 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                       Se: Meditation, p. 338

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May 7, 1988


Contents                                                                                                              THE
                                                                                      Mav 1, 1988                srANfl!!!!!!
Meditation  - Cornelius Hanko
Praise God From Whom Ail Blessings Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .338                                 BELZRER
Editorials  -                                                                                                     ISSN 0362-4692
Revolution, Not Reformation (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
                                                                                                                 and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
What Is A CRC Conservative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .342                    lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
Correspondence From Dordt College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343                           at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                                                 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Day of Shadows  -  ]ohn A. Heys                                                                               Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                                 DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Satan And Sin Serve God's Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `: 344                     .Rev.  Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
Taking Heed To The Doctrine  - Ronald H. Hanko                                                                    Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                                                 Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
The Two Natures of Christ: The Humanity of Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347                               Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev.  I.  Korter-
                                                                                                                 ing, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
Walking In The Light  - Herman C. Hanko                                                                          Miersma, Rev. James  Slopsema,  Rev. Cise  I. Van
Drunkenness..............................................34
                                                                                                            9    Baren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
                                                                                                                 `EblTORIAL   O F F I C E   .
From Down Under  -                                                                                               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                                 4975  lvanrest  Ave.,  S.W.
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Contribution  -                                                                                                  CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                 Mr. Ben Wigger
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All Around Us  - Gise  1. Van  Baren                                                                             EDITORIAL POLICY
JimmySwaggart...........................................35
                                                                                                            3    Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
                                                                                                                 of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
Who Must Educate Our Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .354                       terest from our readers and questions for the
                                                                                                                 Question Box Department are welcome. Contribu-
In His Fear  - Arie den Hartog                                                                                   tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
Distinctive Traints Of True Godliness:                                                                           and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
                                                                                                                 must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
   A Serious Attitude About Our Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .354                       the fifteenth of the month. All communications
                                                                                                                 relative to the contents should be sent to the
BookReview..............................................35
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                                                                                                                 which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial
                                                        conclude the prayer?                                     office.
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Flow                                                    shall truly and certainly be:                            advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
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                                                        for my prayer is more assured-                           sympathy resolutions will be placed for a 53.00
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                                                        ly heard of God, than I feel in                          and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee.
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the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                                                through University Microfilms International.


338 / The Standard Bearer


  My comfort . . .                     Thou hast exalted our Lord Jesus        in Thy kingdom, yea, may the
  My only comfort is that with         Christ in the highest heavens           day soon come when we shall
body and soul, in life and in          with all power entrusted to Him         see Thee face to face, and know
death, I am not my own, but            in heaven and on earth. He has          Thee as we are known.
belong to my faithful Savior Jesus     entered into our hearts by His            All this we ask that thereby,
Christ!                                Spirit, has taken dominion there,       not we, but Thy holy Name may
  He has fully satisfied for all my    making us citizens of that              be glorified forever.
sins. He delivers me from the          heavenly commonwealth, so that            And now we pause before we
power of the devil. He preserves       we are now strangers and                leave Thy presence in prayer.
me, so that without the will of        pilgrims on the earth, eagerly          What shall we say? We are confi-
my heavenly Father not a hair          looking forward to the day when         dent that Thou art able and will-
can fall from my head!                 every knee must bow and every           ing to hear us and grant us all
  He makes all things subser-          tongue must confess that Jesus          that we ask, for Thine is the
vient to my salvation, and by His      Christ is Lord, to Thy glory, 0         kingdom, Thine is the power,
Holy Spirit assures me of eternal      Father.                                 and Thine is the glory forever
life, making me sincerely willing         Daily we see Thy counsel un-         and ever!
and ready to live unto Him!            fold before our eyes, Thy will be-        Thine is the kingdom!
  In one word, according to His        ing carried out in us, by us and          Thou hast set Thy throne in
sovereign mercy, God has               round about us, preparing all           the heavens. All the angels hide
redeemed me by the blood of His        things for the return of our Lord.      their faces in humble praise and
dear Son, has translated me from       Thy moral will is the power unto        adoration, and all the saints pro-
the horrors of sin and death into      salvation within us, the                claim Thy praises.
the glorious liberty of the sons of    Shepherd's rod that comforts us           Thy dominion is an everlasting
God, and given me the eternal          as it leads us to the sheepfold in      dominion, and of Thy kingdom
victory in Christ Jesus!               glory.                                  there is no end. All nature joins
  Thanks be to God for His               We commit ourselves with all          in singing Thy praises, every
unspeakable gift!                      our present needs into Thy lov-         creature that stirs here upon
  I can now sit at the Master's        ing care in the confidence that         earth, as well as in heaven, and
feet to learn from Him the first       Thou providest for us as a father       even in hell, must serve for the
principles of true prayer, in          for his children. Even as Thou          full realization of Thy kingdom in
which I may experience intimate        didst feed Israel from day to day       the new creation.
communion of life with Him,            in the wilderness, so we also             Thou hast eternally ordained
Who is the overflowing Fountain        desire to live day by day, expect-      Thy Son to be the Christ, the
of every good and perfect gift,        ing all things only from Thy            Firstborn of every creature, and
Who fully supplies my every            almighty and merciful hand.             the Firstborn among many
physical and spiritual need for          At the same time, we are deep-        brethren. By way of His atoning
time and for eternity, so that I       ly aware of our daily trans-            death on the cross, Thou hast ex-
can confidently conclude my            gressions, which we commit even         alted Him as Head of the church
prayers with the doxology: For         when we pray, and also of our           and as Lord over all, to carry out
Thine is the kingdom, and the          constantly increasing guilt, aris-      Thy counsel unto the day of His
power, and the glory, forever.         ing from our sinful nature.             return with the clouds of the
Amen!                                  Forgive, Father, all our trans-         heavens. With an eye of faith we
  Our Father in heaven.                gressions committed against Thy         now see Christ, crowned with
  We have entered into Thy             holy Name. Regard us always,            glory and honor, our Lord, who
presence and humbly bow in             not as we are in ourselves, but as      even now intercedes for us,
worship before Thee with the           Thou knowest us, redeemed,              gathers us unto Himself, and
foremost desire in our hearts and      cleansed by our Savior's blood,         prepares a place for us in Thy
upon our lips that Thy Name be         forgiving one another, even as          eternal dwelling, even as He
hallowed above every name in           Thou in Christ forgivest us.            prepares us for that place. Thus
heaven and on earth!                     Since we are so weak in our-          we sing:
  Our whole being longs for the        selves, that if left to ourselves in      God is King forever; let the'
day when Thy kingdom will be           the hour of temptation, we would              nations tremble;
fully realized in the new creation.    certainly fall, preserve us, Lord,          Throned above the cherubim,
                                       and keep us safeguarded in Thy                      by all the earth adored.
                                       care. Wilt Thou daily sanctify us         He is great in Zion, high above
                                       and prepare us for our own place              all peoples;


                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer / 339


      Praise Him in fear, for holy       Humbly we worship Thee, our             Even now we realize our im-
            is the Lord.               God, the infinite fulness  of all      perfections and sins. All that we
   Thine is the kingdom, now and       eternal perfections, who livest        ask we still ask in the weakness
forever!                               Thine own blessed covenant life        of sinful flesh. We do not desire
   Thine is also the everlasting       in intimate fellowship of love as      with that eagerness and longing
power!                                 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.          which should always fill our
   Not as if there are other           From Thee radiates a glory far         hearts. Sinful desires, ambitions,
powers, powers of darkness,            brighter than the dazzling             thoughts creep into our prayers.
powers of nature, powers of the        brightness of the sun at noonday.      Thou who searchest the heart
rulers of the earth, powers of all     Angels hide their faces as they        knowest also our innermost be-
sorts, but that Thou art the           proclaim their "Holy, holy, holy,      ing. Nothing is hidden from Thy
greatest of them all. Thou art the     Lord God Almighty, heaven and          penetrating eyes.
Almighty, to whom belongs all          earth are full of Thy glory." The        We confess that we still have
power in all Thy wide and vast         heavens declare Thy praises, and       but a small beginning of the true
creation. Besides Thee there is        the firmament shews Thy handi-         obedience. That there is no merit
and can be no other.                   work. For that Thy Name is near        in our prayers, nor any reason in
   Thou hast the sun, moon, and        Thy wondrous works declare.            us that Thou shouldest grant us
stars in Thy hand, and dost direct     Day unto day utters speech, night      our heart's desire. But we ap-
them in their courses with un-         unto night shows wisdom.               proach Thee through our
changing accuracy. From Thee             Yet an even greater glory            Mediator and High priest, Jesus
each creature receives its life and    shines forth to us from Thy            Christ, the Righteous, who
its existence. No rational, moral      Word, in which Thou revealest          presents our prayers before Thee,
creature can think or desire, can      the wondrous mystery of our            whom Thou dost always hear.
speak or act, except by Thy            salvation in Christ Jesus. Standing    Moreover, we are confident that
power. The time of our birth, the      before the mirror of Thy Word          Thou seest us and lovest us as
span of our lives, and the time        and experiencing the power of          righteous in Christ, and in Him
and place of our departure are all     Thy Spirit in our hearts we are        worthy of Thy blessing. Thou,
in Thy power, to serve Thy pur-        changed from glory to ever             who withholdest no good thing
pose unto the coming of Thy            greater glory by Thy grace and         from those who fear Thee, `wilt
kingdom. Nations may rage              abundant mercy.                        also bless us far above all that we
under the desperate instigations         In anticipation of the glory that    can ask or think. For Thou art
of Satan, antichrist may set him-      still awaits us we declare: Glory      Almighty God, and also our mer-
self upon Thy throne and be wor-       be to the Father, and to the Son,      ciful Father, whose is the
shipped by all men, as if he were      and to the Holy Spirit, world          kingdom, the power, and the
God, yet Thou hast set Thy King,       without end! Amen!                     glory forever.
our Lord Jesus Christ, upon Thy          Spontaneously this `Amen'              In that confidence we cast our-
holy mountain.                         arises from our hearts, for "my        selves upon Thee with an assured
  In God will I trust, though my       prayer is more assuredly heard of      Amen, and Amen! Cl
       counselors say,                 God than I feel in my heart that I
     0 flee as a bird-to your          desire these things" from Thee.
          mountain away;
  The wicked are strong and the
       righteous are weak,
     Foundations are shaken, yet
          God will I seek.
  The Lord is most righteous, the
       Lord loves the right,
     The evil He hates and will         The Standard Bearer makes a
          surely requite;
  The wicked His anger will
       drive from their place,         thoughtful gift for members of your
     The upright in rapture shall
          gaze on His face.            family, friends, and neighbors. Give
  Thine is the glory forever!                                                                                        .
                                       a gift of the Standard Bearer.

