      The
STANDARD
     BEARER
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





  Our children must be put in mind of the
things of God! We are to excite them unto
this. We are to do this by our example, by
our study of the Word, by our alert atten-
dance unto the preaching of the Word, by
our prayers together as a family, and our
prayers in their hearing for them. This-is our
calling as covenant parents.                                  >..i-  _ -'  ;
                                                               -.p.,.
                                                             t y _
    See "An Exhortation Concerning Our
                                  Families' ' -page  181




                                           Voluine LIX, No. 8, January 15, 1983 -


170                                                              -~-HE STA NDARD  BEARER




                                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                                 ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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       Our Hope in the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170          Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
  Editorials-                                                                        Department Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald
                                                                                     Cammenga, Rev. Arie  denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev.  &chard   Flik-
       "Together On The Way" - The Train                                             kema,  Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev.
                                                                                     John A. Heys, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jab.Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers,
          IsOnTheTracks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173       Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus SC  Ipper, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                     Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
       A Worthwhile Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175                  Editorial Ofice: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION
                                         Our Hope in the Future
                                                                          Rev. C. Hanko

                   Ques. 57.         What comfort doth the "resurrection of the body" afford thee?
                   Ans.       That not only my soul immediately after this life shall be taken up to Christ its head;
               but also that this my body, being raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul,
               and made like unto the glorious body of Christ.
                   Ques. 58.         What comfort takest thou from the article of "life everlasting"?
                   Ans.       That since I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, after this life, I shall in-
               herit perfect salvation, which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the
               heart of man" to conceive, and that, to praise God therein for ever.
                                                                                                  Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 2.2

  I believe in God.                                                                     Christian faith as summed up in the Apostolic
  These two articles bring us to the conclusion                                         Creed. We are reminded that throughout this  con-
(should I say, climax?) of our confession of the                                        fession we have been privileged to place the triune,


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                           1 7 1



covenant God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the           teousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake, with
foreground. He is the source of all our life as the         Thy likeness" (Psalm  17:15). This is confirmed by
Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He is the             our Lord Himself in the parable of the rich man
God of our salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ, in           who opens his eyes in hell, and of Lazarus who
Whom and with Whom we have the victory of sin               rests in Abraham's bosom. This is obviously a para-
and death and are possessors of an inheritance              ble, yet Christ did not intend to arouse false hopes
which is laid away for us in safe keeping in the            in us, but spoke of a reality that compares with the
heavens. He is also the goal, the purpose of our            figures of the parable. That reality is assured to the
lives, since by His Spirit He unites our hearts in the      repentant murderer on the cross when Jesus tells
blessed hope that we shall dwell with Christ and all        him, "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise"
the saints in His presence, to behold His face in           (Luke 23:43):
righteousness, to be satisfied with His fulness, to
praise and adore Him throughout all eternity. For             Another evidence of life after death is given to us
of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all               in the resurrection and ascension of the Lord. Jesus
things. This God is my God by the wonder of His             did not enter an empty heaven, to reign there all by
grace. I believe in GOD.                                    Himself, but He joined Enoch, Moses, and Elijah in
                                                            their glorified bodies, as well as all the saints who
  Our Comfort.                                              had gone before. Revelation 6 speaks of the saints
  Our book of Instruction confronts us with the             under the altar who cry with a loud voice, "How
very personal question, "What comfort doth "the             long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and
resurrection of the body" afford thee?"                     avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"
  As essential as oxygen is to the lungs, so essential      (verse 10). As he waits to join the assembly of the
is the hope of eternal life to the believer. No more        saints before the throne, Paul confidently reminds
than we can live without breathing can a child of           us that when this earthly house of our tabernacle is
God live without that blessed hope. Wending our             broken down, we have a building of God, a house,
way through the valley of the shadow of death,              not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (II
which we entered at our birth, we meet the strug-           Cor. 5:l).
gles and trials of each day with our eye fixed on the         Therefore we are confident that when the hour           _
light that shines at the end of the dark valley, the        of our departure has arrived we shall pass, as it
light of the eternal Day. We are born again unto a          were, through the revolving door of death, out of
living hope that longs for the inheritance incor-           this temporal existence into our heavenly mansion
ruptible and undefiled, the only treasure that never        with all its new relationships, splendor, and pur-
fades away, which God has in safe keeping for us in         poses., We leave this present vale of tears with tear-
heaven (I Peter 1:3,4).                                     stained eyes to be comforted as a child is comforted
  It is in this comfort that we live and die. We are        by its mother, having all our tears brushed away in
told in our Catechism that -this comfort consists of        eternal joy and glory; a glory so rich, so grand, so
three parts. We look forward to a conscious life im-        completely satisfying, that all the suffering of this          .~
mediately after death. We anticipate the reunion of         present time will prove to be more than worthwhile
soul and body upon Christ's return with the clouds.         in having brought us to such a great salvation.
And we experience a strong yearning for the heav-             This "intermediate state" is, nevertheless, still
enly perfection of a covenant fellowship with God           not our final perfection. Our souls will still be
in Christ among all the saints in a new and perfect         awaiting the reunion with the body. Moreover, the'
creation, world without end.                                church of the redeemed will not yet be complete,
  Life after death.                                         for new members are arriving every day. And, fi-
                                                            nally, the heavens must still be renewed in that
  The question is often raised, After death what?           final transformation that joins heaven and earth to-
Unbelief informs us that death is death. It adds that       gether in glorious perfection. Yet, even so, the
it is scientifically impossible for a soul to carry on a    saints are already rejoicing before the throne with
conscious life apart from the body. How will the            Christ in His exaltation.
soul see? hear? speak? Even in Reformed circles
doubt is created as to how a loving God can cast              The resurrection of the body.
sinners into everlasting torment. Is hell, then, but a        We can appreciate the emphasis on Christ in this
threat? Then how do we know that heaven is more             Lord's Day. At death our souls will be with Christ,
than an illusion?                                           as He gathers the members of His Body unto
                                                            Himself until all the elect are gathered in. More-
  Let unbelief rave, our faith rests securely in our        over, we will be completely restored in the image of
God, so that we can confess with the inspired               Christ in true knowledge, righteousness, and holi-
Psalmist, "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righ-       ness. Besides that, our present bodies will be raised


172                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



from the grave by Christ's power. Still more, our          dened with weaknesses, sicknesses, and diseases,
present bodies will be transformed into the likeness       will be raised in incorruption. No one will ever say
of the glorious body that Christ now possesses in          again, I am sick. This natural body that sees only
heaven. Finally, death will be completely                  earthly things, hears only earthly sounds, speaks
swallowed up in victory. We will be with Christ            only an earthly language will be raised to live a per-
and like Him in His glorious kingdom to live and           fect life in heavenly fellowship and glory. Now we
reign with Him over the entire new creation.               know in part, but then we shall know as we are
                                                           known. Now we are still subject to sin and guilt,
  The apostle Paul speaks of the mystery that takes        then all sin will be foreign to us!
place at the sounding of the last trumpet. The dead
shall be raised incorruptible! The veil is already           Already in Paul's day the question was raised,
partially lifted from-that mystery in the wonder of        How can these things be? Faith answers, We expect
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On Friday after-         our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, Who will
noon Jesus' corpse was wrapped limb by limb, as            change our vile bodies, that is, the bodies of our
also torso and head, in linen wrappings and laid           present humiliation, into the likeness of His exalt-
away in a sealed tomb. On Sunday morning                   ed, glorious body. How do I know? My exalted
nothing of that corpse remained, nothing but the           Savior is given power to subdue all things, nothing
mute testimony of the empty linen clothes. The             excluded, to Himself forever (Phil. 3:2 1).
resurrection body had left its earthly wrappings,            Life Everlasting.
even as a plant emerges from a bulb. The tomb was            What is it? At this point we stammer for we ven-
vacated. Shortly after, Jesus appeared to the              ture to say something about that which beggars de-
women, meeting them on the way as they walked              scription and exceeds our fondest imagination. We
home from the tomb. After that He appeared to              can best follow the example of our Catechism,
Mary Magdalene, to Peter, and to the men of  Em-           which in an instance like this simply refers us to
maus. They all recognized Him as the Jesus they            Scripture to be reminded that life everlasting is the
had known and loved. Some even touched Him.                culmination of all those things which "eye hath not
When they questioned whether it was He, He                 seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
showed them the nail holes in His hands and feet.
He proved that He was no ghost by eating,in their          heart of man" (I Cor. 2:9).
presence. Jesus had a real body-the same body as             What is life? Let the scientist continue his re-
before. Yet it had undergone an amazing change. It         search  an.d the philosopher his vain speculations.
was no more bound to time and place. Closed,               GOD is Life! The triune, covenant God lives His
even locked doors could not prevent Him from en-           own holy life in intimate fellowship in the dazzling
tering a room. Suddenly He made Himself visible to         brightness of His own glorious perfections. This
the disciples, and as suddenly He faded out of sight.      God is our God, for He takes us into His heart and
At the sea of Galilee the Lord repeated the miracle        into His life, makes us heirs in Christ to a perfect
of the large catch of fishes. Again, as before, He         salvation, that we may behold His face in righteous-
called them to preach the gospel of the kingdom of         ness and be satisfied with the fullness of His glory
heaven. It was difficult for the disciples to under-       forever.
stand the change that had come over Him. For even            How do I know? I experience the beginning of
when He was not present He still knew that                 this eternal joy through faith even now! To our God
Thomas questioned His resurrection. There were             be the power, the glory forever!
mysteries here that seemed beyond human under-               I believe in GOD!!
standing. The apostle John expresses the
sentiments of the other disciples quite succinctly
when he writes, "And none of the disciples durst
ask Him, Who art Thou?, knowing that it was the                The Stand&d Bearer
Lord." They knew, yet they wondered, filled with
amazement and questions. After forty days Jesus                  makes a thoughtful
left them and entered into the cloud of glory before
their very sight, so -that they could testify that they
had seen the risen Lord enter into heaven (Acts                        gift for the sick
1:9-11).
  Our present earthly bodies will be conformed                         or shut-in. Give
unto the glorious body that Christ now possesses in
heaven. This mortal body, that is subject to death             The Standard Bearer.
since the time of our conception, will be raised to
live eternally. This corruptible body, now bur-


