion. Their
for Zion we will experience the fellowship of God            prosperity extends even to the  churclr  victorious,
Who dwells within the church and the fellowship              the church at rest.
of Jesus Christ, Who is the King of the church.                Do you love the church? Delight now in the
What is more, we shall prosper in the enjoyment of           house of God and sing in your heart the songs of
the communion of the saints which is, in principle,          Zion.
the life of Heaven.                                            "Blest are they who dwell within Thy house,
  Love for the church is as a seed that is sown. It               Their perfect strength Thou art;
sprouts and brings forth fruit. Oh, when we sow in             Their joyful praise shall never cease,
disgust and contempt for God's church, another                    Thy ways are in their heart.
kind of fruit is produced: a bitter fruit. Then we             Their tears of grief, like early rain,
will see our children standing by the sidelines of                Sweet springs of joy shall fill;
the church and joining in the cries of the children of         With strength renewed they journey safe
Edom, "Rase it, Rase it even to the foundation                    To Zion's holy hill."
thereof" (Psalm 137:7).  But when love for the body                                               Psalter 225


                                         Editor's Notes

This is the second of our special issues in the              respect to our faith concerning the holy catholic
current volume. You will find it to be different             church; and God's people should be equipped to
from some of our earlier special issues, which have          face these problems and should be ready to give an
been of an informative and reportorial nature. This          answer also to others with respect to various aber-
issue is devoted entirely-with the exception of the          rations which are becoming increasingly common
back-page news column-to one doctrine, the doc-              today. This is one of the reasons why we have
trine of the church. This does not mean that it is a         included such things as a treatment of the marks of
complete treatment of the doctrine of the church in          the church, the electronic church, and para-church
all its aspects: for it is not, and does not intend to be    organizations.
that. Such an undertaking would require far more             We express a word of thanks to all those who con-
space than one issue of our Standard Bearer;  and, in        tributed to this special issue.
fact, due to the length of some of the contributions,                                * * * * *
we have not even been able to carry in this issue all
that we first planned.                                       Time and space did not permit the inclusion of
Why, you ask, did we choose this doctrine? We did            news and information about the institution of the
so, first of all, because we believe there is no little      Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore. Watch
degree of ignorance concerning this subject; and we          our March 15 issue for some special articles about
want to contribute toward correcting that                    this. We plan to carry the Resolution of Member-
ignorance. We did so, secondly, because there are            ship, a History of the GLTS (now the ERCS), and an
several practical problems-and temptations-with              eyewitness report from Elder Dewey Engelsma.


                 The Institute and Its Importance
                                                 Rev. Ronald Hanko


  It seems sad that the church, at least in its              biting the hand that feeds us. Nevertheless, the
institute form, should be so universally despised, as        blame for such an attitude must not be laid  com-
it is today, even by those who are members of it.            pletely to the charge of those who act and speak so
For us as church members, that is very much like             disdainfully toward the church or churches of


246                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



which they are members. There certainly is, in that                 angels.
respect, an overriding need for instruction                           In order to understand this emphasis we must
regarding the church and membership in it. Yet it is                see what is*meant when we speak of the institute of
easy to be sympathetic with those whose attitude                    the church and that there is Scriptural ground for
toward the church arises out of severe disappoint-                  that language. Scripture does not always use the
ment. To use the figure once again, the fault is often              word church in the same sense, and thus from the
with the hand that feeds. It is not surprising that                 very beginning of the church various distinctions
many church members are disillusioned with the                      have been made with respect to the church, such as
church institute when all they have ever received                   the church militant and the church triumphant, the
from it are a few scraps of theological garbage.                    visible church and the invisible church, and so also
  But all that does not change the fact that such an                the distinction between the organism of the church
attitude is very wrong and that a situation as we                   and the institute. These are, of course, not different
have described is absolutely intolerable in the                     churches, but the one church of Christ Jesus looked
church of our Lord Jesus. How can the church do                     at from different viewpoints.
her work when she is not only despised by the                         When we speak of the church as organism, then
world but by her own members, and how can the                       we are really talking about what Scripture calls the
members of the church be faithful and fruitful in                   body of Christ as that is gathered out of all nations
their calling when they cannot co-operate with the                  and throughout all history and united to Christ by a
very church in which God has given them a place?                    living bond of faith. The word organism implies
In so far as such a situation affects every one of us,              that this church is spiritually alive in Christ, in that
let it be our prayer that God will use these words to               the rich and glorious life of Christ flows down from
remind us of the place of importance that the                       Christ as head in the Church which is His body.
church institute ought to have in our lives, that we
may seek to return to our first love for the church                   The institute of the church describes that
of our Redeemer.                                                    organism as it comes to manifestation, takes on a
  Though our Reformed fathers do not agree with                     certain form, and becomes visible in this world. So
the Romish idea of the church institute, they do                    it is that in connection with the whole idea of the
speak very strongly of its prominent place in the                   institute we       s p e a k   o f    congregations    and
lives of Christians. Our own Belgic Confession says:                denominations. It ought to be immediately obvious,
                                                                    too, that the organism and the institute do not com-
         Since this holy congregation is an assembly of those       pletely overlap. The institute may include in its
       who are saved, and that out of it there is no salvation,     walls hypocrites and unbelievers who are not part
       that no person of whatsoever state or condition he           of the organism of the body of Christ. So too the
       may be, ought to withdraw himself, to live in a sepa-        institute is subject to reformation, and it is even
       rate state from it; but that all men are in duty bound to
       join and unite themselves with it; maintaining the           possible that an institute or even the institute may
       unity of the Church; submitting themselves to the            be scattered and destroyed (as will perhaps be the
       doctrine and discipline thereof; bowing their necks          case in the last days), something which cannot
       under the yoke of Jesus Christ; and as mutual                happen to the organism. From that same viewpoint
       members of the same body, serving to the edification         it is possible that there be different institutes for one
       of the brethren, according to the talents God has given      reason or another, without denying the essential
       them.  [Article  XXVIII).                                    unity of the organism.
Nor is this emphasis confined to our Dutch Re-                        A working definition of the institute would be,
formed tradition. It is found just as clearly in the                then, "the assembly of those who through the ex-
Westminster Confession of Faith:                                    ternal Word, the use of the sacraments and Church
         The visible Church, which is also catholic or uni-         discipline, are joined together into one external
       versal under the Gospel . . . consists of all those          body or society" (Leiden Synopsis, XL, 32; quoted
       throughout the world that profess the true religion;         from the  Reformed Dogmatics  of Heinrich Heppe).
       and of their children: and is the Kingdom of the Lord
       Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of              There are many Scripture passages which speak
       which there is no ordinary possibility of salvatiop.         either directly or indirectly of such an institute
 ( X X V ,   i i ) .                                                form of the church of Christ. There are those passa-
  It is from the same viewpoint that Calvin com-                    ges such as Acts  5:11, Romans  16:4, I Corinthians
pares the church institute to a school which our                    11: 16, 16: 1, and Galatians 1:2 which speak of speci-
weakness does.not allow us to leave until we have                   fic congregations or groups of congregations as
spent our whole life as scholars (Institutes, IV, 1,                churches. Then there are passages which make it
iv). In the same place he calls it the mother of                    clear that these gatherings involve a  formal
believers through which we enter life, are nour-                    assembly and fellowship of those who make profes-
ished and governed until we become like the                         sion of faith in Christ (Acts  2:42,  li:26, I  Corin-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    247



thians  11:17, 18, and Hebrews  10:24, 25). Most           eternal life. It is, also the powder to rule the conduct
important of all, however, are those passages which        of the people of God with the perfect law of liberty
show us that it is the offices especially which give       and to defend the Kingdom of God against the
form and shape to the institute (Matthew  18:17,           assaults of the powers of darkness. And it is the
Acts  4:23, and Ephesians  4:11-13). It is the church      power to make known the everlasting and free mer-
as institute, therefore, which through its offices         cy of Jesus Christ in the care of those who are
worships, exercises discipline, administers the            needy. And it is exactly in order that  these.things
sacraments, and preaches the Gospel.                       may be done in an orderly fashion, and in order
  The fact that the institute has a certain form or        that Christ Himself in His offices may be present
shape is connected exactly with the fact that it is a      with the church that He has given the church its
manifestation of the organism of Christ's body.            institute form and its offices as part of that form.
Even as there is perfect order and harmony in the             That is, therefore, the reason why we as Re-
spiritual body of Christ of which every believer is a      formed churches have always stressed membership
member, so also the fellowship of saints on earth          in the visible church. The institute is a necessary
ought to reflect that order and harmony. That is the       part of the believer's life as the way in which he is
point that Paul is making in I Corinthians  14:40          savingly joined to Christ. He simply cannot
when he demands that everything be done decently           function in an orderly and effective way in the
and in good order in the church.                           office of believer apart from the institute. Member-
  This orderly form is necessary in order that the         ship in the institute is not voluntary in the sense
church on earth may realize her calling to be a light      that a man may feel free to join or not join himself
shining in the darkness of this world. The institute       to it as he sees fit. The word of God to anyone who
implies that particular  arrangement  of gifts, powers,    confesses faith in Jesus Christ is, "forsake not the
offices, and services through which the church can         assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of
respond to its calling in an orderly way. From that        some is" (Hebrews  10:25). One who cuts himself
angle we can also see the importance of the offices        off from the institute cuts himself off from the
in the institute. The church is a congregation of be-      living organism of the body of Jesus Christ and
lievers, and the calling of the church is the calling      from the saving power of His offices.
of believers in their office of believer. When believ-       Our confessions are not wrong when they say
ers come together to do their calling then they do         that apart from the visible church there is no hope
that through the offices of pastor, elder, and deacon      of salvation. Acts  2:47 makes it very clear that the
which Christ has instituted. Thus it is that offices,      church on earth is manifest as a visible society of
as they give the institute its particular shape and        the people of God, and that salvation involves
form, are not separate from the office of all believ-      membership in that church: "the Lord added to the
ers, but the means which the King of the church            church  daily those whom He had ordained to eternal
has given through which the believer may realize           life." Just as my arm or my hand cannot live apart
his calling as God's prophet, priest, and king in a        from my body, so the members of Christ wither
decent, orderly way.                                       and die spiritually when they cut themselves off
  That is why the matter of church reformation is          from the fellowship of His body in the visibile
always so very serious in the church institute.            church.
When the church institute has so declined that the           It is sometimes asked if one can be saved without
believer can no longer exercise his responsibility         being a member of the church, and there are those
through the offices in a meaningful way, then it is        who answer, "Yes," and who even say of them-
high time that the institute be re-formed or that the      selves, "I am a member of  the  Church and do not
believer seek reformation by joining himself to a          need to be a member of any particular church or
church fellowship in which he is able to perform           congregation." That answer is very wrong; but so is
the duties of his Christian calling in the way that        the question, because it is too abstract. The
God has appointed for him to do that, that is,             question is not of what God can do, but of what He
through the church and in the church.                      does do, and then also a question of my responsi-
  The matter of the offices also leads us directly to      bility with respect to what He does do. What He
the importance of the institute itself. Those offices      does do is unmistakably clear from Acts  2:47; and
are essentially the offices of Christ, our chief Pro-      then my responsibility is also unmistakable: "those
phet, our only High Priest, and our eternal King. It       who separate themselves from the same, or do not
is through His offices as they are reflected in the        join themselves to it, act contrary to the ordinance
church that His saving power is revealed. That             of God" (Belgic Confession, Article XXVIII).
power is the power to teach, first of all-to teach           By joining ourselves to the institute church we
the knowledge of the one true God, which know-             "come unto mount Sion, and to the city of the
ledge, as John says  [  17:3),  is the very essence of     living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an  in--


