          The
.' STANDARD
          BEARER
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     . ..It is utterly inconceivable to imagine that a
     mere body is formed through conception,
     and that somewhere along the line a soul is
     added so  that, the fetus becomes a rational
     and moral creature, and therefore a person.
     When does this happen if not at conception?
     When does this take place if not at the mo-
     ment when God forms in the womb a new
     human creature?
        See "Moral Aspects of Medical Technology" -page 390




c                                              Vol.  LXII, No. 17, June 1, 1986  -


386                                                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER




                                           CONTENTS                                                                                              THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                                                I                                         ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
  Meditation-                                                                                                                  Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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       Loving   My  Neighbor  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .386                    Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                                     Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editor's  Notes.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .389         D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
                                                                                                                     Rev. Ronald Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J.  Kortering,
  Walking  in the Light-                                                                                             Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                                                     Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman  Vekhnan.
       Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (6). . . . . .390                                                         Editorial  Ofice:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION
Cornelius Hanko




                                                              Loving My Neighbor


                         Ques. 105 What doth God require in the sixth commandment?
                         Ans. That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor,
                    hate, wound, or kill my neighbor, by myself or by another; but that I lay aside all desire of
                    revenge: also that I hurt not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger. Wherefore
                    also the magistrate is armed with the sword, to prevent murder.
                         Ques. 1.06 But this commandment seems only to speak of murder?
                         Ans. In forbidding murder, God teaches us, that he abhors the causes thereof, such as
                    envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge; and that he accounts all those as murder.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                               387



                Ques. 107 But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?
               Ans. No: for when God forbids envy, hatred and anger, he commands us to love our
            neighbor as ourselves; to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness, towards
            him, and prevent his hurt as much as in me lies: and that we do good even to our enemies.



   God is love!                                               vant. But he may also be a tyrannical husband, a can-
   Our God lives His own blessed covenant life in in-         tankerous wife, a stubborn son or daughter, a diffi-
timate communion of love as three persons in the one          cult brother or sister, an unspiritual member of my
divine Being. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit experience         church, a bothersome neighbor, a demanding boss, a
intimate harmony and unity, joy and blessedness, as           lazy servant, or even an enemy, or possibly a Lazarus
each lives His own complete life in perfect union with        who lies at my doorstep, filthy, well-nigh naked, and
the others,                                                   full of ugly sores.
   Only God knows and experiences true love in Him-              That leaves us as children of our heavenly Father
self. For God is love! Love is the bond of perfect-           with the question: What kind of neighbor am I?
ness. Love is divine!                                            I must love my neighbor, each according to his or
   "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He        her relationship to me. A husband loves his wife in a
loved us. " He loves us with an eternal love that im-         different way than he loves his children, and he gives
pels Him to take us into His heart and life, and into         expression to his love for his children in a different
the covenant fellowship of His glory. Therefore He            manner than he does to a neighbor.                A church
sent His Son into the world, that we may have life            member stands in a different relationship to us than
through Him.                                                  does a man of the world. A Lazarus will obviously
                                                              be treated differently than an enemy. But whatever
   We were dead in trespasses and sins, children of           the relationship may be, the spiritual needs of the
wrath, even as all mankind. But GOD, Who is rich in           neighbor must always be my chief concern!
mercy, for that great love wherewith He loved us, has
quickened us, and raised us from the dead, and set us                      **********
at His own right hand in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:1-6).             The sixth commandment requires of us: Thou
                                                              shalt not kill!
   "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath be-
stowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of            Killing is meant here in the sense of murder. Life
God! " We are sons, and in due time we shall be made          is cheap these days. The news media report new
completely like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!           murders every day, committed in sheer hatred, re-
                                                              venge, or fuming rage. The thief will take a human
   Herein is love, that He loved us, and has joined us        life for a few paltry dollars. Husbands dispose of
to Himself by the bond of moral perfectness, where-           their wives, and wives of their husbands; parents of
by we are united to one another in righteousness,             their children, and children of their parents.
holiness, mercy, and compassion.                                Drunkards endanger the highways, drug addicts
   "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and           stalk the city streets, terrorists endanger the airways.
His love is perfected in us" (I John 4:12).                   Suicide has become common among teenagers, as well
               *  *  *  *  :1:  *  *  *  *  *                 as among adults. The abortion clinics snuff out more
   "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."                 lives than the gas ovens of Hitler ever did, An esti-
  My neighbor is the person next to me, with whom             mated one hundred million unborn babes have been
I rub elbows from time to time. He is the one whom            killed, and the murder continues day by day.
God has placed upon my pathway, that naturally and              That is the kind of world we live in! That is the
spiritually I may be influenced by my contact with            world that will soon wipe out all those who do not
him and he may be benefited by his contact with me.           carry the mark of the beast!
  That neighbor may be miles away, so that our con-             Does this sixth commandment apply to me? Am I
tact is minimal, or he may be as close as the nearest         a murderer? On Sunday when this commandment is
member of my family. He may be a loving husband,              read to me in the church,, it runs off from me often
a devoted wife, an obedient child, an affectionate            like water from a duck. Other commandments, yes,
brother or sister, a faithful member of my church, a          but this one rarely gives me pangs of conscience. One
friendly neighbor, a considerate boss, or a willing ser-      minister once wrote, "This commandment is like a
                                                              drop of water falling on a hot stove. It sizzles for a
Cornelius Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant      moment, but soon disappears." We need the re-
Reformed Churches.                                            minder of our Catechism that "envy, hatred, anger


     388                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



     and desire for revenge" are also murder in the heart.          I must love my neighbor as myself. Loving myself
        Hatred lies at the root of it all. Now it comes to       is not the same as selfishness or self-centeredness, nor
     mind, that I am prone by nature to hate God and my          does this love gloat about my faults and sins.  Self-
     neighbor. Hatred arises out of our old relationship         love means that I love myself as redeemed in Christ,
     with Satan, whose children we were, who himself is          sanctified by His Spirit to walk in thankfulness. That
     a murderer from the beginning. My sinful inclination        love must be gratefully bestowed on the neighbor!
     is to hate my neighbor whenever he interferes with             A husband seeks above all the spiritual welfare of
     my plans or ambitions. Actually I criticize God for         his wife. Parents who love their children are deeply
     placing this man in my way. I wish him dead. No, I          concerned primarily about their spiritual develop-
     may not say so, but I do  banish him from my                ment. Parents may give their children the best home,
     thoughts and out of my life, as if he were dead.            food, clothing, education, and all the luxuries money
       This hatred manifests itself in green envy, red           can buy, and at the same time neglect their spiritual
     anger, and yellow revenge.                                  welfare. A child who meets his parents in hell will
                                                                 not thank them for failing to show him the true
        Envy. My neighbor has a nicer house, a newer             values in life.
     automobile, nicer clothing, or whatever. He holds a
     position I would like to have, or draws a larger pay          There are many aspects of this true love for the
     check than I do. He has an office in the church for         neighbor, namely, that "we should show patience,
     which I am better qualified than he. What an untold         peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness toward
     misery I bring on myself as I mull over my lot.             him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; and
~    "From whence come wars and fightings among you?             that we do good to our enemies."
     Come they not hence, even from your lusts that war             Scripture urges us to "seek peace and pursue it,"
     in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill and         which often involves going the extra mile, confessing
     desire to have, and cannot obtain" (James 4:1,2).           our sins one to another, or climbing the long, steep
        Hot anger. There is a righteous anger, which arises      grade of pointing another to his sin and forgiving
     within us in our zeal for God and His cause. But            him. "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth,
     there is also a flare-up of temper, a sinful rage that      and one convert him; let him know, that he which
     arises from the old man of sin. Our feelings are hurt,      converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall
     our pride is offended, our ego is crushed.                  save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of
                                                                 sins" (James 5:19,20).
       Desire for revenge.     "He can't do that to me."
     "I'll show him.`? Forgotten is the admonition of the          Patience is bearing with each other's weaknesses.
     Scriptures, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,         We can stare ourselves blind on the faults of others,
     but rather give place to wrath, for it is written,          and forget the patience the Lord must have with us
     vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord"            from one moment to the next.
     (Rom. 12:19).                                                 Sincere meekness requires that each one of us re-
       We are all familiar with the expression, "If looks        gard the other better than himself. When we follow
     could kill. " We make ourselves guilty "in thoughts,        our natural tendency we have an inflated idea of our-
     words and gestures." Nurturing evil thoughts, making        selves: if only more people were like us. We fail to
     rash judgments, judging a person's motives, all fall in-    see the gifts and talents God has entrusted to others,
     to the category of murder. Sinful thoughts surge out        whereby they serve their own good purpose in the
     in words. It is said that the tongue has slain more         kingdom of heaven.
     persons than the sword. The gossiper delights in              Love is merciful. "Whoso hath this world's goods,
     spreading abroad the fault or sin of others, and al-        and seeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his
     ways finds a ready ear for his choice bit of gossip.        bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the
     It tickles our pride.    Especially when we already         love of God in Him?" (I John 3:17). We think of the
     somewhat dislike the victim. The trouble is, that           cruel servant who was forgiven an impossible sum of
     whenever I see that person this little, piece of gossip     money and turned about to demand of his fellow
     comes to mind. Irreparable damage can be done to a          servant the mere pittance that the fellow servant
     person's career or reputation by the wagging tongue.        owed him. And then there is a Lazarus somewhere
     A knowing smile, a raised eyebrow, a sarcastic grin         near our doorstep. As Jesus says, "Inasmuch as ye
     speaks volumes.                                             have done it unto  one of the least  of these my
       As children of God we should give no place to             brethren, ye have done it unto ME."
     these evils.
                     **********                                                     Give a gift of
       My God requires of me that I love Him by loving                     the Standard Bearer!
     my neighbor!


