 A Reformed
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VOI. 04,  NO. 14
April 75, 7988


 Contents                                                                   April 15, 1988               THE
                                                                                                   STANDARD
Meditation -  lames D. Slopsema
More Than Conquerors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .314                BMR
Editorial  -                                                                                        ISSN  03624692
                                                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
Revolution, Not Reformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316                and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
The Day of Shadows  - John A. Heys                                                                 lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                                   at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
A Very Good Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318            EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
                                                                                                   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
Walking  In The Light  - Herman C. Hanko                                                           DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                   Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
Euthanasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...321    Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                                   Cornelius Hanko. Prof. Herman C. Hanko. Rev.
All Around Us - Cise  /. Van  Baren                                                                Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A.  Heys,  Rev.  J.  Korter-
                                                                                                   ing,.  Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
The Press' Account Of The Calvin Creation Debate . . . . . . . . .324                              Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.  Cise  J. Van
                                                                                                   Baren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
Decency and Order  - Ronald L. Cammenga                                                            EDITORIAL OFFICE
Decisions Pertaining To Article 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .326                Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                   4975  Ivanrest  Ave., S.W.
In His Fear  - Arie den Hartog                                                                     Crandville,  Michigan 49418
                                                                                                   CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
Distinctive Traits of True Godliness  - Godly Humility . . . . .329                                Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                   6597  - 40th Ave.
Bible Study Guide - Jason L. Kortering                                                             Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
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Deuteronomy  - Exhorted Unto Obedience (conclusion) . . . .332                                     Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
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BookReview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...334        terest from our readers and questions for the
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News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .335              tions will be limited to approximately  300 words
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 Meditation                                           There are times when the child               provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
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                                                   of God feels defeated.                          ment is made;  c) that a copy of the periodical in
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lames D. Slopsema                                     He feels defeated when he                    office.
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 Conquerors                                                                                        NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS OFFICE
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314  / The Standard Bearer


   We face many evils in life.             This list is concluded with an       Nothing can defeat him. In his
  These evils are described for          all-comprehensive expression,          life and at the time of death he
us from various viewpoints in a          any other creature. This refers to     will face many enemies. But he
rather lengthy list. For I am per-       any other creature that may            will always be the conqueror,
suaded that neither death, nor           possibly bring evil or suffering       never the vanquished!
life, nor angels, nor principalities,    upon us. This includes creatures       * *  * * * * * * * *
nor powers, nor things present,          from the realm of nature. It in-         We are more than conquerors
nor things to come, nor height,          cludes evil men who seek your
nor depth, nor any other                 hurt and ruin. It includes any         through Him that loved us.
                                                                                  The Scriptures here speak of
creature . . . .                         other creature in God's world          the love of Christ. Mention is also
  First to be mentioned are              that can bring suffering to us.        made of the love of God which is
death and life. This refers to all       *  * * * * * * * * *
the evils we must face in both                                                  in Christ Jesus our Lord.
death and life. In life there are all      In all these things we are more        He that loved us, therefore, is
sorts of evils - sickness and            than conquerors.                       God.
disease, pain and suffering, trou-         It doesn't always appear that          He has shown that love to us
ble and sorrow. And at the end           way, does it?                          in Christ Jesus. He loved us in
of life there is death, a most hor-        We often feel defeated as we         that he spared not His own Son
rible evil.                              face the evils of life and death.      but delivered Him up to the cross
  Mention is made of angels and            How easily the aged saint feels      for our salvation. He loved us in
principalities and powers. This          defeated when he finds that he is      that He raised up Christ from the
refers to the world of fallen            weak and feeble, no longer able        dead and seated Christ at His
angels. Principalities refer to the      to do the things that at one time      own right hand where Christ
chief of the fallen angels. Powers       he handled with ease. How hope-        makes continual intercession for
emphasizes the power the realm           less the saint feels when he strug-    us. He loves us in that He freely
of fallen angels possesses. The          gles with a terminal illness or a      gives us all things through the in-
world of fallen angels, otherwise        crippling disease. How we despair      tercession of His Son. In Christ
known to us as devils, are very          when we lose a loved one. How          we receive from God all the
instrumental in bringing upon us         quickly we conclude defeat when        blessings of salvation. We have
great evils. We know, of course,         there is trouble in our home,          the forgiveness of our sins. We
that ultimately suffering is from        trouble in our marriage, trouble       enjoy a new life of friendship and
God. Nonetheless, the world of           with our children, trouble with        fellowship with the living God.
fallen angels is directly involved       our finances.                          We have the hope of life eternal.
in the miseries we experience.             Contrary to what may be our          How rich is God's love to us in
Think of the efforts of Satan,           experience, the Word of God pro-       Christ Jesus our Lord!
with God's permission, to afflict        claims boldly and confidently            We are more than conquerors
Job. So also do the powers and           that in all these things we are        as we face the evils of life exact-
principalities of this world bring       more than conquerors.                  ly because nothing can separate
evil and suffering to each one of          A conqueror is a victor. He is       us from this love of God and
us to work our destruction.              one who has faced the enemy            from the salvation His love pro-
  Then there are things present          and has overcome him. This is          vides us.
and things to come. At present           what the child of God is in the          How horrible a defeat it would
every child of God experiences           midst of the evils of life and         be should anything be able to
evils and sufferings at the hand         death. Come what may, he is not        turn away God's love from us.
of the powers of darkness. And           the vanquished but the victor.         What a horrible defeat should
that will continue to be the case          And he is more than a con-           poverty or sickness or physical
in the future. The demonic hosts         queror. He is above even a con-        infirmity or trouble in our homes
will never cease to assail the           queror. One who is merely a con-       or even our sin turn God away
church.                                  queror is one who has met his          from us in disgust so that He no
  Mention is made of heights and         enemy and conquered him. He            longer loves us, but hates us. Or
depths. This calls our attention to      may, however, at some future           should the sufferings of this pres-
any evil that may come from the          date be conquered by yet               ent life somehow make it im-
heavens above or the earth               another. This is not true,             possible for God's love to reach
beneath.                                 however, of the child of God. He       us so that we lose His salvation,
                                         is more than a conqueror. He has       we would suffer a defeat the likes
                                         the victory over his enemies and       of which mankind has never
                                         he will always be the victor.          known.

                                                                                                The Standard Bearer  / 315


   But God assures us that this          Besides this, nothing is able to          we even despair. But through
will never happen. Nothing can        separate us from the salvation               Jesus Christ, God ever preserves
separate us from the love of God      God has provided in His love                 us. In fact, God even uses our
which is Christ Jesus.                through Jesus Christ.                        sufferings to bring us closer to
   No matter what may come,             The devil would like to rob us             Him so that we enjoy His friend-
God will always love us. When         of our salvation. To that end he             ship and fellowship as never
we become poor, or sick unto          sends the evils we experience in             before.
death, or old and feeble, our         life. He sends sickness and                     Indeed we are more than con-
friends and acquaintances may         disease. He sends poverty and                querors through Him that loved
forsake us. When we come upon         hard times. If possible, he sends            us.
hard times, there.may be those        strife into our homes. And it is all            For always we have God's
whose love for us flickers and        designed to turn us away from                love. And always we have the
dies. But God's love will not. God    God in despair so that ultimately            salvation of God's love. And let
will continue to love us regard-      we lose our salvation and perish             us not forget that the sufferings
less of what may befall us. No        in hell.                                     of this present time are not wor-
matter how lowly our situation,         But that will never be. For God            thy to be compared to the joys of
God will love us. No matter how       in His love has sealed our salva-            salvation which God provides us
desperate our circumstances, we       tion in the blood of the cross.              in Christ Jesus our Lord.
will have God's love. This is         And through the intercession of                Let us ever live in the con-
because Gods love for us is an        His Son, He ever preserves us in             sciousness and joy of his vic-
eternal love, not based on any-       the face of the evils of life and            tory. q
thing desirable in us or on what      death. Oh, we indeed may strug-
we can possibly do for Him.           gle. There may be times when
                                                                              -





                                      qevolution,
Editorial                             Vat Reformation

                                        In The Outlook (April, `88, pp.            frustrated partly because those
                                      13, 14) the Rev. Jelle Tuininga, a           whom he classifies as "liberals"
                                      Christian Reformed minister in               in the Christian Reformed Church
                                      Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada,                 are, to use his figure, "in the
                                      writes under .the title, "Obey God           driver's seat," while the "conser-
                                      Rather Than Men" - a Scriptural              vatives" are "back-seat drivers"
                                      injunction, of course, with which            and are "only annoying
                                      no one may disagree. We certain-             nuisances."
                                      ly must obey God rather than                   And in his anger and frustra-
                                      men if and when we are con-                  tion the Rev. Tuininga, it seems
                                      fronted by such a choice.                    to me, is advocating revolution
                                        In the article the Rev. Tuininga           and rebellion, not reformation.
                                      leaves the impression that he is               And while reformation is in-
                                      very disturbed, and even angry.              deed a matter of obeying God,
                                        He also leaves the impression              and usually involves obeying God
                                      that he feels rather frustrated -            rather than men, revolution and

