                The
STANDARD `e
                BEARER
                 i REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





I I             How often does not God make us weak
       . . .

through affliction so that we can not possibly
rely on our own strength to do the work of
the Lord! Being weak we learn to turn to
Jesus our Savior, that His power may come
to rest upon us. As a result of our weakness
we are able to do great things in the name
and strength of Jesus Christ."
See ' `Grace Through Affliction' ' - page 194




                                                     Vol.  LXII, No. 9, February 1, 1986  -


194                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER




                              CONTENTS                                                                        THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                                                       ISSN 0362-4692
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       Grace Through Affliction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194            Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                  Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197    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,
  Correspondence and Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , i97              Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                  Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
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MEDITATION
James D. Slopsema




                                   Grace Through Affliction


                   "And ke said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in
                weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power  of  Christ
                may rest upon me.                  n
                   "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
                distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."
                                                                                                                       II Corinthians 1.29 & 10


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                             195



   When I am weak, then am I strong.                       His grace, leaves us. Wherever we go, God is  '
   Now that's a paradox!                                   always at our side. And when we meet difficulties,
                                                           as we invariably do, God always upholds us in His
   A paradox is a statement which on the surface is        grace. We shall never flounder in the storms of life;
self-contradictory but upon further contemplation          we shall never be overcome. For God is always
makes perfectly good sense. The paradox was a              there with His grace; and His grace is always suffi-
favorite teaching device of the Jews to impress in-        cient. How wonderful and comforting!
delibly a point on the minds of others.                      However, this is not the main thrust of the Lord's
   This most striking statement of the Apostle Paul        words to Paul.
is also a paradox. At first glance it seems to con-
tradict itself. How can one be strong when he is             The main thought will become clear if we bear in
weak? But properly understood it makes perfectly           mind that this is the Lord's answer to Paul's request
good sense and reveals in a most clever manner a           to remove the thorn from his flesh. The meaning
very important truth. The truth the Apostle would          then is that it is through this thorn that the Apostle
impress upon us is that only when we are weak in           receives the grace of God. Strange as that may at
ourselves are we strong in the grace of God.               first seem, God's grace reaches Paul exactly
                                                           through the affliction of this thorn! And with that
   This is a very important truth for us to remem-         Paul must be content. It ought to be sufficient for
ber. So often we rely on our own strength. And             Paul that he has Gods grace. He must not therefore
then we fail miserably. However, when we see our           continue to ask the Lord to remove this thorn.
own weakness so that we rely on the power of
Gods grace, then we are strong.                              And so it always is. Gods grace reaches us exact:
                                                           ly through our afflictions. The sick receive God's
   Let us be weak, therefore, that we may be truly         grace exactly through their sickness. The poor
strong!                                                    receive God's grace through their poverty. Those
           * * * *         s: * * * * *                    who suffer the loss of loved ones receive Gods
   In the preceding verses the apostle Paul speaks of      grace through their loss. We may ask God to
the thorn in his flesh.                                    remove the afflictions we suffer. For no suffering
  We all know what a thorn is. It is a small sliver        for the present is joyous. However, God will often
that can easily embed itself in the flesh. Such a          answer, "My grace is sufficient for thee."
thorn can cause a great deal of pain and suffering. If              * * * * * * * * *  *
located in the proper place, it can virtually cripple a      God's grace reaches us through affliction exactly
person. A thorn, for example, lodged in the heal of        because, as the Lord continues to point out to Paul,
the foot and allowed to fester can make it impos-          "My strength is made perfect in weakness."
sible for the healthiest of persons to do his work.          Let us bear in mind that each of us has a calling.
  In like manner the apostle Paul had a thorn in his       Your calling is the work God has set before you to
flesh  - not literally but figuratively. There has         do in the service of His name. Your calling may in
been much speculation as to what this thorn really         part be to serve God as a husband or wife or parent.
was. Some suggest that Paul was blind; others say          Your calling may include serving God as an office
he had a speech impediment. Almost every malady            bearer in the church or as a teacher or as a student
found in medical textbooks has been suggested.             or as an employer or as an employee.
The fact is we don't know what this thorn was.               Let us also bear in mind that to do the work God
However, it appears as though it involved some             has set before us requires the strength of Jesus
physical infirmity that quite severely hindered his        Christ. We can't do this work in our own strength.
work as an apostle.                                        The husband who will rule his wife in his own
  Hence, Paul writes that three times he asked the         strength will fail miserably - as will the wife who
Lord to remove this thorn that he might labor more         will be a help to her husband, the parent who will
effectively as an apostle. And the answer of the           train up his children, the office bearer who will
Lord was, "My grace is sufficient for thee."               build up the church. Working in our own strength
  Many take these words of the Lord to mean that           we will surely fail. To do the work of the Lord we
no matter in what situation we find ourselves,             need to be strengthened. We need the strength of
Gods grace will always be there and will always be         Jesus Christ. The power of Christ must come to rest
sufficient to uphold us. That is indeed one of the         upon us and dwell in us.
comforting truths of the Scriptures. God never, in           This strength of Christ is made perfect in weak-
                                                           ness.
James D. Slopsema is pastor  of the Protestant Reformed      To be made perfect means to reach the goal that
Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.                             has been set. When God set Christ at His own right


196                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



hand and clothed Him with all power and might               could have served effectively as the Lord's servant.
God had a purpose, a goal. His goal was that this           Hence, God made him weak through this miserable
great power come to rest upon His people so that in         thorn in his flesh, so weak that in his own strength
that power they may faithfully perform the calling          he could do nothing. It was exactly through this
He has for them. And when that goal is reached the          weakness, however, that Paul learned to turn to
strength of Jesus Christ is perfected. When you and         Christ and to rely upon Christ's strength alone. As a
I in the strength of Jesus Christ faithfully fulfill our    result Paul was a much better servant of God. Since
calling in the home, in the church, in our place of         the strength of Christ had come to rest upon him,
work, in the community, then is the strength of             he was able to do much more in the service of God
Christ perfected. And then also God's grace has             than he ever could have done were he still strong in
reached us. For the perfecting of Christ's strength         himself. In his weakness he became strong.
in us is the work of God's grace.                              And the same is also true with us. How often
  However, this strength is made perfect only in            does not God make us weak through affliction so
weakness  - in our weakness.                                that we can not possibly rely on our own strength
  From our vantage point our weaknesses hinder              to do the work of the Lord! Being weak we learn to
us in fulfilling our calling before God.                    turn to Jesus our Savior, that His power may come
                                                            to rest upon us. As a result of our weakness we are
  This certainly was Paul's feeling. He had a ter-          able to do great things in the name and strength of
rible weakness that was like a thorn in his flesh.          Jesus Christ.
And Paul was convinced that this weakness was
seriously hampering his work as an Apostle. Oh, if            When I am weak, then am I strong!
only God would remove this weakness and make                  Christ's strength is made perfect in my weak-
him strong! How much more effectively couldn't              ness!
he then serve the Lord!                                       It is through affliction that I receive Gods grace!
  And we too often feel the same way. We have                          * * * * * *  * * * *
many weaknesses. Perhaps we too suffer from
physical infirmities or lack physical endurance.              Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in re-
Perhaps we suffer from financial difficulties or ner-       proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in dis-
vous problems or family problems or some other              tresses for Christ's sake. Most gladly will I glory in
kinds of problems. And for all the world these seem         my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
to hinder us in our ability to serve the Lord. Oh, if       upon me.
only the Lord would remove these burdens and                  Our first reaction to the infirmities, necessities,
weaknesses and make us strong! Then we could                and distresses God places upon us is to resent them.
serve Him much more effectively!                            How easily we become, discontent. Perhaps we
  That's not always true, however. For if we are            murmur and complain. We may even outwardly
always strong and never weak we tend to rely on             rebel against the hand of the Lord.
our own strength rather than on the strength of               However, if this is our reaction, we will indeed
Jesus Christ. Those who are strong often see no             be weak in our weaknesses. For the strength of
need to rely on Christ. They can do quite nicely in         Christ does not come to rest upon us in the midst of
their own strength. However, they will ultimately           discontent and rebellion.
fail. Because of their great strength they may for a          Seeing the great design of the Lord in affliction,
time bask in the limelight. According to the stan-          let us rather take pleasure in our afflictions. And let
dards of men they may for a time appear to be very          us glory, that is, boast in them. And in wisdom let
successful even in doing the work of the Lord. But          us then turn to Jesus Christ our Savior to receive
ultimately they will fail. For the work of the Lord         His great strength.
requires much, much more than the puny strength
of man.                                                       Then in our weakness we will be indeed very
                                                            strong!
  And so God often sends us afflictions to make us
weak.
  For when we are weak we rely not on ourselves
but on the strength of Jesus Christ.                                   Read and Study
  That is what happened to the apostle Paul. Paul
relates in the preceding verses that due to the abun-          The Standard Bearer!
dant revelations God gave him he was inclined to
be puffed up in pride. He tended to glory in him-
self. In such a spiritual frame of mind he never


                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                          197



                                                            Editor's Notes


   Due to a couple of extra items in this issue, there                       to put yourself in the position of this distant and
is no space for editorials.                                                  small congregation which gathers and listens to
                                                                             recorded sermons week after week.
          *       *     *     *    :k     *     *     *     *     *
                                                                                        * * * * * * * * * *
   New Zealand Letter. Elsewhere in this issue you
will find a letter from the Prot. Ref. Church of New                           Our Business Manager informs me that as of
Zealand. Be sure to read it. Along with this letter,                         February 1, the zip code for the Standard  Bearer's
brother Bob van Herk sent me their bulletin of                               business address will be 49516 rather than 49506.
December 22, according to which they had two                                 Please bear this in mind. Please keep in mind, too,
recorded sermons (received from Hope Church of                               that all business matters (subscriptions, announce-
Grand Rapids)  - one by the Rev. C. Hanko on                                 ments, etc.) should be sent to the business office,
Ephesians  1:9, 10 and one by the Rev. R. Flikkema                           not to the editor. Sending them to me will only
on Matthew  1:21b. When you read their letter, try                           result in delay.





