I               The
     ' STANDARD
               BEARER
                                                                                            .
                 A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE




          i  .  . There is in it (in rock music) a certain in-

          trusive appeal to the emotions which be-
          comes almost addictive. But it is an appeal to
          th.e emotions of our old nature, of our old
          man of sin . . . . This is true in general of
          worldly music, but it is most emphatically
          true of rock. Never before has the wicked
          world succeeded so well in adapting its
          music to its thoughts, all of which thoughts
          are not of God! Beware, lest you allow your-
          self to become enslaved to this corruption!
          See "The Christian and Rock Music"
                                                                   - page 173

     .                                               Vol.  LXII, No. 8, January 15, 1986


170                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER




                              CONTENTS                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
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                                                                               Department Editors:  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editorial  -                                                                 D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Ha&o,  Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
                                                                               Rev. Ronald Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering,
       The Christian and Rock Music (2) . . . . . . . . . . . .173             Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                               Gise J. Van Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
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MEDITATION
Cornelius Hanko



                                           Our Yes and Our No

                 Ques. 101. May we then swear religiously by the name of God?
                 Ans. Yes; when the magistrate demands it of the subjects; or when necessity requires us
              thereby to confirm fidelity and truth to the glory of God, and the safety of our neighbor; for suck
              an oath is founded on God's word, and therefore was justly used by the saints, both in the Old
              and New Testament.
                 Ques. 102. May we also swear by saints or by any other creatures?
                 Ans. No; for a lawful oath is calling upon God, as the only one who knows the heart, that he
              will bear witness to the truth, and punish me if I swear falsely; which honor is due to no
              creature. Heid. Catechism. Lord's Day 37.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                              171



      God consciousness . . . .                                in Romans 9: 1: "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not,
      The sweet singer of old sang as he plucked on his        my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
   harp, "I have set the Lord always before me; he is          Ghost."
   at my right hand, I shall not be moved."                      No oath may ever be taken lightly.
      He also sang, "When thou saidst, seek ye my                What makes the oath such a holy undertaking is
   face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I       the fact that it places us face to face with God. It
   seek."                                                      reminds me that there are three persons involved in
      It was Asaph who had gone into the sanctuary to          what I say: I myself, the other party, and God. De-
   pray, and there learned to confess, "Nevertheless, I        claring that God is my witness I place my words in
   am continually with thee; thou hast  holden me by           the mouth of God as if He speaks them!
   my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy                   Moreover, the oath reminds us that God is Truth.
   counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."                He knows the truth, lives the truth, speaks only the
     In this new dispensation we have a far more in-           truth, and maintains Himself as the only true and
   timate fellowship with God through His indwelling           living God. He always discerns accurately and just-
   Spirit in our hearts, for we dwell in His house as          ly between honesty and dishonesty, between the
   sons and daughters, members of the family of God,           truth and the lie, for He knows the heart, and
   heirs of the glory soon to be revealed.                     judges accordingly.
     While the Bridegroom tarries the bride-to-be                Besides that, we consciously place ourselves
~ adorns herself for her Husband.. She is always con-          under the righteous judgment of the living God, as
   scious of Him in all that she does, chooses her             we express when we declare, "God do so to me and
   clothing according to His wishes, and tries to model        more also, if that which I say is not the truth, the
   her life according to His desires, as she awaits His        whole truth, and nothing but the truth." God is our
   coming in eager anticipation.                               court of appeal. We confess that when we speak the
                                                               truth He will approve and bless, but if we speak the
     God consciousness is an essential part of our             lie He will punish us accordingly.
   lives.                                                        Jesus warns us in the sermon on the mount, "Ye
     For our Lord instructs us, "Be holy, for I am ho-         have heard that it hath been said by them of old
   ly!" Again, "be perfect, for your heavenly Father is        time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt per-
   perfect!"                                                   form unto the Lord thine oath. But I say unto you,
     "Honor, glorify Me in your lives!"                        Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's
     Thus He commands us, "Thou shalt not take the             throne; nor by the earth, for it is God's footstool;
   Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will         neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great
   not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in              King; neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because
   vain."                                                      thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let
                                                               your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for
     We must remember that also in our oaths.                  whatsoever is more than these  cometh from evil"
     The oath is always a holy undertaking for the             (Matt.  5:33-37). James repeats this in his epistle
   child of God.                                               (5:12),  and adds, "Lest ye fall into condemnation."
     There is repeated reference to the oath in Scrip-           Jesus points out to us that the law of Moses con-
   ture. God swears an oath to assure us of the certain-       demns the false oath, or perjury. It makes one
   ty of His promise that Hie will be our God and the          shudder when he hears a witness take the oath in
   God of our seed after us. Since He can swear by no          the court of law, and then deliberately twist the
   one greater than Himself, "He sware by Himself,             facts, expecting God to confirm the lie.
   saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and               Jesus also condemns the careless use of the oath.
   multiplying I will multiply thee" (Heb.  6:13-18).          The Jews of Jesus' day used the oath rather freely in
   Abraham also had occasion to use the oath. The              their conversations; but, avoiding the name of God,
   spies who promised Rahab her life and her- safety           they swore by the temple, by Jerusalem, or some
   appealed to the oath to seal their promise. Many            other object. That to their minds was not as serious
   other examples could be cited. Jesus essentially            as using God's name. But Jesus points out to them
   used the oath when He confirmed His testimony               and to us that this is exactly the same and just as
   with an emphatic, "Verily, verily, I say unto you."         serious as if they used the name of God. Even in
   Paul used the oath more than once, as, for example,         our day appeal is sometimes made to God's at-
                                                               tributes, such as "Goodness knows"; or reference
   Cornelius Hanho is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    is made to God's dwelling place, as "Heaven
   Reformed Churches.                                          knows. ' ' Jesus warns, why not use the name of


172                                          THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                    -


God? This is the same thing! And this becomes the           sciousness. Shame on us!
more serious when God is called upon to confirm                  There are sometimes people within the  churc:h
the lie, defend some half truth or "white" lie, or          institute whose yes is inspired by a false  erl-
even some insignificant matter.                             thusiasm. They are the fair weather Christians, wh0
   All this Scripture brands as sin against the third       for a time are most enthusiastic about their place i:n
commandment.                                                the church, that is, as long as everything run.S
   "Swear not at ah!"                                       smoothly. Evidently a scribe such as that came  t#
                                                            Jesus with the enthusiastic assurance, "Lord, I  wi:i
   Jesus lays down the principle of the kingdom of          follow thee wherever thou goest." Jesus respondS
heaven, that our lives should be in such intimate           by warning him that, "Foxes have holes, and birdS
communion with God that there is no need for an             of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath noIt
oath among us.                                              where to lay his head." Our zeal for God must be
   Left to ourselves, we have a dishonest, deceitful,       rooted in a holy faith, inspired by the Holy  Spirii .I
lying nature, of which we are reminded in Romans            able to endure even unto the end.
3:13-18.  But our hearts and lips have been touched              There are also those who confess a half-hearten
by cleansing coals of the altar of Jesus' cross, so that    yes-but, which is virtually a no. They were in  thl
according to the new man in Christ we love the              majority in the kingdom of Israel at the time of Eli
Lord our God with our whole being. Thus we love             jah. They served Baal, yet they also wanted  tc3
the truth and speak the truth in love. We trust one         maintain a bit of Jehovah worship. Just in case. .
another as saints in Christ Jesus. It is the renewed        They halted between two opinions. There  were e
child of God, and he only, who can make proper              many of those also in Jesus' day. They were  the2
use of the oath when this is demanded of him.               self-righteous Pharisees, who boasted that  the;
Since his life is a vow he is never reluctant or un-                                                                   Y
                                                            were the true people of the Lord, basing their boast
willing to submit to the oath, nor careless about           on their outward piety. Their number increases  a;S
this, but always deeply aware that God condemns             the end of the ages draws still closer. Let us beware!
the untruth, and blesses us when we speak the
truth according to the conviction of our hearts.                 Then there are also the neither-nor Christians;.
                                                            Jesus describes them in the Book of Revelation aS
   From this follows that our yes and our no are as         being lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. These  ar-e
much an oath as if they were confirmed by God               members of the church, who attend the serviceS
with the calling upon His name. When we make                more or less regularly, partake of the sacraments
public confession of our faith before the congrega-                                                                    6
                                                            but show little interest, much less enthusiasm, con
tion we are asked to answer sincerely to certain            cerning the things of the kingdom. They eithe
prescribed questions. That yes is our oath. When            labor for the bread that perishes, or they find thei
marriage vows are spoken our "I do" or our yes is           pleasure in the sports and entertainments of  thl
written in the records of God as a permanent prom-          world. If present at all, their spiritual life is at  i
ise "until death us do part." When parents pre-             very low ebb.
sent their children for baptism their yes is their
oath that they will bring up their children in the               Let your Yea be yea and your Nay nay, lest  yfe
doctrine taught in their church, and that they will         fall into condemnation!
do so to the utmost of their power. When ministers,              But who is capable of these things! Daily  w(
elders, and deacons are ordained in their respective        need to flee to the cross with the publican's praye
offices their response to the questions put to them         upon our lips!
is as binding as if they were to add, "So help me                At the same time our plea must be, "Search me
God," or "God is my witness," or any other oath.            0 God, and know my heart; try me, and know ml
   "Let your communication be Yea yea, and Nay              thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me
nay! ' '                                                    and lead me in the way everlasting!"
   In the awareness that "Thou, Lord seest me," we          I
should always say yes to God, yes to His Christ,
and yes to His Word, but always say no to the devil,                   Take the time to
to the world, and to our own sinful flesh. That yes
should always be a definite, unequivocal yes, and                    read and study the
that no should always be a very positive no, always
bearing in mind the words of Jesus, "If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take                    Standard Bearer!
up his cross, and follow me."
   Yet we so often fail to live in a proper God con-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  173



EDITORIAL




              The Christian and Rock Music (2)



