   5E..RER~
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                   .


. ..Our final and perfect and wonderful and
glorious salvation is absolutely sure. The
knowledge of this doctrine ought to fill the
heart and soul of the Christian with abound-
ing joy and confident assurance. The Re-
formed Christian ought to reveal himself
practically, in all of his life, as one who is
profoundly happy.... Surely when the Re-
formed Christian constantly goes around
complaining and murmuring in his life he
denies his faith.
See ' `The Practical Implications of Calvinism' '
                                                     -page 395

                                           Volume LIX, No. 17, June I,1983 -


386                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                                 ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                               Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
  Meditation-                                                                                        SeconBClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
       The Full Assurance of Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386               Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                     Department Editors: Rev. Way_ne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald
  Editorials-                                                                        Cammenga,  Rev. Arie  denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Richard  Flik-
                                                                                     kema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hank?,  Mr. David Harbach, Rev.
       The Calling of Our Protestant Reformed                                        John A. Heys, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jai,Kortenng, Rev. George C. Lubbers,
                                                                                     Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus SC  Ipper, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
          Churches to be Specific (3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389            Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
       Our 1983 Synod-On the Agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . .390                      Editorial Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                      4975 Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
  My Sheep Hear My Voice-                                                                             Grandville, Michigan 49418
                                                                                     Church News Editor:  Mr. David Harbach
       Our Order of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .391                                4930 Ivanrest Ave., Apt. B
                                                                                                          Grandville, Michigan49418
  All Around Us-                                                                     Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
       Alcoholism and Drunkenness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393                  articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
                                                                                     Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to ap
       Who, Then, Shall Be Saved? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393               proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
                                                                                     signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
  In His Fear-                                                                       munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
       The Practical Implications of Calvinism (II) . . . .395                       Reprint Policy: Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                     magazine by other publications, provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
                                                                                     reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgement is made; c) that a copy of the
 News From New Zealand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398                 periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
  The Lord Gave the Word-                                                            Rusiness Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                      Mr. H. Vander  Wal, Bus. Mgr.                  PH: (616)  243-2953
       Missionary Methods (17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398                             P  0 
                                                                                                      _._. Rowfmfi4
                                                                                                           - _.____.
                                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
  Strength of Youth-                                                                 New  ZealandBusiness  Office:  The Standard Bearer
       Our Approach to the                                                                                            c/o  Protestknt Reformed Fellowship
                                                                                                                      B. VariHerk,  66 Fraser St.
          Problem of Alcoholism (2) . . . . . . . . ; . . . . . . . .400                                              Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                     Subscripfion  Policy: Subscription price, $10.50 per year. Unless a definite request
  Bible Study Guide-                                                                 for discontinuance is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
                                                                                     scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
       Titus-The Holy Life of the Church. . . . . . . . . . .402                     billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please notify the Business
                                                                                     Office as early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of delayed deli-
  Faith of Our Fathers-                                                              very. Include your Zip Code.
       NiceneCreed..............................40  4                                Advertising Policy:  The  Standard Bearer  does not accept commercial advertising of
                                                                                     any kind. Announcements of church and school events, anniversaries, obituaries,
  Book Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406    and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to
                                                                                     the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadline for
  News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407                 announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                     15th or the 1st respectively.
  Report of Classis East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408        Bound Volumes:  The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                     copies of the current volume; such orders are  dled
                                                                                                                                           P     as soon as possible after
                                                                                     completion of a volume. A limited number of past volumes may be obtained
                                                                                     through the Business Office.

MEDITATION

                                 The Full Assurance of Hope
                                                                        Rev. H. Veldman

                   "And we desire that every one ofyou do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
               unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience in-
               herit the promises. "                                                                                                      Heb. 6:11-12


  Two impossibilities confront us here: the impos-                                     according to verse 9, we are persuaded better
sibility of being renewed again unto repentance,                                       things of you, things that accompany salvation and
and the impossibility of perishing. The context                                        which therefore lead to salvation. Fact is, verse 10,
speaks of them. That they cannot be renewed again                                      God is not unrighteous. The congregation had been
unto repentance implies that such renewal had oc-                                      zealous in the work of God, in the  labour of love.
curred once-not really, of course, but according to                                    This had been their work, but it had been their
their confession. For such an one to be renewed to                                     work as being active in God's work in them. And
repentance again, we read, is impossible. However,                                     God will never forget His work in them. He will re-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            387



ward it. Their eternal salvation is sure.                 ever before us, continually holding fast to that hope
  Only, we desire of every one of you, that you           assured fully of everlasting life, never doubting but
shew forth the same diligence to the full assurance       always walking as with head uplifted and with the
of hope unto the end. You were diligent in your           eye upon the things above. This assurance of hope
work of love. Shew forth the same diligence to            must be full, must fill us, never leave us, but al-
come to the full assurance of hope. This receives all     ways accompany us upon life's pathway. And this,
the emphasis here and to the very,end of this chap-       we read, even unto the end. There are so many and
ter. This is ever our calling: make your calling and      various things which would divert our eye from the
election sure.                                            eternal rest; cause us to lie down, discouraged and
                        * * * * *                         utterly despondent; fill us with unrest and doubt
                                                          and fear; cause us to stumble and stagger as a
  Hope - how wonderful it is!                             drunken man, as a ship without a compass and rud-
  Nothing is surer, more certain, than the Christian      der. These are the powers of sin within us and all
hope. It is not merely a pious wish, but an un-           around us. Hence, we must exercise all diligence to
shaken certainty. Hope never doubts. Whoever              stand in the full assurance of hope, and that even
hopes is never uncertain; whoever doubts does not         unto the end, until we shall have reached and re-
stand in the hope. If faith be a certain knowledge        ceived that hope, everlasting salvation in heavenly
of, a cleaving,fast unto the Lord Jesus Christ, as He     immortality.
suffered and died and is now glorified for us, hope                              *****
is the operation of that bond uniting us with the
Lord Jesus Christ as it reaches out to the future.          "Every one of you do shew forth the same dili-
Hope takes hold of what is above, the future of the       gence. " In verse  10  the holy writer had spoken of
everlasting and heavenly salvation, Christ's              their work, consisting of the labor of love which
heavenly and resurrection life drawing us heaven-         they had showed toward His Name. And now they
ward.                                                     are exhorted to shew forth the same diligence in
                                                          coming to the full assurance of hope, even unto the
  We can, in the light of Holy Writ, speak of the         end. The word "diligence" means haste, and it
hope in a twofold sense of the word, subjectively         refers to a runner who exerts himself to the utmost
and objectively. The subjective hope is the hope          to obtain the prize, Only, this applies to every one
within us, our act of hoping, as we read it in I          of us, that is, to every one of the beloved, of whom
Corinthians  13:13, the operation of the resurrected      we read in verse 9. None is exempt from this call-
life of Christ in our hearts as it reaches out to that    ing. And this diligence applies to the following of
which is above, the fount and source of our life.         those who inherit the promises through faith and
And the objective hope is the hope as the object of       patience. In the following verse Abraham is quoted
our hoping, the final and heavenly salvation.             as an example.
  Although this twofold hope is one and can never           We must inherit the promises through faith and
be separated from each other, they do not always          patience. We read of promises here in the plural.
receive in Scripture the same emphasis. It is obvi-       Sometimes Scripture speaks of promise in the
ous that this Scripture emphasizes the hope in the        plural because of the wonderful richness of the
objective sense. When we read in verse 12 that we in-     promise of God. What riches of glory awaits the
herit the promises through faith and patience, it is      child of God! And these promises we must inherit.
obvious that this is the same as the obtaining of the     To inherit something means that it is given us legal-
hope  - hence, the hope here lies at the end of our       ly, that it is bestowed upon us judicially, legally.
inheriting in the way of faith and patience. Besides,     Often to inherit means that we receive the right to a
in verse 18 we read of the hope that is set before us     certain possession without actually obtaining it as
which we have as an anchor of the soul, which is          our own. I can be an heir without actually posses-
both sure and steadfast, and which lies in heaven,        sing it. In this text, however, this inheriting means
in that which is within the veil.                         that we actually obtain these promises; that which
   And now the holy writer speaks of the full assur-      the Lord has promised us actually becomes our
ance of hope unto the end. The thought of the apos-       own possession. Only, however, when understood
tle here is plain. He desires that the church of God      thus, we inherit  it. We do not merit this everlasting
may stand and increase in the full and unshaken           glory; we do not receive it because of anything in or
consciousness of the hope; may stand, as a rock, in       of us. We receive it as an inheritance, as something
the glorious and blessed expectation of eternal life.     which the Lord gives us, in sovereign grace, only
We must have our eye continuously fixed upon the          for Jesus' sake, as something which is utterly de-        ,
goal, the end of the voyage or journey, the haven.        pendent, not upon me or my faith, but wholly and
We must walk and struggle with that eternal hope          absolutely upon the unchangeable faithfulness of


388                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



my God, revealed in and founded upon Jesus Christ            How urgent is this admonition of the apostle! We
my Lord. This inheritance is a good whose posses-          read: "And we desire." Here we have in the  origi-
sion in everlasting glory depends exclusively upon         nal'a very strong expression. We read literally: we
the eternally Faithful One Who promised it to me.          have set our heart upon it. We, the apostles, ambas-
  These promises we inherit through faith and pa-          sadors of our Lord Jesus Christ, we all desire, have
tience. We must, of course, inherit these promises         set our hearts upon this, that you, all of you, be-
through faith. Fact is, our Lord Jesus Christ has          loved, show the same diligence to stand in the full
merited this everlasting and immortal glory. We            assurance of hope, even unto the end. Do not say,
can, therefore, receive these promises, not because        therefore, that we must not proceed from election
of our faith, as its ground, but only through faith in     or must not live out of election. Do not say that we
Christ Jesus, because of His atoning and meritori-         must not stand in the full assurance, consciousness
ous suffering and death. Besides, we cannot see            of the hope, that to doubt is an earmark of piety.
that life. That life is heavenly and we are earthly;       Speaking thus, we strike directly at the heart of the
besides, judging things in the light of what we see,       apostles of our Lord. Fact is, we desire, have set our
we would surely conclude that we will never ob-            hearts upon this, that you all, every one of you,
tain these promises of the Lord. And, therefore, we        stand in the full assurance of hope.
understand that we can inherit these promises only           Fact is, we desire that ye become not slothful.
through faith, inasmuch as faith is the substance of       "Slothful" stands here in contrast to the "full assur-
things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen,        ance of hope." This word means: slow, lazy, indo-
the unshaken reliance upon God whereby we                  lent. The opposite of "slothful" is that we with up-
know that that hope which we cannot see, will be           lifted head expect, reach out unto the eternal hope,
bestowed upon us for Jesus' sake, because of God's         assured of our eternal salvation, and bearing all suf-
unchangeable faithfumess.                                  fering for the sake of the inheritance. "Slothful" is
  And to this the holy writer adds "and patience."         spiritual sluggishness. Then we have no spiritual
This patience receives undoubtedly the emphasis            joy and cheerfulness, no assurance, no walking
in this second half of Hebrews 6, inasmuch as in           with uplifted head, no certainty but doubt, no seek-
verse 15, in connection with the example of Abra-          ing of that which is above; then we appear to be
ham, we read only of patience. Literally we read           lifeless, as it were, with respect to our eternal salva-
here of "long-suffering." Patience here means              tion. 0, we may then be able to discuss the stock
"long of courage or spirit," or literally "breath." It     market, and many things of this present time. But
presupposes suffering and opposition, that one re-         when the things of the eternal inheritance are men-
strains himself, checks himself, and this in the           tioned, we become strangely quiet. We are slothful,
midst of various afflictions. Long-suffering, closely      lazy, sluggish, apparently wholly indifferent.
related to patience, emphasizes suffering and ad-            Indeed, we desire that ye do not become slothful.
versity. It refers to that power of faith whereby we       On the contrary, we show forth the same diligence
willingly bear all suffering and affliction, even unto     to stand in the hope, to walk with uplifted head, to
the end, and that in spite of all the powers that op-      fix the eye upon the things that are above, that as
pose us.                                                   strangers and pilgrims in the midst of the world we
  Indeed, how necessary is this faith, yea this pa-        may be traveling to the city that has foundations,
tience or long-suffering through faith, if we are to       the city of our God.
continue in the full assurance of hope even unto the         Be not spiritually lethargic.
end. Are not all things apparently against us? Think
of all the suffering of this present time, in general        Stand consciously in the full assurance of hope.
and also for Jesus' sake! Then, there is the biting          Only, as inheriting it through faith and patience.
sarcasm of the mockers, who ridicule the Lord's
promise of His coming, as in II Peter 3. We may also
speak of the deceiving and enticing offers of riches
and enjoyments if only we decide to follow no
longer the example of those who inherit the Prom-               The Standard Bearer
ise. And, finally, think of all the false philosophy of
our present day and age! Indeed, much is required            makes a thoughtful gift
to keep one's eye, unbrokenly, upon the eternal
haven, to stand in the full assurance of the eternal
hope. This is possible only through faith and pa-                for many occasions.
tience, with our eye fixed upon the unchangeable
faithful God of our salvation. He'alone can save us
even unto the end.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              389



EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



       The Calling of Our Protestant Reformed
                            Churches to be Specific (3)

  We are in the process of answering the question:          cals" and  "neo-evangelicals" -due undoubtedly,
in what sense are we called to be specific?                 in part, to the fact that these very classifications are
  To be specific is not the same as being distinc-          so broad and umbrella-like that they spontaneously
tive. It rather implies and presupposes that we are         require further classifications when various differ-
distinctive, that we do occupy a singular position as       ences in the very broad class come to light. But in
churches. And it means that in clear, pointed, un-          this classification one finds, of course, all kinds of
ambiguous, exact, and antithetical language we              Arminians, Baptists, Methodists, Dispensationalists,
give expression to our distinctive Protestant Re-           Pentecostalists, and even sometimes  Roman.
formed position.                                            Catholics. And there is a wide variety of both de-
                                                            nominational groups (sometimes very loosely con-
  Last time we emphasized that we are called to be          nected and congregationalistic in polity) and inde-
specific, in the first place, in distinction from and       pendent or undenominational churches (who some-
over against all modernism and the modernistic              times associate with one another without having
church.                                                     formal ecclesiastical ties). Besides, in our day there
  Narrowing things down further, we now empha-              are some break-away denominations who, though
size that it is our calling to be specific, secondly, in    they have split from larger, mainline denomina-
distinction from what may be termed orthodox                tions which have become thoroughly liberal, do not
Christianity in general.                                    themselves represent a thorough and complete
  By orthodox Christianity in general I mean the            return to their original confessions, but are little
church in as far as it still confesses the great truths     more than "fundamentalist" or "evangelical."
to which I referred in my May 15 editorial, the             They are not distinctively Reformed or Presbyteri-
truth that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, the       an, but only in a rather general sense evangelical.
truth of the vicarious atonement of our Lord Jesus            Now in distinction from such generally orthodox
Christ, the truth of Christ's Godhead, of His incar-        groups, we must be specific. In distinction from
nation, of His bodily resurrection, of His personal         them we are Refowned!
second coming, the truths which modernism                     What does that mean?
denies and grossly distorts. This orthodox Chris-
tianity is represented by those who stand, general-           It implies, of course, that we stand historically in
ly, on the basis of the Apostolic Confession, who           the line of those great churches of the Reformation
distinguish themselves, as we do, from the modern-          which trace their doctrinal and spiritual descent
ists. In fact, they often emphasize the great truths        from the Reformation as it took place under Calvin.
of historic Christendom.                                    And this, in turn, implies that we emphasize espe-
                                                            cially two great truths. The first is the truth of the
  There is, of course, a very broad spectrum of             absolute sovereignty of God in the salvation of His
churches included in this second classification. In-        people. Fundamental here is the truth of sovereign,
cluded are those who are sometimes referred to as           double predestination. This truth is the heart of the
Fundamentalists, a name that has somewhat fallen            church! As Reformed, therefore, we are-and are
into disuse in our day, but which was and is used to        called to be-specific over against all Arminianism.
refer to those who hold to the "fundamentals"               This is important: for so-called orthodox Christiani-
mentioned above, and that, too, in distinction from         ty today is simply shot through with Arminianism.
the modernists. In our day it has become more               As soon as one steps outside of the rather limited
common to refer to a very broad class of churches           sphere of Reformed churches today, the degree to
as ' `evangelical. ' ' And in recent years there has        which he finds Arminianism in the churches today
even been a distinction made between  "evangeli-            is simply appalling!


3io                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  The second of these great truths is the truth of       formed it is to maintain this truth, and to do so in
God's covenant. This is a central truth. It is the       distinction from all Baptists and dispensationalists.
truth that God establishes His covenant of                 To be specific in this respect is our calling.
friendship with believers and their seed, with His
elect, in the line of continued generations.  Re-                          (to be continued)


               Our 1983 Synod-On the Agenda


  By the time most of you read this, the Synod of        The report of the Student Aid Committee, the com-
our Protestant Reformed Churches will already            mittee charged with administering financial aid for
have accomplished some of its work; and, in view         our seminary students. 3) An overture about stu-
of the slowness of our postal service, perhaps in        dent aid from our Southwest Church, which,
some instances you will read this when most, if not      however, comes without the adherence of  Classis
all, of synod's work will be finished. For this year     East.
our synod will convene on Wednesday, June 1, the           Undoubtedly a large part of synod's time will
very date when this issue of our Standard Bearer is      have to be devoted to the Report of the Domestic
scheduled to appear. However, due to the fact that       Mission Committee. Looming large on the agenda
our  Agenda  is not published until early May, it is     in this respect are: 1) Matters pertaining to Jamaica,
not possible to furnish a preview of synod any           including a proposal of policy and a proposal to call
earlier than this. And since we usually make a           a missionary to labor in Jamaica. 2) Matters pertain-
rather detailed report  afier  synod has met, we will    ing to the labors in Birmingham, Alabama and
now furnish a very condensed preview.                    Ripon, California. 3) Matters pertaining to the
  First on the program for our 1983 Synod will be        labors of Missionary S.  Houck. 4) A matter
the examination of two young men who have com-           involving a jurisdictional dispute concerning the
pleted their seminary training, Messrs. Barry  Grit-     rights and duties of the local churches in mission
ters  -and Kenneth Hanko. Each must preach a             work. 5) Matters pertaining to the labors in New
sermon before synod, must submit written exegesis        Zealand.
of Old Testament and New Testament passages,
and must be examined orally in several branches of         The Foreign Mission Committee Report includes
theology. This work will undoubtedly take up most        a favorable report concerning Missionary den
of the first three days of synod's meetings. Gradua-     Hartog's labors in Singapore and concerning our
tion of our two candidates-to-be will take place,        "baby sister" church there, the ERCS. Also
D.V., on June 7 at our Hope, Walker Church.              included is a report concerning tape programs and
                                                         book distribution in various other places. There are
  While on the subject of the examinations, I may        two proposals which require synodical action. One
add that other items related to our seminary will be     is a request for what amounts to standby
before synod. These include: 1) The Report of the        permission for Doon to call a second missionary for
Theological School Committee. Much of this report        Singapore should this prove necessary and accepta-
is routine. Some items of special interest are: a) A     ble to the Session of the ERCS. The other is a re-
proposal to strengthen the academic standards of         quest for offerings for the Singaporean Seminarian
our seminary. b) A proposal that in the future "All      Fund, i.e., to help with the support of Jaikishin
unrestricted and/or undesignated gifts and bequests      Mahtani.
received in excess of $500.00 will be deposited in a
Gifts and Bequests Fund and will be used" for ex-          The Contact Committee reports especially about
penditures serving the long-term needs of the            its contacts with the Evangelical Presbyterian
school and for the establishment of a faculty devel-     Churches of Australia, the Reformed Presbyterian
opment fund. This proposal was occasioned by the         Church of Ireland, and the Reformed Presbyterian
receipt of two bequests to the seminary in recent        Church of North America. The latter church will
years. c) A report of the admission of a new  pre-       have a visitor-delegate to our synod, and the
seminary student, Mitchell Dick. d) A report that        Contact Committee expects to visit the  RPCNA's
the Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore is          synod and confer with their representatives later
sending to us for training Mr. Jaikishin Mahtani. 2)     this summer.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               391



  For the rest, most of the committee reports are          Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Athanasian Creed,
rather routine, though, I may caution, these routine       with a brief historical introduction to each creed."
reports involve matters which are crucial to the on-         B&ides, synod will have to make several deci-
going life and labors of our denomination. Routine         sions concerning subsidies for needy churches,
does not mean unimportant and unnecessary!                 concerning budgets for the various denominational
  Three more items may be mentioned: 1) An                 activities, and concerning assessments for the new
appeal by a member of Lynden concerning the de-            fiscal year.
cision of  Classis West regarding a case in Lynden           Without a doubt, it will be a busy week and a
concerning the rights and privileges of the office of      half for the delegates.
believers in regard to the approbation of nominees
for the office of elder or deacon. 2) An overture            May our gracious covenant God bless the dele-
from Hull concerning membership of the Domestic            gates in their labors, and be pleased to use also the
Mission Committee, an overture which comes                 labors accomplished by our synod for the mainte-
without the adherence of  Classis West. 3) An              nance and furtherance of the cause of His church
overture from South Holland, with the adherence            and of our churches in their place in His Zion.
of Classis  West, to include in our Psalter, "the three       We will try to include a rather detailed report of
early-church Trinitarian Creeds: The Apostles'             synod's decisions in our July 1 issue.
MYSHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                             Our Order of Worship
                                                  Prof. H. Hanko


  The question of liturgy has always intrigued me.         to be of such a kind that liturgy is once more often
I mean especially questions of liturgy which belong        taking a dominant place in the worship services, to
to what we call our order of worship. This interest        the extent that it is crowding out the preaching.
includes the elements and order of worship as they         Preaching receives less and less time while liturgy
were practiced in the early apostolic and  post-           receives a greater share of the available minutes
apostolic church, as gradually they were changed           spent in the worship of God.
by the Romish Church until it became a highly li-             Another thing which struck me is that our own
turgical church with liturgy replacing the preaching       congregations have, over the past several years,
of the Word, as radical and significant changes            made a number of significant changes in the order
were made at the time of the Reformation and as            of worship and in the elements to be included in
these liturgical changes developed in different            the liturgy of the church. I well remember the time
branches of the churches of the Reformation - the          when it made no difference what Protestant Re-
Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, and, later, the          formed congregation we worshipped in: the liturgy,
Baptist branches.                                          i.e., the order of worship, was the same. One felt
  Recently, in Hope Church, the monthly-held dis-          immediately at home and did not have to guess
cussion groups on the evening of the Lord's Day            what was coming next in the order of worship. All
turned their attention to these questions of the           was like it was in one's home congregation. But
order of worship. I think that the material came           now things are different. Perhaps I notice that espe-
originally from Faith Church, but the discussion           cially because I have opportunity to preach in
group in which we participated was a very lively           many of our congregations; and I have to be sure,
group that evening and a great deal of interest was        while I am sitting in the Consistory room prior to
shown in these questions; and my interest was once         the service, to check on the order of worship print-
again quickened.                                           ed on the back of the bulletin and consult with one
  A number of things struck me as we were discus-          of the elders concerning any unique elements in
sing these things. One thing which struck me was           their practices so that I do not bungle what is the
the obvious fact, known  toI all, that the Protestant      adopted order of worship in the congregation
churches are undergoing radical liturgical change          where I am a guest preacher.
in our day. And these liturgical changes seem to me           Yet another thing which struck- me is that


