A Reformed         BBK
Semi-Monthly
Magazine             ..----.----_-




Vol. 64, No. 77
March 7, 7988


Contents                                                                                               -z-K
                                                                          March  I,1988                 ,r  IL
                                                                                                  STANDARD
Meditation - James D. Slopsema                                                                      .BMR
led By God's Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242
Editorials  -                                                                                     ISSN  0362-4692
                                                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
As To Evolution At Dordt College (5). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244                  `and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
Calvin Professors Cleared ...............................247                                      lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                                  at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
"The Good Old Days!' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248         EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
                                                                                                  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
Contribution  - Bruce Van. Solkema                                                                DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Perspective From The Pew (continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :249                     Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
                                                                                                  .Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
All Around Us - Gise  /. Van  Baren                                                               Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
                                                                                                  Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A.  Heys,  Rev.  J.,Korter-
Crisis In Religious Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250          ing, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
                                                                                                  Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Gise  1. Van
"Free"Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..25  1    Baren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
Taking Heed To The Doctrine  i Ronald H. Hanko                                                    EDITORIAL OFFICE
                                                                                                  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
The Two Natures of Christ - The Humanity of Christ . . . . . . .252                               4975  lvanrest  Ave., S.W.
                                                                                                  Crandville,  Michigan 49418
The Day of Shadows  -  ]ohn A. Heys                                                               CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                  Mr. Ben Wigger
AShadowOfThingsTdCome(1).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254                         6597  - 40th Ave.
Decency And Order  - Ronald L. Cammenga                                                           Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
                                                                                                  EDITORIAL POLICY
The lawful Calling(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257    Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
                                                                                                  of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
From Holy Writ  - George C. Lubbers                                                               terest from our readers and questions for the
                                                                                                  Question Box Department are welcome. Contribu-
Exegetical Sketches On Micah 6:1-8 (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259                   tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
BookReview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..26 2     and must be  neatly   written.or   typ.ewritten,  and
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                                                                                                  provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
 Meditation                                         Cod'sIpeople often have dif-                  reproduced in full;  b) that proper acknowledge-
                                                                                                  ment is made;  c) that a copy of the periodical in
                                                 ficulty reconciling themselves to                which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial
James 0. Slopsema                                the sufferings God sends them.                   office.
                                                                                                  BUSINESS OFFICE
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receive me to glory.                                                                              ADVERTISING POLICY
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                                                 there all was made plain Asaph                   volumes may be obtained through the Business
James D. Slopsema is pastor of Hope              saw the end of the Lord. He saw                  Office.
                                                                                                  16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and  I&mm
Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,                                                               microfiche, and article copies are available
Michigan.                                        the purpose of God in His deal-                  through University Microfilms International.


242 I The Standard Bearer


ings both with the righteous and         After much soul searching,            better to walk with the wicked
the wicked.                            Asaph concluded that he had             that we may prosper with them?
  Yes, the Lord sends prosperity       cleansed his heart in vain. It real-    In bitterness of soul the child of
to the wicked. But this is to put      ly did not pay to serve the Lord.       God often struggles with these
the wicked on slippery places          He might just as well live with         questions.
that they may be brought to            the wicked that he might enjoy           * * *  * * * * * * *
desolation in a moment.                the prosperity of the wicked.
  But the righteous God leads to         Neither is it any different to-              Asaph went to the sanctuary of
glory, even by the sufferings He       day.                                    God in the temple. And there all
places on their pathway.                 Also today the righteous suffer       was made plain to him.
                                                                                      We do well to go with Asaph
  Hence, Asaph confessed,              while the wicked prosper.
"Thou shalt guide me with thy            Certainly the wicked are those        into God's sanctuary, that we too
counsel, and afterward receive         who prosper today. That is not          may learn.
me to glory."                          true, of course, of all the wicked.            In the sanctuary of God Asaph
  What peace this biought to           Many of the wicked in today's           learned about God's counsel.
Asaph's troubled soul.                 world suffer horribly as they           Asaph.learned that nothing hap-
  What peace it brings to every        come under the just judgment of         pens by chance. All things take
righteous soul that tastes the bit-    God for their sin. Nevertheless, it     place only as God has eternally
terness of suffering.                  is also true that prosperity is         predetermined them in His
* * * * * * * * * *                    found chiefly among the wicked          counsel. This includes not only
                                                                               the prosperity of the wicked but
  The lives of God's people are        of today's world. The rich,             also the sufferings of the
often filled with suffering.           the powerful, the famous, the no-       righteous. Prosperity and suffer-
  This was Asaph's experience.         ble, the high and mighty of our         ing do not just happen. God has
  By his own confession Asaph          day are not found as a rule             predetermined them. And accord-
was a righteous child of God. He       among the righteous, but among          ing to this sovereign predeter-
was a man of a clean heart. For        the wicked. It is the wicked who        mination God brings prosperity to
he had cleansed his heart and          find great prosperity. And often        the wicked and suffering to the
washe'd his hands with the blood       their prosperity is the direct          righteous.
of the Lamb.                           result of their willingness to tram-
                                       ple underfoot the holy law of                  Moreover, Asaph learned in
  Nevertheless, he was plagued                                                 God's sanctuary that God was
all the day long. Every morning        God.                                    leading him through the suffer-
anew was he chastened. Asaph             But the lot of the righteous is       ings God brought to him.
knew what it meant to suffer. He       often that of suffering. Again                 God was also leading the
was a man of sorrows.                  there are exceptions. Sometimes         wicked through the prosperity He
  This was difficult for Asaph to      the righteous also find earthly         sent to them. Through the pros-
understand and accept.                 prosperity. But more often they         perity of the wicked God was
  Why, if he served God with a         find suffering. And their suffering     setting the wicked on slippery
clean heart, did he suffer so?         is often the direct result of their     places, that they might be cast
  And what about the wicked he         righteousness. How often, for ex-       down into eternal destruction.
observed around him? Pride com-        ample, do not the righteous suf-               But through the sufferings God
passed them about as a chain;          fer poverty because with a clean        sent to Asaph, God was leading
violence covered them as a gar-        heart they honor the command            him to glory.
ment. They set their mouth             of God to be honest in business,               This glory is the glory of
against heaven and their tongue        to be in subjection to their            heaven. It is the great glory that
walked through the earth. How          employer, to seek first the             Christ has earned for all His peo-
unbelievingly wicked they were.        kingdom of God? And how often           ple through His suffering and
Yet they prospered. They were          are not the righteous also hated        death on the cross. It is the glory
not in trouble as other men were;      and opposed of all men exactly          which eye has not seen, nor ear
neither were they plagued like         because they serve the Lord their       heard, nor has yet entered into
other men. Their eyes stood out        God?                                    the heart of man to conceive. It
with fatness: they had more than         Yes, also today the righteous         is the glory so great that the suf-
heart could wish.                      suffer while the wicked prosper.
                                         And often we struggle as did          ferings of this present time are
                                       Asaph. Why must these things            not worthy to be compared with
                                       be? Does it really pay to serve         it.
                                       the Lord? Perhaps it would be


                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer / 243


   To this glory God leads all His     thing that earns for us the glory         And so God often sends adver-
beloved people to Christ.              of heaven is the faithful obe-         sity and suffering. Through suffer-
   And he leads them there even        dience of Jesus Christ on the          ing we are humbled before God.
through the sufferings He has or-     cross.                                  Through adversity we learn to
dained for them in His eternal           However, having earned for us        live in conscious dependence
counsel!                              the glory that is to come through       upon God. When we hurt, we are
* * * * * * * * * *                   Jesus Christ, His Son, God also         inclined to seek the things above
   Suffering leads to glory!          leads us to that glory. And the         rather than the things below.
   How strange this may seem to       way that He leads His people to         Through suffering we are kept
us!                                   glory is the way of faithful obe-       faithful to our heavenly Father.
   But what an important reality      dience to Him.                            And so into the life of every
to understand!                           That His people may walk in          saint, beloved of God, there is
   Never must we forget that the      this way God often sends them           suffering. Through that suffering
only way to glory is the way of       suffering.                              God is leading His own. He is
righteousness.                           We may long for prosperity.          leading them in the paths of
   Many deceive themselves at         But we must understand that             righteousness so that after this
this point. Many think that they      prosperity is not always good for       life He may receive them into
can live like the devil and one       us. How easy it is in the time of       glory.
day be received by God into His       prosperity to forget about the            Having learned of God these
glory. Asaph found this was not       Lord our God. How easily we are         truths in God's sanctuary, Asaph
true. In God's sanctuary he           lifted up in pride. How quickly         became content in his suffering.
learned that the way of wicked-       we find ourselves not living in           Trusting the Lord's leading, we
ness leads to destruction.            conscious dependence upon God.          too can find peace in the midst of
   No, the only way to glory is       How soon we forget God's com-           our sufferings so that we confess
the way of faithful obedience to      mandments in prosperity, and            with Asaph, "Truly God is good
God.                                  walk in our own ways. No, we            to Israel, even to such as are of a
   This does not mean, of course,     can not always handle prosperity.       clean heart." Cl
that our faithfulness to God earns    Prosperous times can be very
or merits this glory. The only        dangerous for the child of God.





                                      As To Evolution At
                                            Dordt College (5)
                                      Calvin Professors Cleared
 Editorials                           "The Good Old Days"

                                      As To Evolution At                      claims to occupy, that it can
                                      Dordt College (5)                       adopt virtually all the hypotheses
                                        It is characteristic of a theory      of evolutionism (and they are
                                      such as "old earth creationism"         precisely that, hypotheses, not
                                      (or, as it is also called: "progres-    scientific data), `but here and
                                      sive creationism"), which is the        there inject some elements of
                                      position that Prof. Hodgson             creation, sufficient - at least in

