     STANDARD
     BEARER  '
r          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                b





     .  .  . what is the beauty of Psalm 23? This: the

     perfect safety of the child of God in the midst
     of all kinds of trouble and enemies, and this
     only because of the unchangeable and wholly
     unconditional faithfulness of our covenant
     God! The Lord is my Shepherd.. . This psalm
     lifts the child of God above all troubles and
     afflictions, and enables him to set his face, in
     all confidence, upon the House of his God.
     See "Our *Assurance of Dwelling in
                               God's House' ' - page 266


                                         Volume LX, No. 12, March 15, 1984  -


266                                                              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.
                                                                                                     SeconcyClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
  Meditation  -                                                                      Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Our Assurance of Dwelling in God's House .  .  . 266                          Department  Editors:  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
                                                                                    D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269        Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                     Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
  Editorial  -                                                                       ma, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
       The Breaking of the Unbreakable Bond (2)                       . . . 269      Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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       About Organizing Small Churches . . . . . . . .  . . 271                                           4930  Ivanrest Ave., Apt. B
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MEDITATI0.N


                                 Our Assurance of Dwelling
                                                        in God's House
                                                                       Rev. H. Veldman


                   "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the
               house of the Lord forever. If                                                                                                Psalm 23: 6


  It cannot be determined definitely when David,                                        fleeing from before the face of his rebellious son,                                   ~
Israel's shepherd king, musician, and poet, com-                                        Absalom? We simply do not know. And this means
posed this twenty-third psalm. Did he, as some                                          that we need not know this. But this we do know:
believe, compose it late in his life, when he was                                       we cannot separate verse 6 of this psalm from what


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                            267



precedes it. And we must bear in mind that this              viewed from the aspect of man and as an indefinite
psalm speaks of many and great dangers. This is              lengthening of this earthly life but then as delivered
always true of the position of the child and church          from all its unpleasantries. Heaven, we understand,
of God in the midst of the world. We read here of a          is not the hope of the natural man, is not the object
valley of the shadow of death and of evil which we           of his earthly longing; man, however he may dread
will not fear. This psalm speaks of enemies in               hell, would surely find heaven to be more in-
whose midst a table has been prepared for me. Is             tolerable and unbearable still. Heaven, what is it? It
this not the language throughout the Word of God?            is the House of the Lord! And the House of the Lord
A servant is not greater than his master. Jesus says,        is the expression of His perfected covenant fellow-
they have hated Me; they will also hate you. The             ship and communion. Heaven centers in Jehovah,
antithesis must characterize us in the midst of the          the covenant God of our salvation. There we shall
world! If this apply not to us, we can never say             dwell with Him.
what we read here in verse 6.                                  Dwelling in God's House - how blessed, how
  And, what is the beauty of Psalm 23? This: the             wonderful this is! Can anyone conceive of anything
perfect safety of the child of God in the midst of all       more wonderful than this?
kinds of trouble and enemies, and this only because            This is true only by grace, the grace of God. This
of the unchangeable and wholly unconditional                 house will never be attractive to the natural man.
faithfulness of our covenant God! The Lord is my             Never will he be able to say what we read in Psalm
Shepherd; He  is  that, always  - nothing can                27:4: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that
possibly change that. Therefore I shall not want - I         will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of
shall never be in want, never lack anything. He              the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beau-
restoreth my soul, He leadeth me in the paths of             ty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple," or
righteousness for His Name's sake; He is with me;            what we read in Psalm 84:1-2:  "How amiable are
His rod and staff comfort me; Thou preparest a table         Thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts! My soul longeth,
before me in the presence of my enemies;  His                yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of           heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God."
my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord           Indeed, there is nothing in that House that appeals
forever. This psalm lifts the child of God above all         to you and me as we are by nature and of ourselves;
troubles and afflictions, and enables him to set his         it is the very opposite of all my carnal desires. That
face, in all confidence, upon the House of his God.          House appeals to me only when I have learned by
              *    *    *    *    *    *    *                the grace of God to know and hate myself; only
  Dwelling in Gods House.                                    when I have become weary of sin, and when the
  Indeed, also as far as David is concerned, even as         love of God and of His service has become upper-
in the old dispensation, this house of God must              most in my heart and mind; only when I have
have referred to God's heavenly fellowship. The              become a pilgrim and a stranger in the midst of the
people of the Lord surely knew that that building            world, in the midst of a dry and thirsty land; only
upon Mount Moriah was a symbol of God's people               when the life of sin and darkness has become a
as they dwell with the Lord as underneath one roof,          burden to me so that the longing for this House of
through Jesus Christ, Gods Son, our Lord. Do we              God will prompt me to set my eyes upon the City of
not read that Gods goodness and mercy shall                  God that has foundations.
follow me all the days of my Zife, and does this not           How wonderful, then, is this House of the Lord!
surely refer to where we will dwell after or at the            It is wonderful, first of all, because it is God's
end of our earthly sojourn? Besides, we also read of         House. Indeed, the Lord is everywhere, as we also
dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, or, literal-      read it in Psalm 139. But in God's House He reveals
ly, "length of days," which surely refers to an              Himself in all the glory and perfection of His being,
unending length of days; and this, of course, must           and everything is adapted to His life and perfection.
refer to the life, the everlasting life of the hereafter.    There the Lord will reveal Himself to us in the face
  In this expression, "the House of the Lord,"               of Jesus Christ, and it will be revealed eternally that
Scripture calls our attention to the essence, the            all fellowship and communion with God is only
heart of heaven. Heaven is not a resort (as the              through and because of His Son, Jesus Christ, our
Moslems describe it, a beautiful place, with beauti-         Lord. Secondly, this House is wonderful because
ful women, etc.), where we shall eat and drink of            there, our service and worship to Him will be
the best and never be plagued by the fear of                 perfect and complete, even forever. There we shall
sickness and death, or where marriages, finalized            be perfect, completely delivered from all sin and
here, will continue in the hereafter, as the Mor-            evil and death, even as we read in Revelation 21:4.
mons teach - the heart of heaven must not be                 There we shall be perfectly adapted to the heavenly


268                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



service of the Lord. There we shall serve Him                blessed in the Lord. His grace and favour are so
together with all the saints of God throughout all           much more than life to me. Indeed, blessed is that
the ages, and that in heavenly immortality. There            man who is rich in God. And the psalmist also
the longing of our souls shall be satisfied, never           speaks of mercy. Mercy presupposes misery.' Mer-
again to be interrupted, into endless length of days.        cy is an aspect of God's goodness. The goodness of
Indeed, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that           the Lord here signifies that which is good for me.
will I seek after: to dwell in the house of the Lord         And mercy is that aspect of His goodness whereby
all the days of my life and then forevermore.                the Lord is desirous to save the objects of His love
              *  * *  *  *  *  *                             as they are in misery, the misery of sin and afflic-
  How impossible this glory appears!                         tion, and as they struggle in the midst of the world.
 First, we are `in a valley of the shadow of death.            Gods goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
This, we must bear in mind, does not merely refer            days of my life. How wonderful this is! The
to death itself. This valley, however, refers to our         psalmist surely wishes to emphasize that this
entire life which is a valley of the shadow of death,        goodness and mercy of the Lord will be in constant
inasmuch as immediately at birth death casts its             attendance upon me, will always be following me
shadow upon us, and this shadow becomes even                 so that no evil can possibly befall me. Negatively,
deeper as we proceed to death and the grave.                 this means that Gods goodness and mercy never
                                                             follow the wicked in all the days of his life. The
Secondly, in this valley of the shadow of death are          grace and love of God never attend his way.
enemies, deadly enemies, enemies that hate this              Nothing works together for his good. In all the ages
House of God and anybody who is enroute to that              of eternity he will never be able to point to a single
House, enemies more powerful than we, with                   moment of his life and say that then and there the
whom we cannot possibly cope. These enemies are              Lord loved me, sought my good and blessed me. In-
all around us, and they are much more numerous               deed, the curse of Jehovah followed him in all his
and stronger than we. This enemy is well equipped,           ways. He may have had and enjoyed, as did that
directed by the prince of the powers of the air, hav-        rich man in the parable of the rich man and
ing access to all the resources of this world. And,          Lazarus, all the things of this world in abundance,
this enemy also lurks within us, our own evil                but one thing he lacked: the mercy and favour of
nature. We are the people of the Lord only in prin-          the Lord. However, God's goodness and mercy
ciple. We have only a seed of life eternal; all the rest     shall follow me all the days of my life. 0, it is true
of us is carnal and evil. A vivid picture of the child       that we often depart from the path of Gods
of God as he laments who and what he is is held              precepts. And when we depart from the path of
before us in Romans 7. And we are all familiar with          Gods precepts we cannot and do not experience
the apostle's description of the Christian soldier in        the love and mercy of our God. This blessedness
the midst of his enemies in the sixth chapter of the
same apostle's epistle to the Ephesians and where            will be ours, this blessed assurance we will ex-
he speaks of putting on the whole armour of God.             perience only when we, by the grace of God, repent
                                                             of our sin and return unto the Lord, through Jesus,
  Goodness and mercy.                                        Christ, our Lord. However, nothing can alter the
  Goodness is that operation of God's love whereby           fact that Gods goodness and mercy will never
He bestows upon me that which is good, beneficial            depart from us or forsake us. It is only because of
for me. I have been created, in Adam, as God's im-           this goodness and mercy that the elect sinner turns
age bearer, have been created as adapted to the ser-         from his evil way and unto the Lord. Constantly the
vice of the Lord; the only thing that can satisfy me         living God will perfect His work, watch over him.
is His fellowship and communion. Nothing else can            He has once begun His work, causes all things to
possibly satisfy. All the gold and all the silver of this    work together for our good. Nothing will ever be
world, without the grace of God, can only serve to           able to separate us from the love of God which is in
leave my soul empty and destitute. In the parable            Jesus Christ our Lord. And of this we can be sure
of the rich man and Lazarus, how empty and                   because the Lord is our Shepherd. And the Lord
destitute was that rich man although he had access           here is Jehovah, the I AM THAT I AM, the Rock,
to all that which the world could offer him. And             the unchangeable God of His covenant. Jehovah is
how rich was Lazarus, although he was a miserable            my life and my salvation. Whom, therefore, shall I
beggar whose consolation appeared to be that dogs            fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life. Of nothing
licked his sores! Indeed, the grace of God does not          need I be afraid. I am surely more than conqueror.
consist in the things of this world. What determines
our blessedness is not how much we may have and
enjoy of the goods of this present time. What deter-         I Read the Standard Bearer I
mines our blessedness is whether we are rich and


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        269



                                       Editor's Notes


Publication News                                                  cut off date will be June 1. Watch for all the details
  Word has been received that the RFPA's new Bi-                  in our next issue!
ble story book, Come, Ye                                                          *    * * *  * *  *
                             Children, will become
available sometime in April. There will be further                About This Issue
details about this later, both in the Standard Bearer               You will notice that some of the regular depart-
and in a flyer which the committee will be distrib-               ments do not appear in this issue. This is due to the
uting. But I can inform you now that there is going               fact that we had some correspondence on hand
to be a very attractive pre-publication sale of this              which needed answering. Besides, we wanted to
book which you will not want to miss. And the pre-                place the news and pictures from Singapore. Some
publication price will be even more attractive for                of this material has been waiting for a month
RFPA Book Club members. There will be ample                       already, due to the fact that our March 1 issue was
time for you to participate in this sale, because the             a special issue.