248                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



numerable company of angels, to the general               the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are            of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and        of Abel" (Hebrews 12:22-24).
to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus


                        Parachurch Organizations
                                                 Prof. H. Hanko



  If one were asked to define what is the main            include such institutions as Pine Rest Christian
characteristic of the church in the  19OOs, what is        Hospital, and World Vision, which is one of the
that one feature of her life in this century which         largest Christian relief organizations in the world.
sets the church apart from the church in other cen-          While it is certainly true that parachurch organi-
turies, that unique trait which stands out from all        zations can include all such organizations, it is also
others as definitive of the church in modern times,       clear that a certain distinction has to be made here.
most people would probably say: ecumenism. The            This distinction arises out of a common yet very
church has, in this century, been especially busy          important distinction in the nature and idea of the
-with merger, been occupying her time and efforts         church. All theologians in the Protestant tradition
in the cause of unity, and has stressed this aspect of    since the time of the Reformation (and including
the church's life more than any other. While ecu-         even the pre-reformers, Wyckliffe and Hus), made
menical pressures have eased a bit in the last ten        a distinction between the church as organism and
years or so, and while the hard realities of ecclesi-     the church as institute. The former refers to the
astical life have muted the strident cries for unity      church as organism and the church as institute. The
which were echoing throughout the world a decade          former refers to the church as the body of our Lord
or two ago, the idea of church merger is still alive      Jesus Christ to Whom the church is organically
and well in the thoughts of church leaders.               united and with Whom the church composes one
  Another feature of church life in this century,         unity. To this church belong only the elect; the
running a close second in importance to                   attributes of the church (her holiness, unity,  catho-
ecumenism, is the rise of parachurch organizations.       licity, apostolicity) are attributes of the organism.
No other period in all the history of the church has      The institute, however, refers to the church from
seen such a proliferation of parachurch organiza-         the      viewpoint of      her     institutional    and
tions as our century. Sooner or later one, if he is at    organizational form. God has willed that the
all interested in the church, comes face to face with     organism of the body of Christ, as it exists on earth
the question: What about these organizations? Are         at any given time, come to visible manifestation in
they good, bad, indifferent? What ought we to think       institutional form. This happens when the
of them? Ought we to join them when the occasion          believers, functioning in the office of believers,
is present?                                               appoint officebearers (preachers, elders, and
  What is a parachurch organization? The question         deacons) through whom the church performs the
is not all that easy to answer, for the lines are not     work which Christ has given her to do: preach the
always sharply and clearly drawn. The word itself,        Word, administer the sacraments, use the keys of
"parachurch," means, "alongside the church." It           the kingdom in the discipline.
refers to organizations, therefore, which are in             Two things have to be said about this. The one
some way related to the church, especially because        point to be made is that the organism of the body of
of their interest in and concern for spiritual            Christ must come to institutional manifestation.
matters, but which are nevertheless independent of        This is the calling of the church which she must
the church. J. Alan Youngren, in the November 6,          perform in obedience to the command of the Scrip-
1981 issue of  Christianity Today,  defines parachurch    tures. And, in fact, only when the church assumes
work as that which is a "not-for-profit, organized        institutional form can the church perform her God-
Christian ministry to spiritual, mental, and physical     given task. The organism cannot preach or admini-
needs, working outside denominational control."           ster the sacraments. Only the institution can do
  Although educational institutions are specifically      this. The other point is this: the individual believer
excluded from consideration by the author, he does        walks as a living member of the body of Christ in
have a broad definition which could conceivably           the world. He must do this in all the relationships


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 249



of life: in his home, at his place of work, in his           Most probably parachurch organizations had
country, in his relationships to his fellow saints and     their inception in the formation of independent
the ungodly around him, etc. All this walk and all         mission societies, especially in England, societies
this calling are his as a member of the body of Christ.    which were not only organized to encourage the
But this is not the institute. The believer must train     people of God to support mission work, but organi-
his children in the ways of the Lord; must honor           zations which did, in fact, send out missionaries. It
and respect his employer; must submit to the               was not, however, until the last century or so that
magistrate; must witness to the world about him;           the number of parachurch organizations proliferat-
must help the needy and ease the suffering of the          ed. And in proliferating they assumed many differ-
sick. All these things he is called to do. But this is     ent forms. Some were organized for mission purpo-
not the institute.                                         ses; some were formed with a view to "saving
  Not only is he called to do these things, but he         souls' ' or bringing about revival; others were
may even join with other Christians of like faith to       formed as substitutes for the church.
do these things in common. He may form a Chris-              It was especially during the sixties that  para-
tian School Society and establish a Christian school       church organizations for young people became
to teach his children. He may form an organization         common. Perhaps it was the spirit of rebellion and
to establish a clinic to help those with mental            what is sometimes called "counter-culture" which
problems. And he may do this with many others              persuaded numerous young people to abandon de-
because he cannot do it alone. He may even form            nominations and churches and to become part of
some kind of organization in which he cooperates           various youth movements. Apart from the far-out
with others of like faith to help the poor and needy.      hippie organizations and "Jesus people," some of
There is nothing wrong with this as such, and,             the more familiar parachurch organizations are:
indeed, he has a calling before God in many of             Youth for Christ, which is mainly interested in high
these areas of Christian endeavor. But this is not         school students, has organizations on about 1000
the institute.                                             campuses, and has recently broadened out to
                                                           include Young Life, which is mostly urban and is
  Parachurch organizations, therefore, which               quite socially oriented; Campus Crusade, found
engage in these activities are surely not to be con-       mostly on college and university campuses;  Inter-
demned. They belong to the calling which comes to          Varsity Christian Fellowship, which is known for
God's people to walk as living members of Christ.          its famous missionary conventions in Urbana;
Whether or not all such organizations, such as             Navigators, primarily concerned with the men and
World Vision, e.g., are faithful to the Scriptures in      women in the armed forces; Fellowship of Chris-
their work and are Scriptural in their theology is         tian Athletes, which makes a great deal of the anal-
another question, into which we shall not enter.           ogy between the Christian life and sports activities.
The idea is not necessarily wrong, but the carrying        Perhaps the best known of all parachurch organiza-
out of the idea in actual fact may be very wrong.          tions is the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
  But all these activities are possible for the believ-    which sponsors especially the Billy Graham
ing child of God only because he is a part of the          crusades. These are, however, only a few. It has
church institute. In a very real sense it can be said      been estimated that the total number of parachurch
that the church institute is the mother of believers.      organizations may exceed 10,000.
From her the believer is born; at her breast he is           What makes people join such organizations?
nourished through the preaching of the Word and            Many studies have been made to try to answer this
the sacraments; in her fellowship he grows up; to          question-studies, as often as not, which are spon-
her welfare he devotes his life. In her arms he dies.      sored and financed by worried ecclesiastics who
The point that needs stressing is exactly that all the     see their member,ship  rolls dwindle as the churches
believing life of the Christian is  p.ossible  because     are abandoned in favor of these organizations.
the Christian is fed and nourished, instructed and         These studies, as is true of almost all such studies,
strengthened, encouraged and rebuked by the insti-         have come up with a variety of answers. There is
tute. Without "mother's" constant attention, he            little point in listing all or even some of these an-
would not be able to walk in any respect as a believ-      swers here, although they range from the close spir-
er in the world.                                           itual bonds established in these organizations to the
  But there are other parachurch organizations.            frontier mentality of the American people.
These are also for fellowship, but these differ from         Whatever may be the true reasons, however, two
the organizations mentioned above because these            truths stand out, and that so clearly that a  high-
organizations, while operating independently of the        powered study is not needed to learn them. In the
church, nevertheless claim to  perform  the work of        first place, it is certainly true that there is little or
the church.                                                no understanding today of the truth concerning the


250                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



institute of the church. It is at the command of          God's disapproval upon them. But it is equally as
Christ that the church is organized as institute, and     wrong for people, young or old, to abandon the
to this institute is entrusted the task of the church:    church for fellowships, organizations, communes,
the preaching of the Word, the administration of          and the like. God has ordained that we be saved
the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline. (I        within the church. We must not be wiser than God.
need not go into detail on these points, because             Secondly, one main reason why so many leave
Rev. Slqpsema has discussed them in a recent arti-        the church and seek fellowship or a part in the
cle in the  Standurd  Bearer, which at this writing is    work of the church outside the established church
going to be continued.) This means that only the          is that they have become thoroughly disillusioned
institute of the church through her offices can           with the church. This is not always their fault.
preach, administer the sacraments, and exercise           They have been fed pablum and pap for the meat of
discipline. No Classis  or Presbytery can do this; no     the Word; they have been summoned to social
Synod or General Assembly, no self-appointed              action rather than sent to the cross for forgiveness
organization of young people bent on winning souls        and pardon; they have been entertained by two-bit
for Christ, no independent mission organization, no       entertainers who think the way to draw crowds in
foundation for revival, no association for crusades.      the church is through movies, guest speakers,
Only the church can preach.                               plays, special musical numbers, etc., etc. And
  Furthermore, it must be emphasized that the             people, wearying of it all, have forsaken churches
preaehin-gis-absolutely  indispensable for salvation.     which have no understanding of their calling and
This is the teaching of Romans 10: 13-15: "For who-       have sought fellowship and spiritual food in  para-
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be      church organizations. I am not excusing people, for
saved. How  then  shall they call on Him in Whom          the Word is still being preached in churches faithful
they hve not believed? and how shall they believe         to their calling. But the guilt rests heavily upon the
in Him of Whom they have not heard? and how               church which makes herself wiser than God and is
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall         no longer content to instruct God's people with the
they preach, except they be sent? as it is written,       lively preaching of the Word.
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the           So all the solutions to the problem of the  para-
gospel of peace,and bring glad tidings of good            church organizations lie in the church being
things!"                                                  faithful to her calling to preach the Word. The hun-
  And so: it is wrong for an organization to operate      gering and thirsting souls of God's people shall then
independently of the church, but nevertheless to          find rest and peace and be nourished unto life eter-
perform the functions of the church. Those who do         nal.
this go against the will of God and must expect




