 A Reformed
 Semi-Monthly
Magazine





vu/. UT, IYU. L I
September 15, 1988


 Contents                                                                 September 15,1988                           THE
                                                                                                                STANDARD
Meditation  - James D. Slopsema                                                                                     B E A R E R
InvitingThePoor  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...482
Editorials  -                                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
The Creation Record Literal (4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . .485                 and  Aueust.  Published bv the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                                                lishing Association, Inc.  iecond  Class Postage Paid
Farewell! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...486    at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
Book Review  - Herman C. Hanko                                                                                  EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
                                                                                                                Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
Has The Church Misread The Bible?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .487                       DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
In His Fear  - Arie den Hartog                                                                                  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                                                Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
The Distinctive Traits Of True Godliness:                                                                       Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev.  I.  Korter-
                                                                                                                ing.  Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
   Devotion To The Honor And Glory of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .491                              Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema; Rev. Cise  1. Van
                                                                                                                Baren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
Guided Into All Truth  - Thomas C. Miersma                                                                      EDITORIAL OFFICE
Steadfastly Holding To God's Word. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .494                       Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                                4975  lvanrest  Ave., S.W.
All Around Us  - Gise  ). Van  Baren                                                                            Crandville,  Michigan 49418
                                                                                                                CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
CRCSynodof'88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...496              Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                6597  - 40th Ave.
Taking Heed To The Doctrine  - Ronald H. Hanko                                                                  Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
                                                                                                                EDITORIAL POLICY
The Two Natures of Christ: The Union of the                                                                     Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
   Human and Divine Natures.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .498                    of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
                                                                                                                terest from our readers and questions for the
NewsFromOurChurches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...500                      Question Box Department are welcome. Contribu-
                                                                                                                tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
Annuallndex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..sdl         and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
                                                                                                                `must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
                                                                                                                the fifteenth of the month. All communications
                                                                                                                relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                                editorial office.
                                                                                                                REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                                Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
                                                                                                                articles in our magazine by other publications,
  Meditation                                                 But when thou makest a                             provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
                                                                                                                reproduced in full;  b) that proper acknowledge-
                                                         feast, call the poor, the                              ment is made;  c) that a copy of the periodical in
 lames D. Slopsema                                                                                              which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial
                                                         maimed, the lame, the blind:                           office.
                                                             And thou shalt be blessed;                         BUSINESS  OiFICE
 Invitiw                                                                                                        The Standard Bearer
                                                         for they cannot recompense                             Mr. H.  Vander  Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                                                                                P.O. Box 6064
                                                         thee: for thou shalt be                                Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516
                                                                                                                PH: (616) 243-2953
The Poor                                                 recompensed at the resurrec-                           NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS OFFICE
                                                         tion of the just.                                      The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                c/o Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                                 L u k e   14:12-14 B. Van Herk, 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
                                                             Someone had invited Jesus to                       Subscription price, $12.00 per year. Unless a
    Then said he also to them                                                                                   definite request for discontinuance is received, it
                                                         a feast.                                               is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
that bade him, When thou                                                                                        tion to continue without the formality of a
                                                             Jesus proceeded to give in-                        renewal order, and he will be billed for renewal. If
makest a dinner or a supper,                             structions to the host concerning                      you have a change of address, please notify the
                                                                                                                Business Office as early as possible in order to
call not thy friends, nor thy                            whom he ought to have invited.                         avoid the inconvenience of delayed delivery. In-
brethren, neither thy kinsmen,                               Some may question Jesus'                           clude your Zip Code.
                                                                                                                ADVERTISING POLICY
nor thy rich neighbors; lest                             sense of propriety. Who, after all,                    The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial
                                                                                                                advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
they also bid thee again, and a                          takes it upon himself to tell the                      and school events, anniversaries, obituaries, and
recompense be made thee.                                 host who should be invited to his                      sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00
                                                                                                                fee. These should be sent to the Business Office
                                                         own party?                                             and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee.
                                                             But if we pay close attention to                   Deadline for announcements is the 1st and the
                                                                                                                15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                         Jesus' instruction, we will learn                      15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                                                B O U N D   V O L U M E S
                                                         some very important principles                         The Business Office will accept standing orders
                                                         concerning whom we should in-                          for bound copies of the current volume; such
                                                                                                                orders are filled as soon as possible after comple-
                                                         vite into our homes and those                          tion of a volume. A limited number of past
                                                                                                                volumes may be obtained through the Business
James D. Slopsema is pastor of Hope                      with whom we ought to                                  Office.
                                                                                                                16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm
Protestant Reformed Church, Grandville,                  associate.                                             microfiche, and article copies are available
Michigan.                                                                                                       through University Microfilms International.


482  /  The  Standard Bearer


  We will also conclude that            For notice that Jesus instructed      (usually sinful and selfish) have
Jesus'-instruction to his host was    His host not to invite friends, his     been cast off.
not unseemly at all, but very ap-     brothers, his relatives, or his rich           Their parents should also
propriate.                            neighbors, lest they also invite        follow the same practice in their
* *  *  * * *  * *  * *               the host and a recompense be            social visiting. They should make
                                                                              it a practice to visit with those
  When thou makest a dinner or        made.
                                                                              who for various reason do not
supper, call not thy friends, nor       It was common in Jesus' day to
                                                                              always fit into the mainstream of
thy brethren, neither thy             invite to banquets only those
                                                                              the church, and tend for that
kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors.      who could pay back the host
But when thou makest a feast,         with a return invitation. The host      reason to be shunned in the
call the poor, the maimed, the        would invite his friends, his           church. Also the widows and
                                                                              singles should be included in our
lame, the blind.                      brothers, or his relatives so they
  Jesus speaks here of a dinner       would invite him back, and he           social life.
or a supper. He also makes            could have a good time. Or he             After church we ought not to
reference to a feast. Dinner was      might invite even his rich neigh-       socialize only with our friends,
the first meal of the day, eaten      bor. What prestige this would           but also with strangers and
either in the forenoon or at          give him should his rich neighbor       visitors. There are times when
                                                                              visitors ought even to be invited
noon. Supper was the main meal        give a return invitation.
of the day eaten at sundown, at         And this is what Jesus was            to our homes.
the end of the workday. A feast       condemning.                               All this requires that we give
was a meal to which guests were         We may not invite others to           to those who have little or
invited and at which was to be        our homes or to various social          nothing to pay back.
found music, wine, and merri-         events we sponsor with a view to          This is what Jesus requires of
ment. These feasts could be held      getting something in return. This       us.
either at dinner time or supper       is exactly what we do if we in-         * * * * * * * * * *
time. Sometimes they even lasted      vite merely our friends, our                   The reason for this instruction
for several days.                     brothers, our relatives, or rich        is to be found in God's law.
  Someone had also invited            neighbor.                                      Jesus pointed in that direction
Jesus to a feast.                       Rather, when we make a feast,         when he said that those who call
  Jesus told his host that to such    we are to invite the poor, the          to their feasts the poor, the
occasions he ought not to invite      maimed, lame, and the blind; for        maimed, the lame, and the blind
his friends, his brothers, his        they can not recompense us.             shall be recompensed in the
relatives, or his rich neighbors.       Certainly the poor that Jesus         resurrection of the just, or
Rather he ought to invite the         described can not advance us            righteous.
poor, the maimed, the lame, and       socially. In fact, by inviting these           The righteous are those who
the blind. Bear in mind that the      kinds to our homes and social           keep the law of God.
maimed, lame, and blind were          events we may well find that                   Now those who call to their
almost always relegated to terri-     others no longer invite us to their     feasts the poor and needy shall
ble poverty in Jesus' day. These      homes. Neither are the poor             be recompensed in the resurrec-
are they who should be invited        Jesus described able to repay us        tion of the righteous exactly
to feasts and meals.                  with a return invitation. They are      because they have walked in the
  Now we must not construe            able only to receive, and have          righteousness of the law.
Jesus to mean that we can not in-     nothing with which to pay back.                The heart of Gods law is to
vite to our homes our friends,        These are the kinds of people,          show mercy to those in need.
our brothers, our relatives, or       said Jesus, we are to invite to our            God made this very clear
rich neighbors. From the rest of      homes and banquets.                     through the prophet Hosea. To
Jesus' instruction it becomes ap-       Perhaps we can take the liber-        Judah God said, "I desired mercy
parent that Jesus would have us       ty to extend this principle to          and not sacrifice." (Hosea 6:6) By
avoid inviting others to our          other situations in which we            this the Lord meant that even
homes with a view to being            come into contact with people.          though His law required sacri-
repaid by our guests. Rather, we        Children at school should not         fices of Judah, without mercy to
must make it our practice to in-      associate just with those who are       those in need, all of Judah's sacri-
vite those who have nothing to        fun to be with and that are             fices were nothing.
return to us for our hospitality.     popular. They should make it a
                                      practice to play also with those
                                      who for a number of reasons

                                                                                                 The Standard  Bearer  / 483


   Jesus Himself quoted Hosea            Those who invite to their            For theirs will be the joy of
when the Pharisees criticized         feasts the poor and needy shall       eternal bliss and glory in Jesus
Him for eating with publicans         be blessed.                           Christ.
and sinners. Jesus told the              This means they shall be             Not so those who wickedly and
Pharisees that they ought to          hww.                                  selfishly sought only those who
learn what Hosea meant, "I will          Those who invite only their        could pay them something back
have mercy and not sacrifice."        friends, their rich neighbors, and    and showed no mercy to the
(Matt. 9: 13)                         those who will pay them back          needy. The only reward they
   And now Jesus has shown us         think they will be happy.             have is that which their friends
one way to demonstrate this mer-         But Jesus says those who in-       and rich neighbors paid them for
cy of the law.                        vite the needy and those who          their hospitality. Small and of lit-
  We are to invite to our ban-        have nothing to repay will be         tle significance that reward will
quets and give help to the, poor,     happy.                                be when the righteous inherit
the maimed, and the needy, who           For they shall be recompensed      eternal life and they perish eter-
have nothing to pay back.             (paid back) at the resurrection of    nally!
  This is true righteousness and      the just.                               Let us then keep our eye
delightful to the Lord.                  When Christ shall return again     single to this reward of the
  Let those who neglect the           on the clouds of heaven, there        righteous.
needy learn what Hosea meant:         will be a general resurrection,         It is not a reward of merit, but
"I will have mercy and not            both of the righteous and the         of grace.
sacrifice."                           wicked. The righteous will be           It is set before us, not to earn,
  God will have us show this          raised to eternal life and glory,     but as an incentive for us to
mercy to those in need exactly        whereas the wicked will be            show mercy to others, even as
because He has shown mercy to         raised to the eternal torments of     God has shown mercy to us. 0
us when we were poor, maimed,         hell.
lame and blind, with nothing to          Those who show mercy to the
pay back.                             needy and those who had
  How desperate is our situation      nothing to repay shall be repaid
by nature. We are spiritually         and rewarded in this glorious
bankrupt before God, blinded by       resurrection of the righteous.
sin, unable to walk in the paths        And what a great reward that
of God, headed for certain            will be!
destruction.
  Yet God loved us from all eter-
nity and showed mercy to us. In
Christ He has paid up all our
spiritual debts, has given us eyes     The Standard Bearer makes a
to see and the strength to walk
in His ways. We even have an in-      thoughtful gift for members of your
vitation to the marriage feast to
be celebrated throughout the          family, friends, and neighbors. Give
endless ages of eternity.
  And we have nothing with
which we can pay God back! We         a gift of the Standard Bearer.
can only receive His blessings!
  God will now have us show
this same love and mercy to
others in need. "Be ye therefore
merciful, as your Father also is
merciful." (Luke 6:36)
  The power to show this mercy
to those in need is God's mercy
to us in Christ.




