                      The
     STANDARD
                      fearer
r                      A REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE                                         .

     .     .     .    We are to thank God for our earthly
     plenty  ex:actly because it will enable us to
     have and enjoy the spiritual plenty which is
     ours in Jesus Christ. And if this is truly the
     nature of our gratitude, we will show this by
     using all our earthly plenty for the cause of
     God's kingdom, the glory of His name and
     the attainment of His great salvation.
            Let.us i.n this manner give thanks unto the
     LORD.
            For He is good: and His mercy endureth
     for ever.
     See ' `Givi.ng Thanks for God's Mercy"
                                                                            - page 74
.                                                            Vol.  LXII, No. 4, November 15, 1985  -


74                                                                     THE   STANDARD  BEARER




                                  CONTENTS                                                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                               I                                       ISSN 0362-4692
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                                                                                                    Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
         Giving Thanks for God's Mercy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74                                Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
      Editorial  -                                                                                  D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
                                                                                                    Rev. Ronald Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering,
         Meet James Arminius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77                          Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
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MEDITATL-ON
James D. Slopsema





                            Giving Thanks for God's Mercy

                    0 give thanks unfo the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.                                                     Psalm 136:l



      Very soon now our readers in the U.S. will be                                                       First,  we must make it our concern to be truly
celebrating a national day of Thanksgiving. Our                                                       thankful to God for what He has done for us and
readers in Canada have already celebrated this holi-                                                  given to us. Often the more a person has the less ap-
day.                                                                                                  preciative he is. We have been blessed with plenty.
      As we contemplate the giving of thanks to God                                                   Few have enjoyed the prosperity that we do today.
we must be concerned especially with two things.                                                      Are we truly thankful for our plenty?


                                               THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                           75



     Secondly, we must be careful to be thankful for         Psalm. It is the conclusion of every verse. This is to
  the right things. Quite often those who are thankful       emphasize the enduring character of God's mercy.
  for God's bounty focus their attention on their            The theme of this Psalm is that the great mercy
  material prosperity and almost overlook the spiri-         shown to Israel long before in delivering th.em from
  tual riches God has sent. Their thanksgiving is            Egypt's bondage is an enduring mercy. God's good-
  earthly minded. Now, it is true that we are to be          ness and mercy is not a one time thing. His mercy is
  thankful for the earthly plenty we have received           always with His people. His mercy endures for-
  from the Lord's hand. Nevertheless, of primary             ever!
  concern to us ought to be the spiritual, and only            Of this enduring mercy the people of God had
  then the physical and material. This ought also to         just tasted. This Psalm was written and sung for the
  characterize our thanksgiving. Let us thank God            dedication of the new temple built by Judah under
  first for the spiritual wealth He has given to us in       Zerubbabel. The people of God had become
  Jesus Christ. Only in that connection let us also          apostate in the land of promise and God had taken
  give thanks for earthly prosperity.                        them away into captivity in Babylon. For 70 years
     This certainly is the emphasis of the Psalmist.         the true people of God wept by the rivers of
     0 give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for        Babylon as they remembered Zion, wasted and de-
  his mercy endureth for ever.                               stroyed. But God in His goodness and mercy raised
            * * * * * * * * * *                              up Cyrus, King of Persia, who allowed Israel to
                                                             return to their land and rebuild Zion. A faithful
     The Psalmist speaks of giving thanks to God for         remnant returned under Zerubbabel. They rebuilt
  His goodness and His mercy.                                the temple on Mt. Zion and now were celebrating
     The LORD is good. This means that God is kind,          God's goodness and mercy to them. Truly, God's
  generous, benevolent. He is a God who deals boun-          mercy endures forever.
  tifully with His creatures. Writes the Psalmist              For these enduring mercies the people of God
  David in Psalm  145:9, "The LORD is good to all:           gave most humble and hearty thanksgiving.
  and his tender mercies are over all his works."              0 give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for
     God is also merciful. Gods goodness and mercy           his mercy endureth for ever.
  are very closely related. God's mercy is His good-
  ness revealed to His creatures in woe. When God                     * * * * * * * * * *
  sees His beloved creatures in distress He is filled          The thanksgiving Israel rendered to the LORD in
  with pity and compassion. His divine heart goes out        this Psalm was profoundly spiritual in character.
  to them. In compassion He seeks to deliver them
  from their misery and to make them truly happy.              To appreciate this we must remember that
                                                             Zerubbabel and the 50,000 that returned to Judah
    The people of Israel had tasted this goodness and        did so only for spiritual reasons. In captivity in
~ mercy of the LORD.           -                             Babylon the Jews had prospered materially. This
    In this particular Psalm the Psalmist recalls the        was due in part to the lenient policies of the Baby-
  great deliverance of Israel out of the bondage of          lonians to their captives. But this was also due to
  Egypt by the mighty hand of God. With a strong             the fact that they were favored by God. In contrast
  hand the LORD smote the firstborn of Egypt,                to the prosperity of Babylon was the hardship that
  parted the Red Sea, made Israel to pass through,           awaited those who chose to return to the promised
  and overthrew Pharaoh with his host. Then the              land. Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple
  LORD led His people Israel through the great and           was no more. What had once been a beautiful city
  terrible wilderness. Furthermore, He slew famous           was now a shambles. Those who chose to return
  kings: Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of        had the prospect of hard work, endless struggles,
  Bashan. Their lands He gave to His people Israel as        deprivations, poverty, self-denial. There was only
  He had promised for a heritage. In this promised           one attraction to return to Canaan and that was
  land He fed Israel with plenty. Certainly the LORD         spiritual. Canaan was the land of promise. There in
  had been good to Israel and merciful.                      Canaan Judah could experience God's blessings
    The emphasis of the Psalmist, however, is not on         around the Temple. That alone served to entice
  God's past mercies but on the enduring mercies of          Judah to return. For that reason only 50,000 did
  God. Notice, "0 give thanks unto the LORD; for he          return. They were the faithful, the remnant of
  is good: for his mercy endurefh for ever. " This latter    God's people.
  phrase is repeated over and over again in this               It was above all for those spiritual blessings that
                                                             Judah rendered thanks to God in this Psalm. God
  James D. Slopsema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed     had indeed been good to them. They as a nation
  Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.                             had been unfaithful and God had taken them into


76                                           THE   STANDARD  BEARER



captivity. But now in mercy God had brought them           and enjoy. Indeed, God has greatly blessed us with
back to the land of promise. He had enabled them           all spiritual blessings from on high. And for these
in the face of great opposition to rebuild the Temple      rich blessings of grace our hearts should overflow
which they were now privileged to dedicate. Once           with thanksgiving.
more they were able to enjoy the riches of God's             In this connection we are also to be thankful for
blessings and fellowship. For this mercy of God            the earthly bounties we have received from God's
Judah was above all thankful.                              hand.
      And, yes, they were also thankful for the earthly      We must never forget that the earthly and the
bounty of the land. But even here their thankful-          material have absolutely no value in and of them-
ness was spiritual in nature. For the earthly bounty       selves. We must be reminded again and again of
of Canaan served as a token of God's favor and             what Christ once said, "For what is a man profited,
grace to His people. Canaan's plenty spoke of a            if he shall gain the whole world; and lose his soul"
greater, spiritual plenty that awaits God's people in      (Matt.  1626). In other words, if you have all the
the heavenly Canaan. In fact, through the earthly          plenty of this world and not the salvation of God in
bounty of Canaan God's people in the Old Testa-            Jesus Christ, you will lose your soul in hell. And
ment were able to taste of this greater heavenly           your material wealth has really profited you
bounty. Besides, the earthly riches of Canaan - its        nothing. The earthly and material are of value to us
milk and honey  - were necessary for Israel to             only in so much as they enable us to attain the
serve the LORD their God. And so for this earthly          spiritual and the eternal. To serve God, to promote
bounty Judah gave thanks. Their thankfulness               the cause of the kingdom, to enjoy in this way
therefore was not earthly minded but profoundly            God's rich blessings, we need food and drink,
heavenly and spiritually minded.                           clothing and shelter. Herein is the sole value and
      This must also characterize our thanksgiving.        significance of the earthly and material.
      Certainly we are to be thankful for the earthly        And so when God does send us earthly abun-
bounty we have received. We are now in the fall of         dance we are to be thankful. We are to express our
the year. The harvest is in. The horn of plenty is         thankfulness in both song and prayer. But our
full. We have food and drink aplenty. We have              thankfulness is to be spiritual in nature. We are to
clothing and shelter. Sometimes we complain how            thank God for our earthly plenty exactly because it
hard the times are. But we are not naked, homeless,        will enable us to have and enjoy the spiritual plenty
hungry, starving as many are today. And our little         which is ours in Jesus Christ. And if this is truly the
children do not cry themselves to sleep at night           nature of our gratitude, we will show this by using
with an empty belly. God has provided for our              all our earthly plenty for the cause of God's
earthly needs and more besides! Surely we are to be        kingdom, the glory of His name and the attainment
thankful for this. These are gifts of His goodness         of His great salvation.
and mercy to us His people.                                  Let us in this manner give thanks unto the
      But in our thanksgiving let us  ,be spiritually      LORD.
minded and not carnally minded.                              For He is good: and His mercy endureth for ever.
      Let us not look merely at the earthly abundance
God has given us and look no further. Let us not fall
into the error of being thankful for earthly plenty
and thankful for nothing else. Then we are earthly
minded in our thanksgiving.                                    The Standard Bearer
      In our thanksgiving we must concentrate our at-
tention rather on the spiritual blessings God has           makes a thoughtful gift
given to us in Jesus Christ. God has indeed given us
spiritual plenty. In Jesus Christ He has taken'away          for the sick & shut-in.
all our sins and forgiven us. In Jesus Christ we have
a new and wonderful life. We are no more bound to
serve sin but are able to live a holy life in the serv-
ice of God. In Jesus Christ we have the hope of life                Give a gift of the
eternal. In Jesus Christ we are able to enjoy Gods
blessed fellowship and communion. Furthermore,              Standard Bearer today.
God has also promised to continue His great cove-
nant in our generations so that we can expect to see
our children and our children's children also come
to the enjoyment of the great salvation we possess


