                          THE
                         STANDARD
 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine                 BBR





                                 S&e: Editorial, p. 365


VVI.  04,  IVV.    ID
May 15, 1988


 Contents                                                                                        T-/E
                                                                    May  IS,7988            STANDARD
Meditation  -  lames  D. Slopsema                                                               BELzRiER
Not Conformed.. . But Transformed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362
E d i t o r i a l s   -                                                                     ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
GodTheCreator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...365    and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                            lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                            at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
Forthcoming Book On "Children's Communion" . . . . . . . . . . .368                         EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
                                                                                            Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
Correspondence and Reply  -                                                                 DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                            Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
Thoughts From The Pew on `Reverend' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .369                Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                            Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
The Day of Shadows  -  john A. Heys                                                         Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A.  Heys,  Rev.  I.  Korter-
                                                                                            ing, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
The First Shadow Of Christ's Cross.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .372           Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Cise I. Van
                                                                                            Baren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
Bible Study Guide -  lason L.  Kortering                                                    EDITORIAL OFFICE
                                                                                            Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
Joshua - Receiving The Promised land (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374                   4975  lvanrest  Ave., S.W.
                                                                                            Crandville,  Michigan 49418
Taking Heed To The  Doctrine  - Ronald H. Hanko                                             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                            Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                            6597  - 40th Ave.
The Two Natures of Christ: The Humanity of Christ. . . . . . . . .377                       Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
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                                              definite problem with world con-              BUSINESS OFFICE
lames D. Slopsema                             formity. Who can debate the                   The Standard Bearer
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James D. Slopsema is pastor of Hope           trampling under foot the holy                 Office.
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362 I The Standard Bearer


   This denravitv of fallen man               This in turn leads to more           difference between a caterpillar
reveals itself in "all that the world      world conformity. Through               and a butterfly. We must be so
does and produces. A corrupt               television and radio the goals, at-     different from the world that
tree can only bring forth corrupt          titudes, morals and values of the       even the world acknowledges
fruit. And it is no different with         world are loudly proclaimed. A          that we are different from them.
the world. The spiritual corrup-           certain lifestyle, which is com-          The thing that must set us
tion of the world shows itself             pletely contrary to the Scriptures,     apart from the world is that we
very clearly in its singing, its           is portrayed. It ought to be ob-        are those who prove what is the
dancing, its entertainment, its            vious to all that it is impossible      will of God.
literature, its art, its education, its    for the Christian to fill his soul        Notice the exhortation here,
whole lifestyle. We hardly need            with this spiritual filth hour after    Be ye transformed . . . that ye
to point out how all these things          endless hour without being              may prove what is that . . . will
of the world have been corrupted           adversely affected. He can not          of God.
with sin and are abominable to             help but be conformed to this             God's will is, of course, the will
the living God.                            world.                                  of God for our lives. That will is
  To all this we are not to con-             Sad to say, this is what is hap-      set forth for us in the ten com-
form ourselves.                            pening in the church today.             mandments, and more fully in
  To conform yourself means to               It is something of which both         the whole of Scripture.
pattern yourself after another. It         old and young are guilty.                 The Word of God speaks here
means to follow the example of               Over against this, God's word         of proving what is this will of
another, to strive to be like              proclaims: "Be not conformed to         God.
another. A child, for example,             this world!"                              To prove means first to submit
spontaneously conforms himself                It can also be translated: Stop      something to a test to determine
to his parents. Without even real-         being conformed to this world!          whether it is genuine. This is
izing it, he copies what he sees in                      * * * * *                 done, for example, with coins. To
his parents.                                                                       prove, however, also means to
  To conform to this world                   But be ye transformed.                approve that which is genuine,
means, therefore, to pattern                 To be transformed means to be         while rejecting that which is
yourself after this world. It means        changed into a different form.          counterfeit.
to sing as the world sings, to               Jesus was transformed on the            In like manner we are to prove
dance as the world dances, to              Mount of Transfiguration. His           what is the will of God. We are
dress and to speak as does the             whole appearance was changed            to put our life in all its parts to
world. It means that you adopt             so that His face shone as the sun       the test. We must submit our
the lifestyle of the world. Its at-        and his garments became white           goals, our attitudes, our enter-
titudes, its values, its goals, its        as the light.                           tainments, our whole life to a test
joys, its pleasures are yours.               The word "transform" is really        to determine what in our lives is
  We see much of this in the               the word "metamorphosis".               the will of God. That which is ac-
church today.                              Metamorphosis describes the             cording to God's will we are to
  This is certainly true of the            change a tadpole undergoes as it        retain. That which is contrary to
way we entertain ourselves. We             becomes a frog. It also describes       God's will we are to cast out and
tend to entertain ourselves with           the change which a caterpillar          leave behind.
the entertainments of the world.           undergoes to become a beautiful           Those who do this will certain-
  Perhaps the biggest enter-               butterfly.                              ly will live lives that are trans-
tainers of the world today are               In like manner we must under-         formed. The world certainly does
television and radio. And the              go a metamorphosis. Rather than         not prove what is the will of God.
world has corrupted both of them           be conformed to this world, we          They have no concern for God's
with its abominations. How evil            must undergo a radical trans-           will. Without a thought, they
television programing has                  formation. We must be so trans-         trample it under their feet.
become! How vile are the songs             formed that our singing, our            Hence, those who carefully prove
the world sings on radio! All that         speech, our dress, our customs,         what is the will of God, and
is evil, immoral, and abominable           our goals, our attitudes, our           order their lives according to
to God is glorified. And with this         entertainments, our whole
corruption many in the church              lifestyles are radically different
entertain themselves!                      from that of the world. There
                                           must be a marked difference be-
                                           tween us and the world. The dif-
                                           ference must be as great as the

                                                                                                    The Standard bearer  / 363


God's law, will certainly live          a role model. Nor is it a better        This is the thing good, accept-
transformed lives. Their lives will     environment. The only thing that      able and perfect.
be as different from the life of        can renew the mind of man is            The King James version reads:
the world as day is from night.         the new life of Jesus Christ,         "Be ye transformed . . . that ye
   And this is what we are called       which becomes ours only               may prove what is that good,
to do.                                  through a spiritual rebirth. This     and acceptable, and perfect, will
   Be not conformed, but trans-         new life is the power of God to       of God."
formed.                                 enlighten that which has `been          This is better rendered: Be ye
               * * * * *                darkened. It is the power to          transformed . . . that ye may
   Be ye transformed by the             soften that which has been            prove what is the will of God, the
renewing of your mind.                  hardened, to make straight that       thing good, acceptable, and
   Often in Scripture the mind          which has become crooked.             perfect. In this case that which is
stands not just for the mind, but         However, God renews our             good, acceptable, and perfect is
the will and the emotions as well.      mind with the new life of Christ      proving what is the will of God,
Such is also the case here.             only through means. There is the      and thus living lives that are
   The mind is all-important when       Word preached and faithfully          transformed.
it comes to being conformed to          studied. There are the sacraments       The transformed life is good:
this world or to being trans-           faithfully administered. There is     good in the sight of God. The life
formed. Our thoughts, our               prayer earnestly and regularly ut-    that conforms to this world is
desires, our feelings have every-       tered. There are the fellowship       not.
thing to say about how we dress,        and communion of the saints.            The transformed life is accept-
what we say, how we entertain             Let us use these means dili-        able: acceptable to God. The life
ourselves, how we use our time.         gently and faithfully that our        that conforms to this world is
Our mind determines our whole1          mind be renewed daily with the        not.
life style.                             new life of Jesus Christ.               The transformed life is perfect.
                                                                              It is complete, lacking nothing.
   The trouble is that by nature          Then we will not be con-
our mind is no different from the       formed to this world, but trans-      Not so the life that is conformed
mind of the world. We, too, fell        formed.                               to this world.
to Adam and became depraved                        * * * * *                    Be not conformed to this
and corrupt, just like the world.                                             world: but be ye transformed by
This spiritual corruption of sin                                              the renewing of your mind! cl
extends also to our mind so that
we think, will, and feel the same
as the world. This can only lead
to world conformity.
   To live lives that are trans-        The Standard Bearer makes a
formed requires that our mind be
renewed. This means that new
qualities must be infused into our      thoughtful gift for members of your
mind so that it is radically
changed for the better. Our mind        family, friends, and neighbors. Give
must be made new so that our
thoughts, our desires, and our          a gift of the Standard Bearer.
feelings conform to the holy will
of God.
   Be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind.
   There is only one thing that
can renew our mind. It is not
education. It is not the wisdom of
men. It is not persuasion. It is not





364  / The Standard Bearer


                                              God The Creator
                                              Forthcoming Book On
/      Editoriak                                   `Children's Communion"

       God The Creator                           But not less dangerous and          dressed up apparently in the
         Whence is the world?                 more mild, but more dangerous          garments of the truth, that evolu-
         To this question there are,          because it is more deceitful and       tionism has obtained a foothold
       fundamentally, but two possible        cunning, more insidiously Anti-        in the church, has, in the minds
       kinds of answers: the answer of        Christian, is the philosophy of so-    of some, become a debatable
       faith and the answer of unbelief,      called theistic evolutionism in its    question, and has in various
       the answer of revelation and the       various forms. Crass evolutionism      forms found its way into inter-
       answer of human philosophy, the        itself can hardly be an option for     pretations of Sacred History.
       answer of the Creator Himself          a Christian. It is blatantly             We hold that one makes a
       and the answer of the mere             unbelieving and in flat contradic-     fundamental mistake if he at-
       creature standing in rebellion         tion of the Word of God. It is a       tempts to enter into a scientific
      against the Creator.                    brazen attempt to get God some-        debate with an evolutionist, to
         We need not be surprised,            how out of the beginning, on the       meet him on his own ground and
      therefore, that unbelief invents its    assumption that if God is out of       to employ human logic and in-
      own theories of the beginning of        the beginning, He is entirely out.     genuity to gainsay him. The issue
      the world, and that today the           But theistic evolutionism is some-     is undebatable; and it is below
      philosophy of evolutionism, the         what different. It claims to be        the true dignity of a Christian to
      philosophy of a beginning               theism - faith in God. And it          enter into such debate. The
      without God, is more widely held        claims, at the same time, to be        reason for this is that there is no
      and taught than ever before.            evolutionism, which is an              common ground between faith
      True, this theory may have              unbelieving denial of God the          and unbelief. The Christian
      undergone various refinements           Creator, the God of the Scrip-         stands on the basis of the Word
      through the years, and it may en-       tures. It claims, therefore, to        of God; the evolutionist (of what-
      joy an apparently more scientific       reconcile the irreconcilable. It       ever brand) stands on the basis of
      window-dressing than formerly.          claims to be a mixture of the im-      sinful human reason, not subject
      But it is a philosophy, not a           miscible, a synthesis of the an-       to that Word of God. And
      science. It is a false religion, not    tithetical. It claims to harmonize     because there is no common
      the product of laboratory in-           faith and unbelief, the truth of       ground, there can be no proper
      vestigation. And as a philosophy        God and the denial of the              debate.
      which concerns not only the             Creator-God, the Word of the             The Christian, proceeding from
      origin of things as such, but also      Creator and the lie of the             faith and standing on the basis of
      the destiny of things, and also         creature. No more than fire and        the Word of God as his sole
      the way that lies between that          water can be mixed, no more            authority, simply says: "I believe
      origin and that destiny, evolu-         than light and darkness can be         in God the Father, Almighty,
      tionism is a very current and           reconciled, no more can theism         Creator of heaven and earth."
      very dangerous and wholly false         (faith in God) and evolutionism
      .philosophy, a prize lie of the         (unbelief) be harmonized. But it is
      devil.                                  precisely in this pseudo-Christian,
                                              Antichristian form, according to
                                              which the lie of unbelief is