                                   Correspondence and Reply


Dear Brother:                                                                not mind; in fact, I look forward to your reply. Is it
  I recently returned from a trip to find the Dec. 1                         possible that more people do not respond critically
and 15 issues of your magazine in my mail. As                                to your articles because they do not care for ag-
always at my first opportunity I read both issues                            gressive replies?
from cover to cover.                                                           One final comment. I do appreciate the volume
  I have a few comments/questions to which I                                 of books and other material your denomination
would appreciate your response.                                              produces. I have and continue to read it with much
                                                                             profit.                       In Christ, Harv Nyhof
  Your issue of Dec. 1 on the Antithesis was as in                                                                 Holland, Mich.
the words on your cover "instructive and helpful."
  The Dec. 15 issue has some thoughts I would like                           Reply
to address. On page 127 you make the comment                                    Thank-you for your letter. As noted above, Items
that you will not judge Arminius's prayer. It would                          3 and 4 will be published later, along with replies
seem to me, however, that you do so in your final                            from Prof. Decker and Rev. Miersma. Placement of
paragraph. Could there be a comparison in  Ar-                               and reply to your letter is somewhat delayed, due
minius's prayer and the confession of the thief on                           to the fact that I also just returned from a trip - a
the cross?                                                                   preaching tour to our Lynden, Washington, congre-
  [Editor's note: Here follow two items concerning                           gation during the holiday weeks.
articles by Prof. Decker and Rev. T. Miersma.                                  As to the prayer of Arminius, the following: 1) I
Rather than print these now, I have referred them                            do indeed judge Arminius in my final paragraph.
to Prof. Decker and Rev. Miersma for reply in a                              However, I do not judge him on the basis of his
future issue.]                                                               prayer, but on the basis of his heresy. It seems to me
  Item 4. I notice that letters from your readers are                        this is the proper basis on which to judge the ques-
somewhat of a rarity. In the few times I have writ-                          tion whether a man is (was) a heretic. 2) It appears
ten, your response has been rather forceful. I do                            to me. that you want me to judge his prayer. As I


198                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



stated in my editorial, I will not do this. The reason    publication. 2) I try to be forceful in a good sense.
is that I am unable to do so. The Lord Jesus, of          Answers must usually be brief  - for the sake of
course, was able to judge the petition of the peni-       space; and I try to go right to the point. Aggressive?
tent thief. 3) Meanwhile, bear in mind that there is      I am not consciously aggressive in the sense in
no record that Arminius ever recanted either his          which my dictionary defines aggression and aggres-
heresy or his equivocal conduct in the churches.          siveness. 3) Pertinent letters are always welcome.
  As to item 4:  1)  More letters and remarks are            Thanks for your encouraging words concerning
received than are published; not all letters are for      our publications.                                 HCH





         Letter from the Protestant Reformed
                          Church of New Zealand



To our brothers and sisters of the Protestant             have access to the pages of the Standard Bearer. In
Reformed Churches in America:                             this way at least we cannot see ourselves disad-
  Feeling constrained by Christian love, we would         vantaged of being outside the fellowship of the Prot-
like to address ourselves to you and share some of        estant Reformed Churches of America. As an in-
our thoughts and experiences with you. Writing in         stituted church of our Lord Jesus Christ, our hearts
behalf of our newly instituted church, we feel in         long for fellowship in the truth as it is revealed to us
need of continuous spiritual contact and encourage-       in the Scriptures. We fully appreciate the longing of
ment from likeminded Christian friends from               the Bible Presbyterian Church of Larne, Northern
across the seas.                                          Ireland, and also the Evangelical Reformed Church
                                                          of Singapore in seeking sister church relationships.
  The ministries of Rev. Heys and Rev. Miersma            The granting of this request was also a joy to us.
among us have left a lasting mark on us; and
although distance and lack of resources has brought         We feel our own isolation more acutely now.
about an abeyance in the supply of ministers to our       Our stand for the truth has met with many disap-
shores, we nevertheless feel confident that God's         pointments in the past. Even close brethren who
good work begun among us will neither be extin-           had shown a genuine jealousy for the truth fell
guished nor frustrated during times of deprivation        away, all because of a desire to be accommodating
of the lively preaching of God's Word among us.           to others. They no longer wanted the all-out em-
                                                          phasis of the sovereignty of God toward the sinner,
  From our sister Mrs. Watson, who travelled              but rather pursued a course of being less distinctive
through the States on her way to England recently,        in order to gain in numbers. We, however, feel that
we received good reports of being one in the faith;       we cannot take part in this choice. Scripture itself
and also we learned of a lively interest in our           abounds with warnings not to follow in this path.
spiritual well-being. However, she did make us            Our calling in the world is to be faithful to our
aware of the fact that our existence and our con-         Master, Who is in heaven. This calling comes to us
tending for the faith in this part of the world was       in this part of the world. Our geographic position is
not always fully understood and appreciated in            in the South Pacific, and our home base is New
every quarter she visited. She also felt that the         Zealand. It is from here that we lift up our hearts to
reason for our existence was not always seen in its       the God of the whole earth, Who is able to preserve
true light. One can only hope and pray that this let-     us even to the end of days. We are aware of the fact
ter will go some way to dispel any misunderstand-         that this part of the world never experienced the
ings. In relation to this, we are thankful that we        mighty works of the Spirit of God to lost sinners on


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               199



the same scale as it was revealed in those regions of        people of our lands producing any substance for the
Europe and North America when times of refresh-              upbuilding in the Reformed faith.
ing from the presence of the Lord left an imprint on           It is for these reasons that we humbly and
human society for whole generations to come. The             prayerfully keep on clinging to what we know is of
spiritual leanness of our regions still speaks to us  to-    the truth.
day. It is reflected from the Theological halls
(schools, HCH) and pulpits of our land. Rarely do              With Christian greetings from the Protestant Re-
we find any writings coming from the indigenous              formed Church of New Zealand. (w.s.) B. van Herk

WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Herman H. Hanko





     Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (2)


  In our last article we introduced the general sub-         feared sometime that people stand so in awe at the
ject of medical technology, and gave some idea of            marvels of modern medicine and medical
the broad range of problems which arise because of           technology that they tend not to think too much
the advances which science and medicine have                 about what scientists claim to be able to do and
made in the areas of biology and bio-medicine.               simply take their claims at face value.
While it is our purpose to discuss the moral dimen-            However this may be, evolutionism simply
sions of these problems in future articles and deal          teaches that higher forms of life developed gradual-
with each problem individually, we want, in this             ly over long periods of time from lower forms of life
article, to lay down a few more basic and funda-             and that all organic matter (living organisms)
mental principles which underlie, in our judgment,           developed from inorganic matter (non-living
the whole field. This article too will then serve as         things).
something of an introductory article. There are
especially three points which ought to be made.                Now this theory has a number of implications,
                                                             most of which we cannot enter into now. For exam-
  The first point that needs to be made is that              ple, it is well to remember that evolutionism is not
much of the work done in the fields of biology,              merely a scientific theory which is intended to ex-
medicine, and bio-medicine is done by wicked men             plain the origin of things; it is an entire world-and-
who do their work in the framework of their com-             life view, which professes to explain everything; it
mitment to evolutionism. While this does not                 is a philosophy of life; it is a psychology; it is a
necessarily mean that all that these men do is               system of ethics; it is an entire unified body of
wrong (they, e.g., invent treatments which can,              thought within the context of which everything in
within certain limitations, cure cancer), it does            life must be explained and interpreted. But it is an
mean that we must understand their motivation                atheistic theory of life; it has no place in it for God
and the context in which they are making their               and for His Word of divine revelation.
claims for the future of medicine. As we noticed in
the last article, the claims which are made by                 But there are two implications in this theory of
modern medical technicians are mind-boggling:                evolutionism which have direct bearing on what
they claim, e.g., that they will soon be able to eradi-      we are discussing. The first is that man is nothing
cate all disease from the human race. It is to be            but a material substance. That is, evolutionism
                                                             denies the fact that man has a soul. If man has
Herman Hanko is professor in the Church History and New      come from animals, and animals from lower forms
Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed             of life, and lower forms of life from dirt and
Seminary.                                                    chemicals of various sorts, then it stands to reason


200                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



that man can have no soul which is spiritual in             just because it can be done, perfectly legitimate.
substance and is not composed of chemicals of               We need never question the techniques and ac-
various kinds. Thus all man's ills are susceptible to       complishments of almighty science, for the very
medical and biological treatment of one sort or             fact that science is able to do something is itself
another. Mental problems are treatable by                   justification for doing it and automatically gives it a
medicine and chemical analysis; wrong thinking              halo of righteousness which anyone is a fool to
and wrong doing are explainable in terms of                 question.
chemical imbalances and misdirected electrical                This sort of thinking, so common today, is exact-
phenomena, etc. But what is denied is that man has          ly what the scientists want us to think. They want
a soul, and one cannot treat the soul with medicine         to build about themselves a wall which no ques-
nor operate on it with scalpel and laser beams.             tioning or criticism can penetrate. They want to be
   The second implication of evolutionism is more           able to do whatever they please without anyone
serious. Scientists who are convinced of this ungod-        ever asking why. They want us to think of them as
ly position are also convinced that the process of          above and beyond criticism, not subject, in their
evolutionism has reached a stage in which it has            scientific investigations at least, to the normal rules
produced a creature who has the ability, with his           of right and wrong, not open to questioning, not
hands, to take hold of the very processes of evolu-         answerable to rules of moral and ethical conduct.
tionism themselves and can now control and direct           And it seems sometimes as if they are succeeding in
these processes. To this point in evolutionary              a remarkable way to accomplish their end.
development, changes have been random, uncon-                 We must be clear on this point. It is sometimes
trolled, and subject to the erratic whims of mere           argued that all scientists are doing is uncovering the
chance. It is a remarkable fact that whim and               powers of creation which God has placed there and
chance have produced a creature as complex as               putting these powers to man's use. They are, to use
man - and this has taken literally billions of years;       a Biblical expression, subduing the earth and ful-
but now all has changed. We are no longer depend-           filling the original cultural mandate. This gives
end on chance; we can now, especially through               them the right to do what they do in every instance,
genetic engineering, get our hands on the basic proc-       for they are only doing what man was originally
esses themselves and manipulate them according              created to do. And what they succeed in doing can
to our own wishes. The result is that now evolu-            surely be used without question. This is very
tionism will be directed by the scientists and              wicked reasoning and must be condemned in the
medical technicians who will direct these processes         sharpest possible way.
to produce the super-man, fashioned according to              There are two things wrong about this line of
the ideas of those who are in a position to under-          reasoning. The first is that, while it is certainly true
stand the intricacies of genetic manipulation.              that man still uncovers the powers which God has
  This is a horrifying business. We will not ponder         placed in the creation and will continue to do this
here the important question of who will do the              until the world ends, how he uses those powers is
deciding of the question concerning what really is a        quite another question. He may discover and refine
super-man; this is terrifying enough. Nor can we            surgical techniques and these may be skills which
predict with any certainty what those "in charge"           are given him as a gift by God: but does this give
of evolutionary development will do with their              him the right to use these techniques to abort
"mistakes." What is important and significant for           babies at will? Anyone who knows the teaching of
our purposes is the fact that this is the stated goal of    Scripture will readily see that the mere technique
those who engage in much of the experimentation             and skill involved does not give him the right to use
going on in the fields of medicine and biology. We          this skill in murder. The fact is that man is sinful
ought to be aware of this; and before we praise the         and desperately wicked. He will always use all the
advances of science to the skies, we ought to con-          powers in creation and the skills given him of God
sider what scientists are trying to do. This will           in the service of sin. We do not, after all, believe in
sober us and teach us to evaluate all these astound-        common grace. We must be careful, therefore, to
ing "successes" in a somewhat different light.              ask the question not only: What is man able to do?
  The second broad principle which needs saying             but also: How does man use what he is able to do?
is closely related to the first one. We must some-            The second error of all this is that we may not
how get it out of our heads that just because some-         conclude from man's ability to do something the
thing is capable of being done, it is therefore good        moral rightness of it. It does not follow that just
and right. We have been conditioned by the media            because man is able to do something, this ability in-
and the propaganda of our times to accept unques-           vests what he does with an aura of holiness and
tioningly as good and proper anything which                 places a halo of righteousness on his accomplish-
science is able to do. Whatever is accomplished is,         ment. A couple of examples will demonstrate this.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                201