      392                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



      changes are often made in the order of worship for         church polity and of liturgy are outside the scope of
      the mere sake of change. There is little knowledge         Scripture's regulative principles. While it may be
      and understanding of various rather important              true, so it is said, that the apostolic church had cer-
      questions which arise in this area. People do not al-      tain kinds of rules of church polity and liturgy,
      ways know  why  various elements are included in           these were adaptations to the time and are not rules
      the order of worship; they do not know  why                which govern the church twenty centuries later.
      changes are made; they do not know what purpose            They are in Scripture because they give us informa-
      each element serves in the worship service; what is        tion concerning how the church at that time adjust-
      the history of many of our practices; why in some          ed to her circumstances and lived her life in the
      cases changes are beneficial and in others they are        most effective way. But these rules are not norma-
      not. `It is not even always clear exactly how a par-       tive for us.
      ticular practice is  worship,  i.e., how some of the         This is not true. Scripture is not only the rule and
i.    things we do in the worship services constitute an         norm of what we must believe in order to be saved,
      act of worship - the worship of our God. And the           but it is also the rule of our life  - it is the rule of
      old Dutch proverb came to mind: alle verundering is        faith and life. And what part of our life is as impor-
      geen verbe tering, i.e., change is not necessarily im-     tant as that part we spend in church on the Lord's
      provement.                                                 Day worshipping our God? To Scripture we must
        And so the thought came to mind that it would            turn for guidance in these matters, and our worship
      be worth our while to discuss these matters in the         must be in harmony with the revealed will of God.
      Standard Bearer. We ought to know and understand             But having said this, it is also true that Scripture
      clearly not only why we worship God on the Lord's          does not prescribe our worship in such detail that
      Day, but why we worship God in the way that we             there is no room for differences. Scripture tells us
      do. And if we make changes in our order of wor-            that singing belongs to the worship, but it does not
      ship, we ought to understand why these changes             tell us where in the worship service we ought to
      are made and we ought to consider the question of          sing nor how often we should turn  `to our song
      whether these changes are conducive to a better            books. Reading from Scripture ought to be included
      worship of God. Our worship of God ought to be in-         in the worship service, but where in the order of
      telligent: we ought to know what we are doing and          worship this reading takes place is not prescribed.
      understand as much as we can the reason for doing          Whether to sing doxologies before or after the ser-
      what we do.                                                vice (or in both places) or, for that matter, whether
        Now the field of liturgy is a very broad one and         to sing doxologies at all is not made a rule in the
      includes many different elements which we do not           Word of God. Many things are left to the judgment
      propose to discuss, at least for the time being, in        and discretion of the church to decide for herself.
      these articles. For example, liturgy includes also the     There is liberty and there must be liberty in these
      use of our Liturgical Forms such as the Form for the       matters.
      Administration of Holy Baptism, the Form for Ex-             This does not mean that there is no rule at all,
      communication, etc. We are not of a mind, at least         that we can make changes willy-nilly, without
      for the present, to discuss these matters. We want         rhyme or reason, just because we happen to feel
      to concentrate on what is generally known as, The          like making changes or happen, subjectively, to like
      Order of Worship: what the minister does and says,         a certain thing. There is one general rule which has
      what the officebearers do, what the congregation           to be followed:  the edification of the church.
      does. And we want to discuss why these things are          Whatever changes are made in the liturgy, within
      done and what order these things are to be carried         the framework of Scripture's injunctions in these
      out to make our worship conform as much as possi-          matters, must be justified on the basis of this prin-
      ble to the Scriptures. It is our hope that these arti-     ciple. We change something because we are con-
      cles will provoke discussion and debate within our         vinced that it will better serve the edification of the
      churches, in the societies, discussion groups,             congregation at worship. If we cannot do that, we
      among our people, and in our Consistory rooms. If          ought not to change.
      the result is that our worship becomes more intelli-          But the fact remains that there is room for differ-
      gent, more meaningful, then the efforts will not           ences of opinion on many of these questions. I am
      have been in vain.                                         not against change, and there are times when
        Having said all this, it ought to be immediately         change is eminently desirable. What I am asking
      evident that the norm for our order of worship             for is that change be done intelligently and with
      ought to be Scripture itself. There are those who          good reason; that we know what we are doing and
      deny this. It is argued that, while Scripture is the       why we are doing something. And this means that
      norm and rule of what we must believe, it does not         we know something about what Scripture says
      give us the rule for ecclesiastical life. Principles of    about these things; that we know something about


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         393



the history of various elements in our order of wor-             church of the past and we trace our ecclesiastical
ship, that we know something about the impor-                    and theological roots back to that church of the
tance of worship itself in the church of our Lord                past. We have a tradition, after all; and that tradi-
Jesus Christ.                                                    tion includes not only our doctrine-although that
  As we discuss these things in future articles I do             most importantly-but also our liturgical heritage.
not expect that you will always agree with me. Nor               And our liturgical heritage includes not only our
is that necessary. There are some things which  `I               liturgical forms, but also our order of worship. We
prefer which you may not prefer, and there are                   ought never to cast all this lightly aside. Our
things which you prefer which seem to me to be                   fathers, after all, were much more sensitive to prop-
not conducive to the true worship of God "in Spirit              er worship of God than we often are; they were
and in truth." These disagreements are healthy,                  called upon to develop their liturgy over against
and they will be healthy if only we know why we do               Rome and to worship under the pressure of perse-
what we do and prefer what we prefer.                            cution. They knew what they were doing and why
                                                                 they were doing what they did.
  There is another area here which we ought not to
forget, and that is our historical heritage. I am fully            This does not make what they did specially holy
aware of the fact that we ought not to do things-in              and does not surround their actions with a halo of
our worship services also-just because they were                 infallibility, but it ought, at the very least, to give us
always done this way. We must never worship out                  pause as we consider changes. And one question
of custom or habit, merely because, well, that's the             which we ought always to face therefore is: Can we
way it was always done. This is not adequate justifi-            improve on what they have done? That question
cation for anything. And we do very wrong if we sit              always remains an important one.
tight on past custom. But there is another side to                 So, we shall turn to the subject.
this coin equally as important. We are part of the

ALLAROUND US
Rev; G. Van Baren


                       Alcoholism and Drunkenness

  A recent issue of the  Banner  contained a  heart-                   Is there really such a difference between a drunkard
wrenching account by Gertrude  Haan about an                         and an alcoholic? Surely when the Bible warns that
alcoholic. It was an account worth reading.                          drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor.
However, in a later issue of the  Banner  (4/25/83),                 6:lO; Gal. 5:21), it is not talking about one who occa-
Rev. J. Tuininga, in a letter to "Voices," presents a                sionally falls into such a sin, but rather about one who
legitimate criticism against part of that presenta-                  lives  in such a sin. And what about Proverbs  23:29ff?
tion. He objects to the presentation that "alcohol-                    The fact that the Bible warns us indicates that God
ism" is principally a "disease" or "disease orient-                 holds us responsible for this sin, and that it is there-
ed." He states:                                                     fore not merely a disease. The Bible does not warn us
                                                                     about contracting leprosy or cancer.
      I realize that it behooves one to exercise restraint in
   making judgments about alcoholism, but it seems to                  Alcoholism is indeed a terrible and mystifying
                                                                    bondage, but we do not really help its victims by
   me that Gertrude  Haan  is too "disease oriented'                claiming that it is only a disease.
   about alcoholism  (3/21/83).  I find the same weakness
   in the book of Dr. A.C. De Jong.


                           Who, Then, Shall be Saved

  The above issue of the  Banner  presents another               fancy. What he writes is not especially new, yet it is
interesting, yet disturbing, article by Dr. Richard S.           strange when it appears in a Reformed periodical.
Wierenga, a retired dentist. He writes about the sal-            He states his position very briefly:
vation of infants, perhaps all infants, who die in in-


394                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



         We have gravitated, somehow, to the position that                 words of Psalm  2:4, "He who sits in the heavens
       most of the inhabitants of heaven are adults who died               laughs; the Lord has them in derision."
       in the faith. But is this true?                                                . ..A second reason, and for me a very compelling
         My position is that (I) the majority of the inhabi-               one, is the following. If we know anything about Sa-
       tants of heaven are those who died in infancy or early              tan from the Scriptures, it is that he tries to taunt God
       childhood; (2) unbelievers' children who die in infan-              . . . .
       cy or early youth ccan be saved; (3) many, if not all, of
       unbelievers' children who die in  .infancy or early                 If only believers and their children are saved, Satan
       childhood are saved. I will elaborate on, and try to de-            will be able to say after the last judgment, "I took the
       fend, these three propositions.                                     majority of the members of the human race with me."
  The first proposition can possibly stand. It might                       But if unbelievers' children who die in infancy or at
                                                                           an early age are saved, as well as children of believers,
be only a matter of speculation, but the possibility                       then the vast majority of the members of the human
exists that "the majority of the inhabitants of                            race are saved and the taunter is forever silenced.
heaven are those who died in infancy or early child-                       Then, too, the promises given to Abraham are ful-
hood." The second and third propositions are more                          filled: "In your posterity (that is, Christ, according to
disturbing. In essence, Wierenga states that most (if                      Gal. 3: 16) shall all the families of the earth be blessed"
not all) of unbelievers' children, dying in infancy                        (Acts 3:25, as well as other places)....
shall go to heaven. One can assume, I believe, that
his position would also be that all children of be-                       One regrets that a magazine which has purported
lieving parents, who die in infancy, are brought to                     to be a defender of the Reformed faith, increasingly
heaven. He presents some Scriptural references to                       includes articles which are inimical to that Re-
support his propositions. With respect to proposi-                      formed faith. There are plenty of magazines which
tion two, he states:                                                    will print the un-Reformed and heretical. Let Re-
                                                                        formed magazines defend the Reformed faith-and
         . ..Divine revelation, as given in I Kings  14:1-13,           not create doubt and confusion in the rninds of the
       supports this view. This passage tells us that Abijah, a         readers as to what is and what is not Reformed.-
       son of Jeroboam, was sick. Jeroboam was an unbeliev-
       er and an idolator who was cursed of God for turning               The writer presents in his article the same kinds
       his back upon God (v. 9). Abijah, the son of unbeliev-           of appeals to human "feelings" and philosophical
       ing parents, died, and the Bible tells us that he died           reasonings and distortions of Scripture which have
       "because in him there is found something pleasing to             commonly been made when this subject is intro-
       the Lord, the God of Israel..." (v. 13). What is pleasing        duced. The Reformed man must not be swayed by
       or good in the child?. . . There is only one  thing  that can    t h e s e .
       be pleasing to the Lord, and that was expressed to
       Nicodemus in John 3:i-15.  It is to be born again and to           A host of questions and thoughts arise in re-
       be engrafted by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.         sponse to the article. If the writer is correct, one
                                                                        would suppose that every Christian could really
  For this third proposition, Wierenga presents                         wish that all his children died in infancy. There
various arguments. He quotes from Matthew 19:14,                        would then be the certainty of glory in heaven.
"Let the children come to Me and do not hinder                          Those who grow up do not always remain in the
them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." He                    faith. Should we not desire the death of our
points too to Matthew 11:25-26 where Jesus speaks                       children then, for the sake of their eternal well-
of revealing the things of the kingdom to babes. He                     being? Further, if the writer is correct, there are far,
refers, further, to Revelation  59 where we learn                       far more brought to heaven through the death of in-
"that the saved inhabitants of heaven are made up                       fants than through the work of the missionaries
of `every tribe and tongue and people and nation. ' `I He               who preach at great sacrifice and at great expense
insists that "there are many tribes and nations that                    to the church. If only the missionaries would stay
have never heard the message of the gospel. How                         away from the heathen, if only world-relief organi-
then can they be saved?. . . The only conclusion I                      zations would not try to improve the health-condi-
can come to is that this indicates the salvation of                     tions and alleviate poverty among the  heathen-
children who die in infancy or early youth." The                        then likely far more children would die in infancy
writer presents two final considerations:                               and enter glory.
         The first concerns abortions recorded in the United              And what of that horror of abortion? If the writer
       States and Canada. Last year (1982) there were one               is correct, and most or all aborted babies go to glory
       and one-half million recorded abortions in the United            -what a wonderful thing abortion turns out to be!
       States (Canadian statistics unavailable). Probably
       many more are not even given in the statistics. Is               Though it may be murder, the Christian could only
       there a divine irony here that we are missing? Many              hope the world continues this murderous practice!
       are saying to the unborn, "We have no room for you               One might even pray God that the practice might
       on earth." Is God saying, "Come to My home, I have               grow-if only to bring more into heaven. But what
       room  for you in My mansions." Do you hear the                   a terrible thought this is!


