           The
     STANDARD
          BEARER .
r          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                         .




       Many today that call themselves evangel-
     ists would reject Jonah as a proper tool to
     bring sinners to repentance and unto faith.in
     Christ. The method as well as the tool God
     chose would be rejected by them. Jonah
     would be put out of office and be told to seek
     employment in some other field of work. But
     the method worked, and the tool did not
     spoil the end that was sought; because that
     method was chosen by the all-wise God, and
     that tool was in His almighty hand.



                                               Vol.  LXIII, No. 8, January 15, 1987  -


170                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER




                                CONTENTS                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                       ISSN 0362-4692
  MEDITATION  -                                                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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       Ecclesiastical Rebellion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173        D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
                                                                                  Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev.            Kortering, Rev. George C. Lub-
  "Good Morning, Alice" . . `. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175           bers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James 1
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MEDITATION
Cornelius Hanko



                                         Desiring The Best Gifts

                   Ques. 113. What doth the tenth commandment require of us?
                   Ans. That even the smallest inclination or thought, contrary fo any of God's. command-                                                      ,
                ments, never rise in our hearts; but that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart, and
                delight in all righteousness.
                                                                                             Lord's Day 44, Heidelberg Catechism


  One thing have I desired!                                                         my God all my days!
  That will I seek after!                                                               To keep my eye focused upon His glorious majes-
  That I may consciously dwell in the presence of                                   ty, His infinite perfections, virtues, praises!


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                               171


   And to extend needy hands to Him, the Fountain             Cain was jealous of Abel, hated him and killed
of every good and perfect gift, that out of His             him.
fulness I may receive abundant grace, even one gift           Joseph's brothers envied him and sold him as a
upon another!                                               slave into Egypt, where Potiphar's wife lusted after
   My needs are so many. The desire to live is still        him. After all, he was an attractive young man.
present with me. Along with that, I need to breathe,          David lusted after Bathsheba, even though he
to eat, to drink, to be active, and to rest.                had many wives. Before all was said and done, he
   I need to think, to plan my day, to do my work,          had committed adultery, murder, theft, and virtual-
to be a part of my family, to have friends and com-         ly every other sin.
panionship in the communion of the saints.                    Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard as his own, and
   Also my spiritual needs are so many, for which I         left it to his wife to dispose of Naboth, so that he
covet the best gifts of love and devotion to my God.        could claim the vineyard<
   For among all my many and various needs, this is           Judas was a thief. He sold Jesus to the enemy for
the greatest: that I may know Thee, the only true           thirty pieces of silver. He tried to spare his life by
and living God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast            joining the enemy, yet he ended up hanging himself
sent! Covenant fellowship with God, along with              and dashing headlong into hell.
His approval and blessing, always remains my                  This list becomes endless. For obviously covet-
greatest need: that I may dwell in the house of the         ousness lies at the root of all sin. It is the root of all
Lord forever!                                               evil! For sin is more than giving in to bad in-
   Coveting belongs to my very being as rational,           fluences, more than bad habits. Sin is a matter of
moral creature, which is so deeply dependent upon           the heart!
my God!                                                       Scripture speaks of sin as `missing the mark'. The
   I am reminded of the rich young ruler, who came          mark, the target of our lives is set by God, because
to Jesus with the burning question in his soul,             He is God! We always miss the mark,  because'we
"Good Master, what must I do to-inherit eternal             always, often even deliberately, aim in the wrong
life?"                                                      direction!
  Jesus answered: Keep God's commandments,                    Our hearts are evil, filled with carnal lusts. Jesus
particularly the commandments of the second table           warns us, "For from within, out of the heart of
of the law. The young man remembered that this              men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,  fornica-
was what the scribes had taught him as far back as          tions, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
he could remember. He had always tried to keep              deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
the letter of the law all his life, but it had not given    pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
him the peace with God, which his soul so greatly           within, and defile the man," (Mk.  7:21-23).
desired.                                                      Paul tells us that "the carnal mind is enmity
  Then Jesus told him to sell all his earthly goods,        against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
take up his cross, and become His disciple. "One            neither indeed can be," and "to be carnally minded
thing thou lackest," Jesus had said; that one thing is      is death," (Rom.  8:6, 7).
required by the tenth commandment, reminding                  John in his epistle speaks of the lust of the flesh,
you that you shall love the Lord your God with              the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life as so many
your whole being, for keeping the commandments              manifestations of the love of the world, and the
is a matter of the heart!                                   things of the world, which love is contrary to the
  The young man went away sorrowing. Never                  love of God.
before had he realized how strongly his heart was             The tenth--commandment reaches down to the
attached to his earthly possessions. How difficult it       root of our sins, condemning not merely the out-
would be to put them all away. Yet we may believe           ward act, but the wicked, corrupt nature.
that by the grace of God he did it. For Jesus had
compassion on Him.                                            The final command of the law is very specific!
  Our holy coveting has turned to sin and is now              "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." A
corrupted by sin!                                           man must not covet the woman God gave to some-
                                                            one else. Likewise, a woman must not desire the
  Our first parents coveted the fruit of the forbid-        husband that belongs to another woman. God joins
den tree in paradise.                                       to every man his own, divinely appointed wife, and
                                                            to every woman her divinely chosen husband. This
Cornelius Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    is for life, even until death brings the parting. No
Reformed Churches.                                          one shall relinquish his or her mate to another. This


172                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



is simply a divine ordinance that man may not ig-          preparing it for seven even worse devils. He also
nore. Yet what happens? A neighbor's wife is so            tells of devils that cannot be driven out, except by
much nicer, so much more appealing than a man's            close communion with God. There are selfish, car-
own wife. A neighbor's husband is far more affec-          nal lusts that cannot be overcome except by hum-
tionate and considerate than a woman's own hus-            bling ourselves as needy, helpless creatures before
band. Sometimes mates are exchanged. Sometimes             the face of our God!
the one leaves the divinely appointed mate to seek            In all sincerity our prayer must arise to heaven,
out or to lure one that is more desirable. All sorts of    "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart; try me,
lustful sins are committed within and outside of the       and know my thoughts: and see if there be any
marriage bond. We know, better than God does,              wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlast-
whom we should love. The root is covetousness,             ing!" (Psalm  139:23, 24)
which God hates, even as He hates idolatry!                   My God says:. Be thou holy, for I am holy! Be
   "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, his         thou perfect, for your heavenly Father is perfect!
field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox,
or his ass," (Deut.  5:21). Today we would say, thy           That does not mean that I can make this a nice
neighbor's house, his car, his land, his job, his          ideal in my life. Nor does it mean that God is
motor home, his cottage, or any of his many earthly        pleased with an imperfect faith and an attempt at
treasures. This can readily reveal itself in selfish       holiness. Pretty good is not good enough!
greed. The rich man of the parable is a good exam-            The holy, righteous God has the right to require
ple of that. We read, "The field of a certain rich         of me that I love Him with my whole being in
man brought forth abundantly." That was God's              everything! And that I extend my love to my
work. Yet the man gloated as if he had himself to          neighbor, to be concerned about his welfare as
thank for the wonderful crop. He planned to build          much as my own!
bigger barns to store his immense crop. And then              And I? I see it now. I am evil, born in sin! I am
he would say to his soul  - his soul, mind you  -          prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor! 0
"You've attained! You are well insured for many            wretched man that I am! Nothing less than sincere
years to come. Eat, drink, and be merry; forget            sorrow and daily repentance can please God!
about that miserable Lazarus who lies at your
gate!" But God said . . . "Thou fool!"                        My only escape is in my Savior Jesus Christ, who
                                                           was my Savior on the cross and is now my Savior in
   No, money is not the root of all evil. But the Zove     heaven! I begin to understand what Paul meant
of money, the covetous nature is!                          when he said, "For to me to live is Christ!" Christ is
   Why does a drunkard or a drug addict ruin his           the reason for my life, Christ is the source of my
health and his reputation, steal and kill to satisfy       life, Christ is the power within my life, Christ is the
his cravings, and bring disaster upon himself and          purpose of my life. He is my goal in all my life! On-
his family?                                                ly in Christ can death be gain for me!
  Why does a person bring untold grief upon his               At the feet of the apostle I learn to say, "I have
parents, his wife and children by carrying on with         learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
another woman, or vice versa? Why is the divorced          content!" Yet I must learn it anew time and again!
person still dissatisfied?                                    True thankfulness is extending needy hands to
  Why does the thief begin with petty stealing             heaven, pleading for grace that Christ may be my
(maybe a nickel or a dime that stings his conscience       all in all!
at the time) and end up with a crime that ruins his           One desire: My God! In Christ Jesus!! Forever-
business and sends him to jail?                            more!!! AMEN.
   Why does a person enjoy being dissatisfied,
always craving more than he or she has, always             JESUS LEFT ALONE (continued from page 181)
complaining, never content? Why does the spend-
thrift waste his money, and the miser greedily cling          We rejoice in learning of any small handful of
to it?                                                     believers on this or that island, or in this or that
                                                           heathen nation, who stand as we do in the truth of
  But why add more? The answer is that covetous-           the Gospel. We rejoice where two or three are
ness is a matter of the evil heart and the corrupt         gathered together in Christ's name. There you are,
nature! From the heart are the issues of life!             perhaps on some small island of the sea. Suppose
   How do we escape from this evil? Will some              the whole world population turn against you! What
new, firm resolution deliver us? Will an external          of it? If God be for us, who can be against us? If
reform hold control of the heart? Jesus speaks of          God places us on His side, we need not worry who
sweeping the house clean of one devil, and thereby         or how many are on the other side. God is enough.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                              173


