 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine
    -





                   Rev. Arie denHartog (Classis West), Elder Darrel Huisken (Classis East)
                   in Synod 1989.





Vol. 65, No. 79
August 7, 7989


 Contents                                                                                 -I7  ,r
                                                                                               IHt
                                                             August I, 1989          STANDARD
Meditation  - Rev.  Cise). VanBaren
   A SURVEY OF ZION'S DEFENSES                                               435        BlFARER
                                                                                     ISSN 0362-4692
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING.. .  -  Prof. David].  Engelsma                         437
                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
                                                                                     and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
Editorial  - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                  lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
   SYNOD 1989                                                                437     at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                     EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                     Editor-in-chief: Prof. David  J.  En&ma
A READER ASKS.. .              N                                             441     Managing Editor: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                     Editors' Assistant: Mr. Don  Doezema
Walking in the Light  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                        DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                     Rev. Ronald Cammenga. Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
   LYING (2)                                                                 443     Arie  denHartog.  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                     Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
Guided Into All Truth i. Rev. Charles  1. Terpstra                                   Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys, Rev.
                                                                                    Jason Kortering, Rev. George Lubbers, Rev. James
   AUGUSTINE AND THE PELAGIAN HERESY (3)                                    445     Slopsema,  Rev. Charles Terpstra, Rev. Cise
                                                                                    VanBaren, Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
The Day of Shadows  - Rev.  John A. Heys                                            EDITORIAL OFFICE
                                                                                    The Standard Bearer
   THE MAN OF SIN FORESHADOWED (I)                                          449     4949  lvanrest
                                                                                    Grandville,  Michigan 49418
Guest Article  - Rev. Kenneth  W.  Hanko                                            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                    Mr..Ben  Wigger
   JACOB'S WRESTLING WITH GOD                                               451     6597  - 40th Ave.
                                                                                    Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
BOOK REVIEW                                                                 454     EDITORIAL POLICY
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NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                               454     terest from our readers and questions for the
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Inside this issue . . .                                                             editorial office.
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   PRC Synod 1989.                                                                  articles in our magazine by other publications,
                                                                                    provided:  a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
   Was it a conservative Synod? Was it a Synod with what is often referred          duced in full:  bl that  orooer  acknowledgement is
to as "vision"? Was it a mission-minded Synod? Did it have an eye always to         made;  c) thaf  a.copy   bf  ;he periodical  ii  which
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                                                                                    15th of the month, previous to publication on the
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observe Zion's defenses, but to maintain them. I have no doubt but that             BOUND VOLUMES
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434 I The Standard Bearer  /  August  I,1989


                                         A Survey of
Meditation                               Zion's Defenses
Rev. Cise VanBaren



   "Walk about Zion, and go              So we are called to meditate            served as watchtowers as well as
round about her: tell the                again on this remarkable work of        strong defensive positions. The
towers thereof. Mark ye well             our God. The Synod of our               bulwarks or ramparts are identi-
her bulwarks, consider her               churches must have Zion, this           fied by some as the ditch or
palaces; that ye may tell it to          creation of God, in mind as it          space before the walls. The
the generation following. "              makes its decisions.                    palaces were not merely beautiful
                                                                                 homes for the noble, but a final
                   -Psalm  48:12-13        The concern of the church is
                                         not merely to observe Zion's            stronghold against the enemy.
                                         defenses. Rather, the church is,        Combined, this all presented the
  This sublime Psalm asserts the         first, to maintain the defenses of      picture of a mighty city, strong
wonders of the work of our God           Zion; secondly, to see to it that       enough to withstand the attack of
in Zion. Zion was the religious as       our children are taught to know         any enemy.
well as political center of Israel.      its strength as well. That is             We have here a portrayal of
In Zion God was pleased to               specifically the task of our Synod      the strength of Gods Zion, the
reveal Himself, and there He             again this year.                        church, today. Many claim that
would fellowship with His people.          The name "Mt. Zion" is used           the church can not endure
It was the place for all Israel to       first as that stronghold in             because of its smallness and its
worship and sacrifice.                   Jerusalem which ran southeast           lack of physical defenses. These
  The Psalmist acknowledges              from Mt. Moriah (upon which             clamor for union of all churches
that Zion is the majestic work of        later the temple was built - II         - for, so it is said, "in unity
God. He can hardly say enough            Sam. 5:6-g). It had deep valleys        there is strength." There is the
concerning this omnipotent act of        on three of its sides and was sup-      readiness to compromise on vital
God. Zion was not just another           plied by a spring of water - an         issues of doctrine in order that
city, nor just another temple -          ideal fortress indeed! Later, the       the church can increase
but the place where God re-              area of the temple itself was           numerically.
vealed His care over His people.         identified as "Mt. Zion" (Is. 8:18).      Even the world views the
So marvelously did God provide           But often, especially in the            church with scorn. It considers
for this city, that the heathen          Psalms, Zion is identified with the     the church to be that which can
observed it - and in fright              whole of Jerusalem (Ps. 102:21).        at any time be destroyed with
hastened away.                           Zion was the great city of God          ease. The world mocks the
  God has revealed this in order         where He was pleased to receive         church. Often the wicked have
that His church might contem-            the worship of His people - and         martyred its members.
plate His work: "We have                 where He would provide protec-            But with the eye of faith we
thought of thy lovingkindness, 0         tion for them.                          see the true strength of Zion. Its
God, in the midst of thy temple."          Zion's defenses were some-            strength is found not in human
                                         thing to behold! When the kings         weapons but in the Word which
                                         of the earth observed them, they        is the Sword of the Spirit (Eph.
                                         hastened away in great fear (vs.        6). Even the devil can not prevail
                                         5, 6). Zion had its towers,             against this weapon. That sword
                                                                                 must be the primary weapon for
Rev.  VanBaren is pastor of the Prot-    bulwarks (ramparts), and palaces
estant Reformed Church of  Hudson-       (citadels). The towers, located at      the Synod of our churches too.
vale, Michigan.                          strategic points along the walls,       The Synod can not resort to

                                                                                   August 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  / 435


human philosophizing but must                    the flaws and problems which we       the generation following know
ever search out Gods holy Word,                  can repeat to her hurt. Instead,      the wonderful works of our God.
using it to determine the right                  we must examine Zion to see her          The task of the Synod, in all
and condemn the wrong.                           great strength - to behold what       decisions taken, is above all to
   The strength of the church is                 God has accomplished in her.          maintain with all of its vigor this
found too in its earnest, fervent                Zion exhibits the powerful,           Zion of Gods creation. To do
prayer. There is truly power in                  sovereign work of Almighty God!.      this, the Synod must hold to the
prayer. In prayer we have direct                   We see all of this, of course,      full revelation of Scripture as
access to Gods throne of grace.                  by faith through the spectacles of    confessed historically by the
He has promised to hear and                      Holy Scripture. Then we confess:      church. There must be no turning
answer the godly prayer. When                    What hath God wrought!                away from those great defenses.
the wicked threaten, the church                    The conclusion? It is not man,        At the same time, the deep
is found on its knees.                           it is not a Synod, who makes          concern of the Synod must be
  There is also the gift of the Ho-              Zion strong. Man is not indispens-    that the truths of Scripture be
ly Spirit, the Comforter Whom                    able in maintaining the church. It    taught faithfully to the generation
Christ promised before He                        is not man who must first act         following, for Gods Zion con-
ascended into heaven. The Spirit                 before God establishes. But God       tinues in the line of generations.
has guided the church into all the               has placed Zion upon His holy           Therefore Synod must make
truth even as Christ said - direct-              hill. God establishes her (vs. 8).    decisions for the well-being of the
ing holy men of God to write in-                 No wonder that the Psalmist           churches and especially the prop-
fallibly the Word. The Spirit has                begins with that wonderful shout      er preaching of the Word within
also led the church to compose                   in the very first verse, "Great is    them. For this reason some of the
the Creeds, including our three                  Jehovah . . . ."                      major decisions of each Synod
forms of unity, which set forth                    The duty of the church is to        deal with our Seminary. Through
the teachings of Scripture in a                  convey this strength of Zion to       the Synod, the churches must
systematic way against the                       the youth especially. In Israel       provide for the education of
heresies which have arisen. This                 God repeatedly commanded the          those whom God has called to
which the Spirit provided for                    fathers to tell their children of     the ministry, so that the Word
God"s church is part of its                      the mighty works of God in the        may be faithfully preached to us
glorious strength.                               church. So today it is urgent that    and to our children.
  With that kind of defense, Zion                                                        Synod makes decisions too
is secure. We firmly believe that,                                                     about missions and seeks contact
also in our own day of apostasy.                                                       with like-minded churches across
The saints have been safe                                                              the globe. In everything, the
through the ages - and are now.                                                        Synod must be concerned above
Though the church has been                                                             all else with Gods Zion. She must
troubled by sins within and at-                                                        understand well that Jehovah is
tacks from without, God has                                                            the defense of Zion - and the
always preserved His remnant.                                                          Synod is but a tool in His hand to
  We are commanded to observe                                                          accomplish His glorious purpose.
the defenses of Zion carefully.                                                        May her fervent desire be to tell
The Psalmist requires it: walk                                                         all of this to the generation
about Zion, tell (count) the                                                           following - that they too may
towers thereof,  mark  her                                                             continue in the faith until Jesus
bulwarks,  consider  her palaces.                                                      returns. 0
The command means that one is
to make careful evaluation of
Zion. There is to be no superficial
glance at it, but a thorough study
of that which makes her strong.
  This exam is not made to find
and emphasize all of her faults.
One may never, of course, close
his eyes to doctrinal error nor to
godless walk. But we must not                    Pre-Synodical Sermon:
examine Zion in order to find all                Rev. Gise VanBaren

436  I The Standard Bearer  /  August  I,1989


Editorially spekking.  . .

  On Monday, July 17, 1989,            sermon preached by Rev. Gise          tant Reformed Seminary, has
Professor Homer C. Hoeksema            Van Baren at the worship service      prepared a series of four
died at the age of 66 years. He        of the Hull, Iowa congregation        speeches on the office of the
lived only 3 months after cancer       the evening before Synod con-         elder in the church. This study
was discovered. Professor              vened, which service is attended      deals with the office generally;
Hoeksema held a prominent              also by the synodical delegates.      qualifications for the office;
place in the Protestant Reformed       Professor Robert Decker writes        church government; and such
Churches for many years. A             the guest editorial on the high-'     duties of the elder as family
minister in these churches for 40      lights of Synod 1989. And our         visitation and visitation of the
years, he served the denomina-         acting managing editor, Mr. Don       sick. The speeches have been
tion as professor of theology for      Doezema (himself a delegate of        given at conferences in Grand
30 years. For 24 years, Professor      Synod), sprinkles the pages with      Rapids, Ml and Loveland, CO
Hoeksema was Editor of this            pictures that he took of Synod in     with enthusiastic response. Audio
magazine.                              action.                               cassette tapes and video tapes of
  We are asking his long-time            The complete account of             the conference in Grand Rapids
colleague in the Protestant Re-        Synod's decisions will be             are available from the Protestant
formed Seminary, Professor Her-        available later this summer in the    Reformed Seminary, 4949 lvan-
man Hanko, to write a memorial         official "Acts of Synod." This        rest Ave., SW, Grandville, Ml
article for a future issue of The      publication includes the yearbook     49418 (telephone: 616-531-1490).
Standard Bearer.                 /     of the Protestant Reformed            The audio tapes consist of four
  The staff of The Standard            Churches. Copies are distributed      tapes in a case and can be
Bearer expresses its Christian         without charge to the members         bought for $15.00. The video
sympathy to the widow and fami-        of the PRC through their con-         tapes can be borrowed for
ly, praying that you are com-          sistories. Others who desire a        $10.00. Both audio and video
forted by the promise of the           copy can order it from the Stated     tapes include Prof. Decker's
gospel, that "them also which          Clerk of Synod, Rev. Meindert         presentations and the question-
sleep in Jesus will God bring with     Joostens, 2016 Tekonsha Road          and-answer sessions that followed
Him (Jesus)" at His coming (1          SE, Grand Rapids, Ml 49506. The       each speech. These classes will
Thess. 4:13-18). 0             -DJE    cost is $2.00 per copy.               be profitable to individuals, con-
                                                                             sistories, and Bible-study
  The Protestant Reformed                Professor Robert Decker, Pro-       groups. 0                             -DJE
Synod receives some attention in       fessor of New Testament and
this issue. The meditation is the      Practical Theology at the Protes-



