A Reformed
Semi+onthly
Magzfne





VOI. 66, NO. 4
November 15, 1989


 Contents                                                                                              7i-f
                                                              November 15,1989                    STANDARD
Meditation  -  Rev.  lames  D.  Slopsema
   GIVING THANKS TO GOD                                                                    7 5        BEARER
Editorial  -                                                                                       /SSk 0362-4692
                 Prof. David  /.  Engelsma
   THE TASK OF THE PRC WITH THEIR SEMINARY                                                 7 7    Semi-monthly, except monthly during  Juns, July,
                                                                                                  and  Aueust.  Published  bv the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                                  lishing  ,&sociation.  Inc.  iecond  Class Postage Paid
SEMINARY NEWSLETTER                                                                               at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
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                                                                                                  Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
In His Fear  -  Rev. Arie  denHartog                                                              49516.
   JESUS AND OUR LITTLE CHILDREN                                                           80     EDITORIAL   COMMITTEE
                                                                                                  Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
                                                                                                  Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Contribution  -  Mr.  lohn  E. Hilton                                                             Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
   CONCERNING THE P.R. "FORM" OF PUBLIC                                                           DEPARTMENT   EDITORS
                                                                                                  Rev. Ronald  Cammenga.  Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
   CONFESSION OF FAITH                                                                     82     Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell  Dykstra.  Rev. Barry
                                                                                                  Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
All Around Us  - Prof.  Robert  D. Decker                                                         Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
                                                                                                  Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Mr. James
   COULD SODOM AND GOMORRAH HAVE BEEN WORSE?                                               84     Lanting,  Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.  Marybeth  Lub-
   RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN JEOPARDY                                                           85     bers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra,
                                                                                                  Rev.  Cise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald  VanOverlodp,
   A CHRISTIAN REFORMED ALLIANCE                                                           85     Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard  Woudenberg.
                                                                                                  EDITORIAL   OFFICE           CHURCH   NEW!;  EDITOR
A Cloud of Witnesses  - Prof.  Herman C. Hanko                                                    The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben  Wiggel
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Guest  Article  -  Rev. Steven R.  Houck                                                          Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
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  A REFORMED LOOK AT THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT (3)                                              89     terest from our readers and questions for the
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LETTERS --  .,_.  _,_                                                                      94     the fifteenth of the month. All communications
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NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                                              95     REPRINT   POLICY
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commentary on Hebrews 13:17:  ". . . if they (the pastors) have their minds restrained            15th of the month, previous to publication on the
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cheerfulness." The preaching, in other  words, suffers . . . and  then.tie do too. "Let us        for bound copies of the current volume; such
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then remember," Calvin continues, "that we are suffering the punishment of our own                tion of a volume. A limited number of past
perverseness, whenever the pastors grow cold in their duty, or are less diligent than             volumes may be obtained through the Business
they ought to be."                                                                                Office.
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74 /The Standard Bearer I  November  15,1989


   Meditation
   Rev. lames Slopsema                    Giving Thanks to God

     It is a good thing to give             The Psalmist speaks of giving        ple. In Canaan Israel enjoyed
   thanks unto the LORD, and to           thanks to the LORD for His             God's friendship and fellowship
   sing praises unto thy name, 0          lovingkindness and His faithful-       and the blessings of salvation.
   most High:                             ness.                                    Threatening to destroy all this,
      To show forth Thy loving-             Lovingkindness is a very             however, were the ungodly na-
   kindness in the morning, and           graphic word used to describe          tions surrounding Israel. Again
                                                                                 and again, often with superior
   thy faithfulness every                 Gods mercy for His people.
                                          Gods lovingkindness is Gods            military might, Israel's enemies
   night. . . .         Psalm 92:1, 2     love for His people in distress.       sought to take the land of prom-
                                          Oh, how God loves His people.          ise away from Israel and to
     Soon we will celebrate Thanks-       That's especially true when they       destroy the covenant Israel en-
   giving Day.                            are in trouble. His heart goes out     joyed with the LORD their God.
     What does Thanksgiving Day           to them. And in His love He              But again and again the LORD
   mean to you? A day off from            shows them kindness, great kind-       defended and preserved Israel,
   work and school? A day of feast-       ness, in delivering them out of        often through astonishing
   ing and festivities? Let's make        their troubles and sorrows.            miracles, so that Israel continued
   sure that in the midst of all our        Closely connected to Gods            to enjoy the blessings of Gods
   festivities we don't forget to give    lovingkindness, we must speak of       covenant.
   thanks to God. And let's not           Gods covenant. God has                   This is the lovingkindness and
   overlook the fact that we must         graciously established His cove-       faithfulness of which the Psalmist
   give thanks to God, not just one       nant of love and friendship with       speaks. The Psalmist celebrates
   day of the year, but every day.        His people. In that covenant He        this manifestation of Gods
     This matter of thanksgiving          promises them many wonderful           lovingkindness and faithfulness in
   raises several questions: For what     things. Gods faithfulness is His       the rest of the Psalm. In verses
   ought we to thank God? How             faithfulness to His covenant and       4-9 he speaks of the terrible
   ought we to express our thanks         His covenant people.                   destruction of Israel's enemies at
   to God? Why ought we to give             God had shown to Israel His          that hand of the Lord. In verses
   thanks to God?                         lovingkindness and faithfulness.       lo-15 he rejoices in the great
     The answers to these questions       In fulfillment of His covenant         blessings of God to Israel.
   are furnished by the Psalmist.         promises to their father                 And it was for this lovingkind-
     It is a good thing to give           Abraham, God brought Israel out        ness and faithfulness of the LORD
   thanks unto the LORD, and to           of Egypt into the land of Canaan.      that Israel gave thanks. This
   sing praises unto thy name, 0          And there God blessed Israel. He       Psalm was sung on the Sabbath
   most High: to show forth Thy           made Canaan to be for them a           Day by the congregation of Israel
   lovingkindness in the morning,         land flowing with milk and             at the Temple after the return of
   and thy faithfulness every             honey. There Israel enjoyed the        Israel from the Babylonian cap-
/ night . . . .                           fatness of the land.                   tivity. And as Israel sang this
                                            But that's not all. These            Psalm she expressed her thanks
                                          material blessings were only an        to God for His lovingkindness
                                          outward sign of a higher, spiritual    and faithfulness.
                                          blessing. For in Canaan God            * * * * *  * *  * *                      I:
                                                                                   We also enjoy the same loving-
                                          dwelt with Israel in covenant
   Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope                                               kindness and faithfulness of God.
                                          friendship and fellowship around
   Protestant Reformed Church of                                                   For God has also established
                                          the tabernacle and later the tem-
   Walker, Michigan.                                                             His covenant of grace with us.

                                                                                 November  15,1989  /The Standard Bearer I75


Gone is the earthly Canaan with                      Many concentrate their atten-      God, of showing forth Gods
its physical bounties. Gone also is               tion on Thanksgiving Day on the       lovingkindness and faithfulness
the earthly temple. But the                       physical bounty the Lord has          upon an instrument of ten
essence of the covenant remains                   given.                                strings, upon the psaltery and
to this day. In fact, through the                    Let us rather concentrate on       upon the harp.
coming of Jesus the covenant of                   the great covenant blessings that       Do you sing the praises of
God has entered into a new                        God has bestowed upon us and          God?
phase. What before were only                      our children in His lovingkind-         I think that the praises of God
types and pictures have given                     ness and faithfulness.                do not fill the covenant home of
way to the realities.                              * * * *  * * * * * *                 our day nearly as much as in
   In that covenant we find great                    But how do we show thanks to       times past. The Psalmist speaks
blessings. We enjoy the forgive-                  our covenant God for His great        of showing forth Gods loving-
ness of sins through the blood of                 blessings?                            kindness through song every
Jesus Christ. We are born again                     The answer is found in the          morning, and Gods faithfulness
to a new life. We have the hope                   very word "thanksgiving." The         every night. Let's not overlook
of a better life yet to come . . . .              word used by the Psalmist has         this important part of thanks-
   Even the material abundance                    the basic meaning of pointing         giving.
we have and enjoy in our present                  out. We give thanks to God for        * * *  * * * * * * *
day is a blessing. Certainly                      His lovingkindness and                  It is a good thing to give
material abundance is not a                       faithfulness by pointing them out.    thanks unto the LORD, and to
blessing in and of itself. For                    We point them out to God as           sing praises to His name.
when God gives abundance to                       well as to our fellow man,              There are a number of ways in
the wicked, it is for their greater                 The Psalmist spells this out        which singing Gods praises could
damnation. Nevertheless, the fact                 more in detail when he speaks of      be good.
remains that, while we are still                  singing praises to the name of          It could be good because it is
on the earth, we need food and                    God. He also speaks of showing        right.
drink, clothing and shelter. We                   forth Gods lovingkindness and           It could be good because it is
need this not only to survive on                  faithfulness upon an instrument       enjoyable and pleasant.
the earth but also to serve God                   of ten strings, upon the psaltery       But when the Psalmist pro-
as His covenant people. And so                    and upon the harp.                    claims the goodness of singing
our covenant God also gives us                      Summing this all up we may          Gods praises in thanksgiving, he
material gifts. In fact, He has                   say that we give thanks to God        has in mind especially that it is
given the church of our land                      by showing forth His lovingkind-      beneficial. For the Psalmist
great abundance.                                  .ness and faithfulness. How many      speaks of showing forth the
   Furthermore, God has pre-                      are the blessings God has             lovingkindness of God. The
served us in His covenant. The                    showered upon us in His loving-       Psalmist chose this word carefully
powers of darkness still attempt                  kindness and faithfulness! Show       and purposefully. It's a world
to destroy the church and to rob                  forth these blessings. Enumerate      which includes the idea of cele-
her of her covenant blessings.                    them. Spell them out. Speak of        brating with a joyful mood.
Through false doctrine, through                   them. And, having done so,              This suggests that when we
the pleasures of sin, and even                    praise God for them.                  show forth the lovingkindness of
through the afflictions that God                    We are to do this in our            God and His faithfulness in song,
sends upon us, the Devil seeks to                 prayers that find their way to the    we are led to celebrate God's
turn us away from our Lord and                    throne of God's grace. We are to      wonderful blessings. The praise
Savior, Jesus Christ. When that                   do this in our conversation with      of God in song lifts us up. It fills
fails, the Devil moves the world                  one another in the household of       us with the joys of our salvation
against the church in persecution.                faith as we exercise the commu-       and great rejoicing.
If possible, he would remove the                  nion of the saints. We are to do        What a powerful tool is the gift
church from off the face of the                   this as part of our witness and       of singing. Sing the songs of the
earth. But always God defends                     testimony to the world.               world and it has a deadening in-
and preserves His church, safe                      And, above all, we must do          fluence on your spiritual life. Sing
and secure, within His covenant.                  this in singing. The Psalmist         the praises of God with a thlank-
   This is the lovingkindness and                 especially has in mind giving         ful heart and it will lift you up to
faithfulness of God.                              thanks through song. Listen again     heavenly joys.
   And for that we must give                      to the Psalmist. He speaks of           It is a good thing to give
thanks.                                           singing praises to the name of        thanks unto the LORD! Cl

