Vol. 65, No. 72
March 15, 7989


 Contents                                                                                                -F-E
                                                                      March 75,1989                sMNll!4RD
Meditation  -  Rev. James D.  Slopsema
   THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM PREACHED TO ALL THE WORLD                                      267        l3E4RER
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING.. .  -  Prof. David J.  Engelsma                                       269     IS N 0362-4692
Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                               Semi-monthly, except  inonthly  during June, July,
   CAN A REFORMED CHURCH DO MISSIONS?                                                       270    and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub
                                                                                                   lishing  Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
LETTERS                                                                                     272    at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                                   EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
THE OFFER OF THE GOSPEL AND THE MANDATE                                                            Editor-in-chief: Prof. David  I. Engelsma
                                                                                                   Managing Editor: Prof. Robert D. Decker
   FOR MISSIONS  - Rev. Bernard  Woudenberg                                                 273    Editors' Assistant: Mr. Don  Doezema
                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
ZEAL AND DEVOTION TO THE WORK OF                                                                   Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
   EVANGELISM  - Rev. Arie  denHartog                                                       275    Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                                   Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
TEAMWORK IN MISSIONS  -  Rev. Steve R. Key                                                  278    Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev.
                                                                                                   Jason Kortering, Rev. George Lubbers, Rev. James
                                                                                                   Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra, Rev. Gise
MISSIONS AND THE CALLING CHURCH  - Rev. Kenneth  Koole                                      280    VanBaren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
                                                                                                   EDITORIAL OFFICE
PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT IN MISSION WORK  -                                                            The Standard Bearer
   Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop                                                                 282    4949  lvanrest
                                                                                                   Crandville,  Michigan 49418
MISSION WORK  1.N SINGAPORE  -  Rev. Lau Chin Kwee                                          284    CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                   Mr. Ben Wigger
REFLECTIONS OF A FORMER MISSIONARY  -  Rev. George C. Lubbers 286                                  6597  -  40th  Ave.
                                                                                                   Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
                                                                                                   EDITORIAL POLICY
 Inside this issue . . .                                                                           Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
                                                                                                   of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
                                                                                                   terest from our readers and question; for the
  A "special issuer' this is . . . on the subject of Missions.                                     Question Box Department are welcome. Contribu-
  If you look to find in it a setting forth of the "principles" of mission work, as they           tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
                                                                                                   and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
are maintained by the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, you'll not be disap                 must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
pointed. If, besides, you'd like to learn something about the practical aspects of our             the fifteenth of the month. All communications
denominational mission endeavors, the pages which follow will provide that as well.                relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                   editorial office.
Too, various of the writers address the matter of how individual congregations must                REPRINT POLICY
be involved in the work of evangelism.                                                             Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
  Now, if that were the extent of it, if that were all there is to mission work, there             articles in our magazine by other publications,
                                                                                                   provided: a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
would probably be few of us who would find the reading of this issue to be any kind                duced in full;  b) that proper acknowledgement is
of real threat to our comfort level. But there is more. The work of "missions" is not              made;  c) that a copy of the periodical in which
only a corporate, but also an individual responsibility. What is it, after all, that is            such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
                                                                                                   BUSINESS OFFICE
necessary in order to have "a truly mission-minded church"? Ponder this: "Mission                                          NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
work . . . must be constantly part of our life as Christians." And, "Each member of                Mr. H.  Vander   Wal    c/o Protestant Reformed
the church must be zealous to testify of the truth . . . ."                                        P.O. Box 6064              Church
                                                                                                   Grand Rapids, MI
  Is "mission work" just something done                                                                                    B. Van Herk
                                              in Jamaica . . . or by Rev. Houck . . . or             49516                 66 Fraser St.
through activities of an evangelism committee? Ah, no - it involves you . . . and me.              PH: (616) 243-2953      Wainuiomata, New Zealand
May the Spirit use the pages of-this Special Issue to motivate us, as individuals and as
churches, to greater "zeal and devotion to the work of evangelism."


WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                               Pat Dutmer  (Jodie, Betsy, Ross), Steve          Mrs. Henry Lenting, Mr.  and'Mrs.  Ade
  On March  24,1989, D.V., our parents            and Cynthia Van Kampen, Joe Van                  Lenting, Mr. and Mrs. Len Lenting, Mr.
and grandparents, JOE AND GWEN                    Kampen, Mark and Cindy Ophoff                    and Mrs. Jack Lenting, Mr. and Mrs.
VAN KAMPEN, will celebrate their 40th             (David, Kristin)                                 Bill Lenting, Ms. Corrie Lenting, Mr.
anniversary.                                                                                       and Mrs. Bob Lenting, Mr. Jim Lenting,
  We are thankful to our Heavenly                 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                         21 Grandchildren, 1 Great-grandchild
Father for the blessing of God-fearing               March 30th. 1989, is the day when
parents and for the loving guidance               we celebrate the 50th wedding anni-              NOTICE!!!
they have given us.                               versary of our beloved parents, MR.                 Rev. M. Kamps will have an infor-
  We pray that the Lord will continue             AND MRS. ADRIAN LENTINC.                         mative and timely message on the
to go with them and bless them each                  We thank our covenant God for our             topic: "Scripture, Science, and Crea-
day.                                              parents who faithfully guided, loved,            tion." The lecture will be held March
  "Happy is he that hath the God of               and instructed us in the fear of the             30, 1989, at 8:00 P.M. at the First
Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the          Lord.                                            Protestant Reformed Church, 2800
Lord his God." (Psalm  146:5)                        We as children appreciate Christian           Michigan, NE, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Dan and Mary Van Kampen (Michael,                 parents and pray that the Lord our God
                                                  may continue to bless and keep them
Andrea), Bruce and Cherie Jabaay
(Julie, Richard, Brian, Lisa), Larry and          in His care.


266 I The Standard Bearer


                                        The Gospel of the
                                        Kingdom Preached to
Meditation                              AlI the World
Rev. lames Slopsema



   And this gospel of the king-         quakes in divers places, He in-         kingdom at this point. This
dom shall be preached to all            dicates that this is only the begin-    kingdom is a kingdom of
the world for a witness unto            ning of sorrows.                        fabulous wealth. Its riches,
all nations; and then shall the           But now when Jesus speaks of          however, are not the riches of
end come.         Matthew 24:14         the preaching of the gospel of          silver and gold or natural
                                        the kingdom, He adds that then          resources. Its riches are the
  Jesus is instructing His disciples    shall the end come. This sets the       glorious riches of salvation Christ
concerning the signs of His com-        preaching of the gospel apart as        has earned at the cross for all His
ing and the end of the world.           the chief sign of Jesus' coming, to     people..
  There shall be wars and               which we must also pay very               Jesus speaks about the gospel
                                        close attention in these latter
rumors of wars. Nation shall rise                                               of this kingdom.
                                        days.
up against nation, and kingdom                                                    The word "gospel" simply
against kingdom. There shall also                 * * * * *                     means "good news, glad tidings."
be famines and pestilences and                                                  The gospel of the kingdom is
                                          Jesus speaks of the gospel of
earthquakes in divers places. The                                               therefore the good news about
                                        the kingdom. The kingdom here
church shall be hated of all na-                                                the kingdom. It's the good news
                                        is the great kingdom of God and
tions for Christ's sake. Her                                                    that the kingdom has come, that
                                        of heaven. This kingdom was pic-
members shall be delivered up to                                                in the kingdom is to be found the
                                        tured by the Old Testament king-
be afflicted and shall even be                                                  salvation of God in Jesus Christ,
                                        dom of Israel in Canaan with its
killed. There will be false Christs     temple and throne in Jerusalem.         that this salvation is a free gift of
and false prophets, deceiving           The foundation of this kingdom          God to all and everyone who
many.                                   was laid when Jesus laid His life       believes in Jesus Christ . . . .
  And now there is also this            down at the cross as an atone-            This is good news, indeed!
sign. The gospel of the kingdom         ment for sin.                                       * * * * *
shall be preached to all the world        This kingdom was established            This gospel of the kingdom
for a witness unto all nations.         when Jesus ascended into                shall be preached to all the world
  This sign of the preaching of         heaven. At that time God exalted        for a witness unto a11 nations.
the gospel is unique from all the       Jesus to His own right hand,              The word "preach" is a very
other signs Jesus has mentioned         crowning Him with power and             interesting and important word.
thus far. Notice that when Jesus        great glory. In that power Jesus        It means "to herald." A herald
mentions wars and rumors of             brought to pass the great               was an official message-bearer of
war, He adds that the end is not        kingdom. The kingdom is not yet         the king, recognizable by his
yet. And when Jesus speaks of           complete, of course. It will be         special dress. He represented the
famines, pestilences and earth-         completed when Jesus comes              king and spoke officially for the
                                        again at the end of the ages. But       king. When the king desired to
                                        the kingdom is already now an           send a communication to the
                                        existing reality in heaven.             various realms of his dominion,
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of the Prot-      There is one more thing we            he did so through his heralds.
estant Reformed Church of Walker,
Michigan.                               ought to understand about the           Because the king spoke through

                                                                                                The Standard Bearer / 267


      his heralds, the word of the           heaven so that the witness of the     purpose. That's also the idea
      herald had the force and authori-      kingdom will eventually be            here. God has a goal or purpose
      ty of the king's word and must         everywhere.                           in history. That goal is the
      be heeded.                                Jesus can make this prediction,    gathering of His church.
        In like manner must we under-        of course, because He is the king         Eternally God has chosen to
      stand the preaching of the gospel      of the kingdom, Who will send         Himself a church in Jesus Christ.
      of the kingdom. Jesus is the king      out His heralds throughout the        From all eternity God has known
      of the kingdom. It is Jesus'           world. And we have seen this          and loved each member of this
      desire, as king, to make known         prophecy come true in history.        church. In love He has also or-
      to mankind the good news of the        The gospel of the kingdom began       dained each member to eternal
      kingdom and its great salvation.       in the time of the apostles in        life.
      Therefore, Jesus has appointed         Jerusalem. From there it spread          Now the one goal God has in
      various men as His heralds to          to Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.       all of history is to gather this
      proclaim the gospel of the             Through the labors especially  of,    church unto Himself. What is the
      kingdom on His behalf.                 the apostle Paul the gospel was       gathering of the church? The
        The first heralds were the           brought to Asia, Greece, Rome,        gathering of the church is the
      apostles of the New Testament          and even Spain. Throughout the        work of God to bring His people
      church. To them Jesus revealed         centuries the gospel has con-         one by one to faith and salvation
      the fulness of the gospel of the       tinued to spread in a westward        in Jesus Christ. This is the one
I     kingdom and sent them out to           direction so that today the gospel    great work of God throughout all
      proclaim it on His behalf. With        is being preached in the whole        history. All that God has created
      great care Jesus also recorded         world as a witness to all nations.    and all that He brings to pass in
      the fulness of this gospel in-                     *  *  *  *  *             history is designed to serve the
      fallibly (inerrantly) in the New                                             purpose of this great work of
     Testament Scriptures by divine            Jesus proclaims that when the       God.
     inspiration.                            gospel of `the kingdom is                Now when the church has
        Also today Jesus has His             preached to all the world, then       been fully gathered, the end or
      heralds who proclaim the gospel        the end shall come.                   goal of God in history will be ac-
     of the kingdom as recorded in             The end refers, first of all, to    complished. And then Christ will
     the Scriptures. They are the            the end of the world. History and     also come again from heaven to
     ministers of the gospel duly            the world as we know it will end      bring an end to this present crea-
     called and commissioned by              one day. The end will come            tion. For this present world and
     Jesus through the Christian             when Jesus returns from heaven        its history will have served its
     church.                                 to judge the living and the dead.     purpose.
        Now Jesus makes a very im-           At that time Jesus will destroy          Now Jesus indicates here that
     portant prophecy about the              this present creation along with      all this will take place when the
     preaching of the gospel of the          the ungodly. And from its ruins       gospel is preached to all the
     kingdom. The gospel of the              He will make a new heavens and        world for a witness unto all na-
     kingdom shall be preached to all        new earth.                            tions. When the gospel has been
     the world for a witness unto all          That end, says Jesus, will          preached to all the nations, then
     nations.                                come, when the gospel of the          the goal of God in history (the
        Up until this time in history        kingdom is preached to'all the        gathering of the church) will be
     the gospel of the kingdom had           world!                                accomplished. And then Christ
     come to just one nation, the              That means that the end of the      will also bring an end to every-
     Jews. God proclaimed to them,           world can not be all that far         thing.
     and them alone, the gospel of the       away anymore. For in especially         We must understand that these
     coming kingdom.                         the last 100 years the gospel has
                                             come to all the nations. You will     two things are not just coinci-
        But that, says Jesus, is about to    search in vain today for a nation     dental. It's not just a matter of
     change. For the gospel of the           to which the gospel of the king-      coincidence that the goal of
     kingdom (not just what will take        dom has and is not being pro-         history in the gathering of the
     place but also what has already                                               church will be reached at the
     taken place) will be preached to        claimed.
                                               But the end of which Jesus          same time that the gospel is
     all. the world. The gospel will be      speaks also refers to the attain-     preached to all the world. Rather,
     proclaimed to every nation under        ment of a goal. We often speak        the one is Gods means to ac-
                                             of end in the sense of goal or        complish the other.