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              173



EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

                        "Together On The Way" -
                        The Train Is On The Tracks

  This is the way Editor J. van der Graaf (De Waau-      1983: The classical assemblies of both denomina-
heidsvriend,  Nov. 25, 1982) aptly characterized re-     tions are asked to hold joint meetings at which the
cent decisions toward union by 1986 between the          various consistories can exchange their experiences
Hervormde Kerk and the Gereformeerde Kerken in           with cooperation between GKN  and. HKN
Nederland (GKN) .                                        churches. Such cooperation on a local level, we
  Recently there was what is called a Combi-Synod        may note, is supposed to have been going on for
of the two denominations. Immediately following          some time already; in some localities it has been
the conclusion of the Synod of the GKN and just be-      practiced, but in others (especially where there are
fore the Synod of the Hervormde Kerk the dele-           congregations of the conservative Reformed Alli-
gates of both synods met in a joint session devoted      ance) it has not been practiced.
to discussion of and decisions concerning the            1984: A proposed "ecclesiological consensus" (a
movement for union between the two denomina-             consensus about the doctrine of the church) will be
tions. At this Combi-Synod the time-table for union      presented to another combi-synod of the two
was proposed and adopted by an overwhelming              denominations. The mandate for such a consensus
vote. In the paper referred to above, published by       was already given to the deputies for "Together On
what is often referred to as the ultra-conservative      The Way" in 1972. Along with this proposed con-
wing of the Hervormde Kerk, the Gereformeerde            sensus there is also to be proposed at that time a
Bond, there is a complete report concerning this         "declaration of intention."
Combi-Synod, even including a summary of the
discussion by delegates of both denominations.           1985: Broader and lesser ecclesiastical assemblies
Along with this, there is also a pair of articles in     are to be consulted with respect to the process of re-
which the position of the Gereformeerde Bond (the        union which has been put in effect.
Reformed Alliance) is made clear.                        1986: In that year they will strive in another
  Because of the significance of these events in the     combi-synod to nail down the ecclesiological con-
land to which our Reformed churches trace their          sensus and the declaration of intention as an act in
origin, we pass this information on to our readers       which both denominations declare that they find
and, along with it, some editorial comment.              themselves in a state of reunion. Meanwhile, it was
                                                         also proposed that delegations from both synods be
The Time-table                                           appointed as a smaller body (a sort of mini-synod)
  Evidently the entire process of dealing with this      to take charge of the consultations pertinent to "To-
matter was well-orchestrated, and the wheels of the      gether On The Way" in the coming years.
ecclesiastical machinery were well-oiled. The              Such is the time-table, in brief. And while it was
entire proposal was introduced by representatives        stated that the stipulated dates do not constitute a
of the joint committee in charge of this movement,       hard and fast schedule, nevertheless there was no
with a representative of the Hervormde Kerk              inclination either on the part of the standing  com-
speaking first, followed by a representative of the      mitte or on the part of the combi-synod to slow
GKN. As we have reported earlier, the main pro-          things down and to extend the time-table.
posal was to set 1986 as the date of the final accom-    Discussion and Outcome
plishment of union. This was all very smoothly in-
troduced by the two speakers. Then followed a              In the issue of  De Waarheidsvriend  already re-
speech by a Dr. R.J. Mooi  (Secretary-general of the     ferred to there is an extensive account of the dis-
Hervormde Kerk) in behalf of the moderamen of            cussion, even including a long address, along with
Hervormde synod, after which the matter was              three substitute motions, by a Dr. S. Meijers, a
thrown open for general discussion and finally           member of the Reformed Alliance and a strong
voted upon.                                              opponent of the merger as proposed. In his three
                                                         motions he attempted to make the Combi-synod
  Here is the time-table which was proposed and          see the real issues involved in the proposed merger.
approved:                                                Needless to say, he failed to accomplish anything.


174                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  It is impossible, for reasons of space, to repro-          Indeed, as Editor van der Graaf stated, "the train
duce in translation the very interesting discussion        is on the tracks. The question is only where the ob-
of this issue which is reported by  De  Waarheids-         stacles will be found by which the progress of the
vriend.  We may mention the following items:               train will be hindered."
1. The moderamen of the Synod of the Hervormde             Evaluation
Kerk, through the mouth of the secretary-general,.           All of this raises some interesting questions.
Dr. R.J.  Mooi,  exhorted the delegates to be cau-
tious. Dr.  Mooi pleaded for progress in the "To-            First of all, what is going to happen in the
gether On The Way" movement, but with "the                 Netherlands? Is the outcome going to be some kind
finger on the pulse of ecclesiastical life." This obvi-    of realignment ecclesiastically? At this stage, the
ous attempt of the moderamen to slow down the              men of the Reformed Alliance are not only out-
process of union, however, was in vain. It should          spoken in their cricitism of and their opposition to
be remembered that there are three distinct modali-        the merger; but they are also insistent that the pro-
ties in the Hervormde Kerk-the Liberals, the               duct of this merger will not be the old Nederlandse
Middle-of-the-Roaders, and the conservatives of the        Hervormde Kerk, or, as they like to refer to it, "the
Reformed Alliance (a group that is in many respects        church of the fathers." They insist that this is not a
                                                           return on the part of the GKN to the  chuch which
very orthodox and Reformed). Undoubtedly the               they once left (in 1834 and 1886),  but a brand new
moderamen were not motivated by any sound and              denomination. This is the position taken by both
principal objections to the merger, but by their de-       Editor van der Graaf and by the Rev. L.J. Geluk,
sire to keep the three wings of the church together,       the president of the Reformed Alliance. The former
if at all possible, through this entire merger process.    writes: "But if the `state of reunion' actually
And that, I think, will require some sort of magical       becomes  `reunion,' we have another church. No
dexterity.                                                 more the church of the fathers." And the latter
2. There is considerable fear-and this is not limit-       states: "The Reformed Alliance wishes  to remain
ed to the Reformed Alliance apparently-not only            Hervormd, and desires together with others, on the
of the various liberal tendencies of the GKN, but es-      basis of Holy Scripture and in harmony with the
pecially of what is referred to as the organizational      religion of the confession of the fathers, to continue
ability and the activism of the GKN. The latter are        to be reformed through the Spirit of the Father and
not only liberal-after all, there are plenty of liber-     the Son." If the Reformed Alliance sticks to its
als in the Hervormde Kerk, too-but they are very           guns, this could conceivably result in the future in
insistently active in promoting their liberal notions.     some kind of realignment ecclesiastically, with the
3. Those of the GKN were very vocal in promoting           result that those of a conservative Reformed mind
the proposals. Some were also very open about say-         are thrown together as some kind of continuation
ing that the present movement for reunion is not           of a "church of the fathers." On the other hand, it
their final purpose, but only one event in a much          should be kept in mind that there are those in the
broader ecumenical tendency. They have in view a           Hervormde Kerk who will do all in their power
reunion with "our Roman Catholic brothers and              somehow to keep the men of the Reformed Alliance
sisters." Thus, for example, a Rev. J. van Drie, of        in the church.
the GKN.                                                     In the second place, these events will surely
4. The strongest promoter among the delegates of           prove to be of significance for other churches
the Hervormde Kerk were the so-called "Middenor-           which have fraternal relations with the GKN, as
thodoxen, " the middle-of-the-roaders.                     well as for the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, which
                                                           has been troubled by the question of GKN member-
5. The strongest and very outspoken opponents              ship for many years already. Perhaps this is the
among the delegates of the Hervormde Kerk were             solution for all concerned. If the plan is consum-
the men of the Reformed Alliance  (Geref. Bond).           mated and the merger goes through, there simply
These did not hesitate to emphasize that the men of        will not be any GKN any longer. It will have
the GKN today are not the heirs of 1834 and 1886.          merged itself out of existence. For the RES there is a
One said that Abraham Kuyper would turn over in            little problem, of course: the RES next meets in
his grave if he heard of the GKN's declarations con-       1984, while the merger time-table speaks of 1986.
cerning homosexuality.                                     But that is not an insurmountable obstacle,
   But Reformed principle did not prevail. Even the        perhaps.
exhortations to caution did not avail. The outcome
was an overwhelming vote in favor of the proposed                      Take time to read
time-table. There were only 14 negative votes on
the part of the Hervormde Kerk and 1 negative vote                 The Standard Bearer
on the part of the GKN.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        175



                         A Worthwhile Commentary
  I refer to the book by one of our staff members,                    It is easy for any reviewer to find things to criti-
the Rev. George C. Lubbers,  Freeborn Sons Of                       cize in a commentary-to note points on which he
Sarah, An Exposition of Galatians.                                  might disagree or matters which need clarification.
  It is not necessary for me to review the contents                 This is not my purpose, however, in reviewing any
of this book. It is a commentary on the Epistle to                  commentary; and certainly not with this one. My
the Galatians, and the chapter-divisions of the                     main question is this: is the commentary Scriptural,
Epistle are also the chapter-divisions of the book.                 and is it Reformed, and therefore reliable?
With some revision and editing, the contents of the                   The answer to this question is an unqualified
book are the same as the contents of the Rev. Lub-                  affirmative. And besides, the book is characterized
bers' articles on Galatians which appeared for                      by the warmth of a heart that believes what is writ-
several years in the department From HoZy Writ. As                  ten.
anyone who followed the latter will know, the                         Congratulations, Rev. Lubbers.
commentary wavers somewhat between being
technical and being popular. Ultimately, because of                   The book is available from several sources for
the format, however, this constitutes no obstacle                   the price of $6.95, plus postage. One source from
for the reader who is specially interested in either                which you may purchase it is: Prot. Ref. Seminary
of the two.                                                         Bookstore, 4949  Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI
                                                                    49418.
TRANSLATED TREASURES

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


(In the last paragraph Kuyper has discussed the responsibility      of or over against the existing one. All that hap-
of individual members, whether ordinary members of the con-         pened was that the existing church in profession
gregation or office bearers in the church, with respect to un-      and worship and organization was purified from
faithfulness and disobedience in the church. He has discussed       errors.'
what the calling of these members is and how they must begin
the work of church reformation and separation from the                From this it is clear that a new reformation
church of which they are members. The discussion in the last        which would be similar to the Reformation of the
paragraph had to do particularly with one's responsibility in       sixteenth century would indeed break with the or-
the local congregation. In this following paragraph Kuyper dis-     ganization and with the church fellowship, but
cusses the responsibility of the individual member and his call-    would leave the body of the churches as such un-
ing toward the denomination as a whole.)                            harmed. Another suit of clothes, but the same
57. Concerning Reformation Through Separation                       body! That was the password of that time.
     From the Existing Denomination.                                  This shows the great importance of the second
   Our fathers, who undertook the reformation of                    kind of reformation which we discuss in this para-
the churches of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht,                      graph: reformation by separation from the denomi-
etc., in the sixteenth century, did not seek separa-                nation.
tion from their church; i.e., from the church of                      The character of this kind of reformation is
their locality or even of their parish. They sought a               sharply delineated.
break with the  organization  of the local church.
They sought a break wi-th the church connection in                    Just as we discussed more broadly in the second
which their church stood related with other                         chapter concerning the formation of the church, so
churches. But they wanted their church as church                    r The distinction Kuyper has in mind here is the distinction
to continue. It was after the Reformation the same                  between the local congregation and the denomination. One
as it was before, and church reformation did not                    who engages in church reformation seeks not separation from
lead to the establishment of a new church alongside                 the denomination, but the renewal of the local congregation.