EDITORIAL


                                  Ecclesiastical Rebellion


  A recent issue of  The  Banner  (12/l/86)   carried           shall be admitted to the offices of minister and
reports of two instances of ecclesiastical rebellion.           elder." Editor Kuyvenhoven at that meeting stated
No,  The Banner did not call them ecclesiastical re-            that "he believes all church offices should be open
bellion. That characterization is mine.                         to women but that ordaining a woman elder at this
  The first instance is reported on page 22 under               time would probably split the church." According
the heading "Eastern Avenue Invites Women to                    to the report, "He called . . . for patience and
Pulpit," as follows:                                            dialogue between churches" rather than making a
                                                                test case.
     Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church,                    It should be noted, however, that Eastern
   Grand Rapids, Michigan, has told its classis  that it has    Avenue has already created a so-called "test case."
   had and plans to continue to have "women preaching
   for services occasionally."                                  True, it has not ordained a woman minister or
                                                                elder. But it has recognized the ordination of
     In the statement, made to  Classis  Grand Rapids           women in the RCA by inviting two female
   East on Sept. 18, Eastern Avenue said that the church        ministers of that denomination to its pulpit. There
   wishes to "recognize the ordination to the ministry of
   women from other denominations, and particularly             is no principal difference between this and ordain-
   those with whom we are in ecclesiastical fellowship."        ing its own female minister or elders. To justify this
   Rev. Marchiene Rienstra and Rev. Neva Evenhouse              by an appeal to the fact that there is ecclesiastical
   have each preached at the church. Both women are             fellowship between the CRC and the RCA is a thin-
   ordained in the Reformed Church in America.                  ly veiled ruse. After all, the Eastern Avenue  Con-
     The statement said that Eastern Avenue is "offi-           sistory  has control of its own pulpit, and its action
   cially committed to the use of women's gifts in all          was deliberate. Besides, Eastern Avenue informed
   church offices and [that) this is an important way to        Classis  Grand Rapids East that it is "officially com-
   experience and affirm that commitment."                      mitted to the use of women's gifts in all church of-
     The church also said that it hopes to show children        fices."
   a "male-female partnership in preaching the gospel as          Here, therefore, is an instance of flagrant
   well as in other church offices" by having women             rebellion, of open defiance of an ecclesiastical deci-
   preach. The  classis  received the church's statement        sion. Eastern Avenue not only violated the decision
   "for information."                                           of the Synod of 1985, but it did so knowingly and
                                                                deliberately. Further, it deliberately called the at-
  In the same issue of The Banner there is a report,            tention of its  classis to this violation. In other
both in the Editorial, p. 6, and in the News, pp. 22,           words, it threw down the gauntlet to that assembly.
23, of a public meeting called by a committee of the
Eastern Avenue consistory about the question                      And what did Classis  Grand Rapids East do? Ap-
"whether that church should elect a female elder or             parently nothing more than receive the statement
call a woman theologian as an associate minister."              of Eastern Avenue for information. In other words,
A committee of the Eastern Avenue consistory "is                the classis filed it and ignored it, which means that
asking whether the only way to make any further                 the  classis is tolerating this act of rebellion.
progress toward opening all offices in the Christian              I cannot refrain from remarking parenthetically
Reformed Church to members of female gender                     that things have certainly changed in Classis  Grand
would be to present the ordination of a woman to                Rapids East. I can recall another Eastern Avenue
classis and synod as a test case." The latter ques-             Christian Reformed Church (not the current one,
tion, the reader should remember, arises in connec-             which is after all the reorganized church of 1924,
tion with the fact that the Christian Reformed                  the so-called "ninety-two.") And once upon a time,
Synod of 1985 determined that the headship  princi-             though without any proper grounds and though
ple implies that "only male members of the church               Synod had  rejected  a proposal of discipline in the


                                      _-
174                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



case,  Classis  Grand Rapids East suspended and                  2) That they are contradictory. No. 5 states that to
deposed from office an entire consistory and its                 contribute to denominational causes is obligatory.
pastor on the grounds of "insubordination to prop-               No. 4 encourages consistories not to meet this
er ecclesiastical authority." Times have changed!                obligation.
Now Classis  Grand Rapids East, though confronted                3) That the principle here is that of  individualism.
by a genuine instance of rebellion, does nothing but             Every individual consistory may determine for
receive for information.                                         itself whether to pay or not to pay synodical quotas.
  The same issue of The  Banner reports a second in-             In addition, the standard of determination is ap-
stance of ecclesiastical rebellion. This one is at the           parently that of conscience - let your conscience be
other end of the liberal-conservative spectrum in                your guide. A proper standard would be that of the
the CRC. On October 23 and 24 there was a  con-                  Church Order in Article 31 of the Church Order of
sistorial conference called by the consistories of               Dordt, namely, "the Word of God and the Church
Lynwood, Illinois, Dutton, Michigan, and First                   Order." But even then, it is obligatory on any con-
Rock Valley, Iowa Christian Reformed Churches.                   sistory not simply to withhold financial support,
This conference involved 18 Christian Reformed                   but to go the orderly way of protest and appeal.
Consistories. It adopted several resolutions "for                And if, after exhausting all appeal, a consistory
recommendation to the various churches. The Ban-                 finds itself in such fundamental disagreement with
ner did not quote these resolutions in full. How-                the denomination that it cannot conscientiously
ever, an official press release by the recording                 support it, it has come, it seems to me, to the end of
secretary of the conference, the Rev. Stuart C.                  the road. If a consistory tolerated the same kind of
Pastine, appeared in both  Christian  RenewaZ  and               individualism in its local congregation, such a con-
The  OutZooh.  It is not my intention at this time to            sistory simply could not operate.
comment on all the resolutions, and therefore I will             4) That they leave the impression of coercion. No,
not quote all of them now. Perhaps in a later issue I            this is not stated. But it sounds suspiciously like
shall do so. However, there are two resolutions
concerning synodical quotas (the same as our Prot-               something that was suggested in a speech at the an-
estant Reformed "synodical assessments"). These                  nual meeting of the Reformed Fellowship:  ". . . in-
                                                                 sisting on an accounting to consistories by every
are as follows:                                                  agency we support - `no answer, no bucks."' (The
                                                                 Outlook,  Dec., 1986, p. 15) And this is simply not
       4. We encourage all consistories to withhold financial    the ecclesiastical manner.
       support for those synodical agencies which under-
       mine our confessional integrity.                          5) No. 4 assumes without proof  - and this is a
       Ground: God alone is Lord of the conscience and no        serious indictment  - that there are "synodical
       one may be forced to support causes which violate his     agencies which undermine our confessional integri-
       conscience.                                               ty." I have no doubt that there are such agencies.
       5. However, we encourage consistories to continue to      But for a Christian Reformed consistory, a constit-
       support those agencies which are worthy of their sup-     uent part of the denomination, to assume this and
       port.                                                     to act on such an assumption is quite a different
                                                                 matter than for a non-Christian Reformed editor to
       Ground: Participation in the denomination obligates a
       congregation to contribute toward the services it         say it.
       receives from the denomination.                             All of this, of course, confronts the Christian Re-
  Here you have a second instance of ecclesiastical              formed denomination with a problem. Will the
rebellion, or rather, of recommending and forment-               CRC in its broader assemblies - classes and synod
ing ecclesiastical rebellion. To me it makes no fun-             - simply ignore such ecclesiastical rebellion? Will
damental difference whether one speaks of                        it wink at it and thus passively permit it? Or will it
"quotas," as is the vogue in the CRC, or of "assess-             somehow officially make allowances for it? Then
ments," as is the usage in our Protestant Reformed               the result will inevitably be that the CRC becomes a
Churches. The reference is to the obligatory finan-              modalities church, in which various wings will co-
cial support of denominational causes, i.e., the                 exist in a state of toleration - unless, of course, one
work of the churches in common. Concerning                       of these wings does not want to countenance such
these resolutions it should be noted:                            "peaceful co-existence." The alternative, it seems
1) That No. 5 speaks merely of "the services it                  to me, is that ecclesiastical steps are taken to coun-
receives from the denomination." This is surely in-              teract such rebellion, whether on one side or the
correct. While services received may be included,                other. It seems to become increasingly clear that
in general assessments or quotas are for the work of             there are those who have no expectation that Editor
the churches in common  - for example, missions,                 Kuyvenhoven's suggestion of "patience and
seminary, etc.                                                   dialogue" will solve anything.                   HCH


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        175


                             "Good Morning, Alice"
                                                      Gise J. Van Baren




  Every Christmas, Alice made a great deal of giv-               the inevitable progression of her disease. We failed
ing presents to her nieces and nephews of high                   to realize at that time how deeply all of this im-
school age and younger. When she was well, she                   pressed itself upon the minds of the little nieces and
found pleasure in shopping for each present - and                nephews who saw her. Alice and her bed seemed to
watching later the reaction of each child who                    be part of the "normal". Later, at the funeral home,
received it. This last Christmas that Alice was with             little niece  Janis, who so often had run into her
us, she would also give presents - but the parents               room to awaken her, asked, "But where is Auntie
were instructed by her to buy presents for their                 Alice's bed?"
own children with money she provided. The                        Good Morning AZice:
children must be told that the present was from
Aunt Alice.                                                         Some years ago I heard sermons on these verses and
  The family Christmas party was held at John's                  I reaZZy benefited from them. There are so many won-
house so that Alice could enjoy this in the comfort              derfuZ words of instruction and encouragement here.
of her own bed. She couldn't talk, of course, but                   Be careful for nothing; carefuZ here means: anxious.
how her eyes would light up in observing the reac-               We are not to be anxious or to worry about anything. I
tion of the children to the presents they received -             do that all too often. UsuaZZy it's worrying about the
and she herself smiled joyfully at presents she also             teenage kids or about not getting things done as I
received (though most of them she perhaps could                  shouZd and so many things.
never use). The thought came to mind too: would                     I know everyone gets upset over different things -
Alice be here on another Christmas to celebrate it               some about money; some about  iZZness;  but we  may
with us?                                                         not!
Good Morning AZice:                                                 The verse does not say try not to fret about your Zife
  Yesterday I Zooked through the verses we have                  or things that happen to you; it says `Be careful for
shared together and I was reaZZy surprised that I've not         nothing. " Do not worry. Give it all over to the Lord. It
shared my thoughts on Ps. 46:l Oa. It has aZways been a          sounds impossible, and humanZy  speaking, it is. But we
very favorite verse and  aZthough I now have many                are toZd it is possibZe.  We are to turn everything over
more, thanks to these notes, this one wiZZ always mean           to God. That doesn't mean just big things. That means
a Zdt to me. I guess that's because it's something very          if my son is late in getting home, I can - no - I must
necessary for me. It's like I aZways know God is God,            bring it to God in prayer, and know He is in controZ.
and I know He controls  all things, but with  aZZ the               If I just can't accept some thing God has pZaced in my
world around me, and in my sinfuZ  flesh, I get too busy         life, I 
and just don't acknowledge it - don't think on it, and                       must continually bring it to Him in prayer and
                                                                 again know that He is in control. I must make every-
thus I do not experience the joy and comfort and                 thing known 
strength that that knowledge brings.                                               to Him and He will give me the peace to
                                                                 know that whatever His answer is, it is best for me.
  The PsaZm begins: God is our Refuge and Strength, a            This isn't easy to learn, but I'm trying to Zearn it.
very present heZp in troubZe. But, if we don't acknowZ-
edge that and have it consciousZy before our minds, if              I know that as I do give everything  over to Him, He
we aren't still, we wiZZ not experience that heZp.               wiZZ guard my heart and my mind and give me peace, a
  So I have to teZZ  myseZf: `Be  stiZZ'; erase  aZZ other       peace that I cannot understand, and yet I know if's
thoughts from my mind, and desires from my heart, and            there.
know and experience that God is God and then I know                 Strive with me, Alice, to give  every  wowy, every
that refuge and strength and comfort.                            problem, every rebellious thought, every `why" over
                                In His Zove, Your friend         to God in prayer.
PZease read Phil. 4:6-7                                            And in as much as we do that, we will experience
  Alice spent most of her time, during the last                  that un-understandable, wonder&Z warm and comfort-
months of her illness, in bed. This is how we saw                ing peace of God fizzing our hearts.
her so very often. We realized that this was part of                                                In His Zove, Your friend
                                                                 PZease read Psalm 27:l
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed
Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.                                    Through this difficult period, the relatives tried


