         The
STANDARD
         BEARER
         A REFORMED  SEMI,MONTHLY  MAGAZINE                                         .



              SPECIAL ISSUE
                                  on
              SAVING  FAITH


  Saving faith is that work of God in the
elect, regenerated, and called sinner where-
by the latter is ingrafted into Christ and em-
braces and appropriates Christ and all His
benefits, relying upon Him in time and eter-
nity.


                                               Vol.  LXIII, No. 19, August 1, 1987  -


434                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                  I                                THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                                                            ISSN 03624692
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                                                                                                 Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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                                                                                       Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       With The Heart. . . With The Mouth . . . . . . . . .434                         Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
                                                                                       D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C.  Ha&o,
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .437         Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev.           Kortering, Rev. George C. Lub-
                                                                                       bers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James  S 1 opsema, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren,
  Faith, A Union With Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .437                  Rev. Herman  Veldman,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
  The Elements of Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .439               Editorial  Ofice:  Prof.  B.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION



           With The Heart . . . With The Mouth

                 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
              unto salvation.                                                                                                            Romans 1O:l I




  There are three pairs of terms in this verse which                                     fession is made"; "with the heart . . . with the
complement one another in the text: "unto  right-                                        mouth." And the emphasis falls upon the last pair
eousness . . . unto salvation", "believeth . . .  con-                                   mentioned: "with the heart . . . with the mouth."


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              435



  As is plain from the word "for," the apostle in            and clings to Him. He who has saving faith, who
some sense furnishes a reason, a further explana-            believes, rejoices in the fact and confesses the fact
tion, for what he has just written in verse 10 con-          that he is not his own, but belongs to his faithful
cerning the contents of the "word of faith, which            Savior Jesus Christ! Besides, a merely intellectual
we preach." There he had explained the contents of           faith differs from saving faith because it is not
the word of faith as being: "That if thou shalt con-         characterized by the element of confidence. He who
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt                merely assents to the truth in a natural sense of the
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him              word does not rely on Christ and on God for right-
from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Why and how             eousness and justification. But if a man believes in
is this true? The answer is, first of all, that "with        the saving sense of the word, then he relies for all
the heart man believeth (or, more literally: "it is          his righteousness and salvation upon Him in Whom
believed" or "one believes") unto righteousness,"            he believes. He wants nothing of any other ground
and, secondly, "with the mouth confession is made            of righteousness than the God Who raised Jesus
unto salvation."                                             from the dead. All other ground is sinking sand; on
          * * * * * * * * * *                                Christ the solid Rock he stands.
  With the heart man believeth . . . .                         But there is one outstanding characteristic of sav-
  As is plain from the subsequent context as well            ing faith which is mentioned in both verse 10 and
as from the text itself, the apostle is speaking of the      in verse 9, the characteristic which is altogether
act of faith, the activity of believing. It is correct to    lacking in a mere intellectual faith. Saving faith,
make a distinction between faith as a faculty, as a          faith of the heart, confesses! He who believes also
spiritual power, in distinction from faith in its con-       confesses with the mouth the Lord Jesus.
scious activity. The former, faith as a power, or              The apostle is not speaking here of two different
faculty, is wrought in the elect sinner's heart when         and separate items: believing and confessing. The
he is regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. Just as in        idea is not one of faith plus something more.
the natural sense of the word a baby is born with            Mouth-confession and heart-believing are not two
the faculty to think and to will, and, in fact, with all     unrelated activities. If a man does not confess with
the talents and abilities which he later will exercise       the mouth, neither does he believe with the heart.
in  -his life, though he does not actually and con-          And if he believes with the heart, he will surely
sciously exercise those abilities of mind and will the       confess with the mouth. And if he truly confesses
moment he enters into the world, so it is spiritually.       with the mouth (and is not merely a "Lord, Lord"
Just as an infant has the power of perception                sayer), it is only because he believes with the heart.
though he does not as yet actually perceive, and has         For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
the power to speak but does not yet speak, so also           speaketh.
the elect, regenerated sinner, born of God, receives           The content of his confession is not mentioned in
in and with his regeneration the power of faith, the         verse 10, but verse 9 spells it out. He confesses that
spiritual power to believe. But the apostle is not           Jesus is Lord!
speaking of his power of faith as such, a power
wrought in the heart of the elect immediately, but             He confesses not merely that Jesus is Lord in the
of faith as it is wrought through the "word of faith"        sense that He is King of kings and Lord of lords, in
and through the power of the preaching.                      the sense that the crucified and risen Jesus of
                                                             Nazareth is exalted at the right hand of God and
  With the  he& one believes . . . .                         that all power in heaven and on earth has been
  Believing is not simply a matter of the will or of         given unto Him, in the sense that all beings and all
the emotions. It surely is not a superficial stirring of     powers and all events are subject unto Him, in the
the emotions such as is characteristic so often of           sense that all must do His bidding and serve His
what is sometimes called "temporary faith," the              purpose, either willingly or in spite of themselves.
kind of "faith" which is the product of much
revival preaching and mass evangelism which is                 But he confesses personally: Jesus is MY Lord! I
designed to create an emotional surge.                       belong to Him with body and soul, in life and in
                                                             death, for time and eternity!. He is responsible for
  Believing is not merely a matter of intellectual as-       me now and in the day of judgment; I am in His
sent, a kind of assent to the truth, or at least to some     hand. He has the right to rule me and to demand
elements of the truth, which is altogether lacking in        that I do His will. I acknowledge this, so that the
personal interest. It is the latter, the lack of a per-      controlling question of my life is: Lord, what wilt
sonal interest and personal participation, which             Thou have me to do?
characterizes a faith which is merely intellectual.
Saving faith professes Jesus as Lord, because it               With the mouth he confesses!
trusts in Him as Lord. It lays hold upon the Christ            He does not hide behind the ruse that his actions


436                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



will speak louder than words and that it is not             Yes, he who believes and confesses is saved
always necessary to say explicitly that Jesus is his        already. He is redeemed and delivered from his
Lord. True enough, a mouth confession which is              guilt and from the power of sin and death. He is
empty, which is contradicted by one's actions and           partaker of the life of Christ. He is a child of God by
by his walk of life  - such a mouth confession is           adoption and a child of God by rebirth. And he is
false. It does not arise out of the heart and out of        heir of all the blessings of salvation. But the view-
heart-believing.                                            point here is the future. He who believes and con-
  But a heart-faith will surely find expression in          fesses  shal'l  be  saved.  Snatched from the power of
mouth-confession! Believing and confessing belong           death and the grave, changed from the earthly to
together. The latter is the outward expression of the       the heavenly, from the corruptible to the incor-
former.                                                     ruptible, from the mortal to the immortal! Received
                                                            into the tabernacle of God, where we shall see face
  With the heart . . . .                                    to face, and know even as we are known!
  You see, the heart is the center of it all.                 With a view to that salvation righteousness is the
  According to Scripture, the heart is the spiritual        prime requisite. Indeed, he who believes is the heir
center of a man's entire life. Just as physically the       of many, many blessings of salvation. But right-
heart is the fountain of our physical life, so that         eousness is first! Without that blessing of justifica-
from it our lifeblood flows and courses through our         tion, of being declared perfectly innocent, without
entire bodily existence, so also in the spiritual           the knowledge and the assurance that "God,
sense. The heart is the center and fountain of our          without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace,
life spiritually. From the heart are the issues of life.    grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction,
Our thinking and willing, our longing and desires           righteousness and holiness of Christ, even so, as if I
and inclinations and aspirations, and also our joy          never had had, nor committed any sin" - without
and our sorrow, our speech and our activities, our          it there can be no possibility of any of the other
hopes and our fears  - these all are determined as          blessings of salvation. For God is the righteous
far as their spiritual, ethical worth is concerned by       Judge of heaven and earth, and He cannot deny His
the heart. If the heart is good, its issues are good. If    own perfect righteousness. Without righteousness,
the heart is corrupt, so are all the issues of the          therefore, there is no salvation now or in the day of
heart. If our heart is wicked, then our thinking and        judgment. With it, both are infallibly certain!
willing and desiring and speaking and acting will all         That righteousness was sealed - and here is the
be carnal. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good           connection with verse 9  - when God raised Jesus
fruit. But if by the grace of God our heart is good, is     our Lord from the dead. He was raised on account
not carnal but spiritual, then all the issues of that       of our justification!
heart will be good, will be directed toward the
things which are spiritual. The tree is known by its          Hence, if a man believes with the heart that God
fruit. A good tree brings forth good fruit.                 raised Jesus from the dead, he believes unto right-
                                                            eousness. And if he believes  .unto righteousness,
  And believing is in the deepest sense of the word         he confesses with the mouth the Lord Jesus. And if
a matter of the heart. Not merely of the mind or the        he confesses with the mouth the Lord Jesus, he
will or the emotions; but of the heart!                     shall be saved.
  If with the heart a man believes the gospel, then           Faith from the heart - faith that is only and alto-
he knows it with a true, spiritual knowledge and he         gether the gift of grace  - is the God-given power
trusts in it implicitly, putting his confidence in it       and the act that clings to the power of that God
with childlike trust. And then that believing heart         Who raised Jesus from the dead!                 -HCH
controls and directs our whole life, so that we
believe with our whole life, with all our heart and
mind and soul and strength. We believe with all our
being. Old things are passed away; all things have
become new. All the issues of our life are controlled           The Standard Bearer
and directed by that belief that God has raised Jesus
our Lord from the dead.                                      makes a thoughtful gift
           * * * * * * * * * *
  . . . unto righteousness!                                   for the sick & shut-in.
  , . . unto salvation!
  It is of salvation in the final and full and future
sense of the word that the apostle speaks here, our
salvation as it shall be realized in the day of Christ.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                               437


                                             Editor's Notes


       This is the t`hird and final special issue in the cur-        You will not find a regular News of our Churches
rent volume-year. In it we continue our planned                   department in this issue. Our News Editor is taking
treatment of the various steps in the order of salva-             a vacation for one issue. You will find a report, with
tion. We welcome to this issue, two guest writers                 pictures, of the institution of the new Protestant Re-
who are contributing to our magazine for the first                formed congregation of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada.
time: Pastor Charles Terpstra, of Pella, Iowa, and                Thanks to Rev. Thomas Miersma (of Edmonton) for
Pastor Russell Dykstra, of  Doon, Iowa.                           this report!