76  I The Standard Bearer  I November  15,1989


                                        The Task of the PRC
Editorial                               with Their Seminary

  In a sermon on II Timothy 22,         direct connection with this           the wise application of the Word
John Calvin remarked that our           study," with explicit reference to    to the life of the congregation,
sons' sons must also hear the           the seminary and its labor.           the goal of the seminary is men
truth long after we are gone.           Writing on the doctrine of the        of whom it is true, as the apostle
Therefore, the church must              church in his Reformed                puts it in II Timothy 2:15, that
always be training men in her           Dogmatics,  Herman Hoeksema           they "rightly divide the word of
seminary.                               says, "to teach ministers belongs     truth."
  In this passage of Scripture, the     to the potestas docendi (power of        The congregations must have
aged apostle, who says of himself       teaching) of the church" (my em-      "pastors and teachers." This is
in chapter 4 of II Timothy that         phasis - DJE).                        the will of the ascended Christ
his course as a preacher of the           Our seminary is and ought to        Himself, as Ephesians 4: 11 makes
gospel is finished, expresses his       be a church-school, established,      plain. This is also the will of our
desire that the Word of God shall       maintained, and governed by the       churches. The seminary exists
be taught after his departure. He       churches. The reason is not so        because the PRC share the desire
commands the younger minister,          much to assure the orthodoxy of       that moved the Scottish
Timothy, to intrust the sacred          the school, for denominational        Reformer, John Knox, to utter as
deposit of Truth to other men:          seminaries can apostatize as well     his dying prayer the petition,
"And the things that thou hast          as independent seminaries, but        "Lord, give pastors to Thy Kirk."
heard of me among many wit-             because the authority and power          Everything in the seminary
nesses, the same commit thou to         to do the work of the seminary        serves this goal. By regulation,
faithful men, who shall be able to      are not given by Christ to the        the churches choose men to
teach others also."                     professors, but to the church.        teach who have themselves been
  This is a mandate that calls for        This involvement of the             pastors. The churches would by-
and undergirds our seminary.            churches also tends to keep the       pass the professional theologian
  It is a mandate to the church.        seminary to its rightful task.        - the man with a Th D from a
Each congregation, represented            That task is the training of        prestigious university - who had
by her consistory, is responsible       qualified men to be able Re-          never served a charge. The
for this. Because no consistory is      formed ministers of the Word of       thinking of the churches is that
able to fulfil the responsibility on    God. The purpose of the PRC           the professional theologian would
its own, and because the unity of       with their seminary is the prepar-    produce more professional
the denomination forbids a con-         ation of men to be Reformed           theologians, which the church
gregation's "going it alone" in the     pastors in the congregations, or      does not need, whereas men wh.o
matter of seminary training, the        missionaries who bring the            have themselves served the
churches discharge this mandate         gospel to those without for the       churches as pastors will devote
in a denominational seminary.           gathering of churches. The            themselves to training men for
But it is the church that is at         seminary has one, central, all-       the pastoral ministry, than which
work in the seminary. Our Re-           controlling goal: producing men       the churches have no greater
formed "Form for the Installation       who can preach and who can            need.
of Professors of Theology" (here-       take heed to the flock in counsel-      The entire curriculum is drawn
after, FIPT) states that it is "the     ing and in discipling.  Since         up with the pastor in mind. Each
church (which has a) divine mis-        preaching is the sound exposition     subject has a place in the cur-
sion . . . to study theology . . .      of the Word of God, and since         riculum because it is useful for
and further to advance what is in       counseling and disciplining are

                                                                              November  15,1989  I The Standard Bearer I77


the work of the pastor or of the                by means of this office. The                 seminary itself, by the churches,
missionary.                                     sheep hear the voice of the Great            by our homes, and by each of us
   The apostle charges Timothy,                 Shepherd when faithful under-                personally.
and in him the church, to commit                shepherds "teach others also."                 One sin for which we do well
what he had heard from Paul to                    No office is more difficult than           to check is the refusal to honor
men "who shall be able to teach                 that of the pastor. Paul refers to           our pastors. The calling of the
others also," that is, to train men             it in II Timothy 2 as a warfare.             congregation is "to esteem the
to be pastors of the churches.                  The pastor is a soldier in the               ministers . . . very highly for
"Teaching others" is simply the                 trenches on the front line in the            their work's sake, and (to) ble at
job-description of the minister of              fiercest war of all, in which the            peace with them without
the Word of God. Based on this,                 souls of men and the glory of                murmuring, strife or contention,
the FIPT charges the professors                 Jesus Christ are at stake. Com-              as much as possible" (Belgic: Con-
"with the task of instructing and               menting on II Corinthians 10:4,              fession, Article 31). A spirit of
establishing in the knowledge of                Calvin writes:                               suspicion and the practice of
Gods Word, the students who                       The life of a Christian, it is true, is    harsh criticism and public, if
hope once to minister in His                    a perpetual warfare, for whoever             prudently guarded, accusatilon
Church."                                        gives himself to the service of God          without any regard for Scripture's
   This makes the seminary and                  will have no truce from Satan at any         warning, "Against an elder
its work important. I have never                time, but will be harassed with inces-       receive not an accusation, but
believed, and I do not now                      sant disquietude. It becomes, how-           before two or three witnessles" (,
believe, that the position of pro-              ever, ministers of the word and              Tim. 5:19), will not only make
fessor of theology (the office that             pastors to be standardbearers, going                                              4
                                                before the others; and, certainly,           thoughtful young men (the kint
Article 2 of the Church Order of                there are none that Satan harasses           of young men we want and
Dordt distinguishes as one of four              more, that are more severely                 need!) hesitate to seek the
offices in the Reformed Church)                 assaulted, or that sustain more              ministry, but will also provoke
is the highest and worthiest office             numerous or more dreadful onsets,            Him Who gives pastors and
in the church, particularly in                  As a good soldier of Jesus Christ,           teachers to withhold this precious
camparison with the office of                   the pastor must "endure hard-                gift from such ungrateful people.
pastor. No office is higher than                ness" (II Tim. 2:3). In the gospel,          Among the Dutch Reformed it
that of the pastor! No work is                  he is always exposed to suffering            has become a (tired) joke that the
more useful for great ends; "so                 trouble, sometimes even as an                main course at Sunday dinner is
great things are effected by it,"               evil doer. When Paul wrote II                "roast preacher." The joke is not
the Reformed "Form of Ordina-                   Timothy, he was a prisoner (2:9),            funny. How unfunny it really is
tion of the Ministers of Gods                   anticipating martyrdom, as he in-            will become evident if our sons'
Word' says, adding, "how highly                 dicates in 4:6: "I am now ready              sons (and daughters' daughters)
necessary it is for man's salva-                to be poured out as a drink-                 have no pastors and teachers!
tion."                                          offering."                                     The office of pastor is a
  Of faithful pastors the prophet                 I may add, especially now that             glorious work! Just for this
says, "They that be teachers shall              I am no longer a pastor, that no             reason, the task of the churches
shine as the brightness of the                  office is more honorabie than                with their seminary, to preplare
firmament; and they that turn                   that of the pastor, so that the              such workmen for the churches,
many to righteousness as the                    saints should highly esteem their            is an important task.
stars for ever and ever" (Daniel                minister. The present shortage of              Next issue: The necessity of
12:3). The apostle commends the                 seminarians is cause for fervent             seminary-training. 0              -DJE
pastoral (and missionary) office                prayer, and rightly so. Potential
with his rhetorical questions in                lack of ministers is a grievous
Romans 10:14ff.: "How shall they                need; and it is God in Jesus
call on him in whom they have                   Christ Who, as Lord of the
not believed? and how shall they                harvest, sends forth laborers into
believe in him whom they have                   His harvest. The shortage should
not heard? and how shall they                   also become the occasion for self-
hear without a preacher?"                       examination, whether Christ's
  The office of pastor is                       withholding of aspirants for the
necessary for the salvation of the              ministry is due to some fault in
elect church. And this is because               ourselves. The self-examination
the living Jesus Himself speaks                 should be conducted by the

78 /The Standard Bearer  I November  15,1989


                                            Theological School
                                                                OF THE
                                                     PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCHES

Robert  0. Decker Rector
Professor of Practkal  Theology and New Testament                                               4949 lvanrest Avenue
David J.  Engelsma
Professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament                                                        Grandville, Michigan 4!3418
Herman C. Hanko
Professor of Church History and New Testament                                                   Phone:  (6161531-14901


                                                     SEMINARY NEWSLETTER

                                                                                                 November 1, 1989
    Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:

           By the time you read this we will be nearing the end of the first semester. Our students at this
    point in the semester are anticipating their semester examinations and working hard on their term
    papers and research projects. Mr. Mitchell Dick is in his third year of studies and Mr. Leonard Holstege
    is in his first year. In addition, there are eight young men from our churches enrolled in pre-seminary
    programs at various colleges and universities. This means that in the near future our emolhnent at the
    seminary will be significantly increased. Remember these brothers in your prayers as they study to
    prepare themselves for the ministry of the gospel in our churches.

           The professors, in addition to their teaching assignments, are busy preaching in the area churches,
    writing articles for our Theological Journal, leading Bible Study societies, and teaching catechism classes.
    Prof. Engelsma travelled to our Lynden, Washington Church to give a Reformation Day lecture and
    preach. Prof. Decker gave a Reformation Day lecture in Randolph, Wisconsin.

           Our library continues to expand. Not only are we buying books as needed, but recently have re-
    ceived a number of books as gifts. We are grateful to the family of the late Prof. H.C. Hoeksema for
    donating most of the professor's library to the seminary. Among these volumes were several very old
    and valuable books. Rev. Robert Harbach has also graciously donated a significant number of his books
    and papers to the library. Among the treasures from this latter collection are a number of letters written
    by Arthur W. Pink to Rev. Harbach. Rev. Harbach carried on personal correspondence with Pink during
    the years 1938 to 1949. These letters will be preserved in the archives of our churches. Donations to
    our library will be gratefully received. It will also interest you to know that Peter deKlerk, recently
    retired theological librarian at Calvin Seminary, is doing a complete evaluation of our library,

           The Theological School Committee and the faculty are working on two projects of note: an intern-
    ship program and an endowment fund for our seminary. Please remember us in your prayers and may
    God bless you richly.