EDITORIAL


      The Breaking of the Unbreakable Bond
                                                           (21
                                              Pro/T H.C. Hoeksemu




  We began our discussion of this subject in our                  are related in such a way that the breaking of the
March 1 special issue on the subject of the Cove-                 everlasting covenant takes place through the trans-
nant. At that time, after calling attention to various            gression of the laws and the changing of the or-
passages of Scripture which make mention of the                   dinance. We might paraphrase the statement of the
breaking of the covenant in one way or another, as                text as follows: because they have transgressed the
well as to passages which speak of God's covenant                 laws, changed the ordinance, and thus broken the
as unbreakable, we began to discuss the subject                   everlasting covenant.
particularly from the viewpoint of the text in Isaiah               When the text speaks of the law and of the or-
24:5. In our discussion last time we called atten-                dinance (or statute) it refers to essentially the same
tion, first of all, to the fact that the text speaks of           thing by both terms. They both refer to the will of
God's everlasting - and therefore, unbreakable -                  God in relation to the life of man. But there is a
covenant. Secondly, we called attention to the                    distinction in the viewpoint of the terms. The term
meaning of the breaking of that covenant by men.                  Zuw is the more general term, while the term statute
The reader who wishes .to refresh his memory as to                is the more particular. The former has reference to
that discussion may consult our March 1 issue.                    the fact that the Lord has made known His will for
  Now in connection with this breaking of God's                   man; the latter, statute refers to the fact that Gods
covenant the text in Isaiah speaks of two related                 law draws the lines and sets the limits for man in
items: "because they have transgressed the laws,                  his entire life, for his thinking and willing, his desir-
changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting                     ing and inclination, his seeing and hearing, his
covenant." The text is not speaking of three                      touching and tasting, his enjoying and acting - his
separate items, but the three are related. And they               entire life.


270                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



   Also. the terms irunsgress and change point to         what is right and what is wrong, what a man may
essentially the same thing. They both indicate that       and must do and what a man may not and must not
man is a sinner: in the whole of his life he misses       do. Because of this, even the heathen are not ex-
his purpose. Precisely because he breaks, puts to         cusable but are guilty of transgressing the laws and
naught, tramples God's covenant, he also never            changing the ordinance and breaking the everlast-
strikes the mark, the target, of the law; he never re-    ing covenant.
mains within its boundaries, its limits; he always          All of this becomes plain in the course of history.
goes astray. The word `"transgress" really indicates
that he tramples God's law. He pays no attention to         First of all, as we have already suggested above,
it; he does not really inquire concerning it; he bans     this is realized historically in Adam as first father
it from his thoughts. In all his life he simply           and head of the race. In him the entire race stood
tramples that law under foot. The changing of the         originally in Gods covenant. And in him they have
ordinance, or statute, looks more at the fact that        broken the covenant.Not only did they break that
man goes beyond the limits set for him by God. He         original, earthly manifestation of God's covenant of
does not walk according to the lines of Gods will.        friendship as they are comprehended in Adam. But
He goes aside. He simply chooses his own way and          they daily demonstrate that they agree with and
determines for himself what is right and what is          have a delight in Adam's sin.
wrong.                                                      But there is more.
  Such is the sinner who breaks Gods covenant.              God maintains His covenant in Christ. And im-
Thus he lives in his entire existence.                    mediately after the fall He makes His covenant
  Now the question arises: how can the whole              known in the well-known mother-promise of
world be intended here? How can it be said of the         Genesis 3:15. Moreover, He continues to make that
entire world that it breaks Gods covenant? How            covenant known throughout the ages of history,
can there be a breaking of the covenant where             and that, too, in ever clearer light. Along with that
there is not even any knowledge of that covenant?         goes the fact that at various moments of history our
                                                          entire race is again included in that covenant in the
  The answer to this problem is twofold.                  historical sense of the word.
  In the first place, we must remember that in the          Thus it is already soon after the fall. God makes
organic sense of the word our entire race literally       known His covenant in Christ to Adam and Eve
breaks Gods covenant. True, not all men personal-         after the fall, Genesis 3:15. At that moment in the
ly come equally in contact with this covenant of          organic sense the entire human race was historical-
God. But, understood organically, it is not difficult     ly in Gods covenant. Cain and Abel - and later
to see that our entire race breaks Gods covenant.         Seth - were children of the covenant. Cain, mind
All men are covenant creatures in Adam, their first       you, as well as Abel! The effect of this was that
father. And in  Adcam, their head and their first         Cain and his generations revealed themselves over
father, they are all covenant breakers, even as the       against that covenant as revealed in Christ (the Seed
first sin was that of covenant-breaking. In that          of the woman) as covenant-breakers. That is, they
sense all the wicked are apostates from Gods cove-        were covenant-breakers not only in relation to the
nant. However, this is not only a matter of original      covenant as originally established with Adam, but
sin. This sin of covenant-breaking is accomplished        also in relation to the revelation of the covenant in
by men in their actual lives and in their actual sins.    Christ.
They transgress the laws and change the statute,
and thus in their actual lives break the everlasting        The same was true at the time of Noah. The first
covenant by all their actual sins. They demonstrate       world perishes in the Flood because they transgress
that they agree with and that they own Adam's sin.        the covenant. After the Flood only the church re-
Moreover, this is true of the heathen as well as of       mains, and God establishes His covenant with
those who come personally in contact with God's           Noah and his seed. But the striking fact at that time
covenant. And that brings us to the second aspect         is that the church and the human race are co-
of the answer to the problem mentioned above.             extensive. At that moment again the entire race is
Scripture teaches us that all men have the work of        in God's covenant in the organic sense. That in-
God's law written in their hearts, Romans 2: 14, 15.      cludes, mind you, the generation which presently
Mind you, they do not have the Zuw written in their       builds the tower of Babel. That is a generation
hearts: then they would be regenerated children of        which came out of the church and which broke
God. But they have the work of the law, that is,          God's covenant.
what the law does, written in their hearts. And             In the narrower sense of the word the same is
what is that work of the law? What does the law do?       true with respect to Abraham and his seed, with
The answer is that the law distinguishes between          respect to Israel and with respect to Jerusalem.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                271



True, in this instance there is no longer a revelation     nant the wicked must and do come to manifestation
of God's covenant in Christ to the entire race, to all     as breakers of God's covenant. This ends in and
men. For a time that revelation of God's covenant is       comes to full fruition in the final manifestation of
restricted to one nation, the nation of Israel. But the    Antichrist. This is one reason why the Antichrist
principle is the same. For also then all is not Israel     must arise out of nominal Christendom, why he
that is of Israel. And carnal, wicked Jerusalem            must arise out of the false church. He must be
again and again reveals itself as one with the entire      revealed as the covenant-breaker par excellence.
wicked world in this, that it breaks God's covenant        This is also one reason - be it a negative one -
as that covenant came to revelation in their midst in      why the gospel must be preached to all nations: not
ever clearer light.                                        to every individual, but to all nations, throughout
  Finally, this is also true in the new dispensation.      the entire world. That world must become manifest
The revelation of God's covenant in Christ is now          organically as being principally a covenant-break-
complete. The light of that covenant is full.              ing world, and that, too, over against God's cove-
Through the preaching of the gospel Christ enters          nant as it has been revealed in the Son of His love,
among the nations. And when He does so, Gods               Jesus Christ our Lord.
covenant is always established in the line of the            The result shall be that in the day of judgment all
generations of His people. And always in those             the world shall stand condemned as  covenant-
generations there is a twofold seed. Always the car-       breakers. And the vengeance of Him that sitteth
nal, covenant-breaking element comes to, mani-             upon the throne and of the Lamb shall be in the
festation. Over against the full light of Gods cove-       very real sense of the word covenant vengeance.

CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY
Prof H.C. Hoeksema




                About Organizing Small Churches


Correspondence                                               The last time I was in Grand Rapids, we went to
  From a South Holland, Illinois reader I received         First Church and it seemed to me there was plenty
the following letter:                                      of room for twenty some families. It is impossible
                                                           for me to understand the wisdom of Classis East to
Dear Editor:                                               approve such a movement. I hope and pray that
  I read your article of the December issue on the         maybe through the printed matter you can shed
establishment of another Protestant Reformed               some light on this.
Church in the Grand Rapids area. Also in the                                                    Thank-you,
church news of the December 15 issue the transfer
of membership papers to the new congregation. I                                                 (w.s.) Joe Postma
don't understand how this is possible. Are our
churches in the Grand Rapids area so overcrowded,          Reply
for example, First Church, Southeast, Southwest,             I will try to shed some light. My correspondent
and Faith? Or are these people not happy where             must bear in mind, however, that I cannot and do
they are? If the latter is the case, how is it possible    not speak for Classis East. In fact, I was not even
that the involved consistories do not check into           present at the sessions of  Classis  East at which
this? It seems to me that we are setting up all kinds      Byron Center's petition for organization was con-
of little churches all over the USA to be supported        sidered; neither was I present when the request of
by the denomination (forever it seems): Edgerton,          our youngest congregation, Grandville, was con-
Edmonton, Isabel, Pella, Trinity, Kalamazoo, and           sidered. At the same time, let it be said, I fully agree
Covenant are examples. Isn't this kind of putting a        with the classical decisions, and I am heartily in
burden on the rest of us?                                  favor of the organization of both of these new con-