                                                                                                    The Standard  Bearer  / 365


His position is: "Give me God and         On the contrary, Holy Scrip-          liverance. And thus, in Psalm
His revelation, and I can explain      ture emphasizes throughout the           74:16, 17 the church appeals to
the world." And the church pro-        truth that God is the Creator, and       Him: "The day is thine, the night
claims, without debate: "In the        that, too, in such a way that this       also is thine: thou hast prepared
beginning God created the              confession forms an integral part        the light and the sun. Thou hast
heaven and the earth."                 of the faith of the redeemed             set all the borders of the earth:
                                       church. The church, inspired by          thou hast made summer and
  God is the Creator.                  the Spirit of Christ, the church as      winter." And in the Psalm which
  With the revelation of this          it is still in the midst of death and    celebrates the covenant mercies
truth the Scriptures open; and the     looking for full redemption, loves       of Jehovah we read: "The
very first verse of the Bible con-     to sing of God the Creator. Thus         heavens are thine, the earth also
tains the amazing statement: "In       in the 8th Psalm: "0 Lord our            is thine: as for the world and the
the beginning God created the          Lord, how excellent is thy name          fulness thereof, thou hast
heaven and the earth." By this         in all the earth! who hast set thy       founded them." (Ps. 89: 11) Psalm
declaration we are at once car-        glory above the heavens . . . .          95 declares, of the rock of our
ried far beyond all that eye can       When I consider thy heavens, the         salvation that He is a great God
see, or ear can hear, or that can      work of thy fingers, the.moon            and a great King above all gods:
arise in the heart of man. It          and the stars which thou hast or-        "In his hand are the deep places
transcends all merely human            dained; What is man, that thou           of the earth: the strength of the
comprehension. It is not a child       art mindful of Him? and the son          hills is his also. The sea is his,
of time, nor a finite human in-        of man, that thou visit&t him?"          and he made it: and his hands
tellect, but the eternal and in-       (Psalm 8: 1, 3, 4.) And in Psalm         formed the dry land. 0 come, let
finite God Who speaks here. And        24: "The earth is the Lords, and         us worship and bow down: let us
we are carried in this very first      the fulness thereof; the world,          kneel before the Lord our
verse of Scripture to the very         and they that dwell therein. For         Maker." (Ps. 95:3-6) And Psalm
edge of time, the beginning, and       he hath founded it upon the seas,        102:25 instructs us that of old He
there called to lift up our eyes to    and established it upon the              has "laid the foundation of the
the Eternal One, and say, "In the      floods." (vss. 1, 2) And in Psalm        earth: and the heavens are the
beginning God . . . ." And faith -     33 the righteous are called upon         work of thy hand." The poet in
and emphatically faith alone -         to rejoice in and to praise the          Psalm 121 declares: "My help
faith which is an evidence of          Lord. For "By the word of the            cometh from the Lord, which
things unseen and the substance        Lord were the heavens made;              made heaven and earth." And in
of things hoped for, responds:         and all the host of them by the          Psalm 124 God's people celebrate
"By faith we understand that the       breath of his mouth." And again:         their deliverance from their
worlds were framed by the word         "For he spake, and it was done;          enemies, concluding with the
of God, so that things which are       he commanded, and it stood               well-known words: "Our help is
seen were not made of things           fast." (Ps. 33:6, 9)                     in the name of the Lord, who
which do appear." (Heb. 11:3)            Especially in times of great           made heaven and earth." And
  This truth, that God is the          stress, when the cause of Gods           once more, in Psalm 146:5, 6 we
Creator, is no isolated and in-        Son and of His covenant seem to          read: "Happy is he that hath the
significant item of truth, discon-     suffer defeat in the world, the          God of Jacob for his help, whose
nected from the revelation of the      church appeals for deliverance to        hope is in the Lord his God:
gospel of our salvation and            the God that made the heavens            Which made heaven, and earth,
disconnected from the history of and the earth. For creation and                the sea, and all that therein is:
the realization of the wonder of       redemption are inseparably con-          which keepeth truth for ever."
grace. And it is not a matter of       nected. You cannot deny the one            In Isaiah 40, when Zion is
indifference whether or not the        and hold to the other. The               called to lift up her voice and to
church confesses that God is the       philosophy of evolution is not on-       say unto the cities of Judah,
Creator. It is not true that the       ly a denial of God the Creator; it       "Behold your God," the Lord
doctrine of creation is concerned      has no salvation. It is the              Himself calls the attention of
only with the origin of things as      philosophy of despair. But the           Zion to the greatness of His
such, and that for the rest it has     church looks unto God the                power as the Creator as follows:
no bearing upon the truth of our       Creator for redemption and de-           "Who hath measured the waters
salvation and no significance for                                               in the hollow of his hand, and
Sacred History.                                                                 meted out heaven with a span,
                                                                                and comprehended the dust of


366  / The Standard Bearer


the earth in a measure, and            place, that it is paramount for the    without form, and void; and
weighed the mountains in scales,       church of Christ in the midst of       darkness was upon the face of
and the hills in a balance? Who        the world - a matter of life and       the deep. And the Spirit of God
hath directed the Spirit of the        death for her - to maintain the        moved upon the face of the
Lord, or being his counsellor                     God is the Creator. To      waters."
hath taught him?" (vss. 12, 13)                       church must bear           The question as to how this
And again, in vs. 26: "Lift up                       must preach it. She      narrative of creation came into
your eyes on high, and behold                       it to her generations.    being can have but one answer.
who hath created these things,                        tolerate that her       That answer is: by revelation.
that bringeth out their host by                       sons and her            God Himself revealed that He
number: he calleth them all by                       e taught anything        created the world, and how He
names by the greatness of his                       01s and colleges and      created the world.
might, for that he is strong in                      And the church              It is a question of minor impor-
power; not one faileth." And                         not exchange this        tance how God revealed this.
again, in vs. 28: "Hast thou not                  of revelation for the       Scripture does not tell us the
known? hast thou not heard, that                  of the wisdom of man.       details concerning the mode of
the everlasting God, the Lord, the                ond place, it should be     this revelation. It is not impossi-
Creator of the ends of the earth,                 at according to Scrip-      ble, but, in fact, very likely that
fainteth not, neither is weary?                    exists a close relation    the origin of the universe was
there is no searching of his                      reation and redemp-         first revealed to Adam. It may be
understanding." The Holy One of                   the Creator is also the     regarded as a matter of course
Israel, Who called His servant                      her of our Lord Jesus     that God would reveal to the first
Cyrus to liberate His people, is                    nly as the eternal        man, who stood as friend of God
the same Who "made the earth,                      so as the incarnated       in Paradise, not only the manner
and created man upon it: I, even                    ord, Whom He hath         of his own creation but also the
my hands, have stretched out the                     be the Head over all     way in which the entire universe
heavens, and all their host have I                 e world to come.           came into existence. For it is
commanded." (Isaiah 45: 12)            What is more, it is as the Father      especially in the mighty act of
  He is the God Who "quicken-          of our Lord Jesus Christ (and our      creation, first of all, that God
eth the dead, and calleth those        Father for His sake) that He is        revealed Himself as God. Nor is it
things which be not as though          the Creator of the heavens and         at all impossible, but, again, very
they were." (Rom. 4: 17) He is the     the earth. For He, the Christ, in      likely that this revelation of the
God Who created all things by          Whom we have redemption                creation-narrative was preserved
and unto Jesus Christ, the first-      through His blood, even the for-       in the line of the generations of
born of every creature and the         giveness of sins, is the image of      God's covenant in the old dispen-
first begotten of the dead." (Col.     the invisible God, the firstborn of    sation even before the Flood, and
1:15) And He is the Father of our      every creature, and the first be-      that after the Flood it was trans-
Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom the         gotten of the dead. By Him and         mitted in the line of those same
whole family in heaven and earth       for Him were all things created,       covenant generations to the time
is named. (Eph. 3: 14, 15) And         that are in heaven and that are        of Moses. Then Moses, under the
when the four and twenty elders        on earth, visible and invisible.       influence of infallible inspiration,
in the vision of Revelation 4 fall     And He is before all things, and       put the narrative into writing. All
down and worship Him that sit-         by Him all things consist. (Col.       this, however, is of relatively
teth upon the throne, this is their    1:14-17). The Creator is also the      minor importance in this connec-
adoration: "Thou art worthy, 0         Redeemer; and He made all              tion.
Lord, to receive glory and honor       things with a view to redemp-            What is of importance to
and power: for thou hast created       tion. Of God, and through God,         remember is, first of all, that
all things, and for thy pleasure       and to God are all things. To Him      creation can only be an act of
they are and were created."            be the glory forever!                  God. God only is able to create.
  Concluding this aspect of our                  * * * * *                    And therefore the act of creation
discussion, therefore, we may                                                 is a deep mystery - something
state that it is evident from the        Scripture begins the narrative       that can be known by revelation.
emphasis which the Scriptures          of the coming into existence of
place upon this truth, in the first    our universe with the statement
                                       of Genesis 1: 1, 2: "In the begin-
                                       ning God created the heaven and
                                       the earth. And the earth was