                                                                                                Cordially in Christ,




                                                                                           Prof. Robert D. Decker


                                                                                     November  15,1989   I The Standard Bearer  I79


                                                Jesus and
 In His Fear
Rev. Arie denljartog                            Our Little Children

   I was deeply impressed with                    One of the several accounts in         children the blessings of salva-
this subject in connection with a               which we read of Jesus and little        tion. They believed that when
recent study of mine in prepara-                children is found in Matthew             Jesus pronounced a blessing on
tion for a chapel talk at the                   19:13-15. In this beautiful story        someone He actually conferred
Christian grade school. How won-                the inspired gospel writer tells of      that blessing upon them.
derful was our Lords dealing                    an instance in the history of our          The children that were brought
with little children. From the                  Lord's life on earth when parents        were small children. Matthew
gospel accounts we get the im-                  were bringing their little children      uses a word that is a general
pression that children were often               to Jesus. Jesus received these           designation of children. Luk:e in
in the audience of the Lord Jesus.              children and took them into His          his parallel account uses a word
The Lord was pleased with this.                 arms and embraced them and               that means, literally, small in-
He took great interest in these                 blessed them. What a beautiful           fants, newborn babes. These
children and dealt with them in                 picture is painted for us here.          children did not come to thle
tenderest affection. He sometimes               The fathers and mothers bringing         Lord on their own. They were
used children to illustrate great               their children to Jesus in this          brought by their fathers and
truths of His kingdom. Jesus                    story were not heathen and               mothers. Some were probably old
teaches us that unless we are                   ungodly parents. They were               enough to be led by the hand.
converted and become as little                  believing and godly mothers and          Others were so small that they
children we cannot even enter                   fathers of Israel. They themselves       had to be carried by their
the kingdom of heaven. The                      first believed that Jesus was the        parents. While perhaps some of
Lord's dealing with little children             Messiah, the Savior of His people.       the older of these children had
reveals the sovereignty of His                  They did not yet fully understand        some understanding of what it
love for His own and the wonder                 all the implications of this, for the    meant to come to Jesus, none of
of His grace according to which                 Spirit of Christ was not yet             them as yet had a mature under-
He includes them in His                         poured out. Nevertheless they            standing of this. Some, because
kingdom. We as covenant                         brought their children to Jesus          they were infants, had no under-
parents can take great comfort                  because they sought for their            standing at all.
from the way that Jesus dealt                   children the salvation that is in          Jesus received these children
with little children. We can use                Jesus. Their bringing of their           with tenderest love. This was not
the Bible stories that tell of Jesus'           children to the Lord was on their        merely a humanitarian love for
dealing with little children to in-             part a spiritual act of faith. We        little children on the part of
struct and comfort our smallest                 do not read in this account that         Jesus. We cannot derive from
children.                                       these children were sick and             this story the idea of the general
                                                were therefore brought to the            love of Jesus for all little
                                                Lord for healing. They were              children. This was a particular
                                                brought to the Lord that He              love of Jesus for the child of
                                                might lay His hands on them and          believing parents. That love was
                                                bless them. These parents had no         an amazing wonder. These
                                                superstitious notion about a             children were those who were
                                                magical power that was in the            conceived and born in sin like all
                                                hands of Jesus. They believed            our children are. Yet they were
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of the Prot-          that Jesus as the Son of God had         received by the Holy Son of God.
estant Reformed Church of Ran-                                                           Jesus spoke of these children as
dolph, Wisconsin.                               the power to bestow upon

80 /The Standard Bearer  / November  15,1989


already belonging to His               although our young children do          little children. Jesus was in their
kingdom. He said concerning            not understand these things, we         eyes "too great" for this. He was,
them, "Suffer little children, and     may not therefore exclude them          too busy for this. There were
forbid them not, to come unto          from baptism, for as they are           more important concerns that He
me; for of such is the kingdom of      without their knowledge, par-           had to attend to than to be
heaven." Some have interpreted         takers of the condemnation in           distracted with children. Parents
the last part of this statement to     Adam, so are they again received        ought not to trouble the Lord
mean only that these children in       unto grace in Christ," Those who        with bringing their children to
their natural characteristics ex-      would exclude the children of           Him. But how very wrong these
emplified what must be spiritual-      believing parents from baptism          disciples of the Lord were. There-
ly true of all those who come to       are guilty of the same error for        fore they had to be rebuked. In
Jesus and seek to enter His            which Jesus in Matthew 19               Matthew 18 Jesus speaks of the
kingdom, whether young or old.         rebukes His disciples.                  great seriousness of the sin of
We must come to Jesus in humili-         Jesus receives little children        hindering children from coming
ty, recognizing our great need         because of the wonder of His            to Him and of casting a stum-
and dependence on Him. We              grace. He does not have to wait         bling block in their way. Jesus
must come to Him with child-like       until these children can come to        says that it were better for such a
faith and trust, without questions,    Him with conscious faith in Him.        one, before he would have com-
receiving from Him the blessings       The grace of the Son of God is          mitted such a great sin, to have
of salvation. There is truth in        before the faith of His people. In      had a millstone to be hanged
this, of course. That is the main      fact, our faith is only the fruit of    about his neck and to be cast in-,
point of Jesus in another              the grace of God in us. Jesus           to the depth of the sea. The
beautiful account of His dealing       receives His own, long before           seriousness of the judgment
with children which is recorded        they receive Him. This truth is         which Jesus pronounces upon
in Matthew 18. But Jesus says          not contradicted by the fact that       those who offend little children is
more than this in Matthew 19. He       some children, who are in infan-        born out of His great love for
says that these children and           cy brought to Jesus by their            these children and His concern
those like them are already in         parents, later when they grow up        for their salvation. Jesus further
His kingdom. The kingdom               despise Jesus and forsake Him.          illustrates this love, and the love
belongs to them. He has in His         We believe that the sovereign           which also His Father has for the
wonderful grace included them in       predestination of God runs              little ones, when He says that the
His kingdom. The blessings of          through the line of the genera-         angels of these little ones con-
salvation which are exclusively        tions of our children. Jesus as the     stantly behold the face of His
for the citizens of that kingdom       Son of God deals with then              Father. So precious are these lit-
rightly belong to these little         children of believers in an             tle ones in the sight of God that
children. All this is true even        organic way. He does this both          He has given His angels charge
though these children are so           with children and with adults.          over them to care for them. It is
small that most of them cannot         Also among those who profess            therefore proper that the Son of
as yet exercise conscious faith in     faith as adults and are baptized        God while on earth should reveal1
Jesus.                                 as adults there are those who           such wonderful love and concern
  Matthew 19 has through the           later in life reveal themselves to      for children. And we as believing
history of the church been used        be reprobate concerning the             parents must have that same love
as support for the practice of in-     faith. All of this does not in any      and concern.
fant baptism in the church. The        way negate the wonder of the              All of these things are very
reasoning is that if Jesus could       fact that we as believing parents       great. What comfort is implied in
receive and bless these little         may bring our children to Jesus.        all of this for us as covenant
children and speak of them as            Jesus has great concern for the       parents. There is nothing on
belonging to His kingdom, then it      salvation of our children. There        earth that is so dear to us as our
is proper that they receive the        are other accounts besides the          children. And that is the way it
sign of baptism, the sign which        one cited above that reveal this.       should be. We must love our
speaks of the blessings of belong-     Jesus rebuked His disciples very        children with the love of the
ing to Jesus and of being made         sharply when they sought to             Lord. In that love we must seek
partaker of His salvation. In con-     hinder the godly parents from           always to bring our children to
nection with this teaching, our        bringing their children to Him.         the Lord. But also bringing our
form for infant baptism makes          The disciples really thought that       children to Jesus is a great and
this amazing statement: "And           Jesus could not be bothered by          serious responsibility.

                                                                               November  15,1989  /The Standard Bearer  I81


   lt.is possible even for parents                most of our power to instruct our       our children begin to understand,
to hinder their own children from                 &i&en in our Christian homes.           we teach our children the great-
coming to the Lord. It is possible                We must strive to raise our             ness of their sin and their great
for parents to imagine that bring-                children in the sphere of the           need of the Savior. We teach our
ing children to the Lord is not an                church, faithfully sending them to      children of the wondrous,
urgent matter. It is possible for                 catechism classes and teaching          sovereign grace and love of Jesus
parents also to cast all sorts of                 them to listen  carefully to the        for His own. We cause our
stumbling blocks in the way of                    preaching of the Word in church.        children again and again to sit at
their children. They sometimes                    We must -teach our children both        the feet of Jesus. We tell them all
do this by the example of their                   by precept and the godly exam-          the wonderful works of Jesus and
own life when they themselves                     ple of our life always to come to       the promises which He made to
live in worldliness and ungodli-                  Jesus.                                  those who believe in Him. We
ness. When parents do this they                     We know that our children are         show by our own eagerness and
will bring on themselves the                      conceived and born in sin. We           joy what a blessing it is to come
heavy judgment of God.                            are profoundly conscious of our         to Jesus and to belong to His
   As godly parents we must                       own need of salvation, and we           church and kingdom.
follow the beautiful example of                   earnestly desire that salvation           As believing parents we c,an do
the fathers and mothers of Jesus'                 also for our children. Therefore        all this with the confident and
day who brought their little                      we seek by all means to bring           joyful assurance that our blessed
children to Him. We must bring                    them to the Savior. We carry            Lord and Savior will receive and
our children to church to be bap-                 them when they are young. We            bless our children as citizens of
tized. We must labor to the ut-                   tead them by the hand when              His kingdom. Cl
                                                  they get a bit older. As soon as



                                                  Concerning the P.R.
                                                  "Form" of Public
 Contribution
Mr.  johq  Hilton                                 Confession of Faith

    This article was originally in-               PUBLIC CONFESSION                       repugnant thereto and to lead a
tended by the author for the "Let-                OF FAITH                                new, godly life?
ters" column. Because of its length               (Before or after the sermon, the          3. Will you submit to chu,rch
and worth, we publish it as a                     minister requests those who in-         government, and in case you
contribution. For the benefit of all              tend to make public confession of       should be delinquent (which `may
our readers, we give the "form"                   their faith to arise and to reply to    God graciously forbid) to church
referred to by Mr. Hilton, the                    the following questions.-)              discipline?
questions asked at the ceremony                     I. Do you acknowledge the               Answer. Yes.
of public confession of faith in                  docti-ike  contained in the Old and       Mr. Hilton is principal and a
the Protestant Reformed                           New Testaments and in the Ar-           teacher at the Free Christian
Churches, in full:                                ticles of the Christian faith and       School of Edgerton, Minnesota.
                                                  taught  here in this Christian                                           -Ed.
                                                  Church to be the true and com-
                                                  plete doctrine of salvation?              I appreciate Rev. J. Kortering's
                                                    2. Have you resolved by the           article in your September 1, 1989
                                                  grace of God to adhere to this          issue entitled "Confessing Faith."
                                                  doc@ine; to reject all heresies         It explained the meaning of our
                                                                                          confession of faith before the

82  I The Standard Bearer  I November  15,1989


congregation very well. I was             As a former elder at Lynden, I       belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ,
aroused, however, to respond to         participated in formulating the        especially as He has been taught
the article, because it touched         overture to Classis West in            among us in our particular doc-
upon the matter of our form for         September; 1988; and I believe it      trines. It must be publicly evident
the public confession of faith, and     should be said immediately that        that our young people are
attempts that have been made to         the point of that overture was         followers of Jesus Christ in the
modify it.                              not to introduce a "subjective"        midst of the world, that they are
  From 1977 to 1981 our                 element into our form. I believe       not ashamed to be associated
churches were involved in at-           we are all strongly united in          with His Name, and that they are
tempts to draw up a broader             believing that recitations of per-     willing to suffer for His sake, as
form for our public confession of       sonal conversion experiences,          that Name arouses the scorn and
faith (see Art. 84, Acts of Synod       stresses on our "accepting"            the indignation of the ungodly
1977; Art. 45, Acts of Synod            Christ, and other subjective           world.
1978; Art. 30, Acts of Synod            aspects of Christianity commonly          To add the words "in Jesus
1979; Art. 36, Acts of Synod            found in other circles should not      Christ" may be a rather weak
1980; and Art. 16, Acts of Synod        be highly regarded among us.           way to accomplish the purpose
1981). This attempt originated            The reason for Lynden's over-        stated above, but at least it seems
from a request by the Lynden            ture was twofold, as I see it.         a step in the right direction.
consistory in 1977.                     First, it was to make the Name of         It may be objected that since
  This work apparently was              Jesus Christ evident, since it is      everyone knows all about Jesus
dropped because of many dif-            strikingly absent from our form;       Christ already, and since it is ob-
ficulties that arose, and in July of    and secondly, it was to make           vious to all that salvation in Jesus
1988 Lynden consistory dropped          sure that the precious Name of         Christ is assumed, it is un-
its original request.                   the Savior be more publicly            necessary to add these words to
  A new overture was sent to            acknowledged in the church             our form. But any time that there
Classis West in September, 1988,        assembly where the public con-         is an appropriate opportunity to
however, requesting that the first      fession is to be made, and not to      acknowledge in a proper way
question of our form be altered         be relegated only to the con-          our utter dependence upon Him
in the following manner: that           sistory room where the young           for all of our salvation, and we
"doctrine of salvation" be              people are first examined.             fail or refuse to do so, we com-
changed to "doctrine of salvation         As support for the request I         mit a certain type of denial of
in Jesus Christ." It is my under-       would quote Acts 4:12 as just one      Him.
standing that this overture was         proof for the importance of the           All our life long we are called
denied by classis and later by          Name of Jesus Christ. "Neither is      to confess the Lord Jesus Christ
synod on the grounds that this          there salvation in any other: for      in our lives. How much more
change was an effort to introduce       there is none other name under         especially should His precious
into the form a subjective ele-         heaven given among men,                Name shine forth at our public
ment that was unnecessary. (Rev.        whereby we must be saved."             confession of. faith. "That if thou
Kortering's article also addressed      (Peter here is stressing that it is    shalt confess with thy mouth the
the issue of the proper balance         by the Name of Jesus Christ of         Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
between subjective and objective        Nazareth that the impotent man         thine heart that God hath raised
faith, and how we should proper-        stood whole before them. The           him from the dead, thou shalt be
ly' understand this balance as it       power of salvation associated          saved" (Rom. 10:9). "Whosoever
relates to the activity of making       with that name must be fully pro-      therefore shall confess me before
public confession of faith.) Based      claimed and appreciated                men, him will I confess also
on the previous difficulties our        publicly.)                             before my Father which is in
churches encountered in trying            Even though, as Rev. Kortering       heaven. But whosoever shall
to draw up a broader form, I can        mentioned in his article, it is        deny me before men, him will I
understand why classis and              understood that everyone who           also deny before my Father
synod rejected Lynden's latest re-      makes public confession of faith       which is in heaven" (Matt. 10:32,
quest, labeling it an attempt to        has previously been privately ex-      33).
introduce a subjective element in-      amined by his consistory, to              When my oldest daughter
to the questions of public confes-      draw out his personal response         made her public confession of
sion of faith. But I think further      and relationship to his God and        faith, I found myself unexpected-
explanation is necessary on this        Savior, public confession of faith     ly sad and disappointed when the
point.                                  is a public assertion that one         questions of our form were read..