  What then should be our approach with respect            son, our body, our soul, our heart, our mind, our
to the attitude of the child of God toward rock            will, our home, our man-and-wife relationship, our
music?                                                     parent-children relationship, society, business, in-
  It is my position, in the first place, that our fund-    dustry, property, education, state, church; and that
amental approach should not be what I would call a         it is good to do His will." And our thetical calling is
kind of empirical approach, according to which we          to will and to know this thesis from the heart and to
base our judgment on experience and- garner all            develop its implications with respect to all of life,
kinds of evidence and supposedly weigh the                 and thus to confess in word and deed that God, our
wrongs and the rights, the pros and cons, and come         God, is GOD and that He alone is good. The thesis
to a conclusion. Practically speaking, such an ap-         is the Yes of God's covenant people to their cove-
proach might lead to a ringing condemnation; but           nant God. And the antithesis is the No of that Yes. It
with some it might also lead to a partial approval.        is the No of righteousness over against unrighteous-
That approach has also sometimes been taken with           ness, of godliness over against ungodliness, of the
respect to the movie question, for example; and on-        truth over against the lie, the No of the love of the
ly too often it has ended in the fatal distinction be-     Father over against all that is not of the Father, but
tween "good" and "bad" movies and the inevitable           of the world, over against the lust of the flesh, the
trend to find some justification for a large number        lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life. And ac-
of movies being classified as "good."                      cording as we firmly and clearly say Yes to God, we
                                                           will say No to the world and all that is of it. Such is
  In the second place, I do not believe our ap-            our calling.
proach should be one of mere negative legislation.
This is not to say at all that parents should abdicate       Now consider rock music in the light of this anti-
their position of authority in the home and in rela-       thetical position and calling of the people of God.
tion to their teenagers. But a mere flat prohibition       The matter is very simple, is it not? It is not even a
of rock by parental fiat will only provoke violation,      question. It does not constitute a problem. It is not
and that, too, probably on the sneak. But worse, it        a debatable issue. That is, not if our antithetical
does not teach our young people freely and volun-          position and calling is not merely a matter of the in-
tarily to reject this tempting perversion which the        tellect and of lip service, but a matter of the  heart
world offers them, and it does not teach them to see       and of grace. It is only when we forget and abandon
for themselves that it is contrary to their Christian      the former that the whole matter becomes debat-
calling. A mere negative "Thou shalt not" only pro-        able, becomes problematic. It is only when we
vokes sin.                                                 deny and forsake our antithetical position and call-
                                                           ing that we begin to argue the matter, begin to find
  In the third place, and positively, our funda-           excuses, begin to try to justify our indulgence in
mental approach should be that of the antithetical         rock and somehow convince ourselves that it is all
position and calling of God's people in the midst of       right to participate at least just a little, that there is
the world. It should be that of the thesis and anti-       not so much evil in it, that perhaps there is even
thesis.  As I stated in our December 1, 1985 issue,        some good in it and some genuine enjoyment. And,
"The thesis, therefore, is that which God's people         of course, once we have forsaken that antithetical
hear of God, and confess and affirm of Him, name-          stance, no amount of argument will convince us
ly, that He is God in relation to all things - our per-    that rock is evil. The old saying will hold true, "A


174                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



man convinced against his will is of the same opin-         its thoughts, all of which thoughts are not of God!
ion still."                                                 Beware, lest you allow yourself to become enslaved
  But let us be specific, and let us apply this princi-     to this corruption!
ple to the various aspects of rock music.                                          *    *    *    *
  Consider the  source.  Does anyone doubt that               But what about so-called Christian rock or gospel
rock originates in the evil world of the lust of the        rock?
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life?       One could write another two editorials on this
Consider the performers.  Consider their rebellious         subject without any difficulty. In my opinion, the
dress and appearance (Think of this in connection           subject is not worth extensive attention, for the
with punk rock, for example.); consider their lewd,         simple reason that this is not basically a different
profane language and professed lifestyle; consider          matter from ordinary, worldly rock.
their on-stage behavior, their lewd, provocative
pelvic gyrations. Consider the  lyrics of their songs,        However, let me briefly call attention to the
whether "sexually explicit" or "sexually implicit."         following:
  And especially, consider the music itself. For, do          1) To'say  the least, the Christian character or the
not forget, lyrics and music go together. We all            gospel content of "Christian rock" is very scant in
know this instinctively. In our sacred music, for ex-       many instances and highly suspect in others.
ample, a certain kind of music is appropriate for a           2) The lyrics of "Christian rock" are not infre-
certain kind of lyrics. A bouncing, joyous tune does        quently guilty of double-entendre. What does that
not befit sad and mournful lyrics. The music of a           mean? Double-entendre is "a word or phrase of
march does not fit the words of a prayer. And the           double meaning, the less obvious one often of
more successfully a composer can match lyrics and           doubtful propriety." An article in  Newsweek  of
music as to mood and emotion and thought, the               August 19, 1985 quoted by Christian News, Nov. 25,
more successful his composition will be in achiev-          1985, refers to this: "In Grant's (Amy Grant, an
ing its goal and design. But let an expert speak on         alleged evangelical entertainer) pop psalm called
this point. Christian News (Nov. 25, 1985) carried an       `Open Arms,' for example, she croons, `Your love
extensive treatment of the subject of rock music,           has taken hold/And I can't fight it' - keeping it
particularly so-called Christian rock. An article en-       unclear whether or not the lover is Jesus." In its
titled "The Prosecution," by David Noebel, quotes           December  2, 1985 issue  Christian News quotes from
the late Dr. Howard Hansen, of Eastman School of            Eternity  magazine, which refers to a song by this
Music, as follows: "Music is a curiously subtle art         same Amy Grant entitled, `Love Will Find A Way'
with innumerable, varying emotional connotations.           in which it is not clear whether she is singing about
It is made up of many ingredients and, according to         her lover or about Jesus.
the proportions of those components, it can be
soothing or invigorating, ennobling or vulgarizing,           3) Finally, granting for the moment that the
philosophical or orgiastic. It has powers for evil as       lyrics are soundly and unambiguously Christian,
well as for good."                                          the mixing of Christian lyrics and rock music is like
                                                            mixing fire and water. Or let me quote, with ap-
  This is worthy of special attention. Rock music           proval, the following from an article by David
(even apart from the lyrics) is not amoral. It is not in    Noebel (Christian News, Nov. 25, 1985, p. 8):
itself not evil. It has a corrupting influence. One
does not have to listen long to the insidious, in-               Rock is music of a decadent, pagan culture.
trusive, insistent beat of the voodoo drums, to the            Malcolm Muggeridge addresses this subject in his
clashing and crashing disharmonies of rock to                  work  The End  of  Christendom.  Why, then, do Christian
                                                               musicians adopt a musical form that glorifies man's
recognize this. And especially here there is a grave           lascivious nature? Why don't Christian musicians pro-
danger in rock. There is in it a certain intrusive ap-         vide music that is higher and purer than that of their
peal to the emotions which becomes almost addic-               secular counterparts?
tive. But it is an appeal to the emotions of our old             Even many secular artists admit to rocks evil in-
nature, of our old man of sin. To indulge in rock is a         fluences. Rock star David Bowie commented that rock
very dangerous thing, therefore. For just as music             music has always been the devil's music, and the late
can be a powerful influence for good, moving men               John Lennon  referred to rock music's beat in the same
in the very depths of their being, so it can also be a         manner.
tremendously powerful influence for evil, stirring               David Wilkerson, in his new work Set the Trumpet
up the base emotions of our old man of sin. This is            to Thy Mouth,  asks, "Is God's house now a place
true in general of worldly music, but it is most em-           where even demonic expressions find a place with
phatically true of rock. Never before has the wick-            music borrowed from the altars of Baal?" Since rock
ed world succeeded so well in adapting its music to            music reinforces rock lyrics, and many rock lyrics


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     175



    glorify degenerate lifestyles, why do Christian musi-           casionally share the stage with secular groups, and
    cians  bother using such a debauched musical form?              they've convinced Christian youth that rock music is
      Christian rock is breaking down the barriers that             "sugar, spice, and everything nice." It is, in fact,
    once surrounded the secular rock world. And as a                cultural hemlock.
    result, many Christian young people are "rushing in            We agree.                                          HCH
    where angels fear to tread." Christian bands today oc-

WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Herman Hanko





      Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (1)



  John Jefferson Davis, in his book,  Evangelicd                 when almost every day the media speak of new dis-
Ethics,  begins Chapter 1 with a story, which goes               coveries, new methods of treatment, new ideas for
this way:                                                        increasing the quality of life and new techniques to
    "In some of this research," noted Dr. Robert Foote of        enable man to do things in his life which only a few
    Cornell, "I am reminded of a story where the pilot           decades ago were unheard of.
    came on and said, `This is your captain speaking. We           We are, e.g., all acquainted with the newest
    are flying at an altitude of 85,000 feet and the speed of    techniques in the area of contraception which,
    700 miles an hour. We have some good news and                when used according to instructions, can guarantee
    some bad news. The bad news is that we are lost. The         with almost complete certainty that no conception
    good news is that we are making excellent time."'            will follow intercourse. We are also aware of the
  To this story Dr. Davis adds:                                  fact that abortion has become, through the devel-
      This story, told by Professor Foote in testimony on        opment of "safe" medical procedures, a means to
    in vitro fertilization before the federal Ethics Advisory    terminate an unwanted pregnancy at any stage of
    Board in October of 1978, expresses in a humorous            the development of a child; and that because of
    way the very serious dilemmas facing modern man in           these new techniques, abortion has been legalized
    the closing decades of the twentieth century. Tech-          in this country and abroad and has resulted in the
    nologically we are making "excellent time;" morally          grim murder of thousands and thousands of unborn
    we at times appear to be lost.                               infants.
   It is our intention in a series of articles to ex-              Paradoxically, not only do many women who
amine the moral and ethical questions which con-                 become pregnant not want their unborn child, but
front the child of God because of the rapid and as-              many women who would like to have children can-
tounding advances in the fields of medicine,                     not for one reason or another have them. Medical
biology, and the combination of both in bio-                     science has also come to their rescue. Fertility
medicine. Before we enter into specific problem                  drugs,  in vitro  conception, artificial insemination,
areas however, we do well to give an overall picture             surrogate mothers, and other means have been in-
of the problem and discuss in a general way some                 vented to give women who want to become
of the questions which these advances have raised.               mothers their hearts' desires.
  That the advances have been rapid and some-
times astounding hardly needs saying in a time                     It is interesting in this connection to observe how
                                                                 the opinion of scientists changes almost from year
Herman Hanho is professor in the Church History and New          to year. Just a short time ago scientists were speak-
Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed                 ing in terms of gloom and doom of a population ex-
Seminary.                                                        plosion which would not only deplete the natural