                           Faith, A Union With Christ
                                                      Jason L. Kortering





       What a privilege it is to exalt the Name of God,           thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ,
the God Who has given us faith. The Word pf God                   nourished `up in the words of faith and of good doc-
leads us in making this confession, "By grace are ye              trine, whereunto thou hast attained," I Timothy
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is            4:6. The other usage of the word faith refers to our
the gift of God," Eph. 2% What a marvelous gift it                activity in response to the gospel: "Therefore being
is.                                                              justified by faith, we have peace with God through
WHAT IS FAITH                                                     our Lord Jesus Christ," Romans  5:l. This faith
                                                                  comes to expression in such activity as repenting of
       In this article we are discussing faith as a step in       sin, believing on Jesus, trusting God as the God of
the order of salvation, the way in which Christ ap-               our salvation.
plies to us the benefits of salvation He merited for
us on the cross.                                                     In summary, faith is viewed as our relationship
       We must keep this in mind as we turn to the                with God both as to what we believe and how we
Word of God  for guidance in answering the ques-                  live.
tion: what is faith? It is interesting that both in the             Our Reformed confessions draw from the Word
Hebrew and Greek the root idea of faith is to be                  of God a summary statement concerning faith. Our
sturdy, steadfast. In the Old Testament the noun                  HeideZberg Catechism  describes faith as being "in-
faith is seldom used. Rather the word faithfulness,               grafted into Christ and receive all His benefits by a
to be faithful, faithfully, and such words are used.              true faith,". Lord's Day 7, Q. 20. Furthermore in
Also `other words closely related to faith are used,              that same Lord's Day we read, "True faith is not
e.g. trusting and believing. In the New Testament                 only a certain knowledge . . . . but also an assured
the word faith is frequently used as well as faithful.            confidence, which the Holy Ghost works by the
Even then,' we find two different usages of the word             gospel in my heart; that not only to others, but to
faith. The one is a reference to the content of what              me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness
we believe. Our faith is what we believe: "If thou                and salvation, are freely given me by God, merely
put the brethren in remembrance of these things,                 by grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits." In
                                                                 the  Netherlands Confession  of  Faith,  Article 22 we
Jason L. Kortering is pastor of the Protestant Reformed           read, "We believe that to attain the true knowledge
Church of Grandville, Michigan.                                  of this great mystery, the Holy Ghost kindleth in


438                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



our hearts an upright faith, which embraces Jesus           it fits perfectly in the notch of the vine. Spiritually,
Christ, with all his merits, appropriates him, and          if we are to be ingrafted into Christ, Christ is
seeks nothing more besides him." The  Canons  of            prepared by God to receive us by His death upon
Dordt  speak of faith in Head III and IV, Art. 14,          the cross for those elect whom the Father gave
"Faith is therefore to be considered as the gift of         Him, and the subsequent resurrection and ascen-
God, not on account of its being offered by God to          sion in which He receives all the blessings of salva-
man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure; but        tion from God Himself. The sinner is prepared by
because it is in reality conferred, breathed, and in-       the work of regeneration and the call of the gospel
fused into him . . . . because he who works in man          as it is applied to.His heart. In the fifth place, a prop-
both to will and to do and indeed all things in all,        er ingrafting causes the sap of life to flow through
produces both the will to believe, and the act of           the union of vine and branch so that the branch is
believing also."                                            energized by its life. Spiritually this takes place
  From these references, we conclude that faith is          when we by faith are united to Christ and the life of
that work of God in the sinner whereby he is  in-           Christ flows into us to make us alive in him. Final-
grafted into Christ and receives all the blessings of       ly, the result of this union causes the branch to
salvation from Him, relying upon Him for all                become alive and produce fruits. So we are made
things.                                                     spiritually alive by faith and produce good works,
                                                            the fruits of faith.
FAITH IS BEING INGRAFTED                                      If we view faith as such an ingrafting into Christ,
  Both Scripture and our confessions speak of faith         we draw two important conclusions.
as being "ingrafted into Christ". In the first part of
John 15, Jesus speaks of Himself being the vine and           First, faith is worked in the heart of the elect sin-
the believers as the branches. From a different             ner. This is important. It is not so that this ingraft-
perspective, Paul in Romans 11 compares the                 ing takes place in our minds, our wills, our emo-
gathering of the church throughout history as being         tions, or even our bodies. No, it takes place in our
ingrafted into the olive tree, which draws its life         hearts. Listen: "For with the heart man believeth
from Jesus Christ. The Heidelberg Catechism                 unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession
especially picks this up and defines faith as being         is made unto salvation," Romans  1O:lO. Do you
ingrafted into Christ, A. 20.                               know why? The heart is the spiritual source of all
                                                            things. Did not Solomon say, "Keep thy heart with
  Our understanding of faith as such an ingrafting          all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life,"
is important for a correct understanding of faith.          Prov.  4:23. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is,
Let us enumerate a few points of comparison. First,         there will your heart be also," Matt.  6:21. He
there is the living vine (John 15). This vine `draws its    added, "A good man out of the good treasure of the
life out of the earth, it shoots forth leaves in the        heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man
spring, blossoms, and eventually bears grapes. So           out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things,"
Christ is the vine, He is alive in fellowship with the      Matt.  12:35. Even as our physical heart circulates
Father. All the spiritual virtues of God flow into          the necessary life-giving blood throughout the body
Jesus Christ. Secondly, there are the branches to be        to sustain life, so our spiritual heart spouts forth the
ingrafted into the vine. In the earthly sense, they         living energy of love and grace which we receive
are taken from some other vine or compatible                through our union with Christ. This in turn affects
source. Strictly speaking they are not dead. They           all our being, our minds, our wills, our emotions,
have life which is to be relocated in another source.       even our bodies. All that we are and have is made
Spiritually however, it is different. The child of          subject to the power of faith as it works through our
God who is to be ingrafted into Christ is spiritually       members.
dead, he has not life in himself. If there is no union
with Christ, the sinner abides under the spiritual             Secondly, before that faith is worked in our
power of death and he makes himself worthy of               hearts by the preaching of the gospel, our hearts are
everlasting destruction. Thirdly, one must perform          made ready for that act of ingrafting. By the work
the act of ingrafting. The husbandman or farmer             of regeneration, our hearts are prepared for the
must work upon both the vine and branch, for the            preaching of the gospel which is the means by
vine or branch cannot do it of itself. This directs us      which faith is worked in the heart. If we see this,
to our spiritual impotence. If we are to have faith,        we can understand why the working of faith by the
Almighty God must operate as the Divine Ingrafter           Holy Spirit, as He applies the gospel in our hearts,
to perform so great a task. This He does. Fourthly,         is called an opening of the heart: "Lydia . . . which
the vine is prepared by cutting a careful notch in          worshiped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord
the proper place, and the branch is prepared by cut-        opened," Acts 16: 14. In addition to this, we can ap-
ting the end of the branch in a tapering way so that        preciate why the working of faith is not a pleading,


                                               THE. STANDARD BEARER                                               439



begging on the part of Christ for the sinner to let            We are dead before we are regenerated. We are
Christ into his heart. The sinner is prepared for              dead before we receive faith. But once we receive
Christ, and now by the gospel Christ joins that sin-           faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, we become
ner with Himself. For this reason, faith is con-               spiritually alive.
sidered a gift, "By grace are ye saved through faith,             This is true because faith unites us to Jesus
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not         Christ. Through that union, the love of God flows
of works lest any man should boast," Eph.  2:8, 9.             into our heart and our heart influences our mind,
THE ACTIVITY OF FAITH                                          will, emotion, and body.
  Through our union with Christ by faith, the love                By such faith, we repent of our sins, believe on
of God which is in Christ Jesus flows into our entire          the Lord Jesus, hold for truth all the Word of God,
being. The dead sinner is made alive by the                    trust in Him for all our salvation, and desire to
presence of this love of God.                                  serve Him out of thankfulness for so great salva-
  This produces spiritual activity.                            tion.
  We do well to understand this clearly. Our                      This activity of faith is not a matter of forced
spiritual activity does not bring us faith. This is the        obligation. True, we realize we owe all that we are
error of the Arminian. He views the unsaved man                to the God of our salvation. Rather, it is a matter of
as capable of doing something that will get him                the heart, a principle of love. By faith we love God
faith. If he only accepts Christ as an act of his free         in Jesus Christ. We love His Word, we love to serve
will, he will receive all the grace of salvation. We           Him.
must be careful as Reformed believers, that in re-                Through faith God receives the glory due to His
jecting this error, we do not go in the opposite               holy name.
direction and deny that there is activity in our faith.





                              The Elements of Faith
                                                   Russell J. Dykstra





   Do I have faith? How can I know whether or not                That knowledge and confidence are the elements
I have faith? At one time or another in his life,              of true faith is not universally accepted. Some
every child of God faces these questions. These are            writers emphasize the intellectual knowledge of
important questions, matters of eternal life or                faith to the exclusion of confidence. Others virtual-
death. Regardless, therefore, of how each of us                ly ignore knowledge as an aspect of faith, stressing
answers the first question above, with an emphatic             the assurance which is gained from a mysterious
"Yes!" or a hesitant, "I think so," or even an "I'm            experience or sign. Still others speak of faith as an
not sure," it is good for us to examine just what              assent to the truth. The Westminster Larger
faith is. In another article, Rev. Kortering describes         Catechism, for example, maintains that by means
faith as the bond which unites the believer to                 of faith one "not only assenteth to the truth of the
Christ. That is certainly biblical. At the same time           promise of the gospel, but  receiveth and  resteth
Scripture speaks of faith as we experience it, name-           upon Christ and His Righteousness . . ." (q. & a. 72).
ly as including knowledge and confidence. Those                That is similar and yet obviously not identical to
are the "elements" or "parts" of faith which we                knowledge and confidence.
will discuss.                                                     But for much of the Reformed Church  world,
Russell J. Dykstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        and for this writer, the elements of faith are
Church of  Doon, Iowa.                                         described best by the Heidelberg Catechism in