                                           THE   STANDARD   BEARER                                                     7 7



EDITORIAL





                            Meet James Arminius



  "Get to Know Arminius" is the title of an               account, step by step, of the development of the Ar-
editorial in The Banner (Oct. 14, 1985, pp. 6, 7). One    minian controversy. It begins with Arminius in
could not very well disagree with the admonition of       Amsterdam. A translation of this history can be
Editor Kuyvenhoven in this title. Not only is it true     found in my The Voice of Our Fathers,  pp. 45, ff.
in general that one should be acquainted with             Another reliable source (for those who can read
church history and with significant characters in         Dutch) is L.H. Wagenaar's  Van  Strgd en  Ovenvin-
church history; but one should be acquainted speci-       ning,  a book which could profitably be translated
fically with Reformed church history and its chief        into English. In Reformed Fellowship's publication,
characters; and even more specifically, one should        Crisis In The Reformed Churches,  there is also
be acquainted with heretics and their heresies - in       valuable information, though this book varies
order, of course, to be able to discern and to defend     greatly in quality because its chapters are written
the truth.                                                by various authors.
  In trying to become acquainted with Arminius,             Now one of the questions which we ought to con-'
however, it makes a world of difference to which          sider in getting to know Arminius is this: what kind
sources one turns. Editor Kuyvenhoven introduces          of man was Arminius? How did he conduct him-
Arminius to his readers by way of a book by Carl          self?, And what, if anything, did his conduct show
Bangs, Arminius: A Study in the Dutch Reformation,        concerning his character?
and a favorable review of said book by the Rev.
Leonard Verduin (a  Banner  review in January,              In this connection we may also consider  Ar-
1973). He also refers to the three volumes of the         minius's Erastianism, to which the Rev.  Kuyven-
writings of James Arminius, which, however, play          hoven refers in his editorial. Editor Kuyvenhoven
little or no part in his introduction of James  Ar-       writes as follows concerning this:
minius to Banner readers. The result is that a very            Although Arminius was a strong Erastian [that is,
pro-Arminius and totally inaccurate picture of  Ar-          he taught that God had appointed the civil magistrate
minius is furnished. Carl Bangs is not a good source         to punish evildoers [not especially Erastian, HCH] and
for two reasons: 1) He is himself pro-Arminius - a           that the church might only advise the state, having no
prejudiced source. 2) He is not a primary but a              right of censure, even in the church), he had more ap-
secondary source. To become acquainted with  Ar-             preciation for the Anabaptists than did other leaders
minius one should turn to primary sources as much            in the Reformed churches.
as possible. One such primary source would be The           But the more important question is: how did Ar-
Writings  of  James Arminius.  Digest those writings,     minius's Erastian view of church government,
and you can never come to the favorable conclu-           namely, that the government held the power of rule
sion of Bangs, Verduin, and Kuyvenhoven. Another          and discipline in ecclesiastical affairs, enter into the
reliable source is the history of the Arminian con-       Arminian controversey? Did Arminius use his Eras-
troversy written only two years after the Synod of        tian view in order to evade and escape and post-
Dordrecht at  synodical behest by the Delegates of        pone ecclesiastical judgment of his views and
the Province of South Holland. This amazing docu-         discipline? Could it be, perhaps, that Arminius and
ment (quite possibly penned by Festus Hommius,            his followers were Erastian as a matter of utility
one of the clerks of the Synod) furnishes a detailed      rather than of principle?


7 8                                             THE   STANDARD  BEARER



       In this connection, let's take a look at the record.    had recommended Arminius, and the Curators in-
       In the first place, historians are agreed that  Ar-     sisted - and won.
minius was popular especially with the aristocracy               3. There was a condition attached to his appoint-
in Amsterdam, where he was one of the several                  ment, however: Arminius had to have a conference
ministers in that city's congregation. He even mar-            with Dr. Gomarus concerning the chief points of
ried into the nobility. There is also rather general           doctrine, and he had to clear himself of all suspi-
agreement that Arminius was a brilliant scholar,               cion of strange views and to promise firmly that he
though lacking in depth and profundity. The                    would never spread abroad his views if he possibly
Historical Foreword to the Acts of the Synod of                had any peculiar view. Fair enough! He cleared
Dordrecht says this about him: "He was indeed a                himself by expressly rejecting the chief points of
man of keen understanding, but a man who never                 doctrine of the Pelagians, and he promised that he
delighted in anything except that which recom-                 would teach nothing in conflict with the adopted
mended itself by an appearance of novelty - even               doctrine of the churches. Then he was appointed
so that he appeared to be nauseated by the greater             Doctor of Theology.
portion of the doctrines accepted in the Reformed                4. All went well for about two years. Arminius
Churches, and for no other reason than that they               even defended the doctrine of the Reformed
were accepted by the churches." Common charac-                 Churches concerning the satisfaction of Christ,
teristics of a heretic! Again, it is stated: "This man         concerning justifying faith, concerning justification
first prepared the way for his cause, openly and in            by faith, concerning the perseverance of the saints
secret, by belittling and blackening the name, fame,           and the certainty of salvation, and concerning the
and authority of the most outstanding teachers of              imperfection of men in this life (the Romans 7
the Reformed Church  - Calvin, Zanchius, Beza,                 issue). But after he had gained everyone's confi-
Martyr, and others - aiming to achieve respect for             dence, he began to slander many doctrines ac-
himself at the expense of their good name." Again,             cepted in the Reformed Churches, both openly and
common tactics of a heretic! Just study the picture            in secret, and to speak deprecatingly of the writings
of false teachers which is drawn for us in various             of Calvin, Beza, Martyr, Zanchius, Ursinus, and
passages of the Epistles in the New Testament.                 others.
       In the second place, let us follow the history of         5. The churches became concerned, and the
the controversey as Arminius was involved in it un-            Deputies of the churches of North and South
til the time of his death in October, 1609. It is a            Holland sought a conference with Arminius.  Ar-
history of deception, evasion, procrastination, and            minius denied any guilt, but he refused to confer
hiding behind the skirts of the government, a                  with the deputies if they would make an official report
government which constantly frustrated every at-               to the Synod.  End of conference!
tempt of the proper authorities in the churches to               6. Next, the Consistory of Leiden admonished
stem the tide of false doctrine which threatened to            him to come to a conference with his fellow pro-
overwhelm the churches. The record is too long to              fessors in the presence of the Consistory to specify
cite it in detail, though it is worth reading. Permit          the points of doctrine on which there was agree-
me to summarize it:                                            ment or disagreement. Arminius's answer? He
       1. The views of Arminius made known in his              could not do this without the consent of the
sermons on Romans were called in question by the               Honorable Curators (government officials); besides,
Consistory of Amsterdam. Even so, he continued to              he saw no profit in such a conference.
promote his opinions among the preachers of Am-                  7. From 1606 to 1609 there were various con-
sterdam and among preachers of other churches.                 ferences of the opposing parties before the  States-
One of the latter was Uitenbogaard, the court                  General and the High Council and the States of
preacher.                                                      Holland. There were promises of the government
       2. When he was appointed to a professorship at          to call a National Synod or a Provincial Synod, but
Leiden in 1602-1603, the Consistory of Amsterdam               always were excuses made for postponement.  Ar-
at first refused to dismiss him because "they feared           minius would never say anything about his views
that the calling of a person so strongly suspected of          before an ecclesiastical assembly. At least twice
strange doctrines  would readily become the cause              during this period he revealed his views in con-
of confusion and schism in the churches; and they              ferences called by the government. But to the end
pleaded with the honorable Curators that they                  of his life  - even when he had made promises to
would not thoughtlessly subject the churches to                put his objections to the Reformed position and the
this danger." Bear in mind that Leiden was under               Reformed confessions in writing  - he steadfastly
government  control and that the Curators were                 refused to do so. Once he promised to put his views
agents of the civil government. Uitenbogaard, who              in writing on condition that the document would be


                                            THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                             79



kept by the government until the National Synod            have been characteristic of many a heretic in
was convened  - a National Synod which he and              church history. If indeed Arminius was genuinely
his party, with the cooperation of the government,         an Erastian, he was dead wrong. But apart from
prevented from being convened. And thus  Ar-               this, it is plain that his Erastian views stood him in
minius died, finally, in 1609 without ever having          good stead in gaining the protection of the  pro-
presented his views in writing to the churches, to         Arminian government and in avoiding the rightful
be judged by them.                                         judgment of consistory,  classis, provincial synod,
  All of the above are incontrovertible facts of           or national synod.
history.                                                     And Editor Kuyvenhoven does his readers a dis-
  Now you judge as to the honesty of Arminius              service by painting a favorable picture of Arminius.
before the churches.                                         Was Arminius a heretic? This question will have
  For my part, I can only conclude that Arminius           to wait until our December 15 issue.             HCH
engaged in the evasive and deceptive tactics which

WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Herman Hanko





                                             Gambling



   My first experience with big-time gambling came         gamblers themselves. It was then that I first real-
as a bit of a shock. I and three friends were on a trip    ized that gambling can indeed be an addiction, as
through the West; our journey brought us to the            much as drunkenness.
vicinity of Las Vegas on the Fourth of July. Curiosi-         Much has changed since that day. Then only
ty prompted us to visit the casinos in the city to see     Nevada had legalized gambling, although betting at
for ourselves what went on there. While much of            race tracks was permitting in a few states; and then
what we witnessed has disappeared from my                  already the Roman Catholics had their weekly
memory, various impressions linger to this day. I          bingo games. (It was not so long after this that a sign
recall that our efforts to enter one casino were           by the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit
stymied by a huge "bouncer" who met us just in-            irked me greatly with its blasphemy. The sign read,
side the door and, after learning that we were             "Holy Spirit Bingo.") Now, not only do other states
below the legal age set by the state of Nevada for         provide legalized gambling in huge casinos, but lot-
gamblers, hustled us out the same door with a              teries have become almost a way of life. It was not
speed which left our heads spinning. But an at-            so long ago that my wife and I stopped at an "oasis"
tempt to enter another casino met with success,            on the Tri-state Highway around Chicago on the
and we witnessed what such gambling is like. The           way to a preaching appointment in Randolph. We
images which linger to this day include ear-bursting       were puzzled by a line of people over a block long
noise, armed guards patrolling a balcony with rifles       that never seemed to get any shorter waiting before
and holstered pistols, the incessant and ceaseless         a small counter in the oasis. Our curiosity led us to
sound of flying dice and whirling slot machines;           inquire of one man standing in the line what this
but most of all, the hard and frozen faces of the          was all about. He informed us that all these people
                                                           were waiting to buy lottery tickets because the
Herman Hanko is professor in the Church Histo y and New    jackpot had reached several million dollars  - the
Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed           exact amount escapes me. Very few states today
Semina y.                                                  have retained laws against gambling.