316  / The Standard Bearer


rebellion constitute disobedience              assemblies and, if necessary, to              moment. What is important, I
to God.                                        leave. As long as he do&                      think, in this paragraph is the im-
   Let us look at the matter in a              nothing, he is co-responsible.                plication that the "conservatives"
little more detail.                               The Rev. Tuicinga's  complaints            are "timid." I am inclined to
   Mr. Tuininga begins as follows:             in this article focus on two mat-             agree. Also important is the im-
  The liberals (not defined, HCH) in the       ters: 1) The matter of women in               plication that the "car" (the CRC
CRC are becoming very bold the last            office. 2) The matter of Prof.                denomination) is not being driven
number of years - almost ruthless one          Howard Van Till's The Fourth                  by the "conservatives."
could say. And they have no intention of
looking back. They are in the driver's         Day and its alleged denial that                  But what is especially impor-
seat (even though numerically they are         Genesis is history. In connection             tant is the easy way in which the
still a minority in the CRC). We have an       with the former, Tuininga's com-              Rev. Tuininga passes over the
article in the Church Order (29) which         plaints seem to be twofold. He                question what constitutes a con-
says that decisions of major assemblies        complains about the synodical                 servative. He blithely states thdt
are not settled and binding if they con-
flict with God's Word or the Church            maneuvers with respect to this                "everyone knows what we mean
Order. No problem: we change the C.O.          matter, and predicts that even-               by" the words "liberal" and "con-
to fit the new situation (women in office).    tually the rules will be changed              servative." I used to think that I
No matter if that's putting the cart before    and the door will be officially               knew. But as the years have
the horse. And the Bible - well, that's all    opened to women elders and                    passed and what I thought were
a matter of interpretation, Who really
knows what it says (or means)?                 ministers. But he also complains              "conservatives" year after year
   Now, in the first place, Article            about the fact that some chur-                have allowed the ecclesiastical
29 of the Christian Reformed                   ches already ordain women                     car to go where they would
Church Order (a revision of our                elders and have allowed women                 rather not have it go, and have
well-known Article 31) does not                to preach in their pulpits. As to             also remained in the car, so to
say what Tuininga claims. It says              the matter of Prof. Van Till's                speak, I have become confused
rather that "The decisions of the              book, he complains - and I                    as to what "conservatives" and
assemblies shall be considered                 agree - that it is a denial of                "conservatism" are. In a later
settled and binding, unless it is              Genesis and that it is contrary to            editorial I propose to address that
prooed that they conflict with the             the creeds and a violation of the             matter and to ask some pertinent
Word of God or that Church                     Formula of Subscription. It should            and concrete questions. This is
Order." This obviously involves a              be remembered, however, that                  the more important because the
process of protest and appeal.                 this matter has not yet been ad-              Rev. Tuininga claimed earlier in
And in the second place, there is              judicated by synod, though the                his article that the "liberals,"
nothing wrong as such with                     Calvin Board of Trustees has                  though in the driver's seat, "are
changing the Church Order, pro-                cleared Van Till and others.                  still a minority." Now that all
vided this is done in the orderly                 Tuininga then complains about              depends, of course, on how he
way. In fact, provision is made                the inactivity of those whom he               defines "liberal" and "conserva-
for this in Article 96: "This                  calls conservatives:                          tive." But about this later.
Church Order, having been                        Meanwhile the conservatives (I know            Now comes the Rev. Tuininga's
adopted by common consent,                     some people don't like the words              rebellious proposal:
                                               "liberal" and "conservative," but they are
shall be faithfully observed, and                                                              I make a proposal: It's time the conser-
                                               the best we have and everybody knows
any revision thereof shall be                                                                vatives get some boldness too. It's time
                                               what we mean by them) are not bold but        they take the gloves off too. It's time they
made only by synod." In the                    timid. They are sitting in the back seat.     fight fire with fire; that they meet the
third place, if what the Rev.                  And back-seat drivers are only annoying       liberals on their own ground with their
Tuininga writes about the at-                  nuisances. Meanwhile the car keeps go-        own weapons. It won't do to be "nice"
                                               ing where they'd rather not have it go,
titude toward the Bible is really                                                            and inoffensive and to meekly obey all
                                                  Now that is quite a characteri-
true - and notice that he is not                                                             the rules. No, it won't. And the sooner
                                               zation of "conservatives" - and I             the conservatives realize this, the better it
merely talking about the                       suppose the Rev. Tuininga in-                 is. If Luther and Calvin and the other
"liberals" but about decisions of              cludes himself among them. And                Reformers had kept on being nice and
major assemblies which are sup-                although I don't like the com-                "paying the quotas, " we'd still be in the
posedly controlled by "liberals"                                                             Roman Catholic church today. There
                                               parison of a church or a denomi-
- then he is making a very, very                                                             comes a time when we must obey God
                                               nation of churches with a car -               rather than men, and that time is NOW.
serious charge against the                     and it certainly is not a Biblical            No dilly-dallying around.
synod(s) of his own denomina-                  figure - in a way the figure, I
tion. And he is certainly obli-                think, is rather appropriate; and
gated either to make this a pend-              it certainly is rather self-
ing issue before the ecclesiastical            demeaning. But let that be for a

                                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer / 317


    Now I have to smile a bit               3. He appeals to the alleged         time of the Secession of 1834. Or,
about the facile way in which the         example of Luther and Calvin -         to come a little nearer to home,
Rev. Tuininga mixes his                   as if either their battle or their     think of Hoeksema and Danhof
metaphors - from car-driving, to          method involved the question of        and Ophoff and their consistories
boxing, to fire-fighting, to war-         "paying quotas" or being "nice."       in 1924.
fare. But let that be. He seems to        Let us use the example of Luther.        4. What the Rev. Tuininga is
be a bit agitated and frustrated;         Did he simply rebel about some-        proposing is not a matter of
and I can understand this.                thing insignificant? Not at all. He    obeying God rather than men.
   But I call your attention to the       took his stand on the truth, on        He is proposing rebellion; and
following facts:                          the basis of the Word of God. He       rebellion is disobedience to God.
    1. Tuininga is proposing dis-         boldly proclaimed that truth and       Besides, why is the time, as he
obedience to "the rules." Not an          taught it. But he went the orderly     says, "NOW?" Is not the time for
orderly changing of the rules             way, all the way to the Diet of        obeying God rather than men
does he propose. Nor the orderly          Worms. There he openly took his        always and at every occasion
ecclesiastical process of protest         position on the basis of Holy          when that is the issue? Why was
and appeal does he propose. But           Scripture. His teachings were          it not on the numerous other oc-
the breaking of the rules, the            condemned. It was demanded of          casions when Tuininga's denomi-
law, in his denomination. This is         him that he recant. He refused in      nation departed from the truth of
rebellion, not reformation.               his famous "Here I stand" declar-      the Word of God?
   2. He justifies this because the       ation. And he allowed himself to         The Rev. Tuininga has some
liberals also do it. He suggests          be put under the ban and excom-        concrete suggestions for action in
meeting the liberals on their own         municated. Such is the path of         his article also. About these and
ground and with their own                 reformation. Or if you want            the matter of a definition of "con-
weapons. This is a concrete ap-           another example, think of Hen-         servative" I will comment
plication of the false principle          drik De Cock and the consistory        later. 0                         HCH
that two wrongs make a right.             and congregation of Ulrum at the





  The Day
 of Shadows
john A. Heys                              A Very Good Shadow

                                            When one walks around a              and that someone wants a build-
                                          foundation that has been laid for      ing, and wants it right there on
                                          a building that is under construc-     that spot.
                                          tion, that foundation will not tell      As presented last time, the
                                          whether the building will be a         heavens and earth which God
                                          hotel, warehouse, office building,     created in the beginning likewise
                                          hospital, factory or any other         did not give us ,a11 the details of
                                          large building. It will not tell us    the new heaven and earth which
                                          how many stories the building          comes when Christ appears on
                                          will have, or whether the outside      the clouds of heaven at the end
                                          walls of the building will be          of time, and of which the earth
                                          made of wood or stone. But that        He created in the beginning of
                                          foundation will tell us how long       time was a shadow. That first
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in    and wide the building will be,         creation does reveal some truths
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

318 / The Standard Bearer


 about the coming kingdom of           voice of crying. There shall be no      by Satan. But look at the cross of
 heaven. But as a shadow, that         more thence an infant of days,          Christ and you will see that,
 first beautiful creation did not      nor an old man that hath not            when to man it looks as though
 give us all the details about the     filled his days: for the child shall    Satan triumphed, this is not true.
 coming kingdom of Christ.             die an hundred years old; but the       There God used him for our
   What is more, the fall of man       sinner being an hundred years           salvation. And the same thing is
 did not make it necessary for         old shall be accursed. And they         true of the wicked work of Satan
 God to begin to repair and im-        shall build houses, and inhabit         in leading Adam into the sin that
 prove that creation to bring into     them, and they shall plant vine-        brought guilt upon the whole
 being the kingdom of heaven. No       yards and eat the fruit of              human race. That was necessary
 one, absolutely no one spoils the     them . . . . The wolf and lamb          for the coming of Christ to lift us
 work of the almighty God. He          shall feed together, and the lion       above the shadow - glory of the
 has every creature completely         shall eat straw like the bullock:       garden of Eden and bring us into
 and constantly under His perfect      and dust shall be the serpent's         that new Jerusalem presented in
 control. And though it is true, as    meat. They shall not hurt nor           Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21.
 we read in Genesis 1:31, that God     destroy in all my holy mountain,          We do well to take hold also of
 saw that everything that He had       saith the Lord."                        the fact that man as he came
 made was "very good", this does         Plainly God is speaking here of       forth from the hand of God on
 not mean that Satan spoiled           the new Jerusalem, that is, the         the sixth day of creation week
 things for God and made Him do        new creation which He will bring        was a shadow of what we will be
 some new and extra work. Satan        forth in the day Christ returns.        in the new creation. God created
 is completely under God's control     He is speaking of that which is         man in His own image. God
 and is a tool which God uses to       also presented to us in Revelation      made man to be a thinking, will-
 realize His own eternal and un-       21: l-4. There we are told, "And I      ing creature who could hear God
 changeable purpose. What              saw a new heaven and a new              speak, could speak unto God, en-
 Genesis 1:31 means is that God        earth: for the first heaven and         joy His love, and could love Him.
saw that a very good foundation        the first earth were passed away;       No other earthly creature could
was laid, and a very good              and there was no more sea. And          do that. He was created a little
 shadow was there, that speaks of      I John saw the holy city, new           lower than the angels in heaven
what He intends to bring forth in      Jerusalem, coming down from             (Hebrews 2:7); but he was.
and through Christ. Satan did not      God out of heaven, prepared as a        created in a covenant reIation-
frustrate God. He did not spoil        bride adorned for her husband.          ship with God. A relationship of
Gods work. He, Satan, wanted to        And I heard a great voice out of        friendship and fellowship was
 do that and thought that he had       heaven saying, Behold the taber-        realized when man was created
succeeded; but unwillingly, yet        nacIe of God with men, and He           in the image of God. This caused
very really, he served God in the      will dwell with them, and they          man to be a shadow of that more
realization of that of which the       shall be His people, and God            intimate fellowship of God's cove-
first creation was a shadow.           Himself shall be with them, and         nant of which we read a moment
   Before He created the heavens       be their God. And God shall wipe        ago in Revelation 21:3. God will
and the earth and all that they        away all tears from their eyes;         tabernacle, that is, dwell with us
contain, God had in mind that of       and there shall be no more              through Christ, in a much closer
which we read in Isaiah 65:17-25.      death, neither sorrow, nor cry-         and richer fellowship in that new
There we read: "For, behold, I         ing, neither shall there be any         creation.
create new heavens and a new           more pain: for the former things          Do we not read in Revelation
earth: and the former things shall     are passed away."                       21:3 that God will dwell with us
not be remembered, nor come in-          THAT is what God had in               and be our God? Of course He is
to mind. But be ye glad and re-        mind when He created the world          the God of all creatures. But
joice for ever in that which I         in which we live. And He used           when He is our God because His
create: for, behold, I create          Satan and all the heavenly and          tabernacle is with us, a far more
Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her         earthly creatures which He              intimate fellowship, a much
people a joy. And I will rejoice in    brought forth to serve the reali-       richer blessedness with Him will
Jerusalem, and joy in my people:       zation of that new creation. That       be ours. Then fully we will taste
and the voice of weeping shall be      Satan succeeded in his attempt to
no more heard in her, nor the          turn man away from God and be
                                       a covenant breaker might seem
                                       to be a frustration of God's will