              The "Electric" or "Media" Church
                                               Rev. G. Van Baren



  In past years a great deal has been written about       local churches and even commercial concerns
the so-called "electric" church. By this is meant         support others.
those religious broadcasts that come on radio and           The first religious broadcast on the new medium
television each week. Their number, it seems, is          of radio was made on January 2, 1921 from the
boundless. One  cari find, especially on Sunday, a        Calvary Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh, Penn.
constant barrage of religious programming: from           Today, there are an estimated 130 million people
local church services to brief messages designed for      who listen on a Sunday morning to one or more
special instruction of the listener. There are, in        religious broadcasts. It is claimed that 47% of the
addition, , a surprising number of Christian radio        population of the United States listen to at least one
stations and television stations which broadcast          religious program a week. Over 500 million dollars
daily the gospel message in word and song-at least        are spent annually on religious broadcasting. (The
these profess to do so. Many of these broadcasts are      above figures were culled from the book: The Elec-
supported by the listening audience, although also        tric Church, Ben Armstrong, author.)


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                          251



  The success stories of some of the television reli-       conclusion is that the many religious broadcasts in
gious broadcasts are widely known. There is Robert          our land in fact promote regular church attendance.
Schuller with his.Hour of Power television broadcast           Several points ought to be made about religious
from the "crystal cathedral" in Garden Grove,               broadcasting. Without evaluating each individual
California. This is a church of the Reformed                broadcast, it can be pointed out that religious
Church of America. The membership of this con-              broadcasts provide the means to reach areas and
gregation grew from zero in 1955 to more than               countries which otherwise never heard the gospel.
8,000 in 1979. Those who have heard Schuller,               The transistor radio brings to the very poorest of
with his "possibility thinking", can understand             the poor the means to hear the Word. In places
how such a broadcast has wide appeal. It does not,          where no missionary has ever set foot, there
however, present the full message of the gospel. It         Scripture can still be presented. In countries where
is rather a program designed to make the listener           the preaching of the Word is forbidden, still many
feel good.                                                   can hear by way of radio.
  Another famous program is the Old Time Gospel                Even within our own land, many who do not or
Hour, with its messages by Jerry Falwell, the leader         can not come to church have heard the Word. Some
of the Moral Majority movement. The broadcast               who had never set foot in church, have turned on
comes from the Thomas Road Baptist Church at                 their radios and have heard truths of Scripture.
Lynchburg, Virginia. It claims more than six mil-            Many shut-ins also make use of such broadcasts
lion viewers in the U.S. The broadcast began in              when they are unable to attend church personally.
1956 by the church which then had but thirty-five
adult members. In 1978 its membership was                      Also for our churches the "electric" church has
15,000.                                                     proved to be a means of reaching out to present the
  There are, too, various  densminational   abroad-         truths of God's Word as these are proclaimed in our
casts, coming for the most part over radio. There is        own churches. Though sometimes the response is
the Lutheran Hour, the Back to God Hour, the                disappointing, there is evidence that many do hear
Words of Hope (Reformed Church), and many                   and listen. More work could likely be done also in
others. We have our own small contribution: The             this field by our own churches in order that the
Reformed Witness Hour, which has been aired                 gospel might be presented clearly and emphatically
now for over 39 years. Some of our church services          in a world where compromise and apostasy seem to
are also aired: and on a regular basis by our South         be the order of the day.
Holland, Illinois and Lynden, Washington congre-              But what of the objections, sometimes strenu-
gations.                                                    ously presented, to the "electric" church? One
  It is this "electric" or "media" church which has         objection is the question of money. The "electric"
aroused considerable  controvei-sy  both within and         church drains off a vast sum of money-estimated
outside of the churches. There is an attempt by the         to be well over 500 million dollars annually. Ques-
non-Christian to  still. these broadcasts or place          tions are raised: if local churches had access to such
greater restrictions on them. But also much disa-           amounts of money, what additional work could
greement arises within the churches concerning              they not do in their own areas and in the field of
the value of such programming.                              mission work? In fact, do not the local churches
                                                            actually      suffer    because    funds    otherwise
  That many of these broadcasts are appealing is            contributed to them, now go to the persuasive tele-
eyident  from the fact that they attract a wide listen-     vision preacher? There are many churches which
ing audience and millions `of dollars of listener sup-      have  a- great struggle to survive-while many TV
port. In fact, most of these programs could not             preachers seem to wallow in affluence. They are
possibly continue without the millions contributed          able to build crystal cathedrals and vast educational
by the listeners. Even most of the religious stations,      complexes.
whether radio or television, -are maintained
through listener contributions. There is something             For the faithful child of God, there ought to be no
which attracts people to this sort ,of thing.               problem, The Problem would likely be with one
                                                            -who is unstable, one who fails to understand his re-
  The complaint is heard that  the. "electric"              sponsibilities given in Scripture. Such an one'could
chui-ch takes away from regular church attendance.          be easily swayed to support the unnecessary and
Perhaps. However, in the book mentioned above,              questionable by an eloquent preacher on radio or
the author claims that in the United States, with its       TV. The faithful-Christian understands the place of
many religious broadcasts, four out of ten people           the church of Christ on the earth. He knows his re-
attend church at  .least once a month. In  Britain,         sponsibility to support this cause of God's kingdom
where religious broadcasts are severely restricted,         too. Therefore, within our own churches I have
only one out of 14 attend church once a month. His          seen no evidence that any local church suffers  be-


2 5 2                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



cause of the "electric" church. The child of God            stable souls. Many become followers of men-but
must wisely use of his possessions that God's Name          not followers of Jesus Christ. It is this which
may ever be glorified.                                     remains a constant threat to Christians not well
                                                           versed in the Word of God.
    A second complaint is that the "electric" church
provides a substitute to regular church attendance.           But there is a second matter related to the above.
There are those who easily stay home from church           The media can easily be used by the antichrist and
-and listen to "church" on television or radio. And        his followers to set up a religious organization
no--doubt  this is often the case. The "electric"          second to none. One is impressed by what a few
church has become the excuse for violating the             men have accomplished in but few years in their
fourth commandment in more ways than one. It               television ministry. T h i n k   o f   a   Schuller  o r   a
becomes a "vacation" church-when one wants to              Falwell. What an "empire" these men have built in
vacation in a place where he can not serve God in          just a short time! Can you then imagine one man,
church, then he can convince himself that a radio          combining the persuasiveness of all these presently
sermon serves the same purpose. Some would                 on TV, able to attract millions by his "message,"
travel on Sunday-while listening on their car radio        able to raise vast sums of money-appearing regu-
to the "electric" church. This way, one can get the        larly on TV? What such a man could do in the way
best of two worlds: vacation travel and church at          of uniting churches, helping the needy, establishing
the same time.                                              "Christianity" as a popular religion! A popular
                                                           religion making use of the modern developments in
    Where the "electric" church is thus abused, this       communication would be considered the ideal
abuse must be condemned. It must be pointed out            which men had long sought. There is not only regu-
again that the faithful Christian understands the          lar TV, but also now cable TV and satellite com-
place of church: its fellowship, the preaching of the      munications. With all of these, the ends of the earth
Word in the congregation of God's people, the              could be reached. Many would sit at the feet of one
opportunity to give for the poor and the kingdom           leader, eagerly listening to all he had to say. And I
there. Whatever purpose the "electric" church              strongly suspect that this will happen too.
serves, the Christian knows that it can never be a
substitute for the gathering of God's people each             This is not to frighten the child of God. All of
Sunday.                                                    these things must be, until Christ comes again on
                                                           the clouds of glory. In fact, it seems to me that the
    There are, however, two other serious concerns          "electric" church and the media used, is itself a
with respect to  the "electric" church. The first is       reminder to us how near to the end we actually are.
the easy and pervasive way the lie can be spread.          Though others have said this in the past ages too,
The "electric'-' church has all kinds of preachers:        never have so many means been available to be
from  pentecostals to arminian. These men who              used by one world power and one church to accom-
speak are effective, fluent preachers. Those that          plish that prophecy of Scripture that antichrist
come not with the truth of God's Word, yet come in         would come. Be ready and watch: the end draweth
His Name (or claim that they do), deceive many un-         nigh!