     268 / The Standard Bearer


  Bear in mind that it is primari-      This implies a very important       the whole church with all her
ly through the preaching of the       calling for the church to preach      members. The members of the
gospel of the kingdom that God        the gospel.                           church must support the preach-
in Christ gathers His church.           The prophecy Jesus makes            ing of the gospel financially,
Through the preaching God             here of the gospel being              through her prayers, and certain-
brings His people one by one to       preached to all the world was         ly with a godly witness of their
faith in Jesus Christ and to the      made by Jesus to His disciples on     own.
salvation of the kingdom that is      the very week of His crucifixion        That church (or denomination
theirs in Christ. And so over the     and death. In harmony with this       of churches) that takes this call-
years as the preaching of the         prophecy the risen Lord returned      ing seriously and strives to
gospel makes its way throughout       to these same disciples and           preach the gospel wherever the
the world, the end of God to          charged them that they must go        Lord gives an open door will
gather His church is reached,         into all the world and preach the     have the great privilege of being
  And then Christ will come           gospel to every creature (Mark        used by God to accomplish His
again to judge the living and the     16: 15).                              greatest work in history, the
dead and to make an end of this         This great commission came to       gathering of His church.
present world.                        the apostles as representatives of      Pray earnestly that our
  This also explains why the          the church of the new dispensa-       churches also may be faithful to
preaching of the gospel of the        tion. The church is called to go      this calling and be used by God
kingdom can serve as a sign of        into all the world and preach the     to gather His church not only
Jesus' coming and of the end of       gospel to every creature.             from among our own generations
the world. For it is through the        This calling the church accom-      but also from those outside the
preaching of the gospel that          plishes primarily through her         household of faith. q
Christ paves the way for His          ministers and missionaries. But
coming and the end of all things.     this is a work that must involve





Editorially speaking. . .


                                        The Protestant Reformed             Members of these churches (and
                                      Churches have a denominational        all our readers), we trust, will be
                                      budget for 1989 of more than          interested in the examination of
                                      $200,000 for domestic missions.       PRC missions to which this issue
                                      This represents roughly one third     of  The Standard Bearer  is
                                      of the total budget. Each family      devoted, including mission-
                                      is paying $110 in 1989 for            theory; the workings of the
                                      domestic missions in the              denominational committees;
                                      synodical assessment. In addition,    reflections on missions by an
                                      every church takes special collec-    80-year old veteran of the work;
                                      tions for home missions; money        and much more. We think that
                                      is budgeted synodically for           you will enjoy, and benefit from,
                                      foreign missions; and some con-       this "mission-issue." Cl          -DJE
                                      gregations fund their own local
                                      evangelism work. The PRC are
                                      deeply involved in missions.



                                                                                            The Standard Bearer / 269


                                             Can a Reformed Church
~
 Editorial
      Prof. David Engelsma                   Do Missions?

         Missions is the church's work       PRC. The preamble of the "Con-         formed churches in the Nether-
      of preaching the gospel to those       stitution of the Mission Commit-       lands who had come to believe
      outside the congregation in order      tee" declares that the PRC             that God loves and desires the
      to bring the elect to Christ. ,The     "believe that, in obedience to the     salvation of all men without ex-
      word itself, deriving from the         command of Christ . . . to preach      ception made the very same
      Latin, means "sending," with           the blessed Gospel to all crea-        charge against the Reformed
      reference to Christ's sending of       tures . . . it is the explicit duty    faith. The Reformed churches
      His church into all the world, to      and sacred privilege of said           carefully refuted the charge. The
      preach the gospel to every             churches to carry out this             Canons of Dordt open with the
      creature (Mark 16: 15). Thus, He       calling . . . ." Their "Form of Or-    confession of the necessity of un-
      accomplishes His purpose of mak-       dination of Missionaries" states       restricted preaching - the
      ing disciples of all nations (Matt.    that the churches believe that         necessity of  missions!:
      28: 19).                               Christ "has ordained an office         And that men may be brought to
         Men have charged against the        and has called men, to carry the       believe, God mercifully sends the
      Protestant Reformed Churches           message of salvation to all            messengers of these most joyful
      that they either do not believe        peoples . . . ." It becomes plain      tidings, to whom he will and what
      missions to be the calling of the      from this constitution and this        time  he pleaseth; by whose ministry
      church or that they are unable to      form that the PRC regard them-         men are called to repentance and
      perform the labor of missions.         selves as the object of the man-       faith in Christ. . . . (I/3).
      This canard dies hard. Not long        date of Christ in Matthew                 The perfect and lucid harmony
      ago, the minister of a Reformed        28:18ff., the "great commission,"      between the doctrine of pre-
      church in the south suburbs of         for both the constitution and the      destination and an aggressive ex-
      Chicago devoted the Sunday             .form make this missionary-            ercise of missions is indicated by
      evening sermon to an expose' of        mandate the basis of the mission       Missionary Paul in II Timothy
     - the PRC. Predictably, the conclu-     activity engaged in by the             1: 10: "Therefore I endure all
      sion that would render these           churches. Every missionary in-         things for the elect's sakes, that
      churches forever odious to             stalled in office in the PRC is        they may also obtain the salva-
      Reformed folk was, "They do not        charged, explicitly, with the com-     tion which is in Christ Jesus with
      believe in missions."                  mand of Matthew 28: "Go then,          eternal glory." It is sketched at
         The charge is patently false.       beloved brother, and teach all         the beginning of the Reformed
      However one may judge the              nations . . . ."                       "Form of Ordination of Mission-
      practice of the PRC, it is incon-        The charge that the PRC are          aries." God has elected a church
      trovertible that these churches        hostile to missions is simply a        out of all nations. This church
      both believe missions to be the        variation of the hoary charge          must be gathered by the Son of
      duty of the church and consider        that has always been lodged            God. He gathers it by means of
      themselves called by Christ to         against the Reformed faith, name-      the blessed gospel proclaimed by
      engage in missions. Nor would          ly, that it has no place or use for    His church. Without this gospel,
      one have to strain himself to do       urgent, promiscuous preaching          there is no gathering, no faith,
      the research necessary to dis-         on account of its doctrine of dou-     and no salvation. Therefore: mis-
      cover this fact. For this is the       ble predestination. In the 16th        sions.
      public, official confession of the     century, members of the Re-
                  _  -
      2>0 I The Standard Bearer


   In the doctrine of predestina-        the fear of death that goes with          no matter how energetic they are
tion, the Reformed churches are          sin. It is not the nature of mis-         in proselytizing others. "Turn
not saddled with a hindrance to          sions that it delivers the material-      from these idols of man's worth
missions, but rather possess the         ly deprived from their physical           and powers to the living God!"
basis for missions.                      oppression, as is the widespread            This is the message that Christ
   What becomes more and more            notion of liberation theology and         Himself proclaims by the agency
evident today is that only a             of the social gospel in its modern        of His church. The Reformed
sound Reformed church is able to         dress. This makes all the dif-            church shows herself faithful to
carry on genuine missions - mis-         ference in the world as to what           Biblical missions in the matter of
sions defined by the Bible and           message the church brings, or             the agent of missions. The agent
commanded by Christ. The ques-           even whether it brings a message          is the church, the instituted
tion that any survey of current          at all. A great deal of what              church. The agent is not evan-
mission theory and practice com-         passes for missions today consists        gelistic societies or para-
pels one to raise is not, "Can a         of nothing else than material             ecclesiastical mission-organiza-
Reformed church do missions?"            relief. Once and for all, in John         tions. They have neither the
but, "Can un-Reformed churches           6, Jesus declined the invitation to       authority nor the power to do
do missions?" This is true in            be the social savior of humanity.         missions. Christ gave the man-
several respects, among them the           The message that the Re-                date to the instituted church
presuppositions of missions; the         formed church brings on the mis-          when He commissioned the
message of missions; the agent of        sion field is the good tidings of         apostles in Matthew 28:18ff. and
missions; and the end, or goal, of       gracious salvation from sin, and          in Mark 16:15ff. The church at
missions. A word about each of           thus from death, in the cross and         Antioch sent out the missionaries,
these is in order.                       resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It      Barnabas and Saul (Paul), accord-
  First, it is the presupposition of     includes the call to repent and           ing to Acts 13:lff. The striking
the Reformed church that the             believe. It .promises  eternal life to    feature is that the Holy Spirit, the
truth of missions is determined          every one who believes, threat-           great Agent and Power of mis-
by Scripture. What this work is          ening damnation to every                  sions on behalf of Christ, chooses
and how it is to be done is not          unbeliever. This is the message           to work through the church in-
for the church to decide, much           that King Jesus gives to His am-          stitute. He will not inaugurate
less some expert, but is revealed        bassadors; and this is the                and conduct New Testament mis-
for all times in the Bible. How          message that He uses to dethrone          sions as a "spiritual" enterprise
much of present-day mission              Satan and to enthrone Himself in          apart from the institution of the
theory and practice would be re-         the hearts of men and women.              church. He will not move the
jected out of hand, if it had to         The mission-message is not ad-            missionaries to engage in their
justify itself on the basis of Scrip-    vice, how to be happy and suc-            work as "free lancers," indepen-
ture! Then it is the mission-            cessful; is not some strategy for         dent from the church (except
thinking of the Reformed church,         setting this age right politically        when it comes to financial sup-
drawn from Scripture, that Gods          and socially; is not the call of the      port). But the Holy Spirit says to
purpose with missions is the             oppressed of this world to arms           the church, with her office-
salvation of some (the elect), not       and revolution; is not a siren-           bearers, "Separate me Barnabas
all. This enables the church to          song wooing people to the                 and Saul for the work whereunto
resist the temptation to adapt the       mysterious experiences of "Holy           I have called them" (v. 2). The
message so that it wins the ap-          Spirit baptism."                          church is the sole agent of mis-
proval of all, or even of many.            Neither is the message a de-            sions because to the church, and
This accommodation of the                mand upon the sinner to perform           to the church only, is given the
gospel to modern man or to               some work by which he must                office. of the keys of the kingdom
specific cultures is widely prac-        earn, or accomplish, his own              of heaven, particularly the
tised by those who suppose that          salvation, whether that be the            preaching of the gospel, by
God desires to save all without          meritorious works of paganism             which heaven is opened to
exception, or who suppose that           and Roman Catholicism or the              believers and closed against
the purpose of missions is church-       decision of the supposed free will        unbelievers (cf. Heid. Cat., Q. 84).
growth. It is also the church's          of much of Protestant evangel-            Knowing herself to be Christ's
understanding of missions, that          icalism and fundamentalism. All           agent, every congregation, like
by this work Christ delivers sin-        those in the bondage of self-             Paul, ought to be able to say, "I
ners from the spiritual misery of        salvation are themselves proper           was not disobedient unto the
the guilt and power of sin, with         objects of (Reformed) missions,           heavenly (calling)" (Acts 26: 19).