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                             389


                                           Editor's Notes


  Summer Schedule.         As usual, for the months of       even for those who have access to a complete set in a
June, July, and August there will be but one issue           church library. Now the committee is at the point of
per month. We did not receive the Agenda for Synod           printing this index. Understandably, this will be a
in time to give you a preview of the coming Synod.           very limited edition. But in order to decide on the
We will, however, try to furnish a brief report on           best format of publication, the committee must have
Synod, 1986 and also a report on Seminary Gradua-            some idea on how many of our readers will be inter-
tion in our July issue. To accomplish this - due to          ested in purchasing the index. Estimates of price are
the fact that Synod does not convene until June 10 -         from $25 to $30 per copy. A prompt response is
our July issue will have to be a little late. In August      crucial! You need not commit yourself with finality,
we hope to publish our third special issue of the            only tentatively.     But please write NOW to our
current volume-year.                                         business office, so that the information can be
             **********                                      passed on to the committee. Write: The Standard
                                                             Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI 49516.
  New Publications.  From our Seminary we have
word of three new publications in which you may be           Publication of the index will depend on your re-
interested. The first is a reprint of                        sponse!
                                          Standard Bearer                  **********
articles from Volumes 21 and 22 by the late Rev.
Herman Hoeksema on the "Clark Case" under the                  Thank-you.  Seminarian and Mrs. J. Mahtani and
title "The Text Of A Complaint." Price: $3.00                their ,twins  will soon be leaving us. Mr. Mahtani will
(62 pp.). The second is also a reprint of  Standard          graduate, D.V., in June with a special diploma after
Bearer  articles, from Vols. 19 and 20; these articles       having studied at our seminary for three years. After
are the only in-print writings of the late Rev. Herman       graduation, they plan to travel westward and to visit
Hoeksema on this subject:          "A Critique of Dr.        several of our churches, working their way to the
Cornelius VanTil's `Common Grace,' " Price: $2.50            west coast, from which they will fly home to Singa-
(51 pp.). The third is an edited reprint of an ex-           pore.      We bid. the  Mahtanis a fond farewell and
tensive series of study outlines on the Book of              Godspeed in their travels. They have asked me to
Revelation, originally prepared by the late Rev.             publish the following note of thanks:
Herman Hoeksema for his "Wednesday Evening
Class." There are 51 outlines in this series. Price:         Dear Friends in the FR Churches:
$4.50 (105 pp.).        All of these are in soft-cover,        Our three years here are quickly coming to an end!
plastic ring-bound format. They may be ordered               Soon we will return to our home and to the Evangeli-
from the Protestant Reformed Seminary Bookstore,             cal Reformed Church in Singapore.
4949  Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49418 or pur-              Before we leave, we would like to express our sin-
chased from Reformed Book Outlet in Hudsonville,             cere thanks to you. In no small way you have made
Michigan.                                                    our stay here a most enjoyable and memorable ex-
             *f:**ic*******                                  perience.
  Prompt Response Needed. At last we have some                 Our thanks go to you  as  PR churches for the
positive news about the proposed index covering              financial support you have given to us during our
Volumes 1 to 53 of The Standard Bearer. The com-             three-year  stay  here.    We would also like to thank
mittee has informed me that the index is ready for           especially Southwest Church and Grandville Church,
printing. First of all, let me tell you that this has        who have very graciously taken care of all our needs
been a large undertaking. Included in the index are:         not only, but also have shown to us many expressions
1) an index by text; 2) an index by subject; 3) an           of love and concern. Truly we can say that we have
index by title; 4) an index of book reviews. I have          enjoyed the `communion of the saints in your midst!
had the use of a first draft of this index for some            Above all we would like to take this opportunity
months; and I can assure you that it is very valuable.       to express thanksgiving to God for the training I
Bear in mind that this index is valuable not only to         have received in your Seminary the past three years.
those who have a complete set of  The Standard               It has been a blessed privilege for me to have been
Bearer,  but also for those who have partial sets or         trained by your three professors, and I would like to
who are in process of building a set or partial set, or      thank them for their faithful instruction in God's


390                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



Word. Especially do I feel that they have led me to a          standing in its timeliness and distinctiveness. And the
deeper appreciation for the Reformed faith as it has           three aspects of the theme which are to be treated,
been handed down to the Protestant Reformed                    "In Truth" (Rev. M. Kamps), "In Godliness" (Rev.
denomination.                                                  B. Gritters), and "In Comfort" (Rev. J. Slopsema)
  Beloved, as we leave you, our prayer for you is              have in them the makings of a good convention in
that God will continue to bless and prosper you in             which all our young people can profitably participate.
that glorious heritage of the Reformed faith which             Parents, encourage your young people to attend and
He has given to you. And that same prayer we ask               to participate actively in the convention. In the
that you make for us as we return to the ERCS; for             second place, this year's convention is extending a
indeed that rich heritage is now also become ours to           special invitation to young adults. This can stand
own, to love, and, by His grace, to defend.                    emphasis. The average age of conventioneers and of
                                                               young people's society membership has been
  Though we must ble separated by many miles, may              dropping over the years. Too many of our older
we strive with one mind and spirit to uphold and pro-          young people no longer participate in societies and in
mote the truth and the glory of our great God; and             Federation and convention affairs. This is to the
may His covenant blessings rest with us as we en-              detriment of all concerned. There was a time when it
deavor to serve Him in His kingdom.                            was not at all unusual for those in their twenties to
  Once again, thank you very much! We will miss                participate and to give leadership in these affairs. I
you people!                                                    am well aware of the fact that today most young
                                               In His love,    people marry at an earlier age; nevertheless, it is a
                                     The Mahtani family        fact that many older young people no longer parti-
               ****:******                                     cipate. This year's convention would like to help
                                                               turn that tide. Young adults, make it a point to
  1986 Young People's Convention.  Elsewhere in                attend! In the third place, adults, if you are looking
this issue you will find an advertisement of the Forty-        for a day's outing, try to attend one or more of the
sixth Annual Protestant Reformed Young People's                scheduled addresses. Valparaiso University is located
Convention. This note purposes to help promote that            a nice day's trip away from the Grand Rapids area,
convention and its program. First of all, it appears to        just a bit south of Interstate 94, at the junction of
me that the theme of this year's convention, "Being            Indiana 49 and U.S. 30, in Valparaiso, Indiana. HCH
Reformed in 1986:       Heritage and Calling," is out-

WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Herman C. Hanko





       Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (6)



  Last time we considered the significance of the              body and soul, and therefore a person. This is true
doctrine of Scripture concerning Christ in our dis-            from the very moment of conception. It is utterly
cussion of what is meant by person. Because Christ             inconceivable to imagine that a mere body is formed
was like us in all things, an analogy is present between       through conception, and that somewhere along the
this truth and the truth concerning any child con-             line a soul is added so that the fetus becomes a
ceived in the womb of its mother.                              rational and moral creature, and therefore a person.
  That a child is born is a great wonder, and is surely        When does this happen if not at conception? When
beyond our understanding. But the fact neverthe-               does this take place if not at the moment when God
less remains that not just simply a body is formed in          forms in the womb a new human creature? That that
the womb of its mother, but a human nature of both             fetus is a blob of cells for a given period of time and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              391



then, either gradually or all at once, there is united to     Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect ;
it a soul, is incredible. It did not happen that way          and in thy book all my members were written, which
with the Lord, Who was, you remember, like us in              in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
all things, except our sin.                                   was none of them" (Ps.  139:13-16). Bather off-
  And this is a truth which is born out by the whole          handedly, Jones dismisses this passage as irrelevant;
testimony of Scripture.                                       but the fact remains that with the constant use of the
                                                              first personal pronoun, David refers to himself em-
  The fact that man was created by God in God's               phatically as a person as God formed him in a
image supports this truth.         Colossians  3:lO and       wonderful and marvelous way in his mother's womb.
Ephesians 4:24 teach us that the image of God con-            God did not form a glob of cells with "potential
sists in true knowledge of God, righteousness, and            personhood"; God did not form a mass of material
holiness. But it is very clear that only man can be           which would become a person some day; God formed
God's image bearer. Not an oak tree, or a rose bush,          the Psalmist, a person, a man with mind and will,
or a Holstein cow, or Brittany spaniel can be an              a creature marvelously and wondrously made, one
image bearer. None of these creatures can know God,           whom it would have been murder to kill from the
be righteous before Him, and walk in holiness. The            moment of conception on.
reason is that none of these creatures are rational
and moral creatures, i.e., formed with a mind and               A striking passage is also found in Jeremiah  1:5
will. But man is different. He possesses a soul; he has       where God says to the youthful prophet, "Before I
a mind and will. He can be image-bearer of God.               formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou
                                                              camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and
   It is true that man lost the image through the fall        I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Known
of Adam and Eve into sin. But man did not lose his            of God from all eternity, sanctified by God while
rationality and morality. He remains a man, though            still in the womb, Jeremiah was called to the holy
he has only small glimmerings of these original               office of prophet in Judah. God did not sanctify a
powers. For this reason, he can (and does) bear the           blob of tissue with potentials for personhood; God
image of Satan in his lost state. And he can, by the          sanctified Jeremiah, known of God eternally,
power of renewal worked by the Holy Spirit, be re-            qualified spiritually for his office by God's work.
stored to the image of God in Christ.                         Jeremiah was Jeremiah, a person, a man with body
   It is a wholly arbitrary and man-invented theory to        and soul, a prophet on whom God laid His hand from
say that a fetus possesses this capability to be image        the time when Jeremiah was in the womb of his
bearer only at a certain point in its development, or         mother.
perhaps at the moment of birth. Scripture knows                 Something similar to this is found in the striking
nothing of all this human philosophy used to support          way in which Mary was met at the door of her cousin
wicked murder. A fetus is capable of being an image           Elisabeth's home in Hebron. "And it came to pass,
bearer of God from the moment of conception on.               that, when. Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary,
In fact, the church has always believed that, in the          the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was
line of the covenant, the elect children of the               filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake out with a
covenant, even though miscarried through spontane-            loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women,
ous miscarriages, are saved. This would be impossible         and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is
unless they were also renewed according to the image          this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come
of Christ. And if they are capable of bearing God's           to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation
image (or the devil's for that matter), they are              sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb
rational and moral from conception; and if rational           for joy" (Luke 1:41-44). Jones also dismisses this in
and moral, they are persons.                                  a rather cavalier fashion:    "I am not inclined to
   There are other texts in Scripture which speak of          follow those who argue that John the Baptist, as a
fetuses as persons and apply activities to fetuses            fetus, was filled with the Holy Spirit, nor that John's
which can only be the activities of persons. David            joy was prompted by the two-week-old zygote of
speaks of himself as a person when God formed him             Jesus" (p. 174). Nevertheless, the whole narrative
in the womb of his mother: "For thou hast possessed           cannot be dismissed that easily.       The following
my reins: thou  hast covered me in my mother's                elements are important: 1) Elisabeth did not know
womb. I will praise thee; for I.am fearfully and won-         that Mary was the mother of Christ, and certainly
derfully made : marvellous  are thy works; and that           did not know that the child Jesus had been conceived
my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not              in Mary's womb except by the leap of her baby with-
hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and                 in her. John's leap informed Elisabeth of these facts,
curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.           nothing else. 2) Elisabeth herself interpreted this
Herman C. Hanko is professor in the Church History and New    leap as a leap of joy and did this under the influence
Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed Seminary.    of the-Holy Spirit. And joy is an emotion which only