Editorial                              Synod  1989

  The annual Synod of the Prot-        Iowa. Rev. Gise VanBaren, presi-      elected. Rev. Van Baren also
estant Reformed Churches con-          dent of the Synod of 1988, led in     preached an appropriate sermon
vened June 13, 1989 in the Prot-       opening devotions and chaired         on Psalm 48:12-13 entitled: "A
estant Reformed Church in Hull,        until the new officers were           Necessary Survey of Zion's

                                                                               August 1, 1989  / The Standard Bearer  / 437


Defenses," the night previous at               Church of Wellington, New              this goal by sending them a pro-
the Prayer Service.                            Zealand. The Stated Clerk was in-      fessor or senior minister for a
  The officers of this year's                  structed to convey the greetings       year or so. This, in spite of t.he
Synod were: President, Rev.                    of our churches to the Wellington      shortage of ministers in our
James Slopsema; Vice-president,                PRC via letter.                        churches, is something our
Rev. Kenneth Koole; First Clerk,                 The Contact Committee                churches ought to do if at all
Rev. Dale H. Kuiper; and Second                reported that monies collected         possible. Synod sent a letter of
Clerk, Rev. Jason Kortering. Rev.              from our churches had been sent        fraternal greeting to the ERCS as
Slopsema, serving as president                 to the Covenant Evangelical Re-        well.
for the first time, gave the Synod             formed Church of Singapore for           Collections taken throughout
excellent leadership, allowing                 its church building. Synod re-         our churches for the small
time for ample discussion of the               ceived a letter of appreciation for    Measbro Dyke congregation in
issues yet keeping the Synod                   this donation from the pastor of       Barnsley, England were sent to
moving toward a consensus.                     the church, Rev. Jaikishin             them. Synod also invited its
                                               Mahtani.                               pastor, Rev. Philip Rawson,  to at-
                                                 The First Evangelical Reformed       tend the conference in 1990.
                                               Church in Singapore, pastored by         Synod was informed that the
                                               Rev. Lau Chin Kwee, together           consistory of our Norristown, PA
                                               with her daughter congregation,        church has agreed to release its
                                               Covenant ERCS, have formed a           pastor to work with the Covenant
                                               contact committee. They in-            Reformed Fellowship in Larne,
                                               formed Synod that they are             Northern Ireland for six to nine
                                               planning to send delegates to the      months. Rev. Kenneth Hanko
                                               Conference of Sister Churches          plans to leave for Northern
                                               scheduled for 1990 and that they       Ireland sometime in Jtily. Synod
                                               are working towards establishing       instructed the Contact Committee
                                               a theological school in Singapore.     to invite delegates from the CRF
President: Rev. James Slopsema                 Synod responded to the latter          to at&d the conference in 1990.
First Clerk: Rev. Dale Kuiper                  proposal by expressing ". . . that       Synod received a lengthy
After the agenda of Synod was                  although it approves strongly of a     report from its delegates (Profs.
distributed to four committees of              theological school in Singapore in     Hanko and Hoeksema) to the
pre-advice, the Synod adjourned                principle, and would encourage         Synod of the Evangelical Presby-
at noon on Tuesday to allow                    the ERCS to work toward this           terian Churches in Australia,
these committees to draft their                goal, we do advise the ERCS to         which synod met in the fall of
advice.                                        proceed carefully and deliberate-      1988. Synod also approved the
  Synod reconvened at 9:00 AM                  ly." Synod also expressed its          request of the Burnie congrega-
on Wednesday and spent that en-                desire to help the ERCS achieve        tion for ministerial supply from
tire day dealing with matters
from the Committee for Contact
with Other Churches. Noticeably
absent was Prof. H.C. Hoeksema,
gravely ill with terminal cancer.
Synod adopted a letter to Prof.
Hoeksema.expressing  the ap-
preciation of the churches for his
faithful labors in our churches
and Seminary and committing
him and his family to the
gracious care of our God.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH
OTHER CHURCHES
  Our churches are becoming in-
creasingly busy in this important
area of the work of the church.
Fraternal greetings were received
from the Protestant Reformed                   Committee Work: pre-advice.

438  I The Standard Bearer I August  I,1989


our churches for the coming           Speakers and their topics are as
year. This is the congregation in     follows: Rev. Charles Terpstra,
which Prof. Hoeksema labored          "The Holy Spirit: His Word in the
from September, 1988 until his        Economy of Salvation"; Rev.
incapacitating illness forced his     Chris Coleborn (EPC of Australia),
return to the States in May of        "The Holy Spirit: And the Error
1989. Synod nominated a trio of       of Pentecostalism"; Prof. Robert
Revs. Arie denHartog, Jason           Decker, "The Holy Spirit: And
Kortering, and Thomas Miersma.        the Call to Mission Work'; Rev.
The consistory of one of these        Jaikishin Mahtani, "A Reformed
men will be asked to release its      Theological Seminary in the
pastor for one year to work in        Pacific Area"; Rev. Rodney
Burnie, Tasmania. Synod in-           Miersma, "The Promotion of
structed the Seminary to offer its    More Meaningful Sister-church
services to ministerial students      Relations"; Rev. Lau Chin Kwee,
from the EPC of Australia.            "The Acceptance of Baptisms            .  .  . but they're used as well for
                                                                             things of more importance . . .
                                      from Other Churches"; Revs.
                                      Miersma, Philip Burley (EPC of         Domestic Mission Committee
                                      Australia), Lau, and Rawson will       asked Synod to change their con-
                                      speak at two evening sessions on       stitutions so that the areas of
                                      the work of their respective           labor of these committees are
                                      denominations and congrega-            divided along geographic lines.
                                      tions. The Conference will end         This proposal was placed in the
                                      with a banquet on Thursday             hands of a study committee con-
                                      evening, during which Rev.             sisting of Revs. D. Kuiper and T.
                                      Rawson  will briefly speak on the      Miersma and Elders H. Nieuwen-
                                      topic, "The Beauty of Christian        kamp and J. Wierenga. This com-
Coffee breaks . . .                   Fellowship."                           mittee will report to the Synod of
                                      MISSIONS                               1990.
  Synod was informed of the fact        Synod approved of the Foreign           Synod rejected a proposal from
that the Contact Committee is         Mission Committee (FMC) of our         the Mission Committee that an
privileged to distribute large        churches cooperating with the          elder co-worker be called for
amounts of our Protestant             ERC of Singapore in the work of        Jamaica until a second ordained
Reformed literature to interested     missions. The FMC and the              missionary can be obtained.
groups, churches, and individuals                                            Synod reaffirmed decisions of
in many places of the world. May        ,  :  /  .:. ,                       past synods that two ordained
God continue to bless this work                                              ministers be called to labor in
and may it be fruitful toward a                                              Jamaica. In the light of the short-
witness to the Truth of Scripture                                            age of ministers in our churches
to the glory of His Name!                                                    this decision will likely mean that
  `Synod approved the detailed                                               we will wait a long time before
program for the Conference of                                                we can resume the work in
Sister Churches submitted by the                                             Jamaica. It may even mean that
Contact Committee. The Con-                                                  the field will have to be closed.
ference will be held, D.V., June                                             Synod expressed its appreciation
12, 13, and 14 in the First Prot-                                            to Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma for his
estant Reformed Church in Grand                                              faithful and dedicated labors in
Rapids. Those invited are: the                                               Jamaica for the past several
ERC of Singapore (a sister-                                                  years. Rev. Bruinsma will be
church), the PRC of Wellington                                               assuming the pastorate of First
(also a sister-church), the EPC of                                           Church, Holland, Michigan some-
Australia, the Covenant Re-                                                  time in August.
formed Fellowship of Northern                                                  Three new congregations were
Ireland, and Rev. Philip Rawson                                              organized during the past year.
of the Measbro Dyke congrega-                                                Synod approved the organization
tion of Barnsley, England.            . . . are used for drinking coffee . . . of the Norristown Mission

                                                                               August  I, 1989  I The Standard Bearer I439


(January 27, 1989) and the                      THE SEMINARY                           poor . . . avoid murmuring" will
organization of the N.W. Chicago                   Prof. David J. Engelsma will be     be replaced by: "And ye who are
Mission (March, 1989). Both of                  teaching a full complement of          in need, look unto God in your
these congregations called their                courses beginning in the fall of       need and thank him, who by his
missionaries to be their pastors,               1989. He will also be writing his      Holy Spirit makes the church
and both missionaries accepted.                 thesis for the Master of Theology      willing and able to supply your
Rev. Kenneth Hanko is pastor of                 degree. He expects to receive the      needs." The second proposal of
the Norristown PRC and Rev.                     ThM from Calvin Seminary in            this overture, re the omitting of
Ronald VanOverloop is pastor of                 May of 1990. May God richly            the reference to Ephesians 4:28
the Bethel PRC in Elk Grove                     bless our new professor and            in the Ordination Form, Synod
Village, Illinois. South Holland                grant him much grace that he           rejected. The second overture of
Church organized a daughter                     together with the rest of the          Lynden concerning an addition
congregation in Lynwood, Il-                    faculty may "commit the truth to       to the Form for Public Confession
linois. This is the Peace PRC. We               faithful men who shall be able         of Faith was rejected by Synod.
                                                also to teach others" (II Timothy      An overture from Mr. Frank Van-
                                                2:2).                                  Baren (Loveland, Colorado PRC)
                                                   Leonard Holstege of our Byron       concerning our liturgy was re-
                                                Center PRC (Michigan) was ad-          jected on the grounds offered by
                                                mitted to our Seminary. May God        Classis West.
                                                bless this student as he begins his      Synod also rejected the over-
                                                work next fall. The need for           ture from South Holland concern-
                                                students continues. We are thank-      ing the reading of the Synodical
                                                ful for several young men who          Agenda.
                                                are pursuing pre-seminary work           The overture from Southeast
                                                in various colleges and univer-        PRC (Grand Rapids) concerning
                                                sities. Let us heed the words of       redefining the classical boun-
                                                Jesus and pray the Lord of the         daries and creating a third classis
                                                harvest that He may send forth         was placed in the hands of a
                                                reapers.                               study committee. This committee
                                                  Mr. Donald Doezema was ap-           consists of Revs. Ronald Van
rejoice at this evidence of Gods                pointed as Registrar of the            Overloop and Charles Terpstra
faithfulness and blessing upon                  Seminary, and his wife, Judi, was      and Elders Donald Lotterman and
our churches. Our denomination                  appointed as Secretary for the         Garret Flikkema. All of our con-
is growing numerically. Our fer-                faculty. Mr. and Mrs. Doezema          sistories are asked to submit their
vent prayer is that while the                   bring .a great deal of expertise       reactions to this overture to the
churches grow numerically they                  and dedication to these positions      study committee by January 1,
may also grow in the grace and                  and we are thankful to God for         1990. The committee will report
knowledge of our Lord and                       them. May God strengthen and           to the Synod of 1990.
Savior Jesus Christ.                            bless them.                              It became obvious to the
   The Lord continues to give us                  Synod approved several pro-          Synod that the Lord is giving us
"open doors" in home missions.                  posals concerning the curriculum       open doors in missions as well as
Work will continue in the Denver                brought by the Theological             many contacts with others of like
area and in the Bradenton-Venice                School Committee. Among these          precious faith with us, both in
area of Florida. Pulpit supply will             is that a Bachelor level (B.A. or      this country and throughout the
continue for the Reformed Bible                 B.S.) degree from an accredited        world. May God grant the
Church of Alameda, California as                college or university is now re-       churches grace faithfully to "hold
long as this church will allow our              quired for entrance into the           forth the Word of life" in these
pastors to preach according to                  Seminary.                              latter days to His glory. 0 -RDD
the Confessions and their ordina-               OVERTURES
tion vows.                                        Lynden, Washington PRC
   Synod rejected the Mission                   presented two overtures. The
Committee's proposal that we                    first proposed a change in the
have a missionary-at-large.                     wording of the Form for the Or-
                                                dination of Elders and Deacons.
                                                Synod adopted this change provi-
                                                sionally. The words: "and ye

440  I The Standard Bearer  I August 1, 1989


A Reader Asks. . .

