 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
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Vol. 6.5, -No. 9
February I, 7989


  Contents                                              February 7,7 989              THE
                                                                                 STANDARD
 Meditation  - Rev.  lames  D. Slopsema
    THE TRIAL OF OUR FAITH                                   -.-         195         Bki4RER
 Editorial  -  Prof. David/.  Engelsma                                           ISSN  0362-4692
    ANOTHER LOOK AT NONRESISTANCE (2)                                    197
                                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
 LETTERS                                                                 199     and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                 lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                 at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
 Decency and Order  - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                    EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
    SUPPORT AND RELEASE                                                  200     Editor-in-chief: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
                                                                                 Managing Editor: Prof. Robert D. Decker
 Contributions                                                                   Editors' Assistant: Mr. Don Doezema
                                                                                 DEPARTMENT EDITORS
    NEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND  -  Rev. Rodney  C.  Miersma                   202     Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
    THE DEDICATION OF THE COVENANT PROTESTANT                                    Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                 Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
       REFORMED CHURCH  - Rev.  RichardA.   Flikkema                     203     Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
                                                                                 Jason Kortering, Rev. George Lubbers, Rev. James
 In His Fear  -  Rev. Arie  denHartog                                            Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra, Rev.  Cise
                                                                                 VanBaren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
    LOVING THE LORD OUR GOD WITH OUR WHOLE BEING                         205     EDITORIAL OFFICE
                                                                                The Standard Bearer
 From Holy Writ  -  Rev. George C. Lubbers                                      4949  lvanrest
    EXPOSITION OF JOHN  21:1-14 (2)                                      207    Crandville,  Michigan 49418
                                                                                CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                Mr. Ben Wigger
 Bible Study Guide  - Rev, Jason L. Kortering                                   6597  - 40th Ave.
   JUDGES  - JEHOVAH DELIVERS HIS UNWORTHY PEOPLE (3)                    209     Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
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 BOOK REVIEWS                                                            212    Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
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 REPORT OF CLASSIS EAST  - Mr.  jon Huisken                              213    Question Box Department are welcome. Contribu-
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 NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                           215    and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
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 In This Issue . . .                                                            editorial office.
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                                                                                The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
again a couple of responses to be included in this issue.                       Mr. H.  Vander  Wal     c/o Protestant Reformed
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                                                                                Grand  Rapids, MI       B. Van Herk
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194  I The Standard  Bearer


 Meditation                              The Trial of Our Faith
Rev. lames Slopsema



   That the trial of your faith,           Our attention is called to gold     misery that characterizes the life
being much more precious                 which is tried by fire. So also is    of mankind today. In Jesus there
than of gold that perisheth,             our faith, which is much more         is a hope of yet a better life to
though it be tried with fire,            precious than gold, tried by the      come in heavenly glory.
might be found imto praise               sufferings of this present time.        This salvation is ours by faith
and honor and glory at the                 Furthermore, we are assured         alone. Salvation is not something
appearing of Jesus Christ.               that this tried and tested            we must earn. It's not something
                                         character of our faith will be        that can be purchased with gold
                         I Peter  1:7    found by Jesus in the day of His      and money. It's a free gift of God
                                         appearing, with the result that       received by faith alone in Jesus
   The churches to which Peter           we will be approved by God, re-       Christ. Salvation full and free is
was writing were in heaviness            ceiving both honor and glory.         promised by God to all and
through manifold temptations.              What a glorious comfort and         everyone who clings in his heart
We learn later in this letter that       encouragement in the face of our      to Jesus Christ and relies upon
this heaviness or grief refers to        present sufferings!                   Him for all things.
the severe persecutions the saints                  * * * * *                    How precious then is our faith!
experienced at the hand of the                                                   Daily we must thank God for
world.                                     Gold!                               our faith in Jesus. For even this
  We also find ourselves fre-              How precious gold is! Gold is       faith comes from God and not
quently in heaviness through             so precious because of its pur-       from us.
manifold temptations. We too             chasing power. `With gold you           But the point is that our faith
must suffer for Christ's sake in         can secure food, drink, and cloth-    is more precious even than gold.
the midst of the world -                 ing. And that's not all. With         This is true because, as precious
although we may thankfully add           enough gold a man can enjoy           as gold is, it perishes, whereas
that in our present society this         luxury, pleasure, power, security,    our faith does not.
opposition is not nearly as severe       the esteem of his fellow man.           Indeed, gold does perish. It
as that experienced by the               Almost anything earthly can be        perishes in the sense that so easi-
church in the days of the                acquired, if only you have            ly we can lose our hoarded gain
apostles. But in addition to this        enough gold. For that reason          of gold and money. We may
we also experience the sufferings        men have worked, fought, and          work long and hard, scrimping
that come upon mankind in                even killed for gold.                 and saving to amass to ourselves
general: sickness, physical infirm-        But as precious as gold is, our     a fortune of gold; and tomorrow
ities, loss of loved ones, financial     faith is far more precious.           it may all slip through our
difficulties, broken homes . . . .         Faith is precious exactly           fingers.. Great fortunes have been
  God has a purpose in these suf-        because it brings to us the salva-    lost overnight.
ferings. They are designed to try        tion of God in Jesus Christ.            Besides that, whatever gold
our faith.                               Through the death and resurrec-
                                         tion of our Lord Jesus Christ, God    and riches you may manage to
                                         has prepared for us a glorious        acquire in this life will be lost to
                                         salvation. In Jesus there is the      you when you die. At death you
                                         forgiveness of all our. sins. In      leave everything behind. You
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of the Prot-     Jesus there is the power of a new     won't be able to take so much as
estant Reformed Church of Walker,                                              one gold piece with you.
Michigan.                                life free from all the sin and

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  /  7%


   This isn't true, however, of our       The devil still works the same         be content and patient in these
faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ        way today. Whenever we suffer,           sufferings, when we bear in mind
and the salvation it brings us will     the devil is nearby to tempt us. If      that God uses these sufferings to
never perish. The devil seeks to        possible he would use our pres-          try our faith, which is much
destroy our faith; but God will         ent sufferings to discourage us          more precious even than gold
preserve us in it. Nor do we            from continuing in God's ways.           that perishes.
lose our faith when we die. We          He seeks to make us bitter                          * * * * *
carry our faith and salvation with      against God so that we turn from
us into eternity to enjoy its bless-    God and walk in unbelief. Many             This trial of our faith will be
ings eternally. In fact, these are      of us may presently be struggling        found unto praise and honor and
the only things we take with us         with these devilish temptations.         glory at the appearing of J-&us
when we die!                              However, God is sovereign over         Christ.
   And now consider how short           both the devil and our suffering.          Jesus Christ is coming again.
our life here on the earth is in        And He uses the same sufferings,         When He comes He will appear
comparison to eternity. Gold is         which the devil uses to tempt us         visibly on the clouds of heaven
something that pertains only to         so severely, to try our faith.           with His holy angels. And He will
this life, and will be lost at death      First, through our sufferings          judge the living and the dead, all
- if we don't manage to lose it         God puts our faith to the test and       according to their works.
before. On the other hand, our          exposes its weaknesses. Mind               In that day the trial of our
faith and its salvation is ours to      you, God doesn't test our faith so       faith will be found unto praise
enjoy eternally.                        that He may come to know the             and honor and glory.
   How much more precious is            strength or weakness of our faith.         The trial of our faith obviously
our faith than gold which               God, who knows even the hearts           doesn't refer here to the actual
perishes.                               of man, knows the nature of our          testing of our faith but rather to
              * `*  * * *               faith without ever putting it to         the tried and tested character of
                                                                                 our faith. Through a lifetime of
   God tries our faith, as gold is      the test. Our faith is tested            trials and tribulations God
tried by fire.                          through suffering that we may            strengthens and purifies our faith
   When gold is melted by fire          come to know the true character          so that in the strength of faith we
the impurities rise to the top. In      of our faith. What startling reve-       live lives of service to God in the
this way gold can be tested for         lations about our faith are made         midst of this world.
impurities. But gold is also            to us in the hour of suffering!            This tried and tested character
purified in this way. For the im-         But through the trial of our           of our faith with all its fruits will
purities that rise to the top are       faith God also strengthens and in-       not be lost in the day of judg-
easily skimmed off. This is trial       creases our faith. The devil may         ment. Nor will it be overlooked.
by fire. When gold is tried by fire     seek to destroy our faith through        It will be found by the Lord Jesus
it is tested and purified.              suffering; but God strengthens it.       Christ. It will be found unto
   In like manner God tries our         the devil may seek through suf-          praise and honor and glory. It
faith by the fires of sufferings and    fering to drive us away from             will be found unto, praise in that
affliction, not only to test our        Christ (and sometimes he suc-            Jesus Christ will express His ap-
faith but also to strengthen and        ceeds for a while); but God uses         proval of our faith and the works
purify it.                              the same sufferings ultimately to        of service that have arisen from
   This truth must be contrasted        bring us closer to our Lord and          it. He will say, "Well done, thou
to the efforts of the devil to          Savior, the fount of all our salva-      good and faithful servant." But
destroy our faith through suffer-       tion. Consequently, it is through        our faith in that day will also be
ing.                                    suffering that we grow and in-           found unto honor and glory in
   Mention has just been made by        crease in our faith. And with the        that Jesus will reward our tried
Peter of the heaviness through          increase of our faith we also are        and tested faith with its works
manifold temptations. These             enriched in all the blessings of
                                        salvation, the least of which is         with great honor and glory in
temptations refer specifically to                                                h e a v e n .
the severe persecution the saints       not mighty works of faith in the           This is the ultimate purpose of
were experiencing. Through the          service of our God.                      God in our suffering. God sends
fiery persecutions which he               The devil tempts; but the Lord         suffering, first, that our faith may
brought against the churches, the       tries our faith, as gold is tried by     be tried and strengthened. But
devil sought to tempt the saints        fire.Now it is true that no suffering
to abandon the Christian faith.         For the present is joyous but
                                        grievous. Nevertheless, we can

196  / The Standard Bearer


His ultimate goal is that this tried      patiently bear our present suffer-           But since God uses even suffer-
and tested character of faith may         ings and burdens.                       ings to bring us honor and glory
be found unto praise and honor               Were it true that our present        through the trial of our faith, we
and glory at the appearing of             sufferings serve no good purpose,       can endure every affliction and
Jesus Christ.                             we could hardly endure them.            be content. Cl
  Clinging to this by faith we can        Then all that is left for us is bit-
                                          terness and despair.