         The Institute and the Office of Believers
                                                 Rev. J. Slopsema



    There are especially two errors into which many         kingdom of God called the office of believer. He
believers have fallen in the exercise of the office of      holds this office only by virtue of his faith in Christ.
believer. The one error is to seek to exercise the          In Lord's Day 12 t~he Heidelberg Catechism teaches
office of believer apart from the institution of the        that our Saviour is called Christ because He is
church. The other error is to fail to exercise this         anointed of God. This anointing implies two things.
office because of the institution of the church. Both       It implies, first of all, divine appointment. As the
errors must be avoided at all costs. To fall into           anointed of God, Christ has been-eternally appoint-
either error is detrimental to the spiritual welfare        ed or ordained of God to the three-fold office of pro-
both of the church and the individual saint.                phet, priest, and king. But in the second place this
    Every believer in Christ holds an office in the         anointing implies qualification. Having been


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                            253



ordained by God to this three-fold office, Christ is       And that spirit of rebellion still resides within our
also qualified by the Holy Spirit to perform the du-       sinful nature. As kings in Christ our first calling is
ties of this office. And so, according to our Cate-        to rule over ourselves in the power of grace so that
chism, Christ as the anointed of God is our chief          we subdue our sinful nature and thus walk in all
prophet, our only high priest, and our eternal king.       obedience to God and His Christ. As  kingsJunder
The Catechism, in this same Lord's Day, however,           Christ, however, it is also our duty to rule over one
goes on to teach that by faith we are members of           another mutually. We certainly have a calling to be
Christ and thus partakers of His anointing. If you         our brother's keeper. Our concern must not be just
will, by faith in Christ we too become prophets,           with our own walk of life but also with that of the
priests, and kings in and under Christ. The                brother. Hence, there is a mutual supervision
viewpoint here is that Christ exercises His duties as      which we must exercise over one another in the
prophet, priest, and king through men. This is             household of faith as kings under Christ.
realized in the sphere of the kingdom when Christ
calls His people out of darkness into light and              Finally we are also priests under Christ. An es-
through the gift of faith brings them into spiritual       sential element of the office of priest is the showing
connection with Himself. In this way they become           of mercy. This Christ certainly does as our eternal
partakers of Christ's anointing. They become               highpriest. According to Hebrews  2:17 Christ is "a
prophets, priests, and kings in and under Christ.          merciful and faithful highpriest in things pertaining
This is the office of believer that every born-again       to God." As our merciful highpriest Christ delivers
Christian occupies by virtue of his faith.                 us from the depths of our misery and exalts us to a
                                                           state of blessedness and joy. He does this not only
  As an officebearer in God's kingdom the believer         through the redemption of His cross but also
has certain duties to perform. As prophet his duty is      through His continual intercession before the
to speak the Word of God. The basic idea of the            throne of God whereby He brings upon us all the
prophetic office is not that of foretelling the future     blessing of God. We too are priests in and under
but of revelation. A prophet is one who speaks on          Christ. As priests of God we must show mercy to
the behalf of God. He is one who is filled with the        those in need, especially to the poor. We are to do
true knowledge of God and can not help but speak           this by comforting them with God's Word and by
that which God has revealed to him. In this manner         alleviating their poverty with material gifts.
Christ is the chief prophet of God. It is especially
through Christ that God has revealed Himself as              At this point we may begin to discuss the institu-
the God of salvation. This revelation of God in            tion of the church. The institution of the church is
Christ has been infallibly recorded for us in the          the church from the viewpoint of its special offices.
Scripture through an act of divine inspiration. As         From the Scriptures it is apparent that from every
prophets of God in and under Christ it is our calling      communion of believers Christ calls certain men to
to speak that same Word of God recorded in                 be prophets, kings,  and priests in a special sense.
Scripture. That Word must live in our heart. And           These prophets, kings, and priests are called by
that Word we must proclaim with our mouth.                 Scripture ministers, elders, and deacons. The
                                                           question arises: what is the relation between these
  As king the duty of the believer is to rule under        special offices in the church and the office of
Christ. The idea basic to the office of king is that of    believer? Every believer in Christ is a prophet,'
rule. This Christ does as our eternal king. We are         king, and priest. Why then are there in the church
able to distinguish in the rule of Christ two aspects.     these special offices of minister, elder, and deacon?
There is first the rule of His might. This is the rule     The answer is that God will have us exercise our
of Christ over the world in general and over the un-       office of believer only in connection with and
godly. The ungodly refuse to bow the knee to               through the special offices of the church.
Christ and acknowledge Him as Lord. They walk
rather in rebellion against Him. But Christ rules            The institution of the church with its threefold
over them nonetheless, using even their rebellion          office of minister,.elder, and deacon is all important
and disobedience to fulfill His purpose. In distinc-       for the believer. Thus, for example, it is only
tion from this, Christ rules over His people in grace.     through the offices of the church that one can attain
This means that in the power of His grace Christ           the office of believer. For, as we have seen, the
smashes the rebellious hearts of His people. In the        office of believer is a matter of sharing in Christ's
power of His grace He also changes them so that            anointing by faith. But faith in turn is dependent on
they love Him and seek to do His will as willing and       the offices of the church, upon the preaching of the
obedient servants. From this it certainly follows          minister and the rule of the elder and the benevo-
that as kings of God under Christ it is our calling        lence of the deacon. Apart from the threefold office
first of all to rule ourselves. By nature we are rebels    of the church we have neither faith nor the office of
against God who can not and will not serve Him.            believer. In harmony with this it is also the will of


254                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



God that the believer exercise his office only in con-      these  .things we are remiss in our duties as kings.
nection with and through the offices of the church.         Nevertheless, this must all take place in the context
Apart from the offices of the church it is impossible       of the rule and supervision of the elders of the
for the believer to exercise his office.                    church. God has charged the elders of the church to
  This relation between the office of believer and          rule over the lives of God's people. They do this by
the threefold office of the church is easily demon-         setting forth the Word of God as the sole standard
strated. First, there is the prohetic office. As stated     for doctrine and life. And they maintain that Word
earlier, the basic idea of this office is to know God       through the exercise of Christian discipline. It is
from His Word and to proclaim that Word. This is            furthermore our calling as believers in Christ to
the calling and duty of every believer as prophet.          submit ourselves to the good rule of the elders. And
Nevertheless, the individual believer can not fulfull       when our fellow believer falls into sin and refuses
that obligation alone, as an individual, apart from         to repent under our admonition he must be
the body of believers and the institution of the            reported by us to the elders for the official
church. There are those who attempt this. They              discipline of the church. In this way we as kings
strike out on their own as self-proclaimed                  rule both ourselves and one another through the
preachers of the gospel having no connection with           elders of the church. And this is our calling before
the institutiqn of the church. But they commit a            God. We can function as kings of God in Christ
grave error and fail miserably as prophets of God.          only in connection with and through the elders of
Their work carries away neither the approval nor            the church.
the blessing of God. The believer can function as a           And the same idea also holds true for the priestly
prophet of God only as a member of the church               office. As priests it is our calling to show mercy to
institute where there is the office of the minister         the poor and those in distress. We are to do this by
and the pure preaching of the Word. For it is               bringing them the comforting words of the
through the official preaching of the Word that the         Scripture and by alleviating their physical needs
believer first of all exercises his office of prophet of    with alms. And as priests of God it certainly is our
God. It is primarily through the minister whom we           calling at times to do this individually. Neverthe-
call and support that we speak the Word of God as           less, this is never to be done apart from the work of
prophets. Through our minister and his preaching            the deacons of  the church. It is especially through
we speak that Word of God first to ourselves but            the deacons that we exercise our priestly office. We
then also to others. And that Word is the power of          do this by providing the deacons with alms in
God to, salvation. But our duties as prophets. of God       abundance that they may have to give to the poor.
go beyond preaching. We m&t in the power of that              Are we faithful in the execution of our duties as
preaching also continue to speak God's Word                 officebearers in God's kingdom? Let us not seek to
individually. We must speak that Word to the                exercise our office apart from the institution of the
members  bf our family and to those of the                  church. Nor let us fall into the error of failing to
household of faith. But we niust also proclaim that         exercise our duties as prophets, kings, and priests,
Word to those outside the church who are lost in            using as an excuse that this is the duty rather of the
the darkness of unbelief, This is commonly called           minister, elder, and deacon -of the church. Let us
witnessing. A grave error of many in the church is          rather seek to exercise our office in connection with
to think that this is unimportant. Consequently             and through the offices of the church to our salva-
they fail to bring the Word of God to their neighbor.       tion and the welfare of the church.
They hear the preaching  of the Word but fail to
bring that same Word to others: In this they  .fall
short as prophets of God. Nor do they carry away                           Take time to read
God's approval.                                                     The Standard Bearer
  These same general  principles we may now~also
apply to the kingly office. As kings under. Christ in
God's house we must rule ourselves  and mutually
rule over one another as fellow believers to the end
that we subdue our sinful nature and walk in all
obedience to God. It is true of course that this.does
not always directly involve the elders of the
church. Each one of us must through prayer fight
against our own sinful nature. And according to the
command of Christ we must often  go to the erring
brother alone to admonish him and seek his repen-
tance. This we do as kings of God:If we -fail to do


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              255



                The Church and the Sacraments
                                                Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


  Jehovah, the faithful covenant God, has entrust-          question is:  how  do they confirm and strengthen
ed into the care and keeping of His church the              our faith? Is it not hard to believe that, merely by
sacraments. They, along with the preaching, are or-         eating and drinking some bread and wine or by wit-
dained by God as official means to be used in the           nessing the sprinkling of water on the head of an in-
church in order to strengthen and nourish her               fant, our faith will be confirmed and strengthened?
members in the grace of God. The church is called           How is that possible? It is of extreme  I importance
upon, therefore, to guard and use the sacraments in         that we do not fall into the error of the Roman
such a way. This calling she dispenses with great           Catholic Church at this point. The church of Rome
joy, for these sacraments are to her very precious          claims that there is grace in the very elements of
and of utmost significance. Certainly in the day and        the sacraments themselves. When I eat and drink
age in which we find ourselves-an age in which,             the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper in some
the preaching and sacraments are considered relics          miraculous way I eat and drink grace, and as a
of the past-we must renew our appreciation for              result I am strengthened in my faith. It is almost
what God in His love has given us.                          like popping a pill. If I need to relax I pop a tran-
  The sacraments are of absolute necessity in our           quilizer into my mouth and soon my tension drains
faith and life. Our Reformed fathers recognized this        from me and I am able to relax-automatically.
fact too. So important are the sacraments that they         Despite my own tension my body relaxes. The
have become one of the marks by which the true              Romish church maintains that by-eating bread and
church of Jesus Christ may be known. A church               drinking wine or by having water sprinkled on my
which does not administer the sacraments is  not  a         head my faith is automatically strengthened. De-
true church of Christ. So important are those sacra-        spite my own spiritual condition, my faith mira-
ments! They are a means unto spiritual life!                culously grows. It takes no more effort to be
                                                            strengthened in my faith than the mere physical
  It is for that reason that Christ has instituted          eating and drinking of bread and wine or, easier
them for official use in the church. Here is a fact         yet, merely passively lying in my father's arms
which we may never overlook: Christ has instituted          while someone sprinkles water on my head. This
our sacraments. If we ignore this, then there will be       kind of reasoning, however, leads us into what the
no limits to what we constitute as sacraments to be         Heidelberg Catechism calls "an accursed idolatry."
used. in our worship in the church. Christ,                 We then worship the elements of the sacraments as
however, instituted, i.e., officially established as        if they have in themselves power to effect grace
fundamental rites in the church, our sacraments as          and salvation. We must have none of this.
we have them today. They are two: the Lord's
Supper and Baptism. These are the only two institu-            The sacraments confirm and strengthen the faith
ted by Christ for official use in His church (Matt.         of God's children as signs and seals of the grace of
26:26ff. and Matt. 28:19). Now it is not the purpose        God's covenant.
of this article to defend and explain each of these            As signs our sacraments represent in a visible
sacraments in particular. Many pages of many                way something which is invisible. Perhaps we
books have been devoted to explaining the adminis-          would understand this better if we were to use an
tration and significance of each of these sacra-            illustration. When we travel by car, along the road
ments. We consider, on the other hand, just why it          we see many different signs. Each of those signs
is they are so precious to us.                              speaks of something which we do not yet see. For
  The sacraments are visible signs and seals which          example, I see a sign which speaks of a restaurant
strengthen and confirm the faith of God's people. If        which will appear in the next few miles. I do not
we are at all concerned about the -growth of our            see the restaurant but I know it will soon appear
faith, if we care about becoming and remaining              because I have  .seen the sign which speaks of it.
spiritually strong, if we desire to be assured of our       Our sacraments as signs represent visibly that
salvation, then we will understand the great value          which we do not see. For example, we partake of
of our sacraments. They are gifts of God to us              the bread and wine in our celebration of the Lord's
which, if used properly, will result in great spiritual     Supper. These are visible signs of something invisi-
growth in the life of the individual believer as well       ble to us, namely, the death and  resurrectibn of
as in the life of the church as a whole. So often that      Jesus Christ. When we eat and drink of the bread
can be forgotten. Then, to those who employ,them,           and wine we do not literally see the death and res-
they become mere customs and superstitions. The             urrection of Christ but we are reminded that they