340  / The Standard Bearer


                                               Revolution, Not Reformation (2)
                                               What Is A CRC Conservative?
Editorials                                     Correspondence From Dordt College


Revolution, Not Reforma-                        mining of the confessional in-         of the Spirit, which is the Word
tion (2)                                        tegrity of his denomination. If he     of God.
   We must still consider the                   follows this course to the very           The Rev. Tuininga's next pro-
"concrete suggestions" which the                end, and fails to convince the         posal is as follows:
Rev. Jelle Tuininga makes in his                churches of the validity of his        2. Ministers and consistories must stop
article entitled "Obey God Rather               complaint, then ultimately he          giving Banner subscriptions to newly-
Than Men" (The Outlook, April                   faces the choice: a) abide by the      weds, It amazes me that even conserva-
                                                                                       tive ministers do this. Let them give a
`88, pp. 13, 14). These proposals               decision of the churches (synod);      subscription to Reformed papers instead.
make it very clear that Mr. Tuin-               or, b) leave the denomination. 2)      Lets use every opportunity we can to
inga is proposing rebellion. His               Tuininga should remember that           promote the truth of the Reformed faith.
first suggestion is as follows:                he and others have agreed to               Concerning this proposal I
1. Stop paying quotas to agencies which        worship together under the rules        have the following brief com-
underm.ine our confessional integrity. It's    and usages of the Christian             ments: 1) It is obviously a very
an elementary principle of Christian           Reformed Church. One of those           weak way of "taking the gloves
freedom that I may send my money (the          usages is the quota system, ac-         off" or "fighting fire with fire."
Lords money) to causes which I believe
are doing the most for the cause of the        cording to which the churches           How much would this contribute
truth and the kingdom of God. As               unitedly support the broader            - conceding for the moment that
Vander Kam put it recently in The              denominational causes. It would         it is morally right - to stopping
Outlook: `I thought in my naivete that it      obviously create utter chaos and        the firestorm of liberalism in the
was in (an? HCH) inalienable right of          make the denominational ac-             CRC? Meanwhile, I would certain-
every person to give to the cause he
desired!" Exactly. That's what it is, no       tivities impossible if it were simp-    ly encourage people to read the
matter what any synod may say about it.        ly left to every individual             Banner; they ought to know
It's time we claim this inalienable right.     member or every individual              what is going on in their denomi-
Even the state is more tolerant on this        church to pay or not to pay their       nation. 2) Again, Tuininga's real
matter than our own synod.                     quotas. But apart from this, the        objection is not to giving the
   Concerning this proposal it                 payment of quotas is a moral            Banner to people; it is against the
ought to be noted: 1) That Tuin-               obligation for everyone within          Banner itself. This is serious
inga's real objection here is that             the church-connection. 3) What          business! After all, the Banner is
these (unnamed) agencies "under-               Tuininga is proposing here is a         the denominational magazine,
mine our confessional integrity."              form of coercion, somewhat in           and it speaks for the denomina-
Under the presbyterian-synodical               the spirit of "Hit them where it        tion. If the Banner is on the
form of church government,                     hurts, that is, in the pocketbook."     wrong track, then it is the
what then is his duty and his                  It reminds me somewhat of Ab-           bounden duty of Tuininga and
right? It is, of course, to follow             salom instructing his servants to       others to register their objections
the path of protest and appeal                 set Joab's field on fire in order to    by way of protest and appeal to
concerning this alleged under-                 get the latter's attention. 4)          the very end. 3) If Tuininga is
                                               Again, this is not reformation,         truly interested in using "every
                                               but rebellion. Reformation does         opportunity we can to promote
                                               not employ the weapon of coer-          the truth of the Reformed faith,"
                                               cion; it only employs the sword         then I recommend  The Standard
                                                                                       Bearer. I am sure that our Board

                                                                                                          The Standard Bearer / 341


     would furnish free subscriptions                   My comments on this are as           What Is A CRC
     if the Rev. Tuininga will give                   follows: . . Again the Rev. Tuin-      Conservative?
     them to newly-weds in his con-                   inga opt `1 .j advocates rebellion,      This is the question which I
     gregation.                                       not reformation. The Christian         proposed to treat separately in
        The third proposal of the Rev.                Reformed. Church has had the           connection with the Rev. Tuin-
     Tuininga is as follows:                          rule in question ever since 1924.      inga's statement that everybody
     3. Consistories must stop using their            Suddenly there has arisen dis-         knows what is meant by a con-
     bulletins to announce meetings of the            satisfaction with this rule. Why       servative. I demurred, saying tl
     Women's Committee in the CRC (whether            now? Because it is impossible to       over the years I have become
     that's in Grand Rapids, Edmonton, or             get Mid-America Seminary's
     anywhere else). This is a revolutionary                                                 more and more confused as to
     outfit, and we should give no promotion          graduates declared candidates          what actually constitutes a Chri
     to that kind of thing.                           without their attending Calvin         tian Reformed conservative. AI;
        Comment: 1) I agree that no                   Seminary for a year. What must         I proposed to raise some perti-
     assistance should be given to                    be done if this rule, which has        nent questions on this score.
     such an organization. 2) Again,                  always been acknowledged as a            My problem is not with the tl
     however, how this constitutes                    good rule heretofore, cannot be        minology. My dictionary tells r-r
     "taking the gloves off" and                      changed through orderly process?       that the word  conservative
     "fighting fire with fire" is beyond              Simply ignore it! And what if          means: " 1. Conserving; preservi
     me. 3) But if this Women's Com-                  classis will not ordain the man?       tive. 2. Disposed to maintain ex
     mittee is indeed revolutionary,                  Ignore classis and do it with "a       isting  institutions or views; op-
     then its leaders and members, it                 few individual congregations." 2)      posed to change." And corzservt
     seems to me, should be subject to                Again, Tuininga's real dissatisfac-    means "to keep in a safe or
     discipline. Revolution is sin! And               tion is with Calvin Seminary. He       sound state; to preserve."
     the Rev. Tuininga should follow                  wants to by-pass it. Men can get       Synonyms are "maintain, sustai
     the orderly ecclesiastical way of                a better Reformed education else-      uphold, defend, protect, guard,
     seeking such discipline.                         where. Mind you, he is speaking        shield, secure." Hence, I am fail
        The Rev. Tuininga's fourth sug-               of his own denomination's              I think, in saying that a Christia
     gestion is as follows:                           seminary! And it is really idolatry    Reformed conservative is one
     4. It's time consistories and churches take      to maintain this rule and to pro-      who maintains the Reformed
     the bull by the horns and call and ordain        tect what he calls "our `scared in-    faith, the truth of Scripture and
     ministers who have completed their train-        stitutions."' The orderly way          the Three Forms of Unity. For
     ing in Westminster, Reformed (Jackson),          would be to address whatever ills
     Mid-America or any other reliable Re-                                                   the sake of the discussion I will
     formed seminary. De Koster is right here:        there are at Calvin Seminary and,      leave out the fact that the CRC
     we've simply got to call the bluff of our        if necessary, conduct an ec-           has added the Three Points of
     bureaucrats. These men (seminarians)             clesiastical housecleaning there.      1924 and that I am of the convi
     have had a completely adequate and Re-             In his conclusion the Rev.           tion that many, if not all, of the
     formed training - as good or better than         Tuininga claims that "It's time
     they can get at Calvin. There is no                                                     more recent departures of the
     reason in the world why they should              conservatives challenge some           CRC go back in one way or
     have to spend an extra year at Calvin.           `synodical  regulations."' And he      another to 1924. I propose to g(
     None at all, except thataf  provincialism        goes on to say, "Exceptional cir-      back only some 25 years in this
     (even the Banner editor r?cognized that),        cumstances call for exceptional        discussion. It was around 1960
     and keeping a tight rein on things for the       rules." However, Tuininga does
     protection of our `sacred institutions. "                                               that the terms  conservative  and
     This is really a form of idolatry and we         not want rules; he does not even       liberal  began to be heard  incre;
     have to stop it. A consistory has the right      want "exceptional rules." He           ingly. And at that time I think
     to call a man who has had good Re-               does not want the rule of law in       that most people had at least a
     formed training and whom it deems fit            the church at all. He advocates        general idea of what and who
     for the ministry, and if classis will not or-    rebellion!
     dain the man, then a few individual con-                                                were meant, due, perhaps, to tl
     gregations can do it. They have that               And rebellion and reformation        fact that the issues were not so
     right. The present rule lacks all fairness,      are mutually exclusive!                numerous as they have become
     integriw and credibility, and it's time con-       Nor does the blessing of the         in the past 25+ years. In asking
     sistories challenge it. I hope they will do      Lord rest upon rebellion! 0 HCH my questions I do not claim to 1
     so. We've tried to change it through
     proper channels, to no avail. We'll have                                                touching on all the issues during
     to change it through "improper" channels                                                those years; nor do I include an
     then.                                                                                   time references. I am merely
                                                                                             mentioning various items from
                                                                                             memory - items about which


I    342 I The Standard Bearer


there was some degree of contro-         9. Is a conservative one who          Correspondence From
versy in the CRC. Here are my          complained loudly about Prof.           Dordt College
questions:                             Harold Dekker's heresy of a                From Dr. John B. Hulst, Presi-
   1. Is a conservative one who        universal love of God and a             dent of Dordt College, I received
believes that women elders and         general atonement, but now ac-          the letter below which concerns
women preachers are contrary to        cepts as settled and binding the        the matter of Prof. Hodgson's in-
Scripture and the creeds, and          decision that Dekker was only           struction at the college. This let-
therefore opposes this? Note: the      "ambiguous and abstract?" Inci-         ter, of course, is still in connec-
CRC has not yet taken a decision       dentally, I remember distinctly         tion with our editorial critique of
.in favor of women elders/             that the late Dr. Rutgers said at       Dr. Hodgson's views. Other than
ministers.                             one of the synodical sessions that      to say that this appears to be a
  2. Is a conservative one who         if synod did not declare Prof.          step in the right direction, we
disagrees with the Board of            Dekker's views contrary to the          will refrain from comment and
Trustees' exoneration of Profs.        confessions, he and others would        await further developments. We
Menninga, Van Till, and Young?         be compelled to go up and down          thank Dr. Hulst for keeping us in-
  On the items below the CRC           the country speaking against it.        formed.
has made decisions, and these          But when "push came to shove,"             The letter follows below. HCH
decisions are not only settled and     he and others caved in and voted
binding, but also are accepted as      in favor of the proposal to say         Dear Editor:
settled and binding by CRC "con-       that Prof. Dekker's teachings              In the June 1, 1987 issue of
servatives," whoever they are.         were merely "ambiguous and              your publication an article ap-
  3. Is a conservative one who         abstract."                              peared under the title "Evolution
objects strenuously to women             These are only a few examples         at Dordt College."
deacons, but accepts the               chosen at random and from                  In that article questions were
synodical decision on this as          memory. But they serve to il-           raised concerning Professor
settled and binding?                   lustrate the fact that the conser-      Richard Hodgson's position
  4. Is a conservative one who         vatives have over the years con-        regarding creation and evolution.
objected not only to Dr. Harry         served very little and step by          By implication questions were
Boer's gravamen on reprobation         step have conceded much. When           also raised as to the position of
but also to the report and recom-      did they ever, so to speak, draw        Dordt College regarding this very
mendations on that gravamen,           a line and say, "Cross that line,       important and sensitive issue.
but now accepts the decision of        and we have come to the parting            Subsequently it was indicated
synod as settled and binding?          of the ways?"                           to you that the Dordt College
  5. Is a conservative one who           Perhaps I am reinforcing the          Board of Trustees had appointed
opposed Report 36/44 and still         Rev. Tuininga's complaint that          a committee "to study and
complains about it occasionally,       conservatives are backseat              evaluate . . . Professor Hodgson's
but accepts it as settled and bind-    drivers. But when an ecclesiasti-       position regarding creation and
ing?                                   cal backseat driver does nothing        evolution."
  6. Is a conservative one who         more than complain about the               On March 10, 1988, the study
opposed the dance, but accepts         driving, the result is that he is no    committee presented its report to
the decision on dancing as settled     more a conservative. Step by            a full meeting of the Board of
and binding?                           step he loses what he wanted to         Trustees. The recommendations
  7. Is a conservative one who         conserve, and he becomes co-            of the committee were adopted,
objected to the ordination of the      responsible for the loss of the Re-     along with the following state-
Rev. Allen Verhey because of           formed heritage and for the in-         ment, which was formulated for
false doctrine, but accepts the        troduction of error. Though he          the purpose of making the
decision upholding him as settled      may have complained long and            Board's position known to the
and binding?                           hard about many things, he has          public:
  8. Is a conservative one who         conserved nothing. A true con-            The Board of Trustees of Dordt Col-
objected to the Film Arts report       servative reaches a point - to          lege, in its meeting on March IO, 1988,
                                                                               received a report from a committee ap-
and recommendations, but now           continue Tuininga's figure of           pointed to study and evaluate Professor
accepts the decision on this as        speech - when he not only com-          Richard Hodgson `s position regarding
settled and binding?                   plains about the driving but says,      creation and evolution. The committee
                                       "Stop the car! I want to get out        reported that Professor Hodgson's per-
                                       because both the car and the            sonal position fully embraced the biblical
                                       passengers are in danger of             doctrine of creation. At the same time the
                                                                               committee identified certain weaknesses
                                       destruction!"     0      i       HCH    in his scientific methodology and manner