80                                             THE   STANDARD  BEARER



      These are only the most popular forms of gam-          wise to distinguish between gambling and engaging
bling in our country, although enough money                  in sweepstakes, raffles, or drawings. The latter in-
changes hands to boggle the mind. The statistics             volve no risk of one's possessions or of anything of
read something like this. Two-thirds of the people           value. Whether such things are right is another
in the United States participate in some form of             question.
legal gambling.  Cver 80% approve of it. Bingo                 The church of Jesus Christ, from the beginning
generates $4.5 billion every year and is played by           of her history, has always opposed gambling in
over 22 million people. In Massachusetts alone $79           whatever form it takes. While gambling was rife in
million changed hands in 1982. Yet untold billions           the Roman Empire (the soldiers at the foot of the
of dollars pass from some people to others at the            cross of Christ gambled over our Lord's cloak in
playing of every major sporting event in the coun-           fulfillment of prophecy), the early church con-
try and many not so major sporting events. Prac-             sistently condemned it and considered it a cen-
tically every kind of sport has gambling as a side-          surable sin. The churches of the Reformation took
line. People play card games for money, golf in              the same position, a position which is reflected in
which sums of money are bet on every hole, board             our Form for the Administration of the Lord's Sup-
games of one sort or another - one can hardly find           per, in which "gamesters" are included among
any game which is not used as an excuse for gam-             those who are guilty of sins which bar them from
bling.                                                       the table of the Lord.
      Another form of gambling, although there are
those who would not call it that, is the growing               The difficulty is that, because no specific and ex-
prevalence of sweepstakes, raffles, and drawings.            plicit injunctions against gambling can be found in
Hardly a week goes by in our home that we do not             Scripture, the arguments against it are in the form
get some mail from some organization, very often             of deductions from Biblical principles. And some-
from  The Reader's Digest,  promising fantastic sums         times the church has raised arguments which are
of money, new vacation homes, free trips to exotic           not always very persuasive.
places, beautiful automobiles; and, if you are only            One argument often raised against gambling is
lucky enough to win third or fourth prize, VCRs,             the argument based on "chance." To gamble is to
toasters, handbags, and ballpoint pens. All these do         take a chance; to take a chance is to trust in fate or
not usually cost the participant anything, although          luck to the exclusion of God's providence; to trust
many companies urge, along with the sweepstakes,             in fate or luck is to break the first commandment
the purchase of a book or a product of lesser value;         because the first commandment forbids putting our
and one wonders whether those who refuse to                  trust in any creature other than the living God. This
make the purchase are really considered in the               argument is not altogether persuasive because, in
drawing, although the enclosed letters assure the            some sense of the word, life is full of "taking
reader that this really makes no difference. Raffles         chances." When one drives his automobile down
and drawings are a common way to make money                  the road, one "takes a chance" that he will have a
for churches, hospitals, and various other chari-            collision, e.g. And, while some have carried this
table institutions.                                          argument so far that any game of chance is con-
      So all-pervasive has gambling become, and so           demned, it is hard to distinguish between the
much is it a part of life that, when one disagrees           "chance" in a game of chess and the "chance" in
with another over almost any point, the short                a game of "Rock."
sentence, "I'll betcha . . ." is almost always inserted        Others have carried this argument a bit further.
in the argument to give credence to one's position.          They have argued that, rather than trust in
The result of it is that many church people, while           "chance," the Christian ought always to recognize
condemning big-time gambling, are not at all averse          God's providence in all his life, live in the con-
to participating in or sponsoring drawings and raf-          sciousness of that providence of God, even when
fles, see no wrong in winning big prizes through             playing a game. But to confess the truth of prov-
drawings and engaging in small side bets from time           idence in a game is to make a frivolous use of prov-
to time.                                                     idence which involves one in a violation of the
      It can be argued, of course, that sweepstakes, raf-    third commandment, which forbids taking the
fles, and drawings are not, in the technical sense of        name of the Lord our God in vain. The point then is
the word, gambling. My dictionary defines gam-               that one ought not to connect providence with
bling thus: "1. to play at any game of chance for            games. But this line of argument would seem to
stakes. 2. to stake or risk money, or anything of            prohibit the Christian from playing any kind of
value, on the outcome of something involving                 game, an argument which is not very persuasive, to
chance. 3. to lose or squander by betting. 4. to make        say the least.
a wager." For purposes of clarity, therefore, it is            Yet another argument, one which appeared in a


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recent article on gambling in The Banner, in an issue     mandment, the commandment which forbids
devoted to that subject, argued that the wrong of         covetousness; the other is the principle of Christian
gambling is to be found in the combination of risk        stewardship.
and play. To engage in something risky without              To take the latter first, the principle of Christian
playing is not wrong; to engage in play in which          stewardship is an extremely important principle of
there is no risk (or a minimal risk) is not wrong; but    the Word of God, but is a principle which is not
to put the two together, something which lies at the      very well understood in our day, nor very carefully
very heart of gambling, is a sin. While there may be      observed. Scripture speaks repeatedly of this truth
an element of truth in this argument, it is not al-       and pronounces severe judgments upon those who
together convincing since it involves more than           violate this sacred trust.
gambling. One who engages in auto racing for                What is called stewardship in Scripture is an idea
pleasure is not gambling (at least in the technical       taken from the culture in which the church found
sense of that word), but is certainly endangering his     itself both in the Old and New Testaments. Joseph
own life. And the Heidelberg Catechism speaks of          was steward in the house of Potiphar. Jesus uses
this as a violation of the commandment against            the idea of stewardship in his parable of the un-
murder.                                                   faithful steward. And references to this idea can be
  Still others have argued that gambling is a viola-      found in other passages of God's Word.
tion of the principle of the underlying truth of the        A steward was almost always a slave, although
second commandment: Thou shalt love thy neigh-            he could also be a hired servant. Because of his
bor as thyself. To gamble is to take something from       unusual abilities and devoted work for his master,
the neighbor. This is tantamount to doing harm to         he was raised to a position of great authority in his
the neighbor. It is therefore contrary to the law of      master's house. He was made responsible for all the
love. The argument seems to be a bit strained             business dealings of his master; he was superinten-
however, chiefly because, while it is wrong to take       dent of all the other servants; he was in charge of all
something from our neighbor against his will or           the household expenses; he was, in fact, sometimes
without his knowing .about it, in gambling he con-        given responsibility for the education and training        _
sents to give up what he has staked should he lose        of his master's children. In short, he often was
the bet.                                                  responsible for everything which his master
  But all of this does not mean that the principles       owned.
which Scripture lays down as governing the life of          Now the principle of stewardship involved a few
the child of God do not condemn gambling.                 specific truths which Scripture applies to our rela-
  There are, it seems to me, especially two prin-         tionship to God.
ciples of Scripture which apply directly to gam-            But we shall have to wait with a further discus-
bling. The one is the principle of the tenth  com-        sion of this till our next issue.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS
John A. Heys





                                 A Call to Decry Sin


   Although the hymn was not yet written, and                   God moves in a mysterious way
Jonah could not at that time sing one line of it for            His wonders to perform;
that reason, we can be sure that he agreed fully                He plants His footsteps in the sea,
with the truths expressed in it; and that at specific           And rides upon the storm.
moments in his life he realized these truths. I have
reference particularly to these lines in the hymn:               Blind unbelief is sure to err,


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           And scan His works in vain;                       Pharaoh? For Jonah it was a mysterious way for
           God is His own interpreter,                       God to work.
           And He will make it plain.                          Indeed there were dangers involved in this work;
       Several days before Jonah came face to face with      and they could frighten a man from doing as called.
 the truth concerning God that "He plants His                Assyria was, as pointed out, a fierce enemy. To
 footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm,"            come into the capital city accusing of sin before
Jonah experienced the truth that "God works in a             God, to pronounce destruction in forty days, to pro-
 mysterious way His wonders to perform." And of              nounce judgment upon the people, and call sinful
 the mystery which is made plain to us in such               the deeds they enjoyed, could evoke wrath against
 passages as Ephesians  1:9, 10, we can say that             this Hebrew, who dared to come and to tell them
 "God is His own interpreter, And He will make it            such things. Would they not silence his mouth by
 plain."                                                     putting him to death? Then too would he not incur
       To put it mildly, Jonah was startled when the         the wrath of his own people for going there? Would
word of God came to him and ordered him to go to             they not call him a traitor? And would he dare to
Nineveh, and to preach the gospel there. As a proph-         come back home after performing a deed such as
et he knew that his calling was to teach, and not            this in the enemies' land?
merely to foretell the future. But it was a mystery to         Yet what moved Jonah to flee and avoid his call-
him as to why God would send him to that great               ing was not fear of what either Nineveh or his own
and desperately wicked city to keep it from being            people would do to him. If we take that position we
destroyed by God's holy wrath.                               do not understand the book, or God's purpose in
       Jonah knew that God had gathered into His             sending Jonah to these Gentiles. To understand and
church Gentiles, those who were not the fleshly              appreciate the book of Jonah we must see that
seed of Abraham. He knew of Rahab and Ruth. He               God's purpose in sending Jonah to decry the sins of
knew that God had said unto Abraham that in his              the people there was to save the elect children in
seed all nations would be blessed. But to be called          that heathen city. As pointed out last time, the eter-
to leave the promised land and go to the capital city        nal thoughts of peace which God had for His elect
of a heathen nation, and to preach repentance                in the city moved Him to send Jonah to preach the
there, was quite a different matter. Rahab and Ruth          gospel there. And this is what moved Jonah to flee
were incorporated into Israel, and had never                 and go away from Nineveh rather than go into the
harmed Abraham's seed. Nineveh was the capital               city. It was because he had to preach the gospel
city of Israel's fiercest enemy at that period in            there, that he did not want to go. He revealed very
history. Go there and seek to have them turn from            plainly later on that he did not want Nineveh
their sins, so that the city is not destroyed, and the       saved.
people's lives are spared? The enemies' lives are to           It is true that Jonah l:l, 2 simply reveals that he
be spared? The enemy of the church is to be pro-             must go and cry against the city because of its sins.
tected by God, even as His people have been                  Literally this means that all he had to do is proph-
through the years?                                           esy coming judgment. And chapter 3 reveals that
       Yes, it was the gospel that Jonah was to bring to     he had to be very specific and tell the people that in
Nineveh. He understood that clearly. And that is             forty days the city would be overthrown. He must
why he did not want to go and do this work. Pro-             find fault with them, and in no uncertain terms
nouncing doom and destruction upon the enemies               must he tell them that punishment is coming very
of God and of His church was no problem for him.             soon. He must let them know that they are sinning
But when God saved the city in the way of repen-             against God, and that all their sins have come up
tance, it became even a greater mystery to Jonah.            before Him. He has seen them; and these sins have
His complaint and anger showed that. He knew full            provoked Him. Jonah must let them know that they
well that he was to preach the gospel there. How             are performing deeds of hatred against God, and
otherwise will you explain his attempt to flee from          that He will surely visit this rebellion.
his calling? And must he go to this heathen city, to           It is worthy of our attention that the emphasis
these Gentiles who lived outside of the promised             here falls upon what they have done to God. Un-
land, these people who were not of the fleshly seed          doubtedly in their sins, which are not listed in any
of Abraham, the covenant people that God had                 detail and presented as to their exact nature, they
favored ever since He called Abraham out of Ur of            did harm to each other. They broke the second
the Chaldees, and Israel out of the bondage of               table of the law (see Jonah  324). But one cannot
                                                             escape the truth that the warning is given them
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant        because they have sinned against God. And implied
Reformed Churches.                                           is the fact that God warns them in order to get them