392                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



a person can experience and express. John  -vas em-         mother's life would indeed be gravely endangered by
phatically a person. 3) This was the beginning of           a pregnancy gone to full term. And with advances in
John's work of announcing the coming of Christ, a           medical technology, the instances of this are relative-
work to which he was called and which began prior           ly rare. Nevertheless, one faces a unique situation in
to his birth. He was especially called to prepare the       such a case. It is not now simply a question of
way for Christ and announce Christ's arrival. He did        abortion, but a question of losing a life - either the
this in Elisabeth's womb to his own mother. Only a          life of the unborn child or the life of a wife and
person is capable of that.                                  mother. And while our judgment is in such matters
   Another striking passage is Psalm 51:5: "Behold,         always imperfect, the child of God can only weigh
I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother          the relative value of one life over against another;
conceive me." Notice: 1) that the Psalmist speaks           and certainly the life of a wife and mother is, at that
here of the fact that he was a person already at the        moment, of greater importance than the life of a
moment of conception. His mother did not conceive           child.    One person's life must be sacrificed for the
a blob of tissue, but conceived the Psalmist. 2) Then       sake of another person's life. This is an extremely
already he was a sinner; and it ought to be evident         hard position to be in, but God sometimes places
that only a person can be a sinner. Emphatically            His people in such positions. Something analogous
this refers to the very moment of conception.               to this takes place when a parent, at the loss of his
                                                            own life, rescues his son'from imminent death.
   All the philosophies of men and all the speculation
about when a potential person actually becomes a              The second point which needs briefly to be dis-
person fall by the way before the clear and unequivo-       cussed is the question of whether or not a Christian
cal testimony of Scripture.                                 can, in good conscience before God, join modern
  We readily admit that the formation of a child in         right-to-life or pro-life movements.          Opportunities
the womb of its mother is a profound mystery. No            are almost always present for the Christian to do this,
medical advance of any kind is going to tear away the       and he faces the choice of whether he should involve
veil of mystery which hides the wonder of conception        himself in such activities.
and birth. But let it be remembered that the Scrip-           It seems elementary that the Christian must cer-
tures teach that, while natural processes are used,         tainly make his voice heard as loudly as he possibly
God  forms a child at the moment of conception,             can in protest against this great evil. This is surely
God formed David and Jeremiah. God gave con-                part of his witness to the cause of God in the midst
ception, by a miracle, to Elisabeth. And only God           of a world of sin. He is remiss in his calling if he fails
can, at the moment of conception, so form a child           to do this. If he chooses to join with other Christians
that it has not only a body but a soul, not only ears       to sound loudly the truth of God's Word, surely no
and eyes, but a mind and will, not only stomach and         one can ever criticize him for doing this.
heart, but the powers of thinking and desiring; only
God can form a person.                                        Nevertheless, there are other factors which must be
                                                            considered in answering the question of ,whether he
  To kill a fetus is to commit murder. Induced              should join one of the movements in this country
abortion is murder, cold-blooded murder, And                dedicated to the eradication of abortion. Perhaps this
nothing can ever change that.                               .ean best be illustrated by a personal story. Some
  Two points must yet be considered, points which           years ago I received a call from the National Right
stand related to our subject. The first is the question     To Life Headquarters in Washington, D.C. to parti-
whether induced abortion is ever to be approved.            cipate in the work of presenting a petition to the then
Many pro-life people believe that abortion is -per-         president Carter in which a protest was to be lodged
missible when a pregnancy is the result of rape or          against the growing evil of abortion. I told the caller
incest. Is this true? While Davis points out that such      that I would be happy to do this, provided that the
things are extremely rare, we agree with him when           Committee gave me the right to express my opposi-
he writes:. "As a matter of simple justice, it is the       tion to abortion on Biblical grounds only, and not on
rapist who should be punished, not the innocent child       the humanistic grounds which were so often used by
conceived as a result of the rape. . . . It is true that    right-to-life people. The answer was, f`We will think
the woman has suffered an injustice; but abortion           about it and let you know." But I never heard from
would represent a further injustice, this time against      them again. The point is that the Christian stands on
the unborn child.      `Two wrongs do not make a            the basis of God's Word and on that basis only.
right' " (p. 155).                                          Nothing can move him from that. There he must
  Yet, for the most part, the church of Christ              stand, come what may. If that is in any way  com-
through the ages has permitted abortion when a              promised;he cannot participate in such movements.
pregnancy threatens a mother's life. With this also we        Secondly, it is simply a fact that the movements
agree. Of course, the case must be clear that the           to rid the country of abortion, as good as the cause


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     393



may be in itself, are movements which are determined             All this is closely connected with the notion that
to use might and force to attain their objectives.             this present evil world can somehow be. transformed
They are interested in petitions with millions of              into a kind of Paradise, a heaven here below. This is
signatures, in lobbying in the halls of state and              the fond but illusory dream of the post-millennialists.
national legislatures, in rounding up votes, in                And with this dream they think it not wrong to re-
pressuring courts, in picketing abortion clinics, in the       sort to the use of carnal and earthly weapons, for
might- of coercion and political power. This is con-           their heaven is carnal and earthly. But the child of
trary to Christian principles. The words of God to             God knows: 1) that only the power of the gospel
Zechariah the prophet echo down through history:               can change the wicked hearts of men; 2) that we must
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,                 look to that city which hath foundations, whose
saith the Lord of hosts" (4:6). The Christian may              Builder and Maker is God, for the full deliverance
never resort to force or coercion to gain his ends.            from this evil world. His weapons are the weapons of
He may never make use of the carnal weapons of                 the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ. And that gospel
carnal warfare.       He may never put his trust in            will always save the church, though it be a remnant
"chariots and horses."            He is called only "to        according to the election of grace, a hut in a garden
remember the name of the Lord his God" (Ps. 20:7.              of cucumbers, a besieged city (Is. l&9).
See also Ps. 33:17-20).

ALL AROUND US
Robert D, Decker




                                       Evangelism Is Reformed
                                                  Women Elders


Evangelism Is Reformed                                             As R. B. Kuiper points out, election demands evangel-
                                                                   ism because "all the elect must be saved," and "the
  The Rev. Robert Grossmann, Associate Professor                   gospel is the means by which God bestows saving
of Ministerial Studies at Mid-America Reformed Sem-                faith upon them."
inary, Orange City, Iowa `wrote an excellent article                The present situation with respect to evangelism in
under this title in the April 1986 issue of  Mid-                  the western world is that never have so many been
America Messenger. In our times there is much em-                  "evangelized" with so little effect upon their per-
phasis on the Social Gospel, Arminianism has made                  sonal lives or on the lives of the nations in which they
alarmingly deep inroads into Reformed Churches, and                live.    That fact alone makes it necessary that the
theological liberalism has all but won the day, Gross-             church once again examine just what it is that is being
                                                                   called "evangelism."       Considering that modern
mann contends, and rightly so, that only the truly                 methods of "evangelism" amount to little more than
Reformed can do evangelism biblically and effective-               a popularity p611 for heaven versus hell ("Vote now,
ly. We quote the article in its entirety with per-                 come forward, while heads are bowed!"), it is amazing
mission.                                                           how many  dd  not  come forward. It is our contention
                                                                   that modern "evangelism" in the western world has
     While there are some, usually in the Arminian camp,           never escaped the badly Arminian presuppositions of
    who would argue that being Reformed and being con-             Charles Finney, the inventor of the "altar call"
    cerned with evangelism cannot naturally be associated          method.
    with each other, and even are in principle opposed to
    each other, we would say that the two cannot proper-            Meres ingly and importantly, the most spectacular-
    ly be separated from each other. Indeed, we hold               ly effe ive results ever recorded in the history of
    that only the truly Reformed in doctrine can do                Ameri #
                                                                            an evangelism belong to the ministry of a man
    evangelism biblically and effectively.                         almost totally unknown in our day. The  ministry~of
                                                                   Asahkl Nettleton from 1812 to 1842 was blessed with
     The argument that disassociates evangelism from               the entrance of between fifteen and twenty thousand
    being Reformed is usually based on the idea that the           true believers into the churches of New England, who
    doctrine of predestination makes evangelism un-                for the next fifty years were the pillars of their con-
    necessary. Nothing could be farther from the truth.            gregations. None of them had come forward for an
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and New        f`ahr  c a l l , " for this was against Nettleton's
Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.                     principles. This happened long before the advent of