272                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



gregations. Permit me to call your attention to the            small churches. About these I would point out: a)
following considerations:                                 That one must be careful with these examples.
  1) The churches of Classis  East are mostly chur-            Three of them (Edgerton, Pella, and Kalamazoo) are
ches in the greater Grand Rapids area, churches,               churches which were reorganized after the split of
therefore, which were vitally concerned in the                 1953, churches which were at one time larger and
organization of new churches in the very area                  self-supporting but which became numerically
where they are. Yet in the judgment of Classis  East           smaller through the split. Certainly, my correspon-
(by overwhelming, if not unanimous vote) the                   dent would agree that we could not very well have
organization of both new congregations was ap-                 said to these churches, "Well, now you can no
proved.                                                   longer be a PR congregation because you have
                                                          become too small." b) If size were the determining
  2) One cannot simply lump the entire metropoli-         factor, there would not be many congregations to-
tan area of Grand Rapids into one. There are              day. Take a look at our yearbook once, and take
various areas and communities in the Grand Rapids         note of the size of many of our congregations at the
area which have to be taken into consideration in         time of their organization. South Holland, for exam-
this connection, so that we have always in the past       ple, was only 7 families at the time of organization,
established congregations in the various areas in         and that, too, at a time when we did not even have
which our people live. It may very well be that a         a minister to go there. c) It is not so easy to say No
certain congregation has extra room in their              to a group of families who wish to be a Protestant
auditorium, but that does not mean that we tell           Reformed congregation, especially not when that
people, "You must all travel to First Church and fill     group of families is far away from any PR center. I
that up before we will consider starting a new con-       have been at synodical meetings when such ques-
gregation." On that basis, we could have said to          tions had to be decided, and I have seen synods
some of the churches in this area after the split that    wrestle long and hard with such questions. Perhaps
they should go and fill up the (then) 1250 seats of       mistakes have been made sometimes; perhaps not.
First Church before we would reorganize them.             A synod (or a classis) must use its sanctified judg-
Then, of course, there would have been no South-          ment in cases like this.
east or Southwest Church today.                                  6) Finally, a word or two about the financial
  3) Size, however, is not the only - and in my           aspect. My correspondent mentions churches who
opinion, not the chief - consideration. Another           receive help from the synodical needy churches
consideration is that of establishing a Protestant        fund. He neglects to mention the many churches
Reformed witness in a given community, and es-            which at one time received aid and have become
pecially in a community in which there is not             self-supporting and now have the privilege of help-
already such a witness. This is the case with both        ing other needy churches. He also neglects to men-
Grandville and Byron Center. It was also the case         tion the example of Faith Church in Jenison
with Faith Church, Jenison, several years ago. I am       (another greater Grand Rapids area church) which
very much in favor of establishing such a Protes-         was organized with only 20 families in 1973 and
tant Reformed witness wherever it is possible to do       which grew and became self-supporting very soon
so, that is, wherever it is possible to institute a       and is now 83 families (according to our 1983 Year-
viable congregation, even though small at first, and      book). Besides, let us remember that it is a privilege
wherever there appears to be potential for growth.        to bear one another's burdens. Moreover, the Lord
  4) Size was, however, a consideration in the case       has abundantly blessed us also in this respect. We
of both Grandville and Byron Center. In the former        have never lacked as churches, but always have
instance, our Hope Church, from which most of the         had more than enough. When I think back to the
Grandville membership came, was indeed much               time of our synodical meetings in 1954 when our
overcrowded, so that they had extra chairs in every       synodical fund amounted to a big fat ZERO because
available spot. In the latter instance, Hudsonville       our enemies had run off with our synodical funds,
was seeing its auditorium filling up; and it took into    and when I consider how the Lord has prospered us
consideration the fact, too, that there has for years     and provided for us abundantly, then I can't think
been a Byron Center contingent in the congregation        in terms of burdens, only of blessings.
which had to travel from Byron to Hudsonville not         I                                                           I
only for Sunday services but also for catechism                         The Standard Bearer
classes and for society meetings during the week.
Hence, even from this point of view I can see the                     makes a thoughtfil gift
wisdom  - and, I trust,  Classis East could  - of
branching out.                                                       for the sick and shut-in.
  5) My correspondent cites some examples of


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              273



               Various Questions and Comment


Correspondence                                              our columns, either by way of correspondence and
   From a New Jersey reader I received the follow-          comment or by way of articles which were volun-
ing letter:                                                 tarily offered or requested. Two recent examples of
                                                            the latter are the article for covenant children in the
Sir:                                                        March 1 issue and an anonymous article some
   I see in the current issue of New Horizons an ap-        months ago concerning childless couples. Without
peal to OPC women for contributions to the paper.           citing volume and page, I can also state that from
From time to time I see women published in The              time to time in years past women have contributed
Outlook. In my brief acquaintance with The Stun-            their comments on various subjects.
durd Bearer I do not recall any articles written by           3) A little known and often forgotten fact is that
women, by design or accident.                               The Standard Bearer is not a church paper, i.e., a
   My question is this: what is the editorial policy of     paper controlled and published by the church as in-
The Standard Bearer as concerns women and the               stitute; and it does not speak officially for the Pro-
scriptural basis therefore?                                 testant Reformed Churches. It is a free paper, and
   I have a second question about women, especial-          as such arises out of the organic life of the church.
ly Huldah, in II Chronicles 34:22ff. I cannot recall        No one controls the character and content of our
ever having either read or heard preaching about            magazine except the Editorial Staff; and the latter is
her role as prophetess to Israel other than my own          subject to and responsible to no other organization.
biblical study. We read and hear much about                 This is the significance of the "F" in the name of
Deborah and Phoebe, but nothing about Huldah.               our publishing organization, the R.F.P.A., the
                                                            Reformed Free Publishing Association. Historical-
   My second question is this: Will you discuss the         ly, this character of our magazine had its occasion
spiritual and practical implications of Huldah's            in the fact that circa-1924 the official church papers
ministry for the Old Testament Church as well as            of the Christian Reformed Church were closed to
for the New Testament Church? (In a later postcard          the Rev. Danhof and Hoeksema.
the writer asks that this question be expanded "to
include Anna as well as Gal. 3:28.")                          4) Probably a significant reason why our
                                                            magazine does not more frequently feature
   Lastly, I have a comment about the series of ar-         women's contributions lies in the fact that it is pre-
ticles which John A. Heys is writing about the book         eminently a theological paper, devoted primarily to
of Esther. I am afraid that he has missed the point         theological and Biblical exposition. For this reason
(one which we Calvinists should never overlook) of          we look to those who are qualified in those fields to
Gods sovereign grace being played out in be-                do our writing.
havioral patterns in people which we might never
expect, in ways which we might never suspect, to              The second question in this letter I will leave to
bring to pass purposes which we might never ex-             our Question Box Editor, the Rev. C. Hanko. At
pect. He has missed the forest for the trees, a stan-       present he is in Florida; but this question will reach
dard below The Standard Bearer.                             him, and he will furnish an answer in due time.
                               Most cordial regards,          The third item in this letter, the comment about
                                                            the Rev. Heys' writings about the book of Esther is
                               (w.s.) J. Warren Jacobson    also not my domain. If the Rev. Heys, who is at pre-
Reply                                                       sent in New Zealand, wishes to reply, he may do so.
   Only one of the items in this letter is in my do-        Every department editor is responsible for his own
main as editor. That is the first question, concern-        material. Nevertheless, I cannot refrain from a sug-
ing our editorial policy as concerns women. About           gestion, namely, that the basic question here is:
this, the following:                                        who were the objects of God's sovereign grace in
                                                            this history? Were they the carnal Mordecai and
   1) To my knowledge the Editorial Staff has no            Esther, who never in all this history gave a single in-
stated, formally adopted policy on this matter.             dication of being anything but carnal and unbeliev-
   2) From time to time women have contributed to           ing? Or were they the remnant, the seed, who


274                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



would have been destroyed if Haman's plot had          court of the godless Ahasuerus? No, I do not think
succeeded, but whom God in His sovereign grace         the Rev. Heys is missing the forest for the trees. But
preserved through the instrumentality of the carnal    he may speak for himself.
Mordecai and Esther and their influence in the




                         Report From Singapore


  Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ       series of messages on the theme "By His Word."
Who gath&s, defends, and preserves His church          We were also asked to lead a workshop on the
even unto the ends of the earth. Once again there      Christian family. We are waiting upon the Lord for
are many exciting things to tell you about the         further direction in our involvement with the saints
Lord's work in His church here in Singapore. He        of God in this church. Last week two brethren from
continues to cause His church to grow and prosper      Trengganu visited us.
in His grace. On January 22 we celebrated the sec-       In December the ERCS had a students camp.
ond anniversary of the institution of the church.      This has become an annual affair for the church.
This was a special Lord's Day for us beginning with    Pastor Lau spoke at this camp on the theme, "The
a special worship service where Pastor Lau             Lord Our Shepherd. " Pastor Lau was also invited to
preached the Word and concluding with an after-        speak for a group of young Christians in Singapore
noon program of praise and thanks unto the Lord.       who are not affiliated with the ERCS. This group of
  On January 29 we once again had the great joy        young Christians had quite a similar origin as the
and privilege of administering the sacrament of        ERCS had.
adult baptism in the church. This was the climax of
many months of catechism instruction. Six young
new Christians were baptized and another four
were added to the church by public confession of
their faith. There is a continuing need for holding
catechism classes to prepare new people in our
midst for baptism and membership in the church.
Pastor Lau will be conducting the next session of
classes which will begin in another week.
  The last two months of 1983 were very busy for
us. In the month of November we had the oppor-
tunity to be involved in a church camp in Malaysia
which was sponsored by the church in Trengganu
that we have been baving contact with. We gave a





                                                        Probable new meeting place.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               275