176                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



to keep Alice as comfortable as possible. With bed-          talked about heaven when someone near to me died;
ridden patients, bed sores are often a problem.              but these verses are so wonderful, I know they will en-
Alice had the added difficulty of being unable to            courage you as they do me.
move herself  - not even an inch now. She could                 What would this life be, if we didn't have the hope of
feel everything. She would quickly become sore by            seeing our Lord in the land of the living?
lying in one position for any length of time. One big
improvement for Alice was the purchase of a thin                Can you imagine the emptiness, the horror of life, if
air mattress with an attached air pump. Air would            we didn't know what awaited us at death?
be forced through different sections of this mattress           These verses should really be memorized!
so that there was constant change of pressure on                I would "faint" if I didn't believe that my death will
the contact points of her back. Little waves of air          be my beginning. The beginning of my real living -
constantly rippled along her back. Again, Alice at           without  sin and suffering and doubt, and  with  my
first insisted that this mattress was completely un-         Savior forever.
necessary - though she soon came to appreciate it
greatly. It helped to prevent the bed sores and did             That's why I can wait on the Lord and be of good
relieve the soreness of lying in one position for long       courage, and as I do, He strengthens me more and
times, especially through the long night.                    more to know Him and wait on Him. Not just for Him
                                                             - for His return in my life, but wait on Him, leaning
Good Morning Alice:                                          on Him for all my strength and hope.
   What a  beautiful  sunny morning.                                            In Him for Whom we wait, Your friend
  And what a beautiful text.                                 Please read Psalm 149:4
THE LORD IS MY LIGHT                                            Literally hundreds of letters and cards had come
   without Him all is darkness.                              to Alice by now. Each one she cherished, and many
AND MY SALVATION                                             had to be pinned to the bulletin board for a time.
   without Him I would be lost forever.                      Every one of them had to be read and saved. How
WHOM SHALL I FEAR                                            she enjoyed too the continuing visits from relatives
  I am His, I am saved; no one can do anything to take       and friends - many of these travelled from Illinois
that away.                                                   to see her. Many did favors for her - one finished
                                                             an intricate piece of needle work for her, a sailing
THE LORD IS THE STRENGTH OF MY LIFE                          ship, which hangs still on the wall at John's house.
  I am weak, but  in His love, I am strong.  My life         It was truly communion of saints expressed in a
without Him is only failure - with Him is strength and       visible way.
life itself                                                  Good Moming.Alice:
OF WHOM SHALL I BE AFRAID
   Who or what  can  harm me when I am His?                    Once in a while I find that yesterday's verse meant so
Whatever comes into my life, I am safe in His care.          much that it's hard to find one to follow it. After think-
                                                             ing so much on dwelling in the land of the living, what
   Think today  of  what that light, salvation, and          more can we want? But we still have the rest of our
strength means in your life, Alice.                          lives to live here, and all of Scripture is our guide and
                                   With love, Your friend    our comfort.
Please read Ps. 27:13-14                                       Today's verse is another one that a sinner can hardly
   One of the last of the family anniversaries Alice         understand. How can I, looking at even one day, or one
joined in celebrating was the 25th wedding an-               hour,  of  my life, understand how God can take
niversary of brother Gise and his wife Claire (on            pleasure in me? Only through the shed blood of our
Feb. 1). Alice came to their home with the other             Savior can God take pleasure in us.
relatives. Though she could not move, she was still            And not only that, but He beautifies the meek with
able to sit in her wheelchair for short periods of           salvation. Now I am by no means a "meek" person, but
time. We could see that she was uncomfortable in             I know that this meekness means a repentant humble
the chair now, though she was not ready to admit             spirit towards God and through Christ. I do have that.
it. Much of the evening was spent putting pillows,             And then, knowing these truths, and remembering
first under one leg, then under the other. Still, she        them, I can, as verse five says - be joyful in glory and
managed to stay for several hours, and apparently            sing aloud! And so can you, Alice,  for even when others
enjoyed herself, too.                                        can no longer hear your singing, God can and does, and
Good Morning Alice:                                          will continue to beautify you with salvation.
   You know Alice, with these notes I've sent, I'm sure                                        With love, Your friend
I've repeated myself many times already. I know I've         Please read Jeremiah 29:13


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            177


TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE
Herman Veldman





                           The Apostles' Creed (11)


  We were busy in our preceding article with a             in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord, in the way of sin
discussion of the basic purpose of the providence of       and grace. This is the purpose of God's providence:
God. And we called attention to the fact that this         to establish His kingdom in Christ Jesus, in ever-
basic purpose is certainly not to realize the              lasting life and heavenly immortality, and that all
kingdom of God in the postmillenial sense of the           things may serve that purpose, including sin and all
word. Neither is this basic purpose to be viewed as        the powers of evil and darkness. The Lord never
maintaining a sort of interval period. It was par-         retraces His steps, never moves in a circle, knows
ticularly the latter conception with which we were         no detour; all things lead to His glory and this oc-
busy as we concluded our article. We noted that it         curs in and through Jesus Christ, His Son, our
surely was not the devil's intention to destroy this       Lord.
world, as the theory of common grace contends in             And now we also understand the wonderful fruit
this view. And it certainly was not the Lord's inten-      of this providence of God, as expressed in Answer
tion to maintain an original creation ordinance or         28 of Lord's Day 10. Now we may be patient in
idea. This view is emphatically refuted by the             adversity. Patience is not stoicism, indifference,
passages we quoted, Eph.  1:9-10 and Col.  1:15-19.        forced subjection. Patience is that power of the
And now we continue with our discussion.                   grace of God whereby we, also and particularly in-
  Thirdly, whereas the Lord would maintain His             wardly, are willing to endure all affliction and
original creation ordinance through common grace           adversity and persecution for God's sake, knowing
(as this theory maintains), this implies that He will      that all things work together for good unto the glory
maintain this original creation ordinance as long as       of God's Name. And now we can also be thankful
His operation of a common grace functions. When            in prosperity. Mind you, not thankful for prosperi-
the Lord withdraws this common grace, the world            ty, thankful merely for the good we receive. But we
will plunge into ruin. But why should the Lord             can be thankful in prosperity. When the Lord pros-
withdraw His common grace? What happened? Did              pers our way, makes our way "voorspoedig,"
the will of the sinner finally prevail over the will       makes it possible for us to conduct our worship
and desire of the Lord that He should finally              services, maintain our own schools, our mission
withdraw the operation of His common grace?                endeavors, to exercise our calling as the people of
  Finally, it simply is not true that God interceded       the living God, we shall be thankful to God, know-
with His common grace, checking the power of sin           ing that it is He Who enables us to function as His
which enables the sinner to do much good, exerting         people in the midst of the world.
a good, wholesome influence upon man. Fact is, we            How wonderful this is! Are not all things against
are all conceived and born dead in sin and in              us? Is not that which we eat and drink weighed
misery; fact is, God's curse descended upon the            down by the curse of God? Is it not true that dying
earth and upon the human race; fact is, mankind is         we die, and that we are headed inexorably for and
ever developing in sin and iniquity, even as we read       into the grave? Is it not true that the people of God
it very clearly in Romans 1.                               are hated and persecuted, that the powers of sin
  What is the purpose of God's providence? This:           and evil far outnumber us, that affliction and
to glorify Himself in the highest possible manner,         distress are our lot in the midst of the world? Is it
                                                           not therefore true that if there be a divine prov-
Herman Veldman is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    idence, a divin  2 government, that the Lord ap-
Reformed Churches.                                         pears to be against us, that He is leading us  inex-


178                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



orably into the grave, that He allows the forces of        And yet, was there ever one as maligned and
darkness to play with us as a cat plays with a             maltreated as He? Yet He was glorified. He was
mouse, according to their hearts' desire? And all          raised from the dead and for this there is in-
these things work together for our good? Does not          disputable evidence. The Lord saw to it that there is
faith take hold of that which the eye cannot see, the      not an event in the history of the world which is
ear cannot hear, which can never enter into the            supported by greater proof. He was glorified at the
heart of man? Does not faith take hold of something        Father's right hand. In Him life was called out of
which is humanly quite impossible? Do we not               darkness, immortality out of mortality,  incorrup-
believe that all things work together for an ever-         tion out of corruption, honour out of shame, light
lasting and immortal glory that is heavenly? And           out of darkness. All that we read in this wonderful
this surely means that this is a glory which lies          Lord's Day, in connection with the providence of
hopelessly beyond our reach? Yes, we are patient in        God, is revealed in Him, the Captain of our salva-
adversity, but this adversity never leaves us as long      tion and the Finisher of the faith.
as we continue in this valley of the shadow of               Secondly, we read in Answer 28: "since all
death. We are thankful in prosperity, but we look          creatures are so in His hand, that without His will
forward to a city that no human eye can see. We            they cannot so much as move."
believe in life everlasting, but it can be attained on-      When we speak of the providence of the Lord we
ly through death. Indeed, how wonderful, how               make a three-fold distinction. First of all, God's
unspeakably wonderful is this providence of God!           providence is the preservation of all things. This re-
           * * * * * * * *  * *                            fers to the almighty and everywhere-present power
  How can we speak of, believe in this providence          of God whereby He sustains, as by His hand, every
of the Lord which lies completely beyond all               living creature in harmony with each creature's
human understanding? It has been revealed!                 particular nature or being, the flower as flower, the
                                                           tree as tree, etc. Then, we also speak of God's
  First, it is revealed in Christ Jesus.                   government. This refers to the providential power
  How can we believe something which no eye can            of God whereby He leads and guides all things to
see, no ear can hear, no heart can grasp and               their divinely appointed end. And, thirdly, the prov-
discern? How can we speak of this providence of            idence of God also includes what is known as
God when there appears to be nothing in life to            cooperation. This word is not exactly a happily
substantiate or imply it? To what can we possibly          chosen word. When we speak of cooperation, we
cling? After all, the Christian is a thinking, discern-    certainly cannot mean that the Lord and man
ing Christian. He surely knows what he believes.           cooperate, that they labor and function together,
He can and must give an account of what he                 that each does his part, although it is conceded then
believes. But how can he know? And then we say             that the Lord certainly does the greater part.
that he knows this, first of all, because of what is       However, cooperation means that every  moral-
revealed in God's Word concerning our Lord Jesus           rational creature, whether willingly or unwillingly,
Christ.                                                    is active, consciously active, but as under God's
  What we believe is expressed in Article 1 of our         almighty, everywhere-present and sovereign con-
Apostles' Creed. We read: "I believe in God, the           trol. We now call attention to this cooperation.
Father, Almighty." And then we read in Answer 26             We call attention, first of all, to some scriptural
of Lord's Day 9: "That the eternal Father of our           passages. In 2 Samuel  16:5, 10, in connection with
Lord Jesus Christ . . .  ." So, this almighty Creator      Shimei we read: "And the king said, What have I to
and Governor of the universe is our Father in our          do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse,
Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, all this is revealed in         because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.
Christ Jesus. He alone is our sole ray of light, our       Who then shall say, Wherefore hast thou done so?"
only beam of hope. He entered for us into all our          In Genesis  50:20 we read: "But as for you, ye
misery and guilt and distress and afflictions. In fact,    thought evil against me; but God meant it unto
He entered into an unfathomably great and pro-             good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
found misery, far beyond all our human under-              people alive." Indeed, Joseph's brethren had
standing. He bore the wrath of God upon all our            thought evil against Joseph. But the Lord had
sins and trespasses. But this is not all. Appearing as     meant it unto good to bring to pass to save much
the Servant of Jehovah in the midst of the world,          people alive. And then we read in Acts 2:23: "Him,
He was also the Man of Sorrows as far as the world         being delivered by the determinate counsel and
is concerned. He was despised and rejected of men,         foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wick-
hated by all. If ever a person's position was hope-        ed hands have crucified and slain." To be sure,
less in the midst of the world, His was hopeless. He       Jesus was taken, crucified and slain by wicked
was God's servant, perfectly and preeminently.             hands. Nevertheless, He was delivered by the