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer  / 343


of expression which caused confusion             The Board of Trustees declared that it           It is our hope that this state-
regarding his position.                        is satisfied that appropriate and sufficient    ment of the Board of Trustees
   The Board approved the recornmenda-         measures are being taken to ensure that
tion of the committee that the Board of        the teaching of Professor Hodgson is fully      will answer the questions which
Dordt Cotlege concur with the adminis-         in harmony with the Word of God as in-          have been raised and also make
tration S actions in which Professor           terpreted in the Reformed confessions.          clear the commitment of Dordt
Hodgson will withdraw the syllabus                The Academic Council of the                  College to approach the matter of
which has caused confusion and, for the        College is now instructed "to pur-              creation and evolution from an
present, discontinue his teaching of an in-
troductory geology course. Professor           sue an institutional study of the               integrated biblical perspective.
Hodgson was encouraged to deal sen-            issue of creation and evolution."                       Sincerely,
sitively and carefully with the issue of       It is also understood that the                          J.B. Hulst
creation and evolution and to work close-      Board of Trustees will receive                          President q
ly with the academic community in clari-       periodic reports concerning the
fying his position in this area.               progress and the findings of this
                                               communal study.





 The Da,y of                                   Satan and Sin Serve
Shadows
john A. Heis                                   God's Counsel

    A truth that gives the child of            animate creature, ordering every                that shall stand."
 God boundless comfort, when he                step of every angel and man, and                  That truth we had better hold
 takes hold of it and rests upon it,           using every grain of sand and                   on to tightly, not only in our
 is what we find in Psalm 73:24.               most minute disease germ to                     miseries and afflictions but also
There Asapth writes: "Thou shalt               fulfill His counsel. And He has a               when we read Gods word and
 guide me with Thy counsel and                 mercy that assures us that after                find in it events that seem to
afterward receive me to glory."                His counsel is fulfilled, as far as             deny the fact that before He
No matter what happens to us,                  this present creation is con-                   created the world, God had an
that truth assures us that all is              cerned, we will most assuredly                  unchangeable counsel which is
well; for it speaks of the counsel             reach the everlasting glory and                 being kept in every detail every
of the almighty, sovereign, un-                blessedness which in that counsel               moment of time. And that surely
changeable and merciful God of                 He decreed to give us.                          must be kept in mind when we
our salvation. Nothing will hap-                 However, there are instances                  consider what happened in the
pen that is not in that eternal                in Scripture which seem, but only               day of shadows.
counsel. He is the I AM, Who                   seem, to deny this fact. In Prov-                 Yes, the whole creation of
never changes His mind and                     erbs 1:25 we read: "But ye have                 heaven and earth and all that
rules every inanimate as well as               set at naught all my counsel, and               they contain came forth exactly
                                               would none of my reproof." But                  as God had eternally decreed it
                                               read on and take hold of the                    to be. And in Genesis 1:31 we
                                               next verse where he writes: "I                  read: "And God saw every thing
                                               also will laugh at your calamity; I             that he had made, and, behold, it
                                               will mock when your fear com-                   was very good." With that we
                                               eth." And in Proverbs 19:21                     have no problem. But what do
                                               Solomon writes: "There are many                 you say about what transpired
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in         devices in a man's heart; never-                and is recorded in Genesis 3?
the Protestant Reformed Churches.              theless the counsel of the Lord,                Satan tempted Adam and Eve,

344 / The Standard Bearer


got them to rebel against God,            This is plain from the fact that     that our covenant God had eter-
and bring upon themselves the           God created only one tree of life      nally in His heart and mind the
death God told them would come          and placed it in a relatively small    coming kingdom of heaven of
if they ate of the forbidden fruit.     garden of Eden, and that the fall      which the first creation was a
   We already called attention to       came before Eve conceived, and         shadow; and that Adam, created
the first creation in all its beauty    before a child began to grow           in the image of God, was a
as a shadow of the glorious and         within her that would not be           shadow of the covenant fellow-
blessed creation that is coming in      born with a sinful nature. One         ship that we will have with God -
the day of Christ. However, there       tree of life would not be suffi-       in the new creation. Satan's fall
is a work of Satan that seems to        cient for the multitude of people      and victory over Adam, and
have spoiled Gods work, and             that died in the flood. That           man's fall in Adam were de-
there is man's sin that seems to        relatively small garden of Eden        signed and necessary for the
say that man, as in Proverbs 1:25       which God brought forth could          coming of Christ, for His cross,
quoted above, set at naught             not hold hundreds of descendants       resurrection, and ascension into
Gods counsel. Did not Satan and         of Adam. And had Eve conceived         heaven, and the realization of His
man then throw a monkey                 before that fall of Adam a guilt-      Kingdom of Heaven that will
wrench into Gods work and               less, sinless people would have        soon be here. This we ought to
force Him to begin a new work?          been on this earth. God had no         see, consider, and appreciate to
Did they not make it necessary          intention to let that take place.      see the blessedness of Gods eter-
for God to send His own Son into          The question here, however, is       nal, unchangeable counsel.
our flesh and into hell in order to     whether the holy God could plan          Let us be on our guard lest we
redeem us and bring,forth_a new         that unholy thing of Satan's fall      insult and malign God. He did
creation which He could call            and spiritually-sinful attack upon     not sin by decreeing sin in His
very good? And is He not now            man created in Gods image. Are         eternal, holy counsel. Let us first
fighting Satan, as he is striving to    we not accusing God of sinful          of all take hold of the fact that
bring forth the antichrist, in          thoughts when we say that in His       He is God, and that it is sinful on
order to keep,His counsel and to        eternal, unchangeable counsel He       our part to accuse Him of sin. We
fulfill it?                             decreed and planned Satan's sin        may call those who go contrary
   No, a thousand thousand times,       of rebelling against God, and          to His holy will sinners. That we
NO! It was in that counsel of God       man's sin of rejecting Gods word       must do. But if we say that He
that Satan would fall into sin and      and believing Satan's life? Are we     might not decree the sin of
take with him a large part of the       not saying that God had sinful         Satan, and of mankind through
angel world. It was in Gods eter-       thoughts? If we plan something         Satan's clever and crafty tempta-
nal plan that Adam would listen         sinful, are we not sinning?            tion, we are raising ourselves (in
to Satan, accept his lie as the           If we take the position - and        our minds) above Him and telling
truth, and bring the curse upon         we must - that God is almighty         Him what He may and may not
this earth. Things did not sIip out     and sovereign, we cannot right-        do.
of Gods hands. Satan tried to set       fully say that Satan, created as a       We may decide to submit to
at naught Gods counsel and              holy angel, could overpower God        some very painful surgery so that
seemed to succeed in making bad         and take away some of His              we may be healed from a disease
what God created and saw as             sovereignty. God is never over-        that without surgery would give
very good at the end of the crea-       powered by a creature. Every           us far more agony and only a
tion week. Instead, the truth of        creature depends completely            few more years of life. A wife
the matter is that Gods un-             upon God for every breath of life      may be willing to suffer the dis-
changeable counsel stood and            and existence. He was not by           comforts and severe pains of the
that Satan's "success" and man's        Satan robbed of His right to rule,     travail of childbirth in order to
fall took place because God had         but always has complete control        have a child of her own from
it all planned exactly the way it       over every creature, and eternal-      Gods hand. Much more the
took place.                             ly determined a11 their actions.       sovereign God may decree that
                                        He made no mistake when He             which is against His holy will, but
                                        created Satan, and was not over-       will realiie  a covenant life with
                                        powered by him. His counsel was        man that is closer than the one
                                        not overthrown by Satan.               in which he was created, and one
                                          We must remember what we             in which he could not be created
                                        considered last time. We must          without God Himself coming .into
                                        keep before our minds the fact         our flesh and giving us the