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              395



  Nor does the writer explain his hedging on the          have taken  even one  of God's elect into hell with
issue when he insists that most,  if not all, children    him. Scripture constantly testifies that God does
of unbelievers are saved when dying in their infan-       not work on the basis of "majorities."
cy. If most, why not aZZ? Let it then be aZZ-but that        Positively, let us understand a couple of things.
must be shown from Scripture.                             First, God gathers His people in the line of genera-
  The arguments of Wierenga from Scripture cer-           tions within the covenant God establishes (Gen.
tainly are not support for his propositions. As far as    l7:7; Acts 239).  And in Scripture, when the head of
Abijah, the son of Jeroboam is concerned, a far           the household believed, he and his househozd were
more reasonable explanation can be given than that        baptized. The adult, first, is brought into the church
children of unbelievers are saved when they die in        before  one can speak of the salvation of infants
infancy. Consider first, Israel is the people of the      (which baptism does). Nor does Scripture tell us that
Lord, the people of the covenant, though they had         every child of believers, dying in infancy, is saved.
separated from Judah and the temple and line of           In Genesis and Romans 9 are mentioned Jacob and
David. The Word of God through prophecy still             Esau. Of the twin sons of Isaac, only one is saved.
came there. Consider, secondly, that this son of          Though neither died in infancy, surely the
Jeroboam was indeed a "child" but likely not a            principle of election and reprobation carries
baby. One can, then, come far more easily to the          through also with infants dying in infancy. Also
conclusion that Abijah (though born of unbelieving        Canons  1:17 speaks of not doubting the election
parents) was also born in the line of the covenant.       and salvation of one's children who die in infancy-
He is not one born of the heathen nations about Is-       but it does not explicitly state that every single one
rael. Further, though Scripture presents no details,      is brought to glory.
he could well have heard the Word of the Lord and            With respect to the heathen, let it be clearly un-
believed-he was no baby but a "child" or youth.           derstood that salvation is in the knowledge of God
Why not? Such often occurs in the history of this         and of Jesus Christ His Son (John  17:3).  Without
world.                                                    that knowledge, there  is not  eternal life. Without
  The writer, in speaking of the "babes" of whom          that knowledge, there is no part or place in the
are the kingdom of heaven, and of the gathering of        covenant of God. And outside of that covenant of
God's people from all nations and tongues, presents       God with His people, there is no basis whatsoever
an altogether farfetched explanation. It does not         for maintaining that infants or children, dying in in-
even need refutation, I think.                            fancy, shall be saved. They are outside even of the
  His argument about Satan claiming victory if the         sphere of the covenant.
"majority of the members of the human race are               Let us never, then, appeal to human sympathy
with me" is nonsense. If the argument were true,          when judging who are, and who are not, in heaven.
then Satan could claim victory if even one of the          God's Word stands. His people, elect from eternity
human race were taken with him to hell. Why               in Christ, are surely saved. With that, let us be
could he claim victory only if the majority were          content-and thank God for His goodness and
taken? No; in the day of judgment the triumph of          mercy.         _
God in Christ will be evident in that Satan will not
IN HIS FEAR


   The Practical Implications of Calvinism(I1)
                                              Rev. Arie den Hartog



  As Calvinist and Reformed Christians our lives           and prone to all manner of evil. Such is our natural
ought especially to be characterized by true godly         condition from our very birth. We know that not
humility. Our doctrine teaches us the awfulness of         only are our evil deeds dreadful in the sight of God
our sin. We do not believe that our sin is merely a       but our corrupt nature is also an abomination in His
matter of a few sinful acts that we do occasionally.      holy sight. So perfectly holy and righteous is our
Rather we believe that we are totally depraved,            God that He hates our sin with all of His infinitely
wholly incapable of any good in the sight of God           perfect being. As sinners therefore we cannot stand


396                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



in the presence of this holy God. Because of our sin      God to be saved with wonderful and everlasting
we are miserable and wretched and damn-worthy             salvation. He has been chosen to dwell with God
according to the righteous judgment of God. The           forever in the presence of His infinite glory and .
Reformed Christian is deeply conscious of his             majesty. The knowledge of this truth above all
sinful nature and this humbles him to the dust in         causes the Reformed Christian to fall down in
the presence of God. Very few others, including           humble adoration and awe before his God. The Re-
those who call themselves Christians, have such a         formed Christian knows that there is absolutely
view of themselves. The world and even nominal            nothing in himself that moved God to choose him
Christendom. boasts of the inherent goodness of           while rejecting others. This is cause for ceaseless
man and of his great dignity. Modern liberal Chris-       praise and daily humility for the Reformed Chris-
tianity emphasizes that we must have a positive  self-    tian. Surely this ought to be reflected in our practi-
image. The truly Reformed Christian counts                cal lives!
himself with the apostle Paul as the chief of sin-           Finally, the Reformed Christian ought to be hum-
ners. His self-image is that of a miserable wretched      ble because his doctrine teaches him about his con-
and unworthy sinner. From his lips arise no boast-        tinual and absolute dependence on God. As Calvin-
ing and glorying at all. The consciousness of his sin-    ists we believe in God's preservation and our resul-
ful nature daily humbles him in the presence of his       tant perseverance. But we know that this is em-
God. It also humbles him in the presence of his fel-      phatically God's preservation. It remains forever
low man. The Reformed Christian knows that he is          true that God alone must preserve us. All of our
by nature no better than the worst of his fellow          strength is in the Lord alone. Without the Lord we
man. He therefore finds in himself no reason at all       can do nothing. Practically that means that the Re-
to exalt himself over others nor to condemn others        formed Christian is never heard boasting of his own
with self-righteous contempt. If we are truly Re-         strength and faithfulness. He knows that if God
formed Christians this attitude about ourselves will      were to let him stand even for one moment in his
be reflected in all our dealings with our fellow man.     own strength he would surely fall. Therefore the
  As Calvinists we know that even though we are           Reformed Christian is one who earnestly depends
Christians we are still very imperfect. This too. is      upon his God. This too is reflected in his practical
cause for humility on our part. Our continuing sin        life. It is reflected in the earnestness and frequency
is highly offensive in the sight of our holy God. It      of his prayer. It is reflected also in the frequency
often interrupts our experiences of the favor and         and the manner in which he goes up to the house of
blessing of God upon our lives and separates us           the Lord. The Reformed Christian knows that the
from the blessed presence of God. The Reformed            preaching of the Word is God's chief means of
Christian therefore often is downcast in his soul         grace to him. Knowing that his strength is alone in
and is often heard crying out of the depths of his sin    God the Reformed Christian seeks the preaching of
and misery to his God for mercy. The life of the          the Word not as it is the word of mere men but as it
truly Reformed Christian is filled with godly             is the Word of God Himself, which is powerful and
sorrow for his sin and daily repentance unto God.         effectual to save him.  ' The Reformed Christian
This can surely be heard in every prayer of the Re-       comes to God's house faithfully again and again to
formed Christian. Though most who call                    be admonished and corrected in his sin, to be
themselves Christians today would hardly ever be          strengthened in all of his weaknesses, and comfort-
heard praying a prayer of deep sorrow and repen-          ed in all of his sorrows. He knows how deeply he
tance over their sin, the prayer of the Reformed          needs all of this for his daily life.
Christian is constantly filled with this matter. The
Reformed Christian will be long and frequently on            The Reformed Christian has a deep sense of the
his knees sorrowing before God because of the             urgency of living a separate and holy life. Again this
greatness of his sin. Not to pray about this or to        is rooted in his doctrine. He knows what it means
pray mere formal prayers is wholly inconsistent           that God is holy. He knows that the world in which
with Reformed doctrine.                                   he lives is totally perverse and wicked. There is
                                                          therefore need for him to live radically different
  There is one point of Reformed doctrine that            from the world, even spiritually opposite to it. The
above all others is reason for humility. It is the        Reformed Christian knows that at no point can he
great truth of God's sovereign and gracious elec-         make common cause with the world, at no point
tion. The Reformed Christian knows from his doc-          can he become unequally yoked with the world. He
trine that God has chosen him in love from before         finds nothing good and nothing redeemable in this
the foundation of the world. By this wonderful gra-       wicked world. He finds it necessary to flee from
cious. election he is distinguished from all mankind      this world and to keep himself spiritually separate
as the object of the love and favor and blessing of       from it. He steadfastly refuses to follow after its
God. He has been made the particular choice of            philosophy, its evil lusts and pleasures. In all of his