                                                                                                   The  Standard  Bearer  I271


   The Reformed church does               Preaching requires ordained           life is lively membership in a true
missions by the preaching of the        preachers, men set apart by the         church. It is an integral part of
gospel. The agency is preaching.        church as "missionary ministers         the missionary-mandate that the
"Preach the gospel to every             of the Word," as the "Form of           church teach the disciples to
creature," Jesus commands in            Ordination of Missionaries" puts        observe all things that Jesus has
Mark 16:15. "How shall they hear        it. Not every Christian is a mis-       commanded, such things are pure
(Jesus Christ) without a                sionary. Not every Tom, Dick,           worship; prayer; giving to the
preacher?" the apostle asks in          and Harry (and now, every Jane,         poor; fleeing fornication; honor-
Romans 10:14, with reference to         Sue, and Sally) who fancies             ing marriage; godly rearing of
the saving of sinners in the great      himself (or herself) a missionary       children; honest business prac-
work of missions. The agency is         in fact proclaims the Word so           tices; and all that belongs to the
not "praxis," i.e., deeds of help to    that the living voice of Christ         way of righteousness. Reformed
the poor. The agency is not mere        itself is heard by sinners, who         missions does not count as con-
silent solidarity with the suffering    then call upon the Lord for salva-      verts, nor allow men to count
of the oppressed. The agency is         tion. The missionary must be sent       themselves as converts, whose
not fascinating tricks, and more        by Christ through the church.           lives are not made holy, but who
often, the empty promise of             "How shall they preach, except          go on in their old ways of con-
tricks, whether healing, or exor-       they be sent?" (Rom. 10:15)             formity to this world. The
cism, or some other pretended           Gifted men with a zeal for Gods         evidence of repentance is works
miracle, by self-styled powe.r          glory and for the gathering of          worthy of repentance. Only those
evangelists and charismatics. The       Christ's church ought to consider       who continue in Christ's words
agency is not engaging speeches         whether God calls them specifi-         are His disciples. The ultimate
of psychological wisdom that            cally to missions. In her               goal of missions is the glory of
enable guilty sinners who feel          seminary, the church ought to           God; and God is glorified, not by
bad about themselves to become          make definite provision for train-      multitudes of carnal, nominal
guilty sinners who feel good            ing these men specifically for          church members, but by men
about themselves. Gods agency           missions.                               and women who sorrow over sin
of salvation in the world, in the         The end, or goal, of missions,        and who delight in living accord-
twentieth century as in the first,      by which the Reformed church            ing, to His will in all good works.
is neither signs nor wisdom, but        proves herself obedient to the            Can a Reformed church do
the folly and weakness of the           will of her Lord, is the (spiritual)    missions? Indeed!
preaching of Christ crucified (cf. 1    separation of the converts from           Can any body else? 0           -DJE
Cor. 1:17ff.).                          the world in a disciplined and ho-
                                        ly life. An essential aspect of this

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272  I The Standard Bearer


                                       The Offer of the Gospel
                                       and. the Mandate
Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                for Missions

  And he said unto them, Go ye           At the time of the Reformation        as we can endure, and'thereby
into all the world, and preach the     Latin was the language of               draws us into communion with
gospel to every creature.              theology, and the word offer0           Him. That is its power; and out
  He that believeth and is bap-        had a simple, basic meaning. We         of it arises the strength of the
tized shall be saved; but he that      find it in our Latin dictionary yet,    Christian life. But with it comes a
believeth not shall be damned.         "to bring before, to exhibit, to ob-    responsibility.
                     Mark 16:15, 16    trude." That was what Calvin              We as children of God are told
  To the evangelical world of          meant with it; and that was what        by the Scriptures, even as we are
our day Calvinism seems                that great international company        inwardly moved by the Spirit, to
necessarily to stand at cross pur-     of theologians who gathered at          take this word which has worked
poses with the mission mandate         the Synod of Dordt understood as        so wonderfully within us, and to
of the church. If people are un-       well. So it appeared in their           proclaim it into all the world.
conditionally chosen and               Canons, as we read in Head III,         Our calling is to exhibit it, to set
necessarily saved, why should          IV: Art. 9, "It is not the fault of     it before  everyone to whom God
anyone do mission work? God            the gospel, nor of Christ, offered      brings us in life, or, in the
will do it all. He doesn't need us.    therein . . . ." And when we ex-        Canons' own words, "the gos-
Why should we try?                     amine the overall context of the        pel . . . ought to be declared and
  When then we go a step fur-          Canons, we learn precisely what         published to all nations, and to
ther and deny that the'gospel          that meant, II: 5, "Moreover, the       all persons promiscuously and
should be offered, that is even        promise of the gospel . . .             without distinction, to whom God
more disconcerting. If you can't       together with the command to            out of his good pleasure
as much as offer salvation to          repent and believe, ought to be         sends . . . ." This is Gods com-
people, what is there left? The        declared and published to all na-       mand; and, even while using us
Protestant Reformed reputation         tions, and to all persons pro-          as messengers, it remains His
as a church that doesn't believe       miscuously and without distinc-         `work. He knows to whom He
in missions may be mistaken, but       tion, to whom God out of his            will have the gospel brought; in
it certainly is widespread; and it     good pleasure sends the gospel."        His providence He provides the
is well that we should clarify our     And again in III, IV: 11, "But          opportunity to bring it; and His
position on this point.                when God accomplishes his good          word holds within itself the
  To-begin with, we have to            pleasure in the elect . . . he . . .    power to accomplish the purpose
understand the ramifications of        causes the gospel to be external-       to which He sends it. It will find
the word "offer."                      ly preached to them . . . ."            those whom God desires, speak
                                         These men saw the gospel as a         to them; ascertain and prepare
                                       message of truth given to them          their hearts, and draw them into
                                       by revelation from God, a very          fellowship with Him; even while
                                       special blessing, a hidden              others by that same word are of-
                                       treasure now revealed, a pearl to       fended, hardened, and repelled.
                                       be valued above everything else.        God will have His will done,
                                       With this message God comes             often in ways far beyond what
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the
Protestant Reformed Church of          and makes Himself known to us,          we can comprehend; and it is
Kalamazoo, Michigan.                   reveals as much of His greatness        simply our privilege to serve as

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  I273


His agents, His ambassadors, in           The consequence was, how-            attractive and practical than what
bringing, that word.                    ever, that these humanists also        he felt he had learned in Beza's
   Calvin understood this; and his      began to take a different view of      Genevan Academy. Nor was he
little town of 15,000 people sent       the Christianity in which they         alone; many, even of those who
out missionaries by the scores.         lived. No longer did its doctrines     remained theologically more
Unceasingly they went, some in-         appear to,be a primary concern.        sound than he, began to focus
to inconceivable dangers, some          In fact, these doctrines didn't ac-    their attention on practice in life
to almost certain death, and            tually seem to be that different       as the primary thing,_and  the
some as far away as the distant         from what the Greeks had con-          motivating of people their chief
shores of Brazil. Their calling         cluded through their reason; or,       concern.
they knew. God had given His            for that matter, what any good           It isn't our purpose here to
word; they were to bring it as          scholar can discern almost in-         trace this through historically;
precisely as they could, and it         tuitively. In turn, truth itself is    but we can see the effect by
would accomplish what God               not that definite, if not often        looking at the word "offer" once
willed. There was nothing for           variable, and even contradictory       again, particularly as it is now
them to change, nothing to              to the human mind. But the             used in modern English. A whole
adapt, and certainly nothing to         crucial thing is not doctrine but      new connotation has arisen
add. God's word is to be brought        practice. Theology is best defined     around it, as we find it defined in
as it is, and nothing else.             as "the science of living well";"      a present day dictionary: "an
   Even as they were doing that,        and its first problem, how to ex-      undertaking to do an act or give
however, another viewpoint was          press Christianity in a way that       something on condition that the
coming to the fore. It had its          the lives of people will be af-        party to whom the proposal is
roots and its mentality in the          fected. If people can be shown         made do some specified act or
humanism which filled the               persuasively the value of good         make `a return promise.  "  ' No
Universities. In many ways it           living, and convinced to alter         longer is an "offer" a simple ex-
seemed closely related to the           their lives accordingly, that is       hibition or presentation to others;
Reformation and served it.              what counts.                           it has become a means of
Humanistic scholars, having               Beneath this all, of course, was     rhetorical force to move people
rediscovered the ancient world,         one basic presupposition, that of      to change. But always the sup-
restored study in the original          the freedom of the human will.         position is there, they have the
languages of Scripture, recovered       They were all convinced, follow-       final control; and they have to be
and republished its early manu-         ing the route of philosophers          satisfied. Something attractive,
scripts, and gave good directions       through the ages, that this was a      something alluring to them, must
as to how the text of Scripture         principle that must never be           be  offered if they are to be
can best be interpreted and             relinquished. To every person          drawn into modifying their ways.
understood; but at heart there          must be left final control over his      And the result is not hard to
was a difference.                       own life and will; and the only        see, especially as it is evidenced
   In their fascination with an-        thing any one else can do, even        in modern evangelical circles.
cient civilizations, the scholars of    if He be God, is with good and         Doctrine - the teaching of the
humanism had come to the con-           convincing words to influence          Bible - is not of great concern.
clusion that it wasn't so much          him how to live it.                    It can be used. if it will serve a
what the ancient writers said that        The main line reformers -            purpose. But the question again
mattered as how they said it; and       Luther, Calvin, Beza, etc. -           isn't what, but how; how can the
they put their effort into trying to    recognized this for what it was,       gospel - whose content can be
recapture the secret of their           and w.ould have nothing of it. But     taken for granted - be offered in
rhetorical and dialectical styles.      there were others in the Re-           such a way that it will be attrac-
Those ancient poets and philos-         formed churches who were at-           tive? That is the question, for it is
ophers had been effective, they         tracted; and they were only too        the crucial link in bringing men
concluded, because they had             ready to bring this viewpoint in.      to salvation. God is stable, He
known how to use words. They            Beginning in Germany and France        will do His part, but people have
could speak well; they could hold       it spread, through the lowlands,       to be satisfied if they are to work
the attention of the people; and        into England, and finally to the       along. That's the crux of the mat-
they could persuade them how to         colonies of the new world. James       ter, regardless even of how it
live. That was the important            Arminius, a precocious young           may reflect upon God.
thing.                                  Amsterdam preacher, was one of           To this we object.
                                        them; he wanted something more