                                                                                               The Standard Bearer / 345


spiritual bodies of which we read      with him, in that grace of God,        if he continued in a sinless life.
in I Corinthians 15:42-49.             will praise God more richly than       No, that glory in the first creation
Remember that this first creation      righteous Adam could, for the          was a shadow of what we are go-
with its glory was a shadow of         gift of salvation that Adam could      ing to receive in Christ.
what is coming when Christ             not know.                                God made no covenant of
returns. And it was a stepping           More of this will, the Lord will-    works with Adam. He eternally
stone to the more glorious             ing, be treated next time, but let     intended as well as unchangeably
kingdom with a richer covenant         us not fail to appreciate the fact     determined to send His Son into
fellowship with God. God hates         that Satan's attack upon Adam          that flesh of Adam in order to
sin, but He may decree it for a        and Eve, his vile deed of bringing     bring us to a higher glory than
richer glory which He intends to       them to an act that would bring        Adam was given. And even then,
realize through Christ and His         death upon them, was a shadow          Adam was created a little lower
cross. And His goal is a man,          of the cross of Christ. Satan could    than the angels and will in Christ
made in His own image, that has        not and did not have this in mind      be above the angels. Are they
the life of which we read in I         yet; but his attempt to get man to     not in Hebrews 1:14 called our
John 3:9. There John writes:           sin against God and to hate Him        ministering spirits? And do we
"Whosoever is born of God doth         rather than love Him was a             not in the preceding verse read,
not commit sin; for His seed re-       shadow of what he would do             "But to which of the angels said
maineth in him: and he cannot          when God Himself came into our         He at any time, Sit on my right
sin, because he is born of God."       flesh. It was not Satan's shadow.      hand, until I make thine enemies
   Adam God created as one able        It was God's shadow of things to       thy footstool"? We get above the
not to sin, a man ethically and        come. Here again we ought to           angels, not through a covenant of
morally clean. But sovereignly         take hold of that truth in Prov-       works, but through the covenant
He decreed that man would              erbs  19:21, namely, "There are        of grace in Christ. God's covenant
become  not able not to sin,  and      many devices in a man's heart;         is by His almighty power real-
to send His Son, Who would             nevertheless the counsel of the        ized. He did not make a cove-
through His perfect obedience          Lord, that shall stand." We can in     nant of works that was not kept.
and suffering of the hellish           this verse substitute the word           Satan, not God, suggested a
agonies, receive the right to          Satan for the word man. Satan's        covenant of works. He presented
make man  not able to sin.  Deny       devices do not keep God from           to Adam and Eve the possibility
God the right to do this; malign , realizing all in His eternal               of reaching a higher level of
and insult Him with that idea,         counsel. God uses him for the          glory by sinning against God.
and we sin. For then we deny           realization of His counsel. And        And the covenant of grace in
Him His sovereignty and take the       though he does not know it, he is      Christ was no repair work, made
position that we are above Him         Gods tool for the realization of
as His judge, while actually He is     that kingdom of heaven of which
our Judge Who may, as we read          the first creation was a shadow.
in Isaiah 43:21, form (in the way        Some like to maintain a cove-
of the fall of man and salvation       nant of works, insisting that          The Standard
in Christ) for Himselka people         Adam could have reached that
that shall show forth His praises.     Kingdom of Heaven by remain-           Bearer makes a
Do not forget that fact. Gods          ing sinless for a given time. How
purpose behind Satan's fall and        long that time would be they           thoughtful gift
man's spiritual death is that a        cannot say, for Scripture
people may be formed through           nowhere speaks of a covenant of
whom His glory shines more             works, and does not set a time         for the sick &
richly in praise concerning His        during which Adam had to walk
grace in Christ. Perfect Adam          a sinless life to reach a higher       shut-in.
could not do that. He was              glory than that in which he was
created able not to sin; but he        created. It is true that God did       Give a gift of
could not thank God the way he         tell Adam he would die the day
will `do in that new creation of       he sinned. It is true that if he
which the things in the first crea-    walked in love to God, he would        the Standard
tion were a shadow. And we             continue in that life in the garden
                                       of Eden. But it is not true that       Bearer.
                                       God promised Adam higher glory


346  J  The Standard Bearer


 necessary because of Satan's vic-             we will have in Christ. And in            ship of which the one in which
 tory over man. Not for one split              His mercy, but also in His in-            man was created was but a
 second did Satan keep God from                scrutable wisdom and almighty             shadow. .God's love for those
 bringing man where He eternally               power, God used Satan for the             whom He eternally chose in His
 intended to have him: in a cove-              realization of His covenant of            Son used Satan so that in Christ
 nant life of far more intimate fel-           grace. Satan did not frustrate Got3       He might lift us to a higher, ever-
 lowship and glory.                            for one split second. God used            lasting glory.
      The covenant relationship                him to prepare the way for His               Yes, Satan and sin serve Gods
*,&darn enjoyed before he fell was             Son to come in our flesh and              counsel, and do not in any way
 a shadow of the richer fellowship             bring into being that indescrib-          delay or disturb the fulfillment of
                                               ably wonderful covenant fellow-         i t .   I7





                                               The Two Natures of
 Taking heed ~0 Christ: The Humanity
  The Doctrine
 Ronald H. Hanko                               of Christ

 3. The Virgin birth.                          This, to be sure, also sheds a new            That Scripture does teach the
      The reality and significance of          light on the liberal attacks on the       virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14 is clear
 Christ's humanity are inseparably             church's faith in the virgin birth        from a little study. In the first
 connected with belief in the                  that developed in the late 1800's         place, there is the obvious fact
 virgin birth. The church father,              and early 1900's.                         that a birth of a child from a
 Tertullian, saw that long ago:                  That calling into question of           young woman would not be a
      Marcion (an early Gnostic heretic,       the doctrine of the virgin birth is       sign, and Isaiah is giving a sign
 R.H.), in order that he might deny the        still reflected in the Revised            to wicked King Ahaz in the
 flesh of Christ, denied also His nativity,    Standard Version's translation of         passage. There is also the fact
 or else he denied His flesh in order that
 he might deny His nativity; because, of       Isaiah 7:14. There the Hebrew             that the word,  bethulah,  is almost
 course, he was afraid that His nativity       word  bethulah  is translated             always used in the Old Testament
 and His flesh bore mutual testimony to        "young woman" instead of                  not just in the sense of "young
 each other's reality, since there is no       "virgin," greatly weakening               woman," but "young unmarried
 nativity without flesh, and no flesh          Scripture's testimony to the              woman" or "virgin." Finally, the
 without nativity (On the Flesh of Christ,     virgin birth. Now, this in itself is      Holy Spirit, quoting Isaiah 7:14,
 0                                             not of any great significance,            in Matthew 1:23 uses a Greek
                                               since most of the more recent             word, the word  parthenos, which
                                               versions have followed the                can only mean "virgin." And the
                                               translation "virgin." But those           evidence of these passages is sup-
                                               who still make use of the RSV,            ported by the statement of Scrip-
                                               and of the older Revised or               ture in Matthew 1:25, that Joseph
                                               American Standard Versions                did not know (i.e. know sexually)
                                               ought to be aware that they have          his wife until after Jesus was
                                               been influenced by liberal, higher        born. Thus, both the Old and
 Konald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity          criticism at this and at other            New Testaments bear clear
 Protestant Reformed Church, Houston,          points.                                   witness to the virgin birth.
 Texas.

                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer / 347


    The doctrine of the virgin birth     Rather, the guarantee of Christ's          We do not make Christ immune from
is important for several reasons.        purity and holiness is in the fact      all defilement, because he was begotten
First of all, it is important for us     that He was conceived by the            of his mother only without the co-
to believe that, although Christ         Holy Spirit. Mary herself, as a         operation of the male, but because he
did not have a human father, He                                                  was hallowed by the Spirit, so that the
                                         daughter of Adam, was subject to        generation might be pure and upright, as'
was nevertheless born as we are.         depravity and the pollution of          it was meant to be before Adam's fall (In-
He did not just find His humanity        sin, and the only power that            stitutes, II, xiii, 4).
ready made and already existing,         could and did preserve Christ           Thus, Calvin too suggests that
as it were, so that the incarnation      free from the taint of that in-         there is in this sanctifying opera-
-would be something on the order         herited depravity was the over-         tion of the Holy Spirit the pledge
of a case of demon-possession.           shadowing presence of the Holy          of our own sanctification.
Such a conception of His incarna-        Spirit. Christ, according to the           The last point, the assumption
tion would call into question the        words of the angel, would be            of the human nature into union
very reality of His humanity,            "that holy thing" because He            with the divine, belongs to
while the virgin birth is God's          would be born through the com-          another discussion.
own testimony to us, that His Son        ing of the Holy Ghost (Lk. 1:35).          That Christ was conceived by
became man and was made like               That, in fact, is part of the         the operation and overshadowing
us in all things.                        wonder of the incarnation: that         of the Holy Spirit, also reminds
   Secondly,-and with the em-            the coming of God in our flesh          us of the important truth that the
phasis on the word virgin, the           swallows up and cleanses away           incarnation is a work of the
virgin birth is a confirmation that      the defilement of sin. There is,        triune God, of the Father,
Christ, though born a man, ,and          therefore, in the holy conception       through the Son, and by the Holy
of the flesh of the virgin Mary,         and nativity of Christ, the pledge      Spirit. The work of the Holy
was nevertheless born not "of the        that we too, united to Him by           Spirit especially is forgotten in
will of the flesh, nor of the will of    virtue of His humanity, shall be        this connection. The importance
man, but of God." The miracle of         holy - that our sin and corrup-         of that work of the Spirit we
the virgin birth is part of the          tion shall be cleansed away.            have already seen.
miracle that is Christ. It is in this      In speaking of Christ's concep-          Moreover, that the incarnation
connection that Isaiah spoke of          tion, then, it has been customary       is a work of God triune, also
the virgin birth as a sign. It is the    among Reformed theologians to           means that Christ Himself was ac-
first and greatest sign that Jesus       speak of a three-fold activity of       tively involved in His own con-
is indeed the Christ.                    the Holy Spirit: (1) the formation      ception and nativity; that "elimi-
   Faith in the virgin birth does        of. Christ's human nature, (2) the      nating the will of man . . . the
not, however, require faith in the       sanctification of it, and (3) the       Person of the Son of God
perpetual virginity of Mary. Such        assumption of it into the Person        prepared His own human nature"
is, as all know, the teaching of         of the Son of God. With regard to       [H. Hoeksema,  Reformed Dog-
the Roman Catholic Church. But           the first of these things, let it be    matics, p. 352). To this Scripture
there have also been a number            said that there has been far too.       testifies when it speaks of Christ
of Reformed leaders and                  much idle speculation as to the         ,`c&ming" in the flesh, and "tak-
theologians who held this, among         manner of this conception .of           ing upon Himself" the nature of
them the Swiss Reformer, Ulrich          Christ. When even the concep-           the seed of Abraham (Heb.
Zwingli. Probably he and others          tion of an ordinary human infant        2:14-16). This too is significant in
taught this to defend the purity         remains a mystery, how shall we         that it reminds us of the wonder
and holiness of Christ. Perhaps          explain the conception of Him           of the incarnation, and of the fact
that is also the rationale behind        Who came into the flesh through         that though a man, He is also
the Roman Catholic teaching,             the secret operations of the Holy       more than a man, the God of
though there it has degenerated          Spirit? The only thing that needs       heaven and earth.
into a form of idolatry.                 to be said is that in the concep-          This also means that Christ is
  We should realize that it is not       tion of Christ, Mary was indeed         the Son of God in a two-fold
Mary's virginity, either before or       the mother of Christ, not a mere        sense. Certainly every Christian
after Christ's birth, that               surrogate: so that Christ was her       knows and believes that Christ is
guarantees His purity, and it is         flesh and blood, the fruit of her       the Son of God as the Second
not necessary, therefore, to teach       womb.                                   Person of the Holy Trinity. But
the perpetual virginity of Mary, a         With regard to the sanctifica-        many do not realize that He is
doctrine which has, after all, no        tion of Christ's human nature by
Biblical foundation whatever.            the Holy Spirit, Calvin says this:

348 J The Standard Bearer


also the Son of God as far as His         me, Thou art my Son; this day              What is more, this is not iust a
humanity is concerned. In that            have I begotten thee." Now, in-          matter of speculation, nor id it an
respect also His Sonship is unique,       sofar as the Sonship  of Christ'is a     unimportant theological point,
for even as a man He is not               matter of God's decree, the              but contains a great deal of prom-
adopted to be God's child as we           reference is obviously to His Son-       ise and comfort for us. In that
are, but conceived and born of            ship in the human nature. As the         Christ, also according to His
God. Nevertheless, insofar as He          second Person of the Trinity, in         human nature is God's Son, there
is man, He is Gods Son in a dif-          other words, He is not the con-          is for us the assurance that we
ferent sense than He is as the            tent of the decree, but the              also, who are but creatures, can
Second Person of the Trinity, for         decreeing God. The confirmation          be and shall be children of God.
as a man His Sonship has a begin-         of this is found in Acts 13:33           Both the possibility and the
ning, and He is the Son of God            where the passage is used in             pledge of our sonship  lie, then, in
by conception and birth, not              reference to the resurrection of         the truth that Christ is the Son of
from eternity and by eternal              Christ and, therefore, according         God also according to His human
g e n e r a t i o n .                     to His human nature. Neverthe-           nature. The power of it is in His
  This does not mean that we              less, it is impossible to read the       divine, eternal Sonship.
can ever really separate the two,         passage without also thinking of           Our faith in the virgin birth
for in both natures He is still but       the eternal Sonship  of Christ, so       and in the conception of Christ
one Christ. Nor does Scripture            much so, that the passage is most        by the Holy Spirit are not just in-
ever distinguish the two senses in        often used as a reference to             cidental matters, therefore, but
which Christ is the Son of God to         Christ as the second Person of           part of the essentials of the faith.
the extent that in any particular         the Trinity. Nor is this un-             The Heidelberg Catechism is not
passage which speaks of Him as            founded, for the reference to Him        wrong when it lists these doc-
Son, only one sense can be                as God's begotten Son is a               trines among'the things which
detected. A good example is               reference that in other passages         are necessary for a Christian to
Psalm 2:7; "I will declare the            of Scripture testifies of His eter-      believe (VII, 22, 23). May our
decree: the LORD hath said unto           nal Sonship  (e.g. Jn. 1:14, Heb.        belief be well-instructed. Cl
                                          1:5, 6).





