     STANDARD
                          EARER
                       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                     Y





                      there is an entire discretionary area in
     .     .     .

     which elders and their minister may labor
     together in a spirit of brotherly love toward
     the improvement of the preaching of the
     Word. Elders who fail to do this are not faith-
     ful to their calling. The pastor who cannot
     accept the counsel of his elders is both insub-
     ordinate and foolish.
     See "The Elder and the Preaching"
                                                                    - page 149



.                                                          Vol. LXI, No. 7, January 1, 1985  -


146                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                             ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                           Semi-monthly. except monthly during June, July, and August.
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           of Righteousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146     D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. konald Hanko,
                                                                                 Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
  Editorial -                                                                    Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Ma&us  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
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MEDITATION

                              Our Assurance of the Crown
                                                    of Righteousness
                                                                     Rev. H. Veldman


                    "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous
                Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appear-
                 ing. "                                                                                                             2 Timothy 4:8

  Henceforth . . . .                                                                what now lies before me, the obtaining of the
  What now remaineth, what now must yet  hap-                                       crown, must yet occur.
pen.                                                                                   January 1, 1985. What shall we say?
  My course is finished; the battle,has been fought;                                    Henceforth, now there remaineth  - what? The


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 147



world, too, lives in the future. Of course! The pres-            prize, the victor's prize; it is the day of our Lord
ent always disappoints. Hence, the world always                  Jesus Christ. What a day that shall be! That will be
reaches out to what lies ahead. But, it always                   the last day of this dispensation, the end, the
reaches out to the things that are earthly, the things           Omega of all things. That will be the day when all
that are below. And what shall we say as we look to              history shall have been recorded, when all struggle,
the future? Shall we, too, build upon sand, set our              as well as all tears and sorrow, shall forever be a
hearts upon the earthly?                                         thing of the past, the end of the old and the begin-
  Let us take this scripture upon our lips. Let us               ning of the new. It will be the day of our Lord, the
look to the crown of righteousness, given also to all            day of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He, as the
them who love His appearing.                                     righteous Judge, shall appear upon the clouds of
       *    *    *      *    *    *    *    *    *     *         heaven, together with all the angels, to open the
  A crown of righteousness.                                      Book and distribute, as in a moment, to every man
                                                                 even as his work shall be.
  The original Greek knows two words for
"crown": a royal, kingly crown and, more fre-                      Thirdly, for me is laid up a crown of righteous-
quently used in Holy Writ, a victor's crown, given               ness. Indeed, our course is finished (verse 7). And
to the victorious contestant. The latter word is used            now it is laid up. Having finished the course, and
here by the apostle Paul. This choice need not sur-              about to be sacrificed upon the command of Nero,
prise us. It is the crown which is about to be given             the apostle says of his crown that it is reserved, laid
to the apostle who had fought the good fight, had                away, safely reserved, to be given him at that last
finished his course and had kept the faith.                      day. And, what a crown! The text does not identify
                                                                 it. However, it is as if the old warrior and cam-
  Many interpretations are offered of the expres-                paigner means to say: "I need not tell you what it is.
sion: crown of righteousness. Is this a crown ac-                Anyone acquainted with Holy Writ ought to know
cording  to righteousness, or a crown  consisting of             that the Word of God is very explicit about it."
righteousness (i.e., righteousness  is  this crown)?             Besides, we do not read of a crown but of the crown
Must this righteousness be viewed as legal? The                  of righteousness. Hence, it is the crown of
meaning, then, is that the Judge of all the earth will           righteousness, the crown which according to the
declare us righteous, will publicly vindicate, ex-               righteousness of God, the Judge of all the earth,
onerate us in that day, declare us free from all guilt           belongs to me, is righteously mine.
and punishment and heirs of everlasting life. Or, is
this righteousness spiritual? Then we ourselves are                What is this crown? It is surely the crown of life
righteous, in perfect harmony with the will of the               and glory. It means that we will enter fully into the
living God. Then we are holy, spiritually in har-                liberty of the children of God, are forever free from
mony with the living God.                                        all sin and death, are forever clothed with the gar-
                                                                 ment of victory, of life and glory, of the heavenly
  We prefer the interpretation that this is a crown              renewal of all things. 0, can we somewhat under-
demanded by and which will be bestowed accord-                   stand the joyful anticipation of this veteran soldier
ing to righteousness. The context, we believe,                   of the cross as he utters these tremendous words, as
demands this interpretation. We read in verse 7: "I              he is about to exchange his sword for a crown? Do
have fought a good fight; I have finished my course,             we share this keen anticipation?
I have kept the faith." Here we have the figure of a                    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
contestant. And then we read in our text: "which                   Wonderful assurance!
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that
day." Hence, a crown of righteousness, bestowed                    Wonderful assurance, first of all, because of our
by the righteous Judge, is surely a crown which this             position in the midst of the world. Does not the
contestant will receive as the reward of righteous-              apostle's position in the midst of the world appear
ness, righteously bestowed, and although the text                utterly hopeless? That he has reached the end of his
itself does not identify this crown we need not                  course is plain. Does it not appear incredible that
doubt its content; it is surely the crown of glory and           this old veteran of the cross, bound with chains,
of everlasting life.                                             having fought a good fight, is about to receive a vic-
                                                                 tor's crown? And this surely applies to the church
  Glorious assurance, indeed!                                    of God throughout the ages. Does it not appear in-
  First, we read of a crown. This implies a struggle             conceivably foolish that the hated, despised,
or battle. Indeed, there is no victory without a                 ridiculed church of the people of God should con-
struggle. The one can follow only upon the other.                fess this in the midst of the world: now there is laid
  Secondly, we shall receive it "at that day." This,             up for me a righteous crown of life and glory?
of course, is the day when the Lord, the righteous                 Wonderful, secondly, because this is a crown of
Judge, shall appear and give us this crown, this                 righteousness. Let us understand correctly: this


148                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



righteousness is the righteousness of God. God                  of my assurance of it? Am I assured of it because I
Himself is righteous. God  is  righteousness  -                 have fought a good fight, etc.? This would be con-
righteousness is His being. For God to cease being              trary to all the teachings of Holy Writ. Nothing we
righteous would imply that He would deny Him-                   do can ever be a ground for the crown of life and
self, would cease being God. God's righteousness is             glory and is therefore never a ground for the
God as He eternally wills Himself, is as He wills to            assurance of it! Neither can what we read in verse 8
be, is therefore in complete harmony with Himself,              be a ground. My loving of Christ's appearance a
and that according to His own infinite and un-                  ground for the crown? This is impossible. There is
changeable standard. Hence, God is righteous in all             certainly nothing meritorious in my loving of
His dealings with the children of men. He alone is              Christ's appearance. That I love His appearance
the Standard of all good. We will be judged solely in           must itself have a ground. Why do I love His ap-
the light of God, of His law and holiness. Him we               pearing?
must love and serve with all that we are and                      Assured of the crown! Why is this? Upon what
possess, always. And this God maintains Himself,                does this assurance rest?
never relents, never lowers His standard (as the
theory of Common Grace would have us believe). A                  0, the text speaks of the righteous Judge. And
crown of righteousness is therefore a crown com-                this Judge is our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was born
pletely in conformity with the righteousness of                 in our flesh and blood, suffered and died upon the
God.                                                            cross of Calvary, was raised and is risen from the
  Consequently, how wonderful is this assurance!                dead and exalted at the right hand of God, in the
How can Paul claim this confidence? How can we?                 highest heavens.
Is not sin always with us? Is it not true of us that the          What does this mean? Indeed, not what I do is
evil we hate we do and the good we would we prac-               the ground for the crown, but what Jesus did. My
tice not? Is it not wonderful for us sinners, or rather         fighting of the good fight, etc., is not the ground for
imperfect saints, to claim a crown of righteousness,            the crown, but the proof that Christ is in me, that
which the holy and unchangeable righteousness of                He suffered and died for me, that therefore not my
God declares to belong to us? Indeed, how can this              righteousness but His righteousness is the ground
be?                                                             for this crown of life and glory. And this also ex-
  Wonderful, in the third place, is this assurance              plains why we love His appearing. We long for Him
because we read here of the Righteous Judge. This               to appear, not because He will show the world
Righteous Judge is the Lord Jesus Christ. This hard-            what we have done, but that it may appear and
ly needs any comment. It is also verified by the                become evident what He has done. It was because
concluding words of our text: "but unto all them                of Christ in me that I, in principle, was privileged to
also that love His appearing." This refers, of course,          fight the good fight, finish the course and keep the
to the Lord Jesus Christ Who will appear upon the               faith. I long for Him to appear that it may become
clouds of heaven. And, He is the righteous Judge.               evident what He has done for me upon the cross.
Unto Him has been given all the judgment of God                 Indeed, also as far as my sins are concerned, they
which He will exercise and declare in the Name of               too will be revealed in that day as completely blot-
the alone living God. And He will not deviate from              ted out through the blood of Christ, and it shall be
the righteousness of God. Fact is, He will come                 revealed that I am completely covered by the
with the judgment of God; besides, He is  Im-                   righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And I look
manuel, God with us, God Himself revealed in the                forward to His appearing because then He will
Person of the Son, but in our human nature, only in             clothe me with everlasting glory, as the fruit of His
our human nature as glorified.                                  perfect work and righteousness.
  Hence, is it not a truly amazing thing to look for-             New Year's Day, 1985.
ward to a crown, which is a crown of righteousness                Looking ahead, to the future - to what?
and will be bestowed by the righteous Judge, the
living God in Jesus Christ, our Lord?                             Expecting the crown of righteousness, the crown
                                                                of life and glory.
        *    *    *    0    *    *    *    *    *     *
  A certain assurance.                                            Because I earned it? No, it is the crown which the
                                                                righteous Judge shall give me at that day. Indeed, it
  Indeed, the certainty of this assurance character-            is all of grace, never of man, lest any flesh should
izes the entire passage here. Whatever we read here             boast. God alone must receive all the glory.
in the verses  7-8  emphasizes this certainty, reach-
ing its climax in the words: "which He wiZZ give me
at that day."                                                    Give The Standard Bearer!
  Is verse 7a a ground for the crown, or a ground


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               149



EDITORIAL


                    The Elder and the Preaching
                                               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema




  This is the time of the year when, at least in most       structing, admonishing, comforting and reproving,
of our congregations, newly elected elders are or-          according to every one's need; preaching repen-
dained. It is not amiss, therefore, to reflect on this      tance towards God, and reconciliation with him
aspect of the office of elder. Elders are bishops, or       through faith in Christ; and refuting with the Holy
overseers; and to their calling to be overseers             Scriptures, all schisms and heresies which are
belongs the calling to exercise oversight with              repugnant to the pure doctrine." This paragraph of
respect to the preacher and the preaching.                  the Form then goes on to substantiate this by refer-
  What belongs to this oversight? Does it imply on-         ring to various Scripture passages. According to
ly the calling to guard against false doctrine? Or          Article 23 of the Church Order, therefore, it is the
does it include more?                                       duty of the elders to "take heed that the Ministers
                                                            . . . faithfully discharge" this task.
  There is much that can be said about this subject.
In fact, entire books have been written about it.             In the third place, we may notice that the
Perhaps in the future we could devote one of our            prescribed questions for church visitation directed
special issues either to the general subject of the of-     to the elders and deacons in the absence of the
fice of elder or to the specific subject we are now         minister are in harmony with the preceding. Ques-
discussing briefly. In this short essay we shall ap-        tion 1 reads: "Does the minister in the preaching
proach the subject from the point of view of what           and in the administration of the sacraments do his
our official Reformed literature has to say about it.       work faithfully according to the Word of God, the
                                                            Forms of Unity, and the Church Order?" Question
  First of all, we call attention to our Confession of      2 inquires: "Does the minister faithfully explain
Faith, Art. 30, where we find the following:  ". . .        God's Word so that the congregation is built up
namely, that there must be ministers or pastors to          through his preaching?" And Question 5 inquires
preach the Word of God, and to administer the               concerning the diligence of the minister: "Is he
sacraments; also elders and deacons, who, together          devoted as much as possible to the exercise of his
with the pastors, form the council of the Church:           office?" These are rather pointed questions; and
that by these means the true religion may be                they certainly imply a specific task of oversight,
preserved, and the true doctrine everywhere prop-           both negative and positive, on the part of the
agated, likewise transgressors punished and re-             elders.
strained by spiritual means . . .  ."                         Finally, we call attention to the Formula of Sub-
  Secondly, we call attention to Article 23 of our          scription which all officebearers must sign. In it
Church Order, which states in part: "The office of          you find the following pledge, first of all: "We
the Elders, in addition to what was stated in Article       promise therefore diligently to teach and faithfully
16 to be their duty in common with the Minister of          to defend the aforesaid doctrine, without either
the Word, is to take heed that the Ministers,               directly or indirectly contradicting the same, by our
together with their fellow-Elders and the Deacons,          public preaching or writing." The "aforesaid doc-
faithfully discharge their office . . . .`I And when we     trine" here refers to the Confession and Catechism
turn to the Form of Ordination of the Ministers of          and the Canons of Dordrecht. But there is more. In
God's Word, we find mentioned first among the               this Formula of Subscription the officebearers
duties of the minister the following: "That they            pledge: "We declare, moreover, that we not only
faithfully explain to their flock the Word of the           reject all errors that militate against this doctrine
Lord, revealed by the writings of the prophets and          and particularly those which were condemned by
the apostles; and apply the same as well in general         the above mentioned Synod, but  that we  are dis-
as in particular, to the edification of the hearers; in-    posed to refute and contradict these, and to exert our-


150                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



selves in keeping the church f?ee from such errors."      tively address the needs of the congregation in the
(emphasis added) It is plain, therefore, that the         times in which we live? 5) Is the preaching of the
preaching of the Word in our churches must be             Word vital and pertinent? And even questions
specific and antithetical.                                whether the preaching is lively and interesting and
  From all of these quotations it is plain that the       well-delivered, rather than dull and dry, are not
elders have a duty with respect to the oversight of       beyond the province of the elders.
the preaching and the preacher which goes beyond            All of this does not mean that it is the calling of
guarding against false doctrine. The latter task, of      the elders to engage in carping criticism of the kind
course, is strictly mandatory. If false doctrine is       which can make life miserable for a pastor. And it
preached, the elder has no choice but to oppose it        certainly does not mean that it belongs to the task
and, eventually, make his objections pending with         of the individual elder to act as a messenger boy in
the consistory. But there is obviously another            conveying complaints (whether justified or unjusti-
aspect of the preaching which also falls in the prov-     fied) from members of the congregation. It does
ince of the elders' supervision. There is that area       mean that there is an entire discretionary area in
which is involved in such questions as: 1) Are there      which elders and their minister may labor together
things which are  not  said in the preaching which        in a spirit of brotherly love toward the improve-
ought  to be said? 2) Is the preaching of the Word        ment of the preaching of the Word. Elders who fail
specific? And by specific I mean positively Re-           to do this are not faithful to their calling. The pastor
formed, Protestant Reformed? 3) Is the preaching of       who cannot accept the counsel of his elders is both
the Word antithetical? 4) Does the preaching posi-        insubordinate and foolish.




                                    Correspondence


  From the Evangelical Reformed Church of Singa-          the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and
pore we received the following letter addressed to        ever. Amen."
"All Protestant Reformed Churches of America,"              Enclosed is our receipt (sent to our Doon Church,
under date of October 24, 1984:                           HCH) for the love gift.
Dearly beloved breUhren  in the Lord:                                        Yours in Christ,
  Greetings from Singapore in the Glorious Name                               ( w.s.) Johnson See, Treas., ERCS
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.                      [Editor's note. According to late word received
  This letter is written to give all thanks to God our    from Missionary den Hartog, the appeal mentioned
Heavenly Father and to you for your love gifts of         in this letter was rejected, and there is no further
US $6689.22 towards the building fund of ERCS.            recourse. For the time being the den Hartog family
Our hearts were encouraged in the Lord to see your        is going to occupy both floors of the purchased
love, prayers and concern for us and God's Work           house. HCH]
here in Singapore. God has been good to us in spite
of and despite our unworthiness.
  By His providence and grace, we were able to                The Standard Bearer
purchase a house in Central Singapore at
$190,000.00. Recently the Singapore Government                 makes a thoughtful
has rejected our application for the change of use of
the place for worship. We covet much of your                              gift for the
prayers as we send in an appeal. May all things be
done for God's glory alone and for the furtherance                 sick & shut-ins.
of His kingdom.
  "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               151



CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY                                                                                              _-



                    About the Binding Character
                             of Classical Decisions
                                              Prof. H.C. Hoeksema



  From a reader who wishes to have his name                  1. In a strictly legal sense, of course, the answer
withheld comes the following letter:                       to this question must be negative. A decision made
"Dear Professor:                                           in Classis East and never appealed to Synod and ad-
                                                           judicated by Synod is technically binding only in
  "Your editorial, `About Guests at Communion,'            and for the congregations of that classis, not for the
(Nov.  1,  1984) was well worth reprinting and re-         congregations of  Classis West unless and until
flects careful work of  Classis  East in yesteryear.       Classis  West would make a similar declaration, or
With the contents of this article I am in full agree-      unless and until a concrete case would be carried to
ment.                                                      Synod by way of protest and appeal and the Synod
  "There is a further question, a formal question          would adopt a similar position.
then, that is raised by the article, especially by your      2. This, in turn, raises a very interesting further
words  `. . . a very significant and helpful decision      question, because two of the churches which now
was reached, a decision which is, of course, still         resort in  Classis  West were in  Classis East at the
binding  in our churches.' (emphasis yours) Since          time this decision was made there. I refer to Ran-
you write `our churches' without any qualifier such        dolph and South Holland. And in the case of South
as "in  Classis  East," I assume you mean that this        Holland, I happen to know from my days as pastor
decision of Classis  East is binding upon all the con-     there, that the general principles adopted by Classis
gregations of both classes. My question is this: are       East were considered so significant that a copy of
all classical decisions of a general, far-reaching         them was pasted in the consistory's minute book
nature, binding upon all the churches? I under-            [undoubtedly in the days of my predecessor as
stand, of course, that if a classical decision is ap-      pastor there, the Rev. M. Schipper).  My assumption
pealed to Synod, and Synod speaks on it one way or         would be that unless these consistories have taken
another, the resulting decision is binding upon all        action to the contrary, these decisions are still
the churches. But what if only one  classis speaks?        acknowledged as binding by these two consistories.
Also, is there a procedure in place so that such deci-
sions are communicated to the churches in general,           3.  In a  moral  sense these decisions are surely
or to the consistories of the churches in general?         binding in our churches. I say this on the following
                                                           grounds: a) The decisions were published in full at
  "I am aware of significant decisions taken               the time they were made by Classis East. In fact, if
recently by one classis, which are binding upon all        my memory serves me correctly, the  classis decid-
the churches of that  classis, but which are being         ed specifically to instruct the Stated Clerk to
`violated' by the churches of the other  classis!          publish them because of their importance. Since
Before I go any further, I would appreciate your           then, of course, I have twice published them in our
answers to the questions raised above.                     Standard Bearer.  They are, therefore, very public. b)
  "Thank you.                                              No one (individual, consistory, or  classis)  has pro-
                              Cordially in the Lord,"      tested against these decisions to Classis  East. And it
                                                           would, of course, have been very immoral of
Reply                                                      anyone to hold that these decisions were principal-
  My correspondent raises a very interesting ques-         ly wrong and yet not to attempt to convince the
tion, or series of questions, which more than one          churches and the  classis that they were wrong. c)
individual asked me orally after the editorial in          The decisions are morally binding, too, and in the
question. In reply, the following:                         ultimate sense of the word, because of their intrin-