 2 5 6                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



 are real, that Christ died and arose for us. Just as     God's children think upon these things, as they
 when we see that sign of the restaurant our              contemplate the mercy and grace of God, they
 thoughts are directed to the restaurant and what it      grow spiritually stronger and stronger in their faith
 offers, so also when we partake of the elements of       and in their knowledge of God and salvation. That
 our sacraments our thoughts are directed to the          is what makes our sacraments so precious to us! We
 death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.           need them! We thank God that He has provided
 When we witness the sacrament of Baptism and             these means whereby we might behold as in a glass
 partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper we         the glory of the Lord! They are definitely means
 are assured that just as certainly as we see that        whereby we become partakers of the spiritual bles-
 sprinkling of water and receive and hold the bread       sings of God's grace. As partakers of these blessings
 and wine in our hands, we also do as certainly re-       we "are changed into the same (Christ's, WGB)
 ceive by faith the washing away of our sins through      image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of
 the death and resurrection of Christ. In that way        the Lord (II Cor. 3:18)."
 our faith is confirmed and strengthened. These             There is one other truth which cannot be over-
 signs direct our faith to the one sacrifice of Christ    looked. Our sacraments are precious to us only
 on. the cross for us; and as we think upon that we       because the Holy Spirit works through them. They
 grow spiritually.                                        are always surrounded by the Word, and the Holy
    Nor must we overlook the fact that these sacra-       Spirit Himself through that Word works within us
 ments are seals. A seal is a visible guarantee of the    the knowledge and confidence of faith. Without the
 genuineness of that which receives the seal. It is a     work of the Holy Spirit in the celebration of our
 promise made by one in authority that what is re-        sacraments the truth and assurance which they
 ceived is authentic. For example again, when one         convey would fall upon dry and dusty soil. But He
 graduates from school his diploma is stamped with        works in us as we witness Baptism and as we par-
 the seal of the state in which he graduated. Without     take of the Lord's Supper so that the truth and as-
 that seal the diploma would be invalid. With it the      surance conveyed in them becomes real in our
 state guarantees that it is genuine. The sacraments      hearts. We lay hold of the promise of the gospel and
 are seals of God to His children. They guarantee the     we make it our own. We love it and cherish it. We
 promise of the gospel, the forgiveness of sin, and       consider that gift of salvation the most precious
_ life everlasting through the shed blood of Jesus        thing in the world to us. That is what the Holy
 Christ. The sacraments are God's promise to His          Spirit accomplishes in our hearts by means of our
 people that being washed in the blood of Christ          sacraments. If He did not, then those sacraments
 they are justified and that they will indeed receive     would not be all that dear to us.
 their eternal reward.                                      Let us as a church of Jesus Christ maintain our
    In this way the sacraments are signs and seals of     sacraments in all their purity. Let us cherish them
 God's covenant with His people. Baptism witnesses        and guard them for the welfare of our faith and
 and seals to them that God incorporates them into        souls. Then we will remain faithful to God's Word
 His eternal covenant of grace and adopts them for        and will maintain the second mark of the true
 His children and heirs. The Lord's Supper, in turn,      church of Christ. Let us love our sacraments! They
 witnesses and seals to them that they belong to and      are a necessary part of our continued spiritual life!
 are nourished in that covenant of grace. And as


                      The Marks of the False Church
                                              Rev. David Engelsma


    "...As for the false Church, she ascribes more        her errors, covetousness, and idolatry. These two
 power and authority to herself and her ordinances        Churches are easily known and distinguished from
 than to the Word of God, and will not submit her-        each other."
 self to the yoke of Christ. Neither does she admin-                             -Belgic  Confession, Article 29
 ister the sacraments as appointed by Christ in His                       ****************
 Word, but adds to and takes from them, as she
 thinks proper; she relieth more upon men than              The "problem" of the article of our Confession of
 upon Christ; and persecutes those, who live  holily      Faith quoted above is its absolute distinction be-
 according to the Word of God, and rebuke her for         tween the true church and the false church. It does


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       257



not speak of purer and less pure churches, of mani-           that the true church is never pure in the sense that
festations of Jesus' Body that vary in degree of              all members are true believers. In the New Testa-
faithfulness and doctrinal purity; but of "two                ment church, as among the Old Testament congre-
Churches," the true and the false. Applied to the             gation, "they are not all Israel, which are of Israel"
present situation of many, separated churches (de-            (Romans 9:6). It is also important to remember that
nominations), the article might seem to teach that            the living members of the true church are not per-
one particular institute is the only true church,             fectly, or even nearly perfectly, holy. On the con-
while all the others are the false church. Such an in-        trary, there "remain in them great infirmities." (Cf.
terpretation of the article has been given by certain         also the Heidelberg Catechism, Q.  114)  This is im-
Reformed in the Netherlands; and, now and again,              portant to keep in mind because there always are
voices have been heard in the Protestant Reformed             sects which wickedly break with the true church,
Churches expressing this position.                            as though she were the false church, because they
   It is helpful for understanding the Confession's           see hypocrites in the church and because they do
teaching concerning the false church to have                  not find the lives of the members of the church as
clearly in mind the reference of "true  Church-               holy as they would like them to be.
false Church." By the true church is not meant                  Calvin warns against this: "Thinking there is no
the invisible Body of Jesus Christ. If this were the          church where there is not complete purity and in-
reference, the article would be distinguishing be-            tegrity of conduct, they, through hatred of wicked-
tween the one, invisible, true church of Christ and           ness, withdraw from a genuine church, while they
the one, invisible, false church of the Devil. Some           think they are shunning the company of the un-
have tried to escape the difficulty of the article's          godly" (Institutes, IV, I, 13). No one may despise, or
 "true Church-false Church" distinction by                    leave, the church because wicked men appear in it;
resorting to this explanation. That this is not meant         nor may anyone reject a church as false church be-
is plain from the Confession's admission that the             cause the members, including the officebearers, are
true church has hypocrites mixed in with the good,            sinful men. Calvin is correct when he analyzes this
which cannot be said of the invisible church of               separatistic spirit and action as "excessive morose-
Christ. Also, the article makes plain that it refers to       ness (which) is more the result of pride and a false
a church that has marks which we can see: preach-             idea of sanctity, than genuine sanctity itself, and
ing, sacraments, and discipline-a visible church,             true zeal for it. Accordingly, those who are the most
therefore.                                                    forward, and, as it were, leaders in producing
   Neither is this article primarily concerned with           revolt from the Church, have, for the most part, no
 our duty to distinguish between believers and un-            other motive than to display their own superiority
 believers. It is the case that true members of the           by despising all other men" (ITzstitutes,  IV, I, 16).
 church have a certain mark that sooner or later also           The false church is an assembly that has the
 distinguishes them from hypocrites, namely, a                name and appearance of the church of Jesus Christ,
 living faith. It is not, however, the point of this arti-    but which has so apostatized from the Word of
 cle to speak of the distinction between true and             God, or corrupted it, that Christ is not present in
 false members of the church, i.e., believers and un-         her preaching, sacraments, and discipline as Head
 believers ("we speak not here of hypocrites, who             and Savior, so that His Spirit does not work faith, or
 are mixed in the Church with the good...").                  give salvation, through these activities of the
   The article refers to the true institute of the            church. There may be children of God scattered
 church and the false institute of the church. The            among false churches, but this is in spite of the
 purpose of this article is the practical one of calling      work of these churches; and these children of God
 believers to membership in a true congregation and           must leave.
 denomination and warning believers against                     Mohammedanism is not a false church,, but a
 membership in a false congregation and denomina-             pagan     religion.    The Jehovah's          Witnesses,
 tion. In order that believers may discern the true           Mormons, and the Unification Church of Moon are
 and the false, the marks of both are set forth. That         not false churches, but cults. But a Protestant
 this is, in fact, the subject is evident, first, from the    church with an orthodox tradition; a smiling
 mention of "the body and communion of the true               preacher with Christ always on his lips; and a con-
 Church"; second, from the fact that it is the insti-         gregation that bends over backward to show
 tute that preaches, administers sacraments, and              warmth and friendliness for Jesus' sake (especially
 exercises discipline; and, third, from the fact that it      to new members) which denies the Godhead of
 is the institute that always has hypocrites mixed in         Jesus and atonement of sin in the blood of the cross
 with the good.                                               and which teaches social salvation by human
   In any discussion of the false church, it is impor-        works is a false church.
 tant to note the clear teaching of our Confession               It is exactly the name and semblance of a  Chris-