 Walking In
 The Light
Herman 6. Hanko                           Drunkenness

                                             Item - Nearly 18 million              per year, 25 times as many as al1
                                          adults in the U.S. are problem           illegal drugs combined.
                                          drinkers, according to the                 Item - Two of every 3 adults
                                          government's latest report on            drink. But only 10 percent of the
                                          alcoholism and alcohol abuse.            nation's drinkers consume half of
                                          More than 10 million of these            its beer, wine and liquor.
                                          drinkers are suffering from                Item - Two of every 3 high-
                                          alcoholism.                              school seniors have drunk alcohol
                                            Item - Alcohol is a factor in          within the past month. Five per-
                                          nearly half of America's murders,        cent drink daily. Forty percent of
Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church    suicides and accidental deaths. In       sixth-graders have tasted wine
History and New Testament at the Prot-
estant Reformed Seminary, Grandville,     all, it claims at least 100,000 lives    coolers. By age 18, a child will
Michigan.

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer I349


have seen 100,000 beer commer-             The question before the Supreme              perience with those who came to
cials.                                  Court: Is most alcoholism simply a result       him with drinking problems (May
   Item - The economic costs to         of "willful misconduct, " as the VA             17, 1985). He speaks of the fact
society of alcoholism and alcohol       (Veterans Administration, H.H.) contends,
                                        or is it a disease in which the victim is       that when he first entered the
abuse are estimated at nearly           compelled to drink?                             medical profession, he treated
$117 billion a year - including            Not only does the case jeopardize the        those with drinking problems as
$18 billion from premature              premise upon which virtually every pro-         he would any medical patient;
deaths, $66 billion in reduced          gram in America's $1 billion alcoholism-        i.e., he treated the physical prob-
work effort, $13 billion for treat-     treatment industry is based. It also gets to
                                        the heart of how society views people in        lems which resulted from over-
ments.                                  the grip of alcohol. Among the perplex-         drinking without giving too much
   Item - One family in 4 has           ing questions that some see arising: If         thought about the drinking itself.
been troubled by alcohol - the          alcoholism isn't a disease, will employers        However, after several years
highest incidence of problem            quit paying treatment costs for alcoholic       he was converted and began to
drinking in a Gallup trend that         workers and start firing them? IF it is a
                                        disease, does it provide an appropriate         consider drunkenness in the light
dates back to 1950. But Gallup          defense against wrong-doing? Already,           of Scripture. He took the position
finds only 17 percent of                some critics of the disease concept are         that drunkenness is a sin which
Americans in favor of a return to       pointing a finger at Michael Deaver, the        must be confessed and repented
Prohibition.                            Former White House aide on trial For per-       of, which confession and repen-
  .These staggering and frighten-       jury, who now is telling the world that
                                        he's an alcoholic. If Deaver can success-       tance would lead (in his judg-
ing statistics, which were              Fully argue that he should be excused for       ment) to a complete end to the`
reported in a recent (Nov. 30,          lying because he was sick, critics worry        problem. He tells his readers
1987) issue of U.S. News and            that alcoholism will be used to condone         that, while he witnessed to many
World Report, show how wide-            all sorts of illegal acts.                      of his patients and even was in-
spread and serious the problem             A bit later in the article, this             strumental in bringing some of
of drunkenness is in our country.       subject is again brought up.                    them to repentance and confes-
And everyone knows that the                The idea that alcoholism is a sickness       sion, as well as membership in
church is not unaffected by the         isn't new. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia
                                        physician who signed the Declaration of         the church, he had absolutely no
problem: the church has its own         Independence, concluded that alcohol            success in helping these people
problems with drunkenness               was a drug and habitual drunkenness in-         cease drinking. He could not
among its members.                      voluntary. He saw only one cure: Total          even count one person who had
   So serious does the world itselfe    abstinence. But the view that alcoholics        stopped drinking as a result of
consider the problem that the           weren't sick but sinful persisted in
                                        American society until well into this cen-      this apprqach.
issue of U.S. News and World            tury. In 19.57, a landmark resolution by          W.ithout  entering into the con-
Report  mentioned above devoted         the American Medical Association                troversy itself concerning the
a feature article to the subject        declared alcoholism a disease. Later            question of alcoholism being a
under the heading, "Coming To           came this definition from the AMA:              disease or a sin, he said that only
Grips With Alcoholism." The arti-       "Alcoholism is an illness characterized by
                                        preoccupation with alcohol and loss of          when he sought the help of pro-
cle was no less than eight full         control over its consumption such as to         fessional counsellors and organi-
pages long.                             lead usually to intoxication if drinking' is    zations to work with drunks did
   A fairly large share of the arti-    begun, by chronicity, by progression, and       he see some of these people
cle was devoted to the question         by tendency toward relapse. "                   overcome their habitual drunken-
of whether "alcoholism" is a              . . . A recent Gallup Poll found 87 per-
                                        cent of those interviewed endorsing the         ness. The gist of his story seemed
disease or a moral wrong. The           disease concept . . . .                         to be that he finally learned that,
subject is important enough that           The article goes on to say that              at least in some respects, drunk-
certain parts of the article are        many recent medical studies                     enness is a sickness which re-
worth quoting. This section of          have not only tended to confirm                 quires professional as well as
the article is introduced by a dis-     the notion that alcoholism is a                 spiritual care.
cussion of a case recently heard        disease, but have even given                      The question has many ramifi-
by the Supreme Court of our             some support for the idea that                  cations. To return to the article
country, a case in which the            the disease is hereditary, i.e., that           from  U.S. News and World
court will have to decide on this       the disease gives evidence of a                 Report  mentioned above, even
question. It has to do with treat-      genetic defect.                                 unbelievers are concerned about
ment of alcoholics and the rights          Some time ago a rather in-                   the question.
of alcoholics to college benefits.      teresting article appeared in
                                        Christianity Today  in which a
                                        medical doctor spoke of his ex-


350 / The Standard Bearer


   "The disease concept is a wondertul          If the issue has to be decided                   implicit in them some
cop-out for society, " says Robin Room,       on scientific grounds, the ques-       sort of erroneous notion. Alco-
director of the Alcohol Research Group                                               holism is probably one such
at the Medical Research Institute of San      tion is obscure and all the
Francisco. `2 says that there's normal        evidence is by no means in. A          term. It is less direct than drunk-
drinking and there's alcoholic drinking       decision will have to be post-         enness; it takes some of the sting
and if you're not an alcoholic you don't      poned. But the Scriptures have a       away when problem drinking is
have to worry." The disease concept,          surprisingly lot to say about          called alcoholism rather than
argues Room, "was the compromise that                                                drunkenness and when a person
the alcoholism movement in the 1940s          drunkenness, and certainly the
and '50s had to make to get any atten-        testimony of the Scriptures on         with such a problem is called an
tion. They were saying, `Look, we're not      this question will have to be con-     alcoholic rather than a drunk;
trying to dash the cup from your lips.        sulted.                                but it also seems to carry the
We're just trying to get help For alco-         We are nearly out of space in        freight of presupposing that the
holics. "'                                                                           whole problem is medical rather
  One scholar who thinks this effort is       this issue, and will reserve a fur-
misguided is Herbert Fingarette, an ex-       ther discussion of this question to    than moral; that it involves a
pert on addiction at the University of        next time. But a couple of             disease rather than a sin.
California at Santa Barbara and author        remarks ought to be made by              In the second place, if we must
of an upcoming book, Heavy Drinking:          way of conclusion.                     conclude (and on the basis of
The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease.                                                 Scripture no alternative seems
The government's legal brief in the VA          It the first place, I hesitate to
case often turns to Fingarette to back the    use the term alcoholism. It seems      possible) that drunkenness is a
view that alcoholism is a behavior prob-      to be a loaded term which al-          sin, does this necessarily mean
lem. Scientific studies have yet to show,     ready presupposes that problem         that repentance and confession
he says, that alcoholics cannot willfully     drinking is a disease. The Bible       are sufficient to free one from
quit drinking. "We have cultural beliefs                                             the sin and to bring one to com-
about alcohol, and one is that if you         does not use the term and it may
drink, you become less responsible for        be one of those euphemisms             plete and trouble-free sobriety?
what you are doing," Fingarette says.         which we are so fond of invent-        We shall have to take a look at
"Alcoholism is a label and it shouldn't be    ing, which are less direct words,      that question in so far as we are
a blanket excuse For anything."               which soften the harshness of a        able. Cl
                                              more direct term, but which





                                              From Our Sister Church
From Down
Under                                         In New Zealand

                                                "My soul doth magnify the            were opened so that Rev.
                                              Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced      Miersma and his family were
                                              in God my Saviour," Luke 1:46,         enabled to settle among us.
                                              47.                                       As the day of their arrival
                                                Our hearts experienced this          (January 15, 1988) fell during our
                                              blessed doxology of praise when        summer holidays, most members
                                              the days of fulfillment of Gods        were able to meet the Miersma
                                              promises dawned upon us. The           family at the point of their ar-
                                              time of waiting for this was long      rival, although the time of
                                              and often frustrating; neverthe-       reaching Wellington was delayed
                                              less in Gods own time doors            for several hours.