                                          Another Look at
Editorial                                 Nonresistance (2)

  Note: Part of a sentence was in-        To What Extent It Should be             and the spiritual sword wielded
advertently omitted in the typesetting    Obeyed'; "Admonition to Peace,          by the church. He defines the
of my editorial in the January 15         A Reply to the Twelve Articles of       task of the state to be the
issue. The first two sentences in the     the Peasants in Swabia"; "Against       maintenance of outward order in
third paragraph should read as            the Robbing and Murdering               society: ". . . the temporal
follows: Presbyterian Christians in       Hordes of Peasants"; and "An            (government) . . . restrains the
Northern Ireland are under similar
pressure. Mobs in the streets, para-      Open Letter on the Harsh Book           unchristian and wicked so that
                                                                                  -
military organizations, strategic dis-    against the Peasants" (cf. Luther's          no thanks to them - they are
obedience to certain laws, threats to     Works, published by Concordia           obliged to keep still and to main-
make the nation "ungovernable,  "         Publishing House and Fortress           tain an outward peace." The
and other rebellious actions are the      Press, Volumes 45 and 46). The          magistrates are "God's execu-
order of the day as tactics by which      first of these is a warning against     tioners and hangmen; His divine
Ulster is to be saved for Protestant-     violence in opposing the spiritual      wrath uses them to punish the
ism and for God.                          authorities - pope, priest, and         wicked and to maintain outward
                                          Roman church; church reforma-           peace." This is what Paul means .
  Protestant Christians tempted           tion must be carried out in an          by the sword in Romans 13; and
to dabble in resistance to the            orderly manner by the Word of           this is Peter's teaching in I Peter
civil government ought to listen          God, not by means of force as           2, where he speaks of the state's
to the clear instruction and force-       advocated by the radicals. But          duty as "the punishment of evil-
ful warning of Martin Luther.             the last four speak directly to the     doers." The state must not, may
  In five treatises written early in      issue of resistance to the state.       not, and cannot promote the
the Reformation, between 1522               These writings belong to any          gospel or destroy heresy. It has
and 1525, Luther addressed the            collection of the invaluable, foun-     neither authority nor competency
question, whether a Christian             dational documents of Protestant-       to rule men's souls. Luther saw
may ever revolt against the               ism. Here Luther develops the           clearly, as Calvin did not (with
authorities. These short works            truth of the divine institution of      distressing consequences in the
(we would call them pamphlets)            the state in contrast to the            history of the Reformed church),
are "A Sincere Admonition by              prevailing Roman notion that the        that the state has no calling to
Martin Luther to All Christians to        .church is the source of all earthly    oppose heresy. Replying to the
Guard against Insurrection and            authority. He sharply distin-           argument that the temporal
Rebellion"; I`Temporal Authority:         guishes the state and its calling       power must see to it "externaIIy
                                          from the church and her calling;        that no one deceives the people
                                          there are two swords, the tem-          by false doctrines," Luther stated:
                                          poral sword wielded by the state

                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer  I 197


   This the bishops should do; it is a       This was Luther's counsel at a        of history; rather, this is due to
function entrusted to them and not        time when Germany was erupt-             the judgment of God upon rebels
to the princes. Heresy can never be       ing in the "peasants' revolt."           already in this life.
restrained by force. One will have to     Powerful pressure was put upon             Second, resistance lets loose
tackle the problem in some other          the Reformer to approve the              upon a land the horrors of social
way, for heresy must be opposed           revolt. The Reformation gospel           and civil disorder. For Luther, as
and dealt with otherwise than with
the sword. Here God's word must do        had been making headway                  for Calvin, "there is nothing on
the fighting. If it does not succeed,     among the peasants. This                 earth that is worse than distur-
certainly the temporal power will         multitude of workers was looking         bance, insecurity . . . vio-
not succeed either, even if it were to    to Luther for leadership. Indeed,        lence . . . ." "Rebellion is no joke,
drench the world in blood. Heresy is      in their manifestos they grounded        and there is no evil deed on earth
a spiritual matter which you cannot       their demands for freedom in the         that compares with it." For
hack to pieces with iron, consume         liberty proclaimed by the gospel         preachers of the gospel to en-
with fire, or drown in water. God's       of Luther. In "The Twelve Ar-            courage resistance, and even to
word alone avails here . . . .            ticles" in which the peasants            incite it, is grossest dereliction of
  All that the state must do on           made their demands, they                 office. Luther called such
behalf of the gospel - and this is        claimed earthly freedom on the           preachers in his day - the
a great deal - is to permit it to         basis of their spiritual freedom in      Munzers, Hubmaiers, and
be preached; "indeed, no ruler            Christ: "Christ has redeemed and         Carlstadts  - "murder-prophets."
ought to prevent anyone from              bought us all with the precious          We have them also in our day,
teaching or believing what he             shedding of his blood, the lowly         the preachers calling for the
pleases, whether it is the gospel         as well as the great, excepting no       mobs to resist the state in the
or lies. It is enough if he prevents      one. Therefore, it agrees with           name of Jesus. Though dressed in
the teaching of sedition and              Scripture that we be free and will       the garb of a bishop or bearing
rebellion."                               to be so." In fact, they were sore-      the title of a Reformed or
   Luther was not always consis-          ly oppressed - burdened with             Presbyterian clergyman, they are
tent with his own teaching, par-          crushing taxation; worked like           murder-prophets. When they are
ticularly in handing over the             beasts; and held in the virtual          finally successful to unravel the
support and supervision of the            slavery of serfdom. This, Luther         frail fabric of order in the nation
church to the government; but in          recognized; and because of this          so that civil war breaks out, they
these treatises he is at his biblical     he excoriated the rulers, pleading       will stand with bloody hands
best. All Protestant theory on            with them to cease their oppres-         before God.
church and state must take                sion and warning them that they            Third, resistance is disobe-
Luther's work into account.               would be responsible for the             dience to the plain calling that
  Our interest is the Reformer's          bloodshed in Germany if the              God gives the believer in the Bi-
absolute prohibition of resistance        peasants did revolt:                     ble. Again and again, Luther
to the state on the part of the             We have no one on earth to thank       holds before the revolutionaries
Christian citizen. No matter how          for this disastrous rebellion, except    the Word of God in Matthew
unjust the rulers, no matter how          you princes and lords . . . as tem-      22:21 ("Render therefore unto
grievous the misery of the                poral rulers you do nothing but          Caesar the things which are
citizens under the sorest oppres-         cheat and rob the people so that you     Caesar's"); in Romans 13:lff.
sion, rebellion is never permitted.       may lead a life of luxury and ex-
                                                         ._                        ("Let every soul be subject to the
And rebellion includes making             travagance. The poor common people       higher powers"); and in I Peter
demands upon the authorities              cannot bear it any longer. . .           2:13ff. ("Honor the king").
under the threat of revolt if the         Nevertheless, "the fact that the           Fourth, resistance is rebellion
demands are not met. Even if the          rulers are wicked and unjust does        against the exalted Christ and the
government forbids the reading            not excuse disorder and                  sovereign God Whose authority
of Scripture and of Reformation           rebellion."                              He possesses. The authority of
literature, as well as the pure             Why not?                               the magistrate is given him "from
worship of God, and persecutes              First, resistance is usually fruit-    above," as Jesus told Pilate in
those who disobey, the Christian          less, resulting in worse misery for      John  19:ll. Therefore, the rebel
may not resist, i.e., use earthly         the rebels than that which pro-          can never prosper, even though
force against these ungodly               voked their revolution. This is          his revolution may succeed. For
magistrates. "Outrage is not to be        not only a lesson from Scripture,        he himself will be damned.
resisted, but endured." "Suffering!       but also the lesson of history. Nor      "Afterward, both you (the rebels
suffering! Cross! cross! This and         is this merely some natural law          - DJE) and they (the preachers
nothing else is the Christian law."                                                who stirred up the rebels - DJE)
         -
198  I The Standard Bearer


will be damned eternally in hell."       icals" resort to mob-action to          to their parents, if the children
Luther flatly declared, "I am and        coerce the government in the            judge the parents to be unjust.
always will be on the side of            United States! Christians? Prot-        Not only may the children now
those against whom insurrection          estants? Evangelicals?                  refuse to obey a command that
is directed, no matter how unjust          For these reasons, when the           would require them to sin, but
their cause; I am opposed to             revolt of the peasants came,            they may also actively resist,
those who rise in insurrection, no       Luther responded with his               with force, to bring the parents
matter how just their cause . . . ."     "Against the Robbing and Mur-           down - to destroy them - or to
In a time when churches are pro-         dering Hordes of Peasants" in           compel the parents to change
claiming that God is on the side         which he gave the much-                 some rule in family life which ag-
of the poor and oppressed re-            criticized exhortation, "let every-     grieves the children. This is not
gardless of their spiritual state, it    one who can, smite, slay, and           far-fetched. For the authority of
ought to be loudly preached by           stab, secretly or openly, remem-        the state and the authority of the
the true church that God is not          bering that nothing can be more         parents in the family flow from
on the side of the poor and op-          poisonous, hurtful, or devilish         the same earthly source. The
pressed who resist, but is against       than a rebel."                          state is a creation ordinance,
them.                                      The position of Luther and            originating in the headship of
  Fifth, resistance by those             Calvin that resistance to the state     Adam over his family.
claiming to be Christians brings         is always forbidden the Christian         Let every soul be subject to
disgrace on the gospel and on            (which was also the position of         the higher powers! This is the
the name of Jesus Christ. "In this       Augustine before them) must be          Word of the gospel of Jesus
way the gospel would be brought          the stand of the church of Christ       Christ, Who Himself submitted to
into disrepute, as though it taught      and of the believer today. Those        the most unjust rulers. This is a
insurrection . . . ." This more          who take another position, justi-       word of sanity in a world and in
than anything else weighed with          fying resistance by the Christian       a church-world gone mad with
Luther. Surely we feel something         citizen when the state is per-          revolutionary fever. And this is a
of his grief at the dishonoring of       ceived as unrighteous or approv-        word that translates into the
Christ's name by such wickedness         ing resistance as a legitimate          word that is dearer to the child
in our own day. "Christians"             means to oppose a specific law          of God than riches, comforts,
murder Moslems in Lebanon!               that is regarded as evil, should be     earthly liberty, and physical life
"Protestants" respond to the ter-        aware that the implications of          itself, "Let every soul reverence
rorism of the Roman Catholic             their position are far-reaching.        the Lordship of Jesus Christ and
I.R.A. by killing Roman Catholics        The very same argument that             honor the sovereignty of the
in Northern Ireland! "Evangel-           justifies resistance to the state       Triune God." 0                    -DJE
                                         also justifies children's resistance





Letters
  -.  _

  A hearty "thank-you" is due            "false teaching" and the "chasu-        God teaches us in Scripture in-
for your December 15 editorial           ble" (or matters of opinion).           stead of approaching Scripture
"Peace in Church." Anyone who            When Scripture is made to speak         with our own personal prefer-
has been a member of a warring           on every personal preference and        ences and judgments. (No small
congregation can attest to the           tradition, the inevitable result        task!) A positive and clear
priceless value of peace and har-        will be war in the congregation.        presentation of Scriptural truths
mony among members. And yet,             Most of these wars could be             is the best promoter of peace
it strikes me that often we have         avoided if we concentrated our          among members and is surely
difficulty discriminating between        energies into discovering what          the best witness to those who dif-