                                                                                November  15,1989  I The Standard Bearer I83


The thought struck me that the                       was not mentioned. "There is no                 where included in the questions
words were somehow powerless.                        salvation," I thought, "apart from              which are asked our young
Without the Name of Jesus Christ                     that blessed, essential Name.                   people. I believe it is important
in the words, it seemed that she                     How-lifeless a form!"                           that this be done, not to become
was being asked to remain faith-                        I hope I have not spoken un-                 more subjective, but to be more
ful to a particular doctrine and a                   wisely about these things. But I                obedient to our God Who has en-
particular church, while the Life-                   feel deeply about this issue. I                 joined us to do all things in the
Giver of that church and doctrine                    hope that some day the Name of                  Name of our Savior (Col. 3:17). 0
                                                     Jesus Christ will at least be some-
                                                -                                               -




                                                Could Sodom and Gomorrah Hawe
                                                         Been Worse?
All Around Us                                   Religious Liberty in Jeopardy
Prof. Robert Decker                             A Christian Reformed Alliance


Could Sodom And                                         Virginia  Uribe, a lesbian teacher,          graduation among lesbian and gay
Gomkah  Have Been                                    proceeded to tell students that she             youth.
                                                     practices "safe sex", that it is ok for           2. Providing campuses that are
Worse?                                               them to have sexual feelings for                free of physical violence and verbal
                                                     other people of the same sex and                abuse toward sexual minorities.
   Recently a member of one of                       that, based on research, 10 percent               3. Providing intervention in
our congregations sent me a let-                     of them are probably gay.                       alcohol and substance abuse among
ter from the president (Beverly                      Dear Concerned Friend,                          lesbian and gay teenagers.
LaHaye) of an organization                              You have just been introduced to               4. Increasing self-esteem am<ong
called, Concerned Women for                          a Los Angeles, California Unified               lesbian and gay teenagers by pre-
America. The letter warns the                        School District program entitled                senting educational images  am! role
reader about a sex education pro-                    "Project 10.  "                                 models that are positive in nature.
gram currently being used in the                       When I first heard of this pro-                 5. Having accurate information on
public schools of Los Angeles.                       homosexual sex education program,               lesbians and gays included through-
The letter, excerpts of which                        I became very angry.                            out the curriculum.
follow, is self-explanatory.                           And when my husband Tim and I                    6. Seeing that information on
                                                     obtained one of the books that has              AIDS and other sexually transmitted
According to Valley Magazine,                        been used in this program entitled              diseases reaches all students,
when Elizabeth Ramas,  age 16, ar-                   One Teenager in 10: Testimony by                teachers, parents and administrators.
rived in her fourth-period class on                  ,Gay and Lesbian Youth, we became                  7. Reducing discrimination against
February 24, 1988, prepared to take                  more angry - and even em-                       lesbians and gay men by providing
a history test, the test was postponed               barrassed.                                      information and  demystifying  homo-
and her 11 th-grade class was                          I have included a copy of some of             sexuality.
ushered into the library.                            this sex education material as con-               8. Bringing issues of lesbian and
                                                     tained in the `Project 10" program.             gay youth to the attention of
                                                       But I warn you . . .                          educators and the general public.
                                                       . . . this material is offensive and            This is incredible! And from the in-
                                                     embarrassing  - but remember, it                formation I have seen  - many states
                                                     has been given to some children in              now have goals similar to these.
                                                     our public schools.                             (Note that I said similar . . . "Project
                                                       Please do not let your children               10" by name is so offensive that
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical               read these excerpts . . . "`Project 10"         many promoters of `iProject  10"
Theology in the Protestant Reformed                  has as its stated goals the following:          goals use other names in their
Seminary.                                              1. Preventing drop-out before                 various school districts.)

84 I The Standard Bearer I November  15,1989


  My friend, as a parent. . . and as      protects D. 12 residents from                Canada to form a similar alliance
a Christian . . . this "Project 10"       discrimination regardless of sexual          within the CRC. The magazine
material is shocking and offensive.       orientation, requires Catholic George-       Christian Renewal carried the
And it makes me afraid for our            town University to not only recog-           first of a series of articles by
children's future.                        nize a lifestyle it considers sinful, but    Richard Stienstra in which he ex-
  How soon will "Project 10" or           to fund gay-rights groups on campus          plains what such an alliance
similar programs spread across the        like it would any other type of club.        should be and what it hopes to
country into every school system?. . .    The dispute goes beyond the
  "Shocking" and "offensive" are          politically charged issue of homo-           accomplish (October 9, 1989
hardly strong enough to describe          sexuality and raises the basic ques-         issue). Stienstra writes:
the materials Mrs. LaHaye en-             tion of whether the government can              Thus in these articles I will seek to
closed with her letter. We could          force a religious group to subsidize         spell out my concern about the direc-
                                                                                       tion of the Christian Reformed
not possibly print these things in        practices that are diametrically op-         Church, particularly highlighting
The Standard Bearer. There are            posed to its fundamental beliefs.            that, in my view, it is leaving the
definitions of sex, sexual inter-         Dugan theorized: "Should Hebrew
                                          Union College be forced to subsidize         reformed pathway of our forefathers.
course, and oral sex. Homosexual          a Campus Crusade For Christ                  I will also attempt to show as clearly
sex is described and condoned,            group?" He added that such a                 as I know that the proposed  allianae
as is pre-marital sex.                    possibility would be as "`absurd" as         is not divisive nor schismatic, but an
   "Project 10" is based on anti-         forcing predominantly black Howard           honorable, reformed answer to the
Christian secular humanism, a             University in D.  C. to fund a campus        revisionist, man-centered pattern of
spokesman for which wrote:                chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. (Na-            the development of the denomina-
  The freethinking child's education      tional and International Religion            tion.
must start at a very early age so that    Report, October 9, 1989)                        We certainly sympathize with
by the time the child reaches school        Laws such as these certainly               our concerned brothers and
or even kindergarten his or her           do allow the government to force             sisters in the CRC. We want to ble
horizons are already so broad they        a religious group such as our                of help to them as well. Certainly
can never be contained, confused, or      own Christian Schools to sub-                we deplore and take no delight
intimidated by the narrow Christian       sidize practices which are                   in the direction in which the CRC
world in which we live. flhe              diametrically opposed to our                 is going. We also understand that
Humanist, Sept./Ott.  1989)               fundamental beliefs. It is not dif-          schism is a terrible, censurable
   Could Sodom and Gomorrah,              ficult to see how, right here in             sin and secession is a terribly
which God destroyed with fire             America, the forces of evil can              serious undertaking. But, we do
and brimstone (Genesis 19) have           attack the church and the cause              not agree that an alliance, a sort
been worse than this? How long            of God. What we shall face in the            of church within the church, is a
will it be before God destroys            future only the Lord knows.                  "reformed answer to the revision-
heaven and earth and creates the          What we know is that His grace               ist, man-centered pattern of the
new heaven and earth in which             will be sufficient for whatever              development of the denomina-
righteousness shall dwell? (II            trials we shall face. 0                      tion." Luther, Calvin, et. al. did
Peter  3:10-13).  0                                                                    not form an alliance within the
                                          A Christian                                  church that had left "the
Religious Liberty                         Reformed Alliance                            pathway of our forefathers." De
in Jeopardy                                                                            Cock, Van Raalte, and the others
                                             In the state church in the
   The National Association of                                                         did not form an alliance within
                                          Netherlands,  De Nederlandse  Her-
Evangelicals (NAE), an associa-                                                        the Hervormde Kerk in 1834,
                                          vormde Kerk, there is a sizable
tion of many evangelical                                                               and neither did Abraham Kuyper
                                          group of conservative congrega-
denominations in this country,                                                         in 1886. Church Reformation
                                          tions which have banded
plus thirteen other religious                                                          does not come out of alliances. It
                                          together to assist one another in
groups, joined together to sup-                                                        comes by grace in the hearts of
                                          holding the distinctives of the
port Sen. William Armstrong's                                                          servants of God who are willing
                                          Reformed Faith. They are a sort
(R., Colorado) Religious Liberty                                                       to say with Luther, "Here I stand,
                                          of church within the church.
and Academic Freedom Amend-                                                            I can do naught else, God help
                                          They publish their own religious
ment.                                                                                  me!" Cl
                                          magazine called. de Waarheids-
  . . . Armstrong wants  religious-       vriend, ("The Truths Friend').
affiliated schools to be exempt from        Apparently there is a move-
compliance with the homosexual            ment afoot among some of the
orientation section of the D.  C
Human Rights Act. The act, which          Christian Reformed Churches in

                                                                                        November 15.1989 I The Standard Bearer I85


A Cloud                                          Justin Martyr - Convert
of Witnesses
Prof. Herman Hanko                               from Heathendom