440                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



question and answer 21. Answering the question,            tellect; but of the heart, And this is God's work, not
"What is true faith?" the Catechism gives the              a work that we or any other can accomplish by a
following instruction:                                     study of the Bible.
       True faith is not only a certain knowledge,           A word of caution is in order here. We are not
       whereby I hold for truth all that God has           denying the importance of knowing the Scriptures.
       revealed to us in his word, but also an             The abominable lack of knowledge today in the
       assured confidence, which the Holy Spirit           Church of Jesus Christ (including the Protestant Re-
       works by the gospel, in my heart; that not          formed Churches!) is cause for great alarm. We
       only to others, but to me also, remission of        must be ever reading and studying, must know
       sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation,       God's Word if our faith is to have any content at all.
       are freely given by God, merely  .of grace,         But the point is that this knowledge is not, in itself,
       only for the sake of Christ's merits.               the knowledge of faith which we are discussing.
  Part of faith is, therefore, knowledge - a cevtcrin        No, this knowledge of faith is spiritual. It is the
knowledge. That word "certain" means not a cer-            result of a spiritual change worked by God which
tain hind of knowledge or a particular set of facts,       causes a man to see, to understand, and to know
but it means "sure" or "beyond a doubt." This is           everything in a different light. For God gives him
what Peter said to Jesus on behalf of the disciples:       true knowledge, that is, the knowledge of God.
"And we believe and are sure that thou are the             Without faith man does not  hnow God, he only
Christ, the Son of the living God" (John 6:69). What       knows  about  God. What a tremendous difference
the disciples believed, they believed with all their       this really is! Knowledge about God is memorized,
hearts. They were suye in their faith. But notice also     studied, and theoretical. The knowledge of faith is
that the disciples knew something. They knew that          the result of experience - a living knowledge. It en-
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is a    compasses and surpasses the knowledge about God.
statement of fact, a bit of knowledge that they had          The difference between these two kinds of
gained and stored in their minds. They had knowl-          knowledge is easily demonstrated from our ex-
edge.                                                      perience. Think of the theoretical knowledge on
  It should be obvious to all that faith must have         marriage expounded by countless  counsellors and
knowledge. No one can believe what he does not             authors. They can, and do, describe the difficulties
know. The question is: what knowledge is required          and hardships as well as the joys of married life. By
for true faith? Certainly the knowledge of God in          reading and studying, therefore, one is able to gain
Christ as revealed in the Scripture is necessary,          a rather accurate perception of life in the married
especially the knowledge of salvation  - the               state. A theoretical knowledge, that is. But how dif-
message of the gospel. But this knowledge must be          ferent is the knowledge of experience. The joys and
understood as a spiritual knowledge, not merely a          the sorrows of the wedded couple are real for them.
natural knowledge. A natural knowledge of Scrip-           They know the love and fellowship that exist be-
ture is simply a knowledge of the facts contained in       tween a husband and a wife. It is far richer than
the Scriptures. One who acquired this knowledge            any book can describe and they never doubt that
would know how God created the earth in 6 days,            this life is real, for they have experienced it and
and how the earth was destroyed by the flood. He           continue to enjoy this life together.
would know the origin and development of the na-             That is the sure knowledge of faith. The believer
tion of Israel. He would have knowledge of the             knows with certainty that what the Scriptures
birth of Christ from the line of David, and of the         reveal about God is true  - that God is a covenant
death of Christ on the cross, and of the spread of         God, that Christ has been sent to redeem those eter-
the gospel. That is a natural knowledge.                   nally given Him by the Father, and does take them
  That, however, cannot be the knowledge of faith          into the covenant life of the Triune God. Asking
for two reasons. First of all, anyone can gain some        him how he knows this to be true would be like
knowledge of the Scriptures and even believe parts         asking a husband how he knows his wife is real,
of it to be historically accurate. That is even true of    and truly loves him. He could only reply, "I know
Satan, who in fact does know Scripture well.               it because I have experienced it." The believer also
Wicked men likewise know the Bible. Their litera-          finds it incredible that anyone could doubt the ex-
ture, their movies, and even their advertisements          istence and love of God for him  - he has expe-
give abundant evidence of this. But they do not            rienced it! Nothing could be more certain or obvious
have faith. The second reason why mere natural             than that God is, and that God loves him. He has
knowledge is not an element of faith is that faith is      the sure knowledge of faith.
a work of God's grace within the heart. It is                Upon that sure knowledge of faith is based the
therefore not merely a matter of the mind, of the in-      second element, namely, a hearty confidence. Paul


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               441



writes of this in Ephesians  3:12: "In whom (Christ           each and every believer has within him both faith
Jesus) we have boldness and access with con-                  and unbelief. And the unbelief is ever seeking to
fidence by the faith of him." This is the assured             dim the light of the knowledge of God and destroy
confidence, according to the Heidelberg Catechism             the assurance of faith. Thus we have moments,
(q. & a. 21), that salvation and all its benefits belong      periods, of doubt. But that is not the effect of faith.
"not only to others, but to me also." Clearly this is         Faith is knowledge arid confidence. By faith I know
necessary for a true, saving faith. What good is the          that this rich salvation is for me.
knowledge of all the mighty works of God if they                 That assurance is indestructible, for it is God's
are for others and not for me?                                work within us. And it is a power within that
     This is exactly where some go astray by cutting          causes us to become bold. In this assurance we ap-
asunder the knowledge and the confidence of faith.            proach the throne of the living God, the Holy One,
They teach that one can have this certain knowl-              without fear or terror. With confidence we seek His
edge and even believe all the truths of Scripture,            fellowship and favor. Boldly we bring our requests
but lack the assurance that it applies to him. That is        to Him. How else could damn-worthy sinners ap-
simply impossible. If one has the knowledge of                proach the Just and Holy God, except He give
faith, the true spiritual knowledge of experience,            them, through the power of His grace, this hearty
then he  knows  God, the sovereign, electing, loving          confidence?
God of his salvation. Such an one has, at the same               Those are the elements of faith - a sure knowl-
time, this assured confidence. These two elements
-                                                             edge and a hearty confidence. Do you have these?
     confidence and knowledge  - are inseparable.             Then you have faith. 0, yes, you and I have it now
     0, that is not to say that this assurance always         in earthen vessels, in the corruption and unbelief of
beats firmly within a man's heart. No one is always           our natures. We still cry out with the father of the
on a mountain-top of faith. No believer is always             demon-possessed child, "Lord, I believe; help Thou
brimming with this experiential knowledge of                  mine unbelief!" But what a gift, a gracious blessing,
God's favor and the assurance of salvation. Every             to know God in Christ as the God of our-sure salva-
believer slides into the valley of despondency and            tion and to dare to come to Him with the con-
doubt, lacking assurance. But the reason for this is          fidence of adopted covenant children. That we
sin and the corruption of the old nature. You see,            have, by faith. Thanks be to God!





                                 Faith And Salvation
                                                    Cornelius Hanko




     The holy Scriptures teach us that salvation is by          It is almost universally proclaimed and accepted
faith, and by faith alone. Of Abraham, the father of          today, that salvation is from the Lord, but each in-
believers, it is said, "And he believed in the Lord:          dividual must accept by his own free will the salva-
and he (the Lord) counted it to him for righteous-            tion that is `offered to him in the gospel. Without a
ness," Gen.  15:6. Jesus assured us, "He that                 personal acceptance by his own free will he cannot
believeth on the Son hath eternal life: and he that           be saved. God is willing, it is said, to have all men
believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the             saved, but this is impossible without man's accep-
wrath of God abideth on him," John 3:36. Paul and             tance. One minister wrote, "In John  3:16, where it
Silas declare to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the       is said, `For God so loved                       , that
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy           he gave his only begotten Son,' you can write your
house," Acts  16:31.                                          name there, regardless of who or what you are." Or
                                                              as another preacher put it, "There are enough seats
Cornelius Hanko is a pastor emeritus in the Protestani        about the table of the wedding feast of the lamb for
,?eformed  Churches.                                          every man, women, and child that ever `lived upon


442                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



the earth. If your place is empty, it is only because       ing abundance of His grace in kindness upon such
of you." Christ is standing at the door of your heart,      most unworthy and hopelessly lost wretches as we
so it is said, knocking, waiting, pleading to enter in,     are. He changes children of Satan into sons and
but the knob is on the inside, and only you can             daughters, in His likeness to show forth His glory
open the door. A mere sigh, some small expression           forever.
of willingness is all that is necessary. But that is          For by gruce are ye saved! Our entire salvation is
necessary on our part, without which.God cannot             of God, through Him, and unto Him from eternity
save us.                                                    to eternity. "For whom He did foreknow, he also
  It is hard to understand that those who love God          did predestinate to be conformed to the image of
can embrace such a God-dishonoring,  Christ-                His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
degrading heresy. It is difficult to comprehend that        brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate,
anyone who knows his own sinful, rebellious heart,          them he also called; and whom he called, them he
his stubborn nature, and his daily inclination to           also justified; and whom he justified, them he also
hate God and his neighbor, will assume that he of           glorified," Rom. 8:29, 30. The past tense is used in
his own free will accepted Christ as his Savior. And        each case, showing that with God all our salvation is
it is equally hard to realize that those who profess        complete in Christ, in no wise dependent upon us.
from the heart that they love the Scriptures and the          By grace are ye suved. In the first three verses of
Reformed truth as expressed in the Five Points of           this chapter Paul reminds us of the horrible death
Calvinism can adhere to a philosophy that God's             that held us in bondage. "You who were dead in
love and desire can be frustrated by mere man, and          trespasses and sins." We were not like a lifeless
that some of those for whom Christ died do resist           corpse that does not stir, but we were dead in
the work of the Holy Spirit, or fail to persevere in        trespasses and sins. In all our desires, thoughts,
the salvation merited for them.                             words, and deeds we could only sin, ever increas-
  The fact is that those who maintain that their            ing the measure of our sin and guilt. Our will was
salvation depends in part on their acceptance or            perverted, so that as enemies of God we despised
upon their persevering unto the end, must always            all that was holy and took keen delight in trans-
doubt, ever lacking the true assurance of faith.            gressing God's commandments. We were like a
Either they may wonder whether they were really             child who is told not to do a certain thing, and
sincere when they accepted Christ as their Savior,          therefore deliberately does it. Our minds were
or they must fear that the time might still come that       darkened, for we called good evil, and right wrong.
they will fall away. The Canons state in V. 8, that if      All our words and deeds gave expression to the
our perseverance in any way depended upon us,               lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride
our backsliding would not only be likely, but would         of life that controlled our whole life.
certainly happen. A Pelagian or an Arminian can               We were children of wrath, even as the world
never be assured of his salvation for the simple            round about us. The curse that rested upon Adam
reason that a part of that salvation depends upon           and his posterity also rested on us. In that respect
his faith. As is often said, a chain is no stronger than    we were no better than those who perish in their
its weakest link. He may boast that he is saved by          sins. We were sold under sin, in ourselves hope-
grace, but. that boast can only rest in the hope that       lessly lost.
God will accept his "faith" as genuine and worthy
of salvation. Paul, on the other hand, declares in no         But God! There centers our only hope of salva-
uncertain terms in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are         tion. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:         love wherewith he loved us, (notice the strong em-
it is the gift of God."                                     phasis on God's love) even when we were dead in
                                                            sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
  Let us take a closer look at this important passage       grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together,
of Scripture for a moment.                                  and made us sit together in heavenly places in
  The `for' refers back to the previous verse, where.       Christ Jesus," Eph. 2:4-6. No, God did not love us
we are told that God wills to show the exceeding            as sinners. How can he love sinners, and yet visit
(the super-abundant) riches of His grace in His             them with His wrath and cast them into hell? But
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God is the God          God did love us in Christ, even when we were still
of all grace. He Himself is the very essence of all         sinners, so that Christ died for us when we were in
that is beautiful, attractive, appealing. He is the         our sins. God regards us eternally in Christ, as
God of infinite perfections, the ever blessed, ador-        members of His body. We belonged to Him even
able One. He reveals all His beauties and splendors         when He grovelled in Gethsemane, suffered and
in His favor to His people, His family, chosen unto         died on the cross. Our Communion Form states
Himself in Christ Jesus. He bestows the overflow..          that we atoned for our sins in Christ, so completely