                                                                                                The Standard Bearer  / 199


fer with us on doctrinal points. It      He gave us Matthew 7:1-5 and             I received  The Standard Bearer
is only when we are unsure or            Luke  6:41-45. The conscientious      today (Nov. 15, 1988). Love the
not convicted of what Scripture          practice of these truths would        artwork, the writings, and the
says that we resort to character         have a tremendous impact in our       tone of the articles. My heart
assassination and disputing over        personal, congregational, and          really goes toward the positive
words.                                   denominational lives. I wonder        and not always the critical. We
   Jesus Christ knew that none of        how seriously we take these           cannot live in a negative atmos-
us are disposed towards peace           words of our Lord.                     phere all our lives. Keep up the
and that in our best intentions                    Yours in Christ,            good work!
we are often proud, self-willed,                   Karen Karsten                       Frank VanBaren
and unwilling to admit and deal                    Hudsonville, MI                     Loveland, CO
with our own faults. That is why





  Decency
 and Order
 Rev. Ronald Cammenga                   Support and Release

   "On the other hand, the con-           Article 11, now, presents the        PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING
sistory, as representing the con-       other side of the matter. The con-     ARTICLE 11
gregation, shall also be bound to       nection between the minister and         Sound, Biblical principles lie at
provide for the proper support of       the consistory binds not only the      the basis for the stipulations of
its ministers, and shall not            former, but also the latter. It        Article 11.
dismiss them from service with-         obligates the minister to be             First, the responsibility for the
out the knowledge and approba-          faithful to his congregation, not      support of the minister rests with
tion of the classis and of the          leaving it arbitrarily and without     the congregation in which he
delegates of the (particular)           the consent of the consistory. But     labors. It is not the duty of the
synod." Church Order, Article 11.       it also obligates the consistory to    state to provide for the salary
   Article 11 is closely related to     be faithful to the minister, not       and housing of ministers, as has
Article 10, as the opening phrase       leaving him without proper sup-        been done when the church was
indicates: "On the other hand...."      port during his tenure of labor in     a state church. The minister is
Article 10 concerned itself with        the congregation, nor arbitrarily      not obligated to see to his own
the responsibility of a minister        rejecting his service and dismiss-     support. Nor is patronage by the
with respect to his congregation.       ing him from office.                   wealthy the proper means for the
He may not forsake his congrega-          Although the main subject of         support of the minister. But it is
tion. If he leaves for another field    Article 11 is the support of           the duty of the congregation as a
of labor, he must do this in an         ministers, the article also deals      whole to provide for the care of
orderly way, in keeping with the        with the subject of release of         its ministers.
adopted rules, and with the con-        ministers from service in a par-         This is the duty that rests with
sent of the consistory of the           ticular congregation: ". . . and       the LOCAL congregation, not
church he intends to vacate.            shall not dismiss them from ser-       with the classis or synod. This is
                                        vice without the knowledge and         not to say that the classical
                                        approbation of the classis and of      church visitors, the classis, or the
                                        the delegates of the (particular)      synod may not give advice to
                                        synod."                                churches with respect to the care
Rev. Cammenga is  .pastor  of the                                              of their minister. They certainly
Protestant Reformed Church of                                                  may. One of the questions put to
Loveland, Colorado.                                                            the consistory at the annual

200  I The Standard Bearer


church visitation is: "Does he (the      warn consistories against forcing
minister) receive sufficient in- '       their ministers to subsidize their         Besides treating the support of
come to take care of the needs of        income by teaching school, work-        the ministry, Article 11 treats the
his family, taking in considera-         ing in ship yards, mining, prac-        matter of release from service.
tion the character of his work?"         ticing law or medicine, or work-        The consistory is bound to pro-
A minister may even appeal to            ing at government posts.                vide for the support of its
classis and synod if his congrega-          Fourth, it is implied that the       minister as long as he stands in
tion refuses to give him proper          responsibility of the congregation      the service of the congregation.
support. But, strictly speaking,         is to meet the NEEDS of the             This duty for support is removed
the duty of the support of its           minister. It is wrong of the            when, under certain pressing cir-
minister rests with the local con-       minister to demand from the             cumstances, a minister is dis-
gregation. The following Scrip-          church an extravagant living, a         missed from service in his con-
ture passages bear this out: Lev.        living that puts him on a par with      gregation. Such dismissal from
6:14-18; Num. 18:8-32; Deut.             other "professionals." It is equally    service is to be carefully distin-
12:11-19; Matt. 10:8-10; I Cor.          wrong of the congregation to            guished from emeritation, Article
9:7-18; II Cor. 11:7-12; Gal. 6:6, 7;    support their minister meagerly         13 of the Church Order, and
I Tim. 5:17, 18.                         so that his needs are barely met        suspension and deposition from
  Second, the congregation car-          or not met. The article insists on      office, Articles 79 and 80 of the
ries out this responsibility             "proper support."                       Church Order.
through the consistory. The arti-           The method for this support is          In the revised Church Order of
cle states, ". . . the consistory, as    not laid down in the article.           the Christian Reformed Church
representing the congregation,           Various methods of support have         this matter of ministerial release
shall also be bound to provide for       been used in the past and are in        from office has been made a
the proper support of its min-           vogue today. The methods of             separate article.
isters . . . ." Since the consistory     free-will contributions, pew ren-         Article 17. Release From Ministry
is the ruling body in the church         tal, a budget system, periodic          In A Congregation.
and is entrusted with the over-          drives through the congregation            a. A minister who is neither eligi-
sight of the minister, it is the con-    have been used. Some churches           ble for retirement nor worthy of
sistory that is directly responsible     today resort to crass money-            discipline may, because of an intoler-
for the minister's support. The          making schemes which, on the            able situation existing between him
consistory must make the deter-          very face of it, have no place in       and his church, be released from ac-
mination concerning the need of                                                  tive ministerial service in his congre-
                                         a Reformed church: bazaars,             gation. The consistory shall give such
the minister, which need the             sales, auctions, socials, Bingo,        a release only with the approval of
minister ought not to be reluctant       etc.                                    the classis,  with the concurring ad-
to make known to the consistory.           The best and most orderly way         vice of the synodical deputies and in
And the consistory is responsible        is the budget system. History has       accordance with synodical regula-
to see to it that the congregation       shown the value of this method          tions.
meets that need.                         in providing for the support of            b. The consistory shall provide for
  Third, it is implied in Article        the ministry. Although some             the support of a released minister in
11 that the Reformed view of the         lodge objections to the budget          such a way and for such a time as
office of the ministry is that it is     system, it is safe to say that these    shall receive the approval of classis.
a full-time labor. Those who are         objections either arise out of a          c. Eventually, if no call is forth-
                                                                                 coming, he may at the discretion of
called to the gospel ministry are        misunderstanding of the budget          classis and the synod be completely
called to labor full-time in the         system, or a wrong application of       released from his ministerial office.
ministry, making the ministry            various Scripture passages to the          There are various reasons for
very really their life's calling (II     question of the calling of              which a consistory might seek
Tim. 2:4). This is stated in the         believers to support the ministry       the release of their minister. It
C&l Letter used in our churches:         of the gospel. For a lengthy            may be the case that a minister
"Convinced that the laborer is           defense of the budget system, the       has shown himself to be unfit or
worthy of his hire, and to en-           interested reader is referred to a      unqualified for the work in that
courage you in the discharge of          series of articles written by Rev.      particular congregation. A certain
your duties, and to free you from        G.M. Ophoff in The Standard             minister may prove to be incom-
all worldly cares and avoca-             Bearer, vol. 9, beginning on page       patible with a certain congrega-
tions . . . ." In years past it was      368.                                    tion. It may happen that because
necessary that classes and synods                                                of difficulties in a congregation it
                                                                                 is inadvisable that the minister

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer  I201


continue his labors there. In                5) The matter of provision for his     minister's office resides in the
general, Article 11 ought to be            support and, if in the meantime he       local congregation, he also stands
used with great reluctance and             may come to die, for that of his         connected to the classis and
only when the welfare of both              family, its amount and duration,         synod.
the congregation and minister              must be left to the discretion of the       The status of a released
make it imperative.                        Consistory and Classis.                  minister is that he is relieved
   The Synod of Utrecht, 1905,               6) That since a dismissed minister     from service (labor) in his congre-
made the following decisions,              loses his right to support from the
                                           Emeritus Fund, his widow cannot lay      gation. He retains his office and
with respect to dismission from            claim to pension.                        the dignity of the office. He is
service (quoted from Handbook                7) That each case of dismissal is      declared eligible for a call. This
For Elders And Deacons,  by Wm.            to be communicated discreetly to all     usually accompanies notification
Heyns, p. 97):                             the Classes, with a complete state-      to the churches of the denomina-
   1) That it is not permissible in        ment of the reasons.                     tion by his consistory of his dis-
cases which call for the application         The article provides for ap-           missal. He is still permitted to
of discipline.                             proval of release from office by         preach the Word and administer
   2) That it is neither permissible if    the classis, with approval also by       the sacraments. For a reasonable
the cause of dissatisfaction and strife    the synodical delegates, that is,        time he is to be supported by the
is with the congregation, and without      the delegates  ad examina.  The          congregation that dismissed him.
just grounds.                              role of the classis is to approve
   3) That, however, conditions may                                                 If after that time he has not
have come to exist in which dis-           the action of the consistory after       received a call, his support is to
missal by the Classis  is imperative.      a definite decision to release by        be terminated and he is bound to
   4) That dismissal puts the minister     the consistory, but before its ac-       take up some other pursuit in
concerned in a position of being           tual implementation. The princi-         life. In this case, he also loses his
without a fixed charge.                    ple here is that although the            ministerial status. 0



                                           News From New Zealand
                                           The Dedication of the
 Contributions                                  Covenant Protestant
Rev. Rodney Miersma  &
Rev. Richard Flikkema                           Reformed Church

News  Frdm  New Zealand                    Christmas Day just around the            ticular seasons of the year.
   Greetings from the sunny                corner. Celebrating Christmas in           Although we were able to
South Pacific to all of our fellow-        the summer is altogether differ-         have our own little program this
saints elsewhere! It has been              ent from what we were used to.           year, we do miss the various
several months since our last              It is hard even to think of Christ-      Christmas programs by the
newsletter appeared which was              mas without the snow, the cold,          choral societies, schools, etc. By
written during our winter. As I            the short days, etc. Just imagine        the time you read this, Christmas
write this letter we are experi-           yourself observing Christmas on          will long have passed, but you
`encing summer weather with                the Fourth of July. The spiritual        can reflect on this nonetheless.
                                           emphasis is the same, no matter          This gives my wife and me the
                                           where in the world one lives, for        opportunity to thank al1 of you
                                           the life of Christ dwells within         who have sent letters and Christ-
Rev. Miersma is pastor of the Prot-        our hearts whether it is hot or          mas cards to us. Living so far
estant Reformed Church of New              cold outside. Yet one tends to           from the homeland causes one to
Zealand.                                   associate certain events with par-       keep a watchful eye for the

