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December 7, 7988


 Contents                                            December 7,7 988                  THE
                                                                                  STANDARD
Meditation  - Prof. Robert D. Decker
   THE CHRISTIAN AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT                                       99        Bi54RER
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING  - Prof. David/.  Engelsma                          100      ISSN  0362-4692
Editorial  - Prof. David  /. Engelsma                                             Semi-monthly, except monthly during  June, July,
   THE REFORMED FAITH ON CIVIL GOVERNMENT                                101      and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                  lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
CALVIN'S CONCEPT OF THE STATE - Mr. Ion Huisken                          103      at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                  EDITORIAL   COMMITTEE
CAESAR'S CALLING - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                               106      Editor-in-chief: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
                                                                                  Managing Editor: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                  Editors' Assistant: Mr. Don  Doezema
OUR DUTY TO THE STATE - Rev. lames D. Slopsema                           108      DEPARTMENT   EDITORS
                                                                                  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
OUR OBLIGATION TO VOTE  - Rev. Meindert  loostens                        111      Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                  Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN RESPECT TO THE STATE . . .                              Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
   1.N PREACHING, PRAYING, AND POSITIONS  -  Rev. Da/e H.  Kuiper 113             Jason Kortering, Rev. George Lubbers, Rev. James
                                                                                  Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra, Rev. Cise
                                                                                  VanBaren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
A NATION OF LAWS OR LAWLESSNESS? - Mr. lames Lanting                     115      EDITORIAL   OFFICE
                                                                                  The Standard Bearer
CHURCH AND STATE IN ARTICLE 36                                                    4949  lvanrest
   OF THE BELGIC CONFESSION - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                      117      Crandville,  Michigan 49418
                                                                                  CHURCH   NEWS   EDITOR
                                                                                  Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                  6597  - 40th Ave.
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                                                                                  of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
 In This Issue . . .                                                              terest from our readers and questions for the
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                                                                                  tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
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place are articles dealing with the subject which appears on the                  editorial office.
cover: The Reformed Faith on Civil Government.                                    REPRINT   POLICY
                                                                                  Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
    It seemed to us that this topic would be of quite general interest.           articles in our magazine by other publications,
There are, after all, with regard to civil government, questions not              provided: a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
                                                                                  duced in full;  b) that proper acknowledgement is
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                                                                                  BUSINESS   OFFICE          NEW   ZEALAND   OFFICE
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98  / The Standard Bearer


                                          The Christian and
 Meditation
Prof. Robert Decker                       Civil Government

   Let every soul be subject un-            This passage speaks of two           country. The point is that Scrip-
to the higher powers. For                 matters: the Christian's calling       ture does not here or in any
there is no power but of God:             toward the civil government, and       other passage sanction a particu-
the powers that, be are or-               the civil government's calling         lar form of government. Nor does
                                          toward its citizens.                   Scripture condemn any particular
dained of God. Whosoever                    Let every soul be subject to         form of government. A demo-
therefore resisteth the power,            the higher powers! This means          cratic form of government
resisteth the ordinance of God:           precisely what it says. Every soul     (American or otherwise) is not
and they that resist shall                means every person. No one is          given the stamp of approval by
receive to themselves damna-              excluded. Al1 people must be sub-      the Bible. Nor does Scripture con-
tion. For rulers are not a ter-           ject to the higher powers.             demn a monarchy or socialism or
                                            Those higher powers are those        a dictatorship. As a matter of
ror to good works, but to the             who stand above or over us and         fact, "the powers that be" of the
evil. Wilt thou then not be               who, therefore, are superior in        apostle's day were imperial
afraid of the power? do that              rank to us. The reference is to        Rome, a government about as
which is good, and thou shalt             the governmental authorities, or       corrupt as any in all of history!
have praise of the same: For              civil rulers. In the apostle's day     Scripture does condemn the sin-
he is the minister of God to              these higher authorities were the      ful misuse or abuse of authority.
                                          rulers of the Roman Empire,            Scripture also calls rulers to
thee for good. But if thou do             from the Emperor down to the           govern justly and obediently.
that which is evil, be afraid;            lowest-ranking local officials in        To these higher powers, the
for he beareth not the sword              the Roman provinces. In our day        powers that be, the rulers (verse
in vain: for he is the minister           and land the higher powers are         3) we must be subject. To be
of God, a revenger to execute             the national and state (provincial)    subject means to arrange our-
wrath upon him that doeth                 governments, the judicial of-          selves under, to yield ourselves
                                          ficials, and the police.               under, or, more simply, to obey
evil. Wherefore ye must needs               The translation "powers" is a        the civil authorities.
be subject, not only for wrath,           bit unfortunate. The apostle does        We are subject to the higher
but also for conscience sake.             not mean to refer to raw or sheer      powers when we do not resist
For this cause pay ye tribute             power but to the authority which       them. Resistance the text plainly
also: for they are God's minis-           these officials have been granted.     forbids! That word "resist" is in-
ters, attending continually               These officials have been given        teresting. It means to "range one-
                                          the right to govern us in the civil    self in battle against." One who
upon this very thing (Romans              realm. Thus they possess the           resists the authorities battles
139-6).                                   authority to rule our outward life.    against them! In other words he
                                            These higher powers are said         rebels or revolts against the
                                          to be "the powers that be." These      authorities. This is more than dis-
                                          are the existing authorities at any    obedience; it's revolution. To
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical    given time in history, in what-        resist is to attempt to overthrow
Theology in the Protestant Reformed       ever form, and in any given            the civil authorities. This the Bi-
Seminary.

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer  / 99


ble plainly forbids. Revolution             Why must we obey the higher         ities is to disobey God. And the
even against a corrupt, ungodly          powers? Because "there is no           one who resists incurs damna-
government such as existed in            power but of God." Gods is all         tion, the just punishment of God!
Paul's day is sinful. We may not         the authority! There is no               This is our calling over against
do that! The only exception to           authority above God or even            the state.
our obedience to the rulers is           equal to God. God's is all the           But the civil authorities also
when they require of us that             authority. Ephesians 1: 19-23          have a calling over against their
which is contrary to the law or          makes clear that God's great,          citizens. They are said to be
will of God. In that case we must        sovereign power and authority          Gods ministers or servants. Their
say, "We ought to obey God               are revealed in that He raised         calling as God's servants, again
rather than men." (Cf. Acts 4:18,        Christ from the dead and set Him       whether they realize this or not,
19 and Acts 5:29.) But even then         at His own right hand in heaven-       is to reward with praise those
we must not attempt to over-             ly places, far above all principal-    who do good and to punish those
throw the government. We obey            ities and authorities and might        who do evil. They must govern
God rather than men and suffer           and dominion and every name            the outward behavior of their
patiently the consequences at the        that is named.                         citizens. Thus God has provided
hand of an unjust, corrupt                 Thus the text teaches that the       for good order and decency in
government.                              powers that be are ordained of         society.
     Still more, we must not do the      God. God ordains, sets up, puts in       God has given the sword
evil, but we must do the good.           place the authorities. Whether         power to the civil authorities.
This simply means we must live           the authorities acknowledge this       They do not bear that sword in
in harmony with the will of God          or not, whether they know it or        vain, without purpose. As God's
as revealed in Holy Scripture and        not, whether they strive to serve      ministers they have been given
summed in His Law. We are to             God in their positions of authori-     the authority to punish evildoers
obey the civil government. Our           ty or not, they are placed there       and reward those who do good
calling is to obey the laws of the       by God. And for this reason we         with praise.
land.                                    must obey them.                          Let us then be subject to these
     And it's necessary that we be         This means that if we resist         higher powers. God has placed
good, loyal, obedient citizens,          them we are resisting the or-          them over us for the sake of His
"        not only for wrath, but also    dinance of God! The one who            church and cause in the world.
for conscience sake" (verse 5). In       takes his stand against the            Let us obey them since "it
other words, we are to obey the          authorities has set himself against    pleases God to govern us by their
authorities not because we fear          that which God Himself has or-         hand" (Heidelberg Catechism,
the punishment they are author-          dained. To disobey the author-         L.D. XxX1X). 0
ized to inflict upon evil doers
(verses 3, 4), but for Gods sake.
We "know with" (this is "con-
science sake") God that His will is
that we should obey the civil
authorities.
     This the inspired apostle ap-       Editorially Speaking. . .
plies very specifically in verse 6
which reads:
For this cause pay ye tribute also:        n We are devoting this special       the President-elect of the United
for they are God's ministers, attend-    issue of  The Standard Bearer  to      States, the Supreme Court
ing continually upon this very thing.
Not resisting the government, re-        the testimony of the Reformed          Justices of the United States, the
fraining from doing evil, and do-        Faith concerning civil govern-         United States Senators, and the
ing good means we must pay our           ment. In keeping with a tradition      Prime Minister of Canada. Extra
taxes. We must contribute to the         that goes back to John Calvin's        copies have been printed and are
support of the civil authorities so      prefatory address of his Institutes    available for $1 per copy to those
that they are able to carry out          to King Francis I of France and        of our readers who might desire
their God-given duties. Whether          to John Knox's fearless witness to     to send a copy to their Congress-
                                                                                man or local officials. Place your
they misuse those tax monies or          the kings, and especially the
                                                                                order with our Business Manager.
not makes no difference. Our             queens, of his day, we are send-
                                                                                   n We welcome all contribu-
calling is to pay them tribute.          ing a copy of this issue to the
                                         President of the United States,        tors to this special issue. A

100  / The Standard  Bearer


special welcome is in order to           of Grandville, MI, where he has         South Holland, IL. Mr. Lanting
the two laymen. Mr. Jon Huisken          served as an officebearer. Mr.          will be contributing articles on
is registrar at Hope College,            James Lanting is a practising at-       church-state and Christian school-
Holland, MI. He is a member of           torney in South Holland, IL. He is      state relationships to The SB
the Theological School Commit-           a member of the Board of Trinity        periodically. He and his family
tee of the Protestant Reformed           Christian College, Palos Heights,       are members of the PRC of
Churches. Mr. Huisken and his            IL and of the Board of the Prot-        South Holland, IL, where he has
family are members of the PRC           I estant Reformed Christian School,      served as an officebearer. q   -DJE