                                                                                              The Standard Bearer  I319


and see that God is good. For           man that He made man in His            l-l 1 is just a story and not
that His tabernacle is with us          own image. He saw that all that        historical fact. (And why stop
means that God is with us not           He had made was "very good",           there? What in Scripture gives us
simply in His providence and in a       because it could all serve to bring    the right to stop there and call
physical way but in His love and        forth this indescribably blessed       just that fiction?) But as we began
in a blessedness that is higher         life with God in the sinless world     to say, insist that Genesis l-11 is
than what we had in the garden          that is coming in the day of           fiction and not fact. Why must
of Eden, even as heaven is so           Christ.                                we take other parts of Scripture,
much higher than the earth.               Consider the fact that man was       that are just as unique, as
   Psalm 25:14 is so interesting        created able not to sin. But ac-       historical fact?
and comforting. There we read:          cording to Gods counsel, which           If the first part of the Old Test-
"The secret of the Lord is with         had the intimate covenant life         ament is only a story of what
them that fear Him; and He will         with Him in mind, man fell and         happened, may we not insist that
show them His covenant." Being          became not able not to sin. And        the New Testament also begins
a Hebrew parallelism, the state-        all this took place with a view to     with a story? By some evolution-
ment that Gods secret is with           lifting man in Christ and through      istic process a virgin brings forth
those that fear Him means the           His cross, resurrection, and           a son. Why call that creation of
same thing as the statement that        ascension up into heaven so that       man only a story, while the far
He will show them His covenant.         man would become not able to           more awesome birth of the Son
Showing His covenant means              sin, and in that perfect state have    of God in our flesh through a
having His secret with us. Now          a fellowship with God that is          virgin birth is considered
the word secret suggests a rela-        closer and richer than that which      historical fact? If Genesis has
tionship of friendship. The closer      the angels know. Man was               eleven chapters that are fic-
the friend is to you, the more          created in Gods image and was          titious, may we not say that Mat-
ready you are to commune with           high above all earthly creatures.      thew 1 and Luke 1, 2 are also fic-
that friend and tell him secrets        But Gods plan was to lift him          tion?
you keep from all others. No one        higher in His Son. He was                And what about Eve? Some-
shares secrets with enemies.            created as Gods friend-servant,        where in the sixth period of
   However, the Hebrew word             and that was a glorious and            billions of years they say a male
here translated secret means a          blessed state for a creature. But      human being came into ex-
circle of persons sitting together.     God had in mind making man             istence. Did it take another
It can be translated as a consen-       His sons and daughters through         billion of years for him to bring
sus divan, that is, a couch, or bet-    His only begotten Son. Friends         forth a female human being?
ter still, here in Psalm 25:14, as a    and servants do not have the           Poor Adam! He was all alone for
loveseat where we sit with God          same intimacy and freedoms in          a billion years. Well, anyway,
and have a communion of rich            your home that your sons and           some of those billion years he
love with Him. That is the idea of      daughters enjoy. And we are            spent in sleep (Genesis 2:21). But
Gods covenant as we read of it          promised this richer, more won-        how could he live that long
so often in Scripture. It is a rela-    derful life in the new Jerusalem.      without eating or drinking? And
tionship of friendship and              Living with His Son, Who came in       notice that, according to this
fellowship between God and His          our flesh and lifted it to heavenly    story, the animal world did not
elect children, a very intimate         glory, we shall then have a close,     bring forth a body so different
and close fellowship much richer        most blessed fellowship with God.      from the male body; but it came
than the shadow thereof which           And of that, Adam's and Eve's          out of a male's body. God took a
existed between God and Adam            fellowship with God in the             rib of Adam and out of it He
before he fell into sin.                garden of Eden was only a              made Eve. Are we to believe that
   All this God had in mind             shadow.                                this explains how Adam came in-
before He created Adam, in fact           What we must take hold of is         to being? God used a rib of a
before He created the heavens           the fact that God formed man out       beast to make man over a period
and the earth and all that they         of the dust of the ground and          of billions of years?
contain. It was with a view to          breathed into his nostrils the           Why did not God, Who has
this rich, much more intimate           breath of life. And this we read       perfect control of speech and
relationship between God and            as the background of God calling       language, not tell us in a much
                                        all the other creatures into being.    clearer way that we came out of
                                        Follow the theistic evolutionistic     the animal world? Why does He
                                        philosophy and say that Genesis        not use that clearer word euolue,


320  / The Standard Bearer


 if that is the way He brought            Do they believe that man will          years) raise His elect through His
 man into being? He surely knew           still evolve into a god? The anti-     Son, and on the basis of His cross
that word as well as the words            christ, according to II Thessalo-      bring us with body and soul into
call and breathe. Why does He             nians 2:4, will call himself God.      the covenant blessedness of
have to tell us that Adam slept           Does that mean that the evolu-         which Adam's life in the garden
while Eve was being formed?               tionistic process is still working     of Eden was a shadow. What we
After all, then, it must have been        and that Paul teaches us here          saw in that garden was caused by
a female beast that brought forth         that man will evolve into becom-       what we are going to be, and
Eve, even as a male beast in an           ing a god?                             was eternally unchangeably real
evolutionistic process brought               Rather take hold of this won-       in God's heart and mind. Man did
forth Adam.                               derful truth that even as God          not evolve out of the animal
   No, let the theistic evolutionist      formed man out of the dust of          world. He did fall into a spiritual
tell us whether and why that              the ground, creating him in His        condition far worse than the
evolutionistic process has now            own image, and thus laying a           beast of the field. But God brings
ended. Or do they believe that            very good foundation for the           us to a higher glory than that
such an evolutionistic process            rich, blessed covenant life we are     wherein He created man by the
will raise man to heavenly glory?         going to have with Him, He will        cross and Spirit of His Son. 0
                                          in a moment (not over billions of





 Walking in
 the Light
Heman C. Hank0                            Euthanasia

   In our last article we talked          which the child of God is con-         itself, I think, for the people of
about the great evils of                  fronted in various ways by this        God. I mean that we live increas-
euthanasia as it is increasingly          perplexing problem.                    ingly near the end of the ages.
being practiced in this country             The problems really arise out        Christ gives many and clear signs
and abroad. In this article we            of the advances of medical             that history, according to the pur-
want to attempt to see some light         technology, which has made it          pose of God, is coming to its con-
in the many problems which                possible to sustain or prolong life    clusion. Scripture tells us that
nevertheless arise, and with              artificially. That is, various         before the Lord returns, Anti-
                                          machines are now commonly              christ will reign, and during his
                                          used which can keep a person           reign the one who does not have
                                          alive when, without them, he           the mark of the beast will be able
                                          would die. Is the believer re-         neither to buy nor sell. Quite ob-
                                          quired, under all circumstances        viously, one who is faithful to his
                                          and in every situation, to make        Lord and will not worship the
                                          use of these machines? If not,         beast will also be cut off from all
                                          when may he or she say no?             medical care. He will not have to
                                            Before I get to some specific        face the problem of whether or
                                          guidelines which I believe are im-     not to be put on a life-support
                                          portant to consider, a few             system. Those days may not be
                                          general remarks are not out of         so very far distant. Already it is
Herman C Hanko is professor of Church     place.                                 true that not all medical treat-
History and New Testament in the Prot-      In the first place, the problem      ment is available to everyone,
estant Reformed Seminary.                 is one which will soon solve           simply because of the staggering

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer I321


costs which are involved, and the       Christ; but to die was gain. The        but also the obligation. A parent
inability of some to pay these          one reason why we might want            who will not bring his child to
costs - especially if they have         to stay in the world is. our calling    the doctor when the child is very
no medical insurance.                   which God has given to us. But          ill does wrong. But it does not
   It is well to remember also in       death has its attractions nonethe-      follow from this that the child of
this connection that the costs of       less, for that means to be with         God is always and under all cir-
some medical treatment lie even         Christ. Thus, the motto of the          cumstances obligated to make
beyond the resources of the             Christian can never be: Life here       use of every treatment and every
church through her diaconate. If        at all costs.                           machine which science invents.
such is indeed the case, it is clear      In the third place, I am per-         An old man of ninety may decide
that God has, in His own wisdom,        sonally convinced that no rigid         in goo-d conscience before God to
made treatment impossible; and          rules can be drawn up which             forego chemo-therapy to treat a
in that too we must be content.         every believer is in conscience         recently discovered cancer, even
   In the second place, in order to     bound to follow. God rarely             though treatment may, in the
consider this whole question in         treats us that way in any case.         doctor's opinion, stop the spread
the light of Scripture, it is impor-    And that is surely not the way          of and perhaps even eradicate
tant to keep Scripture's teaching       God works in this problem. I sup-       the cancerous growth. Even a
concerning living and dying             pose, from a certain point of           young man may decide to forego
before our minds. I fear some-          view, it might seem nice to have        treatment of `his disease if the
times that believers take the posi-     hard and fast rules which cover         doctors tell him that the treat-
tion that life in this world is so      every situation in life and which       ment will be very painful, will
overwhelmingly precious that it         we need only consult to know            perhaps not do any good, and if
must be preserved at all costs.         always what to do. But this is not      it should do any good, will only
This is surely true of wicked           really all that nice. And, anyway,      prolong his life for nine months.
men. When I had opportunity to          being the ornery creatures that         We are not obligated before God
read what the newspapers said a         we are, we would break the rules        to make use always of every
while ago about a man who had           at every opportunity. All this          means available.
a mechanical heart installed, I         means that we are, in some                In the second place, some dis-
was struck by the great fear of         respects, in the area of Christian      tinctions have to be made. Some-
death which clamps on the hearts        liberty. It is an area,in which the     times a distinction is made be-
of the wicked with a vise-like          child of God must make decisions        tween  active  and  passive
grip. They will, in many in-            himself before God's face and           euthanasia. I think I mentioned
stances, do anything at all to          with good conscience. And those         this distinction in an earlier arti-
avoid dying. But this is not true       decisions have to be made on the        cle,' but to refresh our minds: ac-
of the believer. Paul's words to        basis of `the broad principles of       tive euthanasia means active kill-
the Philippians are decisive here:      Scripture and the varied circum-        ing - giving something to some
"For to me to live is Christ, and       stances of life.                        one which will put that person to
to die is gain. But if I live in the      Having said these things, let us      death. Passive euthanasia means.
flesh, this is the fruit of my          turn then to a few guidelines           withholding from someone what
labour: yet what I shall choose I       which we may safely follow.             he needs so that the ill person
wot not. For I am in a strait be-         In the first place, a child of        will die. The former is usually
twixt two, having a desire to           God need not under all circum-          (though not always) condemned;
depart, and to be with Christ;          stances make use of every avail-        the latter is approved. I personal-
which is far better: nevertheless       able treatment and every                ly do not care much for the
to abide in the flesh is more           available life-support inachine         distinction, and think it
needful for you" (1:21-24). The         which medical science places at         dangerous. After all, passive
apostle preferred to die so that        his disposal. It is true, of course,    euthanasia can include withhold-
he could be with Christ. The one        that all the advances in the field      ing food and drink from a
thing which kept him fastened           of medicine come about under            seriously and terminally ill pa-
somewhat to this earth was the          the providence of God, and thus         tient. It can include putting such
need for him which the Philip-          also for the sake of Gods people.       a helpless patient in a cold room
pians had: i.e., his work and call-     They are means which God pro-           without bedclothes (as has hap-
ing which he had received of the        vides. It is also true that under       pened sometimes in hospitals).
Lord. And so, for him to live was       normal circumstances we have            The distinction is one we ought
                                        the right not only to make use of       not to use. Not to withhold from
                                        these means which God provides,         a person anything that person