202  / The Standard Bearer


     postie on her bicycle to see if        period over Christmas and New           needs that as you call upqn the
     there is any mail.
I                                           Year holidays, New Zealand is all       Lord in prayer you may do so
          As congregation we are well,      closed. Seems that everybody            knowledgeably with respect to
     appreciating certain aspects of        closes his shop and takes a holi-       us. For those who have the
     church life which most of you          day. So if you want anything            means to come and visit us I can
     take for granted. We are now           repaired or ordered you had bet-        assure you that you will be heart-
     able to celebrate the Lords Sup-       ter have it done early in               ily welcomed by all. May the
     per on a regular basis, after be-      December or later in January or         Lord be with you as you con-
     ing without for some fourteen          be left high and dry.                   tinue in this New Year. 0
     years. For the first time since           As far as the government is
      1971 family visitation                concerned it is basically a social      The Dedication of the
     (huisbezoek) is being conducted        government. This means that the
     -                                                                              Covenant Protestant
          which for some of our             government takes care of you in
     members is the first time ever,        almost every aspect of your life        Reformed Church
     since they came from a non-            from the cradle to the grave. But          This article is written out of
     Reformed background.                   as in most cases when the               joy and thanksgiving to God and
          Having given an overview of       government takes over, it makes         with the desire that the churches
     our church life in the last news-      a mess of everything. If you need       and readers of The Standard
     letter, with a little more of the      non-emergency surgery you often         Bearer might rejoice with us. God
     same in the first part of this let-    must wait for up to a year to get       in His grace has given to us our
     ter, I will try now to familiarize     in the hospital. The government         own house of worship! Through
     you somewhat with the country          owns the airline, railways, ship-       the years of our existence the
     in which we now live. New              ping, buses, gas, coal, electricity,    Lord always gave us a place in
     Zealand is an island nation com-       telephone, post office, banks, and      which to worship Him on the
     prised of two major islands and        insurance company covering              Lord's Day. But not until now do
     one small island, approximately        your home, health, car, and life.       we have our own church build-
     one thousand miles from top to         One could go on with many               ing.
     bottom. `On the world map it is        more examples, but this is a              The history is very long, span-
     located in the southern                newsletter, not an encyclopedia.        ning some ten years. As early as
     hemisphere in the Pacific Ocean,       Labor unions are in strong con-         1975, two years after the church
     straight west of the southern part     trol in most areas, which means         was organized, the possibility of
     of Australia. Prof. Hoeksema in        that there are many strikes,            building our own church was dis-
     Tasmania, Australia is about 1200      usually when services are needed        cussed. At that time it was de-
     miles to the west of us as you         the most. Recently we were with-        cided that such was impossible.
     follow the 41st parallel. Presently    out electricity for a good part of      However, the Lord in His good-
     we are enjoying summer weather         the day because employees at            ness made the way possible by
     with average temperatures in the       the generating plants went on           providing us with a piece of
     70's. Although tornadoes are           strike.                                 property, five acres, including a
     almost non-existent (even                Religiously speaking New              house to serve as a parsonage.
     thunder and lightning is a rare        Zealand is a fairly godless coun-       Many difficulties were faced im-
     occurrence) there is always the        try. About a third of the popula-       mediately, and it was not until
     danger of earthquakes. A major         tion claim some form of the             March of 1978 that a building
     faultline runs through Wellington,     Anglican Church as their church         permit was obtained. In June of
     the South Island gradually sliding     home. Liberal Presbyterianism           1979 the work began, and the
     under the North Island. We have        and Roman Catholicism also              foundation was laid later that
     experienced a number of earth-         claim a fair share of the popula-       year. Little by little, as the Lord
     quakes already.                        tion. Mormonism is coming on            gave us the means, the work
       Since it is summertime the           strong. Those of the Reformed           continued until the present.
     children have summer holiday           faith number very few and are             On November 20, 1988 we
     (vacation) which covers the            scattered far and wide. Various         held our first worship service in
     months of December and                 means are being used by our             our sanctuary. On that particular
     January. We have been told that        church to contact God's people          Sunday morning the sacrament of
     during the two-to-three-week           throughout the island.                  3aptism was also administered,
                                              As we conclude this letter we
                                            pray that it may help to acquaint       Rev. Flikkema is pastor of the Prot-
                                            you with our church and our             estant Reformed Church of Wyckoff,
                                                                                    New  Jersey.

                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer I203


                                                                                   ISN'T IT WONDERFUL
                                                                              Isn't it wonderful, when you think,
                                                                                 how the creeping grasses grow,
                                                                              High on the mountain's rocky
                                                                                 brink, in the valley down below?
                                                                              .A common thing is a grass-blade
                                                                                 small, crushed by the feet that
                                                                                 pass;
                                                                              But all the dwarfs and giants tall,
                                                                                 working till doomsday's
                                                                                 shadows fall,
                                                                              Can't make a blade of grass.
                                                                              Isn't it wonderful, when you think,
                                                                                 how the wild bird sings his song,
                                                                              Weaving melodies, link by link, the
                                                                                 whole sweet summer long?
                                                                              Commonplace is the bird, alway,
                                                                                 everywhere seen and heard;
                                                                              But all the engines of earth, I say,
                                                                                 working on till Judgment Day,
Covenant P.R. Church, Wyckoff, NJ.                                            Never could make a bird.
                                                                              Isn't it wonderful, when you think,
through which we were re-              and driveway paved. We take              how a little seed asleep,
minded of God's covenant faith-        this opportunity to thank them         Out of the earth new life will drink,
fulness in preserving His church       for their spiritual leadership dur-      and carefully upward creep?
among us and providing us with         ing those years.                       A seed, we say, is a simple thing,
a beautiful building. It was a very      We also extend a word of               The germ of a flower or weed;
moving service, filled with happi-     thanks to all those who helped us      But all earths laborers laboring,
ness and thanksgiving. On Thurs-       in the purchase of bonds, to the         with all the help that wealth
day, November 24, we held our          churches for the offerings and           could bring.
Thanksgiving Day service in our        gifts that were given, and for the     Never could make a seed.
church. As we worshiped and            many prayers that .were raised
bowed our heads in pmyer, we           on our behalf. A word of thanks
gave God thanks for a11 His mer-       is also to be given to the             "`Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far
cies and for our church. Friday        members of the congregation,           May evening blush to own a star;
evening, December 9, was set as        who put in many hours of               Ashamed of Jesus! just as soon
the date for the church dedica-        volunteer labor, without which         May midnight blush to think of
tion. Notices were sent to the         the church could not have been           noon;
churches and invitations to those      completed. But above al1 we give       Ashamed of Jesus, that dear
who contributed financially to         thanks to our heavenly Father            Friend
the work. We also invited our          and faithful covenant God, who         On whom my hopes of heaven
two former pastors, Rev. A.            heard our prayers and granted            depend!
denHartog and Rev. R. Hanko, to        our request. He gave us the            No! when I blush be this my shame,
be here for this memorable occa-       means; He gave us the strength;        That I no more revere His name.
sion. It was good to have them         through the years He taught us         Ashamed of Jesus, yes, I may,
and their wives with us. Rev.          to wait patiently upon Him, and        When I've no crimes to wash away,
denHartog was our pastor at the        to Him we give the glory. To the       No tears to wipe, no joys to crave,
time that the work began,              praise of the worship of His           No tears to quell, no soul to save:
through al1 the difficulties in ob-    glorious name we dedicate His          Till then - nor is the boasting
taining the building permit and        house! "For of him, and through          vain -
until the foundation of the church     him, and to him, are all things: to    Till then I boast a Saviour slain.
was laid. During Rev. Hanko's          whom be glory for ever. Amen"          And oh, may this my glory be,
ministry, the structure was built,     Romans  11:36. 0                       That Christ is not ashamed of me!"
the rough work in the interior
completed and the parking lot

204  / The Standard Bearer


 In His Fear
Rev. Arie  denHartog



   Love for God! There is no             Yet this is and must be the desire       the greatest of all good. When
more noble and holy affection            of every true child of God.              we love God we give our all to
imaginable. Man can ascend to              The object of our love and af-         Him. We forsake all others to
no greater height. He can enjoy          fection is the Lord our God. It          have Him alone. We make all
no greater joy and ecstasy. To           can reach no higher than this.           sacrifice to Him alone. And yet
love God is to delight in His            The greatest love among men              we know that we can sacrifice
knowledge and fellowship. It is to       cannot compare to it. To love            nothing of ourselves. We can do
long and yearn after Him as the          God is to know that the Lord of          nothing for Him because He is
highest and only good. It is to be       heaven and earth has created us          the infinitely good God in
filled with personal and warm            and that He is the holy and              Himself who has no need. We
and zealous affection towards            blessed and glorious God of              can do nothing more than return
God. To love God is to dwell in          heaven and earth. We owe our             in love the life that He gave us
the intimate knowledge and               whole life to Him. All that we are       and that He redeemed from
blessedness of His covenant. To          and have we have received from           destruction. The Lord created us
love God is to have as our               Him. We have nothing of our-             that we might love Him, and in
greatest desire to live in obe-          selves. He is all and we are             that love enjoy Him. He re-
dience to Him so that we might           nothing. As the Lord our God He          deemed us to dwell in the blessed
enjoy His favor and love. Few            has chosen us in sovereign love          fellowship of His love.
have enjoyed the sweetness and           before the foundations of the              God's love to us is always first.
intensity of that love for God as        world were laid. He has re-              We love Him because He first
the inspired psalm-writer did.           deemed us through His Son Jesus          loved us. We can enjoy the
Consider his words in Psalm 42:l         Christ and reconciled us unto            fellowship of His love because He
and 2: "As the hart panteth after        Himself. In the greatness of His         first drew us unto Himself. By
the water brooks, so panteth my          love towards us He gave His only         nature we are enemies of God.
soul after thee, 0 God. My soul          begotten and beloved Son to the          We cannot and do not love Him.
thirsteth for God, for the living        death of the cross for our salva-        There was nothing in our sinful
God: when shall 1 come and ap-           tion. He has purposed finally to         nature that went out to God.
pear before God?" Or again in            bring us unto His own blessed            Everything went against Him in
Psalm 84:l and 2: "How amiable           and holy presence and to cause           sinful enmity and rebellion. Such
are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of           us to dwell with Him forever. To         is the awful depravity of our
hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even        love God is to know all of this          nature. But God loved us first. He
fainteth for the courts of the           and to long for all of this. We          loved us with an everlasting and
Lord: my heart and my flesh              love God when we delight in all          sovereign love. That is beyond
crieth out for the living God."          that He is and all that He has           all of our comprehension. He
                                         done for us and live in thankful-        loved us even when we were His
                                         ness and praise to Him. Because          enemies and reconciled us to
                                         He is the Lord our God we must           Himself through the death of His
Rev. den Hartog is pastor of the         love Him. We are under obliga-           Son. When we speak of our love
Protestant  Refornied  Church of Ran-    tion to love Him. Not to do so is        to God we can only ever do that
dolph, Wisconsin.                        the greatest of all sins; to do SO is    in the context of God's love for