Today it lies not only within man's capability to         But the opposite is also true. God blesses the habita-
bring about conception in a test tube, but it is being    tion of the just. The "quality" of life for the just
repeatedly done. Does the mere accomplishment of          man is not determined by the outward circum-
the technique of in vitro conception make it per-         stances of his life, but by the favor of God. No mat-
missible? While some may argue that it does, this is      ter what may be his way in life, he is taught by
not necessarily so. The rightness or wrongness of it      Scripture to be content; to confess that he is guided
has to be decided on other grounds. The same              by God's counsel and afterwards taken to glory; to
thing is true of genetic engineering. Just because it     believe that all things are for his good because he
can be done and is being done, does this mean that        loves God and is called according to God's purpose.
it is right to do it? This question takes on added im-       Concretely this means exactly that the wicked
portance when we remember that man is not simp-           will, if they are honest, admit that riches and
ly a collection of well-arranged genes, but is a com-     health, long life and superior intellect, do not bring
plex creature formed by God's hand so that he is, in      them happiness  - the quality of their life is bad
all his life and development, a man with body and         regardless. The righteous man confesses that God
soul.                                                     blesses him, not only in spite of the difficult cir-
  We must do away with thinking which ultimate-           cumstances of life, but through what men called
ly leaves the scientist and medical technician above      "bad" things. Every child of God who has known
all law.                                                  the fiery trial of affliction will surely agree with the
  The third moral principle which must underlie           Psalmist, "Affliction has been for my profit." The
our thinking about these matters has to do with the       father and mother who have received from the
definition of what is "good" and what is "bad."           Lord a child with either physical or mental handi-
Because today's thinking in the area of science and       caps will speak eagerly of the great blessing such a
medicine is done within the framework of evolu-           child has been in their home; and if God is pleased
tionism, "good" and "bad" have been redefined in          to take such a child away, they will tell you they
a way which is altogether out of harmony with             miss that child more than parents who lose a nor-
Scripture. "Bad" according to today's thinking in-        mal child.
cludes such things as a low IQ, the birth of a child        The same is true of long life. Is long life a blessing
with physical and mental defects, sickness, and           (necessarily) to those who fill the nursing homes of
ultimately death itself. "Good" is a high IQ  -           the land? Is 90 years of age better than 70 if the last
preferably within the genius range, perfect health,       20 have to be spent in a bed? Blessing is not upon
no physical or mental defects, everlasting life on        the 90 year old just because he lives 20 years
this earth.                                               beyond his contemporaries. And the same is true of
  Now, I for one do not for a minute believe that         death. Death is indeed the ultimate expression (in
science will ever succeed in conquering all these         this world, at least) of God's wrath against sin. But
"evils." They are the results of God's curse upon a       for the believer death is not an enemy when the
sinful world and, because of this, they will never be     sting of death has been destroyed through the
eradicated. Man can never undo what God does.             resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, "For to me to
Only through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is        live is Christ." But it is equally true that, "to die is
all sickness and sorrow, all pain and suffering, all      gain." Is it so terrible to go to heaven? And death is
trouble and imperfection done away. And the full          still the only door that leads from this valley of tears
realization of this waits for the new heavens and         to the joys of heaven.
the new earth when God shall wipe away all tears            I am not saying with all this that we must simply
from our eyes.                                            let the ravages of disease work their course without
  But this is not the point which we are arguing          seeking the help of medicine. That is another ques-
here. The most basic and fundamental question             tion. I am saying that these things (health, long life,
which the child of God faces is not the question of       escape from death) are not in themselves good. The
improving the outward circumstances of his life,          believer, while making use, insofar as he can, of
what today's scientists call improving the "quality       medicine's amazing discoveries, does not look for
of life." The basic question (and it is the word          his happiness in this world in any case. He has a
"basic" which needs underlining and that sort of          home above, while here he is a pilgrim and a
emphasis) is: What is God's attitude towards us?          stranger.
Towards the wicked God is angry every day. The              It may not always be so easy to keep these things
curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. It       in their proper perspective, but we ought to be
makes no difference what the "quality" of his life        warned by the Word of God which tells us that God
is, if one refers only to life's outward circum-          was angry with  Asa because he sought not the
stances; that "quality" of life is dreadful if God        Lord, but put his trust in physicians (II Chron.
looks with anger and disapproval upon the sinner.         16:12).


202                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



THE DAY OF SHADOWS
John A. Heys





                                  One Lesson Learned



   The prophet Jonah loved God's church as she ex-         love. It is a love that man may not limit. Man may
isted in the day of shadows. His sin in trying to flee     not tell God whom He may love and save. God has
to Tarshish was not that he was carnally attached to       the perfect and absolute right to love whom He
the fleshly seed of Abraham, the nation of Israel,         will, and to hate whom He will. No creature,
and was moved by a patriotism and nationalism              whether he be man or angel, may deny Him that
like that which any unbelieving citizen can have for       right. And we simply duplicate Jonah's sin when
his country. His sin was not that he had no use for        we deny Him the right to elect unto everlasting life
God's church, or for the growth of that church. He         whom He will, and to reprobate to everlasting dam-
wanted God's love, mercy, and grace to fall richly         nation whom it pleases Him to predestinate to that
on that church; and he wanted nothing to happen            woe. He may hate Esau and all the seed of the ser-
that would threaten the well-being of the church he        pent. And we may not distort Scripture in Romans
knew in that day. He sincerely wanted the glorious         9:13 to make it read thus, "Jacob have I loved, and
kingdom to come, on whose throne a son of David            Esau have I loved not quite that much." Or, "Jacob
would sit, ruling the whole world from out of Zion.        have I loved and Esau have I loved less." The word
That glorious kingdom he wanted to be realized.            hate which Paul uses is the same word that Jesus
   Because of this, Jonah could not understand how         used when in John  15:25 He said that they hated
God could want to save the capital city of the na-         Him without a cause. Their hatred brought Him to
tion that was the fiercest enemy of the nation             His cross; and it was not a love that was a bit less
wherein God's church was to be found in that day.          than what they had for Barabbas. Hatred is the op-
He wanted destroyed the chief city of the nation           posite of love, and it is not a shade or weaker form
that to him was the greatest threat to the church of       of love. No, God hated Esau, and that sovereignly,
his day. And his sin was that he disobeyed God's           before he was born or did good or evil. Do not try to
command to go and preach there, and that he                be a Jonah and pick out for God whom He may love
sought to frustrate God and to prevent Him from            and save.
saving anyone in that city. He had therefore to              We err grievously also when we maintain that
learn to know God's sovereign love for all His             God hates sin but not the sinner. This is impossible,
church, a love that reached far beyond Abraham's           for sin always is an act of a person. If the person is
seed, and would gather in an host of Gentiles, while       not there, there is no sin. A tree falls upon a man
the number of Abraham's seed in that church                and kills him. No sin has been committed. A man in
would greatly diminish. He had to see that                 anger hits another and kills him. Then you have
Nineveh's salvation was a shadow of Christ's com-          sin. Besides, in effect we call God a liar when we
ing kingdom wherein Gentiles would have a very             say that He hates sin but not the sinner. Through
large place, and have a new Jerusalem as its capital       the psalmist in Psalm  5:5 God Himself declares,
city.                                                      "The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight; Thou
                                                           hatest all workers of iniquity." Note that He does
   The lesson Jonah must learn therefore was that          not merely hate iniquity, but the workers of iniqui-
to love God, he must see God's love as a sovereign         ty. And this is not merely Old Testament language
                                                           and notions. In Ephesians 5:6 we read, "Let no man
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant      deceive you with vain words; for because of these
Reformed Churches.                                         things cometh the wrath of God upon the children


