      The
+STAAlDAf?D
     BEARER
      A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





.  .  . when one day we arrive in glory we will,

no doubt, be able to see how God has used
all the afflictions of our life to work the ex-
ceeding and eternal weight of glory we will
be enjoying. Then `we will proclaim that it
was well worth it all.
    See J `Our Light Afflictions" - page 482





                                   Vol.  LXII, No. 21, September 15, 1986  -


     482                                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER




                                         CONTENTS                                                                              THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
       Meditation  -                                                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                                  Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mich.
            Our Light Afflictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .482                     Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .484                  Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                   D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
       Editorial -                                                                                 Rev. Ronald Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A.  Heys,  Rev. J.  Kortering,
                                                                                                   Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.  Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
            The Centennial of the Doleantie . . . . . . . . . .                                    Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman  Veldman.
                                                                                         . .485    Editorial  Ofice:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
       Walking in the Light -                                                                                          4975  Ivanrest Ave., S.W.
                                                                                                                       Grandville, Michigan 49418
            Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (8) . . . .487                                     Church News Editor: Mr. David Harbach
                                                                                                                           4930  Ivanrest Ave., Apt. B
       From Holy Writ -                                                                                                    Grandville, Michigan 49418
            Belie.ving  All the Prophetic Scriptures . . . . . . .489                              Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely res onsible for the contents of his own ar-
                                                                                                   ticles. Contributions of general interest rom our readers and questions for the
                                                                                                                                                P
       All Around Us -                                                                             Question Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to approx-
                                                                                                   imately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
            General Synods and Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . .491                               signed. Copy deadlines are the  first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
                                                                                                   munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
       Question Box -                                                                              Reprint Policy: Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                                   magazine by other publications, provided: a) that such reprinted  artxles are
            Petition for Pardon in the                                                             reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgement is made; c) that a copy of the
                                                                                                   periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
               Congregational Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .493                        Business Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                       Mr. H.  Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.         PI-h (616) 243-2953
       Translated Treasures  -                                                                                         P.O. Box 6064
                                                                                                                       Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516
            A Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation                                                  New Zealand Business OffIce:  The Standard Bearer
               of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .495                                                  do Protestant Reformed Fellowship
                                                                                                                                   B. Van Herk, 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                   Wainuiomata, New Zealand
       Book Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .497                    Subscription Policy: Subscription price, $10.50 per year. Unless a definite request
       I n d e x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     . .498    for discontinuance is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                   subscription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
       News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                     billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please notify the Business Of-
                                                                                         . .503    fice as early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of delayed dehvery.
                                                                                                   Include your Zip Code.
                                                                                                   Advertising Policy:  The  Standard Bearer  does not accept commercial advertising of
                                                                                                   any kind. Announcements of church and school events,  anmversaries,
                                                                                                   obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should
                                                                                                   be sent to the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Dead-
                                                                                                   lime for announcements is the 1st and the 15th of the month, previous to publica-
                                                                                                   tion on the 15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                                   Bound Volumes: The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound copies
                                                                                                   of the current volume; such orders are filled as soon as ossible after completion
                                                                                                   of a volume. A limited number of past volumes may fJe obtained through the
                                                                                                   Business Office.

     MEDITATION



                                                          Our Light Afflictions
                                                                                        James D. Slopsema



                          For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
                      eternal weight ofglory.                                                                                                II Corinthians 417


       None of us is a stranger to affliction.                                                           Affliction comes in many different forms for
I      Affliction is that which continues to press in                                                God's people.
I    upon us so that finally we have no place to turn, not                                               There is, first of all, reproach for Christ's sake.
     even space to breathe.                                                                          For his godly life in this world the child of God is


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                             4 8 3



hated and despised, mocked and ridiculed, some-           quainted with affliction. In chapter 11 of this same
times even beaten and killed.                             epistle, verses 24 ff., Paul lists some of the afflic-
   In addition to persecution, the child of God is        tions God had placed on him. Five times he re-
subject also to the general sufferings of mankind.        ceived from the Jews 40 stripes save one; three
Due to the curse of God on the creation, mankind          times was he beaten; once he was stoned; three
has suffered all kinds of horrible sicknesses and         times he suffered shipwreck. Often he found him-
diseases that incapacitate and cause untold misery.       self in perils, in weariness, in pain, in hunger and
Mankind has known poverty, famine, starvation,            thirst, in cold and nakedness. Read this account of
war, destruction, and deprivation of every kind.          his sufferings. Without fear of contradiction it can
And at the end of it all is death, the greatest enemy     be said that the most, if not all, of us will never suf-
of mankind. In these general sufferings of mankind        fer as did the apostle.
the child of God also shares. These sufferings are          And yet he writes that his and our afflictions are
no respecter of persons. They come on the rich and        only light and but for a moment.
poor alike, the bond and the free, the believer as                  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
well as the unbeliever.                                     Paul's evaluation of affliction is to be explained,
   What afflictions are you presently enduring?           first, by comparing our present afflictions to the
Have you recently lost a loved one to death, or           eternal weight of glory that awaits us in Christ.
perhaps are you struggling with the horrible enemy        When we make such a comparison, our present af-
of death yourself? Do you suffer pain and discom-         flictions are indeed only light and for a moment.
fort because of the infirmities of old age or some
other ailment that has taken hold of you? Are you           The glory of which Paul speaks is the glory of
struggling financially and finding it virtually im-       heaven. This is the glory Christ earned at the cross.
possible to make ends meet? Must you contend              It consists of a most wonderful fellowship and com-
with the agony of a marriage that isn't working or a      munion with the ever blessed God. Of this glory
home that is torn by strife? Are you the object of        the true believer has a small foretaste even now.
ridicule and mockery in school, at work, or in the        But the fullness of this glory awaits him in heaven.
community because of your godly life?                       According to the apostle Paul, this glory is of ex-
  These afflictions have a way of pressing in upon        ceeding weight. That is, its weight is beyond
us so that they become a burden too heavy to bear.        measure. It is not possible to weigh the glory that
          *  * * * *  * * * * *                           shall be revealed in us in heaven. This is a graphic
                                                          way of telling us that the glory of heaven is of
  According to the apostle Paul, all our present af-      tremendous worth and value. And this in harmony
flictions really don't amount to very much.               with the rest of Scripture. Scripture tells us that the
  Paul writes of "our light affliction, which is but      glory that awaits us in Christ belongs to that which
for a moment." The apostle here is saying two             eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered
things about our suffering. He is saying, first, that     into the heart of man to conceive. Scripture assures
our present afflictions are light. They are only a        us that heaven's glory will exceed our wildest im-
light burden, easily carried. And, secondly, Paul is      agination. It indeed is of exceeding weight.
saying our present sufferings are momentary, of             And it is eternal. That isn't the case with our pres-
short duration.                                           ent existence. The days of our years are threescore
  Our first reaction may be one of total disbelief.       and ten (70) and, if we are strong, fourscore (80).
Our present sufferings are light and but for a mo-        But then we die and our earthly life is done. How-
ment? We may quickly conclude that the apostle            ever, the glory that awaits us in heaven is eternal. It
Paul must have led a rather sheltered existence, far      will never end. There is a hymn, the last stanza of
removed from the harsh realities of life. Obviously       which captures this idea very beautifully:
Paul never lost a dear one to death or paid a visit to       When we've been there ten thousand years,
someone on a bed of suffering. When Paul penned              bright shining as the sun,
these words he must have been ignorant of the                we've no less days to sing God's praise,
poverty the saints often face and the reproach they          than when we've first begun.
must endure for Christ's sake. Only one who lives           Now if we compare our present afflictions to this
in an ivory tower could call the afflictions of God's     future glory, our present afflictions are only light
people light and but for a moment!                        and but for a moment.
  But such is not the case. Paul was well  ac-              What are all the afflictions that we can possibly
                                                          endure in this life compared to the exceeding
James D. Slopsema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed    weight of glory that awaits us in heaven? All the
Church  .of Randolph, Wisconsin.                          physical pain and all the mental anguish that we


484                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



will ever endure in this life are really nothing when       Rather our present afflictions work for us this
compared to the glory that awaits us in Christ. Our      heavenly glory in that they prepare us for this
present sufferings are only a trifling weight, hardly    glory.
to be considered!                                           God has reserved for each of us a place in glory.
  And what is a whole life of suffering compared to      In fact, Christ is even now in heaven preparing a
the endless ages of glory in heaven? Let's say we        place for us (John 14: 1 & 2).
live to be 100 years old. Let's say we live to be as       But we must also be prepared for that place. We
old as Methuselah and suffer intensely every mo-         are not yet spiritually ready for the place God has
ment of our 969 years. What is that compared to the      reserved for us in Christ. We are too carnal and sin-
endless ages of glory that await us in Christ? It is     ful. To occupy our place in glory we must first be
only a brief, fleeting moment!                           cleansed. As gold is purified of all its impurities, so
  Certainly when we compare our present afflic-          too must we be purified.
tions to the future glory of heaven, our afflictions       And God accomplishes this purifying process, in
are only light and but for a moment.                     part, through the sufferings and afflictions of this
  And if our afflictions will seem only light and        present life. We may not always see how this is
momentary to us, we must always compare them to          true. It may often seem to us that, instead of work-
the future glory of heaven. If we lose sight of our      ing good, our sufferings work ruin and destruction.
future glory and look only at our present existence,     And it may be that often we fail to see the need for
our sufferings may well seem to be unending. They        such sufferings. Nevertheless, God, Who always
may very well become very heavy to carry, perhaps        deals with us in perfect love and wisdom, is busily
even too heavy. However, if we bear in mind that         purifying and preparing us for our place in glory
our present sufferings are only a small part of our      through all the sufferings of this present time. And
total existence and that they will very soon be          when one day we arrive in glory we will, no doubt,
replaced by an immeasurable weight of unending           be able to see how God has used all the afflictions
glory, then our present afflictions will indeed seem     of our life to work the exceeding and eternal weight
to be light and but for a moment.                        of glory we will be enjoying. Then we will proclaim
         *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  j;                   that it was well worth it all. From our vantage point
  Our present afflictions will also be light and but     in glory we will proclaim that we would gladly suf-
for a moment if we bear in mind that they work for       fer these afflictions a thousand times over, if that is
us this far more exceeding and eternal weight of         what it would take to attain the glory of heaven.
dory-                                                      Now if we understand and believe this by faith,
  Imagine, our present afflictions work for us this      then our present sufferings will be light and but for
great and eternal glory of heaven!                       a moment. If we can see no rhyme or reason for our
                                                         afflictions, or if it appears that affliction is working
  This is not to be understood in the sense that our     our ruin, affliction becomes an unbearable burden.
present afflictions in any way earn for us the glory     However, if we believe (and by faith we can) that
of heaven. Let it be established for all times that      even our affliction works for us a far more exceed-
Christ alone has earned for us the glory of heaven.      ing and eternal weight of glory, then affliction
He has done so through His inexpressible agony on        becomes light and but for a moment.
the cross. And nothing we do, not even our suffer-
ings, can ever contribute so much as one iota to our       May the Lord make our afflictions light and but
own salvation or our heavenly glory.                     for a moment as we cling to these truths by faith.