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  I205


us. Even our love for God has its      that love. We must be an exam-        bearing our sins. He loved God in
source and beginning in God.           ple. of that love before men. We      perfect obedient sacrifice of
Always and again we love Him           must be willing to forsake all        Himself. He loved God doing the
because He loved us first. When        other love for the sake of our        will of God even in the depths of
our love for Him falters He            love for God.                         the torments of hell on the cross.
revives and strengthens it. We           The law of God requires of us       His all-consuming affection was
love Him because He has shed           that we love the Lord our God         to love God, and His only pur-
forth His love through His Holy        with the whole of our being.          pose was to obey His heavenly
Spirit in our hearts. We love Him      That is what the Lord means           Father perfectly. The love of
through the power of His love in       when He says that we must love        Christ for God reaches down to
us. His love that constantly draws     the Lord our God with all our         us and constrains us also to love
us to Him causes us also to love       heart and all our soul and all our    God. His love is always before us-
Him. The greatest wonder and           mind and all our strength. The        as the perfect and amazing stan-
mystery of all is God's love for       word "all" is repeated over and       dard of our love to God. But
us; and even our love to God is        over again in the summary of the      even more important than that
part of that mystery.                  law. Love for God demands the         His love is the perfect fulfillment
   We are commanded to love            totality of our being. Time and       of the commandment to love
God. That is the first and great       again man imagines that he can        God. When it was impossible for
commandment. That is the sum-          be divided in his love for God.       us to keep the first and great
mary of the entire law upon            He imagines that he can love          commandment, Christ Jesus ful-
which all the law and prophets         God only with his hands and not       filled that commandment for us
depend. Love for God is the            with his heart. He imagines that      and in our behalf. The law of
heart of all true religion. Without    he can love God only with his af-     perfect love would only curse us
that love all religion is cold and     fections and not with his mind.       and reveal our inability if Christ
formal and hypocritical. Always        Our whole being must be lost in       Jesus had not fulfilled that
we must remember that this is          love for God and consumed with        perfect commandment on our
the first and great command-           holy affection and delight in God.    behalf. Through Christ we have
ment. Many today make love for         Thousands of things distract us       been redeemed from the curse of
man the chief commandment.             from the love of God every day.       the law and the bondage and
They turn the summary of the           But all those things have to be       slavery of enmity against God.
law upside down. Many pulpits in       put away for the sake of perfect      By His Spirit He enables us freely
our land preach love for fellow        love to God. All that separates us    to begin to love God.
man more than they preach love         from God and drives us from the         Our Lord specified what it
to God. Sympathy and compas-           love of God must be hated. Love       means to love God with our
sion for fellow man seems to           for God can only be a jealous         whole being. We must love God
create a greater response in the       love. Ultimately God alone can        with all our heart and all our soul
heart of man. But our love for         be the object of our love. All        and all our mind and all our
God must always be first. Our          others we may love only in the        strength. It is good and necessary
day is one of humanism and             love of God. The summary of the       for us to consider carefully what
man-centeredness. The law of           law sets before us an awesome         the meaning of our Lord's words
God teaches us that the second         and every impossible require-         are in each of these four specifi-
commandment is like unto the           ment. No one who has ever             cations of true and perfect love
first. We cannot truly love our        seriously considered that sum-        for God. We shall, the Lord will-
neighbor unless we first love          mary could possibly imagine that      ing, take up this consideration in
God. Our love for our neighbor is      love for God is an easy matter.       our next installment for this de-
not holy and pure unless it has        Even the most holy men while          partment.  0
its origin and source in God, We       on this earth have but a small
may not love our neighbor in           beginning of love for God. No
any other way than in the way of       one ever, since the time of the
love first for God. Our love for       fall, has loved God as the law of
God must determine the whole           God requires. Only the Lord
way in which we love our               Jesus Christ ever loved God with
neighbor. Our calling is always to     such a perfect love. He loved
preach love for God as the first       Sod even when the billows of
and great commandment. We as           the wrath of God overwhelmed
Gods people must be filled with        Him while He hung on the cross


206  I The Standard Bearer


                                       Exposition of
 From Holy Writ
Rev. George Lubbers                    John 21:1-14 (2)

  It is the Lord (John 21:7).            But for the present Jesus is          elect, but that they all may be
   What a wonderful, brief confes-     continuing to manifest Himself          raised up with Him in the last
sion and joyful recognition on the     with "infallible signs" for forty       day!
part of the beloved disciple of the    days till the time of His being           Each of Jesus' manifestations
Lord. This disciple was the writer     taken up into heaven. And one           tells us a certain aspect of the
of this Gospel. He ever stays on       of these signs we have recounted        resurrection glory in all the
the background! He is John!            to us in John 21:1-14. When Acts        saints, which we need to study
   The Greek text can very well        1: 1, 2 speaks of the signs, the        painstakingly. Basic to each of
be translated "the Lord is He." it     writer uses a term in the Greek         these appearances is that the
is unmistakably the Lord Himself.      which means "to show by a sure          identity  of the glorified Lord is
It is the Lord of glory who stands     sign." The term infallible here         established as a fact. The words
there on the shores of Galilee in      means "indubitable proof." And          spoken by John to Peter ring
the early morning mists. This hid-     such is also the nature of the          with the certainty of faith. It is
denness is part of the "third          miraculous catch of fish here in        the Lord, none other than He
manifestation." He is the Lord of      the morning, upon the authorita-        who died for us to purchase us
glory, risen from the dead; He is      tive bidding of Christ. There is        with His own precious blood,
on the way to be taken up in           only one thing which faith can          redeeming us from all our sins.
glory in a few days (I Tim. 3:16).     conclu.de from and see in this            Truly, this miraculous catch of
Yes, He is very God in the flesh,      great net full of great fishes, and     fish was a great challenge upon
who has power over the sea,            that is this, that it is the Lord of    Jesus' word of assurance that
over the winds, and over the           heaven and earth who gathers            upon casting the net on the other
stormy waves. Upon His word            His church out of every tongue,         side of the ship they would catch
the sea becomes quiet and is as a      tribe, people, and nation!              fish. Just as Jesus twice cleansed
sea of glass, and upon His bid-          Christ is exhibiting Himself          the temple, at the beginning and
ding the fish obey, as do the stars    here as the one who is continu-         at the close of His ministry (John
in their courses. He is the Lord of    ing His official Mediatorial work       2:1-22; Matt. 21:12-22),  so He
glory, whom heaven must                which He had finished on the            once and again performed this
receive until the time of the          Cross, but which He continued           great sign of the miraculous
restitution of all things (Acts        right through His conquering of         catch of fish, both at the begin-
3:2 l-23)!                             death and hell, swallowing up           ning of the schooling of the
  Yes, "it is the Lord"!               death in the resurrection out of        disciples and at the beginning of
  We shall have opportunity to         the dead. Here too Jesus per-           their public ministry in all the
return to this a bit later.            forms what is written in the            world.
                                       volume of the'Book "Behold, I           TWO DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT
                                       come to do thy will, 0, God!"           MIRACLES (Luke 4:4-7 and
                                       Here too Jesus has the hearing          John 21:7)
                                       ear and the seeing eye. The body          There are ever those who take
                                       is prepared for Him, be it then         up their pen and write concern-
                                       the resurrected body, in which          ing the wonders of God in a man-
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus    He may do the will of the Father,       ner which shows that they do not
in the Protestant Reformed             that none shall perish of all the       know how rightly to divide the
Churches.

                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 207


Word (II Tim. 2:15)! Paul reminds         Secondly, we would observe            instance: "Fear not: from hence-
Timothy that he must strive to be      that, in the former instance, we         forth thou shalt catch." The basic
as one who shows himself a good        read that the disciples saw that         meaning of this verb in the
workman before God. He must            the nets were breaking. They             Greek is "to take alive." They
rightly divide the Word accord-        were not simply breaking when            will minister the Gospel of the
ing to sound rules of interpreta-      the nets were filled, but they           kingdom of heaven, teach men,
tion. Scripture must interpret         were breaking constantly, as is          in every tongue, tribe, people,
Scripture. With this in mind we        indicated by the use of the tense        and nation. It will be the fulfil-
will attempt to demonstrate            of the verb used in the Greek            ment of the promise to Abraham:
beyond any shadow of doubt that        text. The disciples might see this       "In thee and in thy seed shall all
there were two separate miracles       happening. Perhaps this breaking         nations be blessed" (Gen. l&18;
wrought in this miraculous catch       of the nets was part of the              Acts 3:25; Gal. 39). Yes, they
of fish, and that they each con-       miracle. But here in the case in         would be such kind of fishermen
tain and teach a distinctively dif-    our text in John 2 1: 7 the verb in-     that they took men and women
ferent message.                        dicates that this was a one time         to make them alive, rescued from
   It would seem that a mere           fact. They did not rend; there           death, hell, and the grave! It-had
perusal of these two different         was no schism in the net. John           been the great turning-point in
Scriptural accounts ought to be        intentionally calls attention to         the life of Peter and of all the
sufficient.                            this difference. We do well to           apostles. Perhaps Peter, in these
   We offer a threefold studied        take notice of this word of the          days after the resurrection of
observation.                           Scriptures.                              Christ from the dead, had been
   In the first place, we know that      Thirdly, there was a different         pondering the repeated reference
as to the occasion of each there       reaction on the part of Peter in         of Jesus to the fact that "there
is quite a difference, both in time    each of these miracles which             shall ye see me," and also Jesus'
and character. In Luke 5:4-7           were wrought by the Lord Jesus           sure word, "I will make you
there was a great multitude that       in his fishing boat. In the first in-    fishers of men."
had gathered to hear the word of       stance, when after a night of              Would it be too much to say
the kingdom preached by Jesus.         fruitless trolling of the fishing        that Peter must have often, since
Perhaps the sermon was along           waters Peter sees the wonder of          being visited by Jesus after the
the chief points of the beatitudes,    God worked by Jesus, he falls            latter's resurrection, reflected on
as He came to fulfill all the prom-    down on his knees before Jesus,          the high points of his following
ises of the Old Testament proph-       exclaiming, "Depart from me, for         Jesus? 0, was there not the fact
ets. The hungry were fed, and          I am a sinful man." He reacts as         that he was one of the three
the thirsty had received refresh-      did all the saints who were              disciples, who were taken into
ing waters to drink from the           visited by God in the form of an         special confidence by Jesus at the
river of God, which is full of         angel, and who thought that they         resurrection of the daughter of
waters. At the close of this ser-      would die. He has come very              Jairus, as well as on the moun-
mon, which, incidently, had been       near to God, in this man who             tain of transfiguration, where he
proclaimed from Peter's fishing        had earlier been introduced to           may, with James and John audit
boat, Jesus had instructed Peter       him as the "Messiah' predicted in        the conversation of Jesus with
to launch out into the deep for a      the Old Testament Scriptures             Moses and Ehjah concerning His
draught of fish.                       (John  1:40-42). SureIy Peter was a      decrease (exodus) at Jerusalem?
   It was quite otherwise in John      devout believer, already when he         And was not Peter included in
2:1-7. There are no multitudes of      first met Jesus, one who waited          that awful hour of Jesus in
people present; no sermon is           for the fulfillment of the promise       Gethsemane, where from the
preached by Jesus from Peter's         made to Abraham and to his               distance of a stone's throw he
boat. Jesus stands on the sea-         Seed. Yet he did not feel comfort-       must see his Lord as a worm and
shore having prepared a break-         able near to Jesus.                      not a man? And had Peter not
fast. And Jesus is not with Peter        However, now Peter's reaction          been singled out in the regions of
in the boat, but He stands -rather     is quite otherwise. The great            Caesarea Philippi, when he was
on the seashore, in mysterious in-     catch of fish must have crystal-         told that he would receive the
cognito. This is our first observa-    lized in his mind as, in a way, a        keys of the Kingdom of heaven
tion.                                  repeat performance here on the           in His church; yes, after Christ
                                       sea of Galilee. Swift as lightning       had suffered at Jerusalem?
                                       it all comes before Peter's mind           And now here, in the very sea
                                       what Jesus had said in the first         where he had been told with the