394                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



  radio and television, at meetings no larger than those               light unto all.
  normal for a small New England town.                Not sur-
  prisingly, the Rev. Mr. Nettleton has received little               To this we add two comments: 1) Arminianism is
  acclaim from the world, even from that part of the               incipient modernism and 2) Belonging to the "Armin-
  "Christian" world which claims to be interested in               ian bushels" is the error of Common Grace's  well-
  biblical evangelism.        However, there are presently         meant offer of the gospel.
  two biographies of him available:               The Life and
  Labours  of  Asahel Nettleton  by his contemporary
  Bennet Tyler (1975; Banner of Truth Trust, Box 652,              Women Elders
  Carlisle, PA 17013); and God Sent Revival by John                   In spite of all the rhetoric and decisions of its
  F. Thornbury (Evangelical Press, Box 2453, Grand                 synods this issue will not die in the Christian Re-
  Rapids, 49501).                                                  formed Church. According to a news report in  The
        It would be hard to overestimate the adherence of          Banner (April 28,1986):
  Asahel Nettleton to classical Reformed Theology.
. When asked what a man could do to be "born again,"                 )  Classis Rocky Mountain has asked a Colorado
  Nettleton agreed with Jonathan Edwards that a man                    church to reconsider its decision to use both men and
  can do no more to effect the work of the Holy Spirit                 women as elders.
  than a windmill can do to make the wind blow. To                      The  classis, meeting in early March, told Immanuel
  stand on the hill waiting is equivalent to standing in               Christian Reformed Church, Fort Collins,  Cola., that
  the presence of the preaching of the Word of God,                    the use of women elders could not be affirmed be-
  but to then presume to direct the work of the                        cause the Christian Reformed Church has not opened
  Sovereign Spirit of God is both foolish and sinful.                  the office of elder to women.  Classis urged the con-
  In answer to the further question as to whether per-                 gregation to be patient and to report back to  classis
  haps such a man might pray for the Holy Spirit to                    after reevaluating its decision.
  regenerate him, Nettleton quoted James  1:6-8.  Since
  such a man is by definition an unbeliever, he is by                    Immanuel CRC is not currently using women as
  nature double-minded: "Let not that man, again I                     elders, but the church decided, after four years of
  say, let not that man think he shall receive anything                discussion and research and by a majority of 78 per-
  of the Lord."                                                        cent, to allow women to serve as elders.          Several
                                                                       women were nominated in 1985 to be elders, but in a
        It is clear that Nettleton's productivity as an evan-          June congregational meeting none were elected,
  gelist is the result of God's blessing upon his biblical             said the church's report to classis.
  theology and principles, not a blessing in spite of
  them. Therefore the main aspects of those principles                   Since the time they studied the issue and voted to
  should be of great interest to the Reformed  com-                    allow women on the consistory, however, church
        unity truly seeking the salvation of the nations.              members have expressed concern about the congre-
                                                                       gation's relationship with the rest of the denomina-
        What Nettleton  did  do is preach the wrath of God             tion, so Immanuel brought the issue to  classis, said
       against sinners, and the necessity of repentance and            Immanuel elder Larry Kieft.
       faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. This
       is in clear contrast to the present-day invitations to           According to  Kieft,  the church chose to nominate
       "dedicate your life to Christ," or to "invite Jesus into        women because :
  your heart," neither of which appear in the  Bible  at                -the church's growth has caused it to use "anyone
       all. This call to true repentance (see II Corinthians           with commitment to Jesus Christ" in ministry;
       7:9-10  on the difference between godly  sorrow and              -families joining the church are young, educated
       the sorrow of the world), which is almost  always               couples in which the women have functioned as e-
       absent and seldom very serious in today's "gospel,"             quals with the men. Some of the women have been
       is the heart of the biblical good news.                         elders and deacons in other denominations.
                                                                        - a majority of the church's leadership has favored
        No religion except biblical Christianity takes sin             allowing all qualified members to hold office;
       seriously enough to realize that God's punishment of             -the church's experience of having women serve
       it is inevitable and that therefore man's greatest              on the council has been very positive.
       problem is  not  meat and drink  nor  war and peace,
       but God's anger against sinners. Only when the point             Immanuel's classical delegation asserted that "our
       is driven home that unbelievers will taste the fires of         loyalty to the CRC is not the issue here. . . . Agree-
       hell far more keenly than the "now generation"                  ment on every polity issue is not the prerequisite for
       savors a Pepsi, will tbe gospel of Christ crucified make        loyalty and love. . . .    Real unity is based on our
       absolutely heavenly sense.      Only when our unbe-             theological unity around Reformed theology and
       lieving neighbors know that we Bible-believing                  unity of purpose and mission. We believe our stand
       Christians around them actually expect the gates of             is ethically correct and necessary for our witness in
       hell to welcome them to their final place of unrest,            this community."
       will we evangelize tbem with the Gospel of Jesus and          This is not an issue of mere "polity." The issue in
       Paul.                                                       all this is what does one do with the Scriptures which
        It is to the preaching of  this  sinner-saving,  God-      clearly forbid women to preach, teach, or rule in
       glorifying and devil-defying biblical Gospel that we        God's church. (Cf. I Timothy  2:8-15.) Noteworthy
       who hold to the historic Reformed faith must dedi-          is the fact that, according to the report, neither elder
       cate ourselves. This requires above all that we do not
       hide our Reformed light under the  twin Arminian            Kieft nor Immanuel's consistory make any appeal to
       bushels of fundamentalism or modernism, but that            Scripture or the Reformed Confessions to support
       we place it high upon a candlestick that it may give        their actions.


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER         395
~


                                  Good Morning, Alice (111
                                                               Gise J Van Buren





        Preparing Alice for bed at night came to be quite a
     routine.    First, there were the prescribed exercises.
     Each finger and toe, the arms and legs, all must be
     moved the proper number of times. These exercises,
     too, were not to develop muscle strength, but rather
     were to stretch muscles enough to prevent or mini-
     mize painful cramps. Then, thick socks were put on
     Alice's feet after lotion had been soothingly applied
     to her legs. Next, each arm and leg had to be placed
     in a position of her liking, with a pillow under her
     knees - since she could not move them even an inch.
     Her head must be set in such a position that she
     could breathe easily. It must be in this position that
     she would remain through the entire long night.
     Good Morning Alice:
        It seems so long since we  `ve shared together. It
     has been a long five days. Even though I had every
     intention of getting up early to write, I was just too
     tired.
        We have experienced the death of a loved one.
     Death, when it comes, makes us think of what lies
     beyond the grave. Only when we are assured of sal-
     vation can we say, "0 death, where is thy sting? 0
     grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who
     giveth us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ. "
        I have also thought a lot about when Paul says,
     "For me to die is gain. " To be ready, and more, to
     desire death, to receive life, that "gain" - is difficult.
        In our flesh we cannot do it. Only through the
     Holy Spirit can we truly desire to be near unto Him
     and be willing to give up all our earthly attachments.
        As difficult as it is, it does us good to ask ourselves
     if it is our one desire, above all else, to be with the
     Lord.
        Tomorrow we 71 go back to where we left off, so
     please read Is. 35 which, interestingly, has to do with
     that wonderful gain we `ve been talking about.
                                          With love, Your friend
        After all of this lengthy process, Alice was not al-
     ways happy with the final outcome. Relatives could

     Gise J, Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed
     Church of Hudsonville,  Michigan.


     396                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



     could not scratch any itch or chase away any insect            Paul had such a love for others. When I think of
     which she could easily feel. Only with difficulty           others, it means that I have to stop thinking of my-
     could she call out loudly enough to be heard through        self  I'm not always so good at that. Sometimes I
     the intercom. So it was that when, before leaving at        get very pre-occupied thinking of all my sins and
     night, a passage of Scripture was read, and prayer          weaknesses. I just wonder: if I strive to remember
     spoken, tears inevitably filled her eyes. She could no      others, wouldn't it follow that being busy helping
     longer speak, but could hear and understand every-          and praying often for others, there would be less
     thing well.    Prayer and Scripture are particularly        room for my old nature to sin?
     appropriate when one faces physical separation and             And Paul says - without ceasing! We know that
     death. Doubtlessly, the very reminder of this fact          does not mean that every moment Paul was in con-
     made Alice face the reality of her own situation.           stant prayer for the Romans, but that in whatever
     Tears often filled our eyes too.                            he did, preaching, traveling, and making tents, he
     Good Morning Alice:                                         always had the spiritual strength of the Romans in
                                                                 his thoughts; and brought their spiritual welfare
        What a beautiful morning! The kids are off to            before God everytime he came unto God in prayer.
     school and it's a little later today. The sun is shining
     gorgeously and it's so still and peaceful outside.             What a lesson! How I fail!
       Psalm  116:12-13 just stuck out at me yesterday              We must learn to remember, long for, and pray
     when I was choosing a text for today.                       always for the needs of others.
        God is so good to us. All we have to do is shut out                                         With love, Your friend
     all worldly selfish thoughts and desires, and we can        Please read Romans 1:32
     see what God has done for us in our lives. Where and           Helpless indeed ! The strange fact of ALS is that
     what would we be without His grace in our lives?            the muscles become utterly useless -but the sense of
        Verse 12 says, "What shall I render to the Lord for      touch is, if anything, enhanced. Alice could feel any
     all His benefits?,, What  can  I give God? Nothing!         fly or mosquito that crawled on her. Often we
     Everything I have and am are His. Then verse 13             noticed how her eyes would roam carefully over
     gives the beautiful answer. I will take the cup of sal-     the whole room  - and if any insect were spotted,
     vation. I will take hold of that salvation He has           those same eyes would let us know. Nor would she
     given me and call upon the name of the Lord. I will         be happy until she was sure that every insect in that
     give all back to Him. Do you see what that means?           room would be killed -before we could leave. There
     He has delivered me from the bondage of my sinful           were, however, those times when we were sure that
     self and now with all of my being, my heart, my             she just imagined the presence of an insect, for we
     mind, my tongue, my hands, my eyes, and all of my           could not find it. Or did she, sometimes, use the
     time, I will call upon Him. I will live for Him.            presence of this imagined bug to keep us in the room
                                                                 with her a few minutes longer?
                                          Love, Your friend      Good Morning Alice:
     Please read Rom. 1:9                                           Once in a while it's good to stand back and take a
        It surely would not be true to state that the family     little look at my life as a whole to see if there are
     always joyously carried out its task of caring for          areas where I'm so used to doing something that I
     Alice. She was often SO demanding and not always            just don ,t see it as sin.
     easily satisfied. She seemed not to understand that            A minister had a sermon on Rom.  1:32 a while
I    each had other responsibilities besides her care. She
     seemed to expect someone nearby to answer her               back, and it was an eye opener to me.
     every beck and call. And for some of the relatives             Verses 27-32 of this chapter are a description of
     there was the question, why couldn't we please her as       the world, but it does us good to see if we are guilty
     quickly and easily as did Brother John? But then            of these things. The sermon stressed our enjoying
     we'd have to face the question, "What would we do           the sins of others and therefore sinning ourselves.
     under similar circumstances?" Could we not put up           How often isn P this true?
     with some of these seemingly unreasonable de-                  You can hardly pick up a magazine that doesn't
     mands - understanding the complete helplessness of          have an article in it about one sin or another, and
     Alice - and her resulting frustrations and fears?           how quickly we read it and therefore enter into
     Good Morning Alice:                                         "enjoying ,, that sin!
       This is another verse that shows so clearly my lack       : How often do we watch television not even
     in prayer. Paul tells the Romans that God is his            thinking that every sin we watch makes us sin our-
     witness that without ceasing he remembers them              selves when we continue watching it and don't turn
     always in his prayers.                                      away.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                             397



   This makes one really wonder - what can I do?            and turn from all those things which make us sin.
   I am convinced this is a sign of persecution of the         Quite a difficult task, but  possible  through the
saints - we can no longer enjoy those things we once        Spirit that is in us.
could - and of the last times when sin abounds.                                      Til tomorrow, Love, Your friend
   What we can do is to turn closer and closer to God,      Please read Psalm 130

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE
Ronald J, Hanko




                                     God Is Faithful (1)