                                                                                              The Standard Bearer  / 367


Only God Himself can shed any            If follows, therefore, that we         communion; and it comes down
light on the matter of creation        take and must take the narrative         on the side of the traditional
and can reveal to us how He            of creation in the book of Genesis       Reformed position, i.e., no
made the world. Secondly, this         in the literal sense of the word.        children's communion.
account or revelation Moses,           When we read of the beginning,             The book deals with this sub-
under the influence of infallible      we understand it to mean the             ject both from the confessional
inspiration, put into writing. God     very commencement of time and            and the Scriptural point of view.
knew and spake with His friend         the beginning of all things. When        It is a book designed both for the
Moses face to face (Deut. 34:lO).      we read of days, it can only refer       man in the pew, who is without
That is sufficient for faith. Thus,    to days as we know them. And             formal theological education, and
we are assured that what we            when we read that God created,           for the more advanced student of
have in the account of Genesis 1       we understand that all things            theology.
is not one of the many                 came into existence by His                 The reader must not expect
cosmogonies and mythological           almighty Word. This does not             easy reading. Especially when
accounts that were in existence        mean that we can fathom the              Dr. Coppes makes his argument
at the time when Moses wrote,          divine mystery of creation. It           against simplistically identifying
and which, according to higher         always remains a unique work of          the Passover and the Lord's Sup-
criticism, Moses must have             God Who is really GOD. But it            per, the going becomes a bit
known and used. Nor is Genesis 1       does mean that God makes                 heavy. So if you are willing to
the product of human imagina-          known to us this mystery on our          put on your thinking-cap, you
tion. But it is the account of what    level, so that we can understand         can benefit from this book. While
actually took place in the crea-       a little of the marvelous work of        I am in agreement with the main
tion of the universe.                  God. And unless the creation-            thesis of the book, there are
   Thus, in connection with this       narrative is understood literally,       points at which I am in disagree-
account, the Spirit witnesses in       we can only come to the conclu-          ment (e.g. on the covenant).
our hearts: "In the beginning          sion that we have no account of            If you are interested in this
God . . . ." Whatever trouble the      creation whatsoever in any real          subject, get the book and read it.
fool unbeliever may have with the      sense. 0                          HCH    It is being privately published by
problem of origins, and whatever                                                the author; and he is offering it
difficulty he may have in hunting      Forthcoming Book On                      at a pre-publication price of
for "missing links," the people of     "Children's Communion"                   $10.00 plus postage, in order to
God have no trouble. God reveals         Our readers will recall that in        finance publication. Write to: Dr.
to us how He made the world.           the recent past there was a flurry       Leonard J. Coppes, 9161 Vine St.,
Apart from that revelation and         of questions about the subject of        Thorton, CO 80229. 0              HCH
apart from faith, the problem of       paedo-communion. Besides, this
origins is indeed a problem - an       has become an issue in more
insoluble problem. Science can         than one Reformed denomination
investigate the created world, the     recently.                                The Standard
things that are made; it cannot          Dr. Leonard J. Coppes, an Or-
investigate the creation of that       thodox Presbyterian Minister
world. The origin and formation                                                 Bearer makes a
                                       (some of you may know him
of the world are strictly a matter     through his book, Ten Points Of
of revelation.                         Calvinism) is in the process of          thoughtful gift
                                       publishing a book on this subject.
                                       He has sent me the page proofs           for the sick &
                                       of his book, along with a request
                                       to review and to announce it. The        shut-in.
                                       title of this forthcoming book is
                                       Daddy, May I Take Communion?
                                         The title may be somewhat              Give a gift of
                                       misleading. The book is hardly
                                       an answer to a child's question. It      the Standard
                                       is rather a thorough-going treat-
                                       ment of the question of children's       Bearer.

368 I The Standard Bearer


                                          Thoughts From The Pew
Correspondence
and Reply                                 on `Reverend'

Correspondence                               What is needed, though, is not             defend the use of ministerial
   1. I think Mr. Tuyl touches on         some cosmetic exercise, but a                 titles. To my mind it is indefensi-
an aspect of a much broader               fundamental return to faithful                ble and I believe Mr. Tuyl's
problem so prevalent in our day           preaching and pastoring.                      `defense' bears that out.
and age, namely lack of respect              In reading your item I was                    3. We must always turn to
for and familiarity with those in a       reminded of an editorial written              Scripture as our authoritative
position of authority. Children ad-       by our friend Tony Horne in his               guide on matters of church polity
dress parents by their Christian          magazine `The Presbyterian'.                  and practice, not to linguistics
names, broadcasters refer to              Writing on the necessity of or-               and grammatical purity. It is
parliamentarians and other high-          dination, he says:                            noticeable that Mr. Tuyl makes
ranking individuals without the           "These are days when any `Tom, Dick or        no reference to Scripture, or
courtesy of a `Mr.' or `Mrs.`, and        Harry' can conduct services, preach the       even to his church's subordinate
this trend of the world is becom-         Word and administer the sacraments.           standards, to support his thesis.
ing increasingly common-place in          The idea of a man being set apart for the
                                          sacred office has virtually disappeared       That is hardly surprising, since he
the Church.                               from our thinking. The rush to topple the     cannot do so. In the Word of God
   Much of the blame for this,            clergyman from his nineteenth century         we find neither precept nor ex-
however, must be laid at the              pedestal has resulted in a plethora of        ample to warrant the use of
door of ministers who themselves          trendy parsons all wishing to be known        ministerial titles. Man-made titles
                                          as `Bill Smith' or `Dave Brown' rather
have a low view of their calling          than the Reverend William Smith and the       have their place in a court of
and encourage familiarity. It is a        Reverend David Brown. In the mad              law, an embassy or Parliament,
sad reflection of the depths to           scramble to break down all barriers be-       but they have no place in the
which the office and work of the          tween the clergy and the laity clerical       Church of Jesus Christ.
ministry has sunk, that in order          dress has been thrown out of the window         I) The apostles did not use titles nor
                                          and open-necked shirts and sports jackets
to retain some modicum of                                                               bear them, neither did their fellow-
                                          are the order of the day. The sad thing is
respect, ministers have resorted                                                        workers. (Cf Romans 16; I Cor.
                                          that this spirit has infected evangelical
to pleading for a retention of                                                          16:10-24; 2 Cor. 12:18; Col. 4; 1 Thess.
                                          and reformed churches no less than            lrl, 3:2; 2 Tim. 4:1I-12; etc.)
their titles, as if these are the last    others." (Issue 3; October 1984)                ii) Titles are against the spirit of our
vestige of their once honourable             Both writers would agree, as I             Lord's teaching in Matthew 23:8-12. "`But
status.                                   do, that those of us who occupy               be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your
                                          the pew should acknowledge                    Master, even Christ; and all ye are
                                          "with reverence and respect the               brethren. And call no man your father
                                          Almighty, in whose name the                   upon earth: for one is your Father, which
                                                                                        is in heaven. Neither be ye called
                                          minister speaks from Sunday to                masters: for one is your Master, even
                                          Sunday." I do not agree,                      Christ. But he that is greatest among you
                                          however, that the use of titles is            shall be your servant. And whosoever
                                          the right way to go about it.                 shall exalt himself shall be abased; and
                                          Whether `Bill Smith' or `Reverend             be that shall humble himself shall be ex-
                                                                                        alted. "
                                          William Smith', both are wrong.
                                             2. I must say I was surprised
                                          that anyone should attempt to

                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer  / 369


  A true servant of Jesus Christ can say             7. I suggest it would be a most           ly, for me, the matter of "titles"
with the apostle Paul, "`I was made a            God-honouring step on the way                 is .not of such great moment. It is
minister, according to the gift of the           of reformation in the Church to               true that the way one addresses
grace of God given unto me by the effec-                                                       another indicates also his
tual working of his power. Unto me, who          abandon ministerial titles and
am less than the least of all saints, is this    keep to plain Mr. William Smith               spiritual attitudes and thoughts.
grace given . , . " (Eph. 3:7-8), and in the     and Mr. David Brown. No                       Yet, contrary to what you in-
same breath say, "I magnify mine office."        minister would have any reason                dicate, I believe that addresses
(Rom. 11:13)                                     to feel peeved by such a move.                are to a large measure a matter
  iii) The psalmist accords reverence to                                                       not only of grammar, but also
the name of Jehovah, "holy and reverend          Rather he should feel relieved at
is his name." (Psalm 111:9) "The whole           having cast off from his name                 reflect local attitudes, practices,
name or character of God is worthy of            such an unscriptural burden.                  and traditions. Some of our
profoundest awe, for it is perfect and           Neither should the flock feel they            people would be greatly offended
complete, whole or holy. It ought not to         are being disrespectful to their              if the term "Reverend" were
be spoken without solemn thought, and
never heard without profound homage.             pastor, for there is more to                  dropped with respect to our
His name is to be trembled at, it is some-       respect and reverence than use                ministers - but only because this
thing terrible; even those who know Him          of titles - it stems from a heart             is regarded as a term to indicate
best rejoice with trembling before Him.          which knows the saving power of               the high position of the office
How good men can endure to be called             the grace of God and which loves              (not of the man). Others, as your-
"reverend" we know not. " (C. H,                                                               self, may truly view the term
Spurgeon)                                        to be taught and shepherded by a
   4. Since we would agree that                  faithful labourer in the Word of              "reverend' as that which can on-
all church officers, namely                      God. Thus it is that the `Form of             ly apply to God. Therefore, to
minister, elders and deacons, are                Ordination of the Ministers of                have. it applied to a man would
of equal rank, what ground is                    God's Word' closes with the                   understandably offend your con-
there for giving the minister a                  prayer,                                       science. We have formerly used
special title? Is the young, newly-                 "Give Thy grace also to this people        other titles with which you might
ordained minister to be revered                  and Church, that they may becomingly          even be unfamiliar. Our Dutch
                                                 deport themselves toward this their
more than a Godly elder or                                                                     forefathers formerly addressed
                                                 minister; that they may acknowledge him
deacon of many years standing?                                                                 the minister as "Dominie". That
                                                 to be sent of Thee; that they may receive
Titles smack of Romish hierar-                   his doctrine with all reverence, and sub      was the Dutch, taken from the
chy. True, ministers hold authori-               mit themselves to his exhortations. To the    Latin word which means "Lord".
ty, but they do not hold it in                   end that they may, by his word, believing     Some of our older people still use
                                                 in Christ, be made partakers of eternal
their own name, but in the Name                                                                that term when addressing
                                                 life. "
of the great Head of the Church                                                                myself - though often these do
                                                     8. What do you think, Mr. Van
whom they represent.                                                                           apologize for using that old ter-
                                                 Baren?
   5. It is not altogether surpris-                                                            minology. Others have asked me,
                                                                Mr. John Hooper
ing that many who hold the of-                                                                 "By what title would you want us
                                                                Saltash,  Cornwall
fice of minister cling to their                                    England                     to address you?" My usual
titles and clerical garb since these                                                           response has been that as long as
are the only things which                                                                      it is nothing derogatory, I really
                                                 Reply
distinguish them from the world.                                                               don't care what term they use.
                                                 Dear Saint John (Eph. l:l),
Strip them of their externals and                                                                So, without having a great feel-
                                                     We do greatly rejoice in
you're left with empty vessels.                                                                ing for the title "Reverend", I do
                                                 receiving your letters - even if
How much better to be marked                                                                   have some comments on what
                                                 you might send two to my one.
out by a faithful ministry and a                                                               you have written. First, I am sur-
                                                 We do especially appreciate your
Godly life.                                                                                    prised at your inconsistency. On
                                                 serious and careful reflection on
   6. In this country too the use                                                              what Scriptural basis do you ap-
                                                 questions concerning which we
of the word `pastor' as a title has                                                            prove of man-made titles in
                                                 might differ, but also on such
become common-place. No doubt                                                                  courts of law, an embassy or
                                                 upon which we agree. I do
there is much truth in what Mr.                                                                Parliament? Are not these titles
                                                 hesitate a bit to respond to your
Tuyl says about this, but whether                                                              also that which applies strictly to
                                                 paper about the "Reverends".
the title is `Reverend', `Right                                                                God alone? Is He not the Judge
                                                 First, I would agree with a great
Reverend, `Very Reverend', `Ho-                                                                of heaven and earth? Is He not
                                                 deal of that which you write. I
ly Father' or `Pastor', the princi-                                                            the only and true Magistrate? Is
                                                 have no doubt but that you
ple is the same: Scripture rejects                                                             not His all the honor? How then
                                                 single out what is the great trou-
them.                                                                                          can such be applied to worldly
                                                 ble in connection with the
                                                 preaching of the gospel. Second-