Introduction                                        In the early history of the          Justin was actually born in
   When the Son of God gathers                   church of Jesus Christ, even dur-     Samaria, although for many
His church by His Word and                       ing the apostolic period, the same    years he had almost no acquain-
Spirit He brings individual elect                principle was true. The church of     tance with the Jewish religion or
saints to the fellowship of the                  that ancient day was composed         with the Christian faith. He was
church in different ways. Some                   of Jews who had been brought          born of a Greek father by the
are born and raised within the                   up in the Old Testament Scrip-        name of Priscus, who with his
covenant, drink the truths of the                tures, but who were brought to        wife was sent by the Roman
Scriptures with their mother's                   faith in Christ by the same           emperor Vespasian, along with a
milk, so to speak. Some are                      wonder of salvation which saved       rather large number of Roman
brought into the fellowship of the               the Gentiles. Some were prose-        citizens, to settle in Flavia
church from darkest heathendom                   lytes, Gentile converts to the        Neopolis, a town formerly known
through a sudden turning from                    Jewish religion, but who also         in Bible times as Shechem. His
the darkness of idolatry to the                  were finally brought into the         birth date is somewhere around
light of the gospel. Some live for               fellowship of the church through      the turn of the century - A.D.
years on the periphery of the                    the sovereign work of the Spirit      100. It seems as if this colony of
church, attending only infre-                    of Christ. But especially in the      Roman citizens was a rather
quently a church where only the                  day when first the gospel was         close-knit community, and con-
faintest glimmerings of the gospel               preached throughout the Mediter-      tact with the surrounding people
are heard, but who come to con-                  ranean world, the majority in the     was unusual. A.D. 100 is, how-
version and faith gradually                      church were converts from             ever, about 30 years after the
through a long period of time,                   paganism and heathendom. But          destruction of Jerusalem by ,the
even though they had some ac-                    even then, the conversion             armies of Titus, and very few
quaintance with the gospel from                  wrought by God was not always         Jews were left in the area.
childhood. Some walk a long and                  one of a moment of sudden               Justin was an unusually
difficult spiritual pilgrimage as                bursting of the light of salvation    brilliant student. At a fairly
they travel through the strange                  into the darkness of unbelief; it     young age he began journeys
teachings of some sect; then                     was sometimes, even in heathen-       throughout the empire in search
through the all but sectarian                    dom, a sojourn, a journey long        of teachings which would satisfy
teachings of Pentecostalism; then                and arduous, that finally brought     him. He tells us of these years in
through rampant Arminianism;                     peace and salvation.                  his own words.
only finally to emerge into the                    This is the story of one such         Already as a teenager he ex-
light of the truth of sovereign                  convert from paganism: the            perienced deep longings in his
grace. God leads His own to the                  church father, Justin Martyr.         soul which were impossible to
fellowship of the church in some-                His Conversion                        satisfy, but which centered in the
times strange and wonderful                        Justin's surname was not really     question of man's relation to
ways.                                            `Martyr." He received that name       God. What is man's relation to
                                                 because he died a martyr's death.     God? How is it established? What
                                                 But this is not quite the point of    must one expect from it? The
                                                 this story, as important as it is     questions would not down. They
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church               that he sealed his confession with    troubled him deeply, and the
History and New Testament in the                 `lis blood.                           answers seemed to him more im-
Protestant Reformed Seminary.

86 I The Standard Bearer  I November  15,1989


 portant than anything else. He          tion to God were relatively unim-          of good, but a clever disputant, a
 would spend his life if necessary       portant and he ought not to be             cunning sophist." And when
 searching out the answers to            bothered by them, at least not at          finally Justin put the question to
j these questions.                       first. But for Justin they were the        the old man: "Where then is
    Justin understood, after his         only important thing.                      truth?" the old man replied,
 conversion, that these questions          He went to the Peripatetics -            "Search the Scriptures and pray
and this deep unsatisfied longing        a school of teachers who traveled          that the gates of light may be
I for something he knew not what,        about to spread their teachings.           opened to thee, for none can
 was the work of Christ in his           After about three days with                perceive and comprehend these
 soul. It is doubtful th9at God ever     Justin, one such teacher would             things except God and His Christ
 brings anyone to salvation and          not continue his teaching until he         grant them understanding."
 the knowledge of Christ without         had assurance from Justin that he            We are sometimes not only
 creating in him a deep longing,         would pay his tuition. It was              ashamed to witness to others of
 an unsatisfied thirst, a hunger for     Justin's position that if the              the truth, but we readily excuse
 something which one does not            teacher were more interested in            our failure to witness by an ap-
 have. Augustine, perhaps three          money than in teaching, he could           peal to the superior knowledge of
 centuries later, put it this way in     have nothing to say which would            those with whom we dispute. It
 his Confessions: "My soul can           ease the ache in his soul.                 remains, however, a striking fad
 find no rest until it rest in Thee."      He went to the Pythagoreans              of the church in the immediate
 This longing, finally, is born out      - an ancient school of                     post-apostolic years that the rapid
 of the knowledge of sin and the         philosophy which told him that             spread of the gospel throughout
 hopelessness and emptiness of           they could not help him until he           the whole Mediterranean world
 one's life because of the hopeless-     mastered music, astronomy, and             was through the faithful witness
 ness of sin. Salvation is faith in      geometry, for the truth could be           of the people of God. There were
 Christ; but only the empty sinner       learned only through a mastery             few if any missionaries in those
 needs Christ; only the thirsty sin-     of these subjects.                         days after the great missionary
 ner drinks at The Fountain of             Then he discovered that an-              labors of Paul. Only faithful and
 Living Waters; only the hungry          cient school of Greek philosophy           often uneducated people of God,
 sinner eats The Bread of Life; on-      called Platonism. He tells us              testifying of the truth and mani-
 ly the laboring and heavy laden         about it:                                  festing in their lives the joy of
 come to Christ to find rest for           (Here I shall) soon have the intui-      salvation, were the means God
 their souls. It is the general rule     tion of God, for is not this the aim of    used to spread the church
 of the Holy Spirit to bring to faith    Platonic philosophy?                       throughout the known world.
 in Christ by sovereignly showing          Under the influence of  this notion      Here we have an instance of that
 the sinner the need of Christ.          it occurred to me that I would with-       - the learned Justin, brought to
   That Justin had this deep long-       draw to some solitary place, far           his knees in sorrow for sin, by a
 ing is not strange. That it was a       from the turmoil of the world, and         humble and childlike old man on
 part of his life for ever so many       there, in perfect self-collection, give
                                         myself to my own contemplations. I         the seaside near Ephesus.
 years before peace came is a            chose a spot by the sea-side.                The importance of the in-
 remarkable providence of God.             He was probably at Ephesus at            fluence of Christian witnessing is
    Justin traveled widely through-      this time, a city of Asia Minor            evident in another aspect of
 out the empire in order to find         near the sea, but near also a              Justin's conversion. He tells in
 those teachings which would             church of Christ established by            one of his later writings that
 satisfy his soul. The polytheism        Paul. While giving himself over            some of the unrest that stirred in
 (the worship of many gods) of           to his meditations by the seaside,         his soul before his conversation
 paganism seemed to, him foolish         an old man met him and began a             with this old man was the un-
 and absurd in the extreme and           conversation with him. The old             flinching faith of Christians who
 not something to satisfy the soul.      man was a Christian. Justin                were tortured for their faith and
 He tells us of these years of           argued vehemently with the old             put to death because they con-
 wandering - wandering from              man in the defense of his pet              fessed Christ. He had witnessed
 land to land, but wandering             philosophy and received very lit-          such public spectacles from time
 spiritually as well.                    tle argument in return. But final-         to time, and had been deeply im-
   He went to the Stoics - a             ly the old man curtly cut him off:         pressed by the stalwart courage
 school of philosophy concerned          "You are a mere dealer in words,           of young girls and old men. He
 mainly with ethics. They told him       but no lover of action and truth;          secretly wondered what kind of
 that questions about a man's rela-      your aim is not to be a practiser          strength was theirs to be faithful

                                                                                    November  15,1989  I The Standard Bearer I87


under such circumstances. This                    as an apologist - i.e., one who         because the New Testament
witness too was important.                        defended the faith.                     Scriptures, so recently written,
   The power of salvation is not                     Some brief survey of his             were not widely known, he ap-
the power of eloquent defense of                  writings will give you a bit of an      pealed to miracles as being
the faith; it is the power of God                 idea of what he did.                    proofs of the authentic character
- even when He is pleased to                         He attacked paganism head on         of the Christian faith - a purpose
use human means. Justin became                    by showing the utter absurdity          for which the Lord gave the
a faithful servant of Christ and                  and stupidity of worshiping             power of miracles in the early
valiant defender of the faith.                    twelve or fifteen gods. He made         church.
His Life As A Christian                           an emphatic point of it that               I suppose, however, that in
   After Justin became a Christian                paganism could not possibly be a        one respect at least Justin would
and was joined to the church of                   religion that was true when it          be considered a heretic by
Christ, he spent his time traveling               brought forth horrible im-              today's standards. It is not, I
around the empire writing and                     moralities - the Roman Empire           think, right to call him a heretic;
teaching.                                         in these days.was dying from a          for the church knew so little of
   Schools in those days were not                 moral rot that was eating at its        the truth in the infancy of her
like schools today. A gifted and                  vitals and that condoned every          New Testament existence. And
learned man (and sometimes un-                    horrible sin under heaven.              sometimes mistakes were m,ade
gifted and stupid men) would                         Pagans, growing ever more            through ignorance which the
stop in a certain town or city and                wary and fearful of Christianity        church in later years would
begin teaching. If his instruction                as it spread through the world          never make - at least one would
was considered worthwhile                         and gained converts in every            think so. He believed, having
enough, he would soon gather                      walk of life, began to attack it        come out of paganism himself,
some students around him who                      viciously, Christians were ac-          that the pagan philosophers
would then study under him. If                    cused of atheism for refusing to        possessed the germ of the truth
he was an exceptionally able                      worship Caesar. They were ac-           in their hearts, which germ `of the
man, he might even establish a                    cused of treason because they           truth was Christ Himself, the
fairly permanent school that                      spoke of a King greater than            logos of John 1. And because
would be continued by his pupils                  Caesar. Strangely enough, they          these men possessed this germ of
beyond his own life.                              were accused of cannibalism             the truth, it was possible, Justin
   It was something like this that                because they claimed, in their          believed, that the best of them
Justin made his life's work. He                   celebration of the Lords Supper,        were saved without faith in
would not, however, attempt to                    to be eating the body of the Lord       Christ. This germ of truth came
establish any kind of a perma-                    and drinking His blood. They            to expression in their
nent school; he was rather in-                    were accused of immorality              philosophies.
terested in using his knowledge                   because they held "love feasts"           This was wrong. Yet there are
and ability to speak of the Chris-                which were intended. to express         those in our day who call them-
tian faith and teach others the                   the communion of the saints and         selves Reformed who teach the
truths of God's Wprd. Many times                  give material help to the poor,         same thing.
when the opportunity presented                    but which were interpreted as           His Martyrdom
itself he would engage in public                  immoral orgies. All these foolish         Justin has become known as
debates with defenders of pagan                   and wild charges Justin took the        Justin Martyr. It was not his
religions and philosophies; and                   time to answer carefully and pa-        given surname. He received it by
this practice of his finally led to               tiently.                                a church who held the memory
his martyrdom.                                       But he also set about proving        of his martyrdom in reverence.
  In the meantime he also did a                   the truth of the Christian religion.      In the course of his travels
great deal of writing. Some of his                He did this in especially two           Justin came twice to Rome. The
writings have survived the                        ways: 1) he pointed to the Old          second time he so enraged a
ravages of time and are available                 Testament prophets and how              pagan philosopher that this oppo-
today. He was one of the very                     their prophecies were exactly ful-      nent set about making plans to
first of the defenders of Chris-                  filled in the work and death of         have Justin killed. He could not
tianity who used his writing abili-               Christ. This was a striking argu-       get the best of Justin in debate;
ty to answer the critics. In fact,                ment, and one which our own             he determined to have him
so effective were his writings that               Belgic Confession uses in Article       killed. And so he reported Justin
he became known in later times                    V in defense of the authority of        to the authorities as being a
                                                  Scripture. 2) Probably chiefly          Christian guilty of all sorts of