208  / The Standard Bearer


rest that Christ would make them         law of Moses, and the prophets,        that the latter of the two is the
fishers of men, he is not afraid to      and psalms concerning me. Then         capstone of the former. It is in
be with Jesus. Peter has a per-          opened he their mind, that they        the setting of Christ's manifesting
fected love which banished all           might understand the Scriptures,       Himself, as the glorified Lord, as
fear (I John 4:18). Peter is a           and he said unto them, Thus it is      He readies His apostles, and par-
reconciled and forgiven child of         written, that the Christ should        ticularly Peter, for the role of
God. He knows to have been re-           suffer, and rise again from the        apostleship after He has ascended
deemed not by corruptible                dead on the third day; and that        to heaven at the right hand of
sacrifices of silver and gold, but       remission of sins should be            God!
by the precious blood as `of a           preached unto all nations, begin-        As I said before, it was a
Lamb without spot or blemish (I          ning from Jerusalem. Ye are my         breakfast together; and it was
Peter 1:19)! The Scriptures had          witnesses of these things. And,        symbolic of the closest fellowship
also been opened to Peter on             behold, I send forth the promise       of the apostles in the witnessing
that "first manifestation" to the        of my Father upon you; but tarry       of Christ in all the world! It sym-
disciples in the upper room, as          ye in the city, until ye be clothed    bolized the morning of the ac-
we read in Luke 24:44-48: "These         with power from on high"!              ceptable day and year of the
are my words which I spake unto            From the foregoing it is quite       Lord. In its meaning it reached
you, while I was yet with you,           evident that these two miracles        across the ages till Christ's return
that all things must needs be ful-       of Jesus were not only at dif-         as the Son of man with the
filled, which are written in the         ferent times and occasions, but        clouds of heaven! Cl





                                         judges - Jehovah
Bible Study                              Delivers His Unworthy
Guide                                    People (3)
Rev.  jason Kortering



   After the Lord had given vic-           We have more details how that        in Jael who gave Sisera milk and
tory over the Canaanitish king           victory came about. Certain            then, when he was asleep, struck
Jabin, and his captain Sisera,           tribes contributed the man power       a nail through his temples so that
Deborah and Barak sang a song            and performed acts of bravery -        he lay dead at her feet.
of praise unto Jehovah. In the           especially Ephraim, Benjamin,          Reference is made to the mother
opening verses they describe             lssachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali.       of Sisera who fearfully looked
Jehovah their God who alone is           Others, it seems, were cowards.        through the lattice, aware of his
worthy of such praise (5:1-5). By        Some among Reuben, for exam-           delay, but consoled by the
contrast, the people chose new           ple, stayed with the sheep; Gilead     women as they described how he
gods and forsook Jehovah; and            abode beyond Jordan; Dan re-           was busy dividing the spoil. It
He sent the enemy against them.          mained in ships; Asher continued       concludes, "But let thine enemies
The call for help went out to the        on the sea shore (5:12-22). Even       perish, 0 Lord; but let them that
governors. They responded well           then, the mighty kings of Canaan       love him be as the sun when he
and God gave victory (5:6-l 1).          were defeated. The Angel of            goeth forth in his might"
                                         Jehovah pronounced curse upon          (523-3 1).
                                         them and destroyed their                  The fifth judge mentioned is
Rev. Kortering is pastor of the Prot-    superior power. The song of            Gideon. After the land had rest
estant Reformed Church of Grand-         Deborah and Barak expresses joy        for forty years, the people once
ville,  Michigan.

                                                                                                The Standard  hearer  / 209


again turned to idols; and this        Gideon's name, Jerubbaal, is            They are given trumpets, and
time the Lord made them ser-           derived from this incident. It          empty pitchers with lamps in
vants of Midian for seven years.       means, let Baa1 plead (6:25-32).       1 them. They are instructed by Gid-
Each year at harvest time, the            The confrontation with the Mid-      eon that, at the blowing of the
Midianites came as grasshoppers        ianites and Amalekites was set          trumpet, they must also blow
and destroyed the crops so that        at the valley of Jezreel. Gideon        their trumpets, and then they
Israel was impoverished. They          blew a trumpet and called               must shout, "The sword of the
tried to survive by making dens        Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and           Lord and of Gideon" (7:9-18).
and caves in the earth and by          Naphtali to come and join him             At the beginning of the middle
hiding some of their produce           (6:33-35). While he waits, he asks      watch, Gideon led his 100 men to
(6:1-6). Jehovah sent a prophet to     God twice for a sign and receives       the outside of the camp. When
remind the people that He was          the sign of the fleece. The first       they blew the trumpets, broke
the one who delivered them from        night the dew is on the fleece on-      the pitchers, and shouted, the
Egypt and cared for them. He           ly; the second night it is on the       others followed. The response
warned them not to serve the           ground while the fleece remains         was that the Midianites set every
gods of the land, but they dis-        dry (6:36-40). The people               man's sword against his fellow, as
obeyed (6:7-10).                       responded well to the call for          they fled in terror. Those that
   The angel of the Lord ap-           arms: 32,000 came. Jehovah tells        escaped were pursued by an
peared to Gideon as he threshed        Gideon that the number is too           organized army of men out of
wheat in secret, and said, "The        large, lest the people .vaunt           Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh.
Lord is with thee, thou mighty         themselves and say, mine own            Later Gideon sent messengers to
man of valour." His answer was,        hand hath saved me. When the            Ephraim to ask for help to take
if that is so, why are we in such      fearful are told to return home,        the ones on the other side of the
a sorry state, and where are His       22,000 leave. This is still too         Jordan River. They did this and
miracles? Gideon is then in-           large a number, so the remaining        slew Oreb and Zeeb, princes of
structed to go in his might and        10,000 are taken to the water           Midian (7: 19-25).
save Israel. He objects that his       and instructed to drink. Those            The men of Ephraim com-
family is poor, and he is the least    who lapped like a dog could go          plained to Gideon, asking why
of the family. The angel tells him     home, while those who used              they were not invited to help
that the Lord will be with him.        their palms to bring water to           from the very outset. They were
When he asks for a sign, the           their mouths would accompany            pacified when Gideon pointed out
meal that is laid out on the rock      Gideon. The latter numbered 300         the importance of their harvest-
is set on fire that comes out of       men. God assured them that He           ing crops, and by reminding
the rock when the angel touches        would give victory through them.        them that they did help capture
it with his staff. The angel dis-      They took food and their trumpet        two princes (8: l-3).
appears and Gideon expresses           and the rest were sent home               Gideon with his 300 men then
fear for having seen the angel of      (7: l-8).                               crossed Jordan and came to Suc-
the Lord face to face. He is              During the last night before         coth. He asked that the men of
assured of peace, and Gideon           the battle, God told Gideon that if     Succoth give bread to them, as
builds an altar to Jehovah             he feared, he should go down in-        they were faint in their pursuit of
(6: 1 l-24).                           to the camp of the Midianites and       Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of
   Upon divine instruction, that       he would be assured. So Gideon          Midian. But they refused, and he
very night Gideon destroys the         took Phurah his servant and they        threatened revenge. He came
altar of Baa1 and cuts down the        heard the Midianite tell of his         next to Penuel, and they also
grove that is by it and builds an      dream, how a barley cake tum-           refused to help him. We learn
altar to Jehovah upon the top of       bled into the host of Midian and        that these two princes of Midian
the rock. The next morning the         destroyed the tent. His fellow          have only 15,000 men with them,
men of the city discover this act      said, "It is nothing else save the      all the others (120,000) having
and inquire as to who did it.          sword of Gideon, for into his           already been killed. At Nabah,
They learn that Gideon did it,         hand hath God delivered Midian          Gideon smote the remaining host
and they request of his father         and all the host." Hearing this,        and took the two kings captive.
Joash to produce his son that          Gideon worshiped, returned to           On his return to Succoth, he
they may kill him. His father          the host, and divided his army in-      taught the men of the city with
mocks them by asking if they           to three companies of 100 each.         thorns of the wilderness and
have to plead for Baal? If Baa1 is                                             briars as he promised, and he
a god, let him plead for himself.                                              killed the men of Penuel. Having