484  / The Standard Bearer


                                       The Creation Record
                                                 Literal (4)
 Editorials                            Farewell!

The Creation Record                     is a science textbook, but                In this connection, there are
 Literal (4)                            whether the Bible records facts,        certain Scriptural truths which
                                        and whether the Bible speaks ac-        are of importance and which
   We conclude this series on a         curately. The latter must certain-      must be taken into account by
positive note.                          ly be maintained. When Scripture        the natural scientist. No, these
   Let us remember that the             speaks with respect to the origin       truths are not couched in scien-
Christian - also the Christian          of things and with respect to the       tific language. Nevertheless, they
scientist - begins and ends on          manner of their origin, it speaks       are truths with which the scien-
the basis of the absolute authori-      inerrantly and perspicuously. Let       tist must reckon. They are truths,
ty of Holy Scripture. This is and       us never forget this. And the true      too, which give the lie to many
must always be his bias, or             scientist, the Christian scientist,     of the notions of unbelieving
prepossession. His approach to          will bow to that speech of Scrip-       science. Let me briefly mention
science is not neutral. Neutrality      ture.                                   them:
is, in fact, an impossibility,            This means that the believing            1) In the creation narrative
whether for believer or                 scientist interprets God's book of      Scripture presents the picture of
unbeliever. And with respect to         creation, so-called revelation in       a finished creation. Sometimes
the Genesis record, this bowing         nature, by faith in the light of        this is called a creation "with the
before the absolute authority of        Holy Scripture. He does not             appearance of age," an expres-
Scripture implies that he em-           reverse this relationship. He does      sion of which I am not especially
braces the record of creation as        not come with his scientific con-       fond. When God created, He
literal.                                clusions/hypotheses to Scripture,       created a complete, mature crea-
   One does not have to maintain        and, discovering that the two do        tion. He created a mature man
that Scripture is a kind of science     not agree, conclude that he will        and woman, not a couple of in-
textbook in order to maintain           have to adjust his interpretation       fants, and surely not an evolving
this position. Everyone knows           of Scripture to fit his science and     creature. He called the sun,
that this is not true. The Bible        his scientific data. But he is will-    moon, and stars into existence;
does not speak scientific               ing `to bow before the Scriptures       and there they were. He called
language, and it does not present       with his science. And where             the dry land and the seas into ex-
a scientific analysis of things.        there is conflict, he will re-          istence. He called plants and
When it records the work of             examine and adjust his science          trees into existence. He called
creation, it very evidently does        and scientific conclusions so that      the animals, the birds, the fish
not do so from the viewpoint of         they are in harmony with Scrip-         out of the earth and out of the
an astronomer and his telescope,        ture.                                   waters. All of the creation was
for example, but from the view-           The principle of the absolute         fashioned and stood there in its
point of the earth as the habita-       authority of Scripture must             completion in six days! Call it an
tion of man and as the center           prevail.                                "appearance of age," if you will;
and stage of all history. The real                                              but I do not know what age it ap-
question is not whether the Bible                                               peared to have. Nor is that the
                                                                                point. The point is that on the

                                                                                                The Standard Bearer  I485


basis of Scripture we begin with        destroyed by fire. And the              plans approved by the Staff and
what unbelief needs billions of         destruction of that former world        announced a year ago. In har-
years to arrive at. There is a fun-     is comparable to and typical of         mony with those plans, Professor-
damental difference!                    the final destruction of our world      elect David Engelsma and Prof.
   2) We must not forget that           in the holocaust of the final fire.     R. Decker will take over as
science does not and cannot               4) Closely related to the             ,Editor-in-Chief and Managing
study the universe as it was            preceding is the fact of the Flood      Editor, respectively.
originally formed. The universe         itself. Of course, you can relegate       More than one person asked
which we study today is a               that Flood to "primeval history,"       me orally whether I did not feel
universe radically changed at the       or you can deny its universality.       a certain amount of regret about
time of the fall and through the        But Biblically conceived, the           my pending retirement. I told
curse. There are many indica-           Flood was in every way a                them this story. After our annual
tions of this in Scripture; and         tremendous catastrophe, an awful        Staff meeting in June, the last
science should pay attention to         divine intervention, and at the         over which I presided, I walked
the changes which Scripture             same time a mighty wonder of            across from the seminary to my
points out. There was a change          grace, a miracle. Consider that         home, and said to my wife, "Just
in the domain of the animals.           the windows of heaven were              think! We made a lot of decisions
There was a change in man's             opened and the fountains of the         at our meeting about the next
dominion over the animals.              great deep were broken up, Gen.         volume-year, and I don't have to
There was a change in the earth         7: 11. The Flood, in the light of       do anything about them!" I felt as
which was cursed. There was a           Scripture, must not be reduced to       though a heavy burden had been
change in the food of man. Ac-          an ordinary event with ordinary         lifted from my shoulders. I sup-
cording to Romans 8:19, the             rainfall which was exceedingly          pose that is a bit difficult for any-
whole creation came under the           lengthy. It was the destruction of      one to understand, unless he has
bondage of corruption through           the first world. You cannot even        spent as many years as I have in
the fall and the curse. This cer-       begin to imagine the tremendous         meeting deadlines of preparing
tainly implies, negatively, that        changes wrought by that Flood in        an issue and getting material to
science cannot simply proceed on        comparison with the devastation         the printer for 21 issues per year.
the assumption that there is an         that a very small local flood can         More important than my per-
uninterrupted  continuum  from          wreak today.                            sonal relief and the fact that now
the beginning until today. To a           5) Consider the fact that Scrip-      I hope to have the time to attend
large extent we cannot even im-         ture presents .us in Genesis 5 and      to other writings is my satisfac-
agine how things were when that         Genesis 11 with two very definite       tion that provision has been
first creation stood in its pristine    chronologies in the generations         made for a smooth and orderly
beauty and perfection. For all          of Adam and the generations of          transition for our magazine and
that we know and can study is a         Shem. Consider, too, that at the        that two capable men have con-
creation that is under the curse        time of the Flood and again at          sented to take over the work.
and under the bondage of corrup-        the time of the Tower of Babel            To my fellow Staff members I
tion.                                   there were two divine interven-         say thanks for your help and sup-
  3) There was a radically dif-         tions in the life-span of mankind.      port over the years.
ferent world before the Flood.            All of these truths are of signi-       To my successors I wish the
The Bible itself tells us this, II      ficance for the Christian who is        Lord's blessing and pledge my
Peter 3:5, 6: "For this they will-      engaged in the study of various         support in continuing the
ingly are ignorant of, that by the      natural sciences.                       testimony of  The Standard Bearer.
word of God the heavens were of           And they should warn us not             To my readers I say, "Thank-
old, and the earth standing out of      to capitulate to worldly science        you for your patient bearing with
the water and in the water:             and its unbelieving conclusions.        me through the years."
Whereby the world that then               Let us hold fast to the Word of         For the coming volume-year I
was, being overflowed with              God! Cl                          HCH    have asked for a leave of
water, perished." Notice that the                                               absence from the Staff, though I
Bible speaks of the pre-diluvian        Farewell!                               have promised to write some in-
world as  another world,  the             Since this is the last issue of       formative articles from Tasmania,
world that then was. Ours is the        the current volume-year, this is        Australia, for which land my wife
world that now is. That past            also my final word as Editor and        and I will soon be departing, D.V.
world was destroyed by the              Managing Editor of The Standard           May the Lord continue to bless
Flood, by water. Ours will be           Bearer,  in harmony with the            our Standard Bearer. 0          HCH

486  / The Standard Bearer


                                          Has The Church Misread
 Book Review
Herman C. Hanko :                         The Bible?

HAS THE CHURCH MISREAD                      The author claims that he (and        literary and historical criticism,
THE BIBLE? The history of in-             authors of the volumes that are         or whatever the latest theory of
terpretation in the light of cur-         to follow) are all committed to         interpretation may be. And there
rent issues, Moises Silva; Zonder-        the divine inspiration of Scripture     are many (including myself) who
van Publishing House, 1987. 136           in the sense of its complete iner-      reject redaction criticism as well
pp., no price listed (paper).             rancy in the original manuscripts.      as literary-historical criticism and
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)              He stresses this in more than one       who insist that these methods of
   This book is the first in a series     place and seems intent on per-          interpretation deny the divine
under the general title: "Founda-         suading his readers that this is in-    and inerrant inspiration of Scrip-
tions of Contemporary Interpreta-         deed true.                              ture.
tion." The series is edited by the          The book is, however, trou-             So what is the problem? Are
author of this volume and "seeks          bling in more than one respect. It      these men laboring under a false
to identify and work toward a             is, I am convinced, must reading        conception of what divine in-
clarification of the basic problems       for all those who are interested        spiration is? Are they deceiving
of interpretation that affect our         in the current debate concerning        themselves and others, claiming
reading of the Bible today. This          the inspiration and authority of        to believe in a doctrine while in
unique series covers the field of         Scripture. And this issue is the        fact denying it? Or perhaps are
general hermeneutics in a com-            real issue underlying many other        they correct so that the answer
prehensive and systematic                 controversies in the modern             to the title of Dr. Silva's book has
fashion."                                 church world: it is the real issue      to be answered in the affirma-
  As the sub-title indicates, this        beneath the debate over evolu-          tive: Yes, the church has misread
introductory volume is intended           tionism vs. the doctrine of crea-       the Bible all these years.
to introduce the series by a              tion; it is the basic issue in the        It is becoming increasingly
review of the history of Biblical         whole struggle over the right of        clear to me that if we are to de-
interpretation; yet it is not really      women to hold ecclesiastical of-        fend the truth of Scripture's in-
a history in the sense in which           fice; it is the fundamental ques-       spiration and inerrancy, we are
one usually thinks of history, but        tion in the church's stand on such      going to have to come to grips
is more a review of certain key           questions as homosexuality,             with these problems and answer
views in interpretation that have         divorce and remarriage, etc.            them. And this book (and the
appeared throughout history. The            The difficulty is that there is an    series as a whole) is an excellent
purpose is to introduce the main          increasingly large number of Bi-        place to begin. The book is ex-
problems of hermeneutics with             ble scholars, many of whom are          tremely clear and well-written,
which the whole series will deal.         within conservative Reformed            without all the jargon that most
                                          and Presbyterian Churches, who          books of this type use. It can be
                                          teach in some of the conservative       understood by almost anyone
                                          colleges and seminaries in this         who takes the time to study it a
                                          land and abroad, who vehement-          bit - it is not written exclusively
                                          ly claim to hold to the absolute        for ministers and seminary
Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church    inerrancy of Scripture, and who         students. It defines the issues
History and New Testament in the Prot-    yet embrace redaction criticism,        sharply and clearly and without
estant Reformed Seminary.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  I487