     152                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



~    sic worth: they are sound principles which cannot           when it came to publishing matters of a personal
     be gainsaid. And while I am on the subject, let me          nature. Later  - I have not checked on the date  -
     emphasize that this latter point, to me, is the most        these reports were included with the News depart-
     significant. The question is not ultimately whether         ment of the Standard Bearer; and about that same
     something is technically settled and binding                time they began to have more and more the
     because it has been adopted by a majority vote:             character of news releases and, as I said, sometimes
     after all the "half-plus-one" has been wrong many,          with little real reportorial news of classical deci-
     many times in church history. Nor is this the under-        sions. Personally, I do not think this has been a
     Zying principle of Article 3 1 of the Church Order. But     change for the better. My reason, in general, is that
     the deepest question is whether something is in             the churches  - and I mean our people in general,
     harmony with the Word of God and  cannot be                 not only delegates to  classis and consistories  -
     proved to conflict with the Word of God and the             have a right to know and ought to know what is go-
     Church Order, as Article 31 puts it.                        ing on at classical meetings. And sometimes, in
       4. In the light of the above, I am not prepared to        fact, it is important that they know  IiteraZZy.  This
     make the sweeping and very general statement that           knowledge ought not to come by hearsay or by the
     "all classical decisions of a general, far-reaching         dangerous and unreliable "grapevine."
     nature" are "binding upon all the churches." I                 In the second place, this leads me to suggest that
     would first want to know, for one thing, what is            there could be better communication between our
     meant by "a general, far-reaching nature." I would          two classes. At present the only communication of
     also want to know if a given decision is indeed per-        an official kind takes place on those few occasions
     tinent for all the churches. And above all, I would         when the work of  classis requires the presence of
     want to know if there is a principle involved.              the delegates  ad examina  of the other  classis. And
       5. As to the final paragraph of my questioner's           technically this is all that is required. But there is
     letter, the following: a) Under our present system,         much to be said, I believe, in our small denomina-
     our people and our churches in general can hardly           tion and under our arrangement of two classes, in
     be aware of decisions made by a  classis. Few, if           favor of closer correspondence between the classes.
     any, decisions are published literally. So-called           Why could not our two classes make one another
     reports of classis are little more than news releases       aware of their decisions, or at least of their signifi-
     today, and sometimes they are significant for their         cant decisions? We are small, and we need one
     lack of news. b) In this light it is difficult for me to    another. I can remember the time (in the pre-1953
     understand how churches of one  classis can                 years) when our two classes grew apart, until final-
     "violate" decisions of another  classis. One can            ly it was one  classis versus the other at our
     hardly violate a decision of which he is not aware.         Synodical meetings, and until it came to pass that
     c) I do not know what my correspondent means by             Classis  West actually resented the presence of the
     "before I go any further."                                  late Revs. Hoeksema and Ophoff at its meetings,
                                                                 and said so. Now I am not so naive as to think that
       This leads me to make a few editorial remarks.            this came about solelv1 because of lack of communi-
       In the first place, there has been a change in our        cation. Nevertheless, lack of communication was
     churches with respect to reports of classical  meet-        indeed a factor, as some subsequent events also
     ings. Some of us can undoubtedly recall that in             proved. And if some communication can help in
     former years reports of classical meetings were             creating and maintaining good relationships, then,
     published separately as "supplements" in our Stan-          it seems to me, this is one of the easiest things to ac-
     dard Bearer.  At that time the reports were rather          complish.
     detailed and extensive, too, although always the              Think about it.
     stated clerk of  classis had to exercise discretion


                  The Standard Bearer makes a thoughtful
                                 gift for a relative or /Fiend.
                      Give the gift of The Standard Bearer!


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 153



MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                             Our Order of Worship
                                                  Prof H. Hanko




   Our Heidelberg Catechism discusses in Lords              piles were laid out on the table for each child: a
Day XXXVIII what is implied in the keeping of the           couple of  nickles and a few peppermints for each
fourth commandment. Strikingly, it includes in our          child. Now, with inflation making everything more
observance of the Lord's Day our calling to contrib-        expensive, the  nickle has perhaps become a
ute, through collections, to the causes of Christ's         quarter, although the peppermints are usually still
kingdom. It says, "What doth God require in the             there. So all that is required in church is to take
fourth commandment? First, that the ministry of             from one's pocket what was placed there before the
the gospel and the schools be maintained; and that          service, separate the coins from the peppermints
I, especially on the sabbath, that is, on the day of        and put the coins into the collection plate when it
rest . . . contribute to the relief of the poor, as         comes in front of us.
becomes a Christian . . . ."                                  But all of this does not make our giving an act of
  In our last article we noticed that Scripture very        worship. How, specifically, ought we to do this?
clearly puts collections into the worship service as a        In the first place, it ought to be remembered, in
necessary part of worship. If all these things are          general, that our worship is always adoration and
true, therefore, it follows that giving for the collec-     praise to God for what He has done for us. In His
tions is also an act of worship. In our giving we wor-      great mercy and grace He has redeemed us through
ship.                                                       Jesus Christ, formed us into His own people,
  How is giving an act of worship? That is the ques-        blessed us with all spiritual blessings, and prepared
tion we face in this article.                               for us an inheritance in glory which presently we
  Perhaps there is no single element in the worship         shall receive. He has done this out of grace alone,
service which is more a matter of "custom and               according to His own sovereign decree of election.
habit" than the taking of the collections. It is, as        It is not that we are better than others. There is
often as not, a time to relax a bit from the demands        nothing in us which makes us worthy of-such great
of the worship of God from the heart; it is a time to       benefits. It is all of His free grace `in Jesus Christ.
look around to see who is in church and who is not;           All our worship ought to be in the awareness of
it is a time to let one's mind wander here and there        these great blessings which God has given. We
because there are no demands apparently placed              come together to express our thankfulness to Him
upon us to concentrate on the worship; it is a time         and to praise and bless His name for such great
to pay some attention to the children, to see that          blessings. All our worship is an expression of our
they are sitting still and have their needs cared for.      gratitude - also our giving.
But little if any thought is given to the fact that this      In the second place, and more specifically, our
too is a matter of worship.                                 giving is a confession of the truth that all our
  Along these same lines, giving itself easily              material possessions are not really ours at all, but
becomes something mechanical. There is a certain            belong to God. All that we possess is not really
definite amount which we give for the budget, for           ours, but His. "All that I am I owe to thee . . .  ."
the poor, for the various causes of the kingdom for         This is true of our life, our health, our strength, but
which collections are being taken. We have, prior           also our earthly goods. He gives all these things to
to the service, made the necessary preparations for         us moment by moment until He takes us to glory.
taking a definite amount of money along, some for           We can never say of even one small thing: "This is
ourselves, and some for the children. Years ago,            mine, to do with as I please." It is not ours; it is
just before the family left for church, several little      God's.


154                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  This all implies the principle of Christian                decide what he ought to give to that particular
stewardship. We are not owners of these earthly              cause. It is well that he discuss this with his family
gifts; we are stewards over them. Although Jesus             prior to the worship service. (We may note, in
surely means more by His command to the citizens             parentheses, that the causes for which collections
of His kingdom to seek first the kingdom of God              are to be taken ought to be put on the bulletin a
and His righteousness, He also means that this is            week ahead of time so that this is possible. Or, at
our calling with our earthly possessions. We must            least, if collections are always taken for the General
use all that we have and are to promote His                  Fund and Benevolent Fund in the morning, the
kingdom and His righteousness. If we do any less             bulletin ought to designate the particular causes of
we are unfaithful stewards and thieves in the midst          Christ's kingdom for which collections are being
of God's world.                                              taken in the evening service.) It is well that he
  In the worship of collections, we confess these            discuss this both with his wife and his children, so
things. We put our money in the collection plates as         that they may come to a conclusion concerning
a confession of our faith and as an act of worship of        what they ought to give. In the third place, he must
our God. We confess that God has dealt graciously            do this before the face of God. II Corinthians  9:7
with us through Jesus Christ, that He has given us           says he must do this in his heart. That means that
all that we have, that all that we are we owe to             he must do this in the consciousness that he stands
Him, that we need not fear but that all our needs            before Gods face and that God knows and sees
will be provided for out of His Fatherly hand, that          what he does and why he does what he does.
our calling in gratitude to Him is to seek His king-           Secondly, a man must, according to the apostle,
dom and the kingdom of His dear Son.                         give freely. This is emphasized in all Scripture
  That part of the worship service which is                  where this subject is discussed. Especially was this
devoted to collections is the time to ponder these           emphasized when Israel was commanded to give
things, to get our spiritual perspective about these         for the building of the tabernacle (See Exodus 25:2,
things  ,in harmony with the Scriptures, and to              35:4,  36:3-7). It is emphasized that God does not
ponder the truths which Scripture makes so abun-             even want the offerings of those who give unwill-
dantly clear concerning our earthly and material             ingly. God does not need our offerings. We do not
possessions. We need this very much. We are of the           give them for His benefit. The cattle on a thousand
earth, earthy; and we constantly forget these                hills are His. We give for our spiritual benefit. And
truths. That we devote a few moments in God's                we must, therefore, give freely.
house to ponder these things is important and                  It is for this reason that there can never be laws
necessary.                                                   about giving in the church. The church has always
  In II Corinthians 9:7, Scripture lays down for us          insisted that we are not under the law, but under
the way this act of worship must be carried out.             grace, that, therefore, tithing is no more the law.
Paul writes: "Every man according as he purposeth            Nevertheless, the principle remains. And it is not
in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of         too much to say that a tenth of our possessions is
necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."                 the bare minimum in giving. And this does not in-
                                                             clude tuition for the education of our children.
  There are several elements here which we ought
to notice.                                                     In the third place, the apostle says that we ought
                                                             to give, not grudgingly or out of necessity, but
  In the first place, every man must give as he pur-         cheerfully. The negative is also important. One
poseth in his own heart. Again, there are several            gives grudgingly when he gives sorrowfully. We
truths implied in this. First of all, this matter of giv-    give this way when we give painfully, when it hurts
ing is a matter for every man to decide himself.             us to give because we would rather keep what we
There must be an individual aspect to this: each             have for ourselves and use our earthly possessions
man must make up his own mind what he will give.             for our own personal enjoyment. We give out of
No one else may tell him. It is true that we set             necessity when we are compelled by law to give;
definite amounts for certain aspects of giving: we           when we give because we are watched by our
set the amount of the budget and expect that every-          fellow saints or by the deacons who are taking the
one will give that amount. But this surely means             collection; when we give because we do not want
that even here a certain amount of freedom must be           the minister or elder to mention our stingy giving
allowed. If a person for one reason or another, can-         on family visitation.
not give the full amount, he must not be castigated
for this. But if he is able to give more than the re-          When, in a positive way, the apostle defines our
quired amount, this he is obligated to do. Secondly,         giving as being  cheerful  giving, he uses a word
this matter of giving must be a conscious and                which really means much more than our English
deliberate choice. For every collection a man must           word "cheerful" connotes. We could almost say


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                155



that our giving ought to be joyous, gay, an expres-        over for our own earthly pleasures. We resent the
sion of great happiness. There is here the idea of         heavy demands of the kingdom upon our financial
reckless abandon. Jesus too suggests this when He          resources, and we fail to give cheerfully, joyously,
says that we must pay our alms in such a way that          even recklessly  - at least, if by that last word is
our left hand does not know what our right hand is         meant, beyond what by earthly standards of
doing. We must give in such a way that, by earthly         reckoning would be appropriate and wise.
standards, our giving is foolish. The widow, after           When we give in this way, then our giving is tru-
all, gave all that she had. We ought not to worry          ly worship. It is an expression of our gratitude of
about what we shall eat or what we shall drink or          God for what He has given to us; it is a doxology of
wherewithal we shall be clothed. These are things          praise to Him Who alone is worthy of all praise; it is
that the Gentiles seek after. We are citizens of the       a confession of our trust in Him Who is our Father
kingdom of heaven, given the great gift of Jesus           to provide for all our needs; it is a testimony to the
Christ through free grace. Therefore we are to seek        truth that we know we are pilgrims and strangers in
Christ's kingdom and God's righteousness, and all          the earth whohave here no abiding city, but whose
the rest will be added to us.                              treasures are in heaven; and it is a humble
  Our niggardly giving is often due to the fact that       acknowledgement of the fact that God is pleased to
we really do not believe this. We are worried that         promote the cause of His kingdom in this world
we will not be able to pay our bills, provide what is      through the means which He provides for our use.
necessary for our families, and have enough left
SPECIAL REPORT