176                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



resources of our planet, but would also lower the         face the many people filling nursing homes, but
quality of life as more and more people struggled to      also ethical questions. When is a person really
get into their possession the limited natural re-         dead? Is it the calling of believers to make use of
sources which were available. One could hear the          life-support equipment? If so, when? and for what
prophets of doom speaking of mass starvation and          length of time? Is it right to withhold life-support
bitter social struggle as these problems were faced       equipment? Or, after making use of it, is it right to
and attempts made to resolve them. Now, sudden-           discontinue its use? These problems face God's
ly, apparently the thinking is quite different. In the    people every day, and they are not always easy
December 16, 1985 issue of U.S. News  and World           problems to answer.
Report  an article appears which speaks of all'the          Speaking of disease, the November  11, 1985
horrendous things which are going to happen in the        issue of U.S. News and World Report quoted a pro-
near future because of the sharp decline in birth         fessor in a School of Medicine as saying; "We
rates in this country and Europe. With the decline        should eventually be able to develop safe, effective
in babies born the work force will grow smaller so        tools to combat any organism that causes disease."
that an insufficient number of people will be avail-      And the magazine itself, speaking of genetic
able to operate industry and provide services. The        engineering, says this:
U.S., now a major world power, will become a
second-rate power because the available man-pool                Now, a second revolution in treating  disease  is
for the armed forces will be too small to maintain a         beginning - due in large part to cracking the human
standing army, navy, and air force. The ratio be-            genetic code that controls the function of cells in the
                                                             body. Although the science of genes is in its infancy, it
tween those working and those depending upon                 has the potential for unraveling the origins of disease.
social security could go as low as one in three so           Doctors may one day treat patients by administering a
that three workers are supporting one person re-             normal gene to overcome a defective one - thus turn-
tired. The medical cost of supporting an aging               ing gene therapy into tomorrow's penicillin for in-
population will be staggering. And so, on and on.            herited defects such as hemophilia and for illnesses
The government is said to be seriously considering           ranging from depression to Alzheimer's disease.
various ways to provide incentives for people to            Notice in this quote the reference to physical
have more babies.                                         diseases not only, but also to depression, a mental
  Perhaps the most startling advance in the area of       state or state of the soul, which, scientists claim,
medical science has been the invention of genetic         will soon be amenable to medical treatment.
engineering, which can alter the genetic structure          In the June 24, 1985 issue of Christian News, in a
of living organisms. While for the present this bio-      rather lengthy article on the moral aspects of
medical technique has been limited in its practical       modern medical technology, reference was made to
application to the prevention of various diseases,        some of the boasts of today's scientists who speak
scientists speak of the time when its use will be ap-     of conquering all evil with the tools of their trade,
plied to the area of conception and birth. Not only       but also of the problems which are involved.
will parents be able to have a child of whatever sex
they prefer, but through genetic engineering com-               Nobel Prize-winning scientists claim they will be
bined with other techniques the IQ of a child will           able to produce live, carbon-copy clones of you in less
be able to be increased, hereditary diseases will be         than ten years. Corporations will have the legal right
prevented, various bodily characteristics such as            to own and sell all new forms of life they create in
color of the eyes, pigmentation of the skin, etc. will       their laboratories. Leading scientists are proposing
be able to be controlled according to the wishes of          that only people with certain "superior" genotypes be
                                                             licensed to have babies. Normal sexual reproduction
parents.                                                     might be totally replaced by artificial procedures.
  Combine all this with sperm banks and surrogate            Genetic engineers are talking about doubling the size
mothers and you have complexities in procreation             of the human brain in order to produce a new super
which seem almost to be endless.                             species of human beings. A major American company
                                                             has experimented with changing the human digestive
  At the same time that thousands of babies are              system so that people could eat and digest hay, like
murdered every day, scientists are putting forth             cows, One scientist says there is no reason why
their best efforts to prolong life so that the average       humans and plants could not be genetically crossed so
age people can expect to live is constantly ex-              that skin, like leaves, would perform photosynthesis
tended. Not only through sophisticated methods of            . . . .
testing, but through new treatment of diseases, life            Evolutionary scientist, George G. Simpson, con-
is prolonged beyond what could be expected but a             cluded one of his books by saying that man is "his
few decades ago. But this in its own way creates             own master. He can and must decide and manage his
medical problems not only, such as those which               own destiny."


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         177



   U.S. News and World Report itself recognizes the               state? Interesting as such comparisons may be, we
moral and ethical questions which all these ad-                   dare not overlook one radical difference - his world
vances bring up. The article quoted above says,                   was a brilliant and perceptive vision, ours is reality.
                                                                  His vision can be either read as entertainment, an-
      Yet despite these advances, many wonder treat-              alyzed as literature, or it can be ignored. Our reality
    ments are raising difficult ethical questions about how       cannot be ignored. No longer is it the province of
    lifesaving tools should be used  - and who should pay.        academics or dilettantes; it is rapidly becoming the
    Living longer does not automatically mean living bet-         everyday experience of us all. We are the characters
    ter. Across the country, doctors and lawyers are              in the brave new world; we ceased being the audience
    pondering what to do with the patient whose body is           long ago. It is we who are being changed and who are
    alive but whose brain no longer functions.                    having to make unpalatable and unrehearsed deci-
  All these things add greatly to the complexity of               sions; it is we, not some interesting figment of the col-
life and make decisions difficult to reach. While the             lective imagination, who are having to sort out the
world, itself recognizing that ethical issues are in-             priorities.
volved, does not appreciate the true moral implica-                 There is no escape from the ramifications of bio-
tions of many of the things which it does, the child              medical technology. Somehow we shall have to learn
of God who seeks to live a life in obedience to                   to live with and to cope with it. Unfortunately we ap-
Gods Word finds the way difficult to follow and                   pear to be particularly ill-prepared to do this. For so
the decisions hard to make.                                       long have we welcomed every new advance of tech-
                                                                  nology, that it now seems tantamount to heresy to
  D. Gareth Jones, in his book, Brave New People,                 question any aspect of it. In the biomedical realm it
(a book, by the way, which has stirred up consider-               has prolonged our life-span, eradicated most serious
able controversy in fundamentalist circles) writes                infectious diseases, ushered in brilliant reconstructive
of this.                                                          surgery and given us the opportunity to live life to the
                                                                  full. Technology is our ally and we are in its debt.
      Underlying all these developments is the promise
    and the  spectre of technology. They would not be               Unfortunately, this dependence upon technology
    serious issues for ordinary people were it not for our        has a price-tag. Continual improvement in the quality
    enormous technological capabilities in the areas of           of our physical lives is bought at a cost. Sometimes
    biology and medicine. It is tempting to compare the           this is a financial one, because sophisticated tech-
    sort of genetic engineering scientists are currently          nology is now very expensive; on other occasions it is
    engaged in, or the in vitro fertilization which is cur-       a human cost, as values come into conflict and one life
    rently being employed in a number of countries, with          has to be staked against another life. (pp. 4, 5).
    the ideas of a science-fiction writer such as Aldous         What does God's Word have to say to us in all
    Huxley. How does our brave new world compare               these difficult problems? That is the question we
    with his? How far have we gone along the road to a         face as we discuss these matters.
    biologically-controlled and biologically-replicated

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE
Herman Veldman





                                The Apostles' Creed (6)



  We concluded our preceding article with the                  proclaimed and taught today). God must speak as
observation that we must believe in God, the                   He alone can speak and as He spoke when He
Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. No              created the heavens and the earth. Indeed, I
sinner can or will or can will to accept a general,            believe, I  must  believe in God, the Father,
well-meaning offer of salvation (almost universally            Almighty, the Maker of heaven and of earth.


178                                           THE STANDARD `BEARER



  Then I believe, I must believe in Jesus Christ,            adores and is adored, He glorifies and is glorified -
God's only begotten Son, my Lord. This too is ab-            He is indeed the living God.
solutely necessary. As my almighty Father, He                  And what is the significance of this? It is the basis
must reveal Himself unto me through Jesus Christ,            for all true religion. God Himself is a covenant God.
in the way of the incarnation, suffering and death           A covenant as concluded among men may be an
and the cross, hell, resurrection, and ascension at          alliance or a pact or an agreement. Among men na-
the right hand of God. There is no salvation except          tions voluntarily enter with one another into a
in the way of the full and perfect satisfaction of           covenant relationship, a pact in which both parties
God's righteousness and justice. That justice of             bind themselves to certain promises and stipula-
God must be satisfied. God is holy and just and can-         tions. This is also true of a marriage relationship.
not deny Himself. And this full and perfect satisfac-        But here we are dealing with the living God. God's
tion cannot be accomplished except by our Lord               covenant, either in God Himself or with man, is of
Jesus Christ, as God's only begotten Son. God alone          course no contract or alliance or pact or agreement.
can accomplish it. Indeed, I believe in Jesus Christ,        A covenant, according to Scripture, is a relationship
God's only begotten Son, my Lord.                            - this is surely true of the living God. And this cer-
  And this must be climaxed by the fact that this            tainly determines God's relation with us. Because
almighty Father must sanctify me in and by the Ho-           God  is a covenant God He willed a covenant rela-
ly Spirit. He must dwell within me, operate within           tionship with us. The Lord is not a cold, frigid, one-
me almightily. Only then can I, will I, believe, trust       person god. In such a god, the god of the.unitarians,
in Him, love that alone living, triune God, the alone        there is no fellowship, no friendship. The Lord ex-
praise-worthy and adorable God, now and for ever-            ercises friendship within Himself. He is Himself a
more. God is one and He is three, the covenant God           covenant God. Hence, He is also a covenant God
of my eternal salvation. He is the Object of my              with us for His own Name's sake. The one is basic
faith.                                                       to the other. Would God, if He Himself were not a
  We now conclude our articles on Our Faith in               covenant God, will a life of covenant fellowship
the Triune God by calling attention to the signifi-          between Himself and a creature, man? But this is
cance of this doctrine.                                      not all. Our covenant relationship of friendship
                                                             with the Lord must be like His. It is upon this truth
  God is the living God. As far as the idea of life is       that the theory of Common Grace immediately suf-
concerned, life is not only action, but it is related        fers shipwreck. This theory suggests that God has
action. This is true of all life around us. There is no      fellowship with the sinner, as sinner, loves the sin-
life in solitude, in loneliness. In the plant world, life    ner, gives that sinner all kinds of natural gifts, such
is the adaptation of each plant, not only to be ac-          as health and sunshine and rain in His favor, is
tive, but to be active in connection with other              good to him in that universal sense of the word. In
plants, as the late Rev. Hoeksema explains in his            fact, the late Dr. A. Kuyper declares that the Lord
commentary of the Heidelberg Catechism. Plants               has entered into an alliance with man to thwart the
affect each other. This is also true in the world of         designs and purpose of the devil. How impossible
animals. We know that animals mate and associate             this is! God's own covenant life is a life of holiness
with each other. And the same applies, of course, to         and perfection. And this, of course, also determines
the world of men. Man is essentially a social being.         God's covenant with man. To commune with God,
Men (and women) must exercise fellowship with                to have fellowship with Him, is possible, not in
one another.                                                 darkness, but only in the light. This is what we read
  How true this is of the Lord! God is not only the          in I John  1:15-17: "This then is the message which
God of purest action, of power and wisdom and                we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that
love and holiness and goodness and truth. But He is          God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we
the Triune God, the Tri-Personal God, the  Father-           say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in
Son-Holy Spirit in the sphere of infinite and eternal        darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we
perfection, Who, as the Triune God, lives and en-            walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
joys forever and ever the relationship of perfect            fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
love and harmony. Hence, God is a covenant God.              Christ cleanseth us from all sin." Can a repudiation
He therefore truly lives within Himself. And as the          of this theory of Common Grace, of a relation of
living God He is surely Self-sufficient. He is in need       friendship between God and the sinner, as  sinner,
of none or anything beside Himself. In Himself He            be stated any more clearly than in this passage of I
knows and is known, He loves and is loved, He                John? The Lord, the living God, establishes His
                                                             covenant of friendship only with His people in
Herman Veldman is a minister emeritus in the Protestant      Christ Jesus. Nothing else is possible. Of course,
Reformed Churches.                                           this is true only in principle as long as we are in this