88  I The Standard Bearer I  November  15,1989


awful crimes. Justin was sum-               But the story, written so long      having gone forth to the ac-
moned before the magistrates             ago, ends like this: "Rusticus the     customed place, were beheaded,
and tried. One can still read the        perfect (magistrate) pronounced        and perfected their testimony in
record of his trial in "The Martyr-      sentence, saying, `Let those who       the confession of the Saviour.
dom of the Holy Martyrs." It is          have refused to sacrifice to the       And some of the faithful having
the kind of record that stirs the        gods and to yield to the com-          secretly removed their bodies,
blood of the child of God. The           mand of the emperor be                 laid them in a suitable place, the
faithfulness and courage which           scourged, and led away to suffer       grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
Justin showed is sometimes over-         the punishment of decapitation,        having wrought along with them.,
whelming to us who know not              according to the laws.' The holy       to whom be glory for ever and
what suffering for Christ's sake is.     martyrs having glorified God, and      ever. Amen." i





                                        A Reformed Look at the
Guest Article
Rev. Steven Houck                       New Age Movement (311

  In our last article we began to         with God, but separation from         ing of the New Age people after
evaluate the New Age Movement             God. If the New Age people do         this divine energy is not a seek-
by considering the movement's             not repent of their terrible sins     ing after the true God. No one of
view of God. In this article we           and turn in faith to the true God,    himself seeks after God. No one
will finish our evaluation of their       they will suffer under the wrath      can.
beliefs and practices and also            of an angry God forever.                Since the New Age Movemeni:
consider ways in which we can               Even though God created man         is wrong about God and man, it
avoid the errors of this wicked           in the image of God - righteous,      should not surprise us that they
movement.                                 holy, and full of the knowledge       are wrong about salvation. Mans
  The New Age Movement is not             of God - in Adam we all sinned        salvation is not a coming to an
only dead wrong about God but             against God and lost that image.      awareness of the fact that he is
also about man. Man is not God.           The image of God was turned in-       God. Salvation is not a change of
In no sense is man God. More-             to the image of the devil. Man        consciousness or an awakening
over, man will never be God.              became corrupt on the inside. His     experience. All the meditation in
The very thought is blasphemous.          very nature became wicked. The        the world will not save a single
Nor is the natural man good. He           Prophet declares, "The heart is       soul. Neither will music, drugs,
does not have within himself              deceitful above all things, and       mysticism, exercise, mind over
divine power. Of himself he has           desperately wicked: who can           matter, or the occult bring salva-
no power at all. If man looks to         know it?" (Jer. 17:9).                 tion. No spirit, extraterrestrial be-
himself for the solutions to his            As a result, apart from             ing, sage, monk, or enlightened
problems, he will find nothing            regeneration, man is not good,        one can help you find God.
but sin, wickedness, and rebellion i but evil. All his words, deeds,              Salvation is not the recognition
against God. Man's big problem is ~ and even his thoughts are sin.              that you are God, but it is an in-
not ignorance of his divinity, but      The apostle declares,  ". . . There     timate fellowship with the per-
the fact that he is a sinner. The         is none righteous, no, not one;       sonal God. It is not becoming
destiny of the natural man is not        There is none that under-              God, but a partaking of His eter-
the consciousness of being one           standeth, there is none that           nal covenant life. It is walking
                                          seeketh after God . . . . there is    with God and talking with Him.
                                         none that doeth good, no, not          Salvation is enjoying Gods love
Rev. Houck is a home-missionary of       one" (Rom. 3:10-12). All the seek-     and blessing and living with Him
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                November  15,1989   / The Standard Bearer I89


in His eternal kingdom. Thus we                    is a God who loves righteousness        The New Age Movement is
read of God's people, ". . . Ye are                and hates sin. The Psalmist says,     wrong in its worship of spirits,
the temple of the living God; as                   "The Lord is righteous in all his     goddesses, and other gods. It is
God hath said, I will dwell in                     ways, and holy in all his             wrong in its worship of self as
them, and walk in them; and I                      works . . . . The Lord preserveth     God. The Bible teaches us that
will be their God, and they shall                  all them that love him but all the    we are to worship and serve God
be my people" (II Cor. 6:16).                      wicked will he destroy" (Ps.          alone. The very first command-
   Because we are all sinners,                     145: 17, 20).                         ment is, "Thou shalt have no
salvation can take place only by                      God has set down an absolute       other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3).
means of a reconciliation through                  standard of righteousness for         Our trust must be in the true
the blood of Christ. We who have                   man - His law, the ten com-           God. It is He in Whom we must
forsaken God and rebelled                          mandments. Because all men are        find our joy, comfort, and peace.
against Him, must be brought                       creatures of God, they owe to         He is our only hope of life ever-
back to Him. The guilt of our sins                 God perfect obedience and ser-        lasting. All that we are and all
must be forgiven. We need to be                    vice. Not that obedience to the       that we have must be dedicated
regenerated so that we love God,                   law is the way of salvation. It is    to the service of Him alone. Our
trust Him, and seek to keep His                    not. Nevertheless, it is God's re-    whole life must revolve around
commandments. That is why God                      quirement for all men. Moreover,      Him. He must be our life and our
sent His only begotten Son into                    those who are saved by Gods           love.
this world. Christ took upon                       grace seek to keep his command-         All of this makes it clear that
Himself the sin of all of His                      ments out of love and thanks-         the Scriptures condemn the New
people and went to the cross in                    giving for their salvation. Jesus     Age Movement. We may have
order to bear the horrible wrath                   says to us, "If ye love me, keep      nothing to do either with its
of God against us. Christ, there-                  my commandments" (John                beliefs or with its practices.
fore, is not just another spiritual                14:15).                                 The New Age Movement is
leader, as the New Age people                         Finally the New Age Move-          such a destructive movement
say. He is the Savior of His                       ment is wrong in its involvement      that in conclusion I want to sug-
people. We read in II Corinthians                  with the occult and spiritism. The    gest ways in which we can avoid
5:19, 21, ". . . God was in Christ,                Bible makes it very clear that we     the errors of this wicked move-
reconciling the world unto                         are to have nothing to do with        ment.
himself, not imputing their                        spirits, witches, and the occult.       First, we must be very careful
trespasses unto them . . . For he                  We read in Deuteronomy                to avoid the subjectivism of i:his
hath made him to be sin for us,                    l&9-12, "There shall not be           movement. Everything about the
who knew no sin, that we might                     found among you any . . . that        New Age Movement is subjective.
be made the righteousness of                       useth divination, or an observer      It has lost objective reality.
God in him."                                       of times, or an enchanter, or a       Nothing is what it seems. That is
   Salvation is not found in man                   witch, or a charmer, or a con-        because its knowledge is based
or in humanity in general. It is                   sulter with familiar spirits, or a    upon human experience - man's
not of man's works or will. The                    wizard, or a necromancer. For         feelings, emotions, dreams, im-
Scriptures say, "So then it is not                 all that do these things are an       agination. Even the seeming out-
of him that willeth, nor of him                    abomination unto the Lord: and        side sources, the channeled spirit
that runneth, but of God that                      because of these abominations         beings, all come through the
sheweth mercy" (Rom. 9:16).                        the Lord thy God doth drive           human mind and mouth. The
Salvation is the sovereign work                    them out from before thee."           source of knowledge for the New
of God's grace alone.                                Divination, sorcery, witchcraft,    Age people is the divine within.
  All of this implies that in spite                and spiritism are abominations to     It is you yourself. That is so true
of the claims of the New Age                       the Lord. It was because of these     that they can cut themselves off
Movement there is a difference                     things that God drove the Ca-         from everything else and ma.ke
between right and wrong. There                     naanites out of the land. Certain-    their own reality.
is a moral standard which all                      ly that means that we are to            We must have nothing to do
men are responsible to obey. We                    have nothing to do with them.         with such subjectivism. There is
may not live any way we want.                      We must be very careful about it      nothing in the natural man but
The permissive, liberated life                     too, for the television is full of    sin. Man's subjective thinking and
style of the New Age Movement                      this. Many of these wicked things     feeling will never lead him to the
is not acceptable to God. The                      are found in seemingly innocent       truth. If you want truth, you must
true God is a righteous God. He                    children's programs.                  go to the God of all truth who is

90  I The Standard Bearer  I  November  15,1989


Himself the Truth. He has given        in the church. The world is filled       tom line for them is nothing but
to us a very objective standard of     with error. Everywhere we turn           self. Their world revolves around
the Truth - Holy Scripture. Jesus      there is some prophet, preacher,         self.
says, "Thy word is Truth . . ."        guru, or sage who says that he              We must not get caught up in
(John 17: 17). In the Bible we         has the truth and seeks to               that sinful emphasis. That is
have everything that we need to        enlighten us.                            wicked. On the one hand we are
know about God, man, salvation           Therefore, try the spirits. See        to crucify self - kill it. We must
and reality, It is there in black      whether or not they are of God.          be humble rather than proud. Wle
and white - God's written              Don't believe what they say, just        must see that of ourselves we are
revelation of Himself. It is objec-    because they say that they have          sinners who are worthless; On
tive Truth. Therefore, we must         the truth. Test their word with          the other hand we must glory in
take care to learn and believe         the Word of God. Test not only           God and His greatness. The pur-
the doctrines of the Scriptures.       their religious beliefs and prac-        pose and emphasis of our life
Jesus says, "And ye shall know         tices, but test also their politics,     must be to exalt Him, Our calling
the, truth, and the truth shall        science, psychology, medicine,           is to obey the words of the
make you free" (John 8:32).            and all else. For even though the        Psalmist who says, "Declare his
Knowing the truth of God's Word        religious philosophy of the New          glory among the heathen, his
is what frees us from sin and          Age Movement may not be on               wonders among all people. For
every false and evil way.              the surface, in all these areas it is    the Lord is great, and greatly to
  In the second place we can           there underneath, waiting to get         be praised: he is to be feared
avoid the errors of this wicked        you after you have let down your         above all gods" (Ps. 96:3-4).
movement by trying the spirits.        guard.                                      If you would like to learn more
The Holy Spirit says, "Beloved,          In the third place let us avoid        about this movement, I recom-
believe not every spirit, but try      the errors of this wicked move-          mend the following books: 1)
the spirits whether they are of        ment by resisting the emphasis           Understanding the New Age, by
God: because many false                upon and exaltation of self.             Russell Chandler, 2) Unmasking
prophets are gone out into the           In the New Age Movement all            the New Age, by Douglas Groot-
world" (I John 4:l).                   the emphasis is put upon self. It        huis, and 3) America: The
  We must be realistic about the       is ironic but true. Their funda-         Sorcerer's New Apprentice,  by
age in which we live. We live in       mental point is, "All is one.            Dave Hunt and T. A.
a time of many false prophets. It      There is no self." Yet from a            McMahon.  0
is the time of a great falling away    practical point of view, the bot-





                                       Book Reviews

                                       ANOTHER GOSPEL, Alter-                   country. Although the subject is
                                       native Religions and the New             the same, this book has unique
                                       Age Movement, by Ruth A.                 qualities that make it a valuable
                                       Tucker. Grand Rapids, Academic           addition to this genre of books.
                                       Books, Zondervan Publication,            The author, Ruth Tucker, has
                                       1989. pp. l-462. $19.95. (cloth)         taught seminary and college
                                       (Reviewed by Agatha Lubbers.)            classes on the subject of cults.
                                          The attractively jacketed             The author's firsthand acquain-
Agatha Lubbers is administrator of     ANOTHER GOSPEL is not just               tance with members of the cults
Covenant Christian High School,        one more book on the subject of          and her wide reading in the
Walker, Michigan. Among her duties     cults ,and alternative religions         works of those who have
is the teaching of a class on the      joining the plethora of books sold       organized alternative religions
cults.                                 by religious bookstores in our           and of those who have left the