  Probably the most exciting development in our               riage counseling classes to three couples who in-
church so far this year is the purchase of a church           tend to get married later in the year. As usual we
property. Though the deal has not yet been final-             give such pre-marriage counseling for seven weeks
ized it is quite certain that it will be closed at the end    to those planning to be married. The families in our
of March. This place is actually an old pre-war two           church continue to grow as the Lord gives children.
story terrace house. We hope to be able to convert            In the next couple of months three new babies will
the bottom story of this house so that it can be used         be born, D.V. In connection with all of this there is
for holding church meetings. The place however is             great need to address subjects relating to the Chris-
not large enough to hold our present congregation.            tian family. Plans are to have a three-day seminar
Normally the worship services are attended by                 on the Christian family some time in May.
about 180 people. The seating capacity of the new               The Lord continues to bless and prosper the
place would not be more than 100. For this and                work at Toa Payoh Mission. We intend to continue
other reasons the church has decided to work                  this work even after the second congregation has
towards starting a second congregation. The church            been started. At that time probably both congrega-
is of the opinion that our present congregation is            tions will be supporting this work and both pastors
getting so large that fellowship and closeness of the         would continue sharing the preaching work there.
members is declining. Most of all the church                  Beginning next week we shall be having a series of
desires to expand the work of the preaching of the            three special gospel messages at the Toa Payoh Mis-
Reformed Faith in Singapore. It is hoped that by the          sion on the general theme of "Three Great Truths
grace of God this can be significantly expanded by            of the Christian Faith." Later in the month of
having two congregations. There would be a                    March Pastor Lau will be preaching a series of
number of other advantages of having two con-                 special messages relating to the suffering and death
gregations. The second congregation would be                  and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of
formed, the Lord willing, through splitting our pres-         these messages will be specially adapted for new-
ent congregation. This would also relieve the over-           comers to the mission who have never before heard
crowded conditions at our present meeting place.              the preaching of the gospel. The members of the
The second congregation would meet in the newly               church are working very hard to publicize these
purchased building. The first congregation could              special services in the Toa Payoh area of Singapore.
also use this building in the event that it would sud-
denly have to vacate the present premise (some-                 Beginning this Friday evening we are going to
thing which is a real possibility since this place is         have classes on Reformed Doctrine at our apart-
slated for demolition at any time). In the future it is       ment. These classes were requested by a group of
hoped that the church can purchase another old                the newer members in our midst who desire to be
house in a different location in Singapore to house           better grounded in Reformed Doctrine. Some of
the present congregation. Then we would have two              those attending this class have a special interest in
smaller congregations rather than one large one.              forming the second congregation and see the need
After many months of searching we have found it               of being firmly grounded in Reformed Doctrine for
impossible to purchase a large building that would            the welfare also of this endeavor. We are especially
be a proper church building which could hold a                heartened by the fact that the desire for such a class
large congregation. This is especially because of the         arose spontaneously in the midst of the church.
astronomical cost of real estate in Singapore. At pres-         The church now has six weekly Bible studies at
ent it seems more feasible to purchase old houses             various homes of our members in Singapore. These
and convert them for use for smaller congregations.           Bible study groups serve a very good purpose in the
We rejoice and give thanks unto the Lord that He              church and are well attended. It is possible for our
has caused the members of the church to give                  members to attend such a Bible study in the area in
sacrificially and liberally with the result that we           which they live and they need not make long
now have sufficient funds to purchase the proper-             journeys in the evenings.
ty. There is still however great need for more                  The Lord continues to bless and keep our family.
money to enable the church to do extensive renova-            We now have four children in three different
tion of this place so that it can be used for church          Singapore schools. This is all pretty complicated.
meetings. According to plans, our family will be liv-         They also go at all different times of the day. They
ing in the top story of this place. I will be pastoring       start leaving the house before 7:00 a.m. and do not
the newly formed congregation in the beginning,               all return until about  6:30 p.m. The Singapore
the Lord willing. This arrangement will also help to          government has become very strict on the second
raise the necessary finances for the place.                   language requirements in the schools and is no
  We are looking forward to another year of mar-              longer allowing exemption for expatriate children.
riages in our midst. Already now we are giving mar-           So we now have one taking Chinese Mandarin and


276                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



one taking Malay. This requires that we have                 last into the early hours of the morning. Though the
private tuition for them at our home. We have                office bearers of the church are very young com-
employed two tutors that each come two times per             pared to those of our churches in the U.S. yet we
week for an hour and a half each time. This greatly          are thankful that the Lord has qualified them in an
adds to the busyness of our home. So in a few years          unusual way to lead and care for the church. There
we will be a multi-language family. Perhaps the              are always many very difficult pastoral problems to
Lord has some special purpose of this also.                  deal with that must be handled with a great deal of
  The elders and deacons in the church continue to           wisdom. As we labor together in the church of
labor very faithfully. It is truly amazing how much          Jesus Christ there are sorrows and burdens as well
time they put in every week and how devoted they             as great joys. We urge you to continue to pray for
are to their work. As the church grows and                   His church here in Singapore. Thanks be unto the
develops there are many issues to face and matters           Lord that He continues to add to His church here
to deal with. The bi-weekly session meetings often           those who are saved.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE



                                               I Peter -
       Christian Hope in the Midst of Suffering
                                                  Rev. J. Kortering




  God wrote His Word with a view to the many                 1:40-42).  He joined Jesus and the disciples as they
needs which His people have while they sojourn               toured Galilee (Mark 1: 16-20). He had a wife (Matt.
here below. This letter focuses upon the special             8:14). Perhaps this accounts for his having a house
needs of the pilgrim, especially the pilgrim who             in Bethsaida (John 1:44), and later in Capernaum
must face suffering for righteousness' sake. The             (Mark 1:29). Later, when he was an apostle, his
Holy Spirit assures him that there is good reason to         wife traveled with him (I Cor. 9:5).
have hope in the midst of fiery trial. We need this             From the gospel accounts we know Peter was in
word today.                                                  the inner circle with James and John, e.g., in the
THE AUTHOR                                                   Garden of Gethsemane (Mark  14:33). He was a
                                                             leader, a fact that marks men who have impulsive
  He identified himself in the opening verse as              natures. On the Mount of Transfiguration, he sug-
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ" (1: 1). In chapter       gested that they build three tabernacles (Matt.
5:l he places himself among the elders and men-              17:14). Similarly, when Christ asked, whom do
tions that he was witness of the suffering of Christ         men say that I am, the disciples offered sug-
(5: 1). There is almost universal acceptance of              gestions, and when Christ asked, whom do ye say
Simon Peter as being author of this letter.                  that I am, Peter spoke for them, "Thou art the
  If we review a little what the gospels and Acts of         Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). He
the Apostles tell us about Peter, it will help us to ap-     was the one who swung the sword and cut off the
preciate the message he writes in this epistle. Going        ear of Malchus (John 18:lO). This also led to Peter's
back to his early years, we find that he was a fisher-       darkest moment. After boasting of his strength to
man of Galilee, in the fishing business with James           endure (Matt. 26:33), Peter denied his Lord three
and John (Luke 5: lo), evidently wealthy business            times (Matt. 26:69-75).  He stayed with the disciples
men. His brother Andrew (a disciple of John the              and joined them in search of the empty tomb (John
Baptist) called him to come to see Jesus, the                20:2-6).  Good news came to him when the angels
Messiah; and when he came Jesus changed his                  told the women to go tell the disciples and Peter that
name from Simon to Peter, meaning a rock (John               Jesus had risen from the dead (Mark 16:7). He was


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                           2 7 7



restored to his apostleship at the Sea of Galilee              17). He encourages them not to think it strange if
when the risen Lord asked him three times,                     "fiery trials" come upon them (4:12ff). This will be
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than                 the mark of Christians throughout the world (5:9ff).
these?" His instruction was, "feed My sheep" (John               This reference to suffering indicates to us that
21:15-17). At this time Jesus was prophesied that              Peter wrote this letter at a time when such persecu-
Peter would become a martyr (John 21:18, 19).                  tion was a serious concern. A confrontation had
  Passing on to the book of Acts, we find Peter                developed between the Roman government and
preaching the sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2: 14ff).              Christians throughout the empire. Prior to this, the
Throughout the early chapters of Acts we are told              prevailing occasion for persecution was at the
that he preached and performed miracles around                 hands of the local Jewish authorities, especially in
Jerusalem and throughout Judea. He also went to                Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin was frustrated by
Samaria (Acts 8:14) and later to Caesarea when he              Christ's claim to Kingship and the disciples' will-
brought the gospel to1 Cornelius (Acts lO:l-33). He            ingness to serve Christ no matter what the rulers of
rejoiced that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well          the Jews thought. During this time, the Roman
as the Jews (Acts 10:34ff).  He was imprisoned first           government had no reason to fear the Christians.
by the Sanhedrin (Acts 4: lff), and later by Herod             Christ had said, "Render unto Caesar the things
(Acts 12:lff), but the Lord delivered him. He was a            that are Caesar's" (Matt. 22:21).  He also had said,
powerful spokesman for the Jerusalem church,                   "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).
e.g., at the council to decide whether the Gentile             Even Paul, when accused by the Jews, appealed for
converts should be circumcised (Acts  15:7). He                his protection to Caesar and publicly testified that
evidently traveled much, and tradition tells us he             he was not guilty of inciting to riot (Acts 24: 12).
was finally crucified, head down, at Rome under                Gradually, Rome began to change in its attitude
the persecution of Nero around A.D. 68.                        toward Christians. The Christian church was
  E: Harrison in his Introduction to the New Testu-            distinguished more and more from Judaism. The
mznt draws from this background the following in-              gospel of Christ's Lordship and the teaching of His
teresting conclusions regarding the epistle.                   return in victory over all nations was interpreted to
                                                               mean a threat to Rome. Nero showed his contempt
     Certain autobiographical touches in the epistle can       for Christians by subjecting them to a bloodbath in
   be readily linked with items of information contained       Rome. This quickly swept throughout the empire.
   in the Gospels. Peter's own severe testing of faith
   (Luke  22:31,  32) accords with his reference to the          This is the background for this epistle. The Chris-
   proving of his readers' faith  (1:17),  and the Lord's      tian church was fearful of her life. Would they be
   prediction that he will thereafter be able to strengthen    wiped from the face of the earth? Could they resist?
   his brethren meshes with the thrust of the epistle as a     How could they possibly endure? To satisfy this
   whole, including the language in which promise is           deep spiritual need, God by the Holy Spirit moved
   given of divine assistance  (5:lO).  Jesus' conversation    Peter to write this letter.
   with Peter in Galilee after the resurrection (John 21)
   seems to be reflected in the writer's description of be-      He wrote it to "the strangers scattered through-
   lievers as sheep  (2:25;  5:2, 3). Christian leaders are    out Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
   shepherds under the control of Christ as the Chief          Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of
   Shepherd, to Whom they are responsible  (5:2-4).            God the Father" (l:l, 2). These districts were
   Peter's resurgence following his descent into the           located in Asia Minor. Representatives of  Cap-
   abyss of sorrow and humiliation because of his denial       padocia in Pontus were in Jerusalem at the time of
   of the Lord is reflected in the language of  1:3  - be-     Pentecost (Acts 2:9). In all likelihood, they returned
   gotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection.
   The injunction to be clothed with humility  (5:5) may       home with the good news of the gospel. This would
   involve the recalling of the Upper Room scene where         indicate that the nucleus of the churches was
   Jesus girded himself with a towel and washed the            Jewish. Paul visited this same region during his
   disciples' feet. Peter's description of Christians as       missionary journeys (Acts 16:6), including Galatia.
   living stones  (2:5) may stem from Jesus' prediction        At the time, the Spirit forbade them to go into Asia
   uttered over him at their first meeting that he would       and Bithynia (Acts 16:6, 7). Perhaps they touched
   be called  "stonel"  (John  1:42).                          the northern parts of this region. It would seem that
                                                               even though no specific mention is made of Peter's
HISTORICAL SETTING                                             visiting this area, there is no reason to say that he
  The epistle itself makes frequent reference to               could not have done so. In any event, the Spirit led
suffering: "ye are in heaviness through manifold               him to write to these people whether he knew them
temptations" (1:6), they were "suffering wrongful-             personally or not. From the epistle itself, we can
ly" (2:19), which is called, "suffering for righteous-         conclude that the "elect strangers" were not
ness' sake" and "suffering for well doing" (3:14,              limited to Jewish Christians, but included  con-