274  I The Standard  Bearer


  It's all just too presumptuous.         able to change the soul and save       from faith to faith: as it is written,
Man isn't in control of his life,         it, that pointed out by Paul in        The just shall live by faith."  And
regardless of what he may think.          Romans 1: 16, 17, "For I am not        the setting forth of that gospel is
His sin is a bondage which he             ashamed of the gospel of Christ:       our only mission mandate. 0
cannot break; and we aren't               for it is the power of God unto
clever enough to lure him to do                                                  1.  Uussic  Lofin  L)icfionury.  Follett  Publishing Co..
                                          salvation to everyone that                Chicago. 1952.
it. We may catch his attention for        believeth: to the Jew first, and       2.  Ciraves.  Frank P..  Peter  Kumus  und the Educu-
                                                                                    tionol Kefwmution OF the Sixteenth Century,
a moment; but that doesn't give a         also the Greek. For therein is the        MacMillan, New York, 1912,  p.  1X5.
new heart. Only one power is              righteousness of God revealed          3. Webster's Seuenth New Collegiate Lktionmy,
                                                                                    G.  clr C. Merriam Company. Springfield. MS,  1970.





                                          Zeal and Devotion to
Rev. Arie denHartog
                     -                    the Work of Evangelism

  Are we as faithful and zealous            We have also been criticized             We believe that the Reformed
as we ought to be in the work of          for our commitment to the truth        Faith gives us the greatest reason
evangelism? It is always good to          of the absolute sovereignty of         and incentive to be zealous in
ask ourselves that question. We           God. Some of our critics have ac-      the work of missions. Rather than
have sometimes been criticized            cused us of going to unbiblical        hinder the work of missions it is
for lack of interest in missions.         extremes in our adherence to this      the only gospel that can offer
Over the years we have become             truth. We have been judged and         hope to the totally depraved sin-
very sensitive to this criticism.         maligned by many, especially           ner who is by nature dead in
Some of that criticism could easi-        because of our condemnation of         trespasses and sins. It is possible
ly be proven false. But at the            the unbiblical and unreformed          to adhere wholeheartedly to the
same time even such criticism             notion of the well-meant offer of      doctrine of the Reformed Faith
ought to cause us to examine              the gospel. Our critics maintain       and to be zealous for evangelism.
ourselves. It is after all a very         that unless one can offer the          The absolute reason for this is of
serious matter to be faithful to          gospel freely to all and sundry it     course that we know and believe
this great calling of the Lord. We        is impossible to do e.vangelism, or    the Reformed Faith to be the
can be thankful to the Lord that          at least our work of evangelism        truth of the Word of God. Those
in recent years our churches              will be greatly hindered. The er-      who have rashly criticized the
have been very much engaged in            ror of this position is demon-         Reformed Faith for lagging
the work of evangelism and we             strated elsewhere in this issue of     behind historically in missionary
have seen that work greatly               the  Standard Bearer  as well as in    zeal have obviously forgotten the
blessed of the Lord. May we by            many other writings that have          great Protestant Reformation.
Gods grace continue our involve-          come from our churches.                The Reformation was after all the
ment in this work even in the               Positively we give thanks to         greatest missionary endeavor
face of a serious shortage of             God that He has given us the           ever undertaken by the church
ministers in our churches.                heritage of the truth of His Word.     since the time of the apostles. It
                                          We believe that the doctrine of        was manifestly the wonderful
                                          the Reformed Faith which exalts        work of God. That work was ac-
                                          the grace of God is the gospel in      complished, by great leaders
                                          its purest form. We hold this          raised up by God who were
                                          truth and all that it implies          wholly committed to the truth
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of the Prot-    unashamedly and without com-           that later came to be known as
estant Reformed Church of Ran-            promise. For this we have only         the Ref,ormed Faith. Furthermore,
dolph, Wisconsin.                         God to thank.                          the history of the church testifies

                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer / 275


to the fact that many of the           tion of the church. The church         against the lie and false doctrine
greatest missionaries of a11 time      must be the pillar and ground of       she is often the most zealous in
were those who loved and               the truth. Many are the exhorta-       mission work. We must be
preached the doctrines of the Re-      tions in scripture to the church       faithful as the Lord gives us the
formed Faith without com-              that she maintain sound doctrine.      opportunity.
promise. So zealous for the work       The Reformed church also under-          The greatest reason why we
of missions were many of these         stands her calling to preach faith-    must be faithful and zealous in
that they suffered great persecu-      fully the Word every Lord's day        the work of missions is of course
tion and joined the ranks of the       for the edification of her             obedience to our Lords great
glorious martyrs. We must carry        members so that those members          commission recorded in Matthew
on that tradition by the grace of      might always be brought to             28:20. Though Jesus gave this
God, Though certainly this is not      maturity and unity of the faith        commission first of all to His
the main reason for doing mis-         and not be tossed to and fro by        eleven disciples, it is also the
sions, it is well for us as Re-        the winds of false doctrine (see       great commission to the church
formed Churches to prove before        Ephesians 4). The Reformed             of the whole New Testament
the world and for the glory of         church understands the great and       time until the day of the return
God that wholehearted commit-          urgent obligation she has to nur-      of our Lord. This commission was
ment to the Reformed Faith             ture the youth of the covenant in      given by the Lord to the church
makes us zealous and active in         her midst, She spends much time        after He had fully accomplished
the work of missions.                  and energy on this because she         her salvation on the cross and
  But, of course, orthodoxy  -         believes that the Lord is pleased      triumphed for her over death and
alone does not insure a zeal for       to gather His church in the line       he11 in His resurrection. This Lord
mission work. It must be said          of continued generations. It           is now the exalted one to whom
that there have been times when        would be foolish and unbiblical        God has given all power and
the Reformed churches have             to say that any of these great         authority in heaven and earth.
been too concerned with them-          tasks of the church are more im-       The work of evangelism is the
selves and not sufficiently con-       portant than another, or that any      work of the exalted Lord to
cerned for the salvation of those      of these may be neglected at the       gather His church which He has
outside the church. Whether we         expense of another.                    chosen from before the founda-
have been more guilty than               Along with all the other tasks       tions of the world out of all na-
others is debatable. It is never-      of the church we must promote          tions and peoples of the earth.
theless an ugly thing if a church      zealously the work of missions.        The purpose of evangelism is the
that has such a glorious heritage      The church has much work to do         unspeakably glorious one of
as we have refuses to proclaim         in the world, enough to keep the       gathering the church of Jesus
the truth of God outside of her        faithful church very busy at all       Christ which will be with the
own membership or is too               times. Throughout history, in the      Lord forever in the new heavens
lethargic or complacent to do          Lord's providence, it has been         and earth. Christ has empowered
this. In fact, one of the great        necessary for the church some-         His church according to His
reasons God has entrusted His          times to concentrate her labors        promise with the gift of the Holy
wonderful Word of truth to us is       more on one area of her task           Spirit to fulfill His great commis-
so that we might publish it to         than another. So for example           sion (Acts 133). Christ is pleased
others. We must steadfastly guard      during times of the greatest at-       to perform the work of evan-
against the great evil of lack of      tacks of false doctrine and            gelism through His church and
zeal in missions, for that would       apostasy in the church much .of        by means of the preaching of the
be as serious as holding to false      the energy and time of the             gospel.
doctrines.                             church has to be spent on de-            The sovereign Lord is in need
  Evangelism is one of the great       fending the faith lest the devil       of no particular church for the
God-given tasks of the church.         overthrow the church. A church         accomplishment of His great pur-
The Reformed church knows that         that does this oughtnot to be          pose. If one is unfaithful He will
it is not the only task of the         criticized, for surely this is         raise up another in its place. It is
church. The church of Jesus            necessary and pleasing to the          sure that none of His elect will
Christ has the calling to maintain     Lord. But even during such times       ever be lost. As Reformed Chris-
sound doctrine and defend that         the church may not neglect her         tians we must never imagine
doctrine against all the attacks of    calling to do mission work. In         however that salvation by
heretics inspired by the evil one      fact, properly during the times of     sovereign grace alone excludes
seeking to overthrow the founda-       the church's fiercest conflicts        the need of the preaching of the

276 / The Standard Bearer


      Word. It belongs to the Reformed      preaching of the gospel by the           and see to it that there is a
      Faith always to emphasize the         faithful church of Jesus Christ.         proper environment of love and
      great urgency of the preaching of     The work of evangelism requires          concern in the church for the
      the Word. "How shall they hear        a tremendous amount of sacrifice         thriving of missionary zeal. The
      without a preacher?" Christ           on the part of the church and            members of the church must pro-
      gathers His church through the        those who are called to be mis-          mote the work of missions by
      preaching. The church must            sionaries. We have only to               themselves living holy lives wor-
      therefore be-zealous and faithful     remember the history of missions         thy of the gospel of Jesus Christ
I     to call and support and send the      to be impressed by this.                 strikingly different from the
      preacher of the gospel.               Remember the great hardships             world. The members of the
        The work of evangelism in-          and persecutions of the apostle          church must always be ready to
      cludes both the gathering of          Paul and all those who followed          give to every man the reason of
      those who have gone astray and        after him. Remember how many             their hope with meekness and
      the calling of the heathen into       have given their very lives to ac-       fear. The members of the church
      the sphere of the church. There       complish this great work. What a         must promote the work of mis-
      are those who deny that the           terrible shame if we in the age of       sions by good works in the
      work of missions includes gather-     ease and luxury would refuse to          neighborhood and by always
~-    ing the remnant of Gods saints        make even by comparison small            looking for opportunities to
      out of the apostatizing church.       sacrifices and endure small hard-        reveal the mercy of Christ out-
      But these forget that this has        ships. The work of evangelism re-        side of the church. The members
      always been part of the Lords         quires great boldness of faith and       of the church must support this
      commission. With great compas-        courage. The work of evangelism          work through gracious hospitality
      sion the Lord sent out His            requires on the part of the              to those who visit the church.
      disciples first of all to the lost    church a willingness to become           Mission work is not only engaged
      sheep of the house of Israel, to      all things to all men so that we         in at the time of special meetings
      gather and comfort those who          might by all means save some.            for this purpose in our church. It
      were in great distress because of     All of these things are worthy of        must be constantly part of our
      their being as sheep without a        much greater consideration.              life as Christians. Each member
      true shepherd. All through the          The whole church must be in-           of the church must be zealous to
      history of the church this has        volved in the great work of              testify of the truth of the Lord
      been part of the great task of        evangelism if we are to be a             Jesus Christ whenever he has op-
      evangelism. We must continue to       church faithful to our Lord's com-       portunity. All of this is necessary
      do this type of evangelism. It is     mission. Preachers and mis-              to have a truly mission-minded
      genuine evangelism pleasing to        sionaries must themselves be ex-         church.
      the Lord and for the welfare of       amples of zeal and devotion to             As Reformed Christians we
      the Lord's own. Especially when       this work. Not all are called to be      believe wholeheartedly in the
      we see today that even the            preachers and missionaries. As           truth that God saves His people
      historically sound Reformed and       Reformed churches we maintain            by sovereign grace alone. This is
      Presbyterian churches are fast        the requirement of an official and       our only hope in the work of
      becoming apostate this form of        well-trained ministry for the work       missions. We must constantly
      evangelism becomes increasingly       of evangelism. But all the mem-          pray for this grace of God. We
      urgent and necessary. But also        bers of the church must also be          must rely upon this grace alone.
      evangelism involves preaching         zealously and actively involved          This grace must give us great
      the gospel to the unsaved in our      in the work of missions. The             boldness and zeal. This truth is
      own land and even in all the na-      preaching must constantly exhort         the only and absolute assurance
      tions of the world. The task of       and admonish the members of              that the work of missions will be
      evangelism is a momentous and         the church in this regard. All the       truly successful. The final and
      great one which no church may         members of the church must be            ultimate purpose of all evan-
I     ever neglect.                         involved in this work through            gelism is the glory of the name of
        The work of evangelism is a         supporting the official ministry of      God through the proclamation of
      great and difficult work. Salva-      the church with constant and             His truth unto all the world and
      tion is not accomplished by the       earnest prayers and through              the salvation .of His people. A
      great efforts of man or by great      sacrificial giving. Besides this, the    greater reason for us to be
      strategies for world evangelism       members of the church must do            zealous and faithful in this work
      devised by men. It is accom-          all in thelE- power to promote the       is inconceivable for the Reformed
      plished through the faithful          work of missions in the church           church. 0