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               203



  of disobedience." Note: upon children, not mere            coveted their help in his walk in sin. He was not in-
  disobedience. There is no "common grace" that              terested in seeing Gentiles saved; but he was eager
  rests upon the wicked; but wrath rests on them.            to have Gentiles serve his own flesh.
  The foolish do not stand in God's sight in a certain          And God, Who works in a mysterious way His
  favor, and with a smile on His face. They shall not        wonders to perform; Who plants His footsteps in
  stand before Him; and that means He will drive             the sea, and rides upon the storm, taught Jonah by a
  them to the lake of fire. Let us not argue with God.       violent storm at sea. Jonah had gone down into the
  For we perform an act of hatred against God when           hold among the cargo and had fallen into an un-
  we contradict Him, and deny Him His sovereign              naturally deep sleep. This not only pictures his ut-
  right to hate the sinner whose sins have been blot-        ter unconcern for the peril of the Ninevities, but
  ted out by His Son's blood; and He may decree that         must be seen as God's way of love for both Jonah
  His Son will not die for them.                             and the Ninevites. This was no ordinary sleep.
    With Jonah it was a case of denying God His              Jonah was a landlubber, and this could very well
  right to love the elect in Nineveh for whom Christ         have been his first long voyage by sea, if not his
  would die. It was not God's wrath against sinners          first storm at sea. The God from Whose presence
  that Jonah questioned. He objected to Gods love            Jonah was fleeing was right there in the storm, in
  that He had and intended to show to Gentiles in a          the ship, and in the deep sleep that fell upon Jonah.
  city far removed from the land that in the day of
  shadows was where the church was established.                What an unusual and wholly unnatural event we
  Therefore he tried to flee from the presence of God        have here! The tossing ship, lifted up and cast down
  and to try to prevent Him from working salvation           by the waves, the creaking and groaning of the
  there and upon these people. He thought that he            wood that made up the ship, the noise of the sailors
  was seeking the good of the church that he loved.          all around him dragging and throwing the cargo
  In actuality he was performing a deed that, if car-        overboard, the cries of the sailors to their gods, and
  ried out and successful, would hurt the church. He         their screams of fear do not effect Jonah one bit. He
  was actually objecting to the kind of kingdom of           sleeps on and on, wholly unaware of the fact that
  Christ that God had eternally decreed and that was         those with him on the ship, and he himself, are in
  eternally in His heart and mind. Indeed, Jonah has         mortal danger. Truly God gave him this deep sleep.
  something he must learn.                                   It was not natural.
    But there is another element we must keep                  The shipmaster had to come and awaken Jonah
  before us. Not only did Jonah not recognize God's          and urge him to pray to his God. Wide awake now,
  sovereignty in His love; but he showed no love for         Jonah does not do as requested. He does not pray to
  these Ninevites whom God intended to save, and             God so that these sailors "perish not," as the  ship-
  who belonged to the same church to which Jonah             master had requested. He who wanted to see the
  belonged. Jonah should have seen that God had              Ninevites perish is now asked to pray that other
  people there that He loved. It was love that sent          Gentiles be kept from perishing. And now it was
  them a warning. That in itself revealed that He            not a matter of perishing in forty days. It could be
  wanted to save them and not destroy them with the          that in less than forty minutes the ship would break
  city. Jonah therefore should also have had pity on         apart; and they would all die at sea! Crying to their
 these people, and in love rushed over there to warn         gods did not help; but the mariners saw one ray of
  them. Whom God loves, we certainly must also               hope. Perhaps the God of this Hebrew could save
  love. Upon whom God shows mercy, we by all                 them. He was therefore awakened, but did not pray
  means should show mercy. But Jonah had none for            to his God.
  these Ninevites, whom God sought to bring to                 Jonah did not pray to God because, in His love to
  repentance and salvation. He must learn to have            Jonah, God made him see that the storm was
 pity and compassion for others, and to help them            because of his sin. He had learned one part of his
, when he can in the midst of their woes.                    lesson, namely, that he could not flee from God's
    God in His wisdom, but also in His love for              presence; and that he committed a great sin in try-
  Jonah, so orders his life that he learns his lesson, be    ing to frustrate God and to flee from his calling. He
  it in a way hard for his flesh. According to God's         who sinned in order to try to keep God from saving
  counsel and eternal plan for him, Jonah boards a           other sinners, is given to see that Gentile sinners on
  ship to go to what at that time was considered the         the ship  - for their idolatry was very plain  -
  western end of the world, namely, Spain. And here          would perish because of his sin. He saw that he
  too is an amazing thing in Jonah's life. Jonah             must die, if these seamen were to escape destruc-
  wanted nothing to do with the Gentiles in Nineveh          tion. He could not pray to God to bring the storm to
 .whom God was pleased to warn. But he was eager             an end, for he now realized that he deserved to die
  to make use of the Gentiles who ran this ship. He          for his sins. He does not see it yet, but the founda-


204                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



tion is laid for him to learn later that the Ninevites    does not jump overboard to save them, even after
would perish because of his sin of fleeing, and of        confessing that it is all his fault.
not warning them as he was called to do. Now he             How different this is from our Savior Who
does see that the mariners would die because of his       "steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem" where
sin, and that he should be thrown overboard.              He knew He would be crucified! How different
  The finger of God pointed directly to him when          from His surrender in the garden, after He showed
the sailors cast lots to find out who was to blame,       them that He could cast them backward to the
and God guided the lots to point to Jonah. Yes, that      ground and walk away unharmed! How different
too was God's work, and it was a work of love that        from His refusal to come down from His cross,
brought Jonah to confess his sin before these Gen-        when taunted, even though it would have been a
tiles. He does not however volunteer. He does not         simple matter for Him with His almighty, divine
tell them that he will jump overboard and so save         power to do so!
their lives. And the sailors hesitate casting him into      It is true that Jonah did not know that his life was
that raging sea. Jonah had told them Who his God          going to be spared by a fish which God prepared for
is, and that God is the God of heaven Who hath            this work. But put yourself in Jonahs place and
made the sea and dry land; and that he was trying         face death in a few minutes because you have re-
to flee from Him rather than do His bidding.              belled against God, tried to frustrate Him, and tried
  Upon hearing this the sailors strove harder in an       to flee from His presence, only to find Him right
attempt to reach the shore and safety. When the           there before your face with all His terrible power
storm increased and the ship seemed ready to be           and hatred of sin of all kinds!
broken in pieces they pray that they may not be             Do not excuse Jonah's sin; but do have compas-
held guilty of Jonah's blood, if they throw him           sion for him, even as he should have had compas-
overboard. They fear this God of heaven Whom              sion upon the Ninevites, whom he was to tell that
Jonah had introduced to them. And it is hard to           God was right there before them with His sword,
understand how calm Jonah remains through it all.         and whom he was therefore to warn and call to
He faced death for a gross sin which he had com-          repentance. Jonah had learned part of his lesson,
mitted. He was in a position wherein he would drag        but there is so much more for him to learn.
others to death with him because of his sin. But he
FROM HOLY WRIT
George C. Lubbers





        Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                 Chapter XXV
                              The Mystery of the Seventy Weeks in Daniel 9





THE COVENANT MADE STRONG                                  the wicked with the waters of the flood, so shall it
(continued - Daniel 9:27)                                 be when God sends the Roman legions to surround
                                                          the city; then shall the earthly temple of  Herod  be
  And this "end" shall be "as with a flood."              destroyed, and there shall be no place to which to
  The suggestion is that God will perform a very          flee in order to escape (Luke  21:20-24). Yes, then
final and cataclysmic judgment upon the earthly           there shall be the fulfillment of the word of the
city and theocracy of Israel, just as in the days of      Lord concerning the judgment of God upon the
Noah. It will be a sudden and final destruction.          "abomination of desolation standing in the holy
Even as in the days of Noah, when God destroyed           place." It will be truly Ichabod, the glory is  de-


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                205



parted, for earthly Jerusalem. Not one stone re-                       Arminian has a strong covenant, nor does he have a
mained upon another!                                                   strong covenant for many. He has not a strong
   And it is exactly at this time that the covenant is                 covenant for anyone! He has no Gospel of  glad-
made strong in the blood of Christ, Who was                            tidings at all. However, Gabriel speaks of the cove-
delivered for our offenses and Who was raised for                      nant as being made strong in "one week." And that
our justification. It is the covenant for Abraham                      -one "seven" is the fulfillment at Calvary. Here we
and for all his spiritual seed, whether Jew or Greek,                  breathe the pure air of the Gospel which speaks
Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, male or female.                     loud and clear: ". . . but now once at the end (con-
Then it will be shown beyond all contradiction that                    summation) of the ages hath he (Messiah) been
as many as are of Christ are Abraham's seed and                        manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of him-
heirs according to the promise (Rom. 4:9-24; Gal.                      self" (Heb.  9:26).
3:23-29). Truly, in this making strong of the cove-                       The great and dreadful God is the covenant God,
nant, we see that the word of God has not fallen                       Who keepeth covenant faithfulness and  loving-
out, but that every jot and tittle of the law is ful-                  kindness with those who fear Him (Dan.  9:4). God
filled.                                                                is faithful to His covenant. This covenant is strong
THE COVENANT MADE STRONG                                               exactly because it is God's unilaterally made cove-
"FOR MANY" (Daniel 9:27b)                                              nant. Its fulfillment depends solely upon God's
                                                                       faithfulness. It is all of grace! And it is promised to
   Although we have pointed out that the Covenant,                     the multitude of the elect Seed, the children of
spoken of in the text, is not merely some human                        Abraham, forever. This covenant in the hearts of
contract, agreement, or pact between Israel and                        the many, many children of Abraham spells eternal
some earthly potentate, but that it refers to the new                  life. Now God did not need to make His own cove-
Covenant in Christ's blood, yet there is more to say                   nant promise strong; however, He did need to
at this point.                                                         make it strong for many. Grace and truth became
   Dispensational teaching really does not teach the                   through Jesus Christ. And from His fulness have
covenant of the promise of God at all.  Scofield                       we all received, grace for grace. The "many"
speaks of "seven dispensations" as we have noticed                     children of Abraham all drank from the wells of
earlier in depth, and, therefore, must also teach                      salvation which were opened in Zion.
various "covenants." Without question the deepest                        God made it strong to us and fulfilled His oath to
reason for dispensational teaching is that it explicit-                Abraham (Heb.  6:16, 17; Acts  2:38-40)!
ly denies the unity of the Holy Catholic Church.
D i s p e n s a t i o n a l i s m   i s   r e a l l y   humanistic-      This covenant made strong for man is repeatedly
Arminianism which denies the Scriptural teaching                       designated by Daniel as the  hoZy covenant. (See
of the eternal election of grace. It is for this reason                Daniel  11:28, 30, 32.) The covenant is called holy
that the one covenant of God, which God calls "my                      because it is the relationship of most intimate fel-
covenant," is replaced in their exposition of Daniel                   lowship and communion between God and His
9:27 with a mere "covenant" made by some world-                        justified and sanctified people.
ly ruler. The grand unity of the covenant in its                         Here we hear the clarion sound: "Be ye holy for I
promissory form, and as fulfilled in the blood of the                  am holy" (Lev.  19:2;  11:44;  20:7). When God's
New Testament,  cunnd  come to the rightful inter-                     covenant is made strong it means that God con-
pretation. Here one seeks in vain for the "pattern of                  forms His people to His image, yea, makes them
sound doctrine" to which we have been delivered                        partakers of the divine nature (II Peter  1:4). Paul
(Rom.  6:17). The gospel of grace in every page of                     wrote in Romans  520, 21, "where sin abounded,
Moses, the Psalms, and all the Prophets cannot be                      grace did much more abound exceedingly, so that
seen by dispensationalists! There is no grace in the                   as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign in
dispensation of law! The clarion note of the Gospel                    righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ
in Genesis  12:1-3  is muffled!                                        our Lord."
   The one point which must still be noticed in the                      Truly, this was good news for Daniel; it was
text is that the covenant is made strong "for many"!                   water for a thirsty soul who would not forget Jeru-
   Furthermore, it ought to be obvious to every                        salem above his chief joy in far off Babylon. It was
serious Bible believer, that only if the covenant                      necessary that the truth of God's covenant be set
blessings have been promised to "the many" can it                      forth clearly, and in a comforting way, as an
be made strong for many. It is made strong for the                     answer, the perfect answer, to Daniel's mighty
many for whom it was purposed and planned. No                          pleadings.before the face of the great and dreadful
                                                                       God!
George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant               Furthermore, the mouth of the enemy and the
Reformed Churches.                                                     avenger must be stopped. The wicked inside and