      During the past several       ,    Answer:                                gospel they stood ready to de-
decades the listeners and viewers '                                             fend.
of radio and television have had           The main thought in Philip-             Besides that, there were still
the opportunity to expand their          pians 1: 15-18 is that Paul's im-      many who preached Christ even
knowledge of religious topics and        prisonment in Rome had not             while the apostle was confined.
biblical teachings by means of           been a hindrance, but rather           "Some indeed preach Christ even
religious talk shows, interviewing       served "unto the furtherance of        of envy and strife; and some also
Bible "experts" attempting to            the gospel."                           of good will . . . . What then?
answer difficult religious ques-           First of all, the fact that Paul     notwithstanding, every way,
tions here-to-fore unanswered            was imprisoned, not for some           whether in pretence, or in truth,
and unknown. By means of radio           misdeed, but because he                Christ is preached; and I therein
and television many churches,            preached Christ, had become            do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice"
both local and far away, invite          commonly known, not only in            (vss. 15-18).
the public to "attend" their wor-        Caesar's household, but also              There were those who were
ship services, available to us all       throughout Rome (vs. 13). The          honest and sincere in their
hours of the day and days of the         apostle was allowed visitors dur-      preaching, motivated by good
week. Now with all this broad-           ing his imprisonment. For a            will toward Paul and by love for
casting of talking religion and          period of two years soldiers had       the Lord Jesus Christ. There were
preaching - whatever the c&se            stood guard over him day and           others who preached Christ even
may be - religious broadcasting          night, and therefore had heard         of envy and strife, not sincerely,
is big business. How should we           him witness of the gospel to           but supposing to add affliction to
understand the teaching of the           them and to others. Both the           his bonds. Whatever may have
Apostle Paul when he instructs           soldiers and the visitors could not    been the motive of those who
the Philippians in the first             help but be impressed by Paul's        preached Christ, the fact that the
chapter and the verses 14-18?            self surrender and contentment,        gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
      This task to which the Apostle     even in his chains. And many           was preached, even proclaimed
addresses himself is so near at          who heard his witness were             far and wide (as the word for
home. Many pulpits in the Grand          drawn by the power of the              preaching in the original ex-
Rapids area (also known as Jeru-         gospel (Phil. 2:4).                    presses it), was reason for great
salem) are majoring in psychol-            Moreover, many of the                joy in the heart of the apostle
ogy, and theology becomes                brethren waxed confident in the        while in prison.
minor. They attempt to prove             Lord because of his bonds.                The reader asks, "How should
scriptural truths by quotation's         Although at first the thought of       we understand the word of the
from writings of secular authors,        their beloved apostle's imprison-      apostle Paul, `whether in
and they roam far from the               ment for his preaching, and the        pretence, or in truth, Christ is
selected text. Now with all this         concern about him and the threat       preached, and therein do I re-
"talking" religion available to our      upon their own lives may have          joice . . . .' " This question is
listening, how should we under-          caused them to be reluctant to         raised in the light of all the pres-
stand the words of St. Paul              confess Christ openly, they now
"                                                                               ent day pseudo-preaching or
     . . . whether in pretence, or in    saw how Paul was sustained and         "talking" religion available to our
truth, Christ is preached; and I         comforted even in his bonds, and       listening.
therein do rejoice . . ." (vs. 18).      therefore were "much more bold           There were those in Paul's
      Thank you for an explanation       to speak the Word of God               time who preached the gospel of
of the text in question.                 without fear" (vs. 14). They           Jesus Christ in sincerity, but
                    Henry Doorn          realized that not Paul but the         there were also those who
                    Kentwood, MI         gospel was under attack, and that      preached out of a wrong motive.

                                                                                  August  I,1989  I The Standard Bearer  /  441


Rather than seeking the honor                    fault lay not in the content of       2:8). The Holy Spirit works God's
and glory of God, the latter                     their preaching, but in their         grace in our hearts, but He
sought their own vain glory.                     motivation. They were motivated       chooses to do that only through
They were likely envious of                      by selfishness and evil intent.       that chief means of grace, the
those who had received more                      The apostle holds no serious          preaching of the Word. The
talents and saw greater fruits on                resentment against them, even         Word preached is the power of
their labors. They found fault                   though they sought to add to his      God unto salvation!
with others, criticizing them.                   misery, but rejoices in the fact        We must also take notice of
Possibly they wanted to outdo                    that Christ is preached. That is      that last statement of Paul: "How
Paul in drawing a larger follow-                 what counts for Paul! As he says      shall they preach unless they be
ing, or even in trying to draw                   in II Timothy 2:9, "Wherein I suf-    sent," There are in our day many
followers of Paul unto them-                     fer trouble, even unto bonds; but     self-appointed preachers, who by
selves, thus, as they thought,                   the word of God is not bound."        means of radio or television seek
adding to Paul's affliction.                       Although the evil of strife and     all sorts of contrivances to play
   Calvin writes in his commen-                  contention is, no doubt, also         upon the emotions of their
tary on this epistle to the Philip-              present in our day, another evil      audience. The question is often
pians, page 37, "It is asked,                    presents itself, namely, the lack     asked, "Where are all those con-
however, how such preaching                      of confidence in the preaching of     verts they are supposed to have
could be injurious to him. I                     the Word. To draw people and to       made?" They seek the honor and
answer that many occasions are                   create interest, especially among     glory of man rather than the
not known to us, inasmuch as we                  the young people, all kinds of        glory of God. Just recently some
are not acquainted with the cir-                 gimmicks, forms of entertain-         of them have been publicly ex-
cumstances of the times. It is fur-              ment, and even philosophical and      posed in their wrong doing. It is
ther asked, `Since the gospel can-               psychological contrivances are in-    still true today, "How shall they
not be preached but by those                     troduced, as if the power of per-     preach unless they be sent?" The
that understand it, what motive                  suasion must be sought in man         apostle Paul is a plain example of
induced those persons to                         rather than in the power of the       that. Even though he was per-
persecute the doctrine which                     gospel. Scripture teaches most        sonally stopped and called of God
they approved?' I answer that                    emphatically that God has in-         on his way to Damascus, and
ambition is blind, nay, it is a                  stituted the preaching of the         even though he spent some time
furious beast. Hence it is not to                Word as the chief means of            under the instruction of God, he
be wondered if false brethren                    grace, that is, the means             did not venture out on his own,
snatch a weapon from the gospel                  whereby the Holy Spirit applies       but waited until God called him,
for harassment of good and pious                 the grace of God to the heart of      by the church in Antioch, to
pastors. Paul, assuredly, says                   the regenerated sinner. In I Cor-     minister the Word to the gentiles
nothing here which I myself have                 inthians 1 Paul speaks of the         (Acts 13: l-4).
not experienced. For there are                   preaching of the Word as foolish-       Another evil is committed by
living at this day those who have                ness to those perishing, but the      those who preach "another
preached the gospel with no                      power of God unto salvation for       gospel" (Gal. 1:6-g). What a
other design than that they might                all who believe (vss. 22-24). In      tremendous responsibility rests
gratify the rage of the wicked by                Romans 10:14, 15a we read:            on the shoulders of those who
persecuting pious pastors."                      "How then shall they call on him      tamper with the Word, denying
  The evil preachers Paul refers                 in whom they have not believed?       its infallibility, giving more
to,in the passage under con-                     and how shall they believe in him-    credence to science than to the
sideration did not present a false               of whom they have not heard? and      Word of God, denying the
or heretical teaching concerning                 how shall they hear without a         wonder of creation, which can be
Christ. This the apostle would                   preacher? And how shall they          accepted only by faith (Heb.
have strongly condemned, as he                   preach unless they be sent?"          11:2), and introducing heresies,
does in Galatians 1:8: "But                        We must take note of what the       thereby deceiving many.
though we, or an angel from                      apostle says. "How shall they           We can rejoice with thanks to
heaven, preach any other gospel                  believe in him of whom they           God when a full-orbed gospel is
unto you than that which we                      have not heard?" And, even            preached, when the full and rich
have preached unto you, let him                  more significantly, "how shall        Christ is proclaimed. But woe to
be accursed." These evil                         they hear without a preacher?"        them who preach another gospel
preachers did preach the full and                By grace we are saved through         and make merchandise of men's
pure gospel of salvation. The                    faith, and that not of us (Eph.       souls. 0            -Rev. C. Hanko