 370  / The Standard Bearer


men who happen to serve in                 It is true also in our midst, that    ter. That is probably more ac-
special positions? How can one          elders and deacons are not usual-        curate than the man-made title of
address the queen as "Majesty"          ly given a title other than "Mr."        "Mr." It shows what we are in
(or whatever similar terms you          It is not uncommon, however, to          Jesus Christ. But "saint" is one
use), when God alone is the Ma-         use the title of "elder" or              who is "holy" and separate.
jestic One? Is it not more inap-        "deacon" preceding their names           Scripture makes very plain that
propriate to address a worldly          to indicate their office and our         God is Holy. It is His Name. Still,
man in a high office with what          respect of that.                         Paul can address people of God
must be a form of divine title, or         Though the term "reverend' is         also as "saints". Does -it indicate
an attribute of the Almighty, than      not applied as title to anyone in        greater honor to be called
it would be thus to address one         Scripture, consider several other        "Reverend', or "Saint"? I would
in the holy office of the ministry?     "titles" or terms of respect and         almost claim the latter. But even
Granted, these are the terms            honor that Scripture does use.           let the honor for such a label be
which the world uses. But does          Paul calls himself a "minister of        ascribed alone to God Who has
not the Christian consistently          Jesus Christ" ("Minister Paul" if        delivered us and separated us un-
have to reject such titles when he      you will), Rom. 15: 16; or "an           to Himself through Jesus Christ
addresses these earthly                 apostle" II Cor. 1: 1. Those who         and by His Spirit.
magistrates - and on the same           serve in office are definitely             Just a few remarks about Mat-
basis you use to reject the title:      called "pastors" (Eph. 4:l; Jer.         thew 23%12. Do you not unfairly
"Reverend'? My dictionary               2:8;  3:15;  10:21;  12:lO; etc.). If    interpret this passage in connec-
defines this as a "title of respect"    such are labelled by Gods Word           tion with your contentions? What
which is applied sometimes not          as "pastors", what would be im-          did you call your male parent?
only to ministers of the Word,          proper in using that with their          Father? Was that a violation of
but also to other officials of          names? And though it is true that        Christ's Word? (And the term
government.                             the term "reverend" is found on-         "Father" was not obviously used
  But you also consistently use         ly once in Scripture (Ps. 111:9 -        in Christ's day in connection with
the title "Mr." and also appear to      with emphasis on "godly fear"),          the Roman Catholic priest.) Does
insist upon this as an indication       the form of "reverence" is found         not Paul address Christians as
of respect. You (with myself) do        more often in Scripture. In the          "masters" (Eph. 6:9)? Was he
not want the minister addressed         latter instance, this is applied not     violating Christ's instruction? Did
just by his first name. Still: on       only to God, but also to man. (Cf.       not Christ Himself speak of
what Scriptural basis do you rest       II Sam. 9:6; I Kings 1:3; etc.) Or       Abraham as "Father Abraham"
your claim that "Mr." ought to be       there is Heb. 12:9: "Furthermore         (Luke 16:24)? Did Christ violate
used? Where is anyone in Scrip-         we have had fathers of our flesh         His own instruction? The point
ture called, "Mr. So-and-so"? Is it     which corrected us, and we gave          obviously (to me) is not that one
not true that the first name (prob-     them reverence: shall we not             may not use these "titles" as ad-
ably only name) is always used          much rather be in subjection un-         dress to creatures, but rather,
in.Scripture? How does Paul iden-       to the Father of spirits, and live?"     what Christ emphasizes, "He that
tify himself? Is he "Mr. Paul,          So: reverence is not only ex-            is greatest among you shall be
called as an apostle of Jesus           clusively directed to God; there         your servant." Any action, any
Christ?" And does he not address        can be a proper "reverence" of           address, which denies that impor-
others simply by (first) name?          men (there is also an improper           tant Scriptural principle, must be
Timothy was also a minister of          reverence given to men when              condemned. It is not the address
the gospel. Did Paul address him        such are esteemed to be equal to         itself which is condemned, but
as Mr. Timothy? If one is to be         God or are honored as God). If all       the purpose of the address.
governed by Scriptural usage and        this is true, is it improper and           Well, I have spent more space
address, then the modern day            wrong to use th.e word as a title        than I intended on a matter
(and to us, offensive) usage of         to indicate respect to a high call-      which to me is not all that sig-
first names for ministers,              ing? And: does not Scripture             nificant. What do you think, saint
teachers, or parents would be far       even call the minister an "angel"        John?
more accurate. I don't advocate         (Rev. 2:1, etc.)?                                 Yours in His blessed Name,
this - I only point out where             One notes, too, how often the                   The angel of the church in
your argument must lead, you.           Apostle (may I use that title for                   Hudsonville Cl
                                        him?) Paul calls the church
                                        "saints" (Eph. 1:l). Hence, my ad-
                                        dress to you at the top of the let-


                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer  / 371


  The Day                                 The First Shadow Of
 of Shadows                               Christ% Cross
John A.  Heys



   As he came forth from the                However, before he sinned,           of that mercy and grace. They
hand of God, Adam could, the              Adam could not praise God for          know it only as Gods work upon
day he was created, praise God            His mercy. For as yet he knew          us, not upon themselves.
for His almighty power, inscru-           no misery and certainly no               That Adam and Eve could
table wisdom, undeniable                  punishment of any kind. There-         praise God for His grace before
sovereignty, boundless love and           fore he could not know God's           they fell and were saved does not
grace. All Adam was and had               pity and compassion. And though        mean that today the unbelievers
was God's gift to him. He had             he could, and undoubtedly did,         can praise God for a common
earned nothing; for he did not            praise God for His grace by            grace that some say falls upon all
even exist before God called him          thanking Him for all that he had       men. It is true that God gives
into being. God owed him                  received from God, he did not          rain and sunshine, life and
nothing, but he owed God ever-            yet know His saving grace that         health, gold and silver, and ex-
lasting praise for everything that        He bestows on those whom He            periences that their flesh enjoys.
he was and had. With us, before           eternally chose in Christ, and for     But this is not in His grace, as it
he fell into sin, he could sing as        whom He sent Christ to blot out        was' to Adam and Eve before
we do from Psalter number 383,            their sin, and earn for them a         they fell. God clearly told Adam
which is based on Psalm 139:              more blessed life than Adam and        and Eve that the day they ate of
      All that I am I owe to Thee,        Eve knew before they fell into         the forbidden fruit they would
      Thy wisdom, Lord, has               sin. This grace God revealed after     die. Punishment, suffering and
         fashioned me;                    they fell into sin. Then He as-        pain, misery and woe were going
      I give my Maker thankful            sured Adam and Eve that He             to be their lot. God's wrath and
         praise,                          would give them a complete vic-        hatred were going to fall upon
      Whose wondrous works my             tory in Christ, Whom He then           the human race. Now what God
         soul amaze.                      called The Seed of The Woman,          gives to those not chosen in
                                          Genesis 3:15.                          Christ and redeemed by His
                                            It was for this richer life and      blood is not given in grace but in
                                          richer praise from man's lips and      His providence. He provides
                                          heart that God in His eternal, un-     these earthly things which man's
                                          changeable and sovereign               flesh enjoys. The ungodly do not
                                          counsel decreed man's fall and         (even though they still must) sing:
                                          Christ's coming to .bring us salva-    "All that I am, I owe to Thee,
                                          tion through His cross and Spirit.     Thy wisdom, Lord, has fashioned
                                          So that now we have a much             me." But they cannot and do not
                                          richer praise unto God than the        continue and sing: "I give my
                                          highest holy angels, who never         Maker thankful praise, Whose
                                          fell into sin. These angels can        wondrous works my soul amaze."
                                          and do praise God for His mercy          Instead the unbeliever only
                                          and grace to His elect children;       adds to his sins in the measure
                                          but they cannot do this because        that God in His providence gives
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in    of their own personal enjoyment        him these earthly gifts. The awe-
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

372  / The Standard Bearer


some truth which we ought not            then not only was it a temporary       ready, and set forth his hand to
to overlook is that the unbeliever       grace of an eternal God Who            kill the God that created him
- if the mere giving of an object        never changes; but it would be         when He came in our flesh! And
one's flesh enjoys is a gracious         far more gracious to keep from         more devilishness is coming. For,
act - would be dealt with much           them that which they are going         as we read in II Thessalonians
more graciously by keeping these         to use sinfully and thereby reap       2:4, man will exalt himself above
things from him, so that he does         for themselves greater punish-         all that is called God, or that is
not add to his sins and earn a           ment.                                  worshipped; so that he as God sit-
greater misery and punishment in           At this time, however, we will       teth in the temple of God, shew-
the lack of fire! Do not forget          consider the work of Satan and         ing himself that he is God.
that the more sins the world.            of fallen man as a shadow of the         Although Satan's tempting of
commits, the greater its punish-         greater,.evil which came after         man was a shadow of the cross
ment is going to be. And the             that temptation of Adam. Satan's       of Christ that came about 4,000
more earthly goods man gets, the         tempting of Adam and Eve was a         years later, he at that time had
more rain and sunshine, life and         shadow of what he did to Christ        no conscious intention of crucify-
health his flesh enjoys, the more        when Satan got fallen men to           ing the Son of God in our flesh.
he sins by not using these in the        nail Him to His cross. Likewise it     He did not know that God would
fear of God's name and in walk-          is a shadow of what he will do         come in our flesh. He did not
ing in His law. And surely the           when the climax of sin is here in      know Gods counsel. He did not
child of the world that dies the         the days of the antichrist. When       know that his evil intent and act
day it is born, and does not enjoy       flying in that tremendously huge       of bringing man into sin was in
that rain and sunshine and earth-        B747, that carries more than 300       that counsel. And for a short
ly goods, is not going to be put         passengers, and a tremendous           while he thought that he had the
as deeply into hell as those who         amount of luggage, you see from        victory over God Who had
have sinned for fourscore years          a certain altitude its shadow          created man holy and in His own
with an abundance of God's               which may be only a few feet in        image. That very day, however,
goods that they misused, rather          length. The closer that jet gets to    God came and told him that his
than received in the conscious-          the ground, however, the larger        head was going to be crushed
ness that these are God's, and           that shadow becomes. Similarly         and that God was going to
rather than serving Him             -    the closer we come to the day of       restore love toward Himself in
therewith.                               the antichrist the bigger the          man, so that there would be en-
  Then too, if health, posses-           shadow of his coming will be           mity between the elect and the
sions, pleasures for the flesh, and      seen. That shadow of the cross         devil and his seed. His success in
the like are gifts of a common           and of the antichrist did not look     getting Adam to fall was not a
grace, we must, to be consistent,        to be so big when Satan tempted        shadow of a victory that he
say that Cod's grace rests upon          Adam; but it surely was a              ultimately would seem to get
the devil and fallen angels who          shadow of the cross and of the         through the coming antichrist.
are not yet in hell. Satan has           antichrist. In II Thessalonians 2:3    No, as we have already seen and
been given a long life and never         Paul calls the antichrist the man      considered, God was on the way,
had to submit to surgery, or had         of sin. In a sense we can say that     and using this godless devil, to
a headache. If we call it common         Adam was the babe of sin. Later        bring forth the new creation
grace when God provides the              on the children of sin dwelt on        wherein man is like unto the Son
things our flesh likes to men in         this earth. And as the world to-       of God in our flesh, and able to
common, even though they must            day is developing in sin the man       praise and glorify God much
all appear before the judgment           of sin is a short time ahead of us.    more highly and enthusiastically
seat of Christ, and have it re-          The so-called common grace is          than Adam and Eve could the
vealed how they used these gifts,        not slowing down his coming or         day that they were created.
we must call it God's grace also         preventing it. Adam's sin, as we         It is true that Satan knew
when we speak of what He pro-            hope to point out next time,           many things about God and
vided the devil with these 6,000         brought forth the cross. Man was       about His Christ. He has listened
years. If it were a common grace,        not restrained from developing in      very carefully to what God said
when God provides those for              sin by a common grace; but in          to His people directly and
whom Christ did not die with             God's appointed time he was            through the prophets. He knows
what they enjoyed in this life, but                                             God's Word better than we do;
also enjoyed for their flesh in-                                                and he is in many ways trying to
stead of God's glory and service,