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               397



purposes, desires, hopes, goals the Reformed Chris-        assurance. The Reformed Christian ought to reveal
tian reveals himself to be different from the world.       himself practically, in all of his life, as one who is
His whole manner of life reflects this. He is differ-      profoundly happy. He is one therefore who is often
ent in his home, in how he lives with his wife and         heard singing songs of joy and thanksgiving to his
family. He finds that he cannot go along with the          God. The Reformed Christian is irrepressibly
philosophy of the world that seeks to dictate what         happy and joyous. He has a certain hope and confi-
the calling of the husband and wife should be, or          dence that nothing in this world can cast any doubt j
how many children he should have, and how he               on at all. All the sorrows and hardships of this life
should raise those children. He finds that he has to       cannot in any way diminish or drown out the joy
live exactly opposite to all of the philosophy and         and confidence of the Reformed Christian because
practice of the world on this. The Reformed                his joy and confidence are found in God alone and
Christian is radically different in the manner in          in the wonderful work of His salvation in Jesus
which he conducts the daily affairs of his business        Christ. It is an awful shame when the Reformed
and occupation. While the world is characterized           Christian is found always going around with a
by wickedness, deceit, and corruption, the Re-             miserable and sad countenance.
formed Christian knows that all of his life must             Finally our Reformed doctrine ought to show it-
manifest the justice and truth of God. Practically,        self in our lives in that we are always content with
the Reformed Christian is distinct even in such            whatever our lot may be. We believe in the abso-
things as the books that he reads, the clothes that        lute sovereignty and goodness and wisdom of God.
he wears, how he spends his money, and what he             We believe that our God works absolutely every-
does for entertainment.                                    thing in our life for our good. What a tremendous
  The Reformed Christian ought to be one zealous           doctrine that is! Surely when the Reformed Chris-
unto good works. This is not something that is in-         tian constantly goes around complaining and mur-
consistent with his doctrine of salvation by grace         muring in his life he denies his faith. If he is always
alone. The Reformed Christian does not believe             complaining about the circumstances of his life, if
that his good works in any way contribute to his           he is complaining about how poor his business or
salvation. He knows that Christ Jesus has perfectly        farm is, how he doesn't get the profits he wants, if
merited his salvation and has already fulfilled all        he is not satisfied because he does not have as
righteousness for him. The Reformed Christian              much as his rich neighbor, then he may be Re-
knows also that even his best works are imperfect          formed in the doctrine he holds but it doesn't mean
and polluted with sin. Therefore there is no reason        much in his daily practical living. All murmuring
for him to boast in those good works. If he does           and complaining is totally inconsistent with Re-
good works this is only for the Reformed Christian         formed doctrine. Indeed the truly Reformed Chris-
reason for humble gratitude to God who enabled             tian ought to be one who can bear the greatest ad-
him. Yet the Reformed Christian is truly zealous to        versities and trials of this life in peace and joy and
do good works. His great desire and purpose in             confidence and thanksgiving. Because the Re-
doing good works is to show his gratitude to God           formed Christian believes that God is sovereign he
for His wonderful salvation and to reveal the glory        is sure that nothing in this life can possibly separate
of the grace of God that works in him the wonder-          him from the love of God in Christ Jesus. If he has
ful power to do good works.                                the love of God in Christ Jesus then it does not mat-
  The truly Reformed Christian manifests in his            ter if he has nothing in this world.
life a practical attitude of hope and joy and assur-         We have a wonderful doctrine, Reformed Chris-
ance. This is not inconsistent with the sorrow that        tians. That doctrine is truly the blessed, glorious,
he has over his sin. Though he has sorrow over his         and wonderful truth of God as it is revealed in the
sin he has joy and rejoicing and confidence in God.        Scriptures. Let us believe that doctrine with all our
It is not distinctively Reformed to be always in de-       heart and soul, but let us also reveal that doctrine       .
spair, to be morbid and downcast. That is in fact          practically in our daily lives for the glory of the
un-Reformed. Our doctrine teaches us of the per-           name of our God.
fection of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Though we
have sinned and do sin daily, yet there is no con-
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Christ                      Take time to
Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness for us. Though
we are weak and often fall, yet the Lord is always                read and study the .
faithful. Our final and perfect and wonderful and
glorious salvation is absolutely sure. The know-                 Standard Bearer
ledge of this doctrine ought to fill the heart and soul
of the Christian with abounding joy and confident


398                                            THE STANDARD BEARER





Protestant Reformed Fellowship in Lower Hutt (Welling-        Going to the church. Mrs. Corry van Echten and Mr. Bob
ton). Arie van Echten standing  atthe door.                   van Herk.


                           News From New Zealand

Dear Brethren and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ:           us to remain steadfast in the faith during the ab-
  Allow me, as a member of the Palmerston-North               sence of the shepherd. Our salvation lies in the
Protestant Reformed Fellowship in New Zealand,                word obedience. Until the day that Christ comes
to show you two pictures made on 17 April 1983, at            back. Outside, the light of the day slowly disap-
4:30 P.M.                                                     peared; inside the church a depressed feeling crept
                                                              in, the awareness that the hour of saying farewell
  The Fellowships of Wellington and  Palmerston-              was approaching-fast, 0, too fast.
North had come together in the church in Lower
Hutt (hired from the Lutherans) to hear the last                After the service, in the hall, a supper was orga-
sermon of Rev. John A. Heys in this country. We               nized by the ladies, very much appreciated and
were there with a lot of people-the Walter Street             enjoyed. Some of us had not seen other for years,
was filled up with all the cars. The weather was              others had never met before. But we all agreed
beautiful. With Mrs. Heys behind the organ we                 about the fact that nobody had ever brought us
were singing the  PsuIters,  as with one voice. Some          such wonderful sermons like those of Rev. Heys.
of us had tears in our eyes.                                  To God be all the praise and honour and glory, that
                                                              you decided to send him to us.
  Rev. Heys had chosen Phil. 2:12 and 13 from the                          Yours in the love of Christ,
Scriptures as the basis for his theme, encouraging                                J. P. de Klerk

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                            Missionary Methods (17)
                                                Prof. Robert D. Decker



  In the previous article we dealt with the  ques-            to have the form of church government which is
tion: upon what system of church government                   dictated by her needs and peculiar circumstances.
ought mission churches to be established? In that             (Cf. Planting and Development of Missionary Chzirch-
connection we rejected the position of John L. Nev-           es, pp. 55ff.) We emphasized that the Reformed or
ius who contended that the mission church ought               Presbyterian form of church government is based


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              399



on sound, biblical principles which belong to the         the course pursued has proved a mistake by its
eternal truth of God's Word. These principles apply       practical working.. . .But, it is asked with some con-
to the church in every nation under heaven in             fidence, What is the missionary to do? Shall we
every age. This means that the threefold office of        leave the young church without a pastor? We ask in
Christ must be there or there can be no church. The       reply, Where in the New Testament is there any
office of believer who as partaker of the anointing       intimation that the Apostles ordained pastors, in
of Christ is prophet, priest, and king must be ex-        the modern sense of that word, over the churches
pressed in the special offices of elder, deacon, and      which they formed? We read over and over again of
minister of the Word. At this point there can be no       their ordaining `elders' in every church, and that,
compromise. How can there be the church without           having done so, they left them and went elsewhere.
Christ? Christ speaks through the preaching of the        Where is there the slightest hint that, at this early
Word; He rules the flock through the office of            period, any one from among these elders was
elder; and Christ ministers His mercies to the poor       singled out and appointed by Paul -to a position like
through the office of the deacon.                         that of the modern minister or pastor of a church,
                                                          or that until such an officer was found they did not
  In this same connection we take issue with Dr.          dare to leave the church?" (pp. 61,62)
Nevius' position concerning the organization of
churches "under the charge of elders . ..without the        We certainly would agree that "to take any one
addition of a paid pastor, such as is found in most of    of our full-grown ecclesiastical systems and attempt
our Western churches" (p. 61). Nevius claims that         to set it up bodily in our heathen fields, regardless
"the appointing of such a pastor might prove injuri-      of the widely differing conditions of the case, is...a
ous rather than advantageous" (p. 61). Aside from         great mistake." To impose the entire Church Order
anything else, what is injuriousis that which is con-     of Dordrecht upon one of the Protestant Reformed
trary to Scripture, and what is advantageous for the      mission fields would indeed be a "great mistake."
church is that which Scripture enjoins. The               There are many decisions appended to many of the
question then becomes, does Scripture allow for the       articles of the Church Order, some of which are in-
instituting of a congregation with elders and dea-        terpretative of the article and others of which delin-
cons but without a pastor for an indefinite period of     eate the proper way the article is to be implement-
time? This is the position of Nevius. In support of       ed, which apply to our churches specifically and
that position Nevius quotes part of an article which      which would not apply in Singapore or Jamaica.
appeared in the "Catholic Presbyterian," November         Even the articles themselves differ. There are those
issue, 1879. This article was written by a certain        articles which set forth both principles and prac-
Dr. Kellogg, who served as a missionary in India          tices of church government which are explicitly
and later as a professor of Theology. The professor       taught and commanded in Scripture. Other articles
wrote: "We fear there is reason to think that our         contain principles and practices which are clearly
missionaries have often been in too much haste to         implied in Scripture. But there are other articles
introduce the one man pastorate of the European           which set forth rules which are neither taught nor
and American churches, and that the growth of a           condemned in Scripture, but which are based on
church bearing the true individual character of the       the peculiar needs and circumstances of our
particular people or race has been seriously retard-      churches. These regulations were adopted over the
ed. Fixed in the conviction that the primitive form       years out of sanctified common sense to meet par-
of Church government was Presbyterian, men have           ticular needs. Among these are articles which desig-
apparently jumped to the conclusion that therefore        nate how often a classis is to meet, how many dele-
the present form of Presbyterianism is the primi-         gates are to be sent to Synod, how often the Lord's
tive and Apostolic arrangement,-a point, we may           Supper is to be administered, etc. Hence to impose
venture to affirm, which has not yet been estab-          the Church Order of Dordt, with all of the decisions
lished, nor is likely soon to be. Under this belief       of our Synods, upon a mission church in a foreign
they have not only felt that if they established          land would be a mistake not only, but impossible as
churches they must give them a Presbyterian form          well. What must be emphasized, however, is that
of government-in which they have been  right-             those principles and practices set forth in the
but that it must be that particular form of develop-      Church Order which are either explicitly or implic-
ment of Presbyterian principles which has obtained        itly taught by the Word of God must be used by the
among ourselves; wherein, as it seems to us, they         church wherever it exists in the world. These apply
have been as clearly wrong. For to take any one of        in every circumstance and age. There must be the
our full-grown ecclesiastical systems and attempt to      preaching of the Word or no one is able to call upon
set it up bodily in our heathen fields, regardless of     the Lord and be saved (Romans  10:14, 15). There
the widely differing conditions of the case is, we        must be elders ordained to take the oversight of the
submit, a great mistake. . . . In too many instances,     flock and to discipline the church (I Peter 5: l-4).


400                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



There must be deacons ordained to care for the            ministry (Ephesians 4: 11-16). Both Timothy and
widows and poor (I Timothy 3:8-13). There must be         Titus were ordained preachers of the gospel. To
the administration of the sacraments according to         these faithful men the Apostle wrote letters con-
the institution of Christ. All this and more must be      taining detailed instructions for their work and call-
or the church of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be in-      ing. and for the churches they served as pastors.
stituted.                                                 The apostles, especially Paul had many helpers to
  What would constitute a great mistake is to or-         assist him in the care of the churches. John, the
ganize mission churches with elders and deacons           apostle,  pastored  the church in Ephesus. This is
but without a pastor. It is true that churches are or-    how it must be today as well. Churches organized
ganized before they have a pastor. But after organi-      without pastors will be as sheep having no shep-
zation the first item of business is to call a pastor.    herd.
Until a pastor accepts the call the pulpit is supplied       Those pastors, however, must be native pastors.
by the Seminary and/or visiting pastors of the sister     The black church needs a black pastor, the Indian
churches. This means that the missionary and send-        church an Indian pastor, the Chinese church a Chi-
ing churches may not organize a church if there is        nese pastor. The missionary must not stay in a field
no possibility in the forseeable future that that         indefinitely, nor must the sending churches send
church have its own pastor. If the latter is the case     permanent pastors to the mission churches. In
the group is not ready to be organized. The mission-      addition, those native pastors must be supported by
ary must continue his preaching and teaching.             their own churches and not by the sending
  This is the plain teaching of the Bible and was the     churches. There ought to be no subsidy coming
practice of the Apostles. The great apostle Paul          from the denomination in North America to the for-
himself, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,        eign mission churches. About this we shall have
taught that the ascended Christ gave the gift of pas-     more to say, D.V., in our next article.
tors and teachers to the church for the work of the
STRENGTH OF YOUTH


                                Our Approach to the
                          Prolblem of Alcoholism (2)
                                               Rev. Ron Cammenga