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                           179


determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.               spond to God's revelation of Himself, if only we
Two truths are mentioned here: God's determinate            bear in mind that he can only respond with an em-
counsel and the sinner's wicked action.                     phatic No, the rejection of the living God. He
   We must surely maintain the following. First, the        always chooses between the good and the evil, but
sinner is and remains a moral-rational being. We            he can never choose the good, only the evil. Man,
distinguish between sovereign freedom and moral             or the sinner, if you will, remains a moral-rational
freedom. We also speak of man's responsibility.             being. When he sinned, as in Adam, he did not
Responsibility must never be confused with                  become an idiot, did not lose his power to think and
sovereign freedom. Man's responsibility can never           reason. He does what he does because he chooses
mean that the sinner is able to choose either the           to do it. And in this choosing of the evil (he can
good or the bad, and that therefore he is held              never choose the good) he is never forced,
responsible because, being able to choose the good,         coerced, never compelled to act contrary to his own
he chose the evil. He certainly chooses between the         will and desire. He always does what he does free-
good and the evil. The winner always chooses. This          ly, is never forced or driven. He never acts contrary
is scriptural. But this does not mean that he can           to his desire.
choose both. This can never be man's responsibility           The Lord, however, is and remains sovereign. To
because we are all conceived and born dead in sins          this, however, we must call attention in a following
and in trespasses. Responsibility (notice the word          article.
itself) is man's ability to respond, his ability to  re-
THE DAY OF SHADOWS
John A. Heys





                        A Mighty Cry For Salvation


   It worked!                                                 This is amazing when you consider that the
   The method the all-wise God chose, and used              preacher God sent did not want to work there, and
through His servant Jonah, succeeded in getting the         with all his heart wanted the city destroyed. He did
elect in Nineveh to repent, turn from their evil            not go there in the hope that a goodly number
ways and cry out for salvation. There was no "free          would be converted and that the city would not be
offer" proclaimed unto these Ninevites. No "altar           overthrown. These Ninevites were not, a people
call" was voiced. Neither God nor Jonah pleaded             that wanted fellowship with Jonah's people. They
with the Ninevites to accept the "gospel                    sought no friendly relations with them. Instead
invitation". The love of God was not held up before         they were a hostile people that threatened Israel's
their eyes and used as the approach to attempt to           life, and would like to introduce their idols and evil
get conversion and faith. Instead there was an an-          life into Canaan. This preacher was of the firm con-
nouncement of God's holy wrath because of sins              viction that the best thing that could happen to this
committed, and a warning of a certain visitation            people was that they and their city were wiped off
upon these sins. But it worked! A goodly number of          the face of this earth.
Ninevites did repent, did turn from their evil ways           Many today that call themselves evangelists
and the violence of their hands. And mightily they          would reject Jonah as a proper tool to bring sinners.
cried to God, seeking salvation.                            to repentance and unto faith in Christ. The method
                                                            as well as the tool God chose would be rejected by
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the F'rotestani      them. Jonah would be put out of office and be told
Reformed Churches.                                          to seek employment in some other field of work.


180                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



But the method worked, and the tool did not spoil         repentance.
the end that was sought; because that method was             And it is interesting as well as significant to note
chosen by the all-wise God, and that tool was in His      how Scripture here presents the success God gave
almighty hand.                                            to Jonah's preaching. We read in Jonah 35, "So the
   This ought to be revealing to us today. It ought to    people of Nineveh believed God." It was Jonah
say much to us in this day and age when the ap-           who told them that God would overthrow Nineveh
proach to the sinner is a distorted emphasis upon         in forty days. And undoubtedly the elect in
God's love  - which is claimed to be resting on           Nineveh believed Jonah when he cried this out to
every man, woman and child in the world  - and            them. But believing the preacher is one thing.
God's holy wrath against sin and the sinner is only       Believing God is quite another thing. Many today
whispered, if it is mentioned at all. Most of the time    believe. preachers who say that the bread and wine
the hatred of God against the sinners whose names         in the sacrament turn into the actual flesh and
were not written in the Lamb's book of life from          blood of Christ. But that will do them no good, and
eternity is emphatically denied.                          it will do them great harm. The question is not what
   0, God hates sin, but not the sinner, is the stand     man preaches but what God says through him,
of so many today. Sin is just something that hangs        when he preaches what God has bidden him to
in the air somewhere and is not attached to the per-      preach.
son. It does not come out of and is not rooted in the       These Ninevites believed in God, and that means
evil thoughts and desires of man. It is not really his    that they believed that HE is God, and that their
work, so that he cannot be blamed. God loves the          idols were not gods. The Hebrew states that they
man we dare to call a sinner, and hates only his sin.     believed in Elohim. He was their God, and they
The cry is that Jesus Himself said in John 3:16 that      believed that there was no God beside Him. For
God so loved the world that He gave His only              Elohim means The Almighty One. Their idols
begotten Son. And to them this means that God             therefore are worthless, have no might, and it is fol-
loves every single man, woman, and child in the           ly to trust in them. And because they believe in The
world. But wait a minute. Is that not saying too          Almighty One, they are sure that He can and will
much? Is Satan, in John 1231, not called the prince       overthrow their city, if they do not repent and flee
of this world? Surely, if God loves everyone in the       from their sins. It means that they believe that they
world, He will love its prince. By all means get that     should keep His law and walk in ways pleasing in
heretical idea out of your heart and mind! Hold on        His sight. Therefore it also means that they are
to Psalm  55: "The foolish shall not stand in Thy         keenly aware of having displeased Him with all
sight: Thou  hatest all workers of iniquity". Take        their evil, and that they deserve to be punished by
careful note of how God approaches these sinners          Him.           ..
in that great city of Nineveh. He tells Jonah to tell       From the king's question: "Who can tell if God
these people that they are sinners and that He will       will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce
overthrow them if they do not repent, turn from           anger, that we perish not?" it is evident that Jonah
their evil ways, and confess Him to be their God.         in no way and to no degree even hinted at the truth
That preaching will bring to the faith and to repen-      that God would show mercy to those who sincerely
tance those sinners whose sins were paid for in the       repented and turned from their sins. Had Jonah
blood of God's Son.                                       done so, the king would never have presented that
  Why will this kind of preaching work sincere            question to his citizens. The king, however, was
sorrow for sin and a cry for God's mercy? Because         correct in commanding his people to cry mightily to
God chose  .it and uses it. Conversion does not de-       God for forgiveness and for escape from punish-
pend upon the man who preaches it. It depends             ment. That is quite in order, when there is sincere.
upon God Who chose that method, and speaks                sorrow for sin and a turning away from it.
through the man He called to preach that truth.             Now the sincerity of the Ninevites became evi-
You can pick up the brushes that a noted artist           dent in their fasting, wearing sackcloth and sitting
uses, and make use of his oils, but that does not         in the ashes. All this was not an attempt to buy
mean that your painting will be beautiful like his.       salvation, or earn it by their works. That would on-
He can pick up the brushes and oils you use and           ly be adding to their sin. Trying to buy anything
paint therewith that which makes your picture look        from God is breaking the second commandment,
crude and off-color. It is not the tool, but the one      and therefore also a breaking of the first command-
who uses the tool. It was not Jonah, but God who          ment. When we sin, no matter what the sin is, we
planned Jonah's sermons and spoke through him. It         always break the first commandment and have
was God, Who by His Spirit spoke in the hearts of         before us another god than Jehovah. It is having a
the elect Ninevites (while Jonah's words entered          god who is not Elohim, the Almighty One. It is hav-
their ears and fleshly minds) Who wrought this            ing a god of our own imagination, who allows these


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                              181



        evil deeds. And as far as the Ninevites are con-          your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
        cerned, it would have been making a god in their          nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
       imagination, whom they can change by their cries           the life more than meat, and the body than  rai-
       and external deeds. Then they believe in a god over        ment?" Matthew 6:24, 25. And even before that He
       whom the sinner has power. He is not the Almighty          said in Matthew  6:21, "For where your treasure is
       One, for man can overpower him and change him              - there will your heart be also." The hearts of
       and his mind by man's deeds. No, the sackcloth             these elect Ninevites was not on the things of this
       and ashes together with the fasting were not to in-        earth, but on peace with God. And we should dupli-
       fluence the Almighty One, but evidences of the sor-        cate their behaviour today, instead of feasting and
       row in the hearts of the elect, because they had           competing with the world in dazzling attire and or-
      displeased God and rebelled against Him.                    namentation. We, too, have glaring evil ways and
          Fasting, sackcloth and ashes symbolize sadness,         far more room for sorrow than for laughter and
       grief, and lack of joy and happiness. They meant           fleshly glee.
~      that the smile on Gods face, His favour upon them,            Crying mightily unto God goes hand in hand
       meant more than all the earthly treasures and              with such spiritual grief. Without it the fasting,
       pleasures. They meant that the elect Ninevites             wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes are
       were so concerned with being pleasing in God's             mockery. Because the king commanded it, many
       sight that they found nothing pleasing in the things       unbelievers did go through all these motions, lest
       of this earth and of this life. The main thing was         they be punished by the king, not by God Whom
       getting right with God! What concerned them was,           they did not love, and in Whom they did not
       as the king expressed it, escape from the fierce           believe.
       anger of the God against Whom they sinned. Yea,               Now crying mightily does not mean making a lot
       these were manifestations of the fact that they con-       of noise. The  Baa1 prophets did that when they
       fessed that they did not deserve the things of this        wanted Baa1 to send down fire upon their altar and
       earth and of this life. These were signs of their          bullock. But we read of Elijah in I Kings  l&36, 37
       acknowledgement that they did not deserve life,            that he merely  said  ". . . Lord God of Abraham,
       that they were guilty and had been using the things        Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that Thou
       of this life and of this earth sinfully.                   art God in Israel . . ." And no sooner had he ended
         And is it not because we covet, and are breaking         his calm prayer for fire, and it came down. Here,
       that tenth commandment, that we break all the rest         too, in Nineveh it was not the loudness of the cry of
       of the second table of the law? Is it not true that our    these penitent sinners, but the strength of desire,
       lives are such that we worship and live for delicious      and the strong conviction that He is God and able to
       foods, dainty clothing of the latest style and             save them, that their true penitence produced. It
       fashion? Is it not true that we are so occupied with       was a cry of an intense, great desire.
       earthly things that God is pushed out of our minds           We are not going to overwhelm God by loud and
       and lives? Do we live for Him, or for a good time          frequent prayers. He is the Almighty One. He
       here below? What comes first in our lives? It hap-         warned Nineveh that it would be overthrown, if
       pened years later, but Paul wrote it, because this         they did not repent. But He Himself will not now
       situation always existed in the world since man fell.      be overthrown by loud cries. If the king meant that,
       Paul writes in Colossians 3: 1,2, "If ye then be risen     he was only advocating more sin. No, the mighty
       with Christ, seek those things which are above,            God will work in His elect a powerful desire for a
       where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set         salvation that they do not deserve. His almighty
       your affections on things above, not on the things         power will become manifest in a mighty cry which
      on the earth." And did Jesus not say in His Sermon          He works in them. His might wrought this amazing
      on the Mount, "Ye cannot serve God and  mam-                change in the elect Ninevites. There was spiritual
       mon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for         might behind it and in it.