244 I The Standard Bearer


the minds of its proponent5 - to          On page 90 he begins a treat-        out of Africa. 3) He was a tool
justify the claim that they are        ment of "Genus Homo" (Genus             maker and user, having more ad-
creationists. This struck me again     Man, HCH). The first of the three       vanced type tools than H. habilis.
in connection with the con-            species belonging to this genus is      4) There is evidence of his con-
cluding statements by Prof.            Homo habilis. This is said to be        trolled use of fire for heating and
Hodgson in his speech at the           "the first of the three species         cooking. 5) He made -shelters of
Hillsdale College Debate when he       which are now recognized as             wood and stone, lived in groups
said: "The possibility, however,       distinctively human by paleoan-         with others. 6) Spoken communi-
of divine creation of some basic       thropologists. We are informed          cation skills may have been fairly
life forms, particularly at the        that "A number of specimens             well developed. 7) No informa-
higher taxonomic levels, over          (although no complete skeletons)        tion at present about burial or
widely spaced intervals of time -      have been recovered in eastern          religious practices.
not just a few thousand years          Africa in the past two decades.            That brings us to Homo sa-
now - is a possibility which can-      Homo habilis appeared (by act of        piens, our own species. Again I
not be ruled out on the basis of       divine creation, or by evolution        will not reproduce all the details
present scientific observational       from some australopithecene,            offered by Dr. Hodgson. Let me
evidence." With a position like        depending upon one's point of           call attention to a few salient
this, of course, one can say that      view) approximately 2.2 million         allegations (I will not call them
he holds to both creation and          years ago, and flourished until         facts): 1) There is much
evolution. It makes no difference      about 1.6 million years ago,            evidence to suggest that H. sa-
to me whether this evolution is        when it probably became                 piens indeed evolved out of H.
what is called "micro-evolution"       extinct." Further, it is stated that    erectus.  2) This species can be
or "macro-evolution" or "mega-         remains have only been found in         subdivided into at least four ma-
evolution;" it is evolution, and it    Africa, and that quite possibly         jor sub-species: a) H. sapiens
provides room for all the alleged      Africa was its only home.               rhodesiensis, found in Zambia
data (hypotheses) of evolution.           After a paragraph about the          (formerly Rhodesia) in 1921. b)
But the tidbits of creation which      brain capacity of this species and      Homo sapiens steinheimensis,
are injected into this evolutionary    about an alleged important find         found in Germany. c) Homo sa-
process will never satisfy one         of a specimen by Richard Leakey         piens heanderthalensis. (Neander-
who holds to the Biblical truth of     in 1972, we are told: 1) That           thal man, HCH), who flourished
creation; and what is worse, they      Homo habilis was bipedal, and           in Eurbpe from about 130,000 to
do not do justice to the Word of       walked upright. 2) That he was a        30,000 years ago. Not dull witted.
God concerning creation.               toolmaker, making and using             Buried their dead, with religious
  Dr. Hodgson's position in the        simple stone tools. 3) That thus        artifacts, which testify to their
Hillsdale College Debate comes         far no evidence regarding any           belief, however imperfect their
out more clearly in a syllabus         burial or religious practices has       theology, in life after death. No
which he has published in con-         been` found. 4) That at a recent        reason to doubt his full humanity
nection with his instruction at        conference arguments were               and capacity for abstract and
Dordt College. This syllabus is        prksented that Homo habilis was         religious thought. Disappeared
entitled  HISTORICAL GEOLOGY,          capable of speech (in light of the      quickly, in a few thousand years'
Supplementary Papers for               size of his brain and the enlarge-      time, at the same time that Homo
Students of Geology, Paleoanthro-      ment of Broca's and Wernicke's          sapiens sapiens (our supposed
pology,  and the Planetary             areas, which are associated with        sub-species) appeared in the form
Sciences. This is the Fourth Edi-      language in modern humans).             of the Cro-Magnons.  d) Horn.0 sa-
tion, "Revised and Enlarged in           Keep the above data in mind           piens sapiens, about which Dr.
the Light of Recent Discoveries,"      with a view to our discussion a         Hodgson states the following:
and published in April, 1987. I        bit later.                                This sub-species is well known to us,
will limit myself to the material         Next comes Homo erectus. We          and the history of its activities fills
on Paleoanthropology in this           mention the following alleged           libraries. [How far back in time does the
syllabus. [In popular language,                                                history in libraries go? HCH] Quite
                                       data about this species, without        possibly H. sapiens sapiens may go back
Paleoanthropology is the study of      going into all the details fur-         as much as 100,000 years in southern
so-called "prehistoric man."]          nished by Dr. Hodgson: 1) He ap-        Africa as a recent find suggests, but this
                                       peared about 1.6 million years          is debated. In Europe the race was Cro-
                                       ago, probably descended from            Magnon, and appeared about 30,000 to
                                                                               35,000 years ago. In spi& of differences
                                       Homo habilis. 2) The first human        of skin color and other body features, all
                                       species known to have migrated          of the presently living human beings
                                                                               belong to this subspecies. We are all of

                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer / 245


one flesh and blood, and even one                 1) "First, one can begin an                the same may be true of the an-
subspecies. The indications are also that      answer by asserting that the                  tiquity of Adam and Eve. And he
only this subspecies ever made its way to      hominid fossils discussed in the              concludes, "It is hard for&us to
the New World via the Siberia-Alaska
land bridge, the initial migration of          earlier paper are all quite gen-              think of them as being so re-
which occurred at least 25,000 years ago,      uine," p. 101. And again, on p.               moved in time, and perhaps even
but more probably as long as 40,000            102 he writes: ". . . we must con-            looking rather unlike us, but that
years ago. (p. 97)                             clude that the several species of             may be our problem, and not a
   Now the reader should bear in               the genus Australopithecus, and               problem with the Bible or with
mind that Dr. Hodgson has                      the three known species of genus              the fossil evidence," (p. 105).
already established, as we have                Homo, really lived."                             At this point the author makes
seen in the beginning of this cri-                2) "Secondly, one should                   some significant concluding state-
tique, that Homo habilis is the first          acknowledge that the earlier                  ments.
species of Genus Homo recog-                   hominids were significantly                      The first is as follows, p. 105:
nized as "distinctively human."                similar to modern humankind,"                   Fossil evidence indicates development
He has also stated that Homo                   p. 102.                                       from Homo habilis to Homo erectus  to
habilis appeared, either by an act                3) "A third point to remember              Homo sapiens is a fairly gradual, con-
of divine creation, or by evolu-                                                             nected one of small transitions which
                                               is that we do not really have a
tion from some australopithecene                                                             may well represent a case of micro-
                                               good description in the Bible of              evolution. (The question arises: how
(the next lower genus, HCH), "de-              Adam and Eve and their off-                   "micro" is "micro"? Or: how many
pending upon one's point of                    spring." In this connection he                "micros" make a "macro" or a "mega"?
view," approximately 2.2 million               states, p. 103:                               HCH) This is true especially in the transi-
years ago.                                                                                   tion from H. erectus  to H. sapiens. It is
                                                 We must therefore be very careful not       generally agreed among paleoanthro-
   Before we proceed to the next               to carry stereotypes in our minds about       pologists that H. erectus, in the latter
stage of this critique, we should              how Adam and Eve looked. Not only             part of his career on Earth, did make
also note that in connection with              should we guard against presuming they        controlled use of fire, which does suggest
his discussion of Homo sapiens                 looked like modern Europeans, we must         his being truly human. Of course
                                               not assume that they were necessarily the
(see above) Dr. Hodgson also in-                                                             religious artifacts would be better
                                               same subspecies that we are - Homo sa-        evidence, but our knowledge of their arti-
serted the following note:                     piens sapiens. After all, as indicated in     facts is very limited thus far.
  An interesting theological problem is        our earlier paper, the Neanderthal (a dif-       Here, therefore, the author is'
posed by "Bode Man" found at Bodo,             ferent subspecies,  Homo sapiens neander-
Ethiopia in 1982. Dated about 300,000          thalensis) did bury their dead with           maintaining evolution, based on
years of age, and intermediate in skeletal     religious artifacts, indicating some kind     the alleged discoveries of paleo-
form between H. erectus and H. sapiens,        of belief in life after death. Theirs may     anthropology, from the earliest
the Bodo Man specimen appears to have          not have been a reformed theology, but        human species, Homo habilis, to
been scalped at or shortly before death.       at least some of them were religious, and     the latest, Homo sapiens, which
Scalping is a peculiarly human activity,       therefore must be regarded as truly           also includes our own sub-
and probably most Christians, upon             human. Therefore it follows, to express it
reflection, would agree it is the result of    in Christian terms, that Neanderthal was      species, Homo sapiens sapiens.
sin - an offense against the sixth com-        a descendent (sic) of Adam and Eve.              The next statement is this:
mandment. If so, sin came into the world          After this, Dr. Hodgson con-                  The Christian might intelligently argue
a long time ago. (p. 93)                       cedes that "the impression one                that Adam and Eve were the beginning
   All of the above leads, of                  gets from reading the Bible                   of genus Homo, perhaps even Homo
course, to the question: where do              would make Adam and Eve                       habilis. If so, that puts human origins
Adam and Eve fit into all of this                                                            more than two million years in time, a
                                               much more recent than 300,000                 real challenge to our imagination! That
scheme? And how is all this to be              years ago," and that "a few hun-              means perhaps 100,000 generations omit-
harmonized with the Biblical ac-               dred thousand years is a very                 ted between Adam and.Abraham - a
count of creation and the fall?                long time in the family tree, and             rather large number to accept. Knowing
   Dr. Hodgson, being a professed              does seem to strain belief con-               something of the scale of God's opera-
"progressive creationist," recog-                                                            tions in the rest of the universe, however,
                                               cerning the Genesis account."                 makes us realize that such very large
nized this problem, and he writes              But, he states, "belief has been              numbers are not without precedent.
about it in a chapter entitled,                strained before, and perhaps that                Here we may notice, in the
"Adam, Eve, and the Hominids,"                 is not all bad; it may be Gods                first place, that Dr. Hodgson does
(pp. 101-106).                                 desire to strain'our imagina-                 not state in so many words that
   In what may be called pre-                  tions," (p. 104). In addition, ap-            this is his own position. He only
liminary remarks on thissubject,               pealing to the alleged fact that              says that "The Christian might in-
Dr. Hodgson makes the following                also the age of the Earth and of              telligently argue . . ." as above.
points:                                        the Cosmos is much, much                      Yet in his earlier discussion of
                                               greater than we might believe at              Homo habilis he has already
                                               first impression, he suggests that

246 I The Standard Bearer


stated that this is the first of                 But now turn to your Bible.            Calvin Professors Cleared
three species which are now                      Read the simple, beautiful ac-            Our readers will recall that in
recognized as distinctively                    count of the creation of Adam            our columns it was reported
human by paleoanthropologists,                 and Eve in Genesis 1:26, 27.             earlier that the Board of Trustees
he has argued that the fossils                 Read the account of Gods bless-          of Calvin College and Seminary
"are all quite genuine," and he                ing upon them in Genesis                 had appointed a committee to in-
has stated that from a creation-               1:28-30. Read that God "saw              vestigate the teachings of three
ist's viewpoint Homo habilis ap-               everything that he had made,             college professors. One of these
peared by act of divine creation.              and behold, it was very good."           was Prof. Howard Van Till,
Keep this in mind, please, as we               vs. 31. Then read about Gods             whose book, The Fourth Day, I
proceed to the next statement:                 placing them in paradise, of the         criticized in earlier issues. The
  The Bible indicates that whenever            fact that man's calling was to           other two were Profs. Clarence
human beings first appeared, it was            dress and to keep the garden;            Menninga and Davis Young, both
because they were created by God, out of       read of the naming of the                geology professors. The secular
non-living material. If we are really will-
ing to be honest, we must admit that the       animals, of the formation of the         press - both the Detrdit Free
Biblical account of Adam and Eve cannot        woman. Read of Gods commands             Press and the Grand Rapids Press
be interpreted as supporting a doctrine        in connection with the two               - has been reporting on this
of human evolution from other creatures        special trees.                           matter from time to time. On the
much as some might wish otherwise.               Or read in Psalm 8 of man:
   From all of the above material                                                       front page of both its February
                                               "For thou hast made him a little         12 and February I3 issues, the
it follows:                                    lower than the angels, and hast
   1. Either that Dr. Hodgson                                                           Grand Rapids Press reported on
                                               crowned him with glory and               the outcome of the investigation,
believes that Adam and Eve were                honour. Thou madest him to               namely, that the three professors
Homo habilis and were created                  have dominion over the works of          were cleared. The February 12
some 2.2 million years ago -                   thy hands;: thou hast put all            edition did this under the
even as he says that Christians                things under his feet."                  headline, "Calvin profs criticized,
might intelligently argue;                       Or think of the fact that ac-
   2. Or that he leaves the door                                                        but not penalized." The February
                                               cording to our Confession, Article       13 edition carried the headline,
open for an even earlier alleged               14, man had originally many ex-          "Calvin students applaud ruling
species of Genus Homo to be                    cellent gifts of which he retained       absolving profs."
discovered. And indeed, in the                 only some remnants.                         It is not my purpose to report
concluding paragraphs of this                    Then go back earlier in this
chapter he becomes vague and                                                            all that was stated in these ar-
                                               editorial to what is stated by           ticles. I will try to cull from them
reminds the reader that there is               Prof. Hodgson about Homo
much we do not know on this                                                             what the Press reported concern-
                                               habilis.                                 ing the findings of the Board of
subject; and he suggests that fur-               And then ask yourself the
ther Biblical scholarship can shed                                                      Trustees and its committee, as
                                               question: was Adam 
more light on how we should                                           Homo              well as a few statements shed-
                                               Izabilis?                                ding light on the matter.
understand the Biblical accounts                 And also ask: what happens                First of all, the following ex-
of creation and early human                    when you attempt to mix a so-
history better. He also suggests                                                        cerpts from the Press of February
                                               :alled progressive creationism
that there may in the future be                                                         12:
                                               with the evolutionistic
many more important finds in-                                                           ** Calvin College's Board of Trustees ap-
                                               hypothesis?                              proved a report Thursday night that was
volving hominid fossils.                         May God give us grace to hold          "very critical" of three science professors
   Can anyone doubt that Prof.                 last to the Scripture truth of crea-     accused of teaching a form of evolution
Hodgson teaches evolution? He                                                           that conflicted with a literal interpreta-
                                               tion, with rejection of all that is
may try to call it "micro," and he                                                      tion of the Bible.
                                               repugnant thereto! 0              HCH      But the report called for no sanctions
may try to insert a kind of crea-                                                       against Clarence Menninga, Howard Van
tion here and there. The fact is                                                        Till or Davis Young,
that he adopts the whole evolu-                                                           A statement issued by the college today
tionistic hypothesis and he at-                                                         said their teachings "`fall within the limits
tempts to rescue himself by in-                                                         set by the Christian Reformed ChurchS
                                                                                        guidelines for how to interpret the Bible."
serting a little creation here and                                                      ** "The committee report was very
there.                                                                                  critical in a careful, pastoral and studied
                                                                                        way, " said the Rev. Charles De Ridder,
                                                                                        president of the Calvin College Board of
                                                                                        Trustees.