278                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



verted Gentiles. Peter applies the passage of Hosea        imprisonment (Col. 4: 10). Silas would bring this let-
1:9 to them: "Which in times past were not a peo-          ter (5:12) from Rome to these regions. But, why
ple, but are now the people of God" (2:lO). Further-       didn't he simply say Rome instead of Babylon? Two
more, he refers to their former lusts in ignorance,        reasons are offered: 1. The persecution was
including idolatry (1: 14). Now they should "have          centered in Rome. This was Peter's way of using a
their conversation honest among the Gentiles               code-name to protect the Christians in event of
(2:12). Even though they formerly walked in such           discovery. 2. It had spiritual symbolism for the
things as lusts, revelings, etc., they are now to ab-      spiritual pilgrims. Babylon was the symbol of evil,
stain from them and expect the Gentiles to think           hostility, and captivity. The problem with this is
this strange (4:3, 4).                                     that there is no proof that Babylon was used
ORIGIN AND DATE                                            mystically twenty years before John did so in
                                                           Revelation. It's pretty difficult to draw a conclusion
  One more thing that we have to consider is that          one way or the other. The Roman Catholic Church
Peter wrote this letter from Babylon (5: 13). Quite        makes much of Peter's presence in Rome, claiming
naturally we ask, where was that city? Three sug-          he was the first Pope and founder of the church.
gestions are offered: 1. Babylon by the Euphrates in       There is no historical proof for any of this. Definite
Mesopotamia. 2. Babylon in northern Egypt, a               substantiation of Peter's presence in Rome is
Roman military complex. 3. A reference to Rome,            limited.
much like John used it in Revelation 17:5, a type of
the Antichrist in her spiritual harlotry. In trying to       The date can only be approximated from this
determine which one is correct, it seems rather            evidence. If Mark was with Peter and the persecu-
easy to eliminate the one in Egypt, as there is no         tion of Nero was either imminent or already begun,
reference to it in the Bible. The Babylon in the east      the date most likely would be about A.D. 64, 65.
seems so remote. Yet it would be in keeping with           Nero persecuted the church from A.D. 64-67. Paul
Peter's direct form of address that he used it to refer    was executed in A.D. 66. So that date would be
literally to this Babylon. We know there was a             pretty close.
Jewish church there. Some favor Babylon-Rome.                Next time we will examine what the Holy Spirit
We know that Mark was there with Peter (5: 13),            had to say to the persecuted ones, namely, that they
and that he was in Rome about the time of Paul's           have hope in the Lord Jesus.

ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren




       Banner  Blasts Official Church Position


  The  Banner  is the official publication of the          that the Banner and its editor take a certain pride in
Christian Reformed Church. Most of our readers             presenting both sides of an issue - and at times
are familiar with that periodical. One would have          weighted against the official position of the church
reason to expect that an official publication of a         which it represents.
denomination would set forth the official position
of the church it represents. One would expect that           The Christian Reformed Church has also its
it would maintain the church's position over               Church Order - revised in 1965 from one which
against those who oppose it. One would expect that         was virtually identical to our own. The revised ver-
those who disagree with the official position of the       sion states in Article 30 (similar to our Art. 31),
church would not be given a forum in the official          II . . . The decisions of the assemblies shall be con-
paper of the denomination. One might expect all of         sidered settled and binding, unless it is proved that
this - but anyone reading the Banner the past year         they conflict with the Word of God or the Church
or so, would find that it is not true there. It seems      Order." One would think that an article of this


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         279



nature would make it inappropriate (to say the                       in the gospel but had to await its own cultural revela-
least) for the official church paper to present a posi-              tion . . . .
tion contrary to the established and binding deci-                 An article is included in this issue about C.R.C.
sions of the church. But that is being commonly                  women who have left this denomination on the
done.                                                            question of women's ordination into the ministry -
  All of the above is meant to lead up to the fact               and, of some who are presently ordained ministers
that a recent,issue  of the Banner (Jan. 23,                     in other denominations.
                                                    1984) was
devoted to the question of women in office in the                  A story is presented by James C. Schaap meant to
church. In a rather heavy-handed way the official                show the silliness of old people who still childishly
paper of the C.R.C. blasted the position of the                  hold on to the idea that women ought not to serve
C.R.C. on women in office. The barrage began with                in office.
the editor who wrote:                                              An article is presented showing that certain
         Some day the Christian Reformed Church must             biblical texts don't really mean what they seem to
   answer the question whether or not women will be              say about women serving within the church.
   forever barred from holding office in the church. . . .         There is a "Soapbox" article complaining that
         . . . Christian Reformed people, myself included,       though the Synod has allowed women to vote in the
   who read on page  lo-12  of this issue of the Banner          congregational meetings, the Synod thus far has
   that women have left our church because they wanted           refused to mandate this "right" to all women of the
   to obey God rather than our Church Order will feel            congregation.
   hurt. . . .                                                     And, inevitably, there is presented the results of
         . . . Today more than twenty women are enrolled         a survey in the C.R.C. on the question of women in
   in Calvin Seminary. Such a situation was unthinkable          office. The poll shows that, generally speaking, the
   when I was in seminary . . . .                                younger and more educated are more in favor of
         . . . We have drawn a magic circle around our con-      women serving in the offices than those who are
   sistory  rooms. Women may be seen and heard any-              older and less educated.
   where, but in this hallowed chamber they may not
   help to build the church.                                           If?  As time passes, younger members will replace
     Not all of those who want to keep women out of                  older ones. Also, more and more members of the CRC
   the consistory are led by ancient male prejudice.                will achieve higher educational levels. Recalling from
   Many of us are genuinely convinced that here the                  our data that it is the younger, more educated mem-
   Bible draws the line. And when God says  no,  let no             bers who are more accepting of women in office, it
   one say yes.                                                      seems clear that increasing proportions-of the CRC's
                                                                    membership will come to accept the idea of women
     The church would be well served if we who say                  in office.
   that the Bible allows women to hold office in the               And although the surveyers insist that "we do
   church frankly admit that we have made a  her-
   meneutical decision: we have decided how to inter-            not believe nor do we mean to imply that the lead-
   pret certain Bible texts. One should not try to make          ership of our denomination ought to decide the
   these texts say the opposite of what they seem to be          issue of women and ordination on the basis of
   saying to the ordinary reader.                                survey findings, ' ' still the survey is there and its
     There is no doubt in my mind that Paul was                  results are obvious. The total shows the following:
   prescribing a restricted role to women in the service         36% would favor ordination of women as deacons;
   of worship when he wrote I Corinthians  14:34 and             26% would favor women ordained as elders; 23%
   I Timothy 2: 12.                                              would allow for women as ministers. Although the
                                                                 survey shows that the vast majority oppose women
     However, the reasons for the restrictions were              serving in any office, still this attitude will gradual-
   local, cultural, and therefore temporal. Paul could
   appeal to what was in his day a common moral judg-            ly change when people are forced to "rethink'
   ment: a woman speaking in church looked  "bad,"               their former beliefs.
   "shameful" (I Cor.  14:35). But when such an appeal             It is interesting also to note that before changing
   can no longer be made, the special apostolic prescrip-        their stand on movies and on dancing, similar
   tion is also removed.                                         surveys were also conducted and presented to
     . . . At one time -the forwardness of a Christian           Synod as evidence that a change was required. One
   woman would discredit the Word of God (Titus 2:5).            is almost forced to conclude that there is an ele-
   Today our efforts to hold back female members might           ment in the C.R.C. convinced that when the
   discredit the church.                                         percentage of people, though this be a minority, is
     Just as the gospel liberated the slaves, who were           large enough, it is time to move forward and force
   constantly taught submission in Paul's historical situa-      the rest to "rethink" their beliefs in light of the
   tion, so the equality of men and women was taught             changed official position of the church.


280                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



  But again one faces the question: when a deci-                 broached, is that femininity ("a nostalgic tradition
sion is "settled and binding," is this the way to                of imposed limitations") is making a comeback be-
overthrow it? Does the official church magazine                  cause of the fierce competition among women for
blast away until its Synod sees the light? And what              men and jobs. "Men are in shorter supply than ever,"
of their Church Order which still states in Article 3,           she says. "The rise of the gay male population has
"Confessing mab members of the church who meet                   been extraordinary, and it has left a reservoir of
the Biblical requirements for office-bearers are                 desperate women." New York City, for example, has
eligible for office . . . . "                                    about 500,000 more females than males, as well as a
                                                                 male homosexual population estimated at 300,000 to
  And when the church struggles, howbeit                         400,000. "This is something we never envisioned in
somewhat belatedly, to catch up with the position                the feminist movement," says Browmniller. "We
of the world on the issue of women's lib, some                   thought we would collect our grievances and present
within the world seem to be realizing the fool-                  them to men. Fifteen years later the men aren't there,
ishness of their own position. There are some                    and there is no one to listen to the complaints."
beginning to understand, though not on biblical                 If one can not accept the plain, literal teaching of
grounds, that there are sad consequences when                 Scripture, if (after some 2,000 years) the church
"women's lib" is pushed in the way it has been. In            now must introduce a different hermeneutical prin-
commenting on a recently-written book,  Time,                 ciple, then perhaps he ought to examine the conse-
January 30, 1984, states,                                     quences of "women's lib" in the world and ask
                                                              himself what consequences will also soon be seen
         Brownmiller's thesis, somewhat reluctantly           within the church.


                     Do-It-Yourself Abortion Drug?

  Christianity Today, October 7, 1983, presents a                company's most productive salesmen, to resign in
news item concerning what seems to be a develop-                 April. He left after he discovered that Upjohn was
ment of a drug by Upjohn Company of Kalamazoo                    providing drugs and financial support for projects
which would safely bring about an abortion.                      whose clearly stated goals included the refinement of
Though the company denies that it is producing the               an abortion-inducing drug for home use.
drug for "home use," the fact is that the drug is               Such a drug, if introduced on the market, would
available for use in hospitals - and at least one             add a frightening dimension to the murder of abor-
salesman resigned his position because he was con-            tion. How many more lives would be snatched
vinced that the drug is destined ultimately for               away before birth by those who did not want to go
home use.                                                     through the trouble of a pregnancy? Already
                                                              millions of lives have been snuffed out. Additional
        It was his suspicion that Upjohn was sponsoring       millions might well be added to an already large
   further research on prostaglandins for home use that
       caused pharmacist George  Schimming,  one of the       number of abortions presently done.