442  / The. Standard Bearer  / August  1,1989


Walking in
the Light
Prof. Herman Hanko



  Lying is always wrong, and the         quences of telling the truth, the        passages of Scripture and Who
fierce anger of God rests upon           truth is what he is called to            does so without qualification. It is
the man who lies. Lying must be          speak. For he is anointed with           the same as saying that I may
cut out of our life, and our             the Spirit of Christ his Prophet,        judge for myself when Gods flat
children must not only be con-           and he speaks always in Christ's         disapproval of lying does not ap-
stantly instructed in their calling      name. A prophet tells the truth.         ply. Then I may alter Gods law
to tell the truth, but they must be       The Heidelberg Catechism, in            to suit what I consider to be cir-
severely reprimanded and                 discussing the ninth command-            cumstances where lying is re-
reproved for lying and warned of         ment, not only tells us about the        quired. This is to reduce all God's
the wrath of God which comes             terrible sin of lying, but speaks        law to man's subjective judgment.
upon the liar.                           also of our calling to speak the         It is principally what moralists to-
  Lying is rooted in our sinful          truth always: "What is required          day do in situation ethics when
nature. The depravity of our             in the ninth commandment? That           they claim that the situation itself
nature is such that lying is             I bear false witness against no          determines what is right and
"natural." It is the natural thing       man, nor falsify any man's               what is wrong. We lose Gods
to do, the "instinctive" thing. It is    words; that I be no backbiter, nor       law as the objective standard of
exactly what we will always do           slanderer; and I do not judge, nor       right and wrong and we make
apart from the sanctifying power         join in condemning any man               ourselves the final court of ap-
of Gods grace. Lying takes no ef-        rashly, or unheard; but that 1           peal.
fort and requires no learning.           avoid all sorts of lies and deceit,        Scripture does tell of saints
Telling the truth is the hard and        as the proper works of the devil,        who lied. And Scripture does not,
difficult part of life, for it goes      unless I would bring down upon           in these passages, condemn those
contrary to all we are in our-           me the heavy wrath of God; like-         lies in so many words. Rahab lied
selves. The only hope of escape          wise, that in judgment and all           to the police of Jericho when the
from such slavery is the cross of        other dealings I love the truth,         spies were hidden on her house-
Christ, where the believer bows          speak it uprightly and confess it;       top and she sent the police on a
in sorrow of heart and repen-            also that I defend and promote,          wild goose chase to the Jordan.
tance, and where he alone can            as much as I am able, the honor          The midwives lied when they
find the strength to resist his          and good character of my neigh-          told the servants of Pharaoh that
natural tendency to lie and to           bor" (Q. & A. 112).                      the Israelite women delivered
speak the truth aIways and under           To determine whether one               their children before the mid-
all circumstances.                       must lie or tell the truth by the        wives could get to them to assist
   For he is called to speak the         circumstances in which one finds         in the delivery. The woman of
truth. He is called to do this           himself is really to destroy God's       Bahurim lied when she sent the
always. The circumstances make           commandment and to set up our            messengers of Absalom away in
no difference whatsoever. What-          own wisdom and judgment as the           search of Hushai's messengers
ever may be the situation,               criterion of what is right and           when in fact they were hidden in
whatever may be the circum-              what is wrong. If a lie is justified,    her well. Scripture does not, in
stances in which he finds himself,       when telling the truth would in          these passages, condemn these
whatever may be the conse-               my own judgment. endanger the            lies. The motives in every case
                                         life of another (as Rahab lied to        were good. The people who lied
                                         attempt to save the life of the          did so because their thoughts
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church       spies), then it also follows that I      were for the cause of God and
History and New Testament in the         may set myself against God Who           His covenant. But the lies were
Protestant Reformed Seminary.            disapproves of the lie in many           sins for all that.

                                                                                    August 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer I443


   Although it is true that Scrip-              adultery with Bathsheba, and his        cumstances of our life may be.
ture, in these passages, does not               murder of Bathsheba's husband              Perhaps a few illustrations will
specifically condemn these lies,                Uriah, were so serious that the         make this clear.
the many passages in other parts                sword never departed from                  It is sometimes argued that we
of Scripture clearly teach us that              David's house; but from that            must lie to people who are
the lie is always wrong, and that               union of David and Bathsheba            desperately sick because the
without qualification. It is as if              Christ was born. And the greatest       truth concerning their condition
God says to us in these passages                of all these wonders is the cross;      will be more than they can bear
which tells us of the lies of Rahab,            for wicked men crucified the            and will threaten their physical
the midwives, etc., "I do not                   Lord of glory, but through it God       well-being. God certainly does
have to say anything here about                 accomplished  everlasting.salva-        not command us to tell such a
the wrong of these lies; the rest               tion.                                   patient everything the doctor has
of My Word is clear enough that                    Usually lying is born out of sin-    told us any more than every little
you can judge these matters for                 ful motives: lack of faith,             detail must always be told in
yourself."                                      cowardice, desire to save our-          every circumstance. But we must
   A lie, when told by a believer,              selves from punishment or               tell the truth in love. That is, we
often arises out of a weak faith.               ridicule, an effort to destroy our      must tell the truth in such a way
Rahab did not, apparently, think                neighbor so that we may climb           that the patient not only knows
that God could care for the spies.              on his destroyed reputation to          his physical condition, but also is
The midwives did not believe                    new heights of self-honor. But          assured of God's grace to sustain
that God could provide for the                  sometimes lying is born out of          him in his affliction and is ad-
safety of the male babies born in               good motives: to save children          monished to put his trust and
Israel. The woman of Bahurim                    alive who are threatened, to pro-       hope only in the Lord Who does
was evidently convinced that if                 tect a downed pilot who is hiding       all things well,
she did not take matters into her               in our house. The motive makes            I do not know what I would do
own hands, God would surely                     no difference as far as the lie         if a fugitive came to me for
allow disaster to come on David                 itself is concerned. God may hate       hiding during time of war. I hope
as he fled from Absalom. This                   the motive if it is evil and love       I would be able to tell the truth,
lack of faith is the womb in                    the motive if it is good. But the       for this is what God demands. I
which the lie is born. If Rahab                 lie is always sin and brings Gods       pray that no lie could ever be
had told the truth and the roof                 judgment.                               found in my mouth. But I know
was searched, God could have                      We are called to speak the            how weak we can be. Neverthe-
saved the two spies by other                    truth. Scripture enjoins this upon      less, in such circumstances too,
means. God made the sun and                     us in many places. But in Ephe-         one must speak the truth in love.
moon to stand still so that Joshua              sians 4:15 Scripture tells us that      Love demands the truth as well
could destroy Israel's enemies.                 the truth must be spoken in love.       as the welfare of the one we are
He made the walls of Jericho fall               This qualifying phrase is a crucial     hiding. How these can be
so that this unconquerable city                 point and ought not to be mis-          balanced off must be left to the
was easy prey for the soldiers of               understood or forgotten.                judgment of the individual
Israel. God blinded the eyes of all               To speak the truth surely             believer who is called to love his
the Syrian soldiers when they                   means, first of all, to speak the       neighbor and tell the truth.
were about to capture Elisha in                 truth of God's Word as He                 Perhaps we could use the il-
Dotham. Is it so hard to believe                reveals that truth to us in Jesus       lustration of a fellow saint fleeing
that God could have saved the                   Christ. The truth is that glorious      persecution and seeking a hiding
spies by whatever means He                      and blessed Reformed faith which        place with us. What could a saint
would choose?                                   is our heritage and our salvation.      do under such circumstances?
  You argue and say, Yes but                    That truth must be  spoken;  that       Perhaps something like the
God used these lies to deliver His              is, it must always be confessed in      following would be possible. We
people. That is true, but even                  the midst of the world. And it          would tell such a fleeing saint
that line of argumentation cannot               must be confessed in such a way         that we will surely hide him in
be used to justify the lie. Scrip-              that we earnestly seek the salva-       our home, give him shelter and
ture is replete with examples of                tion of those before whom we            food and provide for his needs.
God's mercy towards His people                  make our confession of the truth.       But at the same time we would
in using even their sins for good.              It is this principle which              tell him (and, surely, he would
But the sins are not, on this ac-               dominates in our calling to tell        understand) that we may not and
count, to be condoned. David's                  the truth no matter what the cir-       would not lie if the authorities

444  / The Standard Bearer  I August 1, 1989


should come seeking him. We               And the power to tell the truth         this sin, even if we adhered
would be able to discuss our              rests in the power of grace             strictly to the truth, would be sin
mutual obligations with respect           worked by the Holy Spirit.              for us, for we would, though
to the truth while both of us saw            In other words, the calling to       speaking,the truth, seek the
the need of bowing before God's           speak the truth in love means           greater downfall of our fellow
holy commandments. If someone             surely that we always do nothing        saint. It is in love that we are
should come seeking the person            but speak the truth. But the            called to speak the truth. And
we have hidden, our duties would          deepest motive for telling the          love requires that sometimes we
not end with simply informing             truth must always be our love for       remain silent.
the authorities that indeed               God and our love for our                  As the world grows darker in
we are hiding such a one with             neighbor. Our love for our              sin and the lie, the calling to live
us; but to speak the truth in love        neighbor is not a love only for         an antithetical life comes with in-
would require of us that we give          those who are God's people, heirs       creased urgency to God's saints
testimony to those who come               with us of the grace of life; but it    who are the light of the world.
knocking at our door that they            is also a love for those who walk       The day is coming when speak-
sin when they persecute and har-          in darkness. That love of those         ing the truth will end in suffering
rass the saints of God, that they         who are not a part of the fellow-       and persecution. But speak the
must repent of their sins, and            ship of the saints comes to             truth we must, for God's sake.
that they too must join with us in        ultimate expression in our desire       And to learn to do that now
living a life of obedience. If this       to see their salvation. And we          when the pressures of persecu-
would make no impression upon             speak the truth with that salva-        tion are not great will enable us
them but only increase their              tion of the wicked as our goal          to speak the truth when suffering
hatred, we would have to com-             and purpose.                            will be the result.
mit ourselves to the care of our            It is possible to speak the truth       Never may the circumstances
heavenly Father Who is able to            in hatred. Anyone who knows             of our life justify the lie. This is
care for His own and Who will             anything about the ninth com-           to take the law of God in our
save His people to the end.               mandment knows that the com-            own hands and make it suit our
  Does all this seem impossibly           mandment .forbids speaking the          own sinful purposes. Always the
difficult? Indeed it does. But the        truth with evil intent. Our fellow      truth alone must be found on our
difficulty arises out of the tenden-      saint may have committed a              lips that God may be glorified
cy of our sinful natures to lie.          great sin. To tell others about         through us. 0




Guided Into                               Augustine and the
All Truth
Rev. Charles Terpstra                     Pelagian Heresy (3)

   Our readers will recall that in        against the heresy of Pelagian-         posited instead the utter helpless-
these articles on the great church        ism. In our last segment we saw         ness of the sinner because of his
father Augustine we are focusing          how the Spirit of truth specially       guilt and total depravity in
on his defense and development            prepared Augustine for this, and        Adam. This set the stage for
of the doctrines of grace over            how Augustine began his work            Augustine to set forth the truth of
                                          by confronting this error of            God's sovereign grace in the
                                          Pelagius with the biblical.             salvation of the sinner. This
                                          teaching concerning the sin-            "theology of grace" as set forth
Rev. Terpstra is a pastor of the Prot-    fulness of natural man. He over-        by the "Doctor of grace" we wish
estant Reformed Church of South           threw the Pelagian figment of           to examine in this last article on
Holland, Illinois.                        salvation by man's freewill and         Augustine.