322  I The Standard Bearer


needs in the way of normal care          who will live two weeks without        present to make the decision,
and to make that person comfort-         treatment, but two years with          then all must be done to care for
able is always and under all cir-        treatment, will give serious           the patient to the very best of
cumstances our obligation.               thought to making use of the           the ability of those who are
Anything else is also murder.            means - especially if he or she        responsible. No one may lightly
  In the third place, the use of         is busy and active in a home. But      take another's life in his hands
extensive treatment or unusual           mere prolongation of life under        and make decisions concerning
methods of prolonging life is to         any circumstances and at any           that life.
be decided on the basis of the           cost is surely not our calling            Finally, there is always the
circumstances under which a per-         before God.                            problem of what to do when a
son finds himself. It ought to be          In the fifth place, I am person-     person is on life-support
obvious to all that a mother who         ally convinced that the final deci-    machinery, but continues for
has to have by-pass surgery              sion whether to- have treatment,       days and weeks without any
which will correct a serious ill-        whether to make use of unusual         signs of life. May anyone, so to
ness, but who can look forward           methods of keeping one alive, is       speak, order the plug to be
to being helped by the surgery           a decision which rests with the        pulled? There are problems here
will be much more inclined to            individual himself. He must make       which are difficult to answer.
use a heart-lung machine and a           that decision for himself. He must     One such problem is clearly:
respirator than an old man who           answer before God for what he          When is a person dead? Years
has suffered a severe stroke and         decides. And he is the only one        ago doctors said a person was
who can live in the future only          who can weigh carefully all the        dead when his heart stopped
on such equipment. In the former         considerations that finally make       beating. That is no longer true.
case such use of machinery is            known to him what the will of          Now doctors speak of "brain-
temporary; in the latter case, per-      God is.                                death;" i.e., the brain shows no
manent - i.e., in the best judg-           This must not, however, be           more signs of activity of any
ment of the medical profession,          construed as if I favor so-called      kind. If a machine did not keep
recognizing all the while that           living wills. These are dangerous      the heart beating and if a
doctors are also often wrong.            and ought not to be made. We           machine did not do the breathing
  All the circumstances have to          cannot tell what God has in store      for a person, he would no longer
be taken into account. The sta-          for us in the future, nor how we       have a heart-beat and lung activi-
tion and calling in life in which        will look at things in years to        ty. Is the person dead? Has that
God has placed someone; his              come. God reveals His will for us      person, if a child of God, gone to
obligations and responsibilities;        step by step in the pathway of         glory even while the machines
his age and general health; the          life, and we must be content to        keep up the work? I do not
prognosis after treatment, etc.,         be led by the hand of our              know. We stand before the
etc. God reveals His will in these       heavenly Father, trusting that He      mystery of death. Again, none
matters only through life's cir-         will make clear to us His way for      but the very closest of relatives
cumstances.                              us in any given circumstances in       can make a decision in a case
  In the fourth place, generally         which He is pleased to place us.       like this. No one else may
speaking, unusual treatments and           One might object that there          presume to do so. And surely the
methods must be considered as            are times when an individual           rule applies: When in doubt,
good to use in the recovery from         cannot make such a decision            don't.
or control of disease, not               himself. Perhaps he is in a car ac-      It seems as if these perplexing
necessarily in merely prolonging         cident and is brought un-              problems are only going to in-
life. Of course, even here there         conscious to the hospital. Perhaps     crease as life goes on, as we near
are other factors that enter in          he suffers a serious stroke and is     the end, and as medicine con-
which make this only a general           unconscious. In these cases, it is     tinues its rather spectacular and
rule. One who has a disease              usually possible and good that         breath-taking advances. It is well
which is incurable, but who can          one very close to the person           for the believer to keep firmly in
live indefinitely through constant       make the necessary decisions. A        his heart the words of Paul: "For
treatment (as, e.g., a diabetic) will    wife can make them for her hus-        to me to live is Christ, and to die
surely make use of the means             band, and a husband for his wife;      is gain." If he does this, he will
God provides. Even a person              parents can make them for their        always make the right decision
who has an incurable disease             children, and children for their       too, for he will make it before
                                         parents. But beyond this it is not     the face of God. 0
                                         good to go. If no one close is


                                                                                                The Standard Bearer  / 323


                                                The Press' Account
                                                Of The
All Around Us
Gise /. Van Baren                               Calvin Creation Debate

   Editorial comment about the                    Lester DeKoster, former head librarian           What mattered to them was that the
creation debate at Calvin College               at Calvin, said all three have violated         college's governing board absolved three
I will leave to others. It is of in-            church doctrine by teaching that the            popular science professors of charges
                                                world was not created in six days, as           they are teaching a form of evolution
terest, however, to note the reac-              described in Genesis, and that evolution        that is opposed to the doctrines and
tion and comments of some as                    may have played a role in the creation of       creeds of the Christian Reformed Church.
presented in the press. In the                  Adam, the first man. "`If the board wishes         Like many on the campus of the CRC's
Detroit Free Press, Feb. 13, 1988,              to retain the full confidence of its full       denominational school, LaGrand and
we were informed on the front                   constituency then it cannot condone the         Vander Ark breathed a sigh of relief
                                                positions of these three men, DeKoster          when the board announced its support
page:                                           said, "and the consequence now will be          for the three scientists, . . .
   Three Calvin College professors who          that they will have further eroded the.            "We took the board's action as really
questioned the literal truth of the Bible's     confidence of the so-called conservatives       good news," said Vander Ark, a Zl-year-
creation story were spared possible dis-        in the church."                                 old English major at the CRC's
ciplinary action Friday in a report issued         The Grand Rapids Press, Feb.                 denominational college,
after a year-long investigation of them by                                                         "The investigation had threatened to
trustees of the school.                         12, 1988, reported on its front                 make Calvin look like an inhibited, ex-
   The report said physics professor            page:                                           tremely conservative Christian college, "
Howard Van Till and geology professors            Calvin College's Board of Trustees ap-        added LaGrand, associate editor of The
Davis Young and Clarence Menninga had           proved a report Thursday night that was         Chimes, the college's newspaper.
not violated doctrine of the Christian          "very critical" of three science professors        "These professors deserve all the sup-
Reformed Church in their teaching and           accused of teaching a form of evolution         port and respect they can get," he said.
writing. The church owns the school, and        that conflicted with a literal interpreta-      "The board handled this matter very
tenured professors sign pledges to abide        tion of the Bible.                              well. They were definitely concerned with
by church doctrine.                               But the report called for no sanctions        justice. "
  But the report approved by the                against Clarence Menninga, Howard Van             At issue were the writings and
trustees, while praising the men for their      Till and Davis Young.                           teachings of the professors, all of whom
scholarship, reminded them of the limits          A statement issued by the college today       hailed the report for supporting them in
imposed by doctrine, and said Van Till in       said their teachings "fall within the limits    their research.
particular had come close to breaching          set by the Christian Reformed Church's             "`By their recognizing the need for
those limits.                                   guidelines for how to interpret the Bible."     academic freedom _ . . and by their en-
   The trustees' seven-page report at-            At the same time, the report reminded         couraging us to perform our scholarship
tempted to strike a balance between             the professors of the "limitations" that        with intellectual integrity, the Board of
academic freedom and conservative               those guidelines place on the Bible's           Trustees have become the real heroes in
criticism, of the professors, But one of the    interpretation . . . .                          this story, " said Van Till.
critics whose complaints sparked the in-           The following day, Feb. 13,                     Well, I suppose one ought to
quiry labeled it "a whitewash. "                1988, the Grand Rapids Press                    say, "Three cheers for the `real
                                                presented another front page                    heroes'!" But not all in the CRC
                                                report of the event:                            believe they deserve that kind of
                                                   The age of the earth - and whether           praise. The Grand Valley Ad-
                                                Adam and Eve were the first humans to           vance, Mar. 15, 1988, presented
                                                walk it - weren't the biggest concerns          also a page account of this
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Prot-        facing Calvin College students John
estant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,          LaGrand and Chris Vander Ark Friday.            debacle:
Michigan.

324  / The Standard Bearer


   .  .  . Pastors Randall Lankheet, of         by the Board of Trustees. This is a sad          In the cage, the monkeys had stopped
Jamestown CRC, and Robert Heerema, of           day for the CRC                                playing.
Wyoming Park CRC, say Van Till                     As could almost be expected,                   "Well, the theory is that man came
challenges the belief in a real, historical     some had a heyday out of this                  from apes. You never heard of
Adam and the belief in Genesis as a                                                            evolution?"
literal history. Contrary to the findings of    whole affair. Our own local critic,               The monkey hopped off the bench.
the study committee, they say, Van Till         John Douglas, stated in the                    "No, never. Who came up with this any-
has stepped outside of the doctrines of         Grand Rapids Press, Feb. 17,                   way?'
the church in even raising such ques-           1988:                                             "A man called Darwin. "
tions . . . .                                     I was going to do a full column on the         "Is he from Calvin?" the animal
  Lankheet and Heerema, who have                recent investigation at Calvin College but     wondered.
both had private discussions with Van           have decided the whole thing is so pitiful        "No, he died a hundred years ago. "
Till since last April, say ,the Calvin pro-     that I should just leave it alone with a          The animal leaned against the monkey
fessor and the study committee failed to        small comment.                                 house. A few of its friends had gathered
stand firmly behind the belief in a real,         I think it's weird that on one hand the      behind the glass.
historical Adam.                                president of Calvin College is talking            "Tell me again. You say these guys
   Study committee members Rev. James           about attracting non-Christian Reformed        from Calvin think man came from us,
Vander Laan, of Kalamazoo, and Rev.             students and at the same time the college      monkeys?"
Henry Vanden Heuvel, of Zeeland,                is holding investigations to see if its           Yeah. That's about it. And I just
however, insist that they and Van Till are      science teachers are teaching stuff that       wanted its comments; I wanted the
in line with church doctrines that say a        contradicts the Bible - something I            monkey's side of the story.
real, historical Adam is essential to the       would think would be near impossible              The animal frowned. `I think the idea's
Christian faith.                                for a science teacher to avoid.                stupid. "
   "This is exactly the problem - that            Of course, it's Calvin College's right to       "Why?"
many people feel these (professors) deny        teach anything it wants and I would be            The animal pointed at me. "Take a
the existence of Adam - but this is not         the last to deny them that right. All I can    look. You're nearly bald; you've got bad
the case," says Vanden Heuvel. "The fact        say is "Good luck, Calvin College" as you      teeth. You wear funny clothes, " . , . .
of Christ depends upon the fact of Adam;        stroll through the Dark Ages.                     The whole event is not, of
the two stand or fall together. ". . . .           And the Grand Rapids Press                  course, funny. The Board of
   Van Till suggests that church                                                               Trustees have taken a stand,
theologians need to consider the follow-        religion editor had his moment of
ing evidence from science:                      fun too at Calvin's expense. He                evidently unanimously. There
   *The universe is 15 billion years old,       "interviewed" a monkey at the                  was no evidence of any minority
and the Earth is 4 billion years old.           zoo:                                           report. There is evidence of un-
   *Life has existed on Earth for about           "Well, " I said, sliding closer, `I was      happiness with the Board's deci-
three and a half billion years.                 hoping to get another angle on the
   *The human race is genealogically                                                           sion, including that shown in a
                                                Calvin College creation/evolution story. "
related to the rest of God's creatures.                                                        full page ad in the Grand Rapids
                                                  "The what?"
   While Van Till writes on the question          I sketched the details.                      Press, Mar. 12, 1988, placed there
of whether Genesis is literal or figurative       Some conservative members of the             by Mr. Leo Peters. Yet the objec-
history, he says he has not taught or           Christian Reformed Church were upset           tors face the real problem: is not
written anything about the question of          because three science professors were          the teaching of these three men
whether there was a real Adam.                  teaching the earth wasn't created in
   Van Till says there is "no merit" in                                                        in line with the "Report 44" of
                                                seven days about 4,000 years ago, as the
publicly discussing his personal beliefs        Bible says.                                    the CRC?
on the matter, but he does think the CRC          They were also upset because the men            Sadly, when there is evidence
community should be discussing the ques-        seemed to be giving weight to the argu-        that some evolutionists are begin-
tion.                                           ment that humans may have evolved
    One might well ask: "Why                                                                   ning to doubt their own teach-
                                                from apes.
does Van Till not want to discuss                                                              ings, now some at Calvin are
                                                  The animal's head snapped back,
publicly his view on Adam?"                     alarmed. "Give me that again, " it said.       ready to espouse it. 0
    Other expressions of concern
have arisen. In the Christian
Renewal, Feb. 29, 1988, we read:
  . . . What this statement in effect does       The Standard Bearer makes a
is pat the three professors on the head
while at the same time issuing a mild
slap on the wrist warning them to be            thoughtful gift for members of your
more careful next time.
   The implication of this decision should
be seriously considered by all members of       family, friends, and neighbors. Give
the CRC. In the next and future issues,
Christian Renewal will offer commentary
and analysis of the study committee             a gift of the Standard Bearer.
report and of the monumental decision