equivocation. The issues are all                 In the course of the book these      Dogmatiek,  and is criticized by
there: what is one going to say                questions are dealt with in detail,    G.C. Berkouwer in his book on
about them?                                    and some related questions are         Scripture. Nevertheless, it has
   It is, of course, impossible in             introduced. E.g., in Chapter 3,        become a rather popular
the course of this review to deal              where the author deals with the        analogy, although I personally
in detail with the whole problem.              problem of the literal vs. the         have some reservations about it.
In fact, that would not even be                figurative interpretation of Scrip-    However that may be, Silva
wise, since it is not always ap-               ture, he points out many dif-          points out rather pointedly, that
parent in what direction either                ficulties which arise in connec-       those who hold to a "low" view
Dr. Silva or following writers in-             tion with this problem, also as far    of Scripture criticize those who
tend to go on crucial questions.               as the debate over millennial          hold to a high view as being
Dr. Silva repeatedly introduces                views is concerned. In connec-         "Docetic," i.e., denying the
questions and leaves them hang-                tion with the doctrine of Scrip        human element just as the
ing, all the while assuring his                ture's clarity, he talks of whether    "Docetists" denied Christ's human
readers that they will be treated              or not Scripture has just one, sim-    nature. Silva shoots back at them
in detail in future books of the               ple, natural, meaning, or whether      that certainly the charge of
series.                                        it has deeper meanings as well in      Arianism can be levelled against
   But there are some preliminary              some places. In Chapter V he           them because they deny the
observations which, I think,                   discusses the question of "cultural    divine element just as Arius
ought to be made - observations                contextualization" and says that       denied the divinity of Christ. It is
which are of no little importance              the only question with which we        a point well taken.
in connection with this whole                  deal is how far to carry it, for         Nevertheless, one keeps get-
question.                                      even a translation is a cultural       ting the feeling that Silva looks at
   Before we get into this matter,             contextualization. How can a           the whole problem of the dif-
however, it might be well to spell             passage, understood in its own         ference between the "lows" and
out the problems as Dr. Silva                  cultural context and applicable to     the "highs" as being one of
sees them. He has a summary of                 situations within that context, be     degree. Everyone, Silva seems to
them on p. 37 of the book, which               understood in our context and          maintain, agrees with redaction
we quote:                                      culture and be applicable to our       criticism, literal criticism,
   The Bible is divine, yet it has come to     times? Is there not, Silva asks,       historical criticism, or whatever.
us in human form.                              evidence that the New Testament        The question is: how far are you
   The commands of God are absolute,           writers contextualized the Old         going to carry it? The "lows"
yet the historical context of the writings
appears to relativize certain elements.        Testament in their use of it?          carry it way too far and lose the
   The divine message must be clear, yet         The key point in all the debate      divine; the "highs" make use of it
many passages seem ambiguous.                  is the question of whether Scrip-      only in a very limited way.
   We are dependent only on the Spirit         ture has a human as well as a            I am extremely uncomfortable
For instruction, yet scholarship is surely     divine factor. This is assumed by      with that kind of analysis. I for
necessary.
  The Scriptures seem to presuppose a          the author, as it is assumed by        one do not believe for a moment
literal and historical reading, yet we are     almost all those who deal with         that the difference between those
also confronted by the figurative and          questions of Biblical interpreta-      who receive the Bible as the
nonhistorical (e.g., the parables).            tion. Silva makes much of this,        Word of God in all its parts, and
 Proper interpretation requires the inter-     and even makes a point or two          those who challenge it in many
preter's personal freedom, yet some
degree of external, corporate authority        worth repeating. He argues that        respects is only a difference of
appears imperative.                            there is an analogy between the        degree. I insist that it is a dif-
  The objectivity of the biblical message      incarnation of Christ and the in-      ference of fundamental view-
is essential, yet our presuppositions seem     scripturation of Gods Word. Just       point. The critics are wrong,
to inject a degree of subjectivity into the    as Christ has a divine and a           dead wrong - whether they be
interpretive process.                          human nature, so Scripture has a       redaction critics, historical critics,
                                               Divine and a human element. Just       or any other kind of critic.
                                               as the human nature of Christ is         The whole problems lies in
                                               ginless, so is Scripture, though a     that question of the human and
                                               numan book, without error. And         the divine factor in Scripture.
                                               Further parts of the analogy can       There is, of course, no question
                                               >e drawn out. Silva is not the         about it that God used men as in-
                                               :irst to use this; it appears in       struments to write His Scriptures.
                                               Bavinck's  Gereformeerde               Nor is there any question about it

488  / The Standard Bearer


that the individual characteristics        The method of Biblical inter-          things are implied in the tried
and personality traits, as well as       pretation which the church of            and true grammatico-historical
the individual cultural milieus of       Christ has almost throughout her         method of Biblical interpretation.
these men were preserved in the          entire history adopted is the so-        This is not where I have my
writings of Scripture. No one, so        called grammatico-historical             quarrel with current "conserva-
far as I know, has ever denied           method. While during the Middle          tive" hermeneutics.
these truths.                            Ages this method came into                  The problem lies in the whole
   But Scripture is part of Gods         disrepute, nevertheless, in times        relation between the divine and
work of salvation in Jesus Christ.       of spiritual strength in the             the "human" elements in Scrip-
It belongs to the history of salva-      church, this method was fol-             ture.
tion and thus belongs to the             lowed. This method says two                 A few things ought to be said
miraculous work of God which             things about Biblical interpreta-        about this so that the point can
He performs sovereignly, through         tion: 1) That Scripture must be in-      be made as clear as possible.
grace. It would be better, I think,      terpreted according to the or-              If we believe that Scripture is
to compare the writing of Scrip-         dinary rules of grammar and syn-         infallibly inspired, that it is the
ture with the work of the salva-         tax of the language in which             Word of God, that it is inerrant in
tion of the church. Just as salva-       Scripture was originally written         all its parts, that it is divinely-
tion is the work of grace alone          (Hebrew and Greek). 2) That              breathed, that holy men of God
without human works, so is also          Scripture must be interpreted in         spoke as they were moved by
the writing of Scripture the work        its historical context. E.g., the        the Holy Spirit, then the all-
of grace alone without human             epistle to the Galatians must be         important question which every
works. Just as the individual sin-       interpreted in the context of the        exegete confronts is this: What is
ner is saved without his character       fact that Paul wrote this letter to      the meaning of the Holy Spirit in
and personality being destroyed          the churches of Eastern Asia             this particular text? That is the
or submerged, so also God used           Minor to combat the heresy of            only question of any importance
men to write the Scriptures              Judaism which had so quickly             whatsoever. That is the question
without destroying their in-             entered the churches there.              which has to be answered. That
dividuality. Just as the sinner is         This method of Biblical inter-         is the question which confronts
saved in the whole context of the        pretation is said to justify literary    the preacher when he prepares
time and place in which God has          and historical criticism. Literary       his sermons, because he must
placed him, so is Scripture writ-        criticism simply takes into ac-          come to God's people with the
ten through men in their own             count what kind of material one          words: "Thus saith the Lord."
time and place which God has             is dealing with in Scripture             That is the question which the
determined for them. Arminian-           (whether poetry as in the Psalms         child of God confronts when he
ism wishes to preserve a human           or narrative as in the gospels,          takes that Word of God as a lamp
element in the work of salvation;        etc.); but it also attempts to           unto his feet and a light upon his
so a human element is intro-             demonstrate how a given book of          pathway. He is not interested in
duced into the writing of Scrip-         the Bible came into existence;           what any men say, no matter
ture. But Scripture says that            i.e., whether Matthew or Luke, in        how holy they may be. He is in-
salvation is all of grace. So also is    writing his gospel narrative, used       terested in what God says. That
Scripture all of grace. And so           outside sources, depended upon           is the only things which counts.
God is the sole Author of salva-         the eye-witness testimony of               The dangers of redaction
tion and of Scripture. That needs        others, etc. In this area redaction      criticism or historical-literary
to be emphasized first of all.           criticism enters the picture, for        criticism are, therefore, these.
  Of course God used men to              redaction criticism deals with the         1) This type of critical ap
write Scripture; but this must           question of how the men whom             preach to Scripture places all the
never be interpreted apart from          God used to write the Scriptures         emphasis on the human element
God's sovereign predestination           put their writings in final form.        in Scripture and puts the human
and providence. God so con-              And historical criticism deals           element as an element along side
trolled the whole process of             with the question of the historical      that of the divine. It fails to
writing Scripture that what              occasion, the human author, the          reckon with the relation between
emerged was Gods Word exclu-             cultural influences, etc. in a given     the men whom God used to write
sively.                                  book of the Bible.                       the Scriptures and the work of
                                           I have no doubt that some of           God Himself. It introduces into
                                         this is indeed legitimate work           the Scriptures a sort of dualism in
                                         and that surely some of these            which both God and man have a

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role. It does not see that the            4) From a practical point of               interpretation which all the
human writers were completely          view, and most serious of all, it             church has used implies such em-
controlled by God so that the          puts the Scriptures outside the               phasis on the human element.
product is God's work exclusive-       reach of the child of God who                 The argument here is, of course,
ly. It is therefore an introduction    has no formal training in ar-                 that the meaning of Gods Word,
into the doctrine of Scripture of      cheology; rabbinic literature,                i.e., the meaning of the Holy
Arminianism.                           mid-eastern culture, etc., etc.               Spirit, can really be discovered
   2) It concentrates so complete-     Really to understand Scripture                only by careful attention to all
ly on the human element that, in       one must be an expert in all                  the historical conditions under
practice, the divine element is ig-    kinds of esoteric subjects. And if            which a given book was written.
nored. This is a practical conse-      one does not have the scholarly                 While we do not deny that
quence, but very real for all that.    credentials that the learned pro-             there is an element of truth to all
And, in fact, this is exactly what     fessors in seminary have, too bad             this, there are, nevertheless, cer-
happens to all Arminianism. The        about him; he cannot really                   tain points that have to be
human element is so emphasized         know what Scripture teaches. Ef-              remembered.
that it becomes the only impor-        fectively the Scriptures are taken               1) In many, many instances in
tant element. And so, from a           from God's people and are made                Scripture we simply do not know
practical point of view, this type     the exclusive property of learned             the historical circumstances of a
of criticism so concentrates upon      men.                                          given book. We do not know,
the human that the exegete                To avoid this, some have sug-              e.g., who wrote I & II Kings or I
never gets around to asking con-       gested that after all, Scripture has          & II Chronicles. We do not know
cerning the meaning of the Holy        more than one level of meaning.               in every instance who wrote a
Spirit. One is so interested in        There is the simple, easy, literal            given Psalm, or under what cir-
what Paul had to say, or what          level which any person can                    cumstances it was written. We do
Isaiah had to say, or what David       understand, but there is the deep,            now know the author of the epis-
had to say, that it never occurs       underlying meaning which is the               tle to the Hebrews. We do not
to him to ask what the Holy            real truth and which is available             know with certainty the cir-
Spirit has to say. He becomes so       only to those who have Ph.D.`s                cumstances under which the
wrapped up in the cultural con-        behind their names. But this is               gospel narratives were written
text in which the book was writ-       simply a return to the old                    and what purposes they were in-
ten, the cultural influences which     medieval and Romish doctrine                  tended to serve. We can make
determined the nature of the           which ultimately fills the child of           guesses about all these things,
writings of a given man, that the      God with despair, for he cannot               but the fact remains that the
revelation of God in Scripture is      really understand what the Bible              most learned of scholars disagree
forgotten.                             says, after all. As C.S. Lewis                violently among themselves on
  3) It runs the grave risk (ex-       writes:                                       many of these questions.
tremely common even among                An experienced clergyman told me              The point is that God did not,
conservative scholars) of dealing      that most liberal priests, faced with this    in every instance, choose to
with what is called so often           problem, have recalled from its grave the     reveal these things to us. What
Johannine theology, or Pauline         late medieval conception of two truths: a
                                       picture-truth which can be preached to        does that mean? Well, it obvious-
eschatology, or the corpus of          the people, and an esoteric truth for use     ly means that God is saying that
Petrine literature, to the exclu-      among the clergy. I shouldn't think you       a knowledge of these things is
sion of the truth of God in Christ.    will enjoy this conception much when          not absolutely essential to an
Paul has his theology, and John        you have to put it into practice. I'm sure    understanding of the text because
his. And perhaps the two do not        if I had to produce picture-truths to a       the important question of the
                                       parishioner in great anguish or under
even always agree with each            fierce temptation, and produce them with      text is: What is the Holy Spirit
other. But, after all, the in-         that seriousness and fervour which his        saying? And we need not know
fluences which shaped Paul are         condition demanded, while knowing all         all this historical and cultural
different from those which             the time that I didn't exactly - only in      background to know what the
shaped John. And the unity of          some Pickwickian sense - believe them         Spirit is saying to the church. It
                                       myselt; I'd find my Forehead getting red
Scripture in the one great revela-     and damp and my collar getting tight.         makes not one particle of dif-
tion of the truth of God in Christ        It will be argued by the                   ference in these cases what the
is ignored and denied.                 defenders of redaction and                    historical circumstances were.
                                       historical-literary criticism that,
                                       nevertheless, the tried and true
                                       grammatico-historical method of