STRENGTH OF YOUTH


                    Martin Luther Addresses Youth
                                                   Rev. Ron Cammenga



  Martin Luther knew people. Like the Lord                   could weep with the sorrowing. He could laugh
Whom he served, he could be "touched with the                with the joyful. He could pity the distressed and
feeling of the infirmities" of God's people. He               downcast. He could sympathize with the believer


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   281



who struggled with the guilt of his sin. Luther knew        In the rearing of their children, Luther warned
people because he knew himself. He never stood            that parents must not destroy and stifle, but direct
aloof from Gods people in his office as minister of       the natural enthusiasm of youth. Luther reacted to
the gospel, because Luther knew himself to be but a       the suffocating tendencies of monasticism and the
man among men. He identified with the people of           medieval schools. In one place, commenting on Ec-
God in their struggles, burdens, temptations, and         clesiastes 11:9, he said:
sins.                                                              Solomon is, therefore, the best of teachers
  Identifying tiith God's people, Luther identified           of youth. He does not forbid joys and
with the youth. He understood youth. He under-                pleasures, as those foolish teachers, the
stood youth because he himself had been a youth.              monks, did. For this is nothing else than
He had himself experienced the enthusiasm and                 making young people into stumps and, as
vigor of young manhood. He had himself gone                   even Anselm, the most monkish of monks,
through the struggles that mold the boy into the              said, trying to plant a tree in a narrow pot.
mature man of God. He had faced the temptations               So the monks confined their pupils as
that confront young men, and, like every young                though in a cage and forbade them to see or
man, had more than once fallen into those tempta-             talk with people, with the result that they
tions.                                                        learned and experienced nothing, even
  Besides, Luther knew youth as a parent. Luther,             though there is nothing more dangerous to
along with his beloved wife, Katie, raised a family           youth than solitude. The mind needs to be
of children and teenagers. He knew the challenges             trained with good sense and ideas, so that
and the frustrations, the joys and the sorrows of             people are not corrupted by association and
bringing up young men and women.                              contact with evil men, since according to
  And Luther knew youth as a pastor. He was, of               the body they have to live in the very midst
                                                              of such things. Therefore one must see and
course, the outstanding leader of the Protestant
Reformation. He was a man whose time was con-                 hear the world, so long as there is a good
stantly demanded by all the work that belonged to             teacher present.
reforming and rebuilding the church. He was,                This, of course, must not be understood to mean
besides, a theological professor, engaged in the          that young people must be given a free rein, be
training of prospective ministers of the gospel. But      allowed to do as they please.
in addition to all this, Luther was also a simple             Therefore one must be indulgent with
pastor - and then a pastor who had a care not only            youth, and must let them be happy and do
for the sheep, but for the lambs of the flock.                everything with a happy spirit. Yet one
  In this article, we want to witness Luther's                must see to it that they are not corrupted by
pastoral concern for the youth in the church, and             the desires of the flesh. For carousals, drink-
hear what Luther has to say to the youth.                     ing-bouts, and love affairs are not the happi-
  Luther's first concern was with parents and with            ness of the heart, but rather make the spirit
the responsibility of parents to bring forth and train        sad.
their children. The strength of youth depended on           Over against the disrespect and disobedience to
godly parents carrying out their calling in the           parents that characterized already the young people
church. In "A Sermon On Keeping Children In               of Luther's day, Luther insisted on the calling of the
School" Luther exhorted the congregation:                 young people of the church to honor and obey their
   He has not given you your children and the             parents. There is probably no calling which the
   means to support them simply so that you               young people so need to be reminded of today.
   may do with them as you please, or train               Commenting on the account in Genesis 23 of
   them to get ahead in the world. You have               Abraham's prostrating himself before the children
   been earnestly commanded to raise them                 of Heth at the time he made his request of them for
   for God's service . . . .                              the Cave of Machpelah for a burying-place, Luther
                                                          said:
It must exactly be a motive with God-fearing
parents, Luther insisted, that out of love and con-           These are commendable customs of humil-
cern for the welfare of their children they support           ity, respect, and courtesy; they should be
the cause of the reform of the church. In the same            especially praised and presented to our
sermon as quoted above, he asked the rhetorical               youth, so that it may accustom itself to them
question, "But how will you raise them (your                  and rid itself of its habitual boorishness.
children) for God's service if the office of preaching    In another place he wrote:
and the spiritual estate have fallen into oblivion?"          Therefore I urge and earnestly beseech all


282                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



       young men (young women, too) to shun and                derers of mothers and murderers of fathers;
       detest this sin and to accustom their hearts            for an exceedingly horrible judgment and
       to respect their parents and to that end to             punishment of God awaits them . . . . Chil-
       implore God's help with unceasing prayers.               dren often fall smugly into various misdeeds
  In many places Luther called the children and                without having any regard for respect to-
young people to receive the instruction of their               wards parents. Daughters sully their chasti-
parents and the church. The parents and the                    ty and disgrace their pious and honorable
church must not only give this instruction, but this           parents. But with these shameful acts they
instruction must be willingly and eagerly received             kill father and mother; for father and
by the youth.                                                  mother are endowed with that very tender
                                                               affection and love toward their offspring
       Doctrine. . . must be constantly repeated on            which is not so intense and ardent in chil-
       account of the adolescents and the tender                dren. Indeed, they do not even very often
       youth, who are the seed-bed of the church,               understand it.
       that they may learn that they must stand
       firmly and remain where God speaks, and                One of the outstanding means by which the
       that they may accustom themselves to those           youth of the church are led away from the church
       obligations which are commanded by                   and a holy life is the influence of wicked friends.
 - God _ . . .                                              By associating with the young people of the world,
                                                            the young people of the church are certainly going
More than once Luther stated his conviction that            to come under the power of that bad example,
the permanence of the Reformation depended on               which appeals, of course, to their own sinful flesh,
the coming generation. If the youth were not in-            and be led astray. In the following passage, Luther
structed and called to stand for the truth of the           warns the young people against keeping company
Word of God represented by the Reformation, the             with the young people of the world, and warns the
Reformation would vanish like the morning dew.              parents against allowing this to happen.
  Especially did Luther call the young people of the              Now just when a father or a mother has
church to a serious life of holiness. Time and again           devoted much toil and money to their child
he exhorted them to keep the commandments of                   before it is trained a little and has been
God and to flee "fleshly lusts, which war against              taught fine and mannerly conduct so that it
the soul." Luther is honored for his insistence on             knows how to behave sensibly and chastely
the truth of justification, justification by faith alone       over against all people, some pernicious
apart from our own works. But Luther's teaching of             animal comes along, an evil tongue says
justification by faith alone did not overthrow the             something into the child's ear, or someone
life of good works to which the child of God is                displays a bad example that poisons such a
called. Justification has its great goal in sanctifica-        young heart and engenders bad blood of
tion, a life lived in obedience to all the command-            which it can never again rid itself. For in-
ments of God's law.                                            stance, even when a young lad has been
  In a stirring passage, Luther calls the young peo-           trained and disciplined well for a long time
ple to holiness, and at the same time points out to            and to the parents delight, a wild, evil, friv-
them that there is nothing that so grieves godly               olous rascal comes along and with a loose
parents as the unholiness of their children.                   and shameless remark or example poisons
                                                               and spoils with a single stroke the whole
         For there are very great and intense emo-             object of so much care, diligence, time, and
       tions that God has created in the whole na-             expense. This works murderous harm and
       ture of things and has implanted in parents             ruins whatever is well trained. It is like hail
       toward their offspring. And if at any time              or lightning that ruins the vegetation in the
       their hearts are wounded by grief or sorrow             field. And people who take pleasure in poi-
   `on account of a misfortune suffered by                     soning such innocent young people are
       their children, this is a very real plague and          despicable and devilish.
       a poison for their lives. Therefore, parents
       are easily killed, if not by the sword, then           Especially guilty of deluding and corrupting the
       by sorrow and grief. I myself have seen that         young people of Luther's day were the universities.
       many very honorable parents were slain by            There is no new thing under the sun. Still today, the
       godless `children because of sadness of              institutions for higher learning, even those which
       heart. Young people neither consider nor             are nominally Reformed, take the lead in under-
       understand this. But children should be              mining the truth of God's Word and the faith of the
       taught and warned, lest they become mur-             young people. Luther expressed, "I greatly fear that


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               283



the universities are wide gates of hell, because they     Christ they must turn for the strength of the Spirit
do not diligently teach the Holy Scriptures and im-       to live God-glorifying lives.
press them on the youth." It was exactly out of his          A youth who believes in Christ has victory
concern that not only in the primary grades, but             over everything because of which Satan has
also in the university, the truth of God's Word be           power. Thus he has victory, not in such a
taught and upheld that Luther labored unceasingly            way that sin, an evil conscience, and death
on behalf of the University of Wittenberg. It was            are not felt, but because they are overcome.
exactly the University of Wittenberg that was                For Christ is greater.
responsible, in large measure, for the spread of the
Reformation throughout the lands of Europe.                 This is the strength of youth: Christ. God grant
                                                          that the youth of the church find their strength, as
  As he pointed all of the people of God, so Luther       Luther exhorted them to find their strength and as
also pointed the youth to the cross of Jesus Christ as    the faithful church today exhorts them to find their
the only hope of salvation. To Christ the young peo-      strength, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
ple must look for the forgiveness of sins, and to

GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH



                          Allegory and Philosophy
                                            Rev. Thomas C. Miersma




  We have been considering various aspects of the         its influence, so that we find in the days of our Lord
early church's doctrine of Scripture and the devel-       not only the legalistic Pharisees, but also those who
opment of its principles of Scriptural interpretation     had adopted Greek culture and philosophy. These
or hermeneutics. The church in these early cen-           men, Jews particularly of the dispersion outside of
turies had to defend the truth of the Word of God         Palestine, lived in the midst of a gentile world
against many different attacks upon it, both from         dominated by Greek thought. While the common
within and without. Without a clear doctrine of           people among the pagans may have clung to a
Scripture the church was very vulnerable to these         literal belief in the old pagan myths, the intellec-
attacks. Various weaknesses began to creep into the       tuals among them had turned from them to phil-
church in her view of Scripture. We have briefly          osophical speculation. The old myths were allego-
discussed the beginnings of an apostolic tradition        rized, given mystical and symbolic interpretations
standing alongside Scripture which, in the Middle         apart from their literal meaning. Greek philosophy
Ages, would supercede Scripture's authority. We           reinterpreted the myths and used them as poetic
have also spoken concerning some of the mystical          symbols of philosophical ideas. The Jews of the
tendencies which had arisen in the church. One            dispersion, and particularly those who were at-
other element which needs to be considered in the         tracted to Greek philosophy, were not immune to
early church's approach to Scripture is the rise of       this speculative philosophical culture and began to
allegory and speculative philosophical approaches         apply this allegorical method. to Scripture. Those
to the interpretation of Scripture.                       elements in the Word of God which in this age of
                                                          culture seemed crude or inconsistent with modern
  The early church lived in the midst of a gentile        views of morality, could be explained away. The
culture largely shaped by Greek philosophy. In-           sins of the patriarchs could be glossed over in their
deed the mystical and speculative Gnostic heresies,       literal meaning and explained in philosophical
with their emphasis on a secret knowledge as the          terms and as illustrations of great philosophical
pathway to salvation, were indebted to this               truths. Such an approach to Scripture served to feed
philosophical climate.                                    the sinful pride of such interpreters, for they
  The Old Testament church itself had not escaped         viewed the masses as being confined to the dead