176                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



we must be reminded here that the church of Jesus            and profit of the churches, can, after the passing of
is one in all places of the world and wherever God           time and through a change of circumstances, be-
has His people. One is the Head of us all. Thus we           come an inconvenience and hindrance to the
are one body under Him Who has bought us with                spiritual blossoming of the churches and to her
the price of His own blood. But just as the one light        growth in salvation and sanctification.
of the same sun streams into the different rooms of            Yet, if after the spiritual decline of nearly all the
one house through different windows to be divided            churches, the whole church federation has degen-
by the walls in the basement and attic, in the front         erated into a dry and dead federation of churches
and back rooms, in the hall and upper rooms, with-           and is held together only by regulations, then it
out being anything different from the one and same           cannot be any different than that any spiritual re-
light from the same sun, so it is also with the              vival and every attempt towards church renewal in
streams of light from Jesus' life in His churches on         one or more of the federation of churches shall be
earth. All these churches together form one house;           frustrated by a wrong spirit which has slipped into
but in that one house there are many different               the church federation.
rooms separated by walls; and in those separate
rooms streams the light not from a source of light             Nevertheless, such a church federation binds to-
hidden in the middle of the room, but directly from          gether. Churches living in such a federation are no
the sun through skylights and windows. Thus there            longer  .free to act as they please. They live under
is one organized life of Christ, just as the light of the    communal rules and under the power of mutually
sun is one throughout the whole earth and sky. And           agreed upon gatherings in  Classis  and Synod. By
also there is one house on earth, one church, in             these communal rules the door of the one church is
which the different churches form only rooms or              open for the members of the other churches.
apartments which have contact through doors. But             Because of the influence which they mutually exer-
the light which streams in comes from outside and            cise on each other, the manner of government of all
makes each room its own room with its own light              is regulated by one communal church order, and
and its own life. This is the urgent reason why it           the changing of that church order is not the right of
must never be permitted that a local church be con-          one church, but of all the churches together.
sidered as a sub-division, a section, or compartment           Three conclusions follow from this.
of a national church. This idea robs the church of             The first is that with the spiritual decline of the
her honor as church. She is sub-division, section,           churches which live in common fellowship, a lack
compartment, or, rather, to speak organically, she           of spirituality must necessarily and gradually slip
is member or cell of one indivisible church of               into the church order and the rules of communal
Christ, and receives as such her light, her love, her        living, so that at last, the ecclesiastical rule is served
life, directly from Him. The church will thus                instead of the Word of the Lord, and the Word itself
remain church even if all the other local churches           is opposed.
with which she is connected fall away. She exists
not because the national church exists, but only be-           Secondly, with such a spiritual decline in the
cause the life of Christ is revealed in her. It may          churches, the natural bond of common confession
thus be said that she is a part of the universal,            is lost. To replace that lost unity the church is com-
catholic, holy church on earth; but never that she is        pelled to emphasize human authority and regula-
a compartment or sub-division of a group of                  tions in an attempt to preserve that unity which in
churches on earth. Indeed, she does not come into            fact is gone. In the measure that God's Word is set
existence because that group of churches exists, but         aside, more emphasis is laid on the authority of
the other way around: that group exists because the          human ordinances.
churches of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, etc.,               Thirdly, because a consequence of such a spiritu-
first exist independently and now enter into rela-           al decline of the churches is that the rules of her fel-
tions and connections with each other. Not, we               lowship are brought into conflict with God's Word
must understand this well, as if this relation and           and the authority of human ordinances is
connection are not necessary, and as if good                 considered especially holy, churches which seek
churches by the very pressure of life and of love            reformation according to God's Word must oppose
shall not come together of themselves; but in the            both the regulations hostile to the Word of God in
sense that the existence of the church always pre-           the corrupt church order and the imaginary majes-
cedes the existence of the federation, and the               ty of the human authority which clings to that
church federation is born out of the churches. The           church order.
opposite is only the greatest exception.                       Progress in these cases is gradual.
  In the meantime, this church federation, which               If, by God's grace, a desire and impulse arises in
has been established by the churches for the use             a certain church to live according to the Word of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 177



God, then that impulse will manifest itself first of          Now one of two things are true. If a consistory
all in a very small circle. But it will soon attempt to     chooses against the spiritual awakening in the
spread itself outside that small circle in the denomi-      church and if it maintains, for the sake of the
nation at large. Reaching the circle of spiritual           church federation, human ordinances contrary to
office bearers, this impulse will manifest itself in        the Word of God, then the church federation bat-
the consistory. Then the consistory finds itself con-       tles against that spiritually awakened part of the
fronted with this all-decisive question whether it          church and the unfaithful consistory serves the
shall reestablish the honor of God's holy name in           wicked church government in its opposition to
the congregation entrusted to it, or whether it will        those who are zealous for the Word of the Lord. If
oppose the spiritual awakening of the church.               the consistory recognizes its obligation to return to
Neutrality in this matter is impossible. Every  con-        obedience to the Word of God, the danger is
sistory chooses either for those who are concerned          present that it will be called to account by the
for church reformation or against them. The excuse          hostile church federation.
that each man for himself shall continue to pro-              These two distinct cases must therefore be kept
claim the Word without supporting those who seek            separate.
reformation is hollow and empty. Indeed, the Lord
has not established in His church only independent            A conflict can develop between a person and the
preachers, but an office. This office means that all        church federation in which the consistory becomes
preachers stand in a mutual relation, are respon-           an accomplice of the church federation. But an
sible for each other mutually, and thus shall deter-        entirely different conflict is possible when not only
mine for themselves their responsibility to direct          an individual person, but the consistory itself
the church according to God's Word, or to cooper-           comes into conflict with the church federation as it
ate together to permit their church to persist in its       functions as the head of the congregations.
deviation from God's Word. The choice might be                We shall discuss each of these two separately.
painful, but one cannot escape it.

FROM HOLY WRIT

          Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers


                                                    Chapter III
                                      The Great Hermeneutical Rule Of
                                      Interpreting Prophecy - Continued
  It ought to be fully evident that Jesus is the only         The populous adjudged that He spoke a "new
One Who gives us the key of knowledge, so that we           doctrine," whereas even the demons obeyed Him
as His church may have the proper understanding             with trembling and hellish fear. Yes, He was the
of  aZZ  that the prophets have spoken, in various          One Who was mighty in work and deed before God
times and diverse situations (Luke  2425,  26).  He         and all the people. And so His work and word is all
was not simply a better teacher than the Scribes            authority, and these works testified of Him that He
and Pharisees were; He was the One Who, admit-              was the mighty and true Prophet of God Who
tedly, spoke not as the Scribes and Pharisees,              should come into the world (Mark 16:20; Heb. 2:4).
whereas He spoke with authority which demanded              Even when Paul preaches this word it does not lose
obedience. He was the prophet, Whom all must                its power (I Cor. 2:4, 5).
hear, as He gave Divine answers on earth (Matt.               Yes, this Jesus is the true Prophet of God! The
7:29; Mark 1:22).                                           very prophecies in the Old Testament are words
  Yes, He was different! Radically different from           which Jesus spoke through the prophets by His
the Scribes and Pharisees, yea, from any other man.         Spirit (I Peter  1:ll). He is the chief Prophet Who
He was Immanuel, God with us, the Word made                 reveals to us the secret counsel of God concerning
flesh.                                                      our redemption. For is the Christ not the "I Am"
                                                            before Abraham "became" on the scene of history
  Did not the very demon-world and all the powers           in Ur of the Chaldees? (I John  8:59). And does not
of hell obey His word of authority? (Mark 1:26).            John testify of the greatness of the One coming


178                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



after him as being "before him"? (John  1:15). This        sufferings to come upon Christ and the glory to
Christ wrote His own suffering and death in the            follow. It will be the glory of His New Testament
Old Testament Scriptures by the prophets. He is            church, as later seen by Isaiah, the Seer, some
the One Who cries in Psalm 40:7, "Then said I, Lo,         seven hundred years before Christ. Do we not read,
I come: in the volume of the book it is written of         "and the Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and
me, I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God: yea, Thy           kings to the brightness of Thy rising. Lift up Thine
law is within My heart." And this great Prophet,           eyes round about, and see: all they gather them-
the eternal Son, speaks here, yea, God spoke in            selves, they come to Thee: Thy sons shall come
these last days in a Son! (Heb. l:l, 2).                   from afar.... and the wealth of the nations shall
  Truly, by the prophets Christ has us see the tre-        come to Thee" (Isaiah 60:3-4)?
mendous activity of holy men as they searched out            Truly the "people" shall be gathered unto
and inquired diligently of the sufferings to come          Shiloh, as He comes out of Judah!
upon Him, and of the glory of His kingdom to fol-            Judah, thou art he!
low! And in all of the Scriptures this glory is
Christ's reward for suffering the inexpressible              And did not even that wicked Balaam prophesy
anguish and torments of hell for us, His people!           of the sufferings to come upon Christ and of the
(Isaiah 53:10, 11, 12; Phil. 2:9; Heb. 2:9).               glory to follow? In most beautiful poetic strains
                                                           Balaam says in the Spirit of prophecy, "I shall see
  We are taught by the Scriptures that these proph-        Him but not now: I shall behold but not nigh; there
ets, holy men of God, knew very well that what             shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall
they struggled to see in the searchlight of prophecy       rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of
lay in the future, in the fulness of time. They were       Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth."
not speaking of the -things which would be realized
in their own time. Abraham looked to a city which            Yes, it was revealed unto the prophets that they
has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.           spoke of things to be fulfilled, things that shall be-
He looked for a better country, that is an heavenly        fall the twelve tribes in the latter days when Shiloh
(Heb.  ll:lO, 14-16). That is the secret of their pil-     shall come!
grimage! They looked with earnest expectation of             How did these prophets know this?
hope for a better country. He saw Christ's day from          The Bible tells us that this fact of the future glory
afar; he rejoiced greatly to see Christ's day, yea, he     of Israel among the "nations" in the New Testa-
saw it in the prophetic word of promise, "In thee          ment times was `?eveaZed unto them." That is what
and in thy seed shall all nations be blessed" (Gen.        we read in I Peter 1:12, "Unto whom (the prophets)
12:3;  17:6-8).  Abraham never thought of the              it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto
promise as being fulfilled in terms of a mere earthly      us they did minister the things, which are now re-
kingdom for his natural descendants from Isaac.            ported unto you by them that have preached the
Such, as we shall point out in depth, was the vain         Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down
dream of the Jews of Jesus' day, and such is the           from heaven, which things the angels desire to look
vain teaching of Premillennialism, especially of           into."
what is known as Dispensationalism, following in
the footsteps of Darby and  Scofield: But father             Here we have it told to us in clear and unmistak-
Abraham distants himself from such as these!               able language that the prophets indeed had the
                                                           "church" of the New Testament in mind when
  Well we take notice of this and be warned!               they prophesied in the Old Testament. Not simply
  But to return.                                           did they surmise that they were speaking of great
  Did not father Jacob, when he was too blind to           things, but they were fully certain of this by Divine
see with his natural eyes, see in the prophetic light      revelation. This was, so to speak, a disclosing
the future glory of the twelve patriarchs? Yes, he         already of the great "mystery" hid in God from the
gathers these sons about his bed and blesses them.         ages, and which was fully disclosed in the death
And is the future greatness of Israel not in Judah,        and resurrection of Jesus Christ and in His glorious
from whom the Christ is born? (Heb. 7:14). Yes, our        ascension to heaven.
Lord sprang out of Judah. And this Jacob saw crys-           The verb "revealed" in the Greek is  "apoha-
tal-clear in his prophetic vision, and he said,            luphee." The basic meaning of this verb is to
"Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall                remove the cover which hides something from our
praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine ene-        view. It was an act of God's special revelation to all
mies.... The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,          the prophets. Not only does the more sure word of
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh         prophecy shine more and more unto the power and
come, and unto Him shall the gathering of the              coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 1:19),  but
people be" (Gen.  49:lO). Yes, dimly Jacob saw the         while the prophets searched out and inquired of