490  I  The Standard Bearer


   If we had to wait for scholars         cumstances, but his purpose is .to     question of Biblical interpreta-
to decide in every case what the          help us in our stupidity from          tion. But these things are surely
historical circumstances were             above, so that we may learn the        the limits within which all inter-
before we could understand a              more easily what God Himself           pretation must be done and all
part of Scripture, we would have          has to say to us. We are con-          problems must be solved.
to wait until the Lord comes              cerned only about God's Word.             1 will, 1 know, be charged with
again; and then it will be too            And if God, through the Spirit of      being unscholarly. So be it. If
late.                                     Christ, in some instances chooses      scholarly work requires one to
   2) This does not mean that             to help us by revealing certain        deny in any way or manner what
where the Holy Spirit Himself is          historical circumstances, we can       God has done in that remarkable
pleased to reveal these historical        only bow in humility before the        miracle of giving us Scripture, we
circumstances to us, that such in-        wisdom of God. But if God tells        can' only be thankful that God
formation is helpful in under-            us that this information `is not       saves us by His grace from
standing a book or a given                really necessary, we are guilty of     scholarliness. And our earnest
passage of Scripture. But let it be       consummate folly when we               prayer ought to be: Deliver us, 0
remembered then that the Holy             spend time, energy, and money          God, from the hands of scholar-
Spirit Himself has made the deci-         writing hundreds of books which        ship.
sion on what to reveal to us. And         are adept at constructing magnifi-       A simple, child-like, humble
we ought, 1 think, on the whole,          cent castles of human speculation      faith in Scripture as the Word of
let the Holy Spirit make these            but which help us not at all in        God, understandable to my child
decisions in every case.                  learning what the Spirit says to       sitting on my knee, is more to be
   But even then, if the Holy             the Church.                            preferred than the intricacies and
Spirit is pleased to reveal to us            1 am aware of the fact that         labyrinthian mazes of redaction
these historical circumstances,           what 1 have written does not deal      criticism. 0
His purpose is not to inspire us to       with all the problems that arise
write volumes of learned balder-          in connection with the whole
dash about these historical cir-




                                          The Distinctive Traits Of
                                          True Godliness:
 In His Fear                              Devotion To The Honor And
Arie den Hartog                           Glory of God


                                            God has made all things for          "Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to
                                          His own glory. "For of Him and         receive glory and honor and
                                          through Him, and to Him, are all       power: for thou hast created all
                                          things: to whom be glory for           things, and for thy pleasure they
                                          ever. Amen." (Romans 11:36).           are and were created," Rev. 4: 11.
                                          From the beginning to the end of       As the sovereign God He will
                                          all history and through all the        cause all things to glorify
                                          ages of eternity God will be glori-    Himself. He will not give His
Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Prot-    fied. At the beginning of history      glory to any other. He is jealous
estant Reformed Church of Randolph,       the angels sang of the praises of      for His own honor and glory.
Wisconsin.                                God. In heaven the song is heard;      Even the wicked man, though

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer / 491


contrary to his own will, shall        great Babylon, that I have built       Oh, this is not yet perfectly evi-
finally glorify God. This is il-       for the house of my kingdom by         dent in the child of God. He still
lustrated in the history of            the might of my power, and for         has the old sinful nature that
Pharaoh, the proud wicked king         the honor- of my majesty?"             often distracts him from this pur-
of Egypt. For God says concern-        (Daniel 4:30). But God will hum-       pose in life and sometimes makes
ing Pharaoh: "Even for this same       ble the proud wicked man as He         him glory and boast in himself,
purpose have I raised thee up,         did Nebuchadnezzar, who was            as the world does. Nevertheless
that I might shew my power in          finally forced to acknowledge:         the glory of God is the supreme
thee, and that my name might be        "And I Nebuchadnezzar praise           ideal for which he strives. In
declared throughout all the            and extol and honor the king of        striving for this he finds his
earth," Romans 9: 17.                  heaven, all whose works are            greatest joys and pleasures. God
   God seeks His own glory in all      truth, and His ways judgment:          has redeemed us unto Himself
of His creatures. The Psalmist         and those that walk in pride He        that we might glorify Him. The
sings: "The heavens declare the        is able to abase," Daniel 4:37.        word of God commands us:
glory of God; and the firmament        Though the ungodly refuse to           "Whether therefore ye eat or
sheweth His handywork. Day un-         acknowledge the glory of God,          drink, or whatsoever ye do, do it
to day uttereth speech, and night      God will glorify Himself over          all to the glory of God," I Corin-
unto night sheweth knowledge,"         them. He will glorify Himself in       thians 10:31. We know all of this
Psalm 19: 1, 2. The brute creation     the destruction of the ungodly.        particularly as Reformed Chris-
glorifies God unconsciously              But God has caused His people        tians. For the absolutely central
without having a knowledge of          to differ. He works in them            principle of all things for the
the creator. God made man in           through His grace and Holy             Reformed Faith is "To God alone
order that he might consciously        Spirit. He has chosen and formed       be the glory."
and personally and willingly           His people for His own glory and         But what does all of this really
glorify God His creator. Man           praise. He has called us out of        mean? This must be more than
glorifies God when, knowing            darkness into His marvellous           merely a nice thought for us. It
God, he testifies of the greatness,    light that we might show forth         must be more than a great doc-
the virtues, and the goodness of       His praises. He has redeemed us        trine, though it is indeed a great
God. Man glorifies God when He         by His grace that we might             doctrine. It must really be the
worships and serves God as His         acknowledge His great mercy            distinctive mark of all our life
Lord and creator and gives Him         and give Him thanks. He has            that causes us to differ radically
thanks in all things.                  saved us in order that we might        from the world. Let us consider
  Wicked ungodly man has a             forever glorify Him for the            some of the areas where our
controversy with God, his              wonder of His grace, the               devotion to the honor and glory
Creator and Lord. -He refuses to       greatness of His love, and the         of God ought to be evident.
glorify God. Rather he seeks his       faithfulness of His mercies.             First of all we are devoted to
own glory. He constantly seeks           It follows therefore that one of     the glory of God when we from
to deny God and rebel against          the great, distinctive marks of the    the heart truly acknowledge Him
Him. He refuses to worship God         true child of God is that he is        as our God, the Lord of heaven
and render Him thanks. He              devoted in all of his life to the      and earth, and the blessed God of
changes the glory of the uncor-        glory of God. The Spirit of God        our salvation. God is glorified by
ruptible God into an image made        works in his heart a fervent           His people when they acknowl-
like unto man and beast. He wor-       desire for the glory of God. This      edge Him, confess His name,
ships and serves the creature          is the goal and purpose of his         trust in Him alone and complete-
rather than the creator. Wicked        life. He says with the Psalmist:       ly. If we live for any other or
man boasts of his own greatness        "While I live will I praise the        trust in any other then we have
and glory. He can make nothing         Lord: I will sing praises unto my      made an idol. Then we are giv-
of himself. He is absolutely           God while I have any being,"           ing the glory that belongs to God
dependent on the God of prov-          Psalm 146:2. The true child of         to someone or something that
idence, but he does not                God delights in the glory of God.      does not deserve it. To be
acknowledge God. He seeks to           All his strength and energy is ex-     devoted to the glory of God is
build a kingdom of man on this         pended to glorify God. All his         something very exclusive. To be
earth. Then he boasts with proud       zeal and enthusiasm concentrates       devoted to the glory of God we
Nebuchadnezzar; "Is not this           on this. All his time and efforts      must be prepared to forsake the
                                       and talents are used for this end.     world and all of its riches and
                                                                              glory. It is impossible to serve

492  /  The Standard Bearer


God and mammon. We are                 who hold to such false doctrine       takes a genuine interest in the
devoted to the glory of God            deny Gods glory. Those who are        church's work of the preaching of
when we seek His kingdom and           careless about doctrine and truth     the gospel. He has a profound
His truth and His righteousness        are careless about Gods glory.        sense of the fact that this work is
supremely. Everything else             The chief reason why the true         the work of the whole church
becomes secondary to that.             child of God confesses, promotes,     and her every member. He sup-
  We are devoted to the honor          and defends the truth of God is       ports that work with prayers and
and glory of God when we               his desire to magnify the name of     gifts. He seeks also actively to be
delight in the worship of God in       God and to declare His praises. If    involved in some aspect of that
His house and among His people.        the Christian is truly devoted to     work.
We are devoted to the glory of         the glory of God, he is prepared        We show our devotion to the
God when we insist that the            to suffer shame and persecution,      glory of God when we walk in
Lord's Day was ordained for the        the dishonor of his own name, in      good works. Our Lord said in
special purpose of worshiping          order that the truth of God might     that beautiful discourse recorded
God. We do not then make this a        be maintained and declared in all     in John 15, in which he uses the
day to pursue our own pleasures        of its great glory. He is prepared    allegory of the vine and the bran-
and prosperity. We come to             even to give his own life that the    ches; "Herein is my Father glori-
Gods house to bring our vows           truth of God might be exalted         fied, that ye bear much fruit; so
before Him and to offer our            and maintained. This is real          shall ye be my disciples." The
sacrifices of praise and thanks-       devotion to the honor and glory       fruit Jesus speaks of there is the
giving. It is a very grievous thing    of God. Do we reveal such devo-       fruit of good works. Again in the
therefore when the Christian con-      tion in our lives?                    sermon on the Mount the Lord
siders it a burden to come to            We show our devotion to the         exhorts us: "Let your light so
God's house or when he is              honor and glory of God when we        shine before men, that they may
satisfied with coming only once        have a great zeal for the             see your good works and glorify
on the Lords Day. Such an at-          preaching of the gospel. God is       your Father in heaven,", Matthew
titude is certainly not consistent     glorified centrally through the       5: 16. God has redeemed us to
with godliness. The true child of      gospel of grace and love in Christ    Himself as a people zealous of
God is profoundly conscious of         Jesus. The gospel is the power of     good works. Our Heidelberg
what worship is all about. It is       God whereby He saves His own.         Catechism defines good works as
chiefly praising God and giving        Above all, in the gospel is re-       only those which are done out of
Him thanks. In God's house the         vealed the almighty power and         true faith and performed in ac-
saints of God together lift up         greatness and sovereign mercy of      cordance with the law of God
their hearts zealously to praise       our God. God's people therefore       and for the glory of God. By that
their creator and redeemer. One        must give their lives for the         definition many things which
could easily quote passage after       preaching of the gospel unto the      men imagine are good works fall
passage from the Psalms to show        ends of the earth so that Gods        short and are not good works at
how this was the supreme desire        name might be exalted in all the      all. The child of God does good
and delight of the inspired            nations of the earth. It was zeal     works not as the Pharisees did -
writers. How many Christians           for the gospel and the glory of       for their own boasting and glory.
lack this zeal for the glory of        the name of God that constrained      Many in the church today do
God, also in our own churches!         many thousands of missionaries        good works out of that motive.
  A man is devoted to the glory        for all the ages of the present       The child of God does good
of God when he reveals a love          dispensation to go forth to suffer    works in order that God in
for the truth of God. We dis-          great hardship, to endure terrible    heaven might be glorified. When
cussed the matter of love for the      persecution, and to make large        the child of God does good
truth of God in our last article.      sacrifices of ease and worldly        works, then the glory of God's
Here, of course, these two marks       pleasure for the cause of the         own work in him shines forth.
of godliness are one. God is glori-    gospel. Every Christian must            The true child of God is
fied in His truth. His truth con-      have such zeal for the glory of       devoted to the honor and glory
cerns His sovereignty, His             God. He reveals this zeal when        of God in all of his daily occupa-
righteousness and holiness, His        he testifies of the gospel with a     tion. This is not something
goodness and mercy. False doc-         heart burning with enthusiasm to      separate, for one particular
trine is one of the ways in which      his family and to his friends and     department of his life. The child
the devil seeks to change the          neighbors. Because of devotion        of God seeks to glorify God in
glory of God into a lie. Those         to the glory of God, the Christian    the common daily course of life.