                                                                                                                       I
I

     206                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



     outside of the Old Testament Theocracy and Com-          for Israel, and laments at the holy mount, "Lord,
     monwealth of Israel must no longer tauntingly say        they have killed thy prophets, they have digged
     to the lowly of heart in Israel, "Where is thy God?      down thine altars; and I am left alone and they seek
     Where is that Jehovah in Whom ye trusted? Where          my soul," then comes the "answer of God"! It is
     is He Who is the hope of Israel, the true Israel of      the divine oracle, the  "chuematismos"!  It is  the
     God?" Yes, as with a sword in Israel's bones the         Answer to the seeming dilemma. It is God's elective
     enemies reproached Israel, while they were con-          love in which He makes His covenant to stand in
     tinually saying, "Where is thy temple with its holy      thousands of generations to those who love Him
     altars? Where is the place of your rest?" And was        and keep His commandments. God never  forsahes
     there not a cause: the sin of God's people?              those whom He loves eternally in Christ Jesus, and
       What depths of pathos and lamentation there is         who are engraved in the  palms of His hand, and
     recorded for us in Jeremiah  50:7, where we read,        who are ever before Him!
     "All that found them have devoured them: and               Has God cast off His people?
     their adversaries said: We offend not, because they        God forbid!
     have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of
     justice, even the LORD, the hope of Israel"! What          Ever there is a remnant according to the election
     hellish words these are! The Hebrew term for             of grace. Grace is rooted in election. Wherefore we
     adversary is "tsar," which means straitener. This        read in the Divine Oracle, "I have left to myself
     adversary drives God's people in deepest straits         seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee
     and distress and then mocks them in their plight.        to Baal"! Even so in the time of Daniel in Babylon
     Their sin in afflicting Israel cries to heaven as did    there was the remnant according to election (Rom.
     the blood of Abel, and still they presume to have        ll:l-5).
     immunity to God's just judgment because Israel             Grace is grace and works is works! (Rom. 11:6).
     has sinned. And they mock the God of heaven, the           Here is the principle which makes the covenant
     great and dreadful God, forgetting that Babylon and      strong in the blood of Messiah. He is the appointed
     the nations are but as an ax in the hand of Him that     One, the One sent to make the covenant strong in
     hews therewith! (Is.  36:7, 10;  10:15).                 the seventieth seven. In this strong covenant in
       That God is the hope of Israel must be made            Christ's blood John jubilantly confesses, "Behold
     manifest in a strong covenant unto many!                 what manner of Zove the Father hath bestowed upon
       That great and dreadful God is the everlastingly       us, that we should be called children of God, and
     faithful God to His promise to Abraham and to His        (such) we are" (I John  3:l).
     spiritual elect people.                                    Yes, Jesus came to His own (things = temple,
       God never forsakes His people! Such is ever the        etc.) but His own did not receive Him. Israel, as Old
     strong and comforting thought in the Bible. That is      Testament Theocracy, rejected Him. But as men
     the Cor  Ecclesia! (I Sam.  12:22). It might have        are received, to them gave He the right (authority)
     seemed thus that God had cast them off, in the days      to become children of God, even them who believe
     of Samuel, when the ark of God was taken by the          on His name, who were born not of blood, nor of
     Philistines, when the very priests in the tabernacle     the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
     were polluting the holy altar and sacrifices, and        God (John  l:ll-13).
     when the sons of the high priest Eli lay dead on the       Behold the manner of the strong covenant!
     battlefield, and when Israel is under the heel of the
     mighty Philistines many, many years. But, even so,
     the word is, "Hitherto hath the LORD helped us"!
     And Israel is assured that their prayer for forgive-        The Standard Bearer
     ness is heard, "for the LORD (JEHOVAH) will not
     forsake his people for his great name's sake,             makes a thoughtful gift
     because it hath pleased the LORD to make you a
     people unto himself"!
       Yes, it is the Father's good pleasure that the                     for any occasion!
     Israel of God inherit the kingdom. Fear not, little
     flock! (Luke  12:32).                                                Give a gift of the
       This is the keynote of Scripture!
       It is the pattern of sound doctrine!      .             Standard Bearer today!
       In the darkest hour of Israel's history, when
     none other but Elijah pleads against Israel and not


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              207


ALL AROUND US
Robert D. Decker





                              The End of the World .



  It is customary near the end of the year for the         of mud when the volcano erupted in Columbia.
news media to publish or broadcast (telecast) ar-          Killer hurricanes battered the southeastern and gulf
ticles and programs reviewing the main events of           coasts of the United States. Jesus spoke of these
the past year. Viewing one such program I could            things too. (Cf. verse 7.)
not help but think of Matthew  24  where the                 Though we hear little and think even less about
disciples ask Jesus, "Tell us, when shall these            it, many of God's people are persecuted for Christ's
things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming,       sake. In China much of the church is underground.
and of the end of the world?" In response to this          Christian Renewal  (Dec. 16, 1985) reports that in
question Jesus spoke of the signs of His coming.           Romania, "The average pastor is serving as many
Those signs are being fulfilled in our time, "all          as 6-8 congregations because of the government's
around us."                                                attempt to strangle the church through lack of lead-
  There are false prophets who claim to speak in           ership and Christian materials. . . . Just recently a
the name of Christ. Much of the church is shot             believer named Constantin Statcu was sentenced to
through with apostasy. Many cardinal truths of Ho-         7% years in prison for carrying Bibles and Christian
ly Scripture are denied. The inspiration and infalli-      literature in the car he was driving and was falsely
bility or inerrancy of the Bible is widely denied.         accused of trying to kill a policeman. . . . An eleven-
The same is true of the Genesis account of creation,       year-old Christian boy named Daniel was ordered
the fall of mankind into sin, and the flood. Many          by his teacher to `teach his classmates a little
are being deceived. (Cf. verses 4, 5, 11.)                 prayer.' After he had prayed for his teacher and his
  We continue to hear of wars and rumors of wars.          classmates he was again ordered to stand with his
Iran and Iraq continued to fight their "holy war" in       hands above his head while his classmates filed
1985. Lebanon and the Middle East continue to oc-          past him one after another and spit in his face."
cupy world attention. The fighting there never             The Sandinistas are applying pressure on the
seems to cease. Other areas of tension and unrest          church in Nicaragua. (Cf. Missionary MonthZy, Nov.
are Afghanistan, South Africa, and Central                 1985.) Pastors and other church leaders are hauled
America. The United Nations celebrated its fortieth        in for long periods of questioning. Sometimes they
anniversary in 1985, but remains powerless to              are detained for hours with no explanation. In the
bring peace among the nations. (Cf. verses 6-8.)           northern part of the country an evangelical church
                                                           was seized by the army. The pastor of the church
  1985 is being called "the year of disaster."             and eleven of its members were killed. This hap-
Thousands died in Ethiopia's terrible famine. Mex-         pened in mid-October of 1985. Jesus told His dis-
ico City was struck by a series of severe earth-           ciples and us, "Then shall they deliver you up to be
quakes leaving many dead and many more home-               afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of
less. Some twenty thousand people died when a              all nations for my name's sake. And then shall
tidal wave caused by a powerful cyclone struck the         many be offended, and shall betray one another,
coastline of Bangladesh. It is estimated that another      and shall hate one another" (Matthew  24:9, 10).
twenty thousand were buried under the avalanche              There is abounding lawlessness in our world.
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and    (Cf. verse 12.) The Rev. Norman Jones informs us,
Ntyw Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.        "It is estimated that an average of one and a half


208                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



million babies have been murdered in abortion               This is what is going on all around us. The que:
chambers each year since 1973. Multiply that              tion is, what must be our attitude toward all this
figure by 12 years and we see the holocaust that has      First, we must not be afraid! Oh, to be sure, grea
been taking place. . . . There is no excuse for any       and fearful things are in the future for God's peopl
Christian to be uninformed about this most heinous        and church. Jesus warned us of a great tribulatio:
of crimes being perpetuated in our midst at the rate      "such as was not since the beginning of the worl
of 4,000 per day! In 1981, according to the A. Gutt-      to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (verse 21). Th
macher Institute, there was one unborn baby               Lord went on to say, "And except those day
murdered for every three being permitted to live!"        should be shortened, there should no flesh b
(The Reformed Herald,  pp* 3, 4; Dec. 1985). What-        saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall b
ever the world may say, abortion in the light of the      shortened" (verse 22). When contemplating  thesl
Word of God is simply cold-blooded murder. It's           things we often wonder if we and our children shal
"legal" in the United States. Jones is right when he      be able to stand and remain faithful to God's Won
calls abortion "this most heinous of crimes." This        should those days come in our lifetime. But,  w'
too is a sign of the end of the world and the coming      must not be afraid. These things must come to pas
of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven. Homo-          in order that God's Kingdom of Glory may corn
sexuality is the greatest manifestation of the repro-     through our exalted Lord Jesus Christ. God assure
bate mind according to Romans 1:18-32. This too is        us repeatedly in His Word that He will preserve Hi
condoned by the world and, what is worse, con-            church in those days. Second, our calling is  tl
doned by many churches! This sin brought upon             watch and pray. No man knows the day or the hou
Sodom and Gomorrah the fire and brimstone of              of the Lord's coming. (Cf. verse 36.) When we  set
God's holy wrath. (Cf. Genesis 19.) The conse-            these signs occurring we must know that "it i
quences of this sin are becoming painfully evident        near, even at the doors" (verse 33). For this reason
in the rise and quick spread of the deadly disease        we must watch! What this means is that we mus
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).               be spiritually alert. We must discern the Word o
This disease, for which there is no cure, is caused in    God in all these events. God says through  thes
most instances and spread. through homosexual             things, "Jesus is coming soon"! We ought to  live
contacts. Yet, homosexuality continues as an accep-       every moment of every day as if that were the vey
table lifestyle in this country, while medical            moment of our Lord's return! We must not  bl
science almost frantically searches for a cure for        found of the Lord in that great day unprepared
AIDS! Sheer lawlessness! A sign of the end of the         Finally, when we see these things we ought to re
world!                                                    joice. All around us there is increasing  evidence
  There is the problem of terrorism. In June of last      that our redemption draws nigh! That's cause fo
year, an American TWA airplane was hijacked in            joy. Soon, very soon now, our Lord Jesus will ap
Beirut, Lebanon. Shiite Moslems demanded the              pear. When He comes that will be the end of all ou
release of 700 of their soldiers imprisoned in Israel.    sinning. That's cause for rejoicing! The coming o
After two weeks of captivity, during which time           Christ marks the end of all the bitter fruits and ef
one American was killed, the hostages were re-            fects of sin. There will be no more sorrow or crying
leased. In November, an Egyptian airplane was hi-         no more pain and trouble, no more disease  ant
jacked. When the hijackers began killing the              death. When Jesus returns we and all  God':
passengers one by one, Egyptian soldiers stormed          children will be raised up and transformed. Ir
the plane. Over fifty people died in this incident. In    resurrection bodies we shall never die. We  shal
spite of beefed up airport security these hijackings      join a multitude which no man can number out o
continue. This too heralds the return of our Lord         every nation and we shall sing God's praise forevel
Jesus. The daily newspapers are full of reports of        and ever. That is cause for rejoicing!
murder, rape, robbery, bombings, kidnap, and                All around us we see the signs of the end of tht
other crimes. Iniquity, lawlessness abounds the           world and the coming of our Lord. Fear not! Watch
world over.                                               Pray! Rejoice!