258                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



tian church.that.pose  a threat to God's people and         church from the true church.
that make the warning against the false church                 It is a mistake to identify one particular institute
n e c e s s a r y .                                         as the true church in distinction from all others
   Holy Scripture sounds this warning. Matthew              which are then regarded as false. This is the posi-
7:15 tells us to "beware of false prophets, which           tion of Rome. Rome is the true church; all other
come to you in sheep's'clothing, but inwardly they          churches are false. There might seem to be a soften-
are ravening wolves." Where there is false prophe-          ing of this hard line today. Rome calls the Protes-
cy, there is a false church. John  1O:l speaks of a         tants "separated brothers." The Second Vatican
pretender-shepherd of the flock of Christ "that  en-        Council went so far as to refer to Protestant congre-
tereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climb-       gations as "Churches or ecclesial communities"
eth up some other way." Commenting on this text,            and to say that "in some real way they are joined
Calvin explains: "For if they who are called shep-          with us in the Holy Spirit" ("Dogmatic Constitu-
herds attempt to lead us away from Christ, we               tion on the Church," Chapter II, 15). But Vatican II
ought to flee from them, at. the command of Christ,         also insisted that Rome is "the Church," "Mother
as we would flee from wolves or thieves; and we             Church," and made clear that the "separated
ought not to form or maintain intercourse with any          brothers" (read: "prodigal sons"!) must return to
society but that which is agreed in the pure faith of       Rome.
the Gospel." Before the second coming of Christ,               With the exception of Luther in his most fiery,
Antichrist will sit as God "in the temple of God,           and least attractive, moments, the Reformers did
showing himself that he is God" (II Thess.  24).            not take the position that all churches except one
This takes place through the diligent, seemingly            were false. At the time of our Confession,  Protes-
Christian labor on his behalf of the "false prophet"        tantism had divided into Lutheran churches and
(Rev. 13: 1 lff.; 19:20).                                   Reformed churches. Calvin, Farel, Beza, De Bres,
   The identifying mark of the false church is that         and other Reformed leaders recognized the Luther-
she lacks the marks of the true church, i.e., the           an churches as true churches, as well as the Re-
pure doctrine of Holy Scripture, a pure adminis-            formed churches (cf. A. D. R. Polman,  Onze Neder-
tration of the sacraments; and the exercise of              Zandsche Geloofibelijdenis,  III, pp. 351ff.).
church discipline in the correcting of sin. Rich in the        Herman Hoeksema warns against a fanatical ap-
incidentals of size, ecclesiastical reputation, earthly     plication of the "true Church-false Church" dis-
influence,. religious ritual and busyness, and pomp         tinction: "This does not mean that the believer who
(which, alas, fascinate many professing Christians          takes this calling seriously (the calling to join
in every age); she is destitute of the essentials of the    himself to the purest manifestation of the church in
Body of Jesus Christ in the world.                          the world-D.E.) imagines that no one is saved out-
   Still, she makes something of preaching, sacra-          side of the particular church in which he has his
ments, and discipline. What she makes of them               membership" (Abundant Mercy,  p. 78).
gives her away. She preaches another gospel than               The Roman Catholic Church is the false church.
the gospel of salvation from sin by grace alone. She        This was the intent of the description of the false
corrupts the administration of the sacraments by            church in Article 29 of the Belgic Confession, along
adding to the sacraments ordained by Christ, both           with the Anabaptist sects. In a corresponding arti-
as regards number and ritual; by taking away from           cle, Article 28, the French Confession of Faith of
the administration elements prescribed by Christ;           1559 expressly names "the papal assemblies," con-
by administering them to persons whom Christ                d e m n i n g   t h e m   a s    "properly    speaking.. .no
judges unworthy; and, not least, by corrupting the          Church," since the pure Word of God is banished
meaning and truth of the sacraments in her teach-           from them, their sacraments are corrupted, or
ing. She perverts the key-power of `discipline, for         falsified, or destroyed, and all superstitions and
not only does she refuse to excom-municate those            idolatries are in them." It does, however, see
who live impenitently in grossest disobedience to           "some trace of the Church...left in the papacy," so
the Law of God, but she also turns in fury upon             that Roman Baptism is recognized as valid Baptism.
those who, in their zeal for holiness, rebuke her for       (Cf. Calvin,  Institutes,  IV, II, 11.) The Reformed
her wicked doctrines and evil practices. In short,          agree with Luther's judgment of Rome:
she is not founded on, subject to, or upholding the             . ..it is evident that as the arch-whore of the
truth  of  God's Word, sacred Scripture. Not sub-               devil they have abandoned the ancient
mitting, thus, to the yoke of Christ, she is not                church and its ancient bridegroom and have
Christ's Bride, but a whore.                                    not only become apostate and heretical (for
   Since every believer knows the Word of God, it               that word is too light and too honorable for
is easy for him to know and distinguish the false               such      a hussy),          but Antichrist and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              259



    `antigod,' indeed, the last and most shame-                 The marks of the false church:become horrify-
   less bride of the devil, setting herself up                ingly visible in Reformed churches in Europe and
   even above God (just as her bridegroom in                  in our land. There is the basic denial of the authori-
   heaven      w a n t e d   t o    do)"    ("Against         ty of the Word of God, Holy Scripture, not only in
   Hanswurst," Luther's Works,  Vol. 41, p.                   practice, but also in official declaration. By virtue
   205).                                                      of this fact, Jesus Christ is renounced as Head of the
Rome preaches another gospel of righteousness by              church and His yoke cast off. Instead of the pure
works, wreaks havoc  withy  the sacraments, and is            doctrine of the gospel is preached worldly libera-
stained red with the blood of countless thousands             tion (of females, blacks, the poor, homosexuals, and
of Waldensian, Huguenot, Dutch Reformed, and                  what not), or universalism, or salvation dependent
other saints. Although some treacherous Reformed              on man's works and will. Instead of' the things
congregations may pray for Rome as was done                   which Jesus has commanded are preached the com-
when the Roman idol came to Chicago not long ago,             mandments of men, as the rule of a Christian. life.
the souls of the martyred saints under the altar pray         Churches profane the sacraments  ,by admitting to
against Rome, saying, "How long, 0 Lord, holy                 them members who maintain doctrines and practi-
and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood            ces inconsistent with the name of Christians. The
on them that dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:lO); and            powers in the church, an arrogant hierarchy,
we do still pray, with heartfelt sincerity, the peti-         puffed up by and jealous of their own authority, if
tion once found in the Anglican liturgy: "From the            unable to excommunicate the pastors and people
tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his detest-            who rebuke the church for her errors, persecute
able enormities, good Lord deliver us."                       them with ridicule and various pressures; and
                                                              govern the church, not according to the Word, but
  Apostate, modernist Protestant churches are the             by pulling strings and shameful political maneuver-
false church. These are the churches that deny the            ings, so that their will is done.
Godhead of Jesus and the blood-theology of the
cross; proclaim humanism and social improvement                 This is not to say that they have become the false
for a gospel; and, while nourishing in their bosom            church, much less that there are not true churches
(and at the holy Table of the Lord) every kind of             among them; but it is to say that the apostasy from
heretic, revolutionary, and scoundrel, bar from               the Word of God in Reformed churches is the
their ministry those men who cannot but submit to             deadly serious matter of losing the marks of the
the commandment of God prohibiting the ordina-                true church and becoming the false church.
tion of women, and harass, persecute, and drive out             No one may join the false church for any reason.
the godly.                                                    All those who are in a false church must leave, re-
  Like the Anabaptist sects at the Reformation, the           gardless of the consequences. And for one to leave
churches of our day which are founded on spiritual            the true church for a church which apostatizes is
experiences rather than the Word of God and                   not only inexcusable carelessness and folly, but is
which proclaim their "baptism with the Holy                   also contrary to the ordinance of God. From the
Spirit" rather than the cross of Jesus Christ and the         true church, "no man has a right to separate him-
forgiveness of sins are the false church.                     self."


                     The Marks of the Church and
                                    the Means of Grace
                                                Prof. Robert D. Decker

  A staggering and to many people a bewildering                 It is not impressive sanctuaries and beautiful
number of churches (denominations) have devel-                liturgies which- characterize the true church. The
oped through the years since the time of the great            number of members in a denomination has nothing
sixteenth century Reformation. It is not our inten-          to do with this question. Vast world mission and
tion to discuss the reasons for this phenomenon.             multimillion-dollar world-relief programs have no
Rather, the question we face is: how does one de-            bearing on the question. Make no mistake, many of
termine which church is true? What characterizes a           these are certainly legitimate concerns of the
true, faithful manifestation of Christ's Body in the          church. The church is commissioned by Christ to
world?                                                       preach the gospel to all nations. And the church is