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                               179



that mystery of the Cross and glorification of             The real rule of Christ's hermeneutics is: The
Christ, they were told, informed from their very         Scriptures -interpret the Scriptures! Ever He says:
message, that these things all lay in the perspective    have ye not read?
of the prophecy of Noah:  "...God shall enlarge            When Jesus, therefore, opened the minds of His
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,        disciples, breathing on them the Spirit (John 20:22),
and Canaan shall be his servant" (Gen.  9:27). Only      then they understood that they could go and preach
a deliberate passing over, or what is worse, an          the kingdom of heaven. They were no longer lim-
outright denial, can be blind to this truth blazoned     ited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt.
on every page of prophecy: that the prophets were        10:6),  but now they will be His witnesses in all the
receiving the Gospel message which should be             world, beginning at Jerusalem; yes, it will be from
preached by the apostles, who would be moved and         Jerusalem, and in all  Judea, and in  Samaria,  and
led by the Spirit of Christ sent down from heaven!       unto the uttermost parts of the earth!
  Let him that reads take note!                            Japheth shall dwell. in the tents of Shem (Gen.
  When we, therefore, hear Jesus interpreting all        9:27).
the Scriptures to the travellers to  Emmaus and to         In Abraham shall all  kindreds of the earth be
the disciples in the upper room on the evening of        blessed (Gen.  12:3).
the resurrection day, we can only be amazed that
they did not understand that the Christ must suffer        And now all things shall too be better! It will be
all these things to enter into His kingdom for our       a better sacrifice, a better priesthood after the order
salvation!                                               of Melchizedek, a better temple, a better worship of
                                                         a truly cleansed conscience from dead works to
  Only unbelief in all the Scriptures explains such      serve the living God. For in the great hermeneutic
slowness of heart.                                       of Jesus the disciples are told that they shall,
  And it is only stark unbelief concerning all that      according to what is written, preach repentance in
the Scriptures teach which today denies that all the     Christ's Name among all nations, beginning in
Old Testament Scriptures are prophetic of the            Jerusalem!
Cross, death, resurrection, and glorification of the       Earthly Jerusalem is not the city toward which
Son of God in the flesh. Truly, what was true of         all things are moving, but it is the city where the
these dear disciples after three years of teaching by    Holy Spirit is poured out upon the church, so that
Jesus is still true today in those who fail to preach    from out of this earthly city the glad tidings, which
the full counsel of God in regard to the doctrines of    were promised to the fathers might herald  .forth
the Bible as they culminate in the final return of       clear and strong!
Christ to make all things new!
MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE

                                   Letter to Timothy

                                    January 15, 1983     preach must indeed be Christ-centered, and God's
                                                         people know very well that if a sermon is truly to
Dear Timothy,                                            feed their souls, it must be truly Christ-centered.
  I suppose it is not surprising that you should ask:       There is good reason for this. There is first of all
what is a "Christ-centered" sermon. The ultimate         the fact that Paul himself, the great preacher of the
compliment that can be made about any sermon is          early New Testament Church and the instrument
that it is truly "Christ-centered." And the ultimate     of a large part of. divine revelation in the New
criticism of any sermon is surely, "That sermon          Testament Scriptures, said: "We preach Christ cru-
was not a `Christ-centered' sermon."                     cified!" And he meant by this that Christ crucified
  If someone says of your sermon that it is not          formed the content of all his preaching. He never
Christ-centered, they are really saying that you did     talked about anything else in all the sermons which
not preach the Scriptures, the Word of God. This is,     he gave, but Christ crucified. Scripture tells us this
of course, serious criticism and precisely means         so that we may model our sermons after those of
that you have been unfaithful in your calling. You       the inspired apostle. Our sermons too must speak
have been taught that every sermon which you             of Christ crucified.


180                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  And this is not surprising. Sermons must be               see Christ. We see Him not face to face, it is true.
based on the Scriptures, which form the content of          (See I Corinthians 13:12.) Only in glory will we see
our preaching, and the Scriptures are, themselves,          Prim face to face; then we will have no need for
the written record, infallibly inspired, of the. revela-    Scripture anymore either. Our seeing is limited to
tion of God as the God of our salvation in Jesus            looking in a glass darkly. But it is the divine portrait
Christ.                                                     of Christ Jesus. And it is very beautiful.
  The Scriptures are an organic unity. As an                  But if all this is true, then it stands to reason that
organism, they are composed of diverse parts.               one who preaches from Scripture (as all preaching
There are differences of testaments, and of books;          must be) is also one who preaches Christ-centered
differences of kinds of writings (poetry, history,          sermons. One who is truly biblical is also one who
prophecy, e.g.), and contents; differences in the           is truly Christ-centered in his preaching.
styles of the different men God used, and the way
these men expressed themselves; differences in lan-           But we must ask the question and answer it more
guage (Hebrew and Greek), and literary form;                specifically: What is meant by a Christ-centered
differences which are rooted in the organic devel-          sermon? You asked for some particular ideas and
opment of the promises (the revelation of God in            your request almost makes it sound as if there has
Christ is different in Genesis from what it is in           been some discussion about this in your congrega-
Isaiah), and the fulfillment of the promise in our          tion. Such discussion can only be good. It can be
Lord Jesus Christ. An organism needs differences to         good for you because it will remind you of the im-
be truly an organism. But there is, in Scripture, one       portance of preaching Christ-centered sermons. I
principle of unity-as every organism must be a              recall the days when I was still a student in Semi-
unity of diverse parts held together by one funda-          nary. Our Hermeneutics professor was telling us
mental principle: and that principle of unity is our        about the need to preach Christ and Him crucified.
Lord Jesus Christ.                                          He told us that we would probably not appreciate
                                                            very much what he had to say on this point because
  Everywhere in Scripture Christ is talked about-           we would be so conscious of the need to preach
nothing else. Those who want to emphasize some              Christ as the center of our preaching that we could
kind of disjunction between Scripture itself and the        not possibly imagine anything but a Christ-cen-
divine message of Scripture (a ploy used to attack          tered sermon. But he told us that it is unbelievably
Scripture's inerrancy) find a great deal in Scripture       difficult to preach always so that Christ is indeed
which is not a part of the divine message of salva-         the center of every sermon; that we would surely
tion. But they do not understand Scripture.                 forget this somewhere in the course of our
Whether Scripture is talking about the creation of          ministry; that there would be many sermons which
the world in Genesis 1, the flood in Genesis 7, the         would indeed be Christless unless we consciously
chronologies in I Chronicles, the plight of Jonah in        and deliberately went out of our ways to remind
the whale's belly in Jonah 1  & 2, the problems in          ourselves of the importance of this truth. He sug-
the Galatian Churches, or the  footsore and weary           gested that, prior to writing out our sermon, we put
apostle Paul in his trek across Asia Minor, the             a cross, similar to the one on which Christ was
Scriptures are talking about Christ.                        crucified, on the upper right hand corner of the first
  My old Bible teacher in high school emphasized            page of our sermons to hold continually before our
this point by saying: "Wherever Scripture is cut it         mind the need to preach Christ crucified. I recall
flows with the blood of the Lamb." How true that            that I did indeed think he was a bit foolish to em-
is. Or, to change the figure, Scripture is like a por-      phasize this so strongly because it seemed to me a
trait of Christ. It is a perfect portrait painted by the    thing incredible that a minister of the gospel could
hand of God. There are more important and less              do anything less. But he was speaking from experi-
important parts of that portrait-the differences be-        ence; and now I too speak to you from experience.
tween the background and the face (after all, the           It is indeed the easiest thing in the world to make a
book of Romans is more important than the book of           Christless sermon. We do indeed need to remind
Esther); there are the predominant features of that         ourselves of the importance of doing this every
portrait and less noticeable features (relatively ob-       time we sit down to make a sermon. We get bogged
scure texts with which we are not acquainted and            down in the grammar and syntax of a particularly
which are somewhat difficult to understand, and             interesting passage. We become overly enamoured
texts which we have learned as children, which al-          with the background and history involved in a cer-
most every child of God has memorized); there are           tain part of God's Word. And we forget all about
light places and dark places; but each part is neces-       the cross. Or, we are so adept at holding our fingers
sary for the perfection of the whole, and, taken in         in the prevailing ecclesiastical or congregational
its entirety, the Scriptures are a perfect and beauti-      winds to adjust our preaching to the current senti-
ful portrait of Christ. When we look at Scripture we        ments of the majority whose favor we covet that


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 181



the need to be pleasing prevails in our thinking and       well-read, and a hard worker besides; they may be
Christ and Him crucified gets shoved into the back-        moved by the pathos which a minister is able to
ground.                                                    elicit from his audience as he leads them down tear-
  The churches which extol the virtues of man (see         stained paths; they may be aroused to heights of ex-
Robert Schuler's latest book) are so busy patting          citement by the ability of a skilled drawer of word
man on the back that they have no time to talk             pictures to make sermons dramatic; they may even
about Christ and the cross on which Christ died.           appreciate the wit of a minister who dares to bring
The ministers who are so overcome with the                 his audience to laughter in the solemnity of wor-
world's social ills that they preach on world hun-         ship; or there may be those who are satisfied and
ger, world poverty, world war, world this and              delighted that the dominee this morning really got
world that, have no time left to talk about Christ         after those rascals in the congregation who were so
and the cross on which Christ made atonement for           in need of being admonished. But all these things
sin. The churches who are slickest at making use of        are sometimes substitutes for Christ-centered
radio and television (and who depend upon their            preaching. Christ was not there, and the congrega-
audience to finance their elaborate ventures into          tion did not notice it.
the field of electronic evangelism) produce neat and         Christ speaks through the preaching. God's
eye-catching shows and put on elaborate produc-            people come to church to hear Christ. But Christ
tions, but fail miserably to set forth Christ cruci-       always talks about Himself-about Himself as the
fied.                                                      revelation of God the Father triune to Whom
  But the congregation also must know what a               belongs all praise and glory.
Christ-centered sermon really is. It is to be feared         Paul, after telling the Corinthians that he
that this is not always the case. One wonders some-        preached Christ crucified, went on to say (I Corin-
times how much the spiritual discernment of the            thians 2:1-5): "And I, brethren, when I came to
people of God has been dulled by failure to study          you, came not with excellency of speech or of wis-
God's Word and by perpetual engrossment with               dom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For
TV, worldly amusements, and what the apostle               I determined not to know any thing among you,
John calls the lust of the eyes. Can a congregation        save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was
always tell what is a Christ-centered sermon and           with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much
what is not? One wonders sometimes. It is very             trembling. And my speech and my preaching was
easy for a congregation to be carried away by ora-         not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
tory, by a glib tongue, by a smooth speaker who has        demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your
a way with words and a knack for the well-turned           faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
phrase. Swept off their feet by sheer oratorical abili-    the power of God."
ty, they speak of being especially blessed by a won-         That ought to be our preaching.
derful sermon. Or a congregation may be dazzled
by the brilliance of exegesis which a minister pre-          But more about this next time.
sents, by the many "quotes" which he is able to                                       Fraternally in Christ,
make which show so clearly that he is scholarly,                                      H. Hanko
GUESTARTICLE

                      An Exhortation Concerning
                                     Our Families (2)
                                                 Rev. R.G. Moore