                                        Editor's Notes

  Annzd  Index. This issue marks the end of              News from OUY Churches in this issue. At our annual
Volume 62. As usual, an index of the entire volume       Staff meeting Mr. Harbach submitted his  resigna-
appears in this issue. This necessitates the omission    tion; and when the Staff heard the long list of
of some of our regular departments.                      organizations to which Mr. Harbach belongs and
         * * * * * * * * * *                             the large number of activities in which he is en-
                                                         gaged, they did not have the heart to deny his  re-
  Farewell and Thanks.  Our News Editor, Mr.             quest to be replaced. He,nce, it is also time to say a
David Harbach, makes his last contribution to            hearty "thank-you" for the work performed. HCH


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      485



EDITORIAL




                 The Centennial of the Doleantie



  This year marks the one hundredth anniversary                 man would be called to the Gospel ministry in their
of the  Doleantie,  or the birth of the  Dolerende              respective churches unless he had declared over his
Kerken in the Netherlands.                                      signature his sincere and cordial agreement with the
                                                                Three Forms of Unity. 3. He proposed that each
  "What is that?" you probably ask.                             Reformed consistory at once appoint four of its
  The term  DoZerende  comes from the Latin verb                members as a committee to serve the consistory with
doleo,  -eye, which means "to grieve, to mourn."                information and advice on the most recent Synodical
Hence, the  DoZerende Kerken  were the "Grieving                decision, all the committees of the entire country to
(or: Aggrieved) Churches." And the term  Doleantie,             meet afterwards in a general conference to deliberate
which can hardly be translated by one term in                   on the necessary further course of action.
English, refers to the act and the movement which                 A reform movement was clearly in the making.
led to the establishment of these "Grieving Chur-                 The Amsterdam consistory took the initiative. (Bear
ches" according to which they went into a state of              in mind that this was a consistory of 136 men, with
being aggrieved, a state of protest. Before entering            several ministers, for the city-wide Amsterdam
briefly into the history of the Doleantie, let me ex-           church. HCH) Its committee of four, which included
plain the name by quoting from Frank  Vanden                    Kuyper and Rutgers, issued a call for the general con-
Berg's biography,  Abraham Kuyper.  Vanden Berg                 ference for Wednesday, April 11, 1883, at Amster-
devotes three chapters to the history of the Dolean-            dam. The call included a distinct proviso: registration
tie and Kuyper's part in it. In the first of these              at the conference would include a declaration of
chapters he writes as follows (pp. 130-131):                    hearty accord with the Three Forms of Unity as a
                                                                fixed basis for discussion and action. Kuyper now for
     There was a time when candidates for the Gospel            the purpose saw to a republication in appropriate
   ministry had been required to promise that they              form of those confessional standards.
   would preach the Word of God in accordance with,               This convention of delegates adopted noteworthy
   and as interpreted in, the three Forms'of Unity. This        resolutions. It decided to admit no one to the ministry
   pledge hadalready been altered to read that the can-         in their churches unless and until such person(s) had
   didate pledged himself to maintain the spirit and the        signed the Three Forms of Unity, with declaration of
   major content of the Confession. Now in 1883 the             hearty accord. It decided further: If the Synodical
   subscription of ministers-to-be was again deleted. No        Hierarchy, which had been imposed on the Church in
   mention was now made of "the full counsel of God as          1816, prevented the Reformed people from honoring
   to salvation, particularly his grace in the Lord Jesus       the King of the Church as Sovereign, the union of
   Christ." Aspiring clergymen merely agreed "to pro-           churches under this Hierarchy must be terminated. It
   mote the interests of the Kingdom of God in general          resolved: If in any church or churches the Reformed
   and especially those of the State Church." This radical      people were actively opposed by their consistory or
   innovation became effective January 15, 1883.                consistories in their recognition of Christ as Head and
     Not only the Reformed people but the entire ortho-         King of the Church, such Reformed people would,
   dox element stood aghast. In  De  Heruut  ("The              after earnestly warning the consistory, decline to
   Herald," Kuyper's weekly paper, HCH) Dr. Kuyper              recognize such consistory or consistories, and would
   immediately met this new appeasement head-on with            choose their own elders and deacons, not to secede
   a three-point program. 1. He declared to the churches        definitely from the State Church but as in the time of
   that it was their sacred duty to guard the Church's          the difficulties with the Remonstrants, to appear as
   Confession by warding off this new evil. 2. He wrote         grieving [or mourning) churches in the hope that the
   that the consistories must take measures so that no          State Church would return in confession and polity to


486                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



       the Reformed standpoint, in which case the mourning    of the Doleantie of 1886. The only difference was
       churches would return to the fold.                     one of degree, perhaps, so that in 1886 the power of
  From the above it is evident that the Doleantie             the lie was greater than in 1834. The same was true
never claimed originally to be a movement of refor-           of the profaning of the sacraments and of the cor-
mation  by  separation,  but rather a movement of             ruption of Christian discipline, both with respect to
reformation within the State Church (the Hervorm-             officebearers and with respect to the membership
de Kerk). The separation was brought about by the             of the church.
fact that in Amsterdam and elsewhere ministers                  But how is it to be explained, then, that a second
and elders were suspended and deposed by the                  reformatory movement was still possible some fifty
hierarchy of the State Church, with the result that a         years after the Secession?
new denomination was formed. There is also
reason to believe: 1) That this purpose of reforma-             The answer lies, in the first place, in the fact that
tion from within and of casting off the hierarchical          as far as membership was concerned, the Secession
"Yoke of 1816" was genuine and that originally                of 1834 was not by any means complete. There
separation was not in the plans. 2) That some of the          were considerable numbers of Reformed people,
men of the Doleantie, Kuyper among them, were                 truly Reformed people, who did not, for one reason
disappointed in the eventual size and support of the          or another, secede in 1834. In the years that fol-
reformation movement and expected it to sweep                 lowed the Secession there continued to be pockets
the State Church and to succeed.                              of Reformed people and whole congregations here
                                                              and there who were soundly Reformed, who were
  With these remarks in explanation  .of the name             tolerated and largely left unmolested within the
we have already unavoidably entered somewhat in-              State Church, and who as long as they were left un-
to the history. It has become plain, for one thing,           disturbed did not leave and did not see the need of
that this reformatory movement concerned the Re-              leaving. Add to this the fact that through the years
formed Church of the Netherlands (the Hervormde               there were those in the State Church who came to
Kerk, which was since 1816 indeed the State                   see the light of the Reformed faith. Abraham
Church). This was the same church, remember,                  Kuyper himself was one of these. He was converted
from which there had been reformation through                 to the Reformed faith in the early years of his
separation fifty-two years earlier in the Secession           ministry, at least partly through the instrumentality
(Afscheiding)  of 1834, the sesquicentennial which            of members of his own (first) congregation in
we marked two years ago.                                      Beesd. The name of one of these members,
  This raises the question: how is it that there              Pietronella Baltus, a woman of solid Reformed con-
could be and were  t\~o reformations from one and             victions and deep spirituality, has been inscribed in
the same denomination separated by half a cen-                history because of her influence on the young
tury? Was one of these movements flawed? Were                 Kuyper. In the third place, it must not be forgotten
both movements of a Reformed character? Were                  that the State Church was a large denomination. At
the fundamental issues in both movements the                  the time of the Doleantie it counted some two
same, or not?                                                 million members. This also has its effect on the
                                                              whole process of reformation as well as on the
  We may recall that according to the "Act of                 possibility of pockets of Reformed people continu-
Secession or Return" of the church of Ulrum in                ing to exist, and almost to be lost and ignored,
1834 the reasons for the secession were: 1) the cor-          because of the sheer size of the denomination.
ruption of doctrine in the Netherlands Reformed
Church; 2) the profaning of the sacraments; and, 3)             But whatever the immediate reasons and the oc-
the scandalous neglect of discipline. Without going           casion, the fact remains that the Lord had con-
into detail as to these evils, either at the time of the      tinued to preserve a remnant in the large State
Afscheiding  or at the time of  DoZeanti&,  we  may           Church; and this made a second movement of
state, in the first place, that a study of the history of     reformation both possible and necessary.         HCH
those times reveals that these evils were indeed              (to be continued)
present to an astounding degree. Doctrinally, there
was not only the denial of peculiarly Reformed
fundamentals, but of the most rudimentary articles                     The Standard Bearer
of the Christian faith. The Trinity was denied; the                   makes a thoughtfi2 gift
deity of Christ was denied; the resurrection was
denied; outright denial of the Christian faith was                    for the sick & shut-in.
tolerated in the universities, in the pulpit, and in
the membership of the church. This was true at the                Give a gift of The Standard Bearer.
time of the Secession of 1834; it was true at the time


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        487



WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Herman C. Hanko





     Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (8)



  Science and medical technology have made                      childless because of the barrenness of the wife, the
tremendous strides in the last couple of decades.               husband's sperm is used to bring about conception
Many of these advances have opened new doors to                 in another woman who carries the child to term
the whole area of human reproduction. In an article             and then returns the child to the couple who were
in  Christian  News, June  24,  1985, Wayne Jackson             unable to have children. Sperm banks have been
writes:                                                         set up around the country in which the sperm of
      Note some of the bizarre speculative enterprises          above average men are stored to be used by women
    currently being suggested by some scientists. Nobel         of above average intellect to conceive children of
    Prize-winning scientists claim they will be able to pro-    superior intelligence.
    duce live, carbon-copy clones of you in less than ten         Through the use of genetic engineering, a fetus
   years. Corporations will have the legal right to own         can in some respects be controlled so that the fetus
    and sell all new forms of life they create in their         is saved from hereditary diseases, or diseases
   laboratories. Leading scientists are proposing that          which are present already before birth. And this
    only people with certain "superior" genotypes be
   licensed to have babies. Normal sexual reproduction          same genetic engineering is said to be the clue to
   might be totally replaced by artificial procedures.          produce superior children. Scientists have even
   Genetic engineers are talking about doubling the size        begun to speak of the reproduction of children by
    of the human brain in order to produce a new super          cloning. And so the list goes on.
    species of human beings.                                      All of these new discoveries and techniques in
  Add to this the fact that new ways are being                  the field of human reproduction present the Chris-
found to bring about the conception and birth of                tian with moral problems of considerable severity.
children, and new methods of controlling concep-                And it is to a discussion of these things which we
tion and the development of the fetus are being dis-            now turn. It is our purpose, the Lord willing, to ex-
covered. In vitro conception, that is, conception of a          amine these various techniques in this and in
new child in a test tube has become very common                 future articles.
and some children who were conceived in this way
are now living. While artificial insemination has               In Vitro Fertilization
long been practiced in animal breeding, it is being
now used extensively in the conception of children                The first subject to which we turn is so-called in
as well. Ads appear in various newspapers through-              vitro  conception or fertilization.
out the country in which women "rent" their                       Concerning  in vitro  conception, the article from
wombs to others. A fetus, conceived either  in vitro            Christian News referred to above says:
or in the womb of its natural mother, is transferred                  As far back as the 1940's scientists have been exper-
to the womb of a surrogate mother, who carries the                  imenting with the fertilization of human eggs in test
child to term and then returns the born child to its                tubes. In those days the embryos only lived a short
natural mother. And sometimes, when a couple is                     time before they died. In 1961 Dr. Daniel Petrucci, an
                                                                    Italian biologist, fertilized a human egg which grew
Herman C. Hanko is professor in the Church History and              outside the body for fifty-nine days. He claimed a
New Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed                heartbeat was discernible but he destroyed it when it
Semina y.                                                           became enlarged and deformed. In more recent times,