                                        The Reformed Faith on
Editorial                               Civil Government

  No one can doubt the impor-            of the state every time he notices       late, conservative and evangelical
tance of sound, clear understand-        the large chunk of his wages             Christians, including some of the
ing of civil government, of the          withheld for taxes. There are also       most prominent names, not only
authority that civil government          the effects of civil government          approve civil disobedience, i.e.,
has over him, and of the duty he         upon our lives that we usually           deliberate, strategic violation of
has toward civil government. Not         take for granted (but should not!):      certain laws of the land and
only does Scripture make the             the protection by the police; the        flaunting of the authority of the
Christian's relationship to the          security from invasion because of        state behind these laws, in order
state part of his, or her, thankful,     the armed forces; and the                to compel the state to change
holy life (Rom. 13:1-7; I Pet.           general order in our country             laws regarded as unjust, by force;
2: 1 l-17) but also the broad            because of government at all             but they also proclaim this
sphere of the state's power              levels.                                  lawless behavior as obedience to
assures that each of us comes in-          It is especially urgent that Re-       the gospel and call gospel-
to direct contact with civil             formed Christians be clear and           believing Christians to participate
government, or is affected by            sound in their thinking about            in it as the expression of disciple-
civil government, daily. The teen-       civil government today because           ship to Christ. Liberals and con-
ager who wants to drive must             of powerful movements that               servatives, modernists and evan-
receive a license from the state,        tempt them to adopt erroneous          ~ gelicals are both playing the
and thereafter submit to the state       notions and unlawful practices in        same game, the one to deliver
every time he gets on the high-          this area of their lives. Revolu-      ~ the downtrodden from a life of
way. The preacher officiates at          tion is now a Christian option! In- ~ poverty and misery, the other to
the wedding of a couple only if          deed (we are told), revolution is      ~ save the unborn from the murder
the state has authorized the mar-        the Christian calling! In the 60s      of abortion. "For God's sake,
riage, and says so in the                the liberal churches joined in the       rebel!"
ceremony. The government of              civil disobedience by which the            It cannot have escaped the at-
the United States requires parents       blacks forced the state to give        , tention  of the members of our
to educate their children to a cer-      them their civil right. At present, ~ Protestant Reformed Churches
tain age, and stipulates the man-        lib.eration theology ap-               ~ that at least three cases of appeal
ner in which this is to be done.         proves violent revolution as the        involving the relationship of the
Farmers and businessmen have             means of liberating the oppressed       Reformed believer and the civil
to contend with many laws                in Latin America and South              government have come to the
regulating their operations. The         Africa, if not as the primary           broader assemblies in the past
working man is painfully aware           means, then as a last resort. Of        few years. This reminds us, if we


                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer  / 101


need reminding, that the matter        executive to the bureaucrat who            God's purpose with civil
of the Reformed Faith's teaching       shuffles papers, have received          government is that, by the out-
about the state is of practical im-    authority to govern you and me          ward restraint of the dissolute-
portance for the life of our own       "from above" (John 19:ll).              ness of men, the church can exist
churches. In 1986, Classis West           The state, with its myriad of-       and carry out her task of preach-
upheld a consistory's discipline of    ficers, is the servant of God.          ing the spiritual, inner righteous-
a member who refused to comply         Three times in the classic passage      ness of the gospel, thus extend-
with the income-tax laws of the        in the New Testament on the             ing the Kingdom of God. Like-
land, thus condemning as revolu-       Christian's responsibility to the       wise, the people of God can live
tionary the tax-protest move-          state, Romans 13:1-7, does the          quiet and peaceable lives in all
ment. Synod, 1987 decided on a         apostle call the state and its of-      godliness and honesty, i.e., King-
case of the remarriage of a di-        ficers "ministers," or servants, of     dom-lives (I Tim. 2:2).
vorced person. One important           God. This is an honorable title,          God has two great servants in
element of the decision was            indeed! Government is not only,         the world - the church, which
Synods recognition of the state's      or even primarily, the servant of       serves Him freely by grace, and
regulation of the civil and            the people. As the servant of           the state, which serves Him for
societal aspect of marriage, so        God, government must serve              the most part (there are a few
that "the sinfulness of the mar-       God. What a difference it would         Christians in government, here
riage of a divorced person does        make, if our government would           and there) by dint of Gods
not make null and void this civil      see itself as a servant, not            sovereign might of providence,
aspect of the marriage, and thus       primarily of the people, but of         even as Cyrus in the Old Testa-
all reality of the marriage, con-      God. In this case, great issues         ment.
tracted under the God-given            would not be decided on the               Reformed Christians ought to
authority of the State" ("Acts of      basis of public opinion polls, but      honor Gods servant, the state.
Synod," Art. 14). Last year, an        on the basis of the will of God.        They may not view it as devilish.
appellant asked Synod to over-         Even though slightly over half of       They should not dismiss govern-
turn a decision of Classis East        the population might favor abor-        ment as "dirty politics." No God-
that required him to submit to         tion on demand, the Supreme             fearing young person may ever
the ruling of a civil court grant-     Court would rule that abortion          call the policeman, "pig."
ing visitation rights to the           is murder, punishable by death,           We may use the state, in the
children of his divorced wife.         on the ground that this is the will     functions God intends it to serve.
Synod upheld Classis' decision on      of God, plainly revealed both in        The Christian may have recourse
the ground, in part, that "the         the law of nature and in the Bi-        to the courts in defense of his
right of a biological mother to        ble.                                    name and property. A church
have visitation rights with her          Regardless of the state's ig-         may claim the protection of the
children is recognized and pro-        norance of its servanthood, it          authorities for the possession of
tected by the State (Romans            does, in fact, serve God. The ser-      their property and the peace and
13). . ." ("Acts of Synod," 1988,      vice it renders is the keeping of       order of their meetings, as Article
Art. 29). In all three of these        some outward order in society by        28 of the Reformed Church Order
cases, the assemblies honored the      the punishment of criminals and         states. A position in government
authority of the state and called      the protection of those who do          is a perfectly proper profession
on `our members to submit to this      well (I Pet. 2:14). The state's task    for a Reformed Christian. Young
authority.                             is the administration of external,      men must register for the draft,
   As Reformed churches, we.           earthly justice in a nation; and        and serve in the armed forces
confess that civil government has      every state carries this task out,      when called up.
been ordained by God. Whatever         however imperfectly, even the             Never may the child of God
particular government exists in a      most corrupt of them.                   revolt, or "resist," as the King
country has been ordained by             This is no small benefit to the       James Version puts it in Romans
God. Government is not "of the         church and to the Christian. Out-       13: lff. The prohibition against
people"; government is of God:         ward order in a land is a               revolution is absolute and uncon-
"There is no power but of God:         precious gift of God to us. Take        ditional. This is historic Calvin-
the powers that be are ordained        away the magistrates, and, as           ism. The notion, popular today,
of God' (Rom. 13:l). The officials     Calvin said, "we all must live like     that Calvinism is a revolutionary
of a government, from the chief        rats in the straw." The worst           theology is mistaken. Both Luther
                                       government is much to be pre-           and Calvin unconditionally for-
                                       ferred to anarchy.                      bade revolution by the Christian.


IO2  / The Standard Bearer


For both, the only permissible         sacrifice by many working men           the state's funding of and control
way to bring a tyrant down was         and at the cost of numerical            over the care of little children in
the legal resistance by the "lesser    growth, these churches have             the day-care centers. The state
magistrates." One of the main          resolutely opposed the revolt           intrudes into the sphere of the
purposes for the writing of the        against the authority of the            church, attacking what the Scot-
Belgic Confession was to               employer - the violent  revolt          tish Presbyterians called the
dissociate the Reformed church         against the authority of the            "crown rights of King Jesus." A
from the seditious anabaptists.        employer - in the sphere of             court recently fined a church for
Writ large in our Confession is        labor that is inherent in the labor     exercising church discipline upon
the claim, "We Reformed are not        union. Our talk against rebellion       a member; a current case has the
revolutionaries." The Heidelberg       has not been cheap.                     courts threatening a church's
Catechism makes rejection of all         Unconditional submission is           pastoral counselling of its
revolutionary conduct (including       not the same as unconditional           members; and the fear that the
rebellion of the heart!) a creedal     obedience. The state is not God.        state may penalize churches that
stand, when it binds upon every        The God and Father of Jesus             refuse to allow women to hold
Reformed person that he submit         Christ is God. Only He commands         church-office or to permit practis-
to "all in authority over me . . .     our unconditional obedience. The        ing homosexuals to be members
and also patiently bear with their     state is to be obeyed except            is not far-fetched.
weaknesses . . ." (Lord's Day, 39).    when its law demands disobe-              Even then, the church may not
  The importance is twofold:           dience to the will of God in Holy       revolt. But neither will it obey. In
  1. Thus, we escape the wrath-        Scripture. Exactly because Re-          the name of Christ, she says to
ful judgment of God, indeed the        formed Christians obey for Gods         the insubordinate servant of God,
damnation that He visits on all        sake, or for "conscience sake," as      "We ought to obey God rather
who resist His ordinance, His ser-     Romans 13:5 puts it, they adopt a       than men." Then, as has hap-
vant.                                  watchful, critical stance with          pened again and again in the
  2. Thus, we distinguish our-         regard to civil government.             history of the church, she suffers
selves from the world that is in       Caesar shall not have the things        for Christ's sake, not resisting.
revolt against the authority of        that are Gods.                            Still, the state is Gods servant.
God, pleasing our Sovereign by a         There are ominous signs in our        For the blood of martyrs is the
holy life.                             country. The state deifies itself,      seed of the church.
  Perhaps by this time alone           taking to itself the prerogatives of      As for the punishing of the
among Reformed and Presby-             God, as is evident in the               ungodly, unjust, corrupt, and
terian churches, the Protestant        abortion-law - the state seizes         even antichristian rulers, we let
Reformed Churches are, and can         sovereignty over life and death.        the God of these gods deal with
be, consistent in their testimony      The state becomes totalitarian,         them. He has His ways of doing
and behavior of submission to          thrusting itself into every area of     so. 0                             -DJE
God-ordained authority. For, at        life, as is evident generally in the
the cost of great personal             welfare state and particularly in




                                       Calvin's Concept
Mr. Ion Huisken                        of the State

                                         Calvin's main treatise on civil       his Institutes, it is considered by
Mr. Huisken, a member of Grandville    government is found in Book IV,         many to be strategically placed
Protestant Reformed Church, is         Chapter 20 of his Institutes of the     - a culmination of his teaching
registrar at Hope College, in          Christian Religion. Since Chapter       on what it means to be Christian
Holland, Michigan.                     20 constitutes the final chapter in     in this world, the consequence of