                           Trip to the British Isles
                                                 Prof. H. Hanko





[Editor's note. Here is the first installment of the       and the work he and his congregation are doing for
promised report on the trip by Prof. Hanko and             the cause of the Reformed faith in Ireland.
Rev. D. Engelsma to the United Kingdom.]                     Ireland is an island, approximately  l/3 the total
  It is always an exciting adventure to travel to          size of the British Isles, while the British Isles, com-
foreign lands. When such traveling is done on              posed of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are
behalf of the work of the churches, the excitement         a bit larger than the state of Michigan. Ireland has
is very much greater. Such was the case when Rev.          been called, "The Emerald Isle," because of its
Engelsma and I traveled recently to the British Isles      varied green colors. Although quite different from
on behalf of the Committee of Contact to visit the         any part of this country which I have seen, it is a
saints in that land, and to investigate the possibility    very beautiful land with attractive and breath-
of closer contact between churches there and our           taking scenery. It is, however, a land torn by strife.
own Protestant Reformed Churches.                          The southern  2/3 of the island is an independent
  The greater part of our work was performed in            country called "The Republic of South' Ireland"
Ireland, because the original request for men to           and is about 95% Roman Catholic. The northern
come to the British Isles had come from the Session        l/3 is called Ulster and is about 70% Protestant,
of the Bible Presbyterian Church of which Rev.             with the other 30% predominantly Roman
George Hutton is the pastor. Those in the South            Catholic. The Roman Catholics in the north wage
Holland and Grand Rapids area will recall that Rev.        guerilla war against the Protestants, because they
Hutton visited this country last year and spoke for a      claim that they are the objects of discrimination;
number of gatherings, in which he told the people          most Protestants, however, are convinced that the
who attended these meetings of his own history             ultimate goal of the Roman Catholics is to bring


I    156                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



     Roman Catholicism back to Ireland so that  Prot-                              From the very start we were completely at home
     estantism can be rooted out. The struggle which                               with the saints there and found no "cultural" bar-
     goes on there, however, is not genuinely religious,                           riers which kept us apart. After ten days' stay, it
     but political.                                                                was as if we had known these people for many
       R e v .   H u t t o n 's   c o n g r e g a t i o n   i s   a   s m a l l    years.
     Presbyterian Church in the city of Larne, about 25                               The congregation is earnestly interested in closer
     miles straight north of Belfast. Rev. Hutton himself                          contact with us for a number of reasons: 1) They are
     was at one time a minister in the Free Presbyterian                           concerned about their future if the Lord should
     Church of North Ireland, led and dominated by                                 suddenly take from them their beloved pastor.
     Rev. Ian Paisley, the titular head of the Protestant                          What would they do? Where would they turn for
     resistance to Roman Catholic rule. Rev. Hutton                                help? 2) They are too good Presbyterians to be con-
     parted ways with Ian Paisley because of the latter's                          tent with independentism, the dead-end street on
     involvement in politics and because of his depar-                             which so many congregations find themselves. 3)
     ture from the Reformed faith as outlined in the                               They want our help to extend the witness of the
     Westminster Confessions. Because of this deter-                               Reformed faith in their island. Especially would
     mination on his part, Rev. Hutton suffered con-                               they like to have help in writing articles and pam-
     siderable persecution, with the result that the                               phlets addressed to the unique problems which
     determination to stand fast for the Reformed faith                            c o n f r o n t   t h e m .
     on his part and on the part of his congregation has                            ' To accomplish our goals for going to Ireland, we
     been tempered in fire.                                                        met in a long meeting with the Session of the Bible
       Rev. Hutton's congregation is much alone in                                 Presbyterian Church. We were thankful and happy
     North Ireland and seeks fellowship with those who                             to discover that there is complete agreement be-
     are of like precious faith with them. For this reason,                        tween them and our churches on all matters of doc-
     he has turned to the Protestant Reformed Churches                             trine and the Christian walk. The only differences
     to aid him and his congregation in their struggle to                          were that Rev. Hutton's church holds to "purity of
     maintain the Reformed faith and promote its cause                             worship:" i.e., exclusive Psalm singing, no instru-
     in their homeland.                                                            mental accompaniment of the singing at worship,
       To accomplish this, Rev. Hutton arranged that                               and no celebration of Christian holidays. But they
     Rev. Engelsma and I preach a series of sermons on                             recognized the fact that this was a matter of Chris-
     the truth of the covenant, which series was to begin                          tian liberty.
     on the first Sabbath evening we were there and                                  While we were in Ireland, many other labors
     continue every night of the week except Saturday,                             kept us occupied. We had opportunity to preach in :-_
     concluding on the next Sabbath evening. The                                   congregations of two other denominations. One
     general topics on which we preached were these:                               such opportunity was to preach at a morning wor-
     "The Idea of the Covenant," "The Covenant and                                 ship service in the Cregagh Road Reformed Presby-
     the Fall," "Christ, the Head of the Covenant,"                                terian Church in Belfast, of which Rev. Tim
     "The Children of the Promise," "The Covenant                                  Donachie is pastor. This denomination is a very old
     and the Jews, " "Our Calling in the Covenant," and,                           denomination and maintains in Ireland the old
     "The Covenant Family. " These were not, however,                              covenanter tradition of the Scats. It is approximate-
     lectures, but sermons on specific passages of Scrip-                          ly the size of our own Protestant Reformed Chur-
     ture delivered in regular worship services. These                             ches. It also holds to purity of worship. We had op-
     meetings were most enjoyable. Rev. Hutton's con-                              portunity to visit the Theological School of this
     gregation was present at every meeting and the                                denomination, speak with their professor of
     visitors who attended nearly doubled the size of the                          Dogmatics, Prof. F. Leahy, and meet in an after-
     audience. The church auditorium was usually full,                             noon session with their Committee of Contact. Our
     although it must be remembered that the auditor-                              Committee of Contact has had some contact with
     ium was very small. There were probably from                                  this denomination over the last few years, and the
     60-80 present at every meeting.                                               brethren in this denomination urged upon us the
       Rev. Hutton's congregation is composed of about                             need to explore ways and means to make our con-
     12 families. We had opportunity to visit in the                               tact more significant.
     homes of nearly all the people, and we came to                                  We also had opportunity to preach at two ser-
     know them as dear brothers and sisters in Christ,                             vices in the Omagh Evangelical Presbyterian
     who are deeply interested in maintaining the                                  Church, of which Pastor Norman Green is min-
     Reformed faith in all its purity and truth. It is amaz-                       ister. This denomination left the Free Presbyterian
     ing how, when we are united with others in a com-                             Church, as Rev. Hutton did, in the late Forties,
     mon faith, there are no real barriers to fellowship.                          under the leadership of the recently deceased W.J.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              157



Grier. It is a small denomination of seven or eight       completely new venture on the part of the people
fairly small congregations. It does not hold to purity    there. The school is supported by parents of the Bi-
of worship, and this is a barrier to union with the       ble Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyter-
Reformed Presbyterian Church.                             ian Church, and the Evangelical Presbyterian
  Rev. Hutton has arranged a ministers' con-              Church. We had opportunity to visit the school on
ference which was held on an afternoon while we           an afternoon, and the  21  children, who constitute
were in Larne. This ministers' conference was at-         the student body, presented us with a very beauti-
tended by about 30 ministers representing all the         ful program. Rev. Engelsma also spoke at an even-
Protestant denominations in the north. (Besides the       ing meeting arranged on behalf of the school. The
four denominations mentioned earlier, this would          largest crowd, numbering over 80, that had ever
include the Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the        gathered at such a meeting gave Rev. Engelsma op-
Church of Ireland, which is Anglican.) There was          portunity to point out the meaning of, need for, and
opportunity at this ministers' conference to speak        covenant calling to parents to give their children
on the "Reformed Pastor" and to give a brief              covenantal and Reformed education. The meeting
history of our Protestant Reformed Churches. A            was very profitable, and, under Gods blessing,
rather lengthy question and answer session fol-           served to promote the cause of Reformed education
lowed in which we were closely and carefully              in Ulster.
quizzed on our views with respect to questions of           It will interest our people to know that Deane
the covenant, the well-meant offer, and common            and Donna and their family are doing well in
grace. We consider this meeting extremely valuable        Ireland. Deane is doing excellent work in the
because, as soon as people hear that we as churches       school, and the people are very pleased with the in-
reject the well-meant offer, we are immediately           struction which he is giving. We must remember
branded as hyper-Calvinists. We had opportunity           Deane and Donna and the work they are doing
to explain our position, make clear why we are not        before the face of God in our prayers.
hyper-Calvinists, and show that our churches are            We spent about twelve days in Ireland, and the
busy in the positive development of the truth of          time went by altogether too swiftly. The congrega-
particular grace and  God"s everlasting covenant of       tion assembled for a brief meeting on the last night
grace. To have cleared up many misunderstandings          we were there. At this meeting our wives were
concerning these points made this meeting more            presented with a beautiful china vase and we with
than worth while.                                         a gift of appreciation for our labors. Opportunity
  As all our people know by now, Mr. Deane                was given to say farewell to people we had learned
Wassink is teaching in Covenant Christian School          to love. The bonds which had grown between us
in Newtonabbey. This school is the only parental          during this short stay made parting difficult.
Christian school in the whole of Ireland, and is a
FROM HOLY WRIT



        Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                Rev. G. Lubbers



                     Chapter XVI                          church is from the beginning to the end of the
   "The Church-Age" in Premillennialism                   world, one and the same church, in two different
                     (continued)                          dispensations!
  It is the burden of these articles to demonstrate         This ought to become very clear when we study
clearly and beyond any doubt that it is contrary to       the Biblical teaching in the Old Testament concern-
the plain teaching of the prophetic Scriptures to         ing the "church' which we confess in the Twelve
propagate the "doctrine" that it is proper to speak       Articles of Faith: "I believe an holy catholic
of a "church-age" rather than of confessing that the      church."