488                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



       a number of human eggs have been artificially ferti-            But this inability to have children is especially a
       lized in glass dishes, transferred to female bodies, and      painful burden for believers. They are not in-
       babies ultimately brought to term. In the process,            terested in many of the evil abuses which have ac-
       however, numerous additional fertilized eggs were             companied  in vitro  fertilization, and they readily
       sacrifically [sic) destroyed (aborted] . . . . Some scien-    recognize that these are displeasing to God. Never-
       tists even suggest using these tiny, growing babies for
       cancer research!                                              theless, they are God's covenant people and know
                                                                     that Scripture speaks of children as an heritage of
         A number of scientists are experimenting with the           the Lord. They understand that God is pleased to
       development of an artificial "womb" - a pressurized           save His church in the line of generations, and they
       tank of steel and glass  - in which a child could be
       brought to term apart from a human body . . .                 know the promises of Scripture that their children
                                                                     will also, with them, be included in the covenant of
  John Jefferson Davis, in his book  Evangelica                      grace. The result is that when God is pleased to
Ethics,  gives some interesting additional informa-                  withhold children from them, they are deeply
tion (pp. 83-91). He tells us that at least 100 clinics              troubled by this. Not only is their family life in a
exist in this country and abroad which are using                     certain sense of the word incomplete, but they feel
this technique. The popularity of this method of                     shut out in a measure from the covenant. When
conception, he says, is probably due to the fact that                other mothers are together, all the talk is of their
increasing numbers of men and women are sterile,                     children, and a childless mother feels particularly
and that this sterility is due in large measure to sex-              lonely and left out. When the sacrament of baptism
ual promiscuity, which results in low-level geneco-                  is administered within the church, they know that
logical infections which damage the reproductive                     their part in this sacrament will always be inciden-
system. While usually eggs from the infertile                        tal, standing, as it were, on the sidelines - although
woman and sperm from the infertile man are used,                     truly covenant-conscious couples who have no
other variations are also used. He writes:                           children of their own understand that, though in-
         Insemination may be accomplished, of course, with           directly, they too share in the responsibility of the
       the use of donor sperm, thus combining the tech-              godly nurture of the children being baptized. For
       niques of AID [artificial insemination by donor] and          them there are no first days of a child's schooling,
       IVF (in  vitro  fertilization). More recently, "adoptive      no graduations, no first dates, no marriages in the
       pregnancies" have been achieved by Australian                 family, no grandchildren. The temptation is always
       physicians where both eggs and sperm have been                there to live their lives only for themselves and thus
       donated.                                                      become self-centered, for no children are in the
         In California physicians achieved two pregnancies           home about which the life of the family centers and
       with a technique known as "ovum transfer." The                which occupy so much of the time and energy of
       donor egg of an anonymous volunteer was fertilized in         parents who are blessed with children. The result is
       utero by artificial insemination, using the sperm of          that also spiritual problems arise which are not
       the husband of an infertile married couple. The ferti-
       lized egg was then flushed out of the volunteer's             always so easy to solve. They must learn to submit
       uterus, and implanted in the womb of the infertile            to the all-wise purpose of their God Who has seen
       woman . . . .                                                 fit to withhold children from them, but this humble
                                                                     submission comes only in the way of much prayer
         In 1983 controversy erupted in Australia when it
       became known that researchers were freezing em-               and struggle. They can hardly refrain from asking
       bryos and then thawing them for implantation in in-           why God has not given them children, although
       fertile women [pp. 83, 86).                                   they know that God is under no obligation to give
                                                                     an account `of His actions to them. To rest in their
  It is not necessary for us to enter into a detailed                Father's will is difficult.
description of the medical process involved in IVF;
the material for those interested can be obtained                      It is really no wonder that this modern medical
from a doctor or be found in several good books                      technique of IVF seems to such parents to be the
which deal with this question. What is of interest to                answer to prayer. While successful use of IVF is
us is the fact that this procedure has been con-                     still limited, they wonder whether this will be the
sidered a boon to childless couples and a number of                  medical means which they should use to have
ethicists remind us continually that the welfare of                  children which they so desperately want. Could it
such couples ought never to be forgotten in any                      be that, just as God uses chemotherapy in the treat-
discussion of the rights or wrongs of this procedure.                ment of cancer, so also God uses IVF to give
We are reminded that many couples are, for one                       children to sterile couples? Could it be that God
reason or another, never given children. This is                     will bless their efforts along these lines and enrich
true, of course, in the world of the ungodly, and un-                their homes with children they have long desired?
doubtedly people who have no faith on some occa-                       And so we face the question whether it is possi-
sions also desire to have children.                                  ble for covenant couples who are unable to have


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                            489



children by the ordinary means of conception and              consideration.
birth to make use of this medical technique. The                Here, too, Scripture shall have to be our guide.
answer to this question will have to be made, not             Having said this however, we must remember that
on the basis of abuses which may have been made               Scripture does not directly address itself to this
of the procedure, for wicked men always abuse                 question. No one will be able to find a passage in
every gift of God and -turn it to evil purposes. Nor          God's Word which specifically speaks of the right-
will the answer have to be made on the basis of our           ness or wrongness of  in vitro  fertilization, in the
own personal feelings. Too often this is done today.          same sense as, say, Scripture speaks of the absolute
As every one knows, one of the arguments which                wrongness of drunkenness. But this does not mean
are raised in defense of women in ecclesiastical of-          that Scripture cannot serve as a guide. God pro-
fices is the argument that there are women in the             vides for us principles and truths in His Word
church who believe that they are called to these of-          which cover every aspect of the life of the child of
fices; and the rightness or wrongness of the ques-            God and within which he can find answers to the
tion is decided on the basis of what these women              problems which he confronts in life. This is true
consider to be a calling of God. However much a               also of this question.
believing couple desire to have children, their per-            But we shall have to wait to consider this matter
sonal desires are not and can never be an ultimate            in detail till our next article.

FROM HOLY WRIT
George C. Lubbers





        Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures



   `And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,         surely Adam and Eve rejoiced to see the day of
between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head       Christ's victory from an even more distant perspec-
and thou shall bruise his heel. " Gen. 3: 15                  tive in history. Jehovah, the covenant God, is an-
  The hope of heaven and earth is expressed in the            nouncing to Satan his final and complete downfall
words, "He shall bruise thy head." This "seed of              and destruction, the victory of His Son, Who will
the  woman' is a person; it refers to someone and             deliver His people from their sins. One hears here
not merely to something. In the Hebrew this is quite          the glad strains of God's trumpet sound of the
emphatic. We have the personal pronoun hu, refer-             Gospel of peace and victory over sin, death, and
ring to the seed of the woman. In fact this "he" is           hell. Just as the Holy Spirit writes so emphatically
the representative head of a great and mighty host,           about the Immanuel-child,  "He  will save His peo-
here called "seed." On the other hand, the seed of            ple from their sins," thus we have the emphatic
the serpent also is a great host. And the head of this        words of Gospel promise here, "He shall bruise thy
host is the Serpent. God, Jehovah, addresses this             head." Yes, he will do it and no one else! He is the
Serpent in the second person singular. He singles             anointed Son of God, Who in God's decree and ac-
the serpent out with the personal pronoun Athah,              cording to God's firm oath will surely sit on God's
which is translated "thou."                                   throne in Zion. Here already God in heaven laughs
                                                              and has Satan and all his seed in derision. Yes, this
  In this victory of the "He," Christ, over the               Son shall "break them with a rod of iron, and dash
"thou," serpent, is the hope of men and angels. If            them to pieces like a potter's vessel" (Psalm 2:4-g).
Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day from afar,                 Yes, here is the light of the Gospel which shines
George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    more and more unto the perfect day!
Reformed Churches.                                              Yes, here we have in nucleus the entire Gospel


490                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



which was ever and anew announced in the time             first and great commandment.  And' the second is
prior to Christ, and which was fulfilled in Christ's      like unto this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
death and resurrection "to us their children," both       thyself. And on these two commandments the
out of Jews and Greeks. First the Jew and also the        whole law hangeth and the prophets" (Deut.  6:4
Greek! (Acts  1322; Rom.  1:16, 17)                       and Lev.  19:18).
  Indeed, in this Christ and in His resurrection we          When Israel received these words from the pen
see the hope of Israel. And this hope is such that it     of the Spirit, as written by Moses, they knew that
is the "hope laid away for us in the heavens" (Col.       this was their Covenant God Who speaks here in
1:5). Hence, the victory of Christ over sin and death     Genesis  3:15 to the Serpent. He was their God,
and the grave speaks no more earthly hope, no             their Jehovah. He is the one who says, "I am the
Jewish national utopia, but it is the hope which is       Jehovah thy God, who hath delivered you out of
realized for us in the heavens, kept in store for us      the house of bondage, Egyptland" (Ex.  2:l).
there, and is ready to be revealed in the last day.          It is this Jehovah God Who speaks to the Serpent
  We had better believe all the Scriptures. We            in the garden.
must not be fools, slow of heart to believe it either.       He announced glad tidings here for the seed of
  And then we see that Christ is our hope of glory        the woman. He announces the eternal destruction
in the heavens.                                           from the face of the Lord for all those who are of
  The firstborn of all creatures, as the firstborn out    the seed of the Serpent. Yes, here He "reveals" the
of the dead! (Col.  1:15, 18)                             secret counsel of God's eternal good pleasure. And
JEHOVAH GOD SPEAKS TO SATAN                               this is announced as glad tidings for men and
(Gen.  2:4, 8, 16, 18;  3:1, 8, 9, 13, 14, 21, 22, 23)    women who are enemies of God, unto whom God
                                                          will commend His love in due time (Rom. 5:8). And
   Have you noticed carefully that Moses tells us         when God unfolds this Protevangel in the sending of
that it was "Jehovah God" Who created the man             His Son in the fulness of time, we will hear a fuller
and the woman, placed them in the garden of Eden,         account of it, when we read, "while we were yet
made them man and wife? And it has not escaped            sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom.  58).
your notice, has it, that it is this same "Jehovah
God" Who seeks Adam and Eve in their fallen                 Yes, then we see that "Jehovah is our righteous-
estate, and announces to them the dire effects of sin     ness" (Jer.  23:5).
and the one "great transgression."                          Yes, this is so expressively formulated in the
  I am aware that most of us grew up with our             Hebrew text:  JEHOVAH TSUDKENU.  Paul ex-
beloved KJV of the Bible. In this version the name        plains this to mean that we are revealed in
"JEHOVAH" is translated consistently and always           Jehovah's words to Satan concerning Israel, that it
"LORD." However, in the Hebrew Scriptures                 is such a salvation of God's grace "that no flesh
Moses. writes "Jehovah God." No less than eight           should glory in his presence" (I Cor.  1:29). This is
times do we read the name "Jehovah God" in this           so beautifully expressed in I Cor. 1:30, "But of (out
third chapter of Genesis. Now this is significant. As     of) him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
an aside, I would make the observation that this use      unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifica-
here of both the names, "Jehovah" and "Elohim,"           tion and redemption, that according as it is written,
really does not allow us to speak of the E sections of    He that glorieth let him glory in the LORD" (Jer.
Scripture in distinction from the J sections, as do       9:23).
the higher critics. There is one God Who reveals            Let it not be thought that we are reading some-
Himself in these chapters. He is both "LORD" and          thing into these words of the LORD God, which
"God." Hear, 0 Israel, the LORD our God is one            God Himself did not here reveal concerning His
LORD (Deut.  6:4).                                        thoughts of peace as determined in His eternal
  What does this signify for us?                          counsel of election and reprobation. This is not a
                                                          glaring, or even remote example of what the Dutch
  It ought to be obvious that when Moses is writing       language calls inlegkunde. Fact is, we are not merely
Genesis 2 and 3 he  *writes these words within the        in perfect accord with all the Scriptures, but we are
context of the "Great  SHAMAH" to Israel, in              also in our interpretation firmly anchored in the
which all the law and the prophets are summed up.         Reformed, Confessional tradition. Here the rule
Jesus tells us that in Deuteronomy 6:4 we have the        was applied that only Scripture interprets Scrip-
"great commandment," which is well-known to               ture. Such is the principle, the formal principZe of the
the little children in the church. In Matthew
22:27-39 we read, "And he said unto them, Thou            Reformation (Belgic Confession, Art. VII).
shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and         We do well to take notice of the very Biblical
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the     overview of the entire mystery of the Gospel as