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                              179



earthly house of our tabernacle. But presently,                     here also call attention to Gods eternal counsel.
however, this will be culminated in heavenly and               And we also read of God's Fatherhood in relation to
immortal perfection, in the new heavens and upon               the believers for Jesus' sake. And finally we read of
the new earth when Christ will make all things                      His omnipotence, and also of His power and will-
new.                                                                ingness to cause all things to work together for our
                                                                    good. Indeed, what an amazing Lord's Day we have
        Our Faith In Our Almighty Father (1)                        here! And all this, we must understand, is treated
  The first article of the Apostles' Creed reads, "I           by the Catechism as the object of the faith of the
believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of                       child of God. It is the child of God who believes in
heaven and earth."                                                  this almighty Father, for Jesus' sake, and who
                                                                    therefore may know and believe that he is com-
  Our Heidelberg Catechism explains this first arti-                pletely safe in the midst of the world, who says, "I
cle in Lord's Day 9, Answer 26 as follows:                     believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of
        That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ            heaven and earth."
    [who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that
    is in them; who likewise upholds and governs the                  When treating this first article of our Apostles'
    same, by his eternal counsel and providence) is for the         Creed, one can dwell upon and discuss so many
    sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father; on                 things. One, for example, can ask very difficult
    whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt, but he           questions in regard to the doctrine of creation and
   will provide me with all things necessary for soul and           the counsel of God. Did God, when He created the
    body: and further, that he will make whatever evils he          world, become something He was not prior to this
    sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my          work of creation, namely a Creator? When the Lord
    advantage; for he is able to do it, being Almighty God,         created the world, did not something begin to exist
    and willing, being a faithful Father.                           which previously had not existed? Was God,
  What a tremendous answer this is, Answer 26 of                    therefore, richer after He made the world than He
our Heidelberg Catechism! To be sure, there are                     was before He made the world? Is not God with the
other wonderful answers in this book of instruc-                    world richer than God without the world? Did God
tion. Answer 1 is a very beautiful answer: our only                 become a Father when He begat a people in Christ
comfort in life and in death. Another beautiful and            Jesus? However, does not this answer speak of the
wonderful answer is the answer to Question 54 of                    "eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"? And, do
Lord's Day 21, concerning the holy catholic                         we not read here that God is the Father of Christ,
church. And then there is Answer 60 in Lord's Day                   His Son? Indeed, how wonderful is this first article
23, to the question which reads, "How art thou                      of our Apostles' Creed, and what an amazing
righteous before God?" And, of course, there are                    answer is this twenty-sixth answer!
other beautiful Lords Days. Fact is, this entire                      Our Heidelberg Catechism, in this twenty-sixth
book is a wonderful book of instruction; one can                    answer, mentions God's eternal counsel and provi-
only stand amazed that these young authors                          dence. That Gods eternal counsel should be im-
(Zacharias Ursinus and Casper Olevianus) were                  plied in this first article of the Apostles' Creed lies
able to produce such a wonderful book as this                  in the very nature of the case. We believe in God,
Heidelberg Catechism. Lord's Day 9, however, is                the Father,  .Almighty,  Maker of heaven and earth.
also very wonderful. This is the Catechism's ex-               We read in Acts 15: 18, "Known unto God are all his
planation of the first article of the Apostles' Creed.         works from the beginning of the world." And in
It is amazing how much our fathers can say in such             Isaiah  46:lO we read, "Declaring the end from the
few words. What tremendous ability on the part of              beginning, and from ancient times the things that
our fathers! The same thing. is true as far as our             are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand,
other confessions are concerned, the Canons of                 and I will do all my pleasure." A builder erects a
Dordt and our Confession of Faith. This entire                 building according to a plan designed by an ar-
answer, Answer 26, we must understand, is just                 chitect. God is the heavenly Builder and Maker and
one sentence. And let us consider all the truths               Architect. He does all things according to His eter-
which are set forth here in this twenty-sixth                  nal counsel and plan, having willed all things from
answer. This answer speaks of the eternal Father-              before the foundations of the world.
hood of God as in relation to Gods eternal Son.
Then, it speaks of the eternal Fatherhood of God               I                                                            I
with relation to our Lord Jesus Christ. Besides this,                        Read and Study
we also read here of the divine creation of the
heavens and the earth out of nothing. Then, we also                    The Standard Bearer!
read here of God's providence, although this sub-
ject is also treated in Lord's Day 10. Our fathers


180                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



FAITH OF OUR FATHERS
James D. Slopsema





                                         The Baptism Form



                Our Part in the Covenant
   According to the Baptism Form the third prin-                 first meet before God can or will do His part. This
cipal part of the doctrine of baptism is as follows:             would be rank Arminianism and is to be rejected.
          Whereas in all covenants, there are contained two        Neither is it the case that God's part and our part
       parts: therefore are we by God through baptism, ad-       in the covenant is a matter of cooperation. In that
       monished of, and obliged unto new obedience, name-        case the covenant would depend on us doing our
       ly, that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son, and      part and God doing His part. Should we fail in do-
       Holy Ghost; that we trust in him, and love him with
       all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our mind,    ing our part, the covenant itself would fail regard-
       and with all our strength; that we forsake the world,     less of God's efforts to establish and maintain the
       crucify our old nature, and walk in a new and holy        covenant. This too is to be rejected as being totally
       life.                                                     contrary to Scripture.
          And if we sometimes through weakness fall into           Rather is the relation such that our part in the
       sin, we must not therefore despair of God's mercy,        covenant is totally dependent on God's part. God's
       nor continue in sin, since baptism is a seal and un-      part in the covenant is always first and primary.
       doubted testimony, that we have an eternal covenant       Our part in the covenant is merely the fruit of God
       of grace with God.                                        doing His part.
   Quite obviously the third principal part of the                 To understand all this we must remember that
doctrine of baptism deals with our part in the cove-             God's covenant is a living relation of friendship and
nant of grace. We have already seen that baptism is              fellowship between God and His elect people. The
a sign and seal of God's covenant of grace. Accord-              elect, we have seen, are to be identified by their
ing to the Baptism Form, "when we are baptized in                faith in Jesus Christ.
the name of the Father, God the Father witnesseth
and sealeth unto us, that he doth make an eternal                  Due to the very nature of the covenant, God's
covenant of grace with us." Now the form will                    part in the covenant is to draw near to His people in
speak of our part in that covenant.                              His love and fellowship. What specifically God
                                                                 does in His love is briefly set forth in the second
   In the covenant of grace there are two parts:                 principal part of the doctrine of baptism, which we
there is God's part and there is our part. We must               considered in our last article. In His love God, first
be careful to understand the relation between the                of all, adopts His chosen `people as His own
two.                                                             children and heirs to His glorious inheritance. In
   Certainly the relation between these two parts of             His love He also provides them with every good
the covenant is not such that God's part is depend-              thing, and averts all evil or turns it to their profit.
ent on us doing our part. To put it differently, our
part in the covenant is not a condition that we must               At this point we may begin speaking of our part
                                                                 in the covenant. Our part in the covenant is to
                                                                 return God's love so that we serve Him in loving
James D. Slopsema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed           gratitude. This follows from the very nature of the
Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.                                   covenant. The covenant is a relation of friendship


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 181



and fellowship with God, a relation of love and            to walk in new obedience.
companionship. For such a relation to exist it is not        The Baptism Form goes on to describe this new
only necessary for God to show His love to us, it is       obedience.
also necessary that we love God in return and show
that love in our capacity as creatures by serving            Of all that the form has to say about this new
God.                                                       obedience the chief and central idea is that we love
                                                           God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all
  However, by nature we cannot keep our part in            our mind, and with all our strength. This means
the covenant. As the Baptism Form has already in-          that we are to love God with all that we are and in
structed us, we with our children are conceived            all that we do. We are to love God every minute of
and born in sin. We are corrupt and depraved, so           every day and in every part of our life. Our whole
much so that we will not and can not serve God in          life must be one expression of love to God. This, ac-
love. God in His love can adopt us as His children         cording to our Lord Jesus Christ, is the great com-
and heirs. In His tender love He can provide us            mandment of the law (cf. Matt. 22:37-40).  And this
with all sorts of good gifts. But the fact remains that    obligation of ours, we have already seen, is fully in
we are conceived and born in sin so that we can not        harmony with the whole idea of the covenant as a
return His love. All we can do and all we will do is       living relation of friendship and fellowship. In the
to hate Him and walk in rebellion against Him. We          power of the washing away of our sins, we are obli-
will spurn His fellowship. We will refuse Him as a         gated by God to love Him as our part of the cove-
Companion and Friend. And, of course, that means           nant of grace.
that a covenant relation of friendship and fellow-
ship is impossible, made impossible by our inability         The Baptism Form goes on to show us how we
to do our part in the covenant.                            are to manifest this love. We are to forsake the
                                                           world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a new
  For this reason the Baptism Form, in describing          and holy life.
the second principal part of the doctrine of bap-
tism, goes on to describe the work of God to wash            Negatively, we are to forsake the world. The
away our sins. Not only does God adopt us, His             world here is the world of sin and darkness in
people, to be His children and heirs, providing us         which we live. Our love for the triune God must
with every good thing, but He also washes away             come to expression in such a way that we forsake
our sins in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. And         this world. The love of God must turn us away
through the Spirit of Christ God also dwells in us         from this world so that we refuse to be a part of its
His people, sanctifying us to be members of Christ,        corruption and evil. We are to be in the world, but
applying to us that which we have in Christ, name-         not of the world.
ly, the washing away of our sins and the daily               To do this requires that we crucify our old
renewing of our lives.                                     nature. Through the washing away of our sins in
  This work of God in Christ to wash away our sins         the blood of Jesus Christ we have been principally
also belongs to God's part in the covenant. And            renewed. However, there is still remaining in each
what an important work it is. For it is only through       one of us a sinful nature full of evil lusts and pas-
this washing away of sins in Christ that we can and        sions. If, therefore, we will renounce and forsake
will do our part in the covenant. The fruit of the         the world of sin, it is necessary to crucify our old
washing away of our sins is that we do respond to          nature. That means that in the power of Christ's
Gods love. We love Him, even as He has loved us.           crucifixion we put to death the evil cravings of our
In love we delight to serve Him. We also desire His        sinful nature so that they no more reign over us and
fellowship and companionship.                              lead us into the corruption of this world.
  Such, then, is our part in the covenant in relation        Positively, the love that baptism obligates us to
to God's part. God's part is first and primary. Our        have for God is to manifest itself in that we walk in
part is merely the fruit, the necessary fruit, of          a new and holy life. Our whole life must be new
God's part.                                                and different from the life of this world. It must be
  Quite in harmony with this the Baptism Form in-          a holy life, a life consecrated exclusively to the serv-
structs us that by baptism we are by God ad-               ice of the living God.
monished of and obliged unto new obedience. Bap-             To attain all this it is necessary that we cleave to
tism is a sign and seal of the washing away of our         this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is
sins in the blood of Christ, a sign, therefore, of the     an expression of faith. Faith is a clinging to God and
very work of God that enables us to do our part in         to His Son, Jesus Christ. By that faith we receive
the covenant. Consequently, through the sacra-             Gods grace and Holy Spirit to love the Lord our
ment of baptism itself God admonishes and                  God day by day, to forsake the world and to walk in
obligates us to do our part in the covenant, namely,       a new and holy life.