                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer  / 277


                                         Teamwork 0In
  Rev. Steven Key                                                                 Missions

    "The Protestant Reformed               First of all, the necessary team-    very closely with the missionary
Churches believe that, in obe-           work for the work of missions is       and the Mission Committee.
dience to the command of Christ,         seen in the sending of ministers         But there are other expressions
the King of the church, to preach        to preach the Word on the mis-         of that teamwork that are some-
the blessed Gospel to all                sion field. In obedience to God,       times forgotten for what they         i
creatures, baptizing, and teaching       the church which was in Jeru-          are. All the churches in the Prot-
them to observe all things which         salem sent Barnabas to Antioch,        estant Reformed denomination
Christ has commanded, it is the          according to Acts 11:22ff. In Acts     contribute financially to the work
explicit duty and sacred privilege       13, the church at Antioch sent         of missions. The budget request
of said churches to carry out this       Paul and Barnabas to preach the        adopted by Synod 1988 for the
calling according to the measure         gospel outside the realm of their      work of home missions, including
of our God-given ability."               own congregation. So we send           the work in Jamaica, was
    So reads the opening para-           men according to the calling God       $202,000.00.  It is evident that
graph of the Constitution of the         has given us. Even though as           God has given us much work as
Mission Committee of the Prot-           churches we currently have a           churches. For a small denomina-
estant Reformed Churches. And            shortage of pastors, we may not        tion of 26 churches, that is a
with that conviction ten men             neglect the call Christ gave us to     substantial amount of money. But
serve on this committee, this            preach the gospel to all               we must thank God not only that
writer included. The makeup of           creatures. That involves going to      He provides for our financial
the Mission Committee is five            those outside the realm of our         needs, but also that He gives us
ministers and five elders, all of        Protestant Reformed churches.          such an opportunity to labor in
whom are elected to three-year           And, consequently, that means a        the midst of His vineyard.
terms by the annual Synod.               sacrificial contribution to this         Teamwork is also seen in a
Although the work of missions is         work of missions by the number         willingness of a consistory and
the calling of every local con-          of churches who are without            congregation to allow its pastor
gregation, in a denominational af-       pastors and who otherwise might        to serve on the Mission Commit-
filiation it is a work of mutual         have the services of one of those      tee. Not only does such service
concern. Teamwork is necessary.          who serve on the mission field.        involve a considerable amount of
And, therefore, as an expression           There are also those congrega-       time and labor, but oftentimes a
of their unity as the body of            tions which are directly involved      certain amount of travel as well
Christ and their mutual calling,         in the oversight of particular         - travel which necessarily affects
the churches labor together.             fields of labor. Most recently in      the congregation for even a brief
   That mutual labor comes to ex-        our own churches the congrega-         period.
pression in many ways.                   tions in Redlands, California and        Sacrifices? Unquestionably -
                                         South Holland, Illinois, as well as    to varying degrees. But all these
                                         Wyckoff, New Jersey, and First         aspects of the work of missions
                                         Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan,        are necessary and indeed must
                                         have had oversight of particular       be viewed a privilege for all who
                                         fields of mission labor. In expres-    contribute and who are involved.
                                         sion of our mutual calling to          After all, the words of David in I
Rev. Key is pastor of Southeast Prot-    preach the gospel, their councils      Chronicles 29:14 should be our
estant Reformed Church of Grand          - elders and deacons - work            own confession: "Who am I, and
Rapids, Michigan.                                                               what is my people, that we

.!278  /  The  Standard Bearer


should be able to offer so willing-         Evangelism Committees and             Protestant Reformed Church as
ly after this sort? for all things          Societies. There have been con-       their church extension committee
come of thee, and of thine own              tacts established through radio       does preliminary work in the
have we given thee."                        broadcasts, both by the Reformed      Denver area, and with the
  The work of the Mission Com-              Witness Hour and the sermon           Lynden, Washington, Protestant
mittee is "to regulate and super-           broadcasts of some of our con-        Reformed Church as they also
vise all mission activity of the            gregations. Furthermore, the          labor in the area of evangelism.
churches in common as pre-                  world-wide broadcasting of Fami-        In summary, the Lord has
scribed by Synod" (Constitution).           ly Radio, based in Oakland, CA,       blessed us richly, committing to
Although this involves several              has given air time to the.sermons     us the riches of the gospel. He
duties, the bulk of our labors as           of several of our ministers, which    has committed to us the calling
Mission Committee is focused in             has also brought response. All of     to preach the Word in season
two areas: 1) advising a calling            these things show that the Lord       and out of season, from the
church with regard to all matters           is giving us many opportunities.      pulpit and from house to house.
concerning their particular field             Two areas currently demand-         As churches we have been used
of denominational mission labor;            ing more extensive exploratory        by God to sow some good seeds.
and 2) to find possible fields.             work are Bradenton, Florida and       The testimony of many people is
  Up until the past few months,             Alameda, California. At the re-       that they have been fed by pure
the work of the Mission Commit-             quest of the Kalamazoo con-           preaching such as they never
tee has been concentrated              1    sistory, the Mission Committee        have heard before. Such proc-
primarily in specific fields of             sent Rev. Steven Houck to             lamation of Gods Word never
labor - Jamaica; Norristown,                Bradenton to investigate the          returns void. And so we labor,
Pennsylvania (a suburb of Phila-            work that is taking place there       seeing that the fields are white
delphia); and northwest Chicago.            under the auspices of the             for harvest. May God grant the
That concentration of labor has             Kalamazoo consistory. Further         increase, to the testimony of His
rapidly changed. God has shown              work is being done currently          sovereign grace and the glory of
us positive fruit upon the preach-          toward the possible development       His own name. U
ing of the Word in these fields.            of a field of labor there, par-
The joyous result has been the              ticularly with some permanent
establishment of an organized               residents in the Bradenton-Venice
congregation in Norristown and              areas.
the anticipated organization of a             Since this past October, our
Protestant Reformed congrega-               churches have had opportunity to                  The Tree
tion in the northwest Chicago               work with 30-35 families and a        Gnarled, twisted, writhing snake,
area.                                       number of individuals in the Bay      Snow-shod `neath a winter sky,
  But, we still are faced with the          Area of California. For several       Putting on the feathery flake,
call to preach the gospel to all            months now, at the request of         Only then to lay it bye.
creatures. For that reason, the             this group, the Mission Commit-       Standing bleak and bare, alone -
Mission Committee has concen-               tee has sent ministers to preach      Leaves have drifted to the ground;
trated much more heavily on in-             the Word. These brothers and          Cheerful, chirping birds have
vestigation and development of              sisters, many of whom are rather        flown;
fields where we might have the              new converts to the faith, have       The howling winds the only
possibility of preaching the Word.          eagerly received the preaching of       sound.
Here also the Lord has given us             the Word as did the Bereans
much. The Mission Committee                 "with all readiness of mind,"         Stalwart, staunch,, and strong it
has a large number of contacts              searching the Scriptures daily,         stands
throughout the United States.               whether that which they hear is       `Neath the vaulted roof of sky.
These have been established in a            true. Although we know not            Fearless of cruel winter's hands;
number of ways, again indicating            what future work we may have          It will live again, although it die.
the unified effort in our                   there, certainly the Lord has pro-    May we too stand straight and
denomination.                               vided us an exciting opportunity        sure,
  Many contacts have come                   to proclaim the gospel.               Even `neath death's troubled sky,
through our various writings.                 Furthermore, the Mission Com-       Knowing that by faith secure
Some have come through the ef-              mittee, with Missionary-Pastor        We shall live, although we die.
forts and labors of several Prot-           Houck, is working with the coun-                               James Jonker
estant Reformed congregations in            cil of the Loveland, Colorado,          (from Beacon Lights, by permission)

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer  / 279


                                          Missions atid the
                                          Calling Church
Rev. Kenneth /Coo/e