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       491



briefly and succinctly stated in Question 19 of the        merely some cunningly devised fable of false proph-
Heidelberg Catechism. The Catechism dares to say           ets, who do not at all understand that which they
that in Genesis 3: 15 there is revealed to us implicit-    so confidently affirm as being the truth of the Bible.
ly Who the Mediator of God and man is, Who fully             2. That our fathers called the Gospel "holy." It
satisfied the justice of God, and Who fulfilled all        is the glad tidings proclaimed by the holy God from
righteousness. The Catechism says that this                out of His holy, heavenly pavilion. They are the
Mediator was revealed, the one Man, Jesus Christ,          sacred oracles of God, from which we may neither
already in Paradise! Yes, that this revelation was         detract nor add. They are the Divine testament of
made by "God Himself." God Himself came to                 God to the heirs of salvation, in which God is the
Adam and Eve in Paradise to bring this glad tidings        TESTATOR, Who will seal this His covenant in His
of the perfect salvation of "saving His people from        own blood, giving His life for us. Ever the Gospel
their sins" (Matt.  1:21b). Lest anyone think that I       comes to us in "Holy Scriptures" (Rom.  1:2). Here
am not doing justice .to the Catechism, I quote it         we read concerning the Gospel of God that it was
here in full:                                              "the gospel of God which He before promised by
      "Question 19  - Whence knowest thou                  His prophets in  hoZy Scriptures."
    this?                                                    3. This one Gospel was  proczaimed   by all the
      "Answer - From the holy Gospel, which                patriarchs and prophets. All these prophesied until
    God himself first revealed in Paradise; and            John the Baptist, who is the greatest of all the proph-
    afterwards published by the patriarchs and             ets, according to the infallible interpretation of
    prophets, and represented by the sacrifices            Jesus (Matt. ll:lO-13). He that has ears to hear let
    and other ceremonies of the law; and lastly,           him hear!
    has fulfilled it by his only begotten Son."              4. We are also taught here that the shadow of the
  This answer gives us an exalted birds-eye view of        Cross fell backward across the ages. The Cross cast
the gradual unfolding and fulfilment of the Gospel-        its shadow in all the sacrifices and other
Promise. And let me add that this Gospel-Promise           ceremonies of the law. The law was the taskmaster
was God's  prediction  and oath-bound covenant of          to Christ. Christ is indeed the end of the law for
grace. We notice here therefore:                           righteousness to everyone who believes, the Jew
                                                           first and also the Greek (Rom.  10:3, 4).
  1. That there is but one Gospel. Our fathers did           5. And we have the undoubted statement of our
not mutter and peep concerning various "gospels."          Christian faith that God fulfilled this promise of the
They grasped the truth of the Bible that there is but      established "enmity" in the blood of atonement,
one Gospel, which "God spells" out in the Scrip-           the blood of the Son of God, the only begotten Son,
tures. To speak of various "gospels" in the Bible is       very God of God!

ALL AROUND US
Robert D. Decker





                 General Synods and Assemblies



The Reformed Church in America                             with the Christian Reformed Church the  RC1
  We continue our report on the 180th General              synod:
Synod of the Reformed Church in America (RCA).                   Reaffirmed its continuing observer status in COCU
In addition to its decisions concerning relations              (Consultation on Church Union, R.D.D.). This status
with several Lutheran Churches and the Presbyter-              keeps the RCA involved in COCU discussions but
ian Church (USA) and its decision to continue talks            does not commit the denomination to the developing


492                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



       partnership with the nine fully-participating denomi-             submit its reactions to the guidelines as the com-
       nations. Full participation in COCU would cost                    mission continues to work in this area."  (-The
       $30,000 annually. It would involve abandoning the                 Church  HeraZd,   July 25, 1986) These guidelines are:
       RCA's offices of minister, elder, deacon, and professor
       and creating "offices  of bishop, presbyter, and deacon.                When God joins together persons from different
       It would also, as the RCA's commission observed,                      peoples and backgrounds, what is the church's
       "probably diminish the possibility of any near future                 responsibility to them?
       rapprochments  with the Christian Reformed
       Church."                                                                If the Christian party of such a couple seeking a
                   The commission warned the synod that                      wedding is a member of the local congregation, it is
       while full COCU membership would affirm its long-                     the duty of the consistory to encourage that person to
       standing ecumenical stance, it would severely test                    maintain an active commitment to his/her vows
       RCA denominational unity and risk polarization  with-                 before the Lord and to be an exemplary spouse.
       irithe  church.
         Memberships in the World and National Councils                        How must elders and ministers of the Word re-
       of Churches will stand untouched. An overture from                    spond to their request for the service of the church
       the  Classis  of Wisconsin to withdraw was soundly                    and minister?
       defeated. Another overture, however, nearly passed.
       The  Classis  of Illiana called for a poll of all consistories          Particularly difficult is our response to the couple
       on WCC and NCC memberships, the results of which                      which comes seeking a church wedding after a signi-
       would guide the denomination. The synod denied the                    ficantly long period of known cohabitation without
       overture, preferring to trust the Presbyterian system                 ecclesiastical blessing or legal sanction. Practical
       of representative government for decision-making,                     wisdom says, "When that time comes, let us praise
       and not wishing to set a precedent for denomination-                  the Lord and get on with the arrangements." This
       wide polling on controversial issues.                                 response is legitimate, if (a] the couple is seeking the
                                                                             blessing of God on their common law marriage, and
         For churches, RCA classes, and particular synods                    (b) the couple realizes that the integrity of their rela-
       that seek Christian unity in another form, the synod                  tionship requires that it be redirected in the light of
       lifted up the National Association of  Evangelicals                   the Gospel and celebrated by the community of faith.
       (NAE) membership as a possibility. Three years ago,
       the synod of 1983 voted to seek NAE membership for                      The elders and minister(s) of the church must not
       the RCA, but the denomination was rebuffed. The                       take lightly any infraction of any code of behavior
       1986 synod voted "to request the Commission on                        which the church accepts and promotes. But this com-
       Christian Unity to inform particular synods, classes,                 munity of forgiven sinners knows that broader than
       and congregations how they can affiliate with the                     the code is the grace that forgives and restores the
       NAE." (The Church Herdo!, July 25, 1986)                              penitent. Let the Church be a reconciled community.
  It is obvious that the RCA has rather broad                            Two comments: 1) Surely the Biblical injunction:
ecumenical relations ranging all the way from rela-                      "Be ye not unequally yoked together with un-
tionships with the mainline and liberal denomina-                        believers . .  ." (II Cor. 6:14)  applies to marriage. 2)
tions (through its participation in the WCC and                          "Cohabitation" is at best a euphemisn for what
NCC) to more conservative churches (the CRC and                          Scripture calls fornication and adultery.
the NAE). This reflects the diversity one observes                         The Commission on Theology also offered an in-
within the RCA itself. There can be no doubt but                         terim report on children's participation in the
that the RCA is committing itself to "mainstream                         Lord's Supper. The report favors admitting bap-
Protestantism" rather than to a distinctively Re-                        tized non-communicants to the Lord's table. The
formed stance.                                                           final report will be submitted to the Synod of 1988.
  The synod's Commission on Theology presented                           Twenty-two issues were presented by the Christian
several documents with which the synod dealt. A                          Action Commission and these social concerns were
paper on liberation theology will be submitted to                        enthusiastically endorsed by the synod. Among
consistories and classes for their responses and a                       these were recommendations concerning domestic
subsequent draft will be offered to RCA congrega-                        violence, the homeless, pornography, and sanc-
tions for their use. "In response to an instruction                      tuary for Central American refugees.  (The Church
from the 1983 General Synod, the Commission on                           Herald,  July 25, 1986)
Theology offers provisional guidelines to congrega-
tions confronted with couples seeking marriage                           The Orthodox  Presbyterian Church
where one partner is a non-Christian or where the                          The 53rd General Assembly of this church met in
two individuals have been living together. This                          St. Davids, Pennsylvania. The Assembly celebrated
year's synod voted to encourage the church to                            the fiftieth anniversary of the OPC with special lec-
                                                                         tures by several of its ministers and professors. The
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and                  assembly also "referred both majority and minority
New Testament in the Protestant Reformed  Seminary.                      reports on paedocommunion (partaking of the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       493



Lord's Supper by small children) to an enlarged                  prospect,for a uniting of the two doctrinally conserva-
committee for further study. Referred the entire                 tive bodies which have had close relations since the
matter of how to relate to the Reformed                          beginning of the PCA, in 1973. One part of the PCA,
Ecumenical Synod prior to the'1988 RES meeting in                the former Reformed Presbyterian Church,
Harare,  Zimbabwe, to a committee to -report back                Evangelical Synod, had approached union with the
                                                                 OPC in 1975, but failed then to produce the necessary
to the 1987 general assembly. Approved a report on               two-thirds vote.
the hermeneutics of women in ordained office for
further study by sessions and presbyteries - taking                 Prospects for eventual union were kept alive by
the position that Scripture does not open the                    adoption of resolutions to the PCA proposing meetings
                                                                 of representatives of both bodies "to continue to con-
teaching/ruling office to women, but women's gifts               sider . . . how we may achieve at the earliest possible
must be more fully used - and continued the com-                 time that full unity that is both our shared obligation
mittee for another year to study the question of                 and hope." But this would not be by the quick and
women in the diaconal role." (Presbyterian  JournaZ,             easy route of J  & R, but would have to be by some
July 9, 1986) The OPC is probably the strongest                  form of negotiated union "which would make fuller
denomination in the Presbyterian tradition in                    use of God-given insights and experience of both chur-
North America. This is reflected in its position that            ches."
Scripture does not open the teaching/ruling office                  Indeed it was the short-cut method of J & R, rather
to women and in its uneasiness with and criticism                than the longer process of a negotiated (and more
of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. It is to be                    equal) merger that proved to be the biggest obstacle
hoped that the OPC will also take the position that              from an OPC perspective . . . the main issue apparent-
the office of deacon is closed to women.                         ly was that the J & R method of the OPC's being simp-
                                                                 ly absorbed by the PCA would not sufficiently recog-
  By far the biggest issue faced by the OPC was                  nize the 50-year experience of the OPC. (Presbyterian
that of joining and being received ("J & R") by the              /ouyaZ,  July 9, 1986)
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) .                          The PCA at its General Assembly decided to
     After two full days of debate, including 67              reissue an invitation to the OPC to join the PCA.
   speeches, sandwiched around a Lords Day interlude,         This proposal must be approved by three-fourths of
   .the  OPC assembly finally voted 78-68 for J & R - 20      the PCA presbyteries in the coming year to com-
   votes short of the two-thirds majority required in         plete the formal invitation in 1987. These two chur-
   order to send the proposal  do&n  to the 12 presby-        ches will probably merge, but that will be a few
   teries. The action, in response to an invitation issued    years in the future.
   by the PCA in 1984, appears to end any immediate