                                                                                    August  1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer  / 445


THE NATURE OF GOD'S                            work internally. And this is what        ing God, Augustine maintained
SAVING GRACE                                   He does.                                 that it is God Who works first
  The general principle from                          For proof of this we need only    and throughout in salvation. With
which Augustine viewed the                     refer to the first anti-Pelagian         the conviction that the natural
work of Gods grace in saving the               work of Augustine, "On the               man is spiritually dead in sin,
sinner was the absolute                        Merits and Forgiveness of Sins."         Augustine taught that without
sovereignty of God. Standing                   In one section Augustine argues          Gods grace the sinner not only
solidly on the truth of the Scrip-             from the analogy that just as man        cannot do the good, but also can-
tures - especially the epistles of             did not become a sinner by mere          not even desire to do the good.
Paul - Augustine held that it                  imitation, as Pelagius asserted, so         In a passage from his treatise
was God alone Who saves, not                   man is not saved by mere imita-          "On the Spirit and the Letter"
man. Without God man can do                    tion of Christ. While it is true that    Augustine applies this teaching to
nothing, and any good that man                 the saints must imitate Christ,          saving faith. He raises the ques-
does do is of God alone. One of                this does not explain the "how"          tion whether faith is in the power
Augustine's favorite lines from                of their salvation. Accordingly he       of the sinner, that is, "whether
the New Testament Scriptures                   writes, "But besides this imita-         the will by which we believe be
was the question raised by Paul                tion, His grace works within us          itself the gift of God, or whether
in I Corinthians 4:7: ". . . And               our illumination and justifica-          it arise from that free will which
what hast thou that thou didst                 tion . . . ." And then he adds that      is naturally implanted in us?" (p.
not receive?" Referring to this                Christ, "besides offering Himself        108). His answer is plain:
often in his writings, Augustine               as an example of righteousness              . This will is to be ascribed to the
demonstrated that all that the                 to those who imitate Him, gives          divine gift, . . . because God acts
saved sinner had and was is due                also to those who believe on Him         upon us by the incentives of our
to God; the sinner had and was                 the hidden grace of His Spirit,          perceptions, to will and to believe,
nothing of himself, For                        which He secretly infuses even           either externally by evangelical ex-
Augustine, salvation is from start             into infants" (pp. 18-19, emphasis       hortations, . . . or internally . . . .
to finish the work and gift of the             mine, CJT). In a later work, "On         Since God, therefore, in such ways
                                                                                        works upon the reasonable soul in
sovereign Lord and His sovereign               the Grace of Christ, and On              order that it may believe in Him . . . ,
grace. In his own words, God's                 Original Sin," Augustine was             it surely follows that it is God who
sovereign grace was "that by                   equally insistent. After referring       both works in man the willing to
which alone men are delivered                  to a passage of Scripture he ad-         believe, and in all things prevents
from evil, and without which                   dresses the Pelagians thus:              (i.e., precedes, CJV us with His mer-
they do absolutely no good thing,                Let them therefore read and            cy (p. 110).
whether in thought, or will and                understand, observe and                     In another passage from a dif-
affection, or in action" ("On                  acknowledge, that it is not by law       ferent treatise Augustine speaks
Rebuke and Grace," The Nicene                  and teaching uttering their lessons      of the grace of God in the life of
and Post-Nicene Fathers,  vol. V,              from without, but by a secret,           the believer as both preceding
p. 472; all future references will             wonderful, ineffable power operating     and following  our activity,
be from this volume, CJT). Such                within,  that God works in men's         thereby showing that our salva-
                                               hearts not only revelations of the
was Augustine's position, from                 truth, but also good dispositions of     tion is from beginning to end of
which none of the wiles of the                 the will (p. 227, emphasis mine,         God. He writes:
Pelagians would shake him.                     CJTI                                     . . . No doubt, we do ourselves, too,
  More specifically, and in the                       In the second place, it was       work; but we are fellow-workers
first place, Augustine taught that             Augustine's teaching that the            with Him who does the work,
God's work of grace in saving the              work of Gods grace in the sinner         because His mercy anticipates (i.e.,
sinner was internal and not mere-              is                                       precedes, CJV us. He anticipates us,
                                                      first, i.e., it precedes any
ly external. You will recall that                                                       however, that we may be healed; but
                                               response and activity on the part        then He will also follow us, that be-
when Pelagius spoke of God's                   of man. Over against the                 ing healed we may grow healthy and
grace he did so only in terms of               Pelagians, who held that by the          strong. He anticipates us that we
external helps, such as the law,               power of his free will man was           may be called; He will follow us that
the gospel, and the example of                 first and last in the doing of           we may be glorified. He anticipates
Christ; there was no sovereign                 righteousness, and over against          us that we may lead godly lives; He
work in the heart, no renewal of               the Semi-Pelagians, who taught           will follow us that we may always
the will, no opening of the mind.              that, though God was first in the        live with Him, because without Him
But Augustine held that, in order              operations of grace, man was just        we can do nothing (`On Nature and
for man to be saved, God must                  a step behind, helping and assist-       Grace, " p. 133).

446 I The Standard Beaker  I August  I,1989


   Finally, in the third place,             THE FRUIT OF GOD'S GRACE                  wise that he has it not from God, we
Augustine taught that the saving               Given his understanding of the         first of all make void that which the
work of God's grace was irresist-           truth of God's sovereign grace,           Lord says to Peter: `ir have prayed
ible. Because this work of grace            Augustine also went on to teach           for thee that thy faith fail not. " For
is the divine power to save, no             that the grace of God is always           what did He ask for him, but
man can withstand God when He               effectual; it always has as its fruit     perseverance to the end? And
comes by His Spirit to save him.            the saluation of the sinner.              assuredly, if a man could have this
                                                                                      from man, it should not have been
No heart is so hard that it cannot          Where God by His Spirit works in          asked from God (p. 475).
be broken; no will is so stubborn           the hearts of sinful, spiritually           And thus God willed that His
that it cannot be made pliable;             dead men, there is always pro-            saints should not  - even concerning
no mind is so dark that it cannot           duced a living, believing, obe-           perseverance in goodness itself  -
be made to see. Augustine sets              dient child of God. When God im-          glory in their own strength, but in
forth this irresistible power of            plants life in the heart, the sinner      Himselt; who not only gives them
God's grace in a passage from his           becomes alive unto God; when              aid.. . without which  ihey  cannot
work "On the Predestination of              God implants faith, the sinner            persevere if they will, but causes in
the Saints." He is explaining John          believes in Christ; when God in-          them also the will; that since they
6:37, that the Father by His grace          fuses holiness, the sinner                will not persevere unless they both
draws the sinner to Christ in               becomes holy and walks in good            can and will, both the capability and
                                                                                      the will to persevere should be
faith, but that this grace is in-           works. Always God's grace ac-             bestowed on them by the liberality of
visible to our eyes. And then he            complishes what God intends,              divine grace (p. 487).
writes:                                     namely, the deliverance of the               It is also worth noting that
   It is true that that grace is exceed-    sinner from his sin and death.            Augustine grounded the persever-
ingly secret, but who doubts that it is     That this was Augustine's posi-           ance of the saints in God's
grace? This grace, therefore, which is      tion is evident from the                  sovereign election of them. Hav-
hiddenly bestowed in human hearts           references `we have already               ing quoted from Romans 8:28ff.,
by the Divine gift, is rejected by no       made.                                     Augustine stated with powerful
human heart, because it is given for           What we do wish to point out,
the sake of first taking away the                                                     logic:
hardness of the heart. When, there-         however, is that along with this            Of these (i.e., the called, justified,
fore, the Father is heard within, and       Augustine taught the preserva-            and glorified) no one perishes,
teaches, so that a man comes to the         tion and perseverance of the              because all are elected. And they are
Son, He takes away the heart of             saints. For him it was clear: if          elected because they were called
stone and gives a heart of flesh . , ,      God's grace is effectual, then it         according to the purpose - the pur-
(p. 505),                                   also saves the sinner all the way         pose, however, not their own, but
   In connection with this truth of         to the end, so that none is lost          God's . . . . If any one of these
God's grace Augustine refuted               and perishes. And this is the             perishes, God is mistaken; but none
the oft-repeated charge that it             truth that he found in the Scrip-         of them perishes, because God is not
                                                                                      mistaken. If any one of these perish,
makes a man a "stock and a                  tures too. He dealt at length with        God is overcome by human sin; but
block." The idea of God dragging            this truth in two of his works:           none of them perishes, because God
the sinner down the road of                 "On Rebuke and Grace" and "On             is overcome by nothing (p. 477).
salvation kicking and screaming             the Gift of Perseverance." In the           That leads us to consider our
or else totally inactive was utter-         previous work Augustine argues            next point.
ly repulsive to him. Rather did he          that the rebukes of the Word are          THE FOUNTAIN OF GOD'S
set down the biblical teaching              necessary for believers in order          SAVING GRACE
that God's irresistible grace               that they may be spurred on to              The final point we must con-
makes the sinner a willing, work-           persevere in obedience. But at            sider yet in Augustine's "theology
ing new creation. Further, he               the same time he shows plainly            of grace" is his teaching on the
taught that the irresistible power          that this perseverance is God's           doctrine of predestination. He
of God's grace does not destroy             gift and is the fruit of His              taught that the fountain of God's
man's free will. God's sovereign            sovereign grace in the believer.          saving grace is His sovereign
grace sets man's will free from             Thus he writes:                           good pleasure in eternal election.
the bondage of sin, so that he              . . . We are not able to deny, that       This is, of course, the logical
might willingly serve God in all            perseverance in good, progressing         point to which one is driven
righteousness. God's grace                  even- to the end, is also a great gift    when he takes the view of God's
establishes, not destroys, man's            of God.. . . For if we should say         grace described above. If salva-
free will.                                  that such a perseverance, so laud-
                                            able and so blessed, is man's in such     tion by grace is entirely of God,
                                                                                      then it is also clear that God is

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the One who determines in His                   treatise he refutes the Pelagian           Reformed fathers, that glorious
eternal decree who receive it and               idea that Gods predestination is           heritage rediscovered in the
who do not. And this is the point               based on His foreknowledge of              Reformation of the 16th century.
to which Augustine was led too                  who would believe and be                   Let us love dearly this truth, and
- not merely by the force of                    righteous, proving from the Scrip-         continue to uphold it even over
logic, but by the Spirit of truth               tures that God elects His people           against the present-day attacks of
through the Scriptures and                      not because they believe and are           Pelagianism. In so doing let us
through his controversy with the                holy, but in order that they               take heed to this final word from
Pelagians.                                      might believe and be holy. A               the "Doctor of grace":
  Augustine early in his work                   quote from the conclusion to this            Let no Christian then stray from
against the Pelagians faced the                 section shows the fulness of his           this faith, which alone is the Chris-
question why some' only and not                 teaching:                                  tian one; nor let any one, when he
all receive the grace of God to                   Therefore God chose us in Christ         has been made to feel ashamed to
believe. In his work "On the                    before the foundation of the world,        say that we become righteous
Forgiveness of Sins" he answered                predestinating us to the adoption of       through our own selves, without the
this briefly but with the convic-               children, not because we were going        grace of God working this in us, -
                                                                                           . . . resort to any subterfuge on this
tion that this too is due to the                to be of ourselves holy and im-            point _ . , (`On the Spirit and the Let-
sovereign will of God which is                  maculate, but He chose and pre-            ter," pp. 96-97).  Cl
always merciful and just. Thus he               destinated us that we might be so.
                                                Moreover, He did this according to
wrote:                                          the good pleasure of His will, so that
  As to the reason why He wills to              nobody might glory concerning his                Hasten, Reapers!
convert some, and to punish others              own will, but about God's will
for turning away,  - although                                                              Patient reapers of the harvest
                                                toward himself He did this accord-
nobody can justly censure the mer-                                                            Toiling in the burning heat,
                                                ing to the riches of His grace, accord-
ciful One in conferring His blessing,           ing to His good will, which He pur-        Falter not nor cease thy labor
nor can any man find fault with the             posed in His beloved Son, in whom             In the field of ripened wheat;
truthful One in awarding His punish-            we have obtained a share. . . (p.          Hear the promise He hath given -
ment, . . . yet, after all, the purpose         516).                                         "Be thou faithful" - in the strife-
of His more hidden judgment is in                  In connection with this, it             "Unto death, and I will give thee" -
His own power (p. 57).                          should be stated that Augustine               Hear ye Him - "a crown of life."
  But it was later in life, after he            also set forth the truth of
had battled long with the                                                                  Hast thou been since early
                                                reprobation, that some men
Pelagian heresy, that Augustine                                                                  morning
                                                according to the decree of God
came to a fuller understanding                                                                At thy labor in the field?
                                                do not receive the grace of salva-
and setting forth of the truth of                                                          Weary not nor be discouraged,
                                                tion and the benefits of Christ.
predestination. In fact, one of his                                                           Fruit at last shall be revealed.
                                                He was a double-predestinarian,
last works was "On the Pre-                                                                "He that shall endure" - `tis written
                                                following the truth of Scripture,
destination of the Saints," a work                                                            In His word - "unto the end,
                                                especially that of Romans 9ff. In
which represents his mature                                                                Shall be saved." Not all this
                                                this too, Augustine taught, God is
teaching on this truth. In this                                                                  meaning
                                                sovereign and just, and no man
treatise he grounds the salvation                                                             Canst thou, reaper,
                                                has the right to question God's
of the saints in God's sovereign,                                                                   comprehend.
                                                eternal purposes.
free choice of them in Christ                     All of this meant for Augustine          Labor on a little longer
from before the foundation of the               that the saints' boast cannot and             Adding to thy precious store,
world. The saints are God's                     must not be in man but in God:             Ere the sun now bright in heaven
vessels of mercy, before prepared               "For this reason it is that we cry            Shall go down to rise no more.
for glory. This predestination is                                                          Then with al1 the happy reapers
                                                that no one should glory in man,
"the preparation for grace, while               and, thus, not in himself; but                Trooping homeward one by
grace is the donation itself" (p.               whoever glorieth let him glory in              4. one,
507). Hence, God's election is the                                                         Thou shalt have the Masters'
                                                the Lord, that he may be for the
source of all that the saints                                                                    welcome,
                                                praise of His glory" (p. 516).
receive in this life.                                                                         At the setting of the sun.
  And that means that also this                 CONCLUSION                                                     -Chas. H. Gabriel
election is entirely of grace and                 This then is the great contribu-                                  S.B. July 1, 1928
not of merit and works, a truth                 tion the Spirit of truth has given
Augustine defended tenaciously.                 us through Augustine. We will
In a series of passages in this                 recognize it as the faith of our