  "Children, obey your parents in all things: for          hortation to parents with respect to the family rela-
this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers,  pro-        tionship. This calling of the covenant parent is very
voke not your children to anger, lest they be dis-         important for us to hear, and also to understand.
couraged." Colossians 3:20-21.                             Our Lord, in the text quoted above, commands us
  In our last article we treated the calling of our        to provoke not our children to anger. Hear this
children-the calling to obey their parents in the          Word, parents; it is the Word of Christ addressed to
Lord. However, our Lord also gives the word of ex-         us. We are admonished, we are commanded


182                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



concerning our relationship toward our covenant            struction of their father not only, but also to obey
children with whom we dwell. Both children and             the law of their mother. Mothers, too, must not pro-
parents, therefore, are directed in a life's walk that     voke their children to anger; and likewise mothers
is not optional, but is given us by commandment of         must instruct their children in the fear of the Lord.
the living God of our salvation.                           However, our text speaks to parents in the head.
  We are struck by the fact that to hear this exhor-       Fathers are here addressed as the head of the home.
tation of our Lord may cause us as parents to face         And it should be obvious to us that the primary task
persecution in our day and age. Our Lord teaches           of the instruction of the covenant seed does indeed
us to provoke not our children to wrath. The oppo-         fall upon the head of the home-the father. The
site is implied, that we must provoke our children         father is the prophet in the home, from the point of
unto the fear of God. That is the`positive truth of        view of that  headship given him of God. It is his
our text. But this means according to Scripture that       task to bring the Word of God in the home. He it is
sometimes you have have to "beat your child with           that is to guide the family by the Word of God. He it
a rod." Literally this is the instruction of our Lord      is who has the primary responsibility to see that his
in the Proverbs. And sometimes we as parents will          children are under the preaching of the Word of
find it necessary to do this. Sometimes it is also true    God for their nourishment. He it is that is to lead
that we refrain from doing this when we ought to           and guide his family in the ways of life. But in this
do it. But one thing is sure: the world despises this      work the mother of the covenant home is the help
Word of God! The world says, we may not correct,           meet for the man. And it is often that the mother
we may not limit our children, we may not punish           excercises  the instruction of the children under the
them, whether literally by a rod or with other pun-        head. She is often busy with the spiritual care of her
ishment. For, say they, "children have equal               children, in teaching them their catechism work in
rights."                                                   preparation for class, in guiding them in their
                                                           prayer life, etc. And she must also therefore be
  For example, one finds himself striking his child        obeyed by the covenant children in the home. And
in correction. I have done this by spanking my             she also has the calling in this labor of love to pro-
child out in our yard-spanking him hard, because           voke not her children to anger. Thus we see that the
he needed the correction. Further, this was                exhortation of the Lord in our text comes to both
necessary, for I would not treat my child as a             fathers and mothers.
bastard but as a son (Heb. 12). So I spanked him             Our calling, of the Lord, toward our children is
very hard on the behind, correcting him. But do            that we are to excercise a rule over them. We have
you realize the days are coming, even now are,             been given to rule our covenant children by the
when I could be put in jail for doing this, for doing      grace of God through our Lord, Jesus Christ. This
what the Lord commands me to do? The powers of             rule we are to exercise over our children in a way
Antichrist already begin to say, "You may not              that is right. And the rightness of that rule is deter-
correct your child. You may not restrict your              mined only by one thing, and that is that it be in
children in punishment. You may not tell your              harmony with the Word of God. That God calls us
older children what they may or may not do." And           to rule our children rightly implies that our
even, "you may not indoctrinate your child in              children are children in Christ. In your rule, there-
certain beliefs." This, they say, we may not do be-        fore, fathers and mothers, it is needful that you
cause our children have equal and independent              view your children, not as those who may or may
rights. These days are upon us. There are laws like        not be God's seed, but as covenant seed in Christ
this in existence. And, indeed, we may suffer              Jesus. This means then we do not treat our children
greatly when we heed the words of our text.                as a miscellaneous bunch of seed that we must do
Beloved, we live in the days in which Antichrist           missionary work with. Then we could not baptize
grows in power and stature. We must admit and see          our children until they became confessing
this. But know also that our God will abide with us,       members of the church. But this is not right, this is
with rich and sustaining grace as we are put under         not Scriptural. As godly parents we look upon our
the fires of persecution. In that grace we must hear       children as the heritage of God, as the psalmist puts
and heed the words of our Lord in the text we con-         it in Psalm 127. The heritage of God is how we view
sider now.                                                 our children! Children, therefore, which are reborn
  The teaching of our text is that parents are called      children, which live in and out of Christ, are
unto a specific calling as parents of covenant chil-       children who have the Spirit of our Lord dwelling
dren. "Fathers, provoke not your children to               in them. We look upon our children as those who
anger." Mothers are also included in this calling.         are made new, made alive in Christ, and who sit
We should see that also. First of all, that is evident     with Him in heavenly places. Our children must be
from all of Scripture. We referred to a text from the      viewed as created in and through Christ Jesus unto
Proverbs earlier, which told children to hear the in-      good works which our God has pre-ordained that


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             183



the church should walk in them. This becomes the          However, even in this case the parent's attitude,
ground, too, that we should instruct them in all and      word, and deed must evidently be that of love for
unto all good works. One cannot so instruct the           his child for Christ's sake. Our rule then will be and
dead. Our calling is to instruct the living in the        must be a rule that has its foundation and basis in
truth. A dead tree can be watered and nourished,          God's Word. It shall then be a wise rule, a rule of
but all that happens is that it more quickly decays       truth, a rule that shall serve as a means in God's
and rots. I may never treat my child as though he         hand for the salvation of the church.
may be a dead tree. This does not mean that my              In Ephesians 6 we read that to provoke not to
children do not sin. They do, and I have to call          wrath is to bring up our children in the nurture and
them to repentance. This does not mean either that        admonition of the Lord. Parents, that means that
one of my children may not be a dead tree. Godly          you are to correct and instruct and chasten and re-
parents also face the fact that a child may manifest      buke your children in love, by bringing them
himself, after being instructed, as having not heard      always before the Word. You are to bring before
the word, of not holding the truth, and as one that       them and set before them the rule of Christ through
goes lost like Esau. But even then, as we can not         His Word. For the Word of God builds up-it builds
discern the heart, we as parents cease not to pray        up the holy faith of our children, even unto the
that if it be in harmony with God's will, our God         good works which God ordained that they walk in.
might bring this erring child to repentance.              And as one is well fed and nourished, he obeys the
  But in our treating of our family, in our correc-       Lord in the new obedience in Christ. Our children
tion and our instruction of our children, we may          will so walk in grace through the means of grace-
not treat them as dead seed. Rather, we must              that is, through the admonition and instruction of
always instruct, admonish, correct, and nurture           God-fearing parents.
them as living heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Our          Our children must be put in mind of the things of
text demands that, the Word of God demands that!
This means that our children ought to hear our in-        God! We are to excite them unto this. We are to do
struction in this light. They must hear and know          this by our example, by our study of the Word, by
that you instruct, that you correct, that you admon-      our alert attendance unto the preaching of the
ish, and that you nurture them in the name of Jesus       Word, by our prayers together as a family, and our
Christ and for their spiritual welfare.                   prayers in their hearing for them. This is our calling
                                                          as covenant parents.
  Our duty is then, according to our text, to pro-
voke not our children to wrath, but to excite them          Fathers and Mothers, this our high calling is one
in the fear of the Lord by a right rule. To provoke       which we can accomplish only as we live out of
our children to anger is to break their spirit by a       Christ, Who is our strength. It is only as we live
wrong rule. Parents can do this. They can do this in      from faith, faith worked in us by our Lord, that we
the first place by treating them as reprobate seed.       can and will so rule over our children. May God
They can do this by making up all kinds of cruel or       grant us that grace.
unjust requirements for their children. Such is the         The fruit of all of this is that there is a blessed
fruit of the cruel ways of the wicked. Understand,        means of grace working in our families. Indeed, we
our rule is not to be one of mere might or power. It      could break the spirit of our children. And our chil-
is true of course that I am more powerful than my         dren could be displeasing unto God. Our old na-
children, and that I could make them obey me by           tures would lead us in the ways of sin. But when by
sheer force. And it is true that sometimes I must         the grace of God we heed this calling, then by that
use physical might to correct my child by spanking        same grace we experience the rich blessings of
him. But if that is all my child sees, if our children    Jehovah. Our covenant God shall bless us, He shall
only fear our might, if they only fear the awesome        bless our children, and they shall grow into spiritu-
hand of father, then our rule is not right or good.       al manhood, perfectly furnished as men of God to
They must know why we use the hand to spank,              praise and glorify God in His service. Further, we
they must see that we love them, they must see that       as godly parents, in the way of an upright rule, shall
the requirements that are made of them are made           have the assurance of the Psalmist that we shall see
on the basis and in the authority of God's Word. Of       our children and children's children. And this
course, this does not mean that they are to be given      means that we shall see them grow in faith, we
a reason for every little thing that we tell them to      shall see the church of Christ grow ever nearer to
do. A child is likely to ask us, "Why must I do           the day of our Lord's coming. The right rule mani-
that?" And we as covenant parents may answer,             fest in our midst means that Christ is in our midst.
"Because I say so, and as your parent given you of        For the proper nurture and admonition by
God, that is enough reason." The child is to obey         covenant parents is a blessed means of grace, under
the parent, because this is right in the Lord.            which the powerful working of the Holy Spirit is


 184

                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER

exercised, and Chrls' t'
darkness into the marvelous light of God's fellow-
                                 s children are brought out of
                                                                                        ship. The church is gathered and built up and the
                                                                                        kmgdom of Christ comes!



                                                 T H E O L O G I C A L   S C H O O L
                                                                         . . . OF THE . . .
                                                    P R O T E S T A N T   R E F O R M E D   C H U R C H E S
                                                                4949  IVANREST  AVENUE, S.W.
                                                                     GRANDVILLE. MICHIGAN 49416
                                                                        PHONE: (616) 531-1490
                                                                         December  15, 1982
        Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema. Rector
        Departments   of  Dogmatics   and   Old  Testament

        Prof. Herman C. Hanko.
        Departments   of  Church   History   and   New  Testament

        Prof. Robert D. Decker.
        Departments   of  Practical   Theology   and   New
        Testament

           Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:
                       The fall of 1982 marked the beginning of another year of labor for our,.
           Seminary.            Five men are enrolled in the Seminary:                             Barry Gritters and Kennetn
           Hanko are in their final year, while Russell Dykstra, Steven Key,
                                                                                                          .          and Charles
                                                                                                                    In addition
           Terpstra are in the first year of the new four-year currVculum.
           to their studies, the seniors teach some catechism classes and are licensed to
           preach in the churches.                         We thank God for these men and for their diligent
           and faithful work in preparation for the ministry of the Word.
                       Of no little concern to the faculty is the fact that there are no
           pre-seminary students enrolled.                                Pray with us that God will raise up men in
            our churches for the ministry of the Word both for our churches and for the
            mission fields.
                       Two changes resulting in improvement are worthy of note:                                   In.previous
            years Practice  preaching has been done on Monday mornings, while our weekly
            chapel services were on Wednesday mornings.                                  Now when Practice preaching is
                                 it is done in the place of the chapel service.                                It then becomes our
            scheduled,
            morning chapel at the same time that it is an exercise in Rractice.Preaching.
            And following the order of our chapel service, there is singing (without a
            pianist!), prayerr  Scripture reading, the sermon, singing, prayer.                                         This
            allows practice preaching to be done in a more worshipful and less artificial
            setting.           The second change is that of our newly expanded four-year
                                     This new curriculum allows room to offer the students a rather
            curriculum.
            wide variety of elective courses (lectures, seminars, independent studies) in
                                                                       Two electives are offered each semester.                 Area
             all areas of the curriculum.
            ministers, both active and retired, are invited to audit these courses; and
            many of them do so.                                                                                                   Our
                       The subscription list of our Theological Journal continues t0 grow.
             library continues to expand as well.                                Some $650.00 has been spent SO far this
             year for new books and magazine subscriptions.                                      We appreciate the generous
             support you have given to our library.
                 --
                        Finally, both faculty and students are grateful to the area churches who
             provide us with a periodic "Seminary Sunday."                                     The preaching opportunrtres
             are divided equally among faculty and students.                                      This provides our students
             with pulpit experience, and it keeps the professors in touch with the con-
             gregations.
                        May the Lord bless our churches and their labors!
                                                                                      Cordially, in Christ,
                                                                                                        The Faculty