158                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



  The names for the church in the Old Testament             interprets the Scripture to say as being fulfilled in
are written in Hebrew. They are such names which            Him. This was when He ascended to heaven and
indicate that the church is much more and also              received the promise of the Spirit from the Father!
qualitatively different from a mere assembly of in-            We all drink out of one Spirit!
dividuals; they are the believers, the men of faith
and the women of faith as we read of in the  well-             It is the Scripture which speaks of the church in
known chapter of Hebrews 11. Of these worthies              Psalm  22:22 as "my brethren." These are Jesus'
we read that they pleased God (Heb. 11:6),  they ob-        brethren, whom He is not ashamed to "call
tained a good report from God in all the Scriptures         brethren" (Heb. 2: 11, 12). He is not ashamed to call
(Heb. 1  l:ll), they had faith which was the sub-           these "brethren" for such they are. It is by His
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things          redemptive sufferings and death that he brings
not seen. And even as did the believing patriarchs,         these brethren, who are "many sons" of the living
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so the multitude, which          God, to glory (Heb.  2:lO). It behooved God, by
forms a "cloud of witnesses," die too in faith. And         Whom all things are and through Whom all things
these all died not having received the promises.            are, to bring many sons, Christ's "brethren," by
Why? Because God had "provided some better                  Christ's suffering to His glory. Christ is the chief
things for us, that they without us should not be           Captain of their salvation on the Cross and in His
made perfect" (Heb. 11:39). These were the suffer-          resurrection and ascension. He cried out, "my God,
ing saints in the world all through the Old Testa-          my God why hast thou forsaken me." And the
ment dispensation, of "whom the world was not               answer was: that it behooved God thus through His
worthy" (Heb.  11:38).                                      suffering to bring the entire church, both of the
                                                            Old- and New Testament to glory, so that Christ
  If words have meaning we learn from Hebrews               might be the Firstborn among many brethren. And
11 that the saints both in the Old Testament and in         who are these brethren? Are they the brethren ac-
the New Testament are the same church, the same             cording to the flesh. We have the answer clear and
people of God. The saints of the Old Testament are          distinct given to us by Christ Himself in Matthew
help up before us as examples of the walk of faith          12:46-50: ". . . Behold my mother and my brethren!
and godliness in the New Testament. There are not           For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which
two different kinds of rules for each, a rule for           is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister and
earthly kingdom citizens, and a rule for saints in the      mother."
"church-age." Both must walk by faith, walk in the
footsteps of the faith of Abraham, which he had               Such are the living members of Christ's Church
before he was circumcised. Even as Abraham and              who have received the spiritual sonship,  who have
Isaac and Jacob sought a better country, that is an         received the Spirit of adoption by which they cry to
heavenly, so do the saints which are risen with             God, "Abba, Father."
Christ from the dead; both set their affections upon          This is the great congregation!
the things in heaven; both cling to Christ their head
(Heb.  11:8-16; Col.  3:1,                                    It is not simply Israel, historic Israel, as it was en-
                               2).  They are one church,
one people, spiritual children of Abraham and               camped about the Old Testament tabernacle, three
belong to Christ, the Seed (Gal.  3:29). In the Old         tribes on each side of the tabernacle, east, west,
Testament they were the heirs which were non-               north, south, each under a different standard
age, while in the New Testament they are such that          (Numbers 2); nor does this great congregation refer
they can now receive an inheritance, the promises           to a certain historical gathering of the people to con-
as they are all fulfilled in the Son of God in the flesh    duct a service or a feast day, but it refers to the
(Gal. 4:1-7).                                               numberless throng which shall be in the New Jeru-
                                                            salem; it refers to the elect church, Jew and Greek,
  One people, one promise, one covenant, one                out of every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. Yet,
Lord, one God, all in one church by the operation           withal it refers to the church as she is the instituted
of the Holy Spirit! (Eph. 4:4-10). Both have the            church in the world under the ordinances and
Spirit of Christ as Peter teaches in I Peter 1: 11. The     statutes of the most Holy Place. It is the church in
Old Testament church had the Spirit of Christ in            the world known by the threefold earmarks: pure
the shadows and types as symbolized in the golden           preaching of the Gospel, proper administration of
candlesticks in the tabernacle, and the New Testa-          the holy sacraments, and the exercise of Christian
ment church has the Spirit as predicted in the Proph-       discipline!
ets (Ez.  36:21-28; Joel  2:28-32; Acts  2:17; Ez.
11:19, 20;  Zach.  12:lO; John  7:38). Does not Christ        It was not simply a great multitude of people, a
say in John  7:38 what the Scripture (He  gruphee)          mass of individuals who have congregated  them-
says? In these passages we have what all the pro-           seZves  in the wilderness, but they were a "congrega-
phetic "Scripture" says. It still "says" what Jesus         tion." The term congregation means that they were


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                159



a gathered flock. The Latin word for flock is "grex."       elect to be brought to repentance and glory, name-
They were gathered unto the LORD in the wilder-             ly, for all those given Him by the Father (Rev.
ness by having been redeemed by the blood of the            21:27; John  6:9, 40;  17:24)? Such is the prophetic
passover Lamb, whose blood was put on the door-             perspective of Psalm 22 where Christ envisions the
post in the night in which Israel walked trium-             great congregation.
phantly out of Egypt (Ex.  12:51). And it was the             We should notice that Psalm 22 has three great
"congregation" of Israel (Ex. 12:3, 6, 47) which was        parts in it. Although no mention is made of Christ's
brought out of Egypt under blood. The phrase                resurrection it is the implied meaning and sense of
"congregation of Israel" refers to Israel, the Israel       the Spirit! For in Hebrews 2:9-12 we see that this
of God, as His peculiar people, a holy nation, a            suffering servant of Jehovah is the one through
royal priesthood, called out of the darkness of             Whose suffering and death God brings many sons,
Egypt's bondage into God's marvelous light (Ex.             the great congregation, to glory. We see that the one
19:5, 6; I Peter 2:5, 9). It is congregated in the night    Who "declares Gods Name to the brethren is Jesus,
of the  passover under its tribes and elders as             crowned with glory and honor at God's right hand:
organized "church" in the Old Testament; it is not          He is Christ; prophet, priest and king. He is the one
a church because it is assembled. For the church is         Who received the Spirit at Pentecost and poured out
more than and different from a mere aggregate of            of His Spirit upon all flesh. Thus He declares
many individuals. She is God's elect people, also in        mightily, by the apostles and prophets, the Name of
the Old Testament dispensation, a holy church,              God. He is the blessed one Who  cometh in the
separated from the nations of the world. When               Name of the LORD. Of Him the Old Testament
Moses is a mediator between God and Israel he               church song and prayed fervently; Save now, Lord.
mediates to the needs of the church from off Sinai's        That is the meaning of the well-known "Hosanna."
heights  - he with the "church in the wilderness."          0 what a plaintive cry we have in Psalm 118:24,25.
For, notice well that his being in the wilderness           And this is the Christ Who has come to save both
with the church in the wilderness is connected              the believers of the Old Testament and New Testa-
with mount Sinai, and with the fathers who re-              ment in His blood, the blood which speaketh better
ceived the lively oracles (Acts  3:38; Rom.  3:2). To       things than Abel (Gen.  4:lO; Heb.  12:24).
this church was committed the sacred trust of being
keepers of the Scriptures! And these Scriptures               Do not forget that Hebrew poetry had what is
were written "aforetime" for our learning, as New           known as parallelism. The second member in the
Testament adult church, that we through patience            parallel more clearly states what was mentioned in
and comfort of these Scriptures might have hope in          the first member. In this case the "Great congrega-
God (Rom.  15:4).                                           tion" is designated to be "my brethren." Among
                                                            these Christ is the first born among many brethren
   Indeed this is a far cry from speaking of the New        (Rom.  8:29). And these brethren are all those who
Testament as a "church-age" in distinction from             do the will of the Father in heaven, with works of
the Old Testament which would not have a                    redemptive thankfulness.
"church," as teach the Premillennial  Dispensation-
alists.                                                       Surely the church-age spans the ages, as the elect
                                                            are saved out of the whole human race, from the
   Let us take a close look at Psalm 22:22, 25. Here        beginning of the world to the end, by the Son of
we read, in verse 22, "I will declare thy name unto         God in our flesh. One Lord, one church, one hope,
my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I        one baptism, one promise, one God above all,
praise thee."                                               through all and in all! (Eph.  2:12-22;  4:3-16 etc).
   It should be noticed that the one speaking is none
other than the suffering Servant of Jehovah, Jesus.
In the verses 1-21 we hear the agony of Christ pro-
phetically as this was endured at Calvary in the                The Standard Bearer
outer darkness on the Cross (Matt.  27:44; Mk.
15:34). This brings us so near to Calvary, the place              makes a thoughtful
outside of the gate of Jerusalem, that we feel that
we are standing there viewing that awful suffering.             gift for any occasion.
We hear Christ's own interpretation of it here  -
hundreds of years before. But is He not the Lamb
slain before the foundations of the world (Rev.                  Give The Standard Bearer!
13:8)?  And did He not give His life at Calvary for
those whose names are written in the Lamb's book
of life, for the entire church from Abel until the last


160                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren




                                                       What Next?


  "Faith in Focus," the monthly magazine of the                        and I'm not at all against church marriages. It's fine
Reformed Churches of New Zealand, quotes a let-                        if people want to celebrate their covenant with each
ter from J.M. Batteau, professor of systematic                         other in church, with their joy and pain. Pm only very
theology at Korea Seminary, Pusan, Korea. The let-                     sad that a church marriage is made exclusive, and
ter was addressed to all the members of the Re-                        other life-styles are condemned. The joy of homo-
formed Ecumenical Synod which met last summer                          sexual relations, for example; I would like to have
in Chicago. The letter dealt with his concern about                    them also celebrated in church. But often it's simply
                                                                       not possible.
the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands  (Gere-
formeerde Kerken). He quotes from the Liberated                          Question: Paula, don't you think that the minister
Reformed Churches' newspaper from the Nether-                          ought to be a good example for the congregation?
lands a report about a woman minister in the                           What about the teenagers?
(Synodical) Reformed Churches in the Netherlands                         Paula: The real question is: are we following the
- yet hardly the kind of situation which one might                     path of the Messiah? Does our path have anything to
expect within a Reformed church. The report went                       do with the path that Jesus followed? There's where I
                                                                       feel my responsibility. The minister does not have a
as follows:                                                            position above the congregation, but rather is together
         In the monthly bulletin of the Amsterdam combina-             with the congregation. How do we live as Christians
       tion congregation [Reformed: Nassau church; Dutch               in our mutual life together? To be a "shepherd and
       Reformed: Prinsesse church), the "Ichtus Woord en               teacher" means this: as a shepherd one follows the
       Wijk," which we read in the "Waarheidsvriend"                   path which the Good Shepherd has taken; as a teacher
       (weekly of the conservative Reformed Union within               one takes part in opening the Scripture with one
       the Dutch Reformed Church, J.M.B.):                             another. The congregation has no right to criticize me
         "The stimulus to this interview is the happy news             concerning the form of my relationship, though it
       that Paula is expecting a baby in September. She is             certainly can do so regarding the content of my rela-
       glad to talk about it and, since she is following a life-       tionship. And as far as that is concerned, it is going
       style that is somewhat different than might be ex-              well, I have full confidence in it. Parents of teenagers
       pected, we wanted to ask her a few questions.                   might be shocked; I can well imagine'it. Thinking: I
                                                                       certainly hope my child doesn't . . . . But let the
         Question: What are your plans for the future?                 children choose freely the life-style which suits them
         Paula: My boyfriend Hans and I are going to start             best. Are they happy? Do they treat each other well?
       living together in July; we've found an apartment on            Children are not extensions of ourselves, but rather
       Watteaustraat.                                                  they are entrusted to our care. In our congregation
                                                                       we're happy that we don't exclude anyone. There is
         Question: You two are not getting married. Why                room for different opinions, and readiness to talk
       not?                                                            about them.
         Paula: In my circle of friends there are many who               Question: What kind of person is Hans? Many of us
       are not officially married, and if we were to be offi-          don't know him. And he doesn't go to Church. What
       cially married I get the feeling that I would alienate          should we think about it?
       them. It is a matter of personal feeling. The church
       can be terribly stern with people who choose a life-              Paula: We met each other shortly after I came to
       style other than marriage. I'm hoping for a church              work in the Prinsesse church. Wonderful things all
       which has more room for people who want to live                 came together at the same time. Hans has studied
       differently, such as lesbians who live together, or             political science and he's working as a researcher for
       those who want to live alone.                                   the Bureau of Economics in The Hague. He travels
                                                                       back and forth every day by train, and in September
         Question: How can you bless a marriage if you                 he's going to be working three days a week. Just like
       yourself don't want to be married?                              Hans Mos and Rev. Hibma we're choosing to take
         Paula: It's a part of my job. I enjoy it tremendously,        care of the child together, and we're both going to be