   We have seen again and again in the first six Com-       Only then will we live a life that is pure and holy
mandments of the Law that the Ten Commandments              and fitted for His glory.
are an enduring revelation of the will of God for our
lives, not only because they are given by an un-              The truth that God is faithful is very closely con-
changing God, but because they themselves reveal            nected with all that we know of God's covenant.
the eternal glory of God. Each Commandment is               That is certainly the reason why marriage, the main
rooted and grounded in one or more of the virtues           subject of the Seventh Commandment, is called in
and attributes of God Himself.                              Scripture a "covenant. " It is striking and significant,
                                                            too, that there are two Commandments so closely
   The Law is not, therefore, first of all some kind of     related to the truth of the covenant, this one and also
social or political instrument for the improvement of       the Fourth. That is indeed an indication of the im-
society, but rather a means to praise and thank our         portance of the doctrine of the covenant in Scrip-
great God. It shows us how we, chosen, redeemed,            ture.    Nevertheless, the Seventh Commandment,
and sanctified by grace, may offer ourselves a living       though also related to the doctrine of the covenant,
sacrifice to God.                                           commands obedience from a different viewpoint
   In order, then, to understand the Seventh Com-           than the Fourth Commandment. In obedience to the
mandment we must first understand what Scripture            Fourth Commandment we enjoy the great blessing of
says about God's faithfulness, for in the Seventh           the covenant, Sabbath rest with God in Christ. In
Commandment God teaches us how to confess and               obedience to the Seventh we learn the wonder of
praise His faithfulness in deed as well as in word.         grace which brings us into and keeps us in the fellow-
This is of supreme importance. In learning about            ship of God's covenant and of the intimacy of our
marriage and about the sexual side of man's nature,         relationship to Him.
the things of which the Seventh Commandment
speaks, we must be absolutely sure that we are not            In Scripture God reveals His  own  faithfulness to
guided by expediency, by the corrupt desires of the         us, His people, by picturing His relationship to us in
flesh, or by the wisdom of the `world, but by the           Christ as a marriage. We find this picture especially
knowledge of God Himself. The devil and wicked              in the first two chapters of Hosea and in Ezekiel 16.
men are all too happy to be our teachers in these           And these passages emphasize not only the blessed
matters. If we listen to them our life in relation to       intimacy of God's relationship to His people in
the Seventh Commandment can only be hellish. God            Christ, but also His abiding faithfulness to them.
must be our Teacher and His glory our instruction.          Thus we read in Hosea 2:19, 20, "And I will betroth
                                                            thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto
Ronald J. Hanko is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-
Church of Houston, Texas.                                   kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee


398                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



unto me  in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the               experienced the covenant mercies and unchangeable
Lord."                                                          faithfulness of God can ever really keep this com-
  This faithfulness of God is one aspect of His                 mandment.
immutability. He reveals His immutability or  un-                  So we see here once again that the knowledge of
changeableness in all His works, but toward His                 God is something eminently practical. The solution
people He reveals that immutability in His faithful-            to our marriage problems, the great secret of a happy
ness to them. The passages in Ezekiel and  Hosea                marriage, even of a happy life outside of marriage is
very beautifully show us that faithfulness of God.              not to be found anywhere but in the knowledge of
There the church is pictured in her sins as an adulter-         God. Therapy,  counselling,  "how to" manuals, and
ous wife. This picture is so apt exactly because the            conferences are not in themselves any solution
great sin of the church in every age is the sin of              either to the trials and difficulties of marriage or to
idolatry. She forsakes God and loves, follows, and              the temptations of single life. Purity and holiness and
obeys someone or something beside Him. Ezekiel                  therefore also happiness have their only foundation
points out the heinousness of the church's sin when             in a clear knowledge and experience of the faithful
he says, "And (thou) hast not been as an harlot, in             love of our covenant God. That is the reason why
that thou scornest hire; but as a wife that committeth          God, in speaking to His betrothed, the church, tells
adultery which taketh strangers instead of her hus-             her over and over that she shall "know the Lord"
band!" (16:31b, 32).                                            (Ezek.  16:62, Hos.  2:20). That will be the cure for
  God's faithfulness to His people is revealed, there-          all her whorish tendencies, and the beginning of her
fore, in the fact that He does not put away His people          faithfulness to God. That will be her peace.
for their sin or seek another wife, but remembers                  But God's faithfulness is not only the source of our
His covenant and takes them back into His favor and             faithfulness; it is also the pattern for our faithfulness.
fellowship time and again. It is of this that we sing           We must act in and toward marriage as God acts
in Psalm 103:                                                   toward us. To put it another way, we need to know
       Tho' we oft have sinned against Him                      that not only passages which speak of marriage and
       Still His love and grace abide.                          chastity are important as far as a proper under-
                         (Psalter 280:3)                        standing and practice of sexual purity are concerned,
His faithfulness means, then, that His purpose to               but all of those passages of Scripture which speak of
dwell with His people never changes, that His love              God's dealings with His church. If we as husbands
                                                                and wives, for example, are to learn how to be faith-
never ceases, that His mercies never fail, and that He          ful to one another, we must not just go to such
forgives always.      That faithfulness .is new every           passages as Ephesians 5 for a quick lesson, but must
morning not because God has changed, but because                learn from all the Scriptures what God has done for
before morning comes we have sinned against Him                 us in Christ. Even Ephesians 5 is not so much a
once again and gone a-whoring from Him, only to be              marriage manual as a reminder of that great truth -
forgiven without measure and restored rather than               that we must love in marriage as Christ loves the
rejected.                                                       church and the church loves Christ.
  That the faithfulness of God is revealed in the
Seventh Commandment is without doubt the reason                   We must also remember, when striving to confess
why the wicked so flagrantly live in disobedience               God's faithfulness to us by obeying His marriage
with respect to this precept.             Their uncleanness,    ordinances, that God is faithful first of all to Himself.
their disregard for the covenant of marriage, and their         This is the reason why God's faithfulness is always
desire to wallow in the filth of their own fleshly lusts        revealed to us in the way of strictest justice, that is,
can only be the fruit of their unfaithfulness to God            in the way of atonement and satisfaction for sin in
Himself, that is, that they have all gone aside and no          Christ. He does not deny us only because He cannot
longer seek after God. Other sins have at least this            deny Himself.
justification, that a man profits from them as far as             This too  ,is an important principle as far as our
this life is concerned. But adultery and-fornication            obedience to the Seventh Commandment is con-
do not even have that justification and are committed           cerned. It means simply that we must forsake all
simply for the sin's .own sake and out of hatred for            adultery and fornication for God's sake. Our faith-
God. That is Paul's point in I Corinthians  .6:18. It           fulness to marriage, whether married or unmarried,
is also the reason why the wicked in all their sin are          must be above all and first of all faithfulness to God
so often characterized as fornicators and adulterers            Himself. This is abundantly clear not only from all
by Scripture (cf. I Pet. 2:9, IO).                              the passages which speak of the calling of husband
   Our obedience to the Seventh .Commandment, on                and wife, but even of those passages which speak of
the other hand, is the inevitable fruit of the faithful-        the -calling of the unmarried. The chastity of the
ness God shows to us. Only a person who has himself             unmarried and the faithfulness of the married to one


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                           399



another must always be "in the Lord" and for the           their deepest root, spiritual unfaithfulness to God, to
Lord's sake. We know that the terrible diseases which      His Word, to communion with Him in prayer, and to
ravage the life of man when he insists on giving full      the spiritual exercises of faith.
rein to his lusts are the judgment of God, but it is         We recognize, therefore, in the intimacy and love
not out of fear of these diseases that we seek to live     of married persons the gracious gift of God, Who
a clean life. We obey the Seventh Commandment for          has given them the opportunity to confess His own
God's sake. When the ungodly men forsake their             amazing faithfulness, longsuffering mercy, and love
lusts for fear of the consequences they do not obey        even in their relationship to one another. We do not
God and praise His faithfulness, and their "obedi-         think as the Roman Catholic Church does that a
ence" is an abomination in the sight of God. We may        single life is somehow more holy than a married life,
be sure that when one cesspool has become too              or that the intimacy of married life is somehow un-
polluted even for them to wallow in that they will         clean in the sight of God, to be despised or neglected
seek another.                                              among His people. It is the great means that God
  The lesson that we may learn from this is that all       has given, that we may constantly testify with all our
our unfaithfulness, whether in or outside of marriage,     life that His is a
begins with unfaithfulness to God. Sexual "prob-                 ". . . faithfulness that never dies;
lems," fighting and bickering between husband and               Established changeless in the skies."
wife, adultery, the temptation to satisfy the fleshly                              (Psalter 241:2)
lusts outside of marriage, all these things have as

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS
JameiD. Slopsema





                                    The Baptism Form



                   Infant Baptism (2)                       which was a seal of the covenant, and of the
                                                           righteousness of faith."
  In our previous article on infant baptism we saw
from the baptism form that whereas our children               We ought to notice, first, that the Old Testament
are without their knowledge partakers of the con-          rite of circumcision is called here "a seal of the
demnation in Adam, so also are they without their          covenant, and of the righteousness of faith."
knowledge received unto grace in Christ. This truth           In Romans 4:11 we read that Abraham "received
is evident from the fact that God establishes His          the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness
covenant of grace with believers and their seed. This      of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised."
the baptism form demonstrates by calling our atten-        The idea here is that by faith in Jesus Christ we are
tion to Genesis 17:7 and Acts 2:39.                        righteous before God.        This is the great truth of
   Having laid down tbis very important truth, the         justification by faith alone without the works of the
baptism form proceeds to call our attention to the         law. And according to Romans 4:11 circumcision
command of God to Old Testament Israel to cir-             was in the Old Testament a seal of that righteous-
cumcise their children. Says the form, "Therefore          ness by faith. It was through circumcision that God
God formerly commanded them to be circumcised,             sealed or guaranteed to all and every believer in the
                                                           Old Testament that in the way of his faith he was
James D, Slopsema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed     righteous before God, justified and thus an heir of
Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.                             life eternal.