                                                                                            The Standard Bearer  / 493


It matters not whether he or she            him in love, when she cares for       The godly farmer is devoted to
be a farmer, or a laborer, or a             her children and is a keeper of       the glory of God when he plants
doctor, or a lawyer, or a home              the house, as God commands her        and harvests his crops, acknowl-
maker, or a school teacher, or              to be. The godly businessman is       edging the God of providence
whatever the case may be. The               devoted to the glory of God           and giving thanks always to Him.
calling of the child of God is to           when he refuses to go along with      May this beautiful trait of godli-
do all things to the glory of God.          the corruption that is in the         ness be manifest in all of us in
The godly wife and mother is                world. He steadfastly maintains       whatever we do. Then we shall
devoted to the glory of God                 the principles of righteousness       finally join the chorus in heaven
when she submits to her husband             even if this means great financial    to sing the glorious praises of
for the Lord's sake and serves              loss, because this is more impor-     God forever. 0
                                            tant to him than making money.





 Guided  into                               Steadfastly Holding To
All Truth
Thomas C. Miersma                           God's Word

   We have been considering the             thought is no more a certain or       inherently weak, imperfect at-
underlying trend which lies                 assured knowledge, founded            tempt. Whether any of it is at all
behind the modern and liberal               upon the objective revelation of      factually true or historically
approach to Scripture. That ap-             God, set down in His written          founded is totally beside the
proach is rooted in the principle           Word, but has been transformed        point in the modern liberal mind.
that man's reason is the standard           into a merely subjective inward       Matters of fact and history belong
of authority by which all things,           religious experience. It is con-      to the realm of reason, science,
including also God's Word, are to           fidence without knowledge or          and archaeology.
be judged. The fruit of that                confidence based upon mere feel-        The result of this separation of
philosophical principle has been,           ings. Moreover, because faith is      faith and reason is far-reaching,
as we have seen, a separation               really the response of our ex-        as it has unfolded in the nine-
between faith and reason. Reason            perience, that experience, or the     teenth and twentieth centuries.
belongs to the realm of human               feelings out of which it arises,      On the side of reason it has been
science and philosophical                   becomes the new revelation. It is     open season on the Bible. Men
speculation. Faith in modern                a revelation which cannot be ex-      have spent their lives laboring in
                                            plained. Like climbing a moun-        speculation, without any facts,
                                            taintop and beholding a vista, it     about that which is factual in the
                                            cannot be put into words. One         gospels and in the Old Testa-
                                            must climb the mountaintop            ment. They have spent their lives
                                            himself and experience it. Scrip-     seeking to discern the various
                                            ture is thus reduced to a mere        sources, traditions, and influences
                                            record of individual and cor-         which they assume must underlie
                                            porate religious experiences, both    the Bible. They have taken Israel
                                            of individual men, prophets and       and reduced it to a scattered
                                            apostles, or of the church or the     group of Semitic tribes, with dif-
                                            nation of Israel. It is`man's at-     ferent religious traditions, coming
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First    tempt to put into words what          together into some form of na-
Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.                            cannot be put into words. It is an    tional union. The Old Testament

494 / The Standard Bearer


is regarded as the result of these        It is in the midst of the             Without the standard of the
differing religious traditions being    multitude of these opinions,            Scriptures, man has no standard
blended together and being con-         theories, and their constantly          but that which he finds in
tinually revised and edited. The        shifting form and variety, that we      himself. That standard of Scrip-
proof for any of this is nonexis-       stand as Reformed people.               ture must be maintained as truth
tent. The prophets are reduced to       Against them we must do battle          in its entirety. Where the Bible is
spokesmen for various religious         and against them we must stand          no more regarded as God's Word
and political factions in Israel.       steadfast, holding to Gods Word.        of truth and of binding authority
The Old Testament church is             That Word of God is itself the on-      in all its parts, faith has no foun-
treated as the worlds greatest          ly weapon we have with which            dation and no anchor. It is adrift
religious borrower and adapter of       to fight the battle. It is the foun-    in a sea of pseudo-theological
other nation's thoughts, myths,         dation upon which we stand. It is       opinion. Where opinion reigns,
and sagas. Virtually every              our fundamental spiritual weapon        one man's is as trustworthy as
thought or historical record in         and only defense against the            another's, and my ideas about
Scripture is found to have some         assaults of those, who like Pilate      what the Bible is saying to me
pagan Canaanite source, origin,         ask, "What is truth?" and do so         are as valid as yours. The result,
or influence. The Scriptures have       even in the presence of Him Who         of course, is that everyone does
become the intellectual                 was the truth come in the flesh.        what is right in his own eyes.
playground of virtually every           Jesus Himself said of the Scrip-        Then everything is controlled in
philosophical system. Paul and          tures, "Thy word is truth," John        the church either by those who
Peter are set over against one          17:17. The Scriptures are their         have power and the ability to en-
another as leaders of two differ-       own defense. If men will not hear       force their opinions, or by the
ing factions in the New Testa-          them, they will not hear or             opinion and will of the majority.
ment church. And the doctrine of        believe, though one rise from the       That this is the situation in the
the resurrection of Christ is           dead.                                   world, among the non-Christian,
reduced to a form of mass                 In harmony with that Word of          or the unbelieving governments
hysteria among Jesus' followers         God, we must maintain the prin-         under which we live, is under-
and the apostles, beginning with        ciple that faith is both knowledge      standable. When it enters the
the women on Easter morning.            and confidence. We must hold            government of the church which
  Having no standard of truth,          fast to the truth that faith is not     professes Christ and His Word it
everything in the life of the           merely a responsive feeling to          is intolerable. It was upon the
church, its doctrine, practical         experience, but that it is what         basis of the certainty and truth of
morality, and order and                 our Heidelberg Catechism in the         Gods Word that the reformers
discipline becomes a matter of          light of Gods Word calls it in          would not bow before Rome and
opinion. Truth in the Bible is no       Lord's Day VII. Faith is a certain      the opinions of men. To do so
more a matter of "what saith the        or assured knowledge ". . . where-      they would have been compelled
Lord' but "what do I feel?" It          by I hold for truth all that            to compromise the truth. The
becomes a matter of whether a           God has revealed to us in his           same issue confronts us as Re-
given text reveals itself to me,        word." Out of that conviction and       formed people today. This may
speaks to me so that it is God's        certain knowledge arises con-           well mean that we are compelled
word to me, or whether it does          fidence and trust, the assurance        to stand alone as churches, as
not. Truth becomes nothing more         of faith that the promises of the       believers and Christians in the
than tradition, the collective feel-    gospel are for me as a child of         world, in our life and walk, and
ing of the church in history,           God. That assured confidence the        suffer also for righteousness' sake
(which is the basis of Rome) or         Holy Ghost Himself works in our         and for the truth's sake.
the will of the majority, which is      hearts by the gospel. Separate            To hold steadfastly to God's
to be regarded as the dynamic           faith from knowledge and there          Word, however, means also not
leading of the Spirit in the church     can remain no more confidence           only that we do not compromise
today. This is the position of the      of faith. This is exactly the           the truth, but that we hold it anti-
Pentecostal applied to the life of      reason that the Christian church        thetically. In the light of the truth
the church.                             and many Reformed churches in           we must expose the lie. Where
                                        particular are so weak in doc-          unbelief is found we do not gloss
                                        trinal understanding, are straying      it over, treat it as merely a dif-
                                        into ways of sin and sinful prac-       ference of opinion, but we call it
                                        tice, and seem no more to know          for what it is: unbelief. Do so to-
                                        their right hand from their left.       day and you will be accused of

                                                                                                The  Standard Bearer  / 495


being narrow-minded, old-                       Holding steadfastly to Gods               imagination, but in obedience
fashioned, or unloving. Today                Word, however, means that we                 and submission, also as we apply
such terms are compliments.                  do so not as a mere intellectual             that Word to our life and walk.
Broad, after all, is the way that            exercise. The certain knowledge              You cannot hold Gods Word as
leads to destruction. And it was             of faith holds Gods Word for                 truth in your head and live
the devil who was the first                  truth for me: for my life, my                according to the lie, for faith
modernist when in the Garden of              walk, my activity. Scripture is the          without works is dead. It is exact-
Eden he said, "Yea, hath God                 only rule, not only of faith, says           ly therein that the relative,
said?" And as for unloving, if you           our Belgic Confession of Faith,'             "What is truth?", "You have your
truly love someone, will you                 but also of life. Steadfastly                opinion, I have mine" philosophy
allow him to walk in unbelief to             holding to Gods Word means                   so easily enters the church. It is a
his own destruction? If the world            that we are both hearers and                 philosophy which is rooted in the
hated Christ as He exposed the               doers, that we strive to walk not            flesh which we are daily called to
lie, they will also hate you.                after our own will and our own               put off in conversion of life. 0





   The Synods of many of the                 and also with the World Alliance             not  becoming a full member  (an unfor-
Reformed churches have been                  of Reformed Churches (WARC);                 tunate phrase) of the institutional church
concluded. Of interest to us                 treatment of a protest against a             but rather is being accepted into full
especially are the decisions of the          church which has women elders                communion with  God's  people.  "That,"
                                                                                          he said, "we must underscore. "
Synod of our "mother" church,                (in direct violation of earlier deci-           Here follows a summary of the
the Christian Reformed Church.               sions of Synod); and, of course,             decision as presented in the Ban-
That Synod met from June 14 to               protests concerning the action of            ner:
June 23 at Calvin College.                   the Board of Trustees of Calvin                1. The church is warranted in admit-
Several important issues were                College in regard to the Van Till            ting to the Lord's Supper covenant
treated there: the question                  book:  The Fourth Day.                       children who give evidence of faith and
whether children might partake                 The Synod did not adopt the                who are able to discern the body and
of the Lord's Supper; decisions              position of opening the commu-               remember and proclaim the death of
concerning joining with the Na-              nion table to all baptized children          Jesus in celebrating the Lord's Supper.
                                                                                            2. The church is to assure itself of
tional Association of Evangelicals           as some advocate. It did indicate,           such faith through a public profession of
                                             however, that children could par-            faith on the part of covenant children.
                                             take by way of making a kind of                3. Covenant children should be en-
                                             profession of faith which would              couraged to make public profession of
                                             not admit them to full adult                 Faith as soon as they exhibit faith and
                                                                                          are able to discern the body and
                                             responsibilities in the church.              remember and proclaim the death of
                                             One member of the committee                  Jesus in celebrating the Lord's Supper.
                                             stated, according to the Banner,               4. The profession of faith of covenant
                                             June 27, 1988:                               children, required for admission to the
                                                                                          Lord's Supper, is not necessarily an ac-
                                              After four years of study, commented        ceptance of adult responsibilities within a
                                             Pev. Carl Zylstra of Classis Orange City,    congregation; therefore,
                                             1 member of the study committee, all of              a. the church continue to instruct
Gise .J. Van Baren is pastor of the Prot-    `he committee members have come to see       these children in the Word and in the Re-
estant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,       `hat baptism brings one into a covenant      formed confessions;
Michigan.                                    community and that profession of faith is