                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 103


his theology. Whether this is in-      understand, or at least have some           And, to Calvin, these means are
deed true we will leave for the        sense of, the context of Calvin's           the two kinds of government
Calvin scholars to argue, but          thinking on the topic at hand.              referred to above, the govern-
what we do know is that Calvin         Calvin was logical and systematic           ment of the church through its
gives prominence in his  Institutes    in his writing. His Institutes              offices and the government of
to this topic. For several reasons.    especially reflect this fact. Thus,         the individual and society
Certainly Calvin's time in history     when Calvin opens Book IV of                through the magistrate and civil
forced him to think about the          the Institutes with the words               government, both of which
state. He witnessed the tyranny        Now, since we have established              according to the rest of Calvin's
of the pope who claimed both           above that man is under a twofold           title for Book IV are "Means and
temporal and spiritual power. He       government, and since we have else-         Aids By Which God Invites Us In-
lived at a time when kings and         where discussed at sufficient length        to the Society of Jesus Christ and
rulers openly persecuted the           the kind that reside in the soul of in-     Holds Us Therein."
followers of the reformation (con-     ner man and pertains to eternal life          Thus it can be argued, as
sider the introduction to his In-      (Book  II4 Chapters  I-19A)  this is the
                                       place to say something about the            many do, that Calvin's final
stitutes, his letter to Francis I      other kind, which pertains only to          chapter of the Institutes, Chapter
where he pleads the cause of the       the establishment of civil justice and      20 on civil government, is in a
Reformed in France). He himself        outward morality.                           real sense a necessary conse-
was educated as a lawyer. His          you know that words such as                 quence of all that went before.
first published work was on            now and since and above are go-             Given all the theologizing that
Seneca's  De Clementia,  a work        ing to force you into going back            went before, Calvin now sees to
considered to be a dissertation on     to get the "lay-of-the-land' with           it that these truths will be main-
political science. He knew law         regard to Calvin's concept of the           tained in the church and in socie-
and government. And added to           state. We need to know where                ty. All these truths of God and
his experience with governments        this concept of civil government            Jesus Christ are to be upheld and
and law and the Romish Church          fits in Calvin's thinking if we are         regulated by the two kinds of
was the turmoil created by the         to begin to have an understand-             government mentioned above: 1)
Anabaptists within the reforma-        ing of it.                                  church government which deals
tion movement. These folks                If we take this approach, then,          with the things of the inner man
seized upon their newly found          in working toward an under-                 and 2) civil government, the
liberty and declared themselves        standing of what Calvin believes            necessary corollary, which con-
to be free of all rule and govern-     the state to be, an understanding           cerns the outward deportment of
ment. Calvin knew well the             of Calvin's organization of the In-         men.
history of this movement. The          stitutes will be of help here in              Further, Calvin is at pains to
fiasco in Munster where the Ana-       determining that sense of logical           point out that these two kinds of
baptists were holed up in the city     sequence in Calvin's thinking.              government are not at variance;
waiting for the parousia, but who      What will happen, in fact, is that          they are not antithetical, but
in the end were defeated by the        by setting Calvin's thoughts on             complementary. This idea is im-
government forces, occurred as         the state in the context of his In-         portant here if we are to under-
his  Institutes  were in press.        stitutes, his beliefs concerning the        stand Calvin's concept of the
   So Calvin's concern with civil      state will naturally unfold. (Ford          state. For these governments
government was indeed natural.         Lewis Battles' Analysis of the Zn-          both point to the Lordship of
But what I hope we will see is         stitutes of the Christian Religion is       Jesus Christ over man's life -
that it was more than that. Calvin     very helpful here since it gives            both his inner and outer man are
saw government as both neces-          the ih.Mutes in outline form;) The          to recognize and believe and live
sary and essential. Government         organization of the Institutes pro-         in that consciousness.
was ordained of God to serve His       ceeds as. follows: Books I and II             In order to get hold of this
purpose.                               give the dogmatic loci of                   idea, one needs to recognize at
   As is typical of Calvin's           theology and christology, Book              the outset that overreaching all
thought, however, one needs to         III is soteriology, and Book IV ec-         of Calvin's consideration of civil
have a global view of his think-       clesiology. Calvin moves in                 government is not first of all
ing in order to arrive at an           Books I-III from God and Christ             whether Calvin proposes a
understanding of the concept he        and salvation - that which                  republic or a monarchy as the
is writing about. One has to           makes God and Christ internal -             best kind of government, or even
                                       to Book IV which title begins               whether the Christian is obligated
                                       with "The External Means . . . ."           to obey the government (that will

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 all naturally follow), but his belief      and His eternal kingdom. There can            where its authority comes from,
 in the authority of the Word of            be no decisive separation between             will rule according to the Word
 God and the Lordship of Jesus              state and church because the state            of God, will recognize itself as
 Christ in all of life. Some make a         has the same Lord as the church.              Gods servant doing Gods will in
 crucial mistake and insist that            Christ as the Head of His church is           ruling over the matters of men
 Calvin be made the father of               also precisely the Lord of this world.        and society.
 modern democracy (cf., for ex-              The fundamental section containing
                                            those reflections which Calvin                  But we must see, further, that
 ample, Boettner), and they make            devotes to the subject of civil govern-       church and state, although distin-
 that the central teaching of               ment in his Institutes received               guished by Calvin, are necessari-
 Calvin on the ,state. It certainly         therefore in the first edition the title:     ly connected. The church gives
 can be argued that Calvin pre-             "The civil order is necessary for the         instruction to the state as to what
 ferred democracy (he despised              well-being of the church. "                   it must be and how it must
 most kings, it seems), but it                 Calvin sets forth this basic idea          behave; the state must see to it
 would be a mistake if this is what         already in the introduction to his            that the church is preserved in
 we get out of Calvin's teaching            Institutes, his "Letter to Francis            order that the pure gospel may
 on the state. Calvin was indeed            I," when he asserts that all rulers          be preached.
 concerned with the types of                rule rightly if they acknowledge                This idea becomes even
 government, and his preference             themselves to be "the ministers              clearer when Calvin speaks of
 was for a republican form of               of God." Those who rule accord-              the tasks of the state. Says Calvin
 government; but the point of               ing to the Word of God rule                  (Institutes, IV, 20, 2):
 Calvin is that "who governs" is            rightly. As Niesel observes,                 . . . Civil government has as its ap-
 not the sine qua non for right             "Calvin teaches that when the                pointed end. . . to cherish and pro-
 and legitimate government, but             glory of God is not the end of               tect the outward worship of God, to
 how one governs and what one               government, there is no                      defend sound doctrine of piety and
 does as ruler is central. Wilhelm          legitimate sovereignty, but usur-            the position of the church, to adjust
 Niesel, in his book The Theology           pation."                                     our life to the society of men, to
 of Caluin, puts it correctly when             Calvin further solidifies this            form our social behavior to civil
 he states that                             idea of government being the                 righteousness, to reconcile us with
                                                                                         one another, and to promote general
Calvin regards the state as fulfilling      minister of God when he argues               peace and tranquility.
its appointed role in the service of        that civil government has its                   This is not to say, however,
Christ3  dominion. When he speaks           origin in God, and its institution           that civil government does not
of secular government, he is not con-       is by God. It is not something
cerned about the state as such, nor                                                      have a secular duty. It does. But
                                            which has been derived by a
even about the Christian state; but                                                      this duty is subordinate (In-
                                            society's sense of the need for
about Christ and about the                                                               stitutes, IV, 20, 3).
significance which the civil power          governance, as secular anthropol-            Its function among men is no less
has for our life in fellowship with         ogists would have us believe; but            than that of bread, water, sun, and
this Lord.                                  government, rightly conceived, is            air; . . . indeed its place of honor is
   Niesel (op. cit.), again, correct-       that which recognizes that its               far more excellent. For it does not
ly analyzes Calvin's thought                right to rule is given by God.               merely see to it. . . that men
when he writes:                             Says Calvin (Institutes, IV, 4):             breathe, eat, drink, and are kept
In the fourth book of the Institutes        It has not come about by human               warm, even though it surely em-
Calvin treated of the Church, the           perversity that the authority over all       braces all these activities . . . but it
Word, and the Sacraments, and he            things on earth is in the hands of           also prevents idolatry, sacrilege
now proposes to show that among             kings and other rulers, but by divine        against God's name, blasphemies
these "outward aids or instruments          providence and holy ordinances. For          against his truths and other public
by which God calls us to and main-          God was pleased so to rule the af-           offenses against religion from arising
tains us in communion with Christ':         fairs of men, inasmuch as he is pres-        and spreading among the people; it
the secular government also belongs.        ent with them and also presides              prevents the public peace from being
The latter is not the same things as        over the making of laws and exercis-         disturbed; it provides that each man
the spiritual reign of Christ; but          ing of equity in courts of justice.          may keep his property safe and
neither does it function merely in            Calvin believes with Paul in               sound; that men may carry on
juxtaposition with it, but it exists for    Romans 13:l that power is an or-             blameless intercourse among them-
the good of those who in this               dinance of God and that there                selves; that honesty and modesty
perishable world belong to Christ           are no powers except those or-               may be preserved among men. In
                                            dained by God.                               short, it provides that a public in-
                                                                                         stitution of religion may exist among
                                              Good government, then, ac-                 Christians, and that humanity be
                                            cording to Calvin, will recognize            maintained among men.