                                                                                                The  Standa'rd  Bearer  /  373


corrupt that Word by translations             with all his strength and will; and     tle shoot, it produces a little
as well as by corrupt preaching.              he still foolishly thinks that he       shadow. As the tree grows its
His lie to Eve was a shadow of                can ruin the church of Christ and       shadow becomes bigger and big-
the lie as it is universally taught           keep the kingdom of heaven              ger. And we do today see a far
and believed in the various                   from coming. His tempting of            greater shadow than that caused
idolatries and false religions to-            man was a shadow of a11 the             by man doing that simple act of
day. And he is THE unbeliever                 deviltry he is still performing to      taking a forbidden piece of fruit
who in his unbelief thinks that               establish the kingdom of the an-        and eating it in rebellion against
the Seed of the Woman is not go-              tichrist, which is a kingdom            God. And we ought not close our
ing to crush his head, but that he            against Christ. Hating God, he          eyes or look the other way.
can drag man even more deeply                 can do nothing but oppose Christ        When today we see the sins
into hatred against God and                   and His holy kingdom.                   which children commit, and
destroy the whole church of                   Remember that the psalmist says         when we see how the world en-
Christ when he produces that                  that the fool says in his heart         joys watching sins committed on
man of sin.                                   that there is no God, Psalm 14: 1.      their TV programs and in
   As soon as he learned that                 And Satan is the fool of all fools.     theatres, not simply fornication
Mary was going to bring forth                 He is the fool who succeeded in         and murder, but also dishonoring
the Savior, he certainly wanted               making other angels fools, and          those in authority over us, thefts
to cause a miscarriage to take                then brought man, who was               in abundance, and coveteousness,
place, but he could not. He tried             made in God's image, to become          we ought to see this shadow of
to have Herod kill the Christ                 a fool. And all the folly in this       the coming man of sin, but also
Child but failed. He tempted                  world, a11 the denying of God and       of God's visitation, when the seed
Jesus in the wilderness, still                opposing of His holy will comes         of the serpent is cast into ever-
thinking that he could get the                out of that first attack of Satan       lasting punishment. Let the wide-
victory. And we can believe that              upon righteous and holy Adam            spread AIDS remind us of the
he laughed when he succeeded                  and Eve. He succeeded in getting        destruction of Sodom and Gomor-
in getting Judas Iscariot, the                them to say by their actions that       rah. Let these shadows warn us
unbelieving Jews, and Pilate to               God cannot tell them what to do,        of that which casts them into
nail Jesus to His cross. He is a              and that He must take a back            hell. For God's dealing with the
creature limited by time and                  seat and serve them, rather than        ungodly also casts the shadow of
space and completely dependent                that they look up to Him and            the coming judgment day. And
upon God, even though he wants                serve Him.                              we had better remember that
us to believe that there is no                  Seeing that shadow there in           and strive with all our body and
God, and has gotten a goodly                  the garden of Eden we can by            soul to let Christ's walk of life be
portion of the human race to be               God's grace see some dark and           a shadow of what we will by
evolutionists and unbelievers.                evil days ahead. As soon as a           God's grace do in the new
Hating God, he fights against Him             seed sprouts and sends forth a Iit-     Jerusalem. 0





 Bible Study                                  J OShua - Receiving The
 Guide
 jason L.                                     Promised Land (2)
               Kortering



                                                Since we expressed agreement          Prophets, we at the same time re-
                                              with the idea that Joshua begins        ject the idea that it belongs to
 Jason L. Kortering is pastor of the Prot-    a new section in the Hebrew Bi-         the Pentateuch as part of that
 estant Reformed Church of Grandville,        ble which is entitled 
Michigan.                                                               The Former    history. In the Pentateuch, God

374 I The Standard Bearer


instructed Israel, both by law and     sanctuary of the Lord," Joshua          1 harlot Rahab concludes: "And
through the historical events,         24:26. Another indication that a         Joshua saved Rahab the harlot
concerning His covenant promise        book was kept for reference is in        alive, and her father's household,
to be their God. The focal point       chapter 189: "And the men went           and all that she had; and she
of this revelation was the land of     and passed through the land, and         dwelleth in Israel, even unto this
Canaan. Now in the Book of             described it by cities into seven        day," (6:25). We have a similar
Joshua we have the details given       parts in a book, and came again          reference (in 15:63) to the
to us how God fulfilled this prom-     to Joshua to the host at Shiloh."        Jebusites dwelling with Judah at
ise and how they actually took         This refers to the survey that was       Jerusalem, and they were not ex-
residence in the promised land.        made of the land of Canaan prior         pelled until the 7th or 8th year of
AUTHOR AND DATE                        to its being divided into tribes.        David's reign. In Joshua 18:16,
  The book is entitled Joshua,            2. The contents of the book in-       28, Jerusalem is not considered
and is derived from the different      dicate that large parts were writ-       the capital of Israel (it is called
Hebrew forms of that name,             ten by an eye-witness to the             by the old name, Jebus). Other
Deut. 3:21, Joshua l:l, Deut.          events. Examples of this are the         Canaanite cities are mentioned
32:44, Nehemiah 817. The Sep-          following: the events connected          by their archaic names, e.g.
tuagint uses Joshua the son of         with the entrance into the land,         Baalah, later Kirjath-jearim (15:9),
Nun, and the Latin Vulgate             fear of the Canaanites, circumci-        Kirjath-sannah, later Debir
designates it as the Book of           sion at Gilgal (chapter 5), sending      (15:49), Kirjath-arba, later Hebron
Joshua. The meaning of the             out of the spies (chapter 2), cross-     (15:9). The Gibeonites were still
name Joshua is simply Jehovah          ing the Jordan (chapter 3), cap-         "hewers of wood and drawers of
saves, or Jehovah is salvation. It     ture of Jericho and Ai (chapters         water" around the tabernacle,
is then the Hebrew form of the         6-8), league with the Gibeonites         while in the days of Saul they
Greek name, Jesus.                     (chapter 9), victory at Gibeon           suffered massacre and this
  The title does not, however,         (chapter lo), and so on. Because         changed, II Sam. 21:1-9.
verify authorship. There is much       these are described in such                Besides this, there are also in-
discussion as to who actually          detail, ancient and modern               dications that the book goes
wrote this book. This applies not      Jewish authorities ascribed the          beyond the immediate history of
only to the liberal higher critics,    book to Joshua himself.                  Joshua's lifetime. We have the
but also to those who carry on           The issue of authorship is not         account of his death (24:29, 30).
the more traditional, conser-          critical. Our acceptance of the          Reference is made to the people
vative research into these mat-        divine inspiration of the Bible          serving Jehovah all the days of
ters. M.F. Unger, in his work, In-     precludes the necessity of know-         the elders that outlived Joshua
troductory Guide to the Old            ing the author. We do not have           (24:31). The book includes a few
Testament,  expresses best the         to know the author in order to           events that apparently occurred
considerations that enter here.        accept this writing as part of the       after the death of Joshua, but
We will summarize them as              infallible Bible. Investigative          early in the period of the Judges,
follows:                               labors to seek to determine the          such as Caleb's conquest of
  1. Nowhere does the book             author are interesting and infor-        Hebron, Othniel's capture of
itself say that Joshua wrote it. It    mative, but not crucial. We simp-        Kirjath-sepher (15:-l 3-l 7 and
is not that simple. There is a clue    ly cannot determine accurately           Judges  1:9-13), the transmigration
within the book that part of the       whether Joshua wrote the book            of the Danites to the north (19:47
book may have been composed            or not.                                  and Judges 18:27-29). Reference
by Joshua. This is in connection         Another consideration enters           to the book of Jasher (10:13) does
with the great event at Shechem        into the picture, and that is the        not indicate that it was written
where Joshua challenged Israel         time factor. Can we gain any             during David's time (see II Sam.
to "choose this day whom ye will       ideas as to when the book might          1:18), since we do not know
serve . . . but as for me and my       have been written? Here, too,            enough about this book to limit it
house, we will serve the Lord,"        modern critics place its writing         to any specific period.
(24:15). We then read, "And            piece-meal, culminating at a very          We conclude from this that the
Joshua wrote these words in the        late date, after the exile in            book was in all likelihood written
book of the law of God, and took       Babylon. However, careful ex-            in part by Joshua and by
a great stone, and set it up there     amination of the book itself             another, begun during the life of
under an oak, that was by the          would lead one to conclude that          Joshua about 1300 B.C. and ex-
                                       it was written much earlier. The         tending to the period of the
                                       account of the salvation of the          Judges.

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THE MESSAGE                                     Though this covers a period of           Thus it is for us, who as
   The title of this book is named            history from the entrance into          pilgrims and strangers, set our
after the main character referred             the land of Canaan until the            hearts upon the heavenly Ca-
to throughout, viz. Joshua, the               death of Joshua, we do well to          naan. We too shall prevail over
son of Nun. He accompanied                    remind ourselves that this is not       all our mortal enemies, the devil,
Moses throughout the forty years              only a record of historical events.     this world, even our own flesh,
of the wilderness sojourn. He was             It is a record of sacred events.        by the wonder of the blood and
with Moses in the Holy Mount                  This is revelational history. The       Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Ex. 24:13), was one of the                   events themselves contain God's         Our inheritance in the new
twelve spies sent to Canaan                   message to His people. Even as          heavens and earth will be given
(Num. 13:8, 16), succeeded Moses              God delivered His people out of         to us as a gift of free grace alone.
at the border of Canaan (Deut.                the land of Egypt (the negative         By faith we press on toward that
34:9), spent about six years sub-             side of salvation - we are taken        day, while we yet redeem the
duing the land, and the rest of               out of sin and death through the        time (for the days are evil) and
his life governing the people who             blood of Jesus Christ), so now we       take with us the entire creation,
had settled in the promised land.             see that He takes them safely to        to yield ourselves servants unto
He died at 110 years of age and               Canaan and gives them rest (the         righteousness in the everlasting
was buried at Timnath-serah, in               positive side of salvation - con-       k i n g d o m .
Ephraim (Joshua 24:29-33).                    formity with the law of God and         A BRIEF OUTLINE
   This is not to say that this               spiritual peace with God for time          The book of Joshua falls quite
book extols human effort in the               and eternity).'                         naturally into three main parts.
history of Israel. R.K. Harrison                We must see a parallel here           The first describes the entrance
makes this point in his book, In-             between the earthly Canaan and          into the land and the conquest of
troduction to the Old Testament:              the heavenly. Did not Abraham           a11 its parts (l:l-12:24). The Sec-
  "`Joshua is not so much a tribute to        already by faith seek the heaven-       ond describes how the land was
such matters as military skill or human       ly (Hebrews 11:9)? Here God             divided and includes the cities of
enthusiasm as it is to the mighty acts of     realizes his promise in its typical     refuge and Levitical towns
God Himself: The injunctions of
Deuteronomy (I:1 7f[ 4:lfi: 7:lff) set the    form. Israel literally received the     (13:1-22:34).  The final part deals
alternatives of life and death before the     land as an inheritance. They did        with Joshua's farewell address
Israelites, and furnished the moral energy    not purchase it, they did not fight     and death (23: l-24:33).
For the initial conquests (Joshua 1:lff).     for it. They received it as a gift         The entrance into and con-
While Joshua was rightly celebrated for       from heaven, by free and                quest of the land of Canaan
his leadership and general powers of
coordination, the narrative makes it clear    sovereign grace. The crossing of        (l:l-12:24). The first thing
that, in light of the Covenant provisions,    the River Jordan demonstrated           recorded is how God spoke to
the true glory must be given to God           that they received it only              Joshua and confirmed for him
alone (cf. Josh. 3:10, 4:23Fh 616, et ar).    through the washing of the blood        that He gave to Israel all the land
                                              of Jesus. The fall of Jericho and       promised to Moses, from Egypt
                                              the conquest of the land demon-         even unto the river Euphrates.
Give a gift of                                strated that God gave them the          He assures him that He will be
                                              victory. It was a gift of grace, for    with him and that he is to be
the Standard                                  time and again the people proved        strong and courageous and
                                              that they were terribly unworthy.       observe the law which God gave
Bearer to a                                   Their portion was determined by         to him. We are to keep it and in
                                              the casting of the "lot". God           that way to be of good courage
                                              determined their inheritance.           for, "the Lord thy God is with
friend or loved                                                                       thee whithersoever thou goest,"
                                                                                      (l:l-9).  cl
one today.