496  / The Standard Bearer


     b. adult responsibilities of member-       not limited to this one instance. It          "theistic evolution". There were
ship are to be granted by the church            pointed to the "withholding of                many protests against this finding
council and assumed by professing indi-
viduals at age eighteen or as granted by        denominational quota payments"                of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Leo
the articles of &corporation of the con-        as an example of "congregational              Peters created a stir in the Grand
gregation,                                      individualism" which the                      Rapids area when he purchased
   The Synod decided to join the                churches ought to avoid.                      full page advertisements a
National Association of Evangel-                   What will be the outcome?                  number of times in the Grand
icals, an association of funda-                 Rev. Leonard Vander Zee,                      Rapids Press to refute the conclu-
mentalists. At the same time, the               minister at Eastern Ave. C.R.C.               sions of the Board. Dr. Lester
Synod rejected the recommenda-                  responded in an interview.                    DeKoster,  former Calvin pro-
tion to join the World Alliance of                What will be Eastern Avenue's next          fessor and former editor of the
Reformed Churches. This latter                  move? "That's up to our council and           Banner, together with Mr. Leo
body consists of Presbyterian and               Classis Grand Rapids East," said Vander       Peters, dramatically placed their
Reformed bodies, many of which                  Zee in an interview after the decision. "I
                                                only regret that Eastern has been unfairly    own protest on the table at
are very liberal in outlook.                    branded as  congregational  when we've        Synod after its sessions began.
   Classis Minnesota South had an               followed the church order and classical       Synod, after a six-hour debate,
appeal at Synod against the prac-               procedures. "                                 "turned down a proposal that
tice of Eastern Ave. C.R.C. of                     That is a remarkable statement             Calvin physics professor Howard
having unordained women serv-                   by Vander Zee. A few years ago                Van Till and geology professors
ing as "adjunct elders". The prob-              the Synod decided that Eastern                Clarence Menninga and Davis
lem, of course, was not that                    Ave. C.R.C. could not have                    Young be prohibited from
they were "unordained', but that                women as "assistant" elders.                  teaching in a way that might lead
they were "adjunct elders". The                 Eastern Ave. "submitted" to that              to questions about `the event
Banner reported some of the                     decision. They no longer had                  character of the history in the
comments made:                                  women serving as assistant                    early chapters of Genesis.' "
   "Recognize that the real issue is not        elders. The same women, func-                    What did Synod do?
women in office, " (said) Rev. James De         tioning in the same manner, now                 Synod. . . decided to appoint a study
Vries of Classis Thornapple Valley, chair-      became  adjunct  elders. One                  committee . . . made up of scientists,
man of the advisory committee on this           could suppose that again Eastern              philosophers, and theologians to address
appeal. "Recognize that this is an issue        Ave. can abide by Synods deci-                the relationship between special and
of church order and our compliance with                                                       general revelation. The study, which is
it. Honor that process, or the church           sion and submit to the church                 due in 1991, will focus particularly on
order becomes a dead practice. "                order by changing the name                    the relationship between the creation
  Rev. Peter Brouwer of Classis Min-            once more of these women                      story in Genesis and evolutionary theory.
nesota South . . . said that his classis was    "elders". Perhaps these could be                 It is strange indeed that after
concerned only that the church order            called  auxiliary  elders, or  affiliate      all that has been taught for hun-
and the decisions of synod be followed.
"We deplore the congregationalism that          elders, or even associate elders,             dreds of years in the Reformed
is found among us," he said. . . .              or possibly subordinate elders.               churches, and in the C.R.C., and
  A number of delegates who opposed             On second thought, that last sug-             considering what our confessions
the appeal argued that Classis Grand            gestion would not be appropriate              have to say (not even to mention
Rapids East is in the process of respon-        since it would imply a lesser posi-           Scripture itself), that a study must
sibly dealing with the matter. . . .
  "Why stop Classis Grand Rapids East           tion for these women.                         once more be made on the rela-
from doing its work?" asked Rev. Simon             In all seriousness, however,               tionship between special and
Wolfert of Classis Toronto.                     one recognizes the real trend                 general revelation. Have past
  "How can synod go over the head of            toward congregationalism when                 teachings been so indefinite and
classis and directly address a congrega-        a congregation can do what is                 unclear that further study need
tion?" wondered Rev. Tim Limburg of
Classis Hackensack, whose own Washing-          right in its own eyes, while ignor-           be made? And, in a Reformed
ton, D.C., congregation allows women to         ing or mocking synodical deci-                denomination, is study still re-
serve as elders.                                sions.                                        quired to find out the relationship
   Synod sustained the appeal of                   The question arousing greatest             between the "creation story in
Classis Minnesota South. It de-                 interest was, perhaps, the report             Genesis and evolutionary
plored "congregationalism" in the               of the Board of Trustees which in             theory"? -One can only conclude
churches but emphasized in one                  effect vindicated three Calvin                that (1) a three-year delay was
of its grounds that congregation-               College professors who teach a                chosen to allow this whole ques-
alism seen in the denomination `is                                                            tion to simmer down; and (2)
                                                                                              perhaps a study will only make



                                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer  /  4%


official what has been taught by        some, since De Moor has publicly         with integrity." The Synod,
Van Till and others for many            stated that he favors the ordina-        however, was not moved by
years already.                          tion of women to all church of-          these arguments.
   The Synod also appointed Dr.         fices. Those objecting stated "that        Many other decisions were
Henry De Moor as associate pro-         because De Moor disagrees with           taken. The above will, however,
fessor of church polity in the          the Christian Reformed Church's          likely generate continuing debate
seminary. This proposed appoint-        stand on women in church office,        within those churches for some
ment had aroused objections by          he cannot teach church order            time to come. Cl



                                        The Two Natures of
                                        Christ: The Union of the
  Taking heed ~0 Human and Divine
  The Doctrine
 Ronald H. Hanko                        Natures

 3. The analogy of body and soul.         One analogy which has been            tionship of soul and body in a
    Various analogies have been         used to teach that Christ assumed       man. The union of soul and body
 used to help explain the union of      our human nature is the analogy         is, in other words, similar in
 Christ's two natures and to show       of a man putting on a coat. This        some respects to the union of
 that faith in this union is not        analogy is weak in many ways,           divinity and humanity in Christ.
 unreasonable. Regarding the use        especially in that it leaves the im-    If the statement of the Belgic
 of these analogies to show the         pression that the union of Christ's     Confession concerning the
plausibility of belief in Christ's      two natures is not permanent,           Athanasian Creed is true, that
 two natures, we should remem-          that is, that Christ can shed His       "we do willingly receive the
ber that this is a matter of faith      human nature at will as a man           three creeds, namely, that of the
and not of demonstration. It is         sheds his coat. We believe, of          Apostles, of Nice, and of
part of the great "mystery of god-      course, that the union of the two       Athanasius" (Art. IX), then the
liness" (I Tim. 3:16), and is some-     natures of Christ is permanent.         use of this analogy is indeed
thing, therefore, that the natural      To all eternity, from the time of       legitimate and valuable, for the
man cannot receive by any               His incarnation, He is God and          Athanasian Creed makes uses of
amount of proof. It must be             man in one Person. Nor is a coat        it when it says: "For as the
spiritually discerned. They can be      ever part of a man, but Christ's        reasonable soul and flesh is one
used, however, with greater or          two natures are so inseparably          man, so God and man is one
lesser success, to help us under-       joined in Him that without one or       Christ" (37).
stand this mystery in so far as we      the other He is not even the              This analogy is by no means
are able.                               Christ. Yet in so far as this           perfect. No analogy is. But as
                                        analogy reminds us that Christ          Hodge says, "There is in this case
                                        did not just dwell in a man and         enough of a resemblance to sus-
                                        that He was not turned from God         tain faith and rebuke unbelief.
                                        into a man, but that He took on         There is nothing in the one more
                                        or "assumed' our humanity, it is        mysterious or inscrutable than in
                                        acceptable.                             the other" (III, iii, 1). Along the
Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity      More valuable and more com-           same lines, Calvin says, in mak-
Protestant Reformed Church, Houston,    mon is the analogy of the rela-         ing use of this analogy, "If in
Texas.

498  I The Standard Bearer


human affairs, anything                  At the same time, the union of      this very thing when it says that
analogous to this great mystery       the two natures of Christ is not       He is:
can be found, the most apposite       by mere indwelling, so that the          God of the substance of the Father,
similitude seems to be that of        union is only accidental and tem-      begotten before all worlds; man of the
man" (Institutes, II, xiv, 1).        porary. This is true also of body      substance of His mother, born in the
   The points of similarity are as    and soul. The union between            world . . . . Equal to the Father as
                                                                             touching His Godhead, and inferior to the
follows. In the first place, like     them is not such that the soul         Father as touching His manhood. Who,
man who is made up of two dif-        merely dwells in or is caged in        although He is God and man, yet He is
ferent "substances," soul (or         the body, as a man dwells in a         not two but one Christ (31, 33, 34).
spirit) and body, the one material    house. As with body and soul, so       This is the mystery of the incar-
and the other immaterial, so          with Christ: there is a real union     nation, the mystery that is Christ.
Christ has two natures, the one       between the two natures, so that          We see, then, that though the
finite and creaturely, the other      they work together in perfect          analogy does help us to under-
infinite and all-glorious. The        harmony in our salvation.              stand Who and what Christ is, in
analogy is imperfect already at         Finally, the result of the union     the end, because it is itself a
this point in that soul and body      of body and soul in man is that        mystery, it serves also to deepen
are really only parts of man,         the attributes of both soul and        our reverence and awe for Him
while the two natures of Christ       body are ascribed to the one per-      Who is like us in all things, and
are whole and complete in them-       son. We may say of the man             yet is the God of our salvation
selves. The analogy does point        what is true of his body or what       Whom we worship and adore.
out, however, that it is no more      is true of his soul. Describing        4. The definition of Chalcedon.
unthinkable to believe in the two     especially the body of a man we          We have already mentioned
natures of Christ, than in man        may say that he, the man, is tall      the Creed of Chalcedon and the
hiinself.                             or short, handsome or not, or          fact that it was written to define
  The second point of analogy is      even that he is healthy or sick.       the relationship between the two
that the union of soul and body       Likewise, speaking of his soul         natures of Christ over against
in man is personal. Together they     especially, we may say that he,        various heresies that arose in the
constitute one individual man, or     the man, is wise or foolish, kind      early church.
human person (cf. Hodge, III, iii,    or cruel, calm or high-strung. The       After the doctrine of Christ's
1). In both the activities of soul    distinction between soul and           divinity had been established as
and body there is but one man         body is such that what is true of      the doctrine of the church in the
acting, willing, and thinking.        one is not necessarily true of the     Nicene Creed, the question of
Christ also is but one Person act-    other. For example, when a man         how Christ could be God and
ing in and through two different      suffers physical injury, this may      man together began to trouble
natures. One is no more justified     have an effect on the soul, but it     the church, and various answers
in concluding that because Christ     is his body, not his soul, that is     were given. Many of these
has two natures, He is actually       injured. Yet we say, and truly,        answers were wrong and were
two different individuals, than       that the man himself has been          rejected by the Council and
one would be justified in ascrib-     hurt. This distinction can even        Creed of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.
ing to man two separate ex-           mean that what appear to be in-        These errors were especially
istences because he is soul and       consistent or contradictory            those of Appolinaris, Nestorius,
body.                                 statements may be made about a         Eutychus, and the Monophysites.
  In the third place, in man both     man, as for example, that he is          In the Creed of Chalcedon and
soul and body, though joined, re-     dust and that he is spirit.            over against these errors there
main distinct. The union is not         All this reminds us that what is     are four words used to define the
like that of copper and zinc,         true of each of Christ's natures is    union of Christ's two natures as
which when combined produce a         true of Christ Himself. The two        exactly as possible, they are the
third substance, brass. Body and      natures are forever distinct, but      words "inconfusedly, unchange-
soul do not lose their character      what is true of each of them is        ably, indivisibly, and
by virtue of being joined in man.     true of Christ. As one Person, He      inseparably." These words stand
No more are the two natures of        is God and He is man, finite and       still today as a bulwark against
Christ united in such a way that      infinite, omniscient and limited in    error and as the fullest possible
He is neither really human and        knowledge, omnipotent and              statement that can be made con-
divine anymore but some kind of       weak, eternal and time-bound.          cerning this great mystery.
hybrid between the two.               The Athanasian Creed expresses           We intend to look at each of
                                                                             these words separately and see