                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer / 351


   An eagerness to labour among         We tremble at the thought of        kinship may further develop. We
us and also past experience of       having the truth of Gods Word          also trust that his stay among us
living in New Zealand soon made      entrusted to us. Gods gift comes       receives approval from on high
the Miersmas feel at home after      with His admonition, "Therefore        as together we strive for the
overcoming initial jet lag.          we ought to give the more              honour and glory of that only
   The highlight of having our       earnest heed to the things which       Name given whereby we must be
own minister came when Rev.          we have heard, lest at any time        saved.
Miersma was formally installed       we should let them slip,"                 We covet the prayers of like-
among us by Rev. Heys on Sun-        Hebrews 2:l. We are reminded           minded saints and convey Chris-
day, 14 February, 1988. The text     here that to attain unto the truth     tian greetings to all who sup-
chosen for this solemn occasion      never comes to us in an easy           ported us as the body of Christ
was taken from I Peter 5:2 and 3;    way; rather we see it as running       our Saviour in this part of His
and the sermon was entitled          through a battlefield of strife and    creation.
"Called To Feed Gods Flock."         opposition. Likewise the safe-            On behalf of the session of the
Our small numbers were greatly       guarding of the truth; also this is    Protestant Reformed Church of
increased at this occasion, owing    so easily lost if we become com-       New Zealand, -B. van Herk. q
to a welcome influx of visitors -    placent in our outlook.
some from nearby, but also some        We now look forward to a             [Editor's Note: We rejoice with the little
                                                                            flock in New Zealand, and we wish them
from Australia, and several from     strengthening of the ties of           and the Rev. Miersma God's richest bless
our sister churches in the United    spiritual affinity existing between    ings. Don't forget to let  The Standard
States.                              our churches. With Rev. Miersma        Bearer hear from you from time to time.
                                     in our midst, we trust that this       HCH]





Contribution                         Ichabod!

                                       Two monkeys sat in a coconut         may be that of their story Ye-told.
                                     tree. Said one to the other "What         This is so sad - it makes the
                                     think ye we be?                        saints weep To think that the
                                       Did man come from us, or is          School has taken that leap.
                                     that a lie? If that's not the case,       From Gods Truth to error,
                                     then I will defy.                      from honor to shame, For the die
                                       Those teachers at Calvin who         has been cast, and who is to
                                     are making a fool, Not only of us,     blame?
                                     but of also their School:-                The preachers; the teachers;
                                       Where God's Word in truth            the School Boards wit. But of
                                     was formerly taught, But now it's      one thing be sure: - it comes
                                     debunked; why with error `tis          from the pit.
                                     fraught.                                                *Princeton Seminary
                                       That's what those teachers
                                     stand up and say, And drum into                            Katherine A. Clark
                                     their students from day to day."                        February 20,1988 0
                                       Where will it all end, like
                                     Princeton* of old? Yes, it just

352 / The Standard Bearer


                                            Jimmy Swaggart
                                            Who Must Educate Our
A/i Around Us
Cise /. Van Baren                                  Children

Jimmy Swaggart                                Some good may come out of all the           and television is the onlv wav to get it
   Much has been written, many              publicity being given to Jimmy Swaggart       done" (Christian News, March 2, 1987, p.
news broadcasts have been pre-              if tongues speaking charismatics finally      18).
                                            wake up and recognize that the modern            . . . The unscriptural theology of these
sented on that charismatic,                 charismatic movement is contrary to Ho-       charismatic TV evangelists is more
Jimmy Swaggart. After being                 ly Scripture. Many of them contend that       dangerous than the lifestyle of such
caught in immoral activity, he              if a person has the ligiFt of tongues" and    charismatics as Swaggart, Bakker, Gor-
made his emotional confession of            "healing" and if God speaks to him            man, "`Miss" Kathryn Kuhlmann, Aimie
sin before the whole world. The             directly, then surely he must be proclaim-    Sempel McPherson, etc. . . .
                                            ing the truth.                                        The daily papers have reported
Christian News, Feb. 29, 1988,                Of course, even some clergymen who
takes this event as opportunity to                                                        that the local Assemblies of God
                                            claim to be orthodox, have been involved
warn against the false views of             in grievous sin. However, charismatics        body decreed that Swaggart be
the charismatics.                           and Pentecostalists have long had more        forbidden the pulpit for a period
                                            than their share of preachers who've          of three months. After being in-
                                            been caught in such sins as Bakker's and      structed by the national body
                                            Swaggarts.                                    controlling the Assemblies of God
                                              Now is the time for charismatics to re-
                                            evaluate their movement. The Christian        churches to reconsider this ap-
                                            News Encyclopedia has plenty of articles      parently mild sentence, they
                                            by a good number of theologians in its        responded that this decision was
                                            section on the charismatic movement           dictated by the Spirit to them.
                                            which show that the modern charismatic        However, subsequently the na-
                                            movement is anti-scriptural.
                                              More should have listened to the            tional body has determined that
                                            American Council of Christian Churches        Swaggart must be barred from
                                            when it declared last year in a conven-       the pulpit for a year. Swaggart
                                            tion resolution that "The public needs to     intends to ignore the ruling of
                                            be warned that Jim Bakker, Jimmy              the national body. The whole af-
                                            Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Kenneth `.
                                            Copeland and othertelevision evangelists,     fair threatens to divide the
                                            who have claimed to speak in Bible            Assemblies of God churches. The
                                            tongues, are false religious leaders who      Christian News rightly points out
                                            need to be Scripturally exposed by God's      that the charismatic views them-
                                            people.  " . .                                selves are called into question in
                                              Swaggart is one of the many charis-
                                            matics who claim that God speaks to           these sad affairs. When.one relies
                                            them. directly. Swaggart says God told        on the "revelation of the Spirit"
                                            him: "I have appointed this Ministry, as I    directly to chosen individuals,
                                            have appointed no other Ministry, to help     then each determines for himself
                                            gather the harvest. You must do it by         what is the truth. The church,
                                            television. This is the only way that
                                            millions can be reached in a short period     however, is called to know the
                                            of time; and they must be reached. . . .      infallible Scriptures and learn the
                                                                                          revelations of the Spirit through
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Prot-    This Ministry is the only one I have
estant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,      anointed to reach the whole world -           those alone.
Michigan.

                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer / 353


   The Grand Rapids Press, April                      The decision of Judge Brevard Hand in          Like a moth is drawn to the candle
8, 1988, reported:                                  the "`Alabama Textbook Case" resulted in       flame, so the courts are drawn in these
                                                                                                   cases to ass&t their first and Foremost
   "We believe that to stay out of the              a great deal of public attention on
                                                                                                   controlling proposition. That controlling
public For a year would totally destroy             religion and education . . . .
                                                                                                   proposition, without fail, is that the state
the television ministry and greatly                   Informed observers who have followed
                                                                                                   has the responsibility to direct the educa-
adversely impact the college, " Swaggart            the church/state/education controversy
                                                    for the last 50 years must concede that        tion of children . . . .
said.
   `Because of the nature of this situa-            we are at a crossroads. For instance, the         The article presents the
tion, we are forced to take a position that         theory of the Jaffree case asserted that if    author's own opinion to which,
does not answer all of the questions nor            the Court was going to keep religion out       for the most part, we could
solve all of the problems. But we Feel we           of the schools, then it had a duty to keep     subscribe:
have no alternative or choice," he said.            all religions out of the school. By forcing
                                                                                                     A new strategy to rise above this con-
   "Therefore, I must regretfully withdraw          the issue of secular humanism as a
                                                                                                   fusion and judicial bickering is required.
from the Assemblies of God, understand-             religion, it was thought that the courts
                                                                                                   A strategy which challenges the funda-
ing that they will have no choice except            would recognize the absurdity of barring
                                                                                                   mental assertion that the state has
to dismiss me from the fellowship, since I          religion from the public schools.
                                                                                                   authority to direct the education of
am presently not in good standing with                It was hoped that the courts would
                                                                                                   children, and that it has authority over
the fellowship."                                    permit public schools to teach at least
                                                                                                   their minds and the manner in which
   This raises another serious                      the role of religion in this country%
                                                    history and balance a Judeo-Christian          they are to think.
problem. There is here evidently                    world view with that of a humanistic             The wholesale rejection of the priginal
a personality cult. When the                        world view in other non-historical text-       authority of parents to direct the educa-
ministry of the Word stands or                      books.                                         tion and upbringing of their children
falls with a man, one can ques-                       The idea was to change the system            must be protested and challenged.
                                                                                                     It is parents, not the state, who are en-
tion whether this is                                itself by giving Christians equal time in
                             proper  and            the textbooks. It was not an individual-       dowed by their Creator with the unalien-
true ministry of the Word. Jimmy                    istic approach.                                able right to direct the education and up-
Swaggart appears to believe that                      Mozert, on the other hand, in the Ten-       bringing of their children free from state
he is indispensable to that                         nessee textbook case, voiced the op-           interference, regulation or control. This is
ministry - and perhaps he is.                       posite strategy. It attempted to find a        among the most fundamental of our
                                                                                                   liberties.
But then, is not this ministry one                  right by which an individual parent could
                                                    object to a given textbook and suggest a          Be aware that the state,
which is of man, and not of God?                    substitute reader. The school system           whether this is our nation or in-
                                                    would not be required to change its en-        dividual state itself, is seeking in-
Who Must Educate                                    tire curriculum, nor to discard all of its     creasing control over the instruc-
O u r   C h i l d r e n ?                           textbooks, but merely make an accom-
                                                    modation to an individual parent who           tion of all children - including
   A reader recently submitted an                   happened to object.                            our own. One sees little prospect
article from  Today's Banner                          The basis for both of these strategies       of this changing. We will face
which points to the continuing                      lay in the First Amendment and both of         growing problems, too, in this
debate concerning the instruction                   these cases were filed in federal courts.      regard. All this represents one
of the children. The article                        Jaffree was an established-clause case,
                                                    while Mozert was a free-exercise case.         more sign of the nearness of the
begins:                                                                                            end of time. 0
                                               -



                                               Distinctive Traits Of True
                                               Godliness: A Serious
 In His Fear                                   Attitude About Our Sin
Arie den Hat-tog



                                                       In a series of articles, we are             true child of God. If we call
Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Prot-              considering some of the distinc-               ourselves children of God, we
estant Reformed Church of Randolph,                 tive traits of true godliness. These           must be very concerned that we
Wisconsin.                                          traits must be evident in every                manifest in our whole life these