       JESUS LEFT ALONE (continued from page 191)                 from poverty and hunger. However that may be,
       heaven" (Matt. 16:17). The philosophers will say of        our stand must be, "though we or an angel from
       our Gospel, The whole world denies it! Then the            heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
     " world without the Gospel's saving power is as bad          which we have preached unto you, let him be ac-
       off as can be. There is always a Tom Fool who will         cursed" (Gal.  1:8). The world may reply, "If that's
       say, The Bible is not true! But the Bible is true, and     your stand, you stand alone against the whole
       you may answer the fool with, "Let God be true             world." Then so be it. For every preacher of the
       and every man a liar" (Rom.  3:4). Others will say         Gospel and every Christian can say, Ye may and
       that we ought to have an updated "social gospel," a        shall leave me alone, and yet I am not alone, for the
       new theology, the effect of which is to liberate men       Father and His Christ are with me.  (can't. page 272)


    1 8 7
    .--
                                             THE   STANDARD  BEARER




THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
OF THE
PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCHES

4949 IVANREST  AVENUE                     Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema, Rector - Departments of Dogmatics and Old Testament
GRANDVILLE, MICHIGAN  49418                    Prof. Herman C. Hanko - Departments of Church History and New Testament
PHONE: (616)  531-1490                      Prof. Robert D. Decker - Departments of Practical Theology and New Testament

                                                                                December 16, 1986
             Dear Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ:
                  The fact that we have no seminary students and only one pre-seminary
             student does not mean the Seminary faculty has little or nothing to do.                       Prof.
             Hoeksema is teaching Dutch Grammar to our pre-seminarian, Leonard Holstege,
             who is in his sophomore year at the college level and to two others interested
             in learning Dutch.    Prof. Hoeksema is also writing his Old Testament History
             Notes and working on a new book on the history of our Protestant Reformed
             Churches.    In addition to his Wednesday evening class on the Canons of Dordt
             Prof. Hoeksema plans to offer a seminar on the theology of G. C. Berkhouwer
             for ministers of the Grand Rapids area.              This class will meet on Tuesday
             mornings beginning in January.       Both Prof. Hanko and Prof. Decker are busy
             working on their Master of Theology degrees at Calvin Theological Seminary.
             Prof. Bank0 is studying in the area of Church History and Prof. Decker in
             Homiletics (The Art and Science of Preaching).             This provides the opportunity
             for these men to do some in depth study which will prove beneficial for their
             teaching.    Prof. Hanko will be teaching, D.V., an evening course on the office
             and duties of deacons beginning in January.              Beginning in the fall of 1987
             Prof. Decker will be teaching a course on the office and duties of elders
             and/or a seminar on Preaching for the local ministers.                  All three professors
             enjoy occasional preaching assignments.
                  The library, under the direction of Prof. Hanko, continues to expand.
             Each year from $1500.00 to $2000.00 is spent on new books for the library. At
             this rate, we believe, our students in the future will be able to do most if
             not all of their research in our own library.               We are grateful to those who
             have contributed to this important part of our seminary.
                  While there are several young men who have indicated an interest in
             pre-seminary studies, our urgent need for new students remains.                          We covet
             earnestly your prayers that God will provide "faithful men" who can be trained
             "to teach others also."    (II Timothy 2:2)
                                                           With Christian greetings,
                                                           The Faculty (per Prof. R.D. Decker)


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                           183



WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Herman C. Hanko





         Moral Aspects of Medical Technology
                                                        (121


   In our discussions of the moral aspects of                tilization is used: the conception takes place in a
medical technology we have come to the point in              test tube and the resulting embryo is transferred to
which we must judge in Scripture's light the                 the womb of a surrogate mother who carries it to
various ways in which medical science has made it            term. This in vitro fertilization may take place either
possible for childless couples to have children.             with the husband's sperm or with donor sperm,
  Many different techniques have been developed,             either with an ovum from the childless wife, an
techniques which we described in our last article.           ovum from the surrogate mother, or a donor egg.
We shall briefly mention them once again to bring               In order to facilitate these procedures, sperm
them before the minds of our readers.                        banks have been set up around the country from
  Artificial insemination of the wife is one such            which frozen sperm can be purchased. In some
technique. Sometimes the semen of the father is used         countries experimentation has been carried on with
and is called artificial insemination by husbands            freezing embryos so that their growth is stopped,
(AIH); sometimes semen of others is used, especial-          and at some later time they are unfrozen, implanted
ly if the husband is infertile, and is called artificial     in a womb and made to grow to maturity. It is
insemination by donors (AID). For wives who are              reported in the news media that several children
unable to conceive children, but who are able to             have already been born through the use of this lat-
carry a fetus, surrogate mothers are used. Here too          ter technique. The great appeal of it for many is
various techniques have been developed. Some-                that large banks of frozen embryos can be stored in
times the surrogate mother is impregnated with               deep underground vaults so that in the event of
sperm from the husband of a childless couple;                nuclear warfare which would. destroy the popula-
sometimes she is impregnated with donor sperm.               tion of the earth, these frozen embryos would be
In this case the surrogate's own ovum is used so             available to assist in repopulation. All this pre-
that the conceived child is parented by the sur-             supposes, of course, that some member of the
rogate mother and either the husband of the child-           human race survives, that this surviving member
less couple or by a donor. When conception takes             knows where these frozen embryos are stored, and
place, the embryo is transferred to the womb of the          that there are sufficient women around to carry
wife who could not have children of her own. If a            these embryos to term.
wife is unable both to conceive and to carry a fetus,           We have talked before about the great grief and
then a surrogate mother is used for the entire               sorrow which childless couples experience,
pregnancy. When the child is born, it is given to the        especially within the Church and covenant of God.
childless couple who made (and paid for) the                 And the question arises whether it is legitimate for
arrangements and it becomes their own, no matter             God's people to make use of these methods to
with what technique it may have been conceived.              enrich their homes with children. The danger is
In connection with all the methods which are                 very real not only because some childless couples
employed in these processes, sometimes  in vitro  fer-       are almost desperate for children, but also because
                                                             we live in an age when we are so enamored of the
Herman C. Hanho is professor of Church History and New       mighty "miracles" of medical science that we
Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminauy.               almost worship medicine; and the result of this is


184                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



that we take the position that if it is medically possi-           seminated and it is to him and his infertile wife that
ble, it is legitimate - also for the child of God. The             Whitehead contracted, for a fee of $10,000, to put
argument runs along these lines. God has given                     head over body, mind over heart, intellect over in-
medical science for the benefit of the Christian as                stinct and relinquish the infant at birth.
well as for the benefit of ungodly men. We are                       Instead, the head, the mind and the intellect suc-
called to make use of doctors and medicine to pro-                 cumbed and she absconded with the child.
long life and to enrich life, to increase our age span               Stern, who I'm sure has no less visceral a bond with
and to raise the quality of life. Because medicine is              his offspring, won a court order for temporary
a gift of God, we can use it in God's service. Hence,              custody. Now he is in Superior Court in Bergen Coun-
(and it is here that  the  logical jump is faulty) if              ty, N.J., trying to hold Whitehead to her initial con-
medicine is capable of doing something, we ought,                  tract and, failing that, to win permanent custody of
with gratitude to God, make use of it. If medicine                 the baby. For the first time, the courts must decide
can cure cancer, we ought to make use of it. If                    whether a contract for surrogate motherhood is en-
medicine can perform open heart surgery to correct                 forceable, whether such a contract violates laws
heart defects, we ought to make use of it. In fact,                against baby-selling and whether a woman can sever
this is our calling before God. If medicine can give               her parental rights before giving birth.
us children when ordinary methods of conception                      Now I would call the baby girl by her name, except
and birth fail, what could be more right in the sight              that she doesn't have one. She has three. To White-
of God than to make use of these techniques to                     head, she is Sara Elizabeth Whitehead; to Stern, she is
                                                                   Melissa Elizabeth Stern; to the court, she is a de-
have a part in the bringing forth of the seed of the               humanized Baby M.
covenant? We ought to be thankful that God has                       To me she is the ultimate casualty of head vs. body,
given doctors and scientists such knowledge that                   mind vs. heart, intellect vs. instinct, Stern vs. White-
we can use what they have discovered and per-                      head. To me, she is the victim of a conflict that ought
fected in the bringing forth of children for God's                 never to have occurred.
kingdom. So the argument runs.                                       The term surrogate mother is in itself an embodi-
  But is this line of argumentation justified? That is             ment of the conflict. A surrogate, by definition, is a
quite another question.                                            substitute. But is a woman who carries a fetus for nine
  Before we offer our own analysis of these tech-                  months, in Whitehead's case, gaining 51 pounds, en-
                                                                   during high blood pressure and phlebitis, and then
niques, it is well that we take a look at what others              gives birth to and nurses her baby (as Whitehead did]
have said. We know that all these things are ap-                   a substitute mother? She's as close to the real thing as
proved of and condoned in the world among                          a woman can get, it seems to me. She is, simply, a
ungodly men - although it is important to remem-                   mother.
ber that even in the world men of cooler brains and                  The experts on so-called surrogate mothering - the
wiser heads have held up a restraining hand and                    ones who run the centers that link the surrogates with
suggested that we had better be careful before we                  the infertile couple, provide the medical, legal and
plunge ahead into unknown and unexplored areas                     psychiatric counseling and, no doubt, make a decent
of medical science. But Christian ethicists have also              buck in the process  - say they are offering a  much-
pointed out some serious evils in these practices,                 needed option to barren couples desperate for
and we ought to hear what they have to say.                        children. And they've got a point.
  We turn first of all to the problem of surrogate                   Although I am lucky enough to have had a child of
                                                                   my own, I am not unfamiliar with the awful anguish
motherhood. In an interesting article by Barbara                   of infertility. I've seen friends subject their bodies,
Roessner, which originally appeared in  The Hart-                  and their hearts, to the endless probing of ther-
ford Courant, we have an opinion of one who ap-                    mometers and needles and the like. But I still can't
proaches the whole question from less than a Chris-                fully grasp why they are so bent on reproducing them-
tian perspective. We quote at length from this arti-               selves.
cle, for it brings up points which Christian ethicists               Is adoption, even with its years-long wait, really
have also faced.                                                   such a terrible alternative to propagation?
         Mary Beth Whitehead was trying to maintain her              Surrogate mothering is only a more extreme form of
       composure under the intense questioning of her tele-        this war between intellect and instinct that repro-
       vision interviewer. She was trying to explain, in a         ductive technology has wrought. Women who want to
       quiet and quaking voice why she had agreed to be a          bear children without male partners, for example, can
       surrogate mother and why, after giving birth to a           purchase the sperm of anonymous donors.
       g-pound, 2-ounce girl, she reneged:                           And fertile couples who become pregnant are
         "My head was telling me one thing," she said, "My         routinely offered tests to determine the sex and health
       body was telling me something else."                        of their fetuses; implicit in this is the option of abor-
         William Stern is the father of the baby. It was his       ting a fetus that doesn't meet their, or society's stan-
       sperm with which Whitehead was artificially in-             dards. And as much as I advocate its continued