182                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



   This is our part in the covenant of grace. To this        God seals to us in baptism is an eternal covenant.
we are admonished and obligated by baptism.                  That implies that this covenant can never be
                                                             broken. It can be violated; and we violate it every
   The Baptism Form concludes this section with a            time we sin. But the covenant can never be broken
word of comfort and encouragement. The form                  in the sense that it is disannulled or destroyed
recognizes that because of the weakness of our               because of our sins. This is because God is a  mer-
flesh we often fail to do our part in the covenant of        ciful God and, therefore, a forgiving God. When we
grace. We do not always love God with that zeal as           come to God with our sins and confess our sins
we are bound. We often fall into sin. These sins are         with grieving hearts, God in mercy will forgive us
often horrible sins. The Scriptures are filled with          for Christ's sake and receive us again into His
many examples of shocking sins that the saints in            blessed love and fellowship. What is more, when
the past have committed. We today are no dif-                we stumble and fall into sin, God in His great mer-
ferent.                                                      cy will even lead us to Himself in repentance and
   The Baptism Form warns us that when we do fall            confession so that we may be reconciled to Him
into such sins, we are not to despair of God's mer-          and be received into His favor.
cy. And certainly we must not in the state of                  Certainly then we are not to despair when we fall
despair continue in sin, thinking that all is lost. For      into sin and fail to do our part in the covenant. Nor
according to the Porm, baptism is Gods seal and              are we to continue in sin. But in the power of Gods
undoubted testimony to us as believers that we               great love and mercy, sealed to us in baptism itself,
have an eternal covenant of grace with God. The              we are to repent and turn again to our God to do
emphasis falls on the word "eternal." The covenant           our part in the covenant as forgiven sinners.

GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH
Thomas C. Miersma





                   Scripture Interprets Scripture:
                                        Grammatically


            (Reformed Bible Study - 2)                       remarks which it is necessary to make. The place to
  We began in the last article in this column to con-        begin is by reading Scripture, the passage or text in
sider the application of the principle, Scripture in-        its place and context in the Word of God. This in-
terprets Scripture, from the viewpoint of the text of        volves the application of the principle, Scripture in-
Scripture. We raised the question, where do you              terprets Scripture historically, which was discussed
begin the study of a text or passage of Scripture? We        in an earlier article. We will assume for the sake of
did so moreover with the qualification that we               our discussion that the reader has a certain passage
would seek to answer this question from the view-            before him which he wishes to study. And that
point of someone who does not have access to the             following the historical principle he has also some
original languages but only to the English Bible.            idea of the place of that passage in the book of the
                                                            - Bible he is considering and the theme of the book.
  Last time we made a few observations about our             The reader is referred to the "Bible Study Guides"
King James Version by way of preliminary                     published in the Standard Beaver as being helpful
remarks. There are a few other preliminary                   tools in this connection.
                                                               The second observation is that while we will
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed     discuss various approaches and techniques to be
Church of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.                         used in Bible study, these must not be approached


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               183



mechanically or as a mere step-by-step method.             to bring Scripture to bear upon itself. A good con-
The intention is neither to present such a method          cordance will give you every occurrence of a word
nor to be exhaustive. A word of caution is also in         in the Bible, give you help in a variety of different
order. It is possible to become so caught up in the        ways if you take the time to learn how to use it, and
mechanics of Bible study and the intellectual enjoy-       even to some extent allow you to distinguish be-
ment of it that you lose sight of the object being         tween words and meanings in the original lan-
studied, which is God's Word. The fundamental              guages without knowing them. The center
principle of all Bible study is that we are taught of      references in many Bibles are, for all practical pur-
God, and that requires prayerful and reverent              poses, a sort of selected mini-concordance, but are
study, spiritual reflection on the meaning of Gods         of limited usefulness exactly because they are in-
Word, and the appropriation of it by faith.                complete. There are also some incomplete concor-
  The third remark has to do with various tools for        dances available which have limited usefulness as
Bible study. This question invariably comes up.            well. For serious Bible study there are only two
While these do not take the place of Scripture itself,     worth considering: the one is  Strong's Exhaustive
they are a means to assist us in our study and to          Concordance  of  the Bible,  the other is  Young's
locate Scripture's meaning and its own commen-             AnaZyticaZ Concordance to the Bible. Each one has
tary. There are many such topics available; four of        certain features and advantages over the other, but
them are perhaps the most basic and useful. The            both will accomplish the same purpose. It is more a
first is a Bible atlas which goes beyond the few           matter of how you use them and how they work
maps found in most Bibles. Atlases are useful tools        which distinguishes them. There is a third concor-
for the study of historical passages and are for the       dance,  Cmden's Concordance,  which is popular in
most part reliable. The second tool is a Bible dic-        either its abridged or unabridged form, but it is in-
tionary which provides background information on           complete, lacks many of the features of the other
the plants and animals of the Bible, the meaning of        two, and is therefore less useful.
names, places, descriptions of the tabernacle or the         With these remarks and tools in mind, where do
temple, and the high priest's vestments, etc. There        we begin?. If we were working with the original
are a large number of Bible dictionaries or encyclo-       languages we would begin with the grammar and
pedias, some excellent ones which are no longer            translation of the text. It is for this reason that the
available and a host of modern ones. If the reader         reformers' approach to Scripture is sometimes called
desires a specific suggestion, probably the best one-      the grammatical-historical-spiritual approach. This
volume Bible dictionary currently available is the         is also the reason we have called this portion of our
Davis Dictionary of the Bible. J.D. Davis was a con-       series the grammaticzal  one. Working however from
servative Presbyterian and a co-laborer with B.B.          the English Bible with the translation already
Warfield.  Warfield and other conservative Presby-         before us we will begin slightly differently, by
terians have contributed articles to it, and while it      dividing the material into three different sections,
does not have the colorful photographs of more re-         considering the words of the text first, which is
cent works it has more substance. It also has com-         perhaps the easiest to do, then the grammar, and
plete Scriptural references which allow one to go          then certain special elements which can be taken
directly to the Scriptures and to locate what is being     up into our study.
discussed.                                                   Having some idea of the general purpose and
  The third and fourth tools have a more direct            meaning of the passage before us and its place in
bearing upon the matter we are discussing. The             the book we are studying and the Word of God, our
third is a good English dictionary, something more         first goal is to understand the meaning of the words
than a pocket dictionary or the glossary located in        of the text and their use, idea, and concept in the
the back of some Bibles. While the English diction-        Scriptures both as a whole and in our particular
ary is not based directly on Scripture nor drawn           passage. The place to begin is by looking up any
from it, as for the most part the Greek and Hebrew         words in the passage which are unclear or obscure
dictionaries or lexicons are, nevertheless it is an im-    in their meaning. English is a living language, and
portant tool. Our KJV Bible has over the course of         over the course of years the meaning of some words
years, because of its importance, served to shape          has shifted or changed, narrowed or in some in-
and mold the English language and the meaning of           stances dropped out of use. In Psalm 5:6 for exam-
words, and this  should  ,be reflected in a good dic-      ple, the text reads "thou shalt destroy them that
tionary. The fourth tool is a concordance. This is         speak leasing." This is not our present use of the
the most useful and essential tool for Bible study as      word "leasing." The first thing to do in studying
it is the instrument to locate Scripture's own com-        Psalm 5 therefore is to look this word up in either
mentary. With it one can trace the various words of        the glossary of your Bible or your dictionary. This
Scripture or ideas, and locate parallel passages so as     applies also to words whose meaning has shifted.


184                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



The word "conversation" in our KJV has a broader            upon the passage you are studying? What does it
meaning than a mere dialogue between two  per-              say about its meaning? It is by learning to ask ques-
sons. It often refers to one's whole course of life         tions of the text and seeking answers to them, by
and walk.                                                   reflecting upon its meaning each step of the way,
   This process should be carried further however,          that we learn to hear what the passage is saying. It
by looking up in the dictionary all the major words,        is amazing how much can be learned from a
terms, and expressions in the passage, even the             passage and how much more clearly its meaning
ones you think you know well. Part of the difficulty        can be grasped by this simple use of an English dic-
with the way we so often read is that we have only          tionary.
a vague and fuzzy idea of the meaning of words,               It may well be however that none of the material
and we skim over a Bible passage when we read it            found in the dictionary answers our questions well
without understanding it clearly. The purpose of            or in a satisfactory way. The dictionary is a starting
careful Bible study is exactly to overcome this             point for our study, not an end point. If the passage
weakness and hear what God is saying to us, sharp-          includes names or places, look them up in the Bible
ly and clearly. Look at the various meanings or             dictionary as well. In either case we have yet to go
shades of meaning the dictionary gives for the              to our concordance and to pursue Scripture directly
word. Which ones are used in Scripture? Which               itself. This we will have to take up more fully in our
one seems to fit most closely to the passage you are        next article, D.V.
studying in its context? What light does this shed

IN HIS FEAR
Barrett L. Gritters





           Understanding Church Discipline (2)