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 185



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

                         A Pilgrim's Perspective (3)
                                                  Rev. R. Flikkema


  I lie in bed awake. It is late. The dark of night has      or purpose to this life. This life is not an end in
encompassed me. But I cannot sleep. My thoughts              itself. How can it be? This life is filled with sin.
are troubled. I try to sort out the troubles that fill       Wickedness abounds. This life is filled with death.
my heart, but it is most difficult. Where shall I find       It is nothing but a continual death. This life is filled
rest?                                                        with- turmoil, never ending turmoil. There is no
  There are a number of reasons why I am                     peace in this life, no rest!
troubled. Christmas and New Year's have come                   How true that is for the ungodly. They are like
and gone. Life was so busy during those days as              the chaff which the wind driveth away, the Psalm-
well as the days and weeks previous to them.                 ist said. They are here for but a little time, and then
Everyone it seems gets caught up in the fast pace,           they are gone. They labor-buying, selling, and get-
hurry-up nature of the holiday season. At Christ-            ting gain. They eat and drink, seeking tranquility in
mas it is hurry up to the shopping malls; buy some           such things. But all their labors and all their eating
gifts, very often some last-minute gifts; decorate the       and drinking get them nothing. For they perish! All
Christmas tree; listen to songs of "Jingle Bells" and        their Christmas shopping and all their vain carol
"White Christmas" with a little bit of "Silent               singing, and even all their pious talk about the baby
Night" and "Away in a Manger" thrown in for                  Jesus get them nothing. All their "happy new
good measure. On New Year's Eve everyone is                  year's," which they can scarcely utter because they
ushering in the new year. They think about what              are so saturated with alcohol, get them nothing.
the new year will bring, hoping it will be better            They vainly think that a man's life consists in the
than the last one. The last one was not so good, and         abundance of the things he possesses. They foolish-
so they drown their sorrows in drink as they look to         ly are like another fool who thought the same way.
the future.                                                  They show their folly by talking about the baby
  This has an effect on me. It is almost overwhelm-          Jesus at Christmas but forget that it was that same
ing. Something is not right! In fact it is definitely all    Jesus Who said that a man's life consisteth not in
wrong. It is wrong for the throngs at Christmas to           the abundance of things he possesses. If a man
get all caught up in their worldly merry making and          seeks these things, he will die with those things.
attempt to sanctify it with a few Luke  2 readings           His soul is required of him.
and religious carol singings. It is wrong for the              But how about me and my friend? My friend is
masses to drink in the new year and drown their              dying too. Where is the rest for my friend and me?
sorrows in drink. But it is equally wrong and in fact        As I meditate on this question on my troubled bed,
even more wrong for me to find myself swept along            my thoughts turn to another person who meditated
with such wrongness. I know better. But again this           on his bed also. There was such a person, wasn't
year, at least to some degree, I did get swept along. I      there? Yes, there was! He was the Psalmist David. I
am troubled!                                                 must find where David talks about himself meditat-
  But another reason which added to my troubles              ing on his bed. I get up out of bed and, taking my
was a phone call which I had received. A friend of           Bible in hand, turn to Psalm 63. There are the
mine received the news that he had an incurable ill-         words! My eyes fix themselves on what David says
ness. He does not have much longer to live. I love           in verses 6 and 7; "when I remember Thee upon
my friend. He and I had walked down life's path-             my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.
way a long time. We went through many things to-             Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the
gether. But now it seems the Lord is going to take           shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice."
him from this life and the vanity of this life. I am           Therein lies the answer to all my troublesome
troubled!                                                    thoughts: "When I remember Thee upon my bed."
  Vanity! That word lingers in my mind. Solomon              What have I done? I have been remembering all
wrote exactly that concerning this life a long time          sorts of things. But the one thing in all the world I
ago. And what he wrote then is just as true for              should have been remembering, that I have not.
today. This life is vanity. There is no real meaning         "Thee," my God, I must remember. I must  medi-


186                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



tate upon God, the God of my salvation. Oh, what a         this wicked world, I know that there is no rest for
God I have! He is the all-powerful, sovereign God.         them. For them this life shall ever be endless vanity
All things are  in. His hands. He determines all           and labor. They will continue to make a mockery of
things, and to the smallest detail accomplishes all        Christmas and continue to drown their sorrows in
the things He determines. Nothing happens by               drunkenness, but no rest will they find. And after
chance, or stands outside of His control. That means       this life is over and they perish, still no rest will
that my life too is in God's hands. He directs my life.    they have. They will awake in eternal labor and
"My hand is in Thy hand," I hear myself singing            trouble.
upon my bed. In all my doubts and temptations, in
all the turmoil and trouble that fills my heart, my           But for my friend-to him belongs a rest, a rest
hand is in God's hand for He cares for me. Yes, He         that belongs to the people of God. He will die. But
does! So great was His care for me that He saved           he will only awake from all his troubles and labors
me. He performed the work which I could never              in the eternal rest that God prepares for him.
have performed. He entered into the world of this             And well for me! Oh, to be sure, I must remain
night-my weary night of sin and death. He took             behind. My friend will leave me behind. He will go
upon Himself my sin and the curse due to me for            before me to be delivered from this dry and thirsty
my sin. His soul was troubled even unto death with         land and from the church militant to join those who
a kind of trouble that I do not know nor will I ever       have gone on before in the church triumphant. But
know, that of the wrath of God. He, by His bearing         though I remain behind in this dry and thirsty land,
of the wrath of God, gave me rest and says to me to        the Lord provides me with food and water and rest
come apart in this dry and thirsty land where no           along the way. His Word is my food and drink. His
water is and rest awhile.                                  light penetrates my darkness. It is true, as also it
  I must do that! In the midst of this life of vanity I    was for the Psalmist, "Because Thou hast been my
must rest in the rest that He has given me. Christ-        help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I
mas is past, but tonight I must go back to Christmas       rejoice."
day. I must journey once again to Bethlehem and               Yes, I rejoice! Even in the night! Even as I lie
see the rest that is His gift to me. I must not go to      upon my bed in the night in the midst of all my
the shopping malls. There is no rest there. But to         troubles, I rejoice. For I meditate upon God. I
Bethlehem I must go! Whom do I see? I see Jesus,           watch in the night watches. I look for Him to drive
my Savior, my Lord and my God! I see my Christ to          away my night, more than watchmen look for
Whom I belong so entirely that without His will not        morning light! I know He will. The Babe of Bethle-
a hair can fall from my head. And I am helped! Just        hem told me so. With that confidence I watch as a
to look at my Savior stills my troubled heart. I look      pilgrim looking to the future. What the future holds
at Him with the eyes of child-like faith and trust,        in store as far as all its details are concerned, I know
and I know that all is well.                               not. But this much I know, all is well. And so I close
  Well for me! Well for my friend! Not well for the        my Bible, doing what the Psalmist said in another
world. Though my friend and I are certainly no bet-        place, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep
ter or one whit more deserving than the throngs of         for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety."

QUESTIONBOX

                                The Laying On of Hands
                                                  Rev. C. Hanko


  The question box received the following:                 "Could not this practice be used today in the ordi-
  Hudsonville's Men's Society in its discussion of         nation of elders and deacons as well as with mini-
Acts 6 had some questions in regard to the `laying         sters? If possible, include comments on its history
on of hands'. Some of the texts considered were            in the early church, reformation times, and up to
Genesis  4813, Leviticus  1:4, Numbers  8:10,  27:18       today. ' '
and 23, I Timothy  4:14,  522 and II Timothy  1:6.            As is evident from the question, there are many
We would appreciate your writing on this in the            references to the laying on of hands in the Scrip-
Standard Bearer's  Question Box. The question is:          tures. The Men's Society refers to Genesis  48:13


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  187



and 14, where Jacob lays the patriarchal blessing         bishops, as successors of Peter, and was regarded as
upon Joseph's two sons, placing Ephraim before            a transfer of the gifts of the office.
Manasseh as prophecy of the future blessings that           It is exactly because of this misuse that the
God would bestow upon their tribes. They also re-         churches of the Reformation questioned whether
fer to the laying on of hands upon the sacrifices in      they should continue this practice in their
the tabernacle and in the temple. Aaron and his           churches. The Lutherans abolished it and later took
sons were to lay their hands upon the sacrifices to       it up again, ascribing great value to it.
show that God laid the sins of the people upon the           Calvin writes in regard to the laying on of hands
Great Lamb of God, and to show that the sacrifice         at the ordination of ministers, "It is certainly use-
was dedicated to God as symbolic of the Christ            ful, that by such a symbol the dignity of the minis-
Who brings the sacrifice of atonement on the cross        try should be recommended to the people, and he
for the sins of His people.                               who is ordained reminded that he is no longer his
  In the New Testament we read that Christ en-            own, but is bound in service to God and His
couraged parents to bring their children to Him that      Church. Besides, it will not prove an empty sign, if
He might lay His hands upon them and bless them           it is restored to its genuine origin. For if the Spirit of
(Matt.  19:13, 14; Mark  10:13-16; Luke  18:15, 16).      God has not instituted anything in the Church in
When Jesus ascended to heaven He lifted up His            vain, `this ceremony of His appointment we shall
hands upon His disciples to bless them, symbolical        feel not to be useless, provided it is not supersti-
of His blessings that He bestows upon His church          tiously abused" (Institutes, vol. 3, page 71).
as our ascended Lord.                                        Rev. Jansen writes in his Church Order Com-
  This practice was quite common in the early             mentary, "At the time of the Reformation many
church after Pentecost. Acts  8:17 mentions that          raised serious objections against the laying on of
Peter laid his hands upon the believers in  Samaria       hands for fear of superstition, namely, that this
as a sign of the giving of the Holy Spirit. In Acts       practice would be continued as a `transfer of gifts of
19:6 Paul gave to. the Ephesian believers the out-        the office.' The first synods frowned upon it. But
ward signs of the laying on of hands while Christ         the Synod of Middelburg, 1581, made a distinction
laid His Spirit upon them. In Hebrews 6:3 this sign       and recommended that the laying on of hands
is mentioned in close connection with the sacra-          should be used at the ordination of ministers of the
ment of baptism, assuring the church of God's con-        Word. This was adopted at the Synod of `s Graven-
tinued blessings upon them. In a sense, it can be         hage, 1586. The laying on of hands was regarded as
said that we still do this at baptism, as well as in      a sign of complete devotion to the official ministry
pronouncing the benediction in our public worship         of the Word; therefore it was used only when min-
services.                                                 isters were ordained to their office for the first time,
  We come closer to the subject at hand in Acts 6:6       and not for elders and deacons." This is also ac-
where the laying on of hands accompanied the or-          cording to Article 4 of our Church Order.
dination of the first deacons in the church. Also in         Bavinck informs us in his Dogmatics that, "The
Acts  13:3 the church at Antioch, upon instruction        Reformers were of one opinion, that the laying on
of the Holy Spirit, ordains Paul and Barnabas to the      of hands was no command of Christ and therefore
preaching of the Word among the gentiles with             is not absolutely necessary. While some regarded it
prayer and fasting, and the laying on of hands. In I      as important, worthy of esteem and imitation,
Timothy  4:14 Paul reminds his spiritual son              others regarded it as belonging to the adiaphora and
Timothy not to neglect the gifts (charismatos in the      advised against it for fear of superstition. It is not an
Greek) that were given to him by means of the             essential element in the ordination, for neither in
Word and "with the laying on of the hands of the          the case of Jesus Himself, nor with the appointment
presbytery" (see also II Tim.  1:6). Paul warns the       of the apostles, nor in connection with the elders
church in I Timothy  5:22 not to be overly hasty in       (Acts  14:23,  20:28) is any mention made of it. Nor
using this sign upon new converts or anyone who is        must it be regarded as a sharing of the special gift of
not fit for the office.                                   the Spirit in the office. For it does not grant, but
   In the Roman Catholic Church this practice was         presupposes, according to the Scriptures, the pecu-
used in baptism, in healing, in the restoration of        liar gifts necessary for the office, and therefore can
those who fell away as heretics, in marriage cere-        never be more than a public designation for those
monies, as well as with the ordination into an            who are called to the office. It is only a sign, a
office. It soon fell into misuse by making it a sacra-    solemn declaration before God and His church that
ment and ascribing to it certain powers, as if the        the one who is called in a legal manner and there-
laying on of hands bestowed certain gifts upon the        fore sent of God Himself, has the required gifts and
members of the church. In the case of ordination,         as such must be received, acknowledged and re-
the right to lay on hands was entrusted only to the       spected by the congregation" (Dogmatics, vol. 4,