400                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  For that reason, circumcision was also a seal of          strengthen the faith of God's little saints in the Old
God's covenant in the Old Testament. For at the             Testament.
heart of the covenant is the righteousness which is           But God also had a purpose in the circumcision
by faith. God draws near to us in His covenant              of the carnal, reprobate seed born into Israel. The
fellowship and friendship only on the basis of the          fact that the carnal seed also received the sign of the
perfect righteousness which is ours by faith in Christ.     covenant did not detract from circumcision, For
Being, therefore, a seal of the righteousness which         also here circumcision served the purpose of God. It
is by faith, the rite of circumcision was in the Old        served to harden the hearts of the carnal seed, even in
Testament also a sign and seal of God's covenant of         their childhood. The sign of the covenant they bore
grace.                                                      in their flesh served to turn them against God in
  Now the baptism form calls our attention to the           bitter hatred so that they might fill the cup of iniqui-
fact that in the Old Testament God commanded this           ty according to the purpose of God's reprobation.
seal of His covenant to be administered to all the            The baptism form also calls our attention to the
children in Israel. We read of this in Genesis 17. In       fact that Christ embraced the little children of Israel,
verse 7 we read of the wonderful promise of God to          laid His hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10).
Abraham to establish His covenant with Abraham              The line of thought followed by the baptism form is
and his seed. Then in verses 9-14 we read that God          this:
commanded Abraham to keep this covenant by cir-
cumcising every man child born into his generations.        1) God established His covenant with Abraham and
Every man child must receive the sign of the covenant       his seed in their generations so that Abraham's seed,
in the form of circumcision when he was eight days          even as children, were received unto grace in the
old.                                                        promised Christ.
  According to the baptism form the basis of this           2) Therefore, God commanded that all the children
command is to be found in the fact that God                 born in Abraham's generation (Israel) receive the
promised to establish His eternal covenant of grace         sign of the covenant in circumcision.
with Abraham and his seed in their generations (cf.         3) Therefore, Christ also embraced these children,
Genesis  17:7). This in turn meant that the seed of         laid His hands on them and blessed them.
Abraham, even as children, were received unto grace           We can be rather brief on this particular point of
in the promised Christ. On that basis they were to          Jesus blessing the little children. Quite obviously
receive the sign of the covenant in circumcision.           Jesus blessed the children of believing parents. These
  We have already seen that not all the natural de-         parents showed their faith in Jesus by following Him
scendants of Abraham were elect of God and thus             and desiring that Jesus bless their children. Jesus
true members of God's covenant. Born into Abra-             complied with this request to bless their little ones
ham's generations was a twofold seed: an elect,             because, said He, "Of such is the kingdom of God"
spiritual seed as well as a reprobate, carnal seed. Born    (Mark  10:14). In other words, Jesus blessed these
to Abraham was not only Isaac, but also Ishmael.            children because among these children Jesus dis-
Born in Abraham's generations was not only Jacob,           cerned the true seed of Abraham with whom God had
but also Esau. There was always a twofold seed. And         established His covenant and to whom, therefore,
God's covenant was with the spiritual seed alone.           also the blessings of the covenant belonged. Hence,
They alone were received unto grace in the promised         the blessings, which God had signified and sealed in
Christ.                                                     the circumcision of these little children, Christ at
  Nevertheless, because God had established His             this point also proclaimed to them.
covenant with Abraham and his spiritual seed, God             Now the baptism form comes to perhaps the key
desired that all the seed of Abraham, the spiritual as      argument to establish the validity and necessity of
well as the carnal seed, receive the sign of the            infant baptism. Having established the fact that the
covenant in circumcision.                                   children of Israel in the Old Testament were to re-
   And there was good reason for this.                      ceive the sign of God's covenant in circumcision, the
   God desired the true spiritual seed of Abraham to        baptism form argues that baptism is come in the place
receive the sign of the covenant to serve as a means of     of circumcision. Therefore, infants of believing
grace to strengthen their faith in the promised Savior.     parents in the new dispensation are'to be baptized as
When this spiritual seed, even as children, were            heirs of the kingdom of God and of His covenant.
brought to faith by God's grace, their circumcision,          The baptism form does not prove that baptism has
which was a seal of the righteousness of faith, served      come in the place of circumcision; it merely asserts
as a sure testimony of God to them that even as             this as fact. `This assertion, however, is easily demon-
children they were righteous before God in the way          strated from Holy Writ. Thus, for example, both
of their faith. This served as a powerful means to          baptism and circumcision point to the same spiritual


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 401



realities. Baptism is a sign and seal of the remission        in the new dispensation the children of spiritual
or forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts  2:38) as well as            Israel are to receive the sign of the same covenant by
spiritual renewal (cf. Romans 6:4); But circumcision          being baptized. They are to be baptized as heirs of
in the Old Testament carried with it the same signi-          the kingdom of God and of God's covenant. This
ficance. It too spoke of a righteousness before God           baptism will have the same effect that circumcision
which includes the forgiveness of sins (cf. Rom. 4:ll)        had in the Old Testament. For the true spiritual seed
as well as spiritual renewal (cf. Deut.  30:6). And           who receive baptism, their baptism will serve as a
both of these spiritual realities, the forgiveness of sins    means of grace.      However, when the sign of the
and spiritual renewal, are what comprise the washing          covenant comes upon the carnal, reprobate seed, it
away of sins depicted so graphically in both circum-          will serve to harden their hearts according to the
cision and baptism. In addition to this the Bible             purpose of God's reprobation.
identifies both baptism and circumcision by using               Finally, the baptism form instructs us that "par-
them interchangeably. This it does, for example, in           ents are in duty bound, further to instruct their
Colossians 2:ll and 12: "In whom also ye are cir-             children herein, when they shall arrive to years of
cumcised with the circumcision made without hands,            discretion."
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism,             The years of discretion referred to here are the
wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith          years when our children are able to discern and
of the operation of God, who hath raised him from             understand the spiritual realities implied in baptism.
the dead."                                                    And let us not underestimate the understanding of
                                                              our children. At a very young age our little children
   From all this we are led to conclude that there is         can begin to understand the realities of sin, the
but one covenant of God throughout all history, the           meaning of Christ's death to wash away sin, the
covenant of grace with Abraham and his seed. In the           meaning of baptism, and many other spiritual truths
old dispensation this covenant was limited primarily          that comprise their salvation.
to the natural descendants of Abraham; in the new
dispensation it embraces also the Gentiles who are              When children arrive to these years parents are
adopted by God's grace into the covenant as spiritual         duty bound to instruct their children in these truths.
children of Abraham.                                          This is not first of all the duty of the church or the
                                                              Christian school, although they too certainly must
   In turn this wonderful covenant of grace has               instruct our children in these things. The task of in-
essentially but one sign and seal. The form of this           structing children in the spiritual realities implied in
covenant sign changes from one dispensation to the            baptism is first of all and primarily the obligation of
next. Nevertheless, there is essentially but one sign         parents. God has called parents to train up their
and seal of this covenant. In the old  .dispensation          children.
the sign of this covenant was circumcision. Christ
had not yet come to establish the covenant in His               This instruction is very important. For God uses
blood. Hence, God ordained circumcision to be the             the faithful instruction of parents along with the
seal of the covenant. Circumcision was performed as           good instruction parents provide for their children in
a matter of cleanliness and hygiene. It also involved         the church and the Christian school to bring their
the shedding of blood. As such it was a very apt sign         spiritual seed to faith in Jesus Christ and thus to the
of the washing away of sins in the blood of the               salvation which is signified and sealed in their
promised Christ. But now the Christ has come. He              baptism.
has shed His blood to wash away sin and realize the             Let us as parents not be slothful in training our
covenant. Hence, the sign of circumcision falls away.         children. But let us press on in zeal and dedication,
With the shedding of the blood of atonement, the              anticipating on the basis of God's promise great
shedding of blood, also in circumcision, forever loses        things in our children.
its significance for God's people. In the place of
circumcision God has ordained the sign of baptism.
It .is essentially the same sign as circumcision. For it
too graphically portrays the washing away of sins in                       The Standard Bearer
the blood of Christ. Circumcision and baptism are
essentially one.                                                      makes a thoughtf'ul  gift
 Now according to the baptism form, since baptism                          for the sick & shut-in.
has taken the place' of circumcision as the sign of
God's covenant, children of believing parents are to               Give the Standard Bearer!
be baptized. Even as the children born into natural
Israel received the sign of the covenant in the old
dispensation in the form of circumcision, so also now


402                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH
Thomas C. Miersma





                      Scripture Interprets Scripture:
                                           Grammatically



   We have been considering the principle laid down           There are limitations to this approach as we are
in Scripture and taught us also by the reformers,           studying a translation and not the original. Never-
that Scripture is its own interpreter. Thus far we          theless the analysis of the grammar of the English
have focused our attention upon the words and               text can at the very least serve to place before our
phrases of Scripture and upon doing what are called         minds more clearly the main thought of the text and
word studies. The purpose of such study is to listen        the various subordinate elements which illuminate
carefully to the text of Scripture and to submit our        and expound that main thought. Determining the
understanding to the Word of God. This is also true         subject, verb, and object of the sentence of the text
of the study of the grammar of the text.                    will usually give us this main thought. Diagramming
   The word grammar may well bring to mind much             the text also will help to set visually before our mind
that we learned in school about the structure. of the       the various elements of the text and their relation-
English language, the distinctions between nouns and        ships. As these tools are available to us, and also
verbs, adjectives and adverbs, prepositional phrases        taught in our schools there is no reason not to use
and various kinds of clauses. It may bring to mind          them in Bible study.
also such things as diagramming sentences and other           Someone may well respond at this point that this
such devices which serve to analyze what is written.        is all fine for my children or grandchildren who are in
These tools, terms, and devices which serve to teach        school but I am long out of school and have forgotten
good English composition also have a place in Bible         most of these things and they were difficult and un-
study with our English Bible.                               interesting at the time I studied them. What, barring
   We believe in the verbal, word for word, inspiration     a refresher course in English grammar or borrowing
of Holy Scripture.       This includes not merely the       my children's textbooks, am I supposed to do? In
words but also the grammatical form of the words of         the first place, the idea of spending  some  time re-
Scripture. On the basis of this principle we require        viewing or relearning some of these things is not as
that our ministers not only know the Biblical               idealistic as it may sound. It is essentially no more
languages, Greek and Hebrew, but that they also use         difficult than using a cookbook or a repair manual as
them, While it is not possible to bring directly into       a reference tool. True, this may involve some effort
English the grammar and forms of these Biblical             in an area in which we are not perfectly comfortable
languages, nevertheless our King James Bible as a           or at home. But God has also given us minds for the
faithful translation does reflect them in English. For      purpose of using them. If our concern is for more
the student of the English Bible the study also of the      meaningful Bible study and understanding of God's
grammar of the text is a means to understand more           Word, this is certainly worth the same kind of effort
clearly and carefully the Word of God.                      we would bestow upon the other affairs of life.
                                                              In the second place, however, there are also other
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed      means available. In part, the grammatical study of
Church of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.                        the text of Scripture involves using what we already