QUESTION BOX
Cornelius Hanko




                            Petition for Pardon in the
                                 Congregational ,Prayer


  A reader asks:                                              Order or anywhere else. This is because the New
   "Is it the calling of our ministers or elders to ask       Testament Scriptures recognize the fact that we are
for "forgiveness of sins" in the congregational               led by the Spirit, so that we need no.one to teach us
prayer or in any prayer? Should sin not be specifi-           how we should walk according to the liberty
cally mentioned and God's merciful forgiveness im-            wherein Christ has set us free. But the reader also
plored?"                                                      feels that confession of sin and a plea for forgive-
  As our reader undoubtedly knows, there are no               ness is as essential to our worship service as the
rules or regulations in this regard in our Church             reading of the law, the customary Psalm of


494                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



penitence, and. Psalm of praise. With this I can              minded is enmity against God? Who can speak of
agree.                                                        his knowledge, since the natural man receiveth not
   In the Old Testament, which gives us a pattern of          the things of God? In short, who dare suggest any
things to come, we read of the altar of burnt offer-          thought, since he knows that we are not sufficient of
ing as having a prominent place in the temple wor-            ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but that our
ship. This altar stood between the people and God,            sufficiency is of God?  Therefore what the apostle
that is, between the outer court and the Most Holy            saith ought justly to be held sure and firm, that God
Place, where God symbolically dwelled in the ark              worketh in us both to will and to do of his good
of the covenant. The only access to God was                   pleasure. For there is no will nor understanding
through the altar, that is through the atoning sacri-         conformable to the divine will and understanding,
fice for the sins of the people, which always                 but what Christ hath wrought in man: which he
pointed to Christ. Daily sacrifices were brought for          teaches us, when he saith, without me ye can do
the sins of both the individual and the congrega-             nothing."
tion, as is mentioned in Leviticus  4:13-21. On the             Article 15 of the same Confession warns that
Sabbath day and the feast days a special offering             children of God should never rest securely in sin,
was brought (Num. 28:9, 10). These offerings might            "but that this corruption should make believers often to
never be brought, whether for the individual or for           sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death. "
the congregation, without confession of sin and a
sincere repentance, as the altar and the sacrifice              The fathers at the Synod of Dordt, defending the
signified. According to Alfred Edersheim in his               doctrine of the Perseverance of the saints (Fifth
TempZe, the sin offering took place at the very time          Head of Doctrine), declare in the first article:
when the priest presented the prayers of the people           "Whom God calls, according to his purpose, to the
to God by pouring incense upon the hot coals that             communion of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and
lay on the altar of incense in the Holy Place, before         regenerates by the Holy Spirit, he delivers also
the veil. Hebrews 13 tells us that we have an altar,          from the dominion and slavery of sin in this life;
Jesus, Who suffered outside the gate, that He might           though not altogether from the body of sin, and from
sanctify the people with his own blood (Heb.                  the infirmities of the flesh, so long as they continue in
13:10-12).                                                    this world. "
   Thus we read in Hebrews  10:19-22: "Having                   Whereupon they add in the second article: "By
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the               reason of these remains of indwelling sin, and the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living            temptations of sin and of the world, those who are
way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the            converted could not persevere in a state of grace, if left
veil, that is to say, his flesh: and having an  high-         to their own strength. But God is faithful, who hav-
priest over the house of God: Let us draw near with           ing conferred grace, mercifully confirms, and
a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our           powerfully preserves them therein, even to the
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our             end."
bodies washed with pure water."                                 And then in article 4, "Although the weakness of
   Thus Paul writes in Ephesians  2:18: "For                  the flesh cannot prevail against the power of God,
through Him (Christ) we both have access by one               who confirms and preserves true believers in a
Spirit unto the Father." See also  3:12.                      state of grace, yet converts are not always so in-
  According to our Heidelberg Catechism three                 fluenced and actuated by the Spirit of God, as not
things are necessary for us to know, in order to live         in some particular instances sinfully to deviate
and die happily in the one and only comfort. These            from the guidance of divine grace, so as to be
three are the well known knowledge of our misery,             seduced by, and comply with the lusts of the flesh;
knowledge of our deliverance, and knowledge of                they must, therefore, be constant in watching and
                                                              prayer, 
true thankfulness. Also our Baptism Form and                              that they be led not into temptation. When
                                                              these are neglected, they are not only liable to be drawn
Form for the celebration of the Supper of our Lord            into great and heinous sins, by Satan, the world, and
include these three. Should they not be included in           the flesh, but sometimes by the righteous permission of
our prayers?                                                  God actuahy falZ into these evils. This, the lamentable
  Having lived through the great Reformation, our             fall of David, Peter, and other saints described in
fathers were deeply aware of their sin and the need           Holy Scripture, demonstrates."
of forgiveness. Our Confession of Faith, or Belgic
Confession, asks in article 14, "Who will glory in              The underscoring in each case is mine. I have
                                                              quoted rather extensively from Scripture and the
his own will, who understands that to be carnally             Confessions, not because we do not know these
Cornelius Hanho  is a mirzister emeritus in the Protestant    things, but rather as a much needed reminder.
Reformed Churches.                                            Never in all the history of the church have the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 495



believers, young and old, been so openly and                      daughters of the living God come in contact with all
brazenly confronted with temptations. The  oppor-                 that corruption six days a week. On the sabbath we
tunities to sin are greater than ever. The remark is              seek our refuge among the saints, .where the Spirit
often made that our young people are subjected to                 dwells and Christ works through His Word. We
far severer trials than we older folk ever  experi-               escape from all the evil round about us, deeply
enced. But temptations are limited to no particular               aware of our own sins and guilt, eager to confess
age. We all face them daily, and that in a time of                our sins, to unburden ourselves from our guilt, and
spiritual laxity and complacency! The world round                 to be. assured of the mercies of God, as Christ
about us is busier than ever in filling the cup of ini-           declares to us, "Go in peace, thy sins, though ever
quity by their bold defiance of all God's laws and                so many, are forgiven thee." Only with that
ordinances. In that world we live from day to day.                assurance, and strengthened by the ministry of the
The churches in many instances no longer brand                    Word, are we ready to face another week of strug-
sin as sin, but condone evil by referring to it as an             gle against the onslaughts of evil and the Evil One.
innate disease or sickness. The sinner should                     This makes our confession, "I believe the  forgive-
receive sympathy, rather than being condemned                     ness of sins," a reality in our lives.
and disciplined by the church. We sons and                          It is well for all of us to keep this in mind.
TRANSLATED TREASURES
Dr. A. Kuyper





                        A Pamphlet Concerning the
                         Reformation of the Church



[In this paragraph Kuyper is discussing reformations in Scrip-    for all time into two parts: the church which re-
ture and in history. In the last installment he has spoken of     mained in Babylon and the church which as-
reformations in the Old Testament. He now speaks of reforma-      sembled again in Jerusalem.
tions in the New Testament and in history.)                         The second was a gradual church renewal which
  After the fall of the kings until Jesus' public                 worked towards a warding off of corrupt elements.
ministry we read in Scripture of three more refor-                  While the third was a reformation by means of
mations.                                                          spiritual awakening no less than a revival by which
  The first came. about when Zerubbabel led the                   the form of the church as such was not affected.
exiled church back to Palestine and was with                               *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Joshua instrumental in the rebuilding of Jeru-
salem's walls.                                                      If we now proceed to the history of `the church
  The second happened when Ezra and Nehemiah                      outside of Scripture, it is necessary to make distinc-
rose up with fiery courage to stifle at its inception             tion between reformations by the great councils,
the corruption which once again had crept in.                     reformations by small groups, reformations which
  The third took place when, four centuries later,                led to a splitting of the church, and reformations
John the Baptist stood on the banks of the Jordan to              which extended to a preservation of once split
admonish Israel to repentance and conversion.                     churches in their purity.
  The first was a reformation which changed en-                     The great councils which began in 325 with the
tirely the circumstances of the church and split it               Council of  Nicea were all reformatory councils. If


496                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



the churches in 1517, in like manner, had been able       We must finally point to successive reforma-
to bring about the reformation of the churches by a     tions; but in discussing them we restrict ourselves
council, the miserable split and division of the        to our own land and point to three reformations
church would never have torn us to pieces.              which are more obvious, without meaning to
  Indeed, again and again the sad fact preceded         detract from the importance of a number of smaller
each of these great councils that serious error had     reformations.
crept into the churches of Jesus. Error had even          The first was the reformation which came about
found sympathy in wide measure in the circle. of        by the Dordt Synod. Also then corruptions in doc-
teachers. Error had threatened the whole existence      trines and life had set in and had even affected a
of the church with schism and decline. Error made       part of the ministers and consistories. Also then
godliness suffer shipwreck in a grievous fashion.       people everywhere broke with the existing situa-
And again and again it was these ecumenical coun-       tion by the erection of aggrieved churches, thus
cils which came together in the unity of the church,    without leaving the church. Also then opposition
and to check lawlessness.                               churches and opposition classes were started. Also
  Of an entirely different character were the refor-    then the church threatened to be split. But through
mations by the small groups, of which those by the      gradual church renewal this evil was averted at the
Waldensians in Savoy, by the Hussites in Bohemia,       Dordt Synod in 1619.
and by the Wycliffites in England are the best            The second was the reformation by spiritual
known, even though they are by far not the only         awakening which in the last century led to a resur-
ones. These reformations did not proceed from the       rection from the dead in Zeeland, in the lowlands of
leaders but were rather against those leaders and       Holland and in Gelderland.
extended only to a return to apostolic purity             And finally the third is the reformation which
whether by means of or whether without a break          was attempted around 1830/40  in different parts of
with the church.                                        our land by Budding, Ledeboer, De Cock, and
  The great reformation which finally broke             Scholte, and which led in Zeeland to the rise of
through in the sixteenth century was unique in this     small groups. These small groups were, under
that it led to a final break with the Romish church,    Ledeboer and his followers, a kind of aggrieved
although it manifested a different character in dif-    church; and under De Cock, Scholte, van Velzen,
ferent lands.                                           and Brummelkamp this information led to the
  Attention must be paid especially to three dif-       well-known separation.
ferences.                                                 Of these three, only the last has had any signifi-
  The German reformation and those of Denmark,          cant results because. the rise of independent con-
Norway, etc., which followed in its tracks, pro-        gregations and the attempt towards organization
ceeded especially from the princes, came from           did actually result in the establishment of a new
higher-up, and established an indivisible state         church.
church.                                                   The Ledeboerians wanted reformation by means
                                                        of a break with the existing organization and if need
  The Swiss reformation on the other hand, and          be with the existing federation of churches, but
following it the reformation in Scotland and in our     they judged that the churches of this land might not
land, proceeded from the people, arose from below,      yet be denounced as  Baa1 churches.
freed the local church, and after that, brought the
churches together in a new church federation.             The brethren who separated later, on the other
                                                        hand, considered themselves justified in pointing
  Finally the Slavic and French reformations were       out in the churches of this land the marks of the
in this respect of two kinds: in Germany and            false church; and on that ground they broke with
Switzerland they broke with the federation, but not     these corrupted synagogues of Satan by forming a
with the churches. In Poland and Bohemia, just as       new church federation.
in France and Italy, the existing church was not
transformed, but new Protestant churches were             In this connection one must distinguish carefully
erected alongside of and over against the existing      between those who were expelled and those who,
Romish church.                                          without being expelled, left the churches of this
                                                        land by their own actions.
  This distinction however, does not for a moment
change the communal character of the movement,            There is so much to say in favor of the action of
namely, that they all came into existence by separa-    these first mentioned that we would not willingly
tion from the lawful line and by a break with the       withdraw from their fellowship.
existing church.                                          The action of the last mentioned, on the other
             * * * * * * * * * *                        hand, can, in our opinion, not escape a certain mild