284                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



letter of Scripture while they, the truly enlightened,    for what the dispensationalist really accuses us of is
could by the allegorical method penetrate to a much       allegory. To interpret Scripture spiritually means
deeper understanding than the mere literal sense. It      that one seeks the meaning of a passage by deter-
served their purpose of making Scripture more ac-         mining the mind of the Holy Spirit Who is the
ceptable, intellectually, to the world, so that it        author of the Scriptures. This is done by comparing
could stand on a par with sophisticated Greek             Scripture with Scripture, so that the Holy Spirit in-
thought.                                                  terprets His Own Word. Thus, something is a sym-
  Perhaps the most notable individual to attempt a        bol or a type in Scripture, not because one reads a
combination of Scripture and philosophy among             symbolic interpretation  into  the passage, as in
the Jews, was Phi10 who was born about twenty             allegory, but because the whole of the Scriptures
years before Christ and lived in Alexandria, Egypt.       makes it manifestly clear that such is the meaning
In brief, Philo attempted to show by his writings         and intent of the Spirit. The Spirit of Truth explains
that the Greek philossphers  whom he admired had          the meaning of His Own Word. In allegory,
really derived much of their ideas from the Old           however, the meaning of Scripture is hidden
Testament or had been anticipated by it. He pro-          behind the plain Word of God and must be un-
ceeded to read Greek philosophy into Scripture.           covered. The historical passages of Scripture are
The literal sense of the Scriptures he acknowl-           treated as if they were so many parables with hid-
edged, but represented it as primarily an accommo-        den meanings of moral or mystical significance,
dation to weaker minds. To get at the "truth" one         cryptically written philosophy accommodated to
had- to go beneath the surface, to the eternal ideas      weaker minds and understandings.
which underlay Scripture and were symbolically              The early fathers however did not make a clear
expressed in its history.                                 distinction between the two. Furthermore, they
  It can be well understood that in such a climate        misread certain passages in the New Testament
the church of the new dispensation was faced with         which they did not well understand and which
many temptations. In the first place the gentiles as      seemed to them to legitimize an allegorical method.
they were brought into the church came from that          For example, the analogy which the Apostle Paul
culture. Nor was the Jewish element of the church         draws in Galatians 4 between Hagar and Sarah, and
unfamiliar with it. By such a method of symbolical-       carnal and spiritual Israel, seemed to some to
ly explaining Scripture, virtually every reference to     validate the allegorical approach. One could then
wood in the Old Testament could be turned into a          read into the Old Testament similar analogies and
symbol of the cross. By using this method the             symbols. In doing this they misunderstood the
Gnostic sects which confronted the church and             Apostle's meaning and the historical reality of the
which used this method could be fought on their           promise underlying it.
own ground, with the added weight of apostolic              The tendency toward mysticism illustrated in the
tradition. As the church had no clear understanding       Montanist movement and a weak view of the
of the doctrine of Scripture she was vulnerable to        organic nature of inspiration also fostered a fond-
these strange ideas of interpretation.                    ness for allegory in the early church. This method
                                                          of interpretation received a strong impetus in Alex-
  Spiritually the church stood separated from             andria where the legacy of  Philo lingered. The
worldly philosophy, for her principle of interpreta-      church there had had a difficult struggle with the
tion was spiritual as she was led by the Spirit of        Gnostic heretics. These heretics catered particular-
Truth Who dwelt in the church. Yet the old man of         ly to those who sought a deeper spiritual knowl-
the flesh was there also. The church fathers were         edge and experience. The church in Alexandria
not always successful in shaking off their pagan          countered these heresies and sects with its own
cultural background. Their lack of clarity regarding      brand of "biblical" Gnosticism, or deeper insight
Scripture made them weak in this area.                    and knowledge. To do this they resorted to exten-
  One of the problems was that, without a clear           sive use of allegory in their theology. In the process
conception of Scripture and its principles of inter-      they incorporated many elements from Greek
pretation, the church fathers had difficulty              thought. In its essence, it was an attempt to unite
distinguishing a spiritual interpretation from an         faith and reason, to bring about a synthesis of
allegorical one. What is meant by this? Allegorizing      philosophy and Christian theology by Christianiz-
and spiritualizing a passage are sometimes con-           ing the former. This movement finds its center in
fused and intermixed even in our own day. So-             Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 150-200). He was an
called fundamentalists of the dispensational type         officebearer in the church there until A.D. 189
often accuse Reformed people of spiritualizing            when he became head of the catechetical school for
Scripture while they claim to follow the literal          about twelve years until persecution of the church
meaning. It is well that we understand these terms,       there forced him to flee. Although sincere in his ef-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                285



forts as head of the school to bring the gospel to the    deny the history of Scripture, he proceeded to treat
people and to instruct the church there, he also          it like the parables of Christ, and by his allegorical
taught the divine origin of Greek philosophy, such        method to derive from it a "deeper" understand-
as Philo had done before him. He propounded the           ing.
principle that all Scripture must be interpreted            Clement's views were widely received in the
allegorically. Scripture, he believed, had hidden         church as they appealed to the speculative Greek
depths and meanings which only the spiritually            mind as well as to the mystical tendency present in
elite could perceive. The plain sense of Scripture he     the church. This allegorical method gained a strong
does not reject, but regards it as the milk of the        foothold in the church through Clement's pupils,
gospel, sufficient only for an elementary faith. The      and particularly through Origen, the most brilliant
deeper and mystical depths of Scripture were not          of his pupils, of whom we will have more to say
open to all. Scripture's history was to be conceived      next time, the Lord willing.
of as if it were so many parables. While he did not

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE



             Preservation  and Perseverance (2)
                                                Rev. H. Veldman





  We concluded our first and preceding article on         creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
this subject with the observation that as citizens of     of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." To this
the kingdom of heaven we must be pilgrims and             wonderful truth we will now, the Lord willing, call
strangers in the earth, ever seeking to promote the       attention in subsequent articles. Indeed, a wonder-
cause of God and of His Christ. Doing this,               ful truth this is.
however, we will experience the trials and afflic-           The truths of preservation and perseverance are
tions of this present time. These trials are              surely scriptural and confessional. The Arminians
unavoidable. This means that we must fight,               or Remonstrants also professed to believe in preser-
witnessing of Christ and of His Cause, and oppose         vation, as is evident from Article 5 of their Five Ar-
all the unfruitful works of sin and darkness. And         ticles of the Remonstrants. We now quote this arti-
this means that our survival in the midst of the          cle.
world will become, humanly speaking, impossible.
We will be confronted by the powers of sin and                      That those who are incorporated into Christ by a
                                                                  true faith, and have thereby become partakers of His
evil, within us and all around us, with which we                  life-giving Spirit, have thereby full powers to strive
cannot possibly cope and contend. Yet, fight we                   against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh, and
must, regardless of the odds. But then our preserva-              to win the victory; it being well understood that it is
tion and perseverance become a very vital matter.                 ever through the assisting grace of the Holy Ghost;
Whether or not we will survive becomes a tremen-                  and that Jesus Christ assists them through His Spirit in
dously vital and pertinent question. How wonder-                  all temptations, extends to them His hand, and if only
ful, then, it is to know that the work which God has              they are ready for the conflict, and desire His help,
once begun shall by His grace be fully done! How                  and are not inactive, keeps them from falling, so that
wonderful it is that we then may repeat after the                 they, by no craft or power of Satan, can be misled
apostle Paul what we read in Romans  8:37-38:                     nor plucked out of Christ's hands, according to the
"Nay, in all these things we are more than con-                   Word of Christ, John  10:28: "Neither shall any man
                                                                  pluck them out of My hand." But whether they are
querors through Him that loved us. For I am per-                  capable, through negligence, or forsaking again the
suaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor             first beginnings of their life in Christ, of again re-
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor               turning to this present evil world, of turning away
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other              from the holy doctrine which was delivered them, of


286                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



       losing a good conscience, of becoming devoid of grace,    full persuasion of their minds. This, of course, we
       that must be more particularly determined out of the      understand, is deliberate camouflage. As if, if you
       Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with     please, it must still be determined whether the
       the full persuasion of our minds.                         child of God will persevere until the very end. The
  In connection with this article we would call at-              truth is that, as far as the Arminian is concerned,
tention to the following. First, we read here that               this has been determined, namely that the certain
those who are incorporated into Christ by a true                 perseverance of the Christian is uncertain, and that
faith, and have thereby become partakers of His                  it is uncertain exactly because it is dependent upon
life-giving Spirit, have thereby full power to strive            the sinner's free will. The truth is that he does not
against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh,              believe in the certain perseverance of the saints.
and to win the victory. This sounds very Reformed,               The Reformed man has no difficulty with this. He
although we must always bear in mind that, accord-               declares emphatically that the child of God shall be
ing to the Arminian, this is all dependent upon the              preserved and that he will persevere. This is exactly
free will of the sinner. But, it sounds very Re-                 what the Arminian will not say and does not
formed. This Reformed speech is characteristic of                believe.
the heretic. We must bear in mind that the Arminian                The truth of preservation is set forth in our Con-
is speaking here. The heretic will invariably clothe             fessions, in the Canons of Dordt, Article III of the
himself in a Reformed garment. We must never                     fifth Head, and we quote: "By reason of these re-
forget this. How necessary it is, therefore, that all            mains of indwelling sin, and the temptations of sin
the preaching and teaching in our churches con-                  and of the world, those who are converted could
tinue to be distinctive. We must not merely be                   not persevere in a state of grace, if left to their own
positive in our preaching and teaching but also                  strength. But God is faithful, Who having conferred
distinctive. Always we must expose every heresy in               grace, mercifully confirms, and powerfully
all our activities. Article 55 of our Church Order               preserves them herein, even to the end."
demands this, and we quote: "To ward off false
doctrines and errors that multiply exceedingly                     And then we read in Article VIII of the fifth
through heretical writings, the ministers and elders             Head:
shall use the means of teaching, of refutation, or                     Thus, it is not in consequence of their own merits,
warning, and of admonition, as well in the ministry                  or strength, but of God's free mercy, that they do not
of the Word as in Christian teaching and family-                     totally fall from faith and grace, nor continue and
visiting." How the Scriptures warn us to be on our                  perish finally in their  backslidings;  which, with
guard against and to oppose the wolves who appear                    respect to themselves, is not only possible, but would
in sheep's clothing! Mind you, they appear in                        undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God it is ut-
sheep's clothing. They appear as sheep, these false                  terly impossible, since His counsel cannot be changed,
                                                                     nor His promise fail, neither can the call according
preachers and teachers. But, according to the                       to His purpose be revoked, nor the merit, intercession
Saviour, they are ravening, desperately hungry                      and preservation of Christ be rendered ineffectual,
wolves. They are determined to devour the sheep.                    nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrated or
How important it is that we constantly expose and                   obliterated.
unmask them! And then this fifth article of the
Remonstrance continues: "it being well understood                  However, the truth of the perseverance of the
that it is ever through the assisting grace of the Ho-           saints is also confessional. Already in Heads III and
ly Ghost; and that Jesus Christ assists them through             IV this truth is set forth.
His Spirit in all temptations, extends to them His                 In Article 12 of Heads III and IV we read:
hand, and if only they are ready for the conflict,                     But as man by the fall did not cease to be a creature,
and desire His help, and are not inactive, keeps                    endowed with understanding and will, nor did sin
them from falling." Here the Arminian begins to                     which pervaded the whole race of mankind, deprive
reveal himself, here he begins to come out of his                   him of the human nature, but brought upon him de-
shell. Notice, he speaks of the assisting grace of the              pravity and spiritual death; so also this grace of
Holy Ghost, that Jesus Christ assists them through                  regeneration does not treat man as senseless stocks
His Spirit, extends to them His hand, and also that                 and blocks, nor takes away their will and its proper-
they must be ready for the conflict, desire His help,               ties, neither does violence thereto; but spiritually
and are not inactive. Then, finally, the Remonstrant                quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweet-
really reveals himself when he writes that he is not                ly and powerfully bends it; that where carnal rebel-
                                                                    lion and  resistence formerly prevailed, a ready and
ready to say that the Christian will be preserved                   sincere spiritual obedience begins to reign; in which
and persevere unto the very end. This he declares                   the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our
must be more particularly determined out of the                     will consist. Therefore unless the admirable author
Holy Scriptures before they can teach it with the                   of every good work wrought in us, man could have no