 376  / The Standard Bearer


                                          The Two Natures of
  Taking Heed To Christ: The Humanity
, The Doctrine
  Ronald H. Hanko                         of Christ

  4. The significance of Christ's         right faith is that we believe and      so. Rather, in I John 4:2, 3, he in-
  humanity.                               confess that our Lord Jesus             sists that the mark of antichrist is
     In speaking of the two natures       Christ, the Son of God, is God          the denial that "Jesus Christ is
  of Christ, it must be very clear        and man" (Athanasian Creed, 29,         come in the flesh." Along the
  that the confession that He is          30). The Belgic Confession also         same lines Scripture insists in
  true man is not of lesser signifi-      echoes this when it insists that        other passages that the essence
  cance than the truth that He is         "our salvation and resurrection         of faith in Him is not so much
  God. The fact of the matter is not      also depend on the reality of His       the confession that He is the Son
  that the deity of Christ is of          body" (Art. XIX).                       of God, but that He is the Christ,
  primary importance, and the               This confession of the Church         that is, the Son of God incarnate
  humanity of Christ of secondary         is even more remarkable in the          (cf. Matt. 16:16, Jn. 20:31, I Jn.
  importance, but that both are           face of the present tendency to         2:22, 5:1, etc.). For this reason
  essential to our confession and         emphasize the humanity of Christ        also the great question according
  our salvation. So too, the Church       at the expense of His deity. That       to which we are judged is
  has always recognized this and          the church has not abandoned            always, "What think ye of the
  held that the humanity of Christ        her confession of the true              Christ?" not "Do you believe that
  is as precious and necessary to         humanity of Christ when faced           Jesus is God?"
  her as the truth that He is God's       with a constant denial of His             Because of the one-sided em-
  Son. Already in the early history       divinity can only be ascribed to        phasis on the humanity of Christ
  of the church we find the confes-       the fact that Scripture speaks so       that is so popular today, it is ab-
  sion that "it is necessary to ever-     clearly of the humanity of Christ       solutely necessary that the
  lasting salvation that (we) also        and its importance for our faith.       church remember the importance
  believe rightly the incarnation of      Never does the confession that          and significance of this truth. She
  our Lord Jesus Christ. For the          Jesus is God stand alone in Scrip-      must never over-react to this
                                          ture, but it is always joined to the    one-sidedness by de-emphasizing
                                          confession that He is also bone of      or neglecting the truth that Christ
                                          our bone and flesh of our flesh.        is true and real man. That this
                                          This is especially striking in the      can happen is evident in Roman
                                          Gospel and Epistles of John,            Catholicism. For one reason and
                                          where it is especially the divinity     another, and in spite of the fact
                                          of Christ that is being defended.       that Christ's humanity is still very
                                          We would expect, for example,           much a part of her official confes-
                                          that in the statements John             sion, she has lost sight of this
                                          makes in I John about antichrist        truth in her teaching to the ex-
                                          and the spirit of antichrist, he        tent that she has needed and
                                          would say that the characteristic       substituted other mediators in-
  Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity    teaching of antichrist is a denial      stead of Him.
  Protestant Reformed Church, Houston,    of Christ's divinity, but it is not
  Texas.

                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer  /  377


    There is also another reason,              XIX). If He is not man, there is                 to deny that according to this
 however, why the current em-                  no salvation for us. The Heidel-                 supralapsarian conception, Christ
phasis on the humanity of Christ               berg Catechism explains why this                 is indeed first and foremost in the
 may not lull the church into a                is so by showing that He must be                 counsel of God, even in relation
sense of false security, that is,              man to pay for man's sin. For any                to sin. Nevertheless, there is
 that much of the emphasis on                  other creature to suffer in our                  always the danger in this supra-
Christ's humanity today is not                 place would be a travesty of                     lapsarian position that the reality
really the teaching of this impor-             justice on the,part  of God                      and horror of sin be under-
tant truth. Berkhouwer points                  Himself. That, of course, is the                 emphasized by speaking of it on-
this out:                                      reason too why the oceans of                     ly as a means to reveal Christ,
   Does not everyone today accept - bar-       blood shed in the Old Testament                  and that danger is also, obvious-
ring now a few radical exceptions - that       sacrifices not only did not, but                 ly, a very practical danger, a
there has been a real Jesus of Nazareth        could not take away sin (Heb.                    kind of implicit anti-nomianism.
and must we not devote all our attention
to those doctrines which deny that this        10:4). The necessity of His                      The fact is, that alongside the
man Jesus Christ is the Son of the             humanity is to be found, then, in                Biblical emphasis on the primacy
Father? The question as it is thus for-        the fact of sin and the fall.                    of Christ in the counsel of God,
mulated in the church tends to weaken             Now, as H. Hoeksema explains                  Scripture teaches that historically,
the urgency of our warning against the         in his Reformed Dogmatics,                       that is, from our viewpoint, there
Docetic danger (the denial of Christ's real
humanity, R.H.). One must not think that         It is possible . . . to view this necessity    is but one reason for the incarna-
the acknowledgment of the historic@ of         from a different aspect, and to consider it      tion, and that is the horrible
Jesus of Nazareth is identical with the        From a higher, theological point of view.        reality of sin. AI1 that Scripture
confession of the church touching the          The ultimate reason for all the necessity,       teaches about the relation of the
human nature of Christ. The acknowledg-        for every "must", is the eternal counsel         incarnation and sin can be
ment of his historic@ is not half of the       and good pleasure of God. It was Gods
Christological dogma. The point of this        eternal purpose that in Christ as the in-        summed up in the words of
dogma is not that there was a historical       carnate, crucified, raised, and glorified        Hebrews 2:17, that "it behooved
person, one of whom it is believed on          Son of God all the fulness of God should         Him to be made like unto His
historical grounds that he really lived,       dwell bodily. The incarnation, therefore,        brethren . . . to make reconcilia-
but the issue is the significance of the       is not an afterthought of God, so that           tion for the sins of the people."
teaching that he was true God and true         Christ is appointed only to repair what
man in the unity of the person. For this       has been marred and destroyed by sin             We must at this point also, there-
reason, despite the practically general        and by the devil; but it is God's first and      fore, avoid idle speculation, that
agreement on the historic@ of Jesus, the       Final purpose to reveal His glory in             is, speculation beyond the
confession of the church regarding the         Christ. He purposed to reveal Himself            teaching of Scripture, and find
human nature of Christ remains of              and, to realize His everlasting covenant,        the necessity and significances of
critical important (The Person of Christ,      and thus to gloritjl His holy name, in the
p, 198).                                       highest possible degree. And this revela-        the incarnation first of all in the
   Perhaps the clearest evidence               tion is to be realized in Christ, the Son of     coming of sin into the world.
                                               Sod in the flesh, crucified and risen from
of this danger is the fact that                                                                   It should also be pointed out
                                               `he dead. Thus it is in God's good
most Jews today do indeed ac-                  ,leasure. And it is for this reason that         that not only our redemption
cept the historical fact that there            Christ is called the Firstborn of every          from the guilt of sin depends on
was a man Jesus, but this, of                  :reature, that is, the firstborn in and ac-      the humanity of Christ, but the
course, in no wise means that                  :ording to the counsel of God, for Whom          whole of our salvation. He is man
                                               2nd through and unto Whom all things
they believe in Him. No more                                                                    not only to die for man's sin, but
                                               Ire created. IF we consider the necessity
than with the Jews, does all the               IF the incarnation from this higher view-        also to be a capable intercessor
current talk of Christ's humanity              ?oint, even sin and death, the devil and         for us, to be able to help us in
mean that the church actually                  111 the powers of darkness are but a             our temptation (Heb. 2:18), to be
believes in Him. It is very much               neans unto an end. They are subservient          sympathetic to our needs as High
                                               D God's purpose of bringing His Son into
possible to speak of a genuine                                                                  Priest that we might approach
                                               he world and of realizing in and
human nature while detracting                  hrough Him all His good pleasure.                the throne of grace through Him
from or denying His humanity.                    This view of the relationship                  (Heb. 4:14-16), and to give up
   The significance and necessity              between Christ and sin in the                    hope in Him both now and for
of Christ's humanity is of such                counsel of God has been known                    the judgment. The Heidelberg
importance because it is in-                   as "supralapsarianism," and in                   Catechism gives us a good exam-
separably connected with our                   light of such passages as Colos-                 ple of this truth, when it points
salvation. The simple fact is, as              ;ians 1:15-17 it is difficult, at best,          out that His presence in heaven
the Belgic Confession points out,                                                               means that we have our flesh in
that our salvation depends on the                                                               heaven as sure pledge that He
reality of His humanity (Art.                                                                   will also take us there to be with

378 I The Standard Bearer


Him (XVIII, 49). Not only as our               cession of Christ, and so left the     ty of Christ, then, we find the
"sacrificing" High Priest,                     church without access to God. It       hope of salvation, the assurance
therefore, but also as our heaven-             is also evident from the early         of pardon, and access to the
ly High Priest, as the one who                 history of the church in its strug-    Father in Him. "To what
has gone behind the veil, He                   gles with Gnosticism, and its          purpose," as the Belgic Confes-
must be one "taken from among                  denial of the reality of Christ's      sion says, "should we then seek
men" (Heb. 5:l).                               humanity. It also was forced into      another advocate" or be afraid to
   That a loss of this doctrine                substituting other mediators for       come to God and hope in God
either by denial or by neglect is              Christ and teaching a worship of       through Him, "since it hath
to the spiritual harm of the                   angels, which teaching Paul ex-        pleased God to give us His own
people of God is evident from                  coriates in Colossians 2:18 as a       Son?" (Art. XXVI) Truly, "He that
Roman Catholicism, which has                   denial of Christ's Headship.           abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
substituted the intercession of                  In holding to a strict and           he hath both the Father and the
saints and angels for the inter-               careful confession of the humani-      Son" (II Jn. 9). 0