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          443



as if we had borne the guilt in our own flesh. There-         Word now becomes a power unto salvation by the
fore when He arose, we arose in Him, and were ex-             operation of the Spirit in the jailer's heart. That was
alted to heaven in Him. Again the emphasis falls on           also the experience of the father of the demoniac,
Christ's accomplished work that not only makes                who burst forth in conscious assurance, "Lord, I
salvation possible, but actually saves!                       believe, help thou my unbelief."
  Thus we are saved through faith. Faith is the liv-            The objection is raised, Does this not leave a per-
ing bond that unites us to Christ, whereby we                 son like a stock and a block? Does not this doctrine
become conscious partakers of Christ and of all His           make one careless and profane, taking the attitude,
benefits. Faith is the power line through which the           "If God will save me, I will be saved, but I can do
Holy Spirit bestows on us the blessings of salvation,         nothing about it?" Never may we lay the blame of
and whereby we appropriate unto ourselves these               our unbelief upon God or the holy Scriptures. Nor
spiritual blessings in intimate communion of life             may we in any way minimize the power of God in
with our God. Scripture uses the figure of the vine           completely controlling our lives and yet at the same
and its branches, for the branches bear fruit only as         time holding us responsible. "Who art thou, mere
drawing life from the vine, John  15:1-4. "Without            speck of dust, that repliest against God?" Rom.
me," Jesus says, "ye can do nothing."                         9:20. The sovereign God is able to control our lives
  But the objector raises the question: Does not              in their minutest detail, and yet cause us to remain
man believe? Did Paul not say to the Philippian               responsible as rational, moral creatures.
jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou             Let us consider something of a different nature,
shalt be saved?" Acts 16:31. And did not Jesus say            yet which still implies God's sovereignty and man's
to the father of the demoniac, "If thou  canst                responsibility. Two young people are drawn to
believe, all things are possible to him that                  each other, are united in the bond of love, so that
believeth," Mark  9:23.                                       they vow to be faithful to each other as long as they
  To that the fathers answered in the Canons of               live. This was their choice and desire. Yet God had
Dordt, III, IV Head of Doctrine, article 14:                  eternally planned this union, even as God brings to
                                                              every man his own wife, Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:6. God
        Faith is therefore to be considered.as the gift       is able to carry out His eternal counsel through the
        of God, not on account of its being offered           thoughts and deeds of all mankind. God is
        by God to man, to be accepted or rejected at          sovereign, and we remain responsible.
        his pleasure; but because it is in reality con-
        ferred, breathed, and infused into him.                 In that same way God carries out His plan in con-
                                                              demning the reprobate, who dies in his sins, and in
  That is explicit language. Faith is conferred,              saving His elect through a conscious faith, which
breathed, and infused into us. This, therefore, takes         God works in us. Not faith is first, but regeneration.
place at the moment of regeneration. The Holy                 As new creatures in Christ we can say: I believe,
Spirit implants in us the life of the risen Christ,           and thereby also experience the joys of salvation in
whereby we become new creatures, capable of                   Christ Jesus.
knowing that which is spiritual, heavenly, and eter-
nal.                                                            That only increases the wonder: Saved by grace
                                                              through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the
  The objection is also raised that God gives the             gift of our sovereign God. To Him be the glory
power or ability to believe, but we must still per-           forever, world without end!
form the act of believing. The activity is ours, a con-
dition, or requisite unto salvation. To that the
fathers answer in the same article, continuing:
        Or even because God bestows. the power or
        ability to believe, and then expects that man
        should by the exercise of his own free will,
        consent to the terms of salvation, and ac-
        tually believe in Christ; but because he who
        works in man both to will and to do, and in-
        deed all things in all, produces both the will to
        believe, and the act of believing also.
  Returning now to the Philippian jailer  - why,                     we offer, complete and mail the coupon to: University
then, does Paul say: Believe and thou shalt be                       Microfilms International, 300 N. Zeeb Road, AM Arbor,
                                                                     MI 48106. Call us toll-free for an immediate response:
saved? The answer is that the Holy Spirit by the                     600-521-3044.  Or call collect  in Michigan, Alaska and
means of the Word arouses in him a conscious                         Hawaii: 313-761-4700.
faith. He must have heard Paul preach, and that


444                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



                 The Object of Faith: Jesus Christ
                                                   Charles /. Terpstra





   Saving faith is  personal.  Personal  hit is because         Spirit? The answer to this is: Yes, the object of
saving faith is a spiritual grace worked in me per-             faith is the Triune God. Scripture certainly does
sonally as well as in every elect person. By this               speak of the believer's faith in God. We read this
gracious gift God joins  me to Jesus Christ, and ap-            concerning Abraham, "And he believed in the
plies to  me  the merits of Christ, so that by it I             LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness"
receive and make my own these riches of salvation.              (Gen. 15:6).  Of the Philippian jailor we read that he
In other words, faith is personal because the subject           "rejoiced, believing in God with all his house."
of faith is a person, the individual child of God               And there are other references (cf. eg., Tit.  38; I
chosen in Christ. But faith is also personal because            Pet.  1:21).  Further, we do indeed make confession
the  object of faith is a Person. This Person is Jesus          of our faith in the Triune God through the Apostles'
Christ. Saving faith has for its object Jesus Christ in         Creed.
all the fullness of His Person and work as the only
Mediator and Saviour of men. This is what we want                 But at the same time we should understand that
to examine together in this article.                            faith has its object in God  through  Jesus Christ.
                                                                Christ is the revelation of the Triune God, the im-
  Scripture certainly teaches that faith's object is            age of the invisible God, the only way to the inac-
Jesus Christ. If you look in a concordance under the            cessible God. Just as no man can come unto the
headings "faith" or "believe", you will find                    Father but by Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6), so no man can
repeatedly expressions such as "faith toward our                believe in God except through the Mediator, Jesus
Lord  .Jesus Christ" (Acts  20:21); "faith of Jesus             Christ. Hence, -faith has for its immediate and
Christ" (Rom.  3:22; Gal.  2:16); "faith in the Lord            direct object Jesus Christ, and through Him faith
Jesus" (Eph.  1:15); "believeth on the Son of man"              focuses on the Triune God, our Father. This too is
(Jn.  3:36); "believed in Jesus Christ" (Gal.  2:16),           Scriptural. Jesus clearly implied this with His
and so on.                                                      words in John 14:1, ". . . Ye believe in God, believe
  Also our Reformed Confessions make it plain                   also in me." I Peter  1:21 teaches this more clearly
that faith has for its object Jesus Christ. LD 11,              where it says, "Who by him (ie., by Christ - CJT) do
Q&A 30 of the Heidelberg Catechism speaks of the                believe in God. . . ." So also does II Corinthians 3:4
fact that those who believe in Jesus with a true faith          where we read, "And such trust have we through
receive this Saviour, because they find in Him all              Christ to God-ward."
things necessary to their salvation. Similarly, Arti-             But let us go on to examine this idea of faith's ob-
cle 22 of the Belgic Confession reads in part:  ". . .         ject more closely and specifically. And then we
The Holy Ghost kindleth in our hearts an upright                notice that no matter from what perspective we
faith, which embraces Jesus Christ, with all his                look at faith, it always and unmistakably has for
merits, appropriates him, and seeks nothing more                its object Jesus Christ. If we consider faith as a
besides him." The Westminster Confession, Chap.                 bond,  we see that faith joins us to none other than
14, paragraph 2, speaks of the "principal acts of              Jesus Christ in a personal union. By faith I am
saving faith", which are "accepting, receiving, and             planted into Him, so that from Him I may draw out
resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctifi-          life and every spiritual nutrient my heart needs (cf.
cation, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of         Jn. 15: l-5). Viewing faith from the idea of it being a
grace."                                                         spiritual  facdfy and power, we see that faith is the
  We might ask at this point however, Does not                  spiritual eye that causes us to focus on Christ, as
faith have God for its object? Do not the Scriptures            Peter's eye fastened itself on Jesus, enabling him to
speak of faith in God? And do we not confess with               walk on the water (Matt.  14:28, 29); that it is the
the Apostles' Creed that we believe in God the                  spiritual  ear that hears the voice and call of Christ in
Father, in God the Son, and in God the Holy                     the preaching (Jn.  10:27; Matt.  13:16; Heb.  4:2);
                                                                that it is the spiritual  mouth  that feeds upon and
Charles J. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        drinks Christ, the Bread and Water of life (Jn. 6:35;
Church of  Pella, Iowa.                                         7:37, 38); and that it is the spiritual hand by which