                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            2 8 7



              hope of recovering from his fall by his own free will,                   will thus renewed, is not only actuated and in-
              by the abuse of which, in a state of innocence, he                       fluenced by God, but in consequence of this influ-
              plunged himself into ruin.                                               ence, becomes itself active. Wherefore also, man is
            Notice in the above quotation that man could                               himself rightly said to believe and repent, by virtue of
          have no hope of recovering from his fall by his own                          that grace received.
          free will, by the abuse of which, in a state of in-                         How beautifully our fathers in this article set
          nocence, he plunged himself into ruin. But now,                          forth the truth that the work of regeneration is truly
          because the admirable author (of course, the Holy                        and exclusively a mighty, irresistible work of God,
          Spirit - H.V.) of every good work wrought in us,                         even likened to a resurrection, not inferior to such a
          and is working in us, man does have hope of                              resurrection from the dead.
          recovery from his fall and the absolutely sure con-                        We conclude our confessional references in this
          fidence that he will be saved unto the very end.                         article by quoting Article 13 of Heads III and IV:
            And then we have that wondrously beautiful set-                        "The manner of this operation cannot be fully com-
          ting forth of the truth by our fathers in Article 12 of                  prehended by believers in this life. Notwithstand-
          Heads III and IV:                                                        ing which, they rest satisfied with knowing and ex-
                                                                                   periencing, that by this grace of God they are en-
     I              And this is the regeneration so highly celebrated in           abled to believe with the heart, and love their
              Scripture, and denominated a new creation: a resur-                  Saviour."
              rection from the dead, a making alive, which God
              works in us without our aid. But this is in no wise                     Indeed, the Reformed truth is believed. Armin-
              effected merely by the external preaching of the gos-                ianism is characterized by rationalism. And yet,
              pel (how often it is presented today that this occurs                although rationalistic, it is utterly foolish and
              through the preaching of the gospel, which is nothing                senseless. Does it make sense that an almighty God
              else than a sickening well-meaning, general offer of                 is dependent upon the free will of an impotent sin-
              grace  - H.V.), by moral suasion, or such a mode of                  ner. The Lord willing, we will continue with this
              operation, that after God has performed His part, it                 confessional proof, establishing the perseverance of
              will still remain in the power of man to be regenerated              the saints as set forth in the fifth Head of our
              or not, to be converted, or to continue unconverted;
              but it is evidently a supernatural work, most power-                 Canons of Dordt.
              ful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing,
              mysterious, and ineffable, not inferior in efficacy to                                 Read and Study
              creation, or the resurrection from the dead, as the                               the Standard Bearer
              Scripture inspired by the author of this work declares;
              so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous
              manner, are certainly, infallibly, and effectually re-                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
              generated, and do actually believe. - Whereupon the                    The Men's Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                                   (Walker, Michigan) herewith expresses its sincere Christian sym-
                                                                                   pathy to its members, Mr. Cornelius Kamps, Marinus Kamps and
                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                   Gilbert Schimmel in the recent death of their mother and mother-in-
                                                                                   law, MRS. GEORGE KAMPS, age 79.
            The Martha Society of the Protestant Reformed Church of Doon.
          Iowa, wish to express their sympathy to Rev. and Mrs. Marvin Kamps          "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
          and family in the passing of his mother, MRS. GEORGE KAMPS.              (Psalm 115:15)
            Our prayer is that God may comfort them in their sorrow and we                                                          D. Englesma, Pres.
          rejoice with them in remembering that "-precious in the sight of the                                                      P. Koole, Sec'y.
          Lord is the death of His saints." (Psalm 116: 15)
                                                    Mrs. Rod Brunsting, Sec'y.                                   NOTICE!!!
                                                                                                             TEACHER NEEDED
~                                                                                     Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School is in need of the
                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                    following teachers for the 1984-l 965 school year: half-day junior
            On March 24, 1984, the Lord willing, MR. AND MRS. JOE VAN              high;    kindergarten,     elementary grades (combination grade
          KAMPEN, of Holland, Michigan, will celebrate their 35th wedding an-      classroom). Address inquiries to the Education Committee, c/o the
          niversary. We, their children and grandchildren, are thankful for the    school, 1545 Wilson Avenue, S.W., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504.
I         years of love and covenant instruction they have given us. Wd thank
          our Heavenly Father for the years they have had together and pray
          that He will continue to keep them in His care.                                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
             "So we Thy people end sheep of Thy pasture will give Thee thanks
          forever: we will show forth Thy praise to all generations." (Psalm         The Adult Bible Society of  Doon Protestant Reformed Church ex-
          79:13)                                                                   presses its sincere Christian sympathy to our President, Rev. Marvin
                                                                                   Kamps, and his family in the death of his mother, MRS. GEORGE
          Dan and Mary Van Kampen                Larry and Pat Dutmer              KAMPS.
             Michael, Andrew                        Jodie, Betsy
          Bruce and Cherie Jabaay                Steve Van Kampen                     "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
            Julie, Richard, Brian, Lisa          Joe Van Kampen                    dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
                                                 Mark and Cindy Ophoff             eternal in the heavens." (II Corinthians 5:l)

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





 288                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



                         News From Our Churches
                                                       February 14,1984



   We have another new sister congregation. This                     groups of saints in New Zealand. Every second
time in the Grandville, Michigan area. On February                   Sunday in the month we go to Palmerston North
9th, at Hope Protestant Reformed Church! in                          which is a good 100 miles north of Wellington. Both
 Walker, the Grandville Protestant Reformed                          groups love the true Reformed Faith." Remember,
 Church was formed. That, by the way, is not their                   Rev. & Mrs. Heys' phone number is 011-64-4-672-
 official name. Prof. H. Hanko gave the sermon                       200 and their address 44A Norton Park Avenue,
 based on I Timothy 3:15b;  "The Church, The Pillar                  Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
 of the Truth."' The charter members consisted of 25                    The January 29th bulletin of Hudsonville
 families and 5 individuals. May our covenant God                    Protestant    Reformed        Church       had       this
 establish this new congregation as a foundation and                 announcement: "Rev. C. Hanko plans to leave this
 pillar of the truth.                                                week to preach in Bradenton for the next several
    Our new Byron Center Protestant Reformed                         months. May God guide and bless him in his
 Church had this note in their February 5th bulletin:                labors." Incidentally, the address of the church in
 "We welcome into our fellowship six new mem-                        Bradenton is: 3304 W. 43rd St., Bradenton, Florida.
 bers all from Hudsonville Church.. . . We pray that                 Services are held at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M.
 the love of Christ may abound in our congregation                      The Activities Committee of Kalamazoo Protes-
 that we may mutually be blessed from our God as                     tant Reformed Church is planning on a spring con-
 we worship together from Sabbath to Sabbath... ."                   ference to be held March 30 in their church at Kala-
 Byron Center Consistory elected the following trio                  mazoo. Two years ago the conference was on the
 from which the congregation will call an-Under-                     subject of missions, and last year they considered
 shepherd: Candidate Barry Gritters, Rev. Carl                       the subject of Child Development. This year they
 Haak, and Rev. Jason Kortering."                                    plan to look into the matter of Christianliving.
    Southeast Protestant Reformed Church is having                      Covenant Protestant Reformed Church had im-
 a birthday! Their January 22, 1984 bulletin reads,                  portant information         regarding their church
 "Southeast Protestant Reformed Church celebrates                    building. A January 8 bulletin reads, "At a Building
 4-O years in existence this spring. Set aside the                   Committee meeting held last Friday evening it was
 evening of April 26 to help commemorate God's                       decided to offer...our sanctuary bonds...This is
 faithfulness to His Church. Anyone with memora-                     with a view to finishing the driveway and parking
 bilia of any type is asked to contact Herm Ophoff at                lot this coming spring."
 452-1908. More specifics coming later."                                South Holland Protestant Reformed Church has
    An announcement in the January 15, 1984                          another publication. Rev. Engelsma has edited
 bulletin of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church                     "The Christian School Movement; Why a Failure?"
 reads, "The Cons&tory has decided in accord with                    by Herman Hoeksema.
 the request of the Evangelical Reformed Church of
 Singapore to take the spiritual oversight of Mr. &                     The Evangelism Committee of South Holland
 Mrs. J, Mahtani while they are in this country for                  Protestant Reformed Church arranged a meeting
 his seminary instruction."                                          for the Rev. George G. Hutton, minister of the Bible
                                                                     Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland. He spoke
    I received a colorful postcard from Rev. & Mrs.                  concerning his church, the struggle for the Re-
 Heys with two postage stamps totaling 58C airmail.                  formed faith in Northern Ireland, and the state of
 They wrote, in part," . ..we are laboring with two                  the church in Northern Ireland.              D.H.