  What is the Scriptural view of alcoholism? How          he has once or twice fallen into the sin of drunken-
do the Scriptures describe this problem? First of all,    ness. But by our use of the word we do not want in
there can be no question that the Scriptures teach        any way to take away from the fact that alcoholism
us that alcoholism is sin. This is basic, both as re-     is sin.
gards our view of alcoholism itself and our ap-              The biblical proof that alcoholism is itself sinful
proach to the alcoholic. Surely, what alcoholism IS       is clear. That anyone can profess to believe in the
is going to determine what our approach must be to        authority of Holy Scripture and deny that alcohol-
this problem. To go astray here will have inevita-        ism is sin is inexcusable. In Romans 13:13 we read:
ble, bad effects on our approach to alcoholism, and       "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting
our approach will be less than biblical and really be     and drunkenness, not in  chambering and wanton-
an approach that does not have the best interests of      ness, not in strife and envying." In this passage the
the alcoholic in mind.                                    apostle describes drunkenness as a dishonest and
  From this point of view, the term "alcoholism" is       unholy walk. In more than one place Scripture
a bit unfortunate and really a euphemism. The             speaks of the impenitent drunkard as being outside
problem we're concerned with is the sin Scripture         the kingdom of heaven. I Corinthians  6:lO:  "Nor
calls "drunkenness." Nevertheless, we'll use the          thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
word "alcoholism." It does have the advantage of          nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
carrying the connotation of habitual drunkenness,         God." In Galatians  5:19-21 drunkenness is classi-
that one is addicted to alcohol, and not simply that      fied as a work of the flesh. The prophet Isaiah


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               401



warns in chapter  5:22: "Woe unto them that are             when he spoke of not being "drunk with wine."
mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to                But the excess is licentiousness, sexual excess, for-
mingle strong drink." In Proverbs  23:20, 21                nication. The effect of alcohol is that it breaks down
Solomon warns his son: "Be not among  winebib-              our natural inhibitions. This exposes us to sin
bers; among riotous eaters of flesh: for the drunk-         against the 7th commandment.
ard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and                Besides, drunkenness often leads to violent be-
drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."                   havior.,  wrecklessness,  and carelessness. Always
  Alcoholism is sin. This is our basic position on          drunkenness strains marital and family relation-
the issue of sin versus sickness as regards alcohol-        ships. It's true of drunkenness as it is of every sin,
ism. We certainly do not deny that alcoholism af-           that by our sins we hurt those the most who are
fects a man physically, that there are even serious         closest to us.
and permanent effects. Nor would we minimize the              Even the world recognizes the bad consequences
physically addictive power of alcohol. But, at              and other sins to which alcoholism leads:20% of all
bottom, alcoholism is sin. The physical disorders           deadly falls, 20% of all drownings, 20% of deaths
connected to this sin are the results of the sin itself.    by freezing, 50% of all fire deaths, and well over
The problem of alcoholism is a sin problem. This            60% of all fatal car accidents are alcohol related.
means that the alcoholic is not primarily a sick per-       Alcohol is a contributing factor in over 60% of all
son, but a person who is guilty before God, a               suicide attempts, and in over 70% of all murders
sinner. I can't help it if I catch a cold; and certainly    and violent crimes. In the large majority of child
my becoming sick is not itself sinful. This is not          abuse and spouse abuse cases, excessive drinking is
true of alcoholism.                                         a major factor.
  That alcoholism is basically a sin, implies that al-        In the third place, alcoholism is sin because of
coholism is essentially a spiritua.l problem. Basically     the damage, often permanent damage, that it does
the alcoholic doesn't need sobriety, the ability to         to the body. Drunkenness tears down the temple of
lead a normal, addictive-free life. Nor is sobriety         the Holy Spirit, which Paul says our body is in I
itself the answer to the problem. But basically the         Corinthians  6:19. Drunkenness leads to ulcers and
alcoholic needs the forgiving grace of God, a grace         cancer of the esophagus, stomach ulcers, intestinal
that comes only in the way of confession of and             ulcers; heaving drinking breaks down the lining of
breaking with sin.                                          the stomach, causes pancreatitis, hepatitis, perma-
  This position of ours, that alcoholism is sin, is a       nent and fatal liver damage, degeneration of por-
unique position. This is NOT the position of psy-           tions of the brain, damage to the central nervous
chiatrists, counselors, counseling centers, church          system, impotency, and serious birth defects in
organizations, and other groups which work with             babies born from alcoholic mothers.
alcoholics today. Both the American Medical Asso-             This, now, is the sin of alcoholism itself, and the
ciation and the American Psychiatric Association            sins with which it is connected and to which it
have designated alcoholism as a disease. The most           leads.
popular group treating alcoholics today, Alcoholics         The Approach of A.A. to the Problem of
Anonymous (hereafter A.A.), views alcoholism as             Alcoholism
an illness, an incurable illness.                             What now is to be our approach to this problem
  Secondly, alcoholism is a sin, not only because           and to the individual who has this sin problem in
alcoholism itself is sinful, but because alcoholism         his or her life? One of the most popular and wide-
leads to other sins. The Scriptures show this plain-        spread approaches to the problem of alcoholism
ly. Drunkenness often leads to immorality; for this         today is the approach of A.A.
reason the Scriptures often speak of drunkenness
and immorality in the same breath. We have only               The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous is an
to think of the wicked scheme of Lot's daughters in         international organization whose sole purpose is to
Genesis  19:32 ff., according to which they made            gain and maintain recovery from alcoholism. The
their father drunken in order to seduce him. Imme-          A.A. program is apparently the only program with
diately after his warning against drunkenness, Solo-        significant success. A.A. groups exist in nearly
mon adds in Proverbs 23 a warning against fornica-          every sizable city in the U.S. Nearly all of the treat-
tion: "Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and           ment and counseling centers in this country use
thine heart shall utter perverse things," vs. 33. In        A.A.`s approach, including most of the Christian
Ephesians  5:18 Paul exhorts: "And be not drunk             counseling centers.
with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the          A.A. originated with two men trying together to
Spirit." The "excess" to which the apostle refers is        overcome their dependency on the use of alcohol.
not excess of wine; that's been mentioned already           Bill Wilson, a businessman from New York, and a


/
     402                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



     certain Dr. Bob, a surgeon from Akron, Ohio, were                5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to an-
     introduced to each other one day by a mutual                           other human being the exact nature of
     friend. Soon they became close friends and visited                     our wrongs.
     often. Through their conversations they discovered               6. Were entirely ready to have God remove
     that both of them were struggling against depen-                       all these defects of character.
     dency on alcohol. It seemed to them that the more                7. Humbly asked Him to remove our short-
     they talked together, the more they were strength-                     comings.
     ened in their battle against alcoholism. Soon Wilson             8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed,
     and Dr. Bob began helping other alcoholics, using                      and became willing to make amends to
     as their main approach group therapy. In 1941 The                      them all.
     Saturday Evening Post  wrote a favorable article de-             9. Made direct amends to such people
     scribing, the approach and accomplishments of                          wherever possible, except when to do so
     Wilson and Dr. Bob. Almost overnight A.A. in-                          would injure them or others.
     creased from 1500 members to 8000 members. The                  10. Continued to take personal inventory
     movement continued to grow and today has an esti-                      and when we were wrong promptly ad-
     mated 750,000 members, in more than 22,000                             mitted it.
     groups in the U.S. and in 91 other countries around             11. Sought through prayer and meditation to
     the world.                                                             improve our conscious contact with God
       The approach of A.A. is summed up in what are                        as we understood Him, praying only for
     known as "The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anony-                        knowledge of His will for us and the
     mous." These "Twelve Steps" may be regarded as                         power to carry that out.
     the constitution of A.A. The "Twelve Steps" are as              12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the
     follows:                                                               result of these steps, we tried to carry
                                                                            this message to alcoholics and to practice
            1. We admitted we were powerless over al-                       these principles in all our affairs.
              cohol-that our lives had become un-
              manageable.                                         The "Twelve Steps" presents the basic approach of
            2. Came to believe that a Power greater               A.A. to the problem of alcoholism. The "Twelve
              than ourselves could restore us to sanity.          Steps" reflect  A.A.`s view of alcoholism itself and
            3. Made a decision to turn our will and our           how the problem of alcoholism can be overcome.
              lives over to the care of God, as we under-         Next time we will evaluate A.A. and its approach to
              stood Him.                                          the problem of alcoholism.
            4. Made a searching and fearless moral in-                                              . . . to be continued.
              ventory of ourselves.
     BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


                     Titus-The Holy Life of the Church
                                                       Rev. J. Kortering


                             c
       This is the third of the Pastoral Epistles which           ing the circumcision of the Gentile converts. It was
     Paul wrote, the others being I and II Timothy. He            decided to send Paul and Barnabas "and certain
     wrote this letter to Titus who was working in the            others" to Jerusalem for a conference to decide this
     church on the Island of Crete.                               issue. The "others" include Titus, according to
                                                                  Galatians 2:3. When Titus was in Jerusalem for this
     HISTORICAL OCCASION                                          conference, the Jews there wanted Titus to be cir-
       Titus is addressed in this letter as, "my own son          cumcised, but Paul refused to allow this (Gal. 2:5).
     after the common faith" (1:4). This indicates that he        The conclusion was that the Gentile converts need
     probably was a Greek Christian, converted under              not be circumcised, Acts  15:13-29; so Titus was a
     Paul's preaching. Though his name does not appear            test case.
     in the Book of Acts, he is referred to in Acts  15:2.           Titus was also involved in the work in the church
     There, mention is made of the controversy  regard-           at Corinth. According to II Corinthians  12:18, Paul