                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer I247


 ** Van Till, whose book on creation was        ** The professors said they are ready to         Day. I limited my criticism, in
 the focus of much of the inquiry, said the     get on with their work without the cloud         fact, to his view of Scripture.
 report contains both `%riticism and praise     of criticism hanging over their heads,              It is this view of Scripture
 and speaks of both caution and encour-         ** After studying the matter for a year,
 agemen t. "                                    the board's five-man subcommittee sub-           which is the common
    With regard to his book, "The Fourth        mitted the report Thursday.                      denominator in the teachings of
Day, " Van Till said, the report "urges me         While it detailed a few differences in        all three professors.
 to refine my interpretative methods in         approach and interpretation, the report            And it is this view of Scripture
such a way that neither `the event              concluded all three men are teaching and         which has now, apparently,
character nor the revelational meaning of       writing in a manner that is within the
biblical history will be called into ques-      tradition of the church.                         received the approval of the
tion. "'                                           The committee cleared Menninga and            Board of Trustees of Calvin Col-
 ** Asked if the boards action meant the        Young of any deviation from the CRC's            lege and Seminary.
professors could teach whatever they            bedrock beliefs and had only minor com-            Further, if you inquire how
wanted, college provost Gordon Van              plaints about Van Till - mainly that his         this was possible, I suggest that
Haarn responded, "The answer, very              theological definitions and arguments
simply, is yes, "                               were not as clear as they could be.              the answer is simple. All involved
** Members of the committee who wrote           ** Even some of the harshest critics of          were supported or stymied by a
the report said they hope the matter is         the three professors said Friday that they       position adopted earlier by the
resolved.                                       are pleased with the report.                     CRC, namely, the position of
   `I'm pleased with the direction of the         Before the investigation, the Rev.             Report 36/44 on the Nature and
report. It reminds the professors of their      Henry Vanden Heuvel, pastor of First
responsibility to the church, " said the        Christian Reformed Church in Zeeland,            Extent of the Authority of Scrip-
Rev. Henry Vanden Heuvel, chairman of           said he was concerned the professors,            ture.
the subcommittee that prepared the              especially Van Till, weren't "adhering to          That explains why even a
report.                                         the principals (sic) of the Reformed faith. "    reputed conservative such as the
   "I hope our report`will serve as a kind        After serving as chairman of the sub           Rev. Henry Vanden Heuvel was
of position for the entire college and          committee, the minister has come to
church comlnunity. "                            believe the professors are not: veering far      compelled to go along with the
   Vanden Heuvel said he doesn't think          afield from the traditional doctrines of         approval of the three professors'
the three professors will "be watched           the faith.                                       teachings. 0                       HCH
very carefully" as a result of this report.        "We have pointed out that there are
`I feel the air has been cleared. I hope        some limitations that they must follow,          "The Good Old Days"
the cloud has been lifted, and the pro-         but I'm pleased with the direction of our          In Time (February 1, 1988)  in
fessors can go back about their work            report, " he said.
without further scrutiny of the board. "          He said he hopes the "church can now           connection with a feature article
    From the Press of February 13,              renew its trust in the faculty at Calvin         about the "tough" principal of a
we quote the following:                         College, "                                       Paterson, N.J. school, Joe Clark,
** At issue were the writings and                  It is plain, therefore, that the              there was a chart entitled "The
teachings of the professors, all of whom        professors are in the clear.                     Good Old Days." It is described
hailed the report for supporting them in           This outcome is not surprising.               as "Leading school discipline prob-
their research.                                 For this is not the first time that              lems: a California study com-
   "By their recognizing the need for           this same fundamental issue has                  pares today with a more inno-
academic freedom . . . and by their en-
couraging us to perform our scholarship         confronted the Christian Re-                     cent age." This study was con-
with intellectual integrity, the Board of       formed Church. One who has                       ducted by the Fullerton, Calif.,
Trustees have become the real heroes in         followed these matters will recall               police department and the Cali-
this story," said Van Till.                     that similar issues confronted the               fornia department of education.
** A subcommittee report, which was                                                              The results were published in
received by the full board, found little        CRC as far back as the 1960s
fault with the writings of Menninga and         and were even before the Synod                   Junior League Review. The chart
Young and had only a few words of cau-          itself.                                          makes a comparison between the
tion for Van Till, said the Rev, Charles           Nor does the main significance                1940s and the 198Os, as follows:
De Ridder, president of the Board of            of this judgment lie in the fact                 1940s                1980s
Trustees.                                                                                        Talking              Drug abuse
   On Friday, De Ridder said the subcom-        that the Board of Trustees has
mittee report was "very critical in a           given its approval to evolu-                     Chewing gum          Alcohol abuse
careful, pastoral and studied way. "            tionism as such, though that is                  Making noise         Pregnancy
   The report, however, was not especial-       also significant.                                Running in the       Suicide
ly critical of the professors and their            The deepest significance lies in                hallways           Rape
work. It was "critical" only in that it took    the fact that by this decision the               Getting out of       Robbery
a hard look at the scientist's work, he
said.                                           Board of Trustees has given its                    place in line      Assault
   "This report was collegial and well-         approval to a certain view of and                Wearing improper Burglary
balanced, " he said. "It takes issue with       approach to Holy Scripture. I                      clothing           Arson
one professor (Van Till) and that I believe     pointed this out when I was criti-               Not putting paper Bombings
is rightfully so. "                             sizing Dr. Van Till's The Fourth                   in wastebaskets

248 / The Standard Bearer


   Now I can relate to the items          "jeans" to school. Besides, what      is of the public schools in Cali-
listed under the 1940s. I                 is listed under the 1940s is a        fornia.
substituted as a teacher for one          rather accurate picture of what-        What could or would teachers,
semester on a half-day basis in           ever problems there were in my        principals, or parents list under
Baxter Christian School during            own grade school days and even,       the 1980s for Junior or Senior
my senior year at Calvin College.         with few exceptions, in my high       high school students in our
And I can attest that the items           school days. Perhaps there are        schools?
listed are accurate, though the           teachers among our readers who          Would it match the 1940s col-
matter of improper clothing was           still remember the picture under      umn?
not a problem. At that time no            1940s as rather accurate.               Or might there be some items
one even thought of wearing                  But what about the 198Os?          from the 1980s column above? 0
                                             The picture in the chart above                                        HCH





                                          Perspective From-
Contribution
Bruce Van Sokema                          The Pew (continued)

                                             But can we stop there by say-      struction, which is on every page
                                          ing it is enough for us to know       of Holy Writ.
                                          the doctrines taught us by God's        Why not? The answer is given
                                          Word and leave it at that? By no      in verse 17: "That the man of
                                          means. The verse goes on to say       God may be perfect, thoroughly
                                          that Scripture is profitable for      furnished unto all good works."
                                          reproof, for correction, for in-      That is our goal, and the com-
                                          struction in righteousness." The      mand of God which we referred
                                          preacher must preach the word         to in the beginning of this article:
                                          so that we are reproved, cor-         to be holy as God is holy - to be
                                          rected, and instructed in             Christ-like. He is the perfect one,
                                          righteousness. We must hear how       who carried out God's perfect
                                          to apply those doctrines to our       plan of salvation. The plan of
                                          lives as we live and walk in the      salvation that comforts me that
                                          midst of this wicked world. That      my "burdens are lifted at
                                          is what we call practical, doc-       Calvary, and that Jesus is very
                                          trinal, applicatory preaching, or     near" assures me that I am and
                                          simply sermons that proclaim: 1)      forever shall remain a living
                                          the doctrines of Scripture, 2) how    member of the church of Christ.
                                          they are personally applied to        Those good works, even though I
                                          our lives, 3) how I can put those     have only a small beginning of
                                          doctrines into practice.              the new obedience in Christ, are
                                          Remember this fact, based on the      the evidence I need to prove to
                                          above text, that we cannot or         me that I have that true faith
                                          should not in preaching separate      which Christ has implanted into
Bruce  Van Solkema is Q  member of the    the doctrines of Scripture from       my heart by His Holy Spirit.
Protestant Reformed Church of Byron       the practical application and in-
Center, Michigan.                         _. .

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer / 249


    The assurance and ioy of salva-                 preach Jesus Christ crucified as       the problem: Is it you or some-
tion - how sweet it is! -                           the central theme of every ser-        one else? You have the
    So you see how essential it is                  mon. To the consistory members,        responsibility to answer that
for us to view the preaching in                     especially the elders: to watch        question and, to the utmost of
this way. If preaching is done in                   over the preaching, to en-             your power, to correct the situa-
the proper way, then we can say                     courage, instruct and admonish,        tion through the means God has
as the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah                     if necessary, but make sure the        set forth in His Word. Let us all
58: 13 and 14, that we can call                     church is being edified, uplifted,     take heed to the Apostle Paul's
the sabbath a delight and delight                   and comforted. Last of all, but        charge to the Ephesian elders in
ourselves in the Lord. May we all                   certainly not the least, to the        Acts 20:28, "Take heed therefore
prepare ourselves to hear Christ                    parishioners sitting in the pews,      unto yourselves, and to all the
speak to us through His servant,                    as members of the office of all        flock, over which the Holy Ghost
so that when our desires and                        believers, as prophets, priests and    hath made you overseers, to feed
needs have been fulfilled, we pro-                  kings: you have the greatest           the church of God, which he hath
claim, "Amen, praise the Lord."                     responsibility of all to watch over    purchased with His own blood."
   In closing, I wish to make a                     the seminary professors,                 Now, then, before you come to
plea to all of us involved in the                   ministers, elders and deacons,         the conclusion that this article is
preaching of .the gospel. First of                  fellow members and, yes, even          a matter of personal criticism, let
all, to the professor: to teach                     yourselves. You must ask               me end by saying that we have
young men how to preach the                         yourselves the questions: Am I         deep reason to be thankful.
gospel according to the guide-                      being fed with the true milk and       Thankful that in the past and pres-
lines set down in Scripture, and                    meat of the Word of God? Am I          ent, the cause of the Scriptures
to feed the flock of Jesus Christ                   being convicted of my sin, led to      is faithfully being preaching in
by fulfilling the needs of the con-                 the cross of Christ, and shown         our churches. May our prayer be
gregation. To the ordained                          how to live a life of gratitude? If    that this truth continue and that
preachers: to -follow the instruc-                  not, then I ask you wherein lies       the Lord not remove His candle-
tion given in the seminary to                                                              stick from our churches. 0
                                               -





                                               .Crisis In Religious
                                                           Freedom
 All Around Us
 Cise 1. Van Baren                             "Free" Speech

                                                    Crisis In Religious Freedom            stances has interfered with the
                                                      We rejoice that we live in a         activity of the churches or
                                                    "free" land - a land in which we       hindered and, prevented such ac-
                                                    can attend church without inter-       tivity. We tell ourselves some-
                                                    ference from government author-        times that such government ac-
                                                    ity. But there are evidences that      tivity is against only far-out sects
                                                    this "freedom" is eroding -            or rebellious groups. Yet one
                                                    eroding because of government          wonders when also we might be
                                                    action against churches. While in-     affected by the zeal of state
Gise .I. Van Buren is pastor of the Protes-         sisting on separation of church        authorities to regulate our wor-
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,                and state, the state in many in-       ship as well. A reader sent a
A&chigan.