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               497



protest.                                                      We do not think that either on the ground of
  Indeed one may not leave his church unless one           Scripture or on the basis of history it can ever be
is certain that it has become a synagogue of Satan.        maintained' that a particular church may be  re-
Calvin especially warned strongly against this. And        jetted out of hand as a false church, i.e., as a
now it must be seriously questioned whether the            synagogue of Satan only because of an unjust
churches of this land from which people went out           church connection in which it lives.
show in every different place, in each city and in
each village, so clearly the marks of the false               If one considers how dreadful the apostasy and
church that departure, though with a bleeding              degeneration of the church in Israel was, also how
heart, is one's duty.                                      many decades and even centuries our fathers
                                                           waited before the thought of the corruption in
  As we shall see in the following paragraph, it ap-       Rome's church had become great enough to justify
pears to us that, alas, in not a few cases, the conclu-    a break, then one involuntarily receives the impres-
sion to step out was actually no longer to be evaded.      sion that the brothers who have now departed have
But over against this stands the fact that many            rather hastily given up the one who is sick. And
departed at that time from churches which were             they can only escape with difficulty the appearance
not completely deteriorated, and those who did this        of already having arranged the burial of many a
did it only because these churches had not broken          church which by the Lord's goodness once again
their church connection with other more corrupt            revives and still lives.
churches.



                                      Book Reviews


REACHING THE UNREACHED: THE OLD  -                         to these questions. The eleven chapters of this book
NEW CHALLENGE,  Edited by Harvie M. Conn;                  are some of the papers which were presented at the
The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.,              conference. Among the nine contributors one finds:
1984; 178 pp., (paper), $8.95 (Reviewed by Prof.           Robert  Reeker, Prof. of Missions, Calvin Seminary;
R.D. Decker)                                               Roger S. Greenway, Prof. of Missions, Westminster
  In the foreword to this book Harvie Conn, Pro-           Seminary; and Paul G. Schrotenboer, General
fessor of Missions at Westminster Theological              Secretary, The Reformed Ecumenical Synod.
Seminary (Philadelphia), writes: In the last decade          Greenway, and rightly so, calls for a return to
especially a concept has arisen within evangelical         "basic evangelism" or "pioneer work." By this he
circles to remind us in a fresh way of that un-            means missionaries who conceive of their task in
finished task  - unreached people groups. As a             terms of preaching and teaching the Gospel. (Cf.
technical category, it has been shaped out of the          pp. 74ff.) Schrotenboer advocates cooperation
need for strategy planning to reach three-fourths of       among the national churches of the Third Word
the world's population who do not know Christ in a         and Western Churches and among the Western
saving way. At least a billion people can be               Churches themselves. Without this Schrotenboer is
evangelized'by local churches. But there are at least      convinced the task will never be finished. (Cf.
another two billion who can only be reached by             especially chapter 7, "Guidelines for Inter-
cross cultural missionaries. The "unreached peo-           dependence," pp. 99ff.) While one would not agree
ple" emphasis is one approach to the task. Who and         with all that is advocated in this book (there is dif-
where are the unreached? What new methods and              ference of opinion among  the, contributors them-
updated resources are available for reaching them?         selves) the book is must reading for anyone wishing
How can we avoid past mistakes in this undertak-           to know current thinking on missions in
ing? What must be done to restructure mission              Evangelical and Reformed circles. It is especially
boards, to mobilize theological seminaries and             helpful for seminary students, ministers, and mis-
churches for the work?                                     sionaries.
  From March 16 to 18, 1983, 48 participants               LEFEVRE,  Pioneer of Ecclesiastical Renewal in
gathered at Westminster to join in seeking answers         France, by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes; Wm. B. Eerd-


                                                              -

      498                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



      mans Publishing Co., 1984; 210 pp., $14.95 [paper).                     sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
      (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                               Not only did Lefevre know some of the
         Jacques Lefevre d' Etaples is a little known figure                  Reformers personally, but he was acquainted with
      in the history of the Christian church. While he                        others through correspondence. Interesting
      played a  .significant role in the early stages of the                  chapters are also devoted to Lefevre's relationships
      Reformation in France, and while he was a friend                        with Erasmus and Reuchlin, two humanists of the
      of such better known Reformers as Bucer, Ecolam-                        period. And it may be that here we have the reason
      padius, and Farel, most people, even those fairly                       why not more is known about this man. Hughes
      well read in Reformation history, know little if                        does not make clear in his book whether Lefevre
      anything about this man. Philip Hughes has there-                       was a "reformer" after the order of the humanists
      fore done us a favor in writing an interesting and                      who sought reform in a limited way within the
I_    easily read book about him.                                             Romish Church, or whether he was a Reformer
         Hughes traces Lefevre's development from an ar-                      who was prepared to make the radical break with
      dent Roman Catholic to a scholastic philosopher to                      the apostate Church of Rome which Luther and
      an evangelical thinker who held to all the Reforma-                     Calvin made. Lefevre himself remained in the
      tion doctrines of the German and Swiss Reformers.                       Romish Church until he died, although in fairness
      Hughes points out how Lefevre was the first to                          to him it has to be added that the occasion to break
      abandon allegorical exegesis and use the literal and                    with the church never really presented itself. It was
      spiritual meaning of Scripture as the correct one;                      true that he was hated and condemned by the
      how his early work in textual criticism made use of                     theologians of the Sorbonne in Paris  - those
                                                                              bigoted, vicious, and self-appointed guardians of
~     the Greek and Hebrew text  - something unheard
      in Romish circles; how, even before Luther nailed                       Romish orthodoxy who delighted in torturing
      his theses on the chapel door in Wittenburg, he was                     God's people and burning "heretics" at the stake.
      writing commentaries which breathed the great                              At any rate, this is a good book and we recom-
      doctrines of the Reformation. Hughes claims that                        mend it. Students of church history will want to
      by 1512 Lefevre had serious objections against the                      know about this overlooked man, and any one can
      mass and was already speaking of the  all-                              read it with pleasure.





                                                                        Index

                           BOOK REVIEWS                                       Exodus (Bible Student's Commentary) . . . . . HCH 356
      Abortion and the Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH         93    G o o d F r i d a y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G   H   1 4 3
      Aquinas, Calvin & Contemporary Protestant                               The Great Reversal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 430
         Thought; A Critique of Protestant Views                              Hosea, Love's Complaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 334
        on the Thought of Thomas Aquinas . . . . . . HH 478                   International Standard Bible
      The Christian Attitude Toward War . . . . . . . HH 358                     Encyclopedia, V. 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HCH 357
      Christian England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 454      Isaiah 40-55: Servant Theology . . . . . . . . . . HCH 47
      Christianity and Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 238          Joy Unspeakable, Power and Renewal
      Classic Sermons of Faith and Doubt . . . . . . . HH 43 1                   in the Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 378
      Creation Regained. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 357       Lefevre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 497
      Dutch Calvinism in Modern America: A                                    Let the Bible Speak . . . About Tongues . . . . RDD  479
        History of a Conservative Subculture. . . . HCH 93                    Our Lord Prays for His Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 238
      Ephesians for the Family, a Daily                                       Questions Concerning the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . HH  407
        Devotional Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 356               Reaching the &reached: The Old -
      The Epistles to the Colossians, Philemon,                                  New Challenge . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 497
        and Ephesians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH    22    Reason Within the Bounds ofReligion . . . . . . HH 237
      Evangelical Ethics, Issues Facing the                                   Structures  for  Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 238
        Church Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 286       The Translators to the Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 70


                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       499



What Christian Parents Should Know                                                                                B
   About Infant Baptism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 355               The Banner Promotes Arminianism . . . . . HCH 29
                                                                            Baptism Form, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 136
                       TEXTUAL INDEX                                        Baptism Form, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 180
Exodus(l) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JL K 229        Baptism Form, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 302
Exodus(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JL K 254        Baptism Form, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 399
Exodus (concl) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 324        Baptized With the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 362
Leviticus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 348     Barnsley, England, Brief History of the
Psalm 33: 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 146         Measbro Dyke Congregation in . . . . . . . . PR 21
Psalm 119:63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 98          Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
Psalm 136: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 74          (XXII) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GCL          10
Matthew 5:20. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 314         Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
Luke 2:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 122       (XXIIIJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 84
Luke 10:30-37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 26          Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
Acts 1:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 362       (XXIV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 156
Acts2:17,18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 266          Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
Acts 20:35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 242         (XXV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 204
I Corinthians lo:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 410           Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
I Corinthians 15:20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 290               (XXVI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 489
II Corinthians 4: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 482          Bethlehem, Let Us Go to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 122
II Corinthians 12:9, 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 194             Bible Study, the Office of Believers and . . RVO 278
II Peter 1:19-21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HCH 434           Bible Study, The Survey Method . . . . . . . . KH 450
                                                                            Brief History of the Measbro Dyke
                                   A                                           Congregation in Barnsley, England . . . . . PR 21
Abortion, Moral Aspects of Medical                                                                               C
   Technology (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 295          CalltoDecrySin,A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .JAH 81
Abortion, Moral Aspects of Medical                                          Casualness and Worship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 159
   Technology (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HH 344           Centennial of the Doleantie, The . . . . . . . HCH 485
Admitting Children to the Lord's Supper . . CH 332                          Charismatic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 378
Affliction, Grace Through. . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 194                Children, The Christian Family: . . . . . . . . AdH 44
Affliction, Our Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 482           Children to the Lord's Supper, Admitting . CH 332
Alcoholism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 12          Christ in Adam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 477
Alive'85...........................RD D 127                                 Christ the Firstfruits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 290
Alive `85, and Arminianism, Crusade                                         Christian and Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 19
   Evangelism, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CDG 419          Christian and Rock Music, The . . . . . . . . HCH 149
"Alive `85," More on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 224                Christian and Rock Music (2), The. . . . . . HCH 173
Amusement Problem, The World1.y . . . . GJVB 113                            Christian Education, The Antithesis and . . DJE 110
Anabaptism, The Antithesis and . . . . . . . . RLC 107                      Christian Education, The Reformed
Annual Secretary's Report, R.F.P.A. . . . . . . JK 71                         Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 365
Antithesis, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    97    Christian Family: Children, The . . . . . . . . AdH 44
Antithesis and Anabaptism, The . . . . . . . . RLC 106                      Christian Family: Nurturing Children
Antithesis and Christian Education, The . . DJE 110                           in theLord,  The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AdH 65
Antithesis and the Rule of Christ, The . . . . HH 108                       Christian Giving, The Office of
Antithesis and Unionism, The. . . . . . . . . . . CH 115                      Believer and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CJH 284
Antithesis, Culture, and the Cultural                                       Christian Life, The Rule for the. . . . . . . . . RLC 445
   Mandate, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 118             Christian, South Africa, and Romans 13,
Antithesis, Thesis and. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 101                 T h e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H C   H   5 3
Apostles' Creed, The (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HV 62              Christian Values, Media Hostility to . . . . RDD 372
Apostles' Creed, The (5). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HV 129              Church Discipline, Understanding. . . . . . BLG 165
Apostles' Creed, The (6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HV 177             Church Discipline, Understanding (2) . . . BLG 184
Arminianism, Crusade Evangelism,                                            Church Discipline, Understanding (3) . . . BLG 258
   Alive `85, and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CDG 419           Church Discipline, Understanding (4) . . . BLG 306
Arminianism, The Banner Promotes . . . . HCH 29                             Church, Making Merchandise of the . . . . RDD 13
Arminius, Meet James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 77                   Church Membership, The Office of
Arminius, Meet James (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 125                    Believers - and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 276
As to "The Mind of Common Grace" . . . HCH 221                              Clarity of God's Word and the Believing
As to "The Mind of Common Grace" . . . HCH 245                                Reader, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 443