   The task of government, then,        prosper. "They (magistrates) are        phasized above, governs the
has two aspects. Niesel (op. cit.)      ordained protectors and vin-            outer man. Maintain that distinc-
sums it when he says that "Peace        dicators and public innocence,          tion, argues Calvin, and there
in a country is threatened when         decency, and tranquillity, and          will be no problems between
God is not worshipped and His           that their sole endeavor should         church and state.
commands are not heeded, and            be to provide for the common              Such is Calvin's concept of the
the public worship of God is im-        safety and peace of all" (Zn-           state. Much can yet be written
perilled when strife prevails           stitutes, IV, 20, 9).                   (and has) about Calvin's idea of
among men." It is the task of the         But Calvin warns about inter-         war and taxes and revolution.
state to see to both tables of the      mingling church and state. Con-         But that all follows from his idea
law. The state is obligated to pro-     science (Book III, 19) is man's con-    of the state. I refer you to Book
tect the pure preaching of the          nection with God and His law and is     IV, Chapter 20 of the Institutes if
word lest "idolatry, sacrilege . . .    the preview of the church.              you are inclined to pursue these
blasphemies," arise. And further,       Conscience belongs to the inner         topics - it's all there. 0
government must create an en-           man. No human law may bind
vironment where the church can          that conscience. The state, as em-





 Rev. Ronald Cammenga                   Caesar's Calling

   The citizen has a duty toward          The Scriptures have some              says that ". . . the powers that be
the state. The Scriptures are clear     things to say about these ques-         are ordained of God." In I Peter
that we have this duty and what         tions, some basic things to say         2:14 we are told that government
the nature of this duty is. Equally     about the calling of civil govern-      officials are sent by God.
clear is the teaching of Scripture      ment. The teaching of Scripture           Because government has been
that the state (Caesar, if you will)    on this score comes out especial-       established by God, twice the
has a duty toward the citizenry.        ly in the two classic passages in       Apostle in Romans 13 refers to
   The church has a calling here.       the New Testament that deal             the officials of government as
As much as the church must              with the relationship between the       "ministers of God." The word
preach the will of God with             Christian and the state (Romans         "ministers" is just the word "ser-
respect to the obedience owed           13:1-7 and I Peter 2:13-16).            vants." Government officials (like
the state by the citizens, the          THE BASIS FOR CAESAR'S                  all who hold office from God) are
church must make plain the will         CALLING                                 servants of God. Since God has
of God for government. What               Of fundamental importance in          instituted government, govern-
tasks does God give to govern-          understanding the calling of civil      ment officials are responsible to
ment? What calling does the             government is the proper view of        God. Since government has the
government have towards those           government itself. What govern-         basis of its existence in God,
who are its subjects? When does         ment is, has everything to do           government is called to exist for
government overstep its calling?        with what duties government is          God. This applies whether the of-
                                        called to perform.                      ficials of government are elected
                                          The Scriptures are not uncer-         by a majority vote of the people
                                        tain on this point. Government is       or receive their position by
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the          an institution of God. Govern-          heredity.
Protestant Reformed Church of           ment has been established by              It ought to be obvious how im-
Loveland, Colorado.                     God. In Romans 13:l the apostle         portant a proper understanding

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of the basis of government is to a    which is evil, be afraid; for he       limited sphere of authority. It has
proper understanding of govern-       beareth not the sword in vain:         a calling as regards the well-
ment's calling. If, for example,      for he is the minister of God, a       doing and evil-doing of its
the view that one has of the basis    revenger to execute wrath upon         citizens - no more, no less.
of government is that govern-         him that doeth evil." The Apostle         That is why totalitarian
ment is derived, not from God,        Peter expresses basically the          governments are evil. Communist
but from the consent of the           same thing in I Peter 2:14 where       governments are evil because
governed, that view is going to       he teaches that the officials of       they usurp authority over every-
have a rather drastic effect on       government are sent by God             thing. They set the government
what one conceives the calling of     ". . . for the punishment of evil-     itself up as God, as the absolute
government to be. Then, quite         doers, and for the praise of them      authority for every area of life.
obviously, the calling of govern-     that do well."                         And then, quite naturally, they
ment is to uphold not first of all       The church must proclaim to-        refuse the citizens the right to
the law of God in the public life     day, amidst all the confusion          worship God.
of the nation, but the will of the    about what the government must            Our government, too, is mov-
majority of the people. Then the      do, what the proper calling of         ing in this direction. It is a matter
controlling question is not what      government is. For the most part,      of serious concern that, more and
does the Word of God say on a         churches are not doing that. In-       more, our government refuses to
certain issue, but what are the       stead of calling government to its     recognize the limited area over
results of the latest poll.           God-assigned task, the synods          which God gives it the right to
  Nor is the particular form of       and assemblies pass silly resolu-      rule. This is the wrong in such a
government of any significant         tions concerning nuclear warfare,      thing as our government's in-
consequence. Nowhere does the         concerning civil rights, and con-      volvement in social welfare pro-
Bible prescribe one legitimate        cerning our nation's foreign           grams. God does not give the
form of civil government, for ex-     policy. Rather than to call            government the duty to support
ample democracy, so that only         government to its duty, the            me. Nowhere in Scripture does
those who are officials in a          churches become involved in the        He give the government that du-
democratic government need be         work of the government. Church         ty. I am called to support myself.
regarded by the Christian as ser-     leaders dabble in politics and         And then if there is a legitimate
vants of God, In the Old Testa-       stick their ecclesiastical noses       reason why I am unable to do
ment, God ruled His people            where they do not belong. The          this, if there is mercy that needs
through a monarchy. At the time       church makes a serious mistake         to be shown, that is the duty of
of the New Testament, the world       here. The government does not          the church through the office of
was being ruled by a dictator, the    benefit, and the church and the        the deaconate.
Caesar in Rome. It makes no           work of the church suffer.                That is also the wrong in the
essential difference, whether           The calling that God assigns to      government's present involve-
monarchy, or oligarchy, or            government is the punishment of        ment in education. Now I believe
democracy, the officials of           evildoers and the praise of them       that the government has a legiti-
government are sent by God, and       that do well. The calling of           mate,interest in education, The
as such function as the servants      government is to uphold the law        government has the right to insist
of God. "The powers that be           of God in the sphere of the public     on it that children receive an
(whatever they may be) are or-        life of the nation. The govern-        education, an academically sound
dained by God' (Rom. 13:l).           ment must concern itself with the      education. The welfare of the
A LIMITED CALLING                     DOING of the law of God, that is,      state itself is involved here. But
  Since government is derived         outward obedience to the law of        the government does not have
from God, God and Gods Word           God on the part of the citizens. It    the right actually to do the
prescribe the proper role of          must protect and praise (reward)       educating of children, nor the
government. That role is defined      the well-doer. And it must punish      right to dictate what is and what
in Romans 13:3, 4: "For rulers        the evildoer. It must protect the      is not to be the content of our
are not a terror to good works,       well-doer BY punishing the evil-       children's education. Government
but to the evil. Wilt thou then       doer.                                  is disobedient to God when it in-
not be afraid of the power? Do          `From this it is plain that          volves itself in areas where God
that which is good, and thou          government has a LIMITED               has not given it authority. The
shalt have praise of the same.        calling. God does not give             calling of government is a limited
For he is the minister of God to      government authority over              calling.
thee for good. But if thou do that    everything. Government has a

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A CALLING TO BEAR THE                   when it neglects to punish the               In order that government may
SWORD                                   evildoer. That is obvious in the          carry out its God-given task, God
   An important aspect of the           whole attempt of the government           has given government the right
calling of civil government is its      to reform and rehabilitate                of taxation. Now a government
calling to punish evildoers. This       criminals today. Our government           must not abuse its right of taxa-
is often referred to as the sword-      spends millions of tax dollars on         tion in order to fund all sorts of
power. In Romans 13:4 the Apos-         this endeavor annually. Nowhere           activities that the government
tle says that the government            does God give government the              ought not be involved in, as our
"beareth not the sword in vain."        calling to reform or rehabilitate         government certainly does. But
He goes on to refer to the              evildoers. The calling God gives          government does have the right
government as "a revenger to ex-        to the government is to PUNISH            from God to tax its citizens. Part
ecute wrath upon him that doeth         evildoers. the government's               of the submission of the Christian
evil." The Apostle Paul says that       refusal to do this today is judged        to the government is that he is
government officials are sent "for      by God in the lawlessness that            faithful in paying his levied taxes.
the punishment of evildoers" (I         prevails in our country.                  The Apostle exhorts us in.
Peter 2: 14).                             Not only is our government              Romans 13:6, 7: "For for this
   Especially has God given the         remiss in its duty to punish the          cause pay ye tribute also . . . .
government the calling to punish        evildoer, it fails also in its calling    Render therefore to all their
serious offenders of His law by         to praise and reward the well-            dues: tribute to whom tribute is
taking away their life. A sword,        doer. In many cases, in fact, it is       due; custom to whom cus-
after all, is an instrument of          the well-doer who is being                tom . . . ." The Christian takes
death. God, in other words, has         punished. Think once of the               seriously the admonition of the
given the government the duty           millions of abortions performed           Lord, "Render therefore unto
to exercise capital punishment.         in our country, a thing sanc-             Caesar the things which are
To put it in today's language,          tioned by the government and, in          Caesar's . . ." (Matthew 22:2 1).
God has given the government            some instances, even paid for by             This is the task of government,
the electric chair, the gas             government tax dollars. In this           the calling of Caesar. For the car-
chamber, the hangman's noose,           matter the government is respon-          rying out of this calling he will
or the firing squad, in order to        sible for taking up the sword             be held accountable before God,
punish evildoers, and by that           against those who are not evil-           now and in the day of the judg-
very fact protect well-doers.           doers. Or think of the govern-            ment, Woe to that servant of
   How our government is dis-           ment's ominous encroachment in            God, that government official,
obedient to this plain word of          recent years on the Christian             who is not able to give good ac-
God!                                    school movement, and its                  count of the charge that was en-
   How our government refuses           mistreatment of and penalties             trusted to him! 0
to carry out its God-given calling      against certain welldoers in this
                                        area. Admittedly, the future looks
                                        dark.





Rev. lames Slopsema                     Our Duty to the State

                                          The Scriptures teach that every         formed fathers understood these
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of the Prot-    citizen has various obligations to        duties and set them forth very
estant Reformed Church of Walker,       the civil government under                beautifully in the confessions of
Michigan.                               which he finds himself. Our Re-           the church. The duties of the