   As the church of Christ we are            For our churches to carry out         the same objective, the over-
at war.                                   their part in this warfare under         throw of the tyranny of the com-
   No, 1 am not speaking of dis-          the rule of Christ, we must draw         mon enemy, and a common com-
agreements that arise between             up strategy - the proper strategy        mitment of love to the cause of
consistories and committees over          for the best use of our admittedly       our great Captain, Christ Jesus. In
mission policy.                           limited resources, strategy based        this atmosphere the discussions
   The church of Christ is called         on Scripture. When Synods, Mis-          are to be carried out. Then a
to war against the strongholds of         sion Committees, and consistories        brotherly spirit will always
Satan, "Casting down . . . every          meet and make decisions con-             prevail.
high thing that exalteth itself           cerning mission work, this is               Anyone who has been reading
against the knowledge of God" (II         what they are doing, making              the ACTS of the PRC the last fif-
Cor. 10:5). One aspect of that            decisions on how best to deploy          teen years or so, will know that
warfare is missions.                      our resources in the present cam-        the issue of jurisdiction in mis-
   In this warfare there is the           paign. These meetings are coun-          sions has been a matter of no lit-
defensive side of doctrine and a          cils of war. Sound strategy must         tle difference of opinion in our
holy walk. Missions is the offen-         be devised. We must be as effec-         circles. This is not peculiar to us.
sive side. By it the church in-           tive and efficient (which is not         Disagreement over this issue has
vades the territory Satan.calls his       the same as "economical") as we          perplexed (I am inclined to say
own, namely, hearts under his             can be.                                  "bedeviled') Presbyterian and Re-
control, and seeks through                   Now, I do not care to run the         formed churches for centuries.
prayer and preaching to lay               figure being used to death, but          (Cf. J.L. Shaver, THE POLITY OF
claim to those hearts and lives in        permit me to make two further            THE CHURCH, vol. 2, pp. 197-8.)
the name of the crown-rights of           p o i n t s .                            What's the answer?
Christ Jesus. And wherever elect             First, we, in the carrying out of       First, in this work of missions
hearts are found, Christ, through         our mission calling, must                the local congregation is to be in:
missions, gains the victory, and          remember who the enemy is (not           volved through its consistory.
the kingdom of Christ is estab-           Synod, or the M.C., or the con-          This ought to be beyond dispute.
lished at a new outpost. No               sistory, but the Devil), and that        How, apart from the call by a
wonder Satan hates missions and           we are fighting a common                 local congregation, is a man go-
a people zealous for it. Let us           enemy, lest we become our own            ing to become a missionary? His
then persist in the campaign, not         worst enemy.                             office is always in a congrega-
simply to vex Satan, but to lay              Second, in Councils of War            tion, at least in Reformed church
claim to the hearts of those              there is always frank discussion         polity. He is a minister with a
whom Christ is pleased to save,           (and often disagreement) over            special task, namely, carrying out
convert, and restore.                     strategy and tactics. It is best that    the great commission, "Go ye out
                                          these different perspectives be          into all the world . . . ." But that
                                          frankly stated for the appraisal of      is not simply his task; that is the
                                          all before decisions are made.           task of the church of Christ. The
                                          This is healthy, necessary, and          missionary is but the means by
                                          beneficial. Also in missions.            which the members of the church
Rev. Koole is pastor of the Protestant       But we stress it is a discussion      institute fulfill their calling.
Reformed Church of Redlands,
California.                               between allies, allies who have

280 / The Standard Bearer


  Acts 13:1-4 is powerful in this      by a mission committee" mean?                  relationship between congregation
regard. The Holy Spirit instructed     Does it mean that a congregation               and Minister should ever be real,
the church at Antioch to separate      calls its missionary and then like             vital, and active. Sham and mere
Paul and Barnabas unto missions,       Hannah of old turns its "Samuel"               form in matters spiritual and ec-
laying hands upon them. And            over to the M.C., there to serve               clesiastical are killing. (C.O. Com-
Paul, mind you, was an apostle.        the Lord forever under its                     mentary, p. 218-9)
It's significant that Paul reported    "priestly" legislation? This is                   In his "Introduction To The
back to the church at Antioch as       possible. Whether it is Biblical               Science Of Missions," Dr. J.H.
well, at the end of his journeys,      and Reformed is another matter                 Bavinck points out that this is a
presenting his reports for their       altogether.                                   matter of great practical benefit
consideration.                            In 1977 our churches (in                    to the vitality of missions itself.
  There can be no question that        response to a protest by a con-                There has been considerable strife
the local congregation is to be in-    cerned brother, who loved mis-                 concerning this principle (namely,
volved in her Lords mission            sions dearly, but who feared that              the involvement of the local con-
                                                                                      gregation  - K.K.), but in our judg-
work. The question is to what ex-      the autonomy of the local con-                 ment the principle has been rightly
tent her authority goes.               sistory was being slighted) sought maintained. That the work of mis-
  Second, in any denomination          to resolve the issue both of con-              sions should be conducted by the
of churches there is a recognized      sistorial oversight and denomina-              local church is not only sound in
need for a mission board. This is      tional involvement by means of a               theory, but it is also preferable on
not an inherent, divinely ap-          new mission constitution. The                  practical grounds (emphasis mine -
pointed right however. The local       protest was made in 1975. A             I      K.K.). It is much easier to quicken
congregation can do mission            study committee responded in                   love of missions in a relatively small
work without involving any             1976. Another committee drew                   group that has taken the responsibili-
sister-congregations or even           up the constitution, which was                 ty of a very particular, concrete ob-
Synod. No mission committee            adopted in 1977.                              jective, than it is to inspire a larger
may embark on its own work                                                            group of churches to a large and
                                          The study committee made                    therefore rather vague task. It goes
and contact its own missionary.        some excellent points, quoting                 without saying that it is necessary for
  But the use of a mission com-        from some solid sources. (Cf. Acts             local churches to work closely
mittee is a matter of practical        1976, pp. 115-126.) We will quote              together and to consult each other
need and wisdom. There is the          a few pertinent segments that in-              on all important issues.
matter of finances. There is the       dicate how important direct in-                  It is evident that our Synod felt
matter of co-ordinating responses      volvement of a calling church in               the weight of this perspective. A
to contacts received, etc.             the labors of its missionary is.               new mission constitution was
  To have a mission committee          It is, of course, perfectly all right that     adopted. Whether the constitu-
then is wise, and even a matter        the denomination appoints a mission            tion does full justice to the juris-
of charity. Otherwise, only the        board to aid the local churches in             diction of a consistory re its mis-
large congregations, which have        many  respects:  to coordinate the             sionary is subject to debate. But
sufficient wealth to afford the        work. But those boards must be very            from the point of view of con-
cost of a missionary, would be in-     careful that they do not take the              sistorial involvement, and hence
volved. The small congregations,       place of the local church, that they           congregational interest in the
by and large, would be excluded.       must simply serve the purpose of
                                       helping the local church in their             labor of its missionary, no one
Synodical involvement through          labors. (H. Hoeksema, "The Prin-               can deny that the present
its mission committees permits, at     ciples of Missions, " p. 25)                  ~ arrangement is a great improve-
least to a degree, all the sister         Commenting on the relation-                 ment over what was done
churches to fulfill part of their      ship between the missionary and                heretofore.
Christ-given mandate. What con-        the calling church, Monsma and                   For missions to flourish in our
gregation would want to exclude        Van Dellen  wrote:                             circles, nothing is so important as
smaller sister congregations from      But Article 51 does not nullify the            fervent prayer by the saints for
involvement in this great work?        rights and duties of particular                the task assigned. How often did
To a degree a synodically-             Churches . . . . And the relationship          not Paul beseech the saints to
governed mission committee             between the calling Church and the             pray for him in his mission
assists in this common involve-        Minister (missionary - K.K.) con-              labors. Nobody takes a keener in-
ment.                                  cerned, in case he accepts the call,           terest in the work of a missionary
  This wonderful principle does        should be more than merely                     than his calling church. This in-
not; however, answer all the           "official. " r/ye should not merely seek       terest, which is also the spur to
questions. What does "regulation       to satisfy "the letter of the law. " The       fervent prayer for the prosperity

                                                                                                        The Standard Bearer  I 281


of the, work, is served not by tak-        But, regardless whether there         for no man. He is always pro-
ing decision-making power away          is perfect agreement on mission          moting his own cause. We must
from a consistory, but by safe          policy at the moment, the work           be always promoting Christ's in
guarding it. Take this away and         must not cease. The Devil waits          as "offensive" a manner as possi-
you foster apathy amongst the                                                    ble. Cl
"grass roots."





                                        Personal Involvement in
 Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                Mission Work

   The church of Jesus Christ has       Because every member plays a             Word. Also each individual
the mandate to preach the gospel        role in this spiritual condition, it     member must consciously resist
to every creature (Mark 16: 15).        is necessary that each member            the cdnstant  pressures to corrupt
This calling is fulfilled by the in-    actively and zealously give of           the fellowship of the saints.
stituted church through its office-     himself and herself to the               There must be genuine love and
bearers. But this does not leave        spiritual health of the local            appreciation for each of the other
the individual church members           church.                                  members of the local church.
sitting on their hands. They too          Negatively, God cannot be ex-          And the individual members
have responsibilities in this           pected to bless the mission efforts      must prayfully seek and maintain
regard.                                 of a church which is not main-           a sincere love for God and for
   The "mission" efforts of the in-     taining the truth and whose              His truth. Without the fear of
dividual members fall into two          membership is divided with strife.       God, the maintenance of doctrine
categories of witnessing: general       Positively, the Lord added daily         is dead orthodoxy and formalism.
and specific.                           the ones whom He was saving to           With every member contributing
             * * * * *                  a church which has three                 to such spiritual health, each is
   In general, every believer has       spiritual characteristics (Acts          involved in the witness the con-
a responsibility to maintain the        2:42-47). First, the church at Jeru-     gregation has in the community.
spiritual health of the local con-      salem steadfastly maintained the           In addition, every individual
gregation of which he is a              truth as taught them by the              member contributes to the mis-
member. That is because there is        apostles. Secondly, there, was a         sion effort of his church by living
a very definite and close relation-     beautiful harmony and love               godly in whatever station and
                                                                                 calling he has in this life. This
ship between the Lord's adding          among the membership. And
to a church and the spiritual con-      thirdly, all of their activities were    godly life and speech of the in-
dition of that congregation. The        characterized by fear of Jehovah.        dividual believers is the greatest
church to which the Lord adds             Therefore, the individual              and most effective witness to
members normally possesses a            member must do whatever he               those outside of the church.
healthy spiritual condition.            can to see to it that these three        There is no substitute for holiness
                                        characteristics are found in his         of life; for actions speak louder
                                        church. First, he must know,             than words. Every believer must
                                        love, and defend the truth of            be conscious of the fact that he is
                                        God's Word. There must be a              always witnessing.
                                        lively interest in the Word of God         A local congregation can
Rev. V&Over-loop  is a missionary-
pastor of the Protestant Reformed       and an eager and expectant (not          advertise its services and special
Churches, in Northwest Chicago,         reluctant) coming together for           events, but advertisements are
Illinois.                               the preaching and study of God's         often seen through glasses. The