                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 499


what they say and why they are              reason is to be found in the con-       be explained first of all from the
used, but first there are several           troversial statement of the creed       fact that the council was dealing
things that we should note about            that Mary is "the Mother of God."       with various heresies, but it must
all of them together.                       Nevertheless, though we do not          also be due to the fact that this is
   First, though these words are            officially receive the creed, its       a mystery. Those who wrote this
not from Scripture, they never-             definition of the union of Christ's     creed knew, as we do, what they
theless do express the teaching of          two natures is comprehended in          believed, and what they did not
Scripture and express it so exact-          our other creeds, particularly in       believe, but to explain such a
ly and completely that the                  Article XIX of the Belgic Confes-       mystery as this was not only
church has really not been able             sion. There only one of the four        beyond their power, but beyond
to add anything to this statement           words used by Chalcedon is to be        ours also. This does not make the
since the time it was written.              found, but the essential teaching       definition of the Council of
Also, these words as such are not           of the other three is there, as we      Chalcedon any less valuable, for
part of our own confessions. We             shall see.                              as a guard against error it is ir-
receive officially the Nicene and             Finally, it should be noted that      replaceable. It only reminds us of
Athanasian Creeds by way of the             all four terms used by the Coun-        the important thing: that this is a
statement from Article IX of the            cil of Chalcedon are negative.          matter of faith and salvation, not
Belgic Confession quoted above,             They say what the union is not,         of logical analysis and intellectual
but not this creed. I, personally,          but do not even attempt to define       comprehension. 0
consider this a lack, but the               what it is. This is, of course, to





                                            News From
Ben Wigger                                  Our Churches

                    September 15,1988       found it necessary to form a new        work there produced little
   First for some "late" news.              trio to fill this need. From the        positive fruit. Yet we are assured
Since Rev. B. Gritters declined             trio of Pastors W. Bekkering, C.        that God's Word never returns
the call to become our churches'            Haak, and K. Koole, a call was          void; He always accomplishes His
second missionary to Jamaica,               extended to Pastor W. Bekkering.        sovereign good pleasure.
First P.R.C. in Grand Rapids,                 Rev. S. Houck has declined the          Way back in June, plans were
Michigan, the calling church,               call he received from the Hope          finalized on a new garage for the
                                            P.R.C. in Isabel, South Dakota.         parsonage of the Redlands P.R.C.
                                              Rev. D. Engelsma has accepted         in Redlands, California. The old
                                            the call to serve as a professor in     structure was torn down and by
                                            our churches' seminary.                 now Rev. Koole should be enjoy-
                                              We also want to extend our            ing that new garage.
                                            congratulations, even if a little         Also back in late June the con-
                                            late, to Rev. and Mrs. Dykstra          gregation of the First P.R.C. in
                                            and family in the birth of a            Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was
                                            daughter, Emily Jo, born on June        to decide on a proposal from
                                            30.                                     their Building Committee to buy
                                              At a meeting on June 30, the          the St. Barnabas Anglican Church
                                            Reformed Witness Committee              building and parsonage. The con-
                                            voted to stop holding worship           gregation was given an oppor-
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,             services in Sioux Falls, Iowa start-    tunity to view the property at an
Michigan.                                   ing on July 10. Evidently the           open house. We can happily

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report to you that this proposal                       Singspiration, held this year in                    The consistory of the Grand-
was unanimously adopted. And                           air-conditioned comfort at the                   ville P.R.C. in Grandville,
we can also relay to you that Ed-                      First Jenison Chr. Ref. Church in                Michigan appointed an activities
monton's offer was accepted, but                       Jenison, Michigan. The church                    committee to arrange for various
only for the land and buildings                        was full to overflowing, which                   social functions in their congre-
and not for the furnishings. The                       always makes for an hour of fine                 gation. Their first project was
Building Committee is now in the                       singing. In addition to the fine                 scheduled in late August for a
process of putting their current                       singing under the direction of Mr.               soft-ball game and a steak fry.
parsonage up for sale and                              Jerry Kuiper, those there that                      Twenty-four families and nine
negotiating with an Anglican                           night were treated to a couple of                individuals from the South
Church committee concerning                            numbers from the Hope Heralds                    Holland congregation in South
the pews and other furnishings in                      and a trumpet solo from Miss                     Holland, Illinois will petition
an attempt to reach an agree-                          Sarah Ondersma.                                  Classis West in September to start
ment on their cost.                                       The 1988 P.R. Young People's                  a daughter congregation.
   Plans are also going forward                        Convention was held August 8-11                     The Prot. Ref. School Federa-
with the congregation of the                           on the campus of Hope College                    tion held their 1988 mini-course
Lynden P.R.C. in Lynden, Wash-                         in Holland, Michigan. This year's                on August 18 at First Church in
ington, on their new church                            convention was sponsored by the                  Grand Rapids, Michigan. This
building. At a congregational                          young people of the Southwest                    year's topic was, "The Special
meeting in July, a concept of the                      P.R.C. in Grandville, Michigan.                  Student in the Regular Class-
building plan they wanted was                          Looking at the schedule of events                room." Dr. Myra Kraker, of
adopted, along with a plan to                          it makes me almost wish that I                   Calvin College Education Depart-
finance the entire project.                           were younger once again. One                      ment, was the main speaker.
   The Evangelism Committee of                        notable change was this year's                       The consistory of the lm-
the Trinity P.R.C. in Houston,                        banquet. It was listed as a formal                manuel P.R.C. in Lacombe,
Texas is sponsoring a prayer                           event. That must have been a                     Alberta, Canada has been in-
breakfast for the men of the con-                     rather elegant-looking affair. For                formed that another small church
gregation. The committee was                          more coverage of this year's con-                 building in Lacombe is soon com-
planning to have these every                          vention please refer to the Oc-                   ing up for sale. There is not yet
other month.                                          tober issue of the "Beacon                        much information on this build-
   Sunday, August 7 was the date                      Lights."                                          ing, but you will be kept up-to-
for the annual Pre-Convention                                                                           date as it becomes available. 0





                                                    Annual Index

                         SUBJECT INDEX                                         C.R.C., Concern About The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB         8
Abortion, More On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 175       Calling to Persevere, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 447
Alternatives, The Conservatives' . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 205                Calvin Creation'  Debate,  Press Account Of . . . . GJVB 324
Article 4, Decisions Pertaining To . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 326               Calvin Professors Cleared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 247
Assurance, Praying With. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RJD 106           Calvin Professors Cleared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 293
Assurance, Sanctification And . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 284              Calvinist Orthodoxy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB    33
                                                                               Catechism, Whose? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 197
Beginning Of Knowledge, The Fear Of The                                        Cherubim, The Office of the (10). . . . . . . . . . . . . CCL        64
   LordIsThe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AdH    40    Children's Communion, Book On . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 368
Buddhism's Growth In America . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 136                  Children, Who Must Educate Our . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 353
Building of God's Temple, The Historical                                       Christian And The Law, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 277
   Development of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CCL        90

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Christian Heritage Party of Canada, As To The. HCH 462                                           Elliott, In Memory of Rev. Clinton . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 472
Church or Churches? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 198                            England, Journey To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 132
Church Order, Art. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC                      44     Euthanasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 32 1
Church Order, Art. 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 130                         Euthanasia (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH    66
Church Order, Art. 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 162                         Euthanasia (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 209
Church Order, Art. 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 202                          Euthanasia (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 226
Church Order, Art. 4 (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 257                           Euthanasia - It's Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB            33
Church Order, Art. 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 326                         Evolution At Dordt College, As To (1) . . . . . . . . HCH                    29
Church Order, Art. 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 379                         Evolution At Dordt College, As To (2) . . . . . . . . HCH                    52
Church Order, Art. 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .RLC 415                           Evolution At Dordt College, As To (3) . . . . . . . . HCH                     3
Church Order, Art. 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 465                         Evolution At Dordt College, As To (4) . . . . . . . . HCH 22 1
Church Order, Our - An Introduction . . . . . . . . RLC                                   18     Evolution At Dordt College, As To (5) . . . . . . . . HCH 244
Church, The Preservation Of The . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 445                                   Evolution At Dordt College, More About. . . . . . HCH                         6
Classis East, Report of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JH                    22     Evolution In The Christian High School . . . . . . GJVB 181
Classis East, Report of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JH 2 14                      Exegetical Sketches on Micah 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 199
Classis West, Report of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE                       22     Exegetical Sketches on Micah 6 (1) . . . . . . . . . . . GCL 149
College, Should I Go To? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BLG 185                           Exegetical Sketches on Micah 6 (3). . . . . . . . . . . GCL 228
Conquerors, More Than. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 3 14                            Exegetical Sketches on Micah 6 (4). . . . . . . . . . . GCL 259
Conversion, Daily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 279                         Faith And Reason, The Separation Of . . . . . . . . TCM 465
Cord, A Threefold Unbreakable. . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 434                                   Faithful Men, Committing The Truth To . . . . . . RDD                        38
Counsel, Satan and Sin Serve God's . . . . . . . . . . JAH 344                                   Fall Away, But Can Saints? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 449
Covenant ERC, Singapore, Institution of . . . . . . . DE                                  53     Falling Away, The Work of God and the
CRC Conservative, What Is A? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 342                                    Impossibility of. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 438
CRC Synod of 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 496                           Fearful God Who Forgives Sins, The . . . . . . . . . AdH                     82
Creation Record Literal, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 390                               Fight, The Sore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CJH 274
Creation Record Literal, The (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 412                                Fixed Charge, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 468
Creation Record Literal, The (3). . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 464                                For Us Also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HHo    98
Creation Record Literal, The (4). . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 485                                Forgiveness, Prayer for Divine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 2 18
Creationists! Three Cheers for the . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 425                                  Foxes In The Vineyard, Catching The Little . . . . JDS                       26
Creator, God The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 365                         Future Change, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH          5
Cross, The First Shadow Of Christ's . . . . . . . . . . JAH 372                                  Gift, God's Unspeakable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 122
Daily Bread, Prayer For Our. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 170                              Glory of God, Devotion To the Honor And . . . . AdH 49 1
Deity of Christ, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH                     62      Godliness, Distinctive Traits Of True . . . . . . . . . AdH 306
Deity of Christ, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH                     88      Godliness, Distinctive Traits Of True . . . . . . . . . AdH 354
Deity of Christ, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 137                         Godliness, Exercise Thyself Unto . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 182
Deity of Christ, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 159                         Godliness, The Distinctive Traits Of . . . . . . . . . . AdH 49 1
Deliverance, Our Prayer For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 290                               Godliness, The Distinctive Traits of True . . . . . . AdH 417
Deuteronomy - Exhorted Unto Obedience (3) . JLK 303                                              Good Order, For the Maintenance Of . . . . . . . . . RLC                     44
Deuteronomy - Exhorted Unto Obedience                                                            Gospel, Presenting The Offensive. . . . . . . . . . . . SRH                  27
    (conclusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 332
Deuteronomy: Exhorted Unto Obedience (1) . . . JLK                                       42      Hard Questions For Young People . . . . . . . . . . . BLG                    39
Deuteronomy: Exhorted Unto Obedience (2) . . . JLK                                       80      Hard Questions For Young People . . . . . . . . . . . BLG                    85
Directory, Prot. Ref. Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                      190       Hard Questions For Young People (1) . . . . . . . . BLG                      68
Directory, Prot. Ref. Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 287                                Heid.Cat. 123 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH       2
Dordt College, Correspondence From. . . . . . . . HCH 343                                        Heid.Cat. 124 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH      50
Dr. David Martyn Lloyd Jones And                                                                 Heid.Cat. 125 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 170
    Pentecostalism, As To (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 173                             Heid.Cat. 126 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 218
Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones And                                                                 Heid.Cat. 127 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 290
    Pentecostalism, As To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 125                            Heid.Cat. 128,129 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH 338
D r u n k e n n e s s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H   H   3 4 9    High School, What Shall I Do After? (1) . . . . . . . BLG                    68
Drunkenness (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 393                       High School, What Shall I Do After? (2) . . . . . . . BLG 139
Drunkenness (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 426                       Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 188
Drunkenness (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 470                       Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 211
                                                                                                 Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 231
East, Report of Classis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JJH 406                        Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 252
Ecumenism, Growth In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB                          93      Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 294
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH                 28      Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 347
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH                 77      Humanity of Christ, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 377
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 149                     Humility, Godly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 329
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 46 1                    Hymnal for the United Methodists, Revised . . . GJVB 181