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       161



   working. When Hans was 17 he left the Dutch Re-             church in Amsterdam. She is expecting a baby out
   formed Church, after much thought. I see a lot of           of wedlock and does not plan to marry her non-
    Calvinism in him. We have good talks about my work         believing boyfriend. She does not condemn Chris-
   and my faith - he supports me completely in the way         tian marriages, but insists on the option of other
   I do it. He listens critically to my sermons, especially    life-styles.
    the development of the theme. We have good discus-
    sions about the discoveries I make in a Bible text. He       One hears strange things coming out of the
    doesn't go to church, because he doesn't want to give      Netherlands. From the denial of the infallibility of
    the impression that he belongs to a community which        Scripture, to the denial of the atonement of Christ
    he actually has no part of. If Hans had been a church      on the cross, to a walk and life-style contrary to all
    member I would have loved to celebrate my commit-          that the Bible teaches  - all this is tolerated and
   ment and joy in church. But Hans thinks it simply           even approved. One wonders how all this can be.
   hypocritical to go through religious motions which          Two of the ministers from the Reformed Churches
   he doesn't believe in.                                      in the Netherlands have recently been visiting the
      No one should get the impression that I'm opposed        Christian Reformed Church in Canada. In some of
   to marriage. I'm only opposed to using norms and            the reports of these visits, it appears that these
   values  against people. Do people have the chance to        ministers try to explain how all this comes to be.
   receive their genuine rights?  That's  what concerns        Still, such deviation both in doctrine and in life can
   me. I'm only asking for the room to live in this way.
   We're really happy together.                                not be explained - but can only be condemned.
                                                               This action is neither Reformed nor Scriptural. If
      We thank Paula for her honest answers, which
   we've compressed because of lack of space. We wish          there is no repentance, there is assuredly condem-
   her and Hans all the best." (End of the excerpt from        nation in hell.
   Netherlands Dagblad).                                          One might wonder, incidentally, what the situa-
  So: Rev. Paula Irik is a minister in good standing           tion will be for this woman minister five years from
in the Dutch Reformed Church who is serving a                  now. Surely the bitter fruits of her action will be ex-
                                                               perienced in her life.




                              Government Support =
                                   Government Control


  Some of the Canadian provinces provide govern-                     Van Brummelen believes the imposition of these
ment support for private school students. The                      examinations to be a turning point for BC's Christian
Christian schools in British Columbia receive $900                 schools. He points out that Christian schools have
per student per year. We might look rather envious-                never opposed government testing of basic skills and
ly at such a gold-mine. What would this do to our                  general knowledge, and have welcomed government
tuition payments? Were we to receive something                     evaluation teams. Now, he says, a new element has
                                                                   been added in that schools must carefully follow gov-
on a similar scale, it would reduce our tuition                    ernment-prescribed courses. Rather than teaching
payments to a few hundreds of dollars. We could                    and continuing to develop an integrally Christian pro-
pay teachers more. We could provide more subjects                  gram of studies at these levels, the schools now can
for our students to study. If . . . .                              only add Christian interpretations to material that is
  But the Christian schools of B.C. are facing a                   often based on a non-Christian view of life.
dilemma. To receive continued support, the                           Parents face a real dilemma in making decisions
students must take government tests or the govern-                 about the examinations. Students from schools not
ment support is reduced to $300 per student (not a                 writing examinations. will not be able to enter public
small amount either). But to take government tests,                universities directly, and their diplomas will be
one must be prepared to study  government-                         viewed second-rank by the public-at-large.
prescribed courses. One writer in Calvinist Contact,                 BC's schools have always made a strong argument
Sept. 28, 1984, presents the following:                            for government funding of Christian schools on the


162                                                   THE STANDARD  ,BEARER



       basis of justice in a pluralistic society. The examina-      we get back, has strings attached  - strings which
       tion issue has underscored, however, that receipt of          make such support suspect. Let us too beware that
       funding also makes the schools subject to undesirable         allure of such governmental support. The govern-
       government control.                                          ment seeks to control the Christian schools already
  The above is a sobering reminder of the control a                  now  - but finance gives them apparent justifica-
government obtains by way of providing financial                    tion for the attempt to control.
support. We can tell ourselves that we just get back
our "taxes," but the fact remains, that the govern-                    And make no mistake - support once given, but
ment regards our taxes as their own monies. What                    then withdrawn, is more difficult to face than
                                                                    never having received the support in the first place.

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD



                                 Missionary Methods (25)
                                                       Prof. Robert D, Decker





  In the previous three articles of this series we                   Who calls His servants to this great work will pro-
have examined some of the views of Rufus Ander-                      vide for the needs of those servants and their
son. Because it has been some time since this col-                   families. Scripture everywhere emphasizes that the
umn has appeared we shall give a brief review of                     work of the missionary preacher is difficult, even
what we have discovered thus far in our study of                     burdensome. But Scripture also assures Gods ser-
Anderson. Anderson, like Henry Venn and John                         vants that Christ will never leave nor forsake them.
Nevius, was firmly convinced that the mission                        Christ will be with His servants to provide for their
church should become self supporting, self govern-                   need, to comfort, strengthen, and encourage them
ing, and self propagating as soon as possible. In this               in their trials and persecutions.
connection Anderson stressed that the sole aim of
missions must be evangelization and not civiliza-                      Another point which Anderson goes to great
tion. By the latter he meant the church must not ex-                 lengths to establish is that missionaries are to be
pect the heathen among whom it works on the                          evangelists and not settled pastors. The work of
foreign field to conform to the culture and life style               missionaries and pastors of established congrega-
of the country and peoples of the sending church.                    tions is essentially the same from the point of view
The missionary must not work for this either. By                     of the fact that both are chiefly engaged in the
evangelization Anderson emphasized that the sole                     preaching of the gospel. Nevertheless their work is
task of the missionary is to preach and teach the                    to be distinguished. Basing his point on the record
blessed Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.                             of the work of the Apostles, especially Paul, found
                                                                     in the Book of Acts, Anderson had this to say:
  On a more practical note Anderson strongly                         "Their (the Apostles') commission embraced only
asserted that it is not only possible but desirable                  the proclamation of the gospel and planting its in-
that the missionary be married and have children                     stitutions. As soon as the gospel by their means had
with him on the foreign field. The missionary needs                  gained a footing in any one district or country, they
the support a godly wife can give. In his marriage                   left the work in charge to others, called elders and
and family life the missionary provides an example                   also bishops or overseers of the flock and church of
to those with whom he works of what the Christian                    God, whom they ordained for this purpose. Some-
marriage and family ought to be.                                     times they did not remain even long enough to pro-
  In spite of the hardships, difficulties, and prob-                 vide spiritual guides for the churches they had
lems which the missionary and his family must                        planted. `For this cause,' says Paul to Titus, `left I
needs face we certainly agree with these conclu-                     thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the
sions of Anderson. We also believe that the God                      things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                163



city, as I had appointed thee.' The elders were the           of that congregation. Thus we find in Anderson's
pastors of the new churches . . . . It enters into the        writings the same emphasis as in Henry Venn's
nature of the pastor's relation, that he reamin or be         "Euthanasia of the Mission."
intended to remain long the spiritual instructor of             This, however, leaves us with a difficult ques-
one people. It is indeed as really his business to call       tion: just when or at what point ought the mission-
sinners to repentance, as it is that of the missionary;       ary leave a given field of labor for a new one. The
but, owing to his more permanent relations, and to            answer depends in large measure on the cir-
the fact that he is constituted the religious guide           cumstances in a given field. But whatever a mis-
and instructor of his converts during the whole               sionary does he ought not stay too long after the
period of their earthly pilgrimage, his range of duty         church has been instituted and is under the care of
in respect to them is more comprehensive than that            its own native pastors, elders, and deacons. Ad-
of the missionary in respect to his converts. The             dressing himself to this question Anderson said, "It
pastor is charged, in common with the missionary,             is an unsettled problem how the work of missions
with reconciling men to God; and he has also an ad-
ditional charge, arising from the peculiar circum-            may be so finished, that the missionary can safely
stances of his relation, with respect to their growth         withdraw, leaving the new Christian community to
in grace and sanctification. But the missionary's             take care of itself. There are spiritual, intellectual,
great                                                         and social difficulties to be first overcome; and
          business in his personal labors, is with the un-    these are often much aggravated by adverse in-
converted. His embassy is to the rebellious, to
beseech them, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to          fluences from abroad. Out of what depths of moral
God. His vocation, as a soldier of the cross, is to           and social degradation is every heathen convert
make conquests, and to go on, in the name of his              raised before he is fitted for membership in the
divine Master, `conquering and to conquer," com-              Church of Christ! `And such were some of you,' -
mitting the security and permanency of his con-               `fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate,
quests to another class of men created expressly for          abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves,
the purpose. The idea of  continued conquest  is              covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners.' (I Cor.
fundamental in missions to the heathen, and is vital          6: 10, 11) But though `justified in the name of the
to their spiritual life and efficiency. It will doubt-        Lord Jesus,' they are sanctified only in part, `babes
less be found on inquiry, that missions among the             in Christ,' continually needing to be taught `which
heathen have always ceased to be healthful and ef-            be the first principles of the oracles of God.' Who
ficient, have ceased  to1 evince the true missionary          can realize what it is, and what it must be, for an
spirit in its strength, whenever they have ceased to          entire community of Christians to have had their
be actively aggressive upon the kingdom of dark-              home, for a long course of years before conversion,
ness.                                                         where truth had fallen in the street, and -equity
                                                              could not enter, without rule or protection of law,
  "In a word, the missionary prepares new fields              with no standard of morality, no domestic virtue,
for pastors; and when they are thus prepared, and             no culture of the affections, no correct public senti-
competent pastors are upon the ground, he ought               ment, and almost no conscience? And, who, that
himself to move onward, - the pioneer in effect of            has closely observed the weaknesses and imperfec-
a Christian civilization  - but in office, work and           tions of human nature in its most favored condi-
spirit, an ambassador for Christ, to preach the               tions, is not prepared for occasional and violent out-
gospel where it has not been preached." (To  Ad-              breaks of ingratitude, passion, waywardness, and
vance The  Gospel,  Rufus Anderson, R. Pierce                 wickedness, in churches gathered from the lower,
Beaver, editor. Eerdman's, pp. 75, 76.)                       and sometimes the lowest, depths of humanity?
  While one may not agree with everything stated              That such churches should live, thrive, and ever
in the above quotation from Anderson, one must                reach the self-sustaining point, is a miracle of
agree with his main contention, viz., that the work           grace" (Anderson, p. 93). After pointing out that
of a missionary differs from that of a pastor. The            many of these weaknesses and sins, both in doc-
pastor shepherds a specific "flock of God" for a              trine and in practice, were manifest in the churches
relatively long period of time. He cares for an estab-        established by the Apostle Paul in Asia Minor,
lished congregation. But the missionary preaches to           Anderson concludes: "The work of the missionary
the unconverted. His task it is to preach the Word            has been performed mainly at central points; and
with a view to the instituting of a congregation.             when this work shall have been completed at all
When a congregation has been established under                these points, and there is no more need of new sta-
the care of a qualified pastor and qualified elders           tions, - when it is possible for gospel institutions to
and deacons the missionary must move on to                    exist, through divine grace, without the longer
another field. His work in that place is finished. He         presence of the missionary, - then the work of the
must not at this point assume the place of a pastor           mission in that community is obviously completed.


164                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



The missionary, having `no more place in those                to bear this in mind in our own mission labors.
parts,' should go and preach the gospel elsewhere.            There comes a time when the missionary must
It is a great point to know when to do this. After a          leave the field. The mission station must not
native church is formed, it should have, as soon as           become a permanent institution alongside native
possible, a native pastor and the needed church of-           churches. Missions has as its aim the gathering of
ficers; and the native pastor should have ample               the elect out of the nations. When that is the fruit of
scope for preaching, and for all his ministerial and          the missionary's preaching and the church is
pastoral abilities and duties. The local church is the        established he must seek new fields of labor.
divinely appointed illuminating power for its                   In this same connection Anderson emphasizes
district. It is the great power in missions . . . . With a    that all this is accomplished only by means  of'fhe
somewhat reserved and discreet superintendence                preaching of the Word. This is the sole task of the
on the part of the nearest missionary, it will thrive         missionary. He must preach and only preach! This
best, after a proper organization, by being left to           is what he said over one hundred years ago: "The
itself. Thus station after station may be finished,           weapons of our warfare must be spiritual. The
and new conquests be continually made, with                   enemy will laugh at the shaking of a spear, at
almost no enlargement in the number of the foreign            diplomatic skill, at commerce, learning, philan-
force, and also without any material increase of ex-          thropy, and every scheme of social order and re-
penditure; provided the native pastors have not               finement. He stands in fear of nothing but the cross
been rendered too expensive by an injudicious                 of Christ, and therefore we must rely on nothing
education, doing less to fit them for their work than         else. With that we may boldly pass all his outworks
to make them dissatisfied in it, and provided the             and entrenchments, and assail his very citadel"
duty of self-support has been properly urged upon             (Anderson, pp. 84, 85).
the native churches" (Anderson, p. 96). We do well                                                   to be continued

THE STREN-GTH OF YOUTH



                        The Christian and Work (2)
                                                  Rev. Ron Cammenga





   In our last article we began to discuss the subject        The money that we need to meet our responsibili-
of the Christian and the ordinance of labor. We dis-          ties, to pay our bills, to put food on our table, to pay
cussed the institution of labor by God and the                our children's Christian school tuition, to provide
teaching of the Scripture regarding the necessity of          housing and clothing for ourselves and our family
our working. In this article we want especially to            is money that God gives us by means of our work-
consider the purposes of our labor and consider the           ing.
truth that no matter what our specific calling in life          That it is God's purpose to provide for our earth-
may be, our labor is a divine vocation.                       ly  .necessities by our working is plainly the
   The first purpose of our labor is certainly that we        teaching of Scripture. In I Thessalonians 4: 11, 12
may be able to provide for the needs of ourselves             the Apostle enjoins believers to do their own
and of our family. God is the One Who cares for us,           business and to work with their own hands, walk-
giving us all the necessities for our earthly life in         ing honestly toward them that are without, so that
the world. But God is pleased to do this ordinarily           the believers themselves may have lack of nothing.
by our working. Our labor is the God-appointed                In II Thessalonians  3:10-12 the Apostle commands
means by which we receive our daily bread. And,               that they who will not work ought not to eat, and
ordinarily, apart from our working we have no                 again he admonishes the believers to work with
reason to expect that God will care for our needs.            quietness, that is, not complaining, so that they


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                165



may eat their own bread. In I Timothy  5:8 the              contribute to the support of the gospel ministry. In-
Apostle teaches, "But if any provide not for his            cluded with the ministry, of course, are all those
own, and specially for those of his own house, he           other causes of God's kingdom to which we are also
hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."       able to contribute.
On the basis of passages like these, the Marriage             The third purpose of our labor is that we may be
Form instructs husbands, "And since it is God's             able to help in the relief of the poor. This ought to
command, `that the man shall eat his bread in the           be an important motivation to us in our work.
sweat of his face,' therefore you are to labor dili-
gently and faithfully, in the calling wherein God             This is the will of God. In Ephesians  4:28 the
hath sent you . . .  ."                                     Apostle exhorts, "Let him that stole steal no more:
                                                            but rather let him  labour,  working with his hands
  The second outstanding purpose of our labor is            the thing which is good, that he may have to give to
that, besides providing for ourselves, we also might        him that needeth." To the elders of the church at
be able to contribute to the support of the ministry        Ephesus, Paul says in Acts  20:35, "I have  shewed
of the gospel. The clear teaching of the Scripture is       you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to
that this is the duty, as well as the blessed privilege,    support the weak, and to remember the words of
of every Christian. Already in the Old Testament,           the Lord Jesus, how that he said, It is more blessed
Gods people provided for the support of the                 to give than to receive." For the support and care of
ministry of the tabernacle and temple. They did             the poor, Christ has instituted the office of deacon.
that in various ways. They did that by the tithes           The Form Of Ordination Of Elders And Deacons
that they brought of the annual increase of their           calls the members of the church to uphold the of-
flocks and herds. They did that by the many sacri-          fice of deacon: "Provide the deacons with good
fices which they brought, a portion of which often          means to assist the indigent. Be charitable, ye rich,
went to the priests. They did that by the free-will         give liberally, and contribute willingly." The Mar-
offerings, the offerings made in fulfillment of             riage Form not only enjoins husbands to labor
various vows, the gift of the firstfruits, and the pay-     diligently so that they may provide for the needs of
ment of what was referred to as the temple tax, the         their own family, but so that they  ". . . likewise
payment to the temple ministry of the half-shekel           have something to give to the poor."
annually.                                                     Especially do the young people need to be
  Also the New Testament binds upon believers               reminded of their calling to support the ministry
the solemn calling to support the ministry of the           and contribute to the relief of the poor. Often, I
Word. The Lord Himself ordains this in Matthew              fear, our young people do not take this responsibili-
10:9, 10,  where, after sending out His disciples to        ty seriously. They may have a good job and earn a
preach, He says to them, "Provide neither gold, nor         good wage, but they contribute little or nothing for
silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip (i.e.,          the kingdom. The money that they earn is con-
money or currency) for your journey, neither two            sumed on a car, on pleasure, on a house, on clothing,
coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the work-         on an education, on this and on that, so that when
man is worthy of his meat." The outstanding                 the collection plate is passed on Sunday all that's left
passage is I Corinthians 9. There the Apostle               is a little change in their pocket. This is wrong! Our
teaches that those who sow spiritual things ought to        young people need to be encouraged to give regu-
reap the carnal things of God's people (vs. 11). And        larly and liberally to the kingdom. And they are in a
in verse 14 he says explicitly, "Even so hath the           good position to do so. They do not have all the
Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel             financial responsibilities that a large family with
should live of the gospel."                                 several children has. God has put them in an ideal
   In harmony with this teaching of Scripture, the          position to be of great help in the support of the
Heidelberg Catechism explains that part of our              causes of the kingdom. And if our young people do
keeping of the Fourth  lCommandment  is  ". . . that        this, they may be sure that they will be rewarded
the ministry of the gospel . . . be maintained . . . ."     by God a hundredfold.
This position is also reflected in the call letter used        The final thing that must be regarded by the
in our churches: "Convinced that the laborer is             believer is that the work and calling which is his in
worthy of his hire, and to encourage you in the dis-        life is a work and calling that he receives from God.
charge of your duties, and to free you from all             Our labor is a divine vocation. We often are inclined
worldly cares and avocations while you are dis-             to think only of the ministers of the gospel as
pensing spiritual blessing to us, we . . . do promise       having a call from God. And although this is true, it
and oblige ourselves to pay you . . .  " a certain          is equally true that every believer in the particular
amount.                                                     position which he occupies and labor which he per-
   We work, therefore, so that we may be able to            forms has a call from God.


166                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  The fact of the matter is that it is only as we have     nessman, farmer, doctor, lawyer, minister of the
a. proper sense of our labor as a divine vocation,         Word. God assigns to each his or her own position.
will we also have a proper sense of our responsibil-       God is the one Who gives to us the gifts and talents
ity diligently to carry it out. When our work              that are ours for the work which we are called to
becomes drudgery, when our work involves hard-             do. Since our work itself is provided us by God,
ship, when the conditions imposed upon us are op-          since our strength and ability to do the work comes
pressive, when we are tempted to individual or             from God, our work itself ought to be done to the
organized rebellion against our employer, when we          glory of God.
are tempted to recompense evil on the part of our            Calvin writes:
employer with the evil of careless work on our part,             It is to be remarked that the Lord com-
then we need to remind ourselves of the words of              mands every one of us, in all the actions of
the Apostle in Colossians  3:23, 24: "And whatso-             life, to regard his vocation. For he knows
ever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not un-       with what great inquietude the human
to men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive             mind is inflamed, with what desultory lev-
the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord          ity it is hurried hither and thither, and how
Christ."                                                      insatiable is its ambition to grasp different
  In Ephesians 6:5-7 the Apostle lays his finger on           things at once. Therefore to prevent uni-
the cardinal vice of our labor: we do it to please            versal confusion being produced by our
men. "Servants, be obedient to them that are your             folly and temerity, he has appointed to all
masters according to the flesh, with fear and                 their particular duties in different spheres of
trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto               life. And that no one might rashly transgress
Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but            the limits prescribed, he has styled such
as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from         spheres of life vocations, or callings. Every
the heart; with good will doing service, as to the            individual's line of life, therefore, is, as it
Lord, and not to men." Men-pleasing takes many                were, a post assigned him by the Lord . . . .
forms. Even when the best job is done, if the only             (Institutes, III, x, 6.)
purpose is to please men, to receive the compli-             May God give us the grace to regard our work as
ments and praise of men, we violate the funda-             our calling from the Lord. In our work, may we
mental principle of labor: "with good will doing           labor "heartily, as unto the Lord." By means of our
service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men."              labor, may we be provided with the means of sup-
  Each of us must consider his work a calling from         port of ourselves and our family, and have where-
the Lord, whether that's mother in the home                with to contribute to the support of the ministry
teacher in the school, worker in the factory, busi-        and the relief of the poor.




                                        Book Reviews


THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO GENESIS, by                        serving as prologue. Most of the book is spent on a
Charles C. Cochrane; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing            brief explanation of these first eleven chapters.
Co., 1984; 88 pp., $5.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof.         That the author is thoroughly Arminian appears
H. Hanko).                                                 already from the statement found in the paragraph
  The author was for 40 years a minister in the            above this one:  ". . . God's plan to save all man-
Presbyterian Church of Canada. Why this book               kind." But worse is his higher criticism. He consid-
should be the product of his literary efforts is hard      ers the first eleven chapters of Genesis to be
to say. It is not a very good book and hardly worth        parables, i.e., "truth conveyed and expressed in
the time spent in reading it.                              story form." Other examples of his higher criticism
  The author proceeds from the assumption that             can be found throughout the book.
the call of Abraham is the beginning of God's plan           Other weaknesses are: he gives an Arminian in-
to save all mankind, with the first eleven chapters        terpretation of Romans  4:3; he leaves the whole


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 167



question of evolution an open one; he mistakenly         years. These sections alone form a valuable re-
claims that only man is called "a living soul" in        source. The book is also lavishly illustrated with all
Scripture.                                               kinds of pictures, although, in this reviewer's opin-
  The material of the book arose out of a course the     ion, the pictures do not add materially to the value
author taught in Christian education in a high           of the book.
school in Canada. It is, however, highly unsuited to       Nevertheless, the approach of the book is
the purpose of teaching young people.                    basically wrong. The author, as we stated above,
                                                         approaches the question of Apologetics from the
THE CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY,  by  Cohn                     viewpoint that Christianity provides the best
Chapman; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983;           answer to the questions of life, and his treatment of
313 pp., $12.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H.           the historical facts of Scripture is rationalistic in the
Hanko) .                                                 sense that he seeks to show that belief, e.g., in the
  This book is really a book on Apologetics, and in      miracles of Jesus is a belief based upon good
many ways it is an excellent one. It starts from the     evidence. Ultimately, the case for the Christian
basic questions which are asked concerning reli-         faith rests only upon Scripture itself. And only faith
gion and human life today and goes on to show that       will accept Scripture as the Word of God. And faith,
Christianity provides the essential key to the mean-     it must be remembered, is a gift of God.
ing and value of life. It discusses the claims which
Christianity makes, compares these with alterna-
tives, and shows that Christianity is able to provide              Read and Study
the best answers.
  Some of the good features of the book are the in-                             The
clusion in it of over 1000 quotations from various
writers and a rather large section on the views of                 Standard Bearer!
modern religions and various influential thinkers
which have contributed to human thought over the


                      News From Our Churches
                                              December  15,1984




  Three of our churches have recently extended           worship service. Rev. Van  Overloop is also on
calls. From a trio consisting of the Reverends R.        WCFL-AM ( 1000)  I a clear channel radio station.
Hanko, Kamps, and Moore, Hull Protestant Re-             The recording of the program takes place in their
formed Church has called Rev. Kamps. Our church          studios downtown and is broadcasted on Sunday
in Houston, Texas has called Prof. Decker, from a        mornings  (11:45)  for fifteen minutes. Let us
trio which included also Rev. Slopsema and Rev.          remember this brother in our prayers.
Woudenberg. Lynden's trio was Rev. Haak, Rev.              Rev. Bruinsma writes that they arrived in
Slopsema, and Rev. VanBaren. Rev. Haak received          Jamaica with Wes and Glenda Koops and ap-
the call.                                                preciated the love and hospitality given to them by
  Prof. Hoeksema planned to leave for Lynden on          the Jamaican people. They are also impressed with
the 21st of December, in order to preach in our          the sizable house that is to be their dwelling place.
church there on the  23rd, and take the rest of the      They spent three days cleaning and painting the kit-
services through those of Sunday, January 6.             chen and the bathrooms. They are subject to black-
                                                         outs, which they experienced the first night there.
  Rev. Van Overloop  writes that the people in the       The weather is hot  - 85" to 90" with rain every
northwest suburb of Chicago who attend the wor-          day. Rev. Bruinsma has talked to some of the
ship services and other meetings are very faithful in    church people concerning the needs of the chur-
attendance. One of the families attending requested      ches. He closes with these comments: "There are
baptism for their infant son. The sacrament of bap-      many burdens and difficulties we must overcome.
tism was administered at the October 21 afternoon        God is good to us - we experience His tender mer-


   THE STANDARD IBEARER
         P.O. Box 6064                                                                                         / Gifz%;~Hm 1
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





168                                                      THE STANDARD  BEARER

cy every day. We pray for contentment and                                  can make the functioning of the church very diffi-
guidance day by day as we are far from home, fami-                         cult . . .  ."
ly, and friends."                                                             A special program was held in First Church the
   In a letter to the congregation at First Church,                        night of November 25 to pause and reflect on God's
Rev. Arie and Sherry den Hartog state, "Last Satur-                        faithfulness to the congregation throughout the
day I was asked to speak for a gospel meeting spon-                        years. Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. G. Van Baren, and Rev.
sored'by the Youth Fellowship of our church. The                           Joostens spoke to those present. The new owner of
topic which I was asked to speak on was `Believing                         the property, Rev. Vander Beek, also spoke.
God in the Age of the Computer."'                                             The Council of South Holland Protestant Re-
   "In the last week we greatly enjoyed the visit of                       formed Church asked their pastor to inform the
Rev. and Mrs. Miersma and their son, Eric. . . . The                       congregation concerning the work that Prof. Hanko
members of ERCS gave them their usual warm                                 and he did in Northern Ireland and England at a
Christian welcome and attended to showing them                             public meeting on November 30. Rev. Engelsma
some of the sights of Singapore."                                          showed slides of his trip.
   "We also have a visitor with us again from                                 I will end with this quote from newsletter no. 13
Ghana Africa, Mr. Gabriel Anygba . . . . He belongs                        of the Randolph Protestant Reformed School Socie-
to an Evangelistic Society in Ghana with which our                         ty: "We are also aware that there are many ques-
churches in America have had contact for a                                 tions and objections that have been raised about
number of years."                                                          having our own school. Is it financially feasible to
   "All in all, getting a church building here in Sing-                    start and maintain our own school? Will the school
apore is extremely difficult. To buy a proper church                       we would be able to run provide an adequate
building would cost millions . . . . We do need your                       education for our children? May we simply pull out
prayers for this whole matter. Some of the small                           of the Randolph Christian School to start our own
churches in Singapore have resorted to splitting up                        school? These and other questions have been
their congregations and having small meetings in                           raised. We intend to discuss some of these in our
several homes of the members. This is not very                             future newsletters."                                              DH
good however, as far as the unity of the church and
                                                                                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                            NOTICE!!!                                         On December 21, 1984 our parents, MR.  & MRS. HENRY J.
                                                                           BLANKESPOOR celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
   The newly organized Heritage Christian School of Hudsonville,
Michigan is in need of teachers for grades K through 9 for the                We, their children and grandchildren, thank our heavenly Father
1985-86 School  Ye,ar.                                                     Who gave them to us that we might know our God to serve Him, as
                                                                           they led us day by day. We pray that God will continue to be near to
   Please contact Mr. Ervin Kortering, 253 East 19th St., Holland,         them and bless them as they continue to walk together fulfilling their
Michigan 49423. Phone number is (616) 396-4966.                            calling given unto them. Truly we confess with them that God is
                                                  Erv Kortering, Sec'y.    faithful to His covenant always.
                                                                              "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
                          IN MEMORIAM                                      them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children;
  THOMAS HUIZINGA, age 80; died November 22, 1984; 7745                    To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His com-
Coachman Lane, Jenison, Michigan. Wife  - Henrietta; children  -           mandments to do them." Psalm 103:17, 18
Grace and Ted Boelema, Frank and Laura Huizinga, Don and Ruth              John Blankespoor                    Robert and Geraldine Blankespoor
Machiela, Tom and Irene Huizinga, Jim and Evelyn Borst, Harold and         Jim and Wilma Blankespoor                21 grandchildren
Kate Huizinga, Roger and Nancy Huizinga. 34 grandchildren and 35           Alvin and Sally Kooiker                  3 great grandchildren
great grandchildren. Two sisters  - Edith Boersma and Grace Potter.
Two brothers - John and Otto Huizinga.
                                                                                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                          ATTENTION!!!                                       The consistory and congregation of the First Protestant Reformed
   It has come to our attention that some of our readers received faul-    Church, Edmonton, Alberta, extend their Christian sympathy to our
ty copies of the December 1 Special Issue on the subject of Prayer.        brother officebearer, Deacon Fred Tolsma and his family, in the loss
Some pages were repeated and some pages were omitted in a                  of their daughter, NICOLE, aged 1 year, 7 months, on December 9,
number of copies - we know not how many. Evidently there were              1984.
gremlins at work at Wobbema Printing! If you received a faulty copy,         "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He
please write immediately to our Business Office to inform Mr. Vander
Wal. Be sure to furnish your name and complete address. Write to:          shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Psalm 55:22
The Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, Ml 49506. We             Rev. T. Miersma, President
will send you a new copy as soon as possible.                              H. Nieuwenkamp, Clerk