500                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Common Grace," As to "The Mind of. . . HCH 221                                    (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 254
Common Grace," As to "The Mind of. . . HCH 245                                 Exodus  - God's Dealing with His Nation
Companion of God's People, A. . . . . . . . . . HH 98                             (concl.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 324
Confession of God's Sure Mercy, A. . . . . . JAH 367
Correspondence and Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . KH 30                                                           F
Correspondence and Reply . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 197                         Faith vs. Unbelief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 225
Correspondence and Reply . . . . . . . . . . . CDG 419                         Family: Children, The Christian . . . . . . . . AdH 44
Correspondence and Reply. . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 461                       Family: Nurturing Children in the Lord,
Counsel of Peace (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RJH 326                  The Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 65
Counsel of Peace (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RJH 382               Feminism and the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDI? 297
Covenant Breaking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 2 11                Filled with the Fruits of Righteousness . . RGM 469
Covenant Home, Scripture and the. . . . . . . CH 447                           Firstfruits, Christ the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 290
Creation Versus Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 87                       Fruits of Righteousness, Filled with the . RGM 469
Criticism - Giving It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 233
Criticism - Taking It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 256                                                    G
Crusade Evangelism, Alive `85, and
   Arminianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CDG 419               Gambling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 79
CryFromtheBellyofHell,A . . . . . . . . . . .JAH 319                           Gambling (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HH 151
Culture, and the Cultural Mandate,                                             Genealogies of Jesus Christ, The. . . . . . . . . CH 141
   The Antithesis, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 118               Genesis - The Beginnings (1) . . . . . . . . . . . JLK                  17
                                                                               Genesis - The Beginnings (2) . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 40
                                    D                                          Genesis - The Beginnings (concl.) . . . . . . . JLK 131
                                                                               Giving Thanks for God's Mercy . . . . . . . . . JDS 74
Deformation?, Reformed Revival or                                              God Is Faithful (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RJH 397
   Ongoing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 317            God Is Faithful (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RJH 467
Devil, The Wiles of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD              59      God of Great Kindness, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 250
Did Jesus Really Say That? . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 298                     God's Sovereignty and the Psalms (1) . . . . SRH 189
Discipline, Understanding Church. . . . . . BLG 165                            God's Sovereignty and the Psalms (2) . . . . SRH 213
Discipline, Understanding Church (2) . . . BLG 184                             God's Sovereignty and the Psalms (3) . . . . SRH 261
Discipline, Understanding Church (3) . . . BLG 258                             God's Sure Mercy, A Confession of. . . . . . JAH 367
Discipline, Understanding Church (4) . . . BLG 306                             Good Morning, Alice (1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB                 15
Doleantie, The Centennial of the . . . . . . . HCH 485                         Good Morning, Alice (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 38
Drama, The Christian and . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 19                      Good Morning, Alice (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 60
                                                                               Good Morning, Alice (4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 88
                                    E                                          Good Morning, Alice (5). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 161
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH           5     Good Morning, Alice (6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 209
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 149             Good Morning, Alice (7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 226
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 197             Good Morning, Alice (8). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 299
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 245             Good Morning, Alice (9). . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 346
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 294             Good Morning, Alice (10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 375
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 341             Good Morning, Alice (11). . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 395
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 389             Good Morning, Alice (12). . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 428
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 413             Good Samaritan, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 26
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 437             Grace Through Affliction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 194
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 46 1            Great Joy of the Ministry, The . . . . . . . . . RDD 416
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH
Education, The Antithesis and Christian . . DJE 110                                                                H
Education, The Reformed Viewpoint,                                             Heaven and Earth, The Hope of (1) . . . . . . GCL 321
   Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 365           Heaven and Earth, The Hope of (2). . . . . . GCL 369
Elders, We and Our . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BLG 282                 Heavenly Father is Sovereign Lord, Our . . CH 338
End of the World, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 207                   Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 96,97. . . . . . . . . CH                        2
Eternal Thoughts of Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 33                     Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 99, 100. . . . . . . . CH 50
Evangelical Worship, What's Right With RDD 298                                 Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 101, 102. . . . . . . CH 170
Evangelism Is Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 393                     Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 103. . . . . . . . . . . CH  218
Evil, " "The Root of all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PK 308              Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 104. . . . . . . . . . . CH 338
Exodus  - God's Dealing with His Nation                                        Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 105, 106. . . . . . . CH 386
   (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .JLK 229    Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 108, 109. . . . . . . CH 458
Exodus  - God's Dealing with His Nation                                        Hell,ACryFromtheBellyof . . . . . . . . . . .JAH 319


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                           501


 Hermeneutics, The New. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 440                  Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (6) . HH 390
 Honoring God's Holy Name . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 50                     Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (7) . HH 425
 Hope of Heaven and Earth, The (1) . . . . . . GCL 321                      Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (8) . HH 487
 Hope of Heaven and Earth, The (2). . . . . . . GCL 369                     More on "Alive `85" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 224
                                                                            More Sure Prophetic Word, The . . . . . . . HCH 434
                                   I                                        Much Needed Lesson, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 154
 "Innocent Party," Remarriage of the . . . . RLC 163
 "Innocent Party," Remarriage of the (2) . . RLC 187
Introduction (Walking in the Light) (1) . . . . HH 31                                                              N
Introduction (Walking in the Light) (2) . . . . HH 55                       Nation Whose God Is the Lord, The. . . . . . JDS 146
                                                                            New Hermeneutics, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 440
                                   J                                        New Zealand, Letter from the Protestant
Jesus Lifted Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RCH 353              Reformed Church of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BVH 198
                                                                            New Briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 36
                                                                            New Briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 87
                                  K                                         New Briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 324
Keeping the Sabbath of the Lord . . . . . . . . . CH 218                    News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 48
                                                                            News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 71
                                   L                                        News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 95
Lady in the Pulpit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 324            News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 144
Lesson Learned, One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 202               News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 167
Lest We Forget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 104            News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 19 1
Let Us Go To Bethlehem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 122                 News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 239
Letter from the Protestant Reformed                                         News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 263
   Church of New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . BVH 198                    News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 287
Leviticus  - Reconciliation Through                                         News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 335
   Sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 348    News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 359
Life of Self Denial, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 404              News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 383
Lord's Supper, Admitting Children to the . CH 332                           News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 407
Loveland's Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 472               News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 455
Loving My Neighbor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 386               News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . DH 479
                                                                            News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 503
                                  M                                         No Remedy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 310
Making Merchandise of the Church . . . . RDD 13                             Nurturing Children in the Lord,
Marriage in the Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 458                The Christian Family: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 65
Meaningful Translation (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 304
Meaningful Translation (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 330                                                        0
Measbro Dyke Congregation in Barnsley,                                      Office of All Believers, The Reformation
   England, Brief History of the . . . . . . . . . . PR 21                     a n d t h e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H H   2 7 1
Media Hostility to Christian Values . . . . . RDD 372                       Office of Believers, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Meet James Arminius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 77                  Office of Believers and Bible Study, The . RVO 278
Meet James Arminius (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 125                   Office of Believers and Christian Giving,
Merchandise of the Church, Making . . . . RDD 13                              The . . . . . , . . . . . . ,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CJH 284
Mercy, A Confession of God's Sure. . . . . . JAH 367                        Office of Believers  - and Church
Ministry of the Word, The . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 280                     Membership, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 276
Ministry, The Great Joy of the . . . . . . . . . RDD 416                    Office of Believers and Pentecost, The . . HCH 269
Missouri Synod: `No' to Ordaining                                           Order of Worship, Our . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH                      7
   Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 373          OurYesandOurNo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 170
Moonies, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 68
Moonies  (2), The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 138                                                P'
Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (1) . HH 175                            P.A.P.A. andA.P.E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GJVB 452
Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (2) . HH 199                            Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation
Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (3) . HH 222                              of the Church, A by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 247
Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (4)                                     Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation
  - Abortion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 295            of the Church, A by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 342
Moral Aspects of Medical Technology (5)                                     Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation
  - Abortion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 344            of the Church, A by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 422