354 / The Standard Bearer


marks. We must adorn the doc-             Though there is very much               to enjoy the world and all of its
trine of God which we confess             preaching, even through the             pleasures. We can join hands
with a life of true godliness. Only       means of radio, television, and         together to serve the Lord and
then will our life bring praise and       tape recordings, there is still a       accomplish great things for God.
glory to the name of our God.             grievous lack of knowledge. Little      Who would deny that this is the
Many today who call themselves            is known of the great doctrines         current mentality of the modern
Christians lack the marks of true         of God and of the doctrines of sin      day world of Christendom? How
godliness. Our land is full of pro-       and grace. There is little knowl-       very far this all is from true
fessing Christians. At least some         edge of how awful sin really is in      godliness.
churches are growing by the               the sight of God. Consequently,           The modernists have done a
thousands. We see today in our            there is little genuine repentance      lot to do away with the serious-
land larger churches than                 and conversion to God which             ness of sin. These have attempted
perhaps ever before in our                leads to true godliness. Many           to wed a semblance of Christiani-
history. Large and beautiful              Christians imagine that their sins      ty with modern day humanistic
buildings are being built, with the       are largely a matter of a past life     philosophy and worldly
most modern and elaborate                 which can be left behind and            psychology. Man is no longer a
facilities imaginable. But in spite       forgotten. These imagine that           sinner, but rather he is sick and
of all of this, there is a grievous       after they became Christians they       must be healed through counsel-
decline in true godliness in our          ceased to be sinners. There is          ling and rehabilitation by some
land, and even in our own                 therefore little need for dwelling      professional doctor. Some of
churches. There is a growing              on the matter of sin. Christians        these modernists even scoff at
toleration of all kinds of evil and       who do this are judged to be un-        the idea of sin and the judgment
wickedness. Few churches are to-          necessarily morose and morbid.          of God. These are all old
day still faithful in the exercise of     Christ had died for all our sins on     fashioned and irrelevant concepts
Christian discipline. There is            the cross, and that means we no         that we must get rid of especially
much which has the form of                longer need at all to be con-           when they contradict our modern
godliness but denies the power            cerned about our sins. The Chris-       thinking. Every man has the
thereof. Lest we judge only those         tian life is to be one only of joy      freedom and right to live as he
who are without, we must begin            and happiness, of success and           pleases. Who are we to condemn
by examining our own selves,              prosperity. When the so-called          another? As far as what the Bible
whether we manifest the marks             Christian of our day does fall into     says about sin and evil and judg-
of true godliness. If this is not         sin, he need not be overly              ment, all of that is considered to
true, then we will put to shame           troubled. Forgiveness is cheap          be from a bygone age. Besides
the blessed and glorious doctrine         and easily obtained again. Many         the Bible is subject to thousands
of salvation which the Lord in            imagine that their sins are actual-     of different interpretations.
His grace has given us.                   ly very few. Some imagine that          Everyone is free to interpret it as
  A serious attitude about sin is         they are so close to perfection         he pleases and to live his life as
certainly one of the chief marks          that they can actually go for days      he sees fit. The highest of all
of the truly godly man. No one            and weeks without any known             moral principles for many mod-
who knows anything at all about           sin. The common notion is that          ernists is the principle that every-
the Bible and real Christianity           all men are basically good. God         one has the right to do what is
will deny this. The profound              loves us all and has a wonderful        good in his own eyes. But this is
knowledge and conviction of sin          ~ plan for us all. He only feels         the very lie of the devil by which
is the first evidence of the work        sorry for us if we fall into sin,        he brought the whole world into
of the grace and Spirit of God in         and easily overlooks that sin. Let      sin. The modern Christian im-
the hearts of His people. As the         no man judge anyone else. Since          agines that he can continue in
child of God grows in His faith           we are all sinners and all fall         the grossest immorality and still
and knowledge of the Word of              now and then, it is not so             be the object of the favor and
God, he does not become less,             serious, really. The Christian who      love of God. His conscience is so
but rather more conscious of the          does fall into sin should by no         hardened to sin that he knows
awfulness of sin. How many who            means be judged or even ad-            very little about its seriousness.
call themselves Christians today          monished. He should only be               The true child of God evi-
lack this great mark of true              pitied and told of God's free           dences the mark of godliness
godliness. Ours is a day of               forgiveness. The world we live in       with a grave and serious attitude
shallowness and superficiality.           is a wonderful place. It is getting     about sin. He is profoundly con-
                                          better all the time. We are here        scious of how dreadful sin is, not

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  I355


only the sin that he sees in the        that he strongly hates sin. He            More than anything else, the
world in which he lives, but also       hates sin with all of the infinite     Christian sees the great serious-
his own continuing sinfulness           fury of His holy being. If He did      ness of sin when He remembers
before God. The true child of           not hate sin, then He would not        the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is ashamed of his sin. He           be God at all. Because He hates        With shame and utter humility
deeply humbles himself before           sin He will judge the sinner with      we stand before the cross. We
God, he weeps and laments over          a most terrible judgment. Our          realize that all of the terrible
his sin. He loathes and abhors          sins are so very serious because       anguish and torment which Jesus
himself continually before God.         they are first of all against God.     bore on the cross was on account
He smites his breast every time         That is even far more terrible         of the awfulness of our sin. As
he comes into the presence of his       than all the evil many of our sins     the Christian stands before the
God and cries out: "God be mer-         cause to our fellow man. Our sins      cross, he cries out in amazement;
ciful to me, the sinner." When he       are a violation of the holy majes-     "how dreadful, how unspeakably
considers the awful holiness of         ty of God. In our sins we are          terrible was our sin that it could
God he says with great fear and         rebels and enemies of God. In          only be atoned for through the
trembling: "Woe is me, for I am         our sins we transgress His holy        great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
undone; because I am a man of           commandments. If we truly love         Christ."
unclean lips, and I dwell in the        God, we will have a profound              At the cross we see also the
midst of the people of unclean          hatred for our sins. We will cer-      amazing wonder of the love and
lips," Isaiah 6:5. When he falls in-    tainly not take them lightly.          mercy of God that saves us from
to great sin, he says in shame            We will have a serious attitude      all our sins. Through the cross
and amazement: "Behold I was            about our sins if we know all that     we have been delivered from all
shapen in iniquity and in sin did       our sins really involve. Anyone        the horrors of hell and judgment.
my mother conceive me," Psalm           who imagines that sin is merely a      By His death on the cross, Jesus
51:5. As the Christian struggles        matter of a few sinful deeds and       has merited for us perfect and
against his sinful nature and finds     falls will never have a serious at-    everlasting righteousness. He has
that he is so very weak to over-        titude about his sin. If man's         made us worthy of the everlast-
come the great power of sin             nature remains good after the          ing favor and blessing of God.
within himself, he cries out: "Oh       fall, then he is still able in his     Profoundly moved by our
wretched man that I am! Who             own strength to overcome his           remembrance of the cross, it is
shall deliver me from the body of       sin. We know the seriousness of        impossible that true children of
this death?" (Romans  7:24) How         sin when we know the awful             God can be careless about their
terribly foreign and strange all        depravity of our nature. Sin is so     sin.
this kind of language is to many        terrible because it corrupts the          We have a serious attitude
who today call themselves Chris-        whole of our nature, and out of        about sin because we know that
tians.                                  that corrupt nature proceeds all       as Christians we still sin daily.
   The knowledge of the                 sorts of evil deeds. The fall has      We bear with us until the day of
seriousness of sin begins with a        left us by nature wholly in-           our death our corrupt, sinful
right knowledge of God and a            capable of doing any good and          nature in the old man of sin.
true love for Him. Godliness, we        enslaved to the devil.                 From that nature still proceed
must remember, involves first of          We will have a serious attitude      many awful sins. Sin is still the
all our attitude and relationship       about our sin if we always             power of the devil in us, from
to God. This is suggested by the        remember and realize that sin          which we can only be daily
very English word itself. We will       makes us guilty and damnworthy         delivered through the grace and
only have a serious attitude con-       before God. Except by the grace        Spirit of Christ. Our daily sins
cerning our sin if first we have a      and mercy of God we deserve            and weaknesses are grievous in
profound knowledge of the               the eternal judgment of hell           the sight of our God and Savior.
awesome, perfect, infinite              because of our sins. We are not        The true child of God is pro-
holiness and righteousness of           able to do anything at all to          foundly conscious of the reality       .
God. We will be serious about           atone for the guilt of our sins and    of his continual sinfulness. He
our sin if we love that God and         deliver ourselves from the wrath       knows that he is still very far
hate our sin as much as He hates        and judgment of God. We only           from loving God perfectly with
our sin. Sin is an abomination un-      every day increase the guilt of        all his heart and soul and
to the Lord. That word means            our sin and our worthiness of          strength and mind. He knows
                                        judgment and wrath.                    that God indeed requires such
                                                                               perfect love. Because the true
                                                                               child of God loves God and loves

356  / The Standard Bearer


the Savior Jesus Christ for His        devil. He knows that when he           contrary, he knows that as the
great salvation, therefore he is       does not confess his sin before        Word of God prophesies, the
earnestly desirous to love God         God, he will be separated from         world is getting worse and worse.
perfectly. Therefore he also           God, and interrupt the operation       Therefore it is necessary always
grieves over any sin that remains      of His favor and love. He knows        for the child of God to separate
in him. The more the child of          that if he continues in sin, that      himself spiritually from the world
God grows in his faith, the more       sin will have very serious conse-      and to flee its evil lusts. The child
conscious and sensitive he is          quences for his life. The godly        of God knows how extremely
towards the seriousness of sin.        man is one who therefore daily,        dangerous the temptations of the
He knows that God hates every          in deep humility, cries out for the    world and the devil are for his
evil motive, lust, and purpose of      mercy of God and for the               own soul. He steadfastly refuses
his heart. He is grieved not only      strength of His grace to fight         to join the wicked world in its
over gross outward wicked deeds        against and overcome the sin           wicked entertainment and cor-
but also over his thoughts of          that still remains in him. He finds    ruption of sin. He earnestly
pride and enmity and unclean           the daily need to go to the cross      desires to keep himself pure and
desire and covetousness. He            of Christ Jesus.                       holy. He longs to be finally
hates every one of them.                 The truly godly man is serious       delivered out of this sinful world
  Therefore the child of God is        about the great sin and wicked-        and to be finally presented holy
serious about sin. He knows the        ness that he sees in the world.        and without blame before His
need of daily confession and           He does not foolishly imagine          Father in heaven.
repentance before God. He              that the world is getting better         We have outlined something of
knows that sin is a very terrible      and that he can somehow join           what it means to have a serious
power, having its origin in the        himself with the world. On the         attitude about our sins. Is this
                                                                              great distinguishing mark of true
                                                                              godliness evident in you? Cl





                                       Book Review

Toward Rediscovering The               latter characterization is not true    tent lost the good practice of
Old Testament, Walter C.               of us in the Reformed tradition;       reading through the entire Scrip-
Kaiser, Jr.; Grand Rapids, Mich.,      at least 1 hope it is not. However,    tures in our family devotions? I
Zondervan Publishing House; 250        I do believe that the Old Testa-       would not want to make the mat-
pp. (hard cover), $17.95 [re-          ment does not receive sufficient       ter of Old Testament preaching
viewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema]         attention in our preaching and         and study a matter of a mathe-
  This is, as far as its purpose is    teaching. The same is true to no       matical formula, but do you
concerned, a book after my             little extent as far as the under-     realize that the Old Testament
heart. The title presupposes that      standing of the Scriptures is con-     constitutes more than three-
the Old Testament has been lost.       cerned among our people gener-         fourths of Holy Scripture?
The meaning, of course, is not         ally. When I note sometimes the          This work by Dr. Kaiser, Old
that the Old Testament Scriptures      ignorance with respect to simple       Testament professor at Trinity
themselves have been lost, but         Old Testament facts and truths, I      Evangelical Divinity School, is
rather that the Old Testament          sometimes wonder how much at-          not an ordinary Old Testament
has been largely lost in the           tention the Old Testament              Introduction. Nor is it a
teaching and preaching of what         receives in our personal and           hermeneutics book with special
is broadly classified as the           family reading and study of the        reference to the Old Testament.
Evangelical world. Perhaps the         Scriptures. Have we to s,ome ex-

                                                                                              The Standard Bearer / 357


As the author himself states, he              Here is a sample of'some of            Without going into details in
has set out "to describe how                the chapters: The OT As Part Of        this review, I may say that I do
Christians may once again find              The Canon, The OT As The               not agree with the author at all
meaning, relevance, and direc-              Promise-Plan of God, The OT As         points. But I would rather em-
tion from that part of the canon            A Messianic Primer, The OT As          phasize the positive this time, in
that all too many believers all             The Plan Of Salvation. In Chapter      the hope that reading a book like
too frequently have summarily               7 the author addresses the follow-     this will stimulate further study of
rejected as a source of any Chris-          ing questions: 1) Is the Authority     and thinking about the Old Testa-
tian guidance for faith or life.            of the OT Limited Only to What         ment.
This mental and literary block is           the NT Repeats or Modifies from          This book is not only for
not limited to the laity; it prob-          the OT? 2) What Is the Relation-       ministers. But whoever reads it
ably exists in more massive pro-            ship of the Law to OT Promise?         will have to put on his thinking-
portions among the clergy, many             3) How Can Christians Derive           cap.
of whom would do almost any-                Principles From the Specific Com-        Recommended.  0
thing - yea, would rather die -             mands of the Law?
than attempt to teach or preach
from an Old Testament passage."