282  I The Standard Bearer


glasses consist of the witness the       salt, that ye may know how ye             The individual church member
church members have established          ought to answer every man."             has plenty of motivation to
within the community. Rightly or           Living in the world (cf. John         witness.
wrongly, many declines to adver-         17:15) saints come into contact           The supreme motivation is the
tised invitations have been given        with those outside of the church        glorification of God. The God of
on the basis of the poor conduct         and outside of Christ. This text        the Scriptures Who saves unto
of individual church members. It         forbids an attitude of no interest      Himself a people in Jesus Christ
does not hurt (maybe it might) to        or of unconcern towards those           is worthy of all praise and honor.
examine your life through the            without, and positively it requires     Jesus lived and worked so God
eyes of those around you.                a walk toward them. This implies        would be glorified (John 12:28; I
   God will not be mocked: what          a most important requirement for        Cor. 15:28). Those who know
one sows, he reaps! What a               proper witnessing, viz., listening.     what it is to be saved by
church sows by its life and-con-         `One must not leap into every           sovereign grace delight to see
duct both within its own                 discussion, answer immediately          their God's perfections manifested
fellowship .and in the local com-        every question, or take an ada-         and praised. If the glorification of
munity, it also reaps! The Lord          mant stand at the outset (Prov.         God is not the driving force
usually adds daily the ones He is        29:ll). Asking the right questions      behind our desire to witness,
saving to a congregation which           helps one to listen and to              then we are out of harmony with
has good spiritual health.               discover where the "outsider" is        the plan of salvation (Rom. 11:36;
   This is the general responsibili-     at spiritually and ecclesiastically.    Rev. 4: 11).
ty of the church member.                 Consider how Jesus walked                 Another important motivating
            * * * * *                    toward the Samaritan woman              force is the grateful experience of
   The specific responsibility of        (John 4). An appropriate witness        salvation in Jesus Christ. This oc-
individual church members                requires knowledge of the out-          casioned David's teaching trans-
toward missions is the verbal ex-        sider's level of understanding of       gressors about Gods ways (Psalm
pression of their faith to others.       Scriptural and Reformed prin-           51: 13). The knowledge of unde-
  `This involves praying for and         ciples and terminology. Jesus           served deliverance from the hor-
financially supporting the mission       knew what His hearers were able         rible slavery of sin by the
efforts of the denomination and          to hear, and spoke accordingly          wonder of Gods grace alone con-
local congregation. It involves be-      (cf. Mark 4:33, 34).                    strains one to want others to
ing friendly to visitors at the wor-       Paul urges the Colossians, in         glory in Gods ways and to be
ship services of one's church (The       walking toward those that are           brought into the participation
silence and averted looks which          without, to redeem the time, i.e.,      and enjoyment of Gods grace.
sometimes surround a visitor             to take advantage of the oppor-           Another motivation is a con-
could speak more loudly than the         tunities when they present              viction of and zeal for the truth.
best sermon.) It involves using          themselves, for they might never        The personal experience of salva-
the God-given opportunities to           come their way again.                   tion causes one to be eager to
speak to acquaintances or                  Also, Paul tells the Colossians       learn the truths of Scripture
strangers, whether it be giving an       that they did not have the right        which present the God Who
answer to someone who asks a             to select those to whom they            saves and His work of salvation.
reason for your hope, or speak-          would witness, for they must            In turn, the truth grips the
ing an appropriate word (I Peter         know how to answer EVERY                believer and leads him humbly to
3: 15).                                  man. This means that one must           adore Him Whom the truths pre-
   This witnessing is the                be sufficiently well acquainted         sent. Then the truth is exciting.
                              respon-    with the Reformed faith and with        And then the believer desires to
sibi&  and  privilege  of every
Christian. It is not just the super-     the Scriptures (specific Biblical       share the precious truth which he
Christian or the officebearer or         proof is an absolute necessity) so      has found.
the extroverted saint who can            he can answer anyone.                     And the believer is motivated
witness.                                   Further, the Colossians and we        to witness by his obedience to
            *  *  *  *  *                are told to have gracious speech,       the second, great commandment,
                                         i.e., speech which reveals God's        namely love of his neighbor. This
   Most instructive is Colossians        grace: not abusive or vindictive,       love, at the very least, is a con-
4:5, 6: "Walk in wisdom toward           but "speaking the truth in love."       cern for the neighbor's eternal
them that are without, redeeming         Such gracious speech is to be           state. Because the responsibility
the time. Let your speech be             always, i.e., when speaking about       to witness and to love our
alway with grace, seasoned with          the weather or about salvation.         neighbor is based (not on God's

                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer / 283


decree according to which He              If one has seen disappointing        fruit, Thankfully he can leave
sovereignly loves only some, but)       results from past witnessing, then     that to the Lord of the harvest.
on Gods command, the Christian          he must consider a few things.         On the other hand, the one who
may not be segregating in his           First, while he knows that the         prayerfully witnesses can be very
love. Like the good Samaritan he        gospel is unavoidably offensive to     expectant about the possibility of
will do whatever he can for             the unbeliever, he must make           positive fruit, because with God
everyone whom God is pleased            sure that it was not his person or     all things are possible. John
to place in his path.                   personality which offends.             Calvin writes, "We are too apt to
              * * * *  *                  Secondly, he must remember           conclude that our attempts at
   The believer finds Biblical solu-    that God, unlike the world,            reclaiming the ungodly are vain
tions to his hesitancy to witness.      measures success, not in terms of      and ineffectual. We forget that
   If there is a lack of desire to      numbers, but in terms of faithful-     God is able to crown our at-
witness, then one needs a strong        ness. The believer sees himself        tempts with success." Patient and
dose of preaching on justification      only as an unprofitable steward        prayerful expectation must
by faith. Nothing softens the cold      who must be faithful unto death        characterize the believer as he
heart of the Christian more than        (Luke 17: 10).                         waits upon the Lord.
hearing again about unmerited             Thirdly, the one who witnesses          The same encouragement the
mercy.                                  must subscribe to the two virtues      church has for its missions, the
                                                                               individual believer can have for
   If he is afraid because of any       of a farmer: patience and expec-
weaknesses he perceives in              tation. The farmer waits for the       his witnessing. First, Jesus is
himself, the believer must              precious fruit of the earth, and       Lord, with all power in heaven
remember how God answered               has long patience ,for it. Also the    and on earth to accomplish all
others who were hesitant and full       Christian must remember that his       His good pleasure. And this
of excuses. God reminded them           only responsibility is to sow the      almighty Lord is with His people
that it is He Who makes the             seed and that it is not within the     unto the end of this world.
tongue (Exodus 4: 11) and told          realm of his ability to bring forth       May each individual church
them not to be ashamed of the                                                  member be encouraged to be
gospel (I Timothy 1:8).                                                        zealous in his witnessing, both
                                                                               generally and specifically. U




                                        Mission Work in
Rev. Lau Chin Kwee                      Singapore

   I feel honored to be asked to          I was originally asked to write      have contact with some Chris-
write this article for the Standard     on a wider topic, namely, "Mis-        tians in Malaysia. Some of them
Bearer,  a magazine from the            sion Work in Singapore and             are keen on the Reformed Faith,
high-standard articles of which I       Malaysia"; but I have chosen to        but as yet there is nothing con-
have personally benefited much.         write on a narrower one, the           crete for us to start any labor
I hope this article will not in any     "Mission Work in Singapore", as I      there.
way tarnish the good image of           felt inadequate to comment in            My approach in this article will
the magazine.                           any detail on the mission work in      be, first, to give a general view
                                        Malaysia. There are mission            of the factors that are affecting
                                        works done in Malaysia by other        the home mission of our
Rev. Lau is pastor of the First         churches, but our churches have        churches. Then I shall try to
Evangelical Reformed Church of          yet to launch our own. We do           show how these factors shape the
Singapore.

284 I The Standard Bearer


mission tasks we have in hand           belief are to be respected on this     influences to the uttermost parts
and how we are faring in these          island. As can be expected, Chris-     of the earth.'
tasks. Finally, I hope to share         tianity comes in different sizes,        Our calling towards the Chris-
with you the vision we have for         shapes, shades, and colors. All        tian churches and groups in
our churches in the future.             major denominations are here in        Singapore is to set before them
   The founding of Modern               Singapore, including the late-         the truth which God has en-
Singapore to be a trading port by       comers like the Evangelical            trusted to us in the Scriptures as
Sir Stanford Raffles of the East In-    Reformed and the Reformed Bap-         it is set forth in our confession of
dia Company in 1819 was a               tist. We also have our share of        the Three Forms of Unity. Most,
master-stroke in trade strategy to      troubles from the cults like           if not all, of these churches and
command the southern entrance           Jehovah's Witnesses, the Children      groups are ignorant of the
of the Strait of Malacca and the        of God, and the Mormons. Some          historic creeds of the church.
Strait of Sunda - the two Straits       of the cults, like the first two       Many mistakenly consider the
through which most trading              mentioned above, are banned in         creeds as having extra-biblical
vessels between the Far East and        Singapore because of their ex-         authority over the church. They
the West had to pass in those           treme and immoral beliefs.             fail to see the importance of hav-
days. Since then many sophisti-         Others are ,practising legally         ing a written confession of what
cated methods of transportation         here. The Pentecostals have been       they believe the Bible to teach.
and communication have been             here many years. In recent years       No church can bear witness for
developed, and yet Singapore re-        the Charismatics have been             Christ without a confession, and
mains a very important link be-         spreading extensively, affecting       no church can effectively pass
tween the Far East and the West.        many churches. Besides these           down her confession to future
Today, many people still pass           there are many independent,            generations without the confes-
through this little island. Many in-    non-aligned churches on this           sion written down in one form or
ternational conferences are held        island. Then there are also the        another. No church can benefit
here. Regional headquarters of          many para-church organizations         from her forefathers more than
many multi-national corporations        like the Youth For Christ, the         to study carefully what they had
are here as well. In a situation        Campus Crusade, the Navigators,        painfully and carefully set down
like this, inevitably our faith         and the various Missionary             for her in their creeds. One of
would be spoken of throughout           Societies and Fellowships.             our main tasks for Christians out-
the whole world, like that of the         On this small island of 571.6        side of our churches is to intro-
Roman Christians. What                  sq. km. we have to do our mis-         ,duce them to the historic creeds
privilege! What honour! What            sion work among peoples so             and show them how these creeds
responsibility! What grace and          diverse as described above. The        are biblically based. It is a funda-
help needed!                            mission activities of the church       mental error to despise the faith
  Most of our forebears came            must not be done independently         of our fathers if we believe that
from different lands to join the        of the very life of the church.        God is preserving His truth in this
natives, the Malays, of the land.       They should flow out of its very       world through the centuries and
They were adventurous people            life as our Lord taught us in Acts     that the church is the pillar and
who sought greener pastures for         1:8 when He commanded His              ground (or the place of declara-
their earthly lives. They brought       Apostles to "be witnesses unto         tion and defense) of it.
along with them their religious         me both in Jerusalem, and in all         Every year in late October we
beliefs: Hinduism, Buddhism,            Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto       sponsor two lectures to prop-
Taoism, Islam, Shintoism,               the uttermost part of the earth."      agate the Reformed Faith in
Judaism, Christianity, et cetera.       The message of mission must be         celebration of the Great Reforma-
They spoke different languages          the same Gospel which the send-        tion. This is indeed something
and dialects and had their own          ing church adheres to. No              quite new in this part of the
peculiar cultures. The goal of our      amount of social, political,           world. The Lord through these
political leaders is that the           economic, and racial differences       lectures has brought in `not a few
citizens may unite "regardless of       can warrant the change of the          people to the knowledge of the
race, language or religion to           essence of the Gospel. We must         Reformed Faith. Some of these
build a democratic society based        know, teach, and proclaim the          people have even taken steps to
on justice and equality so as to        essence of the Gospel according        join our churches to support the
achieve happiness, prosperity and       to the milieu of our society, first    spread of the Reformed Faith. It
progress for our nation." The dif-      of all to the people closest to us,    is also normally in these
ferences in culture, language, and      and then direct its radiation and      meetings that much good Re-