 Decency and                                   Calling Ministers
 Order                                         Already In Office
Ronald L. Cammenga



  "Ministers already in the ministry of          Article 5 of the Church Order        "Ministerial Certificate Of
the Word, who are called to another con-       deals with the calling of ministers    Dismissal And Testimonial" not
gregation, shall likewise be called in the     who are already serving in office.     only to the classis, but also re-
aforesaid manner by the consistory and
the deacons, with observance of the              Although ordinarily the              quired ". . . approval by the
regulations made for the purpose by the        minister is called for life, Re-       magistrate of the respective
consistory and of the general ec-              formed church polity recognizes        district." In connection with the
clesiastical ordinances For the eligibility    that it is possible for a man's        installation of a minister who had
of those who have served outside of the        labors to be terminated in a par-      accepted a call to a new congre-
Protestant Reformed Churches and For
the repeated calling of the same minister      ticular congregation. This may be      gation, it was stated at the end of
during the same vacancy; further, with         done in several ways. This may         the article, LG. . . to which (in-
the advice of the classis or the counselor,    be done by deposition from of-         stallation) the civil authorities
appointed by the classis, and with the ap-     fice, Articles 79, 80. This may be     and the Synods of the respective
proval of the classis or of the delegates      done by dismissal from service,        districts are to give careful atten-
appointed by the classis, to whom the
ministers called show good ecclesiastical      Article 11. This may be done by        tion, and make proper regula-
testimonials of doctrine and life, with the    release from office in order "to       tions to the welfare of the chur-
approval of the members of the calling         enter upon a secular vocation,"        ches." This wrongful interference
congregation, as stated in Article 4;          Article 12. This may also be done      by the civil authorities has been
whereupon the minister called shall be         by a minister's accepting a call to    eliminated by revision of the arti-
installed with appropriate stipulations
and prayers agreeably to the Form for          another congregation.                  cle.
this purpose." Church Order, Article 5.          This fifth article has been          ISSUING OF CALLS
                                               revised because the original arti-        The article prescribes that
                                               cle allowed wrongful interference      "ministers already in the ministry
                                               in the matter of the calling of        of the Word, who are called to
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the            ministers on the part of the civil     another congregation, shall like-
Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland,        magistrate. The original article
Colorado.                                      called for the presentation of the

                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer  / 379


wise be called in the aforesaid        turn" would be conducted by the        magazines today carry adver-
manner . . . ." The "aforesaid         classis in which the congregation      tisements of this nature. This is a
manner" is the method laid down        issuing the call resides, in the       practice long condemned by Re-
in Article 4 in connection with        presence of the synodical              formed churches. It is a practice
the calling of candidates. This        delegates ad examina. The pur-         that tends to threaten the
method of issuing a call includes:     pose of the "colloquium doctum"        spiritual nature of the calling of a
   1) The formation of a slate of      is to examine the brother in-          minister and reduces the calling
nominees, usually a trio, which        volved as far as his doctrinal         of a minister to the hiring of an
slate is approved by the               soundness and his spiritual quali-     employee by some large in-
moderator.                             fications for the ministry, as well    dustrial firm.
   2) Approbation of the trio by       as to discern his agreement with         A couple of practical points in
way of public announcement on          our denominational distinctives.       connection with calling ministers
at least two successive Sundays.       Successful completion of the "col-     are worth mentioning. The prac-
   3) A lawful election, the call      loquium doctum'.' would be             tice of informing men that they
being issued to the man receiving      necessary before he could be in-       are on nomination, and phoning
the majority of the votes cast.        stalled into office.                   the one elected after the congre-
   Usually calls are extended only        In my judgment, the calling of      gational meeting, are worthy
to those who are ministers in our      men outside the federation of our      practices. A minister to whom a
Protestant Reformed denomina-          churches is unwise and                 call has been extended should
tion. This, however, has not           dangerous. It seems to me that         acknowledge the receipt of the
always been-the case in the past.      this ought only to be done under       call to the congregation which
Article 5 does allow for the call-     very compelling circumstances. A       has called him in writing, at the
ing of ministers outside of our        congregation which does this           same time, if possible, informing
denomination. The article states:      ought to give account of its           them when they may expect an
". . . with observance of the          reasons for doing so -to the           answer to their call. In the calling
regulations made . . . for the         classis. Far better would it be for    of a minister, a consistory is to
eligibility of those who have          a minister from outside our            make use of the adopted "Call
served outside of the Protestant       denomination to become a               Letter" in use in our churches.
Reformed Churches . . . ." In ac-      member of our churches, be ex-         This "Call Letter" is to be signed
tual practice this has been done       amined for candidacy by one of         by all the consistory members, as
twice in the history of our chur-      our classes, and be declared eligi-    well as by the moderator.
ches. The Protestant Reformed          ble for a call within the churches.    CONSIDERATION OF CALLS
Church of Oskaloosa, Iowa, ex-         It might also be advisable for           The question is often asked
tended a call to the Rev. P. De        those coming from outside the          whether a minister must receive
Koekkoek, pastor of the Christian      denomination to attend our             permission from his consistory to
Reformed Church of Oskaloosa.          seminary for a time.                   consider a call, to accept a call,
The Roosevelt Park Protestant          ISSUING CALLS A                        or both. Undoubtedly the correct
Reformed Church once issued a          SPIRITUAL MATTER                       answer is both, although when a
call to the Rev. J. De Haan, Jr.,        This whole matter of issuing a       consistory grants permission to
also a minister in the Christian       call must be a deeply spiritual        its pastor to consider a call, it is
Reformed Church. Both calls            matter. There are many evils           implicitly granting him the right
were declined.                         connected with the calling of          to accept the call.
   Our churches have no clear-cut      ministers in our day. Ministers          The important point is that the
rules for calling ministers outside    may be guilty of wrongfully            minister ought to receive permis-
of our denomination. However,          soliciting calls. Congregations and    sion from his consistory even to
should such a call be accepted,        consistories may be guilty of ex-      consider a call. The elders have
the minister accepting the call        tending calls for the wrong            supervision over the minister
would undoubtedly be required          reasons. These sorts of practices      also, especially in matters that
to submit to a "colloquium doc-        will never carry away the bless-       concern his official work in the
turn." "Colloquium doctum" is a        ing of God.                            congregation. There may be
Latin phrase which means "a              One practice that tends to           weighty reasons on account of
doctrinal conference or conversa-      threaten the serious, spiritual        which it is not even wise for a
tion." Such a "colloquium doc-         nature of calling a minister is the
                                       practice of vacant congregations
                                       soliciting applicants for the
                                       available position. Many religious


380  I The Standard Bearer


consistory to allow its minister to     and definite (not open-ended)          ACCEPTANCE OF CALLS
consider a call. There may be           period of time. If after an exten-        When a minister accepts a call
problems in the congregation            sion the minister is unable to         to a new congregation, he in-
directly involving the minister,        decide the call, the calling con-      forms this congregation in
problems that must be cleared up        sistory may revoke the call and        writing, usually by way of a let-
before the minister can be per-         issue a new call.                      ter that can be read to the con-
mitted to leave the congregation.       CONSIDERATION OF CALLS                 gregation from the pulpit. He
Or there may be difficulties with-      A SPIRITUAL  MATI'ER                   also informs his own congrega-
in the congregation that simply           Not only for the congregation        tion, either by way of a bulletin
demand the presence and                 issuing the call, but for the          announcement, or more ap-
guidance of the minister. If there      minister considering the call, the     propriately by way of an an-
would arise a difference between        matter of deciding a call must be      nouncement from the pulpit. It is
a minister and his consistory           a deeply spiritual matter.             wise for the minister to keep his
regarding the consideration of a          It is very easy for a minister to    decision confidential until the
call, this difference would have        allow carnal considerations to         time it is publicly announced in
to be submitted for resolution to       enter into the matter of a call. A     the respective congregations. It is
the classis.                            minister may simply feel "burned       also wise that consistories that
   Ordinarily the length of time        out" in his present charge and be      have extended calls not open
for the consideration of calls is       hankering for a change. The            ministers' responses until in the
three weeks. The length of time         grass is always greener on the         consistory room immediately
is longer for candidates, because       other side of the fence. One may       prior to the worship service at
they are faced with the prospect        consider a call from the point of      which the decision is to be an-
of several calls in quick succes-       view of personal gain and honor.       nounced. This will avoid the
sion. They will need more time          There is always the lure of a          spreading of any rumors.
to evaluate the needs of each           larger salary, a more prestigious        The minister who has accepted
congregation calling them. Candi-       congregation, a larger parsonage,      a call to another congregation is
dates are given six weeks to con-       a nicer geographic location. A         to be presented with a "Ministe-
sider calls.                            minister may be lazy, and eager-       rial Certificate Of Dismissal And
  Although our churches have            ly avail himself of the opportuni-     Testimonial" by the consistory he
no specific rule about this, the        ty of a new charge, so that he         is leaving. Without this cer-
Synod of the Christian Reformed         can "turn the pile over."              tificate, and if this certificate is
Church has adopted the regula-            The minister must exert              not in order, the man cannot be
tion that ministers shall be given      himself to make his consideration      installed in his new charge. The
a period of three weeks for the         of calls a spiritual matter.           certificate of testimonial serves as
consideration of a call, CRC Acts       Through prayer and meditation,         evidence that the minister has
OfSynod 1916, p. 26.                    he must seek to know (and in           faithfully served his previous con-
  There is always the question          this way he will know) the will of     gregation. And the certificate of
concerning the time when the            God with respect to each call.         testimonial serves as evidence
three weeks begin. Some take            That will of God must be the on-       that the consistory of his            I
the position that it begins when        ly consideration in his treatment      previous charge acquiesces in his
the minister is first informed that     of a call. This is not to say that     decision to terminate his labors
he has received the call. Others        circumstances do not enter in.         in that congregation.
take the position that it begins        Often God makes His will known           Article 5 speaks of the ". . . ap-
after he has received the "Call         through existing circumstances.        proval of the classis or of the
Letter." Still others take the posi-    But circumstances ALONE must           delegates appointed by the
tion that it begins after the           not be decisive.                       classis, to whom the ministers
minister has received permission          As he considers a call, the          called show good ecclesiastical
from his consistory to consider         minister ought to solicit the judg-    testimonials of doctrine and
the call.                               ment of the consistory and the         life . . . ." The "Ministerial Cer-
  Although the normal length of         members of the congregation            tificate Of Dismissal And Testi-
time for the consideration of a         with respect to the call. The          monial" is to be reviewed and
call is three weeks, a minister         members of the congregation            approved by the classis from
may ask for and receive an ex-          ought to feel free to express          which the minister is departing
tension from the calling con-           themselves to the pastor and
sistory. This should be a short         ought to remember him in their
                                        prayers as he considers a call.