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


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    209



                            Good Morning, Alice (6)
                                                  Gise J. Van Buren





  Several times Alice was taken to the ALS clinic at         often I cop out and say, "WeZZ, that's the way I am, "
the University of Chicago. There, much helpful ad-           when actually, it is sin!
vice was given, medications were prescribed to                  Do you find that in your Zife too, AZice?
relieve some of the distressing symptoms of ALS,
and also experimental medications were given  -                                      "See" you tomorrow, Your friend
but there was no indication that any of these                Please read PsaZm 119:74
slowed the progress of the disease. At first Alice
was taken to Chicago by car when it was still possi-            It was in January of 198 1 that it became apparent
ble to help her in and out of it. A folding wheelchair       that if Alice were to travel anywhere any more, it
could fit into the trunk of the car - and Alice made         would have to be by other means than a car.
good use of this. Later on, the trips would be made          Before, one could pull her up from her wheelchair,
in John's van which could accommodate Alice                  help her turn slowly, then guide her down into the
while in her wheelchair. On these excursions, Alice          car seat. But now she could not stand long enough
enjoyed eating out in a restaurant - and always in-          for all of this to be done. Her legs would not sup-
sisted on paying the bill. Nor did she seem overly           port her that long. But John had a van which he
embarrassed about going into a restaurant as an in-          loaned to be used to take Alice from place to place.
valid in a wheelchair. Just the change ,and pleasure         The MD clinic of Grand Rapids kindly provided a
of going out with some of the relatives and doing            ramp for the van on loan. From now on, Alice
different things seemed to take her mind off the             would be moved up and down the ramp  - and
daily discouragements she faced.                             could travel while seated in her wheelchair.
                                                             Good Morning AZice:
Good Morning AZice:                                            It's Monday morning and all the kids are home for
  Again  it's  stiZZ morning, but  not  very  eurZy; you     the week. I'm going to have to get up eurZy in order to
know, the day after a holiday . . . .                        write because it's hard to write with all of them around.
  The kids had nothing to do, so I made a new batch          Early morning is the best time of the day for quiet
of pzuydough  for them. You know, us I was making it, I      thought anyway.
was thinking what I wouZd say to you this morning, and         Sometimes I wonder how the Psalmist can taZk so
I began thinking about God us the Potter. I've made          highly of himseZf Ps. 119:74 says, "They that fear Thee
pZuydough many times before, but never with spiritual        wiZZ be gZud when they see me; because I have hoped in
thoughts in my head . . . . You are helping me, AZice!       Thy Word. "
  The verse about God being the potter uctuuZZy is a Zot        Do  other Christians see in me thatjoyous hope that I
Zike the verse I asked you to read yesterday . . . "l?iy     have, or do they see a mother that is grouchy, or a com-
hands have made and fashioned me." I hope you guve           plaining wife, or a friend that is more interested in tulk-
that some time in your thoughts, AZice; I have too. God      ing about others or praying curds or watching T. V. than
made me what I am. That includes everything: my              having a spiritual discussion or sharing my joy?
Zooks, my personality, my roZe in Zife; but the Psalmist
knows himseZf weZZ enough to continue . . . `give me           Again, it is good to examine myseZf in this.
understanding that I muy Zeum thy commandments."               I know I have that hope and I know that with the
  Again, I may be reading this wrong, but to me this         Spirit in my heart, I can Zive expressing that hope.
says: `Lord, make me understand how Thou hast made             It's just when I'm Zuzy or selfish and give in to my sin-
me and why, so that I may use all of myseZfi my Zooks,       faZ nature that I do not make others gZud.
my personuZity,  and my role in Zife in obedience to Thy       Muy it be a "good" day for both of us for showing
law. That's a very difficuZt thing to do for me - so         and living our hope in the Lord and thus make others
                                                             gZad.                              With Zove, Your friend
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed
Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.                             PZeuse read PhiZ. 4:31-32


210                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



  Brother John, at one point, had mentioned the                       The frustrations of traveling with the handi-
possibility of a trip to Florida. Alice's eyes im-             capped are known best by those who try it. Little
mediately brightened and she spoke of going too.               things, ordinary activities, can become major
Work was slack. Alice was eager. And only John                 obstacles. Visiting the rest room can be a real prob-
and Judy would have dared try this with Alice vir-             lem. Not all are equipped to handle the handi-
tually helpless. But they went - the last two weeks            capped. Alice needed help from the wheelchair to
of March and the first of April. With young                    the stool and back. Trouble was, in the "ladies
daughter Janis, in the van, they headed South. Alice           room" only Judy could help. All would go well  -
had been in Florida several times before - but this            provided there was enough room to manipulate a
was a special trip with her favorite niece; and she            wheelchair and there was a bar to which Alice
could rely on a brother, who found all the solutions           could hold and help herself somewhat. But some-
to the inevitable difficulties, as he always had done          times, in a very narrow stall, one could become
in the past. Now she could enjoy Florida for one               stuck in the most awkward position. One such
more time - a pleasant diversion from the regular              time, in desperation, Judy had to call John for help
routines.                                                      - while not a few eyes looked askance at this man
Good Morning Alice:                                            striding into a ladies' rest room.
  Well, if I wrote on your note what I jotted down on          Good Morning Alice:
my card, you probably had a taste of my unorganiza-                   Wednesday already! How time flies. Yesterday it was
tion.  I  have  Phil.  4:31-32,  and it is supposed to be      permanents for the girls; and today an eye doctor ap-
Ephesians 4:31-32.  Maybe you want to take time to             pointment and shopping. Isn't it easy to busy ourselves
read that a minute.                                            and neglect God?
  There's a tremendous comparison here - bitterness,                  Jude is a little book that I really don't know a lot
wrath, anger, evil speaking (which my Bible explains as        about. It's kind of funny how I chose the verses for us to
"railing'~  and malice. NOT very nice actions! We are          think about. A lot of them are favorites; some I've
told to put away all these and be kind and tender-             heard in sermons; and some I just go looking  for.
hearted and forgiving.                                                When I wanted to write a text for you to read yester-
  Even as a teenager at home, I didn't find it very hard       day, I thought I'd find one in Revelation. Well, in my
to be kind, tenderhearted, and even forgiving to  others,      Bible, the last part of Jude is on the same page as the
but in the family I guess my real self came out. When I        beginning of Revelation, and there were these verses!
think of what a "bear" I was, I know all these things
were true of me. Then I try to excuse myself and say,                 So this morning I read the book (all 25 verses of it).
"Well, that was when I was young"; but a lot of that           In many ways it wasn't a "nice" book to read. It is not
can still be found in me! When I think of all the times I      nice to think of all those who have turned away from
am guilty of these actions to my own loved ones, it            God. We know this has always happened from Cain on,
makes me shudder. I know deep down that it comes               and we must hear about it to be warned! While we
from selfishness. I want things to go easy and smooth          know our election stands, we also know that we must
for me. Am I bitter? Yes, at times because I don't get         make our calling and election sure.
my way. Wrath and anger? They come all too easy.                      In other words, God has saved us - given us faith,
Railing and malice? I'm afraid so; and I'm afraid a lot        and now we must build up ourselves in that faith. The
of it has been done with my eyes. Did you ever stop to         chief way of doing that is prayer; and oh, how I fall
really think how cruel eyes can be? I've recognized that       short there. It is prayer that keeps us humble, close to
in my eyes all too ofte72.                                     God, desirous to please Him; and yet, how we neglect
  But then our text goes on: `*Kind, tenderhearted,            it!
forgiving"; beautiful actions that make a beautiful per-              Verse 21 is one that I hope I remember. Keep or
son. The end of the verse tells us the only possible way       guard yourselves that you stay in the love of God, or
to have these - through Christ.                                continue to experience that love. And then that
  God  has  forgiven us because                                beautiful statement: "Looking for the mercy of our
                                    of  Christ's sacrifice.
Now, am I ready to "sacrifice" my self-centeredness in         Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
order to be kind, tender and forgiving? I'm going to try              As long as we look to and long after Christ's mercies,
to look at myself carefully today and strive (because it       we cannot be swayed nor tempted by sin around us.
won't be easy) to think of others' needs of kindness and       His mercy is there - unto eternal life - all our lives
tenderness; and not simply of ease for myself. . . . Look      through; and He has commanded us to build ourselves
what Christ did for me!                                        up and guard ourselves in that love. Dare we not obey?
                                        Love, Your friend                                            With love, Your friend
Please read Jude 20-21                                         Please read Jude 24-25


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              211



THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH
Ronald L. Cammenga





                                 Covenant Breaking



  The very worst sin of which a person can make            Ezekiel  44:7 the Lord accuses the inhabitants of
himself guilty is the sin of covenant breaking.            Judah, "In that ye have brought into my sanctuary
Adultery, murder, drunkenness, homosexuality  -            strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircum-
these are not the worst sins that a person can com-        cised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it,
mit. Although we can become very horrified over            even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat
these sins of the flesh, the sin that ought to cause us    and the blood, and they have broken my covenant
to be especially horrified is this sin, the sin of         because of all your abominations."
breaking the covenant of God.                                The opposite of breaking God's covenant is keep-
  TheScriptures, especially in the Old Testament,          ing God's covenant. In many passages the Word of
refer frequently to the sin of covenant breaking. In       God calls God's people to keep the covenant. In
Genesis 17: 14 the Lord says about those who refuse        Genesis  17:9 God says to Abraham, "Thou shalt
to be circumcised or to circumcise their sons that         keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed
II . . . he hath broken my covenant." In Leviticus         after thee in their generations." In Exodus 195 God
26:15, 16 the Lord warns the children of Israel of         says to the children of Israel who have just come
severe judgment, if they despise Gods statutes or          out of the bondage of Egypt, "Now therefore, if ye
abhor His judgments or break His covenant. We              will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
read in Deuteronomy 21: 16, "And the Lord said un-         then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above
to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers;       all people: for all the earth is mine." When God's
and this people will rise up, and go a-whoring after       Word exhorts the people of God to keep God's
the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they        covenant, the implied warning is, "Thou shalt not
go. to be among them, and will forsake me, and             break the covenant of the Lord your God."
break my covenant which I have made with them."              A question arises as to how we are to understand
Concerning the children of Israel in the Old Testa-        this sin of covenant breaking. How does this square
ment we read in Psalm  78:10, 37, "They kept not           with the teaching of Scripture concerning the faith-
the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his            fulness of God in the covenant? How does this
law; for their heart was not right with him, neither       square with the everlasting character of the cove-
were they stedfast in his covenant." In Isaiah  24:5       nant? How does this square with the sovereignty of
we read, "The earth also is defiled under the in-          God in the establishment and maintenance of the
habitants thereof; because they have transgressed          covenant?
the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the ever-
lasting covenant." The Lord says concerning Israel           The Scriptures do clearly teach the unbreakable-
in Jeremiah  31:32, "Not according to the covenant         ness of God's covenant, the everlasting character of
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took      God's covenant. In Leviticus 26, the same chapter
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of          in which He warns against Israel's breaking of the
Egypt; which  .my covenant they brake, although I          covenant, the Lord promises, "And yet for all that,
was an husband unto them, saith the Lord." In              when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not
                                                           cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed    destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant
Church of Loveland, Colorado.                              with them: for I am the Lord their God." In Judges