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citizens to the state are sum-            Government officials are general-      "Submit yourselves to every or-
marized, for example, in the              ly held in very low esteem. They       dinance of man for the Lord's
Belgic Confession, Article 36.            are made the butt of endless           sake: whether it be to the king as
  Moreover it is the bounden  duty of     jokes; they are harshly criticized;    supreme; or unto governors, as
every one, of what state, quality, or     often they are held in open con-       unto them that are sent by him
condition  soever  he may be, to sub-     tempt. It is true that much of this    for the punishment of evildoers."
ject himself to the magistrates; to       is occasioned by the ineptness         Finally, there is the instructionof
pay tribute, to show due honor and        and greed of the magistrate            Paul to Titus (Titus 3:1), "Put
respect to them, and to obey them in      himself. Nevertheless, the Scrip-      them in mind to be subject to
all things which are not repugnant
to the Word of God; to supplicate for     tures instruct us to honor the         principalities and powers, to obey
them in their prayers, that God may       magistrate even then. The kings        magistrates . . . ."
rule and guide them in all their          and rulers which the apostolic           Submission or subjection to the
ways, and that we may lead a quiet        church was commanded to honor          civil magistrate means that we
and peaceable life in all godliness       were just as inept and greedy as       place ourselves under their rule
and honesty.                              the magistrate of our day.             and authority. This submission
   We find something similar in             We are commanded to honor            implies, first, that we obey the
the Westminster Confession,               the magistrate for especially two      magistrate. After instructing Titus
  It is the duty of people to pray for    reasons. First, we must bear in        in Titus 3:l to remind the saints
magistrates, to honor their persons,      mind that the powers that be are       to be subject to principalities and
to pay them tribute and other dues,       ordained of God (cf. Romans            powers, he adds, "to obey
to obey their lawful command, and         13:l). This means that God has         magistrates." This means that we
to be subject to their authority, for     ordained civil government and          must do our best to comply with
conscience sake. Infidelity, or  dif-     `has given to every magistrate his     the rules and regulations the
fcrence in religion, doth not make
void the magistrate's just and legal      place of rule and authority. God       magistrate establishes for the
authority, nor free the people from       has done so because it is His          regulation of our lives as citizens
their due obedience to him . . . .        good pleasure to rule and              in the state. This includes the
   It is the duty of every citizen,       regulate our lives through the         traffic laws, the safety regula-
first of all, to honor the civil          magistrate. This was true even of      tions, and other laws we tend to
magistrate.                               the corrupt magistrates in the         ignore so easily. We must obey
   By the civil magistrate is             days of the apostles. The              the magistrate even when he
meant all government officials.           magistrate occupies a high office.     misuses his office for personal
This includes all those who make          And for that reason he must be         gain or when we fail to see the
the laws, judge the laws, and en-         honored.                               wisdom of the laws he estab-
force the laws in all levels of             Secondly, we must remember           lishes. The only time we may
government, whether the na-               that the magistrate is the minister    refuse obedience to the
tional, state (provincial), or local      or servant of God to the church        magistrate is when he requires
level. This includes everyone             for good (cf. Romans 13:4). This       that we disobey God. Then we
from the President (Prime                 was true even of the wicked            are taught to obey God rather
Minister) down to the local               magistrates in the days of the         than men (cf. Acts 4:19). But
policeman.                                apostles. The magistrate is the        even then, we may not be
  Our duty as citizens is to honor servant of God in that God uses               rebellious, seeking the overthrow
these officials. Speaking of rulers,      the rule of the magistrate to          of government. Even when for
the Scriptures in Romans 13:7             preserve good order in society so      conscience sake we can not obey
teach us, "Render therefore to all        that the church may be gathered        the magistrate, we must still be
their dues . . . fear to whom fear,       snd survive on the earth. Also         submissive.
honor to whom honor." In I                Ior that reason we are to honor          The duty of submission to the
Peter 2:17 we are instructed,             the magistrate.                        magistrate also implies that we
"Honor all men . . . honor the              In harmony with all this it is       pay our taxes. In Romans 13:6 &
king." This means we are to hold          also the duty of every citizen to      7 we are instructed, "For this
the civil magistrate in high              submit himself to the rule of the      cause pay ye tribute also . . .
esteem. We are to show this               state. In Romans 13:l we are           Render therefore to all their
honor to the magistrate when we           taught, "Let every soul be subject     dues: tribute to whom tribute is
deal with,him as well as when             unto the higher powers." The           due; custom to whom cus-
we speak of him to others.                higher powers here refer to the        tom . . . ." For the maintenance
  We certainly need to be                 powers of the civil government.        sf civil government the
reminded of this duty in our day.         [n I Peter 2:13 & 14 we read,          magistrate has the right to tax

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the citizenry. Jesus went even so      magistrate has been given his            marriage and the home through
far as to say that the tribute         place of rule by God for the sake        adultery and unbiblical divorce,
levied by the magistrate belongs       of the church. Through the rule          and many other abuses to which
to the magistrate. Referring to        of the magistrate God provides           natural man tends. It is the duty
the paying of taxes, Jesus taught,     for the decency and good order           of every citizen to encourage the
"Render unto Caesar the things         in society necessary for the             magistrate so to rule and to ad-
that are Caesars" (cf. Luke 20:25).    church to be gathered and sur-           monish him (always showing
Payment of taxes is really im-         vive. Hence, by promoting the            respect) should he fail. This can
plied under obedience to the           welfare of the magistrate and            be done face to face, through let-
magistrate. But the Scriptures         civil government we are pro-             ters, and (in a democracy)
emphasize this duty especially         moting the welfare of the church.        through voting. What a golden
because it is one of the hardest         We promote the welfare of              opportunity we have to promote
duties to perform. The taxes the       civil government by praying for          the welfare of civil government
government exacts of us take           the magistrate. The Apostle Paul         when we are given a voice in
hard-earned money directly out         exhorts Timothy (I Timothy 2:l           government through voting. This
of our pocket. In some cases           & 2) "I exhort therefore, that,          is something we should not
these taxes have taken food off        first of all, supplications, prayers,    neglect.
the table and clothes from the         intercessions, and giving of                    Finally, God calls some to
back. In addition to that, consider    thanks, be made for all men; for         serve as magistrates in civil
how foolishly these tax revenues       kings, and'for all that are in           government. Some are of the
are spent. Often the taxes the         authority; that we may lead a            opinion that due to the corruption
citizens find so difficult to pay      quiet and peaceable life in all          found in government the child of
are squandered by a few in high        godliness and honesty." This in-         God may not serve as a
places through extravagant liv-        struction is given to the church         magistrate nor be involved in the
ing. That was the case no less in      for her public worship but also          political process. This opinion
the days of the apostles than it is    applies to the prayers we utter as       conflicts, however, with the
now. Nonetheless, the instruction      families and individuals in our          truths that government has been
of God through the apostles was,       homes. We must pray for those            ordained of God and that the
        pay ye tribute also"           in authority. We must pray that          magistrate is the minister of God.
(&mans  13:6).                         God will lead the magistrate to          Certainly we must not abandon
   As we consider these duties         rule in harmony with His Word,           this high office to the unbeliever.
towards the state we ought to be       that we may lead a quiet and             In addition, we have the ex-
reminded of what we are taught         peaceable life in all godliness and      amples of Joseph and Daniel,
in Romans 13:5: "Wherefore, ye         honesty. As the following verses         who served in high places in two
must needs be subject, not only        make clear, this also implies that       of the most godless governments
for wrath, but also for conscience     we pray for the salvation of those       of history. In harmony with this
sake." This means that we must         in authority.                            the Westminster Confession
not subject ourselves to the             We promote the welfare of              teaches (Chapter XXIII, Section
magistrate for fear of his wrath       civil government also by assisting       10,
and punishment upon dis-               the magistrate as much as possi-           It is lawful for Christians to accept
obedience. We must submit to           ble in ruling according to the will      and execute the office of magistrate,
the magistrate rather because this     and Word of God. According to            when called thereunto; in the man-
is the will of God and pleasing to     Romans 13:3 & 4, the calling of          agement whereof, as they ought
Him.                                   the magistrate is to praise that         especially to maintain piety, justice
   In light of all that we have        which is good and to execute             and peace, according to the whole-
said, it ought to be very clear        wrath upon him that does evil. In        some laws of each common-
that it is also our duty to pro-       this way civil government serves         wealth . . . .
                                                                                       Should God call us to execute
mote the welfare of the                the cause of the church. But this        the office of the magistrate by
magistrate and the civil govern-       requires that the magistrate rule        opening the way for us to do so,
ment. This follows from the fact       according to the law of God.             then our duty is to accept this
that civil government has been         What God forbids, he must for-           responsibility and serve as the
ordained by God and that every         bid. What God requires, he must          minister of God. Cl
                                       require. To be very specific, it is
                                       the duty of the magistrate to for-
                                       bid and punish profanity, murder
                                       by abortion, the destruction of


110  I The Standard  Bearer


                                          Our Obligation
Rev. Meindert loostens                    to Vote

   In keeping with the topic of           and Maker is God. Yet, at the          ly, ordained government as long
this special issue, it falls to me to     same time, we are born into a.         as we do not have to deny the
say a few words concerning the            citizenship in the land of our         Lordship of Christ. When the two
practical aspect of the political         earthly sojourn. The two are not       conflict, we humbly "obey Christ
process as it affects each of us.         par. They are not on the same          rather than men." Thirdly, we
When the issues have been                 level. They may, and often do,         must understand that the purpose
debated at length, we have the            conflict! When this happens we         of God in the ordination of earth-
opportunity to step behind the            are under the clear Scriptural in-     ly rulers is that they be His
curtain and cast our vote. What           junction that we must seek first       ministers to us for good and an
is the calling and responsibility of      the Kingdom of God! Our place          avenger for wrath to evildoers.
the child of God here? Should we          here below, in whatever country        Walking in all good works, the
consider this a Christian duty?           or under whatever regime God           Christian need not fear the sword
For whom must we cast our                 has placed us, must be in total        of the magistrate but expect his
ballot? Or, would it be better for        subservience to our heavenly           praise. We leave much unsaid
the child of God to withdraw              citizenship.                           about these principles as it does
himself altogether from the                 There are certain principles,        not directly find application to
political process?                        discussed in the other articles of     the issue at hand.
   Christians, in the nature of the       this special issue, that we must         The exercise of government is
case, hold a dual citizenship. We         clearly understand in order prop       politics. In that political process
are, first of all and primarily,          perly to function in our dual          we become involved at the
citizens of the Kingdom of                citizenship. Government is or-         voting booth. We set aside a
Heaven. This citizenship is not by        dained of God. All authority is        broader discussion of various
birth; but by being reborn from           derivative. The risen Lord, who        other involvements in the
above we belong to the Kingdom            is the Head and King of His            political system in order to keep
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.          church, exercises the counsel of       our focus on voting clear.
By virtue of this heavenly citizen-       God through the human agency             There are a couple of errors
ship we have become pilgrims              of government. The hearts of the       we must avoid. We may be
and strangers in the earth. We            kings of the earth are in His hand     tempted to take the anabaptist
are the spiritual children of father      and He turns them at will as a         approach on non-involvement in
Abraham who looked for the city           river of water. God is sovereign       the political process. This is the
with foundations whose Builder            in the bringing into power and         practice of a political asceticism
                                          disposition of government. In the      whereby we hide ourselves
                                          second place, Peter instructs us       behind the walls of total political
                                          that it is our calling to submit to    inactivity, or, worse, take a stand
                                          this ordinance of God as His ser-      of fatalism and say to ourselves,
                                          vants. In as far as possible we        "These things are in the Lords
                                          must obey for Gods sake. We            hands and He will take care of
                                          submit to government until it re-      it." If there is still a small pang of
                                          quires a disobedience to the laws      being guilty of neglect, we say to
Rev. Joostens is pastor of First Prot-
estant Reformed Church of Grand           and precepts of the Kingdom of         ourselves, "One vote won't make
Rapids, Michigan.                         Heaven. We must obey the earth-        a difference anyway." Whatever