   Our children need to be disciplined when they            church is not determined by the number of people
sin. As children of God and members of the church,          that it can retain within its walls, but rather by her
we need in our life the discipline of Christ directly       ability to enforce the spiritual discipline of Christ,
with His chastening rod and heavy hand, making              and to cast out of her fellowship those who refuse
us repent from our deviant ways and return to the           to walk according to the plain declaration and or-
right relation with Him and our fellow believers.           dinances of God (see the Belgic Confession, Articles
But He also gives the church the responsibility to          29, 30).
discipline its members. That is, Christ uses at least         That this is work humanly impossible to per-
two methods to bring us to our senses when we are           form, none would deny. That it is sometimes
pursuing an unhindered course of destruction  -             unpleasant for all involved is certain. But I would
His convicting Spirit and the officers in His church.       rather have a surgeon. cut me open and make me
There are others, but these are what we are con-            know pain, so that I could be healed, than that he
cerned with in church discipline.                           mislead me into thinking that all is well by giving
                                                            me a pain killer. The difference here is that our
   The church which compasses land and sea to               Surgeon is divine, and the sometimes painful and
make converts, but fails to discipline its members,         unpleasant remedy brings eternal life for those
is a church that will self-destruct. The strength of a      under His knife. Pray God that the church may use
                                                            the tools of the divine Surgeon in love for the sin-
Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed    ner, always with the desire that our brothers and
Church of Byron Center, Michigan.                           sisters be healed.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 185



  Motives. Discipline must always be motivated by         sins the way of Matthew 18 must be followed. That
love for the sinner (an unrepentant sinner goes to        is, when a brother sins against you, you must go to
hell and the repentant to heaven), love for the           him first alone to try to "win" him (in ideal cir-
church (a little leaven leavens the whole lump: I         cumstances, you and the brother ought to bump in-
Cor. 5:6), and love for Christ's name (untouched sin      to each other on the way to one another's homes.
in the body of Christ dishonors the Head as well).        See Matt. 5:23, 24 along with Matt. 18). If no repen-
There are no carnal motives, nothing to gain for          tance comes, you take another or two with you. If
disciplining an erring member, no ulterior motives.       the brother or sister still does not repent with these
This may even be an admonition to officebearers           private admonitions, that compels you to "tell it un-
(and all of us) who might desire to "get rid of" a        to the church" (vs. 18). By that command, Christ
member who is one they would like "out of" the            brings His discipline into the consistory room.
church. Discipline must be motivated by obedience           Do we understand this clearly? This means that
to Christ and love for the church.                        we keep sin as private as possible. If no repentance
  The  purpose. Motive is similar to purpose. Ac-         is realized in private admonitions, we take it to the
cording to the Church Order of the The Protestant         consistory  - to no one else. There is probably a
Reformed, Churches, article 71, the purpose of            temptation to ask advice from others: friends,
discipline is both positive and negative. Positively,     neighbors, other saints in the church. Christ forbids
discipline is always to save the sinner in the way of     that. Out of love for the sinner, we must proceed
repentance. If the sinner repents, angels and elders      immediately to the "church." The consistory has
rejoice. Let it be our prayer that none ever forget       been commissioned by Christ to take over at this
that purpose in discipline as it is exercised upon        point.
them or others in their church. Negatively,                 First Measure Taken. When the consistory is in-
discipline is performed so that  offence is removed       formed of the sin, and works long with the sinner
from the church of Christ. If that is done by the sin-    who still refuses to repent, he must first be barred
ner leaving his sins, we shout for joy. If that must      from the Lord's  Supper, lest  it be desecrated and
be done by excluding the sinner, it is cause for great    judgment fall on the entire congregation (see I Cor-
mourning (see I Corinthians  5:2), for then he            inthians  10:21;  11:28-31, 34). This is called "silent
reveals that he is not a true member of the body of       censure" (and is not the "first step" of the three an-
Christ. These two purposes as given in Article 71         nouncements made in the congregation: see box).
will come out more clearly as we look at the in-
dividual steps of discipline.                                             SUMMARY OF THE
  The ground. That is, "`Why is discipline ever exer-                   STEPS OF DISCIPLINE
cised in the church?" There is only one ground for
discipline  - ever. Often it is asked why an                 FIRST MEASURE: Silent Censure (withheld
adulterer is disciplined, but not a liar or backbiter.              from the Lord's Supper)
"Isn't the one worse?" But that question misses the          SECOND MEASURE: The three announce-
point. Impenitence is the only reason anyone is ever                ments to the church (usually con-
disciplined. If a man murders, but is sorry for that                sidered  The Three Steps  of discipline)
sin, he will not be disciplined. But if a man gossips               1. Announcement of sin with name
about his neighbor and does not repent, that "rela-                    withheld.
tively light" sin can lead to excommunication from                  2. Announcement of sin  and  name (wl
the church. The point is that onZy unrepentant sin -                   Classis approval)
sin that is continued before God and the neighbor                   3. Announcement that excommunica-
(no matter how seemingly slight it might be) - war-                    tion will take place if no repentance
rants discipline. Or, to be more specific, the only                    is seen.
reason anyone is ever disciplined is the sin of fail-        THIRD MEASURE: Excommunication itself
ing to repent.                                                      (the last remedy)
  There are really two kinds of sins that could be
dealt with here. Later, sins that have become public         There are a couple of things that need to be said
knowledge  will be looked at. For now we will             at this point. First, the consistory must continue to
discuss  private sins  that proceed the way of Mat-       work with the unrepentant sinner until their
thew 18.                                                  knuckles are sore from knocking at his door.  Un-
  Matthew 18 gives us a basic outline for the dif-        wearyingly they labor in love for the salvation of
ferent steps in church discipline; there the Lord         one of the wandering sheep. Continuously they
tells us what to do when there is sin in His church.      pray that God will "afflict" the sinner so he might
We will assume that all are agreed that in private        "learn His statutes" and confess, "It was good for


186                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



       .  .  .  . " With singleness of mind and heart they    always ended and announced as such to the congre-
g:severe in their labors to bring him back to                 gation. Then is time for great rejoicing with the
Christ. Because we are all human, it is almost im-            angels and the returned sinner. But in some cases
possible to know the heart in one or two visits. And          there is still no repentance; and God's word in-
although an end must be determined by the prayer-             structs to continue with discipline.
ful decision of the consistory, never may it be laid            The Second Announcement. After receiving the ap-
to their charge that there was not enough labor per-          proval of the  Classis so that others can determine
formed.                                                       that the consistory has done its work properly (all
   Second, those taking heed to the wandering sin-            names are kept confidential), the consistory makes
ner must always use God's Word. This is so critical           an announcement similar to the first, but now in-
that it cannot be  gainsaid  or left unsaid. No other         cludes the name of the sinner. Here is where so
sound will the sheep hear, but the voices of Christ           much misunderstanding comes, so we will be care-
through His Word. A sheep wandering can be                    ful to explain the reasons for this action. (See also
brought back in no other way than by the voice of             "objections answered" in the next article.)
the Shepherd. They risk the Chief Shepherds severe              From the viewpoint of the sinner, this is another
reprimand who leave one of the sheep to the                   step to show him (or her) the gravity of excommuni-
wolves because they refused to use Christ's power-            cation. It is another means to exhibit the horrible
ful Word. It alone can reach out to the hard heart,           reality of being excluded by Christ from the
soften it, and retrieve the sinner. On the other              kingdom of heaven  - from Christ Himself. Their
hand, woe to any who, by using his own words,                 failure to repent is leading them on the path to eter-
brings back into the flock a goat who might have              nal damnation. That is utterly serious.
been hardened had Christ's Words been used prop-
erly. The exclusive tool to be used throughout                  From the viewpoint of the congregation,  they
discipline is the Divine Surgeon's Knife.                     must be involved in the process of discipline. All
                                                              Christians are responsible to a certain extent for a
  After much labor in love and with the Word, if              sinner's sins (see last article). And by making the
the fruit of that labor is not repentance, the  con-          name public, the church (consistory) is giving the
sistory formulates a first announcement to the con-           congregation opportunity not only to pray for the
gregation.                                                    impenitent, but also to visit, admonish, and pray
  The First Announcement. This is considered the              with him.
beginning of the second measure. It is called the               Biblical support is found in II Thessalonians
first step, because it is the first announcement to           3: 14. This passage tells us that "if any man obey not
the congregation (see box). In this announcement,             our word by this epistle, note that man, and have
1) the name of the sinner is not announced, "that             no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
he be somewhat spared" (Church Order, Art 77); 2)             Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him
the patient care taken with the sinner is explained;          as a brother." Two things are apparent and
3) the congregation is notifed that he has been often         especially important in this text. First, the church is
admonished and is now barred from the Lord's                  to "note that man," that is, consider and mark who
Supper; and 4) the congregation is asked to pray              the impenitent one is. Second, the church does that
that the sin be removed. There is both Scriptural             before the impenitent is excommunicated (he is still
and practical warrant for this step.                          considered a "brother") so that the congregation
  Titus  3:lO tells us that a man that is a heretic           has opportunity to "admonish him as a brother."
after the first and second admonition must be re-             Reformed churches have determined that this is the
jected. This at least gives us indication that a series       orderly, obedient, and God glorifying way to exer-
of admonitions must be used with the sinner. That             cise church discipline.
his name is not announced is based on the principle             (Next: The Third Announcement; Excommunica-
of Galatians 6:l (we restore the brother in the spirit        tion; Why public announcements of repentant sin-
of meekness) and the principle that we must always            ners who have committed public sins?)
labor in love with the sinner. The church does all
that it possibly can to keep the sinner's name
private. That the problem is announced is to re-                       The Standard Bearer
quest the congregation's prayers, but also to show
the erring brother or sister that sin cannot be taken             makes a though@1 gift for
lightly. Let us never take it lightly either, but pray,
pray, pray.                                                                the sick or shut-in.
  Always the desire is that the sinner be brought to
repentance. And if that happens, the matter is


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              187



THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH
Ronald L. Cammenga





      Remarriage of the "Innocent Party" (2)