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Ichabod! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..KA C 352    News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 383
Immoral Doctrine, Is The Truth of Free                                           News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 407
   Justification An? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 108       News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 430
Institutions of Mercy, Ministering In . . . . . . . . . . RLC 415                News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 478
Issue, About This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 266        News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 500
Joshua - Receiving The Promised Land (1) . . . . JLK 333                         Order of Salvation, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 437
Joshua - Receiving The Promised Land (2) . . . . JLK 374                         Orthodoxy, The "Cost" Of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 136
Joshua - Receiving The Promised Land (3) . . . . JLK 401                         Pentecostalism, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones And . . . HCH 125
Joshua - Receiving The Promised Land (4) . . . . JLK 420                         Pentecostalism, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones And . . . HCH 173
Justification By Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 102         Perspective From The Pew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BVS 236
Justification's Only Basis: Jesus' Atonement . . . RVO 113                       Perspective From The Pew (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . BVS 249
Kingdom Come, Thy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH          2     Poor, Inviting The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 482
Kinsman, A Nameless and Shoeless . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 177                   Praise God From Whom Al1 Blessings Flow . . . . . CH 338
Lamentation And Jubilation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HHo 267                Prayer for Young People, A Pastor's . . . . . . . . . BLG                9
Law, The Christian And The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD 277                 Prayer, The Power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 422
Lawful Call To The Ministry, The                                                 Preachers Of The Gospel, Supporting The . . . . . . KH 391
   Necessity Of The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 162        Preservation and Perseverance. . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 437
Lawful Calling (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 257      Preservation, The Means of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC `451
Lawful Calling, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 202        Preservation, The Teaching of Scripture. . . . . . HCH 454
Led By God's Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 242           Promise Faithfully Kept, God's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 233
Letter From Dordt College, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH               7     Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 157
Letter, An Interesting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 173          Rationalism and Its Fruit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 30 1
Letters, Nefarious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 425        Rationalism and Its Fruit (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM       60
Liturgy, Some Questions About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 157                 Rationalism and Its Fruit (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCM 164
Luther And Justification By Faith, Martin . . . . . . HH 104                     Religious Freedom, Crisis In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 250
Marriage, How Shall I Prepare For? . . . . . . . . . . BLG 297                   Rest, A Search For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH    85
Medical Technology, Moral Aspects of (19) . . . . . HH                   30      Reverend, Thoughts From The Pew On . . . . . . . . JH 369
Minister's Title, More About A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NAK 419             Revolution, Not Reformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 3 16
Ministers Already In Office, Calling . . . . . . . . . . RLK 379                 Revolution, Not Reformation (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 341
Natures of Christ, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 188           Rock, "Christian" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB    32
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH           62      Sabbath Day, Remember the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 300
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH           88      Sanctification, Progressive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 281
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 137               Sanctified Life, A Realistic View Of . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 272
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 159               Sanctifying Grace, Brought Home By A . . . . . . . JAH                  14
NaturesofChrist,TheTwo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 211                   Saving Grace Breaking Through The Clouds . . . JAH                      58
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 23 1              Scripture, The "New Understanding" Of . . . . . GJVB 180
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 252               Scriptures, Believing All The (9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL         20
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 294               Secretary's Report, Annual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JVO         37
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 347               Secure In The Lord Jesus Christ, Absolutely . . . AdH  .440
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 377               Seminary Convocation, 1987. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH             29
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 403               Shadow of Coming Sins, The Awesome . . . . . . . JAH 395
Natures of Christ, The Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHH 498               Shadow Of Things To Come (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 254
Natures of Christ, The Two - Introduction . . . . RHH                    16      Shadow, A Very Good. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 318
New Age Spiritism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB       94      Shadow, God's Mercy Casts Its . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 474
New Zealand, From Our Sister Church In . . . . . BVH 351                         SinNoMore,Go,and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .DJE 270
News From Our Churches . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW            23      Sin, A Serious Attitude About Our . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 354
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW            47      Sixty-fourth Year, Beginning Our . . . . . . . . . . . HCH               4
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW            70      Smoke, Should I Begin To. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BLG 398
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW            95      Special Issue, About This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 102
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 119                Special Offices In The Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RLC 130
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 143                Speech, "Free" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 251
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 167                Spirit Of Life, Made Free By The . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 410
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 191                Spirit, The Outpouring Of The Promised . . . . . . HHo 386
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 215                Standard Bearer And Our Youth, The . . . . . . . . SRK                  34
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 238                Strive To Enter In At The Strait Gate. . . . . . . . . . JDS 458
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 263                Swaggart, Jimmy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 353
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 3 10               Teaching Our Children Justification By Faith . . . CJT 115
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 335                Thanksgiving Offering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HHo       74
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BW 358                Thanksgivin'g  To Whom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 135

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                                                                                                                                                  SECOND CLASS
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The Good Old Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 248                            Luke13:23-28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JD S 458
The Reverend's last stand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GJVB 204                              Luke14:12-14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JD S 482
Transformed, Not Conformed But. . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 362                                    John8:11...............................DJ E 270
True Godliness, Distinctive Traits of . . . . . . . . . AdH 329                                  John 10:28-30. . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HCH 434
Truth of God, Love For The Truth Of. . . . . . . . . AdH 417                                     Acts 2:16-18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HHo 386
Union of the Human and Divine Natures, The . RHH 403                                             Romans 4:23,24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HHo        98
Union of the Human and Divine Natures, The . RHH 498                                             Romans 7:24-25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HHo-HCH 267
                                                                                                 Romans 8:37-39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 3 14
Vengeance, Our Prayer For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SRH                            56      Romans  12:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 362
Virtuous Woman, Assurance For A . . . . . . . . . . JAH 152                                      Romans 8:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 410
Walking In The Old Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 194                             II Corinthians 9: 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CH 122
West, Report of Classis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DJE 309                          I Timothy 47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 182
Whatsoever Ye Do, Do It Heartily . . . . . . . . . . .AdH 155                                    II Timothy 2:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RDD    38
Wife Taken And Salvation Given, A . . . . . . . . . . JAH 206                                    Hebrews 3:4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL     90
WillBeDone,Thy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CH                       50      James2:14-17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .RDD 111
Wisdom In Leading His Church, God's . . . . . . . . JDS 146
Witnessing, Effective Personal (3) . . . . . . . . . . RJVO                               11                                BOOK REVIEWS
Word of God, Receiving The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH 224                                 A Stranger In A Strange Land,
Word, Steadfastly Holding To God's . . . . . . . . . TCM 494                                        Leonora Scholte. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GMH 237
Work of the Holy Spirit, Preservation and the. . RHH 443                                         Applying The Scriptures (Papers from ICBI
WorkingFaith,SavedByA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .RDD 111                                        Summit III), Kenneth S. Kantzer, Ed.:. . . . . . . HCH 262
                                                                                                 Faith And Form: A Unity of Theology  & Polity,
                               TEXTUAL INDEX                                                        etc., Robert L. Wilson & Steve Harper . . . . . . . HH 429
Genesis 3:24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GCL               20      Fiue Views On Sanctification, M.E. Dieter, et al. HCH `118
Exodus 25:18,22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CCL                     64      Has The Church Misread The Bible?,
Exodus 13:17,18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 146                           Moises Silva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 487
Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK                   42      Human Rights And Human Dignity,
Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . JLK 80                           John Warwick Montgomery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH                47
Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 303                       Joshua, Judges, Ruth (BSC),  C. J. Goslinga. . . . . HCH 142
Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLK 332                       Lori,  Gertrude Hoeksema. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 308
Joshua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JL K 333                  Matthew (BSC),  H. N. Ridderbos . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 142
Joshua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JL K 374                  Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity,
Joshua.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JL K 401                      C.W. Hedrick & R. Hodgson, Eds. . . . . . . . . . . HH 166
Joshua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..JL K 420                  Portraits of Bible Men (Second Series)
Ruth............................!......JA H 14                                                     (Third Series), George Matheson . . . . . . . . . . HCH 288
R u t h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J A   H   5 8      Reformed Theology In America,
R u t h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J A   H   8 5         David F. Wells, Ed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH        94
R u t h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J A   H   1 5 2    Romans, The Gospel Of God,
Ruth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . . . . .JAH 177                   D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH            46
R u t h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J A   H   2 0 6    SingAboutIt,  Volume One, S. Vander Ploeg . . . . GH 406
Ruth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JAH 233              Solving Marriage Problems, Jay E. Adams . . . . RDD 478
Psalms 51:17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HHo                  74      Sources Of Secession, Gerrit J. tenzythoff . . . . . HCH 308
Psalms 73:24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 242                     Studies In The Book Of Genesis,
Proverbs 1:7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AdH                 40        Robert C. Harbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HH 428
Song of Solomon 2:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS                       26      The Expositor-S Bible Commentary, Vol.  6,
Jeremiah 6:16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JDS 194                        Frank E. Gaebelein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 334
Micah 6:1-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GCL 149                     The NIV (The Making of a Contemporary
Micah 6:1-8 . . . . . :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GCL 199                        Translation), Kenneth L. Barker, Ed. . . . . . . . HCH 213
Micah 6:1-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . GCL 228                    Toward  Rediscouering  The Old Testament,
Micah 6:1-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GCL 259                       Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HCH 357

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