502                                                               THE STANDARD  BEARER



Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation                                                   Righteousness That Exceeds, The . . . . . . . JDS 314
   of the Church, A by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 495                                 Rock Music and our Children. . . . . . . . . . RDD 160
Peace, Eternal Thoughts of . . . . . . . . , . . . JAH 33                             Rock Music, The Christian and . . . . . . . . HCH 149
Pentecost, The Office of Believers and . . HCH 269                                    Rock Music, The Christian and (2) . . . . . . HCH 173
Persecution, a Reality in Our Modern                                                  "The Root of All Evil" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PK 308
   World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , RDD 373                 Rule for the Christian Life, The . . . . . . . . . RLC 445
Perspicuity, Prophets and . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 274                             Rule of Christ, The Antithesis and the . . . . HH 108
Petition for Pardon in the Congregational
   P r a y e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C H   4 9 3                                       S
Pill, Teens and the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 160                      Sabbath of the Lord, Keeping the . . . . . . . . CH 218
Pope tells Moslems: "We believe in                                                    Salvation Revealed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 474
   the same God." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .RDD 35                         Schismatics? Seceders or. . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD              14
Prayer, Petition for Pardon in the                                                    Scriptural Interpretation: Introduction,
   Congregational. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 493                        The Reformers' Principles of . . . . . . . . TCM 42
Presbyterian Brother Responds, A . . . . . . BLG 374                                  Scripture and the Covenant Home . . . . . . . CH 447
Prophesy, Your Sons and Daughters Now . CH 266                                        Scripture, Doctrine of Holy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Prophets and Perspicuity . . . . , . . . . . . . . HCH 274                            Scripture: Inspired and Infallible, Holy. . HCH 437
Protestant `Reformed Young People's                                                   Scripture Interprets Scripture:
   Convention: 1986 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE 421                          Grammatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 136
Psalms, God's Sovereignty and the (1) . . . SRH 189                                   Scripture Interprets Scripture:
Psalms, God's Sovereignty and the (2) . . . SRH 213                                      Grammatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 182
Psalms, God's Sovereignty and the (3) . . . SRH 261                                   Scripture Interprets Scripture:
Pulpit, Lady in the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 324                         Grammatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 23 1
                                                                                      Scripture Interprets Scripture:
                                       Q                                                 Grammatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 402
Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 141                   Scripture Interprets Scripture:
Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 310                      Historically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 91
Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 332                   Scripture, The Unity and Diversity of
Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 477                      Holy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE 462
Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 493                   Seceders or Schismatics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD             14
                                                                                      Secretary's Report, R.F.P.A., Annual . . . . . . JK 71
                                      R                                               Self Denial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 351
Redeemed Language, Toward a . . . . . . . . RDD 253                                   Self Denial, The Life of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 404
Reformation and the Office of All                                                     Seminar Junkie, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 86
   Believers, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 271                    Seminaries and Your Grandchildren's
Reformation of the Church, A Pamphlet                                                    Pastor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 252
   Concerning the, by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 247                                  Seminary Graduation - 1986 . . . . . . . . . HCH 416
Reformation of the Church, A Pamphlet                                                 Seminary Graduation Address . . . . . . . . . RDD 416
   Concerning the, by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 342                                  ServingGodAsHeIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH                2
Reformation of the Church, A Pamphlet                                                 Sin,ACalltoDecry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J A H   .81
   Concerning the, by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . . HH 422                                  Singapore, Report from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 235
Reformation of the Church, A Pamphlet                                                 South Africa, and Romans 13,
   Concerning the, by Dr. A. Kuyper . . . . :HH 495                                      The Christian, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 53
Reformed Revival or Ongoing                                                           South Africa, Another Viewpoint. . . . . . . HCH                      6
   Deformation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ! HCH 317                       Students for the Ministry, Our Urgent
Reformed Theology Misrepresented . . . . HCH 54                                          Needof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..HC H 293
Reformers' Principles of Scriptural                                                   Supporting the Weak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 242
   Interpretation: Introduction, The . . . . TCM 42                                   Survey Method of Bible Study, The . . . . . . KH 450
Remarriage of the "Innocent Party" . . . . . RLC 163                                  Synod of the Protestant Reformed
Remarriage of the "Innocent Party" (2) . . RLC 187                                       Churches, 1986 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 413
Remedy, No . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . .CH 310                    Synods and Assemblies, General . . . . . . . RDD 465
Report from Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 235                           Synods and Assemblies, General . . . . . . . RDD 49 1
Report of Classis  East. . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . JJH               47
Report of Classis  East. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JJH 215
Report of Classis  East. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JJH 43 1                                                     T
Report of Classis  West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE                  23       Taken By Temptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 410
Report of Classis  West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE 311                       Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (1) . HH 175


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                             503



Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (2) . HH 199                        Unity and Diversity of Holy Scripture,
Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (3) . HH 222                          T h e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D J   E   4 6 2
Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (4)                                 Urgent  Need-of Students for the Ministry,
   - Abortion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 295         Otir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HCH 293
Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (5)                    .
   - Abortion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 344                                            W
Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (6) . HH 390                        We and Our Elders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BLG 282
Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (7) . HH 425                        What's Right With Evangelical Worship? RDD 298
Technology, Moral Aspects of Medical (8) . HH 487                        Wiles of the Devil, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 59
Teens and the Pill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 160         Women Elders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 394
Temptation, Taken By. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 410            Women, Missouri Synod: `No' to
Thanks for God's Mercy, Giving . . . . . . . . JDS 74                       Ordaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 373
Thesis and Antithesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 10 1           Word and the Believing Reader, The
Toward a Redeemed Language. . . . . . . . . RDD 252                         Clarity of God's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 443
Translation, Meaningful (1) . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 304                Word, The More Sure Prophetic . . . . . . . HCH 434
Translation, Meaningful (2) . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 330                Worldly Amusement Problem, The . . . . GJVB 113
                                                                         Worship, Casualness and . . . . . . . . . . . . .-RDD  159
                                U                                        Worship, Our Order of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH                         7
Unbelief, Faith vs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 225
Understanding Church Discipline . . . . . . BLG 165                                                             Y
Understanding Church Discipline (2) . . . . BLG 184                      YesandOurNo, Our . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 170
Understanding Church Discipline (3) . . . . BLG 258                      Young People's Convention: 1986,
Understanding Church Discipline (4) . . . . BLG 306                         Protestant Reformed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE 421
Unionism, The Antithesis and. . . . . . . . . . . CH 115                 Your Sons and Daughters Now Prophesy. . CH 266


                             News From Our Churches
                                                                 David Harbach




                                     September 1, 1986                   51235, or to Rev. Kuiper, Box 66, Isabel, S.D.
                                                                         57633.
   Remember that the Evangelism Society of South-
east Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, will sponsor                           Earlier this year, Rev. Veldman ministered the
a lecture to be given by Rev. R. Van Overloop, mis-                      Word  .and sacraments in our Lynden, Washington
sionary in our Protestant Reformed Churches, on                          and  Doon,  Iowa congregations. Now he has left
"The Rapture in Light of Scripture." This speech                         Southwest Church again for the Wyckoff, N.J. con-
will be held Thursday, September 25, 8 P.M., at                          gregation. He will be staying in our sister congrega-
Calvin Seminary Chapel. A question and answer                            tion through the month of September. May he and
period will follow the speech.                                           Mrs. Veldman find joy in their labors and be sus-
                                                                         tained physically and spiritually through the love
   Rev. D. H. Kuiper has finished the eighth of a                        and prayers of God's people.
series of eighteen pamphlets for the Reformed                               The church world of today is certainly a place
Witness Committee of our  midwest  churches.                             where Satan spends most of. his time deceiving
These pamphlets stress the importance and wonder                         masses of people. But there are those to whom God
of knowing God by treating the various attributes                        shows the truth through our literature, .as we read
of God. Consistories or church extension commit-                         in this letter sent to the Evangelism Committee of
tees that are interested in using these pamphlets                        South Holland Church, Illinois. An interested per-
can obtain sample copies by writing to the Re-                           son from New York City  .writes,  "Thank you so
formed Witness Committee, Box 181,  Doon, Iowa                           much for sending me two packets of your literature
                                                                         . . . I could really use more than two copies of your
                                                                         pamphlet, `Try the Spirits  - A Reformed Look at
David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot.  Ref.                      Pentecostalism'. I came out of a charismatic back-
Christian School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                ground into the Reformed Faith and am very much

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





                                                                                                                                                                           :;.

                                                                                                                                                                     :     .:.  _.
                                                                                                                                                               .           .
                                                                                                                                                                     .

                                                                                                                         .i"
                                                                                                                                _Y,,,..3
                                                                                                                                            _-_.
                                                                                                                                                    *-.._-.





504                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER

impressed with the arguments given against Pente-                      ing behind some of the happiest and most blessed
costalism in that booklet. Since then, I heard from a                  years of their lives and many saints of God that
friend that a group we used to study Reformed                          they love very dearly. At the same time, however,
Teachings with . . . is thinking of combining Re-                      they are looking forward to being back in our home
formed with charismatic teachings -%orrors! Also,                      churches. The Foreign Mission Committee and call-
I want one for myself and one for a friend who                         ing church are working on plans for their future
claims her church is mixing in Pentecostalism,                         once they have returned to the U.S.A.
too . . .  ."                                                             Some of you know that this will be my last in-
   Grandville Protestant Reformed Church has paid                      stallment for the Church News. Of course, I may
off their land contract and is now looking forward                     return  to. this enjoyable task in the future. The
to paying off their parsonage mortgage over the next                   press of many other responsibilities has forced me
couple of years so that they can start building their                  to relinquish this honorable work of writing the
sanctuary.                                                             Church News in the Standard Bearer. You will be
   Rev. den Hartog writes that in the middle of                        happy to learn that Mr. Ben Wigger of Hudsonville,
August they had a third committee meeting for the                      Michigan, will be replacing me. Ben has written
purpose of setting up the second church in Singa-                      many articles for the Beacon Lights for several years
pore. The interest in the church in this project is                    in the rubric, Critique, so that he is already an ac-
very high so that much progress was made and they                      complished writer. But, as editor of the  Beacon
are almost set on the place where they will hold                       Lights,  I have mixed thoughts about all of this
their meetings. This has always been a problem for                     because Ben is resigning from our staff of writers. I
the congregation and now, the Lord willing, in a                       certainly would have thought twice about resigning
month or two the second congregation will be a                         myself had I known this would have happened. En-
reality. This is more of a certainty since Mr.                         joy your work Ben, and may our covenant God
Mahtani has returned, which means that the                             richly bless you in this work.                                               DH
church has the manpower to push ahead on this
goal.                                                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   Mr. Mahtani, D.V., will be ordained as a Pastor                       The Hope Heralds of Grand Rapids, Michigan, expresses its Chris-
of the ERCS sometime in October, so that it is con-                    tian sympathy to members David Reitsma and James Huizenga in the
ceivable that the two delegates from the Contact                       death of their father and brother-in-law, DALE REITSMA.
Committee of our churches, who were invited to                            "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His
visit the ERCS, will be able to witness Jaiki's or-                    compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faith-
dination.                                                              fulness." (Lamentations  3:22, 23)
                                                                       President, Todd Terpstra
   Most of you know that there are plans for the den                   Secretary, Jim Schimmel
Hartog's to return to the U.S.A. near the end of this
year. As you can probably imagine, they have                                                   IN MEMORIAM
mixed feelings about this, since they have been in                        On August 14, 1986, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto
Singapore for almost seven years. They will be leav-                   Himself our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grand-
                                                                       father, BEN BLEYENBERG, at the age of 86 years. We rejoice that he
                                                                       is in glory with his Lord and we pray that our Covenant God will com-
                                                                       fort and sustain us by His grace and give us peace that passeth all
                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                understanding.
  The Consistory of the Loveland Protestant Reformed Church, on          "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life - shall be able to
behalf of the congregation, expresses its sympathy to Mr. and Mrs.     separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."
Milt Alsum and family in the death of her father, MR. JAKE FISCHER.    (Romans 8:38, 39)
  "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me      Mrs. Ben Bleyenberg                   John and Delores Hoksbergen
to glory." (Psalm 73:24)                                               Tunis and Wilmyna Jansma              Alvin and Betty Bleyenberg
Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.                                               Arta Haverhals                          28 grandchildren
Mr. Frank Van Baren, Clerk                                             Peter and Bernice Rynders               31 great-grandchildren