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formed literature and books .are        even invite our parents and rela-     the available modern facilities
distributed and sold. We have           tives who are non-English speak-      most suitable for such a task, but
also reprinted some good tracts         ing to attend the meetings.           also because its citizens are
which we received from the Prot-        Although most, if not all, young      people who can be more easily
estant Reformed Churches for our        people in Singapore are able to       received by the neighboring
local distribution. The publication     converse in the English language,     countries than someone from the
of the Pillar and Ground of Truth       there are still the older genera-     West. Our calling is to be firmly
also helps to spread the Re-            tions, like our parents and grand-    grounded in the truth of God's
formed Faith here. Our church           parents, who cannot speak or          Word ourselves, set up a good
also operates a book ministry in        understand the language. We           Reformed Theological School for
which good Reformed books are           have to reach out to these people     the training of workers for the
sold at a good discount. Through-       as well with the Gospel. Most of      regions around us, and to
out the years there are not a few       these people are also illiterate,     translate good Reformed
who came from other churches            and therefore the only means to       literature into the various
to buy these books.                     reach them is through the lively      languages around us. Our
   To reach out to the people           preaching of Gods Word. Written       political leaders are molding the
who are outside our faith, we           materials are of no use to them.      country into an Information
have "Gospel Meetings" through-           Besides the above formal            Center for this part of the world.
out the year, organized by the          gospel meetings, some of us           The infrastructure for a successful
various societies within the            would organize "tracting              center is being built. It would be
church. These are meetings in           sessions" in which a group of         most foolish for the church not to
which the Gospel is presented in        church members would go to a          take advantage of this situation
terms which the non-Christians          certain area armed with Christian     to spread the truth far and wide.
will find it easier to understand.      literature for distribution. Where    This is what we can see the Lord
The Youth Fellowship and the            there are people interested in        has for us in the future. But how
Adult Fellowship will at times          talking more about the Christian      this is going to work out exactly
organize such meetings and in-          religion, these members try to in-    we do not know. We are too
vite their non-Christian  friends to    troduce Christianity to them and      small by ourselves to do anything
attend. During special seasons of       invite them to church. We have        substantial in the near future. We
the year, such as Good Friday           experienced cases of people be-       share this with you in the hope
and Christmas, the church as a          ing brought to our church in this     that you will catch the same vi-
whole organizes such meetings           way.                                  sion for the Lords work here in
which are often translated into           Singapore is a unique place for     Asia. Do pray for us as we seek
Mandarin or one of the Chinese          the spread of the Gospel in the       to do His holy will here.
dialects. A brother well versed in      Southeast Asian region. This is         May His Name be magnified
the appropriate language will be        true not only because it has a        and glorified through all these.
asked to give the translation. We       unique geographical position and      Amen. 0




                                        Reflections of a
                                        Former Missionary
Rev. George Lubbers


                                          I am indebted to the commit-        ago that Mrs. Lubbers and I left
                                        tee in charge of arranging for a      the last mission field where we
                                        special feature on "Missions," for    might serve, to wit, Jamaica. In
                                        thinking to request me to write       the kind providence of God we
Rev. Lubbers  IS a minister emeritus    some "reflections."                   had served also as a missionary
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.      It is now some sixteen years        of our churches for some nine

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 years in the States. We first            sciousness that Paul planted,          also on the mission field, whether
 became missionaries in January           Apollos  watered, but that the in-     here in the States or on the
 of 1955, some 35 years ago. To           crease is of God (I Cor. 3:5). This    island of Jamaica in the
be sure we have often reflected           will also make for the proper          preaching from the pulpit, or in
on the goodness of the Lord               evaluation of the minister by          the small "seminary" in which I
upon us during the years which            those who hear him. Thus they          taught Reformed doctrine, using
we spent on these two mission             learn not to listen for persuasive     the Heidelberg Catechism as the
fields.                                   words of wisdom. They will ever        textbook for the students!
   Ever and ever the bottom line          anew experience the work of the           I remember distinctly that
in all these reflections is: what         Spirit and the power of the            while in Loveland, Colorado I
God was willing to perform by             Gospel. Also on the mission field      prepared some questions and
weakest means, and: what He               the clarion sound must be un-          answers for the entire adult class,
has wrought!  There are no                mistakably that th.ey are hearing      and called attention to the in-
mighty deeds to recount except            the testimony of God, which He         disputable fact that the Canons of
the mighty deeds of God in His            gives concerning His Son.              Dordt did not present a new and
power of the Gospel! Indeed, all            Surely the sina qua non must         unknown teaching, but that even
flesh is grass, but the Word of the       be that a missionary resolves          in Question and Answer 1,
Lord endureth forever. This is            ever anew to preach Jesus Christ       already you can see explicitly
the Word which we were called             and Him crucified!                     and/or by implication the five ar-
to preach.                                  This does not mean that he           ticles of the Remonstrants gain-
   Certainly the details of these         limits his preaching in every ser-     said. The fruit was that Loveland
years of labors I am not able to          mon to the theme of Christ's           and also others joined our
relate. Should I remember them            crucifixion in an exclusive sense,     churches in the full conviction
they would be too many to                 but that he can say, "Behold, I        that the Protestant Reformed
reflect. upon in this little contribu-    am free from the blood of you          Churches stood foursquare on the
tion with limited space. We can           all, for I shrank not from declar-     teaching of the Heidelberger, and
only call your attention to facets        ing unto you the full counsel of       what is more, that the full
and viewpoints of the work as I           God' (Acts 20:26, 27). When a          counsel of God was summed up
recall them. Lest this become             missionary preaches on John            in the Canons under Five heads
merely some musings of an oc-             3:16, ". . . that whosoever            of Doctrine.
togenarian, I will strive to em-          believeth on him should not              The aforesaid underlines very
phasize a few points in reference         perish," he must faithfully preach     strongly another matter which
to the mandate of Scripture for a         that faith is the gift of God,         the missionary must ever keep in
missionary.                               merited for us on the Cross,           mind in his preaching and teach-
  In the first place, an ordained         together with all the other            ing. It is that also on the mission
missionary is and remains a               benefits bestowed upon us in           field the truth holds: Known unto
minister of the Word of the               sovereignly free grace.                God are all His works from ever-
Gospel. He is what is expressed             Even on the mission field the        lasting! Thus saith the Lord who
in the Latin title: Verbi Dei             preaching should be election           maketh these things known from
Minister. He is a servant of the          preaching. At the time of the          of old (Acts 15: 16 ff. and Amos
Word. He obeys the Word by                conflict in our churches in 1953       9: 11; Isaiah 45:21).
carefully studying the Scriptures,        one of the members, who soon             Empowered by this rock-
by equally painstakingly building         left our denomination, said to         bottom conviction, the mis-
his sermons, and finally, in              me, "Rev. Lubbers, I cannot any        sionary preaches the Gospel of
prayerful dependence upon the             longer listen to your sermons.         the glory of the blessed God,
Lord and the guidance.of the              You always preach "election."          without anxious questioning con-
Spirit,  preaching  them.                 When I rejoined that I had never       cerning the outcome. He knows
  The one central truth that              expressly and explicitly preached      that he is always triumphant, and
must ever be in the mind of the           or lectured on the subject in his      rides in the victory parade of
messenger of God is that the in-          hearing, he replied, "That is true,    Him who sitteth on the white
crease of the Gospel is not in his        but I hear the gospel of sovereign     horse, going-forth conquering
own power. That will keep a true          election in every sermon." I was       and to conquer. Arminian
servant of God both humble and            mightily pleased with his re-          preachers merely compute their
strong; He will know his place,           joinder. t had not shrunk from         fruit of the preaching in the
not walking in sinful pride, but          preaching the full counsel of God!     greater number, and that, too,
ever remaining strong in the con-         And thus it must be emphatically       ascribing the honor to the

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer I287


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 preacher, the preacher who is           shall give shall become in him a       left that "roadside service" I
 sent as the ambassador of Christ.       well of water springing up unto        glanced to the south and I saw
 True, a good preacher tries             eternal life." I preached this         the "southern cross" clear and
 faithfully and prayerfully to live      standing before a crude table          meaningful as I had not for a
 up to the word of exhortation           upon which stood a lantern to          long time looked at the stars.
 given him at the time of his or-        light in the darkness. I could not       And I reflected on the faithful-
 dination, which reads, "be a            see my audience very well, but I       ness of God. I though of the
 faithful servant of Jesus Christ,       heard an occasional sound of           beautiful reassuring words of
 and carefully preach the word;          agreement. I pointed out that the      Jehovah recorded in Jeremiah
 be urgent in season, out of             Samaritan woman came to fetch          31:37:  ". . . Thus saith the LORD:
 season: reprove, rebuke, exhort,        water from the well-known and          If heaven above can be
 with all longsuffering and teach-       ancient well of Jacob, but when        measured, and the foundations of
 ing . . . . be an example to them       she was called to repentance by        the earth searched out beneath,
 that believe, in word, in manner        the one four-word command, "Go         then will I also cast off all the
 of life, in faith, in purity . . . .    call your husband," her entire life    seed of Israel from being a nation
 Give heed to reading, to exhorta-       in all its sinfulness was revealed     before me forever!"
 tion, to teaching. Neglect not the      to her, and she ran with great           Yes, the final outcome of any
 gift that is in thee . . . . Be         joy to call her fellow-Samaritans,     preacher's work and preaching,
 diligent in these things; give thy-     saying, "Come see a man, which         as to the permanent and everlast-
 self wholly to them; that thy           told me all things that ever I         ing fruit, is really known only to
 progress may be manifest to all.        did." This truth struck home in        God. The one thing which the
 Take heed to thyself, and to thy        the hearts of these women in           preacher must be concerned
 teaching. Continue in these             Jamaica, who likewise had lived        about is whether he has preached
things; for in doing this thou           a sordid and sinful life. At the       the full counsel of God, and that
 shalt save both thyself and them        close of the service, when all was     he is free from the blood of those
 that hear thee" (II Tim. 4:2 and I      quiet under the star studded           who heard him!
 Tim. 4:12b and 16).                     heavens, one of the hearers lifted       Many, many anecdotes could
    Then there will surely be fruit      up her voice and in beautiful          be related of situations in the
 upon the preaching in Gods own          notes sang, "Jesus gave her            labors of a missionary. Thirteen
 way and time. Such was the              water that was not from the well       years is a long time to recount.
 fatherly' advice which our be-          : . . . She went away singing, and     Looking back I can and do say
 loved Rev. Herman Hoeksema              came back bringing others for          with Paul, "I have fought the
 wrote me when I wa_s deeply dis-
._  i  -.                                the water . . . ." Yes, her water      good fight of faith, I have fin-
couragedin one %f my congrega-           pitcher stood beside Jacob's well      ished the course, I have kept the
tions. I saved that letter, now          forgotten. And I am pleased to         faith: henceforth there is laid up
already for over fifty years, and        relate that the entire group pres-     for me the crown of righteous-
have repeated it to other of my          ent that night joined in with the      ness, which the Lord, the
colleagues in their times of anx-        songstress and sang with lilting       righteous judge, shall give me at
ious questionings.                       voices in the night, "Yes, Jesus       that day: and not to me only but
    Perhaps it may not be out of         gave the water that was not in         also to all them that have loved
place to relate here an incident         the well."                             his appearing" (II Tim. 4:7, 8). Cl
which proved the efficacy of               I learned a song that night
God's grace in the preaching. I          which I and Mrs. Lubbers never
refer to the time of a midweek           forgot!
service at "Cross-Roads" in the            I believe that God in heaven
western mountains of Jamaica. I          heard this beautiful singing even
preached with power on the               as did the angels who ever
words of Jesus recorded in John          behold the face of their Father in
4:14: ". . . but the water that I        heaven. You must know that as I

 288) The Standard  Bearer