                                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer / 325


 Decency and                               Decisions Pertaining To
 Order
 Ronald L. Cammenga                        Article 4

   To Article 4 of the Church              3. From the nomination the male          good and regular standing in the
Order, which deals with the law-             members assembled on a con-            congregation.
ful calling of ministers of the              gregational meeting which has            Certain groups are excluded
gospel, four decisions have been             been announced on two suc-             from participating in the con-
appended by our Protestant Re-               cessive Sundays shall elect by         gregational meetings. It is not
formed Churches. These four                  secret ballot. The majority of         permitted that women vote in
decisions concern the method of              votes cast shall be decisive. No       the congregational meetings of
the election of a minister, the              members under censure nor              the church. There are good
duties of the classical counselor            adult baptized members have            reasons for this. For one thing, to
or moderator, and the peremp--               the right to vote. Blank votes         vote in the congregational
toir and praeparatoir examina-               must be subtracted from the            meetings is to participate in the
tion of candidates.                          total votes cast, to decide the        rule of the church. The Scriptures
ELECTION OF A MINISTER                       number of legal votes cast in          expressly forbid rule in the
   The election of a minister of             order to determine how many            church to women (I Tim. 2: 11,
the Word shall be conducted in               votes a candidate must receive         12; I Cor. 14:34, 35). In addition,
the following manner:                        to have the majority which is          it may be argued that the right to
1. The consistory shall make a               required to his election.              vote in the matter of those who
   nomination consisting usually             This decision appended to Arti-        hold office carries with it the
   of a trio of eligible ministers or      cle 4 specifies that in the Protes-      right to hold office, which the
   candidates.                             tant Reformed Churches the elec-         Scriptures also expressly forbid to
2. The nomination shall be sub-            tion of a minister shall take place      the woman.
   mitted to the approbation of            according to the second method             One of the departures from the
   the congregation and unto that          mentioned in Article 4. The elec-        Church Order by Reformed
   end publicly announced to her           tion of the minister to be called is     churches in recent years con-
   on two successive Sundays.              not to be made by the consistory,        cerns this matter of participation
                                           but by the congregation, from a          by the women in the congrega-
                                           slate of suitable nominees               tional meetings. The Synod of the
                                           presented by the consistory. This        Christian Reformed Church of
                                           nomination consists usually, but         1957 decided that "women may
                                           not invariably, of a trio of eligible    participate in congregational
                                           ministers or candidates. This trio       meetings with the right to vote
                                           is to be announced for the appro-        subject to the rules that govern
                                           bation of the congregation on at         the participation of men. The
                                           least two successive Sundays.            question as to whether and when
                                             This decision also specifies           the women members of any
                                           who are permitted to vote at the         church shall be invited to parti-
                                           congregational meetings. Those           cipate in the activities of its con-
                                           who may vote at the congrega-            gregational meetings is left to the
                                           tional meetings are those male           judgment of each consistory."
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the        confessing'members who are in            The Synod of 1972 reaffirmed the
Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland,
Colorado.                                                                           decision of 1957: "Synod reaf-

326  I The Standard Bearer


firms that it is the right of          3. That the congregational meet-            PEREMPTOIR  EXAMNATiON
women members, as full                    ing upon which the election                Peremptoir examination of
members of Christ and his church          takes place shall be presided            candidates:
and sharers in the office of              over, if at all possible, by the         1. Examination shall be con-
believers, to participate in and          counselor. Likewise, the calling           ducted in:
vote at congregational meetings           issued by the consistory, the              a. Dogmatics.
on a level of equality with men."         composition of the call-letter,            b. Practical qualifications,
   This is a departure from the           and the signing thereof by all                 among which the following:
policy and practice of the Re-            the consistory members, shall                 (1) Personal spirituality.
formed churches of the past. The          be under his supervision.                     (2) Motives for seeking the
granting of women the right to         4. That also the counselor himself                    office of minister.
vote at the congregational meet-          shall sign the call-letter as                 (3) Evidence of insight into
ings has paved the way for the            token of his approbation in                        pastoral practical labors.
clamor of our day that the offices        name of the classis.                       c. Knowledge of the Holy
be opened up to the women.               Every vacant congregation is                   Scriptures treating specifi-
   Besides women, this decision        to have appointed for it a                        cally of:
also prohibits two other groups        classical counselor or moderator.                 (1) The nature of Holy
from participating in the congre-      This moderator is to be appointed                     Scripture.
gational meetings. Baptized mem-       by the classis itself, or, if classis is         (2) The contents of Holy
bers are forbidden to vote in con-     not in session, by the classical                      Scripture.
gregational meetings. And those        committee. This moderator is                  d. Knowledge of the confes-
under censure (discipline) may         usually the minister from the                    sions:
not participate in the congrega-       nearest neighboring congrega-                    (1) Meaning and purpose of
tional meetings. Censure involves      tion.       `.                                        the confessions.
the revocation of the privileges         The special duty of the                        (2) The contents of the con-
of church membership, one of.          moderator is AL. . `. to represent                    fessions.
which is voting.                       the classis in the process of the                (3) The application of the
  This decision also establishes       election . . . ." of a new minister.                  confessions to our life.
certain regulations for the actual     He is to approve the nominations              e. Controversy.
election. An election shall be         made by the consistory to the                 f. Specimen of preaching:
decided by a simple majority, not      congregation. It is best that this               (1) Preaching before the
two-thirds or three-fourths. That      approval be in writing and not                       congregation in the
majority shall be based on the         just over the telephone. If possi-                   presence of classis.
total number of ballots actually       ble, the moderator is to preside                 (2) Critical discussion of the
cast.                                  over the congregational meeting                      s e r m o n   p r e a c h e d .
CLASSICAL COUNSELOR OR                 at which the election takes place.          2. Further usage prevailing is as
MODERATOR                              He is to see that the details of the          follows:
  Advice to classis and counsel-       call-letter are in order and that             a. Voting by secret ballot re-
or. The following usage obtains:       he himself signs the call-letter.                garding his admittance.
1. That a counselor shall be           Usually the moderator also has                b. In case of a favorable out-
   designated for a vacant con-        charge of the installation service               come the applicant shall
   gregation to serve her with ad-     when.the call of the congregation                sign the formula of subscrip-
   vice in case of difficulty, and-    is accepted.                                     tion.
   to represent the classis in the       In addition to his involvement              c. Finally, that he be provided
   process of the election.            in the election of a new minister,               with written proof signed
2. That the nomination made by         a moderator may serve in other                   by president and clerk
   the consistory be submitted to      capacities. The decision provides                wherein classis declares that
   the counselor for approval,         for his serving the congregation                 it judges him qualified for
  who must see to it that the          and consistory ". . . with advice                the ministry of the Word.
   nomination does not conflict        in case of difficulty . . . ." He             This decision concerns the
  with the ecclesiastical regula-      may also install new elders and             classical examination, also called
   tions pertaining thereto. Fur-      deacons, administer the sacra-              the decisive examination, the ex-
  ther, that without this approba-     ments, conduct weddings and                 amination by which one is actual-
  tion being obtained the elec-        funerals, etc.                              ly admitted to the ministry. Early
  tion cannot proceed.           I                                                 in the history of the Reformed
                                                                                   churches the necessity of examin-
                                                                                   ation of those seeking admittance

                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer  / 327


into the office of the ministry           amined in the knowledge of the          theological school. For this exam-
became apparent. Many who                 confessions. At present only one        ination candidates must be
sought admittance had little or           semester is devoted to all three        recommended by the faculty and
no formal training. Many were             of our confessions. This course is      by the Theological School Com-
entirely lacking in the necessary         called "Reformed Symbols." One          mittee. In practice in our
gifts for the office. An examina-         semester simply does not do             churches this has become the
tion was necessary, that the              justice to a study of the creeds by     more decisive examination. It is a
churches might determine                  the seminary student. At the very       much more thorough examina-
whether or not those aspiring to          least a semester ought to be            tion than the classical examina-
the office possessed the necessary        devoted to each of our three            tion,
gifts for the office. The first           creeds. Also the candidate is to           The contents of the praepara-
general synod of the Reformed             be examined in controversy, or          toir or synodical examination are
Churches of Holland, the Synod            apologetics. Presently this is not      as follows:
of Wesel, 1568, instituted such an        even a course taught in our             1. Specimen sermon.
examination.                              seminary. If apologetics is part of     2. Introduction to Dogmatics and
   Initially this was the only ex-        the peremptoir examination, it             Dogmatics proper.
amination to which candidates             certainly ought to be part of the          a. Theology.
were subjected. At first the classis      curriculum of the seminary.                b. Anthropology.
itself conducted the examination.           Finally, voting on the examina-          c. Christology.
In time the responsibility for the        tion is to be by secret ballot. This       d. Soteriology.
examination was given over to             brings up a matter of proper pro-          e. Ecclesiology.
the universities. After the Armin-        cedure. The general rule in ec-            f. Eschatology.
ian controversy, the classis once         clesiastical assemblies ought           3. Old Testament History.
again assumed the direct respon-          always to be that voting is by          4. New Testament History.
sibility for the examination.             secret ballot when the vote in-         5. Church Polity.
   Some noteworthy points ought           volves persons. It is understood        6. Church History.
to be made with respect to this           that a simple majority is               7. Practica.
decision.                                 necessary for the candidate to          8. In addition, students are re-
   First, the candidate to be ex-         pass the peremptoir examination.            quired to fulfill written assign-
amined ought to produce at the            PRAEPARA TO/R EXAMINA  TION                 ments in translating, parsing,
classis the following: 1) his certifi-      Candidates:                               and exegeting Hebrew and
cate of membership from the               1. To the final theological school         Greek, the Biblical languages.
congregation of which he is a               examination there has been               From time to time the question
member; 2) his diploma from the             added a praeparatoir examina-         is raised whether it is really
theological school; 3) the call-            tion, which is conducted by           necessary for prospective
letter from the calling church.             the synod.                            ministers to sustain two examina-
   Secondly, the decision states          2. Candidates may not be called         tions prior to ordination. Rev.
that the specimen sermon is to              within one month after this           G.M. Ophoff comments on this
be preached ". . . before the con-          praeparatoir examination.             matter:
gregation in the presence of              3. For the consideration of calls         In a communion of churches with a
classis." This implies that the can-        received, the candidate is            seminary of its own and under its sole
didate shall preach at an official          allowed the time of six weeks.        and strict control, the peremptory exami-
worship service called by the             4. In case the candidate should         nation is superfluous. It is obviously un-
                                                                                  necessary. Further, if the synod decides
consistory that is hosting the              not give satisfaction in the          that an aspirant is qualified for the office,
classis. This is not consistently           peremptoir examination, and           a classis cannot decide otherwise without
done in our churches.                       the congregation nevertheless         militating against Article 31 (D.K.O.), for
   Thirdly, the contents of the             continues to desire him, he           according to this article whatever a ma-
                                                                                  jor assembly agrees upon by a majority
peremptoir examination as out-              shall at the following classis be     of votes shall be considered settled and
lined by the decision appended              given opportunity for re-exam-        binding unless it be proved to conflict
to Article 4 points to improve-             ination in those branches in          with the Word of God or with the articles
ments that could be made in the             which he appeared unsatisfac-         of the Church Order. Finally, it must be
curriculum of our theological               tory.                                 considered strange that an aspirant
                                                                                  should be examined with a view to deter-
school. The peremptoir examina-             This decision prescribes the          mining his fitness for the office after he
tion calls for candidates to be ex-       praeparatoir or synodical exami-        has received a call. Examinations for this
                                          nation. This is an oral examina-        purpose should preceed  and not follow
                                          tion before the synod that is con-      the call.
                                          ducted by the faculty of the