  Last time we cited the three Scripture passages          together faulty argument. In no sense is the Apostle
that `are often appealed to by those who teach the         making requirements of officebearers here that are
right of the "innocent party" to remarry: Deuter-          to be true only of them and not at all of the rest of
onomy  24:1,  2;  I Timothy  3:2,  12;  and Matthew        the members of the church. On this argument, the
19:9. In this article we want to take a closer look at     officebearers are not to give themselves to wine,
these passages and see that they do not in fact sup-       not to be greedy of filthy lucre, not brawlers, and
port this position.                                        proud, but it is permitted the rest of the members of
  First of all, this is true of Deuteronomy  24:1, 2.      the church to be drunkards, covetous, brawlers,
The statement at the end of verse  2,  "she  may go        and proud. This certainly is not the teaching of the
and be another man's wife," is incorrectly under-          Apostle in I Timothy 3. The requirements that he
stood when it is interpreted as permitting the re-         lays down for officebearers are requirements that
marriage of the "innocent party." The word "may"           ought to be true of every member of the church,
is not used here in the sense of "it is permitted, she     but requirements which ought especially and to a
is at liberty," as the original Hebrew makes plain.        greater degree to be true of officebearers. Especial-
"May" is used here in the sense of "it is possible, it     ly in the case of the officebearers, but also of every
may happen." This is how we often use the word             member of the church, it ought to be true that he is
"may" in our everyday speech. If I say, "I may go          the husband of one wife, or the wife of one hus-
to the store this afternoon," then I don't mean that I     band, as the case may be. Remarriage of divorced
am permitted to go to the store, but I mean that it is     people is not permitted.
quite possible, it may happen that I will go to the          Appeal is also made to Matthew 19:9 in support
store. This is how Deuteronomy  24:1, 2 must be            of the permissibility of the remarriage of the "inno-
understood. The law here is only recognizing what          cent party." The passage contains Jesus' words,
may very likely happen, and in the case of this            "And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his
eventuality laying down a further commandment.             wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry
No justification for the remarriage of the "innocent       another, committeth adultery: and  whoso  marrieth
party" can be found here.                                  her which is put away doth commit adultery." This
  The same is true of the passage in I Timothy 3:2,        passage, it is said, establishes one ground for
12. In this passage the Apostle Paul lists the qualifi-    divorce and one ground for remarriage: "Except it
cations of elders and deacons. Since the Apostle           be for fornication." Fornication is the ground for
specifies that the elders and deacons must be "the         divorce. But one who has obtained a divorce on the
husband of one wife," it is argued that it was per-        ground of fornication may also remarry.
mitted the ordinary members of the church, those             In fact, this is not the teaching of Matthew 19:9.
who did not serve in the special offices, to be the        Not only does this passage not teach the right of the
husband of more than one wife, either due to               "innocent party" to remarry, but the last part of the
polygamy or divorce and remarriage. This is an al-         verse is in reality a clear condemnation of the
                                                           remarriage of the "innocent party." The last part of
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed    the text refers to the remarriage of the woman
Church of Loveland, Colorado.                              divorced in the first part of the text: "and  whoso


188                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



marrieth her which is put away doth commit adul-                      Adams agrees with this position. Carrying this posi-
tery." But the woman who was divorced in the first                    tion out consistently, these men are forced to allow
part of the text was divorced unlawfully. Her hus-                    even the remarriage of the guilty party in the
band, divorcing her and marrying another, commit-                     divorce, and ultimately all divorced people. If the
ted adultery. Concerning that woman, that woman                       divorce actually dissolves the marriage bond, what
who had been divorced unlawfully, who was there-                      is to prevent remarriage?
fore the "innocent party," Jesus says that whoever                      But divorce does not dissolve the marriage bond.
marries her "doth commit adultery." The Lord ex-                      No act of man, but only an act of God can dissolve
pressly teaches here that the "innocent party" may                    that which God has united. And God dissolves the
not remarry. The exception clause, "except it be for                  marriage bond by death. Because only death
fornication," qualifies only- the prohibition of                      dissolves the marriage bond, it is the only ground
divorce, and does not give a ground for remarriage.                   for remarriage.
  There are at least two strong arguments from the                      This is the teaching of the Scriptures. This is the
Scriptures that may be brought against the position                   teaching of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:1-3:
that allows for the remarriage of the "innocent par-                  "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that
ty."                                                                  know the law,) how that the law hath dominion
  First of all, against this position is Jesus' unqual-               over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman
ified condemnation of the remarriage of all di-                       which hath an husband is bound by the law to her
vorced people. This is the Lord's instruction in                      husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be
Mark  10:11, 12: "Whosoever shall put away his                        dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So
wife, and marry another, committeth adultery                          then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to
against her. And if a woman shall put away her hus-                   another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but
band, and be married to another, she committeth                       if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so
adultery." This is also the teaching of Jesus in Luke                 that she is no adulteress, though she be married to
16:18, "Whosoever putteth away his wife, and mar-                     another man."
rieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever                       In this passage the Apostle teaches that as long as
marrieth her that is put away from her husband                        they are alive, a husband and a wife are bound by
committeth adultery." In these passages Jesus for-                    the law to each other. If while they are both alive,
bids absolutely the remarriage of all divorced peo-                   either of them is married to someone else, they
ple. Whoever divorces and remarries commits                           commit adultery. Only death frees the husband or
adultery. Although there is one ground for divorce,                   wife from the law of marriage.
there is no ground for remarriage.                                      This is also the Apostle's teaching in I Corin-
  In the second place, the Scriptures prohibit the                    thians  7:39: "The wife is bound by the law as long
remarriage of the "innocent party" by their                           as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead,
teaching that nothing but death severs the marriage                   she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; on-
bond, so that as long as my marriage partner is                       ly in the Lord."
alive, I am bound by the law to that partner.                           There is only one thing that sets a woman at
Divorce does not sever the marriage bond. If it did,                  liberty to marry.again.  That is not her divorce from
then it would be permitted the "innocent party" to                    her first husband. But it is only the death of her
remarry. If divorce dissolved the marriage contract,                  husband. Then she is free to marry again, without
then nothing could stand in the way of the right of                   fear of committing adultery.
remarriage.                                                             In clear language the Scriptures condemn
  This is the position concerning divorce that                        divorce, except on the ground of fornication. In
many have taken, that divorce does in fact break                      equally clear language, the Scriptures condemn the
the marriage bond. This is the position of both John                  remarriage of divorced people, even the remarriage
Murray and Jay Adams. In the quotation which we                       of the "innocent party."
cited from Murray in the previous article, he states:                   This is not to say that the Scriptures and the
       The considerations preponderate rather in favour of            church are unsympathetic to the plight of divorced
       the conclusion that when a man puts away his wife              people. This is not to say that we are cold, hard-
       for the cause of fornication this putting away has the         hearted, and unfeeling with respect to the diffi-
       effect of  dissolving the bond of marriage  (emphasis ours,    culties of divorced people who are forced to face
       R.C.) with the result that he is free to remarry without
       thereby incurring the guilt of adultery. In simple             the rest of their life alone, without the help and
       terms it means that divorce in such a case dissolves           companionship of a husband or a wife. We are sym-
       the marriage and that the parties are no longer man            pathetic to their situation. The Scriptures are sym-
       and wife. (p. 43)                                              pathetic to their situation. But our sympathy must


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                              189



not cloud our judgment. Our feelings must not lead            Word for the strength that they need to live the life
us to violate the teaching of the Word of God.                to which God calls them. Since God calls them to
  Our sympathy for divorced people must not en-               this life, He will also give them grace sufficient to
courage them to go in the direction of disobedience           live this life. It will not be easy. But then, is the
to the Word of God. Is this sympathy? Is this love?           Christian life ever easy? The way into the Kingdom
Of course not. Our sympathy for divorced people               is a straight and a narrow way, also as regards mar-
shows itself in our call to them to live as God re-           riage. Few there are who find it. But those who do,
quires of them. Our sympathy shows itself in our              those who walk this narrow and difficult way, en-
pointing them to God, God's grace, and God's                  joy the eternal life that is at the end of this way.

GUEST ARTICLE
Steven R. Houck





          God% Sovereignty and the Psalms (1)



THE PROPER EMPHASIS                                           themselves. There are those however who, while
   "Know ye that the Lord he is God . .  ." (Ps.              they do not openly deny God's sovereignty, never-
100:3). Are not these words of the psalmist the ex-           theless deny that this doctrine ought to be empha-
pression of the faith of every true child of God? The         sized. It is just one doctrine among many and there-
Christian believes that his God is indeed GOD. He             fore must be "kept in balance" with the rest. More-
is the absolutely sovereign God of heaven and                 over, they tell us that God's sovereignty takes us in-
earth. It is He Who has created the world by His              to the area of the "secret things" of God and it is
sovereign power. It is He Who even now upholds                very dangerous for God's people to concern them-
the world and all that is within it. It is He Who             selves with these things which belong only to God.
sovereignly governs and directs all the affairs of            Thus they counsel us that while we may believe the
this world by His eternal counsel and almighty                doctrine of God's sovereignty, we dare not make
power. Even man is absolutely subject to His will.            too much of it: If we do, we will become  "one-
No one can frustrate God's will, nor may anyone               sided."
question God's works and ways. It is He Who is                  The Scriptures, however, teach us that God's
God, also in salvation. He sovereignly saves His              sovereignty is not just another doctrine. It is the
people. In eternity He chose those whom He would              very heart of the gospel. If anything ought to be em-
save. In time He alone applies the work of Christ to          phasized, it is God's sovereignty. God is revealed as
His people and leads them to eternal life in glory.           the Sovereign One on every page of Holy Scripture.
Thus the child of God declares, "who is so great a            While this can be shown from a survey of the
God as our God? Thou art the God that doest                   whole Bible, we turn our attention to just one book
wonders. .  ." (Ps. 77: 13-14). Indeed, "the Lord he is       of the Bible  - the book of Psalms. If there is any
God."                                                         one book of the Bible that ought to demonstrate the
                                                              proper emphasis of the Christian life, it is the book
  Gods sovereignty is so clearly taught in Holy               of Psalms. For in the Psalms we do not have de-
Scripture that it is impossible for anyone to deny            tailed instruction in doctrine, such as in the book of
this doctrine without denying the very Scriptures             Romans, but the expression of the heart and soul of
                                                              the believer. The Psalms are expressions of the dai-
Steven R. Houck is a missionary of the Protestant Reformed    ly experience of the child of God. In them we find
Churches, working currently in  Ripon, California.            the believer's sorrows and joys, his fears and com-