212                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



2:l the Lord recalls the promise which He had             ing to Scripture, as covenant breaking. Yes, there
spoken to the children of Israel when He had taken        are people who are covenant-breakers.
them out of the land of Egypt, the promise, `!I will         What is this sin of covenant breaking? What is a
never break my covenant with you." In I Kings             covenant-breaker? And how do we harmonize
8:23 Solomon refers to God as the One  ". . . Who         covenant breaking with the unbreakableness of
keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that         God's covenant?
walk before thee with all their heart." God Himself
says in Psalm 89:34, "My covenant will I not break,          From a certain point of view, all sin is the sin of
nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." The     covenant breaking. Every sinner is at bottom a
Lord assures His people in Isaiah  54:10, "For the        covenant-breaker. This is so because God originally
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed;         made man as His friend, as capable of standing in a
but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither       covenant relation to God. This is so because man
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith          remains still today obligated to be and to manifest
the Lord that hath mercy on thee." We sing of             himself as the friend of God. At bottom man's sin is
God's covenant faithfulness in  PsaZter  #425,  stanza    always that he is God's enemy. Rather than be a
5: "Jehovah's truth will stand forever, His               friend of God, he is the friend of the Devil.
covenant-bonds He will not sever."                          Nevertheless, the sin of covenant breaking is par-
  There are some who have sought to harmonize             ticularly the sin of those who stand historically con-
the teaching of Scripture concerning the  unbreak-        nected to the line of God's covenant, and to the
ableness of God's covenant with those passages of         manifestation of God's covenant, which is the
Scripture that speak of the sin of covenant breaking      church. Covenant breaking is the sin of someone
by teaching a conditional covenant. According to          within the sphere of the covenant. It is the sin of
these people all of the children born to believing        one who has been born into the covenant, born to
parents are in the covenant, possess the promise of       believing, covenant parents. It is the sin of one who
the covenant, and receive covenant grace. But             has grown up under the administration of the cove-
through their own sin, they fall out of the covenant,     nant. It is the sin of one who has received the sign
relinquish the promise of the covenant, and frus-         and seal of the covenant in holy baptism. It is the
trate the operations of Gods covenant grace.              sin of one who has been instructed in the covenant
                                                          by believing parents, Christian school teachers, and
  This teaching of a conditional covenant, how-           officebearers. It is the sin of one who has heard the
ever, has serious difficulties, and raises more prob-     preaching of the gospel of the covenant. It is the sin
lems than it resolves. The teaching of a condition-       of one who has even likely professed faith in the
al covenant ought to go against the grain of every        God of the covenant and declared publicly that he
truly Reformed man or woman. It is a teaching that        is a member of the covenant. But although all of
involves a denial of God's sovereignty, at least in       this is true, he turns his back on the covenant of
the salvation of the children of the covenant. It is a    God, renounces his baptism, contradicts his confes-
denial of the preservation of the saints, of the ir-      sion of faith, and leaves the church.
resistibility of grace, and of the total depravity of
the children of believers. This is not a teaching that      The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews refers to
harmonizes the unbreakableness of God's covenant          these covenant-breakers in Hebrews  10:29:  "Of
with covenant breaking, but throws out the win-           how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he
dow the unbreakableness of God's everlasting              be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot
covenant.                                                 the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
                                                          covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
  Others, reacting to the Arminianism implicit in         thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of
the idea of a conditional covenant, have denied al-       grace?"
together the possibility of covenant breaking. With         Does this at all contradict the teaching of the un-
an apparent zeal for the unbreakableness of God's         breakableness of God's covenant? Does this destroy
covenant, they have stoutly maintained that there         the everlasting character of the covenant of grace?
is no such thing as covenant breaking and                 Does this in any way imply that these people were
covenant-breakers. To speak this way is dangerous,        ever actually genuine members of God's covenant?
and if not Arminian itself at least tends toward Ar-      Not at all. Scripture describes the sin of these peo-
minianism.                                                ple from their point of view. They were born and
  The trouble with this position is that it plainly       brought up within the covenant. They received the
contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture in the        sacrament of the covenant. They  said  that they
passages we cited earlier. The language of Scripture      were members of the covenant. They said that they
is clear, and using the language of Scripture is not a    believed in the God of the covenant. They said that
dangerous thing. Yes, there is such a thing, accord-      they walked in the way of the covenant, the way of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 213



God's commandments. To others they appeared for            grace. Just so, their guilt is increased and their judg-
a time to be members of God's covenant. But all of         ment aggravated.
this was appearance only. They never were gen-               Since this is the sin of those who stand within the
uine members of the covenant, as their falling away        sphere of the covenant, this is a sin against which
and breaking of the covenant proves.                       we need to be warned. It is a sin against which our
  Passages like Joshua  23:16, I Kings 19:10, and II       young people need to be warned. Immediately after
Kings  18:12 speak of the sin of covenant breaking         the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews refers to
and also describe what belongs to this sin. Accord-        those who are guilty of being covenant-breakers, of
ing to these passages those who are guilty of cove-        despising the blood of the covenant, he warns in
nant breaking form marriages with the heathen,             Hebrews  10:30, 31, "For we know him that hath
make friends with the heathen who are God's                said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will
enemies, reject God's prophets and the Word of             recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord
God through His prophets, throw down the altars            shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall in-
of God, and introduce the worship of idols. They           to the hands of the living God."
not only break the covenant, but manifest them-              May God give us the grace to keep His covenant.
selves as enemies of the covenant and of the cove-         May we walk in obedience to Him, in His fellow-
nant God.                                                  ship, over against the wicked world. Especially as
  This makes their sin serious! They are covenant-         young people, may it be impressed upon our con-
breakers!                                                  sciences  ". . . that the friendship of the world is en-
                                                           mity with God; whosoever therefore will be a
  Their sin is not the sin of the heathen. Their sin is    friend of the world is the enemy of God' (James
not the sin of those who stand outside of the church       4:4). Exactly in the way of keeping His covenant,
and the administration of the means of grace. But          may God bring upon us all of the blessings of the
their sin is a covenant sin. Theirs is a sin against       covenant.

GUEST ARTICLE
Steven R. Houck





        God's Sovereignty and the Psalms (2)



THE SOVEREIGN SAVIOR                                       Thus the psalmist declares, "I will lift up mine eyes
  Since God is the sovereign King over all the             unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My
world, we must also acknowledge that He is the             help cometh from the Lord which made heaven
sovereign Savior. How inconsistent we would be if          and earth" (Ps.  121:1-2).  God's people find their
we recognized God to be the great King, but refused        help in the Savior Who created the world. The
to recognize Him as the Savior Who saves His peo-          power of salvation is the power of the sovereign
ple by sovereign grace alone. These two can not be         Creator.
separated. If God is not the sovereign Savior, then          Therefore, God is praised in the Psalms as the
He can not be the sovereign King. The Psalms,              powerful, almighty Savior Who delivers from every
however, make it very clear that God is indeed the         foe. Does not every true Christian rejoice with the
sovereign Savior. For the Savior IS the sovereign          psalmist when he sings, "I will love thee, 0 Lord,
King. The Savior is the great God Who has created          my strength. The Lord is my rock, and fortress, and
all things and Who upholds and governs all things.         my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will


I                                                                                                                             I
     214                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



     trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation,              chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant" (Ps.
     and my high tower" (Ps.  18:1-Z)?  All these expres-          89:1-3). The covenant faithfulness of God will
     sions picture God as a powerful and strong Savior.            never fail. Even when Gods people violate the
     He is like a huge immovable rock. He is a strong              covenant, God remains faithful. He saves them in
     fortress, a high defense tower. The Savior is the             spite of their unfaithfulness, through the promised
     shield that protects His people from every enemy.             Seed. He promises, "My mercy will I keep for him
     Nothing can break through the defenses with                   for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast
     which God has surrounded His people. The                      with him. His seed also will I make to endure for
     psalmists considered God to be so sovereign in sal-           ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his
     vation that they trusted Him completely. Thus the             children forsake my law, and walk not in my judg-
     psalmist declares, "The Lord is my light and my               ments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my
     salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the                 commandments; Then will I visit their transgres-
     strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps.         sion with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
     27:l).                                                        Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly
       This confidence in the sovereign Savior is ex-              take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
     pressed not only through praise, but also through             My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing
     prayer. The Psalms are full of prayers in which God           that is gone out of my lips" (Ps. 89:28-34).
     is petitioned for help and salvation. We read, "Out             It is the sovereign Savior, therefore, Who regen-
     of the depths have I cried unto thee, 0 Lord. Lord,           erates, converts, justifies, sanctifies, preserves, and
     hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the             glorifies His people. This was King David's convic-
     voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest           tion as demonstrated by Psalm 51. Unto Whom
     mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand? But there           does David turn in the midst of his great sins? Does
     is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be                 he find comfort in the fact that he did something for
     feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and           salvation? NO! He prays, "Have mercy upon me, 0
     in his word do I hope" (Ps. 130:1-5). The psalmists           God, according to thy lovingkindness: according
     were sinners just like all of God's people. They              unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out
     knew, too, that if God would mark their sins they             my transgressions" (Ps.  51:l). He pleads for God's
     would not be able to stand. But by faith they were            mercy. He does not look to himself, for he
     confident that God could and would save them.                 acknowledges, "I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin
     They waited upon the sovereign Savior. They did               did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). He is a sin-
     not look to themselves for salvation. They did not            ner. How can he save himself? Thus he seeks his
     wait upon their own wills or works. Nor did they              salvation in sovereign grace. God must "create" in
     turn to others for help. Their certain hope was fixed         him "a clean heart" and "renew a right spirit" in
     upon God alone. They knew of only one Savior and              him. Only God can "restore" to him "the joy of sal-
     that Savior is Jehovah God. "Truly my soul waiteth            vation" and "uphold" him with His Spirit. If he is
     upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only               to be clean, God must "purge" him with hyssop
     is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I              and "wash" him so that he is whiter than snow. He
     shall not be greatly moved" (Ps. 62: l-2).                    knows that His salvation is God's work alone and
                                                                   therefore he declares, "0 God, thou God of my
     GOD'S SOVEREIGN GRACE                                         salvation" (Ps.  51:14). We find this throughout the
       Salvation is the work of God's grace alone. It is           Psalms. In the midst of sin, the psalmists rely on
     the work of God's SOVEREIGN grace. The psalm-                 God's sovereign grace. For all of the life of the
     ists knew of no grace that must be earned by man              believer is directed and controlled by God and His
     or accepted by the will of man. Salvation is not con-         grace until He finally gives to him complete salva-
     ditioned by what man does, but is based totally               tion. Thus all believers can say, "Thou shalt guide
     upon the faithfulness of the Covenant God. God's              me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to
     people are saved only because God has established             glory" (Ps. 7324).
     His covenant with them and promised to save                     Moreover the Psalms teach us that salvation is
     them. Thus Gods people rejoice and sing, "I will              not dependent upon man's choice, but upon the
     sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my             sovereign choice of God. The determining factor in
     mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all               salvation is God's will. The psalmists speak of
     generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built            Gods election in many places. "Blessed is the na-
     up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in         tion whose God is the Lord; and the people whom
     the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my              he hath chosen for his own inheritance" (Ps. 33:12).
                                                                   In God's eternal and unchangeable counsel, He has
     Steven R. Houck is a missionary of the Protestant Reformed    chosen certain ones to be His people whom He
     Churches, working currently in  Ripon, California.            saves. "For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto  him-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               215