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer  /  II 1


we may say (pro or con) regard-               Having the right and obligation      before our minds. We live in the
ing the political process we call a         to cast our ballot, the matter of      latter days. More and more that
democracy, it is God-ordained! It           choice confronts us. What criteria     Man of Wickedness becomes
is a system put in place by His             must we use to determine the           revealed. We see fearful indica-
hand, though gained through                 candidate for whom we will             tions of the possibility of a
revolution. We have the God-                mark our ballot? Often we find         unified antichristian world. The
given privilege and obligation to           ourselves upon the horns of a          fearful reality of the number of
exercise the vote we have been              dilemma, We seldom wholly ap-          the Beast seems close at times!
given, whether that be on the na-           prove of either candidate. We are      The Lord will guide history
tional or municipal level. This             never entirely happy with the          according to His purpose! We
has to do with the manner in                slate that is placed before us. We     may not help the propagation of
which it has pleased God to ap-             sometimes feel as if our choice is     the wickedness that wiI1 bring
point the "ordained authority." It          simply a matter of seeking the         the terrible things of the end of
has pleased God to do that                  lesser of two evils! We must           the ages along. We may not vote
through the popular vote. As                remember that we are dealing           for a candidate who stands on a
Calvin observed long ago, it is             with the selection of a man to be
"                                                                                  platform that is patently anti-
     . . . an idle pastime for men . . .    placed in a God-given office.of        Christian. We must be careful to
to dispute what would be the                authority. The responsibility of       compare and evaluate the can-
best kind of government in the              that office is clearly set forth in    didates and select from among
place where they live. (But) . . .          the Scripture. Government is or-       them those who most nearly
divine providence has wisely ar-            dained of God. He is a minister of     represent the God-ordained pur-
ranged that various countries               God to us for good, but he does        pose in government. There are
should be ruled by various kinds            not bear the sword in vain. He is,     usually a host of issues, such as
of governments" (Instit. IV, 3).            as well, an avenger of God to ex-      crime and abortion, that plainly
      Before we engage the question         ecute wrath upon evildoers. That       illustrate the convictions of the
as to whom we must vote for, it             is the guiding principle. These        candidates. It is our desire for the
may not be superfluous to say a             are the matters which control the      church of Christ to live as long as
few words regarding the question            casting of our ballot.                 possible in peace, quiet, and tran-
whether women should vote.                    Understand a moment that we          quility in the .midst of the world,
Though the question has long                are not engaging in a lofty            for that is for the advancement of
been laid to rest politically it            idealism of the insidious post-mil     God's covenant and church and
often lingers in the church. We             variety. It is not our vision that     gives to us opportunity to
understand the place of the                 the kingdoms of this world shall       minister in the cause of His
woman in the church. But her                evolve into the kingdom of our         Kingdom, raise our families, and
right to vote in the political              Lord Jesus Christ. We know             proclaim the Gospel to the
sphere is sometimes questioned.             much better than that. The             hastening of the anticipated day
In Christ there is neither male             scheme of the prophecies of the        of Christ's coming. 0
nor female, bond nor free, but all          Book of Revelation is clearly
are equal as believers. Men and
women share equally in the
benefits of Christ's atonement.             Take the time to read and study
They have both been anointed in
the office of all believers as
prophets, priests, and kings under          the Standard Bearer. It is an
Him. They both have the calling
to exercise themselves in that              excellent source of devotiona/
threefold office. Both have the
right and obligation to exercise            reading material for your
their civic responsibility to cast
their ballot. Gods will that the
woman keep silent in the govern-            daily use.
ment and teaching of the church
must not be confused with her
civic responsibility, whether mar-
ried or single.


112  I The Standard Bearer


                                        The Duty of the Church
                                        in Respect to the State
Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                     in  Preaching,  Praying,  and Positions


   The church of Jesus Christ, as       God found in such passages as           ordained of God to function as
she honors her Head as the Lord         Matthew 22, Romans 13, I Peter          the means through which the ex-
of lords and King of kings, is          2, and Titus 3. Further, this is        alted Christ rules! He submits
very conscious of the fact that         plainly demonstrated by the ex-         always, and obeys unless for con-
she lives and witnesses in the          amples of David, Daniel, the            science sake he cannot, as unto
midst of a world which contains         apostles, and Jesus Christ              the Lord.
governments of many different           Himself.                                  The Gospel's call to submission
kinds and at many levels. Her at-         The Gospel's call to submission       carries with it the call to the
titude towards the magistracy in        unto the civil magistrates is a         church to be witnesses of God.
her official labors, as well as in      matter of thankfulness to God.          When the apostle Peter exhorts
the life of her members, is very        For this reason those Reformed          us to "submit to every ordinance
definitely set forth in Holy Scrip-     churches that still carefully           of man for the Lord's sake," he
ture; it is set forth as binding and    preach the Heidelberg Catechism         does so under the heading of "an
for all time. Since this is part of     hear this call under the third part     honest conversation among the
God's Word, it becomes part of          of the Catechism, "Of Thankful-         Gentiles." When the unconverted
the preaching; as part of the           ness," when the fifth command-          see the good works of the saints,
preaching, it belongs to the            ment of the Law of God is ex-           they shall under God's grace
Gospel of salvation in Jesus            pounded and when the require-           "glorify God in the day of visita-
Christ.                                 ment to "show all honor, love,          tion." This truth the Catechism
   Rather than adopting an at-          and fidelity to my father and           includes in Lord's Day 32:
titude of superiority on the part       mother, and all in authority over       ". . . and that, by our godly con-
of believers towards the                me" is set forth (Lord's Day 39).       versation, others may be gained
magistracy, or encouraging ig-          That thankfulness enters in here,       to Christ."
norance in them regarding the           rather than fear or merit, ought          Without controversy, the
purpose, source, and function of        to be seen from two points of           church preaches the Word of
civil government, or engendering        view. First, we testify by this sub-    God as that Word of God
disobedience against the law of         missive conduct gratitude toward        describes civil government and
the land, the church in her             God for providing Jesus Christ as       calls the believer to honor that
preaching calls the people of God       the perfect Keeper of the law in        government. Thus sermons on
to submission and obedience,            our place, as the end of the law        the paying of taxes, the honoring
with understanding and joy. That        for righteousness to every one          of authority, the lawful work of
the church must do this                 that believes. In the knowledge         government, and the end of
periodically in the preaching is        of that, the believer, with the law     earthly governments, are perfect-
clear from the powerful Word of         as his guide, shows his love to         ly in order in the church.
                                        God. But more, he finds in the            What is not so clear is how the
                                        keeping of the fifth command-           church prays in respect to the
                                        ment an opportunity to serve the        government God has instituted in
Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Prot-      Lord Jesus Christ, because he           this world in general or in a par-
estant Reformed Church of Lacombe,      understands that the powers that        ticular part of the world
Alberta, Canada.                        be are ordained of God, and are         specifically. Here there is some


 controversy. Pastors hear froni           this is appreciated the only alter-    salvation of kings and princes!
 members of their flocks, from             native is the Arminian notion          This does not require, as a matter
 time to time, that they are not           that God wills every man to be         of fact, that a certain segment of
 praying for the government. At a          saved and Christ gave Himself a        the congregational prayers be
 recent office-bearers conference          ransom for every individual in         given over to petitions on behalf
 in the West, the complaint was            the world. And then we are to          of these officials, at length and
 sounded that our ministers don't          pray for every person in the           by name! But they are to be in-
pray for government officials              world (verse 1) without distinc-       cluded as the church prays for
 nearly enough. Are these well-            tion. Indeed, a Reformed com-          the salvation of the people of
meant criticisms justified? Scrip          mentator claims, "the church           God, known unto I&m before the
ture makes clear that prayers              must remember that she is the in-      foundations of the world!
must be made for kings and                 tercessor for the world. The             There is another aspect to all
others in eminent places by the            world cannot pray. The church is       this. After all, God does not will
church.  Nowhere is this more              to bring the needs of the world        to save many from the class of
clearly stated than in I Timothy           before the throne of God. Herein       the powerful, rich, and mighty (I
2:1-7, part of which reads:                too she is the salt of the earth.      Cor. 1:27-28). But these rulers do
   "`I exhort therefore, that, first of    The world will not last long if the    have a great influence upon the
an, supplications, prayers, interces-      salt has lost its savor. When the      life of the church and the labors
sions, and giving of thanks, be made       church is gathered for worship,        of the church. If there is a believ-
for all men; For kings and for all         she is to bring the world's needs      ing ruler over a certain domain,
that are in authority; that we may         to God's mercy seat." With this        it certainly is easier for the
lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty. For this is         we cannot agree. See Jesus'            believers there to live a "quiet
good and acceptable in the sight of        prayer in John  17:9.                  and peaceable life in all godliness
God our Savior, who will have all            Prayer must be made for all          and honesty." We think of laws
men to be saved, and to come unto          men, that is, for all kinds or         concerning the Sabbath, concern-
the knowledge of the truth. "              classes of men. This is borne out      ing the right to work, and the
   Before we face the questions,           by Titus 2 and Galatians 3 where       right to assemble. On the con-
how  are earthly rulers to be men-         we read of these various classes       trary, unbelieving magistrates,
tioned in our prayers? and, what           of people: Jews and Greeks, bond       ruling according to opinion polls,
is the purpose of these prayers            and free, male and female, young       taking bribes, lusting for power,
for them? let us get two points            and old. Paul must have noticed        can cause hardship for the
firmly in mind, The purpose of             that in Ephesus a certain class or     church - perhaps no right of
Paul's first letter to Timothy is          group of people was being              assembly, sermons to be ap-
that he and the church may                 neglected in the congregational        proved by the secretary of
know how to behave in the                  prayers: the kings and princes.        religion, no religious programs
house of God (3:15). Therefore             How surprised Timothy and the          on radio or television, no mission
the apostle is giving instruction          saints at Ephesus must have been       work allowed in the country!
regarding the public prayers of            to receive this instruction! Nero      And since God wills to gather His
the people of God during the               was the Roman emperor; the             church from all classes of people
worship services; we would say,            governors, proconsuls, and town        and from every nation of the
during the congregational prayer           clerks for the most part were          world, prayers are to be made
offered by the minister. So, too,          decidedly against the Christian        that Christ may so rule that the
the exhortations regarding the             faith and were ready to do the         work of the preaching of the
dress of women and the silence             Jews a favor. But it is wrong to       Gospel be not hindered. Finally,
of women pertain to their                  exclude any class of people from       let us who live in lands of
behavior and their silence in the          our prayers.                           religious freedom, such as the
church. Secondly, the word "all"             The reason that prayers are          United States and Canada, be
in this passage (verses 1, 4, 6)           made also for government of-           sure to express thanksgiving to
does not mean "every." The                 ficials is that God wills to save      God for these liberties that we
word "every" counts noses, refers          His elect also from this group,        presently enjoy! How easily we
to each individual in a group; it          have them come to the knowl-           take for granted these wonderful
is distributive in nature. The             edge bf the truth, and enjoy the       freedoms which many people of
word "all" is collective; it looks         ransom that Christ paid for them.      God do not presently enjoy and
at people as groups, without say-          The church is to pray for the          which will be taken from us
ing anything about every                                                          before Jesus returns.
member within the group. Unless