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                403



know and simply paying attention to the text before        sistently will also result in a better understanding of
us. In addition to studying the words of the text and      Scripture as a whole, and of English grammar as well,
their meaning, we can add to that study careful            so that we read the Word of God with more clarity
attention to the various terms of the text which serve     and understanding. As Scripture interprets Scripture,
a grammatical purpose,      This involves noting the       such study also needs to be confirmed by using our
various connections in a passage between verses and        concordance to see whether Scripture also confirms
sentences, and considering their relationships. This is    the results of our study.
not difficult. For example, in one of the epistles of         It may be well to emphasize that such study will
the New Testament, when a verse begins with the            also raise certain problems and questions. While the
word "for" it often indicates that the verse is giving     study of Scripture in this way is spiritually profitable
a reason for or an explanation of some aspect of the       and rewarding, it also has certain limitations. In the
preceding verse.    Noting these grammatical con-          first place, we must keep in mind that the study of a
nections is a matter of paying attention to what we        translation is not the study of the original text. Our
r e a d .                                                  King James translators have done an excellent job of
  Here again our English dictionary can also serve as      rendering into English the Word of God. But there
a useful tool. It, will give us not only the meaning of    are things which nevertheless can never be fully trans-
words but their grammatical use and importance as          lated from one language into another and elements
well. It will do so without a refresher course in          of grammar which one language has which do not
English grammar. It is especially the small words          exist in the same form in another, This is true of
which we think we know well and would not or-              our English translation of the Word of God as well.
dinarily look up in a text which are often grammati-       This does not mean that our Bibles are not trust-
cal terms which draw relationships between verses          worthy or that they are unreliable, but it does mean
and words in a text. Looking them up in the diction-       there are limitations.
ary has a different purpose than word studies with
dictionary and concordance, but the procedure is the         In the second place, we are ourselves limited in
same and may be as fruitful or more so.                    our understanding. Our study is imperfect by reason
                                                           of sin. This means that two children of God studying
  To use an example, the English word "of" is              the same passage may come to different conclusions
probably so familiar that we might ordinarily spend        on minor details of a passage. Within the boundaries
little time with it. But this small preposition has a      of the whole teaching of the Word of God, there must
wide variety of different meanings, as will be plain       be room for differences of interpretation. By this is
from a good dictionary. This word reflects an im-          not meant that the meaning of Scripture itself is
portant grammatical relationship in the original           relative, but only that our understanding is imperfect.
languages, and a clear understanding of a text can de-     Nor does this mean that the main lines of the truth
pend on it. The expression "the righteousness of           of God's Word are unclear or that the doctrine
God" can have a number of different meanings in            taught in Scripture is open to question. The truth of
Scripture, all dependent on the meaning of that word       Scripture is plain and clear, a matter of faith or un-
"Of. " It can refer to  God'sown  righteousness, that      belief, and not a matter of lack of clarity in Scripture
righteousness which belongs to or is possessed by God      or understanding it.
as a divine attribute.     It can also refer to that         Furthermore, the proper place for such Bible study
righteousness of which God is the author or source,        is not in isolation from the church, or the study of
of which He is the subject and we are the recipients       fellow saints but exactly in the communion of the
or objects. Looking at the meaning of this word            saints and in the fellowship of the church. This
"of" in a dictionary will make this clear. In the          means too that the child of God may use the com-
example mentioned, `"the righteousness of God,"            mentaries and other tools which are the fruit of the
the importance of this in understanding the opening        Spirit's leading in the church, and are the work of
chapters of the book of Romans is crucial. It was the      faithful servants of God. The fact is that doing our
perception that this expression in Romans did not re-      own faithful Bible study will also make such tools as
fer to the divine attribute, God's righteousness, but      commentaries more meaningful and useful as well,
to a righteousness which God gives to us, that led         for we will more clearly understand the issues being
Martin Luther to an understanding of the truth of          discussed in them.
justification by faith. In a sense we may say that the
Reformation itself was rooted in this discovery of           It is exactly in the way of such faithful Bible
the meaning of this one word in Romans.                    study, in the communion of the saints, that God leads
                                                           His church to develop the truth of His Word more
  This kind of study belongs with word studies as          clearly and to understand  His Word more deeply.
an integral part of it. The more you do it the easier      Thus He guides His church by His Word and Spirit
it becomes. The use of a dictionary in this way con-       into all truth.


404                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



IN HIS FEAR
Arie den Hartog





                                  The Life of Self Denial



  A life of self denial, this is the absolute require-       Christian home can ever be established without man
ment for those who would be the disciples of the             and woman denying themselves. Those who are con-
Lord Jesus Christ. In our last article we considered         templating marriage ought to consider this very
something of what is involved in true self denial. Self      seriously. Let us not begin our marriages after the
denial is something quite different from merely              vain and evil philosophy of this world but according
denying to ourselves certain legitimate pleasures and        to the standards of the Word of God. Paul exhorts
pursuits on this earth. It is not the monk who lives         the Christian man in marriage to give himself for his
a life of asceticism, poverty, and deprivation and           wife even as Christ gave Himself for the church. (See
self-inflicted torture that practices true self denial.      Ephesians  5:23.) What a tremendous requirement
In doing all of these things he can utterly fail to deny     this is! How many even who call themselves Chris-
himself. None of these things are in themselves re-          tians completely fail to do this! How many men are
quired of the Lord. Many who do these things are             in the final analysis only self seeking and egotistical
still utterly self seeking and self glorying. Emphati-       and vain! Let us check our lives, men, whether this
cally if we are to be true disciples of our Lord we          is not true. Much of the trouble in marriages today
need to deny OURSELVES. The old monster of self              actually comes from this. In years gone by, ungodly
within us must be put down and destroyed. This               men sought to satisfy their own lust and desire for
could happen for the Christian only at the cross of          vain glory by taking several wives to themselves. This
Christ. Our old self-seeking, self-gratifying, and self-     is not so common today anymore, though this is
promoting nature had to be crucified with Christ.            still the chief reason for divorce and remarriage, the
Jesus is for the Christian the supreme example of            great evil that destroys so many homes. Husbands
self denial. We deny ourselves only when' we take up         often cruelly use and abuse their wives for the satis-
our cross and follow Him. If God is to be truly              faction of their own lusts and to exalt themselves.
central in our lives, if our whole life is to be lived to    In doing this they seek to justify themselves in that
the glory of God, we need to begin by denying our-           God has given them the position of authority in the
selves. Our glorious Reformed doctrine teaches us            home, But how evil and self seeking all this is. Other
this. Does our life as Reformed Christians manifest          husbands give themselves over almost totally to
this? Self denial is the great and constant require-         pursue their careers to the virtual neglect of their
ment of the Christian life in every area and depart-         wives and children. They boast in the hard work
ment. Because of the sinful nature that remains with         they do and in the achievements they accomplish.
the Christian until the day of his death, he needs to        They claim to be doing all of this to provide for their
be constantly on guard against the old monster of            family. But in many cases they do all these things
self again arising within him. Let us consider now a         only to seek their own.advancement  and glory in the
few of the most important areas of our Christian             world. Of course men must work hard to support
life where self denial is so absolutely essential.           their families. God requires this of us men. But this
                                                             must all be done in true self denial or it will actually
   Consider first of all the whole area of our life in       have evil rather than good consequences for the
the Christian home. From the beginning, no truly             family. As men we must constantly give ourselves
                                                             for the true welfare of our wives and family. We
Arie den Hartog, a missionary of the Protestant Reformed     must seek greater things for our family than only
Churches, is currently laboring in Singapore.                meat and drink and clothing because life consists in


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                405



much more than this. We must above all be con-              late at night.    She receives very little honor and
cerned for the spiritual welfare of our family. We          praise, especially not from the world, for all the hard
must be concerned about dwelling with our wives as          work she does. But the Bible pictures the life of the
the Lord commands us. We must spend much time               virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 in exactly this way.
and energy to nurture our children in the fear and          This virtuous woman gives her whole life to care for
admonition of the Lord. We may not even put our             her husband and family. This is true self denial, far
careers before this. There will be times when men           exceeding any performed by the nun in the convent
have to forego job promotion and advancements be-           or the monk in the monastery. God is glorified by
cause of the higher concerns of spending time with          such a life of self denial. A woman who so sacrifices
the family and seeking their spiritual welfare. The         herself brings great blessing to her family and has a
Christian husband may not leave to his wife alone the       very great role in the kingdom of the Lord.
great burdens and responsibilities of raising the family
and keeping the house. He has to deny himself to               Children have to be taught self denial in the Chris-
fulfill his God-ordained role and responsibility. He        tian home. Our children are conceived and born in
may not spend his time pursuing a career or, worse          sin.    This becomes evident almost immediately at
than that, entertaining himself with selfish sports         birth already, when you see how demanding and
and leisure while his family is neglected. To deny          selfish little babies are. "Me first" is the mark of the
ourselves as husbands means that we realize that there      sinful child. Most of the rivalry that exists in the
are many things we cannot do which, though they are         home between children is due to the awful sin of self
in themselves perfectly legitimate, take us away from       centeredness. How proud even little children can be
our great' responsibilities towards our wives and           of themselves.    This must not be encouraged by
children. We need constantly to examine our lives           parents as something good and cute. Children must
and everything we do as men and judge whether it is         be taught that selfishness is a great evil before the
truly being done out of a spirit of self denial and not     Lord. They need to be taught to give way to each
one of self seeking and self glorying.                      other and to share with each other. They need to be
                                                            taught to put themselves always last, and never to be
  The woman's God-ordained role in marriage is also         proud or self seeking. Any parent knows that these
one that demands self denial as one of the chief re-        are hard lessons for children to learn, as hard as they
quirements.    The whole world today teaches the            are for adults. It takes a lot of grace in our lives to
woman to be self seeking and self exalting. She is          overcome self centeredness.       We must teach our
urged to seek after self realization by seeking her own     children to be humble before the Lord, to obey their
career and occupation outside of the home and in-           parents, and not to seek their own will but the will
dependent from her husband. She is exhorted to              of the Lord in their life. Children must always have
liberate herself from the bondage of the home and           before them the godly example of self-sacrificing and
raising of a family. The God-ordained role of keeping       self-denying parents who are prepared to sacrifice
the home is portrayed as being the most shameful            their all for the Lord's sake and for the true spiritual
and humiliating role a woman can have. All this             welfare of their children.
teaching appeals to the self-seeking, evil nature of the
ungodly woman. For this reason the philosophy of               Let us also consider what self denial is required of
woman's liberation has caught on so quickly and has         us in connection with our calling and place in the
totally changed the thinking and life style of the          church of Jesus Christ. Of which church are we
modern-day woman. In contrast to all of this the            members; with which church do we stand together;
truly godly and Christian woman must be prepared            and where do we serve the Lord together with our
to live in self denial for the glory of her Lord and        fellow saints? This will be determined by our willing-
Savior and for the welfare of her family. Bringing          ness to deny ourselves. It is rather easy to belong to
forth the children of the covenant requires self denial.    one of the large modernistic churches of our day.
The godly woman must be ready to suffer pain and            Little true holiness of life and obedience to the Lord
sorrow, great hardships and trials. She must be like        is required in many churches today. In the large
Hannah who earnestly prayed to the Lord for a child         churches of our day there will be many that stand
and then vowed to give him to the Lord. There are           with us. In. many cases membership in such a church
few areas in life that require such great self denial as    is even considered to be a mark of honor and prestige.
feeding, caring for, and raising children. Children         But to belong to a small and faithful church of Jesus
make tremendous demands upon the mother. No one             Christ which boldly and courageously defends and
will deny that the common tasks which a woman               preaches the truth of the Word of God no matter
has to perform every day in the home can totally            what men say, such church membership will require
drain one's energy. They can often involve drudgery.        self denial. Our age is one of great apostasy, not one
It is true that a woman's work in the home is never         of great revival movements. We are living in the last
done. She has to work hard from early morning till          days which were prophesied of by our Lord. The