self, and Israel for his peculiar treasure" (Ps. 135:4).    kings for their sakes; Saying, touch not mine
He does not save all. God never intended to save            anointed, and do my. prophets no harm" (Ps.
everyone. He saves only those whom He has                   105:14-15). Though the wicked seek to destroy
chosen. God has but one people for His "peculiar            God's people and the cause of Truth, God holds
treasure." All others know nothing of His salvation.        them in His power and will not allow them to do
It is upon His chosen people alone that He bestows          anything which He has not appointed. "The Lord
His mercy, grace, and love. He has only wrath for           bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he
the wicked. Thus the psalmist speaks of reproba-            maketh the devices of the people of none effect"
tion when he says of God, "Thou hatest all workers          (Ps.  33:lO). Though the "heathen rage . . . and the
of iniquity" (Ps.  5:5). "The Lord trieth the               rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and
righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth               against his anointed, . . . He that sitteth in the
violence his soul hateth" (Ps.  11:5). God's                heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in
sovereign predestination was manifested through-            derision" (Ps. 2: l-4). God uses all the wicked deeds
out the old dispensation by the fact that God gave          of the ungodly to advance the cause of His
His Word to His people only. "He sheweth his                kingdom. Even their rebellion serves the Lord.
word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments un-           Yea, for the sake of His people, the Lord destroys
to Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: as         the wicked. This is nowhere more evident than in
for his judgments, they have not known them.                the destruction of Egypt. The psalmist praises God
Praise ye the Lord" (Ps. 147:19-20).                        for the destruction of the enemies of God's people
GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE WICKED                           when he declares, "Who smote the firstborn of
  Closely connected with God's sovereignty in sal-          Egypt, both of man and beast. Who sent tokens and
vation is God's sovereignty over the wicked. God            wonders into the midst of thee, 0 Egypt, upon
always saves His people through the judgment of             Pharaoh, and upon all his servants" (Ps.  135:8-g).
the wicked. God's people need to be saved from              Not only Egypt, but also other heathen nations
their enemies. In many places the psalmists even            were destroyed for the sake of God's people. "Who
pray for the destruction of their enemies. In Psalm         smote great nations, and slew mighty kings; Sihon
68 we read, "Let God arise, let his enemies be scat-        king of the Amorites, and Og king of  Bashan, and
tered: let them also that hate him flee before him.         all the kingdoms of Canaan: And gave their land for
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as             an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people" (Ps.
wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked              135:10-12). Thus God's people are saved through
perish at the presence of God" (Ps.  68:1-2). Some-         the destruction of the wicked by the sovereign
times very strong language is used; "Break their            power of God. With the psalmist therefore all of
teeth, 0 God, in their mouth: break out the great           Gods people must praise God and say, "Through
teeth of the young lions, 0 Lord" (Ps.  58:6).              God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall
                                                            tread down our enemies" (Ps.  108:13). Because
  The basis for such prayers can only be the                God is sovereign even over the wicked, the salva-
sovereignty of God. The almighty power of God               tion of God's people is absolutely sure. Praise the
controls even the wicked for the sake of God's peo-         Lord. He is the sovereign Savior.
ple and their salvation. "He [God] suffered no man
to do them [God's people] wrong: yea, he reproved                                                (to be continued)

                             Report of Classis East
                                    -
                                                  January 8, 1986
                                   Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church

  Classis  East met in regular session on Wednes-           overture, all of which, if changed, would improve
day, January 8, at the Hudsonville Protestant Re-           the meaning of the Canons. Classis  decided to send
formed Church. Each church was represented by               the overture to synod with its approval. The sugges-
two delegates. Rev. Haak opened the session with            tion in the overture that scripture references be
devotions; Rev. R. Hanko presided.                          changed to the King James Version was not adopted
                                                            since this would involve changing the text itself of
  The. business of the classes was other than               the Canons.
routine. There was first an overture regarding                A protest against the actions of our emissaries to
changes in translation of the Canons of Dordt.              Ireland and England, and against the Contact Com-
There were four specific changes proposed in the            mittee of our Synod for not following its  constitu-


                                  THE STANDARD BEARER _
                                        P.O. Box 6064
                              Grand Rapids, Michigan 49 5 16-- -. -.-~-



                                                                                                                                                                                               `2
                                                                                                                                                                                               2
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                    1;  .,                                                                               .      1       `..     ._                         ."                          .       .P
                                                                                                                                                            L_.     - . ..-



                              216                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                        -~-
                                                                                                                                               `_  1*
                                                                                                                                                 I%

                              tion was also considered. Classis  sent this protest to                            as stated clerk. The following  synodical delegates
                              Synod with its disapproval on the grounds that Arti-                               were elected: MINISTERS:  Primi: W. Bekkering, C.
                              cle 30 had not been satisfied  - the essence of the                                Haak, J. Kortering, B. Woudenberg;  Secundi:  R.
                              protest is against men, and he ought to address                                    Flikkema, B. Gritters, R. Miersma, G. Van  Baren.
                              these men and their consistories; and that Article                                 ELDERS:  Primi:  D. Engelsma, J. Huisken, J.  Kals-
                              31 of the Church Order had not been met since                                      beek, Sr., C. Prince;  Secundi:  G. Hoekstra, G.
                              there is not specific decision of Synod that is being                              Holstege, P. Koole, C.`Kuiper. Rev. C. Hanko and
                              protested.                                                                         Rev. J.A. Heys were .chosen as church visitors with
                                 The report of the church visitors was also re-                                  Rev. R. Harbach and Rev. H. Veldman as alter-
                              ceived. This, too, was not routine. For the first time                             nates.
                              in many years, the visitors were asked to aid some                                      Subsidy requests were submitted by Kalamazoo
                              of our consistories by giving advice for specific                                 and Covenant. Classis  forwarded to synod, with its
                              situations. The conclusion of the report was a re-                                approval, subsidy requests for 1987 of $7,000 for
                              quest that we "pray for our consistories and also                                 Kalamazoo and $17,800 for Covenant. Byron
                              our people, that we may remain faithful to that                                   Center informed the  classis that they intend to be
                              great calling whereto God has called us to maintain                               self-supporting by 1987. Classis  received this infor-
                    ~         and defend the truth of Gods sovereign grace and                                  mation with thanks to God for prospering the way
                              of His covenant in such a time as this."                                          of this new congregation. In examining the finan-
                    1            Southwest Church requested classical appoint-                                  cial statements of these two congregations,  classis
                              ments and the following schedule was adopted:                                     also took note that the former figure of $1,000 for
                              January 19: Miersma, February 2: Haak, February                                   the maximum allowable balance `in the general
                                                                                                                fund is no longer realistic and hence is recommend-
                    ~         9: Bekkering, February 16: Flikkema, March 2:
                              Gritters, March 9: Woudenberg, March 16: Van                                      ing to synod that 10% of the total budget be
                              Baren, March 23: Miersma, April 6: Haak, April 13:                                established as a reasonable balance in the general
               I              Bekkering, April 20: Plikkema, May 4: Gritters,                                   fund for churches requesting subsidy.
                              May 11: Woudenberg, May 18: Van  Baren.                                                 The expenses of this  classis amounted to
                                                                                                                $769.25.
               I                 Classis elected Rev. J. Kortering and Rev. B. Grit-
                              ters to serve as delegates  ad examina,  primus   .and                                  The next meeting of classis will be held on May
                              secundus  respectively. Rev. R. Flikkema was                                      14, 1986 at Holland.
                              elected to serve on the Classical Committee. J.                                   Respectfully submitted,
          I                   Huisken was appointed to another three-year term                                 John Huisken, Stated Clerk

     I                                         ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!                                                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                 Covenant Christian School of Lynden, Washington, has an  open-                       January 19, 1986 marks the 25th Wedding Anniversary of our
                              ing for a teacher-administrator in the Liberal Arts subjects for the              parents, WILLEM and THERESSA HOFMAN. We are deeply grateful
I                             1986-87 school year.                                                             to our Heavenly Father for our Godly parents who brought us up in the
                                                                                                                light of His Word. We pray that God's blessings will attend them all
                                 Please send enquiries to: Covenant Christian School, 9088 North-              their days.
                              lawn Road, Lynden, Washington 98264, or phone: Peter Adams,
                              (206) 398-2774, or Albert De Boer, (206) 354-5825.                                Their children: William, Thomas, Melissa
I
                                                     IN LOVING MEMORY                                                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                 On December 26, 1985, it pleased our Heavenly Father to call un-                     The consistory and congregation of the Grandville Protestant Re-
                              to Himself our dear wife, mother, grandmother, and great grand-                   formed Church expresses its Christian sympathy to our pastor, Rev.
                              mother EDITH JULIET KORTERING. We thank God for her loving care                   Jason Kortering, and his family in the recent death of his mother,
                              and quiet testimony of trust, even in difficult times. We await our re-           MRS. JUSTIN KORTERING, of Holland, Michigan. May the bereaved
                              union in the day of the resurrection, "For the trumpet shall sound and           family find peace and comfort in the blessed truth of the resurrection
                              the dead in Christ shall rise first," I Thess. 4: 16.                             of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
                              Justin H. Kortering              Rev. Jason and Jean Kortering                          "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Psalm
                              Lafern J. Kortering              Ervin and Esther Kortering                       116:15
                              Jess K. Kortering                13 grandchildren                                J. Huisken, Vice-President
                              Kenneth Schuitema                 8 great grandchildren                          J. Engelsma, Clerk