                                                                                 November  15,1989   /The Standard Bearer  I91


cultic groups make the book a                    press or have lost their one-time       locations, including the Christian
carefully researched addition to                 highly visible image. Appendix B        Science headquarters in Boston;
this type of literature.                         includes the beliefs of some of         the Watchtower complex in
   The Preface cites the research                the major cults. Appendix C is an       Brooklyn; the Unification
of Jerald and Sandra Tanner,                     attempt to state briefly the major      Seminary in Barrytown, New
former members and opponents                     tenets of orthodox Christianity.        York and the Unification head-
of the Mormon movement.                            Included are informative black        quarters in New York City; the
Authors of eight books on Mor-                   and white illustrations, interesting    Hare Krishna commune in Phila-
monism, the Tanners are best                     photos of past and present              delphia and the Golden Temple
known for the book Mormonism                     leaders of the cults, and photos        in West Virginia; the Baha'i Tem-
- Shadow or Reality. Raymond                     of buildings used as centers of         ple in Wilmette, Illinois; the com-
Franz, James Penton, and the                     operation. Most books written           pound of Rajneesh in Antelope,
Bottings, all having previously                  about the cults do not include          Oregon; the Worldwide Church
been members of the Jehovah's                    photos and .illustrations  but these    of God in Pasadena; the Mormon
Witness movement, have made                      photos and pictures add a mean-         Temple and tabernacle in Salt
valuable contributions regarding                 ingful and helpful dimension to         Lake City; the Unity School of
the Jehovah's Witnesses. Heather                 the book.                               Practical Christianity in Lee's
and Gary Botting are authors of                    In my estimate the book could         Summit, Missouri; the Reorga-
The Orwellian World of                           be used as a textbook in a course       nized Church of Latter-Day Saints
Jehovah's Witnesses, a critique of               on the cults. It would also be an       in Independence, Missouri; the
the movement. Mary Baker Eddy:                   excellent resource for church           Way International in New Knox-
An Interpretive Biography of the                 groups studying the cults. It           ville, Ohio; and Scientology
Founder of Christian Science by                  should be purchased as a                centers in both Los Angeles and
Julius Silberger is cited as a book              reference tool for all church           Clearwater, Florida."
excelling in research on Christian               libraries.                                In addition to the analyses of
Science. Deborah Berg Davis,                       Ruth Tucker relates her               the heterodox theories developed
daughter of the founder of the                   method of research in the               and believed by these religious
Children of God movement, is                     Preface, p. 9. "Although this           groups and their leaders, the
credited for her expose of the                   book is not one that contains per-      author writes fascinating
sexual immorality of the Children                sonal reflections, much of the          biographies of the founders and
of God movement in The                           material is presented in the light      key members of each movement.
Children of God, 1984, Zonder-                   of my own discussions and inter-        She includes her own interpre-
van.                                             views with members of alter-            tations of the facts, rather than
   Detailed endnotes for each                    native religions and the New Age        giving a mere litany of facts and
chapter and a comprehensive                      Movement. I have also had the           beliefs. In the description of
bibliography make the book an                    privilege of having members of          Charles Taze Russel, founder of
excellent source of information                  such religions as the Mormons,          the Jehovah's Witnesses, Ruth
on the subject of cults. Although                Jehovah's Witnesses, the Way In-        Tucker writes, p. 118, "The
I prefer footnotes rather than                   ternational, the Hare Krishnas,         primary reason for his tarnished
endnotes, the writer in a twenty-                Baha'i, and the New Age Move-           reputation is that he was married
five page~Endnote  section in-                   ment speak to the seminary and          to a woman who was unwilling
dicates the wide range of sources                college classes I teach on this         to tolerate the role that was
Ruth Tucker used to write this                   subject."                               generally accorded to and ac-
book. The twenty-two page                          All the major cults and alter-        cepted by women at the turn of
bibliography includes all the ma-                native religions that populate the      the century, and she later
jor works on each of the fourteen                religious scene in the U.S.A. are       became his harshest critic."
major alternative religions. dis-                included in this study. Immediate         The writer earned her  Ph..D. at
cussed. Anyone wishing to                        and direct contact with the             Northern Illinois University and
research the subject of cults will               religious movements under con-          has taught alternative religions at
find these sources to be of in-                  sideration is part of the author's      both the graduate and under-
estimable value. The book in-                    method of research and investi-         graduate levels. Most recently
cludes three appendices. Appen-                  gation. She writes in the Preface,      she lectured as Visiting Professor
dix A offers brief summaries on                  p. 9-10 as follows: ". . . I have       at Trinity Evangelical Divinity
lesser-known cultic movements  -                 had the opportunity to tour the         School in Deerfield, Illinois. She
movements that either have not                   United States, visiting cult centers    dedicated the book to her son
gained the attention of the wider                and interviewing members at key         Carlton.  She recognizes him as

92  I The Standard Bearer  / November  151989


the one who encouraged and               treated as a significant aspect of     the truth is that the NAM has in-
challenged her on this project           the NAM. The NAM is also               fluenced a broad spectrum of the
from beginning to end. She               discussed in terms of self-            religious and social scene in the
writes in the Preface, p. 10,            actualization and self-improve-        U.S. and abroad. Tucker, herself,
". . . it is my hope that the            ment training programs, i.e., the      has identified the NAM as anti-
reader on completing this volume         World Institute of Scientological      Christian and pagan. Robert
will have grasped the essence of         Enterprises (WISE) sponsored by        Schuller's message on an Amway
these movements and will be              Scientology.                           motivational tape ascribes power
stimulated to dig deeper into this         No greater blasphemy could           to almighty man, not to God.
fascinating subject."                    have been uttered by a New             "You don't know what power
  The subtitle of ANOTHER                Ager than that attributed to           you have within you . . . . You
GOSPEL specifically mentions the         Neville Rowe, who spoke before         make the world into anything
New Age Movement as an impor-            large audiences which bought en-       you choose. You can make your
tant aspect of this book. Chapter        try fees to hear his "truth"           world into whatever you like it
15. "The New Age Movement:               (blasphemy) for earthlings:            to be."
The Occult Made Respectable" is          ". . . you are God. You are, each        The NAM is humanism. It is
a somewhat repetitive and                and everyone, part of the Second       neo-modernism. Karl Barth's
tedious but thorough-going study         Coming."                               delightful description of 19th cen-
of the variety of influences of the        In her assessment and final          tury Modernism can be applied to
New Age Movement (NAM). The              evaluation Ruth Tucker quotes an       all NAM ideology. "They thought
ideology of the NAM is traced by         article by Brooks Alexander who        they were saying GOD when
the author to historical                 quotes Carl A. Raschke of the          they were only saying MAN very
predecessors like spiritualism and       University of Denver, thus: "The       loudly." Cl
the theosophy'of the "immensely          New Age is the most powerful
fat, often foul-mouthed Madame           social force in the country today"     COVENANTS: GOD'S WAY
Blavatsky." The chapter includes         (p. 351). The assessment includes      WITH HIS PEOPLE,  by 0.
a discussion of the conspiracy           an arresting statement by              Palmer Robertson; Great Commis-
theories of Constance Cumbey,            Dostoevsky, ". . . anything is per-    sion Publications, 1987; 130 pp.,
who authored the controversial           missible if there is no God. But       no price (paper). (Reviewed by
and sensational book, The Hid-           anything is also permissible if        Prof. H. Hanko)
den Dangers of the Rainbow, and          everything is God. There is no           In his book, "The Christ of the
the book by Marilyn Ferguson,            way of making any distinction          Covenants," Dr. Robertson has
The Aquarian Conspiracy: Per-            between good and evil" (p. 352).       given a much more extensive
sonal and Social Transformation            Ruth Tucker quotes Isaiah            treatment of the doctrine of
in the 19805. Channeling, inner          47:13 and says that the sentence       God's covenant of grace than in
voices, inner space, visualization,      from Scripture, "`Each of them         this short volume. This book is
reincarnation, and crystals form a       goes on in his error, there is not     intended, apparently, to be a
large part of the chapter on the         one that can save you,' can cor-       short survey of some aspects of
NAM. The chapter includes                rectly sum up the biblical warn-       the doctrine to be used for per-
analyses and descriptions of best        ing against the New Age Move-          sonal study or Society discussion.
selling books such as Out on a           ment and all the alternative           Each chapter ends with questions
Limb, by movie star Shirley              religions claiming to worship the      for review and for discussion.
MacLaine, and the 1982 $200,000          true God' (p. 353).                      The author defines God's cove-
advertisement campaign by Ben-             Ruth Tucker's final comments         nant of grace as "a bond in blood
jamin Creme, the Scottish writer,        show her disagreement with the         sovereignly administered" (p. 11).
who proclaimed a New Age                 analysis of Dave Hunt and T.A.         Insofar as he treats various
Messiah prepared to install "a           McMahon in their best-selling          aspects of the covenant, he does
new world government and new             book The Seduction of Christiani-      so from the historical point of
world religion." The NAM is              ty. She disagrees with the             view; i.e., as God gradually
viewed by the writer as a revival        analysis of Hunt and McMahon           revealed the riches of His cove-
of the pagan religions and tribal        concerning the NAM influence in        nant throughout the Old Testa-
spiritism evident in t_h_e popularity    the ideas of men like Paul Yonggi      ment, and as that covenant
of shamanism; i.e. the witch             Cho, Robert Schuller,  and             culminated in Christ.
doctor or medicine man.                  Richard Foster.                          Although the book is very
Astrology and the activities of            Although the critique of Hunt        short, his treatment of the cove-
Ronald and Nancy Reagan are              and McMahon may seem severe,           nant is generally sound. Robert-