328 / The Standard Bearer


   In favor, however, of retaining             important and substantive than it      once again, allows all the vacant
both examinations are the follow-              currently is in our churches. In       congregations the opportunity to
ing considerations. First, there is            practice, the synodical exam has       extend calls to the available can-
a decided difference of emphasis               supplanted the classical examina-      didates. Although a candidate
in the two examinations. The em-               tion as the more decisive ex-          may take six weeks in the con-
phasis of the praeparatoir exami-              amination.                             sideration of a call, this is not re-
nation is on the knowledge and                    This decision also establishes      quired of him.
grasp of the Reformed faith of                 certain guidelines for the calling       Finally, this decision provides
the candidate. The emphasis of                 of candidates. It prescribes that      for the possibility of the re-
the peremptoir examination is on               they may not be called in less         examination of a candidate who
the personal gifts and qualifica-              than a month after their               has not satisfactorily sustained a
tions necessary for the office of              synodical examination. The pur-        certain part of this peremptoir
the ministry. Secondly, even                   pose of this is to give all the va-    (classical) examination. This
though admittedly there is some                cant churches an equal oppor-          could be done only if, notwith-
overlapping and some repetition                tunity to acquaint themselves          standing his failure of a part of
in the two examinations, having                with and call a candidate. In our      the exam, the congregation who
two examinations introduces an                 small denomination this is usually     originally called him still desires
added safeguard against unquali-               not necessary. Most of the             him to be their minister. This im-
fied persons entering the                      churches are familiar with the         plies that this matter would have
ministry.                                      candidates.                            to be voted on at a congregation-
   One practical consideration is                Candidates are also given six        al meeting. Such re-examination
whether the classical examina-                 weeks to consider calls. Ministers     would have to be done at the
tion ought not to be made more                 usually receive three weeks to         next meeting of the classis. Cl
                                               consider calls. This provision,
                                          -





                                          Distinctive Traits of True
                                          Godliness -
 In His Fear
Arie den Hat-tog                          Godly Humility

                                                 Sincere and godly humility is          Pride is the chief of all sins.
                                               certainly among the chief traits       Pride has its origin with the devil
                                               of godliness. There are few ex-        himself. It is, of course, true that
                                               hortations that we find more           all sin has its origin with the
                                               often in Scripture than exhorta-       devil. Pride is mentioned in par-
                                               tions to humility. The inspired        ticular in Scripture as a devilish
                                               apostle Peter exhorts us; "Be          sin. It was the devil who first ex-
                                               clothed with humility: for God         alted himself against God,
                                               resisteth the proud, and giveth        wickedly and foolishly seeking to
                                               grace to the humble. Humble            be greater than and independent
                                               yourselves therefore under the         from God. He brought down the
                                               mighty hand of God, that He may        whole world into the awful sin of
Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Prot-         exalt you in due time," I Peter        pride with the lie: "ye shall be as
estant Reformed Church of Randolph,            5:5-6.                                 gods knowing good and evil."
Wisconsin.

                                                                                                        The Standard Bearer I329


That the whole world is given           will come with a far more dread-      towards God. Modern day Chris-
over to the great evil of pride is      ful judgment upon the proud           tianity in rejecting the great
evident on every hand. Man is           ungodly world in the great day of     truths concerning the nature and
vain in his own imagination. He         His glorious appearance.              being of God can only be proud
imagines himself to be wise, but          That the modern day church is       and wicked. True humility comes
he is in fact the greatest of fools.    no different and no better than       from a profound knowledge and
He rejects the one only true God,       the wicked world is obvious.          sense of the infinite greatness,
the Lord of heaven and earth,           Modern theology and modern            absolute sovereignty, and perfect
and fashions idol gods after his        day Christianity is characterized     holiness of God. True godly
own imagination. In wicked pride        by proud wickedness. It is the        humility is a virtue that is born
man imagines that he is the lord        outgrowth of the proud heresies       out of fear and reverence for
and master of his own soul. He          of Pelagianism and Arminianism.       God. The truly humble man
imagines that he can determine          It rejects the great truths of the    stands in awe of the greatness
for himself what is good and            sovereignty and holiness of God.      and holiness of God. He is con-
what is evil. He goes about call-       It boasts of the great goodness of    scious of his own smallness and
ing the good evil and the evil          the natural man. It glories in its    nothingness in the sight of God.
good. He has filled the world           own great achievements, its           True godly humility involves the
with violence and wickedness            super-churches and world-wide         knowledge of our complete and
and yet boasts of his own               evangelistic campaigns. It            absolute dependence upon God.
wisdom and greatness. He mocks          tolerates in her midst some of the    The humble man realizes that it
at the idea of the judgment of          grossest wickedness. It refuses to    is indeed true that without God
God. He does everything in his          separate itself from the world for    he can do nothing at all. He does
power to exclude all remem-             fear of ridicule and mockery          not boast of his own free will and
brance of God and of His holy           from the world. It would rather       good works. He knows that even
law from his own life and from          be "wise" with the wisdom of the      his very life and breath and all
the world in which he lives. He         world, the wisdom of modern           things are from God. Without
praises those who will join him in      day philosophy and psychology,        God he cannot even so much as
his great wickedness, and in            rather than the wisdom of the         move.
anger opposes those who have            truth and righteousness of God.         Godly humility is born out of a
the audacity to challenge his opin-     Therefore much of it is an            right knowledge of what man is
ions and judge his life-style.          abomination before the Lord.          in God's sight. It is impossible to
Every day the media reveals               The writer of Proverbs states       be truly humble before God if
more shocking instances of the          that the "proud look" is the first    one refuses to acknowledge the
wicked pride of modern man.             of the seven things which God         truth of man's total depravity.
With great human philosophy he          hates, and which are an abomi-        The saints of God who in the
has sought to reason away all           nation unto Him. (See Proverbs        history of the church displayed
ideas of God. He boasts of the          6.) Those who are proud are the       true godly humility were those
greatness and goodness of man..         enemies of the all-glorious, ab-      who knew themselves as
He glories in the great achieve-        solutely sovereign, and infinitely    miserable wretched sinners in
ments of modern science and             great Lord of heaven and earth.       God's sight. They confessed that
technology, and refuses to give         To be proud is to oppose and          they were vile in their nature
praise to God, Who made the             deny God. It is to ascribe the        and abhorent in God's sight. The
world and all that is in it. Scrip-     glory that belongs alone to God       Heidelberg Catechism teaches
ture is full of severe warnings of      to wicked and sinful man.             true godly humility when it em-
the coming judgment of the holy           Humility has to do with our         phasizes that the very first thing
God on all the proud wickedness         relationship to God. All true vir-    which the Christian must know is
of men. God will come utterly to        tue involves the attitude and         how great his sin and misery is.
debase and humiliate wicked             stance which man takes in rela-       Modern day catechisms which
man. He will come to turn all his       tionship to God. There is a           are used to instruct children and
boasted glory into shame.               boasted human humility. This is a     new converts in the church no
Already at the time of the death        humility that man glories in and      longer begin that way. Rather,
of proud man, God comes to turn         exalts. But when wicked man re-       chapter one in modern day
him to the dust and to declare his      jects God, he cannot be and is        catechisms speak of the basic
nothingness in His sight. But God       not truly humble.                     goodness of man and how wor-
                                          To be truly humble, we must         thy he is in the sight of God.
                                        first of all have a right attitude    Chapter two speaks of the great