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               445



we reach' out to grasp and embrace Christ, just as          Christ. And the Christian believes this revelation
the faith of the woman with the issue of blood              and embraces the Christ of God set forth therein.
caused her to reach out and touch the hem of Jesus'           The Scriptures themselves emphasize this rela-
garment (Matt. 9:20-22).                                    tion between faith in the Word of God and faith in
  Furthermore, if we take faith from the viewpoint          the Christ set forth in them. Toward the end of his
of its elements, we understand that both the knowl-         gospel account John writes, "And many other signs
edge and the confidence of faith have for their sole        truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples,
object Jesus Christ. The believing child of God             which are not written in this book: But these are
knows Jesus Christ and Him crucified (I Cor.  2:2),         written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
counts all things but loss for the excellency of the        Christ, the-Son of God; and that believing ye might
knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, and desires             have life through his name"  (20:30, 31). God in-
ever to know more of Him and the power of His               spired John to write in order that we might believe
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings           His record and in that way believe in Jesus as the
(Phil. 3%10). Thus too he trusts, confides in, and          Christ to the obtaining of eternal life. The Bible also
relies upon Christ fully for all his salvation. Always      refers to specific examples of this. It was through
the firm confession of the child of faith is:  ". . . I     believing the Scriptures that the disciples came to
know WHOM I have believed, and am persuaded                 believe in the resurrected Christ (Jn.  2:22). And it
that HE is able to keep that which I have committed         was through faith in the specific Word of God in
unto him against that day" (II Tim.  1:12).  In fact,       Isaiah 53 that the Ethiopian eunuch came to con-
we may say that the believer's personal assurance           fess, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
of his salvation is founded precisely on the truth          (Acts  8:26-37). Indeed it is true that the believer
that his faith rests on his Lord and on nothing else.       possesses a biblical faith.
If I trust myself, my own works, my own strength;             But there is more to this relation. Specifically,
if I rely upon any other creature for saving help, I        faith in Christ through the Scriptures actually puts
will have no assurance that I am or will be                 the child of God in fellowship with Christ. Receiv-
delivered from sin.  But. when my faith rests solely        ing the revelation of God concerning His Son in the
on Jesus Christ, then I am steadfast in the convic-         Bible, I am very really united to Christ to taste and
tion that nothing can or shall separate me from my          enjoy living communion with Him. This is not
Lord and His love.                                          something mechanical and artificial, but something
  Then finally we should ask, How does faith                very spiritual and real. It is due to the unique
receive Christ? That is, How does the believer              character of God's book on the one hand, and of
know that he must be united to Christ and His               faith on the other hand. This reality is dimly
benefits to be saved, so that He also seeks union           reflected in the experience of one who has read a
and fellowship with Him? How does the child of              human book and felt himself in contact with a cer-
faith know Jesus Christ, so as to trust Him? How do         tain character portrayed in that book. Perhaps we
I know that Jesus Christ is the One on Whom I               have read John Bunyan's The PiZgrim's Progress, and
should focus the eye of faith? How do I know His            were able to identify with Christian as he made his
voice and recognize His call, so that with the ear of       trek from the City of Destruction to the Celestial Ci-
faith I may hear Him? How do I know that He is the          ty. On a much deeper and higher plane this same
spiritual food and drink my soul requires to live           experience is true of the child of God who by faith
everlastingly? How do I know that He is the One             reads the Scriptures and partakes of the Christ por-
Whom I should reach out to touch and cling to with          trayed therein. For the Bible is the revelation of
the hand of faith? The answer is: through the Scrip-        God  in Christ,  and faith is always fundamentally the
tures.  The believer receives Christ as presented in        bond that unites  us to Christ.  Through the Scrip-
the Bible.                                                  tures, then, I am placed in living contact with Jesus
  There is an intrinsic and inseparable relation be-        Christ by faith.
tween faith in Christ and the Scriptures. In general          Through the Scriptures, therefore, the believer
that relation is this, that in the inspired and inerrant    always takes hold of Christ. Wherever he reads, he
Word of God Christ is revealed. In and through His          sees Christ  - whether that be in the book of
Word God makes known to every child of faith                Genesis, or in the book of Psalms, whether in the
Jesus Christ in all His glory and power to save.            gospels, or in the book of Revelation. From the Bi-
Through the Scriptures God sets forth His Son as            ble he receives the full portrait of his Saviour and
the sole Saviour of men. In that Word God reveals           over and over again he gazes into it to learn more of
the plan of redemption accomplished through the             Him. Daily he searches the Word of God to know
incarnation, suffering and death, resurrection,             more of His Mediator and Redeemer, so that he
ascension, and pouring out of the Spirit of Jesus           might also seek and trust Him more fully. There he


446                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



sees Christ; there he hears the voice of Christ; there                   to bring the day of complete victory and salvation
he discovers Christ as the Bread and Water of life;                      in the return of Christ? He receives this by faith and
there he learns that Jesus possesses all power to                        rests assured of this. And that he does because he
heal his sin-sick soul and make him whole.                               also knows that in Christ all the promises of God
  Consequently, faith also instinctively receives all                    are yea and amen (II Cor.  1:20).  Because of Who
the promises of God in Christ made in the Word of                        Christ is and because of what He has accomplished,
God. As our catechism states, the Christian                              not one of the promises of God can fail or fall short.
believes "all things promised us in the gospel," (LD                        Is our faith in the Christ of the Scriptures? Do we
7, Q&A 22). Whatever God has promised to grant                           believe in Him Who is set forth therein? Then we
unto and do for the child of God, that he believes                       may have steadfastness of confidence and sureness
and trusts. Has God promised to deliver him from                         of hope that our salvation will be fully realized both
all evil and bring him to glory in the day of his                        now and to all eternity. For then we are "of them
death? He believes this promise. Has God promised                        that believe to the saving of the soul" (Heb. 10:39).





                         Faith And The Means Of Grace
                                                               Robert D. Decker





  The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that faith:                           Christ merited all righteousness by His atoning
I, . . . proceeds from the Holy Ghost, who works                         death on the cross. We receive that righteousness of
faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel,                      Christ only through the gift of faith which is the
and confirms it by the use of the sacraments." (q.                       bond uniting us to Christ. The question becomes:
65) The sacraments are defined as:                                       how do we receive faith? The answer is: we receive
       . . . holy visible signs and seals, appointed of God for          faith from the Holy Ghost who "works it in our
       this end, that by the use thereof, he may the more ful-           hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms
       ly declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel,              it by the use of the sacraments." Faith comes  from
       viz., that he grants us freely the remission of sin, and          God. The means by which God works and confirms
       life eternal, for the sake of that one sacrifice of Christ,       faith in our hearts are: the preaching of the gospel
       accomplished on the cross. (q. 66)                                and the use of the sacraments. Both the preaching
   The catechism then asks:                                              of the word and the sacraments are: ". . . ordained
                                                                         and appointed for this end, (by God, R.D.D.) that
         Are both word and sacraments, then, ordained and                they may direct our faith to the sacrifice of Jesus
       appointed for this end, that they may direct our faith
       to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, as the only        Christ on the cross, as the only ground of our salva-
       ground of our salvation?                                          tion." Thus the catechism introduces the doctrine
                                                                         of what is called in Reformed Theology, "the
         A. Yes, indeed: for the Holy Ghost teaches us in the            means of grace."
       gospel, and assures us by the sacraments, that the
       whole of our salvation depends upon that one                         What is meant by this concept? The word
       sacrifice of Christ which he offered for us on the                "grace" has a variety of uses in Scripture. The word
       cross. (q. 67)                                                    itself means: "pleasantness, attractiveness,
  In this section the catechism carefully demon-                         beauty." It is most commonly used in the Bible in
strates from Holy Scripture that all of our salvation                    the sense of the power by which God saves His peo-
is in Jesus Christ. For us who are lost, dead sinners,                   ple in Christ. Grace is the power by which God
                                                                         makes the dead sinner beautiful and acceptable to
Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and                       Himself. It is in this sense that we speak of grace in
Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.                  the concept, the means of grace. "Means" may be


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             447



defined as elements from our world of experience         the Lord's name without believing in Him. One
adapted to our human existence and nature. Food          cannot believe in Christ without hearing Christ and
and drink, for example, are means which God uses         one cannot hear Christ without a preacher who is
to nourish and sustain our physical life. It should      sent. Jesus said: "My sheep hear my voice and I
be understood that these means are effective             know them and they follow me," (John  10:27). Or
because it pleases God to ordain and use them for        again, the Lord said: "Verily, verily I say unto you,
this purpose. This is why we must use these means.       he that heareth .my word and believeth on him that
Because God ordained and uses food and drink to          sent me, hath everlasting life," (John 5:24). The in-
sustain our bodies we must use these means or we         spired apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "Now
will starve to death. Further, because God is            then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
pleased to use these means aZwuys  to sustain us we      did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's
are able to use them. If God used food one day to        stead, be ye reconciled to God," (II Cor.  5:20).
nourish us and the next day to poison us we could        These Scriptures and more make clear that the
never depend on those means. Means, then, are            word of mere man cannot work faith in our hearts.
elements from our world ordained and used by             We need to hear the word of God Himself in and
God always in the same way; for the same purpose.        through Jesus Christ. Only God's Word in Christ
  The means of grace, those elements which the           can work faith in our hearts so that we know and
Holy Ghost ordained and always uses to "work and         are assured that God has forgiven our sins and
confirm faith in our hearts" are: the preaching of       granted us everlasting life because Jesus died for
the gospel and the use of the sacraments; Baptism        our sins and was raised on account of our justifica-
and the Lord's Supper. Of these two means the            tion. We hear the Word of God in Christ, the voice
preaching of the gospel is the more important. It is     of Jesus, by means of the preaching of the gospel. In
that because preaching is indispensable. The Holy        this way and for this purpose the Holy Ghost works
Ghost always uses the preaching of the gospel to         faith in our hearts.
work  faith in our hearts. The Spirit uses the             The utterly serious implications of this truth are:
sacraments to  confirm  that faith in our hearts, (q.    1) God in Christ through the Holy Spirit saves, not
65). The Holy Ghost: ". . . teaches us in the gospel,    man. Christ is the officebearer, the preacher. Christ
and  assures  by the sacraments, that the whole of       does the calling, the Holy Spirit works the faith in
our salvation depends upon the one sacrifice of          our hearts. Christ and His Spirit do this by means of
Christ . .  ." (q. 67). The sacraments are signs and     a preacher. The preacher is one through whom it
seals appointed by God:  ". . . that by the use          pleases Christ to speak His Word to His church. 2)
thereof, he may more fuZZy declare and seal to us the    The content of preaching must be the Word of God
promise of the gospel . .  ." (q. 66). Preaching is,     in Christ preserved for us in the inspired, infallible
therefore, the chief and indispensable means of          Bible. The preacher has nothing of his own to bring
grace. Without the preaching of the gospel we can        to the pulpit. He is strictly limited to the Word. He
never come to the consciousness of faith.                must preach Christ: nothing more and nothing less.
  The preaching of the gospel and the use of the         And when he preaches Christ he will be preaching
sacraments are the means of grace because it             God, the sovereign God in all His glory! This is
pleases God to use these to work and confirm faith       true, for:  ". . . God was in Christ, reconciling the
in our hearts. And, because God always uses these        world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
means for this purpose, the church must faithfully       unto them; and hath committed unto us the word
preach the gospel and administer the sacraments;         of reconciliation," (II Cor. 5:19). 3) The preacher
and believers must use these means.                      must, therefore, expound the Word. He must, if
                                                         you will, expose the text. His calling is to explain
  It is true that in a certain sense all things are      the concepts of the text, indicate the relationships
means of grace for God's people. God can use per-        among those concepts, and determine  the message
sonal Bible study to strengthen our faith. In the        of the text as it applies to the lives of God's people.
same way God can and does use the Bible study            He does this'by comparing Scripture with Scrip-
societies of the church to strengthen our faith. In-     ture, for Scripture is its own interpreter. This takes
deed, all things, the Bible says, work together for      a great deal of hard work and much fervent prayer.
our good. "Our good" is our salvation. But the truth     The preacher has many duties: he must visit the
remains: the preaching of the gospel and the sacra-      sick, counsel those with problems of one sort or
ments are  the  means by which it pleases God, the       another, bury the dead, and together with the
Holy Spirit, to work and confirm faith in our hearts.    elders he must rule the flock of God. In addition he
  This is the clear teaching of Scripture. Romans        has certain broader responsibilities: he must attend
10:13-17 makes plain that whoever calls upon the         the  classis and synod meetings, serve on various
Lord's name shall be saved. One cannot call upon         committees, give public lectures, write for the