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to repent and flee from these sins. The implied            Him? There is besides that horizontal circle of sin a
desire on God's part is that His elect children in the     wide vertical line of rebellion against God in
city turn from their sins and be spared this awful         heaven. Is the pulpit any different from the out-
punishment. God's purpose - which was reached,             bursts of unbelieving civil servants, government of-
for all His purposes are always reached  - was to          ficials, men who are concerned only with man and
bring His own to repentance and to salvation.              his physical well-being? If we do not see and preach
Therefore it was the gospel, the good news of salva-       against sinful deeds as rebellion against God, and as
tion that Jonah was called to preach in Nineveh. It        acts of hatred toward Him, we have a very low opin-
was to save these people spiritually and not simply        ion of Jonah for fleeing from his calling to decry it
physically from calamity.                                  in Nineveh. But then we also have a very low opin-
  Implied in the warning that in forty days                ion of God. If it merely hurts us because it hurts
Nineveh would be destroyed and all its people              our friends and countrymen, we show a very
killed, because of their wickedness before God, is         callous nature that is not touched because sin is an
the truth that if they believe God's servant, repent       act of hatred against God. And then we sin against
of their evil and flee from it, the threatened punish-     God, because we are not interested in His glorifica-
ment would not take place. Note what Jonah prays           tion.
in Jonah 4:2, "I pray Thee, 0 Lord, was not this my          Then, too, it is so easy to say, "Jonah, you sinned
saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I          by taking that ship." But are we not Jonahs when
fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a      we go to the mission field and are afraid to preach
gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and         against sins against God, and to decry them,
of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil."        because we are afraid that we will drive men away
Quite revealing, is it not? Jonah realized the             from our meetings? To be sure, the matter must be
possibility of salvation in Nineveh. He knew the           preached in love and with spiritual tact. But if we
gospel as used by God had that powerful effect. He         are afraid to preach and decry sin against God, and
knew that he was preaching the gospel and not              false doctrines which misrepresent Him, we in our
simply pronouncing an awful judgment that would            hearts say, "God, you made a mistake sending
not be reversed, or in God's mind was not a warn-          Jonah that way to Nineveh. You should have told
ing given in love, but a pronouncement of what had         Him to go there and tell the whole city how much
eternally been decreed as about to come to pass.           You love them. That ought to come first. Do You
                                                           not see that, Jehovah?" And at home on the pulpit,
  We do well therefore to take note of the divine          if you dare not preach against sin against God and
lesson here. Let it not first of all be overlooked that    against false doctrines, for fear of losing members,
it is God Who sends Jonah to decry the sins of             and because you want to grow numerically, you
Nineveh. On the mission field, and on the pulpit to-       raise yourself above the living God (in your
day, it is so tempting to shun such decrying of sin;       thoughts) as one who knows better than He does. 0
and instead to emphasize God's love. Make no               yes, you can decry the sins of the world round
mistake about it, I do not mean to say that we must        about you; but you must soft pedal such things in
not emphasize God's love, mercy, and grace. You            the congregation, because you want to emphasize
can never overemphasize them. Let me say that              Gods love, and by your words persuade men to
again: You can never overemphasize God's love,             believe in and love God? But listen: If you do not
mercy, and grace. They are infinitely great; and it        decry sin against God, you do not yourself show
takes an eternity for us to praise God and thank           love to God. Allow acts of hatred of God to exist
Him for making us experience them. What I mean             and develop  - for that they will do  - and you
is that we so often do not emphasize enough the            show lack of love for God.
need to decry sin from the pulpit and on  the.mis-
sion field.                                                  But Jonah was called in Gods wisdom. He made
                                                           no mistake here, or ever. The Heidelberg Cate-
  There are two facts to consider here. There is           chism has rightly grasped the truth presented here
plenty - sometimes too much - decrying from the            when it speaks of three things being necessary for
pulpit of social problems, crime, fraudulent prac-         us to know in order to live and die with the only
tices, injustices, dangers of alcoholic indulgences        comfort in life and in death. We must know our
and the like. But are they decried as sins against         sins and misery; our redemption in Christ; and how
God, or merely against fellow men? Usually it is           to express gratitude to God for our deliverance.
because man is hurt, or because he hurts himself.          Knowing that redemption is not only necessary but
Indeed there is a horizontal circle of crime on the        wonderful. However, we will never know it until
earth; and that is sinning against God as well as          we know our sin and misery. In the measure that
against man. But are they presented as sins against        we know that we sinned against  God, we  can ap-
God? Are they exposed as acts of hatred against            preciate His love in saving us. In the measure we


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see how much we by nature hate Him, we can see                heresies that deny Him His glory, the more we can
the wonder of His love. The clearer we see the                and will appreciate the truth that He has given us.
FROM HOLY WRIT
George C. Lubbers





          Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures



                      Chapter XXIII                           Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest
The Mystery of the Seventy Weeks in Daniel 9                  say, Who will go over the sea for us, and make us to
                                                              hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh
   Full and complete redemption in the Messiah (Dan.          unto thee, in thy mouth, in thy heart, that thou
9:24)                                                         mayest do it."
   In the former part of this verse we noticed that
the transgressions were finished, that sins were                This benefit Christ "came to bring in." We read
sealed and that reconciliation was made. God made             in Hebrews 7:18, 19, "For there is a disanulling of a
Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be              foregoing commandment because of its weakness
made the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor.                 and unprofitableness. For the law made nothing
5:21). Yes, salvation is wholly from the Lord. Not            perfect, (but there is) a bringing in thereupon of a
only the removal of the guilt is from God, but also           better hope, through which we draw nigh to God."
that which Christ obtained for us is of God. That             It is to this great gospel-truth that Gabriel refers
which Christ obtained for us we have given here in            when he interprets the meaning of the fulfillment of
the text in the terms, righteousness, sealed vision and       the seventy "sevens." The text reads that Messiah
prophecy, and the anointing of the Holy One! (K.J.V.)         will "bring in" everlasting righteousness. And we
                                                              know from Hebrews that this was possible because
   The first benefit which we consider here is this:          Christ is not a high priest after the order of a carnal
to bring in everlasting righteousness. It is good to          commandment, but that he is a king-priest after the
notice that this too is the end, the crowning point,          order of Melchisedec. This priest has, in his priest-
of the "seventy sevens" which were appointed                  hood, "neither beginning of days nor end of life,
upon desolate Jerusalem and the desecrated city of            but was made like unto the Son of God. He abides a
God. When this happens, Daniel's prayer is                    priest continually" (Heb. 7: l-3).
answered, and God's Name is sanctified forever in
Christ in His people. The words of Moses in all the             This is the Messiah which is seen here in the
Scriptures are fulfilled. For here we see the Christ          searchlight of the prophetic Scriptures. We had bet-
of God as the end (teZos) of the law for righteousness        ter believe this for our very life's sake. To deny this
to every one who believes (Rom.  10:4).  No longer            is antichristian! But those who have this work of
can the law say to the people of God, as legal task-          salvation in their hearts, who have the unction of
master to Christ, that the man that doeth the same            the Holy One, will see this clearly when the Scrip-
shall live thereby. Here is the glad refrain of               tures are opened up to them. They will  exclaim,
Deuteronomy  30:12 ff.:  ". . . It is not in heaven,          "How our hearts burn when we hear this Christ in-
that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to            terpreted for us from the Prophecies, and we see
heaven, and make us hear it, that we may do it?               Christ Jesus evidently set forth before us
                                                              crucified." For this is the day of the Lord's power in
George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    the ministry of reconciliation (Psalm  110:4).
Reformed Churches.                                            Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent [I John


                                             THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                             85



2:27). Yes, yes, we do need teachers (Eph. 4:11-16).         It might be worthy of note that the verb form of
However, we do not need any errorists to teach us         the Hebrew verb "to bring in" is causative. He will
contrary to the Scriptures. In that sense it is true      cazise  eternal righteousness to come; He brings it in.
that "we know all things." Christ came to "bring in       He nails our sins to His cross so that we are cruci-
everlasting righteousness" as the Son of God. Great       fied with Him, and He makes an open shame of
is the mystery of the "seventy sevens"; it is the         principalities and powers; forever they shall no
mystery of godliness which is great (I Tim.  3:16);       more be able to bring any accusations against the
yes, it is the mystery "foreknown indeed before the       saints. Rejoice, 0 heavens, and ye that dwell in
foundation of the world, but was made manifest at         them! Sing, 0 heavens! Now is come the salvation
the end of the times for your sake, who through           and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and
Christ believe in God, that raised up Christ from         the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of the
the dead . . . so that our faith and hope might be in     brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before
God' (I Peter  1:20).                                     our God day and night (Rev.  12:lO ff.). Yes, they
   It is the precious blood of the Mystery of the         came from the north country and from all the coun-
"seventy sevens" that is meant when we read that          tries whither they had been driven, first the Jew
Christ was decreed to "bring in everlasting right-        and also the Greek (Rom.  1:16, 17;  lO:ll-15).
eousness."                                                  Thus teach the holy Scriptures!
   What is this righteousness. The Hebrew term is           Thus we have been instructed and thus we
"tsedek." It is the righteousness of God as the free      believe unto salvation!
gift of grace. It is not a righteousness of works or        Closely connected with the foregoing, yea, as the
merit. It is that righteousness of which all the "law     fruit of the foregoing, Christ also is said "to seal up
and the prophets" testify on nearly every page            Vision and Prophecy."
(Rom. 3:21). It is a righteousness of God which we
receive by a true faith (Rom.  3:25). Yes, this is the      The Vision and Prophecy do not refer merely to
righteousness which is ours by virtue of the fact         some particular "vision" by which God came to
that it was merited for us by Christ on the Cross,        reveal Himself at a certain crucial time in Israel's
together with the merited gift of faith, so that we       life and history, but refers to all the visions, as they
may receive this benefit by a true faith.                 constitute the  one  great vision. The same thing is
                                                          true when we read in the singular of "the Scrip-
   This term righteousness is employed only in the        tures, " as these constitute an organic whole from
prophecy of Daniel in this text. However, the very        Genesis 1: 1 to Malachi 4:6. The same must .also be
essence of this righteousness is heralded in              observed concerning the term "prophecy." If
Jeremiah  23:6, where we read, "Behold, the days          prophecy is not fulfilled it is not the word which
come, saith the LORD (Jehovah) that I will raise up       God gave the prophet to utter. Such an unfulfilled
to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as        word comes not from the heart of God but from the
king and deal wisely, cand shall execute justice and      heart of those who mutter and peep (Deut.
righteousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be     18:15-22; Isaiah 8: 19-22). Such prophets are mere
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his     dreamers (Jer. 27:9-l 1).
name whereby he shall be called, `Jehovah (is) our
righteousness.' " That this refers to the essence of        However, at Calvary all the promises of God
"Jesus, the son of God, who came to save his peo-         became yea in Christ, and in Him Amen to the
ple from their sins," is clear as crystal. And as to      glory of God the Father. Not one word of God fell to
the time when this shall be realized, we read here        the ground. Every jot and tittle of the law is fulfilled
in Jeremiah  23:7-8, "Therefore, behold, the days         in perfect sacrificial love. Christ is the faithful and
come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say,        TRUE witness, is sealed in His blood. What Moses
As the LORD liveth who brought up the children of         did typically, symbolically, when he sprinkled the
Israel out of Egypt, but as the LORD liveth, who          people and "the book" (Exodus  24:6 ff.; Heb.
brought up and who led the seed of the house of           9:19-22) Christ did at Calvary. We should observe
Israel out of the north country, and from all the         carefully that Moses sealed the "book' with blood.
countries whither I had driven them. And they             Not the book alone was sealed by itself, but it was
shall dwell in their own land."                           sealed in conjunction with the people that were
  This latter benefit is connected by the Holy Spirit     sprinkled. We read so emphatically  ". . . and
in Jeremiah 23:5 to the "righteous Branch," who is        sprinkled both the book itself, and all the people,
the root out of the dry ground (Isaiah  11:l; John        saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God
15:5;  Zech.  3:8). It is all connected with the          commended to you-ward" (Heb. 9: 19-20).
Wonder-Child to be born in Israel, Immanuel, God            If ever it was clear that it is true that "Moses
with us (Isaiah  7:10-17;  9:6, 7).                       wrote of me," as teaches Jesus to refactory Jews, it