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           185



   legalization, I believe abortion violates women's, and                 his sperm. Young Christopher, unfortunately, was
   men's souls.                                                           born with an abnormally small head (microcephaly)
     In the case of Stern vs. Whitehead, I sympathize                     and may suffer mental retardation. Malahoff disa-
   with both sides. But for a woman to think she can                      vowed the child and threatened to sue the Stivers for        i
   lease her uterus without emotional and psychological                   having intercourse during the insemination period.           '
   consequences denies her essential humanness. For a                     Blood and tissue tests later showed the child's genetic
   man to think he can artificially impregnate a surrogate                make-up to be different from Malahoff's. Said Mrs.
   and then lay sole claim to the offspring is equally in-                Stiver after the tests were announced, "I'm probably a
   human.                                                                 little disappointed, but I'll have to live with it."
     Women are not wombs for rent. Men are no semen                  While it is possible that in the future the courts
   in a jar. And, finally, babies are not products.               will be able to lay down some guidelines for settling
  John Jefferson Davis in his book  EvangeZicaZ                   the legal problems which arise out of surrogate
Ethics also points out the legal problems that are in-            motherhood, these problems seem to be too great to
volved in surrogate motherhood. While he points                   be solved with any kind of justice for all involved.
out that the legal complications are many and in-                 And the impossibility of solving these problems
volved, he refers to two possible legal problems in               legally no doubt arises from the fact that a violation
detail. The one is the legal problems involved when               of the law of God in the conception of children
a surrogate mother refuses to give up the child, as               results in impossible legal tangles which have no
the article quoted above also demonstrates. The                   solution whatsoever. And this is characteristic of
other is the problem of legal liability in genetic                the world in which we live. With its great sins and
problems. He writes:                                              its flaunting of God's holy law, the world gets itself
                                                                  into impossible messes from which there are no
     (What are the legal ramifications of) the birth of a
   deformed child, health complications, or the death of          doors of escape. No laws, no matter how skilled the
   the adopting parents prior to the child's birth?" That         jurists, are able to settle problems arising out of a
   these problems are not merely theoretical was                  disregard for God's ordinances.
   dramatically demonstrated in the case of Christopher              But John Jefferson Davis also addresses the prob-
   Ray Stiver, a baby born to Judy Stiver of Lansing,             lem of surrogate motherhood from a moral
   Michigan after Alexander Malahoff, a 46-year-old ac-           perspective. This will have to wait for another arti-
   countant from Middle Village, New York had agreed              cle.
   to pay $10,000 for the surrogate child produced with

ALL AROUND US
Robert D. Decker





                   Reformed Churches in Netherlands Unite
             Presbyterian Churches in the U.S. Fail To Unite
                    Roman Catholicism Remains Unchanged



Reformed Churches in Netherlands Unite:                                   two denominations are now in a "state of reunion."
  The Reformed Ecumenical Synod News Exchange                             Objections were raised especially by representatives
(December 9, 1986) reports:                                               from the Reformed Alliance (GB) in the NHK. Ten
                                                                          members of the Reformed Alliance declared in an
     Despite numerous objections, which belied the ac-                    open letter that the GKN should confess guilt for their
   tual outcome of the voting, the combi-synod of the                     breakaway from the national church in the late 19th
   Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN) and the                     century. (Afscheiding, 1834 and Doleantie,  1886. These
   Netherlands Reformed Church (NHK, State Church,                        two secession movements merged to form the GKN in
   R.D.) approved a document which declares that the                      1892. R.D.) The decision, which was taken with an


186                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



       overwhelming majority, does not obligate local con-            The Editor of the Presbyterian Journal, William S.
       gregations that do not feel comfortable with each            Barker, urges the PCA to "keep the vision alive." In
       other to pursue union on the local level.                    the same issue of the  JournaZ, Barker comments:
         In 1990 the two denominations will be asked to                   . . . Whatever the outcome of the PCA presbyteries'
       decide on the structural form of the future church.              vote on J  & R, perhaps more can be accomplished
       The combi-synod also admitted the  Evangelical-                  towards a spirit of unity through fellowship at the con-
       Lutheran Church as participant in "Together on the               current General Assemblies to be held in Grand
       Way."                                                            Rapids, Michigan this coming June. There will be one
         The actions of the combi-synod need ratification by           joint worship service of the five NAPARC  denomina-
       the synods of the two denominations. At the time this           tions present at Calvin College  (NAPARC  stands for
       goes to press the GKN synod has given the ratifica-              North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council.
       tion, but the synod of the NHK, not yet. When                    The Chr. Ref. Church is a member, R.D.) . . . . Prob-
       ratification is made by both synods, "Together on the            ably of greater significance, however, will be the op-
       Way" will become an irrevocable fact.                           portunity for PCA elders to visit the OPC Assembly,
  This action was a long time in coming and in-                         and vice versa. Perhaps the stereotypes will merely be
evitable. Now that it has happened, however, it                         confirmed, but you owe it to our own profession of
makes one sad. In effect the GKN wherein are the                       the Lord's desire for loving unity to pursue such
spiritual roots of most of us has repudiated the                       fellowship.
courageous stand our Reformed fathers, H.                                 Let's keep the vision for a strong, continent-wide,
DeCock, A. Kuyper Sr., et.  aL,  took in 1834 and                       sound Presbyterian church alive. Those of us in the
1886 and 1892.                                                         PCA should keep the door open to the fellowship and
                                                                       unity professed just 13 years ago.
  One wonders whether the Reformed Church in                          Observing all this from the outside, we have two
America and the Christian Reformed Church will                      observations: (1) while there are some differences
follow suit.                                                        between these two denominations, they are not
                                                                    significant enough to keep them apart and (2) these
Presbyterian Churches in the U.S. Fail To Unite:                    two churches, we think, will eventually unite. It
  At its General Assembly last June the Orthodox                    just will not be as soon or as easily accomplished as
Presbyterian Church voted against the "Joining and                  first thought by those who promote union in both
Receiving" (J  & R) of the Presbyterian Church in                   denominations.
America.  Now the Presbyterian  JoumaZ  (December
3, 1986) reports:                                                   Roman Catholicism Remains Unchanged
         Another invitation by the Presbyterian Church in             There are those, even in Reformed circles, who
       America (PCA) to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church            would have us believe that the church of Rome has
       (OPC) to become part of the PCA is apparently                made significant changes in recent years. These
       doomed.                                                      argue that there should be more "dialogue" be-
         The invitation, approved by the  PCA's  general            tween Protestants and Catholics. Some in Re-
       assembly in Philadelphia last June, needs the approval       formed churches want to delete from the Heidel-
       of three-fourths of the denomination's presbyteries          berg Catechism Q. & A. 80 which calls the "popish
       before being forwarded to the OPC. But by late               mass . . . a denial of the one sacrifice and sufferings
       November, with half the presbyteries having acted on.        of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry." Kenneth
       the measure,  -10  ,had already voted no. One more           S. Kantzer writes:
       negative vote would kill the issue.                                In Protestant eyes, the Catholic church fosters a
         Many have seen the invitation as merely symbolic              Marian  piety that can only be called idolatrous  -
       in any case, since a virtually identical proposal was re-       despite disclaimers such as that made by Pope John
       jected by the OPC earlier this year. And that point has         XXIII. Consider the following explicit declarations:
       been raised repeatedly in debate on the floors of the
       more than 20 PCA presbyteries which have acted on                  *Pope Pius IX (pope from 1846 to 1878): "God has
       the matter.                                                     committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in
                                                                       order that everyone may know that through her are
         In some cases, even those who favor some kind of              obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation.
       union of the PCA and the OPC have argued against                For this is his will, that we obtain everything through
       renewal of the invitation. Two prevalent themes have            Mary."
       been that (1) it's too soon to get back into the issue,
       and (2) the OPC should be spared the divisive in-                  *Pope Leo XIII, writing near the turn of the cen-
       fluence such a renewed invitation would bring to that           tury: "As no man goes to the father but by the son, so
       church . . . .                                                  no one goes to Christ except through his mother."
                                                                          *Cardinal Saint Alfonsus de Liguori, in The Glories
Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and                     of Mary, reproduced by the Redemptorist Fathers in
Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminavy.                1931: Mary is called "the gate of heaven because no


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                              187



   one can enter that blessed kingdom without passing          the Roman Catholic Church still maintains as of-
   through her." In prayer Mary is addressed: "All             ficial doctrine several other heresies concerning
   power is given to thee in heaven and on earth."             Mary, viz.: The Immaculate Conception of Mary,
   Hence, "at the command of Mary all obey  - even             The Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and the Bodily
   God."                                                       Assumption of the Virgin Mary. These heresies,
     *Pope Pius XII, writing in 1953: "It is the will of       Kantzer points out, are not based on Scripture, but
   God that we should have nothing which is not passed         on the Catholic error which teaches that Christ
   through the hands of Mary."                                 promised,  ". . . infallibility to his church, to Peter
     *Contemporary Roman Catholic scholar Edward               and all his successors (the popes, R.D.) at Rome."
   Schillebeeckx:  ". . . Christ is the Mediator between         Kantzer is correct. Let us not be duped! Rome
   God, the Father, and men; and . . . Mary is the
   Mediatrix between Christ and us."                           has not changed. The Church, according to Rome,
                                                               and not Scripture is the final and ultimate authori-
     Of course, it would not be fair to hold the Catholic      ty. Mary is worshipped. The mass remains an ac-
   church responsible for extravagant claims made for          cursed idolatry.
   Mary by her devoted but untaught worshippers. But
   none of the persons cited above was untaught [three           Thank God for Martin Luther and his fellow re-
   were popes]. Also, as the more recent statements in-        formers! Above all let us thank God for His  only-
   dicate, the official Catholic appreciation of Mary re-      begotten Son, Jesus Our Lord and Savior: "Neither
   mains inappropriately high to this day . . .  ."  (Chris    is there salvation in any other: for there is none
   tianity Today, Dec. 12, 1986)                               other name under heaven given among men,
 Kantzer continues in the article to remind us that            whereby we must be saved." (Acts  4:l.Z)
THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH
Ronald L. Cammenga