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The Day                                The Man of Sin
of Shadows
Rev. john Heys                         Foreshadowed (I)

  What folly it would be to deny         There is a book written by an        of heaven. Satan already hated
that the shadow before you is          American who ran for president         righteous Adam and Eve,
proof of the fact that the object      but was not elected. That book         because they were created loving
which casts it exists. There are       has the title, "One World." It         God and serving Him faithfully
no shadows where there are no          reveals what the world has in          for a brief time. He soon got
objects. Objects do not always         mind and wants. Man wants to           them to hate God; and now God
cast shadows. But when there is        go back and rebuild that tower of      in that sovereign grace restored
a shadow, there is an object be-       Babel. This time he is going to        love in the seed of the woman.
tween the light and that shadow.       get farther than the ungodly did         Because of that enmity the
  Therefore the flood which God        before God confused man's              seed of the serpent tried to build
sent to destroy the whole ungod-       speech. Then already the seed of       the tower of Babel; and the
ly world reveals to us the undeni-     the serpent sought to crush the        world will once again try that in
able fact that He is coming in         head of the seed of the woman          the days of the coming anti-
judgment at His own appointed          by establishing such a worldwide       Christian kingdom. The truth of
time. That judgment speaks of          kingdom. In fact the intent of the     the mother promise of Genesis
the judgment to come when              world in that day was to crush         3:15 must not be denied. Neither
Christ returns upon the clouds of      the head, rather than the heel, of     must we deny and fail to expect
heaven.                                the seed of the woman. But God         a repetition of the world's at-
  Let it also be clearly seen that     keeps His promises. Even as they       tempt to rebuild the tower of
when the ungodly tried to build        failed at the tower of Babel, they     Babel presented in Revelation 13.
the tower of Babel, and God con-       will fail when the antichristian       Even as we must not be so-called
fused their speech and scattered       worldwide kingdom comes into           theistic evolutionists and make
the descendants of Shem, Ham,          being and persecutes the church        this event, which is in the first
and Japheth, and did not allow         severely for a time. They will not     eleven chapters of Genesis, which
them to establish the antichristian    succeed this time, even as they        those so-called theistic evolu-
worldwide kingdom that they            failed then. The head of the seed      tionists call fiction rather than
wanted to realize, this event is a     of the serpent is going to be          fact, so we must not ignore and
shadow of what lies ahead of us.       crushed, and an end will come to       deny what we are told in ReveIa-
The ,worldwide  kingdom of the         all sin on this earth.                 tion 13 in regard to the coming
antichrist is not far away. Like-        What we must see and con-            antichristian kingdom.
wise God's mercy and grace,            sider carefully is the fact that         The shadow of that anti-
revealed in the halting of that        God told the devil that HE would       Christian kingdom is all around
antichristian movement which           put enmity between the seed of         us today. In our so-called Chris-
was foreshadowed there, speak          the woman and the seed of the          tian nation prayer is forbidden in
of a coming work of that mercy         serpent. The elect children of         the world's schools. The vast ma-
and grace.                             God will hate the ungodly              iority of the citizens in our nation
                                       children of the world. This will       want only one kind of people:
                                       not be a work that they begin.         atheists and evolutionists. They
                                       That enmity will be there in the       actually want an antichristian na-
                                       hearts of the elect because of the     tion rather than a Christian, na-
                                       gift of God's sovereign grace          tion. They reveal this not only by
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in    realized by a rebirth with life out    a majority vote as to what may
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                August  I,1989 I The Standard Bearer  / 449


     be taught in their schools, and                still has only two kinds of people:     human race into different na-
     therefore deny the right to have               the seed. of -the woman and the         tions, tongues, and tribes,
     God's word about the creation of               seed of the serpent. The majority,      slipping out of God's control? Or
     this world, and man's calling in               as we read literally in Revelation      should it encourage the church of
     this life taught to their children.            1353, worship the man of sin. A         God to see this shadow at the
     For a time yet, in God's mercy                 small remnant, the seed of the          tower of Babel as revealing to us
     and sovereignty, we may have                   woman, worship God.                     that the victory which God prom-
     our own schools. But we can be                   The awesomeness of the day            ised His church most assuredly
     sure, according to Revelation 13,              in which we live is that we are         will be ours?
     that this is also soon going to be             so many steps closer to the day           We do well to go back again
     denied us. Look once at the Sab-               when the worldwide kingdom of           to that mother promise as we
     bath day, not only in other coun-              the antichrist is established, and      stand by that tower of Babel, and
     tries but also here in our land                all the nations, tongues, and           take note of the fact that men
     that still has coins which state,              tribes will be united, as man           now cannot live together - not
     "In God we trust." Murder of                   strove to have it at the tower of       simply because they cannot
     abortions is defended and finan-               Babel. And if it looked difficult in    understand each other's
     cially supported by our govern-                the day when John wrote this            language, but because their likes
     ment. The law of God means                     book of Revelation, it looks far        and dislikes are so very different,
     nothing, except wherein it makes               less difficult today that such a        their political viewpoints clash
     life safer for the flesh. The first            one-world kingdom can come in-          with each other. They do not
     table of the law is not only not               to being. The church of God is in       even like to dress as those in
     kept but despised. And he who                  a frightening situation, as far as      other nations dress; and they
     does not want to keep the first                the flesh is concerned.                 delight in foods that other na-
     table of the law does not want in                When John was given the vi-           tions would not want to touch.
     love to keep the second table                  sion and wrote about the coming           Take hold of that one-letter
     either. In love for his flesh he               antichrist and his kingdom, it did      word of the mother promise. God
     may see some good in that law.                 look difficult for one to unite all     says, "I," get that, "I will put en-
     But one cannot walk in love to                 these nations, tongues, and tribes      mity between those two seeds."
     God according to the second                    in Asia, Europe, and Africa. But        He is also the one Who gave the
     table without walking in love to               after Columbus discovered               descendants of Shem, Hem, and
     Him according to the first table.              America and man became aware            Japheth different tastes and dis-
       As we are taught in Revelation               of the vast Atlantic and Pacific        tastes, likes and dislikes, different
     13, the whole world is going to                oceans that separated those coun-       colors for their skin, and even
     build the city of Babel with its               tries from the Americas, it must        their different statures. That man
\    tower. We read in Revelation                   have looked far more difficult, if      does return to this intent and ac-
     13:7, 8 that the coming man of                 not even impossible then for a          tivity of rebuilding the tower of
     sin, as he is called in II Thessalo-           one-world antichristian kingdom         Babel is not because God begins
     nians 2~3, was given power "over               to come into being.                     to fail to put enmity between
     all kindreds, and tongues and na-                Can man nullify Gods work?            these two seeds. Would He give
     tions. And all that dwell upon the             He divided the human race into          John this vision and use him to
     earth shall worship him, whose                 various nations, tongues, and           inform us of His failure and
     names are not written in the                   tribes so that no antichristian         Satan's victory? No, that tower of
     book of life of the Lamb slain                 kingdom would come forth and            Babel is a shadow of the tower of
     from the foundations of the                    His church would not be wiped           the coming antichristian one-
     world."                                        out and off the face of this earth.     world empire which GOD eter-
       But notice that in the first part            Can man overcome this awesome           nally decreed would come into
     of verse 7 we read, "And it was                work of God and realize the one-        existence. Read then what He
     given unto him to make war with                world antichristian kingdom of          also wrote in the thirteenth
     the saints, and to overcome                    Revelation 13? Is Satan going to        chapter of the book of Revela-
     them." Here too we have the                    succeed in his devilish work of         tion. In the last verse we read,
     whole human race divided into                  wiping the church of God from           "Here is wisdom. Let him that
     two kinds of people, even after                off the face of this earth? Will the    hath understanding count the
     the confusion of tongues which                 seed of the serpent crush the           number of the beast: for it is the
     divided and separated them at                  head rather than the heel of the        number of a man; and his
     the tower of Babel. From a                     seed of the woman? Is the tower         number is six hundred threescore
     spiritual point of view the world              of Babel, and the division of the       and six." It may look that way to

     450 I The Standard Bearer  I August  1,1989


us, but the seed of the serpent       same place. All morning the sun       draw that conclusion, when
will not reach that number of         may cast the shadow of the            Revelation 13 does present that
perfection, that is, number seven,    house on the western side of the      coming united nations.
which is three plus four and          house. In the afternoon that is          As we plan to present next
means the triune God living in        gone, and the shadow of the           time, God is giving us undeniable
covenant fellowship with man in       house is on the eastern side of       signs that such an antichristian
the new creation.                     the house. It often happens also      kingdom can come, and will be
  The coming antichristian king-      that the shadow of a larger ob-       here soon. Not only is it becom-
dom is not a shadow.of that           ject falling on a smaller object      ing plainer to man that his flesh
tower of Babel. That tower of         prevents the shadow of a smaller      needs such a one-world kingdom,
Babel is a shadow of the coming       object near that larger object        but it pleased God to present this
antichristian one-world kingdom       from being there. The clouds          truth to us so that when it comes
that already is beginning to ap-      above may minimize the strength       we will have confidence and
pear more fully. The Lord willing     of the light of the sun so that no    peace of mind, even though
we shall next time reveal the         object beneath these clouds casts     there will be that awesome war
undeniable evidence that such a       a shadow.                             between the seed of the woman
worldwide kingdom is not only           Therefore when several na-          and the seed of the serpent.            ,
possible but is also coming into      tions formed the League of Na-        Revelation 13 is written not simp-
being; and even as far as man's       tions - which did not include all     ly for our knowledge but also for
flesh is concerned it must be         the nations of this world - and       our comfort. It declares to us that
established, if man is going to       much later, because that league       all is well for the church, and
continue to live on this earth.       failed to insure peace, formed a      that Christ is coming to establish
  Consider also the fact that,        United Nations, which so clearly      His holy kingdom of covenant
when a shadow disappears, this        reveals the strong conflict be-       fellowship with God on the new
does not always mean that the         tween the nations that send their     earth which God eternally de-
object which cast that shadow no      representatives to the meetings,      signed for us. The prayer Jesus
longer exists. The light can go       it might seem as though that anti-    taught us will be fulfilled: Thy
out, or be moved to where it          Christian one-world nation is far     kingdom come, Thy will be done
does not cast the shadow in the       away, or even perhaps cannot be       on earth as it is in heaven. 0
                                      realized. But by all means never