114  / The Standard Bearer


   Briefly we wish to consider yet    only with. the proper involvement           world. Thus armed, the child of
the duty of the church in respect     of the church in these things.              God can go forth to battle as a
to the actions or proposed ac-        How ought the church to                     saint who is a citizen of some
tions of various governmental         b e h a v e ?                               earthly kingdom for a time. Thus
bodies - the whole matter of the         We find nothing in Scripture to          informed, he votes according to
church writing position papers on     suggest, much less demand, that             the dictates of his conscience,
certain issues which are then         the church concern herself with             signs petitions as he sees fit,
presented to the government           matters of civil legislation. The           trains his children to honor the
with the purpose of influencing       church by her very marks is busy            king.
legislation. Many church bodies       with the preaching of the Gospel,              That this is the Reformed view
are engaged in such activity.         the administration of the                   of the duty of the church regard-
Synods and other assemblies of        sacraments, and the application             ing the things of the state is clear
the church formulate positions on     of Christian discipline to unre-            from Article 30 of our Church
nuclear bodies, abortion, the         pentant sinners within her                  Order where we find that in Con-
righteousness of a certain war,       membership. The church is not               sistory, Classis, and Synod "ec-
pollution of the environment, ad-     called by God or directed by                clesiastical matters only shall be
mission of Red China to the UN,       Scripture to discipline the world.          transacted." This maintains the
apartheid in South Africa, and        The church is not the salt of the           separation of church and state.
the like. Here we must make a         earth in the sense of getting out           This helps to insure that the
clear distinction between the ac-     into that world to preserve it;             church does not mistake her mis-
tivity of the church as an in-        Scripture never speaks of salt as           sion in this world. And this
stitute on the one hand, and the      a preservative. Salt is that which          shows that the church becomes
individual member of the church       renders something savory or tas-            involved only when one of her
who is a citizen of a certain         ty! And the presence of the faith-          membership breaks a civil law,
country on the other hand. Else-      ful church on the earth makes               or when the state so intrudes into
where in this issue the calling of    the entire earth tasty unto God!            the sphere of the church, that
the child of God toward his           Let the church be busy in preach-           under oppression the church ad-
government and the issues that        ing all the truth, and applying             dresses the State for relief and
face his government will be dis-      that truth to the problems and              points it to her God-given
cussed. Here we are concerned         trials that believers face in this          duty. 0
                                                                             -





                                      A Nation of Laws
Mr. lames La&g                        or Lawlessness?

                                        Truth is the majority vote of               For the mystery of lawlessness
                                      the nation that can &k all the              is already at work . . . . The com-
                                      others.                                     ing of the lawless one is accord-
                                                  Oliver Wendell Holmes           ing to the working of Satan . . .
                                        There is one thing a professor            with all unrighteous deception
                                      can be absolutely certain 017               among those who perish because
                                      almost every student entering the           they did not receive the love of
                                      university believes, or says he             the truth . . . .
Mr. Lanting, a member of South        believes, that truth is relative.                       II Thes. 2:7,9, 10 (NKJV)
Holland Protestant Reformed                                   Allan Bloom
Church, is a practicing attorney.

                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer  /  115


  It is almost a year now since         tempting to "gain control" of the       Judicial Restraint and Original
the U.S. Senate rejected President      Constitution. We are now en-            Intent
Reagan's nomination of Judge            gaged, he asserted, in an ideolog-        Bork argues that such unfet-
Robert Bork to the Supreme              ical civil war involving the most       tered activism by the judiciary is
Court. Distracted by the inevi-         fundamental issues of democratic        a frightening usurpation of the
table clamor and chimera of an          freedom.                                power of the legislature. The
election year and always suffer-          He accused his liberal foes of        "moral content" of the law,
ing from an alarmingly short            having a "hidden agenda" that           claims Bork, should be given by
memory, our nation has largely          no legislature would ever adopt;        the legislature; the judge's only
forgotten the unprecedented and         their only hope is that some sym-       role is to apply that law to un-
bitter battle that broke out last       pathetic judges will implement it       foreseen circumstances. Rather
year over the scholarly jurist's        by judicial fiat. Their agenda is       than yielding to the temptation to
nomination to the highest Court         "egalitarian and redistributionist,"    wield power to accomplish
in our land. The announcement           he charged, and also includes           societal goals ignored or even
of Bork's nomination galvanized         such controversial goals as             resisted by the legislatures, the
scores of liberal political organi-     abortion-on-demand, affirmative         judiciary should instead scru-
zations which joined forces to          action programs, and homosexual         pulously exercise deference
wage collectively an unparalleled       rights. But since the Constitution      and restraint.
political assault against a             insures no such liberties, the            Coupled with this conservative
Supreme Court nominee. The              liberals embrace "judicial ac-          doctrine of "judicial restraint,"
A.C.L.U., the National Organiza-        tivism." This doctrine views the        Bork also espouses the belief that
tion of Women, People for the           Constitution as a "living docu-         judicial Constitutional interpreta-
American Way, Planned Parent-           ment" which can be subjected to         tion must be limited by the
hood, and countless others spent        new readings by each generation         "original intent" of its authors.
millions of dollars nationwide          of jurists. Judges, then, should be     No judge may fashion or finagle
disseminating propaganda scan-          free-wheeling and expansive in          new rights or notions that were
dalously characterizing Judge           their interpretation of the docu-       never incorporated in the Consti-
Bork as a right-wing fascist intent     ment, creatively forging new            tution. If, for example, state legis-
on stripping Americans of their         rights and notions which (in their      latures outlaw abortion or
hard-won constitutional civil           view) address contemporary              sodomy, the judiciary may not
rights. This historic mobilization      society's problems.                     strike down such laws as
of liberals was ironically spear-         It is generally acknowledged          violative of some newly found
headed by perhaps the two least         that the most infamous product          Constitutional guarantees
likely politicians to challenge         of judicial activism is the 1973        unknown to the Framers, but
anyone's credentials, Senators          Roe v. Wade decision wherein a          rather must defer to the "moral
Joseph Biden and Ted Kennedy.           Texas state statute outlawing           content" of the law enacted by
Although observers expected             abortions was struck down by            the legislature as representative
typical partisan opposition to          the Supreme Court as violative of       of the majority of the people. To
such a significant assignment,          a newly discovered constitutional       do otherwise would result in an
many were bewildered by the             guarantee - a woman's "right to         "undemocratic" substitution of
passionate antipathy towards            privacy" over her own body, a           the moral preferences of the
Bork displayed by his liberal           right admittedly nowhere men-           legislature for that of the
detractors. Indeed, was there           tioned in the Constitution or its       judiciary. Such "judicial activism"
something more than a pres-             supporting historical documents.        is not rule by law in a
tigious appointment at stake?           And, more recently, an attempt          democracy, suggests Bork, but
A War for the Constitution              to persuade the Supreme Court to        rather rule by oligarchy.
  In a recent speech in Chicago,        strike down Georgia's sodomy            A Moral Catastrophe
Bork sounded his own call to            statute as violative of another           Bork's judicial conservatism is
arms, declaring that the nation is      new constitutional right - the          embraced generally by evangel-
embroiled in nothing less than "a       right to engage in homosexual           ical Christians, but his implicit
war for control of the Constitu-        conduct - failed by only one            trust in the ability of the legisla-
tion." What is at stake, he said, is    vote.                                   ture to afford law its "moral con-
the "very idea of the rule of law                                               tent" is perhaps unduly optimistic
in this country." He warned that                                                and naive. For it can be argued
we are confronted by a leftist                                                  that the great legal problem to-
political movement that is at-                                                  day is not that our jurisprudence


is becoming "undemocratic." The         sumably, then, his only objection       "natural law" and scripture, and
profound crisis rather is that all      to Roe U. Wade is that it is an         therefore should be proscribed by
moral debate - legislative,             "undemocratic" decision contrary        the civil law of the state.
judicial, or otherwise - has            to the moral preferences of the           If a legal system that is funda-
become arbitrary and meaning-           majority of Texans (at least in         mentally arbitrary is essentially
less. Many religious writers have       1973). He does not explain,             lawlessness, then the "mystery of
lamented America's abandon-             however, why the caprice of a           lawlessness" is already at work in
ment of the Christian ethical           majority of Texans is any less ar-      this country. But even in the face
tradition since the 1940's. And         bitrary than the whims of a             of this apostasy being ushered in
now even reputable secular              Washington, D.C. judiciary. But         by the "lawless one," Paul urges
scholars today such as Allan            perhaps Bork is essentially a           the Christian to "stand fast and
Bloom (The Closing of the               relativist not unlike Justice           hold the traditions" which he was
American Mind) and Alisdair             Holmes, the father of American          taught (II Thes. 2:15). The Re-
MacIntyre (After Virtue) have an-       legal skepticism, and believes          formed citizen must remain un-
nounced that a "moral catas-            that principles of truth and justice    daunted and fulfill his duties to
trophe" has occurred in this            are to be determined solely by          all three branches of our govern-
country. "We have - very large-         the VOX populi.                         ment. He must pay taxes, show
ly, if not entirely - lost our com-     Christian Duties                        due honor and respect, and obey
prehension, both theoretical and          The Reformed jurist, legislator,      "in all things not repugnant" to
practical, of morality," writes         and citizen rejects such relativism     the Word of God.
Maclntyre.                              and refuses to look to the collec-        But the Reformed citizen is
  If so, then Bork has ignored          tive preferences of citizenry or        called to more than passive obe-
the foundational question that          the judiciary for the fundamental       dience. He has a mandate active-
lurks beneath the conserva-             notions of morality and justice         ly to be the salt of the earth by
tive/liberal debate in jurispru-        needed in making, interpreting,         witnessing to the government by
dence: How can anyone (includ-          and obeying our laws. Rather, he        speaking to or corresponding
ing legislators) make moral judg-       will appeal to the "natural law"        with his elected representatives,
ments in a society that is now          concepts of truth and justice           lawfully demonstrating when
morally adrift without any charts       which are implicit in the Creation      necessary, and exercising his
or navigational aids? And Bork          (Romans l), written in man's            right to vote and take office.
himself offers us little hope. Not a    heart and conscience (Romans 2)         Finally, the Christian citizen will
member of any church and                and more fully and clearly              pray for his legislators and judges
describing himself facetiously as       known in the Holy Scriptures.           that "God may rule and guide
a "generic Protestant," Bork per-       And, unlike Bork, he will un-           them in all their ways, that we
sonally refuses to declare that         equivocally declare that abortion-      may lead a quiet and peaceable
abortion-on-demand and homo-            on-demand and homosexuality,            life in all godliness and honesty"
sexuality are morally wrong. Pre-       for example, are violative of           (Belgic Confession, Art. 36). 0