188                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



pages 124-126).                                              In any case, this must never be considered as
  This is the opinion still held by the Church Order       having some mystical power or as being a transfer
Commentators of today.                                     of gifts, but always nothing more than a sign.
  Four matters, therefore, are given for our con-            Since it is a sign of complete dedication to the
sideration:                                                office, the fathers decided to use it in connection
                                                           with the ordination of ministers for the first time,
  There is obviously no principle involved. Scrip-         but not in ordaining elders and deacons.
ture neither requires nor condemns it. It is, there-
fore, left to the discretion of the churches whether         Finally, the fact that we follow the practice of
they will use it or not. I can add, that the Evangeli-     term office for elders and deacons, rather than life
cal Reformed Church of Singapore has decided to            office, should also bear some weight in deciding
use the laying on of hands with the ordination of          whether or not to introduce the practice of the
elders and deacons on the basis of I Timothy  4:14         laying on of hands when ordaining elders and
and II Timothy 1:6.                                        deacons.

SPECIAL FEATURE

         The Spiritual Strengths and Weaknesses
         of the Protestant Reformed Churches,
                        and Possible Remedies (1)
                                                Rev. R. Flikkema


(Note: This is the text of a lecture given by Rev.         churches are like from a spiritual point of view.
Flikkema for the Eastern Men's and Ladies' League          One who knows nothing about our churches, one
Meeting, on October 5, 1982.)                              who stands outside of the sphere of our churches,
  Beloved brothers and sisters in our Lord, as you         cannot and may not dare to speak on this subject.
are all aware, I have been asked to speak to you to-       There are those outside of the sphere of our
night on the subject, "The Spiritual Strengths and         churches who have tried to address themselves to
Weaknesses of the Protestant Reformed Churches,            this subject. Really, from the very outset of our his-
and Possible Remedies." There are a few remarks            tory and throughout our history up until today, that
that I want to make about that by way of introduc-         had been the case. There have always been those
tion.                                                      outside  `of the sphere of our churches who have
                                                           tried to characterize our churches. And, generally
  In the first place I address you on that subject         speaking, they have characterized our churches
with a certain amount of fear, as well as a feeling of     negatively, derisively, with malice and hatred in
great inadequacy-fear and inadequacy with                  their hearts. But I emphasize once more, that such
respect to myself. When I was asked to speak on            cannot and may not be done. If you are going to
this subject the thought immediately crossed my            speak about the spiritual strengths and weaknesses
mind: why me? Why ask a young, relatively in-              of our churches, you must know our churches first-
experienced minister like me to speak on this sub-         hand, experientially. I do, of course, but, because I
ject? Surely, so I thought, it would have been better      am young, my experience is in the nature of the
to ask one of our older ministers, one with more ex-       case limited.
perience in the Word as well as more experience
with respect to the spiritual condition of our               In the second place by way of introduction, and
churches than I. Because, you see, in order to speak       this follows from what I have just said, he who does
on such an important subject such as this one, it          have experience with respect to our churches,
takes insight into the Word. One cannot possibly           whether, great or small, and therefore does dare to
speak about the spiritual strengths and weaknesses         speak on a subject such as this one, must be ex-
of our churches without an understanding of what           tremely `careful-careful that he gets it straight;
the Word has to say to the churches. And too, one          careful that he on the basis of Scripture under-
cannot possibly speak on a subject such as this un-        stands what the strengths of the church of Jesus
less he has experienced firsthand what our                 Christ are, and therefore what our strengths as


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              189



Protestant Reformed Churches are; careful that he           once delivered to the saints, as that faith is written
does not make a strength what in reality is not a           infallibly in the Word of God and set forth and ex-
strength; and by the same token careful that he             pounded in our creeds (the Heidelberg Catechism,
does not make a weakness something that is not a            the Belgic` Confession, and the Canons of Dordt);
weakness. That cannot be stressed enough. I may             the faith as that faith consists of sound doctrine.
have certain preconceived notions, and you may              Our emphasis upon sound doctrine is one of our
have certain preconceived notions about what the            strengths. We insist that the precious truths of
spiritual strengths and weaknesses of our churches          God's Word be defended, maintained, and devel-
are. In fact, I dare say that every one of us here          oped at all cost over-against all heresies, false doc-
tonight came with certain notions on this subject as        trines repugnant thereto. We teach the doctrine of
to what our strengths and weaknesses are. And that          the glory of the sovereign God: that God is
in itself is not so bad. But we must be careful! We         sovereign, all-powerful; that He does whatever He
must be very careful that our preconceived notions          according to His own good pleasure sees fit to do,
are correct on the basis of the Word of God. If they        and with absolute sovereignty; that He is not de-
are not correct, if they do not meet the test of the        pendent upon the will of man for anything; that He
Word of God, they are wrong, and they do no one,            does all that He sees fit to do for and with a view to
certainly not our churches, any good.                       His own glory and the praise of His holy name. We
  And finally, and this in the third place by way of        teach the doctrine of sovereign particular grace: not
introduction, none of what I have said thus far             common grace, but particular grace only for the
about my fear and inadequacy, about the impor-              elect chosen from before the foundation of the
tance of carefulness, may be allowed to detract             world and saved from the depravity of their sin and
from the importance of this subject, and above all          misery according to free and sovereign grace
the importance of addressing ourselves to this sub-         through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
ject. This subject is important. In fact it is a subject    teach the doctrine of the Covenant: the truth that
of vital importance. It strikes at the very heart of        God has established His covenant in the line of our
our life as churches. If I did not think so, I would        continued generations, believers and their seed;
not be standing here tonight, and you would not be          that that covenant as to its content consists in a
seated here tonight. If we were not concerned               relationship of friendship and fellowship with God
about our strengths as churches, and yes, our weak-         and His people; that that covenant as to its nature is
nesses as churches too, we would be at home. But            not bilateral and certainly not conditional, but uni-
we are concerned. And therefore it is my prayer             lateral and unconditional; that that covenant is
that God will use me, fearful and inadequate                solely dependent as to its realization upon God,
though I feel, to apply carefully the importance of         Jehovah, the I Am That I Am, the party of the living
this subject unto our hearts. With that in mind I call      God; and that our part in the covenant is one of glad
your attention to:                                          and joyful and antithetical obedience. We teach the
   The Spiritual Strengths and Weaknesses of the            doctrine of the antithesis: our spiritual separation
        Protestant Reformed Churches, and                   from the darkness of the sin and death of this
                  Possible Remedies                         world, living a godly life in conformity with God's
    I. Our Strengths                                        law to the praise of our covenant God, manifesting
   II. Our Weaknesses                                       ourselves to be of the party of the living God. And
  III. The Certain Remedy                                   so we could go on and on. The fact that we in obedi-
                                                            ence to the Word of God teach such precious truths
  What are our strengths as Protestant Reformed             is one of our strengths.
Churches? That is the question that we must face at
the outset. As I pondered that question many things           And then too, so I thought, one of the strengths
came to my mind. Certainly, I thought to myself,            of our churches is exactly our insistence that those
one of our strengths as churches is the fact that we        truths be preached! That the truths of a sovereign
are what we are, Protestant Reformed Churches:              glorious God, a sovereign free grace, a covenant
the fact that we are Protestant; the fact that we are       faithful God Who demands an antithetical life on
Reformed; the fact that we stand in the line of the         our part be heard and expounded. Yes, expounded!
Reformation of the 16th century; the fact,                  Not superficially glossed over, and certainly not ig-
therefore, that we are the continuation of the              nored because they are too deep for God's people to
church of Jesus Christ; and that, as we are that, we        understand or too outdated for God's people to
have a very distinct and beautiful heritage  - the          bother with them. But expounded! Preached! We
heritage of the Reformed Church.                            insist that we hear the voice of our Lord Jesus
  And certainly, too, so I thought, the faith which         Christ. For that is what the preaching is. It is not
unites us together as Protestant Reformed                   the voice of man. It is not even the voice of man
Churches is itself one of our strengths: the faith          talking about Christ, or for that matter talking