250  I The Standard Bearer


copy of an article published by                 three-quarters of an inch. For this viola-       For instance, if a pastor preaches that
the "Coalition for Religious Free-              tion alone the Norrises face six months in     sinners will spend-eternity in fire and
dom" which contains some chill-                 jail and fines of $1,000 each.                 brimstone, he could be sued in a multi-
                                                   Community Baptist Church in Fort            million dollar lawsuit for intentional in-
ing accounts:                                    Worth, Texas objected to state licensure      fliction of emotional distress.
   The last 15 years have seen more             of its boys' home ministry which required         These examples, and several thousand
religious freedom cases than any time           compliance with 240 "minimum stan-             more like them, indicate that government
since the American Revolution.                  dards," many of which were openly at           has gone beyond its constitutional bound-
BureQuCrQCy Qt every kVd - federal,             odds with the church's Biblical beliefs.       aries. The rights of religious individuals,
state and local - is no longer hesitant         For refusing to submit the church's            whatever their particular beliefs or prac-
about regulating church ministries, im-         ministry (primarily with young men hav-        tices, to exercise their religion Free of ex-
posing stiff fines and even padlocking          ing problems with alcohol and drug             cessive and unnecessary government en-
church properties.                              abuse) to state control, the paster of the     tanglement are under direct attack.
  Responsibility for this rapid erosion of      church was fined over $97,000 and the             Under the guise of "separation of
First Amendment freedoms can be traced          church property was scheduled to be sold       church and state, " religious individuals
to two fundamental causes: the vast in-         at public auction.                             and organizations are prohibited from in-
crease in bureQUCrQtiC regulation of               In Idaho, Q Christian boys' ranch WQS       fluencing public policy or receiving state
American life, and, more importantly, the       shut down after state authorities              aid, while government entities Qre given
philosophically untenable notion that the       launched a helicopter raid on the home.        a free hand in regulating the expression
First Amendment mQndQteS  a "high and           Although the operators of the ranch were       and activities of religious individuals and
impregnable" wall of separation between         legal guardians of the young men and           church ministribs , . .
church and state. The revolutionary idea        had dutifully complied with all state             The above lengthy account
that protected the first pastors of Carmel      health and safety requirements, the boys       gives somewhat of an idea of the
Baptist Church (a church whose ministers        were removed because the facility was
were arrested and imprisoned in 1771 for        not licensed. Residents of the home, aged      growing threat to religious
preaching without a license - G. I/B.)          seven to fourteen, were forcibly removed,      freedom and worship in this land.
was that civil gOVt?rnmt?nt  has no             some in handcuffs, and sent to a state         It would seem, even with present
authority to regulate religious expression      mental hospital for "Safekeeping, "            laws already on the books, the
and belief. Today, however, America's              Zoning laws often single out otherwise      government could close down
historic tradition of Freedom of religion       legal activities and subject them to
has been eroded by the growing influence        burdensome regulations due to their            virtually every church in the
of anti-religious concepts arising out of       religious content. In many neighbor-           land. One wonders how soon that
the French Revolution . . .                     hoods, zoning officials allow regular          time might be!
   Today , . . the primary threats to           gatherings for a bridge club or a football
religious liberty come not from churches,       game, but try to require QdVQnCe permis-
but From the bureaucratic secular state.        sion For a Bible study or prayer meeting.
The "wall of separation" metaphor is               The Faith Bible Fellowship of Colorado      "Free" Speech
used to quarantine religion, isolating it       Springs, Colorado held services in their          The Covenanter Witness,
from the vital processes of society . . . .     pastor's home while saving money to            December 1987, gives an in-
   Instances of this "quarantine"               purchase a church building. Consequent-        stance where "free speech" is
of religion are given:                          ly, the pastor . . . WQS cited seven times,    such only when there is no
   Churches do much more than hold              fined $32,000 and ordered to perform           reference to the religious. Por-
worship services on Sunday: they reach          eighty hours of community service by the       nography, cursing, vile speech are
out to their own members and to the             city for alleged zoning violations.
community through numerous ministries.             William Nichols held regular prayer         condoned in the land because of
One by one these ministries of the church       meetings at his house in Stratford, Con-       "freedom of speech". But such
have been subject to an insidious attack        necticut three times a week. The two in-       freedom does not extend, it
in the form of state licensing and regula-      Formed. him that further meetings would        seems, to graduation speeches in
tion.                                           not be permitted unless Q permit to            public high schools when there is
  In Santa Monica, California, police of-       license his home as a church building
ficers (with gun holsters unbuttoned)           WQS obtained. Standing on principles of        a reference to the religious:
were among the 30 state and local               religious liberty, he chose to Face fines        A Louisiana high school graduate has
government officials who descended on           and imprisonment rather than obtain Q          filed suit against local school officials for
the Lighthouse Foursquare Church to "`in-       license . . . .                                censoring the valedictory speech she had
vestigate" the unlicensed "Weekday Sun-.          Former members of newer religious            planned to give at her commencement.
day School." The edUCQtiOnQ1  ministry          movements have been awarded millions             Angela KQye Guidry, who graduated in
had been operated by the church as Qn           of dollars by civil courts for complaining     May From Sam Houston High School in
outreach to children of the community           that the religions they voluntarily joined     Moss Bluff; alleges that the principal's
for over two and one half years. The            Failed to deliver promised spiritual and       refusal to let her speak unless she deleted
directors of the school and pastors of the      temporal benefits and that being sub-          all religious references violated her f?ee
church . . . were charged with 31 viola-        jected to certain religious doctrines          speech and religious exercise rights.
tions of Title 22 of the California Child       caused `serious emotional distress. " The        Guidry is represented by attorneys with
Care Act, Qn ambiguous law which by             precedents set by these cases are easily       the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based
broad language requires the licensing of        transferable to more traditional religions.    nonprofit civil liberties organization that
all Sunday Schools QS child care facilities.                                                   specializes in the defense of free speech
Among the 30 charges were allegations                                                          and religious liberty.
of the use of sleeping mats of less than                                                         According to the lawsuit complaint, on
                                                                                               May 15 Guidry submitted Q copy of her

                                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer / 251


speech to Sam Houston principal Kerry        fulfillment, the Lord Jesus Christ,               Guidry claims that after the graduation
Durr for his review. The student began       challenging others to commit their lives        rehearsal, Durr told her that since some-
her talk by thanking "my Lord Jesus,,        to Him.                                         one might be "offended" by the religious
who has allowed me to be in this posi-         According to the complaint, Durr              content of her speech, he wanted her to
tion tonight. " Following other introduc-    finished reading the transcript and said,       delete all references to her personal
tory remarks, Guidry added, "`I'd like to    "You can't argue with that" - a remark          religious views. When Guidry refused,
share-whatk on my heart," and explained      that Guidry interpreted QS his approval of      Durr told her she would not be allowed
her personal source of motivation and        her speech.                                     to speak. 0





                                             The Two Natures of
 Taking Heed To Christ - The HumanityI
 The Doctrine
Ronald H. Hanko                              of Christ

2. The characteristics of Christ's           that speak of Christ's being                   unreal - a kind of Docetism (a denial of
    human nature (continued).                tempted. That He was really and                the reality of Christ's humanity, R.H.)
   c. A sinless human nature.                truly tempted at all points like               (The Life and Times of Jesus the
                                                                                            Messiah, 
That Christ was sinless is, of                                                                           Book III, p. 297).
                                             we are (Heb. 4:15) would seem to                  Edersheim solves the problem
course, the foundation of our                imply the possibility of sin, and,             along these lines:
faith in Him as Saviour. But there           indeed, it is difficult for us to                Jesus voluntarily took upon Himself
are several things that need em-             think of temptation except in                  human nature with all its infirmities and
phasis at this point.                        terms of the possibility of falling            weaknesses - but without the moral
   First of all, that Christ had a           into temptation by actually doing              taint of the Fall: without sin. It WQS
sinless human nature does not                evil, or at least by desiring the              human nature,  in itself capable of sin-
only mean that He had no actual              evil with which we are faced in                ning, but not having sinned. . . To sum
                                                                                            up: The Second Adam, morally  unfalien,
sin, but also that it was not possi-         temptation. But it is exactly this             though voluntarily subject to all the con-
ble for Him to sin. That He ac-              that Scripture and the creeds                  ditions of our Nature, was, with a pec-
tually committed no sin is clearly           deny in the case of Christ.                    cable Human Nature, absolutely impec-
taught in a passage like I Peter                Edersheim is a good example                 cable as being also the Son of God - a.
2:22, 23. That He could not sin is           of those who teach that it was                 peccable Nature, yet Q impeccable Per-
                                                                                            son: the God-Man, `tempted in respect to
sometimes denied, especially in              possible in some sense for Christ              all (things) in like manner (QS we),
connection with those passages               to sin. In connection with Christ's            without (excepting) sin' (emphasis mine,
                                             temptations in the wilderness,                 R.H.) (pp. 298, 299).
                                             Edersheim points to the difficulty:               Now, apart from the fact that
                                               A still more difficult and solemn ques-      this is very abstract, it is obvious-
                                             tion is this: in what respect could Christ,    ly a denial of the truth that Christ
                                             the Perfect Sinless Man, the Son of God,       had a sinless human nature. It
                                             have been tempted of the Devil? That He        only says that as the incarnate
                                             was so tempted is of the very essence of
                                             this narrative, confirmed throughout His       Son of God He was personally
                                             after-life, and laid down as Q fundamen-       without the possibility of sin, and
                                             tal principle in the teaching and faith of     though this represents an honest
                                             the Church. On the other hand, tempta-         attempt on the part of Edersheim
                                             tion without the inward correspondence         to maintain the reality of Christ's
                                             of existent sin is not only unthinkable, so
Ronald H, Hanko is pastor of Trinity         far as man is concerned, but temptation        temptations in the wilderness, it
Protestant Reformed Church, Houston,         without the possibility of sin seems           is nevertheless unacceptable.
Texas.