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 403



sent him to Corinth as his representative to deal          was the legendary birthplace of the Greek god
with the problems in the church there. This tells us       Zeus..
that Paul saw him as a gifted pastor who was capa-           We also learn in Acts  2:ll that "Cretes" were
ble of dealing with difficulties that arose in the         represented in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost. It
churches. He also assisted in the weekly collection        would seem natural that these converts returned
for the poor in Jerusalem (I Cor. 16:12; II Cor. 8:6).     home and thereupon were influential in organizing
Paul was eager to know if the circumstances in the         a church on the island. Paul labored with this group
church of Corinth had improved and whether they            when he traveled to them and subsequently Titus
responded to his first epistle which Titus brought to      continued the same work.
them. He learned of the results when Titus met him
in Macedonia (II Cor.  7:6, 7). He then sent Titus           It is suggested that since the subject matter is so
back again and gave him the second epistle which           similar to that of I Timothy, the letters were written
he delivered to the Corinthian church (II Cor. 8:16-       about the same time, possibly the same day. If so,
18).                                                       Paul expressed his concern for Titus who was
                                                           laboring in Crete and for Timothy who was
  Titus appears also as traveling with Paul after his      working in Ephesus. The date would also be about
release from the Roman prison and prior to his             the same, A.D. 64-67.
being taken captive a second time. During this in-
terval, Paul went to the Island of Crete and left          T H E   M E S S A G E
Titus there to "set in order the things which were           This small letter is a call for holiness in the
wanting and ordain elders in every city" (Titus 1:8).      church of the Lord Jesus. Tenney expresses it well:
According to early church tradition, Titus became          "The situation in Crete was discouraging. The
the bishop of the church of the Cretians. Paul later       church was unorganized, and its members were
informed Titus that Artemas or Tychicus would be           quite careless in behavior. If the injunctions of
sent to Crete, so Titus was free to leave and rejoin       chapter 2 are indication of what the churches need-
Paul at Nicopolis (Titus  3:12). Whether Titus did         ed, the men were lax and careless, the older women
this we cannot be sure; he did, however, join Paul         were gossips and winebibbers, and the young
in Rome from which he later went to Dalmatia (II           women were idle and flirtatious. Perhaps the
Tim. 4: 10).                                               preaching of the gospel of grace had given the Cret-
  From this we can see that Titus was a close and          ans the impression that salvation by faith was unre-
trusted co-worker with Paul He was a capable pas-          lated to an industrious and ethical life. Six times
tor, gifted with words and wisdom in dealing with          (1:16;  2:7, 14;  3:1, 8, 14) in this short epistle, good
difficult situations in the church.                        works are urged upon Christians. Although Paul
                                                           says that salvation cannot be earned by good works
  Since this letter was sent to Titus to instruct him      (3: 1) he affirms with equal vigor that believers must
in how to labor in the churches on the Island of           be careful to maintain good works. The disturbance
Crete, it quite naturally brings up the question as to     in Crete had been caused by a combination of ethi-           .
how those churches came into being. According to           cal laxity which sprang from the natural tendencies
Titus 1:5, Paul says he left Titus in Crete, indicating    of the Cretans  (1:12,  13), accentuated by disputa-
that Paul also had been there. When did Paul visit         tion over Jewish fables and commandments which
Crete? Reference is made to the fact that on his voy-      were promoted by a Judaizing group  (1:lO) who
age to Rome, after he had appealed to Caesar in            were godless  (1:16),  unruly  (l:lO), divisive  (l:ll),
order to spare his life from the angry Jews, his ship      and mercenary (1: 11). These teachers differed from
touched the Island of Crete, Acts  27:12, 13. This         those that troubled the Galatians because their
hardly seems to be the time that he would have left        error was moral perversity whereas that of the
Titus behind. Rather, it must refer to his travels         Galatians was stringent legalism. Both are con-
between the two Roman imprisonments. Paul                  demned by this epistle" New Testament Survey.
visited the Island of Crete then, helped establish a
church there, traveled on, but left Titus there to           Paul's purpose in writing this letter was twofold.
continue in the labor. Now Paul instructs Titus in         First, he wanted to encourage and help Titus deal
what he should do to help the church in Crete.             with t.he specific needs of the church in Crete.
                                                           Second, he requested that Titus leave Crete and
  The encyclopedia tells us that Crete, an island off      meet him in Nicopolis (Titus 3: 12). In carrying out
Greece situated between the Aegean and Mediter-            this purpose, Paul sets forth the need for a holy life
ranean Seas, is about 150 miles long and 20 miles          as it must be based upon doctrinal purity. Two
wide. It has many mountains and, interspersed in           passages in this letter set forth the Christian doc-
the valleys, people were able to raise crops and           trine (Titus  2:11-14  and 3:4-7). These truths are to
make a good living. The people had a reputation for        be believed not only, but must influence the mem-
evil (Titus  1:12). The highest mountain, Mt. Ida,         bers of the church unto holiness. Hence, the  Chris-


404                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



tian church must be active in discipline, to see to it            one, but be gentle to all men  (3:2). The doctrinal
that the holy life is followed, (2: 15 and 3: 11).                basis for this is that they have been delivered from
BRIEF OUTLINE                                                     former evil through the washing of regeneration
                                                                  and the renewal of the Holy Spirit through Christ
   1. Salutation (1: l-4). Paul identifies himself as an          unto the inheritance of life everlasting (3:3-7).
apostle who is called by God to bring the message
of godliness through the gospel preaching (1: l-3).                 6. Concluding exhortations to holiness  (3:8-15).
Likewise, he identifies Titus as the recipient, "mine             Believers are to maintain good works  (3:8), avoid
own son after the common faith," upon whom he                     foolish questions  (3:9), discipline heretics, for they
pronounces the blessing.                                          condemn themselves  (3:10, 11). Paul informs Titus
                                                                  that he will send  Artemas or Tychicus to Crete so
  2. He gives instruction regarding good order and                that Titus will be free to join Paul at Nicopolis. He
the need for elders in every city (1:5-g). The qualifi-           asks him to take Zenas  and Apollos along (3: 12, 13).
cations of office-bearers is listed (1:6-g).                      Ali are exhorted to do good works (3: 14). He expres-
  3. Titus must be willing to expose those false                  ses his concluding greetings (3: 15).
teachers (1: 10-16). Some are Jewish, who are ignor-              QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
ant and teach for money  (l:lO, 11). They were
quick to point out evil in others; though accurate,                 1. Review the Scriptural references to Titus and
they did not apply it to themselves (1:12, 13). They              indicate who he was and what his relationship was
heed Jewish fables and commandments of men,                       to Paul as they worked in the early church. Note
profess godliness, but deny Him in  thei works                    that the Ring James Bible at the end of 3:15 says of
(1:14-16).                                                        Titus, "ordained the first bishop of the church of
                                                                  the Cretians."
  4. Paul instructs the church to be sound in their
family and personal life  (2:1-15). The aged men                    2. What do we know about the church in Crete?
must be strong in faith and be sober  (2:1, 2); aged                3. How is this letter similar to I Timothy? How is
women must not be false accusers, but teachers of                 it different?
good things  (2:3); the young women must learn to                   4. Show that the message of holiness for the
love their husbands, be chaste, keepers at  *home                 church was important for the church in Crete and
(2:4, 5); the young men must be sober-minded,                     is just as important for our church today.
sound in speech, and live so that no one can speak
evil of them  (2:6-8);  servants must be obedient to                5. Make reference to the two doctrinal passages
and please their masters, show good  fidelny, and                 contained in this letter  (2:11-15 and 3:4-7). Explain
adorn the doctrine of God  (2:9, 10). The doctrinal               how doctrine is the basis for our Christian life.
basis for all this is in the grace of God which is in             Along this line, show that justification and sanctifi-
Christ Jesus Who redeemed and purifies us (2:  ll-                cation are inseparable.
15).                                                                6. Explain how, in light of this letter, we can say
   5. Instruction is given regarding holiness in                  that the gospel has social implications.
public life (3:1-7).  They must be subject to the mag-              7. What is the difference between foolish ques-
istrates (3: l), not be brawlers nor speak evil of any-           tions (39) and wholesome spiritual discussion?
FAITH OF OLJR FATHERS

                                                Nicene Creed
                                                      Rev. James Slopsema

Article 2 (continued)                                             Nicene Creed were based on I Corinthians  8:6:
   In Article 2 of the Nicene Creed the early church              "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of
confessed that Jesus Christ is "the only-begotten                 Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord
Son of God, begotten of the Father before all                     Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by
worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God,  be-                Him." According to this Word of God, the Lord
gotten, not made, being of one substance with the                 Jesus Christ is the One through Whom the Father
Father, by Whom all things were made."                            has created all things. All things are  of  the Father.
   We have seen that the first two articles of the                However, they are by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                             405



through Christ therefore that the Father has created      children of God." Also, John 1:12, "But as many as
all things.                                               received Him to them gave He power to become
  This fact indicates that Jesus Christ is truly God.     the sons of God, even to them that believe on His
For creation is a work of God. It is not the creature     name." As we have already seen in connection
who creates. God creates. That Jesus Christ is the        with the first article of this creed, we are the chil-
One by Whom all things were created and there-            dren of God in Jesus Christ. In Christ, we are not
fore is divine is the testimony of John l:l-3: "In the    only adopted by God to be His sons and heirs, but
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with             we are also in Jesus Christ born again. Thus we also
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the            bear God's image even as a child bears the image of
beginning with God. All things were made by Him;          his parents.
and without Him was not anything made that was              In spite of the fact that the Scriptures acknow-
made." And Who is this divine Word by Whom all            ledge many sons of God, Jesus Christ is called the
things were created? According to verse 14 of this        only-begotten  Son of God. How can this be? How
same chapter He is Christ. For `"the Word was             can Jesus be the only-begotten Son of God since we
made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld            also are the sons of God-sons not only of adoption
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the       but also who are born or begotten of God? Jesus is
Father,) full of grace and truth." To establish the       the only-begotten Son in that He is begotten of God
divinity of Jesus Christ therefore it should have         in a way that we are not. We may be begotten of
been necessary for the early church simply to con-        God. But Christ is begotten in a way that is alto-
fess her faith in "one Lord Jesus Christ...by Whom        gether different and unique. Jesus is begotten of
all things were made."                                    God in a way that no one else is or can be. In this
  However, because the deity of Jesus Christ was          sense He is the only-begotten Son of God.
being so adamantly denied by various elements               If we understand this expression in the light of
within the church, the early church was compelled         the rest of Scripture then we see that the sonship of
to spell this truth out more specifically. Hence, she     Christ is unique in that His sonship is divine. He is
added that Jesus Christ is "the only-begotten Son of      the divine Son of God. We are merely human sons.
God." This is a biblical term which, more than any          This divine character of Jesus' sonship becomes
other expression perhaps, teaches that Jesus is truly
God. But those who denied the deity of Jesus Christ       evident if we consider the fact that the Scriptures
also used this term, robbing it however of all its        often speak of Jesus as being equal with God. This
meaning. Hence, the early church felt compelled           was Jesus' own testimony of Himself and was clear-
also to explain this term further. And so she added       ly understood by the people. In response to the per-
                                                          secution of the Jews for healing a lame man on the
that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God is        Sabbath day, "Jesus answered them, My Father
"begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of       worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews
Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,          sought the more to kill Him, because He not only
being of one substance with the Father."                  had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was
  Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God. This we          His Father, making Himself equal with God  ' (John
read in five different passages of Scripture. Perhaps     5:17, 18). In John lo:30 we read the claim of Jesus,
the most well known is John  3:16: "For God so            "I and My Father are one." In response, the Jews
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten           took up stones to kill Him "for blasphemy; and be-
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not           cause that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself
perish, but have everlasting life."                       God" (verse 33). The apostle Paul also teaches the
  It is rather striking, in light of this expression,     same truth in Philippians  2:6: "Who, being in the
that the Bible also speaks of other sons of God.          form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
Thus, for example, the nation of Israel in the Old        with God."
Testament is more than once called God's son. This          Besides this, the Scriptures ascribe to Jesus
is true in Exodus 4:22: "And thou (Moses) shall say       Christ divine names. Thus for example in I John
unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son,      5:20 we are told that God's Son, Jesus Christ, is
even My firstborn." In turn, the holy angels of God       "the true God, and life eternal." In Romans 9:5 we
in heaven are called the sons of God. This we read        read of Christ, "Who is over all, God blessed for
in Psalm 89:6: "For who in the heaven can be com-         ever." Divine attributes also are ascribed to Jesus.
pared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the            According to the confession of Peter, Jesus is  all-
mighty can be likened unto the Lord?" Besides this        knowing. This is found in John  21:17: "He saith
the saints of God are frequently called in Scripture      unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
either the sons of God or the children of God. Con-       thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto
sider for example Romans  8:16: "The Spirit itself        him the third time,  Lovest thou Me? And he said
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the          unto Him, Lord,  Thou knowest  all things;  Thou


406                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



knowest that I love Thee." Appearing to John on           side, confessed, "My Lord and my God" (John
the island of Patmos, Jesus informs John, "I am the       20:28) .-.
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,               In light of this witness of Holy Writ there can be
saith the Lord, which is and which was, and which         no doubt that Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God
is to come, the Almighty" (Rev.  1:8). Furthermore,       in that He is the divine Son of God. Many sons are
divine works are ascribed to Jesus. We have               begotten of God. The angels are begotten of God.
already seen from John  1:3 that Jesus created all        The saints are begotten of God. But their sonship  is
things. According to Hebrews  1:3 He also upholds         different from the sonship of Jesus Christ. He is the
all things. "Who being the brightness of His glory,       divine Son of God. And He is the only such Son of
and the express image of His person, and upholding        God.
all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right            Certainly Jesus is personally distinct from the
hand of the Majesty on high." Jesus healed the par-       Father. He is not to be confused with the Father or
alytic let down through the roof exactly to prove to      identified with the Father. For He is begotten of the
the people that He has the power on earth to for-         Father. Yet He is equal with the Father, one with
give sins (Luke  5:20-24). Jesus also raises from the     the Father, and eternal with the Father. He is co-
dead. In John  5:21 we read, "For as the Father           eternal, co-equal and co-essential with the Father.
raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so         This is all implied in the confession that Jesus
the Son quickeneth whom He will." Finally, divine         Christ is God's only-begotten Son.
honors are also ascribed to Jesus Christ. Are we not         However, there were many in the early church
to believe in Him? Thus we read in John 3:36, "He         that would not confess these truths. They either de-
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and      nied the personal distinction between the Father
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but     and the Son or they denied that the Son was truly
the wrath of God abideth on him." Did not                 God with the Father. In our next article we shall see
Stephen worship Jesus, asking Jesus upon his              who these heretics were and how the early church
death, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"? (Acts  7:59).     confessed the truth of Christ's deity over against
And Thomas, upon seeing the spear thrust in Jesus'        them.