2 6 0                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



called by God to relieve the poor and needy. But           Lord instituted the Lord's Supper with its visible
these are not  the  marks by which God's church            signs and seals of His broken body and shed blood.
may be known in the world.                                 Jesus commanded us: "This do in remembrance of
   After asserting that everyone is bound by God to        me" (Matthew  26:26-28;  Luke  22:17-20;  I Corin-
join himself to the true church the Belgic Confession      thians  11:23-30). That church discipline must be
of Faith  speaks of its marks in these terms: "We          exercised     is also abundantly evident from
believe that we ought diligently and circumspectly         Scripture. The Apostle Paul admonishes the Corin-
to discern from the Word of God which is the true          thian believers not to keep company with fornica-
Church, since all sects which are in the world             tors (I Corinthians 5). Elders who rule well are to be
assume to themselves the name of the Church....            counted worthy of double honor (I Timothy  5:17).
The marks, by which the true Church is known,              Elders must possess definite qualifications for that
are these: if the pure doctrine of the gospel is           office (I Timothy 3). Elders are called to shepherd
preached therein; if she maintains the pure admin-         the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof (I
istration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if    Peter  5:2). God's people are admonished to obey
church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin: in     them that have the rule over them and who watch
short, if all things are managed according to the          for their souls (Hebrews  13:7, 17). By these marks
pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto re-          (the preaching of the pure doctrine of the Gospel,
jected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only          the proper administration of the sacraments, and
Head of the Church. Hereby the true Church may             the exercise of church discipline) God's church is
be certainly known, from which no man has a right          known and distinguished in the world. Where
to separate himself....As for the false Church, she        these are found there the true church is. To join
ascribes more power and authority to herself and           ourselves to that church is our calling. Our salva-
her ordinances than to the Word of God, and will           tion and the salvation of our children depend on
not submit herself to the yoke of Christ. Neither          that!
does she administer the sacraments as appointed by            Herman  Hoeksema  had this to say concerning
Christ in His Word, but adds to and takes from             the relationship among these marks:  "...although
them, as she thinks proper; she relieth more upon          each of them is important and must be present to
men than upon Christ; and persecutes those, who            indicate the true church of Christ in the world, they
live  holily  according to the Word of God, and re-        are nevertheless not to be viewed as three separate
buke her for her errors, covetousness, and idolatry.       marks, of equal importance and without connec-
These two Churches are easily known and distin-            tion with one another.  On  the contrary, in a sense
guished from each other" (Article XXIX). Notice            they are all comprehended and implied in the first,
the clear, direct, and unequivocable language of           the pure preaching of the Word of God. For, first of
this marvelous Reformed Confession. The marks of           all, the administration of the sacraments and the
the true church are the preaching of the pure doc-         exercise of Christian discipline have no meaning
trine of the gospel, the maintaining of the sacra-         without the preaching of the Word. They are sub-
ments as instituted by Christ, and the exercise of         servient to the preaching. In the sacraments, holy
church discipline. By these marks the true church          baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Word of God is,
is "easily and certainly known, from which no man          as it were, presented in visible and tangible form.
has a right to separate himself." The  Confession          And the very power of true Christian discipline is
flatly contradicts the notion of many today who            the Word of God and its preaching. Besides, where
make it appear as though it were extremely difficult       the Word of God is purely preached in all its  ful-
to distinguish the true from the false church. The         ness, there the sacraments are not likely to be pro-
Confession  also puts the lie to the notion held by        faned, while such preaching is already in itself
many that it makes little difference which church a        exercise of Christian discipline. Hence, we may say
man joins. The true church is certainly and easily         that the one all-important distinguishing mark of
known by its three marks and no man has a right to         the true church is the pure preaching of the Word
separate himself from that church.                         of God. Where the Word of God is preached and
  This is the language of theBible. When the types         heard, there is the church of Christ. Where the
and shadows, the sacrifices and ceremonies of the          Word is not preached, there the church is not
Old Dispensation were fulfilled in the cross and           present. And where that Word is adulterated, the
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour         church must either repent or die" (Reformed Dog-
commanded the apostles and in them the entire              matics,  p. 620).
church to go into all the world preaching and bapti-         The reason why the preaching of the pure doc-
zing, making disciples of all nations (Matthew             trine of the Gospel is the chief mark of the church
28:19, 20; Mark  16:15; etc.). Having celebrated the       is clearly taught in Scripture. The church is built
last Passover in the evening before the cross, the         upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  261



     Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians        furnished unto all good works (I Timothy 3: 16, 17).
     2: 19-22). In Christ the building (church) fitly framed    Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know
     together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord.            them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27). The sheep
     That foundation is the Word of God. Another                hear the very voice of Christ. How can that be true
     foundation can no man lay! This is precisely why           today? The answer is: by means of the preaching of
     the preaching of the pure doctrine of the Gospel is        the pure doctrine of the gospel. Scripture says: "For
     the indispensable chief mark of the church. If any-        whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
     one preaches another doctrine he is not building           shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in
     upon the foundation of Christ.                             Whom they have not believed? and how shall they
       Still more, the preaching of the pure doctrine of        believe in Him Whom (the word "of" does not
     the gospel is the chief mark of the church of Christ       appear in the Greek) they have not heard? and how
     because it is the chief means of grace, the means by       shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
     which Christ gathers His church out of the nations.        they preach except they be sent?" (Romans 10:13-
     The exalted Christ gave  "...some, apostles; and           15). One must call upon the name of the Lord to be
     some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,           saved. To do this he must believe in Christ, and to
     pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the            believe in Christ he must hear Christ. He must hear
     saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying     the very voice of Christ. Only Christ is able to
     of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity       quicken the hearts of His people so that they
     of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of           believe. The only way to hear the voice of Christ is
     God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the           by means of a preacher who is sent by Christ. The
     stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians  4:l  l-      simple fact is that it pleases God by the foolishness
     13). This means that the office of the ministry            of preaching to save them that believe. God is
     (pastor-teacher) is the gift of Christ to His church.      pleased to use that means in order that no flesh may
     Christ gave the church the ministry of the Word so         glory in His presence (cf. I Corinthians 1:21,29.)
     that it might reach its full growth and maturity in          For this reason: "The pure preaching of the
     Him. By the means of preaching, Christ preserves           Word is the all-important mark whereby you may
     His people in the world. He keeps them from being          distinguish the true church in the world. We may
     tossed about by every wind of doctrine brought by          also put it succinctly in this form: the church is
     deceiving false teachers (Ephesians  4:14). In this        where Christ is, and Christ is where the Word is
     same vein the Apostle Paul charges Timothy in the          preached and maintained in all its purity. Hence, it
     sight of God to preach the Word (I Timothy 4:lff).         is the calling of all true believers to join themselves
     The time is coming when they will not endure               to the purest manifestation of the body of Christ in
     sound doctrine. They will heap to themselves               the world, a manifestation that may be known by
     teachers having itching ears. They will turn from          the marks of the true church, viz., the pure preach-
     the truth to fables. Timothy, therefore, must be dili-     ing of the Word, the administration of the sacra-
     gent and faithful in the preaching of the inspired         ments, the exercise of Christian discipline. And of
     Word of God. That Word is profitable for doctrine,         these three the preaching of the Word is the very
     reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness:         heart" (H. Hoeksema,  Reformed Dogmatics,  p. 621).
     that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly



                                             Book Reviews

     THE NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARY,                            The set is a reprint of books published in England
     Editors: Ronald E. Clements (Old Testament) and            in the  `7Os, which is being produced by Eerdmans.
     Matthew Black (New Testament); Wm. B.  Eerd-
I                                                               All the volumes are not yet published. It is my per-
     mans Publishing Co. (Reviewed by Prof. H.                  sonal  judgment that they offer little which is not
     Hanko.)                                                    available in already published commentaries  al-
       I have a number of these commentaries given for          though they do bring recent Bible studies up to
     review. Before making a few remarks about them             date. However, this is, in a certain sense, a  disad-
     individually, there are a few points to be made            vantage because, on the whole, they are not easily
     about the commentaries generally.                          read by anyone who does not have a technical


262                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



training in the,field of Bible studv: Further. thev are     tone, primarily instruments of theological state-
                                   1          1
affected by  neo-orthodoxy,  although this is true of       ment rather than examples of historical descrip-
some more than others. The. commentaries are                tion." The book is difficult to read and is of little
written by different men.                                   value to one who seeks in Scripture the revelation
  While they all have rather extensive introduc-            of the God of our salvation in the face of our Lord
tions which are quite interesting, the body of the          Jesus Christ.
commentaries are very brief and offer little help in
the understanding of the text.                              THE NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARY,
                                                            THE GOSPEL OF MARK,  Hugh Anderson; Wm.
  A consideration of individual books.                      B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981; 362 pp.
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES,  by William                       $8.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. Robert D.
Neil; 270 pp. (paper)                                       Decker)
  Of the 270 pages, 60 pages are introduction and 6         THE NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARY,
pages are indices.                                          EPHESIANS,  C. Leslie  Mitton;  Wm. B. Eerdmans
                                                            Publishing Company, 1981; 232 pp., $6.95 (paper)
  The neo-orthodox emphasis comes out, e.g., in
the contention of the author that all the speeches          (Reviewed by Prof. Robert D. Decker)
recorded in Acts are the work of one editorial hand.           The first of these commentaries,  The Gospel of
There is no mention made of the inspiration of the          Mark,  is a classic example of redaction criticism (a
Holy Spirit.                                                school of higher criticism). Neither author is com-
                                                            mitted to the doctrine of inspiration as held by us.
ROMANS, by Matthew Black; 191  pp. (paper)                  According to  Mitton,  for example, Ephesians was
  While it is almost impossible to conceive of a            not written by the Apostle Paul. Ephesians was
commentary on Romans being contained in less                wirtten by some unknown follower of Paul and is a
than 200 pages, 30 of these is given over to intro-         collection of Paul's main teachings and doctrines.
duction. The book is very technical and difficult to        The author leaned heavily on other Pauline writ-
read. There is almost no exegesis given of such im-         ings, especially Colossians. The exposition in the
portant passages as  1:19-32,   5:12-14,  8:29, 30, 9:9-    body of the commentaries is both scanty and in
19. Where exegesis is given, it is wrong and the            many places in error. This is true of the doctrine of
author makes faith the ground of justification and          predestination in the doxology of Ephesians 1.
denies original guilt. The author maintains that
Paul assumes current rabbinical interpretation in              For the Reformed believer neither of these com-
several sections, an evidence of his neo-orthodoxy.         mentaries is of any value. Seminary students and
                                                            professors who need to keep abreast of what is
GALATIANS, by Donald Guthrie; 164 pp. (paper)               going on in higher criticism might find them useful
  There are about 100 pages of commentary and 54            from that point of view.
pages.of  introduction. The introduction is good and
the treatment of the historical sections in Galatians
is also quite good. But the doctrinal parts of this
important  .book are very scantily treated. This
author too maintains that Gal.  3:15, e.g., is
evidence of rabbinical influence.                                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
COLOSSIANS AND PHILEMON,  by Ralph P.                          On February 21, 1982, our parents, MR. AND MRS. ALBERT VAN
Martin; 174 pp. (paper)                                     DEN TOP, celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. We, their
                                                            children, are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the Christian home
  In this book even the introduction is technical           and spiritual guidance they have given us. Our prayer is that God may
                                                            continue to bless and strengthen them as they go down life's
and difficult to read. The doctrinal sections in            pathway together.
Colossians are given scanty treatment and  neo-                "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His
orthodox influence is also evident here. E.g., wives        ways." (Psalm 1 1 5:  1)
need no longer obey their husbands in our modern            Mr. and Mrs. John Wynia
culture (p. 119).                                              Brian, Lisa, Jennifer, Brent
                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Van Den Top
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW,  by David Hill;                         Lannette, Lavonne, Lori, Leah
                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Robert Blankespoor
365  PP. (paper)                                               Cheryl, Brenda, Rachel, Sharla, Kathie, Timothy, Daniel
  Perhaps more than the others, this book is evi-           Mr. and Mrs. Wesley De Groor
                                                               Bruce, Jill, Mark, Philip
dence of the commitment to form criticism. The              Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Hoksbergen
historicity of many of the gospel narratives is de-           Julie, Jonathan
nied. "These stories are constructed around a series        Mr. and Mrs. Duane  Alsum
                                                              Jayson, Eryn, Amber
of testimonies, and are, despite their sobriety of          Miss Sharon Van Den Top