25.2  / The Standard Bearer


        The problem exists, however,          ~ We should.remember that the             therefore, the holiness which
     not only in connection with those         reality of temptation does not           makes it possible for Him to be
     three temptations by Satan, but           necessarily imply the possibility        our Saviour, is the direct result of
     also in connection with His strug-        of sin, though that is the case          the power and presence of the
     gles in the Garden of                     with us in our present condition.        Holy Ghost in His conception.
     Gethsemane. There also the                Even we, by the grace of God,            That is the significance of Luke
     tendency is to conceive of                find this to be true, when we are        1:35. That the Holy Ghost would
     Christ's agony in terms of His ac-        able to resist temptation and turn       come upon Mary, and through
     tually wanting to do something            our backs on sin, as Christ did          the Holy Ghost the power of God
     else than what the Father re-             always. Nor may we forget that           most high, is the reason why
     quired of Him, which would ad-            this matter of the reality of            Christ would be "that holy thing"
     mit not only the possibility of sin,      Christ's temptations is of great         Who would be called the Son of
     but would be sin on the part of           comfort to us. It is not difficult to    God. Our confession, then, is that
     Christ.                                   see that without confidence in           He was born not "in sinful flesh"
        Scripture, however, insists on         the reality of those temptations,        but "in the likeness of sinful
     the sinlessness (holiness) of Christ      the reality of His humanity would        flesh" (Rom. 8:3).
     by showing that it was not possi-         also be suspect for us. Thus               The Roman Catholic Church
     ble for Him to sin. 11 Corinthians        Hebrews says that His ability to         has tried to explain Christ's
     5:21 certainly teaches this by the        help us in temptation, depends           holiness by the doctrine of the
     statement that "He knew no sin,"          on the fact that He Himself suf-         immaculate conception and
     and I John 3:5 also teaches it, at        fered when tempted (Heb. 2:18).          perpetual virginity of Mary, i.e.,
-    least by implication. John says in          Even more important, though,           that Mary herself was pure and
     the verses that follow that our           is the impossibility of His sinning,     holy by the same kind of holy
     sinlessness in Christ is not just         whether we speak now just of His         conception as Christ. But this is
     the absence of actual evil, but           human nature or of Him as the            both unBiblica1  and unnecessary,
     the impossibility of it, thus by im-      incarnate Son. If there is in Christ     since the work of the Holy Spirit
     plication teaching the same about         even the abstract possibility of         in the conception is a sufficient
     Christ Himself (cf. vss. 6, 9). In        sin, al1 our confidence in Him is        and Biblical explanation. The
     this respect also Christ is               shaken to the foundations, for it        Anabaptists also went beyond the
     "separate from sinners" (Heb.             is His perfect sinlessness that          teaching of Scripture at this point
     7:26).                                    stands forever as the guarantee          by teaching at the time of the
        When we say, then, that Christ         of our righteousness before God.         Reformation that the human
     had a weakened human nature,             And as Rev. Hoeksema points out           nature of Christ was specially
     we mean only that He was liable           in his Reformed Dogmatics, to ad-        created in the womb of Mary, so
     to all the results of sin, suffering,     mit even the possibility of sin          that Jesus was not actually
     pain, and sorrow, but not to sin         with respect to Christ, is to deny        Mary's (and our) flesh and blood.
     itself.                                   the immutability of God's decree         There were other reasons why
       This is not to deny the reality         that He should be made perfect           they taught this (to which we will
     of His temptation, either in the          as the captain of our salvation (p.      come later), but one reason was
     wilderness or in Gethsemane. Nor         358).                                     their desire to preserve the sanc-
     do we need to teach that Christ,            The second thing that needs            tity and innocence of Christ, itself
     at least according to His human           emphasis is the fact that His sin-       a commendable motive.
     nature, was able to sin in or-per         lessness does not only mean that           That Christ was also without
     to maintain the reality of those         He was without actual sin, but            original guilt is also taught by
     temptations. Scripture's testimony       also that He was without original         Scripture and has two reasons. It
     is clear enough. Both in the             sin, both original depravity and          is due in the first place to the fact
     wilderness and in Gethsemane              original guilt.                          that He had no human father.
     the reality of His temptations was          That He was without original           Since guilt is a matter of legal
     such, even apart from the                depravity is guaranteed by His            representation, and not of heredi-
     possibility of sin, that He needed       divine conception by the Holy             ty (as depravity is), guilt is trans-
     the ministry of angels to                Ghost. It is not enough simply to         mitted only from Adam as father
     strengthen Him when once they            say at this point that He had no          and representative, and so
     were over. The book of Hebrews           human father, for the fact is that        Christ's lack of a human father
     reminds us, too, that He suffered,       He had a human mother, who                means that He does not stand in
     being tempted (Heb. 2:18).               was a sinner and who was born             any legal relationship to Adam,
                                              of sinful flesh. Christ's holiness,       by virtue of which the guilt of


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Adam's sin would be imputed to              That Christ has no original            not take our debt upon himself,
Him. Rather than being                    guilt is clear from His name, the        at least with any hope of pay-
represented by Adam, Christ ac-           Just One (Acts 7:52, 22:14). The         ment. Thus Christ, to be -our
tually stands in Adam's place as          Heidelberg Catechism also                deliverer, must have no debt,
the new representative of the             teaches this by insisting that           either original or actual, of His
human race, the second Adam.              Christ must .not only be a real          own. He must, of course, also
   Also, because Christ is per-           man, but a real righteous man (V,        have something with which to
sonally the Son of God, it is im-         15 and VI, 16).                          pay that debt, but that is another
possible that He be charged with            `All this is of the greatest possi-    matter entirely, especially a mat-
original guilt. Guilt is something        ble importance for our salvation.        ter of His divinity. And so, in
changed or imputed to the per-            That He might remove both the            conclusion, let us make the con-
son, and it is blasphemy even to          guilt and corruption of sin, it was      fession of the Heidelberg
suggest that it should be charged         necessary that He be without             Catechism our own, that "with
to Him, Who is personally the             both, i.e., that He be holy and in-      His innocence and perfect
second Person of the Godhead.             nocent in the sight of God. When         holiness, (He) covers in the sight
                                          we remember, for example, that           of God, my sins, wherein I was
                                          guilt is spiritual debt, then it         conceived and brought forth"
                                          ought to be obvious to us that           (XIV, 36). q
                                          one who is himself a debtor can-





  The Day                                 A Shadow Of Things
 of Shadows
 john A. Heys                             To Come (1)

                                            A shadow gives visible                 this person is swiftly walking
                                          evidence of the existence of an          toward you, because the shadow
                                          object upon which light of one           moves and reaches a point far-
                                          kind or another falls. Take that         ther ahead of you than at first.
                                          object away and there will be no           We must not, however, con-
                                          shadow. Turn off that light, or          fuse a shadow with a reflection.
                                          place something between that ob-         When the water is calm and the
                                          ject and the source of light, and        sun is in a position that it falls. on
                                          the shadow of that object will           the side of the snow-capped
                                          disappear. A shadow gives proof          mountain with its trees and col-
                                          of the existence of the object,          ored rocks and flowers, you will
                                          even when the object itself can-         have a reflection in that water of
                                          not be seen. Someone may be              the lake, which is at the foot of
                                          walking closely behind you,              the mountain. That reflection,
                                          while you are looking forward.           however, will have the color of
                                          But the shadow of that person            the snow, of the mountain and
                                          makes it very plain to you that          rocks, of the trees and of the
                                          someone is there. You may even           flowers. A shadow does not show
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in    have undeniable evidence that            the color of the object that it
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

254 / The Standard Bearer


casts before you. What is more, a      hath translated us into the            istence we are sure; because the
shadow does not always show            kingdom of His dear Son." That         light of God's Word falls on it,
the exact shape and size of the        kingdom is an undeniable fact,         and we by God's grace are given
parts of that object. When the         even though, as Paul writes in I       eyes to see that shadow as
sun is setting in the west, the        Corinthians 15:50: "Now this I         caused by a very real thing.
length of the shadow of the tree,      say, brethren, that flesh and            Just listen to what we read in
or of the man, will be much            blood cannot inherit the kingdom       Isaiah 64:4: "For since the begin-
longer than the actual height of       of God; neither doth corruption        ning of the world men have not
the tree and man. It makes a dif-      inherit incorruption." Plainly         heard, nor perceived by the ear,
ference where the source of light      there is such a kingdom, and           neither hath the eye seen, 0
is in relation to the object. But      God's people will inherit it. Sure-    God, besides Thee, what He hath
always, as already pointed out,        ly they see it by faith and see the    prepared for Him that waiteth for
the shadows gives undeniable           shadow of it, as the light of God's    Him." Or as we have it quoted in
evidence of an object, and is          Word shines down upon them             I Corinthians 2:9: "But as it is
there because light falls upon         and upon that kingdom.                 written, Eye hath not seen, nor
that object.                             We also read in Hebrews 1O:l:        ear heard, neither have entered
  Now in both the Old Testament        "For the law having a shadow of        into the heart of man, the things
and in the New Testament we            good things to come, and not the       which God hath prepared for
come across that word shadow           very image of -the things, can         them that love Him."
and find objects whose reality we      never with those sacrifices which        Now,. as we begin to consider
know, because the light of God's       were offered year by year con-         that very first work of God, out-
word falls on that object in Holy      tinually make the comers there-        side Himself, namely, that of
Writ. Perhaps the best known           unto perfect." Here we clearly         creating the whole universe con-
text that speaks of a shadow is        have set forth the fact that the       sisting of heaven and earth, with
Psalm 23:4. There David writes:        shadow is not the thing, and that      a11 their animate and inanimate
"Yea, though 1 walk through the        we must never be satisfied with        and rational and irrational
valley of the shadow of death, I       the shadow. The law is not the         creatures, we do well to take
will fear no evil: for Thou art        image of the things; but it has a      note of the fact that Isaiah writes
with me; Thy rod and Thy staff         shadow of good things to come.         that since the beginning of the
they comfort me." And even as          In the day of shadows Israel saw       world men did not see, hear,
the title of this department states    only a shadow of the good things       perceive by the ear what He has
it, the whole Old Testament dis-       that Christ has prepared for us.       prepared for us, and that means
pensation was the day of               Eternally those things are real in     that which God prepared in
shadows. That whole dispensa-          God's mind, and shadows of them        Christ. Adam did not see it in his
tion was filled with shadows of        were and could be in the Old           state of righteousness. No eye
things that are very real, even        Testament dispensation. God's          sees, Isaiah writes, besides God's
though we cannot see them yet          people looked forward to that of       eye what He intends to make.
with our fleshly eye, or enter in-     which the shadows spoke, and           And the point is that the creation
to them with our bodies, and           they hoped for salvation and all       God brought into being in six
which are not yet here on this         its blessings. They had a shadow       successive days, of twenty-four
earth. The kingdom of heaven is        of Christ's cross in the temple.       hours each, is a shadow of the
a very real entity, even though        They had the land of Canaan as a       kingdom of heaven when it
we see but a shadow of it. In          shadow of the new Jerusalem            comes in the day when Christ
Matthew 3:2 we read of John the        that is coming. And we could go        returns and, as we read in
Baptist saying, "Repent ye: for        on in the list of shadows, for it      Revelation 2 1: 1, when heaven
the kingdom of heaven is at            was indeed the day of shadows          and earth will be united. For
hand." Paul writes in Ephesians        actually from the moment of the        when we read there that there
5:5: "For this ye know, that no        creation of the heavens and the        will be no more sea in that new
whoremonger, nor unclean per-          earth. And that day was full of        heaven and earth, the idea is that
son, nor covetous man, who is an       shadows; a shadow of this detail       there will not be the separation
idolator, hath any inheritance in      in that coming kingdom and a           between heaven and earth that
the kingdom of Christ and of           shadow  of that detail. And we do      exists today, even as the sea now
God." And in Colossians 1: 13 he       well to look at some of these          separates continents and islands.
writes: "Who hath delivered us         shadows, so that we may be
from the power of darkness, and        strengthened in our hope for that
                                       llessed reality of whose ex-