330  I The Standard Bearer


things that the modern day Chris-       we are better than others in the       are wrong. We always have to be
tian can do "for God." That is a        world. This is a most dreadful         so very careful when we speak of
proud theology that can only            perversion of the truth of elec-       ourselves. It is so easy for usto
bring forth a generation of proud       tion, because election exactly         boast and to glory in ourselves
Christians.                             teaches the opposite. It teaches       both when we speak of things
  Godly humility is born out of         us that God chose His people           natural and things spiritual with
the true knowledge of our salva-        from before the foundations of         respect to ourselves. The truly
tion. The humble child of God           the world without any regard for       humble man is the one who
acknowledges that salvation is of       any good that we have done. It         always gives glory and praise to
the sovereign grace of God. The         teaches us that God loves us           God alone. How often we fail in
great doctrines of predestination       though we ourselves are totally        our lives to do that. True humili-
and of justification and salvation      unworthy of the love of God.           ty means that we will often be on
by grace alone are the only doc-        True humility means that the           our knees confessing our own
trines that will make a man truly       child of God with the great apos-      great sin and weakness. True
humble before God. Knowing              tle Paul confesses himself to be       humility means that we count
these truths gives man abundant         the chief of all sinners and the       ourselves as nothing. Therefore
reason for humility. Knowing            least of all saints of God.            we are not easily offended when
these truths spiritually and              It is possible that we can be        we are judged and accused by
sincerely will cause the child of       proud about the truth. Again that      the world. We know that we are
God humbly to render all praise         involves a most dreadful con-          sinners, and that we have
and adoration to God.                   tradiction. Nevertheless, the sin      nothing to glory in ourselves.
  God has given the truth of His        of pride is such that it can mani-       Humility must characterize the
Word that alone will make us            fest itself in this form. We can       whole of our attitude and deal-
humble. We as Reformed Chris-           easily become proud that we            ings with our fellow man. Much
tians ought above all to be hum-        have the truth. But then we en-        more, of course, could be written
ble. If we do not walk in true          tirely forget that all the truth we    about this. Since our space is
godly humility, then we deny the        have is from God. By the grace         already more than up let us close
very heart of the doctrine we           of God alone we are what we            with reference to what Paul says
confess.                                are. It is not because of our own      in Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be
  But humility of course is not         wisdom that we know the truth          done through strife or vainglory;
merely a matter of knowing the          of God. All that we know is only       but in lowliness of mind let each
truth formally. It is possible for a    because of the Spirit of wisdom        esteem other better than them-
man to know the truth and to be         which God has given us. And we         selves." What a great exhortation
very proud. First of all God            still know so little. We have so       that is! 0
Himself must humble us by the           much to learn. God still must
work of His grace. All the traits       teach us so many things. We
of true godliness are those which       have so little understanding and       The Standard
God Himself must work in the            often we are so very foolish. We
hearts of His born again children       are still so very much dependent
as He fashions them by the              upon God to be taught the way          Bearer makes a
operation of His Holy Spirit ac-        of wisdom and truth.
cording to His own image.                 We must manifest a practical         thoughtful gift
  Pride takes on many different         godly humility as we live in this
forms. It can rear its ugly head        proud and wicked world. Our            for the sick &
again and again, also in the lives      whole conversation and life must
of Christians. It is possible to be     display our humble dependence
proud that we are the elect             upon God. When we present the          shut-in.
people of God, and imagine that         truth of God, we must always do
because we are elect, therefore         that with meekness and fear,           Give a gift of
                                        always on guard lest tones of
                                        pride and self confidence spoil        the Standard
                                        our testimony. We must always
                                        be steadfast in the truth. But we
                                        must not imagine that we are           Bearer.
                                        always right, and be ready to
                                        humbly acknowledge when we


                                                                                              The Standard Bearer  / 331


                                             Deuteronomy  -
 Bible Study                                 *Exhorted Unto
 Guide
jason 1. Kortering                           Obedience (conclusion)

   We have come to the con-                  God warns Israel that He will           arms," (33:26-29). Mention is made
cluding part of the book of                  deliver her into the hands of her       of Moses' going up into the moun-
Deuteronomy, which contains the              enemies, and captivity will be          tain and beholding the prom-
last words of Moses and the                  her portion (32:19-33).  God will,      ised land in the distance. There
record of his death (31:1-34:12).            however, show mercy upon His            he died and was buried, but no
We are up to chapter 32 with our             people and avenge their blood           one knoweth his sepulchre unto
outline.                                     among the nations (32:34-43).           this day (34:1-6). He was a hun-
   In chapter 31:19, God in-                 Moses now came and instructed           dred and twenty years, his eyes
structed Moses to write a song               the congregation to remember            were not dim nor his natural
which would witness to the                   their past history and to commit        forces abated (34:7). Israel wept
people of Israel concerning God's            this song to memory for, "it is         for Moses thirty days, after which
faithfulness to them. We now                 your life and through this thing        Joshua the son of Nun assumed
have this song that Moses wrote.             ye shall prolong your days in the       leadership in the spirit and
In the introduction, Moses ex-               land whither ye go over Jordan          wisdom of Moses, though none
presses the purpose of this song,            to possess it," (32:44-47).  God        that followed Moses could com-
to ascribe greatness to God                  then instructs Moses to climb Mt.       pare to his leadership nor per-
(32:1-3). This is followed by the            Nebo in the land of Moab and die        form the wonders which God did
theme of the song, the faithful-             in that mountain because of his         through him (34:8-12).
ness of Jehovah, the Rock, in His            sin at the waters of Meribah. "Ye       QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
dealing with them (32:4-6). This is          shall see the land before thee,           1. How does Deuteronomy dif-
proven by reminding Israel of                but thou shalt not go thither unto      fer from the other four books of
God's past care for them (32:7-14)           the land which I give the               the Pentateuch? Why is it called
even though Israel was unworthy              children of Israel," (32:28-52).  An    "the second law"?
by provoking Jehovah with                    account follows of the blessing           2. The words of Deuteronomy
strange gods (32:15-18). Again               which Moses gave the children of        are Moses' summary of God's
                                             Israel prior to his death, (added       law, rehearsed in the ears of the
                                             by someone else who also wrote          people. Why was this necessary
                                             the subsequent account of his           at this point in history? Does this
                                             death). It has an introduction in       method of accounting contradict
                                             which Moses pictures God com-           Biblical inspiration?
                                             ing from Mt. Sinai with ten               3. Why do you think Jesus
                                             thousands of His saints (33:1-5).       quoted from Deuteronomy? See
                                             Specific blessing is given to each      Matt. 4:1-l 1 and Luke 4:1-13.
                                             of the tribes (33:6-25), and a con-     What is the relationship between
                                             clusion is given, "There is none        Christ and the fulfillment of the
                                             like the God of Jeshurun who            law?
                                             rideth upon the heavens. The              4. Go over the outline of the
Jason L. Kortering is pastor of the Prot-    eternal God is thy refuge and           first four chapters of Deuter-
estant Reformed Church of Grandville,        underneath are the everlasting          onomy and list instances in
Michigan.

332  I The Standard Bearer


which Israel demonstrated that            8. What was Moses' role in the       some suggest that the reason is
they were not worthy to enter in-       event of the transfiguration of        that the authors themselves were
to the land of Canaan. How does         Jesus recorded in the New Test-        prophets. E.J. Young writes in his
this prove the need for a Savior?       ament gospels? Why was he              Introduction to the Old Testa-
   5. The main content of this          there along with Elijah?               ment, "The second division of the
book is the rehearsal of the laws                                              Old Testament canon is called
which God gave at Sinai,                 JOSHUA - RECEIVING THE                The Prophets, not primarily
chapters 4:43-26:19. Consider the             PROMISED LAND (1)                because of the prophetical con-
following:                                                                     tents of the books, but because
         a. Read through the outline      The Book of Joshua follows           the authors occupied the pro-
and make special note of their          chronologically upon the events        phetical office." On the other
significance for the children           recorded in the Pentateuch. We         hand, authors suggest that the
which were in Israel. Why was           have seen that the books of            reason for their being considered
this?                                   Numbers and Deuteronomy deal           prophets lies in the message
         b. Show that repeated em-      with the history of Israel that        itself. Keil and Delitzsch write in
phasis was laid upon the need for       takes them to the very edge of         their commentary: "These four
Israel to keep God's command if         the land of Canaan. They have          historical writings (the former
they expected God to bless them.        endured the forty years of the         prophets) have been very justly
Explain this emphasis and how it        wilderness sojourn, and Moses          called prophetical books of
relates to the New Testament            has been replaced by Joshua as         history; not, however because
church.                                 the leader. They are ready to          they all, but more especially the
         c. Explain the significance    cross the Jordan River.                books of Samuel and the Kings,
of Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim and         THE FORMER PROPHETS                    give very full accounts of the
their relationship to the law of          Having said this, we should ac-      labors of the prophets in Israel,
God for us. (See chapter 11 and         quaint ourselves with the fact         nor merely because, according to
27.)                                    that the Book of Joshua is listed      the early Jewish tradition, they
         d. How was the institution     in the Old Testament Hebrew Bi-        were written by prophets; but
of marriage protected? Give ex-         ble under the second division as       rather because they describe the
amples from the laws recorded           "The Former Prophets". We              history of the Old Testament
here.                                   stated before that the entire Old      covenant nation and the kingdom
         e. How were the poor and       Testament is divided into three        of God in the light of the divine
underprivileged to be cared for         main divisions, the Pentateuch,        plan of salvation, setting forth the
in Israel? Are there principles for     the prophets distinguished as          divine revelation, as it was ac-
us that can be applied to the           former and latter, and the             complished in the historical
church of the New Testament?            writings. The former prophets in-      development of Israel, or show-
         f. Why did God make so         clude Joshua, Judges, and both         ing how the Almighty God and
many laws that seem to touch            books of Samuel and Kings. The         Lord of the whole earth con-
every aspect of the life of Israel?     latter prophets include Isaiah,        tinued as King of Israel uninter-
Wasn't this like making laws            Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The             ruptedly to fulfill the covenant of
upon laws which Jesus warned            Twelve (the rest of the prophets).     grace which He had concluded
was the way of the,Pharisees?             Quite naturally we ask: why is       with the fathers and had set up
How would this be different in          Joshua listed-under such a divi-       at Sinai and built up His
the church today?                       sion - former prophets? In many        Kingdom, by leading the people
  6. Are there indications of the       study Bibles we find a different       whom He had chosen as His own
future blessing of God upon Israel      division of the books of the Old       possession, notwithstanding all
in this book? Point them out and        Testament. Most of them place          the opposition of their sinful
explain their significance.             Joshua, along with other books,        nature, further and further on-
  7. According to Deuteronomy           under the heading of "historical       wards towards the goal of their
34:6, God buried Moses' body            books". Quite obviously the con-       divine calling, and thus preparing
and no one knows of his                 tent of much of these books is         the way for the salvation of the
sepulchre. We also read in Jude         historical. Why in the oldest divi-    whole world."
vs. 9 that Michael contended            sion is Joshua called a former           If we ask which position seems
with the devil over the body of         prophet?                               the correct one, the following
Moses. How can this be ex-                Two schools of thought               should be considered.
plained?                                emerge in an attempt to answer
                                        this question. On the one hand,


                                                                                                The Standard Bearer  / 333


    1. The authors of the "former     This leads us to take note of the       and the prophets", Matt. 22:40.
prophets" are not clearly             fact that this is prophetic history.    They constituted the majority of
established. If they are called       Canaan is a type of heaven and          writings of the entire Old Testa-
prophets on the basis of their        the receiving of Canaan by Israel       ment.
authors being in the prophetic of-    is prophetic of the church's               There is a close connection
fice, then their authenticity may     receiving heaven at the end of          then between the laws of
well be questioned, for their         the ages. In the center of all this     Deuteronomy and the message of
authors are not even known,           history is the coming of the            Joshua. As God delivered Israel
much less established as being        Christ, the Messiah.                    out of the house of bondage, and
prophets.                               3. If we consider these books         preserved them throughout their
   2. The content of the books is     the former prophets and the ones        wilderness stay, so now He gives
mostly history. The history is of     to follow the latter prophets, then     to them the rest He promised.
the nation of Israel as it assumed    we can also understand why              Their inheritance is sure and
residence in the land of Canaan.      Jesus Himself referred to the Old       steadfast, for it is God's wonder
It is intimately connected with       Testament writings as the "law          work alone. That God is the
the preceding history and forms                                               same yesterday, today, and for-
a basis for that which follows.                                               ever.  0