210  / The Standard Bearer


     learned that Zebah and Zalmun-          thousand men and women in it.             monites against them. The Am-
     na participated in the death of         When Abimelech tried to take              monites not only troubled the
     his kinsmen at Tabor,  Gideon           Thebez, he came under the                 Israelites on the other side of Jor-
     asked Jether, his firstborn, to slay    tower to burn it also. But a              dan, but even crossed into Ben-
     them. When Jether refused out,of        woman threw a millstone on him            jamin and Judah. They did this
     fear, Gideon did it himself             and killed him. Hence God                 for 18 years. Then the Israelites
     (8:4-2 1).                              avenged the blood of the sons of          cried to Jehovah for help. God
        The men of Israel wanted to          Gideon on Abimelech and                   rebuked them, telling them to cry
     make Gideon their king. This he         realized the curse spoken by              to the gods of the heathen for
     refused, since Jehovah was their        Jotham (9:22-57).                         help, for they are following them.
     king. He did request that they            A brief reference is made to            The people of Israel then con-
     turn over the gold they had             the sixth judge, Tola, son of             fessed their sins and put away
     taken from the fallen Midianites.       Puah, of lssachar, who dwelt in           these gods (10:6-18).
     This amounted to 1,700 shekels          Mt. Ephraim and judged Israel 23             Gilead had begotten by a
     of gold. Out of this he made an         years and was also buried in              harlot a son named Jephthah. His
     ephod which he put in Ophrah;           Shamir (lO:l, 2).                         family drove him out of the city
     and Israel went a whoring after,          Tola is followed by the seventh         of Gilead because he was thus
     it. The land had rest for forty         judge, Jair, of Gilead, who judged        born and he fled to Tob. How-
     years. Gideon had 70 sons by            Israel 22 years. He had 30 sons           ever, when the city was
     many wives, and in addition a           who ruled over 30 cities within           threatened by the Ammonites,
     son by his concubine in                 Gilead (10:3-5).                          the elders came to Tob to fetch
     Shechem, Abimelech. Gideon                Jephthah is the eighth judge            Jephthah to lead them in battle.
     died in good old age and was            mentioned. Once more, the                 Only when they promised that
     buried in Ophrah. After his             children of Israel had turned to a        they would make him their ruler
     death, Israel went again after          number of other gods: Baalim,             upon victory did he consent to
     Baa1 and remembered not                 Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria,         come along (11:1-l 1). Jephthah
     Jehovah nor the house of Jerub-         Zidon, Moab, Ammon, and the               then sent word to the king of
:  baa1  (8:22-35).                          Philistines. In anger, the Lord           Ammon, reminding him of the
        The uprising of Abimelech            brought the Philistines and Am-           past and of his injustice in
     demonstrates this. After the                                                      possessing the land of Israel.
     death of Gideon, Abimelech went                                                   Jephthah vowed a vow that if the
     to his family in Shechem and sug-           INSPIRER AND HEARER                   Lord would give victory, he
     gested that he could better reign                    OF PRAYER                    would offer as burnt offering
     over them than the 70 sons of           Inspirer and hearer of prayer,            whatsoever cometh forth from
     Gideon. They agreed and gave            Thou shepherd and guardian of             his door to meet him. After
     him 70 pieces of silver to hire            thine,                                 defeating the Ammonites in 20
     wicked men who went with him            My all to thy covenant care,              cities he returned home and was
     to Ophrah to kill the 70 sons of        I, sleeping or waking, resign.            greeted by his daughter. He rent
     Gideon. Only Jotham, the                If thou art my shield and my sun,         his clothes and sorrowed since he
youngest, escaped. The men of                The night is no darkness to me;           could not rescind his vow. She
: Shechem then made Abimelech                And, fast as my moments roll on,          left for two months and bewailed
j the king (9:1-6).                          They bring me but nearer to thee.         her virginity after which she
:       Here, Jotham shouted from the        A sov'reign protector I have,             returned and, according to
     top of Mt. Gerizim a parable            Unseen, yet forever at hand;              custom, knew no man. The
     about the olive tree, the fig tree,     Unchangeable faithful to save,            daughters of Israel went yearly
     the vine, and the bramble. If           Almighty to rule and command.             for four days to lament her
     Abimelech is wrong, Jotham said,        His smiles and his comforts               (11: 12-40). Ephraim once again
     let fire destroy him like the             abound,                                 resents not being included in the
     bramble. Jotham then ran away           His grace, as the dew, shall              war. This led to battle between
     (9:7-21). This parable was fulfilled       descend;                               Gilead and Ephraim. At the pass,
     three years later when the men          And walls of salvation surround,          they were detected by their in-
     of Shechem turned against               The soul He delights to defend.           ability to pronounce "Shibboleth"
     Abimelech and followed Gaal,                                                      and were forthwith slain.
     son of Ebed. They in turn were          All praise to the Father, the Son,        Jephthah judged Israel six years
     killed by Abimelech, who even           And Spirit-thrice holy and bless'd:       (12:1-7). I
     burned the tower with over a            Th'eternal supreme Three in One,
                                             Was, is, and shall still be address'd.

                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer  / 211


                                        Book Reviews

 WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT THE                     That a book like this gains          gained a reputation of genuine
 GOOD NEWS?, Neal Punt;                 high praise from Arminians I can        devotion and Christian piety.
 Northlands Press, P.O. Box             understand. But that it receive           The book is divided into six
 42756, Chicago, Illinois 60642.        high praise from men who are            parts: Saints in the early church,
 Available by direct mail at the        supposed to be Reformed is a            in the Middle Ages, in the Refor-
 price of $5.95 plus $1.00 for ship-    conundrum to me. And yet in all         mation Era, in the Puritan period,
 ping. 142 pages, paper. (Re-           the promotional material that has       in the age of revivals, and in
 viewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema)         been sent me there is name after        modern times. Some of the better
    There is nothing basically new      name of Calvinists (pseudo-cal-         known authors who are quoted
 in this book in comparison with        vinists) who praise and recom-          are: Augustine, Francis of Assisi,
 Punt's earlier book, Uncondi-          mend this book highly.                  Thomas a Kempis, Martin Luther,
 tional Good News. And the two            But do not forget that this           John Calvin, George Herbert,
 are equally heretical. The book        book is the ultimate product of         Blaise Pascal, John Bunyan, John
under review here is a simplified       the error of the general, well-         Flavel, Philip Spener, Jonathan
 and more popular version of            meant offer of the gospel which         Edwards, David Brainerd, Charles
Punt's earlier book.                    Punt's denomination adopted in          Haddon Spurgeon, Andrew Mur-
   As this book comes from the          1924.                                   ray, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Watch-
pen of a man who has signed the           I cannot recommend the book.          man Nee, and C.S. Lewis.
Formula of Subscription and is          But I do recommend that you               Each excerpt is mtroduced by
supposedly committed to our Re-         order it and read it for yourself       a brief essay which gives some of
formed creeds - and I have in           - only to learn how bad it is. 0        the history and background of
mind now particularly the                                                       the author and introduces him to
Canons of Dordrecht, - I can on-        ALL THE SAINTS ADORE                    the reader with a short
ly characterize it as a wicked          THEE, Insights from Christian           biography. I found these in-
book. It denies virtually every         Classics; by Bruce Shelley;             troductory essays as valuable as
facet of the truth of salvation by      Zondervan Publishing House,             the devotional excerpts.
sovereign grace and according to        1988; 224 pp. (paper). (Reviewed          Usually, in my judgment, the
sovereign predestination. It is ex-     by Prof. H. Hanko)                      shortness of the excerpts
egetically false and unsound: it          The author of this volume is          detracted from their quality and
teaches that the Bible does not         concerned about the fact not on-        usefulness. I know it is difficult to
mean what it says [I`Ail" does not      ly that people do not live very         find a happy medium, and the
mean "all," but is a generaliza-        devotional lives in our present         author feared undue length; but
tion to which there are known           world, but also that they do not        he probably erred in the other
exceptions.] It even goes so far as     even know how to live such lives        direction.
to teach the possibility of salva-      if they should desire it. Defining        The book is recommended to
tion for those "who live their en-      a devotional life as a life of con-     our readers as a fine source of
tire life beyond the reach of the       scious fellowship with God, the         devotional literature. q
gospel." It teaches universal in-       author claims that the saints in
fant salvation. When one reads a        years gone by can teach us a
book like this, he rubs his eyes in     great deal in this aspect of the
amazement at the possibility that       Christian's life. He has, therefore,
such rubbish as this can come           given brief excerpts from the
from the pen of a Christian Re-         writings of some of the people
formed minister.                        who have, through the centuries,

212  I The Standard Bearer


AN ABLE AND FAITHFUL                    endowed with piety and talents,        order. Ask for their catalog. PHP
MINISTRY, by Samuel Miller              whenever she can find these            publishes other worthwhile book-
(Presbyterian Heritage Publica-         qualifications united" (p, 15).        lets, including the same Samuel
tions, 28 pp.; $2.00, booklet).         Noteworthy is Miller's insistence      Miller on "Fasting." Cl
Reviewed by the Editor.                 that the standards for the
  This short but powerful book-         ministry not be relaxed, even
let is the text of -the sermon          though he estimated that the                         FEAR NOT
preached by the venerable               Presbyterian Church of that time       Fear not the hour of deep despair!
Presbyterian theologian, Samuel         needed more than 1,000                 For sometimes, hope's bright
Miller, at the installation of Ar-      ministers. This booklet ought to         pinions there
chibald Alexander as the first          be read by every seminary pro-         Are plumed in direst, deepest night
professor of theology at                fessor, by every seminarian, by        For many a shining sunrise flight!
Princeton Seminary in 1812. The         every young man giving thought         The artist of our souls knows best,
text was II Timothy 2:2: "And           to the ministry, and by all those      And pencils lights and shadows
these things which thou hast            involved in taking measures for          where
heard of me, among many                 providing able and faithful            Each life hath need - or toil or
witnesses, the same commit thou         ministers for the church -               rest,
to faithful men, who shall be able      members of theological school          Glad joy, and sometimes deep
to teach others also." Miller's         committees; members of the con-          despair!
theme was, "That it is the ln-          sistories; parents of young men;       The valley's mist, the mountain's
dispensable Duty of the Church          and all members of the congrega-         gleam,
of Christ, in All Ages, to Take         tion. I suggest that Bible study       The forest gloom, the field, the
Measures for Providing an Able          societies use the booklet for            stream,
and Faithful Ministry." The             discussion at one of their             Each varying scene is known to
description of able and faithful        meetings, especially in view of          Him
ministers and the explanation of        the present lack of men aspiring       Who paints - ah, then, shall not
the means that the church should        to the ministry in the Protestant        the dim,
take to provide ministers are           Reformed Churches. Order the           Dark hour of grief where souls
valid, and of the greatest impor-       booklet from: Presbyterian               must plod
tance, for all times. Miller charged    Heritage Publications, P.O. Box        Be known to the Master Painter,
the church with the duty "to            180922, Dallas, TX 75218. Pay-           God?
search for, and carefully select,       ment of $2.00 plus $1.50 for ship-
from among the young men                ping charges for orders under
within her bosom, those who are         $10.00 must accompany the





                                        Report of Classis East
Mr. Jon  Huisken



                                        January 11-12, 1989                       The business of this session
                                        First Protestant Reformed Church       was not routine as is evident
                                        Holland, Michigan                      from the length of time that
                                                                               classis spent in session. After
                                           Classis East met in regular ses-    receiving reports from the stated
                                        sion on Wednesday and Thurs-           clerk, the Classical Committee,
                                        day, January 11 & 12, 1989 at          and the church visitors, classis
                                        the First Protestant Reformed          entered into the heavy part of its
                                        Church of Holland, Michigan.           agenda.
                                        Each church was represented by
                                        two delegates.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  / 213