                                                                                              The Standard Bearer j 255


    As Hebrews 1O:l has it, the          work, the restoration and eleva-       not explain where the gaseous
law having a shadow of good              tion of that first one. It. is the     vapor, the heat and cold came
things to come, and not the very         reality that God had eternally in      from and Who made them. It is
image of the things, so that first       His mind and of which He gives         true that the theistic evolution
creation in all its bliss, glory, and    us a shadow, when He sends             theory does maintain that God
blessedness was only a shadow of         forth the light of His Word upon       brought forth this gaseous vapor
what is very real, and is coming         it. Let us not set our eyes upbn       and the heat and cold; but it does
in the day of Christ. The                that shadow as the goal we wish        not deal honestly with what God
kingdom of heaven that is com-           to reach. Let us appreciate the        Himself declares about the crea-
ing is not the fruit of repair work      fact that God shows us this            tion of the universe. Very plainly
which God had to perform after           shadow. But let us see it as a         God speaks in Genesis 1 of six
Satan got man to turn against            shadow and hope for that more          days that each had one evening
God and call for the curse to            wonderful covenant fellowship          and one morning. He tells us that
come upon this earth. Satan did          with Him in Christ in the coming       He called things into being and
NOT get even a temporary vic-            Kingdom of Heaven.                     did not set in order or begin a
tory. He knew nothing of this              The very way in which God            process that would take billions
coming kingdom and creation              created the heavens and the            of years. Did He not even create
that is eternally in the mind of         earth and al1 that they contain        time, so that then a day was as
God. He surely did not see it as a       we must see as a shadow of what        long our day is at present?
shadow of a very real new                He will do when Christ returns.          It indirectly teaches by implica-
kingdom that in God's time               The ungodly, ridiculous evolu-         tion that God, about 2,000 years
would be seen and enjoyed by             tionistic theory not only rules        after creating the world, forgot
those whom He chose in Christ.           God out entirely but reverses          what He did. When He called
Salvation is no repair work in           things completely. God, it claims,     Moses up to the top of Mt. Sinai
any sense of the word. Salvation         did not bring forth this creation,     and then cut deeply into the
is that work of God whereby He,          but this creation is going to bring    stone His law, He said that He
using the devil and all that which       forth god. As things evolve, and       created the world in six days,' not
He had brought into being, brings        have evolved from a gaseous            over a period of billions of years.
that kingdom of heaven into be-          vapor upon which heat and cold         And then using the same word
ing.                                     worked, the inanimate brings           He tells us that we must keep the
   Do we not in Genesis 2 and 3          forth the animate, the irrational      sabbath day holy. Did He mean
read of the tree of life? And do         brings forth the rational. And         keep a billion years holy? Is that
we not in Revelation 22:2 again          ultimately it all brings forth god.    seventh day in the Ia? different
read of a tree of life of which the      Do we not read in II Thessalo-         in length than the six days? And
one hi the garden of Eden was a          nians 2:3; 4 that the man of sin       is God so foolish (perish the evil
shadow? The whole first creation         will be revealed soon, the son of      thought!) that He slipped up and
is a shadow of the coming                perdition, "Who opposeth and ex-       failed to use the words "six
glorious kingdom of Christ. That         alteth himself above al1 that is       periods?" Much, much later He
beautiful garden of Eden was not         called God, or that is worshipped;     moved the psalmist to write in
a reflection of the kingdom of           so that he as God sitteth in the       Psalm 33:6-g? "By the word of
heaven, for a reflection manifests       temple of God, shewing himself         the Lord were the heavens made
an exact picture of that which it        that He is God?" And in Revela-        . . . . For He spake, and it was
reflects. And no matter how              tion 13:14 we read of the an-          done; He commanded, and it
beautiful that first paradise was,       tichrist: "And deceiveth them          stood fast." Did God speak over a
it does not reflect what is coming       that dwell on the earth, by            billion years to get into being
in the day of Christ. It is a            means of those miracles which          what He wanted? Genesis, using
shadow of it and gives the child         he had power to do in the sight        the word day, means billions of
of God the assurance that a more         of the beast; saying to them that      years? The law means twenty
wonderful paradise is coming.            dwell on the earth, that they          four hours. Psalm 33 means then
And did Jesus not say to the             should make an image to the            that the moment God calls, the
penitent thief on the cross that         beast, which had the wound by a
he would that day be in paradise         sword, and did live." Man will
with Him? There is a paradise            think that man has evolved into
coming, and it is not the repair         becoming a god.
                                           Of course the ridiculous and
                                         wicked theory of evolution does


256  I The Standard Bearer


light comes and so do all other            when He speaks of it in His law,        remember that the fourth day
creatures. Is God's mind so con-           how can we be sure that He              had one evening and one morn-
fused that He cannot remember              means the same thing every time         ing. So then half a billion years
what word He used?                         that He uses the word love and          the sun shone and burned up all
  If we are going to take the              says that Jesus is His Son? Paul        the vegetation, or during half a
word day in Genesis 1 as a long            calls Timothy his son in I              billion years it all froze to death!
period of time, a day of billions          Timothy 1:2. Does God mean              And when did the sun begin to
of years, we have to do that also          that Christ is His son in that          orbit as exactly as it has done for
with verse 2 of Genesis 2. And             sense? No, God does not use             almost 6,000 years? And when
then God rested a billion years            words loosely. He knows exactly         did the earth begin to rotate on
before the second week of time             what word to give us.                   its axis at such an exact speed as
came to pass. But then God                   And what about the fourth day         now?
slipped up again (perish the               of creation? The sun, moon, and            No, this creation as a shadow
thought!) in Genesis 5:5. Adam             stars were created over billions        of the coming new heaven and
could not be 930 years old when            of years, so the theistic evolu-        earth was brought forth in the
he died. Before that creation              tionist says. But remember that         moment that God called it into
week with its billion year seventh         on the third day God had created        being; even as that new creation
day Adam was already much                  the plants. What happened to            comes forth in a moment - not
more than 930 years old.                   these plants during the billions of     over billions of years - when
  If we cannot and must not                years of bringing into being the        Christ returns on the clouds of
believe that God means the same            sun, moon, and stars? And               heaven. Cl
thing when He uses the word day
in Genesis 1 and 2 that He uses





Decency
And Order
Ronald L. Cammenga                         The Lawful Calling (2)

                                           EXAMINATION                             "synodical" examination. This is
                                             The second part of the lawful         a preparatory examination be-
                                           call, as outlined by Article 4 of       cause it precedes the actual call-
                                           the Church Order, consists of ex-       ing of a man to the ministry.
                                           amination.                              Passage of this examination
                                             There are actually two ex-            results only in a man's being
                                           aminations referred to in this arti-    declared eligible for the ministry
                                           cle. There is, first of all, the        and made a candidate for the
                                           "classical" examination. This is        ministry.
                                           called the "peremptoir examina-           We will reserve a discussion of
                                           tion." It is the decisive examina-      the contents of these two ex-
                                           tion by which one is actually ad-       aminations for our consideration
                                           mitted to the ministry.                 of the decisions that have been
                                             There is also what is called the      appended to Article 4. In these
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the        "praeparatoir examination." We          decisions these examinations are
Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland,    usually refer to this as the            dealt with in more detail.
Colorado.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  / 257


   What must be emphasized is          APPROBATION                               Beloved brethren, it is known unto
that the classical or peremptoir          The third aspect of the lawful       you, that we have, at three different
examination is decisive. Without       call is approbation by the.con-         times, published the name of our brother
the passing of this examination                                                N., here present, to learn 
                                       gregation.                                                             whether any
                                                                               person had aught to offer concerning his
no consistory may ordain a can-          Approbation by the congrega-          doctrine or life, why he might not be or-
didate into the sacred ministry.       tion is required by Article 4.          dained to the ministry of the Word.
This examination is administered       Here especially the principle of        ORDINATION
by the classis in which the calling    congregational participation in            The final stage in the. lawful
church resides. The examination        the calling of its officebearers is     call is ordination. By means of
is usually conducted by the            protected. Officebearers may            ordination a man is actually in-
ministers in the classis. The          never simply be foisted on a            ducted into office. By virttie of
possibility for re-examination of a    Reformed church. The members            ordination he possesses the office
candidate who has not satisfac-        of the church have the right of a       with all of the responsibilities and
torily passed a certain part of the    voice in the election of their          duties, as well as rights and
classical examination is provided      officebearers.                          privileges that belong to the of-
for in the decisions appended to         Approbation takes two dif-            fice.
this article.                          ferent forms, depending on the             Concerning ordination, the ar-
   Article 4 prescribes that the       specific method of election that is     ticle prescribes that this shall be
classical examination take place       used. When the election of the          a public ceremony, in the
in the presence of three delegates     minister takes place in the con-        presence of the congregation.
of synod from the neighboring          sistory, approbation follows elec-      This means that ordination shall
classis. The reference is to the       tion. When the election is placed       take place at an official worship
delegates ad examina. These            in the hands of the members of          service of the church. The article
delegates are elected annually by      the church, as is usually done in       also prescribes that the Form that
each classis and approved by the       our churches, approbation takes         has been adopted by the churches
synod. The delegates ad examina        place before election. In this case,    for this purpose shall be used
do not actually participate in the     the slate of nominees (usually          at the ordination service. The
examination, but witness the ex-       two or three) is announced to the       "appropriate stipulations and in-
amination, although they certain-      congregation on at least two suc-       terrogations, admonitions and
ly have the right to question a        cessive Sundays prior to the elec-      prayers" referred to at this point
candidate with respect to any          tion. The approbation is a silent       in Article 4 are those contained
answers he has given. The ap-          approbation, so that if no one ap-      in this Form.
proval of the examination by the       pears before the consistory with           Both Article 4 and the Form
delegates ad examina is                a lawful objection, it is under-        Of Ordination make reference to
necessary. At the end of the ex-       stood that the congregation has         the imposition of hands as a part
amination, the delegates ad ex-        tacitly approved the nomination,        of ordination. This ceremony has
amina formulate a written state-       and therefore approves the in-          Biblical warrant and is referred
ment either approving or dis-          dividual who js then elected from       to in the following passages:
approving the examination. This        that nomination..                       Num. 27:18; Deut. 34:9; Acts
is read to the classis and entered       When a candidate has been             13:3; I Tim. 4:14; 522; and II
into the minutes of the classis.       elected and has successfully            Tim. 1:6.
After this the classis itself votes    passed his classical examination,         Because of the superstitions
on the examination. If the             the calling church is wise to an-       that became associated with the
delegates ad examina disapprove        nounce his name again for final         laying on of hands and because
of the examination, the candidate      approval by the congregation.           this ceremony was associated
may not be ordained into office.       This announcement should state          with Rome's teaching that ordina-
If a difference of opinion exists      that unless valid objections are        tion was a sacrament, the Re-
between the delegates ad ex-           brought to the attention of the         formers made the laying on of
amina  and the classis, the matter     consistory, he will be ordained         hands optional. The original draft
must go to the next synod for ad-      into the ministry of the gospel on      of the Ecclesiastical Ordinances
judication.                            such and such a date. The Form          of the church of Geneva, com-
                                       Of Ordination Of Ministers Of           posed in large part by John
                                       Sod's Word presupposes this final       Calvin, stated:
                                       approbation by the congregation:



258 / The Standard Bearer


   As for the manner of inducting him,         ridicule by some, the brothers have de-       Secondly, the laying on of hands
the practice of the imposition of hands is     cided that the laying on of hands shall be    should not be reserved exclusive-
approved - a ceremony which was                left out. . . .
observed by the apostles and then in the          The Synod bf Dordt, 1-578,                 ly for ministers, but should also
ancient Church - provided that it is used                                                    take place over those being or-
                                               ruled that a man ". . . will be ac-
without the superstition and without of-                                                     dained into the office of elder
fense. But, because there has been a           cepted into the ministry of the               and deacon. There is a disparity
great deal of superstition in former times,    churches with laying on of hands              in our practice of laying hands
and it may be the occasion of scandal,         where this can be done with                   only on those being installed into
the practice may be omitted because of         edification or else with the right
the infirmity of the times.                                                                  the office of the ministry.
                                               hand of fellowship . . . ." Also the
    The Articles of Wesel, 1568,               Synod of Middelburg, 1581, made                 The laying on of hands is a fit-
 s t a t e d :                                 the laying on of hands an op-                 ting ceremony. It symbolizes the
   We judge that when the ministers have       tional practice.                              two fundamental truths with
been examined and along with the vote                                                        respect to call to special office in
of the people have been approved, they            In our own churches the                    the church: ordination and quali-
shall be ordained either with solemn           ceremony of laying on of hands                fication. The laying on of hands
prayers only, or also with the laying on       is used only in the case of a can-
of hands (which we leave optional) in the      didate who is being ordained into             symbolizes ordination, that the
presence of the whole church, according        the ministry for the first time.              one called to office has been set
to the custom of the apostles.                                                               apart by God. After all, not
   The Synod of Emden,  1571,                     Strictly speaking, our practice            everyone has had hands laid on
ruled:                                         of laying on of hands is not in               him. And this ceremony sym-
   The ministers of the Word shall be ex-      harmony with the Biblical model.              bolizes qualification for office, the
amined, that is questioned, by those who       In the first place, the presbytery,           ability to function in the office. A
have chosen them. When their doctrine          that is, the elders, ought to take
and life is acknowledged to be accept-         part in the laying on of hands,               man's, hand is the symbol of his
able, they shall be installed with appro-      and not just the ministers who                strength. In the Bible, God's right
priate prayers and the laying on of hands                                                    hand iepresents God's strength.
(but without superstition and as a             happen to be present. This is the             By means of the laying on of
requirement).                                  example of the Scriptures in Acts             hands' the truth is emphasized,
   The Synod of Dordt, 1574,                   13:3 and I Tim. 4:14. The reason              both to the one being ordained
decided:                                       why the elders ought to lay                   and to the congregation witness-
   In view of the fact that the church is      hands on the minister being or-               ing the ordination, that God will
only in its beginning, the laying on of        dained is that his office resides in
hands may lead to superstition and             the local congregation and is                 give the strength to this man to
                                               under the supervision of the                  function in the office. Cl
                                               elders of the local congregation.





                                               Exegetical Sketches On
 From  Holy Writ
 George  C. Lubbers                            Micah  6:~  (4).

                                                  It is well that we have the                cy, and to walk humbly with thy
                                               words of Micah 6:8 clearly before             God?"
                                               our mind. The text reads as                      We should notice that the text
                                               follows: "He hath shewed thee, 0              contains one positive, strong
                                               man, what is good; and what                   assertion: "He hath shewed thee
                                               doth the LORD require of thee,                what is good." The text ends
 George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus      but to do justly, and to love mer-            with asking three things which
 in the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                        show us really what are the par-

                                                                                                             The Standard Bearer / 259


ticulars  of the "good' which the        simply "justice" in society; there     God. We believe that there is a
LORD has showed to Israel.               was not one inkling that this          certain climax here in this triad
   In our former article we              righteousness was the new obe-         of graces. No doubt the last ele-
reflected just a bit concerning the      dience of the reborn children of       ment, to walk humbly with thy
term "good." We saw that it is           God.                                   God, is sounding the depths of
spiritual grace which has been             We hold that the Lord has            this mystery of a godly life.
shown to Israel. We now stand            showed us that there shall be          Hence, in our interpretation we
before the important question:           good fruit in our life. They are       begin with this element: to walk
what is this good ?                      the good works which we must           humbly with thy God.
   Striking it is that the text does     manifest in our life, that men           We notice that this term is
not define the term "good' here          may see these good works and           very basic. We should notice that
at all. However, it evidently            glorify our Father Who is in           the LORD speaks of Himself as
refers to that "good' which we as        heaven (Matt. 5:16). This good is      "thy God." We should not over-
believers are called from God to         the light-life of the children of      look the singular "thy." This
perform, since we are washed             God, who have been enlightened         makes the admonition very per-
and cleansed in the blood of the         by the Spirit of grace. Yes, this      sonal. Although the LORD has
Lamb. It is a word which refers          requirement is truly a precept of      here in His controversy a word
to Gods sanctified people, to            the covenant in which there are        to all "my people," yet he also
whom God says, "Be ye holy, for          "two parts." Nay, here are not         singles out the individual
I am holy." (Lev. 11:44; I Peter         two parties, as is so often presup-    believer. None need ask: does
1:16) We are to be holy in all           posed and alleged when preach-         God speak here to me? The Lord
manner of conversation, since we         ing on this text. Nor do we have       here employs the same language
have been powerfully called out          here a certain rule of philosoph-      which he uses in the covenantal
of darkness into Gods marvelous          ical morality. For this is a word      prologue of the Decalogue in Ex-
light (I Peter 2:6-10). Then we          in which Jehovah has a con-            odus 2O:l. Says he, "I am the
walk in the Spirit, as we live by.       troversy with his people concern-      Lord, thy God." Fact is that this
the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Truly, we        ing the very nature of this cove-      "I am thy God' is repeated in Ex-
have here no legalistic walking          nant relationship with them, to        odus 20:5, 7, 10, 12. Let us give
according the law; a mere                wit, to be a God unto them and         heed to this repeated self-
natural religion of a humanist.          to their seed forever! And Israel      identification of the LORD.
Gleason L. Archer makes the              must walk in her part. Such is           With this God we are to walk
very apt observation in his ex-          the divine requirement. This           humbly. We are to humble our-
pository notes on Micah 6%: "It          good walk is not a prerequisite to     selves before the LORD our
would be a gross misinterpreta-          enter into the covenant relation-      Maker. This is not the same as to
tion of this verse, a violent wren-      ship. Here is no promise upon          be humbled by the Lord. That is
ching of the text out of its con-        condition of faith. However, here      what God did to David after he
text, to construe this as a mere         is a requirement to walk in faith,     had committed the sin of
pronouncement that the whole             to walk with a joyful heart in the     adultery with Bathsheba and had
point of religion is a virtuous life,    good works which God has               murdered Uriah by the hand of
without the need of atonement            before prepared in order that we       the Philistines. However, when
and of faith in Gods revealed            should walk in them as new             David humbled himself lowly as
word. On the contrary, it is a           creatures. In this walk circumci-      expressed in Psalm 51, then the
reminder to those, who are under         sion avails nothing, nor uncir-        LORD lifted him up. There is a
the covenant, that God requires a        cumcision, but a new creature.         spiritual axiom in Scripture,
true living faith, which manifests       Such a walk is the fruit of the        which is expressed in James
itself in obedience and love."           Spirit of life (Rom. &l-4; Gal.        4:5-7: "Do you think that the
(New Bible Commentary, page              5:15, 16; Eph. 2:lO).                  scripture saith in vain, The spirit
759)                                       I trust that the reader will bear    that dwelleth in us lusteth to en-
  Well said, methinks!                   with me if I become a bit              vy? But he giveth more grace.
  This is a far cry from the ex-         technical in interpreting the
egesis which I heard in a sermon         terms in this text. We need it.
recently in the Dutch language,            First, we must notice that there
which stressed that the covenant         are three elements which are
was merely promise and com-              well-known to Israel. They are: to
mandment. In this sermon the             do righteousness, to love mercy,
"righteousness" required was             and to walk humbly with thy


260 I The Standard Bearer


Therefore he saith, God resisteth       Also our text here speaks of           We must also notice that the
the proud, but giveth grace to        such a "walk." The Hebrew text         Lord would have us "love
the humble. Submit yourselves         employs the present infinitive         mercy."
therefore to God." This basic         construct. Ever in the present,          This has two aspects to it.
truth we also read in Job 22:29;      each moment, we are to walk            First, it is our love for God's
Proverbs  3:34; Psalm  138:6, and     humbly with our God. In the            sovereign mercy to us in Christ
Matthew 23:12. There Jesus says,      book of Genesis we read                Jesus, as the free-gift of God.
"Whosoever shall exalt himself        repeatedly of the saints who walk      Here we bow humbly; we take
shall be abased. And he that          with God or who are instructed         the shoes from off our feet. We
humbleth himself shall be ex-         to walk with God, or before his        listen in believing and loving at-
alted."                               face. The form of the verb is          tention to God as he speaks the
  Small wonder that Micah 6:8         such in all these cases that it        awe-inspiring words, as recorded
asks: and what doth the LORD          refers to habitually going in and      in Exodus 33:19, ". . . and I will
require of thee but . . . to walk     out before the face of the LORD.       be gracious to whom I will be
humbly with thy God? The truth        Thus we read that Enoch walked         gracious, and I will shew mercy
is that we are saved by sovereign     with God after he begat                to whom I will shew mercy."
grace and mercy as the unfolding      Methuselah three hundred years.        Here we hear the "Who art thou,
of the elective love of God. We       Thus was his constant and ever         0 man, that answereth against
have profound reasons to humble       increasing walk. The form of this      God?" This same severe tone we
ourselves before God. Our fathers     walking with God was in part           hear in Micah 6:8, "He hath
of the Synod of Dordt expressed       that he was a preacher, calling        shewed thee, 0 man, what is
this in Head I, Article 13, "The      the ungodly to repentance, tell-       good . . . ." There are many peo-
sense and certainty of this elec-     ing them of the coming of the          ple who purport to believe the
tion afford the children of God       Lord to judge al1 ungodly men          Bible, but they do not love mer-
additional matter for daily           (Jude 14, 15). Noah also walked        cy. But Gods people, who have
humiliation before him, for ador-     with God. Such was the basic           been made alive with Christ, love
ing the depths of his mercies, for    habit of his life. He too was a        a God who is rich in mercy, for
cleansing themselves, and render-     preacher of righteousness. He          .his great love in which He made
ing grateful return of ardent love    walked in faith. He believed,          us love in Christ. By grace are ye
to him, who first manifested so       therefore did he speak. God says       saved, lest any man should boast.
great love towards them . . . ."      to Abraham, when He estab-             These love this mercy and boast
  With this electing God we are       lished His covenant with him and       and glory alone in the LORD.
to walk humbly. We are to hum-        with his seed, "Walk before me         These never weary of the Lord's
ble ourselves under the mighty        and be thou perfect . . ." (Gen.       controversy with his people.
hand of God. All sinful pride of      17: 1) Jacob says to Joseph, when        Of course, having received
thinking to be able to contribute     he blesses him in the land of          mercy, we love to show mercy.
something, to do some good            Egypt, "God before whom my             Thus Jesus speaks of the
work toward ransoming our             fathers, Abraham and Isaac did         blessedness of such, when he
souls, must forever be gone!          walk . . . ." (Gen. 48:15) For fur-    says, "Blessed are the merciful,
Never must we attempt to be a         ther instances of this habitual        for they shall obtain mercy"
"party" in the covenant of God,       walk with God see Psalm 56:13;         (Matt. 5:7). No man can show
but always we must know our           101:2;  116:9;  119:45.                mercy who have not obtained
place before the high God, to
walk humbly with him in
fellowship of love. That is the
place of the justified sinner, who
has learned to confess with the
mouth what he believes in his
heart: I am righteous before God
and an heir of everlasting life by     The Standard Bearer makes a
faith only. Yes, then I walk
humbly with my God in Jesus           thoughtful gift for members of your
Christ; and I have fellowship with
the Father and with the Son. We       family, friends, and neighbors. Give
read of both Enoch and Noah
that "they walked with God."          a gift of the Standard Bearer.
                                                                                             The Standard Bearer  / 267


mercy from God. Standing in the          Finally, just a word about "to      discussed that this cannot be a
mercy of God we love to be mer-        do justly," as this occurs here in    work righteousness at all. This
ciful to our neighbor. Such mercy      the text. The KJV translates this     falls within the framework of
boasts against all judgment            as an adverb of manner of life.       what Paul denominates in I
(James 2:13). God bestows upon         The Dutch translates, "recht te       Timothy 1:8: to use the law
us His wisdom, which is from           doen." Luther translates, "Gottes     lawfully. Hence, it is according to
above, which is pure, peaceable,       Wort halten." This means "to          the gospel of the glory of the
gentle, easy to be entreated, full     keep Gods word." We can see           blessed God.
of mercy and good fruits, without      from all that which we have              Gods theodicy stands up in His
partiality, and without hypocrisy                                            own court. Such is his controver-
(James 3: 17).                                                               sy with "my people" in endless
                                                                             ages. Amen. 0