                                      Jacob's Wrestling
Guest Article
Rev. Kenneth Hanko                    with God

  Jacob is returning from his Un-     Through all those years God has       32:3-5) to bring Esau a con-
cle Laban's house in Padan-Aram,      been with him, blessed him, and       ciliatory message. "I have oxen,
and is about to re-enter the land     protected him from the avarice        and asses, flocks, and men-
which had been promised to him        and cunning of Laban. God has         servants, and womenservants." I
by God. More than twenty years        sent him back to Canaan with the      have no need of the double por-
have passed since he deceived         promise, "I will be with thee"        tion of our father's goods which I
Isaac and obtained the birthright.    (Genesis 31:3), and God has           got from you by trickery and
                                      shown him the host of angels          deceit. You may have it. "Thy
                                      who encamped round about him          servent Jacob saith . . . I have
                                      (Genesis 32:1, 2). But Jacob is       sent to tell my lord . . . ." I will
Rev. Hanko is pastor of the Prot-     afraid. He is worried that Esau       not lay claim to that which was
estant Reformed Church in  Norris-    will still be angry, and he sends     promised to me: rule over my
town, Pennsylvania.                   messengers ahead (Genesis             brethren.  ". . . that I may find

                                                                              August 1, 1989  I The Standard Bearer I451


grace in thy sight." Please don't               weakness; during the second              ceived a commandment to go, he
kill me.                                        (verses 26-29) in-strength. In the       will not face Laban, but slips
  And it seems that Jacob's fear                first God prevailed over Jacob; in       away quietly while Laban is out
is justified, for the messengers                the second Jacob prevailed over          shearing sheep. When Esau
have returned to him to tell him                God.                                     comes with four hundred men he
that Esau is coming with four                     We read in verse 25, "when he          puts himself in Gods hands, and
hundred men.                                    (God) saw that he prevailed not          then quickly contradicts the ex-
  In response Jacob does three                  against him . . . ." We must ask         pression of his own faith by de-
things. First he divides his flocks             why God did not prevail. Was it          nying his claim to the birthright
and people unto two bands, so                   because He could not? Or was it          and taking his safety into his own
that, if Esau attacks one, the                  perhaps because He would not             hands. He always has an answer,
other can escape unharmed. Next                 force Jacob against his will? Ob-        and the answer is always that
he prays, reminding God of His                  viously not. God showed, when            Jacob is sufficient unto himself.
promise to do him good, and ask-                He touched Jacob's thigh, that He        He cannot really trust God to
ing to be delivered from the                    could prevail by a touch or a            fulfill His promises. He does not
hands of his brother. But, not yet              word. And at that moment too             live by faith.
satisfied that God will take care               God did prevail, though Jacob              But now Jacob is up against
of him, he sends a large present,               was unwilling. We must conclude          something which may be too big
and another conciliatory                        therefore that God did not               for him. He has done all he
message, hoping (not unreason-                  prevail through all those hours of       could, but he is not sure that it is
ably) that generosity and abject                wrestling because He did not             enough. It may be that Esau will
humility will overcome his                      want to. He held back His own            kill him in spite of the gifts and
brother's anger.                                strength, and strengthened and           conciliation. He is afraid.
  That night, in response to                    upheld Jacob so that the wres-             Now is the time for him to
Jacob's prayer, God came to him                 tling match would go on for              learn that his own strength and
and wrestled with.him until day-                hours.                                   cunning are futile. God comes to
break. The response cannot be a                   In order to understand why             him, and all night long shows
simple, "I will be with thee," for              God initiated and prolonged this         him exactly that. I am sure that
Jacob's faith is very weak. It                  wrestling we must look at Jacob's        Jacob, stubborn as he was, ex-
must be instead an emphatic                     life up to this point. It is not dif-    erted all his strength, and tried
lesson in the necessity of faith,               ficult to see that one of Jacob's        every trick and every move he
the necessity of believing the                  chief sins was that he always            knew to throw his adversary off
promises of God and going out in                relied on his own cunning, his           balance. At every point he found
that strength to do God's will.                 own ability, and his own strength        himself blocked. God did not ex-
  It has sometimes been argued                  to get what he wanted. Jacob             ert His own strength to throw
that the wrestling described here               knew that the birthright had             Jacob, nor show superiority in
was not an actual physical wres-                been promised to him by God              any way. He simply blocked
tling. The passage indicates that               himself, and that God needed no          every effort, evaded every trap, ,
it was. "There wrestled a man                   help from Jacob to see that Jacob        frustrated every trick, until Jacob
with him until the breaking of                  got it. But Jacob was not content        had exhausted all his resources.
the day."                                       to wait for God: he first bought         Through all that long night of
  Though we are not told it at                  the blessing from Esau for a mess        wrestling Jacob accomplished not
the beginning, and though Jacob                 of pottage, and then deceived            one thing. He found himself, for
himself may not have known it                   Isaac. The history of his stay at        once, unable to help himself. The
until the man touched the hollow                Uncle Laban's house is disgrace-         lesson which Jacob learned was
of his thigh, that man was God.                 ful. He would not trust God to           that he could not obtain the
God came to Jacob in the form of                enrich him, but used every sort          blessing of God by his own ef-
a man, and wrestled with him.                   of trick he could think of to            forts. He ought to have learned it
Therefore Jacob said, "I have                   enrich himself at Laban's ex-            before. He had tried to obtain the
seen God face to face."                         pense. That he was up against            birthright by his own cunning,
  There were two rounds in this                 another of his own kind, a cun-          but he had only brought on
wrestling match. The first round                ning, deceitful, and grasping man,       himself exile from the land of
lasted all night; the second only a             only made him the more urgent            promise and a situation in which
few minutes. During the first,                  in achieving his goal. The same          he was forced to give up his
which is recorded in Genesis                    lack of faith is very evident in his     claim to it. But he has not. He
32:24, 25, Jacob wrestled in                    return to Canaan. Having re-             needs another lesson, and this

452  / The Standard Bearer  I August  1,1989


time a harder one.                         tion that our blessing must come        and throw ourselves on His prom-
       In order to drive the lesson        from God as a gift, not by our ef-      ises and on His mercy in Christ.
home, and in order to give Jacob           forts or as wages for our works.        When we pray we also exercise
a permanent reminder of it, God            Jacob, having been deprived of          great boldness, for we, who are
made him lame. He took away                his own strength, has been forced       dust and sin, come to the Ma-
his strength, broke him, and con-          to take refuge in the promise,          jestic and Holy One and ask,
quered by a touch of His hand.             and there he has found security         even demand, His blessing. But
       It was at that very moment,         and victory. And even that is           this boldness is the boldness of
when Jacob fell at the feet of             God's work. God destroyed               faith. We dare thus to ask
God, that the tide of battle               Jacob's faith in himself to make        because He has given us His
turned. Through God's victory              him believe in God. God broke           promise. We can ask because He
Jacob became strong. Now we                Jacob's strength in order that          has given us His strength.
see Jacob, broken and helpiess,            God's strength might be perfected         Yet we must be careful. Such
rising as it were in towering,             in weakness. God prevailed over         boldness becomes impudence and
overmastering strength, rising en-         Jacob in order that Jacob might         wickedness if we come to God to
dued with the strength of God              prevail over God. There is              satisfy our carnal and fleshly
Himself, to prevail with God: "I           nothing here of Jacob. It is all of     desires. God has not promised to
will not let thee go, except thou          God. The lesson that Jacob has          give us all that we would like. If
bless me."                                 learned is that salvation, along        He did He would be a very poor
       It seems at first and at best to    with faith and all its fruits, is of    Father. God has promised to give
be the pathetic attempt of a               the Lord.                               us salvation and all the blessings
defeated man to cling to some                Therefore God blessed him.            of salvation in Christ. Those
last remnants of pride. At worst           The nature of the blessing is in-       things we may ask with all bold-
it seems a ghastly impudence. It           dicated by the change of name.          ness saying, "I will not let thee
is neither. It is faith.                   By that God assured Jacob that          go until thou bless me." Our
       Now suddenly God cannot get         he had obtained and would ob-           name is Israel, Prince with God.
away from Jacob. Jacob's hold is           tain that which he sought in            But when we ask for things God
too strong. Jacob has prevailed.           faith: the fulfillment of God's         has not promised to give we
That's what God Himself says:              promise to be with him and to           must say, "Not my will, but thine
"As a prince hast thou power               bless him. God comforted his fears      be done." Then we must come
with God and with men, and hast            concerning Esau, and gave him           with a measure of hesitation,
prevailed."                                the strength of faith he needed to      knowing that we may be asking
       Why?                                Ye-enter the land of promise and        something we ought not to have.
       Certainly it is not because         to claim his proper inheritance.        Then we must be ready to submit
Jacob has suddenly discovered in           He would prevail. But we must           to God's refusal. He once said,
himself a last well of strength            also note that this blessing was        "No" to His own Son. He will
which even he did not know ex-             not a blessing of physical              also say it to us if we ask con-
isted. No, Jacob has been well             strength to obtain earthly things.      trary to His will and our good.
and truly defeated, and he knows           It was the blessing of spiritual          Here also we have a powerful
it.                                        strength, the blessing of the           lesson in living by faith. Jacob
       But, knowing it, he has turned      power of faith, to obtain spiritual     said that he believed. He also
away from self to God. He has              things. Jacob's inheritance was         prayed and worshiped God like
taken hold by faith on the prom-           not primarily the earthly land of       other believers. He even was
ise of God. God had sworn by               Canaan, but the city which hath         seeking to do what God had told
Himself to bless Jacob. Jacob              foundations. And the inheritance        him to do. He was in fact a
believes, and holds God to His             of that city was tied to the com-       believer. But he was not, at this
promise: "I will not let thee go           ing of the promised seed, Christ.       moment, living by faith. His fear
until thou bless me." If God now             Here then we have a vivid il-         gave him away. He was trusting
denied Jacob what he sought, He            lustration of the meaning of            in self, rather than God. He did
would be breaking His promise              prayer. It is an act of worship         not really believe that God would
and denying Himself.                       first. When we pray we humble           take care of him, and fulfill His
       Faith prevails with God. And        ourselves before God and strip          promises. And, in his doubt, he
faith has such strength because it         ourselves of every last remnant         failed to obtain the promise.
is a taking hold of God's prom-            of pride and self-reliance. We          When he believed he obtained
ises. It is a denying of self and          come to him needy, naked, and           and was blessed.
a trusting in God. It is a recogni-        broken. We turn away from self

                                                                                     August  1,1989  I The Standard Bearer  /  453


   Finally we have a lesson in the              because our stubbornness, or self-         save us. Whatever is necessary
love of God. He will sometimes                  reliance, or whatever, has made            He will do. He will not let us pur-
be severe with us, as He was                    severity necessary. He must                sue a course of sin to destruction.
with Jacob. This is not because                 sometimes break us in order to             He is faithful who promised. 0
He delights in severity, but