448                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



church periodicals, etc. But, among these duties              that what is signified is true for us. Hence the
there is one which takes precedence,  viz.,  preach-          sacraments signify and seal the righteousness of
ing the gospel. Nothing must interfere with this.             Christ which is by faith in the hearts of believers.
God's people must understand that if they are to              Together with the preaching of the gospel the
hear Christ on the Lord's Day, believe on his name            sacraments are the means which the Holy Ghost
and be saved, the preacher needs the time to                 uses to direct the faith of believers to the sacrifice
prepare expository sermons in which the Word of              which Christ offered on the cross as to the only
God is clearly explained. The fact remains that this         ground of their salvation.
is the means which the Holy Spirit uses to work                 Our calling with respect to the means of grace is
faith in our hearts.                                         plain: we must not neglect them, we must use
  The Spirit confirms this faith by means of the             them. If we neglect them, we shall surely starve
sacraments. The sacraments are visible signs and             spiritually. Using them we have the only comfort in
seals of the invisible grace of God. They are signs          life and in death because the Holy Ghost will work
ordained by God to represent His grace: the water            faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel
of baptism signifies the washing away of our sins            and confirm it by the use of the sacraments. By
by the blood of Christ and the bread and wine are            these means the church will be gathered,  pre-
signs of the body and blood of our Lord. The                 served, and delivered up into glory.
sacraments are also seals, and a seal is a guarantee





                                    The Prayer Of Faith
                                                   Gise J. Van Buren





  "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man              There are many passages of Scripture which
availeth much" (James 5:16).-There  are those times           speak of the power of prayer. James, in the  often-
when one could almost wish that the text meant, as            quoted chapter 5, states in verses 13-16, "Is any
some would insist, that such prayer could heal the            among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry?
sick or raise the dead. Just yesterday, we had the            Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let
funeral service for a little seven-year-old boy. His          him call for the elders of the church; and let them
brother and a friend remain hospitalized in critical          pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name
condition  - all this, after an automobile "acci-             of the Lord; `and the prayer of faith shall save the
dent". If only one could pray over those and restore          sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
to life and full health! Do not others claim this             committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess
power? Does not Scripture speak of such power?                your faults one to another, and pray one for
Did not Jesus and His disciples so work? Is not the           another, that ye may be healed." Christ Himself
Spirit of Pentecost yet with us today?                        declared in Matthew  17:20, "If ye have faith as a
  But our prayers were not for that kind of miracle.          grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this moun-
In humble submission, we could only pray, "Thy                tain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall
will be done."                                                remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto
                                                              you."
  There is a relationship between living faith and
lively prayer. He who has faith, prays. He who                  Does the believer's prayer have the power to
prays in truth, can do so only out of faith. Faith pro-       remove literal mountains or heal sick people or
duces prayer, and prayer strengthens faith.                   raise the dead?  Pentecostals teach this  - though
                                                              none of them, to the best of my knowledge, has
                                                              ever claimed to have moved a mountain.
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed
Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.                                Scripture teaches the power of the prayer of


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                4 4 9



faith. The power is greater than the ability merely         states in  1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him
to move physical objects or heal the physically sick.       ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and up-
Christ, of course, is not speaking of literal moun-         braideth not; and it shall be given him."
tains  - there would be no point in moving literal            We are to ask for divine guidance and care in our
mountains. But the trials, the difficulties of life, the    daily lives. He has promised to be with us even to
problems one faces, the "mountains" of life  -              the end of the world. He has promised that no man
these all have been dealt with through prayer.              can snatch us out of  ,His hand. He has promised
James likewise speaks, in connection with the               that all things work together for our good. For all of
prayer for healing, of sins: "if he have committed          this we are to ask Him. In the way of our asking, we
sins, they shall be forgiven him", and, "confess            also receive all of this.
your faults one to another and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed." The primary em-              We are to pray to Him in times of trouble and
phasis is upon the removal of the offence. There is a       adversity. Sickness comes. Death strikes. Persecu-
spiritual sickness, more real than physical illness,        tion and imprisonment occur. We know not the
which is healed in the way of earnest prayer and            outcome of all of these. Therefore, in the way of
godly confession. The prayers of the saints truly           prayer, we ask that God will provide. We present to
avail much. Let none minimize the value and                 Him our own needs, believing that He will answer
necessity of prayer.                                        us in harmony with His will. Of course, in sickness
                                                            and suffering, we pray for relief: healing, if it be His
  Prayer is the chief part of thankfulness, accord-         will; grace to face the last enemy, death, if He
ing to our Heidelberg Catechism. By it, we give             should so determine. He knows, and we tell Him,
thanks to our God for our marvelous salvation;              of our desire to remain here on the earth for a time.
through it, we have our faith strengthened. The             He knows whether it is more needful for us to re-
same catechism reminds us, "God will give his               main here now  - or whether it is the time to be
grace and Holy Spirit to those only, who with               taken to be with our Lord in glory.
sincere desires continually ask them of him, and
are thankful for them." We are taught there also of           The prayer of faith receives an answer. We pray,
the requisites of proper prayer, among which are,           knowing that truth. We pray not in ignorance of the
"that we be fully persuaded that he, notwithstand-          will of our God. We can not just pray for whatever
ing that we are unworthy of it, will, for the sake of       enters our minds - with the pious claim that God
Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer, as he           will answer the prayer in His own way. But praying
has promised us in his word" (L.D. 45).                     in harmony with His Word, we know we receive a
                                                            proper answer. We look for that, believing that we
  Active faith, then, does not simply wait to see           shall receive.
what God will send us. Rather, prayer is deeply
connected with this faith. "Ask, and it shall be              Scripture also reminds us of the urgency of
(Tiven you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it          prayer. In Luke 18, Christ spoke the parable of the
ghall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh         importunate widow in order to teach us that "men
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him          ought always to pray and not to faint." In I Thess.
that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matt. 7:7-8).            5:17 we are taught, "Pray without ceasing." The
  The prayer of faith requires first of all a thorough      man of faith is a man of prayer.
knowledge of Scripture. One can not simply come               There are, however, times which prayer seems
before God's throne  - and ask for anything he              impossible. Not infrequently, I have heard the very
pleases. This is the error of the Pentecostal. He           ill state, "I can't pray". These even might feel guil-
would ask for anything and everything. One reads            ty because of that fact. Their affliction is so
of those who pray the divine guidance of the Spirit         grievous, their mind so clouded, that words of
to find a certain address within a city. Another may        prayer can not cross their lips. But our gracious
ask a special sign from heaven to indicate the              God has made provision for those situations also. In
answer to a certain question, as: should I take this        Romans  8:26 we read, "Likewise the Spirit also
particular job? God indicates in His Word that He           helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we
has given to His people sanctified wisdom. He has           should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself
set forth His law which must guide us. The Chris-           maketh intercession for us with groanings which
tian must be guided by these to make decisions              cannot be uttered." Then we are never without that
which are pleasing to our God.                              wonderful gift of prayer: either we ourselves pray,
  But in the Word, God has promised other things            or the Spirit Himself prays for us.
to us in the way of our asking. He has promised us            Prayer is the means whereby faith is strength-
those spiritual blessings of love, grace, mercy,            ened. Without diligent prayer, faith becomes
truth, and wisdom through Jesus Christ. James               weak. There are those times when the Christian


450                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



becomes so involved in earthly affairs that he has         tionship with our Father in heaven.
little time for earnest prayer. He may utter a hasty          Never think that faith exists without prayer. The
prayer but has not a great deal of time to spend           active faith revels in prayer to God. Faith grows
with his Lord. Such a one also shows, in all that he       and develops in the way of earnest prayer. Seek not
does, that he is not seeking those things which are        what God has not promised; but ask for that which
heavenly. It is when the Spirit guides in greater          is ours through Jesus Christ  - and you shall
faithfulness, when there is repentance of our sins of      receive.
neglect, that one also enjoys that blessed, close rela-





                                  Faith And Creation
                                                  Herman C. Hanko





  Evolutionism is not new in the church. Already            with the evolutionists themselves and with a refu-
in the forties, when I was going to grade school,           tation of their position. Nor am I concerned really
evolutionism was not foreign to the Christian               with those evolutionists within Christian churches
School system. I was, e.g., taught in grade school          who have sold the truth of creation for a mess of
geography classes that the Appalachian Mountains            evolutionistic pottage, and who have done this by
in the East were much lower than the rugged                relegating the whole of the creation account in
Rockies in the West because the Rockies were                Scripture to the trash heap of myth or saga or
newer mountains than the Appalachians; the latter           poetry, or whatever happens to be the latest fad.
had eroded for many more millions of years and              They have denied the Bible and have forfeited their
had been worn down over this long period of time.           right to be members of the Christian church.
When I was going to Calvin I had some of my
science courses with Dr. John De Vries, the author            What does concern me is the whole question of
of "Beyond The Atom," and the one, more than               the relation between faith and creation. When I
anyone else, responsible for introducing evolution-         was taking a course in Physical Science with Dr.
ism in Calvin by means of his "Period Theory."             John De Vries in Calvin, he emphasized correctly
                                                           the importance of faith as the starting point in the
  Since those days I have followed the  creation-           scientific work of the Christian. But when he got
evolution debate with a keen interest and read as           around to talking about faith, he would often
much of the material as possible. Especially the            remark that Christians ought not to be scorned by
writings of the men from the Creation Research             unbelievers for starting with faith, for unbelieving
Society were attractive to me and their defense of         scientists did the same thing: they too started with
creation in six 24-hour days cheered me.                    faith. This struck me as being strange. But it soon
  But over the years it seemed to me that in one im-        became evident that faith was being defined some-
portant respect the debate missed the point and the        thing like this: "Faith is an acceptance of unproved
antagonists in the debate seemed either to be talk-         (and unprovable) assumptions." The believer starts
ing past each other or talking about less than funda-      with a faith which accepts the Bible as the Word
mental questions. These questions really have to do        of God  - something which he cannot prove, at
with the subject of this article: "Faith and               least in a rational or logical way. But the unbe-
Creation."                                                 liever does the same thing. The basic assumptions
  In order to understand what I want to say, it            on which he operates are equally unprovable.
might be wise to back up a bit. I am not concerned         E.g., he cannot prove the eternity of matter or ex-
                                                           plain how matter, from which all things developed,
Herman C. Hanko is professor of New Testament and          came into existence. So we both start out with faith;
Church History in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.        only we both believe different things.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 451