406                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



true church today will be small. It will be despised       of the world to spend time in the careful study of
and ridiculed by practically the whole world. Her          the Word of God. They are not concerned about
members too will be despised, even more so by              their responsibility to help preserve and defend the
so-called Christians from other churches than by           truth and righteousness of God in the church. To be
those who are openly heathen and ungodly. Be-              concerned about these things we need to know how
longing to such a church is hard, it requires self         to deny ourselves. We need to be prepared to re-
denial. The Christian in self-denying love for the         ceive opposition and even scorn sometimes from
Lord is convinced of his calling to stand for the truth    some members of our own church.
and righteousness of God and joins himself to such a          All of us as Christians have the calling to be living
church and to people of like-minded faith and pur-         personal witnesses of the truth of God. We all have
pose.                                                      the calling to communicate the gospel of our Lord
  The church is the place where the Christian serves       Jesus Christ to this world of sin and darkness. We
the Lord. It is not only the place where he receives       have to be concerned about our unbelieving neighbor
the blessings of the Lord. It surely is the latter too     and bring the gospel to him. Often we fail to do this.
of course, but it is also the place where he serves        Often we remain silent when we should speak and
together with his fellow saints and for the benefit of     testify, Opportunities to be a witness for our Lord
his fellow saints. This too requires self denial. The      pass us by. What is the chief reason for this? For
Christian has to be prepared to make large financial       most of us we are seldom threatened with physical
sacrifices to support the church. He therefore often       persecution from our ungodly neighbors. Most of us
has to be prepared to forego many of the luxuries          are not yet in the situation where we really have to
which his neighbor has. The Christian has to give          suffer and even die for the testimony of the Lord
much time and energy to serve the Lord in His              Jesus Christ. Many faithful saints who have gone
church. He therefore has to cut down on his leisure        before us have sacrificed their very life for the sake of
time, if not exclude it altogether, in order to have       the gospel. But for us so often the main reason why
opportunity to serve in the church. This is especially     we remain silent is simply that we are ashamed to
required of those who have the calling and respon-         testify.' We fear for our own honor and reputation
sibility to be office bearers in the church. Elders and    among men. We refuse to deny ourselves. But we
deacons have to spend many nights out attending to         must for the Lord's sake. We must follow the Lord
important meetings and visiting the people of God in       Jesus Christ Himself and also the many great saints
their needs and afflictions. All this they have to do      and martyrs that have gone before us. Our Lord
after a day of hard work on the farm, in the office,       Jesus exhorts us to confess His name courageously
or factory. Often the temptation will be to stay at        and boldly before men, not fearing the shame and
home and enjoy a relaxing evening with their family.       persecution of men. Only then will He also confess
But they may not yield to this temptation. For the         our name before our heavenly Father. It is so easy to
good of the church and her members they need to            go along with the ungodly conversation and life
deny themselves  ancl be willing to spend and be           style of this world. To be different in this world,
spent and to exhaust all of their resources. But also      to live in holiness and consecration to the Lord in
the ordinary member of the church has to deny him-         this world, we need to deny ourselves. Are we pre-
self. He too has to be busy visiting the sick, helping     pared to do this?
the needy, and encouraging the lonely and down-               We could of course go on to speak of many more
hearted. Every member of the church has to have            things in connection with our calling to deny our-
the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ, not seeking only        selves.     Let us examine our own lives day by day.
his own things but also the things of others. Every        How much do we do every day for our own glory
sincere member. of the church of Jesus Christ has to       and advantage? How much of our life each day is
be involved in society meetings and Bible study            truly lived in self-denying love and consecration to
groups with his fellow saints. He has to be prepared       the Lord? May God give us all the grace to be more
to sacrifice his time and energy to prepare himself        faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
for these meetings. IIe has to study the Word of God.
He has to read Christian books and be aware of the
issues of the day that are facing his church. There             Thee Standard Bearer
will be times when hs has to sit up late after work to
study and prepare himself so that he can make his                     makes a thoughtful
contribution for the welfare of his fellow saints
according to -the talents which the Lord has given.                         gift for the
How many churches ,today are going apostate and the
ordinary people are not aware of what is happening!                    sick and shut-in.
They are too busy with selfish cares and pleasures


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             407


                                                Book Review


QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE BIBLE,  by                                argument seems to be taking off in different direc-
E.W. Johnson; Sovereign Grace Publishers (Pine                     tions. However that may be, the author deals with
Bluff, Arkansas),  1984,;  103 pp., $3.69 (paper).                 other pertinent and related subjects such as the in-
(Reviewed by Prof. H. IIanko)                                      spiration of Scripture, the question of the correct-
   The author of this book is the pastor of the                    ness of the "Received Text," and other matters.
Calvary Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It                 There is one historical error of some importance
is perhaps best to let the author himself state the                found on p. 4 where the author writes:
main theme of the book:                                                      Papal authority has not determined the canon of the
                                                                      Scriptures. We know this because the canon of the
      May I repeat the theme of this study? I am not bas-             Old Testament was-established before the popes came
    ing the canon of the Bible, of the Old Testament or the
    New, on historical evidences. The canon of the Bible              on the scene, and the popes since the Council of Trent
                                                                       (1545 - 1563) have attempted to include the apocrypha
    must be found in that logical deduction which the
    child of faith must draw from II Tim. 3:14-17, that if            in the canon of the Old Testament, which the church
    the sacred writings were given by our sovereign God               that is truly universal has never included.
    that His chosen people, called to be saints, might prof-       The fact of the matter is, as the author ought to
    it from them, surely He has brought His church to              know, that the Canon of Scripture was officially set
    receive those writings as of authority among them (p.          forth by the Council of Hippo (393) and the third
    33).                                                           council of Carthage  (397), both of which included
   The argument of the author `is not very clear on                in the canon the Old Testament apocrypha. The
this matter; sometimes it appears as if he is merely               Reformers, as we know, rejected these books as.
arguing what the church since the Reformation has                  canonical and the church since then has agreed.
always said, namely, that Scripture gives testimony                But the "truly universal church"`nevertheless  held
of itself that it is the Word of God; other times his              this position for over a millennium.


                          News From Our Churches
                                                          David Harbach



  In March of this year, Rev. den Hartog received a                the Heidelberg Catechism. Pastor Lau teaches them
Rev. and Mrs. J. Klamer into his home. Rev. Klamer                 the catechism while the two pastors and a couple of
is a missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church (Lib-                 elders take turns giving the messages for the meetings.
erated) in Holland. What was interesting to Rev.                     Rev. den Hartog made an interesting hospital visit
den Hartog was how Rev. Klamer had dealt with                      when he visited a Burmese diplomat who has ter-
some of the same questions we have faced in Singa-                 minal cancer. This opportunity arose because one of
pore, such as the questions of the,place of our Con-               the nurses of the church in Singapore witnessed to
fessions in the work of missions and the principles of             the man.
doing mission work. Rev. Klamer labored in Indo-
nesia for ten years before there were any real con-                  Rev. den Hartog received another invitation to
verts, due in part  to the fact that  the people were              speak for a youth group outside of the church. This
very backward. This made our missionary realize                    is the second time this has happened for two differ-
how very small our hardships are compared to what                  ent youth groups. In both of these groups there is
other missionaries and their families have endured                 one leader who is very interested in the Reformed
for the Lord's sake.                                               Faith.       Both of these brothers have attended the
                                                                   Reformation Day Lectures. They have been reading
  The Youth Fellowship of the church in Singapore
has had between twenty and thirty members studying                 Reformed books and desire to bring the Reformed
                                                                   Faith into the churches where they are members.
David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref. Christian         Remember Singapore Camp Day of 1985 in the
School, Gmnd Rapids, Michigan.                                     Grand Rapids, Michigan area? Well, Byron Center


  THE STANDARD BEAREd
        P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





                                     -~~--~~-.       _     _.~_~~~____      ~._.
408                                                        THE  STANDARD BEARER                 -

Protestant Reformed Church Evangelism Society is                           a section of Hungry Horse Camp Ground near Dorr,
sponsoring another camp day with an emphasis this                          Michigan for August 6-9. If you have a desire to be a
time on evangelism. Rev. Ron Van  Overloop  has                            part of this camp day then call Ardith Oomkes at
agreed to speak on the importance of personal                              616-698-6697 or Ellen Kamminga at 616-878-1444.
evangelism, along with another missionary who will
speak on mission work as corporate evangelism. If                                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
you desire to camp with them, they have reserved                              On June 11, 1986, our parents and grandparents,
                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                 John and Anna Pfau,
                                                                           will, with God's consent, celebrate their 50th wedding anni-
   On May 15, 1986, our parents and grandparents,                          versary.    We congratulate them and express our deepest
                  Rev.  and  Mrs. George Lanting,                          gratitude to God with the words of the Psalmist  -  "I will
                                                                           sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will
celebrated their 40 years of marriage. We are thankful to God              I make known thy faithfulness to all generations."
for the many years given to them in caring for us and in-
structing us in our covenant God. As they have experienced                    We pray for God's continued blessing upon them for the
the blessings of God's grace and mercy in the past 40 years,               time He spares them for each other and for us.
we pray that His love will continue in them for the rest of                                                     John and Arlene Pfau
their years together.                                                                                              Brenda and Scott Bultema
   "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the                                                          Shirley, Dan
faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them                                                        Paul and Irene Pfau
that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand                                                             Matt, Paula
generations" (Deut. 7:9).
Ruth Vander Warf                   Dan and Dianna Lanting                                    ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!
   Matthew, Chad                      Melissa, Aaron, Keith
Jim and Jan Lanting               Tom and Jeanne Venhuizen                    Covenant Christian School of Lynden, Washington, has an
   Jessica, Emily, Alison,            Annalise                             opening for a teacher for Grades 3, 4, and 5 for the 1986-87
   Seth, Abby                      Phil Lanting                            school year.
Dave and Jan Lanting               Ed and Mary Stouwie                        Please send inquiries to:         Covenant Christian School,
Bill and Jan Lanting                  Kevin, Rachel                        9088 Northlawn Road, Lynden, WA 98264, or phone the
   Elizabeth, Bryant, Katie       Steve Lanting                            school office:      (206) 354-5436, or call Al  DeBoer, (206)
George Lanting                                                             3844148.



                                 46th Annual Protestant Reformed Young People's Convention
                                                            July 28  - August I,, 1986
                                               On the Campus of Valparaiso University'
                                                              Valparaiso, Indiana
                                                    (Junction of Indiana 49 and U.S. 30)

                                  -Theme: "Being Reformed in 1986: Heritage and Calling"
                                 Speakers: Rev. M. Kamps, Rev. B. Gritters, Rev. J. Slopsema
                                   Registration at South Holland Protestant Reformed Church

                                         A SPECIAL INVITATION TO YOUNG ADULTS

                                    [For information, call  (312)895-8549  or  (312)596-31131