                                                Book Review

COMMENTARY ON ROMANS,                           theologians were trained. Among            in this commentary a warm,
by Robert Haldane. Grand                        these were the church historian,           pastoral emphasis. His exposition
Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1988.              Merle D'Aubigne, and Louis                 of chapter 1:16-17 is worth the
pp. l-668. $21.95 (paper) (Re-                  Gaussen,  the author of                    price of the book. Haldane cor-
viewed by Prof. R. D. Decker)                   Theopneustia,  a book on the               rectly interprets Romans 7 as
   Robert Haldane (1764-1842)                   divine inspiration of Holy Scrip-          referring to Paul after his conver-
spent the first half of his ministry            ture.                                      sion. One will find nowhere a
in Scotland where several con-                    This is a fine commentary, a             better exposition of Romans
gregational churches were                       classic on the Epistle to the              13:1-7 than in this book.
established as a fruit of his                   Romans. Haldane was a careful                Not only will preachers find
preaching. In 1816 at the age of                expositor. He was a Calvinist              here solid exegesis for sermon
fifty Haldane moved to Geneva.                  who never hesitated to expose              preparation, but lay persons as
Under his ministry and teaching                 the errors of Pelagianism and Ar-          well can benefit from this com-
several great nineteenth century                minianism. In addition one finds           mentary. Highly recommended. 0
                                                                                      -

                                                News From
                                                O u r   C h u r c h e s
Mr. Benjamin Wigger


                          August 1, 1989        met as a combined society three            men as possible to participate in
CONGREGATIONAL                                  times. The topic considered was            these meetings. They spent the
ACTIVITIES                                      the doctrine of creation, using            summer studying I Timothy.
   Just because it's summer, that               the seminar series of Prof. Hanko            And the Church Extension
doesn't mean that all our                       as the basis of discussion.                Committee of the Lynden P.R.C.
churches take a break from socie-                 Rev. D. Kuiper, pastor of our            in Lynden, WA sponsored a sum-
ty meetings. During the summer                  Immanuel P.R.C. in Lacombe,                mer Doctrine Class, which was
months the congregations of                     AB, Canada conducted a class on            intended to be open to the
some of our churches continued                  the subject of the Covenant dur-           public, on three successive Tues-
to meet in active society life.                 ing the summer months. Text for            day evenings at Dutch Mothers in
   The members of Covenant                      the class was the book,                    Lynden. The group met in June
P.R.C. in Wyckoff, New Jersey                   "Believers and Their Seed," by             and studied the truth of the In-
                                                Herman Hoeksema.                           spiration of the Scriptures.
                                                  The Men's Society of the                   Way back in May, an informal
                                                Kalamazoo P.R.C. in Kalamazoo,             meeting of those interested in
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Prot-             MI intended to continue meeting            forming a society for Protestant
estant Reformed Church of  Hudson-              through the summer months.                 Reformed education was held in
ville, Michigan.                                Their members invited as many              Lacombe, AB, Canada. There was

454  / The Standard Bearer  / August  I,1989


a good turnout. A committee was           The Jamaica Committee of           Griess and family in the death
appointed to do some prelim-           First Church in Grand Rapids, MI      of his brother, MR. OSCAR
inary work, including a proposed       was also busy arranging for a         CRIESS. May the bereaved be
constitution. Watch the S.B. for       farewell program for Rev.             comforted in the knowledge of
further information in this impor-     Bruinsma. It was tentatively          the truth that  ". . . all things
tant regard.                           scheduled for Friday, July 14. It     work together for good to them
  And one more late item from          was hoped at that time to be able     that love God, to them who are
Lacombe. The consistory evident-       to give to the Bruinsmas a token      the called according to His pur-
ly conducted a survey earlier this     of appreciation from First Church     pose." (Romans 8:28)
spring to try to determine the         for the five years they labored on    Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.
congregation's feelings on erect-      their behalf in a foreign mission     Mr. Robert Brands, Clerk
ing a new church building. The         field.
results of the survey taken            SCHOOL ACTIVITIES                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
regarding their own church prop-          On May 8 the annual Essay            The Consistory of the Lynden
erty were inconclusive. And            Awards Luncheon of the                Protestant Reformed Church ex-
since no clear direction was in-       Economics Club of Grand Rapids,       tends its sympathy to Mrs.
dicated, the consistory does not       MI was held. Twelve students          Johanna Scheele and to Mr. and
plan to pursue this actively at the    from local high schools were          Mrs. Bernie Worst and family in
present time.                          presented with awards for their       the death of our beloved
  The Young People's Societies         winning essays; six of them were      brother and former elder, MR.
of our Southwest P.R.C. in Grand-      from Covenant Christian. The          DINCMAN SCHEELE on May
ville, MI sponsored a slide presen-    judges for the contest chose the      31, 1989.
tation on Australia and New            winning papers solely on the            "The same man was just and
Zealand by Mr. and Mrs. Henry          basis of their content, without       devout, waiting for the consola-
Brands, members of Southwest,          knowing what schools the              tion of Israel  - and said: Lord
at their church on June 16. Pro-       authors represented.                  now  lettest Thy servant depart
ceeds were for the 1989 Y.P.           MINISTERIAL CALLS                     in peace, According to Thy
Convention.                              Our Faith congregation in           Word: For mine eyes have seen
  During these summer months           Jenison, MI called Rev. Koole;        Thy salvation." (Luke  2:25, 29,
the congregation of the South          Peace Church in Illinois called       30)
Holland P.R.C. in South Holland,       Rev. Van Baren; Rev. Ron Hanko        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
IL is busy preparing a pictorial       has declined the call from Pella,       The Adult Bible Class of the
church directory. Pictures were        Iowa and is considering the call      Lynden Protestant Reformed
scheduled to be taken in July and      to Isabel, S.D. Cl                    Church expresses its heartfelt
August.                                                                      sympathy to our sister, Mrs.
  The building committee of the                                              )ohanna  Scheele in the death of
First P.R.C. in Edmonton, AB,          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                her husband, MR. DINCMAN
Canada "invited" their congrega-          The Martha Society of the          SCHEELE. May the Lord shelter
tion to get together and paint the     Doon Protestant Reformed              her under His wings and com-
church and parsonage exterior          Church expresses its Christian        fort her with His promise. . .
and the church basement. Volun-        sympathy to Mrs. Henry Van            "Thou shalt guide me by Thy
teers were asked to come               Oort and Mrs.  Joawn Van Oort         counsel, and afterwards receive
whenever and for as long as they       and their families in the death       me to glory." (Psalm  73:24)
could. I just wish it was that easy    of MR. HENRY VAN OORT.
to get the exterior of my house           "Wait on the Lord: be of           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
painted. Any volunteers?               good courage and He shall               The Ladies Bible Study of the
                                       strengthen thine heart: wait, I
MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES                                                        Lynden Protestant Reformed
                                       say, on the Lord." (Psalm  27:14)
  To help assure a warm                                                      Church wishes to convey its
                                       Rev. R. Dykstra, Pres.
welcome for Rev. and Mrs.                                                    sympathy to our sister, Mrs.
                                       Nancy Zeutenhorst,  Sec'y.
Bruinsma and their family, the                                               Rena Worst, in the death of her
congregation of our First P.R.C.       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                father, MR.  DINGMAN
in Holland, MI held a grocery             The Consistory and the con-        SCHEELE. We rejoice with her
shower for them. The Consistory        gregation of the Loveland Prot-       in the spiritual heritage which is
also made plans to move the            estant Reformed Church express        hers and commit her to Jehovah
Bruinsmas possessions into the         their heartfelt Christian sym-        God "under whose wings thou
parsonage on July 4.                   pathy to Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert         art come to trust." (Ruth  2:12)

                                                                               August  1, 1989 I The Standard Bearer  / 455


  THE
slialw!!!                                                                                              SECOND  CLASS
 f?MR                                                                                                  Postage Paid at
                                                                                                       Grand Rapids, Michigan

 /?O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                ATTENTION S.B. SUPPORTERS
   On July 15, 1989, our parents,.                 The Consistory of the  Doon           Reserve Thursday, September
MR. AND MRS. GUS STREYLE,                       Protestant Reformed Church ex-        21, 8 PM for attending the
celebrated their 30th wedding                   presses sincere and heartfelt         R.F.P.A. Annual Meeting at
anniversary. We rejoice with                    sympathy to one of its                Southwest Protestant Reformed
them and give'thanks to our                     members, Deacon Howard                Church. A most beneficial eve-
heavenly Father for these years                 Bonestroo, and to the Klein           ning is being planned. More in-
they have shared with each                      family in the loss of a husband,      formation at a later date.
other and with their family. We                 father and grandfather,               NOTICE!!!
pray that God will continue to                  CLARENCE KLEIN.                          Classis East meets in regular
bless them in the years to come.                  May this family find comfort        session on Wednesday, Septem-
   "Be glad in the LORD, and re-                and strength in God's Word            ber 13, 1989 at First Prot. Ref.
joice, ye righteous: and shout                  knowing that God's grace is suf-      Church, Grand Rapids. Material
for joy, all ye that are upright in             ficient to bear this burden of        to be treated at this session
heart." (Psalm  32:ll)                          grief.                                must be in the hands of the
John and  LeAnn  Streyie                          "But the mercy of the Lord is
  Kathy, Adam and Grant                                                               Stated Clerk at least three
                                                from everlasting to everlasting
Mike and Elaine Rau                                                                   weeks prior to the convening of
                                                upon them that fear Him."
  Nathan and Benjamin                                                                 this session.
                                                (Psalm 103:17)                        Jon  J. Huisken, Stated Clerk
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             Rev. R. Dykstra, Pres.
                                                Peter Van Den Top, Clerk
   On August 2, 1989, the Lord                                                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
willing, our parents and grand-                 NOTICE!!!                                Herewith the Board of the
parents, MR.  & MRS. TUNIS                        Classis West of the Protestant      R.F.P.A.  (Standard Bearer)  and its
JANSMA, will celebrate their                    Reformed Churches will meet in        Association members extend its
40th anniversary. Rejoicing with                Doon, Iowa, on Wednesday,             most sincere sympathy to the
them in His faithfulness, we                    September 6, 1989, at  8:30 a.m.,     wife, children, and grand-
thank God for their Christian in-               the Lord willing. All material for    children of Prof. Homer C.
struction and constant love in                  the Agenda is to be in the hands      Hoeksema, whose earthly so-
bringing us up in the nurture                   of the Stated Clerk, 30 days          journ ceased on Monday, July
and admonition of the Lord. It                  before  Classis convenes. All         17, 1989.
is our prayer that Cod will con-                delegates in need of lodging or          May the Scriptural truths he            ~
tinue to grant them good health                 transportation from the airport       taught and preached, and those
and all spiritual blessings ac-                 should notify the Clerk of            he wrote on the printed page of
cording to His good pleasure.                   Doon's Consistory using the           the S.B. as its former Editor, be
   "I will sing of the mercies of               forms provided for that pur-          their comfort and peace.
the Lord forever: with my                       pose.                                    "I have fought a good fight, I
mouth will I make known Thy                     Rev. R. Hanko, Stated Clerk           have finished my course, I have
faithfulness to all generations."                                                     kept the faith. Henceforth there
(Psalm  89:l)                                     ADVANCE NOTICE!!!                   is laid up for me a crown of
David and Diane Bonestroo                            Fall Conference,  HAVING         righteousness, which the Lord,
  Daniel, Doreanne, Dean,                         A HEART FOR GOD,  Friday            the righteous judge, shall give
  Darren, Devin                                   evening to Saturday  mid-           me at that day: and not to me
Robert and  Marlys Brands                         afternoon, September 22  &          only, but unto all them also
  Randall, Angela                                                                     that love his appearing."
David and Rachel Griess                           23, South Holland Protestant
  Stefan,  Megan                                  Reformed Church. Speeches,          (II Timothy  417, 8)
Terrance  J ansma                                 workshops, Bible study, fel-        John  J. Dykstra, President
                                                  lowship, and good food.             Peter Koole, Secretary
                                                  Plan now to attend. Details
                                                  to follow.


456  I The Standard Bearer I  August  1,1989