190                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



about everything else under the sun but about              who pray all the while as they labor in their office,
Christ. But it is exactly the voice of Christ as Christ    that God will use weakest means to fulfill His will,
through the preaching powerfully and efficaciously         mighty enemies to still. Christ has given us elders
calls sinners to repentance, hardens the ungodly           who are not afraid to stand upon the watchtowers
reprobate, and gathers His people unto Himself.            of Mt. Zion to defend us overagainst the enemies
That preaching God has given to-us. He has given to        both without and within; elders who call us to bat-
us faithful preachers of God's Word. Our churches          tle to fight the good fight of faith, to watch for the
throughout their history have never lacked for             return of Christ upon the clouds of glory. He has
sound, biblical, Reformed, lively preaching and            given us elders who assure us of God's promise that
preachers of the Word. And they do not now! God            we are more than conquerors through Christ;
has given us as churches a faithful seminary where         elders who set a good example for us to follow by
faithful professors labor day after day and year           their godly conversation and conduct; elders who
after year to instruct faithful young men to preach        are diligent in their calling to go after the wandering
God's Word. God has given us that. That is alto-           sheep and in love endeavor to bring them to repen-
gether a gift of God. There is an expression, and          tance, and if they refuse to be brought to repentance
that expression is true: as the seminary goes, so go       to cast them out - out of the kingdom of God, from
the churches. If you have no strong seminary, you          the church of God, from fellowship with Christ,
cannot expect the churches to be strong either.            and from all spiritual blessings and benefits, to use
That simply will not happen. That our churches are         the words of the form for excommunication.
strong is all due to the fact that God has given us a        And as a result of all of that, and this too is one of
faithful seminary and faithful preaching.                  our strengths, God has preserved in our midst faith-
  That preaching is one of the strengths of our            ful covenant homes: husbands and wives, parents
churches we may know because it is one of the              and children, godly men and women, sons and
marks of the true church. The marks of the true            daughters who around our tables meet. We have
church are these: the pure preaching of the Word,          that! We have families who love the truth of God's
the administration of the sacraments, and the exer-        Word, and who desire to raise up seed and instruct
cise of Christian discipline. And while we are on          that seed in the truth of God's Word in the home as
the subject of the marks of the true church, we            well as in our covenant day schools. Our schools
must understand that that last mark of Christian           themselves are a testimony of the strength of our
discipline is also one of our strengths. Discipline is     churches  - schools wherein boards and teachers
exercised in our churches. The keys of the kingdom         labor diligently in the nurture and admonition of
(the preaching of the Word and the exercise of             covenant youth. All of those things are the
Christian discipline) that Christ has given His            strengths of our Protestant Reformed Churches.
church are utilized in our churches. Christ has            And let me say, too, so they must ever remain! We
given to us not only faithful ministers but also faith-    must ever insist that those strengths ever be the
ful elders. He has given us elders who give whole-         strengths of our churches.
heartedly of their time and talents; men of prayer                                             (To be continued)



                                        Book Reviews

FOR WHOM DID CHRIST DIE? A Study of the                    which deny the particular character of the atone-
Divine Design of the Atonement, by R. B. Kuiper;           ment. Chapter 4 deals with the Scriptural teaching
Baker Book House, 1982; 104 pp., $3.95 (paper).            of particular redemption. All of this is biblically
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                               sound, well-written, and an excellent defense of
  This book, written by a former professor at West-        this important truth of God's Word.
minster Theological Seminary and former president            But it is all spoiled in the last chapter which deals
of Calvin Theological Seminary, and first published        with what the author calls, "Scriptural  Universal-
in 1959, could have been a worthwhile and impor-           ism." In the interests of defending "common
tant book.                                                 grace" and, strikingly enough, the free offer of the
  In the first chapters it deals with the heresies of      gospel, Kuiper proceeds to make the atonement
Liberalism, Arminianism, and Barthianism, all of           universal after all. He does not want an atonement


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                 191



of our Lord which is universal in its intent or effi-                    two, though of more recent times, have gained tre-
cacy, but he does defend an atonement which is                           mendous followings especially among young
universal in its sufficiency and suitability. This                       people who have lost their spiritual and'theological
aspect of universalism is rooted in a universal love                     moorings.
of God (p.  68), although this love of God is some-                         The book is ideal for study in Societies and High
how (the author does not explain exactly how)                            School classes and includes topics for discussion
"quantitatively" different from the love shown to                        and questions to be answered with each chapter.
the elect. Hence, from the cross proceed fruits of
the atonement which accrue to all men, chief of                             We recommend the book for those who are
which is the offer of the gospel. By this offer God                      interested in a handbook which deals with the
speaks clearly of His readiness and willingness to                       important contemporary cults.
save all those who hear.                                                 PICKING UP THE PIECES,  Successful Single
   It is a shame that such an excellent defense of the                   Living for the Formerly Married, by Clyde Colvin
truth of Christ's particular atonement should be                         Besson; Mott Media Inc., 1982; 209 pp., $5.95
contradicted by a defense of a position which is                         (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)
neither Scriptural nor Confessional, although the                           This is not a very good book and is not to be
author quotes repeatedly from the Canons in an                           recommended to our readers. While it deals some-
effort to prove that the Canons teach a free offer.                      what with all "singles," it concentrates upon the
   The argument is also marred by a failure (charac-                     problems of the divorced. It is supposed to "repair
teristic of so many defenders of the free offer) to                      shattered dreams, enlighten, inspire, and help you
distinguish properly between the general proclama-                       cope with the trauma of a dissolved marriage."
tion of the gospel and its particular contents, and                      Perhaps the author feels that he is in a good posi-
between the command which comes to all to repent                         tion to do this sort of thing, for he himself is di-
and believe and the promise made only to God's                           vorced and remarried.
people that He will save them through Christ. This                          The book uses a lot of slangy language, contains
failure to make these proper distinctions ought not                      in it many ideas which anyone with any common
to characterize a clear thinker such as R. B. Kuiper                     sense at all ought to know (something very
was.                                                                     common with this type of book), and fails to deal
CULTS IN NORTH AMERICA, by Earl Schipper;                                seriously with sin in the married state as a cause of
Baker Book House, 1982; 173 pp., $3.45 (paper).                          the breakup of marriages and in various sexual per-
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                             versions. And, of course, failing to deal seriously
                                                                         with sin, it fails to deal seriously with the power of
   Many books have been written on the various                           the cross in the lives of the people of God.
cults which have risen in our country and there are
far more detailed and thorough treatments of the                            And so we have another manual on some aspect
cults than this little paperback. Nevertheless, this                     of marriage, as little helpful as the hundreds of
book has some advantages to it which make it a                           others which have appeared in recent years.
worthwhile book to purchase. For one thing, it is
far more brief than many ponderous volumes and                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
gives the reader a quick and yet rather thorough in-                        The Reformed Fellowship Bible Society of Sioux Falls, South
sight into the errors of these sects. Further, it con-                   Dakota, wishes to express its sincere Christian sympathy to their
tains interesting historical material so that the                        members, Mrs. Hiram Streyle, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Streyle and John
reader may gain some historical background of                            Streyle in the sudden death of their husband, father, father-in-law
                                                                         and uncle, MR. HIRAM STREYLE.
these cults. The writing is clear, concise, and accu-                       "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
rate and exposes the basic theological errors of                         (Psalm  116:15).
these heretical movements.                                                                                            Rev. Marvin Kamps, Pres.
   Two sects not often treated in books on the cults                                                                  Mary Collmann, Sec'y.
are included in this volume: First Unification
Church and The Way International. These latter                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                            The Men's Society and the Martha Society of the  Doon Protestant
                    ANNOUNCEMENT!!!                                      Reformed Church hereby express their Christian sympathy to their
                                                                         fellow members, Mr. and Mrs. William Den  Besten  in the recent death
  Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet on          of their father, MR. JAMES DEN  BESTEN.
Wednesday, March 2, 1983, at  8:30 A.M., in South Holland, Illinois,
the Lord willing. Material for the Agenda must be in the hands of the       May our God comfort the bereaved family through His Word.
Stated Clerk thirty days before  Classis convenes. Delegates in need     (Isaiah  26:3).
of lodging should inform the Clerk of the South Holland Council.                                                    Rev. M. Kamps, Pres.
                                   Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk                                                Mr. David Wiersma, Sec'y.
                                   Classis West                                                                     Mrs. P. Van Den Top, Sec'y.


   THE STANDARD BEARER
        P.O. Box 6064                        ~--
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                          `L _..,se IA. zzL.&-  r





                                      3
                                  A-                                                             --.
192                                         THE STANDARD BEARER

                             News From Our Churches
                                              January 1, 1983

   Every person familiar with our Protestant Re-          distribution of Protestant Reformed materials on a
formed Theological Seminary knows what the               regular basis. Our own missionaries will tell you
seminarians did during their Christmas vacation.          that many people do not know of our publications
They studied for their exams at the end. of the first      at all, and that there are others who do know of
semester. We sympathize with them, knowing how             them but cannot afford them. Rev. Van Overloop,
difficult their studies can become. But what about         Rev.  Houck, and Rev. Hanko in November found
our professors? Surely this was a time of relaxation       at the end of their visits that they needed "3 Psalters
for them! Actually they spent their vacation time          . ..records and tapes of PsaZter numbers - a total of
doing what they like best of all, preaching the Word       about $30...various  Reformed books and other liter-
of God in our churches. Prof. Hoeksema preached            ature.. . . These items have been or will be given as
the morning of the 26th in Kalamazoo. Prof. Decker         gifts to those who cannot afford them in most
preached on the 26th at Hope in the morning and at         cases."
Southwest in the evening. Prof. Hanko and family
visited Rev. R. Hanko in New Jersey and. preached            There are many people who appreciate our pub-
at Hudsonville on New Year's Day. Our professors          lished materials. I have three partial quotes from
greatly appreciate these "seminary Sundays."              the correspondence that the Publications Commit-
                                                          tee of our churches received and printed in "Across
   Rev. C. Hanko is planning on spending two              The Aisle," the news publication of First Protestant
months in Bradenton, Florida, beginning this Jan-         Reformed Church of Grand Rapids.
uary. Since I am mentioning Bradenton, Florida,
here is a quote from Kalamazoo Protestant Re-                "North Ireland...1 have profited much from read-
formed Church's bulletin,  "...our consistory was         ing the various booklets presented by the Evangel-
requested to take over the mission work in Braden-        ism committee of the P.R.C. I am sure two certain
ton, Florida..... This we have consented to do."          booklets.have  a very vital place among the elect of
May God bless the labors performed in Florida.            God in shielding them from the plague of  Armin-
                                                          ianism!"
  At this point I will provide you with a lengthy
quote from the Church Extension Committee of                 "England...1 am wondering whether you can
Loveland Protestant Reformed Church. Most of              send me a copy of the following booklets by H.
this quote involves published materials.                  Hoeksema.. . . I am prompted to send for the above
                                                          after having seen them advertised on a tract named
   "We ordered copies of the pamphlet published           `The Gospel' which I have enjoyed."
by South Holland on Remembering the Lord's Day by
Rev. Engelsma and one published by our mission               "Our own country...1 have for the past six
committee on Faith and Practice of the Protestant         months been in contact with the Evangelism Com-
Reformed Churches.. . . .                                 mittee of South Holland Protestant Reformed
                                                          Church. I'm a firm believer in the Reformed faith
   "We were contacted by the Southeast Prot. Ref.         and your stand on common grace. Would like to see
Church requesting that our pamphlet, `Is the Chris-       a mission group started here in New England for
tian Faith Easy?' be made available to our other          the Protestant Reformed Church. I'm willing to
churches in the denomination. This we have done           work to this goal and in fact have several people
and they are now publishing a list of all material        who are interested in same."
published by the individual churches.                        Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church has
   "We also have initiated a newspaper advertising        sermons of Rev. G. Vos. "Sermons are available
prbgram...in the  Reporter  HeraId.  This includes a      both in the Dutch and the English. One English
brief witness and sermon topics along with the time       sermon is from the pulpit, the rest are radio ad-
of services...." Loveland also has an agent who           dresses. For more information, contact Klaire
handles the R.F.P.A. publications.                        Berens, either at his shop: l-616-669-5970, or  a? his
  Many of our other churches are involved in the          residence: l-616-669-0377."                        DH