                                        Church and State
                                        in `Article 36 of the
Prof. Herman Hanko                      Belgic Confession

                                          Article 36 of our Belgic Confes-      tury or so. This article deals with
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church      sion has been a source of con-          the subject of magistrates and dis-
History and New Testament in the        siderable controversy in the            cusses, among other things, the
Protestant Reformed Seminary.           church, especially in the last cen-     "office" of magistrates which is

                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 117


defined as being,                           In more recent years the First       always in the hands of unbe-
not only to have regard unto, and        Amendment has been applied              lievers. If, therefore, the state
watch for the welfare of the civil       more broadly with the result that       would take it upon itself to en-
state; but also that they protect the    all laws which give to either state     force and promote what in its
sacred ministry; and thus may            or local governments any kind of        judgment  was the true religion,
remove and prevent all idolatry and      right to enforce the observance         the true church of Christ would
false worship; that the kingdom of       of the first table of the law of        be persecuted. To understand this
anti-Christ  may be thus destroyed
and the kingdom of Christ promoted.      God have been struck down by            we need only ask ourselves the
They must therefore countenance the      Supreme Court rulings. One may          question: How often has it hap-
preaching of the Word of the gospel      now publicly blaspheme without          pened in the history of the world
everywhere, that God may be              penalty of the law; he may              that a government anywhere was
honored and worshipped by every          desecrate the Sabbath either by         genuinely Christian and favored
one, as he commands in his Word.         opening his store or going to the       that church which held to the
   It is very clear from this state-     beach and not worry about of-           truth of Gods Word? Or we
ment that the  Belgic Confession         fending the police officer. He          could ask the question: What
supports the idea that the               may, as a matter of fact, spout in      would happen to all those who
magistrate is called, not only to        any public place any heresy he          are Reformed and Calvinistic in
enforce the second table of the          wishes and be guaranteed                our own land if our present
law (punish those who commit,            freedom of speech. The govern-          government would decide to de-
murder, adultery, theft, slander,        ment is "neutral" in all matters of     fend, promote, and enforce only
and their related sins), but the         religion - so "neutral" that no         one religion which it considered
magistrate must also enforce             religion (except the religion of        to be the true religion? We would
observance of the first table of         evolutionism) may be taught in          have to go to prison, see our
the law (punish those guilty of          the public schools; no prayers          churches shut down, and attempt
idolatry, false worship, Sabbath         may be offered in the classrooms;       to escape to some other country.
desecration, and public                  and no public building may con-         So, you see, Article 36 seems so
blasphemy).                              tain any reference to any religion      abstract, so far removed from the
   That the Reformers held to this       at all - not even a copy of the         practical realities of life, so filled
position is clear enough from            ten commandments hanging on             with incipient dangers that it is
history. John Calvin supported           the wall.                               reason to be grateful to God that
this position in Geneva; John               But this same principle has          no one believes this article
Knox did the same in Scotland;           even been extended now to the           anymore.
the Anglican Church in England           second table of the law. To op-           At any rate, the position that
was established on the same prin-        pose the murder of unborn               the magistrate must enforce the
ciple; the Reformed Church in            babies is a matter of religion and      first table of the law as well as
Netherlands was founded on the           not, therefore, a matter of the         the second led to the idea that it
basis of this same view. In fact, it     state - so it is said. To oppose        was the duty of the magistrate to
was not until 1834 (the year of          adultery, homosexuality, por-           establish a state-church, "one
the Secession under De Cock)             nography, etc. is to be religious,      denomination of Christians within
that a Reformed Church was               and to insist that the state en-        the land which would enjoy
established in the Netherlands           force laws against these sins is        governmental approval and sup-
which was completely free from           said to be the intrusion of             port" (P.Y. De Jong, "The
state control; and this freedom          religion into affairs of state, and,    Church's Witness to the World,"
from state control came about            therefore, a violation of the Con-      p. 407). In fact, in some instances
only after a period of struggle,         stitution. So our country is fast       the idea of a state-church went
strife, and persecution of the           going in the direction of holding       beyond this to include the notion
Seceders. In the early history of        that the magistrate must not en-        that all people within a given
our own country, although the            force either the first OY the sec-      land, by virtue of birth alone,
First Amendment forbad the in-           ond table of the law of God.            belonged to that one state-
trusion of the government into             So, at least in this country -        church, to be baptized and con-
religious matters, the various           and in most countries in the            firmed in it, married by its
states passed laws against taking        world - Article 36 of The Belgic        ministers, and buried under its
God's name in vain, and a man            Confession is said to be hope-          auspices. Or, if this idea of all
could be imprisoned for opening          lessly out of date.                     within a country actually belong-
his store on the Lord's Day.               Another problem with Article          ing to a church was too stringent,
                                         36 is that the state is almost          at least the church was in some


118  I The Standard Bearer


way responsible for every single           churches and personal liberty of con-      this historical material is found
person which lived within its              science in matters pertaining to the       primarily in P. Y. De Jong's  "The
boundaries - the boundaries of             service of God.                            Church's Witness to the World. `3
the church being the same as the              The Christian Reformed Church in          A couple of general remarks
boundaries of the state.                   America, being in full accord with         about all this. In the first place,
   Because of these objections to          this view, feels constrained to declare    the revision adopted by the
the article, Reformed churches             that it does not conceive of the office    C.R.C. in 1958 really leaves the
                                           of the magistracy in this sense, that
have done things about the arti-                                                      matter somewhat in doubt. What
                                           it be in duty bound to also exercise
cle and to it that tried to avoid                                                     is left for the state to do is "con-
                                           political authority in the sphere of
these problems.                            religion, by establishing and main-        tribute to the advancement of a
   In 1896 in the Netherlands cer-         taining a State Church, advancing          society that is pleasing to God"
tain objections were brought to            and supporting the same as the only        and "remove every obstacle to
the Synod of the Reformed                  true Church, and to oppose, to             the preaching of the gospel and
Church against these statements            persecute and to destroy by means of       to every aspect of divine wor-
of Article 36. The Synod, after            the sword all the other churches as        ship." It can be argued that for
careful study, deleted from the            being false religions; and to also         the state to do this would require
Confession this entire section of          declare that it does positively hold       that the state enforce the first
Article 36 which we quoted                 that, within its own secular sphere,       table of the law. But if this was
above. In 1910 the Christian Re-           the magistracy has a divine duty           the intended meaning, then the
                                           towards the first table of the Law as
formed Church in this country                                                         original footnote was sufficient
                                           well as towards the second; and fur-
considered the same problem. It            thermore that both State and Church        and there was no need to tamper
seems, however, that, rather than          as institutions of God and Christ          with the article itself. The Synod
delete the section of Article 36           have mutual rights and duties ap-          apparently had something less
which seemed so offensive and              pointed them from on high, and             than enforcement of the first
out of date, the Christian Re-             therefore have a very sacred               table of the law in mind when it
formed Church simply adopted a             reciprocal obligation to meet through      defined the duty of magistrates.
footnote to the article. The foot-         the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from           In the second place, as far as
note is worth reading here.                Father and Son, They may not,              our own Protestant Reformed
                                           however, encroach upon each other's
   This phrase, touching the office of                                                Churches are concerned, we are
                                           territory. The Church has rights of
the magistracy in its relation to the                                                 not bound by the decisions of the
                                           sovereignty in its own sphere as well
Church, proceeds on the principle of                                                  Reformed Churches in the
                                           as the State.
the Established Church, which was                                                     Netherlands in 1896, nor the
first applied by Constantine and             The Christian Reformed                   decisions of the Christian Re-
afterwards also in many Protestant         Church was, however, not satis-            formed Church in 1958. But the
countries. History, however, does not      fied with this statement either.           decisions of 1910 are our deci-
support the principle of State             When objections were raised                sions. This is evident from the
domination over the Church, but            against this "footnote" to the arti-       fact that the Synod of our
rather the separation of Church and        cle, the Synod of the Christian
State. Moreover, it is contrary to the     Reformed Church in 1958                    Churches in 1946 published "The .
New Dispensation that  autho&  be          adopted a revision which deleted           Church Order of the Protestant
vested in the State to arbitrarily         the controversial part (which we           Reformed Churches." This
reform the Church, and to deny the         quoted at the beginning of this            "Church Order" was, according
Church the right of independently          article) and inserted instead:             to the "Preface," the same (with
conducting its own affairs as a                                                       a couple of changes which are
distinct territory alongside the State.    And being called in this manner to         enumerated in the Preface) as the
The New Testament does not subject         contribute to the advancement of a         "Church Order" adopted by the
the Christian Church to the authority      society that is pleasing to God, while     Combined Consistories at the
of the State that it should be gov-        completely refraining from every           very beginning of the history of
erned and extended by political            tendency towards exercising absolute       the Protestant Reformed Churches.
measures, but to our Lord and King         authority, and while functioning in
only as an independent territory           the sphere entrusted to them and           And the "Church Order"
alongside and altogether indepen-          with the means belonging to them to        adopted by the Combined Con-
dent of the State, that it may be          remove every obstacle to the preach-       sistories was the edition of
governed and edified by its  office-       ing of the gospel and to every aspect      "Keegstra and Van Dellen  of
bearers and with spiritual weapons         of divine worship, in order that the       1915, adopted by the Christian
only. Practically all Reformed             Word of God may have free course,          Reformed Church in 1914"
churches have repudiated the idea of       the kingdom of Jesus Christ may            (Preface to the 1946 edition of
the Established Church, and are ad-        make progress, and every anti-             the Church Order). With the
vocating the autonomy of the               Christian power may be resisted. (All      references in the Church Order

                                                                                                       The Standard  Bearer  / 119


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