                                        Book Review

PREACHING WITH PURPOSE (A Comprehen-                      some of it good, some of it not so good.
sive Textbook on Biblical Preaching), Jay E. Adams;          This reviewer is himself an instructor in Homi-
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.,  Phil-          letics and practice preaching, and he can lay claim
lipsburg, N.J. 162 pp., $5.95 (paper); reviewed by        to more than a few years of experience in this field
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                      of study. He tended, therefore, to read and review
TRUTH APPARENT (Essays On Biblical Preach-                this textbook with the question in mind: could this
ing), Jay E. Adams; Presbyterian and Reformed             book serve adequately as a textbook in our semi-
Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, N.J.; 100 pp., $4.95        nary or in any Reformed seminary?
(paper); reviewed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                    The conclusion, regretfully, must be negative. It
  As its sub-title indicates, the first of these books    is difficult for this reviewer to conceive of a Homi-
is intended to be a seminary textbook in Homiletics       letics textbook which fails completely to define:
(the science of the art of preaching). The author,        preaching, the preacher, the sermon, the congrega-
who for many years taught courses on preaching at         tion to which the sermon is preached. Besides, a
Westminster Seminary (Philadelphia), prepared             distinctively Reformed note is missing in this book.
this textbook with a view to his new teaching task        Conclusion: tried, and found wanting.
at the western branch of Westminster Seminary at             The second book covered in this review is a book
Escondido, California. His avowed purpose with            of essays. The content and calibre of the essays is
this book was "to develop a textbook on preaching         about the same as that of the first book. In fact,
for pastors, seminary students, and other Christian       large chunks of these essays are incorporated in the
speakers that, I hope, will make an impact in our         textbook. It seems rather useless to multiply books
day significant enough to change preaching sub-           of this kind which have substantially the same con-
stantially."                                              tent. If you are interested in this field, my advice is
  There is a large amount of advice in this book,         to buy one or the other of these volumes, not both.


                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       4 0 7


                                                                                        >,           -P     I.:>



                                                                                   ,*I.

                                                                                      :       .~


                                                                                                     WEDblNG ANNIVERSARY
         The Standard Bearer                                                      We the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, thank our
                                                                               heavenly Father for our parents, REV. AND MRS. M. SCHIPPER,
    makes an excellent gift                                                   who, the Lord willing, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on
                                                                              June 8, 1983. Because of their loving care and covenantal instruc-
                                                                              tion, our families have been blessed and flourish spiritually. We are
   for the sick and shut-in.                                                  thankful also for Rev. Schipper's faithful preaching in our churches of
                                                                              which we are so much a part. Our prayer is that they may continue to
                                                                               be a blessing to us and our church in the future.
                                                                                  "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His truth endurz
                                                                               eth to all generations" (PS. 100:5).
                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                          Jim and Char Schipper                      Ed  and  Lois Langerak
  On May 22, 1983, our beloved parents, grandparents and great-                Paul and Carolyn Schipper                 15 Grandchildren
grandparents, MR. AND MRS.  MEINDERT GAASTRA, celebrated                       Ken and Marilyn Schipper                   4 Great Grandsons
their 59th wedding anniversary. We are thankful to our covenant God
for the many years of love, covenant instruction and God-fearing                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
example which they have given us.                 ,                              On June 11, 1983, our beloved parents, MR. AND MRS. PETER
  "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth en-          KOOLE, will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. We, their chil-
dureth to all generations" (Psalm 100:5).                                     dren and grandchildren, are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the
                                                                              years they have had together and the years we have had with them.
Redlands, California                                                             "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
Anne Lindeman                     Otto and Mary Gail Gaastra                  them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children"
Edwin and Clarice Gritters                   17 grandchildren                 (Psalm 103:17).
Ray and Carol Gaastra                        15 great grandchildren
                                                                              Lawrence and Patricia Koole                  Ronald and Sherry Koole
                                                                              Rev. Kenneth and Patricia Koole              Timothy Koole
               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                         James and Kathleen Vander Lolk                        and 15 grandchildren
   The Mens' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Church wishes to express its Christian sympathy to one of its mem-
bers, Mr. Bart Zandstra, in the death of his father-in-law, MR. PETER             The Faith, Hope and Love Society of the Protestant Reformed
BOER at the age of 80 years.                                                   Church of South Holland, IL, expresses its Christian sympathy to Mrs.
                                                                               Bartel Zandstra, Mrs. John C. Haak, Mr. Peter Boer, Jr., Mr. Arthur
   "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis-         Boer and Mrs. Thomas Staggs in the loss of their father, MR. PETER
solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,               BOER.
eternal in the heavens." (II Cor. 5:l).
                                                                                  "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
                                                 Louie Regnernus, Pres.        life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Psalm 23:6).
                                                 Ernie Medema, Sec'y.
                                                                                                                                 Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.
                                                                                                                                 Mrs. Janet De Jong, Sec'y.
                        TEACHER NEEDED!!!
   Covenant Christian School of Lynden, WA is in need of a teacher                                                  NOTICE!!!
with a background of Language Arts and Social Studies, with assign-               Loveland will be celebrating its 25th anniversary as a Protestant
ments in Junior-Senior High School Grades for the `83-`84 School              Reformed Church, the Lord willing, on June 22 and 23, 1983. All are
Year.                                                                         cordially invited to come and celebrate God's faithfulness with us.
   Contact H.W. Kuiper, Administrator, at his home - Phone (206)              We have invited our former ministers to participate in the celebration.
354-2592, or the School  - Phone (206) 354-5436, or write to:                 Rev. David Engelsma will speak for us the first evening, and the
Covenant Christian School, 9688 Northwoods Road, Lynden, WA                   second evening there will be a supper and a slide program. Com-
98264.                                                                        memorative booklets at the cost of $2.00 each. If you would like a
                                                                              copy, please contact Mr. Ray Ezinga, 1518 East 57th St., Loveland,
                                                       John Meyer, Sec'y.     CO 80573. Phone  (303) 667-5720.


                                 News From Our Churches
                                                                       May 13,1983

   Rev. den Hartog and I have a similar problem.
The letter he sent to First Church started out with                           faith and also the  Toa  Payoh Mission is not any-
the date March 26, 1983. Half-way through the let-                            where near to becoming a new established church
ter he writes, "Well believe it or not it is April 4 and                      yet. Then too both the Pastors and officebearers are
this letter is still lying on my desk." Here are a few                         overloaded with work in the church  and therefore
excerpts from this letter found in Across the Aisle,                          they feel they should not at this time launch into
May, 1983. `I... The session... decided last week not                         new areas of work.. . . The only difficulty is that we
to ask for another missionary for Singapore from                               are all so loaded with work that we cannot spare
our churches in the U.S.A. at this time.... The ses-                          the time to look into other fields of labor whereas
sion feels that the situation here is not ready to ex-                        perhaps if there were another man here already
pand any further at this time. There is still need of                         now we would be able to do this.. . ."
establishing our present church more firmly in the                                If you want to know how much a wealthy Hindu


A-         THE STANDARD BEARER
-  c.           P.O. Box 6064            .___  ~~~. -----.~ ~-~__
         Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





         408                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



         Indian wedding costs, then write to the den  Har-           know of others who would like these tapes, please
         togs. However, I'll give you a little hint, "What           send their names too.
         they spend on just the wedding we normal people               Loveland Protestant Reformed Church has al-
         would spend on a house!" The den Hartogs close              most reached their goal of  $1,322.68 for the cele-
         their letter with these words, "Thank-you to those          bration of their Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. When is
         who sent us letters in the past month. We always            the special event going to take place?
         look eagerly in our mail box for letters from U.S.A.
         May the Lord bless and keep you all."                         The Consistory of First Protestant Reformed
                                                                     Church has decided once again to request Synod
           Many people found the Child Development Con-              1983 that First Church be instructed to call a mis-
         ference held at Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed               sionary to labor in the Jamaica field.
         Church to be a great success. Recordings of this im-
         portant event are available. There are five tapes to          During the meeting of Synod in the first week of
         the whole series that come in a handy attractive            June, seminarians Ken Hanko and Barry Gritters
         tape holder. The five tapes are titled: (1) The Prin-       will be examined. This past year they have been
         ciples and Goals of Spiritual Development, (2) The          preparing for their examinations. May the Lord
         Home and Early Development, (3) The School and              bless them.
         the Mid-years, (4) The Church and Emerging Ma-                I leave you with this quote from Wonder of Grace
         turity, (5) The Principle of Christian Maturity.            by H. Hoeksema: "When God speaks, we are si-
         Separate tapes cost $3.00 each, whereas the                 lent; we just listen. When He commands, we obey
         complete set of five tapes cost only $15.00. You            without murmuring, without objection, and with-
         may order these tapes from: Kalamazoo Protestant            out reservation. This means that we never assume
         Reformed Church, Activities Committee, 427                  the authority to determine for ourselves what shall
         North Fletcher, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007. If you           be called good."                              DH

                                         Report of Classis East
                                                          May 11,1983


           Classis East met in regular session on May 11,            ly, to alleviate the over-crowded conditions in some
         1983 at Hudsonville. Each church was represented            of the churches in the southwest metropolitan area.
         by two delegates. Rev. Joostens led the  classis in           Secondly, Faith Church protested a decision
         opening devotions; Rev. Miersma chaired this ses-           taken by the January 12, 1983 classis regarding the
         sion of classis.                                            advice given them as to procedure in a particular
           Two items of business, other than routine matters         case.  Classis  sustained its decision of the January
         occupied the time of the meeting. First, there was a        12, 1983 classis.
         request from a group of people for the organiza-              Classis also received information from Hope
         tion of a new congregation in the Byron  Center-            Church relative a request to change the date of the
         Cutlerville area.  Classis  decided to postpone ap-         1983 synod. Since this material was sent as infor-
         proval of this request because of concern raised by         mation, classis filed it as such.
         First Church relative the impact this organization
         would have on their congregation. Of the eighteen             The expenses of this meeting amounted to
         signators, nine were members of First Church.               $706.62.  Classis will meet next on September 14,
         Classis  advised these petitioners to conduct another       1983 at Southeast.
         study to determine if the new congregation could
         be located west of Byron Center Avenue, thus                                           Respectfully submitted,
         meeting the stated objective of this request,  name-                                   Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk