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holds for this passage of Moses which speaks of the                   Christ also came to "anoint the most holy." We
sealing of the Covenant prior to the reception of the               know that the term in Hebrew "to anoint" is the
law on Horeb's storrny heights (Gal. 3:19).                         same word which is ascribed to the Son of God in
      Yes, vision and prophecy were sealed in the                   the Counsel of peace. The verb for "to anoint" in
sacrifice which merited everlasting righteousness.                  Hebrew is the infinite form Zemishoa from the verb
Hear Isaiah's beautiful prophecy in chapter  51:l:                  Mashach.  Here is the One who is not merely
"Hearken unto me ye that follow after righteous-                    anointed with oil, but who is anointed with the Ho-
ness . . . . My righteousness is near, my salvation is              ly Spirit without measure (Isaiah  11:2; John  1:32,
gone forth  - the isles shall wait for me, and on                   33;  3:34). For this Messiah, the anointed One of
mine arm shall they trust . . . . but my salvation                  God, all Israel looked in eager and hopeful anticipa-
shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be                 tion. The aged saint Simeon could not really die
abolished" (vss. 5, 6).                                             happily as long as the Christ, the Messiah, had not
                                                                    yet come, could he? But hear him jubilate when he
      Here I cannot refrain from pointing out that the              takes the child Jesus in his arms: "Now lettest thou
fiction of a "church-age," which had not been fore-                 thy servant to depart, Lord, according to thy word,
told in the Old Testament, is shown up to be just                   in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
that! Truly, these winds of doctrine of dispensation-               which thou hast prepared before the face of all
al teaching are proven to be some cunningly de-                     peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and
vised fables, as they are called by the Holy Spirit,                the glory of thy people Israel." And Andrew runs in
who bases His teaching on His own inspired proph-                   great joy to Peter saying, "we have found the
ecies. And these prophecies are clear teaching, and                 Messiah" of whom Daniel writes as announced by
not some mumbo-jumbo jargon!                                        Gabriel, MESSENGER of the Mighty God!
  But we must press on.

ALL AROUND US
Robert D. Decker




                                                  A Seminar Junkie
                                        Creation Versus Evolution
                                                         News Briefs



A Seminar Junkie                                                        add that he is getting help from Seminars Anonymous
      Of the conducting of religious seminars on a                      (SA), a rapidly expanding organization founded to
wide variety of subjects by the churches these days                     counteract an evangelical epidemic.
there seems to be no end. In reaction to this                             None of us knew that Herb had mortgaged his
Eutychus of Christianity Today (Oct. 4, 1985) makes                     home to obtain money for weekly seminar fixes. We
a point well taken:                                                     were sobered (if you know what I mean) to hear that
                                                                        he slid into his addiction gradually. "Ah, for the good
         It came as no small shock to me to discover recently           old days, when a sermon and Bible study could get me
       that a highly respected member of our church is un-              through the week," he lamented.
       dergoing treatment for spiritual rehabilitation. This
       man is a church officer, Sunday school teacher, and                Herb told us the turning point came when he was
       tither. But he revealed, at last Sunday evening's ser-           on a tour across the Arctic Circle. The church group
       vice, that he is also a seminar junkie. He was quick to          was studying "The Dangers of Lukewarmness"
                                                                        when, as if enlightened by the rays of the midnight
                                                                        sun, Herb admitted to himself that he was addicted to
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and                 seminars. He promptly returned to his wife and
New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.                      children [not seen since a seminar last summer on


                                                     THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                         8 7



    family dynamics). Then he entered an SA Detopicfica-          supposed "neutrality" the world courts are
   tion Center.                                                   decidedly antichristian. There is no neutral ground.
      Herb said he could no longer keep his addiction             One either believes in God the Father Almighty,
    secret when he learned that our pastor was enrolled at        the Maker of Heaven and Earth or he rejects the
    a camp near Mount Saint Helens to consider `The               Truth of God's Word in unbelief. "He that is not
   Theological Implications of Volcanic Eruptions.' Fear-         with me is against me," said Jesus. (Matthew 12:30)
    ing his faithful shepherd was on the path to seminar          This fact too we must never forget.
   addiction, he went public.
      It was a courageous step and it has challenged our
   church. Can we possibly survive without all these out-         News Briefs
   side experts? Several of us have enrolled in next
   month's `Spirituality With or Without Seminars' to               The following items have all been gleaned from
   find out. Eutychus                                             the R.E.S. News Exchange (October 8, 1985),  pub-
                                                                  lished by the Reformed Ecumenical Synod.
                                                                    For some time now the two big Reformed Chur-
Creation Versus Evolution                                         ches in the Netherlands have been in the process of
  Acts And Facts, a magazine published by the In-                 uniting. These are the Netherlands Reformed
stitute for Creation Research, in its October issue               Church (NHK, the state church) and the Reformed
reported:                                                         Churches in the Netherlands (GKN) . The latter has
                                                                  its roots in the Secession of 1834. Concerning the
      A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for        movement toward unity the News Exchange reports:
   the Fifth Circuit entered a decision on July 8 that held       "The combined meeting of the synods of the
   unconstitutional the Louisiana Act for Balanced Treat-         Netherlands Reformed Church (NHK) and the
   ment of Creation Science and Evolution Science. The            Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN),
   court's basis was that teaching creation science
   necessarily has an unconstitutional legislative pur-           which was to be held on November 1 and 2, has
   pose of teaching religion.                                     been postponed. The moderamena of the two
                                                                  synods felt that the agenda items for that meeting
      The  opinion  said that, "irrespective of whether it is     require preparatory discussion. In  De  Waarheid-
   fully supported by scientific evidence, the theory  (sic!)
   of creation is a religious belief," which public schools       svriend,  the official newspaper of the Reformed
   may not teach. Former Senator Bill Keith, President of         Alliance (GB) in the Netherlands Reformed
   CSLDF (Christian Science Legal Defense Fund,                   Church, Dr. S. van der Graaf and Rev. S. Meyers
   R.D.D.), responded that "it is illogical and constitu-         have attacked the `Together on the Way' (Samen  op
   tionally incorrect for the court to say that scientific        weg) process, writing that instead of uniting the
   evidence supporting creation science may not be                two churches, it threatens to tear local congrega-
   taught even if it is true, but scientific evidence             tions and the denominations apart. In their view,
   allegedly supporting evolution must be taught even if          the `Declaration of Agreement' lacks sufficient sub-
   it is false!"                                                  stance, forcing many congregations to say `no' to
      Attorney General William J. Guste of Louisiana im-          the proposed union. It widens the gap between
   mediately authorized an appeal, which took the form            members of the Reformed Alliance and those who
   of a petition for rehearing by-all  15 judges of the Fifth     are confessionally Reformed. They suggest that it
   Circuit of the Court of Appeals. The 30-page printed           may be better to stop the attempts at union al-
   petition was filed on July 29.                                 together." The Reformed Alliance is a group of con-
      The legal team of Special Assistant Attorneys               cerned, conservative members of the state church
   General, headed by Wendell R. Bird of Atlanta, has             (NHK). They obviously are opposed to the pro-
   already prepared an exhaustive  630-page  brief,               posed union. What will come of all this we know
   gathered a group of 20 expert witnesses, won a                 not. We will try to keep the reader informed.
   favorable Louisiana Supreme Court Decision that
   reversed an earlier summary judgment ruling, and                 Here in North America, the two daughter chur-
   filed carefully researched and written briefs on each          ches of the Dutch Churches, The Reformed Church
   procedural step. They filed the petition for rehearing         in America (RCA) and The Christian Reformed
   en bane  with 30 printed pages and 105 footnotes . . . .       Church in North America (CRC) are apparently
  Court decisions like the above betray at least two              moving closing together. These two denominations
obvious facts: 1) The world persistently refuses to               "will hold a joint conference here (Warwick, New
recognize the fact that the teaching of evolution                 York; R.D.D.) on contemporary confessions on Oc-
necessarily involves the teaching of religious belief.            tober 15 and 16, 1985. Using the theme `Making
It is false religion, but the theory of evolution is              Common Confession,' the conference will include
religion. Evolution is a denial of the one, true God.             addresses and discussions on the contemporary
Its idol is "almighty man." 2) Under the guise of a               testimony of the CRCNA `Our World Belongs to


88                                         THE   STANDARD  BEARER   l



God,' the confession of the RCA `Our Song of             Although the four member churches cannot be con-
Hope,' and the Belhar Confession of the Dutch Re-        sidered photocopies of the Reformed churches in
formed Mission Church of South Africa (NGSK).            Europe, they are still striving to maintain their
Keynote speaker for the event will be Professor          (Reformed) identity within the context of the life of
Robert  Reeker of Calvin Theological Seminary in         the churches in Indonesia.
Grand Rapids. The conference is sponsored by the            "Our understanding of mission is that . . . it is
Eastern Home Missions Board of the CRCNA, the            directed to the life of the church itself, to the
particular synod of the Mid-Atlantics of the RCA         fellowship of churches within the Fellowship of
and New Brunswick Theological Seminary." These           Churches in Indonesia (PGI) in particular in which
two denominations will hold concurrent synods in         the four churches are members, and the fellowship
1989 at the Calvin College and Seminary campus.          of churches within the wider ecumenical circles,
Will these two eventually merge?                         such as RES, WCC, WARC (World Alliance of Re-
      There are four Reformed denominations in In-       formed Churches of which Dr.  Allan  Boesak is
donesia all of which have been formed as a fruit of      president, R.D.D.), and also directed to the world
missionary work by European Reformed churches.           and society outside the church . . . .
These churches met in a three-day conference on             "Concerning the future of the churches in In-
September 24-26, 1985. The theme of this con-            donesia, the conference concludes . . . that their
ference was, "The Reformed Heritage and the Mis-         membership in the RES should not exclude the
sion of the Indonesian Churches." According to the       possibility of membership in other ecumenical
News Exchange, "The deepest concern for the In-          bodies, such as WCC, WARC, PGI.
donesian churches has been the negative attitude of
the RES (Reformed Ecumenical Synod) to the                 "The Conference does not see objections in prin-
World Council of Churches (WCC). The general             ciple against the ordination of women to the eccle-
opinion was that the RES would have to remain            siastical offices (elder, deacon, minister). However,
open to other church groupings with which the In-        the office of minister is in fact generally still held by
donesian churches are related. The question of dual      men only . . .  ."
(WCURES) membership, it became clear, is the               The stand of these churches re the World Coun-
decisive point for them. Only if dual membership is      cil and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
allowed, will they remain and take their place           and their stand re women in the office of minister,
alongside the other churches in the RES."                elder, and deacon make their claim to be "depend-
      Among the conclusions reached by these four        ent on and bound to the inherited Reformed con-
RES member churches at the conference were:              fessions and teachings" ring very hollow indeed! It
These churches  ". . . recognize that they are still     is sad to see these daughter churches walking down
dependent on and bound to the inherited Reformed con-    the same path as their European mother churches.
fessions and teachings  (emphasis mine, R.D.D.).





                           Good Morning, Alice (4)
                                              Gise J. Van Baren





      Alice's brother John wanted her to stay with       also became clearly evident to the family that Alice
them in Michigan. During the month of sick leave,        would not be able to return to work. Her legs and
she was there. It was a pleasant time for Alice  -       arms were becoming increasingly weak. Though
especially because she could "spoil" her niece           she could still drive her car, she was able to do very
Janis, now two years old, whom she adored. But it        little else  - needing constant assistance even to


                                               THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                                  89



dress.                                                         already told you I have a love ofl and my frustrations
Good Morning Alice:                                            (raising children is not without frustrations!). I'm sure
                                                               the list is different for you, Alice, but why can we cruci-
  I'm sure at one time or other you must have studied          fy these sins? Because we are Christ's, because we do
or really looked into the book of  Hosea. I always             have the Spirit in our hearts.
thought this was a book I'd never understand, but after
a study of it, and a sermon on a passage out of it, I            It will do us both good, Alice, to keep that list in our
think I'm starting to scratch the surface of its meaning.      minds this day; pick up this note or the Bible, and ask
                                                               ourselves, do I love, do I have joy? Do I have peace?
  The verse I asked you to read yesterday is j;_ll of com-     Am I longsuffering (patient)? Am I gentle (kind)? Do I
fort for God's people.                                         have goodness? And do I have faith?
  Jehovah will betroth us unto Him forever. He will              If we live in the Spirit, we will be able to "walk" by
make us His bride. There will be, in that glorious day, a      the Spirit, and look more and more forward to the day
bond in which we will forever know and experience              that we no longer have to battle our flesh to do these
God's righteousness, judgment, lovingkindness, and             things, but live in perfection with our great God.
His mercies.                                                                                     In His Love, Your friend
  In faithfulness He will take us to be His bride and we
will know Him. We will forever, without sin, know the          Please read Ps. 62:5-8
blessedness of that bond. Because of His unbelievable            Little imagining the strain that would later be
mercy, He will forever call us His people and, free from       placed on his own family, brother John insisted that
sin, we will forever respond, "Oh, my God!" Nothing            Alice should stay with them. At the end of
should hold us back from desiring to experience that           November, it became plain even to Alice that she
bond.                                                          could not return to work again. The apartment in Il-
                                 In His Love, Your friend      linois was given up and all of Alice's possessions
Please read Galatians 522-25                                   were taken to Michigan. And there was much of
                                                               this  - boxes and boxes of saved mementos and
  Brother John and his wife Judy took Alice back to            knickknacks as well as much household furnish-
Illinois at the end of the month. John would arrange           ings. John, who had recently built a new home,
for another sick leave  - this one for six months.             would convert the attached garage next to the kit-
Alice agreed to this, but with the thought that she            chen into a bedroom and sitting room for Alice.
might still be able to go back again. Some of Alice's
possessions would be taken back to Grand Rapids.               Dear Alice:
At Stauffer, there was great understanding of the                Good morning! Oh Alice, you're going to laugh at me
situation - and a measure of relief. Those in the of-          this morning!
fice knew that Alice could not properly do her work
any more, even when she had been there a month                   You know yesterday I mentioned we should try to ex-
earlier. But no one wanted to tell her not to return.          amine ourselves:`Do  I love, Do I have patience, etc.
The people in the office and factory who knew                  Well, later that morning I went shopping with the kids
Alice, were very kind to her. Several times they col-          and I very carefully told them, "Go to the bathroom
lected sizable cash gifts, and a number of them                before you get your coats on because we'll be gone for a
came on various occasions to visit her. Alice's eyes           while." Well, we got halfway down the driveway, and
would always light up at the mention of Stauffers.             my little one said, "I have to go bathroom. " I started
                                                               hollering, "WHY DIDN'T YOU. . . ?" And then I had
Good Morning, Alice:                                           to laugh at myself - where was my patience? I drove
  I am sitting at my kitchen table looking out at the          back in the garage and took him in, laughing to myself
snow - finally. I've always liked snow; there's some-          and thinking, "I have to tell Alice!"
thing cozy about it. I know it makes lots of things a lit-       How did your self-examination go, Alice?
tle more difficult, but it is beautiful!                         Ps. 62:5-8 is a real comfort after searching your soul,
  The fruit of the Spirit - what a list of difficult things    after looking back at all the times I failed yesterday
the child of God is called to have. Yes, I know I am           when I was impatient with my little ones, when I was
Christ/s. I  know  His Spirit lives within me, and             frustrated because my son didn't do something the way
because I know this, the verse tells me the answer to          I wanted it done, when I failed time and time again,
the difficulty.                                                and all those times I didn't even know about - I can
   Since I am Christ's, I can crucify my fleshly desires,      look to Him Who is my refuge and pour out my heart
my pride, my doubts, my impatience (which I've                 before Him. I can know that my strength is not in
                                                               myself but that  He is my rock, my salvation, my
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed         defense and my strength and refuge. I can lay the heavy
Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.                               burdens of my heart and mind on Him.


90                                               THE   STANDARD  BEARER



      I can wait on Him and, yes, expect (because of His        ask if the blessing of the Lord is upon this. What a call-
promises) comfort from Him.                                     ing we have - but what a victory - oh, what a victory!
      What relief - what blessed warm `%mer" joy!                                              With Love, Your friend
                                   With Love, Your friend       Please read Ps. 145:18
Please read: I Cor. 15:58                                       One of the first things Alice wanted to do, after set-
                                                                tling in with John and Judy, was to buy a china
      John did a remarkable job of converting that two-         cabinet. Shortly after she began working upon
stall garage into living quarters. A third of it was            graduation from high school, she had purchased a
partitioned off as bedroom. Paneling was placed in              beautiful set of china from Germany. It was packed
front of the garage-doors. Carpeting was placed on              in the original boxes for all these years - with the
the floor. The sitting room area was filled with all            hope of using them on special occasions after she
the paraphernalia Alice had collected over the past             would marry. But that time never came. Now she
thirty years. Everything looked nice - if a bit clut-           would have the dishes properly displayed in that
tered.                                                          beautiful china cabinet where she could admire
                                                                them in Judy's kitchen. There they remain still to
Good Morning Alice:                                             this day.
  It's going to be another busy Saturday, so I'm writing        Good Morning Alice:
early.                                                            Did you get my note yesterday or did you get two to-
      You may have wondered about these note cards. I           day? I'm sorry. I'll try not to let that happen again, (if
like them and I hope you do too. The artist is Gwen             you knew me, you'd be surprised it didn't happen
Frostic. She has a little shop up north, way out in the         before!) and it was ready by 8 o'clock Saturday morning
wild. She is a naturalist, and lectures about the balance       too yet!!
of nature, etc., but the sad part is that she is not a child
of God. One knows that by the books she writes. She               I'm really glad I'm writing you every day. It's not just
may see beauty with her eye, but she doesn't know the           for you, but equally for me. This morning there's so
beauty of God's grace.                                          much to do, I probably wouldn't have picked up my Bi-
                                                                ble this morning. Have you had that, where you think
  How thankful we can be, Alice, that God has shed              you have to do other things so you put aside the most
His grace in our hearts. That is certainly all that makes       important thing: time alone with God?
life worthwhile. All of our labors, our struggle in this
life is not in vain before God, because God is working in         Ps. 145:18 explains just how much of a blessing that
us. He gives us the glorious victory, which is explained        time alone with God is. Our Lord is near unto us that
in the verses before this one, but we are called to be          call upon Him. Does that mean that when we forget
stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of           about Him, He  isn't  near? No; God is near His
the Lord. Now I may be wrong, but to me, "the work of           children regardless, but we experience His love and
the Lord" is our daily walk of obedience. We must be            care when we draw near to Him. But the verse adds "in
unmoveable from His law. Like a minister once said,             truth. " That is sort of a warning to me anyway. It hap-
"In. everything you do, you must ask yourself, `Is the          pens all too often that I get into reading scripture and
blessing of the Lord upon this?"' What a question!              suddenly I realize I'm either not really calling upon
                                                                Him, or I'm not using scripture for its proper meaning.
  When we plan our activities for the day, we must ask
it. When we turn the radio on, we must ask it. Or when            But, the Lord is near unto His children that call
we choose a book to read or a T.V. program to watch             upon Him in truth.
we ask it. The list goes on and on.                               May you richly experience that nearness this day.
  In accepting a trial, or (probably more difficult) in                                          With Love, Your friend
living an "easy" life, yes, in everything we do, we must        Please read Eph. 6:17-l 8

                   The Standard Bearer makes a
          thoughtful gift for the sick & shut-in.
               Give the Standard Bearer today!!


                                               THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                             91



GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH
Thomas C. Miersma





                    Scripture Interprets Scripture:
                                             Historically



   The principle that Scripture interprets Scripture          study and exegesis. If you are studying the book of I
is, as was pointed  out, last time, the fundamental           Corinthians you must take into account what Scrip-
principle of the reformers' approach to Scripture. It         ture has to tell us historically about that local con-
is rooted in the confession that the Scriptures are           gregation, its circumstances, its problems, and the
the Word of God to us and in the truth that God               reason God gave His Word to us as a letter written
Himself, by His Holy Spirit, will also teach us in the        to that church through the apostle Paul. This infor-
understanding of them. This truth the reformers               mation the letter itself furnishes us, as do the other
receivd by faith, upon the testimony of Scripture             epistles and the Book of Acts.
itself and the Spirit's witness in their hearts that the        Likewise if we are studying the Psalms of David,
Scriptures are of God.                                        we must have in mind the history and life of David
   Having set forth this principle, however, it must          which is given us in the Word of God. In the same
also be applied. This takes, as we have seen, the             way, the Psalms themselves will show us the inner
humble willingness to let Scripture speak, to be              life and experience of Gods servant David when
taught, and to learn of God what He would say unto            we study the history. It is to Scripture's own ex-
us. It was this that the reformers sought in their            planation of the time and circumstances that we
study, exegesis, and exposition of the Word of God.           must look.
To expound this principle in all its significance is            This does not mean that we may not use other
beyond the scope of this column; we can only hope             books to give us help in understanding the culture,
therefore to draw a few main lines for considera-             geography, and matters of the day-to-day life  -
tion.                                                         climate, dress, clothing, and other such things. But
  To apply the principle that Scripture interprets            we look first of all to the Word of God for answers
Scripture means essentially that Scripture is its own         also to these questions. It is perhaps important to
commentary. Thus it begins with studying a text or            underscore this in our day and age. An atlas, a Bible
a passage of the Word of God in its context. The              dictionary, and similar tools are useful in aiding our
Scriptures themselves make plain that God gave us             understanding. But they do not have the authority
His Word through the instrument of the apostles               of the Word of God. One need only compare
and prophets, so that "holy men of God spoke as they          several atlases to see that they will quite often dif-
were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:21).  Each          fer from one another, even in the location of some
passage or book had a certain place and purpose in            important cities and towns. Likewise one only has
the life of the people of God in the time in which it         to compare the findings of various cultural studies
was written and has a certain place in the unity of           as to life in the land of Canaan at, for example, the
Scripture.                                                    time of Abraham, and the various pictures which
  This leads to the historical principle of Bible             have been drawn at different times, to see that they
                                                              cannot be more than a useful and helpful tool. We
                                                              must beware of placing the theories and the sup-
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor  of  First Protestant Reformed    posed findings of such studies as archaeology on a
Church  of  Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.                        par with Scripture. It is not archaeology which  in-


92                                            THE   STANDARD  BEARER



terprets Scripture but Scripture which sets the            tural history all kinds of unbiblical nonsense so that
standard for the research and findings of ar-              the narrative of our Lord's birth for example, is
chaeology in Palestine. It has too often been the          transformed into the melodramatic love story of
case that the supposed findings, facts, and conclu-        Mary and Joseph.
sions of one generation have been overturned by
- t h e   n e x t .                                           By proceeding historically within the boundaries
                                                           which Scripture itself draws, and allowing Scrip-
      This does not mean that we may not use such          ture to guide them in its study the reformers were
material to illustrate and understand Scripture; but       safeguarded from the wild fancies of medieval
it must be with caution, and Scripture alone must          speculation, mysticism, and allegory. Texts were
be decisive. This was the method of the reformers.         interpreted in their proper contexts and relation-
It is also one of the reasons that even today their        ships and the reformers were guided to a sound un-
commentaries are .still valuable and sound. For, not       derstanding of God's Word and its meaning.
having available to them many of these tools, they
were content to let Scripture explain itself in these         At the same time, because they approached the
matters.                                                   Word of God by faith, recognizing both the organic
      It is in the same manner that we must let Scrip-     character of inspiration and Scripture's abiding
ture explain to us every aspect of its history, its        authority, they avoided the modern error of re-
origin and the background of each book and epistle.        ducing Scripture to mere human writings. Confess-
This study includes reading the book as a whole to         ing the sovereignty of God over all the affairs and
understand the main thought and intent of the              circumstances of life and His all-embracing counsel
book, so that we might understand first of all what        and providence, they were not led into the trap of
that Word of God said, and was intended to say to          regarding Scripture as culturally conditioned or
the church when it was written. The epistles of the        time-bound. The historical principle of Scriptural
New Testament were, for example, all written to            interpretation properly applied is a matter of Scrip-
specific churches with specific needs and prob-            ture interpreting Scripture. The reformers followed
lems. This too belongs to Scripture's explanation          it to know and understand the meaning of God's
of itself.                                                 Word. Buy they also understood that God had
                                                           ordered all things and had unfolded His Word in
      This means also that when figures and images         history with a view to the church of all ages. They
are set before us in the Word of God, as for example       sought to understand what that Word meant for the
in the Prophets, that they are shaped in the               church in the time and place in which it was given,
language and times in which the church then found          because it is exactly that Word which God still
itself. This will guard us against the false so-called     speaks to His church today and that in the fullest
literalism of some extreme methods of interpreta-          sense of the word.
tion which would find in Scripture everything from
modern weapons of war to cars and helicopters.                They saw God as the Giver of His Word Who had
Scripture itself makes it plain that it was given by       spoken that Word and revealed Himself in the
God in history. We must therefore let Scripture            history and lives of His people, who spake by the
guide us to understand it as it was given.                 mouth of His servants, the prophets and apostles.
      This means that Scripture also explains to us the     "And that afterwards God, from a special care, which
inner experience of God's saints and gives us what         he ,has for us and our salvation, commanded his ser-
we need to know of their feelings, struggles, and          vants, the prophets and apostles, to commit his reveal-
emotions. It does so by setting forth the common           ed word to writing. . . " (Confession of Faith, Article
experience of God's people in the world, which we          III). Although therefore Scripture was to be under-
may take up in our understanding of historical             stood historically, yet nevertheless, it was that
passages as well as the specific details. This too is a    which the Spirit had to say to the church of all ages,
matter of allowing Scripture to guide our under-           in His unchangeable Word, which stood before
standing and interpretation. This also characterizes       them upon the pages of Holy Writ. It was not to set
the expositions and commentaries of the reformers.         aside God's Word that they laid hold of the
By letting the Scriptures lead them in this, compar-       historical principle, but because Scripture itself led
ing similar circumstances and experiences with one         them to it and by itthey came to a knowledge of the
another, as found in Scripture, the reformers were         truth. It was not an instrument to obscure the
able to set forth from the Word of God a full and          meaning of God's Word or to explain away its re-
rich understanding of the life of God's saints,            quirement and calling as is so often the case today.
which is also given us for our instruction. At the         Rather it was a principle taught in Scripture which
same time they avoided that kind of creative fiction       they properly applied to make Scripture clear and
which would add to the simple narrative of Scrip-          to understand it aright.


                                              THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                           93



                                          Book Reviews



DUTCH CALVINISM IN MODERN AMERICA:                           Janssen respected Hoeksema for his honesty and
A HISTORY OF A CONSERVATIVE SUBCUL-                          consistency, and Hoeksema always had high regard
TURE, by James D. Bratt; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ.               for Janssen as a scholar. I can remember Hoeksema
Co., Grand Rapids, MI, ISBN O-8028-0009-2, 329               saying, for example, that as a scholar and a teacher
pp.,  paper, $13.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H.C.                 Janssen stood head and shoulders above the pro-
Hoeksema)                                                    fessors who criticized him. And in later years
  This book is a study of the Dutch, specifically the        Janssen still would send Hoeksema his greetings
Dutch and Reformed, in America from the late 19th            from time to time.
century to the present. In the very nature of the            4) I think it is rather simplistic on the part of the
case, this study of an ethnic subculture, as it is           author to depict the ongoing struggle in the CRC as
called is at the same time and in large measure a            a struggle between pietism and Kuyperianism.
study of the group's religious history as well. This         There were other currents. For example, at the time
makes the book interesting for us: it is a book about        when The Witness was begun, one of the men (later
ourselves, our ancestors, our churches, our strug-           a common grace proponent) complained that it was
gles. More than this, the book is scholarly,  well-          too late to do anything because the whole church
written, and is filled with anecdotes and sidelights         was shot through with Arminianism.
which make it very interesting. Besides, it is amply         5) I find it strange that after the account of 1924,
footnoted; and the footnotes are sometimes fully as          Herman Hoeksema is hardly mentioned. Like it or
interesting as the body of the text.                         not, he and the Protestant Reformed Churches
  Anyone who studies this period and this segment            were a force to be reckoned with also in explaining
of church history would do well to include this              the history of the CRC. Hoeksema and his theology
book in his reading.                                         constituted an undeniable reference point in the
  At the same time, I would warn that at least some          post-1924 history of the Reformed community. The
                                                             author seems to ignore the evidence on this score.
of the book must be read with discretion and
critically. I would call it history with a tilt. Natural-      The discerning reader will undoubtedly find
ly, I was especially interested in Part III, which           more points of disagreement and criticism.
covers the history from 1917-1928, the period                  Nevertheless, this book is a good addition to
which includes the Janssen controversy and the               one's history/church history shelf.
common grace controversy, as well as the events
and developments preceding these. And my in-                 ABORTION AND THE CHRISTIAN, John Jeffer-
terest was partly due to the fact that I lived close to      son Davis; Presbyterian & Reformed, 1984; 125 pp.
one of the principals in these struggles and was able        $4.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko).
to learn much about them firsthand. In that light, I
would mention the following:                                   As the debate in this country continues over the
                                                             legality of abortion, the presses produce more and
1) I do not believe that the treatment of Dr. Janssen        more books, articles, and pamphlets. It is impossi-
and the proceedings of the Synod of 1922 are ac-             ble to keep up with it all, and the concerned Chris-
curately presented and evaluated. The author                 tian sometimes wonders what he ought to read and
seems to follow the line of Harry Boer and the               what he ought to lay aside. In my judgment, this is
RefomzedJoumal in this respect.                              one book every Christian ought to read. It is com-
2) Along the same line, I do not believe that the            plete without being tediously long. It is a thorough
common grace controversy and the Synod of 1924               treatment of the subject without a lot of technical
and subsequent events are correctly presented.               (both legal and medical) terminology thrown in. It
3) I do not believe that the relationship between            presents the case against abortion from a Biblical
Dr. Janssen and Herman Hoeksema are correctly                viewpoint and gathers a surprising amount of
pictured. There was no great personal bitterness             material from the Scriptures to show the terrible
between the two. True, they disagreed fundamen-              evil of this national sin.
tally. But there was also a kind of mutual respect.            The "blurb" on the back cover is worth quoting.


94                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



        Abortion is a topic of immense impor-                                    In brief, the author first of all describes the three
      tance. Not only is it a burning controversy                              positions taken on this issue and gives the argu-
      in its own right, but it is also symptomatic of                          ments in favor of them. These three positions are:
      a larger crisis in contemporary values. At                               1) Unlimited abortion; 2) Abortion under certain
      stake is the very meaning of human life.                                 circumstances; a) Abortion to save the life of the
        In spite of 1.3 million abortions annually                             mother; b) in cases of pregnancy due to rape or in-
      in America, there is much the public does                                cest; c) in case of subhuman retardation; 3) Only to
      not know about what has become the  na.-                                 save the life of the mother.
      tion's more common surgical procedure on                                   The author also enters into the medical dangers
      adults. The Christian public, in particular,                             of abortion and claims there is a conspiracy of
      needs a more thorough understanding of the                               silence on this matter.
      questions surrounding abortion questions                                   His arguments from Scripture are detailed and
      like, What does the Bible say about prenatal                             conclusive and present an excellent Biblical foun-
      life? When, if ever, is abortion justified?                              dation for the position that abortion is murder. The
      What are the medical risks of abortion? Are                              one exception is, and with this the church has
      the unborn individual persons, biologically,                             almost always agreed, that abortion may be per-
      spiritually, legally?                                                    formed to save the life of the mother.
        Building on a broad base of biblical data,                               We urge those who are interested in a study of
      John Jefferson Davis answers these and                                   this question to obtain this book.
      many other questions related to the ethics of
      abortion. In so doing, he equips readers to                                The author is Associate Professor of Theology at
      challenge current assumptions in the areas                               Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.                    - -
      of law, medicine, and social concern, and to
      affirm the value of human life both in and
      out of the womb.



                                                                                                               3505 Kelly
                                                                                                 Hudsonville, Michigan 49426
                                                                                                         Phone 669-6730

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                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 95



                      News From Our Churches
                                                 David Harbach


  The Reformation Day lectures were in abun-              writing to: Loveland Protestant Reformed Church,
dance again this time of the year, an evidence of the     705 E. 57th St., Loveland, CO 80537.
love for the Reformation that God has put into our           Several changes have occurred in our churches
hearts. Many of us enjoyed the lecture given by           recently. The consistory of Hudsonville Church,
Rev. J. Kortering on `"Psalm Singing: A Reformed          Michigan, has decided  tom use Psalter no. 196 as
Heritage." This lecture is available on tape from the     their evening doxology. This doxology, used for
Lecture Committee of the churches in the Grand            many years in the past, expresses the response of
Rapids, Michigan area. Perhaps someone would              the congregation to the Word preached - by sing-
even consider putting this lecture into a booklet         ing praise to the Name of our Great God.  Grand-
form. Rev.' R. Hanko gave a lecture in New Jersey         ville Church, Michigan, has decided to add two ad-
on "The Decline of the Reformation" and his                ditional elders and one additional deacon to the
brother, Rev. K. Hanko, gave a lecture, in the             consistory. The reason for this is the increased size
Norristown, Pennsylvania area, on "The Reforma-            of the congregation, and that they do have
tion and Christian Liberty." Again, our churches           nominees available for consideration. Grandville is
have more than just a passing interest in the Refor-       also in the process of organizing some Sunday eve-
mation. Rev. R. Cammenga also spoke on "What               ning discussion groups for the purpose of discussing
Was the Reformation?" in Loveland, Colorado.              the matter of personal witnessing. The consistory
Tapes of this lecture are available for $2.00 by


                    CONFERENCE ON BIBLICAL MARRIAGE
                           `For better, for worse . . .  `til death us do part.  "
       SPEAKERS:
          Rev. David Engelsma: "Sex in Marriage" and "The Scriptural Teaching on Divorce"
          Rev. Jason Kortering: "Marriage's Divine Institution" and "The Goal of Marriage"
          Rev. James Slopsema: "The Cause of Marital Problems" and "Biblical Solutions for Mari-
                                    tal Joy"

       PURPOSE:
          To honor and defend God's institution of marriage. The devil and ungodly society have
       always attacked and slandered marriage. This influence has had devastating effects, so that
       much of modern Christianity has joined the world in lowering God's ideal standards for mar-
       riage. Come, hear inspiring speeches and discussions, proclaiming God's intent for marriage.

      TIME:
          Friday, November 22, 7:00 to  9:30 P.M.
          Saturday, November 23, 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.

       LOCATION:
          Elmhurst Holiday Inn, 624 N. York Rd., Elmhurst, Illinois [From l-294 (the Tri-State
      E-way) take l-290 West; exit York Rd. North1

       REGISTRATION:
          Registration donation is $1 O/person. Registration is limited. Reserve yourself and a friend
      or loved one a place by mailing in your name and registration donation. Motel reservations at
      group rates can be made when you send in your registration.

               PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCHES  - NORTHWEST CHICAGO MISSION
                                                1047 Florida Lane
                                        Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

                               For more information phone (312) 529-4676


                                                                                                                                                          . . --
  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                                 SECOND CLASS
           P . O .   B o x   6 0 6 4                                                                                POSTAGE PAID AT I
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                                     GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.




  96                                         -~  ------T-l%   S T A N D A R D   BEARER



  of Southwest  Church  Michigan, has granted the                                  Rev. and Mrs. Joostens and family have secured
  deacons permission to sit with their families in har-                         a house about a mile away from the Bruinsmas.
  mony with a decision made in 1967. The Council of                             They also have a foreign car for their use. Their
  Southwest has also decided to establish a                                     new address is: Redgate,  Cave P.O., Westmoreland, . .
  "Seminary Sunday" once each.two months to pro-                                Jamaica.
  vide opportunity for the professors to preach in the                             The Evangelism Committee of South Holland
  churches and for the students to speak a word of                              Church, Illinois, has prepared an attractively boxed
   exhortation in the churches. This decision will be                           set of cassette tapes of Rev. D. Engelsma's recent
  placed into effect when Southwest has a minister of                           series of sermons on the history of Gideon. There
   their own. And finally, the consistory of Loveland                           are six sermons: "The Call of a Mighty Deliverer,"
   Church, Colorado, has made the decision to have                              "Putting Our Own House In Order," "Thinning
   the Sunday School meet from June through August,                             the Ranks," "Deliverance by the Sword of the
   rather than during the winter months.                                        Covenant, " "Divisions Within," and "Deliverance
         Mr. Jaiki Mahtani, our seminarian from Singa-                          . . . and Departure." If there is a good response, the
   pore, has been licensed by the faculty of the                                Committee hopes to produce similar sets in the
   Seminary to speak a word of exhortation in our                               future. These tapes make a worthwhile gift. Con-
   churches. We rejoice with him as this gives him the                          tact the church for more information.
   opportunity to gain experience in the work of                                   Remember the conference on the subject: "Mar-
   preaching and to become better acquainted with                               riage: For Better, For Worse," to be held Friday
   our congregations.                                                           from 7:00 P.M. to  9:30 P.M. and Saturday, from
         Rev. den Hartog's new address is: 43 Blair Road,                       9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M., November 22  & 23, at the
  Singapore 0208, Republic of Singapore.                                        Elmhurst Holiday Inn, 624 N. York Road,  Elm-
                                                                                hurst, Illinois (312  - 279-1100) sponsored by the
  David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref.                            Northwest Chicago Mission of our Protestant
  Christian  School Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                     Reformed Churches In America.


                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
        The Ladies' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed                            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  Church expresses sympathy to Mrs. Catherine Holleman in the death                The Council of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,
  of her sister, ALICE DEKKER.                                                  Michigan, expresses its sympathy to Elder Don Lotterman in the
        "For this God is our God forever and ever; he will be our guide even    death of his mother-in-law, MRS. PIPER.
  unto death." (Psalm 48: 14)                                                      "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
  Mr. John Flikkema, Vice Pres.                                                 dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
  Sharon Maatman,  Secy.                                                        eternal in the heavens." (II Corinthians  5:l)
                                                                                Cal Kalsbeek, Assistant Clerk
                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
        The Ladies' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
  Church expresses sympathy to Mrs. Teressa Haak and Marlyn De                     On November 23, 1985, the Lord willing, our parents, REV. AND
  Jong in the death of a mother and grandmother.                                MRS. RICHARD G. MOORE, will celebrate their 25th wedding an-
        "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."         niversary. We, their children and grandchildren, are thankful to our
  (Psalm  116:15)                                                               heavenly Father for blessing us with God-fearing parents. And we are
  Mr. John Flikkema, Vice Pres.                                                 grateful for their love and covenant instruction in God's ways. We
  Sharon Maatman, Sec'y.                                                        pray that God will always be near them and bless them in the years to
                                                                                come. We are thankful also for Rev. Moore's faithful preaching in our
                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                    churches, and our prayer is that they may continue to be a blessing to
                                                                                us and our church.
        The Martha Society of the  Doon Protestant Reformed Church ex-            "He will command his children and his household after him, and
  tends its sincere Christian sympathy to one of its members, Mrs.              they shall keep the way of the Lord." (Genesis  18:19)
  Clarence Klein and family, in the recent death of her step-mother,
  MRS. MARTHA KUIPER.                                                           Brian and Carolyn Tolsma                  David Moore
                                                                                  Derek, Cindy and Curtiss               Melanie Moore
        "The Lord is good, a strong-hold in the day of trouble; He knoweth      Henry and Lee Ann Ferguson               Joel Moore
  them that trust in Him." (Nahum  1:7)                                           Ashley and Scott                        Rachel Moore
  Rev. M. Kamps, Pres.                                                          Denise Moore                             Stacie Moore
  Mrs. Henry Bleyenburg, Sec'y.                                                 Brenda Moore                              Stephanie Moore