  This same method often appeared in the writings           this negatively exactly to set forth the truth over
of the men from the Creation Research Society. I do         against evolutionism. The positive truth is found in
not want to leave the impression that I do not ap-          many other places: Rom.  4:17; Gen. 1, 2; Ps.  33:6;
preciate much of the work which they are doing.             Ex.  20:11, etc.
Nevertheless, I sense a basic flaw in their argumen-          The question is how God created the world. Did
tation. They argue that the evidence in the world           God call in a moment every creature into existence
about us is just as strong, if not stronger, for crea-      by the Word of His sovereign power? That is what
tionism than it is for evolutionism; and their whole        Scripture teaches. Or did God create in some evolu-
apologetic is based upon the assumption that crea-          tionistic way so that higher forms of life developed
tion can be proved from evidence in the natural             from lower forms? That is a denial of Scripture, and
world. They too will admit that there are  unprov-          all kinds of talk to the contrary can never change
able assumptions in this approach, but they insist          that.
that, while these must be accepted by faith, so the           Hebrews  11:3 goes on to say that this truth con-
evolutionists also rest their case on unprovable            cerning creation can only be understood by faith. It
assumptions which must be accepted by faith.                is not quite put that way in the text. The text
Again we have the same implied definition of faith:         asserts, "Through faith we understand that the
the acceptance of that which cannot be rationally           worlds were framed by the word of God . . . ." But
demonstrated. When I corresponded some years                the obvious implication of this is that faith is the on-
ago with the men of this organization on this ques-         ly way that creation can be understood. No other
tion, their response was that this approach to the          way will ever really lead to the truth of creation. I
problem was necessary because they were fighting            am absolutely convinced that the world about us
a battle (still going on) to win recognition for crea-      gives evidence of creation and that it contains not
tionism in the courts, particularly as an approach to       one shred of evidence for evolutionism. But this is
the teaching of science in the public schools. This is      beside the point. All the evidence from every
understandable. If they want creationism to be              branch of the physical sciences will never lead one
taught along side of evolutionism in the public             to faith in creation. One may carry on years of
schools as the approach taken in the science                study in geology, astronomy, comparative
courses, they have to prove that creation is good           anatomy, and all the rest, but such a study cannot
science and scientifically demonstrable.                    and will not lead one to the truth of creation. Scrip-
  But all this is nevertheless unsatisfactory. And it       ture says that one understands this by faith. If one
is unsatisfactory because the definition of faith           has faith, whether he be a child of five, or a man of
which is implied in all this is far from the Scriptural     sixty who has never taken a course in any science,
definition of faith. Even this un$riptural definition       he understands creation better than the one who
of faith would not be so bad if it were not for the         has three  PhD's in biology. One can only arrive at
fact that Scripture itself expressly connects faith         the doctrine of creation by faith.
and the truth of creation. I refer to Hebrews  11:3.          But faith is not a mere acceptance of unprovable
After defining faith as "the substance of things            assumptions. Hebrews itself tells us what faith is. It
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," Scrip-         is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
ture goes on in this passage to say: "Through faith         of things not seen." Without going into detail about
we understand that the worlds were framed by the            the exegesis of this statement, the point Scripture is
word of God, so that things which are seen were             making is simply this: Faith is that power by which
not made of things which do appear." Certainly it           the believing child of God clings to the promise of
ought to be clear to all that this passage has a lot to'    God and accepts that promise as true  - all
say about creation and faith.                               evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
 One of the first things which the passage says is            Now that is a crucially important point. It means
that creation took place by the Word of God. And            that faith is a gift of God, a part of God's work of
the result of this Word of God was that,  `Yhings           salvation in the hearts of His people, a blessing
which are seen were not made of things which do             merited on the cross of Jesus Christ, a gift which
appear." This is clearly the very opposite of what          belongs only to those who are saved. Faith in crea-
evolutionism says. Evolutionism teaches that                tion is part of faith in Christ and can never be
things which are seen are made from things which            divorced from it.
do appear. Everything we see in the world about us
is, according to evolutionism, a development from             This means all sorts of things, but two points
other visible things. The Scriptures say that this is       need especially to be mentioned here.
not so. The things which we see were not made of              In the first place, the work of creation is in-
things which do appear. This is a negative state-           separably related to salvation. It has been said so
ment. And it would seem that the Holy Spirit put            often one wearies of hearing it that Scripture is not


452                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



a scientific textbook (I have never known, heard of        saving faith in Christ that we are able to understand
nor read of anyone who ever said it was), and that         the truth of creation.
whether we accept the first chapters of Genesis as           The second point which needs saying is exactly
literal or figurative, is unimportant, for faith rests     that the battle between creationists and evolution-
in that part of Scripture which reveals to us salva-       ists is not a battle over evidence in the natural
tion in Christ. This kind of talk is a red herring to      world. It is not a question of whether creation can
divert the argument into other channels. It is a bit       or cannot be proved. It is not a question of who
of stupid nonsense which destroys the unity of             comes up with the best arguments in a  creation-
Scripture. It is unbelieving philosophy which              evolution debate. To reduce the battle to this level
makes man wiser than God, for it gives to man the          is to miss the real nature of the battle and ultimate-
final right to pick and choose what parts of Scrip-        ly to lose it. If we are going to try to defeat an
ture he happens to want and what parts of Scrip-           enemy which attacks our country by fighting on a
ture he would just as soon get rid of. All Scripture is    different battlefield than he is fighting on and with
the infallibly inspired record of the revelation of        different weapons than he uses, we are lost before
God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, all Scripture speaks       we start. So in this battle. If the battle is only a ra-
of Christ. Every word of every verse is another            tionalistic battle between two camps each of whom
brush stroke in this marvelous portrait of Christ          are trying to show that he has the superior
Jesus our Lord and Savior which God has been               arguments, we are sunk. The battle is between faith
pleased to give us. This is also true of the creation      an.d unbelief. It is between those who believe in
story. We cannot discuss this in detail; but let the       Christ for their soul's salvation and those who hate
reader remember that this creation is the realm in         Christ and seek to destroy Him. There is where the
which God chose from all eternity to enact that            battle lines must be drawn, for there is where Scrip-
marvelous drama of sin and grace; that Paradise the.       ture draws them. It is a spiritual battle, and to
first is a picture of the heavenly Paradise; that this     forget this is basically to forget our calling to repre-
earthly was created after the pattern of the heaven-       sent the cause of God and His Christ in the world.
ly; that God's providential control of all He has
made is to direct every creature towards the goal of         By faith we believe the Scriptures. By faith we
the new heavens and new earth in which Christ              believe the Christ of the Scriptures. By faith we
shall be Lord of all. And therefore it is only by this     believe in creation. And by this faith we are saved.





       New Congregation Organized in Canada
                                                Thomas C. Miersma





   On May 12, 1987, the evening of a beautiful             Church of Isabel, South Dakota. Some eighty souls,
Alberta spring day, the Immanuel Protestant Re-            ranging in age from one month to seventy plus
formed Church of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada was              years, gathered to attend the organizational service.
organized. The new congregation was formed by              In addition to the Lacombe families those present
eight families and one individual, a total of thirty-      came primarily from the Edmonton congregation of
two souls. The service was held at St. Cyprian's           which the Lacombe families have been members.
Anglican Church where the new congregation will
also meet regularly and was conducted by Rev.                Lacombe is a Central Alberta community cen-
Thomas Miersma, Pastor of the First Protestant Re-         tered around grain and hog farming, and is about
formed Church of Edmonton and by Rev. Dale                 the size of Hudsonville, Michigan. It is located
Kuiper, Pastor of the Hope Protestant Reformed             about halfway between Alberta's two major cities,


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                          453



                                                          and also of the commitment of the Lacombe
                                                          families who have all been members of Edmonton
                                                          for differing periods of time.
                                                            The history of Immanuel Protestant Reformed
                                                          Church goes back over eight .years  to some contacts
                                                          which were made by members of the Edmonton
                                                          church with two families and some single in-
                                                          dividuals from Lacombe. These began attending
                                                          services in Edmonton, and catechism classes and a
                                                          Bible study class in Lacombe were begun and con-
                                                          ducted by Rev. R. Moore, then pastor of Edmonton.
                                                          While one of these families and some of the single
                                                          individuals later left the group, the Lord has been
                                                          pleased to add to the number in Lacombe in a varie-
                                                          ty of ways. When Rev. Miersma first came to Ed-
                                                          monton in 1982, the group consisted of two
                                                          families, one newly established; and catechism
                                                          classes and Bible Study were held every other
                                                          week. During the year, another family joined the
                                                          group, having moved from our Lynden congrega-
                                                          tion, and soon after a mother and two daughters
                                                          joined, having moved from Kelowna, British Co-
The new Lacomhe congregation.                             lumbia. In time, the Lord brought one of these

Edmonton to the north, and Calgary to the south,
and is also located within a two to three hour drive
of the great Canadian Rockies. Over half of the men
in the new congregation are involved in some
aspect of farming, with the remainder in the build-
ing trades. One of the young wives is a teacher in
the Lacombe Christian School.
  The organization of Immanuel Protestant Re-
formed Church is a very special occasion in the
history of our churches, not only because it adds
another congregation to our denomination as a
whole, but also because it is the second Protestant
Reformed church to be organized in Canada (since
the early 1950's,  which churches later fell away). It
is a special event also for our Edmonton congrega-
tion which, though losing a third of its members,
will now have a nearby sister congregation. Nearby
is of course a relative term, as they are separated by
a distance of some ninety miles, but prior to this,
Edmonton's nearest neighboring congregation was
Lynden, Washington, approximately 750 miles dis-
tant.
  It is also significant in that it is the second con-
gregation to come into existence in Canada through        Meetingplace  of the new Lacombe congregation.
the church extension work of a local congregation.
Our Edmonton church itself was organized a little         daughters and a young man from the Edmonton
less than twelve years ago, as part of the church ex-     congregation together in marriage to form yet
tension work of our Lynden congregation. The              another family who eventually settled in Lacombe.
organization of Lacombe is the fruit of similar           The next year, the catechism classes and Bible
church extension work on the part of Edmonton             Study were changed to a weekly schedule, and the
                                                          Bible Study began meeting in a rented Lutheran
Thomas C. Miersma_is  pastor of the First Protestant      church, rather than in the homes of members, as it
Reformed Church of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.             had previously.