                                                                                November  IS,1989  I The Standard Bearer I93


 son emphasizes the truth of par-                    This commentary is part of the                        Notice!
 ticular grace (p. 32) although at                revised set of commentaries, Tyn-
 the same time he speaks of                       dale New Testament Commen-                          RFPA Book List
 government through common                        taries, first published by Eerd-       New prices, effective immediately:
 grace as being instituted at the                 mans in the 1960's. It is written      Behold, He Cometh! . . . . . . .14.95
 time of the flood. He describes                  in paragraph form with little          Believers and Their Seed . . . .5.95
the covenant as a bond, but does                  reference to the Greek. The style      Calvin's Calvinism. . . . . . . . .14.95
not develop that idea at all. He                  makes for easy reading. All of         Come, Ye Children . . . . . . . .22.95
talks of the unilateral character                 this means that this brief com-        The Five Points of
of the covenant, but does not set                 mentary can be used by lay per-           Calvinism . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.95
this forth over against many who                  sons as well as those who can          Gods Eternal Good
would make it bilateral. In                       handle the Greek.                         Pleasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14.95
general, while the book serves to                    The verse-by-verse explanation      Gods Everlasting Covenant
introduce one to the basic ideas                  is preceded by an introduction of         ofGrace.:. . . . . . . . . . . . . .9.95
of the covenant, it is brief to the               some fifty pages.                      Hyper-Calvinism and the
point of being superficial. Never-                   In his exposition of chapter 1:4       Call of the Gospel . . . . . . . .5.95
theless, it can well serve as an in-              (p. 55) Foulkes writes, "It in-        In the Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . .5.95
troduction to this great truth of                 volves a paradox that the New          Lori . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6.95
God's salvation for those who                     Testament does not seek to             Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.95
have no prior acquaintance with                   resolve, and that our finite minds     The Mysteries of the
the doctrine. And this is probably                cannot fathom. Paul emphasizes            Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.95
the author's intent.                              both the sovereign purpose of          The Mystery of Bethlehem . . .7.95
   There is one historical error in               God and our free will. He took         Peaceable Fruit . . . . . . . . . . . .9.95
the book on page 92. The author                   the gospel of grace and offered it     Reformed Dogmatics . . . . . .20.95
writes: "Until the capture of                     to all." His exposition here is        Suffer Little Children
Jerusalem David had ruled from                    simply in error. In his interpreta-       Book One . . . . . . . . . . . . .11.95
Hebron, deep in the interior of                   tion of chapter 2:1-2 (pp. 76-77)         Book Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8.95
the southern tribes. This arrange-                Foulkes is right on target. The           Workbook Two . . . . . . . . . .3.95
ment had developed naturally                      question is, however, how can a           Book Three . . . . . . . . . . . . .8.95
since David was a descendant of                   spiritually dead person exercise          Workbook Three . . . . . . . .3.95
Jacob's wife Rachel, the                          his "free will" and accept an "of-        Setof5Books.. . . . . . . . .29.95
matriarch of the southern tribes."                fer of the gospel?"                    Therefore Have I Spoken .. .10.95
Genesis 29:35, Ruth 4:17-22  and                    On the other hand, Foulkes           The Triple Knowledge
other chronologies of Scripture                   has some excellent commentary            Volume I . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18.95
tell us that Judah was descended                  on chapter 6:5-9, where Paul             Volume II. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18.95
from Leah and that David came,                    speaks of the master - slave rela-       Volume III . . . . . . . . . . . . .18.95
from the tribe of Judah. Nor was                  tionship.                                Set of 3 Volumes . . . . . . . .49.95
Rachel the matriarch of the                         Recommended, but with reser-         The Voice of Our Fathers .. .2 1.95
southern tribes because Simeon,                   vation. Cl                             We and Our Children . . . . . . .5.95
located south of Judah, was from                                                         When I Survey . . . . . . . . . . .12.95
Leah, and Joseph's sons, Ephraim                  L e t t e r s                          "Whosoever Will" . . . . . . . . . .5.95
and Manasseh, were part of the                                                           The Wonder of Grace . . . . . . .5.95
northern kingdom and the trans-                   Appreciation and a Gift                  For a copy of the new catalog,
Jordan part of Israel.                              It is a blessing to receive a        write to:
  The author attempts to apply                    Reformed magazine that stands                RFPA
this doctrine to the personal life                on the doctrines of the Bible and            P.O. Box 2006
of the people of God. Cl                          of the Reformation. We are hap-              Grand Rapids, MI 49501
                                                  py to be able to give this maga-
THE LETTER OF PAUL TO                             zine as a gift to our family and
THE EPHESIANS: AN INTRO-                          friends. We look forward to
DUCTION AND COMMEN-                               receiving each issue . . . Enclosed
TARY, by Francis Foulkes.                         is a gift to help out with
Grand Rapids: William B. Eerd-                    publishing the magazine.
mans Publishing Company, 1989.                         Tony and Melinda La Count
189 pp, $7.95 (paper). Reviewed                        James and Margaret Laning
by Prof. R. D. Decker.                                 Waipahu, Hawaii Cl

94  I The Standard Bearer  I November  15,1989


                                        News From
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                     Our Churches

                    November 15,1989    SCHOOL ACTIVITIES                      Dr. Schultze stressed two things
  First, a note of interest from          Friends of Adams Street P.R.         that we as parents must do with
our Seminary.                           Christian School in Grand Rapids,      regard to TV. First, we must limit
  Soon after returning from             MI have found much to be thank-        the amount of time spent in front
their labors in Burnie, Tasmania        ful for this Fall. The renovation      of it; and second, we must set
to their home in Grand Rapids in        of Adams is going extremely            standards for what we watch. All
May, Prof. and Mrs. Hoeksema            well. It has been many years           there that night will have to
decided to give a FAX machine           since the excitement level has         agree that Dr. Schultze did make
as a memorial gift to the               been this high. The renewed en-        an impression, whether you
seminary. The machine was sub-          thusiasm is evident in teachers,       agreed with all his comments or
sequently installed and has been        students, parents, and supporters      not.
used already for the transmission       alike. They all feel truly blessed        Bible commentaries, books,
of documents both across the sea        by God in the efforts to improve       doctor and dental services, 20
and within our own country. The         the education of these covenant        rounds of golf, a Lake Erie
seminary is willing to provide          children by bringing Adams into        fishing trip, piano-tuning, a
FAX service for official business       the 1990's.                            dessert-a-month, and snow-
of our churches (and even for             Adams scheduled a special            plowing services were just a few
some things not quite so                open house from 4-7 PM on              of the items available for bidding
"official"). To send messages           Saturday, October 2 1. Friends         on at the Covenant Christian
from the machine, just drop in at       were invited to inspect the            High Auction held at Covenant in
the seminary during regular             building and grounds and to ask        Walker, MI on Saturday, October
business hours. To send messages        questions. The renovation com-         14. This event took a huge
to the machine, call the seminary       mittee guaranteed that those at-       amount of work by the commit-
at  [(616) 531-14901  and ask for       tending the open house would           tee, who did an excellent job.
their FAX number. The charge            come away absolutely amazed            From all reports the event was a
for sending documents will be           with what $290,000.00  will still      tremendous success. Proceeds
limited to cost only.                   accomplish when the cause is           were to benefit the building pro-
                                        good and the determination high.       gram.
                                          On Saturday, September 30,              Rev. Slopsema was the
                                        there was an open house at the         featured speaker at the Fall
                                        Hull P.R. Christian School. The        P.T.A. meeting of the Hope P.R.
                                        school was open from 4:30 PM to        Christian School in Walker, Ml.
                                        6:30 PM. All parents and sup-          Rev. Slopsema spoke on
                                        porters were also invited to stay      "Discipline in the Classroom."
                                        for supper afterwards and a time       CONGREGATIONAL
                                        of fellowship following.               ACTIVITIES
                                          Dr. Schultze, of Calvin College,       The Consistory of the First
                                        author of "TV . . . Manna from         P.R.C. in Holland is looking into
                                        Hollywood," spoke on the effects       the purchase of a new organ for
                                        of TV on Christian families, at the    their sanctuary. On October 10 a
                                        October 12 meeting of the              demonstration of an Allen Organ
                                        Heritage P.T.A. at Heritage Chris-     was given to help the congrega-
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Prot-     tian School in Hudsonville, MI.        tion decide.
estant Reformed Church of  Hudson-                                               The members of our South
ville, Michigan.                                                               Holland P.R.C. in South Holland,

                                                                               November  15,1989   I The Standard Bearer  I415


   THE
SE?WD~                                                                                                         SECOND CLASS
 Bl5UZER                                                                                                       Postage Paid at
                                                                                                               Grand  Rapids, Michigan

 I?O. Box 6064
 Grand  Rapids, MI 49506



IL have decided to combine the                    "From the end of the earth                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Men's, Ladies', and Mr. and Mrs.               will I cry unto Thee, when my                     The consistory and congrega-
Societies to form one Adult Bible              heart is overwhelmed: lead me                  tion of the Kalamazoo Prot-
Study open to all members of the               to the rock that is higher than                estant Reformed Church extend
congregation. In addition to their             I." (Psalm  61:2)                              our Christian sympathy to Fred
pastor, Rev. G. Lanting and Mr. J.             Rev. M.  DeVries, Pres.                        Alphenaar and family in the
Lanting will be leading discussion             Allen Hendriks, Clerk                          death of his wife, BERTHA
groups.                                                                    (Edgerton,  MN)    ALPHENAAR.
   First P.R.C. in Grand Rapids                                                                  May they be comforted by
sponsored a Sr. Citizen Fall Bus               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                         the words of our Lord when He
Color Tour. This tour spent a                     The Session and Congregation                said, "I am the resurrection and
complete day, including lunch                  of the Protestant Reformed                     the life: he who believes in me,
and afternoon coffee, touring the              Church of New Zealand express                  though he were dead, yet shall
West-Michigan area, taking in all              their sympathy to Mrs. Corry                   he live." (John  11:25)
the wonderful Fall colors, which               Vooys, Keith and Mary Vooys,                   Rev. Bernard Woudenberg, President
should make us realize how great               Hillary and Laurence, Tony                     Mr. Melvin A.  VanDyk, Clerk
a Creator we have.                             Vooys, Timothy and Yolanda                                                     (Kalamazoo, MI]
MINISTERIAL CALLS                              Geuze, Corry-Ann and Jacob,
   The Hope P.R.C. in Redlands,                whose husband, father,  father-                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
CA formed a trio of Pastors A.                 in-law, and grandfather (Opa),                    The Council of the Protestant
den Hal-tog, R. Dykstra, and J.                MR.  ANTHONV JACOB VOOYS,                      Reformed Church in South
Kortering. From this group they                was taken by the Lord to his                   Holland, IL extends its Christian
extended a call to Rev. A.                     heavenly home on October 19,                   sympathy to Elder Raymond
den Hartog.                                    1989. "For we know that if our                 Bruinsma and to Deacon  J,ames
   Rev. R. Hanko has declined                  earthly house of this tabernacle               Bruinsma and their families in
the call he received from the                  were dissolved, we have a build-               the death of their mother,
Peace P.R.C. in Lynwood, IL. As                ing of Cod, an house not made                  mother-in-law, and grandmother,
a result of that decline, the Con-             with hands, eternal in the                     MRS. ANNA MOREHOUSE on
sistory formed a new trio of                   heavens." (II Cor.  5:l)                       August 15, 1989.
Pastors A. den Hartog, J. Korter-              Rev. R. Miersma, Pres.                            "Precious in the sight of the
ing, and S. Key. From this group               B.  vanHerk, Clerk                             Lord is the death of His saints."
of three, the congregation ex-                                                                (Psalm ll6:15)
tended a call to Rev.                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                         Rev. Charles Terpstra, President
den Hartog. q                                    The Editorial Committee and                  Mr. Gil  G.  VanBaren, Clerk
                                               Staff of  The Standard Bearer
                                               and the Board of The Reformed                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                         Free Publishing Association ex-                  The faculty, staff, and
   The Consistory and the con-                 tend their sympathy to the                     students of the Protestant Re-
gregation of the  Edgerton Prot-               Editor-in-chief of  The Standard               formed Seminary extend their
estant Reformed Church express                 Bearer,  Prof. David J. Engelsma,              sympathy to Prof. and Mrs.
their heartfelt sympathy to Mr.                his wife and family in the death               David  J. Engelsma and family in
and Mrs. Andy Brummel and                      of Mrs. Engelsma's stepfather,                 the death of Mrs. Engelsma's
Andrea in the loss of their son                MR. MARTIN WUSTMAN. "Our                       stepfather, MR. MARTIN  WUST-
and brother, STEVEN JOHN                       only comfort in life and in                    MAN. May their comfort be
BRUMMEL. May this family                       death is that we are not our                   that: "Precious in the sight of
continue to experience the com-                own, but belong body and soul                  the Lord is the death of his
fort of God's Word and Spirit,                 to our faithful Savior, Jesus                  saints." (Psalm 116:15)
finding that God is their Rock                 Christ." (Heidelberg Catechism,                Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rector
and their Refuge in the midst of               Lord's Day I)
their sorrow.                                  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Secretary

96 I The Standard Bearer I November 15,1989