                                                                                                The Standard Bearer  / 387


and the classis which he is enter-             There is, however, practical                  This decision is self-
ing. If the classis is not in session,      wisdom in'the gene& rule. In                  explanatory. It outlines the way
the certificate must be approved            the main, short pastorates are                in which differences between the
by the classical committee. Each            detrimental to the churches and               moderator and the consistory
classis has its own classical com-          to the ministers themselves. It               with regard to a call are to be
mittee. The duty of this commit-            takes time for a minister to                  resolved.
tee is to discharge necessary               become acquainted with his con-                  When a minister shall accept a call to
classical business in the interim           gregation. It is virtually impossi-           another congregation before he has
between the meetings of classis.            ble to do any constructive work               served his present congregation two full
This classical committee is usual-          in a congregation in less than                years, the congregation to which he
                                                                                          moves shall repay one-half of the moving
ly made up of three ministers.              two or three years.                           expenses, incurred at the time of securing
   After accepting a call, the                A minister shall not be called more         him by the congregation he is vacating,
minister is to be ". . . installed          than once within a year by the same va-          Ordinarily the congregation
with appropriate stipulations and           cant church without advice of classis.        whose call has been accepted is
prayers agreeably to the form for              Once again, a general but not              responsible for the moving ex-
this purpose." There is a dif-              inviolable rule is laid down.                 penses of their new pastor. If a
ference between "ordination"                Originally the practice was that a            minister accepts a call without
and "installation." Those entering          minister could not be called twice            having fulfilled the two year
the office for the first time are or-       without an interim call being                 minimum, compensation must be
dained into office. Ministers tak-          issued to another man. Two suc-               made to the congregation he is
ing up labors in a new charge               cessive calls to the same man                 departing. The rule in the Chris-
are installed into office. A                were forbidden.                               tian Reformed Church is as
minister is ordained only once                 The reason for this decision               follows:
because ordination to the office            lies in the serious nature of a                 If a minister leaves a church within a
of the ministry is for life.                call. It is only after careful,               year, the calling church shall refund the
DECISIONS APPENDED TO                       prayerful consideration that a                church he leaves expenses in full; if he
                                                                                          leaves within two years, three-fourths; if
ARTICLE 5                                   minister declines a call that has             within three years, one-halt; if within
  Consistories of vacant churches shall     been extended to him. It is not               four years, one-fourth of his moving ex-
not place on nomination names of such       likely that circumstances will be             penses . . . . (CRC Acts Of Synod 1966, p.
ministers who have not yet served their     so gltered within a year's time as            88).
present congregations two years, unless     to justify a change in his decision              The rule in our churches is
there be preponderant considerations;       or in the will of God. Nor must a
and a counselor who deems it his calling                                                  that if the minister is called prior
to approve in the name of classis such a    minister be wearied by incessant              to the two year minimum, one-
nomination shall be required to give an     calls from the same congregation.             half of the original moving ex-
account of his reasons to classis.            In case of difference of opinion be-        penses are to be paid. Cl
   The above rule is not in-                tween a counselor and a consistory
violable. There may be instances            regarding the legality of a call, the con-
when for weighty reasons a con-             sistory shall not proceed without the con-
                                            sent of classis.
sistory places a name on nomina-
tion of one who has served his
present congregation for less
than two years. This is a matter            Take the time to read and study
that concerns the autonomy of
the local congregation. From a              the Standard Bearer. It is an
certain point of view, every
minister in good standing in the
denomination is always eligible             excellent source of devotional
for call.                                   reading material for your
                                            daily use.



382 / The Standard Bearer


Ben Wigger



                         May 15,1988        interest. Four new families are at-    lecture on April 19. Rev. R. Van
  The P.R.C. in Holland, Michi-             tending regularly. Pastor Van          Overloop was the speaker that
gan has made a new trio consist-            Overloop also writes that the          evening. He spoke on the topic,
ing of the Reverends M. Joostens,           group in the N.W. Chicago Mis-         "The Reformed Principles of
M. Kamps and R. Van Overloop.               sion invited local residents to a      Worship."
  Rev. Houck, home missionary               series of special worship services       The Men's Society of the South
in Modesto, Calif., is being                during the month of April. One         Holland P.R.C. in South Holland,
treated with medication for his             of these "special" services was        111. invited their friends and
heart condition. It is hoped that           conducted by Rev. Key, pastor of       fellow church members to attend
this will lower his cholesterol and         the Southeast P.R.C. in Grand          a lecture on the evening of April
open the arteries. He is also on a          Rapids, Mich. Pastor Key was           22. South Holland's pastor, Rev.
strict diet and exercise program.           asked specifically to preach on a      Engelsma, spoke on the topic,
Their son, Jeremy, due to much              text which confronts the subject       "The Free Offer of the Gospel -
pollen in the air, is again having          of Creation vs. Evolution.             Is it Biblical?" This topic was
problems with his kidneys. A                  There is also some news from         chosen because it is relevant to
high dosage of cortisone is                 Singapore. The second congrega-        our own history as churches.
necessary, which causes him to              tion of the E.R.C.S. has been able     Special musical numbers were
retain fat and raise the                    to purchase an old building            presented by the school children
cholesterol level in his blood. He          which can be renovated and used        and by the Choral Society.
is on the same diet as his father,          for a church building. The most          The Lynden P.R.C. in Lynden,
which they hope will bring his              interesting part of this news is       Wash. sponsored a lecture on
level down.                                 that they have received approval       April 20 at the Lynden Christian
  Our Northwest Chicago Mission             from the government to use this        High School. Prof. H. Hanko
has some very encouraging new               building for this purpose.             spoke on the subject "Historic
                                              Saturday, April 23, the              and Reformed Liturgy: Is it
                                            Evangelism Society, with the help      Biblical?"
                                            of the Young People and Young            While in Lynden, Prof. Hanko
                                            Adult Societies of the Southeast       also spoke to the Monday eve-
                                            P.R.C. in Grand Rapids, Michigan,      ning catechism classes on "The
                                            went door-to-door distributing the     History of 1953." The consistory
                                            pamphlet, "Is the Christian Faith      also asked him to preach for
                                            Easy?"                                 `them on Sunday, April 24.
                                              Rev. G. Van Baren was the            Besides these speaking engage-
                                            speaker at the annual Spring Lec-      ments, Prof. Hanko also spoke on
                                            ture, April 20, sponsored by the       Friday, April 22 on the occasion.
                                            area Protestant Reformed Chur-         of the tenth anniversary of Cove-
                                            ches. This year's lecture was held     nant Christian School.
                                            at the Hudsonville P.R.C. in Hud-        The consistory of Lynden, in
                                            sonville, Michigan. Pastor Van         dealing with their over-crowding
                                            Baren spoke on the topic, "Law-        problems, has appointed a com-
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant    lessness: A Sign of the Times."        mittee to investigate what tem-
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,               The Randolph P.R.C. in Ran-          porary changes could be made to
Michigan.                                   dolph, Wis. sponsored a spring         help their immediate over-

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer / 383


  -i@ . .
STANDARD                                                                                             SECOND CLASS
 BMR                                                                                                 Postage Paid at
                                                                                                     Grand Rapids, Michigan

 l?O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



 crowding problems. This commit-        remedial room set up and used                   "Know therefore that the
 tee was to investigate the avail-      for remedial purposes entirely.          Lord thy God, He is God, the
 ability of other buildings or chur-    An additional classroom in the           faithful God which keepeth
 ches for rent, as well as any          Junior High area. A gymnasium            Covenant and mercy with them
 possible adjustments with their        that allows for proper physical          that love Him and keep His
 current building.                      education, band and choir use,           commandments." (Deut.  7:9)
    The Lord willing, this fall         and special school events. A long        Gerald and Pat  Schipper
 another book will be published         overdue roof to eliminate leak-            Becky, Jason, Jeremy, Emily
 which has been written by Rev.         ing, new dropped ceiling, light-         Ed and Jeanne Karsemeyer
 G. Lubbers, pastor emeritus in         ing, and carpeting in the. hall-           Shaun, Renae, Todd
                                                                                 Greg and Elaine Engelsma
 the Protestant Reformed Chur-          ways. It was hoped that these ad-          Chad, Shannon, Valerie
 ches, under the title "The Bible       ditions and improvements would           Al and Carol Karsemeyer
 us Millennial Teachings." You          meet the immediate and short-              Clint, Ronda, Kirk, Jessica, Troy
 might want to keep this in mind        term needs of the school and                     Andrew
 for giving to others, or for your-     satisfy the many concerns of
 self. Look for further detailed an-    their supporters. 0                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
nouncements here or in your                                                         On May  27`1988,  the Lord
 church.                                                                         willing, our parents, PROF.  &
    The Spring Ladies' League                                                    MRS. HERMAN HANKO, will
 meeting was held April 14 in the       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                   celebrate their 35th wedding  an-
 Edgerton P.R.C. in Edgerton, Mn.         The Consistory of the First            n iversary.
 Rev. De Vries spoke on "Bearing        Protestant Reformed Church of               We rejoice with them at this
 one Another's Burdens."                Holland expresses its heartfelt          evidence of Cod's faithfulness
    On April 12 the Mr. and Mrs;        sympathy to our fellow office            and goodness and ask that God
League Meeting was held at First        bearer, Elder Warren Bonzelaar           will continue to bless them in
 P.R.C. in Grand Rapids, Michigan.      in the passing of his father MR.         the years ahead.
Rev. Kortering's speech on "The         HAROLD BONZELAAR on Mon-                    Also, we wish to thank them
Office of All Believers" will be        day, April 11, 1988. May the             publicly for the years of faithful
followed by a speech in the fall        family find their comfort in the         Christian nurture we received
by Prof. Decker on "Ministering         words of Hebrews  II:18 "But             from them and for their love.
to our Ministers." In other words       now they desire a better coun-              "But the mercy of the Lord is
we have a two-part series.              try, that is a Heavenly;                 from everlasting to everlasting
   The Ladies Society of Redlands       wherefore God is not ashamed             upon them that fear Him, and
P.R.C. in Redlands, Calif. spon-        to be their God, for He hath             His righteousness unto
sored a garage sale this spring.        prepared for them a city."               children's children; to such as
   At a meeting back in March,                                                   keep His covenant, and to those
the Adams Street Christian              W E D D I N G   A N N I V E R S A R Y    that remember His command-
School Society in Grand Rapids,           On May  27,1988,  the Lord             ments to do them" (Ps.  103:17,
Michigan, approved an extensive         willing, MR.  & MRS. AL                  18).
expansion and remodeling proj-          KARSEMEYER will celebrate                Rev. Ron and Nancy Hanko
ect for their school. Among the         their 40th wedding anniversary.          Neal and Jeanne Hanko
changes approved were the fol-            We, their children and grand-          Rev. Ken and Mary Hanko
lowing:                                 children, are very grateful to           Steve and Beverly Hanko
                                                                                 Marcia and  Carlyle  Miersma
   An enlarged library, a larger        our Heavenly Father for blessing         Tim
teacher's lounge that will ac-          them with these years together           Sharon
commodate the entire staff. A           and for giving us our Christian          Karen
                                        parents and families.                    16 grandchildren

384  / The Standard Bearer