                                      Book Review

The Expositor's Bible Com-              This is a volume of an attrac-        the original languages, but is in-
mentary, Volume 6, Frank E.           tively published set from Zonder-       telligible for a general readership.
 Gaebelein, General Editor; Grand     van's Regency Reference Library.        Where there are references to
 Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan          The set, when completed, will           the original, these are both
 Publishing Co., Cloth, $30.95,       consist of twelve large volumes,        transliterated and translated.
 1088 pp. [reviewed by Prof. H.C.     covering all of Scripture. At pres-       On the minus side is the fact
 Hoeksema]                            ent Volumes 2 and 3 (Genesis            that the commentary is rather
                                      through II Samuel) and Volume 5         brief and scant.
                                      (Psalms through Son of Solomon)           But for quick reference and for
                                      are not yet published.                  suggestions as to the meaning of
                                        Volume 6 is a commentary on           the'text as well as for the general
                                      Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations,         direction in which the interpreta-
                                      and Ezekiel by four different           tion should head, there is value.
                                      authors.                                In the nature of the case one can-
                                        On the plus side with respect         not expect too much from a
                                      to this commentary is the fact          thousand pages on these four
                                      that the authors are committed to       prophetic books.
                                      the divine inspiration, complete          The Bible version followed in
                                      trustworthiness, and full authority     the entire set is the New Inter-
                                      of the Bible. Also on the plus side     national Version; but there are
                                      is the fact that this commentary        references to other translations as
                                      is not encumbered with meaning-         well as to the original lan-
                                      less and unreadable references to       guages. 0



334  I The Standard Bearer


                                            News From
Ben Wigger                                  Our Churches

                         April 15, 1988     undergone further tests. It was       Klerk who live in Ashhurst,
   At a congregational meeting              thought at that time that the         which is a good two-hour drive
held in mid-March, the saints at            blockage in his arteries continued    north of Wellington. They invited
the First P.R.C. in Holland,                to develop, and that surgery          friends and neighbors to the ser-
Michigan extended a call to Rev.            might be necessary soon. Since        vice, and there were 17 people
Jason Kortering, pastor of the              that time I have heard from           there that night. One lady came
Grandville P.R.C. in Grandville,            several of you that Rev. Houck        from almost an hour's drive on
Michigan, to become their                   has received further examination      the winding mountain roads.
minister.                                   which shows that by-pass surgery      February 28 I preached during
   Pastor Wayne Bekkering of                will not be required at the pres-     the evening service once again in
our Faith P.R.C. in Jenison,                ent time. "The eternal God is         Nae Nae. That Thursday we left
Michigan has suffered a set-back            thy refuge, and underneath are        for home.
and is now under professional               the everlasting arms," De. 33:27.       "We intended to go to
care for his psychological prob-              After March 25, Rev. R.             Modesto, California on Sunday to
lems and depression. Let us                 Miersma's address will be 21          hear Rev. Houck there in our
remember this servant of God in             Main Road, Wainuiomata, New           mission field. He had returned
our prayers, as well as his family          Zealand. His phone number is the      Saturday from the hospital and
and congregation. The ministers             same as before. But if you call,      was in a weak condition. I of-
of Classis East share in the                make sure it's important. The         fered to preach there and was
preaching duties for the Faith              cost is about $25.00 for 3            given the privilege; and they did
congregation. Despite their ef-             minutes.                              not need to listen to a.sermon on
forts, Faith has had at least one             I thank Rev. Heys for the           tape."
reading service recently - some-            following report on his trip to         Before we go any farther, we
thing that does not happen in the           New Zealand.                          should get caught up on some
West Michigan area very often.                "While in New Zealand I             late news from the First P.R.C. of
This arrangement will continue              preached five times. Installed        Edmonton, Alberta. On January
until such time as the Lord                 Rev. Miersma February 14 after a      25 a special congregational meet-
restores our brother to the pulpit.         sermon on I Peter 5:2, 3. This        ing was held. The congregation
   Many of `our church bulletins            was in a Lutheran church in Nae       decided to bid on a piece of prop-
reported recently that missionary-          Nae where the Wellington P.R.C.       erty for a church building. Their
pastor Steven Houck had a recur-            meets. On February 21 I               bid, along with others, was
rence of chest pains and'had                preached twice in Tai Tapu for        opened publicly about ten days
                                            the Watson family. They live on       later. Edmonton's bid was the on-
                                            the South Island some 200 to 300      ly one which would have met the
                                            miles south of Wellington. They       current zoning requirements and
                                            are members of the Wellington         intended purpose of the property.
                                            congregation, but they cannot go      Unfortunately there were other
                                            there very often and must listen      bids which were considerably
                                            to tapes of sermons preached in       larger than Edmonton's, all for
                                            ,our churches. On Friday evening,     business ventures, which would
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant    February 26, I preached in the        require rezoning. Edmonton's bid
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,             home of Mr. and Mrs. J.P. de          was not accepted.
Michigan,

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer / 335


                                                                                                           SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                           Postage Paid at
                                                                                                            Grand Rapids, Michigan

/?O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



    The latest publication of the       Alaska. This presentation used      Peter Brummel, at (712)
 Evangelism Committee of the            two projectors and music.           439-2490 [school] or (712)
 South Holland P.R.C. in South          Refreshments followed the           439-l 308 [home].
 Holland, Illinois is now available,    travelogue, sponsored by First's
 "The Church Today and the              Young People.                       ATTENTION STUDENTS!!!
 Reformation Church: A Com-                March 18 the Young People's          The Protestant Reformed
 parison". This is an extensive         Society of the Lynden P.R.C. in     Scholarship Committee is taking
 revision and thorough Ye-working       Lynden, Washington, hosted a        applications for scholarships to
 of a previous pamphlet by the          spaghetti supper. All funds from    be awarded to future Protestant
 same name. The author is Rev.          the supper were to go to the        Reformed ministers and
 D. Engelsma. it subjects the           P.R.Y.P. Convention.                teachers for the 1988-89 school
 present-day Protestant Church to          The Kalamazoo P.R.C. in          year. Each applicant must also
 searching examination, by the          Kalamazoo, Michigan held a          submit an essay of at least three
 standard of the faith raised up        Potluck Supper March 18.            hundred words, presenting a
 anew by the Lord Jesus at the          Everyone was encouraged to          defense of the Bible's infallibil-
 Reformation.                           bring a dish or two to pass. An     ity in the context of theistic
    This pamphlet has been en-          offering was taken to raise         evolution. For an application,
 hanced with a new cover and            money for kitchen utensils. 1      contact Dirk Westra, 7960  Ron-
 with a symbol of a ship braving                                            son, lenison, Ml 49428. The ap-
heavy seas. It also has easier-to-                                          plication, accompanied by the
read print and an up-to-date            IN  MEMORIAM                        essay, must be returned by June
listing of other pamphlets and             On February  l7,1988, it         1, 1988.
tapes on its back pages. Want a         pleased our Heavenly Father to       b i ire j : *+ :~.~.-:~"`~`.;:*i~~.~;,~-=~~~~~~~-  -`-,`..;.,-::..' .< :  *
free copy? Just write to: South         take to glory our mother, grand-    ~~~~~~~~~~~IP,~I~ ~jk:p~iCE~::::~  ., :.:: :
                                                                                                   ,,~`~..;,.~`~,:;*~,-., ,? .I * ./"*=(/     (`  i.
Holland Evangelism Committee,           mother and great-grandmother,       ~~~~~~~.~~~`~~:;::::~~-~~  :::I:-".`.~:.~~ * 1: 1: L
 16511 South Park Ave., South           MRS.  TENA SIETSTRA, at the         ~~~i:i?~~~~ri~~~u~~~~~~~~~~i~~~~~,  t `:+
Holland, III. 60473 and ask for         age of ninety-six years.            il~~~~~~~~~~~~,~~~~~~R;.F.  p&., :,. -: : ;
                                                                            ;t;~~~*`-,;,`d ~&"`~~~"' ;:;i-:*~:`.`.~ j
one.                                       "For we know that if our                ey ~e~*~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;~~`i ` r ;`:
   The Consistory of the Lynden         earthly house of this tabernacle    ~~~~~~i?i~p~~+~.~~-~~~~.~~4f:th~::"~'l-..:  :
P.R.C. in Lynden, Washington, in        were dissolved, we have a           ,;,:St;3~.~~~B.~~~~~~~~~~122:Oq `; I ("
harmony with the congregation's         building of God, an house not       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ &&# $ecided ,
recent decision to look at the          made with hands, eternal in the     ;,:~tha~;~~~ii:?j.~~t~~~~i;ii~~  :*:::`.I; :; : :`.:
                                                                            `;i-."T:;s," `a / &:;";`t ;., ,~*`~`:*, ,#f " ; ' ": ,A. ,
possibility of building on their        heavens." (I I Corinthians 5:l)     ~~~~~~~~~.~ry:.a~,ter  +atiHygpg::   :-,
current property, has authorized                                            $:`$& ~~,.~~~~~-~I~~~~~~~~  &fS; -.: : 1
                                        Cerlof and  Tillie Vander Baan      ~*~L..,",~~:.~..~,,`,~fi'_";~~.~r,-:f:~~~~,   :,  .I-.  "  :
the New Church Building Corn-,          Herman and Edith Sietstra           ;$~~~Tjf&g&j: h&gbe$j'&bje ttj +* '
                                                                            `<`,A,%  .*A :, ,a,.*<= .`, */*((.`f- ` 6. `&`.i . . G" /,`
mittee to meet with three pro-          Reka Sietstra                       ~~~~,~~~~,ii~-h~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ie ,, :: I<
spective designers and bring to         Martin and Joyce Sietstra           ji,Po~~6-~y~atLs:,b~~li;~~~~n.,jitl:;.'k *
                                        Peter and Lois Sietstra                      .`.Z,.  _`" _* `,. .*t  j\ `.+,.`,`,_~c":;,~`< .,*:..y; k(
the consistory their findings and         grandchildren and                 ~~~~~asi;.is~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`~~~~~ ,: `.:-
recommendations on drawing a                great-grandchildren             ::~~e~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~s~~.~~~~p~~~:~~
                                                                                              .&`,:p` **, "1 +:+;: I
building plan.                                                              :;&pn : j,wrcf$wr 13;:@iqy@&l~~ :+::
   On Friday, March 25 in the           NOTICE!!!                           ~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l~~~~~~~~e~~~~
                                                                                          * *..;-.-, r,;:r:P,ib+`!  ".V i'r `* `*" ,+ 1.. I
First P.R.C. in Grand Rapids,              Hull Protestant Reformed         ;:kf.o:.~~b~~s.~~,~~e~.Sf~rjl~a~~";-~'~-  ;.,I
                                                                            i(&i* + ,; ;&.,, /d * ,a,.. -J","** *";, (-(* in 1 a-`/ (" #`,S
Michigan, Mr. Jim Swart                 Christian School is in need of a    .+ Bearer&Say  ~~od:t3t-~~~~~~~~:l,.::
                                                                            :I (. (2. ;`,I, ;-..>p;~r m..;`,i;" _*/- "
presented a beautiful travelogue        teacher for the  2nd/3rd grades     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~hi,tbe?~~e~~~'  of : 6:.
                                                                                                         _  `i,;;i.y  i;  ,/  *  ".$"--"  `  .=  *`I
on the Canadian Rockies and             for the 1988-1989 school year.      ~,`:,th~,~plnt~~*,page~,;:~,s_:  :~:~-;f:{,._  *->.-;
                                        Applicants may call Alvin
                                        Kooiker, at (712) 725-2491, or

336 / The Standard Bearer