                                       Book Review

Applying The Scriptures                God (Robert D. Preus), The              However that may be, as I
(Papers from ICBI Summit III);         Savior And His Work `(Roger R.-       perused this volume, one ques-
Kenneth S. Kantzer, ed.; Grand         Nicole), The Holy Spirit And His      tion kept pressing itself on me. It
Rapids, Mich. Zondervan Publish-       Work (James I. Packer), The           is this: what good is a supposed
ing House (Academic Books; 514         Church And Its Mission (Edmund        agreement on the inerrancy of
pp., paper, $17.95. [Reviewed by       P. Clowney), Sanctity Of Human        Scripture, when such divergent
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema]                  Life (Norman L. Geisler), Mar-        positions as are represented in
   This is a very interesting book.    riage And The Family (William         this volume al1 appeal for their
It contains the papers (and            and Mary Pride), Divorce And          authority to those inerrant Scrip-
responses) from the International      Remarriage (William A. Heth),         tures? Is this divergence a reflec-
Council of Biblical Inerrancy          Sexual Deviations (John White),       tion of a lack of perspicuity in
Summit III, which met in Chicago       The State Under God (Charles W.       the Scriptures? Or is it a reflec-
in 1986. It is impossible in the       Colson), Law And Justice (John        tion of the fact that a more or
space of a review to summarize         Warwick Montgomery), Discrimi-        less formal adherence to the iner-
the contents of the book. There        nation And Human Rights (Gret-        rancy of Scripture is after all
were no fewer than seventeen           chen Gaebelein Hull), War (Kurt       rather meaningless? The more
papers delivered, and to each          E. Marquart), Economics (Ronald       important questions are: 1. What
paper, with the exception of one,      H. Nash), Work And Leisure            saith the Scripture? 2. Are you
there were two or three                (Walter A. Henrichsen), Wealth        willing to bow before the clear
responses. The participants were       And Poverty (John M. Perkins),        teaching of Scripture?
all committed to the principle of      Stewardship Of The Environment          Recommended for informative
the inerrancy of Scripture, but        (Carl F. H. Henry), God And           reading. q
they were from .widely variant         History (James Montgomery
denominational and theological         Boice).
backgrounds. Here is a list of the       Some of the papers were
subjects dealt with: The Living        rather bland, I thought, even to
                                       the point that it made me
                                       wonder whether specifics were
                                       avoided in the interest of
                                       avoiding controversy.

262  / The Standard Bearer


                                            News From
 Ben Wigger                                 Our Churches

                         March 1,1988       Hudsonville Church in Hudson-            The Hope P.T.A. in Walker,
   Rev. R. Miersma and his family           ville, Michigan, did not go sliding    Michigan, met February 12. The
arrived safely in New Zealand on            as planned, but decided to try ice     program for the evening involved
January 14, after what had to be            skating instead. So the young          demonstration classes with
a very long and tiring flight.              adults were encouraged to dig          students from grades K-5. In the
Their new address in New                    out their skates and meet ,at          upper grades parents only got to
Zealand is 26 Kairanga Crescent,            church on Saturday, February 6.        see a teacher in action.
Wainuiomata, New Zealand.                   From there they went to a lake           In the January 31st bulletin
Their phone number is                       where they built a bonfire and         from Southeast P.R.C. in Grand
011-64-4-646-129.                           tried to do some skating.              Rapids, Michigan, there was a
   Homecoming Week at Cove-                   The Mother's Circle of the           note of thanks for the sketch of
nant Christian High School in               Doon  Protestant Reformed              the church on the new bulletin
Walker, Michigan was held from              School in Doon, Iowa, sponsored        cover done by Dave
February 8-12. The Homecoming               a soup supper on February 3.           Orzechowski. Up until now their
Chapel featuring the Class of               Serving of supper went from            bulletin cover has always had a
1972 was held on Friday,                    5:30-8:00 P.M. in the basement of      picture of the church on it. Now
February 12. Other events                   the Doon P.R.C.                        that remodeling of the foyer is
scheduled for that week included              Doon's Young People's Society        complete, a new picture was
tug-a-war and arm wrestling com-            sponsored a roller skating party       needed. It looks real nice,
petition, a dress up day, an im-            January 25 from 7:00 to 9:00           definitely worth a look if you are
personation day, a hat, wig and             P.M. at Magic Wheels in Sioux          in the area.
hairdo day, interclass basketball           Center, Iowa. All in the con-            On Friday night, January 29,
competition, a black and gold               gregations of Doon, Hull, Iowa,        the Ladies Circle in Loveland,
day, career day, college and                and Edgerton, Minnesota were in-       Colorado held a combination
university day and a chapel with            vited to attend.                       soup-supper and game night.
Rev. Slopsema.                                The Mother's Club of Adams           Everyone was asked to bring his
   Everyone in the Hudsonville              Street Christian School in `Grand      favorite table games for after sup-
P.R.C. in Hudsonville, Michigan             Rapids, Michigan must agree with       per. A freewill offering was
was invited to a casserole supper           the mothers of Doon. Nothing           taken for the new church kitchen
sponsored by the Young People's             seems to taste as good as a bowl       fund.
Societies on Thursday, February             of hot soup on a frosty winter           A "Daily Bible Reading Plan
4 from 5-7 P.M. It proved to be a           night. They also held their an-        for 1988" was made available to
time of. fellowship and an oppor-           nual soup supper on February 11        the members of the Loveland
tunity to help raise funds for the          at First Church in Grand Rapids.       P.R.C. in Loveland, Colorado.
next convention.                            This year three different soups        This is an arrangement of Scrip-
   Due to the lack of snow on               were served instead of the `usual      ture reading for every day of
January 23, the Young Adults of             two.                                   1988 which, if followed, complete
                                              The Heritage P.T.A. in Hudson-       the reading of the entire Bible in
                                            ville, Michigan met February 11        one year.
                                            to hear Mr. Gary Vander Schaaf           We also rejoice and extend
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,             speak on "How to encourage             congratulations to Rev. and Mrs.
Michigbn.                                   reading at home".                      Cammenga of Loveland, CoI-

       .                                                                                           The Standard Bearer  / 263


  THE
STANDARD                                                                                      SECOND CLASS
BEWEIR                                                                                        Postage Paid at
                                                                                              Grand Rapids, Michigan

l?O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



orado in the birth of a baby boy,       NOTICE!!!                           has given them and the faithful
Daniel Edward, on Sunday,                 The Free Christian School of      Christian instruction they have
January 3. I can't help but             Edgerton, Minnesota is in need      given us. It is our constant
wonder if Rev. Cammenga was             of a teacher for grades 5-9 for     prayer that God will continue to
able to conduct both worship ser-       the 1988-89 school year. Some       bless and keep them in his care.
vices that, Sunday.                     administrative duties are in-       Arlin Brummel
   The first meeting of a special       volved. Call Al Brummel, (507)      Jim and Gloria Bleyenberg
evangelism course was held              442-3622,  or 442-5931. His ad-       Amy, Heath, Lisa, Carrie
January 19, sponsored by the            dress is: 251 Maple, W.,  Edger-    Phil and Sherry Brummel
                                                                              Heather, jenny, Amber
Randolph P.R.C. in Randolph,            ton, MN 56128.                      Terry and  Gayle  Bonestroo
Wisconsin. This course ran for six                                            Andy
consecutive Tuesday evenings.           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
The theme was "The Five Great             The Mr. and Mrs. Society of       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Doctrines of Grace." The first          the South Holland Protestant           The Consistory and Congrega-
lesson was a historical introduc-       Reformed Church extends its         tion of Crandville Protestant Re-
tion which sought to show how           sympathy to their fellow            formed Church express our
the truth of salvation by grace         members Doug and Lynn               Christian sympathy to Neal and
alone, the truth of the Scriptures,     Bruinsma, Joe and Marcia Van        Jeanne Hanko and family in the
is the historic faith of the church.    Baren and to their families in      death of their father and grand-
The committee in charge r-e             the loss of their father, MR.       father, MR. PETER ZANDSTRA.
quested a11 church members to           TUNIS VAN  BAREN.                      "The Lord knoweth the days
invite people from outside their          "The Lord will give strength      of the upright and their in-
church to this course. Members          unto His people; the Lord will      heritance shall be forever."
of the church were also en-             bless His people with peace."       (Psalm  37:18)
couraged to attend to help sup-         (Psalm 29:ll)                       Rev.  J. Kortering, Pres.
                                                                            T. Bodbyl, Ass't. Clerk
port this work.                         Rev. D. Engelsma, President
                                        Myrna Boer, Secretary
   About twenty men and women                                               SYMPATHY RESOLUTION
met to express interest in an           NOTICE!!!                              The members of the Jr. Mr.
area-wide Reformed Witness                All students enrolled in the      and Mrs. Society of Hope Prot-
Hour Radio Choir. Twelve others         Protestant Reformed Seminary,       estant Reformed Church
called to say they were also in-        who will be in need of financial    (Walker, Ml) express their
terested. Unfortunately this pro-       assistance for the coming           sincere sympathy to Mr. and
posed Radio Choir from the              school year, are asked to con-      Mrs. Paul Zandstra in the recent
Grand Rapids area decided not to        tact the Student Aid Committee,     death of his father, PETER
meet this season because they           Mr. Larry Meulenberg,               ZANDSTRA. May grace and
were unable to engage a director.       Secretary. (616-453-8466) This      comfort be found in Cod's
They will try again next Septem-        contact should be made before       Word.
ber.                                    the next scheduled meeting of          "For all flesh is as grass, and
   Closing thought: taken from          the committee on April 6, 1988.     the glory of man as the flower
the January Across the Aisle, of        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                 of grass. The grass withereth
the First P.R.C. of Grand Rapids.         On February 26, 1988, our         and the flower thereof falleth
   "The common cold is positive         parents, MR. AND MRS. RALPH         away.
as well as negative. Sometimes          BRUMMEL observed their 40th            "But the Word of the Lord
the eyes have it, and sometimes         wedding anniversary.                endureth forever." (I Peter  1:24,
the nose." Cl                             We, their children and grand-     25)
                                        children, are grateful to our       Mr. D. Engelsma, President
                                        Covenant God for the years He       Mrs. M. Lotterman, Secretary

264 / The Standard Bearer