190                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



fort, his desires and prayers. In them we find the          the things that are in heaven and in the earth!" (Ps.
proper emphasis of the Christian life. The emphasis          113:4-6).
is very obvious too  - GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN                    It is not strange then, that God demands that we
GOD. The child of God finds His comfort in that             fear and worship Him. We are nothing in com-
fact. He not only believes it to be true, but it is the     parison with the Sovereign God. He is the glorious
heart and soul of his faith.                                King Whom we are obligated to serve. "For who in
THE GLORIOUS SOVEREIGN KING                                 the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who
   The Psalms are songs of praise and adoration of          among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto
God. They are songs that praise God for His great-          the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the
ness and His glory. They acknowledge God to be              assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence
the sovereign King. The psalmists know of no impo-          of all them that are about him" (Ps. 89:6-7). We owe
tent and helpless god. They know of no god that is          God reverence. We must honor Him as the glorious
dependent upon man and his will. The God of the             God. Man must not boast in himself and his doings,
psalmists is the King. He is the eternal Ruler,             but in the majesty of God. Our duty is to worship
Master, and Sovereign. Thus the psalmist exclaims,          the Lord with songs of praise. "Give unto the Lord,
"The Lord is King for ever and ever . . ." (Ps. 10: 16).    0 ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.
The Lord is the sovereign King of all the world. He         Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name;
is the King of every creature. All are subject unto         worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Ps.
Him - both the righteous and the wicked. "For the           29:1-2).
Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all     GOD'S SOVEREIGN POWER
the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and
the nations under our feet" (Ps.  47:2-3). Because             The psalmists not only praise God as the glorious
God is the King, He is also the Judge. He holds man         King, but they praise Him for the manifestation of
responsible for all his deeds. Those who refuse to          His great power. God is indeed the Ruler. His won-
obey His ordinances have reason to fear His terrible        drous power is displayed everywhere. We see it in
anger. He comes as the Sovereign Judge to destroy           the creation of heaven and earth. The psalmist
the wicked. But in His just judgment He also                bursts forth in a song of praise of the Creator's
delivers His people. Therefore Israel could sing of         power when he says, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the sovereign Judge, "Thou, even thou, art to be            the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the
feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once            heights. Praise ye him, all his. angels: praise ye him
thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be             all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise
heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,         him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of
When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek            heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
of the earth" (Ps.  76:7-g).                                Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he com-
                                                            manded, and they were created" (Ps.  148:1-5).
  God is not just another king, however. He is THE          Men, angels, sun, moon, stars, and every creature
KING. He is the great and glorious King Who fills           ought to sing praises to God for "he commanded
the hearts of men with awe. When we behold Him              and they were created."
we must proclaim, "0 Lord our Lord, how ex-
cellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy        Moreover, the sovereign God even now governs
glory above the heavens" (Ps. 8:l). When the Lord           and directs all of the affairs of this world by His
manifests Himself in His majesty, then "Clouds              power. The psalmist declares, "Wherefore should
and darkness are round about him: righteousness             the heathen then say, Where is now their God? But
and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A            our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever
fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies            he hath pleased" (Ps.  115:2-3). God does whatever
round about. His lightnings enlightened the world:          He pleases. His power is so high, so mighty that
the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like           whatever He has willed, He brings to pass. His will
wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of         is never frustrated. Not even by the wicked who
the Lord of the whole earth" (Ps.  97:2-5). The             think that they can defy God and destroy His peo-
sovereign God is so high that. He must bend                 ple. God so governs, that all things take place accord-
Himself down just to behold the things of this              ing to His good-pleasure. "The Lord reigneth, he is
earth. He is so great and glorious and man is so lit-       clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded
tle. Even heaven itself is lowly in comparison with         himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot
the majesty of God. The glory of the angels can not         be moved" (Ps.  93:l). All things are what they are
match the glory of the Most High God. "The Lord is          and do what they do because God so establishes
high above all nations, and his glory above the             them. No one is able to "move" anything from the
heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who             place God has given it.
dwelleth on high, Who humbleth himself to behold              In many places the psalmists sing praises to God


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 191



for the power and control He exerts over the animal          127: l-3). Man may'seek .to build a house but if God
world and the "forces of nature." Creation in                does not build it, it is impossible for man to do it.
general stands in the service of the Sovereign King          The watchman may seek to guard the city, but if
(Ps.  74:13-17,  104:5-24,  105:16-41,  147:8-18). But       God does not guard it, all his watching is vain. If a
what is even more important is the fact-that God's           man sleeps in peace, it is because the Lord has
rule extends over man  - both the wicked and the             given him sleep. Even our children are given to us
righteous. Even man, who seeks to be so independ-            by the wondrous working of God's power. Yea, all
ent, is bound to the will and power of the                   the affairs of man's life are under His control and
sovereign God. Man strives for power and authori-            direction.
ty, but it is God Who gives both to those whom He              No, the God of the Psalms is not a weak, impo-
pleases. "For promotion  cometh neither from the             tent god. He is not a god who must work around
east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But             man's will and way. He is the sovereign God Who
God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth           has all things in His hands. He is the glorious King
up another" (Ps.  75:6-7). All that man does is              Who created, upholds, and governs the world.
dependent upon the power of God. Man can do                  Thus with the psalmist we must praise the Lord by
nothing without God. "Except the Lord build the              singing, "For I know that the Lord is great, and that
house, they labour in vain that build it: except the         our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord
Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in               pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the
vain. It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late,    sea, and all deep places" (Ps.  135:5-6).
to eat the bread of sorrow: for so he giveth his
beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the           (to be continued)
Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward" (Ps.

                        News From Our Churches
                                                 December  24,1985


  Six years may seem like a long time to be away             this we will be able to expand the witness of our
from home but for Rev. Arie den Hartog and his               church and the fact that Brother Jaikishin Mahtani
family this time has passed quickly. In the year             will soon be returning from his seminary training in
ahead, Rev. den Hartog will be seriously consider-           the U.S.A. The major obstacle that we always face
ing what the will of the Lord will be for them as far        however is the difficulty of finding a meeting
as staying in Singapore or returning to the States is        place."
concerned. Here is the latest news in regards to               Jamaica is the home for Revs. Bruinsma and
their work on the island.                                    Joostens and their families. They have been very
   "December as usual will be a busy month in the            busy on the island organizing the field so that the
church. Next week will be the Student's Bible                labors of Rev. Bruinsma can be beneficial to a
Camp . . . . I am to give four messages on the theme         greater number of churches. Here are a few
`The Christian's Firm Foundation . . . . I have              sentences from Rev. Joostens' letter to the con-
another three special speaking engagements . . . .           gregation of First Church.
One of these . . . meetings the church will be in-              "We, that is Elder Reed and myself, have been
viting parents and relatives to come to hear the             going through the hills in Cave Mt. visiting the peo-
Christmas story. The message will therefore be               ple . . . . The clothing we brought has been
translated into Chinese . . . .                              distributed in Waterworks and  Beeston congrega-
   "The greatest problem we continue to face is that         tions. The next batch will find us dealing with Cave
of having more girls than boys in our membership.            Mt. and Belmont.
The sisters who are getting older are discouraged at            I, . . . I can report that though I miss the duties at
not being able to find Christian marriage partners.          First Church, I have found attentiveness here to
   "The church is once again seriously considering           God's Word, and a readiness to learn. The singing is
the matter of starting another congregation. The             a high priority with us. We are looking forward to
two main reasons for this are the hope that in doing         the Psalter booklets to facilitate this."
David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref.             And Rev. Bruinsma has also sent a letter in
Christian School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.                    which he made the following comments.


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  THE STANDARD BEARER
         P.O. Box 6064            3                        ---.--  -    -
Grand Rapids, Michigan  495'-`~-------                                                                      ~~~



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1 9 2                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER

     "At this time there are three Jamaican ministers                        have more time to prepare a nice program which
  who each labor in a congregation. This means there                         will include former ministers who are not going to
  are four churches who have been without a                                  be in the Grand Rapids area for December or
  minister either for as long as they have existed or at                     January.
  least for many, many years now. It is in these con-                           Tapes of the six messages and the question and
  gregations we have set up Sunday services, mid-                            answer period given during the conference on Mar-
  week Bible study groups, and organized Sunday                              riage are available for $10 from South Holland's
  School instruction. Besides this I am presently                            Evangelism Committee, 16515 South Park Ave.,
  teaching elder Thomlyson in Beeston Spring to be a                         South Holland, IL 60473.
  minister in his congregation."                                                In a good number of church bulletins recently
     Rev. Joostens and his family have returned to the                       we have noticed reference to the magazine of our
  States for the Christmas vacation. Rev. C.  Hank0                          schools, Perspectives in Covenant Education. The in-
  has left for Bradenton for the winter.                                     tent of the brief notice in each was to encourage
     First Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan is now                             subscription to "Perspectives." We'd like, if we
  holding services in their new church. But they will                        may, to underscore that. You will enjoy this little
  not be holding their dedication service until April                        publication, which comes out three times each
  or May because the building is not complete,                               year. Many of you who do not currently subscribe
  December is a busy time of the year, and they will                         have received a free copy of the Fall 1985 issue.
                                                                             Have you read it? Did you like it? Then ask to
                                                                             receive it regularly - by sending a card or letter to
                                                                             Perspectives in Covenant Education, 1150 Adams St.
                                                                             S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49507.
                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     The Ladies Aid Society of Hope Protestant Reformed Church
  (Walker,  MI) expresses its Christian Sympathy to Mrs. Dorothy
  Engelsma in the death of her sister, MRS. HARRY VANDER PLOEG.                                       IN LOVING MEMORY
     "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the             One year ago, on January 21, 1985, the Lord quite.suddenly took
  Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." (II Corinthians 1:3)       our beloved husband, father and grandfather, .JOHN B. LUBBERS to
  Prof. H. Hanko, Pres.                                                      his heavenly home. We rejoice that he is now free from all suffering
  Eilene Terpstra, Sec'y.                                                    and sin, and we thank God for giving us the grace and strength to
                                                                             bear our loss.
                                NOTICE!!!                                       `(I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my
                                                                             help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."
    Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in            (Psalm 121:1,2)
  South Holland, IL on Wednesday, March 5, 1986, at 8:30 AM, the
  Lord willing. Delegates in need of lodging should notify the Clerk of,     Mrs. John B. Lubbers                      Marvin and Marge Lubbers
  the South Holland Council.                                                 Bernard Lubbers                           Evelyn Lubbers
                                                                             Gerald and Marilyn Lubbers                J. Kim and Lillian Oudman
  Rev. David Engelsma, Statecl Clerk                                         Marvin and Judy Lubbers                   Clifford and Willa Lubbers
  Classis West                                                               Gerald and  Bea Visser                         17 grandchildren
                                                                             Genevieve Lubbers                                    1 great-grandchild
                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
     On January 24, 1986, the Lord willing, our beloved parents and                            ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!
  grandparents, MR. AND MRS. RHINE LUBBERS, will celebrate their
  40th wedding anniversary. We praise God for the covenant love and            Covenant Christian School of Lynden, Washington, has an open-
  instruction we have received from them. We are thankful too, for the       ing for a teaching-administrator in the Liberal Arts subjects for the
  many sacrifices they have made in their life on behalf of us, their        1986-87 school year.
  children. We cherish the many fond memories they have given us and            Please send enquiries to: Covenant Christian School, 9088 North-
  value the many Godly ideals they set before us. We pray that God           lawn Road, Lynden, Washington 98264, or phone: Peter Adams,
  may reward them richly and continue to give them an abundance of           (206) 398-2774, or Albert De Boer,  (206) 354-5825.
  His joy and peace.
     "0 how delightful, God of grace, The paths of those that seek thy                                   NOTICE!!!
  face." (Psalm  84)                                                           Effective February 1, 1986, the Zip Code for the POST OFFICE
  Andy and Mic Buist                        Bern and Diana Lubbers           BOXES at the Eastown Station (Grand Rapids, MI) will be 49516.
     Randy, Marci, Mendi                    Mark and Elaine Clawson            This means that all correspondence to The Standard Bearer should
  Tom and Judy Henson                         Keven, Shannon, Jeremy         be addressed to P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, Ml 49516.
  Al and Karen Karsten                      Rick and Jill Lubbers
     Missy, Brad, Michael, Jonathan           Stephanie                      H. Vander Wal
  Gary and Rachel Bouwkamp                                                   Business Manager