                                            News From
Ben Wigger                                  Our Churches

                             May 1,1988       The congregation of the Hope           Two items from the Pella
   At a special congregational              P.R.C. of Isabel, S.D. called Rev.     P.R.C. in Pella, Iowa: first, the
meeting following the evening               Bekkering to be their pastor.          consistory gave its approval to
service on Sunday, March 27, the            With him on that trio were the         Pastor Terpstra to begin a Young
congregation of the First P.R.C.            Revs. Woudenberg and Houck.            Peoples' Society for the purpose
in Grand Rapids, Michigan called            However, due to the difficulties       of studying the Bible and other
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop to                 that Pastor Bekkering is dealing       current issues. On March 20 the
become our second missionary to             with at the present time, he in-       Y.P.S. met for the first time and
Jamaica. With him on that trio              formed Hope that he could not          began a study of "The Signs of
were the Revs. Haak and Grit-               consider their call at this time.      the Times" in Matthew 24. And
ters.                                       Since that letter from Pastor Bek-     second, the Building Committee
                                            kering, Hope has formed a new          was given authority to begin in-
                                            trio consisting of the Revs. Koole,    vestigating possible plans for a
                                            Woudenberg, and Houck.                 new or different church building,
                                              Rev. Kortering has declined          because of the poor and
                                            the call he received from the          deteriorating condition of their
                                            First P.R.C. of Holland, Michigan.     present building.
                                                                                     Due to the fact that the steeple
                                                                                   of the Kalamazoo P.R.C. in
                                                                                   Kalamazoo, Michigan is now paid
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,                                                    for, the consistory there has
Michigan.                                                                          decided the collection that was

358 I The Standard Bearer


     assigned for this cause will now        Loveland P.R.C. in Loveland,           possibly around the time that
     be used to raise funds for some         Colo. sponsored an Easter              Rev. Miersma was installed as
     new Psalters.                           Singspiration. A free-will offering    their pastor.
       The Council of the South              was taken for their new church           The following information is a
     Holland P.R.C. in South Holland,        kitchen. Likewise the young            result of that request, and comes
     Ill. has appointed a Building Com-      people of the Doon  P.R.C. in          from Mr. B. van Herk,. clerk of
     mittee to investigate the possibili-    Doon, Iowa sponsored an Easter         Wellington's session, for which I
     ty of enlarging the church park-        Singspiration.                         thank him.
     ing lot, remodeling the balcony,          The choir of the Hudsonville           "Some dates and events in the
     erecting a new sign, updating the       P.R.C. in Hudsonville, Michigan        lead-up to the establishment of
     present parking lot lights, and         gave their usual fine effort on the    the Protestant Reformed Church
~    adding additional rooms.                Sunday before Easter. The Hope         in New Zealand,
I      The proposal for remodeling           P.R.C. choir gave their Easter           "The early nineteen fifties saw
     the sanctuary of the Southeast          program a week later on Easter         large numbers of Dutch im-
     P.R.C. in Grand Rapids, Michigan,       Sunday. The choir of Covenant          migrants coming to this country.
     was given unanimous approval            Christian High School presented        Among those coming from
     by their congregation in late           a Lent-Easter concert March 20         Reformed backgrounds, only a
     March. The project will begin as        at the Hudsonville P.R.C. And the      small number joined themselves
     soon as materials can be ordered        congregation of Pella P.R.C. in        with the Presbyterian Church of
     and received and should be com-         Pella, Iowa, was encouraged to         New Zealand. The vast majority,
     pleted by the end of May. It was        stay for a half-hour of singing        however, established their own
     also announced at this congrega-        and special numbers.                   church under the name of
     tional meeting that a member of           On Thursday, March 24, the           Reformed Church of NZ. The first
     their congregation, who wished          students of Adams Street Chris-        six churches came into being in
     to remain anonymous, had of-            tian School presented their all-       1953 under the guidance and
     fered to finance, without interest,     school program at First Church in      direction of two ministers
     the cost of air conditioning the        Grand Rapids. And on Friday,           brought out from the G.K.N.
     sanctuary, additional cost for the      March 25, Covenant Christian           churches in the Netherlands. As
     narthex, and the cost of remodel-       School in Lynden, Washington           the majority of church members
     ing the sanctuary.                      gave their annual spring pro-          came from this church, it became
       The Building Committee of the         gram.                                  apparent that help and guidance
     First P.R.C. in Holland, Michigan         All those of 16 years and older      was sought from this denomina-
     invited members in the congrega-        in the Byron Center P.R.C. in          tion. As the newly established
     tion to meet together on March          Byron Center, Michigan, were           church also favoured a quick
     3.1 to paint their parsonage.           urged to come to an evening that       assimilation in the New Zealand
       All adults of the Grandville          was advertised as a church             way of life, efforts were made to
     P.R.C. in Grandville, Michigan,         potluck and volleyball night,          attract also ministers from
     were invited to Covenant Chr.           March 29. Since for a short time       English-speaking churches com-
     High gym for an evening of fun          yet Byron Center meets in a            patible with the Reformed faith.
     and fellowship. Pizza was               school gym for Sunday services,        The result of this was that for
     ordered and a good time was had         they have the distinction of being     many years hereafter we saw
     by all who attended.                    able to eat and play volleyball in     ministers from the C.R.C. of
       On April 4 the Young People           their church auditorium.               U.S.A. and O.P.C. of U.S.A., serv-
     of First Church in Grand Rapids,          A parting shot taken from            ing the Reformed Church of NZ.
     Michigan sponsored a family             Across the Aisle of First Church         "This diversity -of ministry also
     roller-skating party at the             in Grand Rapids:                       caused some minor divisions in
     Woodland Sport Center.                    "Postage stamps are getting          this denomination. The question
       This past Easter season many          more expensive, but at least they      of Sabbath observance was hotly
     of our churches held special pro-       have one attribute that most of        debated, and a gravamen against
     grams in commemoration of the           us could emulate: they stick to        the teaching of the Westminster
     death and resurrection `of our          one thing until they get there."       Confession of Faith was a regular
     Lord and Savior. The choir of the         Several months ago I wrote to        feature on the agenda of Synod
                                             our sister church in New Zealand,      for many years hereafter.
                                             requesting some facts that would
                                             allow me to put a profile of Well-
                                             ington in our news column,


                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer  / 359


                                                                                                SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                Postage Paid at
                                                                                                Grand Rapids, Michigan

 f?o. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



    "The late sixties and early         and are dependent on the tape         Treasurer -
 seventies saw new controversies        ministry.                                R.J. Kane (Bulletin Clerk)
 arising in the church, mostly            "With Rev. and Mrs. Heys hav-          18 Baffin Grove
 caused by the writings of Prof.        ing left our shores again, we now        Kingston Heights
 Runia, who at that time taught         look forward to the arrival of our       Wellington 2, New Zealand
 theology at the Reformed               pastor's personal possessions and        Phone  - 01 l-64-4-894-922 Cl
 Theological College in Geelong,        books in order to be provided
 Australia, to which the Reformed       with the tools for the ministry;
 Church of NZ owned allegiance.         God graciously providing him
    "It was those writings which        with His Spirit."
 drew the attention of Prof.              Mr. B. van Herk also provides
 Hoeksema who, as editor of The         some statistical information along    ATTENTION STUDENTS!
Standard Bearer,  responded to          with this brief profile which you        The Protestant Reformed
 this in several editions during        also might find interesting.          Scholarship Fund Committee is
 those years. It was from those           Presently Wellington has a          taking applications for scholar-
years onward that a permanent           total of 7 families, with 17 com-     ships to be awarded to future
relationship was establish be-          municant members, and a total         Protestant Reformed ministers
tween a small core group and the        membership of 23. Their con-          and teachers for the 1988-89
P.R.C. in the U.S.A. Through all        sistory consists of 2 elders and 1    school year. Each applicant
those years Hope Church in              deacon. There are also 4              must also submit an essay of at
Grand Rapids provided us with a         members who attend catechism          least three hundred words,
tape ministry.                          and there are 8 who make up the       presenting a defense of the Bi-
    "The year 1975 was the year         membership of the Adult Bible         ble's infallibility in the context
of the first personal contact. Prof.    Study Group.                          of theistic evolution. For an ap-
& Mrs. Hoeksema and also Rev.             Divine services are held at 11      plication, contact Dirk Westra,
C. Hanko visited us on their            AM and 7 PM on Sunday.                7960  Ronson, Jenison, MI 49428.
round-the-world trip. The public          Following are the names, ad-        The application, accompanied
lecture held by Prof. Hoeksema          dresses, and phone numbers of         by the essay, must be returned
at that time was thg occasion           various men who make up the           by June 1,1988.
that one of our present members         Session of the P.R.C. of New
became for the first time ac-           Zealand.                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
quainted with us. Rev. Van                Church - Protestant Reformed           The consistory and the con-
Overloop became our next per-           Church of New Zealand                 gregation of the Hull Protestant
sonal contact. After that came          (c/o Lutheran Church Cnr. Walter      Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa,
Rev. Heys, who by now has               St. and Oxford TCE. Lower Hutt.)      extends their Christian sympathy
visited us at four different times.     Pastor -                              to our fellow office-bearer,
   "Our geographic position is still      Rev. Rodney Miersma                 Elder Ray Brunsting and family
reason for concern. Because of            21 Main Road                        in the death of his sister, MISS
this, two of our families are             Wainuiomata, New Zealand            RUTH  BRUNSTING  of Grand
deprived of attending our wor-            Phone  - 011-64-4-646-129           Rapids, Michigan.
ship services on the Lord's Day,                                                 "I will lift up mine eyes unto
                                        Clerk -                               the hills, from whence cometh
                                          B. van Herk                         my help. My help cometh from
                                          66 Fraser St.                       the Lord, which made heaven
                                          Wainuiomata, New Zealand            and earth." (Psalm  12l:l, 2)
                                          Phone  - 01 l-64-4-647-687          Rev. R. Moore, President
                                                                              Egbert Critters, Clerk


360 / The Standard Bearer