                                    Confession of Faith (1)



  One of the most joyful occasions in the church is            fered on behalf of these youths. Much labor has
the public confession of faith of the young people.            been bestowed in their instruction, by parents, by
For the pastor and elders there is no more joyful oc-          Christian school teachers, by pastor and elders.
casion than when young people come to the  con-                Confession of faith is tangible evidence that these
sistory room to make confession of faith before the            labors have not been in vain, but have been blessed
consistory, when that confession is approved, and              by the Lord.
when young men and young women stand up in                        In the next several articles in this rubric, it is our
the congregation publicly to acknowledge faith in              intention to discuss confession of faith. The first
Jesus Christ. This joy is shared by the parents of the         couple of articles will be of an introductory nature.
young people, and by the whole congregation, who               In subsequent articles it is our intention to discuss
witness the confession.                                        the significance of confession of faith by examining
  Joy over the confession of faith of our young peo-           the three questions in the back of  The  PsaZter,
ple is due to the fact that their confession of faith is       which are asked at the,time of public confession of
an outstanding evidence of positive fruit on the               faith.
labors of the church. Many prayers have been  of-              CONFESSION NOT A MATTER OF
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        "JOINING THE CHURCH"
Church of Loveland, Colorado.                                     A common misconception in connection with


188                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



confession of faith is that by public confession one      Canada, Singapore, Northern Ireland, New
"joins the church." Public confession is viewed as        Zealand, or whatever other country) as we are. No
the act of being "received into the church." As long      one would deny that my three-year-old daughter is
as one has not made confession of faith, he is essen-     a citizen of the United States, as much a citizen as I
tially not a member of the church.                        am. But children are immature citizens, citizens
  There have been serious results in churches             who because of their immaturity do not enjoy the
which have fostered this conception of confession         rights and privileges, nor have the same obliga-
of faith. This view has been carried out to excuse        tions, as mature citizens. Although fully members
the living of a blatantly wicked life on the part of      of our country, our children may not vote, hold of-
those who have not yet made confession of faith           fice, obtain a driver's license, and it is not expected
because, after all, they are not yet really members       of them that they pay taxes. This analogy may be
of the church. These young people go to movies, at-       applied to the church, which is the kingdom of
tend dances, take part in wild parties, become            God. There is a difference in the kingdom of God
drunken, and make public spectacles of them-              between those citizens who are young and im-
selves, but the elders do nothing because these           mature and those citizens who have arrived at
young people have not yet become members of the           years of discretion and may be considered to be
church. Since they have not yet made confession of        mature members of  .the church.
faith, and probably not yet had the "experience"          A PRIVILEGE AND A RESPONSIBILITY
that precedes confession of faith, they need not be          For those young people who have arrived at
expected to live the holy life of a member of the         years of discretion, public confession of faith is
church in full communion.                                 both a sacred privilege and a solemn responsibility.
  The view that confession of faith is essentially a         The young person who makes confession of faith
matter of "joining the church" is seriously mis-          ought to count it a great privilege that he may make
taken. It is a view that is fundamentally Baptistic       confession of faith. What a privilege of grace that
and ought not to be the way confession of faith is        God in His goodness caused him to be born to
viewed in a Reformed church. The fact is that by          believing parents and brought up in a covenant
virtue of their baptism the infants of believers are      home! What a privilege of grace that he should for
already members of the church. That is brought out        many years come under the means of grace, hear
very clearly in the first question that is asked          the,preaching of the gospel, and receive instruction
parents at the time they present their child for bap-     in the truth! What a privilege that he should be able
tism: "Whether you acknowledge, that although             to identify himself with the cause of God and of
our children are conceived and born in sin, and           Jesus Christ in the world! What a privilege that he
therefore are subject to all miseries, yea, to con-       should be able to confess the name of Christ with
demnation itself; yet that they are sanctified in         the mouth! We don't deserve these blessings! We
Christ, and therefore,  as  members of His church         have no right to have faith or any of the blessings of
ought to be baptized?" The Heidelberg Catechism,          salvation which are ours through faith! Confession
in Q.A. 74 teaches that baptism is a sign of the truth    of faith is a privilege of the highest order, a
that the infants of believers are "also admitted into     privilege of grace.
the Christian church . . .  ."                               Besides being a privilege, confession of faith is
  Confession of faith is emphatically not to be           also a responsibility. It is not only an honor to be
viewed as an act of joining the church. Instead, the      able to confess our faith publicly, but it is also our
significance of public confession of faith is that        duty before God.
those who are already members of the church                  There are those who question or deny this
publicly acknowledge that membership and public-          responsibility of making public confession of faith
ly assume the duties and privileges involved in that      in the church. There are many denominations
membership. A baptized member of the church is            which maintain that the church does not have the
an undeveloped and immature member. During his            right to require such a confession. This is the posi-
childhood and youth he matures, not only physical-        t i o n   of.  t h o s e   w h o   a r e   a d v o c a t i n g   paedo-
ly and psychologically, but also spiritually. At the      communion today, that is, child communion, that
time when he arrives at spiritual maturity, the time      children ought to be granted the right to partake of
when he understands the privileges and obligations        the Lord's Supper. A few centuries ago, the Armin-
of church membership and is ready willingly to            ians in the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands
assume these, he ought to make confession of faith.       denied that the church had the authority to insist
  We may draw on an analogy to make our point             on a public confession of faith in the congregation
clear. Our children are members of our country.           prior to admittance to the Lord's Supper. These
They are as much citizens of the United States (or        people point out that nowhere does Scripture  ex-


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              189



  plicitly require this confession of the young people        in the fact that the church should require of adult
  when they arrive at years of discretion and before          members a confession of faith. This is something to
  they are allowed to partake of the Lord's Supper.           which the Word of God everywhere calls us. Con-
  How can this practice in our churches be main-              fession of our faith is simply part of the Christian
  tained, therefore? And on what grounds do we base           life.
  the responsibility to make public confession of                A second reason why Reformed churches have
  faith?                                                      always insisted on a public confession of faith by
  BASIS FOR PUBLIC CONFESSION OF FAITH                        the young people has to do specifically with the
    The basis for public confession of faith, although        sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The question
  not explicit in Scripture, is certainly implicit. Public    whether the church has the authority to demand a
  confession of faith is one of those things which, to        confession of faith is closely bound up with our
  use the language of The Westminster Confession Of           view of the sacrament. Those in the past who
  Faith,  `I. . . by good and necessary consequence           denied this right to the church maintained what is
  may be deduced from Scripture . . .  ."                     called "open" or "free" admission to the Lord's
                                                              table. They maintained that attendance at the
    The responsibility to make public confession is           Lord's Supper is exclusively a matter of the per-
  based, first of all, on the general calling that the        sonal conscience of the individual attending.
  Scriptures place upon God's people to confess His           Whether or not he would partake was his private
  name in the world. Many passages of Scripture               decision. Those who maintained the right of the
  could be cited which bring out this calling. Christ         church to require a public confession of faith of
  Himself says in Matthew  10:32, 33: "Whosoever              those who would come to the Lord's Supper did so
  therefore shall confess me before men, him will I           because they maintained that attendance at the
  confess also before my Father which is in heaven.           Lord's table, besides being a personal matter, was
  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will            also subject to the jurisdiction of the church. They
  I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."           emphasized the duty of the consistory to "fence",
  In Romans  10:9, 10 the Apostle writes, "That if            that is, to supervise the administration of the sacra-
  thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,           ment .
  and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
  Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with               Next time we will discuss this matter of the
  the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and             supervision of the Lord's Supper by the consistory,
  with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."          and the implications of this for public confession of
                                                              faith.
    There certainly is nothing strange or un-Biblical
  GUEST ARTICLE
  Robert C. Harbach




                                       Jesus Left Alone


    In the sixteenth chapter of John's Gospel we              Thee; by this we believe that Thou  comest forth
  have two sections: (1) warning (l-6), and (2) encour-       from God.' Jesus answered them, `Do ye now
  agement (7-33). In the latter section we have these         believe?"' (v.  29:31). Do we, you and I, hear the
  words, "Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour com-            word of God purely preached every Sabbath day?
. eth, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,          Do you realize that in the preaching of the word
  every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone;             Christ  speaks to you? Do you appreciate the fact
  and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with          that after every sermon and worship service the
  Me"  (16:31-32). Jesus' "disciples (had) said unto          Lord looks for faith as a result of His speaking in
  Him . . . `Now we are sure that Thou knowest all            the preached word? Since faith cometh by hearing,
  things, and needest not that any man should ask             and hearing by the word of God, do you hear Him