    First considered was the re-        place a large cross on the               symbols of the cross from the
quest from the Covenant Mission         chancel wall of their sanctuary.        place of worship is not deter-
Church of Norristown, Pennsyl-          The appellants considered this           minative in this matter. (3) The
vania for organization. Rev. K.         placement to be a violation of           consistory did not err in erecting
Hanko and Mr. M.A.R. van                the second commandment, partic-          the cross, even though objections
Brake1 were present to represent        ularly the part recorded in the          had been raised." The committee
this group of seven families and        Heidelberg Catechism, Question           gave considerable explanation to
five individuals. After hearing the     96, that states "nor worship him         each of the grounds above,
concurrence of the delegates ad         in any other way than he has             which explanations also form
examina from Classis West (Revs.        commanded in his word" (some-            part of classis' decision.
den Hartog, Kuiper, and Lanting),       times referred to as the regula-           Holland and Faith requested
classis approved this request for       tive principle of worship). The         classical appointments. The
organization and appointed the          appellants also considered the           following schedule was adopted:
consistory of Covenant, Wyckoff,        placement of this cross to be con-      HOLLAND: Feb. 5 - Van Baren,
New Jersey as its committee to          trary to the history of the Re-         Feb. 12 - Kamps, Feb. 19
implement this decision. Joy was        formed churches regarding the           - Woudenberg, March 5 - Slop-
expressed for Gods blessing upon        use of symbols in the church. In        sema, March 12 - Gritters, April 2
this mission church.                    addition, the appellants believed       - Joostens, April 16 - Kortering,
   Overtures were presented by          that their consistory erred when        April 30 - Kamps, May 7 - Van
Southeast and Grandville. South-        the cross was erected even              Baren, May 14 - Key, May 21
east's overture to synod was to         though objections had been made         -Slopsema;  FAITH: Feb. 5
propose that the churches be.           to its placement. Classis adopted       -Joostens, Feb. 26 - Key, March 5
divided into three classes rather       the advice of its committee of          - Van Baren, March 12 - Kamps,
than the present two. Classis ap-       pre-advice, namely, not to sustain      March 19 - Kortering, April 2
proved the concept of dividing          the protests of the appellants.         -Woudenberg, April 9 - Key,
the churches into three classes         Three grounds were given by this        April 23 - Slopsema, May 7 - Flik-
but did not approve the purposed        committee: "(1) The cross erected       kema, May 14 - Joostens, May 28
alignment of churches, fearing          by the consistory on the chancel        - Gritters.
that the proposed Central Classis       wall is not a violation of the             Subsidy requests for 1990 from
would be composed of predomi-           regulative principle of worship         Kalamazoo for $6500.00 and
nantly small churches who would         implied in the second command-          from Covenant for $28500.00
find it difficult to function,          ment of the law. (2) The practice       were approved and forwarded to
especially as it concerned classi-      of the church in the past to ban        synod. Expenses of classis
cal appointments. The overture                                                  amounted to $1568.00.
from Grandville was to request                                                    Voting ended the session with
synod to appoint a synodical                        HIS LOVE                    the following results: Delegates
committee to study the feasibility                                              ad examina: Rev. G. Van Baren
of revising The Psalter. This over-     It was His love, so boundless, free     (primus), Rev. B. Gritters (secun-
ture was sent to synod with             That moved the Lord to pardon me        dus); Classical Committee: Rev. B.
classis' disapproval on the ground      And own me for His ransomed             Gritters;  Synodical delegates:
that Article 46 of the Church             child,                                MINISTERS: primi: M. Kamps, J.
Order had not been satisfied. In        Redeemed, renewed, and                  Kortering, J. Slopsema, G. Van
addition to the overtures, notice         reconciled.                           Baren, secundi: B. Gritters, M.
from a brother of his appeal of         It was His Love impelled my heart       Joostens, S. Key, B. Woudenberg;
the 1988 Synods decision regard-        To turn from self and sin apart,        ELDERS: primi: D. Doezema, D.
ing his case was received.              And find in Him the wondrous            Huisken, G. Kaptein, D. Lotter-
  The item which consumed                 power                                 man, secundi: H. Boer, W.
most of the attention of classis        A Christian life to live each hour.     DeLange, J. Schipper,  R. Van Til
was the appeals of four brethren        0 wondrous and amazing Love,            (SW). Revs. C. Hanko and J.A.
from Southwest Church against           0 grace that saved and ransomed         Heys were reappointed as church
the decision of their `consistory to                                            visitors with Rev. H. Veldman as
                                          me!                                   alternate.
                                        My heart and life shall sing to Thee      Classis will meet next on May
                                        In time and in eternity!                10, 1989 at Hudsonville.
                                                                                       Respectfully submitted,
                                                                                       Jon J. Huisken
                                                                                       Stated Clerk

214  / The Standard  Bearer


                                         News From
                                         Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger



                    February 1, 1989       A volunteer committee has            were invited to come a little
SCHOOL ACTIVITIES                        been meeting regularly to              earlier Sunday night and enjoy
   The students of our Loveland          organize a number of interesting,      20 minutes of music before the
P.R. Christian School in Love-           entertaining, and hopefully prof-      service.
land, Colorado presented their           itable projects in order to raise        The members of the Hudson-
All-School program on December           an additional $50,000 to help          ville P.R.C. were also invited to
21. As you might guess, the pro-         finance the Phase 1 building fund      come to church on Christmas
gram had a Christmas theme,              of our Covenant Christian High         night a half hour early to join in
"The Four Scriptural Songs of            Schoof in Grand Rapids, Michi-         some congregational singing of
`Christmas."                             gan. Beginning in January of this      Christmas carols, and to enjoy a
   On December 11 the choir and          year, their first project got under    couple of special numbers
band of Covenant Christian High          way entitled, "Cans for                presented by their choir.
School presented their Christmas         Covenant." It is hoped that at           And the Young People's So-
program in our Hudsonville               least 50,000 returnable cans and       ciety of the Loveland P.R.C. also
church auditorium in Hudson-             bottles can be collected from all      invited their parents and friends
ville, Michigan.                         of Covenant's friends and sup-         along with the rest of the con-
  On December 8 the students of          porters. Black boxes labeled           gregation to a Christmas Sing-
the Hope P.R. Christian School           "Cans for Covenant" have been          spiration on Sunday, December
presented their All-School pro-          placed in the Grand Rapids area        18.
gram under the theme, "Behold,           P.R. Christian Schools, and            CONGREGATIONAL
He Cometh," at the First Jenison         members from each of the area          ACTIVITIES
Christian Reformed Church in             churches have also volunteered           The Young People's Federation
Jenison, Michigan.                       to pick up cans from anyone            Board sponsored a sliding party
                                         unable to drop them off at a           on January 11 at Pinery Park in
                                         school.                                Grand Rapids, Michigan for all
                                         CHURCH ACTIVITIES '                    the area young people.
                                           As of January lst, the starting        I have been informed by our
                                         time of the evening service of         Southwest congregation that they
                                         our Southwest P.R.C. in Grand-         have a number of dedication
                                         ville, Michigan has been moved         booklets available from their
                                         up one hour from 7:00 P.M. to          dedication program held last
                                         6:00 P.M. And also, beginning in       September. This booklet contains
                                         January Southwest added a sec-         a much more extensive history of
                                         ond nursery. Now along with a          our Southwest Church. If you
                                         nursery for infants, there will be     would like a free copy just drop a
                                         one for toddlers as well.              note to the church at 4875 lvan-
                                           On Christmas Day, the con-           rest Ave., Grandville, Ml 49418
                                         gregation of our Southwest             or call Rev. Kamps at (616)
                                         Church was invited to hear a lit-      532-4846.
Mr. Wigger is an elder  ,in the Prot-    tle extra devotional Christmas           On December 30 and 31, the
estant Reformed Church of Hudson-        music on their new organ. They         young people of our Randolph
ville, Michigan.                                                                P.R.C. in Randolph, Wisconsin

                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 275


                                                          -__~   ~-~~  -
THE
                                                                                               SECOND CLASS
sl!.%wDrn
 BLARER                                                                                        Postage Paid at
                                                                                               Grand Rapids, Michigan

 /?O. Box 6064
 Grand Rapids, MI 49506



sponsored a Winter Retreat. ln-        from the Peace P.R.C. in Lyn-        NOTICE!!!
vitations were sent to some sister     wood, Illinois.                         Classis West of the Protestant
societies to come and join them,         And Faith Church in Jenison,       Reformed Churches will meet in
and about 45 young people from         Michigan formed a new trio con-      South Holland, Illinois, on
Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan did,      sisting of the Revs. C. Haak, C.     Wednesday, March 1, 1989, at
   The retreat started with regis-     Terpstra, and S. Key; and on         8:30 a.m., the Lord willing. All
tration Friday and some free time      January 10 they called Rev. Haak     material for the Agenda is to be
in a school gym. After supper at       from that group to be their          in the hands of the Stated Clerk,
church, the group moved on to          pastor. 0                            30 days before  Classis convenes.
the Baptist Assembly Grounds on                                             All delegates in need of lodging
Green Lake. The remainder of                                                or transportation from the air-
the night was filled with a sing-                                           port should notify the Clerk of
 spiration and devotions followed      NOTICE!!!                            South Holland's Consistory.
 by games that lasted until early        There will be an  Office-                 Rev. R. Hanko, Stated Clerk
 morning. On Saturday, discussion      bearers Conference sponsored                      _
 groups met to discuss the idea of     by  Classis West on Tuesday,         NOTiCE!!!
 a young person's responsibility to    February 28, 1989, at 9:00 a.m.         The South Holland Protestant
 make confession of faith, and         at South Holland PRC. Rev. D.        Reformed School is seeking ap-
 how we should act to those who        Kuiper will be  preseming  a         plications for a teaching posi-
 have not made confession, and         paper at the morning session on      tion at the elementary grade
what can be done to get young          "The Congregational Prayer,"         level beginning the  1989/90
people to attend more church ac-       and Rev. K. Hanko a paper for        school year. Direct all inquiries
tivities. After these discussions      the afternoon session on             to:
were over the young people             "Psalter Revision." All present      Lamm Lubbers, Administrator
could enjoy many winter ac-            and former officebearers from        16511 South Park Avenue
tivities including ice skating and     Classis East and West are in-        South Holland, IL 60473
tobogganing.                           vited to attend.                     (312) 339-6585
   A special thanks should be ex-      NOTICE!!!                                      or to
tended to both the ladies of Ran-        Elementary Guidance Coun-          James Lanting, Board Sec'y.
dolph who provided a "banquet"         selors Needed - The Educa-           16230 Louis Avenue
on Friday night for the young          tional Standards for the State of    South Holland, IL 60473
people, and to Randolph's Y.P.         Iowa mandate an elementary           (312) 596-5093
Society who did a great job act-       guidance program for Iowa            ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!
ing as hosts for this retreat.         schools in 1989-90. Several            Hope Christian School of
MINISTERIAL CALLS                      Northwest Iowa Christian             Redlands, CA is seeking to add
   Rev. R. Cammenga has de-            Schools are planning a Coopera-      a teacher to its staff beginning
clined the call he received from       tive to meet the standard. We        the 1989-90 school year.
the Hope P.R. Church in Isabel,        are seeking to make contact          Teaching assignment would be
S.D.                                   with individuals who are in-         either grades K and 1, or 2nd  -
   Rev. B. Critters declined the       terested in the position(s) and      4th. Those interested may call
calls he received from the South       who meet the requirements: an        Ed Karsemeyer (Principal) at
Holland, Illinois congregation and     MA in guidance, with elemen-         school  (714-793-1504)  or at
from the Faith P.R.C. in Jenison,      tary emphasis, elementary            home  (714-793-7166),  or Mike
Michigan.                              teacher certificate and 2-3 years    Critters (Secretary of School
   Rev. S. Houck  asked for a two-     teaching experience. To send         Board), at (714-739-4439). .Appli-
week extension regarding his call      resumes or request more infor-       cations or resumes should be
                                       mation, contact Mr. Bruce            sent to Hope Christian School,
                                       Nelson, 604 3rd St. SW, Orange       1309 E. Brockton, Redlands, CA
                                       City, IA 51041. (712) 737-2274.      92374.

216  / The Standard Bearer