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                              263



       CALL TO ASPIRANTS TO THE MINISTRY                                                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   All young men desiring to begin studies for the 1982-83 academic             On March 10, 1982, our parents, MR. AND MRS. JOHN VAN
year in the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches           DEN TOP will observe their 30th wedding anniversary.
should make application at the March 18, 1982 meeting of the                    We, their children and grandchildren, thank them for the covenant
Theological School Committee.                                                instruction and Christian love they have given us. We thank our
Pre-Seminary Students:                                                       Father in heaven for sparing them for us and for each other. May His
                                                                             grace continue to go with them.
   A transcript of grades from high school and college (if any), a letter
of testimony from the student's pastor or consistory, and a certifi-            "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His truth
cate of health from a reputable physician must accompany the                 endureth to all generations." (Psalm  100:5).
application.                                                                                                                                   Alan and Vi De Boer
Seminary Students:                                                                                                                               Bradley and  Andon
                                                                                                                                               Steve and Lavonne Abma
   A testimonial from the student's consistory that he is a member in                                                                            Jodi and Janae
full communion, sound in faith and upright in walk, a certificate of                                                                           Marvin
health from a reputable physician, and high school and college
transcripts must accompany the application. All applicants to the
seminary department must have completed the equivalent of a  four-                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
year college education  (I 25 semester hours) and must meet the
course requirements for entrance to the seminary department. These              March 17 will mark the 30th wedding anniversary of our parents,
entrance requirements are listed in the seminary catalog available           MR. AND MRS. GARRET FLIKKEMA. These many years God has
from the school.                                                             blessed them together and in His faithfulness and love guided them
                                                                             along their pathway. He in His faithfulness has given them children
   All seminary department applicants must appear before the                 and grandchildren, and we their children and grandchildren thank our
Theological School Committee for interview before admission is               faithful God for our parents and for what He has given us through
granted. In the event that a student can not appear at the March 18th        them.
meeting, notification of this fact along with a suggested interview
date must be given to the secretary of the Theological School Com-              "The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good
mittee before this meeting.                                                  of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
                                                                             children, and peace upon Israel." (Psalm  128:5,  6).
   All correspondence should be directed to the Theological School
Committee, 4949 lvanrest Ave. S.W., Grandville, Michigan 49418.                                                                 Rev. Richard and Marcia Flikkema
                                                                                                                                George and Denise  DeJong
                                                 Jon Huisken, Secretary                                                         Bill and Pat DeJong
                                 NOTICE!!!                                                                                      Jim Flikkema
                                                                                                                                     and five grandchildren
   The Hull School Board announces that a teacher will be needed for
the 2nd and 3rd grades in the coming 1982-83 season.                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   Those interested write to:
                                                                                O n   M a r c h   4 ,   1 9 8 2 ,   o u r   p a r e n t s ,   M R .   A N D   M R S .   H E N R Y
        Mr. Ron Koole                                                        HOLSTEGE will celebrate, the Lord willing, their 45th wedding
        306  - 2nd Ave.                                                      anniversary.                                                 .
        Hull, Iowa 5 1 239 or
        Phone 1-712-439-l 060  (home)                                           We, their children, are deeply grateful to our heavenly Father that
                  I-71 2-439-l 1 13 (school)                                 He has seen fit to bless us with these God-fearing parents, who have
                                                                             instructed us in His ways. We pray that God will always be near them
                  RESOLiJTlON OF SYMPATHY                                    and bless them in the years to come.
                                                                                "For this God is our God forever and ever: He will be our guide
   The Ladies Aid of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church              even unto death." (Psalm  48:14).
wishes to express its sympathy to a fellow member, Mrs. Phil
Dykstra in the loss of her father, ALDEN STONER.                                                                                           Len and Marcia Holstege
                                                                                                                                           Jay and Arla Holstege
   "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee."                                                                            Larry.and  Elaine Lubben
(Isaiah 43:2).                                                                                                                             Harv and Marilyn Holstege
                                          Rev. G. Van  Baren, Pres.                                                                       Clair and  Tina Holstege
                                          Mrs. George Hoekstra, Sec'y.                                                                           and 19 grandchildren


                                  News From Our Churches                                                                                                 `.

   Our calling churches (Redlands, California and                            column, we have learned that Rev. Moore has
Isabel, South Dakota) continue to call  undershep-                           accepted the call to Isabel.)
herds to come over and help them. From a trio of                                                             *********
Reverends Engelsma,                    Kamps,        and Kuiper,                The following three unrelated news items come
Redlands  extended a call to Rev. Kamps, pastor of                           our way via Hudsonville, Michigan bulletins of De-
our  Doon, Iowa congregation. Since that call was                            cember and January: First, "Radio: The consistory
extended, Rev. Kamps has requested a two-week                                expects to begin broadcasting one of our sermons
extension in his consideration of it. Isabel has                             each Saturday at 9 p.m., beginning March 14, over
called Rev. Moore of our Edmonton, Alberta congre-                           W.J.B.L., F.M. Tell others about this coming broad-
gation from a trio also including Reverends Kamps                            cast." Since this news column should reach our
and Kortering. (Since the initial writing of this                            west Michigan readers before March 14, I. take this

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





      264                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER


      opportunity to pass that information along to all our                      tion, the last two paragraphs of which read as fol-
      readers within the WJBL listening area.                                    lows:
         Second, "Visitors: We expect to have with us this                                 When one views the history of the ERCS until her
      evening the Rev. Tom Reid and his wife from the                                   institution, one cannot but confess that it is all of
      Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland. The                                      Sovereign Grace. From the beginning, God planted
      Rev. Reid is a U.S. citizen who is married to a                                   the seed which initially appeared as an ugly shoot.
      young lady from France and serves a congregation                                  Trials and toil, hope and joy were the portion of this
      in the Republic, of Ireland. They have one young                                  young band as they trod the pilgrim way together. As
      daughter who claims citizenship in three countries.                               the tree began to take shape, God introduced the Re-
      We welcome this brother into our midst and pray                                   formed Faith at first in a trickle and then in its soul-
      God's blessing also upon them as they return this                                 overwhelming torrents. God had prepared a vessel of
                                                                                        unworthy clay to bear the treasures of His truth..
      week to Ireland." If you would like to refresh your
      memory concerning the Association for Christian                                      On the day of institution, 24th January 1982, the
      Education in Ireland of which Rev. Reid is treasur-                               members of the ERCS will read the Resolution of
      er, you should reread the September 15, 1981  S.B.                                Membership together from their hearts, a unified con-
                                                                                        fession of their calling to be formed into the Church of
      news. Due to this association's interest in establish-                            Jesus Christ. All that they declare, they shall endeavor
      ing parental schools in the Republic of Ireland, Rev.                              to do, not by their own frail strength but by the Grace
      Reid arranged to meet with a number of Protestant                                 of God. God has led them thus far, who can doubt that
      Reformed teachers during his visit to the states. At                              God will lead them on until the day of the Lord Jesus
      that time he mentioned that the organization of                                   Christ. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.
      which he is a part plans, the Lord willing, to open a                        Also in that booklet is a "Founder Membership
      school in the fall of 1983.                                                List of ERCS" which numbers 101 persons (a Hope
         Third, "Writing? For those wishing to write a                           of Walker, Michigan bulletin says 102), 12 of whom
      card or note to our missionaries during this season                        are married. These members read at their organiza-
      (or anytime, parenthesis mine C.K.), their address-                        tional service the  `,`Resolution of Membership" re-
      es are: Rev. Arie den Hartog, 22N Block D, Pacific                         ferred to in the above quotation. Following are the
      Mansion, River Valley Close, Singapore 0923. Rev.                          first two paragraphs of that resolution:
      S t e v e n   Houck,  5 7 3 7   P i n e   R i d g e ,   H a s l e t t ,             We, who in times past were without Christ, aliens
      MI 48840. Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, 6875 Sunny                                    from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from
      Dell Dr., Hueytown, AL 35023. Rev. C. Hanko, 400                                  the covenants of promise, having no hope and without
      20th East, Apt. 2, Bradenton, FL 33505."                                          God in the world are now made nigh, only by the
         If I may, I'd like to add to that list Rev.  & Mrs.                            blood of Christ; such that we who were once not a
                                                                                        people are now the people of God; which had not ob-
      Lubbers and Rev.  & Mrs. Heys, Savanna La-Mar,                                    tained mercy but now have obtained mercy. We con-
      Jamaica, West Indies.                                                             fess according to the Holy Scriptures as from the
                             *********                                                  depth of our own hearts that it is not of ourselves that
                                                                                        we are thus, for we were dead, but of God Who by His
        If you check this column of the past few Standuvd                               Holy Spirit made us alive. Our boast is in God alone
      Bearers, you will find that the hottest news item in                              for it is by grace that we are saved, not of works; not
      recent issues has been information leading up to                                  of the power of our own will, but of God.
      the organization of the Evangelical Reformed                                        Seeing therefore that God Who chose us from
      Church of Singapore. And now that they are orga-                                  before the foundation of the world is pleased to gather
      nized we have some more news of interest, this time                               us as a Church, built upon the testimony of the Apos-
      concerning those organizational activities in Singa-                              tles and Prophets contained in the  kbly  Scriptures
      pore on January 24. For that special occasion a                                   with Christ as the cornerstone, we seek to be joined to
      booklet entitled, "Institution of the'Evangelica1  Re-                            the same.
      formed Church of Singapore" was printed. In that                             I believe in holy catholic church. -
      booklet is found a lengthy history of the organiza-                                                                                           CK