190                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



say at the end of every service, "Do ye now                   heard at the last moment against the thunderous
believe?" For without faith it is impossible to please        vocal majority. Like the early bloom of Spring, they
Him.                                                          were all blown away. Not even the beloved disciple
  The disciples had spoken somewhat over-confi-               John remained. They left Him alone, "every man
dently when they said, "Now we are sure that thou             for himself." Their ruthless enemies took Him off
knowest all things . . .  ." Many today, if you ask           to prison and death, where Peter, speaking for
them, "Do ye now believe?" are likely to answer,              them all, had said he would go, and gladly (Lk.
"Sure, I'm `a believer; I have a strong faith  - you          22:33). But  He  went there bound, beaten, and
could never guess how strong!" But just a moment:             alone.
"God hath dealt to every (Christian) man a measure              His comfort assured in this moment was this,
of faith' (Rom. 12:3). Do you know the measure of             though "ye shall leave Me alone, yet I am not
your own faith? Are you sure you are not believing            alone, because the Father is with Me." They had
in your faith,-and taking that for faith in Christ?           fled. They were all gone. But Christ was not gone.
Beware of trusting in your faith, for it is only faith        They had left Him standing alone; but there  He
in  Christ  which is saving. Further, does the com-           stood. No one could budge Him from eternal pur-
pany you are in determine your faith, so that in              pose. He came to save, and He shall save His peo-
good company you boast of your faith, while in bad            ple. He came to redeem, and now Christ hath
company you have no faith of which to boast?                  redeemed us from the curse. He came to overcome
                                                              the world, and His victory shout is, "Be of good
  Do you now believe? Peter would be inclined to              cheer! I  have  overcome the world!" They fled, to
answer, "0, of course, Lord, both right now and for           leave their work hardly begun. But He stood fast,
a long time already I've believed." "Though  aZZ              and was so sure of Himself, with such confidence
men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will  I            in His God, that He could say in His prayer just
never be offended . . . . Though I should die with            before the cross, "I have  finished  the work which
Thee, yet will I not deny Thee . . . . Likewise also          Thou gavest Me to do" (Jn.  17:4).
said all the disciples." That was self-flattery spring-         "I am not alone." The present tense stands out
ing out of pride. None of them had the caution to             with its stress on certainty. Jesus used it often. "I
say, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine. unbelief"              am the Son of God" (10:36). "I am the living bread
(Mk.  9:24). All the apostles thought they could              that came down from heaven" (6:51).  "I am'not of
stand firm under fire. But "they all forsook Him              this world; I am from above" (8:23).  I "came down
and fled"  (Matt..  26:56). When pressured by the             from heaven"; I am "the Son of Man who  is  in
enemy, they were scattered, and He was left alone.            heaven" (3: 13). "I am  the Good Shepherd. I know
Later, disillusioned, they said, "but we trusted that         Mine and Mine know Me (10: 14, Greek). "I am not
it had been He which should have redeemed                     alone, for the Father  is  with Me."
Israel" (Lk.  24:21). Sometimes even the standard
bearer faints (Isa.  10:18), and then the armed men             Yet it did not appear to be so. But things are not
are demoralized and waver. When we feel strong                what they seem. It may be that everybody does ac-
and confident to stand, we must pray that we be               tually leave you. Father and mother may forsake.
given grace to take heed, lest we fall (I Cor. 10:12).        God may seem to leave you. But He never does! He
                                                              never forsakes His own. Concerning Abraham go-
  "Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own."              ing with Isaac his son to offer him as a sacrifice on
So Jesus warned, "to humble them, to destroy their            Mt. Moriah, the record is that "they went both of
self-confidence" (Pink). It was; their confidence             them together" (Gn. 22). So the Father, when He
was shattered, themselves scattered, every man to             was about to offer up His only begotten Son to
his own, his own "safe-house," or hiding place.               death, was with Him; they went both of them
Each would seek his own secret place of survival.             together; and although Jesus on the cross had cried,
From the fury of the enemy there would be cover               "My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?",
for all but Christ. All would escape the lash, the            we must notice that He did not  cry, Father,  why
cross, the scar; but not Christ! "The hour. , . is now        hast Thou forsaken Me?" The Father, with His per-
come that ye . . . shall leave Me alone." This was            manent, powerful, and supportive presence, never for-
Christ's hour, the hour of the power of darkness.             sook, but was always with, His only begotten Son.
When Truth was in royal robes, enthroned on the               But it was God, who, from the cross, temporarily
mount, He had many a friend. But now that Truth               withdrew His  gracious  and  comforting  presence,
must fall in the valley of the shadow, not a friend           because Christ was then substituting Himself in the
stands with Him. Not even a minority voice was                place of elect sinners, bearing away their sins.
                                                                The decrees of. God were all back of Christ; and
Robert C, Harbach is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    only He can open the Book of the Decrees. But it is
Reformed Churches.                                            the God of the divine decrees who is with Him. Not


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               191



only twelve legions, but all the angels of God are          and honor and glory and power be unto Him that
behind the cross; and the God of the angels is with         sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever
Him there. Not only the Providence of God, but the          and ever" (Rev. 5:13). So that the picture of reality
God of Providence is with Him. Every creature, the          is not, "there is the world, and that's it - period,"
whole universe, may sing, "the Father is with me."          but "there is the world, inseparably connected with
The sparrow, when it falls in death, in effect, says,       and subservient to its Creator and Upholder!"
"the Father is with me" (Matt.  10:29). The stars of          How does this word of Jesus apply to you? God's
light, singing praise to the Lord, can say, each of         promise to His people is, "I will make an everlast-
them, "the Father is with me" (Psm.  148:3). The            ing covenant with them, that I will not turn away
creature, Space, can say, The Father is with me and         from them, to do them good, but I will put My fear
in me. Time can say, The Father is with me and              in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me"
moves me. To think of a world with no Creator-God           (Jer.  32:40). Is that God's promise to you? Do you
over all is a failure to face reality. There is no world    stick with Him through thick and thin, come what
existing and moving by itself with no all-controlling       may? True, the current today runs the other way;
God above. Such a world is a horrible nightmare!            but let that current go; it is petering out anyway.
But all too often we live on this earth as though that      Someone may say, 0, but the scientists tell us that
were the only kind of a world there is: one with no         gospel is something for little children and little old
Sovereign Director above. We put God out of His             ladies, but it is not scientific. Let them say. But the
own universe, so that we may then live and sin as           scientific is what man is able to learn from things
we please without ever having to worry about be-            here below; our Gospel is from above. It is divine
ing called to account in judgment. But no; the              revelation. "Flesh and blood (or science) hath not
whole world with its myriad creatures is like a vast        revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in
universal choir singing with one voice, "Blessing                                           (continued on page 181)


                         News From Our Churches
                                                     Ben Wigger



                                     January 15, 1987       Michigan, and Hull Protestant Reformed Christian
  Rev. den Hartog and his family have returned to           School in Hull, Iowa, recently were forced to con-
the United States, and the Lord willing, the family         duct special building fund drives for the express
will be moving to Randolph, Wisconsin where Rev.            purpose of reducing some of their load of debt.
den Hartog will take up his labors as pastor of the         Heritage received  $36,710.00 in cash and pledges,
congregation there.                                         while Hull raised $10,430.00 and an additional gift
  In preparation for their move there, the con-             of  $2,000.00  was given from the Ladies' Guild of
gregation recently held a general housecleaning of          Hull. We can all be very thankful that not only has
the parsonage.                                              our Heavenly Father given us Christian Schools,
                                                            but that He has also given us the means to support
  And also in connection with the return of the den         them.
Hartog family to a much colder climate than
Singapore, the students of Heritage Christian                 The congregation of Byron Center has made
School in Hudsonville, Michigan, collected money            plans. to hold their church's Sledding and
in what has become their annual Christmas collec-           Snowmobile Party for January 31, although looking
tion, to aid the den Hartog children. The thought           out the window right now there is no snow any-
behind the collection'this year was that after having       where in West Michigan. This can change in a
been in Singapore so long they needed much                  hurry, however.
clothing, sporting goods, and other items. It was
hoped that the money collected would help them                Up here in the North, winter can seem to last for-
adjust to life back in the States. And according to         ever and perhaps you will find yourself longing for
one source, over-two hundred dollars was raised by          a chance to get away to the warmer climate of sun-
the students of Heritage.                                   ny Florida. If you do get down there this winter,
                                                            you are invited to spend Sunday at the Protestant
  Heritage Christian School in Hudsonville,                 Reformed Chapel in Bradenton. This chapel meets
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church    twice a Sunday, at 10:00 A.M. and 500 P.M., at the
of  Hudsonville, Michigan.                                  Bradenton Christian School, 3304 43rd St. West,


                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                          P.O. Box 6064
                                                                                                                  Grand Rapids, Michigan 495 16





192                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER

Bradenton, Florida. Rev. C. Hanko is the pastor                              and Heidi Kreuzer. And it should also be noted that
there, and for more information about the chapel                             during the singspiration the children were also
and its activities, or directions on how to get there                        asked to come to the front and sing "Away in the
he can be reached at 813-755-7344.                                           Manger." The collection was for the 1987 Young
     This year the congregation in Kalamazoo,                                People's Convention. Rev. G. Van Baren closed the
Michigan, had Christmas cards for the missionaries                           hour with prayer.
on the table in the foyer of the church, with the                               Christmas Singspirations were also held in many
idea that all of the families of the church sign them.                       of our other churches as well, some of which were
When this was completed, the cards were sent out.                            Hull, Edgerton, and Randolph.
It seems like a rather nice idea. Perhaps it even                               From Southeast in Grand Rapids we find that at
help.ed these missionaries through the holiday                               their last congregational meeting they approved a
season even though they were apart from families                             proposal involving various remodeling projects in-
and friends back home.                                                       cluding the extension of their church narthex.
     The night of December 21, the Federation Board                             The Church Extension Committee of First
of our Young People's Societies held their annual                            Church in Grand Rapids has prepared a very attrac-
Christmas Singspiration in Hudsonville. Mr. Phil                             tive brochure about their church which was mailed
Van  Baren had opening remarks and led the large                             the first week in December in the neighborhoods
crowd in prayer. He then turned the remainder of                             around their church. Over 3,000 copies were sent
the hour over to the very capable leadership of Mr.                          to homes in the area.
Jim Vander Kolk as director and the accompani-
ment of Miss Betty Haveman at the organ and Mr.                                 The Free Christian School in Edgerton, Minn.
Gerald Miedema at the piano. Between singing                                 presented their school Christmas Program the night
from the Psalter and a song sheet of Christmas                               of December 19.
carols the audience was favored with special
numbers. First Mr. Gerald Kuiper sang a solo,                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
"Angel Voices Softly Singing," which was followed                              January'1 6, 1987, marks the 30th wedding anniversary of MR.
by a duet, "Star of the East," sung by Mr. Jim Dal-                          AND MRS. JIM SCHIPPER. Their children and grandchildren wish to
ing and Mr. Randy Van Dyke. Later a flute duet of                            express their thanks to them and to our God for the covenant home
                                                                             they, have provided and pray  Hisblessing  in the years to come.
"0 Holy Night" was;;given by the Misses Heather                                 "And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear
                                                                             me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them."
                                                                             (Jeremiah  32:39).
                                 NOTICE!!!                                   Randy and Lindy Looyenga                G o r d o n   S c h i p p e r
    The Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School of Walker,                    Brent and  Jared                     Jill Schipper
Michigan is in need of a teacher/administrator for the forthcoming           Dan and Julie Kaiser
1987-l 988 school year.
    Any teachers interested in applying for this position please write                                    NOTICEC!!
the school at 1545 Wilson Avenue, Grand Rapids, Ml 49504; or con-                                   TO ALL TREASURERS OF OUR           ,
tact Clare Tinklenberg  -  (616) 457-3212 or Rich Van  Baren  -                             PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCHES
( 6 1 6 )   5 3 1 - 8 0 4 8 .
                                                                               All monies designated for the Jamaican Minister's Travel Fund
                                                                             should be sent to: MR. CLARE PRINCE, 7435 PINE GROVE,
                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                 JENISON; Ml 49428.
    The Consistory of the Loveland Protestant Reformed Church, on
behalf of the congregation, expresses heartfelt sympathy to Mr.. and                         ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!
Mrs. Victor Solanyk in the death of his brother, MR.  IGOR SOLANYK.
                                                                                Hope Christian School of Redlands, California is in need of a
    Our comfort is  ". . . that all things work together for good to them    teacher for Grades K-3 for the 1987-l 988 school year. Teachers
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."             and prospective teachers interested in applying for this position
(Remans   8:28).                                                             please write to: Hope Christian School, 1309 E.  Brockton,  Redlands,
Rev. Ron Cammenga,  Pres.                                                    CA 92374, or phone Ed Karsemeyer (714) 793-7166 (home) or
Mr. Larry Nelson, Clerk                                                      (714) 793-1504 (school), or Bill Feenstra (714) 793-3597.