 454                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



   The group continued in this manner through
 1985, when the consistory of Edmonton deter-
 mined to start holding regular evening worship serv-
 ices in Lacombe on the second and fourth Sunday
 evenings of each month. This was, of course, in ad-
 dition to the two regular services in Edmonton.
 Through all these years the families in Lacombe
 commuted the ninety miles to and from Edmonton
 each Lord's Day. This they continued to do even
when the second evening service in Lacombe was
added, driving to Edmonton for the morning serv-
ice and returning to Lacombe for the evening serv-
ice. These services, as well as the Bible Study
were advertised in the local papers as well as by
posters, and we began to have a few visitors from
time to time. The Young People's Society of the Ed-      (L to R) Messrs. Irwin Tolsma, John Wierenga, Wilbur
monton congregation, which meets in the homes of         Linker.
families of the congregations, as Edmonton does
not have its own church building, also became in-        registration of members, election of officebearers
volved and began holding its meetings periodically       was conducted. Mr. Wilbur Linker and Mr. John
in Lacombe on Sundays when there were services           Wierenga were chosen as the new congregation's
in Lacombe. In the fall of 1986 the Lord brought         elders, and Mr. Irwin Tolsma as deacon. Rev.
another family into the group from the Lacombe           Kuiper read the Form for Installation. This was
area. This family had learned of our churches in         followed by the presentation of a set of  com-
part from relatives in Ontario who had had some          munionware as a gift from the Edmonton congrega-
contact through the mail with the church extension       tion, and by a letter of welcome. Rev. Kuiper, on
work of our South Holland congregation. This in-         pulpit supply to the new congregation, closed the
creased the number and size of the catechism             service and also preached for the newly organized
classes in Lacombe and the Young People's Society        congregation for their first Lord's Day together. He
not only grew but began to meet regularly once a         will be followed by many of the ministers of Classis
month in Lacombe. It became increasingly clear           West who will be preaching in Lacombe for two
that the Lord was blessing the labor in Lacombe          Lord's Days each.
and that it was time to move towards organization.         It is with deep gratitude to our Covenant God,
The needs of the Lacombe families also had made          Who alone builds His church that we record the
organization increasingly necessary. Lacombe is a        organization of the Immanuel Protestant Reformed
congregation of mainly young families with small         Church. The newly organized congregation also
growing children, and commuting ninety miles to          covets yours prayers on their behalf, that the Lord
and from Edmonton for church was becoming in-            Who has brought them thus far, will also keep
creasingly difficult. The addition of-another family     them in His care, faithful to His infallible Word,
therefore prompted the Lacombe members to begin          and to the truth we confess as Reformed believers.
seeking approval for organization. The Lord indeed       They now eagerly await the day when the Lord will
moves in ways beyond our expectations. As they           provide them with the under-shepherd of His
were in the process of seeking organization yet          choosing, who may lead them on a regular basis in
another family from the Lacombe area joined them,        the green pastures of His Word.
and another young family moved from Edmonton
to Lacombe because of employment.
  Thus it was with the approval of  Classis West
that Lacombe was given permission to organize. It
was with much joy that the families and friends              The Standard `Bearer
gathered to hold the service on May 13 and the Im-
manuel Protestant Reformed Church was organ-              makes a thoughtful gift
ized.
  Under the supervision of the Edmonton  con-              for the sick & shut-in.
sistory appointed by  Classis  West for that purpose
the service was conducted by Rev. Miersma who
preached on Psalm 132:13-16, "The Chosen Habita-
tion." At the first congregational meeting, following


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        4 5 5



                                        Book Reviews


T H E   C H U R C H   S T R U G G L E   I N   S O U T H     co-published by the H. Henry Meeter Center for
AFRICA, by John W. de Gruchy; Wm. B. Eerdmans               Calvin Studies and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Publishing Co., 1986; 290 pp., $10.95 (paper).              Company. BibZiotheca  Ccdviniana will include trans-
(Reviewed by` Prof. H. Hanko.)                              lations from French and Latin into English of the
  This book was originally published in 1979 and is         yet untranslated works of John Calvin, as well as
now being republished because of its enthusiastic           English translations of major European studies of
reception. It deals at some length with the history         Calvin."
of the church in South Africa and the history of race         If this first volume is a sample of the quality of
relations in the firm belief that the struggle with         the entire projected series, it will be worthwhile to
apartheid in that troubled country cannot be under-         collect the whole series as it is published. Ministers
stood apart from its historical context.                    and seminary students, though not they exclusive-
  If one wishes to know the perspective the book            ly, should add this volume to their libraries.
takes on the current struggle, it is sufficient to point
out that Alan Paton wrote the foreword and that the         CONFLICT AND CONTEXT,  HER&iENEUTICS
book is recommended by Desmond Tutu and Allan               IN THE AMERICAS;  Edited by Mark Lau  Bran-
Boesak.                                                     son and C. Rene Padilla; Wm. B. Eerdmans
                                                            Publishing Co., 1986; 323 pp., $13.95 (paper).
INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTLAN  RELIGION,                      (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)
1536 EDITION,  John Calvin (Translated and An-                Since this book is written by several different
notated by Ford Lewis Battles); Wm. B. Eerdmans             authors, we can best give the general idea of the
Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. 396 pp., ISBN           book by quoting from the blurb.
0-8028-2319-X, Cloth, $25.00. (Reviewed by Prof.                 Organized to investigate the implications of the
H.C. Hoeksema)                                                 growing trend toward contextualization of the gospel,
  This is the earliest edition of Calvin's  Institutes,        the "Context and Hermeneutics in the Americas Con-
written when he was just twenty-seven years old. It            ference" was held in November, 1983.
was published in Basel, Switzerland, in 1536. The                This book is a collection of papers, study group
definitive and authoritative edition is, of course,            reports, and transcriptions of plenary discussions
that of 1559, which was considerably revised and               from that conference. It records the lively, candid,
enlarged in comparison with this 1536 edition. If              and occasionally fiery discussions that took place
you are acquainted at all thoroughly with the 1559             when a culturally and denominationally diverse
edition, you will immediately sense the difference             group of Christians grappled with vital issues facing
between it and this 1536 edition. Yet you will also            the church.
be amazed at this 1536 edition and will be able to               Among the questions addressed at the conference
sense something of its significance and impact for             were: How does a church's cultural context affect its
the time when it was written, the early part of the            interpretation of the Bible? What impact does this
Reformation period.                                            have on such basic theological concepts as
                                                               Christology, soteriology, and ecclesiology? What
  The value of this book is enhanced by: 1) The                dangers exist in contextual hermeneutics? What
more than 100 pages of notes concerning the 1536               checks can be helpful?
edition by Ford Lewis Battles. 2) The index which             The book gives ample evidence of the distorted
enables one to compare the 1536 and the 1559 edi-           hermeneutics which underlies liberation theology.
tions. 3) The several interesting appendices on
various subjects.                                           THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD, OPPOSI-
  The publishing. of this book is actually a  ,joint        TION, TENSION,  Ofi TRANSFORMATION?  by
venture of the Wm. B. Eerdmans Company and the              Robert E. Webber. Zondervan Publishing House,
H. Henry Meeter Center For Calvin Studies at                1986; 333 pp., $11.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof.
Calvin College. A note informs the reader: "This            H. Hanko.)
translation of the 1536 edition of John Calvin's In-          The author is associate professor of theology at
stitutes is the first volume in Bibliotheca CaZviniana,     Wheaton College and has written this book
a library of books by and about John Calvin to be           primarily as a text for college and seminary courses


                                                                                                                                                        1
                                                                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                            P.O. Box 6064
                                                                                                                   Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516





456                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER

dealing with church and society issues. Yet the                                                           NOTICE!!!
broader and stated purpose is to provide pastors                                  Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in
and laymen alike with some understanding of the                            Pella, IA on Wednesday, September 2, 1987, at 8:30 AM, the Lord
role of the church in social and political issues                          willing. All delegates in need of lodging or of transportation from the
                                                                           Des Moines airport should notify the Clerk of the  Pella Consistory.
which confront her.                                                                                              Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
   The book is mainly historical  - and this is its
chief value  - tracing the history of the church in                                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
relation to the state from the time of Pentecost to                               On August 15, 1987, our parents and grandparents, MR. AND
present-day conservative and liberal movements,                             MRS. STUART J. BYLSMA, will celebrate their 40th wedding anni-
including the Moral Majority and the Catholic                              versary. We, their children and grandchildren, rejoice with them and
                                                                           would like to thank them for the years of love and covenant instruc-
bishops' statements on social issues. The book pro-                        tion they have given us. It is our constant prayer that God will con-
motes a social activism and particularly from a                            tinue to bless and keep them in His care.
general post-millennial position. It has a great deal                             "The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
of worthwhile historical material  in it and has                           time forth and even for evermore." (Psalm 121:8)
become a rather influential book in neo-evangelical                        Gary and Marilyn Bylsma                Tim and Sharon Rus
circles.                                                                   Rich and Marcia Flikkema               Phyllis Bylsma
                                                                           Jan and Carole tenHaaf                    and 17 grandchildren

                                                                                               SYMPATHY  RESOLUTIOni
                                                                                  The Adult Bible Society of Byron Center Protestant Reformed
                                                                           Church expresses Christian sympathy to the Bill Oomkes family in the
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       death of a father and grandfather, JOE OOMKES on June 17, 1987.
   The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Re-              "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I
formed Church wishes to express their heartfelt sympathy to Jerry          would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
and Shirley Vander Kolk and family in the sudden death of their son,       prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto my-
JARED, on June 24, 1987.                                                   self; so that where I am ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3)
   "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the
name of the Lord." (Job I:2 1)                                                                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                               Joel Zandstra, Pres.               On July 28, 1987 our parents, MR. AND MRS. DICK KOOIENGA,
                                               Kathy Feenstra, Sec'y.      celebrated their 60th anniversary. We rejoice with them and give
                                                                           thanks to God for their love and the covenant training they have given
                         IN MEMORIAM                                       us.
                                                                                  We pray that He will continue to bless them in the years He may
   The Consistory of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church of Red-           give them.
lands expresses its deep sympathy to its fellow member, Elder Ed
Gritters and family, in the sorrow experienced in the loss of their               "So we thy people and sheep of the pasture will give thee thanks
young grandson, JARED VANDER KOLK, who was killed in a severe              forever; we will show forth thy praise to all generations." (Psalm
automobile accident.                                                       79:13)
   Jehovah is our comfort, He is the Rock in Whom we trust and Who         Bob and Joan Miedema                 Don and Mary Kooienga
gives grace that we may confess: - "As for me, I will behold Thy           Earl and Lois Dykstra                Stan and Bette Dykstra
face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy like-    Rog and Lucille Kooienga                34 grandchildren
ness." (Psalm 17: 15)                                                      Arnold and Donna Dykstra                56 great-grandchildren
                                                                           Don and Judie Sall
                                  Rev. K. Koole, President
                                  Charles E. Van Meeteren, Vice Pres.                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                          The Sunday School teachers and students of the Hudsonville Prot-
                                                                           estant Reformed Church wish to express their sincere Christian sym-
  The Consistory of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church             pathy to Jerry and Shirley Vander Kolk in the sudden death of their
extend its sincere Christian sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Vander         son, and to Brian, Brent, and Joel in the loss of their brother, JARED
Kolk in the death of their son JARED LEE.                                  LEE VANDER KOLK on June 24, 1987.
  "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."             "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
(Psalm 1 16: 15)                                                           dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
                                             Rev. G. Van Baren, Pres.      eternal in the heavens." (II Corinthians 5:l)
                                             Henry Boer, Sec'y.                                                      John Mulder, Superintendent


